Theme: Emoticon Explications :)
Four theme phrases clued by their emoticons:
17A. >:-( I'M REALLY FURIOUS
25A. :-( WHAT A DOWNER
47A. ;-) JUST KIDDING
60A. :-O THAT'S SURPRISING!
Four emoticons - these ones are described as "sideways, Latin only". These were the first, simple ways of denoting a facial expression in textual form and used in early chat rooms. They've now developed into a quite complex sub-language, and also sparked the development of the graphical emojis that you find on your mobile phone.
One of my favorites is the portrait of Homer Simpson ~(_8^(I)
This puzzle looks to be the LA Times debut for Morton, so congratulations are in order. He's been published in the New York Times prior, but I can't see any history in the LAT. Four nice in-the-language phrases matching the facial expressions.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Gucci of fashion : ALDO
5. Manual reader : USER
9. Certain highlands musician : PIPER. The Great Highland bagpipes, the ones you're probably most familiar with, are inflated by blowing down the chanter. Irish pipes use a bellows instead, so all those pipers you see on St. Patrick's Day are using the wrong instrument. Also, this tune, which you also hear a lot on March 17th is called "Scotland the Brave". Never ceases to amuse me.
14. Celebrity : LION. This is our local celebrity lion - the mountain lion which hunts in Griffith Park.
15. Salon service : PEDI
16. Eco-friendly spa brand : AVEDA. Salon brand also - they make hair products as well.
20. Gazpacho ingredient : TOMATO' Food! Basic recipe, I give mine a bit of zing with a dash of balsamic and Worcestershire sauce (repeat after me - wuster sauce, not war-sester-shyre!)
21. Grammatical unit : SENTENCE
22. Make up for skipping classes, perhaps : CRAM. I did my fair share of this back in the day.
24. Scholar's deg. : PHD.
30. Carpooling calc. : ETA. I think this refers to the time you're going to get picked up when you're part of a carpool. Makes a change from the airport clues though.
33. Frigid end? : AIRE
34. Straight man : STOOGE. Were the Three Stooges all straight men? Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond" was one of the best.
35. Bust : NAB
36. Vegetation : FLORA
38. Tarzan creator's monogram : ERB. Edgar Rice Burroughs. He owned a ranch a few miles from me in the San Fernando Valley, which is now the neighborhood named "Tarzana".
39. Virus named for a Congolese river : EBOLA
41. Trains above the road : ELS. Giving Ernie a rest today.
42. Allows to attack : LETS AT
45. "Smack That" rapper : AKON. Thank you, crosses.
46. Manhattan part : RYE. Bartenders tell me that the only cherries that you should use are the ones made by Luxardo. Cheers!
49. Pro : FOR
50. Cabinet dept. with an Office of Science : ENER. A guess, but seemed reasonable.
51. Dined at a table for one : SAT ALONE
56. Near-failing grade : D-MINUS
62. Reached, as expenses : RAN TO
63. Veiny cheese : BLEU. Food! Here's English Stilton, "The King of Cheeses".
64. Work with needles : KNIT
65. Med. specialty : OB-GYN
66. Couture line : SEAM. Nice clue/answer combo.
67. Gels : SETS
Down:
1. Came to rest : ALIT
2. Long drive? : LIMO. Took a couple of beats to see this one.
3. Brown digs? : DORM. Brown University.
4. Many an Albee play : ONE-ACTER. I tried ONE-ACTED first which had me looking sideways at "FLODA"
5. Puts on the internet, e.g. : UPLOADS. Like I'll do with this blog in a few minutes.
6. Poivre companion : SEL. I was given a set of electric pepper and salt grinders this Christmas, appropriately made by Peugeot, a French car company. What a car manufacturer is doing making kitchen equipment I have no idea.
7. Slow Churned ice cream : EDYS. Dreyer's out here in the West. Same stuff.
8. Swarming (with) : RIFE
9. Where many aces can be seen : PAR THREE. Most holes-in-one on the golf course come on the shorter par-3 holes. I've never made one, but I gave a club to a friend of mine, and he hit a hole-in-one with it the very next time out on the course. I claim an assist.
10. Like some academic walls : IVIED. Some baseball grounds too, Wrigley most famously.
11. Menial worker : PEON
12. Part of NEA: Abbr. : EDUC.
13. Demolish, in Devon : RASE. "Fawlty Towers" was based on a hotel in Torquay in Devon, which is a long way round of saying that John Cleese would be called John Cleeze here.
18. Gillette brand : ATRA
19. Remove wooden pins from : UNPEG
23. Sacred songs : MOTETS. Learning moment. I knew the word, I didn't know that they were sacred.
25. Mass consumption? : WAFER. Nice. Communion wafer.
26. Like links-style golf courses : HILLY. "Hilly" isn't the first adjective I'd choose to describe a links course. The Old Course at St. Andrews, the most famous of them all, is as flat as a pancake.
27. Sprang up : AROSE
28. Razzie Award adjective : WORST
29. Easy to prepare, as desserts : NO-BAKE
30. Mushroom in Asian cuisine : ENOKI. Food! I'm getting full here. Also known as enokitake, Great in noodle bowls.
31. Raptor's weapon : TALON
32. Go out with __ : A BANG
37. "The Jazz Singer" singer : AL JOLSON
40. Applicants with low credit scores, to loan officers : BAD RISKS
43. Dutch banknotes : EUROS
44. Günter Grass novel, with "The" : TIN DRUM
48. __-plié: ballet movement with knees half-bent : DEMI. Not known, but the "half-bent" makes this easy to guess.
49. Like marbled steak : FATTY. Food! I cooked a prime rib roast on New Year's Day. I dreamt about it last night. I wonder about myself sometimes.
* For extra credit, what's unique about the word "dreamt" in the language?
51. Houston pro, locally : 'STRO. Baseball's Astros. We had the long version of the name yesterday.
52. Captain who says, "For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" : AHAB. From "Moby Dick."This monomaniac was in our "Captains" puzzle a couple of Thursdays back.
53. Sharp flavor : TANG
54. Well-used crayons : NUBS
55. Creator of Perry and Della : ERLE. Crosses for me. Perry Mason, Della Street, Erle Stanley Gardner.
57. Diamond complement : NINE. I had to stare this one down before the penny dropped. Nice players on a baseball team.
58. Minute, e.g. : UNIT
59. Some NCOs : SGTS
61. __ shooter : PEA
That wraps it up for me. Time for dinner!
Steve
Four theme phrases clued by their emoticons:
17A. >:-( I'M REALLY FURIOUS
25A. :-( WHAT A DOWNER
47A. ;-) JUST KIDDING
60A. :-O THAT'S SURPRISING!
Four emoticons - these ones are described as "sideways, Latin only". These were the first, simple ways of denoting a facial expression in textual form and used in early chat rooms. They've now developed into a quite complex sub-language, and also sparked the development of the graphical emojis that you find on your mobile phone.
One of my favorites is the portrait of Homer Simpson ~(_8^(I)
This puzzle looks to be the LA Times debut for Morton, so congratulations are in order. He's been published in the New York Times prior, but I can't see any history in the LAT. Four nice in-the-language phrases matching the facial expressions.
Let's see what else we've got:
Across:
1. Gucci of fashion : ALDO
5. Manual reader : USER
9. Certain highlands musician : PIPER. The Great Highland bagpipes, the ones you're probably most familiar with, are inflated by blowing down the chanter. Irish pipes use a bellows instead, so all those pipers you see on St. Patrick's Day are using the wrong instrument. Also, this tune, which you also hear a lot on March 17th is called "Scotland the Brave". Never ceases to amuse me.
14. Celebrity : LION. This is our local celebrity lion - the mountain lion which hunts in Griffith Park.
 |
| Photograph by Steve Winter/National Geographic |
15. Salon service : PEDI
16. Eco-friendly spa brand : AVEDA. Salon brand also - they make hair products as well.
20. Gazpacho ingredient : TOMATO' Food! Basic recipe, I give mine a bit of zing with a dash of balsamic and Worcestershire sauce (repeat after me - wuster sauce, not war-sester-shyre!)
21. Grammatical unit : SENTENCE
22. Make up for skipping classes, perhaps : CRAM. I did my fair share of this back in the day.
24. Scholar's deg. : PHD.
30. Carpooling calc. : ETA. I think this refers to the time you're going to get picked up when you're part of a carpool. Makes a change from the airport clues though.
33. Frigid end? : AIRE
34. Straight man : STOOGE. Were the Three Stooges all straight men? Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond" was one of the best.
35. Bust : NAB
36. Vegetation : FLORA
38. Tarzan creator's monogram : ERB. Edgar Rice Burroughs. He owned a ranch a few miles from me in the San Fernando Valley, which is now the neighborhood named "Tarzana".
39. Virus named for a Congolese river : EBOLA
41. Trains above the road : ELS. Giving Ernie a rest today.
42. Allows to attack : LETS AT
45. "Smack That" rapper : AKON. Thank you, crosses.
46. Manhattan part : RYE. Bartenders tell me that the only cherries that you should use are the ones made by Luxardo. Cheers!
50. Cabinet dept. with an Office of Science : ENER. A guess, but seemed reasonable.
51. Dined at a table for one : SAT ALONE
56. Near-failing grade : D-MINUS
62. Reached, as expenses : RAN TO
63. Veiny cheese : BLEU. Food! Here's English Stilton, "The King of Cheeses".
64. Work with needles : KNIT
65. Med. specialty : OB-GYN
66. Couture line : SEAM. Nice clue/answer combo.
67. Gels : SETS
Down:
1. Came to rest : ALIT
2. Long drive? : LIMO. Took a couple of beats to see this one.
3. Brown digs? : DORM. Brown University.
4. Many an Albee play : ONE-ACTER. I tried ONE-ACTED first which had me looking sideways at "FLODA"
5. Puts on the internet, e.g. : UPLOADS. Like I'll do with this blog in a few minutes.
6. Poivre companion : SEL. I was given a set of electric pepper and salt grinders this Christmas, appropriately made by Peugeot, a French car company. What a car manufacturer is doing making kitchen equipment I have no idea.
7. Slow Churned ice cream : EDYS. Dreyer's out here in the West. Same stuff.
8. Swarming (with) : RIFE
9. Where many aces can be seen : PAR THREE. Most holes-in-one on the golf course come on the shorter par-3 holes. I've never made one, but I gave a club to a friend of mine, and he hit a hole-in-one with it the very next time out on the course. I claim an assist.
10. Like some academic walls : IVIED. Some baseball grounds too, Wrigley most famously.
11. Menial worker : PEON
12. Part of NEA: Abbr. : EDUC.
13. Demolish, in Devon : RASE. "Fawlty Towers" was based on a hotel in Torquay in Devon, which is a long way round of saying that John Cleese would be called John Cleeze here.
18. Gillette brand : ATRA
19. Remove wooden pins from : UNPEG
23. Sacred songs : MOTETS. Learning moment. I knew the word, I didn't know that they were sacred.
25. Mass consumption? : WAFER. Nice. Communion wafer.
26. Like links-style golf courses : HILLY. "Hilly" isn't the first adjective I'd choose to describe a links course. The Old Course at St. Andrews, the most famous of them all, is as flat as a pancake.
27. Sprang up : AROSE
28. Razzie Award adjective : WORST
29. Easy to prepare, as desserts : NO-BAKE
30. Mushroom in Asian cuisine : ENOKI. Food! I'm getting full here. Also known as enokitake, Great in noodle bowls.
31. Raptor's weapon : TALON
32. Go out with __ : A BANG
37. "The Jazz Singer" singer : AL JOLSON
40. Applicants with low credit scores, to loan officers : BAD RISKS
43. Dutch banknotes : EUROS
44. Günter Grass novel, with "The" : TIN DRUM
48. __-plié: ballet movement with knees half-bent : DEMI. Not known, but the "half-bent" makes this easy to guess.
49. Like marbled steak : FATTY. Food! I cooked a prime rib roast on New Year's Day. I dreamt about it last night. I wonder about myself sometimes.
* For extra credit, what's unique about the word "dreamt" in the language?
51. Houston pro, locally : 'STRO. Baseball's Astros. We had the long version of the name yesterday.
52. Captain who says, "For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee" : AHAB. From "Moby Dick."This monomaniac was in our "Captains" puzzle a couple of Thursdays back.
53. Sharp flavor : TANG
54. Well-used crayons : NUBS
55. Creator of Perry and Della : ERLE. Crosses for me. Perry Mason, Della Street, Erle Stanley Gardner.
57. Diamond complement : NINE. I had to stare this one down before the penny dropped. Nice players on a baseball team.
58. Minute, e.g. : UNIT
59. Some NCOs : SGTS
61. __ shooter : PEA
That wraps it up for me. Time for dinner!
Steve
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Morton and Steve!
Challenging. Unknowns that were perped and WAGged were: AVEDA, AKON, TIN DRUM and DEMI.
More rain here. Harvey brought Chipotle dinner. Great!
Some of the good TV shows are no longer in hiatus. Watched very tense Blindspot.
Have a great day!
Have a great day!
DNF¡ :-( ¡ One cell, but it was a total natick: ENO.I + A.ON ¡
ReplyDelete{B+, A-; A, A, B+, !.}
To write now-a-days, one must use EMOJIS;
A STOOGE who doesn't is like a smoker of stogies:
An offensive moke,
Obscured by smoke,
Whose mis-read messages elicit "oh, gee"s!
When dealing with people who act so imperious,
I'm not just mad, >:-( !
Yet bureaucracy rules with such an encounter.
There's no way to win, oh, :-( ¡
If I were in charge, and minions did my bidding,
I'd have them call back, and say ;-) !
Otherwise I fear, there'll soon be an uprising,
And if there isn't, I'd say :-O !
>:-( = I'M REALLY FURIOUS
:-( = WHAT A DOWNER
;-) = JUST KIDDING
:-o = THAT'S SURPRISING
Said the LION to the PIPER, "Thanks for the PEDI!
ReplyDeleteThat thorn was making my walk unsteady!"
Said the PIPER in return,
"That favor you'll earn
By hearing THREE SETS on my bagpipe! You ready?"
In IVIED halls, where P.H.D.s abide,
The size of a DORM-room's a matter of pride!
The smallest, it's agreed,
Has the greatest prestige --
Then they compete to CRAM most students inside!
If EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS and ERLE STANLEY GARDNER
Co-authored books with each as a partner:
"Perry Mason on Barsoom",
"Tarzan of the Court Room",
"The Cowboy Sleuth and the BLEU ENOKI USER" !
I hope that my writing is RIFE with a TANG
Of lines that NABBED interest, with phrases that rang!
To keep writing cool,
I make it a rule:
Most SENTENCES must merit the mark called A BANG!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteSICS ON -- nope. ATE ALONE -- nope. ONE ACTOR -- nope. Still, I managed to stumble through to victory due to the kind perps. Nicely done, Morton. Only the gluey "UNPEG" marred a very nice grid.
PIPER -- "If you've heard one bagpipe tune, you've heard them both." -- Jack Finney. Don't know where I first heard that, probably here.
Steve, dreaming of prime rib? No cheesecake? For extra credit, DREAMT is the only word in the pseudo-English language that ends in MT.
Spare us the texties in the crossWORD puzzle, please.
ReplyDeleteNo time to finish, only got half-way. Doctors appointment this morning, gotta run. Fun CW from what I could see.
ReplyDeleteIt's a brave new world and requires adapting; I'm not doing well since I never use e-mojis. However, all the ones in the puzzle emerged nicely once I had a part of each one. Luckily, the phrases exist in the language!
ReplyDeleteUSER as manual reader appeared in a puzzle I did yesterday.
ONE-ACTER certainly seems strange and normally would be expressed as a one act play. WAFER was cleverly clued. ERB forced out PSALMS and I learned that MOTETS are sacred and thanks to perps for AKON.
Did DEMI Moore's parents consider her a half pint when she was born?
Thank you Morton J. Mendelson for a tricky but quite doable grid and thank you, Steve, for an always enjoyable commentary. I love your enthusiasm for food.
Have a great day, everyone!
Thanks for the tough SOB MJM. Really an eye opener. And thanks to Steve for a nifty write up.
ReplyDeleteIn addition Owen's natick, MOT.TS and .RB was one for me. I WAGged the second correctly, but guessed ENOrI and ArON for my only bad cell. The only thing I remember about Tarzan was Carol Burnett doing the yell. Other unknowns included ALDO Gucci, AVEDA, Gunter Grass and DEMI plie.
Erased star for LION, looses for LETS AT, and port hole for PAR THREE (misread the clue).
Lucinda - I used to eat at what amounted to a tamale factory somewhere in the Pacoima - San Fernando area of the San Fernando Valley. They had a couple of small tables in front for dining in. They had so much eat-in business that they opened a sit down restaurant nearby. Sometimes when I went there with my gringo friends they would have to go find the waitperson who spoke English to take our order. Great food and nice people, even when we had to pantomime to communicate. If you wanted tamales for the holidays you had to order them at least a month in advance.
Back in the U.S. ... Back in the U.S. ... Back in the U.S. of A. !!!
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year !!!
Just getting use to the fact that 2017 will be 8 hours longer ...
OK, I am NOT an Emoticon fan ... and it took ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get the themes today.
Thank you PERPS !!!
Not a fan of the clue 'Celebrity' for LION or the clue 'Allows to attack' for LETS AT.
Did enjoy the CSO to Chairman Moe at STOOGE.
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset ... kinda nice to have some Pinch for that job.
Cheers!
PS deper-otto, the Oil Refinery where I was doing the inventory was being renovated. Almost completed.
Our "Guys from Houston" are doing a beautiful job.
ReplyDeleteGood mornin' all. Thank you Morton and thank you Steve.
Speaking of aces... Nailed it. Not as quickly as yesterday. Wasn't as sharp this morning. Read the NEA clue, and first thought was National Endowment for the Arts. Unlikely that any of the educators had that same initial take...
Definitely not without it's challenges though. AVEDA, AKON and DEMI needed all of the perps. Had to change PErm to PEDI, stop to ALIT, gin to RYE, and pOtATO to TOMATO. ONE ACTER took a little time to get. TIN DRUM ? Perps.
Work with needles ? Hello to Madame DeFarge, whose comments towards year end left me with the impression that she was going to set aside the KNITting needles for awhile.
Bunny M from yesterday, our dear Irish Miss said she liked the ARF clue, but I did too.
BTW, people who work help desks will tell you that the USER usually does NOT read the manual. When you get frustrated with them for telling you to restart your computer or unplug and reinsert the coax, remember that they don't know you from the true idiots who make their days "memorable". I couldn't do that job on a bet.
ReplyDeleteThe east central block did me in. My wags were not even close so I'll take my initial DNF for 2017. 30A, 35A, 39A, 45A, 30D, & 32D were all wrong. The emoticon fills were all perp assisted. I do not text, tweet or whatever else those symbols are used for.
ReplyDeleteEverything else was fine, but a lot of it was plain luck. This puzzle certainly will not come close to being a favorite.
:-( one of my symbolic learning moments today. Too bad there isn't a symbol for the middle finger salute, but you can consider it sent Mort.
Like Lucina, I don't "do" emoticons of either variety. So much of this was wags and perps, especially so due to my lack of brand name and other popular culture familiarity.
ReplyDeleteOver all not a satisfying experience, except for Steve's eloquent exposé.
Just back from visiting my son's family in Germany. Delightful to see the almost 4 year old Lea already totally bilingual, and her 16 month old sister though not yet speaking, obviously fully understanding what is said to her in either language, and following instructions in both.
Agree that AKON/ENOKI is a Natick
ReplyDeleteThe boys were originally secondary characters in vaudeville acts with Ted Healy, STOOGES in the sense of being plants in the audience, as hecklers who then got called onstage.
Watson said that Sherlock Holmes had written a monograph on the MOTETS of Lassus, but I didn't know what motets were or who Lassus was (16th century Flemish composer)
Is that where the Lassus Trombone originated?
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteCongrats to Morton on a great LAT debut. I enjoyed sussing out the emoticon clues.
Thanks Steve for a great expo. Especially liked your celebrity LION and learning how Tarzana got its name.
I had my usual Thursday of stumbling out of the gate. Didn't know ALDO and had never heard of a celebrity being called a LION. Wanted actor for ONE ACTER but that was fixed by Frigid AIRE. AVEDA took awhile - I've heard of it but it just wouldn't come to me. Was thinking gems not baseball for NINE. Wanted a Z in RASE - doh!
Favorite clever clues were Manhattan part, Long drive? and Brown digs?
Speaking of clever clues - thank you TTP for clarifying that Irish Miss mentioned the ARF clue. I make little notes alongside my puzzle for my comments here and they were quite a jumbled mess yesterday! :)
The cold has indeed arrived with snow. 2-4 inches predicted which isn't bad considering it's the first significant snow of the season. I'm not a fan of the stuff. It always makes me think of this quote by Carl Reiner - "A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water ".
Have a great day everyone!
Let me first say that I did fill all four of the emoticons (THAT'S SURPRISING) correctly but it was a DNF today. I couldn't complete the ETA-ENOKI-AKON crosses. Emoticon origin?-people with too much time on their hands. Tinbini, Lucina, Kazie- I ignore them and don't even try to interpret them
ReplyDeletePAR THREE- I've only witnessed two aces on on par threes so the clue shouldn't have included 'many'. But the PAR completed AVEDA;hair products? I have no hair.
But the rest was also challenging having to change PSALMS to MOTETS, ONE SCENE to ACTOR to ACTER, GIN to RYE, and guess HILLY because I didn't know links-style courses were hilly, but courses along the coast with deep bunkers and very windy. WAFER was only filled because I went to a Catholic funeral yesterday and saw the priest with some white thing (wafer?) before communion. Didn't know that, or TIN DRUM and ALDO either.
Musings
ReplyDelete-I couldn’t dredge up ENOKI and settled for ANON as our next profane rapper
-Fun learning with Steve and it was cool when Homer suddenly appeared in those symbols
-I was moved by the PIPES in this venue, (!:50) as the PIPER was walking away from us over a hill.
-We declined going out to the grave site yesterday in the 5˚F weather
-SENTENCE skills that I enjoyed but are no longer taught
-Every car pool I’ve been in has had “that guy” who messes up our ETA
-Bud Abbot and Dean Martin grew to dislike their STOOGES
-I was :-( when I saw a friend who SAT ALONE at a restaurant a month after his wife of 65 years had just died
-Did you enjoy D MINUS problems like this?
-Our recent cluing of “Brings out the kid in you” for OBGYN was wonderful!
-Who knew they made these? (:30)
-Me too on HILLY links, Steve
-The old Perry Mason shows had both “By ERLE Stanley Gardner” and “Based on characters by ERLE Stanley Gardner” episodes
-Welcome Back Tin!
Big Easy, you shouldn't ignore Tinbeni, Lucina and Kazie. They aren't difficult to interpret. :) [Emoticon]
ReplyDelete"Too bad there isn't a symbol for the middle finger salute, ..."
ReplyDelete.l.
Right backatchya. Let the Beeb set you straight
"Puzzling thoughts":
ReplyDeleteI took a WAG at 1a with ALDO, and was off to the races. As I look at my ink-filled grid, I see but two write-overs; I took the 47a emoticon "literally" and put in JUST WINKING, before I realized the theme. As I continued filling in the clues I knew, the puzzle solved rather easily. 😜 (JUST KIDDING!)
WEES, I too had a Natick at the crossing of ENOKI / AKON.
Welcome back Tin - hope you had a good trip wherever you went. Thanks for the SO. On New Years Day they showed a STOOGE marathon on one of the cable channels. Of course I watched 😀
Owen was on a roll today; I can't usually hold a candle to his creativity, but here are my two lame efforts at true "limericks", just for fun:
At Olympics, Moe entered the Luge.
And to win? Would be certainly huge.
But while sledding downhill
Took a pratfall; a spill.
Seems that all of the world is his STOOGE
And from the cockpit:
During flight, when he summoned the crew,
He asked them if there's anything new
To eat. Perhaps some cheese.
May I have Stilton, please?
"How about Swiss?" They said, out of the BLEU.
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteFirst off, my most sincere apology to Ed SESSA for garbling his name yesterday. An amusing error in context, yes, but inexcusable. I am suitably abashed.
Today's theme is clever enough, but left me a bit cold. AVEDA and ENOKI are too obscure. Got the former from perps and the latter from the G-man. LETS AT is really awkward. OTOH the long downs were fresh.
I make a great manhattan, so RYE was my fav today.
C. Moe, @ yesterday. I'm afraid you're right about my Wings. They are not hot at all. Worst power play in the league. And goal tending is merely good, not great. Shut out by the Ducks last night 2-0.
Lot's of mixed feelings locally today about the LIONs keeping Caldwell. Same as the Tigers with Ausmus. My questions are always - What makes you think he's the problem? How will axing him solve it? Who is your replacement? What makes you think that's an improvement? I think Caldwell got a mediocre team to over-achieve. The LIONS have proven over the last 2 years that they can't compete with the top teams. Oh, well.
Cool regards!
JzB
As an aside, I hope that when Anonymous T gets around to grading Owen's poems he doesn't issue a D MINUS to any of them, although that answer in today's puzzle kind of "tee's it up", so to speak ... fortunately I opted for Pass/Fail - no letter grades for me! 🤓
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention in my original post about the clever clueing for 9d. In addition to my own I've witnessed a total of 7 ACES. Been awhile since I've played golf; maybe as things improve this year I'll have more opportunities - I do miss it ...
Thank you, Morton, for a fun puzzle today. Didn't know the exact wording of the theme answers, but all feel into place.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, Steve. Glad you got your "FOOD!" input this week!
Re: "links-style courses", what other types of courses are there?
ReplyDeleteFrom Wiki: A links is the oldest style of golf course. The word "links" comes via the Scots language from the Old English word hlinc : "rising ground, ridge" and refers to an area of coastal sand dunes. ... Although the term links is often considered synonymous with any golf course, few golf courses have all of the design elements of true links courses.
d-o: LOL at your QotD, don't believe I've heard that before!
hondo: for you, not at you, in
ASCII
.ilii .iIii .i1ii .i!ii .¡!¡¡
Unicode
凸 ╭∩╮ ┌∩┐ ╭╭∩╮╮ ┌┌∩┐┐ ╭┌∩┐╮
Good day to all!
ReplyDeleteNice LAT debut puzzle for MJM. Thanks for guiding us through it, Steve. Favorites today were "Long drive?"/LIMO and "Mass consumption?"/WAFER. ONE ACTER seemed a bit awkward to me, but maybe it's a stage phrase that I'm unfamiliar with.
D-Otto @ 10:07AM---LOL!
Husker Gary--I do remember diagramming sentences in grade school. I remember disliking the activity, but I think it was helpful in teaching sentence structure and writing skills.
We had the grandkids Tuesday and Wednesday, and son and DIL invited us to dinner at a lovely Chinese restaurant last night for the trade-off of the kiddos. There were no ENOKI mushrooms in any of the dishes, only what I believe may have been baby shitakes. Not only was it an occasion for the trade-off, but a final celebration of the holidays. The older two grands are back in school today.
Enjoy the day!
Moe: that second one today was exceptionally good!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puzzle even though there probably is a generational gap in knowing and appreciating the emoticons. I'm not a USER but no middle finger here. Congrats Morton on your debut and thanks to Steve for explaining. LOL about the wuster sauce.
ReplyDeleteGreat work today Owen.
Hand up for not being sure about the K in the cross of ENOKI and AKON, and having Ate ALONE before SAT. Wash became Perm became PEDI at my salon. Psalms became MOTETS. My expenses Maxed before RAN TO. I waited for perps before I went anywhere with Bust!
Many misdirections today. RYE was a drink (Welome back TIN(DRUM)with a double CSO)not part of New York. I initially had more golf in the CW than Morton had included: 49A PRO=FOR not a golf pro, 2D LONG DRIVE=LIMO not a golf swing, but the 9D ACES=Par3 referred to golf. And of course the HILLY links.
One small KNIT (hello Madame D) as I felt that there was nothing to indicate the French for BLEU rather than the Blue Stilton in Steve's photo. And there are many more universities than BROWN that have DORMs! Perhaps it was just a continuation of a mini-colour theme.
MJ, we were treated to Chinese food also when we returned the granddaughters to their home.
I should see some DEMI-plies this weekend at a performance of Swan Lake.
Have a great day all.
Hi Everyone:
ReplyDeleteLate to the dance due to getting side-tracked. (This seems to be my modus operandi these days!) In any case, I liked the puzzle very much even though the only emoticons I really know are a sad face or a happy face. But these were easy to figure out, once you started filling in the answers. I didn't know Akon but did know Enoki. Aveda was also unknown, as was Aldo and motets but perps saved the day. I, also, tried Ate alone first.
Thank you, Morton, for a Thursday treat :-) and thank you, Steve, for guiding us along.
Welcome home, Tin, you were missed. (The blog was way too "dry" without you!)
Have a great day.
A bit tough but solvable. Some outre clues but filled thru crosses.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Tinbeni.
ReplyDeleteExcellent writeup, Steve.
Lucina, it just dawned on me your initials are LSD.
I saw KNIT and immediately thought of you, Madame Defarge.
I dislike ENOKI and asked my wife to please never buy it again.
I've done customer support and hated it.
Oh, the puzzle? Well, I'll just say that "Long drive" fooled me and I liked it after I got it.
This was slow going for me. I knew ENOKI, so I could wag AKON. Son and DIL use ENOKI mushrooms a lot.TIN DRUM and AVIDA needed perps and wags. My fail was DO in DORM. I had FARM. I forgot the D in ALDO, drat, and couldn't figure out LION, which should have been easy. I am very familiar with literary lion, a celebrated author, and to lionize, to treat as a celebrity. My excuse, and I'll stick to it, is that I am quite distracted today.
ReplyDeleteI am not good at emojis, but had no trouble with these phrases with the help of perps and wags.
The Military Tattoo in Edinburgh is glorious, a massing of bagpipes and folk dancers in a giant stadium. This huge open air setting is just right for bagpipes. I'd love to go again.
https://www.youtube.com/user/EdinburghTattoo
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Tin and Kazie!
I forgot to mention that one of my favorite cheeses is Cotswold. Yum! I yearn for that and clotted cream.
Well, I figured there was no way I was going to get any of this puzzle after my first run through. But then a few tiny items (PHD, UNPEG)and others began to get me started, and slowly, slowly it miraculous almost all filled in! I couldn't believe it! In the end the only thing I had to look up was ENOKI (which I should've known) and then Voila! there it was, a whole crunchy Thursday puzzle! What a relief! Many thanks, Morton and Steve,
ReplyDeleteDesper-otto, I had many of the same false starts you did.
Have a great day, everybody!
Good Morning!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Morton. This was fun, but you did throw a few "KNITs" at me. I couldn't finish the emojis. I use some but only the most common. Took me a bit. I liked Mass consumption and Manhattan part. Of course, work with needles was a gimme. Thanks.
Another food fest Steve. Perfect! We always pronounced Worcestershire "wust-u-shur."
TTP, no Madame has not given up knitting, but I could never be a production knitter. It removes the meditative and relaxing aspects of knitting. The fifteen stocking ornaments really did me in. I spent time with my grand daughter refreshing her knitting skills. She's almost 9 and she's actually very proficient. I taught her how to knit when she was five, but she only started to take it seriously after she read "Annie and the Swiss Cheese Scarf." Now she thinks the old holes are design elements!
As a matter of fact, CW and Blog-wise, I have either been too late to add anything new or didn't even get to the daily puzzle, but we are having a great time with our grand kids who have been staying over and in and out for solo time. It's been quite nice. No teenagers yet, so they still think being with us is cool. I cherish this time.
Have a cozy evening, everyone.
I've gotta disagree with some of you regarding emojis (or at least, one old-fashioned emoticon, the smiley face). When writing online or posting, one sometimes tries to make a joke that could be interpreted incorrectly as an insult. In face-to-face communication, the speaker might smile or wink or do something similar to ensure that the remark was interpreted correctly. But on-line, you can use a smiley face instead.
ReplyDelete:>)
Very useful. The rest of the emojis?, mostly harmless, modern, hip affectations I think.
MJM thanks for the puzzle. I have not many Mortons, though I had an Uncle who answered to that name.
ReplyDeleteAll the hours I have spent with my wife shopping in Asian markets made Enoki easy which filled AKON which I forgot as soon as he came up in a Steve blogged puzzle from May, 2016
Come talk with us Morton
Lucina, I think you can get Cotswold cheese at Trader Joe's.
ReplyDeleteThank you, MJM, for this fun, fairly easy Thursday puzzle! Thanks for the expo, Steve!
ReplyDeleteThe only emoji I use is the smiley face occasionally in emails. The names came easily with a few perps.
I started off with oLeg/ALDO and that made for a rough start, but perps soon corrected that. I had ALJOpliN/ALJOSLON. I did know ENOKI, but I had BigRISK/BADRISK and no idea who _KON was. Perp to the rescue!
I had asked my daughter for a clay pot cooker for Christmas. She ordered it, it was delivered to her home and she came over last night with it. I already had plans for what I would fix in it tonight, but when I opened the box the lid was in at least 3 pieces. Bummer. I'm looking forward to learning a new method of cooking. :)
Enjoy your Thursday. Its the only one this week!
Pat
Madame DeFarge, Oh, I knew you weren't going to them putting them down permanently. Rather, just taking a respite after the preholiday rush.
ReplyDeleteMy MIL also loved to knit. When they downsized and moved out by us, I boxed up and moved every thing I could, to save on their moving company expenses. So many skeins of yarn ! Bags and bags. But she loved it and I loved her. Whatever she wanted.
My wife can knit a bit, and has her own collection, but it's not the same passion. And surely not to the level or patterns that her mother could make. Last Christmas when we were down in Texas, she taught my great-grand niece how to "arm knit" a scarf. My g-g-niece was so thrilled and proud that she was able to make one. Then her little brother wanted to learn how to do it, so we went back to the store and got different colors for his. They had so much fun creating.
Pat, that's a shame. I've had Thanksgiving turkey that was cooked in a clay pot cooker that had been soaked in water beforehand. Excellent ! Very moist.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteCongrats Morton on your LAT debut with a fun theme for this power-USER [I've RTFM'd :-)]. Alas, you beat me :-(. Thanks Steve for the walk through.
Lookups: ALDO, ERB and EPLE
WOs: highISKS - oops, where's my R?; spelt it SUPPRIzING.
ESPs: AL JOLSON; SEL; ENOKI; AVEDA; LION (Celeb, really?); DORM [thanks for spelling it out for me Steve!]
Sparkle: 'STROS; CRAM. UPLOADS xing USER
Fav: c/a for WAFER
My salad today had BLEU cheese and TOMATOs.
Emojis are not the same as emoticons .
Very brief history of :-) and :-( . What Bill G said :-)
{B+,A,A,B+,A} {Cute, Bonus!} [no D-MINUSes today :-)]
Welcome home Tin & kazie!
Lucina - LOL DEMI-Moore!
HG - I'll click your links when I'm not at work.
Cheers, -T
I thought it interesting that ENOKI mushrooms showed up on Mr. Mendelson's Emoticon-themed pzl.
ReplyDeleteI don't see any other connection than their almost-similar spelling and the fact that both are current fads, but still...
A Universal Trap? I guess everybody had ATE ALONE before SAT ALONE. It was tricky because the clue implied quite clearly that "One" had picked up his or her menu and ordered!
After I finished (Yes, a Ta-DAH!) I still didn't get 9-D, because my eyes kept reading the answer as PART THREE rather than PAR THREE. Not that I would have understood a golf reference any more readily, but still ...
Damn my eyes, anyway! I guess I should blame the old walnut instead, but still ...
Couldn't possibly be a golf clue as MANY aces don't occur in golf ! Almost quit the puzzle when the horizontals forced it ! I hate clues like that...one in ten thousand shots is not MANY ! Still DNF with mushrooms and a rap star! Oh well. GO LIONS ! (yeah; like that's gonna happen) Actually hope its 24-0 at half. I really hate false hopes !!
ReplyDeleteArgyle from yesterday, you're right, of course my '47 Dodge didn't have pushbutton transmission. It had a pushbutton starter. Minor memory lapse. It was certainly not a '57 anything. When I thought about it, I remembered that my car indeed had a stick shift, because some years later my then fiancée (later DW) had to drive me home because of my status after a somewhat wilder Physics Department party at a faculty member's home in the hilly section of West LA. She had never driven a stick shift before but managed to pull it off.
ReplyDeleteSorry, running a day behind.
ReplyDeleteJust finished reading yest.
Just wanted to add that my home
Made car bumper sticker reads:
I BRAKE FOR TAILGATERS!
Jayce:
ReplyDeleteThank you! I rarely go to TJs any more but tomorrow I shall zip over there. Previously Safeway had it but no longer, at least not any time I looked. Now if only clotted cream could be imported . . .
Wilbur here, finally. I had two passes; at first I thought I had a DNF coming but then filled in after getting rid of EZBAKE. WAGed ALDO and ENOKI but forgot to correct ONEACTOR. I get it though.
ReplyDeleteLet me explain the golf reference.
Most(Many?) Aces occur on PARTHREES. However, some occur on par fours. The ToC being played in Maui has an Aceable par four.
Actually, Dean and Bud WERE the Straight men. Jerry and Lou were STOOGES ala Moe, Larry etc.
The -:) and lols etc are becoming obsolete due to smartphones much like maps/GPS.
Anything to make us lazier and more brain deader
Great XW, write-up and Licks today.
WC
Learning moment about TARZANA! I had no idea it really was named for ERB and Tarzan. Los Angeles is just two hours away, but I only go a couple of times a year. I did not realize I pass right through Tarzana every time. No freeway signs for it. It is right near the 101/405 crossing.
ReplyDeleteOnce again my pet crossword peeve: EDYS is a regional brand name that is a Natick for most people. (Of course Natick is not a Natick for me as a former Bostonian.)
AKON a total unknown, but I do enjoy Japanese food so ENOKI was no problem. Did not know ALDO was Gucci's first name.
Agree with BillG that emoticons help overcome the lack of facial expressions and intonation in online text vs in person.