google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, January 11, 2017, Robert E. Lee Morris

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Jan 11, 2017

Wednesday, January 11, 2017, Robert E. Lee Morris

Theme: METAPHORICAL MOOLAH



Robert has taken some euphemisms for money (many of which we see in our puzzles) and suggested them as payment for services rendered in units associated with the trade mentioned in the cluing. 


Robert's pinwheel construction and theme fill is shown below:




Husker Gary here, let's review the theme answers Robert chose for this fun Humpday offering:

16. Newspaper reporter's compensation? : DAILY BREAD - Also redeemable at Pannera's?

38. Chiropractor's compensation? : BACK PAY - Does she get her money UPFRONT for working on a BACK?


61. Comedian's compensation? : FUNNY MONEY - One way to detect it
10. Landscaper's compensation? : HEDGE FUNDS - Clearly the coin of their realm

27. Domino's delivery driver's compensation? : PIZZA DOUGH - My idea for Christmas cash for the grandkids  this year!


Across

1. Bowling alley button : RESET - Before they were needed

                         

6. European cheese town : EDAM

10. Puddle jumper trip : HOP

13. Wedding figure : USHER

14. ChapStick container : TUBE

15. Fix up : REDO


18. Big star : IDOL

19. "I'm with ya" : YUP

20. Threatening words : OR ELSE

21. Farming prefix : AGRO

22. "Wheel of Fortune" buy : AN E - He had all his E's but look at what he guessed


23. Smooth, as transitions : SEAMLESS

25. Wise : SAPIENT - S A _ I E N T - "How 'bout an L Pat!"  "Sorry, Gary. There is no L."

29. DOJ bureau : ATF

30. Dry as dust : ARID

31. Speaker's spot : DAIS

34. Get out of bed : ROUSE - I had to ROUST a lot of teenagers out of bed on field trips to Orlando when they couldn't ROUSE themselves.

37. "__ who?" : SEZ

40. N.L. player whose home games include a President's Race : NAT - Between innings entertainment at Washington NATional's games


41. Brownish-green : HAZEL - Many here will realize the irony of the fact that Shirley Booth had HAZEL colored eyes


43. Greenish-blue : TEAL

44. Some prosecutors: Abbr. : ADAS Law and Order had some attractive ones!

45. "Selma" director DuVernay : AVA - Ms. Gardner's day off

46. Drops in : STOPS BY

48. Medical emergency alert : CODE BLUE - A Japanese TV show


53. Baby fox : KIT

54. Soon, to a bard : ANON

55. Kibbutz setting : ISRAEL

57. Actress Thurman : UMA - My favorite memory of UMA. The guy's she's dancing with did pretty well too.


60. Cooling meas. : BTU'S

63. Bass' red triangle, e.g. : LOGO

64. Moran of "Happy Days" : ERIN

65. Flared dress : A-LINE

66. New Testament bk. : EPH - Ephesians

67. German battleship Graf __ : SPEE - Named for WWI hero Admiral Maximilian Reichsgraf von SPEE


68. Connection point : NEXUS


Down

1. Former NYC mayor Giuliani : RUDY - "America's mayor" after 9/11

2. Seesaw sitter of tongue twisters : ESAU - I saw ESAU sittin' on a see saw...

3. Send in a box : SHIP

4. Sushi selection : EEL - Ungai (Japanese for EEL) sushi


5. "Taste this" : TRY ONE

6. French I verb : ETRE

7. Stereotypical dawn challenges : DUELS - Burr and Hamilton DUELED at 7:00 am on July, 11 1804. Uh, Hamilton was the runner-up.

8. Take down a peg : ABASE

9. Scorned lover of Jason : MEDEA

11. Aromas : ODORS - Certain ODORS on a farm would never be called Aromas

12. Shirts named for a sport : POLOS

15. Theater district : RIALTO - Venice's fabulous RIALTO Bridge leads to the city's RIALTO  District 


17. Lee who was the top-charting female soloist of the '60s : BRENDA - I love BRENDA'S music so much I'll forgive her for Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

22. Helping hand : AID

24. Painter Cassatt : MARY

25. Over-the-shoulder band : SASH

26. Square statistic : AREA

28. Diplomatic skill : TACT


32. '50s prez : IKE

33. Health resorts : SPAS

35. Swedish automaker : SAAB

36. Internet crafts marketplace : ETSY

38. Spill the beans : BLAB

39. PC feature only used in combinations : ALT KEY - Used to get ¡ ™ £ ¢ ∞ § ¶ • å ∫ ç ∂ ´ ƒ ©...

42. "All the same ... " : EVEN SO

44. Fitting : APT

47. TV's J.R. Ewing, e.g. : OIL MAN - The man America loved to hate!


48. Part of CNN : CABLE

49. Winning : ON TOP

50. "__ Been Good": Joe Walsh hit : LIFE'S

51. Take over : USURP - "What do I put on top of my grits?"

52. Bath-loving Muppet : ERNIE

56. Novelist Rice : ANNE

57. Windows alternative : UNIX

58. Drop-down list : MENU - A Drop-down MENU and HTML codes on the template I look at every morning to write my posts


59. Yes votes : AYES

62. Chihuahua cheer : OLE

And now I look forward to your "on the money" comments:


45 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIW¡ BACK PAt instead of BACK PAY, crossing an unknown that could have been MARt as easily as MARY¡

Didn't care for the theme's inconsistency -- DAILY BREAD and PIZZA DOUGH (and PAT on the BACK) aren't normally money-related phrases, while HEDGE FUNDS and FUNNY MONEY (and BACK PAY) could mean the same things in their clue usage as they do in their natural usage.

I'd never before heard "I saw Esau, sitting on a see-saw, I saw Esau, he saw me; I saw Esau, he saw I saw, and she saw I saw Esau me saw" (or any variation thereof). {A, B-, ❤️A- / ❤️B+, ❤️A-, 💙B+.}

I saw ESAU sitting on a see-saw
I saw ESAU fiddle with a gee-gaw.
I was with MEDEA,
It was her idea
To bring him along on our trip to a sea SPA!

Toasters hate ERIN with real intent;
Her DAILY BREAD is burnt and bent!
Her PIZZA DOUGH
The mickey made glow! --
ERIN's appliances are SAPIENT!

Brenda's eyes are BLUE or TEAL,
They have a lot of sex appeal!
But if reappraisal
Showed them as HAZEL,
On her they still would be ideal!

OwenKL said...

[My LW is named BRENDA, (and I didn't do much special for her birthday yesterday) so I felt compelled to use it, but none of these have any other words from today's puzzle!]

There once was a driver named BRENDA,
Who crumpled so many a fenda,
When she sent off a check
Her insurer said "Heck!"
And stamped it "Return to Senda"!

There once was a writer named BRENDA
Whose stories had a social agenda.
But her short epilogue
Turned into a blog
Till her novel was mostly addenda!

There once was a maiden named BRENDA
Who had a most striking pudenda!
When approached by some lout
Lightning bolts would strike out
That would leave his junk flaccid and tenda!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got the theme for a change and zoomed along. My only write-overs resulted from self-inflicted stupidity. DUALS for DUELS and APP for APT -- both fixed sans Wite-Out. Thanx, RELM and Husker.

Nice CSO to Boomer with RESET. My first "job" was as a pinsetter at the local lanes. Handled two lanes and made a nifty penny-a-frame. Quickly learned to pick up four pins -- two in each hand -- and pitch them into the correct slots in the "rack." If the bowler missed on the second throw, you could just lower the rack to RESET all 10 pins. I know, TMI.

Can't believe I had trouble dredging up BRENDA Lee, nee Brenda Mae Tarpley. She was only 16 when this song soared to the top of the charts. Didn't hurt that she had the Anita Kerr Singers working backup.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

After my first pass I thought this puzzle had way too much crunch for Wednesday. But after I RESET my attitude I finished in short order with no lookups and only a few erasures. Like Owen I didn't know the seesaw singsong. Likewise SAPIENT, AVA DuVernat, Kibbutz, Graf SPEE, MEDEA, RIALTO or MARY Cassatt. Erased AGRi for AGRO and aroSE for ROUSE.

I liked REL Morris' cluing cleverness and Gary's funny wordplay. Thanks to both.

Probably won't chime in again until Monday. We are leaving for the Sunshine State tomorrow for a Sunday arrival. Glad fuel prices are dropping a little - my rig sucks down diesel at the rate of 7 mpg.

Hungry Mother said...

Do people say YUP? Anyway, pretty easy for a Wednesday with help from the theme.

Yellowrocks said...

Monday easy puzzle. Zip Zip Zip. No unknown fills. Needed just a few perps sometimes to suggest which of several answers was needed.
Gary, I always find your blogging very enjoyable, but today you outdid yourself. Fabulous pictures. It must take hours to find them. Where did you get that first pic? And your wordplay and puns were especially funny.
Gary, so true about REDO. When the kids were little I worked late shift in a TV factory while their dad babysat. I formed supports for the heater coils in TV electron guns. Every day it was rush, rush, rush. Production! Then we would shut down any new work for a week and REDO electron guns flagged by quality control. It seemed so pointless.It took much longer to redo each piece than it did to produce one in the first place.
Owen, fun poems. Are you overthinking the clues? For me each themer is a well used phrase, not necessarily related to money. The second word is a type of money or payment,and the first word is related to the worker's profession. I expected less than you, so I found the theme clever.
Alan and I both have colds as so many of you do. Ours are on the mild to medium side. I have had much worse ones in the past. Today we go to the dentist to replace Alan's missing caps.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

A nice mid-week treat with just enough bite and a chuckle-producing theme. I'm not sure if I've ever seen the word "sapient" before but I'm positive that I've never known the definition, but perps saved the day with that and Rialto, and a couple of others.

Thanks, RELM, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, HG, for the usual tour de force summary and stunning visuals.

The bad news is I need a new ice-maker; the badder news is it'll take 7-10 days for it to be ordered and installed. The serviceman was here for 10 minutes and the charge was $86.00. I can just imagine what the next bill will be!

Have a great day.

Big Easy said...

HG- After seeing your photos and descriptions I thought of another payment form. A bad doctor's ( faith healer, 'horse'-doctor,...etc) payment-QUACK PAY.

It was a DNF today because of ESAU- I have never heard the tongue twister before and filled YEP for YUP. Neither had OwenKL nor Jinx. The rest was SEAMLESS, with only AVA & MARY as unknowns. I had to change PATIENT to SAPIENT for the Domino driver to get paid.

SAAB- the correct clue- Chinese Automaker. And they can't use the name SAAB either.
http://www.autoblog.com/2016/02/02/saab-owners-naming-rights/

CNN's fill CABLE next to ON TOP? not any longer. Too much 'Fake News"

UNIX next to a Windows MENU- that's funny. One should be 1A and the other 68A as they aren't even 'close'.

desper-otto said...

IM, I feel your pain. I called a serviceman out on our cooktop, and even provided the MFR Part Number for the failed coil. Did he bring the part on the first visit? Nope. Did he charge for that first visit? YUP! (People shore do say YUP, Hungry Mother.)

BTW, IM, I'm sure you've heard of homo SAPIENs (wise man).

Anonymous said...

Nice puzzle today. Somewhat light but very enjoyable solve for a Wednesday. Usually don't post comments, but I really liked the puns in the keywords today - BACKPAY was when the light-bulb went off.

And, speaking of light-bulbs... to IRISH MISS - I also had an appliance repair man here today for an oven light socket that fried. Also here for only a few minutes... $115.

Tinbeni said...

Outstanding write-up Husker Gary.

Thank you for the FUN Wednesday puzzle, Robert E. Lee Morris. (What a great name!)

The FUNNY MONEY themes were ALL good.

Alas, there was NO BOOZE clue/answers ... EVEN SO this was my favorite puzzle (so far) in 2017.

Cheers!

Lucina said...

Clever theme from RELM and one which could be readily filled. Thank you, Mr. Morris.

EDAM is on the tour itinerary when visiting the Netherlands as is going to a Kibbutz in ISRAEL. Both proved to be quite interesting.

MARY Cassatt along with Georgia O'Keefe and a few others, stand out as female painters in an art world dominated by males.

And the dent in my head still hurts from thinking about a musical band at 25D then realizing it's a SASH.

Thank you, Gary, for a sparkling review today.

d-o:
Were you earning PIN MONEY?

Have a glorious day, everyone!

Lucina said...

ESAU as a tongue twister is new to me, too, and I used to provide my ESL students with pages of tongue twisters so they could practice pronunciation.

BunnyM said...

I really enjoyed this clever puzzle them of Metaphorical Moolah - thanks RELM!
Husker Gary- as Yellowrocks said, you really outdid yourself today. Loved your write up with all the clever puns and great photos. You provided me with several Lol moments! Nice work 😀

I also had never heard of ESAU sittin' on a seesaw. Didn't help that I had Yep for YUP.
SAPIENT was another learning moment as was RIALTO. I've learned so much over the years from CW's which is part of the fun!

Other unknowns were MEDEA, AVA and SPEE. Couple of missteps fixed by perps were IKE- I had DDE and I wanted Sandra for BRENDA. For some reason I was thinking of the last name as Dee, not Lee. ( I actually like 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree 😀)

The winds have finally died down here without too much damage. We did have a short power outage last night. Woke up to black ice with multiple accidents reported around town. I've heard a lot of sirens this morning. More wacky January weather to come: highs near 60 today and tomorrow then back to 30's w/snow and/or ice for the weekend and back to the 50's next week. Crazy but not surprising here!

Have a great day everyone!
🐇

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Easy enough. Not many unknowns, but Spee was all perps for sure. Nice execution of a nice theme!

Paused a moment at Hazel, my own eye color, which I don't often think about.

Morning Husker, love the Metaphorical Moolah title!

Weird weather this year...days and days of bitter cold, and all of a sudden, today is Spring-like and the snow is disappearing.

Did we have a Zamboni in a recent puzzle? Some trigger caused me to read up on the iconic ice resurfacers, and now I'm trying to recall what it was. My study led me to a video in which inventor Frank Zamboni's son demonstrates the very first ice machine, at long last restored, on a California ice rink.

billocohoes said...

Technically Graf Spee wasn't a "battleship". Though the British nicknamed it a "pocket battleship" it was really just a cruiser, only one-third the displacement of the Iowa and other WWII capital ships.

Yellowrocks said...

Billocohoes. you provided my earworm for the day, "A Capital Ship"
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=a+capital+ship+for+an+ocean+trip+youtube&view=detail&mid=C5893B30EB249A493EF1C5893B30EB249A493EF1&FORM=VIRE



Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning, everyone.

Really, WEES, but it sure was fun. I'm with D-O--figured out the theme and zoomed along. Twice this week! Today's break at DAILY BREAD came early with crosses. Lately, I've changed my approach for a bit working acrosses and downs at the same time. My son's rule of thumb. I usually do a first pass across then down. Thanks, Mr. Morris for lots of fun.

Gary, once again you provide us with a fine explication and great links. Thank you.

Have a fine day today.

CanadianEh! said...

Almost SEAMLESS today. Thanks Robert and Husker Gary.
I thought this was Monday level until I got held up in the NE.
I had Mend which turned to Reno which should have been REDO (I did not notice my error with ODOR until I turned on the red letters!)
I also had Arise before ROUSE which didn't help that whole area.
But it was fun.

I'm not familiar with the ESAU tongue-twister either or the Presidents' Race.
I wanted to use WAS until force to NAT (is it kosher to use NAT when it is in the N.L. clue?)

I'm sure Spitzboov will enlighten us more about SPEE.

Have a great day. Our power flickered several times last night due to high winds, and the resulting click of clock/answering machine woke me. Small annoyance when other areas around Toronto lost power for hours!



tawnya said...

Good Morning all!

I enjoyed today's offering - and the great write up as well. Thank you!

Ernie was always one of my favorites <3 DH used to work at a posh SPA/resort where the maintenance crew (and management) kept a rubber ducky on every golf cart. My grandfather was around 90 years old the first time he went to visit DH at work. The next time we went to his house, there was a ducky in his shower! After another visit to the resort, the ducky had a friend. My mom made sure to send me the mated pair after my grandfather passed. He was a funny guy that never acted his age!

LIFE'S BEEN GOOD version on the Eagles Live album is distinctly different than the original. Lyrics were changed in several key spots.

Virgil, quick come and see there goes Robert E. Lee Morris!

@Bunny - you and I have the nearly the same weather! Windy and warm today and then it's going to freeze! We have an Winter Weather Watch with a threat of ice on Friday. People are freaking out and stocking up on bread and everything. I'm not worried. The other day there was a report of snow on the ground in 49/50 states - the only exception was Florida!

@Irish - sorry about your ice maker. I found a great repair guy using Angie's List. Well worth the annual fee to find people that are highly rated. Sadly, it might have been easier to buy a new fridge :(

We are having sushi with the in-laws tonight for FIL's birthday. EEL will definitely be served as it's MIL's favorite.

Happy Wednesday!

t.

C6D6 Peg said...

Thanks, RELM, for a great puzzle. Nicely done with theme entries.

HG, loved the write-up. What a great idea for your grandkids present! Cute!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Here’s where I first heard the I Saw Esau tongue twister (2:19)
-Pizza Box gift for grandkids next year will follow the money I buried in Jell-O this year, ice the year before, in balloons the year before and hiding places that required a GPS device to find outside prior to that.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe Lemony hasn't stopped by yet to claim his CSO.

AnonymousPVX said...

Nice Wednesday puzzle. Favorite was "back pay". Funny stuff, liked this one.

oc4beach said...


Just about the right degree of difficulty for a Wednesday from Robert. I liked the theme and I was able to get through it without too much trouble.

HG's write-up brought a smile to my face on a number of his inserts. Especially the one on TACT. DW and Son both major in sarcasm so it's never dull when they are together. I forwarded the picture to my son who got a big charge out of it.

Only a few hitches:
- DOJ Bureau could have been FBI, but not DEA which is an Agency
- NODE before NEXUS, but it didn't fit
- SAPIENT was all perps. Just didn't know it.

Other than the above hitches, it was a nice ride today.

IM @ 8:30am: When the icemaker died in my 20 year old side-by-side refrigerator, I opted to replace the fridge with a new French Door one with a bottom drawer freezer that had two icemakers, one in an upper door and one in the bottom freezer drawer. They both come in handy when entertaining. The new one is also more power efficient and I can put a pizza box in it.

HG: I liked your pizza box gift idea. This year I gave the kids money in CFL light bulb boxes. I got some strange looks from them when they unwrapped them before looking inside.

The ice is melting, so it's time to go Hunt and Gather.

Have a great day everyone.


Spitzboov said...

Hello everyone.

Just got our cable/internet back. Out since midnight due to high winds. Power out too for a while.

Puzzle solve easy enough. Only rewrite was had DDE before IKE.

Graf SPEE was what the Brits called a pocket battle ship. Since they fought it and we were very neutral at the time, I guess they could call it whatever they want. It was a very heavily armored cruiser with 11" guns and built that way during the early 30's to satisfy Treaty requirements. (Our Iowa class battleships are about 4X greater displacement.) Eventually bottled up in Montevideo harbor, it was scuttled and I believe the captain committed suicide rather than explain things to his higher-ups. There's a good movie about all this.

Lucina said...

Gary:
No wonder I hadn't heard I Saw Esau, recorded in 1956, when I was living in a highly sheltered world.

I loved your pizza box idea and yours, too, oc4beach. Mine are still at the stage when gifts are welcomed, but I'll remember this in the future and perhaps for birthdays of nieces and nephews who all get cash.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I liked this pzl very much and thank Robert E. Lee Morris for his cleverly worked out "financial" theme. I was only disappointed that the 17-D "top-charting" singer--and namesake to Mr. Lee Morris--did not turn out to be Peggy Lee. ("Ya give me fee-ver...") I saw right away that she wouldn't fit. But in the early '60s I sat close to Miss Peggy as she sang that signature torch song and have held a loyalty in my heart ever since.
In all other respects this was an excellent contribution, with several parts touching on areas of interest to me. The story of the Graf SPEE, already touched on by Spitzboov above, is one such item.
I am always a little surprised when war historians raise issues dealing with the old German Navy--as if there was one!
In WWI, the Kaiser was making an effort to build his navy up to rival the Brits, but he had a long way to go when that war broke out. As for WWII, the Nazis had nothing to compete with the British Navy--except for the U-Boats. They had only "pocket" battleships, none of real size, and no aircraft carriers at all.
This is in a large measure the reason Hitler opened his second front in Russia rather than continue the Battle of Britain. Goering had failed to break the Brits with the Luftwaffe, so it would have been up to the "navy" if the invasion of Britain were to continue. How many infantrymen could have been packed aboard a U-Boat? Can you imagine German troops invading England on barges all the way from the continent?

When you think of the scale of the allies' D-Day invasion in '44, there is simply no way the Nazis could have done that in reverse in 1940.

Unknown said...

O'Keeffe.

Misty said...

Interesting Wednesday puzzle, Robert. Not a speed run, for sure, and in the end, like Big Easy and Bunny M, I had problems because I didn't know the ESAU saying and put YEP instead of YUP. But thank goodness everything else turned out okay, so, many thanks! Gary, I loved your pictures this morning. The old bowling alley one was fascinating, and how nice to see a pic of Hazel again.

Plumber came at 8:30 this morning to replace our two bathroom faucets. I figured it would take him an hour or two at the most. It's now after 12 and he's still not finished because there were problems that needed extra work. Poor guy must be exhausted, and I don't even want to think about what the final bill is going to be. But hopefully everything will work okay after this.

Have a good day, everybody!

oc4beach said...


Lucina @12:47pm: The "kids," who range in age from teenagers to 53 (nieces, nephews, children and grandchildren,) still get to unwrap gifts, but they have always received cash to spend on day-after-Christmas shopping. That way they can get what they wanted but didn't get on Christmas day.

I usually request a Christmas gift wish list from each kid so that they don't have to rely on my ideas, which aren't hip enough, especially for the younger ones. This way they don't have to return something to buy what they really wanted.

I'm going to use HG's pizza box idea. I have a friend who owns an Italian restaurant/pizza parlor where I can get some clean unused pizza boxes.

Lemonade714 said...

Jinx- 7MPG?!?

YR LINK .

Mr. M was here last year on January 11, then had another January, a February and poof! gone until today.

Fun stuff, thanks RELM and HG

Wilbur Charles said...

Well the deal was Germany keeps Russia busy and Japan keeps US busy. As I said earlier, the Germans had an embed family photographing Pearl since 1939.

Yup, I had YEP

I agree with YR etal on xword and Gary's excellent write-up. Owen, A's.

WC

desper-otto said...

Keith, what about the Bismarck and the Tirpitz? You'd need a pretty big pocket for those two. They're almost on a par with the U.S. Iowa-Class battleships: Iowa, New Jersey, Missouri, Wisconsin. Big dinosaurs!

Lucina said...

Gary:
Now that I had a little more time I studied your money chart and am really surprised at all the variations for MONEY, formal and slang. Well done!

For Christmas I also ask for a wish list for the same reasons as oc4beach; my circle of friends and I have a drawing and I ask them for a wish list, too, so they can have what they really want. My nieces and nephews receive gifts from me only for their birthdays. They are far too many for Christmas giving.

Jayce said...

Cool puzzle, nifty theme. I liked it all except NAT and EPH.

Husker Gary, your writeup today is among the top 10. I laughed heartily at your connection between USURP and grits. Excellent! And the runner up was your observation about Hamilton after the duel. Funny stuff! Thank you so much for the laughs.

Best wishes to you all from soggy California.

TX Ms said...

Fun puzzle, but H-G's write-up was even more fun and hilarious - you outdid yourself! My favorites were also Jayce's.

Weather is weird all over. I live in the inner city and knew night temps were going to go down to 28 or so this weekend, but all of my tropical plants froze! It's been at least 10 years since that happened. Hibiscus survived, but I had put the pots on their sides on the grass and covered them with a comforter. Today's high: 80.

Tawnya - cute story about your granddad, bless him!

TX Ms said...

Just watched the national news - I retract, and please disregard, my weather whining. Poor people out West, my heart goes out to you.

Wilbur Charles said...

I also had FBI originally. I had a pal in ATF back in the seventies. For once, no stories.

I've got to look up USURP and grits.

Gary, that was a sensational write-up

WC

Anonymous said...

Yes Mother we do use "yup" frequently

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Lemonade,

32,000 pounds + 350 hp Caterpillar + towing a Honda CRV = 7 MPG. It gets about 8 MPG without the CRV. New ones get about 5% better mileage, but they require about one gallon of diesel exhaust fluid for every 20 gallons of diesel, so the cost is about the same. Since we'll be gone abut 10 weeks the fuel bill isn't a major component of the overall vacation cost, but lower prices can put some welcome spending money in my pocket.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

YEP, that was a fun puzzle of Payola. Thanks RELM; great theme execution. HG, there's no way I can ABASE your expo; fun pix and puns. TACT quip was cute too. Thanks.

WO: DAILY paper. I was thinking 'ways to pay' may be the theme: paper, coin, plastic, EFT, etc. Nope.
ESPs: ETRE, ESAU, MEDEA, RIALTO, MARY, SPEE.

Sparkle: Computer sub-theme: UNIX, MENU, ALT KEY, RE DO (Ctlr-Y to reverse Ctlr-Z's undo), KIT (your computer setup just like you like it, aka rig), LOGO (<-Link), and RESET ("Have you tried turning it off and on again?").
CODE BLUE? Is that developing programs for porn? :-)

Fav: OIL MAN xing 61a. Today my 1st stock-grant matured from FUNNY FUNDS to real MONEY. Cha-Ching!

{A-,B,A,A+,A,A}

HG - Eldest is getting a PIZZA DOUGH box b/f heading to University. Thanks for the idea.

WC - USURP is 'use syrup' said real-quick-like. Still doesn't make grits good tho IMHO.

Safe travels Jinx!

Tawnya - Great Gramps story; sounds like a fun guy. Good music too (even Rubber Duckie!). You missed one... The TUBEs...

Lucina - Cute re: PIN MONEY

TxMs - D-O & I both have droopy philodendrons. It was <32F for 8 hours Sat night/Sun am... That'll do it :-(. Good luck getting your tropics to come back to LIFE.

Bunny M - Black Ice? [MA]. I SEZ, Why's its gotzta be about race dawg? :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Jayce, how has the rain been in your neck of the woods? Here, we are on level ground and the rain has been moderate and hasn't caused any serious problems. A few miles north in the Topanga Canyon area, part of a house slid down the mountain side.

Gary, can you supply a little more info on your clever pizza/money box? What is in the center to keep all the slices/bills in place? What do you use to afix the pepperoni/coins in place? Etc.?

Thanks,

~BillG

Unknown said...

Sapient?

Picard said...

Fun theme! Sorry I don't get why it is "ironic" that Hazel had hazel eyes?

SPEE/ANNE was a Natick that needed a WAG. Could have been SPEa/ANNa but I did WAG correctly.