google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday March 17, 2017, Paul Coulter

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Mar 17, 2017

Friday March 17, 2017, Paul Coulter

To celebrate St. Paddy's day, here's a beautiful version of When Irish Eyes Are Smilin' by the Irish tenor who was a foil for Jack Benny for years. It makes for lovely background music!


Now, for sure and begorrah, let's be gettin' down to the puzzle!


TITLE: BACK TO FRONT

On this St. Paddy's Day, Lemon has put himself on the injured reserve list and C.C. has brought me, Husker Gary, up from the minors to take the mound.


Paul's lovely offering dredges up memories of a recent Sunday puzzle I blogged where I also put the grid at the top. In that puzzle a word was put IN the middle of a silly phrase and had to be repositioned to the front to make sense. Today Paul forces us to take the last word of a silly phrase and transport it to the front to make a single, familiar word. 


Obviously the puzzle needed no reveal, so here are the theme entries

16. Laboratory scam? : SCIENCE CON/CONSCIENCE - Jiminy's counsel to Pinnochio took a while to sink in

28. Snubbing a testimonial? : TRIBUTE DIS/DISTRIBUTE - A good passer is called a good DISTRIBUTOR




45. John Deere rep? : TRACTOR PRO/PROTRACTOR - For some reason kids often ask for a compass when they really want a PROTRACTOR

61. Ordinary law office employee? : NORMAL PARA/PARANORMAL - JoBeth Williams confronts a PARANORMAL creature in Poltergeist 



Let's see what else our Literary Leprechaun has for us today


Across


1. "Oopsy" : MY BAD

6. Grand Prix component : ESS - Curve, here's one



9. In things : FADS - Joann, where's my Nehru jacket?

13. Adult insect : IMAGO - I've only heard it here


14. Prefix with data : META - It seems someone has lots of this on all of us


15. Subject preceder : IN RE



18. Saves, say : STAT - Usually accrued by soccer and hockey goalies 


19. Challenge : CALL OUT - Matt Dillon faced one of these at the start of every episode

20. Like some flushes : ACE HIGH


22. Missed the mark : ERRED


24. Spike TV, once : TNN - The Nashville Network


25. Nile threats : ASPS


33. Take for a while : LEASE

35. B to C, e.g. : SEMITONE
 




36. Call off : END


37. Something shared on a plane : ARMREST - Sound right?

40. Pres. when Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was decided : DDE - Ike

41. "The Social Contract" author : ROUSSEAU - Jacques - "What wisdom can be greater than kindness?"

43. Hindu ascetics : YOGIS - Did any of them catch for the Yankees?

48. Old Nair rival : NEET

49. "You betcha!" : YEP

50. Mozart opera ending : TUTTE - Cosi Fan TUTTE (Women are like that). Like what?

52. Spendthrift : WASTREL



56. Hospital test : MRI SCAN - I just listened to talk shows on my iPhone

60. Large deep-water fish : OPAH







63. Actor Auberjonois : RENE - Fr. Mulcahy in the 1970 movie M*A*S*H


64. Relaxed : EASY

65. Refresh, as a cup of coffee : TOP UP - Is this also a Mardi Gras tradition?

66. Participants in some awkward meetings : EXES


67. Case breaker, perhaps : DNA - Uh, Number 2, you might wanna have a seat

68. Flower holders : STEMS - Not a vayse or a vahze







Down

1. Category for non-recurring pd. bills : MISC


2. 1979 disco classic : YMCA



3. Payment that's posted : BAIL - Remember who sponsored The Bad News Bears? Now you can order a jersey!

4. Eternal : AGELESS - Dick Clark's middle name for years

5. Philanthropist, e.g. : DONOR

6. Common Market letters : European Economic Community

7. Ancient colonnade : STOA

8. Sacred sites : SANCTUMS

9. Stocking stuff : FISH NET - Maybe Splynter will have some for us tomorrow

10. Not backing : ANTI

11. Party pooper : DRAG


12. First family member : SETH 

14. Poet's concern : METER

17. Short : CURT

21. Being : ENTITY

23. Throw into turmoil : DISRUPT

25. On the ball : ALERT

26. Monterrey title : SENOR

27. "The Taming of the Shrew" setting : PADUA - The Montana Shakespeare In The Park Troupe chose a different setting but used Elizabethan English (mostly) 

32. Notice from Shakespeare? : SEEST - Didst thee SEEST the setting for Taming Of The Shrew cameth ere?

29. Obsessive idea metaphor : BEE - Busy as a...


30. Caravan assembler : DODGE - The original minivan - 1984

31. Common Sundance entry : INDIE

34. Time for eggs : EASTER

38. Worked on, as a cold case : REOPENED - They haven't REOPENED the Cain and Abel case. How many witnesses could there have been?

39. Fold, spindle or mutilate : MAR

42. Crop cutters : SCYTHES

44. Buck : ONESPOT - Really?

46. Gin __ : RUMMY - Remember this Bond Villain who cheated at Gin RUMMY using a spy with binoculars and an earpiece? 

47. Other, in Oaxaca : OTRA - No, descartar la OTRA tarjeta (No, discard the other card)

51. Slopes : TILTS

52. Had on : WORE 


53. Top : APEX

54. Fit to be tried : SANE - Two psychiatrists testified as to whether this Omaha man was SANE enough to stand trial for his four murders.

55. Student's request : LOAN 

57. Vacation spot : CAPE

58. Jack-in-the-pulpit family : ARUM

59. Gets caught off guard : NAPS

62. The ANC's country : RSA Republic of South Africa





Now before you start celebrating reasonably (let your conscience be your guide), how 'bout some comments:









52 comments:

fermatprime said...

Hi everyone!

Thanks to Paul and Gary!

Feel better, Lemonade!

Really liked the theme! Fun to fill in.

No problems.

Have a great day!

OwenKL said...

FIR! Difficult, but it is a Friday, so that's de rigueur. The gimmick was also complex, though fascinating once I realized it. Lots of w/os probably the same as WEES: LEG > ESS, CAT SCAN > MRI SCAN (erased SCAN when perps told me CAT was wrong), TUNA > OPAH (new word to me), VASES > STEMS, DISTURB > DISRUPT, BUG > BEE, VERB > IN RE. Lots of fun/deceptive clues, but even after it was filled in, it took a bit to understand STAT.

Aɴ ANTI-SCIENCE DODGE {A}

If you have ERRED, it's not enough to say, "MY BAD!"
The Mayor will rouse the villagers, who then will get so mad!
They'll come for you in dead of night!
They'll come with torches and with SCYTHES!
You musn't revive corpses, even if it is the FAD!

REOPENED tombs and SANCTUMS, ROUSSEAU would think corrupt.
To CALL OUT to departed, will just their NAPS DISRUPT.
But DRAGGING remains gory
To your LABORATORY
Will make your need for DONOR spleens seem a bit abrupt!

It's EASY to get the TOP UP, once you have a coffin.
D.N.A. and M.R.I. are SCANS you may do often.
Rituals passed down from SETH,
Even if they are AGELESS,
Must be done with with APEX-level careful META-caution!

If the body was a WASTREL, with muscles SEMI-TONED
You may need to buy an ARMREST to secure their bones.
You might ALERT police
By equipment that you LEASE,
So it's best to own it, even if you use a LOAN!

But ONE rule you must SPOT, despite any other flaw,
If the ENTITY you're making inspires any awe,
You must be certain beyond shocking
That your fiend in FISHNET stockings
Was not once his EX'S Mom, the Mayor's Mother-in-Law !

Paul C. said...

Thanks for the review, Gary, and the clever poem as always, Owen. Get better soon, Lemonade, and please stick to your namesake beverage today instead of green beer.

My working title for this one was "Prefer to Suffer." No, I'm not describing the masochistic tendencies of a crossword constructor. It's because I was taking prefixes and making them into (sort of) suffixes. Cheers, everyone.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Paul, thanks for dropping in. I'm glad you explained your title; it made a whooshing sound as it went over my head. But this dense guy would have needed some sort of reveal to have a hope of discovering the theme. I got it, but didn't get it. Only needed Wite-Out to change LILY to ARUM -- I'm equally bad at flower families.

Thanks to Jiminy Cricket, lots of preschoolers learned to spell "encyclopedia" long before they could read it.

Husker, those kids could have used a PROTRACTOR to measure the cubits of Noah's Arc [sic].

thehondohurricane said...


A puzzle that made me feel like a real "Dumb Ass". Hopefully it's the last one for a while. The weekend puzzles won't be a problem because business will be first & foremost.

My success % today was roughly half, heck I couldn't even come up with wags for most of the unfilled blocks. One thing I'm sure of Gary, Mr Berra was no Hindu.










Anonymous said...

Lame theme, lame puzzle. But thanks for the reveal, Paul C.

Though, when did a "rep" become a PRO? And when did DISS become DIS, and SANCTA become SANCTUMS? And where was the "for short" indicator for STAT?

Argyle said...

Lame nit. disrespect = dis: why add another 'S'. Sanctums; take it up with the dictionaries. Save, an important stat for any closer.

Tinbeni said...

Husker Gary: Nice write-up. Great job Pinch Hitting ... something I will do later. LOL

Argyle @7:42 Great come-back! The "Anon's" are getting lamer by the minute.

Hope everyone has a wonderful St. Pat Day ... some Green Beer will be enjoyed.

Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Fun puzzle. I liked the gimmick which I discovered about a third of the way through. Thanks for the Irish music, Gary, and the always enjoyable post.
Gary, how did you get to listen to your I-phone during the MRI? We were not allowed to have anything like that in the room.
I think the obsessive bee is in your bonnet.
Arm rests in a plane can be contentious. I have had a 300 lb. neighbor who raised the armrest and oozed into half of my seat and blocked half of my tray table. Fortunately he later noticed two adjoining empty seats in the middle and moved to them.
No nits, no unknowns, no "disses." Sancta and sanctums are both acceptable. Spell Check prefers sanctums. Many Latin loan words have both plurals. Also dis and diss are both acceptable. I prefer diss, but Spell Check does not.
If you studied biology, you would find that imago is common in that discipline.
Happy St. Patrick's Day. I am wearing a green top. We were going to halve corned beef Ruebens, but Alan is deferring them until tomorrow. He wants to go out for pizza today.
He is a creature of habit. On Fridays we go out to McDonald's or a pizza place.

Yellowrocks said...

By writing "I think the obsessive bee is in your bonnet," I didn't mean that as a diss. I was thinking of the idiom "Bee in one's bonnet."
He HAVE, not HALVE the Reubens. Since I make them at home they are sized for one person. When we have them in restaurants we really do halve them because they are so large.

BunnyM said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 🍀

This very clever puzzle had me stumped today! Hardest Friday in a long time. But I always appreciate being made to think harder, so thanks Paul and thanks for stopping by here. Always nice to see a constructor on the blog.
Thanks Husker Gary for filling in- loved your write up! Full of fun pics and comments. Feel better Lemonade!

I didn't get the theme until reading the blog. I cheated more than I'd like to admit with EEC, SANCTUMS, PADUA, ARUM and even DODGE (very clever clue as was the one for SANE. Although I didn't feel very sane for most of the time working on the CW, lol)

Perps were ROUSSEAU, RSA and TOPUP. I've never heard of this- always "Top off" for refreshing or refilling coffee, soda, etc.

That picture of the airplane seats would be beneficial to have in plain sight for the rude passengers that don't understand plane etiquette. It never fails when I'm in the middle seat that the stranger beside me hogs the armrest. Ugh...

@YR- we are creatures of habit, too and will have our usual Friday dinner of steak sandwiches at Penn Station. ( Saturday is Skyline chili. If we went tonight, we could have the green spaghetti they always serve on St. Paddy's day.)
BTW- thanks for your comments yesterday. I have had several rounds of epidurals for my neck followed by burning out the nerves and then disc replacement surgery two and a half years ago. Unfortunately the fusion is only about fifty percent and now other levels are in bad shape. Next will likely be more epidurals but top of the list is knee replacement. I meet with the surgeon again next month but will most likely have to wait until I've met my deductible later in the year. The surgeon says 47 is younger than he likes for replacement but my regular orthopedic doc says "tell him your body doesn't know it's 47. It thinks it's at least 20 years older,"

It's sleeting here now. Hope it stops soon as I have errands to run. I'm excited to go shopping for a baby shower I'm attending on Sunday. So fun to see and buy alll the sweet little baby items :)

Hope everyone has a great day!

CrossEyedDave said...

Well thought out puzzle, but I didn't have a clue.
Out of my wheelhouse,
off my wavelength,
No nits, ands, ifs, or but...

(I think I will go drown my sorrows in some green beer.)

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Well, Mr. Paul C, your puzzle had more "Banshee" than "Leprechaun" trickery, IMO. I had a hard time sussing the theme because I had more white space than black for far too long. Even after getting the theme, it took forever to see Science Con. The NE was the last to fall but I did get an unassisted Tada, so all is well. However, I was way over my normal Friday time.

Thanks, Paul, for a real challenge and for dropping by and thanks, HG, for your outstanding expo and links, particularly the one and only, Dennis Day.

CED, from yesterday, I just loved the 50 cutest puppies link, but I don't really have to tell you that, do I? 😉

Lemon, I hope better days are ahead.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! ☘☘☘

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Really had to chip away at this one, from the bottom up. Tricky clues befitting a Friday.

Howdy Husker, I was thinking the same thing as you in re Fishnets. Also, akin to your compass/protractor swap, I've noticed a surprising number of people saying degree when they mean angle. Doesn't seem all that tricky...

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Got the bottom ⅔ OK but had to look up IMAGO, at the top left. Interesting play on words for the theme. Some clever misdirection, ie. as with STAT. Don't remember having seen WASTREL before. Never saw ONE SPOT used, but it kind of makes sense.
Did you ever wonder if the ancient Scythians used SCYTHES? :-)

TTP said...

Good day all. Thanks Paul and thank you Huskery Gary

A very symmetrical 53:35 on my clock. Tough, but not impossible.
Perpfest, but fun. The middle and west filled under 20. East side took the remainder.
SCIENCE CON gave me the ruse. That led to a quick NORMAL PARA.
Got DISRUPT with the D,R and P and clue. Educator Husker Gary, et alia have all learned how to deal with disruptive behavior in the classroom.
Taming of the Shrew PADUA ? Glanced at a blurb yesterday or the day before that it was the anniversary of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's marriage. One of them.
Had HST ere DDE. TUNA before OPAH.
ARUM ? No problem. Do you know your arums from your Alliums ?
Never heard of "TOP UP" in that sense. Regionalism ?
Party pooper ? DRAG = Debbie Downer - SNL character.
Anonymous T FLN. Watch the bar holdup scene from Code of Silence. NSFLinking. TV version was cleaned up.

oc4beach said...


Definitely a Friday. When I got NORMALPARA with perps, it made sense. The others then filled in quickly and I was able to finish it. A rarity for Friday.

Good one Paul and HGs expo was spot on.

Anon @ 7:28: The Urban Dictionary agrees with Argyle. Only one s in DIS.

YR, a Reuben needs to be prepared on a grill flattop or frying pan. I've had a few not so good ones where the restaurant made their sandwich with plain bread (no grilling), toasted bread (again no grilling), and most recently one made on a Paganini press (no grilling, but closer). These were all disappointing. Another favorite was a ham, turkey and cheese sandwich that was battered and deep fried and served with raspberry jelly called the Monte Cristo. I used to get it at Bennigans, a chain that closed down most of their restaurants, but a few restaurants remained and it looks like they are making a come back.

Have a great day and enjoy everything Irish.

Big Easy said...

I was so glad to finish this Saturday level puzzle that I didn't care about trying to figure out the theme. It was white for a long time with Maine and Key West being the last to fall. I had only one unknown- STAT- thanks for the explanation because it just didn't make sense to me. But damn, the cluing was tricky.

After completing SCIENCE CON and TRACTOR PRO, I was thinking proTEST & conTEST until the 56A clue' Hospital TEST' appeared. 'Oopsy'

The NE drove me crazier than I already was. AGIN or ANTI, BORE or DRAG, AS TO or IN RE, and was it ABEL, ADAM, or SETH. The SE had me flummoxed because I wanted TOP OFF the cup of coffee; never heard the term TOP UP but it makes more sense. Maybe CAPE 'wherever' is thought of as a 'Vacation spot' up north but it doesn't translate down here on the Gulf Coast. I finally remembered ARUM and the puzzle was done.

IMAGO-I agree because 'Adult insect'answer should be PEST. ARUM and OPAH are other old Xword staples. Those are AGELESS fills in the inner SANCTUMS of X-word constructors.

desper-otto said...

OC4Beach, I had to smile at your Paganini press. Ain't auto-correct grand? I, too, was sorry to see Bennigan's disappear. Used to visit frequently for Sunday brunch.

Yellowrocks said...

oc4beach, around here the majority of the restaurants toast the rye bread, heap on tons of corned beef and sauerkraut, add sauce, top with Swiss cheese and broil to melt the cheese. We do like it that way, but prefer putting the ingredients in a closed sandwich which we grill. My panini press has additional grill plates for open grilling and also waffle plates.

Big Easy, I agree that adult insects can be big pests, such as mosquitoes, bed bugs and and flies, but IMO much of the time the immature larvae are the most destructive because they are voracious eaters. Think moths and garden pests.
Other animals also have larval stages, such as the tadpole and the joey (kangaroo). Fish go through a larval stage between egg and adult. But only adult insects are called imago.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

I will freely admit this began with a struggle. I didn't see the reveal clues until NORMALPARA--better late than never. FISHNET made me smile. I wore them as a tap dancer long ago in the last century. Man, did they hurt the bottoms of my feet. Still have the broken down shoes--can't seem to part with them. One of the escapees of extensive purging. Agree with Big Easy about TOPPING off coffee. I would never buy a John Deere from an amateur. A pro would realize I don't even need a tractor!! Thanks, Paul.

Owen, I continue to appreciate your art even though I seldom comment. Bravo!

Gary, Thanks for filling in. You are the consummate sub! Nicely done, of course.

Feel better, Lemonade!

Have a grand weekend. Don't try to compete with the professional Irish drinkers!

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling thoughts":

I ERRED several times today, as I never got the reveal, and had several write-overs. It took quite a while for me to get a foothold, but once I movie before Indy,did the bottom half of the puzzle filled in eventually. I had OTRO > OTRA, MOVIE > INDIE, ABEL > SETH, VERB > IN RE. In other words, the "eastern seaboard" was a mess!

New words for me: SEMI TONE; IMAGO; WASTREL; ONE SPOT. Overall, this was every bit a Friday/Saturday difficulty for yours truly. Thanks HG for your recap; hope Lemonade feels better soon; thanks PC for chirping in and explaining the puzzle for us.

While I know Splynter is the king of pantyhose, I found this image of FISHNETs, just for today!

Knew a Flapper, whose friends called her Trish;
And it's true that she was quite a dish.
When she angled for OPAH,
Stripped off part of her "ropa",
Used FISHNET stockings to catch her big fish.

MJ said...

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!

Today's fine puzzle was out of my league. Didn't suss the theme, and only finished with much google help. I don't remember ever seeing the word WASTREL, but perps to the rescue. Hand up for wanting to TOP off the cup of coffee. Favorite clue/answer was "Caravan assembler"/DODGE. Thanks for the puzzle, Paul, and thanks for the outstanding expo, Husker.

Enjoy the day!

billocohoes said...

Cosi fan TUTTE - (Women) are all like that - fickle and unfaithful, though the maid Despina sings that unfaithfulness is the main characteristic of all men, as well. The plot involves two men betting that their fiancees will stay faithful when they disguise themselves and try to seduce each other's woman.

Put in Sufi instead of YOGI and never got traction in the southeast.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Paul, for this challenging yet fun puzzle. Since the grid was mostly blank after the first pass, I started in the center and it bloomed outward and toward the bottom.

METER gave me the first fill and no problem with TOPUP. It is a British expression which appears in many of their writings. The OPAH is unforgettable once you've seen it. It's unusually big eyes stare expressionless out of the aquarium glass.

The NE did give me grief for a long while though FADS and FISHNET (I also thought of Splynter) settled in quickly, but SETH took a long time to appear. Finally STAT and ANTI made it. One bad cell, though, at ESS. I thought USS thinking a Country and United for Common Market. Drat!

Thanks, Gary; subbing suits you.

Lemonade, I'm sending positive thoughts and prayers that you heal quickly and join us again.

Ferm:
I hope you're feeling better.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

CrossEyedDave said...

OK, So I had a little trouble with the puzzle...

Wastrel? Isn't that some kind of bird?

Yeah, some kind of bird...

Maybe I had trouble with this puzzle because...

Michael said...

Dear Yellowrocks:

"We HAVE, not HALVE the Reubens. Since I make them at home they are sized for one person. When we have them in restaurants we really do halve them because they are so large."

Restaurant portion sizing is an oversizing issue. We once ordered a SMALL order of fries, and got an acre-foot of fries! We finally figured out they were using metric potatoes .... the kind that are equal to 1.479 Idaho praties.

Erin Go Bragh!

Jazzbumpa said...

Aye and begorrah, Lads and Lassies!

Quite the struggle today. Made it with a couple G-spots and a lot of perps.

Clever theme, lots of nice fill. For some reason, WASTREL especially pleased me. No nits.

Nice job, Gary. Feel better soon, Lemony!

Amanda is on Spring break, so she's getting in as many work hours as possible. She pulled a 5:00 to 10:00 a.m. shift at Starbucks, then met us for brunch at Panera. We spent an absolutely delightful hour or so with her. Very proud of that young lady.

We really do need better trolls.

Cool regards!
JzB

CanadianEh! said...

This was a Friday workout that finally completed with a little red letter help. Thanks for the fun Paul (LOL re Prefer to Suffer title) and Husker Gary.

I moved from Awake to ALERT, Yup to YEP, Hills to TILTS, Lap to ESS, Movie to INDIE, and Vase (pronounced Vahze) before STEMS. I mentally went down the First Family members from Adam, Cain, Abel to SETH.

My stocking stuff was a Present before FISHNET. I thought of Splynter. (Loved the Irish Fishnets, Chairman Moe!)
I thought of our resident poets, OwenKL and C Moe with METER (even if it is not spelled properly!). My British roots are familiar with TOP UP (never Top Off) as we top up gas tanks, oil, and coffee.

I think I learned IMAGO doing crosswords. Another of those AGELESS fills mentioned by Big Easy.
I agree with YR that the BEES clue refers to Bee in your bonnet.
Is YMCA a staple track in every wedding reception DJ's collection?

When I click on the Dennis Day video, I get a "video is not available" message. It is probably not allowed to cross the border LOL. But I found another version of Irish Eyes by the Irish Tenors
IrishTenors

Wishing you all a happy St. Patrick's Day.

AnonymousPVX said...

Tough Friday puzzle, solved with effort, the tough NW last to fall.

I'm with Yellowrocks as "a Bee in one's bonnet" is exactly where I went with that.

I solved from the bottom up as well.

inanehiker said...

Slower but steady solve today. Enjoyed the clever theme. I had VALENCE CON before SCIENCE CON but then I remembered it was COVALENCE- as I think Splynter would say: over 70% right.
Also had IRIS before ARUM, but that was straightened out by perps.

Thanks HG for filling in and Paul for the puzzle1
Feel better soon Lemonade!

Misty said...

Thanks for the St. Patrick's Day wishes, Husker Gary, and everyone!

A Friday toughie for me, but no worse than yesterday's puzzle. I got about 4/5 before I had to start cheating, with problems like PRESENT before FISHNET and others. And I've never heard of SEMI-TONE. But I still felt pretty good about getting so much of it, even though I got the theme only when I came to the blog and read Gary's expo. So, many thanks, Paul, and how nice of you to stop by.

I loved seeing C.C.'s memo to Gary, and found that Genealogy of Adam awesome. Have never seen that before!

Hope you feel better soon, Lemonade--we miss you.

Have a great day, everybody!

Northwest Runner said...

Made through the puzzle fairly smoothly, but the theme was a total mystery to me. A reveal, unifier would have helped.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

What CED said. DNF

Thanks for the offering Paul. EASY? In this pzl? I think the only reason the pzl didn't fall on a Sat is that it had a theme. WASTREL?, IMAGO?, ROUSSEAU? SEMI TONE? STOA? Them's learnin' to me. [I kinda recall STOA from another pzl. - there must'a been a reason I Googled it before (my wiki-link was purple -- meaning I visited it once before)]

Nice expo HG. Not only did you save my SANE-ity, you got to re-use that cool "move-to-the-front" pictograph. The music was nice too.

WOs: lap (well, not a WO, it never went away), WASTRER(?), Gin MARTIN[] (oopsy), TOPOF[] (oopsy again!).
ESPs: BEE, RSA. There would be more but I was a cheetah.

Fav: c/a for DODGE. It was my 1st mid-grid "get."
Runner up: META. It was nearly meta-meta.

METER - CSO to our Poet Corner-a-laureates.
{A+} {Nice. I thought you were going to rhyme Trish (mom's name!) w/ IRISH; not at all disappointed you didn't :-)}

D-O: Funny IN RE: Arc [sic]

YR - I didn't know that about joeys. Thanks.

TTP - Code of Silence clip... D'oh? :-)

Would it be wrong of me to go to a Jewish deli to get my Rubin today? Kenny & Ziggy's a A+ [Plus was not what Paul's student requested, damn.] in my book iff you order it closed faced. Otherwise it's smothered in too much cheese. Oh, and you can only eat halve :-). Their in-store-made pickles are TOP-notch too.

Well, off to get the first of 2 NAPS. DW will be home @10p! [C, Eh! - keep that ABROAD thing between us :-)]

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

What a wonderful posting by Husker Gary! One of the best in my memory.

I had forgotten today is St. Paddy's Day. Dennis Day's tuneful contribution was a wonderful way to begin. This is my first St. Patrick's since Ancestry informed me I am 58% Irish! (Well, "Celtic," to be accurate--Welsh Irish & Cornish Irish--but who cares on this Day o' the Wearin' o' the Green?!)
YR - For my last MRI the technician gave me headphones and a choice of music to hear. I imagine it would be easy to get them to hook a personal playback to their system.
'Twas definitely a toughie today - its hardiness attested to by a good many of my colleagues' earlier posts. I admit I too found it a bit "chewy" and had to resort to a couple o' cheats. (Shh!)
Like several writers, I thought a few suffixes were strange, awkward, until I caught onto the theme. "Aha!" sez I, "now these nutty lil' danglers make sense!"
This wasn't until I was nearly finished, but I made good use of my last-minute understanding, drawing on it to help me finish 61A, NORMAL PARA.

LG said...

Awesome write up Husker. Cheers to Wally Pipp and his dl assignment.

Chairman Moe said...

-T ---> Not alone, regarding going to a Jewish Deli to get Corned Beef. I am thinking of doing the same. We've got a place here called Flakowitz Delithat makes a killer Rueben Sandwich or just plain old Corned Beef on Rye. Guy Fieri from Diners Drive Ins and Dives gave their Matzo Ball Soup, Stuffed Cabbage and Potato Knish his seal of approval! Fast forward to the 11:50 minute mark of the video to isolate the Flakowitz section.

I'm neither Jewish nor from New York, but I've adopted this place as my "go to" for most any meal. Only down side is that they don't serve any alcohol. Tonight I might do a "take out" so I can enjoy eating it while watching March Madness . . .

Yellowrocks said...

Lucina @ 11:45, our reading habits must be why TOP UP does not strike us as strange. We are in the minority. I asked one of my favorite waitresses and she said, "Oh, of course, top off."
I think fiction also is responsible for my finding wastrel to be quite ordinary. There is always a wastrel in the story. My older son thinks that we learn little from fiction. I have learned so much from really well researched historical fiction, and more pleasantly than from nonfiction. Fiction has inspired many of my searches for the true facts. It certainly has inspired my love of actual history, which as a teen I thought dry as dust.
Bunny, I am sorry to hear of all your pain and your many procedures, especially at such a young age. I hope you find relief soon.
Lemony, I hope you soon find some light at the end of this dark tunnel. I am sending healing thoughts to both you and Bunny.
We are approaching 50 degrees this afternoon, kinda close to normal, but weekend snow is on the way. I like our normal winters here if they are not extreme, but now I am ready for a normal spring. We "shoulda" experienced this weather in February.
Better days are coming. Think spring.

Jayce said...

Jazzbumpa's first 4 paragraphs perfectly express my feelings and experience with this puzzle.

TTP said...


No Reuben sandwich for me. Full fledged corned beef and cabbage dinner. Potatoes and carrots in the mix as well.

Wichita State Shockers vs Dayton Flyers just underway in the NCAAs. I imagine that PK will be pulling for the Shockers. I think we used to have someone on the blog that was from Dayton.

Most collegiate teams have such appropriate and relevant nicknames. Buckeyes. Shockers. Flyers. Badgers. Cornhuskers. Wolverines. Jayhawks. Longhorns. Sooners.

Then there are the teams with the rather generic or pedestrian names. Spartans. Warriors. Trojans. Scarlett Knights. Eagles. Ducks.

One of my all time favorite nicknames was sure to strike fear into the heart of any opponent. The Youngstown State Penguins.

Anonymous said...

This was a typical crash and burn for me. Thank you, Paul C., for the challenge. Someday Ill be able to do Friday/Saturday/Sunday puzzles. Thank you for the expo. I needed it.

I wanted to share this groaner with you: Who is Irish and sits outside in the rain? Patty O'Furniture.

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Pat

Anonymous said...

FYI.....CC constructed the Saturday Wall Street Journal crossword. Access by going to wsj.com, then click on "Life" tab and click on "WSJ Puzzles".

Wilbur Charles said...

😉

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you Paul for the puzzle; for stopping by and for the wishes as well as from all of you. I keep fighting.

Dudley said...

Puzzlers, I'm interested in your perspective(s).

I've just returned from a Fiddler on the Roof performance at my local high school. The kids were doing a pretty fine job with the show, but I left angrily at intermission because I had the bad fortune to have roughly half a dozen junior high kids seated right behind me, and the little brats just would not shut up. Throughout the first act they whispered and talked and giggled constantly, whether the action was soft or loud. I turned around twice to shush them, but that would only work for about 60 seconds. Evidently they didn't have a supervising parent in their midst. For me, the play was just spoiled; I couldn't screen out the interference. Since there are rules against clobbering the miscreants, I chose to just get out of there and avoid the temptation.

What would you have done?

Wilbur Charles said...

I accompanied my son Phil too ER. Long story, he's okay. Auto accident. I began puzzle in waiting room and finished while the Cat Scan was being done.

Phil confirmed TNN and the UMs for SANCTUMS. SEMITONE was all perps and a complete unknown; music to Wilbur is as baseball to Misty "et alia"

Misty. If you come back and read this then go back to Tue or Wed for my very late Hobbit ref. Ok. Newsweek special on Tolkien at ckout cntr of grocery

I was thinking PIE in the Sky. I agree, a real toughie that had be worked Dixie to Yankee*. Owen. Par excellence. And a solid C(eg. pass) for C-Moe. No, make that PwD for sticking to METER.

Gary, great write-up and thanks for the SUFferance Paul.

What'd the loyalists do when the rebels sank their tea?

TORYHISs

WC waiting for final results on the tests

* As in the Keys to Maine

Wilbur Charles said...

Ps. Meta data is data about data not mega data.

WC. Still waiting

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I wonder how many St. Paddy revelers are to the point they will not remember today
-Thanks for the visit, Paul!
-Argyle, nice, succinct upbraiding for Anon
-I think it WAS an iPhone, YR. They were looking at my auditory nerves
-TTP, I did/do handle disruptive students. I never sent one out of my room. EVER!
-I’ve had seemingly NORMAL PARAS jump all over kids when I was in charge. Yikes!
-I expected a comment on my Mardi Gras/TOP UP comment
-CanadianEh, I spent some time getting that video to work. Sorry it didn’t get north of 54/40 or fight!
-Anonymous T, I am in the symbol recycling business!
-Dudley, I would have found a school administrator post-haste and demand they handle that situation. That’s why they get the big money!
-LG, you, I and several others here would appreciate the Wally Pipp comment

Chairman Moe said...

WC ---> hope all is well with your son. Prayers coming your way.

And I will ALWAYS pay attention to METER. Even if the limerick makes no sense! ;^)
But hey, there aren't too many words that rhyme with OPAH . . .

Lucina said...

Dudley:
I agree with Gary; find an administrator and report the problem. Someone should know of the disruption and that it might cost them future attendees.

Picard said...

Thanks, Husker Gary, for the learning moment about Rene Auberjonois as Father Mulcahy on the film version of MASH. I only knew him from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I got to meet him in person once.

I enjoyed the theme, but it was a struggle at times.

Agree TOP UP is not a term I have ever heard. I was amused at the Mardi Gras reference. My lady recently got beads at a local Mardi Gras party but she did not have to do the TOP UP for it.

Having lived in Boston I tentatively guessed CAPE, but wondered if people elsewhere would get that. Not just for you Gulf Coast people, Big Easy. For us out West, too.

Had ENDLESS before AGELESS. Anyone else?

Scary image of the guy considered for being SANE. But I feel the same way about anyone with tattoos.

Argyle said...

René Auberjonois was Clayton Endicott III on "Benson".