Theme: H-BOMB
(29. Its testing awakened Godzilla ... and what's dropped, facetiously,
into five puzzle answers) - B is added to the start of each common
phrase. (I meant H. Thanks, CanadianEh!.)
17A. Cool site? : HIP ADDRESS. IP address. Every computer has one. You can google "What's my IP address" to find out yours.
38A. Android greeting? : HI ROBOT. I Robot. Crossing the reveal H-BOMB. Very nice.
62A. Congress taking some R and R? : HILL AT EASE. Ill at ease.
11D. When the punch line hits? : HAHA MOMENT. Aha moment.
27D. Lonely banquet reservation? : HALL FOR ONE. All for one.
C.C.
here. Some of you are aware that Lemonade had a scare following his
sciatica surgery. He was hospitalized for six long days to deal with a
few terrifying health issues. He's now at home recovering. Hopefully
he'll be back guiding us next Friday.
Today we have a classic Friday letter addition/deletion/replacement theme with a pinwheel design, which is frequently used when there is a reveal entry. Pinwheel often allows smoother fill, but it also limits long fill (8+ letter answers). In today's case, we only have two: LAST GASP (20. Like a Hail Mary pass) and ALCATRAZ (57. "The Rock" (1996) setting). Both sparkling.
Today we have a classic Friday letter addition/deletion/replacement theme with a pinwheel design, which is frequently used when there is a reveal entry. Pinwheel often allows smoother fill, but it also limits long fill (8+ letter answers). In today's case, we only have two: LAST GASP (20. Like a Hail Mary pass) and ALCATRAZ (57. "The Rock" (1996) setting). Both sparkling.
Across:
1. Smears : DAUBS
6. Warthog weapon : TUSK. What do you call the pair above his tusks?
10. Leave behind : SHED. As in fur. I was thinking of LOSE.
14. __ de l'air: French Air Force : ARMEE. Helpful clue
15. Bart Simpson's bus driver : OTTO. D-Otto's surname is Uttormark. I forgot what it means. Burnikel means "Don't kill the child".
16. Vendor offering : WARE. Was picturing food.
19. Melville's "grand, ungodly, god-like man" : AHAB
21. "Animal House" rivals : FRATS. Got via crosses.
22. "Suicide Squad" actor Jared : LETO
23. TV fantasy drama inspired by iconic brothers : GRIMM. Helpful clue.
25. Post-run feeling : ACHE
28. Younger Simpson sister : ASHLEE. Jessica's sister. Not LISA or MAGGIE.
30. Mining target : ORE. Also 18. Mining target : DATA
33. Clutch : GRASP
35. DealDash offers : BIDS. Never used DealDash. You?
36. Do a DJ's job : MIX
37. Press output : OIL. Not "The Press" press.
41. N.C. winter hours : EST
42. Seminary subj. : REL
43. Former L.A. Laker Lamar __ : ODOM. Troubled life.
44. Capp chap : ABNER
46. "Speak" follower : ARF
47. Liable to spill the beans : BLABBY. Never used this word.
50. Mediterranean hot spot : ETNA
51. Willow twig : OSIER. Learned from doing crosswords. This tree is very Osier-y.
53. CPR pros : EMTS
55. Show tune that begins, "The most beautiful sound I ever heard" : MARIA
61. Conductive nerve part : AXON
64. Wilder acting : GENE. I know "Acting Wilder" will lose the "capital W" trick, but it sounds better grammatically.
65. Digging : INTO. So what was your sciatica surgery procedure called, Dave? You're so lucky that it's totally gone.
66. Up : ASTIR
67. Whole mess : SLEW
68. "The Hunger Games" president : SNOW. Stranger to me.
69. __ pad : STENO. Not LEGAL/MOUSE.
Down:
1. Oompa-Loompa creator : DAHL
2. Song from Strauss : ARIA
3. Frequent callers? : UMPS. Great clue.
4. Apple Records founders : BEATLES
5. Swamp growth : SEDGE
6. Trunks : TORSOS
7. Sch. that calls the Sun Bowl its home : UTEP. University of Texas at El Paso.
8. New Eng. sextet : STs (States)
9. Mayweather stat : KO'S
10. Be like bees : SWARM. Not STING.
12. Part of Q.E.D. : ERAT
13. Society newbies : DEBS
21. Gala gathering : FIESTA
23. Slick-talking : GLIB
24. Second shot : RE-DO
25. Prefix with 34-Down : AGORA. And 34. Irrational aversion : PHOBIA. Agoraphobia = Fear of public spaces
26. Town __ : CRIER
31. Up : RISEN
32. More than expected : EXTRA
39. "Spamalot" lyricist : IDLE (Eric)
40. Loud cry : ROAR. And 48. Loud cry : BELLOW
45. Childish descriptor of a childhood friend : BESTEST. Are you still in contact with your childhood bestest friend?
49. Where "It's fun to stay," in a disco hit : YMCA
52. Tendon : SINEW
54. Exit lines : TA TAs
55. Money and Fortune, briefly : MAGS
56. Winter Olympics leap : AXEL
57. Adele, vocally : ALTO
58. Use a Yelp account, say : RATE
59. Words used for a spell? : AS IN. Spelling.
60. Cold temperature : ZERO. It was so warm last weekend that Boomer and I started our garden. Then we had a few cold days. Snow on our deck yesterday morning.
62. Half a matching set : HIS
63. Place to stay : INN
Some of you probably still remember Wayne R. Williams, who used to edit our old Tribune Media Daily crosswords. He passed away on Tuesday morning.
Our local Star Tribune now carries Timothy Parker's crosswords and the 6-week-behind New York Times crosswords. Does your paper have two puzzles or only one puzzle? Do they give bylines? Let me know in the Comments section.
C.C.
Some of you probably still remember Wayne R. Williams, who used to edit our old Tribune Media Daily crosswords. He passed away on Tuesday morning.
Our local Star Tribune now carries Timothy Parker's crosswords and the 6-week-behind New York Times crosswords. Does your paper have two puzzles or only one puzzle? Do they give bylines? Let me know in the Comments section.
C.C.
48 comments:
Tough, but FIR! Got the gimmick with HI, ROBOT (somewhere around here I have a copy of the book of F&SF competitions, Oi, Robot.)
The Santa Fe New Mexican bounced the LAT crossword a few months back in favor of the NYT puzzle, but enough people complained that they brought it back, but stuffed it in the ad section instead of the puzzle page, where the (5 or 6 week old) NYT still reigns. I think both come with bylines, but since I do both online, I haven't paid much attention. Also on the puzzle page are
-- Jumble (which I usually guess, and only unscramble the words if I can't pun it myself),
-- Cryptoquip (which I stopped doing after I managed to do a couple [very simple ones] completely in my head),
-- Quiz (which I usually do unless the topic is WAY out of my wheelhouse),
-- Chess puzzle (which I sometimes do, and get possibly 49% of the time) and
-- Bridge (which is still more mysterious to me than quantum mechanics) The bridge column usually has a joke embeded, so I scan it and the cryptoquip solution just for the yuks.
-- The paper also has a sudoku (which I've become jaded on and so rarely bother with), buried in the ads with the LAT. -- The NYT puzzle is online at the Seattle Times, but on a different delay schedule (6 or 5 weeks) from the SFNM.
{C, C.}
Glory be, ABNER has found RELIGION!
Now a-Sunday morning he has RISEN!
Then ASTIR to new day,
He trundles to Y.M.C.A.
To train SINEW and TORSO for swim competition!
"This just in," yells the TOWN CRIER
"You are out," BELLOWS the UMPIRE
So they shout,
In and out,
Each as noisy AS IN a whole church choir!
Good Morning. Best wishes for Lemonade. I caught the H addition at H-IPADDRESS. It made the puzzle a little easier. For some reason my newspaper didn't print the clue to 63D and I had no knowledge of Hunger Games characters but the cross of IN_ and S_OW would either be K or N and I doubt that anybody would be named SKOW so I guessed SNOW. The rest was a speed run with my only change being APIAN to SWARM.
Deal Dash- one of those scam web sites that requires that YOU put up money (usually $1.00 or less) to make your bid, and if you win the bid for whatever your price was fine. If you didn't win your bid, they still keep your dollar. They depend on thousands of bidders 'ante-ing up' that dollar. That way they can make thou$sands from a $400.00 product.
Good morning!
This one felt like a Wednesday; I zipped right through it in about 10 minutes. Yes, I tried MAGGIE the pacifist -- well, she's inseparable from her pacifier. Tried TEEN before ZERO, but that was my only overwrite.
C.C., the Barnacle carries the LAT Mon-thru-Sat with the puzzle creator's name in an itty-bitty font under the grid. Rich's name isn't listed. On Sunday we get a week-old NYT. I've complained. So has TxMiss, and I think Anon-T also. All to no avail.
In grade school we started with the six New England states when we were learning the names of all the states and their capitals. I can still come up with all 50 states and capitals without cheating. Can you?
My BESTEST friend from grade school tracked me down about two years ago. Hadn't heard from him in over 40 years. We quickly discovered that we didn't have much to talk about.
C.C., I have no idea what my surname means. A relative in Germany said it means "outside the mark (marque)." A joker in Wisconsin said it's descriptive of a short cow in deep snow.
BLABBY made me wince, but Johnny Carson had an "Aunt Blabby" character on the Tonight show.
The Albany Times-Union has a 13x13 King Features Syndicate Crossword and the LAT (with author but no theme) on Monday-Saturday, and on Sunday the NYT with author and theme and the "Premier Crossword" with only the theme.
This was no walk in the park, but I got it. (H)AHA MOMENT gave me the theme. LETO and ASHLEE were totally new to me. I hesitated between OTTO and OTIS. I have a mental block against the Simpsons.
OWEN KL, for me the Cryptoquotes vary in difficulty, some a breeze and some not.
I use BLABBY, to mean incessantly talkative. But since I use "Don't spill the beans," and "Don't blab," interchangeably, the clue's meaning of blurt out secrets makes sense.
My "bestest" childhood friend and I exchange gifts at Christmastime and send cards and letters.
IM, I hope you feel better soon. Is it an allergy or a cold? They both can be miserable.
Canadian Eh, Misty and PK, thank you for your encouragement for Alan. It is an upper GI endoscopy, so no prep, thankfully. The earliest appointment is May 9. He is too anxious to go to work. I hope he can calm himself somewhat in the next ten days.
Lemonade, I am glad to hear you are recovering from your ordeal. I miss your blog.
Local paper - Myrtle Breach Sun News, carries 2 crosswords, the LA Times and a Daily Commuter. The latter is so easy you can do it in your head. I don't bother. Both puzzle identify the constructor.
Used to do Sudoko, but gave it up. When you are done all you have is a bunch of numbers. No haha moment and you have learned nothing new. Besides you can down load an app which will solve Sudoko.
Good morning everyone.
Tough one today. I had better luck with the bottom and east than w/ the NW. Did not know ARMEE, but then it's a synonym for (Air) Force; so, a learning. Don't know all the Simpson characters, so was handicapped there. Got by perps. Was partly misled because I had ABOMB before H-BOMB. C'est la guerre.
C.C. We get the Utica Observer -Dispatch. It carries the LAT puzzle Mon-Sat. It carries the NYT week-old Sunday puzzle on Sunday. There is only one puzzle. They include bylines.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Alan DeLoriea, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.
My BESTEST friend from my youth is still my BESTEST friend. He lives in Erie and I live in N.E. Illinois. We still communicate a lot via telephone and texting. We see each other a few times a year. We have been sending birthday cards back and forth for over 50 years. We send the same cards and the envelopes. We just sign everything and mail off the package. It is getting pretty big now. The trick is to find the latest signature and comments. It usually takes me a whole day to get through them all.
The Chicago Tribune has a couple Crosswords on Sunday. I only work the LAT one. Or, try to work it.
Get well soon, Lemonade.
I started this last night via Cruciverb while watching Perry Mason. Finished this morning after getting back from guarding the crossing at the school. It was tough, but easy in spots.
Liked the theme. It helped me with a few after I figured it out.
ARMEE at 14A was not known, but made sense once I started filling it in.
Tried LAST HOPE for 20A. After some perps i fixed that to LAST GASP.
No idea who LETO is. Perped him.
Can never remember how to spell AXEL. Tried AXIL first.
CRIER was easy. I could have been one of those. I have a big mouth, so my wife says.
Anyhow, my friend from many years is here to pick some rhubarb. I am going to go out and help her. See you tomorrow.
Abejo ( )
Hi C.C. The Centre Daily Times in State College, PA switched from the LA Times puzzle about a year and a half ago to the Universal puzzle. I sent an email to the editor complaining about the switch, along with quite a few other readers. The response from the editor was that it was a parent company decision (McClatchy Newspapers) and he had no control. However, after a large hew and cry from the readers they switched to the NYT Crossword puzzle that was 6 weeks late. In the Op-Ed section they said that they heard us and were adding the NYT Puzzle. They really didn't listen to us which is an indication of what they really think of their readers. Although I prefer to do the puzzle with a pencil and eraser in the paper, I do it online now. When holes appeared in the paper from too much erasing, it was time to go online and use red letters. The paper does include bylines.
As far as today's puzzle goes, I found it to be a doable Friday level puzzle. Once I got the (H)AHA moment the rest of the puzzle fell into place. Perps were my savior today. Good job Alan and C.C.
Have a great weekend everyone.
Good day to all!
I definitely needed help to finish up today. Favorite theme answer was HI ROBOT. Thanks for filling in today, C.C., and get well soon Lemonade.
We no longer subscribe to a daily newspaper, but when we did, it was the LA Times and the puzzle always had a byline. And yes, I am still in touch with my "bestest" from childhood. Our mothers were also very close until my friend's mother passed away a few years ago at the age of 99.
Enjoy the day!
YR, Cryptoquotes is a different puzzle. The Albany Times-Union has the --QUIP which gives one letter as a hint and the answer is a groaner of a pun. The --QUOTES has no clue and is an actual quote or adage with a named author or anon. The Schenectady Gazette carries CRYPTOQUOTE.
Musings
-Is the warthog the ugliest animal on earth?
-“Says Simple Simon to the Pieman, Let me taste your WARE”
-When it is 10 AM EST in N.C., it is 10 PM in Perth, Australia AWST
-Yup, this was Aunt BLABBY
-I’ve given someone the Heimlich maneuver but not CPR
-Wilder, of course, starred in the DAHL Oompa Loompa movie
-“I enjoyed this crossword puzzle” would look like this on a STENO pad
-Yogi went to his grave saying the UMP blew this one (1:02)
-My daughter’s marriage REDO was wonderfully successful
-Granddaughter on Easter morning telling family the van wouldn’t start – “The battery is dead but Jesus has RISEN”
-My BESTEST childhood friend is a multi-millionaire, married to a woman 20 years younger than he is and living in Baja California. He couldn’t get out of our hometown fast enough.
-2011 Spelling Bee Winner – Cymotrichous, AS IN, She had cymotrichous hair
-The Omaha World Herald carries this puzzle and one by Jacqueline E Mathews every day. Ms. Mathews puzzles are good for those who enjoy very easy puzzles.
Pretty straightforward for a Friday. Osier was all perps. Some cw learnings refuse to stick! Hi Robot was fun. Nice write up by CC as always. Get well fast Lemon! The Chicago Tribune has the LAT puzzle which I print and do in ink. Most days it's clean but there are others where pencil might have been a better choice. I also print the delayed NYT puzzle from the Seattle Times site. The Trib has two other cw's on Sunday also. JB2
Nice to hear from Happy Valley today. I breezed through this one, aided by the theme. I ran for a couple of hours in 100 degree heat on a golf course in Botswana, where the warthogs were the most benign critters around. I was more worried about the crocs in the ponds and a pack of wild hunting dogs that had found their way into the course.
This was a little slow until I figured out the theme. Took awhile to take MAGGIE out, when perps just wouldn't allow it.
Our Jefferson City News Tribune carries the LA Times crossword - they tell who created it and also always have the circles! Kansas City Star has a puzzle from somewhere that is easy all week on the comics page - which is great for my 85 year old mom- but then tucked back in the classifieds is the NYT puzzle. I don't know if it is late or current. and then on Sunday in the Star magazine they have the LA Times Sunday puzzle too. The St Louis Post-Dispatch has the NYT puzzle and then some easy one too.
It's supposed to rain 2-5 inches this weekend - hopefully not too much flooding!
Thanks CC and Alan!
and prayers for Lemonade's healing and recovery
C.C. Excellent write-up Pinch-hitting for Lemon.
(Hmmm, that gives me an idea. LOL)
D-N-F ... didn't have a clue about DAHL, OTTO or ASHLEE ... guess I wasn't on the constructor's wave-length.
At least I got all the themes ... fave was the HA-HA MOMENT.
Another sunny, beautiful 89 degree beach day weather ... I wish it would rain. (We need it).
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset ... or when ever that Sun gets over the yardarm!
Cheers!
"Puzzling Thoughts":
Thanks CC & Alan for your recap/puzzle. As is want to happen (on Fri and Sat, especially) I needed a couple of cheats before filling in all of the blanks. And needed several perps to fill in the 'endiculars! 😜
Once I "got" the tHeme, my mistakes were quickly corrected. Unknowns were SEDGE, and ASHLEE
As others said, my daily rag (Palm Beach Post) has the LAT puzzle, Jumble, Sudoku, 3 Cryptos, and the Daily Bridge Club column. i usually get the first three listed done; my FGF used to do the Cryptos, and I mostly ignore them.
Daily Haiku:
Did C3PO
Just try to pick up R2
Saying, "HI, ROBOT"?
Daily limerick:
Do you recall last summer, at dusk,
We heard about attack? News was brusk.
We avoided a crisis
When some Warthogs struck ISIS.
Who knew you could kill them with a TUSK?
WC TOOLS limerick:
Base Commander would do as he please
With the WAC's. Made them get on their knees
So his "privates" they'd GRASP.
When he came, his LAST GASP
Was to finally utter, "AT EASE"!
When WC visits, letting him know that the word TOOL is now an acronym for:
Totally
Original
Oral
Limerick
Good Morning:
While I grasped the theme fairly early, I could not parse (H)I Robot to save my soul, probably because it was a short answer and it didn't dawn on me that it was part of the theme. This was compounded by spelling Odom incorrectly as Odem which took Roar a long time to show up. Not knowing Osier didn't help, either. Oh well, it was slow going but I finished w/o help and enjoyed the solve, despite my goofs.
Thanks, Alan, for a Friday challenge and thanks, CC, for pinch-hitting again. Get well soon, Lemon, we miss your presence.
Misty, Anon T and YR, thanks for your concern. I'm feeling much better today, except for the continuing cough but that will just have to run its course. As colds go, I've had much worse so I consider myself lucky this time around.
CED, that was nice of you to link the "Full House" clip. I did watch it but that type of humor is not my cup of tea, even with the handsome Mr. Stamos in the cast.
I have three "bestest" friends, although one is the "very bestest" and we have all been friends since the third grade. Two live here in Troy and we see each other regularly. (I had them over for lunch last week.) My "very bestest" lives with her family in Richmond, VA and due to health issues, we've not seen each other since last September. We do phone each other often but I miss her terribly.
Have a great day.
Husker @9:51
oops, I forgot to answer your first question:
"Is the Warthog the ugliest animal on Earth?"
According to a few friends of mine ... they would answer NO!
The ugliest animal on Earth is "The Ex-Wife" ...
(Especially if the Ex-Wife had a good divorce lawyer.)
My Tampa Bay Times carries the LAT crossword daily ...
(Though I only solve Mon thru Friday).
Cheers!
This was a typical Friday offering that required three or four Google searches to finish. I did get the theme which helped. Thanks for the fun Alan and C.C. (I think you meant H not "B is added to the start of each common phrase".) Wishing Lemonade a speedy recover.
Enjoyed the clechos with "mining target", "up" and "loud cry".
ZERO would feel colder in Fahrenheit than Celsius. Montana will understand!
I learned OSIER and UTEP doing CWs but had UCLA first. HAHA moment.
I moved from Fare to WARE and Ink to OIL. Unknowns were ODOM and LETO.
Clever clues for HIS and AS IN.
Hunger Games SNOW as played by Canadian actor Donald Sutherland (father of Kiefer of Jack Bauer fame)
I'mCanadian
Niagara PostMedia newspapers print an easy crossword with no byline on Comics page along with Word Find, Jumble, Sudoku & Horoscope. LAT with byline is on a different page (and on Saturday we get the large Sunday LAT CW labelled Saturday CW! as well as the regular Saturday CW). About 15 years ago, they removed the LAT CW, and there was such a hue and cry that they brought it back (although not on the Comics page)
Have a great day!
Forgot to wish L714 a speedy recovery
This was pretty easy for a Friday puzzle, but I am not complaining.I got the theme on "hallforone". My only mistake was misspelling crier with crier, but I have seen it both ways. I've never seen "osier" clued any other way than "basket material". Big Easy, you must be a NOLA guy, I am at the Metairie/Kenner line, and am fluent in yatspeak. My mother was a French speaker from Chackbay
Younger Simpson is not Maggie?
Animal house (Delta) rivals is not OMEGA Theta Pi?
Rats!
CC, my procedure for Sciatica was a simple epidural steroid injection.
Which is only recommended 3 times a year.
The radical difference was my Doctor believed that 3 injections spaced two weeks apart
would be more beneficial.
(The question is, more beneficial for Whom?)
Unfortunately, everyone reacts differently...
I did not know Lemon was having difficulties,
was it Sciatica/Surgery related?
The Stuart (FL) News is a crossword puzzlers haven. On the comics page they feature the LA Times puzzle that is bylined. On the previous page there are three puzzles one of which is the syndicated NYT (bylined) and two other generic puzzles that aren't very good but can be difficult at times. Plus, the stuart News buries yet another puzzle in the want ads section. So that's five puzzles in each paper. Who knew there were so many published every day?
Wyoming Tribune Eagle only has your crossword. Would be great to have two!
An average Friday puzzle, I thought, another gimmick/theme puzzle but not objectionable.
Here in Charleston, SC, the local Pulitzer Prize winning paper - they never let up on that - the Post and Courier, still publishes Letters to the Editor arguing that the Civil War wasn't about Slavery, and the Democrats are responsible for all of Trump's issues. That was today, they are in there all the time. This paper never corrects any of this, they just keep letting people keep that pot stirred. It's kind of despicable.
They publish the Tribune puzzle ( this one) Mon-Sat, along with a UFS puzzle the same days. They then publish The NY Times puzzle on Sunday, a week late. No other puzzle on Sunday.
Tampa Bay Times has 3 crosswords daily including a week old NY Times on Sunday.
What is above the warthog's tusks? Not a second pair of tusks.The warthog has a pair of thick protective pads (called warts, but they aren't) below its eyes and another pair above the two long tusks. A pair of shorter, very sharp tusks are under the long tusks, just barely visible in CC's picture. When perused by predators the warthog will flee or else slide backwards into a hole and protect itself with its sharp tusks.
What are the warts for?
C.C. et al: Here is Jeanne Robertson's description of Bestest Friends in the South.
I talk to my best friend from Grade school, who lives in Clearwater, FL, about once a year. But if I want to know what he had for lunch or where he ate it, all I have to do is go on Facebook. It appears that he lives on Facebook so I don't have to call him to find out what he's doing.
Same experience as yesterday. I had a great run to start - not easy, but chew-illy delicious - right up until my last two words, DAUBS and BEATLES. (Fightin' words, for they surely fought me!)
For the life of me, I couldn't get the ol' walnut to make the obvious connection between those two words. For a long while I even thought perps had taught me a new word - DAURS. (Indeed, if you look up DAUR you'll find it's a Scots variant of DARE.)
Anyway, this was otherwise a fine Friday pzl, nicely challenging and almost a Ta-DA!
Thank you, Alan DeLoriea, and thanks too to C.C.!
Finished in about 25 minutes; a little slow for me but not terrible. Had a real hard time getting anything going in the NW but the other parts filled up OK and then FINALLY that last corner fell.
Best wishes to Lemonade; that can't have been even a little bit amusing!
We used to get both the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times delivered. The Trib always ran 'our' puzzle (with author and editor credits). Since I had mainly subscribed to keep up with current events (I taught, among other things, social studies), when I retired I dropped both. Now I use a very nice iPad app (cleverly called "Crossword") and download the LA Times puzzle from Cruciverb.com. It always has both the constructor's and the editor's names.
YR, thanks for the warthog info. Very interesting. We saw them on our safari in Kenya.
oc4beach, thanks for the hilarious Bestest Friends link!
The local paper, the "Vacaville Reporter", dropped the LAT cwd a while ago, and substituted some generic thing. It's the kind of paper that predominates these days: all the news comes off of fax machines, along with every other money-saving dodge possible.
The trouble with this "penny wise; pound foolish" MBA approach in newspapers is that people notice, and unsubscribe.
I certainly did.
I use my iPad.
I haven't been able to sign in for a few days. First I had to remember a user name and password for Across Lite, then after clicking I'm not a Robot, I had three sets of pictures I had to identify objects in. Following that I had to sign in to my Google account. I rarely use it, but thought I remembered my password. No deal.
I looked for my password yesterday. I found it written down, but it didn't work. Didn't work this morning either, but I was using the correct password. So, today I tried going to Google.com to sign in. That worked. And if you are reading this post, it carried over to our Corner.
My Great Falls Tribune has our crossword everyday. It lists constructor. (It has circles.)
On the reverse side of page is Thomas Joseph puzzle plus Sudoku and other puzzles.
Have a good weekend,
Montana
I'm able to post again.
Used red letter help for vowels the last few days, but solved with that help.
Montana
Eh, did you see any DART GUNS?
C-Moe, let's just call it Water Closet humour. Quite juicy today. Owen. At least Bs.
I should have put the xword down and come back later. ARF killed me and I should have known DATA mining. No caffeine today
Anon-T, ODoul relocated to SF and managed and played several more years there. It was a third major league. He mentored Joe D.
A-PVX, I thought of you whilst cursing the theme. I thought the pols went to a VILLA and VIS a vis were the pair.
Actually, Alan, very clever work.
CC, I'm a pen and ink TB Times guy and today, the merged Tribune has one too. All with constructors names. Readers complained that Latimes was too difficult so they added one. So, four today.
Lemonade, looking forward to your return.
WC
Hi All!
Only one lookup! [LETO] Not bad (for me) for a Friday. Thanks Alan for a fun puzzle who's theme when right over my head until HBOMB filled -- HALL FOR ONE filled immediately and I fixed HILL A' brAkE [sic] @62a (hey -sounded good at the time). The others all seamed "real" to me... HIP ADDRESS is where the "cool" people / companies are, HA-HA MOMENT could be what Mel Brooks calls it, HI ROBOT, well, what else would they say? [I suppose, if Jewish, Oi / Oy Robot... (LOL OKL)]
Thanks C.C. for the lovely expo. What DO said re: the H-Chron. DO, did they every reply to you? Crickets on my end. Re: the week old Sunday NYT - I don't do it. I learned early on I ruin it for myself by flipping the page to "check" a WAG and spoil my own fun; flipping is just too tempting!
Re: BESTEST friends: One's known me all my life (Pop), 2 Bros & 2 Sises I've known all their's, and one woman I met at 17. Moving about doesn't help keep friends from grade-school (though one guy in St. Paul/Minn. and I talk every few years on LinkedIn -- we're the ones who together in 8th grade learned how to hack).
WOs: See above; had Fargo b/f GRIMM (and worse, looking @22a's squares for 23a's clue, I saw 4 letters and filled in LOST - hey, it worked w/ BEATLES...), and (Hi Abejo!) LAST hope @20a.
ESPs: OSIER, OIL (duh!), ABNER - I kept reading 'Chap chap' - after C.C.'s expo I finally read it right!
Fav: None. It's just too hard w/ Animal House as a clue, HI ROBOT [loved both the book and the not-at-all-the-same movie!] and BELLOW after I just used that last night describing FIL's voice. And, as HG pointed out GENE w/ Wonka creator. And the Up & Loud CRIEs dupes. How can you not love the whole thing? [me getting it helps :-)]
I'm being GLIB - HA-HA MOMENT was really cute as is the c/a for TATAs.
OK, Who else really wanted 'hose' for 6a? AS IN Up your Nose... [I so wanted that game as a kid].
RATE: {B, B-} {Cute, nice, I'm not touching that!}
C.C. - Pop lives further south than you (SPI) and says "Never before Mother's Day" with respect to gardening. Did you sow seed or put in plants? If the latter, are they OK or do you have to start over? BTW, H-Town is great for gardening... I've got pickling cukes & banana peppers galore already; tomatoes are still green but I expect them RIPEN'd by mid-May.
IM - Glad your feeling better. At least you're not still so sick you can't play; very much unlike Lem. Get well soon both of you!
OMK - While I kinda recall an Apple on a Beatles record, this lawsuit put 4d's c/a firmly in my brain.
TATA, er, Cheers, -T
Not perused, persued by a predator, dang autocorrect.
I was not aware, until I saw a PBS American Experience episode, of the following:
Synopsis:
An account of an incident at a Titan II missile complex in Damascus, Ark., in 1980 that almost caused the explosion of a ballistic missile carrying a nuclear warhead 600 times more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. The near-calamity was kicked off when a socket fell from the wrench of an airman performing maintenance in a Titan II silo and punctured the missile, releasing a stream of highly explosive rocket fuel. Included: first-person accounts of USAF personnel on the scene.
Full episode.
(for those of you who do not want to watch the whole 2 hour nightmare above,)
(This is why your ass is still on this Earth...)
Husker @9:51 - Not to its mother.
Ok C-Moe, there was a lot to work with today
It was the early hours of dusk
When she DAUBed the OIL on his TUSK
His TOOL she did GRASP
He let out an audible GASP
And then the scent of musk
From the Water Closet
I read this on /. Re: should we (banks) let COBOL die? I dribbled coffee all over my shirt whilst reading. Considering yesterday's Y2K discussion I thought I'd share; don't scroll to the end... wait for that HAHA MOMENT.
=====
In 1998, a programmer who had been working on Y2K fixes started to get anxious because he couldn't believe how pervasive the problem was. He switched from company to company trying to get away from it, but everywhere he went he became regarded as the Y2K expert and immediately became the team lead for that company's Y2K contingencies. He finally had a nervous breakdown, quit his job, and decided he wanted to be knocked unconscious when the Y2K actually came about.
A month before Y2K he was put into an artificial coma and cooled down to a near cryogenic easily sustained long term life-support.
Unfortunately, the life-support notification system had a Y2K bug, and no one revived him for >9000 years.
Finally, he was revived. He'd RISEN and saw himself surrounded by lots of glass, light, stainless steel, and tall beautiful people in white robes. He asked if he was in Heaven.
They replied, "No, this is Chicago but it's a lot like Heaven to someone like you."
"Someone like me?"
"You are from the 20th century. Many of the problems that existed in your lifetime have been solved for thousands of years. There is no hunger and no disease. There is no scarcity nor strife between races and creeds."
"What year is it now?"
"Yeah, about that - it's the year 9,998. You see, the year 10,000 is coming up, and we understand you know something called COBOL?"
=====
// Hope TTP & other nerds in the MIX enjoyed :-)
Cheers, -T
I like the "WC" (water closet) reference much better than the TOOL one. So noted!
Constructive criticism:
I always find limericks "sound better" when the meter is symmetric. Try working with the 9-9-6-6-9 (syllables) anapest scheme, where the accent is usually on the third, sixth and ninth syllables of lines 1,2, and 5. And then on the 3rd and 6th syllables of lines 3, and 4. I almost always re-write mine a few times.
As example:
In the early AM before dusk,
When she daubed oil right on his tusk;
His stiff tool did she grasp;
He let out a big gasp
As the air filled with sweet scent of musk.
Cheers, bud!
Hey there. Long time lurker. Someone already covered my options to the letter that are more mainstream. Funny part is if I were to get a grid going and published, it'd have to be NYT if I wanted to see it in print. And 5 weeks after it publishes in the main paper. Unless I hit a Sunday slot, of course. Funny part is that the paper in question switched to Universal (Tim Parker's grids), and then people complained because those were "frustrating" and "too hard". Bylines are anywhere from complete to none-at-all, even the publisher, on all the options I have access to. They were good about publishing author by-lines and publisher name since October or so, but before then I would have to go online to find out who set a particular Sunday LAT.
@oc4beach
They really didn't listen to us which is an indication of what they really think of their readers.
@Michael
The trouble with this "penny wise; pound foolish" MBA approach in newspapers is that people notice, and unsubscribe. I certainly did.
Be careful what you wish for. There are grids out there with terrible cluing and fill that violate most all the typical grid "rules". I've found in talking to some of them that most editors don't really know what they're putting into the paper when it comes to their puzzle content, even to the point of having to research a couple myself because the editor/CSR couldn't tell me where the puzzle came from! More or less, I figured out that they basically just say "we need to put a crossword in" and just find the cheapest thing that works out with their other syndication source content.
Point is quality puzzles that have any degree of difficulty are an incredible rarity in most places. To wit, I had to go to mostly all online sources to get any degree of challenge. I've mentioned before that most people probably find the yawnfests at the store and then dismiss it entirely. I definitely would have, if I wasn't as online-savvy as I am, given that the only "difficult" grids I would get otherwise are the Sunday LAT and NYT every two or three weeks.
CC: my Richmond Times Dispatch carries the LA Times puzzle with no byline & the basic Thomas Joseph.
Capt. Tom
Urbanna, VA
Thank you, Tom.
Hand up that I could only think of Lisa or Maggie Simpson. Obviously a deliberate misdirection after Bart Simpson's bus driver. I have no idea about people who are famous only for being famous so ASHLEE Simpson is a total unknown for me.
Clever misdirection with DATA mining, too. That was the last to fall in place for me.
HAHAMOMENT was the first clue for me that solved the theme.
No idea about DAHL, SNOW or LETO Hand up that OSIER is pure crossword-ese for me.
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