google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday April 12, 2017 Neville Fogarty

Advertisements

Apr 12, 2017

Wednesday April 12, 2017 Neville Fogarty

Theme:  BLOOD TYPE (62A. Classification suggested by the beginning of 17-, 25-, 37- and 53-Across)

17A. Dean's list honorees : A STUDENTS. C.C. told me Neville Fogarty is a young math professor.


25A. Thiamine and riboflavin : B VITAMINS.

37A. Two-variable marketing experiment : A/B TESTING. Never heard of this experiment.

53A. First novel in Willa Cather's Great Plains trilogy : O PIONEERS!.

Hello everyone, Boomer here. 

A typical puzzle for me. I struggled with a few answers. I did  get 1-Across immediately. Speaking of 1-Across, I heard on the radio yesterday that each World Champion ring awarded to Cubs players and staff will contain 108 diamonds to commemorate 108 years of futility !  I realize that diamonds come in all sizes and you may need a microscope to see all of them but it still seems excessive.  I wonder how many packages of Wrigley gum could be purchased for what one ring cost. 

Across:
  
1. They broke their 108-year World Series drought in 2016 : CUBS

5. Medical picture : X-RAY -I think former Twin Oswaldo Arcia is now an Ex-Ray.


9. Gives out : EMITS - I think Oswaldo had an "E - Mitt" (E-9)

14. Lustrous gem : OPAL - October birthstone

15. "Bloom County" reporter : MILO - Bloom County does not appear in the Minneapolis paper.        Google helps.

16. Very small : MICRO - Could be the size of the Cubs ring diamonds.

19. Pasture sound : BLEAT - If you keep your goats and lambs in the pasture, not in the kitchen.

20. Add to the pot : STIR IN - my first thought was RAISE.

21. Electronic sci-fi antagonist : HAL - If the clue was Barney Miller, I would have got it right away.

23. "¡Dios __!" : MIO

24. Cannes cup : TASSE

28. FBI operative : AGT Of course this is abbrev. for AGENT.  What is Special about them, I don't know.

29. Number before vier : DREI - I was never good at foreign stuff.

31. Spring bloomer : AZALEA - Mindful of the hours we spent watching Augusta National last weekend.

32. Flip (through) : LEAF - Okay, leaf can be a verb.  I rake the nouns plenty though.

34. Son of Zeus and Hera : ARES

36. In tune : ON KEY - Hopefully "America the Beautiful" is sung that way in the 7th inning on Sundays.

40. Diving bird : GREBE - Not familiar with this bird.


43. Way out yonder : AFAR - Does anyone ever use the word "Yonder" anymore ?

44. Inscribe : ETCH - If you have an Etch, Scretch it.

48. After morays, say : EELING - This word threw me.  I am Minnesotan and some folks fish for eelpout.  That might be called eeling, I don't know.

50. Mined matter : ORES - Sorry but I always thought that the plural of ORE is ORE.

52. Mexican gold : ORO

55. Apartment sign : TO LET - This has changed to "Now Leasing" here in the North.

57. Go bad : ROT

58. Under the weather : ILL

59. Javier __, first Spanish actor to win an Oscar : BARDEM. Husband of Penelope Cruz.


60. "Good __!" : GRIEF - Famous words of Charlie Brown.

65. Not always helpful reply to "Who's there?" : IT'S ME

66. Like bad fried food : OILY - Some people like greasy French fries, which makes it good fried food.

67. Shed tools : HOES

68. Early fur trader : ASTOR- The original John (Johan) Jacob Astor abandoned fur trading around 1830 and made a fortune investing in real estate in New York City.  Hmmmm Remind you of anyone?

69. Ties the knot : WEDS

70. Joint possession word : OURS
  
Down:

1. Like beachfront property : COASTAL - Of course, here in the land of 10,000 lakes we have miles and miles of beachfront property, but nothing coastal.  And the only Tide we have is in the grocery store in a red plastic jug. 

2. Steal the spotlight from : UPSTAGE

3. Cuban dictator overthrown by Castro : BATISTA - Wow, there's a name out of the past.  I was nine or ten years old.  No one had ever heard of Fidel.  I wonder when we will be able to by those great cigars again.

4. Nasty remarks : SLURS

5. Marvel Comics mutants : X-MEN - I remember when Comics were 10 cents.

6. __ Tin Tin : RIN - Everyone remembers a TV dog, but tell the truth - how many of you remember Fulgencio Batista ??

7. PC key : ALT - Of course my first thought was ESC.

8. Super Mario World dinosaur : YOSHI - The lovable character from the original Nintendo.  Everybody had one.  Heck I had one and I was 40 years old!

9. Decorate elaborately : EMBLAZON - I always thought "emblazon" meant fire.

10. End of a general's URL : MIL

11. Low-fat frozen dessert : ICE MILK - Let's all go to the Dairy Queen.

12. Many a new hire : TRAINEE - Do you suppose a railroad engineer was ever a trainee ?

13. "If you will" : SO TO SAY - Must be a California clue, I have never said "So to Say".

18. Fizzled out : DIED

22. __ crossroads : AT A

25. First interracial coed college in the South : BEREA - An interesting school South of Lexington, KY.  I think C.C. and I may have passed through Berea on I-75 one time on a trip to Myrtle Beach.  All Berea students are on scholarship.

26. Tries to win : VIES FOR

27. Canine ailment : MANGE - This is bad stuff.  I once had a Cocker Spaniel inflicted with it. 

30. Chinese zodiac animal : RAT -  I am sure C.C. can tell you when the year of the Rat will be. (or was)

33. One-named Italian male model : FABIO - This guy made millions by wearing other peoples clothes.  Nice job !!

35. "The Fault in Our __": 2014 film : STARS

38. Nickname for a 2000s tabloid item : BENNIFER. Ben and Jennifer.

39. Anger : IRE

40. Black Sea republic : GEORGIA

41. Police paperwork : REPORTS

42. High-and-mighty sort : ELITIST - One more "T" and you have an anagram of a golf ball.

45. "Just like I said" : TOLD YOU

46. Climbing plant : CREEPER - Since 1-Across was Cubs, check out the outfield walls at Wrigley for creepers.

47. Disordered yet appealing person : HOT MESS - Sorry I did not get this one, hope you did.

49. Salon application : GEL - Maybe hair Gel for Bryce Harper ??


51. Dutch town : STAD

54. Nudge : ELBOW - I have seen elbow fouls called in the NBA.  Trust me, they were not nudges.

56. Weed B Gon maker : ORTHO - Nice title.  I have tried many types, but the dandelions seem to always win.  No problem though - C.C. thinks they are pretty flowers.

59. School restroom sign : BOYS - Not sure what the signs are in South Carolina, but they claim they are fixing it.  Money talks - the NCAA said "Fix it or we are gone". (Correction: North Carolina.)

 61. Confessional rock genre : EMO - I was not aware however this is also an anagram of a Stooge.

63. Fabrication : LIE

64. Not up-to-date : OLD

Boomer



51 comments:

BobB said...

59D, you are mixing up SC with NC.

Unknown said...

Hot mess??? Otherwise simple

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Got through this one pretty quickly. Enjoyed the challenge, Neville, and the tour, Boomer. I even got the theme before the reveal. And, yes, Boomer, I remember Batista. The only foreign trip my parents made was to Cuba back in the pre-Castro days.

Does "idios mio!" mean "I'm an idiot?"

Javier BARDEM was really scary in No Country For Old Men. Also in Skyfall.

Last July we rescued a mangy Labrador puppy that had been "dumped" on a rural road. After several weeks (and several vet visits) he was declared to be mange-free, and we managed to find a family to adopt him.

I guess "if you will" could be "so to say," not to put too fine a point on it.

BEREA -- it's appeared several times in recent weeks (not sure if it was LAT or NYT, though). I believe it's a CSO to Windhover. Remember him?

Comin' down to the wire. Gotta run...

TTP said...

Good morning all.

Always enjoy your puzzles Neville.

Got BEREA immediately based on the clue alone. Knew that fact about it, and that it's tuition free.

That M ending BARDEM and in HOT-ESS got me. Never heard of that expression, but I can see it.

Boomer, your write-ups always lighten my day.

French cup - TASSE. German too. Eine tasse kaffee, bitte. Und DREI streusel, bitte.

Back to my RV plumbing project. Making progress.

Big Easy said...

Good Morning. For this A-negative blood type person, getting the BLOOD TYPEs was easy but the cross of unknowns three times knocked me out of the running today. I worked the puzzle on page five in this morning's TIMES-PICAYUNE, not the Bloom County PICAYUNE, which doesn't appear in the N.O. Picayune either. MILO crossing YOSHI crossing HAL- did me in; both unknowns. I should have know HAL (my computers' names-HAL & HAL2)- the other two I'd never heard of.

I shot myself in the foot by filling RAM for RAT sitting next to the unknown BEREA college.

And then there was the cross of BARDEM and HOT MESS. Totally clueless on both.
BATISTA- my wife was flipping channels last night and on one of the gazillion channels THE GODFATHER was showing. BATISTA is in that movie.
ORES- can be used to describe multiple ores. Magnetite, bauxite, galena, feldspar,...etc
BOYS- I would tell the NCAA to 'shove it'; I certainly wouldn't want boys going into my granddaughters' restrooms. And when some of 'them' start missing a few teeth from jealous boyfriends they might think twice about it.

Anonymous said...

I believe the bathroom controversy is in North Carolina, not South

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Neville and Boomer!

No problems except for BEREA.

Am going to get killed on taxes.

Have crane flies everywhere. Driving me nuts. (Have to leave a sliding glass door partly open for dog Millie part of the day.)

Swimming friend wants to swim tomorrow. Is this wise with my yucky bronchitis?

Have a great day!

Wilbur Charles said...

Boy I messed up. RAM got popped in and I knew MESTING was MESsed up. Like the MESS attached to hot. And I spelled YOSSI wrong. Aarrgghh.

I lived the Coopers in the Mario Brothers Movie who could only be pacified by playing Lara's theme. My son cut his eye teeth on Mario.

He now plays a version of Defence of the Anagrams. Oops ANCIENTS. 😂

Yellowrocks said...

Interesting puzzle.
BARDEM was all perps. I sorta remembered MILO. I didn't know YOSHI or HAL. but H seemed the only possibility. I had the other letters as perps. BEREA was perps and wags.
So to say is more often so to speak, though I have heard both, as well as if you will and in a manner of speaking. The last phrase seems the most up to date.
Big Easy, I agree that ORES refers to various types of ore.
I have heard of HOT MESS. Looking it up, I find that it has been used in this sense for only about ten years.
When we go to our annual Chinese restaurant outing, we have Chinese zodiac place mats, so I remembered RAT.
I have been an avid follower of the news since I was a preteen, so I remember BATISTA.
This is a gray, but warm morning. Signs of spring seem to burgeon by the hour in this warm weather.

BunnyM said...

Good morning all!

Thanks Neville for a (tad) crunchy, yet doable puzzle. Got the theme early which helped with the unknown ABTESTING and OPIONEERS which I knew but it didn't readily come to me. My BLOODTYPE is the most common- O positive, so they like me at the blood bank.

Thanks Boomer - I always enjoy your witty, detailed write ups!

GREBE was new to me and SNAD was also gotten via perps.
Only other issues: I had Goes > VIESFOR and spelled AZALEA with an I instead of an E. Duh! I know this but it took TRAINEE to fix it. My fuschia colored azalea is budding. It is an eye popping beauty when it blooms :)

BEREA is a nice town; lots of crafts to be found. One of my favorite patrons at the library was a sweet, polite and intelligent young man who was accepted into Berea Colllege. He was so grateful for the free tuition as he had worried about the burden on his single mother. His scholarship was well deserved. I lost track of him after I retired but have often wondered how he's doing. I'm sure just fine :)

HOTMESS makes me think of Lindsay Lohan and Tara Reid ( disordered - yes; appealing- no. At least not IMO) Amy Schumer seems to be the newest hotmess in Hollywood. Here's a checklist for being a HOTMESS

@Misty per yesterday- thanks for your comment about my dog. His name is Albus ( for Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter). We got him from someone who'd gotten him from a shelter and had named him Barack Obama. It didn't fit him and since my daughters and I are huge HP fans, we kicked around several of the characters names. Albus fits him as he looks like a wise old man, has an endearing personality and is accepting of all he meets whether they're human or not. We have no idea of his age ( guesstimate is 8-12 yrs) or breed. He definitely has Shih-tzu in him but possibly also Pug. He's such a sweet thing and healed my broken heart after losing our previous dog of sixteen years.

The sunshine is back! It looks to be a beautiful day here.
Hope everyone has a wonderful day and sunny skies, too :)

SwampCat said...

What a difference a day makes! I struggled with this one but finally won using ESP. And once I got the reveal it was worth it. Thanks Neville, for the workout! Boomer, I wondered at some of the same things. HOT MESS?? Oh, well. It was fun.

thehondohurricane said...

I learned many moons ago to never attempt to solve anything when you are fighting the flu. I should have put the knowledge to practice today. A solid DNF. All the issues were located in the puzzles midsection. BEREA and GREBE were both 100% unknowns. DREI, ARES & ABTESTING, were others that did not resonate & several down clues were not any help either.

I was sure HOT MESS was incorrect and BARDEM ???... sure didn't sound Spanish.


I was watching the Giant game last night and fell asleep. Woke up around 4:AM. Dog was missing so I began a search. Found him on the deck asleep in his lounge chair. A couple of snacks for him and some flu med for me and we were both soon back into the land of nod, which is where I'm heading to now.

Tinbeni said...

Boomer: Wonderful, informative write-up. Good Job!!!

Well this was a perp-fest to get GREBE, O-PIONEERS, BARDEN, BEREA & YOSHI.
All were unknown learning moments ... that I will probably forget by noon.

And if I ever drank MILK ... I would prefer it NEAT ...
"_ _ _ Milk is NOT ALLOWED at Villa Incognito.

Cheers!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

BunnyM, you made my day. Congrats on Albus. I've missed a few days of crosswording and the rust showed. I had three Naticks, looking up MILO, BARDEM and STARS. The theme gave me O PIONEERS.

My first girl friend went to Berea and earned a nursing degree. No rich kids there. When she was there, every student was required to have a job.

More project management instruction stuff to do over the next couple of weeks, so it might be May before I get back here to express my petty gripes.

Hungry Mother said...

The cross of MILO and YOSHI was a Natick for me (even though I have friends that live there), but I WAGed it right. I liked the theme and sorta got it right away. This puzzle was close to being a trivia contest; I prefer linguistics.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Straightforward easy solve for a Wednesday. Theme was simple enough, too. Got Berea with a couple perps help, while thinking Kentucky is not really in the South. Agree, D-O, I think it is Windhover's alma mater.
EELING - The context made this an obvious answer. My mindset leans toward applying the term to catching the catadromous eels of the Western or Eastern N. Atlantic littoral. I'm probably biased.
DREI mal hoch!

Lucina FLN, your flan sounds scrumptious.

billocohoes said...

HOT MESS has been common the last few years, but the HOT has seemed to mean "extreme" and not in any way attractive.

No, ASTOR doesn't remind me of anyone. If you mean the president, it was his father who became one of the biggest real estate developers in NYC.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I’ll take tough Wednesday LA Times Puzzles for $1,000 Alex.
-YOS_I/_AL wouldn’t compute and then I saw HAL in Boomer’s always fun write-up – GOOD GRIEF!
-The most famous AB Testing ever?
-My LEAVES get mulched by my Snapper, Boomer!
-“Trailer for sale or rent, rooms TO LET, fifty cents” – Ah, the bard of the railyards
-How does the wood foundation of Venice not rot - “The wood is not exposed to oxygen as it is submerged in the water and mud and as a result it does not rot. In fact the wood becomes petrified due to a constant flow of mineral rich water around and through it. As a result the wood becomes a hardened stone-like structure.” You’re welcome.
-UPSTAGE - William Claude Dukenfield famously said, “Never share the stage with animals or children.
-In Godfather II, Michael Corleone is at a New Year’s Eve party thrown by BATISTA. It is broken up by a guy named Castro.
-The cleaning up of racial and ethnic SLURS is not just PC, it is the right thing
-When you’re at a crossroads...
-Charo made good money being a HOT MESS

CrossEyedDave said...

A little crunchy, but a worthwhile slog.
I filled in all the boxes, but the SW and NE slowed me down to a crawl...

I had to ask my Daughter what the heck a Bennifer was,
she knew right away. Berea & hot mess, not so much.

I agree, Ore/Ores smells of old fishes to me...

Also, 13d "if you will" = so to say (ok, if you say so...)

Thank you BunnyM, I was going to say that hot mess could have been clued better,
but I forgot that I am always at least ten years behind the times.

Speaking of behind the times, Hondo? I thought Flu season was over?
get well soon friend! (& don't spread it around...)
Hmm, can dogs catch the Flu? If not, why? (can the reason be used by humans?)

And finally,

I tried to find a funny link for the theme, but it was just a bloody mess...

Wilbur Charles said...

Hondo, hope that flu doesn't take hold. Your April is Florida's January.

And Bunny, nice seque from "healed a brokenheart" to "The sun is shining"

So until Owen or C-Moe shows up you're Wednesdays bard.

Btw. I can't find SNAD

The way I see HOTMESS is to stress the HOT ie HOT can overcome a lot of other things.

Currently, Luann's(comics) friend has a crush on a hot guy (Piro) who's a MESS but so hot that she's covering a burglary that she thinks he committed

WC. Obviously bored

oc4beach said...


Almost a blood-bath today, but I did get it done with perps and I really needed red letter help, especially for BARDE_ and HOT_ESS. So I cheated a little, so what.

It was a good puzzle to get the old brain working. Thanks Neville and the tour through the puzzle was informative and entertaining.

I do remember Battista. I was a teenager in high school when he was overthrown. The revolution was a topic in our Civics class. Our teacher thought Castro was a hero. Little did he know. One dictator replaced another dictator.

Tin: What do you dunk your chocolate chip cookies in? Scotch? Gotta have milk.

Off to participate in a SCORE client's soft opening of her new business, Hide & Seek Prenatal Peek, which provides prenatal sonogram views of the baby for expecting parents.

Have a great day everyone.

Lucina said...

It's nice to see you again, Neville Fogarty and thank you for the puzzling moments in this grid! I believe you gave us the first one when you were still in high school or maybe in college. Congratulations on your career move!

I liked the theme and while some of this was unknown, YOSHI, ICEMILK, MILO, I did manage to guess them all. DREI was perped as I just can't commit those German numbers to memory.

The word EMBLAZON added a nice touch, and BARDEM might be from northern Spain where the Basques live or it could be of French origin. Dios MIO is OMG. Yes, CSO to Windhover at BEREA.

I believe Boomer was referring to a different New Yorker, not Astor's father, one more contemporary.

Thank you, Boomer, for your always witty and enjoyable commentary.

Have a beautiful day, everyone! The flan recipe follows.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I agree this had some crunch but getting the theme helped with the solve and the crosses were, for the most part, fair. I needed crosses for Yoshi, Hal, and Milo. I have heard of Hot Mess only in the last several months but I can't remember who (definitely a celebrity) used it or in what context. Thanks, Bunny M, for the explanatory link. (Love Albus' name, even though I have no knowledge of HP except what I've picked up from doing crosswords.)

Thanks, Neville, for a fun, mid-week treat and thanks, Boomer, for pinch-hitting; I enjoy your wit and tongue-in-cheek repartee. Visit us more often, if you can.

I was channel-surfing in the wee hours this morning and came across "The Judge" with Robert Duvall and Robert Downey, Jr. and even though I had seen it before, I watched it again and truly enjoyed the towering talent of these two fine actors. However, these 3:00 AM bedtimes are wreaking havoc with my sleep needs!

Feel better, Hondo and Ferm.

Have a great day.

Lucina said...

MJ (I believe that's who asked for this recipe)here is the flan recipe I use. There are many variations available that call for many more eggs and other changes. The only change I made on this one is using 1 cup sweet milk (Eagle or Lechera brand) and 1 cup regular milk mixed together for a richer flavor.

1/3 cup sugar 1 1/2 inches stick cinnamon
4 eggs 3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar 3 whole strawberries, sliced (optional)
2 cups milk Mint leaves (optional)

To carmelize sugar, in a small heavy skillet heat the 1/3 cup sugar over medium heat until the sugar begins to melt (do not stir until sugar begins melting). Cook and stir for 4 to 5 minutes or until the sugar turns a rich brown. Remove skillet from heat and immediately pour caramelized sugar into an 8 X 1 1/2 inch round baking pan. (I save aluminum pie pans for this purpose.) But any pie pan will do.

In a large mixing bowl beat eggs with a rotary beater, gradually adding the 1/2 cup sugar. Meantime, in a saucepan, heat milk and stick cinnamon over medium heat until mixture bubbles. Remove cinnamon. Slowly add milk to egg mixture, stirring constantly. Stir in vanilla.

Place 13 X 9 X 2 inch baking pan on an oven rack. Pour egg mixture into round pan. Place round pan into the larger one. Pour the hottest water available into the 13X9X2 pan (to surround the flan pan) to a depth of about 1/2 inch. I boil the water in a tea kettle.

Bake, uncovered, in a 325 deg. oven, about 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted halfway between the center and edge comes out clean. Carefully remove pan from hot water. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill in the refrigerator at least 2 hours.

To unmold flan, loosen the edges with a spatula and slip end of spatula down sides of pan to let in air. Invert flan onto a serving platter. Spoon caramel mixture that remains in pan on top. Garnish with strawberries and mint leaves, if desired. Makes 6 servings.

Enjoy! If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.

Unknown said...

Please change heading to Wed. April 12;

Yellowrocks said...

Gary, looking at Prof. Fogarty's picture reinforces what we were saying about how young everyone looks these days.

Feel better, Hondo and Ferm. Flu and bronchitis are both such agonizing ailments.

Tin, do you shun ice cream, too? I shun ice milk, "a frozen dessert with less than 10 percent milkfat and the same sweetener content as ice cream." (Wiki) It is a a weak sister to ice cream. There is an argument about whether it should be iced milk or ice milk. I think ice milk is winning.

Reminds me of iced tea vs iced tea.
The Grammarist who is fairly traditional on most issues, writes, "The original phrase is iced tea, and this spelling is still more common in print. Yet for many English speakers, ice tea more closely resembles the pronunciation, and this spelling has gained significant ground in 21st-century writing. There might still be some English speakers who consider it incorrect, but it is common in informal writing and is even making inroads in edited publications." Our language is always changing. I love it!

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

48A: If you're out after fish and it's called FISHING, then, I suppose, if you're out after eels, then it's called EELING. That's what we called it in NJ. I you went out on the river to catch eels, it was eeling; crabbing for 🦀; etc.

inanehiker said...

Pretty smooth puzzle with a little crunch here and there. EELING seems like a way to extend the ubiquitous EEL - I had always heard it was "sniggling", but it wouldn't fit the space.
I thought of the Masters too with AZALEAs.

BEREA and College of the Ozarks are 2 of the colleges where no one pays tuition but they work for it on campus anywhere from washing pots in the cafeteria to lawn maintenance to office work. One of my daughter's friends had the best job at C of O - she played piano in the lobby of the restaurant/conference center on campus. As a nursing major, she would never have found the time to keep up with her piano playing otherwise. And you can work all summer if you also want to earn your room & board.

Thanks Boomer and Neville!

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

Late to the party - SO TO SAY - but here nevertheless. I liked Boomer's recap a tad bit more than Neville's puzzle. As one other poster said, it seemed there was more minutiae required than lexicology.

HG @ 9:51 ---> thanks for the info on Venice structures - any kidding aside, I actually wondered about that recently when I saw a brief documentary on that city

I, too wondered if Tin likes ICE cream! Shame if he doesn't - and BTW, Tin, TY for straightening me out on the UF v FSU FANDOM. As a 7 yr resident I and big football fan, I thought I knew. But I do now!! 😜

Today was a DNF/FIR - had OPUS > MILO; RAM > RAT (and left it in, even though I had no clue what AB MESTING is); BARDEM / HOT MESS was a Natick, even after doing an alphabet run, as I had HOT _ESS already penned in. I couldn't connect the clue to the solve I guess. The only other typo was trying EGOTIST > ELITIST, but I had the rest of the SW corner filled in (knew GREBE without googling) before seeing my error

Well, no time for creativity today as my "break" is over and it's back to work. So I am pulling a limerick out of the queue (did this last weekend) since a word in the first stanza is "close" to BATISTA. Now if Wilbur C returns he can have his "fix"! Reading these poems must be a little habit forming 😜

How is this limerick?

The barista was such a workhorse,
That he now suffers from great remorse.
He created much strife
By neglecting his wife;
Now she feels she has grounds for divorce.

BTW, CED, enjoyed your pun today!

OwenKL said...

Boy, am I late today! I wouldn't even bother except Erato knocked out a poem. Anyway, DNF at the natick BARDEm + HOTmESS. I wanted HAPLESS, but the perps just wouldn't cooperate. Maybe "open eating facility at Iraq base"? I did pick up the theme easily. I know about A/B testing, but don't really understand it. Don't recall BEREA as a school, but Berean Baptist churches abound.
Monday Spitz w/PATIOS, Tuesday IM w/ AZALEA?

{A-.}

The machine they'll unveil, with requisite hype!
A MICRO typewriter that can actually write!
EMBLAZONED there'll be
Three letters ON KEYS:
A, B and O, since that's all BLOOD can TYPE!

Michael said...

Boomer wondered, "Does anyone ever use the word "Yonder" anymore ?"

Yes, his wife does: Yonder Alonso, now playing for the Oakland A's.

(If there had been twins, would his brother have been "Hither" Alosno??)

CanadianEh! said...

Good Wednesday puzzle today. Thanks for the fun, Neville, and the puns, Boomer.

I moved from It is I to IT'S ME, from Lode to ORES, and from my misspelled embelish to EMBLAZON (great word!)
What held me up was my refusal to believe that Ram was not the zodiac sign required. But AB Mesting was just not making any sense. Lightbulb moment- ah RAT!

Unknowns filled in by perps included YOSHI, MILO, BEREA, BARDEM, STAD.
My high-school French gave me TASSE, and perps and previous CW experience gave me MIO and DREI.

I did not remember BATISTA (but it reminds me of Jose Bautista, the Blue Jay slugger who is Domenican.
Although I have not travelled to Cuba, many Canadians like the resorts and have travelled there for years (and brought home those cigars!) as we have no restrictions. Some are afraid that an influx of American travellers might cause the prices to increase.

Have a great day. No AZALEAs here yet but daffodils are starting to flower.

OwenKL said...

Wander Over Yonder was a cartoon show I liked. Wander was the name of the planet-hopping hero.

Cannes cup, I was trying to remember the awards at the Cannes Film Festival.

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Neville Fogarty, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

Got started easily with CUBS. Soon went down hill.

Liked the theme. I am a continual blood donor. Just gave my 63rd pint to Life Source. I also give to a couple other blood banks when I can, one in Pennsylvania.

Some really tough ones today: MILO, TASSE, GREBE, BARDEM, YOSHI, BEREA, FABIO, BENNIFER, HOT MESS. Who the heck is MILO?

Did remember BATISTA. I was a youth when all that happened. I thought it was not good, and it turned out to be not good.

Our new dog (to be named) is quite a bundle of energy. A deaf pit bull. She is friendly.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Misty said...

Well, this felt more like a Thursday or a Friday puzzle to me, than a Wednesday--but after working really hard and struggling through it, I got the whole thing without a single cheat. Yea! Many thanks, Neville. I got BLOOD TYPES before any of the first letters, but thank goodness, I know the types and figured they might be listed in sort of an alphabetical order--which helped a lot. So, great fun, in spite of the struggle. And, Boomer, your write-ups are becoming more delightful with each turn. This morning's pictures were especially nice.

BunnyM, how nice to hear the story of Albus. And Desper-otto, how sweet that you found a good home for that abandoned dog. Can't wait to hear the name of your new pup, Abejo.

What was the name of the movie in which HAL appeared? I can still hear his creepy voice, but can't remember the name of the film.

Have a great day, everybody!

oc4beach said...


Misty: The movie was "2001."

oc4beach said...


Actually it was "2001: A Space Odyssey"

The famous clip FROM HAL.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Nice job, Boomer! Wow! SO you were smoking Havanas back when you were nine or ten?! Precocious lad! Soon you should be able to re-capture your youth.

Remember? It was New Year's Eve when BATISTA hadda git outta Dodge. This was back when we all thought Fidel was a hero. A handful of brave rebels taking on a corrupt regime and the Mafia, all to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. Cool moves & cool timing, Fidelito...

I wasn't sure how to spell Señor BARDEM's surname, so I went with BARDEN, which gave me a less troubling answer for 47D: i.e., HOTNESS in place of HOT MESS. I mean, C'mon, Mr. Fogarty!
(It's okay, really. I appreciate your inventiveness. Top marks for Innovation Born of Necessity... Bravo!)

Misty said...

Oc4beach, many thanks for giving me the name of the film, and the clip. It was fun to hear Hal's spooky voice all over again!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Very challenging, Professor! The picture of Neville looks so much like a former co-worker's son, I wondered what Josh's picture was doing on the puzzle.

Boomer, TRAINEE pun made me chuckle out loud. The only difference between Astor & the person to whom you are referring is that the latter "skinned" people with his deals while Astor skinned fur-bearing animals.

Hand up for not knowing YOSHI or MILO. However, pulled GREBE out of the dark YONDER spaces of my mind. Never saw one. O PIONEERS creeped out at once although I wasn't sure who wrote that.

EMBLAZON finally appeared after my other tries EMBLAZONed my puzzle with red. I think of EMBLAZON in a military sense such as flags or decorations/medals, i.e. "The general's chest was emblazoned with ribbons and medals."

Sweet Fermatprime: Please don't swim. Breathing well is crucial in that activity.

BATISTA, as I recall, was bad but Cubans sure had more fun then.

Wilbur Charles said...

Bravo C-Moe and Owen For my 'Lick fix.

Bunny's off the hook but may be a natural. Misty, I love to toss out my NAE wind, NAE golf quote. For me it's NAE Gambling, it's NAE Golf.

My kidney specialist told me I shouldn't give blood.

I posted to the wrong blog that I'd stumbled on a 10/29/16(Sat) xword and knocked it off. Then I FIW today. I think I'm tired.

I think this was a perfect Wed xword and as noted Boomer does a great write-up - nice catch on that ELITIST Titleist ANAGRAM. And so apt,. And so golfy (tm)

WC

Tinbeni said...

oc4beach @10:33
I have MILK for my coffee & Oreo's ... just never put "_ _ _" in it.

As for "dunking Oreo's" in Scotch ... Don't knock it until you've tried it. LOL


Chairman Moe @12:07
You might guess from my comment regarding "The Big 3" in Florida Football ...
I'm a "Univ. of Miami" fan.
Can't stand all the coverage of the Gators & Seminoles.

And the SUN is over the Yardarm ...
Cheers!

Argent said...

I have a question for everyone. The point of A/B testing is to show the same thing to two different groups of people, but with one element changed -- i.e., show one group of people a blue car (A) while the other group sees a red car (B), then see which color gets a larger percentage of favorable reactions from its group. In today's puzzle, the clue was "Two variable marketing experiment." But from my perspective, there's only one variable. What do others think?

Either way, thanks to Neville Fogarty and to Boomer. I couldn't spell AZALEA. And I share OwenKL's liking for Wander Over Yonder :)

CrossEyedDave said...

Hmm, depicting Hal as antagonistic sent me on a trivia search.
I believe the clue is unfair...

1st, there is nothing antagonistic about Hal...
(He is one mellow dude..)

2nd, It was Trumps fault!

(Ok,Ok, sorry to bring politics into it.
United Airlines may have been involved too...)

& 3rd, the story continues?
Hal Trivia?
I posted this because of the last line in the above link,
apparently there is a 3001 in production, (with bizarre harmonies...)

thehondohurricane said...


Chairman Moe.....I was at the U and saw FSU win it's first game against them. Unfortunately it would occur again, and again.....

Back then Miami & Fla did not play each other. Still don't on regular basis.

BunnyM said...

Hello again :)
I usually don't get a chance to check back in on the blog and read any comments posted after my morning post, so read them all the following morning. However I'm waiting for Survivor to start, so had a little time (BTW- does anyone else still watch this? I've never missed a season except for the first. My oldest daughter got me hoooked on it and I watch it faithfully. I also have a crush on the host Jeff Probst. My DH (named Jeff!) thinks it's cute and indulges me)

Thank you all for the kind responses regarding Albus. He would be thrilled to know he brought a smile to your faces :)

I forgot to mention earlier that I immediately thought of John Jacob ASTOR IV with 68A. Especially since the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic is in a few days. DH and I have always been interested in any stories regarding it and rewatch James Cameron's movie version every year on or near April 15th.

Thank you Lucina for the flan recipe! I will have to try it :)

Have a great rest of the day...

PK said...

Bunny, "Survivor" is one of my guilty pleasures, too.

Neville said...

Hi everyone; that for solving my puzzle today and sharing your thoughts, with special thanks of course to Boomer for the write-up.

I was very happy with fitting YOSHI and HOT MESS in the puzzle; apologies if either of these answers gave you a hard time. But I bet you'll get 'em next time. I went to graduate school at the University of Kentucky, which is just up the road from BEREA, which was another personal touch; I played at a few ultimate frisbee tournaments down there, and they've got a lovely campus.

Growing up, my mom bought ICE MILK for us instead of ice cream. It's just another name for low-fat ice cream. I don't think it was actually significantly healthier for me, though!

Since it came up: I had my first LAT puzzle published about 8.5 years ago, back when I was in college. The flattering photo Boomer posted is from graduate school, about 6 years ago. Ah, to be young again ;)

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Prof. Neville, you schooled me... 3 bad squares at the end of the day, SO TO SAY. Thanks for a fun puzzle with some serious sparkle [who doesn't love Bloom County, Mario Bro, .mil (so little love for that in xwords)]. But Good GRIEF!, the Southern Corners are 3x harder than the North... Lots o' fun though, CUBS, c/a LEAF, the theme. Nice job. [ps, I saw you posted while I was drafting; thanks for stopping by]

Thanks for the fun expo Boomer.

WOs: Dye b/f GEL; Ail b/f ILL; I put raise for 20a in at 24a -- oops.
Bad Squares: 38d xing 40a [not GREBo] and 68a [not ASTOn]; 51d [not STeD] xing 59a.
ESPs: TASSE, DREI and every word that crossed my bad squares.

Fav: HOT MESS. Our admin calls me that at least 3x a week :-)

{A} {giggle}

My TYPE? Always Be Positive*, it's in my BLOOD.

Cheers, -T
*disposition; for I'm seldom sure :-)

AnonymousPVX said...

I got to this quite late, obviously, but I found it a very pleasant Wednesday solve. I like that the theme in no way interfered with the structure and clueing. Enjoyable.

Picard said...

I donated blood this week, but it still took until the reveal to see the pattern! I am O positive so they call me a lot, too.

Hand up for the Natick involving HOT MESS, BARDEM and STAD. All unknowns. I could guess the M, but the A in BARDEM/STAD was a WAG. FIR.

Sports clues are usually unknowns for me, but the CUBS winning was a gimme for once. Made the NW easy. The rest seemed a bit hard for a Wednesday.

Surprised anyone would find HAL unknown. 2001: A Space Odyssey was a classic and HAL was a key part of the story.

Agree that YOSHI and MILO was also a Natick crossing. But at least YOSHI is an actual common Japanese name. Hand up for RAM before RAT.