Sam (not from TV) Donaldson is back for my third time to blog his work. A really creative grid with only 32 blocks and the likely controversial theme content 11-4-9-4-11. The unwritten rule about theme fill being the longest fill...well I bet some will object. For me, the central fill makes that rule seem silly for this puzzle.
Mr. D. also worked a bunch of fun stuff into his grid like OX TEAM, SIN TAX, OLD VIC, KAVNER, SAL SODA, TABULAR, ACREAGE, DESK SET, OPEN TOE, ALTIMAS, PLATYPI, KEPT FIT, ODDBALL, REISSUED, VAN DAMME...this puzzle is a keeper.
17A. Prioritizes self-interest : LOOKS OUT FOR (11). Looks out for number one is a very popular phrase, both by those in favor and opposed.
34A. Championship team cheer : WE'RE (4). We're number one! The puzzle blogging family!!!
35A. Words needed to complete four puzzle answers : NUMBER ONE (9). The oddly placed reveal that made this an awfully easy Friday.
38A. "Let's Make a Deal" choice : DOOR (4). Being home 24/7 I managed to see a few minutes of Wayne Brady as Monty Hall....I quickly closed door number one.
58A. Object of a serious hunt : PUBLIC ENEMY (11). Is is me, or have they stopped publicizing the FBI 10 most wanted list (and the public enemy number one)?
Across:
1. Smelling __ : SALTS.
6. Olympic racers : LUGES. This was made tricky by the author.
11. Paving goo : TAR.
14. Dispatch boat : AVISO. Here is the HISTORY.
15. Unpleasant chores : SLOGS. Vague.
16. Missile from Venus? : ACE. Nice deception- Venus Williams, a tennis service.
20. Levy on liquor : SIN TAX.
21. Printed again : REISSUED.
23. Dedicated works : ODES.
24. Nicholas and Peter : TSARS.
26. Buck : CLAM. Old fashioned words for money.
27. Matched office accessories : DESK SET.
29. Alternative to throwing out : STORAGE.
31. Spots : ADS.
32. Treat roughly : MAUL.
40. Square placed on a square board : TILE. Scrabble anyone?
41. Scaled diagram : MAP.
44. Stayed in shape : KEPT FIT. Venus?
47. Eccentric : ODD BALL.
49. Not free, with "for" : A FEE.
50. Bygone "SNL" rival : MAD TV. Not a real rival.
52. "At Last" singer James : ETTA. A classic. I love this.
53. "Timecop" star : VAN DAMME. He is still working. LINK.
55. Diamond mine? : I GOT IT. Great baseball misdirection. When I was 6 or 7, in a family game a pop-up was hit my way. I yelled, " I got it, I got it, I think I got it!" Family was in stitches.
57. Fanatic : NUT.
60. "Evil Woman" band : ELO.
61. __ Gay : ENOLA. Isn't time to put this trivia out to pasture?
62. "It's __!": "We've been tricked" : A TRAP.
63. Numbered rd. : RTE.
64. Aired anew : RERAN.
65. Vermouth bottle name : ROSSI. The bottle I remember.
Down:
1. Grill-cleaning solution : SAL SODA. Not to be confused with Baking soda.
2. Ducked : AVOIDED.
3. Nala, notably : LIONESS. Lion King.
4. "Shame!" : TSK TSK.
5. McGwire's 1998 rival : SOSA. Mark and Sammy - baseball, number 3.
6. Team with a live tiger mascot : LSU. A gimme for Susan, Big Easy, Boo and others.
7. UHF component : ULTRA. Ultra High Frequency.
8. Fetching employees? : GOFERS. Those who fetch- go for.
9. Altruist's opposite : EGOIST. Deducible.
10. Ukr. and Lith., formerly : SSRS. The U made them united.
11. Like spreadsheets : TABULAR. Reminded me of these BELLS.
12. Plot : ACREAGE. Easy if you do real estate.
13. Name for a help file : READ ME.
18. Ones working together on a farm : OX TEAM. Sorry Sam, but my meh of this puzzle.
22. Slope of loose stones : SCREE. Similar to talus...yeah that helps. My unknown even after filling with perps.
25. Concert souvenir : STUB. I used to save my backstage passes.
28. Blue character : SMURF.
30. Possessed : OWNED. No exorcist needed.
33. Umpire's call : LET. Tennis.
35. Famous : NOTED.
36. Laugh-a-minute sort : RIOT.
37. It was originally established as the Royal Coburg Theatre : OLD VIC. The HISTORY.
38. Fallback provision : DEFAULT.
39. Showing off a pedi, perhaps : OPEN TOE. You think SPLYNTER?
41. Shouldn't be ignored : MATTERS. It....
42. Nissan models : ALTIMAS.
43. Duck-billed mammals : PLATYPI. Latin plural -us leads to -i.
44. Julie who voices Marge Simpson : KAVNER. Rhoda's little sister.
45. Not susceptible : IMMUNE.
46. Emmy winner Jeffrey of "Transparent" : TAMBOR. I loved him as Hank.
48. Suspect : BE ON TO. Onto?
51. Street of mystery : DELLA. She worked for Perry.
54. Mimic : APER.
56. Reverse, e.g. : GEAR.
59. Creator of Q and M : IAN. Fleming and he also created Bond, James Bond.
RIP Roger Moore, you were a fun Bond. Slowly trying to get back in shape, and this work out helped. Samuel made me work for the solve and it was a great . Hope you enjoyed the puzzle and all have a great Memorial Day. My oldest granddaughter has a dance recital to highlight my week end.
Thanks Mr. D. Lemonade out.
47 comments:
{All A's.}
If the plural of platypus is PLATYPI
And the plural of octopus is octopi,
I GOT IT, poor puss
When "she" became "us"
In round numbers, she had a litter of π !
[Maybe my recent slump is related to my l'ick form. So let's try quatrains.]
If the levy on liquor
I pays are SIN TAX,
Will it goes any quicker
If I uses syntax?
I ask as a question
And not just to be jokey
But after inspection,
Would a OX TEAM be YOLKY?
Our ADS for an au pair
That we ran in the paper
Drew a BRA model with a pair,
And a mime who was an APER!
The town had a mayor
Who acted like a TSAR
So they showed their favor --
With feathers and TAR!
Good morning!
Extra! Extra! D-O got the theme! Yes, I GOT IT. AVISO is one of those words we used to see frequently in CWs, not so much lately. Thanks, Samuel and Lemon.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Fun Friday puzzle that gave me a bit of a challenge. After getting WE'RE, I caught the theme of being NUMBER ONE, which helped with the other theme clues.
I wanted Out to be the Umpire's call.
Nice shout out to LSU and Mike the Tiger. His home on campus is nicer than mine!
QOD: Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still. ~ Dorothea Lange (May 26, 1895 ~ Oct. 11, 1965).
Enjoyable challenge today, sort of leaning on the easy side for a Friday. 34A,WERE, actually gave me the theme. SAL SODA is a "ever heard of", but I had the across clues and they looked solid.
KAVNER, VAN DAMME< & TAMBOR were either new to me or totally forgotten and I went for help. SO, in spite of my crowing, a DNF.I wagged an S for the crossing V & a B for the crossing M. I did know VAN DAMME, butit never came to mind .
Raining again and I'm not complaining. Got real worried in last years drought because we have a well. But we made it through and things are good. Now I have to decide whats next to worry aboutand there are plenty of choices.
Best wishes for a happy Memorial Day to everyone.
Tuesday level for me. With just a few perps I had LOOK OUT FOR. Then the clue for the reveal was a gimme, NUMBER ONE. Neat that EGOIST crossed NUMBER ONE. It actually was related to the theme for the whole puzzle.
The hardest part, making it "Wednesdayish," was KAVNER, VAN DAMME & TAMBOR. A few perps,
-ANDA--- gave me VAN DAMME, but all perps were needed for the other two. All the difficult names congregated in one area.
I confidently had ROSSI in 64A and it took a while to move it to 65A, which also complicated TAMBOR.
Even when I was a more sure-footed hiker, SCREE was always a challenge. Today, I haven't the balance for trail hiking at all, just road and track walking.
We have had enough rain. Our NJ reservoirs are full, except in Hunterdon and Somerset Counties. When the glass is full, if you keep on pouring it will not get fuller. Hooray, the drizzle has stopped while I am writing this and the sun just now came out. What a day brigthener, actually and psychologically.
Musings
-Making a “K” that looked like an “R” hurt me in the blizzard of names at the bottom and so I’ll take one bad cell on this fun puzzle
-Oh, a tennis star, a tennis official and Perry Mason’s secretary
-The, uh, first NUMBER ONE
-Grading projects are SLOGS
-SIN TAX – if you can’t stop it, at least make some money on it
-A garage sale is my DW’s alternative to throwing out, albeit a brief one
-My NASA presentation has A FEE – One Snickers Bar
-He probably yelled it but...
-How could you make a bad movie about the incredible story of the ship that delivered the atomic bomb to the ENOLA Gay?Here’s how.
-SOSA AVOIDED hard questions about steroids while testifying in front of a Congressional panel by feigning he didn’t speak English. Yeah right
-Kato Kaelin was OJ’s GOFER
-A slope of rocks and mud covered the Pacific Coast Highway (RTE 1) at Big Sur this week
I have been reading this blog for years so before I ask my first question, thank you to everyone who participates. Here's my question; shouldn't the answer to 29 across be 'storing' and not 'storage'? Thanks.
I agree; clue should have read, "Alternative to disposal".
Good day to all!
After getting 17A LOOKS OUT FOR I knew we were looking for NUMBER ONE. The only hang-up was in the SW with TAMBOR and KAVNER crossing VANDAMME. Had _ANDAM_E and luckily remembered Jean-Claude, though I had never heard of "Timecop", so those were the last two cells to fill. I thought "Diamond mine?" for I GOT IT and "Missile from Venus?" for ACE were both clever. Fun puzzle, great expo. Thanks to Samuel Donaldson and Lemonade.
Enjoy the day!
I agree with Yellowrocks - this puzzle, while fun, didn't seem a Friday level. Favorite clue 55a - I Got it, except I didn't until I read Lemony's great write-up. Have a happy Friday everyone! JB2
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Samuel! Thanks, Lemonade. Charlotte is old enough for a dance recital? How time flies.
There were quite a number of "I no GOT IT" clues in this puzzle for me: diamond mine, buck = clam, Missile from Venus. Well, Lemonade explained them.
Hand up for not knowing KAVNER, TAMBOR, or AVISO. Nor did I guess IAN (I was sure Q & M was some sort of kinky sex.)
SALSODA was all perps. Never knew what it was or was used for. Other than grills, still don't know. OK, Google...
PUBLIC ENEMY is still noted on John Walsh's shows "The Hunt" & America's Most Wanted. I watch them occasionally.
Olympic racers: eeny, meeny, miny, LUGES.
ENOLA Gay will live forever in infamy.
Not a plot in a novel, but on a farm = ACREAGE (I no GOT IT). Duh! OX TEAMS are sooo obsolete. Wouldn't know where you'd get one.
OLD doC isn't the theatre, PK! Wake up!
The NE was the last to fill. Mucho red-lettering.
Good Morning:
This was an easier than usual Friday offering due to the placement of the reveal, no doubt, although I missed the Door connection until reading the write-up. I've never heard of Salsoda but perps proved it correct. LSU's live tiger mascot reminds me of an episode in "The Prince of Tides" when Tom's dreamer-schemer father buys a tiger to use as a drawing card to his gas station, trading off on the "Put a tiger in your tank" slogan. No happy ending there!
Thanks, Mr. D., for an enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for the informative summary.
YR and Hondo, rain is the order of the day here, also. I think it's supposed to clear later but the holiday weekend forecast is sketchy, at best, with Saturday being the better of the three days. It's none too warm, either; I've had my heat on twice this week. Let's hope June brings more seasonal weather.
Have a great day.
I agree! Most of this was easy until STORING blocked me for a long time. Changing to STORAGE opened the floodgates and I was able to finish though I see that I GOT IT eluded me completely.
Thanks to Samuel A Donaldson and Lemonade! I was sure he was the TV Sam Donaldson.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Good morning. Thank you Sam and thank you Lemonade.
Solved this puzzle in the early morning before the little hand got to four. I know I'm going to regret saying this, but is Rich on vacation ? Who keeps throwing us these softballs ?
It was a fine puzzle, but it just seemed so easy, especially after the center reveal. Made a few notes and finally was able to get back to sleep.
out before let. out let. outlet. Sports BRA. I initially had the anagram.
PUBLIC ENEMA ? That's what happens if you spell the perp PLATaPI.
Favorite clue was Diamond mine for I GOT IT.
Randy Bachman struts his stuff on the guitar on this jazzy song looking out for NUMBER ONE.
Techno-geek alert. From the "What was in that lasagna ?" department... It's also why I woke up so early.
It was so vivid. Maybe the spreadsheet clue was the trigger. Maybe it was my wife mentioning last night that her employer (horticultural company) had openings in IT. As if I had any inclination to get back to work.
I was volunteering to the City of Chicago and CPD and had converted beau coup flat files and spreadsheet data to databases. I had disparate data from city and suburban crime and gang databases, social service agencies, hospitals and metadata from the city's camera systems. I had all of these JOINs and UNIONs going, with more conditional subselect queries using INs and NOT INs, HAVINGs and NOT HAVINGs, date time calcs, Boolean algebra, and intermediate data saves. I was having to whiteboard to keep track of all the tables, databases, datasets and nested queries, and I was getting close but running out of storage and CPU. I needed more resources.
Then I was presenting to the city council and it was clear to me that there were those that wanted my efforts stopped and the work directed to politically connected companies so they would get their kickbacks. I woke up with a massive headache and in a cold sweat as I was being dogged by the investigative reporters from the Chicago Tribune and local TV stations.
Glad I'm retired.
Time to go get the fixin's for the long weekend cookouts. See all y'all later n'at !
PK, go to the county fair. Someone there can hook you up with a span of oxen. Even in Connecticut.
Oxen
When is a Friday not a Friday - Today. The puzzle was a good one but since I was able to figure it out it could not have been Friday. Nice one by Sam and Lemon is back in the saddle.
A few missteps along the way. I had Sports BAR before BRA. Right letters, wrong order. I tried STAG and MALE before CLAM showed itself as a synonym for BUCK. I also had MAIM before MAUL.
I also enjoyed Lemon's link to Mike Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' A nice soothing composition on a dreary morning.
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend everybody.
Hello Puzzlers -
Super easy for a Friday, except where it wasn't. I flat out didn't know Sal Soda or Aviso, though the latter was guessable with the letters I had. The group around VanDamme, Tambor, MadTV, and Della was all unknown. So, by the number of empty cells, this has been my worst DNF in years. Hrumph.
Hi everybody. I never did understand "Missile from Venus?" until Lemon explained it. Tricky! Also, "Diamond mine?" leading to I GOT IT. Very clever. Thanks Samuel and Lemon.
Big day around here. Bonnie just had a daughter by C-Section. Everybody seems to be doing well. I'll get to visit out new grand-daughter, Bella, a little later. Yea for us!!
Storing b/4 storage,
I managed to tough out 99.9% of this puzzle,
but in the end I had "rear" for 56d reverse, e.g.
I was sure of Old Vic, which gave me Irotit for diamond mine?
Totally confused I had to read the final grid 3 times (had not read the Blog yet)
before the V8 can smacked me in the head...
(Hmm, it's not "I got it," it's "I got hit!")
Anyway...
Put on your thinking caps, who can tell me,
who was Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen?
FYI...the missle from Venus pic is of Serena, Venus' sister.
Bill G ~ Congrats to you and Barbara on your new arrival. I'm sure Bella fits her to a tee! How does Jordan feel about being a big brother? (This has been a joyous week for you all.)
Diamond mine completely baffled me until the reveal. And for awhile after. I never liked calling for flies not to speak of cutoff men. With a softball I was able to curve it around them.
And of course the d*#@ infielders never covered their base. I'm a left ✋ ed ex-outfielder.
So two squares. S?LSODA. I should have sussed BE ON TO. I'm still inexperienced at some xword lingo.
And the nest of Naticks in the SW proved SLOGish. I couldn't find the fourth #1 until Splynter pointed it out.
I had STORING natch. But, reluctantly I have to concede that the noun also fits. Final authority: Yellowrocks.
TTP, your dream was a RIOT. I had a complicated dream, too but I forget the details. But there were a lot of them.
Did I say Splynter? It's Lemonade today because today is Friday. How can one do a Friday and not remember what day it is.
The brain: Can't live with it, nor without it.
WC
Argyle: I've been to three county fairs in my state and the Kansas State Fair as well as the San Diego, Cal. County Fair. No OXEN TEAMS in our state. Didn't see any in San Diego County either, but that fair was bigger than our state fair so I might have missed an exhibit or twelve. In our state even the small Amish farmers use tractors and cars/trucks now. We did have some old timers who still used horse teams, mostly to demonstrate at various gatherings, but not lately. Our state was not settled with OXEN. The pioneers plowed with horses. Interesting to find OXEN in the original colonies today. Very interesting.
When I was in Pennsylvania talking to some farmers 30 years ago, I found their farming techniques were more primitive than what we were doing on our own farm in Kansas.
Well, I must be the only one who found this sort of a Friday toughie. My only sure answer on my first round was ENOLA, so please don't retire her, I clearly still need her. Eventually pretty much everything filled in, slowly, except for the northeast corner, even though I had STORAGE before changing it to STORING, and then finally changing it back again. If the numbers of the four theme answers had been included in the theme reveal, that would have been a huge help. Still, enjoyed working on this--thanks, Samuel, and it's great to have you back, Lemonade.
It drove me crazy that I remembered Julie _____ as Rhoda's sister, but couldn't think of her last name. Thank goodness, I guessed VAN DAMMER thanks to perps--that helped with KAVNER.
Have a good Friday, everybody, and a good weekend coming up!
Damn that NE corner!
I had Mr. Donaldson's fine pzl in the bag except for the conjunction of 11D TABULAR with 16A and 19A. The latter could have accepted any number of 3-letter fills, but for the life of me I couldn't pin down which (ACT? ACH? ACE? ICE? CAM? CAB? CAR? ERA? BAR? BRA?) would make the best sense of 11D. Of course I never saw the obvious combo until I threw in the towel and clicked on Nexus for help, thus thwarting my otherwise highly deserved Ta-DA! for the day.
My colleagues know the feeling. After glowing with pride at remembering relatively obscure words (AVISO, SCREE were mine!!) and firmly grasping the theme, I finally came a cropper over a fairly common computational term. Aargh.
I conclude by doffing me cap and bowing m'self out while muttering the usual thanks to Mr. D, to Lemonade, comrades, et alii ...
PS. Am back, just long enough to congratulate Bill Graham on new grandparenthood! Hurrah!
Hello everyone.
Tough one today. Finally needed to look up KAVNER in the SW to get me over the finish line. I liked the puzzle a lot.
SCREE - Love the word. As is my won't, though, my vocabulary menu usually offers up talus when striving to describe loose stones on a slope. Steve expressed it well.
AVISO - First learned doing puzzles years ago.
Have a great weekend.
Bill G:
Congratulations on your new granddaughter! I'm so glad this week is coming up roses for you.
PK:
You likely would have to go to Asia to see a team of OXEN pulling a plow.
Well, it's been three hours,
& I have no takers on Smitty Whathisname...
ComeOn you old folks! If you are gonna have Grandkids, you need to know this stuff!
Anywho, do not watch this clip without trying to guess who
Smitty is...
Also, a true fanatic doesn't mind that it is a pain in the the neck...
PK, now that is interesting.
OH, how insensitive of me...
Here is a shortened clip for those handicapped with neck problems...
Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen"
Oh, there is at least one team of oxen in Kansas. Oxen in Kansas(2:48)
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Samuel Donaldson, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
Got through most of this fairly easily. The SW corner was my hang up. Had NAMED for 35D. Had SALE for 49A. Those two errors messed up a lot of other stuff. Finally I tried OPEN TOE. That gave me A FEE. Then I got DOOR and NOTED. And then KEPT FIT. Phew!
AVISO at 14A was a gimme. We have had that many times in the past.
Finally got the theme NUMBER ONE after OX TEAM appeared. That helped me with a few other theme answers.
Got PLATYPI before I got ROSSI.
Wanted MOTHERS for 41D, but held off. MATTERS appeared after some thought and perps.
No idea what SAL SODA is. I have cleaned many grills through the years. Just scrub them with a brush of wadded up tin foil.
Anyhow, have to run. Heading out to a fish fry tonight, then off to work.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Cool puzzle. The clues for I GOT IT and ACE were sterling!
Bill G, I'm so happy for you.
That mudslide over Highway 1 south of Big Sur is huge!
The word "Smitty" always makes me think of Smithwick’s Irish Ale.
Totally tubular, man!
😁
WMJS, except I had to look up VAN DAMMEit. Also wagged SAL SODA, not knowing it or AVISO.
TTP = I admire folks who are great at SQL. I've done some meatball Access work, including some simple joins and data conversion for a sailing club I led. Made me appreciate the db pros on my (professional) project teams.
Home sweet home after 17 days of camping. It was a fun, successful trip and arrived home to a sunny 75 degree day. Good to be back.
I thought this not as easy as others said, I found some of the clueing quite misleading.
So where the heck has SPLYNTER been? Ever since the Ottawa-Pittsburgh hockey comment - which seems to have doomed Ottawa - SPLYNTER has been MIA. Getting a bit concerned.
Hi All!
Pop & Youngest are building pasta so I've got a few minute for a short note [I was kicked out after asking 3x "shouldn't you...?" "I didn't question your pesto, now get."]
Congrats Bill G on the new Grand! Bella is my niece's name; I'm sure it will be apt for your Bella too.
@8:22a - I considered the c/a more like "Don't chunk it, take it around the corner to U-Store" or "Put in storage" as in "Storage Wars" [sorry no time for links today].
Thanks Samuel for a fun puzzle. It was "easy-ish" for a Friday [y'all keep saying easy as I keep thinking I'm getting to be a better-solver - I GOT IT, this was kid's play and I's got more to learn :-)]
Thanks Lem for the expo - I'll listen to ELO later. Stay on the mend.
WOs: Yep, PLATaPI [Hi TTP!], Sports_ Bar; 100% right letters, 66% wrong order [Hi again TTP!].
ESPs: KAVNER, AVISO, TAMBOR, and I'm sure others in my SLOG.
Fav: README. Please, b/f calling support, RTFM ;-). C/a for I GOT IT was brilliant (an ESP + a vowel run after 'BEeN TO' didn't parse; BBL-sized V-8!
TTP - what a [literal] nightmare!?! All those spreadsheets into a relational-DB such that it took so long to do the politicians got a .clue they weren't getting their cut? Dude, if you dreamt in Splunk you'd have been done before The Trib got wind :-)
Cheers, -T
Unknown, the sports bra pic is Serena but when I typed 'Venus Williams Sports bra pic' all I got was Serena and then I forgot.
Spongebob making a big appearance these days.
Certainly STORING would be more appropriate as an answer, but I thing most moved on to storage.
Splynter does not often get a chance to comment during the week, but I am sure he will be here tomorrow for his wonderful Saturday words.
Have a fun weekend.
Well, I'm back from visiting Bonnie and Bella in the hospital. She's a cutie though human babies don't get interesting to me until they get a bit older. I did get to hold her for a while though.
-Jinx, those were the days.I love the great outdoors. I can't help being a little jealous, but I am glad you had fun camping.
-Bill and Barbara, welcome to the latest grand, Bella. What a pretty name.
-Lemon, you are back on the top of your form. Terrific job!
-Storing may have been more elegant and satisfying than storage as the opposite of throwing out, but I find no nit. Throwing is a gerund used as a noun and storage is also a noun. "I am in favor of throwing out all this junk." "No, no, no, we may need it someday. I am in favor of storage."
-I have seen sal soda recommended in household hints, but never have tried it. See Sodium Carbonate in Wikipedia, domestic uses section.
-Mechanized farming became common in the 50's. In the 40's our farmers had very small parcels of land and many used horses, but not oxen. In the 50's we lived in PA farm country where families had big spreads which several generations and/or sets of brothers farmed. This farming was mechanized. There was still stoop labor, performed by migrants and by us PKs. The oxen pulling contests at fairs are a bit of nostalgia. I'll bet they are not used in place of machines on the farms.
Bill and Barbara, congratulations.
Yellowrocks, the old order Amish were still using Pennsylvania draft horses in my area when I left in the 70's, and they may still be. However, there were Mennonites that started using modern conveniences like power equipment and electricty.
Jinx, I learned from some of the very best, but I paled in comparison. I could name names, but that would probably out me. In the end, it was just another tool. Did you make it to Fallingwater or Kentuck Knob ? We have the Farnsworth House not far from here. Quite the backstory on that Frank Lloyd Wright hose.
Anonymous T, the funny thing is that I hadn't written any production queries / reports for probably ten years before I retired, and the "new kids" were using something called Brio or some such other front ends when I retired a couple of years ago. Just one-offs and special requests for me, so I don't know where that dream came from, unless it was the late evening lasagna and the news. And perhaps DW's concerns that I'm "starting to vedge -out" and need to keep being challenged. Que sera, sera. At this point, puzzles and gardening are just fine. BTW, cherish those times with your "pops." I so miss my father and mother. Guiding lights.
Argyle: The clip of Ms. Lemon is interesting. Lenexa and Olathe are suburbs of Kansas City and I know there is some farmland patches there, but it is mostly city. Manhattan where she is studying is in the middle of farm country and is the alma mater of my younger son and his wife. Never saw any oxen there although there is a big research farm connected to the Veterinary College there where we would see cows with surgically implanted windows in their sides to view the workings of the four stomachs. I had never heard of Milking Shorthorn Steers either. It isn't a breed normally seen in Kansas.
The eastern area of Kansas was settled and became a Free State in 1961 as the Civil War was getting started. The western areas of the state weren't attracting settlers until later. My husband's great grandmother who was widowed in the Civil War brought her five boys with a second husband to our county in 1870 to homestead when Indian raids were still a problem. The railroad came through the county in 1879. However, there had been an earlier more famous railhead in Abilene to which cattle from Texas were driven to ship east. I did extensive historical research of my county and never found a reference to use of oxen as work animals. Steers were food, cows gave milk and procreated.
I think the pioneers who used oxen to cross the prairie were earlier in the 1850's and 1860's and were on their way to Oregon and California. They mostly cut across the northeastern corner of Kansas following the Missouri River to the Platte River and following the Platte on west. Water sources were too scarce and unreliable in Kansas then.
TTP, the Old Order Amish will never modernize. They shun electricity, automobiles, labor saving machinery. They still drive horses and buggies. All non Amish are called English regardless of origin. I was speaking only of the so called English farmers. We are the "gay" or fancy PA Dutch. So worldly.
Interesting Kansas history, PK.
Wow, got some strange words today, including three I'd never heard of- SAL SODA, Jeffrey TAMBOR, and Julie KAVNER. I learned the spelling of PLATYPUS because I new PUBLIC ENEMA ( filled 100% by perps before I read the clue) couldn't be a correct fill. VAN DAMME was an unknown. But I did find it a lot easier than most Fridays.
Mike the Tiger VI- not 'live' anymore. He died last October. I don't think he has a replacement yet.
You're right ,Big Easy, Mike VI has no replacement yet. They are refurbishing his habitat and are hoping that another Mike (VII) will be there to live in August when the fresh crop of students come in. Friday puzzles are nearly always beyond me, but while skimming through I found a few answers I knew and played along for a bit. The south came along, but not much else. Friday's and Saturday's I tend to just come to read the comments from all of you who blog daily.
Made me chuckle, the two 'pain in the neck' comments. I didn't get to the L.A. Times til later today because I was at Kaiser to find out why I had a pain in the neck. Diagnosis: pinched nerve, 2 weeks course of Prednisone. I hope it helps because I am off kilter whenever I stand.
Thanks, Lemonade, for explaining ACE! Had it correct but had no idea what it meant! Nice image of Venus!
Had BEeN TO/I GeT IT and had no idea why either made sense. Thanks for explaining!
I remembered Julie KAVNER from the Rhoda TV show. For some reason I thought she had died. I am glad to know she is still alive and well!
No idea about TAMBOR or VAN DAMME or MAD TV, but managed to WAG them even with them all crossing.
Hand up for STORING before STORAGE. Glad Argyle agrees the clue was incorrect.
Yes, it was odd having two theme answers be so short. But the symmetry of the puzzle helped. Had DOOR for awhile before I realized that was one of the theme answers.
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