google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, June 2, 2017, Paul Coulter

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Jun 2, 2017

Friday, June 2, 2017, Paul Coulter

Title: It's all backasswards!

4 in the language two-word phrases have the words reversed and are then re-clued to match the new phrase. This is the third Friday from Paul this year and each have featured a a combination of two words. It is also the first time HG did not blog one of these in my stead but I have enjoyed all of them. Thank you HG, and I return with lots of short fill that is not easy. There are some nice 7 and longer fill such as BEAN BAG,  FOX NEWS,  ALSO RAN,  IDEA MEN,  LIGATES,  ELUSIVE, KLEENEX,  CABINET,  ELASTIN,  OGREISH but some of the shorter fill are very challenging. MOAS, KIRS, MILOS, SPRIT and GIGUE - I look forward to the crowd response.

19A. *Idle : NOTHING DOING (12). Doing Nothing is what makes one idle.

27A. *Athlete's time-out on a hot day : BREAK WATER (10). A Water Break feels good these days here in sunny South Florida.

34A. *Maestro's signals : BEATS DOWN (9). Down Beat is the downward stroke of a conductor's arm or baton indicating the first or accented beat of a measure. Various.

44A. *Returned : BACK HANDED (10). Handed Back is how you return things.

The reveal:

51A. "Nice" expression ... and a hint to the answers to starred clues : TURN OF PHRASE (12).
I do love a reveal that brings what seems like a meaningless bunch of fill together in a sensible fashion.

Across:

1. Prickly case : BUR. I learned this word from the old westerns on TV where the bad guy would put a BUR under the saddle of the good guy.

4. Retired flier : SST.

7. Wombat relatives : KOALAS. Not sure why but I knew this.

13. Pittsburgh-to-Scranton dir. : ENE.

14. School gp. : PTAParent  Teacher Association.

15. "Hannity" airer : FOX NEWS.

16. Loser : ALSO RAN.

18. Thoughtful guys? : IDEA MEN. Mad Men?

21. Crow : BOAST.

22. Protein producer : RNA.

23. "Eldorado" rockers : ELOElectric Light Orchestra.

26. Communiqué segue : AS TO.

31. "Holy cow" : GEE.

32. Extinct New Zealanders : MOAS. The fooled me for a while making me think of people not the BIRDS.

33. Court call : ORDER.

37. "Amadeus" director Forman : MILOS. An amazing man who directed 8 different actors who were nominated for best actor, three won.  BIO.

40. Sushi kitchen supply : EELS.

41. Albanian coin : LEK. I think I have a few in my pocket.

47. See 20-Down : KILL. 20D. With 47-Across, in a drop-dead gorgeous outfit : DRESSED TO. DRESSED TO KILL.

48. "Go on ... " : AND.

49. In shape : FIT.

50. Lively French dance : GIGUE. I am part French but did not know this DANCE.
.
55. Group that's mostly secretaries : CABINET. The best clue of the puzzle.

58. Protein that allows skin to stretch or contract : ELASTIN. If you know elastic....

59. Monstrous : OGREISH.

60. Get into : DON.

61. Time to prepare : EVE.

62. Scarcity : DEARTH. Nice $5.00 word.

63. Marienbad, for one : SPA. I think only Tinman knew this RESORT.

64. Census datum : SEX.

Down:

1. Dorm room seat : BEAN BAG. We all had them, mine was red vinyl.

2. Let free : UNLOOSE.

3. Put another way : RESTATE.

4. Nautical pole : SPRIT. (nautical) a light spar pivoted at the mast and crossing a fore-and-aft quadrilateral sail diagonally to the peak.

5. "South Park" boy : STAN.

6. Pungency : TANG.

7. Big bear : KODIAK.

8. Big bovines : OXEN. Back again.

9. Course for Crusoe?: Abbr. : ANAGram.

10. The Eagle, briefly : LEM(onade?) Nope, Lunar Excursion Module.

11. Amazement : AWE.

12. 81-yr.-old ID : SSNSocial Security Number.

15. Musical Apple : FIONA.

17. Quite : OH SO.

23. LAX posting : ETD. ETA ETD, flip a coin or wait.

24. "Malcolm X" director : LEE. Spike.

25. "Catch-22" pilot : ORR. A very good read.

27. Fluffy accessory : BOA.

28. Double-crosser : RAT. The best...WATCH

29. Blows away : WOWS.

30. Prince Valiant's son : ARN. A puzzle favorite for many years and last week.

32. Dovetail : MESH.

34. __ choy : BOK.   Bok choy or pak choi is a type of Chinese cabbage. Chinensis varieties do not form heads and have smooth, dark green leaf blades instead, forming a cluster reminiscent of mustard greens or celery

35. Sandra who was the first to play "Gidget" : DEE.
36. Dated : OLD. Some date young.

37. CEO's degree : MBA.

38. McKellen of "X-Men" : IAN. And Harry Potter , the Hobbit, and Beauty and  they Beast and more.

39. TV screen type : LCD.

41. Ties surgically : LIGATES. The root word for ligature.

42. Hard to pin down : ELUSIVE.

43. Soft tissue : KLEENEX.

45. From the top : AFRESH. An A word.

46. Beethoven's __ : NINTH.

47. White wine apéritifs : KIRS. This is a drink made from dry white wine and crème de cassis.

50. Ivory Coast neighbor : GHANA.

51. Bleacher feature : TIER.

52. Ton, for one : UNIT.

53. Govt. enforcers : FEDS.

54. Fall, as into a chair : PLOP.

55. Whiting cousin : COD. The fish of fish and chips.

56. Sensitive subject, to some : AGE.

57. Source of support : BRA. Nice clue. And time to go.

I enjoyed this work out, but it has left me drained, so I bid you adieu. Lemonade out. Thanks Paul.

57 comments:

  1. Hi everyone!

    Thanks to Paul and Lemonade!

    Nice theme. Spent lots of time struggling in the NW corner. I'm not sure anyone had a bean bag in my dorm days.

    Anyway, managed to get 'er done!

    Had problems with computer yesterday. Finally had to empty the cache in Safari. (Lost all of those beneficial cookies.)

    Got a new mattress delivered yesterday. The back seems to miss all of those hills and valleys!

    Interviewed a tree trimmer today. Did not realize that I had 12 unwanted ash trees (volunteers).

    Have a great day!

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  2. Had no idea what 9 down meant until the explanation here. The crosses got the correct letters anag, but I still had no idea what it meant. Course for Crusoe, never occurred to me they were anagrams. Thank you.

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  3. Fun puzzle Paul. Thanks Lemonade.

    I liked this puzzle. Wins the race, slow and steady. TADA ! Neat that each of the two word phrases have meaning regardless of which word is first.

    Nothing doing - No agreement.
    Breakwater - A sea wall.
    Beats down - What the sun does. Or harangues or kicks butt.
    Backhanded - As in an ingenuous or insincere compliment. Or describing a tennis shot, or describing a blow with the back of the hand.

    As Yellowrocks would say, "All in the language".

    Solved the mystery at BREAK WATER. Had enough perps and was trying to fit BREather in for "Athlete's time-out..." and realized WATER then BREAK. Immediately looked to the mostly filled "Maestro's signals" and filled it in, then jumped to the other asterisked clues, and the reveal.

    Last to fill was the GI in GIGUE.

    Mental lapse for the group that's mostly secretaries. I was thinking furniture. Entered chaises and then thought, that's not right. At all. Ditto with "Eldorado rockers". Wanted The Eagles, but that was Desperado. Hi Desper-otto !

    Initially had AGE at census datum, and WOW at "holy cow", but they were both needed in other places. Knew LEK immediately from recent reads.

    LIGATES could have been sutures, and KLEENEX (soft tissue) could have been tendons.

    Fun puzzle.

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  4. Thanks, Lemonade - good to see you back. This one went through many variations - BRANDNAME/NAMEBRAND, SLIPCOVER/COVERSLIP, SIDEROAD/ROADSIDE, PASSOVER/OVERPASS, and a bunch more didn't make the cut. Can anyone out there think of some good ones?

    My working title was Puzzle Monkey. This will sound incomprehensible, but it comes from the Monkey-puzzle tree, a South American evergreen also known as Araucaria. I cut my constructing teeth on cryptic puzzles, and the British legend who uses the nom Araucaria is a hero of mine. Okay Poet Laureate of the L.A. Times Crossword Corner, how about you work Araucaria into a poem? I get a real kick when one of my grids appears in the LAT, just to see what Owen does with it.

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  5. Good morning!

    I sensed there was a theme, but couldn't put my brain around it. Tried UNLEASH for UNLOOSE and GALOP/GAVOT (yeah, I know it's not spelled that way) before GIGUE appeared. Thought BUR had two Rs. Aaron agrees. As Lemon pointed out, there was some nice stuff in this one.
    Thanx, Paul and Lemonade.

    [political rant censored by desper-otto. Thumper rule.]

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  6. Fermat, at first reading you had me imagining you out in your yard having a conversation with your weed-eater. :)

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  7. Clever theme- I got the word flip early so this was one of the puzzles that I got the long answers first and then filled in. Quicker than expected with several words "in my wheelhouse" like LIGATES. I'm with D-O - on the BUR having two Rs- but I'm sure there is a variation with one R in the dictionary- I used to live near a street called Burr Oak Drive.

    Thanks Paul and Lemonade!

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  8. Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. Interesting puzzle.

    I liked the crossing of Kodiak and Koala (even though the latter is not a real bear).

    Soft Tissue = KLEENEX was a nice surprise.

    My favorite clue was Thoughtful Guys = IDEA MEN.

    I wasn't fooled by the musical Apple and immediately thought of FIONA.

    QOD: I was not in Iron Man 2, but I take a daily iron supplement. ~ Dana Carvey (b. June 2, 1995)

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  9. What is so "dorm"ish about a BEANBAG chair? You'll more likely find them in people's dens and basements than in dorm rooms.

    DON is more to put on than to "get into" – e. g, "He donned his hat and gloves."

    A TIER is a stadium feature, not a "bleacher feature." The box seats are one tier, the grandstand another and the bleachers yet another. The bleachers are a TIER. Yes, there might be several tiers of bleachers; but then the clue should be "bleacher creature," if you must get clever/smart about it.

    Where's the "to" in the clue for DRESSED KILL?

    How were we to decide among Beethoven's FIFTH, SIXTH and NINTH? Perps only. How 'bout "Beethoven's 'Choral' " for the clue?

    A BRA is a support, not a "source" of support.

    GEE! Taking the Lord's name in vain again. . . .

    BEATS DOWN? That's worse than a TURN OF PHRASE – it's LAME. And what's so "nice" about it? It's not Nice (en France). This whole puzzle was lame.

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  10. Good morning everyone.

    At first, a sea of white, but then gradually filled in from the bottom up. Ultimately only needed help with ORDER. Had good luck with WAGS, and sussed the theme early which helped with the fill.
    OXEN - I think 'bovines' would have been sufficient as a clue. Aren't most adult bovines 'big'?

    Good intro, Lemon.

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  11. I don't think the puzzle was lame, just not in my wheelhouse. Really obscure stuff like Marienbad, gigue and Milos kept me in the dark. OTOH, I erased water break for breakwater early, which exposed the gimmick and gave me a glimmer of false hope.

    Thanks, Paul, for checking in with us. Thanks Lemonade, and I hope you feel better.

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  12. Friday at it's toughest. The theme was reasonable, but a some of the fill was a little too obscure for me. A DNF.

    I hope everyone has a great day.

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  13. Musings
    -Glad to have you back and in fine fettle, Lemon, for Paul’s inventive puzzle
    -The south end of my pencil raced to the bottom and then the north end had to eliminate GAR, MEET, GMEN, TRY and RARITY/ODDITY
    -This sub partook in the many goodies the PTA supplied for Teacher Appreciation Days
    -A unit for IDEA MEN
    -The word DEARTH dredges up this somber poetry to me
    -PLOPPING into a BEAN BAG is one thing. Getting UNLOOSED is quite another
    -Neil finally set the LEM down with 30 seconds of fuel left
    -Speaking of “Blows away” and “BEATS DOWN
    -KLEENEX are fine but Puffs with the scent of Vicks – WOW!

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  14. I loved this theme. I had a poor start in the NW, even though I had BUR and ENE right away.(BUR is just a less common variation of BURR.) So I dove down to the NW corner which filled easily and soon had BACKHANDED. AHA, the theme! That made the puzzle much easier. TURN easily led to TURN OF PHRASE.
    Only Fiona was new to me, perps and wags. Cabinet, dearth, Ghana,spa, all were gimmees. BAD is German for SPA. BAD is often a prefix or suffix in names of German towns with spas.
    I love grilled eel sushi, but the connection of eels to sushi in crosswords is so stale. New clues are needed.
    WOMBATS and KOALAS are marsupials. Both live in Australia.
    My biggest puzzle was over the O in ELO and ORR. I returned several times and finally an ABC run cinched it
    I love the turn of phrase "burr under one's saddle," effectively illustrated by ANON @ 7:58.

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  15. Hahtoolah, I think you missed it by 40 years.

    Anon@7:58, read the answer to 20d. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle. You're more upbeat than usual.

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  16. A fun, doable, if appropriately crunchy Friday offering. Well done Paul and great write-up Lemon. Gigue was unknown but perps were solid so... Ditto with Moas. And for some reason thought Orr was Ott til perps cleared that up. Happy Friday to all! JB2

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  17. D-O: Right you are. Just can't edit it now

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  18. DNF,

    I think I did not get more than 50% done,

    all my 50/50 choices were wrong...

    ETA/ETD
    Release/Unloose
    Evasive/Elusive
    Beethovens Fifth/Ninth
    Etc...

    Kind of a toast falling butter side down kind of day...

    Phrase trivia learning moment.

    And, a well turned phrase...

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  19. Thank you, Paul Coulter for the challenging puzzle and for joining us here at the Corner!

    I slowly burrowed myself into Paul's wave length and even got the backwards theme! Like some of you, I had to write over SUTURE/LIGATES, AWES/WOWS, and I recalled STAN of South Park from previous puzzles. I love KIR so that was easy and FIONA Apple slipped right out from somewhere.

    My daughter had a BEANBAG in her bedroom but I never did. I'm sure they didn't exist when I was in a dorm. I also liked the crossing of KOALAS and KODIAK.

    Anonymous@7:58
    I guess you didn't notice that 20D is DRESSED TO.

    Have a *full of delight day, everyone!

    ETD eluded me and I didn't even notice. Drat!

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  20. Oops. I failed to thank Lemonade for his *full of insight commentary.

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  21. Bean bag dorm chairs are so modern.
    dorm chair
    HG, righto, getting unloosed is the problem. So ungraceful to get out of.
    Two perfect days in a row here. Bright sun, blue sky, temps in the 60's and 70's. We will enjoy it while it lasts before the 80's and 90's with their HHH arrive.
    Alan is trying a new kind of medicine. It seems to be working very well. He is home today because his workplace is having an all day picnic. Alan doesn't like large milling crowds and very loud music. His fellow workers love to dance all day to loud music, so they are happy and so is Alan, hanging out at home.

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  22. Good day to all!

    A challenging, yet enjoyable puzzle from Paul today. Gigue and FIONA Apple were complete unknowns and filled in via perps. I thought "Group that's mostly secretaries" for CABINET was a great clue. Thanks for the expo, Lemonade. Glad you're on the mend.

    Enjoy the day!

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  23. Thanks, Paul, for a nice offering on Friday. Took a while, but got the theme, and the rest was sailing through. Didn't care for OGREISH, though. Not a word used in everyday language.

    Thanks, also, Lemonade, for the great write-up. Really glad to know you're feeling better.

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  24. Hi Y'all! I didn't get any of the theme entries except WATER (WAG) and a few odd letters until the reveal. Lots of white space until then. All eventually filled by dribs. But thanks, Paul, for exercising my mind Fridayish. Thanks, Lemonade.

    I googled GIGUE after I was done. Just as I thought: soft "G" for the first letter: ZHeg (long E). Aha, just a fancy Frawnch way of spelling good old JIG for a nice frolic.

    Paul had both AGE & OLD. A CSO to some of us. I'm OLD enough to have seen Gidget as a young teen and remember Sandra DEE.

    Never heard of FIONA Apple. Googled her after reading the blog. My son installed Chrome for me but I still get black squares on the blog. Chrome works in my email for the things my son sends and I've learned to take a lengthy route with the blog blue links so I can play them.

    I knew Marienbad was a SPA. I did a story with a couple who tried to buy a run-down hotel near there after the fall of communism in the '80's. Her father had been born in that country and was brought to America as a child during or just before WWII. They still had relatives there. My friends thought that Americans should invest in the old country to help build the economy and influence a new democracy. However, the Czech government would not okay their purchase of the building. I think they lost a chunk of earnest money.

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  25. Good Morning:

    While this had the typical Friday crunch, it was straightforward enough to solve with relative ease. I think the only truly unknown was Gigue. Milos Forman was a gimme as was Fiona but I'm not sure why on Fiona. I threw in Cabinet and ELO without hesitation (got lucky, I guess) and I, too, liked the pairing of Kodiak and Kaola, although I think the latter is far more lovable. I do have a problem remembering the extinct animals; Roc, Moa, Rhea, etc. I also missed the Crusoe/Course=Anag.; I was thinking A Navagation Course=Anag. and was prepared to cry foul, silly me!

    Thank you, Paul, for a challenging but pleasant workout and also for stopping by and thanks, Lemony, for the very informative and enlightening (Anag.) review. I hope you are well on the way to feeling tip top again.

    Hatoolah, I, too, did a double take at Dana Carvey's birth year.

    Ferm, you piqued my interest in Word Solitaire so I downloaded it and have been alternating between exhilaration and exhaustion playing it. I'm on Level 58 with my highest score of 259. Any tricks or strategies you might have for a newbie?

    JB2 @ 9:13 ~ Welcome. You seem to be commenting on a regular basis, why not go Blue?

    Truebrit from yesterday; Welcome back! Was that birthday celebration with Mr. & Mrs. Bakula? (I'll try very hard to not let your gracious compliment go to my head! 😇)

    Anonymous @ 7:58 ~ If your bed has two sides, you might want to try getting up on the right side for a change. 🙃

    Have a great.

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  26. RELEASE did seem too obvious for a Fri. And of course that direction had to have an N and E. I got NW last, finally, but blew it on ANG LEE. I get my ELOs and ENOs mixed up. eg don't know post 1970 Music.

    I am enjoying the new Sirius Beatles channel. Too much McCartney though.

    Ok. Crusoe-ANAGram. Perped it. Now, expiquez, s'il vous plait (since we're doing Fwanche aujourd-hui. )

    A very Friday xword Paul. Owen hasn't been around this week and C-Moe's out of town. I'll give it a try (shudder).

    Love seeing Lemonade's write-ups.

    So I've got _O_NEWS and I'm stumped. And TURN OF PHRASE hit me after I'd filled the whole thang.

    I'm surprised OGREISH didn't cause a fuss from our Anonymous griper

    WC

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  27. I thought the clueing was really a stretch, as others have already pointed out, but I do agree. Got the solve but geez, what a workout.

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  28. Not a stretch at all. Just clever. Not in my wheelhouse is a better reaction. The solver should need to stretch a little on a Friday and Saturday.

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  29. I believe Spike LEE was the director of Malcolm X.

    OGREISH seemed forced to me, too.

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  30. I am consistently disheartened by the praise Y'all give lemony for his write ups. They are of significantly lower quality than the others posted here. Usually contain errors in grammar, syntax and outright misinformation. Jokes land flat and his past transgressions just don't allow me to respect the man.

    His explanation of today's theme is as backwards as the puzzle's gimmick.

    The compliments he receive from some of you reminds me of the current trend of giving every kid at the ball fields a trophy, a cookie and a juice box.

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  31. Forgot to mention. Several months ago, I was surfing around You Tube, looking for German accordion offerings. I included a key word referencing the Schleswig area. You Tube offered up a local dance/ period-costume club doing "De Gigue". Today's word was a slam dunk.

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  32. Great job, Paul. This puzzle was fun to solve.

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  33. Ogreish reminds me of a friend of mine who describes her home town of Eisenstadt, Austria, as "ruralish."

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  34. Ta-DA!!
    I won't say it came easy, but I take pleasure in announcing that this is the first Friday pzl in a long while for which I have not needed to exercise my Google rights.

    I thank Mr. Coulter for the challenge. As for Lemon's exegesis, I find it a valued service, straightforward, and to the point. Despite the critique by the name-hiding gentleman (or lady) at 1:11 pm, today's Corner blog meets all the needs of its readers with a crisp, professional tone. If Anonymous finds the humor flat, it may be that his/her expectations are too inflated for our homey circle of friends.

    On another note, I'm happy to say my only false start today was FLOP instead of PLOP. As to OGREISH, I agree that it feels forced - and just looks ugly. I enjoy such slightly obscure words as GIGUE (whence we derive "Jig") and ELASTIN (which seems to lessen in effectiveness with AGE). KLEENEX reminded me that brand names are not off limits.

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  35. I agree that this was a workout, but it was a pleasant one and it is Friday. Thanks for the fun Paul and Lemonade.

    I did get the theme eventually but had been trying to fit WATER BREAK into 27A to no avail. Clever that the theme words make sense both ways.

    Hand up for moving AGE and AWE around when SEX and WOWS were needed. (That last sentence sounds rather risqué on review!)

    I was thinking of SPANDEX (tissue holder) before KLEENEX.
    It took a long time before I was willing to change Fifth to NINTH.
    LEK and FIONA were unknown (I wanted IPOD to fit for the musical Apple).
    ORR was a pilot today not a hockey player.
    My most favourite clue was for 55A CABINET and my least favourite was for 59A OGREISH.

    I had FLOP before PLOP. I agree that if you PLOP into that BEANBAG chair, you may never get out, gracefully or not!

    Wilbur C, Anon @ 5:56 explained Crusoe. "The crosses got the correct letters anag, but I still had no idea what it meant. Course for Crusoe, never occurred to me they were anagrams." That was a lightbulb moment for me too when I got here.

    Anon@7:58, if I "don my gay apparel", I can "get into" it or "put it on". Both expressions work for me (just depends on your point of view).

    Thanks to all who commented on my iPAD/Safari question yesterday. I did clear my History and Website Data and it has stopped crashing. It must have been July 3, 2016 when I did that last, LOL!

    Have a great day!

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  36. Anon, my compliments to Lemony are sincere and well deserved. Your slams seem like a blind vendetta.

    OGREISH in literature:
    "And in the gray light of dawn a mangled, half-devoured corpse fell from the skies into the village street and a whisper of ogreish laughter from high above froze the horrified onlookers. -Wings in the Night
    "Jackson is a bully who never holds a grudge, Driscol is a man's man and a "troll" nobody thinks of him as an "ogre" even when he's being ogreish – the characters live in a one-metaphor universe." -The Rivers of War
    "As he wiped his dripping whiskers in an ogreish way, he met her eyes, and pausing, said, with no very gentle voice:.." -Our Mutual Friend

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  37. Well, a Friday puzzle should be a toughie, and this one certainly was for me. But I plugged away at it, with a tiny bit of cheating here and there, and then it happened and I got something. BACKHANDED just had to be right but didn't make sense for "Returned"--Voila! it was backwards! Woohoo! Now all the other theme entries began to make sense and fell into place--a lot of fun! So, many thanks, Paul C., and thanks for stopping by. And Lemonade, I loved seeing that picture of Sandra DEE! Brings back happy memories from my youth.

    Wish we could figure out some way to cheer up our fellow bloggers when they are unhappy or not in a good mood. But it's a difficult problem. Hope it's okay for the rest of us to be joyful and enjoy our community.

    Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!

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  38. My dear friends, if you receive a message supposedly from me, please be assured that it is not unless I address you directly. I don't know if my computer was hacked or someone is on a phishing expedition. Thank you to those of you who have written to inform me of this and I'm sorry if it caused you any inconvenience or if your computer was somehow compromised.

    Anonymous@1:11
    My compliments to Lemonade are also sincere as I find his writing scholarly and well written. Knowing that he has eye problems helps me to understand that he occasionally mistypes or omits letters. I find your consistent criticism of him disturbing.

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  39. Anon @ 1:11 - There are 2 reasons I complement Lemonade.

    1. He deserves it like Lucina said. It's not easy highlighting the Friday puzzle.
    2. I know it annoys posters like you.

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  40. GEE Paul, you BEATS me again...

    The SE is awash in ink (hand-up: suture w/ the u's KILLed by I & the A in PHRASE). AS TO the NW - NOTHING DOING BOASTing [my only two fills right] about it...
    I was so certain of twiNBed that I finally just threw a FIT (and the towel in) to continue my day (to my Friday nap).

    Thanks Paul for a fun PHRASE OF TURN [no. that no-workie] puzzle and for the inside-baseball. I agree w/ Lem that CABINET's c/a was fantastic.

    Thanks LEM [didn't you see your CSO @10d? :-)] for stopping the carnage and the expo. I don't care what Friday Snark say - you post a fine Friday.

    On BEAN BAG - my buddies must'a been the poor-kids on campus. Dorms were 2 beds, 2 desks (and chairs, which didn't fit 1d), 2 armoires, and 1 nightstand/book-shelf. There wasn't room left for 4 people much less a beanbag. [I never lived in a dorm, DW & I were in an apt.]

    WOs: Tried to go w/ Sandra DEy; g|t-man b/f FEDS; Dig b/f, well DON never fully showed.
    ESPs: MILOS, ORR, COD, and that damn'd kid (again) from the "comic" I never read (does anyone? Why is it in the paper?)

    Favs: c/as for CABINET & KLEENEX. Just great misdirection.

    {} - Com'on OKL, it's been a whole week. We're jonesin' here.

    Hand-up: Didn't "get" ANAG for Crusoe; 'course the Course 'Raft-building 101' didn't fit and I still didn't know why he studied ANAt until DOING perp'd it out and then I moved on [thanks again Lem!]

    Well, I'm running out of lines and have NOTHING AFRESH to post, so I'll just PLOP in this OLD link from Beethoven's NINTH. The crowd's faces in AWE WOWS me (and the music's "Nice" too!)

    Y'all have a great Friday afternoon! Cheers, -T

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  41. TINBENI at the LibraryJune 2, 2017 at 3:11 PM

    D-N-F ... not even close.

    AND Lemon ... I worked for 2 years, 3 months, 22 days, in Zagreb, Croatia not the Check Republic ... never heard of Marienbad.
    Which was a "Learning Moment" that it was a SPA, along with that French Dance, GIGUE, always a plus.
    (But I forgot both of them before noon ... LOL)

    Hope y'all have a great weekend ... I will "Toast-Y'ALL" at Sunset.
    Cheers!

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  42. Marienbad -- doesn't the "bad" mean bath/spa? Tin, maybe you knew it as Mariánské Lázně.

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  43. Marienbad is a German name for a Czech spa town. It seemed that Germans lived in that area.
    Mariánské Lázně, (Marienbad) is a spa town in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic.

    Why did the constructor consider oxen big?
    Ox has many definitions.
    Dictionary.com: "the adult castrated male of the genus Bos, used chiefly as a draft animal,
    any member of the bovine family,Informal. a clumsy, stupid fellow."
    However oxen are mostly considered draft animals. As such they are chosen because they are large and grow larger with their exertions. They may be female or intact males.
    per Wiki
    Here is an interesting article on oxen. It is strange that the author used oxen for the singular.
    Link text

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  44. I wonder if Gigot danced a gigue while waiting for Godot?

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  45. Thanks Lucina etal for explaining COURSE.
    Boy I can be slow. Write-ups take a lot of work and those highly paid cornerites deserve praise.

    I can't recall a bad write-up, just bad posts.

    YR, you redeemed OGREISH. Two directors named LEE and I have to choose my 8th grade math teacher.

    I talked some C-22 last time it appeared but ORR was an enigma as I recall.

    I'd say anyone who got this Fri without hardly cheating did well. Sets us up for Saturday. Shudder.

    Paul, I can't produce even a lame l'ick with ARAUCARIA
    No TURN OF PHRASE, no onamatopoeia
    An OGREISH DEARTH of wit
    Nothing MESHes, nothing FITs
    I called on Erato, he said SEEYA*

    *Appeared last week. See Wilbur rule 7-11.34

    WC

    PS. Misty you were splendid today.

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  46. Thanks, Wilbur - enjoyed the limerick greatly. Everyone else, thanks for your interesting comments, as ever.

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  47. I thought I found myself in Southeast Natick there for a bit, but everything worked out very nicely. A very clever theme and some very good clues throughout.

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  48. WC - Nice prose show!

    On Sirius XM 18: Pop & I listened to it whilst he was here. Not a bad song all week. The Beatles are the Mozart, Beethoven, et.al. of our (70's) day. Pure genius.

    Did they experiment bad? Sure, but they kept the best for the rest of us. I was listening to NPR's FRESH Air on Sgt. Pepper's 50th and learnt a bit more about the FAB (this week! - your rule) Four.

    Harrison never seems to get the props John, Paul, & Ringo do; they were all brilliant given time, space, $$, and dope. :-)
    Badfinger (which was a TURN OF PHRASE of a stripper they'd met in Hamburg - see Wiki under Name change) was produced by George and he went on to help finance some troupe of goofs for Life of Brian. [perchance that song will lift Friday Snarks' spi'wit ? ].

    Cheers, -T

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  49. Good Evening!

    I see I am late to the party! Well done, Paul! I found it to be typical for a Friday - I can fill in about half before I turn on red letters to find my mistakes then proceed. Strangely enough, I had the entire NW filled in without mistakes after my first pass. Guess I was on the right wave length for that area. Loved all the animals, of course. Personally, I like when people get hung up on certain clues because then I am more likely to remember it next time.

    Learned some as I went through then learned more from Lemon's thorough write-up (including all the links and embedded stuff). I certainly appreciate all that goes into even the simplest of posts. I know how long it can take me to find the 3-4 links I usually share, not to mention a comment or explanation for every single clue and answer. And, I adore Lemon's humor - the puns are entertaining and I giggle and groan at the same time. So thanks, Lemon, I always look forward to your posts.

    Like Anon-T, my teeny tiny dorm room did not have space for a bean bag. My roommates and I had one in our first off campus house though! Until it burst and spilled the beans...

    I loved the Gidget TV show reruns (along the The Monkees!) and my mom "made" me watch the original movie with Sandra Dee (whose name I can't say without singing a Grease song). Here's The Next Best Thing to Love for your enjoyment.

    El Dorado Park in Long Beach, CA is my old stomping grounds. Lots of good times there...

    One day I will be able to fill in GINORMOUS for a "monstrous" clue and be correct...

    Ok then, that's it for today!

    Happy Friday :)

    t.

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  50. Anon-T@3:04 - thanks so much for that clip! It's truly an equalizer, a calming five minutes amid the world's daily events. Bookmarked it for the bad days. Especially liked the kid in red on the lamppost.

    Uh... you do know that "South Park" has a cult following? (Never watched it.) But then, again, I never know with your sense humor when you're "funnin'" someone. lol

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  51. AND, I'm a dope (what else is new?). Here's the FRESH Air interview I meant to link. [got hour?]

    Misty - do you thing Bright Side of Life did it for Snark?

    C, -T

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  52. Probably not, Anonymous T, but let's hope. Thank you too, Wilbur, and nice limerick for Paul.

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  53. Ack!

    I am inundated,

    I followed Anonymous T's link and fell down the rabbit hole!

    1st (forgive me,) I was not aware of Badfinger.
    I knew the song from The Magic Christian, and have been looking for it ever since.
    I never expected to find the entire movie on YouTube!

    But 1st(a prequel) a surprising, and never before seen (by me)
    Always look on the right side of life, in a better setting!
    (side link contains entire show, with Robin Williams et al...)

    And for that poor Grinch of an Anon that keeps harping on Lemon:
    (I worry that your bitterness is consuming you...)

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  54. Irish Miss, it was Mrs Bakula, Chelsea. 20 of us had so much fun. We stayed in two homes one that once belonged to Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe.

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  55. Jayce @ 4:07,

    Maybe - but I'll bet Gogo did!

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  56. TXMs - I can't watch that without smiling (or start to well up) at the people's faces. Pure Beauty.

    CED - Ah, just give a little whistle; There's the spirit Mate! I am amused.

    Does the Magic Christian have sound? Or is it just the first few minutes on mute? Or do I need to reboot, ala Misty, my FIONA, er, Apple-pad? [we're heading to the cantina so I'll have to find time to watch that - no, I've never seen it either!]

    AND, you're so right... <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zdDPjorVTUQ>I Confess</a> and I am forgiven. DEARTH be damn'd in the wake. We've got ~75 orbits, laugh and enjoy! -T

    ReplyDelete

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