google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, July 28, 2017, Mike Buckley

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Jul 28, 2017

Friday, July 28, 2017, Mike Buckley

Title: V is for Victory

Mr. Buckley gives us a themeless puzzle with a theme that exists visually with a one clue reveal. This is Mike's first Friday puzzle this year and a great departure from the July 2016 puzzle which had 12 short theme fill. V is also for variety. The placement of the Vs, and the avoiding any other Vs in the grid was masterful. With an open grid there are oodles of long fill. Pick your favorite. SERAPHS,  SIGNAGE,  YES DEAR, AS I SEE IT, DR. MOREAU,  GIUSEPPE, KNEE DEEP, OUTLIVED,  SAUTERNE,  SNOBBERY,  TRIP OVER, ETHIOPIAN, PENTAGRAM, LOVE POTION and TERMINATOR. Let me know what you think;  I love visuals.


7D. What can be drawn using the only V's, representing vertices, in this puzzle's grid : FIVE POINTED STAR (15).


Bonus theme related fill:

19D. See 7-Down : PENTAGRAM. Often thought of in connection with the occult.

25D. Like a flag featuring a 19-Down : ETHIOPIAN.  I wish I had learned all this on Fun with Flags. LINK.

We have music and Latin and some wit, so....

Across:

1. Render inconceivable? : SPAY. Great clue/fill.

5. Carl who composed "Carmina Burana" : ORFF.  A repeat fill made easy.

9. Itching for action : ANTSY.

14. Hamlet's first choice : TO BE. Better than or not to be.

15. Sound from a fan : WHIR. Onomatopoeia.

16. River of Champagne : MARNE. Cute.

17. U.N. reps : AMBS. Ambassador.

18. Purported passion promoter : LOVE POTION.  Number 9? Made more famous by the Searchers.

20. One-named singer with the #1 hit "Royals" : LORDE. I know the SONG but did not know the singer.

22. Prevent : DETER.

23. "Frontline" airer : PBS.

24. Seriously mired : KNEE DEEP. Often in BS.

26. Big wheel : NABOB. Often nattering.

28. Scholar : SAVANT. From the Latin.

29. Lasted longer than : OUTLIVED. Usefulness?

32. Sound from a fan : RAH. One little rah?

33. Draft letters : IPA. Beer is back.

34. Despot who raced in the 67 Olympics : NERO.  HISTORY. Sadly all footage of the 67 Olympics was destroyed when Rome burned.

35. __ station : GAS.

38. Highway reading : SIGNAGE.

41. Bread or liquor : RYE.

42. PDQ : ASAP.

44. Word with cake or flake : OAT.

45. Prescribed meds : RXS.

47. "Rigoletto" composer Verdi : GIUSEPPE. More MUSIC. Everyone knows this tune, right?

49. 86 and 99 : AGENTS. Maxwell Smart and the future Mrs. Max.

53. Turntable needles : STYLI. Latin plural of -us.

54. Wells islander played by Brando : DR. MOREAU. H.G. and Marlon.

56. Creator of Finch and Radley : LEE. Atticus  and Boo, created by Harper.

57. France dance : VALSE. Sounds like waltz.

59. Medal-worthy quality : VALOR.

60. Boundary between the illuminated and darkened part of the moon, in astronomy : TERMINATOR. There is so much I do not know. So I read this LINK.

63. Ballet move : PLIE.

64. T. rex et al. : DINOS. My oldest loved reading about dinosaurs and then came Jurassic Park; saw it 14 times - in the movie theater.

65. Wrapped garment : SARI.

66. Villain's welcome : HISS.

67. __ Curry, first unanimous NBA MVP : STEPH.

68. "By that reasoning ... " : ERGO. Therefore in Latin.

69. Rectangular paving stone : SETT. learned from puzzles.

Down:

1. Cornfield array : STALKS.

2. Cal Poly city : POMONA.

3. Shortened, shortened : ABBREViation. Silly.

4. Affectionate assent : YES DEAR. Affectionate? Not always...

5. Hogwarts mail carrier : OWL.

6. __ Island : RHODE. because Long was too Short.

8. Worry : FRET.

9. Not bothered by conscience : A-MORAL. More Latin e.g. asexual, amoral, anarchy, anhydrous, Anabaptist, anachronism; also uses a and an.

10. "Unforgettable" Cole : NAT.

11. Stumble on : TRIP OVER.

12. Condescension : SNOBBERY. I loved watching HYACINTH BUCKET (pronounced Boo-kay).

13. Pines : YENS.
.
21. Ferber and a Dame : EDNAS. I let you look up the great Ms. Ferber, but here is a touch of the DAME.

27. Arabic "son of" : BIN. Hebrew Ben.

30. Kick __ fuss : UP A.

31. Unknown John : DOE.

35. Order of silence : GAG.

36. "In my view ... " : AS I SEE IT.

37. Semisweet American white wine : SAUTERNE. Ah, where is Chairman Mao when we need him.

39. Alibi problem : GAP.

40. Sarah Palin, e.g., briefly : EX-GOV.

43. Humanities subj. : PSYchology.

46. Six-winged angels, in Isaiah : SERAPHS. Yes, and so much MORE.

48. Tolkien language : ELVISH.

50. Nervous one? : NELLIE.

51. I Ching adherent, perhaps : TAOIST. Perhaps. This LINK discusses the connection. My eldest brother also studied Book of Changes.

52. Least tentative : SUREST.

55. Corp. shuffle : REORGanization. Well how many are too many?

56. Classic Fords : LTDS.

58. Emit coherent light : LASE.  "In lasers, waves are identical and in phase, which produces a beam of coherent light." msnucleus.org. There are incoherent lights, as well as incoherent bloggers.

61. Messy locks : MOP. Very popular when Beatles came to the US, e.g. mop tops.

62. Carnival site : RIO.

We already have seen the grid and I will await your comments on this creative effort from Mr. Buckley. It would be nice to hear from him on the genesis of this puzzle. Meanwhile, see you in August. Lemonade out.

51 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Mike and Lemonade!

Challenging, but no cheats. Persevered.

Not immediate were: LORDE, NERO, SIGNAGE, VALSE, TERMINATOR and STEPH.

Have a great day!

fermatprime said...

YR: Hope that Alan is feeling better today!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I really liked this one, because a) I actually completed it, unlike yesterday and b) there was a load of neat stuff in it. Thanx, Mike. Had three minor oops: ROAR/WHIR, SSS/IPA and IBN/BIN. What group uses IBN, anyway?

Gotta admit, AMORAL evokes an immediate mental image. For you, too?

In my career in the "awl patch" I survived two REORGs and two corporate mergers. Tense times.

Gotta go "march" and then head off for my quarterly dental cleaning. Later...

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Too tough for me today. FIR, but looked up ORFF (again), LORDE, ELVISH and Verdi's last name. Favorite clue today was "despot who ran in the 67 Olympics". Not the '67 Olympics. Least favorite was "semisweet American white wine" for SAUTERNE. Let me get this straight - the Americans took a French wine (Sauternes), dropped the final "s", de-capitalized it, and called it our own? Of course! What else could it be?

D/O - AMORAL does conjure up images for me, mainly the politicians (on all sides of the political spectrum) who decide what is "right and wrong" by what the polls say their base constituencies want them to believe. God help us.

Too many trees at our campground for satellite TV, and we are too far into the boonies for most broadcast TV. We managed to get Fox channel 5 out of DC for about three hours last night, but today, nothing. My data package isn't big enough to let me use Hulu or its competitors. At least I can get my local paper on line.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

My work may not have been "unforgettable," but I my pace was slow and steady. I enjoyed this one. Thanks, Mike. My favorite this morning was NERO at the 67 Olympics. Just as I said to myself, "Hey they forgot the apostrophe:" Ah Ha! NERO! I TRIPPED OVER IPA, and YENS. I wanted yews.

Lemonade, luckily I had you to pull all of it together for me. Thank you.

From the other day: UTAH Beach was NOT a diversion. It was part of the five main entries into northern France. The diversions occurred elsewhere, including more to the northeast near Calais, which would have made more sense since the Channel crossing is narrower there.

It looks like it will be a sunny one here. Winds out of the NE should provide some spectacular lake front action. I think I'll wander over with my knitting and enjoy this day. I hope yours is also spectacular--even without the knitting.

Yellowrocks said...

The theme seemed very difficult at first, but after I had PENT, FIVE and 3 of the V's, I realized what the theme was. I drew the pentagram to find the other two V's. By then I had a lot of perps. Very satisfying theme. Great puzzle. Great, blog, Lemonade, as always.
Favorite was 1A SPAY.
The last fill was the H in STEPH and ELVISH. I have never heard a male called STEPH, only girls. I am so not into Tolkien books.
I was surprised to see ORFF again so soon after the last time. I saw Carmina Burana on stage.
I knew Giuseppe, but tried two S's before two P's.
Yes, dear is very often not affectionate, at all.
I enjoy Keeping Up Appearances with (Katherine) Patricia Routledge. I always find it surprising when she portrays an entirely different personna in other shows. I feel the same about Archie Bunker and Carroll O'Connor. This shows how versatile their acting is.

BunnyM said...

Impressive puzzle from Mike although I didn't see the visual of the FIVEPOINTEDSTAR in the grid until Lemonade pointed it out on the blog.
Slow and steady won the race today as at first I was KNEEDEEP in a white wasteland and starting to FRET. But I kept circling back around and finally FIR with some good WAGs and knowing enough of the answers to get it done. Nice Friday workout- loved the long fills!

Thanks Lemonade for your guidance and some great links. Interesting stuff about TERMINATOR and enjoyed listening to "Rigoletto". Although I did have to look up Verdi's last name. His full moniker was GIUSEPPE Fortunino Francesco Verdi- there's a mouthful ;)

Unknowns/perps: LORDE ( know of the singer but not the song) NABOB, STEPH, ETHIOPIAN, SETT and SAUTERNE

Favorite clues were "Render inconceivable" /SPAY, "Draft letters"/ IPA and of course, "Hogwarts mail carrier" / OWL as any 'Harry Potter' reference always makes me happy :)

DO- yep- AMORAL does conjure up a certain image that makes me GAG . I'll leave it at that.

Rainy, dreary day here but I think the nice weather that Madame Defarge is experiencing will be here tomorrow. Knitting by the lake sounds lovely, BTW. Enjoy!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was quite a challenge but I did finish w/o help. Maybe Orff will stick in my mind one day but it took perps today, as did other answers: Lorde, Elvish, Terminator, etc. Steph was a gimme because he is so famous. Spelled Guiseppe incorrectly at first and wanted a second "U" in Sauterne. Very impressive grid design and lots of great fill, as Lemony said.

Kudos, Mike, for an excellent Friday offering and bravo to Lemony for the striking visuals and informative expo.

YR, yes, I did send you an ecard.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Really fun and clever puzzle and great write-up by Lemon as always. The old Rolodex was having trouble with Verdi's first name but perps came to the rescue. I've seen sett in prior cw's but it was perps again that got me there. Wonderful weather here in Chicago. Have to get out and enjoy it! Hope yours is a great day too! JB2

oc4beach said...


A true Friday puzzle from Mike Buckley. Lemon led us through the thoughts behind the construction admirably. I would not have been able to finish it without Red Letters and perps. ERGO an official DNF, but I did fill it all in.

There were a number of unknowns today, which included ORFF, LORDE, GIUSEPPE, DRMOREAU, STEPH, POMONA and SETT. Luckily the perps were very forgiving today and allowed me to fill in most of the unknowns.

When my son finally got married at the age of 39, he wanted to know my secret of being a good husband. I told him that he only needed to know two words: YES DEAR. It has made for a good marriage that has lasted more than 50 years.

Rain is coming, so I'm battening down the hatches to get ready for it. I hope everyone manages to stay dry today.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Mike really had a puzzle jam-packed with challenges. Thanks! Lemony, your expo was great and so jam-packed with links, I'll have to go back and listen to them later. Loved the Coles and "LOVE POTION" from my youth.

The theme reveal might as well have been in Greek because I did not know what Vertices were. After filling the puzzle, I googled the word and finally figured out the theme. Wow! pretty clever.

Vocabulary building day. I also googled "onomatopoeia" (used by Lemonade) which I knew as a kid's spelling bee word but not what it meant. Okay, now it do.

With Bunny, favorite clue was "render inconceivable". Took a while for SPAY to dawn on me.

Last to fill was the ETHIOPIAN/OAT/STYLI crosses. No word I could think of with cake or flake = OAT? OAT? With flake? Had to red-letter run. I was trying to come up with a type of flag not a nation.

Have heard LORDE's song but didn't know its name or hers.

Knew GIUSEPPE Verdi, but had to keep changing the letters around until it stopped turning red. Same with DR MOREAU. Thought it had "L" in it.

STEPHen Curry was a gimmee. My favorite athlete.

I thought Carmina Burana was a female film star. Duh! Thought Finch & Radley was a liquor. Double Duh!

I had a sister whose middle name was AMORAL. Been estranged from the rest of the family for a long time.

CrossEyedDave said...

I am not sure what to think of this puzzle,
except that it reminds me that I am on a diet...

Oh Nuts!

Unknown said...

to easy for Friday. Whipped right through it until Seraph and Sett. I still have no idea what a sett is. Does one set setts?...or are they like the stones in gravel. Too useless a word to look up !

Lucina said...

What a clever puzzle from Mike Buckley! Thank you! And thank you, Lemonade, for the visual. I didn't connect the Vs but now I see how masterfully they all fit.

This was somewhat challenging as a Friday one should be but I was surprised when it was finished! I loved seeing two classical composers, ORFF and GIUSEPPE Verdi whose music I so enjoy. I also have seen Carmina Burana on stage. Have not heard either the song or the singer, LORDE. It perped itself.

FIW, however, with MAOIST instead of TAOIST and didn't check it. Drat!

SPAY was cleverly clued as was NERO, that despot!

Thanks again, Mr. Buckley and Lemonade!

I hope all are enjoying a fabulous day!

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle a lot. As desper-otto said, there was a load of neat stuff in it. I didn't get the visual connection to the V's until seeing Lemonade's illustration.
STEPHen Curry of the Golden State Warriors basketball team based in Oakland is a sports hero around here.
I loved the clue for SPAY.
PK, I loved what you said about Finch & Radley.
My wife hates it when I say YES DEAR.
Good wishes to you all.

Trubrit said...

Great brainteaser for me today. Giuseppe was first fill, easy, gave me a 'U' and the only wine I could think of with a 'u' was sauterne. I too had 'yew before 'yen'. Wanted 'Obispo' before 'Pomona'.
I did pretty well for a Friday, being a novice.
Thanks Mr. Buckley and Lemonade .

Have a great weekend.

MJ said...

Good day to all!

What a masterfully designed grid this was, with lots of juicy fill. Needed perps for DR. MOREAU and LORDE. Like others, my favorite clue answer was "Render inconceivable" for SPAY. Thanks for the expo and links, Lemonade.

Yellowrocks (from yesterday)--Best wishes to you and Alan.

Enjoy the day!

Wilbur Charles said...

I put my Thursday paper down and when I came back to get it, it had disappeared. I hate to miss a day. Maybe the library. I just don't like doing it on my phone.

The NERO clue and the SPAY Clues were great. I put 'ean'in ETHIOPIAN as in European.

And until I got here I thought Finch and Radley were Stan LEE characters.

I thought I was the only one using the word SIGNAGE. This part of Florida has horrible SIGNAGE. And they wonder why there's so many wrong way drivers.

So. If Cal Poly is Cal Tech, then the TBBT gang must be in Pomona. It's never mentioned.

I like the cross cut, thin crust pizza. And I do like it with pineapples.

Somebody told me I'd like Tolkien, I doubted it, then spent two days holed up reading and rereading LOTR*. I can still recite some of the poetry but I never committed Bombadil's verse to memory. Did McCartney get his inspiration for Long and Winding Road here.

Lemonade never lets us down on the write-ups. And Mike Buckley, thanks for a clever, entertaining xword.

WC

* Ok. There may have been a bottle or two oF dry SAUTERNE involved.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Wonderful puzzle on all levels
-I couldn’t figure out who TOBE was and it took Lemon to show me TO BE – DUH!
-I have been KNEE DEEP in adolescents in classrooms, cornfields and Central Florida for five decades
-My MIL’s 95th birthday next week reminds her of all the people she has OUTLIVED
-67 Olympics was a great clue
-GIUSEPPE Verdi = Joe Green
-The light side of the TERMINATOR can be 500˚F hotter than on the dark side
-OJ’s limousine driver produced a big GAP in his alibi

Jayce said...

Cal Poly and Cal Tech are not the same. The Cal Tech campus at which the Big Bang Theory guys work is in Pasadena. In an episode several years ago in which the guys drove to Los Angeles it was mentioned.

Misty said...

Lemonade, I didn't get the theme of this puzzle at all until your write-up. My goodness, it is really brilliant, isn't it? But would never have noticed and tracked those Vs and than understood PENTAGRAMS if I hadn't read your explanation. So, brilliant Friday puzzle, Mike, with lots of fun clues (I too loved the one for SPAY and actually got it!). And also loved the classical music references and the clue for NERO (I got that one too). Delightful puzzle!

Have a great weekend coming up, everybody!

desper-otto said...

Jayce, DW also hates it when I say YES DEAR. I say it often.

PK said...

Outlived: I recently watched the movie of my wedding reception which my daughter had put on DVD. A scan of the crowd made me realize that only ten of the people there are still alive. Old age is a survival game.

Argyle said...

What did Ronny take out to Pomona?

AnonymousPVX said...

Old age isn't for the faint of heart

This was a nice puzzle, tough but fair, and getting the theme was not necessary to the solve.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

I FIW in the NW but had so much fun trying to solve your pzl, Mike. Excellent concept and such a challenge until a few chinks in the armor gave. Thanks for a great Friday pzl.

Until I DETER'd L---EmOTION's M @18a I had a parallelogram of Vs. I've seen Triangle RAH-RAH collegiate flags, but never parallelograms...

My downfall - ABBRiV. So, I was Seriously Mired, or KNIfED-UP @24a. YES, DEAR, I was ANTSY to finish I finally went w/ my 1st thought @4d and ended up with KNIEDEuP(?). Between that and PAT-cake flake-Pat(?), I never got to ETHIOPIA; (Rush Fan was too short).

Thanks Lem for fixin' me up. Enjoyed the tunes (and yes, I knew that Verdi, just not the title). Oh, and for 'splainin' TOBE, I thought that's how the Danes spelt TOBY [wait, was Hamlet gay?] :-)

WOs: ala/i b/f BIN, ePotion; I had HUM for the Fan noise clecho.
ESPs: Lemme just tell you what I "got"...
Gimmies: PBS, RXS, STYLI, ASAP, LASE, TERMINATOR, NELLIE, EXGOV, ELVISH, RIO ERGO, it was SARI not toga

Fav: c/a for 49a. Love me some Get Smart and AGENT 99.

Jinx - Giuseppe is Verdi's 1st name, like Pinocchio's maker. I always make sure my down-the-block-neighbor, Giuseppe, gets some of my pizzelles every Christmas.

DO - Our bit of the "awl" patch is almost done with a 4y REORG. I said G'Day to our Aussie mates, Adios to our Argentina hombres, and will say Take off Hosers to my Calgary buddies... In the interim, we got new Corp boss-men, shake-up in IT, and angst... [it's all turning good; but boy did it suck]

YR - I love Keeping Up Appearances. Outside of DW & Pop, no one I know knows of it. Corner poll - hand up if you spend / spent Sat night waiting for it on PBS... [from earlier in the week.... DR WHO was on PBS Sunday!]

PVX - Faint of heart... LOL!; but not that funny for >4 Cornerites dealing w/ fib and/or blood pressure [I was just put on valsartan :-(]

Well, this NABOB as OUTLIVED his 20-lines.

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta- DAH!!
This was a happy completion for yrs truly - a tough Friday solve of Mr. Buckley's opus with no look-ups, Googles, confirmations, or cheats of any kind...
I agree with Lemonade that 1A kicked things off with a brilliant clue for SPAY!
Some of today's fills depended on perps more than others, as, for instance, 69A: SETT.
Funny how I finished by connecting the V-"vertices" on the outside, turning the PENTAGRAM into a pentagon, which is of course only the inside polygon of a FIVE POINTED STAR.
Last night I enjoyed the talented young actors of UC Irvine's New Swan company in The Tempest. For other cruciverbalists in the SoCal region, I highly recommend attending this warm-hearted rendition of Shakespeare's "Brave new world"!

Lemonade714 said...

It was a very well done puzzle. I do have to credit HG who created the grid picture for me, as I do not know how to do what he does. He also started us all on using the GIF format. See PLIE pic.

Here is a SETT

Thank all who comment and all who are enjoying their summer.

Anonymous T said...

Did anyone watch the Get Smart link? Do you think Mel & Buck's GAGs are a GAS? :-) -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Oh, yes - I forgot to laud the cluing for 34A. I wonder why my ol' walnut inserted an apostrophe before "67." Damn! I caught it in time, but it did slow me down.

Overall, a truly fine pzl, beautifully engineered!

Anonymous T said...

D'Oh! Bill G. My apologies for my math (parallelogram) error in my 1st post... I really meant trapezoid of Vs. //hangs head in shame... -T

Misty said...

Has anyone been watching "Grantchester"? I watched a recent episode last night, and found it incredibly sad with each major character suffering heartbreak of some sort. I sure hope things start lightening up a little soon. I can handle only so much sadness in my TV watching.

Anonymous said...

I worked on this this morning while waiting for the rain to stop so I could get in a walk with the dog. By the time it stopped I needed to get on the road to Michigan. No walk today.

This was crunchy, but it is Friday. Came to the grid for some help and saw the star which helped me with some of the answers. Thanks, gentlemen, for your work today.

On the road today I saw an Ohio license plate that said TA DAAA. I immediately thought of the Cornerites. I wonder if this person is a crossworder.

Have a nice evening.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Haven't been watching Grantchester, Misty. But am I big fan of Broadchurch, despite David Tennant's broad Scottish burrrr. I have to put the captions on to be sure I'm understanding him.
For some reason I get a kick out of repeating to myself how he addresses his fellow detective, Miller. "Meller," he rasps, and "Mellerrrr" when he's PO'd.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Thanks, Anon-T. I think Verdi was more of a brain-pooch than a misunderstanding. I had never heard of pizzelles before you mentioned them. They look delicious - I think I'll try to make a batch come Christmas time.

Misty said...

I'll have to see if I can catch an episode of "Broadchurch," Ol'Man Keith.

Anonymous said...

Did I wake up on Saturday. I filled the entire East, except the stinker REORG, from FIVE POINTED STAR to the right, but everything to the left was almost white. LORDE, TERMINATOR, ETHIOPIAN, SAUTERNE, ELVISH, GIUSEPPE- absolutely not a clue about those. ABBREV- that smelled too. Thanks to perps I filled DR MOREAU and MARNE, neither one had I ever heard of.

A big fat DNF two days in a row. GRRRRRR.

Bill G said...

Misty, yes, I'm a fan of Grantchester. My favorite so far was the episode with the jazz singer and the Sidney Bachet music. I've seen one episode past that one where his cop buddy got shot. Is that the one you meant? I hope he and Amanda get back together. I haven't seen any new episodes since that one. The local PBS stations seem to show them whenever rather than on a definite schedule. I added Sidney Bachet to my Pandora stations.

Bill G said...

Oops! That's Sidney Bechet, not Bachet.

Misty said...

Bill Graham, my stations are irregular too, so I'm not sure I've seen all episodes of "Grantchester" and am up to date. But right now, the cop buddy's (Geordie's?) wife has learned about his affair with Margaret (is that her name?). Since they have something like four children, this is terrible. And Sydney is struggling with the conflict between his faith and his love for Amanda--a situation not yet resolved (but I fear for the worst). Let's stay in touch after this weekend and confer about what happened.

Lucina said...

Here, Grantchester airs on a regular basis on Sunday nights. It's true this last episode was rather dark and next Sunday's is the season finale. That is likely when he'll make a decision about Amanda as she gave him an ultimatum. Geordie parted from Margaret in a final good-bye. We'll see if Cathy, his wife, will take him back.

Now that Mrs. McGuire is widowed, she is free to marry her suitor. I can't recall his name.

Anonymous said...

Bruce Willis in the sixth sense is a ghost.

Forrest Gump has a son with childhood friend Jenny before she dies of aids.

Charlton Heston actually lands on earth in the future and comes across the statue of liberty at the end

Andy dufrense escapes from shawshank and his revelations cause the warden to kill himself

Misty said...

Thank you for the great update on "Grantchester", Lucina. Can't wait to see the final episode--just sorry that it's the final one for the season!

Anonymous T said...

YR - if you've 8min or so... What's wrong with us Americans? Americans trying to keep up watching Keeping Up... -T

RetFizz said...

Loved this puzzle, but for some reason when I finished it and got no tada, I turned on the red letters and there weren't any! Then I clicked on reveal-solve, and nothing changed. The display then told me that I got 99% without help. Bah! Oh well.

I agree with what PK and AnonymousPVX said about old age.

I don't watch the Big Bang Theory because I think the characters are too stereotypical. And yes, Caltech (not CalTech or Cal-Tech or Cal Tech) is in Pasadena, not Pomona. The two Cal Polys have done something to avoid the confusion, as I was told by a sportswriter that I emailed about their teams, but don't remember what it was. Sorry.

Cheers – RetFizz, Caltech '47

RetFizz said...

No wonder Get Smart was so funny. Mel Brooks and Buck Henry!

CanadianEh! said...

I completed Wed. & Thurs.(yes I saw the HOSERS CSO) CW on Cruciverb (glad it is back!) by beautiful Lake Muskoka and did not get a chance to post. Too much fun with swimming, boating, games, and S'mores around the campfire! But I finished this CW on paper and was able to trace out the pentagram. Clever.
WEES by now.
I had Stun before SPAY (love it!)
Giovanni before GUISEPPE held me up and gave me an extra V.
Steve before STEPH also created a problem.

Onward to Saturday's CW!

Picard said...

Enjoyed this one! Yesterday's "BRIDGES" theme, not so much. That "theme" was very vague.

Unknowns: LORDE, LEE (had no idea who were Finch or Radley), VALSE, STEPH (hand up that is a girl's name), SETT, ELVISH, MARNE, SAUTERNE. Had ORFF recently, otherwise unknown.

Just one annoyance: OAT cake or flake? Never heard of either. PK agrees. Anyone else?

RetFizz said...

Picard said, "Just one annoyance: OAT cake or flake? Never heard of either. PK agrees. Anyone else?"

Count me in.

But Picard, you should see "To Kill A Mockingbird." Great movie - beat out "Lawrence of Arabia," as I recall. Oscar to Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. Based on Harper Lee's Pulitzer-winning novel. First screen appearance of Robert Duvall as Boo Radley.

And Elvish was a language invented by Tolkien specifically for Elves (obviously) to speak. For the 3 movies, actors who played Elves actually spoke it.

Picard said...

Thanks for the OAT validation, RetFizz

And thanks for the To Kill A Mockingbird recommendation!

I did figure out that Elvish must be elf language. Surprising if all elves everywhere speak the same language.

Argyle said...

They don't.