google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, July 31, 2017 ~ Lila Cherry

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Jul 31, 2017

Monday, July 31, 2017 ~ Lila Cherry

Theme: Play Ball! - We can't! All the bats are broken.

17A. Popular pool game: EIGHT BALL

32A. Nearly: JUST ABOUT

40A. Bulletin board sticker: THUMB TACK

5D. Healthful cereal: OAT BRAN

42D. Doctor's order: LAB TEST

58A. Cause of wood splinters in the infield ... and what each set of puzzle circles represents: BROKEN BAT

Argyle at the plate and "Really Rich" pitching. You should draw a walk but you still could be caught in a "pickle".

Across:

1. Outdoor party area: PATIO

6. Hot tub: SPA

9. In-the-wall security devices: SAFEs

14. Andes beast of burden: LLAMA. Two 'L'. In 29A. Great Wall continent: ASIA we have 60A. Tibetan beast of burden: YAK

15. Fox foot: PAW

16. Flashy display: ECLAT

19. Pretense: GUISE

20. Sneaks out after being grounded, say: DISOBEYS

21. Spinach-eating sailor: POPEYE

22. College dorm VIPs: RAs. (resident assistant or resident advisor)

23. Loo: LAV. (lavatory)

24. Blame for the crime: RAP. Noun usage: take the RAP, Slang. to take the blame

25. Capital One's "What's in your wallet?," e.g.: SLOGAN

31. Singer Rimes: LEANN



37. Eduardo's eight: OCHO. Spanish.

38. Brown-toned photo: SEPIA

39. Crowd silence: HUSH

42. Doone of Exmoor: LORNA

Badgworthy Water, a small river flowing through Malmsmead on Exmoor.

43. Israeli statesman Abba: EBAN. Abba Eban died in 2002.

44. Poland's capital: WARSAW where you might see 26D. Peace Nobelist Walesa: LECH. Lech Wałęsa.


45. Sophs, two yrs. later: SRs

48. Milk buys: Abbr.: QTs

49. Kernel holder: COB

50. Bernadette of "Into the Woods": PETERS



52. Surprise winner of fable: TORTOISE

57. Japanese mushroom: ENOKI

59. Hollywood VIP: CELEB

61. Barely enough: SCANT

62. Garden plantings: SEEDS

63. Ambulance initials: EMS. (Emergency Medical Services)

64. Short and not so sweet: TERSE

Down:

1. Asked earnestly (for): PLED. Pleaded, plead, or pled, per Dictionary.com, et al.

2. Et __: and others: ALII

3. Clothing price sites: TAGS

4. Texter's "If you ask me": IMHO. (in my humble opinion)

6. Neuters: SPAYS

7. Buddies: PALS

8. Punching tool: AWL

9. Classical guitarist Andrés: SEGOVIA



10. __ of coffee: A CUP

11. Advertising handout: FLIER

12. No-sweat grade: EASY 'A'

13. Precipitous: STEEP

18. Lima or fava: BEAN

21. Linguine or tortellini: PASTA

23. Eye surgery acronym: LASIK

25. One in a casino row: SLOT

27. Honolulu's island: OAHU

28. Pointy-hatted garden decoration: GNOME

30. Detest: ABHOR

32. Lees on your legs: JEANS

33. Scannable mdse. bars: UPC. (Universal Product Code)

34. For us: OURS

35. Pres. Carter's alma mater: USNA. (United States Naval Academy)


36. Unfreeze: THAW

38. Runs, hits and errors: STATS

41. Backyard beef on the bone, briefly: BBQ RIBS

44. Employment: WORK

45. Project details, for short: SPECS

46. Actress Zellweger: RENÉE. Post surgery.


47. Took badly?: STOLE

49. Broth-spoiling excess?: COOKS. "Too many cooks spoil the broth".

51. Barely managed, with "out": EKED

52. Theme park transport: TRAM

53. At a former time: ONCE. Once upon a time. (In to the Woods?)

54. Letter-shaped beam: I-BAR

55. Without, in France: SANS

56. Suffix with kitchen: ETTE. (kitchenette)

58. "Ciao!": "BYE!". "See ya later!"


Argyle

51 comments:

OwenKL said...

Yeah, me! Used the Mensa site, so no circles, but guessed the batty gimmick before I got to the reveal anyway!
Hand up for MARCO POLO > EIGHT BALL.

{A+, B-, A.}

The LLAMA and the YAK are examples that are classic
Of convergent evolution, they are in fact quite graphic!
Long woolly coats for mountain cold,
Sure-footed, on STEEP crags to hold,
But llamas don't have horns, because the Andes have less traffic!

We were on OUR sailboat, learning how to tack,
To sail into the wind, and do it with ÉCLAT!
The Captain said, "To get it done
Don't DISOBEY this rule of thumb:
If you want to stick it, you must use a THUMB TACK!"

Jack was sold some magic BEANS, by a con-man's talking.
Planted them as SEEDS -- soon on a cloud was walking!
STOLE a harp and goose
With a giant in pursuit!
Then he got arrested for the ABHORRENT crime of stalking!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Rich (Lila) and Santa!

Really quick puzzle!

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Saw the circles...forgot to look at 'em. EAR was obvious at 49a...until EOOKT showed up. Oh, COOKS! Thanx, Rich. And thanx for rounding the bases for us, Argyle.

As kids, we used to collect broken bats at City Team practice night. We'd glue and screw it back together, wrap the handle with friction tape, and that bat would enter a second life. Many were too long for us, so we'd just saw off a bit of the "fat" end.

I saw SEGOVIA live in concert back in the early '80s, near the end of his career. He just walked out onto the stage, sat down on his stool, and plucked his guitar. I don't think he uttered a single word all evening.

Anonymous said...

The past tense of "plead" is "pleaded," not PLED (not even most judges, court reporters and clerks know this). Dictionary.com be damned; let's use a real dictionary, like the Collins. Merriam-Webster now allows even "plead" (rhymes with "lead" the noun).

desper-otto said...

Merriam Webster online says: pleaded \ˈplē-dəd\ or pled also plead \ˈpled\;

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Just finished my oatmeal topped with blackstrap molasses and a little 2% milk before coming here. Other than having oatmeal before OATBRAN, no solving issues were encountered. I had no issue with PLED; I use it frequently and I observe many others do the same. Since Rich wore both hats today; submitter and editor, I'm sure it was well thought out.

Thanks, Argyle, for leading us out of the gate.

Hungry Mother said...

The theme helped me cruise through this one. No issue with PLED or "bled" or "sped" or "bred"; it's a sound thing I guess.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Really, Rich, that was fun. Since I am working on paper again, the circled theme is SO much easier to find, and therefore helpful in the solve. I was on another purge tear yesterday and just had my hands on a mess of loose THUMBTACKS in a small Ziploc Bowl. What was I thinking?!?! I don't even have a corkboard, and I no longer have to use the tacks to hold tie-back curtains. My Depression era parents must have passed this saving gene along.

Thanks for the explication, Argyle.

D-O: Love your "recycling" story!

Ah, Dictionaries.... There are two types: Prescriptive and Descriptive. Prescriptive, such as Samuel Johnson's and Noah Webster's, tell us what should be. Merriam Webster is famously descriptive, defining the actual common usage. Therein lies the fodder for linguistic arguments. Perfect for our play with words!

Have a sunny Monday, everyone.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

An easy, breezy offering from Rich to end the month of July on a high note. Saw the "broken" bats immediately, but the reveal could have been several different descriptors. I liked Renee Zellwegger (sp.?) better pre-surgery. Like Owen, I thought Marco Polo before Eight Ball, and I also had Ear before Cob.

Nice work, Rich, and spot on expo, Argyle.

Have a great day.

Yellowrocks said...

Very quick and simple. Argyle, your review was a bright spot and made it all worthwhile. .

"a real dictionary, like the Collins" says:
Word forms: ˈpleaded or pled or plead (plɛd ; pled), ˈpleading

There are different scholarly points of view on pleaded vs pled. The consensus seems to be that pleaded is preferable in serious writing, but that pled is not wrong and is becoming more and more accepted. Spellcheck in WORD accepts PLED. Spellcheck here does not.

I always say, crosswords contain alternate meanings and spellings, slang, informal language, regionalisms, archaic words, near synonyms, etc. which is why I find them so interesting. Because of this variety crossword puzzles encourage flexible thinking. A crossword puzzle is a lighthearted game, not a style manual or a vocabulary test, so let's lighten up.

oc4beach said...


I used the Mensa site, so I didn't know there were circles until the reveal clue. Didn't need them though. I sailed through with very few hiccups.

I did want EAR vs COB, but that was easily corrected.

As far as dictionaries go, I don't have a problem with what any of them consider proper. In fact I like to check the Urban Dictionary and other dictionaries that give current usages and slang.

I agree with IM about Renee Zellweger. She was always a cute girl next door type with a very soft look. Now she looks pretty hard. Not at all attractive. Many CELEBs who have had extensive plastic surgery have not come out of it looking better. Aging gracefully is better in many cases.

Tomorrow I will have my first cataract surgery done on my right eye and then, two weeks later, my left eye will be done. Although I'm not looking forward to the surgery, I am looking forward to seeing a lot better. I'll be away from the blog until I can see better. CIAO.

MJ said...

Good day to all!

An enjoyable Monday offering from Rich. I needed the reveal to grok the theme as there were no circles at the Mensa site. I liked the alliteration at 41D "Backyard beef on the bone, briefly", only at our house the BBQ RIBS are baby back pork, a rare treat. Thanks for the expo and links, Argyle. I particularly enjoyed the Andres SEGOVIA clip.

Enjoy the day!

MJ said...

oc4beach--Best wishes for your cataract surgeries.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! No circles but easy to find the BATs. This was a home run. Thanks, "Lila" and Argyle. Enjoyed the Segovia, now I'll go listen to the other two.

Strangely, I had been listening to LEANN Rimes sing "Blue" just before I came to the puzzle. Eery! I hadn't listened to that in 20 years.

Didn't know ECLAT, ENOKI but didn't slow me down. ESP

D-O, liked your BATty story. Kids did some creative things in our day.

OC4Beach, good luck on your eye surgery.

Irish Miss said...

Madame Defarge @ 7:47 ~ I got a chuckle reading about your "Thumbtacks Treasure Trove." I'm trying to psych myself up to tackle some much-needed dresser drawer purges, particularly socks, hose, etc.

YR @ 8:13 ~ Your last paragraph says it all and says it well, IMHO. Brava!

oc4beach @ 9:22 ~ Good luck with your surgery. I imagine most of the Cornerites have had cataract surgery on at least one eye, if not both. I was in my 50's when I had my first eye done.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

41D: BBQ RIBS usually refers to pork and not beef.

CrossEyedDave said...

Hah! This puzzle didn't scare me at all...

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Lila Cherry, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

ocbeach: Best of luck with your cataract surgery. The code is 66984, if you are interested.

Regarding PLED. I checked my Webster dictionary copyright 1969, PLED is not there as a listed word, but as an alternate word for pleaded. I also have a Merriam Webster dictionary on my phone that has the same definition. PLED is an alternate version of pleaded.

Zipped through the puzzle fairly quickly. A couple hangups, SEGOVIA was unknown. As was LEANN. PETERS as well. And ENOKI.

My only inkblot was writing in EAR instead of COB, which I fixed after a perp.

Liked the theme. Also liked D-O's broken bat repair story. Clever.

I had forgotten that Lila Cherry was our own Rich Norris.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Lucina said...

In spite of this being about baseball, I sashayed right through it and found the BROKEN BATS. Thank you, Lila, er, Rich and thank you, Argyle for adding to the fun.

Our PATIO doesn't get much use in summer but in winter it used to be an extended dining room. I don't entertain much anymore so it's not in great use.

We had BBQ RIBS this past Saturday, slow cooked and yummy!

In WARSAW we were told that all bombed buildings had been rebuilt exactly as the original. It's a beautiful city.

YR: well said.

Have a sensational day, everyone! Lunch with my siblings today.

Tinbeni said...

Good Job on the write-up Argyle.

Thanks Rich for a FUN Monday puzzle. Enjoyed the BROKEN BAT theme.


EMILY has been a bust ... only about a half inch of rain at Villa Incognito.

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get SEGOVIA ... otherwise a speed run.

Fave today, since there was "no booze" were the BBQ RIBS ...
Hmmm, that gives me an idea for dinner later ...

Cheers!

Lemonade714 said...

It is sad to see the 40 year old actors and actresses trying to fool us into believing they do not age. Plastic surgeon did not get their name from preserving youth. Another recent vicitm is Jada Pinkett Smith who always had a unique look and now is just another victim. BEFORE and AFTER

I am always intrigued by a puzzle from our editor, hoping for some insight and inspiration into the creative process. I never thing of these split and scramble word puzzles. Though I am now thinking I need to do one where the theme is also sort of baseball related with the reveal: BUSTED BALLS. Off to work

Thank you Rich and Argyle.

Jessica Lang said...

RIP Sam Shepard.

tawnya said...

Hi all!

Heads up!! Loved the baseball themed run today - got the reveal right away! No circles on Mensa but saw the splinters anyway. Thank you Rich and Santa!

I adore Bernadette Peters - always have! This song from The Jerk is my favorite.

I remember Leann Rimes singing How do I Live at the same time as Trisha Yearwood. I couldn't understand why two people would release the same song at the same time until I read about it. Turns out, the song was supposed to be used in a movie but the powers-that-be didn't think 14-year-old Leann could bring enough maturity to pull it off. I think they were wrong, but that's JMHO. Wiki

And, for PK: Blue

Have the day off so I'm going to re-pot my houseplants before the heat turns back on. Been luck enough to be in the low 80's this weekend and someone broke the humidifier so it's actually quite pleasant outside!

Happy Monday!

t.

Unknown said...

no problem with "pled". Last to fall was "New England". surely never used éclat in my life and only vaguely know any guitarist. EasyA shows up in crosswords but not in my major. Actually if the engineers had to take the course the curve was such that I could get at least a 3.8 (only school I ever heard of that graded in tenths). So when I walked into junior year intermediate mechanics I figured easy 3.0. Curve...9 students....just knew I could finish 3rd. I finished third alright with a 2.0. Prof had 10 years of exams, that became the curve. The two geniuses got 4's and PHD's. The rest of the class got 1.8's or lower and only two of us completed the major. I knew I was too dumb to be a physicist...but smarter than all the engineers. If you can't beat them...join someone you CAN beat !!

FInally whats with ALII ? My LATIN I and Latin II in high school gave me aliA. but that didn't fit...so ALII and TADA !!!!

AnonymousPVX said...

Had oatmeal for oat bran auntil fixed by crosses and that was about it. Didn't need need to know the theme to solve, always best. Well clued.

Sorry about Sam, Jessica. He will be missed.

The cataract surgery should have you seeing clearly that same day or the next, no worries. Best of luck.

Unknown said...

Cataract surgery should be a breeze. Not to mention the results. good luck anyway. I opted for the small, experienced hands of the surgeon. The center pushed the laser which I am sure is safe but I kept thinking about research LASER's under software control in the eighties...lets just say we were lucky we never blinded anyone!!! Damn code pigs !!

Jayce said...

A pleasant way to spend a little time this fine Monday morning. Waited for the reveal to find out if it was a mixed up BAT or a muddled TAB. BAT it was. It took GUISE to reveal that the right answer was FLIER, not FLYER.

oc4beach, may your cataract surgery go well.

OwenKL, I liked your first poem very much. And nice usage of "stalking" in your third poem.

Andres SEGOVIA had a great abundance of talent.

Good wishes to you all.

Misty said...

I looked at the puzzle and thought "Lila Cherry, interesting name for a constructor." Turns out it is--would love to hear how you came up with it, Rich! Anyway, perfect Monday puzzle, not a total speed run, but all very clear and doable, with fun circles and mixed up BATs. As owner of a TORTOISE (just fed her her daily lettuce, she likes the red leaves best) I enjoyed seeing her in the puzzle. Always enjoy seeing POPEYE in a puzzle, and, occasionally, Ms. Olive OYL. Great fun this morning, many thanks Rich, and Argyle.

Helpful explanation of the different agendas of dictionaries, Madame D.

I liked your first limerick too, Owen.

Yes, Jessica, I too was sorry to read about the loss of Sam Shepard this morning.

Good luck on the cataract surgery, Oc4beach. I hear it's not too troublesome.

Have a great week, everybody!

desper-otto said...

Misty, "Lila Cherry" is a mixed-up "Really Rich." See Rich Norris Alias Names in the Olio section of the main blog page. There are a bunch of 'em.

oc4beach said...


Thank you all for your encouraging words. I'm actually looking forward to the improvement in vision, especially my night vision.

My only concern is that everything goes well. My sister had her eyes done last year and ended up with corneal erosions on one eye and had to go through extra surgeries and procedures to fix the problem. It was very painful for her. Everyone else that I know of had a very positive outcome.

I'll "See" you all soon.

CanadianEh! said...

Completed this CW in my newspaper in the shade on the PATIO. Thanks for the fun Rich and Argyle.
I had the circles and saw the TAB/BAT letters which corrected Ear to COB in a hurry.
I had Nabob in my mind from the other day but quickly changed it to CELEB.
And like Jayce, GUISE corrected Flyer to FLIER.

SEROVIA was unknown to me (enjoyed the link!) and I had to do a long alphabet run to reach the V for LAV.
Canadians do not buy QTS of milk. We buy a 4 litre bag containing 3 smaller bags. I think I linked previously but here is a different one.
CanadianBaggedMilk

Best wishes for your cataract surgery and recovery oc4beach. You will be busy with the eyedrops!

Enjoy the day. We are warm (27C or 81F) and sunny here.

Michael said...

Dear CanadianEh!

Another factor that might be at issue in bagged milk, is that, by and large, I cannot think of any time a pitcher is used for pouring milk. Orange juice, yes, occasionally, but milk is almost always poured from the bottle or carton. So the idea of opening a 1.3 liter bag into a pitcher just doesn't occur.

Now, this observation may be because my kids have grown (and drink beer now), or because this is --yet another! -- peculiarity of California life, or because we gringos are loco, or ...., but I just cannot think of a connection in the past 30 or 40 years of my life.

Michael said...

Ooops -- the editor snipped a crucial part of my comment above. "I cannot think of a [pitcher=milk] connection...."

CanadianEh! said...

Michael - I may be misunderstanding your "opening a 1.3 liter bag into a pitcher" but we do not pour the milk out of the bag into a pitcher. We have special plastic pitchers (some enterprising ceramic artists sell fancy ones at craft shows!) that hold the 1.3 litre bag with milk inside it. Then we just snip the one top corner of the bag and pour. Keeps the other unopened two bags of milk fresher also. We do have 1 litre cartons too. But 4 litre bag is more economical and expiry date is usually at least 2 weeks.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

WYRS. Magilla, I suggest you avoid Texas as long as you have your "beef ain't BBQ" bias. (I too prefer pork BBQ, especially when prepped by pulling. But when I lived in the D/FW area I learned to appreciate the beef variety as well.)

OC4, I'm looking forward to your contribution on Wednesday. The worst for me was the anticipation (one eye down, one to go).

Although I didn't get to the puzzle until I got the motorhome put away this afternoon, I had OATmeal before BRAN (hi Spitz and A-PVX). Too late for breakfast, so I had an ear of corn before I had corn on the COB (hi IM and OC4).

Thaks Rich and Santa for a challenging and fun Monday.

Misty said...

Thanks for letting me know, Desper-otto! I had no idea!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta- DA!!
A tricky grid design, making it impossible to solve along my favorite path, the straight diagonal from NW to SE. Instead, I had to track from OATBRAN to LEE ANN to GNOME to EBAN to JEANS to JUST ABOUT to ABHOR, WARSAW, LAB TEST and at last down to TERSE.
Whew!
Instead of a backwards slash - "\" - it tracks like a long, loopy, and backwards capital "N."
But eventually it all came to a happy conclusion. I thank Ms. Cherry or Mr. Norris for his/her imaginative & playful scheme and Argyle for his follow-up.

OCHO? We have adopted that short, choppy word for our home address. We live at number 8 on our cul de sac, so call our Mediterranean style home, "Villa Ocho."
It has a certain ring.

Wilbur Charles said...

Tin, you should have been down south of the skyway. Quite a windy soaking and 75 had the usual spinouts.

Skyway was closed by 1045 so I had a long were drive from Bradenton to TPA

WC

I'll be back, I'm still driving I just dashed into McDonald's to catch the latest Owen opus.

WC

PS. I liked #2 as well as #3. #1 was very stylish but I like your nutty stuff

Lucina said...

I'm so sorry to hear of Sam Shepard's. What a wonderful actor and writer we've lost. Condolences to Jessica Lange and their children.

Lucina said...

Oops. Sam Shepard's passing.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks "Really Rich" for quite the crunchy (for me) Monday. I FIW w/ LuANN.

Thanks Argyle for the expo - esp SEGOVIA's music. No clue and ESP.

WOs: PAd b/f PAW
ESPs: LuANN, LuCH, SEGOVIA, LORNA, ENOKI, EBAN.
Fav: c/a for TERSE

{A+,B,A+}

oc4 - Everything will be fine & we'll "see" you later this week.

Madame Defarge & YR @8:12 - Hear! Hear!

C, Eh! Interesting bit about milk bags.

Jinx & Magilla - I never(ed) order BBQ RIBs because it's too messy at lunch. Then I did. Oh my, those beef ribs were good and I licked the bones clean. TxMs & DO - if you've not been to Luling's, it's worth the trip IMHO.

Cheers, -T

BunnyM said...

Good evening

Finally getting a chance to read the blog. I finished the puzzle this morning in the waiting room while D#2 was getting her wisdom teeth removed (all 4 impacted) She's staying with us to recoup; Mom's TLC is the best ;)
She said she looks like Alfalfa from "The Little Rascals" while using the open ended "sock" with ice bags and Velcro at the top to secure it to her jaws which are quite swollen and bruised :( She's been a trooper though.

Enjoyed this "Really Rich" offering- fun Monday with the BROKENBAT theme and Argyle as our tour guide.

Hand up for Ear/COB and Oatmeal/ OATBRAN. I tried Rat/RAP.

Perps- SEGOVIA, EBAN and ENOKI

Lots of great comments- what a nice way to end the day! DD is sleeping for now; I'll be doing the same before too long as we got an early start to this long day.

See you tomorrow!

Argyle said...

Can you drink milk straight from the bag like you can with a carton or jug? Mind you, I'm not saying I would do such a thing.

Anonymous said...

Uum, you do know that Jessica Lange (former partner of Sam Shepard) has an "e" at the end of her last name, unlike our blogger here, Jessica Lang. Condolences expressed here are heart-felt, I'm sure, but maybe misdirected.

TX Ms said...

Fun puzzle; with an S(afes) and e(clat), cw staple, in place, I remembered Andre Segovia - loved his music. Eban Abba another gimme that I learned working the cws - never heard of him otherwise - before my time of keeping up with world news. Loved your links, Argyle - keep 'em coming.

C,Eh - thanks for explaining the innovative milk "containers" in Canada, but I did cringe until I read at the very end that the plastic bags are recycled for a good cause. Here in Houston, we're not allowed to recycle plastic bags, but plastic containers and cartons are OK. War between the Austin Legislature vs individual cities' ban on plastic bags. The bags are not only unsightly along freeways but also endanger our marine life in the Gulf, all the way to West Texas and cattle.

D-O - loved your bat story. How darn ingenious! Of course, kids these days have no need for that kind of creativity because parents nowadays will make sure their children have only the best.

Anon-T - Ate at Luling's years ago, and it was good. But Gatlin's on Ella Blvd. (in my neck o' woods) is Houston's latest go-to. But it's not as good as Louie Mueller's in Taylor. If you're ever Austin-bound on 290, gotta detour there, but in the morning. Left Houston @ 8AM, got there @ 10:30, and a line was already forming down the block before it opened. We stood in line behind some Japanese tourists. BEST damn BBQ beef ribs/brisket I ever had, hands-down! Have to get there early, because when it's gone, it's gone for the day. Son Wayne was going to open one down here in Houston. Emailed him asking when?! He replied that he's working on it. But something must have cratered. I'm very sad. Nuf said about BBQ beef ribs.

OC4 - I'm sure you're going to ace it, as my sister did and others on the blog have reported. Let us know how you're doing as soon as you are able.

PK said...

When I lived down on the Texas Gulf Coast, the dad in the family I spent time with would bring home authentic cook-shack barbeque that was the best I ever ate. One Saturday he apportioned it out to everybody's plate and we all dug in. It had a strong horrible taste. He leapt up and dumped all our plates back in the kettle he took to get barbeque and went running out the door.
Some time later he came back with another mess of meat which was the expected scrumptious treat we'd always had before. After we had eaten, "Dad" told us the first we had was Billy Goat and wasn't supposed to be sold by the chef's son to customers. We always wondered who was supposed to get that. It wasn't edible.

Tawnya, thanks for "Blue".

TX Ms said...

Correction to my D-O comment: Of course, kids these days have no need for that kind of creativity because parents nowadays will make sure their children have only the best... "even if they can't afford it and not in their budget - now they have credit cards to rely on."

TX Ms said...

PK@9:25 - Aha, cabrito! Delicacy down here in some parts of Texas. Thanks for the memory - only had it once in Brownsville - strange-tasting to this beef eater but ok. There are some restaurants in Houston that serve it: from the Houston Press - “El Hidalguense baby goat is incredibly tasty and tender. Old goat is not.” Maybe the BBQ shack served an "old goat."

Husker Gary said...

What a day! I was hanging on for BATing order but like Rich's gimmick

PK said...

TXMS, many years later I did a story on a guy who raised unusual animals. I was walking around the farm yard and in certain places I could smell a really bad smell. Not like anything I'd encountered before. We went around the barn and there was this old shaggy billy goat penned down wind as far from the house as possible and still be on the guy's property, he told me. Smelled just like that barbequed meat tasted. The guy told me he had offered by phone to take the goat sight unseen from a farm estate. Someone had delivered the animal and dumped it in his corral, leaving before he could get home. All the other animals avoided it. He was too kind hearted to "off it" and he didn't know what to do with it. I never learned how he resolved that problem.

Wilbur Charles said...

Speaking of bete noires, our old friend the LLAMA, cousin to ??? showed up again



Also, the drops for cataract surgery can be expensive. You may want to check out alternative meds.

WC