Theme: "Something's Fishy" - Word/words in each theme entry is replaced by a soundalike fish.
27A. "Me, blab to flatfish? No way!" : I NEVER TOLD A SOLE. I never told a soul.
46A. "Take whichever one you want for your fish and chips"? : PICK A COD ANY COD. Pick a card, any card.
54A. Fish playing on keys? : PIANO TUNA. Piano tuner. Like Don G.
67A. Fish on stage? : PLATFORM EEL. Platform heel.
81A "Stop imitating a pond fish"? : DON'T BE KOI. Don't be coy.
88A. Blue fish, maybe? : EMOTIONAL SHARK. Emotional shock.
106A. Fish duo's routine when something seems fishy? : GOOD CARP BAD CARP. Good cop, bad cop.
We have another smooth grid where the first themer starts in Row 3. I've got to try this setup someday.
I had fun with this puzzle. Cute. I mentioned before I have no grasp of this type of punny theme. Some are total homophones. Some have vowel sound changes. Some has one consonant letter added. Punny theme is just hard.
Across:
1. Einstein equation word : MASS. The M in E=mc2.
5. Urges to attack, with "on" : SICs
9. They may be tied around saddle horns : RIATAS. So how does RIATA differ from rope?
15. Lhasa __ : APSO
19. Start of a plan : IDEA
20. Workplace regulator: Abbr. : OSHA
21. Carpet installer's step one : UNROLL
22. Surgeon general under Reagan : KOOP. C. Everett Koop.
23. First name in game shows : MERV. Not ALEX.
24. "__, SpaghettiOs!": Campbell's slogan : UH OH
25. It may call for an R rating : NUDITY
26. __ the finish : IN AT
30. Memo starter : ATTN. Not IN RE.
31. Spelling song : YMCA. Also 33. Relief, spelled out? : ROLAIDS.
32. Hosp. area : EMER
36. Mumbai hrs. : IST. Indian Time Zone. Learning moment for me.
39. NYSE valuation measure : P/E RATIO. Price-Earnings.
42. Oscar __ Renta : DE LA
43. Simile middle : AS A
44. They often affect performance : NERVES. So true. I like the clue/answer.
50. Glasses problem : SMEAR
51. Nonsharing word : MINE
52. Antioxidant food preservative : BHT. Hard to remember.
53. Bus sign word : VIA
27A. "Me, blab to flatfish? No way!" : I NEVER TOLD A SOLE. I never told a soul.
46A. "Take whichever one you want for your fish and chips"? : PICK A COD ANY COD. Pick a card, any card.
54A. Fish playing on keys? : PIANO TUNA. Piano tuner. Like Don G.
67A. Fish on stage? : PLATFORM EEL. Platform heel.
81A "Stop imitating a pond fish"? : DON'T BE KOI. Don't be coy.
88A. Blue fish, maybe? : EMOTIONAL SHARK. Emotional shock.
106A. Fish duo's routine when something seems fishy? : GOOD CARP BAD CARP. Good cop, bad cop.
We have another smooth grid where the first themer starts in Row 3. I've got to try this setup someday.
I had fun with this puzzle. Cute. I mentioned before I have no grasp of this type of punny theme. Some are total homophones. Some have vowel sound changes. Some has one consonant letter added. Punny theme is just hard.
Across:
1. Einstein equation word : MASS. The M in E=mc2.
5. Urges to attack, with "on" : SICs
9. They may be tied around saddle horns : RIATAS. So how does RIATA differ from rope?
15. Lhasa __ : APSO
19. Start of a plan : IDEA
20. Workplace regulator: Abbr. : OSHA
21. Carpet installer's step one : UNROLL
22. Surgeon general under Reagan : KOOP. C. Everett Koop.
23. First name in game shows : MERV. Not ALEX.
24. "__, SpaghettiOs!": Campbell's slogan : UH OH
25. It may call for an R rating : NUDITY
26. __ the finish : IN AT
30. Memo starter : ATTN. Not IN RE.
31. Spelling song : YMCA. Also 33. Relief, spelled out? : ROLAIDS.
- "How do you spell relief?"
- "R-O-L-A-I-D-S"
32. Hosp. area : EMER
36. Mumbai hrs. : IST. Indian Time Zone. Learning moment for me.
39. NYSE valuation measure : P/E RATIO. Price-Earnings.
42. Oscar __ Renta : DE LA
43. Simile middle : AS A
44. They often affect performance : NERVES. So true. I like the clue/answer.
50. Glasses problem : SMEAR
51. Nonsharing word : MINE
52. Antioxidant food preservative : BHT. Hard to remember.
53. Bus sign word : VIA
56. French four-time Formula One champ Prost : ALAIN. Learning moment for me also.
58. One in a black suit : SPADE
62. Apprentices : INTERNS
63. Mercury's Greek counterpart : HERMES. The messenger.
65. Pool activity : SWIM
66. Louis XIV, par exemple : ROI
71. Telepathy, e.g. : ESP
72. More : ELSE
74. Furtive graffiti guy : KILROY
75. Reason for turning on closed captioning : DIALECT. Xi'an dialect is not as strong as Cantonese, which is impossible to understand for non-natives.
78. Property transfer documents : DEEDS
80. Dark crime films : NOIRs
83. Class : ILK
85. Boater, for one : HAT
86. Decree : FIAT
87. Bequeath : LEAVE
72. More : ELSE
74. Furtive graffiti guy : KILROY
78. Property transfer documents : DEEDS
80. Dark crime films : NOIRs
83. Class : ILK
85. Boater, for one : HAT
86. Decree : FIAT
87. Bequeath : LEAVE
93. Sights from the Gateway Arch : BARGES. We went to St. Louis ages ago, but I did not see the Arch.
94. __ center : REC
95. Petits __: garden peas : POIS. French for "peas".
98. Food scrap : ORT
99. Bar food? : GRANOLA. Granola bar. Nature Valley gives these bars to golf fans during the 3M Championship every year.
103. Arles articles : UNES
105. Persia, now : IRAN
113. Arguing : AT IT
114. __ Baker, subject of "Thirteen Reasons Why" : HANNAH. Learning moment as well.
116. Stagger : REEL
117. Fender problem : DENT
118. Honest with : TRUE TO
119. Rte. 66 state : ARIZ (Arizona)
120. Pakistani language : URDU
121. June 6, 1944 : D-DAY
122. Talks back to : SASSES. Grid bottom edge tends to be S-rich. See also 124. Tree hugger : MOSS
123. Monument Valley feature : MESA
Down:
1. "La Bohème" soprano : MIMI
2. Yemen's Gulf of __ : ADEN
3. Dried-up : SERE. Our old crossword pal.
4. Astute : SAVVY
5. They may be anonymous : SOURCES. Leak.
6. Beatty/Hoffman flop : ISHTAR
7. Half a tot's train? : CHOO
8. Humorist Mort : SAHL. Wiki says he's still alive and was friends with Robin Williams.
9. Go wild : RUN AMOK
10. Occupied : IN USE
11. Passion : ARDOR
12. Work hard : TOIL
13. Like a dress back from the tailor : ALTERED. Miss my old tailor. Took most of my purchases to her place to get the perfect fit. Tailoring is very affordable in China.
14. Crafty : SLY
15. Alphabetically first dog in the AKC's Working Group : AKITA
16. Grand Prix, e.g. : PONTIAC
17. Stinker : SO AND SO. Another nice fill.
18. Choose : OPT
28. __ penguin : EMPEROR
29. Flight maintenance word : DEICE
30. Singer Morissette : ALANIS
34. King Harald's father : OLAV
35. Down : SAD
36. Uplifted : INSPIRED
37. Florida tribe : SEMINOLE. Google shows the name means "wild people" or "runaway."
38. Dissertation : TREATISE
40. Could hear __ drop : A PIN
41. Weymouth of Talking Heads : TINA
42. Serve a sentence : DO TIME. Snazzy 6-letter fill. Also 69. It can come before a sentence : TRIAL
45. Windmill part : VANE
47. More competent : ABLER
48. Third time, proverbially : CHARM
49. Jabbers : YAPS
51. Fabric from Iraq : MUSLIN. MADRAS is from India.
55. Toll rd. : TNPK
56. Ship-to-ship greetings : AHOYs
57. "You __ bother" : NEEDN'T
59. Last Sunday, this Sunday : A WEEK AGO
60. Credit card introduced by Sears : DISCOVER. I did not know this. We don't shop at Sears or JCPenney. Boomer had bad experiences there.
61. Least meaningful, as compliments : EMPTIEST
64. Skirt feature : SLIT
68. Big Island greetings : ALOHAs
70. Defensive structures : FORTS
73. Word processing menu : EDIT
76. Dissipated : ABLATED. Never heard of this word.
77. Lustful look : LEER
79. Easy to get into : SLIP ON. Putting on socks every morning is a struggle for Boomer.
81. Scuttlebutt : DIRT
82. Kentucky __, event before the Derby : OAKS
84. __-Aid : KOOL
86. Flora partner : FAUNA
88. Work unit : ERG
89. Deserved : MERITED
90. Oval-shaped instrument : OCARINA
92. Big shots : HONCHOS
93. Windfall : BONANZA. Along side another great entry: HUBRIS (97. Arrogance)
100. Stylish in dress : NATTY
101. Gets buff, with "up" : TONES
102. Online social arrangement : E-DATE
104. Rugby formation : SCRUM. Learned from doing crosswords.
108. Reprimand, with "out" : REAM
109. Peel : PARE
110. Prefix with dynamic : AERO
111. Great American Ball Park team : REDS
112. Math sign : PLUS. And 113. Use a 112-Down : ADD
114. Cleveland __, OH : HTS
C.C.
33 comments:
FIW¡ I had a natick at PERA?IO + ?INA, and WAGed N, then M & G before giving up. Lots of w/o's, but a few particularly bad ones, YAkS > YAPS, eptER > ABLER, and three right next to each other, Hauter > HUBRIS / chew > REAM / Peel > PARE.
The theme gave me a slight problem. Four of the six I understood, but I couldn't see the base phrases for EMOTIONAL SHARK or PLATFORM EEL. Okay, got the heel as I'm writing this, but guess I'll have to wait for the expo on the shark.
Wilbur challenged me to write a villanelle. I'd never even heard of it before! Villain is a good word for the excruciating form! ABA,ABA,ABA,ABA,ABA,BBAA rhyme, with certain lines echoed from tercet to tercet! Very well, here is my primordial (and probably only ever) attempt at it.
A word across, a word down.
Prepared worksheets from a book.
Teacher's friend, schoolboy's frown.
In vocab errors students drown,
As if language was a brook.
A word across, a word down.
Schoolboys age, things turn around,
Those puzzles get another look.
Pencil's friend, but inkpen's frown.
In newspapers in every town,
In some inner corner nook,
Words go across, words go down.
In books strangely wire-bound,
Homework, pass-times, once forsook,
Monday's friend, Friday's frown.
A teacher's mantle, some schoolboys took
To pass on the learning hook.
A word across, a word down.
Teacher's friend, schoolboy's frown.
I thought about cross-posting this to the Rex Parker blog, but read thru the couple that mentioned villanelles, and those folks are mean! If anyone here wants to tell them about this posted here, please do. A couple of the nicer ones expressed interest.
A Buddhist cowpoke from Lhasa
Can twirl a mean RIATA!
He rides as he ropes
A dog from his slopes,
Tho his Lhasa APSO is frowned on by OSHA!
There is a MESA in ARIZ
Whose flat top is where most people's hair iz.
And the mountains in TENN
Are Smokies, my friend,
Tho KOOP tried to clear where the air iz!
{A, B+, B.}
Hi everyone!
Thanks to Clive and C. C.!
Took a bit longer than usual Sunday, but got it all.
Did not know: IST, HANNAH, TINA, MUSLIN, OAKS, SCRUM and HTS, but everything perped out nicely!
Hope to see you all tomorrow!
Good morning!
Took plenty of perps before I was able to latch onto my first theme answer. After that, things went smoothly. Well, sort of. I wanted that spelling song to be ABCD and the 4-letter Smoky Mountain state to be _CAR. Nope. Was surprised to see P/E RATIO -- investors would know it, others, not so much. Still, it was a fun puzzle; I liked the puns.
C.C., a RIATA is a lasso. All RIATAs are ropes, but not all ropes are RIATAs.
RIATAS, LASSOS, ROPES?? I know that there are 'no ROPES on a boat'
IST- I don't think anything in India is 'standard'
Petit POIS- Le Sueur brand changed their 'Petit POIS' label to 'Very Young Early Sweet Peas'
TINA, HANNAH, MIMI- women I didn't know filled by perps
I thought this would be a straight forward, easy Sunday until I almost self destructed by filling TINITUS for the reason to turn on the CC C.C. ( couldn't resist that one). Well it wouldn't work and I thought maybe DRIED UP would work for 'Dissipated'. No dice. Some how ABLATED and DIALECT finally made their way onto the paper and I finished.
This puzzle had a Merl Reagle feel to it. The Master of puns!
Good Morning:
I caught onto the theme early with the very obvious (to me) "I never told a sole" which helped with the solve, aided by the title. I was surprised, though, that the themers were not all homophones, but they were still easy to figure out. My only ? was Emotional Shark, which CC answered in the write up. There were several unknowns such as Tina and Hannah but Mimi was a gimme as "La Boheme" is one of my favorite operas. Was in the dark about Bar food=Granola, also, as I have never had it; I really wanted Pub Grub! I liked the cluing a lot especially "One in a black suit=Spade; simple yet hard, to me, anyway.
Thanks, Clive, for a wonderful Sunday offering and thanks, CC, for the informative and detailed expo. Your professional insights are much appreciated.
Just out of curiosity, what is everyone paying for sweet corn this year? My farm stand is now charging 70¢ an ear/$8.00 doz. The last two batches were not good, so I'm off today to a different stand. Adding insult to injury, the $4.00/lb. tomatoes might just as well be red tennis balls for all the flavor and texture they have.
Have a great day.
Musings
-A nice easy puzzle to do while sitting outside in sweat clothes in a lawn chair watching my kitty
-Comments later
Good Morning.
I haven't done a Sunday in ages. I didn't work long on the theme clues, but stayed with the short ones until I had enough perps to move on. Fun. Thanks, Clive, for a doable Sunday challenge.
C.C., thanks for the guidance and the fine links. Like HG, I'll be back later to see all your comments and ideas.
Have a relaxing Sunday.
I think the old Spaghetti-O commercial said "Oh, oh" instead of "Uh, oh!" The latter would imply a problem with the product.
Good day to all!
Fun theme, clever cluing, with lots of juicy words like HUBRIS and OCARINA. Perps were needed for HANNAH Baker, TINA Weymouth, and MIMI. Thanks for the thorough expo and links, C.C. I, too, OPT to shop ELSEwhere than Sears after a bad experience there more than forty years ago.
Irish Miss--I purchased corn on the cob yesterday at Sprouts Farmers Market, 5/$1. Most of our tomatoes this summer have come from our lone plant in the back yard. When more are needed, Sprouts usually has decent tasting romas for ninety-nine cents per pound.
Enjoy the day!
Spaghetti-O's commercial.
Hi Y'all! Whew! What a workout! But thanks, Clive, for the mental exercise. Thanks, C.C., for 'splaining the NYSE & a few other stumpers.
I got the SOLE, TUNA, & KOI theme phrases, but struggled with the others. I kept trying to see a letter group exchange like we've had several times lately.
I finally had to red-letter run several places. Didn't know names like ISHTAR or a couple of the women. Like anon at 11:13, I couldn't believe that Spaghetti-O commercial wasn't "oh, oh".
Always forget SAVVY has two "V's" and NIAGARA has 3 "A's".
Saturday's puzzle was difficult too, but I finished. Couldn't post because it was raining which seems to screw up my internet connection. Later in the day, I had no internet at all. Maddening.
Can't complain too much about the rain. I now have grass in my backyard because of that divine intervention. Usually July & August are hot and dry rather than cool and rainy. After two months parked in my yard, the sewer installers finally are gone.
They tried to leave my yard better than when they came. We'll see...
TADA..easy fill.
I thought the theme was half fish and half New England Accent ?
Got the at least the NE theme it was the story of the last 8 years of my working life. My company was bought out by a Boston firm. I couldn't understand fellow scientists and engineers let alone secretarial and manufacturing. Great schools, great companies but highly incestuous, inbred and provincial with accents far beyond any southern dialect. I never had met anyone in California or Michigan that moved either into the parents house or even on the same block. In greater Boston that was common place. They even had special accents for the next town over. Never learned their language, called the EEOC on them when I saw they were 99.8% and refused to give bonuses to the previous VP's paramour. Obviously I got put in an office with no responsibilities trying to make me quit and finally got a nice buyout for my troubles... and of that was the time Brady came to the Patriots and the Redsox won the pennant. Then not only were they pernicious, they were insufferable ! Oh well...
Sweet corn here in CA is usually 3 for a buck. But I think its a loss leader. Tomatoes are "free" in my backyard and they are delish ! ( Free not counting labor, pots, stakes, fertilizer etc). The ground of my back yard is a leveled off mountain so nothing grows without help. Peppers are free too. Couldn't convince my wife the red peppers were just green peppers that got ripe so I had to grow them
Thanks for sussing P/E RATIO, didn't occur to me
ISHTAR was legendary for the amount of money it lost.
La reata (or La RIATA, hence lariat) is Spanish for "rope", lasso refers to the loop on the business end. Wiki says real cowboys just call it "rope", and anybody who says lariat is a poser. I suppose to be useful the cowboy's would have to be a rope of a specified range of strength, thickness and stiffness.
Musings
-I’m trying to imagine the look I’d get from my kitty if I said “SIC ‘EM”
-French engineer Albert Mathieu had the first IDEA to build a tunnel from England to France 1802
-Koop’s crusade against smoking and the tobacco lobby was inspirational (no pun intended)
-It seems PG-13 movies can show bare breasts once and have one “f-bomb” before it gets an R
-When I first started singing, NERVES affected my voice. Now, not even a little
-MERV’S Jeopardy is on the opposite scale of skill from his Wheel Of Fortune
-Closed Captioning was essential for us on this show many of us here love
-URDU is spoken by 8% of Pakistanis
-Ah, the cars of my yute!
-DE-ICE – Yup, I’ve flown lots of kids out of Omaha in January
-How many dissertations actually get read?
-Corn is about $5/dozen and we have tomatoes galore in our garden
I loved working on this Sunday puzzle and was hopeful for a while that I would get the whole thing. But the North and Mid east gave me a bit of trouble and I finally had to cheat a little. But the FISHY theme was a lot of fun, so, many thanks, Clive! Your write-ups are always a delight, C.C., thank you for that too. This morning I especially appreciated your picture of an OCARINA. I've heard of that instrument but had no idea what it looked like. Wonder what it sounds like? A flute, maybe, or an oboe?
My favorite misleading clue: TREE HUGGER for MOSS. I kept thinking it would be a person and the word had to be BOSS but there's no way a Boss is a tree hugger. Finally, the light went on and I got the MOSS.
Fun morning--have a great Sunday, everybody!
Owen, I was really impressed with your villanelles, which were lovely!
I liked this puzzle very much and thought it was imaginative, clever, and well-constructed. The fact I like puns contributed to my enjoyment of Mr. Probert's offering today. Fave clue is for CHARM.
Indeed, cowboys just call it a rope. There is a rodeo event called calf roping and there are entertainment performances called trick roping. They all involve a noose or loop at the end of the rope, and the noose-rope "apparatus" is called a lasso. In all my years in the Black Hills of South Dakota I never heard any real cowboy ever say "lariat" let alone "riata." Like "sere" and many other words, they appear only in crossword puzzles.
Good wishes to you all.
Before I get to my stupidity,re. the xword I have to say:
Owen, you more than rose to the challenge you produced a chef d'oeuvre. There is no PLUS that could do it justice. I think it's NewYorker material.
I had to read it twice to pick up the subtleties.
Oh. We were talk'n stupidity, eh? Yes, I know PE RATIOs and that the plane Buddy Holly died on should have been DE-ICED.
AND I was even pretty sure that it was TINA not NINA. AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!
I was thinking of DEUCE as in carbs. You car guys can recall that term. I also had trouble with the DISCOVER card and DIALECT but caught it. I won't berate myself over EMPTYEST/KOY. Arbitrary spelling.
It was a delightful and clever xword. Thx Clive. And CC. I missed the OCARINA pic, thx Misty.
I brought a Tempo into Sears and they claimed the muffler fell off while they were driving it in when they'd obviously ripped it off.
We had a 9th grade trip into BOSTON* to a French restaurant and I ordered Harry Kotts. I got the vert part right.
WC
* Yep. You've nailed Boston pretty much right on Chuck. My wife from Michigan would agree 100%
** Misty, would you say James' novel The Bostonians is spot on too?
A fun and helpful theme. No real problems, just a lengthy effort. Enjoyable.
I love puns! This was so much fun, thank you, Clive Probert! And thank you, C.C. for filling in the cracks. Sometimes I don't quite get the full theme. Ex. PLATFORM EEL didn't make sense until reading your explanation. But I loved DON'T BE KOI.
I well remember C. Everett KOOP and MIMI/MERV are very much in my wheelhouse. I love La Boheme. SPADE was clever! Didn't know HANNAH but it emerged and loved seeing ARIZ atop MESA, a neighboring city.
While it's true we don't use many words, such as RIATA, in oral conversation they can be found in writing when the author is in need of a better synonym or to avoid repeating words.
When DISCOVER card first started the call center was on the second floor of the Sears store and provided employment for many young people including some of my nieces.
OwenKL:
I really liked your vianelle!
I hope all are having a beautiful day!
I smiled at the Fishy theme. Thanks for the fun Clive and C.C.
I swam through this CW fairly quickly but arrived here to discover I FIW.
Hand up (with Misty) for Boss instead of MOSS which made the rugby formation Scrub instead of SCRUM. Uh-Oh SpaghettiOs. (Thanks for the clarifying video MJ because like Anon@11:13, I started with Oh-Oh.)
I smiled at most of the theme answers. Some took longer than others to recognize because of the regional accents. Soul/SOLE and Coy/KOI were the same in this Canadian ear; Heel/EEL sounds like a Cockney accent; Card/Cod and Tuner/TUNA sounds Bostonian but who sounds like Cop/CARP. Shock/SHARK was a totally unheard stretch for my ear.
Hand up for In Re to As To to ATTN.
SPADE changed YAKS to YAPS (which sounds more like Dog barks to me than "Jabbers".
I had Serves (before NERVES) affecting performance. I was thinking of Milos Raonic Serves which are difficult for his opponent to return.
Lucina, I love that you noted ARIZ over MESA.
We had a different ALAIN yesterday.
I learned RIATAs doing CWs.
Occupied/IN USE as in the sign that changes from Vac(ant) when you close the door in the Head (I'm trying to remember that word from yesterday and previous CW).
I don't think there was ever a DISCOVER card in Canada. I had a Sears Canada credit card which changed about 5 years ago to a JP Morgan/Chase credit card and then about 3 years ago to a Scotia Bank card. I don't use it much. Sears is on very shaky ground in Canada (closing some stores and under creditor protection as they try to recover).
Yes C.C. there are trails in the NIAGARA (I'll take a CSO) Gorge on the Canadian side.
They are moderate to difficult (NOT a walk in the park) and we routinely hear of rescues (often requiring helicopter) especially after a rain or if tourists are not wearing proper hiking shoes and injure themselves.
NiagaraGlen
Another beautiful day here.
Enjoy!!!
Glad I'm not the only one a bit nonplussed by the Tree hugger, CanadianEh.
Wilbur, I haven't read The Bostonians in so long that I can't comment on its view of Boston. But I'll think about putting it on my bucket list.
Sunday Lurk say...
C.C. How'd you go to STL and NOT at least "see" the Arch?
HG - I know DW's dissertation was read... I read it through every draft!
[A] {B+, A}. OKL, I still like your self-assessment after the verse; better chance of me being honest :-)
For yous w/ tomatoes, I'm jealous. Too hot here for the blooms to set. Bell & Banana peppers, OTOH, they're a pop'in'.
Y'all have a great Sunday.
Cheers, -T
AnonT: have you tried a product called "blossom set" for your tomatoes? I used to use it many years ago when tomatoes wouldn't set on in hot weather. Can't remember who made it.
I also had to push through the perps to get EMOTIONAL SHARK. I spent a long time convincing myself that there was a fish to create an EMOTIONAL STATE pun, but the perps resisted. I still didn't see "shock" at all, hence my being here. Thanks for clarifying it for me!
Otherwise, simple fill. I had ALSO instead of ELSE for "More", because I was unlucky enough to have the two middle letters.
My HS mascot was the Cowboys, and our school paper was the Lariat. Some English teacher must have been a crossword fan, as that's the only other place I've seen the word.
PK - Never heard of it, so I Googled. I found EPSOM SALT to combat End Rot. I use egg-shell water (like Gramp's did!). Looks like it's worth a try. BTW; when tomato plants get over grown, can you just cut them back like basil an they'll re-establish? I've got two that are scraggly. Cheers, -T
Was it in the"Bostonians" that it was said that three generations of family acrimony could be conveyed in the words "Pass the carrots, please".
I must forgive myself for not seeing PE RATIOs. I got brain dead driving in the haze. Florida is in an acute HHH phase.
Also, I wanted to get into the blog so I didn't put the xword down for an hour and then pick it up. Sometimes every becomes clear that way
WC
Tough and enjoyable I thought. Well done Clive, Rich and CC.
We just had a big lunch at California Pizza Kitchen with Tim (plus fiancé), Bonnie, Andres (her financé) Jordan and new granddaughter Bella; plus Barbara's brother, his wife and a couple of their kids. Expensive but nice. Because Barbara's birthday is upon us, we got a free piece of Key Lime pie. I LOVE that stuff!
AnonT: Yes, you can prune back tomato vines. However, you really need to do some research on pruning techniques. If you do it too drastically you will defeat your purpose. I took pruning classes many years ago which were invaluable when I had a big garden and orchard and roses. I googled just now "pruning tomato plants" and got some promising sites. You can prune a certain way to get bigger tomatoes.
I also googled Tomato blossom set spray and found some products at Walmart and other garden stores. If I remember rightly, this is a hormone spray. If you don't have flies or bees to pollinate the tomato flowers, they don't set on.
Backin my ute, in college, I had a temporary job over winter break with a surveying crew. We were plotting lines for one of the new Interstates to bypass St Louis on the Illinois side. We watched with fascination as the two huge legs of the Arch rose above the trees (they looked miles apart at that time). We didn't see how they could possibly meet perfectly when they came together. Turned out they couldn't; they were off by enough to require some last-minute re-engineering.
I finished a Sunday puzzle. I needed lots of help and the Enquirer prints the answer grid in today's paper for easy cheats. For the past 15 months, I've been working with a formerly feral dog at the shelter. Rufus has gone from scared of humans to allowing me (and a couple others) to collar/leash him, pet him all over, and now he likes to lie down in an adoption room on a blanket and relax and maybe go to sleep. Today I took the comics/puzzle with me to the shelter and gave him an hour to relax while I worked he puzzle. Thanks, Clive P. and C.C. for my enjoyable interlude.
I got the theme at I DIDN'T TELL A SOLE.
One in a black suit--SPADE. Duh! We just played Couples Euchre last night but that kind of suit never occurred to me.
Chuck L, I had a couple classmates who married and bought his parents' home so their children could attend the same schools we did in Michigan. Quite a few classmates remained in the school district so their kids could attend the schools. Since I had moved to my second state after high school when our daughter started school it wasn't important to me.
Have a good week.
Fun theme with some challenges, but totally do-able.
PE RATIO is the most important single thing to know about investing. During the stock market bubble of the late 1990s all of my friends were in the market and I refused to enter. Funny how I knew there was a bubble even though I had zero market experience?
I asked my friends how much they would pay for a business that paid had a profit of $15K per year. I asked them if they would pay a million dollars for it. They said no way. I said, "Really? You just did!"
Learning moment indeed about IST. Surprising that such a huge country has just one time zone?
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