google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, August 17th 2017 Mark McClain

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Aug 17, 2017

Thursday, August 17th 2017 Mark McClain

Theme: Insert Coin - the coin-shaped letter "O" is inserted into a phrase, changing the meaning in a thigh-slapping manner.

20. Computer accessory honored in verse? : MOUSE OF POETRY. Muse of Poetry. There are three poetry muses - one for epic poetry, one for lyric poetry and one for love poetry.

28. Olympic dominance by Team USA? : AMERICA'S COUP. America's Cup. Team NZ won this year in Bermuda by a runaway score of 7-1

45. How some medieval knights described their relationships? : JOUST FRIENDS. Just friends.

55. Grammarian's treatise? : THE NOUN'S STORY. The Nun's Story. 1959 movie starring the lovely Audrey Hepburn.


Morning! Apparently I came across as not quite as chipper as usual last week, so I'll try to keep things bright today. This was a real toughie for me, I was staring down a huge quantity of white space after my first pass across and down. I'm not sure the last time I spent 30 minutes on a Thursday-level crossword, but I did on this one.

The theme was nicely done; I'm not generally a fan of pun-type puzzles because of the groan-factor, but these were fun. It took me ages to figure out the theme but once AMERICA'S COUP fell into place that helped with the others. Some obtuse cluing and misdirection added up to a good challenge.

Let's see what else we've got:

Across:

1. Bowl over : STUN

5. Hardly prudent : RASH

9. Chophouse order : FILET. Food! If I went to a chophouse, I'd order the chops. This is Simpson's in London, it's been around since 1757. I'd lunch there occasionally when I worked in the City. Back in those days you'd have a bottle or two of a nice red wine and finish up with a glass of port. Then go back to work.


14. Young Clark's love : LANA. I was way off base with this one; at first I thought it was referring to Clark Gable's affair with Lana Turner, but not a bit of it - Clark Kent's high school sweetheart Lana Lang.

15. 90 degrees from norte : ESTE

16. Century plant, e.g. : AGAVE. Agave Americana, more properly. There are several types of agave plants.

17. Hindustani tongue : URDU

18. Boardwalk extension : PIER. These had a habit of "mysteriously" catching fire in the UK, usually when they were falling into a state of disrepair due to the expense of upkeep.

19. Trick : COZEN. A new word for me. "To deceive, win over, or induce to do something by artful coaxing and wheedling or shrewd trickery." I discovered that there is a law firm here in LA called Cozen O'Conner which I find thoroughly amusing.

23. Construction alloy : STEEL. You can add a whole slew of stuff to steel depending on the characteristics you're looking for.

24. RSVP part : S'IL "répondez s'il vous plaît". Don't say "please RSVP", it's annoying as heck.

25. Bud : BRO

33. Virgin __ Records: British label : EMI. A lot of people don't realize that Richard Branson sold Virgin Records to EMI way back in the 90's to keep the airline afloat (or aloft, more correctly).

36. Male delivery : SON

37. Canadian coin since 1996 : TOONIE. Tried LOONIE against all logic as I knew it had been around for longer than that.

38. Landslide victory claim : MANDATE. "Now I have a mandate to do what the heck I like". Usually ends badly.

41. Stretch out : DISTEND

42. Recorded : ON TAPE

43. Mine in Milan : MIO. Tried MIA. Was wrong.

44. Conscription agcy. : SSS. Crosses filled this in for me, I just noticed it now. Selective Service System.

49. "__ Fell": Beatles : IF I. I didn't actually know this was the title of the song. John sounds every bit of his Liverpool background on the track.

50. Chicago's __ Center : AON

51. Post-lecture activity, briefly : Q AND A

60. Strange : ALIEN

62. Watch part : STEM. You can guarantee this one ain't going to be cheap:



63. Potpourri quality : ODOR. I tend to associate odors with bad smells.

64. Did a gainer, say : DIVED

65. Yokohama product : TIRE. They are the shirt sponsor of my soccer team, Chelsea, they're paying $300M for the privilege over five years. I think it's a curse: of the four players from left to right below - the first is no longer a starter, the second is no longer with the club, the third broke his ankle and hasn't yet returned to the team and the fourth did not return for preseason training and is suing the club for illegal restraint of trade.


66. Eric who founded an eclectic reader : UTNE

67. Autobahn autos : OPELS. The other four-letter German car brand.

68. Strongbox alternative : SAFE

69. The ten in "hang ten" : TOES. You hang'em over the edge of your surfboard.

Down:

1. Frequents dive bars, say : SLUMS. As in "he's slumming it".

2. Deck with a Hanged Man : TAROT. There's a bunch of weird-looking cards in a Tarot deck.

3. Inordinate : UNDUE

4. Queasiness : NAUSEA. Not a good feeling.

5. Certain auction offering : REPO

6. "Fat chance!" :  AS IF!

7. Intervenes : STEPS IN

8. Stout-hearted : HEROIC

9. It's not debatable : FACT

10. "Young Frankenstein" helper : IGOR. "Eye-gor." I've posted the link to the scene before. Here it is again if you missed it.

11. Slugabed : LAZYBONES. Nice clue/answer.

12. Christmas lead-in : EVE

13. Coffee break time : TEN

21. "Slippery" tree : ELM. First I've heard of it. Learning moment. Apparently you can make tea from the leaves.

22. Joy : ELATION

26. Place for digs : RUINS

27. Essays appearing daily : OP.ED'S

29. "Get on Your Feet" singer : ESTEFAN. Gloria. Thank you crosses, I didn't know the song.

30. Anonymous '70s litigant : ROE vs Wade.

31. Song on the album "ABBA" : SOS. Why I didn't fill this in right away is beyond me. How many Abba songs are there with three letters? I needed the S to get me going with this one.

32. Bed at a base : COT

33. The Oxford Dictionaries 2015 "Word" of the Year is one : EMOJI. A stab in the dark and nailed it! Note the quotes around "Word". This is the emoji which was used:


The 2012 Word of the Year was "omnishambles" which I love.

34. "__ Constant Sorrow": folk classic : MAN OF. Thank you crosses, never heard of it.

35. Easy to figure out : INTUITIVE. Unlike this crossword, for me anyway.

39. Wagner's "__ Rheingold" : DAS

40. Fitting : APT

41. Gambling cube : DIE

43. Trivial matter : MINUTIA

46. Perches : ROOSTS

47. Kicks off the field, briefly : DQ'S. Disqualifies.

48. Skipped : SAT OUT

52. Greet quietly : NOD TO

53. Airborne intruder : DRONE. Annoying as heck, these things. Can ruin a perfectly peaceful hike. The creepy dude who lives on my street likes to fly his over other people's back yards.

54. Lew in old movies : AYRES. Best known for "All Quiet on the Western Front".

56. Dog trainer's word : HEEL. Could be STAY, so wait for a cross.

57. Good things to make meet : ENDS

58. Soft ball : NERF

59. "Hook" pirate : SMEE

60. Commotion : ADO

61. Impertinence : LIP. Great little word.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!

Steve


37 comments:

fermatprime said...

Hi everyone!

Thanks to Mark and Steve!

Cute theme! Got it from MOUSE...

Never heard of COZEN. Was happy it perped. Right off hand, needed more perps to get ESTEFAN, SOS, EMOJI and DQS.

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

OwenKL said...

Earworm.

Almost had my 3rd FIW for the week, but finally found the error without turning on the red. I'd filled in AMERICAN before I'd figured out the gimmick, and the word going down from that N was an unknown, so it didn't tip me off.

Fronkensteen's creation, he had RASH hopes for!
A new Adam whom no Original Sin bore!
But he failed, he failed,
His creature got nailed!
His new Eden had an Apple. It's name was i-GOR!

Robbie Burns wrote a POEM addressed to a MOUSE.
And also another one addressed to a louse.
It's AS IF he must show it --
To be a great poet,
You can't spend your time cleaning your house!

Superman's identity from LANA he did conceal,
But when HEROIC was needed, he was the real deal!
He's an ALIEN SON with a destiny
A MANDATE to be the man you see --
Even were he a thief, he'd be the MAN OF STEAL!

{A-, A, A.}
After the past few days, my Muses (my Meese?) have returned from their summer vacation. Thalia says they have nice all-over tans, but I declined her offer to show me. Erato called me a prude (or prune?). Anyway, the Superman poem there is a revision of a poem I wrote just a couple days ago for a jig-saw puzzle. I'm surprised this puzzle didn't have kryptonite in it!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Me, too, Fermat! Got the theme (will wonders never cease?) with MOUSE. I was so proud of myself with PURSUIT for "Trivial matter", you know, the game. Wite-out, please. Also misspelled Lew's name like the rock. I remember him from those old Dr. Kildare movies along with Lionel Barrymore. Thanx, Mark.

Steve, that chophouse looks like it belongs in Diagon Alley. I agree, ODOR = bad, AROMA = good.

Weird words: Frisbeetarian. A religion based on the belief that when you die your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there. I'm an adherent.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Definitely a Thursday puzzle! Like Steve, I spent just under 30 minutes filling it. On the first pass through I had only TAROT & IGOR on the top third. The top middle section remained white until the last.

Finally caught onto the theme with JOUST FRIENDS which made me chuckle. Then I was able to fill the other theme entries. I liked the theme and the puzzle, though difficult.

Steve, thanks for your time and energy enlightening us. I didn't know what DQS or SSS meant. DQS is where I get ice cream so getting kicked off the field STUNned MIO.

Lew AYERS wasn't mYERS and eventually had to run red-letters for the "A".

Post lecture activity: I don't know what I was thinking here but Q AND A wasn't among my thoughts. I was thinking more along the lines of a parent lecturing a child over a wrong-doing.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Another example of how different we Cornerites are. I thought this one was much easier than yesterday's offering, and I only FIR Thursday puzzles about a third of the time. WEES about LANA, lOONIE, COZEN, and MAN OF. The only AYRES I know of is Obama friend and hall-of-fame terrorist Bill. I hadn't heard of "slugabed", and likely won't encounter it again.

Steve, I'll stop using "please RSVP" just as long as my guests still stop at the ATM machine on the way to the ADO. Thanks for a fun tour today.

Thanks to Mark for authoring a puzzle that was right up my alley.

Anonymous said...

A little tough for me this am but I got it done. COZEN, DISTEND, AYRES, TOONIE, and MAN OF Constant Sorrow were all perped. I caught the gimmick at JOUST FRIENDS after I changed Gloria's last name from ESTEBAN to ESTEFAN. But the NOUN'S STORY was another all perped fill, as I had never heard of the movie.

I'd never heard the term 'Slugabed' before but after FILET, AGAVE, & BONES were in place it allowed the unknown COZEN to fall in place.
EMOJI- I wish they would go away.
Potpourri- banned in my house. It gives me a headache.
Jinx- I'm with you on AYRES, COZEN, & TOONIE ( not Loonie)

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-In Steve’s always engaging write-up he mentions he goes completely through the puzzle first. My M.O. is to get a word and work from there. You?
-In 1991 the U.S. soon learned that we had very few people who knew Mideastern languages
-LANA loved her boy of STEEL
-There’s always that one person who waits forever to RSVP. Mon Dieu!
-One of my very first labs every year was to distend a spring
-Some politicians have started avoiding Q AND A’s with angry constituents
-Want ODOR? Sub for a P.E. teacher.
-M*A*S*H used the word Slugabed in an episode where a British major called his men that to motivate them
-Which is more INTUITIVE - Command Line Interface of Graphic User Interface with a MOUSE? Hmmm…
-Otto, mistaking me for the much more erudite Steve in yesterday’s write-up was a real compliment! (EMOJI)

Anonymous said...

Not a theme person usually but enjoyed this one. Good Thursday puzzle and wonderful write up by Steve as usual. HG, I'm like you. I find a solid fill and go from there. Was sure cozen was wrong but it had to be given perps. Doe (duh) before Roe. Have a great day all! JB2

Anonymous said...

The Americas Cup is not an Olympic event ,

SwampCat said...


Jinx, I also marvel at the differing areas of knowledge we all have. I struggled with this one but knew some of the "hard" words like COZEN. I remembered TOONIE from something Canadian Eh once said. But then, even after perps filled in OPEDS, I couldn't figure out what an O' PED is.

Thanks, Mark, for the challenge...and thanks, HG, for filling in the blanks my mind left. Even after you told us 36A is SON, it took the V-8 can to add, Oh..... That kind of delivery.

With all the rain we have been having down here lately, I mentioned that something was "awash." Then I had to laugh at myself...horrors!! I used a dreaded "A" word. Maybe they do have a place other than in crosswords.

Owen I'm delighted your muse has returned.....which ever one you choose to follow! All-over tan indeed!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a toughie but a goodie! When I had "Mouse of" filled in, I thought it was going to be a play on words of a particular work of literature entitled House of something, like The House of Usher. Getting America's Coup turned the lightbulb on and Joust Friends and The Nouns Story practically filled themselves in. I immediately thought of Audrey Hepburn in "The Nun's Story." My favorite AH role is in "Love in the Afternoon." DO, I thought I, too, was so smart in seeing Trivial matter as Mole Hill but that got shot down fast. Cozen is new to me (and to autocorrect which changed it twice to Dozen). I also had Obits before Op Eds, ignoring the essays part of the clue. Needed perps in several areas but finished w/o help, albeit in several more minutes than my usual Thursday time.

Thanks, Mark, for a challenging and satisfying solve and thanks, Steve, for an enjoyable tour.

YR, a big welcome back "yellow rocks." Glad to hear you and Alan enjoyed your vacation. You were missed!

Have a great day.

MJ said...

Good day to all!

COZEN is a new word to me, and I needed all the perps for Lew AYRES and Chicago's AON Center, though I know I've seen them before. JOUST FRIENDS was my favorite theme answer. Thanks for the puzzle, Mark, and thanks for the expo, Steve.

Enjoy the day!

Lucina said...

I thought "OU" would figure in the theme, so thank you, Steve, for showing the elimination. And BTW, you sound more like your regular self today, witty and amusing.

WEES about ODOR equating with bad. COZEN is a new word for me. Amazingly, AYRES gradually edged out of my gray matter. I've stopped using RSVP as it seems to be ignored by everyone; I now say a head count is needed and that elicits more responses.

"Did a gainer" sounds mysterious to me so DIVED was a guess affirmed by INTUITIVE.

Like HG, I find an anchor and work from there in solving.

Alas, though, I FIW, with AMERICANCOUP and didn't notice. Drat! I should have noticed SOS. And if you've never seen the movie, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou, with George Clooney and the Foggy Bottom Boys singing "A Man of Constant Sorrow" you are in for a treat.

AON was another mystery to me and luckily it perped itself.

Thank you, Mark McClain, for today's challenge and thank you, Steve, for guiding us through it.

Have a stupendous day, everyone!

SwampCat said...

Oops....today it seems to have been my day to mix up Steve and Gary! Sorry!!

Yellowrocks said...

This puzzle took some thought. I had just enough crunch to be fun. I liked the punny answers. The theme appearing early on helped very much.
I had MAN DATES before I was married.
My grandson is a slug-a-bed because he stays up all night with his electronics. I hope he gets up early enough now that he is back at college. I always liked the word slug-a-bed. In a more kindly word, my family called me Princess because I slept late in the morning. Now that I can sleep in without guilt I get up at 6:30.
LEW AYERS still appears in old movies reruns.
CSO to Canadian Eh! who has explained TOONIE several times.
I thought of COZEN with the C, and the Z from LAZY confirmed it.
The Q was my last fill, after I thought of QandA. Like PK, DQ means Dairy Queen to me. Thanks for explaining, Steve.
I had the -ON, but needed to perp the A for AON.
One regret, NOS looked wrong, but I didn’t do an ABC run to get SOS by changing AMERICAN to AMERICAS. I knew AMERICAN seemed strange. I think the Olympic reference was to AMERICAS COUP, not to AMERICAS CUP.
No other unfamiliar fill.
Right, ODOR is almost always used in a negative sense in the US, but in scientific circles when discussing olfactory responses, ODOR is neutral. “Pheromones, the odors by which ants communicate, are their social medium. Washington Post, Aug 10, 2017"
Thanks you all for your concern about Alan. He seems to be doing very well. I have a new theory about his anxiety. I hope it pans out.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. I usually like Mark's work. JOUST FRIENDS, which also gave me a chuckle, opened up this puzzle for me. I usually work left to right, top to bottom, filling as many acrosses and downs as I can, then go back to fill in the blanks.

Mark, a fine puzzle. Thank you.

Owen, good verses. Thank you.

Steve, excellent write-up. Thank you.

Everyone, interesting comments. Thank you.

Misty said...

I have family visiting from San Francisco for the next two days, so had to work hard to get this puzzle done early. Tough but fun, but the middle north just wouldn't fall into place until I cheated a little, and I had AMERICAN instead of AMERICAS also--should've gotten that one. But I loved the theme, which I got with JOUST FRIENDS, so, many thanks, Mark, and you too, Steve.

Have a great day, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

Proud of myself for getting through this one without cheats.

Ditto on the Loonie Toonies...

Learning moment: Cozen

Beginning to recognize the word Urdu, (if not the language...)

My FIW? Opal instead of Opel, forgivable if I didn't
think "intuitiva" was some kind of word I had never heard before.
There is a word for these mix ups, but for the life of me,
I cannot bring it to mind right now...

Picard, I would have missed your 10am today post on yesterdays Blog
if I were not so late in catching up. I don't know about everyone else,
but if I have read the previous Blog, and the new Blog page is up,
I have no reason to go back to the previous Blog page, unless it was to
uncover some sort of mystery that today's Blog revealed...

Dick Swart said...

RE: Man of Constant Sorrow ...

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=5720

A classic!

AnonymousPVX said...

Never heard of "Man of Contant Sorrow"? How about George Clooney in "Brother, Where Art Thou"? Classic.

Agree, America's Cup not an Olympic event. But when you have these (infuriating) theme/gimmick/pun puzzles, this is what you get.

My only correction was AON for AOL, because miLutia is not a word. AOL Center made sense before that correction.

AnonymousPVX said...

"Constant" geez.

desper-otto said...

Don't feel bad, AnonymousPVX. The powers that be in our town ordered replacement street signs, and we got that famous emperor CONSTATINE.

Anonymous said...

I'm so sorry about the terror attack in Barcelona today.
. Gosh I wish all violence could stop. Charlottesville, Barcelona and more in the future probably. On a happier note, I might be a grandmother by Monday, and the harmony in If I Fell is really difficult. I used to try to do it when I was a kid. Thanks for posting it,

Anonymous said...

I meant to sign my initials.

rb

PK said...

Ooops! Forgot to thank Mark this morning. Muchos Gracias!

Like Jayce I read acrosses and downs as I go, especially on the hard ones and especially if I didn't come up with anything on the across clue. Any hint is good. I find if I read then go on, by the second reading of a clue my subconscious has come up with something. Not always. Also finding even one letter in a word sometimes points the right way or affirms a guess.

I knew of COZEN. I'm thinking maybe from "Oliver Twist"?

Mark McClain said...

Thanks, Steve for the great write-up and all for comments which I always enjoy. Must admit I got through the first ~65 years of my life without knowing what a TOONIE is (was explained to me in a Toronto bus station by a fellow traveler). And glad someone admitted to a chuckle on JOUST FRIENDS - that was the anchor themer, and I still chuckle when I see it. Genuinely punny. Stay tuned for more!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Mark McClain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

Did most of this while going to and at breakfast with my wife this morning. Great breakfast, Eggs Benedict.

Puzzle went fairly quickly for a Thursday. Figured out the theme after a couple answers.

Not sure what a slippery ELM is. Perped it.

Tried BOY before SON. Only inkblot.

Remembered AYERS. Amazing.

Anyhow, I have to pack my lunch and head to work. See you tomorrow, if I get enough sleep.

Abejo

( )


Michael said...

What Lucina said: "AON was another mystery to me and luckily it perped itself."

I'm all in favor of self-perping ... let's have more of it!

Unknown said...

TA F***ing DA ! Very tough for me. New England was the last to fall. Never heard of Cozen and had "Moot" instead of Fact for not debatable. It seems facts are the most debatable things we have going on today. I agree on "AON" . Even having the O and and N AON didn't seem right to me. Nice theme... not too many proper nouns...fewer than usual foreign translations and a word added to my vocabulary. Golf and Xword made for a nice Thursday morning.

I love toonies and loonies when I get back to Canada. Coins seem appropriate for what you can but with them. Plus for an American fin you can get 3 toonies and change !

Wilbur Charles said...

Enjoyed this xword and the write-up. And Mark's drop-in. I've heard Jayce mention his solving technique and somewhat adhere to it. As in skipping the NW and filling left to right.

And earlier in the week trying to get the acrosses with out perps. I just pieced this together, gradually the white disappeared.

Yellowrocks, you were missed. Thursday through Sunday had a lot of xword"action" and lively blogging.

Misty, I hope you enjoy the family visit. I'm overdue on family visits although I have a reunion in Boston at the end of September. Betsy is coming.

Picard, I spotted your 1016 am post. I thought it was 8/18 already. That is the 50th anniversary of the Tony Conigliaro beaning.

Be prepared for a long post about that tomorrow. For Boston it was the equivalent of Achilles retreating to his tent.

WC

PS. Word of the day was INTUITIVE. Splynter would like seeing that word if he solves during the week.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Another tardy Ta- DA!
This was the day for my 2nd Mohs surgery this year, this time on my right ear. And it was a tougher job than any I've experienced before. The surgery lasted through two rounds while the doc carved deeper and deeper...
And of course the painkillers wore off sooner than the cutting was finished. That wasn't so bad, but by the time we were half way through the cauterizing, Yow-za!!, I was wishing for a bullet to bite.
The pain plus the smell of one's own burning flesh is not the way to start a day.

Today's pzl by Mr. McClain had to wait until I was back home. Happily, it was a fine distraction from the throbbing pain. I got a kick out of the inserted "o" and thought maybe JOUST FRIENDS was the silliest fill of all.

The doc said that since she had to remove cartilage I may need plastic surgery. I'm not sure I want to go through all that, as it seems a bit too much vanity at my age to worry whether my ear goes the "deformed" route. Apparently they can never be sure I won't heal pretty well on my own. But if I want "to be sure," plastic surgery is the way to go.
Otherwise, I may be able to emulate my little chihuahua: he's awfully cute when he looks at you with one ear up and the other flapping free.

Ol' Man Keith said...

My solving pattern is different from your technique, Jayce. I try to get as far through the week as I can before I'm ready to go any-old-way. Usually I can make it to Wednesday working a direct diagonal, from the NW to SE corners.
There are some Mondays and Tuesdays where the construction doesn't permit a direct route, but I do my best on those days.
Today, Thursday, I had to abandon the strict line early on. In fact, the first fill I was sure of was SIL at 24A - and then ROE at 30D, both a long way from 1A. But it was relatively easy to finish it in the long run.
I was happy to see so many three-letter gimmes today, They sure made it easy to jump in even though I had to wait till the 5th row to start. I enjoyed seeing URDU, the rarer classic tongue, and COZEN, a good Shakespearean standby. AON came through perps, and DQS through my lucky imagination (oh, a WAG, I should say!).

Yellowrocks said...

p.jOl' Man Keith, I am sorry for all your pain. I hope you heal well.You will probably look as cute as your little dog.LOL.
No worries about Alan just now. So it's my older son. He had a serious bike accident six months ago with a vertical split in the extreme upper part of his femur, needing a rod and screws. After 6 months the CAT scan shows nonunion. He walks a mile from the train to work and back each day in a great deal of pain.The doctor is trying electrical stimulation first, then likely a bone graft. Son thinks it is extremely rare.

Big Easy said...

I forgot to write my name and posted as 'Anonymous' at 8:51.I realized that after I was reading everybody's comments tonight.

AnonymousPVX said...
Never heard of "Man of Contant Sorrow"? How about George Clooney in "Brother, Where Art Thou"? Classic.

I never saw that movie either.

CrossEyedDave said...

The Soggy Bottom Boys singing Man Of Constant Sorrow from Brother Where Art Though.

Wiki Background.

But, better yet, How To Play It!
(Drop D tuning/Capo 3nd fret)

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-Man Of Constant Sorrow that greatly predates the Clooney movie and was part of an album I loved

Picard said...

Once again I am wondering if there was a deeper meaning to the theme taking U -> OU?

Got the theme fairly quickly which definitely helped solve other theme answers.

Unknowns: COZEN, DQS, AYRES, MAN OF, Slugabed but crosses were fair. I have a feeling I will now see COZEN elsewhere.

Learning moment of Hang Ten meaning. Thought it had to do with ten foot waves. I practice my music on the nearby bluffs above a prime surf spot. I am always honored when the surfers thank me for my music.

Hazy memory of TOONIE on my last Canadian visit. Apparently it is a combination of LOONIE (hand up for thinking that and rejecting it) and the number TWO.