Theme: None
Words: 68 (missing J,X)
Blocks: 38
OK,
that's better - after two rough weeks, this puzzle was almost a breeze
to finish - in about half my personal allotted time. Mr. Agard was on a
three-month roll, missed August, but he's back for September.
Hourglass grid with a triple 11-letter staggered stack in the center and a 15-letter climber;
31a. Event with a caller : SQUARE DANCE - oops; I put in "-AUCTION" at the end; Bzzzt
34a. Fruit on a veggie pizza : BLACK OLIVES
- ah. I buy the 'supreme' frozen pizzas, and always pull off the black
olives, but sprinkle on some bacon bits. I got me a Pizzazz pizza
wheel which fits nicely in my kitchenette
35a. Justin case? : BIEBER FEVER - har-har
7d. Standard procedure : A MATTER OF COURSE
2d.~!
ACROSS:
1. Directions home : MAP
4. Slow : DELAY
9. Key of Elgar's "Symphony No. 1" : A FLAT - filled in the "FLAT" part and waited
14. San Antonio Spurs' 1993-2002 home : ALAMO DOME
16. Employer of a lizard and a pig : GEICO - the gecko, and the hog who goes "wee~!"
17. Author of the 2011 memoir "My Father at 100" : RON REAGAN
18. Greek leader? : ALPHA - beta, gamma, etc.
19. "I __ it!" : KNEW - I tried WANT first
20. National League athlete : MET
- from the NY Met(ropolitan)s, to be precise - the irony here is that
this was one of my clues nixed by the editors for being too difficult
for a Wed. puzzle
21. Equilibrium : STASIS
22. Dale relative : GLEN - not CHIP - we had CHIP N' DALE last week - this is the the valley definition
24. Weapon in some supernatural movies : STAKE - Vampires~!
26. Thus far : YET
27. Ship mover : SAIL
29. Joseph of ice cream fame : EDY
30. One of the deadly sins : ENVY - LUST would have fit as well
36. Undesirable descriptor for makeup : CAKY
37. ___-A-Fella Records : ROC - cute. I thought it might be roK
38. Thus : ERGO
40. "Correct, cap'n" : "AYE."
41. Currently airing : ON NOW - I would recommend watching "Garage Rehab" because my good friend Russell is "the muscle" on the show
The "other" guy is Richard from Gas Monkey Garage
43. Hamilton notes : TENS - dollar bills
45. Fight like sticks figures? : RASSLE - Wrestle in the boondocks, the "sticks"
47. Sch. with a Providence campus : URI - dah~! I put in RIU to start
49. __ Vogue : TEEN
51. Thins, e.g. : OREOs
52. Three-book Newton work : PRINCIPIA - the Wiki
54. Paper for a letter? : LEASE - think let-ter, one who 'lets'
55. Shun : OSTRACIZE
56. Tried to contain : SAT ON
57. Zero out : RESET
58. 1980s gaming release : NES - Nintendo Entertainment System
DOWN:
1. Annotate : MARK
2. Onward : ALONG - a shout-out~!!
3. Symposium groups : PANELS
4. Big name in anonymity : DOE - John or Jane, not the local trolls
5. Cheese town : EDAM
6. Upscale tiers : LOGES
8. Japanese cabbage? : YEN
9. Quartz type : AGATE
10. Afrobeat star __ Kuti : FELA - filled via perps - never heard of him - his Wiki
11. Mouths : LIP SYNCS
12. Realize : ACHIEVE
13. Pleasantly warm : TOASTY
15. "Harry Potter" father figure : Mr. WEASLEY - the Harry Potter Wiki
With daughter Ginny, the future Mrs. Potter
21. Parachute : SKYDIVE
23. Arabian Peninsula veil : NIQAB
25. "Hello" singer : ADELE
28. City in central Switzerland : LUCERNE
30. Alive : ENERGETIC
32. LeBron's birth city : AKRON - basketball is not my thing. His Wiki; interesting how his first playoff run ended in a loss to the team at 14a.
33. Turn away : AVERT
34. Schwinn component : BIKE SEAT
35. Redwood City locale : BAY AREA
36. Door-to-door offerings : CAROLS - VACUUMS didn't fit
39. First to fall in most strikes : ONE PIN - nobody leaves the FIVE pin
41. Elizabeth who plays the Scarlet Witch in Marvel movies : OLSEN - filled via perps
42. Legal orders : WRITS
44. Wrest : SEIZE
46. "Meh" : SO SO - crosswordese
48. Concerning : IN RE
50. Turndowns from the tartan-clad : NAEs
52. Iberian land, to the IOC : PORtugal, according to the International Olympic Committee
53. Batter of balls? : CAT - sorry, C.C., no baseball here....
Splynter
38 comments:
We all know a lady who likes to SQUARE DANCE.
She'll give you a hug if you give her a chance!
Yellow rock is the call
To SEIZE corners all!
A TOASTY feeling the dance will enhance!
A LiPIZZAne stallion, so trainers think,
Is an ENERGETIC steed in an equestrian rink!
Thru their paces they SAIL
With uplifted tail --
(They get shampooed in formation at a LIP SYNC!)
{A, B+.}
Hi Y'all! Quite a challenge, thanks, Erik! Enlightening as always, thanks, Splynter!
First pass thru had only EDAM & YET on the top tier. Then I got SAIL, EDY, ENVY quickly and felt better. SQUARE DANCE made me mentally ENERGETIC. Then I had trouble with pizza fruit. OLIVES? Okaaaay!
Mouths & parachutes were not nouns but verbs which held me up. Oh, LIPSYNCS & SKYDIVE! Real challenge but triumphant in the end.
PRINCIPIA was a happy WAG. Never heard of it, but with a few perps I filled it in like Newton himself were prompting me.
Good morning!
Got no traction in the NW, so I started in the NE and circled back around. Had to change HILL to GLEN and FORTH to ALONG, and then the NW fell, too. CSO to YR with SQUARE DANCE. NIQAB didn't look right, but the perps said it had to be. People say RASSLE around here; folks from the upscale burbs refer to us sneeringly as East County (ie: red-headed stepchild). Thanx, Erik and Splynter.
I put a Schwinn BIKE SEAT on my elcheapo Huffy cruiser. I'll be plopping down on it in just a few. BTW, that new tire fixed the problem. Apparently, the bead on that old tire was shot, allowing it to squirm around. No more flats.
Thank you Splynter for the explanation of LEASE because it was the only word that would fit but I couldn't figure out why. The SO SO fill didn't make sense but it had to be. As for the rest of the puzzle, well, it was Saturday and there were a few fills that I had to grind out. FELA, NIQAB, OLSEN, TEEN Vogue, MR. WEASLEY, ADELE- these were unknowns, with FELA and NIQAB being never heard ofs.
I guessed PAR FOR THE COURSE for standard procedure but quickly had to overwrite because of the crosses. I have never heard the saying A MATTER OF COURSE, so I guess that would be a 'half unknown'. The NE & SE filled rapidly thank to the GEICO, ALPHA, and PRINCIPIA toeholds. The SQUARE DANCE and BLACK OLIVES were easy fills after a couple of perps. BIEBER FEVER is just a bad disease.
Pizzazz pizza wheel- no need at my house. Within 1/2 mile there are Olive Branch, Pizza Hut, Marco's Pizza, Domino's, Little Caesars, & Papa Murphy's (if you want to cook it yourself)
I thought of our Corner square dancer, Yellowrocks, today.
I am not proficient enough yet for Saturday puzzles, but the end report said I got 71% without help. That's better than I thought I was doing.
Stay safe, everyone. 15 schools in NW Montana closed Friday and all events cancelled over the weekend after threats were made following the shooting at Freeman High School in WA. (2 of my nieces graduated from there.)
Trying times!
Montana
Good morning all!
Thanks, Erik for a fun CW - was able to SAIL through it pretty quickly for a Saturday
And thanks, Splynter for guiding us ALONG (yep- thought of you with "Onward) with a wonderful review :)
Like DO, I had a slow start in the NW but got some traction with MR WEASLEY (yay- a Harry Potter clue!).
Nice CSO to YR with SQUARE DANCE and the poem by Owen :)
Unknowns: ALAMO DOME, ROC, PRINCIPIA, FELA and NIQAB which thanks to Splynter's picture was a nice learning moment. I have seen them but never KNEW the name; only familiar with Hijab and Burka.
Favorite clever clues were for RASSLE, LEASE and YEN.
I love OREOS Thins- just opened a new pack last night- Yum!
Congratulations to Lemonade on the arrival of your new grandchild!
I've been trying to catch up with the blog over the last few days. Since I was the "someone" who mixed up Owen with Old Man Keith- I'd like to apologize for that. You said NO BIG deal, but to me it is. Along with my orthopedic issues, I also have fibromyalgia. This often causes me to have "fibro fog" and my brain is in a haze. When I'm having a flare up, it can be pretty bad: short term memory loss, confusion and trouble concentrating. When I write a comment here, it's a process. I first have to make notes on the puzzle as I go along (unknowns, perps, smiley faces for favorite/clever clues) then when I read the blog, I will make more notes on things that the reviewer has posted. Finally, I write down my comments on a notepad so I don't forget what I want to say here. Sounds like a lot of work but honestly, it's the only way I can remember all of this. I have to leave post it notes around the house to remind myself of things to do. The worst is when I'm having a conversation and can't remember words- quite embarrassing! This isn't an all day, everyday thing- just depends.
So, in my mind the other day when I made the comment to Misty and OMK, I had the "O" in my brain and knew I was thinking of OMK but didn't double check, so when I wrote it, it came out as Owen.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, I sometimes can't formulate the words I want to say on here; sometimes I think my posts don't come off the way I intended them to. So, if I seem a bit scatter brained, this is why! :)
Enough of that. Ok- lovely day here! Summer seems to be making a bit of a comeback. Sunshine, blue skies and warming temps- yay! However, the stink bugs have also made their usual September appearance. They are such annoying, nasty bugs and I can't understand their reason for existence!
Hope everyone has a wonderful day :)
Musings
-To quote Mary Poppins, the east and central were done “spit spot” before CAROL appeared and I got ‘er done
-Our shared sub sandwiches have BLACK OLIVES on my end and none on DW’s
-One example of homeoSTASIS in us
-Competitive wrestlers take great offense at being called RASSLERS
-Many subordinates have SAT ON info until they can write a book about their former bosses
-A famous ANNOTATED speech
-Despite what you may hear/read, wearing a NIQAB is not allowed for this purpose
-My Walgreen’s pharmacist is a very ENERGETIC young lady
Addendum
-It seems we have solved the confusion/disorientation of my MIL from last weekend. While searching for her lost eyeglasses the next day, my Poirot-like wife found them under a table off which her heavy TV had fallen. Coupling that with some scratches on her mother’s forehead and her admission that she had tried to move the incredibly heavy set, we have tentatively substituted concussion for “mini stroke” and she is improving.
Good morning everyone.
Thought of Splynter when I saw the 'onward' clue. Can't imagine the cops saying Move onward! Move ALONG, move ALONG!
Got most of the long acrosses OK, and also the down-spanner. Needed help with Bieber spelling. Overall solve was easier than many Saturdays. Didn't like the 'letter' clue but perps for LEASE were firm.
Nice SO to Yellowrocks w/ 31a.
Owen: good stanza with the Lippizzaners.
Thanks Splynter and Erik for a fun puzzle and expo. FIR, no lookups. The central and eastern thirds took normal Saturday time or less. The western third was another story. A big hang up was trying to fit the 36A answer into the 35A grid. When I realized that, things moved along better. Only Fela, Mr. Weasley (not a fan of Harry Potter), and Olsen were new to me. Other fill needed perps but were not unfamiliar. Knowing RON REAGAN and PRICIPIA with just a perp or two really helped. HIQAB before NIQAB.
30 D might have been clued lively, instead of alive. MEH means so-so to me.
Yellowrocks to you for dedicating a rhyme to me, OKL. Cute. Thanks for the CSO, Montana and DO. Would you believe that on Monday we announced a dance to the delightful tunes of Jerry Biggerstaff? Imagine his kids getting through high school.
Justin Beiber and Myley Cyrus started out as squeaky clean preteen idols and then IMO morphed into x-rated pseudo-grownups.
One of my sisters was mad at me for an innocent mistake. She ostracized me for two years. We now talk, but things have never felt the same. Declaring someone a non-person is vengeful IMO.
HG, good news about your MIL.
Good Morning:
When I saw Erik''s name, I thought I was going to be in for a tough solve, but once I got some traction with the longer fill, things fell into place quite nicely. Several answers were easy to infer with just a couple of letters filled in: Ron Reagan, Principia, A matter of course, Energetic, Bieber Fever, etc. Fela and Niqab were unknowns but Square Dance went in without a second thought. Nice CSO to YR and a generic CSO to Mr. Meow with the ball-batting Cat and, of course, to Splynter's Onward! I liked the misdirection clues as the perps were solid.
Well done, Erik, and thanks, Splynter, for the grand tour.
We, too, are enjoying a stretch of summer weather. I'm not complaining but I look forward to some clear, crisp Fall days.
HG, that's good news about your MIL.
Have a great day.
Hi everybody. I found this to be a puzzle with several visages. Part of it seemed straightforward and difficult such as PRINCIPIA, FELA and NIQUAB for examples; part seemed clever and tricky such as "Fights like sticks figures" leading to RASSLE; and at least one clue/answer seemed wrong to me, namely "Ship mover" resulting in SAIL. To me, the wind moves a ship or a tide or an outboard motor or ... but a sail isn't doing the moving. But I'm probably wrong. Anyway, the cluing was varied. It all came together and made for an interesting puzzle. Thanks Erik and Splynter.
Hi All!
Whoot! I got a Saturday in 1/2 the normal time it takes before I cry Uncle! Car Talk was just finishing up as I was filling the SW. Thanks Erik for a sparkle-filled puzzle with a big CSO to YR. Very well executed.
Thanks for your fine Expo Splynter - for once I could AVERT my eyes of your grid until mine was done. Never heard of 'leaving the 5 PIN.'
Like DO & Bunny M, I got started in the NE. -FLAT, GEICO, and ALPHA fell easily. Since I KNEW PRINCIPIA (I actually read it) the SE fell quickly (for me) too.
Then the long slog began... Finally, I committed to DOE and EDAM - ALAMO DOME (I kept thinking ALAMO 'centre' which clearly didn't fit) finally dawned on me. For some reason, I knew Ron Reagan enough to want it until it was (read, I wouldn't commit ink for some time).
WOs: SmoKE b/f STAKE (see: oDELE b/f ADELE), wrastle b/f RASSLE, filled "I 'said' it!" b/f realizing it was in SAIL's squares.
ESPs: FELA, OLSEN, POR, NIQAB, LUCERNE
Sparkle: c/a for YEN, clecho AYE /NAES, RASSLE. 43a's clue delighted youngest (she was reading me the clues on the way to dance and is a big fan of Hamilton the musical).
While I can't stand Bieber's "music" I do like that you got BIEBER FEVER in the grid - nice.
Fav: Going w/ BLACK OLIVES; Eldest would open a can and eat them all at once - miss that kid; two more months 'til Thanksgiving break.
{A++, B+}
PK - Good thing we had Mediterranean fruit=OLIVE last week to help today.
HG - Good(?) news re: MIL.
BunnyM - we all get confused on occasion (I'm sure I've OMK'd for OKL too). Take care.
Montana - thanks for the Avatar update... SNOW!. I finally heard a story on NPR yesterday about the fires in your state; they were interviewing some fire-authority out there talking about the rains coming. Sad to hear about shootings... We have enough issues w/ Mother Nature to havta deal with Human Nature too.
I love GEICO's commercials but don't use them (USAA). Farmers' "Seen a few things" is entertaining too (and the Girls @6 & 3yros would sing ALONG "bum, dada, Bum-pa bum"). I wouldn't switch based on adverts but this article of innovation is making me think...
Y'all have a great Saturday!
Cheers, -T
Well, a Saturday toughie--but then they're all Saturday toughies for me. But this one was a delight because the mis-directions of the clues were so wild that I found them funny. "Paper for a let-ter," "Mouths," "Batter of balls"? Lots of fun, and I loved getting SQUARE DANCE pretty soon after I got going. Owen, your first limerick tribute to Yellowrocks was just wonderful! But as I say, it was tough. I couldn't let go of ASTRODOME but should have noticed the SAN ANTONIO in the clue and remembered the ALAMO.
Anyway, many thanks, Erik and Splynter!
BunnyM, sorry to hear about your fibromyalgia. But I have to tell your that your posts are great and unproblematic and some of the memory problems you describe strike me as quite normal for folks in their senior years. Take good care of yourself, but I really suspect you're in much better shape than you think. I look forward to your posts every day!
Have a good weekend, everybody!
Hard-ish puzzle for me. Needed a really elastic brain to make some of the clue-answer stretches. Having ASTRODOME at 14a messed me up for a long time. Gotta go.
What a lovely puzzle from Erik Agard. Thank you, Erik.
Starting with ADELE and EDY gave me enough of a toehold to spread out in the center. Nice CSO to Yellowrocks and from Owen, too! I really liked those, Owen.
With just a few letters I could grok most of this grid, except the NW and NE, and did early this morning but then SLEEP overtook me and I returned to bed.
After awaking and drinking coffee I started again but was stuck on MR_EASLEY since I've never read any Harry Potter books so looked that one up as well as the ALAMODOME. I had the -DOME part then a V-8 can came at me with MARK. I know so many people named MARK but never think of its literal meaning.
A MATTER OF COURSE is a familiar phrase to me. Thank you from me, too, Splynter, for explaining LEASE. Those let-ters clues usually manage to stump me.
BunnM:
I'm so sorry to hear of your problems with fibromyalgia. One of my sisters has that ailment and I know it entails constant suffering and pain. Kudos to you for coping with it.
Has anyone heard from Dudley? I really miss him and worry about him flying around with so many storms prevailing.
Have a marvelous day, everyone!
Bunny M, when I read your post I thought, "Don't we all sometimes." Don't worry, your posts are cogent and interesting. But I can sympathize with your fibromyalgia. My niece has it, too. It is no picnic. You are very brave and determined.
Wow, I thought this tough, and I've been doing puzzles,for some time.
Thought clueing for 54A a reach, and 45A not much better. But I'll take a couple of tough clues over a bad gimmick theme any day all day.
Only two complaints today: I looked in five on-line dictionaries before I found LETTER defined as "one who let's" as an archaic def. AND, Isn't "sticks" and "RASSLE" a bit elitist and demeaning when describing a way of life?
Wow!
Just Wow!
I'm surprised Splynter found this a cake walk. For me it was daunting. I got mad at it. (Sorry, Mr. Agard. I temper my anger with respect for your industry and generosity.) I got mad at what seemed an abundance of proper names, from people to places.
On my first go-through, I got nothing but SAIL and (of all things) PRINCIPIA. The rest stayed mum. Even the 3-letter gimmes were thumbing their lil' noses at me.
But then, recalling my double-P motto*, I plugged away at it, and found the SE corner the first to yield. Between URI and NAES I found I could work my way inward. Once I changed ESP for POR at 52D the rest turned to gold. It didn't hurt that I had the Newton reference down.
Slowly, very slowly, what had been opaque became transparent, and at last I reached my Ta- DA!.
My very last fill was the one so many colleagues have complained of: LEASE at 54A. Thank you, Splynter for explaining that weird one. And thanks to Bobbi @ 3:05 for finding the "archaic def" to justify it. (Still, I say Boo.)
BunnyM @ 9:05 - No problem on my end. Mixing up blog handles is the least of the recurring goofs I've spotted. Your explanation is appreciated, although I think that places you squarely among those of us, esp. at "advanced" age, who labor to keep two sequential thoughts in a row.
Back in my summer at Zephyr Hills FLA, we would not have construed "parachute" as a verb and especially not as synonymous with SKYDIVE. To SKYDIVE is to enjoy the beauty & silence of the free-fall period - before deploying the 'chute. Of course, I understand that the whole experience can be rolled up in the SKYDIVE label, but even so, I never, ever heard anyone say, "Let's go parachuting today."
Just being picky - for the fun of it...
* Patience & Perseverance
FIW, having CAKe x MR WEASLEe for my only bad cell. I knew PRINCIPIA only because I looked up the definition years ago when I had a friend who hired on as a hand on John Davidson's classic yacht by the same name. It reminded me of the presidential yacht "Sequoia", and to me was the most beautiful of the 4,000 boats in Marina del Rey (even though it was a motor yacht).
Hand up for erasing astroDOME. My anonymous guy was "average jOE" before he was "john DOE". My favorite anonymous name is "Joey Bagadoughnuts".
Too many other unknowns to list, but the perps made everything else fit nicely. And I actually attempted a Saturday puzzle for a change!
Thanks Erik and Splynter for a fun Saturday.
MR. WEASELEY: Although I never read Harry Potter and only saw one movie years ago, I remembered Ron WEASELEY, Harry's best friend. I didn't like the last name for a friend because I think of a WEASEL as being a villain type animal. I tried another name when I saw the "M" but I'm not sure it was a Potter book character. When I had MRW, I got it.
Bobbi - I don't think of 'sticks' as derogatory. As DO proudly claimed, he lives in the Sticks. I grew up in Corn Country and have no problem with Easties & Westies sometimes looking down on it nor the 4th Coast (H-Town).... Helps me identify the ignorant ;-). The fun is -- some of the "stick figures" know stuff that others pay good money for... Right BooL? [I'm still binging on your Briggs vids].
Jinx - Had the same LEE/CAKe issue. I didn't like the down so re-read 36a's clue... Description implied Adj hence a Y. That's my heuristic and it worked! - once in a row.
OMK - Wow. Your inner Anthony Hopkins came out in the 1st 1/2.of your post. I could see you onstage with a breathy monologue in your prose ... Bravo!
Cheers, -T
Many entries for parachuting on the Internet. Wiki equates it with skydiving
Bobbi- "AND, Isn't "sticks" and "RASSLE" a bit elitist and demeaning when describing a way of life?" Not is the least. We hicks, yahoos, and rubes laugh because we know how to GROW FOOD. We will survive any catastrophe while the city slickers run around like chickens with their heads cut off wondering where, when, and if their food and water will show up.
thank you kind folks for solving & commenting on the puzzle! always a pleasure to stop in and get your takes. enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Thanks E. Egard - fun and doable Saturday. And much thanks, Splynter, great walk-through as always! But a Pizzazz Pizza Wheel? Guess it must be terrific if you bought it for baking/crisping pizza crusts, but does it also slice, dice, and chop, and is there more? Another Splynter thx for the hijab vs niqab link. Heard of hijab and burkha, but I just left perps in place for niquab??
NW - nada. Started NE and worked my way down south as all of you have noted. GEICO, alpha, stasis = lipsyncs for mouths. Which led to a YellowRocks CSO - square dance, thank you, YR! My fav "fruit" on a veggie pizza, which by the way it is - black olives. SW pretty easy, and having E-A-G-A-N in place up north, WAG's Ron Reagan, Alamodome (duh, San Antone) and tada. Another WAG- Mr. Weasley?! Apologies to Harry Potter fans, but absolutely having no interest in Rowlings' creativity and good fortune - enough already! ARRG! Winner for creative clue: Just(in) case - filled Bieber Fever right after square dance. As others have said, not a fan of Justin. After a couple of run-throughs for Paper for a letter, it finally dawned on me - duh. Here in the US, it's lessor/lessee, but I guess it's a nod for our UK and Canadian friends, eh?
OK, IT GURUS out there, any suggestions as to the Equifax dust-up? (Maybe someone's posted this information but this lurker must've missed it.) I've read conflicting reports: freeze vs don't freeze (info out there already, no, hackers will lay low for a year, etc.) I was/still am hoping to buy a much needed (pre-owned) car in the next few months (ol' Harv and Irma put a damper on that one--flood-damaged cars flooding the market already). Finally brave enough today to check my vulnerability on "equifaxsecurity2017.com" Yes, I've been compromised. Same site advised me to enroll in its "Trusted ID Premier"?! Are you blanking kidding me! - enroll on YOUR site?! Congress has put forth proposed bills to negate any "freeze" fees - should I wait or go through the hassle, and "rassle" with the three reporting agencies? Thank you all - know my post is late - apologies.
TxMs, I share your confusion!! Dont know what to do! Any experts, please chime in!!
AnonT and BigE, I agree. .... To those living in the "sticks" it is a compliment ! My Arkansas cousins swear The Sticks are much to be preferred over The Swamps of south Louisiana . My Coonass neighbors.....yes, they call themselves that!.... Disagree.
I guess as long as we are proud of where we are from, it doesn't much matter what elitists in other parts think of us!!
Splynter, forgot to add that I immediately thought of you ~ Onward! As a lot of others noted.
Big Easy, lol @ 8:35am - yes, "bad disease." Tweeners will wonder 40 years from now, what were we thinking? Or...maybe not.
Anon-T @ 11:45am - Farmers (Ins.) yurts (Mongolian tents - previous CR clue/answer) in Rosharon - right up the road (Hwy 288) from our farm in Brazoria Co. After taking yearly family road trips to CO, MN, and IA, I decided at an early age that my area was the ugliest in TX!! Nothing but rice farms and treeless pastures. But glad others here have beautiful landscapes in which they live.
Montana, I do hope your area's devastating fires very soon will be a thing of the past for y'all. I did read a recent interesting article from a forestry expert who stated that wildfires do serve a beneficial purpose, of course not for the present, but for the future of your great forests. VERY small consolation for all of you now, I know.
Tx Ms, I've always loved the waving, undulating rice farms. They remind me of the sea which I love. I think every area is beautiful in its own way!
I pecked away at this until all was done except a completely blank SW. I pieced it in a box at a time. SAT ON and RASSLE in the same corner? Shades of my HS girlfriend's couch. I was a STICK in those far-off days. 55th at the end of month.
Great CSO to YR. Y'all missed mine again last Sunday*. Second time it was clued. Also, since I finally did Sunday on Friday I recognized MORE and UTOPIA reverse clued.
Bunny you described me perfectly. Btw, I let the cerebellum do the work when the frontal cortex is on strike.
And speaking of, quick CSO to Boomer on ONE PIN.
C-Moe, if you sneak in here.. you had a terrific haiku the other day. Same, same for about a dozen of Owen's l'icks the past week.
Bunny, call them Owen and Keith.
Erik, your cluing was in the CC, Weschler etc tradition. And of course, Splynter does a great write-up every Saturday.
Now for Sunday.
WC
* The Mr Ed clueing.
A horse is a horse of course of course..
Hello WILBUR
Good night corner
WC
TXMs - A buddy of mine who hails from Houston said of my property... "When I was in HS this was the swamps. We'd bring BEER and try to spot alligators; on a good night you'd see 20 pair of eyes." SwampCat - of my other house he said, "That was just a rice field." //Yet neither flooded - I'm the luckiest guy in H-Town. :-)
Re: Equifax. Up front, please note I have no inside information; everything that follows is informed-conjecture...
I see two issues:
1) You just stole the Hope Diamond? Sweet! So, um, how you gonna fence it?*
2) We don't have attribution. This is more nuanced -
When the OMB was hacked we pretty much knew it was the Chinese. They weren't taking the LOOT for ID THEFT but for knowing who in the US is close to Gov't - both for when clearance-holders visit Asia and/or who's working on "super-secret-squirrel" stuff who may be compromisable. Last year Experian 'lost' 8M records similar to what Equifax just 'lost' and not much ID fraud came of that. If it were criminals in this go-round - they were smart enough to exploit a known bug - I'd think they'd be smart enough not to try to use the IDs prior to "free credit monitoring" expiring next year.
Hell, Vimeo just admitted to a hack yesterday; their goodies were on-line for about 30h before the unknown hacker kindly(?) took it down. Again, the thief didn't know what to do with the diamonds.
That said - what to do? What to do? Freezing credit if you don't need it (I.e. You're not in the market for a (flooded out?) car) protects you commercially. Adding a pin to your IRS and SSA profiles will help protect your Gov't ID (kinda - we've seen SNAFUs there too). Nothing will protect you from someone getting a valid US ID in your name - That's the best use of this info TROVE - sell it to expired visa holders that need ID. //Hard slog that; $400/ID on the dark-web is slow money.
Insofar as sighing up for TrustID or whatever... YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, whatever. They just lost their only stock and trade - Trust. At least Target still sold toilet paper & Home Depot had lumber.
TTP - If you're still reading, I'd love your $0.02.
Cheers, -T
*see: Headline - 'Dog Catches Car!'
SwampCat @ 8:54, thank you for the memory! Fifty years ago I biked down the black-topped roads, among rice fields, enjoying the sights of the soon-to-be-harvested rice stalks. Pleasant memories, for sure. But then, tonight, a flash-back - our 200-acre farm was an island amid the rice fields, and Dad had about a 100 head of Hereford cattle that he dearly loved. After a long 10-hr day @ Dow Chemical, I can remember him going out, almost every night in the summer, around 10pm to ignite rubber tires, hoping the smoke would keep away the damn rice-field-generated mosquitoes from his suffering herd. Sorry, guys, TMI down memory lane! Blame SwampCat - lol!!!!
Thins, e.g.
That one got me. Since it Oreos, I'm guessing they were referring to wheat thins
Thnx for your defense of "sticks" . I just think in this time of "cultural divide" we don't need these types of devisive connotations.
We had no Internet all day thanks to the utter incompetence and indifference of Frontier. Does anyone else have to deal with this awful company?
Glad that you found this puzzle easy, Splynter. Hand up with those who found it quite a challenge, with lots of blank space slowly filled in. In the end I FIR and felt satisfied, so I guess I liked it!
I am also impressed with how many on this blog knew of PRINCIPIA! Yeah! Not just us physics people! I am even more impressed with Anonymous T who has read it. I am definitely inspired now to read it! Newton was very eccentric, but what a genius.
Some unknowns that I am unlikely to remember:
MR WEASLEY, FELA.
EDY is one of my pet peeves of being a regional brand, but I do remember it now from sheer repetition in these puzzles.
Redwood City is the BAY AREA city we usually stay in when we visit my brother. Hotels there are almost affordable compared with surrounding cities. Not sure how many people outside the region would know of it.
Hand up that NIQAB is an unknown, but I will try to remember it. Thought of HIJAB first. Hand up for WANT before KNEW.
Did not know ALAMO DOME, but it made sense. I stayed with friends in San Antonio years ago and they took me to the ALAMO.
Did not know that GEICO had a pig which confused me.
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