google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, Sep 30th, 2017, Pawel Fludzinski

Gary's Blog Map

Sep 30, 2017

Saturday, Sep 30th, 2017, Pawel Fludzinski

Theme: None

Words: 66 (missing J,K,Q,X,Z)

Blocks: 34

Last puzzle of the month, and I expected it to be a rough one, and Mr Fludzinski did not disappoint.  Virtually blank on the first pass, both across and down, but I was able to break open the SE corner before I caved in to red-letters, and then Googled for one answer.  I refrained from STOG, but I needed some help in the NW - just too many proper names today.  Oh well.  Two 13-letter spanners and one 15-letter climber in a sort of pretzel-like grid;

30a. Wikipedia is an example of it : CROWDSOURCING

33a. Kind of response to mortal danger : FIGHT OR FLIGHT

7d. Reunion discovery : LONG LOST FRIENDS - or sometimes this old farm....

lyric @ 1:30
jOhNWARDenver~!

ACROSS:

1. MTV toon teen : BEAVIS - argh~! So ashamed I didn't recall this right away


7. Sings the blues : LAMENTS

14. Planned city in California's Orange County : IRVINE - I'm East coast - I hear "planned", and I think Levittown and Hicksville here on Long Island

15. Conquered : OVERCAME - I tried overTOOK, but this is like a more personal conquering; I overcame my anxiety this week when I interviewed well on Monday, then had to wait until yesterday to find out I got the job.  So I am "retiring" from UPS as of the end of next week.  Seven years.  That's a good run for me.
 

17. General courses : TRENDS

18. "Could be worse" : "NOT SO BAD."

19. __ talks : MONEY - I pondered PEACE first

20. Ones in a mess, briefly : GIs


21. Celestial body : ORB - crossword staple, poetic "planet"

22. Chug-__ : A-LUG

23. Persuaded : SOLD

25. Instrument dating to the Paleolithic age : FLUTE - ah, an actual instrument; I was thinking along the lines of knife/axe/spade "tool" kind of instrument

27. "Go ahead" : "PLEASE DO."

29. One determining 17-Across : POLLER

32. Like most capital costs : ONE-TIME

39. Brody who was the youngest Best Actor Oscar winner : ADRIEN - I spelled it with two "A"s first

40. Contingency plan : RECOURSE

43. Double-check : RE-ADD

44. Old Italian capital : LIRE - and again, spelled it with an "A"

45. "__ oui!" : MAIS - Frawnche - but I have to let on, I have had a new handyman client who is French, and he's pretty cool - a little hard to understand at times, but....

46. Provoke : FAN - as in fanning the flames

47. San Francisco's __ Valley : NOE - perps; more West coast geography

48. Presages : BODES

49. Symbolic attitude? : EMOTICON - 😀

52. Star close to Venus? : SERENA - the tennis stars, that is - didn't fool me, got me a start in this corner

53. Field of dreams? : LA-LA LAND

54. Pucker-inducing : LEMONY

55. Denies : NAYSAYS

56. Parks with games : ARENAS

DOWN:

1. Digital image format : BITMAP

2. Jazz virtuoso Garner : ERROLL - my Google for the day; his Wiki

3. Street in Manhattan's Alphabet City : AVENUE C - in hindsight, filling in "AVENUE" and then waiting seemed like a good idea for getting a toe-hold

4. Salad bar item : VINEGAR

5. __ 500 : INDY

6. His, to Henri : SES - oui

8. Bypass : AVOID - there was no avoiding traffic last weekend out here - a holiday weekend that had all three routes to the North Fork jammed up - I got in and got out before the chaos ensued.  Apple pickers.  >:-P 😝

9. Last team to play in the Polo Grounds : METS - and back to the East coast; more here

10. Sounds from the stumped : Ers....

11. Base fig. : NCO - dah~!  Army base; I was thinking EST, NTH, etc.

12. Bulgur salad : TABOULI - no clue, filled via perps - the Wiki

13. Spruce (up) : SMARTEN

16. Swedish tennis great : EDBERG - seeing how I screwed up SAM BERG a few weeks ago, I looked this up just to be sure it was not "ED BERG"

23. Like some patches : SEWN-ON - I had this one on the back of my denim jacket in high school

ah, the youth of 1985

24. Harder to explain : ODDER

25. Precede : FOREGO

26. Inc. kin : LLC - oops, not LTD

28. Blackened from combustion : SOOTED - meh.  I went with SEARED

29. Exfoliation material : PUMICE

31. NFL Titan, once : OILER - from Houston

33. Pasta pellets in Jewish cuisine : FARFEL

34. Thoughtful guy? : IDEA MAN

35. Breakfast bar : GRANOLA

36. Sought anonymity : HID

37. "Just play along, okay?" : "HUMOR ME."

38. Exploit : TRADE ON

41. "Burnt" crayon color : SIENNA

42. Prose pieces : ESSAYS

44. More than a little foolish : LOONY

47. BCS org. : NCAA - Bowl Championship Series of the National Collegiate Athletic Assoc.

48. It's often tapped out : BEER

50. North Sea feeder : TAY - the longest river up in Scotland


51. They, in Tours : ILS - oui oui~!

52. Radical '70s org. : SLA

Splynter



Notes from C.C.:

1) Congrats on the new job, Splynter!

2) Happy Birthday to dear Pat and her husband! They were born in the same day & same year. Pat was born in the morning, her husband in the afternoon. Pat loves dogs and has been volunteering in a animal shelter for many years.   

48 comments:

  1. Hi Y'all! Whew! I'm not sure I live in the same world as Pawel, but thanks for a workout. Like Splynter, my FIELD was mostly white with the first pass. Lot of WAGs & red-letters to get a start. I found the longest fills the easiest.

    Thanks, Splynter, and congratulations on the new job. I hope it works out okay for you. Also thanks for the John Denver, musically a LONG LOST FRIEND. Saw him in concert and strummed his music when I played guitar. Long ago and far away.

    BEAVIS: never saw and never wanted to. No idea of the channel since we didn't have cable in those days.

    BITMAP: tried DOT after MAP appeared. I'll never get a hold on electronics lingo as rapidly as it changes.

    But hey, I got FLUTE and NAYSAY and LALA LAND right away. Surprise, Surprise!

    General courses & one determining them: I was thinking college courses and tried "majors" before POLLERS. Hunh? Don't really understand the actual fills.

    No know NOE or TAY. Or a bunch of other names. ADRIENE, I should have known but it took some perps.

    I'd like to have a dollar for every patch I've SEWN ON. Tried "iron" ON first.

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  2. Good morning!

    Stumbled here and there, but still staggered to the finish line in better-than-normal time. Hand up for two As in ADRIEN, Splynter; PUMICE saved me from an A in LIRE. I confused FOREGO with FORGO...must have forgotten. "Celestial body" could've been UMA. Thanx, Pawel.

    PK, I think Pawel meant "the way things are going" with "general course." Ergo: TRENDS. And the pollsters (POLLERs) determine those TRENDS.

    Splynter, congrats on the new gig. BTW, I enjoyed the "Oops." Hope the career turn turns out well for you. What will you be doing?

    Happy birthday, Pat (and hubby), and many more.

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  3. First time I have seen lire used as the plural of lira. I thought lira was like deer, 1 deer or 20 deer.

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  4. Had "SEWONS" (patches) and "ORANGE" (burnt) on my first pass from the bottom. Crosses easily fixed. Finally, a puzzle with some crunch.

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  5. Slow crunchy puzzle - but a definite feeling of accomplishment as I headed into the final stretch. Like Splynter, the NW was a bear for me, and not knowing French I just waited for perps on all the answers that required it. Nice CSO to Lemonade- was it Marti who always called your blogs on Friday LEMONY?

    Thanks for the link to the John Denver song - he was performing at the first live concert I went to in an ARENA, and last weekend and next weekend I am going to high school reunions in KC (one at the district I started in and one in the one I finished in!) and meet up with some LONG LOST FRIENDS. John Denver was the background music of my life back then.

    Congrats on the new job Splynter!
    And HBD to PAT and spouse!

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  6. Hello Puzzlers -

    Chiming in today for a few reasons. One, congratulations to Splynter for making a job jump. In your new endeavor, may the Force be with you!

    Two, had to acknowledge that this was a pretty hard puzzle - lots of perp help needed. Finished with a legitimate no-peeky, but it was a pull. Thanks for the workout, Pawel.

    Three, long-time readers of the Corner might remember that I was pressed into service, because of urgent need, as a gravedigger earlier this year. Well, it came up again: a local family undergoing great sadness asked me to prepare a grave, which I did. They had lost a 19 year old son/grandson/nephew to opioid addiction. Well, that brings it closer to home. I cannot declare myself unaffected by the sadness of this loss. I don't know how America and the world will get out of this addiction crisis, but I hope it's possible.

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  7. Good morning all!

    Thanks to Pawel for a fun, crunchy Saturday (as it should be). Got off to a great start across with knowing BEAVIS, FIGHT OR FLIGHT, SERENA, EMOTICON, LA LA LAND , ADRIEN ( I also spelled it with two A's) and the CSO to our Friday FRIEND, LEMONY. Even with some unknowns and w/o's, it ended up to be NOT SO BAD 😀

    Thanks, Splynter for guiding us along. Congratulations on your new job- I wish you much success in your new endeavor!

    I had a wrong WAG for IRVINE- thought it was Encino. Hand up for Lira/LIRE. Tried Loofah/PUMICE, LTD/LLC and my patch was Ironed instead of SEWN ON.

    Unknowns: ERROLL, EDBERG, TAY and NOE.

    Happy Birthday to fellow Cincinnatians Pat and husband ! I admire the volunteer work you do at the shelter. PLEASE DO have a lovely day celebrating with your spouse- so sweet you share it ( my maternal grandparents also shared a birthday, although they were born different years. Yesterday was their birthday, as well as two of my second cousins- it was always a big celebration in our family! When my grandmother passed away (several years after my Grandpa) my Mom bought me a ring with their sapphire birthstone as a reminder/memento. It's one of my dearest treasures 😃)

    Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

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  8. Happy birthday, Pat & her man. With the same birthdate, he has no excuse to forget yours.

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  9. Blogger Yellowrocks said...
    This was a real workout, but fun and satisfying. With a cluster of four cells left, I red lettered to check. Only 2 bad cells. It was not LTD, which I had been stubbornly keeping, though it blocked the final four. I was so sure. Back to masters level, I changed it to LLC and soon finished. No googles. I see some of you excellent solvers also had a little help, so NOT SO BAD. Only EDBERG, NOE and ADRIEN were totally unfamiliar, filled with perps and wags. Many familiar words needed perp suggestions.
    Congrats on your new job, Splynter. I wish you much success. What will you be doing?
    Happy birthday, Pat and DH. Enjoy your very special day.
    Dudley, so sad about that young man.
    When I had my bathrooms remodeled, the constructor had to let a very promising young helper go, because he was stoned on opioids. I don't know what became of him.
    Bunny M, your sapphire ring is a real treasure.
    I am enjoying this delightful fall weather, cool and sunny. It rains at night. No touches of autumn color yet. It is late this year.

    ReplyDelete
  10. 31D: The NY JETS were formerly the NY TITANS. But that was AFL prior to the merger of the two leagues.

    2D: Erroll Garner was a great pianist but not really a virtuoso. Art Tatum was a virtuoso. The author should listen to the two of them and then truly understand the meaning of the word virtuoso

    16A: I remember commenting on the Sam Berg issue.

    20A: I don't recall seeing any GI in the mess hall that looked that good during my Army days☺️

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  11. Musings
    -My TREND setter was a MOLDER and TABOULI was never going to come. I’ll take two bad cells on Pawel’s wonderful puzzle and move on.
    -A marriage FIGHT OR FLIGHT variation – “Is this a hill worth dying on?”
    -Congrats Splynter. Now you can sit out the Christmas Craziness of UPS
    -NOT SO BAD (:52)
    -Some people SOLD our district on horrible “Open Concept” schools in the 70’s. It took a lot of capital investment to undo it.
    -MAIS oui! My granddaughter is safely in Grenoble, France with her host family
    -The FARFEL I remember
    -Congressional NAYSAYERS check the party of the sponsors before they do the content of a bill
    -The kids bought me this jacket at KSC with many SEWN on patches and so I wear it to my presentations
    -HBD Pat!

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  12. Good morningeveryone.

    Happy Birthday to Pat and her husband. Guess those birthdays don't get forgot too often. Hope you both have a great day.

    Good news, Splynter. Congratulations. So where's the gig?

    Tackled this one only because I like Pawel's work. This was very hard for me, but I did get the SE early on. Needed much help with the rest of it.
    ONE-TIME - Didn't make the connection.
    RE-ADD - Didn't parse it right.
    Not familiar with CROWD SOURCING, FIGHT OR FLIGHT or FARFEL.
    Favorite clue was for NCO (base fig.)
    TAY - Assumed it had to be a Brit river. Name wise, feeders from the Continent seem to have 4 letters, at least in puzzles.

    On another subject my E-mail outgoing is Kaput. Have spoken at length to both Spectrum re: their set-up and Apple techs. OS is Hi-Sierra. Any ideas?

    Have a great day.

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  13. This puzzle was ridiculous............not because I didn't get it....................it was
    just plain ridiculous.
    I bet the 'mensas' didn't even get it!

    I bet I didn't get it because its Yom Kippur and I shouldn't even be doing a puzzle!

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  14. Good Morning:

    This was a Three Little Bear puzzle for me; Not too hard, not too easy and, ultimately, just right! The NW was a bear (tee hee) as my only fill for awhile was Erroll. While I've heard of Beavis and Butthead, I always thought they were cartoon characters in the newspaper. (I've never watched MTV in my life.) I think finally getting Avenue C and vinegar broke that corner open. It didn't help that Irvine was Fresno for the longest time. W/os included Adrian/Adrien, lira/lire, SDS/SLA, loofah/pumice, LTD/LLC. Unknowns were farfel, Noe, Tay, and Bitmap. Had to wait for the correct spelling of tabouli as it has so many variants. My favorite part of the solve was seeing a movie title, "Field of Dreams," cluing another movie title, "La La Land", with no reference to either being a movie. How clever! Great big CSO to Lemony, too.

    Thanks, Pawel, for a pleasing Saturday saunter and thanks, Splynter, for guiding us along. Congratulations and good luck in your new job.

    Happy Birthday to Pat and hubby! Have double the fun on your special day!🎂🎁🎉🎈🍾

    Have a great day.

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  15. I didn't find this one to be a rough one and filled almost all of it faster than usual for a Saturday. I didn't really know BEAVIS, IRVINE, or BITMAP but with MONEY talks ( and BS walks), TRENDS, ERROLL, INDY-500 and Chug-A-LUG in place the NW filled rapidly. The NE was a bit slower- UMS-URS-ERS-EMS, and LTD-LLP-LLC- many options, along with either SDS or SLA in the SE. NCAA, Stephan EDBERG and SERENA were gimmes.

    My LONG LOST 'COUSINS' turned out to be FRIENDS and that helped in the SW, with my last puzzle fill being the cross of FARFEL & FAN. FARFEL, ADRIEN Broday and TAY are new words I've never seen or heard of. Then I noticed PUMICA and realized the plural for LIRA was LIRE and changed that square. NOE valley; I only knew of NOB Hill.

    'Hicksville'- I thought that's what the East Coast New Yorkers called anything west of the Hudson.
    Magilla- I think the words genius and virtuoso are way overused. I remember when many people could play the piano. But that required hours and hours of practice. A piano virtuoso came from my home town- VAN CLIBURN.

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  16. Usual Saturday slog for me, hit solve for the names'and hope the constructor throws me a bone in the fill...

    Happy Birthday(s) Pat & DH

    & as long as were at it, for Splynter...

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  17. Thanks Pawel and Splynter.

    Happy birthday to Pat and her husband!

    Congrats on the new job Splynter! It reminds me of the story by Woody Allen. He was telling his friend that he (Woody Allen) had gotten a new job.

    "Oh, what will you be doing?" his friend asked.

    "I'll be working backstage at the Follies helping the girls get dressed and undressed."

    "OK, and what's the pay?"

    "It's three dollars a night."

    "Geez, that's not much."

    "I know" said Woody, "but it's all I could afford."

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  18. Thanks, Pawel, for a workout this am. DNF due to FAN and FARFEL. But got more than we figured after the first pass.

    Congrats, Splynter, on your new gig. Hope it brings you years of success! Also, another nice write-up!

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  19. Anon@10:19, I'll bet your answer for 54 A was sour grapes.

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  20. Thanks, I think, Pawel. This was a toughie for me. INDY, OILER, BEAVIS, TABOULI, SIENNA, ALUG filled in immediately; then the plod. Finally looked up the French pronouns, SES, ILS, which helped immensely in the NW and SW. Strange that only three letters can open up whole sections.

    IM, thought the same about Field of dreams/Lalaland. Nice cluing.

    Never heard the term SOOTED (meh), but then again all's fair in crossword world.

    HB to Pat and hubby. Does he ever kid you about being the "older" woman?

    Congratulations, Splynter! You done good - well done. Loved your OOPS pic; yes, "consider it gone"! I'm sure you're going to be enjoying the holidays a lot more.

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  21. A week of TADA's ruined. SOutheast was doomed when I confidently wrote in ORANGE for 41d. I was never much for coloring but vaguely remember sis's "sienna". Oh well. Three French clues are a little much and even though I played college tennis I had a hard time remembering Edberg.

    Speaking of tennis I don't know if I'll go see the Billie jean King/ Bobby riggs movie but I do remember the match. I called lines in one of the first WTA tournaments and frankly was not impressed with their ability. Serves were slow, many didn't even posses an overhead and only Billie Jean could volley with any regularity. Watching the match Bobby dumped so many volleys into the net my guess was he threw it. Women's tennis got a lot better after the racquet revolution. Heck...I GOT better after wide body graphite racquets came out !

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  22. Hi there, All!

    A lot of white at the start. Having Ironon and Ltd messed up the center section for quite a while. The Northeast was the first to fall, and slowly the rest of the puzzle filled itself in. A worthy Saturday indeed! BTW, Farfel was the name of the dog in the Nestles Commercials. Having a wonderful weekend, This weather is Amazing!

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  23. As others stated, looked like a blizzard after the first passes. Almost gave up a couple times, but kept getting a couple answers. NW last to fall.
    Had IRONON before SEWNON, SDS before SLA, BEAT before BEER. Not a lot of corrections because most were blank. More than happy to get the solve, elated that there was no additional gimmick to deal with.

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  24. Anonymous @10:19 --

    Look at crosswords on a Saturday as a device to purify us from the illusion that we actually know something, and you'll see that this fits with Yom Kippur.

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  25. Well, I knew I had this one -
    Mr. Fludzinski must've planned it this way,
    considering that I've been living in 14A (on and off) for the past 37 years!

    A modified Ta- DA!
    Still, I'll admit to three Googles to keep me going - mainly to confirm, of course, and not to initiate cheating. I know that's a fine point, but I'll be happy to share my ability to make the distinction with anyone who'd like to apply it to their own solving methodology. (Far be it from me to keep it to myself!)

    Re. IRVINE. Splynter, this is a "different" kind of "Planned city," as it didn't exist at all when I first came here as a Boy Scout for the '53 Jamboree. It got underway with the growth of the university in the '60s.

    We are the "safest" city of our size in the country. We're next to the ocean, but higher up. We have many "villages" occupying a greater land mass than Manhattan, communities that share an extraordinary obsession with cleanliness. Weeds refuse to grow up between pavement slabs in Irvine. Dog poop evaporates on its way to the ground!
    When I first came here I bought a Thomas Guide, a book of local map pages to guide readers around the county. To help in orientation, the pages have different colors for urban areas, for university lands, etc. I noticed great swaths of white within Irvine's borders which, I came to understand, meant there's nothing here.

    That's right, because even today I can see huge areas of scrub grass as virginal as the land I cleared for my pup tent back in 1953.
    The town - and the university from which I retired - are still growing...

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  26. I didn't get to the puzzle until late afternoon, read Splynters intro and decided to go straight to the blog, not even trying the puzzle. I'm sure you did an outstanding job, Pawel F., but it would have been way over my head. The write-up was excellent, Splynter.

    Congratulations on the new job, Splynter! Change can be good.

    CED, thanks for the cupcakes!

    Thank you for the birthday wishes. It's been a great day so far. There are a couple events today that DH wants to attend that don't interest me and vice versa, so for the first time in 40+ years we are doing our own things today. Tomorrow evening we will go to our daughters' home for dinner. TX Ms, he doesn't call me the older woman but he has said "When I get to be your age......"

    Have a wonderful rest of your day!

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  27. I loved this puzzle but couldn't solve it without looking up Swedish tennis players, Jewish pasta pellets, and the Orange County planned city, even though I knew ERROLL, ADRIEN, and SERENA and got FLUTE, TABOULI, and SIENNA right. Having MATZOS in the southwest area messed me up there for a long time. Once I looked it up and got FARFEL it pretty much cracked open the whole rest of the puzzle.
    I sure wanted CHARRED instead of SOOTED, which also kept the center locked up for a long time.
    The meaning of FOREGO had me stumped for a while, too.
    I've heard of NOE Valley from local news broadcasts but have never been there.

    Congratulations on the new job, Splynter!

    Happy birthday, Pat and Mr. Pat!

    Best wishes to you all.

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  28. I don't usually post, but this time I couldn't refrain - thank you for the positive comments - very motivating to go back and create another puzzle! This puzzle probably had the highest percentage of clues that were mine originally (vs those changed by the editor) - approx 80%. I will take the blame for the ones you don't like, and give Rich/Patti credit for the gems. Thanks again! Pawel

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  29. Hmmm, I see Nelson Peltz is engaged in a proxy fight again, this time to gain a seat on the board of Procter & Gamble. Interesting. He tried that with DuPont a year or two ago and didn't get enough votes. Doubly interesting: the DuPont CEO resigned just a few months after that shareholders' meeting. Hmm, (twirling beard in fingers) who to vote for?

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  30. Hi All!

    I did it! I got a Saturday (and y'all say it was hard too! //ok, it did take me ~2 HRS) with only one bad square. NOT SO BAD for me against Pawel. Thanks Pawel for a doable Sat and thanks for stopping by the Corner. Please SIR may I have another.

    Thanks Splynter for the Expo and congrats on the new job.

    I got started easily enough when perps seemed to agree with BEAVIS. I was flummoxed @1d... Only "pic" file that I could think of starting with a B was .bmp. V8 hit... Duh, BITMAP. Things went well until the deep SE & W.

    //side-story - A professor was working with an optometrist to automate cataract screening. The idea was that you could predict cataracts with 90% certainty based on the width of the veins in the eye; doing this manually took at least a day. The class was given images of eyes in lossless .bmp files. These files were huge and we wrote software for their research as our class project. I got an A but I doubt the professor ultimately used my code; Anthony was the genius (sorry BigE for the use) in the class -- he'd program Mary Had a Little Lamb or some such on his calculator while profs lectured; ONE TIME, he looked up from his "not listening nor taking notes" side-amusement to correct the prof's differential equations on the board! We all had to go back two pages to remove the negative-sign.

    WOs: LONG LOST relativ[crap!]; searED b/f SOOTED. SiRiNA->SiReNA->SERENA. I's make easy Es in ink.
    ESPs: ERROLL, SES, EDBERG, POLLER (really?, I guess s/he determines the TREND after the fact; TAY, ILS, MAIS, ADRIEN, NOE.
    FIW: LIRa. I thought maybe PUMICa was plural(?).... I was so sure of LIRA (and damned if DW didn't say LyRE when I Googled her for PUMICE spelling :-))

    Fav: Computer sub-theme. CROWD SOURCING, EMOTICON, BIT MAP, ODDER (if you've ever read my code - I can get LOONY in comments after a BEER; The "IDEA MAN" NAY SAYS my ESSAYS in SOURCE; I like to FAN the flames... "PLEASE DO stop" he'd ask... Oh well, MONEY talks and he SOLD my code :-)).

    Runner-up: The OILERs were gone b/f I got to H-Town but there's still 'Love ya' Blue' love here.

    Dudley - that's so sad. BEER is hard enough a vice to balance - I couldn't imagine being hooked on opioids (and they were pushed on the public for so long as "pain management.")

    ChuckL - I caught something last week on HBO or PBS re: Billie Jean King and the match in Houston. Was that you on the line?

    FLN - Glad you got a giggle out of it Tawnya. As I filled IGUANA, the song invaded my brain. //does anyone else just "hear" music in their head? Where most any word can trigger it? Oh, and I agree on HRS for Nolte/Murphy franchise.

    OMK - Cool info /nice story re: IRVINE.

    Happy Birthday to you Pat and your Hubby - hope it's a wonderful day!

    Cheers, -T

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  31. Pat, thank you for not taking offense at my feeble attempt at humor - I should have requested my post be deleted. DH's comment is certainly more endearing. Glad y'all are compromising - it will be a good day for both of you, plus your post-BD dinner at your daughter's home tomorrow.

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  32. Splynter referred to STOG in his post.I can't remember seeing that before. What is it?

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  33. TX Ms: You can delete or amend your post all by yourself by clicking on the trashcan at the end of your post. (Only you can see it.) Then follow a few simple directions.

    Pawel, it was nice of you to stop by.

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  34. YR - Straight TO Google, IIRC. It's for those "I haven't the foggiest but, if I did, I'd crack the corner" clues. ADRIAN would have been one for me today butI had enough perps to NOT Google and suss it out.

    Reposted because I was too terse YR. Sorry, Army Bro called as I was typing; he's on his way to Puerto Rico @08-hundred. At least he's not killing people on this order. It will be a shit-hole like his time in [redacted] helping the [redacted] but for the Good.

    Cheers, -T

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  35. "Forego" is a variant spelling of "Forgo." Both mean "do without." Neither means "precede". Giving away my age but the only "Farfel" I know was a canine friend of "Kukla, Fran & Ollie!" (If you have to ask you are under 60!) Otherwise an easier Saturday puzzle than usual.

    Due to a spate of unseasonbly warm weather our Southern Adirondack forests haven't reached peak Autumn color. Probably next weekend.

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  36. STOG is a wimps way to solve a puzzle.

    IRVINE SUCKS !

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  37. Bill G, thanks for the info. I'm sure it'll come in handy many times.

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  38. TX Ms: Does he ever kid you about being the "older" woman?

    I thought you had a good question! No offense even thought of.

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  39. Dudley, my son took his (then) 12-yr-old son to the emergency room for a broken thumb. Kid said it didn't hurt but they gave him a prescription for oxycontin. I had a fit and told my son not to give him such a strong drug. They didn't fill the scrip and gave him tylenol instead. When I broke my foot last year, the physician's assistant asked me how bad my pain was. I told him I didn't have any pain. He looked at me askance and started to write a prescription for oxycontin. I told him not to bother since I have bad side effects from most pain killers so wouldn't take it. My theory is that drug sales reps push these drugs as miracles and the medical staff buy into that myth. This OD problem is turning into "assisted suicide".

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  40. The Grammarist says, "The original definition of forego is to go before. This definition is easy to remember because both forego and before have the syllable fore, with an e. To forgo, meanwhile, is to do without (something) or to pass up voluntarily. But forgo has so completely encroached on forego‘s territory that the latter’s older sense is now essentially lost (outside legal contexts and the phrase foregone conclusion), and forgo now bears the secondary definition to go before."
    The past-tense forms of these verbs are forewent and forwent. Foregone and forgone are the past participles.

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  41. Buy it now.
    Hallmark Keepsake Ornament All Sooted Up 1999 QX6837

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  42. I wasn't going to post because the puzzle completely defeated me . I do appreciate the talent involved in construction and have nothing negative to say.

    However, the discussion of opioids has me involved ! PK I agree with your conclusion that drug reps are pushing these Rx pain killers!! I have had similar experiences with doctors quick with the Rx pad when all I needed was Tylanol!

    I recently has surgery on my eyelids ...drooping, but nothing really serious. They was never any real pain....a little discomfort, itching, pulling while the stitches healed. BUT ..... I got two prescriptions for serious pain killers. I never filled them. Never even took Tylenol! Cold compresses made my eyes feel better and the stitches healed in a week. But I had those humongous prescriptions!! No wonder people get hooked on these opioids !

    End of rant!

    TXMs I thought you were funny.

    Pat and spouse ...HB!

    Splynter...congrats. And thanks for all the fun in the expo ?

    Pawel...thanks! You won, but I enjoyed the battle.

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  43. Dudley, PK, and others re my experience with doctors pushing opioids. Had constant severe muscular neck pain, and Dr. prescribed oxycodone. Took half a pill upon arriving at work (read the warning re "operating machinery"). Within 30 minutes, I was "floating" down the law firm's hallways, and my co-workers reported that they had never seen me so relaxed and happy. Absolutely hated that feeling and never took the other half-pill! I'll stick with my Chardonnay @ 5PM. Also, PT magically erased the neck pain in three sessions. I certainly don't want to negate the positive benefits that these drugs deliver for extreme chronically-ill patients, but only want to emphasize what Dudley and PK have posted. Dudley, I'm so very sorry about your pain in helping the local family.

    Anon-T, I still have a game-gimmee "Luv Ya Blue" do-rag - still wear it while I'm baking/cooking. Brings back happier times. Sorry ya missed that era. Those were the glorious days of Earl Campbell and Bum Phillips (father of Wade, Super Bowl Broncos' DC, now with LA Rams). H-Town was aroarin' back then in the late 70's. Favorite sayings of Ol' Bum, born in Orange, TX: "There's two kinds of coaches, them that's fired and them that's gonna be fired." On Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula: "He can take his'n and beat your'n and take your'n and beat his'n." On Campbell's inability to finish a mile run (Earl was/is a stocky, short guy): "When it's first-and-a-mile, I won't give it to him." RIP, loved that guy.

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  44. When I finished this with no cheats my sour mood brightened. I did double-check SIENNA to make sure I wasn't imagining*. I was confirmed at St Catharine of Sienna.

    HBD Pat and DH. And of course congrats to my friend Splynter on entering the next phase. Unless.. UPS makes a juicy counter offer.

    There were two keys. 1. FIGHT or FLIGHT. So much white got filled that the center was taken care of. 2. I was driving and SLA vs SDS V8-ed me and LEMONY and ARENA quickly followed. Since I'm driving the van and solving in between runs the net time is hard to figure.

    YR, I knew you'd explain FOREGO. Literally Precede as you point out. POLLER was a reach, we'll blame Rich. I thought we had an IRVINE-ite in here. Actually two, right ------?

    Speaking of reunions, I thought it would be LONG LOST LOVERS. A square short. And.. LTD vs LLC had --UTLER - Obviously BUTLER. Thank Pawel for PUMICE. Thank Pawel for a challenging Saturday and Splynter for his always entertaining write-ups. And coming through for Ms GI for September. Rip Hef

    Btw. The clue for LIRE was in English. Lire is English for Lira. I tried VEIN before BEER because of the extra word OUT.

    WC

    * How many of you have seen a ghost? I wish I hadn't panicked and not chased it away. And. I'm the biggest skeptic East of Irvine.

    PS. The Jesuits used to say that civilization ended at Worcester.

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  45. Hand up this seemed utterly impossible at first.

    Hand up for IRON on before SEWN on. PEACE before MONEY. LTD before LLC. SDS before SLA.

    Unknowns: BCS (made NCAA need ESP), EDBERG, TAY, ERROLL, ADRIEN. NOE is pretty obscure even for those of us who spend a lot of time in San Francisco. Had a friend who lived on NOE for awhile. She pronounced it "NO E" as in "there is NO E in 'big' ".

    Learning moment about FOREGO. Was sure it was wrong, but I was wrong.

    Hand up for college courses. When I finally got TRENDS I was sure it must be a PUNDIT who determines them. Anyone else?

    No idea why NFL Titan is OILER? Was Titan the previous name of the team?

    Tough puzzle, but satisfying to FIR.

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  46. The Titans were relocated from Houston and renamed "Titans".
    I never called a billy Jean match. Even though I was a pretty good player I was a rookie linesman and rookies don't work world #1 matches.

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  47. Yellowrocks,
    Thank you! Your research into FOREGO shows intelligence and real discernment. I have always found the word confusing. On several occasions I wanted to use it as a synonym for "precede" but caught myself in time. Seeing the way it was clued in today's pzl, I wanted to lodge a protest, but your post stayed my hand.

    Wilbur Charles!
    Yes (holding my right paw to the sky), we do have a couple of IRVINErs here. Read our earlier postings (before yours) to see that I am one of them! I'm not certain who the other is.
    Maybe Misty. She lives near me, but I'm not sure where.

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  48. Thank you Chuck Lindgren. I see that the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee and later changed their name to Titans.

    I am not into team sports, especially of the corporate kind. It seems odd that people have such loyalty to their "home team" but the teams seem to have no loyalty to their fans or to their home town.

    In many cases huge sums of money are involved, as when taxpayers build a stadium for one of these corporate teams and then the team just leaves.

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