Don's and C.C.'s wonderful Sunday collaboration was a treat for me to do. I'd like to think I would have gotten the theme without the title but my mental density is quite high! This great crossword team has used seven phrases/names where the first word is, well, the first word in a familiar sequence. Way cool! Let's explore what Don "Hard G" and C.C. have given us today.
First of all the theme fills.
21. Willie Mays won 12 in 12 consecutive years : GOLD GLOVE AWARDS - Annual award to best fielder at their position in MLB and the Olympic medal awarded to athlete who is FIRST in their event
68. Certain group leader : ALPHA MALE - My idea of an ALPHA MALE and the capital letters of the Greek Alphabet with ALPHA being the FIRST and 13. Fraternity O's : OMICRON(S) being the 15th
94. Early '60s group that included John Glenn : MERCURY SEVEN - The first group of NASA astronauts and the planet that is FIRST in order from the Sun
116. 1990 movie with a muscular teacher : KINDERGARTEN COP - A "meh" Ahnold movie and the FIRST class most kids have in school.
14. "Rip Van Winkle" author : WASHINGTON IRVING - The early 19th century (corrected from earlier mistyped 18th) American author and the man who was the FIRST U.S. president
36. Component of hair bleach : HYDROGEN PEROXIDE - I am familiar with the phrase "Peroxide Blonde" and Hydrogen is the FIRST element in the periodic table
Now let's examine the balance of Don's and C.C.'s fill from the FIRST to the LAST
5. Crossing sign? : PLUS or multiply
13. Came up short : OWED
17. USNA part: Abbr. : ACAD
18. Snuck : CREPT - Wow, September certainly CREPT up on me
19. Eponymous store founder : MACY - We don't shop there but here is the image it engenders to us
20. Gulf State native : OMANI
25. "More!" : ENCORE
26. Left hanging : IN LIMBO - In the movies and TV they call them Cliff Hangers
27. John Wayne types : MACHOS
28. In the offing : NEAR - Seeing Halloween decorations for sale means the time to see Christmas items on the shelves is NEAR
30. "99 Luftballons" singer : NENA - A song about the insanity of war
31. Org. created in a 1949 sports merger : NBA - The Basketball Association of America merged with the National Basketball League. The Chicago Studebakers of the NBL broke the pro sports color line with six black players six years before Jackie Robinson broke in in 1949
33. Lyft offer : RIDE - We are huge Uber fans and will never rent a car in a big city again.
34. German exclamation : ACH - ACH Du Lieber! ACH is a German exclamation, Du is "my" and Lieber is "my beloved" Gott (God) is sometimes added as well.
37. Pitt of "The Big Short" : BRAD
44. Vineyard grape : PINOT
46. Decorative metalwork : PLATING
47. "And there you have it!" : TADA - A satisfying refrain for us crossword solvers
48. "No worries" : IT'S OK
49. Kept out of sight : HID
50. Brewery named for a Dutch river : AMSTEL
53. Stonehenge worshiper : DRUID - What they will be doing eighteen days from now
55. Brahms' "Variations on a __ of Paganini" : THEME - Not on my playlist
57. Putin's former org. : KGB - Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti
58. Wish Tree artist : ONO - Gee, I wonder why she's famous
59. Canada's most populous province : ONTARIO
61. Pot growth from overwatering : ALGAE - Our yard has mushrooms growing in it during this wet summer
64. Sonata finale, perhaps : RONDO - A more familiar use of RONDO to this cultural philistine 66. "I __ differ" : BEG TO
70. Hunter with a belt : ORION - The best constellation in the winter sky!
72. Eye twinkle : GLEAM
73. Enable : EMPOWER
75. Subject for Keats : URN
76. "__ Kapital" : DAS - Karl Marx's seminal work
78. Capri or Elba, locally : ISOLA - L'ISOLA di Capri è incredibilmente bella (The island of Capri is incredibly beautiful)
80. Jack in the deck : KNAVE
82. Settles, as a debt : REPAYS
84. GI bill? : DOL - A DOLlar is a bill that is Issued by the U.S. Gov't. Hmmm...
86. Stout quantities : PINTS
88. Enter the pool, in a way : DIVE
92. Praline nut : PECAN - Pronunciation?
93. Ed with Emmys : ASNER - Look up the word "Irascible", it has wonderful Ed's picture
97. Cherry-pick : CULL - Another use - I've seen many teachers who deserved to be CULLED from the profession. Tenure is a two-way street
99. Sound near a "Beware of Dog" sign : GRR
100. Dog attractor : ODOR
101. East, to Goethe : OST - Berlin ist 177 Meilen östlich von Hannover (Berlin is 177 miles EAST of Hanover)
102. Shelter chorus : ARFS - Sights and sounds at these places tug at my heartstrings
104. Kite trailer : TAIL
106. Philly cagers : SIXERS - They are 109 - 301 in the last 5 years.
108. Hotel convenience : BAR SOAP
111. Heir and heiress : SCIONS
115. Way to step : ASIDE - Tennessee Ernie warned 'em!118. Like acid in some disinfectants : IODIC - Dictionary.com - "Containing iodine"
119. Fascinated by : INTO
120. Citrus hybrids : UGLIS
121. James of jazz : ETTA
122. Tech gadget review site : CNET - Popular with geeks and non-geeks alike
123. Trade org. : ASSN - A better abbr. than DOL 😁
124. Island in a computer game : MYST
125. Roulette bet : NOIR - Je vais mettre 100 euros sur onze NOIR (I will put 100 euros on eleven black)
Down
1. Printer output : PAGE - I renewed my Substitute Teacher's Certificate online last week and was able to print it out the PAGE home two days later. Oh yeah, they wanted $55 too.
2. Tapped image : ICON
4. Accessory : ADD ON - Does your car really need $5,000 rims?
5. Expert : PRO
6. Big name in denim : LEVI - A Reno, NV tailor Jacob Davis invented canvas pants reenforced with copper rivets but LEVI Strauss got the patent and made millions
7. Home to the first collegiate business sch. : U PENN - Also the home of the Quakers in Ivy League Athletics
8. Groan elicitor : STALE JOKE
9. 1967 Spencer Davis Group hit : I'M A MAN
10. Stinging rebuke : BARB
11. Pioneering fast food name : MCDONALD - Dick and Mac MCDONALD went to a tennis court in San Bernardino, CA and drew an outline to develop their "speedy service" model. Ray Kroc then came in and took it world-wide whether the brothers liked it or not
12. Part of TBS: Abbr. : SYS
15. Protect from hackers, hopefully : ENCODE
16. Insults : DISSES
18. Golf-friendly forecast : CLEAR - Our eclipse forecast left in some wispy clouds but the event still qualified for that most overused of adjectives - AWESOME!
20. __ Mae: Whoopi's "Ghost" role : ODA
22. Diving bird : GREBE
23. Succeed in : WIN AT
29. Totally absorbed : RAPT
32. Push-up top : BRA
34. Take the stage : ACT
35. Garbed : CLAD
40. Reuters rival : UPI
41. Fullback on the NFL's 1960s
All-Decade Team : JIM BROWN - He was like a man among boys
43. Unnerves : DAUNTS
45. Pessimist's words : NO HOPE - Only Faith and Charity showed up and so there was...
48. Wyo. neighbor : IDA - I am not repeating that joke about why no girl wants to be Miss IDAHO
49. Captain's post : HELM
51. Inner: Pref. : ENDO
54. "See?!" : I TOLD YOU - "We should never have tried to drive through that water over the road!"
56. Polite addresses : MAAMS - It took my daughter a while to adjust to being called this when she started teaching
57. Stay fresh : KEEP
60. Cleaning cloths : RAGS
62. Language that gave us "galore" : GAELIC
63. Annual fact book : ALMANAC
66. Fuzzy image : BLUR
67. Its legislature is the Oireachtas : EIRE - Irish legislature
69. Hard rain? : HAIL
74. Signs off on : OK'S
77. Colt .45s, since 1965 : ASTROS
79. Venue for free discussion : OPEN FORUM - Many of these venues today seem to be confrontational
81. Constantly : EVER
83. Sanction, as a college : ACCREDIT
85. Prospector's target : ORE
87. Letter-shaped bolt holder : T-NUT
89. __ on the side of caution : ERR
91. Cries of dismay : OYS
92. As such : PER SE - In and of itself. Many people in Texas are not first responders PER SE, but they are acting like ones when necessary.
93. Tea party attendee : ALICE
94. Inlaid design : MOSAIC
95. Rival of Tesla : EDISON - Tesla once worked for EDISON but quit when he felt he was cheated
98. Doesn't fade : LASTS
103. Yielding to gravity : SAGGY
105. Tablecloth material : LINEN
107. DVR button : REC
109. Farm swarm : ANTS - Our classroom had an ANT FARM when I was in sixth grade
110. Besties : PALS
112. Numerical prefix : OCTO - I am nine years away from becoming an OCTOgenarian
114. Go toe-to-toe : SPAR
116. Korean carmaker : KIA
117. Slowing, to an orch. : RIT - Look carefully and you will find it here:
The grid:
LAST things LAST - Time for comments:
There once was A DRUID named CLYDE
ReplyDeleteWho thought Stonehenge a fine place to hide.
"Since there aren't any walls
I can see who makes calls
And go out 'fore they EVER come inside!"
A newcomer to the other side IN LIMBO
Complained that the place wasn't MACHO!
Even the music's not alive
In this after-life DIVE!
But a harp's not the strings for a RONDO!
{C+, C+.}
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThank you Don, C. C. and Gary!
Great puzzle! Fun theme!
Things I really didn't know were: NENA, ONO, ISOLA, SIXERS, IODIC, U PENN, I'M A MAN, JIM BROWN, ODA, ASTROS and VARDON. But everything filled in nicely!
Really hot in Northridge!
Hope to see you all tomorrow!
Good morning.....at last!
ReplyDeleteDesper-otto is back on the air! It's good to be back. We fared very well. No flooding, no damage. Our most serious problem was lack of Internet. Every morning I'd call Soddenlink on the flip-phone just to hear the chipper automated assistant assure me, "I see there's a service interruption in your area. We're on it. Most service interruptions are resolved within two hours..." It's good to get the cortisol flowing in the morning! Overall, Harvey turned out to be just a minor inconvenience in our little town. My heart goes out to those folks in Houston who lost virtually everything...home, car, belongings, and in some cases their lives.
This DG/CC collaboration came together very quickly. Forgot to read the title, as usual, but after completing the puzzle I was able to suss the theme. My list of unknowns matches up very closely with Fermat's.
Husker, some folks say pee'-can, but we say pih-cahn'...usually followed by pie.
Now, off to read the past week of the blog...
This was a relatively easy puzzle, but the theme wasn't clear enough to get the theme answers quickly. Did finally get it in the end. Thanks, Don & C.C. for a Sunday treat.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, H.G. You always do an amazing job with your pics.
D-O.... so good to hear that you are safe and sound. Welcome back!
RIT was new to me (or unremembered)
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary, WASHINGTON IRVING was early 19th century (or early 1800s), not 18th
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteFirst off, a big welcome back to you, DO! Very happy to hear that you came through Harvey intact. Now, we can all stop worrying! 😊
How nice to see our Dynamic Duo and on a Sunday, no less. I thought this was quite crunchy in spots but I chipped away here and there and everywhere and finally got my Tada. Some of my unknowns were the same as Ferm's except I did know Jim Brown and Oda. If you saw Ghost, you could never forget Oda Mae! I sorta got the theme but Mercury Seven and Hydrogen Peroxide didn't click until I read the expo. HG's clear and concise explanation of the clever theme illustrates the high level of Don and CC's creativity and craftsmanship.
Thank you, DG and CC, for a challenging and enjoyable solve and thank you, HG, for the witty and wise write-up.
We're in for a rainy, gloomy day with temps in the low 60's but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 80, then several more days of rain; our weather roller coaster continues.
Have a great day.
What a treat; a Don & C.C. Sunday puzzle with a Husker Gary exposition! Just the right amount of crunch and no obscure names made the solve a very enjoyable twenty-some minute solve. A learning moment was the Chicago Studebakers; I wonder why a Chicago team was named for an Indiana car manufacturer? I hadn't known about the talcum link to cancer, either (but my wife tells me she's known about it for quite a while). And HG, I am only eight years away. Tempus sure does fugit, no?
ReplyDeletedesper-otto: Welcome back! I'm glad Harvey left you unscathed.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could say I enjoyed this C.C.-Don G. creation but sports themes leave me cold though the solve itself was relatively easy. The long fill really make for a quick solve with so many letters in place.
I agree, ODA Mae is unforgettable in Ghost!
Some of the BARSOAP we had in Carmel was so fragrant and foamy I had to take every bar and bring them home.
Thank you, Gary, C.C. and Don G.!
Have a splendid day, everyone!
I've had a terrible Sunday morning except for this great gift from Don and C.C. I woke up at 3 am and never got back to sleep, worried that I would miss hearing the Cox technician who was scheduled to come at 8am to fix my internet problem. I finally got up at 6:30 and started working on the puzzle, when suddenly Dusty, who had been sleeping next to me on the sofa, started to howl in pain. Then he stopped but was clearly not well, but I couldn't do anything at that hour with the Cox guy scheduled for 8 am and my dear cleaners on the way. Cox found no problems. Dusty still not well and gives out an occasional yelp. The emergency vet office said to check and see if he had pain anywhere I touched him, but I can't find any, and worry that it's in his brain or something. But here's the miracle: I somehow managed to finish this Sunday puzzle completely and found only a single small goof mistake--I forgot to change the E to I in DISTILL. So, thank you, Don and C.C. for giving me this blessing on a difficult morning.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to see how Dusty does throughout the day before taking him to emergency, which is far away from my home and a hassle to get to, especially when I had almost no sleep last night. But as I say, the puzzle saved my day.
Have a good one, everybody.
Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteDid it on-line today since our paper doesn't print the LAT puzzle. Got most of the fill OK except for the culprits mentioned by Fermat. Perps were ample.
PECAN - Hand up for the Pee can but I guess the 'e' should be pronounced as a schwa.
KNAVE - Cognate of German 'Knabe' (boy). The 'k' is pronounced and the 'e' elided as a schwa. The 'b' to 'v' shift is similar to other related words like 'haben' - - 'to have' and 'Taube' - - 'dove'.
I knew the fancy hotels had a BAR in the room but I couldn't get the word that goes with it. Oh, SOAP?
ReplyDeleteWIK Wak, I can't even copy the answers from the back of the newspaper in 20 minutes. However, I kept filling even if I had to skip some areas. I had tried to enter ISLA and the O opened up the FORUM and I recalled the ISLE of MYST from my son's Nintendo days.
Anybody play DOTA? And btw, I caught the answer to Will Shortz NPR quizler: "Give me a short two word phrase that has all the vowels, two consonants, one repeated.
Pour votre amusante*. Hint, hint.
Speaking of OMK: I believe that first Persian King was Cyrus, one R. That's how it was in ancient days when I took Ancient History with Millie MCDONALD.
Well I I've filled a lot pf space, I'll leave, seconding the encomiums for Hard G, CC and the fabulous Gary.
Owen, you don't have a C in your Erato-nous BONEs
Quiz answer later.
WC
Hi Y'all! Don & C.C.: I really enjoyed today's puzzle. However, I didn't get the theme just because I forgot to read the title and look for a theme. Duh! Just right for a Sunday. Had a bunch of unknowns WEES, but they perped in OK. Great expo, Gary!
ReplyDeleteI filled in WASHINGTON IRVING and HYDROGEN PEROXIDE right away and felt such triumph seeing all those squares filled!
I'm only four years from OCTO-hood. Shudder!
Yay! The long awaited return of Desper-Otto! So glad you are okay, man! We were desperate for word of our Otto.
I haven't done Sunday's puzzle and just did Saturday's, which was a DNF. I 'had' to go tailgate at the Superdome for the LSU-BYU game. Three complete unknowns in the SW stopped me cold. FANFIX, FILOFAX, AREOLE and the very clever clue - "kit maker" FOX.
ReplyDeleteI hd FAN_IC and FILOF_X but if I had correctly WAGged the fills it would have been sheer luck.
OMANI had a good time solving this nifty puzzle! Good ole Don and C.C. have scored a winner again. I love love love the long fill of full names and phrases. I didn't get the TADA after solving, and had to turn on red letters to see where I ERRed; it turns out I typoed A instead of S at the cross of ARFS and SAGGY and didn't notice.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, desper-otto. Glad you and yours are unscathed. We say pih-cahn' also.
I confess I'm not familiar with the term BARSOAP, per se. It's inferrable, of course, as opposed to liquid soap, but we have always said bar of soap.
Best wishes to you all.
Well, I just left Walgreens and had to ask where the soap was. He said "What kind?" I said BARSOAP
ReplyDeleteThe TALC scare has ignited some controversy. A larger study found no correlation between talc and cancer(overarian). I recall the complete rebuttal of the eggs-increase-cholesterol fake news a decade ago.
I can only account for two teams still in the same place and name from that merger: Celtics, Knickerbockers. There was a Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons and a TriCities team.
It was considered trivia to name the three.
The Romans invited the DRUIDs to meet them in a peace conference and when they got them in one place, assassinated them all. Shades of Star Wars I.
I tried Hawthorne and our ubiquitous friend COOPER before Wash Irving came out of the V8 can.
I completely missed Colt-45s. I'm a little Rusty as regards their first expansion draft pick. Where's Hondo.
Au revoir
PS. Rajan Rondo was the single best player of the NBA postseason for the two games he said played before injury.
OK Staub
Oops. Misty, I do pray that Rusty will be all right and you have a peaceful, restful day. Congrats on the TADA. We're both getting better at this stuff at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWC
Terrific! Simple idea, well-executed. HYDROGENPEROXIDE/WASHINGTONIRVING. Wow!
ReplyDeleteGood to see that byline again!
I knew IM A MAN immediately, but struggled with KINDERGARTEN COP. Until last year, a good golf forecast for me was "beer". My thoughts are with the south-central USA folks, so my original Gulf state native was "Cajun". My first instinct for Minnesota's state bird was "mosquito". My exotic vacation was EgO Trip, then EgO TOUR - I was thinking of a sanction as being a bad thing, and so missed AgCREDIT - I thought it was probably academia jargon and thereby got my only bad cell.
ReplyDeleteI thought the 1949 sports merger entity couldn't be the NBA, because I remember the ABA/NBA merger and I hadn't yet been born in 1949. I didn't have a clue, so since CC was involved I guessed MLB. I was confident when all three perps showed, and I erased with no damage done.
Misty, I hope Dusty is fine. Its maddening when they can't tell us what's wrong. DO - Great that you are OK. Welcome back.
Thanks Don, CC and Gary for a fun exercise.
Yes. I too welcome D-Otto's return. Couldn't help but worry.
ReplyDeleteWC
Good evening, folks. Thank you, Don G. and C/C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteI started this morning and finished this afternoon. Puzzle was very doable, but certainly not a cake-walk. I did not catch the theme until I had it done and then started looking and scratching my head. Tada! Got it. Clever.
Bunch of unknowns, but perps helped me out. i will not list them all.
21A was an early clue/answer. Baseball gave me the hint that it might be throughout, because C.C. was involved. But, it was not. Oh well.
I liked 37A. Because BRAD is my name as well.
Got OMICRONS at 13D. Only because of perps. I do not think I have ever heard of that letter before. So, I learned something today.
I am cooking out tonight, so I had better get at it. The wife took the dog too the dog park. I think she will be hungry when she gets back.
I have been doing the puzzles but have little time to log in here. I am now full time at Amazon and am enjoying it. But, it sure eats up the clock.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
D-O. Glad you are OK in Texas. That whole deal is quite a tragedy.
ReplyDeleteAbejo
( )
Thank you for the kind words about Dusty, Jinx and Wilbur. He's not much better but, thank goodness, not much worse, and I'm beginning to wonder if our terrific heat has given him a small stroke or something. Since this is a holiday weekend, it's a terrible time to take him to emergency veterinary places, so I'm praying that we can hold on until Tuesday when I can take him to our regular vet. He's still walking, if slow and bowed down, and to my surprise and gratitude, he ate his dinner, so he doesn't seem in dire danger even though he still lets out a painful yelp every now and then.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, Desper-otto. And Husker Gary, your pictures and write up were spectacular this morning.
Hello everybody! My theory that all of the good/clever themes have probably been used up by now is clearly crap. They just keep inventing new ones. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Thanks Don, CC and Gary.
ReplyDeleteIt was SO hot here today that I passed on an easy bike ride along the ocean. I just enjoyed our new/timely air conditioning. I stayed in to watch TV with a short break for an espresso.
A rain shower just passed over Manhattan Beach. Very unusual...
It's great to have D-O back safe and sound. And Misty; best wishes for you and Dusty!
HI there!
ReplyDeleteI didn't get to the puzzle today, so it's first thing to tomorrow. We had lots to do today and a wedding. I checked in only to see if Anon -T's rumored sighting of our Desper-Otto was true. Yay, D-O you are safe and sound!!! Such good news!
Have a good rest of the evening, Cornerites.
Anent Wilbur Charles @ 3:33 and The Talc Fear--
ReplyDeleteThere used to be a "Book-Of-The-Month Club" ... but now with the media's help, we have the "Fear-Of-The-Month."
It used to be eggs/cholesterol or CO2; this month it's talc; next month, who knows?
Thank you, Don G, C.C.! For once, a fairly easy Sunday run - good way to start a new week. Thank you, H-G, always love your recaps. Solid perps filled in VARDON - have no idea re golf terms/clues, other than par, eagle, mulligan - all learned through crosswords. Kinda got the theme, but Mercury? Never was good in sciences. But I finished the puzzle @ 12:45 this morning - that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
ReplyDeleteD-O, and yes! We all were so worried about y'all. Tried to google your area/flooding but just came up with general articles - nothing specific as to which areas. Wish all the news coverage would have cited specific areas in their continual-looped newscasts.
It's "peh-CON" down here; "pea-CAN" grates on my country-raised nerves. Just like a blogger posted some days ago, I think it was Jayce, re "anyways". Just got off the phone with a dear friend who grew up in Miami - "anyways" and "anyhows" was said five times during tonight's conversation. Yes, I've started keeping count. I really couldn't understand this as she's well-educated, so I googled and there are lots of links discussing this. Maybe YellowRocks can enlighten us?
Misty, I do hope Dusty's OK! Since you're not able to get to the vet ER until Tues., I'm hoping your pup's problem is only a pulled muscle. My niece's Evie (cocker) pulled a back muscle when she jumped off the couch. That Dusty's eating is a good sign, although I'm not an expert. My past experience years ago with Daphne and DaisyDawg, when in constant pain, they had no appetite. Please let us know what your vet says.
Hope our Louisiana friends recover quickly! From the dismal reports, I'm not positive about the Houston metro area.
Congrats D.G. & C.C. And thanks H.G. for the explanation on FIRST because I couldn't see it. After GOLD, MERCURY, and HYDROGEN showed I was mistakenly thinking 'elements'. But I wasn't DAUNTed by missing it because the puzzle was an easy fill, with just a few unknowns. I didn't know MYST (any other computer game), NENA, and OREADS is a new word for me. "oireachtas", yeah, I knew that one. Thank you perps for "EIRE and the other three unknowns.
ReplyDeleteIODIC- I've never seen it as a standalone word, just as a suffix. 'HCl' hydroIODIC acid
PECAN- it's never pronounced PEE anywhere that pecan trees are grown. 'Puh-CON' with the accent on the 'CON'. TX Ms has it right. It's funny when you hear a 'northerner' call them
'pea-cans'.
Those TALC lawsuits have about as much credibility as the fake spontaneous acceleration lawsuits against Toyota, Lexus, and Audi ( about 25 years ago). Every one of those people were either stepping on the gas, thinking it was the brake pedal OR they were too lazy to straighten their floor mat, which they pushed onto the gas pedal.
CULL- it's damned near impossible to get rid of a lousy teacher with tenure. DW was evaluating FIRST year teachers and when she recommended that on NOT be allowed to teach, the guy had two or three levels of appeals before he was finally let go, and the asshole threatened to sue her.
Thank you, TX Ms for sharing your helpful information. I'll keep my fingers crossed that whatever Dusty has is not too serious, and I'll keep you posted. I really appreciate your kind interest and concern.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteI saw it was a Hard-G and C.C. when I began lurking earlier today, shut down the blog, and printed out the puzzle. Fun Fun Fun... I kinda already saw the THEME in HG's Expo AND clues for 66&48a were missing. When I looked at the blog for "what's the dern clue?!?" I saw the answer. No win except the fun I had playing.
Thanks HG for the missing clues and, of course, your delightful expo.
It's too many c/a's to enumerate WOs & ESPs but I did have a fun light-bulb moment when I recalled WASHINGTON IRVING with only the GLEAM of OWEs in my mind. I also noted ENCODE ENCORE as special fun.
Thanks yous guys.
{B+, B}
Misty - Good wishes to Dusty. I'm riffing a quip Picard made the other day -- may the two of you be 'muddy' forever.
DO - glad to see you posting mate.
Re: NENA. Tawnya will like this the most...The English version and the original German version for Spitz. Nena didn't know a lick of English when she sang for the US audience; the only words I can understand in both are "Captain Kirk."
OKL keeps mentioning our prescience - Yesterday Splynter Linked Steely Dan for REELING and today Becker, guitarist & co-founder, passed. RIP.
Cheers, -T
Anon-T - yeah, I really enjoyed Splynter's Steely Dan "Reeling" link - brought back such fun! carefree! memories and the best of times - well, at least I had 'em. I was saddened when I heard he had passed away today.
ReplyDeleteSome challenges and learning moments and pleasantly surprised to FIR. Took a long time to figure out the theme. GOLD as a first did not make sense until the explanation.
ReplyDeleteLearning moment about unknown OREADS. Indeed they seem to have had ongoing wardrobe malfunctions.
Learning moment that the ASTROS were once the Colt 45s. Would not be very politically correct today.
Still don't get how DOL is a GI bill? Does it stand for Government Issued?
I was thinking of "sanction" as punish, so I did not get how ACCREDIT made sense. Now I get it: Sanction as in "endorse".
Unknowns: ODA, JIM BROWN, CLYDE, SIXERS, NENA, VARDON, ISOLA, KINDERGARTEN COP all gotten with fair crosses
I was very fortunate as a child in the 1970s to be able to climb on that famous DRUID creation at Stonehenge. Now it is reserved only for true believers. Not sure how they can tell.