google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, September 19 2017, Matthew Sewell

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Sep 19, 2017

Tuesday, September 19 2017, Matthew Sewell


Theme: Fun Fourplay Featuring F.
Each theme answer contains four f's.

17. Extemporaneous, as a speech : OFF THE CUFF

27. Appointed White House overseer : CHIEF OF STAFF. This office was created in 1939 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and is responsible for a variety of critical functions in support of the president's work and agenda. From Wikipedia: Chris Whipple, author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, loosely describes the role of a White House chief of staff through his interview with former President Barack Obama: "During the last days of his presidency, Barack Obama observed: 'One of the things I've learned is that the big breakthroughs are typically the result of a lot of grunt work—just a whole lot of blocking and tackling.' Grunt work is what chiefs of staff do."

49. Laundry service option : FLUFF AND FOLD

64. Beanstalk giant's chant : FEE FI FO FUM

40. Not suitable for military service ... or an apt description of 17-, 27-, 49- and 64-Across : FOUR F 

 Across:     

1. "More or less" suffix : ISH

4. Rose and fell on the waves : BOBBED

10. Tax pros : CPA'S. Certified Public Accountant's.

14. Cohort of Larry and Curly : MOE

15. Not widely understood : ARCANE

16. Boffo review : RAVE. Wasn't sure if Boffo was good or bad, had to wait for the V to fill in. "Boffo:
(of a theatrical production or movie, or a review of one) very successful or wholeheartedly commendatory.

19. Theater honor : OBIE

20. "Firework" singer Perry : KATY

21. Near-perfect bridge feat : SMALL SLAM. Cards. Not being a bridge player this was lost on me.

23. Amigo : PAL

26. Liam of "Michael Collins" : NEESON

32. __ Vegas : LAS

33. Peaceful : CALM



38. Planets, in poems : ORBS

43. Thick book : TOME

44. Salami type : GENOA

46. Nevada senator Harry : REID

48. Red wine choice, for short : ZIN

53. '60s dance craze : WATUSI



55. Opus __: "The Da Vinci Code" sect : DEI

56. DJ known for playing novelty tunes : DR DEMENTO

59. Surrealist Salvador : DALI. Scene from Midnight in Paris, with Adrian Brody as Salvador Dali. 



63. Geological age : AEON

67. Unclothed : BARE

68. Like bears : URSINE

69. Alias, on police blotters : AKA

70. List of appts. : SKED. Shortened version of the word "schedule."

71. English writer Edward Bulwer-__ : LYTTON. New to me. A bit obscure for a Tuesday. Born in 1858.

72. "Oedipus __" : REX
 
Down:

1. "Didn't hurt a bit!" : I'M OK

2. Living room seat : SOFA

3. Lift with effort : HEFT

4. Scoff from Scrooge : BAH

5. Calif. neighbor : ORE

6. Covertly sends an email dupe to : BCC'S. Blind Carbon Copy.

7. "The Wizard of Oz" author : BAUM

8. __ terrible: difficult child, in French : ENFANT

9. Rid of parasites, as a dog : DE-FLEA

10. Multi-discipline strength-training program : CROSSFIT. So popular.

11. Painter Picasso : PABLO. More Midnight in Paris.


12. Like many nest-builders : AVIAN

13. Look (like) : SEEM

18. Tap out a text, say : TYPE

22. Departed : LEFT

24. N.Y. Jets' org. : AFC

25. Bread shape : LOAF. Never thought of loaf as a shape, but it makes sense.

27. Bathtub blockage : CLOG

28. Cocksure Aesopian racer : HARE. Like this clue.

29. Library ID : ISBN

30. Mel's Diner waitress : FLO

 
31. Blue toon : SMURF

35. Memorable clown : BOZO

36. Disney's "__ and the Detectives" : EMIL

37. See to : TEND

39. Began to melt : SOFTENED

41. Stephen of "Michael Collins" : REA

42. Locate : FIND

45. Grad : ALUM

47. Pres. before JFK : DDE

50. Beneficial : USEFUL

51. Fancy duds : FINERY. "All the lovely ladies in their finery tonight ..."


"... to every man who answers to the letter of the law, and all the rest in prison by mistake ..."

52. Pal of Rover : FIDO

53. Perpetrate, as havoc : WREAK

54. Love to pieces : ADORE

56. Pats gently : DABS

57. Exam : TEST

58. "Think nothing __" : OF IT

60. Many miles off : AFAR

61. "Use the Force, __" : LUKE

62. Big-screen format : IMAX

65. Masculine Italian suffix with bamb- : INO

66. Marshland : FEN


Note from C.C.:

Melissa's beautiful granddaughter Jaelyn turned one-year-old on August 18, 2017. Here are a few pictures.





52 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Matthew and mb!

Cute theme!

Two things perped: EMIL and CROSSFIT.

Adorable pics, mb!

I see that my posts have not been appearing. Don't know why. Will see what happens to this one!

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

Montana said...

Hey, I finally got a theme. It's been since Cruciverb disappeared I think.

I solved this puzzle in one pass doing 'acrosses' while reading 'down' clues as I went. I didn't know DRDEMENTO, but the perps lad to it.
SKED was another but WREAK saved the day. SMALLSLAM is not something I'm familiar with and the spelling of FEEFIFOFUM slowed but didn't stop me.

Great to see you again, fermatprime!
Have a good day, everyone,

Montana

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Matthew didn't tax my brain too severely this morning. (Wasn't Matthew a tax man? I see he also included Luke today.) This one was a race to the bottom. My only booboo was CAB/ZIN. Enjoyed the expo, Melissa. Cute granddaughter!

WREAK always reminds me of the old Chickenman radio serial of the '60s. It was developed by the on-air staff of WCFL in Chicago and syndicated nationally. The narrator had a closing comment which always began. "Well..." One day it was "Well...Wreak Havoc...where have we heard that name before? Have we heard that name before? I don't think so." You probably had to be there.

SMALL SLAM: Bridge is the only topic that will glaze my eyes over faster than sports.

Fermat, nice to know it was only your posts that disappeared. Welcome back.

desper-otto said...

Forgot to comment on MOE. Ten years ago we named a trio of kittens MOE, Shemp and Curly. Shemp and Curly never made it to their first birthday, but MOE remains the matron of our cat herd. Her nephew Hymie is second-oldest.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. This was a very easy Tuesday puzzle OFF THE CUFF came to me immediately and, of course, seeing all those "Fs" was a strong hint to the theme.

I remember listening to Dr. Demento while studying back when I was in high school.

Before Disney took Emil, he and the detectives could be found in a children's novel.

Hand up for not known of Edward LYTTON. That's what the perps are for!

QOD: Civility, politeness, it’s like a cement in a society: binds it together. And when we lose it, then I think we all feel lesser and slightly dirty because of it. ~ Jeremy Irons (b. Sept. 19, 1948)

Big Easy said...

I was up early trying to catch up on reading an noticed C.C.'s puzzle in Monday's WSJ. Congratulations on your 'Ilk Conceived'. Never heard of KAL Pen or ARI Melber- perped. Your cross of NAM & LAOS on the day of Ken Burn's "The Viet Nam War" series- what a coincidence.

As for Mr. Sewell's FOUR-F puzzle, I was ONE-A in 1970 but I'm pretty sure I would be classified 4F today. I've heard of DR. DEMENTO but didn't know he was a disk jockey. But Edward LYTTON was filled by perps, only because the 65D clue stated 'Macsuline'.

CROSS FIT is popular because it works, if you can stick to it. But all exercise routines AND diets work- if you can stick to them. That's the hard part.

Hello Chairman MOE.
D-O, mentioning your cat 'Hymie' on the eve of a Jewish holiday?

Anonymous said...

70A "List of appts." erroneously calls for an abbreviation. SKED is not an abbreviation but, as Melissa noted, a "short" form. A better (and correct and clever) clue would have been "Short list of appointments."

kazie said...

Emil und die Detektive by Erich Kästner is a children's story that used to be a staple of German language classes here and in my youth in Oz. Since then, it and much other challenging material has been relegated to the scrapheap in the wake of utilitarian theories of education. Disney may own the rights to his English film version, but I'll never think of it as "Disney's".

The reason I met my husband in Spain in 1971 is due indirectly to his being rated a "four F" due to his eyesight on being drafted after graduating from the UW-Madison. This brought on his decision to go to Europe to sort out what to do next. We just celebrated our 45th anniversary September 9th. He also had read "Emil" in high school German class.

Lemonade714 said...

Happy talk like a pirate day.

I too was surprised to see LYTTON in a Tuesday puzzle, though his words are most memorable.

Also, having Liam Neeson and Stephen Rea both clued with reference to Michael Collins was interesting.

Thank you, Matthew, and melissa b.; great pictures of your beautiful family.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

MY choice of red wine (back in my days of imbibing) was cab, accounting for my first erasure. I liked ZIN too, and it irked me no end when restaurants listed ZIN when they were actually selling white ZEN (which even I wouldn't drink). I was nude before I was BARE, and my dog was DEwormed before she was DEFLEAed.

Hand up for not knowing LYTTON, and didn't know EMIL either. I sorta-knew BAUM.

I was One A during the unpleasantness in Vietnam, but got a good number in the first draft lottery. My dad was FOUR F because he was deaf in one ear from having scarlet fever as a kid. Seems like I read that during the civil war, the medical requirement was that a prospective soldier had to 1) be able to walk unassisted, and 2) not uncontrollably spit up blood.

Beautiful granddaughter, mb. Thanks for a nice reveal. Thanks to Matthew as well. I enjoyed this Tuesday-appropriate puzzle.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks, Matthew for a fun-filled word-fest that was both tricky & different. Thanks, Melissa, now I'll go back and play the interesting looking clips.

PABLO & DALI in the same puzzle, kept apart by BOZO so they didn't WREAK havoc on each other. They weren't PALs and didn't ADORE each other's work, if I remember correctly.

CHIEF OF STAFF was a gimmee for anyone following the national news lately.

Unknowns: DR. DEMENTO, EMIL & LYTTON. Always forget BAUM.

Wormed that dog before DEFLEA.

Thought 70a apps. was appartments and was surprised to perp SKED. Oh, appointments! Duh!

In answer to the question about farm life last night: I grew up in town and didn't really know how to work until I moved to the farm at age 31 with 3 little kids. If done successfully, real farming is an enforced useful busy-ness so down & dirty, so tiring, and so satisfying that I never want to actively do it again. I'm reaping the rewards now. Raising kids on a farm to know how to DO WORK will give them a self-confidence and hire-ability unequaled. (My younger son was admired by guys at college because he was an experienced bulldozer operator at 18.) Of our three-brother farm operation, none of the offspring have gone into farming for long. Farmers are an endangered species & should be protected as vital to every person who wants to EAT.

MJ said...

Greetings to all!

Pretty much easy sailing today, though like others, Edward Bulwer-LYTTON was unknown. Kind of surprising, though, since according to the wikipedia article about him, a number of the phrases he coined are quite recognizable. The article also says he was born in 1803.

The Lawrence Welk clip reminded me of my grandmother. She loved the show, it being the only show she watched regularly. She just couldn't understand why I didn't tune in weekly as well. Thanks for the puzzle, Matthew, and thanks for the expo and links, melissa bee. What an adorable granddaughter!

Enjoy the day!

Chairman Moe said...

" puzzling thoughts":

Hello Big Easy! I always love a puzzle that has an SO to yours truly! 😀

Only hiccup was trying to resist abbr the word schedule as SCED rather than SKED, but WREAK had to fit, so there you go

Busy day. As we approach the fall equinox I thought I'd share this limerick I created earlier this summer, when I was off the grid:

After boxer had fought his last bout,
His new grin just left nothing to doubt:
That this pugilist, Keith,
Now displays summer teeth,
'Cause you see, "summer in", "summer out".

Yellowrocks said...

Matthew, thanks for a great 4-F puzzle, Fine, Fun, Fast and Fulfilling. mb thanks for the fine review. Cute granddaughter.
Dr. DEMENTO and EMIL were new to me but easily perped. KATY auto-filled before I got to it.
I have heard of Bulwer-LYTTON, probably in English Lit at college. I don't know much about him, but much crossword fill needs just that tiny smattering of knowledge. Today his quotes are more famous than his works.
Wikipedia says, He coined the phrases "the great unwashed", "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", "dweller on the threshold", and the well-known opening line "It was a dark and stormy night".
CSO to my CPA son, David.
Also CSO to Chairman Moe.

MJ, I see you picked up onthe Bulwer-Lytton phrase, too.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Welcome aboard to Coach J

Nice pictures, Melissa, thanks for sharing.

Easy puzzle today; lots of F's. I tried to think of some 4F phrasing but the results were too ARCANE.
Arguably bidding and making SMALL SLAM is perfect. Bidding and making slam is perfect; bidding and making any hand with no overtricks is 'perfect'. I guess we think of grand slam as the most perfect result that can be gotten. Anyway, it was clear what the fill should be.
BARE as in naked - Here is a link to Allt syns när man är naken (Everything is visible when you're naked) by Benny Andersson's Orchestra - an off shoot of the ABBA genre? Are you out there Swenglish Mom?

A partial translation:

"Everything is visible when you're naked
We undress here and now
I want you to see me the way I am
There are too many obstacles
that keep us apart

You are Yin
I am Yang
Is that so hard to see
You are Yin
I am Yang
One and two is three………"

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Hopefully this man for whom I am subbing will get home from St. Louis tomorrow
-I better remember David Niven as Sir Charles LYTTON in this classic movie
-Mom always called our SOFA a duffold
-A famous sports ENFANT TERRIBLE
-Lawrence’s tortured intro and the most sanitized version of the WATUSI was fabulous.
-Our non-AVIAN squirrel has a lovely nest in our tree
-Ken Burns’ new Vietnam documentary details the morass that HST/DDE/JKF got us into
-All political ideologies have USEFUL idiots in the media
-The Bronco’s DE Von Miller really did WREAK havoc on the Cowboys Sunday!
-Beautiful (and LOUD in the theater) IMAX footage (2:35) of a shuttle launch
-Lovely pix, Melissa!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a pretty straightforward Tuesday offering with the only unknown being Dr. Demento. My only c/os were Emmy/Obie and Iron/Aeon. I never heard the bridge expression, Small Slam, but that was easy to infer. Nice CSO to Moe, too. I loved "Midnight in Paris."

Thanks, Matthew, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, Argyle, for being our shepherd!

Melissa, your granddaughter is just precious; it seems like only yesterday that she was born.

Lemony, has your new grandson been named yet?

Argyle, was that terrible barn fire near you? That was one of the saddest misfortunes I've ever heard of.

Have a great day.

SwampCat said...

Good Tuesday-worthy puzzle today thanks to Mr Sewell. No hiccups, and I even got the theme. That seldom happens.

As an avid bridge player I was surprised by SMALL SLAM. Never heard that phrase, only "little slam" but I suppose little and small are the same, so no foul.

Thanks for the tour, MB, Cute granddaughter!

PK, we have no rain predicted here all week, except for the usual 20 % we always get in late summer. That means a few sprinkles in a few places but no worries. I feel so bad for the Carribbean islands!

Irish Miss said...

Apologies to Melissa; I just assumed that it being Tuesday, Argyle was the blogger.

Nicely done, Melissa.

Northwest Runner said...

How would Snoopy know how to start his novel if not for Lytton?

Hungry Mother said...

Fast solve with no problems today. Somehow I knew DRDEMENTO without being aware of it. Always amazed at SKED, but no hesitation writing it in.

desper-otto said...

Wasn't it Bernice Gordon who mentioned the Lytton-related crossword clue "The _____ mightier than the sword."? I choked. I chortled. I guffawed.

Coach J said...

Thanks for the welcome Spitzboov. Nice romp though today's offering. Every time we have a military theme reveal I can't help but to remember my father's service in WWII. He's been gone for many years and didn't like to talk about his time in Northern Africa and Europe. One of these days I'm going to visit Washington, DC and pull all the info I can find on his unit's travels and his service records. On a weather note, I hope ya'll up east aren't affected too much by what's left of Jose. We got a big dose of Irma here in the Ohio Valley last week.

Coach J said...

Sorry for the typo...tried to edit but it wouldn't let me once I went to preview screen. (Through, not though)

Rick Papazian said...

Easy puzzle today. Especially due to the author as Jacqueline E. Mathews. Or was it?
See this image. https://imgur.com/a/Ek6xS

A lot of people are going to be confused. I was for a while but stopped when it was apparently way too easy.

Rick Papazian

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Matthew Sewell, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review. Your grand daughter is beautiful.

Puzzle went fine. Theme appeared. Pretty good. Lots of F's.

Liked seeing Liam NEESON in the puzzle. He is one of my favorite actors.

GENOA salami. Yuuuuummmm!

Do not remember Dr. Demento.

SMURF was a wag. It worked.

Off to my day. Three newsletters to write.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Lucina said...

Thank you, Matthew Sewell and Melissa Bee! Your granddaughter is adorable.

It's rare that I finish a puzzle in under five minutes but it happened. Except for not knowing Mr. Bulwer-Lytton everything else just fell in place. Well said, Hahatoolah, that's what perps are for.

Well known to me are: MOE, LEESON, REID, PABLO, BAUM, LUKE, and BOZO. I'm unfamiliar with Disney's EMIL.

Nude changed to BARE very quickly.

Fermatprime:
I'm glad your post appeared today.

Have a very special day, everyone!

Anonymous said...

Good puzzle. I was stuck on 14 across. Trump would not fit.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody.

No heavy rains and flooding here. No hurricane-force winds. Just a magnitude 4 earthquake near UCLA. I felt it last night but no big worries.

I feel weak this morning after last night's bouts with repeated nausea. I was sick all evening. If someone could have made me instantly well for a fee of $100, I would have paid it in a jiffy. Maybe more than $100...

c said...

Thanks, Matthew, for a fun Tuesday. Guess OFFTHECUFF and CHIEFOFSTAFF right off the bat. CAB before ZIN.... but finished quickly.

Thanks, MB, for a great write-up. Cute, cute granddaughter!

Some things are starting to get back to normal. Finally, our neighborhood's debris is being picked up slowly. Two trucks for 1/2 block each day. Slow, but steady!

Tinbeni said...

melissa bee: Nice write-up. Cute pictures!

Matthew: Thank you for a FUN Tuesday puzzle. Enjoyed the theme.

CSO to our favorite MOE.

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get DR DEMENTO and the writer LYTTON.

Also had to change NUDE to BARE and GRAND SLAM to SMALL SLAM.

Cheers!

AnonymousPVX said...

Nice clean Tuesday puzzle, a non-intrusive theme and good clueing.

Someone asked yesterday about a call-blocker. I use the CPR CallBlocker V5000. It's wonderful.

Misty said...

Wonderful Tuesday puzzle, Matthew! I loved the mix of high and popular culture references and got so many things without any problem, it made me feel great. No problem with LYTTON, NEESON, DALI, PABLO, REX or with BAUM, EMIL, LUKE, BOZO, MOE. Didn't know KATY or DR. DEMENTO but they filled in quickly. My one erasure came from putting GRAND SLAM before I noticed the "near-perfect." And the Fs were so apparent that the theme of course made perfect sense. Many thanks, again, Matthew--lots of fun.

Sweet grand-daughter, Melissa. And happy 45th anniversary, Kazie. And great relief to see you back, Fermatprime--we all worried about you.

So sorry you're not feeling well, Bill Graham. Take good care of yourself.

Sad to hear about the hurricane devastating Dominica. I spent six months there after my first marriage because my then husband wanted to do missionary work. I discovered I was pregnant when we arrived and tried to figure out how to see a doctor. I was sent to a place whose waiting room was crowded with twenty or more people, with goats and lambs and chickens strolling around looking for dropped leftovers, since the wait was so long, and people had brought meals with them. But that was a long, long time ago, like a half century, if my math is right. Anyway, my heart goes out to the kind people there.

Have a good day, everybody!

Jayce said...

A fun puzzle, this was. After filling OFF THE CUFF I was expecting the other theme entries would be of words ending with double F. But hey, four F is a cool theme; I liked it. Love that FEE FI FO FUM!

In re Bulwer-Lytton, I believe San Jose State University has an annual Bulwer-Lytton contest in which people compete to come up with the worst opening sentence they can dream up. Some of them are pretty awful, but surprisingly some of the winners and runners-up were, I felt, not bad at all. I submitted an entry but did not win. My submission was something like, "As I crouched in the dark alleyway, trying to keep an eye on the hotel room window in spite of the freezing, driving rain that forced me to pull the brim of my Fedora down over my face, I remember thinking when she first walked into my office that I should never have taken the case."

Nice photos of your granddaughter, melissa. Thanks for sharing.

Best wishes to you all.

Bill G said...

Jayce, great opening sentence. I'd keep reading for sure.

Boo LuQuette AKA Boudreaux in Eunice, La. said...

This was easier than yesterday. I did like Montana did across looking at the downs when I went along.

Me and Missy want to thank everybody who sent all the good wishes. It was a lot of them



Plus Tard from Cajun Country ~!~!

desper-otto said...

So Jayce, did the rain ruin that fedora? And how did the case turn out?

Lucina said...

Jayce:
I like your sentence; it's too bad you didn't win. Was it not bad enough?

Jayce said...

Thanks to you who liked my opening sentence. Yeah, I guess it was not bad enough. The fedora just got a little bit more wrinkled and used-looking. As it turns out, I ended up not regretting having taken the case after all because really all she had hired me for was to help her screw over her partners in crime, which I was wise enough to avoid doing, managed to get all the bad guys to kill each other, I recovered the large stash of money that she and her cronies had hidden away, she became my mistress, and we retired rich.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks for the slide! Wheeeee...!
I mean it, Mr. Sewell, I slid through your pzl, sir, like a greased hairless through an oily chute, a wet spitball through a blow tube, or a hot knife through SOFTENED butter! Ta- DA! Fun all the way!

You're a winner in my book, Jayce!

DR DEMENTO reminds me of the pseudonym of the great Russian theater director, Vsevolod Meyerhold. When staging cabaret material not deemed worthy by his grand opera house employers, he went by the coolest name, "Dr. Dappertutto."

C6D6 Peg said...

11:24 post by "c" was actually C6D6 Peg.... Don't know why it didn't post as C6D6 Peg..... maybe I'm over tired?

SwampCat said...

Peg....I'm glad to know you are "c". if only because she said her neighborhood is "getting back to normal." That's good! I hope your neighborhood continues to recover. It's always a long process. We learned that in Katrina . Hang in there!!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thank you Matthew for a S'well puzzle. Like Jayce I was thinking F-enders but I like the 2-0-2, 1-1-2, 3-0-1 and 1-1-1-1. I don't know if the progression was intentional but it looks neat. Editor nit - 23a is PAL as Rover's is FIDO.

Thanks mb for the excellent Expo, though couldn't you find something less white-bread that Welk for the Watusi :-) [the Blues Brothers lernt me in Tail Feather]. Beautiful grand daughter pics.

WO: LiTTON
ESPs: LYTTON, SMALL SLAM, EMIL, BAUM, DEI (I was going for DEo, but I think FODO is a Hobbit's dog :-))

Fav: DR. DEMENTO! I can't recall if it was from him I learned of Weird Al or the other way around. Remember Real People?[5m]

Good to see you back F.Prime!

Montana - I noticed the Fire & Ice Avatar. What's the latest?

Speaking of Avatars, what's the car Coach?

{cute}. I caught your CSO -ISH, Chairman.

Anon c. - FL or Houston debris cleanup?

HG - Thanks for linking the Shuttle launch in iMAX. Countdowns [6m RUSH for BunnyM] never get old.

Jayce - Professional opinion: Did what Bill G feel this morning have anything to do with Mexico this afternoon?

Re: LYTTON, after getting it, I realized I recognized the name. I didn't know why. Ah, Snoopy! Thanks everyone... Oh, and I've heard of the writing contest Jayce -- very nice, that sentence was awful! :-)

Cheers, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

I had to take a few minutes to finish this. Gotta run, but I'm claiming a CSO from the Bridge clue.

I faithfully read the Bridge column after the funnies and sports. Despite not having played a rubber of bridge in 50 years. But that was a memorable one.

Tell y'all later.

EBL is a pretty famous author because of Last Days.. I thought perhaps he wrote Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire*.

I see Misty got all the Naticks. I stumbled a bit in the SW - a little SMURF told me to change SCAD to SKED

Back later

WC

* So, Misty who wrote D&F...

Anonymous T said...

And -T didn't refresh again... Thanks Peg and good to hear the dig-out is in progress. Did you get any new rains yesterday? Parts of Houston saw 4".

Typo alert - should be ''less white-bread than Welk." C, -T

Lucina said...

Jayce:
That sounds like the summary of a great book! Details, please . . . .

Misty said...

D&F, Wilbur? Can't figure it out but as I said, I'm a senior. Give me a little more help and I'll do my best.

Anonymous T said...

Misty I think he meant D&F = Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire... I just Googled it but won't spoil your Trival Pursuit :-)

Lucina - That's so mean! to say you thought Jayce's would be a great book. :-)

//Edward Bulwer-LYTTON Contest Rules/ Goals/ and "winners"
//So, I tried my hand...
//"As the storm's rains came to a mist, rainbows appeared and the unicorns returned to the lea, Alyssa knew the dark night was over."
//
//Particularly awful, no? :-)

FLN - Hatoolah. Hugo's is now on my list. I've yet to stumble upon it. Thanks.

Cheers, -T

Misty said...

Thank you, AnonT--would not have guessed that.

Bill G said...

AnonT, "Particularly awful, no? :-)"

Yes, wonderfully dreadful. Many of the prizewinners too. It's hard to compose such excellent dreck.

Lucina said...

AnonT:
Okay, I guess my satirical expression needs work. Now, yours has possibilities, too, maybe as third most awful.

Picard said...

Suspected the theme right away with OFF THE CUFF.

Hand up with Desper-otto regarding bridge and sports disinterest. Still, a learning moment about SMALL SLAM.

Never heard of Michael Collins. I will always think of Liam NEESON from Schindler's List. REA unknown.

I very much enjoyed listening to DR DEMENTO as a high school student in the 70s. Glad you did, too, Hahtoolah.

Every once in a while I would hear him on the air from Los Angeles into the 90s. Radio deregulation has led to corporate takeovers that have killed off such creativity. He does continue on line, though.