google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, October 6, 2017, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Oct 6, 2017

Friday, October 6, 2017, Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: Now where did I put those IOUs?

In a variation of the add a letter or letters theme, JW hid them at the end of the first word of a known two-word phrase or name. As I remarked last week about recognizing a theme because a word or phrase is repeated, seeing -ious (suffix, ious is defined as having or being like the word it follows) opened my eyes. Of course, the light bulb goes on when you parse it as an acronym. Lovely misdirection. At first, I could not understand what the theme answers had in common. The "red" reference in the reveal (debts are ledgered in red) led me to present the theme as below:

20A. Agricultural college facility? : STUDIOUS FARM (12).  Stud Farm. The Aggies study hard.

32A. One who got in before a crash? : FURIOUS TRADER (13). Fur Trader. The stock trader is very angry that his timing was bad.

40A. Lancelot bragging about his exploits? : TEDIOUS KNIGHT (13). The late great Ted Knight.
LINK. It makes sense to use a proper name in both clue and fill.

53A. What theater districts offer? : COPIOUS SHOWS (12). Cop Shows. I watched some Police Woman on COZI tv this weekend. It rained here.
The reveal:
67A. They traditionally appear in red ... and in another form in 20-, 32-, 40- and 53-Across: DEBTS (5).

JW also fitted in ONE STEP, SF GIANT, TROOPER, US ASSET, ANALYSTS, GONE AWRY, LOW AVERAGES and TURN THE PAGE as long sparkly fill. Let's do this!

Across:

1. Best-selling book generally not on best-seller lists: BIBLE. They don't know where to send the royalty checks.

6. Benchmark: Abbr. : STD. Standard.

9. Early automaker: OLDS. Old('s) Ransom has been popular again.

13. Won't go near: AVOIDS.

15. Back again: FRO. To and fro. 

16. Heist haul: LOOT.

17. Magoo's malady: MYOPIA. Nearsightedness. 

18. Ended up off the mark: GONE AWRY. A fun underused phrase.

22. Polling abbr. : PCT.

25. Arrive at hastily, as a conclusion: LEAP TO. Look before you....

26. Sundial marking: VII. A return of the Roman Numeral.

27. Content of little substance: FLUFF. Newspapers had people who wrote their puff pieces.

30. Madrid-to-Paris dir. : NNE.

31. Rose in a field: PETE. Baseball player.  HE is now 76.

36. Achilles __: TENDON.

37. Take turns: ROTATE. I love clues/fill such as this.

44. "The BFG" author: DAHL.  The Big Friendly Giant, by Roald Dahl also was made into a movie.

46. Intelligence org. : NSANational Security Agency.

47. Dutch genre painter: STEEN. See his WORK.

48. Juillet's season: ETE. July/Summer  French.

49. KFC option: BREAST.

52. Red __: SEA.

57. Financial workers: ANALYSTS.

58. Like merciless opponents: FEARED.

62. Gospel travelers: MAGI.

63. Get: SEE.

64. Not nice at all: UNKIND.

65. Urgent request: PLEA.

66. Decline, with "out": OPT.


Down:

1. Loud sound: BAM.

2. Columbia, e.g.: IVY. No league? 

3. "That's lousy!" : BOO.

4. Enlarged Revlon ad image: LIPS.

5. Reduce a sentence, say: EDIT. Not commute, but rewrite. 

6. MLBer at AT & T Park: SF GIANT.

7. Highway pursuer: TROOPERSUPER TROOPER 2 coming in 2018.

8. Bakery item with some shortening? : DONUT. A lovely and clean double entendre - making the word doughnut shorter, as well as the shortening used in baking. A classic JW clue/fill.

9. "Frozen" snowman: OLAF. Disney's movies all seem to have had a comic relief character.

10. What most pitchers have, as batters: LOW AVERAGES.

11. "Little" Dickens title character: DORRIT

12. Obstruct: STYMIE. My MEMORY.

14. Author Bellow: SAUL. I enjoyed his work when I was young. FIVE.

19. What that is in Spain: ESO.

21. Scout groups: DENS.

22. [It just vanished!]: PFFT.

23. Answer guide? : CLUE. Cute, a guide to the answer.

24. Get on with one's life: TURN THE PAGE. One of the Millenials contributions to the language. 

28. Revolutionary first name: FIDEL.

29. Child subject: FOOD. Julia, may she rest in peace, all 6'2" of her.

31. It's not big in France: PETIT. Funny. From French Chef to French pun.

33. Verse lead-in: UNIverse.

34. Prize for Indy: ARK. Indiana Jones, that is.

35. Oxford figures: DONS.

38. Fare-well link: THEE.

39. Italian peak: ETNA.

41. Like the simplest process: ONE STEP.

42. Toyota's Ky. plant, e.g.: US ASSET. Good thing there were perps as this was tough.

43. Old-school diplomatic accessory: SASH.

44. Pack up the tents and supplies: DECAMP.

45. Like some Alban Berg works: ATONAL. I am not a big fan of Schoenberg or other atonal composers. LINK. Unrelated to comedian Sam Berg.

49. Tiny Tim, for one: BOY.

50. Rene of "Thor": RUSSO.  Her brief INTERVIEW.

51. Vegan staple: TOFU.

54. Hipbones: ILIA.

55. Direct (one's way): WEND. Another word packed with meaning in four letters; "verb:
go in a specified direction, typically slowly or by an indirect route."

56. Ginza quaff: SAKE. Rice wine.

59. Barbecue morsel: RIB. Morsel defined: a small piece or amount of food; a mouthful. Rib?

60. Sinus doc : ENTEar Nose and Throat. 

61. Driller's deg. : DDS. Dentist. har, har.

Well, there it is, another Friday, another Jeffrey Wechsler, and a fun ride. It is the quiet time for South Florida as the summer tourists are gone and the snowbirds have not returned. There are more breezes and I hope you enjoy the time. Thank you, Jeffrey and all who read. Lemonade out.



53 comments:

fermatprime said...

Hi everyone!

Thanks to Jeffrey and Lemonade!

Great to polish off a JW sans errors.

Perps sure helped for US ASSET, PCT, NNE, DAHL, SF GIANT, FIDEL and OLAF.

Going to be some really hot weather (97 degrees) here tomorrow. In October?

Hope to see you all tomorrow!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Jeff Wechs did not disappoint. I liked this one, and really needed the theme to finish it --
had STUDENTS FARM before IOUS became obvious. Little Dorrit is a little-known Dickens novel. It was required reading my frosh year. Misread "Driller's deg." as "Driller's org." and inked in ADA. Bzzzzzt! Also tried POOF before PFFT elbowed in. Nicely done, JW, and I enjoyed the tour, L714.

BobB said...

I had 53a as
Curio(us)shops. Seemed to make sense.

Yellowrocks said...

Great theme! FIR. After the reveal it dawned on me that debts, IOUs would be added, helping me to finish. Then I saw that IOUs were inserted into two word common terms. The east was much easier than the west.
It had to be ARK, but I could not see why. I was racing at the Indy. Thanks, Lemonade.
We used to say, "He leaps to confusions." It seems even powerful people, do that.
TACT before SASH. Where has diplomatic tact gone?
PETE ROSE, good one.
Are ribs just a morsel?
FARE THEE WELL survives today as an idiom. Free Dictionary: "The highest degree; perfection. Wow, you really played that part to a fare thee well—I'm so impressed!"
I am a fan of Dahl's, but I didn't know BFG.
Thanks, Lemon, for a fun expo, and Jeff, for an interesting puzzle.

Anonymous said...

Bob Niles, you only added US, instead of IOUS.

OwenKL said...

Today's crossword I found full of pain!
Mental MYOPIA attacked my poor brain!
Tho I be STUDIOUS
This puzzle proved TEDIOUS --
Half the theme I missed till the explain!

I didn't get the theme until the reveal (3 of the 4 themers were still incomplete, and it wasn't until I saw them all together that the IOU part of the reveal made sense), and that the enclosing phrase was a legit second gimmick I didn't get/SEE at all until reading Lemon's exposition!
Draw a line thru the diagonal blocks from the 4th to 12th
rows, and I got everything above and nearly nothing beneath. I said last Sat was one of my worst defeats, and today was even worser!

My mind is in a stupefied state,
Eyes are glazed, they only ROTATE.
What gray cells I use
Have sent in I.O.U.S,
And I'm STYMIED on how to mentate!

OwenKL said...

{B-,A-.}

Anonymous said...

If the 'genius' men cannot get this.............what about the rest of us? Did NOT enjoy this puzzle.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I squeaked out another Wechsler FIR without help. I'm due for Jeffrey to smite me.

Got the IOU connection fairly quickly, and it was a big help in finishing the puzzle. I didn't get the connection between the first and second words before I came here.

Erased grew for PETE, furIOUS for TEDIOUS, crispy for BREAST and Indy's prize was a gem before it was an ARK. Didn't he look for a gem in one of those entertaining (but forgettable) movies?

Still don't understand how a DONS are Oxford figures. I knew SAKE but not Ginza (maybe that's where those TV knives were invented), nor did I remember DORRIT.

Thanks JW for a puzzle that was a stretch, but was doable even with my modest abilities. And thanks to Lemonaide for another fine reveal.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Well, this was a sticky wicket Wechsler, if ever I saw one! After first pass across, I was staring at a blizzard of white with not one theme answer even guessable. But, as is often the case, a chip here and a chip there yields some toe holds and, eventually, a resounding Tada! I saw the "ious" additions but, until the reveal, wasn't parsing them as IOUs. Then, I just shook my head, as usual, at the cleverness and craftsmanship that are this constructor's hallmarks. My favorite C/A was Shorten a sentence=Edit. Being "Frozen" illiterate, I had Otto before Olaf and, being too big for my britches, I had Seahawk before SF Giant. Nothing like mixing up baseball and football teams or, even worse, princesses and lions! My only quibble is US Asset as it seems sort of forced, but if it's okay with Rich, it's okay with me.

Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a brain-stretching Friday challenge and thanks, Lemony, for the detailed and informative review. You seem to be always on JW's wavelength,

It's on the dreary side today but we can't complain after the last several days of picture-perfect weather.

Have a great day.

Argyle said...

Indy didn't look for the emerald(different franchise) but he did find the jewel of the Nile.

Coach J said...

Loved this puzzle. Hard enough to challenge (only had a quarter of it on first pass), but came back to it after a couple hour break to get some real work done...and voila! Just a real nice puzzle.

Fav clue 10D: What most pitchers have, as batters.

This puzzle at first was UNKIND
Until a CLUE I divined
The FLUFF ironed out
My LIPS did not pout
I could SEE my way out of a bind

PK said...

Hi Y'all! This was not easy, but I was on Jeffrey's wave length. I caught on to IOUS with the first one which sure helped with all the others. Great puzzle, Jeffrey. Great expo, Lemonade.

Despite catching onto IOUS early, I didn't get the connection to DEBTS until YR's post. DUH!

Only unknowns were STEEN & DAHL but both perped in before I read the clues. No real problems with the rest, but I did a couple of red-letter vowel runs.

FIDEL: Just finished reading "The Cuban Affair" by Nelson DeMille.

Jinx: for some reason they call Oxford professors/tutors DONS.

Yellowrocks said...

ANON @10:14, the majority of the bloggers posting so far, 6, plus Lemony FIR without help. PS that includes quite a few women.
It's Friday, after all, when we expect a challenge. Remember, the week offers something for every type of solver.

Here is a funny Mark Twain quote.
"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

C6D6 Peg said...

Thank you, Jeffrey, for a fun puzzle. Loved the FURiousTRADER! FIR without knowing DORRIT.

Thanks, Lemonade, for a great write-up. Loved the comment on where to send the royalties! Also, TURNTHEPAGE came up as I remembered Bob Seger's hit from '73!

A great weekend to all!

SwampCat said...

My cup runneth over! A Friday Jeffrey Wechsler amuse, bemuse and confuse me! But what a marvelous challenge it was.

I did get all the theme answers...that never happens! But I didn't see the IOUS in the middle. Ah well. TEDIOUS KNIGHT for Lancelot's bragging was just too delicious.

There were so many clever clues! I loved Back Again for FRO. Well, yes, of course....once you get it it's obvious. But that's Jeffrey's deviousness. It's only obvious afterward! I also loved It's Not Big In France. And Child Subject. And answer guide. And Some Shortening.

But I must confess, JW beat me again. After getting all the "hard" ones I could not think of Take Turns. Oh, that kind of turns! ROTATE. sigh....

Thanks Lemon for guiding us through the deep places.

SwampCat said...

Owen, I feel your pain! It was a toughie, but your tribute was an A.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody. It's early for me but I've got a few minutes to chime in.

I'm a big admirer of Jeffrey's puzzles and this was clever as is usual for Jeffrey. I figured out the IOUS OK, but I didn't notice the original word or phrase before he added the IOUS. I feel a bit red-faced. The only clues/answers that seemed weak or forced were Toyota's Ky. plant, e.g./US ASSET and Tiny Tim, for one/BOY. But lots of other clever stuff was ample compensation. I had Poof instead of PFFT.

I was never a fan of Pete Rose. He was a great ballplayer but he didn't seem like a likeable person at all. His personality turned me off so much that it overshadowed his talent. Plus, he injured and practically killed Ray Fosse in a collision at home plate.

I've been watching a few old Lone Ranger shows. He definitely yelled HEIGH-O Silver, not Hi-Ho. The main character was played by Clayton Moore but did you know there were a few shows around 1952 where Moore was replaced by John Hart due to a salary dispute? He hadn't mastered the fancy pistol-twirling of Moore but was woodenly adequate otherwise.

SwampCat said...

Anon at 10:14, why do you do the puzzles if you dont enjoy them? And why come here to complain?

Hungry Mother said...

Just a slight bit of crunch today. I got the theme easily and enjoyed the solve.

Argyle said...

Oops! Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile were both Michael Douglas movies.

Anonymous said...

My paper doesn't print the puzzle titles, so that's a slight handicap. I got everything except for send, where I had tend. It didn't make much sense until I could see the title and explanation here. Thanks! It makes for a good start to the day if I'm 99.9% right.

Anonymous said...

Wend. Sorry!

Bill G said...

Anon: (11:24)

The only day that the puzzles are given an "official" title is Sunday. Those puzzles are provided with a title by the editor or constructor. Otherwise, the bloggers here use their own creativity and insight to provide the given unofficial title that you see each day.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

This might have been the first JW puzzle I solved with no CWE's (cheats, write-overs, or errors)! It took awhile to solve, but I tediously plugged away and never became furious at the clues. A few filled in via perps, e.g., DAHL, DORRIT, DONS, and WEND. I was also thinking American Revolution with 28d, but FIDEL was the only name that fit

49a was a bit choppy. I've not eaten at a KFC in years, but recall the "options" being crispy or original (the coating), and paying an up charge for only white meat which includes the wing as well as the BREAST.

Hoping my limerick is not on violation of the "no politics and religion" policy, but the puzzle did contain these two words. And it is an interesting play on words ...

Might you say Cuban rebels now dwell,
In the deep, darkest corners of hell,
Since they followed Castro?
The BIBLE would say so.
They could all be known as "inFIDEL".

Moe

Lemonade714 said...

Anon at 11;24, the LAT prints titles only for their Sunday puzzle. The title you see each day is the creation of that day's blogger.

Bill G., Clayton Moore played the Lone Ranger until 1958; and, he had no other career. He did personal appearances, shopping centers, charity events etc. until he was COURT ORDERED to stop.

Lemonade714 said...

Argyle, you are correct about those movies, but what prompted those posts? Did I miss a comment?

Thanks, Bill - I was typing while you were posting.

AnonymousPVX said...

Wow. Got the solve, did not like the puzzle.

To me, this is an example of the worst of the “theme/gimmick” puzzles....the ious stuff is really ridiculous.

I liked the rest of it, tough clueing and all.

Lucina said...

Thank you, JW, for challenging my mental abilities! This was also fun and took way too much time, longer than usual and since I don't have red letters in the newspaper I had to find my own errors. LEAPTO from LEADTO, POOF then PFFT, CURIOUS to COPIOUS, etc.

DAHL was a guess once I had DA__ and so was ATONAL because I'm not familiar with Alban Berg but my instincts led me there. I loved the cluing for DONUT especially after you explained it, Lemonade. IOUS=DEBTS made sense.

I also liked EDIT, reduce a sentence. Brilliant work, Jeffrey Wechsler!

Lemonade, also many thanks for helping with ARK; that had me flummoxed and never thought of Indiana Jones! I'm not a fan.

What a great way to start a Friday! Thank you, again, Lemonade for your zestier than usual commentary.

Have a delightful day, everyone! Still hot here.

Misty said...

Well, it's been a tough week for me after my trip--having to cheat Wednesday, Thursday, and now today to finish the puzzle. Can't tell if it's just the jet lag or if I'm losing ground or what. And tomorrow's Saturday will be even more challenging. But at least I got some--DORRIT, BIBLE, CLUE, PETIT, ETNA (seems to show up almost daily), and PLEA. Not much to brag about. But the clues were clever, Jeffrey, as was the theme,and your expo was a delight, Lemonade--so still fun to be had even if I didn't do great.

Have a really nice day, everybody!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Watching 7th graders and doing Jeff Wex’s wonderful puzzle taint easy McGee
-TEDIOUSKNIGHT me the gimmick and a leg up
-Schools set BENCHMARKS everywhere but some kids will never reach them
-My sister AVOIDS tough topics like the plague
-Most famous use of GO AWRY
-New Mexico’s Harding County has 168% of all the living breathing voters registered
-In this film, she did FLUFF pieces before she stumbled onto Jack Lemmon
-PETE learned that the people you offend going up the ladder are the same ones you need when you come down
-Two friends snapped Achilles TENDONS playing sports after 55
-Shortening sentences - ss Polonius tells us in Hamlet . Uh, he could have used some EDITING as well!
-Even this sub got offered a wonderful DONUT from a local bakery this morning
-Oxford DONS and LITTLE DORRIT are new to this cowboy and my friend Lemon must have assumed I knew them.

Ol' Man Keith said...

A fine pzl week it was!
Thanks to Mr. Wechsler and to Lemonade for a fancy Friday finale!

Clever cluing and a curious theme made this daunting at first, but once the IOUS trick emerged it was a pleasant breeze-through to reach the ending, Ta- DA!

Jinx, Oxford DONS are tutors. It's an informal term applied to junior faculty, or loosely to any faculty at Oxford, and even to teachers at other British universities. "Don" isn't generally an official rank like professor or associate professor - but at a few other schools it is used in place of "Master" or "Dean."
It's derived from the Latin Dominus or "Lord."

I have a mental image of an "Oxford don" teaching a class while wearing the traditional black half-gown.
I confess to feeling jealous sometimes, wishing we'd wear our regalia while teaching classes or conducting seminars. I know it could look silly to our students, but not if we also required them to wear those even-sillier gowns for undergrads!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for letting me know! Reading here, it sounded like there was a published title that helped. More fun to know y'all make it up!

desper-otto said...

AnonymousPVX, the LAT "rules" require that the daily cws (except for Saturday) must have a theme. Saturdays are always themeless. I'm downright terrible at discerning themes, and often fail to read the complete reveal clues. Understanding the theme can be helpful with the solve, but you can usually muddle through to victory without it. Even if you don't appreciate the theme, it adds a level of complexity for the puzzle creator. You've gotta admit that today's theme entries were clever, even if you found them to be ridiculous.

Wilbur Charles said...

I gave an example from NYT Sunday xword of a cleverly ridiculous clue: Command to a pool hustler to slurp broth. SHARK SIPHON SOUP. Additionally, we had to figure out that the SIGH sound was dropped to make the phrase recognizable. eg Shark-fin Soup.

Now I love that stuff. Cruciverbalists generally do. Utter delight. The CC-7 previously named and many more seem to love that stuff too.

I followed Irish Miss in having blinding white and inking SEAHAWK. But it all came to FIR in the end.

Lemonade714 said...

HG: As you well know from your own experience there are enumerable comments available on each puzzle we are presented to blog. It is necessary to leave some things out; not because I think everyone knows everything. I enjoy seeing who will step up and discuss the ones not highlighted. OMK has much more personal knowledge of Dons and little Dorrit, I was happy to see he shared some knowledge. Also, if I leave something out and someone has to look it up, that is not all bad either.

PVX, could you please point out puzzles which you like?

Anon 11:24/2:04 it is more fun for us as well. I still enjoy the challenge of solving the puzzles and determining the theme. I still get a few wrong, but writing a title that makes the the theme make sense is a kick.

Argyle said...

Lemon, it was Jinx in Norfolk said...at 10:15 AM

Anonymous T said...

Got it with only 3 Googles! (PFFT - names). But, my brain hurts, play later.

{A+,B+}

Romancing the Stone IIRC.

Cheers, -T

Big Easy said...

DEBT- a four-letter word that I have AVOIDed my entire life. I noticed the IOUS in the center of the STUD FARM. FURIOUS TRADER- the country is littered with 'investors' who jumped in at the wrong time. I would call them speculators who hoped the market would continue to rise so they could make a quick profit. One minor problem with that type of investing. When do you get in and when do you get out? They usually buy HIGH and sell LOW.

I had a few perp-solved fills today but not many. Easier than the usual Friday puzzle. I never heard of DORRIT, Alban Berg, The BFG- ATONAL, DAHL, & DORRIT were unknowns. I didn't know what the clue about the Toyota plant meant and US ASSET was also filled by perps. 'Thor'- I don't watch movies but do know who Rene RUSSO is.

OMK- contrary to Oxford DONS and fashionistas, "clothes do NOT make the man". Personally I think the person who invented the necktie should have been drawn and quartered for the misery that was inflicted on humanity.

I have my standards but STD Sexually Transmitted Dis..., okay you get it. That term is now used instead of naming the actual disease.

Yellowrocks said...

Most abbreviations stand for many things. In my non medical experience STD is very common for standard.

Jayce said...

Cool puzzle. I enjoyed solving it. Wanting TACT at 43d prevented me from solving that area for quite a while until I realized the IOUS gimmick which meant an S had to be the first letter there. It still took me a while to figure out COP what? at 53a; all I could think of was COPIOUS SEATS which contributed to my stumbling around in that area by thinking TARO was the Vegan staple. Oh, and my stubborn adherence to CRISPY being the KFC option further compounded my difficulties. Anyway, I finally figured it all out and got it all finished. Another terrific Jeffrey Wechsler opus.

Big Easy, I hear you about buying high and selling low. Every investment advisor says you should not try to time the market but should stay in for the long haul, and yet the very people, the Wall Street traders, are continuously buying and selling, trying to time the market and usually failing. Of course, whether my investments increase or decrease in value is totally influenced by these trades. Why don't they themselves adhere to the advice of the investment advisors? Because, ladies and gentlemen, they are strongly incentivized to trade because they get paid according to the number of trades they execute, with your and my money.

We have watched many Inspector Morse and Inspector Lewis episodes, so have heard the term "Don" thrown around a lot. Usually in those shows the a don is an older, well-established (tenured?) professor or "master" who invariably is portrayed as an insufferable snob.

Best wishes to you all.

BigJ said...

HI Y'ALL

THE puzzle took awhile, with several breaks for regrouping. But it yielded in the end!

Lemonade I LOVED the JULIA CHILD clip! Missed the reference while doing the solve. I grew up

with her on public television in the NYC area. She was Sooooo Cool! Happy Solving Everyone!

PK said...

Big Easy: I'm with you on avoiding DEBT all my life. My husband refused to go into debt for anything unless it would generate enough income to pay for itself. I told my grandson that I never felt I had enough income to pay interest to the bank. Of course, my kids think I am archaic since I don't incur debt and pay off my credit card each month. I'm reaping the benefits in my old age with no money worries. I've had some funny encounters with people who were selling me a house and vehicles with no debt intended.

TX Ms said...

Fun, punny puzzle I thought. Got the lower SE part first with "debts" - which opened up all the "ious" hidden throughout. Fav: Ted-ious Knight, which was my first solve of the theme answers. I loved him on the MTM Show. Didn't remember that he died so young - a preventable death nowadays in most cases.

Lemon - outstanding! I LOVED JULIA CHILD and used to watch her Saturday afternoon shows. Letterman/Child were hilarious - what a great comedic team! My favorite of all her shows was when she encountered a "slippery bird" (chicken) on the counter, and it fell to the floor. "Oh, my!" without skipping a beat. Then she calmly rescued it and proceeded to prepare it for baking, without batting an eye!

~ ONWARD to Saturday!

Anonymous T said...

Hi Puzzle Pals!

Wow. I mean WOW! Jeffrey, my BOY, that was something else. It took me 3 Googles (ALBAN Berg, DORRIT, The BGF) to get enough letters to eventually suss it out. And the theme... D'Oh!
I read it as the end of each themer... DEBT FARM kinda made sense (See Farm AID [5m of John Cougar MellenCAMP] as did DEBT TRADERS... DEBT SHOWS made me think "The Producers(?)" [Trailer] But, but, but... DEBT KNIGHT?!?... 64oz tin of V8! as IOUs dawned on me. I prefaced KNIGHT with IOUS @32a, then FUR, and finally got the solve in the west. Thanks JW; very well executed.

Thanks Lem for the writeup and Indy explanation. I had 'cup' at 1st and it slowly morphed into ARK. WTF? - you get a little box for driving around in a circle real fast-like? Oh, I SEE Jones.
Letterman / Child clip was priceless.

WOs: wentAWRY, CUP b/f ARK, Bah b/f BOO, Lash b/f LIPS. XII b/f VII
ESPs: [not Googled] DONS, ILIA, STEEN.
Fav: So hard to pick... EDIT c/a was brilliant as was DONUT and the clue for LOW AVERAGES.

{Ha! C. Moe}

Argyle - I didn't see your Romancing the Stone comment earlier. Like I said, my brain hurt and I only read the 1st two posts b/f mine. Sorry for being a member of the Redundant Department of Redundancy.

I'll second Lem on why the corner is fun... We each know a lot about a little and learn from one another.

HG - yes, I imagine the plague is a tough topic :-)

PK, BigE - I try to teach the Girls a) DEBT is a tool to be used wisely.
b) don't bet - buy stocks of companies you use / believe in Long... Worked out well for Buffett.
Jayce - sometimes I don't follow b)'s advice and try to time things. Right now I'm looking to sell some Long holdings to pay tuition. It's been a roller coaster; "I should have sold yesterday!" "Glad I didn't sell yesterday" [energy is volatile]. I've got 'till the 20th to execute.

BigE / YR... Yes Abbrs. like STD are overloaded. Apparently DP* is too. I made a "We've been doing IT so long we remember it as DP" joke while noting via email that Slashdot was 20 yro.
I got some "See HR :-)" replies back(?)

RIP Ralphie Mae [MA-L; not PC]. He was only 45.

Cheers, -T
*Data Processing; Google alternatives at your own risk

Wilbur Charles said...

Stymie is a golf term of yesteryear. One needn't mark the ball and the opponent was STYMIEd. The clever, skilled ones could chip the ball -using the putter- over the stymie.

When marking came into use they used chalk at first.

I was at the DMV when I posted earlier and the service was so prompt and efficient I had to hit publish.

Before I could award W's to the versifiers and thank lemonade for his usual great write-up. And of course Jeff Weschler for all the cleverness and inventiveness. I didn't see the connection between the FUR and the TRADER etc.

Meanwhile, I've misplaced my COPIOUS notes(A LA Bunny) so I'll wing it.

Nope. I've got nuttin, nada.

Ok. Any SAUL Bellow commentary from the literati. Like Lemonade I believe I read Herzog. Like him, long ago. I need to read more.

WC signing out

PS. No Stan the Man commentary. He started out as a pitcher and had arm trouble. His hitting quickly got him to St Louis during the war

Misty said...

TX Ms, didn't Julia Child invent the 5-second rule: if you drop food on the floor and it's down there for only 5 seconds or less, you can pick it up and continue without batting an eye because it's still perfectly safe?

Lemonade714 said...

Late night comments: I am so sad to hear about Ralphie May; like John Panette, Chris Farley, John Candy...so many who died young.

Thanks, Argyle, now I get it.

Glad you like Julia Child/David Letterman

Tired--good night

PK said...

RIP Ralphie, oh fluffy one.

TX Ms said...

Misty, I googled Julia Child 5-second rule and only came up with this (my apologies for not being able to link, despite receiving many kind how-to suggestions from our Cornerites). Yikes, it was from no-nonsense Snopes!, but the particular instances are hilarious. Bon Appetit!

http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/juliachild.asp

Anonymous T said...

PK - Ralphie was, um, fluffy. But, Gabrial Iglesias is the Fluffy One.

Julia was one of a kind. Spy, bad chef, and gourmet. Dan Akroyd did the best send up. Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Forgot - 5 second link from TXMs. -T

Picard said...

I found this exceptionally difficult but managed to FIR.

Hand up for STUDENTS before STUDIOUS which kept me stuck in that area and also kept me from seeing the theme. I didn't get the theme until I was almost finished. And I totally missed that the theme altered common phrases/names. That is probably what made it so much more difficult for me. Another reason I enjoy reading these write-ups!

Hand up for the unknowns listed by others, plus others. I was sure DORRIT was wrong because how could I not know the name of an entire Dickens novel?

Never heard of RENE RUSSO. I thought the female form is RENEE?

Alban Berg, DAHL, OLAF, DONS unknowns in critical spots.

US ASSET was not easy to figure out.

FOODie Julia Child lived in our city for many years, but I don't think I ever saw her.

Clues like AT&T Park are useless to me. I remember when stadiums were named for an important person and the name was permanent. Anyone else?