Theme: Watch Your Back! - Target word added behind the second word of the starred entries.
17A. *Palestine, to many: HOLY LAND. Landfall.
28A. *Slam-dance area: MOSH PIT. Pitfall.
51A. *What "blows no good": ILL WIND. Windfall;.
66A. "Spring forward" partner (a reminder for November 5th) ... and what the last word of each answer to a starred clue can literally have: FALL BACK
11D. *Jam on the brakes: STOP SHORT. Shortfall.
35D. *Regular dinner-and-a-movie evening: DATE NIGHT. Nightfall.
Argyle here. I've got your back. This puzzle has no unique words; that's unique. Diagonal solver's delight.
Across:
1. Press (down), as pipe bowl ash : TAMP
5. Life-saving proc.: CPR. (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation)
8. Collect $200 in Monopoly: PASS GO
14. Top poker pair: ACEs
15. Feel remorse for: RUE
16. Brewpub fixture: ALE TAP
19. Soccer game shout: ¡OLE! ¡OLE!
20. St. plagued by wildfires in 2017: ORE. (Oregon) Just one of many.
21. Leaves out: OMITS
23. Colorado resort: ASPEN. 73-Across. Enjoys 23-Across: SKIs
24. Other side in a fight: ENEMY
26. Monterey County seat: SALINAS
30. Spontaneous notion: WHIM
33. Classic Ford: MODEL T
36. One of eight Eng. kings: EDW. (Edward)
37. Cola, e.g.: SODA
38. Actress Longoria: EVA
39. Vienna's country: Abbr.: AUS. (Austria)ISO code: AUT
41. Gobble up: EAT
43. Do sales work (for): REP. (representative)
44. Baseball glove: MITT. 46-Across. Baseball throw: PEG,. 40-Down. Former MLB commissioner Bud: SELIG
48. Multi-room accommodations: SUITES
50. Praiseful verses: ODEs
53. More geeky: NERDIER
55. V-shaped carving: NOTCH
59. Happy expression: SMILE
61. "Six __ a-laying ... ": GEESE
63. Yokohama yes: HAI
64. Descartes' "I think": COGITO. "Cogito ergo sum" is Latin for "I think; therefore, I am".
68. From boat to beach: ASHORE. (adverb)
69. Island strings: UKE. (ukulele)
70. Pre-deal wager: ANTE
71. Poker player, e.g.: BETTOR
72. '60s hallucinogen: LSD. (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
Down:
1. Nevada border lake: TAHOE
 |
Tahoe Keys, who knew?
|
2. Bit of a squirrel's stash: ACORN. (@1:25)
3. Messy fight: MELEE
4. Future therapist's maj.: PSY. (Psychology)
5. Study at the last minute: CRAM
6. Say "You're grounded" to, say: PUNISH
7. Administrative complications: RED TAPE
8. Kung __ chicken: PAO
9. Edgar __ Poe: ALLAN
10. Up-and-down playground fixtures: SEESAWs. 22-Down. Playground fixture: SLIDE
12. More than a breeze: GALE
13. Ready for customers: OPEN
18. Common Jesuit school name: LOYOLA
25. Sra., on the Seine: MME. (Señora/Madame)
27. Formal "My bad": "IT WAS I"
29. Dumb: STUPID
31. Camille's concept: IDÉE
32. Route providers: MAPS
33. Note to the staff: MEMO
34. Exiled Roman poet: OVID
42. Way under a river: TUNNEL
45. "Cats" poet: TS ELIOT
47. Full of joy: GLEEFUL
49. About-to-be spouse's words: "I DO"
52. Inflicts, as havoc: WREAKS
54. Nostalgically trendy: RETRO
56. Say "Much obliged" to: THANK
57. Desert plants: CACTI
58. Walks with backpacks: HIKES
59. Picket line violator: SCAB
60. Jazzman Allison: MOSE. Died: November 15, 2016.
62. Word with bob or dog: SLED
65. Poetic "above": O'ER
67. Eng. majors' degrees: BAs. (Bachelor of Arts)
Argyle
66 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Jake and Santa!
Nice theme!
Only unknown was MOSE. But it was filled in before I looked at it.
Hot spell (was over 100 degrees for a while) has broken. Time to get out the warm p.j.'s.
Really knocked myself out tying the leader at Word Solitaire today.
Have a great day!
Hi Y'all! No LAT puzzle on Mensa yet at 6 a.m. here. Did it again on Merriam Webster.
Nice Monday puzzle, Jake. Fine expo, Argyle. Thanks to both of you.
Didn't think there was a theme because I didn't see the reveal clue until Argyle explained it. Felt dumb because I had looked for a theme.
Don't know a baseball throw called a PEG. Also unknown: SELIG, COGITO, MOSE.
LOYOLA was a gimmee with a granddaughter at one in New Orleans.
Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I liked this Monday puzzle, but found it a bit of a challenge. Nearly time to FALL BACK again. I have noticed in the past couple of weeks that it is dark now when I get up in the morning.
Although I follow baseball, PEG was new to me. COGITO was also an unknown.
I am preparing for a long trip to the HOLY LAND in a couple of months.
Very cold here this morning. Not sure that I am ready for temps in the 80s to suddenly plunging into the 40s!
QOD: When two men in business always agree, one of them is unnecessary. ~ Ezra Pound (Oct. 30, 1885 ~ Nov. 1, 1972).
I'm afraid PEG is obsolete these days' It use to be part of the on-field chatter that is pretty much banned from youth ball these days. The "No stick in there" and "Peg that right by him" are gone along with there can only be one winner.
HEY, batter, batter, batter!
Back in the day, PEG was a very common baseball expression. "I pegged (threw) him out at 2nd base" Nice PEG (throw). The expression has disappeared like so many other things in the game have.
Everything is OK here. Do the puzzles and read the blog daily. Just taking a break from offering my comments for awhile.
Erased SwIng for SLIDE and didn't know MOSE, but otherwise an easy Monday. When I played baseball, a PEG was what we called a throw that was could be caught where the base runner would slide right into the tag. Usually a throw from the catcher to get a stealing runner, but also used when an outfielder made a great throw to assist the tag out [of a runner.
I've heard that Bobby McGee was last seen somewhere near Salinas.
Tidewater has lots of TUNNELs. In wartime bridges can be blown up, blocking warship travel. So we have TUNNELs under the shipping channels in the Chesapeake Bay and under its tributaries where shipyards are located upstream. Otherwise we have cheaper drawbridges.
Thanks Jake and Santa for a fun start to the work week.
Hondo, how was that cruise to Europe? Did you survive the "dress for dinner" regimen?
Strange that no electronic puzzle was available last night! I had to wait until my local newspaper came online, take two screen shots to get it all at a readable size, and pull out some graph paper to work it on (I don't have a printer, and the physical paper is delivered later). Only w/o except for misplaced blocks was Gust>GALE. Had a hard time avoiding the reveal, and then needed it anyway. Bah.
A PSYCHOLOGY student from SALINAS
Said our weaknesses often define us!
This is the reason
In allergy season
Our brain is just gunk from our sinus!
Little EVA will shout out with GLEE
On the playground the SEESAWS she'll see!
She'll SMILE at the SLIDE,
And on the carousel ride
Her favorite is the old MODEL T!
Long ago, I yearned to PASS GO.
Now I wonder where did the past go?
In the daily MELEE
No one notices me --
Lost in thought, I'm deep in COGITO!
{A-, B-, B.}
PEG came easily for this geezer who could PEG it home with the best. Quick solve today with no problems.
As Jinx said, I erased SWING for SLIDE and perped MOSE, but otherwise an easy Monday.
Last night there was an very ILL WIND, a GALE, here with power outages for miles around. Miraculously my small section of town was spared. Schools are closed in many towns. Traffic lights are out, so making left turns to enter the highway is nigh impossible. I was to take my car in for routine maintenance, but I postponed it until tomorrow. This morning there is no newspaper or Mensa puzzle. Mensa finally put up Sunday's puzzle today. I solved on the Washington Post site, but their print function did not work.
FLN Mike Sherline @11:37
German restroom signs say DAMEN and HERREN. Our restrooms may say MEN or GENTLEMEN. Macht nichts. I think the clue was fine.
Nice Monday with a little crunch to wake the brain up to head into a full morning of work!
Glad I'm not invested in this year's World Series - so I could get to bed at a decent time last night and just look at the score this morning!
I had to wait for perps a bit for SALINAS as I initially wasn't sure if the Monterey was in California or Mexico - but I think in Mexico the Monterrey has 2 Rs- but since I didn't remember that at the time of the solve, I thought it could be San something or other!
Off to work - thanks Argyle and Jake!
Good Morning:
This was an easy, breezy Monday with no hiccups and the only unknown being Mose. I needed the reveal to catch the theme which always pleases me.
Nice work, Jake and fine and dandy expo, Argyle. Who is the vocalist on the lovely ode to New England?
We did have some heavy rain and gusting winds but nothing as bad as was predicted. Although, I may have slept through the worst of it because our power was off for about 90 minutes, starting at 4:40 am, according to my blinking alarm clock.
PK, I'm curious about your comment yesterday about not cooking. If you don't mind my asking, what do you eat?
Hondo, we would love to hear about the trip to Europe.
Have a great day.
Greetings!
As Irish Miss said, easy breezy puzzle today, solved primarily with across clues, so I never saw the clue for MOSE Allison, of whom I have never heard. The only other unknown was PEG (CSO to C6D6 PEG Slay) as clued. Thanks for the expo, Argyle. I especially liked the "Fall Comes to New England" video.
Enjoy the day!
A great start to the week. Thanks Jake and Argyle. Nice to know that I wasn’t alone trying to get today’s puzzle. Luckily the paper came early. I never picked up on the theme, but I am ready for fall back. Enjoyed the lovely New England lilt.
Hand up for swing to slide. When peg filled in, it brought back lots of memories when my dad( who had 4 daughters) coached pony league B.B. for years. I lived at the baseball fields for much of my youth. Being from LA I was a true blue Dodger fan. Moving north I somehow slowly lost that zeal, but I am so proud of the Dodgers this season.
Have a great week.
Good morning everyone.
Easy solve, easy theme. Argyle said no unique words, but I would say COGITO, HAI, SALINAS, and the PEG usage are in the fringe area.
In my 'yute', I would hear some players say "PEG the ball." Can't say I've heard it in quite awhile.
Nice 'steady as she goes' intro from Argyle. Good job from Jake.
Musings
-The gimmick was never going to come but I had a good time anyway
-No July 4th fireworks until 10 pm is one of many STUPID DST results with no benefits
-A familiar TAMP activity to us baseball fans
-Henry Ford told his salesmen the MODEL T should be built for the masses and not the “WHIMS of a few customers”
-NOTCHES on a gun handle were an ominous sign
-ASHORE - Wet feet/Dry feet are two different refugee statuses
-SEE SAWS and SLIDES of my yute were much more dangerous
-The first TUNNEL under a river was a foot tunnel under the Thames that opened in 1843
-I’ve seen some 70 lb girls have to HIKE a long way with their heavy school backpacks
-My neighbor played as a Dallas Cowboy “SCAB” during the 1987 NFL strike season
Good Monday CW that filled in quickly (on the LA Times site) but was not a snap. Thanks for the fun, Jake and Argyle. Theme was not necessary to the solve but an added bonus.
I noted the playground items (SEESAW and SLIDE).
I thought of Montana with the wildfire clue. California also.
30A Idea turned to WHIM but I needed IDEE for the cross at 31D.
Prescience of the blog? I think it was OMK talking about DATE NIGHT just the other day.
Ditto inane hiker re the World Series. Why do all the games start so late (for the California fans?) that they run past midnight and I can't stay awake? Great baseball!
Off to lunch.
Enjoy the day.
I didn't get the theme until Argyle explained it. But it was not necessary to solve the puzzle today. Good Monday puzzle.
My only issue today was with the MENSA site. It had yesterday's puzzle, so I went to the Merriam Webster site to solve it. What's up with the MENSA site anyway?
TTP from Saturday: I assume you are an Ohio State U fan and/or alum. I was happy for a little while on Saturday, but 38 points was not enough to beat Ohio State. They were obviously the better team. Happy Valley is not so happy this week. There are still some tough match-ups ahead with Michigan State and Nebraska coming up. No matter what the records are they always play tough.
IM @ 8:32 am: There was over 4 inches of rain here and it felt like the wind was going to blow us into the next county last night. Now the sun is out, but it is still cold and breezy. Stay warm.
Have a great day everyone.
FUN Monday level puzzle ...
Put in SWING before SLIDE became apparent.
Needed ESP (Every0Single-Perp) to get SALINAS as the Monterey County seat.
No booze ... so I guess my fave today was the '60s hallucinogen, LSD.
Cheers!
PS Anyone else stay up until the "final out" last night.
WOW !!! What a game!
Managed to WAG my way past "peg/Selig" and "Mose/Cogito."
(Although I have never heard of any of them...)
Except maybe Cogito, it does ring a bell.
I want to know what time it is, therefore I am?
Time to change the batteries!
Husker Gary, from Yest:
Forgive my ignorance, but, pray tell,
what was this saints flaw?
pls enlighten me...
Why does Mensa site does not give today's (Monday Oct 30) puzzle ?
Thanks Jake and Argyle. NO Mensa for me either, Merriam-Webster was a back up.
Many years back, Barbara and I caught Mose Allison at a jazz club in Washington D.C. Very cool!
Quite a ball game eh?
Regarding replacing the batteries in smoke detectors when the time changes. Better safe than sorry I guess but modern alkaline batteries will last for many years in a smoke detector. I wait until the unit starts chirping (usually in the middle of the night).
Speed run for me today, and needed that after the beating I took over the weekend. Thanks, Jake and Argyle. I like Descartes so I knew COGITO, but I prefer Kierkegaard.
I thought of you, PK, at LOYOLA!
CED, from last night. The "Saints Flaw" is feet of clay. Husker may have more to say about it. I Thought the picture was clever.
Nice Monday puzzles, no issues, theme innocuous and not needed to solve, nice.
I sent a text to my brother last night at 1 AM Eastern...” Too bad we don’t have to worry about going to work”....we are both retired.
Agreed, what a game!
When I graduated from Illinois Tech I got a Bachelor of Science Degree. Has that changed in the last 66 years?
My mistake, make that 56 years.
I think the Eng. referred to English majors, not engineering majors.
I was looking for some variation on penser, before I realized that I needed the Latin quote. COGITO ERGO SUM = Je pense, donc je suis. = I think, therefore I am.
Only got PEG, SALINAS, and MOSE from crosses.
Perfect Monday puzzle, Jake--many thanks! Not one single erasure--a great way to start the week. And some fun clues right up my alley. Since I have an ENG.MAJOR I was able to get T.S. ELIOT without any problem. Cool to see his entire name, including his initials. And of course loved seeing a reference to my native country AUStria. The only items I didn't "get" were PEG and MOSE, but perps took care of those. So, great fun, and great landscapes, Argyle.
Enjoyed your limericks this morning, Owen.
Have a great day, everybody!
Anon @ 1131:
Owen posted this at 0038 this morning on yesterday's site:
"For some reason unknown to me, the Mensa site does not/will not have the LAT puzzles for Oct. 27,30,31, or Nov. 1. Regular sequence will resume Nov.2nd."
I took Eng to be English. Could be engineering but you see Engr a lot for that. Besides, ANTE is an easy perp so the A should lead one to "arts". Just my 2 ¢.
I came across The Da Vinci Code on a cable channel yesterday. I started watching it but I think I may have made a mistake. It seems very complicated and lacking heart and a sympathetic protagonist. Or have I made a mistake? What did you think about it?
Late again due to oversleeping but again, I'm not complaining.
Thank you, Jake Braun. I breezed through this with a SMILE for so much I liked. COGITO ergo sum is such a well known quotation I'm surprised some don't know it. And as an ENG major with a BA though definitely not at Misty's level, ALLAN, TSELIOT, AND OVID filled readily. Then there is CACTI from the desert and SLIDE (hand up for swing first) and SEESAW from my teaching days. That's much to like!
SALINAS is a beautiful area where strawberries and other products grow in hundreds of acres. My late cousin lived there and raised a family so we visited a few times. She was actually a cousin from my grandfather's first marriage.
Argyle, thank you for explaining the theme. I didn't even look for it but realize how clever it is.
I hope you are having a peaceful day, everyone. Temps are down here!
Fun Monday theme and fairly quick solve. Had to solve the entire puzzle, though, before I understood the theme! Hand up for SWING before SLIDE and MOSE unknown.
Argyle, what did you mean by "This puzzle has no unique words"?
Learning moment that "It was I" is actually grammatically correct.
Here are a few photos of us in the HOLY LAND
Each of our guides advised us: "Remember, when you are in the HOLY LAND... Stories are more important than facts."
This was a most unique PICKET LINE by reporters who were being censored by the Santa Barbara News-Press
A movie "Citizen McCaw" was made about this extraordinary situation.
Here we were overlooking TAHOE last year
We took the ski lift up for this wonderful view.
Ah! Feet of clay!
I know it well...
The old noggin has been hit by the V8 can so many times
I can't seem to make the connections like I used to...
Picard! My, you certainly get around!
Thanks for sharing all those wonderful pics!
Bill G.
You started watching it?
Did you finish watching it?
An awful lot is summed up at the end....
(Actually, it has been years since I saw it, & I can't remember what I had for breakfast...)
Luckily I can watch a movie (or read a book) many times
and enjoy it just as much as the 1st time...
(positive thinking...)
Yay for Fun Mondays!
Enjoyed the puzzle today, had the same two hang-ups as everyone else but perps to the rescue and there's the ta-da! Thank you for the offering, Jake. Exceptional explanation as is standard for our Monday blogger :)
Between stories of bad weather from OCBeach and IM and the ILL WIND, I couldn't help but share Hard Rain
@Jinx - I caught your Salinas reference and give you Pink's Bobby McGee.
@Bill Graham - the book is much better (as always). I agree the whole thing is very complicated, but it is better explained in writing. And I liked Robert Langdon a whole lot more, which is odd because I normally adore Tom Hanks.
I've been working the last three nights but have been lucky to get patients that are baseball fans so I could catch glimpses of the games and get updates. Last night (this morning!) updates were just so exciting and heartbreaking it was hard to keep up! Astros have such a strong team but I'm pretty sure we can win this at home :) Go Dodgers!!!! (Sorry-not-sorry, Anon-T et al.)
Happy Monday!
t.
Bill G. I know how popular Dan brown's books are, but I am not a fan. I haven't seen the movie, but I found the Da Vinci Code and others of his novels far fetched, unbelievable and ahistorical. Some time ago I attended a seminar and read some articles on line about the Da Vinci Code fallacies. I like novels which I can plug into fact or where the author admits he took license with the facts to enhance the story line and where the author admits to mere conjecture.
Jinx @ 0726 -
Agree with you on the observation about tunnels in the Tidewater area.
Ships transiting from Norfolk/Hampton Roads navigate down or up Thimble Shoal channel on their way to or from the sea. During 1960-61 our transits were slowed to 6 kts or less in the area of the caisson work for what was to become the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel.
Had to STOP SHORT briefly & wait for the perp in order to choose an "A" or an "E" for the 9D middle name of E.A. Poe (Ho, ho, ho!).
Otherwise, Mr. Braun's opus was a fresh Monday breeeze.
TAMP is a former word for me, familiar for a while in my pipe-smoking days - my middle 40s, so long ago...
Still funny to think of TS ELIOT as a pop star because of his Cats. Such a strange fame for the voice of The Waste Land, Prufrock, and Ash Wednesday...
"LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table ..."
Well said, Yellowrocks.
I tried reading and then tried watching.
Meh.
Ol'Man Keith, how silly of me to commend the ELIOT reference in the puzzle while totally forgetting about the Edgar ALLAN POE reference! Thanks for me reminding me, and how cool of you to bring Eliot's haunting language back to us!
Owen: your first ditty describes my current state of being.
IM: I eat microwave dinners. Good for portion control. Also I cooked so many big farmer meals for so many years for so many people, I retired when it was no longer necessary. Once a week I splurge and go through a drive-thru.
YR and other east coasters: thought of you while watching the weather channel predictions last night. Glad to hear you are safe from the nasty storm.
BillG, re: "DaVinci Code". You are right!
Picard: great pictures. No moss on you, is there. MUM picket line: bet those guys had red rashes and raw lips for a week after removal of the tape.
Not a lot of time. This was an easy Monday, the weekend gripers hopefully tried this one. I tried to follow the Argyle method of moving diagonally. fe. I never even saw MOSE. And I meant to check the theme but forgot.
The Da Vinci Code is based upon a book by Henry Lincoln and two others called Holy Blood and Holy Grail. It's about conspiracies especially involving the Knights Templar.
I think I mentioned once the tale about the Scottish voyage to America a few decades before Columbus and the daughter of the Captain marrying Columbus and providing him with charts.
That kind of stuff was interesting if conjecture. Lawrence Gardner has lots to say about 'The Grail Family Tree'.
Gotta go
WC
A fun puzzle today. Same as many of you, I didn't know MOSE but it filled in anyway, and changed SWING to SLIDE. An enjoyable solve.
As a student of philosophy, I wrote a paper on "The Cogito" and the method Descarte used to arrive at it. His basic question was that if God is all powerful and can do anything, how can we really know anything, because God could simply be deceiving us. Logic no longer works and reasoning cannot lead to answers. Following this "reductio ad nihilum" pathway, Descartes concludes that the only thing he can possibly know without a doubt is that he exists. How does he know he exists? Because he thinks. In my paper I argued that, if logic cannot lead to knowledge, it is contradictory for Descartes to say he thinks THEREFORE (a blatantly logical relationship implying cause and effect) he exists. So I looked at the original French and made the argument that ERGO is not a good translation of DONC even though DONC means "so." I argued (rightly or wrongly but it doesn't matter because this was simply a term paper in which one was to present a position and argue in support of it) that many French use "donc" more as an expression of "well, then" or "gosh, how about that." In this view, the expression becomes something more like "I am sitting here thinking, and by golly *light bulb goes on* I exist and there seems to be a relationship between these two things, both of which I know. All is not lost! I can climb out of this nihilist hole and make sense of the world after all!"
Anyway ...
Best wishes to you all. I trust no-one has been bothered by any aardwolves?
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Jake Braun, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.
Good puzzle. Got through easily. Worked this morning, but no time to check in until now. Theme eluded me. Got them all easily, but no time to think.
PASS GO came easily. I spent a portion of my youth playing Monopoly. Great Game. Was in Atlantic City once and recognized many of the streets.
Having lived in California and worked some in Arizona, I remember crossing the state line many times. As soon as you leave California, you start seeing the CACTI. They are well protected in Arizona.
Wrote in SWING for 22D. Then fixed that to SLIDE. Only inkblot.
I just finished yesterday's. It was tough. Now to report in on that. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Jayce:
That is a fascinating interpretation of "cogito ergo sum" and it will keep me pondering for most of the day. It is certainly different from the traditional perspective that Descartes was being arrogant in thinking himself equal to God. Translations pose a real problem as some words just cannot be transliterated into another language. Having translated between English and Spanish, I understand that. So, thank you for giving me a new way to look at that quotation.
As for Dan Brown, though I disagree with his premises, I enjoy his books from the point of view that it's a mystery to be solved and he's a decent enough writer.
Ol' man Keith: I always liked the smell of pipe smoke. So, in college, I bought a couple of pipes, tamped down and lit up. It was kinda enjoyable while doing the smoking but the aftertaste and after-smell became more than I could tolerate. I could even notice a bad taste in my mouth the next day. So I quit. From my father, I inherited a calabash pipe and a beautiful meerschuam pipe with an old man's face carved into the bowl. Alas, they were stolen by workmen when they were inhabiting our house during the enlargement construction years ago. Rats!
Here is a little tip when watching embedded songs; click on the YouTube icon and it takes you to their site. Usually there is much information to be found. "When Fall Comes to New England" is by Cheryl Wheeler. I first heard her on a Vermont Public Radio CD of New England artists.
I found this fascinating clip from her, Clip. Funny lady, well worth the 8:55 it runs. Her Wiki page.
Unique words in a puzzle just means they haven't been used before in a NYT puzzle. Sometimes they have been in a LAT puzzle before but not a NYT one.
So isn't that a cheater definition of "unique" -- it may have been used before, but not here? That's a perfect lead-in to a discussion of "very unique" -- I hear that all the time on TV, and it sets my teeth on edge.
Jayce very interesting dissertation on Descartes. In my college philosophy class we were required to make an argument for an unconventional belief. I chose the "immorality of prayer." Resulted in mixed reviews, but I got a good grade on it.
Unique to the puzzles but not in itself. Often they are phrases made up of non-unique words but parsed as a single word in our world.
D-O, re. your dislike of "Very unique." Me too.
How about when folks say "Disinterested" when they should say "Uninterested?"
I think it's worth preserving the distinctions but it may be a lost cause.
Interesting, desper-otto.
When I started reading The Da Vinci Code the thing that struck me was the obvious and blatant overuse of chapter-closing "come-ons." Examples include things like, "and when he looked, what he saw made his jaw drop." Or, "The door opened upon a shocking landscape that took Langdon's breath away." Stuff like that. Drove me nuts. But as Lucina said, "it's a mystery to be solved and he's a decent enough writer." At least the movies were better than those Nicolas Cage National Treasure Declaration of Independence ones, which were truly awful.
Interesting about the inherited pipes, Bill G.
D-O, a good example was all the Tampanians praying that Irma would go up the east coast(And bury Miami). And vv for the East coast folks.
Myself and others (Splynter?) have been advised to pray "that God's will be done". And if you get back to the Cartesian dilemma: Why wouldn't it be done? .
Which leaves us with yellowrocks and her 12th step prayer request except I would end it: And the Wisdom to accept thy will.
Owen, I actually liked #3 the best. I did want to say over the weekend that CoachJ inspires you.
I tried and mserably failed to pinch-hit for you last week.
WC
Jayce, thank you for a reasonable take on Descartes! His theories are interesting but not absolute!
And Lucina, thanks goodness someone finally pointed out that Dan Brown is simply a novelist not an historian! The DaVinci Code is just a mystery story... and a good one, I thought. But it has nothing to do with history, or religion.
My grandkids were here all weekend for the VooDoo festival. N'Awlins has non-stop festivals in the fall . They wore me out but it was fun. And the weather was perfect! Not something we can always say.
Hi All!
THANK you Jake for a Monday that Freely FELL from top to bottom; another NOTCH in my Monday-solve belt - may I PASS GO & collect $200?
Thanks Argyle for hosting the after-party complete with pix and tunes hors d'oeuvres.
WOs: N/A
ESPs: EVA, HAI, MOSE, and PEG as clue'd
Fav: Seeing STUPID in the grid; a CSO to me :-)
Runner-up: CACTI. Abejo - they didn't used to... 2 of my CACTI Gramps cut from Arizona back in the '70s on a visit to his brother.
{B-, B+, B+}
John28man - being a EE major, I had the same 'whaa?' on BAs until the penny-dropped.
Lucina - thanks for reminding me about the Strawberry Fields near SALINAS. We drove through there and Gilroy (Hi Garlic Gal!) on our way to Yosemite from Carmel. Beautiful land.
Tawnya - It's all in fun. Go 'Stros! :-). These are two well matched teams with great pitching.... I frankly don't get how many home-runs have been hit. And the multi crooked-number frames in the SEE SAW games - weird. Tuesday should be interesting (if not incessantly interrupted by goblins in need of candy).
YR, et.al re: DiVinci Code - I think WC has the same IDEE as I; I think the whole story is based on conspiracy-theory history... If you're up on your nut-jobs, it flows better.* Kinda like the X-Files.
Who played PIT FALL on Atari's 2600?
Unencumbered by aardwolves here Jayce.
Cheers, -T
*To bone up, listen to AM radio after midnight.
Re: Dan Brown, I read Demons & Angels and DaVinci Code, and started on a third. The first chapter introduced a really likable character and fleshed him out wonderfully. Then ended by having him gorily and senselessly massacred. In isolation, I realized this was a trait of Brown's that had permeated the other two books as well, and had disturbed me even while I admired the intricate plotting. I've never read any more of his since, and never intend to.
Anon-T, there was an interesting article in the Chronicle this morning and was echoed on one of the national news stations this evening. Sports commentators have been mentioning the historic number of HRs in this series. Chronicle quoted Verlander as saying in effect, the baseball is slicker this season for both teams. It's harder to ace their winning pitches. The baseball's composition is just not the same. The manufacturer can deny this, but he said pitchers who have been throwing balls since their youths agree.
Since we've never ever won a WS in 65-66 years' of existence (clean-sweep drudging in 2005), I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Baseball fans out there - what are the odds of a 3-2 game team winning the WS? After our loss in Game 1, some sportscasters said that statistically the team that wins the first one goes on to win the WS.
After seeing the devastation in the NE on the news tonight, I'm so glad that all of you up there are OK. I saw a house being swept down what looked like a river - yikes!
Thank you CrossEyedDave and PK for the kind words about my photos. Growing up we did not have a lot of money, but our family always found ways to travel and explore. I am very grateful for that upbringing and to have been able to continue to travel and explore ever after.
Yes, the protesting reporters on the PICKET LINE indeed put up with a lot of discomfort to stand for journalistic principles. If you can get your hands on the "Citizen McCaw" film it is a good documentary of what happened. I was honored to have played a small role in helping them by documenting with photos.
Swampcat said, "... thank goodness someone finally pointed out that Dan Brown is simply a novelist not an historian! The DaVinci Code is just a mystery story... and a good one, I thought. But it has nothing to do with history, or religion."
If that were true I would not object so much. Dan Brown presents all this as fact which really turns me off.
Wikipedia:In 2003, while promoting the novel, Brown was asked in interviews what parts of the history in his novel actually happened. He replied "Absolutely all of it." In a 2003 interview with CNN's Martin Savidge he was again asked how much of the historical background was true. He replied, "99% is true… the background is all true". Asked by Elizabeth Vargas in an ABC News special if the book would have been different if he had written it as non-fiction he replied, "I don't think it would have.
Brown takes himself much too seriously. His scholarship is shoddy, but he professes it to be fact.
I can deal with less than factual novels, but as I said earlier,"I like novels where....the author admits he took license with the facts to enhance the story line and where the author admits to mere conjecture.
Besides, I know this is conspiracy theory which is not my cup of tea.
YR - and there you are - eschewing the nutty theories makes it no fun... Not a knock on you; just not your cuppa' - I personally don't like fiction. [disclaimer - I only saw the movie and I prefer to spend my time on non-fiction and poetry when not reading tech docs].
Picard - I've vicariously enjoyed your travels via your snaps but've been remiss in THANKS. Some pretty cool places and shots.
I've caught up on the ILL WINDS in the NE news. OMG! I'm glad the Cornerites back East checked in and are OK.
TxMs - thanks for the heads up. I just read the slick-ball article in §F of the Chron. I want a full Congressional-steroidesque Investigation! //no, wait, I think I'd go w/ Meuller to look into this. :-)
I have a diatribe on SLIDES but I won't post all of it - just note: in our day, they were metal, hot, and 400' tall. You'd climb rung-by-rung (singeing hands all the way to the top) to impending char'd legs followed by, perhaps, death.* Kids these days w/ their little plastics TUNNEL slides protecting precious from falling off 1/2 way down...
Jayce - with your treatise on Rene Descartes, you had to see this coming... Ergo sum ego bibendum* [Python]
Cheers, -T
*That was at Sacred Heart's school across the street from maternal Grands; [oh, and it was probably only 20' up, but I was 6] but we were happy!
**Blame Google translate - Latin was not part of my Catholic schooling in the '70's.
Thank you Anonymous T for the kind words and glad I can give you a virtual ride! And thanks for reminding me:
Thank you Jayce for your comments about Descartes and the Cogito. My major was physics, but philosophy was my minor. People have tried for centuries to explain away Descartes' Cogito argument. But I think his point is brilliant and stands.
One of my main passions is "The Hard Problem of Consciousness". I am amused when people try to explain it away as if consciousness is an illusion. As Descartes showed, this is the one thing we know is NOT an illusion.
I've had physical injuries to my being from not thinking so what does that prove? I don't think but still am(but a couple of close calls almost changed that!).
Argyle - were those moments proceeded by "Here, hold my beer?"
Picard - I studied AI in grad-school hoping for some insight into "consciousness." I was sorely disappointed to discover the heuristics for transistors playing chess was so brutish and neuronets weren't all that . We've made strides in AI but nothing approaching "I am." I don't think we can - an ant or dog has more conscienceless than silicon can possibly, IMHO. Follow-up: I agree - Plato had a good argument with shadows on the cave wall but I call BULL S***! That is, until we talke about what is Love...[No, I refuse to link Haddaway!]. I try to explain it to myself that it's pheromones -- DW doesn't buy it (but she is tasty in the sense of all the senses) but there is more there there; ergo, I'll leave it to the full-time thinkers.
Cheers, -T
Picard - I finally remembered the name of the book that I wanted to cite On Intelligence [Wiki thumbnail]. It was a great read that I gave to DW's Aunt (and never got back). It's quite interesting to have a EE go into neurobiology to try to wrap his own head around, well, our heads. -T
Wow! You guys are so deeeep!
Picard:
I've also neglected to thank you for the world tour through your wonderful photographs. It's just lovely to see them, to see enjoying yourself, and to recall some memories of my own at a few of those places. So, thank you.
To add to DVC talk. Brown was taken to court by the HBHG authors for copyright infringement but found not guilty by an English Court. Regardless, DaVinci Code was a complete plagiarization of HBHG.
I came across Bosworth's"* diary of his Dutch stay. He was Scotch and mentioned that he possessed the "Templar Secret".
Said "Secret" is the foundation of the HBBG and DaVinci theories. Bloodline talk would delve into Religion which along with politics is eschewed in here(wisely)
Thanks to the blog I went back to my tape of the WS, game five. Another great comeback was Justin Rose from 8 strokes down to overtake Dustin Johnson in the HBSC World Golf.
WC in the gloamin
* Biographer of Samuel Johnson, late half of 18th century.
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