Husker Gary here reporting from the site of a wonderful Wednesday puzzle authored by our lovely blogmistress! Not only has she given us a fun theme but has remarkably thrown in four, count 'em, four ten-letter down fills at a midweek level. Wow!
C.C. has taken four familiar phrases and tweaked them slightly to give us a different meaning with no reveal necessary
THEME ENTRIES
16. Inc. and LLC? : BUSINESS LETTERS - These are abbreviations you might find in a, uh, BUSINESS LETTER
22. Beaming and shining? : GLOWING WORDS - Not merely words that express a positive feeling but words that actually Beam and Shine
53. "What are you in for?" and "I was framed"? : PRISON SENTENCES - Years to be served or this great dialogue from Jack McCoy
Now for some Beaming, Shining fill:
Across
1. Ballet divisions : ACTS - In the second ACT of the Nutcracker, we get to see the wonderful Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy
5. Crank (up) : REV
8. Hunchbacked lab assistant : IGOR - Marty Feldman insisted on being called EYE GORE if Gene Wilder was insisting on being FRAHNK EN STEEN.
12. Un-fizzy : FLAT - Don't leave your Pepsi out with the lid off
13. PGA Tour golf course near Miami : DORAL
15. Fish in salade niçoise : TUNA - A salad 25. Styled after, on a menu : A LA Nice, France. Julia Child's version:
19. "No fighting!" : BE NICE - Not to be confused with NICE above
20. Self-worth : EGO
21. Gym unit : REP - No pain, no gain is nonsense. Listen to your body.
25. Jibe grammatically : AGREE - "C.C. is a fabulous constructor" or "C.C. are a fabulous constructor" Hmmm...
28. Come-__: enticements : ONS - Spectrum advertises $29.95/mo. for internet, phone and cable (for new subscribers and only for 12 months)
29. Covent Garden highlight : ARIA - Tonight at 7:30 pm, Covent Garden will be presenting Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) where one of the ARIAs is O zittre night, men limber Sohn (O Tremble Not My Dear Son). Yeah, I knew that.
30. Wolfish look : LEER
31. Pal of Pooh : ROO
32. Green shampoo : PRELL - Seinfeld, "I use the hard stuff - PRELL"
34. Google operating system : ANDROID
36. "Never __ Me Go": Kazuo Ishiguro novel : LET
38. Blue Cross rival : AETNA
40. Dr. with Grammys : DRE - There's no way I could quote any of those lyrics
41. Managed __ : CARE
42. Donkey sound : BRAY
43. Tie the knot : WED - Fewer are
44. Socialite Perle : MESTA
48. Hassle : ADO
49. Tic-tac-toe win : OOO
50. "Green Eggs and Ham" opening : I AM SAM
58. Eats by candlelight : DINES
59. Not in favor of : ANTI
60. Summit : APEX
61. Affirmative action : NOD - Be careful at an baseball card auction!
62. Drain slowly : SEEP
Down
1. Langley, e.g.: Abbr. : AFB - Next door at the Langley Research Center, NASA tested the Lunar Excursion Model
2. Driver or putter : CLUB - The 200 yd shot with the Driver counts the same as the 2 inch shot with the putter
3. Subdue with a charge : TASE
4. Cocktail made with brandy and crème de menthe : STINGER
5. Timber often used for guitar fretboards : ROSEWOOD - Maybe the guy who bought the Honus Wagner baseball card would pony up $25,000 for this Fender ROSEWOOD Telecaster
6. Triage locales, briefly : ERS
7. "La Bamba" singer Ritchie : VALENS
8. Addams family cousin : ITT
9. Military rebels : GUERRILLAS - I suppose our Minuteman could have been so classified
10. Ready for the worst : ON RED ALERT - In the movie War Games it was called Def Con 1
11. Speaks with a scratchy voice : RASPS - Bonnie Tyler used her characteristic RASPY voice to sing Total Eclipse Of The Heart onboard a cruise ship on the day of the eclipse.
13. Geometric art style : DECO
14. __ Mason: asset management giant : LEGG - That's LEGG MASON INC. in BUSINESS LETTERS
17. Aswan Dam site : NILE
18. In the direction of : TOWARD
23. Properly arranged : IN ORDER - I'm not OCD, but...
24. Underground find : ORE
26. Be judged unfairly : GET A BAD RAP
27. Performer's array : REPERTOIRE
31. Genetic code transmitter : RNA
34. Slangy "Let's move on ... " : ANYHOO
35. Like priests : ORDAINED
37. What some caddies carry : TEA - A lovely Chinese TEA Caddy
39. The Northwest's Sea-__ Airport : TAC - Seattle/TAComa
41. Private jet choices : CESSNAS - Headquartered in Wichita, KS
43. "Any volunteers?" : WHO'S IN?
44. Cultural pic that may go viral : MEME
46. Frog habitat : POND
47. Pre-coll. exams : SATS
51. Spots to conceal : ACNE
52. Dole (out) : METE
54. Kinsey research focus : SEX - Hugh Hefner said he was profoundly affected by Kinsey's research
55. Producer of some Talking Heads albums : ENO
56. Sample : SIP
Now, how 'bout some GLOWING words for C.C.'s puzzle:
The Grid
47 comments:
Great puzzle CC and good day to you H Gary..
Wow 3 day's in a row no tada. TEA made me turn on the red letters because I put TEE for a CADDY wow I was thinking Golf instead of TEE time LOL ~!~!
Today was easier than Mon or Tue. Maybe because the Bayou Gardener Get Together is so close and I am getting a lot of stuff in order for the big day. It is a strain on a person to do so much at one time.
Plus Tard Mes Ami from Cajun Country ~!~!
Greetings!
Thanks to our wonderful mentor and the great Husker!
Filled in pretty fast. Did not know: LEGG, DORAL and ATP. But it all filled in nicely.
Hope to see you all tomorrow!
Grr. FIW¡ The TEe/TEA got me¡ I even knew Perle MESTé, but not how to spell her name correctly¡ Ah, well. I thought it would be the natick I WAGed at DORA¡+¡EGG.
I liked the theme. If all the daily puzzle makers would agree on a gimmick for a day, you could have a theme paper!
Dang it, my prescience was off! Yesterday I had the line
"Was consecrated a sloth of the CLOTH", but a better word would have been ORDAINED! I was trying to think of a better word, but my brain is just getting too addled!
"I AM SAM," said nonsensical TUNA in a POND,
Where he'd BRAY whaleish ARIA from dusk until dawn!
On dogfish food he'd dine,
Washed down with brine wine,
And attested, "IAMS AM best with ROSÉ, and not blond!"
There once was a lady, Bernice
Who gave some advice to her niece:
"Should he LEER at you twice,
It's okay to BE NICE,
But don't LET him get you down on your kneese!"
{B+, M.}
Nice construction CC. No rotten spots that required any artificial filler ! Fun theme to have literal examples of those common phrases.
That's the famous "Jumbo Wagner" with the extra wide border on the bottom. MC is Miss Cut. Hondo and CC know.
Con man and felon Bill Mastro trimmed the Gretzky Wagner. He got 20 months and his business partner Doug Allen got 57 months PRISON SENTENCES for their frauds. Mostly shill bidding and selling bogus collectibles. American Greed. Monday evenings on CNBC. "Fraud Collectors" originally aired about a month or so ago, and has repeated since then.
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/18/that-baseball-card-in-the-attic-can-be-worth-a-fortune-if-you-play-your-cards-right.html
In David and Goliath football news, USA is out of the 2018 World Cup. By now you probably know that they were eliminated by Trinidad and Tobago. Some are saying it wasn't fair. "Perhaps they could have beat Trinidad. Or Tobago. But having to beat both of them ?" (I read that somewhere and thought it was funny.)
Braggadocio on. Played DORAL back around 88. Have a Steve Mizerak story to go with it. Stayed at and catered to at the luxe Fountainbleu for a few days. Went to an Alabama concert there. They were on top of the country music charts back then. Memorable experiences. Braggadocio off.
Haven't golfed in two weeks due to the STINGER in my back. End of season tournament is today, so I think I'll give it a go. Fairways should be soggy with all of this much needed rain we are finally getting.
See all y'all later n'at !
Good morning!
I never noticed that this was a C.C. puzzle until Husker pointed it out. Those stacked 10's have got to be tough to pull off. Thanx, you two.
I'll bet Dudley had no problem with 41d.
Husker, my wallet has two sections for paper bills. I keep the 20's in one, and everything smaller in the other one.
It was come-ONS for new subscribers only that caused me to cancel my Barnacle home delivery and go with an all-digital subscription. My 5-day-a-week home delivery immediately became every day home delivery. I notified the Barnacle of their screw-up; they emailed me that they'd take care of it. They haven't. I probably should feel guilty, but I don't.
Very nice puzzle. No problems, but ir played a bit slow.
Good morning, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Puzzle went fine. Some long answers, but with a few perp letters they all appeared.
I did not catch the theme. But, in retrospect, it was a good one.
My last letter was the L in DORAL and LEGG. I winged it and it worked.
Remembered Ritchie Valens well, as well as Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. Sad end.
I had the T from ITT so I wagged TUNA. That helped with the two long downs in the NE corner.
Today will look at my roof leak. It is raining so that might help to find it. Got the shallow well working and the garage door spring replaced. So far I am a happy camper.
Went to the Johnsonburg sells last night for chicken wings. They were great?
Heading to Illinois tonight. Hope that goes better than my trip coming here.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
What made this even more elegant was the theme progression
LETTERS
WORDS
PHRASES
SENTENCES
No help or errors today, but I did erase DuRAL and try for SIP. Didn't know Covent Garden, Isiguro or MESTA. Had to tiptoe around REPERTOIRE and GUERRILLAS. I knew the words, but was uncertain about the spelling. In Captain Ron, Martin Short was SURE that there no gorillas in the woods.
I was invited to play Doral by a vendor while I was on a business trip to Miami in the early '90s, but I didn't play golf so I declined. After hearing the awe in everyone else's voices the next day, I took up the sport the next week.
Langley is right up the road from us. When I raced sailboats I had a NASA engineer friend who crewed for me. When we won, I would tell folks that winning around here actually IS rocket science.
Mark S - Welcome to the Corner. Say goodbye to spare time.
D-O - Where do you keep the 50s and 100s?
Thanks to Gary and CC for a fun start to Wednesday.
Very nicely constructed puzzle by Fearless Leader with two spanners and lots of 'big words' incorporated (placing that word would have made it even better) with the crosses. Other than Xword puzzles I have no idea who ENO is but he's always an easy WAG and he was today, along with LET. The only unknowns were MESTA and STINGER- never heard of either. Socialite and moi don't belong in the same places; 'I've got friends in low places'. The rest was smooth sailing.
DORAL's Blue Monster, owned by POTUS, WAS a tour course until this year. The PGATour tried to play hardball with The Donald, get DORAL to pay them just to host the tournament. No dice. They extort places just like football, baseball, and basketball teams.
SEA-TAC- I'll be landing there in a couple of weeks.
Google's operating system-ANDROID- is for phones. Their operating system for computers is CHROME, not to be confused with the CHROME browser- they are not the same.
ROSEWOOD- if you want to read about an abuse of power by a former Attorney General, read about Gibson guitars and how the US Attorney settled a political grudge.
LEGG Mason- I can't complain. My friend worked for them, and I transferred my measly IRA to LEG Mason Value Trust ( LMVTX) in 1990. Little did I know that they were early investors in AOL, Dell Computer, Apple and Amazon. They were out of all of those by 2000 and do I wish they had stayed in the last two but I can't complain. I never put another dime into the IRA but as of yesterday it's worth 13 times my 1990 investment. Sheer LUCK, but I'll take the money and run.
Good morning everyone.
Welcome aboard Mark S.
Nice puzzle from C.C. today. Got it all without searches. Saw the theme as HG described it. Haven't seen MESTA in a while. Two double columned long downs. Fun to solve.
IN ORDER - Germans would say "Alles in Ordnung." It is said they are a very orderly people.
fruit PIE - My favorite is peach PIE. Price Chopper grocery chain peach pie is particularly favored.
Tomorrow I'm slated for cataract surgery on my left eye. No food after midnight and lots of eye drops.
Have a great day.
Good Morning,
This was fun, C.C.. Just enough crunch to keep me wondering. Thank you. I loved the long fills. The first words came easily, but I had some work to get the second half. I especially liked prison sentences. Favorite: affirmative action--NOD. Ishiguro is certainly a timely clue!
Gary, another fine tour from you. Thanks. I, too, keep my bills in order. Like D-O I stow them in two sections if I am using a wallet capable of that. No 50's or 100's for me.
YR- I'm with you on C.C.'s excellent progression. I saw it as I reviewed my fill.
Hope everyone is well and safe. This has been quite a year. . . .
36A:
NEVER LET ME GO by
Nat King Cole
Jinx, I never carry denominations larger than $20. Here in redneck country few establishments, with the exception of supermarkets and WallyWorld, will accept the larger bills. When I go to the ATM for cash, which isn't very often, it always spits out twenties.
Lovely Wednesday CW. Thanks C.C. and Husker Gary.
I saw the theme and the elegant progressions pointed out by YR.
Hand up for WAG of L in DORAL and LEGG cross.
Welcome Mark S.
Best wishes on your cataract surgery Spitzboov.
Wishing you a safe and uneventful trip home Abejo.
Cooler and rainy here.
Enjoy the day.
Good Morning:
This had some crunch but perps solved all doubts. For 1A, I was trying to decide if it was Dems or Reps, as I read the clue as Ballot divisions instead of Ballet divisions. I never heard of Legg Mason and ATP was originally ATA; not a tennis fan. Doral was a gimme as we once lived in a Doral-developed community in Stamford, CT. The long fill was very impressive and the theme was a fine example of CC's extraordinary command of her second language's nuances and variations. I, too, noticed the progression from letters to sentences, another example of CC's constructing talents.
Thanks, CC and HG for a solid, sparkling Wednesday challenge and summary.
Mark S, welcome to the Corner.
TTP, nice to hear from you, at length.
DO, my sister cancelled the newspaper well over a year ago, yet continues to receive it 7 days a week. She made four or five phone calls to correct the error, to no avail. She is not being billed for it and doesn't want it, but she gave up calling them. How they stay in business is beyond me.
Have a great day.
Forgot! Best of luck, Spitz, with your cataract surgery tomorrow!
CanadianEh, please forgive my lapse in not wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 Better late than never, so they say! I hope you had a wonderful celebration.
Greetings!
Thank you, C.C., for today's challenge. Such an elegant theme progression. Perps were needed for LEGG Mason. Thanks for the fine expo, Husker Gary.
Welcome to The Corner, Mark S.
Spitzboov--Best wishes for your cataract surgery tomorrow.
Enjoy the day!
Hi Y'all! Really liked this gem of a puzzle, C.C, and thought the theme entries were all fun! Great, as always, Husker.
Favorite: PRISON SENTENCES. Very chuckle worthy.
Forgot how to spell GUERRILLAS. Had to play with it a bit until it quit turning red. I have read that the only reason the colonists won the American Revolution was because they used GUERRILLA tactics. They hid & sniped from behind walls while the Brits formed up and presented a target wall while they marched down the road.
ATP/REPERTOIRE: "P" was the last fill. I never can remember that tennis org. altho we have it often. For "performer's array", I was wanting some kind of costume or make-up. After I got all the perps, I wondered why I found that so hard.
Tried TAzE before TASE.
YR: good catch on the theme progression. I didn't see it. Bravo, C.C.!
Spitzboov; good luck on the eye surgery.
Good to see TTP again.
Hi everybody.
For the first theme entry, I took "Inc. and LLC?" to be abbreviations or letters about businesses, not that you would find in a business letter. That seemed like a perfectly adequate theme concept until YR explained the progression of LETTERS, WORDS, PHRASES and SENTENCES. That made the theme go from OK to very excellent!
Thanks CC and Gary.
Good luck Spitz. See you on the other side where you will see everything more clearly.
Fast and fun is how I rate this puzzle from our brilliant Blog mistress! Thank you, C.C.
I'm always impressed by C.C.'s cleverness. She's full of surprises. Since I didn't check for the theme I missed the progression as noted by Yellowrocks. Good catch!
Perle MESTA has been absent from crosswords for years yet her name popped up immediately. I saw REV at 5A and ORDAINED at 35D. To me they are related. I AGREE, those 10-letter downs leave me in awe.
What a treat! Thank you, Gary; I love how you present so much animation in your graphics.
Abejo:
Better luck on your trip today!
Spitz:
Good luck with your cataract removal. I understand about the drops and fasting.
I rarely carry cash. Every purchase is by credit card for which I receive airline points but it's paid in full every month.
Have a splendid day, everyone!
Abejo,
Roof leaks can be notoriously hard to find as they often travel under the shingles
from somewhere else. We had a professional roofer come one sunny day, and he found
the leak in seconds. It was a miscut shingle that should never have been installed
on the roof years ago...
How did he find it so fast?
He just walked to the general area, and then jumped up and down until he found a soft spot.
(I also has a gas guy check for leaks with a cigarette lighter!)
Prison Sentences?
Early glowing words...
The origin of a catch phrase...
And, a giving the business letter...
A big thank you to all that welcomed me. A very good puzzle from C.C. today.
My impression: A few names I never heard of like 8d, 13a, and 4d and 50a; but all were solved by perps.
Jinx — you’re right about spare time. It took me all morning for last Sunday’s and half the morning for Saturday. BTW Sunday was only the second time for me for that puzzle and I had to forget about that day’s Sudoku. I’ll probably have to order takeout until I get better.
Really enjoying these puzzles for the last 2 months.
If anyone has Amazon Prime, I streamed a movie gem called True Beauty. Never heard of it and thought it was very good.
One other thing: never heard of tea caddy before. I thought the caddy would be carrying tee. I liked the clue and it filled in nicely with perp.
Mark S:
Avid tea drinkers like my sister and one of my friends have a tea caddy full of a variety of teas for their perusal. Some caddies are quite elaborate.
I liked this puzzle and admire the pairs of long downs. Once I got LETTERS and WORDS I thought the next one would be SENTENCES until a few perps showed me it was PHRASES. SENTENCES came after that. Excellent theme.
I knew LEGG MASON so getting DORAL, which I didn't know, was easier than it might have been. My WAG place was the cell (E or A?) crossing MESTA and TEA. Of course I put in E at first. Changing it to A gave me the Ta-da and a nice smile at the "caddy" clue. My 2nd favorite clue was "Affirmative action" for NOD. Excellent stuff!
I liked POOH, ROO, OOO, and ANYHOO.
Big Easy, I think the San Francisco Forty-Niners extorted the city of Santa Clara in getting Levi Stadium built. Now there is wrangling about who should be paying for various aspects of its operation and maintenance. Lots of finger pointing and claims of "you said you'd pay for it" vs "no we didn't." Since there is no roof on it, fans have been getting sunburned, so now there's talk of how to re-design it to provide more shade for more seats. Of course parking and traffic have been huge problems since day one. As far as I'm concerned the whole thing was a gigantic boondoggle all along. Also, the Oakland A's had been extorting the city of Oakland for the last couple of years, and it looks like they will be moving to Las Vegas as soon as that city (at its expense?) builds the stadium for them. I'm not sure, but I think now the city of Oakland is going, "Wait, wait! We'll build a new stadium for you. Do you like this location?" Sheesh.
Fires still burning north of us. So tragic!
Best wishes to you all.
I AGREE, I AGREE, C.C. is a fabulous constructor. I got this wonderful puzzle perfectly without any problems, in spite of those amazing long downward fills. What a treat. Thank you, thank you, C.C. And Husker Gary, that was an amazing and wonderful set of pictures.
I really needed this great start to an otherwise terrible morning. After begging them since February, yes February, and calling them practically every month to ask Frontier phone service to change Rowland's name to mine, they finally shut off my phone completely yesterday. I had to go to my neighbor's to call to beg them to get it back on again, and this morning they sent a technician at 10. Got the phone working again, with a new telephone number after 30 years (aaargghh), but at least it was working. Made a couple of calls, and while talking to my son, the phone went dead. Again. Completely dead. No dial tone or anything, an hour after the Frontier guy came and supposedly fixed it with a new number and everything. So went back over to my neighbor's and this time called Cox. I'm switching phone companies even though I'll lose the land line, which I've cherished all this time. Cox is supposed to have a guy come tomorrow and give me new service and a new phone number (the second one in two days). Let's just pray it works this time. I can't go through the weekend with no phone, and no more companies to engage.
Sorry about the rant. Welcome, Mark S., and god luck with the surgery, Spitz.
Have a good day, everyone.
Welcome Mark S. This is a fun place most of the time.
The puzzle was elegant as always.
HG you always know what to say.
CED entertaining but wth is your link for: The origin of a catchphrase...all about?
Cataract surgery is now a piece of cake Spitz. relax. 7 years ago this month I think for me.
I had the pleasure of playing Doral many times in the 80's in various charity tournaments. The course changed a lot since then and so has my body.
Thanks for the puz, C.C.! (Ta- DA!)
And thanks for the visuals, HuskerG, esp. for the PIE illustration. Way cool.
The illustration for RASPS, showing Bonnie Tylor singing Total Eclipse..., brings to mind Jim Steinman's brilliant music.
Tyler's rendition is quite fine. But I have to confess my preference for the German version of the song, part of Steinman's score for Tanz der Vampire. I'm not a big fan of the recent vogue for vampires, but I find this an irresistible number. Performed as a duet between Sarah & Count von Krolock (& chorus), ”Totale Finsternis” is pretty much the same song but with the addition of vampire-specific lyrics.
For those who find little to appreciate in the German language, try ignoring lines like "Such mit mir den schwarzen Graal!" and "Die Ewigkeit beginnt heut' Nacht."
Working from bottom up, for the theme I had sentences and phrases and so was looking for words and letters.
I learned tea caddy, thanks to historical novels.
Did you know that the flatware basket in your dishwasher is a caddy, too? We use something similar to that at our square dance refreshment table for forks and spoons. You can buy flatware or cutlery caddies in many places online.
Misty, what a hassle with your phone. I hope things settle down soon.
LEGG was new to me.
Perle Mesta, "the hostess with the mostest" was Irving Berlin's inspiration for "Call Me Madam."
Back to square one with Alan today.
Better late than never..... Loved the puzzle, C.C. So ingenious and well filled! Congrats!
Thanks, as always, to HG for another great write-up. Loved the "Rikers Island Theme Song"......
Misty,
SORRY you were having such Angst with your phone company! They can be among the most irritating of modern "conveniences."
We have used Cox for years - for TV, internet, and phone, the works - and have not had any serious complaint. (The bill could be cheaper, but then we use a lot of cable.) I believe you will be happy making the change. Occasionally something happens to require a call, but I chalk up minor problems to the odds we accept for our various dependencies.
Back to the pzl: DORAL was a funny gimme for me. It was one of those fills I knew nothing about. Not being a golf fan, never reading or hearing of any golf courses, and having spent very little time (the minimum allowable!) in FLA, there is no way on earth I could have answered that w/o perps.
But I did.
Curious how the ol' walnut works...
Lemon, it was "slip of the tongue."
Misty, getting phone service from your cable company probably means you're getting a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone. That means you could sign up for NoMoRoBo -- a free service to free you from robo callers. You let NoMoRoBo monitor your phone line. If the caller is a robo, NoMoRoBo answers the phone and hangs up on 'em. The only thing you need to do is wait for the second ring before answering any call. Even I have been able to learn how to do that.
Mark S,
Thanks for the tip re. True Beauty. I'm always looking for movies to stream.
My latest, for light-hearted fare that I found both cute (of which I am only a so-so fan) and moving is If I Were You, a modern Feydeau farce that turns semi-serious.
C.C. Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle. Enjoyed the theme.
Husker: Good Job on the write-up ... as always!
Fave today, was the 34-d Slangy "Let's move on ... ANYHOO.
Cheers!
Irish Miss- I'm with your sister. I canceled one of the three papers I subscribed to because of their editors' insistence on 'manufacturing' the news instead of reporting it. Months later, it still comes to my house and they keep calling for me to pay. When I told them that I WROTE them cancelling my subscription, I was told:" You have to CALL a certain number to cancel". My response: "not my problem"
Jayce- every pro sports franchise and major business is in the business of playing one city or state against other cities and states. I love their "Economic Impact Statements" which are usually worth about as much as used Charmin.
Misty- give Cox time and you'll hate them. I had them for over 30 years and finally dropped them. They subcontract everything and the people manning their phones can never give you a straight answer after insulting you intelligence. OMK- you must be one of Cox's lucky customers.
Big Easy,
I would agree with you - about being "lucky" - except that I am far from the only one.
Could it be that you are one of the unlucky ones?
I'm not saying Cox is staffed by saints, but after living (& surviving this long) in various cities around the country, and after tolerating AT&T and their minions for too many years, my experience with Cox is that they're definitely one of the better ones.
It is not merely my opinion. I live in a section of Irvine where neighbors keep in daily contact via email. We borrow from one another and share our experiences with housekeepers, plumbers, electricians, etc. Many of us use Cox and we know what's good and what isn't about them. There are a couple who usually aren't happy with Cox, but they're outnumbered.
I'm truly sorry your experience isn't as favorable as (most of) ours.
Irish Miss and AnonT (from Monday)- thanks for the Canadian Thanksgiving wishes. It was a beautiful day and I had 14 for dinner. Made turkey soup yesterday (and put some into the freezer) and enjoyed leftovers tonight. There were no leftovers of Pumpkin pie sadly!
Thank you all for the good advice and good wishes. Since I have the Cox appointment scheduled for tomorrow between 8 and 10, I will pray that O'Man Keith is right and that it will work okay. But if not, I suppose I will have to explore other options. It's just helpful to discuss this, so thank you, everyone.
Hi All!
WEES - a smooth puzzle from C.C., as if I've ever solved one of her's and though "clunker." Thanks C.C. for a fine example of grinding too.
NE was my last fill. I was looking for a fancy French fish with T--A; not knowing how PRELL was spelt. Somehow I saw the pattern for RED ALERT and the HG-theme. I filled WORDS and all was well. Didn't C the progression until YR pointed it out. Thanks YR for pointing out the extra elegance in the grid.
Thanks HG for the fun expo. "Roger, Roger." "Over Under." PRISON song was cute; if I have time after finishing some work, I'll share my favorite PRISON joke.
WOs: N/A
ESPs: ATP
FIW - BReY spelt that way; and, thinking golf, had I TEe too instead of TEA (for two).
Eldest has a nice TEA caddy in her dorm room.
Fav: I AM SAM. SAM I AM.
Sparkle: WHO'S IN?, GET A BAD RAP (xing prison! :-)), REPERTOIRE.
With DORA- I WAG'd the L thinking of the Cigarettes FIL used to smoke (RIP).
{A-, ahem :-) }
Good luck tomorrow Spitz. You too Misty (that's awful what they did!)
FLN - Picard: Hand-up w/ you - Mary Ann.
Nice to see you TTP - took a second to figure out who "Jumbo Wagner" is/was - AHA, you were talking about the RARE card HG showed us.
Thanks YR for who Mesta is - at least I've heard that PHRASE.
CED - That BUSINESS LETTER gave 'em the BUSINESS - LOL, thx.
IGOR's Pronunciation for MarkS 'cuz he's new here :-). Welcome to the corner Mark.
Cheers, -T
Welcome Mark S. I think you'll enjoy this crowd.
Spitz, you will do fine! I'll be following along behind you in the future.
Have a good evening; I'll catch up in the AM. I CAN'T keep up with Anon -T and the rest of you night owls!!😜
A demain!
A guy gets sent up the river and it's his first day of his PRISON SENTENCE. Obviously, he's nervous.
Lunch time comes and he goes with his cell mate to the open-cafeteria. They get their trays and sit down.
Suddenly, a guy pops up from across the room and hollers "115!" The cafeteria bursts into laughter.
Another inmate yells "14!" Again, the cafeteria roars.
"What's going on?" the new con asks his mate.
"Oh, we've been in so long we've got all the joke books in the library memorized by number."
The new con thinks "Hell, I can do this" and pipes-up "26!" Nuthin'. Just a few quiet "hehes" from around the room. He sheepishly sits down.
New turns to his mate, "What? Is number 26 not that funny?"
"Naw, that's a great one - it's just some folks donno how to tell a joke."
-T
Work is finally done enough and I just re-read my 1st paragraph LAUDing. C.C's pzl... I do need glasses.
*as if I ever thought "Clunker"
*fine example of gridding too //grinding is right-out.
Jeesh, and just yesterday Mary Ann was pooping on TV... -T
Jayce @ 2:59 --
It's the Oakland RAIDERS that are going to Lost Wages; the A's are staying and may get a new stadium near Lake Merritt.
I knocked off the xword pretty quickly but never had a chance to post. GLOWING Praise for CC and Gary.
Misty, I'm glad you switched but I'm sorry you've had get a new tel-no. AAAARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! So many Cos identify using tel-nos it may be a pain.
I use my cellphone with the same number for 15 years even though the area code is NH and I'm in Florida.
I just finished a 0827 NYT. FIW 😊. I see PVX commented, a very thoughtful and well constructed post may have been YR and way down into the second day is a true M l'ick (908 am).
Sorry, I get that xword so late and then another week goes by before I start and it takes me a week to finish.
But if I have to abuse CC's blog this DEAD SPOT is not such a bad PLACE.
WC
Speaking of M l'icks, more solid W work from Owen.
Agree with Big Easy that Cox is evil after over 30 years of dealing with their lies, overcharging and terrible "service". We have been happily Cox and cable free for a year now.
Hand up STINGER unknown with that definition.
Only know ATP from biology as Adenosine triphosphate which is the basic fuel that keeps us running.
Only know DORAL as a cancer stick. Learning moment that it is a city.
TEE/MESTE seemed just as valid as the Natick MESTA/TEA. FIW but I cry foul.
Agree with Yellowrocks that it was the progression from LETTERS to SENTENCES that was most interesting in the theme. But the puzzle was spoiled for me by that foul Natick.
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