Do you know that uneasy feeling you get when you're going down the first hill on a roller coaster? That's my feeling when I see a Jeff Wex puzzle anytime but doubly so on Saturday (See kitty on front right!)
Not to worry though, I had to dance around but earned an official "got 'er done"! DATA LIMIT did hold up the SW corner for a while until RATE became necessary.
A very striking looking grid that complements Jeff's always wonderful cluing!
Now let's see what one of our favorite crossword elves has for us on this Christmas eve eve:
1. With 1-Down, "Gadzooks!" : JUMPING and 1. See 1-Across : JEHOSAPHAT JEHOSAPHAT is a euphemism for Jesus or Jehovah and the phrase "By the shaking, jumping ghost of Jehosaphat" is first seen in the 1865 novel Paul Peabody
8. The Pleiades of myth, e.g. : SISTERS - My astronomy teacher called the Pleiades Constellation "The Shopping Cart"
15. Football's "Boomer" : ESIASON - Many feel he is the best Cincinnati Bengal QB ever. I'll bet our Boomer could beat him in an alley!
16. Oregon city named for a fur merchant : ASTORIA - John Jacob Astor's city is located very near the end of the line for Meriwether and William
17. Couldn't offer any justification : HAD NO GOOD REASON - C.C. ___ for letting me blog Saturday puzzles
19. Old Monterey Bay fort : ORD - Abandoned in 1994, the Fort Ord Reuse Authority is working on it
20. Lipstick marketing word : SMEARLESS
21. Sizing letters : SML - I know it's an old joke but...
24. "Music for Airports" producer : ENO - Musical wallpaper
25. "Understood" 39-Across : AYE
26. Sacha Baron Cohen persona : ALI G - He's either your cup of tea or you're like me
31. Law enforcement support org. : PBA - Patrolman's Benevolent Association not a bowlers organization
32. "Livin' La Vida __" : LOCA - Everyone was Living The Crazy Life with Ricky Martin in 1999
33. Like grapefruit : SOUR and they are to be avoided if you have bad 47. Blood test letters : LDL - Low-Density Lipoprotein numbers and are taking a statin
34. Seeks a better deal : HAGGLES and 42. Eco-friendly wheels : TESLAS - I wonder if you could HAGGLE on this $74,000 electric TESLA
39. Where to hear 25-Across : ASEA
40. One might be convincing : LIAR
41. Back again : FRO
45. __ Major : URSA - The constellation URSA MAJOR contains the asterism (Not constellation) The Big Dipper in its rump and tail
46. Hockey legend : ORR
48. Subtle "Listen up" : PSST
50. Data restriction on Twitter usage : RATE LIMIT - Not DATA
54. Camera initials : SLR
59. Piranhas, in Venezuela : CARIBES - A synonym
60. Part of the family group : IN A CLAN - That must be us!
61. As a group : EN MASSE - 15,000 of the 18,000 fans in Kansas City to see the lady Huskers win the national VB championship last week were Nebraska fans who went there EN MASSE
62. Bishop's purview : DIOCESE -We are in the "liberal" Omaha DIOCESE but in the Lincoln DIOCESE the sisters mostly still wear habits
Down
2. Fort Benning, e.g. : US ARMY BASE - It's centennial is next year
3. Knight time : MIDDLE AGES
4. Item wielded on "Chopped" : PAN - Competitive cooking shows are not on my menu
5. Equal start? : ISOs - ISOTHERMS from yesterday
6. Rich beverage : NOG - Much to the amusement of my wife and daughters, one year I seasoned EGG NOG with paprika and not nutmeg
8. "Soldier of Love" Grammy winner : SADE - (shah DAY) I only know her Smooth Operator
9. Mediterranean land : ISRAEL
10. Fuel in tins : STERNO - It lends an odd scent to every event where it is used.
11. Burns poem whose subject is "ugly, creepin" : TO A LOUSE - "Ye ugly, creepin', blast wonder, Detested, shunned by saunt an' sinner." Yikes!
12. Gaelic tongue : ERSE - Nollaig shona dhuit! (Merry Christmas!)
13. Lago feeders : RIOS - El RIO Lerma desemboca en el Lago de Chapala (The river Lerma flows into Lake Chapala)
14. Lacking : SANS
18. TAG Heuer competitor : OMEGA - If you can afford $500 ripped jeans...
22. Critical subject in Roman history : FALL
23. Natural emollient : ALOE
28. Like much museum art : NOT FOR SALE - I doubt they'll ever take haggle on the Mona Lisa
29. Small raiding bands : GUERRILLAS - We had 'em on our side 30. Unreliable, in a way : ERROR PRONE
35. Shopping mecca : GALLERIA - Is Amazon marking their demise?
36. Auction action starter : FIRST BID
37. Bonny one : LASS
38. Logician's "E" : ERAT - Makes sense to us math heads!
40. Flowering plant in the legume family : LUPIN
43. Improv staples : AD LIBS
44. Examples of bad driving : SLICES
50. Hurdles, for one : RACE - A track event for very brave people
51. "I am __ / More sinn'd against than sinning": King Lear : A MAN
52. School division : TERM - Granddaughter's TERM in Grenoble, France has ended and she is back in the U.S.A. after a life-altering few months
53. Rapper with the albums "Harlem World" and "Welcome Back" : MASE - His lyrics are many steps below profane
56. Aussie college : UNI - Shorthand for University
57. __ Schwarz : FAO - This FAO store where this scene from Big was filmed is now closed
58. TV monitor : FCC - Federal Communications Commission - Typical Jeff Wex cleverness!
And now a word from our bloggers...
DA GRID
Note from C.C.:
Happy 73rd Birthday to Misty, our sweet and caring friend. Here's a
picture of Misty and her husband Rowland. It was taken probably seven or
eight years ago. From what I read on Misty's Facebook post, they were
never apart during Christmas times. Thanks for being in our lives, Misty!
47 comments:
Hello Puzzlers -
Other than a little doubt around Rate Limit and American Buffalo, this was mostly a zoom-through. With the initial J already in place, I just knew Jehoshaphat was on the way, so that pre-filled a lot.
Morning, Husker, thanks for ‘splaining - and hand up for Data before Rate.
About Tesla: the nearest Tesla showroom is in the Natick Mall (yes, that Natick). It’s 90 miles away, so despite being quite curious about the cars, the LW and I didn’t manage to pop in for a look-see until recently. The new lower-cost Model 3 is coming along, and we hoped a test drive could be arranged, so last July we made the effort to stop in. Well, it was too soon at the time for the Model 3, but the salesman dutifully took down our phone number and email to notify us; within hours, we were carpet bombed with email and phone messages from four different staff people at Tesla, including one with the title Experience Coordinator or some such. The barrage kept up for some time afterward. WOW! We’re a little interested in owning a Tesla, but this saturation marketing technique is beyond annoying.
FIW. Total WAGs at two naticks, PaN + ESIaSON was right, but CARIBEc + MAcE was wrong. Also misspelt GALLaRIA the first run, and had to get that corrected by red letter before I could get almost anything in the SW corner. I didn't get RATE LIMIT (but I don't frequent Twitter), never heard of AMERICAN BUFFALO as a play, ESIASON, MASE, nor CARIBES.
I went surfing a few times at Astoria in my teens. Not one of the legendary beaches, but it was driving distance from where I grew up in Portland. I didn't have a board of my own, so body-surfed until one of my buddies was ready to take a break and loaned me his board. I was better at body-surfing anyway.
There was a time, in the MIDDLE AGES,
When scribes by hand wrote Bible pages.
How JEHOSAPHAT
Ruled with eclat
Without any JUMPING TWITTER rages!
There once was an AMERICAN BUFFALO,
A basso, who to Rome would go!
He HAD NO GOOD REASON
Except theater season
He could perform in an opera buffa, low!
{C+, A-.}
Good morning, brrrrrr, and Happy Festivus!
This was a Jeff Wechs nerf ball! The grid design looked daunting, but proved to be user-friendly My only overwrite this morning was changing TART to SOUR in my race to the bottom. Thanx, Jeff and Husker.
SLICE: I never developed a slice. I think you have to hit the ball to have one. I usually dribbled off the tee.
RIP: It's always the top of the knees of my jeans that develop bald spots, and then RIPs. I had to unveil a new pair of dress jeans just this past week.
"Asterism": Never heard that term before, but ya gotta love it. You bet your...
Happy birthday, Misty! Didn't realize you were one of those poor kids who had their birthday and Christmas rolled into one. Seems unfair, somehow.
Jeffrey's puzzle was a WAG & perp festival. I HAD NO GOOD REASON to explain my success this morning. If I said otherwise, I'd be a LIAR. The SW was the last to fall, as A MAN, MASE, CARIBES, RATE LIMIT, and AMERICAN BUFFALO were unknowns. I had to AD LIB because I was stuck on the ABO blood typing system, thinking GALLERIA might have one L & two Rs. The term RATE LIMIT makes no sense; I wanted DATA LIMIT or CHARACTERs(wouldn't fit).
JUMPING Back to 1A & 1D. I had never heard the term JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT and Boomer ESIASON's last name's spelling is always a challenge. SML for moi? Non. XL or Large-Tall for this 6'3" 200lb lad.
'Stylish jeans feature- well IMHO it isn't RIP and I wonder when that stupid fad will R.I.P. But then again, and please don't throw bricks at me, look at the idiotic shoes in the picture. Why would any person with half a brain decided to wear shoes that have a three inch heel resting on a square centimeter.
Knew Boomer instantly, spelling it correctly, NOT. If you ever watched Batman on TV with Adam West, Jumpin(g)Jehoaphatis very familiar. It was Robin's line.
Thank you Jeffrey and thank you Husker Gary. Happy Birthday Misty !
Nope, not today. I'm streaking, but not with wins. Neat grid though.
Football's "Boomer" = ESIASON. Crosswordcorner.blogspot.com's "Boomer" = Boomer Burnikel.
Ft ORD - a gimme. US ARMY BASE - No problem. ARMY plays San Diego State this afternoon in the Armed Forces Bowl.
I went with BYTE LIMIT at first.
DW loves "Chopped" but I don't care for judge Alex Guarnaschelli. She smirks at the chefs, and always finds something negative to say.
Hand up for tart before SOUR.
It is Panic Saturday for those last minute gifts.
Anon-T, did you shop with the MASSEs at The GALLERIA since it's near your office ? Does it still have the ice skating rink ?
Jeff 1, Me 0
I got it all from the Mississippi River eastward, but almost nothing to the west. So I decided to cheat and looked up the Harlem World rapper. I found out that he actually spells his name MA$E, not MAsE. Not surprisingly, his lyrics are filled with the "N"-word. In my opinion, this perpetuates the us-vs-them mentality and represses the desire for achievement in people growing up in the 'hood. Took me right out of the mood to do puzzles. How do I un-see that?
Went to HG's write-up and saw that I would not have had much luck in the west anyway. I knew almost none of the fill. Thanks, Gary, for 'splainin it to me.
Good morning everyone.
Happy Birthday, Misty. Hope you have a great day.
The grid spanners dropped in easily enough. The 10-letter vertical stacks were impressive, but not difficult. Love Jeff's puzzles.
CARIBES came from perps. Great explanations Husker; Thanks.
Dudley - Couple years ago I visited the same TESLA store with my son.
……LOUSE - German Laus, L. German Luus.
Enjoy these eve-eve days.
Great write up, Gary. Welcome to Saturday. Wow, an almost Wed. level JW puzzle, but w/o a theme. Fun, never-the-less. The East went down, 1-2-3. And knowing Esiason broke open the NW. Hint, it is spelled exactly as it is pronounced. I liked Jumping Jehosaphat. The SW was more Thursdayish. BUFF--- led to Buffalo, an easy WAG. A-E-IC-N was easily AMERICAN. CARIBES and MASE were all perps.
Dudley, saturation marketing gets my back up and I refuse to buy anything from their outfit.
ABC has a newscaster name SADE in the NY area.
As often as we see ALI G, I need 3 perps to remember it.
A colleague of mine called her students who lounged around instead of working LOUNGE LIZARDS.
Happy birthday Misty. I love your caring posts.
YR, you're assuming we know how it's pronounced.
Good Morning:
Leapin' Lizards! I couldn't have been more on JW's wave length than I was this morning, which resulted in a new record for a Saturday solve: 18:16! I immediately got Jumping Jehoshaphat from the N in Nog and the E in Esiaison. And from there on, the grid practically filled itself in. Not For Sale, Guerrillas, Error Prone, American Buffalo, etc., fell like dominos. Our Boomer got two shout outs if you count the bowler's PBA. Mase was unfamiliar, as are most rappers and so was Burn's "To A Louse." My only w/os were Site/Fate and Asia/Ursa Oh, one more, Fastest/Fleeter. Fleeter is a little clunky to me. My favorites were: Knight time=Middle Ages and Type of lizard found indoors=Lounge. I don't tweet so is Rate Limit the same as the limit on the number of characters?
Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a very enjoyable and satisfyingly puzzle with the only complaint of it being over too quickly and thanks, HG, for the great summary and the stunning visuals, as usual.
Happy Birthday to our dear Misty! 🎂🎁🎉🍾🎈 Hope it's an extra special day!
Have a great day.
Too bad we couldn't have a puzzle for every one!
TTP @ 7:42 ~ I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Alex G. (I won't even attempt to spell her last name) on "Chopped." She is probably the reason I stopped watching the show, although the main reason is that it is scripted and predictable. Someone should explain to Alex the difference between constructive criticism versus negative nitpicking, and that smiles are more attractive and encouraging than scowls.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Jeff. Thanks, Gary. (Is that Dennis on the SLICE link?)
Really tough with 1a&d fogged in and mostly snow in the north. I had US ARMY BASE and nothing else. Finally had to red-letter to get J_MP, WAGd ING & JEHOSAPHAT then the snow slowly melted away up there.
Forgot Pleiades were SISTERS and "stars" didn't fit. Unknowns: GNOSTICS (what no A at the front?), MASE, ESIASON, ALI G.
Knew ASTORIA. Been there and heard the clue on a game show recently to remind me.
FLEETER gave me fits. Didn't know what kind of BUFFALO until it perped in. My farm house was only three miles from a penned herd of those. Fun to watch them stick their tails in the air and stampede. They are FLEETER than expected for such clumsy looking animals.
Never saw "TO A LOUSE" before. Is it an ode to Harvey Weinstein?
Happy Birthday, Misty! May you share many more with us.
Wikipedia: The term buffalo is sometimes considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with "true" buffalos, the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However, bison is a Greek word meaning ox-like animal, while buffalo originated with the French fur trappers who called these massive beasts bœufs, meaning ox or bullock—so both names, bison and buffalo, have a similar meaning. The name buffalo is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. In reference to this animal, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North American usage when the term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a much longer history than the term bison, which was first recorded in 1774.The American bison is very closely related to the wisent or European bison.
In all the stories of the OLD WEST "buffalo" is used, buffalo hunters, buffalo guns, buffalo robes, Buffalo Bill, "Buffalo Girl Won't You Come Out Tonight." Here is another case of the scientifically correct word and the common word existing side by side.
HG! Loved the Roller Coaster Kitties!
Afear'd the unusual Grid,
but I was surprised to find I filled the entire right side without help!
(& on the left side, got almost nothing!)
Happy Birthday Misty!
But nothing can top what you find when you Google it...
These legs are for you Splynter!
Two words describe today's JW puzzle: fun and fair! No obscure names, authors, etc.
However, like YR, I need all four perps for ALI G though it's been used many times. Luckily, it fell between FATE and LOCA. And we have a fresh, new meaning for our old friend, ALOE.
In the NW I had just enough spaces to connect JEHOSAPHAT then, naturally, JUMPING. ESIASON is one of those names from the past that I recall. D-otto: it's pronounced just as it looks. Every letter is articulated. ee-sai-ah-son.
I liked seeing GALLERIA parallel to GUERRILLAS. RATELIMIT was a lucky guess and my last fill.
STERNO gave me a GOOD REASON to erase EXCUSE.
Well done, Gary, thank you! Saturdays fit you.
Happy birthday, Misty! I hope you enjoy a grand celebration.
Happy eve of Christmas Eve, everyone!
"Puzzling thoughts":
Happy Birthday Misty!
CED, nice legs!
Pat-on-the-back to me for solving this, SANS cheats, with no ERRORs, and minimal write-overs. Only WO's were: ESAISON/ESIASON and FASTEST/FLEETER. First pass yielded little, but gradually the answers came to me, and with some help from perps, I FIR.
Words with which I was unfamiliar:
MA$E; LUPIN; GNOSTICS. I had heard of AGNOSTICS, but didn't know there was a "positive" sect by similar name. As Tinbeni would say, these are all words I'll forget about by sunset.
Happy Festuvis Day
Cheers, and if I don't appear back before Monday, a Merry Christmas to all of the Cornerites who celebrate it!
My Moe-ku:
Enema brand, FLEET,
Is properly named, because
It gives you the runs
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. An A prefix means "not." So you have theist and atheist, gnostic and agnostic.
Wow, that was a toughie. I did it, but NW corner was the last. JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT, never seen that in a puzzle before! Good challenge on this icy day in VT.
Finished in record time for a Saturday. We call Lupins "Lupines" in upstate NY...brilliant springtime displays along roadsides in some years in the Adirondack foothills. Happy Holidays whatever you celebrate
I’m on vacation visiting family, have been doing the puzzles but not posting up.
Got the solve despite a toughish grid. At one point the right side was solved and the left blank.
On 50A, the clue had DATA in it so that couldn’t be in the answer.
Funny how easy the puzzle looks after you solve it.
Oh my goodness, what kind birthday wishes you all gave me this morning. Thank you, C.C. for posting the Christmas picture of my sweet Rowland and me--I will always miss him, but the pictures reminds me of how happy he made me. And I was going to thank everyone individually for the kind birthday wishes, but the number grew, and so let me just say what wonderful blog friends and colleagues you all are--many, many thanks!
Okay, Jeff, so you gave me a toughie on my birthday! Not your problem at all, but on my first run-through I got only AXE (which turned out to be wrong since I've never seen "Chopped"), ALOE, ERSE, SOUR, FAO, and DIOCESE (Catholic upbringing comes in handy sometimes). Then the cheating started with a few of the long fills, and then it all filled in, with a lot of fun. So thanks, after all, Jeff--and you too, always, Husker Gary.
Enjoyed your second limerick, Owen.
Desper-otto, your comment about a close-to-Christmas birthday brought back a funny memory from my youth. My mother was always nervous about hosting parties so I never had a birthday party until I finally talked her into one when I was in 8th grade. But of course the kids all assumed it was a Christmas party and showed up with cookies for my mom but no presents for me. I didn't mind at all--it was just so cool to finally have a party! And here I am, at 73, enjoying a virtual party on my Crossword blog!
Have a great day, everybody!
49A: Not my style. One day I was shopping for jeans
and the salesman showed me some
stressed, torn jeans. I said, “Those are supposed
to be new jeans? I throw away better looking
jeans than those!”
Ok, Jeffrey ya beat me! But not by much. And since you did all the work constructing it and I got all the fun solving it, I figure I won after all.
And there were a few gimmes. Boomer came easily if the exact spelling took a few perps. And for some reason I dredged up Fort Ord. AYE and ASEA fell into place with a chuckle once I understood. Actually, RIP for stylish jeans was obvious with only three letters, but I cringed.
The Object on Chopped just had to be a meat cleaver but it wouldn't squeeze into three blocks.
Thanks for the always clever challenge.
HG! I loved the cats on the roller coaster best of all. Yes, that's I I felt looking at the grid! Thanks
Happy celebrations of the season, including birthday wishes for Misty.
Slow but steady solve - what I would expect for a JW puzzle on a Saturday - but I did miss his creative themes on Friday.
My biggest difficulty was the SW between the RATE LIMIT which I started with RATED but couldn't make it work. And my knowledge of rappers is limited to crossword repeaters like DR DRE, NAS, ICET.
JEHOSAPHAT - was known in Old Testament as one of the good kings of Judah (at least at first but ended badly ala Solomon)
Happy birthday Misty!
Thanks HG and Jeff!
Happy B'day to Misty! What a great photo of you with Rowland! And what a lovely time of the year to celebrate a birthday! I know there are some who don't like to have their birthday in the shadow of a major holiday like Christmas, but I think it adds to its special-ness. My wife's b'day is Nov 24, so it sometimes falls right on Thanksgiving. But she says she has always felt, from childhood on, that fate decreed a holiday to add more festive spirit for her enjoyment.
Today's pzl was meant for me. An easier Ta- DA! than I expected at first.
At my initial glance I was put off by the lack of a diagonal possibility and the heavy challenge carried by any Jeffrey Wechsler opus. But then I spotted a major "gimme" - AMERICAN BUFFALO - a play I produced in its professional premiere in Virginia in the late '70s. That was a full-span windfall, and it opened up the entire bottom!
51D was an additional (small) blessing, a quotation from a role I once had the privilege to play.
Once I got the wind in my sails I found I was able to remember things normally outside my experience, things I probably heard over the TV w/o realizing, like who "Boomer" was and what Usain Bolt excelled in. I think these surprise recollections are the true joy of crosswording.
Nearing the end, I tackled the tough NW corner - and got a great kick out of the combination of 1A and 1D! JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT indeed! (I was kinda sorry to see the "G" at the end of JUMPIN', but then ...)
Among favorite clues were "Type of lizard found indoors" and "Ancient spiritual groups."
My one almost mistake was my first fill for 11D. Because I am vaguely familiar with Bobby Burns' fascination with field mice, I had it as TO A MOUSE - meaning I almost settled for SMEAR MESS for the 20A perp. But because that made no sense at all I managed to catch it and change 11D to TO A LOUSE.
Good cheer and happy thanks to Jeffrey Wechsler, Husker G, C.C. and everyone involved in today's tough but happy effort.
A Merry Christmas to all! I'll see you on Christmas day!
Happy birthday, Misty.
I loved this puzzle. Slow and unsteady eventually led to a complete solve, an extremely pleasurable experience. What a cool-looking grid! Intimidating, yes, but eminently fair. I especially loved the clues for LOUNGE, LIAR, SLICES, FALL, LASS, FCC, and MIDDLE AGES. I scratched my head at RATE LIMIT, and still don't know what that means; I know Twitter has a character limit. FLEETER, eh? Never heard of MASE, but I don't think I have missed out on anything. Love love loved JUMPING JEHOSAPHAT! Thank you for an excellent puzzle, Jeff.
My wife's birthday is also November 24.
I, too, cannot have grapefruit.
Re ALI G, Gary, I'm like you.
Although I find the Tesla car interesting, for some reason I simply have no desire to actually own one. Just my opinion, but a hybrid car, which we do drive, makes more sense to me; carry your battery charger with you. I have no data at all, but my hunch is that generating the electricity used by car is cleaner from the little, efficient, internal combustion engine than from a distant power generation plant, especially a coal-fired one. Either way, fossil fuel is consumed.
I also dislike competition cooking shows. Not only the snob factor, but it breaks my heart to see so many fine cooks "lose." Why do there have to be losers and winner(s)?
Good holy-day wishes to you all.
Well I made a SHEAR MESS of the North. My first mistake was not inking ISO when I saw it. So HADNT replaced HAD NO. Apres ca la messe. I coulda been a contender
But the day brightens with the lovely picture of the lovely Misty. Rowland,too, was lucky. So now I'm guessing you were class of '63 in HS and your recent reunion was your college #50.
Anyone enter IGUANA missing the ? Or RIB?
Lucina, it's Ess-i-a-son. He has a sports show.
IM, your comment could apply to certain anonymous posters.
Owen, welcome back but you missed a banner day yesterday as did C-Moe. BONDAGE, DEVIANT in a palindrome puzzle. .
Anybody remember Aibohphobia?
I think Rich and Jeff meant SML as three sizes. I need to get back water walking when the foot has healed. Or I'll add XL.
WC who should have put it down and come back to recheck everything.
Actually, I did it while working (driving). That is, I skim it putting in the obvious, drive and let it perculate, repeat, repeat.
PS From yesterday: HtoWFandIO? How to Win friends and influence people.
Hi All!
First, Happy Birthday Misty! I hope your day is special and last-minute ordeal-free.
Thank you HG for the expo. Yes, JW provided a screaming roller coaster -- I was the cat in the back on the left - ready to throw-up my hands at any moment and cry uncle.
But I didn't! Very much unlike IM's 18:??, I stuck with JWs LOCA for >2 hrs and ended with one bad cell - "Ugly, creepin' thing was not a TEA LOUSE. Close but no chocolate in my FATE... [right, Argyle :-)]
I'm not sure I should be proud (in this crowd) that I knew ALI-G SANS perpage.
Like others, the East filled before I could tackle the West. Speaking of tackle, I knew Boomer ESIASON (from where I donno) but not how to spell it. YR, like DO said, easy if you know how it's pronounced [in my memory, it sounds Eli-A-Son]. So that was one Google. Other Google was MA$E which gave me LIMIT... Now which one... Hate Limit?
//Re: RATE LIMIT... I first had Character. Twitter was 144 char because that was the SMS (texting)+control bits limit back in the day b/f all cellphones had WiFi; carrier RATEs may apply. At least that's how I justify the c/a. Jeff?
I could list all my multiple WOs, but I think I'll just let let you try to parse this inky mess [FASTER, VESPA@42, Ergo->such(that); etc.]
After the FALL of ROME inked, @1d made me think ofJEHOSAPHAs [HotW,PI - Brooks] and that's why @42a drained my pen.
I didn't need ROMANs though @34a, just the word HAGGLE [Life of Brian] makes me think of the centurions chasing Brian.
Fav: c/a for FCC.
TTP - NO!, not the GALLERIA! It took me 30+ min to get out of the area yesterday after work; no way in h*** was I going back. The Sugar Land mall was packed but tame. [But yes, the ice rink is still @GALLERIA].
{A,B+} {LOL->groan->Chuckle; good one}
Cheers! -T
Jayce,
I'm noting the coincidence, with our wives' b'days on the same 11/24 date! At first it seems a strange concurrence - but then I recall seeing somewhere that in a room full of X-number of people there will often be a same birthdate. I forget how many = X, but it's a very low figure.
Anybody?
Husker G, I find I share a lot of your tastes/prejudices, although I differ on ALI G. He's a real challenge, I agree, but I like a lot of his boundary-crossings. Not all of them, by any means. One frisson after another, I think he offers a metric as to how far individuals are willing to go.
Hm.
I checked on my own question (above), and the answer is 23.
With a collection of 23 people you have a better chance than not that two will share a birthday.
Go figure.
Hi you Christmas Eve, Eve Cornerelves,
This is what I get for delaying my post. All the good words have been taken.
I don't even have a cake for Misty. Happy 73rd. Kudos to Jeff, and HG for my fun.
I always start A. The first word I got was 32A LOCA, and then 33A SOUR. Ominous answers don't scare me, but the next word was 49A RIP. When on a tomb stone, it has such a restful meaning.
My first long word was 3D 10 spaces. This gives something to celebrate with a 6D NOG. Next long fill 17A 15 spaces caused NW to be complete.
STERNO 10D required perps to get it lit. I could picture the cans but not the name.
I was stuck at 26A / 18D. I didn't know ALIG, and didn't see OMEGA so BAV so I could move on. Another BAV at 40A / 40D allowed a FIR. Thanks HG for a picture of LUPINS. I had never heard of them. I was also not familiar with ERAT.
Dave 2
OMK & Jayce - In a probabilities class in CompSci, we learnt this as The Birthday Paradox. [Better Explained]. Cheers, -T
There's a big difference between "share a birthday" and "share a specific birthday."
Thanks for trying, Anon T,
but perhaps you might say "more thoroughly" or even "exhaustively" in place of "better."
Just sayin': As ashamed as I am of being a typically American math illiterate, I find I am barely able to keep up with your kind offer. I must cop to glazed-eye fatigue when facing a series of graphs, fractions, and decimals.
I find this simple explanation, in words rather than numbers, most helpful. Allow me to credit someone named Paul Wright, of Basildon, UK:
"When 23 people are gathered, there is more chance than not that 2 of them have the same birthday. In order to help understand this, you should consider how many PAIRS of people there are. With 23 people there are 253 different pairings i.e. more than half of the 365 possible birthdays."
More birthday wishes, thank you all so much! Wilbur I graduated from high school in 1962 and just enjoyed my 55th Reunion in September. Ol'Man Keith, how nice to hear how your wife handles her also close-to-holiday birthday. There's always much to be thankful for, isn't there!
Wilbur Charles 306P
I get my phobias confused. Is "Aibohphobia" the fear of phobias, or the phobia of palindromes? And another thing, "I need to get back water walking when the foot has healed." I knew of only one man who could walk on water. His birthday is coming soon to a manger near you.
Dave 2
OMK - Better Explained is the name of the site - not my impression... I'm good at Math (not __Major) but, as a "typical American," suck at geography. And, I wouldn't know anything about Theater if not for DW (and now you! Your stories are fascinating and make me LIU #learnEveryday).
D-O: Yep, Birthday and BirthDATE are different. Tho, saying "You're One in Million" means there's still 7,000 [7x10^9 / 1x10^6 = 7x10^3 - check me on that Fermat] just like you in the world. :-) #NoSnowFlakes. -T
BTW, Husker,
I forgot to thank you for the revelatory map of URSA major.
I never knew - never! - before you set us straight that the Bear and the Dipper are not one and the same! I thought they were different cultures' names for the same star pattern.
I'm grateful for the clarification. I just told my wife and mother-in-law about it.
They remained calm on the surface, but I am sure they feel enlightened too!
I was proud to have come up with GALLERIA after trying several arrangements of MALL. When I took a Christmastime bus trip to Houston years ago, we inched past the GALLERIA for quite some time in the heavy traffic. We had a long time to view the place. One woman was very upset that we weren't dropped there to shop. I personally couldn't have afforded much there after I bought my trip ticket, but we would have had time to grab a lot of stuff if dropped off while the bus went around the block.
Dave2: good one about the water walking! LOL!
HBDTY and many more Misty.
A JW themeless, how cool. Lots of nice words. GUERRILLAS, GALLERIA, ESIASON and JEHOSAPHAT; did not know MASE but did not need to.
Thanks HG and JW and thank you CED for a better leg pic. The torn jeans- echhh.
PK - I too was bouncing around the idea of Mall - I started thinkin "I got this!" with Mega Mall, alas (just look at the ink spilt!)
Nothing apropos - did anyone see the proposed Chess logo? A Knight's time working on his night moves?.
And with Seger, I'll let you be. C, -T
Too late in the day for any more than a thanks to Jeffrey and HuskerG for the workout, and a Happy Birthday to Misty. Hope you had a wonderful day.
Enjoy the coming Christmas Eve Day.
Almost done catching up after the holidays. I never get most fashion things. But your image of the nice legs, Husker Gary, made this RIP fashion work!
Yes, this was tough. Last to fall for me was NW. Fort ORD was a gimme. My friends live on the former base which is now Cal State Monterey Bay.
But Fort Benning had me trying something with GEORGIA which was very wrong. And I was stuck with FOR NO GOOD REASON for no good reason.
Learning moment that CARIBES are Piranhas. Who knew? Rap names like MASE are almost always an unknown for me. I suppose I will take it as a learning moment, too.
ESIASON always looks mis-spelled to me. Only know it from these puzzles. Did not know he is also a BOOMER. PBA unknown. As was AMERICAN BUFFALO.
GRAPEFRUIT is actually good if you have LDL that is too high. It is only bad if you need to take drugs. Try the GRAPEFRUIT and maybe you can skip the drugs!
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