google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, January 8, 2018 ~ Parikshit S. Bhat

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Jan 8, 2018

Monday, January 8, 2018 ~ Parikshit S. Bhat

Theme: Parental Guidance - Two word phrases that fit the P and G format.

21A. Admit to wrongdoing in court: PLEAD GUILTY

31A. Location-based smartphone game release of 2016: POKÉMON GO

41A. Similar set of individuals: PEER GROUP

52A. Inland sea between Iran and Saudi Arabia: PERSIAN GULF

41D. Like many animated films ... and a hint to 21-, 31-, 41- and 52-Across: PG-RATED

Argyle here. Straight forward letter plus letter puzzle. There are four of them and a neat reveal. I think the column crossings were intentional. (See grid) It's also a pangram.

Across:

1. Green gem: JADE. Tori earrings.


5. Actress Greta: GARBO


10. Ponzi scheme, for one: SCAM

14. Boy in "The Kite Runner": AMIR. Book, film, play. Wiki link

15. Toward the back: AREAR

16. When tripled, a 1970 WWII film: TORA. Roger Ebert review.


17. Spanish "nothing": NADA

18. Free, in France: LIBRE

19. Reddish-brown horse: ROAN

20. Israeli submachine gun: UZI

23. Embark from a dock: SET SAIL

25. Spaniel's welcome: ARF

26. Indian-born storekeeper on "The Simpsons": APU

27. Bening of "American Beauty": ANNETTE


35. Half a bray: HAW. HEE being the other half.

36. Radio knob: TUNER

37. 1998 biopic about model Carangi: GIA. She died at 26. (1986)


38. Travelocity ad figure: GNOME

40. Ctrl-__-Delete: PC reboot combo: ALT. Mine starts Task Manager.

43. Reveal: DIVULGE

46. Help: AID

47. Negative connection: NOR

48. Climbing plant: CREEPER

57. Dockworkers' gp.: ILA. (International Longshoremen's Association)

58. Soothing plant extract: ALOE

59. Pageant headgear: TIARA

60. Prefix with lateral: EQUI

61. Arctic seabird: SKUA. "Oh yeah?" "Yeah!"


62. No __ sight: END IN

63. Bugs Bunny adversary Elmer: FUDD

64. Smartphone message: TEXT

65. Gave medicine to: DOSED

66. Golf ball supports: TEEs

Down:

1. Two-faced god: JANUS. January's namesake.

2. Fill with wonder: AMAZE

3. Completed the task: DID IT

4. Significant period: ERA

5. Steel-gray metallic element: GALLIUM. Element in many semiconductors.

6. Disney mermaid: ARIEL


7. Country star McEntire: REBA. And TV.


8. The __: Shakespeare: BARD

9. Pizza herb: OREGANO

10. Conflict: STRIFE

11. Like much fall weather: COOL

12. "I smell __!": A RAT

13. Lots of: MANY

21. Daily news source: PAPER

22. Coffee vessel: URN

24. Japanese alcoholic beverage: SAKE

27. Ice cream thickener: AGAR

28. Old-style you: THOU

29. Pack (down) firmly: TAMP

30. Sheep girl: EWE

31. Sheepdog from Hungary: PULI. Cute when they're puppies.


32. Being aired: ON TV

33. S-shaped molding: OGEE

34. Never, in Dortmund: NIE. Germany.


36. Little bit: TAD

38. Bereavement: GRIEF

39. Bump on a branch: NODE

42. Floral wreath: GARLAND

44. Remove from office: UNSEAT

45. Law, in Lille: LOI. France.


48. Madame of physics: CURIE


49. Arouse, as interest: PIQUE

50. Avoid capture by: ELUDE

51. Surprise attacks: RAIDS

52. Good old days: PAST

53. Actress Sommer: ELKE

54. Gumbo thickener: ROUX. (equal parts of flour and fat by weight) Moi?

55. El __: weather phenomenon: NINO

56. Wanders restlessly: GADS

60. Baby newt: EFT

Argyle



Note from C.C.:

Happy Birthday to Patti Varol, Rich's assistant and editor for the Crosswords Club. Like Rich, Patti is incredibly efficient, patient and generous with her time. She is also sharp-eyed and notices every little dupe that might have escaped constructors. In one of the Club puzzles, Patti clued BLOG as [L.A. Times Crossword Corner, e.g.]. She does lots of little things for constructors. Thank you, Patti!


53 comments:

OwenKL said...

Let us SET SAIL to go off afar
We'll go to Neverland where the pirates are!
If we've a fear
We'll huddle AREAR,
Where words we'll hear ARE "AR, ar, ar!"

The GNOME had a magic medallion
Forged from an ingot of GALLIUM!
Designed to AMAZE
The most jaded JADE,
It gave him the gall of a stallion!

{B, A.}

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Pretty much zoomed through, but there were some pauses. Puli was a complete unknown, while Skua was sorta half-remembered from some past puzzle, probably.

Argyle, I’m glad you amplified the grid intersections. I would have overlooked the craftiness.

Nice to see Annette Bening in the puzzle. Longtime Cornerites may remember my old claim - tongue in cheek - of having lunch with her one summer day, here in my hometown.

D4E4H said...

Cornerites - Morning - Good,

I'm taking things out of order today. I have worked Monday's CW before Sunday's. Thanks Mr. Bhat for this easy Mon. CW.

A+ I had so much fun working the CW that I didn't parse the PG aspect till you pointed it out. The Across words were all familiar, but Down held a few mysteries.

5D GALLIUM is new to me. I do know galvanize tho.

7D REBA Reminds me of her song "Back to God."

31D PULI The MOP behind the puppies is momma.

Thank you A+ for such an inspiring review.

Dave 2 early

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Is it really Monday? JANUS, PULI, SKUA, ROUX, GIA, GALLIUM? Either I'm getting slower, or puzzles are getting harder. Got it, but didn't notice the theme along the way. Thanx, Parikshit and Argyle.

Argyle, ROUX doesn't describe you. ROUE, maybe.

BobB said...

To call the Persian Gulf an inland sea is a bit of a stretch. Inland sea, I think the Aral.

Lemonade714 said...

I confess that I agree with D-O that much of the fill seemed to be pushing the Monday envelope on fill. PULI and SKUA arrived by perp, GALLIUM a reasonable guess. Adding to his list, AMIR has been out of the public for years, TORA TORA TORA even longer and NIE sounds like Monty Python. I cannot recall another Monday pangram. However, ARGYLE!!! for me this was one of your best write-ups out of the 800+ you have graced this site with. The picture of the two SKUA is priceless and the dissection of the grid was awesome.

Thank you, PSB.

Oas said...

Easy going today . Only brain fart - changing pule to puli and devulge to divulge.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Parikshit Bhat, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for a fine review.

Got through easily for the most part. A few sticky words. AMIR came with perps. I did read the book a long time ago. It was excellent "The Kite Runner". That is when I learned that flying kites is real big in Afghanistan.

Did not know GIA. Perps. Crossing it was tough too, AGAR.

SKUA rings a bell, but an old one.

Just had ARIEL on Saturday.

Theme came easily after PG Rated.

I am in Johnsonburg right now for a couple days. Snowing as we speak.

I finished the Sunday puzzle last night. I will report in.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I agree with D-O - more of a Wednesday-level puzzle. Two Naticks: GIA x NIE and SKUA x ROUX. Something in my sub-conscience gave me ROUX (maybe previous puzzles), but I incorrectly WAGged GoA and NoE for my Monday error.

I erased TORo, dET SAIL and SAKi. I waited for AREAR; I wanted Abaft. I only know JANUS from the investment company. Didn't know January is named for him; I'd like to slap both of his faces now for this awful cold spell.

I don't understand how GALLIUM is connected to "galvanize", or by extension, "galvanic". Isn't zinc used in galvanization? I should know that - I was the president of the Madame Curie Chemistry Club in high school. While I'm admitting to being obtuse, is ALOE the extract from the ALOE plant?

Ctrl-ALT-Delete was the only cure for BSOD (blue screen of death) in pre-Windows 7 MS-based PCs. In Win 10 that combo brings up a menu where Task Manager can be launched among other things, including the restart icon. FLN, hand up for using EUDORA mail program in the DOS days.

Thanks to Parishit for the challenge. And thanks Santa for the illustrated review.

Yellowrocks said...

FIR, but there were so many non-Monday words. IMO Wednesday-like. It is not one of those puzzles where every answer is so obvious that you mindlessly fill it in. I didn't know GALLIUM or GIA. Others of the fill I knew regardless, like NIE from my German roots.The arguing SKUAS made a great picture, Argyle. LOL I knew PULI.
The Kite Runner is wonderful book. I read it twice.
Alan loves Reba and endlessly watches her sitcom reruns as well as buying the DVDs.
LIU for today:
"Persian Gulf, …….shallow marginal sea of the Indian Ocean that lies between the Arabian Peninsula and southwestern Iran."
"An inland sea (also known as an epeiric sea or an epicontinental sea) is a shallow sea that covers central areas of continents during periods of high sea level that result in marine transgressions. ……... Modern examples might also include the recently (less than 10,000 years ago) reflooded Persian Gulf, and the South China Sea that presently covers the Sunda Shelf."
It's warming up today, but there is the promise of freezing rain in the late afternoon.
I didn't have the blue screen of death, but my computer was frozen. I brought used Ctrl-ALT-Delete to bring up restart. It happened two or three times. The same day a large Microsoft patch automatically installed itself and there were no more freezes.

Yellowrocks said...

Opps! I wrote "I brought used Ctrl-ALT-Delete to bring up restart." Please delete the brought.

Yellowrocks said...

I have my doubts that galvanize has anything to do with gallium. Any proof?
Merriam Webster:
"Luigi Galvani was an Italian physician and physicist who, in the 1770s, studied the electrical nature of nerve impulses by applying electrical stimulation to frogs' leg muscles, causing them to contract. Although Galvani's theory that animal tissue contained an innate electrical impulse was disproven, the Italian word galvanismo came to describe a current of electricity especially when produced by chemical action. English speakers borrowed the word as galvanism around 1797; the verb galvanize appeared a few years later, in the early 19th century. Charlotte Brontë used the verb figuratively in her 1853 novel Villette: "Her approach always galvanized him to new and spasmodic life." These days, galvanize also means to cover metal with zinc or a zinc alloy to protect it from rust (as in galvanized carpentry nails)."

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday Patti. Thanks for you efforts to provide us a superior puzzle experience.

Easy solve today. No searches or strikethroughs. Got POKEMON GO, but never really sussed it. Chuckled with Spaniel's welcome - ARF.
NIE - Sag niemals NIE! Never say never!

Big Easy said...

As I SET SAIL and make PG-RATED comments on this puzzle by Mr or Ms Bhat (can't tell from the first name that I wouldn't want to mispronounce) I noticed words from many foreign languages. JANUS, LIBRE, SAKE, NADA, TORA, PIQUE, NINO, LOI, UZI, SKUA, ROUX, APU, AMIR, NIE and my two favorite ones- ELKE & GRETA. C'mon Desper-otto, it was an EASY puzzle. I have no idea where GIA Carangi ( maybe she spoke Italian) lived but she and LOI were my only unknowns today.

Your correct Mr. Niles, the PERSIAN GULF is not an 'Inland sea'.
ROUX- in S. Louisiana it's a very common word, not to mention my SIL's last name.
GALLIUM is not 'Steel-gray'; it looks like GALLIUM.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-G_A/N_E and RO_X/SK_A – Let’s spin the old vowel wheel. Hey, “I” and “U” were correct!
-Fun write-up, Argyle!
-To PLEAD not GUILTY sometimes means – “You can’t prove it”
-I love my PEER GROUP here but cwd’s may be our only similarity :-)
-GARBO never said it
-ANNETTE’s costar Kevin Spacey prophetically played a sexually dysfunctional man
-My old analog, predigital TUNER can be very frustrating
-There is a temporary END IN sight as we get to 48˚F this week!
-REBA put a lot of extra notes in the national anthem when we heard her in Norman, OK
-The Alabama/Georgia Championship game tonight doesn’t really PIQUE my interest
-Happy Birthday Patti!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Ditto to the unexpected non-Monday level words, particularly Gallium and Skua. OTOH, perps were solid so no foul. I caught the theme after filling in the second PG entry, that annoyingly silly Pokemon Go game that had grown men and women behaving like loonie toons! In addition to a repeat of Ariel, we also had Agar from Saturday. Love the word "Pique."

Thanks, Mr. Bhat, for giving us a Monday challenge and thanks, Argyle, for a rollicking wrap up, especially the two Skuas!

Jinx @ 7:46 ~ I burst out laughing at your wanting to slap both of Janus's faces! I have a sense of humor that sometimes takes me by surprise as to what triggers it. I just found that very serious statement hilarious. Thanks for making my cold day a lot warmer! 😎

Lucina, FLN, thanks for the review. I had a feeling the film would be well done, what with the two powerhouses, Streep and Hanks. I'll look forward to seeing it on Netflix. (Has Tom Hanks ever played a bad guy?)

My Nigerian benefactors have morphed into Indian benefactors who are awaiting my approval to release my $5,000,000.00 share of the latest newly discovered bounty. The other day, it was $12,000,000.00. Then, there was this bridge in Brooklyn , , , , ,

Have a great day.

BunnyM said...

Good morning all!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who found this to be a TAD crunchy for a Monday. Thanks to Parikshit for a good start to the week and to Argyle for a fun review.

I didn't know GALLIUM, GIA, SKUA and one of these days, maybe I'll remember ILA.
I wanted Evade/ELUDE and tried Okra/ROUX because I saw "Gumbo" and didn't read the entire clue. (Ha! I'm a poet and didn't know it lol)

Loved the pic of the PULI pups- how cute! I'm always AMAZEd at the coat of the adult dogs when I see them ON TV during the dog shows- can't imagine the time and patience needed for the upkeep/grooming. eGADS :)

Icy start to the day here. Our driveway is like a skating rink. The temp is rising though, so hopefully it melts enough for me to get out, as I do have an errand I must take care of today. Most schools are closed so I'm sure the kids are happy but I'd rather it be snow than ice. I took a terrible fall years ago due to icy steps and am always scared of having to deal with it. Just getting the dog outside is a chore since he's blind and has to go out on a leash. He gets very confused if I take him out through the garage and tries to go back inside via the front porch steps ( the back is worse - a deck with even more steep stairs) We forgot to buy more salt- ugh :(

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

BunnyM said...

And Happy Birthday to Patti! Hope you have a fun filled day 😃🎉🎂🎈

Irish Miss said...

I was so flustered by the Five Million windfall that I forgot to wish Patti V a very Happy Birthday; hope it's a special (and warm!) day! 🎂🎉🍾🎈🎁

Jay Green said...

It was a relatively easy puzzle, but I still don't see how 5, 9, and 42 down relate to the theme. What am I missing?

Yellowrocks said...

Happy birthday, Patti. Thank you for your guiding hand in making our puzzles interesting and fun.
Jay Green, please look at the real at 41D. There are only 4 Across theme answers and no Downs.

Please look up Wikpedia's List of Seas. The Persian Gulf is listed under Indian Ocean. The Persian Gulf is also included as an inland sea in my two references above.
See Sea List

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

WMOS, thus was not a normal, Monday-level puzzle. When I saw that Mr (or is it Ms?) Bhat was the constructor, I said, "oh $hit!" But seriously, as Big Easy DIVULGEd, the word solves in today's xword were Weds level, or later. Perps saved the day for me, as miraculously I had zero write-overs. I didn't "get" the reveal until I saw the 41d/43a intersection of "PG", and then RATED came easily.

My injury from last Friday seems to be healing ok; will know more about whether I lost any mobility when I get the stitches out

Back in the early 1970's, I got into smoking a pipe, and often had to use a TAMP to re-engage the tobacco/ash in the bowl. Was far too high-maintenance for my liking, and I reverted to cigars and cigarettes (which I quit in 1980)

CanadianEh! said...

Monday workout today. Thanks for the fun, Parikshit and Argyle.
I thought I was in trouble when I had no fills on my first six tries. My first fill, NADA, at 17A was appropriate! But then things started to come together.

Unknowns included AMIR, GIA, PULI, SKUA. Gallica changed to GALLIUM. Thanks perps.
Tern changed to Skea but ROUX made it SKUA.
Emerald was too long and the green gem was JADE.

I tried Dab before TAD, and the first half was Hee before HAW.
Like IM, I smiled at PIQUE. AREAR is a meh word for me.

Happy Birthday Patti!

Enjoy the day. We are not as cool but now have snow. SIGH!
But there is winter wonderland at the Falls from last week's deep freeze.
FrozenNiagaraFalls

CanadianEh! said...

I'm with Jay Green "I still don't see how 5, 9, and 42 down relate to the theme. What am I missing?".
YR, Argyle seems to have included these downs into the puzzle theme.

Argyle said "Straight forward letter plus letter puzzle. There are four of them and a neat reveal. I think the column crossings were intentional. (See grid)"

I don't see them crossing on the G consistently. What was intentional about the column crossings?

I echo, What am I missing?

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found today's Monday puzzle a bit challenging. I got the PG Theme, but let the perps fill in words such as GALLUIM and SKUA.

Although rare, some reason cats are susceptible to a condition known as JANUS condition.

Irish Miss, your Nigerian Prince was recently caught in Louisiana.

QOD: Fame itself doesn’t really afford you anything more than a good seat in a restaurant. ~ David Bowie (Jan. 8, 1947 ~ Jan. 10, 2016)

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you, P.B. for a fun P.G. puzzle! Great expo, Argyle! Happy birthday, Patti. Thanks for all you do.

I aced chemistry in HS but don't remember GALLIUM on the elements table.

Also unknown GIA & PULI. Does the hair do the mop effect thing on its own or do they need a stylist? I'd shave the poor thing and call it good. What kind of outlook on life would a dog like that have?

We saw REBA in concert at the peak of her singing career. Good show. Her brother Plake? or Pake? opened for her. Never heard a word about him before or since. We were late and didn't hear much of him so don't know if he was good or not.

POKE MONGO filled before I read the clue. Gave me pause. What? Oh, Pokemon Go.

Jinx: slap that mean sucker again! LOL too. We're having a warm up here too. Hope it gets warm enough this afternoon to coax me out to the grocery store. My refrigerator has only yogurt & condiments in it except for part of a delivery pizza I got last night.

No internet at midnight. Rained again yesterday just enough to screw that cable up. Sunshine on it this morning, I have internet.

Bill G said...

Enjoyable puzzle as always though I agree it seemed harder than usual for a Monday I thought. Mark me down as not understanding the clever intersections of the theme answers.

Chairman Moe, I tried smoking a pipe in college. My father had smoked a pipe from time to time and I liked the smell much better than cigarettes. I kinda enjoyed the rituals of tamping and relighting, etc. However, I could smell the tobacco smoke on my fingers and hands and I would notice the unpleasant taste in my mouth, even to the next day and after brushing my teeth. All that was too much unpleasantness and I gave it up soon after I began.

Rain is due over the next couple of days. I am looking forward to it.

Misty said...

Whew! Big relief! This was a toughie but in the end I got the whole thing without cheating, even though, like others, I also didn't know SKUA and GALLIUM and GIA. But Yay! I did it, my first success of the new year! Thank you, Pari, and great pics, Argyle. I loved your triple TORA and your picture of Dortmund.

Hope this was a sign of a start to a good week, although we have a rare cold and rainy morning this Monday. But who am I to complain with all the terrible weather lately.

Happy Birthday, Patti, and thanks for all your help with our puzzles.

I liked your first limerick, Owen.

Have a great week, everybody!

Picard said...

Hand up I thought this was Wednesday level. Enjoyed the theme!

NIE/GIA and ROUX/SKUA were Naticks for me. Did WAG them correct to FIR. NOA/GOA seemed about as good.

I only know this Little MERMAID that was near our home when I was a child in Copenhagen. Yes, that is me in the second photo!

Is that the same MERMAID ARIEL in the Disney movie? I am not familiar with this.

Here are some other MERMAIDS

They were part of a campaign "Save the MERMAIDS" to reduce disposable plastic use to keep it out of the ocean.

GALLIUM I know about very well. My brother has a series of medical treatments based on this element. Here is one of them.

"Galvanize" comes from the brilliant Italian chemist Galvani. As Yellowrocks noted.

Lucina said...

Late to the party again! Sleepless night until 3:00 A.M.

Happy birthday, Patti! I hope it's a great celebration and thank you for all you do for us.

Thank you to PB for this unusual Monday puzzle. Mostly it was refreshingly easy with JANUS, GARBO, GALLIUM, DIVULGE and OREGANO to make me sit up and take notice.

I love ANNETTE Benning.

However, I must not be fully awake, had HEE and never changed it and didn't check the results in that area. Bad news. Drat! I hate a FIW on a Monday. Also, my German is even worse than my French, so NIE didn't appear. NOA look right.

Thank you, Argyle. So glad you highlighted the grid.

I hope you are all having a superb day!

Misty said...

Lucina, I sometimes have problems getting to sleep also and find that taking just half of a tablet of Advil PM sometimes helps. It's a mild non-prescription sort of med, and I've never had any sort of side effects. Just something to consider.

CrossEyedDave said...

Evade b/4 Elude Piqued my interest...
(Anon-T, Pls post Robin Williams doing Elmer Fudd...)
(I can only do so much...)

I guess I will have to change my "Ack!" to "Gaa!"
34d never, in Dortmund.
(How the Hell am I supposed to know where Dortmund is?)
So I put an "A" thinking maybe Scotland?
But Nae!

Not only that, I FIW'd "twice on a Monday!
(Oh, the shame...)
Skia is not a bird, and Roix could be *&^%& French for all I know...

Patty Varol's Birthday?
I'm sorry, but in the past 4 years I have been on the Blog
I don't remember Patty posting on this Blog...
No cake for you!
(I am very particular as to who I post cakes for...)

Ever wondered what as on the other side of that radio tuning knob?
The variable capacitor...

Oh yes, the puzzle... Sorry, I got distracted...

Parental Guidance...

AnonymousPVX said...

A bit of crunch in a well designed and clued Monday puzzle.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta- DA!
I needed perps to point toward the longish answers - and to secure SKUA at 61A. Otherwise this was a fine Monday-easy pzl from Parikshit S. Bhat.

Argyle, thank you for the neat illustrations, especially for finding puppy pix of a PULI. That gives us an idea - finally! - of what has been lurking under all those cornrows!
As you say, they're cute when puppies - a sentiment that seems to apply to every species, no?
Even humans are (often) cute when puppies....

HBD PV!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Chairman Moe & Bill G,
Your pipe adventures remind me of my on-and-off-again pipe experiences. In my San Francisco high school, we had Hi-Y clubs - like junior fraternities - and my club, The Rogues, affected pipe smoking as one of our emblems.
I look back on our meetings with affection, a bunch of pseudo-sophisticates trying to conduct business under a hovering cloud of blue smoke. There was a lot of serious-sounding throat clearing - "Ahem, ahem..." - masking our periodic choking and gagging.
Is it needless to say that I gave up the pipe as soon as I graduated?
But then many years later, I picked it up again when I came back to California as a junior professor. It seemed to fit the role, and I did enjoy the rituals. The taste was always disappointing, but I learned to accept the wonderful aroma as reward enough. And on cold days I really came to appreciate that warm little bowl, my own mini-hearth or fireplace.

In the end I abandoned the pipe when we all turned against tobacco.

Tinbeni said...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTI ... the "first" Sunset "toast" tonight is to YOU!

Fave today, of course, was SAKE ... booze answers are always faves!

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get GIA ... not "Up-On" model biopic's.

Cheers!

Yellowrocks said...

Argyle, very interesting links and pix on your blog today. Thank you for the entertainment. I am mystified by your painting some of the Downs yellow. Others seemed mystified, too. Please explain.
Ga! Since 1:30 PM EST, we had rain, then sleet, now snow. It is forecast to end at 6 or 7 PM. I am responsible for making the decision to cancel our dance and class tonight. Even if the weather clears up in time, people won't come out, including the class. Having missed Monday, Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, our class is quite far behind.
"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown", from Shakespeare's play Henry IV, Part 2.
I suppose I will bite the bullet and cancel. It's a damned if you do and damned if you don't decision. "Why did you wimp out? The roads are clear now." And the polar opposite, "You shouldn't have taken a chance holding a dance in this bad weather."

Spitzboov said...

YR - It's lonely at the top.

An der Spitze lebt es sich einsam.

Argyle said...

I merely found it interesting; the pairs of Across entries were intersected by the pairs of Down words stacked over each other. Except for the reveal, they have no impact on the puzzle other than visual.

CanadianEh! said...

AAH! Thanks Argyle. I thought I missed some deeper level to the theme.

Bill G said...

My parents both smoked, two packs of Pall Malls a day. When I woke up in the morning, I could smell the awful odor of my father's first cigarette wafting through the crack under my bedroom door. When we would go for a one-hour Sunday drive to visit my grandmother, my parents would sit up front and smoke. I would be in the backseat getting motion sick. My father tried several times to quit, even resorting to hypnosis. He finally was successful but I had recurring dreams even years later that he had gone back to smoking.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle.

Jayce said...

My dad smoked heavily almost all his life, as did my mother and my sister. Mom dies of congestive heart failure, my sis has congestive heart disease, and dad died of emphysema. When my doctor once asked me about my father's health history and I said he died of emphysema, the doctor said, "Oh! COPD." I replied, no, it was emphysema.

Ol' Man Keith, your discussion of pipe smoking brings to mind similar affectations I and my colleagues and classmates used to put on in similar circumstances.

Bill G, your comment about you getting motion sick in the back seat mirrors my own experience almost exactly.

Best wishes to you all.

Yellowrocks said...

Argyle, I am dense. Huh? How can downs be stacked?

Dudley said...

Jayce, I’m reminded of a Frazier episode in which Niles recalled going on family car trips “...strapped in the back seat like little hostages...”, possibly while his parents were smoking up front.

I consider it to be real human progress that we (mostly) don’t do that any more.

Maci45 said...

Scared me! Thought I had slept til Thursday or Friday! Lots of skips and rub-outs today. Mr. Bhat's puzzles always give me a DNF. But, there's always Tuesday. Geaux Saints!

Lucina said...

Misty:
Thank you for the suggestion and I shall try Advil PM. Ironically, usually when I take just a normal Aleve or Advil I immediately get drowsy and later fall asleep. Last night I took two because I was feeling sore, but it had exactly the opposite effect and I was completely awake! My daughter thinks it has to do with the diabetes or the medication for it.

Incidentally, today during my appointment I found that my lab results for A1c was 6.5. It really surprised me because I was sure it would be much higher and was dreading facing my doctor. The holidays are so hard on any kind of dietary restrictions, but all is good, or fairly good anyway.

CEDave:
You crack me up! Thanks for posting "Soup Nazi"; it's one of my favorite episodes.

OwenKL said...

My mother was a chain smoker, and my dad smoked a pipe. It was all that clanging of chain and pipe that made me deaf today!
I've thought about taking up a pipe or vaping, but never have smoked, except second-hand from my parents. Ditto pot from a few parties in my youth. My solution to smoking: lung cancer takes maybe 20 years to develop, current life expectancy is about 75, so make the minimum age for tobacco sales 55. That will dissuade teenagers from trying it to "look cool" -- who wants to look like an old fogey? Mature lungs are probably more resistant than young ones, too!

NaE + GaA got me, too. After everything else was done, I just plugged in vowels until I got my ta-da.

"Lecoq de Boisbaudran proposed the name gallium for the new element, which comes from the Latin word "Gallia," meaning France." Nothing to do with gall, either, tho I wanted to talk about a different part of a stallion in my l'ick this morning.

SKUA was unknown to me (I wouldn't have known it as jaeger, either), but at least I knew the word ROUX, even if I don't understand what it is.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

WEES - quite crunchy for a Monday. Not only slow-going I FIW @ELKE xing SKUA; I guessed an L.

Thank's PSB for the challenge and Argyle for the expo.

WO: N/A
ESPs: GIA (my niece's name), NIE, GADS, AMIR
Fav: c/a for ARF

{B,A}

Here you go CED: Williams doing FUDD doing Springsteen.

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Oh, what the heck!

Patti has posted many a puzzle here,
maybe if I post a cake she will come visit...
Besides, I am not a Cake Nazi...

Thanks Anon-T!
(but I did go looking for the full version.)
(Can't find the dang thingie anywhere...)

Maaaybe I should ask Siri...

Anonymous T said...

PK parsed 31a as POKE MONGO?

Patti, I forgot! Happy Birthday!

Cheers, -T

PK said...

Owen: Roux is just the French term for gravy thickening. Put flour in butter or meat fat drippings, smooth it out, then add milk or water or other fluid and stir it to desired thickness.

Lucina: You might try testing your blood sugar when you can't sleep like that. I can't sleep if my blood sugar gets too low. i tend to be hypOglycemic anyway.

AnonT: MONGO, LOL!

CED: Good move, getting Patti a cake. We need to sweeten up the editing team so they'll give us doable puzzles. LOL!



Bill G said...

Not having a rooting interest in the football game, it seemed pretty dull to me.

Say, I observed early this evening some drops falling out of the sky that looked like water. Additionally, my car seemed wet. Have any of you seen a similar phenomenon? What's going on?