google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday January 14, 2018 Matt McKinley

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Jan 14, 2018

Sunday January 14, 2018 Matt McKinley

Theme: "Plush Material" - Plus H Material.

23A. Tolerate shrubland? : STAND THE HEATH. Stand the heat.

45A. .3 rings? : CIRCUS TENTH. Circus tent.

71A. Texas team's fair exhibit? : COWBOY BOOTH. Cowboy boot.

99A. Loyalty from a farm bird? : TURKEY TROTH. Turkey trot.

123A. Successful religious conversion? : FAITH ACCOMPLI. Fait accompli.

17D. Apparatus that breeds laziness? : SLOTH MACHINE. Slot machine.

65D. Sound from a dying fire? : HEARTH MURMUR. Heart murmur.

Across    

1. "I'm waiting ... " : TAP, TAP

7. "Volunteers?" : ANYONE?

13. Bobbing refuse : FLOTSAM

20. Word with man or dope : INSIDE

21. Like typical laundromats : COIN-OP

22. Affluent San Diego community : LA JOLLA

25. Crowd-drawing bars : IN SPOTS

26. Ancient queen, familiarly : CLEO

27. Pot for paella : OLLA

28. Sicilian six : SEI

29. Sports figure : STAT

30. Sewer needs : PATTERNS

34. Hates : DEPLORES

37. MLB set a season record for them in 2017 : HRs

38. Times to call, in ads : EVES

39. Markers : IOUs

41. Submerged threat : REEF

42. Office supply quantity : REAM

44. Term in wrestling or bowling : PIN

48. Doctor's orders : X-RAYS

51. Receiver of many letters : SANTA

53. Actress Kathryn : ERBE

54. Pocket breads : PITAs

56. BCS org. : NCAA

57. Franklin's 1936 opponent : ALF. Alf Landon

59. Spanish coin : EURO

61. Local pic shower : NABE. desper-otto said the neighborhood movie theater is shortened in slang to the NABE.

62. Distress signal? : OH, MY!

63. One who's learned : SCHOLAR

67. Pres. after USG : RBH. Ulysses S. Grant / Rutherford B. Hayes

68. Langley org. : CIA

69. Online exchange, briefly : IMs

70. Troon turndowns : NAEs

75. Basie's "__'Clock Jump" : ONE O

76. Director DuVernay : AVA

77. Actor Vigoda : ABE

78. Bard's dusk : E'EN

79. Lumber mill workers : SAWYERs

81. BOLO target : PERP

83. It can be hammered out : DENT

85. Runway adornment : SASH

87. "__ me ae spark o' Nature's fire": Burns : GIE

88. London's __ Modern : TATE

89. Some Deco works : ERTÉs

91. Sea, with "the" : DEEP

93. Maestro Georg : SZELL

97. Different : OTHER

102. Overtake in a race, in a way : LAP

103. Grammy winner Jason : MRAZ

105. Schoolmarmish : PRIM

106. One given to forward looks : SEER

107. Similar : AKIN

108. East Lansing sch. : MSU. Michigan State University

110. "How clever of you!" : NEAT IDEA

113. Office supplies, or, minus a letter, a supplier of them : STAPLERS

115. Nashville attraction : OPRY

117. Spanish 116-Down : ANO

118. Howard's wife, to the Fonz : MRS. C

120. Letters before a view : IMHO

121. Half of nothing new? : SAME OLD

128. Peru neighbor : ECUADOR

129. "The Wind in the Willows" croaker : MR. TOAD

130. Shamed : ABASED

131. Saw-toothed : SERRATE. Serrate or serrated can be an adjective meaning having a notched edge or saw-like teeth, especially for cutting.

132. Blouse partners : SKIRTS

133. Already-seen fare : RERUNS

Down:

1. "'__ some visitor,' I muttered ... ": Poe : 'TIS

2. __ farm : ANT

3. TV awareness-raiser : PSA

4. Colors : TINCTs

5. Confuse : ADDLE

6. Teenage Russian emperor (1727-1730) : PETER II

7. Pitching staff leader : ACE

8. Acronymic NYC neighborhood : NOHO

9. Give in : YIELD

10. Ready : ON ALERT

11. "Shh!" : NOT A PEEP

12. N.T. book : EPH.

13. Paper under a wiper : FLIER

14. Man-made Georgia lake : LANIER

15. Screwdriver parts, for short : OJs

16. Best : TOPS

18. Union setting : ALTAR

19. Spinnaker holders : MASTS

24. Writer __ de Balzac : HONORÉ

28. Tortilla treat : SOFT TACO

30. Livens (up) : PEPs

31. Nike competitor : AVIA

32. N.C. neighbor : TENN.

33. Bolivian capital : SUCRE

35. Red Square honoree : LENIN

36. __ roles : SEX

40. Literally, "under city" : SUBURB

43. Ponte Vecchio's river : ARNO

45. See the bet : CALL

46. __-Croatian : SERBO

47. They're hard to break : HABITS

49. Whine : YAMMER

50. Decision makers have them : SAY SOs

52. New Mexico art hub : TAOS

55. Witch enemy of Popeye : SEA HAG

58. False front : FACADE

60. "Without a doubt" : OH, YES

63. Acknowledge the brass : SNAP TO

64. Admonition : CAVEAT

66. Stack seen on-screen : ROBERT

72. Approached : WENT UP TO

73. Small and glittering, like eyes : BEADY

74. Beginnings : ONSETs

75. Court cry : OYEZ

80. Something made on a star? : WISH

82. Jury member : PEER

84. Country singer Gibbs : TERRI

86. Glass-raised word : HERE'S

90. Accident investigation clue : SKID MARK

92. __ license : POETIC

94. Sommer of "The Prize" : ELKE

95. Animal house : LAIR

96. Hosp. personnel : LPNs

98. Headed up : RAN

100. Academic retirees : EMERITI

101. Ore carrier : TRAM CAR

104. Gung-ho type : ZEALOT

107. 10-time Gold Glove winner Roberto : ALOMAR.  He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Blue Jay. - CanadianEh!

108. Early receiver of tablets : MOSES

109. __ bar : SPACE

111. Netman Agassi : ANDRE

112. Fur tycoon : ASTOR

114. Suffix with xeno- : PHOBE

116. English 117-Across : YEAR

119. Series of 69-Across : CHAT

122. "Ghost" psychic __ Mae Brown : ODA

123. Radio settings : FMs

124. Reasons for some sportscast split screens : ADs

125. Big Ten sch. : PSU. Pennsylvania State University

126. Novelist Deighton : LEN

127. Picks out of a mug book : IDs




36 comments:

  1. C.C. is not feeling well so I'll fill in as we go. P & P

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  2. One single cell¡ That's all that kept me from getting this¡ A total natick at LANcER + SEc¡

    There was a DEPLORABLE girl from LA JOLLA
    Who thought to ADDLE and to annoll 'a.
    So she yelled out, "Ajoll"
    To all the joll polloll,
    Which gave XENOPHOBES fits of paranolla!

    {A+!}

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  3. Hello Puzzlers -

    It’ll be interesting to see today’s comments. I found this one quite tricky in places...not the theme answers, got all those, but the nooks & crannies. The NW corner and the X-ray department proved most challenging to me.

    Morning, C.C., speedy recovery!

    Since it appeared recently, I’ll add that we headed over to Amherst last night for another cinema visit. You can’t miss the nice architecture of Amherst College along the way, situated as it is in the center of town. UMass sprawls off to one side, while Hampshire College occupies beautiful green land toward the edge of town. Lots of learning in Amherst.

    Wilbur from yesterday - yup, life’s different, west of Woostah. As for the reach of the Red Sox, well, I’m not the one to ask. My interest in sports is exactly akin to my interest in, say, macramé.

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  4. Good morning!

    Managed to knock this one out, but it took three passes. The toughest spots for me were the I in SEI/LANIER that OwenKL pointed out, and putting SNACK where SPACE needed to be. It all came out in the wash. Nicely done, Matt, and thanx Argyle for pinch-hitting this morning. C.C., hope you're feeling better.

    I was in college before I learned how to pronounce LA JOLLA, and much older than that when I learned Nawlins, Looziana. I still don't pronounce Woostah correctly.

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  5. There’s a trick to it. From Worcester going east, it’s Woostah.

    West of there, it’s Wooster.

    Oh, and Husker: Route is “root”.

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  6. I forgot to remind everyone that the H in Amherst is absolutely, 100%, completely silent. Think Ammerst. Our town, our rules. :-)

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  7. Dudley - In our town (near Utica) Amherst is pronounced with a 100% aspirated Aytch.

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  8. I'll bet that east of Worcester folks also pock the cah.

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  9. Feel better soon, C.C.
    Before finally getting "space," I tried "sushi" and "snack." That area took quite a bit of time. But the "aha" moment was worth it.
    Thanks, Matt, for a clever and enjoyable puzzle.
    Stay warm, everyone!

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  10. Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Matt! So sorry you are still ill C.C.! Please get well soon.

    Last to fill was the first word for "I'm waiting. I tried "on hold". Nope. I googled PETER II and was further mystified with 1a. & 20a "word with man or dope". I had ANTS, ADDLE & STAND also, but never would have got TAPTAP or TINCT (for colors) without red-letter runs. Grrr! TAPTAP is DEPLORable.

    Hand up for natick at SEI/LANIER. Argyle, how is 61a NABE "a local pic shower".

    Got the clever theme early and enjoyed most of the rest of the puzzle.

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  11. PK, the neighborhood movie theater is shortened in slang to the NABE.

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  12. Good Morning:

    I had lots of fun with this and got a few chuckles along the way. (I've mentioned my quirky sense of humor before.) I especially liked Mrs. C and Mr. Toad, PSU/MSU/NCAA, and Abe/Alf/Ava which sounds like a vaudeville act! Big CSO to Santa. And to our Emeriti, Ferm, Misty, and Keith. My only mishap with the themers was Takes/Stand The Heat. Other w/os were Star/Stat, Solti/Szell, Dead/Deep, and Peso/Euro. There were a few unknowns, but perps were solid. Speaking of perps, we've seen a few quite often recently, as we have also had Miss Erbe grace our grid a few times of late.

    Thanks, Matt, for an enjoyable Sunday solve and thanks, Argyle, for pinch-hitting. Dear CC, feel better soon!

    Dudley, this West of Worcester lass is well schooled on the Massachusetts Ammerst vs the NY AmHerst, as Spitz pointed out. My best friend lived in "Ammerst" for over 30 years, so I pronounced it like the natives do.

    FLN, Happy Anniversary to Keith and Janice.

    Have a great day.

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  13. Good Morning.

    Thanks, Matt. Challenging fun.

    Thanks, Argyle, for the coverage.

    C.C., Feel better, soon!

    Always love the talk of how to pronounce names in the NE!

    Have a sunny day.

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  14. Musings
    -Three things just complicated my morning and so I only got 2/3 done but I had to rave about FAITHACCOMPLI!

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  15. We are safe and sound in chilly Florida. Better than the frozen north.

    Tough puzzle for me. Do we still recognize SEX roles? I prefer SEX rolls, as in the hay. (I had SEt roles.) I didn't like STAPLERS being supplies; they seem like equipment. To me, supplies are used up (kind of like me), while equipment is durable. I wanted "ancient queen" to be Richard Simmons, but he wouldn't fit. Last beef is cluing COWBOY as a team. Like most teams, the NFL team's name is plural. I know it's Sunday, but still...

    I flew many a spinnaker on Lake Lanier, until a drought kept the boat slip-bound. As soon as we could escape I had the boat hauled and trucked to Norfolk.

    Anyone else have SOHO before NOHO? Led before RAN? Did you hammer out your DEal before your DENT?

    I'm ready for a Monday puzzle!

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  16. Desper-Otto: Thanks. I was pronouncing "shower" like water coming down to start with. I've never lived in a neighborhood that had a movie theatre. The little town I grew up in didn't even have one. So NABE definitely wasn't in my vocabulary. Even here in the city, you have to go clear across town to a multiplex theatre to see a movie, so no help here.

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  17. Happy Sunday everybody. I thought I would post this before settling in to coffee, a little breakfast and Sunday Morning.

    I agree with Dudley. I thought many of the clues were trickier than usual. Clever stuff. Thanks Matt and Argyle.

    I've never heard anybody say NABE. I don't know TINCT either. Like Jinx, I had hammer out your DEAL before DENT. I also had SALUTE before SNAP TO.

    The Walt Disney version of "Wind in the Willows" is wonderful and a classic. Search it out if you've never seen it, or even you saw it years ago. I'll bet you would like it even better the second time.

    Picard: Last night you asked about my son's drone. He is a novice and is still learning to use all of its features. His drone is a DJI Mavic Pro Platinum.

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  18. Dear C.C., take good care of yourself and feel better soon. Many thanks for the help, Argyle. And fun puzzle, Matt. I got the H theme as soon as STAND THE HEATH filled in, and that helped with some of the other long answers. But although I got much more of this puzzle than I expected, I still had to cheat a bit in the end. What really threw me was SEWER NEEDS. Of course I was thinking of waste drainage pipes not making clothes, and so never got that little corner. Aaarrghh, and I was quite a SEWER in my younger years. Never heard of NABE, and I too had SALUTE at first, Bill G. But all in all, not a bad start to my Sunday morning--many thanks, Matt and C.C.

    I enjoyed hearing (in a sense) all the discussion about pronouncing place names.

    Many thanks from us EMERTI, Irish Miss!

    Have a great Sunday, everybody!

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  19. Interesting theme, but that's about all I liked about today's puzzle. Too many three and four letter answers, and too many obscure words. Poorly constructed IMO.

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  20. I really like this challenging puzzle. I soon discovered add H for the theme answers,but that still left a lot of crunch. I loved the tricky clues.
    I often see NABE in crosswords, but never see or hear it in real life. I grew up in a tiny town with only one cinema. Other were miles away. We didn't need to qualify it. Here the cinemas are not in my town, but many are very nearby, though not in my neighborhood.
    Flotsam and jetsam can mean odds and ends, usually worthless, but more accurately FLOTsam is sea wreckage that floats and JETsam refers to objects jettisoned into the sea.
    SOHO before NOHO. Wavered on DEAL or DENT and waited for perps. SALUTE before SNAP TO. SPACE was auto filled. I knew TINCT.
    Names new to me, MRAZ and ALOMAR. After using ESP I remembered George Szell of the Cleveland Orchestra from listening to NPR. GEORG threw me off.
    Plenty of ZENOPHOBES around.
    jfromvt, would "not in my wheelhouse" be a more accurate description? That is the case with me sometimes.
    I tend to TAP TAP (or drum) my fingers while waiting when I am in a hurry. I have to control myself so as not to offend.
    KATHRYN is a CSO to me, spelled correctly.
    Hello all you EMERITI, Ferm, Misty, and Keith. We treasure you.
    CC, sorry you are under the weather. Feel better soon.

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  21. Hello everyone.

    Somewhat sticky as Dudley and others have said. Eventually got almost all of it with a couple red letter assists. Theme was cute but didn't particularly stir my interest. A worthy challenge.

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  22. The correct answer to 131 across is serrated,
    Clue should be "MAKE saw toothed"

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  23. "Puzzling Thoughts":

    Cute puzzle. Had to cheat a few times. Oh well. Been a crazy week.

    As I said a few days ago, my creative mind (if indeed I possess one) hasn't been able to come up with any lim's or Moe-kus lately. Today's puzzle gave me a couple of ideas; glad that OwenKL didn't use them in his post today, as I'm sure he could've done much better ... but what the hell; here goes:

    Two punny haikus:

    Was Ten Commandments
    The first computer message
    Received on Tablets?

    "Raven" fan creates
    Franchise for loft rentals. Sells
    "Poe-Attic" License.

    C'mon Steelers ... get this game tied up ...

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  24. Steady solve - with lots of clues to figure out which meaning or pronounciation is being used. Eventually got FLOTSAM from some of the perps - my mind was stuck on people bobbing for apples at first!
    New word NABE - never heard, read, or seen before! Guessed at ALOMAR and it turned out to be right - wouldn't have known which sport he was in.

    Hope you feel better soon CC, thanks for helping out Argyle (fun CSO to you today SANTA)
    and thanks for an amusing quiz Matt!
    Light snow today - but roads are fine - my favorite combination-

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  25. Scubalen. @ 1409 - Serrate is correct and is the same as serrated. Both are adjectives. YR could give you more detail,but this is the simple answer.

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  26. Spitzbov, right on. Serrate as an adjective is common in botany relating to serrate leaf margins. In most other cases serrated is more common, but the words are synonyms.

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  27. Whoo, hard puzzle. Fell into all the same traps many of you did, especially SALUTE (nope) and DEAL (nope again.) Also SOLTI before SZELL and DEAD before DEEP. Finally had to turn on red letters to find where I had gone wrong. An hour and a half of pleasure solving this one.

    Thanks for filling in, Argyle. I add my hopes to the others for you to get well soon, C.C.

    Holy mackerel, Bill G, that Mavic drone is expensive. Well, more than I would be comfortable paying, anyway. It sure looks capable, though.

    My mother's name and my sister's name is Katherine, spelled correctly.

    Good poem, Owen.

    Best wishes to you all.

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  28. Great effort today Steelers. Sheesh.

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  29. There are five of more ways to spell Kathryn. I meant only that this is spelled correctly for me which is why it is a CSO. My name is so frequently not spelled correctly when it refers to me.

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  30. Got all the theme answers and enjoyed most of the puzzle. But there were some real Naticks. Was not sure if it would be IT SPOTS or IN SPOTS. Never heard of either. Did WAG that right.

    Jinx: Yes, I had SOHO. Never heard of NOHO. Had me stuck awhile. Hand up for SALUTE before SNAP TO. Had me stuck a long while.

    Had SEs/LANsER which seemed about as good. And OYEr/SrELL seemed about as good. FIW. I don't like unfair stuff like that.

    We just had MRS C. Anyone else try LA PAZ before SUCRE? Learning moment! I have been on the Bolivian border, but not yet inside the country.

    I have become quite a SEWER in recent years making use of PATTERNS given to me. Here is our workshop for our annual Solstice Parade.

    In the fourth row my costume designer friend Phyllis is fitting me. And in the row below I am stitching a PATTERN she gave me. She is a very patient teacher! The young woman in the last row accidentally ran the needle through her finger. Ouch! Fortunately, she had a quick recovery.

    I have been at Ponte Vecchio on the ARNO. Maybe photos another time.

    Bill G: Thanks for the drone information! Yes, it is expensive. But probably for good reason. I have been practicing with a simulator. I flew model planes in my youth. This is surprisingly hard! The more expensive ones are probably much easier to control.

    From yesterday:
    Thank you CanadianEh for the good wishes. We are fortunate in our neighborhood with so much destruction all around us.

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  31. Picard, watching Tim fly the drone, it looked very easy to control, much easier than a model plane. It is inherently stable when it is hovering. Then you push a couple of levers to make it go left/right, forward/back or up/down. Fun!

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  32. Okay, I just lost 109 words or so. I'll make it brief. Owen A+ indeed. I live on La Hoya* street. Mark very clever and creative: Shower and Sewer got me too.

    CC I hope you'll shake this bug else Florida beckons. Wait a few weeks, it's on and off chilly here.

    How about the view from ECHO Valley.

    Now I know what EMERATI means. Describes a bunch of my old BC pals.

    WC

    * HOYA is xword staple for Georgetown athlete.

    PS. "ANYONE of you jarheads want to volunteer? Where's your Gung-ho ZEALOTRY"

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  33. Above my pay grade to finish today but I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks for the fun Matt and C.C. (feel better soon). Thanks Argyle for filling in.

    I got the theme and favourite was .3rings=CIRCUS TENTH. Brilliant. (But my "safe medical terms" training makes me cringe at the .3 instead of 0.3!)
    FAITH ACCOMPLI was a close second.

    Here's another hand up for Soho, Salute, Peso, Take the Heath, LaPaz.

    My Canadian disadvantage forced me to Google for ALF, RBH, LA JOLLA, LANIER.
    But I did know ALOMAR as he used to play for the Toronto Blue Jays during their back-to-back World Series wins in the 90s. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Blue Jay.

    MRAZ and SZELL were unknown; I had Szelr because we have RPN (Registered Practical Nurses) not LPNs. I have never heard NABE either.
    My doctor ordered Doses not XRAYS. In the distant past, he/she might have ordered TINCTS!

    But tomorrow is Monday and should be easier.

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  34. NOHO is an area bordered by HOuston and ??? . Must I LIU? Is there a NewYorker in the house?

    OYEZ is not that arcane. Perhaps there were more court shows in my 'Ute. fe. Perry Mason must have been my source. Didn't Della Street show up in here in a xword?

    Btw, I'm watching 'ers on tape wondering what C-Moe meant by "sheesh". 28-14 as I post. Sheesh.

    WC

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  35. {A+}

    WC - First Google hit said North Hollywood, second link was to Wiki which indicated NO of Houseton [sic, but that's how the Yanks say it even though it's HOU-sTON]. -T

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  36. C.C. this flu is nasty. I got it 1Jan and it still lingers leaving me puny after just a little bit of working / thinking. Get rest, fluids, and well soon. My sympathy is with you.

    Jayce - So, I looked into the HP Telemetry / Touch Point analytics BS. It's crap on par w/ Sony's DRM from 10 years ago but not (from what I've seen) hackable by 3rd parties (unlike Sony's Shinola). The software is suck but doesn't expose you to nefariousness outside of HP's piss-poor implementation of analytics. Could be worse [how could it be worse? Jahova, Jahova, Jahova //Life of Bryan humour]... Anyway, the software auto-installed sometime in Nov and you're right to be rid of the resource hog.

    Bill G - I've still not gotten into playing with drones. A buddy has a number of $$$ ones and made some Bitcoin (~$2USD b/f Bitcoin went nuts) via donations of his videos. His wife doesn't work so he's time on his hands. Maybe Tim can post his videos and rake it in :-)

    TTP - I have new Raspberry Pi 3s. They are not as cheap as they seem - I had to buy a new HDMI-based monitor and discovered that I "set free" all of my old USB keyboards and had to get a new one of those too. I'm in $$ and still don't have the Onion router I got one for. The others? a DYI weather-station and one just to see how much smoke is in it :-)

    Play tomorrow.

    Cheers, -T

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