google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday March 25, 2017 C.C. Burnikel

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Mar 25, 2018

Sunday March 25, 2017 C.C. Burnikel

Theme: "Word for Words"  - The words (all acronyms) are re-phrased as if they are real words:

23. Pet Airways security device? : CAT SCANNER

25. Narrative from novelist Levin? : IRA ACCOUNT. Ira Levin.

37. The Yankees during the Babe Ruth era? : SWAT TEAM. His nickname was "The Sultan of Swat".

45. Wine glass-making component? : STEM EDUCATION

69. Alley designation? : PIN NUMBER

90. Seminar on Hughes' poetry? : TED CONFERENCE. Give TED Radio Hour a try. Very well-curated.

99. Hockey contract negotiator? : ICE AGENT. ICE here stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

115. Association of gamblers? : BET NETWORK

117. Injury treatment for a top pitcher? : ACE BANDAGE

Hey, I don't need to send a Bat-Signal to Roman Forest for help. Grokked the theme before I even started.

Was happy to find a set where the change happens with all the first words. Probably should have gone with 8 theme entries. With 9, the fill suffer in a few spots.

Across:
      
1. Did a triathlon leg : BIKED. Swim. Bike. Run


6. Pepper spray alternative : MACE

10. At full speed : AMAIN

15. Slightly : A BIT

19. Taste enhanced by shrimp paste : UMAMI. Our Asian store carries various shrimp pastes. All made in Oo's homeland.


20. Otherworldly glow : AURA

21. Multi-colored spring bloomer : PANSY

22. Bugs or Porky : TOON

27. MIT, for one : SCH

28. Govt. investment : T-NOTE

29. Grand Mosque locale : MECCA

30. Luxury hotel chain : OMNI

31. Essence : MEAT

33. Pyrex sister brand : EKCO

35. It precedes Flames' home games : O CANADA. Calgary Flames.

40. True : ALIGN

43. Chicago Blackhawks' broadcaster : WGN

44. Give : CONCEDE

50. "Your point being?" : AND

51. Betel nut tree : ARECA. Never saw the tree in person. So fruitful.



53. Church reading : PSALM

54. Memorable Louis : XVI

55. A/C measures : BTUs

57. Agenda : TO-DO LIST

59. Dress policy at some fancy restaurants : NO DENIM. Crossing NIMES (49. City in southern France). Origin of the word "Denim".

62. Enzyme ending : ASE

64. Shot at a bar : DRAM

65. Big name in anti-itch cream : LANACANE

66. Slow-cooked dishes : STEWS

72. "The Highwayman" poet : NOYES

73. "Don't sweat it" : NO BIGGIE Also 94. "Amen to that!" : I HEAR YA And 36. "It'll be fun!" : AW C'MON Also 95. "Hold your horses" : EASY NOW

75. "Of course!" : SURE

76. __ Paese cheese : BEL

77. Like some celestial paths : ORBITAL

78. Isn't being used : SITS IDLE

81. Dust jacket ID : ISBN

85. City bus path: Abbr. : RTE

86. Expose : RAT ON

88. Where __ : IT'S AT

89. Green Day drummer __ Cool : TRE


97. Inseparable : ONE

98. Utterly lost : AT SEA

100. Solo performance : RECITAL

103. Actor Cumming : ALAN

105. Lat. and Ukr., formerly : SSRS

106. SpaceX CEO Musk : ELON. He just deleted his and SpaceX's Facebook pages.

107. Put a damper on : DETER

110. Memorize things, maybe : STUDY

112. Part of U.S. : SAM. Oh, Uncle Sam. My submitted clue refers to the singer Sam Smith.

119. Not worth __ : A SOU

120. Resort rental : CANOE

121. Apple Watch assistant : SIRI. Also 12. Apple since 1998 : iMAC

122. Exposed : OUTED

123. Body imperfection : DENT

124. Dover souls : BRITS. Nice clue. Also Rich's.


125. Warmhearted : KIND

126. Plot spoilers? : WEEDS
  
 Down:
 
1. Tampa NFLers : BUCS

 3. Nepal Airlines headquarters : KATHMANDU. Never been to this city. Almost mythical.

4. First-responder letters : EMS

5. Call the shots : DICTATE

6. Hand, to Jorge : MANO

7. Uncle Henry's wife : AUNT EM. I can watch this movie again and again.


8. Wading spot : CREEK

9. Corn holder : EAR

10. Cap-__: from head to toe : A PIE

11. Jacobs of fashion : MARC. Pricey label.



12. Jungle crusher : ANACONDA

13. Genesis father of twins : ISAAC

14. 1785-'90 U.S. capital : NYC. Oh, I did not know this trivia. But Xi'an was the capital city of China for many many years also.

15. Ferocious Flea foe : ATOM ANT


16. Like hardcovers : BOUND

17. Ancient neighbor of Lydia : IONIA

18. Big bang producer : TNT

24. Come before : ANTEDATE

26. Dance in a line : CONGA

29. Beauty mark : MOLE


32. And so on: Abbr. : ETC

34. Language of Andorra : CATALAN

37. Striker's bane : SCAB

38. Habit : WONT

39. Flying start? : AERO

41. Little devils : IMPS. Our Spitzboov! Hope all went smoothly with Betty yesterday.

Spitzboov, Betty and Argyle, August 23, 2014, Washington County Fair

42. Daring exploit : GEST
 
45. Reject with contempt : SCORN. Also 66. Show contempt : SNORT

46. Forearm-related : ULNAR

47. Slangy rejection : IXNAY

48. Like critters counted at night : OVINE

52. One of the Van Halens : EDDIE

56. 2005 horror sequel : SAW II

58. "If __": "So be it" : I MUST

60. Hamlet, for one : DANE

61. Alfalfa sprouts concern : ECOLI. Had Alfalfa sprouts once. Did not like the taste. Love bean sprouts though.

63. USMC rank : SSGT

65. West Yorkshire's largest city : LEEDS
  
67. Sacher dessert : TORTE

68. Receded : EBBED

69. Risotto relative : PILAF. Here is Blue Hen's "Cheater Risotto". Here are the two potato dumplings I made earlier this week. I did not use the pillowcase to squeeze out the extra water as D-Otto instructed. Then I needed more flour. There's definitely a method in D-Otto's madness, but my dumplings had more integrity. The extra water was nutritious.


70. Show with numbers : MUSICAL

71. Shiny, in adspeak : BRITE

74. January birthstone : GARNET

76. Home to the Congressional Country Club : BETHESDA

78. Variety : SORT

79. "__ of My Soul": Isabel Allende novel : INES


80. Not of the cloth : LAIC.  I did not have "Not".

82. Took a course under duress? : STRESS-ATE

83. __ Mawr College : BRYN

84. In order : NEAT

87. "Madam Secretary" star : TEA LEONI. Nice to put her full name in.

91. Almond Joy ingredient : COCONUT. We also have 100. Creator of tasty cups : REESE

92. Cat-__-tails : O NINE

93. Close : NEAR
 
96. Cabinet dept. : AGR

99. Apprentice : INTERN
 
101. John of rock : ELTON. Sir.

102. Ugly marketing battle : AD WAR

104. Computer acronym : ASCII

108. Home run pace : TROT

109. Scrapes (out) : EKES

111. eBay competitor : UBID

113. Like fine cheese : AGED

114. Doc's orders : MEDS

115. Unenviable : BAD. So sorry to hear your troubles, Picard. I feel your frustration.

116. Doing the job, briefly : TCB. Take Care of Business. Picard's old host certainly did not.

117. "Don't __ me!" : ASK

118. Deserving : DUE



Jennifer, Argyle's "adopted" niece, said he's holding steady and doing well. Santa has received many cards from our blog and enjoys them. I'll keep you updated when I have the update. Santa, call me, maybe?
 

36 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to C. C. for fun puzzle and write-up!

Stuff that I did not know: ARECA, NIMES, (trouble with NO DENIM, too) TRE, KATHMANDU (known, but took a while to spell it correctly)
AUNT EM, MARC, ATOM ANT, LEEDS and INES. But got 'er done sans cheats! (Still do not understand the theme.)

Sick all day and previous night. Some kind of intestinal bug. Very tired now. Was happy to complete puzzle!

My Copa De Oro has finally bloomed after 25 years. Go figure!

Have a great day!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

C.C. doesn't normally blog her own puzzles. Today we got to see what some of her thoughts were as she put this one together. Got the theme, but I still don't know what a BET NETWORK is. Misinterpreted "In order" to SO AS before NEAT showed up. Really wanted SNEER, but SNORT works, too. Interesting about NIMES and DENIM (de Nimes?). I wear denim often. OK, every day. Thanx for a fun outing, C.C.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning

Another gem of a clever theme from our multi-talented CC. I saw the word play immediately and that helped with the other themers but, and that's a big but, there were plenty of stumbles along the way. Atilt/Amain, Aster/Daisy/Pansy, A tad/A bit, Antecede/Antedate, Espanol/Catalan, North/Noyes, and Sneer/Snort. Completely unknown were: Cap a pie, Ines, UBid, Atom Ant and ASCII. My favorite clue/answers were: Dover Soles=Brits (hi truebrit!) and Like critters counted at night=Ovines. Learning moment was ACE Bandage being an acronym.

Thanks, CC, for a fun, smooth Sunday solve and for doing double-duty on the expo.

To any "Chicago Fire" fans, the actress who played Connie, the Chief's secretary, passed away at 49, COD not given.

Have a great day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Just to let you know BH's hip replacement operation went well, on Friday morning. PTs thought she should stay in overnight, so she came home yesterday. She can get around with the aid of a cane or walker. Pain management is important right now. Doc was very encouraged.
Thanks again for all your good wishes.

Will do the puzzle on line later if time permits - not printed in our Sunday paper.

Irish Miss said...

Spitz, that's great news about Betty. I'm sure she's glad to have the surgery over with. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Big Easy said...

Well congratulations to C.C. on her double whammy weekend, with an assist from I.M. WSJ puzzle Saturday and LA Times on Sunday.

Catching and filling the acronyms was an easy spot after CAT SCANNER and IRA ACCOUNT appeared. It was the unknowns that kept me busy for too long this morning. TRE Cool, MARC Jacobs, SAW-II, INES of My Soul, STRESS ATE- perped today

Don't remember "Uncle Henry" so AUNT EM was perped. Unfamiliar with Cap-A PIE term.
"Memorable Louis"- NYE, JOE? No 16th
"Daring exploit" FEAT, DEED? Nope-GEST- didn't know that one. Perped.
"Dress policy" of NO DENIM crossing the unknown NIMES was the last fill.
KATHMANDU- how much is left after that earthquake?
ANACONDA snakes live in swamps and slow moving water.

And for C.C. and Irish Miss's WSJ puzzle, I left one empty square. The "Typesetter's arc" crossing the "Mtge. units". PAREN and PTS. I was 'clueless' on that one, as I've never had a mortgage and PAREN was a word unknown to me.
D-O, BET is the 'BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION' channel.

I-M, ASCII is an old computer acronym. I'm still waiting for EBCDIC to show up in a puzzle.
Doesn't everybody love to use 'hexadecimal' coding?

D4E4H said...

Good Morning Cornerites, and Cornerettes,

This was C.C. at her best. Clues were very tricky, and I labored on the CW in three separate sessions. There were many places where I thought I would have to BAV, but each time I applied P & P successfully. The right center was still white till I recognized 48D Critters counted at night. Somehow OVINE came to me. I am pleased to report I FIR. Thank you C.C. for making me think.

19A Taste enhanced by shrimp paste : UMAMI Meet a word, LIU, and all day long you'll ask yourself, "What was that word?" I have met a taste bud I didn't even know I had, UMAMI. Can you taste it?

21A Multi-colored spring bloomer : PANSY These flowers can thrive in cold temps. They are hardy. Compare to the Urban Dictionary: A sissy, fag, fairy, or one that is generally unmanly.

54A Memorable Louis : XVI I was visiting a friend, and they bragged "My furniture goes back to Louie the XVI." I replied, "Mine goes back to Sears the XV, (the Ides)."

55A A/C measures : BTUs A woman goes to Lowes to buy a window air conditioner. The clerk askes her how many BTUs she wanted. she replied "I don't know what they are, but I want enough BTUs to cool a butt big as a tub!"

My apologies,

Dave

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Double our pleasure with C.C. making like the Little Red Hen and doing it all herself. Thanks for a fresh, meaty puzzle today, C.C.! Alas, I didn't get to the WSJ one.

Like Big Easy, I had a lot of those unknowns. In addition to his were ASCII, UBID, AMAIN, UMAMI, ARECA, Flames, ALAN Cummings. I know we've had UMAMI, but it just won't stick in my mind and compute as to what it is.

Interesting about NIMES. I didn't know there were restaurants which don't allow DENIM. Goodness sakes, out here they wouldn't have any business.

STRESS ATE: oh, two words & a food course. Chocolate & ice cream, here I come! I was stuck on the school course.

Sheep, lambs, pass it for now. Oh, OVINE. Mosquitos didn't fit.

Didn't remember KATHMANDU had an "H". I was proud to remember the place at all.

Best wishes to Betsy for a speedy recovery. I can't believe she got out of the hospital after only one night. What's next in surgery care? Drive-thru cut & sew. In-home surgeon call? Such early release puts quite a burden on the caregiver. Bless you, Spitz.

D4, You must be feeling better this morning. Good for you. Humor helps.

VirginiaSycamore said...

Thank you C.C. for both the puzzle and explanation.

I was stuck on the same clues as everyone else.
I got OVINE from perps, then finally saw it meant "counting sheep" to fall asleep.

For 90A I thought of Langston Hughes first and something to do with black or urban poetry.

Re: CAT SCANNER

An old joke that I am sure could be told better.
A man brings his dog into the vets. He waits with his dog on the examination table. First a dog comes in, sniffs, and walks out. Then a cat comes in and wanders around the sick dog. Finally, another dog comes in and checks the dog out.

When the vet comes back he hands the man some pills and a bill for $300. "What" says the man, " is this high bill for? You didn't do anything!"

Vet says,"I gave your dog a CAT SCAN and 2 LAB TESTS."

Best of luck to Betsy with the new hip. As I am sure she knows, judicious exercise and rest are needed. But the more you keep moving the faster it heals. I have had both hips done and am still doing well after 16 years. My mother, on the other hand, didn't follow exercise routine and never got good function back.

Best wishes to Argyle and our other recovering relatives and friends.

Live Well and Prosper,
VS

Misty said...

I love seeing a C.C. puzzle on a Sunday, and today we got the double treat of a C.C. write-up too! Woohoo! Of course, I had to cheat a bit, and I'm sorry to say that, like Fermatprime, I still don't entirely get the theme. But there were so many clever clues and surprising answers that this was a delight. Many thanks, C.C., for giving us a great Sunday morning!

My silliest moment was the trouble I had getting the answer to 'Congressional Country Club.' I kept thinking it had to be Washington D.C. or around there, but BETHESDA only dawned on me after perps practically filled it in. Doh! I spent an entire year living in BETHESDA when I was not yet twenty, teaching fifth grade at St. Jane De Chantal School (is that what it was called?) in BETHESDA. I was there when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and remember standing in a huge, wide line of people for much of the night to pay our respects to the casket at the Capitol in the morning. A sad and memorable experience.

Have a great Sunday, everybody!

D4E4H said...

I wish to thank those who care enough to write the very best -- of themselves, that is. Thanks FLN Yellowrocks at 10:19 PM, PK at 10:43 PM, Lucina at 11:47 PM, and Anonymous T at 12:16 AM.

Kathy, I'm looking forward to your e-mail.

P. K., You are correct, there are those who I perceive as being worse off than me, and they are pushing on with dignity. Two big examples are Christopher Reeve, and Steven Hawking. What role models!

Lucy, You are correct. We need to be stronger than Spider Silk to weave our web of aging.

Tony, You observation prompts today's paraprosdokian: I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather, not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his car.

Yellowrocks, March 23, 2018 at 3:35 PM, You closed your first paragraph with "LOL." I've read that this is fast becoming a punctuation symbol. What better person than you to study that claim, and report to us. Thank you in advance, and I will respect you in the morning.

Dave

Misty said...

Spitzboov, my best wishes to Betsy for a great recovery from her hip surgery.

Yellowrocks said...

D4, March 23 @3:35 LOL meant "just kidding," not any kind of punctuation. I was ribbing the guys.
LOL stands for Laughing Out Loud.
I will write more later.

Bluehen said...

CC, you never cease to maze me. To be so prolific a crossword constructor, and always at such a high level, I bow to you. Thanks for today's challenge, and the expo with the insight of the constructor. Well done. As HG (I think) said one time, "You'll never convince me that girl grew up in China". And thanks for the shout out, although I hope I am not remembered as a lazy cook who takes shortcuts and compromises his food. I'll admit to trying to be as efficient as possible in the kitchen, but I would never degrade the quality of a dish.
Strangely enough, we're having rice pilaf tonight to accompany Chicken Veronique, steamed Brussels sprouts and glazed carrots. As OKL so often says, "Ah, the prescience of the corner".
One parting tidbit. The phony IRS robocallers are amping up their game. If, like me, you don't pick up when you don't recognize the number on caller ID, they now leave a recorded call back message. I've had a few of those lately. Just for the heck of it, I went ahead and called back yesterday. A man with a very thick accent answered. I asked him what was so important to leave me a message. "This is Alex with the IRS" Me, laughing, "Sure you are.', sarcastically. "No, really. I am". hurtfully. "No you're not". Click.

inanehiker said...

I guess I'll need to find the puzzle that was blogged today on-line. The puzzle in my paper was
"Kinda Sorta" by Jeff Wechsler

Jayce said...

I stumbled a few times while working this puzzle, which impeded me from catching on to the theme. For example, at 1D "First-responder letters" I quickly filled in EMT, which gave me CATT as the first 4 letters of 23A. This "removed" the S from SCANNER so I thought "Word for Words" meant that the gimmick was to replace a plural word with a weird singular one. When that didn't make sense, I saw that CAT crossed the KAT in KATHMANDU, so I figured maybe that had something to do with it. Nope, that was just coincidence. All that, plus wanting XIV (the 14th) for that Louis guy messed me up in that area. And so it went. Eventually I got it all except the blank cells where TRE crossed STRESS and AMAIN crossed MARC, where I had to turn on red letters and do alphabet runs until I found the letter that didn't turn red. So, wow, quite a challenging puzzle!

A bit of a dupe with the clue for MUSICAL ("Show with numbers") which crosses PIN NUMBER.

Nice to learn that fact about DENIM.

I chuckled to see SAWII and ASCII.

Among my favorite clues were "Plot spoilers?" and the aforementioned "Show with numbers". The clue for OVINE was excellent, too.

Good to know Argyle is holding steady and doing well. Best wishes to you all.

Spitzboov said...

Hello again.

We get two pics of Argyle, today. Nice. Hope he keeps improving.

Interesting theme where acronyms are spun into real words. Quite a few more obscure clues. Nicely done.

Favorite clue: Dover souls - BRITS.
LEEDS - Youngest spent his junior RPI year at Univ. of LEEDS in exchange program.
AMAIN - At full speed. Dict. says archaic. Good puzzle fodder. On our destroyer full speed was FLANK speed. Full speed was one notch below full speed. ALL AHEAD FLANK meant "give 'er all you've got." 'Balls to the wall."

Picard said...

CC: Thank you for the double duty as creator and as reviewer/explainer
And thank you for the Argyle update. Is he able to go online and read our Corner?
We miss you, Argyle, and wish you a speedy return!

And thank you, D4E4H and everyone else for your kind words of support as I face the loss of my web site. I had always thought that corporations like Yahoo are just focused on maximizing their profits. Apparently I have overlooked pure incompetence as another factor. Astonishing that they are willing to turn away money and loyal customers due to utter mismanagement. And shutting out all access from outside.

This puzzle really took a lot for me to solve! Some serious unknowns like the AMAIN/APIE cross. Got it with a WAG. I rarely know sports clues or answers, but FLAMES/O CANADA was probably hard even for loyal US sports fans. Got it with crosses. Never heard of SAW anything. Another WAG. I love TED CONFERENCEs and talks but never heard of TED Hughes.

Fascinating learning moment about DENIM and MIMES! Clever to cross them! Tried JEANS first. Never heard of UBID. Another learning moment. Dover souls clue was amusing. I have photos at Dover. US as Uncle SAM was misdirection that had me fooled. Not sure if MIT was a shout out to me. I was thinking of something more specific than SCH. Have lots of photos there. Can't share!

I just did a slide show on my visit to Versailles, home of the infamous LOUIS XVI. But I was still impossibly stuck with that clue! Last bit to fall! Crossing it with IXNAY and OVINE as clued with the unknown NOYES cross made it seem utterly impossible! Never heard of STRESS-ATE.

Would love to share my LOUIS XVI/Versailles... but did I mention Yahoo has made that impossible?

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A hard earned “got ‘er done” on C.C.’s wonderful puzzle that filled my time on a cold, rainy day
-Her self-analysis and commentary was a real added bonus!
-I had many of the same unknowns (paired with Naticks) but I did make educated guesses
-Anyone else see P _ _ _ Y and put in PEONY?
-SIRI is a bottomless pit of information
-I have a lovely girl named Emily where I sub and I always get her to laugh by calling out, “AUNTIE EM, AUNTIE EM!”
-I hope Argyle continues on the mend

Spitzboov said...

Picard @ 1503 - 2 thing:.

1. Try to call one of their principals; CEO or some such. You probably won't get him/her right away but you've got a good chance at getting an executive secretary. Ask to speak to one and explain the problem and lack of results. They are like the Chiefs in the Navy. (I once came up against a brick wall with a Verizon repair, and spoke with an executive secretary in Manhattan. Problem was fixed in half an hour.)

2. If you have $$ identifiable losses, tell them you'll take them to court (small claims?) and then do it. It'll get their attention. Large companies don't like spending their law $$ on this sort of thing. Embarrassing for the chain of command, and too much 's'plainen.

Talking to your media friend might help but it may take a while.

Picard said...

Spitzboov: Thank you for the suggestions.

I have called Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA at (408) 349-3300

As far as I can tell, no human will answer no matter what selection is made. They seem to have sealed themselves off from the outside world.

Identifiable losses are difficult in this case. I provide my site as a service to many organizations for free. About all I can do is bill for the time I am spending on this.

Spitzboov said...

Picard:

Got this on Dial-a-human:


Yahoo.com. 408‑349‑1572. Press 0 repeatedly, ignoring error messages.
Yahoo! Small Business. 866 800‑8092 Press 0.

D4E4H said...

Yellowrocks at 1:53 PM

I was fortunate to find the LOL article again. for you to study.

Dave

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

A bit late to the party. I didn’t quite finish this one unaided. Had trouble with amain and stress ate, thus no tada. Otherwise, hats off to another fine C.C. project!

Long time readers here will likely know that I’ve lived here in my little town all my life, if you don’t count the college years, and the place has certainly become familiar. Back in 1973, the wheezy old pipe organ was removed from the church, and replaced with a newfangled electronic one. I remember hearing a local organist play the dedication recital that year. Well, the machine did its job for 45 years, but eventually got to needing replacement. Funds were raised for a new one, and this very afternoon it was played in its dedication recital - by the same organist, now about 80. It’s all part of a larger yearlong celebration of the church’s 275th anniversary.

Yellowrocks said...

D4,Bosh! I use it to indicate humor and many on this blog have also done so. If others use it as punctuation I care not.



Jayce said...

Dudley, good and heartwarming news about the new organ.

Spitzboov said...

Dudley, yeah, very interesting about the new organ and who played it. Thanks for sharing.

MJ said...

Fun puzzle! Cool that all the acronyms were the first of a two word phrase. Thanks, C.C., for not only providing the puzzle, but blogging it too.

Glad to hear that Betty's surgery was successful, Spitzboov. Hopefully she, IM's brother Jack, and Argyle will continue to heal well.

inanehiker @2:43pm--Jeffrey Wechsler's "Kinda Sorta" puzzle ran on February 25, 2018. Sounds like somebody at your newspaper goofed up. The Socal LA Times has C.C."s puzzle.

Picard--Hopefully some of Spitzboov's advice will prove helpful. What a devastating loss.

Dudley--Way cool story about the church organ and the organist!


Best wishes to all!

Picard said...

Spitzboov: Thanks for the research.
866 800‑8092 is the number I was mostly calling. I did talk to "humans". But they acted like robots. They had a script and there was no forcing them off their script. I got all the way to the supervisor level but they were not much better. They are all in India.

I also called the other number 408‑349‑1572 in Sunnyvale, CA. I was unable to reach a human with any option. Perhaps I will try this again tomorrow.

CanadianEh! said...

Sunday funday. Thanks for doing double duty C.C.

Of course I love any CW that has O CANADA in it. (Have you noticed the updated "in all of us command" at the Flames' games?? But maybe not at a Chicago BlackHawks game or with those ICE AGENTs!) Thanks for informing this Canadian that ICE stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (I wonder how Tin likes that?)

Other unknowns similar to WEES - WGN, TEA LEONI, INES, BETHESDA, BEL, UBID.

Interesting re DENIM and NIMES. I wanted NO JEANS. You've probably heard of the Canadian Tuxedo.
My body imperfection was a scar before a DENT (wrong body!).
Like Jayce, I noted the slight dupe with PIN NUMBER and "Show with numbers" clue (one of my favourites).
Other favourites were STRESS ATE, WEEDS clues.
It took me a minute to see True as a verb=ALIGN.
We had GARNET today and Peridot the other day. Will other birthstones follow?
I learned ANAMI here but always have to wait for perps for spelling.

Best wishes for recovery for Betty. I'm sure you will take good care of her Spitzboov!
Continued wishes for Argyle and Jack. Glad to hear Aaron is improving well.
Dave2 - there have been some great responses here from others who feel your pain. Keep posting!
Picard - what a mess! Hopefully things can be resolved and your website reinstated soon.

Enjoy the rest of the evening.

Wilbur Charles said...

At about 6pm I finally took time to solve . I quickly saw it was CC but thought at first it would be a snap .Nope.

The next thing I knew I had it all filled except for CATT CANNER. Fortunately, I'd grokked the theme by then and forced in CAT/EMS.

Picard, I mentioned FCC because a smart guy I know suggested it after I told him about Verizon and my cable provider, both sending bogus unpaid bills to credit agencies.

He says these galoots listen up fast when FCC calls. Btw, I have thousands of unread Yahoo mail junk.

D4, keep on lol'ing. I like ROTFL.

Spitz, good luck with your Betsy, mine has a torn rotator cuff .She's looking at stem cell. Any comments?

CC, thanks for a workable entertaining Sunday puzzler. I got a clean weekend except of course for Friday's RCMP.

WC

Bobbi said...

What to do? Second week in a row I caved. Couldn't get 2/3 of grid w/o looking. How degrading !! Yes, I'm angry! What used to be a relaxing Sunday afternoon pleasure has become a drudge. Over the past several months it seems the LAT puzzles seem to be more interested in quirkiness rather than knowledge of words. I know that this rant will raise the hackles of some long time puzzlers, but I really feel like I've been "left behind" because I enjoy the taxonomy of words but not in the evanescence of pop culture. OK, I feel better! PHEW!

Spitzboov said...

Picard - one other thought. The Secretary of State for your state should have names of the key officers of the company if they are registered there. Might be something to check out. Any luck with the BBB?
I checked the above website and they give Yahoo status as "merged out". Suggest calling the S. o. S. office on what that means. May be a history there.

Spitzboov said...

Picard - Found this, too, for Yahoo:

Contact
Alfred Amoroso
Role
Chairman
Phone
(408) 349-3300
Fax
(408) 349-3301

Bill G said...

Lucina, did you get my "Ove" thank you last night?

========

Did you ever wake up in the morning, kiss the person sleeping beside you and feel glad that you're alive?

I did yesterday. The airline has banned me for life!!

:>)

Michael said...

I'm with Yellowrocks about "LOL" ... there is no way that any of those Kardashian creatures can serve as a serious reference for anything intellectual.