James is back on Friday for the first time in a couple of years. I first blogged him in 2011 the same day C.C. posted the INTERVIEW she did with him. This is his 30th LAT publication and he has no consistent style, either in themes or themeless. Like last week we are dealing with puns and humor. While this theme was not as much fun, the rest of the puzzle was wonderful. We have a few spectacular words, GIBRALTAR, SASQUATCH, AFICIONADO and TOM FOOLERY. We also have so much information and wit, I am going to move on the the write up.
20A. Salute in an old orbiter?: MIR FORMALITY (12). Mere formality.
35A. Stadium scene after a big win?: TIERS OF JOY (10). Tears of joy.
42A. Fishing parties?: PIER GROUPS (10). Peer group.
57A. Edward Scissorhands' syndrome?: SHEAR MADNESS (12). Sheer madness.
Across:
1. Disagreement: SPAT.
5. Her first speaking role was in MGM's "Anna Christie": GARBO. 88 years ago.
10. Unlikely: SLIM. My chances were slim and none.
14. Fashion designer Rabanne: PACO. This is not his real NAME.
15. Cold shoulder or hot corner: IDIOM. This was fun misdirection, as both are idiomatic.
16. Elizabeth of "Jacob's Ladder": PENA.
17. Wee bit: ATOM.
18. It might be uncured: BACON. Not my area of expertise.
19. Plant with hips: ROSE. I used to drink the tea.
23. Arizona neighbor: SONORA.
24. Former SETI funder: NASA.
25. Pokémon Go finder: Abbr.: GPS. I have watched these crazies running around 'capturing' the various Pokémon. My boys were more Dragonball Z, but they did have some Pocket Monsters.
28. Spa supplies: OILS. Massage or painting?
30. African megalopolis: CAIRO.
32. Nonstick kitchen product: T-FAL. I have never owned any from this COMPANY.
39. Normandy river: ORNE. Not one of the 12 common crossword rivers but a big deal nonetheless. LINK.
40. Foil firm: ALCOA. Will always be tinfoil in my mind even though I know it is aluminum.
41. It borders both the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers: IOWA. More rivers.
44. Early Disney productions: CELS. Cartoons.
45. __ del Carmen, Mexico: PLAYA. Beach
46. Distant beginning?: EQUI.
48. Photog's choice: SLR. Single-Lens Reflex camera.
49. Org. offering shelter for some homeless: SPCA.
53. It merged with Chevron in 2005: UNOCAL.
59. Chain part: ISLE.
62. 1975 Pulitzer winner for criticism: EBERT. 1975: Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times, "for his film criticism during 1974"
63. Old film dog: ASTA. Back again; do you remember the actor?
64. Catty reply: MEOW. and the clecho 67A. Cat catchers: PAWS.
65. __ attack: PANIC.
66. Flit: DART.
68. Seriously reduce: SLASH. Like prices, not to be confused with 43D. Wicked slice: GASH. Not Tiger's driving at the Masters but a long deep slash, cut, or wound.
69. Prizes in los Juegos Olímpicos: OROS. Gold medals.
1. Bombards with e-junk: SPAMS.
2. Deck alternative: PATIO.
3. Nut with a cap: ACORN.
4. Nonsense: TOMFOOLERY. Another great fill that has such a great LINK.
5. Iberian peninsula territory: GIBRALTAR. You could LEARN more.
6. Economist Smith: ADAM. The FATHER of economics.
7. Puerto __: RICAN.
8. Half an Ivy cheer: BOOLA. The Cheer from 1901.
Boola boola, boola boola
Boola boola, boola boola
When we rough house poor old hahvahd
They will holler, “Boola boo”
Oh Yale, Eli Yale! Oh Yale, Eli Yale!
Oh Yale, Eli Yale! Oh Yale, Eli Yale!
9. Dodges of old: OMNIS.
10. Agile: SPRY
11. Uncle on "Seinfeld": LEO
12. Advantages for job seekers: INS
13. Novelist Rita __ Brown: MAE. A writer for CED and our other cat lovers, her mysteries are solved by cats. But she is so much more, and a Florida Gator as well. WIKI.
21. "He's mine, __ am his":"Coriolanus": OR I. A Friday Shakespeare - Scene X, page 218.
22. Stand snack: TACO
25. Boy toy?: GI JOE. A great fun clue.
26. Lurk: PROWL.
27. Milk sources: SOYAS. My bride like soymilk.
29. Prairie skyline feature: SILO.
31. Buff: AFICIONADO. It was a mid 19th century (denoting a devotee of bullfighting): from Spanish, ‘amateur,’ past participle of aficioner ‘become fond of’ used as a noun, based on Latin affectio(n-) ‘(favorable) disposition toward’ (see affection).
32. Name on collectible cards: TOPPS. They made some headlines a few years ago. NASTY.
33. Bell or whistle?: FRILL. Something added on.
34. At hand, poetically: ANEAR. I wish this afar.
36. Old French coin: ECU. Not the sou.
37. It's often skipped: ROPE. really cute.
38. Cryptozoologist's quarry: SASQUATCH. And any other of the CRYPTIDS.
47. Conjunction in a German article: UND. An article in a newspaper article. Witty.
50. Buds, slangily: PEEPS. Almost timely. Try THESE.
51. Band of intrigants: CABAL. The intigrants (those who makes secret plans to do something illicit or detrimental to someone else) get together and form a cabal - a secret political clique or faction.
52. Concert setting: ARENA
54. Romero who played The Joker: CESAR. With Adam West. LINK.
55. Dog in Orbit City: ASTRO.
56. Exams for future attys.: LSATS. Actually, it is only a test for future law students.
59. Little demon: IMP.
61. Bit of cowspeak: LOW. I am not familiar with the term, but I got the idea.
That was a loaded baked potato of a puzzle and I had so much trouble with getting it ready, so forgive me if I just say, thank you, James, all who come to the Corner and phew! Lemonade out.
FIW¡ Misspelled AFICIaNADO + unknown UNaCAL¡ Still, only one cell, with a lot of WAGs -- PACO, PENA, TFAL, ORNE, PLAYA, UNOCAL, OROS, ANEAR, ORI, OMNIS, UND, intrigants (some just as clued). Soo manyy write-overs!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the punny theme.
ASTRO met ASTA in fields where they mingle.
Mutual fans, all their senses a-tingle!
They shake PAWS and PROWL,
Then ASTRO LOWS, "MEOW" --
Just showing off his being bilingual!
The INTRIGANTS met, their vile plots to breed,
In cover of darkness, to hide their intrigue.
But the mole's blade did SLASH,
Until all had some GASH,
And thus the CABAL in PANIC did bleed!
MAE was a young miss at GIBRALTAR
Used ROPE to drag her man to the altar!
Said her prospects were SLIM,
But this one couldn't swim,
And by SEA escape from her halter!
{B-, B+, A-.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI MOOed before I LOWed, but otherwise chewed my way right through this one. The theme was obvious and helped with the solve. Lotsa nice stuff in this one. Thanx, James and Lemonade.
Lemon, a number of your links are weird today -- don't show up as links, or link to the dreaded 404. Really liked that word CRYPTID -- learning moment (that link did work).
TOM FOOLERY -- Gotta take a CSO for that one.
T-FAL -- I have had one or two in the past. I've learned not to spend too much on a non-stick pan. None of 'em last. Now stainless steel sauce pans from All-Clad are a different matter.
Was I an AFICIONADO of this type of puzzle? Not really. There was SHEAR MADNESS but no TIERS OF JOY and completing it was a MIR FORMALITY after MIR was used in place of 'mere'. What says our PIER GROUP(S)? Even with unknown -LEO, ORNE, PACO, PENA, & Rita MAE- the only real WAG was the cross of UNOCAL (TEXACO wouldn't work) and AFICIONADO. I wanted UNI-CAL but EQUI directly above wouldn't allow it.
ReplyDeleteThe TOM FOOLERY was an easy guess after T_MF was in place but the SASQUATCH took a little longer with TELE filling 46A instead of EQUI and not really known UNICAL (all perps).
Have a nice weekend.
Greetings all. I just got home from work and thought I would drop in and thank all of you for the very nice Birthday Greetings from yesterday. I had no time to log in yesterday due to working and sleeping. I did read them this morning.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to you, Irish Miss, belated by one day. It would be nice to meet you sometime.
I hope to be able to work the puzzle after I get some sack time today. See you all later.
Best Regards,
Abejo
( )
Ouch, a real bear of a Friday CW. Thanks, James, for the test, and to Lemony for the exposé.
ReplyDeleteAfter much struggling, finished the top and bottom and looked back to find an immensity of white from coast to coast in the middle. I couldn't parse Buff (31D) correctly, didn't know IOWA bordered both the Missouri and Mississippi (41A), and 39A, ORNE, took forever to fall. Finally finished, but I'm feeling awfully bruised from the effort, sort of like Chuvalo after 15 rounds with Ali.
A good day, all....
"Lurk" and PROWL are not the same thing: The former requires stillness; the latter, motion.
ReplyDeleteThe QUEER PUNS were GRATE FUN - esp. MIR FORMALITY.
I enjoyed the puns and the creative new fill. FIW by one cell. I used to be a great speller. I had UNACAL and didn't change the I to O when aficionado came along. (Blush) My excuse is that if it had been across I would have seen it. I agree that if I solved online the mistake would have been easier to spot.
ReplyDeleteThe only unfamiliar fills were names, UNOCAL,PACO, MAE, LEO, PENA, all perps. The clue, integrant, was my principal learning moment today.
LOW- In the Christmas carol "Away in a Manger" we sing "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes."
I had T-Fal pans, longer lasting than some cheaper pans, but almost all frying pans wear out in time.
The main part of lurk is the hiding, more than the stillness.
One meaning of lurk is "to move furtively or inconspicuously" thus prowl.
It is snowing AGAIN!! It is not sticking on the road, but everything else is white. I have back to back appointments all day. It seems Alan's commute is on.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI struggled mightily with this but, finally, finally got the tada w/o help. I had so much white space for so long that I thought I'd never complete it, but bit by bit, It all fell into place. The theme was evident early on but the lack of surrounding fill made each theme answer difficult to unearth. The cluing was ambiguous and led to numerous w/so, too numerous to list. Double CSO to Mr. Meow and his Paws and one to HG at NASA and Tom and his foolery! I appreciated the puzzle more after completion than I did while solving it.
Kudos, James, for a difficult by doable Friday and thanks, Lemony, for your steady guidance.
A belated thank you to CED for my "Irish" birthday cake and to all for the birthday wishes.
We're supposed to get some snow, then rain later today. I have a delivery from Shoprite due between 11:00-1:00 so I hope it comes before any nasty precipitation. Yesterday was so cold and windy that it felt more like December than April.
Have a great day.
Hi gang -
ReplyDeleteI really like the theme - homophone switches for the first words - and they all rhyme! That is elegant.
And Lemony mentioned the terrific long downs. Kudos for that.
Sadly, though, there is too much in this puzzle to not like: Too many proper names, and especially foreign place names, some rather obscure.
The clue for OROS is badly strained, as are the plurals on OROS and SOYAS. "Half a" anything clues should have been abandoned decades ago. ANEAR is beyond lame.
So - a very uneven assessment. I know realistically you often have to take some bad with the good, but there is too much of the bad stuff here.
It's the weekend. Tigers came from behind to beat the White Sox yesterday, in the snow. Crazy days.
Cool regards!
JzB
Musings
ReplyDelete-While subbing yesterday I had to tackle Julius Caesar with 9th graders. Yikes!
-Celebration around the casket? BIER PARTY
-Chances for golf are SLIM today with snow, cold and high winds
-T-FAL demos were a staple of state fairs
-Kids today have NEVER SEEN tin foil but still say that instead of aluminum foil
-This extremely narrow bridge from Blair, NE to Missouri Valley, IA over the muddy Mo was scary
-Lily’s gentle PAW touch on my nose is a daily 4 am alarm clock
-This is the peak season for hiring teachers and having INS is a big help!
-Some amazing Hungarian ROPE skipping! (2:13)
-Is my heated steering wheel a FRILL? :-)
-In what Christmas song does it say, “The cattle are LOWING”?
-I didn’t know there was ever a connection
I beat ya to it. See my 8:24 post. The cattle are lowing.
ReplyDeleteDang, YR. I scanned your post too quickly since I have a roomful of 7th graders. Sorry. A good excuse and $5 will get you coffee at Starbucks!
ReplyDeleteLike I said I was having connectivity issues with the write-up, but I believe I have fixed all of the links. Thanks for telling me about the problem.
ReplyDeleteJzB @ 9:17 ~ Thanks for pointing out that the first words rhyme as I completely missed that added layer of complexity.
ReplyDeleteSo far, nothing is falling from the sky but the day is young. 🌨 ☔️ 💦 💨
I was thrown off by the multitude of both short and long underlines in the clues. Some were where punctuation should be, some where letters should be, and some which were supposed to be there indicating a missing word. I print out the puzzle, so thought it was something in the translation to print, but even the clues on the game on the website have them. Why are they there?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWow! A real Friday puzzle from James Sajdak. I wonder how his name is pronounced?
Lemon did a great job of unraveling the puzzle so that it was understandable. At first I thought that "ie" was a replacement for the two letters in the first word of each theme answer, but when I tried that on the other theme answers it didn't work. It took a while for the light bulb to come on.
I had to look up a couple of words, so today was an official DNF even though I ultimately filled it all in. Even after looking up the definition of "intrigant", it still took forever and perps to get CABAL.
One of my pet peeves is the usage of 4 and 5 letter European rivers in puzzles. Why not obscure rivers in Asia, like the river KWAI, LIAO, HAI, etc.? I guess I'd have just as much trouble with any river.
FLN: Anon @11:15pm: The USAF does have some STOL aircraft in their inventory. The UV-18B (which is a de Havilland of Canada Twin Otter) and the C-145 Skytruck (which is a Polish built variant of the Russian Antonov AN-28) are examples of STOL's in the USAF.
Flurries again this morning, but no accumulation. Not sure when Spring will really get here. At any rate I hope everyone has a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteTough one today, but finally got it all. Had 'link' before ISLE. Also moo before LOW.Had no clue what an intrigant was, but perps finally coughed up CABAL. Today's learning. Got the theme from sussing MIR FORMALITY. How cool is that?
I once owned a Dodge Dart Seneca which was older than the Dodges of old - OMNI. Sigh. Guess I'm older than I thought.
Thanks, YR, for explaining LOW. For s's UND g's I looked it up in a German dictionary and they give "Muh". (moo)
Oh, btw, my spell checker does not like intrigant.
Hello, everyone! I see from your posts that I missed some birthdays. Abejo and Irish Miss, I have no doubt you were properly greeted here at the Corner and that you celebrated with great festivities as I was gadding about Arizona with my visiting friends.
ReplyDeleteThank you, James Sajdak, for this welcoming challenge! And, oh, what a challenge! Much of it was easily filled such as OROS, AFICIONADOS, GIBRALTAR (where I went several years ago), and the theme puns which I enjoyed. GARBO, CESAR and EBERT were grokked with only one letter there and I've heard BOOLA, BOOLA.
Hand up for CRAWL before PROWL and a four letter state bordering the rivers could only be IOWA. SONORA is my state's southern neighbor.
Where the grid fooled me was at chain part. It took a long while to realize ISLE not LINK was needed and LOW not MOO.
I loved TOMFOOLERY (Hi, d-o). I'm an AFICIONADO of puns so this was right up my alley.
It's good to be back home but I had such a good time with my friends at the Grand Canyon (hundreds of people there), Flagstaff and Sedona.
Have a fabulous day, everyone! I'm so sorry some of you are still experiencing winter!
I didn't look it up, but figured intrigant would have something to do with intrigue. CABAL fit the bill.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have a problem parsing GIJOE -- I tried to make it gigolo, but that was too long. Then the light came on.
Well, this was a toughie all right, and it wasn't long before I had to start cheating to keep going. I put FEUD in right away, so it took a while before I realized it had to be SPAT and the northwest corner then filled in. But it was great to get GARBO right away. I loved that funny southwest corner animal fill with all the cute cat clues, although I too had MOO before LOW at first. And with all those animals, I loved your first limerick, Owen. Anyway, a fun puzzle, many thanks, James. And your write-up was very helpful, Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your punning commentary, Big Easy.
Have a great day, everybody.
oc4beach, from yesterday, no ice cream or cake for my birthday but had Gibble's Nibbles with my lunch!
ReplyDeleteThe white stuff has begun its descent. ACK!
Agnes, so sorry I missed your birthday, but enjoy the entire year.
ReplyDeleteDrat, in my anxiety I forgot to mention the "ear" rhyme. Thank you for saving me JzB
Lemonade, I forgot to thank you; I always enjoy your expositions and gentle guidance.
ReplyDeleteSuper crunchy outing today, the middle was a bear, happy to get the solve.
ReplyDeleteOn to Saturday.
They don't write fight songs like BOOLA BOOLA any more.
ReplyDelete(Thank god)
And even so Oklahoma U reused the tune for "Boomer Sooner"
Hi Y'all! I thought it was a fun theme, James. Always enjoyable, Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteLast to fill was the "L" in ISLE for chain part & start of LOW. Stared at it awhile before the Xmas Carol started playing in my head.
Buff? ESP needed for AFICIANADO. (looks funny with only one "f") I was thinking of buff naked, or fit or beige.
Boytoy wasn't GIrls but GI JOE which is better in a family-hour cw.
I always think cryptozoologist has something to do with tombs not SASQUATCH. I've watched enough SASQUATCH filming, I should know better.
Let's stop this TOMFOOLERY! I don't really want to. I just always wanted to say that. Hi, D-O, I enjoy yours. Big Easy, yours was great today.
Gimmee: PLAYA del Carmen was where those terrorists put a bomb on 2 ferry boats one of which exploded injuring tourists. This was just before my kids were to go to Mexico to a resort during spring break. My son got a call from his anxious mother when she saw that news. They called around and went anyway.
Aaron news flash: They took my grandson back to the surgeon who is pleased with his progress and cleared him to start being more active. He immediately grabbed his skateboard and asked to go to the skatepark which he hadn't wanted to do for many months. That tells me his pain must be considerably less, but I almost had a conniption. I haven't heard how he felt after he had been there. Of course, his dare-devil pilot father couldn't see any harm in his going. Aaagh!
Yesterday 70* weather. Today was supposed to snow, but right now radar shows rain going south of us and snow, north. Only dry wind blowing here with 40*. Now we farmers will worry about drought.
Good Afternoon.
ReplyDeleteLate to the game today, WEES so far. I struggled in many of the same spots. We used to say we read to know we are not alone, but now I think it's crossword puzzles and being here after a tough one.
Thanks, James for the challenge. I always enjoy your Friday write-ups, Lemonade.
It's still dreary and may yet snow. Hmmmm. At least all the flowers are opening very cautiously and may be around a bit longer than usual.
Have a restful weekend.
I liked this puzzle, very much liked the theme, and had pretty much the same difficulties with it that many of you had. I must agree with Jazzbumpa that OROS and SOYAS are, as plurals, strained. Made my nose wrinkle. I too have difficulty remembering 4-letter European river names. Interesting to see ASTA cross ASTRO. Also noticed that Dodge DART down there at 66a. Waited for perps to indicate whether it was ROOLA or BOOLA (there is a nifty Irish "pub" in Tempe, Arizona, called Rula Bula.) Lemonade, my friend, UND is not an article; it is a conjunction. Also, I'm afraid it was not Suzy selling those seashells.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you all.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteMr. Sajdak, sure knows how to throw a fast ball.
I had a devil of a time with today's pzl, tempted constantly to cheat, but holding out to the bitter end. I relied on the 4 Ps to keep my mouse hand from clicking on line, seeking a pure Ta- DA!.
But, alas, in the end I have to admit a near miss is as good as a mile. The mid-West sector was my undoing. I couldn't crack the nexus of TFAL and FRILL on my own. And even after cheating to fill TFAL, I couldn't "see" what was in front of my eyes with FRILL as the answer to "Bell or whistle?"
Still, I take pride in solving the rest of this tightly rigged challenge. I got all the theme answers and cracked the oh-so-clever clues in the SW corner. The long fills - GIBRALTAR, TOMFOOLERY, SASQUATCH - fell like timber.
Isn't it true? It's always the little ones that get you in the end.
____________
Diagonal Report: Three today. The main line flanked by two sub-diags (NW to SE).
I actually got FRILL, Ol'Man Keith, but I've never heard of ORNE and so put ARNE for the river, and never heard of TOPPS, so that got messed up too. But the themes sure were fun.
ReplyDeletePK, so glad Aaron is doing better.
Hi folks, Jen here with Argylescott trying to continue on getting his tablet to work for him. He appreciates the cards and well wishes. Cards are very appreciated in the mail. He is working hard on his rehab.
ReplyDeleteDNF
ReplyDeleteHad a terrible time trying to do this puzzle.
Had an even harder time trying to find silly links...
However, Tomfoolery is a Mir Formality...
Oh hi, Jennifer, thanks for checking in.
ReplyDeleteHi Santa!
I missed the very clever rhyming of the first words of the theme. Well done, James. It makes for an interesting theme.
ReplyDeletePK, excellent news about Aaron.
After the snow showers this morning, which did not hinder driving, we have 56 degrees and sunny weather this afternoon. Crazy weather. The daffodils and hyacinths are blooming. Usually the forsythia blooms are well on their way by now. We have not seen even a touch of yellow on the stems this year. With all the snow the soil has had no chance to warm, which is what promotes the blooming. I believe the cherry blossoms in DC are at peak bloom right now. Ours do not even show color.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteI didn't make it thought James' offering w/o needing life-lines. Thanks for the puzzle James; I caught the theme at SHEAR MADNESS only because the south filled easily.
Being an AFICIONADO of the "crazy people show" [CoastToCoast AM @midnight CDT], I knew Cryptozoologist's study SASQUATCH (sightings). Same inre: I knew NASA started SETI... I'm not sure I should be proud of this.
Thanks Lem for the expo. I had to flat-out crib from your grid for GARBO 'cuz Google was no help. Interesting about Bazooka JOE.
Googles: PENA, PACO's O, ORNE. PLAYA - which was a Google-fail: I had the PLA but the Google gave me PLAno and PLAya. Talk about a useless cheat!
WO: Put TOPPS in 33d's squares; adage b/f IDIOM (changed after crib'ing); TEATS was there holding up CAIRO. I had UNi CAL 1st.
ESP: ECU
Fav: ASTA xing ASTRO was cute
{A, B, A-}
@10:27 - punctuation? I see ___ as a missing word and '-' as a link missing.
D-O: Yes. I guess it was perp-filled but I saw it and thought 'Lem will explain GIJOE [pronounced to rhyme w/ gyro in my head]." V8!
JzB - I noticed the rhyming too. I liked that.
HG - LOL BIER PARTY
Billocohoes: BOOMER Sooner! DW & I did grad work there and Eldest is finishing her Frosh yr.
Jen - Thank you so much for being by Argyle's side though this and letting us know how he's doing. We're promoting you to head-Elf.
Hey Argyle! We're all pulling for you!
Cheers, -T
Hi guys,
ReplyDeleteJen is Argyle's "adopted" niece, who's been taking great care of Santa. Without her, I'd be totally lost.
Misty,
ReplyDeletefunny what we know and don't know. I knew ORNE - along with AURE, EURE, and a few other 4-letter French rivers.
It was T-FAL that got me, but that wasn't my true crash.
In what I think of as a classic Xwd human flaw, I couldn't free my mind from the narrow channels it had been laboring in. I had FRILL staring right up at me, but I wasn't able to relax the Ol' Walnut enough for it to interpret those five letters as a word, nor was I able to re-think "Bell or whistle" as a variant of the expression "bells 'n whistles."
I'm not unhappy about it, just enjoying it as another observation of the way our brilliant but flawed brains function (or don't).
Toodle.
Jennifer:
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by and giving us the update on Argyle. It is so reassuring that you are there for him and he knows how love and caring is being sent his way from the Corner. It is also great that you are there for him at this very difficult time. I would not have survived last year if I did not have my wife with me to take care of me. Bless you.
Hi Jen ! Thank you for the update. Please tell Argyle we said Hi and we are all pulling for him !
ReplyDeleteThank you for doing all that you are doing. It is so appreciated.
Hi Jen:
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by and getting Argyle/Scott/Santa online. Hey, fellow New Yorker, we send our very best wishes to you and hope you're getting the hang of your new tablet. Look forward to hearing your "voice" again!
Thank you, Jennifer, for everything you're doing for our dear friend.
Hi Jen. Wow, it's just like that scene in The Abyss when after all hope was gone, a message appears on the screen: "Virgil Brigman back online." Thanx for being Argyle's voice for the time being. Tell him we miss him on the corner and are awaiting his return.
ReplyDeleteMy nephew-in-law and his late father both worked for TOPPS; in fact, Chris still does and must go to a signing whenever a new player is signed on to a team. I believe he has met every American baseball player in existence.
ReplyDeleteJEN:
Thank you for the update on Argyle!
Jen, how wonderful that you're helping Argyle in so many ways! Thank you so much for that. Also a great help to C.C. who has been so concerned about him.
ReplyDeleteDear Argyle, if you're back on the blog, we think about you every day with much care and good wishes and love.
Jen & Argyle: Ditto what everyone else said. Having an advocate while in rehab is so important to success. Every good man needs a cheerleader/supporter. Scott, you have been an important person to us all here. Take your time and heal well. Hugs.
ReplyDeleteC.C. you have created and nurtured a very wonderful, very caring forum. Thank you also.
ReplyDeleteJen, thanks for being Scott's strong support and loyal, caring friend
ReplyDeleteScott, I think of you often. I am pulling for you. Heal well.
Hi everybody. Barbara got a hand extension called Grip and Grab, sort of like a 3-foot long tweezer. It helps us pick up everything from the floor and hard-to-reach places. I love it! We ordered another one for upstairs.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes Argyle and Jennifer.
BillG: aren't those grab-its great. I have three located in strategic places.
ReplyDeleteBill G - BH has them scattered all over the house. Never know when you want to grab something. She gets them at Dollar Tree - buck apiece.
ReplyDeleteGreetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to James and Lemon!
Thanks, Jenn, for update!
Get well soon, Santa!
Sorry that I missed birthdays of IM and Abejo!
Have been extremely tired.
Finished puzzle sans cheats! Loved the theme!
Hope to see you tomorrow!
Misty - I was just finishing up the paper, saw this Hint from Heloise, and thought of you:
ReplyDelete"When I'm having a bout of insomnia, I like to put some lavender-oil on two cotton-balls and place those under the pillow-case. I smell the clean scent and sleep like a baby."
Beats pills...
Cheers, -T
Late start on this entry (busy all day). I agree this was certainly a knotty workout! I totally disagree that Gibraltar is any type of territory of the Iberian Peninsula. It's actually a separate country and it's inhabitants certainly don't consider themselves as "Iberian" . Actually visited there and the Gibraltar citizens are proud of their separateness. Anyone agree?
ReplyDeleteI am still catching up on these past puzzles. We were in the SONORA Desert at the time!
ReplyDeleteThis was a challenge, but a steady solve. Until the NE. PENA/LEO/MAE was tough! But I FIR!
In some sense, SETI represents the most important project for humans to pursue. It is sad and frustrating that so few resources are allocated to this.