google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday Jun 4, 2018 Roland Huget

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Jun 4, 2018

Monday Jun 4, 2018 Roland Huget

Theme: MIXMASTER (60. Sunbeam brand ... and a literal hint to the circled letters:) - MASTER is anagrammed in each theme answer.

17A. Wind current that affects weather patterns: JET STREAM.

27A. Pet rodent's exercise gadget: HAMSTER WHEEL.

45A. Good survival skills: STREET SMARTS.

Boomer here.  

Yes the Mixmaster from Sunbeam!  And we had a beaming sun here in Minnesota this week.  I will never be able to understand how the mercury can hit triple digits a mere 6 weeks after we shoveled 18 inches of the white stuff out of our way.

Across:

1. __-as-you-are party: COME.

5. Wedge or pump: SHOE. Wedge, pump or golf.  I'll be wearing mine tomorrow and possibly using a wedge. 

9. Apple's Touch and Nano: IPODS.

14. Help with a robbery, say: ABET. Or -- visit a track and place a bet on Justify.

15. Phone in a purse: CELL.

16. "I kid you not": NO LIE.

19. Barton of the Red Cross: CLARA.  There is a name from the past.  A nurse in our  Civil War, Ms. Barton not only was of the Red Cross, She created it.

20. Purpose: USE.

21. First rainbow color: RED.  Mr. Skelton. aka Clem Kadiddlehopper

22. First Peace Corps director Sargent __: SHRIVER. Now we are in my era.  Mr. Shriver was not a Sergeant, his middle name was Sargent.  He was President Kennedy's brother-in-law, and I believe the President gave him the job of overseeing the newly created Peace Corps.

24. Lipton rival: NESTEA. N-E-S-T-L-E-S - Nestles makes the very best ... Chocolate.

26. Apple mobile platform: IOS. I know it doesn't matter in a crossword, but Apple displays this as iOS.  I think it stands for i Overcharge Society.

34. Concerning: ABOUT. Fight between Muhammad Ali and George Frazier.

37. Held the deed to: OWNED.

38. Mai __: cocktail: TAI. Pronounced My Tie and used to Tie one on.

39. Guns, as an engine: REVS.  In my neighborhood this is done in a 30 year old Chevy with little or no muffler.

40. Nest of chicks: BROOD.

41. Turkey meat preference: DARK.

42. Top worn with jeans: TEE. C'mon.  Everyone knows this is a piece of wood to hold a golf ball before Dustin Johnson whacks it 320 yards.

43. Birth-related: NATAL.  If you natal day happens to be February 29, how old are you.  Gilbert and Sullivan claimed that if you were born 20 years ago you would be "A little boy of five" and that was a paradox.

44. Numbered supermarket section: AISLE.

48. Brit's bathroom: LOO.  I wonder if the composer of "Skip to My Loo" had to go ?

49. Filmdom awards: OSCARS. I know this stands for the Academy Awards but the name actually came from some lady at the Academy who thought the statue looked like her Uncle Oscar.  It reminds me of half of the "Odd Couple" Oscar Madison played by Jack Klugman.  I think Walter Matthau played Oscar in the movie, Neil Simon was nominated for the Oscar for writing the "Odd Couple" but he did not win.

53. Longtime TV fitness guru Jack: LALANNE.  What a guy, lived to a ripe old age of 96.  Famous for the Power Juicer.  You could toss a handful of carrots into the thing and drink them in 2 minutes.


57. Job ad letters: EOE.

58. "The Matrix" hero: NEO.

59. Sumatran ape: ORANG.

63. Miata automaker: MAZDA. The fancy sports car has sneaked its way into the $25K range.

64. Jai __: ALAI. a fancy game like playing tennis against a wall.

65. Latin being: ESSE.

66. Sanctify: BLESS.

67. Clue or Risk: GAME. I think it was done by Cosmo Kramer and Neumann in Seinfeld's living room.

68. Peepers: EYES. Jeepers Creepers, where'd you get that clue?

Down:

1. Bayou cuisine: CAJUN.

2. More than plump: OBESE. - I was watching Lance Lynn pitch for the Twins on Saturday.  If He and Miguel Sano are first in line at the aftergame buffet, I wonder if anyone else gets to eat.

3. Doles (out): METES.

4. UFO pilots, presumably: ETS.

5. Riot, in the funny way: SCREAM. Wasn't this a movie back in the 90s ?

6. Take to heart: HEED.

7. Rio greeting: OLA.  I have a friend from Chile, and when he emails me its Hola. Can Brazilians not pronounce "H"s. ?

8. Shade trees: ELMS.

9. Narrow, exclusive group: IN CROWD. Not too exclusive. I believe there are 400 million Americans who think they are in it.

10. Refined manner: POLISH. or buff your golf shoes.

11. Norwegian royal name: OLAV. Ya Sure.

12. Desperate, as straits: DIRE.

13. Char on a grill: SEAR. Add an S and you have a retail chain that's losing money.

18. Halloween trick alternative: TREAT.

23. Put on the payroll: HIRED. Drank a root beer.

25. In this way: THUS.

28. Alphabetizes, say: SORTS.

29. Time for semiannual clock changes: Abbr.: TWO AM. Our computer and clock radio does it by itself.  We don't get up at 2 am to finish the job.  Next morning works.

30. __ Gay: WWII bomber: ENOLA. A B-29 named after the pilot's mom.  I was born after WWII. However my parents and history teachers taught me enough. I cannot applaud what our government ordered on that day in 1945. 

31. Vowels after zetas: ETAS.

32. British nobleman: EARL. Duke outranks Earl.

33. Facebook thumbs-up: LIKE.

34. Part of MFA: ARTS.

35. Borscht basic: BEET. I like beets, but they can add to your blood sugar.

36. Partner of "done with": OVER. Reminds me of Peter Graves in "Airplane".  The opening scene was filmed at MSP Airport.

40. Relay stick: BATON. Olympics are two short years away!

41. Brake rotor: DISC.

43. Nightlife sign's light source: NEON GAS.

44. On the briny: ATSEA.

46. African antelopes: ELANDS.

47. Dorm pal: ROOMIE.

50. Unable to sit still: ANTSY. Named after the New York Football team the GI ANTS.

51. Baseball Hall of Famer Pee Wee: REESE. And a great broadcaster "Holy Cow"!  Who said this first?  Pee Wee or Harry with the glasses. We had a Halsey here that copied them.

52. Tender spots: SORES.

53. Bausch's partner: LOMB.

54. Asia's vastly diminished __ Sea: ARAL. The Aral Sea is not really a sea but more like a lake.  In fact our own Lake Superior is larger than lake Aral.

55. Lie idly (around): LAZE.

56. Periodical with a URL: E-MAG.  I never saw an E-MAG and I never hope to read one.  But I can tell you anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.

57. Reason to study: EXAM.

61. Dockworkers' org.: ILA.

62. Match, as a bet: SEE. That would be in poker, instead of a raise.

Boomer


59 comments:

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Roland and Boomer!

Fun puzzle! No problems!

Have a great day!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Cruciverb has been caught napping again. So, I did the puzzle at the LAT. Being such an easy puzzle, it could be solved using only the across clues, in order; that’s a better fit for the LAT interface. Hard puzzles benefit from a better-designed app.

Morning, Boomer, over the years I’ve been amazed at the wide temperature swings within Midwest weather. Thanks for ‘splaining today!

The Odd Couple: I grew up on the Randall/Klugman TV version. Years later I watched the Lemmon/Matthau movie, and thought it wasn’t as good; for one thing, the characters just didn’t seem as believable.

Lemonade714 said...

Happy Monday all and thank you Roland and Boomer.

A bit of a mini-theme with CLARA BARTON and SARGENT SHRIVER in the puzzle. Whatever happened to Arnold's ex-, MARIA SHRIVER ?

Boomer, you need to come to Florida and watch some Jai Alai which has no resemblance to tennis and people bet on it, just like the ponies. I do not think Justify will win the Belmont.

Lemonade714 said...

BTW, in case you missed Fermat's FLN, today's NYT is a gem from C.C.

Lemonade714 said...

And if that were not enough, C.C. also created the Wall Street Journal PUzzle, she must dream puzzle themes. Amazing!!!!

D4E4H said...

A Marvelous Monday to each and all.

- - Thank you Mr. Roland Huget for this fine Monday CW which I FIR.

- - Thank you Boomer for your excellent review.

7A - Rio greeting: OLA. - Portuguese is the official language of Brazil. Hello becomes Olá.

Ðave

thehondohurricane said...


Good day to all from rainy and cold (54 degrees) Connecticut. No problems today, just a couple of minor delays. When I first saw the 7D clue, I wondered how I was going to get Buenas Dias into three squares. Knew LALANNE, but could not recall its spelling, so I let perps take care of it.

Busy day forthcoming in spite of the elements so AWAY I GO!

OwenKL said...

Sometimes being alive is a HAMSTER WHEEL
It's a GAME that doesn't care how we feel
It just REVS up
Like it OWNS us,
And our only defense is our sex appeal!

Apple is ABOUT to add SHOES to its ARTS.
Electronic, with brains ABETTING STREET SMARTS!
iPODS are embedded,
THUS Apple is headed
To open more stores to increase the STREET'S MARTS!

{B, C.}

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR with no erasures. As Dave implies, OLA and hola are homophones Portuguese / Spanish.

Boomer, this write-up may well be the punniest ever. Fantastic. Nestles also owns Perrier, Shredded Wheat, Baby Ruth, Stouffers, pizzas by California Pizza Kitchen, DiGiornos and Tombstone, Dryer's, Drumstick, Gerber, Purina (including our CW friend ALPO), and Coffee-Mate.

Thanks Roland Huget for a nice, well-behaved puzzle to start the work week.

FLN / Emma Peel: PK, you trained hubby well. Picard, you are a quick study. "...the silver-tongued devil has nothing to lose, I'll only live 'til I die..."

FLN - Pleased that somany folks know Voice of the Theater speakers.

FLN - Never been to Wilson, but I used to tent camp on Mt. Palomar and tour the big reflector there. Don't think my big coach could navigate the narrow, windy roads, so probably won't return.

Anonymous said...

"On the briny" is ASEA. AT SEA is "lost" (mentally).

PK said...

OLA, Y'all! Fun & fast, thanks, Roland. Funny and fast, Boomer! IOS translation was apt.

No circles but I got the theme. Thought the theme was scrambled STREAM so had to rethink when MIXMASTER appeared. My grandmother had a MIXMASTER which I inherited until it started giving electric shocks when touched at about age 40. Still have the bowls.

REVs: done frequently & loudly by my 22 yr old neighbor who can screw up a smooth-running vehicle by tinkering faster than anyone I ever heard. He now has a boat, pickup, & car that have to be revved every day. At 8 a.m. he has already revved the car & boat. The pickup has disappeared overnight. I'd like to smack him then send him to vocational technical school.

"Skip to my LOO". Get real. I do good to toddle there to tinkle.

FLN re Emma Peel: My husband was sweet, kind, helpful to all who needed him, and full of baloney. LOL!

Circled Again said...

Enough with the circles, already!!!

Yellowrocks said...

Cute theme, quickly solved.
My mom had the same Sunbeam Mixmaster her entire adult life.
Dudley, I like the Randall, Klugman Odd Couple the best, too.
Skip to my loo. LOL

At sea has both meanings. I you don't LIU before you post, you may be at sea.

at sea
1. On the sea, especially on a sea voyage.
2. In a state of confusion or perplexity; at a loss.

asea
1. (Physical Geography) in a seaward manner
2. (Physical Geography) at or on the sea


Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

FIR. No searches, no white-out, no confusion.

YR. Thanks for clearing up the asea / AT SEA kerfuffle. Saved me a lot of grief. In the Navy environment I don't recall ever having used or heard "asea". I think it's crosswordese, or possible regional. Just my 2¢.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was an easy, breezy start to the week. No w/os and no unknowns. I saw the Master theme right away but the reveal was still a pleasant surprise.

Thanks, Roland, for a fun solve and thanks, Boomer, for a funny and punny summary. But wasn't Holy Cow Phil Rizzuto's trademark expression?

A belated Happy Birthday to Owen.

Misty, I hope you are out of danger and glad you didn't have to evacuate.

Klugman and Randall were the quintessential Oscar and Felix, IMO.

Hondo, our weather is the same as yours: yucky!

Have a great day.

Yellowrocks said...

Just now I have found quotes for asea with both meanings,figurative and literal, on the sea and in a state of confusion. I believe that asea is more frequently used in written language, but I have heard it spoken, too.
NJ, like many others, has great temperature fluctuations in May in June. Recently we have gone from 51 to 90 in under 24 hours. The temperature also swings back in the other direction. We have had more cool rainy days than normal, followed by an unusual high, and quickly dropping down again.
Play time is over. (Sigh!)These days I am quite reluctant to begin my chores. I'd rather read.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

30D: The Enola Gay was not just another WW-II bomber. It’s the bomber that dropped the A -Bomb on Hiroshima.

oc4beach said...


I used the Mensa Site, so, no circles which were not needed to solve the puzzle. Nice easy Monday puzzle by Roland and Boomer's tour was enjoyable.

Today was a fast solve that took less than 8 minutes. My only erasure was HEEL vs SHOE. The theme answers were filled in with perps.

DW and I started married life with a MixMaster as a wedding gift over 50 years ago. It mixed a lot of cakes, mashed potatoes and a myriad of other things. When it started getting squirrelly it was replaced with the top-of-the-line KitchenAide mixer. DW wasn't thrilled with it because the head did not tilt, so, we got the KitchenAide mixer that did tilt. Guess what, we are back to using a new MixMaster. It doesn't seem to be as sturdy as our original one (more plastic and less metal) but it works the way she likes. The two KitchenAide mixers are collecting dust in the pantry.

I don't have a problem with AT SEA, but I do with ASEA. Maybe I live a sheltered life, but I don't know anyone who actually uses ASEA in conversation. It may be At Sea, Out to Sea, Sailing, Cruising, Fishing or something along those lines to describe being away from land.

It's National Cheese day. A toasted cheese sandwich on homemade bread with tomato soup sounds like a good idea for lunch. Enjoy.

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

Like IM, I, too, had no WO's or LU's. Clever puzzle theme and an equally excellent recap. Fun way to start the week

Our weather finally appears to be offering up some sunshine; hoping to take advantage of it over the next 48 hrs

Haven't seen Pee Wee REESE in awhile - same with ALAI; today's puzzle felt kinda "old school", in a good way. MIX MASTER was properly placed near the bottom corner. I had no clue where the theme was headed

Lots of punny possibilities; but I chose these instead:

Pirate's favorite
Party to attend, is one
That's COME-as-you-RRRR

Some roosters and hens
Opened a Starbucks, because
They like things full-BROOD

Northwest Runner said...

Second the cheers for today's NYT by C.C. A wonderful theme and quite accessible for a Monday puzzle.

Yellowrocks said...

Time for a quick break. The Aral sea was the 4th largest lake in the world at one time. It has shrunk by 75%.
At present, the largest lakes by area are:
1. Caspian Sea 371,000 sq.km.
2. Lake Superior 82,414 sq km.
3. Lake Victoria 68,485 sq, km.
4. Lake Huron 59,596 sq. km.
5. Lake Michigan 58,016 sq, km.
The top 5 include 3 of our Great Lakes. It is amazing how extensive our 5 great lakes are. But the Caspian Sea is larger in area than all five Great Lakes combined (244,106 sq. km.)

Hungry Mother said...

It’s been a long time since I’ve solved the LAT puzzle and posted here, due to marathon training, travel, and other poor excuses. It was pure joy to get back at it today.

CanadianEh! said...

Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and Boomer.
I saw the mixed letters at 17A but like PK, thought the mixed word was STREAM. Had to rethink at 60A reveal. Clever.

Straightforward solve with just a few hiccups.
Aim went to USE; Concerning was ABOUT not IN RE (too short); I added the T because Asea was too short. LALANNE was all perps. I also noted that we had not see ALAI for awhile.

LOL re Skip to My LOO.

I always thought Lake Superior was the largest fresh-water lake and it is. I LIUed and the Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world but only the northern part of it is fresh-water. It is "most saline on the Iranian shore, where the catchment basin contributes little flow. Currently, the mean salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earth's oceans." (Wikipedia) Semantics I guess. Still impressive.

Enjoy the day. We are much cooler too after some much-needed rain.

WikWak said...

WEESAEE. The only thing that made it harder was not being able to download it from Cruciverb. I really don’t like any of the web-based (and ad supported) sites.

It’s a nice day out. Why am I still inside?!

COME-as-you-RRRR… Good one, Chairman Moe!

Thanks, Roland, and well done, Boomer!

Have a great day, all!

(WEESAEE: WEES About Everything Else)

Lucina said...

If it's Boomer, it must be Monday. And it is! Thank you, Boomer. I was much amused by your puns and wit.

IPODS, IOS and CELL remind me what kind of world I now live in though OSCARS, LALANNE, ENOLA, CLARA, SHRIVER and others tell me where I have been. This was a nice swing into the past and present. Thank you, Roland Huget.

I see the hola/OLA situation has been well explained by D4E4H and Jinx. Two languages and actually in Spanish the "h" in hola is silent so both are pronounced ola.

I'm waiting for a repairman for my oven. It doesn't turn on and luckily I have a toaster oven so yesterday the meatloaf went in there and cooked very nicely.

Have a marvelous day, everyone!

Misty said...

What a great way to start the week--many thanks, Roland. I got puzzle, Sudoku, Kenken, and Jumble--Woohoo! (okay, it's all downhill from here, but what a cool start). I started out with a little nit about all that Apple stuff which I don't know (I POD and IOS), but, hey, that's only two items and there was lots of fun stuff all around. Boomer, it made me happy that you brought up the "Odd Couple" with OSCARS, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. And I love circles (sorry, Circled Again, some of us slower solvers need all the help we can get) and so got the theme early on and loved the MIX MASTER reveal. Anyway, a delight, and Boomer, your write-ups are so clever and funny, another TREAT (not a Halloween one).

Gosh, I wish I could get all those C.C. puzzles--congratulations, C.C.!

Welcome back, Hungry Mother.

Lots of helpful information, Yellowrocks.

Thank you, for the kind words, Irish Miss. It is a great relief to have that scare over with.

Have a wonderful week, everybody!

Tinbeni said...

Boomer: Good job on the write-up.

Roland: Thank you for a FUN Monday puzzle.

Had the three theme's figured out before MIX MASTER was entered.
Have to admit I "had no clue" of the Sunbeam brand product.

Temp. has been around a "High" of 86 or 88 degrees so far ...
still haven't turned on the A/C (yet) this year.
Hey, I'm a REAL Floridian ... this humidity doesn't bother me.

Cheers!

CrossEyedDave said...

FIW, Olaf instead of Olav. (I thought Shrifer looked wrong...:(

MixMaster?

I hate it when my MixMaster makes comments about my cooking...

National Cheese Day?

Roy said...

Before MIXMASTER, I too had anagrams of STREAM for the theme.

The unforgetable acronym for the rainbow: ROY G. BIV.

Spelled LALANNE correctly because of the long vowel before the double consonant.

Again, we leave out Mr. Utang's last name.

AnonymousPVX said...

A nice Monday puzzle to start the week....no issues at all.

Sold my motorcycle over the weekend...first time in 47 years that I am “bikeless”...no more for me, it’s the Miata from now on.

The day after I sold it, I read an article where a surgeon called them “donor-cycles”. After being hit in the rear bumper in my former car twice in 5 years...while stopped at a red light....I decided that car drivers and cellphones were a bad combination for motorcycle riders.


And on to Tuesday.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. Seeing the circles and having solved the STREAM part I figured this was a mix-up-the-letters puzzle and sussed the "base" word would be MASTER. It was. No nits, no gripes, all smiles. Only WO was to change POLITE to POLISH.
Boomer, your "skip to my loo" comment is priceless.
Best wishes to you all.

Anonymous T said...

It wasn't until PK said: "My grandmother had a MIXMASTER which I inherited until it started giving electric shocks when touched at about age 40" that it dawned on me MIX MASTER wasn't a type of / name of Bread (like, who names bread?). Now I remember those Mixers... Play later. Cheers, -T

Jayce said...

AnonymousPVX, what kind of motorcycle was it?

D4E4H said...

COMMENTS ON THE COMMENTS:

PK at 8:09 AM
- - Here's LOOking at ya. Toodle LOO.

- - In the words of Irish Miss at 8:48 AM, "A belated Happy Birthday to Owen." I'm in your debt I-M.

oc4beach at 9:27 AM
- - Is the cheese really more binding on National Cheese day? I like bacon in my grilled sandwich.

Hungry Mother at 10:43 AM
- - Has anyone ever told you how much you resemble Tinbeni? Welcome home.

Lucina at 11:33 AM
- - Lynn recently had to replace the coil in the oven so she could bake once more.

Misty at 11:42 AM
______________
J
OwenKL on 6-2 linked me to "uclick" for the daily jumble. I worked one today about arm wrestling. Is that today's jumping jumble?
___________

Ðave

Picard said...

Fun, quick Monday solve. Sorry if some don't like circles. I do like them! At the LA Times site you are guaranteed to get circles.

Boomer: Thanks for the review. My favorite:
iOS. I think it stands for i Overcharge Society

Here are a few more of my RIO photos since RIO came up again. Highlights include Sugar Loaf Mountain and an intense soccer national playoff game.

Once again here is my ENOLA Gay photo. At the National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. My best friend from high school lives near the museum.

Once again here are my amusing photos of ORANGutans posing with humans.

"ORANG" means "Man" in the local languages (Malay/Indonesian). ORANG-HUTAN means Man of the Forest.

Jinx: Actually, my college girlfriend really did look like Emma Peel/Diana Rigg!

Misty said...

J--yep, that was today's Jumble.

oc4beach said...


D4 @ 1:02pm: If you eat too much cheese, it can definitely be binding. Bacon is good on a toes and cheese sandwich as my kids called it when they were little (Toasted Cheese). Today I had a grilled deli ham and Muenster cheese sandwich on thick slabs of home made bread along with a bowl of tomato basil soup (Progresso). Definitely good. If I had any bacon, it would have been on it also. Enjoy.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-27 holes on a wonderful summer morn
-I KID YOU NOT!
-My hearing aids Bluetooth feature works with IOS but not OSX
-My MIL had a BROODER house for her nest of chicks
-Boomer knows that your age is counted by trips around the sun since your NATAL appearance not by the arbitrary calendar
-My friends Ukrainian exchange student was overwhelmed and cried when she saw her first supermarket ASILE
-I love how Excel can SORT a list with over a hundred names in one click!
-Mower is calling

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thank you, Mr. Huget for a pleasant start to the week. And thanks too to Boomer for the commentary and engaging pix!

There has been a lot of serious reflection regarding the ethics of dropping the A-Bomb on Japan. I don't recall any second thoughts at the time - at least not among the grownups around me in Northern California. It was general knowledge that all sides were seeking to perfect some "miracle weapon" and that whoever got it first was bound to inflict it on the other side.
In hindsight I wish we had been BLESSed with patience for calmer deliberation and the ability to see other tactics that might have forced a Japanese surrender.
I am still not sure what those tactics might have been.

D4E4H, I like cheese and bacon too. But I swore off it for a while after our last trip to Europe. My wife and I can speak one-and-a-half languages between us, and we realized after the third country that whenever we were hungry and too impatient to look up anything new in a dictionary, we would invariably order "ham and cheese sandwiches."
We picked that up in umpteen different languages:
"jambon-fromage, s'il vous plaît"
"Schinken und Käsebrot ..."
"ветчина и сыр"
etc. usw.

~ OMK

___________
Diagonal Report:
None on the front end, three on the mirror side.

Ol' Man Keith said...

AnonymousPVX,
I know how you feel. I sold my last motorcycle ten years ago (BMW K100), and I still feel its absence. I hadn't ridden it for a couple of years before selling, so it was the right thing to do.

Still ...

~ OMK

Michael said...

OMK, there is also the question of whether the A-bombs were, forgive my wording, effective. I read somewhere that it was only after the USSR declared war on Japan and went into Manchuria, also on August 9, that the Japanese War Council pulled the plug on the whole adventure.

Wiki says: "The Soviet entry into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army was a significant factor in the Japanese government's decision to surrender unconditionally, as it made apparent the Soviet Union would no longer be willing to act as a third party in negotiating an end to hostilities on conditional terms."

Another factor: the casualty estimates for a home island's invasion were horrendous as well.

Me, I don't know. It was 'way above my pay grade, and I was only months old....

Lucina said...

I was 8 at the time so had no knowledge of the bombing. Mr. Truman likely felt it was his best option but I recall being horrified when I learned of it much later.

Picard:
You so generously share your beautiful photos which provide us graphic complements to the puzzle; thank you and please continue. I meant to write earlier but it was nap time.

Wilbur Charles said...

I actually entered LAMB and never corrected the A so I had ARANG .AARRGGHH!

I thought Hondo would give us some good PeeWee Reese talk. For a minute I was thinking of Wee Willie Keeler. I said that name to a girl at work and she blushed.
___Jumble alert(gag). I did this one in my head but I had hopelessly bolloxed Sudoku within minutes.

Re ASEA/AT SEA there's that DARIN* song.
FLN: for "R" I had VOTE. And REDE even though I was trying to think of the "Scarlet Letter".
Btw ..
Since we get a lot of baseball in here , today's MLB Draft reminds me of the last pre-draft year when a friend of mine got a cool 100K from Charlie Finley.

I wonder if he does xwords, he was smart- he bought a laundromat with the$.

WC

* I can't link "Beyond the Sea" because YouTube wants me to subscribe to something
** DARIN was clued recently . The Wilbur rules says caps are good for a week

Ol' Man Keith said...

Michael,
That's a good point. The Japanese did not surrender after Hiroshima. The Russians, having regained energy after the defeat of Germany, were ready to claim some share of the Japanese defeat, and their invasion of Manchuria may well have been a factor in the final capitulation.
During the Cold War our history books tended to favor the efficacy of the bombs, noting that Japan finally gave in after our second (and only remaining) A-Bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The Russian incursion was seen as merely opportunistic, trying to carve out a piece of the Japanese empire.
I have read many views on the subject. I can't say I have seen everything, but I am pretty sure it was the two nuclear blasts that turned the tide so quickly and completely. Some pundits have insisted that a mid-ocean demonstration of the A-Bomb before Japan's top admirals and generals might have done it, but they fail to take into account two important factors:
1) that we were not entirely sure the bomb would perform as expected/hoped, and
2) it was not just the leaders who needed convincing, but the very determined people of Japan, fiercely loyal to the emperor (who, in any case, stayed on as the titular head of state despite the "unconditional" surrender terms).

I agree that the bombing of civilians - and such a massive number of them - was a terrible act, profoundly immoral and a black mark for humanity. I also wonder what else we could have done to stop the vast killing and inflamed passions of a vicious war.

~ OMK

SwampCat said...

Keith, thanks for your measured assessment of the A Bomb question. I certainly have no answers but the Russian invasion did not bring surrender. If we had had to invade Japan the casualties were estimated to far outnumber those in the Caused by the A Bombs because of the Code of Bushido which required death before the dishonor of surrender. The Japanese citizens could not surrender so the casualties would have been awful. The A Bombs convinced the Emperor he could not win. He was the only one who had the ability to surrender.

Very complex situation, then and now.

SwampCat said...

I’ve been traveling and not doing the puzzles. A belated happy day, Owen, and thanks for all the pleasure you bring us.

Thanks to Roland and Boomer for a great start to the week. I laughed at AT SEA after all the criticism of asea.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Roland for a puzzle that MIXed me up. I really was thinking it was a loaf of bread [see: @12:59p]. Nice Anagram puzzle.

Boomer - what more can be said about your expo? I LIKE it. (Peepers clue indeed :-))

WOs: CLARe, LArANNE
ESPs: SHRIVER, ALAI (I knew it-ish)
Fav: COME as You Are [Nirvana - 3:45]

{B, A-} {ha!, Cute}

Hi Hungry Mother. Nice to see you.

PVX - Yeah, that's how my office-mate was killed; he was on his bike and a texter hit him. CEO put out a "no cell phones while driving" company policy. If we're caught commuting and telecommuting, sacking ensues. You might think "no big deal," but we're a Fortune 500 company; so yeah, kinda big deal.

Oc4 - I've always had a 'flip' KitchenAide. I love it but have no comparison for reference. What am I missing? (Not the pasta attachment! :-))

CED - LOL! the MIXer scowling at your dish.

Cheers, -T

oc4beach said...


Anon-T: I guess it's just that having used the MixMaster for so many years, my DW was used to how it worked and could not (or would not) get used to the KitchenAide. We didn't get a pasta attachment because of the hand cranked pasta maker that we have had for years that still works fine.

We got the dough hooks with the KitchenAide but never used it to make bread. Another case of doing it the old fashioned way by hand.

It's not that DW is afraid of moving on to something new, as evidenced by her Kindles, IPads, cars, and other gadgets.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I really liked ex-gasbag Bill O'Reilly's book "Killing the Rising Sun". Well written and researched, with fascinating details. No politics.

I may have mentioned this before. West Marine in Marina del Rey, CA had an employee named Enola Gay (don't remember her last name). She was smart and very helpful to customers shopping for boat hardware. She didn't try to avoid her name - her name tag had her first and middle names. My guess is that she was born in the late 1940s.

D4E4H said...

PICARD PICS:

- - I have yet to view PICs from 6-1.
- - From 6-2, I finally saw you as a drone on the hive in the last PIC. Only 17 days till the First Day of Summer, Thursday, June 21, 2018.
- - Re. Flambe, Kilauea has nothing about which to worry. Does one eat the extinguished Etna?
- - The Butterflies, and one Luna Moth are like flowers on flowers.

Ðave

D4E4H said...

Volcano eruptions:

- - I looked for today's update for Kilauea, and I did find Hawaii Volcano Eruption Update - Monday Morning (June 4, 2018)

- - But then I found Guatemala's Fuego volcano - Massive eruption (June 4, 2018)

- - And for those who wonder what might have caused it 6/04/2018 -- Fuego Volcano largest blast in 100+ years -- Earthquake strikes nearby AS EXPECTED

Ðave

Bill G said...

I used to have a restored 1953 BSA 500cc single. I really liked it but I got oil on the clutch plates and they never released properly after that. It's gone now.

I never had a collision on it but Barbara and I had gone for a ride in the local mountains. I had gotten us back safely within 10 blocks of home and I was waiting at a traffic light in the left turn lane. There was a bit of oil on the street and the rear wheel slid out from under us as I made a left turn. I was worried about the newly restored custom paint job but I was clever enough to say, "Are you OK dear?"

Wilbur Charles said...

Apparently Truman made an exception on the unconditional surrender demand
at the request of MacArthur. Did we need the second bomb? Hindsight consensus seems to be no.

I'm in the camp that says Russian declaration of war was self serving and didn't influence the peace treaty. The two had been at war in the 30s but prior to WWII had made a peace treaty which the Russians betrayed once they had the Germans licked.

Apparently, the Germans anticipated the Pearl Harbor attack because their spy apparatus was a key factor in the planning and execution. And of course declared war on the US according to the plan.

And as I've posted before a lot of this was not known for years. But given the breaking of Enigma didn't the British see the Hawaii-Berlin traffic prior to 12/7?

I'm surprised that 2+2 hasn't been added up. Or if we're adding was 3500 casualties at Pearl worth the ultimate defeat of Hitler and Japan.

WC

PK said...

AnonPVX: I think you are wise to quit riding. We have a motorcyclist killed about every six months here in the city. (Also a bicyclist at least once a year.) Years ago when I lived in the country, my DIL's boss got engaged one night. Her husband was riding his motorcycle to work the next morning and collided with a deer. The man died. Another time I was riding behind a friend one evening about dusk. He suddenly stopped in the middle of an almost deserted road. When I peered around his shoulder a big buck deer was standing there daring us to come get him. Always some kind of hazard out there.

My husband had a 1949 Harley. I rode with him until I got pregnant, then I felt a woman with little children had better things to do than risk the life of her children's mother. Husband rode very little those years then when insurance became manditory, we couldn't afford it. He put it away for the rest of his life. A friend of mine restored it. My son has the Harley now, a family treasure.

PK said...

D4: Toodle LOO! Too funny!

D4E4H said...

PK, not if you're toodle late.

Anonymous T said...

I'll put this first because the imagery is DARK: Manhattan Project [RUSH 5:06 --The first half has gruesome pictures - don't watch if you're on your way to bed]. I'll just say, a) we can be horrible b) I'm glad that wasn't my decision to make.

//now up-shift and let's go....

Oc4 - Funny stayin' Old School. I tried the dough-hook 2x for pizza and went back to "feeling" the dough. I use the normal blade for Pizzelles and other mixing but for cookies, butter and sugar deserve a fork by hand as to not to over-do the butter.

I only use the "whip" for, well, um, whipped-cream (because it's always better fresh with a lagniappe of vanilla :-))

BillG - now that's fast thinking! :-)

PK - I'da thought it safer to have a motorcycle far from the city... Never thought of the wild-life toppling you [was the deer texting?]

Cheers, -T

PK said...

AnonT: No, the buck was teSting us. Don't know what would have happened if he had charged us. He just looked a minute then slowly walked on across the road and into the trees.

I used to use the dough hooks on my Oster for bread and then finish it by hand. Didn't take so long to knead then. If I left it on the hooks too long, the dough climbed them and was a mess to get out of some of the holes on the mixer arm.

D4:never been "toodle late" yet since I was six. So far, so good!

I'm hoping someone has finally endoctrinated that North Korean guy on the bomb results and that's what has him looking so happy & friendly with his neighbors. I don't suppose they teach Japanese-American history in his schools. Now if we could just be sure some American leaders also know that factual history.

Anonymous said...

As we say in Brazil, you steped on the ball, on clue #7 down. They do not speak Spanish in Brazil, but Portuguese. In Portuguese, Hi is "ola". So Hi in Rio is a perfect clue, with a perfect answer.