google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, June 16, 2018, Neville Fogarty & Andy Kravis

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Jun 16, 2018

Saturday, June 16, 2018, Neville Fogarty & Andy Kravis

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Neville Fogarty and Andy Kravis

Today celebrates National Ladies Day At Baseball Games. In 1883 the St. Louis Browns (who later became the Baltimore Orioles) decided to try to attract more fans to their baseball games and so on June 16 of that year they decided to let women in free IF they were accompanied by man and it was a huge success. This picture of much later vintage shows a large female crowd who managed to get in by themselves. Yes, C.C., there was a time when women couldn't go to ball games alone!

I first thought this day might be a celebration of women playing baseball themselves as shown in the movie A League Of Their Own. However that was not the case. This day was for attracting ladies to the park not to, EGADS, play! That would be as unthinkable as letting them vote in 1883! 😮







     Neville Fogarty                Andy Kravis
On this All-American Day, we have a Neville Fogarty and Andy Kravis puzzle that I managed to knock out in 22 minutes while having a good time. Talk about being on sympathetic wavelengths.

The section in yellow fell as fast as I could write as the fills going down were right up my alley, er, grid. The two long down fills at 11 and 12 took some time for this non drinker who really should have known the Doris Day song subtitled What Will Be Will Be (a good attitude on the golf course). 

The other two long fills were very gettable as well. ECHO CHAMBER reflects my general disdain for public figures who only talk in environs where there beliefs are echoed back to them with very little disagreement.

The rest was a nice breezy Saturday stroll with foreign words and geometry thrown in for a little spice 

Now for the rest of the puzzle - PLAY BALL! Ladies welcome, escorted or otherwise!






Across:

1. Weight-training equipment: SQUAT RACKS - Here a young lady has taken a reasonable amount of weight off the RACK behind her and is doing SQUATS with the barbell



11. Cotton cleaner: Q-TIP - My ENT says "Keep these out of your ears!"

15. Traditional November race: TURKEY TROT - That's the spirit! 



16. Social containers: URNS - Does that URN contain coffee or grandma?

17. Something a customer is happy to send back: REBATE FORM - A very common document in our house

18. One in Berlin: EINS - In Germany, Lawrence Welk would go, "Und eine Eins, und eine Zwei, und eine Drei..." (or something like that)

19. G8 member: USA - Much in the news last week concerning letting Russia back in to go from G7 back to G8

20. What an enemy exploits: WEAK SPOT - The worst pass defender on a football team is going to be busy all day 

22. Needle holder: TONE ARM - Ah the "high fidelity" instrument of  of my yute with TONE ARM poised to play more Four Seasons and Roy Orbison




27. Sharon of Israel: ARIEL.

28. Rewards for a big promotion?: CLIOS - A CLIO Award for this hilarious promotion of milk



30. Laker teammate of Magic: KAREEM - His "Sky Hook" has been called absolutely unblockable 



33. "Aha!": SO THAT'S IT - Says Brad Loahus above,"You can't block it!"

37. Flip: SASSY - History's most famous "flip" comment - Qu’ils mangent de la brioche




35. Interpret: TRANSLATE - How I got the translation for 37 Across above




38. Zaragoza's river: EBRO - Earlier in the week the clue might have been, "38. Large Spanish river"

39. Fabulous fellow?: AESOP - Earlier in the week the clue might have been "39. Man of many fables"



41. Map's blue areas: SEAS - 2/3 of the Earth's surface

42. Motel arrival?: ROACH  - At the Black Flag Roach Motel, roaches check in but they never check out

44. Like some diamonds: SQUARE CUT - V-shaped prongs are recommended to protect the sharp corners of the stone


46. Role for Heston or Huston: BEN HUR - I saw the incredible Charlton Heston version when I was 13 as my friend's religious mother thought he and I could stand the realism

48. Weasel relative: OTTER - _ T _ _ _ was not a STOAT. All three are in the family Mustelidae 

49. "Fuller House" actor: SAGET.

51. Chords are part of them: SECANTS - A circular path with a CHORD shortcut that becomes a SECANT when extended both ways beyond the circumference of the circle (almost a straight line)



55. Cannes Film Festival award: PALME D'OR - Very little was expected of this wonderful movie until it won some PALME D'OR honors and then it made good money and got 6 Oscar nominations



58. Leave slack-jawed: AWE.

59. Many a Syrian: ARAB.

60. Booted, in old football: DROP KICKED - Drew Brees executing one in an All Star Game. He simply dropped the ball on its point and then kicked it through the uprights for 3 points



65. Give credit to: CITE - I could have CITED Bobby Bare above for singing, Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goal Posts Of Life

66. "Count me in!": I AM SO THERE.

67. Visionary: SEER.

68. 1999 Pacino/Crowe film about a whistleblower: THE INSIDER - ok


Down:

1. Runway gait: STRUT - Not a great gait here



2. Nacho cheese: QUESO.

3. Name of eight popes: URBAN - URBAN II called for the 1st Crusade against the Muslims



4. Handle letters: AKA.

5. Vietnamese holiday: TET - America's pyrrhic victory in this huge battle cost a great deal in men and materiel, fueled the anti-war movement in the USA and helped LBJ decide to not run for reelection three months later in March of '68

6. Deli selection: RYE.

7. DOJ division: ATF - It started in 1886 in the Treasury Dept. to collect income taxes and since then has become an agency for Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms

8. Bird that's hard to eat?: CROW - The Chicago Daily Tribune had a generous helping of CROW in 1948



9. Peninsula partly defined by the Yalu River: KOREA which is where 21. Souls, e.g.: KIAS  are manufactured

10. Gospel writer: ST MARK - The debate goes on as to whether ST MARK's or Alexander The Great's remains are buried under the altar at ST MARK's Basilica in Venice

11. Subtitle of #48 in AFI's "100 Years...100 Songs": QUE SERA SERA - The neighborhood:



12. Cosmopolitan essential: TRIPLE SEC - Meaning "Triple Distilled", it is a strong , sweet and colorless orange flavored liqueur

13. __ way, shape or form: IN NO.

14. Covert call: PSST - This is cat speak for, "PSST, get up and feed me!" I get it at 4:30 am everyday 



23. Place where it all comes back to you?: ECHO CHAMBER - Where politicians like to give speeches

24. __ king: ALA - I complained about Chicken ALA King in high school like everyone else but secretly loved it



25. British vocalist __ Ora: RITA, 29. "Thong Song" singer: SISQO and 56. Grammy winner India.__: ARIEGoogle them if they interest you

26. Law recipient: MOSES - Take two tablets and call me in the morning

31. Genesis brother: ESAU which I'm sure can be found in the 50. Jewish authority: TORAH.



32. Classic PC adventure game: MYST.

33. President Aleksandar Vucic, for one: SERB - The president of Serbia for a year now

34. It has a brief solo in the first movement of Beethoven's Fifth: OBOE - A lovely contrast to the stirring theme 

36. Talks up: TOUTS Fugue For Tinhorns - best song by/about TOUTS



40. Crown: PATE - aka Head 43. Very significant: HUGE - Human Growth Hormone made Barry Bonds' PATE get HUGE



45. Remote button: REC  - I can't seem to find that button on this remote


47. Social news website: REDDIT - not a consumer

52. Blunt, as truth: NAKED.

53. Quaint contraction: TWERE My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose - And fare thee weel, my only love? And fare thee well awhile, And will come again, my dear, Tho' 'TWERE ten thousand mile 

54. Jewish meal: SEDER.

55. Campaign donation orgs.: PACS - Super PACS are the mother's milk of political contributions 

57. "Quo Vadis" setting: ROME - The church below, just outside of ROME, was built on the site where the story goes that Peter encountered a visage of Christ and asked him, "Quo Vadis, Domine?" meaning Where are you going Lord?


The Domine QUO VADIS church on the Apian Way

61. Letter with a silent letter: PSI.

62. "__-Tiki": KON. - This was a raft built in 1947 by Thor Hyerdall to cross the Pacific Ocean using only materials available to Pre-Columbian natives of South America to show they could have settled the Polynesian Islands. The KON -Tiki took 101 days to make the crossing.


The Kon Tiki in the Norwegian Maritime Museum
in our favorite crossword city of Oslo

63. Cousin of hers: ITS 



64. City with two MLB teams: CHI - NYC could have worked despite the fact that the Yankees play in the Bronx and the Mets play in Queens.

So get out of the dugout and celebrate this day by posting some pithy comments:




56 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Much easier than yesterday, though I was puzzled by the SQUA TRACKS -- reminded me of an old joke. Anybody else immediately enter RUS for 19a because of the G8? Bzzzzt! Still, I managed to get up, get dressed, take out the trash, start a load of laundry, sit down with a cup of coffee and complete this puzzle in under 30 minutes. Thanx, Neville and Andy and Husker.

TONE ARM: Turntables are making a comeback, providing you've got a spare $300 kicking around. Not my cup of meat. Do you remember this RCA turntable from the '50s? It had a fat center spindle and could only play 45s.

BEN HUR: Charlatan Heston managed to get all the epic roles back in the day, because he looked good all bronzed and oiled up.

ST MARK: I've never understood, is it a gospel because a saint wrote it? Or is he a saint because he wrote a gospel? It's a wonderment.

BobB said...

51A Chords are part of them, held me up til the bitter end. Had musical chords in my head and wouldn't give it up. Knew that 45D had to be rec, rev or rew. Finally my old trig classes woke me up. Secants, DOH!

Anonymous said...

QUE SERA SERA is not a "subtitle"; it's the title, or at least an alternate title.

billocohoes said...

Did not know of Jack Huston and the 2016 version of BEN-HUR. It was said that Heston's acting talent was that he could find a way to take his shirt off filming inside a freezer in Antarctica.

Had to back into SQUAT RACKS and TONE ARM, but the only real problem was the center, not knowing SISQO, sToat for OTTER, REW for REV, and the geometry relationship of chord and SECANT.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks Neville and Andy for a pretty good run. I did better than yesterday, but I was completely stuck on stoat for weasel. Not knowing SISQO didn't help. Needle holder--Huh? Oh, that needle holder. Could get my mind off the needles I have here. Even gave syringe a thought. Faves today: that Fabulous fellow and Hotel arrival. SQUATRACKS are not on my To Do list. Yours, Yellowrocks?

Great tour again. Thanks, Gary. Nebraska was an amazingly poignant film. Bruce Dern is a fine American actor. He told a great story years ago about being stopped by police because the officer recognized his face as one who had committed a major crime: He killed John Wayne in The Cowboys(?). For some bizarre reason I had a horse right here: Paul Revere ear worm yesterday. Does that make me a SEER?

Have a fine weekend. It's going to be a hot muggy one here in Chicagoland.

Anthony Gael Moral said...

Yes, Bob, "QUE SERA SERA" is hardly a subtitle. But I enjoyed the reference to Doris's hit song of my youth. (I never much cared for the song then, but I guess since it's almost as old as I am I like it now.)

I'm not sure about the "Korea Peninsula." It's "Korean Peninsula," right?

Did John Huston play Ben-Hur? A silent film star did, but his name escapes me.

desper-otto said...

Extra credit question: Name the movie that won the Best Song Oscar for Que Sera Sera?

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

Had to look up far too many answers to finish the puzzle. SISQO and SECANTS slowed my progress. PALME D'OR (?) was another LU, as was QUÉ SERA SERA, although by then I got lazy, as I filled the puzzle from south to north, and never read the clue for 11a.

HG, enjoyed your recap. And for you (and the other golfers here at the Corner), I've created this ditty:

In honor of the US Open Championship, here's my daily Moe-ku:

Golfers who hit their
Balls off course, will likely have
A rough go of it

And my goofy Moe-ku:

What do folks say when
Nacho cheese is not melted?
QUESO raw, so raw.

Anonymous said...

If you did this puzzle fast, you need new batteries in your clock. Ha!

Big Easy said...

HG- your section in yellow was also my section in yellow- speed fill. But I know Saturdays are supposed to be harder than the rest of the week, and it took some wild guessing to luckily finish this puzzle containing, IMHO, way too much religious and A&E fills- my WEAK SPOTs.

PALMEDOR, ARIE, REDDIT, SAGET- unknown A&E's intersecting (everybody knows BEN HUR so I won't count it but have I never herd of THE INSIDER). RITA Ora & SISQO- never heard of either and I seriously doubt they would interest me. QUE SERA SERA- I had no idea what the movie was and had THE SARASOTA (WAG) before OTTER replaced STOAT and SQUARE CUT got my mind away from baseball . I don't drink Cosmos, but down here they make them with VODKA and CRANBERRY juice. TRIPLE SEC showed up after Doris Day finished singing.

ARIAL Sharon, Pope URBAN, MOSES, ESAU, TORAH, SEDER, ST. MARK- only missing BUDDHA & DALAI LAMA
REBATE FORM- I refuse to purchase anything that requires filling and MAILING a rebate form. Those come-ons are depending on people to forget to do it; I call it false advertising. Same reason I never buy a gift card because the merchants are depending on people losing or forgetting about them. Why do you thing all the merchants offer them. They get your money IN ADVANCE and will probably not have to honor a lot of them.

D-O, going back to vinyl makes as much sense as a rotary phone and manual adding machine.
Let me TURKEY TROT outta her before I'm DROPKICKED out by the rest of you.

Yellowrocks said...

I was in a rush to get to the grocery store early, so this seemed difficult. I left a field of white, but when I returned and could relax it was easy. SISQO seemed strange but I let it stand.
Gary, interesting post.

DO, Gospel in Wikipedia "The most widely known examples are the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John which are included in the New Testament, but the term is also used to refer to apocryphal gospels, non-canonical gospels, Jewish-Christian gospels, and gnostic gospels." So the famous 4 are no the only gospels.
St. Mark in Wikipedia "St. Mark the Evangelist wasn't formally canonized. He was officially recognized as a Saint in the earliest days of the Christian Community" but not just for writing the Gospel."Mark is said to have founded the Church of Alexandria, one of the most important episcopal sees of Early Christianity."

13D The clue asked for the subtitle of #48, The title is Whatever Will Be Will Be and the subtitle is Que Sera Sera.( See Gary's chart)

In the 50s we had a little yellow disc to slip over the slender tone arm to play 45s. As an alternative, there were inserts to snap into the hole of each 45, leaving a slender hole that matched the spindle. I have read that some say the old way of recording provided a more accurate tone quality than digital does. This new rage for vinyl is found among the young.

Rainman said...

A little easier than yesterday's for me. 21:30 today, 23:00 Friday.
Normally when there are two crossword co-constructors, the first one is credited with the theme. But hey, this is Saturday,no theme. An inquiring mind wants to know. Grid? Fill? Clue-ing? Que Será Será? Que pasó pasó?

The TONEARM answer made me wonder what I ever did with my old beloved Sony direct-drive turntable. I remember buying it at Pacific Stereo (memories!) for $129, then later buying a TONEARM cartridge for $99. Unparalleled sound quality, at the time. Gee, it was terrific to be able to hear and regard yourself as an audiophile. Oh, the things we took (and take) for granted. :O)

Madame Defarge said...

FLN:

Nice to see OMK has encouraged some thinking on how we read literature. Merci.

I rely on T. S. Eliot for making me feel good about first reads I don't completely understand. While his comment is specific, it applies to all literature in my thinking. "Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."

Go for it Jayce and WC. ;>)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Great intro today, Gary.

Not much to add. Also had stoat before OTTER. No other erasures and no searches were needed. As 'T WERE, TWERE was not helpful in the solve. URBAN was a WAG.
NYC - Bronx and Queens are boroughs and integrally part of NYC. But crosses pointed to CHI.
EINS - Wasn't sure, but learnt that German numbers are feminine. so Gary's "Und eine Eins, und eine Zwei, und eine Drei..." seems correct.
Hast gut gemacht!

Bill G said...

D-O, That would be Alfred Hitchcock's "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day, wouldn't it? The tension leading up to the cymbal crash is scary. One of my favorite movies.

desper-otto said...

Right on, Bill G. You normally don't associate music with a Hitchcock movie, but in this case it was an integral part of the plot.

Lucina said...

Thanks to Neville Fogarty and Andy Kravis for an entertaining challenge.

I skipped around at first then the Eastern border filled. I was surprised when QUESERASERA emerged then QUESO on the other side. Ironically, it means cheese.

Mostly I was on the dynamic duo's wave length. Knew PALME D'OR but wasn't sure of the exact spelling. SISQO seemed strange to me, too, but then so many current singers and rappers have really odd names.

RITA Ora is completely unknown so once I LIU, the grid was complete.

Thank you, Gary; A+ on your commentary.

Have a fabulous day, everyone!

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

I finished this in just shy of 20 minutes which, for me, is a good Saturday solving time. The easy-to-get long fill (Echo Chamber, Que Sera Sera, Triple Sec, etc.) really helped open up the sticky parts of the grid. I never heard of Sis Q O and probably never will. Perps were fair and helped in a few crunchy areas. My favorites were: Law recipient=Moses and Cotton Cleaner=Q Tip.

Thanks, Neville and Andy, for a fun and enjoyable solve and thanks, HG, for the witty and wise wrap up!

Speaking of gift cards, my brother (he of meat grinder infamy) and his wife are celebrating milestone birthdays in July, so I decided to get gift cards from two different upscale restaurants. I went online and the first one I chose went as smooth as silk, no mailing fee, but the next one wanted a $6.50 mailing fee. So, I tried a third choice and they wanted a $5.00 mailing fee. My fourth try was a success with no mailing fee. All four restaurants are top notch but guess which two have my future business?

Have a great day.

Picard said...

Good for all of you who found this easy! Not me! It was a struggle from beginning to end! But all in a good way!

Never heard of SQUAT RACKS and SISQO looked wrong as well as unknown. Hand up for STOAT before OTTER. Anyone else think RABBI before TORAH? Amusing that CHI and PSI are near each other. Amusing indeed that KIA and KOREA were in the same puzzle.

Thanks for the highly illustrated review, Husker Gary! Love the SECANTS image! I am pleased to have FIR!

In this remote area of Indonesia, the vehicles are called BEN HURs. Can you see why?

Here are my photos of my flight on a De Havilland OTTER.

We also got to see real OTTERs along the way!

Plenty of photos in ROME. Another time!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Congrats to all who solved this one without help. The Fogarty/Kravis team beat me - partly because my time was limited, but also because of their own brilliance!

Yes, time is at a premium in the Fowler household as we prepare for the arrival of our son and grandchildren tomorrow. We were all set for a patio cookout, but this June-Gloom weather is now promising to be cloudy & cool tomorrow. We're stacking logs for the fire pit and making other last minute adjustments.

Mme Defarge, yep, Eliot is the Man! Mind you, while I agree that poetry can communicate powerfully "before it is understood," I don't think much of intentionally obscure verse. Whoops, did I say "intentionally"? My bad. I mean obscurity is not essential to poetry, just some collateral damage that creeps in when the poet's and reader's reference frames don't match.

Decades ago I won an undergrad oral interp contest with an Eliot poem, and I took great delight in rattling off the intro from Dante in perfect Italian. I didn't know any more Italian than most in my audience. It was a stunt that woke everybody up. You can't get more obscure, but I did it to "communicate" my (rehearsed/drilled) expertise. I think it worked.

Happy Fathers' Day to all our dads!

~ OMK

____________
Diagonal Report:
The single mirror diagonal (NE to SW) offers the anagram,
APT GRIN SKIMS SIS.


.

Jayce said...

I enjoyed working this puzzle. Solved the whole thing without having to look anything up, but made a spelling error so had to turn on red letters to see where it was. Turns out I had CLEO and RETA; that E shoulda been an I. Hand up for not knowing SISQO, but 5 perps and I had it. I was fixated on something to do with sewing while trying to figure out what a "needle holder" is, and PINCUSHION wouldn't work. Having QUESA instead of QUESO delayed my getting TONE, but once I sussed that I knew the ARM part right away. Come to think of it, I got the ARM part first, from ReTA and MOSES, which resulted in my changing QUESO to QUESA. By the way, a high-end audiophile would turn up his nose at calling a stylus a needle, but for purposes of a crossword puzzle I'm happy with needle.

I loved the clues for MOSES and ROACH and I loved Gary's comment re URN.

My Dual turntable died several years ago and I miss being able to listen to my records. My searches for a replacement always seem to steer me to the Audio-Technica AT-LP120, which is, yep, in the $300 range, including cartridge. Not great, but affordable, the next higher price tier being in the range of $800. LW does not give her approval to buy a turntable, however, her reason being our CDs are good enough. Oh, but what to do with all that currently unplayable vinyl I've got? To her pack-rat mind having a cabinetful of useless stuff doesn't matter. So a SEER would say a new turntable is not in my future.

Best wishes to you all.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Anonymous T,
To respond to your note of yesterday, yes, a Yelp review from a diner who hasn't previously eaten at an establishment can be fairly said to be "untainted" by expectations or prejudices. But it is not for that reason a particularly rich response. New Criticism would want the diner to judge the meal entirely on its own merits, to keep the food's taste and textures separate from any knowledge of what the chef was after.

But innocence is not always the best judge. Readers who read the New Critic's restaurant assessments will make their own evaluation of his/her taste.

Gotta rush!

~ OMK

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I was doing just fine, erasing liberally as perps dictated, until I got to "Thong Song". My first thought was PLEASE don't let it be [Susan] Boyle. I was so distracted that I LIU, and after reading the lyrics decided that I would rather see Meat Loaf in a thong than hear that song. Hey SISQO, if you don't want me to use that word, don't use it yourself. (Actually I won't use it anyway and wish you wouldn't.)

Me too for wanting stoat. I also erased swab for QTIP, WEAKness for SPOT, MiST for MYST and pious for URBAN. The only URBAN I know of is former Florida coach Meyer.

Even after cheating I managed to blow two cells. My cousin was ITt and my letter with a silent letter was Pea.

Thanks to Neville and Andy for the approachable Saturday puzzle. I came closer than I do on most of them. My favorite as "fabulous fellow" for AESOP. And thanks to Gary for another fine review.

AnonymousPVX said...

I saw a sign in my vet’s office:

Dogs have Masters
Cats have Staff

This was a crunchy Saturday outing for me, happy to get the solve. Neither Cain, Abel or Seth worked for 31D. Crosses finally fixed that. Had WEAPONRY for 20A when I had WEA to start it until crosses fixed that as well.

Jayce...get a turntable new or used, or sell your vinyl. It’s doing no one any good just sitting there. I’d ask if you get to tell your partner what shoes to buy, but I know better.

Wilbur Charles said...

The first one that Tin would get was my last. Finally Dawn came to Marblhead. The drink, eg COSMO. And we've had it.

Any veteran xworder knows a Q doesn't necessarily need a U. SWAB and QUIP finally V8 #99.
Gary, first 22 minutes very impressed. But moreso that your a Roy fan. But...For the version of Blue Bayou I like whatshername
FLN. Lucina I had left two hints myself on the _J. I think I did it today. I have no short term memory and precious little focus. If I don't write in the answers I immediately forgot them. My hints for today?:. PLIARS has no A. _J words in general often begin with vowels as in IMPACT yesterday.

Kareem had a memorable Skyhook to beat C's in '74 but C's came back in 7th to win Championship. Btw, wasn't KWilkes nickname SMOOTH? I'm trying to think of Magic's first name.
My son suggested MYST so it's not a clean FIR. I thought this very tough.

Before the band there was an old detox named Drop Kick Murphy's

I actually penned in STYLUS for 10D

While I think about it, keep an eye on Bruce Koepke in US open.

Btw, Nero Wolfe pronounced the P in PSHAW.
I saw Jayce's use of STYLUS. So I LIU. It does indeed have two meanings including what was used to "Write" the gospels.
Also, Lucina, OMK not WC was posting about the "New Crit". Too bad Misty is in Europe (good for her I'm sure); that has to be a specialty of hers.
Speaking of prices, do you all get the watches for sale? $199, $300? For the latter I'd indeed buy a turntable.

WC

Gary FABULOUS Write-up. Having read all the posts one must be amazed that someone like me , having tried SWAB and then having Q_I P couldn't get QTIP until TRIPLE SEC as liqueur dawned.

WC

Jayce said...

After doing a little bit of reading about New Criticism and what it is I realize I have been a "new critic" all my life. I have a little more insight into why I would instinctively bristle in various literature classes in school when the teacher would ask us to think about "what the violin music meant" in a certain work for example. My instinct was always to want to cry out, "Who cares? I can enjoy and appreciate the work without wondering at the implicit symbolic significance (if any!!) of the protagonist submerging himself in the lake." When the raven quoth "Nevermore" I can like or not like how that affects me, without having to, in my view gratuitously and artificially, ask such distracting and unnecessary questions such as what did the raven, or for that matter Poe, mean. I now realize that is why I have always had a certain amount of, forgive me, contempt for so-called scholars of literature.

Roy said...

Had to look up the song to get SISQO. I've probably heard of him but I'm more familiar with this one and this one.

jfromvt said...

I labored through and finished it, so tougher for me than some of the others commenters. But I didn’t enjoy the puzzle, way too many obscure answers for my liking.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Late start today. DW & I spent the morning / early afternoon scouring the nation for her new car --- a 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI. We found one that meets her every whim in MI. //Crowdsourcing - anyone have experience with this car. I assume Fiat-('Fix It Again, Tony')-quality from an Italian car but she likes all things Italian 'cuz we're sexy-cute :-)

Thanks Neville & Andy but, Nope. I could not crack the center down to ROACH even after looking up SISQO (thanks for NOT linking that HG).

Thanks HG for the expo and finishing my fill. I was going nuts with the Chord clue. I was thinking music at 1st, but unlike BobN, I moved on to Chords of wood. I know a Face is part of a Chord, but what's a Chord part of?...

Oh, and Gary - LOL @2 tablets @26d!

LIU in desperation: THE INSIDER (determined CHI/NYC options), SISQO, PALMEDOR
WO: Rho b/f PSI, RABBI b/f TORA, cON TIKI, SaRA SERA... Thank goodness for the do-over
Fav: c/a for CLIOS.

{}{nice, hahaha}

YR - for Dick Clarks' obit comic there was a picture of the yellow insert. Caption: "If you know what this is, you know who he was." I have it around here somewhere if you want to see a snap of it.

OMK - thanks for that. So now I know, any idiot is a critic and can spout whatever nonsense... I AM SO THERE!. //no offense Jayce :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G said...

I remember being captivated by the virtual world created in Myst. I'd be happy to tackle it all over again.

Another Mac arcade game I really liked was Crystal Quest. I can't find it available anywhere.

WC: Magic Johnson's first name was/is Earvin. Jamaal Wilkes nickname was Silk.

Anonymous T said...

Typo - s/b Dick Clark's. Obit OpEd comic that you didn't ask for... -T

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Good one, Neville & Andy, you ornery boys. Great expo, Gary. Took me 29:14 min. with red-letter corrections.

SQUATRACKS? Really? They have such things? I had TRACKS from perps for a long time. Expected to find a running surface. TURKEY TROT, I got. TET, RYE, AT_ I got. Otherwise the NW corner was the last to fill. For some reason, I thought the Yalu River was between countries in a later war, despite seeing the correct answer recently. DUH!

The rest of the puzzle went some better from perps. QUESO & QUE SERA SERA in the same day. I sang that song many times in HS. I forgot QUESO was cheese.

SISQO? PALME D'OR? TRIPLE what? SEC? groan! Our Gary had to 'splain those as well as TONE ARM (how soon we forget), SECANTS (I got it, didn't know why), why Soul = KIA (TV Ad money is a waste on me), why "flip" = SASSY. Oh, like "flippant".

Alas, KAREEM was no dancer as he proved on DWTS, but he was grinning broadly so he must have had fun.

WC: Magic's name is EARVIN Johnson.

Map's blue areas were water, not political.

REDDIT: never read it. ARIE, I knew because my SIL had posted a song by her just yesterday.

Alas, I sold a foot-tall stack of vinyl at auction when I moved. Netted me just $5. Only one bidder who they tell me made a profit selling them on EBay. Also sold a nice turntable inherited from my dad to the same woman.

Happy Father's Day, all you daddies!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Some of those old 45s had center holes for a spindle, but also a knock-out disc so they could be stacked with other 45s on a changer (cringe). I used to have several copies of that style with Sinatra singing "High Hopes" with the lyrics changed to make it JFKs campaign theme song. The B-side was a campaign version of "All the Way". I've seen one around the house in the last year, but I don't remember where.

WC - I just sent my 22-year old watch to the Tag Heuer factory service center. I'm hoping it can be fixed for $199 - $300.

OwenKL said...

frustration level turned up to 111 after 3 days trying 9unsuccessfully0 to get my netbook settings to something i could live with, i finally got my laptop back, to find all my settings here were erased during the repair process, even the few that had persisted on the netbook1 aaarrgghh1 i am so, so, i don't know what1 even some things i have reset aren't working, like sticky-keys 9which is why no capitals, and bangs turned into 1's0 or my post-it program that i pre-type everything into1
there were several comments i wanted to comment on, but with no notepad, i don't recall which they were. it took me a long time to find this forum, and i still haven't found mensa or the jumble1 if you don't see me again for a week, you know why1

Lucina said...

Jumble solved. I found it medium and solved the answer before finding the last word when it finally hit me!

I'm going to a graduation party and have a long drive ahead.

Owen:
I'm sorry to hear of your computer problems and hope you resolve them. We need our poetry fix!

Yellowrocks said...

Jinx and Anonymous T, it seems to me, all the 45rpm records came with the large hole in the center. Many of my contemporaries had turntables that accommodated only 45s. The rest of us bought inserts to put in each record so they could be played on a slender LP spindle. I don't remember them as knock-outs, but as add-ons. Another alternative was to buy an adapter that slipped over the thin spindle, not the tone arm as I wrote before. It stayed there and you could slip 45s over it. This did not allow for use of the changer.
The odd shape here is the insert and the solid disc with the small hole is the turntable adapter that stays on the spindle.
Link text

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Neville, Andy and Gary!

Hooray! No cheating, but took longer than several of you!

Puzzled by: SQUAT RACKS, THE INSIDER, KIAS, RITA, SISQO, REDDIT and CHI.

Yesterday I bombed out. Rats.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Wilbur Charles said...

BilkG, thanks for that info. Tiger's name is Eldrick. SILKy Smooth Wilkes was. I thought I needed a Laker nickname. Kareem bracketed two Celtic dynasties although the Cowens/JoJo/Hondo team won the most regular season games but only two championships.

Jinx, for the memories it'll be worth it. I am curious whether everyone here sees the same ads. I use to get a rash from the strap on my watches so I went to the cell phone for time.

Linda Ronstadt was the name. Whenever I get a particularly tiresome EARWORM* I replace it with BB by LR.

I have a car question. Should one still come to a complete stop in reverse before shifting to Drive. I have a 2011 BMW, fully computerized and a habit of going to drive"too early" according to DW.

WC

* We had EARWIG recently. I never know what song is going to stick but I wake up to something every morning

Anonymous T said...

YR - check my 4:44p (D'Oh! 1m too early for confluence...) link. -T

Jinx in Norfolk said...

WC, If you can feel the car go into a forward gear before the car stops, it ain't good for the tranny (if we're still allowed to use that term). If the computer keeps it from shifting into gear before the car stops, no harm no foul. OTOH, Beemers are probably built so that minor mishandling, even chronic mishandling, won't break it in the "normal" lifetime of the car.

On my motorhome with its Caterpillar diesel with LOTS of torque, I was taught to stop, shift to neutral for a second, then shift to drive.

Yellowrocks said...

AT, yes, I saw it. Thanks for the memories. I had a harder time finding the one that slipped over the spindle. This is what I used instead of the inserts. I also wanted to correct my early silly post saying you put it on the tone arm. Duh.
In my HS they had The Dick Clark Show on the hall TV every lunch time. I liked to see all those songs on Your Hit Parade.

SwampCat said...

My grand kids raided my attic to find my old phonograph (any one remember that word? ). Then we went shopping in second hand stores for records. What goes around comes around .

Owen, we need you!!!

Wilbur Charles said...

Jinx, I've had that habit of backing up and throwing it into drive while still moving for a long time. Also, for this BMW there is a P on the shift that you touch to go into Park. No shifting. But..
If I'm not at a complete stop the car will shake just as if I shifted into Park early.

- T, on Dick Clark. I didn't know what IT was until YR posted her 45 link. I thought it was Masonic or something.

WC

Spitzboov said...

WC @ 1932 - - Do what DW tells you. It's better for the car and your relationship. If you go from reverse to ahead while still moving backwards, there's a risk of the engine going backwards if in a low torque configuration. If the transmission is computerized, it may not happen. Jinx's advice re: his motor home is good.

Chairman Moe said...

To Lucina @ 7:13 and Swamp Cat @ 8:16

Sorry that my poems aren't pleasing your funny bone in Owen's absence. I guess I'll have to try harder ....

PK said...

Moe: I doubt the "girls" aren't appreciative of your efforts. I like your stuff. I just forget to say so or I'm done posting for the day. Don't get all mopey and hurt, big guy! I especially liked your two today -- very chuckle worthy. The golf one was so apt with the rough conditions at the Open today. Hope you are still up and reading this.

Anonymous T said...

PK - Of course we are up reading that... The Best of Car Talk comes on at 11p Sat nights! (XM Radio)

OKL - do you have an extra external USB keyboard handy? I initially giggled at your sticky-key issue but your punctuation 9as it were0 was so consistent... Yeah, that's a frustrating problem. Amazon sells bare-bones Amazon branded keyboards for $10. To find mensa site the magic Google is "la times crossword mensa". Works like a champ. In fact, I had to use it again this morning - I think I forgot to pay the paper bill :-(

So, no crowd-advice on the Alfa Giulia to help me sway DW away [not that I'm not looking forward to driving it! (when I'm allowed)] from it?

Cheers, -T

PK said...

Tony, I'm too cheap to buy an Alfa Giulia (which I've never heard of) if I could afford one. I can't even keep my Buick Encore running so i doubt a foreign car would be beneficial to my needs. Of course, the Encore was built in Korea which I failed to read before buying it, so I credit that with part of my problem. It doesn't speak my language, (i.e. little ol' lady who doesn't drive much). Sorry, I can't help you.

Lucina said...

Chairman Moe:
Ooooh! I am so sorry. Of course I like your poems and limericks, too, but I'm used to seeing Owen's usually as soon as I open the comments section and it starts off my reading. Habits die hard.

Please do continue to entertain us with your Moe-kus.

Anonymous T said...

PK - The Giulia. Of course, I'm keen on the Spider [on the right].

I'm not really trying to sway DW away from it - her heart is set... A happy wife; A happy life :-)

How was the party Lucina?

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

I forgot to say how much I laughed at "QUESO raw, so raw" That's rich!

Lucina said...

The party was really nice, though 25 miles away. One of my cousin's friends sat at our table and since she is also a retired teacher we had much in common and enjoyed a lively chat the entire evening. Of course, my babies (i.e,, daughter, husband and children) were there, too,

My cousin's daughter was the graduate and she is enrolled at ASU for next year. Chinese food was catered and really good.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Jayce,
Your instincts were fine in response to your music teacher.

But let me throw a caveat, a spanner into the works. As a longtime director and teacher of grad directors, I found New Crit (NC) had its limits. When working with artists from the inside, I did want to increase their awareness of what it is they wanted. Their intentions mattered when the project was to help them realize their goals.

My initial response to the work they presented in our scene lab was a quick evaluation of what I saw in my terms, or in terms of the material at hand, an NC approach. But then I would follow up and ask them what their goals were, because our aim together was always to help them choose appropriate goals and aid them in realizing them - in both senses of that verb, i.e., to recognize their goals, to be truly conscious of them, and then to make them come into being.

Now, none of this need concern the viewers, the lay audience. I would never ask them to evaluate their experience by incorporating the author's or director's (or actors') intentions.

~ OMK

Wilbur Charles said...

Let me add my appreciation to the venerable vintner:

Procrastinater
Moe-ku kudos in to-do
Neglects proper praise

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Ok. If anyone was worried about my insomnia problem I just embarked on a study of "New Criticism". Yawn, zzzx
Good night

We definitely need Misty to explain in simple terms what those geeks were talking about. If she can publish what would be called today "James Joyce for the Wilburs of the World eg IDIOTS Guide" she could explain what TS Elliot etal were about.

I'm about sleeping until nineish

WC

Chairman Moe said...

PK, Lucina and WC ---> not gonna get mopey or hurt, I promise! I know I have big shoes to fill when Owen goes missing ... I hope he gets his computer issues solved quickly