Shown here is a beautiful part of my state where an exclusive golf course has been carved into the prairie near Valentine, Nebraska. This combines the love of where I live with my favorite pastime.
Here is a 2013 interview Erik did with C.C.
 |
| OXLIP |
Today's solo effort by Erik challenged and entertained me greatly especially where I definitely thought TOME was correct but whose O could not possibly be right to start TULIP for
44. Yellow perennial: OXLIP where I already had firmly established _ _ L I P
Oh well, I left it in as you can see below in DA GRID and I'll accept my uncertainty as punishment.
Let's see what else this wunderkind (19 yrs old in 2013) has for us here on the prairie and elsewhere in the U.S. of A.
Across:
1. Pitch sign: CLEF - Now if this had been a C.C. puzzle...
5. Saturn, for one: GAS GIANT - We live on the third of the four inner "Rocky Planets" from the Sun. Beyond Mars there are four GAS GIANT planets that probably have no solid surface
13. Super-fancy: LUXE - Okay
14. Slightly more than a one-man show: TWO HANDER - A new term for me. A play for two actors as seen here
 |
| Linda Lavin and Sarah Paulson in Collected Stories |
15. Most eligible for service: ONE-A - A classification that drove many Vietnam Era boys to college for at least a year
16. Pluralis majestatis: THE ROYAL WE - Below, you see a Queen Victoria statement after a comedian told an "off color" story in her presence at a large public gathering
17. Bee's home: SACRAMENTO - Neither HONEYCOMB nor MAYBERRY NC worked where Sacramento's newspaper's was intended
19. Te __: iconic Chickasaw actress: ATA- An incredible Oklahoma Chickasaw woman who saw fame as an actress, story teller and politician. She performed for FDR and George VI in 1939 who was the aforementioned Queen Victoria's grandson
20. Layer of very large eggs: EMU.
21. Grilled, in Mexican fare: ASADA.
22. Jefferson, for one: DEIST.
24. Slangy "Absolutely!": TOTES - Short for Totally. Man, you must really be in a hurry if you use TOTES for Totally as in "the scenery is TOTES amazing!"
26. Add: TOSS IN - "All right, we'll TOSS IN the undercoating on that car!" Yeah right!
28. Pixy __: candy: STIX - essentially artificially colored sugar
30. Some Spitzes, for short: POMS - Here's a POMERANIAN getting cooled off at a dog show
32. Rhetorical question to one who's too good to be true: HOW ARE YOU REAL? - A question I've had about the amazing Minneapolis (by way of Xi'an, China) woman who runs this blog and has given me a lovely new dimension to my life!
36. Scandinavian name akin to Nicholas: NILS - The "36. Guitarist Lofgren" must have been already checked out of the clue library
37. "Code Switch" airer: NPR.
38. "No more!": STOP
40. Fired at the table?: FLAMBE.
42. Member of a Hindu trinity: SHIVA
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| Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord SHIVA |
46. Young partner: ERNST - ERNST and Young is a professional services company headquartered in London
48. Image quality word: RES - Hi RESolution and Low RESolution
49. Long Reach Dusting System brand: OXO.50. Rainforest visitor: ECO TOURIST.
52. Act naturally: PLAY IT COOL - Ringo did get to sing Act Naturally 55. Chaps competitor: IZOD - Some of my golf shirts are IZOD I bought on sale
56. Powerful slitherer: PINE SNAKE - Here's one in its namesake milieu
57. Red Lobster has one for kids: MENU Lobster burger with crab fries?
58. Wolverines rivals: SPARTANS.
59. Meeting of two sides: EDGE.
Down:
1. Secrecy metaphors: CLOSETS - I think most everybody is out of most every CLOSET and for the most part that is great including the one labelled 8. LGBTQ part: GAY.
2. Green flitter: LUNA MOTH - That which FLITS can be called a FLITTER which I usually consider to be a verb. That which FLITTERS would then be called a FLITTERER I guess.
3. How it's done: EXECUTION - The EXECUTION of a sacrifice bunt in baseball is cool to watch. I know this will be scored a base hit but still...
4. "The mind-killer," in Frank Herbert's "Dune": FEAR.
5. 1950 Pulitzer winner for the poetry collection "Annie Allen": GWENDOLYN BROOKS - For this book she became the first African-American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize. I truly enjoyed learning about this poet
7. Order to go: SHOO - cute clue
9. "Barefoot Contessa" host Garten: INA - Speaking of female authors 10. Dwight's opponent: ADLAI - Combined, Adlai got 162 Electoral votes in 1952 & 1956 while Ike got 899
11. Older efts: NEWTS Eft/Newt Life Cycle if you're interested. None of these became The Speaker Of The House as far as I know
12. Minister to: TREAT.
14. __ arts: THEATRE - I missed the British spelling by a centimetre
16. Symbols after many brand names: TMS - Many of these TradeMark symbols are followed by a ™ or ®
18. Remote fillers: AA'S - Papa, how did you change channels before there were remotes?
22. Christian on a runway: DIOR - Hey ladies, it's Ready To Wear
23. Interlace: ENMESH - FITGURL uses the name in its product
25. Liz, to Richard, twice: EX-WIFE
27. Incite: SPUR.
29. Minor in astronomy?: URSA - The Little Dipper is part of the Little Bear (URSA Minor) Constellation and is the one point in the northern sky that stays in essentially the same place every night
31. Sent up: SATIRIZED.
33. Shakespeare title starter: ALLS - I remember reading ALLS Well That Ends Well in HS but have no memory about the storyline or characters. However, I can calculate square roots with just a pencil and paper, so...
34. Like some summer shoes: OPEN TOE - Some TOES should be out of sight and out of mind
35. Many a Top-40 hit: LOVE SONG - "Our Song" was Can't Help Falling In Love With You
39. Outstanding and then some: PAST DUE - Funniest (probably the only) scene about PAST DUE books ever made!
41. Certain Saudi: MECCAN - One would live a mere 8 hr 3 min drive from Riyadh via Route 40
42. Stand-up comic Gilliam: STU - How rare were black faces on TV in 1968? This picture of STU and Frank Sinatra Jr. is listed as an historical photo.
is 43. Company that developed Bazooka Joe: TOPPS - TOPPS got into the bubble gum business and had Hopalong Cassidy trading cards in packs included with the gum in 1950. Success came when they switched to baseball player cards in 1952. This TOPPS card is worth big money!
45. Chief Tui's daughter, in a Disney film: MOANA - We'd better learn this recent (2016) Disney heroine as it is bound to become a cwd favorite with all those lovely vowels
47. One day, in "The Martian": SOL - On SOL 71 (upper left hand corner), The (stranded) Martian (Matt Damon) uttered this fabulous, if slightly profane, statement
50. Peak in Catania: ETNA - Move over ETNA, MOANA is here
51. Winter coat: RIME - A beautiful scene in China where apparently they also have winter! 😏
53. Ending with law: YER.
54. "Was __ das?": IST - Das ist das Ende von Erik's Hinweise und jetzt fühlen Sie sich frei, zu kommentieren! (This is the end of Erik's clues and now feel free to comment!)
For you Jumble fans, I'll probably win your opprobrium today, but you can find the game online in two similar but slightly different formats at uclick and USA Today. Bookmark one or both of those sites right now!
ReplyDeleteYou've been talking about a recent change in style that I haven't noticed. The current writer, David Hoyt, has been doing it since 2011, and artist Jeff Knurek since 2002. (BTW, it started in 1956, and has gone thru several writers and artists since then!)
Saturn was a Titan who could fart all day!
With a butane lighter, he had fart FLAMBE!
When he mooned, take a gander,
He used a TWO-HANDER!
LUNA MOTH defended, "He's a GAS GIANT, okay?"
A librarian used a LOVE SONG to win his woo!
Then they were wed, and became A ONE, not two!
They were soon to be three,
He checked out "Midwifery" --
Then lamented, "Both my wife and book are PAST DUE!"
GWENDOLYN had a patio twelve feet from a BROOK,
She could hear every ripple and babble it took!
Until she was found out
Skinny dipping! No doubt,
She had to live it down, PLAY IT COOL with "the look"!
{A, A-, B-.}
Ufda!..er..Good Morning!
ReplyDeleteAfter struggling mightily in the NW, I abandoned that area for warmer, friendlier climes. The east was quickly dispatched, but CAN YOU BE REAL and OXEYE slowed things down. Changing POSH to LUSH to LUXE finally broke things open. Whew!
I was classified II-S (student deferral) for most of the mid-60s, but was reclassified I-A (ONE A) in my final semester. Was ordered for a draft physical before graduation. Those were the pre-lottery days. I enlisted in the navy to avoid the army. That meant four years instead of two, but I don't regret that decision.
Oops, forgot to thank Erik for the consternation and Husker for his elucidation. Thanx to both.
ReplyDeleteNo chance today. At least I didn't linger, accepting my demise early and gracefully.
ReplyDeleteOLK, I remember from my ute 1) a fart-lighting gas giant friend, and B) the definition of stress: Having a mortgage, a wife and a mistress, all of which are PAST DUE. Thanks for the reminder of those good times.
Hackasaw : Plumber; Chickasaw : OJ
Gary, I love that you channeled your inner Splynter today. I think your write-up has legs.
SW corner did me in. Could not give up Oxeye for 44D.
ReplyDeleteSaturday is always a day I learn, and I particularly liked the Botany lesson about the OXLIP which I did not know, but the perps were solid.
ReplyDeleteAlso did not know TE ATA, GWENDOLYN BROOKS or the term TWO-HANDER.
I enjoyed the clue forYOUNG and the Michigan connection (Wolverine-Spartan) and STU GILLIAM who I probably would not have recalled, but I saw him on some LAUGH-IN episodes on the oldies channel.
As always, HG you did good; I loved reading both of the Erik Agard interviews. Thanks, EA.
Hello Puzzlers -
ReplyDeleteThis one was a real workout! Got there in the end, after noticing that Spitzes were dogs (Poms), not cats (toms). Really paused at theatre, because that particular word trips me up - the British spelling looks natural to me, unlike, say, “colour”.
Howdy Husker, nicely done! We borrowed a copy of The Martian in order to watch it a second time and more. There was one nagging question: since Mars’ atmosphere is so rare (in the “not dense” meaning) that Matt Damon could blast off without a roof, how could the surface windstorm ever come up with enough kinetic energy to tip over a heavy rocket?
Picard and others from yesterday - a beautiful machine, the clock in Prague. I have a dear friend who has waited years to visit Prague and the clock, and now that she’s on her way, the clock is down for maintenance. Life can be unfair.
The Royal We is the monarch speaking as embodying the entire nation. Victoria denied (to her granddaughter Alice) ever having said "We are not amused." There are many different versions of her saying it, or she was speaking only for the people present and not using the royal we, or maybe it was Queen Elizabeth I. As Yogi explained "I never said half the things I said."
ReplyDeleteOkay, 'Was IST das'? I know it's Saturday but really? What a tough puzzle to finish, considering fills and or clues that I had never heard of before. And to add to my self-inflicted misery, I misread the 2D clue as Green 'filter' instead of 'flitter'. Newspaper print is not So swift.
ReplyDeleteOXLIP, TOTES, THE ROYAL WE, GWENDOLYN BROOKS Te ATA, STU Gilliam, LUNA MOTH, INA Garten, TWO HANDER, NPR's "Code Switch"- I'd never heard of any of those before. Luckily SOL was solved by perps before I read the clue because I didn't know of it either. And TOSS IN the British spelling of theater-THEATRE Arts, FLAMBE. Wow!
The 55A clue-'Chaps competitor' Chaps and IZOD were the lower priced brands of Ralph Lauren & Lacoste. Lacoste licensed another company for about 40 years but took it back.
'Act Naturally'- I think Buck Owens did if before him.
LBGTQ, GAY, and CLOSETS in one puzzle?
TOTES?
ReplyDeleteRES is a word?
Is this puzzle FOR REAL?
Loretta Lynn also recorded "Act Naturally" before the Beatles did (but Buck Owens was first).
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHG - Great intro.
Tough but finished with help. Good exercise to experience the cluing.
Puzzle had a pinwheel shape intensified by the 12 cheater squares.
IST- 3rd person singular of sein (to be). Compare "isst', 2nd and 3rd person singular of essen (to eat)
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteAs already mentioned, there were oodles (love that word!) of unknowns (Two hander?) today, but P and P paid off and I finished w/o help in 33 minutes. I went astray temporarily with GPS/URL, Tonka/Topps, and Posh/Luxe. I was pleased that I threw in Ecotourist without a moment's hesitation but needed perps for Gwendolyn Brooks, one of the many unknowns, although the name sounds slightly familiar. CSOs to Spitz(es) and OMK at Theatre Arts. My favorite misdirection was Bee home=Sacramento and my least favorite entries were Ending with law=yer (ugh) and Slangy "Absolutely!"=Totes. Valley-girl speak, I guess. Whatever!
Thanks, Erik, for a Saturday stumper and thanks, HG, for making everything crystal clear.
Have a great day.
BTW, I also agree that while Erik is a wunderkind, he did use the unfortunate non-word, non-suffix 'yer.' It was the price to pay to get the stack PLAY IT COOLPINESNAKE and SPARTANS.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention, on the heels of yesterday's tour-de-force from JL, the Luna Moth pic maybe from his camera, and even if not, it certainly looks like it.
"Puzzling Thoughts":
ReplyDeleteWe were PAST DUE for having a really crunchy "Satyr-Day" puzzle. Erik provided this. HG, great recap, and I, too, was thinking that Splynter would be proud to see your DIOR and enMESH pics. Good call, Jinx.
Not sure if Erik is a football fan, but the Wolverines fiercest rivals are the BUCKEYES. Which happened to fit into 58a, oddly. Whilst I knew from the perps that "Brutus" would not occupy that space, a more fitting clue may have been "Wolverines in state rivals"; just saying ...
HG, is that Sand Hills GC you pictured? Ever play it?
GPS > URL; TULIP > OXLIP; OVER DUE > PAST DUE.
Had several clues that just perped together; I did have to look up 9d and 45d; as others said, MOANA will be a popular solve due to its trio of vowels
ECO TOURIST, PINE SNAKE, and LUNA MOTH were "mehs", IMO; the clues for SACRAMENTO and URSA were quite clever
I don't have the Mickey Mantle TOPPS rookie card, but at one point in my life I had two of the Pete Rose Rookie Card. Wish I still had them, although I recall selling them for about $400 apiece back in the late 1980's. Odd that he would be pictured with 3 other rookies.
Taking a day off from poems and puns.
Today's Jumble was more of what I expect. No spoiler, OMK!
My goodness, what a Saturday toughie. I tried, but had to start cheating before too long because there were just so many unknowns. Never heard of OXLIP, GAS GIANT, TOTES as an expression, ERNST, and many others. Some things did emerge, thankfully, like ASADA and CLEF and STIX, and OPEN TOE, and I was glad that I remembered ADLAI. HOW ARE YOU REAL was funny and made me laugh. So, an interesting if tough morning, but thanks, Erik. Great picture for a TWO HANDER, Husker Gary, and nice to see a picture of TE ATA, someone unfamiliar to me. Also loved your tribute to C.C.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend, everybody.
Wow! A real Saturday toughie, but FIR w/o liu or red letters. P and P paid off, but in much more time than IM used. Perps and wags to the rescue with many unknowns. It was a worthy challenge. Gary, you never disappoint. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI thought it was green filter at first, too. OXEYE before OXLIP, but ox eye daisies are white with a yellow center, so I doubted it. I liked pitch sign/clef, bee home/Sacramento, and ones with wide spines/tomes. I thought of ERNST and Young right off, but I hesitated, thinking it was too obvious.
We were ecotourists in the rainforest in Costa Rica. I like the word and the concept. Wonderful trip, perhaps my all time favorite.
I, too, admired the Prague clock on our river cruise. Thanks, Picard.
Musings
ReplyDelete-It was near record-setting heat yesterday here on the prairie and today I had to put on a jacket to take the kitty outside
-Yes, as I live on the prairie, I knew Buck Owens sang Act Naturally first. Mentioning him is “Dog bites man”, but saying Ringo did any song is “Man bites dog” to me and is a better “hook”
-I had even found this silliness and that song has been a persistent ear worm since I blogged this puzzle
-Otto, I had that II-S a long time too and then had a very high lottery number
-Me too, Irish! How about “____ out!” for YER
-Moe, that course is a 5-hr drive for me and golf with a one-night stay at their lovely lodge starts at $337
-Misty, at our retirement info meeting someone said, “You still need a reason to get up every day!” I thought that to be foolish then but not now. Thanks again to C.C.!
Wow, toughie, even for Saturday. Got the solve, at one point just filling in “most likely” letters. And they worked!
ReplyDeleteAlways thought it was “Are you for real”.
And only 18 comments here in the blog @ 1:25 PM.
Addendum
ReplyDelete-That’s funny about Splynter. Those two pix were the best I had to put a hook on those two fills
-For those of you who did not see the movie The Martian, When Matt Damon said, “I’ll have to science the sh*t out of this” he was referring to his having to use science to solve his problems and that he was using human waste to fertilize the potatoes he was raising for food.
What a tough challenge from Erick Agard! His youth shows in the modern clues/fill and is difficult for an old person like me.
ReplyDeleteI skipped around and filled ASADA, ADLAI, INA (misspelled as ena) LUNAMOTH (thanks to John L) IZOD, MOANA, OXEYE (me too, fixed later) EXWIFE, DIOR, DEIST, NEWTS, NILS, TOMES, SHIVA then knew I didn't have a chance without GWENDOLYN BROOKS so LIU then hinged it to all the letters already set and finished!
I had to change TOELESS to OPENTOE (for me that's all year). One of my neighbors has SPARTAN signs in her patio as well as on her car license.
I believe I've mentioned before that the husband of one of my nieces works for TOPPS and witnesses the signing of each one. His late father also worked for them and after his passing they are sorting out his collection of baseball paraphernalia, including hundreds of cards and will have a gigantic auction. Most of the items, balls, shirts, bats, posters, etc. are signed.
I loved the clues for URSA and for FLAMBE.
CSO to SPITZ.
Thank you, Gary; I agree you are fitting nicely into Splynter's pattern.
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
Gary, puzzles are actually a major thing for retirees to look forward to each day--keeps the mind lively and excited.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, Jumble was easy this morning which makes me think it may be like Sudoku--with the tough one on Friday but an easier Saturday--maybe to not overwhelm us when we get a touch Saturday crossword. I'm not sure if that's how it's done, but I appreciate it in any case.
Thanks, HG, for your Saturday recap - always filled with fun and educational links. Never can get too much Seinfeld, and who woulda thought Buck Owens and Ringo Starr together? Loved it.
ReplyDeleteASADA, FLAMBE (my fave), GAY, INA, STIX, DIOR, URSA, EX-WIFE, TOMES, POMS were all quick fills. Loved rainforests on my ecotours (Australia and Costa Rica). Had OXEYE instead of OXLIP. Needed perps to get GWENDOLYN BROOKS, then after all the persevering, my patience ran out at the last cell though I tried abc-ing - ack. Never heard of PINE snake (aka chicken snake down here). We've had TOPPS so many times before, but I always forget it. Oh, well. Sweltering May and won't let up 'til late October.
HG, a sweater this a.m.? Must be nice - enjoy it while it lasts!
HG @ @ 11:59 ~ Or, " ___ durn (darn) tootin'!
ReplyDeleteI just tried to watch the taped CBS Sunday Morning and was shocked that it wasn't in my DVR list. Maybe it will show up tomorrow? 🙃
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteErik offered another Saturday learning-day for me. Interesting puzzle Erik but way above my pay-grade.
Thanks HG for the remaining fill and that Seinfeld clip. It was even funnier considering OMK's treatise on Jack Webb Thurs night.
Minister to == TREAT? Um, OK(?)
Never heard of PINE SNAKE so I guessed PolE; GPS held up URSA for a bit but I threw in gRSA anyway hoping for something to come into view -- that fixed FLoMBE.
I so wanted 'Am I Dreaming' @32a (or that awful pickup: Heaven is missing an angel :-)) that I almost forced dREAm in at that end of the phrase.
E&Y was easy; they're our internal auditors. [we rotate external auditors because we're not ENRON :-)]
Fav: SATIRIZED. See how Segel & Rudd TREAT RUSH fans [below] ;-)
Runner-up: DIEST but I won't get political nor religious at The Corner.
{A,A,B}
IM - I think of TOTES as more Bro-Speak than Valley Girl. See: Segel & Rudd meet RUSH send-up. [@ 0:44].
FLN: Picard That Prague CLOCK 3D projection video was way-cool. From today: LOL CHRISTIAN xing DIEST.
Cheers, -T
Some puzzles should be measured not by time-to-finish, but by number of look-ups. Today's was at least state-class in that category, maybe an entry for world-class.
ReplyDeleteA 1950 Pulitzer Prize winner? Iconic Chickasaw actress (and from the 1930s? And with a Maori name?)????!!!
Aren't crosswords covered somewhere by that "cruel and unusual punishment" line?
Hi Y'ALL! Wow! This puzzle was too tough to chew and had lots of gristle. Seeing Erick Agard's picture, I suspect the only thing he and I, at age 77, have in common is appearing in public with an Afro hairdo which I had before him but gave up after year 2000. With GAY & CLOSET in the puzzle, is he informing us of something? Who cares. Anyway, Erick you were successful in making a bunch of us oldsters rack our brains. Thanks, I needed the mental exercise.
ReplyDeleteGary, great expo. I,too, am a peaceful prairie dweller.
GWENDOLYN BROOKS was my first fill. Not because I knew her (she was before even my time). But because while doing acrosses and downs at the same time and having not one square filled, I LIU. Then I did know ADLAI for "I were there" when Dwight beat him, though a child.
The SE corner stymied me. "Outstanding and then some", I took to mean "more than great" not owed & PAST DUE. By the time I got to SE, my brain had drained and I resorted to too many red-letter runs to count. Persistance! (I didn't give up in the middle of trying to deliver a 9#12 oz. baby so why would I quit here?)
Saturn wasn't a GAS user - guzzler - model (automobile) but a GIANT. Missed hearing that ALL these years.
I parsed it HOW ARE YOUR EArs? Oh, YOU REAL?
OXLIP - thought it was OXsLIP or OXEYE but already had LIP. Not Posh but LUXE.
Pitch sign wasn't some catcher's signal to the mound or my first try: BREA (as in tar pits).
Moe: chuckled at Satyr-day. Very apt.
I usually say "I liked this puzzle" but I can't say I liked this puzzle. It had some good stuff such as Sacramento BEE and order to go SHOO. But stuff like YER and TOTES turned me off. And I don't really care for those "either you know it or you don't and perps often don't help so the only way to get it is to look it up" narrowly specific answers. At least I knew ERNST, ADLAI, and NEWTS. I could suss out ALLS, STOP, SHIVA, DIOR and others. Wanted GPS, OXEYE, and FLEER, but was able to eventually correct them to URL, OXLIP, and TOPPS.
ReplyDeleteGood wishes to you all.
Anon T @ 2:21 ~ Thanks for enlightening me on Bro Speak. As I had never heard "Totes" in the context of the clue, I Googled it and learned it was used mostly by teenage girls; that's why I associated it with Valley Girl Talk. Like, ya know? Whatever! 😈
ReplyDeleteI stand with Anonymous PVX in the sure and firm belief that the true answer to 32A must be
ReplyDeleteARE YOU FOR REAL?
Other than that, I thought this was a brilliant show from Mr. Agard, exceptionally clever in its cluing and on a most unusual grid pattern. It was extremely tough, even in comparison to other Saturday pzls.
My sincere congratulations to Irish Miss and any others who managed this one w/o help. I did about half of it on my own, but lost patience (one of the essential Ps) and resorted to cheats, first to confirm, then later to finish up.
Sometimes a well-timed cheat opens up a host of riches! (I may be quoted, but only with attribution ...)
Misty, Yes, I thought today's Jumble easier than yesterday's. I was glad to see the final answer using real words in a recognized phrase.
~ OMK
____________
Diagonal Report: Hmm. Again, no diagonals.
In today's case, it is the price of an unusually shaped grid.
-yer is a legitimate suffix. Dictionary.com "-yer agent noun suffix, variant of -ier used after a vowel or -w-." lawyer sawyer
ReplyDelete-er, sing-singer
-or, act-actor
-ier, hotel-hotelier
-yer, law-lawyer, saw-sawyer
Even if it were not a legitimate suffix, which it is, it IS an ending for LAW , as the clue asks.
Gary, thank you for all the time you put into finding pictures, links and explanations. I like your style and know it is you before I even look up the blogger. Today's favorite was the beautiful trees in China limned with rime.
Wow. A tough one today for sure. End of first run through showed half the squares still blank.
ReplyDeleteMy oldest son and his wife both graduated from Michigan State and I can tell you for sure that the rivalry is intense! I texted the clue and answer to both of them and got this immediate reply from DIL: That's wrong. Ans: Everyone.
Hand up for not caring for YER, and for wanting OXeye for OXLIP. And gps before URL. Not sure how I knew the SACRAMENTO BEE, but I did. I also did not like TOTES.
Anyhow, I did FIR in 17 minutes. And I did enjoy it. Thanks to Erik and Gary; an outstanding effort on both of your parts.
I also went from 2S to 1A. Started my first year of teaching anyway, and then in the draft got a number in the high 300s. I did have several friends, however, who weren’t that lucky. Two of them never came home and I still feel guilty about that.
Have a great evening, all!
I always feel a bit alienated when THEATRE is spelled the Frenchie way, rather than with an "ER" ending, as in good old-fashioned "Theater."
ReplyDeleteSorry, but it's just a thing with me. I know that either is correct, but somewhere along the way I took it into the Ol' Walnut that the "RE" ending is just highfalutin - a semi-conscious attempt at puttin' on the dog.
The British are worse than we are in this respect, with words like "centre" and "litre." It is a bit surprising when you consider the centuries of anti-French sentiment, but then class-conscious Brits may think it somehow elevates their discourse.
But we don't have to do it.
End of lecture. Je suis désolé. Je vous demande pardon.
~ OMK
I thought this was a dumb puzzle. 31 down did not make any sense to me. Same to 54 down. Never heard of the Miss Brooks in this puzzle. Usually saturday puzzles are fair and make one think. This one was not a good one.
ReplyDeleteFirst ditto on Tx-Ms kudos. Plus plus is the grade for Owen#1. A+
ReplyDeleteBut.... I had two disasters. One. I slaved, P&P'ed, huffed and puffed and ended up one square away from a pen&ink, no cheat tada. And when I saw AAS couldn't figure out how it fit.
Then the V8 can struck my noggin. As Misty would say àaaaaarrrrggghhh!!!
This is why I never give up even when I saw it was hopeless, out of my 3-eyed Piedmont League*.
DSANA made no sense and someone said If.... then it's wrong.
Two. I composed a long missive all about a lot of Wilburish. I wasn't taking any chances on that dastardly profile key. I composed in Text, pasted to the blog, hit Preview and promptly ran out of juice on my phone.
So. Did I tell you that I need to invest in WITE-OUT? Not to speak of the 4 letter word for "Order out" ending with in OO.
Eric really outdid himself. Sadistic Saturday. And I coulda been a contender. **
Now. 55% on the battery. Let's cut and paste etc. No let's COPY and paste. I can always delete later.
WC
* Hondo can tell you about it
**. Name the actor and for extra credit the movie.
I think it's late enough now that you Jumblie Cats can freely comment on my 3rd l'ick today. Thanks to C.Moe, Misty, O.M.Keith, and whoever else noticed it but refrained from giving it away!
ReplyDeleteKeith @ 1647 - 31d. I Agree with you. I got SATIRIZED from the perps. Was IST das? is, of course, German. So If one knows no German at all, it could be tough, too. But I would submit it is "in the language" especially since WWII. (It gets over 30 million hits in Google BTW.)
ReplyDelete@Keith & Spitz - RE: 31d. Look what I said @2:21 to IM re: the Funny or Die clip. Send-up is to parody, make fun of, etc. Sent up; past tense. -T
ReplyDeleteWe're having a wildfire emergency in our area, and our street is on the border of the evacuation order from the police. I pray I don't have to evacuate like I did a few years ago--a nightmare. But we won't know because this may go on all night.
ReplyDelete-T - Thanks. I get that it means to send up. It's just not in my language; at least not before doing this puzzle. Another learning.
ReplyDelete8a: For all to whom it may apply: happy Pride Month!
ReplyDeleteGot it all right! Was going to look something up and found that I knocked the charger cable out of my tablet last night. So I went back and finished it the hard way.
WEES, except that everyone has their own list of things they do/don't know,
I do not normally post on Saturdays, as they are seriously hard,
ReplyDeleteand do not benefit from silly links...
(but I needed to keep my place as to how far I read the Blog...)
So,
What if you never stopped working on a crossword puzzle?
It might (end?) up something like this...
Calzones?...
Owen, when I saw your post I raced to solve the Jumble. As Misty said, easy. And I see the allusion in l'ick#3. Speaking of... Misty, stay safe and well. I will say a prayer for you.
ReplyDeletePicard, you might be interested in my Neils Bohr story. I've told it before to zero interest. And I know your a Trek guy, not a Hobbit fancier.
But. Tolkien was in British Intelligence during WWII. In 1965 a book was published chronicling the escapades of one R. Stevenson aka Intrepid. One of which was evacuating Neils Bohr from Denmark to keep his atomic energy knowledge away from Hitler
So Tolkien called his Intrepid hero "Strider" and had him rescue the Ring-bearer eg. The key to the A-bomb .
The clincher? The undercover alias of both was Mr Underhill. And of course STRIDER was an anagram of INTREPID with the S coming from Stevenson*.
No one in here cares about stuff like that but you seem interested.
Oh 3-eyed Piedmont League? It existed in the fifties. Class D.
"Contender"? Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront".
WC
* I suspect MI6 cottoned to Tolkien's little fun as the trilogy didn't sell until the mid-60s . Ludlum recounted that they paid him a visit after he invented a conspiracy that was too close to the truth
Glad you stopped in CED. That was tres amusant
ReplyDeleteWC
No problem with sent up and satirized, both in my wheelhouse. They seemed normal to me. We all have different wheelhouses, as Roy said. For instance I prefer Law ending/YER to "___out!"/YER.
ReplyDeleteMisty, what a scary situation. I pray you do not have to evacuate. Stay safe. Please, let us know how it goes, if you can.
WC - some more of us are interested....
ReplyDeleteSpitz - Figured as much. But did you watch the Funny or Die? It's funny to me because, well, as a "the biggest RUSH fan ever"... Yeah, I'd be that stupid / tongue-tied if I met them too. THE ROYAL WE can laugh at ourselves.
Misty - What's the latest? You still safe?
CED - LOL! Sometimes, ideas should just have a fork in them (they're done). Thanks.
Cheers, -T
BTW, I loved all those beautiful butterfly pictures. I can't remember who posted them. Thank you. A butterfly is my avatar, I have oodles of butterfly jewelry and other items. My birthday cakes always have butterflies on them.
ReplyDeletePrayers for your safety, Misty. May the fire be extinguished before you have to evacuate! Do you pack a little bag in case? So scary!
ReplyDeleteWilbur Charles: Don't sell us short. I'm sure I'm not the only one who found the Neils Bohr story very interesting. Sometimes we just don't comment. Can't comment on everything here or the blog would be too long to read.
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Eric and Husker!
What Big Easy said, mostly. Got everything and was then screwed up in lower left corner. Big natick there.
Nice and warm here. My thing!
Hope to see you tomorrow!
Misty:
ReplyDeleteIf you can, please keep us apprised of how you are doing. I'm sending prayers for you and your neighbors.
Misty, it's late, but I am hoping - along with many Corner colleagues - that you did not need to evacuate & are now comfortably & safely asleep in bed!
ReplyDelete~ OMK