google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, July 11 2018, Andrew Linzer

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Jul 11, 2018

Wednesday, July 11 2018, Andrew Linzer

Theme:  Now I herd everything.

7. One in the headlights?: DEER.

8. Critter on XING signs: DEER.

32. Ref, slangily: ZEBRA.

33. Last critter in an ABC book: ZEBRA.

61. Throat trouble: FROG.

62. Kissable fairy-tale critter: FROG.

12. Craft for six puzzle answers: NOAH'S ARK.

41. 12-Down queueing pattern depicted by six puzzle answers: TWO BY TWO.

Melissa here. Wow! Eight theme answers! A fresh theme, and from what appears to be Andrew Linzeritsyit's debut - at least here at the corner. Note the special 16x15 grid - an extra column was needed to accommodate all the down theme answers. The visual of the center answers in two vertical rows makes me think of animal tracks.

Across:

1. Teensy: ITSY.

5. Box for tea leaves: CADDY.


10. Japanese box lunch: BENTO.

15. Tree with an oil-rich seed: SHEA.

16. Streamlined: SLEEK.

17. Frank __ Wright: LLOYD.

18. "Long time no see" follower: HOW YOU BEEN.

20. Old enough: OF AGE.

21. "Lady and the __": TRAMP.

22. Traffic signals: ARROWS. There is an intersection near me that I avoid because so many drivers don't know (or don't care) that you can't turn right on a red arrow. I wait my turn (pun intended) for the green arrow only to be honked at by impatient drivers behind me.

24. Possesses: HAS.

25. Stage of grief: ANGER. Not quite the same, but okay.

26. Smartens (up): WISES.

28. Manhattan liquor: RYE. A Manhattan is made with whiskey (traditionally rye whiskey), sweet vermouth and bitters. 

29. Full of activity: ABUZZ.

34. "Ben-Hur" extras: ROMANS.

37. "Now it's clear": OH I SEE.


38. Sonogram subject: EMBRYO.

39. Sticks (out): JUTS.

42. Had a nice chitchat: GABBED.

44. __ out a living: EKED.

45. Ahead: ONWARD.

47. Not for kids, filmwise: R-RATED.

49. One whose wages come from wagers: BOOKIE.

50. Slugger Hank: AARON.

51. Feel crummy: AIL. Aw.

54. Rum-flavored cakes: BABAS.

56. River mouth formation: DELTA.

58. Far from friendly: ICY.

60. Steep headlands: BLUFFS.

64. With deleted scenes included: UNCUT.

65. Passover staple: MATZO.

67. Likely to goof: ERROR PRONE.

69. Dam that created Lake Nasser: ASWAN. Built across the Nile in Aswan, Egypt.


70. Simoleons: MOOLA. Slang.

71. Cookie cooker: OVEN. Object, not a person.

72. Pork cuts: CHOPS. What is a CHOP?

73. Goad: EGG ON.

74. Twitter headquarters?: NEST. Nice.

Down:

1. Beatty/Hoffman box office flop: ISHTAR.

2. Sticky: THORNY.

3. Water treatment plant input: SEWAGE.

4. "I did good!": YAY ME.

5. Fort Collins sch.: CSU. Colorado State University.

6. Actress Jessica: ALBA.

9. Informal "See what I mean?": Y'KNOW.

10. Come into one's own: BLOSSOM.

11. Pixie: ELF.

13. Rapper whose name sounds like a big cat: TYGA.

14. Poems of praise: ODES.

19. "A Wrinkle in Time" (2018) actress: OPRAH.


23. Electrically connected with: WIRED TO.

27. Plant firmly: EMBED.

30. "So what?!": BIG DEAL.

31. Can. neighbor: USA.

35. TV's "Science Guy": NYE.


36. Lawn starter: SOD.

37. Honshu port: OSAKA.

39. Chore: JOB.

40. "One card left!" game warning: UNO.

43. Corn unit: EAR.

46. Science fair awards: RIBBONS.

48. Ultimately become: END UP.

51. Nook: ALCOVE.

52. 58-Down default music program: ITUNES.

53. Under the surface: LATENT.

55. "So I was wrong!": SUE ME.

57. Defunct scandal-plagued company: ENRON.

58. Apple computer: IMAC.

59. Toll lane choice: CASH. Cashless tolls (EZ Pass or by mail) are becoming more and more common now. Nice that cars don't have to stop, but also a little creepy.

63. Unaccompanied: SOLO.

66. Ray gun sound: ZAP.

68. Legged it: RAN.
 
Note from C.C. :

Happy birthday to dear CanadianEh!, who's been with our blog since 2012. Love your insightful and caring comments, CanadianEh!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxp8_OBu14QXhTxx57anHnCKqXqw61Pwd_kyVb5FRU8H706szSRcrgbMGCGdtjmx1tYmxrNRgn8KNV3oszJM5JEQw1o81eFe8HRFr2o6qu1Jp-tilCZmPnwBbQk-TnsDUXV1qsGXL_XPik/s113/canadian-flag.jpg


62 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIWrong. Had O.K.NOW > Y' KNOW. Earlier had Chest > CADDY, lights > ARROWS. ___FFS had to wait for perp before picking cliFFS or BLUFFS.
Thought I'd hit the reveal early at 12d, so quickly skipped past it, Caught on to the theme before getting to the second half of the reveal at 41d.

The ITSY bitsy spider climbed up the water spout.
When he reached the top he threw some silk threads out.
Down came some static that kept the threads apart.
He was WIRED TO a glider, his flight would soon depart.
Up came some wind and blew the SLEEK craft off.
So the spider used his static power to stay aloft!


TWO BY TWO the creatures entered into NOAH'S ARK.
DEER, and FROG, and ZEBRA, they marched into the dark.
Down came the rain and washed the whole damned Earth.
The creatures all walked out again to start a new rebirth.

(Sorry, that was supposed to be a l'ick, but that tune embedded itself in my amygdala and wouldn't let loose! I'll try again.)

Said the ZEBRA to the DEER, I'm envious of your horns.
Said the deer to the zebra, I like how your coat is worn.
An interruption to their banter,
"They're not horns, they're antlers!"
Then the WISE FROG hopped away into a briar of THORNS!

OwenKL said...

{A, B+, B-.}

D4E4H said...

Good morning Corneraters.

Thank you Mr. Andrew Linzeritsyit for this most unusual CWP. I FIR.

Thank you melissa bee for your enjoyable review.

billocohoes FLN at 7:27 AM
Have you invented another puzzling format for the CWP? Your story left me on the side of the road.

Irish Miss FLN at 9:16 AM
- - Wrote "Dave, I hope you have settled in and are happy in your new home."

- - Thank you dear lady for thinking of me. Please allow my response to cover any other inquiries that I have missed. I have worked each CWP, but have only skimmed the comments, and it looks like I will completely skip the links of TTP, the 9th wonder of the world.
- - I am where I will live now for the rest of my life in the loving care of people who are as much my family now as are each of you. I am continuing to camp out knowing that the item that was in "that drawer" is now in one of "those drawers over there".
- - I am indeed happy in my new home.

Ðave

thehondohurricane said...


I thought using a word more then once in a puzzle was a no no, but Andy's approach is a exception. I guess.

Waded through today relatively quick, but the NW corner darn near caused me to give up. Had WHY ME for 4D & __ __ SM for 1Across. Once I went to YAY ME & then saw ITSY, it was all she wrote. Never heard of a CHEA tree, but I took a chance. I am not a RAP fan, never listen to it. TYGA was a WAG. The only rap name I am familiar with is the actor on Law & Order SUV. ICE TEA. isn't it?

Except for Email, my only other method of communication is phone, or face to face discussion. Sorry about my rant, but I am and will continue to be a old relic.

See ya












CartBoy said...

Go Rams! #csualum

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Nice debut from Andrew. I admit to using Wite-Out on one of those DEER before I figured out the gimmick. No BIG DEAL. CSO to YR with BENTO and to all the duffers with CADDY. THanx for the tour, mb.

CHOP: mb, that article pictured a pork chop, but the write-up was about making "chop cuts" with a knife. Weird.

CASH: Almost all new roads constructed in the Houston area have been toll roads. And **none** of them accept cash -- EZTag only. I turned mine in when I retired, so no toll roads for me.

Happy birthday, CanadianEh! I enjoy your comments explaining the differences between our two countries separated by our common language.

Lemonade714 said...

Yes this puzzle was groundbreaking as a debut and the use of the same word doubled. Very enjoyable. The write-up was also fun with the CHOP link very interesting. I also enjoyed the spider link embedded by Owen. There is so much I do not know.

More colloquial words as fill - HOW YOU BEEN and Y'KNOW .

HBDTY and many more C-Eh

Big Easy said...

I had to do a double-take after the DEER-DEER fills but they allowed the unknown Tea CADDY to fill, "YKNOW what I mean Vern" (remember him). BENTO, TYGA, and OPRAH were also filled by perps. Never knew SHEA was a tree.


ERROR PRONE- a 10-year old baseball team.
BABAS- our neighbors just brought us one last week from his trip to Nassau

IMAC & ITUNES- the EU is trying to fine GOOGLE for forcing phone makers to use Chrome as the default search engine on Android phones, never mind that Google provides the FREE operating system. Will they go after Apple next. They use phony excuses to fine American companies because their own companies can't compete. I'm not a BOOKIE but I'll lay odds that they will.

Doc said...

Shea tree and IceT

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Melissa and friends. Interesting concept for today's puzzle. I had filled in most of the puzzle with the Across answers, so the double DEER and FROG were completed before I read the clues and realized the gimmick. The Ref ZEBRA was my last clue and I did a double take there.

Today we got more MATZO for our Hillel Sandwich!

Sonogram Subject = EMBRYO was my favorite clue.

According to Elizabeth Kubler Ross, there are 5 Stages of Grief. First one is in Denial, then turns to ANGER, followed by Bargaining, Depression and finally Acceptance.

Happy Birthday, CanadianEh!

QOD: Old age is a special problem for me because I’ve never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself ~ a lad of about 19. ~ E.B. White (July 11, 1899 ~ Oct. 1, 1985)

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW x 2: ASWAr and MATZa. Didn't know about RIBBarS as science fair award. OH I SEE - RIBBONS. The year I won I got a 23-volume science encyclopedia and a trip to the state science fair.

A friend used to say the only Spanish he knows is "como esta frijole", or "how you bean?".

UNCUT - No, not me.

The scary thing about EZ PASS is that some government entities admit that they have "dummy" readers that don't charge toll, but watch for BOLO cars. I suspect if a few admit that, there are thousands that use them. I'm sure that James Clapper would deny that the feds are collecting such data, so we can all rest easy. Besides, if you haven't done anything wrong you shouldn't worry about the government knowing everywhere you have been, right?

Off for my annual physical exam. I like most things digital, but not the digital exam.

Thanks for the unique puzzle, Andrew. And thanks to Melissa B for another fine tour.

TTP said...


Good morning. Thank you Andrew (excellent debut !) and Melissa (excellent review !). Happy Birthday to Canadian Eh ! (excellent you !)

Skipped over 7 and 8 down because one of them had to be something other than DEER, or so it seemed.

Kinda bounced around after that, but then got to 32 and 33 down. OH, I SEE !

No EGG ON my face after this solve. YAY ME ! Made it successfully through without a single typo. That in itself is surprising as my typing can be somewhat ERROR PRONE.

From yesterday and FLN, sorry about my long post. Got carried away. Also didn't realize a few of you couldn't play videos.

I think it would be wise if each of us made a concerted effort to not bring up hotbed topics in our comments. They induce responses and quickly become political. This really isn't the venue to discuss such subject matter.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning,

Wonderful fun! Thanks, Andrew. I was caught by the double DEER and the "broken rule." I still didn't get what was going on until the double FROGS! Ah ha! What a great concept and execution. YAY, you!

Melissa, thank you for another fine expo.

Happy Birthday, Canadian, Eh!!!!! Have a wonderful day. It's great fun to have you here.
TTP: I just finished yesterday's puzzle this morning. You really outdid your self! Thanks.

Have a sunny day!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday to Canadian Eh!. Per chance a little lunch action at the Prince of Wales?

BTW; The attribution on our puzzle is to Andrew Linzer. The blog is using " Linzeritsyit"

Liked the ample long downs and the TWO BY TWO. I would've thought the FROGS didn't need the sealift; that they could have swum. I was always amazed that the cats, dogs and foxes got along so well with the mice, lemmings and voles, let alone lions with ZEBRAS.
NOAH'S ARK. There are over 13000 species of mammals and reptiles, alone, so that must have been some long queue. Don't know if the birds came along for the ride or if they flew on ahead.
ENRON - Seems to maintain puzzle popularity. WSJ has it frequently, too.
SEWAGE - Years ago, I had occasion to call the head of the Buffalo sewage authority, a Mr. Suor, and he answered the phone as "Suor of Sewer."

Lunch with BH today.

Tschüß

billocohoes said...

D4E4H, FLN I was just surprised nobody mentioned the connection between the four items, though AMC PACER was a stretch.

melissa bee, your link should be introduced as "to CHOP." "Pork cuts" calls for a noun - Wiki defines chop as a cut of meat cut perpendicular to the spine, and usually containing a rib or riblet part of a vertebra and served as an individual portion. Usually a thick cut, as a thin cut is called a cutlet.

kazie said...

Frank Lloyd Wright was born 1867 in Richland Center, Wisconsin, and currently there are massive efforts to rehabilitate the A.D. German warehouse building he designed there for Albert D. German, which has fallen into disrepair during almost a century of disuse. We are hopeful that local fundraising efforts will succeed, and in the process bring new life to the town as well. The warehouse is the only FLW warehouse ever built, and is also the only remaining example of his organic, natural or Mayan period with experimental use of cast concrete blocks for the frieze that forms the edge of the roof. The only others of that style were the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and Midway Gardens in Chicago, both of which are long gone. You can check it out at adgermanwarehouse.org, or on Facebook at germanwarehouse.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I don't think I've ever seen this type of theme before but I really enjoyed the freshness and cleverness, even more so after seeing the symmetry shown in the highlighted grid. I interpret the visual as the two animals, side by side, standing in line, waiting to board the ark. What fun! My only w/o was Legal/Of age and there were no unknowns, at all. Noticed the iTunes and iMac entries.

Well done, Andrew, and thanks, Melissa, for the enlightening expo, especially for showing me, for one, the added layer of symmetry in the grid.

Happy Birthday, CanadianEh, hope it's a special day! 🎂🎉🎈🎁 🍾

Dave, I'm happy that you're happy!

I sincerely hope that everyone reads and heeds TTP's last sentence.

Have a great day.

Irish Miss said...

I meant to say last three sentences. Sorry.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-DEER/DEER made me leery until NOAH WISED me UP.
-Tea box and box lunch - consecutively paired clues as well
-Recently OF AGE granddaughter ordered wine at the ball game Monday night. Sigh…
-Theatrical terms for ROMANS in Ben Hur
-We EKED out a living on $372/month net teacher’s salary in 1968
-Tired of my colleague’s ICY attitude toward me, I confronted her which somewhat worked out
-A local golf course high up on a BLUFF has a magnificent view down into the Platte Valley
-Our daughter’s friend always called her ERROR-PRONE mother a “clutch” and so that word has replaced “klutz” here
-This lovely nesting is occurring ten feet from me outside the window (1:17)
-The lack of MOOLA for Wrinkle In Time
-Our recent class reunion stirred up some LATENT feelings in me
-Andrew Linzer in the Omaha World Herald as well
-Happy Birthday, CanadianEH! Your knowledge ranges from A to Zed! :-)

SwampCat said...

What a fresh new approach to puzzling. Thanks, Andrew. I loved OVEN and NEST. I noticed we got MATZO again.

Hahtoolah, thanks for listing the stages of grief. I can never remember them, but the theory certainly makes sense. And your QOD brought back fond memories for me. My stepmother remarried at age 65. As we were getting her dressed up for the wedding she looked in the mirror and said, “ Inside that old lady’s body is an 18 year old girl.”

That’s been my mantra for a long time. I only got old on the outside.

FLN, Anon T, I think your understanding of the Thai kids is right. There have been a few comments that they were/are in good spirits, saw the experience as “a bonding experience “.

And the coach is only 25. Hardly an old man!

HBD, Canadian Eh! And many more.

Lemonade714 said...

It looks like mb embellished Andrew's name a bit as the "itsyit" is not part of Andrew Linzer's name. He has a prior Fireball publication. It was nominated (along with the winner- Zhouqin Burnikel) for the best freestyle crossword of 2017. LINK.

Anonymous said...

D-O, we were in Houston a while back and went through a couple of toll, but didn't have the EZ Pass. I later got an invoice in the mail. The tolls we owed totaled $9.75, but the "administrative" cost brought my invoice to over $75! I called and complained and was offered a 1-time reduction of fees since I don't live in Texas, so the final total was less than $20. Since we go to Houston about 3-4 times a year, we decided to get an EZtag for those times we find ourselves on a toll road by accident.

PK said...

Hi Y'all, Neato puzzle, Andrew! Great expo, melissa b.

Once again the NW was last to fill. Always annoys me not to be able to fill the first block immediately. But I forgave Andrew when I got to DEER DEER because of the unusual originality. ISHTAR was such a flop, I never heard of it. ITSY came only when I filled the rest of the block from bottom up. Sticky= THORNY not gooey. I would say "stickery".

I believe a water treatment plant is different than a sewage treatment plant. I've visited several of each and wrote articles on them. A water treatment plant filters out mud & solids coming from a water source like a river or lake or well then aerates and adds chlorine and other disinfectants to be piped out for household use. A sewage treatment plant has settling tanks to allow the solids to sink to the bottom where they are dealt with by spreading on a field to let the sun dry and disinfect them for fertilizer/compost. The excess water is chemically treated to kill bacteria and then released into streams on the earth's surface.

Happy Birthday, CanadianEh! I enjoy your contributions.

SwampCat said...

Thanks PK for the very clear explanation of water/sewage treatment plants. I also noticed the difference because we are so dependent on both here. Our water comes from the Mississippi and needs lots of treatment. ( I guess we have to filter out all that Minnesota mud!).
Sewerage is different.

Picard said...

I got DEER/DEER and figured I needed to be more creative with one of the answers. But when I saw the reveal I laughed out loud! The other theme answers were a breeze!

The NW was not such a breeze. Hazy memory of ISHTAR from these puzzles. Crossing with SHEA took awhile to figure out. To FIR.

DW and I often share a BENTO box. They are very popular here. We enjoyed the WRINKLE IN TIME movie. A creative adaptation of a book I enjoyed as a child. OPRAH lives in our little city, but I have never seen her. I even know her home address, but it is just a gate. Unlike JACKSON BROWNE from yesterday who is seen often here.

I have quite a few photos of the Sacramento DELTA area.

But instead I will share these DELTA IV Heavy rocket launch photos.

I was hiking fifty miles from the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch and heard the rumble and looked up. A powerful rocket!

I just found another set of my photos of a DELTA rocket launch! This was at 6:27AM from in front of our home.

Here is my photo of BILL NYE receiving an Environmental Hero Award at Earth Day.

The man giving him the award is my friend Das Williams who was our State Assemblyman at the time. We were with him on Sunday for his birthday celebration out on the water. Still editing those photos.

From late last night:
Godwin's Law does not apply if the parallel comes from this source.

CrossEyedDave said...

Waded thru this one without any theme entries until
I got to Frog/Frog???

Two Frogs? in one puzzle! Not allowed!
(I thought I had a nit I could rant about on the Blog!)

Ingenious that the Constructor got around one of the most
basic rules of CW's by incorporating into the Theme.

In the end, I had to take a break come back to finish.
(I thought Manhattans were made with Gin.)

Anywho, rushing thru this today, will have to come back
as the dog needs to take a leak by midday.
(& it will take some time to find a cake that says CanadianEh...)

Yesterday I thought I would treat the dog to a roadtrip into the woods.
Took a trail I had not taken before.
(easy in, not so easy out loop)
Found myself (& a 60lb Husky) on a one foot wide trail
on a 60 degree 200 foot cliff in 90 degree heat.
(remind me I am too old for adventures...)

After about a mile of that without getting killed,
we had to cross the river again, but this time, no bridge!

Just as we emerged from the overgrowth at the river
Layla saw a teenager sitting in the river, and pulled me over the
rocks to say hello...

(&%$#@! skinned knees, lost glasses, luckily no broken bones...)

It took a while to regain my composure, and after resting
discovered that there was no way I was going to be able to rock hop
across this river and still stop the dog from drinking the water.

(NJ water is a strange combination of soap suds colored tidy bowl blue...)

Luckily the teen offered to walk her across for me,
and I barely made it without a walking stick.

Which reminds me, the dog is waiting,
I wonder what adventures await me today...

Misty said...

This started out as a toughie, and didn't really start working for me until I got to the bottom middle. And there it was FROG/FROG next to each other and I said "Whoa, that can't be right", but it had to be. I burst out laughing at this point, because it broke crossword traditions, as I thought I knew them. Then as I worked my way up, ZEBRA/ZEBRA showed up, and I thought, Andrew--this is one of the cleverest and most novel puzzles I've ever done. By the time I got to the top, DEER/DEER didn't surprise me--only I didn't catch that they formed a middle vertical line until Melissa's write-up and illustration. Anyway, a great, exciting, novel Wednesday puzzle--congratulations, Andrew, and many thanks. And much appreciated your write-up, Melissa.

Have to rush off this morning so will have to save comments.

But, have a wonderful birthday, CanadianEh--you are one of our most wonderful and valuable blog colleagues!

Brilliant poetry, Owen.

Have a good exam, Jinx.

So glad you're happy in your new home, Dave.

Have a great day, everybody!

Lucina said...


Happy birthday, Canadian Eh! I wish you many more a fine celebration today. Your posts are delightful.

Like others, it startled me to see DEER twice but I went with it then came upon NOAH'S ARK; it made sense and I then looked for the others so wasn't surprised when they emerged and complemented by TWOBYTWO.

SHEA is a tree? That's news to me. I wonder it it's THORNY.

ISHTAR may have been a flop but it's found success in CWs.

Will I ever learn the names of all the rappers? Luckily, TYGA sort of fit into the theme as a stag.

Thank you, Melissa B for your excellent review!

Have a pleasant day, everyone!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

PK, I echo the thanks. They just announced that they are going to start pumping treated effluent back into our aquifer. Our area is sinking (the news media calls it "sea level rise"), and the hope is that by replacing the water in the aquifer the sinking will stop and might actually be reversed.

They showed the head of the sanitation department showing the crystal-clear water as he explained that the treatment made it perfectly safe. I would have been more convinced if he demonstrated HOW safe by drinking a glass on TV, like the Alar spokesman did decades ago.

Lucina said...

The roof repairman is here to inspect the leak. When he laid the roof four years ago, he gave me a five year warranty so there will be no charge I'm happy to say. It's a flat roof coated with foam and supposed to be leakproof. Something went wrong!

Dave, it's good to know that you are happy in your new quarters.

PK:
Your wide and varied range of knowledge is impressive. Thank you for explaining the difference between water treatment and sewage treatment.

desper-otto said...

Jinx, I read about that a couple of years ago. A couple of the major water users in the area are paper mills. It seems weird to pump "good" water from the aquifer for paper manufacturing, and then pump treated effluent back into the aquifer. Why not just pipe treated effluent direct to the paper manufacturers and draw less water from the aquifer to slow the subsidence.

SwampCat said...

I forgot to mention I loved the poems, Owen.

PK said...

Y'all are welcome for the water info. I really didn't think anyone would be interested, but I should have known this group is more interested in basic needs information than most. I was always fascinated with the water, electric, etc. basic needs industries. Without water operators doing a good job we're sick and thirsty. I started doing these stories because people were opposing a rate/tax hike for improvements at a rural water district treatment plant. Once explained in print, the project was funded without any opposition. First rung on the ladder as a water activist.

PK said...

CED: that dog is either going to keep you young with your adventure or age you rapidly. Hope you had spare glasses.

Dave2: Best wishes for you in your new home. Know what you mean about belongings turning up in places other than where they usta wuz. After 15 years I still find things that I thought were lost forever.

Jayce said...

Definitely did a double take when two FROGs showed up. Soon I realized I needn't have been so reluctant to put it two DEER up at the top. Then two ZEBRAs showed up! It all made sense when I discovered NOAHSARK and TWOBYTWO. I wonder if this puzzle is going to turn out to be a game changer.
There used to be a British clipper ship called the Cutty Sark. I wonder if a NOAH SARK is related.
I thought of Misty at YAY ME.
I like the spelling of "moolah" better than MOOLA.
Loved the clue for OVEN.
Didn't we have TYGA very recently?
Happy birthday, CanadianEh!
Owen, I loved your ITSY Bitsy Spider poem. Very interesting article, too. So, you have a sticky amygdala, eh?
Lucina, I'm glad your roof is still under warranty.
PK, thanks for sharing with us all the interesting things you know.
CrossEyedDave, thanks for relating your experience.
Best wishes to you all.

Picard said...

Happy Birthday CanadianEh!

Here are my photos of a tour of our local SEWAGE treatment plant

They describe it in very organic terms of digestion. But they do not claim it is safe to drink what comes out at the end. There is no risk of disease if you did so. But there are metals and other chemicals that don't get digested.

It does produce fertilizer that is free for the taking!

Lucina said...

PK:
You are living proof of how important the media is and our need for vital information. I would like to think we all support our local news agencies who provide such information. Though we may consider them to be biased, now with the internet we can verify facts from a number of sources. I hope this is not considered controversial; it is not meant to be so.

I believe here in Arizona much affluent is used to water golf courses which abound in number.

Yes, I'm also greatly relieved that the roof is still under warrant though only for one more month I was informed and LIU. True. Hopefully there won't be any more leaks.

Wilbur Charles said...

FLN. I never got to post. Thanks for Donna, the anthem of the fifties*.

Picard, thanks for staightening out the facts about the Obama' picture'. Nufsedd. Even facts are politics so we must abide by CC's guidelines.

How 'bout them Redsox

WC

* The real definition of "fifties" sb 1955-64; likewise 60s=65-74 and on up.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Just back from MIL where we took her lunch, watered and fertilized her lawn, fixed her TV’s and a lawn chair, replaced a light bulb and charged her dead car battery. She is so grateful.
-My dad was an STP (Sewage Treatment Plant) worker. His tour was a stimulant for all senses!
-While at Marshall Space Flight Center we got see water filled with all manner of effluent that was then put through a filter and given to us to drink at the end of a tour. It was so pure it had no taste.
-Water is so heavy that this process will have to be used on long space flights. Urine and sweat will be collected and…

desper-otto said...

Husker, sounds like you're pretty kind to your MIL, except for taking her lunch. Aw heck, she probably wasn't hungry anyway.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Veddy clevuh, this Mr. Linzer! (Apologies for playing havoc with your name!)
Veddy clevuh indeed - with his TWO BY TWO theme so well carried out.

I wonder how many stumbled across the theme as I did, by first trying to answer 32D with ZEBXA? (Try saying that aloud...)

CanadianEh!, we hear it's your birthday! You deserve a good one, so please enjoy it from start to end. Here is one of my favorite birthday tunes - Greek, I think. Give it a listen & see if it doesn't add even more cheer to your day: ”Happy B’Day to YOU.”

CrossEyedDave, when we let our dogs have a say in choosing the trail, GOK where we're gonna end up. Thank goodness that teenager materialized just when needed. Some say the cosmos answers our needs (until, er, it doesn't...)

~ OMK

____________
Diagonal Report:
None today.

Roy said...

WEES: I was glad when I saw NOAH'S ARK; then the doubled answers made sense.

RATED R before R RATED.

CrossEyedDave said...

Happy B-Day CanadianEh!

Did Noah bring Chickens?

Actually, there was more to the Two By Two story than they tell you.

Unrelated to the 2x2 theme, but it reminded me of my story today...

Two by Two?

Also, it is well known that Noah was getting on in years,
and was hard of hearing...

Anonymous said...

I had a hard time getting started with this one. Going across and down until finally I got 7d, DEER. But, 8d wanted to be DEER also! Left it alone and kept going. Got 29a, ABUZZ which gave me 2 ZEBRAs. I already had NOAHSARK and TWOBYTWO so, aha, the lightbulb went off!

Thank you, Andrew L., for the fresh theme, even if you did break a cardinal rule of crosswording. Fun and informative expo, MB.

Happy Birthday, Canadian Eh! Hope its a good day.

PK, thank you for the water information. I have toured the water treatment plant near me but it's been so many years that I don't remember much about it.

CED, I can relate to your experience. Haven't done that, but had other misadventures.

Have a great day!

Michael said...

Great puzzle today!

(I have to confess to a certain crossword ennui recently -- there are only so many ways to clue "eke" for one example of many, that sometimes finishing the puzzle is like working a full shift on an assembly line -- but not this one today .)

Husker Gary said...

You're a hoot, Otto! Did I leave my participle dangling? You know how painful that can be!

Let me rephrase, "I stopped at Arby's, bought lunch for the three of us and we each ate said lunch at her house!"

Have at it my friend! :-)

Gary

Ol' Man Keith said...

Dear Melissa,
Thanks too for your write-up today. I have to say the photo you linked at "What is a CHOP" looks delicious.
The accompanying definition, however, seems weirdly at odds with the picture and doesn't comport with what we know of CHOPs. Perhaps 1/2 inch "diameter" is meant to be "thickness"?
And the advice offered about how to cut meat looks positively dangerous. I am sure the writer has good experience to relate, but somehow it led to the instruction to curl one's fingers beneath the food being cut. Yikes!

AnonymousPVX said...

Well at least this was different....but rather simple, and as soon as there was one pair the rest came too easy. Except for “YKNOW” ,that’s just wrong, Ya know?

And on to Thursday.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

CED, too funny. I suppose God gave up and made Noah a Cardinal.

D/O - I don't remember the effort a few years ago, but the current effort is in the most populated area of the state, the Va Beach-Norfolk-Chesapeake-Portsmouth-Suffolk-Newport News area. Gary, I guess most of the water we drink as been urine of some creature or another at some point. Evaporation and condensation erases a lot of evil.

CED, just hang in there a few more days. On the seventh day, Dog rested.

PK said...

Picard: liked the picture of the treatment plant. The ones I visited weren't as upscale -- nary a peacock in sight.

Lucina: thanks. Some of the media people I've met, I would have liked to throttle. They didn't care whether their stories were accurate and liked to stir things up unnecessarily, cause trouble for people that didn't deserve it, then skip town. I couldn't stand to put out incorrect info. I didn't "mess in my nest" because I wasn't leaving. I felt my first duty was to the reading public rather than to my publisher.

CED: great cartoons! Now we know what happened to unicorns.

CrossEyedDave said...

And,
on an unrelated subject,
(but related thread...)

Only in Scotland?

SwampCat said...

Oh my. Have we really spent the day discussing sewerage and drinking urine? CED, please give us one of your “”inappropriate “ jokes to bring us back to normal. Dirty jokes, if they are funny, are normal. Urine????

Spitzboov said...

Aha, Gary; then you brought lunch to her; not took it to her.

SwampCat said...

Well, grammar lessons are more palatable than urine!!

Wilbur Charles said...

I started to recheck and went through the A's. I should have looked harder at I KNOW and put the Y on CADDY. Y'KNOW is a reach. I see PVX agrees.
I had ROWERS < ROMANS.


WC

melissa bee said...

re: the chop comments - as i was doing the write up, i wondered why it's called a "chop." without going down the rabbit hole too far, the only thing that came up was the way it is cut - by chopping.

Ol' Man Keith - the article could be better written - but i'm pretty sure what is meant about curling your fingers under is that you curl them under *themselves,* which keeps them out from under the knife. it feels awkward to me and i've never been able to do it properly. here's a better-written article, with pictures.

D4E4H said...

I hope CanadianEh! has had a happy birthday. Sorry to be so late in my wish.

Hahtoolah, Your QOD: "Old age is a special problem for me because I’ve never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself ~ a lad of about 19. ~ E.B. White (July 11, 1899 ~ Oct. 1, 1985)"

SwampCat wrote" My stepmother remarried at age 65. As we were getting her dressed up for the wedding she looked in the mirror and said, “ Inside that old lady’s body is an 18 year old girl.”

- - I have been telling my co-residences today that "We are 18 year old souls in bodies that can't keep up."

Ðave

TX Ms said...

Strange puzzle - what? DEER/DEER side by side? (Rich wouldn't allow this!); then ZEBRA/ZEBRA, which made NOAHSARK downfill make sense.

Tony, my apologies, haven't had time to even lurk unless I hit a snag or have a question. First, my belated Happy BD wishes - sounds like your corporate office climate is quite business-like (although you had a hilarious office mate who unfortunately passed away a few months ago). Second, thank you, once again belatedly, for the Sunday YouTube clip - I think that's the one but for some reason I thought it was simply Loop 610. Had to laugh at Irish Miss' comment; yes, IM, I blame Tony's video posting (about a year ago?) for some of my fear in driving Houston freeways. TXDoT started marking which exit lanes go where half or a mile beforehand. Used to be "deer in the headlights" warning distance.

Misty said...

Thank you, Jayce!

Andrew, are you Austrian, by any chance? I grew up in a village near the Austrian city of Linz, which is why I ask.

CanadianEh! said...

Wow, I'm late to the party after celebrating all day with family (no Prince of Wales today, Spitzboov).
Many thanks for all the birthday wishes and lovely comments, plus the interesting song from OMK and cake from CED.
AnonT got my cryptic clue comment yesterday and then C.C. spilled the beans. But I loved Hahtoolah's apt QOD and SwampCat's quote from her stepmother; I really don't feel my age!
I am blessed to share this blog with you all and add a little Canadian flavoUr.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Andrew, I loved it! I noticed the 16x16 w/ 14d in the NE. Like others I wanted DEER for 7&8d but figured the XING must be duck [y'all have seen "Duck Xing" signs, right? There's one on the way out of the 'hood]

My first tip that something was amiss was at 32&33d, A-Zed [it's C, Eh!'s bday, Y'KNOW] book had to be ZEBRA and so was Ref. I checked the idea of double-R and sure enough, R-RATED. That allowed me to enter the DEERs and finish the N-central.

Mb - wonderful expo. I had the same question about pork CHOP link.

WOs: HOW are you- [oops], Yea ME!, MoTZa [dyslexia!]
ESPs: I don't have time for that
Fav: Today's brilliant theme. Andrew, bummer you were up against C.C. for the puzzle-prize.

{A, B-, B} {AWOL}

Hi Kazie! Nice to read you.
@11:43a CED - LOL [dog in creek]. //Actually, LOL for all your posts...
@2:25p D-O [take lunch]: that was the laugh I needed.

Happy Birthday C, Eh! Sounds like you had a great day!

Back to work.
Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks for the new link, MelissaB!

~ OMK