google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, July 25 2018, C.C. Burnikel

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Jul 25, 2018

Wednesday, July 25 2018, C.C. Burnikel

Theme: OH, CRAPS!

17. Terrain feature of permafrost regions: GROUND ICE.

24. Staples competitor: OFFICE DEPOT.

35. Took the risk: CHANCED IT.

49. "Star Wars" ruling body: JEDI COUNCIL.

And the reveal:

58. Casino plays ... and events that occur as you work your way down through the four sets of circles: DICE ROLLS.

Melissa here. Note that ROLLS indicates a circular anagram, where the word DICE is gradually rotated around the grid: DICE / ICED / CEDI / EDIC.  C.C. had to revise her initial grid to satisfy this ROLLing requirement. Impressive. Felt like a Wednesday+ level to me, with a few thorny spots. The circles help to visualize the ROLL, but are not necessary to solve.


Across:

1. Like Joe Cocker's voice: RASPY.

6. Light-rail stop: Abbr.: STA.

9. Assists in arson, say: ABETS.

14. Waldorf salad ingredient: APPLE.

15. Waldorf salad ingredient: NUT. Clecho.

16. Inhumane: CRUEL.

19. Harry who led Wrigley crowds in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game": CARAY. Why Harry Caray was simply the best. (Baseball clues - tell-tale sign of a C.C. puzzle.)


20. Mint containers: TINS.

21. Patriots' gp.: AFC. More baseball sports. AFC = American Football Conference. Its counterpart is NFC - National Football Conference. There are 16 clubs in each conference.

22. "Trading Spaces" topic: DECOR. The show on TLC. First thought of  the 1983 movie Trading Places, with Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy.

23. Units measured in BTUs: ACS. Here is a BTU calculator that will estimate the number of BTUs required to heat or cool a home.

27. Skilled in: GOOD AT.

29. It usually has four strings: UKE. There are other four-stringed instruments, but none have only three letters. UKE is a shortened word for ukulele.

30. Madrid mama bear: OSA. Spanish, feminine. Masculine is OSO.

31. Jogging pace: TROT.

32. Really ticked off: SORE.

34. Builder's guideline: SPEC.

38. Some turkeys: TOMS.

41. Saturated __: FATS.

42. Apply crudely: DAUB.

45. DuVernay who created TV's "Queen Sugar": AVA. For some reason I thought her name was Ana. Nope. Didn't realize how many films she has made.

46. "Time for my walk!": ARF.

47. Pinch, as a pooch: DOGNAP. Tricky. Pinch is informal for steal.

53. Lynx coat: FUR.

54. Flat fees: RENTS. Great clue.

55. Barrel wood: OAK.

56. Asian desert: GOBI.

57. Colleague of Gorsuch: ALITO. The only other U.S. Supreme Court Justice with a five-letter last name is Kagan.

60. Less furnished: BARER.

61. It's tapped into a tray: ASH. My first thought was ice, but that's tapped out of a tray.

62. Long range: ANDES. Mountains, not time.

63. Practices in a ring: SPARS.

64. Spelling event: BEE.

65. Out of order?: MESSY.

Down:

1. Disheveled: RAGTAG. Fun word.

2. Yellow-orange fruit: APRICOT.

3. One paying for a plug: SPONSOR.

4. Positive sign: PLUS.

5. Ginza tender: YEN. Official currency of Japan. Ginza is in Tokyo - looks like New York City.


6. Sound of sadness: SNIFF. Aw.

7. Stanley of "The Lovely Bones": TUCCI. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role in the film - based on the book by Alice Sebold. He said it was horrible playing such a dark role, and will never do it again.


8. Cleaned one's plate: ATE.

9. Knuckle under: ACCEDE. Two c's. Needed perp help here.

10. Support for an injured knee: BRACE.

11. Ace of Base genre: EUROPOP. Did not know this term. Wikipedia.

12. Prickly hybrid: TEA ROSE. Could have been anything.

13. Cunning: SLY.

18. Inane: DAFT.

22. Faked in the rink: DEKED. Don't remember seeing past tense of this word before.

24. Inauguration Day pledge: OATH.

25. Makes well: CURES.

26. Middle of a winning trio: TAC. Tic tac toe.

28. Dropbox files, casually: DOCS.

32. Complete fiasco: SNAFU.

33. Leaf-peeping mo.: OCT. This clue made me think of Spring, instead of Fall.

34. John Deere logo animal: STAG.

36. High hairstyles: AFROS. Sneaky. Not updOS.

37. Fan club focus: IDOL.

38. __ Mahal: TAJ.

39. Venn diagram feature: OVERLAP.

40. European archipelago known for its wine: MADEIRA.

43. Gradually becomes clear: UNFOLDS.

44. Showy trinkets: BAUBLES.

46. Stage crew: ACTORS.

47. Bank management aid?: DIKE. Another sneaky clue. The question mark indicates the  misdirection, but it still took me a while to grok.

48. Overly proper: PRISSY. Or this PRISSY.


50. Prefix with act and cede: INTER.

51. Invisible urban pollution: NOISE.

52. Hidden trove: CACHE.

56. Out of sight: GONE. Was thinking the slang term, not literally.

57. Core muscles: ABS.

58. Blot gently: DAB. And now we know the difference between DAUB (carelessly) and DAB (gently) - before I thought they were the same.

59. Big name in trucks: RAM.

52 comments:

D4E4H said...

Good morning you Corner Writers.

Thank you C.C. for this dicey CWP. I rolled right along, and FIR in 26:19.

Thank you melissa bee for your informative review. I will DAB from now on.

Krijo FLN at 12:49 AM
- - Thank you for all the info in this post. I applaud your ability to work CWPs in a foreign language.

Ðave

Krijo said...

Good morning everyone,

nice puzzle today, with easy to understand theme. Unfortunately ended at 98% as the DOGNAP, PRISSY and BAUBLES were new words for me. I was thinking more of a word to express to actually pinch a dog.
CARAY and ALITO - Greek to me or as we say in Slovakia - Spanish village.

Had EUROPOP straight away, even though I would describe Ace of base more like EURODANCE. Funnily enough, this jolly dance group had two male members who had used to be memebers of Neonazi group.

TUCCI is a great actor, but this movie, apart from his role, was just terrible.

Anyway, as I am in a different timezone, some answers from yesterday.

D4E4H
Well, Juraj is a male name, I guess George as in St. George is also mainly male in English speaking world.
Picard
Yes, Jezdec means driver or rider in Czech. Way to find a soul mate.

AnonT
I used to work in South Carolina 10 years age and tried to solve the daily puzzle while doing my shifts as a waiter.
In Slovakia we have different type of crossword (called Swedish crossword) which mostly not challenging, filled with crosswordese (ylo as a type of elephant, ara as for parrot etc.). I love word games and over the course of 10 years I have developed some skill in solving them even in English.
The greatest difficulty I am facing are clues for American brands, colloquialisms, old TV shows (Desi Arnez for example), local celebrities (news anchors, journalists, mayors or senators), local geography, baseball, american football and of course nursery rhymes. I am always eager to see European clues and sometimes even surprised, how challenging some of them have to be for you (Capek and his RUR stage play!). As you can see there are so many gaps in my knowledge, it is almost impossible to finish the crossword without blanks. But I am trying. I have managed even to solve some Saturday puzzles once or twice.

On the other hand I tried to create a crossword in Slovak in 15x15 grid with American rules and it simply does not work. We have too many accents in the alphabet; 46 letters vs 26 letter in English.

Lemonade714 said...

Krijo how nice to see you here regularly. I think our founder and leader and the constructor of today's puzzle could give you some insight into learning Americana. I would think the 46 letter would make creating a puzzle easier, but not speaking Slovak I cannot help.

Welcome back C.C.- we have her first solo LAT this month two days after Monday's fun WSJ. It was very doable, but I still do not know why I am tapping my ASH into a TRAY. There were many nice word combinations, with the middle -39. Venn diagram feature: OVERLAP 40. European archipelago known for its wine: MADEIRA
43. Gradually becomes clear: UNFOLDS and 44. Showy trinkets: BAUBLES really well done.

Thank you mb.

Lemonade714 said...

Our international expression continues: welcome SURAJ. By your name, I would guess you are from India, but it is but a guess. Tell us about yourself. Do you know Husker Gary has a history with NASA?

OwenKL said...

Total natick at TUC?I + AF? made this a DNF. I even tried several WAGs with no luck. I did catch the gimmick before I read the reveal, at least. And on the Mensa site, so no circles!

Who would be so CRUEL to a RAGTAG urchin?
To make him cry and SNIFF would be a sin!
If he's SORE in some way,
We can CURE -- What the hey!
That's my wallet you've stolen, you little vermin!

There's a new doggie treat, they call them ARF-Os.
They taste GOOD to dogs, but smell like a TEA ROSE!
They will keep their FUR shiny,
Help DOGS NAP when they're whiny --
And are especially liked by poodles with AFROS!

TOM had a YEN to go visit Japan,
So he saved up his money in a TIN can.
In time, in his CACHE
He had enough cash --
To RENT a copy of "Godzilla versus Rodan"!

{B-, C+, B.}

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I was sure the Patriots were part of the NFL, and that made Minnesota the final state to fall. Melissa, thanx for 'splainin' AFC. Enjoyed the puzzle, C.C., though I think GROUND ICE is a stretch as an in-the-language phrase. CSO's to TTP and moi at 38a.

RAGTAG: Evokes memories of Lorne Greene's Commander Adama: Fleeing from the Cylon Tyranny, the last battlestar, Galactica, leads a ragtag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest... a shining planet known as Earth.

BAUBLES: Partner of bangles and beads.

INTER: Can stand alone. My father was an undertaker.

Oas said...

Thanks C.C. and Melissa Bee. Fun puzzle and review. Favorite misdirection was the pooch pinch one. Did not know TUCCI and had to change AFL to AFC after reading the review.
Owen KL thanks for entertaining verses again. :-/


billocohoes said...

RAGged and Reo before RAGTAG and RAM, perp to get AvA

Good writeup, Melissa, but for 21A of course Patriots means "more sports" not "more baseball"

Anonymous said...

Lower right corner was tough for me.

Two points of clarification with the explanation:

Trading Spaces is the tv show. Trading Places is the movie.

Also, Patriots (AFC) are a football team, not baseball.

Yellowrocks said...

I liked rolling the dice, CC. I realized how the letters in the circles worked from the beginning, but needed the reveal to get rolling dice. Neat puzzle!
Thanks for the expo, mb. Good pic of the Ginza. I realize it is a very popular tourist attraction, but not my cuppa tea. I preferred the rest of Tokyo and, especially, the lovely Japanese countryside. I also liked visiting the cultural and historical sites in the prefectures. I square danced in Japan, too.
I haven't had an ashtray in my home for more than 30 years. The few guests who smoke always volunteer to go outside. BTW, I was surprised at the huge cloud of tobacco smoke in many buildings in the Ginza.
I love fresh apricots but haven't had a good one in years. Mostly the ones I bought were mealy and tasteless so I have stopped buying them.
Our October leaves are spectacular. Every year we go leaf peeping in NJ and PA.
Krijo @4:09, interesting post. Your English is amazing. I would think that doing crossword puzzles in a foreign language takes great skill. As you mentioned, there are many clues that are specifically American. Canadian Eh! has pointed this out, as well.
Welcome Suraj Tamta.

TTP said...

Thank you C.C. and thank you Melissa !

Didn't notice that the letters in DICE were rolled first to last, sequentially in the entries. How neat was that ! Very skillful C.C., and thanks for pointing it out Melissa.

DOGNAP paired with "Pinch, as a pooch" made me smile. Not that it would in real life, but it amused me here. Perhaps because it came after ARF for "Time for my walk !"

Enjoyed reading that article on Harry Caray. Thanks for linking that Melissa.

Desper-otto, I was thinking that there at least two 38A's here !

Lemonade, that was a phishing post. Hope you didn't click on any links, and if you did, run a scan.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

CC just keeps ROLLing them out. I enjoyed today's offering, and like Melissa said, the circles were not needed to solve. Neat how DICE ROLLS in an ordered fashion. Learned how to spell CARAY. Knew MADEIRA, but had not thought of it as an archipelago. Google set me straight.
Today's Germanic words:
APPLE - German Apfel, L. German Appel, Dutch appel.
NUT - German Nuß, L. German Nööt
OAK - German Eiche, L. German Eek
DIKE - German Deich, L. German Diek.

Tschüß

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased STn, Ale and Reo. Forgot to look for the theme even after getting the reveal.

TINS and ICE in the same puzzle? Good, but not as good as having ARF, FUR and DOG NAP. Zoe takes a LOT of DOG NAPs.

I wish the energy being expended on eliminating straws would be used instead to reawaken the effort to reduce urban NOISE pollution. In a related topic, I have often wondered why "the greens" abandoned the effort to ban disposable diapers.

I was shocked - SHOCKED, I tell you - to see SNAFU fill a family newspaper. Will we get FUBAR next? BUFF?

Thanks to CC for yet another great puzzle. Favorite - "flat fees" for RENTS. Least favorite was "pinch, as a pooch". Why not just "pinch a pooch"? And thanks to MB for the tour and theme explanation. I don't care if you don't know pro baseball from pro football, you are still an ace on the Corner's roster.

desper-otto said...

Jinx, SNAFU has appeared in the LAT at least 9 times since 2009. I guess "fouled" as a euphemism makes it OK. Same with FUBAR -- it shows up twice as often as SNAFU.

Yellowrocks said...

Hi Tom.
TTP, I saw the CSO at Toms. I wasn't sure whether they wanted their names known or not. I did miss the CSO to TIN, and (no) ICE. Hi, Tin.

KRJO, you are not alone. Some of the areas you mentioned are difficult for other Americans and me, too. It is impossible to be conversant in with all areas of knowledge. We admit that some clues are not in our wheelhouse (a place or situation in which one is advantageously at ease). There are many common words we haven't met or don't remember, even though we live here. Posters often say that by "next time I will have forgotten this." I prefer the claim that the word is "not in my wheelhouse" to "that is not a word" or "that word is never used." You seem to learn fast and will remember the ones that keep popping up.

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, C.C. and Melissa bee.
Speed run today. My newspaper does not credit the constructor (boo!) and I smiled when I got here and saw that it was a C.C. creation. Rolling dice theme was clever and well-executed.

I did not remember Joe Crocker and LIUed. I do remember "You are so Beautiful to Me" and "Up Where We Belong".
Perps were also needed for CARAY and TUCCI.

The AVA and ALITO were not familiar but I did know my Venn diagrams; OVERLAP gave me the V and L.
Like melissa, I thought of spring for leaf-peeping (depends who is doing the peeping!) and started to enter APR.
APRICOT not ugli for fruit of the day.

I thought the Patriots were the Daughters of the American Revolution and filled in DAR (proud at remembering some American crosswordese!). LOL, it was football.

Any tense of DEKE is familiar to this Canadian hockey Mom.
I learned masculine O and feminine A endings in Spanish from Lucina's posts. OSA was a given.
I saw the CSOs to our TOMS and TIN.
For a minute, I misread Asian desert as Asian dessert and was reminded of C.C.'s food photos. I guess her recent Taro cakes are not a dessert; she posted them as Canapes.

I did not see a post from Siraj. Was this the phishing post (I assume it has been removed) and do we need a warning to not click on any links from an Anon? (all the more reason for our Anons to go blue!)

Enjoy the day.

WikWak said...

…and who can forget SUSFU?

Hand up for wanting reo before MAC and nfl before AFC, I also wanted deer before STAG and a spring month for leaf peeping.

Loved DOGNAP & its clue but I agree with Jinx that 'pinch a pooch' would have been better (it just sounds cool).

RAGTAG—fun word.

Thanks to C.C. for a fun Wednesday puzzle and also to MB for the expo.

Welcome, Krijo. It’s good to have you on the Corner.

Lemonade, you’re tapping the ash from your cigar/cigarette into your ash TRAY.

Well, this is WAY too early to be up! Time for my first mid-morning nap. Havea great day, all!

TTP said...

Krijo, we use the term "go blue" to mean "create a Google Blogger id."

We encourage frequent commenters to "go blue" because then the community will know that it's really you that is posting as Krijo. Otherwise, any imposter could just key in Krijo, and might write inappropriate comments as if it were you.

If you are a mobile user, you might not readily see the links on the right side of the page that laptop, desktop and tablet users see.

A few years ago, I doc'ed the steps for a reader to "go blue". Some of the steps may have changed over time, but this link should be enough to get you started, if you want to "go blue":
How to Have a Blogger Account

TTP said...

Canadian Eh,

I generically used the term "phishing" but it was actually clickbait. The ploy is to give you just enough curiosity to click a link or visit their site that would then download malware.

Unfortunately, scammers also create blogger ids, so trust your instincts and be especially careful before clicking links in blogger comments from unknown users.

Picard said...

I was impressed with the ROLLing DICE. Obviously much harder to construct than a scramble. A few tricky Naticks for me: TUCCI/AFC, CARAY/EUROPOP, AVA/MADEIRA. It seems I did WAG them correctly, so FIR.

Sorry for being dense, but can someone explain the AFC and the baseball connection? Hand up I only know the NFL team New England Patriots.

On Sunday I led this challenging and enjoyable hike to The Playground with a wonderful group of hikers!

Scroll down and you will see this HIDDEN CACHE discovered by one of them.

It was found by Tony, the guy in the back in that photo. I must have passed that spot dozens of times and never saw it wedged in there. Most interesting: There were entries from 1998 and from recently, but nothing in between! Well HIDDEN, indeed!

Krijo: Here is my friend Petr with his lovely lady friend Marketa with the legendary JEZDEC car!

He brought her back to California from Prague to visit on that occasion. He also gave me that car for the next two years until he could arrange to ship it over to Prague. I had a lot of fun driving it, too! Yes, a wonderful "how we met" story with a very happy ending!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Circles and unique cluing, ya gotta love a C.C. puzzle!
-Never erased AFL for AFC and never noticed TUCLI
-Joe Cocker’s singing style sounds almost agonized. Remember his singing the theme for Wonder Years?
-My SIL always has a TIN of these mints and has never offered me one
-TOMS were all over the very rural golf course we played last week
-Our baseball coach always advised us to “not get our DAUBER down”
-Our team chose to show this inspirational BEE movie to all our kids
-The Minutemen were often described as a RAGTAG outfit
-Here we see a SPONSOR and an ASH tray
-Japanese beetles ATE much of our TEA ROSES before we sprayed last year
- I chose the wrong one at first
-Today’s garbage truck NOISE converts our “outdoor” kitty into an “indoor” kitty instantly
-Welcome, Krijo, – great post and information!

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Writing today from the Minneapolis airport, where I’m connecting today. I’d wave at C.C. but can’t figure out which direction!

Hand up for getting caught at the same intersection as Owen, because I didn’t know the name Tucci. Otherwise smooth sailing.

Gotta run, thanks MBee!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

It's always a treat to see CC's byline, no matter what day of the week. The circles highlighted the DICE immediately but the reveal was still a cleverly executed surprise. Dice Rolls, indeed! My two w/os were Bangles/Baubles and NFL/AFC and the only unknowns were Ace of Base and Jedi Council, both of which were easily perped. I, too, wondered about Ground Ice but a search erased any doubt. I liked seeing Daub and Dab and Dike and Deke(d). Also liked, as Jinx did, Arf, Dog Nap, and Fur. My favorite C/A was Long range=Andes. Is Office Depot still around? Whatever became of Office Max? We only have a Staples in my area. Stanley Tucci is a talented, versatile actor as evidenced by such disparate roles in "The Lovely Bones", "The Devil Wears Prada", and "Julie and Julia."

Thanks, CC, for a fun and satisfying solve and thanks, Melissa B, for the entertaining and edifying expo.

FLN

Krijo, I can only imagine how difficult it must be for you to solve these puzzles and I really admire your determination, despite the language and cultural obstacles. I hope you'll become a regular member of the Corner community.

Have a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

I always thought of "sniff" as a sign of allergies...

Many young kids will not be able to do this puzzle...

Snafu?

Oh well, Onward!

melissa bee said...

good morning all,

you're not dense, picard, i was moving a little too fast while blogging. billocohoes, anon and jinx, you all are sharp! post is corrected, thanks.

welcome krijo!

desper-otto said...

IM, yes, Office Depot is still around. OfficeMax was merged into Office Depot a few years back. I believe all of the stores are now branded as Office Depot...at least the ones near here are.

oc4beach said...


A good Wednesday puzzle from C.C. I used the MENSA site with no circles, so I didn't get the theme until I read Melissa Bee's enlightening tour.

Unknowns were TUCCI, EUROPOP and AVA. Perps were my savior again.

Krijo: Vitajte v rohu.

Have a great day, everyone.



Tinbeni said...

Melissa: Wonderful write-up!

C.C. Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle. I really liked the theme.

Also liked the CSO at 20-a, TIN'S.

Cheers!

Misty said...

Oooh, I love seeing a C.C. puzzle in the morning--always very exciting. I worked hard on this one, struggling in the northeast corner especially, and was very happy when I thought I had gotten the whole thing! But, sadly, I had one tiny nit: TOC instead of TAC, because I forgot to turn OSO into the feminine OSA, and didn't think of TIC TAC TOE. But just one letter, no big deal, and all around a delight--many thanks, C.C. I loved seeing all those DICE fill in, and I was particularly happy to see all the doggie clues giving us DOGNAP and ARF. I got those instantly--with the help of having my 15 year old doxie Dusty by my side while working on the puzzle. Great fun puzzle, and delightful write-up, Melissa, many thanks.

Yellowrocks, thanks for explaining "leaf peeping"--an expression I've not heard before.

Nice to have you on the blog, Krijo.

Have a great day, everybody.

Lucina said...

Ooh! Better late than never. I've been oversleeping lately. It takes me much longer these days to rest after a trip.

I loved the rolling DICE theme from C.C.! Thank you, MB, for explaining the progression.

RENTS was my favorite clue and like Irish Miss, I liked seeing DOGNAP, FUR and ARF. I'm a dog lover.

Here OFFICEMAX is still in place though they advertise themselves as part of Office Depot.

Nice CSO to our TOMS and to TIN.

I knew Stanley TUCCI right away as I've seen him in many films. He is a fine actor and he also has a cookbook which one of my friends gave me.

Canadian Eh! I'm glad you remembered the feminine/masculine rule.

I also learned to spell CARAY.

Have a delightful day, everyone!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! No circles but the DICE ROLLed into view easily. Fun and fast, thanks, C.C. Fun expo, Melissa.

I'm surprised that GROUND ICE seemed to be a problem for several. Water in the earth freezes in low temperatures. We had a beloved doggie hit by a car one year and had so much GROUND ICE we couldn't dig a grave for several months.

Along with the other DOG fills was SNIFF.

Several other slightly related word groups today: DEKED, DIKE, DOCS. Then we had ABETS over SLY & CRUEL.

Hand up for learning to spell CARAY & wanting DAR. Tried Blings before BAUBLES.

We had AVA DeVerney recently and, wonders of all wonders, I remembered it. Never heard of her before that.

AnonymousPVX said...

Please note that despite my handle, it’s in Blue.

A nice if easy puzzle for Hump Day.

Had REO for RAM 59D and that was it. That’s how old I am, haha.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta- DA!
A nice one from C.C.! I always look forward to both her words and cluing. And a neat exegesis from Melissa. Nice to see PRISSY revived in that vid clip.

I saw there was some controversy yesterday about whether our FURry friends actually say the things ascribed to them - such as "Meow" and "Woof." But for the sake of cruciverbalists everywhere, let me express my gratitude that at least in our daily grids dogs will continue to say "ARF."

Misty ~ Yes, I think you can credit yourself with a very decent showing if not a pure "win" when you're off by a single letter. I do the same - although I reserve my Ta- DA! for the rarer unvitiated wins. I almost screwed the pooch today for not knowing the proper spelling of Harry CARAY. Only at the last minute did I realize that the perp TEEROSE would not fly.

Stanley TUCCI is a favorite ACTOR, but I didn't see Lovely Bones. Read the book and wasn't that impressed, although the theme was haunting.

~ OMK

____________
Diagonal Report:
Four today. One on the front end, and a 3-way on the mirror side.

PS. BTW, nobody I know would ever refer to ACTORS as the "Stage crew." Too much potential for confusion. I did a version of The Threepenny Opera once in which the actual stage crew (prop people, follow spot ops, etc.) became the ACTORS for certain musical and tableau scenes.
But that was most unusual.

.

Lemonade714 said...

TTP, I did not click anything but was questioning the timing. No harm, no foul.

On the debate about ground ice being in the language, there are 650,000,000 hits on google for this general term referring to all types of ice contained in freezing and frozen ground, or permafrost.

OwenKL said...

Isn't GROUND ICE what you make sno-cones out of?

Ol' Man Keith said...

I think Owen has hit it.

In keeping with the common custom of chat rooms, the discussion should now narrow to the finer points of GROUND vs. Shaved ICE.

~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

WHO is this Suraj?

I would like to join in welcoming him or her, but I can't find any such name or link - except in the greetings from Lemonade and Yellowrocks.

I am curious, Yellowrocks.

~ OMK

Yellowrocks said...

OMK, apparently an imposter who was soon thrown off the blog thanks to our alert admins..



Lucina said...

OMK:

I also thought "stage crew" was unusual for ACTOR. It seems more common for the workers on the set.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. I love CC's productions and the way her mind works. "Flat fees" was delicious.

Big Easy said...

Congratulations C.C. on this DICE puzzle AND your puzzles in this past Monday's Wall Street Journal. The circles made the theme obvious. Just a couple of unknowns- Stanley TUCCI & AVA DuVernay. One change- MAC to RAM.

Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart,...etc- great.
EUROPOP- total electronic dance musical garbage. Kirjo- you're kinder than me.

OwenKL & OMK- people in New Orleans laugh when people call them 'snow CONES'. They call them SNOW BALLS. Snow-ball stands are everywhere around here, with at least fifty different flavors and 4 or 5 sized Styrofoam cups to hold them. They come with a spoon and a straw.

Wilbur Charles said...

First, I didn't even check the masthead to see that it was a CC xword. I just noticed the smooth cluing. I sailed through, perhaps the easiest of the week. I stumbled out of the gate with RAGGAD???
My fellow Tampanian*, for whom"The Iceman Never Cometh" led the way to RAG TAG.
I say "Smooth" because all the difficult (eg pooch pinch) yielded to perps. And I just noticed, I never checked that Venn diagram... ANA => AVA FIW

You may recall my midnight ride to Orlando airport to fetch a friend whom I never found. He must have walked right by me.
He rented a car and I drove to the rental agency to drive him home.
He said there were 300. people on the plane. I said " And only one who never turned his phone back on".
Here are my notes from earlier.

Jinx: Situation Normal All FUTZED Up
We had s Phu-Bai song in 'Nam. X rated.

Leaf peeping is very New England. Peak is Columbus Day and Inns etc make more money in October than ski season or summer.

WC

* Tin of course in Tarpon, me equidistant in the opposite direction. Tampa Bay designates all of it. The baseball team by that name plays in St Pete.

Btw, remember my "putting" story that I never got to? Sirius PGA devoted their program to wierd golf stories like the guy who hit his second shot on a part five into the woods, threw that club and his putter even farther in to said woods only to find it had hit a tree and gone in the hole for an "Albatross".

Wilbur Charles said...

Btw, I really liked the write-up by Melissa B . Also nice work Owen, now to check the J site.

WC

Bill G said...

I have looked for the J site without much success. I thought I found it once but couldn't find anything significant in the way of comments, answers or discussion. Any help?

CrossEyedDave said...

OMK@2:51

Screw all this recent talk of nasty Anons,
I just don't pay attention to them.

Simply because,

The MAIN RULE of the Blog is the rule of Thumper...

If you can't say something nice...


However, I have just got to ask,
OMK@ 2:51 said:
I almost screwed the pooch today for not knowing...

Regional slang?
I never heard of this expression...
being a cat fancier, I am just curious...
What on Earth are you talking about?

And, of course, since the road to hell is paved with good intentions,
CED rolls the dice,
and the answer is...

SwampCat said...

CED, thank goodness you reminded us of the Thumper rule!!! Don’t feed the trolls!

OwenKL said...

Bill G: http://jumblehints.blogspot.com It doesn't seem to show up on Google yet. Someone who knows more about SEO (search engine optimization) can maybe explain why.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Whoot! A C.C. Wednesday! I especially enjoyed the theme since I found out today that I'm going to BlackHat / DefCon in Vegas when I'll ROLL the DICCE a time or two.

Thanks for the expo mb. I guess I got here after the slips were fixed (and malware disappeared [please send me the link TTP])

WOs: NFL/AFC, RateS b/f RENTS [V8 didn't hit until Jinx's post!], COUNsuL 'cuz I can't spell, and UNFurls b/f UN FOLDS um, unfolded, when I used the them to get ROLL (yes billo, my SE is MESSY too). CARrY @ the Cubs 1st.
ESP: TUCCI

Fav: toss-up - RENTS, ANDES, and DOGNAP were great c/as.

Runner-up: Seeing Joe Cocker @1a - he always makes me think of Belushi (with Cocker) [best I could find on short notice. :56]

C, Eh! - I read it as dessert too!

{A, B+, A}

Krijo - that explains that; thanks. Also good to know you have fun puzzlin'

@3:37 OMK - LOL!

CED - 'screwed the pooch' == mess-up; FUBAR'd it; SNAFU; got it wrong. I heard this growing up in the Midwest.

Cheers, -T

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, C.C., for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.

Krijo: Welcome to the group. I belong to a Czech Slovak Club in Chicago area. Dobrovsky Club. We have a great dinner each month in North Riverside. All Bohemian food, that is what I call it.

The puzzle went through just fine. Typical Wednesday difficulty, but that is OK. Not as bad as Saturday.

Liked the theme. DICE

I like salads of any type. My favorite is the Cobb Salad. However, Waldorf is fine as well.

Tried UPDOS before AFROS. That's OK. We get them both.

Liked the John Deere clue and STAG. John Deere is big in Illinois, Quad Cities area, Moline. Big around the world as well. All started with a steel plow.

I see WikWak stayed up to 9:30 AM. Or did you get up early today?

Had a great picnic lunch today at the Golden K Kiwanis Club in Elgin, IL. I have been a member there for 17 years. You have to be a senior to join that club. They start at 55 years of age.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Michael said...

About "Suraj" -- Checking the blog late usually, there were two or three recent ads for moving companies in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, which were Indian spam, perhaps a bit more edible than the Nigerian stuff ... and likely from this same creature. I think that the world won't end with a bang or a whimper, but with spam.

Mike Sherline said...

My dad was a pilot in WWII and he often said screwed the pooch for mess up badly. I always thought that was where the early astronauts got it - some of them were around then, and flying. My impression was that is was said by those who came back from a mission of those who didn't.

TTP said...

Lemonade at 3:07 PM,
If you google ground ice without quotes, you will get all occasions where ground and ice occur. Thus the huge number you saw. If you google "ground ice" (in quotes) yo will get only occasions where the exact match occurs. So 174K hits...

Mike Sherline, yes, I always knew that phrase as "really mess up" or mess up badly, as you stated.