Chuck Deodene is back after another absence, bringing my third Friday opportunity to blog his work. Chuck was first published in the NYT back in 1994, and we saw him initially in 2009. This time he takes two-word phrases with the first word ending with "G" and the second word beginning with a "G." He then excises the G from the second word and clues the result with amusing consequences. The phrases have nothing in common either before or after the removal of the letter. The tricky part is noticing that there is a "G" missing. Our brains like FILLING IN THE BLANKS. With 5 themers, 55 squares of theme it is impressive to see added fill CHANGEUP, DEVALUED, EMOTICON, RADIO SET, SHINBONE, and TAG ALONG. Off to see the wizard,,,
18A. Passion for quilt filling?: BATTING
24A. Contest among bank customers?: SAVING GRACE (10). In the US, we are not very good at saving money WORLD MAP but we are not the worst. A saving grace is a good quality or feature in a person or thing that prevents them from being completely bad or worthless. Ageing's one saving grace is you worry less about what people think about you.
38A. Segment of a clogging contest?: STOMPING
51A. Airline passenger's arrival malady?: LANDING
59A. Female observer?: LOOKING GLASS (11). Interestingly, a looking glass is a mirror which is often the best friend (worst enemy) of a lass.
1. Staples buys: PCS. We begin with Personal Computers.
4. Pooh-pooh, with "at": SCOFF. This may derive from an Icelandic word skaup. "The superstition of science scoffs at the superstition of faith." Short Studies on Great Subjects by James Anthony Froude.
9. Author Stieg Larsson, for one: SWEDE. He died before his famous trilogy became movies LINK.
14. Deduction cry: AHA. The V-8 moment.
15. "While I've got your attention ... ": OH SAY can you see?
16. Big name in seating: EAMES. This COUPLE designed the eponymous lounge chair.
17. Zip on a field: NIL. A very common score in international football mtches.
20. Fall cause: TRIP.
22. Not heard before: NEW. A new clue for old fill.
23. 1945 summit site: YALTA. So much controversy and so much fallout from this CONFERENCE. 33A. "The buck stops here" president: TRUMAN. He took over for the POTSDAM Conference.
27. __ Road Ensemble, group initiated by Yo-Yo Ma: SILK. Yo-Yo Ma conceived Silkroad in 1998 as a reminder that even as rapid globalization resulted in division, it brought extraordinary possibilities for working together. Seeking to understand this dynamic, he began to learn about the historical Silk Road, recognizing in it a model for productive cultural collaboration, for the exchange of ideas and tradition alongside commerce and innovation. A truly global effort. various.
29. Portaged craft: CANOE. Portage or portaging is the practice of carrying watercraft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a portage. wiki.
30. Needing no Rx: OTC. Over The Counter.
32. Stick in a hall: CUE. Pool hall.
36. Baloney: HOOEY.
41. Jokhang Temple city: LHASA. The Jokhang, also known as the Qoikang Monastery, Jokang, Jokhang Temple, Jokhang Monastery and Zuglagkang, is a Buddhist temple in Barkhor Square in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.
42. Words spoken with one's hand raised: A TOAST. L'chaim.
43. Corp. bailed out in 2008: AIG. American International Group.
44. Auction set: LOT. Moment of LEARNING.
46. Made hands of: DEALT. Card playing.
49. Swatting target: GNAT.
55. Grass unit: BLADE.
57. Yield from una mina: ORO. A Spanish Gold Mine.
58. Laser-cut, perhaps: ETCH. There is so much I do not KNOW.
62. __ jump: SKI.
63. Unexpressed: INNER. Remember Bradshaw and his inner child?
64. Pulitzer poet Conrad __: AIKEN. Conrad Potter Aiken was born in Savannah, Georgia, on August 5, 1889. When he was a small boy, his father killed his mother and committed suicide himself, a tragedy that had a profound impact on Aiken’s development. He was raised by a great-great-aunt in Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard in 1912, the same period as T. S. Eliot and E. E. Cummings. He won his Pulitzer Prize in 1930, for his Selected Poems.
65. Work hard (for): GUN.
66. Aboveboard: LEGIT.
67. Handle: SEE TO.
68. Ajar, in verse: OPE. I 'ope this does not catch on, even though I like to keep my mind ope'.
Down:
1. Suit part: PANTS.
2. Former French president: CHIRAC. This MAN.
3. DNA sample source: SALIVA. I did the ancestry spit on a stick; results were too vague.
4. Sound with tears: SOB.
5. Pitcher's surprise: CHANGEUP. The changeup is the staple off-speed pitch, usually thrown to look like a fastball but arriving much more slowly to the plate. Its reduced speed coupled with its deceptive delivery is meant to confuse the batter's timing. When I was in high school I was a pitcher, and after my best game - a one-hit shutout - the opposing players came up to me to congratulate me on my amazing changeup. I threw all fastballs, just not as fast as they expected.
6. Kitchen brand: OSTER.
7. Mufti issuance: FATWA. Fatwa, in Islam, is a formal ruling or interpretation on a point of Islamic law given by a qualified legal scholar (known as a mufti). wiki. Rabbis do the same thing in Judaism.
8. "Here's the scoop" letters: FYI. For Your Information.
9. Tokyo-based game company: SEGA.
10. They're thin at budget motels: WALLS.
11. Email adornment: EMOTICON. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ヽ༼ຈل͜ຈ༽ﾉ ಠ_ಠ ¯\(°_o)/¯ ( ﾟдﾟ)
12. Weakened, as currency: DEVALUED.
13. Legal add-on: ESE.
19. Siberian freeze-out?: NYET.
21. Mottled equines: PINTOS. PINTO the HORSE.
25. Routine: NORMAL.
26. Crichton novel set in Africa: CONGO.
28. Longboat in Florida, e.g.: KEY. Such beautiful beaches in this AREA.
31. Singled out: CHOSEN.
34. Mazda two-seater: MIATA. A red one sits in the condo parking lot.
35. Hexapod worker: ANT. Six legs.
37. Cause of a blinking "12:00": OUTAGE. A power outage that is.
38. Tibia: SHINBONE. Best I can do.
39. Emulate a little brother, maybe: TAG ALONG.
40. Ham's creation: RADIO SET. Ham radio is back so soon.
41. Tarry: LAG.
45. Author Robert __ Butler: OLEN. “I'll never stop believing it: Robert Olen Butler is the best living American writer, period.” — Jeff Guinn, LINK. So many books I have never read..
47. Unhands: LET'S GO.
48. Affix to a corkboard: TACK-UP.
50. Castmate of Doohan and Nimoy: TAKEI.
52. "Cross my heart!": NO LIE.
53. Male on a pond: DRAKE. DUCK!
54. View from Schönburg Castle: RHINE. A really cool PLACE.
56. Gossip: DIRT.
59. Diminutive, diminutively: LIL. Abner?
60. Main delivery: GAS. Directly from the gas main.
61. Cold-sounding product prefix: SNO. Cone?
Well, that was a blast. Sometimes simple is good, and and I enjoyed the solve. August is sliding by and I will see you next Friday if the CDR. Lemonade out.
Tho many would SCOFF at the NEW way to work,
ReplyDeleteThe standing-desk had the SAVING GRACE of a perk --
At least for the gnomes
With no Y chromosomes --
When a LASS adjusts her PANTS, it LOOKS like a twerk!
OH, SAY, can you see how to parse seven-D?
I think it's two words, but it well could be three!
Forty-one-A gave me an A-HA
When I saw the dog was LHASA!
But keep the V8 can handy for clues that are HOOEY!
A fearful malady is LANDING EAR!
Until your ear pops, no how can you hear!
A man's not a GNAT,
To be airborne like that!
But you have LOTS of TRIPS this coming year!
{B + a harassment charge, B+, B+.}
Greetings!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Chuck and Lemonade!
Cool theme!
FIR, but certainly had to fight with it! Unknowns were: SILK, LHASA, INNER, AIKEN, CHANGEUP, FATWA, KEY and OLEN (put in OwEN First.
Have a great day!
100% in under 28 minutes, a good Friday for me. I battled the BATTING/OSTER section for the last entry. Again those brands that elude me. I have seen the gimmick with longest answers before.
ReplyDeleteI hope to buy an EAMES chair one day. It is not so easy to visit YALTA these days - not sure if it is Ukraine or Russia.
I really liked the Tom Cruise version of Jack Reacher. The first movie was really old school and Werner Herzog was a baddie in it. The second movie was just a pile of garbage.
To make him so much shorter than in books is an artistic license. Did not bother me in the end.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteMy grid looks like a battlefield this morning. If there was a way to go wrong, I managed to find it. Still, finished in decent Friday time, so life is good. Thanx, Chuck and Lemonade.
"Quilting" -- Women used to have quilting bees in my home town. There were five kids in our family, and Mom made a quilt for each of us.
CONGO -- A not-very-good novel, and a truly terrible movie.
AIKEN -- Until recently the elementary school in our town was named A. M. AIKEN -- which I pronounced as Ahm Achin'. It was torn down two years ago, and a brand new school, Dogwood Elementary, was built on the grounds.
ReplyDeleteThank you Chuck Deodene and thank you Lemonade.
No real problems despite the unknowns. The only real delay was due to entering SCULP for "make hands" with only the L in place at the time. That quadrant was the last to fill, and it was only after re-reading the clue did I notice that it was "made hands of", so the answer could not be in present tense.
For about a year I had regularly scheduled dates with two other woman every week, and my wife was fine with that. I called them "my girls." She knew exactly what it meant when I told her I was going to see my girls. She didn't mind or seem to get jealous. Don't recall the order, but I think first up was Saving Grace (Holly Hunter) and then followed by The Closer (Kyra Sedgwick). My wife found it amusing.
CSO to WikWak with RADIO SET. He's an amateur radio buff. He even has his call letters on his license plates. I believe he said he's had "contacts' with hams in 38 of the states. Surprisingly to me, he said it's harder to make a contact with hams in some of the nearer sates.
Many here might recall the 1972 hit song Brandy by Looking Glass. The name Brandy became a very popular girl's name choice for the next ten years after that song was released. Barry Manilow's Mandy didn't have the same effect. Mandy, if you're reading, no slight intended. Yours is a lovely name.
Good Morning, Lemonade and friends. This seemed like an easier Friday than the usual Friday fare. I caught on to the theme with SAVING RACE.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite clue was Pitcher's Surprise = CHANGE UP.
I was also amused by Siberian Freeze Out = NYET.
QOD: Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next. ~ Herbert Hoover (Aug. 10, 1874 ~ Oct. 20, 1964)
Anybody else think of civvies for "mufti?" Spitz, I'll bet you did.
ReplyDeleteGood morning, folks. Thank you, Chuck Deodene, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteStarted this last night via cruciverb. The SW corner held me up. So, I gave up and hit the sack. This morning I was wide a wake and finished easily. One big hang up was having GOOSE for 53D. I fixed that with DRAKE, which gave me LANDING EAR. LOOKING LASS came soon afterward, etc.
SWEDE was a wag. EAMES was a wag also. EMOTICON with perps.
KEY was tough. I was thinking of some kind of boat. Never heard of LONGBOAT KEY.
Had AON before AIG appeared with perps. Then I kind of remembered. Tried TACK TO, TACK ON, TACK IT. Then I tried OPE and TACK UP became obvious.
Of course I filled in ANSWER for 42A. It became obvious that was wrong. With a couple perps A TOAST hit me in the head. And, many dinners I attend always have TOASTS as a part of the event. I should have known.
I Second what TTP said about WikWak. He is a great Ham Radio Operator.
Anyhow, have to run. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
A very easy Friday. Could not download/print from the LA Times site, had to go to the Washington Post site.
ReplyDelete"Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing." - Warren Spahn
ReplyDeleteGot RHINE with perps, but couldn't figure out how the Rhine got to Vienna, until I finally noticed it was Schonburg, not Schonbrunn
TTP, how thoughtful to consider Brandy's feelings, I mean Mandy, or was it Candy? Gee, we also have Sandy, Randy, and the base Andy.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-It had to be LANDING EAR I guess because OLEN was never coming to me
-Returning occasionally to my hometown STOMPING GROUNDS to sub has been great
-Staples (and others) cannot help with a proprietary Apple PC
-A simplified CANOE portage device
-The placement of silent H’s is tricky
-I had the entire restaurant TOAST my MIL’s 96th birthday Monday night
-Made hands of made me think of hiring workers
-I thought of this grass and this unit.
-This LASER-cut dome designed by my son-in-law is the crown jewel of an iconic Lincoln site (scroll through the pix if you like)
-A 90 mph pitch can be a CHANGEUP when you have a 105 mph fastball
-Yup, Mufti made me think of civilian soldier dress
-LEGALESE - This firm and, in particular, the writer (who has carriage of this matter), have recently received instructions to act on behalf of Ms Jane Janeson in relation to the matters set out in the subject line above VS. We got your letter and will get back to you.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteD-O - - I did think of civvies but did not write it down. When I saw SCOFF filling in, I went right away to FATWA. Great minds think alike!
Good Friday fare. But when the theme words started filling in without the one G, it sped up a lot. I seemed to be on the author's wavelength today. Agree with Lemon on the breadth of the fill. Very little HOOEY (aka B__S__) in this puzzle.
Had tromp before STOMP. Did not know exactly where Schönburg Castle was but figured it was either RHINE or Danube. The 5 letters cinched it. Only had to wite-out 3 squares. A good Friday.
Diminutive re suffixes: German has 'chen' or 'lein' as suffixes. Dutch and L. German have 'je' or 'tje'. Our daughter
was 'Gretchen" (RIP) a diminutive of Grete. My one aunt was named Grete but we always knew her as Tante Heetje. Tom Brady's not so diminutive diminutive is Gisele Bündchen.
Hi Y'all! Thank you, Chuck, you made me chuckle with this challenging but fun puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, great write up.
ReplyDeleteI was astonished to have a better time than Krijo with 23:46 minutes after solving took me twice his time the other day. Any small victory helps these days.
The last fill was PCS. I don't go to Staples enough to know they sold computers. Also did not know AIKEN, CHIRAC, OLEN, or KEY. All ESP.
Never heard of Pitcher's surprise = CHANGE UP. My baseball experience ended in 8th grade. I'm a little embarrassed because my grandson is a pitcher.
Jokhang Temple was in my SIL's pictures when my niece's family were on a trade mission in Tibet. SILK Road ensemble was a lucky guess.
Hahtoolah: liked the Hoover quote. I learned that when remodeling my old house, figuring out what to do first then the next step.
Gary: hand up for thinking "hired" was made hands of. Oh, DEALT! On the farm we hired more hands than we ever DEALT cards.
I filled the SAVING RACE before the BATTING LOVE and that gave away the puzzle. But it took a few WAGs -SILK Road, SWEDE (DANE was too short and NORSE wouldn't do because another WAG-SEGA- was already in place), LHASA. CONGO, TAKEI, Conrad AIKEN, Robert OLEN Butler-filled by perps.
ReplyDeleteThin WALLS? They're thin in ALL hotels.
AIG- they weren't the one bailed out. They paid on their policies and were really solvent. Fannie MAE and Freddie MAC were the ones who were really bailed out. But the feds took over all three and shafted the stockholders. AIG continues to make money. The other two should be shut down. Don't agree? I'll issue a FATWA against you.
CHANGE UP- CURVE BALL too long.
HOOEY- PHOOEY too long.
SALIVA- SPIT too short.
Anybody remember Debby DRAKE and her workouts on television back in the 1960s.
billocohoes- Spahn & Sain and pray for rain.
I enjoyed this puzzle, Chuck. The theme really helped the solve. Lemon,a delightful blog, as always.
ReplyDeleteI read Stieg Larson's trilogy, very violent, but intriguing.
I love the looks of the Miata, too small for a family car and not good in the winter. If I could afford a vanity car on the side, that's what I would go for.
I agree with Yo Yo Ma's Silk Road philosophy, cultural collaboration, so different from the latest trend toward cries of cultural appropriation.
Lemon says the saving grace of getting older is you worry less what others think of you. We need to learn that at a young age. At recess a little boy came crying to me to say that someone called his mother a fat idiot. I laughed and said, "How could anyone believe such a silly thing about your thin mother who is very smart! Can you imagine her being like that?" He laughed with me. That is a lesson I need to remember. Most slams are so wide of the mark they reflect on the sniper.
Yes, it is easy to mix up the Schoenburg Castle near the Lorelei rock and Schoebrunn Palace in Vienna which we toured.
I picture Jack Reacher as formidable looking, a "Don't mess with me" type.
I realized my ROBERT OLEN BUTLER link was missing so I have added into the write-up. That process made me focus on the literary references are in the puzzle.
ReplyDelete1. Stieg Larsson
2. Conrad Aiken
3. Michael Crichton
4. Robert Olen Butler
How many have read these authors?
Thank you, Chuck Deodene! This was an intriguing and amusing challenge.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while to find a toehold but as I skipped around and more and more words emerged, I got the theme and it took off! Hand up for thinking of civies at MUFTI. OSTER was easy. All I have to do is look around my kitchen.
Two of my sisters as well as two friends are going to LHASA next month.
AIKEN seemed familiar to me.
One of my sisters gave all her children and grandchildren genetic kits for their birthdays and those who sent theirs in remarked on how obscure and unexpected the results seemed.
During this monsoon season we've had two OUTAGES so far. But the power company is quick and workers get right out to repair the damage. Sometimes it's fast and others it's too complicated and takes longer. People get impatient.
Thank you, Lemonade, for another zesty commentary!
I hope everyone is having a magnificent day!
I have read the Stieg Larssen trilogy and also the newer ones by a different SWEDE who completed them from Larsson's notes.
ReplyDeleteOf Chrichton's only one and I don't recall the title.
Well, even though it’s a Friday, this puzzle had Tuesday difficulty, especially compared to yesterday.
ReplyDeleteSo no issues, no cross outs , nada. Wanted very much to make 45D oWen, but WANDING EAR made no sense. Never heard of the name OLEN. So the L went in anyway.
I have a 92 Miata garage queen, these are fun cars to drive, cheap to maintain.
And on to Saturday.
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-More time to blog today as I have reached my 3 games/wk golf quota that Joann and I have agreed to. That’s how you reach 51 years of marriage.
-I’ve heard of and read Michael Crichton (there’s one of those pesky silent H’s again), NIL on the others
-DON’T even think about a MIATA until you try to get in and get out of one after a significant number of birthdays!
-I did have one of my students get what I guess is called “LANDING EAR” on the way home from Orlando. She could not get her ear to “pop” and the pressure differential was making her cry and every trick the flight attendants tried failed. It “popped” inside the terminal.
-Here are some old fashioned names of girls we know who were named in the 21st century - Clara, Ella, Madeline, Adeline… Any others?
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI don't recall seeing this type of theme very often, but it was easily discernible and yielded some fun images. I needed perps for Olen, Aiken, and Lhasa, as clued. W/os were Amana/Oster, Choose/Chosen, and GPO>GPS>Gas. Noticed Change Up and Tack Up. Tibia=Shin bone reminded me of TTP's recent mishap. And, yes, my first thought for Mufti was civilian clothes as that's been my most common association with that word.
Thanks, Chuck, for some Friday fun and thanks, Lemony, for a terrific expo and many enjoyable links. However, with all due respect to Yo Yo Ma, to me, that music sounded like a chorus of cats competing for CED's attention! Now I know where caterwauling comes from! Your red Miata comment evoked memories of Archy McNally, Lawrence Sanders' bon vivant protagonist!
HG, thanks for posting the Sunken Gardens link; what a beautiful and serene place that must be. Belated birthday wishes to your MIL on such a momentous milestone. (My mother was born 117 years ago today.)
I'm going to a great-niece's 40th birthday party tonight, at the same venue where my brother's party was a few weeks ago. (My most memorable birthday was when my husband hired a professional chef to prepare a meal for a group of eight friends, in our home. We started with drinks and appetizers, then a delicious dinner, and a finishing touch of elegance with Baked Alaska for dessert. His wife was sous chef/server so I didn't have to lift a finger. And they left the kitchen just the way they found it. A once in a lifetime treat!)
FLN
YR, I knew 31 out of the 40 Yiddish expressions. For many years, I worked for a predominantly Jewish company, so no surprise there.
CED, Imp or no Imp, you're the King of Linkdom, and we love you just the way you are! BTW, I appreciated the "Harvey" clip but I could barely hear the dialogue, plus there were lots of little white flecks floating over the images.
Have a great day.
I read Crichton's CONGO many years ago and found it spellbinding. I also read some of his other books, but can't remember the titles.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter sent in a genetic test. She's a history teacher and has also taught classes in genealogy but never came to me for any information about her own genealogy. My take on it is she can't stand me to be smarter in anything than she is. I asked her why she'd spent money on the test when I knew where all our main lines came from: Germany, Wales, Ireland, Scotland. She ignores my requests to tell me what the genetic test showed. I really wanted to know if we had some females that weren't white. One deep south woman is somewhat suspect since she was never married to the wealthy land owner who fathered her five kids. Her daughter went north as a domestic worker and married into my line.
Outstanding Sunken Garden pics, HG. I would love sit there on a sunny afternoon and enjoy the view and the peace.
ReplyDeleteIM, what a wonderful birthday dinner and what a thoughtful husband.
Alan perked up last night and began to eat again after losing 7 pounds. Today he seems fine.
I never heard of Landing Ear, but to “land in gear” I suppose would also be a malady!
ReplyDeleteOld solver, new site fan.
ReplyDeleteI do across first. Thought this would be hard with only six fills that way.
Down next, got the corners.
But my saving grace was savingrace.
Then it was easy Peasy.
Wearing mufti..
Clever, fun theme! Stuck awhile with SNIFF before SCOFF. Hand up for OWEN before unknown OLEN. Thanks for the detailed write-up Lemonade
ReplyDeleteHas anybody else seen the film Fitzcarraldo?
This has to be the most extraordinary PORTAGE in all of history.
Filmmaker Werner Herzog had the utterly insane idea to PORTAGE a steamship through the Peruvian jungle. For real.
Here is my article on George TAKEI when he came here to speak last year.
Worth reading about this courageous man and his life experiences. Starting in a Japanese-American internment camp with his family losing everything. Then starting over from nothing.
Thanks for the feedback Irish Miss, on the Harvey Hippity Hop link...
ReplyDeleteYes, I noticed too late that the sound was to low, not sure how to fix it,
but will try again. The spinning stars were added by the poster
(and only on the right and bottom of the frame)
to get around the copyright rules.
(nobody in their right mind would copy it with all those annoying stars floating around)
(i never said I was in my right mind..:)
But on an Ipad, you can zoom in and put those stars off screen.
Another thing they do is speed up the sound, you can alter sound speed in YouTube settings.
Some sites cover the entire frame in a filmy watermark.
or blow up the picture so you can only see the center of the frame.
All done so that an entire movie that is so old it should be in the
public domain can be put on YouTube for all to see, but not copied...
hmm, somewhere along the way, this post turned into a rant...
sorry...
Am I wrong, or have Friday pzls gotten easier over the past few weeks?
ReplyDeleteThis entry from Mr. Deodene is cleverly and elliptically clued, but is otherwise not very elusive.
Enjoyable, though! As was Lemonade's "simple is good" response.
~ OMK
____________
Diagonal Report: One main diag, NW to SE, with an anagram that offers the following observation:
The jazz sextet thought they were the coolest cats around. Nobody was onto the latest tunes and dance moves so much as they were, and nobody could beat these jazzmen when it came to the trendiest club gear and drugs.
This new cat on saxophone seemed a natural leader, so when his foot started tapping a rhythm, they all naturally followed: the drummer picked it up, and the piano began a riff that drew them all together.
But then the sax player started something that made them all sit up and roll their eyes! What the *#@! was he playing?
It was something off the wall, man! Something atonal? No, damn, it was serialist and twelve-tone!
Arrgh! All of a sudden, these cool cats were six
NONPLUSED HEP MEN!
This puzzle started out very tough for me,
ReplyDeletethe acrosses only yielding gnat and legal for sure.
(legal turned out to be legit, two answers, and one an inkblot!)
(I guess the toast falls butter side down 50% of the time for me...)
Canoe could have been Kayak...
added just the Y for Yalta, but hesitated as 19d second letter Y was a headscratcher.
Does anyone buy a PC from Staples??? (pin/pen(s) AArgh!)
Suit part, pants? really?
Got lag and that revealed the Lhasa somehow,
WAG'd tackup, but due to legal issues, my gossip was "tell".
Once I had sussed this suss fest enough to get saving grace, I was off to the races!
Still do not understand the reference of "gun" for "work hard." must be regional slang...
Anywho,
at a loss to provide a silly link for dropped "G."
But I do believe I have a segue...
I am sure all you guitar players out there have heard of dropped D tuning.
But I have been recently investing all my energy into trying to learn
the fingerpicking for a dropped G song.
(fingers raw and sore, need to get finger picks...)
Standard guitar tuning=
E
A
D
G
B
E
Dropped G tuning=
G
D
G
D
B
D
I managed to solve the puzzle by getting in tune with the constructor,
however, getting in tune with this guy is proving to be a whole different challenge.
Jorma Kaukonen, Water Song.
Michael Crichton was an extremely prolific and gifted author. He stood at least 6'9" tall and graduated college (Harvard) Phi Beta Kappa; went on the Harvard Medical School and got his degree and worked at the Jonas Salk research institute. He never practiced medicine chiding both doctors and patients for their behaviors. He started writing at a young age, and published many novels in pen names; when he finally wrote in his own name out came:
ReplyDeleteTHE ANDROMEDA STRAIN - 1969, THE TERMINAL MAN - 1969, THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY- 1975, EATERS OF THE DEAD - 1976, CONGO - 1980, SPHERE - 1987, JURASSIC PARK - 1990, RISING SUN - 1992, DISCLOSURE - 1994, THE LOST WORLD - 1995, AIRFRAME - 1996, TIMELINE - 1999, PREY - 2002, STATE OF FEAR - 2004, NEXT- 2006 and published after his death in 2008 at the age of 66, PIRATE LATITUDES - 2009, MICRO - 2011, DRAGON TEETH - 2017.
He also became involved in TV and movies both with his own work and the work of others, he contributed: 1972 Pursuit (TV film)Novel and director
1973 Extreme Close-Up (a.k.a. Sex Through A Window) Screenwriter
Westworld Writer-director, the Yul Brynner movie that has a new life on Netflix; 1978 Coma Writer-director (book by his friend Robin Cook, a fellow non-practicing doctor), 1979 The Great Train Robbery , Novel, screenwriter-director, 1981 Looker , Writer/director, 1984 Runaway Writer-director, 1989 Physical Evidence , Director, 1993 Jurassic Park , Novel, author and co-screenwriter; Rising Sun Novel author and co-screenwriter; 1994 Disclosure Novel, author and producer; 1996 Twister , Co-writer and producer; 1999 The 13th Warrior, Novel, author, producer and director of re-shoots
ReplyDeleteDefinitely an enjoyable Friday puzzle from Chuck. Lemon's tour was detailed and enjoyable.
The dropped G showed up quickly and made the solution of the other theme answers easier to fill in. The rest of the fill followed relatively easily.
I have seen most of the Crichton movies (excellent The great train robbery and currently tv show Westworld based on the movie with Yul Brynner he directed). I really liked the Timeline book which was made into terrible movie. He came up with the idea for Jurrasic park.
ReplyDeleteAnd I even liked the Congo movie because there was Bruce Campbell in it.
I have seen a bit of Fitzcarraldo, Werner Herzog plays a baddie in the first Jack Teacher movie!
I am glad someone from USA compares his time on completing xword puzzle.
Still I have to do 100% on Sunday puzzle. I have managed this only once.
The only thing I remember about Michael Crichton, is that he wrote a book that had as an aside the information that almost all global weather stations date only to World War II (and some even later, during the Cold War [think Greenland, not your usual vacation spot]).
ReplyDeleteSo global warming may be real, but there should be a 1000-year data baseline, instead of a mere 70 years. (My phrasing of his opinion.)
I "grok'ed* the theme at SAVING RACE
ReplyDeleteI went to my nephew's wedding and my ears were killing me. I was dying waiting in CRT when a chance for a credit arose if I'd take another detour. So, I went from Tampa to Boston via Charlotte and Cincinnati. Mr S went along too.
I had SNIFF, SCARF, ... it's all Black so I wrote SCOFF above it. Needless to say I was all over the place. Then I looked up and every box was filled. Then I started correcting.
fe. I knew there was an H somewhere in LHASA
Wow, another Georgia boy, Ty Cobb had his father killed (by his mother?)
Wow, wouldn't you know it, this is the one I FIR. By now all my Wrong turns have been posted. If not I'll mention them. Like AIG as AGI.
Let's list them as they come:
Yep, OWEN, ok others were TACIT (Either 63a or 66a), EDGE, . Ok, but a lot of white before it all fell. Decidedly not an easy Friday except the themes filled a lot of space.
A CHANGE-UP can occur when one increases the speed. I was just getting good when I stopped. I obeyed the dictum: No curves until age 18. Then, of course, it was too late.
My dictum: All coaches are IDIOTS**
Another: same, same for cutoff men***
Actually, besides S&S the Braves(Boston,48) had Vern Bickford
WC
*Sandy, I'd heard that term's origin too. NYT bloggers use it a lot
** My Pony league coach was ex-MLB (CF). He wouldn't let me pitch nor be ever replaced. HS coaches could care less about his opinion.
*** In softball I could curve it around them. They just want to get their greedy mitts on my throws . While I'm ranting...
1. The head first slide is obsolete. On steals the catcher throws to first base side and they tag him on the back.
2. The dictum, throw on the bounce is likewise stupid. If you can reach on the fly, do it .
Quit rending your tunics
W/o becoming too political, I think global warming is no longer a speculation or guess among the scientific community. I appreciate that Michael is leaving politics out of it when he refers to a baseline. The "controversy" is fed by partial information, such as the suggestion that we need 'weather stations" to be able to track global weather shifts. Yes, such stations add a degree of sophistication to our data, but we have several other tools - via geology and physics and other means - for charting past weather conditions and changes with great accuracy.
ReplyDeleteIt is an established fact (a word scientists hesitate to use, but I as a reading layman have no such qualms) that our planet has warmed and cooled under natural conditions for aeons. It is currently in a serious warming trend. A second fact is that humans - and other critters who exhale CO2 - are polluting the atmosphere with enough carbon dioxide to hasten and intensify the warming process.
Fluorocarbons don't help. When we add the effects from the burning of fossil fuels we have a real, traceable impact of our industrial countries in rushing the "greenhouse effect." Yes, the earth might have been warming on its own, but it is not at all helpful to hurry it up, and very likely to heat the atmosphere beyond what it would do on its own. We are already on target with melting ice caps, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wild fires.
Sorry to sound pedantic, but it is important to put facts out whenever they seem needed.
Michael @ 1612 - Your baseline comment is spot-on. The truth is we have no meaningful baseline, and as OMK points out, we have had oscillations for eons. How much is caused by man's activities is arguable.
ReplyDeleteMichael, I remember Crichton warning of global COOLING at a time when temperatures were cooling. Was that in the 70s??
ReplyDeleteIt was from there he pushed for much more extensive data on temperatures.
I loved his books!
Spitzboov ~
ReplyDeleteYes, but only arguable if you want to drag out a full appreciation of the effects that lie ahead. That the effects are already on track to be disastrous to many - including our grandchildren - is no longer "arguable."
The funny (as in weird) thing is that when the Charney Report came out in '79 it was Republicans who took the lead in trying to wake up the nation to the existential seriousness of the man-created phenomena. Even Exxon was on board then. It was pure science - no argument.
Only when practical options seemed elusive and the cost to oil & coal producers appeared high did it morph into a politically "arguable" matter.
This is why we can't have nice things. Try to get along, children.
ReplyDeleteThank you, school marm! Why can't we all just get along. Play nice!!
ReplyDeleteLets not get off into the tall grass. I meant though that it is technically arguable; not politically arguable. Unfortunately, it has become political.
ReplyDeleteOh, Spitzboov , it is so complicated isn't it. Most of us just want to get along. I'm not sure why it has become political.
ReplyDelete. Hey! It's just the weather!
Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Was that Will Rogers? Those of you who care about this stuff, LUI,
I'm going to.bed.
Krijo: Glad you have seen a bit of Fitzcarraldo!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone see the bit where they PORTAGE an entire steamship over a jungle mountain? And cut down half a forest to do so? For real?
OlManKeith: Thank you for being the adult in the room. Three of the biggest fires in California history are burning right now.
Cal Fire spokesman Mike Mohler said: "Let’s be clear: It’s our changing climate that is leading to more severe and destructive fires."
This is not politics. To quote "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten":
When it comes to dumping in the atmosphere:
Clean up your own mess
In economic terms: If you are going to make a mess, pay for it. Don't make someone else pay for it.
I had to be out all day yesterday (Thurs) and didn't get to Wed night or Thurs comments until this morning (it isn't 1400 yet here).
ReplyDeleteBill G @ 1701 Wed re Charlie Parker - I answered @ 2209 Wed. Hope you saw it.
Picard @ 0054 Thur (on Wed comments, repeated @ 1313 Thurs). I grew up in Garrett Park, one of the early DC bedroom/railroad towns, about midway between Bethesda/Rockville. Graduated from Walter Johnson HS 1962 - well before your time.
On to today's puzzle.
ReplyDelete7D If I saw just the word mufti I'd think of civvies, but had no idea what "Mufti issuance" could mean - actually I thought it said "Multi issuance" and 1st thought of post it notes, email, or insurance.
Husker @ 0956 et al: "Made hands of" made me think of hiring workers too.
Picard @ 1303
Fitzcarraldo - the story sounded so familiar I thought I must have seen the movie, though my memory is actually more of reading the book. Checked the Wiki you linked, realized I haven't seen the movie, and since Herzog wrote the original screenplay, there wasn't a book. I must have just read about it, and probably heard an interview with him about it on NPR.
Good evening folks.
ReplyDeleteI don't know WEES, but I agree. I worked and worked on this CW thru the day, and finally FIR.
Thanks Mr. Chuck Deodene for this challenging CW.
Thank you Lemonade for your excellent review.
29 A - Portaged craft: CANOE. - - One of Louisville's nicknames is the Falls City. In fact there is a Falls City Beer. At the falls there is an old area known as Portland. This was where goods were portaged around the falls. Damming of the Ohio river covered the falls, but there is an exposed fossil area of rocks that is very interesting.
Ðave
In re the puzzle, TX held me back. I so much wanted it to be a CSO to Owen that I held onto the W too long.Finally NO LIE gave me the N for landing.
ReplyDeleteI liked the novel theme.
Alan puts stuff in front of his cable box, blocking the signal. Then he complicates it by pressing all the buttons on the remote to make it work (not).I always have to resolve it. Now he has packed his own suitcase, very messy and the lid will not close. We will not be near a laundromat if there are not enough of the right items. Independence is an important goal which I am supposed to foster, but I am left holding the bag if there are problems. Seems to be the same bind the sandwich generation has in determining how much independence to give parents with deteriorating faculties.
OTOH I am delighted he is well enough to stand up for himself.
Interesting climate change discussion, but not for this venue. It could be interesting to pursue privately by email.
Picard ~
ReplyDeleteYesterday we had the smoke from the Holy fire dimming the sky over our home, and neighbors up the hill report seeing the flames slightly to the south.
I understand that those who deny climate change will argue that we cannot extrapolate from isolated phenomena. In the grand scheme a series of forest fires doesn't amount to proof that weather has heated up in general. Normally, I would agree, But we are seeing year after year of anomalous weather patterns and the polar caps are indisputably melting.
Yes, scientists continue to speak of 95% & 98% probabilities in order to cleave to the most rigorous standards of accuracy. But this mustn't encourage anyone to leap into the 5% gap and call their predictions "arguable."
The unHOLY fires, allegedly set by an arsonist with a grudge, are heart rending. The extreme fear of loss of life and property, and for some, actually losing everything, homes, jobs, records, mementos, is unimaginable. I hope you and yours stay safe. Please keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteLate to the party today. Thanks for the fun, Chuck and Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteI finished this CW this morning in good time for a Friday. Seeing the missing g theme helped.
But I was off to NOTL to the Shaw Festival and did not get here sooner.
Welcome Edward Duarte. Keep joining us.
I had the same pitfalls as others. Like Abejo, I did not know Longboat KEY and did not understand it until I saw Lemon's link. I was thinking of boats like a CANOE.
Holding on to Snear for too long before SCOFF held up the north-central.
AITKEN, TAKEI, EAMES REQUIRED PERPS.
I smiled at my CSO at 30A.
Time to sign off.
Mike, yes, I saw it last night. I'm listening to Charlie Byrd on Pandora as I type. Thanks for the reply.
ReplyDeleteLongboat Key is the stretch of Gulf coastline between Sarasota and Bradenton.
ReplyDeleteAlong with politics we have a no religion policy which is ironic as the theme of the energy vs climate debate is "What is Truth?".
And...As a ninth grader, my "Civil rights" topic(1958-we have a bunch of 44-62 folks in here) was Japanese internment.
Not much interest as I recall. "So what?", Selma etc was the burning issue .
WC in the gloamin