google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, August 4, 2018, C.C. Burnikel

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Aug 4, 2018

Saturday, August 4, 2018, C.C. Burnikel

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by C.C. Burnikel 

Today we celebrate one of the true staples of home, the chocolate chip cookie! Eating the dough, smelling the aroma of baking and finally eating the finished product with a glass of ice cold milk is a true sensory delight. My lovely bride makes one batch extra crispy just for me.

I hope you can get some of these wonderful baked beauties and enjoy them with my write-up or in spite of my write-up.


As you can see by the byline, our blogmistress shows once again that she can construct for any day of the week as she submits this beguiling themeless entry. Here she is pictured with me and the Husker t-shirt I took her when Joann and I met with her and Boomer in Minneapolis. She told me she has worn it twice and like anything else, I know it looked good on her!

As I read the cluing for 16 Across,

16. Walks caused by walks, perhaps?: TRIPS TO THE MOUND.

it occurred to me that something seemed familiar about that entry. Then, boom, it struck me that I had given C.C. that clue in response to a request from her for one of her great baseball fills. That is very cool but what is not so cool is that despite having written the clue and remembering that I had written it, it took way too many perps to remember what the fill was! Yeah, the Mensa people have no intention of contacting me. 😮 

Let's see what other gems our brilliant friend has for us today:


Across:

1. Biting: ACID.

5. Hooded African menace: MAMBA - Kobe Bryant bills himself and his shoe as The Black Mamba



10. One may be strapless: BRA.

13. Put on board: LADE - A bill of LADING from Valencia, Spain to Ashod, Israel via the Maersk Line



14. Girl Sebastian is referring to in the song "Kiss the Girl": ARIEL  - Advice from Sebastian the anthropomorphic Crab in The Little Mermaid



15. Poke: PROD.

16. Walks caused by walks, perhaps?: TRIPS TO THE MOUND - "Give me the ball, young man, that's one walk too many!"



19. Snatches: ABDUCTS

20. Always there: ETERNAL - JFK's ETERNAL flame at Arlington has gone out at least twice

21. Aware of: ONTO


22. "Battle of the Sexes" co-star: EMMA STONE - She played Billie Jean King to Steve Carrel's Bobby Riggs in the movie about their famous 1973 tennis match.




24. Dealer's order: ANTE UP  - Waddya mean I didn't ANTE UP?

26. Small grove: COPSE  - Most farmsteads around here have a small COPSE of trees surrounding the buildings including the chicken coop where you will find a 28. Fowl pole: ROOST.

27. Close one: PAL.

30. Graham who co-founded The Hollies: NASH - Later he left the Hollies and became the N of CSN&Y

34. 11th-century navigator: ERICSON - Leif makes celebrating Columbus Day seem silly 



36. Occasion to spiff up: HOT DATE.

39. Mother of the Titans: GAEA  - The mother of everything

40. App with pics, familiarly: INSTA  - Short for INSTAgram. 



42. Light color: RED - The RED light is on the right side in Japan



43. Cozumel coins: PESOS.


46. Impatient: SNAPPY -  He can't make it SNAPPY if he 48. Rests: TAKES A NAP.

52. Oct. 2017 Dodgers-Cubs matchup: NLCS  - A pricey ticket



53. Mine carriers: ORE CARS  and 57. Lose it: GET OUT OF CONTROL.



54. "Did it start already?": AM I LATE? - An OCD fear of mine

59. Imitated: APED.

60. King, e.g.: RULER.

61. "Hamilton" Tony winner Leslie __ Jr.: ODOM - Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the play and played Hamilton to Leslie ODOM Jr.'s Burr



62. Cantina condiment: SAL - Me gustaría la SAL en el borde de mi vaso de margarita (gustaría = like, SAL = salt, borde = rim, vaso = glass)

63. Convenient app for some drivers: E-PARK.

64. Scandinavian capital: OSLO.


Down:

1. Baja's opposite: ALTA ¿Cuál fue la temperatura ALTA y BAJA del día? (What was the high and low temperature of the day?)

2. Creamy pasta dish: CARBONARA - Dr. Dolan used this fill in a puzzle I blogged on July 7th 

3. "That was a fact!": I DIDN'T LIE



4. Appoint as a posse member, say: DEPUTE - In High Noon, Gary Cooper tried to DEPUTE men and they all refused

5. Drudge online: MATT  - The editor of The Drudge Report

6. Cropped up: AROSE - Suddenly... 



7. Sch. in the 2008 film "21": MIT - Audiences liked it a lot more than the critics. I've watched it several times for the math, gaming and the story arc where the nerd becomes a player




8. Monstrous creatures: BEHEMOTHS - NASA's BEHEMOTH - the crawler/transporter that carried the Shuttle and the Moon Rockets out to the launch pad. Find the fire truck for comparison in size



9. Microbrewery fixture: ALE TAP.

10. Mars in music: BRUNO - Wayne Newton jokingly called BRUNO "so talented he makes me sick" 

11. Journalist Farrow: RONAN  - As fate would have it, RONAN made a big splash last week with this expose



12. Puzzle: ADDLE Here is a puzzle that might ADDLE you

15. Presage: PORTEND.

17. Rubs clean: SCOURS.

18. Private meal?: MESS - Most army privates would know what S.O.S. in the MESS Hall/Tent is



23. Mic holders: MCS - I had "Drop the MIC" in last Saturday's puzzle

24. Take down __: A PEG - One of the ongoing premises on Frasier was to see the pompous star taken down A PEG




25. Shih-__: mixed breed: POO  - The cute little dog with the unfortunate name

29. Introductory French course: ONION SOUP - I'd hope that one of the succeeding courses would be a filet mignon 

31. Holdings for many seniors: AARP CARDS - Getting one of these is a rite of passage like getting your driver's license, though perhaps less eagerly anticipated

32. Aid in changing a light bulb: STEP STOOL  - Yes, now just rotate the STOOL clockwise

33. Lamarr of "Boom Town": HEDY  

35. One side of New England's Bourne Bridge: CAPE COD  - Here is a 1970 b/w picture showing this bridge connecting the Massachusetts mainland with Cape Cod over the Cape Cod Canal



37. Some NBA periods: OTS.

38. Red wine substance: TANNIN - A naturally occurring substance found in grape skins, seeds and stems. White wine has less TANNIN and is less likely to give you a headache

41. Govt. code crackers: NSA  - The National Security Agency offers online code challenges like this one below where the hint is the Q in the code stands for an R in the answer



44. Hairy Genesis son: ESAU - Isaac and Rebecca's twins Esau and Jacob are born



45. "Being and Nothingness" author: SARTRE  - Jean Paul's essay in phenomenological ontology which rejects Kant's concept of noumenon. 



47. Overly: ALL TOO - We all know people who were taken from us ALL TOO soon

48. Forum wardrobe: TOGAS.

49. South American cornmeal cake: AREPA  - Shredded beef in AREPA



50. __ One: vodka brand: KETEL - Not a connoisseur so...

51. Harness race horse: PACER  - It appears a bunny wants to get into the race with these PACERS



55. 1981 TV groom: MORK  - A little of Robin Williams comedy can go a long way with me but I found him to be wonderful in Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting where he showed his acting chops

56. Ticklish doll: ELMO  - Tickle Me Elmo was the hottest Christmas toy in America one year

58. Grapefruit League locale: Abbr.: FLA - In March we went the other way to see The Cactus League doing spring training in ARZ

I hope you enjoyed those cookies during this excursion and will tell you there is no law against seconds on the cookies as you comment and read what others of our merry band have to say. 

p.s. Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter today! Here she is shown with her youngest.




DA GRID

54 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF¡ 31 & 32 down stummped me¡ Crossing them I had NoaH>NASH, NLpr (pennant race)>NLCE (?), and SNA__Y>SNAPPY (which doesn't fit the clue at all, IMHO). 32d I saw was some sort of TOOL, but I couldn't think if the name for the long rod with a bulb-basket on the end for changing high lightbulbs.

SAL was spiffed up, he had a HOT DATE.
He arrived just on time, but asked, "AM I LATE?"
EMMA said, "Oh, no, no!
But I'm not ready to go.
You said meet at seven, so I'll be set by eight!"

ARIEL the mermaid was a beauty, not blah!
She wore only two clam-shells fashioned into a BRA!
Nothing else did append
On her finny-fish end --
As a "scale" model, she was without a FLAW!

Another puzzle today by the illustrious C.C.!
Right there in the paper, look and see. See!
Can we see eye-to-eye?
We answer, "Aye, aye!" --
That's English, in Spain we'd answer, "Si, Si!"

{B-, B+, A-.}


D4E4H said...

Good themeless Saturday morning Cornerites!

A puzzle by C.C., Oh boy! Then it was oh boy, what a difficult CW! I Peed, and Peed, and Peed, (the 3 Ps) until I finally FIR in 53:41. The last fill was at the Natick of 24 D - A PEG, and 39 A - GAEA. The "G" was my holdup.

Thanks Husker Gary for the chocolate chip cookie review. It was yummy. Thanks for the PICS.

13 A - LADE makes sense when you show a bill of LADING.

25 D - Should be called a Poo-shih.

51 D - I didn't knew a bunny could run that fast for that long. It must have eaten Energizer AAAs. It won by it's cute little nose.

55 D - I didn't know that Mork and Mindy got married. Do you take this woman.... I do. Nanu nanu!

Ðave

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

After erasing ERASES and changing COBRA to MAMBA things went much better...until they didn't. I had no idea about that South American cornmeal cake, and WAGged (incorrectly as it turns out) that Spanish salt was the same as French salt: SEL. Bzzzzt! DNF. Ya got me, C.C.

Husker, luck prevailed and I solved your ADDLE on the first try. BTW, there are also several folks "manning the rail" on that BEHEMOTH for size comparison.

DEPUTE: Familiar with deputize, so I guess DEPUTE is OK, though I've never heard it.

Couldn't even write my concession speach correctly. That deletion above is mine. Off to lick my wounds...

desper-otto said...

Speech, dang it!

Krijo said...

28 minutes and one mistake ALTO/OBDUCTS. I had a problem with LAMARR as I thought she was named HEDI and then thought it is another Lamarr. She starred with 18 in groundbreaking movie Exstasy (1932 - Czech Director Gustav Machaty) where she appeared barenaked. The movie itself was ahead of its time.
Love Emma Stone and can’t stand Bruno Mars.
No idea about Matt Drudge, Ronan Farrow and Odom but perps helped a lot. Learned addle and copse. Neat xword today!

CartBoy said...

Not buying Impatient/Snappy. Prefer Snippy even though they are probably too close in translation/meaning to differentiate. Leaves me with I'll, too, (all too) be overly picky.

Anonymous said...

I’ve been doing the LA Times crossword puzzle for years and years. Today I managed to do something that has long eluded me. I finished the Saturday morning puzzle without cheating and got every clue right. This is without question or exception the greatest day of my life!!! Better than passing the Bar exam. Better than the birth of my child. Better than any of my wedding days. I think I will celebrate by going back to bed.

TTP said...

Thank you C.C. and thank you Husker Gary, and HBD to your granddaughter !

I messed this one up in a few ways, and ended up having to change the game to Regular mode to see the red letters. I guess you could say this puzzle knocked me down A PEG.

My ORE CARS ended up OdE CARS.
Didn't read the tense correctly, so I GoT OUT OF CONTROL.
I went with SeL instead of SAL.
That made my South American cornmeal cake ADOPE.
More like I'm a dope.

Initially didn't see "mixed breed" as part of the 25D clue. Keyed in tzu as I flew to the next entry. Fixed that area starting with ROOST.

Finally, I didn't know the "Convenient app for some drivers" and was thinking iPhone so I wagged iPARK.

Other than that, glad to have worked out the rest of the puzzle.

billocohoes said...

An impatient person might SNAP at you, but might be more likely called SNAPPish, his remarks SNAPPY, wouldn't say impatient = snappy. Agree on DEPUTE/ize.

Earth Mother is usually spelled GAiA, not GAEA, but it's translated Greek, so either.

Had to look a long time, and still couldn't decide if those are PACERs or trotters (depends on whether both right legs move at the same time (pacer) or right front with left rear leg (trotter))

That's HEDY, not HEDleY (Blazing Saddles shout-out)

Anonymous said...

SE was last to fall. Reluctantly wrote RED and so was able to finish. Didn't see the light until HG pointed it out. One bad cell. SAL, not SEL.

Anonymous said...

SNAPPY can mean SNAPPISH or SNIPPY, but I don't use it in that context because it can be misunderstood so easily.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Um, after yesterday I'm not certain how or why I came by again today. It was, of course, C. C.. Thank you for a crazy challenge. A DNF for me. I turned on the red letters and began to see the light. I made all the mistakes already mentioned here, but my favorite was TRIPS TO THE MOUND. Still didn't give me enough headway. ADDLEd describes my brain today!

Thanks, Gary, for all the clarifications. I love the fire truck escort for the BEHEMOTH. I agree with your take on Robin Williams. He was a fine actor, but his comedic work often wore me out. I liked him on the Tonight Show as it seemed just enough. He was a brilliant fellow.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Bluehen said...

Probably my smoothest Saturday solve ever(23 mins.). Not without some missteps, though. Entered cobra before MAMBA became obvious from perps. I didn't know until i LIU that mambas display a hood when threatened, although smaller and no where near as dramatic as a cobra's. "Light color" was a great misdirection for me. I kept trying to come up with a three letter word for some pastel color. I'm a guy, what do I know about colors? Then perps showed me the light, so to speak. Shih POO reminded me of beloved Mr. Trubble, a pound puppy adoptee that we had to put down after 14 years of affection. At his first vet visit I asked the Dr. if he could hazard a guess as to his lineage. His best guess was Shih Tzu X Toy Poodle. On the drive home I phoned DW and told her that she had adopted a Shih Tzpoo. She was not amused. Oh, and I remembered AREPA from watching Bobby Flay get his butt handed to him in a "THROWDOWN' a few years back.


Thanks, CC, for a very entertaining puzzle and thanks HG for another always entertaining expo. In light of your informing us of National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, I'm going to make a batch as soon as I sign off. Hmm, we're entertaining our "Blond Tornado" today (Thanks, MdeF). Make that a double batch.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy Birthday to HG's youngest.

Bill G - Don't forget to go to last night for some answers to your questions.

Anon -T - - Buttered toast on the cat - LMAO. Great simile.

Daunting at first. Finally got some traction in the SE. Slowly it gave itself up. Loved the grid spanners. Had obtains before ABDUCTS. Only help invoked was with NASH. BZ to CC.
PACER - The gait seams so unnatural for the horse. Don't know how they train them to do that. Sometimes they break into a trot which must make the touts unhappy.
LADE - HG's Bill of Lading shows that apparently the Israelis allow transshipment of goods to Palestinians in E. Jerusalem.
AARP - Non-members here. We get discount motel rates simply by declaring we're Seniors, or under some other aegis such as AAA.
Hairy ESAU - Got it because my mother always used the simile "ruhe ESAU"(Low German) for anyone with, say, a scraggly beard or who weren't properly shorn. Somehow it seemed funnier in German.
MATT Drudge - I've been going to his site for 20 years; use the links as a news portal.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you for the really big challenge, C.C. which would not have been filled without the red-letter app.

Thanks for a great expo, Gary. I celebrated Chocolate Chip Cookie Day a week early and have been feeling guilty for it ever since.

One may be strapless = BRA? But try to find one to buy? Maybe available only in a bridal shop where they are built into a dress.

Learning moment: BAJA means low? Aha, makes sense of BAJA California.

Did not know: Drudge Report or MATT, GAEA, NASH, MIT, Shih-POO (may have owned one once. Never knew what that mutt was), SARTRE, AREPA.

Trotter before PACER after Bunny Rabbit. Rabbit was the clear winner but was probably discriminated against in the final results.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

A CC Saturday puzzle is a rare treat and always enjoyable. Sadly, I had a FIW due to the Sel/Arepe miscue. I kind of thought Sel was wrong because it's French, but I was unfamiliar with the cornmeal cake so the E stayed and, therefore, no Tada for me! I smiled when I filled in Trips to the mound and NLCS; a CC grid wouldn't be complete without a baseball reference. Several unknowns included: Nash, Gaea, Alta, Odom, and Depute, but perps got the job done. I love Emma Stone and while I know of Bruno Mars, I'm not into pop music so I have no opinion on him or his talent. Ronan was a gimme because of the recent publicity generated by his "New Yorker" article on Les Moonves and CBS.

Thanks, CC, for a fun solve and thanks, HG, for being our stalwart Saturday Sherpa. Happy Birthday to your daughter.

My sister, Peggy, received one of those scam "Gram, this is your grandson and I'm in trouble and I need $$$$$" phone calls and almost fell for it. It was still pretty unnerving, though. If I don't recognize a number, I just don't answer. If it's a legitimate caller, they'll leave a message.

Have a great day.

SwampCat said...

Puzzle was waaay beyond my pay grade but fun to struggle with. HG, thanks for ‘spraining it.

Irish Miss, I’m sorry your sister had a scare with phone scam. Like you, I never answer if I don’t know the number.

From yesterday, I once had a boat named MANDALA so that was easy. I always thought it was an interesting name and concept. Boat was slow, however, but had a favorable rating.

SwampCat said...

Sigh... ‘splaining , of course. Never try to be funny with autocorrect.

Bill G said...

CC and Gary, thanks for the Saturday challenge. I found it more fun and more doable than most Saturday puzzles.

Spitz, thanks for the information from last night. I took a required course in AC Machinery at Cornell. I didn't understand it and had to repeat it. I really didn't get it very well the second time either.

Irish Miss, about a year ago I got one of those phone calls too. Very convincing. I was THIS close to sending off some money.

Spitzboov said...

Hamilton's wife was Eliza, nee Schuyler. Her father had a summer home very near the site of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, and is the town I grew up in. Schuyler name is popular in upstate NY; there is a town of Schuyler next to Utica, and a Schuyler street in Utica. BTW, she lived until 1854 dying at age 97 and had ~ 8 kids.

Correct my ESAU note @ 0949 to read "Ruhge Esau."

Lucina said...

A super Saturday puzzle! Thank you, C.C. And finishing it in 20 minutes was the icing on the cake which is the only way I can have cake these days. The same for cookies. But thanks for the information, Gary. Sparkling commentary, too.

MAMBA started me off then BRA.

PK:
Macy's has a complete line of strapless BRAs.

Filling the strands all the way across the grid really helps especially when the perps are friendly. BRUNO and RONAN have almost become household names lately. And Graham NASH popped out quickly so I must have heard it somewhere.

SAL was easy for me but not AREPA which I've never heard so AROPA looked fine and I failed to check the tense for GET.

TANNIN is burned in my brain from the movie, Birdcage, where Nathan Lane tries to tell Robin Williams about its perils.

Thank you again, C.C. and Gary for an entertaining morning.

I hope you are all having a marvelous day!

Misty said...

Oohh, I love C.C. puzzles, but of course a Saturday was going to be a toughie. I did get two corners and a few items in between before getting help, but enjoyed the challenge. Lots of fun moments. I figured the walks were going to go AROUND, but that gave me RESS before I realized that private meal had to be a GI MESS. Like Bluehen, I kept thinking of something pale for a LIGHT COLOR before the RED turned up--oh, RED LIGHT, like traffic. And I loved seeing MORK in the clue. I loved MORK and MINDY, and was delighted when they got married, but also knew it wouldn't last and that the show would end soon thereafter. And I've never heard of AREPA, but got SAL, thank goodness, so it worked okay. Anyway, fun puzzle--many thanks, C.C. And delightful write-up, with a sweet family picture, Husker Gary.

Congratulations, Anonymous! Enjoy your great day!

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Picard said...

Hand up I FIW with AREPE/SEL. Four years of French and a year of Spanish was just enough to have me confuse the two languages! Otherwise I enjoyed the difficult but fair challenge.

I was confused by GAEA as spelled that way. My friends named their daughter GAIA for this goddess. She just had a baby recently. I am not sure if the baby is a TITAN, though.

Husker Gary: Thanks for the lovely photos of you and CC and of your daughter. Yes, I would not have known RONAN except for his recent appearance in the news. Thanks as always for the extensive write-up with plenty of videos and photo illustrations!

billocohoes: I only know HEDY because of Blazing Saddles! Thanks for your post!

I have photos of HARNESS RACE HORSEs at the California State Fair. I think they stopped doing it after one too many accidents that resulted in death. Also have photos at COZUMEL.

But I will just post one set of photos today. A two-for of MIT and CAPE COD.

At my 2005 MIT Reunion I was fortunate to get this tour of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on CAPE COD.

The first photos show us crossing that BOURNE BRIDGE and entering CAPE COD. Oceanographic research in some ways is more challenging than space research. It is more difficult to get signals from underwater than from outer space.

Tinbeni said...

Husker: Excellent write-up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Husker's youngest daughter!

C.C. Thank you for a FUN Saturday puzzle. Glad I check to see who was the constructor today.

Fave today for me, of course, was FLA since I live there.

Though TRIPS TO THE MOUND was a close "second."

Cheers!

AnonymousPVX said...

Had the same failure due to AREPA/SAL.....Stayed with SEL. Oops. Otherwise a very challenging but fair Saturday puzzle.

And again the Sox own the Yanks, this time because the Yanks cannot hit. Geez. Can’t wait for today’s game.

So I just had a bit of fun....first, I was washing the coffee carafe, it slipped, smashed into lots of glass pieces, at least it fell into the sink. A small cut and a new $35 carafe is on the way. Just what I wanted.

Not more than 2 minutes later my little cat barfed on the rug. Cleaned that up and washed the rug.

Then...Put a new piece on a piece of equipment, the piece slid right into place...unfortunately my little finger got caught and now I have 2 cute little blood blisters.

I was going to go get some lunch, but I think I’ll just stay out of the car and off the road.

Anonymous said...

"The cute little dog"

One person's "cute" is another person's "annoying"

Anonymous said...

Meh. Another slog with iffy clueing.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I caught ONTO C.C.' wavelength about 90% of the time, but needed a few boosts before I could sit at the grownups' table.
Even so, I kept SEL in place of SAL.

I gotta fess up, gal, ye'r jist too tough fer me!

Congrats to you, Anonymous, and you, Lucina, for finishing this one. Your Ta- DAs are well & truly earned!

~ OMK


____________
Diagonal Report:
Second day with 0 diagonals.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

You beat me up pretty good this morning C.C. but I came out OK. FIW w/ SoL for the salt plus three LIU. But I had fun filling and learning.

Thanks for the sparkly expo HG. I liked seeing NASA’s BEHEMOTH. Extend my HBD wishes to your Youngest.

WOs: SCrUbs; IRA Accoun [crap] b/f AARP CARD.
LIU: RONAN, cribbed from HG to fix Scrubs, phone-a-friend (DW) for GAEA.
NTM: DEPUTE, AROPA
Proud moment: I knew SARTRE w/ only S-RT—
Fav: ONION SOUP – I giggled at the AHA ‘cuz I was so afraid it was going to be some French word.
Runners-up: MORK from Ork and the ’21’ / MIT connection..., hum, I should watch that before heading to Vegas next week.

{A+, B, A}

@7:42 – Congrats! One day I will be able to regularly solve a Sat. Right now, I’m only up to 50% (of the puzzle!) regularly. Today, it only required a small boost to FIW.

BlueHen – your DW may not have been amused but I am :-)

IM – Exactly. With the number of contacts in your phone, you’d pretty much know anyone who’s calling. If it’s important they’ll leave a message otherwise, assume SPAM. [though I’m now getting messages to call xyz back about “your credit card with us.” Um, you didn’t say who ‘us’ was.]

BillG – Don’t feel bad about A/C machines. Though my degree is EE, I’m more comfortable w/ DC where i is not required to finish the maths.

Picard – Oh, do learn more about HEDY and her inventions (spread spectrum!)

Cheers, -T

PK said...

PVX: Some days are just like that. You're probably wise to stay out of traffic. Fixing breakfast an egg rolled off the counter & broke on the floor at my house. I laboriously cleaned it up, ate breakfast and went back to bed.

Lucina: thanks for the BRA tip. We don't have a Macy's here, but maybe online...

You all may know, but nobody has mentioned that RONAN Farrow is the son of Mia Farrow & Woody Allen. I had known he was Mia's but couldn't remember from which man so LIU.

Anonymous T said...

Ooop, let's try that HEDY Lamarr link again. -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

LOL, Anonymous T ~

My prouder moment:
I knew SARTRE - w/ only 0 letters!

~ OMK

Anonymous said...

What does S.O.S stand for?

Jayce said...

Whew, C.C.'s puzzle was too hard for me to finish without RED letters. As soon as I turned red letters on ENLIST, COBRA (except for the A), and TZU lit up brightly. So did the I in GAEA. Figuring out it was ROOST, not PERCH, helped me guess the POO, and things chugged along from there. Thanks for the challenge and the entertainment, C.C.

Anonymous T said...

@4:59: Sh*t On a Shingle. AKA Chipped beef on toast.

PK/Lucina - I've been told by my Sis that some women are too well endowed (she is) that they can't do strapless... "I need that over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder for all this." -T

Anonymous said...

Anon@ 4:59. Here is the R=rated answer. Coarse language.
SOS

Jayce said...

S.O.S. stands for the slang expression that military folks called Chipped Beef on Toast, namely Shit On a Shingle.

By the way, the SHIH part of that dog breed is an old fashioned spelling for the sound similar to "SHIR" as in shirred eggs. TZU is the old fashioned spelling of the sound sort of similar to what you could spell as "DZ" and sounds like the last two letters of our word "odds." In ancient Chinese it meant "Master" as in Master Kong (Confucius) or Master Lao (Laotzu). Many of the teachings in the Confucian Analects start out with (to use the old spelling) "Tzu yueh..." meaning "The Master said ..." In modern Chinese it can be a suffix, spelled "zi" these days, meaning "little" as in "haizi" little child, "kwaizi" chopsticks or literally "little quick ones", or the aforementioned dog "shizi" meaning little lion. Kinda like the suffix "ito" in Spanish, making "perrito" mean little dog.

End of linguistics lesson.

Lucina said...

Remember the discussion we had some time ago about SPENDY? Today I saw a commercial about glasses with the caption, Trendy, not Spendy. I suspect some advertising person coined that one.

Jayce:
Thank you. I appreciate that lesson though I don't speak Chinese but love anything related to language.

OMK:
For me, the harder the puzzle, the more interesting the challenge.

CrossEyedDave said...

Busy day, I had planned not to do the puzzle,
so I read the write up. Later I had a free moment
and decided to "do the puzzle" just to see how much I
remembered.

Now this is how a Saturday puzzle should go,
knowing some of the answers, hoping for a perpwalk!

I still DNF...

Couldn't figure out (or remember) alltoo/odom & Mamba/Matt.

Happy birthday to HG's Daughter #1

From last night.
I know, I know,
the laws of physics say it is impossible,
but I was watching a video, and thought, Hey! I have
a fidget spinner, some bell wire, and a battery...
All I need is too put a generator on the same shaft,
use a transformer to up the juice,
and Whamo! perpetual motion with extra power!

While transformer can increase AC voltage
(not a problem to convert DC to AC)
it does not increase current.
(yet Ohms' law states otherwise...)

If I could only transform current, and voltage...

Hence my question last night.

I could not post last night as I could not find the above video again.
(he never marked it part one)
however part two is interesting as he removes some friction from the system...

SwampCat said...

Owen, just re-read. Bravo!!

CrossEyedDave said...

SPeaking of perp-etual motion
(had to tie in CW's somewhere...)

this is pretty close!

if not very cool!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Lucina ~
Absolutely. Isn't that why we do them?

Each of us has our own range, our solving capacity, which, if the Ol' Walnuts are operating properly, is constantly expanding. If a Xwd should defeat us, we can respect it without fully enjoying it. We have to be up to the task, able to solve it w/o red letters or other cheats, to truly appreciate it.

Of course, if it's just easy-peasy, we won't respect it.

My guess is that the perfect alignment of our current capacities with the degree of challenge in a particular Xwd will allow us to crack 100% of the fills while agonizing for a while over 60% to 75% of them.

~ OMK

PK said...

Say what you will, Keith, I just plain don't have the patience to do these later week puzzles without red-letter help. I've developed a much better skill to do these and probably could get a lot of them without. But my mind just gets too frustrated. I've got enough other frustrations and annoyances without having my recreational pastimes of cw ruined too. I didn't originally even try the later puzzles. Now I enjoy the challenge -- with red-letters to point out when I'm wrong. I do another puzzle regularly which is tricky sometimes and manage to solve it.

My neighbor has a row of flowering shrubs on our joint property line. I have been enjoying a gorgeously blooming Rose of Sharon with fucshia flowers. Today I heard a strange noise and looked out. Neighbor had electric hedge clippers and was cutting back the forsythia bushes. Then he left. Soon I looked out and he had lopping shears and had cut off all the flowering limbs on the Rose of Sharon that he could reach. What is the good of having flowering shrubs if you don't let them bloom? You will be so proud of me: I did not run out screaming obscenities and beat the guy over the head with his loppers. I swear I didn't. The effort to remain inside gave me a belly ache.

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

Greetings!

Thanks to C.C. and Husker!

FIR!

Problems with: MAMBA (cobra first), EMMA STONE (just needed a few letters to get it), GAEA, INSTA, SNAPPY, NLCS, ODOM, E-PARK, I DIDN'T LIE, DEPUTE (deputize didn't fit), RONAN, POO, ONION SOUP, CAPE COD, AREPA (fortunately, knew SAL), KETEL, PACER and MORK (got from M).

Hope to see you tomorrow!

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

I almost fell for a grandson scam.

Spitzboov said...

PK - Sorry about your stupid neighbor. I think the hibiscuses which include Rose of Sharon are among the most beautiful of flowering pushes and it seems sinful, indeed asinine, to prune the flowers.

SwampCat said...

OMK, I agree 100 %! Even when I am absolutely defeated, the challenge is worth the effort. I learn stuff, sure, but mainly I enjoy the Battle!

I think crosswords are a metaphor for life. Don’t we all have to keep striving?

Wilbur Charles said...

Wareham wouldn't fit. Five miles north is the Sagamore bridge.
I completely blew SAL/AREPA/TOGAS(E) . I had EEL. I should have revisited but that was done on my first pass.
Solvers can suffer from EEL on the brain.
I never noticed it was CC else I'd have grok'ed the mound visit. Speaking of...
As I watched the Redsox slaughter the Yankees Thursday night I thought"Durocher would be "dusting" someone.
Sure enough, mild mannered Aaron Boone had his pitcher start the game with a beanball. Excellent work by the UMPs got it under control.

I asked Phillip about the monster. He suggested Basilisk and then hit upon BEHEMOTH. I'm sure I would've got it.
I gave him a 5% cut.

Anon@2:14. No one would call you cute, on the other hand...
Lucina, he tried CC's xword and took out his frustration.


My introduction to French was "J'entre dans la salle de classe; je regarde autour de moi."
I felt so good about my expected FIR but not so bummed for missing that SW corner. Mr Stupidity again.

WC

SwampCat said...

PK, that’s awful. I had a neighbor who cut down an oak tree. He “ didn’t like it”. People are strange.

Lucina said...

PK:
I share your frustration about cutting back shrubbery. Here, the landscapers are so clip happy that all the shrubs look like someone placed a pot over them to shear them. In my case I've had a variety of shrubs/flowers, etc. under my front windows and inevitably as soon as they flower, out come the shears. Finally, I asked to have only low flowers planted and they planted gazanias, pretty plants with yellow or white flowers. No one slashes them and I can enjoy them when they are in bloom.

OMK:
Yes!

TX Ms said...

Lots of perps needed! AROSE, SAL ("sin sal, por favor," ordering my fave drink; only learned sel, French for salt, in cws), AARPCARDS (why do we start getting notices while in our 40's?), BRUNO (like his music and him after his CBS interview with, as he called her, "Ms. Barbara" while they traced his impoverished childhood growing up in a ramshackle cabin in Hawaii) were easily penned in. I remembered COPSE, a term my Iowa resident brother used to describe the windbreaking line of trees grown on the farms there (strange for this Texan native).

Anon-T @ 5:12 - sounds like your whole family has a great sense of humor! Gotta review your previous post - "buttered toast on the cat"? I've been shirking my lurking lately.

HG - great recap, and HB to your daughter. Gotta agree with the Ericson/Columbus thing.

Favorite clue: LIGHT COLOR - cartoon light bulb finally went off - duh!

Anonymous T said...

Texas Ms - Be sure to check CED's perpetual motion kitty link from a day earlier to fully appreciate the toast-kitty.

CED - Marbles and Magnets - just wow! [the kind of time folks must find on their hands; but so cool]

OKL - Now that we are out of Prime Time; I'll share Key & Peele [MA-L (first 50 seconds is AM I LATE?)] you elicited at poem #1. :-)

Cheers, -T

CanadianEh! said...

Super Saturday. I knew it was a C.C. Special with those baseball references. Thanks C.C. and HuskerG.
(Happy Birthday to your daughter also HG.)

Many ink blots and some help from Mr Google today. I actually started with a sea of white and made my first entries in the SE corner with ELMO. But it improved from there.
This Canadian did not know MATT Drudge or RONAN Farrow.
WEES re DEPUTE and deputized SAL and Sel, Erases and SCOURS, Tzu and POO. I wanted Snarky before SNAPPY.

BlueHen, I'm with AnonT in being amused!
NSA (govt code crackers)was appropriate today as I have just started reading The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone. It is about Elizebeth Smith Friedman.

Time for bed.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon-T,

Yeaah,

I said B**** once

(it didn't end well...)