google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, August 8 2018, Bruce Venzke & Gail Grabowski

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Aug 8, 2018

Wednesday, August 8 2018, Bruce Venzke & Gail Grabowski

Theme: GAG ORDER. Ipecac, anyone?

19. Kontinental Hockey League trophy named for an astronaut: GAGARIN CUP. The KHL was created to further the development of hockey throughout Russia and other nations across Europe and Asia. Gagarin Cup.

26. Airport area with carousels: BAGGAGE CLAIM.

38. Planning to wed: ENGAGED. This GAG is perfectly centered in the grid.

46. One arranging gigs: BOOKING AGENT.

54. Joke used repeatedly ... and aptly found in 19-, 26-, 38-, 46- and 54-Across: RUNNING GAG. Running gags in Seinfeld.

Great progressive, or "running" placement of this clever GAG, see?



Across:

1. Game fish: BASS. First thought of the card game, Go Fish.

5. Body wrap spot: SPA. First thought was an injury. Nope.

8. Clams up, with "down": PIPES.

13. Jaunty tune: LILT. Merriam Webster defines it exactly so: "a spirited and usually cheerful song or tune," but I usually think of google dictionary's definition "a characteristic rising and falling of the voice when speaking."

14. Like a dotted note, in mus.: STAC. “Staccato” is an Italian word that means “sharply detached or separated from the other notes.” The symbol to indicate that a note or chord is to be played with a staccato articulation is a dot above or below the note (or chord).


15. Overflowing (with): AWASH.

16. Sign of spoilage: ODOR.

17. Ending with Wal: MART.

18. High-calorie cake: TORTE. Not SHORT. Could be almost anything - not many low-calorie cakes, are there?

22. Wrangler maker: JEEP.

23. Homer's neighbor: NED. The Simpson's - Ned Flanders.


24. Have grand plans: ASPIRE.

31. Pulitzer-winning author James: AGEE. For A Death in the Family. “God doesn't believe in the easy way.”

32. One of a clashing pair, perhaps: EGO. Cute.

33. Gobbled up: EATEN.

37. Moral misstep: SIN.

41. Glorifying homage: ODE.

42. Do a bakery job: KNEAD.

44. Part of pewter: TIN. Pewter contained lead as a hardener until it became widely known that lead can be toxic. It is now typically made of tin, copper, antimony, and bismuth.

45. Olympian warmonger: ARES.

50. 1965 Yardbirds hit: I'M A MAN. Not to be confused with Chicago's tune with the same name.


52. Corrosive substance: LYE.

53. Fruity beverages: ADES.

60. "The Kiss" sculptor: RODIN.

62. Old Royale 8's: REOS.

63. Jessica of "Dark Angel": ALBA.

64. "Ready Player One" novelist Ernest: CLINE.

65. Eye protector: LASH.

66. Clout: PULL.

67. Missouri River tributary: OSAGE.

68. Seeker of intel: SPY.

69. Eye woe: STYE.

Down:

1. Paperless journal: BLOG.

2. "Radames' Letter" musical: AIDA.

3. Trudge (through): SLOG.

4. Off-the-wall: STRANGE.

5. Getz of jazz: STAN. One of the greatest saxophonists of all time. Soul Eyes.

6. Pique-nique place: PARC. Not sure why google translate didn't translate parc to park on the English side.


7. Bona fide: ACTUAL. Latin = in good faith.

8. One way to stand: PAT. Interesting.

9. WWII flag-raising island: IWO JIMA.

10. Peeling gadget: PARER.

11. Big name in makeup: ESTEE.

12. Smith of Fox News: SHEP.

14. Wee bit: SMIDGEN.

20. Stephen of "Counterpart": REA. Spy thriller, on Starz.

21. "Don't text and drive" ad, e.g.: PSA. Public Service Announcement.

25. Mottled: PIED. In the case of the Pied Piper, he wore multi-colored clothing.


26. Enjoy the sun: BASK.

27. Feudin' with: AGIN. Hillbilly glossary.


28. Heredity unit: GENE.

29. Albumen container: EGG.

30. Tropical raccoon relative: COATI.


34. Zoomed: TORE.

35. Garden in a Sistine Chapel mural: EDEN.

36. Source of some tweets: NEST.

38. Genesis kingdom: EDOM.

39. Gimlet liquor: GIN. Gin, lime, and soda.

40. World's third-most spoken language: ENGLISH.

43. Belittling: ABASING.

45. Inevitable generational differences: AGE GAPS.

47. Dinghy implement: OAR.

48. Small knobs: KNURLS.

49. "We the Living" writer Rand: AYN.

50. Megastars: IDOLS.

51. __ blitz: MEDIA.

53. West Coast gas brand: ARCO.

55. Twice-monthly tide: NEAP.

56. Prone to prying: NOSY.


57. Market surplus: GLUT.

58. With skill: ABLY.

59. Powerful wind: GALE.

61. Name change indicator: NEE.

68 comments:

fermatprime@gmail.com said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Bruce, Gail and mb! (Bruce came first this time!)

Nice puzzle! Great theme.

FIR with a few hangups: I'M A MAN, CLINE and EDOM.

Thanks for info, TTP!

Heat wave continues.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

OwenKL said...

This little BLOG tells all that I know
The Internet PIPES it, the world to show!
There it adds to the GLUT
Of kittens and smut,
But oh, how it inflates my EGO!

When the brain is not ENGAGED in thinking
Is it into a SLOG of ennui sinking?
Should it be KNEADED
Before it's receded?
A crossword will do just that in a twinkling!

{A-, B+.}

Krijo said...

Well,

two mistakes in PULL/GALE and COATI/TIN. Did not know the meanning of CLOUT and PEWTER.
Strange to see Iran in the xword and then in the news on the same day.
Slovan Bratislava is playing KHL, but has never won the Gagarin Cup. I wish the NHL teams would tour Europe like the European football clubs tour USA.

TTP said...

Thanks Bruce, Gail and Melissa

Enjoyed the Running Gag. Melissa, perfect choice with that picture of Gladys Kravitz.

WikWak (FLN), yes, getting pretty close to being done. You missed a great rain here yesterday. Middle of the afternoon, some light drizzle, and then the clouds opened up after a thunderclap or two. It pounded hard for nearly an hour. Tom Skilling could hardly contain himself.

D4E4H said...

Good morning Corner writers.

Thank you Mr. Bruce Venzke and Ms. Gail Grabowski for this enjoyable Wednesday CW. I FIR in 18:34 which is good for me.

Thank you melissa bee for your excellent review.

26 A - BAGGAGE CLAIM - When I worked at the airport helping people travel, I pushed them in wheel chairs. When we came to that place, and it wasn't moving, I would step up on the carousel, hold my hands together in front of me, and sing

Someday my bags will come
Someday I'll find the ones
That I left at the ticket counter

What is the name of the song whose tune I stole?

I even had a "microphone", a stuffed black cover for a folding umbrella that I hooked on a belt loop till "show time".

- - How the constructors found GAGs to "run" boggles my walnut.

8 A - I have only heard PIPES up.

PKFLN at 12:11 AM
- - Our cow's name was Henrietta. I have fond memories of running barefoot thru the dew in the pasture to find her at the farthest point, and jumping in the warm spot where she had been laying. Then the cats would line up for their milk bath. They would rise up on their hind legs as high as they could while I sprayed each one. They lapped as fast as they could, and then had milk on the paw for dessert.

- - Continuing the "Oldies", we had a Five and Dime in our town, the forerunner of the Dollar store.

Ðave

billocohoes said...

"Some Day my Prince will come", though I had to look up which Disney movie it came from - Snow White. So many princes in his films.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I was PLODding through my ELOG this morning. Then I made that dotted note LONG rather than STAC. Wite-Out, Please. (Melissa, your dotted note illustration is for the LONG variety, a dot above the note would make it STAC.) Though I knew COATI, I initially wrote COALA. D'oh! Proof that the mind is the second thing to go. To me, PIPE down means to quiet down, not to shut up. (Hey, pipe down in there...) Thanx, BV, GG and MB.

Anonymous said...

A note to Krijo: An all time great NHL Stan Mikita died recently. He was the first NHLer of Czechoslovak origin to play in the NHL.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Melissa Bee and friends. This was a good Wednesday puzzle.

A CSO to our friend TINbini.

The Wrangler Maker = JEEP was a good misdirection.

I was recently KNEADing some dough for challah bread.

I am not familiar with Ernest CLINE (b. Mar. 29, 1972)

My favorite clue was Albumen Container = EGG

QOD: If Columbus had an advisory committee, he would probably still be at the dock. ~ Arthur Goldberg (né Arthur Joseph Goldberg; Aug. 8, 1908 ~ Jan. 19, 1990)

inanehiker said...

Always amazed at constructors like Bruce and Gail having the GAG RUN down the puzzle - an added layer of difficulty finding theme answers that would fit the construction!

Slowed down briefly when I had RIN CUP and thought it might be ALDRIN CUP. Also since I had the two middle EEs thought JEEP would be LEES for the Wrangler maker.

Working 1/2 day today, then loading up to make the trek to NW Wisconsin for our son, Sam's wedding on Saturday! Hope the weather cooperates as it is an outdoor wedding (though they have an indoor back up plan! My mom can't go now of course - but we'll try to have someone videotape it for her.

Thanks Melissa!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased mask for LASH, sped for TORE and fixed ABuSING.

Folks that think Fox News is all righties have never watched anchors Smith, Baier and Wallace.

D4, when I was an engineer in Santa Monica I had to order blueprints made from vellums. The print shop was across town and backlogged. I used to "entertain" my peers by crooning "some day my prints will come".

Thanks to mb for the fun tour. One lo-cal cake is a rice cake. Angelfood too? Seems like its all air. And thanks to Bruce and Gail for a challenging midweek puzzle. Its too hot here today for a COATI, but by Thanksgiving I'll need that as well as a hati, scarfi and glovi.

Jay Green said...

Hate to be a music nerd, but there is an error in the explanation of 14 across. The written explanation is spot on, but the example in the table is unrelated. The dotted notes have to do with time, not with attack. A dotted note is extended for half it's designated time. Per the example, a whole note is 4 beats, a dotted whole note is 6 beats. A quarter note is 1 beat, a dotted quarter note is 1 1/2 beats. Dotted notes may be played staccato, but not all staccato notes are dotted. 😗

Krijo said...

Anon
Yes, Stan Mikita, the news is full with OBITs in Slovakia.
I have seen a recent interview where he spoke Slovak. It was funny, because he was not so good at the language and used a couple of profanities:)

Yellowrocks said...

Bruce and Gail, great theme. I saw the GAGs quickly, but I didn't see them running down the stairs until mb pointed it out. So clever! Mb, loved the pic of Mrs.Kravitz for nosy.
With six of us sibs yammering, my mom often told us to pipe down. I don't know whether she intended us to be a little more quiet or not, but we shut up when reprimanded.
I suspected pipe down was nautical.
pipe down
It seems similar to put a sock in it.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Bruce and Gail never disappoint but always delight, IMO. Not only was the theme well-hidden, but the reveal added the extra layer of cleverness with the "running" progression of the "gags." Nicely done, Duo! I liked seeing Eden and Edom and the crossings of Ego/Egg and the double whammy of Tin crossing Gin! Go figure! No w/os but needed perps for Cline, Knurls (never heard that word), and I'm A Man. Chuckled at Smidgen after just having Smidge the other day. (Autocorrect doesn't like Smidge) I winced at Eye woe=Stye, thinking of Misty's ongoing problem.

Thanks, Bruce and Gail, for another satisfying solve and thanks, Melissa, for being our gracious guide.

inanehiker, best wishes for good weather on Saturday.

Misty, I hope poor Dusty has recovered from the bee sting. Sending tons of t-rubs his way.

My contributions to yesterday's nostalgia include a Bread man, a Milk man, an Ice Man, and two different Vegetable/Fruit men plus the ubiquitous Rag man. I don't remember having an Ice box but I do remember my father's excitement when we got a refrigerator with an automatic _ _ _ Maker. (Don't tell Tin!)

Have a great day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Easy solve. Had to perp CLINE. Liked the theme. Soft and hard G's were mixed, but no matter.
SO to TINman.
Knob - Akin to German Knopf (button), L. German Knoop
NEAP - The other twice monthly tide is a Spring tide, but has 5 letters. We seem to have NEAP more often.

Spitzboov said...

IM and others from last night. Don't forget the Watkins liniment salesman door-to-door. And ordering some large item from a catalog and going to the Railway Express Agency after the post card arrived telling you it was there.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

14A: You explained staccato but then posted a chart of something completely different.
A dot over a note means play it short, e.g., a dot over a quarter note means that you should play it as an eighth note followed by an eighth rest.
The chart you posted indicates placing a dot after the note. This means add half the value of the note, exactly as indicated in that chart.

6D: Why is the answer “parc” when the posted definition is “parque”?

JJM said...

As a Hockey kid growing up in the 60's in Chicago, Stan Mikita was our hero. Here's nice write up about "Stosh" in today's Daily Herald

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Liked the GAG theme which was easy to spot. Thanks, Bruce & Gail. Didn't spot the stair-step format until Melissa 'splained It. Thanks. (Hey, isn't 'splained a very old running GAG?)

I filled STAC but completely missed the meaning STACcato. My music teacher mother and 12 years of musical training didn't help a bit. I do know STACcato though or "quick, quick" as my piano teacher would say, "It's hot, hot. Get off."

Yardbirds' hit wasn't a prison yard assassination.

Did not know: CLINE, EDOM, KNURLS.

My dad always told us to "PIPE down" He couldn't stand noise and he had 5 kids.

Inanehiker: Congratulations to your son. Hope you have a lovely day.

Spitzboov said...

Magilla - Did you read Jay Green's note @ 0835?

Parc is perfectly acceptable French spelling. Piquenique parque appears to be Portuguese.

melissa bee said...

thanks to you musical types - i noticed too late i had pasted the wrong image - it's now corrected :). spitz and magilla - parc also fixed. (note to self: no blogging after 10pm)

Misty said...

Always excited to see a Bruce and Gail puzzle, and thankfully this was a Wednesday. Sadly, I missed a single letter, putting PARK instead of PARC (should have seen this one signaled in PIQUE-NIQUE). But other than that everything worked great, even though I didn't now COATI or KNURLS or EDOM. (For a minute I thought we might be getting EDEN twice in this puzzle, but surely that's not allowed in crossword rules). And I loved the GAG theme, and especially the lovely downward arrangement of the GAGs. Great puzzle, many thanks, Gail and Bruce. And delightful write-up, as always, Melissa.

Liked your second poem, Owen.

Have a wonderful wedding visit, Inanehiker.

Liked your "prints" joke, Jinx.

And thank you for thinking of us, Irish Miss. With both Dusty and me having assorted problems, we didn't have a great family day yesterday. But we were lucky that Dusty's got fixed quickly, and I'm lucky that my problem came on after cataract surgery and has, thankfully, still not affected my vision.

Have a great day, everybody.

SwampCat said...

I must have been channeling Bruce and Gailfor it filled in without a hitch. Loved the theme. Also EDOM crossing EDEN. Thanks, all.

I’m always interested to see that “iconic “ flag raising photo... which was really a mistake. It wasn’t to commemorate the capture of Iwo Jima. They were just raising our flag on a hill. Fighting continued.

It also was not the photo planned. That was of the flag flying proudly from the hill top with the men posed beside it. This famous one was a practice shot to be sure the light and camera settings were ok.

We never know what we might get by accident!

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun Bruce and Gail, and melissa bee.
I got the GAG with just a few ink blots in my newspaper, but when I got here I saw that I FIW.
I had Plod and changed it to Plog when I filled Gagarin. I wondered about those Baps game fish. LOL.

KNURLS was unfamiliar to me.
You can Pipe up or Pipe down.
ARCO today again and not ESSO.
CSO to TIN.
My Genesis kingdom was EDEN before that name was needed for the garden in the Sistine Chapel mural. EDOMITE replaced it.

I'm off to the SPA for haircut and mani/pedi.
Back later to read your comments.

seareeferd said...

Yari Gagarin was a cosmonaut, not an astronaut.

Jayce said...

I usually like Bruce and Gail puzzles and today's is no exception. Got the GAG gimmick but, like several of you, didn't notice the stairstep arrangement. I've heard of, and often designed with, knurled knobs, but learned today that a knurl is itself a small knob. So I guess a knurled knob is a knob with small knobs. I liked the clue for PAT. I also liked your comment about COATI, etc., Jinx in Norfolk.
Best wishes to you all.

Sandyanon said...

40D, world's third most spoken language, made me wonder what were the first two. I guessed Chinese and Arabic.

But googling showed me Mandarin (yes, certainly more specific than "Chinese") is first, with Spanish second (that surprised me.) Arabic comes in fifth after Hindi-Urdu.

Lucina said...

What a Wednesday winner from Gail and Bruce!

I, too, was on their wave length and finished it quickly. However, I didn't notice the stairway GAGs. Clever! Thank you, Melissa, for that graphic.

I like the word KNURLS. It flows off the tongue. EDOM was a kingdom and EDEN a garden, two very different types.

I remember the headlines when Yuri GAGARIN circled the earth.

PAT could join ESTEE and SHEP as a first name.

Misty:
I thought of you at "eye woe" though yours isn't a STYE.

A popular restaurant here is called KNEADers.

Thank you again, Bruce, Gail and Melissa for today's fun!

Inanehiker: I wish you good weather for your son's nuptials.

Have a sensational day, everyone!

Lucina said...

Spanish is spoken throughout South and Central America besides Spain so it is not surprising to see it listed as third.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Few unknowns, so a straightforward solve.

It’s been a while, but to the best of my memory, staccato notation for wind instruments means the note is to be tongued - the sound is started (and possibly stopped) crisply, using the tongue as a kind of stopper. It’s the opposite of a slur, in which the player shifts from one note already in progress to the next by changing only the fingering.

Thanks MBee!

Wilbur Charles said...

Thanks MBee and the always clever B&G team
Owen, I'd reverse the grades. #2 was an A. Or a W even
EGO???
Krijo, that a good idea. At least some preseason games. I wonder why France is not a big hockey power given the great Quebecoix NHL stars.
I wanted to link a Stan Mikita obit but found something better
Mike Meyers take

WC

Sandyanon said...

Lucina, of course Spanish is one of the most frequently spoken languages. I just overestimated the prevalence of Arabic, and so was surprised to see it only fifth. But, per Google, it's spoken by only a bit over half as many people as Spanish.
Always good to learn something new.

CrossEyedDave said...

I had a nit, but for the life of me,
I cannot remember what it was after I saw
"gag" running down the puzzle grid on the Blog....

Jay Green @ 8:35,
There is no such thing as a "music Nerd."
I believe the correct term is "aficionado."
Here is an image that I believe adds to Melissa's correction:

I wondered why Rich did not edit this,
but I guess if multiple meanings are allowed in CW clues, this applies...

So, on a serious note (no pun intended)
how many of you have Gagged on this running thing?

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A fun exercise after 22 holes this morning
-I recently learned that this fish is a cross between a White Bass and a Striped Bass
-All college football fans are AWASH in optimism this time of year
-CLOUT/PULL with a politician is for sale this election year so they can pay for their MEDIA blitz
-Depending on their skill set, kids will start a SLOG through algebra or Shakespeare soon
-It has been said that the biggest difference between German and Japanese fighters were the Japanese, like on IWO JIMA, would never surrender
-Two rules in Sistine Chapel – No talking or picture taking. Yeah, right!
-One of my few skills is to be able to bridge the AGE GAP and talk to kids

Picard said...

Hand up I got the theme and enjoyed it... and missed the cleverness of the stair step RUNNING GAG.

When I first heard about the law against TEXT AND DRIVE I thought it must be a joke. Who would be stupid enough to do that? Little did I know.

I have SISTINE CHAPEL photos. Another time.

Here I was privileged to tour the PIPES and lots more of the innards of the Organ at our Arlington Theater.

In the first photo, my then lady friend and I were seated on an actual sofa featured in the film "Gone With the Wind". They don't let you sit on it anymore!

The PIPE Organ story is quite amazing. It involved thousands of hours of community volunteer effort to restore it and to install it in the 1980s.

Picard said...

From yesterday:
I enjoyed all the stories of services from the past that no longer exist. My mother had an ice man in her childhood.

We had a milkman through most of the 1960s in various places we lived. I have never liked milk, though!

OwenKL said...

Thanks, MB, for the grid -- I got the GAG early, but totally missed the pattern!!

PK: "You got some 'splainin to do, Lucy!"

PARC -- Pique usually is associated with curiosity, and PARC is a widely known research center arm of Xerox.

KNURL -- I didn't know of its knobby meaning, but did know it as the threading used to hold a knob in place.

I thought the most common languages were Mandarin and Cantonese.

CED: Re your GAG cartoon, had you heard about Vienna?

Lemonade714 said...

As I often comment in my blogs, I enjoy the combination of verbal and visual in a puzzle and this was so skillfully done. As was mb's write up, highlighted by the pic of Gladys Kravitz. Of course, the CSO with ADES did not hurt either.

No wonder Stan did not speak Slovak well. He was born in Sokolče, Slovak Republic as Stanislav Guoth and raised in a small farming community there until late 1948,but moved as an 8 year old, to St. Catharines, Ontario. He was adopted by his aunt and uncle, Anna and Joe Mikita, who gave him their surname. I feel in love with hockey watching him and Bobby Hull. My father loved Chicago sports teams and the Blackhawks became good around the time I was becoming a teenager.

I knew the book and movie, just not the AUTHOR .

Yellowrocks said...

In my youth in our neck of the woods there was a bread man, a milk man, an ice man, a vegetable/fruit man and a rag man. We didn't use the ice man because we always had an electric refrigerator. Some of my grandma's neighbors had ice boxes. We used to follow the ice man around and he would give us slivers of ice on hot summer days. We never had an ice cream man in our town when I was young, but there was one for my kids. My grandma had an ice cream man and she often treated us. When we lived in farm country we had a store on wheels and a library-mobile.
With the initial S I surmised that 14A asked for STAC, but I mentally objected that STAC is not called a dotted note. I see others have had the same thought.
I remember PARC from the French impressionist paintings.
Parc Monceau
Alan is sick again. We have spent several hours at the doctor's and in testing. Our pharmacy does not have the medicine prescribed, and besides it is not on our formulary, so we have to wait for a new prescription.
I think of knurl as ridging on tools to assure a better grip.
English has become the universal language of science. My nephew and his group work with the large international cohort of scientists on the Large Hadron Collider on the border of Switzerland and France.They use English as their universal language.
universal English

Lemonade714 said...

We also had the Entenman's man

Misty said...

Thank you, Lucina--I'm also glad it's not a stye.

Mike Sherline said...

FLN - I do remember the icebox and the iceman delivering those big blocks with the giant tongs.

We had a milkman long after we got our first electric refrigerator.

Years after the advent of packaged milk in grocery stores and subsequent demise of costly home delivery, my wife & I rented a big house w/my brother Dave & his wife and another couple, old friends Joe & Anne. Both the other couples had new babies. Joe had a dry, wry, ribald sense of humor, and could deliver the most hysterical punch line with the straightest face you'd ever seen. Once my SIL's mother, an extremely prissy, haughty old biddy, was visiting. She was sitting on a chair and admiring the two babies, both being held by their fathers on the couch across from her. She cackled: "My, those babies certainly look a lot alike." Joe looked at her over the thick black plastic frames of his coke-bottle glasses and casually intoned: "Yeah; Dave and I have the same milkman". I think the lady either didn't get it or was shocked into silence, but it was absolutely all I could do to retain my chair or keep from having to leave the room to change my pants. (NB: no real names used).

Anonymous said...

Quite a loverly puzzle today, Bruce and Gail! Great write-up, MelissaB. Thank you all for today's enjoyment.

I got the GAG theme but not the placement going down steps.

Along with the musical 11a Like a dotted note in mus., I like 53d, West coast gas brand, ARCO. Arco means to play a stringed instrument with the bow, and is noted after a pizzicato (plucked) section.

I'll take a SO at 8d One way to stand/PAT.

I've related before that my Dad was a milkman for several years. When I was maybe 8-10 years old he would take me or my older brother with him for the rest of his route after having lunch with us. I don't have many memories of it but the few I have are pleasant.


I'm done with this hot/humid weather. I will not be complaining when the temps are freezing.

Krijo said...

Hi,

Thanks for all the posts about Stan Mikita. I would like to rephrase what had written earlier.
He spoke Slovak well, but he used expressions of a Slovak teenager in the 50’s. On that particular event in 2004 they asked him on a press conference, how did he find out that bended hockey stick blade is advantageous for shooting. He said (I will try to translate it from Slovak):

Technically, it was a good idea. My blade got stuck in the boarding - and got bent. That “pissed me off” (he used a much worse word without proper translation).

Anyway, he was always proud to claim that he’s Slovak. Not Czech.
His place of birth does not exist anymore, it was flooded for a dam construction.

OwenKL
This was done for a specific line in Wien which has only half of the cars with AC. From September onwards all pungent food is banned on U6. Doner Kebab etc. Finally.


To add something we had here in Slovakia when I was younger:
We still have people who collect scrap metal, old appliances and antiques on a car with amplifier.
Before we had people who bought skins and hides from domestic animals, like hares.
There were people who sharpened knives.
And of course the Easter tradition of whipping girls (with willow branches) and spraying them with water for money and alcohol...

Mike Sherline said...

I usually get through Wed., and even an occasional Thurs., w/o red letters, but had to turn them on about 1/2 way through while doing this last night. I remembered most of it when doing it again in this morning's paper. I appreciate the clever challenge from Bruce & Gail, and thanks for the analysis, Melissa Bee.
1A Marlin? swordfish? tuna/ahi? But I knew 1D had to be blog, so - wha? Never fished much, didn't think of bass as "game" fish. Took more Ds to figure it out.
14A A lifelong musician, my 1st thought for "dotted note" is a note with a dot AFTER it, which adds 1/2 the note's rhythmic value (dotted half note=3 beats). Stylistic instructions, at least the ones for note length and type of articulation (staccato, legato, marcato) are usually indicated by marks on top of or under the notes (. _ >). When staccato is written, the normal abbreviation is stacc.
19A The K didn't give it away to me as Russian, but the downs revealed all (as usual).
2D Never knew there was a musical of Aida. I love a lot of them, but poor Verdi.
5D Agree - Getz's smooth, sweet sound, fluid virtuosity and intelligent creativity helped make Brubeck a star, and I think he (along with D.C. guitarist Charlie Byrd) was instrumental in bringing Astrud and Joao Gilberto and Bossa Nova into the consciousness of the North American public.
10D Wouldn't think of a parer (isn't that just a knife - paring knife?) as a "peeling" gadget. Oh well, crossword poetic license.
49D During a certain period of my youth I was a fan of Ayn Rand, but don't remember being aware of "We the Living". OTOH, how many 3 letter writers with Y in the middle are there?

Never heard of Yardbirds "I'm a Man", "Dark Angel" (though 4 letter actress Jessica has a high probability of being Alba), Smith of Fox News (news?), "Ready Player One" or Ernest Cline. Thought "Counterpart" might be a cable news roundtable shoutfest or something of that ilk. For some unknown reason COATI popped right out with only the 1st letter. The mind is a mysterious thing.

AnonymousPVX said...

Others have brought up the kerfluffle with 14A so I will not.

We had a discussion about 12D last week? I’m betting he still doesn’t like being called “Shep”.

And otherwise no issues whatsoever for this nice Wednesday outing.

Although I’m getting a bit tired watching these extra inning games.....especially when “the best bullpen in baseball” keeps giving the game back.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Seareeferd ~

I figured by the time I would be posting that someone would already have corrected the record for Yuri GAGARIN - and it was you!
Yes, Comrade GARGARIN was definitely not a NASA Astronaut, but a CCCP Cosmonaut. In 1961 he was the first man in space with his 108-minute orbital flight in Vostok 1.
I remember it well. I was in England at the time, and many thought the space race was over. After all, the Russians beat us with Sputnik, and now with their command of space itself ...

Ta- DA! ~ Got 'em all w/o having to succumb to Google, although for a time I thought that NW corner might force my hand. I wasn't willing to commit to BASS for some quirky, unknown reason. When I finally did, everything fell into line.

~ OMK

____________
Diagonal Report:
Three today! A 3-way on the near side.
The top line is an anagram reminder of all those pin-up gals on WWII bombers, most of them sporting an ADORABLE LEG or two. The leftover letters, RNG, belong to computer game reconstructions of the era, with their Random Number Generators instead of dice.
(Heheheh. Thought I couldn't do it?)

Yellowrocks said...

Years ago before homogenized milk was common, did your milk bottles have a narrow neck with a bulb shape above it into which the cream rose to the top? Sometime we would shake the bottle to mix the cream into the milk and sometimes my mom would use a special spoon to remove the cream from the bulb shape to use for whipping. In the bitter winter weather if the milk stayed on the porch too long sometimes the cream on top froze and rose high above the bottle.

I think of a parer as a potato peeler, but I see that usage is not very common.

Michael, "Dave and I have the same milkman." Too funny!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

My mother had a great story about her family's first refrigerator. In those days electric appliances could only be purchased from the electric company. My grandfather thought electricity would be great help in raising the 12 kids, and traveled to the company's office to apply. He was told that he would have to pay for the construction of mains from the nearest household with electricity. Since that was several miles away, the cost was far more than he could afford.

A few weeks later a door-to-door salesman from the electric company called on the family, touting new-fangled refrigerators. My grandfather, still a little irritated, dismissed him at the door by stating that the household wouldn't be getting electricity in the foreseeable future. The salesman told him that if he bought a refrigerator, the salesman would make sure he got electric service to power it. My grandfather countered that if the salesman got electricity to the house, he would buy the biggest and best refrigerator that was available. Hands were shaken, and in short order the house was electrified and the big family had a handy way to keep food cold.

D4E4H said...

billocohoes at 6:21 AM
- - Well that didn't take long, 7 min. Just for that you have to watch the video with a bouncing ball on the lyrics.

Hahtoolah at 7:28 AM
- - Do you know the etymology of the word JEEP?
- - What ever you do, do not google challah bread, and select images. you will drown in your own saliva. Lynn entered a bread sweepstakes for the KY state fair several years ago, I helped her move it from the car to the point of turn in. We used a flat cart probably 3' by 4'. The bright sun on all those golden loaves is embedded in my permanent memory. What a beautiful sight.
- - Re. the QOD: We have a new bridge across the mighty Ohio river in Louisville. They named it the Lincoln bridge, because he was the president when the bridge was first proposed.

Ðave

Mike Sherline said...

Obviously hadn't read earlier posts regarding dotted notes before putting mine up @ 1542. Now I have. Also didn't realize the blog had originally been wrong and had been corrected by the time I saw it. Apologize for redundancy.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FLN's discussion of futbol / football: A highly-placed source within the NFL told me (on the condition of anonymity) that "illegal use of hands" will now be called "inappropriate touching". The NFL (Namby-pamby Football League) preseason starts tomorrow, so we'll see if that usually reliable source was correct, or if I just made the whole thing up.

CrossEyedDave said...

Lemon, your Entenman's reference,
(P.S. how did you get that past spellchecker?)
made me realize, that all of these "tradesmen,"
(with the exception of the iceman)
are still with us today.
They just go straight to the Supermarket
instead of individual houses...

This was brought to mind because 3 (or 4) of them wound up in the same'aisle delivering their wares at the same time, and we (the customers) could not get thru the aisles
to buy any of it until they cleared out...

"Customers, be aware of a spill in aisle two, and a traffic jam in aisle three!"

Hahtoolah said...

Dave: yes, GP for General Purpose (vehicle)

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Bruce Venzke and Gail Grabowski, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.

Did the puzzle on the train going to Chicago. Went through it easily.

Theme popped up quickly.

Took me a minute to spell GAGARIN correctly.

I'M A MAN was not known to me. Perps.

SMIDGEN was simple.

Anyhow, have to run. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Bill G said...

Mike Sherline: Since I used to try to play a classical guitar, I was a fan of Charlie Byrd. Barbara and I went to see him perform a couple of times at a club in Washington D.C. I think it was called The Showboat Lounge but I'm not sure. It was a long time ago.

SwampCat said...

CED, even the iceman exists in supermarkets in a new iteration. My local store gets bags of ice cubes (forgive me, Tin!) in a large refrigerator. I supposed these were for those bass fishermen to fill their igloo ice chests

After Katrina zapped my electric fridge and the power was slow being restored, I bought a bag of those ice cubes every day to fill my own igloo. Kept me going till power was restored and I could buy a new fridge.

SwampCat said...

Dave and Hahtoolah, I always thought JEEP was WWII jargon for General Purpose vehicle. Some lore says it was related to GI, or enlisted men. Who knows!??

SwampCat said...

I see Hahtoolah beat me to it on JEEP.

Picard said...

Jinx: Great story about how your grandfather bargained to get both a refrigerator and electricity!

I should add that when we lived in the woods in New England in the 1960s we also had eggs delivered. I have a vivid image of what the egg man's truck looked like.

We had a refrigerator. But a trip to the supermarket was a major excursion done once a week as an evening family outing. On Thursdays as I remember.

billocohoes said...

Yellowrocks, we had a farmer deliver milk and eggs into the mid-1950s, glass bottles with a paper top that popped up if the cream froze. May have seen a ragman once or twice. Remember the roar when a coal truck delivered its load down a chute to someone's basement (our house switched to gas before I was big enough to haul coal up the stairs.)

New York state workers used to have a weird start time (8:20?) that I was told was a holdover from needing to get Freihofer Bakery's horse-drawn bread wagons off the road first. They used them in commercials long after they switched to trucks.

There was a critter named Jeep in Popeye cartoons before WWII, escort carriers were called jeep carriers at the same time the car was in production, Ford's 4x4 had a model code G for Government and P for the short chassis. All probably had something to do with the nickname.

CrossEyedDave said...

I remember milk deliveries in Australia,
glass bottles with the cream on top.
But the caps were not paper. they were some kind of aluminium foil,
and we used to flick them between index and middle finger
to make them fly like a frisbee...
(b/4 I ever heard of a frisbee.)

Hate to invoke the wayback machine,
but I guess it's late enough.

true story:
In Sydney, in our apartment building
(3 story center hall walk up)
(circa 1964, I was around 8...)
Milk was delivered daily (as stated above)
but into a cubbyhole with a wooden latch door.
(next to your front door.)
Why they didn't leave it in front of the door I don't know...
maybe people were stealing it, but they could just as easily steal it from the cubbyhole...

Now, this cubbyhole was about 4 feet off the floor.
And just big enough to put about 4 bottles of milk inside.
(to be accessed by another cubbyhole inside the apartment...)
(doors on both sides with latches.)

I was sleeping over a friends house, and came back in the morning
to find my Mum would not answer the door...

After about a half hour of this, I was getting frantic,
and the neighbors called the cops...

he police said, (even though I asked them too)
that they could not break down the door without just cause...

( I knew my Mum was in there, and sensed there was a big problem, and was freaking out!)

to the rescue, was my 6 year old neighbor,
who said, "I can get in there!."

We all watch in amazement, as with a boost,
he climbed into the milkbox cubbyhole,
deftly opened the inside latch,
dropped down into our apartment and opened the door!


What we discovered, upon entering, was that my Mum
was making Tea on the stovetop, turned on the gas,
and tripped, hitting her head on the stove and knocking her out cold!

The gas was going full blast, and not lit!

The whole apartment as filled with gas!





We revived her, and aired out the apartment,
and was forever thankful that this 6 year old kid
had the wherewithall to step up and say what he knew,
that helped us save my Mum, and probably the entire apartment building
from exploding...

It was several days later that I realized
that my missing toys were because this kid
was sneaking in thru the milkbox cubbyhole,
and stealing my toys!

Thank goodness he fessed up!

He probably saved us all...

After that, I told him he could have any of my toys he wanted, for saving my Mum...

In return, he gave a a toy hand grenade,
that had a springhammer that would hit a cap ( anyone remember cap guns?)
that was delayed by imbedding it in playdough...

(I still have it to this day!!)

I would like to say,end of story, but it continues for about another 50 years,
with different, (albeit) exciting tidbits...

(to be continued...)

Lucina said...

CEDave:
What a dramatic story! I, too, am glad for you, your mom and your neighbors that your 6 year old friend came to the rescue!

Mike Sherline said...

Bill G @ 1701 - Charlie Byrd did play at the Showboat - in fact he met Stan Getz there. And in my earlier post, of course I was remiss in not mentioning Antonio Carlos Jobim as one of the Brazillian musicians whose recordings, then persons, they brought to the States. I thought I remembered hearing that Charlie Byrd owned or part-owned the Showboat, but had to check his Wiki to refresh my memory and it says years later he played at the Showboat II in Silver Spring, Md., which was owned by his manager. I remember going to see his trio in DC at the Vineyard and the Showboat. I don't remember the drummers, but the bassist was Keter Betts. I was in HS in the Md suburbs (they were lax about age letting you into the clubs then) and learning bass, among other instruments. I would sit as close to the low stage as possible and stare up at Keter Betts in awestruck wonder. He was very tall and had huge hands, and he could get around the bass as though it were a violin, just an absolutely amazing player. Of course Charlie Byrd was no slouch, but I was focused in on Keter. I think I still have his fabulous sound in my ear.

Yellowrocks said...

Yes, we have ice men who deliver bags of ice cubes to grocery stores, delis, etc. The ice is bought to cool beer and Cokes and to pack picnic coolers.
We never had a milk cubby but I remember seeing them. Dave, what an exciting story. I am glad you all survived thanks to that six year old.
We had cap guns as kids. Sometimes we just took a roll of caps and pounded them on the sidewalk one at a time with a stone.
Picard, a trip to the supermarket was a major family excursion for us, too, especially when we lived in the country miles from any town.

CanadianEh! said...

Back to the party and it is late, but just a few comments.

Stan Mikita has a Niagara connection; as Lemonade said @1:55pm, he came to St. Catharines as an 8 year old and was raised there. He played 3 years of hockey for the St Catharine's Teepees (Ontario Hockey League) until he went to the Chicago Black Hawks at age 18.
WC's link @12:24 pm reminded me of Mike Meyer's Stan Mikita's Doughnut Shop in Wayne's World. (You have to be Canadian to fully appreciate that!). That brings to mind another connection because St Catharines is known as the Doughnut Capital of Canada. (And yes, it must be spelled Doughnut not Donut!)

But WC, you have me confused with your comment "I wonder why France is not a big hockey power given the great Quebecoix NHL stars."
Those Québécois are French-CANADIAN, and although they speak French, they have nothing to do with France.

CED, we had one of those milk-boxes and I remember my brother having to wiggle through it when we were locked out of the house. Nothing as dramatic as your story.

YR, hope Alan feels better soon and that you were able to get Meds to help him.

Picard said...

CrossEyedDave: Oh, my. That is a memorably amazing story. I am so glad that it had such a happy ending for everyone. Looking forward to future installments of the story.

Mike Sherline: Where did you live in the Maryland suburbs? I went to high school in Silver Spring in the 70s.