google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, September 18, 2018 Roland Huget

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Sep 18, 2018

Tuesday, September 18, 2018 Roland Huget


"Mirror Ends"

20. Horse sense: STREET SMARTS.

28. Main attraction: DRAWING CARD.

36. Test proctor's reminder: TIME LIMIT.

49. Hard-boiled genre: NOIR FICTION.

56. Its measurements include liters and grams: METRIC SYSTEM.


Across:

1. Publisher Alfred: KNOPFThe person and the company.

6. Spur to action: PROD.

10. Mus. key with three sharps: AMAJ.  A major.

14. Lost cause: GONER.

15. Overconfident racer of fable: HARE.

16. Hawaiian island: OAHU.

17. Hawaii or Alaska: STATE.

18. Oil gp. that includes 57-Down: OPEC. Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries

19. Take a load off: REST.

23. Pool tool: CUE.

24. Try to win: WOO.

25. Colonel Sanders facial feature: GOATEE.

32. Lab maze navigator: RAT.

33. Letter flourish: SERIF.



34. "... good witch, __ bad witch?": OR A.

35. Angry or achy: SORE.

40. Soap units: BARS.

43. Gold in Granada: ORO.

44. Semiaquatic salamanders: NEWTS.

48. The "A" in "IPA": ALE.

52. Like Easter eggs before the hunt: HIDDEN.

54. Duct opening?: OVI.   "In vertebrates, other than mammals, the passageway from the ovaries to the outside of the body is known as the oviduct. In female mammals this passageway is known as the uterine tube or Fallopian tube."   Wikipedia.

55. Debate side: PRO.  The affirmative side.  An argument in favor of a course of action.

60. Squared up: EVEN

62. Tax-sheltered plans: Abbr.: IRAsIndividual Retirement Accounts

63. More than suggest: ORDER.  Last Tuesday's crossword by Bruce Haight and his daughter Natalie Murphy had many punny "Orders."

65. Partial view?: BIAS.  As in partiality.   Favoritism.

66. Scandinavian language: SAMI. "...the language has given way to the various official national languages."

67. Circular: ROUND.

68. Decrease: BATE.

69. Organic compound: ENOL.  Remember the clue.  Almost always, the crossword answer is enol.

70. Sch. district VIPs: SUPTS.   Superintendents.   The CEO of a school district.


Down:

1. 56-Across wts.: KGS.  Kilograms in the metric system.  About 2.2 pounds in the avoirdupois weight system.

2. On the fence: NOT SURE.

3. Winning like crazy: ON A TEAR.  Like the Boston Red Sox this year.  They have a shot at the all time record for wins in a season.   Having already clinched a playoff spot, the Red Sox have a 27 % chance to win the World Series.  The Houston Astros follow next at 24 %.   Then the Dodgers, the Cubs, and the Indians.   

4. Korda of '80s-'90s tennis: PETR.  His two daughters are golfers competing on the LPGA tour, and his son is the third-ranked junior tennis player in the world.

5. Library amenity: FREE WIFI.

6. Camera buff, for short: PHOTOG. Like this guy and gal getting ready for pictures of the eclipse.


7. Shoots the breeze: RAPS.

8. Utah city near Provo: OREM.

9. 10-point star polygon: DECAGRAM

"In geometry, a decagram is a 10-point star polygon. There is one regular decagram, containing the vertices of a regular decagon, but connected by every third point. Its Schläfli symbol is {10/3}. The name decagram combine a numeral prefix, deca-, with the Greek suffix -gram." Wikipedia

10. Main blood vessel: AORTA.

11. Orchestra leader: MAESTRO.   A Top Twenty List

12. Contented sighs: AHS.

13. Stick (out): JUT.

21. Years and years: EON.

22. Word after fuel or fly: ROD.  One may be used for fission; the other may be used for fishin'.

23. LP successors: CDs.

26. Cup handle: EAR.

27. Season after printemps: ETE. Printemps - Première saison de l'année.  Saison située entre l'hiver et l'été, caractérisée par des jours plus longs, une température plus douce, une végétation renaissante.  Ete - Saison de l'année commençant au solstice de juin pour finir à l'équinoxe de septembre. Gén., la période chaude au milieu de l'année.   Give Google Translate a try.

29. Erma Bombeck's "At __ End": WIT'S. “Childhood is a time for pretending and trying on maturity to see if it fits or hangs baggy, tastes good or bitter, smells nice or fills your lungs with smoke that makes you cough. It's sharing licks on the same sucker with your best friend before you discover germs. It's not knowing how much a house cost, and caring less. It's going to bed in the summer with dirty feet on clean sheets. It's thinking anyone over fifteen is 'ancient'. It's absorbing ideas, knowledge, and people like a giant sponge. Childhood is where 'competition' is a baseball game and 'responsibility' is a paper route.” - Erma Bombeck

30. Décor choice: COLOR.

31. MLB's D-backs: ARI. Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamonbacks.  As of this writing, owners of an 8% chance to make the playoffs.  

35. Editorial "let it stand": STET.

37. Event often visible in the evening sky: MOONRISE.

38. "__ tu": Verdi aria: ERI.

39. Cutting teeth: INCISORS.

40. Derisive interjection: BAH.  Humbug !  Ebenezer Scrooge.

41. "Rope-a-dope" boxer: ALI.  Muhammad Ali created and used this strategy to defeat the heavily favored George Foreman in the world championship bout known as The Rumble in the Jungle.

42. Paleo diet protein source: RED MEAT.

45. Took care of, as a spill: WIPED UP.

46. Annoy persistently: TORMENT.

47. __-cone: summer treat: SNO.

49. Safety feature at a trapeze school: NETLearning to Fall

50. La Brea discovery: FOSSIL.

51. Wall-climbing plant: IVY.

53. Slow on the uptake: DENSE.

57. Pakistan neighbor: IRAN.

58. "Duck Dynasty" attire, for short: CAMO.  Camouflage.  Duck Dynasty is a reality television program on A&E.

59. Pants, briefly: TROU.  Trousers

60. Flow back, as a tide: EBB.

61. By way of: VIA.

64. Ave. and st.: RDS.  Roads






51 comments:

OwenKL said...

A magical girl from OAHU,
Held seven guys awe to WOO.
She kept them all HIDDEN
Until they were bidden
By the call of a Hogwarts owl: Hoo!

The director was delighted with the script.
But he needed an actor considered terrif.
One who'd JUT out from the REST,
Add the flourish that was best,
So for the cast he hired Omar SERIF!

A council leader from OREM
Had difficulty getting a quorum.
She'd call meetings to ORDER
With no one before her,
And complain of the lack of decorum!

{A-, B+, A-.}

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, TTP and friends. Without having circles on my printout, this theme totally eluded me. Since I always print out the puzzle on a version that doesn't have circles, I couldn't figure out how the long themed answers were related.

Sad to say, I recognized only two of the top 20 MAESTROs ~ Toscanini and Bernstein.

I wanted On A Roll before getting ON A TEAR.

Interesting to see ORA and ORO near each other. (I know, the first one is OR A, but still ...)

SAMI seemed new to me, but upon reflection, I think it has made the puzzles in the past.

QOD: No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our lives are made. Destiny is made known silently. ~ Agnes de Mille (Sept. 18, 1905 ~ Oct. 7, 1993)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

KNOPF seems pretty knotty for a Tuesday. New one for me. Hand up for Roll. Had the circles, but forgot to look at 'em, so d-o missed the theme...again. Thanx, Roland and TTP (great Erma Bombeck quote!).

MAESTROS: Hahtoolah, I'll see your Toscanini and Bernstein and raise you a Szell and von Karajan. The others were a wonderment. Guess they didn't make rock'n'roll records.

DECAGRAM: Makes sense. I remember the pentagram from the '30s horror movies.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. thank you, Roland Huget, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, TTP, for a fine review.

Most of the puzzle came easily. Theme worked out fine.

My tough corned was the SE. Spelling INCISORS took me a while. TROU never hit me until four perps helped.

Unknowns: SAMI, PETR, KNOPF, A MAJ.

Anyhow, I have to run. Crossing to Guard.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Yellowrocks said...

FIR. Only unknown was PETR, perps and wags. I saw that the right hand circle letters showed the left hand circle letters in reverse order. I kept looking for something deeper.
I know Alfred Knopf as a textbook publisher.
"Knopf published textbooks until 1988, when Random House's schools and colleges division was sold to McGraw-Hill."
PHOTOG immediately brought to mind our PHOTOG par excellence.
We have not used BAR soap in decades. Liquid hand soap and body wash leave no soap scum.
I had heard of 7 or 8 of the MAESTROs, but am only familiar with Toscanini, Bernstein, Szell and von Karajan. Classical music still features them. I was surprised not to have heard of so many of the others.
Mom used to say, "Sit, take a load off"
Owen, I liked the third one, especially.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased vie for WOO, paid for EVEN, and FOSSeL.

There's no such thing as FREE WIFI, but TAXPAYER PAID WIFI wouldn't fit.

SAMI sounds like some snake oil that Larry King would hawk on TV.

Never heard of OVIduct, and thanks to TTP I know why. Throughout my adult life I have tried my best to focus on mammalian reproductive systems. A guy has to have his standards after all.

Thanks to Roland for the Thursday-on-a-Tuesday puzzle. My favorite was "partial view" for BIAS. And thanks to TTP for another solid tour.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks, Roland, for a workout. I was wanting an easier Tuesday, but in the end I prevailed. Not without erasures. Fav: partial view: BIAS. I wanted teething for cutting teeth, but the teeth in the clue precluded that. Ah, name that tooth: INCISOR. Like Abejo, I erred in spelling initially.

Thanks for the rundown, TTP. I always admired Erma Bombeck's on target humor and fine writing. I think of her work often when I am at WIT"S end.

Have a sunny day.

billocohoes said...

Apparently being a MAESTRO of music that actually gets listened to a lot didn't get conductors listed. The classical radio station here is more likely to mention Neville Mariner of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, or Arthur Fiedler and Keith Lockhart of the Boston Symphony and Pops.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Got METRIC SYSTEM right off the bat and started looking for mirror endings in the other circled areas. Felt it was an easy solve. We've had KNOPF before. DECAGRAM gave me some pause; mainly wondering how the suffix would go. Nothing really prickly to comment on.
SAMI - We learned it as Lapp.
KNOPF - Means "button" in German. L. German Knoop. Cognate to "knob" which we had recently. The K is pronounced in German.
EBB - My Mom would invoke a teaching moment with "Ebbe und Flut". (Ebb and flood (tides)). L. German: Ebb un Floot.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

With few unknowns, this moved right along today. Clever theme! I don’t recall seeing this mirror image style before. As usual, I’m amazed that a constructor could dig up enough fill possibilities then make them fit.

Dudley said...

TTP - I just re-read the summary, and found I had missed fission and fishin’. Good stuff!

I also tried to read through the language page. Fascinating, but darn hard to follow...

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Clever puzzle theme, Roland! Very interesting expo, TTP. Liked the fission/fishin' word play.

No circles so didn't get the theme until TTP "splained it. Almost got it with TIME LIMIT but the light bulb didn't quite come on.

Was very proud to get KNOPF and even spell it right.

Only unknowns: DECAGRAM, ERI.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and TTP. (Loved the Erma Bombeck quote!)
I forgot to go back and look at the circles; missed the clever mirror ends.
But I got the theme (Canada uses the METRIC SYSTEM but we have litres!); interesting that GRAMS were represented in DECAGRAM. (We also had TIME and COLOR if we want to measure other categories.)

There might have been a Natick at cross of KNOPF and PETR; I debated between F and P but wagged the P (PETR made more sense than FETR).
I changed Trued (I was squaring up a box) to EVEN, Yaps to RAPS (I still think Yaps was better for the clue).
Smiled to see EBB crossing BATE.
TROU was meh (or BAH) for me. Falls into C.C.'s "gluey fill" category.

Enjoy the day.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I, too, cannot recall ever seeing this type of theme execution, but it was easy enough to suss out and solve. My only w/o was Torture/Torment and the only unknown was Petr, although I think he has appeared before. I liked the Eri>Ari>Ali progression. Nise wrinkle at Trou, though.

Thanks, Roland, for a Tuesday treat and thanks, TTP, for another informative write-up. I enjoyed the Erma Bombeck piece; she was a wise and funny lady.I was familiar with five or six of the conductors but was surprised at the absence of Sir Georg Solti. The two modern-day conductors I'm most familiar with are Seiji Ozawa and Zubin Mehta; I loved the theatrical chemistry of Mehta and Pavarotti.

Have a great day.

Irish Miss said...

My nise doesn't wrinkle but my nose does. Where was Mr. Smarty Pants Auto Correct when you need him?

CrossEyedDave said...

Trou?

Roy said...

Wondered why this was going so quickly, then remembered it was Tuesday.

No theme reveal q/a, so I didn't look back at the circles until TTP's commentary.

No indication that "Scandinavian language" was an abbreviation, so it couldn't be SWED, NORW, or DAN_. Waited for perps before deciding between LAPP and SAMI.

"Duct opening?" was vocabulary not anatomy.

PETE>PETR

i'm actually writing this on FREE WIFI; sitting in the car dealer for routine maintenance.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Roland Huget! I enjoyed the mirror endings which helped in two cases where a missing letter could be filled.

As I am an avid reader KNOPF jumped out immediately. Alfred KNOPF also published many school books.

Lately I have switched to soap BARS because I see horrible pictures of land fills and plastic containers simply add to them. Soap scum can easily be WIPED UP but those containers take and EON to degrade.

What a nice picture of our resident PHOTOG, Picard. I can't tell if that is his wife.

I've finally learned India Pale ALE. IPA

TROU is currently common slang.

Thank you, TTP, for the fine tour.

Have a delightful day, everyone! I'm sad to see so much death and destruction in North Carolina, a beautiful state. Luckily my sister is in China and is missing it all.

Misty said...

Well, after Monday's smooth and easy ride, I found this a bit of a Tuesday toughie. But I did notice the interesting but peculiar beginning and ending mirrors early on, and that actually helped with the solving down the road. Lots of clever clues, so a fun puzzle in spite of the struggles. Didn't get SAMI--left the M space blank, and realized too late that I had KLS and LONER instead of Kilograms and GONER. But all things considered, it was still very enjoyable--many thanks, Roland. And helpful write-up, TTP, thanks to you too.

Your NISE cracked me up, Irish Miss.

Liked your third poem, Owen.

Have a great day, everybody.

Picard said...

TTP I am honored that you featured this PHOTOG and his wife today! Of course, the rest of your write-up was thorough and nicely illustrated! Those DUCK DYNASTY people remind me of the band ZZ Top.

Learning moment that the word "the" is part of OPEC.

I got the theme as the mirror reversal at the ends. But I kept wondering if there was something else to the theme? Anyone else? It is cool as is.

This SOAP I saw in the French Alps is not measured in BARS!

Hand up PETR was unknown. But I have a good friend named PETR in the Czech Republic so the name was not so alien for me.

Here I was with PETR visiting his uncle in the city of Brno.

Perhaps Krijo can tell us what is the writing on the wall?

Picard said...

From yesterday:
CanadianEh Your COG Railway experience was similar to mine: Fog and drizzle. It must go with the territory of where COGs are needed! Good to know your husband is an engineer and could appreciate the details.

Mike Sherline Glad you enjoyed the COG Railway videos. Wish I could offer more details, but that is all I know, too! My impression is that Europeans usually build their infrastructure to last.

I am honored that you took the time to look at my published writings and bookmark some of them. I would be eager to know what you think of my most recent one. It came up due to a repeating comment that appears in our blog.

Here again is the link to some of my writings if anyone else is interested.

I lapsed updating the list for many years. But this latest one inspired me to add it.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Roy, your WiFi ain't free. It is paid for by the dealer to encourage you to get your service done there. Here I get "free" oil and filter changes and "free" state inspections for as long as I own the car. If I come in on Wednesday, the DW gets her nails done "free" as well. They aren't free, they were bundled into the original cost of the car, discounted to reflect the marketing value of getting current owners' butts into the dealership where they can see all the shiny new models while they wait for their "free" service.

Krijo said...

Hi all,

I was surprised to figure it out all under 14 minutes. I filled in SAMI lastly. As usual my unknowns were ARI and KNOPF. Baseball and local VIPs:)

Petr Korda was easy for me, he is remembered for his scissor jump when he won a game. I am not a fan of his, he had a big doping affair. Wonder what is your take on doping as I clearly remember, how disappointed I was in the penalties for doping in baseball. One week absence!!! That stopped my interest in this sport for all.

PICARD You were standing in front of a wine shop. They offer bottled wine, wine on tap, tea, coffee..
Petr is the Czech variant of Peter. As Jiri or Juraj is the Czech and Slovak variant of George.

I have presented leasing accounting for four hours. The people who developed those standards should be sent to a remote island.

Wilbur Charles said...

"Nice wrinkle at TROU"??? Where are my emojis when I need them. LOL IM

TROU is fairly common slang where I came from. As in DROP...
When I try to post on this blog with "FREE WIFI"* Blogger won't let me.

The PROCTOR at the Solar Eclipse site sternly warned visitors: "Safety vision goggles MUST be worn"! "Oh, is that because of retina damage from the sun?'
"Oh no. It's Monsieur Picard's shirt!!!"**

WC

* McDonald's
** Robert, many chuckles. You know I love Les chemises.

AnonymousPVX said...

This Tuesday puzzle had some crunch, seemed tougher than a normal Tuesday, happy to get the solve.

I don’t care for themes with giveaways like this one.

And that’s that.

Anonymous said...

I dont think the cost of "free wifi" is passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices as are other promos such as "buy one get one free". Free wifi is becoming as demanded as much as heat, a roof or a chair! My wife and I rarely go to Cracker Barrel anymore since they dont offer wifi. We take our morning meals to places that have wifi. Btw, while we check our phones for the morning news and check our emails from family and friends, we still look each other face to face and have normal conversation!

Yellowrocks said...

CE Dave, ROTFL at your sagging pants clip. I recently saw a young man wearing pants so low that if they were an inch lower they would be beneath his cheeks. He could "barely" (HA HA) walk.
TTP. fission or fishin', very clever.
Picard, I, too, was looking for more in the theme. I was sure I missed something.
I read your fine socialism vs capitalism article last week. Very interesting. I did not comment, observing the no politics rule.
TROU was a gimme, as in "drop trou" which we called mooning in my youth.
I loved Erma's Bombeck's witticisms.
The "free" debate seems sort of nit picky. Of course, free schools, free roads, free local libraries, etc. are all paid for by taxes. Free ketchup, napkins, free AC, free bathrooms, etc. are part of the charge in a diner. Free wifi in a motel is on par with free AC or heat, just expected. The intended meaning of free in these cases is "free of extra charge." I am sure that almost everyone understands this and takes it for granted. Some companies actually express it that way.

Mike Sherline said...

Picard - "Why Not the Best..." is most sensible and reasonable, and I agree. I doubt it will change any closed minds on either side.

CanadianEh! said...

Interesting. TROU seems to be a regional expression - some of us were familiar with it and others had a "nose-wrinkle" moment! Loved the clip CED.

Krijo - I LOLed at your last 2 statements!
WC- also LOLed at your Safety Vision Goggles line. Of course we all love Picard's shirts!

YR - Thanks for your great explanation of "free".

Lucina - hope your sister isn't in the part of China being hit by Typhoon Mangkhut. That would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire (to change the analogy!).

PK said...

Drop TROU: For a couple of years, a neighbor down the street would cook at a grill in his front yard with no shirt and many-pocket shorts dropped beneath his "cheeks". The first time I saw this, I stood agape. I was glad his back was toward me so he didn't see me gaping and I didn't have a frontal view. I could barely tolerate that. He was black so he didn't look as bare-naked as a pink guy might have. Why would anyone want to stand that close to a burning, sparking heat without the protection of clothes? Police finally carted him off in handcuffs for cooking meth in the garage. His lovely wife and five sons moved away.

Gaydoc (George Gay) said...

I've lurked here for years and always enjoy the wit, puns and crossword expertise you all show here. I'm not good enough at this to comment, but would appreciate an explanation of some of the abbreviations and jargon. What does "FIR" mean? I gather WAG is a wild guess, but please what the heck is a "natick"?

Misty said...

Wow! That's an awesome collection of writings, Picard--absolutely amazing and impressive. Is this your profession? Tell us more about this--I had no idea.

desper-otto said...

Gaydoc, please see "Comments Section Abbrs" on the main page of the blog. It's on the R-H side, you'll need to scroll down.

desper-otto said...

Gaydoc, none of us is "good enough to comment" -- we're all amateur solvers who enjoy the challenge. Don't be shy, jump in and join the conversation.

Lucina said...

Canadian Eh!
Thank you for your concern for my sister; I believe that typhoon is in the Philippines. It's pitiful how much that nation gets hit with so many of those storms.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-MIL with basement issues, golf and weather today. MIL’s sewer pipes had a colonoscopy by running a TV camera down it
-Gimmick/Theme? I had fun either way
-When I first started to read, I always wondered why a small g looked like this “g”
-Kids are always amazed that the Moon can rise at any time of the day
-Chores…

Wilbur Charles said...

I don't think the Redsox can match the Seattle 116 wins. Their only weakness is middle relief.
Following one of the links from here I ended up with "What's my Line" and the original Col. Sanders was featured.

Re. "Capitalism" etc. I know gas prices reflect "perceived scarcity" I just want to know who's"perceiving*". Actually, I think it's computerized. It's dropping prior to the quarterly economic numbers then like it has for years it'll take a spike upward of 10%. Or .25/gal.

WC

* Remember the Saturday morning cartoon character "The Master Cylinder"? He may have been part of the Rockie and Bullwinkle show.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I had to LIU. Cylinder was from Felix the Cat, along with Rock Bottom and Martin the Martian. I think I would recognize all the R & B characters, and this one didn't sound familiar. Guess Felix wasn't on WSAZ-TV 3 in Huntington, WV, the only station we could receive. Their claim to fame was teaching NBC the multi-city switching technique used for the Huntley - Brinkley show (switching from New York to Washington).

Ol' Man Keith said...

Sorry to be so late checking in. My apologies, All!
Today's Tuesday toughie was chewy enough (Thanks, RH!), but Ta- DA! anyway.
No, my tardiness is because of the Sept 9 NY Times puzzle.
Yep, two weeks back.
I just finished it 15 minutes ago.
Grrr. For those who do the Sunday Times Xwd, this is the one with the "Mixed Feelings" theme.
It's not just that it requires you to insert both "love" and "hate" in the four themed fills (which is cute by itself), but just about every Google source has posted the wrong answers.
I checked, and here is a typical screw-up. The answer they give for "Fancy French home"?
It's FREDO.

Double Grrr. I guess they were all thrown by the need to cram eight letters into a single square - four times. I can't think of another reason such highly regarded professional thieves & hackers would be so misleading to a casual cheater like me.

Moving on ...
Picard, buddy, your list of writings is impressive, longer I think than this retired prof's. I salute you - and envy you your range of subjects!

~ OMK
____________
DR:
3 NE to SW.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. Yep, put in ON A ROLL and had to change it.
I enjoyed reading your letter to the editor, Picard.
I liked your fission and fishin' comment, TTP.
A lot of subjectivity in that top 20 orchestra conductors list.
Best wishes to you all.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

WEES - interesting puzzle concept from Roland. I think today's crunch was to make up for the fact that every theme came w/ three FREE letters (assuming you caught on). Thanks Roland.

Thanks TTP for the expo. I'm looking forward to the rest of your links. I'll add to the chorus on fission fishin' -- Nice.

WO: FOSSel (hi Jinx!)
ESPs: ERI, PETR / KNOPF (P was lucky WAG, right C, Eh!), TROU* (really?), SUPTS (ibid)
Fav: c/a for BIAS

{B, A, A+}

Anon@2:08 - good point. I guess FREE Air Conditioning was a DRAW to the movies early on and now it's expected.

Graydoc - I'm not even competent enough to do late week puzzles w/o errors (and Irish Miss does 'em in 20 min?!?). Play! Here's a link to the Olio D-O mentioned (it's hard to find unless you know what you're looking for).

CED - where do you find this stuff? :-)

WC - I LOL'd at your eclipsing-shirt comment.... Picard knows it's all with love. BTW, Picard - cool soap-Ducks; I'll check the articles later.

MAESTROS? I only knew one from TTP's list, Bernstein. The only other I know is Leopold thanks to a certain HARE.

Cheers, -T
Thanks everyone who educated(?) me on Drop TROU.

Yellowrocks said...

I played my first Words with Friends against Practice and won. Do they make your first game easy? What is ur, mel, and oxo which Practice used? Are they acceptable in Scrabble?

Roy said...

I met Пётр in the first semester of Russian I, so PETR was no real problem.

Picard said...

Lucina Yes, the beautiful lady with me at the eclipse is indeed my wife.

Krijo Thank you for the translation on the wall behind PETR and his uncle!

Wilbur Charles, AnonT and CanadianEh Yes, my shirts indeed can be blinding without proper eyewear.

Yellowrocks, Mike Sherline, Misty, OlManKeith, Jayce Thank you very much for taking the time to look at some of my archived writings.

I have had several gigs as a professional news photographer and reporter. But much of my writing is as a citizen.

Regarding my latest piece "Why Not the Best..." I was not trying to change any minds. I was hoping that people would see that they already share many of the same views as those they are supposed to see as "the other side". There are forces that profit from dividing us. But on the issues that matter most we are often already in agreement. We just don't know it. Yet.

AnonT Glad you enjoyed the SOAP ducks! That village Eze was almost magical in its location. Almost like PETRA, carved high into the rocks of the French Alps.

Here again are some of my photos and a video of the FOSSILs and more at the LA BREA Tar Pits

As Lucina and others will know, LA BREA Tar Pits is unnecessarily redundant!

billocohoes said...

YR, my wife plays Words with Friends, and I don't know what dictionary they use, but several times it would NOT accept words that are standard crosswordese to me.

OMK, in the Sept. 9 NYT the clue I had for 100A, FREDO was "One of the Corleones in "The Godfather."

Ol' Man Keith said...

billocohes ~
Yes, that's right. And the answer for "Fancy French home" is CHATEAU, or more correctly, given the fun theme of the day, it is to be spelled CHATE[LOVE]AU.
But my point is that if you check the official online answers, they are all wrong, all bizarrely mixed-up.
Try it for yourself: https://newyorktimescrossword.net/fancy-french-home/

And it's not just the official sites. A random check of independent sites will have wrong answers over half the time. Crazytown.

~ OMK

Anonymous T said...

Picard - I read a few of your articles and Duh! But I guess some need to understand what they say when protesting "Keep your government hands off my program!"

My favorite protest is the little YELLOW signs they put up post construction-zones:
"End Construction"
"Like, yeah. Right on, man!" :-)

Re: La Brea La Brea (if we're going to be redundant...) While visiting Eldest at OU, we went to the Sam Noble Museum (they were building it when DW & I left OU for HOU) and met an archaeologist "grandma" that a) gave us an almost personal tour with whimsical stories (sex and dinosaurs!) and b) cut her INCISORS @ La Brea. She had great war-stories of her days in CA and (assuming she's still with us) now studying OU's collection of bones; some of which she brought with her.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Picard:
Thank you for confirming it's your wife in the photo; I was fairly certain it was but it seemed a bit blurred or maybe my eyesight is poor.

I also read some of your articles and found them thought provoking.

As for La Brea Tar Pits I just consider that a translation.

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