25. Cigarette brand featured on "Mad Men": LUCKY STRIKE.
37. Martial arts level: BLACK BELT.
51. Manhattan stage attraction: BROADWAY HIT.
62. Slimy pest in a flower bed: GARDEN SLUG.
Melissa here. No reveal in today's puzzle, but it wasn't needed with these five theme answers - such POW-erful second words made it obvious. A fair amount of sporting references, all gettable even for those of us who don't follow sports.
Across:
1. Most populous città in Italia: ROMA.
5. Vintage photo tone: SEPIA. Dictionary.com: a reddish-brown color associated particularly with monochrome photographs of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Interesting origin - via Latin from Greek sēpia ‘cuttlefish:’ a blackish fluid secreted by a cuttlefish as a defensive screen. It is bottled and sold both as an ink for fountain pens, and in gourmet food shops to flavor and color food. In Spain and Italy, inky black dishes are marked as Nero or Seppia. Cuttlefish vs. cuttlefish.
10. Scheming: UP TO.
14. "Are you __ out?": IN OR.
15. Tidies text: EDITS.
16. Scattered, as seeds: SOWN.
19. Vast landmass: ASIA.
20. Island near Maui: LANAI.
21. "__ a Lady": Tom Jones hit: SHE'S.
23. It blows things up: TNT. The three letter answer should have made this obvious but I immediately thought along the lines of enlarging a photo.
24. CPR pro: EMT.
29. Ingredient in a Florentine dish: SPINACH.
31. Ancient Aegean region: IONIA.
32. Notice: SEE.
33. Crossword-solving Simpson: LISA.
36. WWI pistol: LUGER.
40. Happen next: ENSUE.
43. Korean imports: KIAS. Automobiles.
44. "Hostel" director Roth: ELI.
47. __ Bornes: card game: MILLE. Nostalgic for me, my family and I played this. According to Wikipedia: French for a thousand milestones, referring to the distance markers on many French roads) is a French card game. Mille Bornes is listed in the GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame.
48. Being disrespectful to: SASSING.
55. Cal. column: THU.
56. Oft-numbered rd.: AVE.
57. Saltimbocca herb: SAGE. Saltimbocca is a meat dish - traditionally veal, but also made with chicken or pork - cooked with prosciutto and sage.
58. Stationery brand: EATON. Letter writing with pen and paper is mostly a lost art.
60. Indian music: RAGA.
65. Heal, in a way: KNIT. Comfrey leaf and root is also known as boneset, or knitbone, because of it's ability to heal both soft tissue and broken bones. We have many plants growing in our yard.
66. Fire remnant: EMBER.
67. New Age composer John: TESH.
68. Not mad: SANE.
69. Fixes the leaks in: SEALS.
70. Two-toned cookie: OREO. Not to be confused with the black and white.
Down:
1. Rummages (through): RIFLES.
2. Parkway entrances: ON-RAMPS.
3. Canadian force member: MOUNTIE.
4. Met melody: ARIA. Opera. If this were a C.C. puzzle, I would think of this:
5. Fall mo.: SEP. Perfect timing.
6. Part of a college URL: EDU.
7. Belarus city: PINSK. Belarus is to the east of Poland. Minsk is the Capital. Pinsk is near the southern border, and looks like a beautiful place to visit.
8. In need of calamine lotion: ITCHY.
9. Fire pit residue: ASHES.
10. N. American land: USA.
11. Bulletin board item: POSTING.
12. Hostess sponge cake: TWINKIE. There are 40 ingredients in a TWINKIE. Michael Pollan on Twinkie vs. carrot, below.
13. Painting the town red: ON A TEAR.
18. Chef Jet __, frequent "Cutthroat Kitchen" judge: TILA. Speaking of lost arts and Michael Pollan, he declared that cooking has become a spectator sport.
22. "All the same ... ": STILL.
26. Western sch. with NCAA Division I team championships in 20 sports: UCLA.
27. Hen-to-be: CHICK.
28. Post office assignments: ROUTES.
30. Sci-fi/fantasy award: NEBULA.
34. Slalom slider: SKI.
35. Embarrass: ABASH.
38. West Yorkshire city: LEEDS.
39. Morales of "The Brink": ESAI.
40. Boards at the dock: EMBARKS. Verb not noun.
41. Kurt Cobain's group: NIRVANA.
42. Alabama Slammer ingredient: SLOE GIN.
45. More diminutive: LITTLER.
46. Not outsourced: IN-HOUSE.
49. WWII weapon: STEN.
50. Enthusiastic: GUNG HO.
52. Pay: WAGES. Answer could be singular or plural.
53. "Only __": NPR sports program: A GAME.
54. __ mate: tealike beverage: YERBA. South American hot infused drink, traditionally served in a gourd with a metal straw. Seems odd to drink hot liquid from a metal straw ...
59. About: AS TO.
61. Dined: ATE.
63. St. with a former "Small Wonder" slogan: DEL.
64. Stammering sounds: ERS.
68 comments:
Don't fall in love with that LANAI dame.
SHE'S T.N.T. when it comes to that GAME.
What will ENSUE
That she'll put you thru
May be NIRVANA, but ABASHES all the same!
LISA drove KIAS down BROADWAY AVENUE
How she drove two at once, I never knew.
She's EMBARK ON A TEAR
In one driver's chair,
And in the other one when she was through!
The fight was violent, ELI threw the first PUNCH
The MOUNTIE HIT back, SLUGGED him a bunch!
One would BELT with his fist.
The others STRIKES would persist,
When it was over -- the two went out for lunch!
{B+, B+, A-.}
100% achieved in 9 minutes.
I have two gripes with today.
Lisa did crosswords in one only episode... And it was scripted by writers from the whole team who do not do crosswords.
Pinsk? really? obscure little town in Belarus? I mean they are almost our neighbours and I never heard that name.
We have another lease accounting session today, I am just waiting til people start throwing things at me. What a ridiculous concept...
Good morning!
Let's see the hands for MINSK before PINSK popped in? That one letter was my only boo-boo this morning. Only A GAME airs at 6AM on Saturday in Houston -- prime crossword solving time. I opt for music instead. Thanx, Kurt, Jan-Michele and Melissa Bee.
You might enjoy this... I picked up an extra M-o-W route Monday. My last stop was a ramshackle trailer with a rusty sheet-metal porch out front. I could see an old woman in a rocker on the porch. I stopped my pickup out at the road, because the gate across the dirt track was chained and padlocked. When I got out of the truck I heard the most awful caterwauling coming from that trailer. Couldn't understand the words, but somebody was really catchin' it. The screamin' and hollerin' continued all the while I was filling my sacks. When I made it up to the gate an old guy came shambling toward me. He turned toward the trailer, "Shut the f__k up, Ester! It's just the Meals-on-Wheels guy." Apparently I was the one catchin' it, and never even realized it. Guess I should be grateful that she didn't have a shotgun. Never a dull moment in redneck country.
(Yes, according to the route sheet, her name is spelled Ester.)
Hello Puzzlers -
Zoomed right through, except for a slowdown in the middle south. Didn’t know the sports show or the South American tea. For some reason I was slow to see ember and wages. Haven’t had coffee yet.
Morning MBee, your link to Pinsk in Belarus reminded me that I have very little understanding of the eastern edges of conflict in WWII. Must read up.
FIR, but erased rte for AVE, smaller for LITTLER, and ABASe.
I know lots of Cornerites love them, but I would rather watch a garage oil-changing show than a cooking show. But I like to eat, so I think I'll go to the ATM machine and get some money to order some shrimp scampi. Not at The La Brea Tar Pits, but at the hotel / restaurant in Hazard, Kentucky the locals call The La Citadelle.
Thanks to Kurt, Jan-Michele and Melissa B for the fun start to Wednesday.
Had SEPIA first so mINSK wasn't an option. Knew both cities in Belarus because of the spelling.
ELI, MILLE, YERBA, TILA, and EATON needed crosses. Never heard of the NEBULA award.
Nice puzzle. Brought to you by the fine folks at the ATF.
Thanks Kurt, Jan-Michele and mb, for a fun start to the day. The theme was obvious after the second long fill.
My father in law smoked Lucky Strikes. Back in the 60's when my eldest was little he called them Lucky Stiffs. My MIL laughed and said, "You got that right." I don't understand the claim that no one knew how dangerous cigarettes are. Way back in the 60's we were aware. We used to call them cancer sticks.
TILA, PINSK and ELI werte unknown, but easily gettable. I had PIN--, thinking of MINSK gave me the answer.
We used to play Mille Bournes.
Did you know that saltimbocca in Italian means leap into the mouth?
I have no idea about a Cal. column, nor do I understand the answer THU. Any thoughts?
calendar column, Thursday
Thanks, YR, Sometimes I wonder where my mind goes. I was wondering about all sorts of remote things, assuming it was something totally foreign to me, such as calculus, or some structure in California, or someone's name abbreviated. I hate all the abbreviations we're getting lately, as well as the modern trivia of which there is a generous supply too.
Scroll through these Russian city and town names to see how many end in -SK. That's why -sk is always my first thought in xword fill.
Russian cities and towns
Oh I forget the Slovak connection. The movie Hostel from Eli Roth takes place in Bratislava and shows it as an eastern European sado-masochistic capital. Shot in Prague actually. He was somehow regarded as a Wunderkind of horror movies, but I thought they were just plain bad. He also played the soldier who shot Hitler in Inglorious Bastards.
Took a little longer this morning because of a few unknowns or words lost in the recesses of my brain. Good one from Kurt and Jan-Michele with MB's great tour through the grid.
I didn't know NEBULA and I misspelled MILLE as MILES so it took a while to fill in the L correctly. I also didn't know LISA or ELI but perps filled them in.
When I was a kid, we never got away with SASSING our parents or teachers, unlike the current crop of youngsters.
Currently dealing with getting DW's sister settled into an Assisted Living facility. She thinks she has been left in a motel and wants someone to come get her. She is frantic and confused, but she can no longer live alone safely. It is so sad when one's mind deteriorates.
I hope the floodwaters recede quickly and that everyone has a great day.
Good Morning:
Kudos to Krijo for finishing this in 9 minutes. It took me over 12 and that was because of so many (for a Wednesday) unknowns: Tila, Pinsk, Nebula, Yerba, and Eli, as clued. The theme was obvious early on, so that was a help. Several CSOs: Madame Defarge (Knit), CanadianEh (Mountie and Eaton), Bluehen (Del) where are you, BTW, and Misty, Ferm, and Keith (URL). Littler is a tad clunky, IMO.
Thanks, Kurt and Jan-Michele, for a crunchy Wednesday and thanks, Melissa, for guiding us along. Your links were interesting to me as I've never eaten a Twinkie and I avoid carrots like the plague and, strangest of all, I never watched "Seinfeld." From the various short clips of the show that I have seen, I don't think I'm on Jerry's wavelength.
DO @ 6:53 ~ That was a scary experience; I hope it's the first and the last!
FLN
YR, I have played oodles of practice rounds on WWF and I haven't lost a single game. I think it's programmed to let you win. As far as the odd words it plays, I think it has a very "flexible" dictionary. Some of the definitions it offers are off the wall. If you want to play, send me your screen name and I'll initiate a game.
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
I paused over Cal. column, too, but then THU presented itself and it made sense. Self-evident theme as others have said. Lots of 'bang' stuff: RIFLES, TNT, LUGER, STEN. No searches needed; FIR.
KNIT - German is 'stricken', but L. German for knitting yarn is 'Knüttgaarn'. Guess the Anglo-Saxon raiders brought their knitting with them.
With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a two-game winning streak ... it is always
FUN when September 19th comes around here ...
YES !!! ... It is "Talk like a pirate day!!!"
AARRGGG !!!
Melissa: Nice write-up.
Kurt & Jan-Michele: Thank you for a FUN Wednesday puzzle. I enjoyed your theme.
PINSK was a learning moment ... always a plus.
Filled in by perps ... never even noticed the clue until reading the write-up ... AARRRGGG!
A "Toast-to-ALL" (in Pirate-ese) at Sunset.
Cheers!
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Kurt Mengel & Jan-Michele Gianette, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.
MB: I really enjoyed your Cuttlefish link. Most interesting.
Theme of the puzzle was fine. I did not catch it right away, but after looking at things it appeared.
Puzzle was fine for the most part. Couple of sticky answers for me: LISA, TESH, TILA, PINSK, YERBA, NIRVANA. Perps two the rescue.
Jinx: Your mentioning Hazard, KY, rings a bell. We (Automatic Electric) provided the central office equipment to Hazard, KY, for years. We had a lot of our installers that worked there.
A little cooler here today in NE Illinois. Might rain later. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Musings
-Subbing today where I have 4 periods off. Sit around/get check
-Word processors made EDITING much easier than white-out and onion skin paper
-A blog I listen to was debating entries to the Toy Hall Of Fame and differed on admitting sand and chalk
-This will SEAL most anything
-My birthday mo. of SEP seems to be rolling around faster and faster
-I remember UCLA was 5 min. from Rodeo Drive
-What a great childhood memory!
-We disEMBARK from our golf cart on every hole
-Jinx, me too on competitive/rude cooking shows but if works for others…
-oc4beach that heartbreak is just around the corner with my MIL
-Kids today are great and I see very little to no SASSING. I do remember some of this going on in my ute - which brings this old saw to mind
I loved this Wednesday puzzle, and got everything but the southwest corner before I had to cheat a little on two items. But lots of fun--many thanks, Kurt and Jean-Michele. I too got the theme pretty early on, and had the same question about MINSK and PINSK, but SEPIA stood firm for me. Never heard of MILLE, but then my card games are limited. Anyway, a delightful romp, and nice write-up, Melissa. I have a lunch date with a friend, and so have to hurry off, but I'll look at your videos later today.
Thanks for the shout-outs, Irish Miss.
Have a great day, everybody!
I'm here, Irish Miss, lurking as always. Thank you for pointing out the CSO to my adopted home state, Delaware. I don't contribute to this blog very much anymore, for a variety of reasons, but I enjoy following the play-by-play between the active participants.
I found this puzzle to be surprisingly easy. It was solved in Tuesday-type time, yet still displayed sparkly originality, and contained a few learning moments, always a plus. As is my wont, I flew through all of the across clues, then all of the down clues, looking for low-hanging fruit. PINSK, therefore, while unknown to me before, was no effort to fill in. It filled in itself from the across clues, PTL. I know that I would have been highly tempted by mINSK, otherwise.
mb, another entertaining and educational expo, as always. The photographs of Pinsk were eye-opening. Like Dudley said, I have to learn more about this area. Impressive.
Thank you to all, Kurt Jan-Michele, and Melissa.
Cya!
This was a HIT all the way! Thank you, Kurt and Jan-Michele and Melissa for illuminating us.
No problem with PINSK as Sepia was in place and I hope it's a more pleasant place than Minsk which I found to be a dreary place.
My mother also smoked LUCKYSTRIKE cigarettes until she quit. YERBA mate' could have been a stumbling block but I happen to have some in my pantry. It's supposed to have healing properties.
EATON is a blast from the past. The surface of those papers was so smooth and easy to write on with a fountain pen.
ASIA/USA crossing is interesting. LITTLER is not.
I have no idea about Hostel or ELI Roth. Thank you, perps and didn't know LISA solved cws.
Have a lovely day, everyone! Rain expected today.
Tin, ya swabbie, ya beat me to Talk Like a Pirate day! Have a happy! I guess it’s more fitting for an ole buccaneer like you to mention it first.
I flew through the puzzle. Just on the right wavelength I suppose. PINSK filled itself in before I realized I didn’t know it, so no problem there. Thanks, all, for the fun.
Owen, all A’s but I liked the third one best.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Kurt, Jan-Michele and Melissa. I was GUNGHO for this puzzle. Went pretty fast so I was surprised to see how many unknowns I listed. WEES. No red-letter runs, so a lot of perps & WAGs (like "sk" on Pinsk) did the job.
My biggest error was trying to put TWINKIE in the next-door row and wondering why it turned red.
EATON: don't know this brand but I still hand-write notes on greeting cards to family & old friends.
SASSING: I think TV has promoted all the smart mouths with the reward of canned laughter after every SASS.
SAGE: can't stand this flavor. Sage rubs ruin a good turkey for me.
YR: LUCKY STRIKES a/k/a "coffin nails" in my "ute". We all knew they were bad. Just took officialdom decades to catch up.
Jinx: if you are eating in Kentucky, did the flood reach you or are you just "on the road again"?
D-O: Wow, that M-O-W experience sorta falls in the "no good deed goes unpunished" category.
Solved the puzzle quite smoothly. Had no idea what the theme was until after I was all done. Then POW! I got it!
YERBA Mate is a thing in California. I have never had it. The original name of San Francisco was YERBA Buena. I have photos of YERBA Buena Gardens in San Francisco.
desper-otto Hand up for MINSK before PINSK. Had me stuck awhile.
Hand up for Cal confusing me. St also confused me. DEL was the state we passed through on our way from MD to NJ. But I did do a teen trip to Rehoboth Beach, DEL with friends.
Unknowns: MILLE, TILA, ELI, TESH.
melissa bee Thanks for the illustrations and explanations. And the Seinfeld clip!
Jinx There is no need to be unnecessarily redundant! Good collection of redundancies.
Here are some of my father's photos at UCLA in the 1950s.
He was a UCLA grad student in biology at the time. My older brother was born there and features in many of the photos with my mother. I had never been to California until I was an adult. UCLA is just about two hours from here. But I have only a few photos there.
I have lots of ROMA photos. Another time, perhaps.
From Yesterday:
AnonT Thank you for taking the time to read some of my articles. I did not get the "Duh" comment. Sorry! Perhaps you can give a few more words of explanation?
Lucina I am also honored that you took the time to read some of my articles. Thank you for the kind words! "Thought provoking" is as good as it gets!
Your interpretation of the LA BREA redundancy as translation makes sense in a way.
This was a nice puzzle, although I’m with the “littler” crowd, it doesn’t look or sound right. Just one of those words I guess.
And on to Thursday.
Ta- DA!
A bit tough in the middle, but quite do-able. Thanks to the Mengel/Gianette team!
Irish M ~ I think LITTLER just looks funny. But I'm sure I've said it many times.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One today, NW to SE.
Offering an anagram to favor the craftspersons among us:
ARTISANAL LUCK!
My two cents?
I really think there is way too much violence in crosswords these days...
Something should be done...
On the other hand,
if you had trouble completing this puzzle...
English Plus says, "Using Little, Littlest, and Least
The word little can be used in two different senses--meaning "small in size" or "small amount of."
Examples: He was still a little boy. (small in size)
Please give me a little milk. (small amount of)
This becomes trickier in the comparative and superlative because little has two different forms.
If little means "small in size," the comparative is littler or more little, and the superlative is littlest."
If little means "small amount of," the comparative is less, and the superlative is least.
I am likely to say this pencil is littler than that one rather than this pencil is more little than that one.
oc4beach, a tough time for families. I sympathize.
DO, how scary
Hand up for a quick solve; 9 minutes, right up there with Krijo (for a change). I know both Minsk and Pinsk, so it was just a matter of waiting until SEPIA decided it. As a long-time science fiction fan, the NEBULA award was also a gimme. Absolutely did NOT like Scheming=UP TO. I agree that anyone who is scheming might well be said to be "up to" something, but surely the opposite isn’t true; you can be up to something without being scheming… just MY two cents' worth.
Are CED and I the only ones today with $0.02 of disposable income?
I’m going to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day by going to see one of my favorite plays: Aaaaarrrrrsenic and Old Lace.
I was afraid I'd have to miss the play due to labor unrest at work but fortunately it was settled in aaaaarrrrbitration.
And I thought we might have an issue with Radon gas in our basement but it was just Aaaaarrrrrgon.
I’m going! I’m going!
Have a great day, all!
I collect puzzle cartoons, so went searching for an un-watermarked copy of CED's link. What I found might interest some of you!
Who can forget that Tom Lehrer Lobachevsky song, with the lyrics
"I have a friend in Minsk
Who has a friend in PINSK
Whose friend in Omsk
Has friend in Tomsk
With friend in Akmolinsk
His friend in Alexandrovsk
Has friend in Petropavlovsk
Whose friend somehow is solving now
The problem in Dnepropetrovsk"
Arrr!
Abejo, circa 1975 I worked in Hazard for about a half year, on loan from Lexington to install SXS equipment. Lots of drinking, dining and dancing at [The] La Citadelle. Very dangerous, winding road to get up and down, but the view from up there was breathtaking. A lot of short-term workers, including GTE/AE folks, stayed there frequently.
I was amazed at how different life was there, less than 100 miles from where I grew up. Some people still lived in the nearby Blue Diamond Mining company town. You could still find script in the dirt around town, even though the company store had been abandoned for years. Only country music was on the jukeboxes. THE breakfast side was grits. The past tense for "fight" was "fit". Roads had terrible craters in them caused by coal trucks. I loved my time there, but couldn't live there.
Did you hear about the Yorkie who sired puppies with the Great Dane? Obviously someone put him UP TO it.
Now I know why my recent order from Vanity Fair included Free Shipping.
9/12 8:07 pm > Order placed and acknowledged
9/13 9:03 pm > Departed Evergreen, AL via FedEx
9/14 5:57 am > Arrived Kenesaw, GA
9:18 am > Departed Kenesaw, GA
9:23 pm > In transit to Falling Waters, WV
9/15 4:33 pm > In transit to Montgomery, NY (Approximately 90 miles south of Troy)
9/16 7:09 am > In transit to Willington, CT (Approximately 140 miles southwest of Troy)
9/17 2:12 pm > Arrived Willington, Ct
9/18 9:15 am > Departed Willington, Ct
1:22 pm > Arrived Windsor, Ct
11:00 pm > Departed Windsor, Ct
11:02 pm > Shipping information sent to USPS
9/19 10:25 am > In transit to USPS Troy
10:52 am > Arrived USPS Troy
9/20 Scheduled delivery by end of day
I don't understand the circuitous route but, then again, I could get lost in a paper bag! Anyway, venting is good for the soul! 😇
I have a friend who just now sold her home and is moving into a continuing care facility at the most able category. She has scatica, disc disease and rheumatism, and often severe pain. She is finding it difficult to care for her house and property. She feels happy and hopeful with this move. I am more able, but I obsess over when to make the move. I am a never say die, can-do type, but I see my declining powers. I can admit I may not always care for myself, but when do I opt out? I have only myself as caregiver. Some of our generation are more realistic than our forebears. But when to pull the plug?
Talk like a pirate day makes me think of the Beijing dialect of Mandarin Chinese, which gives an "ar" sound to many words that are pronounced in other dialects without that sound. Here are some examples:
The word for "a little bit" (一点) is pronounced "yī diǎn" in standard Mandarin, but a native of Beijing says "yī diǎr".
In the Beijing dialect a restaurant (飯館)is "fàn guǎr".
Instead of "nǎ lǐ" (哪里) for "where?" they say "nǎr".
And, most pirate-like of all, instead of "xiǎo hái zi" (小孩子) a "child" is "xiǎo hár".
PK @ 12:26 -- "YR: LUCKY STRIKES a/k/a "coffin nails" in my "ute". We all knew they were bad. Just took officialdom decades to catch up."
I don't think we can blame 'officialdom' for this. The issue is that our inventiveness -- chemically, basically, but not exclusively -- far outpaces our human discovery of the consequences. We are all living in a global laboratory, where the results of choices require decades (hopefully not centuries) to become clear.
ER, it wasn't difficult for the theme to come out but there were a lot of people, places, and 'things' that I solved by perps, considering I'd never heard of or seen any of those shows. The perps took care of them. ELI roth, MILLE Bornes, PINSK, Chef Jet TILA, NEBULA (as an award), NIRVANA (as a group), Only A GAME, & YERBA mate.
LSMFT- Lucky Strike Means Fine Tobacco or my deceased MIL's description, whose initials we L.S. DW said the guys would say, "L*** S***, Might Fine Tail".
IM @ 4:04 -- I share your bewilderment. Once I ordered something from LL Bean, and in the process of moving from Maine to California, the order spent almost a day in Corn Stalk*, Iowa. Why? The driver took a break? High winds in Montana? Local flooding in Yuma? The Hang Seng index hit 26,000? Total mystery.
* The name is made up.
YellowR ~
I have never, ever said "more little."
Anybody ...?
~ OMK
PS. I have said "less is more."
As Robin Hood said to Little John as he provoked him to fight harder, "More, Little!"
Big Easy - In my ute, LSMFT meant Loose Straps Makes Floppy [Things].
I refuse to enter the LITTLER wars!!
YR, you are so right about our knowledge of tobacco’s harm. Dr Alton Ochsner of New Orleans was one of the first to warn of it in 1940! But Michael, you are also right that it took a while for anyone to pay attention.
My father was a friend of Ochsner’s and he and other friends made fun of his doom and gloom.... as they smoked away!!
Blue hen we miss you!!!
Hi All!
Thanks Kurt & Jan-Michele for the fine Wednesday Puzzle. Thanks mb for the fine review, pictures of PINSK, and Seinfeld's take on the OREO :-)
I had a bit of a hard time with BROADWAY E?? After looking for (and discovering) the theme, it HIT me and I was done.
Hand-up: I was befuddled by THU's clue too. OTOH, I nailed NEBULA from the clue.
WOs: smalLER, ABASe
ESPs: TILA, PINSK, MILLE, ELI, YERBA, ESAI (//sigh, I'll get that one day)
Fav: TWINKIE! It's just fun to say; I wouldn't eat one except on a bet.
{A, B+, A}
Oc4 - that's gotta be rough on your DW too.
Spitz - I didn't notice the 'Bang' sub-theme until you pointed it out. Quite the violent puzzle, eh?
D-O: And you were right, I enjoyed your MoW story; nothing like the names in the rural South.
Picard - Duh! In that folks don't think about what they're saying when blurting talking-points about and it gets political
OMK - Great Diag Report!
WikWak, Jinx - Groan :-)
Kirjo - so I LIU. The backstory [Wiki] and a clip from the Crossword Episode. Merl & Shortz plays themselves.
Cheers, -T
Correction: Willington, Ct is southeast of Troy. One paper bag comin up! 🙃
Cross-eyed Dave, why can't we have violins in crosswords? We have ukes and cellos, and violins have more vowels...wait, you said VIOLENCE. That's different. Never mind.
Worked better orally for Emily Litella.
Also, a t-shirt I should get for next TLAPD.
t-shirt
Now to go see an ARRRRR-Rated movie.
Several of you have mentioned retirement homes and I wonder if you’d be interested in my experience. No , I don’t live in a retirement home. But I gave up my house when the repairs got to be a burden and moved into an apartment building with 24 hour security and constant maintenance. There are a good number of older people because it is convenient . (Lots of younger people , too, who aren’t ready for responsibility, but that is another story!)
Because we live close to each other we have lots of communal activities, not organized, but just because we run into each other.
Some people avoid all of these activities and live solitary lives. That works because no one is going to bother you. Other people seek out other bridge players or knitters to form groups.
I love it here!! I have a choice... but also people around if I need them.
Giving up the Family Home doesn’t have to be a bad thing.
JMHO
Get real here. Big Tobacco companies were making so much money, they spread a lot of it around to keep the doomsayers quiet. And the addicted refused to believe the trouble they would later experience. Some people will believe anything they want to.
Billo - LOL! And now I know why I've heard of Bernstein - that very SNL sketch :-) -T
PK, you are so right! My husband who smoked like a chimney, always said he was willing to give up “a few years” for the pleasure of smoking.
He died at age 60 of lung cancer after a dreadful fight. I don’t think it was a good bargain.
Spitz and anonT:
That's where I was going with the ATF nod.
A: party drink, STILL, SLOE GIN
T: LUCKY STRIKE, SPINACH(wacky tobacky)
F: STEN, LUGAR, TNT, RIFLES
Also, did ya'll know twinkies originally had banana creme centers until WWII cut off the supply chain.?
G-man - Thanks for the ATF view. Makes one wonder how this puzzle evolved.
Lucina and others - - TV is so bad I'm watching YouTube:
2016 VIT HD HEERESMUSIKKORPS KASSEL, GERMAN ARMY BAND
VIT 2011 -German Mountain Army Band. (This one has alpenhorns @ 2:40)
(VIT is Virginia International Tattoo at Norfolk, VA)
I'm getting old. I know I used to play MILLE Bornes a lot, even had two decks, the regular French one and an English variation called Touring. But I've been wracking my brain all day and cannot for the life of me recall anyone I played it with!
I agree that $$$ from the cig. cos. was probably a large part of it. But I also think the "greatest generation" had a much more fatalistic attitude than we do today. Part of that was independent thinking that no one was going to tell them what to do, not even the government, and part of it was seeing so much violent death during WWII.
I have a solution: make the minimum age for smoking 55. Supposing lung cancer takes approx. 20 years to develop, that means legal smokers will have mostly reached the end of their life-span anyway. And Teens take up smoking because it makes them look like cool twenty-year-olds. Fifty-five is not a cool age, so the enticement will dissolve.
A 14-year-old girl walks into a hairdresser's shop with a Twinkie in her hand. She sits on the seat and the barber puts the plastic cover on her. As he is cutting her hair, she takes out her Twinkie and starts to eat it, not realizing that her cut hair is falling on her Twinkie. The hairdresser, being polite, looks down at her, smiles playfully, and says, ''Young lady, did you know that you're getting hair on your Twinkie?''
She smiles back, and says, ''Yes, I know...I'm growing boobs too!''
Today I went to the movies to see The Wife. Just seeing Glenn Close in action is worth the price of admission. She is a superb actress. Jonathan Pryce is good, too, and Glenn's daughter, Annie Starke, plays the younger version of her mother. Max Irons plays the son and I want to find out if he is Jeremy Irons' son. Good movie with a few f bombs.
OKL, you can see your way out as well. Now if I can only remember that one past tomorrow..
Reminds me of the punch line:
"Excuse me miss, are you feeling hysterical?"
"No, he's feeling mine."
Swampcat: I hear you and sympathize with the loss of your husband at such a young age. I was also interested in your living arrangements. I'm needing to make a change, but not sure I can stand another move physically.
Lucina...theres an app for that. Or at least a dozen.
My go tos?
IMDb and/or Wiki
Yup Jeremy is his dad.
Who are all these Cusack's? And where is John and Joan? Hmmm, back to the app.
PK, it was a hard decision. I had owned a house since I was 22 years old! But I’m glad I did it. And now I feel settled.
Touching convo u 2. Seriously
Very late to the party today. Thanks for the fun, Kurt and Jan-Michele, and melissa bee.
I got the theme early. Favourite was BROADWAY HIT.
I saw my MOUNTIE (thanks for the SO, Irish Miss). There were only two choices for N. American land, and since Canadian had already been used in the Mountie clue, ergo USA it must be!
Unknowns for me were ELI, MILLE, and TILA. PINSK corrected itself with SEPIA.
I noted the Clecho with EMBER and ASHY, and also the WW I and II guns. (LOL re all the Violins)
I too had a nose wrinkle with LITTLER. It may be okay but I would never use it in a sentence; I would substitute Smaller.
Thanks for dropping in, Bluehen
Good evening Cornies.
Thank you Mr. Kurt Mengel and Ms. Jan-Michele Gianette for this Wednesday CW. Almost all of it went easily. I had to reveal the "E" at 40 to finish the CW. My last fill was the "I" at the Natick of 47 A MILLE, and 41 D NIRVANA.
Thank you melissa bee for your excellent review.
Ðave
Thanks to all for the kind words about my SIL's situation. She is deteriorating rapidly.
Anon-T: you're right, it is tough on my wife. My SIL is the fourth family member who has gone through this situation (my Stepfather and Mother and DW's Father) and each one was tough to deal with. Alzheimer's is cruel and insidious.
oc4beach: hoping for strength for you & your wife. Whenever a family member has dementia, it is hard not to fear for one's own mental state. Very hard to lose the personality you have known in your family member and find another person there instead. Have to learn to laugh at the silly things to keep from crying all the time. And it takes such patience. I know you know this.
Love is like a dying ember.
It's hard to see Cornies who failed to recognize NIRVANA.
I was never a fan, but my younger son was a devotee. When Kurt took his life, there was vast devastation across the land. Even I could not miss the extraordinary effect it had on an entire generation.
No one is to blame, but to see Cobain and NIRVANA so easily absorbed/forgotten by the intervening years is a lesson in cultural amnesia of the gravest kind.
~ OMK
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