google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, October 2, 2018 Roland Huget

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Oct 2, 2018

Tuesday, October 2, 2018 Roland Huget

"Let's Play Cards"

 17. Tool for cutting stone and concrete: DIAMOND SAW.  

25. Garden digging, e.g.: SPADEWORK.  

35. Richly upholstered seat: CLUB CHAIR.  

48. Prilosec target: HEARTBURN

Given the pattern of the theme answers, the reveal would be an open form compound word, and it was:

56. Carry on the same way ... and what the ends of 17-, 25-, 35- and 48-Across do: FOLLOW SUIT.

I just happened to notice that each of the theme answers were compound words, and that they alternated from open form to closed form.   Nice to see that the reveal followed suit.

Spitzboov, our resident bridge player, probably plays with a four color deck.   I learned these decks are are called "no-revoke" decks, and are given different colors to make the suits more distinct from each other.

 Across:

1. Gulf States prince: EMIR.  For instance, Qatar's emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani


5. Macy's competitor: KOHL'S.

10. Eucharist celebration: MASS.

14. See 62-Across: TIME,  50D. See 62-Across: UPON A, and 62. With 50-Down and 14-Across, fairy tale opening: ONCE.  ONCE UPON A TIME.  If still active on the blog, Barry G would have commented about this threesome.  He doesn't care for clues that make you have to read another clue. 

15. Boise's state: IDAHO.  "The City of Boise operates the largest direct-use geothermal system in the entire country."  - livboise.org.   "Idaho is called the "Gem State" because nearly every known type of gemstone has been found in the state of Idaho.  More than 72 different precious and semi-precious gemstones are mined from Idaho" - ikeydata.com

16. Israeli airline: EL AL.

19. River of Cairo: NILE.

20. Playing surface surrounded by boards: RINKSports lingo - Ice Hockey Dasher Boards

21. Access charge: USER'S FEE.

23. Chinese menu promise: NO MSGMonosodium glutamate

26. Abandoned building, say: EYESORE.

28. Jules who created the Nautilus: VERNELittle-Known Facts About Jules Verne

29. Form a union: WED.  Betroth.

30. Passé reception aid: AERIAL.

34. Love personified: AMOR.

37. Nobel Peace Prize city: OSLO.   The Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature are awarded in Stockholm.

40. Toxic substance: POISON.

41. Snapshot, briefly: PIC.

44. "SNL" alum Cheri: OTERI.

46. Dancer Duncan: ISADORA.    Didn't know of her.     Needed the I to complete the puzzle.

52. Caught with a lasso: ROPED.

53. Old-fashioned printing machine: LINOTYPE.


54. Champagne brand: MOET.

55. Got on in years: AGED.

60. __ majesty: high treason: LESE.

61. Diarist Nin: ANAIS"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."

63. Newspaper section with many reviews: ARTS.

64. Horizontal graph lines: X-AXES.

65. Enthusiastic: KEEN.

Down:

1. Takeoff approx.: ETD.

2. 1002, to Caesar: MII.

3. Gun carrier's warning: I'M ARMED.

4. Careless: REMISS.

5. Garden hose obstruction: KINK.

6. Unmatched: ODD.

7. Welcomes to the treehouse: HAS UP.

8. __ apso: little dog: LHASA.  Video courtesy of Animal Planet


9. Scattered, as seed: SOWED.

10. Department store section: MENSWEAR.

11. Wing-shaped: ALIFORM.

12. Port near Naples: SALERNO.

13. More streamlined: SLEEKER.

18. Like an accurate soccer shot: ON GOAL.

22. Gun, as an engine: REV.

23. Just out: NEW.

24. Santana's "__ Como Va": OYE.     Hey, how is it going ?



25. __-Croatian: Slavic language: SERBO.

27. Do another stint: RE-UP.   Reenlist. 

31. Here, in Haiti: ICI.

32. Twain/Harte play: AH SIN.   Totally unknown to me.   The perps were solid, but still wasn't certain how to parse it.   Took a couple of Google searches to find a reference, and learned along the way that Twain Harte is a census designated place in California.   Anyway,  read Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Pioneer Fiction, and a Play Gone Wrong

33. Vientiane's country: LAOS.  The economic center and capital of Laos.


35. Becomes rusted: CORRODES.

36. Lined up: IN A ROW.

37. "C'est magnifique!": OOH LA LA.

38. "The Pawnbroker" actor Rod: STEIGER.

39. Least fatty, as corned beef: LEANEST.

41. Many a Top 40 song: POP TUNE.

42. Cork's country: Abbr.: IRE.

43. Heel: CAD.

45. Hairy Addams cousin: ITT.

47. Is moderately successful: DOES OK.

49. How some documents are sent: BY FAX.

51. Kick back: RELAX.

54. Forest floor plant: MOSS.

57. Golf ball position: LIE.

58. Cocktail cooler: ICE.

59. Down-for-the-count count: TEN.

















46 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Roland and TTP!

A few unknown: LESE, ALIFORM, SALERNO, OYE, and AH SIN.

Have a great day!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I was not quite in sync with Roland at first, but it turned out to be a fun do-able puzzle. Thanks, TTP, for a fun expo.

Last to fill was the NE corner with MASS & AMOR. Not knowing what department store section it would be, I left that blank and kept sailing along. Did not know ALIFORM or SALERNO but the across perps filled most of the section.

When I got to the reveal FOLLOW SUIT, I tried to piece together the theme from the rear "ends": SAW, WORK, CHAIR, BURN. What? Oh, front "end": DIAMOND, SPADE, CLUB, HEART. Cards! Never heard of a "no revoke deck" but I might have been better at cards if I'd had one. I was always reneging because I just saw only red ones & black ones. Did better playing Rook. Thanks, TTP.

Knew better but tried ISAbela before ISADORA. Knew the story of her sad demise.

ONCE UPON A TIME: ESP

I'M ARMED & ON GOAL not immediately filled, nor was LESE majesty. We've had that before. Didn't need any red-letter runs today. Yay, me.

"AH SIN", as a play, was about nothing I expected. Interesting link, TTP.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

PK, I see you and the sandman are at it again! Me, too!

This was a fun offering which I solved in the wee hours and, drowsy as I was, the theme sailed right over my head. I was on PK's fool's errand but, unlike PK, I never sussed the "Suits" by themselves. I must have been more than drowsy because I rarely miss a theme. Unknowns were: Aliform, Oye, and Ah Sin. No w/os but a big CSO to Tin with that pesky _ _ _ ! Are Kohl's and Macy's really on the same level to be competitors?

Thanks, Roland, for a Tuesday treat, if a little on the crunchy side and thanks, TTP, for the informative expo. I especially enjoyed the Idaho info and the Lhasa link and the story of Lulu. Dogs are amazing!

Have a great day.

D4E4H said...

Good Tuesday Cornies.

Thank you Mr. Roland Huget for this pleasant CW. I FIR in 29:25 min.

Thank you TTP for your excellent review.

Ðave

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, TTP and friends. Interesting theme.

I agree with IM in that I would not classify Macy's in the same group as KOHL'S.

I remember reading about ISADORA Duncan when I was in grade school. I remember her, not so much as her dancing, but for her tragic death. That was a morbid fascination for young school students.

My favorite clue was Form A Union = WED.

QOD: Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. ~ Groucho Marx (né Julius Henry Marx; Oct. 2, 1890 ~ Aug. 19, 1977)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Enjoyed this Wite-Out free Tuesday. I'm not sure what a CLUB CHAIR is, but it filled itself. Passé better describes BY FAX than AERIAL -- a rooftop or attic antenna has become de rigueur for cord-cutting. Thanx, Roland for the romp. Thanx, TTP for the enlightening expo.

LINOTYPE: In my urchin days I often visited the local newspaper office to watch the typesetter casting slugs -- he'd type a line, then manually insert spacers to justify the text, and then he'd step on the pedal to cast a hot-metal slug of that Line-o-type.

TWAIN: In his later years he was known for his swearing, and folks would come from far and wide to hear him speak. Twain commented that he liked to see a preacher in the crowd, because it added zest to his swearing.

OwenKL said...

FIWrong. iN GOAL > ON GOAL. DIAMiND was so close to right that I didn't notice. Saw the theme, but the reveal nonplussed me fo a minute or two.

Just looked up nonplussed to make sure I was using it correctly, and found it is another contronym.

The EMIR'S wife was a KOHL-EYED rose,
Her eyes are the only part that shows.
Is the rest a TEN,
Or a camel's friend?
Only the emir (and his camel) knows!

There was a young man from IDAHO
Became a pirate with a yo-ho-ho!
Went off to the ocean
With a far-fetched notion
That potatoes at sea were a no-no-no!

OwenKL said...

{A, A-.}

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Got it all OK, but thanks to TTP for clarifying how the theme works.
I play contract bridge so we use decks with 2 colors: black for SPADES and CLUBS, and red for HEARTS and DIAMONDS. And alternate between two decks so that one deck can be dealt while the other is shuffled. The back sides of each deck are of different color, usually one red, one blue, so the decks don't get co-mingled. ( I won 90¢ last night; woohoo)
AERIALS - are not necessarily passé. There are real good ones out there so you can pick up the local TV signal outside the Cable environment. Many work well from indoors. Mine is a Trek,
OSLO - As TTP said, other than the Peace prize, the rest of the Nobel awards are given out in Stockholm. Part of Norway's independence settlement in 1905.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks, Roland. Nicely themed. I enjoyed this quite a bit. Maybe because I was on your wavelength. I, too, had trouble parsing AH SIN.

Thanks, TTP, for the extensive review. I read and enjoyed all your links.

The Allied victory at SALERNO came with severe losses. I think that's the one called Operation Avalanche. It nearly was. The Allies learned a great deal before Operation Overlord.

Off to Dubuque for a few days to visit DH's oldest pal. Well, I mean they've known each other nearly their entire lives. He has a beautiful Painted Lady on the bluff, which he is ready to sell since his kids are all out of town, and he doesn't need so much space. It might be our final foray to a beautiful spot. If the weather cooperates, we'll also take a bit of a cruise on the Mississippi. He's ready to sell his boat also. Tempus Fugit!

Having my windows washed today. . . . I no longer sit on second story sills. This plan may be a guarantee of rain. Do have a fine Tuesday--sunny or not.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

5A: I immediately thought of GIMBELS but it was a no-fit. Then I thought Lord & Taylor’s, Bloomingdales,.. All too long. Now I like Kohl’s but I never thought of it as a rival. When I think of Macy’s I think of NYC. All the converted Bambergers are no match for NYC but they are a match for Kohl’s.

SwampCat said...

I zipped through this one. Thanks, Roland. Strangely enough my sticking point was “heel “. I thought of feet and dogs commands. When CAD filled itself in I felt terribly dumb! I loved the theme because I, too, am a contract bridge player.

TTP, good write up!

Owen, LOL! A+, A+.

billocohoes said...

Thought the "s" in USERS FEE is an uncommon usage. AH SIN filled itself with perps, never noticed it but it's pretty obscure.

The UN Editorial Manual lists the proper spelling as LESE-MAJESTe (I don't know how to put in the accents), but notes it as an exception to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Merriam-Webster and the OED both have the y, but mixing two languages in one hyphenated word still grates on me.

Abejo said...

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

Well, in my haste I did not get the theme until I came here. I looked at the ENDS as the last words in the theme answers. They made no sense. That's story and I'm sticking to it.

Puzzle was fine. a few tough spots, ie: ISADORA; MOET; ALIFORM; ARTS (tried OP ED)

Tried K MART for 5A since I had the K. Well, that fell. Kohl's worked well later on.

I still have a TV AERIAL/ANTENNA in my attic. We used it for many years. Got all the Chicago stations. No problem. I went on a business trip once for a week. When I came home we had cable. You can't fight city hall, or your wife.

TTP: Liked the Jules Verne link. Really interesting reading.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Haiku Harry said...

Serial killer
Slays victims in forest. He's
A MOSS murderer.

A man of the cloth
Loves to drag race. His nickname?
Why of course, "The REV"

Misty said...

Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Roland. I'm relieved that I got the whole thing with all items in correct form. Only I didn't get the theme because I too kept looking at the second word instead of the first word to see how it would relate to SUIT. Thank goodness, you explained it, TTP. I also learned a lot from your write-up this morning. Interesting story about the Twain/Harte controversy, and I'd forgotten about ISADORA Duncan's sad life and ending. Also nice to see ANAIS Nin and Cousin ITT in the puzzle.
Anyway, a lot of fund, thanks again, Roland.

I'm scheduled to go on a rare trip with friends at the end of the week and will miss a week of visiting with the Corner. A rare loss for me, and I hope the trip will be worth it.

Have a good day, everybody!

Maverick said...

AH SIN seems like a pretty obscure reference for a Tuesday. I studied Mark Twain and Bret Harte but never studied Mark Twain AND Bret Harte. I went with a Foghorn Leghorn sounding AH SON. That left me trying to fill an Irish name Duncan O'SA_ORA, rather than ISADORA Duncan, another obsure name. The perp was no help either because I picked the wrong champagne, MOTT (& Fils) rather than MOET (& CHANDON). Oh, well. Onward. (-3/-4)

AnonymousPVX said...

A quick run through this Tuesday puzzle produced zero writeovers. Theme was good enough to not give away the store, but I filled in 48A correctly as I did recognize the 3 previous theme entries.

Criticize Tiger all you want, for sure there’s plenty of material to do so...but please don’t add “and I’m not a racist”. No need to tell us what you aren’t if you aren’t.

And on to Wednesday.

Lucina said...

Thank you, Roland Huget! This was quick and fun.

Hand up for agreeing that Macy's and KOHL'S are not equal; I would say JCPenney's is more akin to KOHL'S. I'm sorry to say those separated phrases annoy me, too. Why not place ONCE UPON A TIME together? Yes, I filled it with no trouble but I don't like it. However, I always admire the constructor's ingenuity and it's his/her privilege, of course. I just find it awkward.

Another hand up about AERIALs; they are still very much in use and can even be paired with cable which is what one of my neighbors does.

I also recall ISADORA Duncan. MASS is a given for me and I suspect also for many of us here.

Thank you for the PIC of the LHASA apso, TTP. They are beautiful dogs.

For absolutely no good reason, I was amused to see XAXES at the bottom.

Thank you, again, Roland, for an amusing romp and thank you, TTP, for an excellent review.

It rained all night and you will likely hear about flooding today. The desert does not receive water kindly but we need it desperately.

Owen, really good verses today.

Have a grand day, everyone!

Jayce said...

Fun puzzle. I didn't get the theme, like some others of you. Agree about KOHL'S and MACY*S; also put in KMART after getting the K. Never heard of AH SIN and agree it seems too obscure for a Tuesday puzzle, as does ALIFORM. Like Lucina, I was amused at that XAXES; it reminded me of Axolotl and now I can't unsee it.

We have an AERIAL (I call it an antenna, and it looks exactly like the one in the picture TTP posted) on our roof and are satisfied to watch Over-The-Air broadcast TV.

Our son just got back from a business trip to London. He took an extra day Friday to walk some 20 miles around the city seeing many famous places and sights before flying back home on Saturday. He had some interesting stories to tell. He claims he had the best curry there that he has ever had anywhere.

Good wishes to you all.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and TTP.
Like others, I was trying to FOLLOW SUIT with the ends, SAW, WORK, CHAIR & BURN, and nothing made sense (Suitsaw, Suitwork etc). Then I saw the DIAMOND, SPADE, CLUB, HEART Suits but they were at the beginning! Still not making sense. Then Misty thanks TTP for explaining but I still had not understood the theme. Thorough reading of TTP's "Nice to see that the reveal followed suit" finally switched on the lightbulb. Oh, the ends (Saw etc.) follow the suit (Diamond etc.). I suspect that I am not the only one who was slow on the uptake of this one!

I wanted ON net (too short) before ON GOAL. RINK was a given for this Canadian (but I have followed hockey all my life and never heard the term Dasher Boards. Not Canadian Lingo!)

I know Macys but not KOHLS and thus will not discuss equivalence.
I waited for perps to confirm spelling of ISADORA, SALERNO, and STEIGER.
AH SIN was parsed but not understood. Thanks for the link TTP. I thought it was a play about the merits of transgressions!
I forgot to pluralize X AXES which gave my golfball a LII (Roman numeral?) instead of a LIE.
The Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded (in Sweden) to a woman for the first time in 55 years. Donna Strickland, from Canada (University of Waterloo), is only the third woman winner of the award. Dr Strickland shares this year's prize with Arthur Ashkin, from the US, and Gerard Mourou, from France. It recognises their discoveries in the field of laser physics.
NobelPrize

Enjoy your travels, Misty and MadameD.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Cold, damp day and I played bad golf so…
-Running a concrete saw with a diamond blade with no hearing protection is the reason I now have hearing aids
-Every town seems to have an EYESORE on its outskirts
-ETD at our house is 3 – 5 minutes after Joann says she is ready
-The Steiger line I remember, "I got a motive for the murder and a body that is dead."

Wilbur Charles said...

Minnie Bottoms , of Bridge column fame, would appreciate that enhanced Deck
Re. Kohl's and Macy's
These goods are designed to go to clearance and then the buyer gets another 20% off . The tag has the same reality as MSRP at a car dealership.
Misty,
The loss if your posts for a week I do hope will be rare. Bon voyage
I had a mess in the SW because I put i before e on STEIGER. I really went passe inking TELEX < FAX. I agree FAX is also getting passe. Unfortunately, paperwork seems to be important when it should all be on computer.
Mostly I sped through. And....
PK of course is not opining racially. Part of the problem is that commentators are not particularly sophisticated today in their analysis. Btw, I see Patrick Reed is COMPLAINING about being paired with Tiger????*

WC

* Reed on Ryder

Btw, to make his point the author downplays Reed's singles win . Good grief

Misty said...

Thank you, Wilbur--glad it's not until later in the week.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta- DA!

Neat pzl, Mr. Huget! Surprised you even know of AH SIN, that little-known Harte/Twain play we studied in theater history class.
I appreciate that you left us one diagonal (See below*.) They've grown pretty rare of late.

Misty, enjoy your trip! Thanks for the heads-up. Will you be going far?

~ OMK
____________
DR:
*One diagonal, NW to SE, yielding an anagram. At first glance, I thought it might be a Keatsean reprise honoring a Grecian Urn, But no, this one mentions a
"GRECIAN CURSE"!
With "IRS" left over.
And if that isn't an ominous remnant, I don't know what is!

Rainman said...

What Abejo always say, thanks to both. Took me about twice as long to complete as most Tuesdays. I certainly had never heard of ALIFORM nor LESE.

If anyone is within TV reception range, and still on cable, they are foolish not to consider internet TV such as sling.com coupled with over-the-air TV for local stations. I am SO satisfied, having cut the cord three years ago and owning my own DVRs from Channel Master. The clue AERIAL, of course, came to mind since I have one for all my TVs and some indoor FlatTennas for the stations within range. I'm 6 miles and 14 miles distant, respectively, from my transmitters. Excellent HI-DEF, HI-res reception, but many folks prefer cable or Direct TV or DishTV still. The internet allows some of my subscription to be viewed on my iPhone if I'm away from home as well.

Best to all. Happy October.

Lucina said...

Misty:
Your presence on the blog is always a treat so I shall miss you, too, although I'll be gone for some of that time as well. Sunday, October 7 I shall join my family and several thousand other walkers at the Believe Walk in Redlands, CA. It has become an annual event and we honor my late niece who died of breast cancer. She was a co-founder of the event which raises millions of dollars for research.


Anonymous said...

Another fun adventure! Thanks, Roland H., for the fun Thanks, TTP, for the write-up and great links!

Theme; forgot to look for it. Dumb! I'll take a CSO with the theme because DH and I are hosting Couples Euchre Saturday night. It's fun, even though I rarely win anything.

I picked up a Farmers' Almanac for the heck of it. For the first 3 days of October our forecast is for sunny and cold days. In actuality, it's been overcast and temps up to 80*.

Have a great rest of your day

Picard said...

Never heard of KOHLS. We are a small city, but we did have two MACYS.

Surprised people did not know OYE COMO VA. I got to see Santana perform it back in the 80s.

Here is Santana's OYE COMO VA. Perhaps you have heard it and did not know the title?

I found the AH SIN/ISADORA/DOES OK crossings unfair. GOES OK seems just as good. AH SON seems just as good. And the other is a proper name I never heard of. OSAGORA seems possible. Anyway, I did WAG them all correctly to FIR.

The rest of it I enjoyed! Fun theme!

Here are my photos and an interesting video of the opening of the Santa Barbara Center for Arts, Science and Technology - SBCAST. There are two galleries of AERIAL performance photos.

SBCAST is the generous contribution of my friend Alan Macy who wanted to create an incubator for artistic and scientific innovation in our community.

Picard said...

From yesterday:
Not sure why it is being called the Birthday Paradox. The odds of a person having the same birthday as you are about one in 365.25. But the odds of some two people having the same birthday in a room are much higher. No paradox needed.

Here is an article showing the distribution of birthdays by day of the year, by month and by day of the month.

It is not perfectly random. There are indeed more Americans born in September than in other months. But the deviation is really too small for casual observation.

Confirmation bias tends to make us notice coincidences and ignore non-coincidences.

PK said...

Wilbur: Thanks for the Patrick Reed link. He no doubt was the epitome of what I was saying, that good players are somehow reduced to poor players when paired with Tiger. I don't know why U.S. captains and media analysts can't see this, if i can. The Tiger Myth is a jinx at Ryder Cup. He just does not play well with others.

Anonymous T said...

Hi:

Quite the Crunchy Tuesday IMHO. If I didn’t finally learn OTERI and ELAL from xwords, I don't think I'd got a FIR.

Thanks Roland for the puzzle, thanks TTP for the review and links (and Santana!). I did get the theme and it helped with SPADED and CLUB.

WOs: MENS WARE, HAd UP, STEIGaR, X-AXIS (Hi C, Eh!)
ESPs: ALIFORM, SALERNO, STEIGER, ANAIS, LHASA (spelling), SERBO, ICI, ISADORA (IS was a WAG), AH SIN, LESE only because LASE is a word this fixing 38d...
//stunning, my lack of knowledge, eh? :-)

Fav: I liked the clue for TEN.
Runner-up: c/a for CAD. Like, Swamp, my 1st thought was dog [actually, my 1st thought was CURE because I read it heal :-)]
LINOTYPE xing BY FAX is a nice touch.

{A+, B+}

We'll miss ya Misty! Have a safe trip.

Lucina - I thought it was kinda neat connecting ONCE UPON A TIME that way. They could all be clued separately but this was more fun.

OMK - Funny Diag. Report!

TV - I have an indoor HD-AERIAL 'cuz I thought about canceling Cable. Not only do we still have cable (I do love C-SPAN), somehow we've aMASSed all the services - Amazon, NetFlix, Hulu - too.

Cheers, -T

TTP said...

Hi all. Just finished reading the comments. Guess I should have been clearer.

I believe that it was purely coincidental that the compound word theme answers alternated from open and closed forms, and that they followed suit was was purely coincidental. Didn't mean to confuse.

As PK stated early on, the playing card suit was at the front end of each theme answer. So a word followed a card suit. Nothing more, nothing less.

Picard, hey, how's it going ? Thanks for linking that video of Santana !

Becky said...

Would Macy's tell Gimbels?

That's the quote. I also do not equate Macys with Kohls.

Maybe it will rain here tomorrow. That would be absolutely blessed.

I quit going to Mass when the girls stopped singing in the 8:30 Children's Choir on Saturday. Thank you, Jesus!!

Becky

Mike Sherline said...

I agree w/billocohoes @1016 about 60a - it should be majeste in the clue, rather than mix two languages.

Picard I admire you but disagree that common naticks are "unfair'. Of course there's a good possibility that I'm wrong or biased since most of my interest and all of my education have been focused on music, but it seems to me that the "normal person of average intelligence" who's even casually aware of the fine arts would have at some point heard of Isadora Duncan. She was a major revolutionary, shaking and shocking the dance world out of the torpor of it's 19th Century conventions.

As I've said here before, there's a lot in these puzzles I don't know, but don't call unfair because of that - I know lot of people do know them. For instance I rarely go to movies and don't subscribe to any pay channels. When I watch a movie or TV show, even ones I like, I rarely remember the names of the actors, much less directors. I couldn't care less about Hollywood gossip or entertainment awards and almost never know who won what - much less years ago. Example: Today for 38d I just had the ST, and had no idea who was in "The Pawnbroker". But the clue was Rod, so I thought of Serling. I knew he was a writer, but thought he might have acted too at some time. Then remembered he was Serling, not Sterling. With a few more crosses, of course I remembered the name Steiger, but had/have no idea who he is/was or what he's been in.

Same for sports, only even less interest there. When I was a kid I wanted to fit in and liked bubble gum so had a small baseball card collection, and remember a very few names of the greats of the '50s. Wilbur's posts are often like a foreign language to me, n'est-ce pas?

But usually the name of a conductor, composer, famous soloist or musical term is a gimmee and I privately smirk while almost everyone else mentions how "obscure" it was. (I did say almost - nothing's 100%

So yes there are naticks for some which are gimmees for others, and I guess all's fair in love, war and crossword puzzles!

Wilbur Charles said...

PK, on top of everything else Patrick's wife, a lovely lady btw, is out on Twitter trying to defend Patrick Reed.
But, to be clear. Tiger and Babe Ruth are the two greatest Sportsman of the last 100 years. Tiger was exhausted from his fabulous accomplishment in the FedEx Cup.

It's a little like Grady Little keeping Pedro in the game in 2003. "He's Superman, can't fail". Nope, still human.

One aspect to be mentioned. The Ryder Cup is the PGA's baby and they split the money. So... The two Cups were right on top of each other.

Yes, half the Europeans also competed in both. Rory and Rose at less than their best. Home course adrenaline may have been a factor.

WC

Lemonade714 said...

The problem with your assessment PK is there are factors other than Tiger's personality that cause people to play badly when paired with Tiger. The biggest factor is the Tiger draws the biggest, crowds, the most attention abd that may not sit well with other very successful golfers. One of the reasons he won so many tournaments was the "Tiger" factor. I watched many fabulous golfers fade into a puddle when they were paired with him in the final group. Not all, but many. Besides he is half Thai. He also has won with some: Foursomes (W-L-H): 4-8-1
Four-balls (W-L-H): 5-8-0 and in the President's cup, he has won 18 times with partners.

Speaking of which, my oldest first cousin is married to a lady from Vientiane.

Anonymous T said...

Mike S. Thanks for mentioning ISADORA Duncan* again - it reminded me that I forgot to thank Hahtoolah for making me look her (the dancer, not Hahtoolah). I remember hearing the story of her death and thinking "Convertibles & Scarves don't mix." Tragic.

Cheers, -T
*I know of a Sandy Duncan - she's an actress and was on Scooby-Doo :-)

Anonymous T said...

Er, " look her (the dancer, not Hahtoolah) UP."

Sandyanon said...

I wish the blog had a LIKE button! I so agree that one person's Natick is another's gimme. I just figure that, for me, any crossword puzzle is a source of learning opportunities, some puzzles more than others!

Misty said...

Thank you for the kind wishes, OMK, Lucina, and Anon T. I'm not leaving until Friday and not going too far--New Mexico. But I will miss you all then. And have a good trip too, Lucina.

Irish Miss said...

Mike Sherline @ 8:30 ~ Thank you for expressing my identical thoughts.

Sandyanon @ 10:07 ~ Ditto!

Lucina said...

Misty:
Best wishes for a good trip for you, too! It sounds like you will be having fun. I will leave Thursday and will sorely miss the Blog for several days.

Mike Sherline:
You echo what I've often thought. We all have our strengths and caches of knowledge; quite often much of what I don't know in a puzzle I usually make a stab at it. Sometimes I miss, often I get it right. That has not always been the case but time and amassing knowledge from all of you here has helped me.

PK said...

All of the Ryder Cup U.S. team has been playing some tough golf the last few weeks in the playoffs for the FedEx Cup. They all are tired.

Anonymous T said...

Just finished the paper [and reposting for WARNING] says...

First, duh! Puzzles (esp. xwords) are for learning stuff outside of our wheelhouse. If you could blow through them w/o thinking / learning (like a SUDOKU), it'd be no fun (at least for me).

C.C. & Boomer. The co-Nobel in medicine is @MD Anderson here in Houston. He started immunotherapy to use one's body to fight the cancer by mucking w/ TCells. No mention of bone-cancer in the article I just read but I recall watching Vice and they mentioning the Mayo was in on this research as applied. [WARNING - graphic people cutting]

Thinking of y'all. With my Love, -T

Coda - C, Eh! - I heard about the Physics Prize 1st thing this AM on NPR. Go Canada!
//and anyone who poo-poos fundamental research, I have a nice, 2 bed-room, cave for sale :-)

Michael said...

Mike Sherline: "... but it seems to me that the "normal person of average intelligence" who's even casually aware of the fine arts would have at some point heard of Isadora Duncan."

This is where assumptions come and bite us - not all of us are even remotely interested in the "fine arts", hey, not even the coarse arts, let alone 'casually aware' of them. Plus, if we had, it might have been in the 1960s, so signal degradation's a factor as well.

"Chacun a son gout." (Sorry, too tired to dig up the right accents.)