google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday November 5, 2018 Frank Virzi

Advertisements

Nov 5, 2018

Monday November 5, 2018 Frank Virzi

Theme::  BEDSPREAD (66. Quilt, e.g. ... and a hint to the circled letters) - Twin, Queen, Double & King are spread out in theme entries.
  
17. What "bosun" is short for: BOATSWAIN.

24. Necessities: REQUIREMENTS.

40. Maxwell Smart catchphrase: WOULD YOU BELIEVE.

52. October holiday in Canada: THANKSGIVING.

Boomer here.  

October is in the rearview mirror.  I hope we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving.  Let me say this about that. I HATE all the Black Friday ads, almost as much as the Medicare supplement ads.  And I will not shop at stores that ignore the holiday and open their doors on Thanksgiving evening.  Also C.C. and I will be at our polling place early Tuesday morning. I hope all of you will take the time to vote.  Thank you.

Across:

1. Gillette razor introduced several years after the Trac II: ATRA. Not sure where these names for razors come from. Maybe from the same guys that name car models.

5. Sleety road concern: SKID.  "When you go into a skid, turn in the direction of the skid".  Words to live by in Minnesota winters.

9. Spherical: ORBED.  Army cot or bed ?

14. Cook, as cavatelli: BOIL.  Hard or soft egg?


15. Alien-seeking org.: SETI.

16. "SNL" producer Michaels: LORNE.  Bonanza boss Mr. Greene

19. Words to the audience: ASIDE.

20. God of the Quran: ALLAH.

21. Minute part of a min.: NSEC. There are a billion nanoseconds in one second.  I did not count them, I googled it.

23. Voiced: SAID.

27. Town mentioned in "Sloop John B": NASSAU.  "My grandfather and me"  Beach Boys

30. Give permission to: LET.  Allow a new serve without penalty.

31. CPR expert: EMT.  Electrical Metallic tubing.  aka thinwall pipe.

32. Kind of sax: ALTO.

36. When some news shows air: AT TEN.  I remember news at six and ten.  Now CNN and MSNBC have it all day and all night (Marianne)

44. Knee-to-ankle bone: TIBIA.

45. Elevator name: OTIS. Elisha Otis invented the elevator about 150 years ago.  I wonder how many multi-story buildings there were back then.

46. A half-dozen: SIX.

47. Cinnabar or hematite: ORE. Mining is an industry in Northern Minnesota.  That's where 3M got its name" Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.


49. How dishes are often sold: AS A SET.  How tennis is played also.

58. Draws a bead on, with "at": AIMS. Sign in a public men's room. "We aim to please, you aim too, please".

59. Centers of activity: LOCI.

60. Ventricular outlet: AORTA.

64. Bronze or beige: SHADE.  Golden Gopher helmets are sometimes a shiny shade of gold.

68. Sagal of "8 Simple Rules": KATEY.

69. Vicinity: AREA.

70. First chip in the pot: ANTE. Actually, everyone in the game must toss in a chip to play.

71. "Goosebumps" author R.L.: STINE.

72. U.K. mil. medals: DSOS. Distinguished Service Order,  (plural)

73. "The Americans" FBI agent Beeman: STAN.  I've never heard of Stan Beeman, but who could forget Oliver Hardy's buddy?  "Hard boiled eggs and nuts".


Down:

1. Palindromic Swedish band: ABBA.  "Dancing Queens" from Sweden don'tcha know.

2. Saw, for one: TOOL.

3. Iranian money: RIAL.  I've never been to Iran but it sounds like an odd name for money.

4. Rite sites: ALTARS.

5. Opposite of NNE: SSW.

6. Reeves of "John Wick": KEANU.  Dogstar is an odd name for a band, but so was Beatles and the 5th Dimension

7. Formal answer to "Who's there?": IT IS I.  Is this a knock knock joke ?

8. Home fries server: DINER.  Kind of like French Fries only chunky.

9. Suffix with Cray-: OLA. Crayola no longer sells a color they called "Dandelion".  If you have one, put it on eBay.

10. "Goblin Market" poet Christina: ROSSETTI.


11. "Monty Python's Life of __": BRIAN.

12. Split up: END IT.  Banana's and ice cream in a high dish.

13. Monopoly cards: DEEDS.  "Title Deeds" to be exact.  Take a ride on the Reading.

18. Mr. Met's former stadium: SHEA. When the Mets first appeared in the National League, they played at the Polo Grounds.  Former famous home of the New York Giants.  I think the Mets lost 120 games that first year.

22. Cartoon frame: CEL.

25. Wharf: QUAY.

26. Word after Happy or square: MEAL.  Why do they call it a square meal when hamburgers are round.

27. Politico Gingrich: NEWT.

28. Mine, in Amiens: A MOI.

29. Retained part of a paycheck: STUB.  Or a ticket.  I have five stubs from the 1987 World Series. (Yup, I saw game 5 in St. Louis)

33. Canterbury commode: LOO.  Our Minnesota race track is Canterbury Downs.  Out there they call them "rest rooms".

34. Tsk relative: TUT. I think he was an Egyptian King.

35. Kimono sash: OBI.  Mr. Wan Kinobi of "Star Wars" fame

37. Hardy's "__ of the D'Urbervilles": TESS.

38. Songwriter Sands: EVIE.

39. Bakery call: NEXT.  I don't know about a bakery, but this is the call at the government center when you go to renew a license.  However they don't call it anymore.  There's a video hanging from the ceiling that says "Now Serving".

41. Simba's home: LION'S DEN. I remember being in Cub Scouts and being part of a den.

42. Like the night, usually: DARK. A Star horse in the 1953 Kentucky Derby.  Nipped Native Dancer at the wire.

43. Morales of "La Bamba": ESAI.  Lieutenant Rodriguez on NYPD Blue.


48. Immigrant's subj.: ESL.

50. Easy thing to do: SNAP.  We used to love candy coated licorice rounds called Snaps.

51. Old Greek gathering places: AGORAS.

52. "Honey do" list items: TASKS.  Is there also a "Honey Don't" list ??

53. Drum kit cymbals: HI HAT.

54. Valuable viola: AMATI.

55. Spoil: GO BAD.

56. Cupcake-topping workers: ICERS.  Never knew why people called frosting icing.  I suppose that frost can turn into ice.

57. YouTube clip: VIDEO.  I have plenty of VHS videos, but nothing to play them with.

61. __-a-car: RENT.  We do this in Las Vegas, but never from "Dollar".  Long story.

62. "Later," stylishly: TA TA.

63. Yemeni seaport: ADEN.

65. Watching organ: EYE.  I would not call an eye an organ.  You cannot play church music on an eye.

67. Flier to Oslo: SAS.

Boomer

Note from C.C.:

Here is Boomer ready for the All Saints' Day mass at Benilde St. Margaret's High School where he coaches the kids' bowling team. Click on it to enlarge. He's wearing four different pins.

Boomer, Nov 1, 2018

48 comments:

Oas said...

Thanks Frank Virzi and Boomer.
Seemed a bit steep for a groggy Monday. Had some write overs.
ORBED for round, TATA for ttul, and ITISI for it’s me.
In the end not as difficult as I first thought .
Needed that half cup of coffee.
Nice day comming up , could be the calm before the storm.
Keep safe

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I, too, thought my cereal was a little crunchy this morning. That's better than soggy. Needed Wite-Out to morph OVOID to ORBED and KATIE to KATEY. MEAL was slow in coming. Kept thinking of the Happy Menu rather than the Meal, but a square menu seemed odd. D'oh! Thanx, Frank and Boomer. (What are all those pins for?)

QUAY: Our flat-top parked at the QUAY Wall on North Island in San Diego. (QUAY is pronounced Kee.) When they finally opened the San Diego-Coronado Bridge it shortened the drive the drive by a bunch.

Only one more day for this election year. Yay! If I had a penny for every time somebody asked me for a dollar...

desper-otto said...

"the drive the drive" was inspired by Tattoo on Fantasy Island -- "De plane, de plane!"

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased hubs for LOCI.

Hadn't heard ORBED before, but I do remember KATEY Sagal as the full-orbed Peggy Bundy. Never saw "8 Simple Rules". Also didn't know STINE, STAN or ROSETTI.

Didn't know EVIE Sands, but my favorite bar in Florida is EVIE's in Sarasota. Great food (especially burgers and pizzas), great car wash, great ice cream parlor, great driving range, and if you have kids, a great putt-putt course. So drop off the sticks at the range, drive over to the car wash area for full service wash and hand wax (the car is waxed by hand, for you literalists), hit balls, have lunch, watch a little sports and they will call you when your car is ready. The bar is also the unofficial headquarters for University of Kentucky sports fans.

College basketball starts this week. Some coaches play patsies to avoid early losses. Duke (#3) opens against Kentucky (#2) tomorrow night. Good on Coach K and Coach Cal for providing a great game to start the season. Neither team will be nearly as good as they will be in March, since both are loaded with freshmen. Both teams should be great offensively, but both will have to learn how to play defense game-by-game. Should be fun.

Thanks to Frank for the fun Monday romp. And thanks to Boomer for another funny-punny tour. Now put your brace on, and listen to your wife's instructions!

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Frank Virzi, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

Zipped through this puzzle last night via cruciverb. Went easily. Theme appeared after I got BED SPREAD. Then I went back and looked at the circles.

1A and 1D were my first two answers. Both easy. ATRA and ABBA. At the Polling Place this week I was checking a guy in to vote and his name was HANNAH. So I mentioned the name being a palindrome. He said he learned that at a very early age from a school teacher. The I gave him my favorite. Able was I ere I saw Elba. He thanked me and went to the machine and voted. We did 4,000 in the two weeks we were open. Tomorrow we do it again.

I also tried OVOID before ORBED became the correct word.

ALLAH reminds me of the book I just finished last night. "Origin" by Dan Brown. Quite a story. Really enjoyed it. Science vs Religion.

Just walked the dog. Now I am heading to the school to cross the kids. Then to church to Count the Offering. Then to the dentist for a check up. Then to the store to buy food for the meal I am cooking for Wednesday. Then to the Polling Place to set up for tomorrow. Then home to relax for a couple hours. Then to bed so I can get up a 4:00 AM.

See you tomorrow, sometime. It is a long day.

Abejo

( )

billocohoes said...

There were elevators (usually industrial) for many years before OTIS invented the safety brake that made (some) people less nervous about riding in them.

Abejo said...

Boomer: Seems like you are feeling better. Keep it up.

Abejo

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This took me 18 minutes to complete, unheard of on a Monday. The poet, Rosetti, and the songwriter, Sands, were two of the culprits; I never heard of either one of them. That said, I enjoyed the puzzle and the theme, which I saw early on.

Thanks, Frank, for a wobbly start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the usual wit and wisdom. I hope you feel as dapper as you look in that photo! Thoughts and good wishes to you and CC.

Have to run - busy day. Will I be glad to have tomorrow over! (Me and the rest of America!)

Have a great day.

inanehiker said...

Fun run which is always good for Monday so I can get to work on time!
Thanks to Frank. And to Boomer who adds lots of smiles after the solve with his blog

In Kansas City where I grew up - there is an area with restaurants by the Missouri called the River QUAY - same type area in St Louis by the Mississippi called Laclede's Landing. (Pierre Laclede was a French fur trader who founded St. Louis in 1764)

Sharp pic of Boomer - though he looks like he is heading to St. Patrick's day mass! Next March he can reuse/ recycle- but no need to reduce!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

WARNING: The following is intended for engineering-type Cornerites only. Jinx Inc will not be liable for injuries due to heads falling onto keyboards if read by non-engineering types.

We recently had a discussion of DC power transmission. There is a big one from Celio, OR to Sylmar, CA, a distance of about 850 miles. The conductors are about 2" in diameter and weigh 2 1/2 pounds per foot. One conductor is +400 KV to ground, the other is -400 KV to ground (800 KV across the conductors). Each conductor can carry 1800 amps. The ground at the LA end is a mile offshore of Sunset Boulevard, but doesn't have any return current in normal operation. Mercury vapor valves are used to rectify the 3-phase AC input at the Celio end and to convert the DC to 3-phase AC at Sylmar. The valves are operated by light beam triggered control grids.

Each side of the line consists of three groups of valves that handle a third of the power for that side (6 groups total) at each end. Each group consists of six valves to rectify AC to DC or convert DC to AC, plus an additional valve used to shunt the voltage across the group for maintenance. Each group has an input or output of 133KV AC.

The system can send power from Sylmar to Celilo, but has never been used in that direction.

As the gas bags on KABC used to say, "that's very informative. Dull, but informative."

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Nice photo, Boomer. You look squared away.

No problems solving although the SW seemed crunchy. Actually got the theme before finishing, today.
THANKSWGIVING - Big CSO to Canadian Eh!

SwampCat said...

Thanks Frank, for today’s crunchy puzzle. I had the same mistakes as others have mentioned. But I loved the Formal, and correct, IT IS I. Sloop John B is one of my all time favorites so that was easy. And I finally remembered Canada’s THANKSGIVING. I entered AGORA- and waited to see if it was E or S. Great fun.

Boomer, you look very dapper and your wit is a treat as always! Keep well!!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Me get the theme without circles? Doubtful. UNMADE BED was my potential reveal.
-I guess O_BED/_OSSETI had to have an R. Not ORBBED? Hmmm…
-If you don’t follow Boomer’s SKID advice, your trunk might pass you
-SETI makes Contact!(1:20)
-Move this scene to 8:30 to see the TV show that made good use of ASIDES
-3 wks. ago I got to AIM and fire a “Dirty Harry” .44 magnum pistol. Wow!
-Debate continues whether the bones under the ALTAR at St Mark’s in Venice are those of St Mark or Alexander The Great
-In 1959, Skip and Flip had this grammatically correct hit
-My friend has a glass bar top under which he has hundreds of ticket STUBS from events he has attended
-I was waiting in the County Treasurer’s office where the box that dispensed the numbers for “NEXT” abutted the daily wall calendar. Yup, a woman came in and tore off the numbered day. I discretely showed her the error.
-Great write-up and SNAP, Boomer!

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2 – Perhaps an ASIDE
-Yesterday we attended a concert by the wonderful 80-piece Lincoln Youth Symphony in which our two grandsons play. The concert finale was The William Tell Overture and the first three parts (who knew there were four parts?) – Dawn, Storm and Call To The Cows were fine. However, the fourth part, The March Of The Swiss Soldiers, which of course became more famous as The Lone Ranger Theme, had the place rocking, especially those of us with more miles on us! Bravo!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

If I was a little sprier I would have known to check online for an update to the engineering project above. Here's the update:

Yellowrocks said...

Fun puzzle, Frank. Boomer, entertaining expo. Sharp pic. I missed this easy theme because I read the first circles as TWAIN. Then came QUEEN (Ellery).Oh, ho! Authors. DOUBLE didn't fit, though. Then came KING (Stephen). With the reveal I sussed the theme and checked again, TWIN. Drat!
My students loved R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series.
Happy belated Thanksgiving, Canadian Eh!
I get tons of Medicare supplement ads every day, which show up on my missed call list.
I can't wait for this election to be over, with all the negative ads. Also I am quite invested in the results and am on tenterhooks.
Jinx, now I don't feel so guilty being a word nerd here.
Tenterhooks:in the past, when cloth had been woven, it was stretched on a frame called a tenter and held in place by hooks. The person's emotional state is being compared to the tension in the cloth.
When I was very young my mother had a curtain stretcher similar to this, a frame with hooks on which she stretched just washed curtains to dry.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FLN: CED, that was a great link! I always thought that Airplane was an Airport parody, but NOOOO. And don't call me Shirley!

TTP said...

Good morning. Thank you Frank Virzi and thank you Boomer.

Yep, crunchy. Especially when paying more attention to Rawhide than the puzzle. Hand up for having to get rid of OVOID and having never have heard of ROSETTI and EVIE, but it all worked out in the end.

Hi Boomer. Keep on keeping on. Here's my bi-weekly bowling report. 4th time bowling after 10 years. 192 (2 10 pins), 202 (6-10 chop and a 10 pin) and 158 (2 more 10 pin misses and 2 more 6-10 chops). So 552 series. Fouled in the second frame of the third game throwing at a 10 pin. Stuck at the line and momentum took me down. Landed on my wrists across the line. Embarrassing. Couldn't bend after that and started dropping rather than rolling the ball. Ball speed fell to under 12mph, and kept finishing high. Actually got lucky on one of those and threw a Brooklyn. Already looking forward to bowling again 10 days from now. Gotta keep looking forward.

Tinbeni said...

Boomer: Good job on the write-up.

Frank: Thank you for a FUN Monday puzzle. I enjoyed the theme.

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get ROSSETTI and EVIE ... both learning moments I will forget by noon.

Since I watched "The Americans" I knew STAN the FBI agent.

Hope everyone votes ... I did it by mail two weeks ago.

Cheers!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fun puzzle, Frank, thanks. No circles so didn't get the enjoyment of seeing the theme.

Boomer, thanks for your witty expo. Still handsome all dressed up looking like you've won the Masters -- well, at least the master cw creator C.C. She's the best prize.

Did not know STAN, LORNE, EVIE. ROSElli before ROSETTI: Duh! My girls were given a book with poems by Christina ROSETTI which I read to them. Maddening to know names and still get them wrong.

Good to see a picture of ESAI. Only knew him as a cw name.

Boomer, there's always an unspoken "HONEY DOn't list" like "Don't ogle or flirt with other women in front of your wife."

YR: I remember those curtain stretcher frames. They fascinated me for some reason and I loved to help put the curtains on them.

Rainy here this morning. Supposed to be rainy tomorrow for voting. Rats! And by that I'm not sure if I mean for the rain or some of the candidates. Wonder if the president will quit texting me on Wednesday. He woke me up this morning with a text ding.

AnonymousPVX said...

I had one markover on this Monday puzzle as others did, OVOID b4 ORBED. And that was it. Another nice puzzle where the theme is not a giveaway, always appreciated.

I voted Thursday, so glad I got it in early, I have a strong feeling the polls will be busy tomorrow.

Misty said...

Delightful, if slightly crunchy, Monday puzzle, Frank--many thanks! I got some of the longer answers at the top, which helped a lot. But I too wondered if the author theme was right after I got DOUBLE. Nice to see Canadian THANKSGIVING turn up. But I never heard of SETI or HI HAT, and the southwest corner made me really nervous. But Yay! All my guesses down there panned out and I got the whole thing perfectly! Woohoo! Thanks again, Frank.

Boomer, I liked your 3M info, and wondered if you saw this morning's fun bowling Jumble? The English department faculty had a little bowling league when I got my first job in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Was never great at it, but held my own at bowling. Great fun. And, my goodness, how handsome you look in that photo, Boomer! Thanks for posting it, C.C.

What a busy day you have, Abejo. Hope you get some rest tonight.

Sounds like a wonderful concert, Husker Gary.

Glad I sent my voting ballot in last week.

Have a great week, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

Jinx @ 8:12 (dang early if you ask me, did you have trouble changing your clocks?)

I was intrigued by your post, having learned the losses incurred by
transmitting electricity via Alternating Current thanks to the Blog. (radiation loss...)
However, half way thru, I was taken aback...
3 quarter way thru I was sure three more beers would help me understand this...
(mercury valves?)
But it was the light beam triggered control grids that
sobered me up enough to realize, you gotta be pulling my leg...

Otis, Otis, Otis, ah the ups and downs of such an interesting story...
My favorite take on this (tongue in cheek, of course) has to be the movie
Kate and Leopold.
Watch it if you get the chance, CED gives it 2 thumbs up, (& possibly a sixth finger)
for humorous dialog. Don't miss the twist ending (Otis reference...)
(ya just gotta see it to get it...)

The puzzle theme?
It is no puzzle to me,
that my wifes side of the bed,
no matter what house, hotel, or sleepover we are at,
is always the side nearest the closet, and the bathroom...

Jinx in Norfolk said...

CED, I still haven't reset Zoe's internal clock. She thinks she should notify the SPCA if her morning walk occurs after dawn.

Those light beam controlled SCR-type merc vapor tubes struck me as well. I didn't take the tour, these were notes from my briefing from my engineers.

The "his & hers" proportions are especially true in our household closets.

Picard said...

Boomer thanks for the amusing commentary and explanations!
CC thanks for the most distinguished photo of Boomer!

Hand up this was crunchy for me! The NE had these odd/Natick crossings:
LORNE/ROSSETTI/ORBED

Thought I FIR, but just realized AMATo/SToNE should be AMATI/STINE
I have found Mondays to be the worst days for crossed Naticks. Anyone else?

Enjoyable theme. But did anyone else notice the theme order was slightly askew?
QUEEN is bigger than DOUBLE. I am still impressed with the construction effort!

CINNABAR makes this Red Rock area red.

There is an abandoned mercury ORE (CINNABAR) mine a few miles away. I hiked there long ago and would like to make that trek again sometime. A long, hot trek in the summer when I did it!

Here we visited an historic ELEVATOR. Not sure if it had the OTIS safety feature.

Here is a recent YOU TUBE VIDEO set I recently uploaded of a Halloween Freak Show.

The event was organized by our local La Boheme Dance group. I am friends with several of the amazing performers. Don't miss the VIDEO of Jatila and her Sword Dance. Believe it or not, she is a researcher in the same physics department where I got my graduate degree. Brains and beauty.

Here was one Peanuts CEL I recently shared from my visit to the Charles M Shulz museum in Santa Rosa

Picard said...

Jinx this nerd appreciated the high voltage DC transmission line statistics! Less than a tenth of the voltage of the DC experiments I was doing at the High Voltage Research Lab. But way higher currents!

From yesterday:
Wilbur Charles thanks for the validation that GIFT HORSE was not related to the Trojan Horse story. The GIFT HORSE proverb is about gratitude rather than deception.

Your example about PIP and Humdinger has me even more mystified. I know HUMDINGER to mean "big lie". What would it mean to say a person is a humdinger?

AnonT sorry for being dense, but how is the Fredkin/Falken/Feynman connection incestuous?

Hand up one of the smartest people I know was a POLI Sci professor at UC Santa Barbara. But that was just one of his several careers. He started out with an engineering degree. And now he creates and teaches fine arts.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

WEES, some Grape-Nuts in our bowl this morning...

Thanks Frank for the Monday SPREAD; thanks Boomer for the fun expo [I'm smiling seeing you so well, thanks C.C. for the snap].

WOs: I always get SHae/SHEA wrong; put in STRA(T)divarius first; C, Eh!'s Holiday fixed that.
ESPs: ROSSETTI, STAN, EVIE, QUAY, KATEY
Fav: WOULD YOU BELIEVE Mel Brooks helped write Get Smart with Buck Henry who helped write for LORNE Michaels' SNL?

{AWOL so far}

Misty - we've had SETI in the puzzle before: SETI == Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Frankly, I don't know why we are looking for it extra-terrestrially when, at least from the political ads I've seen, we've not found much intelligence here on Earth.

Jinx - 800kV DC? That seems like a lot for my iPhone :-) I didn't see why they chose to transmit DC instead of AC. I know that loss (though not much on 2" cables!) was a large reason Tesla lost to Edison. Pardon my ignorance, I know I hold a BS EE but, I really had a Computer Engineering degree that wasn't ABET accredited - two power classes got me the accredited EE (and later job at DOD).

CED - LOL; that's our sleeping arrangement. I'm just glad DW doesn't have a dog too!
//oh, wait..., that’s me isn't it?

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Picard - second definition: (of human relations generally) excessively close and resistant to outside influence.
Incestuous in the sense of how intertwined some things are. Until you mentioned it, I never thought that much about the real Falken/Fredkin.

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta ~ DA!
Thanks, Mr. Virzi, and Boomer too, for a neat start to the week. My wife is heavily into quilting. She creates some real beauties. Our beds are limited to a QUEEN and a DOUBLE. Oh, and a guest open-out sofa, whatever that is.
Didn't realize I knew some of those answers. A few proper names needed perps to fill.
But it all worked out.

VOTE VOTE VOTE ~
If you haven't voted already, be sure to get to your polling place early tomorrow!

~ OMK
____________
DR:
Two diagonals - one each, NW to SE & NE to SW.
The latter offers a curious "financial" anagram:
"ASSUMED LOAN"
Go figure.

Sandyanon said...

I finally mailed my ballot on Saturday; waited because I had to think a lot about some of those California propositions. Still not too sure about some of my decisions.

The only two clues I found a little "meh" were first, -ola as a suffix for cray; if it's just a suffix, then what does cray mean? And second, I also found orbed a bit awkward -- I guess it's legitimate, and a learning moment for me. I enjoy picking up knowledge from crossword puzzles; it's part of the fun, isn't it?

Anonymous T said...

SandyAnon: Cray as a word is a SuperComputing company. If they let a guy like me play w/ it, it'd be like a kid w/ CrayOLAs :-)

Can anyone explain this dance to me? [18m]. YR?!?
I am supposed to learn it by Friday for the Friday-night Lights 1/2-time show [It's a tradition Dad!... you hafta!]

The instructor (in the VIDEO), She's ex-Army [and good for the Girls; they're spot-on / State Champs in their routines]. I, however, learned counting to eight much differently. :-)

I think the whole thing is designed to belittle Dads :-( First lesson is tonight and goes on all week for 1.5h/day. Oy!

OMK - DW & I have our crib-notes ready for tomorrow.
I'll tell you what I thought Totes-Groovy*: three young-guys (ok, they were probably mid-late 20s) on the Support-Desk team were discussing the issues and hashing out their ballots across the hall from my office this morning.

Not to interfere w/ (much) of their discussion, all I added was, "I looked it up, yes, you can take a sample ballot into the poll; just don't wear a Tee nor hat for your team and you're good." These "kids" were actually researching and discussing the ballot. How swell is that?

Midterms baby! Cheers, -T
*gotta get w/ the 'kid's' lingo, eh? :-)

Mike Sherline said...

-T It's a made up "dance", so unlikely anyone will have heard of it. Starting the 8-counts with 2, 3, 4 etc, is to keep track of which set you're on, like when you have to hold still for 5 sets of 8, then make a movement on the 6th. We tuba players use that method to count many measure rests in orchestral music without getting lost (1,2,3,4; 2,2,3,4; 3,2,3,4 - up to hundreds of bars).

Sandyanon said...

Thanks, Anon-T. I did know about the Cray computer, but aside from that proper noun, cray by itself doesn't mean anything, does it?

Wilbur Charles said...

Home fries-Diners. Anybody remember Mondo's near the Faneuil Hall Market. Enormous mound of fries with Ms Mondo presiding. I remember the tattoo on her 18 inch bicep.
Lurkers who remember this are welcome to post their memory. 45 years ago.

Picard, I agree about the Monday Naticks
And.. to me a humdinger is a real beaut
And it could be a big lie or a new Corvette. Ok, a 1920s auto that a friend just bought with money he didn't really have
We just had HOIST (The JohnB). When links involve music I get a list of suggested links and that (along with Wilburys* shows up)

Boomer, Bart Starr advertises a sports back brace that would have to be more comfortable than what you have. I remember the cast the VA gave me for a broken wrist. Ugh.


And here is Goblin Market
Great poem.

WC

*I know George . Which one is Bob Dylan. Petty?

Spitzboov said...

Anon -T - Long distance AC transmission from generation to its load can render the system unstable. To wit, Hydro-Quebec. That's why other North American power pools don't connect directly to them. Energy is transferred through an AC-DC--DC-AC connection. It acts a bit like a fluid transmission in your car. Frequency or power factor on one side doesn't care what it is on the other.
Having a DC intertie deliver directly into a heavy load area makes it look like a generation site to the system and eliminates most of the potential instability from long AC transmission lines. It also "forces" the supply to be where you want it rather than allowing the "free flow" to try to get there.. It also lessens the need for extensive voltage control and other power factor controls. You also get by with 2 cables rather than three which you would need for a 3 phase Delta configuration, perhaps lessening the R-O-W requirements.

BTW - About 85% of Texas is not directly connected to the rest of the grid, either, but I think it came about by them not wanting to be under FERC's control any more than necessary. Wiki says they have DC ties, AFT's and some newer technology to have some interconnection with the Eastern and Western pools probably for Black Start and marketing flexibility.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon-T,

I tried to watch that video, for about 2 minutes.
(there was an interesting side link I could not keep my eyes off...)

Alright, I get it, I see that your suffering...
But why do you want to take us all down with you?
Even I, (CED), poster of ludicrous links
would never stoop to inflict my suffering on others!

Jeez!

Man up man, and take a Thumper!





Hmm,
maybe I spoke too quickly,
in complaining bout my suffering, watching your suffering,
I made a hypocrite out of myself...
Methinks I need to find some silly links to soothe my nerves.

AAAahhh....

Yellowrocks said...

Anonymous T @2:56. That dance is new to me. The explanation is one of the poorest I have ever seen and I have seen many dance explanations. You have my sympathy. That was like reading someone a story for 18 m8nutes and then expecting him to recite it back word for word. Also, the teacher should face in the direction the learner is facing, instead of saying what you will do will seem to be the opposite. OMG I would just wimp out.
I am off to help a beginner square dance class under an excellent, understandable teacher. We helpers are called angels. After the class we angels will have our own dance. 6:30-8:00, class. 8:0-10:00 regular dance.
Good luck.

Wilbur Charles said...

YR, my sentiments exactly. In fact watching that I thought of you and your square dancing.

CED, I still would like to see Trojan Horse spoof.

WC

CanadianEh! said...

Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Frank and Boomer (great photo).
Just a little bit of crunch today, but I got the "Beds" theme with TWIN and QUEEN and immediately filled in DOUBLE and KING. (Actually I wanted King next; agree with Picard that it would have been even better if the sizes had been in order.)
Then I saw my CSO. Certainly you all (like SwampCat) must have remembered that Canadian Thanksgiving was last month, right?! It was Oct. 8 this year (date is the second Monday of October). Thanks for the belated greetings, YR.

Hand up for Ovoid before ORBED, and waiting for perps to decide between Agorae and AGORAS.(We did have FOCI not Focuses LOL!)
Perps were also needed for KATEY, EVIE and STAN.
I knew Spitzboov would know the spelling for BOATSWAIN.

IM, even Canadians will be happy to have tomorrow over! We only have federal elections every 4 years. It seems to me that Americans just get one election finished, and start campaigning for the next election (or mid-terms per AnonT) in two years . No politics, just MHO. Why was it set up originally that you don't do all your voting at the same time?

Wishing you all a good evening.

George Washington said...

Canadian: in the US, federal elected positions have staggered terms. As you are probably aware, the President serves a 4 year term, with the option for a second 4- year term. Since Franklin Roosevelt, the law was changed to limit the Office of President to two 4-year terms.

US Senators serve for 6-year terms. They are not term limited.

US Congressmen in the House of Representatives serve for 2-year terms. Again, they are not term limited.

As you can see, this arrangement necessitated federal elections every 2 years.

Sandyanon said...

And every 2 years, 1/3 of the Senate, i.e. 33 or 34 members. That way they're not all new at the same time.
Are terms staggered in Canada?

Sandyanon said...

Well, they wouldn't all be new anyway, would they, just as not all representatives are new every 2 years. Heck, my current congressman has been there for 30 long years.

Anonymous T said...

SandyAnon - No, unless you go w/ the slang 'cray' as in crazy: "Dad's cray-cray" is something I've heard (that little shit!) but don't think I could get away with saying it at my age and not come off as a Square.

MikeS - thank you! That makes sense that the secondary count is the count of eights during rests.

I went to the class and it was actually quite fun. I knew some of the guys there (I see them when carpooling the kids about) and met a few new ones (One guy even knew about Splunk!)

Fortunately, the dance-team captain taught the session and Youngest could follow her words and lead me through (most) of it. We're the George Ranch Longhorns so we were "dancing" (I use that loosely) to Rawhide. I kept wanting to break into song.

CED, I guess, by posting the whole thing, I deserved to be taunted a first and secon'd time... Trojan bunny - just for you WC.
//Python's Life of BRIAN, though, is my all-time favorite movie.

Cheers, -T

CanadianEh! said...

Thanks for the info about two year Congress and 6 year Senate terms. That explains the frequent elections.
SandyAnon- no, terms are not staggered in Canada. Members of Parliament are elected every 4 years (unless the government is not a majority and is brought down by a non-confidence vote); the party with the majority forms the government and that party leader becomes Prime Minister. (Party leader has been previously decided by registered party members at their leadership convention.)

The Senate is appointed by the Prime Minister when there is a vacancy (not often since Senators are appointed for life). The Senate reviews all legislation and may send back for revision but rarely completely blocks any legislation.
We do have separate provincial and municipal elections (usually every 4 years also but not the same years). But we only have about 4 to 6 months of electioneering before these elections. No primaries. So it seems to me that we have much less campaigning than in USA.

Civics lesson for the day!

CanadianEh! said...

Update the civics lesson. Technically, Senators are appointed by the Governor General on the ADVICE of the Prime Minister. They serve until the age of 75, not for life.

Misty said...

Thank you, Anon T, for reminding me about the meaning of SETI. Hope I remember it the next time it comes up. I'm just not very extraterrestrial.

Anonymous T said...

Misty: Really?, Com'on, you're multi-terrestrial and Live (In a Time of Her Own) just like the new DR WHO. :-)

YR - It settles me that you (who can dance) couldn't follow that either. Thanks for your input too.

Spitz - So for 'close' load, DC is better for transmission?
Re: TX's power, ERCOT, is what you speak of. I'm not sure why we have our own separate power-grid down here but it seems to work out OK. It's fairly fault-tolerant (from a Cyber perspective [I know the guys that did the study]). And, Enron couldn't screw us like they did California [2:11 TV-MA]. Of course, Davis was no genius buying power at the height of the market...[cite (wiki).] //Enron was across the street from me in the aughts and still gets me riled.

C, Eh! Interesting; we had that talk a while back about similar to "House of Lords" or not. I'm not sure I'm keen on the Senators getting appointed here. There's talk in the on the fringe here of a Constitutional Convention initiated by the States that will rid 17th Amendment (among other things!) and let Senators be selected by the States instead of the people's vote. I don't think we're, as a whole, smart enough at this time to mess w/ our Constitution.

Cheers, -T

Misty said...

Wow! Interesting music, AnonT--never heard it before. See what I mean about being barely terrestrial?