google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday November 4, 2018 Mark McClain

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Nov 4, 2018

Sunday November 4, 2018 Mark McClain

Theme:  "Alphabetical Order" - AB, CD, EF.... YZ starts each them entry.

22. First-aid kit brand: ACE BANDAGE.

24. Reprimanded: CALLED DOWN.

36. Liz Taylor's husband before Richard Burton: EDDIE FISHER.

39. One whose mouth shouldn't be examined?: GIFT HORSE.

56. Disloyal crimes: INSIDE JOBS.

62. One of three planetary motion principles: KEPLER'S LAW.

70. Raised a ruckus, say: MADE NOISE.

80. Source of zest: ORANGE PEEL.

84. What a texter usually expects: QUICK REPLY.

99. Donut ... or the consequence of eating too many of them?: SPARE TIRE.

104. Car on craigslist: USED VEHICLE.

118. Ways to detect fractured trapeziums: WRIST X-RAYS.

120. Restricted parking area, perhaps: YELLOW ZONE.

Quite often constructors can move theme entries around in the gridding process. Not today's grid though. AB/CD/... YZ dictated the strict order and put lots of pressure on Mark in his designing and filling process.

Except the middle M* N*, all the other entries are placed in the same row separated by one black square.  This makes the theme gimmick easy to spot visually.

Across:

1. "College Football Live" channel: ESPNU.

6. Apple-order link: PIE.

9. Turner's device: LATHE. Turn-er.

14. Start-the-day ABC talk show, familiarly: GMA.

17. Govt. red tape reduction: DEREG. Deregulation.

18. Parched: ARID.

20. Burger add-on: ONION. I only like green onions.

21. Smooth, in a way: IRON.

26. More achy: SORER.

27. Harassed impertinently: HECKLED.

29. "Bolero" composer: RAVEL.

30. Palais resident: ROI. Palace.

32. Piece of land: TRACT.

34. Antipoverty agcy.: OEO. Office of Economic Opportunity.

35. "__ was I?": WHERE.

43. "__ there, done that!": BEEN.

44. Blowhard: GAS BAG.

46. NYC area above Houston Street: NOHO. North of Houston Street.

47. Nickname usually related to hair color: RED.

50. Drew __, Patriots' quarterback before Brady: BLEDSOE. Unknown to me.


52. Upscale retailer: SAKS.

64. Menlo Park initials: TAE. Thomas Alva Edison.

65. Opera outburst: BRAVO.

66. Green-lights: OKS.

67. __ Sketch: ETCH-A.

68. Ward (off): STAVE.

74. Song of worship: PSALM.

75. Indulge: HUMOR.

76. U.N. workers' agcy.: ILO. International Labour Organization.

77. Slow, on scores: LENTO.

79. Humdinger: PIP.

86. N.C. neighbor: TENN.

87. "Sacré bleu!" kin: MON DIEU. My god.

89. Extra NHL periods: OTS.

90. To the __: maximally: HILT.

91. Himalayan native: SHERPA.

95. Small cells: AAAS.

107. Jazz pianist Chick: COREA.

108. Can cover: LID.

110. Shop: STORE.

111. La. neighbor: TEX. Texas Tom. Chicago Tom. That's how Boomer and I discuss our two Toms at home.

112. One on a trail: HIKER.

113. Song title words before "for Miles": I CAN SEE.

116. Connection points: NODES.

124. Top-drawer: A ONE.

125. Nemo's creator: VERNE.

126. Falco of "The Sopranos": EDIE.

127. Words of domination: I RULE.

128. Waze ways: Abbr.: STS. Waze is the GPS navigation app. So sorry you missed the annual lunch, Agnes!

129. Dot in the ocean: ISLET.

130. Pampering place: SPA.

131. Components of fences: GATES.

Down:

1. Author LeShan: EDA.

2. Bama's conf.: SEC.

3. Act the chair: PRESIDE.

4. Mount from which Moses saw the Promised Land: NEBO.


5. Lorre's "Casablanca" role: UGARTE.

6. Two-time British Open champ Harrington: PADRAIG. Gimme for me.


7. Keogh plan rel.: IRA.

8. Pizzas slices, commonly: EIGHTHS.

9. Age of Reason philosopher: LOCKE.

10. Not digital: ANALOG.

11. Shower wall item: TILE. We'll probably cave in to Plumb Right to fix the bathtub and the tiles sometime next year. 

12. Hang onto: HOLD.

13. OKC-to-Tulsa dir.: ENE.

14. Muppet prone to eschewing contractions: GROVER


15. Lawn machines: MOWERS.

16. Shakers founder: ANN LEE.

19. Not a good mark: DEE.

21. Sun Valley state: IDAHO.

23. Soft toy brand: NERF.

25. BBC time traveler: DR WHO.

28. Reef material: CORAL.

30. Hoops stat.: REB. OK, rebound.

31. Tribute in verse: ODE.

33. Breakaway nation: Abbr.: CSA.

37. Crucifix letters: INRI. Latin for "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".


38. Pulls back: EBBS.

40. Brit. police rank: INSP.

41. Trick: FOOL.

42. "... I __ wed": THEE.

45. "Wall Street" antagonist: GEKKO (Gordon)  48. Stefan of tennis: EDBERG.  53. Li'l Abner drawer: AL CAPP. 54. Poet Gibran: KAHLIL. A bit name heavy in a few Down spots.

49. __ Spiegel: German magazine: DER.

51. Arnaz-Ball studio: DESILU.

52. Bygone boomers: SSTS.

55. Like England's "the Fens": SWAMPY.

56. "Turn on the AC!": IT'S HOT.

57. Mother __: NATURE.

58. Low naval rank: SEAMAN. Our Spitzboov retired as a Commander.

59. Fruity spread: JAM.

60. Egg cells: OVA.

61. Able or full follower: BODIED.

63. Think tank output: REPORT.

66. Tokyo-born Yoko: ONO.

69. World Cup skiing champ Lindsey: VONN. Born here in St. Paul.

71. Perry of fashion: ELLIS.

72. Due times tre: SEI. 2 times 3.

73. Bus. letter insert: ENC.

78. Ref's call: TKO.

81. Send forth: EMIT.

82. __ sci: POLI.

83. __'acte: ENTR.

84. Q&A part, briefly: QUES.

85. Morales of "Jericho": ESAI.

88. Israeli prime ministers Barak and Olmert: EHUDS. And 101. Acting father and son: ARKINS.

90. Ticker: HEART.

92. Works on a lawn: RESEEDS.

93. Calif. summer hrs.: PDT.

94. "Anne of Green Gables" setting: AVONLEA.

96. Pantomimes: ACTS OUT.

97. Pub pint, perhaps: ALE.

98. __ symbol: SEX.

99. Pair in "awaken": SCHWAS. The two vowel sounds.

100. "Little grey cells" detective: POIROT.

102. Piece maker?: REESE.

103. Funny Boosler: ELAYNE.

105. Buck back?: EROO. Buckeroo.

106. Harry Potter's owl: HEDWIG.

109. Map within a map: INSET.

113. More than annoys: IRES.

114. Poet Sandburg: CARL.

115. Hurricane feature: EYE.

117. Cornell founder Cornell: EZRA.

119. Driving age in old Rome?: XVI. Drive a chariot.

121. Gloss target: LIP.

122. Div. with Braves: NLE. NL East.

123. Some RPI grads: EES.



Boomer struggles with this back brace. We'll see if his doctor has other options early next week. We're also going to meet with the radiation oncologist next Friday for a consultation. Hopefully the radiation can start the week after.

C.C.

50 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF. deREg + EdA + SeC + UgARTE stumped me. :(
Even with the title/reveal, I didn't pick up the theme until after I finished the puzzle, so it was no help at all. :((

EDA UGARTE was the club SECretary,
She had nary a desire for more, no, nary!
But the Chairman was ill,
And the Vice Chair as well,
So Eda PRESIDED, and liked it, very!

Johannes KEPLER presented three laws
Describing the orbital motion he saw.
Orbits, Areas, Periods,
A lot of dreary math he did,
But the planets in their ellipses never pause.

{B-, B-.}

Lemonade714 said...

Another awesome creation by one of the many new friends to the Corner. 12 pairs are 20 spaces long with the solitary black making each set Sunday grid-spanners. It is a challenge to place the alphabet in order but do do with only the central MN pair not a combined 20 letters is wonderful. Anytime I think I have learned anything about creating a puzzle I se the work of a master

Drew Bledsoe was injured and Tom Brady really made the most of the opportunity. So Drew went to Dallas and then came Tony Romo. Poor guy could not keep a job. I think he went to the same school as Ryan Leaf

I would never remember UGUARTE loved seeing POIROT and MON DIEU in the same puzzle.

Finally a CSO to me for the two years I lived in ANN LEE cottage in a Shaker Village

Boomer we keep praying

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Slid back a little bit, but not all the way. We told the cats about the time change last night, but they failed to listen. Hey, they're cats.

Didn't have any problem with this puzzle...until I did. I came here to learn that my success was really a DNF; it was FOOL/BLEDSOE not FOIL/BLEDSIE. Heck, I could'a been a contenduh! Bzzzzt. C.C. wrote, "This makes the theme gimmick easy to spot visually." Maybe for C.C. I saw the title and looked in vain for the alphabetical orders. D'oh!

INRI: No relation to iggins. Thanx for 'splainin' that, C.C.

SEAMAN: Spent the first several months of my naval career as a seaman. More than 50 years ago now.

TTP said...


Good morning. Thank you Mark and thank you C.C.

The theme title gave me a clue, but it wasn't until working out FISHER that I knew what to look for going forward. I wasn't going to look a GIFT HORSE in the mouth. Rather, I looked for the letter sequences to aid in the solve. Really fun, Mark. The SPARE TIRE clue made me smile.

I iced the victory by changing Tulsa's direction from Oklahoma City to ENE. As many times as I have driven that route, there's no excuse for having entered NNE. Stillwater is NNE from OKC, Tulsa is ENE. Anyway, that allowed me to enter LATHE for Turner's device.

What's really neat (for me anyway) is that the section of toll road from OKC to Tulsa is named the Turner Turnpike. So those two clues aptly dovetailed together. Maybe butt joint would be a better descriptor - in a woodworking sense - of how they fit together on the grid. BTW, the toll road from Tulsa ENE to the Missouri state line near Joplin is named the Will Rogers Turnpike. Speed limit is 75. "No Tolerance." "Do Not Drive Into Smoke." And they mean it. I get a kick out of those signs.

ANN LEE was a gimme. Parents had at times various pieces of Shaker furniture for sale in their shop or in our home, and a tome in their library of antique reference books. The Shakers were a sect that was doomed to fail by its own design, IMHO. It would be hard to grow from within when everyone is practicing celibacy.

Didn't particularly notice the names; but that's probably because I knew them all, except KAHLIL and UGARTE. They filled easily with perps.

C.C., that's cute, but what will you and Boomer do if DW and I move to Texas ? Then you would have two Texas Toms.

My MOWERS have been getting the full end-of-season workout mulching the leaves. Not today though. Rained last night and supposed to be windy and rainy all day.

Anon T (FLN) - Not as exciting as you and your buddy's escapade, but in the late '70's my lab mate and I programmed a train to circle a track twice, stop, and then to back up under a water silo. OK, it was a model train in a controlled environment. Think that was a lab exercise on the 8080 microprocessor.

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, C.C. and friends. This was a fun theme, which made for an easy Sunday puzzle. I caught on the the theme early on. Very clever.

'Bama trounced LSU in an SEC football game last night. Alas!

EDA LaShan makes frequent guest appearances in the puzzles. So many, in fact that I finally learned her name.

I am currently in TEX, the Neighbor of La.

There is a very nice Shaker Village museum in southern New Hampshire. Shakers mostly died out because of their belief in abstinence.

One of KAHLIL Gibran's most famous works is The Prophet.

I liked the crossing of ISLET and INSET.

COS to Bill G with the entry of CORNELL.

Sending good wishes to Boomer. Hope he can get an adjustment on the brace.

QOD: History must share with reading, writing and arithmetic first rank as the most important subjects in the curriculum. Understanding the issues on which citizens of a republic are expected to vote is impossible without an understanding of the past. ~ Walter Cronkite (né Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr.; Nov. 4, 1916 ~ July 17, 2009)

billocohoes said...

Pretty quick except the SE where I couldn’t remember HEDWIG, usually spell buckaROO with the a, and was trying NexES at 116A and pAlES at 121A.

ANN LEE pond and a former Shaker farm are right by the Albany Airport

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Put me down for a Technical DNF. Couldn’t recall Ugarte, didn’t know the flavors of ESPN, didn’t know or care about the conference, and couldn’t suss dereg. However, the puzzle is still an awesome creation for sure.

Morning C.C., thinking positive thoughts for Boomer!

maripro said...

Loved this puzzle!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I’m going to go out on a limb and say this fun puzzle was a pangram
-Carrie Fisher said of her dad EDDIE and Liz Taylor after Mike Todd’s death, “He consoled her with flowers, candy and eventually with his [male member]
-Some stadiums take MAKE NOISE seriously
-Our city is entering its 16th year of RED TAPE delaying a much-needed viaduct
-The National Spelling Bee pronouncer Jacques Bailey says “The trouble with the schwa (ə) spelling-wise, is that all English vowels can make its particular sound”
-Sir Edmund Hillary took a picture of SHERPA Norgay Tenzig at the top of Everest but declined to have his picture taken. Neither would say who reached the summit first
-UGARTE – “You despise me don’t you Rick?” Rick – “If I gave you any thought, I probably would”
-Pizza slices humor
-I set back digital and ANALOG clocks last night and three reset automatically
-David Suchet was the best POIROT and played him for 25 years
-Baseball peeps will understand, “Bledsoe is football’s Wally PIP”
-Good luck Boomer!

Mark McClain said...

Thanks all for the nice write-up and comments! Fun puzzle to make, and as someone pointed out a great way to get a pangram ;). Abuot the spelling of BUCKE(A)ROO. The "a" is much more common, and I'm not sure why I chose the BUCK clue instead of relating EROO to SWITCH, STINK, or SMACK. The "E" spelling of BUCKEROO IS a valid variant. It is an Anglicization of the Spanish word "vaquERO", the ERO suffix being one that converts a noun to an occupation that has something to do with the noun (in this case cow-boy or cow-man). It stems from the same Latin suffix that became the English -er/-or (senator = person in the senate; boxer = person who boxes).

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Mark you have a Masterwork here. Thanks for the challenge. The "Alphabetical Order" title sank in with the "S-T" combination which allowed me to fill "K-Q-WRIST & ZONE". Of course, this is a pangram.

The NW & SW sections gave me fits. Last fill was the "U" on ESPN which part I knew at once. Didn't know UGARTE, EDA, DEREG, SEC, or NEBO. In the SW SCHWAS/COREA cross was a natick. I knew POIROT but struggled with spelling. Unknowns: ARKINS & Waze ways. Never used a GPS. Why can't they spell in English? WAZE? Seems ignorant for brilliant creators. I know tho that we have a few brilliant guys here who keep wanting to "untie" because of spelling.

Many names were unknown but perped in finally. I knew PADRAIG (but tried PAtRick) and KAHLIL (but tried three spellings).

Meaning of the PIE link didn't click on to give me an "E". Pizza slices weren't "wedges" and I needed quite a few perps to come up with EIGHTHS. Other food note: my taste buds love ONIONS, my stomach complains.

ANN LEE was the answer on a game show I watched recently but wasn't sure what they said. I knew enough to start with AN and just kept going.

C.C. thank you for another great expo. So sorry Boomer's carapace isn't giving enough relief. Praying for him.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but wasn't sure until I checked and didn't come close to catching the theme. Changed carea to COREA, uberto to UGARTE, inre to INRI, ses to SEI, sae to ENC, and irks to IRES.

I love the terms "blowhard" and GAS BAG. I use them interchangeably to describe talk show hosts on radio and TV, even the ones I like.

Maybe we should have a college football Superbowl. The best team in the SEC vs. the best of the rest.

I wanted "perquisite" for "restricted parking area, perhaps", but perps prevented that tangent. If the parking area was gravel, it would probably would have had Yellow Rocks. I also thought of the white zone - red zone battle in "Airplane".

I was a big fan of Gibran as a young adult. Now, not so much.

Thanks to Mark McClain for the masterpiece. And thanks to CC for your comments.

billocohoes said...

HG, three p’s in Wally PIpp. Many stories on why Gehrig replaced him but I’ll go with Pipp only hitting .244 at the time. He was already a veteran who played three years with the Reds and one in Newark after leaving NY

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was one of my most enjoyable Sunday solves in quite some time. (Sunday puzzles are my least favorite because they tend to be too "gimmicky" and laden with three-letter words and/or "crosswordese".) Today's, however, was fresh, clever, and rewarding. I caught the theme early but most theme answers were still fun to figure out, even knowing the letter sequence. My favorites were Spare Tire (excellent clue) and Gift Horse (so much in the language.) Oodles of CSOs: Bill G (Cornell grad), Spitz (RPI grad), DO and Anonymous T (Tex). The grid was so smooth I had only one w/o, Largo/Lento. But, I needed perps for the numerous unknowns: Kepler's Law, Nebo, Ezra, and Hedwig and Grover due to my complete ignorance of Harry Potter and the Muppets.

Thank you, Mark, for a very entertaining and satisfying solve and thanks, CC, for the detailed and explanatory summary. Thanks for your kind words. You and Boomer are never very far from my thoughts. Hope all goes well in the coming weeks.

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-billochoes, of course you’re right and I knew Wally’s name but I was too cute by putting PIP instead of PIPp because PIP was in the puzzle. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it! :)
-The title and Ace Bandage gave me the theme early for once
-Bama can proclaim I RULE to LSU for sure. I have never seen one defensive line dominate a highly rated team’s offensive line like that last night. LSU’s meager 12 yds of rushing and -29 yds of losses in sacks really disappointed the 102,000 at the game
-One disturbing trend in FB I saw frequently yesterday is when TD’s are scored by visiting teams prompts members of that team to run to the stands and taunt (NOT taut!) the home fans.
-Did any of you have trouble remembering the very different procedures for resetting clocks?

Big Easy said...

87A, A school in 111-A's clue's gave the answer to 39-A to 2-D's leader and though the fans 70A it didn't help , which was discussed on an affiliate of the answer for 1-A.

Sacre bleu, LSU gave a GIFT HORSE to BAMA and even thought the hOme fans MADE NOISE it didn't help. Talked about on ESPN (maybe on ESPN-University). Their offensive line couldn't move Bama's defensive line. 29-0.

Good morning. I caught the A-Z run at GIFT HORSE, which made the puzzle too easy. I had the most trouble in the NW, with NEBO and UGARTE as unknowns and EDA doesn't come to my mind, as I only know of him/her and ANN LEE through X-word puzzles. ARKINS and HEDWIG were my only other unknowns.

POLI-Sci majors- can't pass any hard courses, so they want to go into politics. Or they can become GASBAGs on any cable news station or even GMA.

ACE BANDAGES- sold many thousands of those years ago. Now owned by 3M.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Enjoyed the solve. Didn't pay attention to the theme before coming here. Must have taken lots of effort to get the aphabetical sequence right as C.C. implied.
SCHWA - Oh, now I get it. The first 'a' and the 'e' are the pair of SCHWAS. Very tricky.
CSA -to the Brits, the USA was a breakaway, too.

Wilbur Charles said...

FLN. Misty you alerted us to a series on TV about a Toronto detective (I just LIU- Murdoch mysteries). So I taped and the one I watched featured Bat Masterson. He was in his new life as a Sports Reporter but asked by Murdoch to aid in an investigation. Did you miss the only one I watched?
The way modern TV is produced and directed doesn't appeal to me.


Sorry about the diversion*

Back to Sunday's pleasant alphabet run.

Oops I put RTS < STS. GPS did a number on me in a private assoc . I was a stone's throw away and it sent me on a 3 mile trip to nowhere.

Of Nazereth, Nazerene and Nazorean are not the same. Don't expect much help from internet on this.

I mentioned"Marrying Sam's" $24.00 wedding to a sea of blank faces yesterday(re. Al CAPP).
Oops again, I had HEDWIN. I'm rusty on my HP.
Actually, Bledsoe was traded to Buffalo. He was as HG pointed out the Wally Pipp(headache) of football*

I thought SCHWAR might be one of an alien pair in some movie I missed called "Awaken". I guess I should have made it plural though. With 300+ squares it's hard to re-check them all

I was waiting at the Port of Tampa for two "Cruisers" so breakfast with Mark (and my Pkup was Mark).

WC

I Had a "diversion" . I'm deleting it for later

Both Pipp and Bledsoe were excellent . Neither was a Brady or a Gehrig

CrossEyedDave said...

I am not going to get to do the puzzle today,
maybe I'll save it for the next airplane ride...

Got to drive into NYC today to pick up DW who is rooting
Daughter#1 on in the Marathon. Both in Brooklyn, and Manhattan
at the end zone... (My Marathon will be trying to find parking...)

FLN, Picard, Doh!
AIR CONDITIONING Damper! Mounted on a vent!
Silly me, I was intrigued for nothing!
Being M.I.T. I thought this motorized damper mounted on wall
was some hi-tech answer to building movement during earthquakes...
(for me, everything is a puzzle...)

And Jinx!
Thanks a lot for the Airplane link!
It sent me down the YouTube rabbithole for an hour!
This link is in retribution
in the only way I know how...

Picard said...

An impressive construction indeed! It took me surprisingly long to catch on to the theme, though. I was having trouble with almost every theme answer and I was wondering if some kind of substitution was going on. Anyone else?

Plenty of unknowns. Even now.

Can someone please explain SEC and PIP and PIE?
What does SEC stand for?
And how is a PIP a Humdinger? I only know humdinger as a lie.
And why is PIE a link between Apple and Order? I understand APPLE PIE is a thing, but what does Order have to do with it?

PADRAIG utterly unknown and it seemed wrong. I could not even figure out if it was his first or his last name! Have you ever noticed how some people have two first names? And others have two last names?

I know just enough sports to know that the Atlanta Braves were in the WEST division, not the EAST. I learned that as a child and decided adults and especially sports people made stuff up that made no sense. That actually slowed me down in the SE where I "knew" it was NLW. Anyone else?

DESILU I knew because the original Star Trek was produced at DESILU. KEPLER'S LAW a gimme for this physics guy.

I assume Gordon GEKKO was a variant of GECKO to imply he was like a reptile? I have always liked reptiles, so it seems insulting to reptiles to compare them to greedy Wall Street people! Reptiles only kill for food or defense, not for greed!

I have had a variety of GECKOs as pets over the years. But my favorite GECKO photos were on a biological research island I was staying at in the Philippines in 1991. Giant Tokay GECKOs liked to hang out in the shower room. They make a GECKO sound, hence their name.

Here are some of my GECKO friends in the shower on Taklong Island Research Station.

I also included some cave photos on the island. I forgot that I had photographed a small bat in the cave until I looked at them just now.

Not sure if anyone saw my recent TAE posting, so here it is again.

My aunt, uncle and cousins live in New Jersey and I convinced my parents to take us all to visit the TAE (Edison) laboratories. Sadly, my uncle died about a week ago. I only had one aunt and uncle.

I have plenty of CORAL REEF photos, but I especially like these on the Great Barrier REEF.

I did some Google searches on the origin of the GIFT HORSE proverb. The exact origin is apparently unknown, but I found this:

"The Letter to the Ephesians, circa AD 400, which contains the text 'Noli equi dentes inspicere donati' (Never inspect the teeth of a given horse). Where St Jerome got it from we aren't ever likely to know."

Misty said...

Wasn't it cool to get a whole extra hour this morning, thanks to daylight saving time! Gave me much more time to spend on this delightful puzzle--many thanks, Mark, and thanks for stopping by. I got over three-fourths before I started cheating and never did get the theme but found it all a lot of fun. Lots of names I didn't know--UGARTE, PADRAIG, EDBERG--but thank goodness I finally got POIROT, one of my absolutely favorite TV detectives of all time. Had some silly mistakes, like putting SOHO instead of NOHO (don't know my New York geography, I guess). But I got VERNE and EDIE, that was nice. Anyway, a delight, made even more so by C.C.'s great write-up. And thank you so much for giving us an update on Boomer, C.C. We all have him in our thoughts and caring, and hope to see him on the blog tomorrow

Have a great day, everybody!

Yellowrocks said...

Caught the theme with the title and ACE BANDAGE, which speeded things up. Mark, very clever, very enjoyable. I am with Dudley. "Put me down for a Technical DNF. Couldn’t recall Ugarte, didn’t know the flavors of ESPN, didn’t know or care about the conference, and couldn’t suss dereg." Three empty cells.
I have read some of KHALIL Gibran's and some of EDA LeShan's works. Here is a famous passage from K. Gibran's The Prophet.

“Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you.
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the make upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness.
For even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He also loves the bow that is stable.

Picard said...

CrossEyedDave glad to clear up the damper explanation regarding the MIT Tomb of the Unknown TOOL! Sorry to put a damper on your lively imagination! (By the way, I love all your creative posts!)

This earthquake risk map shows that MIT is in a fairly low risk zone for earthquakes

Did you catch the reference to "Keep putting stuff on the Dome"? Do you know the reference?

From yesterday:
AnonT way cool about your hacking experience! So, the railroad switch controller had a dial-up connection? Good for you for doing the hack but not doing harm!

When I was a student, most of our hacking was just about climbing onto precarious roofs and ledges and into steam tunnels. Back then, most things on campus were wide open with no security. The administration and Facilities people knew that security would just increase curiosity and the chance of damage.

The campus computers were tied to the ARPA Net (now the Internet) and there was no barrier to entering the connected machines back then. Speaking of Feynman, he wrote about how he was able to break into locked facilities by sheer luck. People thought he was a genius, but he said he just got lucky!

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard I hope this won't be a duplicate
So...
SEC, Southeastern Conference where the aforementioned Alabama and LSU play football
"He's a real humdinger, a real pip" . Old jargon
Literally "Apple PIE Order" as in alphabetically or neat as a pin.
PADRAIG Harrington won a US Open Golf championship about a decade ago. He still plays on the circuit
The Atlanta Braves were originally* the Milwaukee Braves. When the East-West alignment occurred they could have gone either way. I think there were 12 NL teams, six apiece.
1991 may have been the last year. They had a playoff game with SF.
And..
Gift Horse comes from the Trojan Horse. I'd assume familiarity with that story. Monte Python shoulda/did? a parody of that.

And... Only because it's so slow here's what I didn't post

I'll put it in a new post

WC

* And before that the Boston Braves . They left town in 1953 for spring training and took a left on the way back and ended in Milwaukee .

They had outdrawn the previous year by mid May. They had a rookie named Hank Aaron

Wilbur Charles said...

Ok . Since it's so quiet I'll post my "diversions"

-T, here's a RR crossing story that might be related to your modem account. Until you mentioned messing with the crossing I never thought of how the following happened:
I passed a RR crossing every morning on my way to DEC c 1986-93. One morning it appeared the gate was malfunctioning. A cop was beginning to direct traffic around the gate arm. He was facing north with his feet and butt inches from the track when the commuter express flew by him.
I always remembered the close call but never thought that perhaps some kids were'messing'.

Btw, I'm re-reading Deighton. A psychiatrist quotes Jung*: "Show me a sane man and I will cure him". Harsh until I read the BB** chapter "On Agnostics" for which Jung had a lot of input. The quote could have been the subtitle.

WC
*A little KAHLIL a little Jung . Anybody got some Chopra?

**Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Jayce said...

I liked this masterful puzzle but it was one level above my abilities. I flat out didn't see the alphabetical progression even though I was looking for it. 3-letter athletic organizations and stats elude me, as do references to Harry Potter. Mark McClain, I acknowledge your masterful creation and appreciate it, but I couldn't solve it; my wheelhouse is a tad too limited.

Speaking of people who have two first names, I usually especially notice such names as Ryan Scott the San Francisco food guy, Scott Ryan the Australian actor and writer, Scott Glenn the actor, Chuck Todd the host of Meet the Press, Henry James and James Joyce the authors, Jordan Francis the rapper, Francis Lawrence the film producer, Hamilton Jordan (1944-2008) the American politician, and on and on.

I really really hate having to change our various clocks and timepieces twice a year. On one of them you have to press and hold down a button to quick-forward the time so making it "fall back" an hour means fast forwarding it 23 hours. I'm glad you can just plain set the time on our microwave, stove, and coffee maker, and I'm doubly glad our computers and phones set themselves. Of course there's always the issue of the "body clock" taking weeks to adjust to the time clock change. And, one more gripe, I prefer having more daylight in the evening than in the morning, and would vote for DST all year 'round if it were an option.

Best wishes to Boomer.

Yellowrocks said...

I have the simplest analog clocks possible, a snap to change. The fancy clocks are a pain. I can trust the computer,tablet, phone and cable box to change themselves.
My body clock doesn't even notice the time change. I have no jet lag to and from Europe. I have a problem coming home from Japan, but not going there. I think it not jet lag, but being awake for 24 hours on the day of the flight. I can't sleep on planes.
Like Jayce, I prefer having more daylight in the evening.I dread having it get dark before dinner.
All my best to Boomer. I hope you can get the armor adjusted.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody. It was fun to see Cornell in the puzzle. I've always had mixed emotions about the place. It is a beautiful campus and had many great attributes but their engineering curriculum was so tough, you could get the feeling they were trying to get rid of one-third of the students. Very stressful...

I've never really understood a schwa. It seems to be an unstressed letter. I learned about long vowel sounds, short vowel sounds but not schwas.

Yes I had trouble setting a couple of my clocks.

Sunday Morning was enjoyable as usual again today.

~ Bill G.

Keep Calm and Carry On

Bill G said...

Picard, beautiful photos of the reef. What is that fish in the bottom photo?

I sure don't like the time change, at least for the first day or two. I agree with Jayce's gripe and opinion. I would vote for DST year round. If that didn't pass, I'd vote for Standard Time year round as a second choice. Politicians??

My very best thoughts for Boomer and CC.

~ Bill G.

Mind how you go...

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard, PADRAIG is just an Irish form of Patrick. I know it's true because I read it on the internet:

"Owing to the importance of Saint Patrick in Irish history, it is an especially popular name in Ireland. Other versions of Patrick include Patric, Patrik, Padraic, Pádraig, Pat, and the diminutive Paddy."

CED, your link is on my to do list. Chores to do first.

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk say...

I may have to print Mark's puzzle tomorrow and solve weeks hence; it looks like a lot of fun [why, oh why, won't Hearst run the Sunday LAT?]

{B, A}

HG - Suchet is and always will be POIROT in my mind. Dr. Whos, OTOH, ....(?)

LOL - Airplane link Jinx; CED - you've posted that b/f but it's still good stuff. Thanks both yous.

I, for one, like DST. Growing up in the north, we had winter that seemed to slow life down a bit. In the South, getting dark early serves the same purpose and I get to bed earlier (for at least a week :-)).

WC - that RR xing wasn't us!
Picard & TTP, yes the RR switches were on dial-up -- so were some banks and The State of IL systems we found.
After viewing War Games*, buddy & I wrote our own deamon dialer. The computer would dial numbers in our exchange (we didn't know about the MCI-codes and didn't want to get in trouble for exorbitant long-distant charges) while we were at school (8th grade, I think) and we'd login to what it found for us after my paper-route (route was strategically re-mapped so buddy's house was near my last toss).

The fun bit - when The Man showed up at my house, Pop simply said, "What? We don’t have a computer." How they figured out me (it was my Buddy's source-phone#!), I'll never know. Perhaps my buddy played the prisoner's-dilemma wrong. :-)
//coda: Buddy was in CyberSec for a while but turned to the dark-side: he's an Intellectual-Property Lawyer now :-)

I hope the Dr. visit this week helps you be more comfortable Boomer. Love your way.

Cheers, -T
*It's so funny, when talking to hackers my age, how many of us were inspired by War Games.

PK said...

YR: thank you for posting KHALIL's "The Prophet". I enjoyed that. Too true.

Bill: hand up for not being able to remember or understand about SCHWA no matter how many times someone here has explained it.

My daughter set the clock on my new microwave last spring and I have no clue how to change it. Can't find the instruction. I don't have to have it, I guess. I'll just wait for spring and it will be right again.

My biggest problem today is I'm hungry an hour before I want to eat.

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Mark McClain, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, C.C., for a fine review.

Wow! What a great puzzle and theme. I did not even look for it while doing the puzzle. I wish I had. Saw it when I came here. What a great creation!

I had no problem with Apple PIE Order. Sounds logical to me. When you order apple pie for dessert at a restaurant, that act is called an Apple Pie Order. The waitress writes it down on her pad and she takes the Order to the kitchen. Then brings you your apple pie.

Referring to Picard's other question, PIP, I looked up Humdinger in my phone dictionary, and it gave PIP as one of the synonyms of Humdinger. It is a Merriam-Webster dictionary.

I have heard of Shakers, but did not know Ann Lee was the founder. Maybe I knew that 60 years ago while in history class.

Never knew Alan Arkin had a son in the movies. That's OK with me.

Lots of unknowns. I will not list them all, but perps and wags did the trick.

Now to yesterday to report in on Saturday's puzzle. I finished it last night while at the Polling Place waiting for the DuPage County truck to show up to pick up our election gear. Got home at 1:15 AM. Had a burrito and a couple brewskis and hit the hay.

See you yesterday.

Abejo

( )

Spitzboov said...

PK - You might find the instruction book for the microwave on-line, and there may be somebody on Youtube that could show you how to set the clock.

Spartacus said...

Pk..the clock setting for a microwave is almost always:

1. Press button labeled "CLOCK"
2. Enter the time using number buttons
3. Press button labeled "CLOCK"

Sandyanon said...

The Phrase Finder

"Apple pie order"

What's the meaning of the phrase?

Tidy and well-ordered.

What's the origin of the phrase?

It may originate from the French 'nappes pliees' = neatly folded, or from 'cap-a-pie order'. There's no definitive evidence to support this.

It is recorded first in English in Sir Thomas Pasley's Private Sea Journals, 1780:

"Their Persons Clean and in apple-Pie order on Sundays."



SwampCat said...

Marvelous puzzle, Mark. No, you beat me. But I had all the fun working it. Thanks!

C.C. my prayers are with Boomer for relief..

SwampCat said...

OMG!! The Saints just beat the Rams!! This was probably the best game I have ever seen. The Rams are sooooo good! But the Saints are so scrappy. Great game!!!

Big Easy said...

PADRAIG Harrington- 8-10 years ago I was working the Par-3 17th Tee Box at the Zurich Classic. Saturday's round was washed out half way due to about 3" of rain. The next morning the pros started where they left off at 7:00 am Sunday and there was a very heavy fog, making it impossible to see the green, but they played anyway. So who was in the first threesome? PADRAIG. The green was about 190 yards over water and I mentioned to one of the pros' caddies that I couldn't see the flag. Padraig overheard it and said "you need glasses", but with his accent I didn't understand what he said. So he repeated "you need glasses". Then he made circles with his thumbs and index fingers and held both hands up to his eyes. I don't remember his playing partners' names but one of them basically said "speak English that people can understand". All those pros kid around because unlike other sports, they travel together, eat together, and share the SAME locker rooms.

Bill G- "but their engineering curriculum was so tough, you could get the feeling they were trying to get rid of one-third of the students. Very stressful..."

And it should be. Has anybody else noticed the 'joke', 'EASY-A', basket-weaving courses that are now offered at most colleges? Nobody fails; everybody gets a trophy; 2/3 of the students are on the Dean's List. Students take 5-6 years to graduate.

The number of new college campuses in the last 50 years is unbelievable. Now that they have grossly overbuilt, they have to keep them full to keep the money flowing.

WikWak said...

Great puzzle. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks, Mark & C.C.

Did this one after supper. Except for a few gimmes (PRESIDE, NEBO, ACE BANDAGE) the entire NW remained pristine. I finally capitulated and moved to the NE and went clockwise from there. Finally finished but needed red letter help a few times (for SCHWAS and the natick [for me] of ESPNU/UGARTE, and a couple of others I can’t recall at the moment).

Loved seeing DR WHO in a puzzle.

And why was NEBO a given for me? Southwest of the town I grew up in is the little (actually, "little" greatly exaggerates its size) town of Nebo IL. I knew it because they have a Vin Fiz festival every year and we used to go. It was there that I learned about Mount Nebo. The festival celebrates the landing on its main street on Oct 11,1910 of the Wright biplane Vin Fiz, the first airplane to fly coast to coast. No one in the town had ever seen a heavier than air flying machine and when it circled the town and then landed, school was let out, all the bank employees left their money drawers unlocked, and the entire town ran to see it. The flight was sponsored by a then-popular soft drink, Vin Fiz. Cool.

And—I'm sorry to say that I cannot agree with most of you; I have always despised Daylight Saving (hah!) Time. It saves nothing. End of rant.

Bye now.

Anonymous T said...

Winding down w/ the funnies say...

PK, WikWak - just for you [today's B.C.]

Cheers, -T

Picard said...

Wilbur Charles thank you for your explanations!

Has anyone else EVER heard the expression Apple PIE Order? Utterly unknown to me! I NEVER would have figured that out without your explanation!

Likewise with PIP! Has anyone else EVER heard the term PIP? If so, what does it mean?

As for GIFT HORSE coming from Trojan Horse, I think that is not correct. Can you give a source?

BillG thank you for the kind words about my CORAL REEF photos! As for that fish in the last photo, now I can't remember. I would have to dig for that. But that is me with it!

Apparently that fish always comes to visit that dive boat and one of the crew on the dive boat takes photos of anyone who wants to pose with it. I was astonished in so many ways. And grateful to have the photo!

I also would vote to stay on DST all year.

Jinx thanks for explaining the name PADRAIG as Patrick.

AnonT thanks for the further details about the railroad switch hacking. Yes, I remember that now about autodialers finding modems to connect to. I think I mentioned that "War Games" featured the character of my thesis advisor Fredkin. The one who was my connection to Feynman.

Here is one more piece of that story: Feynman apparently made a deal with Fredkin. Fredkin would spend a year in Feynman's lab and teach Feynman computer science. In return, Feynman would teach Fredkin physics. There are more pieces, but that was the relationship.

Thanks for the War Games clip!

Jayce thanks for the other examples of people with two first names! I have a good friend named John Craig which is another example. But there are also plenty of people with two last names!

Abejo thanks for looking up PIP. But have you ever actually heard the term used?

Crossing PIP with Natick KHALxL seems... you tell me!

Anonymous T said...

Picard - I did catch the ref to Fredkin/Falken [the ending of War Games; more intense than Airplane! :-)] in your Feynman story. Incestuous, isn't it?

The movie, while inspiring us to break stuff, also built an ingrained sense of integrity to do right by others. #GoldenRule -T

Anonymous T said...

Jayce - I was always taught: Never play cards with a man with two first names nor anyone named after a city.

----
Warning: "Food porn" follows:
Tonight I played with my wok again.

Started w/ bell peppers, green onions, carrot strips, peanuts, baby corn, & bamboo shoots (each at at time) into the hot peanut oil. ~6min, I removed veggies from wok to the side.

To Wok: Small bits of chicken (sludge'd in Soy & black pepper) for about 3min. Then, post-haste, added fresh pineapple & rice wine. Gave it 30 more seconds & returned the veggies for another minute or so.

Serves over sticky-rice.

Dang, it was yummy [still (THO) no real "mouth-pop," ideas?... anyone? anyone?] DW liked it but it wasn't the flavor she had in Beijing. C.C. help!?!
Cheers, -T

Michael said...

Big Easy @ 10:23 said, "POLI-Sci majors- can't pass any hard courses, so they want to go into politics. Or they can become GASBAGs on any cable news station or even GMA."

Hey, I passed Elementary Amphigory, Olympic Knitting tryouts, and Menu Preparation with A+s ... who sez us PoliSci types have it easy?

Michael said...

Spitz @ 4:18 -- "You might find the instruction book for the microwave on-line, and there may be somebody on Youtube that could show you how to set the clock."

I was thinking I had to go shopping for something at the store. My techno-savvy daughter said, "Dad, just google or YouTube it."

She was right.

I think that one part of aging is continuing to use old tools just because we're familiar with them. Our decades of habits leave us handicapped, electronically at least..

Michael said...

WikWak @ 7:39 -- "And—I'm sorry to say that I cannot agree with most of you; I have always despised Daylight Saving (hah!) Time. It saves nothing. End of rant. "

I'm with WikWak .. Make it one thing or another -- ALL year long! If California is going to be in the Romeo time zone (PST), or the Sierra zone (MST), let it be all the time. This switching back and forth is a pain.

Anonymous T said...

Michael - But, how did you fare in Under-water BB-stacking 201? :-)

I've a few PoliSci-major buddies that are way-smart and I've met others, erm, they not so much.
I do, sometimes, think "these guys/gals (our Reps!) are too dumb to make a real living and too ugly/dull to make it in show-biz." [see: Senate]
The few PoliSci-folk I know are really smart and tenacious enough to make a real ++difference. //I see this in Youngest too; she's been shooting for Supreme Court since she was 9 - watch your shit Ginsberg!

Cheers & Nite, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard, I guess I'm wrong. The consensus is the "gift horse" expression derives from horse traders inspecting mouths and the impropiety of doing so with a gift.

The other (Trojan) derivation is "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts".

Consensus? World six billion - Wilbur 1

But... I've heard "He's a real 'pip'" before to mean exactly the same as'humdinger' .

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Duh, no such animal as a repost using a smartphone .

Check out the end of Sunday if you'd like . Misty .

WC