google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, December 5, 2018, Mark McClain

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Dec 5, 2018

Wednesday, December 5, 2018, Mark McClain

There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight!

One word in each of the theme answers is Hot! Hot! Hot!

17-Across. Get increasingly steamed: DO A SLOW BURN.

26-Across. Provocative social media tactic: FLAME TROLLING.  I am not familiar with this expression, but it makes sense.  Fortunately, we don't get much this on this blog.

44-Across. Battlefield order: FIRE WHEN READY!

59-Across. Striking white stripe between a horse's eyes: FACIAL BLAZE.

Across:

1. Insurance submission: CLAIM.  I had to file a claim when my 150+ year-old live oak tree decided it didn't want to be a live oak tree anymore.  The tree fell on my carport, which, fortunately, was strong enough so that my cars weren't crushed.

6. Spars on the briny: MASTS.
11. Spanish I verb: AMO.  Today's Spanish grammar lesson.

14. Vital body vessel: AORTA.

15. Choristers who are usually women: ALTOS.

16. Young bloke: LAD.
19. "Diary of a Wimpy __": Jeff Kinney book series: KID.  The book was first published in 2007, so it was too late for my childhood reading.

20. Home of the NHL's Blues: ST. L.  St. Louis is the home of the Blues hockey team.
21. Scrape off: ABRADE.

22. Radio hobbyists: HAMS.

23. Rickie Fowler's org.: PGA.  Apparently Rick Fowler (b. Dec. 13, 1988) is a golfer.

24. One way to travel: RAIL.  Because Train wouldn't fit in the spaces provided.

32. Old Italian bread?: LIRE.  Currency of Italy before the Euro.

34. Jai __: ALAI.  A crossword staple.

35. Forearm-related: ULNAR.

36. Wee hr.: ONE A.M.  Also the name of a 1916 Charlie Chaplin film.

38. Approves: OKs.

39. Disciple's query: IS IT I?  One of the disciple's asked Jesus this question.

40. "Am not!" retort: ARE SO!  Am too! also fits, but the word "am" is already used in the clue.

41. Spa treatment: PEEL.  I wanted a Pedi(cure).

43. Bullet __: list highlight: ITEM.

47. __ Mode, designer voiced by Brad Bird in "Incredibles 2": EDNA.  I never saw this movie.  I had seem this image, however.

48. Strive: VIE.  Could also be clued as Fights (for), which we saw in yesterday's puzzle.

49. Skinny: INFO.  I initially tried Thin.

51. Sleeping bag closer: ZIPPER.  Camping is not my thing.  We did a lot of camping in my childhood, however.

55. Getting stuff done, initially: TCB.  As in the phrase: Taking Care of Business.

58. "Who, me?": MOI?  Today's French lesson.

61. From A to Z: ALL.

62. Venue with skyboxes: ARENA.

63. Expected: USUAL.

64. Animation frame: CEL.

65. Venomous snake: ADDER.  Also known as a viper.

66. Hindu spiritual writing: SUTRA.

Down:

1. Despicable dudes: CADS.

2. Ransack: LOOT.

3. Depleted sea: ARAL.  The ARAL Sea is becoming a crossword staple.  It is considered an endorheic lake, meaning that it has no outlet to the oceans.  It also used to be the 4th largest lake in the world.

4. "__ Quiet Uptown": "Hamilton" song: IT'S.  I have tickets to see Hamilton in March 2019.

5. Spanish dessert wine: MALAGA.

6. Bryn __ College: MAWR. This college is still an all-female institution of higher education.

7. Goya's "Duchess of __": ALBA.
The last Duchess of Alba was quite a character.  She held over 40 hereditary titles and was very wealthy.  She was widowed twice.  Her third husband t'was 24 years her junior.  She died in 2014 at age 88. Goya's Duchess of Alba was probably a character, too.
Oh, you wanted these more famous Goya portraits of the Duchess:

8. It may be ear-piercing: STUD.  Think of an earring.

9. Bullfight figure: TORERO.  More of today's Spanish lesson.  The Torero is on the left.

10. ID gradually being omitted from Medicare cards: SSN.  As in the Social Security Number.

11. Water's capability to neutralize acid: ALKALINITY.

12. Injure badly: MAIM.

13. Track ratios: ODDS.

18. President who appointed two women to the Supreme Court: OBAMA.  President Obama (b. 1961) nominated Sonia Sotomayor (b. 1954) to replace Associate Justice David Souter (b. 1939); and and Elena Kagan (b. 1960) to replace retiring Associate Justice John Paul Stevens (b. 1920).

22. Sledding spot: HILLSIDE.

23. "Yes, fine by me": PLEASE DO!

25. Pierre's "his": A LUI.  More of today's French lesson

26. Second cup at a diner, e.g.: FREE REFILL.

27. Unite on the sly: ELOPE.  Fresh new clue for tying the knot without all the fanfare.

28. Spoken for: TAKEN.

29. Stairway element: RISER.

30. Statistician Silver: NATE.  Nathaniel Read Silver (b. 1978) is the founder of the FiveThirtyEight blog, which gives statistics on a number of subjects including politics and sports.

31. Dire: GRIM.

32. Bakery unit: LOAF.

33. Cross inscription: INRI.  Today's Latin lesson.  This is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum, which is translated as Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

37. Like harvested hay: MOWN.  I wanted something that would evoke the smell of freshly harvested hay.

42. Video game stage: LEVEL.

45. Black ice, e.g.: HAZARD.  It can, indeed, be very dangerous.

46. Boeing rival: AIRBUS.  Apparently the two companies have a rivalry going on.

49. All-in-one Apple: iMAC.

50. Florida State player, familiarly: 'NOLE.  As in the Florida State Seminoles.

52. Secured, as a win: ICED.  Sorry, Tin!

53. Source of cones: PINE.

54. Early late-night TV host: PAAR.  As in Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 ~ Jan. 27, 2004).

55. Lacking slack: TAUT.

56. Business magnate: CZAR.

57. Olympics coach Karolyi: BÉLA.  Béla Károlyi (b. 1942) is best known for being the coach to gymnast Nadia Comăneci (b. 1961) and Mary Lou Retton (b. 1968).

59. Tower authority: Abbr.: FAA.  As in the Federal Aviation Administration, which has jurisdiction over the airport towers.

60. The SEC's Tigers: LSU.  As in Louisiana State University.  Whenever LSU plays Auburn, another SEC team, the Tigers are guaranteed to win.*  LSU is the only collage university in the United States to have a live tiger living on campus.  You may be able observe Mike the Tiger on the University's TigerCam.  The cam isn't always functioning, though.

I hope none of you got "burned" on this puzzle!




 * Both LSU and Auburn have Tigers as their mascot.

45 comments:

OwenKL said...

There was a LAD who had a KID.
The kid tried to do all the lad did.
With him would pass
From class to class --
Till the lamb rule was applied to kids!

EDNA was Taking Care of Business,
She did it with both flair and finesse.
She buried the corpses
On RAIL way courses,
Non ever complained of her prissiness!

{B, B-.}

TTP said...


Thank you Mark and Hahtoolah.

Mark takes us from a SLOW BURN to a FLAME to a FIRE and then to a BLAZE. That's TCB.

Had to overcome one miscue. Had a piercing STab before STUD.
MALAGA and NATE were unknown.
EDNA Mode ? Brad Bird ?
ABRADE and RAIL fixed the spelling of TORERO from TORreO.

WikWak is our resident HAM. I've wondered, Wikwak. Do you nap often because you're on the radio at all hours of the day and night ?

Replaced the exhaust fan in the basement bathroom Friday, and replaced the gas tank on my snowblower Saturday. The replacement parts were delivered to my front door, courtesy of the A TO Z company Amazon.

Speaking of en fuego, I see that the market was on fire yesterday, but not in a good sense. More like a crash and burn.




desper-otto said...

Good morning!

No real problems this morning, other than ON THE HOUSE for that diner refill. Wite-Out took care of it...a lot of Wite-Out. Hahtoolah, I'm glad you 'splained that sleeping bag -- thought it was a mortally wounded carrot. Thanx for the outing, Mark. Enjoyed your expo, Hahtoolah.

SSN: I got my non-SSN Medicare card a few weeks ago.

LSU: The University of Houston used to have a live cougar on campus. No more.

IMAC: Had one which died a horrible death much too soon. It was my first [and last] experience with Apple. No more.

No more.

Mark McClain said...

Not much to see here in this harmless midweek synonym theme . . . except that the key words BURN, BLAZE, FLAME and FIRE are all used in phrases that don't involve something actually being "ablaze" as in a "fire". Only FIRE WHEN READY comes close.

Big Easy said...

Hahtoolah- LSU, Auburn and another SEC team have Tigers as their mascot- MISSOURI. And was it a Freudian slip that STUD was directly below the Duchess' nude painting?

Noticing the heat was easy but FLAME TROLLING is new for me. Never heard of it. TCB- never heard of it either. IT"S, MALAGA, & NATE were perps.

SSN- got my new Medicare card without my social security number-435-76-1134- I'll write it here because trying to keep it a secret is ridiculous. It was my student number at LSU and LSU-NO, and every medical facility and insurance company and all their employees have access to it. Not to mention Russian, Chinese, and Nigerian TROLLS.

SUTRA- the only one I've heard of ain't 'spiritual'.
French-ALUI & MOI
Spanish-AMO, TORERO & MALAGA
Latin-AORTA, IN RI & ULNAR
Italian-LIRE
Sanskrit?-SUTRA

Lemonade714 said...

Mark, thank you for stopping by once again and highlighting the special aspect of your theme which repurposed all the words not relating to fire. I agree this was a reasonable Wednesday without any of the grumble-worthy clue/fill of the past two days.

But, Susan, a gratuitous LSU reference and no Louisiana gushing? Meanwhile, the Duchess appears to have had a tumultuous and sometimes sad life. and bad plastic surgery. IMO

Lemonade714 said...

BE- you are my hero. Reality!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a pretty straightforward theme, although I never hear of Flame Trolling, so I initially had Shame trolling. You do hear a lot about Fat shaming, Body shaming, etc. Who could keep up with the Internet-specific lingo? Other unknowns were Edna, Malaga (I wanted Madeira), and A lui. I'm also not familiar with Facial Blaze. Several pairings caught my eye: INRI and Is it I, Mawr and Paar, A lui and Alai, and Lad and Kid. The Tigers clue (LSU) reminded me of Clemson University, Notre Dame's opponent in the upcoming college playoff games.

Thanks, Mark, for a Wednesday sizzler and for dropping by to explain the added dimension of the theme answer and thanks, Hatoolah, for the extensive and informative review and the terrific visuals.

FLN

Anonymous T, thanks for posting that PETA/Animal Crackers link. I truly think that some of these people are deranged.

WC, what's next, you ask? How about Cat houses? 😈 🙈

Misty, thanks for your enthusiastic response to our puzzle! Glad you like it.

Keith, I don't know how you missed Irish Miss, but, yep, it is I!

Have a great day.

billocohoes said...

My favorite Sherlock Holmes short story is Silver BLAZE, about a missing racehorse named for a white streak on his face.

Tiger is a pretty common college mascot. Princeton is another

Edgar Kennedy was a 1930s actor known as the "Master of the SLOW BURN", notably when being pestered by Harpo Marx in Duck Soup

For the last few days, when I hit "PUBLISH" on my phone, instead of going to the robot test, it just wipes out my comment and I have to switch to my laptop. I use a name instead of my Google Account.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Had 'slim' vs GRIM, so ala IM, I bolluxed up FLAME TROLLING, but everything else fell in nicely. No issues or nits.
"You may FIRE WHEN READY, Gridley" is the famous command from Commodore Dewey to the captain of the Olympia at the start of the Battle of Manila Bay against the Spanish fleet in 1898. (BTW, Abejo, Captain Gridley is buried in Erie, PA)
MOWN - I always loved the smell of new-MOWN alfalfa hay.
to mow - German mähen, L. German meihen, Dutch maaien.

Nice intro, Hahtoolah. hanks.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Hand up for needing perps at Malaga, as well as flame trolling which is new. TCB left me stumped until Hahtoolah explained it.

From yesterday: a trying day kept me away from the Corner, but I did eventually read all the posts, and was pleased to learn about others’ experiences with migraine aurae. I haven’t compared notes much with fellow sufferers over the years. I get 20-minute cycles of aurae, perhaps four times a year, in which I first notice a blank space in the center of vision. This grows outward in a pulsating arc until fading away. I notice that the shape and orientation of the arc is always the same. Flickering sunshine, as when driving through the shadows of tree branches, seems to be a trigger; fatigue and stress seem to increase vulnerability. Does that match with your symptoms?

Tinbeni said...

Hahtoolah: Wonderful write-up.

No problem with 52-d, Secured as a win, ICED, since it wasn't added to my Scotch. LOL

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get 5-d, Spanish dessert wine, MALAGA ... I'm not a wine person.

Cheers!

desper-otto said...

TTP wrote yesterday: "Abejo, as Hahtoolah knows, those Buc-ee's are mega-sized (some say Texas-sized) convenience stores and are also often noted for the cleanliness of their restrooms. If you are ever in Texas and see one, you'll have to go." Was that accidental? Methinks not.

Dudley said...

Hahtoolah - I meant to mention: loved your sledding image!! Yeehaw!

Also from yesterday: I took all my primary flight training in the late 70’s without any hearing protection; perhaps that’s why I have tinnitus today. Soon after, it became the norm to use headsets and intercoms, which I have done right along. It’s a giant improvement.

Inanehiker wrote of today’s kids pumping sound straight into their ears. I suspect there will be a lot of tinnitus problems in future.

oc4beach said...


I was able to get this hot puzzle from Mark done today. Hahtoolah's tour through the grid was interesting and informative. I just finished reading the article on the Airbus vs Boeing battles. Interesting.

I got the theme with FIRE WHEN READY and DO A SLOW BURN. They helped me figure out FLAME TROLLING and FACIAL BLAZE. Not being up on social media terminology was solved by the theme and perps. ALUI and TCB were also filled in by perps.

My migraine is just about gone. Just a dull ache at this point. The bad ones usually last about three days.

Dudley @ 9:18am: Like you, flickering sunshine, especially through partially/mostly closed Venetian Blinds, is one of my triggers. Stress, fatigue and being overheated from strenuous exercise or work also contribute to the migraines.

Usually the aura I experience starts out as a dot that whirls and/or flashes or a small blank spot that gradually grows until it forms the shape of a C or sometimes a full circle. This moves across my vision until it expands to the edge of my eyes and then disappears. It's at this point that the blinding pain hits. The aura is there even when I shut my eyes.

When I notice the start of the aura I immediately take some aspirin to head off some of the pain. If the pain gets really bad I'll take Tylenol 3 with codeine, although I don't like taking opioids. I've taken just about all of the usual migraine drugs including the Imatrex injection without positive results. The injection actually seemed to make the headache worse.

I try to get into a cool dark room and try to sleep for a while. I try not to move my head quickly or cough or sneeze because this sends a spike through my head. Then I just grin and bear it and take aspirin and Tylenol. But it eventually goes away.

Have a great day everyone.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-FLAME TROLLING, CLICK BAIT, et al, are part of our modern lexicon, I guess.
-I was doing a SLOW BURN about a Facebook posting yesterday but a later posting made me glad I didn’t respond
-Champion had a BLAZE
-A friend locked his keys in his trunk, jimmied it open and then filed a CLAIM saying someone broke into his car.
-Using the cog RAILroad to get up Pike’s Peak beat using my station wagon
-I see EDNA MODE was inspired by Edith Head not In The Mood :)
-Elvis had this acronym on the tail of his jet The Lisa Marie
-LOOTERS are CADS who show up after natural disasters
-“How ‘bout we ELOPE to Lake ERIE and eat OREOS?”
-Like almost all other statisticians, NATE got caught with his data down in 2016
-From 1972 – 2014, what sporting event featured Jim Nabors singing the song with the lyric - “The new-MOWN hay with all its fragrance”
-TAUT not TAUNT!!

Northwest Runner said...

Does this mean water's capability to neutralize a base is acidity?

JJM said...

Flame-trolling is the posting of an offensive message, sometimes known as a "flame bait or even a flame ball", to a public Internet discussion. Only on occasion have i heard these terms used together. Usually it's one or the other, i.e., "flaming" or "trolling"

inanehiker said...

The puzzle was fairly straightforward. I initially wanted MADERA or MADIRA thinking it was a spelling variant of Madeira but nope it was MALAGA! I'm not a big fan of dessert wines, so not up on their names.

Mizzou in the SEC near where I live also has the mascot Truman the Tiger - but no live animal.
My son went to Baylor whose team name is the Baylor Bears and they actually have 2 bears in a habitat on campus that has official zoo status. One of the campus service groups has as part of their work taking the bears away from campus to some land where they can roam free for awhile each week. It's all done in secrecy so a rival school can't come and bear-nap them.
https://www.baylor.edu/bear/index.php?id=947785
I'm thinking Jim Nabors sang at the Indy 500 for a number of years, HG

Thanks Steve and Mark!

Lucina said...

Thank you, Mark and Hahtoolah! You are a Wednesday wonder, Susan. I enjoyed your asides and graphics. LOL at d-o's assessment of the sleeping bag.

MALAGA is a beautiful city with which I am familiar but not its eponymous wine. And I would rather see TORERO which literally means bullfighter than matador which means killer.

A LUI not amoi. Ay! Ay! Ay! French!

TCB was a pure guess; CZAR could also be TZAR and BELA just jumped right into the fray happening inside my head.

My oldest granddaughter loved all the Wimpy KID books.

IrishMiss:
Good pairings!

OwenKL:
It's good to see you today.

Have a splendid day, everyone!

SwampCat said...

Thanks, Mark for this warmly welcomed puzzle with just enough crunch but no real controversy. (I can’t imagine a fight over ALTOS!). Some fun fill like MASTS on the briny, and ADDER. In place of our usual Asp for that ubiquitous snake.

Hahtoolah, great expo! I loved all the comparisons of the duchess of ALBA. Like Lemony, I’m amazed at your restraint over with our Tigers. Yes, other schools have those cats but I think Mike is the only live one on campus. And PETA of course objects. If drawings on cookie boxes upset them, pampered Mike must cause apoplexy.

Owen , both A’s!!

For the CW coincidence file, I chuckled at the discussion of “victualed “ recently. Last night I was reading, innocently, when my author described “a small court, VICTUALED by old servants.”

Who knew?

Misty said...

Well, I was delighted to zip right through the top half of his puzzle, but found the bottom a bit tougher and couldn't quite finish the southeast corner because I never heard of the Olympics coach or the across initials. But no matter, it was still a pleasure--many thanks, Mark, and thanks for stopping by. And thanks for a wonderful write-up, Hahtoolah, with so many great pictures and helpful explanations.

Owen, a great relief to see your poem this morning. Hope you're doing okay. We think about you and worry a bit.

Irish Miss, I really loved your and C.C.'s puzzle and look forward to many more!

Have a great Wednesday, everybody.

Picard said...

Mark McClain thanks for the BLAZing theme and thanks for stopping by!

FIRE is very much on our minds here in California. Yesterday our Sierra Club board meeting was dominated by plans for fire protection and fire fighting. As well as discussion of what is driving the record FIREs. Our group chair was in tears as she recounted her own recent flight from FIRE with her family as her entire neighborhood was destroyed around her.

MALAGA/PGA a double Natick cross for me. Did WAG that correctly to FIR! BELA, STL, EDNA also unknown; ESP solved those!

Never saw the abbreviation TCB before. Anyone else?

Did anyone else think of this Bachman-Turner Overdrive TCB song?

I was a bit of a HAM in my younger days. Searching today there seems to be no solid consensus of the origin of the word HAM.

Why is it "IS IT I"? Seems grammatically incorrect?

Here are my photos from a rather memorable RAIL journey across Costa Rica.

As a child in Europe we were used to travelling by RAIL for any long distance voyage. Even though we owned a car. But some countries are not so adept at running RAIL systems. Costa Rica is one of them.

A landslide had blocked the tracks as you can see in the images starting with 06-16. Some of us passengers got out to help move rocks. The train did not even carry basic tools for such a problem. We did it all with our hands.

Eventually we got back to moving forward. But, because we were now behind schedule the engineer had the brilliant idea to go faster to make up for the lost time. Understand that the train is travelling along a route with no roads anywhere in the area. A steep hill up on one side and a sheer drop on the other side. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe THIS is what could possibly go wrong on such a RAIL journey?

Did I mention there were no tools? No roads for help to arrive on? A way interesting experience.

CrossEyedDave said...

Dnf due to the SE corner.
Could not get Blaze,Czar,Sutra,TCB & Bela...

So, I guess you could say I was OK with 3/4 of the puzzle...

Learning moment: Edgar Kennedy-slow burn

I only knew him from Harpo washing his feet in Edgars Lemonade...

Some interesting facts about water and hydrogen bonds:
is water just polar, or bipolar?

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

One bad square at the xing of MALA-A and P-A, I guessed Fowler was into tennis and plopped in a T. I'll take the one-square FIW after my FLAME out yesterday; as Pop says - 'Close enough for Government work' [and today's a Fed-Holiday; I'm on PTO to listen to #41's homage (and avoid the traffic snarl near the Galleria)].

Thanks Mark for a smooth Wednesday grid. My main hang-up, unlike Misty's, was the North Central - Coven wouldn't fill after SSN went in and I couldn't get past that idea for quite some time; that, and I kept reading 6a as a fight asea.

Wonderfully illustrated expo Hahtoolah. Like D-O, that sleeping bag set me back [I thought it was a shed cocoon or a dissected worm - yeick!]

WOs: el toro [sic], Pedi.
ESPs: MAWR, ALBA, TORERO, BELA, EDNA (seen the movie but couldn't recall the seamstress-for-superheroes' name)
Fav: KID under LAD is cute, but I'll go w/ the Black Ice HAZARD [Key & PEELe, MA, - 3:53]
Runner-up: BTO's TCB [4:30 - live in Vancouver]

{B, B+}

D-O@9:42 - I think TTP knew exactly what he was typing... I LOL'd last night.
IM - You're welcome and LOL! cat-house.

JJM - old timers (in internet-years) know to don our asbestos underwear b/f starting a FLAME war. #vi*

Good to see you back Tin! My Bro said something to me Sunday that reminded me of you(?)
"Drunk? No, I've only had one in dog-beers"

Cheers, -T
*one of the oldest religious wars on the internet is vi v. emacs -- you know where I stand.
//and for making fun of the fun, yeah there's an xkcd comic for that.

Anonymous T said...

Didn't refresh b/f posting says...
Yes, Picard, someone else did think of BTO @TCB :-) -T

waseeley said...

Actually, I think think the K*** Sutra you're referring to actually is 'spiritual'. It's all about control. I think no actual FIRING takes place. I guess some people think masochism is spiritual.

TTP said...


Desper-otto and Anonymous T... Yes, guilty as charged. But if you gotta go while on the road, you might as well go to a place that you know will be clean.

Picard, yes, I've seen and know aboutTCB as an abbreviation, as from this well known song since about 1967. You can scroll to about 1:55 to see the abbreviation while you listen to the Queen of Soul.

Wilbur Charles said...

Billocohoes, I'm reading Hound right now. Apparently, the Neolithic huts are still on the Moor.
The equivalent of a Moi would be a Soi

Yes, on Owen and please upgrade those marks. I liked both
I liked the write-up today. This was that Monday xword people were talking about. No mistakes today but some ink blots.
I thought AUTODIALLING. But even with the extra R too short

WC

Ol' Man Keith said...

Glad to see our great Bard is back! Welcome home, Owen!

Gotta kick outta Hahtoolah's illustrations. That sleeping bag looked creepy, like some insect's larval cocoon.
The MASTed sailing ship was a hoot. Even Nelson's First-Rate HMS Victory only needed three MASTS (plus jibs).
I wonder what a 7-MASTer should be called? A Seventine? Maybe a Septoop?
Imagine trying to crew that many sails...
~ OMK
____________
DR:
One on the flip side, NE to SW.
Today’s anagram refers to a device for luring folk into a Japanese gaming arcade, a …
PACHINKO HOOK”!

Jayce said...

Cool puzzle! I mean HOT puzzle! Some really nice fill. The only thing I wondered about was FACIAL BLAZE because every horse I ever saw that had a blaze, the blaze was on the face. Didn't know a blaze might be located anywhere else. So that entry seems kinda green paintish to me. On the other hand, ALKALINITY is a nifty word and FREE REFILL makes me happy.

Anonymous T said...

Found it! says...

EDNA's "No Cape".

TTP - naaailed it! :-)

OMK -too funny w/ DR repor(t) // w/ apologies to Stephen C.

Cheers, -T

WikWak said...

Very fun puzzle today. Thanks to Mark & Hatoolah. TTP: yep, sometimes that’s why a nap is in order. With the sunspots at nearly the bottom of their 11-year cycle, though, late night propagation hasn’t been too good lately. But I do find other things to do…

Lots of nice long fills and of course I liked the S-O at HAMS. No nits or naticks for me today, just a quick fun ride.

Have a great day, all!

WikWak said...

And I too thought of BTO's TCB the moment I saw the clue. One of mr favorites.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fun puzzle, Mark! Great expo, Susan!

Found this easier than the last two days also. Got the hot time theme only after finishing. Burned through this so fast, I didn't see several clues until the expo.

Never heard of FLAME TROLLING so this held me up a bit.

There were several entries that amused me with the juxtaposition to another: FREE REFILL/PLEASE DO, ICED/HAZARD, CZAR/BELA since he was sort of a gymnastics CZAR for many years.

Rickie Fowler has been a very noticeable golfer. In his younger days, he wore all orange clothing, hat to shoes, in honor of the school colors of his college where he was an amateur champ. Now that he has been PGA successful, he has toned it down a little but still wears orange on Sunday in tournaments I've watched. Can't miss him. Heart-throb handsome & popular with younger set.

Black ice is a HAZARD I can attest to: responsible for my compression fractured 3rd lumbar vertabra in 1995.

When European-owned AIRBUS received US military plane contracts over US company Boeing, there was much ado about it in Kansas where the plane would have been built. KS Senators got stop-orders from congress.

The migraines I used to have were triggered by cigarette smoke or perfumed things or pollens, especially in a small enclosed space. Learned what to avoid. My daughter had "hormone-shower" migraines which were cured by a hysterectomy. Don't expect that latter info will help you guys much.

AnonymousPVX said...

I was able to get this solved without much ado.

Markovers....MAHR/MAWR, ATL/STL....and that was it.

On to Thursday.

Picard said...

AnonT, TTP and WikWak glad you also thought of BTO (Bachman-Turner Overdrive) for TCB (Taking Care of Business).

TTP thanks for the Aretha Franklin RESPECT link for TCB.
"Take care of TCB" is her line. Seems unnecessarily redundant?

I thought someone might ask how the Costa Rica RAIL story ended.
I noticed in my photos one of the Costa Ricans is wearing a STL hat!

From yesterday:
TTP glad that you noticed my reply about the Ecuadorian currency! Panama uses the same currency, too. In Panama they call it a "Balboa".

Picard said...

Jayce can you please explain what you meant by "green paintish"?
Mr Google does not show it as any slang meaning that might be relevant.

Jayce said...

Picard, sure. I was instructed that green paint is a term the denotes crossword fill that is basically a no-no. I'm not totally clear on the concept, but it seems to mean an adjective-noun phrase that is "artificial" or "forced" and "not in the language. once, while working with C.C. on constructing a puzzle (which was rejected, by the way) I think she told me that FAMILY SEDAN was a "green paint" phrase and that a more "normal" and an acceptable phrase would be FAMILY CAR. Rex Parker wrote, on September 5, 2012, "I only just learned the term "GREEN PAINT answer," which, in crossword-constructor-speak, is an answer made up of weak adj./noun pairing. TALL WOMAN, for instance, is not a good puzzle answer. It's certainly a phrase one might say, but it doesn't have enough coherence, conceptually, to be a good crossword answer." So, to me, today's answer of FACIAL BLAZE strikes me as being a green paint entry, for all the above reasons plus the fact that, as far as I know and have ever heard, a blaze is by definition on the face and nobody ever says facial blaze.

Mike Sherline said...

Picard - so how DID they (you?) get the engine back on the tracks? Looks as though you were very lucky it didn't roll over when the wheels came off.

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Mark (thanks for dropping in to shed extra light on the theme) and Hahtoolah.

I moved through this CW steadily, with just a few lulls at TORERO, MALAGA, and A LIU.
I was almost misdirected at Skinny=INFO.

I noted ARE SO, "Yes, fine by me", IS IT I, and "Who, me?".

Yes, Picard, this Canadian immediately thought of BTO's TCB song! You beat me to linking it (and I knew AnonT would think of it also).
That was some RAIL trip in Costa Rica.
(FLN, we ran into landslides in Ecuador, but we were on a bus at night and had an unscheduled stay overnight in a small town. We completed our excursion and returned in daylight. We were horrified to see the curves in the road and the sheer drop to one side - and the crosses marking previous accident fatalities!.)

This Canadian was also trying to squeeze Montreal-based Bombardier into the Airbus spot. Yes PK, government contracts cause much Ado in the competition between AIRBUS, Boeing and Bombardier.

Enjoy the evening.

TTP said...

Picard,

I always thought she sang, "Take care, TCB" but it does sound like there is an "of" in there.

Aretha took some creative liberty with Otis Redding's song, and we're glad she did.

Whoever put that video together didn't get her version of the lyrics quite right in a few places in Aretha's version of R-E-S-P-E-C-T. They write at 30 seconds in, and in the next frame, "I ain't know do you wrong" when the lyrics are really "I ain't gonna do you wrong."

At 1:02, they wrote, "is to give me my profits when you get home" while Aretha really sang, "is to give me my propers when you get home."

Many attribute her use of "propers" in the song to the rise of "props" for proper recognition or acknowledgment. See this article from the Atlantic: Aretha Franklin Finally Gets Credit for the Term She Popularized

PK said...

Picard: I supposed the RAIL trip ended well since you are still alive.

Dudley said...

Oc4beach 10:16 AM - wow, you’ve made me grateful that my symptoms aren’t worse. Honestly I had no idea these ophthalmic events could morph into headaches. The C shape you mentioned is familiar; I get that shape, growing toward the right, consistently. It flickers at what appears to be a constant rate. It’s visible with closed eyes too. I’ve never tried medication.

PK - I’m simply not ready for a hysterectomy. Maybe later. :-)

Lucina said...

Dudley:
LOL! When you are ready for the big H many of us here can offer advice and solace.