google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 Paul Coulter

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Jan 22, 2019

Tuesday, January 22, 2019 Paul Coulter

"Punctuation Matters"

17. Mortgage check, say: PERIODIC PAYMENT

23. Brit's sausage-with-potatoes dish: BANGERS AND MASH.  The only one of the three that might need an explanation.   Bang is another word for the exclamation point in the lexicon of print terminology.   Also know as a screamer  to some printers.  My BIL was one.

49. 42-7, say, in an NFL game: COMMANDING LEAD.  At this point, let's give pause before moving on to the reveal.

58. What ends many a line, and what begins each of the puzzle's three other long answers: PUNCTUATION MARK.

Across:

1. Senegal's capital: DAKAR.  On the west coast of Africa. 

6. Website for techies: CNET.   "CNET tracks all the latest consumer technology breakthroughs and shows you what's new, what matters and how technology can enrich your life. "

10. Talk show runner: HOST.  Run as in manage.  Johnny Carson kept things moving along but frequently had to reschedule guests that were to appear at the end of the program.

14. 2018 romaine lettuce concern: E. coli.  Last time it was a Yuma, Arizona grower.  This time it was linked to a grower in Santa Barbara County, California.   As of January 9, 2019, the FDA continues to investigate, while the CDC reports that the current outbreak appears to be over.

It's not just you: There are more food recalls these days.

15. Drinking glass edges: RIMS.  As shown in this double walled tumbler:
No Coaster Needed
Hey, that gives Tinbeni an idea !  Sans ice, of course.

16. "What's gotten __ you?": INTO.  You have a burr in your britches ?

20. Italian three: TRE.  Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, setto, otto (desper-), nove, dieci.

21. Classified ad abbr.: EEO.  The Commission stresses that Equal Employment Opportunity is the law in the U.S.    The law provides for protection from certain discriminations.

22. "How exciting!": OOH

30. Benelux locale: Abbr.: EURBelgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg location: Europe.

31. Furniture chain also known for Swedish meatballs: IKEA.

32. Wash. Nats' div.: NLE. The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball are in the National League East division.

33. "Encore!": AGAIN.

36. Barbara of TV's "Mission: Impossible": BAIN.

37. Patriarch from Eden: ADAM.

38. Calls on for help: TURNS TO.  Relies on.   Sometimes a family member or trusted friend, sometimes an advisor or subject matter expert.  

40. Stash out of sight: SECRETE.

42. Highland caps: TAMS.  The traditional cap worn by Scottish men.

43. Blockheads: OAFS.

45. "I don't mind eels / Except as meals" poet Nash: OGDEN.

46. __ nutshell: briefly: IN A.  Brief and to the point.  Some are allergic to this concept.  To further elaborate, I can provide a comprehensive and thoroughly detailed explanation that extensively expands on this notion of brevity, from a to z or from top to bottom,  upon request.

47. Had on: WORE.

48. Évian water: EAU.  A natural mineral water drink.

54. Consume: EAT

55. Eggy drink: NOG.  I only know it as eggnog. 

56. Key lime __: PIE.  

64. Citizenship recitation: OATH.

65. Bad day for Caesar: IDES.

66. Intrude rudely, with "in": BARGE.  A barge is a somewhat awkward vessel.  Hard to steer and prone to bumping into things.   Like that unyielding fellow that interrupts an exchange of pleasantries to lecture on the "real" reasons for the current weather conditions.   

67. Cancún cash: PESO.

68. Whirling current: EDDY

69. Pretended to be: ACTED

Down:

1. Cabinet div.: DEPT.   A structure of U.S. government.    "The Cabinet includes the Vice President and the heads of 15 executive departments — the Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, as well as the Attorney General." - Whitehouse.gov 

2. Biting: ACERB.  Is Key Lime pie acerbic ?  I've never had it.  Oh wait, the sarcastic and stinging kind of acerbic.  Never mind.

3. South __, 2018 Olympics site: KOREA.

4. Boxing legend: ALI.   "The Greatest" was full of bravado.

5. 2016 Olympics city: RIO.   Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.   The Kia Rio is a model of a car, as some of us learned in Susan Gelfand's crossword last Wednesday. 

6. Colonial news source: CRIER.   The employment outlook for town criers waned as literacy rates improved.  Now pretty much ceremonial. 

7. Capital of Cyprus: NICOSIA.    Thank you perps. 

8. Old Rom. ruler: EMP eror.

9. Airport screening org.: TSA.   Transportation Security Agency.  Created after the Sept 11 attacks. First placed in the Department of Transportation, but moved to the (then) newly created department of Homeland Security in 2003. 

10. Greeting mouthed to a stadium cam: HI MOM.

11. Like home-run-robbing catches: ONE HANDED. Mike Trout demonstrates.

Pitchers and catchers report in about a month.

12. RR stop: STN.

13. Typical Nick Jr. watcher: TOT.  Programs like these:


18. Venison source: DEER.

19. "Patience you must have" Jedi master: YODA.

24. Bundestag nos: NEINS.  The German Bundestag is the equivalent to the U.S. House of Representatives. 

25. Tries hard (for): GUNS.

26. Part of SWAK: A KISS. Sealed With A Kiss.   This song reminds me of a 53. Mournful song: DIRGE.


27. Endangered Hawaiian goose: NENE.

28. Bluish gray: SLATE.

29. Studly dudes: HE MEN. and: 50. Like 29-Down: MACHO.

 He-Man and Battle Cat 

33. Heirloom storage spot: ATTIC.  If your attic exhaust fan is running in the winter in northern climates, it's probably the humidity sensor turning the fan on.  Heat escaping into the attic causes condensate against the cold roof.  Mold ensues.  The fan should turn on at 45 to 50 % relative humidity to exhaust the moist air.   The fix is to eliminate the heat escapes and to better insulate.

If your HVAC fan is running constantly, change the fan switch on the thermostat from the On to the Auto position.     

34. Organic fertilizer: GUANO.

35. Arsenal contents: ARMAMENTS.   The Rock Island Arsenal Museum has an extensive collection of armament.  It's open to citizens of the U.S. with free admission but you must secure a pass at the Moline gate as it is located on an active military installation.  The Rock Island Arsenal is the second oldest military museum in the U.S.


Can you name the five Quad Cities ?

36. Lumber unit: BOARD.

37. Bicker: ARGUE.

39. SpongeBob, e.g.: TOON.

41. What Frosty's eyes are made of: COAL.   His base may be a surprise...



44. Made a misleading move: FEINTED.

47. "W" on a light bulb: WATT.   Ex Wisconsin Badger and current Houston Texan JJ Watt saying "Hi Mom"

48. Thick & Fluffy waffle brand: EGGO

51. Clamorous: NOISY.

52. In different places: APART.

57. Barely managed, with "out": EKED.

58. Drop by, with "in": POP.

59. Federation in OPEC: UAE.   Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries : United Arab Emirates.

60. One-eighty: UIE.   How do you spell U-Turn ?  How do you spell food on a skewer K-B-BS ?

61. Do simple math: ADD.

62. Org. with Nets ... and nets: NBA.    Great clue with the "...and nets" added in.   The Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association.

63. Dude: MAC.  We'd barely parked the car, and the eager young salesman was rushing out the door to greet us.  Within minutes, he was guiding us to a round table just off the showroom floor.   I think he wanted to skip the part about showing showing us any vehicles and answering any questions, and  jump right into a purchase agreement.   Urged to "grab a seat" I declined because of my back;   standing sometimes helps.   "Whatever you want dude !" came the response.   My wife still chuckles when I say that phrase. 


Note from C.C.:


Happy 73nd Birthday to our constructor and friend John Lampkin, who always delights us with his superb crosswords and amazing nature photos. Thank you for the joy you've brought to us all these years, John!

Lemonade and John

48 comments:

  1. There was a young miss of DAKAR
    Said, "I know what OAFS all men are.
    They think they're all HE-MEN,
    MACHO and in season,
    I know -- but I'll still get in da car!

    Nicolas moved in NICOSIA.
    Told his mother, "I wanna be close ta ya!"
    If it's not what you wish,
    I'll throw you A KISS,
    On a "HI MOM" card that I'll post ta ya!"

    Paul's puzzles we get to know well.
    His clues and answers are swell.
    From life's ills we retreat,
    His crosswords give relief,
    We return, and it's Coulter, then Hell!

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  2. Greetings!

    Thanks to Paul and TTP!

    Only few things were not immediate: NICOSIA, ONE HANDED, NEINS and A KISS.

    It stopped raining for a while!

    Have a great day!

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  3. Thanks, TTP. Great explanation of the clues and entries, as usual. BANG! was Rich's suggestion, much appreciated to finish the set. Owen, I especially liked your last line!

    The evolution of this one shows how much a puzzle can change. The original submission had:

    DASHIELLHAMMETT - Sam Spade's creator

    COLONELSANDERS - Chicken man?

    COMMANDECONOMY - Economic system administered through a central government

    CARETAKERSPEECH - Baby talk

    By the time we were finished, none of these remained. I also tried to get DASHBOARDLIGHTS as a central fifth theme entry into the grid, but I wasn't satisfied with the compromises in the fill this created. By the way, solvers sometimes comment on my preferences in the fill. Usually, though, I'm not trying to put in particular words - it's just whatever works out best. Most people have no idea how difficult it is to fill a grid well. Sunday puzzles, for instance, usually take all weekend to construct. Admittedly, some of the great constructors like C.C. do it a lot better than me.

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  4. While it did not slow the solve, I had no familiarity with the term BANG and wondered how it related to a COMMAN and a PERIOD . PC, thank you for stopping by with sucha detailed insight into the history of theis creation. I am not sure why the other themers were rejected because they alos look fine to me. CARET was tricky.

    EAU next to EAT and UAE followed by UIE - nice.

    TTP, this was a wonderful write-up and Paul you are appreciated here and thanks for your C.C. comment.

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  5. FIR, but erased "Goes for" for "GUNS for". Three fors in four words. Total Natick at NICOSIA x BAIN, but flipped a mental coin between BAIN and BeIN and won for a change.

    Thanks to TTP for the fun write-up. My favorite was your "in a nutshell" example. I always wanted to be the head of the DEPT of Duplication and Redundancy at my job of work.

    GOLF! today for my first time since April. The rust will fly.

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  6. Amusing puzzle with a little crunchiness! WEES about BANG!

    Thanks TTP and Paul (and for stopping in)

    Happy birthday John!

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  7. Oh and I always mix up DAKAR the capital of Senegal with DHAKA the capital of Bangladesh- perps to the rescue!

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  8. FIR w/o help. Just a little crunch to make it interesting. Needed perps for some of this, but there was no unheard of fill. NICOSIA needed three perps. I wondered how BANG was a punctuation mark, thanks, TTP for jogging my memory. I had heard of it, but it was buried too deeply to dredge up. Fun post, TTP.
    I liked watching Mission Impossible with Peter Graves and Barbara Bain many years ago. "Your mission if you choose to accept it..." "This tape will self destruct in ...seconds."
    TTP, unbelievable that someone purposely drove into the giant snowman. Karma.
    Still bitterly cold. I turned the water off at the valve near the meter while I slept. Warming expected this afternoon and 50 on Wed. afternoon. We will soon see if the cold water pipe to the washer holds during the thaw.

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  9. Good morning everyone.

    Nice puzzle today with much fresh fill. Liked seeing DAKAR, NICOSIA and Benelux. Cluing seemed straightforward. FIR.
    BANG - Was used in some Fortran language versions to indicate a comment statement. You would hear BANG (exclamation point) spoken as coders talked to each other.
    15a - RIM - TTP; but how does one clean the space between the walls?
    EDDY - The Niagara whirlpool, a couple kilometers below the Falls, is a well known EDDY. When the Falls flow is reduced from 100000 cfs for Tourist hours to 50000 cfs for Non-tourist hours, the EDDY becomes indistinct.

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  10. Paul, I always enjoy reading your comments. That surely would have been a theme heavy puzzle, but I liked them.

    Happy Birthday, John !

    Jinx, take more balls and swing away !

    Yellowrocks, I know, right ? Karma indeed.

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  11. Good Morning.

    Thanks, Paul, for a fun run. I especially appreciate your comments on part of the construction process. I am fascinated by it. My fave today was the proximity of EAT, NOG, and PIE. High calorie line. :)

    Thanks, TTP, for another witty commentary. I did not know about BANG. I didn't like my students using !!! for emphasis. I wanted them to use words. Like Jinx, I chuckled at your IN A NUTSHELL. !!!! ;) It recalled William Safire's "Fumblerules of Grammar."

    Yes, the photo yesterday reminded me of the very nice lunch we shared with Abejo and Wik Wak. We must do that again this summer. Maybe by then we'll find the other Chicago area folks here on the Corner. I liked that you described me as a "newbie." Is that a synonym for "youngster?" HA!!!!!

    Thank you all (y'all for some of you) for the birthday wishes yesterday. It was part of a very, very nice day.

    Stay cozy. Madame did not get much knitting done yesterday so off to it!

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  12. Misread 24D as nos. (numbers) not "nos" so briefly puzzled

    Didn't know BANG as printers' slang, but remembered there's a mark called the interroBANG that combines the question mark and exclamation point (used for not-quite questions, like "What the hell?!"

    NICOSIA was in the news many years ago due to Greek-Turkish ethnic strife in Cyprus

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  13. Good morning, folks. Thank you, Paul Coulter, for a fine puzzle. thank you, TTP, for a fine review.

    Puzzle worked out fine. Caught the theme after I got 58A. Period and Comma were easy. I had never heard of BANG before to represent an exclamation mark. It does make sense though.

    Liked Paul Coulter's remark about taking an entire weekend to construct a Sunday puzzle. Takes me an entire weekend sometimes to solve one.

    OGDEN Nash was easy. I also worked in OGDEN, Utah.

    Two Olympics answers real close to each other.

    We have an IKEA fairly close, about 18 miles. Get a good breakfast for $1.00.

    Well,I have a meeting to go to. See you tomorrow. My cold is on the down side so I am happy.

    Abejo

    ( )

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  14. Musings
    -I’d definitely say arcane BANG needed to be explained!
    -Unlike apolitical Johnny, talk shows HOSTS today are one-trick ponies
    -Germany’s Von Schlieffen plan through BENELUX was used in WWI and WWII
    -Of course, Ms. BAIN was married to the man to her left in the picture
    -IN A NUTSHELL is a concept my SIL has never gotten!
    -In what song did Elvis speak this, Then came act two, you seemed to change and you ACTED strange, And why I'll never know”
    -I wanted to be a neighborhood CRIER to have them come out at 11pm on Sunday to look at the Lunar Eclipse but…
    -I wonder if Mike and Frank have made the 25-minute drive from their American Archeology store to the Rock Island Arsenal
    -The tens of thousands of beautiful Snow Geese forty minutes from here are NOISY and big producers of GUANO

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  15. Car Salesman Musings
    -A former student of mine is trying to sell me a pickup. He keeps telling me the same joke, “Money is like fertilizer, you have to spread it around” when I see him. I didn’t find it particularly funny the first three times he told it but he persists and I have said nothing. Worst of all, he laughs uproariously every time he tells that “joke” which is something that really grinds my gears!

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  16. Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Paul and TTP.
    Just a little crunch this morning but very enjoyable. I got the theme, but like others did not know BANG.

    I had Goes before GUNS (Hi Jinx!).
    This Canadian wanted Deked to fit into 44D but FEINTED won. (We did have EKED.)
    I always think of EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer) before EEO.
    I thought of Manure before GUANO for "organic fertilizer".
    Perps were required for DAKAR, and the decision between STa or STN.
    I fought today's meaning of SECRETE vs. the more common sweat-associated one.
    I smiled at DIRGE crossing BARGE.
    None of the Jeopardy contestants last night recognized the OGDEN Nash poetry. (Granted, it wasn't the One L Lama.)

    Happy Birthday John.
    Wishing everyone here a great day.

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  17. A very happy birthday, John. I love your masterful puzzles and beautiful photos.
    I always use NOES for the plural of NO. I see NOS is acceptable, too. There is hardly ever only one acceptable way.
    BANG for ! reminds me of Victor Borge’s audible pronunciation skit. Here it is, as well as his even funnier Page Turner. Be prepared for silliness.

    Punctuation
    Page Turner

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  18. Good Morning:

    This was a fun solve with a clever reveal that was a total surprise. Yay! Hand up for not knowing Bang as a punctuation mark but it makes sense. My Mac was a Man for a short while but, other than that, no stumbles. Paul took us on a world-wide tour today: Korea, Rio, Dakar, Nicosia, Eur(ope), Asia (UAE), Scotland (Tams), France (Eau), Mexico (Pesos), Sweden (IKEA), Italy (Tre and Emp), Germany (Neins), England (Bangers and Mash) and finally, home in the USA (Nene and TSA). I always thought Barbara Bain and Martin Landau (married in real life) were a handsome couple.

    Thanks, Paul, for a Tuesday treat and exciting travelogue and for stopping by; I thought your discarded themers were super! Thanks, TTP, for a smile-inducing review and I hope the Grinch who tried to destroy Frosty got a good comeuppance. BTW, the young man in the video looks a little like Ryan Gosling. I should have known your recent absence was due to chores. (Mr. Can't Sit Still! 😉)

    Happy Birthday, John L, hope it's a special day. 🎂🎁🎉🎈🍾

    Owen, all three are A+ IMO.

    Jinx, do you not play golf in the summer and fall?

    Have a great day.

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  19. PUNCTUATIONMARKS hardly ever get front seat attention. Thank you, Paul Coulter, for bringing them forward. Like others, BANG was a mystery to me. It makes sense, though.

    DAKAR was buried deeply in my brain but perps helped. NICOSIA popped right out as did RIO. ONEHANDED and NLE would have been impossible without perps.

    My youngest granddaughter loves SpongeBob, Square Pants so TOON was easy. As was Barbara BAIN. I watched Mission Impossible every week. Loved it and all those characters.

    Happy birthday, John! I look forward to your puzzles.

    Have an excellent day, everyone!

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  20. Thank you, TTP! I enjoy your reviews.

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  21. Misty FLN, this is who you reminded me of
    Elaine

    Also , The Thing was James Arness

    Actually easier today than yesterday. On the Clueing question... I think editors would love to attract the post Boomer set but I don't think the PB's are much interested. CC for one usually has an eclectic* mix of Clueing. Ex.....
    Saturday had two gimmes: ALOMAR for the likes of WC and that hip hop guy. Anon-T did you know MARKIE?

    I've got to go have a second breakfast after all the food references

    WC

    * Talk about a PB word

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  22. Arsenal - - The Watervliet Arsenal is located just across the Hudson and less than a mile away from IM.
    Wiki says: "The Watervliet Arsenal is an arsenal of the United States Army located in Watervliet, New York, on the west bank of the Hudson River. It is the oldest continuously active arsenal in the United States, and today produces much of the artillery for the army, as well as gun tubes for cannons, mortars, and tanks."
    Their web site says they even produce Naval Main Propulsion Shafts.

    Happy Birthday to John Lampkin.

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  23. Always exciting to see a Paul Coulter puzzle, and thanks for checking in with us today, Paul. Always intriguing to learn how puzzles are formed. I did have a bit of trouble with this one, as some others did too, I gather, and finally had to look up NICOSIA. Also BANG just didn't look right, but nothing else would work so I left it in. But it was fun to get the theme pretty early on and I loved filling in PUNCTUATION MARK. So, many thanks for a fun Tuesday puzzle, Paul. Your write-up was great, TTP, and your IN A nutshell commentary was hilarious.

    Have a wonderful birthday, John--delightful picture!

    Wilbur, your photo cracked me up. If I remember correctly, my cigar was white and so didn't look quite so gross.

    Have a great day, everybody!

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  24. Happy Birthday John

    Well tihis was a FUN Tuesday puzzle.

    TTP: Thanks for explaining the "BANG" thingy.

    Enjoyed the RIMS photo ... just wondering "WHY" anyone would "Dilute" their SCOTCH with water. LOL

    Cheers!

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  25. Hi everybody. Thanks Paul and TTP.

    I enjoyed solving this one except for the outlier BANG punctuation mark. I would have preferred any of Paul's alternatives, especially for a Monday puzzle.

    I too was surprised when an Ogden Nash poem stumped those competing on Jeopardy last night.

    Mind how you go.

    ~ Bill G.

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  26. Well I got the solve but didn’t appreciate the puzzle clueing.

    BANG is a punctuation mark?....I guess it is in some technical profession completely unknown to me. Also didn’t like UIE, haven’t seen that. I thought it was UEY.

    MARKOVERS...CRYER/CRIER, UIE/UEY

    And so it goes.....nice that the NFL “might” start looking at blatant idiotic non-calls on the field...I’m still wondering how a “professional” official could possibly miss the 2 infractions in one play right in front of him.

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  27. Fun theme and smoothe solve! I know BANG from computer programming. I have never heard it used elsewhere, though. I smiled when I saw it!

    Here is Weird Al's tribute to YODA!

    In our foothills there is a most peculiar place called The Hermitage. One man lives there alone and collects hilariously funny art. One area of his estate hosts various forms of PUNCTUATION!

    Here are a few views of this Hermitage PUNCTUATION from several different hikes adjacent to the property

    You can see a BANG and a question MARK.

    On one unique occasion the owner opened his property to the public as a fundraiser. I was privileged to spend some time there. I have quite a few photos from the inside of the property. But, oddly, I don't seem to see any PUNCTUATION photos! I may have to do some more searching!

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  28. HG, that joke about money and fertilizer (manure) is a line out of Hello, Dolly!

    The Germans went thru Belgium in WWII, but the maneuvering was quite different. The Allies were ready for a second von S plan, but the Germans outflanked them instead.

    BAIN and Landau were married for 36 years but divorced in 1993.

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  29. Trying to catch up, been out of it for a while...

    Punctuation? I dunno, I think the rules are too strict...

    Happy Belated birthday Madame Defarge! I dunno, this came up on Google, & I/m going with it...

    Happy Birthday John Lampkin! I like your slant on things!

    And, of course, a belated Happy Birthday to the Blog. Missing you Argyle...

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  30. One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

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  31. John Lampkin; happiest of birthdays to our own Renaissance Man. First the blog, now John...cool- birthdays abound!

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  32. Spitz @ 11:38 -- "Their web site says they even produce Naval Main Propulsion Shafts."

    I've heard of getting shafted before, but did not know it was an official, um, er, naval term. "Ahoy, stand by for shafting."

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  33. Annon-PVX @ 12:33 -- "And so it goes.....nice that the NFL “might” start looking at blatant idiotic non-calls on the field...I’m still wondering how a “professional” official could possibly miss the 2 infractions in one play right in front of him."

    Though everyone was aware that the NFL was saving money by cutting the optometrists budget for referees..... The only explanation that makes sense, IMHO.

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  34. Spitz @ 11:38 ~ Thanks for the SO to the Arsenal; my father worked there for 30 years.

    CED @ 1:20 ~ Loved all the cakes but was partial to the one for our dear Argyle.

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  35. Re. " The only explanation that makes sense, IMHO."

    I hope I'm not repeating something I've posted earlier. But.. Officiating must be separated from ownership control. Maximizing Super bowl profit is simply good business. Was that judge aware that an LA Tean was preferred. Did last year's "local" SB "disappoint?". These questions cannot be out there. That's your answer. The only answer.

    WC

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  36. I liked Paul's punctuation theme today. I didn't catch it until the reveal clue, though. It was a real BANG-up job. TTP put a lot of thought and effort into describing the grid with words, punctuation, pictures and videos. Bravo!

    It did take me a few minutes longer than my usual Tuesday time, but I didn't have to look anything up or use Red Letters.

    In TTP's image for 15 Across, what do you see as the hidden image in the ice cube. Is it a take off of the Edvard Munch "Scream"?

    Abejo FLN: State College, PA. About 85 miles from Johnsonburg, PA.

    The temperature started out below zero in this part of Central PA this morning, but has risen to a balmy 25º by 4:00 pm. Freezing rain predicted for tomorrow morning.

    Have a great day everyone.



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  37. Michael @ 1343 - Our destroyer had 2 counter-rotating main propulsion shafts - 30000 HP each. Attack aircraft carriers have 4 shafts.

    Organic fertilizer - GUANO - The dictionary gives the definition as "the excrement of seabirds and bats, used as fertilizer."
    We used organic fertilizer, too, but it was called cow manure. Cows are high producers of the stuff. We occasionally used chicken manure. Although from birds, they weren't sea birds so, no GUANO. You could always tell where the chicken manure was spread in the corn field because the corn grew 2 feet taller and was even darker green.

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  38. Dear Spitz:

    These propellor shafts have to be amazing engineering feats ... the Nimitz-class carriers weigh in at around 97,000 tons, and can achieve 30 knots ... even across 4 shafts that is still a large chunk of torque per propulsion shaft.

    I was just playing with the pun.

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  39. Hi All!

    Thanks Paul for PUNCTAING my day with the puzzle and for stopping by The Corner. Gridding is hard; last I tried, I keep painting myself into impossible corners.

    IN A Nutshell, fun expo TTP. //the pontification was pretty funny :-)
    Also thanks for spelling out SWAK and what Benelux meant.

    WO: Goes b/f GUNS (hi Jinx!, C,Eh!)
    ESPs: NICOSIA, EAU, EUR
    Fav: I giggled at "Bad day for Caesar," a bit of an understatement, no?
    Other fun: EGGO xing Egg NOG, clue for YODA, and just saying BANGERS AND MASH

    Like Spitz (and Picard) pointed out, I think most computer folks call ! a bang. We also call a # sharp (or hash). Unix shell scripts start with a sharBang like so:
    #! /usr/bin/perl

    {A, B, A}

    WC - No I did not know MARKIE; I'm not much into hip-hop though.

    The best kind of Karma is instant Karma; You don't have to say anything as smug quickly TURNS TO rue.

    Happy Birthday John L.!

    Cheers, -T

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  40. Ta ~DA!
    This was fun. Thanks, Paul Coulter!

    Today I learned BANG is acceptable for the exclamation point. It is probably a British thing, as they are more likely than we are to go for the short 'n sweet. It's an Anglo-Saxon thing, as distinct from their Norman-French legacy.
    Appropriate, too, that it would show up as the lead into BANGERS AND MASH.
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    PS. Thanks, Yellowrocks, for the Victor Borge link. Nobody was ever funnier. Lovely accent & impeccable timing.

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  41. Wilbur: FLN my poem was about The Thing in the Fantastic Four ("Orange skin a disaster")
    (1967-70 animated) Paul Frees
    (1978 animated) Ted Cassidy
    (1994) Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm
    (1994) Carl Ciarfalio as the Thing
    (1994-96 animated) Chuck McCann
    (2004, 2007) Michael Chiklis
    (2015) Jamie Bell

    ReplyDelete
  42. Bang has been around for a while, e.g.

    STOP YELLING!!!!!!!!!!!!
    By Madeleine Begun Kane (9/26/2010)

    Those points that are meant to exclaim
    Often bug me. Yes, bangs seem quite lame.
    I abuse them, at times,
    When excited by rhymes!!!!
    But usage that’s spare is my aim.

    Going back a bit further, the following poem appeared in the May/June 1990 issue of Infocus magazine. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

    < > ! * ' ' #
    ^ " ` $ $ -
    ! * = @ $ _
    % * < > ~ # 4
    & [ ] . . /
    | { , , SYSTEM HALTED

    Waka Waka Poem Transliterated

    Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
    Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
    Bang splat equal at dollar underscore,
    Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
    Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
    Pipe curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

    ReplyDelete
  43. I am proud to be a Yuman
    Yuma County is the winter lettuce capital of the world, supplying a whopping 90% of the nation's leafy vegetables between November and March. All in all, the area produces more than 175 different crops and seeds.


    ReplyDelete
  44. Michael @ 1558 - - Top speed of the nukes is classified; "in excess of 30 knots" is the phrase seen a lot. The WWII Essex class carriers like the Yorktown (CV-10) had a top speed of ~33kts. My ship could do about 36 kts with a clean bottom.
    To me the key device to transmit the propeller thrust into the ship's motion is the Kingsbury thrust bearing which would be at the head of each shaft.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Owen, I was talking about this
    THING
    I liked that poem . Subject to use old typist lingo: The top (level) keys. The true professional typist had to master the top level of keys(@#$_&-+.. ) with the shift key depressed

    WC


    ReplyDelete
  46. Oh, I knew which Thing you meant, just wasn't sure you knew mine!

    (1951) James Arness
    (1982) Jed (the dog)
    (2011) ? CGI ?

    And then there is Thing T. Thing from the Addams Family, usually played by Ted Cassidy, who also played the lugubrious butler Lurch. In the movies Christopher Hart, and Steven Fox in the 1998 reboot.

    ReplyDelete

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