google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, January 23, 2019 Roland Huget

Advertisements

Jan 23, 2019

Wednesday, January 23, 2019 Roland Huget

Theme: Every Snowflake Is Different!  What I love about this claim is that it is not testable.  In today's puzzle, the claim is that for each multi-word theme entry, every letter is different.  This is testable, so let's get our deerstalker hats and magnifying glasses and have a go at it.

20 A. 2011 Steve Carell romcom: CRAZY STUPID LOVE.  Careful inspection confirms that each letter is, indeed, unique.  I am not a fan of the genre.  The presence of Jennifer Aniston in a movie's cast is enough to make me say, "No, thanks," no matter how cute she is.  But this movie has Julianne Moore supported by an all-star cast.  I'm actually rather fond of this flick.

34 A. Rickety abode: TUMBLE DOWN SHACK.  Not a phrase you're likely to encounter in daily conversation, but the meaning is clear enough. Reminds me of my mom's humble beginning in rural south-east Ohio. Searching through all the rooms - and even the outhouse - I was unable to find even one duplicated letter.  So far, so good,

41 A. "Stop whining!": DON'T BE SUCH A WIMP.  Do WIMPS duplicate letters?  Not here they don't! Not on my watch! Does this phrase foster toxic masculinity? I'll just leave that as food for thought.

53 A. Neither 20-, 34- nor 41-Across has any: REPEATED LETTERS.  Is it my hyper-active sense of irony that notes the repeated Rs, Es and Ts in the unifier?  Well - be that as it may, we do have a clever and unique theme, aptly described, with four grid-spanning entries, and that is only a J and a Q away from being a pangram. Yes, I also love run-on sentences.

Hi, Gang.  Inspector JazzBumpa here looking under cushions and dusting for prints.  Let's see what we can find.

Across:

1. Soft ball: NERF.  A toy brand created by Parker Brothers and now owned by Hasbro.  The product line is mostly foam-based items, like balls and weaponry.  Mostly harmless, I suppose.

5. Berkshire Hathaway headquarters city: OMAHA.  A multi-national conglomerate run by Warren Buffet.  Note the repeated A.

10. Greenish-yellow pear: BOSC.  A European cultivar that originated in France, now grown in many locations in Europe and North America.

14. Mine, in MontrĂˆal: AMOI. They speak French there.  I visited the city once, back in the early 80's.  It was wonderful.

15. Chicano rock band Los __: LOBOS.  It means The Wolves.




16. "Enchanted" girl in a 2004 film: ELLA.  Not your typical RomCom.



17. Hors d'oeuvre cracker: RITZ.  Nabisco product introduced in 1934, the depth of the depression, to offer their customers "a bite of the good life."

18. Lose tautness: DROOP.  Sag, limply hang down.

19. Logician's error, maybe: LEAP.  One step should lead logically to the next.

23. Slangy affirmative: YEH. Unhuh.

24. Light beam: RAY.  Heavy beams are used in construction.

25. Poseidon's realm: SEA.  In Greek mythology, the god of the sea, storms, earthquakes and horses.  Horses?  How did they get in there?  Anyway, He was one of the most ill-tempered, moody and greedy Olympians.

28. Lav, in Bath: LOO.  Comfort station, to be delicate.

30. Zero in: AIM.  Focus attention on something.

31. Federal bldgs. with mailboxes: POSPost Offices.  Though I imagine other Fed bldgs. might also have mailboxes.

38. Diva's time to shine: ARIA.  Solo vocal feature in a longer musical work such as an opera or oratorio.

39. Savings plan inits.: IRAIndividual Retirement Account.

40. Fair-haired sci-fi race: ELOI.  One of two post-human races of the far distant future in The Time Machine, from 1895 by H. G. Wells

46. Chinese menu surname: TSO.  Generally speaking.

47. Put away: EAT.  Consume at the dinner table.

48. Pine-__: cleaning brand: SOL.  A registered trade mark of Clorox.  From its inception in 1929 until 2016 it contained pine oil.  Then the product was cheapened to increase profitability.

49. Old Nintendo game console: Abbr.: NES.  The classic Nintendo Entertainment System was released in 1985.

50. UFO pilots, supposedly: ETSExtra-Terrestrials.  I suspect they took one look at us, shook their hairless, crenellated heads, and just kept on going.

51. Nintendo game console: Wii.  The letters don't stand for anything.  Instead, the two lower case is are intended to represent gamers together, reinforcing the "we" pronunciation of the item's name

62. Similar in nature: AKIN.  Derived from the word "kin" meaning related by blood.

63. Online biz: E-TAIL.  Electronicized retail.  Is this a portmanteau?

64. Compete for the America's Cup: SAIL.  This Cup is the prize awarded to the winer of a race between yachts, so named because the original winner in 1851 was the schooner America.  Any qualifying yacht club can challenge the current cup holder, at a place and time determined by mutual agreement.  The winner retains the cup until defeated.

65. Fish catchers: NETS.

66. Art class subjects: NUDES.   Unclothed models.

67. Stubborn sort: MULE.  A sterile beast of burden, bred from a male donkey and a female horse.  By extension, a person who acts as stubborn as one.

68. Aussie greeting: G-DAY.  Short mouth for "good day."

69. Part of LED: DIODE.  An electrical component that only allows current flow in one direction.

70. Marked for deletion: EXED. X marks the spot - and not in a good way.

Down:

1. DEA operative: NARC. The Drug Enforcement Agency employs NARCotic agents to enforce the relevant laws.

2. House of Saud bigwig: EMIR.  A title for various rulers of Arabic Muslim countries.

3. Duty roster: ROTA.  Derived from the Latin word for wheel.  I imagine this might indicate that the jobs rotate.  But I'm just guessing.

4. Like soda pop: FIZZY.  Bubbly, due to carbonation.

5. Part of a comfort simile: OLD SHOE.  I found a proverb I wasn't familiar with: "Old shoes are easy, old friends are best."  So, an OLD SHOE is something or someone you are unquestionably at ease with.

6. Mad Magazine cartoonist Drucker: MORT.  He was born in 1929, started with Mad Mag in 1956 and continued with them for 55 years.  I loved Mad when I was a kid, and his satirical drawings of pop culture icons was a part of it.

7. Leigh Hunt's "__ Ben Adhem": ABOU.  A poem with a sweet message, that you can read here.

8. Earring style: HOOP.  A round dangling ornament.


9. "Take two __ and call me ... ": ASPIRIN.  Cliched expression representing being shrugged off by an uninterested doctor.

10. Kind of dancer: BELLY.


A brief how-to video

11. Breakfast spread: OLEO.  An ersatz butter substitute made from vegetable oil, also called margarine.

Also a jazz standard written by Sonny Rollins in 1954, to the same chord progression as the Gershwin classic tune I've Got Rhythm.



12. Balkan native: SLAV.   Members of an Indo-European ethnolinguistic group.  There are three geographic sub-groups, Eastern, Western and Southern.  Balkan natives are in the Southern sub-group.

13. Superman accessory: CAPE.  Dracula, too - but not always a good idea.



21. Holler: YELL.  Produce a loud vocalization.

22. Beaver creations: DAMS.

25. Town, in Germany: STADT.  Literal.

26. Irish banknotes: EUROS.  Unaffected by Brexit, Ireland remains in the E. U.

27. Protein-building acid: AMINO.  An organic compound containing both amine and carboxylic acid functionality. These are active groups that can react with each other, and therefore build long chain molecules.  Due to its alternating vowels and consonants, it is also a frequently useful building block for crosswords.

29. Poet with dedication?: ODIST.  One who writes an ode - a lyric poem, usually in an elevated style, in the form of an address to a particular subject.  I suppose some dedicatio is required to achieve this.

30. Military plane acronym: AWACS. Airborn Warning and Control System - designed to detect various kinds of vehicles at long distances and perform command and control functions in a battle engagement.

31. McCain's running mate: PALIN.  'Nuff said.

32. "__, all ye faithful ... ": O COME.  Opening of a famous Christmas carol.

33. Decides not to attend: SKIPS. As a school class or social event.

35. Baseball club: BAT.  The smooth, tapered wooden club used to strike the ball.  An ambiguous clue, since an organized team is also called a club.

36. Tulsa sch. named for an evangelist: ORUOral Roberts University, an interdenominational Christian university founded in 1963, and named for its founder.

37. Use an axe on: HEW.  Chop.

42. Test version: BETA. A software version with a limited distribution for testing, prior to public release.

43. London area that includes Canary Wharf: EAST END.  You can read about it here.

44. "Is there another way?": HOW ELSE.  Searching for alternatives.

45. Landed: ALIT.  Descended from above.

50. Itty: EENSY.  Teeny tiny.

52. Answer at the door: IT'S ME.  Truthful, no matter who says it.

53. Pealed: RANG.  Loudly, as in a bell in a bell tower.

54. Scratched (out): EKED.  Got by with difficulty.

55. Pocket bread: PITA.  From the Greek word for a pastry.  In this context, a flat, hollow, unleavened bread that can be split open and filled.

56. Small decorative case: ETUI.  From an Old French word meaning: something shut up, as a prison; then by the 17th century, a small container.

57. Carpentry groove: DADO.  A flat, parallel-sided groove cut into a board so that it may be attached to the edge of another board.

58. Wasn't honest: LIED.  Made an intentionally false and misleading statement.

59. French waters: EAUX. Literal.

60. Stir up: RILE.  Early 19th century variant on ROIL, meaning to aggravate, bother, annoy, or make water muddy by disturbing the sediment.

61. Malamute's burden: SLED.  The malamute is a large domestic dog bred for strength and endurance to haul heavy loads, and therefore dog SLEDS.  It is closely related to the Siberian Husky and the Alaskan Husky, but not the Canadian Eskimo dog nor the Greenland dog.

That wraps up another Wednesday.  And true to the theme, every answer was unique.

Cool Regards,
JzB



35 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to Roland and JazzB!

Only unknown was AWACS!

Have a great day!

OwenKL said...

A migrant fruit-picker names Boz
Tried not to RILE his boss.
But when branches DROOP
He'd EAT of the fruit --
His favorites were pears known as BOSC!

When the WII took over from the NES.
Some thought the transition a mess.
When things first see light,
They seldom are right,
And that's why they do BETA beta-tests!

{B, B-.}

Anonymous said...

I believe YEH is a misspelling of YEAH, not a generally accepted alternative spelling

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I played hooky yesterday -- district tax meeting, Meals-on-Wheels route, and meeting with a plumber to repair an underground water leak. Turned out to be a warranty repair, since they'd installed that outdoor faucet just a few months back.

Don't think I've ever seen a theme of missing items before. Naturally, d-o didn't get it. But the only over-write was ROIL to RILE, right at the end. Thanx, Roland and JzB. (Maybe those were SEA horses?)

AKIN: In order to qualify as "head of household" a single person must be akin to the qualifying relative. Just having a kid live with you isn't sufficient.

ORU: Oral was a TV preacher. We used to crack ourselves up by putting our hands on the TV screen and intoning, "Heal! Heal!" (We were easily cracked up.)

DADO: I've got a Stacked DADO Set for my table saw. By sandwiching chippers and shims you can cut DADOs from 1/4"-7/8" wide.

OLD SHOE: Reminded me of this scene from Wag The Dog (0:55). They needed an "old shoe" song, so they wrote one, recorded it as a 78, and sneaked it into the National Archives where an enterprising TV reporter could find it.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased ELsA for ELLA, ABdU for ABOU, and EAUs for EAUX.

I can't remember if I coined this or robbed it, but one of my favorite sayings is "look before you LEAP or you may jump to conclusions".

Strictly speaking, a shooter must "zero in" his/her sight BEFORE aiming. It originally meant reducing sight error to zero by making adjustments in the scope or other aiming device. But as YR reminds us, the language evolves as has this idiom. When I teach project management I warn students about the hazards of using lingo when speaking because recipients may not understand the intended meaning, like "zero in", "do an end run", "it's a slam dunk", "table stakes", and the like.

Fun puzzle, Richard. How the heck did you come up with the "no repeats Wednesday" theme? I especially liked "baseball club" for BAT. Thank you for not cluing AWACS as "spy plane" as lesser constructors have. And thanks to JzB for yet another fine review. I was a big Mad Mag fan until I was old enough to understand the National Lampoon (buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog).

FLN - Irish Miss, the heat and humidity in the summer in Norfolk are too oppressive for golf. In the fall, seems like I'm teaching, we are camping, or seeing docs every day. Especially last year with DW's breast cancer episode. But this year will be different (as I say every year).

Oas said...

Good morning all.
Thanks Roland and JazzBumpa.
Easier than yesterday I found .
Only two write overs Serb to SLAV and Eaus to EAUX.
Have a hreat day Spring is comming!!

jfromvt said...

A perfectly symmetrical grid, which is tough to do. Fairly easy puzzle I thought, with a lot of three and four letter answers. But the theme had to be hard to construct, so kudos to Ronald.

Lemonade714 said...

A theme that was brand new with three grid-spanner themers and a grid-spanning reveal was impressive. Using 15 different letters is certainly impressive.

Nice CSO to Gary with OMAHA I am familiar with OLD SHOE being a symbol of comfort and learned DADO doing puzzles.

I will leave you with this TUMBLE DOWN SHACK recorded 100 years ago.

Big Easy said...

It was definitely a fast fill today, even with a lot of unknowns filled by perps. The theme? No idea as REPEATED LETTERS was filled by perps before I read the clue.

The movies CRAZY STUPID LOVE & Enchanted and Steve Carell ELLA- all unknowns but an easy fill even with the unknowns ROTA, MORT Drucker, and ABOU. LEAP, YEH I was clueless on that one too. Usually it' YEAH or YEP.


desper-otto, ORU- there's a local charlatan who can give him a good run for the money. He has two jets and last year he told his parishioners that God told him he needed $54 Million for a bigger jet. Oh, and he already has a 36,000 sq ft house.

https://www.google.com/search?q=jesse+duplantis+house&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=J8AdnEmo5uiUHM%253A%252CLpR_Tb0nkyB-3M%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRWZqKzYFxZssGWKgIeHAR4b90tfQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjMzNzgjITgAhVGnKwKHZ_ZDz8Q9QEwAXoECAAQBg#imgrc=J8AdnEmo5uiUHM:

Sunday afternoon, after I left the party, I saw an AWACS plane circling the area as it was lining up to land in Belle Chase. The Saints had probably hired it to try to find the referees that blew the NON-CALL.

Unknown said...

Fun puzzle!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Got the them fill easily, but it didn't do much for me. Had Serb before SLAV. No searches and only the afore-mentioned strikethrough were needed.
HEW - AKIN to German hauen.
STADT - Growing up, I got to hear a lot about Dörp (village), and Ort (hamlet or crossroads), too.

OwenKL said...

Pretty much the same w/os as everyone else. Didn't see the theme until I gave in and looked at the reveal. Even then, I thought it was just about doubled letters, like bookkeeper or the B in shibboleth, which I thought was a awfully lame theme. It wasn't until I got here that I discovered that it meant anywhere in the phrase!

Yellowrocks said...

I solved this is in a little more time than my usual Wed experience. Fun, Roland, always informative and interesting, Jazz.
CRAZY and LOVE were needed to remember STUPID. Not my cuppa, but I have heard of it.
I had stud earrings, then loop, then hoop. Berkshire Hathaway is always in the news, but I couldn't think of it. OMAHA was all perps.
The H in OLD SHOE was my last fill. I know the simile, but it does not come readily to mind because I don't find old shoes comfortable, nor do I find new shoes comfortable. I prefer them just broken in and not broken down.
YEP before YEH. YEH and YEAH are given the same treatment in the dictionaries, nonstandard spelling of yes. I often have seen both in writing. Neither is used in formal writing or even in newspapers.
I am listed on many a ROTA. It is easier to recruit volunteers for a rota than for heading up the whole shebang.
LEAP to conclusions was easy. I know many people, some of them in high places, who leap to confusions.
25A, I loved the film, the Poseidon Adventure and have seen it several times. I especially liked Shelley Winters' role in it.
Moderating temperatures yesterday and today. My washer is still giving the code for no cold water (frozen pipe). If that continues this afternoon with the temps rising to the 50's, I would suppose that the electronics in the washer are not resetting. I tried unplugging it for 20 minutes with no change. I do have a service contract, but if the problem is a frozen line and not the washer, I would have to pay for the call.
Coming home just before 5 pm yesterday I was delighted to see it was still light. Spring is on the way!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-The first and last fill had all the vowels once but the middle fill, not so much
-Me too on Anniston, Jazz
-One of Mom’s favs was Shanty In Old Shanty Town with the lyric “a TUMBLED down shack by an old railroad track”
-I’m headed to 5 Across today on a bright winter’s day
-LEAP – All birds have beaks, An octopus has a beak, Ergo, an octopus is a bird
-Name that tune - “If you hate to go to school, you might grow up to be a MULE”
-MORT and Mad fed my penchant for sarcasm
-My niece SKIPPED graduation ceremonies at UNL like I did at UNO
-I watched GRAVITY on AMC yesterday and the descent/reentry from space scene was a gripping 4 minutes (It contains EENY but not EENSY)

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I enjoyed this fresh concept which kept me in the dark until the reveal. My only unknown was Mort and my only w/o was Eaus/eaux. Nice big CSO to HG at Omaha. Four grid spanners are quite impressive, especially these with no repeated letters.

Thanks, Roland, for a mid-week challenge and thanks, JzB, for the witty review. I enjoyed reading your reviews of "Crazy Stupid Love" and "Julie and Julia." I liked the latter very much, particularly the performances of Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci.

Jinx, I never gave a thought to where you live but now I understand. We spent several summers in Florida, so I know what continuous high humidity is.

Have a great day.

desper-otto said...

YR, there should be a pair of hoses connecting the washer to your home's supply manifold, which should have a pair of shutoff valves. Turn the cold water valve off and disconnect the hose at the manifold. Now, hold a pail in front of the manifold and crack open the shutoff valve. If you're getting water, then your pipes are not frozen.

Abejo said...

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

Puzzle went through quite easily. A few snags on the way but perps helped.

Caught the theme after I got 53A. Then I went back and checked the three long ones and sure enough, no repeated letters. Very clever.

Liked ABOU for 7D. ABOU BEN ADHEM is my favorite poem of all time. Every now and then I read it.

ELLA for 16A was unknown. Perps.

JZB: Thanks for the clarification of WII. I never knew that. Now I do.

Have to run. Lots of snow last night and this morning. Had freezing rain yesterday afternoon. That was treacherous.

See you tomorrow. Then tomorrow night off to Pennsylvania.

Abejo

( )

Abejo said...

oc4beach: Saw your note from yesterday. I know exactly where you are. I have been to State College several times through the years. And you are correct on the distance from Johnsonburg. Nice to hear from you.

Abejo

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and JzB.
I got the theme and was impressed. But officially DNF because of the Natick (for me) of OMAHA and LOBOS, plus my moving from Stud to Drop and never arriving at HOOP earrings!

Hand up for changing Slav to SERB, Eaus to EAUX, and Roil to RILE.
I confidently entered NERF today, and debated over RITZ or HiHo crackers. I am remembering previous CWs!
We had French (A MOI, EAUX), Spanish (LOBOS), German (STADT), Italian/Latin (ARIA), Aussie (GDAY) and British (LOO) today.

I had not realized until all the recent Brexit discussion that there is a distinct difference between the independent Republic of Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. Today's clue "Irish banknotes:EUROS. Unaffected by Brexit, Ireland remains in the E.U." might have been more accurate as "Republic of Ireland banknotes" as Northern Ireland's Irish banknotes are Pounds. And it is the Republic that will remain in the EU. but not Northern Ireland. Much discussion abounds as to the effect on the border that will result.
NoDealBrexitMeansHardIrishBorder

While I am edging onto the verboten political scene, even this Canadian knew that the choice of 31D EXED the election possibility of her running mate and was Rued.

Enjoy the day.
LOL HuskerG - I haven't thought of that one for a while.
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Roland and JzB.
I got the theme and was impressed. But officially DNF because of the Natick (for me) of OMAHA and LOBOS, plus my moving from Stud to Drop and never arriving at HOOP earrings!

Hand up for changing Slav to SERB, Eaus to EAUX, and Roil to RILE.
I confidently entered NERF today, and debated over RITZ or HiHo crackers. I am remembering previous CWs!
We had French (A MOI, EAUX), Spanish (LOBOS), German (STADT), Italian/Latin (ARIA), Aussie (GDAY) and British (LOO) today.

I had not realized until all the recent Brexit discussion that there is a distinct difference between the independent Republic of Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland. Today's clue "Irish banknotes:EUROS. Unaffected by Brexit, Ireland remains in the E.U." might have been more accurate as "Republic of Ireland banknotes" as Northern Ireland's Irish banknotes are Pounds. And it is the Republic that will remain in the EU. but not Northern Ireland. Much discussion abounds as to the effect on the border that will result.
NoDealBrexitMeansHardIrishBorder

While I am edging onto the verboten political scene, even this Canadian knew that the choice of 31D EXED the election possibility of her running mate and was Rued.

Enjoy the day.
LOL HuskerG, I haven't thought of that one for a while.
Swinging

Lucina said...

Thank you, Roland Huget, for a unique kind of puzzle! And thank you, JazzB, for a jazzy review which enlightened me on WII as well as some other data and amused me as well.

My only w/o was EAUs/EAUX and I misread 39A and had IRS instead of IRA. Otherwise, I sailed through the grid in good time.

As for the theme, unless I don't understand it, (which is entirely possible) I see a T in 20A and one in 41A; also, L is repeated at LOVE and TUMBLED. Does that violate the theme or am I missing something? It wouldn't be the first time.

Have a delightful day, everyone!

CrossEyedDave said...

Thought I finished it right...

Wrong!

My slangy affirmative was "Yep!"
Making 5d. Part of a comfort simile: OLD SPOE.?
(I dunno, thought it was Edgar Allen related...)

My other headscratcher was Ella, This is what I thought it was...
Which actually had a great finale, (with Monty Python Cameos...)
in which you find out Anne Hathaway has great legs!

Gotta walk the Dog, be back to play later...

Oh, almost forgot! Mort Drucker! Artist Unparalleled.

Misty said...

Well, I enjoyed working on this clever Roland Huget puzzle, and had trouble only in the top middle and top east. Like others, I too had SERB before SLAV and, down below, forgot to put the X in EAUX until EXED popped up. I got ORU because I lived in Tulsa when Oral Roberts University was still new. And it took me a while to remember PALIN as the name of McCain's running mate even though I could picture her. So, many thanks, Roland, for a fun solve, and many thanks, JazzB, for your always delightful commentary.

Liked your first poem, Owen.

Very interesting discussion on Ireand, CanadianEh--I hadn't gotten the complete picture of the current situation there.

Have a great day, everybody.

Lemonade714 said...

Lucy, each of the three 15 letter themers uses 15 different letters in that particular fill, but not different from the other themers

Picard said...

This was quite a construction feat, I would think! A challenge for the constructor, but a breeze for us solvers.

Until I realized I forgot to fix EAUs to EAUX to FIW. Argh. My French teachers would not be happy! Still, a fun solving experience!

Unknowns: Enchanted/ELLA, Steve Carell/CRAZY STUPID LOVE.

Not sure if anyone looked at my PUNCTUATION photos yesterday from our quirky Hermitage. I mentioned that I had very privileged access to this very private place full of hilarious art. That no one ever sees!

Here is MAD Rushmore which is a real mini-mountain art piece at the Hermitage!

I thought it was hilarious, but you will have to judge for yourself. I have several BELLY dancer friends who put on shows in our area.

Here I was with one of my favorite BELLY dancer friends Cris! Basimah at our French Festival

Yes, she actually spells her name with a BANG! Take that, Mark Twain from yesterday!

AnonT thanks for the further elaboration of BANG yesterday.

In one of my college classes, an unusually creative professor told us a more generalized definition of DIODE. He said it is any two terminal device with a non-linear transfer function (voltage-current relationship in this case). It got me thinking outside the box. I should note that it was in a biology class!

We have had AWACS recently as noted by Jinx clued... differently. In 1981 Reagan sold AWACS planes to Saudi Arabia and it was huge news and hugely controversial at the time. Does anyone else remember that?

Anonymous said...


SHANTY IN OLD SHANTY TOWN
But thought of this one first...
WAYWARD WIND

AnonymousPVX said...

A nicely done Wednesday puzzle, complete with a theme with no giveaways.

Markovers...YEP/YEH, ....(such a)BABY/WIMP.

Amazing how the NFL remains successful despite shooting themselves in the foot at any given opportunity. Don’t forget, “only the best people” are given the chance to ref in the playoff games. Don’t you find that reassuring?

Jake Jarmel said...

Well, maybe I dont use my exclamation points as haphazardly as you do.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I'd forgotten about ORU until it popped up today. Reminded me of a co-worker years ago, the only man I knew who was a graduate of ORU.
A rather silly person, as I recall.

Ta ~ DA!
An enjoyable pzl, the kind that helps you remember via perps many half-forgotten fills. Well done, Mr. Huget!
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Wow! Abbondanza! A rare abundance of diagonals today. 3-ways on both the near and mirror sides!
Do you find spiders creepy?
There is an anagram on the far-side diagonal that may add an eerie element to your arachnophobia.
Spiders normally have eight ugly–angled legs with which to climb stealthily on your face or body. Imagine now if they had a ninth limb--the longest and ugliest yet--to help them creep about your cringing flesh.
Wouldn’t that be the
CRAWLIEST LEG” of all?!

Lucina said...

Lemonade:
Thank you. Maybe I overthought it.

Picard:
Lovely pics of the belly dancers. In the 70s on a trip to Morocco we attended a belly dance show with costumes similar to the one Cris! is wearing but with harem pants and many tinkling bells. It was impressive.

What material is the funny Mt. Rushmore made of? That is amusing.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle. Also entered SERB before SLAV and YEP before YEH.

Becky said...

Anonymous @ 12:51 We lived in Bryan / College Station TX for a small time (my dad was a relief man for the FAA) and had a neighbor who NEVER stopped playing The Wayward Wind. I still remember all the lyrics. It became quite a family joke. We all can start singing it at the drop of a hat. Well, not my parents, they're gone. But I had the same memory as you at tumbledown shack.

Becky

D4E4H said...

Dear Cornerites,

Thanks to each of you who have encouraged me to get better.
A group of 3 cards mailed on 1-14, and 1-15 reached me on this important day. I came out of my sling today, and can now use both arms. I expect to continue in Rehab till mid Feb.

Gotta go to supper now.

Dave

Husker Gary said...

Musings 2
-Twenty lashes with a wet noodle for those of you who did not know OMAHA - The home of Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway :)
-Even Disney has a belly dancer in its Morocco Pavilion at EPCOT
-My favorite sports analyst said the referees were told to "call nothing" this past weekend because the NFL had complaints about the record number of penalties during the regular season

Picard said...

D4E4H welcome back! Please keep us posted!

Lucina thank you for the kind words about my video and photos of Cris! and the other BELLY dancers. Way cool you got to experience this in Morocco. In my month of travels there I never saw BELLY dancing.

As for the MAD Rushmore, I think it was made of plaster. I am happy you enjoyed it!

I just went to my storage unit to dig out my original photos at the Hermitage. It seems there was a problem with my camera as some key photos are half blacked out. That is probably why I can't find any with the PUNCTUATION MARKs.

But I am grateful for the photos there that did come out. The guy has a most unique sense of humor. And, as a hermit, no one ever gets to see any of it!

Husker Gary thank you for that BELLY dancing clip. She is quite skilled indeed! And OMAHA was a gimme for me. Some of my life savings is with Mr Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Roland for the twist of a theme today. Fun little 15 LETTER phrases.

JzB - what a Thesis today! :-) Enjoyed the expo.

WOs: Serb b/f SLAV, loop b/f LEAP, ExED b/f EKED and EAUs b/f EXED. Oh, And I spelled it ASPRINS [sic] and, DAM, that made a mess.
ESPs: STADT, ABOU, MORT
Fav: Clue for PITA was cute. I was thinking 'cash' until G'Day turned up.

CSO to my bro @24a. He was in town for the night which is why I didn't get back on line.

{B+,A- (Wii mess)

Lucina - What Lem said, it's 'each themer doesn't repeat a letter'. With 45 themer-squares and only 26 letters... ;-)

Funny Mt. Mad Picard, thanks for that smile.

D4! So good to see you back behind a keyboard.

Cheers, -T