google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, February 1, 2019, David Alfred Bywaters

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Feb 1, 2019

Friday, February 1, 2019, David Alfred Bywaters

Title:  Want a fun night? You can bet on Texas hold'em.

DAB is back for his first Friday of the New Year on the first one in February. White Rabbit White Rabbit. Today we are presented with the addition of the word/trigram "ALL" to some common phrases.  Once again symmetry and 1/4 with ALL added to the first part and 2/3 added to the second. Two are grid-spanners. We are also given a Friday gift of a reveal. With a passel of 3 and 4 letter fill, you had to expect some very challenging cluing which for me started with 1 Across. The entire North took me much more time and I needed some perps and some educated guesses to get going. The fill was not obscure, but the cluing was difficult to parse. He worked AGENDAS, DELIGHT, RANCHES, RIPENED, MELANGES, and TIDE POOL into the puzzle to give some sparkle. Lots of excuses to link music so enjoy.

17A. Up-tempo music lover's aversion?: BALLAD INFLUENCE (15). If you just read the black letters you see BAD INFLUENCE is the base phrase, with ALL added to create an amusing picture of someone changing the station on the radio when a ballad comes on. Cool.

30A. Large garlic relative?: BIG SHALLOT (10). The shallot is a type of onion with its close relatives - garlic, leek, chive, and Chinese onion. Nero Wolfe was a fictional BIG SHOT who used shallots with his chef Fritz Brenner.

48A. Classical dance minus the lifting, throwing, and such?: SAFE BALLET (10). This is pretty funny picturing old people doing ballet. It's a SAFE BET not many would watch. I wonder if the connection to the "ALL IN"  bet got this puzzle started?

62A. Genetic determinants of Southern linguistic variations?: Y'ALL CHROMOSOMES (15). This is also very cute - morphing CHROMOSOMES into a Southern accent.
and the reveal:
73A. Totally committed, and a hint to four puzzle answers: ALL IN (5).

On to the rest

Across:

1. They may be scraped off in bars: FOAMS. The one below promotes Guinness. I had to work my way back to get this.

6. Hamlet's "A little more than kin, and less than kind," e.g.: ASIDE. It is Friday so we must have Shakespeare. Today, it is not so much a quotation as it is a convention which Will used extensively where the characters speak directly to the audience.

11. Cut short: BOB. You have to first understand he is referencing HAIRSTYLES.


14. Atlas box: INSET. This also was not difficult except it hid from me for too long, as atlases all have those insets showing cities etc. I was looking for some device called an "atlas box."

15. Got a lode of: MINED. Notice the spelling - it is not "load" but "lode."

16. Half a pair: ONE. Reminiscent of Monday's Half and half: ONE

20. Tune: AIR. I had forgotten this meaning. Thank you blog mates for all your help. I guess it comes from an anglicization of ARIA.


21. Pond fish: KOI. Koi (鯉, English: /ˈkɔɪ/, Japanese: [koꜜi]) or more specifically Nishikigoi (錦鯉, [ɲiɕi̥kiꜜɡoi], literally "brocaded carp"), are colored varieties of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) that are kept for decorative purposes in outdoor koi ponds or water gardens

22. Sticks in: ADDS. Your two cents?

23. Meeting organizers: AGENDAS. Not the people but the program.

27. Belg. neighbor: GER.

29. Oil-yielding Asian tree: TUNG. Tung oil, also known as China Wood Oil, Lumbang oil, Noix d'abrasin (fr.) or simply wood oil, is made from the seed kernels of the Tung tree (Aleurites fordii and Aleurites montana, family Euphorbiaceae). (woodwork details). FRIDAY HARD.

36. Striped animal: TIGER.

38. South side?: GRITS. A very cute Friday misdirection. I recall my first breakfast in Gainesville.

39. Time to mark: ERA.

40. Employed: IN USE.

41. Negative prefix: NON. Essential?

42. Amazon business: E-TAIL.

44. Disney Store collectible: CEL. It is back with no clue controversy.

45. Weakling's lack: BRAWN.

47. Performed well enough: DID OK. An odd string of letters at first glance.

51. Sign of elimination: DELE.

52. Wise __: MEN.

53. Matured: RIPENED.

55. Siamese, nowadays: THAI. A CSO to my sweet bride. I also have had only one cat and it was a Siamese.

58. One seen on most 46-Down: COW. 46A. 58-Across homes: RANCHES. Not on the farms.

61. Bar valve: TAP.

68. Vietnamese soup: PHO. Phở or pho (UK: /fɜː/, US: /fʌ, foʊ/, Canada: /fɒ/; Vietnamese: [fəː˧˩˧] (listen)) is a Vietnamese soup consisting of broth, rice noodles called bánh phở, a few herbs, and meat, primarily made with either beef (phở bò) or chicken (phở gà). Chicken is GAI in Thai.


69. Irritant: PEEVE. Often kept as a pet.

70. Drudges: TOILS.

71. Polish off: EAT.

72. Good thing to have: ASSET.



Down:

1. It's petty but misleading: FIB.

2. Brahms' "Variations __ Theme of Paganini": ON A. Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 35, is a work for piano composed in 1863 by Johannes Brahms, based on the Caprice No. 24 in A minor by Niccolò Paganini. wiki.

3. Comm. system with hand motions: ASLAmerican Sign Language.

4. Mixtures: MELANGES. I know that definition, but I also know that Melange, often referred to as simply "the spice", is the name of the fictional drug central to the Dune series of science fiction novels by Frank Herbert, and derivative works. In the series, the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe is melange, a drug that gives the user a longer life span, greater vitality, and heightened awareness;

5. Serious: STAID.

6. "Moi?": AMI. Again, while they are both French words (Me and Male Friend) I cannot say I understand.

7. Set, as the sun: SINK. A personal CSO to our Gulf of Mexico Cornerites.

8. Collection of spies?: INFO. They collect it.

9. Make happy: DELIGHT.

10. Email suffix: EDU.

11. Investor's alternative: BOND. Stocks or...

12. Like most '80s-'90s commercial music: ON CD.

13. Winged collectors: BEES. They collect pollen.

18. Uninteresting: DRAB.

19. Countess' spouse, perhaps: EARL. The wife of a substantive peer is legally entitled to the privileges of peerage: she is said to have a "life estate" in her husband's dignity. Thus a Duke's wife is titled a "Duchess", a marquess's wife a "marchioness", an earl's wife a "countess", a Viscount's wife a "Viscountess" and a Baron's wife a "Baroness." England does not have Counts.

23. Storage areas: ATTICS.

24. Old U.K. coin worth 21 shillings: GUINEA. Learn about British CURRENCY.

25. Swallow up: ENGULF.

26. Lighthouse output: SIGNAL. We have some nice ones in Florida including one we toured. LINK.

28. Facilitated: EASED.

31. Unhappy utterance: GROWL.

32. Everyone, to some believers: SINNER.

33. Oppressively heavy: LEADEN.


34. Colorful songbird: ORIOLE. I always looked forward to seeing these beauties return in the spring.

35. Rapped: TALKED.

37. Hasidic teacher: REBBE. This is a Yiddish word derived from the Hebrew word rabbi, which means "master, teacher, or mentor". Like the title "rabbi" it refers to teachers of Torah or leaders of Jewry.

43. Quahog's quarters: TIDEPOOL. A quahog is a clam but a clam isn’t necessarily a quahog. Steamers are clams but they aren’t always steamed, in fact, fried clam strips can be made from steamers. Cherrystones are bigger than little necks but smaller than quahogs and they are all clams.

49. Oscar winner Jannings: EMIL. He won the first Oscar in 1929. LINK.

50. Puente of mambo fame: TITO. This PERFORMER.

54. Noodles: PASTA.

55. Class: TYPE.

56. "Yeah, that's funny": HA HA.

57. Tons: A LOT.

59. Tram loads: ORES. That is how they transport the ores from the mine.

60. Masterminded, as a complex plan: WOVE. "What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."  Sir Walter Scott.

63. Many an IRS employee: CPA.

64. Made the acquaintance of: MET.

65. Thickness measure: MIL. This is one-thousandth of an inch.

66. __ Gold, Alan Cumming's "The Good Wife" role: ELI.

67. U.S. ID: SSN. Social Security Number.

February 1, 1945, was the day my parents married - here they are on their 25th anniversary. Love them.

February is here and we have 5 Fridays done and David has joined the ranks of the 2019 entertainers. There was some serious difficulty in the solve, but it all came out in the end. Thank you, DAB and all who read.


53 comments:

OwenKL said...

Peter Cottontail, Bugs Bunny.

FIWrong. misspelt CHROMOSOnES, looked for a noun instead of a verb for TOoLS, and when ply didn't work, assumed noL from the crosses was some word I didn't know. Did at least get the gimmick before I read the reveal.

If you hear a TIGER GROWL, beware!
That means a ferocious beast is near!
It frightens men
And small children,
But BEES don't seem to care!

What they use for mattress FOAM
Was MINED right near my home!
We kids would play
With the AIR all day,
Then put it back into the comb.

{B-, C-.}

Dudley said...

Rabbit Rabbit

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Zoomed right through, with a stumble at wise man/men, because I didn’t recognize Rebbe. I presume that’s the plural form of the honorific Reb, as in Reb Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof - is that correct, Lemon?

Jim B. said...

I was never so glad to see "Solved!" pop up!
My favorite fill: Y'ALL CHROMOSOMES.
Didn't think I'd ever get the north, finally got the spanner, then everything fell into place.
I think David meant "Am I?" for "Moi?". I thought maybe "O'me?" like Who me? or something.
RABBI slowed me down, til I learned a new word: REBBE.
Great puzzle!

Lemonade714 said...

As I explained in the write-up Dudley, it is "rabbi" in Yiddish, not a plural. I was expecting someone to start the month Rabbi, Rabbi. Ah well.

desper-otto said...

Good morning! [Ribbit]

This was sufficiently crunchy for Friday breakfast. (Thank you, Lemonade, for not explaining the process by which MELANGE was created.) This turned into a Goldilocks puzzle -- the top was tough, the bottom was nerf, and the center was al dente. TUNG was slow in coming. I've used TUNG oil as a wood finish, and the penny should have dropped sooner. Tried LOP for BOB, and BRIDE for ASIDE (seemed apt for the clue). Interesting to see AIR back for an encore. AM I? was my final fill. Thanx for the diversion, DAB, and for the educational tour, Lemonade.

Jerome D Gunderson said...

David- During forty years of solving I'm sure I have never seen a more fun or smile inducing theme entry as YALLCHROMOSOMES. Fabulous!

Not so fab-

What a sleepless smoker might have in the middle of the night?

ONE PALL MALL

TTP said...



Good morning. That was fun.

Learned a new definition for AIR and a new word in RABBE. The perps were solid, so it stayed.

Just two type overs. LoADEd to LEADEN and TIDalbay to TIDE POOL.

Getting ALL IN first definitely helped with the theme answers.

Thank you DAB and Lemonade.

billocohoes said...

Tough start until the bottom, then mostly working up.

BOB can also refer to shortening human noses and horses' tails.

Spine before BRAWN took time to correct.

I've tried GRITS once. Like cream of wheat but not as zesty. I was just outside Disney World, so maybe they were instant grits, which even My Cousin Vinny knows isn't the same thing.

Magic Grits

CartBoy said...

Nailed it! And then I didn't - MAN/men. Doh!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

After the first pass across, I was staring at a sea of white. As Lemony said, the fill wasn't difficult but the cluing was devilish and devious but, ultimately, doable. My many stumbles included: Soaps/Foams, Zebra/Tiger, Stern/Stoic/Staid, Rabbi/Rebbe, and Ply/Mil. Getting the revealer early helped with the themers and, therefore, the entire grid. My only truly unknown was Tung, although I have heard Tung Oil. Guinea took some time because I hadn't heard it or read it in ages. I liked the Mined ~ Ores duo.They may be in the same category but, to me, shallots, leeks, and onion are one group and garlic is all by its odoriferous self. I, too parsed Moi=Am I? Noticed the creature sub-theme with Oriole, Cow, Bees, Tiger, and Koi. Wow, what a melange of misfits! CSO to Oo (Thai) and to our many educators (EDU).

Thanks, David, for a Friday head-scratcher and thanks, Lemony, for the detailed and delightful summary. I particularly enjoyed the Bonita Beach sunset video. We lived just up the road in Estero and enjoyed many a beach party (and sunset) on that beach. My husband was a member of Bonita Bay GC for several years.

I have an appointment later with the retina specialist which is a follow-up visit from October. I haven't noticed any worsening of the MD and I'm hoping he'll confirm that. I dread going out into the cold, but I'm being driven by a niece, so I'll have minimal exposure to the frigid temps.

Have a great day and stay warm!

Yellowrocks said...

I made a quick dash down the eastern half and across the bottom. The W in COW and WOVE stumped me until I ran the ABCs in my head. I was looking for a person. Finding the theme at y'all helped. Then I made a slower climb up the western half. FOAM was the last to fill. I don't scrape off the foam. I like it.
"Bet my money on the bob-tailed nag." "Bells on bob-tail ring."
Lorena Bobbit comes to mind everytime I hear bob.
When my grandson was young, his family flew koi streamers on Boys Day. DIL is Japanese.
Koinobori
Dictionary.com MOI, used for referring to yourself in a humorous way. Moi is the French word for “me” “Don’t be sarcastic.” “Sarcastic, moi?”
I don't care for any type of hot cereal, especially grits. I do like hush puppies.
IM, hoping for good news from your eye doc.
Cute puns and satisfying fill, David. Informative and fun blog, Lemonade

desper-otto said...

YR, John Bobbitt has the same reaction.

Big Easy said...

Lemonade, you're not the only one that had trouble up north. SINK and ONE were lonely fills until the end. I caught the ADD insert at Y'ALL CHROMOSOMES. I don't understand the Moi meaning AMI or AM I; I always thought it was "who me?"

ASIDE and REBBE were filled by perps. RABBI wouldn't work.
Dudley & CartBoy- I had Wise MEN because REBBA just didn't look right. Had to be REBBE, even though the term was unknown to me.

"Cut short" threw me for a while; "Short cut" would have been easier.
ELI Gold- The Good Wife got all its material from Eliot Spitzer. I wonder if he gets any money.

Big Easy said...

Anonymous-T from last night. Yes I do read the WSJ but I don't jump on it or any of the other two newspapers immediately. News is only news when it's new to you. It already happened so it doesn't matter when you find out. Sometimes I have 6 or 8 unread newspapers stacked in chronological order.

Those television ( local and national) and radio news shows act like it's of utmost importance that you know about it immediately. It's not. That's why I don't watch any of them.

Yellowrocks said...

Short cut would have led me astray. I think of short cut as a quicker way of getting somewhere or doing something.
Yesterday's afternoon's sunny, windless 14 degrees felt balmy for a short time. I am so glad it did as i had to go out. Then back to the deep freeze in the evening.
Yesterday, after waiting a week, the washer repairman "fixed" my washer. I successfully did a load of towels. Then the washer failed again leaving me with sopping wet sheets. I took ten days' worth of dirty clothes and those sheets to the laundromat and then hauled them home to dry in my dryer. I'm glad I have a repair contract. The tech will be return next Thursday. Reminds me of Lucina's water problem. Everything takes so long.
Big Easy, even more annoying, the media repeat the same thing endlessly all day and sometimes for day on end. There must be plenty of other topics they could pursue instead.

Tinbeni said...

Pinch, Pinch ...

Well I always like to start the month with a solve.

Though I enjoy "A Good Head on my Guinness" ... 1-a, FOAMS got the party off on the right foot.

Lemon: Good Job on the write-up.
David: Thank You for a FUN Friday puzzle that made me "think" a bit.
Really liked the ALL-IN theme.

Well I am finally able to wear my "Florida Uniform" ... Shorts and a T-Shirt, today.

Looking forward to the Super Bowl commercials.

Cheers!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Y’ALL CHROMOSOMES? Wow!
-Me too, Lemon, et al
-I wonder if I could a KOI (carp) like this in the Platte?
-GER. used Belg. as a doormat in both world wars
-On AMAZON today, I could get PP&M music on vinyl, CD, MP3 or streaming
-Our Siamese have been Muffin, Emily and now Lily
-Our DRAB Am Fam insurance agent has absolutely nothing on his walls
-We had a man assess water damage in our laundry room ceiling last week and while in the ATTIC he made a hole in our living room ceiling
-ORIOLES on our feeders are all too rare
-Many questions about students were answered after I MET their parents
-A foam-scraping Super Bowl 2019 ad

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, David Alfred Bywaters, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

As others have said, I could not get a good start up North, so I headed South. Filled all that in slowly, and then the NW corner was my last.

My first theme answer was YALL CHROMOSOMES. Did not catch the ALL insert until later.

Liked BEES for 13D. Clever clue.

FOAMS took me a while. I had a wrong letter on a down word. I finally got it. Let me just state that I never scrape the FOAM off a glass of beer. I let it settle or I drink it off. I love a good head on a beer. There are two things that will make a glass of beer headless real quick. A soapy glass (one that is not rinsed very well) and a greasy or oily glass (One that is not washed very well). Or if you are eating greasy food, ie: pizza, the grease will get on the glass and destroy the head.

Thank goodness for the perps today. They helped me a lot.

Schools were open today so I guarded the crossing. Crossed 73 kids, which is more than normal. I could not figure out why. Then a mother told me that the school district could not get all the busses started. OK, that made sense then. It was up to 5 degrees above zero. Kind of a heat wave. Supposed to be in the 50's on Monday, with rain.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

CanadianEh! said...

Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, David and Lemonade. (Yes I saw the CSO to Oo also)
Like others, I worked from the bottom up, and although I got the ALL IN theme, I actually DNF because I had some white squares all over the North.
I was certain that the "Winged collectors" were cleverly Nets, and my Investor's were choosing Gold. Thus BOB did not appear.
I did parse AM I correctly, but I was trying to make Dusk into a verb, and the misdirection with INFO eluded me.
The clue for EDU was not very specific, but I penciled it in and it remained.

My first theme fill was 62A and I was trying to fill Drawl CHROMOSOMES into the blanks. Then the theme appeared.

Hand up for Zebra before TIGER, and Rabbi before the unknown REBBE.
I noticed "Got a lode of=MINED" and "Tram loads=ORES".
GRITS was another clever misdirection. I don't remember ever tasting them.
Thank you David for specifying the SSN was a U.S. ID! Also interesting that there is a Canadian pronunciation of PHO, in Lemonade's info. (I mispronounce it a Foe!)

I fought GROWL for the unhappy utterance because I think of utterance as spoken or articulated, but Oxford says it can be a vocal sound as well as a spoken word or statement.

Enjoy the day. Still cold here.

AnonymousPVX said...


So I guess I’d have to call this Friday puzzle extra crunchy....plus misleading clues, still fair ones though.

Once I got 73A I did look for ALL, so not really a giveaway as much as an additional clue.

Also used the “bottoms up” strategy, my usual alternative, it worked.

Markovers....SELL/BOND, ZEBRA/TIGER, RABBI/REBBE.

From yesterday....as a Sherlock Holmes fan, I always wondered about “The Giant Rat of Sumatra”....would have been a good one I’m sure.

See you on Groundhog Day.

Misty said...

Well, this started out as a real toughie, and like others, I had the most trouble in the northwest and didn't get FOAM until the very end (hey, I'm not a beer drinker--Merlot for me). So I did end up cheating a bit but not as much as I feared. And filling in was fun all around--so, many thanks, David. Like Irish Miss and CanadianEh, I wanted that ZEBRA in there before I finally resigned myself to the TIGER. But, yes, yes, I did get EDU. Like others, never heard of TUNG. I too liked all the animal references, Irish Miss. Anyway, a DELIGHT that made me happy in spite of tough spots, and thanks for the always helpful commentary, Lemonade.

We had a crazy thunderstorm yesterday late morning, but thank goodness it's sunny this morning. Hope it warms up for everybody in the cold.

Have a great day, everybody.

Lucina said...

A little DAB'l do ya! Thank you, DAB, for great grid that brought DELIGHT!

Like others, I bounced around a bit then settled in the center east which took me to the bottom and the theme! Aha. ASIDE and KOI filled quickly, too and helped to fill that upper center void. I have a friend who started with just a handful of KOI and now they have multiplied to 250. And we think rabbits are frisky!

I had to laugh when RANCHES/COW emerged. DAB WOVE a complex web for us.

Hand up for SOAP/FOAM, STERN/STAID and I also had BLAH/DRAB but REBBE defeated me as I opted for wise MAN. I've certainly heard of TUNG oil but didn't realize it is a tree.

Such clever misdirection from David Alfred Bywaters, especially on AGENDAS (not a person), BOB, INFO and BEES, my favorite.

Thank you, Lemonade, for your assessment and the musical links. TITO, ole!

Have a grand day, everyone! I hope the LEADEN skies will brighten soon for you.

Ol' Man Keith said...

"Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit."
~ OMK

Bill G said...

Hi everybody...

I really liked "The Good Wife." I miss it.

I haven't had grits in about 60 years. I liked them OK as I remember. I am very fond of Cream of Wheat with butter or with brown sugar and half and half.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

It would have been nice if that video on Jannings identified those portrayals.

Wendybird said...

Almost made it with no help, but the NE got me - LOP/BOB and LAND/BOND made BEES invisible.
Otherwise, enjoyed the challenge and the wildly creative theme answers. Brief hiccup with GRAYS/GRITS, thinking military side, but fixed it when SINNER showed up.
Brief respite from the rain, but lots more on the way - we need it!

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

I'm late today, but still alive.

Tough, well constructed puzzle, clever theme of the type that i could never come up with.

No nits, but I don't get MOI = AMI.

Still cold here, but not as much, and warming tomorrow.

Happy week end. We're going to see the Wayne State dancers tomorrow.

Cool regards!

JzB

Wendybird said...

Question. Some of you have pictures or other insignia next to your entries. How do you do that?

Jazzbumpa said...

Full disclosure ---

MAN for MEN. But since REBBE is such an obscurity, I'm not going to blame myself.

Also, PIN before CEL was quite a roadblock.

This was a slow, one-letter-at-a-time solve, with some DELIGHT.

And, yeah, we're all SINNERS, no matter what your belief system is - or isn't.

Cheers!
JzB

Jayce said...

Whew, a fun challenge today. Progressed little by little, letter by letter, word by word, to a full solve without having to look anything up or use red letters. This puzzle gave me a feeling of significant accomplishment. I learned the lighthouse emanation is not a BEACON but a SIGNAL, the teacher was a REBBE not a RABBI, that the cut was a BOB not a NIP, that the noodles were not RAMEN, the EARL was not a LORD, and my WINNER was actually a SINNER. Especially liked the clues for INFO, BEES, and GRITS. As others have mentioned, I interpret MOI more as "Who me?" than as "Am I?" But this is a minor nit and did not detract from my admiration for this opus by Mr. Bywaters.

Spitzboov said...

Hello everyone.

I like the south patois for 'everyone': All y'all; as in: All y'all, please have a seat.
Figured out the theme about halfway through. Finished the puzzle after returning from a routine Dr's app't.
Had Rabbi, wite gunked it out, and then entered REBBE. Favorite clue was for GRITS. No searches were needed; FIR.
COW - Very Germanic. Cow, cows. German Kuh, Kühe, L. German Ko, Kö, Dutch koe, koeien. When I was a kid my sister and I had a daily obligation to herd the Kö into the barn for their.milking. (Kind of a CSO à moi.)

Michael said...

The border of Texas/New Mexico was the big stumper ... couldn't figure out what 46d, "RA--HES" was for the longest time, until, suddenly, "Oho, that's COW," and everything else fell into place.

Yellowrocks said...

"The Rebbe"was often in the news here before he died. Some considered him the Messiah. People around the world prayed for him during his final illness. Because of the news about him I became familiar with the word rebbe.

Wiki: Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 18, 1902 – June 12, 1994) known to many as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply as the Rebbe, was a Russian Empire–born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.
The Rebbe

desper-otto said...

@WendyBird, when you view your blogger profile (click on your "blue name"), there should be an option to upload a photo. If you do, it'll show up next to your name in the posts.

desper-otto said...

Oops, WendyBird, your got to click on that red "Edit Profile" on the r-h side of the screen.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta ~DA!
A tough slog, but rewarding in the end, this toughie from Mr. Bywaters--the kind that puts hair on your chest & makes a man of you, my son!

Seriously, I wasn't sure I had enough Ps to see it through. But after exhausting Patience and Persistence, I went on to Prudently Pronounce Potential fills (Phils?) Phonetically, until I wore this Perfectly Phine Pzl down.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Two diagonals today, a matched pair--with one on the near side and one in the mirror.
Strangely, the first contains only two vowels, while the latter has ten. Such an ill-matching of consonants and vowels renders them poor material for anagrams.
On the near side, for instance, the best I can do is to characterize it as...
BAD FLOP,”
while on the far side, if I borrow an “A” from the front end, I can come up with a recipe for a most disgusting sauce. Try it at your peril, my pungent, home-brewed, oh-so-nasty...
BANANA [A]IOLI”!

Lucina said...

Lemonade, I forgot to mention the very nice picture of your parents. And I am now listening to TITO. Thank you again!

Ricky Fowler:
According to the news reports the fans at the Open number over 200,000.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Well, a little D.A.B. ALmost do(ne) me IN, but it did DELIGHT me some. Thanks, Lemonade, for a great expo.

Theme? There was a theme? I didn't see one until Lemony 'splained it. Looked high & low for a theme for a long time and didn't happen onto it. I was doing all downs in the SE corner and never saw the reveal. I caught onto BIG SHOT but couldn't catch the rest. Y'ALL C_____OME was a bad WAG, along with BAL_____ENCE.

Off to a bad start when I didn't know what got scraped off in a bar. I don't go to bars or drink beer. Not a SINNER in that respect. NW corner was the last to fill.

I am proud that REBBE was my first fill. I'm still re-reading in sequence the Faye Kellerman mysteries which have a lot of good Jewish info.

Lemony, I liked seeing your parents' pic. You sure look like your dad!

I refuse to say the pesky rodent word this first day of the month after reading last night it helped get women pregnant. Scares MOI! I think I'm too old and ill-equipped, but I ain't takin' any chances. Especially since it feels like spring today with 51* & sunshine. Everybody feels friskier.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

I'll be honest - I could not get any traction until cheating off of Lem's grid to get me grovin'. Seriously, I had maybe 9 answers (including ALL IN) but anything else I thought of couldn't get a solid, perp-wise [e.g. lop @11a but BOND @11d (glad I never thought of 'land' Wendybird!)].
Turns out 1a was not 'heAdS.' SToiC wasn't it either.

After my blatant-cheat, it was still a long row-to-hoe for the solve.
//And I, still FIW w/ Wise MaN (Hi CartBoy!)

But for ALL that, Y'ALL CHROMOSOMES was totally worth it. Brilliant!

Thanks DAB for the time-sink while waiting on the car salesMEN. Very nice expo Lem.

What Brydon@5:17a, D-0, YR, and IM, et.al, said, I parsed it (sarcastic) AM I? for Moi?

{B, ? (comb(?))}

BigE - I just pictured you opening the paper and alerting us. Though, the last Dow post was in the middle of the night..., I should have thunk harder. Re: "The News," I'm w/ you; I don't watch, I read.

OMK - BAD FLOP describes my Friday solve :-)

//Rant coming on...
I'm in funk. I looked at the car they set aside for my test drive. While it is manual transmission, it really isn't. Stick is short, brake is a button, and you push to start. What fun is that?
Little-tiny stick; how do you get the feeling of lockin' into 5 for cruisin'? //And it's a half-past four and I'm shiftin' gear [Golden Earring - 5:03]*
Push-button start? How you goin' roll it down a hill and pop-the clutch when the battery dies? [Ok, I have AAA but...].
No hand-break? How you going to do donuts or J-Turns w/o one? (I don't donut nor J-Turn but, if I wanted to, I want the option!)
GROWL... Progress(?)

Oh, and it has a spoiler on it... :-(
//I told my buddy, Jeff, about looking at a Civic Si. He giggled and asked, "You going to 'rice-it-up', fat-pipes and ALL that?" It's funny because he's Asian.
(rant over)

I just found a Nissan 370Z online; maybe I'll test it tomorrow. Anyone have any INFO** on reliability, etc?

Cheers, -T
*was on my mix-tape for the drive from duty-station in San Antonio to DW in Shreveport :-)
**great c/a DAB!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Bill G @12:31 ~
I have been enjoying the sequel to The Good Wife. Have you had time to stream The Good Fight? I miss Eli, but still enjoy Diane Lockhart and a fine cast.
You can catch in on CBS All Access, maybe other services.
~ OMK

Spitzboov said...

Daybreak on very cold Duluth, MN today.

Wilbur Charles said...

Us J'ers got a break with KOI just yesterday
C-EH, I too had GOLD <BOND
I remembered PHO KEANE GOOD

PVX, "A story for which the world is not yet prepared." *

I remember Raj on the roof with his telescope watching"The Good Wife" on somebody's TV

Wendy I never thought of GRAYS but I was as thinking of CSA or REBS

This was no snap. I kept looking for gimmes. The theme became obvious right away.

Owen, I liked both of your Lick's. I was getting oil changed so I had plenty of time to finish (it right).

WC
* Re. Rat of Sumatra

Wilbur Charles said...

YR, I had to re-read your post about"The Rebbe"

I thought it was perfectly clear. And very informative and timely.

WC

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you PK, and people remember, it is okay to disagree without making personal nasty comments. We all know different stuff. Lighten up and have a great February

CrossEyedDave said...

Very late too the party,
(to late to say Rabbit Rabbit...)

I was very busy and could not get to the puzzle all day.
So about 10pm, I tried the online Mensa version.
My 1st reaction was "Holey Carp!"
(a modified version of a swear word...)
2nd=OMG!
I frantically hit the solve button on so many of the dang thingies
that i accidentally hit the "solve all" button...

(& I am so glad I did...)

Did Saturday come early?


fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks to David and Lemonade!

No cheats. Only real stumper was TUNG. Got a real kick out of Y'ALLCHROMOSOMES. Took a while to click in!

Thanks to y'all for the interesting comments!

Have a great day tomorrow!

OwenKL said...

honeycomb
noun:
a structure of adjoining cavities or cells.
"a honeycomb of caves"
a mass of cavities produced by corrosion or dissolution.
"honeycomb weathering"
verb:
fill with cavities or tunnels.
"whole hillsides were honeycombed with mines"

We put the air back into the (honey)combed foam ore.

Lucina said...

Spitz:
That is a beautiful video of daybreak! Thank you for sharing.

AnonT:
Nice car! While I have no experience with that particular model I can tell you that my Nissan Maxima was a wonderfully reliable car. I had it 12 years with almost nary a problem. I just had to replace the transmission and tires. Oh, battery. Everything else was original and had 150,000 miles. But then my granddaughter totaled it.

Lucina said...

Just as an aside, a few days ago the mechanic where I took my Honda lent me his car, a Lexus with over 300,000 miles which drove smoothly. I didn't know cars could still go with that much mileage, but then he is a mechanic.

Anonymous T said...

OKL - D'uh... Boy, I'm just [not] firing on all cylinders today... { ,B+}

Lucina - My Civic made it to ~250,000 before the head cracked (if it had cracked two years ago it was under extended factory warranty; Honda knew there was an issue). Cars are much better than in Pop's day; "If it makes it to 80k miles, I'll be happy," he'd say. [poor bastard had a Pinto :-)]

I had a Nissan Altima (5-on-the-floor) before the Civic. Good car.

I reached out to my buddy via email who has a "Z" and he called & said it was "a real fun drive (and he has the automatic transmission!). I love it. Parts aren't cheep though."

The one I'm looking at is about $8k more than I wanted to spend (with Eldest @OU +paying for her car +insurance (and phone?) and Youngest following suit in two years... Oy! I gotta stop mathing...). But, um, YOLO?*

I'm scheduled for a test drive 10:30a tomorrow. If it goes well: "But Honey, you have the new Alfa..." :-)

Thanks for your input Lucina.

Cheers, -T
*annoying meme from two years ago: You Only Live Once

Michael said...

Dear Spitz @ 1914 -- Isn't ice -- sorry, Tinbeni -- supposed to be in the glass with the bourbon, rather than in the river?

Becky said...

Okay, I'm just enjoying SO much every one's comments!! IFW because I wasn't paying attention to the one blank space at 1 across and 1 down. Who cares? It was a great puzzle and so much fun. And I didn't have to look anything up.

I'm loving the rain and the thunderstorms. Very rare for SoCal.

Becky