Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan
Today is Chinese Language Day where we celebrate the most spoken language in the world. Of course C.C. is fluent but I know some of our other contributors here are as well.
Learning English is mandatory in Chinese schools and, depending on where they live, most start learning English at 3rd or 4th grade. C.C. told me she started learning English at 13 yrs old. I daresay her mastery of English is amazing!
Our Saturday regular Kyle Dolan has supplied us with yet another of his fine Saturday puzzles.
I stared at the blank cell you see below at 4 Down for a long time but to no avail.
I knew Japanese Airlines JAL and thought about Nippon National Airlines NNA but had no clue on 4. Japanese carrier: ANA - All Nippon Airways. As for 1. Minuet-like dances: SARABANDS - Not a chance! If you must see it...
让 (Let) 我们 (us) 开始 (begin) 吧 (common Chinese ending) (translation from C.C.)
Across:
10. Deaden, as a musical string: DAMP - A one-minute lesson
14. Bon Jovi genre: ARENA ROCK - Trans Siberia Orchestra takes it to the max
15. Bathymetry tool: SONAR -Swath Bathymetry is the study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors
16. Bamboozled: LED ASTRAY hard to do if you're 20. Not ignorant of: WISE TO what's going on
17. Memorable Ford: HENRY
18. Toon that debuted in "Devil May Hare," briefly: TAZ.
19. The Cyclones of the Big 12: Abbr.: ISU - Their former BB coach just got big dollars to coach the Huskers
21. Make smooth, perhaps: ERODE - This ERODING of Hwy 30 shown here is the reason my 8 minute commute is now 28 minutes
23. Sentry's no-no: SLEEP - Lincoln's bodyguard/sentry John Parker was not ASLEEP; he was down in a saloon drinking that fateful night in April of 1865
26. Sass: LIP
27. Coastal feature: DUNE - The ones on the Oregon coast are spectacular
28. Eighth of 24: THETA - Yup, there it is29. Cosecant's reciprocal: SINE - If the SINE = .5 (1/2), the cosecant is 2 (2/1)
30. One of its ads involves Marco Polo playing Marco Polo: GEICO - One of many clever clever GEICO ads that can soon become annoying
32. Prepared to leave the casino: CASHED IN - especially if you go 34. Binge: GO ON A TEAR and hit it big
36. Brand endorsed at prorodeo.com: WRANGLER.
39. City that gives its name to a dog breed: LHASA - LHASA is a 7-day drive or a 2 1/2 hr flight around Mt Everest to Katmandu.
42. Dutch portraitist Frans: HALS - Here 'ya go
43. Bangalore wraps: SARIS.
45. Don Everly's brother: PHIL - I need very little impetus to play their wonderful music. Phil's on the left
47. Athena's attendant: OWL - Her link to the OWL is lost in history
48. "I don't give a darn what they do!": LET 'EM.
49. Facebook action: SHARE
50. Defensive denial: I DO NOT.
52. One way to stand: PAT - Stick with TR!
54. Intelligence org. formed under Truman: NSA.
55. Backs up: SAVES.
56. Converted, in a way: BORN AGAIN.
59. Express line sign word: ITEMS - The debate rages about less or fewer. I'm in the latter camp
60. Lake Superior mining region: IRON RANGE - The Edmund Fitzgerald was full of IRON ORE (taconite) when it sank in Lake Superior in 1975
61. Root for a luau: TARO.
62. Reunion entertainment group, maybe: COVER BAND - The British Pavilion at EPCOT always has a wonderful Beatles COVER BAND
Down:
1. Cured, in a way: SALTED - This will do the job
3. Area 20 yards or less from the opponent's goal line, in football: RED ZONE - This shows New England has scored 23 TD's and 19 FG's when it was in the RED ZONE5. Count on a piano: BASIE.
6. Language __: ARTS.
7. "It's not critical": NO RUSH
8. Reagan Airport, on tickets: DCA - From this D.C. airport, it is a $12 Uber ride to Ford's Theater
9. Unlimited limit?: SKY
10. Forest females: DOES
11. Ringed worm: ANNELID - Earthworms are in the segmented ANNELID family and they help aerate soil and catch fish
12. "The elixir of quietude": E.B. White: MARTINI - The author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little loved his elixir
13. Use a crowbar on: PRY OPEN
15. Send in a carton: SHIP.
20. Cunning types: WEASELS - Euphemisms for Hollywood agents and others
22. Condescends: DEIGNS - Our cat would never DEIGN to come when called
24. Spy novel pen name: LECARRE.
25. Nouveau-Mexique, par exemple: ETAT - "New Mexico, for example: STATE" (French)
28. Craftsman offering: TOOL SET - Craftsman is a proper noun here
29. Six-winged being, in Isaiah: SERAPH - The hymn Salve Regina sings of Cherubim and SERAPHIM (plural)
31. __ railway: COG - Ascending Pike's Peak
33. "Yeah, right!": HAH.
35. Pinlike?: NEAT - If your stuff is 38. Scattered: ALL OVER, you're not as NEAT as a pin
36. Response to a knock: WHO IS IT
37. Lab notebook entries: RAW DATA - A graph making sense of RAW DATA
40. Doo-woppers with an eponymous '70s-'80s TV variety show: SHANANA Doo Wop heaven!
41. Aquarius, for one: AIR SIGN - If you must know
44. Unpredictable comedy style: IMPROV.
46. Listed at sea: LEANED.
48. Red number: LOSS - Our country has been in the red for decades
49. Whitewater VIP: STARR - Ken, the Robert Mueller of the Clinton Administration
51. Verne captain: NEMO - Jules' captain of the Nautilus
53. Keller companion Sullivan: ANNE - The Miracle Worker for Helen Keller
56. Lighter name: BIC.
57. Yield from una mina: ORO - Yeah, you might get gold (ORO) from that mine (una mina)
58. Chew the fat: GAB - A disinclined tweet from Bill
A Yeti who lived in LHASA
ReplyDeleteSpent her days sitting lone on the plaza.
No boyfriend had she,
A sad dyslexie,
Had her earbuds tuned to NA NA SHA!
To dream, perchance to SLEEP!
It's been an exhausting week!
We danced a SARABAND
To a hamlet's COVER-BAND,
That played a IMPROV one-two beat!
{A, C+.}
Great morning Corniques!
ReplyDeletethank you Kyle Dolan for this difficult Saturday CW. It took me forever, and I had to reveal several letters in the NW, yet I did complete it.
Thank you Husker Gary for your excellent review.
From Yesterday:
Madame Defarge -- FLM -- at 8:15 AM, Thanks for the info on Passover etc. I knew that Jesus was a Jew, but did not know about Seder coinciding with the Last Supper.
Husker Gary -- FLM -- at 9:31 AM, You got me babe. I didn't even hear the OBOE till the end of the song, when it was more quiet.
David Alfred Bywaters -- FLM -- at 10:24 AM, Your MOLE ASSES is as sweet as Tupalo honey. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Ðave
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteWhew! I thought Kyle was gonna beat me up this morning. "Count" was not TEMPO and MUTE was all wet for DAMP. Wite-Out saved the day. For the most part, I was WISE TO Kyle's tricks and wasn't LED ASTRAY. Thanx, also, to Husker for the illustrative review. (I'm also in the "fewer" camp -- if you can count 'em, it's fewer, otherwise it's less.)
IRON RANGE: Because Mesabi was too short.
"Craftsman" was once a great Sears brand along with Kenmore and Die-Hard. By this time next year, Sears may also be a former brand.
Had the same blank cell in Saraband . Google to the rescue. Google actually says it is Sarabende.
ReplyDeleteThe gentleman in the clip doing the saraband or sarabende looks like he has a load in his pants. My toddler nephew walks like that when he does. LOL.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteGood morning. Thank you Kyle Dolan and thank you Husker Gary.
Yes, this one took the most time of any in recent memory as I struggled with so many unknowns in the clues.
Some of the clues left me bewildered even after figuring out the correct answer. On eight of 24 is three, and that stayed there until LECARRE made me change it and THETA had to be. Thanks HG.
In the end, I also was stumped at the intersection of the Japanese airline and the minuet-like dances. I guessed I.
I figured that would be the only red letter when I changed the game to regular mode after not getting the TADA.
Nope, it seems that Don Everly's brother was PHIL, not CHIP.
Guess I should have paid more attention to make sure the perp answers were correct, but CHIP seemed correct after changing it from CHAD because of AIR SIGN.
Oh well. Fun puzzle Kyle. Good challenge that I enjoyed.
Chinese Language Day? Which language? Mandarin, Cantonese, or one of the others.
ReplyDeleteI also stared at 4-D and it was my last lucky WAG. Never, never, never heard of SARABANDS. And then there's ARENA ROCK, which was an unheard of term until a couple of weeks ago when it was in another puzzle.
Kyle's puzzle was like most Saturdays. Many misleading clues, aka Kyle's tricks according to D-O,but once you get a toehold in each quadrant you can GO ON A TEAR. Made a few changes- HANS to HALS, CIA to NSA, MUTE to DAMP- but the unknown knowns worked their way into the grid, such as THETA, LHASA. I knew Aquarius was a SIGN but had no idea what AIR had to do with it but the LHASA, PHIL, SHARE crosses filled it.
PHIL, SERAPH and OWL were complete unknowns.
Whitewater- I want Hillary's cattle future's broker as an advisor.
BobB- the only SARA I would be interested in is LEE, " Nobody Doesn't like SARALEE"
Good morning, folks. Thank you, Kyle Dolan, for a dine puzzle. thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
ReplyDeletePuzzle was tough. I worked most of it last night while watching Perry Mason. Via Cruciverb.
Some tough ones, SARA BANDS, ARENA ROCK, COVER BAND, ANNE, STARR, ANA, ANNELID, etc. Anyhow I slogged through them and it worked out. Great puzzle. It should be tough on a Saturday.
I see the constructor lives in Chicago. Maybe we should meet him some day.
Anyhow, I am off to a breakfast meeting in Countryside, IL. See you on Easter, tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Much of the puzzle went pretty smoothly - but WEES about SARABANDS, ANA, and ARENA ROCK made the NW slow and last to fill in. I had the ROCK part for a long time but the ARENA only sounded familiar in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much up on the Zodiac groups - but I would have thought AQUARIUS was a water sign due to the beginning of the word - but nope it was an AIR SIGN.
Maybe we should all go out for Chinese food today in honor of Chinese Language Day! I have a pastor friend in Northern California who amazes me - every Sunday he preaches in his church 3 times: once in Mandarin, once in Cantonese, once in English! He said he does three different messages because otherwise he would mix them up- that's a lot of prep!
Thanks HG - we have some cousins in for the weekend from Falls City, NE and we were discussing the flooding and your name came up- were your ears burning!
and thanks Kyle for an interesting puzzle!
Didn't stumble on SARABAND -- it was a gettable WAG. In 1952 the Decca release of Leroy Anderson's "Sleigh Ride" was backed with "Saraband." Don't know why I remembered that, but I did.
ReplyDeleteHusker,
ReplyDeleteI, too, was stumped where you were. Thought 1D was halted. Guessed 4D was DNA which left me with hard bands.
Wrong carrier.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI don't often throw in the towel, but today's brain buster caused me to do just that. The SW corner is what did me in, as not knowing Owl and Hals prevented me from figuring out Raw Data and All Over. The clue Backs up=Saves was simple (in retrospect) but I couldn't redirect my thoughts from supporting someone or making a retreat. The Sarabands/Ana cross stymied me also, especially since Band was already in the puzzle. Also unknown were Annelid and Martini, but perps solved those. The only w/o was CIA/NSA and I enjoyed seeing Lhasa which I had recently before Akita. Nice CSO to Wilber's son, Phil.
Thanks, Kyle, for a challenging Saturday stumper and thanks, HG, for the charming, colorful commentary.
It's raining and gloomy here, not a very cheerful lead in to Easter Sunday. Happy Easter and Passover to all who celebrate.
Have a great day.
Traveling to Thailand has taught me the designation ANA for ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS which saved me today. This took a very long time, but I enjoyed the mini-theme ARENA ROCK and COVER BAND and all of the flashy fill like LED ASTRAY CASHED IN IRON RANGE and RED ZONE which was next to AREA RUG despite area being in the clue.
ReplyDeleteNobody commented on any difficulty with ANNELID which made its LAT debut today,
A workout Kyle and a wonderful tour Gary. Happy Easter
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteOnce again Kyle has pushed us into unfamiliar fill; which bodes for learning new things.
Got almost all of it but the NW presented unknowns SARABANDS and ARENA ROCK. Needed help with ANA, too.
Had Edsel before HENRY, and also CIA before NSA. But I got the other toughies, and was not fooled by THETA again.
Listed at sea - It is difficult to ballast a ship to a continuous 0º list. Our destroyer had an almost constant list of 1º or more. If the list became pronounced. the Oil King* would move some fuel oil around to other tanks to rebalance the weight. In a seaway, a small list is more difficult to notice.
* Oil King – Personnel in charge of inventorying, testing, and bringing aboard petroleum products of various types.
Did Barry C. Silk retire from crosswords? I haven't seen one of his puzzles in a long time.
ReplyDeleteYes, he did.
ReplyDeleteD.O. Do you have any idea why he retired?
ReplyDeleteI must not have gotten the memo. His puzzles were tough, but fair.
Well, of course this was a Saturday toughie for me, but fun, as everyone has said--thank you, Kyle. I got a few at the start-SINE, HALS SARIS, WHO IS IT, and others. THREE turned out to be THETA after a while. I was sure the memorable Ford was going to be a car and was surprised it turned out to be HENRY. But my favorite was NEAT for Pinlike. As I said, fun puzzle, and also fun commentary Husker Gary, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteHave a happy Easter, everybody.
Anon@11:56 -- I don't know for sure, but I suspect he just got "burned out." It's hard work, and it certainly doesn't pay well. You could probably make as much at McDonalds. I think the folks who keep at it do it because they love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, D.O.
ReplyDeleteA Rock and Roll group
ReplyDeleteCalls themselves “Quilted Duvet”.
They’re a COVER BAND.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kyle Dolan, for a challenging grid and Gary for an excellent expo! Well done. I finished it quicker than most Saturdays and enjoyed the new, fresh cluing.
Pinlike, NEAT, made me smile as did unlimited limit, SKY.
On Saturdays I concentrate on the quadrants and today the NE was most rewarding once I erased Edsel which was my first fill. Oh, HENRY. It wasn't easy but WISE TO gave me a toehold and SINE (my only useful knowledge from Algebra) then the rest fell into place. I didn't know ANNELID made its debut here but I recognized it.
CSO to Sptiz at SHIP and LEANED, listed at sea.
The SW corner emerged easily the SE without much angst.
The NW took longer; I started with Brined but then DUNE and GEICO led me to AREARUG and REDZONE and all the rest.
SARABANDS/ANA was my Natick, too. I couldn't suss what accompanied Nippon Airlines so thankyou for that lesson.
I hope everyone is well or recovering.
Have a blessed and tranquil day!
I had to think in new ways to solve this puzzle, but it sure was fun. I chuckled big time at Pinlike = NEAT. EDSEL became BETTY before settling to HENRY. WEASELS prompted a change from THREE to THETA. At least I wasn't fooled by LHASA, which I got right on the first try; good clue, by the way. I won't tell you what I thought before filling LETEM. GO ON always looks like GOON to me in crosswords and in computer programming. Hand up for not understanding AIR SIGN, since Aquarius is the water bearer; thanks for the explanation of that, Gary. So, is ISU Iowa State University? I'm in the "fewer" camp also. Final fill was the "N" in ANA. (End of stream of consciousness commentary.)
ReplyDeleteI also loved the Everly Brothers' music. Roy Orbison was not too shabby either. And if they put their minds to it and got serious, even the Smothers Brothers were not bad.
I once knew a guy who had a really good voice and could sing karaoke beautifully in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Man oh man, those Cantonese vowels are gorgeous when sung. I've tried and tried but was never able to pronounce them right, even the vowel in my wife's surname. (Some French vowel sounds are really hard, too.)
Yes, that sure would be a lot of prep, inanehiker.
Good wishes to you all.
Hi Y'all! Great challenge, Kyle! Great expo, Gary. Thanks!
ReplyDeletePuzzle made me grumpy at first with lots of snow on the mountain but did better in the lower regions. Hand up for the SARABANDS/ANA/ARENAROCK stumper -- last to fill. Tried "minuette" & "gavotte" for the dance then moved on. I had heard of SARABAND but never heard of ARENA ROCK. I got LED ASTRAY on the first pass to give me some hope.
25A Nouveau-Mexiqe led me astray for a while thinking French didn't go with a Spanish-speaking place so it couldn't mean New Mexico, but finally filled it right.
THETA: took perps to get me from English alphabet to the Greek. Again!
Yay me, I knew ANNELID as soon as I perped in ANN. How'd I remember that from sophomore biology class?
Reagan airport: no idea. Two unknown flight things today. Still don't know how Aquarius is an AIR SIGN when it's a water bearer. Am I an AIRhead today?
ReplyDeleteWell, first off, THANK YOU ALL so much for the Birthday wishes, so appreciated!
It was quite the day....between unbelievable downpours we had Severe Thunderstorm Warnings, Tornado Watches, Lightning Strikes, and the lovely Tornado Warnings.
In between all that I went outside to remove the downed branches and noticed a bit of vinyl siding just starting to peel back right over my screen room. So I got the 9 foot ladder out, only to realize it wasn’t quite tall enough. So this now 66 year old climbed up the ladder and boosted myself onto the screen room roof, eased over to the siding and popped it back on. Then I had to ease myself down to the ladder. Exciting!
At least the ladder didn’t blow over. And I was never so grateful as when I finally climbed down.
It wasn’t until later last night that I realized I never posted up here.
Anyway....today’s puzzle....quite the crunch fest.
Could not really get a foothold anywhere, so just played catch as catch can, and worked it out. The NW was last to go, I guessed the A in ANA and got the solve.
Markovers.....SIDES/SAVES. Only the one as I couldn’t even guess at most of them.
I am now fully eligible for Social Security which is still unclaimed. It now appreciates 8% a year. Not many investments make a guaranteed 8% with zero risk, other than dying. No plans for that, haha.
Enjoy the weekend.
I'm guessing the Everly Bros' heyday must've been around the early to mid 60s. That's when I made several cross country drives (from New Haven to San Francisco & ret.), and they were constantly on my car radio.
ReplyDelete"Wake up, Little Suzie" was my favorite. I pounded the steering wheel keeping time.
The music was delivered by some powerful Zillion-watt radio stations. One of them beamed outta West VA., I recall.
Husker & Jayce ~
Why is there even a debate between Fewer ITEMS or Less? If you can number them, it's fewer.
On the other hand, would you ever say, "Good for him; he weighs fewer?"
~ OMK
____________
DR: One mirror-side diagonal today.
It offers up an anagram in honor of the Grimm Bros' story of the wise daughter of the old Serf, the woman who always knew what to say and do before the King her Master.
I refer, of course, to the clever ...
"PEASANT SAVANT"!
Anon PVX ~
ReplyDeleteA wise choice, waiting for your Social. I didn't know I could collect while I was still working, so when I retired ten years after my 65th, there was--as they say--a "pretty penny" waiting!
~ OMK
I forgot to vote: definitely fewer.
ReplyDeleteOMK:
Good example!
This was easier for me than most Saturday puzzles. FIR I have booked flights on ANA in Japan. It took the perps SAR-B---S to remember SARABANDS but no Natick.
ReplyDeleteI can't gloat. My sister is here. We solved copies of the Sunday LAT from the early edition paper. She did it lickety split. It took me normal Sunday time, even though I caught onto the theme early on.
Le Carre was my first thought. Great author.
I heard on the news that a clerk wanted to charge an international tax fee to someone who lived in New Mexico because she didn't live in the US.
I retired at 62, knowing that I could receive much more Social Security and pension if I waited. The school politics were getting me down. Best of all, I was free to spend three days a week with my toddler grandson. I am okay financially. I never regretted retiring early.Life is more than money.
I must get back to my sister. I may or may not return before Monday. Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.
School politics getting down means people didn’t get along with me.
ReplyDeleteHi everybody.
ReplyDeleteI did better on this than most Saturdays. Thanks Kyle and Gary.
I learned the less/fewer guideline from Barbara years ago and have used it ever since, sometimes shouting at the TV when they screw it up. BUT..., if that's an important distinction, why isn't there a similar one in the 'greater' direction? Less coffee/fewer cups. More coffee/more cups? Hmmm?
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteKyle, sans the SE, I struggled mightily but you done got the best of me and 3+ hours* today. Typical Saturday DNF / learning day [see LECARRE]. Thanks for the puzzle to pass the time.
Wonderful expo HG. How long do they estimate your commute will be back to 8 minutes?
BTW, I checked out @WillytheBard - apparently his Tweets are protected and I have to be "accepted" to get them. I don't care about that but learned of a new Twitter "feature" that will be fun to play with.
WOs: Edsel b/f Betty [bzzt], Limit b/f ITEMS
Fails: Guessed HAnS (Hi BigE). Eighth of 24 is THREE but not today (Hi TTP). I am NOT bolloxed that corner. The dog town is not LapSA [sic]. Finally, Ford was neither Edsel nor BETTY (Hi Jayce). A peek at HG's grid gave me HENRY and NE was finished in a snap.
Fav: I thought Stand PAT was cute and always love seeing TAZ (nailed it!)
Runner-up: Seeing SINE today after Jayce's SNAFU w/ the Triangle yesterday :-)
{A, A+} You sold yourself short on *a bard reference* *4(!) puzzle words*
Haiku Harry - too funny!
YR - theme?
IM - to know that you were stymied makes me feel so much better.
Not even 'a bit of a stretch perhaps' on today's DR OMK. Glad you're back - that wasn't easy :-)
Good to see you BillG - and, sadly (for all y'all), you pushed the fewer/less discussion to compel me to post Midnight STAR(r) by Weird Al... It begins with " I was waiting in the express lane with my twelve items or less"
TL;DR** - He sees the UFO rags at the market and parodies the headlines.
Cheers, -T
*Not all at once folks - I took Youngest to Orthodontist [45 min of puzzle], got new shoes at Macy's [15 min], didn't find the power strip I wanted at Lowes[30 min], shopped for groceries [10min of puzzle thinking], and worked out at the gym [that's when SALTED finally! came to me].
**Too Long; Didn't Read - expect some young constructor to puzzle you w/ that in the future.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Family just left after celebrating Easter on Saturday to accommodate the most people and my 18 – 13-year-old grandkids insisted on an Easter Egg Hunt. What a spectacular day.
-D-O, Using fewer rather than less appeals to my left-brained personality
-OMK, clever insight!
-inane, ears were not burning but I’m sure Falls City had flood issues as well.
-Anon T – Crews are pumping flood water back for a mile back into the Elkhorn River as we speak. When that dries out, the road will be rebuilt. Hope to be back to an 8-min commute by May Day.
Leo "The LIP" said about Mel OTT: "He's a nice guy but he's in last place"
ReplyDelete"Sister Suzy, Brother John
Martin Luther, Phil and Don"
Speaking of useless statistics, do I care about exit velocity, Apex etc ad nausea?
Earthworms are a perfect form of protein for those practitioners of mind over matter. Or….One has had a surfeit of MARTINIS
LeCarre was my fav until LEN Deighton found Bernard Sampson*
"In the end, I also was stumped at the intersection of the Japanese airline and the minuet-like dances. I guessed I.". As per moi, I actually erased A. M Phil didn't know that Japanese Airline either. I'm calling it a Flutie as in 7a: BC 80s Heisman QB ; 11D: Hometown of 7a
Ironically, this was the fastest, easiest Saturday ever for me? I had to change GERRY to HENRY and spell WRANGLER not as it sounds in Boston
PVX, did I miss your birthday. HBD belatedly. Love your posts.
OMK, Did you ever have a "Wake up little Susie" night? I can't think of the movie at the drive-in but we woke up AFTER two am.
I thought the question was "Fewer Express registers?"
WC
As I've related I reread the second trilogy looking for signs of my theory, to wit: That Deighton knows the truth about the JFK assassination and has embedded it in his story. Supposedly MI6 investigated but the report has never seen the light of day
I got out at the right time. Every year I hear that the colleagues I left behind are more bummed at the politics, the intrusive rules, and the administration. Many have left and others are very eager to retire, as well.
ReplyDeleteBill G, your observation about "greater" reminds me of the error that so many beginning, and even experienced, programmers make, which is to forget or get confused about whether they're dealing with signed or unsigned numbers. A good example is in Intel x86 processor assembly language, where "do this if a is greater than b" is completely different from "do this if a is above b". The former treats a and b as signed numbers and only works right if they are. The latter treats a and b as unsigned numbers and only works right if they are. I found (and reported and fixed) this exact error in the classic WordStar program; by correcting an "if greater than" test to an "if above" test, I doubled the amount of memory available to and used by the program. In the days when 64K bytes of memory was considered ample, this was a big deal.
ReplyDeleteEver since seeing the movie Green Book recently, the word "lip" makes me think of TonyLip, the nickname of a real guy named Frank Vallelonga.
ReplyDeleteNothing apropos - it's just so intoxicating...
ReplyDeleteImagine the smack of jasmine I get when stepping out back.
Cheers, -T
Keith: the Everly Bros. topped the charts in 1957 with "Bye Bye, Love" & "Wake Up Little Susie". Sounds right to me since I graduated HS in 1959 and associated those songs with a certain guy I dated that year. Of course, they made lots of records after that.
ReplyDeleteWilbur: my "Wake Up Little Susie" night ended at 4 a.m. My parents slept thru it and never knew. Scared me silly. My sister knew and blackmailed me the rest of the summer.
PK ~
ReplyDeleteI guess my recollection of "Little Suzie" in the '60s must've been on "Golden oldie" stations!
In the late '50s, I would sometimes get home late from a date. The buses stopped running from my girlfriend's home at 2:00 am. I would have to walk across town (San Francisco) to get home around 3--or later.
I didn't want to enter through our front door because it was too close to my mom's bedroom, and I'd be sure to wake her up.
My little sister was my pal. I could tap on her window, and she'd let me climb in. Then I'd creep down the hall to my room.
In the morning, our mom would say, "You were so quiet when you got home last night! What time was it?"
"Oh, just sometime after midnight."
Truth.
~ OMK
I have just finished your posts. So much fun here. I did the puzzle at 5:30 AM,but I've been so busy, I never came back until now. On the puzzle, as you might guess: WEES.
ReplyDeleteI am completely ready for brunch tomorrow. My kids here a nd grandkids will be here, as well as MIL and SIL. It's been a nice week of prep. As a septuagenarian, success is about small steps each day for an event.
Thanks Kyle and Gary for some fun today.
I wish you blessings for a happy Easter and a wonderful Pesach.
Just a question for those who put off collecting social security at age 62. Let's just pick an easy to work with number. Let's say at 62 you could collect a $1000 a month. That's $12,000 a year. If you waited five more years to collect a higher amount how long will it take to get back the $60,000 you lost? Is it worth it?
ReplyDeleteJerome @ 2153 - - The crossover point is generally at age 79 or 80. If you plan to live past 80, it is better to wait until age 65 or later to start receiving SS.
ReplyDeleteDNF
ReplyDeleteKnow SARABAND but did not know it is like the minuet. ("I don't dance don't ask me.")
Didn't know All Nippon Airways.
Not a sports fan; know end zone, but not RED ZONE.
So the northwest was my downfall.
Waited for perps to see which person/model was the memorable Ford.
First thought of Boston Terrier, not LHASA Apso.
It's been a long time since I took trig....
NSA not CIA.
Why is Reagan International DCA?
Jerome & Spitz: sometimes you die unexpectedly. My husband drew three SS checks after age 65, was seemingly healthy & working hard on Sunday and dropped dead at noon on Friday in the cardiologist's office. I say, get your money back through SS as soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 3:51:
ReplyDelete"School politics getting down means people didn’t get along with me."
Perhaps in some cases -- maybe yours? -- but the intrusion of Washington into local education meant (1) the intrusion of testing needed to find measurable numbers, (2) teach the test or else you/your school/your district would suffer, (3) the complete collapse of any education that didn't support the testing, (4) the consequence: kids who missed any musical learning, any shop classes, any home economics, any art appreciation, etc., etc., and (5) the strain on teachers and staff from concerns over test results.
I could go on, but it's almost 11 p.m. here, so off to some Ovaltine, then sleep.