google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday, June 17, 2019 Jacob Stulberg

Advertisements

Jun 17, 2019

Monday, June 17, 2019 Jacob Stulberg

Theme: NO ENTRY (39. "Keep out!" sign ... or, in three parts, each answer to a starred clue)  - Each theme entry is in the pattern of N* O*:

17A. *Home of the NFL's Saints: NEW ORLEANS.

24A. *Dentist's "laughing gas": NITROUS OXIDE.

49. *Admiral, e.g.: NAVAL OFFICER.
 
62A. *Slipping into slumberland: NODDING OFF.

Boomer here. 

NO problem. I lived through another bone strengthener treatment. I assume my bones are stronger but my tee shots are still shorter. Last Saturday was Joe Mauer Day at Target Field and Joe's number 7 was retired by the Minnesota Twins. Well deserved Joe!!  One of my all time favorite players.  I began collecting Joe's baseball cards in 2002 and I own his rookie card as well as about 300 different Mauer cards, including the autographed one below.  

Across:

1. Number-picking bar game: KENO.  A Las Vegas favorite.  Years ago you could enter a casino restaurant and a young lady would take your ticket and money. Then the lighted board near your table would show you how your picks did.  I don't see too many Keno runners in Vegas anymore.

5. Story on a stand: ALIBI.  I didn't do it.  I was playing golf.

10. Smear (on): DAUB.  In some casinos the attendant would daub your Keno number picks.

14. '70s embargo gp.: OPEC.  I don't know about any recent embargo, but gas prices sure go up and down.  Recently, our Minnesota pumps are around $2.55 per gallon.

15. Family car: SEDAN.  Still around but many families now opt for SUVs.

16. Teen's skin woe: ACNE.

19. Cry hard: BAWL.  If you try hard it could be "BOWL"

20. Blue Cross rival: AETNA.

21. URL letters: HTTP.

23. Cartoon frame: CEL.  Some of the older Disney ones are collector's items.

28. Showy houseplant: BEGONIA.

31. Mideast's Dead __: SEA.  Pebble Beach is by the SEA. I saw a lot of SEAls there this past weekend basking and not worried about an errant golf ball.

32. Scent: ODOR.  Jake ODORizzi is performing well for the Twins this year.  Can you say "Cy Young Award"?


33. L.A. commuter org.: MTA.  I thought the MTA was in Boston.  "Let me tell you the story of a man named Charlie on a tragic and fateful day.  He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family, went to ride on the MTA."  the Kingston Trio.  - et tu Charlie?

35. Cause increasing bitterness: FESTER.  Reminds me of Uncle Fester on the Addams family.

38. Darth, as a youth: ANI.

41. '90s Indian prime minister: RAO.

42. Sought election to: RAN FOR.  A whole bunch of Democrat candidates are heading for their first debate soon.

44. "Gotcha!": AHA.

45. Architect Saarinen: EERO.

46. Yak it up: GAB.  I wonder if this was Gabby Hayes first name.

47. Insect colony with a queen: ANT NEST.  I have not heard of a queen ant.  I thought it was queen bee.  Then of course Andy Taylor and Opie had an Aunt Bee.

54. Sch. with a Providence campus: URI.

55. Christmas season: YULE.  Don we now our yuletide carols, Fa La La Fa La La La La La.

56. Gymnast Comaneci: NADIA.  Incredible performer. Holds five Olympic gold medals.


60. Very serious, as straits: DIRE.

65. Shifting choice: GEAR.

66. Take as one's own: CO-OPT.  Not sure I agree with this clue.  Our Homeowners Association is deemed a cooperative.  All they take is our money every month.

67. "What __ is new?": ELSE.

68. She, in Sevilla: ELLA.  I did not know this.  My Grandma's name was Ella.

69. Accounting giant __ & Young: ERNST.

70. Put in a hold: STOW.  Always worry about our luggage when we fly.

Down:

1. Hawaiian coffee region: KONA. Is Hawaiian coffee better than our South American stuff ?  Better than four bucks a cup Starbucks ?

2. Fencing weapon: EPEE.

3. Small salamander: NEWT.  Former House Speaker Mr. Gingrich.

4. Former justice Sandra Day __: O'CONNOR.  Retired from the court in 2006 at age around 75 years old.  Something I might recommend to some of the Geezers on the court now.

5. Syst. for the hearing-impaired: ASL.  What?? Hello??

6. Big name in jeans: LEE.  A big name in jeans was Lee Majors.

7. Montana neighbor: IDAHO.  Montana is a big state with many neighbors.  I wish someone could explain to me how a beautiful and huge state has such a sparse population. I have only been to Billings, but I feel it is a great place to live. Here is C.C. and me on our way to Billings, Montana for the USBC bowling tournament in 2002.

C.C. & Boomer, July 2002, Roosevelt National Park
8. Language of southern Africa: BANTU.

9. MIT and Brookings: INSTS. Located in Washington D.C. but has nothing to do with Brookings S.D. or Mel Brooks.

10. Little bit of gel: DAB. Famous line of Brylcreem.  A little dab will do ya. (If you are a greaser).

11. Giraffes eat its leaves: ACACIA TREE.



12. Not married: UNWED.  AVAILABLE did not fit.

13. Beauty at a ball: BELLE.  Beauty at a ballgame, Joe Mauer, number 7.

18. Reason for a ball game delay: RAIN.  OR 30 minutes of accolades for a former catcher.

22. Giants catcher Buster __: POSEY.  Here's another MLB catcher who may be headed to the Hall of Fame.


25. Island whose eastern half is a sovereign state: TIMOR.

26. Interest percent: RATE.

27. Ballot markings: XES.  In MN, we need to blacken a circle on the ballot.

28. Dull-sounding pig: BOAR.

29. "Show Boat" novelist Ferber: EDNA.



30. Spreading like crazy online: GOING VIRAL. It really appears that Amazon is trying to drive local retail out of business.

34. Santa __ winds: ANA.  Of course there was Santa Anna, a Mexican who led his army to the Alamo and killed Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.  But later, Sam Houston kicked his butt out of Texas so now Desper-otto has a safe place to live.

35. Old Marseille money: FRANC.  I guess it's all euro now.

36. Rabbits have big ones: EARS.  Back in the 50s and early 60s, rabbits had TV antennae named after their ears.

37. Rummage (around): ROOT.  Makes me remember Alex Haley's book and movie.

39. In a gallant manner: NOBLY.

40. Asian takeout option: THAI.

43. U.S. regulating org. with a wing in its logo: FAA. Still wondering what's happening with the 737 MAX.  It's gotta be killing the airlines that own them.  Imagine buying a Cadillac Escalade and being told you cannot drive it because it might crash.

45. Infuriates: ENRAGES.

48. Nashville's st.: TENN.  Home of the Grand Old Opry.

49. Gentle push: NUDGE. New York Yankee Aaron - Here comes the NUDGE, Here comes the NUDGE

50. Cartoon mermaid: ARIEL.

51. Part of a pound: OUNCE.

52. It may be tiled or carpeted: FLOOR. Chairs with wheels do not roll easily on carpeted floors. 

53. Made a meal of: FED ON.

57. Nincompoop: DOLT.

58. "In that case ... ": IF SO.

59. Some: A FEW.  Gesundheit !

61. Horse and buggy __: ERA.  What's wrong with a pitcher's stat??  too easy??

63. Two-outs-in-a-single-AB stats: DPS.  Double plays. Brutal for a hitter.

64. Hairy Addams cousin: ITT.  A favorite of crossword constructors.

Boomer


38 comments:

D4E4H said...

FIR in 26:09 min.

Thank you Jacob Stulberg for this lovely Monday CW. There was crunch, but solvable.

Thank you Boomer for your excellent review.

Ðave

OwenKL said...

DNF. On a Monday! COOpT fooled me and DpS meant nothing.
Had a hard time with this right from the start, my first across wasn't until OPEC.
Theme was lame, but this is a Monday.

An island beauty from KONA
Was loved by all who had known a'!
Dressed in colors flamboyant,
She gave much enjoyment --
Who doesn't love a BEGONIA?

ROOTING on the jungle FLOOR
Is the trait of the wild BOAR.
He'll EARNESTLY snuffle
To find a wild truffle
The ODOR is what he RAN FOR!

A tropical isle is TIMOR,
a dangerous foreign shore.
Half Indonesian
A place Polynesian
That is no stranger to war!

OwenKL said...

{A, B+, B-.}

Lemonade714 said...

I found it interesting that 1 Across fill was keNO. A fun solve and an enjoyable tour. Thank you, Jacob and Boomer.

desper-otto said...

Good morning.

Like Boomer, NO problem with this one. No Wite-Out, either. Thanx, Jacob and Boomer.

SEDAN: Around here all you see are SUV's and pickups. Our police department used to drive sedans, but they switched to SUV's and recently even purchased a patrol pickup.

ACACIA TREE: Boomer, those giraffes look like flying buttresses holding up that acacia tree.

LEE: Not for d-o, Levi 505s only.

YULE: Boomer, I think they were actually donning their "gay apparel." It had a different meaning back then.

DPS: Never saw the clue. When the answer appeared, I immediately assumed Department of Public Safety -- the state highway cops in Texas.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fun & fast, thanks, Jacob! Punny & enjoyable, Boomer, thanks!

KENO waited for perps. Knew the downs. Don't think of KENO as a "bar" game and "dart" turned red. I associated KENO more with casinos.

NO ENTRY was last to fill. All the theme entries were in place which clued me to the reveal fill. Didn't know TIMOR/MTA cross so waited for perps then WAG. Didn't know TIMOR was an island.

Yay! Gary Woodland, US Open champ and fellow Kansan.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

A couple of Cornerites recently questioned whether the Monday puzzles were raising the solving difficulty level. Based on today's offering, I would say yes. IMO, Posey (totally unknown to me) Rao, and Acacia Tree are not Monday fill. I had no problems because the perps were more than fair, but I could see where a newbie might falter. This is not a complaint, merely an opinion. I like the Ana/Aha crossing and the Daub/Dab duo. Three of the four themers were CSOs to the regulars: New Orleans (Hatoolah, BigEasy, and SwampCat), Naval Officer (Spitz and DO), and Nodding Off (WikWak and PK).

Thanks, Jacob, for a fun start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the bright and breezy commentary. I'm always impressed by your vast knowledge of sports and athletes.

Have a great day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Nice breezy intro, Boomer. Thanks.

Interesting, eclectic choice of theme fill. FIR. Liked the long downs, too. Overall, there was much bright fill. NW corner featured KENO and KONA.
DAUB - Reminds me of DAUBer, the asst. to Coach on "Coach". More Minnesotans. The episode where Coach explains the derivation of Dauber's nickname is hilarious.

Have a great day.

desper-otto said...

IM, minor correction, I was never a naval officer, just an enlisted swabbie.

TTP said...

Good morning. Thank you Jacob Stulberg, and thank you Boomer.

Another single cell error. This time it was spelling ACAsIA and not checking the crossing answer. But my time was great !

It's kind of like speeding down the highway to make good time, and then getting a speeding ticket. In my youth, I got so many speeding tickets in Texas (to wit, two different times I got pulled over twice in one day) that I got a letter from the state DPS. Department of Public Safety as D-O noted. It was a warning that if I didn't slow down, they were going to pull my license. Haven't had a speeding ticket in the 30+ years that have ensued.

I deserve a speeding ticket for my gaffe today. Haste makes waste.

Loved the clue "Story on a stand" for ALIBI. Caught me completely off guard. Perps made it evident after I started filling them in, but I was lost trying to solve it based on the clue alone. On a different day the same clue might have been an instant fill, but not today. I guess that's part of the reason I like solving crosswords. Some days you feel like a nut, some days you don't..

Boomer, we're at least 10 cents higher at the lowest gas stations, and more like 20 cents higher on average. Plus, state-wide, gas is going up 19 cents a gallon on the first of July. A new tax.

How about those Twins ? They're doing great. And thanks in no small part due to the performance of Jake Odorizzi. But don't put his name on the AL Cy Young award just yet. Look at what Lucas Giolito has been doing for the White Sox.

Spitzboov, I tried but couldn't fine that episode.

PK, yes, good for Gary Woodland. I was happy for him.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Jacob Stulberg, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

OwenKL: Good poem.

Well, KENO and KONA got me started. Then the corner filled in easily. Worked my way down and I was done.

Theme appeared easily and the long answers filled in. Made sense.

Only unknown was RAO at 41A. With three perps I had it. CO OPT worked with five perps and common sense.

I don't believe I have ever been knocked out in a dentist's office, but I have had plenty of shots to deaden the pain. I will never forget the one in my tongue, when he cut off a small growth on the tip of my tongue that had been there for years and did not bother me at all. It did bother the dentist. Oh well, gone now. The dentist was happy, I was not. I still had to pay.

My near-by daughter and her boyfriend stopped over yesterday for Father's Day. That was nice. She brought me some Fat Tire beer. Excellent brew. The first beer I have had in a week. With the surgery I wanted to hold off a bit. Sure tasted good. We had some pizza with it. She is going to cut my lawn for me this week. I am forbidden to do that for a while. I do have a book to read and tons of paperwork to keep me busy.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Spitzboov said...

TTP @ 0858 - - I tried, too, but couldn't get YouTube to cough it up. The actor's name is Bill Fagerbakke.

Irish Miss said...

DO @ 8:36 ~ My association focused on Naval for both you and Spitz. (Your modesty is admirable, though.)

Owen, great work today.

PK, glad your hometown fella came through!

Abejo, your positive attitude serves you well. Feel really better soon!

Boomer and CC, great picture!

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thank you, Jacob for a swift start to the week. With NEW ORLEANS, I let the good times roll. It was smooth, but I did need Boomer to explain NO ENTRY. Ah, theme clue ENTRY. Just so everyone knows, even on a good theme day, I'm still a little slow. I don't want D-O to own all the theme issues. ;-) I had the same problem with CO OPT as I was confused by the coop before I found the cross at ITT.

Another great Monday round, Boomer. Thank you. I am pleased to hear about your test. Nice.

TTP: I love Almond Joy but prefer Mounds due to my penchant for dark chocolate. I so love coconut anything. I have recently learned many hate it. Especially younger folks and my grand kids. Maybe I need a reason to stop by Walgreen's today. . . .

Have a sunny day. Here in Seattle--Oops--I mean Evanston, Illinois, Old Sol still remains elusive. London Fog is more than just a raincoat. . . .

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Boomer and Friends. This was a fun Monday speed-run. NEW ORLEANS with NITROUS OXIDE on its heals quickly gave me the theme ~ N and O, but the reveal was a bit trick.

My favorite clue was Shifting Choice = GEAR.

I bought gas on Friday for $2.18, but today that same station is selling it for $2.08.

Like so many others here, I stumbled a bit over the CO-OPT. The P was the last letter to fall.

QOD: Learning starts with failure; the first failure is the beginning of education. ~ John Hersey (né John Richard Hersey; June 17, 1914 ~ Mar. 24, 1993)

CanadianEh! said...

Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Jacob and Boomer.
Just a little crunch today, but I finally parsed the N O ENTRY.
At first I was seeing a vowel progression of the first two letters of the theme entries, NE, NI, NO, but then NA and NO again broke the chain. AHA, just N O!

Like IM, I smiled at the cross of DAUB and DAB. (I missed AHA and ANA, and Lemon's KE NO.)
I was looking for a Bee Hive before an ANT NEST.
Yes, I thought of Spitzboov with NAVAL OFFICER. I chuckled at IM's CSO's to WikWak and PK.

Favourite clue today was 5A, "Story on a Stand=ALIBI"; "Dull-sounding pig=BOAR" was 2nd.

"Sought election to" reminded me that our Canadian federal election must take place on or before October 21, 2019. It has not been called yet, but we will be subjected to a summer of political ads. But at least our electioneering is confined to a few months!

What a breath-taking experience to be up close to the giraffes eating the ACACIA TREE leaves while on safari in Kenya. The long tongues of the giraffes are adapted to maneuver around the thorns.
FavouriteLeaf

Belated Anniversary wishes to Bill and Barbara.
Heal well, Abejo. Small steps.
Wishing you all a great day.

I'm off to join the Raptors victory celebration crowd. Parade was more than an hour late due to the crowd. PK Raptors Superfan Nav Bhatia is leading today's parade, serving as the Honorary Parade Marshall. Here's a live stream (and no, I am not one of those crazy fans up on the arches at Nathan Phillips Square!)
#wethenorthCelebrate

Lucina said...

Hola!

Thanks to Jacob Stulberg and Boomer!

Like some of you, KENO and KONA started my sashay to the end. I remember NITROUS OXIDE from my youth when I had a tooth pulled at age about 11 or 12.

I like seeing ELLA which in Spanish is pronounced Eya. Double l is always a y sound.

We have many ACACIA TREEs here but no giraffes munching on them. One of my friends who died last year loved GIRAFFEs and had a nice collection of ceramic ones; some were 4 or 6 feet tall. They were donated to the groomer who tended to her dogs.

Sandra Day O'CONNOR lives here in Arizona and one of the college departments at ASU has been named for her.

I don't follow politics in India so RAO was a stranger to me but emerged with perps.

Abejo:
It's good to know you are healing well and your family is there for you.

Have a fine day, everyone!


Mark S said...

Boomer, I found this to be very interesting:

Bowling has been around for an awfully long time. The oldest known reference to the game is in Egypt, where pins and balls were found in an ancient tomb that is over 5,000 years old. The first form of the game to come to America was nine-pin bowling, which had been very popular in Europe for centuries. In 1841 in Connecticut, nine-pin bowling was banned due to its association with gambling. Supposedly, an additional pin was added to get around the ban, and ten-pin bowling was born.

Mark S

AnonymousPVX said...


There was some crunch to this Monday puzzle.

Enough for a

markover...OCONNER/OCONNOR.

From Saturday.....

KONA...nothing beats this coffee, IMHO. I’m drinking some right now that I got from Big Island Coffee Roasters, they had a Father’s Day 15% off sale. I bought 3 10 oz bags of Peaberry, the best of the best. This coffee is so smooth it’s hard to imagine. Not cheap and worth it, especially as a treat.

ANTS.... I had my gutters cleaned, they were full of pine needles, the guy found ants in the gutters as well. Rinsed them out and called my pest company, they checked the attic, nothing crawling up there.

I’ve heard of ants in your pants but never in the gutters.

See you tomorrow.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I dunno, Irish Miss ~
Some of the recent Monday pzls have seemed harder to me, but not this one. I get what you mean about POSEY and RAO. But I found that perps readily answered them for me.

Owen ~
First rate poems today! Thank you!
~ OMK
____________
DR:
A 3-way on the near hand side.
The central diag yields an anagram with an obscure reference to ye olde antique road exhibition of miniature metal drinking cups, the ...
"PANNIKIN SHOW"!

Bill G said...

Hi everybody. As is often the case, I solved this enigma OK without being able to understand the connection between the 'reveal' and the theme answers. Oh well...

Thanks for all of the very kind anniversary wishes.

Abejo, I'm glad you are doing well.

Did you know that they use nitrous oxide as the propellant in Reddi-Whip?

Gas locally is over $3.00 a gallon. As a kid, I remember prices around 32.9 cents per gallon. And that came with clean windshields and an oil check.

desper-otto said...

Bill G, Reddi-Whip? I laugh at that idea.

Husker Gary said...

Musings¬
-¬I first remembered our grade school ANT FARM
-The guy who took my job gladly COOPTED all my materials when I offered them to him

PK said...

CanadianEh: Thanks for the Raptor's celebration pics. Such a relief to know you weren't one of those up on the arches. Looks like a real hearty party. Hope no one got trampled in that huge crowd. By the way, Fred VanVlet is "claimed" here in Kansas since he played college basketball at Wichita State University. One of the few coming out of that program to go to NBA. Great player who didn't excite people much at first.

I didn't know RAO either. POSEY was a WAG that worked.

Lextex55 said...

Co-opt is correct. It is a different word from co-op, which is short for cooperative.

Anonymous said...

In the corporate world employees often have their best ideas co-opted by other employees, and even by their bosses. It has happened to me.

Jayce said...

I found this puzzle to be very easy, and I filled it quickly. Not that I didn't stumble a wee bit: I put in RAU instead of RAO but very quickly fixed it with that ROOT. Interesting to see Cousin ITT and Uncle FESTER today, although the latter was not clued as such. SINGLE did not fit, so UNWED it had to be.

I agree with AnonymousPVX that KONA coffee is delicious. I like the Central and South American coffees also; they have a much more robust flavor than KONA or Jamaican Blue Mountain. Javan and Sumatran coffees are very good, too.

I had a boss that attempted many times, and sometimes succeeded, in COOPTing my design ideas.

If everything is said to have gone VIRAL, does the phrase have any meaning any more? It's like "embattled" politician; why bother using that adjective any more?

Abejo, I'm glad you had a good Father's Day.

In nine-pins, how are the pins arrayed?

Good wishes to you all.

Jayce said...

Anonymous at 1:40 PM, yep!

Ol' Man Keith said...

What a great photo of C.C. & Boomer! We should all look so good!

ACACIA TREEs, of course!
I did not know the name of the trees favored by giraffes until now.
I wonder how many millennia it took for giraffes to evolve their necks long enough to reach the bottom leaves! Just think how hungry they must have been until they reached a proper height...
Or, wait! Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe they started out as enormous critters, tall, broad & engorged in all directions, then slowly whittled down until only their necks were left in place--for the food supply.
Yeah! That's the ticket!

URI ?
Interesting to see Mr. Geller now being clued as a "Sch. with a Providence campus." How fleeting is fame...
~ OMK

Spitzboov said...

Anon @ 1340 - - It happens in Dilbert's company all the time. Quel dommage !

Belated Happy Anniversary greetings to Bill and Barbara. Wishing you both all the best.

Michael said...

Dear C-Eh!

I am so sorry to see that our USA looniness and gunfire have now moved up into the Dominion ... "Shots fired!" at the victory celebration ... I know it was full moon yesterday, but really, really, what is the point for this guy in Dallas and whoever in Toronto?

Michael said...

IM @ 8:19 --

"A couple of Cornerites recently questioned whether the Monday puzzles were raising the solving difficulty level. Based on today's offering, I would say yes."

They are, a bit, but that's because we coevolve with the puzzles, so we solvers get tired of the easier clues and answers, and the Noble Editor see these gripes, and says, "Okay, we'll add 'RAO' to the mix, and see if that works." (TGFP -- Thank God for perps!)

The moral is, be careful of what you ask for -- you just might get it.

WikWak said...

A quick romp through the tulips today. FIR in just over 9 min. Thanx, Jacob & Boomer.
I caught the S-O at NODDING OFF. Yay me.
Gas when I was in H.S. and working at a gas station was $0.199 per gallon. If you were a big spender and wanted gas from one of the majors (Standard Oil comes to mind) you’d have to pay the lofty price of $0.209. Highway robbery!
Mme DeFarge, out here in DuPage we’ve only had rain twice this season. The first time was for 35 days and the second was for 46.

I’ll just see myself out now, shall I? It’s nearly nap time anyway. Have a good evening all.

Terry said...

CA has price is now well over $4 a gallon.

Lemonade714 said...

NINE PIN LAYOUT .
The pins are lined up in a diamond shape. The center or #9 pin is red in color and has a significant meaning in scoring. The pins are further apart than in 10-pin. Both 9-pins and 10-pins are the same widths, but in 9-pin the length is slightly longer. The 9-pin rack lends itself to more splits than in 10-pin, which like 10-pin are not good for scoring purposes, as a fact they are more costly.
Because there are no machines that set the pins automatically, like in 10-pin, 9-pin uses pin-setters to set up the pins and return the balls.

SwampCat said...

C Eh! I was horrified to hear there were injuries at the Raptors celebration. How awful.

Loved this quick and quirky puzzle. Thanks all!

Owen I have been reading you all weekend and today was the best.

I have been working the puzzles but didn’t have time to post. Swamped with company. Clean up before they come. Entertaining while they are here. Cleaning up after them! Much fun but tiring,
Today’s offering was full of fun. Loved DAUB crossing DAB.

Favorite was “Dull sounding pig” for BOAR.


And the gimme at Home of the Saints. I was glad Jacob added the NFL Saints. Because surely all of NEW ORLEANS can’t be called
Saints!!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Jacob for a Monday with some crunch (ACACIA? Indian PMs who's not Nehru nor Indra Gandhi?) and NO nonsense. Boomer, thanks for providing the nonsense :-)

WO: EnRO b/f I guessed 'TREE'
ESPs: ACACIA, BEGONIA, EDNA, EERO, RAO
Fav: the clue for ALIBI
Runner-up: ITT and uncle FESTER... //Jayce, you beat me to it.

I also really liked how 60a was clued DIRE Straits [Sultans of Swing]

{A, B+, B}
Leaned a new word: PANNIKIN

PVX - I had OCONN-R until BEGONIA became 7/8ths apparent

Abejo - Good to hear you're mending well - Fat Tire is a good beer.

Thanks Lem for the link on 9-PIN. I wasn't even curious until Jayce asked.

Cheers, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

Gas prices? How about deisel!! I just drove 1000 miles through GA, NC, SC and back. Gas prices all over the place but deisel holding at $3.00+-.15.

So, I leave Hickory, NC and decide to grab 2.89. 100 miles up the road there's a Murphy's: 2.19/gas; and, wait for it….
$2.43 for Deisel!!!!! Back to the 90s

If there's nae ALIBIS there's NAE Golf*(I was Times free Fri thru Monday but did a few random xwords and NAE was in one of them)

ODORizzi? Can you say "EX-Ray". Eovoldi of WS fame was another.

"737 MAX". Hear the latest? There was a gadget that had to be purchased
separately to make the warning light work. Thus Ethiopian Air crash

WC who just had to post on my fav Monday commenter.

**So, hubby slips out for 18. He know SHE will be furious so instead tries this alibi:" Honey the guys went to the strip club and I …(XXX)...*
Bonk goes the rolling pin. "You liar!, I know you've been playing GOLF!!!"

** Left to the imagination