google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday August 26, 2019 Kevin Christian

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Aug 26, 2019

Monday August 26, 2019 Kevin Christian

Theme: Titleholders in Music

19. Nickname for Elvis Presley: KING OF ROCK 'N ROLL.
 
37. Nickname for Ella Fitzgerald: FIRST LADY OF SONG.

49. Nickname for James Brown: GODFATHER OF SOUL.

Boomer here. Greetings all. Those of us that follow Major League Baseball probably noticed that this was "Oreo" weekend.  All home team players wore very very white uniforms, while the visiting teams dressed in black.  Players were allowed to have their nicknames on the backs of their uniforms.  
It started to rain Saturday on the golf tournament so I switched TV to the Cubs - Nationals game.  There were no Cubs uniforms with "TTP" on the back.  I did not see a "Boomer" name on any uniform either.  I suppose none of the players were born in 1947. 
There were a couple of Black Hawk hockey players in the announcers booth and they led the 7th inning "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". I hope they play hockey better than they sing. I'm sure Harry Caray was spinning in his grave. 
Hey Elvis lovers try this:  "As the snow flies, on a cold and gray Chicago morn, another little baby Cub is born in a Wrigley." 


Across:

1. Meat shaped for a burger: PATTY.

6. Consider: DEEM.

10. Place to unwind: SPA.

13. Sound before "Bless you": ACHOO.

14. Food brand for Fido: ALPO.  I'll bet that dogs with other names eat it also,

15. Visa competitor, briefly: AMEX.  I don't think they have the cash back and travel miles deals to compete.

16. Like a wet day: RAINY.  The aforesaid golf tournament in Atlanta.

17. "Deal me a hand": I'M IN.  This is a new slogan for the Minnesota State lottery.  C.C. and I don't play because of the long odds, so "I'm Out."

18. __ slaw: COLE.  I am pretty sure that Nat King Cole belongs on the header list.

22. One rotation of Earth on its axis: DAY. Doris recorded "Sentimental Journey".  Not sure if she could be called a "Queen of  Soul".


23. Up until now: YET.

24. "I'll pay any price!": NAME IT.

28. Nod off: DOZE.  Previous Twins hero Brian Dozier was playing for the Nationals Saturday.  I  think his nickname is Doze, but I did not see it.

31. Not hers: HIS.

34. "We're having __!": retail come-on: A SALE.  Chris SALE is having a so so year for the Red Sox.

35. Jupiter's wife: JUNO.

36. Marriott rival: OMNI.  Dodge had an "OMNI Hatchback" on the market in the 70s.  They were small and ugly and have now been replaced by big and beautiful SUVs.


40. Scarlett's plantation: TARA. Also 60. Scarlett's last name: O'HARA.

41. Acme: APEX.

42. "Nevermore!" bird: RAVEN.  Edgar Allen Poe wrote this poem over 150 years ago, and it lives on.  I wrote "Zoilo, Tony and the Brew" about 35 years ago, and nobody cares. "The Mudcat, the Kitty and Old Blue, They knew them from Duluth to Waterloo.  Especially Zoilo, Tony and the Brew."

43. Boy in "Star Wars" prequel films: ANI. Darth Vader.

44. Currier and __: printmakers: IVES.  "These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives."

45. Seth of "SNL": MEYERS.

46. Ring or stud site: EAR.  No way anyone is EVER going to put a hole in my ear.

48. He wrote "The 42-Across": POE.  SEE!  Boomer not even mentioned.

58. Funny Bombeck: ERMA.  She left us in 1996.  The Minneapolis paper used to carry her column.

59. A4 automaker: AUDI.  A4 Is just the model name.  Maybe they misspelled "4A"



61. Close by: NEAR.

62. Marvel Comics mutants: X-MEN.

63. Post-op therapy: REHAB.

64. 2,000 pounds: TON. Load 16 of them, and what do you get.  Another day older and deeper in debt.

65. Ain't right?: ISN'T.  "So Ain't that too damn bad?"

66. Brutalizes: MAULS.


Down:

1. Place to spread a picnic blanket: PARK.  Not Fenway.

2. Smoothie berry: ACAI. These are healthy but very expensive.  Not as $$$ as health insurance though.

3. Slender: THIN.  Speaking of expensive food, I used to love Thin Mints.  Not anymore.  Now I just snack on Metformin.

4. Half a barbecuer's pair: TONG.  We have a pair in the kitchen.  Sometimes I use them to pick up something I dropped on the floor.  What can I say.  Sometimes older people need a little help.

5. Up-and-down weight loss effort: YO-YO DIET.  Not to be confused with Yo-Yo Ma, an accomplished cellist.

6. Grocery section with milk: DAIRY.

7. Red Muppet: ELMO.  He is tickled to be in this puzzle.

8. "Lawrence of Arabia," e.g.: EPIC.  This movie lasted nearly four hours!!  I preferred the 90 minute flicks at the Drive In.

9. 2000s OCD-afflicted TV sleuth: MONK.

10. Often sarcastic "Nice one!": SMOOTH MOVE.  Generally you should call "Nice one" on the golf course, whether it's a good shot or not.

11. __-mell: disorderly: PELL.  We used to call Pall Mall Cigs - Pell Mell.

12. Ice skater's jump: AXEL.

15. Property measure: ACRE.  Also can describe a bad tooth.

20. White part of beef: FAT.  Don't forget the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  Celebrated heavily in New Orleans and Las Vegas.

21. "Science Guy" Bill: NYE.  Speaking of Las Vegas there is a "Nye" county just west northwest of the "Silver City". We stay at the "Orleans", but not during the Mardi Gras festivities.

C.C. & Boomer, Feb, 2019

24. 1990s commerce pact acronym: NAFTA.  "North Atlantic Free Trade."  Trade does not seem to be free any longer.

25. Thai or Laotian: ASIAN.  Occasionally I like Chow Mein for a meal.  But C.C. says it is not real Chinese food.

26. He's not single: MARRIED MAN.

27. Film lioness: ELSA.

28. Fellas: DUDES.  I am not a Dude.  I dress sloppy and have never been to one of their ranches.

29. Banded gemstone: ONYX.

30. Place to observe animals: ZOO.  We have two zoos in Minnesota, but they don't seem to compete.  Neither has a Panda or a purple cow.

32. __ circle: group of close advisers: INNER.

33. Omens: SIGNS.

35. Joke: JAPE.

36. "__, can you see ... ": O SAY.  This is our national anthem.  I really object to some of the performances allowed at special events.  Can you say Roseanne Barr ??

38. Loo: LAV.

39. Having an irregular design: FREE FORM.

44. "Roth" investment: IRA. The "Roth" seems very complicated, however tax-efficient I suppose.

45. Bovine sound: MOO.  This was a sorority in "Animal House".

47. Not at all close by: AFAR. "We three kings of Orient are; bearing gifts we traverse AFAR"

48. Make a hard copy of: PRINT.

49. Fellow: GENT.  Earlier in the puzzle he was a "Dude".

50. Black-and-white treat: OREO.  MLB games last weekend.

51. Uber alternative: TAXI.

52. Runs smoothly: HUMS.

53. Blissful Genesis place: EDEN.  I have mentioned this before.  We have a Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie.  It's about 40 miles south of us, and a very nice suburb.  I think Bud Grant lives there.

54. New York stadium dismantled in 2009: SHEA.  It is amazing that the Mets and formerly the Giants have gone through three ballparks.  So have the Twins and others.  While the Cubs and Red Sox live on in Wrigley and Fenway.

55. Honolulu's island: OAHU.

56. Eurasia's __ Mountains: URAL.

57. Chocolate dogs: LABS.  I have not seen a "Chocolate dog".  I have eaten chocolate bunny rabbits around Easter, but not any more. 

Boomer

Notes from C.C.:

Happy birthday to Montana,  a retired math & science teacher who lives in Montana. Here is a nice picture from her Oregon Trail trek back in 2012. 

58 comments:

desper-otto said...

Another comment-free day. Good morning!

Zipped along, but still found plenty of ways to go wrong: OPAL/ONYX, MAIMS/MAULS, PURR/HUMS. Hooray for Wite-Out. Thanx, Kevin and Boomer. (Boy, you had baseball on the brain this morning!)

ROTH -- It's not complicated, Boomer. With a regular IRA you put the money in pre-tax and pay the taxes when you take it out. With a Roth you pay the taxes up front, and withdraw the money (and earnings) tax free later on. I cashed out a bit of my Roth to pay for a new car this month.

DAY -- Doris Day usually played the blonde virgin in her movies.

EDEN -- My sister is planning a move to a retirement community in Eden Prairie in about two weeks. She had been living on Florida's gulf coast, but is moving to be closer to her daughter.

TTP said...

Good morning.

Smooth Monday solve. Kevin, do you have a follow on planned for the QUEENS planned ? I can only think of Aretha at the moment.

Au contraire, mon ami: “The evolution of Mancini's moniker, 'Boomer' "

Here's the list of all of them:“Every team's Players' Weekend nicknames "

Great job, Boomer. Killebrew might have had "Killer Brew" as his nickname. OK, just "Killer" as that was his nickname as you know.

The White Sox and Twins go at it again this week.

PS, the guys want me to sub on the bowling team again this year. I'm holding out. We won the league last year, I bowled more games than one of the regulars, and the turkeys wouldn't spring to buy me a trophy for my mantle. OK, it's not a mantle. It's just a plywood shelf in my storage room in the basement. But still...

Boomer said...

TTP - Yup, Twins against White Sox again this week. I hope we miss Giolito but it does not look like it. Our hitting is up to par, but our pitching could use a Verlander. Today is my first day of bowling. The Monday league starts early because we skip Labor Day. am feeling a bit stronger. I'll let the blog know how it goes. Have a great week.

Abejo said...

Good morning, folks. Thank you, Kevin Christian, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

Zipped through easily this morning.

Liked the theme. They were all easy, but it is Monday.

16A RAINY reminds me of our weather right now. I am going out in 7 minutes to guard. Hope I do not get real wet.

Needed a perp or two for JUNO. Same for MEYERS. I really do not watch SNL.

OHARA and TARA. Gone with the Wind was a great book. Read it long ago.

Never heard of YOYO DIET, but it makes sense.

I love COLE slaw. With that I will sign out. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

OwenKL said...

Some friends are NEAR, some are AFAR,
Some I hug, some on-screen star.
But I.R.L.
Or pixel pal,
I love you all, where'er you are!

(IRL = In Real Life)

PATTY works at B-King's
Making patty cakes.
Sometimes she does cabbage,
COLESLAW Patty makes.
Then come veggie-burgers,
Patty patties fakes!

{<3, B.}

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, with no erasing required.

AMEX offered a cash-back card with their tie-in with Costco. Foolishly they lost the business to Citibank, and Costco now offers an even better Visa card.

If we do "queens", Doris Day could be "the Queen of White Bread".

How quaint that Kevin clued EAR as the site for a ring or stud. I remember those days.

Thanks for the Monday-easy fun puzzle, Kevin. My favorites were chocolate LABS (love 'em, all of 'em), and the cluing for NYE. And thanks to Boomer for the tour. I'm sure you know this nickname-laden song Talkin' Baseball. A lot of MLB radio stations have "customized" the song to reflect their heroes.

inanehiker said...

Fast puzzle and funny blog - off to work!

HBD Montana!

Thanks Boomer and Kevin!

Boomer said...

Jinx - Sung to the tune of "Talkin' Baseball:
The Millers had Galen Cisco, the Giants moved to Frisco' and watching minors wasn't too much fun. The majors were a dream, The Met needed a team. Then Calvin moved the Senators from Washington. Talkin' baseball, Bertoia Bonikowski, Talkin' baseball, Mincher Peranoski. The Mudcat, the Kitty and Old Blue. They knew them from Duluth to Waterloo. Especially Zoilo, Tony and the Brew.
And then came the Series, the fans were delirious, to watch their home town boys play in the fall. Jim Grant was at his best. The twins had met the test. 'til Sandy blitzed them down with his fast ball. Talkin' baseball …
(1982) The fans in the first deck, are now cheering Hrbek, since Calvin traded half the team away. They've got a brand new home. It's downtown in the Dome. In spite of rain or snow there'll be a game today. Talkin' baseball - Roy Smalley and Castino, talkin' baseball, They oughta go get Dino. Sluggers my gosh they need a few. Goodwin and Butch will never do. They're not like Zoilo, Tony and the Brew.

(I was invited to sing this on the local news channel back in 1981, promoting a baseball card show in Hopkins Minnesota, and I did it. They sent a camera crew out to my house and I performed in front of my baseball card collection.

Kevin Christian said...

Hi, this is Kevin, I made today’s puzzle. Thank you everyone for solving.

The original puzzle had a 4th theme entry for Patti Smith as GODMOTHER OF PUNK, but Rich didn’t want the GOD dupe with GODFATHER OF SOUL in the puzzle as well so he asked me to drop Patti and redo it. It’s a shame because I do love Patti Smith, she’s my favorite of the 4, but I understand his logic.

See ya!

Shep Proudfoot said...

Thanks to Boomer for the summary. I also enjoy some baseball chatter.

- Do you remember some other questionable guest singers at Wrigley during the 7th inning stretch? Mike Ditka comes to mind. Ugh. Awful. And fun at the same time.

- Interesting how quickly most cities recycle sports stadia these days. I think I heard that Dodger Stadium is the 3rd oldest stadium in baseball. Can that be true? I remember it being built! Lol.

- I too thought of EDEN Prairie when filling in that answer. Probably because of Mike Yanagita and that impressively awkward scene from Fargo. Some say the scene was useless to the plot of the movie but for me it adds to the weirdness of the entire movie.

EDEN Prairie mentioned at 0:43. What a weirdo!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Happy BirthDAY to Montana.

Easy solve today; no muss, no fuss, no white-out. Enjoyed Boomer's hot wash-up.
DAY - Adequate clue for the puzzle. For those who want to dig deeper, you might search on 'solar day', 'sidereal day', and Equation of Time.

Overheard: "I can't believe I got fired from the calendar factory. All I did was take a DAY off."

CanadianEh! said...

Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Kevin (thanks for dropping by- too bad you couldn't have morphed PATTY into Patti Smith!) and Boomer.
This CW filled in quickly for me with only 3 whiteouts.
Opal changed to ONYX (banded was the important clue) (hi d'o); Ella changed from the FIRST LADY OF Scat to SONG; my Uber alternative was Lyft before TAXI.

Lots of music today. We also had Thelonius MONK, jazz pianist and composer, if 9D was clued differently. COLE could have been clued musically also (for Nat King Cole as mentioned by Boomer, or daughter Natalie). And Burl IVES. (Plus Doris DAY as also mentioned by Boomer.) Canada's music award is called a JUNO. (Sorry, no Rush for AnonT!)

This Canadian has a RRSP not an IRA (but I have learned the term, along with Roth, in doing CWs). AMEX is not popular here - Visa and Mastercard are the leaders.

This Canadian will not comment on all the commotion in the last couple of years over NAFTA. Too political for the blog! I've repeated Trudeau Sr's "sleeping with an elephant" quote here previously. You can Google it if you have forgotten.

Happy Birthday Montana.
Wishing you all a great day.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Happy Birthday, Montana!

Hello again, Kevin. I like your style. This was fun today--especially since the music superstars came without a blink. Thank you.

Boomer, another terrific tour. We watch the Cubs' OREO game for the same reason. You are so right. Those Blackhawks best not give up their day jobs. I thought the uniforms were silly, but I like my baseball without all the fluff. I do not like all the theme uniform days. MLB should use the money spent on "sartorial finery" to clothe homeless folks.

Have a sunny day (or rainy if you need it where you are).

TTP said...



Happy Birthday, Montana !


Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Boomer and friends. This was a nice easy puzzle to ease us into the work week. No problems, other than initially thinking, after getting KING, that the next theme answer would involve a Queen.

Happy Birthday, Montana! Wishing you a very special day.

QOD: Girls are capable of doing everything men are capable of doing. Sometimes they have more imagination than men.~ Katherine Johnson (née Katherine Coleman; b. Aug. 18, 1918), African-American mathematician

Anonymous said...

One minor correction to today's review is that the "A" in "NAFTA" stands for "American" not "Atlantic." I guess he had NATO on his mind, along with baseball.

Finished in 4:17. Didn't know "jape." Not sure why I knew "Ives."

Nice work, Kevin. I would prefer to have the chance to solve the Patti Smith version, I wouldn't have minded the duplicate "god."

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a pretty breezy solve but I needed perps for Juno. Started filling in "Queen of" but then realized I was thinking of Aretha Franklin instead of Ella. Doris Day did play many innocent blondes in her comedic roles, but she was a fine dramatic actress, also, as shown in "Love Me or Leave Me" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much", to name two.

Thanks, Kevin, for a pleasant start to the week and for stopping by and thanks, Boomer, for your chuckle (or chortle) inducing review. Good luck on the lanes. 🎳

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

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A RAINY morning keeps me off the course until noon
-Colonel Potter secretly loved Doris DAY and requested that Radar play Sentimental Journey 23 times in a row over the PA
-A SALE! Every car dealer tells you that NOW is the time to buy no matter what time of year it is
-Distinguishing between a RAVEN, Crow and Grackle
-You say AH-sigh-EE, I say ah sah EE, let’s call the whole thing off
-I have lost 19 lbs. but am not YOYOING, I have plateaued for about three weeks now
-“SMOOTH MOVE, Ex-Lax” passed for wit in my misspent yute.
-Omaha’s world-class ZOO refused to pay the huge expense to get a panda from China
This looks like a nice AirBnB on OAHU for $195/night
-Thanks for the puzzle, the visit and the info Kevin.
-Happy Birthday, Montana! Are you sure the covered wagons got up that slope? :-)

oc4beach said...


True Monday puzzle from Kevin. Good puzzle to start the week with.

Boomer, your love of bowling, golf and baseball comes out in your expos. Your knowledge makes for some very interesting expos.

I wasn't as fast as Anon @ 9:48 am, but 7+ minutes is pretty fast for me. Perps, as usual, were very helpful today.

Although it would have been a little repetitive, we could have had the QUEEN OF SOUL, Aretha Franklin.

Happy Birthday, Montana!

It's National Dog Day. Enjoy you best friends today.


Yellowrocks said...

Neat theme. I was looking for queen, too, but as was noted, Queen of Soul would have been repetitive.
I thought of OPAL with the O perp, but that has flashing light and fire instead of bands. ONYX gave me --NO, suggesting JUNO. I had lovely onyx earrings which were solid black and not banded.
AMEX or American Express cards are not accepted at many of the stores I patronize. Merchants are charged higher fees for them compared to other cards.
Call me old fashioned. I liked Doris Day as a singer and as an actress. OTOH, I have eclectic tastes. I also liked Saving Private Ryan and the Shawshank Redemption.
Gary, you reminded me that I enjoy historical novels, especially about the westward movement of settlers in covered wagons. Their ingenuity and endurance in moving the wagons up and down steep slopes and across surging rivers is amazing.
Happy Birthday, Montana. I often wonder how you are doing and what you have been up to these days.

SwampCat said...

What a nice lead in to the week! Thanks Kevin. My favorite was MONK, just because I loved that character. Funny guy .

Boomer, I also thought of YO YO Ma at 5D, YO-YO DIET. Great minds working alike I guess.

Owen, both A! Loved the second one .

HBD Montana !

Misty said...

Woohoo! I sailed through this delightful Monday puzzle--many thanks for this fun treat, Kevin, and thanks for stopping by. I loved seeing both Scarlett OHARA and TARA, and then also POE and RAVEN--neat pairings. And cool to have 'Ain't right' turn out to be ISN'T. And of course the theme answers were a total pleasure to solve. A perfect Monday puzzle, thanks again, Kevin.

Mysteriously lost all 750 messages in my Inbox yesterday--a real tragedy. But when I turned my computer back on this morning, there they all were again--huge relief.

Happy birthday, Montana--have a great day.

And have a great week, everybody.

Misty said...

Forgot to say how wonderful it is to have Irish Miss back, and to have Owen come back with poems this morning.

Jerome Gunderson said...

Boomer- You do have a hole in your ear.
I've never been able to figure out how such a small opening can contain a drum, anvil, and a canal.

Pretty cool to have POE and RAVEN as fill. It has been said that when Poe drank too much he was a raven lunatic.

I was once asked by an actor what my favorite car is. I replied, "AUDI, Murphy"

SwampCat said...

Interesting to see all the comments about Doris Day being White Bread. Thanks IM for mentioning her dramatic roles. I liked her. But I also like Pink Floyd. Go figure.

SwampCat said...

And all you sports fans, please note that our Little League team won the Little League World Championship. They got as much praise and celebration here are our Big Teams!

Yellowrocks said...

IMO, Half of a pair of scissors is not a scissor and half of a pair of tongs is not a tong. The fill was a gimme, but it does not sit well with me. When a pair of tongs breaks apart you don't have two tongs. The only way singular TONG appears in dictionaries as a noun is this: "a secret society or fraternal organization especially of Chinese in the U.S. formerly notorious for gang war." The dictionaries accept the use of tong as a verb. "Would you please tong the shrimp off the grill."

Gary congrats on your weight loss. You have me beat by a mile. I have lost 11 pounds this summer. I am not yoyoing, but I am stuck on a plateau. I am hoping to lose 10 more pounds.

I tried to watch Lawrence of Arabia on Netflix three times. I always fell asleep so I gave it up as a lost cause. I know I am in the minority. The film won seven Oscars, including best picture.

Swampcat, I read about the Little League win. How wonderful for them.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Misty, if you don't do so already, please make sure your computer is backed up. You may be receiving a warning signal. If you like your computer you might want to get software that will allow you to make a digital image as a backup. That way if your hard drive fails you won't have to reinstall your operating system or your programs, just load up the image on a new drive and install it. As that ad says, "like it never even happened".

If you would upgrade your computer if this one dies, then just back up your data. You will have to reinstall your applications anyway, and the new box will come with the OS.

Tinbeni said...

Boomer: The Tampa Bay Rays were the "visiting team" at Baltimore and wore the ALL White uniforms.

Kevin: Thank you for a FUN Monday puzzle.

Cheers!

Lucina said...

Hola!

SMOOTH MOVE, Boomer! You are the ultimate baseball fan! Though I do not follow sports of any kind, I can appreciate your enthusiasm.

Kevin Christian, I love that you stop and comment on your puzzles! This was fun and Monday easy. I also thought Queen would follow KING and really thought the title was FIRST LADY OF SOUL. It surprised me when SONG emerged.

Like Misty and others I liked seeing RAVEN and POE as well as TARA and OHARA.

One of my high school teachers was from Cincinnati and had taught Doris Day in school there. She knew the family and always referred to her as Doris Kappelhoff.

We have not had a RAINY day here since early June.

Irish Miss:
It's great to see you back! I hope you are feeling much better.

Montana, happy birthday! Enjoy your celebration.

OwenKL:
It's great to see you back in good form, too!

Revel in your day, everyone! Every day is a gift.

Jayce said...

I heartily second Jinx's advice to keep backups. When Windows 10 crashed and died on my computer I took out the 3 1/2" hard drive and installed a Solid State Drive in its place. Then I installed an entirely new Windows 10 from a USB stick that I bought. After that, restoring all my data was easy because I had it all backed up. I have always been an advocate of backing up but am even more avid about it after that stomach-churning experience. Yes, you do have to reinstall your application programs all over again. In my case I realized I didn't use or need 80% of them. The only software I decided to buy afresh was Microsoft Office. (I decided against the free LibreOffice because it requires runtime Java which I will not touch with a 10-foot pole.) So yes, back up, back up, back up! Schedule it to do it periodically, such as once a week. I use Microsoft's OneDrive, which backs your stuff onto "the cloud." It's all automatic and seamless. Even though I don't wear a belt AND suspenders, I do also back up my files to an external USB hard drive.

One other thing, Yellowrocks you mentioned something about Adobe Flash. Quite frankly I would suggest you totally uninstall Flash from your computer and refuse to patronize any website that requires it, such as the LA Times crossword on the Mensa site. Flash is notoriously buggy and vulnerable; I recall reading that even Adobe is going to discontinue it.

Jayce said...

Lucina, indeed: every day is a gift. We enjoyed an extra special gift last Saturday by spending the day at our nephew and his wife's lovely home in Gilroy. All his brothers and sisters and their families had come all the way from Toronto for a few weeks so there was quite a houseful of family. Lots of fun and raucousness. We all had garlic ice cream (a Gilroy specialty) for the first time and everybody hated it. At least I can say I have experienced it. Awful stuff.

I saw this article in The Atlantic magazine and thought, "Oh my gosh, it's Keith Fowler!" Well it's really another fine actor named Brian Cox, but sheesh it sure caught my eye.

Happy birthday, Montana!

Jayce said...

As for the puzzle, I liked it. The theme was nifty. I used to say SMOOTH MOVE in the same manner as Husker Gary did in his ute. Nowadays I'll sometimes say "Smooth move, Grace" when I'm in a particularly snitty frame of mind, which, thankfully, doesn't happen often.

I like The Raven. I also like Poe's Annabell Lee.

Wishing you all the best (as the old Ernest and Julio Gallo commercials used to say). "We will serve no wine *noisy inhale* before its time." And garlic ice cream at no time.

desper-otto said...

Jayce, It's always been "Amazing, Grace" for me.

desper-otto said...

Jayce, I've been using LibreOffice for years without any problems. I just checked, and there's no Java runtime installed on my machine. I've never noticed any loss of functionality, though Writer and Calc are the only two LibreOffice modules I use.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Jayce et alia: Sorry to get so wonky, but disc cloning software will allow you to replace your failed hard drive without reinstalling anything. I used to use Norton Ghost and it worked great, but it has been discontinued. I've decided to use EaseUS Todo Backup for my machines. I learned my lesson like you did when I lost my laptop's hard drive while thawing out last winter in Ocala. But my fixit shop had an OEM license for Win10 Home, so I didn't have to buy it. I did, however, have to reinstall Office. My data were almost entirely on my desktop back home, and I was able to access Carbonite to recover my most needed files. But I did lose some writing I had been working on, and about a month's email.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Great fun fast (9:13 min.) puzzle, Kevin, thanks for that and stopping by. Boomer was up to bat in great style today. Home run!

Kevin: I liked how the long down SMOOTH MOVE crossed KING OF ROCK N ROLL, since Elvis did have SMOOTH MOVEs enough to make a crowd of girls scream. Then we had FIRST LADY OF SONG crossed by the long down FREE FORM. Ella was known for her FREE FORM scat singing. So I eagerly looked for the long down on the GODFATHER OF SOUL. Uh, was James Brown a MARRIED MAN? Thought those first two crosses were really neat.

YOYO DIET is the story of my life. The same 10 lbs. bounce back after I think I'm done with them about three times a year.

Boomer: I recommend a long-handled grabbit/grabber to pick up things otherwise hard to reach. I went out and grabbed a bunch of fallen branches on my driveway this morning without leaving my porch. They were where my grocery delivery man needed to walk. He had enough problems with rainy weather. Grabber keeps me from falling on my face often. I have 3 in separate rooms.

Happy Birthday, Montana! Hope you check in today.

Lemonade714 said...

Very fun Monday with a perfect Boomer review and an insightful visit from Kevin C. Coolio.

Add to that it is our dear friend Montana's birthday! HBDTYM HBDTY, HBDDM, HBDTY and many more!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Who remembers (as I do) when DUDE was an insult?
The term "Dude Ranch" was its nicest general usage. It always meant a sissified GENT--an Eastern type--who was gussied-up and over-dressed for the rough life of a cowboy.
A fop. Probably Gay (although that's not the label that would have been applied back then).

Misty ~ WooHoo! Glad you did so well. As for the missing messages, you may have accidentally hit a combo of key strokes for "Delete All." But as long as you didn't "Save" your error, everything will stay as it was when you return to the program. Computers can be very forgiving that way.
(They're at least as safe as these self-driving robot cars we've been following in the news.)

As for keeping regular computer backups, I try to do that. I was spoiled for a long time because I had an automatic backup system installed on my iMac. But it went south on me over a year ago, and I am reminded every day by a little pop-up note that says (today, for instance), "Backup Failed - 427 days without backup."
I had planned to get a new computer. But the bill came in for the emergency surgery on our Yorkie, so I decided to wait till next year for my new Mac.
(Maybe by then the new model will be out.)
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Two diaagonals today, one per side.
Today’s near-side anagram is either a plan of the steps to be taken by a Houdini-style performance artist,
Or, a channel surfing guide for viewers who wish to be taken away from their troubles by way of the best screen fantasies.
What is it? What can it be?!
Why, it’s an…
ESCAPIST MAP”!

TTP said...


SwampCat, YES ! Congrats to the River Ridge kids for sure, and Eastbank Little League ! I was watching most of the LLWS games and then managed to miss the championship game. Nuts ! But I read about it and saw that Reese Roussel went 2 for 3 and extended his record for the most hits (17) in a LLWS competition. I hope to see that kid in the pros some day. A beautiful swing and a great eye for the strike zone. He hit .739 in the series. Also Marshall Loque going 3 for 3 and ending the series with 7 doubles, another LLWS record !


D-O, thanks. I was thinking about replacing my Open Office productivity software with Libre until Jayce said it used Java. Will have to research further when I get a round tuit.

DW would prefer that I purchased Microsoft Office. It's what she uses at work, but she doesn't use its advanced features (she thinks a pivot table is the same thing as a lazy susan), so she just needs to get used to an open office suite for the few things she does with it at home.

I bought a Wavlink cloning device for about $39 on Amazon and cloned my old HDDs to SSDs. Increased the capacity to 256GB on a pair of laptops for about $65 each.

For backup, I bought a Western Digital Passport 1TB drive for about 50. Easy to use software and it's as simple as plugging in the USB cable, letting it copy, and then putting the passport away when done. I'm not putting or saving anything personal on "The Cloud".

As for Adobe Flash, it runs as an extension or add on in your browser(s). It's embedded in the browsers. On Chrome, I believe the default switch setting is disabled. On Mozilla Firefox, I have the switch set to "Always Ask." You don't want to leave it in the "Enabled" setting. The only place I run it is on MENSA. And that will only be for a couple of more days.

The ongoing issues with Flash have been known for years, and the key to staying clean is to make sure you are being diligent about keeping the Flash software updated, Windows updated, and keeping your security software updated. The fact that Adobe has been planning on discontinuing Flash has also been known for a couple of years. No new news there. For years it was the premier product for developers delivering rich multimedia content, but it has been vulnerable to hackers, and has pretty much come to a normal product end of life cycle anyway...

Jayce said...

Re Misty and emails: Despite my tirade on the importance of backing up, it doesn't help at all with emails. This is because your emails do not reside on your computer; they are actually contained on a computer owned by your email provider. Say, for example, your email address is misty@irvine.edu or something like that; all your emails are stored on a UC Irvine computer. Or, if, for example, your email address is misty@gmail.com your emails are on a machine owned and operated by Google. As long as THAT computer doesn't crash, your emails are always there. When you access your email by either going to a website or by using an email program such as Apple Mail, Windows Mail, or Microsoft Outlook, what you get on your computer are copies of what are on that "server."

As for backing your email up onto your own computer, external USB hard drive, or USB flash stick, I have not found a straightforward way of doing that. So it would seem the prevailing motto might be "Trust your email provider to keep your emails."

As the customer service guys are wont to advise, reboot your computer and it "should work." In your case it did.

AnonymousPVX said...

This Monday puzzle was smooth sailing.

No markovers today.

I simply cannot imagine having 750 emails. Why? How will you ever get through them?

I’ve learned to always wait for crosses when it looks like OPAL/ONYX.

And on to Tuesday.

Wilbur Charles said...

Fenway could have moved to South Boston but Selig and Henry were in cahoots. Then the new Kenmore SQ stadium foundered on a surfeit of political palms to grease.

Then an architect showed them the old Fenway could be made to work.

"The Millers had Galen Cisco,". Until he moved up to the Redsox. all about Galen

"COLE could have been clued musically also". I first assumed you meant this Cole

Quick Monday xword. PATTY(I) could have been Patti Page of Old Cape Cod fame.

WC

Michael said...

Boomer, thanks for the explanation of this weekend's MLB uniforms. By the time I got to watching, the talking heads were off in their universes, assuming I knew all about the "Oreo Weekend."

Chere Madame de Farge @ 9:02: I couldn't agree more with you about the MLB special uniforms' costs. Even the A's batboy had one on! My guess is that the cost for uniforms, spares, caps, etc., ran to $300,000 or so, per team. Then multiply this by 30 teams, so we are looking at something in the high millions.... Oh, I know, they'll just up the price of beer and hot dogs (and don't forget the parking fee!).

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Jayce, it ain't necessarily so! Outlook (don't know about the others) can be used with Outlook mail server or as a standalone mail client like I use. I download from cox.net and godaddy to my SSDs using POP2. Outlook deletes the mail from the servers after a few days or when it has been deleted on my computer, and I can only access them from my drives. My outlook.pst files run 2.5 gb - 4.5 gb, depending on how badly I need to clean it up.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Nice afterwork Monday quickie. Almost picture perfect but got fooled once again putting in "jest" for "jape"...leaves already turning in the southern Adirondack Park. Way too soon

Misty said...

Thank you, everybody, for your kind advice about getting computer backup help. My university technical assistant has an appointment to come to my home on Friday, and I will certainly bring this up and ask for his help in getting it established. Again, many thanks for the good suggestions and advice--I really appreciate it

oc4beach said...


Boomer & PK: I agree with PK about using a long-handled grabbit/grabber to pick up things like the newspaper on my driveway. I got an inexpensive one at a medical supply house that is sturdier than the ones that you can get "As Shown On TV" which are not very good.

Lucina said...

Wow! I've learned so much just reading your comments. I have used Office Libre for a long time without any problems. I don't even know what Flash is.

Jayce:
How wonderful that you had a family reunion in Gilroy! If it's like ours there is high energy, enthusiasm and lots of love! Glad to know about the ice cream though I don't believe I would ever be tempted to try it.

Anonymous said...

What a fun puzzle! I found several connections with this one. I'll start at 1a, PATTY. Not a nickname I've ever used. 13a, ACHOO. It's ragweed season. 14a Alpo I've had dogs, never fed this brand. 16a RAINY. It rained here all day, a nice, gentle, soaking rain. 63a REHAB Yeah, did this after knee replacement. 30d ZOO I've been to the zoo in Apple Valley, MN that Boomer referenced. 57d LABS I like all dogs. Growing up outside of Detroit, Motown music was a major part of our Jr./Sr. high school experience.

Thanks, Kevin and Boomer, for the great start to the week!

Happy Birthday, Montana Hope you've had a great day!

Looking forward to Tuesday.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Kevin for the quick Monday puzzle. Thanks Boomer for the Baseball-laden expo. I had to look-up the OREO uniforms over the weekend (was my TV broken?!?). The funniest nickname was Josh Reddick's Mr. Irrelevant. Also, sorry, we're keeping Verlander in Houston.

Thanks for stopping by The Corner Kevin. I'd have taken Patti Smith over James Brown (nor wouldn't cry at a GOD dupe).

WOs: N/A
ESPs: N/A
Fav: c/a at TAXI. I knew Lyft wouldn't work (or, al least I was pretty sure of GODFATHER) but TAXI didn't cross my mind until X-Men. How conditioned we are, eh?

{A, B+}

C, Eh! - If I squint real hard, LAKE Side Park is a ditty from RUSH; 2112 is an EPIC :-)

Re LibreOffice - there's been 12 CVEs (vulnerabilities found) in the last year and a half. Make sure 6.2.6 or greater. I won't address Flash...

PVX - I'm not sure Misty meant 750 unread messages. I have 51,615 in my inbox right now (plus more in sub-folders). Only 11 are currently un-read.

Good to see you back IM!

Happy Birthday Montana!

Cheers, -T

CrossEyedDave said...

Well,
I can only post what this puzzle reminded me of...

The two key words were patty, and moo...

Reminded me of this very SERIOUS story told in song..

CrossEyedDave said...

Well,
Another link 404’d to hell by my IPad...

Just look up on YouTube Jim Stafford sings Cow Patti...

Anonymous T said...

Is this your link CED?

CanadianEh! said...

AnonT- LOL you can find Rush anywhere😀

Irish Miss - glad to see you back today.

D4E4H said...

FIR in 32:59 min.

G-Day Mates! I come to the Corner later today.

Thank you Kevin Christian for this pleasant Monday CW.

Thank you Boomer for your excellent review.

Ðave

Misty said...

Thank you, AnonT. Yes, my 750 messages have been read over the last two years. I usually have less than a dozen unread messages, when possible.

Montana said...

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I’m three quarters of a century old now!
I’ve been doing the crosswords at night and then I never get back online to post early or during the day.
This was a nice straight through puzzle.
I like reading Boomer's expos.
Lemonade, that baby you carried around in Denver is 8 years old today and quite the young lady. She treated her family to the Denver Zoo with her birthday money.

Take care, everyone,

Montana