google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, August 20, 2019, Kevin Christian & Kristian House

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Aug 20, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019, Kevin Christian & Kristian House

You Can Bet Your Life.  Each word in the starred theme answer can come After the word Life to give a new phrase or concept.


17-Across. *  Pedigree ancestry: BLOOD LINE.  As in Lifeblood and Life Line.
 Lifeblood.

Life Line

25-Across. *  Suit tailor's concern: JACKET SIZE.  As in Life Jacket and Life Size.

Moses hands out Life Jackets before crossing the Red Sea.

Life Size.

35-Across. *  Nightly ritual for young children: STORY TIME.  As in Life Story and Life Time.

 Life Story.

Life Time.

49-Across. *  Teacher's outline: LESSON PLAN.  As in Life Lesson and Life Plan.
Life Lessons

Life Plan.

And the unifier:
58. "Field of Dreams" subject, and where both parts of the answers to starred clues can go: AFTERLIFE.  (Admit it, your first thought was Baseball, even though it was a letter short.)

Across:
1. New England fish: COD.  More than you ever wanted to know about the Atlantic COD.
4. Seriously injures: MAIMS.

9. Frosh, next year: SOPH.  This year's Freshman is next year's SOPHomore.

13. "Should I take that as __?": A NO.

14. Are: EXIST.

15. Boy Scout unit: TROOP.

19. Luxury Honda: ACURA.


20. "Eight Miles High" band, with "The": BYRDS.


21. Farm building: BARN.


23. Up to, in ads: TIL.

24. The Beatles' "__ Love Her": AND I.


28. Prospective elevator passenger's query: GOING UP?



30. Villain played by Josh Brolin in most "Avengers" films: THANOS.


31. Flock female: EWE.


32. Biblical paradise: EDEN.

34. Olympics segment: EVENT.

38. On the ocean: AT SEA.


41. Red Sox manager Alex: CORA.  José Alexander Cora (b. Oct. 18, 1975) has been the Red Sox manager since 2017.  He played for a number of MLB teams, including, but not limited to, the Red Sox, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Texas Rangers.


42. Topeka's st.: KAN.  Topeka is the capital of Kansas.

45. "I want to see": SHOW ME!  Missouri is known as the Show Me State.

47. "The Lord of the Rings" wizard: GANDALF.


52. "__ all work out": IT'LL.

53. Barcelona gold: ORO.  Today's Spanish lesson.

54. Field mouse: VOLE.


55. Diviner's deck: TAROT.


56. Opposite of sur: NORTE.  More of today's Spanish lesson.  North is the opposite of South.  Did anyone see the 1983 movie El Norte?  it was about a group of people from Guatemala fleeing from ethnic and political persecution during the Guatemalan Civil War.  They trek north to the United States hoping for a better life.

61. Movie legend Greta: GARBO.  Greta Garbo (née Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; Sept. 8, 1905 ~ Apr. 15, 1990) was a Swedish actress.


62. Appliance with burners: STOVE.

63. Actress Vardalos: NIA.  Nia Vardalos (née Antonia Eugenia Vardalos / Νία Βαρντάλος; b. Sept. 24, 1962) is a Canadian-Green actress, best known for her 2002 movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.


64. Cannon of "Heaven Can Wait" (1978): DYAN.  Dyan Cannon (née Samille Diane Friesen; b. Jan. 4, 1937) was one of Cary Grant's 5 wives.  They were married for about 3 years in the 1960s.  There was a 33 year age gap between the two.


65. Sinatra classic with Anka lyrics: MY WAY.  My Way is without the video.

66. PIN requester: ATM.  Cute clue for the Automatic Teller Machine.

Down:
1. Sauerkraut, mainly: CABBAGE.  You, too, can make your own Sauerkraut.


2. "Just this second": ONLY NOW.

3. Desperate: DO OR DIE.

4. Drugs from docs: MEDS.  As in Medications.

5. Rose of Guns N' Roses: AXL.  Axl Rose (né William Bruce Rose, Jr.; b. Feb. 6, 1962) is the lead singer of the band referenced in the clue.

Axl is the one without the had.

6. Three on a sundial: III.

7. "Hardball" cable channel: MSNBC.

8. Rib eye, for one: STEAK.

9. Baseball great Musial's nickname: STAN THE MAN.  Stan Musial (né Stanley Frank Musial; Nov. 21, 1920 ~ Jan. 19, 2013) played for the St. Louis Cardinals for 22 years.


10. Beast fought by 47-Across: ORC.

11. Canadian french fries dish: POUTINE.  I had heard of this dish, which is basically french fries and cheese curds topped with gravy.  It is most closely associated with the cuisine of Quebec.  I had an opportunity to try it for the first time this past spring when I was up near the Quebec border.  It was interesting, but I probably wouldn't go out of my way to order it again.


12. Where land and sky seem to meet: HORIZON.


16. Most colorless: PALEST.

18. Chief Norse god: ODIN.  In Norse mythology, Odin is the god of wisdom, poetry, death and magic.

22. Like some mil. officers: RET.  As in Retired.  Fortunately, you don't have to be in the military to retire.

25. Weaponless self-defense: JUDO.

26. Mimic: APER.

27. Goalie's goal: SAVE.

29. "Hurry!": GET A MOVE ON.  My grandmother used that expression a lot.

33. It has both Kings and Queens counties, briefly: NYC.  As in New York City.  I was in Manhattan during the July heat wave.  I had to go through Queens from the airport.

35. Uses needle and thread: SEWS.


36. Roman robe: TOGA.


37. Persian Gulf republic: IRAN.


38. Comparable in duration: AS LONG.

39. "Not Taken" place in a Frost poem title: THE ROAD.

40. "My apologies": SO SORRY!

42. Catastrophic New Orleans hurricane: KATRINA.  Louisiana is still feeling the impact of this storm, which hit the state almost exactly 14 years ago.

43. The whole shebang: ALL OF IT.

44. Cardinals or Falcons: NFL TEAM.

46. Frequent co-producer of U2 albums: ENO.  Brian Eno (b. May 15, 1948) makes frequent appearances in the puzzles.

48. Dashboard feature: DIAL.


50. Suffix with proto- or cyto-: PLASM.  As in Protoplasm and Cytoplasm.


51. Southpaw: LEFTY.  Did you ever wonder where the term Southpaw originated?

55. Low card: TREY.

57. Sched. question mark: TBA.  As in To Be Announced.

59. Disabled car need: TOW.


60. "2 Fast 2 Furious" actress Mendes: EVA.  Eva Mandes (née Eva de la Caridad Méndez (b. Mar. 5, 1974) and Ryan Gosling (né Ryan Thomas Gosling b. Nov. 12, 1980) are a family unit.


Here's the Grid:

I'll leave you with a QOD:  If I didn’t do what I do, I wouldn’t be as young as I am.  ~ Robert Plant (né Robert Anthony Plant; b. August 20, 1948), British musician

66 comments:

D4E4H said...

FIR in 26:24 min.

Terrific Tuesday you Cornies!

Thank you Kevin Christian, and Kristian House for this enjoyable Tuesday CW.

Thank you Hahtoolah for your excellent, extensive review.

Ðave

D4E4H said...

Anonymous T,

I am ready to answer your --QUESTION.--

My day starts at 500A. I work to wake up by 600A. I have solved the CW when it appeared at midnight. At 600A I post. I prepare my daily meds. from their bottles to 4 dose containers. I lay out my diabetes kit, and check my sugar level. By now it is time for breakfast, 730A. There I take my first diuretic. I have to stay close to Pee Central till lunch when the urge eases. I check my sugar again before lunch and supper. Each time I inject insulin as directed by my sugar reading. My second diuretic comes with supper.

The insulin I use with meals is fast acting. I also use a long acting type at 1000A and 1000P. The PM diuretic eases at 100A. I use compression sleeves while lying on my bed with my feet on a wedge. These compress each leg in 4 sections, feet, calf, knee, and thigh, like the process of milking a cow. I sleep for an hour, and remove them. I may sleep more in the bed, or work on my computer as I am now.

Now for the problem which is keeping me from doing anything including posting. I fall asleep in my wheel chair suddenly while doing activities. The cause may be the med. Requip or high blood sugar. I am losing hours of my days this way.

On 7-29 I wrote "Was solving with another resident while watching Jeopardy so the time doesn't count."
Her name is Carol. She is solving on paper and checking her work with me. We work together in the evening and we are enjoying each of you Cornerites.

Thanks,

Ðave

Lemonade714 said...

I cannot get MARLON BRANDO out of my head after today's delightful double dose of constructors. I am always impressed by the patience it must take to find so many phrases which can be the begging and end of a single added word.

I would guess most of the non-east coast solvers were not familiar with KING's COUNTY being the home to BROOKLYN. South Florida is now home to many who chose the sunshine, fleeing NYC.

Susan once again presents an articulate and exhaustive write-up leaving me to say, thank you Kevin and Kristian and Hahtoolah.

Lemonade714 said...

BTW, Dave 2, I enjoyed your personal insight and hope you and Carol solve together for a very long time.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Bzzzzt! I never heard of a city having counties, so I went with New York State -- NYS. DNF. SORA looked as good as CORA to me. What could a 5-letter cable channel with an N in the middle be? Gotta be A-AND-E, right? Nope. Thank you, Wite-Out. It appears the two Christian/Kristian were too much for this heretic. Thanx for the tour, Hahtoolah (I liked your My Way comment.)

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW, missing my WAG at the Natick of POUTImE x THAmOS. I guess Canadians invented POUTINE because the USA had already patented chili cheese fries.

I once had a friend with a degree in animal husbandry. His occupation was BLOODLINE researcher for The Thoroughbred Record in Lexington, KY.

If I want someone to SHOW ME, I'll go to Fantasy Fest in Key West or Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

The Orioles had a nutcase closer named Don Stanhouse, nicknamed STAN THE MAN Unusual.

From last night, Lemony do we have to now refer to Him as "the deity formerly known as God"?

Thanks to Kevin and Kristian for the fun grid (except for the Natick). My favorite was SAVE for "goalie's goal". I was thinking "own goal", a term I learned watching the women's FIFA tourney. And thanks to Hahtoolah for another fine review. Your picture of the palm didn't show the heat line.

inanehiker said...

This was a fun smooth solve - I'm with Lemonade - in awe of a puzzle where all the theme answers use both parts to connect with the word LIFE!

Lots in my wheelhouse today as I was born and now reside in the "SHOW ME" state of Missouri but grew up mostly in KANsas (age 3-18), with the Royals and Cardinals being my baseball teams! STAN THE MAN only died 6 years ago - so he was quite the local hero in STL throughout his retirement years.

Thanks Susan for an enjoyable blog (Beatles' songs will be by earworm for today) and Kevin & Kristian for the puzzle!

Montgomery said...

I'm confused by your remark about cities and counties D-O. Doesnt Houston have counties? Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston etc.?

I admit I had to LIU for Houston's but I know of several other from memory including Kings and Queens. Others? (Reason why I recall)

Miami - Dade (TV's Cops)
Chicago - Cook (TV's E.R.)
Cleveland - Cuhyahoga (crosswords)
L.A. - L.A. County
Las Vegas - Clark (TV's Cops)
Seattle - King (Kingdome)

And several more in political swing states because of the detailed presidential election coverage we have now on MSNBC and FoxNews.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Big fat Natick at the THANOS - POUTINE cross, but I figured 'N' had a good chance of being right so that was my WAG. Woohoo; it was right and I could claim an FIR. I can't recall ever having had POUTINE per se. Merriam added it to their dictionary in 2014. I have had a french fries dish with gravy (and no cheese) often in WNY, but it was never called 'poutine'. Merriam says cheese is added, too. Today's learning.
VOLE - I have posted in the past about dispatching 14 VOLES in a short time, stacking them in the tractor tool box, and then contributing to our BARN cats' protein requirements; so I won't repeat the story.
HORIZON - A clear HORIZON with no haze is needed for a good star sight (navigational fix by sextant). Even when the weather cooperates, there tends to be some haze at the time when it is still light enough to see the HORIZON and dark enough to see the navigational stars. I always have stood in awe at the mapping accomplishments of Capt. Cook and others. The N. Atlantic can be particularly haze prone, and yet he managed to map the Newfoundland coastline with remarkable accuracy for the mid 18th century.

Overall a good puzzle with just a bit of bite in it. Kudo's to the (C)(K)ristians.

desper-otto said...

Montgomery, as I see it, States are made up of counties and there are cities within those counties. Yes, Houston sprawls across several counties, but doesn't occupy all of the county space in any of 'em. You can live in Harris, Fort Bend, Galveston, Montgomery, etc. and still not live in Houston. That's why I take exception to Houston "having" counties.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Kevin and Kristian, and Hahtoolah.
This CW filled in quickly with just a couple of inkblots. I saw the clever theme.

I moved from BreedLINE to BLOODLINE, and I'm SORRY to SO SORRY.
My "almost" Natick was the cross of THANOS (the T not the N like some of you!) and RET (what a meh clue! anybody could be retired!). But I Wagged correctly.

How many of us thought of Asea before AT SEA??
I was in French mode and wanted Sous (under) as the opposite of Sur (over). NORTE changed me to Spanish.
Speaking of French, POUTINE started as Quebec cuisine, but is now well-known across Canada. Hahtoolah, I am not a huge fan of it either. Heart attack on a plate!
Here's all you ever wanted to know about it.
Poutine

I'll take a CSO at 4D although I am RET now.
And there were more Canadian references today. COD is an Canadian Maritime fish also. (The collapse of the COD industry in 1993 was devastating to Newfoundland.) NIA Vardalos is Canadian, as is EVA's partner Ryan Gosling. Paul Anka, who wrote MY WAY, is from Ottawa.
Plus, as the joke goes, Canadians are always saying SO SORRY!
We have a Canadian chain called CORA (after its founder, Cora Mussely Tsouflidou). They serve a marvelous breakfast (and lunch too). No POUTINE though.
CORA

Dave, please welcome Carol to the Corner.
Wishing you all a great day.

Jerome Gunderson said...

Henry David Tarot was a pretty serious guy... not much of a card.

Montgomery said...

Another way to look at the clue for 33 down is not from the counties' viewpoint but rather from the cities'. For example NYC has several countiesocated within its borders including Kings and Queens.

Houston HAS many counties located within its boundaries including Harris, Galveston and Fort Bend.

Yellowstone has both states Wyoming
and Idaho. As well as Montana.

Barry T. said...

Re: "58. "Field of Dreams" subject, and where both parts of the answers to starred clues can go: AFTERLIFE. (Admit it, your first thought was Baseball, even though it was a letter short.)" Well, actually, my first thought was "BALLFIELD", which does have the correct number of letters... that messed me up for a while, but finally figured it out.

And, aren't Queens and Kings among the BOROUGHS of NYC? Not counties? I agree with multiple above comments re: in the US, States have counties... cities have Boroughs...?

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

Yellowrocks said...

Thanks for all the great info, Susan. Cute mama and baby sheep. Fun puzzle, Kevin and Kristian.
I solved it quickly at Rose's and forgot to look for the themers when I got home. I understood the gimmick, so that would have been easy. Clever to have life apply to both parts.
I have heard of POUTINE, so it was a gimme, even though I forgot what kind of dish it is.
One bad cell, stupid mistake. Living in this area I know that NYC has Kings and Queens counties, but I wrote NYS. Because I didn't know CORA. I didn't go back to find my mistake.
DO, I believe that Queens County and the borough of Queens have the same boundaries and that Kings County has the same boundaries as Brooklyn. "Situated on one of the world's largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, each of which is a separate county of the State of New York." BTW Queens is the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.
BYRDS and THANOs needed perps and wags. A few perps helped me dredge up Gandolf.
I was glad to see two of my favorites, Sinatra's My Way and My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
As a kid, when my older sister was annoyed and you asked her to repeat what she said, she would reply, "I don't chew my cabbage twice."
I liked planning lessons, but I surely don't miss writing them out in the expected form. I found that if I typed them they received better reviews from the principal. She probably couldn't read my writing. Our lesson plans were very clear and we expected our subs to follow them and the children to learn something new in our absence.

Monty said...

*counties located

Once again, I apologize for my fat fingers.

desper-otto said...

Montgomery, Houston has pieces of counties located within it's boundaries. No complete counties.

desper-otto said...

YR, thanx for the info about NYC. My total experiences there occurred at either JFK or Laguardia, and once I had a bus ride between them.

JJM said...

Expanding on the references made to both Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and the Byrds...... I've seen two Documentaries in the lat 6 weeks at the local Art Movie house: " Echo in the Canyon"- which is about singer/songwriters in the 60's who flocked to Laurel Canyon just outside L.A. to experience the creative flow that was going on there at the time. The second film is titled "Remember my name"- which is a biopic documentary about David Crosby of both the Byrds and CSN.
Both are very good documentaries that I would recommend

Spitzboov said...

NY cities : counties.

Modern NYC was cobbled together from all of 5 counties: Bronx, Kings(Brooklyn), Queens, New York(Manhattan), and Richmond(Staten Island). In NY State, it is possible for a city to straddle more than one county. NYC is the only one that does so in a meaningful way. Geneva straddles 2 counties, Ontario and Seneca, but the Seneca portion includes only water and has no population.
Incorporated villages can also straddle a county boundary; Gowanda in WNY comes to mind.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

I enjoyed this Tuesday work. Thank you, Kevin and Kristian. I didn't see the theme, but I liked it when Hahtoolah revealed it. My favorite was LESSON PLAN as it recalls this time of year in a LIFE I liked very much. I, too, liked planning. Throughout my whole career, I used a LESSON PLAN book just as I did when I started. I was probably one of the few in high school teachers who did.

Thanks, Hahtoolah, for a rich and informative tour.

Off to help DH prepare handouts for tonight's HOA Annual Meeting. POTHOA, doncha know!

Have a sunny day wherever you are.

Boomer said...

Great Review, Joey Cora and Stan (the man) Musial in the same puzz. TTP - your Sox hurt my feelings last night. We'll see what happens with "Big Mike" on the hill tonight. Also we need the Mets to teach Cleveland a lesson.

Anonymous said...

@desper-otto

So you're saying Houston has multiple counties within it's borders as does NYC?

And Yellowstone has multiple states?

Nit picked. Clue is valid.

Anonymous said...

CanadianEH! you are RIGHT. 38A is WRONG. AT SEA means CONFUSED. ASEA is on the ocean.

Yellowrocks said...

Only 3% of Yellowstone is in Montana and 1% is in Idaho, with 96% in Wyoming. Anon @10:59, you piqued my curiosity.
Within NYC each of the five boroughs consists of a complete county. The counties do not have functioning county governments, except for a few borough officials.

Misty said...

Delightful puzzle, Kevin and Kristian--with those great double themed items. And Susan, your pictures are just amazing! Can't believe the research and work you put into giving us a terrific commentary. Always nice to see GARBO in a puzzle. I know so little about baseball, but STAN THE MAN popped right into my head when I read the clue. My only real anxiety--and then, great relief--concerned the THANOS/POUTINE cross. Whew! So glad I got it right. Anyway, lots of fun--thanks again, Kevin and Kristian and brilliant Susan.

Dave, what an amazing day you have--thanks for sharing it with us. And, yes, it would be lovely to have Carol check in with us.

Jerome, loved your cute TAROT joke.

Hope Owen posts today--I miss him.

Have a great day, everybody.

Anonymous said...

For the purpose of a tricky crossword clue. Yellowstone has three states no matter of the percentage of area. Correct?

Not trying to be a pill but rather pointing out the fun and the nuances of crossword cluing. Lol

Spitzboov said...

Anon @ 1114 - I would hazard a guess that you have never been in the Navy or in the Merchant MARINE. To those who have been, AT SEA first comes to mind as being on the ocean. I have never heard a sailor or his/her family use it in the befuddled sense. To me it is more crosswordeze than actual usage. Navy.mil sites are rife with the 'on the ocean' sense.

TTP said...

Boomer, I wasn't paying attention last night, I was watching the Louisiana / Minnesota elimination game in the LLWS. Congrats to the kids from Louisiana.

Nice easy puzzle today, and a great write up that I thoroughly enjoyed.

FIW though. I had LAN for "Topeka's st". What Yellowrocks said. Stupid error. Typo.

I see our resident troll is active today.

Here are a couple of odd facts about boundaries:
1) There's a USDA office in every single county of every state.
2) A US Post Office Zip Code never crosses state lines.

Back to the chores.

Anonymous said...

One man's troll is anothers interesting character. I'm so misunderstood.

Anonymous T said...

@12:39 - You're doing it wrong... Don't let me be Misunderstood [Animals] :-)
Play later. -T

Lucina said...

Hola!

What an interesting theme! I didn't combine all the LIFE words because I returned to bed shortly after finishing this puzzle early this morning.

Thank you, Kevin and Kristian!

One of my cousins sent me a book called COD; it's a history of how COD fishing developed and sustained the eastern U.S., specifically, Maine and other New England states.

And speaking of states, I'm only familiar with counties within states not within cities so that clue flummoxed me. I stayed with NYS and didn't know SORA so why not cORA? THANOS and POUTINE are also unknown to me but I did guess the N which turned out correct.

Spitz:
I'm with you on AT SEA. I've read many books in which the ships are AT SEA.

I love NIA Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I read that Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson saw the play and went home to talk to Tom about it and they bought the rights for it and produced it as a movie. She had good instincts about it.

Yes, Susan, I saw the movie, El Norte, and was riveted watching the hardships encountered along the way trying to reach the U.S. I'm sure that journey has not changed much.

I have a cousin who lives in Wichita, KANsas. We went there a few years ago for the funeral of his mother who is, of course, my aunt and was my mother's last surviving sibling.

I hope you are all having a lovely day and I must GET A MOVE ON!

Lucina said...

When I used to read or hear about people bingeing on watching some series or other I would wonder how that was possible. Well, now I know as I have become a binge watcher of Call the Midwife. I love that series and it's fascinating that real births are filmed! But it's also recalling the mores and limitations of the 50s that is so interesting.

Yellowrocks said...

I use at sea more often figuratively than literally. I am infrequently on the ocean, I am more often at sea and up in the air at the same time over several issues.
Anon@11:48, I consider you neither a pill not a troll and welcome your input.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle, but got totally flummoxed at the crossing of POUTI-E and THA-OS. I did two alphabet runs and didn't get any "tada" and couldn't figure out why. Well, it turns out I had NYS (for the reason so thoroughly discussed) and SORA. So I changed it to NYC (what else could it be?) and CORA, then did another alphabet run to finally get that Avengers guy and that Canadian dish. The worst part of it was that I had POUTINE and THANOS correctly in the first place but thought that was where I had gone wrong. Sheesh.

Anonymous said...

Also re my comment at 11:48, yes Yellowstone has three states:

Solid: Land, lots of land under starry skies above.
Liquid: Yellowstone Lake
Gas: Smells like rotten eggs!

Thanks -T for the song. Also, don't fence me in to a troll category.

AnonymousPVX said...


This Tuesday puzzle was a bit of a breeze.

No markovers today.

From yesterday.....yes, that was the nit. To be clear, with all the dissension, divisiveness and conflict in the day to day, I come here to get AWAY from all that. Having folks just drop their political opinions in....no matter how accurate or not....is not what a puzzle blog should be about. I don’t care how biased the WaPo or any other news org is....I don’t need to see it here. And also, I thought that was the rule?

Anyway, on to Wednesday.

PK said...

Does any city except New York have boroughs?

My Atlas lists a Yellowstone County in Montana but not in Idaho or Wyoming. Yellowstone is a National Park, mostly in Wyoming but lapping over into Idaho & Montana with a different type of governance under the U. S. Dept. of the Interior not a normal county within a state.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Walter Winchell's sign on catch phrase was "Good evening Mr. and Mrs. America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships AT SEA. Let’s go to press".

I don't want to get you'ins started on Texarkana TX/AR. And what would one call a lake that straddles Texas and Oklahoma? Lake Texoma, of course. So much more melodic than Oakas.

The cities in Tidewater, VA have eliminated counties. Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth and Suffolk aren't in any county. Makes things like insurance applications interesting. Unlike Miami/Dade, Lexington/Fayette etc., the governments didn't merge, the county names disappeared.

Tinbeni said...

Hahtoolah: OUTSTANDING, informative write-up.

Cheers!

Yuman said...

Lemonade714 @5:57 AM why are you stuck on Marlon Brando?

Yellowrocks said...

Anonymous @ 1:39. LOL

Sandyanon said...

Lemonade @5:57am -- too bad one of the clues couldn't have been about a person who makes arrows.

Kevin Christian said...

Hi, this is Kevin Christian, I'm one of the co-constructors of today's puzzle.

I met Kristian House at the ACPT in 2014 and we thought it would be fun to make a puzzle together since our names are similar. We made this puzzle last year so it only took us 4 years to do it.

I don't remember how we came up with the idea for this puzzle. I've always liked the idea of doing a puzzle where the theme answers are two word expressions where both words can follow another word and this one seemed to work.

I had POUTINE in a list of words that had never been in a crossword before. It jumped out at me when I was reading a Bob Mould autobiography a few years ago where he professed his love for this dish. I just think it's a funny sounding word. I wasn't so sure about THANOS but Kristian convinced me it was legit so we used it and Rich Norris the editor was OK with it so it's there.

For the theme answers, I really liked JACKET SIZE and STORY TIME. BLOOD LINE was good as well. I wasn't so sure about LESSON PLAN because I don't think the phrase "life plan" is as well known as life blood, life line, life jacket, life size, life story, life time, or life lesson.

My dad is/was a huge St. Louis Cardinals and Stan Musial fan because he grew up in Henderson, KY where he would listen to St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds games on the radio, so I was happy to get STAN THE MAN in there. He lives in Mesa, AZ now and he gets the Arizona Republic delivered to his house and the LA Times crossword is in there so I called him and asked him to go check it out.

We originally had THE ROAD clued as the Cormac McCarthy novel.

Thanks for solving!

Lucina said...

Kevin:
Thank you for stopping by for a visit. It's so nice to hear from constructors and to gain insight into their inspirations for a puzzle. I hope your dad is enjoying living in Mesa, a close neighbor from where I live in Scottsdale. I also solve the puzzle from the AZ Republic.

Yellowrocks said...

This dedicated cheese lover never heard of cheese curds as found in the poutine recipes.

Yellowrocks said...

Jeopardy! had a very interesting Canadiana category tonight, Hi, Canadian Eh! And I will bet Misty that you know every answer in the poetry category.

Ol' Man Keith said...

A pleasant pzl. Fun from start to end.

Owen is still in the hospital--underwent another surgery today. Sending him best wishes!

So that's what POUTINE is...
Is it gluten-free? I am finding it harder and harder to get gluten--rats!--and anything based on GMO! Darn. And whatever happened to MSG?! Double damn.
~ OMK

CanadianEh! said...

YR - I was just reading your post about Jeopardy when the Canadiana category came up; funny coincidence with POUTINE.
I was momentarily taken aback by your comment about never having heard of cheese curds. They are delicious (even on their own). Here is a link.
OntarioCheeseCurds

OMK - McDonalds Canada says "Our fries are made without gluten sources and cooked separately from our breaded items, and are therefore suited to a gluten-free diet. Both the cheese curds and the gravy we use on our poutine are also free of gluten sources (our gravy is made with modified corn starch, not flour)." They do leave themselves wiggle room re "risk of cross-contact despite precautions".

CanadianEh! said...

Sending best wishes and healing thoughts to Owen. Sorry to hear about another surgery.

D4E4H said...

CSO to CanadianEh!

This morning I had not heard of POUTINE, Canadian french fries dish, and now I are one.

POUTINE was an answer on Jeopardy tonight, and there was a picture of it.

Carol says hey-Eh.

Ðave

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-You know how you worry about things but it’s usually not as bad as you feared? I had three of those today.
-115F heat index today but only 76F after storms tonight
-SHAMOS was a bust because the military guy was RET and not RES and Canadian fries are POUTINE not POUTIME
-GANDALF took every down clue
-WANEST is terrible! Oh, it’s PALEST. Never mind.
-Granddaughter is flying into Omaha from NYC at 11:33 pm and Papa is happy to pick her up although it is supposed to be raining hard by that time

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Kevin & Kristian for the sparkly puzzle. Thanks Hahtoolah for an equally sparkly expo - love me some Byrds.

Nice of you to drop by The Corner with some inside-baseball Kevin.

WOs: ODeN, GANDoLF
ESPs: CORA, NORTE, DYAN, POUTINE, NIA
Fav: STAN THE MAN

OMK - thanks for the update on OKL. Positive wishes to him.

D4 - So, busy, well rested it seems, and hangin' with new friends. Good for you.

C, Eh! - thanks for the links on POUTINE and CORAs [I so want a crepe now - do they ship? :-)]

JJM - Our local NPR preempted a local show for a Woodstock documentary. Your recommendations will add to my edification.

In grad-school, one of DW's classmates wrote a response called "The Road not Taken, Taken." It was a farce, IIRC.

I had a boss once that asked, "TBA? What, you're not going to tell me?"
I said, "To Be Announced."
"So you know and will just announce it to me later?"
"No, I don't know yet. I still have to figure it out."
"So you really mean TBD - to be determined."
Can you tell his dad was a lawyer and mom was an English professor? :-)

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

Oops, D4, Jeopardy has not aired yet in all partsof the US.

SwampCat said...

Fun puzzle. Thanks all. Hahtoolah you were awesome as always. Thanks for taking the heat for KATRINA. I almost couldn’t write it!

I have never heard AT SEA in any other contexts but The ship has left port and is now AT SEA. Easy fill for me.

We had a cat named GANDALF. My kids were hysterical over Lord of the Rings.

Owen, blessings for a quick recovery.

IM, prayers always!

SwampCat said...

Anon, for goodness sake, pick a name and come in from the cold!!

Lemonade714 said...

Kevin, thank you for stopping by and sharing some thoughts.

I got the sound bite of Trevor Howard saying, "Mister Christian" from our double dose of Christian/Kristian.

The arrow maker (Fletcher) was brilliant Sandyanon!

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Kevin Christian and Kristian House, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Hahtoolah, for a fine review.

Worked this puzzle much earlier, but had no time to log on here. Just got home from band practice. And, here I am.

Puzzle was a little tricky for a Tuesday, but got through it.

Theme was good. Enjoyed it.

POUTINE was unknown, but after seeing it here it looks good.

THANOS was unknown. Perps.

GANDALF was unknown, perps.

Love SAUERKRAUT and CABBAGE. Two of my favorites.

Cubs are winning 5-3, top of the 8th. Watching details on a computer.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Anonymous T said...

@8:26 - considering our discussion today, I doubt D4 spoiled anything for anyone at The Corner with POUTINE. Frankly, I'd be disappointed if the Venn-intersection of Cornerites and Jeopardy! folks missed stating the Question.

Lem, SandyAnon - that whoosh you heard is the sound of LIFE Fletcher(?) / Brando going over my head. Elaborate please...

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

AnonT, JIC sandy and/or lemonade has turned in for the night. I haven't followed the entire thread but Fletcher Christian is the character played by Marlin Brando in the 1962 version of Mutiny On The Bounty.

Also a fletcher is a person who attaches fletchings or flight to an arrow.

Also today's puzzle was constructed by 2 other Christian's, Kevin and House.

P.S. As i typed those last two names i thought of starting a new riddle thread involving Joe Pesci and The Wet Bandits but enough of that for the day, eh?

P.P.S. I've used jic for just in case but it doesn't seem to have caught on outside of family and friends.

Wilbur Charles said...

As I related to Norm Nathan, the term southpaw was a moniker applied to Lefty Sprocket. He had flask in his hip pocket when he pitched and thus was a "Soused-Paw"

A bookie friend of mine explained once how bloodlines factor into betting odds.

Just for the record , Natick is in Middlesex County

I had a trip out of town (Ocala area). I forgot TBTimes so I grabbed the NY Post. And did the Xword. Pretty easy. Later I find a TBTimes and voila, same xword.

-T, thanks for the Chuck Berry link(Jimi)

WC

Anonymous T said...

@10:13 Anon - Aha!, the penny drops. I remember the book from HS but didn't recall his name was Fletcher nor make the connection between Mr. Christian, the Mutineer, to Brando (even given the movie's title). More pennies dropped as I just Googled and discovered 'Mutiny on the Bounty' was based on a true story. Hum - you think they would have mentioned that in class...

Thanks for the explanation (and all those pennies!).

WC - LOL Soused-Paw.

Cheers, -T

Bill G said...

Jeopardywise, what was wrong with "Lightning Bugs" instead of "Fireflies"?

Anonymous T said...

Bill G. I didn't watch but your question made me go find it. It appears not only POUTINE gets a two-fer but so does Robert Frost. Here's what I found - see if it matches the Answer you read:

“Lightning bug” was not a correct answer, as the Robert Frost poem referred to in the clue is titled “Fireflies in the Garden”, not “Lightning Bugs in the Garden”. The correct response must fit all parts of the clue; only “firefly” does that.

Cheers, -T

Misty said...

Yes, it was a fun Jeopardy night with POUTINE and a Canadiana category. Yellowrocks, you are so generous in thinking about me, but no, I only got about half the poetry items. Knew all of them at one time probably, but if I haven't thought of a poem in decades, it's no longer at the top of my memory list.

Bill G said...

AnonT, thanks. That part of the clue/answer went right over my head.