Evan's comments on today's puzzle: It’s easy to overlook 14-letter entries when constructing themeless crosswords. I thought it would be interesting to create a grid with comparatively few (66) words showcasing a couple of lively 14s in the middle, with “caption contest" being the seed. The grid layout is segmented though still fairly open, which enabled quite a few long, lively answers in the corners (my personal favorite being “I’ll be here!”)
His sixty-six word entry took longer than most for this solver as some fill that looked perfectly fine to me did not get Evan's "stamp" of approval. Hey, you had to see that coming.
Erin definitely did not simply "mail it in" today (enough already!):
Across:
8. It dropped "Western" from its name in 1997: SAMOA - Not to be confused with American Samoa
13. By design: ON PURPOSE - My pedantic toes curl up when I hear "ON ACCIDENT"
16. Basic: PLAIN.
17. Come to one's senses: SEE REASON.
18. Not level: ATILT - There's this tower in western Italy...
19. Department store section: CARDS
20. Pacific resort, popularly: CABO - Driving there from my house would involve using the Topolobampo Ferry to cross the Gulf of California
22. Some years ago: ONCE
23. Like: ALA.
24. Westernmost African capital: DAKAR - The Obamas stand in the infamous "Door Of No Return" where many West African slaves boarded ships from Goree Island just two miles east of DAKAR, Senegal
26. Commonly crumbled fare: SALTINES.
29. Word on Italian street signs: VIA - The VIAS (streets) on the west and east side of the Pantheon
30. Competition involving pictures: CAPTION CONTEST - The three finalists in The New Yorker Magazine CAPTION CONTEST #675 (and Evan's seed entry)
34. Portmanteau coin: TOONIE - Because Canada's $1 coin was called a Loonie because it had a Loon on the back, when Canada minted a $2 coin they conjoined Loonie and Two and got a TOONIE.
35. Longtime Warner Bros. output: ANIMATED SHORTS - They produced Looney (not LOONIE) Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that entertained me for hours in my misspent yute and still play well today
39. __ player: DVD - I think we have two somewhere
40. Calm: SERENITY.
41. Legendary Asian: YETI - Legend indeed
43. "War on Peace" author __ Farrow: RONAN - Is his real father Frank Sinatra and not Woody Allen?
44. Network for cinema lovers: TMC - Today's schedule there
47. Homecoming figure: GRAD.
48. Headline: STAR - Who would be the STAR if this facetious poster was for a real event?
49. Pinky __: SWEAR - The Seinfeld made a Pinky SWEAR for "The Contest"
51. Completely lost: AT SEA.
53. Waiting line: I'LL BE HERE - Evan's fav corner entry
55. Imply: GET AT
56. Some of Nixon's Plumbers, formerly: CIA AGENTS - They pulled the "Third Rate Burglary" that brought down a president
57. Simpson of fashion: ADELE -Here ya go!
58. "Aha!": THAT'S IT.
Down:
1. Puccini 3-Down: TOSCA and 3. See 1-Down: OPERA. An interesting way to pair these two
2. Magic star of the '90s: ONEAL - Shaq with a former girlfriend
4. Member of an Iraqi minority: KURD
5. "Wonder Woman" (2017) villain: ARES - Here ya go!
6. Microbrew option: IPA - A crossword standard
7. Asti wine grape: MOSCATO - Italian for the French Muscat grape
8. Pampering place: SPA.
9. Brown on the Food Network: ALTON - Sticks and stone may break my bones but names can really slow down my solving
10. Ring centerpiece: MAIN EVENT - This poster was way before Ali was the MAIN EVENT. It even did 12. Come before: ANTEDATE when he became Ali.
11. Cause of many '70s lines: OIL CRISIS - I remember a former student telling me, "Sorry, Mr. Schlapfer, we're out of gas."
14. Really absorb: SOAK IN
15. With all judges present, as at a Circuit Court: EN BANC - French for "in bench".
21. Lower-calorie cookie since 2015: OREO THIN - 13 fewer calories than a regular OREO and 30 fewer than a double-stuff OREO
24. Hardly Hollywood's most wanted: D-LISTERS - Some Hollywood D-LISTERS
26. Filter target: SPAM - The father of a boy I has in class was in charge of the successful popularizing of edible Hormel SPAM in Beijing, China
27. World record?: ATLAS.
28. High-and-mighty sort: SNOOT - He's called a SNOOT because his is up in the air30. Exchanged for an equivalent: CONVERTED - I still have a €5 note from 13 years ago I have yet to have CONVERTED to dollars
31. Pucker inducer: ACID TASTE
32. Revolutionary-era loyalist: TORY.
33. Super Bowl LI performer: LADY GAGA - Talk about an entrance!
36. Hot: EROTIC - See above
37. View from Anchorage: DENALI - You can see its 46. Peak: CREST in the background, NW across the Knik Arm of The Cook Inlet
38. Warn, watchdog-style: SNARL AT
42. Utopian: IDEAL.
44. Many Beliebers: TEENS
45. Cuban hero José: MARTI - Here ya go!
49. Dreamcast maker: SEGA - If you're interested
50. Sharpen: WHET - A WHETstone
52. Had: ATE.
54. "What a terrible idea!": BAH - Ebenezer's opinion of Christmas. "What, you want the day off?"
If you want to, you may mail in your comments from America's smallest post office in Ochopee, Florida (seen below) which of course is in Evan's collection. Or you may simply comment electronically here!
44 comments:
DNF. Got nearly all the NW and SE right, but turned on the red and nearly all I had in the middle all the way across was flagged. Finished it with red turned on, and several missteps along the way.
There was a student in CABO San Lucas
Thought that school was a pain in the tuchus!
When Spring Break ended,
And return was intended,
He stayed to become a beachcomber, ON PURPOSE!
His parents tried to make him SEE REASON.
Said he was committing scholastic treason!
Tho efforts were concerted,
'Twas they who CONVERTED.
"I'LL BE HERE with my beachcomber folks all season!"
{A.} (two stanzas, but all one poem.)
Another jigsaw puzzle with a poem by me as a reward when you finish it. The photo is by my friend Ute Painter in Elk, Washington. Do leave her a comment on https://www.jigidi.com/jigsaw-puzzle/0ANBLA4F/skookum-creek. I don't think she reads our blog here.
Oreo Thin, did me in!
Good morning!
Newspapers got delivered. The bridge must be open. The LOCALS are free to leave the isolation ward.
The Wite-Out got a workout this morning: SHIA/KURD, ALE/IPA, LINT/SPAM, SONY/SEGA, HONE/WHET. But hooray, it all came together in the end, and in good time, too. Thanx, Evan and Husker.
Husker, I was guessing which "National day of xxxx" you going to celebrate today. Would it be the International Day of Peace? A worthy cause for sure as are the National Boys' and Girls' Club day, Puppy Mill Awareness Day, Responsible Dog Ownership Day and National Cleanup Day.
Fun celebrations include National Pecan Cookie Day and crossword staple National Chai day.
But most importantly, today, September 21, 2019 is the 80th anniversary of BATMAN. So if you find yourself in any of these following cities, you may look to the skies at 8PM locally to see the Bat Signal.
I'm no NERD but I do want to remind everyone to look out in these cities:
Melbourne at Fed Square
Tokyo at MAGNET by SHIBUYA109 at Shibuya Scramble Crossing
Johannesburg at The Leonardo Building
Berlin at Potzdamer Platz 11
Rome at Roma Termini
Paris at Galeries Lafayette
Barcelona at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya
London at the Senate House
São Paulo at Itaúsa - LMB
New York the Domino Sugar Refinery
Montreal at Complex Dupuis
Mexico City at Torre Reforma
Los Angeles at City Hall
Good morning. Another great challenge today. This one took just under 45 minutes to piece together, but I got it. Thank you Evan and thank you Husker Gary.
At 35A, I had the A to start and the TS to finish. Thought I learned something unexpected as I keyed in ADVERTISEMENTS, but I couldn't get another perp to agree with that answer. So it came out and I started making progress again.
The other slow down was the SE corner. I had TCM (Turner Classic Movies) rather than TMC, and also had hone instead of WHET for the longest time. Longest time also describes how long it took to figure out Pinky SWEAR. MARTI was completely unknown, but it all came together in the end.
Good Morning:
This took 33+ Minutes to finish, slightly above normal Saturday time. As usual, the proper names tripped me up: Samoa, Dakar, Ronan, Adele, all as clued, and the unknown Moscato and Oreo Thin. I don't buy cookies, so I'm lost about names. I had Soak up before In and Hone before Whet. My fav C/As were: World record?=Atlas and Legendary Asian=Yeti. Nice CSO to CEh at Toonie.
Thanks, Evan, for a just-right workout and thanks, HG, for your sizzling, scintillating summary. I enjoyed your clips and visuals, especially the New Yorker Caption Contest winners. I don't have the patience (or desire) to wade through the D Listers anymore than I would for the A Listers. Celebrities are way, way down on my list of interesting people. OTOH, if I had to, I'd put money on Frank Sinatra being Ronan Farrow's father. I've seen several pictures of Ronan, from various angles, and he certainly favors Old Blue Eyes, IMO. I guess we'll never know for sure, though.
FLN
I solved yesterday's puzzle but circumstances prevented me from posting. Congrats to Lewis and Kathy for a tricky and challenging offering. I caught the theme early on but I struggled mightily in that SE corner. The cluing was devilish (Hi, Wilbur) but I finally got the Tada after 40+ minutes of labor! Thanks to both constructors, (Lewis is a positive and upbeat mainstay on that "other" blog), and to Lemony's spot-on expo. Lovely picture of your Mom, Lemony.
Anon T ~ I had already seen that video of the solo climb, but I watched it again, with the same mixture of disbelief and terror.
Texas Contingent ~ Glad you are all safe and sound, especially TX Ms. Hope none of you suffered any serious damage.
YR ~ I hope your patience and perseverance with the SSA has finally resolved the problem. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone just did their job properly in a timely and professional fashion?
Have a great day.
DNF, looking up MOSCATO (I had CATO) and ONEAL (I tried to shoehorn in "Johnson", the Magic star of the Lakers.) For the CAPTION CONTEST for Gary's picture of Shaq and his girlfriend, how about "You must be this tall to ride this ride."
When our former masters decided to give up on the American revolutionary war, many of the TORYs in New York were secreted to Canada to avoid reprisals. If not for Washington's spies spreading disinformation in New York, we likely wouldn't have prevailed in Yorktown and may have lost the war.
Mrcool, if you were really cool, you would know tha the BIG day today is the start of Oktoberfest! Even I knew that, and I haven't had a beer for more than three years. HAPPY OKTOBERFEST, ALL CORNERITES!
Thanks for the puzzle, Evan. Saturdays are almost always beyond my capabilities, but I came close on this one. I may have a PO to send you. And thanks to Gary for the fun review.
FLN: Yellowrocks, they may not share returns, but other info such as SSN / name I guess are shared. They surely share the amount of benefits anyone gets with the IRS. Just a personal opinion, but I don't trust that anyone in the federal government would really protect personal information from a pal in another department if the odds of detection were slim. I think that what saves us is that most people's private info are about as mundane as mine.
Good morning everyone.
What D-O said: My wite-out got a workout this morning. Quickly planted YETI. No joy; so eventually wited it out. Then when IDEAL loomed, I put it in again. Sigh. The break-thru came with entering SALTINES and A-LISTERS; then went on to get the NE 2/3's OK.
Had Loonie before TOONIE. (Some Canadian conundrum "-))
The SW stymied me even though I had our friend, AT SEA. Finally, after 2 breaks, it grudgingly all fell in concluding with LADY GAGA.
Today's learning was there is a ferry to (somewhat near) CABO from Topolobampo. Now there's a puzzle word!
Yes Jinx, I saw the ceremonial tapping of the keg this morning also.
OOM-PAH!!
Enjoy some sauerkraut and sausages today along with schnitzel and German potatoes. Good stuff.
Good morning. After 3 weeks on the road I TOOK AIM at my first puzzle in a while. And I SWEAR that I almost finished it but the intersections of three unknowns foiled me. I filled LOONIE. I'd never heard of a TOONIE or RONAN Farrow, and was thinking OREO CHIP because OREO THIN was a new one for me (and KS). No SERENITY this morning; a DNF.
I don't remember having to make so many changes in a single puzzle as today. Spitzboov- Wite out? I did it in INK and it looked ugly today.
My MOSCATA grape became a MOSCADO. That wine doesn't HONE my whistle either. Had to change it to WHET.
LINT filter went to DIRT and then SPAM.
D-ROSTERS became D-LISTERS after my crumbled SARDINES (a WAG) became SALTINES.
Thought maybe you could see SEWARD from Anchorage but finally saw DENALI.
But Evan didn't leave a SOUR TASTE after I sent the IPA back to the bartender for an ALE. It was an ACID TASTE.
I decided to SOAK UP a movie on Turner Classic Movies but realized the show was on The Movie Channel. So I had to SOAK IN the show on TMC instead of TCM.
EN BANC & ARES were unknowns filled by perps. Never heard of a CAPTION CONTEST.
Big fail, even with red letters. I did the top half of tomorrow's puzzle easily to restore myself respect.
My Chrome screen is only three quarter size. I cannot see the extreme right edge so I cannot tap the enlarge futton. On the left side, part of the desktop shows. The bar on the bottom to scroll right or left does not show.
Any ideas?
It would be interesting to know how many people really do crossword puzzles in the newspaper (with no red letters) as opposed to online. Some days it's "why bother" anyway...
FIR in too many min.
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Evan Kalish for this crunchy Saturday CW. I almost had a double Natick at 20 A -- Pacific resort, popularly: CABO. I had _A_O. I went away. When I returned to the CW, I WAGed the "C," and CABO jumped out at me.
Thank you Husker Gary for your excellent review. You sure have a lot of info today.
Thank you to the 5 of you who wrote on 9-19 about my vertical space problem. Anon-t, your suggestion worked.
Ðave
Most days I solve in the newspaper, as I am doing with the Sunday one in the early edition. If I get a big inkblot I solve online without red lettets. Resorting to red letters is a fail, but better than quitting. Friday was all pen and paper.
I immediately knew OREOTHINS because I love Oreos and fewer calories is always good. SAMOA is a go-to fill for many puzzles. With one perp I knew DENALI. "I'll be there" totally stumped me and I had to think about it to understand how it went with the clue.
Very good, challenging puzzle. Harder than usual? I think so.
Put me down as one who does the puzzle in the newspaper. When there's no newspaper, I print out the puzzle and still solve on paper. I've tried solving online, but don't care for it.
Yellow rocks. First I'd try rebooting. Fixes minor issues more than half the time. Otherwise you might be able to click and hold the top bar of the Chrome window and drag it across the screen in the direction you need to so you are able to see the menus or minimize/maximize arrows. Then let go of the left mouse button and adjust the window as needed.
That is the extent of my knowledge/suggestions.
Yellowrocks, I was gonna say WMCS. If that doesn't work let us know what kind of device you are using (windows laptop, droid tablet, etc.)
I print the puzzle from the LAT site, even though the hardcopy is in my paper. Like DO, I solve online if I must, but don't like it as much because I like to look over the puzzle after finishing (well, not today) and before I look at the crib. I use a Pentel 0.9 mm Twist Erase pencil.
Mr. Cool, thanks. I tried rebooting and unplugging to no avail. Using control/alt and the arrow buttons, I moved the Chrome screen to the left, exposing the enlarge button. TA DA!
Myself respect? No, my self respect. I blame Spell Check for that. The enlarge futton instead of button, was my own doing.
Our local German Society is hosting Oktoberfest today with good German food and a live band. I have attended other years. It's a lot of fun. But, Alan is here for the weekend so we are going to our town's annual fall festival, instead. Besides, the pal I have gone to Oktoberfest with is still in Maine.
Ran out of P&P today. I did get LADY GAGA, TOSCA, OPERA, KURD and many others, but there were too many unknowns.
Jinx, thanks.
I, too, prefer to see the whole puzzle and answers all at the same time on paper. But, if it gets to be a big mess, I can go online within cribbing. The typed letters are clearer than my bad handwriting.
FWIW, I solve in ink in the paper. Rarely have w/o's but I am slow to fill in things until I'm really quite sure. Today's puzzle was about usual Saturday for me. FIR in just under an hour.
JB2
Without cribbing, not within cribbing
I was totally unable to finish this puzzle without looking stuff up. The fact that I had SOAK UP instead of SOAK IN, and OREO LEAN instead of OREO THIN certainly didn't help. My biggest hurdle, though, was entering TOM BRADY at 33 down, which SNARLed things up in that area big time. Oh, and I also had GROWL AT instead of SNARL AT. Put in SNOOT, took it out, and put it in again about 3 times. Oh so many booboos! Super duper puzzle, Evan. Ya got me but good!
We solve with the newspaper version. Jack makes me a copy, and we solve individually, with occasional “trades” of answers.
Today was too tough for me. I guess I’m still in the newbie ranks. Jack finished, but with much huffing and snarling.
We love the New Yorker caption contest and are always interested to see if the winner is the one we picked. Once in a while we enter ourselves, but we’ve never been chosen.
Hi All!
Another Saturday #Fail. Thanks Evan for the puzzle but I couldn't get much traction outside of the NE & SW w/o resorting to Google (and then finally Tossing-In-The-Towel and taking glances at HG's grid for extended-extra play).
Thanks HG for the expo and LADY GAGA at NRG Stadium HERE in Houston. The drones of light were so cool.
For what it's worth, ALTON was my saving grace in the NE - undid Askew for ATILT, he did.
WOs: SOAKup, I was going to have some kinda fEST at the end of 30a (photo fest?), Tween b/f 'Beliebers' were just PLAIN TEENS.
ESPs: N/A - I cheated my butt off.
Fav: VIA and I'll tell you why. HG, we are staying blocks from the Pantheon next week.
Evan - I'LL BE HERE's clue is fantastic misdirection; I was QUEUE'd up for something...; EROTIC's clue was cute too.
{A,+}
D4 - glad to know it worked. Formatting kills a posts' Zen SERENITY.
Nice to see you back IM!
@10:40 - we've had this discussion before. Your PURPOSE now is to tally 'inkers v onliners', by handle (maybe HG will map it ;-)).
I'm Pilot-G2 0.5 black ink on newsprint. I tried online twice and couldn’t stand it; if I can't have paper, I'll pass.
Wendybird - it's a rare Saturday that I can finish 100%. It's more often than not, I have one or two bad cells on Fridays. But the CONTEST is only with myself [that's NOT to GET AT Seinfeld's Contest HG :-)]
We've had TOONIE b/f and C,Eh! has schooled us a'boot it.
Well, I found out last night that the desktop-admins at my company fubar'd my laptop's config (I'm in a test group and, um, #fail) and I lost my god-access. That means playing, er, the work, I was going to do today is shot. I guess I'll go outside and play with my Alfa. Y'all have a wonderful Saturday!
Cheers, -T
Hi Y'all! Ow! Ow! What an ego bruiser, Evan! Made me SWEAR! On Purpose! First pass thru, reading all the clues, I had only 11 words out of a possible 66. Red letters flashed on most of my tries. Took many red runs to get toe holds so I could get enough perps to fill the thing. Perseverance is never a fail at my house. Favorite fill: THATS IT at the end -- good! I can quit now and achieve some SERENITY.
Magic star of the '90's = O'NEAL. DNK Shaq played for the Magic. Knew all 5 other teams he played for. Jinx, your caption "You must be this tall to ride this ride" for Shaq & friend cracked me up. I'd been wondering about "How?"
Great write-up, Gary! Got a chuckle from your "Sticks & stones...but names really slow down my solving."
BigEasy: welcome back!
Fun Saturday puzzle. Wite Out was liberally used, but I finally managed to get er done.
Checked Evan’s site and he has our little, itty bitty, Post Office of Anahola there. I was about to run down there a snap a picture for him, no need.
Whenever I see the word PINKY I think of our tow truck company called PINKY TOWS, their motto is Got a Tow Jam? Call Pinky Tows. All their trucks are Pepto Bismol pink, great commercials too.
Mahalo for the great write up Gary
PK - Thanks! Even though BigE explicitly noted it... Welcome back BigE!
Alfa wouldn't start; The battery's on a charger now and y'all are stuck with me for a bit.
chefwen - Pinky__ made me think of and the Brain because, like HG, I spent my yute watching ANIMATED SHORTS. //it's kinda-sad that my awareness of haute-culture is due to TOONs.
Cheers, -T
I have been solving online for several years and find the App I use very user friendly. I just this minute checked the options for solving and found, much to my surprise, that I have the red letter option. I must have opted out of that years ago and forgot it even existed. If I am truly stuck on a letter or fill in an incorrect letter and don't get the Tada, then it's a FIW. I always enjoyed solving in pen on paper, but I've become a fan of online solving and find it just as satisfying. (Hi to you, too, Tony the Tiger!)
For some reason, ANIMATED SHORTS brings to mind Jessica Simpson and The Dukes of Hazzard.
OwenKL,
I did the Jigsaw puzzle,
did not get any poem?
---------------------
Always do the puzzle on paper,
(in ink)
except for Saturdays, where I can't find any dang place
to ink in! Then it's red letters, & I consider names gimme's
& look them up as I would have never heard of them anyway...
(*&%&^%Saturdays!)
Another exception,
return flight home from anywhere I usually
do not have access to the paper in print.
So whenever within WIFI I open the puzzle on my Ipad
(or phone, but too dang small)
& it stays accessible and usable on the plane even in airplane mode.
(just don't try to change screens...)
PK, I think somebody put her up to it.
Today is also MIA/POW recognition day.
PK and Jinx, your questions and jokes regarding Shaq and his girlfriend, bring another joke to mind.
A sex therapist was giving her lecture in a little country town. She was explaining about everything to a rapt audience. Afterwards, a largish woman with her small husband in tow came up and waited in line for a chance to ask a question. When they got to the front of the line and it was their turn, the woman asked,
"All of that stuff you explain about birth control was very interesting but you didn't mention the method we use most often."
"Oh, what's that?" the therapist asked.
It's the Bucket and Saucers method.
I haven't heard of that one. What is it?
Well, the woman explained, you notice that my husband is much smaller than I am. So, when we make love, he stands on a bucket. When his eyes get big as saucers, I kick the bucket out from under him!
BillG: chuckle, chuckle!
Anon@10:40- I've NEVER done a crossword puzzle on a computer; only pen (not pencil) and paper.
Anon-T- STOG is an option I don't use. Also while I was in Canada from Sept 4-19 and got use to their coins. The two-dollar coin reminded me of Mexican money. I didn't hear anybody use the term TOONIE.
PK- is LSU one of your '5 other teams' for Shaq?
Once again I was up early. Prepared my comments and never sent them, I return now and see it is too late. Ah well.
Enjoyed the puzzle (thank you Evan, or Erin) and the write up (thank you HG) and all the comments (thank you insightful ones)
The picture of Shaquille and his then-girlfriend is stunning. So was his BASKETBALL CAREER
Hola!
I shall read you all later. Having been gone all afternoon I just finished this devilish mind biter from Evan Kalish. I refused to look up anything so of course it took much longer than I liked.
Many mistakes slowed my progress, SHIA before KURD, OPERA at 1D then finally moving it to 3D. ASKEW then ATILT, etc., etc. Finally I had some toeholds and finished the SW corner with an ACIDTASTE. Moving on the SE corner I transposed TMC with TCM and that stymied me for a while until I recalled the great poet, Jose MARTI, whom I studied in Spanish lit class.
So then slowly, step by step I filled upward changing CALI to CABO which gave way to MOSCATO, one of my favorite wines.
For the life of me I couldn't remember ALTON's name but once it penetrated everything else just flowed in. VIA had made an early appearance and waited for the rest of its companions.
Terrific, puzzle, Evan! Thank you.
Gary, thank you, for the brilliant expose' as always.
I hope you all had as good a day as I did with my book club friends.
My system is always with pencil and paper. I'm too OCD to use pen and have a MESS! Besides just thinking my way through a puzzle, especially one as tough as this one, is a good mental workout.
I love reading all your comments! Bill G, LOL!
Welcome back, Big Easy.
Jinx:"and I haven't had a beer for more than three years" . Then here's a CSO to you on 40a: SERENITY. I actually thought of Splynter who we all miss. Ok, et moi(41)
Jayce:"My biggest hurdle, though, was entering TOM BRADY at 33 down.." Boy did this get a big chuckle from me. Partly because of a FB mention that Tom had to make sure that a certain Mr BROWN* left his set of keys to Tom's house on his way out of town. Also, I can never translate the Roman numerals to dates. Is it LI(51)+67?(2018)
IM, I knew you'd like Fri xword
Re. Paper vs online. I'm like -T ("if I can't have paper, I'll pass."). Now, I struggled. An inky mess. I decided that I would finish if it took me all week. I see a lot of relatively early dnf's. It was the NE that really stalled me fe. IN THE PLAN to use SHIA. The simple TOSCA/OPERA didn't grok because I misunderstood the clue.
Then when the ink was finally dry I see I FIW with DAKAR and D-lister, not B-lister . Is there a DLIST? I've gotta check Gary's link
Finally. I was wondering if I'd root for my Sox or the Rays this weekend. The latter are my new hometeam and the one I (can) follow. Nope, when the second walkoff occurred I was still bummed. "Pitching, pitching pitching. " as someone said.
WC
** Capped because of Leroy on Wednesday that produced my horrific DNF
One more quick note. When an inker uses an alpha search it's mental. I should have a done that with _AKAR.
Was I the only one to try ILK for 23a:Like? That would be a NYT type clue/answer.
Also, "inking" in is a challenge in itself. I like to see potential perps in writing but I try to check validity. Ink with no wite-out is like trapeze with no net.
Another dead end was ASKEW < ATILT.
WC
Big Easy, I knew of LSU but I was thinking Lakers, Heat, Sun, Cleveland & Celtics.
I do online if possible because I can enlarge the puzzle well enough to read the numbers on the grid & read the clues better. I did on paper until newspapers shrank the puzzles beyond my seeing ability. Did some a few weeks ago with a pencil in one hand and a magnifying glass in the other. Took twice as long.
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