google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, October 17th 2019 Susan Gelfand

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Oct 17, 2019

Thursday, October 17th 2019 Susan Gelfand

Theme: Times Four - four types of journalism you might find in your local newspaper:

20A. Article about life jackets?: SAFETY FEATURE. "In the unlikely event of a water landing ...." I love the euphemistic take on the ditching in the water thing, although "Sully" did a pretty good job on the Hudson.

31A. Article about a European language?: GREEK COLUMN. Your choice of three styles - Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. Here's the famous Parthenon Temple in Athens, with Doric columns to the fore.


The facade looked a lot better before Lord Elgin hacked the marble frieze off the front and took them back to England with him. The British Museum, where they are kept, are reluctant to give them back.


41A. Article about crosswords?: PUZZLE PIECE. Blog about crosswords? Right here.

55A. Article about a dessert?: ICE-CREAM SCOOP. I use a spoon, no need for a specialized tool. I don't eat a lot of ice cream, and I don't have to serve four scoops a minute like they do in my local gelato store.

Not a pun-itive puzzle from Susan; as I've said before I'm always a little nervous when I see the "?" clues, as the puns can be awful, but these didn't cause any toe-curls. The fill has a couple of clangers in there though, there's no denying that ENHALO and ACERS should forthwith be cast into the Slough of Despond, never to be seen again.

Across:

1. Quick blows: JABS

5. In need of a massage: ACHY

9. "Back to the Future" surname: MCFLY

14. Kitchen topper: OLEO. Do you top something with margarine in the kitchen? Maybe.

15. Repeatable toy vehicle sound: CHOO. Childish pâtisserie? Choo Pastry.

16. Pine or Rock: CHRIS. Nice clue. Do I know Chris Pine? I don't watch Star Trek reboots which apparently is what he's famous for.

17. Duo in the news: ITEM. Could have been one of the theme entries if you could come up with a word to prefix "ITEM".

18. Pushed the bell: RANG

19. Fountain pen precursor: QUILL

23. Whirl, so to speak: TRY. Giving it the old college whirl. Funny how some word substitutions just don't work.

24. Brewed beverages: ALES

25. Didn't let renege on: HELD TO

28. Chi follower: PSI. Second Greek reference today.

29. Bumbler: BEE. "Bumble", according to the Shorter Oxford English dictionary means "to hum, buzz, drone, or move ineptly or flounderingly." Sounds like me on a bad day.

30. Steal from: ROB

36. Serpent suffix: -INE. The first of three suffixes in the "across" section today, I think that's a little excessive. The Serpentine (pronounced "Serpen-tine") is a lake in London's Hyde park fed originally by two now-lost rivers, the Westbourne and the Tyburn. I swam 1,000 meters in there once competing in a biathlon. It was best to try to ignore the Canada goose-poop on the banks.

37. Latest thing: RAGE. Why "all the rage" and not just "the rage?" We should be told.

38. Monet medium: OIL. Money medium: OIL. Have you seen the gas prices?

39. CBS military series: NCIS. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

40. Texter's "Yikes!": OMG!

45. Solemn assurance: VOW

46. Word ending for enzymes: -ASE

47. Deli delicacy: LOX. Can you still get genuine lox (salted salmon) in a deli any more?

48. Surround, as with a glow: ENHALO. Begone.

50. Cherokee on the road: JEEP

52. Dude: BRO

58. Choral work: MOTET. Why did I knee-jerk OCTET? I should show restraint.

60. Small addition?: -ETTE

61. Honey haven: HIVE. Nice alliteration.

62. Ward off: AVERT

63. School near Windsor: ETON. Windsor couldn't be much closer to the school, pop down the High Street and walk across the bridge and you're there, two minutes, tops. Turn left for the Mango Lounge, a great Indian restaurant.

64. __-friendly: USER

65. Entourage: POSSE

66. "The Metaphysics of Morals" writer: KANT. He had enemies. "Immanuel? I just kan't stand that chap".

67. Cubs spring training city: MESA. If you say so - and so it is:


Down:

1. Support beam: JOIST

2. Destination for a wedding: ALTAR

3. Like many wrestlers: BEEFY

4. Unspecified amount: SOME. Let's enjoy a course in Advanced Mathematics with Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson in "Blackadder".

5. Nail salon material: ACRYLIC

6. Irritate: CHAFE

7. Sharpens: HONES

8. Class with mats: YOGA

9. "12 Years a Slave" director Steve: MCQUEEN. No idea, but MC led me to the answer without any trouble.

10. Boor: CHURL. Nice thought-provoking moment - we've all (?) heard of being "churlish", but I'd not considered there was a noun form.

11. Panda Express staple: FRIED RICE. If you're going to fry rice, steam it and let it get cold before it hits the wok.

12. Short short?: LIL'

13. Designer monogram: YSL

21. Assignment: TASK

22. Classic 1954 horror film about giant ants: THEM. Produced by Warner Bros. using specially-trained giant ants on the Burbank studio backlot:


26. Vodka __: TONIC. And a squeeze of lime, please.

27. More than a bit heavy: OBESE

28. Middle of Tripoli?: PEE. The "P" in the middle.

29. One advocating buying: BULL. Wall Street market-speak. The bronze of the bull on Wall Street comes in for a lot of attention. Let's just say one part of the sculpture is shinier than the rest.

31. Trees of a kind, often: GROVE

32. San __, city near San Francisco: RAMON. Hands up (me!) for MATEO when I just had an A.

33. Meringue ingredients: EGG WHITES

34. Go slowly: OOZE

35. Claiborne of fashion: LIZ

39. Scuttle: NIX

41. Painter's set of colors: PALETTE

42. Biennial games org.: U.S.O.C. United States Olympic Committee, the next Summer games are in 2020, the next Winter games in 2022.

43. Mercury, for one: ELEMENT

44. Orchestra name reflecting its music: POPS. Boston.

49. Superb servers: ACERS. Oh, stop it.! I feel I'm being tickled to death by horrible crossword-ese.

50. Volkswagen sedan: JETTA

51. Big name in stationery: EATON. Friendly crossing with ETON, rather nicely done. The posh writing paper in England was Basildon Bond . I could always hear "I write on Bond, Basildon Bond".

52. Capital WNW of Cheyenne: BOISE

53. Wanders: ROVES

54. Stage performance with singing: OPERA. That's rather like saying a banquet is "a get-together with food".

56. Give a strong impression (of): REEK. Usually a bad impression. I wouldn't say that someone reeks of good manners.

57. Buddy: CHUM

58. Hiker's guide: MAP

59. Lacto-__ vegetarian: OVO. Milk and eggs are on the OK list, but no fish nor shellfish.

Well, that brings the ROVE around the crossword to a close for this week, so here's the grid:

Steve



Notes from C.C.:

1) No updates on Dennis yet. He should be out of the ICU today and move to the step-down unit.

2) Happy birthday to Wilbur Charles! What's the special plan today?
  

49 comments:

  1. DNF. One cell natick, 42d + 46a. UsOC + AsE.
    41a should have been jigsaw, not crossword. But I guess it's what appeals to the audience.
    For my jigsaw puzzle poems, see Jigidi 1, and for my crossword/jigsaw hybrids (but sans poems), see Jigidi 2.

    The boxer's JABS made him ACHY,
    But to fall to the floor would look fakey.
    So he HELD TO his feet,
    Till RAGE took a beat,
    And The Hulk boxed the boxer to breaky!

    An old steam train could go CHOO-choo.
    Its smoke could make folks go ahchoo, ahchoo.
    But a TONIC has come
    In the form of some gum --
    Now instead, passengers can chew, chew!

    He toasted two slices of bread,
    And on top of them, OLEO spread.
    On a tray with some coffee,
    But his wife was quite frosty
    When he served it as breakfast in bed!

    She thought that YOGA would be SAFE.
    But her thighs in her leggings did CHAFF.
    So she changed to a skirt
    But that was much worse,
    Tho she wasn't aware, such a naif!

    The overworked composer, for relief,
    Left gaps in his scores, very brief.
    For musicians to guess
    Which notes should be next --
    He called it his tone PUZZLE PIECE!

    {C+, B-, B, B, B-.} Hey, bi-polar doesn't mean just depressed. Sometimes I get manic, too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ACERS as tennis servers? I was thinking Of ACER computerS as Internet servers! Thought maybe "superb" was part of some ad campaign. I don't really understand what a server is as computer hardware, which is why I never understood why Clinton's use of a private one was any big deal.
    Just looked it up. Superb Choice makes batteries for Acer computers.

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  3. I would like to add my best wishes and prayers for Dennis

    HBDT CED Bluehen and WC and many more

    I should be back in a week or so

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have no issue with acers, enhalo however I have never heard before.

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  5. Good morning!

    Found several places to go wrong on this one: BROWN (McFly), MATEO (Ramon), OCTET (Motet) (Hi, Steve), SALEM (Boise -- forgot all about Idaho). I was also right with Steve wrinkling my nose at ACERS and ENHALO (that final O required an alphabet run to complete US_C). Got the theme and got 'er done. Hooray. Thanx, Susan and Steve.

    MESA: Used to have relatives there. One died, the other moved back to cheeseland.

    Happy birthday, Wilbur!

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  6. Pangram.

    Thanks, Susan. Thanks, Steve.

    Getting the theme early on helped.

    Happy Birthday Wilbur !

    YOGA - Thought of Lucina.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Easy theme for a Thursday. Was able to complete pretty quickly. ENHALO and ETON - in line with my rant yesterday about “crosswordese” answers that detract from a good puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Clever theme which made this a quicker solve than some Thursdays!

    WEES about ENHALO- yikes!!

    Thanks to Steve and Susan!

    HBD to WC and Bluehen!
    Prayers continue for Dennis!
    Heading to KC this afternoon - our daughter and SIL are coming in from Seattle to run the KC marathon on Saturday with my husband -- I will only walk to various spots to watch them!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Director Steven R McQueen is not related to the King of Cool, actor Steve McQueen, star of Bulitt, The Great Escape, Papillion and many others

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  10. FIR, but erased HoLD TO, ACRiLIC, and oaf for BEE (CSO to our sweet Melissa).

    USER-friendly? Easy to use is easy to say.

    Back in my imbibing days, vodka TONIC was my drink of choice. With diet TONIC, of course; wouldn't want to become OBESE.

    HBDTY, WC. Hope you have many more.

    FLN: TTP, I won't mention any suspicious links again. I didn't know you were the only one who removed them, and the only set of eyes that would detect them. I don't mind pissing you off, but not over something so trivial (and well intended). Thanks for all you do. I think you overestimate the ability of the average user to detect dangerous links, but I'll MMOB.

    Thanks to Susan for the Thursday challenge, save the two clunkers. And thanks to Steve for the interesting review.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good morning everyone.

    Got most of it OK but needed a 'nudge' with MCFLY. Too many years since I saw the 'future' stuff. Agree with Steve about the Slough.
    Really couldn't find much to comment on.
    OLEO - I won't knowingly eat OLEO. Butter is my schmear of choice. During my service time, the Navy was required by law to provide butter.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Agree about enhalo. Yuk. But being a tennis player, acer was fine.
    C.C.: LOVED "a course in Advanced Mathematics." Never had seen the duo. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Good Morning:

    This was on the easy side for a Thursday but enjoyable, nonetheless. I had Roe before Lox and Alert before Avert. I needed perps for San Ramon, which I've never heard of, Motet, and Kant. I liked the Eton/Eaton crossing and the kissing cousins of Bro and Chum and the Bee and Hive duo. Enhalo was the one bad apple in the barrel and Acers could have been made less "gluey" with a different clue, IMO. CSO to Lucina at Mesa, as well as the Chicago contingent with their Cubbies in the clue. My own CSO to CEh at Eaton(s), the department store, now defunct, sadly for Canadians, I'm sure.

    Thanks, Susan, for a fun and clever theme and thanks, Steve, for the usual tart and tasty review. Sorry the grid didn't present you with a more mouth-watering menu than Fried Rice, Egg Whites, and Lox.

    Happy Birthday, Wilbur, hope it's a fun and special day! 🎂🎈🎉🎁🍾

    Yesterday was my sister Peggy's 65th wedding anniversary. As she is still in the rehab facility, her children reserved the community room and brought food in from a nearby restaurant, and her favorite ice cream cake to celebrate Mom and Dad's marital milestone. (Her rehab is going slow and is difficult for her.)

    I hope all is going well for Dennis.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Clever theme. It helped with the solve, which was easy enough without help.There were plenty of good perps. Three unknowns in the NE corner. -HR-S let me wag CHRIS which suggested McFLY and McQueen.
    !2 Years a Slave was a fine movie. Seeing it led me to find the original book, a true story. Twelve Years a Slave is an 1853 memoir and slave narrative by American Solomon Northup as told to and edited by David Wilson.
    I figured 42D had to do with the Olympics, so not too difficult.
    A little crosswordese provides LHF, low hanging fruit, to use as perps. I agree that too much LHF is a fun sponge, but I do not mind a little of it, like ETON today.
    ENHALO seemed odd to me so I LIU. It is rare, but is in some dictionaries. Here is an example from Merriam Webster: "These enhaloed the heads of models who led the audience down a garden path in New York’s Marble Cemetery into a romantic realm of fairy tale and fantasy."
    No issue with acer as superb tennis server. ACER as a type of maple is fairly common in crosswords. I like this new twist.
    IM, I hope Peggy's rehab picks up soon and she is on her way to better health. It was great that her family could celebrate her and DH's anniversary with her. I am sure it was a bright spot in her week.

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  15. Mornin' gals and guys. Just some info. Crosswordese are words rarely seen outside of a puzzle.
    Enhalo, yes. Eton no. Because a word pops up in a puzzle frequently does not make it crosswordese.

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  16. Musings
    -Subbing today where I alternate Seniors and 8th graders. Talk about adjusting on the fly!
    -Some fun cluing made for a good time
    -I’m pretty sure that even one JAB from Mike Tyson would knock me out
    -In your best, bass Addams Family voice ask, “You RANG?”
    -An article for Philatelists – COLLECTOR’S ITEM
    -“Don’t renege” on buzzed around my brain box for quite a while
    -Some schools now reject ETTE as in the boys’ teams are Hawks and the girls’ team are the HAWKETTES
    -Cubbyville in MESA is a big deal, especially in March
    -My artist lived in San MATEO and used PASTELS at first
    -Being from a family of nursery people, I am certainly aware of this use of ACER
    -Here come some seniors who are reading Morte d’Arthur? Huh?
    -HBD, WC!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Jerome, you are correct about crosswordese. What do you call common words that are overused in Crosswords, like Erie? I realize some of them are unavoidable at times. However, they do provide easy perps. IMO, there should be fewer of them later in the week.
    HG, I know what you mean by adjusting on the fly. When I taught kindergarten in public school, I led a middle school youth group at church. They had a good laugh at my expense when I told them we would leave when the big hand was on the 9. Of course, we had a pre digital clock.

    ReplyDelete
  18. FLN, Anon-T said:
    CED - um, there were no details about the eel sauce; BlueHen would have certainly included that :-) Good thing you have that kitty "fluff" after all that Sushi.

    To be honest, I had the chicken fried rice,(I ordered Beef...) tempora, and california roll.
    DW added something new for me, a sweet potato sushi look alike, not bad,
    wrapped in Nori and rice with some kind of crunchy layer...

    There was also an awesome appetizer of some kind of stringy mushroom
    wrapped in Bacon! (possibly in Eel sauce...)

    I did accidentally eat some fish,
    some kind of Cod in an unknown sauce topped with Jalapeno slices.
    DW said it was too hot, & asked for help...
    (Yes, I might eat fish, if you cover it in Wasabi...)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Well, I enjoyed this puzzle and did pretty well with just a little trouble in the north and south west. So, many thanks, Susan. I was delighted to get GREEK COLUMN and PUZZLE PIECES early on, and ICE CREAM SCOOP soon thereafter. Only SAFETY FEATURE gave me trouble. Got the EGG WHITES pretty early too, and, like Irish Miss, enjoyed having the FRIED RICE and LOX fall into place. I don't eat my morning cereal until noon, so this made me a little hungry for a fancier breakfast. Had PASTELS before PALETTE, but nice to see ETON pop up again, like it does, several times each week. Jerome, thanks for explaining "crosswordese" to us. And thanks for the helpful write-up, Steve.

    Have a wonderful birthday, Wilbur.

    Irish Miss, I hope Peggy gets better soon, and how lovely that her family gave her a birthday party at the facility.

    Enjoyed your poems, Owen.

    Have a great day, everybody.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Happy Birthday Wilbur,

    For you, I am going to deviate from my usual cake link

    The Puzzle?
    (I had to puzzle my way thru it...)

    Crosswordese?
    Stoa,
    Stoa is Crosswordese...

    Edmund Gwenn in Them!

    & the way I like to remember him...

    ReplyDelete
  21. OBESE does not mean "heavy"; it means "fat." An obese 29-A would not be heavy.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hola!

    Greetings, crossword friends! Late to the party because I was looking up some obituaries of friends who died and about whose passing I learned only today. They were teachers I knew and with whom I enjoyed working.

    Thank you, Susan, for the newspaper themed PUZZLE! It was an easy solve for a Thursday with some familiar CSOs, MESA, YOGA and ACRYLIC which is applied to my fingernails every two weeks. I also watch NCIS.

    I had to AVERT my attention at ENHALO but ACER as has been noted, is more familiar as a tree.

    Some serious thinking led me to recall Steve MCQUEEN, the director, though I did not see the movie. The same with MCFLY.

    The clue for CHRIS made me chuckle.

    I'm not familiar with the city of San RAMON but am going to San Rafael in a couple of weeks.

    I love FRIEDRICE though, of course, I can no longer eat it. One of my nail techs explained how to make it and told me to use leftover RICE or as Steve explained, make some and let it get cold. The nail techs are all Vietnamese.

    Happy birthday, Wilbur! I hope you have some exciting plans for today. Do tell.

    Please enjoy the day, everyone! Every day is a gift.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous@12:46
    There is no 29A.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Steve, thank you. I do enjoy your British perspective and how you are so familiar with the region, i.e., the exact location of ETON.

    ReplyDelete
  25. OBESE synonyms: blubbery, chubby, corpulent, fat, fleshy, full, gross, lardy, overweight, plump, podgy [chiefly British], portly, pudgy, replete, roly-poly, rotund, round, tubby.

    I think Anon @1246 may be on to something.

    Happy Birthday to Wilber Charles!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Two for the price of one:

    Donald’s memos have never been sweet;
    Some might say, like a goat he just bleats.
    And to those he offends
    He will not make amends;
    He can’t separate CHAFE from the tweet
    ===============

    Today’s lim’rick’s just gross, so to speak;
    After reading, you’ll think it just REEKS
    Like the smell of your PEE
    When you eat broccoli,
    And asparagus, garlic, or leeks

    16 across was a clever clue

    ReplyDelete
  27. Heavy synonyms:weighty, bulky, massive, cumbersome, unwieldy, ponderous, huge, overweight, top-heavy, of great weight, burdensome, portly, weighty, cumbrous, stout, big, hard to lift, hard to carry, dense, elephantine, FAT, substantial, ample, corpulent, abundant, beefy*, hefty, chunky

    Frequently fat people are called heavy as a kinder word than fat or obese. Heavy, obese, and fat are similar. We need to be careful of the nuances and customs in the usage of these words. Trucks are heavy, never obese. Cats, like people, can be called heavy and obese. Bumble bees are heavier than honey bees but are not called obese.
    I am thinking that obese never refers to inanimate objects. When it is used, it always refers to those that are heavier than the norm.
    I have never heard of an obese cow. I think that are no arbitrary rules. Why can cats be obese and not cattle?
    When I was studying Japanese, we would follow all the rules, just to be told,"No native talks like that." Our teacher never acknowledged this conundrum. She didn't see the inconsistencies in her own language.
    Whatever one's own language, most people take it for granted. Languages are endlessly interesting and fabulously inconsistent.

    ReplyDelete
  28. an OBESE weight
    an OBESE chart
    an OBEST measurement
    an OBESE BMI
    an OBESE test
    an OBESE lifestyle

    ReplyDelete
  29. Great puzzle. Wouldn't "enhalo" it because I "Kant" stress enough it's hard to believe that's actually a word.

    Wasn't a "bumbler" and finished.

    As a baby boomer although we didn't actually use "quills" to perform our penmanship drills in school we used wooden pens with metal nibs dipped into ink wells. What a mess! Kids today are not taught to write in and frequently can't even read cursive.

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  30. YellowRocks,

    What's all this talk of Schmaltz?

    I was referred to as Stocky once...

    A friend of mine's Mother made reference to my "groys tokhes" once,

    SOrry if I Butt Dialed you...

    And, I can't keep my mouth shut... (Are you sure this language thingie is a good thing?)

    ReplyDelete
  31. But the chart, the measurement, the test are not obese. The one being charted, measured,tested might be obese. The inanimate object is not obese

    ReplyDelete
  32. How on earth did I know THEM was THEM--even before other fills? My one viewing sin is an absolute avoidance (well, since age 10, anyway) of cheap-o sci-fi horror flix.
    I guess the advertising got to me.

    Jerome ~ Thanks, but now we still need a word for common crossword fills that are ALSO found IRL. Not just ETON & ERIE, but ALE, ALI, ELI, ERA, etc.
    "Cruciverbal fodder" is just too long & windy...
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    Four diags today, one on the near end and a 3-way in the mirror.
    TODAY’S anagram is from the far side. It's a long one, only two letters shy of a Jumbolissimo!
    It celebrates the scheme or algorithm for finding just the right words for that new melody you’ve been developing. It’s known as the…
    LYRICIZE SETUP”!

    ReplyDelete
  33. re: 29a, an obese BEE would be heavier than a non-obese bee, so heavy would still apply.
    ia@5:01, an OBESE chart wouldn't be any fatter than a non obese one, it would be a chart *about* obesity. Different usage of the word. YR could maybe tell a linguistic word describing the difference. For both bee and chart it's an adjective (I think), but in different ways.

    Bea was big for little bees.
    She was so big she was obese.
    Bumble bees
    Fly with ease
    They all do, that is, except Bea!

    ReplyDelete
  34. Oh, and I don't agree that common words aren't crosswordese. But I did have to go a ways to find web site that (partially) agreed with me. That writer says common words that show up a lot are called "repeaters".

    ReplyDelete
  35. OMK:
    Isn't that CROSSWORDESE? To me that includes those commonly used words you cited.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I do not have a word for it, but an obese chart is like a walking stick that doesn't walk, a learning curve that doesn't learn, a looking glass that doesn't look. Although walking, learning and looking are done only by animate creatures, these items are inaminate.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Lucina ~
    Not according to Jerome. This was in response to him.
    Owen ~I like "repeaters."
    ~ OMK

    ReplyDelete
  38. Owen ~
    In treating OBESE as a subject (as in a chart about the word OBESE) it would become a noun, not an adjective.
    Sorry, to be such a pedant, but I am a retired pedant.
    ~ OMK

    ReplyDelete
  39. Thanks OMK, for being a pedant!!! I’ve been itching to comment.

    Owen, wonderful day! Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  40. OMK, I am with you in princible, but what
    chart?

    ReplyDelete
  41. Hi All!

    Thanks Susan for the PUZZLE. I really liked the tight cluing and sparkle [EGG WHITES, PALLETTE, EATON xing ETON, etc]
    Thanks Steve for kicking off the after-party with your (and Blackadder's) wit. As for real LOX, you can get it at Kenny & Ziggy's across the street from my office building. [page 2] The prices are why I wait for vendors to offer lunch before I go; but, Steve, if you happen to find yourself in Houston's Gallery Area, it's on me.

    WO: GREEK COLoMN
    ESPs: THEM, RAMON, McQUEEN (MacQueen, Macqueen?) [thanks Bill-O for telling me they were two different folks],
    Fav: I'm going with BULL market b/c Steve made me Look it up

    So was 9a going to be McFly, Brown, or Tanen[sic - it's Tannen:
    Young Biff: Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here?
    Old Biff: It's *leave*, you idiot! "Make like a tree, and leave." You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong.
    [Back to the Future II]

    {A, B-, B+, A | A}
    Nice DR OMK.
    Limerick Larry - last line drop AND or OR and A+ :-)

    Ok, I'll pile-on Susan - ENHALO(?). I tried (for about 45 seconds) to re-work that corner but giving up on EGG WHITES & PALETTE each xing two themers, I'll COPE, er DEAL.

    IM - that sounds like a wonderful party your nieces threw for your sister.

    Heavy is a euphemism for "you big fat a**". Big Boned is another [or kitty's fluff FLN(?)]

    HBD WC! I know you & IM are pulling for NY but... Happy Birthday anyway :-)

    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  42. A very happy birthday, WC. I like your posts.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Good evening, folks. Thank you, Susan Gelfand, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.

    Got the puzzle done earlier, but had no time to log in here. So, here I am.

    Puzzle was a little tough. Theme appeared slowly. Finally figured out the newspaper theme. PUZZLE PIECE was my first to get.

    NCIS was favorite of mine. I like those three shows.

    Never heard of PANDA EXPRESS and how it his tied to FRIED RICE. I do like fried rice.

    While I was in Pennsylvania, I did the puzzles, but could not submit my blog articles. I tried twice, but no cigar. I was trying to do it via my iPad instead of a computer.

    Hitting the hay pretty soon. See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    ( )

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anon-T @ 8:03 --

    Don't forget steatopygous!

    ReplyDelete
  45. Micheal - can you not keep the Kardash-IANS [that's gotta be a suffix PUZZLE answer one day] out of this? :-)

    //I read the Wiki and wondered if the word 'Khoisan' [of southern Africa origin] is an aptronym for that reality TV tribe.
    Inquiring minds (and all that) made me look up steatopygous. Interesting. Thanks!

    IM - H-Town took Game 4. The 5th inning was a nail-biter! Good game even with a few ERRs, er, booted-balls, on both sides... Must be cold up yonder.

    WC - Musta been a great birthday 'cuz you ain't hangin' at The Corner.

    Cheers, -T

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  46. Michael - sorry... It appears my fingers are dyslexic too. -T

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  47. Then there was Mr BUMBLE

    I prefer the Chow Mein at Panda; and the almond shrimp

    I was said to REEK with class in my heyday

    Thank you,all for the hbd's. I started off with a mind test with neurology. Essentially, click,click depending. Speed was important but it was skewed against lefties. Then a MTG followed by Happy Birthday with some delicious cake. Then I had to follow up with the brain doctor who pronounced me a typical 75 yrold.

    More cake with Phil and Betsy. And her typical big GREEK salad. Nice card from them, very nice. Great birthday.

    Thanks you CC for remembering. And, yes, between everything including my usual nap, I'm only finally posting.

    Such a thoughtful, caring tribe I've been adopted by. Love you all, THANK YOU!!! ALL of you.

    WC

    Ps, I've found my self rooting for the Yankees. Underdog effect? AL East loyalty. The two blonds in the upper right on the home plate close-ups?




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  48. Argyle, our late, beloved Santa told me once that the veteran CCers always read the previous day's posts.

    I used to say I was posting to the ether

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For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

Her book "Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords" is available on Amazon.

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