Title: It is ok DO, you didn't miss it, there is no theme today.
I heard a whisper we would have some repeat of the Friday mini-theme puzzle and my first puzzle back in the country appears to be such. Still being a bit jet-lagged, I do not remember the author of the first themeless Friday here, but I believe it was this year. While today's effort from Dr. Ed includes various pop culture references, the specific MAD MAGAZINE double-bill is key today.
30. One on many covers since 1954: ALFRED E NEUMAN. His complete (?) HISTORY. Paired with 17D. 30-Across catchphrase: WHAT ME WORRY? Thus creating a mini-theme for this Friday themeless.
Without the constraint of a theme, there is much sparkly fill packed into this puzzle, highlighted by the introduction of grid spanner THE NEWLYWED GAME paired with the classic TEENAGE WEREWOLF. The grid is then fattened up with ANOTHER, LAGASSE, SAPHEAD, SPEEDER, SPRUCED, TREACLE, AVON LADY, NAP TIMES (also a LAT debut word), OPEN AREA and PRETRIAL.
Let me know what you think of this addition to our rota.
Across:
1. Kia sedan: OPTIMA. The last car I owned and drove was an Optima and I enjoyed it very much.
7. Nincompoop: SAPHEAD. This is a TERM I have never heard. Of course, since it has only been around since 1691...
14. Made dapper, with "up": SPRUCED. Speaking of sap, its history likely has little to do with the TREE.
15. Syrupy stuff: TREACLE. A CSO to Steve and all our UK readers, this LINK makes it all make sense.
16. 1957 title role for Michael Landon: TEENAGE WEREWOLF. The original trailer...
19. Recipient of unearned income, perhaps: HEIR.
20. Teammate of Babe: LOU. Ruth: Gehrig.
21. Lash with a bullwhip: LARUE.
22. Like jawbreakers: HARD. Well duh!
23. Mountain __: soft drinks: DEWS. A gratuitous way to get the S in.
24. "Wheel" deal: TRIP. Wheel of Fortune.
25. November honorees: VETS. Coming soon to a calendar near you.
26. Range rovers?: POSSE. Very fun clue; followed by...
27. Sub mission site: SEA. Don't ignore the space.
28. Law __: FIRM. Why are there no law pillow tops?
29. Mekong River native: LAO. This river is the 12th longest river in the world and the 7th longest in Asia. It flows through six countries: China, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. We visited the Golden Triangle last year. The Mekong is on the right.
35. Showed the way: LED.
36. Cry: WAIL.
37. Some govt. hospitals: VAS. Veteran's Administrations.
39. Eponymous musical revue of 1978: EUBIE. Eubie BLAKE was a born musician who continues to learn and entertain.
43. 1995 comet spotter Thomas: BOPP. He, along with another amateur astronomer, Alan Hale, spotted the now named Hale-Bopp Comet.
44. In a tussle: AT IT.
45. 10-year-old adventurer who was 7 when she debuted in 2000: DORA. Her movie appeared in a puzzle here recently.
46. Group taking power by force: JUNTA.
47. Sink: SAG.
48. Othello, for one: MOOR.
49. Lacking color: PALLID.
50. Show that has appeared in various versions for six decades: THE NEWLYWED GAME.
53. "Pork fat rules!" chef: LAGASSE. Early Emeril. +
54. Smokey's target: SPEEDER. Remember?
56. Square-burgers server: WENDY'S. The third mega-successful fast-food chain was founded by a high school dropout who began life as an adopted child. HISTORY. Dave moved to South Florida and became an important figure in children's education and the rights of the adopted. He also was a genuine and friendly man.
Down:
1. Place to go fly a kite: OPEN AREA. If you believe Charlie Brown, it doesn't matter. There will be a kite eating tree waiting for you.
2. Like some hearings: PRE-TRIAL. In litigation almost every hearing is either pre or post-trial.
3. Cause of purring?: TUNE-UP. Not a furry friend but the practice of adjusting the automobile engine. MODERN MECHANICS.
4. Words of sympathy: I CARE.
5. Parts of gigs: MEGS.
6. Lemon finish: ADE. Talk about your straight to the point CSO; thank you, Dr. Ed.
7. Follows directions?: STEERS. Nice misdirection about the joy of driving.
8. Ban competitor: ARRID. Under-arm deodarants.
9. One in a jury box: PEER. From the British common law, and now a debated concept. Who are your peers?
10. Equivocate: HAW. Hmm, no hem?
11. They give lessons in French: ECOLES. Just the French word for school.
12. Permits: ALLOWS.
13. Neutralize: DEFUSE. We need more people who will be successful in defusing all the conflicts in the world.
14. Uplifting things: STILTS. A very nice visual of one of two poles each with a strap for the foot used to elevate the wearer above the ground in walking.
22. Trail mix?: HERD. More nice misdirection; not a snack.
23. Marvel doctor: DOOM. Did anyone dress up as Victor von Doom for Halloween this year?
25. Competed: VIED. Middle English, short for envien, from Anglo-French envier to invite, call on, challenge, from Latin invitare to invite
26. Simon with songs: PAUL.
28. __ ride: FREE.
29. Waikiki neckwear: LEIS.
31. Move like a hummingbird: FLIT.
32. Pan pooch: NANA. Did anyone dress up as Peter Pan this year?
33. Peripatetic bell ringer: AVON LADY. Did anyone dress up as the Avon Lady?
34. Breaks for sitters: NAP TIMES.
38. "The Blacklist" star: SPADER. He is a wonderful actor who has matured as he has aged. I still watch, even after all the reveals.
39. Calif. barrio region: EAST LA. In this country, it is the Spanish-speaking quarter of a town or city, especially one with a high poverty level.
40. Jazz fan?: UTAHAN. Basketball.
41. Problem in an ensemble: BIG EGO. Lebron James?
42. Tailgating sight: COOLER.
43. Stuck out: BULGED.
45. Seek out water: DOWSE. There is still time to learn this ancient practice. LINK.
46. Actor/rapper Smith: JADEN. Son of Will and Jada.
48. Dovetail: MESH.
49. First name in smelly romantics: PEPE. M. LePew.
51. __ Geo: cable channel: NAT. Or a World Series champ.
52. Denver-to-Vegas dir.: WSW. Don't tell my son the way.
I am back from Thailand, still discombobulated but happy to have Dr. Ed ease me back into puzzle blogging. Have a wonderful November working toward Veteran's Day and then Thanksgiving and sneaking up on my 5th anniversary. Thank you, TTP for your double duty and all who read the Corner. Lemonade out.
The Michael Landon clue was a gimme for a sci-fi fan, but SAPHEAD I've never heard before.
ReplyDeleteI was a TEENAGE WEREWOLF,
It was fun at night to howl!
But when it was unexpected, poof!,
My date I would disembowel!
Listen to that engine PURR,
That's what a TUNE-UP will do!
Although at a small fortune per,
I can stand a yowl or mew!
He was such a SAPHEAD
He put TREACLE in his tea,
Without thinking on ahead
What a tea-bag mess would be!
A PERIPATETIC walker
Not doing anything shady,
Ringing bells like a stalker,
She's just the AVON LADY!
{C, B, C, B-.} I think I need to stick to my l'icks.
Good morning! (Brrrr. When little Nell asked me about the weather, I said, "Colder, Nell!")
ReplyDeleteThe south gave me problems this morning, but I finally prevailed. ANNIE/EUBIE, CABAL/JUNTA, JUTTED/BULGED, I'm lookin' at you. Along the way I was doing the Hokey Pokey as AT IT went in and came out, PALLID went in and came out. Thanx, Dr. Ed for a Friday toughy, and Lemonade for a fine expo. (West is a snap. Recovery is longer when going east. But never took me so long as a week.)
SAPHEAD: New one for me.
LARUE: Very old one for me. I'll wager the younger crowd (under 60) never heard of him.
TREACLE: Seen it written, never heard it spoken.
VAS: Guess it made no deferens to Dr. Ed.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to Ed Sessa and welcome back, Lemonade!
I did a double take when I saw the all-white puzzle thinking I had slept through Friday and awakened on Saturday. But despite the many tricky and misdirected clues, I had to FLIT around and ultimately I prevailed.
Luckily I remembered TEENAGEWEREWOLF and since it spanned the grid, that helped to connect the downs. And though I've never read MAD magazine, I do know about its cover and I worked out the catch phrase.
Themeless puzzles are a great challenge for me and I enjoy them. In fact, my eraser had some time off today with very few mishaps. SAPHEAD looked strange so the H went in, came out, went in again.
HEIR was nicely clued as were Lash LARUE and HERD. Might STEERS be a part of that HERD? POSSE amused me, too. All that fill almost created a western mini-theme with Denver to Las Vegas in the mix.
My very limited knowledge of French includes ECOLES.
It looks like a Scrabble player is trying to hijack our Blog.
Lemonade, in spite of your jet lag you still manage to enlighten us. Thank you.
Have a marvelous day, everyone!
d-o:
ReplyDeleteLOL at your VAS deferens remark.
Owen:
You still provide us with amusing verses!
This was definitely a toughie. Seemed like a Saturday, with no theme and the level of difficulty. Took me a while, but once I got ALFREDENEUMAN it started to fill in. Was still searching for a theme all the time. A good, challenging puzzle!
ReplyDeleteWow! What a tough one to get lucky enough to complete. Starting out with an unknown car-OPTIMA- in 1A, the grid was a snow of white in the north except ARRID, PEER, LOU, & INTERS.
ReplyDeleteWHAT ME WORRY? Hell yeah. I got going in the SW with EAST LA, UTAHAN, & EMERIL. But it wasn't easy. But the NE was a WAGfest. I (and D-Otto & Lemonade) never heard the terms SAPHEAD or TREACLE and HAW- well I 'Hem and HAWed' over that one. I'd heard it all my life but never seen it written.
What really opened the puzzle up was filling THE NEWLYWED GAME and the two MAD Magazine fills (like "Jfromvt") after a few perps were in place. I kept thinking of Bonanza but "Little Joe Cartwright" was too long. TEENAGE WEREWOLF fell into place after a few perps but I felt like a SAPHEAD trying to finish the NE.
Lash LaRue- A local NOLA guy from Gretna, LA along will Mel OTT.
Emeril LAGASSE- A local NOLA guy? No, he's from Massachusetts. But he has a French name.
Have a nice weekend.
D-O you had two big winners, the COLDER NELL which needs to be said out loud was first. The ROFL comment on VAS. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThe AVONLADY made me think of my stint as a Fuller Brush Man after discharge from the Army, having served in Thailand for a year. I remember that MAD Magazine and Playboy came out around the same time that I was a teen who hung out in the local drug store and perused the magazines.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of Dr. Ed's work but I was a tad disappointed to have a Friday without a full-fledged theme. (As Lucina pointed out, there was a more extensive, if unintentional, mini-theme including, Posse, LaRue, Steers, and Herd.) I never heard of Saphead and Open Area sounds a bit forced, IMO; Open Space(s) seems more apt for kite flying. Those nits aside, my favorite C/A was Trail Mix=Herd and having a big CSO to Lemony on his blogging return was especially fitting. And who could fill in VAs without thinking of our Boomer!
Thanks, Dr. Ed, for a Friday challenge and thanks, Lemony, for the detailed and informative review. Welcome back and I hope your jet lag subsides quickly!
Have a great day.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Dr. Sessa’s cwd pills can be hard to swallow but are always beneficial in the end
-LIE/HAW was a red ink write over but I did not fall for AIR in _ _ _ H E A D (SAP?)
-TREACLE (TREACLY) defines my wife’s Hallmark Christmas movies
-Landon in TEENAGE WEREWOLF and Steve McQueen in The Blob. Ya gotta start somewhere
-My small town (where I am on a sub mission today) has three venues that celebrate VETS
-Most of Perry Mason’s cases never got to trial. The guilty party broke down at the PRE-TRIAL hearing
-Favorite deodorant commercial (:30) that is great advice for new teachers
-Three boys came in perfect Ghostbuster outfits. I asked them, “Who ya gonna call?” They responded as a chorus, “Us”. I asked again and got the same response. That was either very clever or culturally lacking.
-Which is more oxymoronic – UTAH Jazz or LA Lakers?
-BULGED and SAG in the same puzzle, Dr? Are trying to make a point? :-)
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-None of the seniors showed up for 3rd hour. Either it’s "Senior Skip Day" or it’s still Halloween and they came dressed as empty chairs. :-)
-This just in - It's the former and not the latter!
Pinch, Pinch ...
ReplyDeleteLemon: Nice write-up. Glad to hear you had a great trip.
Husker: Thanks for the wonderful commercial ... can't believe it has been 32 years.
Well I gave out "half" of my candy ... only about 12 "Trick or Treater's" last night.
Glad I got "Mini" Candy Bars I like.
Cheers!
Very enjoyable Friday puzzle--many thanks, Ed. I got NANA and DORA early on--still remember Peter Pan from those many years ago. Figured that had to be PAUL Simon, friend of Garfunkel. Always get MOOR instantly when the clue is Othello. Haven't thought of the AVON LADY in years. And so it went, very fun puzzle. And how nice of you to do the commentary after your long TRIP, Lemonade.
ReplyDeleteHave a good month, everybody.
WEES about plowing through without a main theme, just a few mini-themes. Slowly got 'er done similar to a Saturday experience. A few slowdowns like when I wanted FOSSE instead of EUBIE for the musical and when I knew ALFRED NEUMAN - but couldn't remember the middle initial, so I relied on perps.
ReplyDeleteI think the first time I remember hearing of TREACLE was in "Alice in Wonderland" at the mad hatter's tea party:
"The Dormouse slowly opened his eyes. `I wasn't asleep,' he said in a hoarse, feeble voice: `I heard every word you fellows were saying.'
`Tell us a story!' said the March Hare.
`Yes, please do!' pleaded Alice.
`And be quick about it,' added the Hatter, `or you'll be asleep again before it's done.'
`Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie, Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--'
`What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great interest in questions of eating and drinking.
`They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a minute or two.
`They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently remarked; `they'd have been ill.'
`So they were,' said the Dormouse; `very ill.'"
Thanks to Lemonade (and welcome back!) and to Ed for a challenging puzzle!
ReplyDeleteGood late morning / early afternoon.
Solved in the early AM hours and finally was able to get back to sleep.
The biggest issue might have been trying to figure out what the theme was.
TEENAGE WEREWOLF, ALFRED E NEUMAN and WHAT ME WORRY came easily enough.
Not so for the "show with various versions over 6 decades." Locked in that must be Star Trek something, but as more perps filled, THE NEWLYWED GAME became apparent.
Had two first thought entries that delayed the completion time.
1 - "Breaks for sitters" was not TIME OUTS
2 - Had ALTIMA for OPTIMA. Mixed up NISSAN and KIA.
3 for 5 this week. I think I do better when I slow down and pay attention. Gotta quit taking early week puzzles for granted. I remember that it that wasn't so many years ago that they took 35 minutes.
Thank you, Ed Sessa, and thank you, Lemonade.
Halloween was a let down here. It's my favorite. Just to see the young ones costumed up and excited. Not this year. It was snowing hard with gusting winds though about 2 to 2:30 PM, and we ended up with about 4 inches on the lawns and slushy streets when it stopped. Only saw a few costumes. Most of the few children that showed up were clad in their winter coats, hats and boots.
I bought 340 snack size candy bars of seven different varieties, figuring to give each child 2 or 3 each. Never opened the 250-count bag. Have slightly less than half of the other bag left. We had maybe 16 to 18 children come to the door.
Speaking of young stars and their movie debuts, there was also this Lycanthropic Movie which opened opposite Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future. It all fits nicely with my earlier week comment about Chuck Berry etc.
ReplyDeleteGary, I'm dreading my wife's watching the Hallmark Christmas movies. She watches them all. She's probably seen them before. And then there's the Lifetime Movie Channel which will probably have their own.
ReplyDeleteSusan Sarandon in her starring role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Talk about starting at the bottom.
Hi everybody. I solved the puzzle and enjoyed the process. WEES. But, I very much disliked that it didn't have a theme without having given us a hint about that ahead of time. I spent a lot of wasted minutes trying to find the connection among the long horizontal answers. Rats.
ReplyDeleteAnonT, we have managed to avoid any black outs. We live near the coast. The residential areas have lawns, bushes, some trees (palm and otherwise), but not any dense brush, so less stuff to catch fire easily. We usually get gentle sea breezes but mostly avoid the stiff Santa Ana winds. So we have mostly avoided the high winds and hateful fires. Knock on wood...
From late last night: In the past, when I was feeling a little feisty, I would respond to "Trick or Treat" with, "OK, I'll take the trick then." They looked totally confused and befuddled. After a few seconds, I'd relent and say, "OK, here's extra treats for you guys." Their temporary confusion disappeared and it was smiles all around.
I chatted up a couple of teen age girls who rang our bell tonight and asked where they went to school. They responded that they went to our local middle school (where I used to teach). It turns out their math teacher is the guy we hired to replace me when I retired. They have math in the same room where I used to expound on Pythagoras and other cool algebra stuff. They seemed really pleased to meet me and to be able to connect me with their present middle school experience. It made me a little nostalgic...
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Ed Sessa, for a fine puzzle. Thank you Lemonade, for a fine review.
ReplyDeletePuzzle certainly was difficult, but it is Friday.
I really never noticed there was no theme described. I thought the theme was the three long answers, plus 17D. All having to do with the media. Oh well.
My first long answer to get was ALFRED E NEUMAN. Then I easily got WHAT ME WORRY. The other two long crosses were got after a bunch of perps.
I first thought of WHITE CASTLE for 56A, but it would not fit. Then WENDY'S hit me.
Never heard of BOPP or SPADER. Therefore I did an alphabet run until the P worked best.
TREACLE was tough. After I had it I remembered I had heard that word before. Thank you perps.
I spelled DOWSE wrong the first pass, but fixed it with THE NEWLY WED GAME.
Guarded this morning at the school. 21 degrees. Pretty cold. Crossed 60 kids in a half hour. Most of those in 15 minutes.
Lots to do today. Going out for a fish fry tonight. See you tomorrow from Joliet, IL. I will take the iPad with me.
Abejo
( )
Bill G, in this era of political correctness and predatory behavior, maybe you might want to rephrase your, "I chatted up a couple of teenage girls" comment. Middle school?
ReplyDeleteTo engage in flirtatious conversation with someone, usually in pursuit of romantic or sexual purposes.
I was chatting up this cute guy at the bar last night and managed to get his phone number!
Big, fat DNF. Looked up teenage werewolf and JADEN Smith. Erased dane for MOOR, so sad for I CARE, and SSW for WSW.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle as usual, Ed. Just a little beyond my ability. CSO on Lemonade's return. I mentioned that I think that Lemony and I look alike. I've tried to put together a picture of us, and if it works it can be seen here. Maybe I just WISH I looked like him!
(I've lost 30+ pounds since that picture was taken, so my face is a lot thinner now.)
ReplyDeleteYou have some photo skills; now photoshop getting rid of my neck wattle, deduct your 20 pounds and add some hair...
ReplyDeleteI was thinking Little Joe and couldn't get anything to fit. I am embarrassed to say I did not finish it. That's a first.
ReplyDeleteI used to use the Mensa site to do the puzzle on line. When it went away the only site with red letters was this one(which is small and hard to see the red letters. Has anyone found a better site?
ReplyDeleteSoory:
ReplyDeleteThe site: https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/games/ct-crossword-puzzles-htmlstory.html
Rabbit Rabbit
ReplyDeleteHappy November, all!
Needed some help to get through, but not much. Appreciated the humorous cluing.
I saw Lash LARUE up close in person at the Scout Jamboree in '53. I guess he was the real one, although the studios were not averse to sending ringers to cover multiple events.
My guy was pretty handy with the whip. Crack! Crack!!
~ OMK
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteOy! I too thought this was a Saturday-worthy grid. I couldn't crack the NW nor the SE corners - didn't help that I misspelt 'enturs' (again sigh). I'm dreading tomorrow!
Thanks Ed for the excellent puzzle. Getting the MAD mini-theme was worth my hour+ effort. [Anyone else shed a tear when they read the news?]
Welcome back to the helm Lem. The only info lacking in your expo was: WTF does Peripatetic mean. //I looked it up - traveling place to place for short periods.
WOs: part of GIGS was sets; mewl b/f WAIL; ink'd ELVIS b/f FREE forced the change and EUBIE ESP'd out. AfIT before UTAH's Jazz played.
Cheats: Looked to my kitchen shelf to spell LAGASSE (thought there was a 'c' in there). No idea about SPADER / "The Blacklist" until Google told me.
Wrong: hUNTA
Hand up for never hearing "SAP HEAD." I was going to go with diP HEAD until I recalled ARRID.
Fav: WHAT, ME WORRY?
{B+, C+, C+, A-: all amusing}
BillG. - Good to hear all is well.
D-O: When you said "under 60" I realized Lash is a name. I recall Lash LARUE now as a name I heard in connection with Blazing Saddles. Maybe it was from this Fresh Air episode about Richard Pryor.
Just looked up VAS deferens(?). OK, that's funny. //how am I so dumb I don't know these things?
BigE - I always assumed LAGASSE was a NOLA name/native (his accent from/near ninthward). Live and Learn. Thanks for that.
IM - I couldn't fill VAs w/o thinking of Boomer either. I recall all the issues at the VA but it seems they, in MN, have taken very good care of him.
TTP - when I'm stuck at the end of the night with a bunch of candy, I walk the block knocking on the doors where I know kids live. When they answer, I yell "Trick UN-Treat" and dump some of my candy in their foyer.
Cheers, -T
Got the Mad Magazine Theme, & teenage Werewolf right away,
ReplyDeleteThe rest, not so much... (DNF) had to say Ed got me on this one...
But, still a fun inkblot!
The Newlywed game reminded me of this...
The Mekong, (was that the clue/answer?)
sidetracked me into the mystery of the Dragon Fireballs...
I always hoped there was some scientific proof to this, but the videos seem ripe
for a scam... Investigating further did reveal some unknowns thought.
From a Geologists point of view, This is fascinating!
(& a real thing it turns out...)
Big Easy said: Susan Sarandon in her starring role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Talk about starting at the bottom.
Actually, I think being in this Cult Classic propelled her to stardom
(plus excellent acting ability...)
Don't get me wrong, (I am not of this persuasion...)
but The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a Classic!
(Maybe Mad Magazine warped my mind, or all the Sci-Fi)
But unless you know every characters name, & watched all the remakes
just to see how other actors/actresses were able to convey & perform
this (unusual?) story, you will never understand how this absurdity
became a cult classic...
in the meantime,
Let's do the time walk again...
I liked this puzzle although I couldn't solve it without help from Mr. Google. I liked much of the ingenious cluing and especially liked the ALFRED E NEUMAN and WHAT ME WORRY entries. Hand up for not being familiar with the term SAP HEAD.
ReplyDeleteDesper-otto, wonderfully funny!
Happy November.
Hmm, last line in the Time Warp...
ReplyDeleteWhat the heck is The MAdison anyway?
I dunno, seems like all these dances are just res-erecting
stuff that's been long dead if you ask me...
Too *#@! cold.
ReplyDeleteBrrr.
~ OMK
Bill G:
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you are in a safe zone. Now I'm worried about my sister and her family who all live near the San Bernardino area.
AnonT:
That is a really nice thing you do with the candy.
So...., A young'n' on my team called me 'old' yesterday. Today, the mailbox proffered this. WTF*, I'm not yet 50!
ReplyDeleteCED - Halloween was yesterday! That 'Dating Game' bit was creepy but I do love me some RHPS!
Cheers, -T
*I showed Young'n' Samurai Delicatessen today and all he could say is "That's so racist." Really?
Jayce ~
ReplyDeleteSAP HEAD? Nope. Never heard it before.
Mayhap it is a head full of TREACLE?
Like inanehiker, I first knew of TREACLE through Alice in Wonderland. I thank him or her for posting the relevant dialog from the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. Always a delight to read.
I love how the Dormouse has to speak very quickly--to get his complete thought out before he falls back asleep.
~ OMK
Really liked this puzzle–not a speed-run; some thinking (and perps) involved. Fav clue: LASH WITH A WHIP. When I stopped thinking of lash as a verb, it hit me. If there had been a question mark, it would’ve been a gimme. POSSE was fun also.
ReplyDeleteVAS – D-O and Anon-T – y’all are hilarious!
(from yesterday re Astros) "Choke City" was coined by the Houston Chronicle in 1994 after the Rockets blew two consecutive commanding fourth-quarter leads in the first two games of their Western Conference semifinals with Phoenix in the 1994 NBA Playoffs.
Then the Rockets in the second round of the playoffs recovered from losing the first two games at home in the second round of the playoffs, eventually winning in seven games to advance to the NBA Finals. This series is widely regarded as the birth of the nickname "Clutch City". Both nicknames aptly fit all Houston teams. So it’s either a Choke or Clutch game/series here in Houston.
Hello everyone.
ReplyDeleteDid the puzzle late today. Not much to add to comments already made. Some terse but clever cluing.
LAGASSE - in 2000, BH and I ate at both Lagasse's NOLA and Emeril restaurants. Particularly liked Nola's.
MEG - Got very familiar with the MEG gig relation in connection with work in the bulk electricl system. Megawatts and gigawatts are very apt terms there.
Freaky Friday. Almost gave up but answers started falling into place and finished.
ReplyDeleteShould have know Neuman not spelled with a "w".
"Pallid " with 2 "L's" and "arrid" 2 "r's"
Had no idea what "larue" had to do with flogging.
Is "saphead" a word or a made up necessary fill?
Hale-Bopp sound like a music genre.
Super stormy All Hallows Eve. Lots of soggy treats.
CED, is there some reason you called it the TIME WALK, rather than the TIME WARP?
ReplyDeleteTony, you have money AARP wants you; I agree about how great it is what you do with candy
(Lemon, I cannot speak about the secret project
ReplyDeleteI have been working on that would would enable you to walk thru time...)
(Let's just say it was a typo...)
OMK, You seem to have info I do not.
The dormouse spoke quickly to orate b/4 falling asleep?
I am afraid I am in the dark on this, as I was brought up Disney...
I thought he was drugged...
It seems I must review the original, except, that I seem, to be, falling asleep...
However, due to sleep apnea,
it just reminds me that I owe everyone a cake!
Does no one remember the Hale-BOPP comet and Heaven's Gate cult? The members of the cult wanted to reunite with the comet which they believed would take them to heaven and so committed suicide to do so. I don't recall the exact number that died but I do recall the reporting in the late 1990s.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, Barbara and I took our VW camper up in the local mountains for a couple of days. I got up in the middle of the night to see a comet. What was a faint cloudy blotch in the light-polluted city skies was a well-defined awesome white comet at its beautiful best.
ReplyDeleteLucina - I too recall the second set of folks [Heaven's Gate cult] to "drink the Kool-ADE [sic]" during Hale-BOPP's return. The Wiki says it was 39 followers of the Do Clan.
ReplyDeleteBill G - A few years back, coming down a mountain road late at night in Yosemite, I pulled to the side in one of the overlook areas. I made the Girls get out of the car and look up. They (and I!) were in awe of the number of stars we've never seen.
So..., I'm up b/c Youngest:
"Dad, Dad, Dad. Are you awake?
There's no water in my shower.
Should we wrap the pipes ['it's not <32F kid', I replied, rolling back to sleep]
It's just slow.
[S** - did I forget the bill 'cuz I'm 'old'? {Har AveJ!}
No, um... Crap, now I'm awake].
Youngest also mentioned something about about a backhoe at the front of the enclave
[now, I'm really awake even sans coffee!].
So, we walk down there to see what's going on.
An ambulance and a fire truck? WTF?
Not only are they fixing a burst water mains, they hit the gas-pipe while they were at it. So there's no heat on the block either. //don't WAIL for us, it's only 50F here.
CED - can I borrow your Time Walk to go back and fill some buckets with water? I'd like to FLUSH RIGHT :-)
Cheers, -T
Owen, I liked all of them. Short and sweet .
ReplyDeleteD-O, your hot today. Great post. On the other hand, I don't know WoF so TRIP didn't. I recall Lash LaRue from 50s Cowboy reruns but I never caught Lash nor Tom Mix. Lots of Hopalong
Inane, that's my TREACLE memory too
-T , I had PIN HEAD.
I guess I had what the dormouse had, I dozed off in the middle of this
Late again
WC