"I, uh..."
17. A vat, some cloth, etc.?: DYER NEEDS. Dire needs.
24. One in a Mesoamerican cleanup crew?: MAYAN SWEEPER. Mine sweeper.
38. Apothecary's concern?: PHIAL MANAGEMENT. File management. As Canadian Eh would tell us, phial is just another name for vial.
47. Large cat romantically interested in opposite-sex large cats?: STRAIGHT LION. Straight line.
60. Surprisingly genteel outbreak of lawlessness?: CIVIL RIOT. Civil right.
Had to ask for help to get the theme on this one. The common phrases follow the 5 theme answers. Just not sure that I agree about 17A, but the others all change a long I sound to an uh sound. Dyer and Dire sound like the same pronunciation to me.
Across:
1. Stop lying: RISE. Get out of bed, perhaps.
5. Suburban expanse: LAWN.
9. Comes impressively into view: LOOMs.
14. One may be pitched to a publisher: IDEA.
15. Canal that helps connect the Great Lakes to the Atlantic: ERIE. Excellent story and photos in this PBS article.
16. Capital SSW of Damascus: AMMAN. The capital of Syria is Damascus. The capital of Jordan is Amman. The currency of Syria is the Syrian Pound. The currency of Jordan is the Jordanian Dinar.
19. Surprise in a bottle: GENIE.
20. Shade tree: ELM.
21. Jazz saxophonist __ Cobb: ARNETT. No idea. He was known as "Wild Man of the Tenor Sax." JzB probably nailed it. I would have known war correspondent Peter Arnett.
23. Angle or angler's necessity: LINE. LurE first. Should have paid attention to both parts of the clue.
26. Not from around here: ALIEN.
29. Any of four palindromic emperors: OTTO. I wonder if any of them were nicknamed Desper ?
30. Gels: SETs.
31. Moody: IN A PET. I read that "in a pet" can mean a fit of peevishness, sulkiness, or anger.
35. Object of podiatric study: TOE.
41. Serious misdeed: SIN.
42. Not on the fence: OPTING.
43. Túpac Amaru, e.g.: INCA. Perps. There was a rapper named Tupac Shakur, so Tupac struck a bell. Amaru did not.
44. Beige look-alike: ECRU.
46. Big celebrations: FETEs.
53. Oxen group: TEAM. The yoke's on them.
54. Ex __: out of nothing, in Latin: NIHILO. Thank you perps.
55. Saddlebag carrier: ASS.
58. Make over: RENEW. A variant for the typical redo.
62. Being dragged behind: IN TOW. There goes Jinx !
63. Largest human joint: KNEE.
64. Not doing anything: IDLE.
65. No longer hip: PASSE. Huey Lewis sang to us that "It's hip to be square."
66. Fax button: SEND.
67. Like some pockets: DEEP. Deep pockets are required for the fitted sheets on some thicker mattresses. In your gums, they are bad for the health of your teeth. And as we all know, it's another term for being financially well off.
Down:
1. Lift: RIDE.
2. Pastoral verse: IDYL. Hey ! What happened to the other L ? Either way, after listening to some pronunciation clips, it sounds like idle or idol to me.
3. Appear: SEEM.
4. Facial projection: EAR.
5. Not sure (of): LEERY.
6. Sports venue: ARENA.
7. Increase in girth: WIDEN.
8. Fits one within another: NESTs. Nesting dolls, boxes, bowls, tables, measuring spoons... What else ?
9. Hang back: LAG.
11. Capable of anything: OMNIPOTENT. A powerful word.
12. Nearly half of New England: MAINE.
13. Express contempt: SNEER.
18. Indian bread: NAAN.
22. With 10-Down, breakfast choice: TWO EGG, and 10-Down: See 22-Down: OMELET. Two egg omelet. How adding cheese, diced ham, green bell peppers and onions ?
24. Tableland: MESA. Devils Tower, pictured at 9A, is considered a butte, not a mesa.
25. Suffix with cigar: ETTE.
26. Egyptian serpents: ASPS.
27. City near Provo: LEHI. I've never been to Utah. I thought the 4 letter city near Provo was Orem, since that is what we most often see in crosswords. People from the state are called ?????
28. Nomadic sorts: ITINERANTS. Nailed it with the IT start.
31. Call into question: IMPUGN.
32. Member of the 2019 World Series champs: NAT. The Washington Nationals.
33. Request from a Midwestern cheerleader, maybe: AN I. Take your pick from Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, or Iowa State. I watch when the Ohio State marching band dots the i. I haven't heard any college cheers where the name is spelled out. High school, yes.
34. God with a flute: PAN. Didn't know Jean Pierre Rampal or James Galway from a couple of puzzles in the last few weeks, but Pan was a gimme.
36. Barely at all: ONCE. Sometimes, barely at all is once too often.
37. LAX postings: ETAs.
39. Actress Petty: LORI. No idea. But then I learned she played Geena Davis's little sister in "A League of Their Own"
40. Comportment: MIEN.
45. Hitchcock was known for them: CAMEOs. Here's 20 of the documented 39, but I couldn't spot him in a few.
46. Deluded one: FOOL.
47. Denude: STRIP.
I would have loved to see the clue simply as Delude, followed by Denude, but it was still fun.
48. Singer __ Marie: TEENA. The "Ivory Queen of Soul" here singing "Square Biz"
"In 2004, while Teena Marie was sleeping in a hotel room, a large picture frame fell and struck her on the head. The blow caused a serious concussion that caused momentary seizures for the rest of her life." - Wikipedia
49. 2006 "American Idol" winner Taylor __: HICKS. Nailed it with Taylor. DW is a fan of Idol.
50. Yours, once: THINE.
51. Animate: LIVEN.
52. Sheepish admission: I LIED. Until I finally decided to stop lying and get out of bed.
55. Assistant: AIDE.
56. Cobbler's concern: SOLE. You can get sole year round from New England fishmongers, and you can probably find an old-timey cobbler to resole your shoes if needed.
57. Dance part: STEP.
59. "SmackDown" org.: WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment. SmackDown is a brand for this professional wrestling and sports entertainment corporation.
61. Unburden: RID.
You can also check your answers here:
Tom, your comments make clear the problem with sound puzzles. There are so many subtleties in pronunciation, it is hard to please everyone. I had no problem with DYER but I had lots of other problems with the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteLEHI was not in my memory banks. I think it should have been paired with our old friend ELHI and I had no idea of the controversy UTAHN versus UTHAHAN .
Jazz saxophonist __ Cobb: ARNETT complete unknown, but did know LORI PETTY who has worked rather steadily for many years.
Hope all are now ready for New Year's Eve. Thank you, DAB and TTP
FIR, but with a lot of w/os. The most persistent was OBJECT>REJECT>REFUTE>REBUKE>IMPUGN.
ReplyDeleteGot the theme puns, but MAYAN=MINE took a very long time to suss.
How normal is a STRAIGHT LION,
Since a Pride is where it's fine!
If one is Queer
A press career
Is where you'll find a by-lion!
Phillip fit the pharmacist bill,
He could formulate any pill.
If he had a phial
Of something vile,
He could use it a Phil pill to fill!
{B+, A-.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHaving seen the theme answers in advance, this should've been a walk in the park, right? Nope. With P_IA_MANAGEMENT in place, it still took two alphabet runs to get LEHI (originally wanted LEVI) and LORI. D'oh. They say memory is the second thing to go. I'm astonished that TTP would conjecture that another OTTO could be named Desper. Everyone knows, and is eternally grateful, there's only one. Thanx for the challenge, D.A.B., and for a great tour, T.T.P.
DEEP: Periodontists love folks with DEEP pockets. I ditched my money-grubbing periodontist in favor of a regular dentist. As a plus, his dental hygienist is much more thorough. I see her four times a year, and like the guy passing the 40th floor after jumping off the roof, "So far, so good."
DIRE/DYER: To my ear DIRE/DYER is similar to TIRE/TIER (one who ties). The second of each pair is formed further back in the mouth. But I've been wrong before.
Sometimes a puzzle's theme doesn't follow any strict rule. Sometimes the theme is just "word play". Simple. Let's not over analyze it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this puzzle is just that. The sound change doesn't seem to be a theme since, like TTP wrote, DYER and Dire sound the same. Also "MAYAN and Mine", as well as "LION and Line" and "RIOT and Right" all add a syllable to the sound change whereas "DYER and Dire" and "PHIAL and File" retain the syllable count.
That being said, I found the puzzle fun.
Good Morning, TTP and friends.
ReplyDeleteI don't think of EARs as being on the face, but rather on one's head.
IN A PET is a new expression for me. All I could think of was In a Snit, but that was too many letters.
Hand up for Galas before FÊTES.
I'll take a CSO for MAINE. Although I don't live there now, I lived there during my high school and college years.
QOD: There’s nothing like doing something wrong to learn how it might be done better. ~ David Knopfler (b. Dec. 27, 1952), British musician
Hola!
ReplyDeleteYes, this was fun even if the sounds don't exactly synchronize. I like what anonymous@7:16 said.
Sometimes the difficulty of a Friday puzzle LOOMS large, but not today. It was a smooth solve though the long answers required several perps before I made a connection. STRAIGHT LION struck me as funny for some reason.
I like the refreshing new clue for ERIE.
A town here near MESA, my neighboring city, is named LEHI so I guessed it and like TTP I have never been to Utah but am learning many of the place names there.
Neither TEENA Marie or Taylor HICKS is familiar to me so all perps were required. That's really tragic about the falling picture.
Thank you, DAB and TTP! This was a nice wake up; today is my aunt's funeral. R.I.P.
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
It seems to me that nihili should be correct not nihili, making foil the answer and not fool for the down cross! Anyone agree?
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteI agree that sound alike themes are tricky, mostly because pronunciations can vary so much. That said, this was a slow solve due to the numerous unknowns: Lori, Lehi, Arnett, Nihilo, Teena, and Inca, as clued. Dire straights is the phrase I'm most familiar with, not Dire needs and even though we've seen In a Pet before, I've never heard that expression, have only heard In a snit. Idyl looks odd without the second L and I also found some of the cluing odd, as well. I had Sees before Sets for the longest time because I was seeing the clue as Gets instead of Gels. I liked the Toe ~ Tow, Ass ~ Asps, and Lion ~ Line duos. Nice CSO to Abejo (Erie) and DO (Otto) and Hatoolah and Lemony (Maine), also, Madame Defarge who has vacationed there for many years.
Thanks, David, for keeping us on our toes and thanks, TTP, for making sense of it all. I chuckled at Jinx In Tow!
FLN
Owen, you have my heartfelt sympathy. Please know that we're all here for you.
Have a great day.
Lots of issues with this one. Names always do me in. Perhaps I would have gotten Idyl if there was room for the other L . I thought should have gone there. Which meant I did not get the Dyer. Lehi and In a pet were unknown to me also.
ReplyDeletehbstable - Latin has its specific declensions of nouns.
ReplyDeleteForms
Singular Plural
Nomanitive. nihilum nihila
Genative. nihili nihilorum
Dative. nihilo nihilis
Accusative. nihilum nihila
Vocative. nihilum nihila
Ablative. nihilo nihilis
Lemonade, true ! I have friends in the south that can turn a single syllable three letter word into a three syllable sentence.
ReplyDeleteDesper-otto, thanks for your help !
Irish Miss, thanks for covering for me on all the missed shout outs.
hbstable, welcome. I think you may be thinking of vox nihili rather than ex nihilo. I didn't know the latter until a few minutes ago, and didn't know the former until solving the puzzle. Latin was no longer offered in my high school by the time I got there.
Sherry, welcome. I find part of the fun of solving crosswords is working out unfamiliar words, names and phrases, and taking good solid guesses... hoping they turn out to be correct.
D'oh ! Should have been "...three word sentence."
ReplyDeleteI had same issues as others,,,didn’t fully get PxIAx.. had Tori instead of Lori; never heard of INAPET; pronunciation of 17A not consistent with the other long answers. Technically a DNF, but only missed three squares, so a B+ for me today.
ReplyDeleteKinda sorta got the theme and moved through the grid pretty quick for this end of the week. Fun solve.
ReplyDeleteTom Petty got five syllables from the word, "I" in the song 'Here comes My girl'. But he IS from The South(Gainesville).
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-An alternate spelling of VIAL and a small town in Utah made for an uncertain but correct cell
-ERIE Canal: The Manhattan Project of its time
-My “not on the fence guy” was ACTING at first
-Knowing NIHLISM was helpful
-My friend just replaced his 21-yr-old artificial KNEE with a new one
-Pols demean people with DEEP pockets while hoping they’ll write a check anyway
-Lift/RIDE - I never see hitchhikers anymore
-In the Messiah we sang “Ahm NEE Poh Tent”
-It took me a while to remember where I had seen LORI before when I saw her as this psycho character
-A FOOL and his money is often seen in casinos
Charlie, actually, it was the word, "Eye".
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteEventually got it all but used more wite-out than usual. I missed PHIAL, though, but overall I was satisfied. DAB is not easy. Had yoke before TEAM and CAIRO before AMMAN. 2 palindromes: NAAN and OTTO. Wonder who the other 3 emperors were.
I thought all the sound-alike theme words went from 1 syllable to 2. To my EAR dire is one syllable; DYER is 2. I'm guessing PHIAL is 2, also.
Got NIHILO from the perps, but it seems to be related to 'nihilate'.
I'm with Spitz. I hear 'em all going from one syllable to two, like "damn" and "dayum."
ReplyDeleteI need a little help, friends. I don't know how I erased from my computer files the puzzles I've had published in the LAT. Is there a site I can use to show those puzzles. Don't need the clues, just the completed grids. I'm a tech dummy, so if you can help keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks... Jerome
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteI NEEDed a little bump at LEHI & LORI to keep going so DNF but a fun solve. Thanks DAB for the puzzle.
Colorful commentary TTP. Same thoughts here about Tupac @43a :-)
WOs: ShoE b/f SOLE, IMPUNE [sic]
ESPs: TEENA, NIHILO, MIEN as clued
Fav: Clue for THINE (even though ONCE was 36d)
Nearly entered Swift b/f HICKS.
So KNEE is the largest joint? I would have figured Hips or spine (too many letters). This is why I work on computers and not people.
{A, A-}
I'm w/ Spitz & D-O, DYER is two syllables.
IM - Dire Straits is a band founded by Mark and David Knopfler [see: Hahtoolaha's QOD]. That puts a bow on it :-)
Jerome - Does this help?
Back to work.
Cheers, -T
Jerome, a little Google-fu for you.
ReplyDeleteGoogle site search. Run from a google window. Copy then Paste the following in the address bar and press enter:
site:crosswordcorner.blogspot.com "Jerome Gunderson"
That will find every occurrence of "Jerome Gunderson whether it's a puzzle or not. I got about 256 results. You can start wading through all of those hits and find the ones that were actually your puzzles, and not just comments you've made in the blog as Jerome Gunderson.
I show you've had 27 LA Times puzzles published since C.C. started this blog. I can get you a list of those 27 dates, and then you'll just have to use the archives on the main page to open those dates.
I will be a bit. I'm in the middle of a project and am taking a break for 15 minutes...
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, David and TTP.
ReplyDeleteJust a little crunch for me today with some unknowns like TEENA, ARNETT, AMMAN, HICKS, LORA but perps eventually filled things in.
Theme was a little meh IMHO - maybe my Canadian accent interferes with hearing the intended sounds. I'm OK with just considering it word play.
I smiled at the "big words" like OMNIPOTENT, IMPUGN, ITINERANTS.
Yes, I'll take a CSO at 38A.
RISE could have been the answer for 1A or 1D. I waited before OPTING for 1A.
I don't think of an EAR as projecting from a face, but from a head. (I see Hahtoolah agrees) But eyes don't usually project.
Hand up for thinking of Galas before FETES.
"IN A PET" was not an expression I hear around here.
There has been some recent comment about a certain CAMEO that was deleted from a popular Christmas movie by the CBC; they claim it was done in 2014 to make the length of the movie suitable for TV. No further comment from me!
Like YR, I am currently procrastinating from housecleaning & prep for family visit tomorrow. Back to work.
Wishing you all a good day.
Good morning. I caught the pun theme immediately at DYER NEEDS but it was an ultimate DNF. I misspelled ITINERANTS as "itEnerants", and never heard of LEHI Utah, LORI Petty, or the words PHIAL or NIHILO. So P_EA_ MANAGEMENT was left and I gave up. The ph for f sound taken from the German pronunciation of v; so v is pronounced f and is replaced by ph to spell 'file' as PHIAL; couldn't figure that one out without the unknown LORI or LEHI.
ReplyDeleteAt least D-Otto & jfrromvt spelled ITINERANT correctly. But the (P_IA_)didn't help them either.
Hahtoolah- I agree on the EARS fill. Ditto for IN A PET but I still couldn't get IMPUGN or OPTING.
ReplyDeleteJerome,
Wednesday July 29, 2009 Jerome Gunderson
Wednesday September 2, 2009 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, October 26, 2009 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, February 8, 2010 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday, March 16, 2010 Jerome Gunderson
Friday April 23, 2010 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday May 25, 2010 Jerome Gunderson
Thursday July 15, 2010 Jerome Gunderson
Wednesday February 23, 2011 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday, May 15, 2012 Jerome Gunderson
Thursday, September 6, 2012 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, May 13, 2013 Jerome Gunderson
Wednesday, May 29, 2013 Jerome Gunderson and Marti DuGuay-Carpenter
Tuesday, September 3, 2013 Jerome Gunderson
Friday, October 11, 2013, Marti Duguay-Carpenter and Jerome Gunderson
Thursday, October 24, 2013, Marti DuGuay-Carpenter & Jerome Gunderson
Monday, June 9, 2014 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, June 30, 2014 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, October 6, 2014 Jerome Gunderson
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2014 Jerome Gunderson
Thursday, November 13, 2014 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday, September 15, 2015 Jerome Gunderson
Tuesday, October 6 2015, Jerome Gunderson
Thursday, December 10th 2015 Jerome Gunderson
Monday, October 31, 2016 Jerome Gunderson
Thursday, January 26, 2017 Jerome Gunderson
I loved the puzzle. The theme answers approached groaner status, but I’m a fan of corn and chuckled.
ReplyDeleteFavorite non-theme word was Impugn - such a delightfully hoity-toity word.
Woohoo! Woohoo! I got this terrific Friday David Alfred Bywaters puzzle without a single mistake! The first time I've completely nailed a Friday puzzle in a long time, so a total thrill. Took time and work and erasures, but it worked and made me so happy. Many thanks, David, for this gift. And thank you too, as always, TTP.
ReplyDeleteThere were plenty of unknowns for me too, but lots of fun clever clues. Even the first one made me laugh--RISE--for "stop lying" when I kept thinking "tell the truth." Didn't bother me a bit that IDYL didn't have that second L. Loved seeing OMELET fill in and then when TW appeared on the down, I knew it would be TWO EGG. Got OMNIPOTENT early on, and that helped with the MAYAN SWEEPER. And so it went. ITINERANT came to me early too, and that got me started on the bottom across items. CIVIL RIOT made me laugh too--lots of fun clues and solutions.
Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
I vote for UTAHN, as a reasonable contraction of UTAHAN. I'm pretty sure most speakers elide the sounds anyway. The remaining question (to me) is whether to keep or dispense with an apostrophe in writing it.
ReplyDeleteA nice, chewy Friday pzl. I thought about giving up once or twice, but I persisted & got 'er done.
I agree with TTP that 17A SEEMs out of STEP with the other theme fills. But then, that may be just accidental, if the intent was merely to have five puns.
Hearty congratulations to Misty! For conquering a Friday Xwd--and not an easy one!
WooHoo indeed!!
~ OMK
____________
DR: One opp. side diag today.
I'm not sure if the anagram speaks to the final phase of graduates' progress or serves as the name of former students' dance routine. You decide. It is the...
"ALUMNI STEP"!
West Coaster and I didn't enjoy this one. Dyer and dire are homophones to me (free dictionary has them as dī′ər and dīr but I can't hear the difference) and same with phial and file and that just threw me right off. Ended up finishing without ever figuring out the theme.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest sister came to visit us on Christmas Eve day and together we went to visit my elder son and family on Christmas. We had yummy Yorkshire pudding and roast beef. David and Motoko are great cooks. Alan and I stayed over until today.
ReplyDeleteGood to be back to the blog. Thank you all for the kind birthday greetings, and thanks CED for the lovely cakes. Two of them! The square dance cake make me laugh. Happy birthday to Lorraine. My family usually celebrates birthdays in the evening, so my birthday was separate from Christmas and totally my own with extra gifts and attention.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I agree that you need to be a little forgiving with this kind of theme. It seems our pronunciations are varied.To my mind the only one that didn't change was dire/dyer . The one dictionary I consulted agrees with me. Not all use the same pronunciations. YMMV
Great expo, Tom.
IDYLL and IDYL are alternate spellings, so no prob. Spellcheck flags IDYL.
We played a card game called Authors when I was a kid. One of the cards was Idylls of the King by Tennyson. That game helped me win a HS literature contest.
I see IN A PET frequently in novels. I do not hear it in everyday conversation.
We are going out for pizza with a friend tonight. We will exchange Christmas gifts.
Owen, so sorry to hear of your problems and Brent's, as well. We are here for you. Best wishes for a happier and healthier 2020 for both of you.
A challenging and fun puzzle. I had to do a little bit of head scratching.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about proper names is that one pretty much knows the answer or doesn't. They are generally not amenable to applying logic to figure out.
Good wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteJust got off the phone with Comcast / Xfinity.
1.5 hrs.
It's almost like doing business with AT&T. It's a battle to buy something from them w/o going through a lot of B.S. and frustration. You try to do it online with their self help and can't get the answers. You have to sign in one screen, and get logged out of the other.
Reminds me of shopping at Walmart with my brother before they put in all of the self checkouts. 4 registers open. 10 registers closed. People standing 6 and 7 deep in each of the 4 slow moving open lines.
My brother, in his loud and booming voice, bellows out, "Hello, Walmart store manager, we are all standing in line trying to give you money !"
AFAIC, worst customer user experience - AT&T. Second worst - Comcast Xfinity.
I'll give them their due. Both have good commercials. Comcast Xfinity has the superior internet / cable product. Having to deal with their self help or telephone support is the pits.
TTP, do you rent the Comcast modem-router or do/did you buy your own? IF the latter, what brand and model? (I ask because we will be switching from AT&T DSL to Comcast/Xfinity cable soon and I've been looking into either an Arris or Netgear cable modem or combo modem-router.)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteJayce, I'm renting it, but I guess now I probably should have bought it.
My gateway is voice, internet and router/wi-fi. DOCSIS 3.0.
I should probably go to Best Buy, find out what they sell that's compatible, and then price shop for the best deal.
Anon T and TTP- You guys are wonderful! Thanks, thanks, thanks!
ReplyDeleteJerome
Hi Y'all! Thanks, D.A.B., for the challenge. Thanks, TTP, for great commentary!
ReplyDeleteGot the theme okay and filled it despite mostly unknown proper names. Yep, red-letters to the rescue.
So proud to start off with RISE without hesitation and find it right.
ITINERAte before -ANT.
Had forgotten Taylor HICKS altho I saw him win IDOL. Shocked me at the time, because I considered him about as worthy of the top honor as I did Shawn Spicer of winning DWTS. Haven't heard of HICKS since.
Owen: glad you are back writing poetry. Hope your mood continues to RISE.
Nice average Friday puzzle to get me ready for the weekend. I had most of the same stumbling blocks as others but managed to muddle through in just under half an hour, about average. I had no problem with the theme and sussed it with the first entry.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of folks here who know LOTS more about the rules of crossword construction than I do so I’m just going to ask: when I looked at the upper left corner and saw the clues for 1A and 1 D, I immediately thought that RISE would work nicely as the answer to both. Would that be a no-no, having two very different clues have the same answer?
I had a teacher in high school who would frequently say, “Now don’t get all in a pet...” to a student (never me, of course). Naturally we all snickered every time because I believe our definition of PET was not the same as hers.
Having had a year (one unimaginably long year) of Latin in H.S., NIHILO was no great hill to climb.
My take on Comcast/Xfinity vs AT&T is that each company’s website and customer service is slightly worse than the other’s.
Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle, David Alfred, and for an interesting tour, TTP.
I’ll just slowly fade away now if y’all don’t mind. Hope your weekend is a good one.
DNF and I can see why: INAPET and ANI make no sense.
ReplyDeleteI changed the correct answer STAIGHTLION when I spelled IMPUGN as impune and couldn't fight my way out of the mess that created.
Incorrectly thought the key to the theme was a two syllable first word with repeated vowels MAYAN and CIVIL.
Like 46D I was a Friday... FOOL.
The original Erie canal flowed right through downtown Utica till it was filled in and a replace by a blvd.
The canal was relocated a short distance north of downtown and then was know by the mundane name Barge canal (in case anyone had any doubts what kind of transport vehicle it was used for...) Last few years the old name Erie canal has pleasantly come back into use.
While completeing a kayak trip, as the canal has no shore, I plunged deep into its depths and swamped my cousin's kayak unceremoniously attempting to climb out.
TTP - I really like your description of Walmart checkout area. It is absolutely accurate and like our Walmart near our home. The difference might be that sometimes we only have two registers open. Also I can relate my experience with Comcast. In 2006 we had a major storm which knocked out our TV service for about 14 days. Back then I was paying about $60.00 per month for cable TV, so I asked Comcast for a $30.00 credit for lost TV time. They said NO because it was not their fault due to weather. So I cancelled their service and went to Century Link and Direct TV. Amazing that Comcast lost 13 years of my business (so far) for $30.00. And a sidenote last summer we lost internet for a few days due to someone cutting a buried cable by accident near our home. We contacted Century Link and received a credit on our bill. It was not true compensation for the hassle that was caused, but at least they responded favorably.
ReplyDeleteBoomer I don't know about Comcast because they aren't in my area. But I can attest to the ATT service. Cox is the cable provider in my area and to say they are pathetic would be a compliment.
ReplyDeleteWhen you call ATTm an idiotic computer asks "how can I help you"? I always answer "Live Person". After repeating "Live Person" 3 or 4 times the computer will say "okay, I'll get someone to help you". That person is usually in PAKISTAN, INDIA, or THE PHILLIPINES and their English is uncomprehendible. After a good 10-15 minutes of wasted time they will set up a service appt in about 5-7 days (not acceptable).
About the only good things I can say about ATT (I have U-Verse) is that the internet has NEVER gone down and they do NOT subcontract work to people who don't know very much. When the tech leaves it is fixed and somebody else doesn't need to bat cleanup.
DW and I used to work from home a lot (she'd even teach online classes from home) and we could NOT have downtime. So, we have both AT&T DSL and Comcast's Xfinity. I've not canceled the backup yet because I know calling either company to cancel will cost me 2 hours.
ReplyDeleteTTP - It's all those big box stores - Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Pop was in retail (drug stores) for most of his life. While standing in line with only one or two registers open he'll muse aloud "$2 million of merchandise in here, the electricity's gotta be $20k/mo(?), and they can't hire another checker?" I've had this conversation with Pop at least 4 times :-)
WikWak - I thought about the double-RISE too.
It's considered a no-no to include a word in a clue (any clue) and fill. For instance, 50d is 'Yours, once' and fill for 38d is ONCE - that's a no-no.
Clues can be repeated - like in definition puzzles.
Fill can be repeated if buried in other words (think or our LET down puzzle last week)
I don't think fill can be repeated though.
That said, I think rules are meant to be broken :-)
C.C. can give us the full class, I'm sure.
OMK - Definitely a traditional dance passed down from the Class of '75; it's just a jump to the left..." //much better than The Madison from Class of '55 [wait for it @4:08 :-)]
Cheers, -T
From whence "nihilist". Dostoevesky presented it in "Notes from the Underground"
ReplyDeleteRe Utahn or Utahan I've seen both in two xwords lately
I was stuck at LE_I until the GENIE popped out of the PHIAL.
I've got to give #1 a big W , Owen
Count me in for seeing Gets <Gels
I vacationed in MAINE's Old Orchard Beach at age seven. My poor father taught my brother to swim in the 52° water then said "You teach Billy"
C'eh, I had the RISE/RIDE conundrum too. I was in the waiting room of VA Clinic, lost power on the cell so I was checking out other puzzles. I came across a Canadian geography quiz. I might have gotten one right but Phil showed up to take me home.
I have heart issues. Can't get a diagnosis
that answers the issue. Meds?
OMK, where would you put the apostrophe?
My cellphone keeps running out of juice. I'm back . YR, Idylls had one of my favs: "The Lady of Shallot"
WC
ReplyDeleteBack from my unintended nap. I was exhausted and fell asleep right after supper.
Jerome, you're welcome. I forgot about the "Search this blog" tool that Dash T referenced (before I replied). That works too.
PK - Do you remember the Idol season when Reuben Stoddard won out over Clay Aiken ? I watched the last couple of nights of it with DW and they both were really really good. I remember the entertainment newslines about it being an upset win. Haven't heard much more from them either.
WikWak, "...each company's...worse that the other's" You wouldn't think it was possible, but it's true. I had AT&T for 3 land lines coming into the house. I had a package deal on my private line. Ordered another service and they took away part of my package. No notice. Got a huge spike in the next bill. Took months to get my package restored. Eventually tested VOIP on one of my business lines, and no one noticed any differences. Cancelled AT&T and saved $$$.
Boomer, yep, that's just poor customer service. That insignificant credit you asked for cost them big. AT&T lost my business for life. Some of these companies act like they are the only game in town. They don't seem to value customer loyalty and retention. In many cases it probably costs them more to get a new customer than it would have cost them to save an existing one.
Big Easy, my wife taught me that the keyword to say to the machines is "Representative." Seems to work on all of them.
Wilbur, I was going to ask you, "Who is Billy ?" Stay on those people at the VA and maybe see a doctor outside of the system.