google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday Decemer 30, 2019 Matthew Stock

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Dec 30, 2019

Monday Decemer 30, 2019 Matthew Stock

Theme: HANG IN THERE (62. "Don't give up yet!" ... or a hint to the answers to starred clues) - HANG is hidden in each theme entry.

17. *Baseball batting statistic measured in degrees: LAUNCH ANGLE.

28. *Common food thickening agent: XANTHAN GUM.

50. *High-ranking heavenly beings: ARCHANGELS.

Boomer here. C.C. said this might be another puzzle debut. Congrats, Matthew!

Greetings everyone. I am HANGing in there. We had a great Christmas. We celebrated with my son and his wife. I prepared a a ham which might have been too large. Now I am having ham for lunch probably into 2020 and beyond.

Keeping an eye out for the Gophers in a January 1 bowl for the first time since I started shaving, and also watching the Gopher basketball team that plays in a stadium that was opened in 1928.  Happy New Year and Happy new decade to all!!

Across:

1. Beloved British princess: DIANA.  I still remember the day of the shocking tragedy.

6. Clothing designer Perry: ELLIS.  Coincidence - ELLIS is my aunt Gerry's maiden name.

11. Lakers rivals, on NBA scoreboards: LAC.  Los Angeles Clippers. I am old enough to remember George Mikan and the Minneapolis Lakers.


14. Improvise: AD LIB.  Yeah, I know I do a lot of this on the blog.  C.C. lets me.

15. Coolness under pressure: POISE.

16. Every bit (of): ALL.  Ultra free clear liquid soap.  9.99 per gallon at Target.

19. In addition: TOO.

20. Arizona city or landform: MESA.  We had a bit of rain, sleet, and snow over the weekend.  I wonder how things were in MESA.

21. Cucumbers used as pickles: GHERKINS.  I think someone made this word up because they couldn't spell or say cucumber.

23. Peyton's quarterback brother: ELI.  Word is that Eli may retire after this season.  I wonder what insurance company he will be touting next year.

25. Cooking need: HEAT.  Miami's NBA team.  I guess Florida does not get Minnesota weather either.

27. 10-Down may have a sixth one: SENSE. 10. See 27-Across: SEERS.

32. Beet or ginger: ROOT.  "Root, Root, Root for the home team, if they don't win it's a shame".

33. Accustom (to), as hardship: INURE.

34. Best songs countdown list: TOP TEN.  I think the Gophers Rowed the boat into the Top Ten for a week or two this season before running into Wisconsin.

36. Soy sauce often gluten-free: TAMARI. Left one.


38. Actress __ Brie of "Mad Men": ALISON.  Sneak one more "L" into name and it reminds me of Minnesota Twin great Bob Allison.

42. Inlaid artwork: MOSAIC.

46. Emcee's opening: INTRO.

47. Crescent point: CUSP.

52. Dad's brother: UNCLE.  "I ain't down"  HOLLER UNCLE !  "I ain't down.

54. Appear to be: SEEM.  "SEEMS like old times ''...

55. Corned beef on __: RYE.  Add some Swiss cheese and sauerkraut. Reuben. 


56. Fragrant climbing plant: SWEET PEA.  Popeye's young friend.

58. Make, as money: EARN.

61. Altoids container: TIN.  German Shepherd RIN TIN 's surname.

66. Number of U.S. states with three-word capitals: ONE.  I'm going with Salt Lake City.

67. Fibber's admission: I LIED.

68. Fable writer: AESOP.  Odd name.  I know of no one named AESOP.

69. Rx writers: MDS.

70. In the ballpark: CLOSE.

71. Calendar entries: DATES.  Teens go out on them, older folks have them for dessert.

Down:

1. Indian lentil dish: DAL.



2. Boise's st.: IDA.  "Sweet as apple Ciida"

3. Foil metal: ALUMINUM.  I use it all the time.  It's incredible how they can make a metal into a sheet for baking.

4. Yellow-striped pool ball: NINE.  I remember when they used to refer to a baseball team as NINE.  Now it only works in the National League.

5. Basics: ABCS.

6. MPG-testing org.: EPA.

7. In olden times: LONG AGO.  "A long, long time ago, I can still remember how the music used to make me smile".  (Don McLean - American Pie - RIP Buddy Holly)

8. Start to shine: LIGHT UP.  "You Light up my Life".  Debby Boone

9. Capri or Wight: ISLE.

11. Guy watching Telemundo, probably: LATINO.

12. Pete of the N.Y. Mets who broke Aaron Judge's rookie record for home runs in 2019: ALONSO.  Polar Bear #20.

13. Room for a broom: CLOSET.  We have three closets in our home. We keep the brooms in the garage.

18. "Verrrry funny": HA HA.  Very Funny Name.  Ha Ha Clinton Dix started with the Green Bay Packers in the NFL.  I think he is with Chicago now.


22. Letterspacing technique, in typography: KERNING.


23. Highway off-ramp: EXIT.  Bad accident in Texas fog Saturday.  A semi truck was forced to exit to the right shoulder and rolled his trailer onto a pick up truck.  What could he do?... Another driver changed lanes right in front of the semi and forced him off the road.   

24. Singer Del Rey: LANA.

26. Tolkien creature: ENT.

29. Stomp all over: TRAMPLE.  "We've trampled the woods in the forest, and raided the pirates at sea.  We have no indenture, we're out for adventure as anyone plainly can see...(One of my high school solos in the Glee Club.)

30. Protagonist: HERO.  A big sandwich.

31. L.A. commuter org.: MTA.  "Well let me tell you the story of a man named Charlie on a tragic and fateful day.  He put ten cents in his pocket, kissed his wife and family, went to ride on the MTA".  (The Kingston Trio and another one of my High school Glee Club solos.)

35. Tiger's ex-wife: ELIN. I heard that Tiger's ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Vonn, from Minnesota, is engaged - not to Tiger.

37. "Love __ Battlefield": Pat Benatar hit: IS A.

39. Most harsh: STERNEST.  I though it was the farthest seat on the back of the boat.

40. Paris airport: ORLY.

41. Smell detector: NOSE.  This would be a seat farthest in front of the boat.

43. Hall of talk TV: ARSENIO.

44. Frozen periods: ICE AGES.  From October to April in Minnesota.

45. Guerrilla Guevara: CHE.

47. Made-to-order: CUSTOM.  I have my bowling balls drilled to order, but my golf clubs are "off the rack".

48. Chillax: UNWIND.  If you UNWIND a Yo Yo it won't work.

49. Movie takes: SCENES.  "Well a Scene! I want to make a scene!" (Chad Mitchell Trio - The Hip Song).

51. Congregation response: AMEN.  So Be It.

53. Moral standard: ETHIC.

57. Gloomy aura: PALL.

59. Somewhat: A TAD.

60. Flightless South American bird: RHEA.  Rhea Perlman was CARLA, a bar waitress at "Cheers" for about ten years. 

63. Suffix with fluor-: IDE.

64. __ v. Wade: ROE.  Amazing how some Supreme Court decisions last forever, but most of them we seldom even hear about.

65. Short albums, for short: EPS.  I remember albums were about 14 inches in diameter and we played them on a 33 1/2 RPM turntable.

Boomer 



47 comments:

OwenKL said...

If I claimed my poems were AD LIB,
I'd be telling a great big fib!
You'd know I LIED
My rhymes reside
In rhyme-sites where I crib!

(The plots are my own [or Erato's or Thalia's], but I make heavy use of the online rhyming dictionary at rhymezone.com .)

I used to like going on DATES.
That's when I had what it takes.
But aging infirm
Has caused a turn --
I now go on prunes, for gosh sakes!

I think I'll put on my jerkin
To go and pick some GHERKINS
That will cause a pucker
To some sucker
Like my UNCLE and other jerk kin!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW, missing my WAG at the Monday Natick at XiNTHANGUM x LiNA.

TIN got a CSO today.

I thought that BOS was the Lakers' rival team. They were when I lived there, with Kareem and Magic leading the way against Larry Bird and some other guys.

Got into the RV resort in Florida with no serious incident. Tough traffic Friday and Saturday, but it is all good now.

Not quite your Stock Monday puzzle, but thanks for the fun anyway, Matthew. And thanks to Boomer for yet another chuckle-filled tour.

OwenKL said...

FIWrong. Natick got me at ErIN + ArISON. I expected the problem would be with LANA + TAMARI (both unknown) + XANTHAN GUM (spelling was a WAG).

{A-, B+, B+.}

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Boomer and friends. I love the asterisk puzzles. Getting HANG IN THERE helped with the XANTHAN GUM. The latter is definitely not a Monday word!

I agree with Jinx on the Laker's rival. My initial thought was the Celtics, as the two teams were certainly rivals back when I was living in Boston.

QOD: We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse. ~ Rudyard Kipling (né Joseph Rudyard Kipling; Dec. 30, 1865 ~ Jan. 18. 1936), British author

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Changing TRAMP ON to TRAMPLE gave me a chance to test my new Wite-Out. Sweet! Noticed that 62a was a reveal clue, so d-o managed to get the theme. Yay! Nice debut, Matthew. Enjoyed the ad libs, Boomer.

KERNING: I used to visit the Advertiser ("Agonizer") to watch Corny Krueger operate the Linotype. He'd type a bit, then manually insert steel shims to fill out the frame, before he pulled the lever to cast that line in metal. I guess it was technically "justifying" rather than KERNING. I found it fascinating. I was easily amused in my ute.

UNCLE: I've got eight nieces and nephews, but seldom see them. I saw one niece five years ago, but for some it's been 30+ years.

desper-otto said...

They call it XANTHAN GUM, because that's more appealing that "fermented sugar."

inanehiker said...

Puzzle was a little crunchy for a Monday, but doable. I had TROUNCE that changed to TROMP ON that finally became TRAMPLE as perps changed the original fill.

Learning moment KERNING!

Thanks Boomer for the entertaining blog! Congrats to Matthew!
All the NFL and bowl games went the way we wanted them to this weekend - a rarity!
Heading back to work after being off since last Tuesday and I am covering for a partner who is out - so it will be a slog today I'm sure!

Wilbur Charles said...

"All the NFL and bowl games went the way we wanted them to this weekend - a rarity!". We? JfromVt and i I* disagree

My fav part of "MTA"
"Charlie's wife goes down to the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window she hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumbling through!"

At age nine I would bum 11 cents and take the MTA from Forest Hills, transfer at Dudley, take a bus to Cleveland Circle near Newton, and use the public pool.
Reverse the trip to home**

Xword: Quite crunchy for s Monday with some serious Naticks

WC

** Patriots fans, groan
*** The penny was to get into the pool. Full disclosure: We had an 11 year old chaperoning

Hungry Mother said...

Easyish, but too many names. Anybody hear me?

Lucina said...

Hola!

I agree about TOO many names, especially sports names though I know of ELI for some reason. XANTHAN GUM on a Monday! I missed the N, not having read the theme so didn't get the HANG of it. Also I can never remember the names of those Tolkien creatures.

Boomer, MESA and the surrounding areas were pounded with rain for most of last week including Christmas Day. It has been unseasonably cold and even a freeze warning that required covering my plants. The visitors are probably stunned if they were expecting 80 degree weather.

Saturday and Sunday puzzles were very difficult and I had no extended time to finish them. Saturday was our family holiday dinner and White Elephant party which is always a hoot and this year was no exception.

I have one UNCLE left and he is 90 years old and an UNCLE by marriage who is 93. All my aunts are now gone.

KERNING is my new learning, TOO.

I hope you are all keeping warm and healthy!



Yellowrocks said...

A tad crunchier than most Mondays. FIR
I knew XANTH--GUM. Perps supplied the AN. LAC, ALISON, ALONSO, TAMARI were unfamiliar. Perps and wags saved the day. KERNING was all perps except for the wag on the E.
I did not care for SEERS/SENSE.
DO, as a kid, I, too, used to be fascinated watching the man on the Linotype machine.

Yellowrocks said...

Gherkin is a small variety of cucumber. It can refer to the small fruit itself or to a pickle made from it. Alan loves sweet gherkins. They are always small.
I suspect the Brits call all cucumber pickles gherkins. Does anyone know about this?

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I refused to start blogging until that ONE city came to mind! OCD? Me?
-I got the right letter A_ISON/E_IN, but c’mon…
-…and don’t start me on silent H’s
-DIANA and ELIN? Their men “did ‘em wrong!”
-Keeping team names? LA Lakers (from Minneapolis) isn’t as silly as Utah Jazz (from NOLA)
-Me too - TROUNCE > TROMP ON > TRAMPLE (no ink for me!)
-If you’re like me, you hear incorrect “tin foil” (which I’ve never seen) more often?
-So, you want to drive to the top of the ISLE of Capri

Anonymous said...

I thought fermented sugar is called alcohol !

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a crunchy Monday but perps were fair, so no complaints. However, Kerning, Tamari (both totally unknown) and Xanthan Gum are definitely not Monday words, especially for newbies. I had SAC for LAC, as I was thinking Sacramento. I know very little about basketball teams. Also had Adapt before Ad Lib. We had several fun duos today: Eli/Elin, Close/Closet, EPA/EPS, and Ida/Ide. Big CSO to Tin.

Thanks, Matthew, and congrats on your debut and thanks, Boomer, for hanging in there and hanging out here! Your song lyrics memory bank is amazing. BTW, you can send some of that ham my way; I love ham but never cook one because of the size.

I hope CED's absence is due to his basking in the sun on a Naples beach.

FLN

PK, I'm glad your son was so thoughtful and .i hope you are over whatever caused you such distress.

YR, I'm so happy to hear that you and Alan enjoyed an extended visit and had such pleasant holidays with the family.

It's cold, damp, rainy and gloomy here but I have to get to the supermarket and post office, so I guess I'll just grab an umbrella and make the best of it.

Have a great day.

AnonymousPVX said...


A nice Monday puzzle with some crunch to it.

I’ve been away and have been doing the puzzle online, pretty neat.

Flying home today.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Easy solve; no help was needed. No erasures. Didn't really focus on the theme. Got the SEERS SENSE nexus OK. I did appreciate Mathew's choice of fill to execute the theme.
XANTHAN GUM - Came easily because of my habit of reading food ingredients on prepared foods. (Really looking for sugar added.)
RHEA - One of your ratites.
ICE CAPS - Hard to imagine how vast and deep they were. The earth's crust is still rebounding 10000 years after their melting north of the Gt. Lakes and in Scandinavia.
GHERKINS - Akin to German Gurken and Dutch gurken. (the plurals end in 'n'.).

CrossEyedDave said...

You nailed it Irish Miss...

Abejo said...

Good morning g, folks. Thank you, Matthew Stock, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

Boomer: I think it was 33 1/3 RPM.

Puzzle was fine. As others said a couple tough words for a Monday, but that's OK.

Caught the theme after 62A HANG IN THERE. The others weren't done yet, so that did help.

NINE ball was easy. I used to do a lot of that.

Like ARCH ANGELS for 50A, and the clue. Good time of the year for them.

Cruciverb was out to lunch today so I printed from the L A Times site.

We got a little snow last night. See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Anonymous said...

A little crunchy for a Monday.Very doable in spite of the over abundance of sports names and not normal Monday words. A nice solve after yesterdays abomination.

Montana said...

Boomer's expos are the best part of Monday's puzzles!

Montana

Misty said...

I too found this pretty crunchy for a Monday, and was especially bothered by all the sports items. But, ironically, I got all of those (even ALONSO)and my only error was not knowing Brie's first name or the LA commuter org, so I didn't get ALISON or MTA. But the long items were fun to fill in, and I loved getting the solution with HANG IN THERE. Sure enough, there they were, HANG hanging in all of the long across items. Never, ever heard of KERNING, but, miraculously, I got it. So, all in all, a fun if crunchy Monday puzzle--many thanks, Matthew. And I liked your pictures, Boomer.

Funny poems this morning, Owen.

Have a good start to the week, everybody.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

A very crunchy Monday indeed. I wasn't sure the East was going to fill; Two names crossing typesetting and an airport I've not been too... Oy!

Thanks Matthew for the puzzle (and congrats on the Debut!)

Thanks Boomer for the fun expo. C.C. let's you AD LIB? Does she have a choice? :-)

WO: put ROE in IDE's squares.
ESPs: GHERKINS (once I got it, I recognized it), ALISON, ELIN, TiMARI, LANi. KERNING required -ERN--G before I remembered it (a friend is a graphic artist).
//Bolds are WAGs - you can see I FIW @LANi but WAG'd right at ALISON; crossing two names is NOT nice any day of the week. -- I hear you Hungry Mother

Fav: XANTHAN GUM - Nail'd it with just the X

If 57d was clued as "Like Yao Ming " we coulda had SWEET TEA.

{A, A, B+}

Back to work - play later.

Cheers, -T

Tinbeni said...

Boomer: Nice, informative write-up. Good job!

Irish Miss, I agree, KERNING, XANTHAN GUM & TAMARI are probably NOT Monday words.
(I was amazed my "perps" got them.)

Fave today was 8-d, LIGHT UP ... though I was thinking it was what to do with a cig.

Hope everyone has a safe New Years Eve EVE.

Cheers!

Picard said...

OwenKL what is the latest news with Bren?

Is it just me or do Mondays seem to have the most proper name crosses that come down to lucky guesses?

Today we had:
LAC/ALONSO
LANA/TAMARI
MTA/ALISON/ELIN

I got the first two by WAG, but the last one was impossible. I figured MTA would be clued from the Kingston Trio song as Boomer reminded us. Since ours is MTD in Santa Barbara I figured maybe that is what it is in Los Angeles, too. ELIN made no sense and ERIN does make sense. What a mess. FIW.

Here are my photos of the memorial to DIANA in Paris. I admired her work to ban land mines.

I have photos of Salt Lake City which is the ONE three word state capital. But I can't seem to find the digital scans.

From yesterday:
Desper-Otto thank you for explaining the BOMB/PASS connection. I had no idea.

Wilbur Charles thanks for the BOMB comment and for the reminders about our former hometown in Boston/Cambridge.

Yuman said...

Yes, as some of you commented this puzzle was “crunchy” just like gherkins.
I was curious about gherkins and found this.
“Cucumis Sativus is considered a cucumber, but the Mexican sour gherkin which is 1-3 inches in size belongs to Melothria, another genus entirely. So it is not an actual cucumber, but an honorary one. Now, a “pickle” is basically any vegetable that has undergone the process of pickling (using vinegar, water and salt).”
Here in the winter lettuce capital in the world we are getting ready for the Iceburg Lettuce Drop on NewYear’s Eve. USA Today ranked Yuma’s lettuce head drop as the second most surprising in the country.
What exciting things are going on in your town NewYear’s Eve?

jfromvt said...

A little tougher than the usual Monday, which I liked. Guessed right on the K in KERNING, only because the space between computer chips on a manufacturing wafer is a Kerf (I worked for a semiconductor company if anyone cares). Guessed wrong on LeNA. So one wrong square, will give myself a B+, should be 100% on Monday.

Anonymous said...

Boomer, Happy New Year to you as well. However, you are a year early for the next decade. It seems to be a common misconception, but 2020 will be the last year of this decade. 1 through 10 was the first decade, 11 through 20 the second, and so on... Time goes fast enough as it is...

jfromvt said...

Anonymous is right about the decades, just like 2000 was not the first year of the 21st Century. But it’s become the norm to look at decades this way, so it’s not going to change.

CanadianEh! said...

Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Matthew (congrats on your debut) and Boomer.
I'm glad the rest of you thought this was a little crunchier than a usual Monday; I thought my brain was just tired from all the family celebrations and babysitting the grands. I was able to HANG in there and FIRed with two inkblots.
Hand up for Tramp On before TRAMPLE. Antonio changed to ARSENIO (I don't watch talk TV).

KERNING was a learning moment. TAMARI and XANTHAN GUM were dredged out of my memory with the help of perps.

YR - In this part of the world, gherkins are pickles made from small cucumbers like your definition. (I haven't heard the British use here.)

Picard - did you get my USMCA email from Dec 19? (to earthmanrobert@gmail.com)

Wishing you all a great day.

Anonymous said...


Global Foundries ?

Jayce said...

I had several visits to Natick today: the A crossing LANA and TAMARI, neither of which/whom I had never heard of. I agree that the big rivalry was between the Lakers and the Celtics, so the A crossing LAC and ALONSO was also a Natick for me. For some reason I remembered ELIN so she and ALISON did not make a Natick.

What with ANGLE and ANGELS I thought the theme was something to do with anagrams or jumbles of ANGEL, but then ANGUM disabused me of that theory.

I tried to think of that three-word state capital but didn't come up with it.

Not only was the RPM 33 1/3, the diameter of the "long play" records was 12 inches. I've got a bunch of them, and am shopping for a reasonably good turntable and cartridge so I can play them.

Hungry Mother, I hear you.

Good wishes to you all.

jfromvt said...

Anonymous - yes now it’s GlobalFoundries (but actually I think it was recently sold again), was IBM when I worked there.

Yellowrocks said...

Irish Miss, one of the most rewarding parts of our holiday visit was seeing my grandson, Kenny. He has AD and had a tough time in school the first 8 years. His mother was very proactive in getting him into a special high school which was very good for him. He is now a junior at Villanova. He has learned coping skills and workarounds, so he is doing well. He participated in a successful internship this past summer. I am so proud of him. We have very interesting adult conversations when I see him.

Wilbur Charles said...

Ah, the Mikan dynasty. Back before the Celtics eclipsed them

Boomer, you forgot the 1000 Island dressing on that Reuben
Owen, your prune l'ick was an A+ gem

Ah, ELLIS Kinder. He and another 20 games winner (Mel Parnell)were primed for the 1948 playoff game vs Cleveland. But Joe McCarthy, a genius, opted to go with Denny Galehouse*. The second nail in the cross of curses that bedeviled Boston from 1946 - 2004.

A quick Monday solve. I see Picard among others foundered on Tiger's wife who is Swedish, hence that rare first name, ELIN. She was a housekeeper for a Swedish PGA' er, now a multi millionaire.

WC

** Galehouse had some clutch performances for the wartime St Louis Browns. He'd long since lost it. I explained a much better reason for a "curse" than the Shaunessy BAMBINO nonsense in a note a month ago

Ol' Man Keith said...

I wonder, Boomer, who has more leftover ham this holiday season--you or us? My wife always gets this terrific honey-baked ham for Christmas. Absolutely delicious!
An AbFam Ham!
And, true to form, we are happily awash in spiral-cut ham for a week--and more!--beyond.

What a sweet morning. I slept in, still coming down off last night's high, watching my 49ers taking the Seattle Sea Squawks to school. On their own turf.
What a thrilling climax to a hard-fought game; down after down right on the goal line, the 'Niners' defense held fast. Both teams were exhausted, but San Francisco proved the stronger. Their stamina prevailed, while Seattle blew one opportunity after another.
WooHoo! (my apologies to Misty).
~ OMK

Anonymous said...


jfromvt, I met with a recruiter and then received an offer from them for a position in their Burlington location in 1981. I distinctly remember him promoting the ratio of females to males because of the colleges. The offer was for a bit over 16K then, which would be for about 45K today. Big money at the time, but I didn't accept it as I had other better offers, and ended up taking a job in Houston that paid slightly more.

It all came down to family and weather. My nephew had just graduated high school and received a scholarship to Rice. I was definitely pressured to take one of the job offers in Houston so that we could (I could) take care of each other (watch over him). He didn't need my help. He ended up doing an internship with IBM at their Santa Teresa labs in San Jose after 6 or so years of college. We always thought he was going to be a professional student.

TTP.




Irish Miss said...

CED @ 10:53 ~ Thanks for checking in. Enjoy every minute of fun in the sun!

YR @ 3:12 ~ You and Kenny's parents have a lot to be proud about, as does Kenny himself.

I have a niece who works for Globalfoundries at their Malta, NY location.

We had rain most of the day which turned to freezing rain just as I was pulling into the garage, returning from my errands. The market and Post Office were both crowded but not chaotic. Sticker shock at the market, however, seeing a piece of Corned Beef Brisket priced at $9.00 lb.

Misty said...

Perfectly okay, O'Man Keith--when you gotta Woohoo, you gotta Woohoo.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody.

I enjoyed this Monday puzzle (which seemed surprising crunchy in spots). Thanks Matthew and Boomer.

Congratulations to the Niners. Suspenseful ending.

Elin was a very photogenic young woman. Dunno how she's turned out since.

Are you a John Grisham fan? I have been ever since "The Firm." His legal thrillers have always been fun page-turners. I think I've read and/or seen all of them. The only downside of his books has been, in my opinion, sometimes weak endings. So I was happy to download his new book, "The Guardians." I was reading it in bed last night and I wish I hadn't. I came across one chapter that was so violent and ugly that I had a hard time going to sleep. (Do you know to what I'm referring?) No more John Grisham for me. Any suggestions for replacement authors?

Bill G said...

We're big fans of corned beef brisket. They've got us over a barrel. We'll whinge and then pay what they're asking.

~ Mind how you go...

jfromvt said...

TTP - I was hired in 1980, they were booming and hiring like mad. I’m a Vermonter so was happy to get a job at IBM and stay close to home. Job security was huge back in the day, now you have to keep changing companies if “moving up” is your priority. Burlington is a great place to live.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Rapid fire no nonsense Monday puzzle neat as a pin. Perps helped for every blank.

As a kid we had a huge trellised sweet pea vine. Don't remember a fragrance but when the thin pods dried they would suddenly unfurl with a pop, seeds rocketing into other pods like a mini atomic reactor.

Suppose IDA has POISE in BOISE.

Late Dad, Grandad and I all named for the least known of the three ARCHANGELs.

Great puzzle, let's see what TAMARI brings

Anonymous said...

to Bill G.

Here is a list of some of my favorites (in no special order):

JA Jance
John Sanford
Randy Wayne White
David Baldacci
Daniel Silva
Michael Connelly
craig Johnson
greg hurwitz
stuart Woods
Lee Child
CJ Box
Mark Greaney
Harlan Coben
Jeffrey Deaver
Michael McGarrity

I've lots more, but this is a good start

KerryS-in_Carefree

Terry said...

Agreed, I counted 20 proper names in my take.

SwampCat said...

Thumper and I will take a pass on the puzzle. Good effort, just not our cup of tea.

Owen, all A+! Your muse is certainly with you!! As are my good wishes.

IM, I had a kid with AD. He learned to cope and became very successful. It’s hard. But can be done.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks, Matthey, for the challenge! Thanks, Boomer, for putting a little HO HO HO in the puzzle.

HANG it all, I didn't see a theme. Forgot to look.

Didn't know the GUM. I tried XANd y, thinking it was going to be several words.

Having watched several games with the CLIPPERS & LAKERS lately, I got this clue without a hitch. They now play out of the same arena which increases the rivalry.

KERNING: new word for me. I was in and out of newspapers 20 years and never heard it. This was after the linotypes had been hauled to the museum or dump. When I quit free-lance and went in-house, we had moved on to "desktop publishing" a/k/a Mac computers & laser printers.

Owen, chuckled at your DATE poem. Most apt. I haven't had a DATE since Dec. 4, 2002. I gave up the geezers for prunes also. Men my age were looking for women at least 10 yrs. younger. I looked good to men ten-15 years older. When a 90 year old wanted to take me dancing for New Years and my chin would have rested on the top of his head, I decided that was too much. Not going to HANG IN THERE anymore.