google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, December 3, 2019, Robert E. Lee Morris

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Dec 3, 2019

Tuesday, December 3, 2019, Robert E. Lee Morris

Are You a Mensa Genius?  The first word of each theme answer can describe a high IQ.

17-Across. Optimistic viewpoint to "look on": BRIGHT SIDE.


58-Across. Samsung product: SMART PHONE.



11-Down. Hothead's trait: QUICK TEMPER.


24-Down. Wicked wit: SHARP TONGUE.




Across:
1. Desert Storm missile: SCUD.  During Desert Storm, journalist Arthur Kent (b. Dec. 27, 1953), gained fame for reporting on the war and was dubbed The Scud Stud.


5. Jed Clampett portrayer Buddy: EBSEN.  Before becoming Jed Clampett, Buddy Ebsen (né Christian Ludolf Ebsen, Jr.; Apr. 2, 1908 ~ July 6, 2003), had been cast in the role as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.  He had to be replaced after he became ill due to a reaction to the aluminum dust that was an integral part of the costume.


10. Newspaper ad meas.: SQ. IN.  As in Square Inches.

14. Greek liqueur: OUZO.  An anise-flavored aperitif.  It's a clear liquid that turns cloudy when ice is added.

15. Like much snack food: SALTY.

16. German wheels: AUDI.


19. "The Way You Love Me" singer Faith: HILL.  Faith Hill (née Audrey Faith Perry; b. Sept. 21, 1967) is married to fellow musician, Tim McGraw (né Samuel Timothy McGraw; b. May 1, 1967).


20. Comfort: EASE.

21. Medieval clubs: MACES.  Bludgeoning weapons.


22. Vampire played by Cruise: LESTAT.  Tom Cruise (né Thomas Cruise Mapother, IV; b. July 3, 1962) played the Vampire LESTAT de Lioncourt in the 1994 movie Interview with the Vampire, which was based on the novel of the same name by New Orleanian, Anne Rice.


26. Offhand comment: REMARK.

29. Breathed out: EXHALED.


31. Connects (to): RELATES.

34. Eastern neighbor of Tenn.: N. CAR.  North Carolina is Tennessee's eastern neighbor.


35. "FBI" actress De La Garza: ALANA.  Alana De la Garza (b. June 18, 1974) recently joined the cast of the FBI.  She previously was in the cast of several of the Law & Order shows.


37. "Strange Magic" rock band: ELO.  The Electric Light Orchestra was a band that originally formed in 1970!



38. California's Big __: SUR.

39. Know-it-all: WISE GUY.

41. UFC sport: MMA.  As in Mixed Martial Arts.  I let the perps fill in this answer.

42. Psychic's "gift": ESP.  As in ExtraSensory Perception.

43. "Gesundheit!" evoker: ACHOO.

44. For each unit: A POP.

45. Emancipate: SET FREE.



47. Middle of __: remote area: NO WHERE.


50. Restaurant chef's workload: ORDERS.

52. Came close to: NEARED.

53. Singer Joplin: JANIS.  Janis Joplin (née Janis Lyn Joplin; b. Jan. 19, 1943 ~ Oct. 4, 1970) was born in Port Arthur, Texas.  Tragically, she died of a heroin overdose at age 27.



55. Taste defeat: LOSE.

57. Strong desire: URGE.

64. Any thing, say: NOUN.  Not keen on this type of cluing.

65. Bamboo muncher: PANDA.  China owns and leases all the Giant Pandas.  Bei Bei, the Panda that was at the National Zoo, was sent back to China last month.  They are such cute little critters.


66. Black stone: ONYX.


67. Pigged out (on), briefly: OD-ED.  As in Over-Dosed.

68. Fur tycoon: ASTOR.  John Jacob Astor (né Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 ~ Mar. 29, 1848) was born in Germany, but immigrated to the United States shortly after the American Revolution  He was an astute businessman and quickly entered into the fur trade.  He became the first multi-millionaire in the United States.


69. Designer Chanel: COCO.  Coco Chanel (née Gabrielle Bonheur Chanel; Aug. 19, 1883 ~ Jan. 10, 1971), led an interesting life.




Down:
1. Cry noisily: SOB.  //  And: 49-Down. Blubber: WEEP.

2. Many a stray 4-Down: CUR.  //  And 4-Down:  Hound: DOG.



3. Special forces weapon: UZI.  The Uzi was designed by Uziel Gal (né Gotthard Glas; Dec. 15, 1923 ~ Sept. 7, 2002), a German-born Israeli gun developer.  He was horrified that this weapon was name after him.

5. Sprawling property: ESTATE.

6. Barbershop quartet member: BASS.

7. More underhanded: SLIER.

8. Flight board abbr.: ETD.  As in Estimated Time of Departure.

9. "Bill __ Saves the World": science talk show: NYE.  As in William Sanford Nye (b. Nov. 27, 1955).  Is he a Scientist or a Comedian?


10. Arid African expanse: SAHARA.


12. Wait in traffic: IDLE.

13. Rock's Lofgren: NILS.  Nils Hilmer Lofgren (b. June 21, 1951) is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.


18. Get better: HEAL.

21. Southeast Asia's __ Peninsula: MALAY.


22. Camera attachments: LENSES.  This one is just a bit too large for the average tourist.


23. Reason for absence: EXCUSE.

25. Driveway surface: TAR.

27. Jeremy Irons film based on a Christopher Paolini fantasy novel: ERAGON.  Eragon was apparently a fantasy-action film.  Rotten Tomatoes listed it as the 10th worst film of 2006.


28. Bill of fare: MENU.

30. One of Santa's reindeer: DASHER.  Can you spot Dasher?


32. "Get Shorty" novelist __ Leonard: ELMORE.  Elmore John Leonard, Jr. (Oct. 11, 1925 ~ Aug. 20, 2013) was born in New Orleans.  He wrote many novels that were adapted into movies.  Get Shorty was a very funny movie, but I had trouble with the book.


33. Lathered (up): SOAPED.

Not a happy camper

36. Late July zodiac sign: LEO.  Leo is the Zodiac sign from July 23 to August 22.

39. City districts: WARDS.  There are 17 wards in New Orleans.


40. Slushy treat: ICEE.  The Polar bear is its logo.


44. "I understand now!": AHA!

46. Ally: FRIEND.

48. GM security system: ON-STAR.

51. Point of view: SLANT.

53. Roman queen of the gods: JUNO.  Juno was the chief goddess and was the female counterpart to Jupiter.

54. Retired MLB slugger: A-ROD.  As in Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez (b. July 27, 1975).  He had a long career in professional baseball.  He played 7 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, three with the Texas Rangers and 12 with the New York Yankees.


56. Word on a dollar: ORDO.  The Latin phrase Novus Ordo Seclorum is found under the pyramid on the One Dollar bill.  It means A New Order of the Ages.


58. Place for TLC: SPA.

59. Humanities degs.: MAs.  As in Masters of Arts.

60. Ad __ committee: HOC.

61. Lennon's love: ONO.  Yoko Ono (b. Feb. 18, 1933) makes frequent guest appearances in the crossword puzzles.

62. Grand Central Sta. site: NYC.

63. Skeleton prefix: EXO-.  Critters with Exoskeletons:




Here's the Grid:



QOD:  See it all.  See it fairly.  Be truthful, be sensible and be careful with language.  When nothing depends upon man, everything depends on him.  ~  Henry A. Grunwald (né Heinz Anatole Grünwald; Dec. 3, 1922 ~ Feb. 26, 2005); Austrian-born American journalist and editor

41 comments:

OwenKL said...

Don't forget the quasi-revel: What all those leading adjectives describe -- a WISE GUY!

A SHARP TONGUE and a QUICK TEMPER
May cause her to WEEP and to whimper.
A WISER GUY on the job
Won't make her SOB,
But settle for just wagging a finger!


An otaku took a SMART PHONE as his bride.
He told his mother to look on the BRIGHT SIDE.
She'd be always polite,
Stay home every night,
And warranty would replace her when she died!

{B, A-.}

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Big, fat FIW. Missed my wags at the double-Natick AL_N_ x ER_GON and MAL_Y. At least I avoided V8 shrapnel; I hadn't heard of any of them. I couldn't help thinking of Alfred E. Newman on the cover as Lt. Calley with the caption "what, My Lai", but solid perps didn't allow that.

I was involved in the feasibility of the OnStar program. It was secret, and we were told that the name was "Five Star" and the client was Mercedes. I knew that "Five Star" was trademarked by Chrysler, so I knew that that wasn't the name and Mercedes was probably wasn't the real client.

I seem to remember that in my Mom's newspaper days the ads were sold by the column-inch, not square inch. Maybe it was just our local fish wrapper?

Middle of NO WHERE: We used to say that our town wasn't at the end of the earth, but it WAS where the trucks turned around to back up to the end of the earth.

Scott Joplin yesterday, JANIS today. Love 'em both. JANIS was an operator for GTE in Texas before she became a professional musician.

Buddy EBSEN again. I saw him a few times at the Boy's Market in Marina del Rey, CA while he was playing Barnaby Jones. He looked much older without makeup.

Thanks to RELM for the fun puzzle (except for that nasty Natick). And to Hahtoolah for the really interesting comments. DNK that NYE tried stand-up. I like his science skits, but it drives me nuts when they call him a scientist. As far as I know he doesnt refer to himself that way.

Hungry Mother said...

Too many names caused me to turn on the red letters. More wordplay please.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

NPR's David Greene reports that the Apostrophe Protection Society has given up. "John Richards founded the Apostrophe Protection Society 18 years ago. He fights for what he calls the much-abused punctuation mark. If you're confused by words like its or your, he's your guy. Sadly, though, at age 96, Richards says he is ending this society. He says folks these days just don't care about using apostrophes correctly. He wrote, the ignorance and laziness present in modern times have won."

So now those "no truck's allowed" signs at the end of the earth are OK now.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

DNF (Hi, Jinx). ALENA/EREGON did me in. Bzzzzt. Forgot to look for the theme, and missed the reveal (if there was one). I will slow my QUICK TEMPER and hold my SHARP TONGUE. Thanx, RELM and Hahtoolah.

Moulin Rouge said...

The kids these days really love Mr. BRIGHTSIDE as proven by the amount of vies on YouTube. 350+ million!!

Its a song about being SALTY over a partner's infidelity.

The kids really love jumping up and down while singing the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Many collegiate venues play this at their sporting events to fire up the crowd.

Especially at University of Michigan Stadium. Too bad this didn't help the Wolverines against the Buckeyes...

Anonymous said...

Newspaper ads are measured in COLUMN inches, not SQIN.

The correct spelling of the abbreviated OVERDOSED is OD'D, not ODED.

inanehiker said...

Another smooth puzzle solve - but need to get to work!

Thanks to Susan and RELM for a nice wake up to the day!

Thanks for all the welcomes back from the Cornerites yesterday!

Yellowrocks said...

So many names for an early week puzzle! I had the same Natick as DO, EREGON instead of ERAGON. Totally new to me.
I had an inkblot for the last A in MALAY. If I had seen the second A, I most likely would have guessed ALANA instead of ALENA. ALENE looked okay, but ALANE does not.
It's a winter wonderland here. The trees and bushes are all feathery white and the tips have ice crystals which gleam in the sun. The roads are all cleared and salted.
LIU, as we have noted before, the dictionary says OD'd or ODed.
The ads we place in the square dance magazine are sold by page, half page, quarter page. Some newspaper ads are sold by dimensions, such as --cm w x --cm h. and some by column inches. I haven't seen any sold by sq in.
Living in rural areas during my youth, the middle of nowhere was a common phrase.

Montana said...

Nice solve. I don’t remember learning about the Malay peninsula. Perps were good enough for a correct guess.
My vehicle has Starlink.
I forgot to look for a theme. I loved the expo today. Thanks.

We set an all time record for snow in November. 60” broke the record of 29”.
42° early this morning temperature should melt a lot of snow very quickly.

Keep warm if you live in the north,

Montana

Montana said...

I also wanted column inches rather than square inches.

Montana

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

A bit to modern musical and TV for me. Got 2 squares wrong; MMA and ALANA. Otherwise, I enjoyed the solve.
"Gesundheit! evoker - ACHOO. Just for S's and G's, I looked up ACHOO translated to German since the clue hinted at a German answer IMO. Hatschi! (Perhaps some fill on another day.)

Lemonade714 said...

OKL, I think your observation about 39. Know-it-all: WISE GUY is intriguing. I did not see it while solving, but I think it is a part of the theme. It is centrally located and does not require any other fill to keep the puzzle symmetrical.

Susan, what was your problem with the book?

Lots of proper nouns but all solvable. Do you all remember ORDO on currency.

Thanks, RELM and H.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Me three - obscure proper noun crossings with a vowel AL_NA/ER_GON. I got it, but still…
-Seeing a Q, X, Y, K and Z near the top made me think pangram – alas, no V
-Sambuca is an Italian relative of OUZO that made my night in Venice kind of fuzzy
-Yes, WISE GUY doesn’t quite fit the theme but there it is
-Some big Nebraska ranchers in the Sandhills have huge homes in the middle of NO WHERE and love it
-My 55-yr-old H.S. class ring has an ONYX stone and sits in my dresser drawer
-My town’s main street is U.S. 30 which ends in ASTORIA, OR after paralleling the Columbia River to the sea. ASTOR made big money there but never set foot in the Pacific NW
-NYE’s main gig right now is defending atheism and global warming
-Nice BRIGHT effort, Susan!

jfromvt said...

Easy, fun Tuesday. IMO WISEGUY is one of the theme answers.

We’ve had a lot of Buddy EBSEN lately. At least no ETON, my pet peeve...lol...

jfromvt said...

Maybe WIEGUY is the reveal, even though it’s not clued as such. Either way, a pretty obvious answer.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Fun and frolic today from R. E. L. Morris. I thought the theme was synonyms of WISE: BRIGHT, SMART, QUICK.

I got ERAGON only because I knew ALANA De La Garza from Law and Order and of course, ASTOR and JANIS but not LESTAT or ELMORE. Buddy EBSEN is also very familiar.

JUNO was a movie quite a few years ago.

I admire Bill NYE for trying to make science accessible to children.

Since I like licorice I love OUZO and was introduced to it in Greece. Its counterpart in Turkey is Raki.

Big SUR had been inaccessible for a while after last year's flooding and subsequent landslide and though I haven't been there lately I understand it is open.

Have a fantastic day, everyone!

Jerome Gunderson said...

Sorry, but I'm too damn tech dumb to get you there. But if you go to YouTube you'll have a wonderful experience with ELO's live performance of "Telephone line" at Wembley Stadium in England. Stunning but sad. He misses his ex but she won't answer the phone.

CrossEyedDave said...

Mondays puzzle was perfect for a Monday,
Tuesday puzzle was hell on wheels...
(actually, I don't even know what that means,
but I am sure OwenKL can extend it into something meaningful...)

DNF at the crossing of MMA/Elmore
(+ my neared was nearby for reading the clue wrong...)
(Does soapey have an "E"? )
(it works for Dopey...)

+2 WAGs that went South,
10a Sq Inches! (I thought the down was a bad spelling of Bill...)
(Doesn't Sqib mean something?)

& the other WAG, for the life of me, I cannot remember,
but you can be sure it was a LuLu...

Moulin Rouge @ 6:40
Thank you for the Brightside Link!
If you want an Old Farts opinion,
(or if you don't)
I was immediately turned off by by what started out sounding
link Rap. But somehow captivated by the Glittery Costuming to
listen further. Glad I did because the Chorus is really catchy.
(but it might have been the constant "flashing" that kept me watching...)
I do not know what it is about this video that kept me watching,
it is sort of like a train wreck that you can't look away from...

Jerome!
C'mon, man! You know I need visuals!

The theme? It led me to these:

Wise?

Smart?

Quick?

There's a bright side?

Misty said...

Fun Tuesday puzzle--many thanks, Robert. Lots of names in this one, but I was happy to get EBSEN, JANIS, and ONO right away, and even guessed ELMORE. Perps took care of the other ones. My only small mistake is that I put ASTER instead of ASTOR (since I haven't looked closely at a dollar in decades). Delightful theme--making us work hard to prove we were bright and wise and smart and quick and sharp. Susan, your pictures were wonderful this morning, many thanks for that too.

Have a great day, everybody.

Irish Miss said...

Good Afternoon:

I needed perps, as usual, for the pesky proper names: Eragon, Ordo, and Nils. I knew Miss De la Garza was Alana because I watch FBI and knew she replaced Sela Ward. (I still prefer Sela's portrayal of the character, but I'm slowly warming up to Alana who, I'm sure, doesn't give a hoot!) My fancy ticklers today were: Cur and Sur, Leo and Elo, and ETD and ESP, and, also, the abundance of words ending in O: Ouzo, ELO, Achoo, Coco, Leo, Juno, Ordo, Exo, and Ono. Another plus, for me, was the low number of three letter words. I was surprised at the lack of a reveal, but the theme was obvious, so no harm, no foul.

Thanks, Robert, for a pleasant Tuesday solve and thanks, Hatoolah, for another outstanding review, filled with eye-catching visuals. I especially like the Soaped-up cat and the Computer virus Achoo.

I think our snowstorm left us with just about two feet accumulation. I'm thankful I have a garage because digging out a car and then having to keep moving it so the streets can be plowed is not fun, or easy. However, if you don't abide by these Emergency rules, your car is promptly towed. (The Governor declared seven upstate counties, including ours, under a state of emergency.)

FLN, Anon T, how did the soup turn out?

Have a great day. Stay warm and safe.

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon-t,
(from a previous post...)
I don't think my Neighbor was hiding his
beef and barley soup recipe from me, because
I go over there and drink his beer, and might have got confused...

But I still want to try it (The Smell is Awesome!)

So, in the spirit of a Cook-a-long,
I think this is the way to go...
Why soup when you can Stew...

I think this recipe as a base can be great
for people like me who use short cuts (Hamburger?) (no pun intended...)
but with some more beef broth, would be an amazing soup!

Anonymous T said...

Hahtoolah - Nope, No Mensa Genius here. DNF.

I could not crack 35a crossing 21 & 27d; on a Tuesday(?!?). [Hi Jinx & D-O!]

Hi All!

Thanks RELM for the puzzle. Thanks Hahtoolah for finishing the last two squares ++a lively review (w/ great music!).

WOs: N/A
ESPs: ASTOR, ELMORE, LESTAT
Fav: My anthem - BRIGHT SIDE of Life

I think WISE GUY fits the theme. Anyone else sit there looking at WISE___ and want a donkey's cousin? :-)

{B, B+}

A good friend of mine, who grew up inside The Loop, thinks anything in Houston past The Belt is BFE / The Sticks / Middle of NOWHERE.

CED - LOL. I love me some Steven Wright & Rodney Dangerfield. Thx.

IM - DW wasn't feeling well (she's at the Dr now) so the Soup was put off to tonight. The peas are a' soakin'. [how'd I do on apostrophes Jinx?]

Lucina - when I was (still am) quitting smoking, I thought I'd get a bunch of licorice 'cuz I too love it. But I remember'd something I read years ago about it dropping blood pressure to the point of death(?!?) . Fortunately, Anise and licorice are two different things w/ the same flavour. So, I got a kilo of Anise candies shipped from Italy! :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G said...

Hi everybody.

Dont neglect proper usage of apostrophe's

If you care, my vote is for column inches.

I like Bill Nye OK. Do you remember Mr. Wizard from years ago? I think he was better at teaching science. Bill Nye is a better science entertainer.

desper-otto said...

Bill G, I do have fond memories of Mr. Wizard. From that same time, my memories of Buddy Ebsen aren't of The Beverly Hillbillies or Barnaby Jones -- I remember him best as George Russel along with Fess Parker in Disney's Davy Crockett back in the '50s.

Anonymous T said...

Everybody loves Mr. Wizard.

D-O: I'm barely old enough to remember reruns of Davy Crockett. :-)

-T

Nice Cuppa said...

Greetings again,

I echo the concerns of others over the excessive use TV/Sports/Cinema names, which inevitably creates a Natick or two, but...

The theme was bright and sharp. Hands up for WISEASS before WISEGUY.

The grid was iffy, comprising 5 diagonal modules with tenuous (or no) link between them, and small 3-5 letter blocks plastered with crosswordese - a common symptom of themed puzzles I suppose.

Sad to see JANIS in the same mini-block as ODED.

Time to return to EREHWON

OwenKL said...

Being a sci-fi nerd, I knew EReGON, but couldn't remember how to spell it. When I didn't get a ta-da, the first thing I did was change that e to A. Eragon is a farm boy who finds and hatches a dragon's egg.

CED -- LIU. Hell on wheels: "Tough, aggressive, wild, or mean, as in Watch out for the boss-he's hell on wheels this week. This expression originated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1860s, when it denoted the last town on the line, which was carried on freight cars as the track was extended."

My bride was once HELL ON WHEELS.
Her TEMPER and TONGUE invoked squeals!
She's mellowed with time,
Tho still not sublime --
Now she's Perdition on scooter-mobiles!

Tony -- checked your link on anise, an saw it's a carminative. What the heck was a carminative? LIU. "(medicine) a drug or substance that induces the releasing of gas from the digestive tract." Boy, could I use some of that!

BTW, since I'm LIU things:
Otaku: "(in Japan) a young person who is obsessed with computers or particular aspects of popular culture to the detriment of their social skills." There are places in Japan and Korea for marriage ceremonies to anime characters.

Spitzboov said...

- T @ 1225.

I know you've been busy so I LIU'ed it up re x':

Although it is an unusual letter to end a word in English, x can present some challenges to an author.

With a word like box, the possessive version is fairly straightforward: the box’s hinges.

However, English has inherited a great word-hoard from French, Spanish and other languages with many words bearing an s, z or x at the end, which are sometimes pronounced, sometimes not.

Personal names are a case in point, as people tend to have possessions and possessions generally demand apostrophes.

As a rule of thumb, adding the s to the apostrophe is a good idea: for example, the chateaux’s imposing walls or Marx’s impressive beard.

In the past adding an s may have seemed very clumsy. However, style guides are now pointing in that direction, even ones in the US where ideas about grammar tend to be more traditional.

Names from other languages can sound a little awkward in the possessive form when spoken out loud, but adding that s seems to be the safest and clearest course.

Anonymous said...

Decent puzzle for a Tuesday. This trend of constructors to cross uncommon names that lead to a DNF is getting old.

Bill G said...

I see that "Cats" has been brought back yet again. We saw it years ago and were severely disappointed. Aside from one really good song, I couldn't find anything to like. The story and characters seemed weak and unappealing. Some folks seem to love it. Not me (not I?).

Thanks to AnonT, I am enjoying some old reruns of Mr. Wizard on YouTube. They bring back fond memories and probably have a lot to do with my youthful love of science. I think I'll see if Jordan might enjoy them too.

Yellowrocks said...

The beautiful icy trees in Warren County where Alan lives have had a not so lovely result. He and his group have been housebound for two days because many downed tree are blocking the roads. Also these downed trees pulled down wires leading to several electrical outages at his place. Here with our five or six inches of snow the situation was not dire.The roads are clear and our locality has not outages. Montana, 60 inches! Wow! Stay safe. IM your 2 feet of snow is quite a lot. Fortunately, I, too, keep my garage clutter free in winter so I don't have to remove ice and snow from my car. The people here who don't garage their cars have to keep moving them, as your neighbors do, to help the plows.
OKL, love your Hell on Wheels poem.
Geek Squad solved my AOL problem, where I kept being redirected to an advertising site. My Geek squad annual membership fee has been well worth it, and even when I have no problems, it supplies Webroot as a part of the package. Norton and McAfee would be at an additional cost.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Robert and Hahtoolah.
We got a Toronto paper today instead of our local paper and it did not have the LA Times puzzle; I filled in online with Cruciverb/AcrossLite. Straight-forward solve. I believe we were a V short of a pangram. But I forgot to look for the theme (without a reveal) and totally missed it. AHA, Lemonade@8:52, I think you may have seen the reveal - WISE GUY placed right in the middle.

Unknowns filled by perps included LESTAT, ELMORE, ERAGON, NILS. I Wagged the middle A in ALANA (avoiding the Natick), and debated between Slyer or SLIER.
Of course this Canadian had no idea about ORDO on your American dollar bill. My Loonie says Elizabeth II D G Regina (Dei Gratia Regina' which is Latin for 'By the Grace of God, Queen').
Smiled at MENU and ORDERS.
I have only seen "For each unit: A POP" on CWs. Nobody uses that expression around here.

YR, we have a winter wonderland around here too with the sun shining on the trees with their ice and snow from the storm on the weekend.
Wishing you all a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

Bill G,
You may find this hard to believe,
but I have never seen Cats, & hoping to see the Movie...

Hmm, Actually, I never thought to Google Cats on YouTube,
(wait a sec,)
yes I did, & it wasn't a Broadway Play...

Now where was I,
Oh yes, Anonymous T,
(but b/4 that, thank you OwenKL, I was right! This puzzle was Hell on Wheels!)

Anon-(Capitol) -T,
well, 1st I went on the bright side of life,
& then I tried to read about Licorice,
but when trying to find its <-(no ') source
everything I read was in Eric Idle's accent! (did I screw up the accent ownership?)
Needing a visual, I L'dIU. It grows everywhere...

I remember buddy in Davy Crocket, but try & get a racoon skin hat in Australia
in the early 60's... (note, there was a reason for those leather tags they wore)
(but that;s a whole nother post...)

Now, why was I posting again?
Oh yes, aphostrophies... I am hoping purchasing this poster will help...

Oh C'mon, I saw you snicker...

Hmm, maybe a little knowledge is not a good thing...

Worst case scenario...

CrossEyedDave said...

Nut's!

I wuz hopin that linking
that apopropee poster would bring up a larger image.

I still can't read the dang thing!

Dang it! I'll never figure out how to use these dang thingie's...

Ol' Man Keith said...

Thanks, Hahtoolah, for a great write-up. I enjoyed the pic of Buddy EBSEN in his Tin Man outfit. Too bad he was unable to play it.
Nothing against Jack Haley, but can you just imagine Buddy, that most supple and lanky of dancers, encased in a tin suit? The very definition of artistic contradiction, of creative tension!

And I loved listening again to JANIS' singing of Kristofferson's Bobby McGee. I used to point out her improvised obbligatos to my directing students, to illustrate what a performer could do with those single syllables printed in Greek tragedies, like "La!" and "Ah!" and "Ooh!"
Sometimes words on the page look sterile, but a true actor or singer will make them her own.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
A thee-way on the mirror side.
The central anagram names that kid in school who always seemed to attract sharp knuckle grinds to his scalp. Yep, I'm talking about...
"A NOOGIE HEAD"!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Yesterdays newspaper wasn't delivered due to the blizzard. Both showed up today

Messed this one up with some foolish errors. Had Savana instead of Sahara for too long. Crossed with an "e" instead of "a" for Eragon/Alana.

Thought a "sharp tongue" meant severely critical not wit. I'm obviously not a very "wise guy".

After the discussion originating from Saturday's "Trash Panda" figured the bamboo muncher would turn out be a giant raccoon.

Look on the "bright side" for the moment in stopped snowing in central New York state

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Robert E. Lee Morris, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Hahtoolah, for a fine review.

This puzzle went easily for me. Caught the theme after I was finished. Bright, Wise, Smart, Sharp, Quick. Made sense to me.

SQ IN made sense and it fit. So, I used it.

LESTAT was unknown, but with six solid perps I stuck with it.

JANIS was easy for 53A. I had no idea she was an Operator for GTE before her career took off. Thanks, Jinx.

ASTOR was easy. I knew about him a long time ago. He owned a good share of New York City.

Funny story about ONSTAR. A few years ago a friend of mine parked his car in my driveway while we carpooled to Joliet. My wife called me a few hours later and said that Ralph's car was running in our driveway, and the doors were locked. I told Ralph and he called ONSTAR who was able to unlock the doors. Then my wife went out and shut the car off. I asked my wife how she knew the car was running. She said that when it got dark the headlights came on automatically. That car had probably been running for four or five hours. We all got a good laugh about that.

Liked Hound Dog by Elvis. Been a long time since I heard that, or saw him perform.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Wilbur Charles said...

That "fairest" pic was lol. Darn aluminum dust, no wonder Buddy died so young
I like the MACE with ball and chain. Charles of Poitier fame was Martel *The Hammer" eg one heckova MACE man

Well, there's my FIW; ALANA as in Morrisette and ERAGON. Common mid-week Natick. I see Jinx did the same. And D-O, and.. YR, and...Spitz and …-T speaking of.. The Jesuits used to say "Anything west of Worcester"=land of the barbarians

I thought it was very easy but it stiffened up a bit as I progressed. MALAY should have been easy. Imo.

-T, your second link contradicts the first eg low vs high blood pressure. I'm not buying it, so much liquorice would have to be consumed …

Oh, if YR or other readers would like an interesting XW, try Evan Birnholz Post XW from Sunday ("Coloring Books")

DW, very casually mentioned that she knew the real Bobby Magee. Details hard to draw out because, like Tom Bombadil and the One Ring,* it just wasn't important. 70s Michigan.

WC

** The Rivendell conference debated what to do with Frodo's ring and they thought of giving it to Tom. But though the Ring would have no power over him, he would think it was a mere bauble and probably misplace it




Anonymous T said...

+{A} Hell on Wheels can also be someone hyperfocused producing faster than they can think (I think). Every now and then, the inspiration hits with furry on a project I'm working on and ... look out. I'm not mean/angry but certainly aggressive in getting solution to fruition.

IM (and YR) I am sad to report my pea soup was a wash. DW made a good point; follow just one recipe and "don't try to make s*** up until you have it down." Good advice but sadness ensues -- I used all the leftover ham!!! :-(

Spitz, your treatises on the apostrophe had me LOL.
//Are you sure it's not boxen's re: plural possessive?
CED - I did snicker'd a bit :-)

OMK - being a nerd [see below], I was not amused by the DR :-)

Bill G - I'm sure Jordan will love Mr. Wizard as much as I did in my ute. Mr. Wizard focused on making the kids think about what was going on; I still love watching the wonder in the kids' eyes.

C, Eh! - 'A Pop' for 1, Ea., is word-choice that I grew up with and still use.
E.g. "Sonnova, when did a pack of smokes become 9 bucks A POP?!?"
//seriously, I broke down yesterday and got a pack. $9.05US - Oy!

WC - maybe I got the heart/licorice thing backwards (I'm prone to that). But you trust the UK's NHS, no?.
I do love licorice - DW & I had a very concentrated sample in Italy. It was the size of a tic-tack; She spit it out into her hand, so, um, I ate hers too
//It's not like I don't kiss her :-)

Cheers, -T

Bill G said...

One nice thing about where we live is the effort to provide a feeling of community. A few minutes ago, a Santa Claus float stopped down the block to visit with the local kids, adults and to pass out candy canes. We have no kids or grandkids handy to participate tonight. In the past, the 'Santa' on the float would often recognize me as one of their kid's teacher but alas, my retirement is too long past.

* Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?