google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday January 27, 2020 Frank Virzi

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Jan 27, 2020

Monday January 27, 2020 Frank Virzi

Theme:  TAILLIGHT (35D. Rear warning lamp, and what can go with the end of each answer to a starred clue) - Last word in each theme entry can precede "light".

17A. *Mystery/soap (1956-'84) that ultimately dropped "The" from its title: EDGE OF NIGHT. Night light.

37A. *One of the four Seven Sisters magazines that are still in print: WOMAN'S DAY. Daylight.

 63A. *Televised panelist shown from the shoulders up: TALKING HEAD. Headlight.
 
5D. *Infielder typically between second and third: SHORTSTOP. Stoplight.

Boomer here.  Welcome to all of you crossword enthusiasts. I heard that you have company. Word is that some of our U.S. Senators were doing crossword puzzles during the impeachment talks. I can't say I blame them. I watch MSNBC for an hour or so and then I have to change the channel.

I have bowling news this week.  In my Thursday league, the bowling center was giving me trouble with sparse oil conditions on the lanes.  Since the oil pattern was similar to 1970s I pulled a 45 year old plastic ball out of the garage.   It took me a game to figure out how to work it, but my scores were 155 - 257 - 220 - for a 632 set.  My second 600 since my diagnosis, but guess which ball I will be using there next week.


Across:

1. Tibetan monks: LAMAS.  I have a story about a Tibetan monk.  He entered a monastery where the head monk could speak freely but the members were only allowed 2 words every five years. After 5 years the monk was called to a meeting. "I'm hungry," he said. The superior responded that a larger portion of food would be given.  After 5 more years, "I'm cold," he said.  The superior answered that he would be issued more blankets.  After five more years he said "I Quit".  The head monk replied, "Well that does not surprise me brother. You have done nothing but complain since you got here!"

6. Rise up against authority: REBEL.  Johnny Yuma was one,


11. U.S. interstate, e.g.: RTE.  I have always been appreciative of the Interstates.

14. Grind, as teeth: GNASH.  My family once had a 1952 Nash - without the G.

15. Amazon Echo Dot's voice service: ALEXA.  Siri's competitor.

16. West end?: ERN. Western.

19. Pilot-licensing org.: FAA.

20. "Grrr!" is one: SNARL.  If you hear one in the woods, change direction.

21. Understood by a select few: ESOTERIC.  Proceed to left field to understand some of this stuff.

23. Garden shed tool: HOE.  I only have a shovel.  We will prepare the garden when the snow melts.  I was going to grow seedless watermelon, but I don't know what to plant.

24. Smidge: TAD.  We'll plant a TAD of tomatoes.

26. Give in: RELENT.  Bowlers never relent, we just change balls.

27. Light-circling insects: MOTHS.

29. Send out: EMIT.  Won't be long and we will be EMITTING golf balls.

32. "Got it": I SEE.  "I see" said the blind man, but he really didn't. 

33. Start, as of symptoms: ONSET.I hope there is no ONSET of the coronavirus in your area. Our news paper says odds are slim in Minnesota.

34. John Brown's eulogist Stephen Vincent __: BENET.  John Brown was notable in our history.  He was an abolitionist and his raid at Harper's Ferry is linked to the Civil War.  He was hanged in 1859 and his eulogy was attended by John Wilkes Booth.  I cannot imagine what it was like to live in the USA 160 years ago.


36. "If only __ listened": HE'D.

40. H.S. equivalency test: GED.  I doubt if it is equivalent to four years of Christian Brothers.  (Sorry Brother Albert - just kidding). 

43. Hopscotch: POTSY.  How about Richie Cunningham's pal Potsie Weber.


44. Sonnet line quintet: IAMBS.

48. Chrysler Building architect William Van ___: ALEN.  You would probably have to be Lee Iacocca to know this.

50. Campus official: DEAN.  Angel's Pitcher Dean Chance.

51. Longest river in France: LOIRE.

52. As found: IN SITU.

54. Cartoon frame: CEL.  I think that is short for cellophane so they could make a movie.

56. Prefix with gender: CIS.

57. Christmas saint: NICHOLAS.  Jolly old St. Nicholas, lean your ear this way!

60. Quarterfinalists' count: EIGHT.  Not sure about this but EIGHT is enough.

62. Suffix with alp: INE.

66. Opposite of oui: NON.  If you are French

67. Under-the-roof room: ATTIC.  We don't have a room in ours. Just some insulation and a lot of dust. I did look up there once after an original Honus Wagner card was found in an attic out east somewhere.  I think it was sold by Sotheby's for a lot of money.


68. Prefix for sun: HELIO.

69. Clock-setting std.: GST.

70. Sierra __, Africa: LEONE.

71. Prom attendees: TEENS.  "Sarge I'm just Eighteen, I gotta ruptured spleen and I always carry a purse."  (Who else but the Chad Mitchell Trio - "Draft Dodger Blues")

Down:

1. Tee size: Abbr.: LGE.  I go through a few tees when playing golf.  None are large.

2. "... et cetera": AND SOON.

3. Fridge stickers: MAGNETS.  I have a lot of these.  Most are souvenirs of places I have been.

4. On the briny: ASEA.

6. Campaigned: RAN.  It's leap year.  We'll be hearing a lot this year.

7. Nobelist Wiesel: ELIE.


8. Pleads: BEGS.

9. Urged strongly: EXHORTED.

10. Barista's creation: LATTE.  Fancy coffee.  I've never tried it. I am too cheap and lattes are overpriced.  My best part of waking up, is Folger's in my cup.

11. Browser update button: REFRESH.  You may also REFRESH  Folger's with a little fake sugar and a spoonful of milk.

12. New employee: TRAINEE.  Richard Gere to Louis Gossett in "An Officer and a Gentlemen".


13. Passed, as a bill: ENACTED.  or touchdown as a football.

18. Miami's st.: FLA.  I've been there twice to play golf in February.  Went to Epcot and Disney World.  Nice place to visit but I would not want to live there. No hurricanes in MN.

22. Yale student: ELI. I thought they were Little Lambs.

23. Med. care plan: HMO.  These are getting a bit expensive.  I am sure we will be promised better before the election.  I receive health care from the VA.  Stay healthy C.C.

25. Campaign face-off: DEBATE.  We have already lived through a number of DFL debates. Can't wait until this summer when the going gets tough.

28. Use an axe on: HEW.  Or Chop.

30. High-IQ group: MENSA.

31. Simpatico (like Justin Timberlake's band?): IN SYNC.

38. Soften, as one's voice level: MODULATE.

39. Ex-NBA star Ming: YAO.  An impressive 7ft 6" Chinese ballplayer.  His career began in China but he was signed by the Houston Rockets.  I believe he looked down on Shaq.


40. Opposite of losing, weightwise: GAINING. Not me. When I turn sideways you can hardly see me.

41. Weather-changing currents: EL NINOS.  "The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind."  Peter, Paul and Mary 

42. Climber's downward journey: DESCENT.  The DESCENT speed is greater than ASCENT.

45. "Glee" star Lea __: MICHELE.  Michelle Wie has an extra L.  We saw her a couple of times in Minnesota tournaments.  She was touted to be the next Annika.  Never happened.

46. Great __: London's island: BRITAIN.  No longer home to Harry and Meghan.

47. French possessive: SES.

49. Medical research org.: NIH.

53. Bottom line: TOTAL.  Before or after taxes?

55. Dusk, in poetry: EEN.

58. Choral part: ALTO.

59. Organ that may itch: SKIN.  We get mosquito bites in the summer here.

61. Indian butter: GHEE.

64. __ cream soda: ICE.  We get plenty of ICE in the winter.  Sometimes guys play hockey on it.

65. Spanish two: DOS.

Boomer



50 comments:

  1. The climb was great, but the DESCENT
    Caused a sweat, it was only decent.
    There was a close call
    With an almost-fall,
    That required a REFRESH to de-scent.

    So many sexes here today
    They stun my old-fashioned clay!
    Am I being stolid or stale
    Is saying I am just CIS-male?
    A person of ESOTERIC bent
    Might bend more than fifty percent.
    A palindrome, they now say
    Is someone who can go either way!

    ReplyDelete
  2. {B+, A- (and probably needs distending).}

    ReplyDelete
  3. FIR, but erased GMT for GST. I suspect this is in error. Did Frank really mean the time zone in Oman? And MODULATE doesn't mean "soften", it means to vary. Had to WAG the Natick CISgender x SES. Don't speak French, and will never be woke enough to use the other term. And dumbdumb me thought the Seven Sisters were associated with Pleiades.

    A televised DEBATE is an event where a moderator asks a question and the candidate responds with a planned talking point, regardless of its relevancy to the question.

    I got a letter from MENSA the other day asking not only that I not apply, but also that if I have any friends that I ask THEM not to apply.

    Most people who die on Mt. Everest do so on DESCENT, not ascent. BTW, more people have climbed that peak than have sailed around the world alone.

    Thanks to Frank for creating the puzzle. I liked seeing GHEE and Glee together. And hanks to Boomer for another funny review. Congrats for solving the bowling alley challenge.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Lots of fun and very quick solve. Nice to see the lovely LOIRE today. I had a most glorious 10K training run along its banks a few years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Good morning!

    Can't believe it. DNF on a Monday. I remember CIS gender...but I spelled it SIS, making that woman's last name MISHELE. Last names can be almost anything -- I should know. I agree with Jinx on MODULATE; not a sterling clue. Thanx, Frank and Boomer (The only bowling ball I ever owned was made of hard rubber. It never learned to roll really well. Congrats on your 632 game.)

    POTSY: Don't believe I have ever heard it as an alternate to hopskotch. Learning moment.

    ASCENT: In my ute I had a decal on the rear fender of my bike that read, "Watch my ascent." I thought it was hilarious. Wasn't old enough that it could be called sophomoric.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hand up for not knowing POTSY as hopscotch.

    Film was on CELuloid, not CELophane. Now mostly digital.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good morning all.
    Fun puzzle with only one write over as JINX said.
    GREENWICH MEAN TIME was one of the terms you used every time you got into the cockpit or when filing a flight plan .
    Local time was always in relation to GMT or ZULU.
    Enjoyed the puzzle FRANK CSO to my baby brother , the last of eleven . All ten of Mom’s living children helped celebrate her 95th birthday this past weekend . One brother passed away in 1950, the year of the big flood in the Red River Valley.
    Enjoyed your limericks Owenkl and the review Boomer .
    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  8. Quick solve but continuing the pattern of a little crunchiness on a Monday. I was held up by GMT before GST like Jinx. And the cross of the unknown name ALEN - made EL NINOS hard to solve when I was originally looking at E NINOM.
    Learning moment was POTSY. I took a second to parse AND SO ON for etc. after I had finished it.

    Congrats on the game Boomer and for the morning entertainment! and Thanks to Frank!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Musings
    -I’m still trying to figure out where to spend the $500 I saved by installing a new TAIL LIGHT by myself two weeks ago
    -POTSY? How ‘bout dat?
    -Son-in-law is the lead architect on two new $60M schools in Lincoln, NE and yesterday he told me about the huge issue of bathrooms vis-à-vis genders
    -I-80 is an interstate, 66 is a RTE
    -“If only HE’D listened” Someone must have told that helicopter pilot to not take off in that fog
    -Galileo was put under house arrest for advocating HELIOCENTRISM
    -I spent 23 winter weeks in FLA hip-deep in TEENS
    -Rookie local newscasters must learn to MODULATE their tinny voices to move up
    -TOTAL - $45 for 3 lunches of Raman noodles yesterday. Left hungry.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Addendum
    -DEBATE? A candidate got asked last week in Iowa how he would help struggling Iowa farmers who lost millions in the 2019 floods. He blew by the question and immediately launched into his global warming talking point.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good morning everyone.

    Boomer, great you psyched out the viscosity of the bowling alley. Mark of a true pro.

    Easy solve today with some fresh fill, too. Noted RELENT, GNASH, and ESOTERIC. Jinx, I had GMT before GST also. Had this conundrum a few years ago. While Google connects one usage of GST to the Oman time zone, it also relates it to GMT, as the 0º meridian time zone. I believe the notion of GMT has been largely replaced by UT (universal time). I don't think GST should have been put in a Monday puzzle, but YMMV. (Certainly, the perps made the S choice easy.)
    Two silent GH words:
    LIGHT - German Licht, L. German Lücht, Dutch licht. The ch's are all pronounced as a voiced gutteral. As the ch in Loch.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Husker at 8:24 .
    Thanks for your comment . Though short it awoke the writer in me and I started writing an essay on the follies of phobias but due to political correctness the good angel on my shoulder spoke louder than the evil one .
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Husker, I'll send you my address so you can take that $500 off your to-do list.

    A reporter at the crash scene where Kobe (oops, almost spelled it Coby) Bryant died was so overcome with the news that he commented, "...all of the survivors aboard were found to have been expired."

    ReplyDelete
  14. Easy Monday puzzle.
    Michele was the only fill new to me. We have had SES before.
    A Natick is two esoteric answers crossing each other with one letter that cannot be "wag"ed. None were in this puzzle.
    EDGE of Night is familiar, however I know nothing but the title. These snippets of trivia help us solve.
    Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. How appropriate to see Elie Wiesel who suffered there and saw his mother and sister murdered there. Then he was sent to Buchenwald where he saw his father murdered. He survived to become a famous writer, professor and political activist.
    The trouble with many 24-7 news channels is that all the successive hosts tell the same story hour after hour, when there are so many cogent topics to explore.
    We had a Nash Rambler in the 60's sold by AMC.
    Our attic has no storage. It is filled with crossing beams.
    Modulate has this meaning, too: "exert a modifying or controlling influence on" Often when asked to modulate or control your voice the expectation is that you lower it, but it can also involve volume up or down, pitch, stress, etc. When a speaker lowers his voice to be dramatic my aging ears miss the important point he is making.

    ReplyDelete
  15. “I see” said the blind carpenter as he picked up his hammer and saw.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good Morning:

    I always enjoy a puzzle that keeps me in suspense about the theme until I fill in the reveal squares, and this one is a perfect example. No real stumbles except GMT/GST and Hwy/Rte and the unknown Alen needed perps. Never heard of Potsy for Hopscotch. CSO to Tin at _ _ _.

    Thanks, Frank, for a nice start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the chuckles and commentary. Congrats on your 600+ series!

    Oas, what a marvelous 95th birthday celebration your mother must have had with you all! Best wishes to her.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete

  17. I need an explanation for cisgender. I never heard of it, spellcheck doesn't like it, it's not in my dictionary, and Google comes up blank.

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonDon: not sure where you were looking but Merriam Webster defines cisgender as "of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth"

    ReplyDelete


  19. Adjective denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex.
    The word has be around since the mid 1990's and has been used much more since in the 2000's.
    I often come across it when reading.

    ReplyDelete

  20. A rather crunchy start to the week...and where is the editor?

    You can look up Greenwich Standard Time....and immediately get referred to Greenwich MEAN Time. As stated above, GST is Gulf Standard Time.

    So...ignoring the completely incorrect clue...sorry, but there is no other way to put it...

    A couple write-overs...HAD/HED, MODERATE/MODULATE, MICHEAL/MICHELE, GMT/GST.

    For the first one, I guess I just saw an “I” where there was none.

    And on to Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Recently did a puzzle with the clue "Band mate of NYOUNG and DCROSBY"

    The answer was GNASH. Clever.

    Boomer- You have to be tough to get old. You're one tough dude... and inspiring. Perhaps it's because you're a bowler and have a lot of balls.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Marvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Frank and Boomer.
    I FIRed today in good time with a couple of inkblots. I saw the LIGHT (and also 27A clue of "Light-circling insects").
    IN Time changed to INSYNC, Had changed to H'ED (I wondered where the I was), and Elia corrected to ELIE.

    I thought of Seine, Rhine before LOIRE perped.
    Perps were also required for BENET and ALEN.
    Hand up for never having heard of POTSY.
    I noticed H'ED & GED, ELI and ELIE.

    I filled in GST but agree that it should be GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). Besides, Std. is used in the clue!
    YR beat me to the comment about the appropriateness of having ELIE in today's CW.

    Harry & Meghan can stay in Canada for 6 months at a time on visitor status and could split the year between Canada and Great BRITAIN.

    Wishing you all a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hola!

    Thank you, Frank Virzi, for an easy Monday puzzle with actual interesting words and not a lot of small phrases. I even saw the LIGHT for the theme.

    I have only one nit; though EL NINO is the name of the ocean current, it hurts my ears to say EL NINOS when LOS NINOS is the correct grammatical version. I realize it's an adaptation for the puzzle but it still jars me.

    On Monday's I've started doing the puzzle in ink and today I had one wite-out, MODERATE before MODULATE and can you see my hand is way up for not knowing POTSY and I played a lot of hopscotch in my youth.

    Having taught students to prepare for the GED, I can tell you it is quite challenging. It requires many weeks and even months for some, of intense reading in science, literature, reading comprehension, English grammar and a wide scope of math knowledge. It is not unusual for someone to take the tests more than once to achieve a passing score.

    SHORTSTOP is the only position I have ever played in softball during PE. Being awkward and klutsy when I was growing up, sports were never a good fit for me. That is likely why to this day I'm not a fan.

    Thank you, Boomer, for today's excellent presentation and congratulations on your outstanding bowling games!

    Have a marvelous day, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Delightful Monday puzzle, many thanks, Frank. Worked through this quickly, with only a little trouble in the southeast. Didn't know MICHELE and couldn't believe the London island turned out to be BRITAIN (well, I guess it is an island, isn't it?). Liked seeing NICHOLAS even though the holidays are behind us. Never thought twice about the clock-setting time since the downs just filled it right in. ESOTERIC was a cool word to find in a puzzle. Anyway, lots of fun, and your write-ups made me laugh, Boomer. Love your good spirits.

    Have a great week coming up, everybody.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Miriam Webster: "El Niño noun El Ni·​ño ....plural El Niños."
    El Niño is a loan word which has been anglicized and so the plural in English has been changed.
    From Live Science,"El Niños occur every three to five years but may come as frequently as every two years or as rarely as every seven years. Typically, El Niños occur more frequently than La Niñas. Each event usually lasts nine to 12 months.

    Many loan words are changed even more radically.The German word Arbeit meaning work, was borrowed by the Japanese as arubaito meaning part time job, a drastic change.

    BTW, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, this reminds me that the signs over the entrances to the concentration camps read ARBEIT MACHT FREI (Work sets you free.). It is a heart breaking mockery, but Rudolph Hoesse who had them put up was so heartless and clueless he did not see the mockery."He seems not to have intended it as a mockery, nor even to have intended it literally, as a false promise that those who worked to exhaustion would eventually be released, but rather as a kind of mystical declaration that self-sacrifice in the form of endless labour does in itself bring a kind of spiritual freedom." This thought has bothered me for decades.

    ReplyDelete
  26. CanadianEh! and Yellowrocks. Thanks for the information.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Frank Virzi, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for a fine review.

    Got through most of this easily. A couple tough spots. HELIO and MICHELE crossing. ALEN as well. POTSY, new word for me.

    Theme was fine. Caught it when I finished.

    ALEXA was easy. We use ours.

    Tried GMT before GST worked better.

    Off to my Election Judge training this afternoon. See you tomorrow.

    Abejo

    ( )

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hi All!

    Back from IL in one piece and taking a day to get my weekend chores done.

    Thanks Frank for the puzzle to play while getting my car inspected. Thanks Boomer for the expo and confirming my grid. Congrats on second 600 game; may it just be a stepping stone to many more in your comeback.
    //BTW, I think 2d is parsed AND SO ON.

    WOs: GmT b/f GST (Hi Jinx!)
    ESPs: POTSY == Hopscotch [hand up for learning], ALAN, BENET, MICHELE, SES, ELIE (is he a ELI?)
    Fav: LAMA over GNASH evoked Nash's LLAMA

    {B+, A}

    DW took the GED, dropped out of HS, and got on with her life. I wonder, how many PhDs have a GED?

    Lucina - LOL! Given your description of athletic acumen, you should have been in left-field :-) SHORTSTOP is a tough position; I played it in Little League.

    OAS - What a wonderful party that musta been! It's these types of things that are important.

    FLN - so I measured my Bunn-o-Matic 10 "cup" carafe; ~6 ½ US cups. I Google'd and discovered coffee pot makers' "cup" is between 4 and 6 oz and NOT the standard 8oz. Here's one article I read.

    Did someone say TALKING HEADs? [Once in a Lifetime 5:39] Or, would you rather, Life During Wartime? [5:51]

    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  29. Could not do the puzzle today because the LaTimes will only load ads
    And not the puzzle on both my iPad and iPhone.

    I tried the Chicago tribune site, but the interaction was so clunky I gave up.

    Does anyone have a site where I can do the puzzle online?

    ReplyDelete
  30. Musing
    -Just back from shopping for wife and kitty. Okay, she took a picture of everything I needed to get and kept her phone nearby!
    -D-O, thanks for your generous offer to solve my financial issue! Right now your request is just below the “Therapy Fund for Call Center and Sales Employees”. I’ll get back to you! :-)
    -CED, I hope you saw my thank-you-note from your video link in yesterday’s blog!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Boomer: Nice write-up.

    Learning moment on a Monday. Hopscotch is also called POTSY.

    Husker: Send me $250 and YOU keep the rest ... I'm not that greedy.

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  32. CED, the Washington Post works well for me. Good luck.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/crossword-puzzles/daily/?noredirect=on

    ReplyDelete
  33. AnonT:
    It could have been left field. All I remember is that I was way out away from the rest of the team and there is no chance a ball would ever come my way. Not a coincidence, I'm sure.

    However, I compensated by immersing myself in reading and I feel certain I am one of the few people in my class or even in my inner city school with a college education.

    And though I am not a sports fan, my heart goes out to Kobe Bryant's family and friends for his untimely passing.

    ReplyDelete
  34. When the baseball HoF was formed they inducted five players then four more. Off the top I believe HONUS was one. Cobb, Ruth, Mathewson made four. But was it Walter (the Big Train) Johnson or the eponymous Cy Young.
    Again, from memory, Speaker, Collins and Grover Cleveland Alexander filled out the Original Nine **

    I switched to milk in my (decaf) Java when I concluded the sugar was simply to sweeten the cream. I'm fine with black,too.

    Seeing MICHELE reminded me of the hardest part of getting married: breaking up with your girlfriends. Only two.

    Owen, big ol' W's for those lick's.
    Like Misty I did the three long downs in the SW and never had to deal with GST-GMT. I solve economically doing the top across and then consecutive downs. Ink adds a bit of challenge as one must husband ones blotchy mess a la Saturday xwords. I really need to get wite-out or erasable pen.

    Last week I lost my Evan Birnholz Sunday Post XW. I'm keeping it close today.

    Jinx, I had breakfast at the Station (484/41) in Dunellon. Heading back to Sun City

    WC

    * If you read the link you'll see I was referring to 20th century ballplayers. They had others in the group actually inaugurated.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anon-T, I think you meant Right Field -- that's where I always was sent.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I sometimes solve the LAT online at Washington Post Crossword puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  37. D-O:
    a) great song! I can see Lucy & Snoopy in the lyrics :-)
    2) you may be right. When I played in the JSC League [beer drinkers at NASA that had a softball problem] I perfected an inside-out swing that'd careen the ball over 1st and out into Right. No chance they'd play it / I wasn't getting to second...

    I joined an established team when I was a Sophomore(ic) in HS (not at HS school, Ursuline [formally an all girls school] didn't have a program) and they stuck me in left-field. I did everything I could [covering ground AND SO ON] to get promoted to the infield. Alas, family moved to Shreveport and never got back on another team :-(

    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  38. My wife Janice went in for scheduled spinal surgery this morning. Her mother and I are waiting by the phone for word of the outcome.
    We have confidence in her hospital team. All should go well. But it's still a nervous time, waiting to hear the outcome.
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    It helps pass the time to have the crossword to do. Today's offers a single diagonal, NE to SW.
    It gives us an awkward anagram, one that seems to refers to what happens to an old tennis ball when it's been chased by a worrying canine. It is fetched and then subjected to a...
    "DOGTEETH FRET"!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Heard an interview on NPR on the way to work this AM with the late Elie Wiesel from a few years ago. Sobering account of his experience in the German death camp Auschwitz. How easily one group can justify dehumanizing another to the level of genocide.

    The puzzle was otherwise a fairly typical Monday. No real surprises with rapid fill.

    ReplyDelete
  40. OMK, good thoughts for you and Janice headed your way.

    Barbara had her first radiation treatment today. Two more weeks to go...

    ReplyDelete
  41. A dictionary definition of Potsy said it was especially popular in New York, and the “ puck is usually a tin can lid”. We always used large- sized pebbles.

    ReplyDelete
  42. HG, yes I saw your post, glad you enjoyed the link!

    Bill G, (& anon) yes!
    Washington post site is much better!

    Right field! Great song, thanks!

    OMK hope all goes well!

    I am here in Naples, but DW cannot go to the beach
    As it has only been 3 weeks since hip replacement & she is not
    Allowed to walk on sand yet.

    Lessee, didn't do the puxzzle,
    Can I find a silly link?

    maybe...

    ReplyDelete
  43. Just rec'd a phone call from Janice's surgeon. All went well. It took a little longer than expected, but he was able to "clear up" the stenosis.
    He made two relatively small incisions. She should be fine. "She may be here three to five days, but her bones are robust, so she might come home tomorrow."
    Good news!
    ~ OMK

    ReplyDelete
  44. I also stumbled a little bit during the process of solving this puzzle. Having GMT and not knowing ALAN prevented me from parsing E-NINOM. Also, hand up for entering MODERATE at first.

    The fact that a dictionary says “el ninos” is correct in no way shape or form invalidates the equally true fact that it grates on my ears.

    To categorically assert that there are no Naticks in this puzzle at all strikes me as arrogant.

    And with that I bid you all good day.

    ReplyDelete

  45. Boomer, great review.

    Smooth move on ditching the reactive ball when there's sparse oil. Congrats ! Big series, although I'm sure that 155 still bites. However, there are probably few here that knows the consistency required to throw a big number like a 257 with a plastic coverstock. Kudos !

    Just FYI, I spoke to anchor Greg, and he said our house has also been very sparse on the oil lately. To the point of highly skilled bowlers complaining to the management. Maybe it's a new USBC thing ?

    Anyway, on any day of the week, I'd take two of the three games you threw. Great job !

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  46. Ol'Man Keith, I just read your notice about Janice's spinal surgery. So glad that it seems to have gone well, and that she'll be home within a few days. I'll keep my fingers crossed and pray that maybe she'll be home tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  47. I was helping Jordan with his geometry. Then we read about 10-days-worth of Calvin and Hobbes. I had to stop a couple of times because tears from laughter were impairing my vision.

    We enjoyed looking at Venus and the crescent moon close together in the western sky. Write yourself a note to check out the western sky tomorrow night around 5:30 or 6 pm. They'll be even closer.

    ReplyDelete
  48. OMK:
    That is good news about your Janice! Spinal surgery is always risky.

    Jayce:
    I hear you loudly and clearly! It grates my ears, too.

    Has anyone watched Vienna Blood on PBS? I record it when I can't watch it and just now saw the Sunday episode. It takes place in 1906 and what a difference a century makes!

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  49. Thank you, Bill. I shall mark my calendar.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Jayce, I meant no Naticks for me. Naticks are in the eye of the beholder. Sometimes I find Naticks where others do not. I am sure that there always will a Natick found by someone in most puzzles.







    ReplyDelete

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