Theme: Sewing class - the theme entries all refer to the reveal answer later in the puzzle:
17A. One who leaves garments 50-Across: SEAMSTRESS. Probably a little old-fashioned now; I'd probably use "tailor" to describe needle-wielding men or women.
25A. One who leaves audiences 50-Across: STAND-UP COMIC. I worked with a guy once who was an IT consultant and had a stand-up comedy act riffing on .... IT consulting. It didn't strike me as something that would exactly leave you rolling in the aisles.
38A. One who leaves patients 50-Across: BRAIN SURGEON. Very, very small ones, I hope.
and the unifier ...
50A. See 17-, 25- and 38-Across: IN STITCHES
A high-quality puzzle from Derek for the second day of the New Year. There's some real sparkle in the fill and some very elegant construction with the stacked 9's and 8's in the downs in the northeast and southwest. Nary a clunker to be seen, there's plainly a lot of effort that's gone into this one. A lot of the markers for this puzzle are more "Saturday-like" - average word length, number of blocks, those kind of things.
Let's see what else jumps out:
Across:
1. Common email attachments: PDFS
5. Fired (up): AMPED
10. Tablet with Siri: IPAD
14. Singer between Melanie and Joan at Woodstock: ARLO. Arlo Guthrie appeared between Melanie and Joan Baez's sets at the 1969 festival at Yasgur's Farm, which was actually nowhere near Woodstock being a good 60 miles away.
15. Drag one's feet: TARRY
16. Prepared-salad seller: DELI
19. www addresses: URLS
20. Feel compassion for, with "on": TAKE PITY
21. Some are imperfect: TENSES
23. "Louisiana Real & Rustic" chef: EMERIL. One of his first cookbooks, published in 1996. Lagasse and his mentor, Paul Prudhomme were responsible for the creation and development of what was described as "New New Orleans" cuisine.
24. Plot: CONNIVE
28. "It's all false!": LIES!
30. Chilling: EERIE
31. Yoga surface: MAT
32. Kid around: JEST
33. Formerly employed by The Company: EX-CIA. I think this might have been my favorite clue of the day.
34. Campsite bunks: COTS
35. Longship propeller: OAR. Hopefully more than one.
36. Playwright Chekhov: ANTON
37. Cold Stone buy: CONE. The Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream parlor franchise, not without its critics in the franchise world.
41. Approach stealthily, with "on": SNEAK UP
42. Can't-miss: NO-LOSE
46. San Diego County racetrack: DEL MAR. "Where the surf meets the turf". It certainly is a lovely spot, but I think Santa Anita, with its backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains is prettier.
47. Violent storms: TEMPESTS
49. Point after deuce: AD IN. Advantage to the server in tennis. I didn't know this before crosswords taught me.
52. He reveals the Wizard: TOTO
53. Bite like a puppy: NIP AT
54. Air filter acronym: HEPA or High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance, which his something of a mouthful. This fixed my "CON LECCE" mistake at 34D. Not quite sure what I was thinking there.
55. Several: A FEW
56. Full of hot air: GASSY
57. "Not so fast!": EASY!
Down:
1. Tomato __: PASTE. Had PURÉE first. Was wrong.
2. Fantasize: DREAM
3. Raisin bran tidbit: FLAKE
4. Bath's county: SOMERSET. You can't bathe in the baths in Bath, sadly. They say the water quality is not safe as it's untreated. Didn't seem to do the Romans any harm though.
5. Number one Hun: ATTILA. I don't think I could name another Hun if my life depended on it.
6. Convenience store: MART
7. Salmon, to bears: PREY
8. Ambulance destinations, briefly: E.R.'S
9. "The Hunger Games" setting: DYSTOPIA. A great word, but I'm not sure I'd use it to describe the "setting" for the Hunger Games movies. I'd say the setting was the locale, which may have been dystopian. Minor niggle.
10. "Search me": I DUNNO
11. Orangey fruit: PERSIMMON. The wood of the tree was used to make golf clubs back when woods were made of wood. Would Woods' woods be wood? Tiger should tell us.
12. Make easier to bear: ALLEVIATE
13. Studies in detail: DISSECTS
18. Rods for roasting: SPITS
22. Suffix with persist: -ENCE. Least favorite of the day, but sometimes you need a crutch.
24. Smokehouse process: CURING
26. On deck: NEXT UP. Baseball.
27. House Beautiful subject: DECOR
28. Got word about: LEARNED OF
29. Biblical descendant of Jacob: ISRAELITE. And a great excuse to listen to some ska courtesy of Desmond Decker and The Aces.
32. Employment statistics: JOBS DATA
33. Not leaving to chance: ENSURING
34. How café is often served: CON LECHE. Usually espresso and scalded milk mixed 50/50.
36. "My Way" lyricist: ANKA
37. Appropriate: CO-OPT. Later-in-the-week example of cluing. Are we looking for the verb or the adjective?
39. Grumpy response to "Are you awake?": I AM NOW
40. Bad blood: ENMITY
43. Actor Milo: O'SHEA
44. Pedometer count: STEPS
45. Long exam answer: ESSAY
47. Baking amts.: TSPS
48. Greek vowels: ETAS
51. Long of "Third Watch": NIA. A very useful name for crosswords. There were only four three-letter entries today, as I mentioned at the top of the blog word lengths tend to get longer as you progress through the week.
And that wraps things up for this Thursday. I hope you all had a good New Year, onwards to 2020!
Steve
17A. One who leaves garments 50-Across: SEAMSTRESS. Probably a little old-fashioned now; I'd probably use "tailor" to describe needle-wielding men or women.
25A. One who leaves audiences 50-Across: STAND-UP COMIC. I worked with a guy once who was an IT consultant and had a stand-up comedy act riffing on .... IT consulting. It didn't strike me as something that would exactly leave you rolling in the aisles.
38A. One who leaves patients 50-Across: BRAIN SURGEON. Very, very small ones, I hope.
and the unifier ...
50A. See 17-, 25- and 38-Across: IN STITCHES
A high-quality puzzle from Derek for the second day of the New Year. There's some real sparkle in the fill and some very elegant construction with the stacked 9's and 8's in the downs in the northeast and southwest. Nary a clunker to be seen, there's plainly a lot of effort that's gone into this one. A lot of the markers for this puzzle are more "Saturday-like" - average word length, number of blocks, those kind of things.
Let's see what else jumps out:
Across:
1. Common email attachments: PDFS
5. Fired (up): AMPED
10. Tablet with Siri: IPAD
14. Singer between Melanie and Joan at Woodstock: ARLO. Arlo Guthrie appeared between Melanie and Joan Baez's sets at the 1969 festival at Yasgur's Farm, which was actually nowhere near Woodstock being a good 60 miles away.
15. Drag one's feet: TARRY
16. Prepared-salad seller: DELI
19. www addresses: URLS
20. Feel compassion for, with "on": TAKE PITY
21. Some are imperfect: TENSES
23. "Louisiana Real & Rustic" chef: EMERIL. One of his first cookbooks, published in 1996. Lagasse and his mentor, Paul Prudhomme were responsible for the creation and development of what was described as "New New Orleans" cuisine.
24. Plot: CONNIVE
28. "It's all false!": LIES!
30. Chilling: EERIE
31. Yoga surface: MAT
32. Kid around: JEST
33. Formerly employed by The Company: EX-CIA. I think this might have been my favorite clue of the day.
34. Campsite bunks: COTS
35. Longship propeller: OAR. Hopefully more than one.
36. Playwright Chekhov: ANTON
37. Cold Stone buy: CONE. The Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream parlor franchise, not without its critics in the franchise world.
41. Approach stealthily, with "on": SNEAK UP
42. Can't-miss: NO-LOSE
46. San Diego County racetrack: DEL MAR. "Where the surf meets the turf". It certainly is a lovely spot, but I think Santa Anita, with its backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains is prettier.
47. Violent storms: TEMPESTS
“Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong
Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.”
- William Shakespeare, The Tempest
49. Point after deuce: AD IN. Advantage to the server in tennis. I didn't know this before crosswords taught me.
52. He reveals the Wizard: TOTO
53. Bite like a puppy: NIP AT
54. Air filter acronym: HEPA or High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance, which his something of a mouthful. This fixed my "CON LECCE" mistake at 34D. Not quite sure what I was thinking there.
55. Several: A FEW
56. Full of hot air: GASSY
57. "Not so fast!": EASY!
Down:
1. Tomato __: PASTE. Had PURÉE first. Was wrong.
2. Fantasize: DREAM
3. Raisin bran tidbit: FLAKE
4. Bath's county: SOMERSET. You can't bathe in the baths in Bath, sadly. They say the water quality is not safe as it's untreated. Didn't seem to do the Romans any harm though.
5. Number one Hun: ATTILA. I don't think I could name another Hun if my life depended on it.
6. Convenience store: MART
7. Salmon, to bears: PREY
8. Ambulance destinations, briefly: E.R.'S
9. "The Hunger Games" setting: DYSTOPIA. A great word, but I'm not sure I'd use it to describe the "setting" for the Hunger Games movies. I'd say the setting was the locale, which may have been dystopian. Minor niggle.
10. "Search me": I DUNNO
11. Orangey fruit: PERSIMMON. The wood of the tree was used to make golf clubs back when woods were made of wood. Would Woods' woods be wood? Tiger should tell us.
12. Make easier to bear: ALLEVIATE
13. Studies in detail: DISSECTS
18. Rods for roasting: SPITS
22. Suffix with persist: -ENCE. Least favorite of the day, but sometimes you need a crutch.
24. Smokehouse process: CURING
26. On deck: NEXT UP. Baseball.
27. House Beautiful subject: DECOR
28. Got word about: LEARNED OF
29. Biblical descendant of Jacob: ISRAELITE. And a great excuse to listen to some ska courtesy of Desmond Decker and The Aces.
32. Employment statistics: JOBS DATA
33. Not leaving to chance: ENSURING
34. How café is often served: CON LECHE. Usually espresso and scalded milk mixed 50/50.
36. "My Way" lyricist: ANKA
37. Appropriate: CO-OPT. Later-in-the-week example of cluing. Are we looking for the verb or the adjective?
39. Grumpy response to "Are you awake?": I AM NOW
40. Bad blood: ENMITY
43. Actor Milo: O'SHEA
44. Pedometer count: STEPS
45. Long exam answer: ESSAY
47. Baking amts.: TSPS
48. Greek vowels: ETAS
51. Long of "Third Watch": NIA. A very useful name for crosswords. There were only four three-letter entries today, as I mentioned at the top of the blog word lengths tend to get longer as you progress through the week.
And that wraps things up for this Thursday. I hope you all had a good New Year, onwards to 2020!
Steve
42 comments:
I brought my pants to a SEAMSTRESS.
The seat had given away to stress*.
She added IN STITCHES
To my torn britches,
And now they'll last thru a TEMPEST!
The STAND-UP COMIC made me laugh,
So IN STITCHES that I had to gasp!
The JESTS he told
Were moldy old
But the way that he told them was daft!
The BRAIN SURGEON had some diffidence
With frivolous complaints by clients.
"Where I put IN STITCHES
I'm sorry it itches,
But remember, it's not rocket science!"
*No, I'm not getting fatter! I just get GASSY.
{A, A-, A, *+.}
Good morning!
Zipped right through this one, and intuited that the reveal would be IN STITCHES. Had a little stumble at NEARBY/NEXT TO/NEXT UP. Wite-Out saved the day. Thanx for the outing, Derek, and for the tour, Steve.
"Cold Stone Creamery" -- New to me. I see there are three in the Houston area, but none is nearby (or NEXT UP).
ARLO -- Gotta admit that Woodstock sounds classier than Yasgur's Farm.
In a couple hours I'll be off to the first M-o-W route of the new year...
FIR, but now I'll have to ration eraser use for the rest of the year. dole for DELI, not i for LIES, josh for JEST, puree for PASTE (ordered a bigger bench for this one), fruit for FLAKE, ems for ERS and, for UNTIERS, atilla for ATTILA and ance for ENCE.
I agree with Steve that Santa Anita is prettier than DEL MAR, but only on the rare days during a meet when you can actually SEE the mountains. And Keeneland, in Lexington, KY, is the loveliest of them all.
Why isn't 40-30 AD IN? 40-40 deuce? As my mom would say, "same difference".
Thanks to Derek for the fun,tricky puzzle. And thanks to Steve for the clever review.
Good morning friends! I cannot believe I have completed the puzzle this early in the day! It must be a good sign, right?
The degree of difficulty was right on for a good challenge.
And even though no one would ever call Toto an ankle biter, I liked his placement next to nip at. Funny!
Have a great day everyone!
LL'sM
Smooth solve today - with a well put together puzzle. I'm with Steve - brain surgeons use very few stitches - usually laser or cautery inside with a possible stitch for an aneursym, but the outside (scalp/skull) mostly use staples - sorry for the TMI for some of you!
Thanks Steve and Derek!
Not sure why I thought tomato PASTa was a thing, in spite of knowing EMIRIL. I got the theme quickly, and it helped. Overfall, a pleasant solve.
Good Morning:
This was a very enjoyable solve for several reasons: A fresh and clever theme, lots of long and lively non-theme related fill and, as Steve noted, just a smattering of three letter words. Also, as LLsM said, the difficulty level was spot on. My only w/o was Dole/Deli (Hi Jinx), and my only unknown was HEPA. I liked Essay crossing Easy but I missed LLsM catch of the Toto and Nip At combo. Somerset was slow to fill because I was looking for a country instead of a county and both England and Britain were shy a letter.
Thanks, Derek, for a real Thursday treat and thanks, Steve, for the fun and factual tour.
Have a great day.
Good morning. Thank you, Derek, and thank you, Steve.
I did not notice the dearth of three letter words, as the answers flowed steadily from the beginning. Except SOMERSET, but it perped in without any resistance.
"They may be imperfect" - TENSES. After the solve I had to look that up. In English, not so much.
Started typing the answer to "Got word about" with heard of, but not enough letters to fill all the spaces.
Thought the San Diego racetrack was Delray, but perps made it DEL MAR.
What's going on with Santa Anita and all the horses dying there ? Seems like it's been at least once or twice a week over the last year that there's news about another horse having to be euthanized at that race track.
Dash T, did you and your family members like the Collin Street Bakery fruitcake ?
Happy new year to all.
Great thursday puzzle Derek Bowman ( CSO to my only son )
FIR with only A FEW puzzlers .
Didn’t know AD IN and stared at CO OPT for a bit before letting it stand.
Many different kinds of SURGEONS so waited for the perps to give me BRAIN.
DYSTOPIA also dropped down by the crosses.
I liked the theme .
Thanks Steve for the tour and OWEN for the licks.
DW says the tree’s coming down today.
The Outdoor lights stay on for Ukrainian Christmas. I’ll take them down on a mild day.
I usually wait for a 30 below and windy day to put them up . More fun that way. Goes quicker.
Cheers
Good morning everyone.
Agree with Steve: A high quality puzzle…… with some real sparkle.
Started out with a vast array of no fill; A FEW entries like GASSY, ESSAY. and ATTILA; and began to worry about a huge DNF.
But then got STAND-UP COMIC, and I began to get following winds. SEAMSTRESS appeared quickly, too, and then the solve achieved critical mass and I romped home DEL MAR style. No searches or erasures were needed.
I think Derek crafted a very clever theme that was fun to unravel. BZ
26d - On deck - - Couldn't sway myself from something nautical but could only think of 'topsides'. So wondered if it could be baseball. Tada!
Figured out we have a palindromic date coming up with Ground Hog Day. 02022020
Enjoy the day.
"Pay no attention to the man doing the crossword puzzle behind the curtain"
Didnt get the theme till "stitches" in 50A
ATTILA was not a "hon"
Allan Sherman of "Hello Muddah,Hello Faddah" fame sang, on the same album
"I'm in love, I'm in love with Attila the Hun, Attila the Hun, Atilla the Hun
Tho' he pillage a village and kill everyone
I still love Attila the Hun.
(No ... He didnt write it and was not the only performer to sing it.)
My 12 yo sense of humor thought this hilalrious.
Anyway... finished but had to correct ENSURING had "i" first.
AFEW seems opposite of "several"
Cold Stone Creamery opened a branch in a strip mall here in Central NY in mid winter. Folded rather quickly..wonder why?
A lot to do today so mustn't TARRY!
At first it seemed daunting that the theme answers referred to the unknown 50 A. Seeing the theme clues and having a few perps I wagged IN STITCHES. Then it was off to the races. FIR. Thanks, Derek .
DOLE before DELI
Hunger Games is not my cuppa tea. I am so turned off by the theme I won't read it. Funny, because thrillers and crime novels don't turn me off. I suppose you could call Panem dystopia. Wiki says,"The Hunger Games universe is a dystopia set in Panem, a North American country consisting of the wealthy Capitol and 12 districts in varying states of poverty."
Tomato-could have been anything. Perps needed.
We had a Cold Stone ice cream store here for a short time. It didn't last long. Pricey. We have quite a few Dairy Queens and two popular made-in-store ice cream places very nearby.
Seamstress is only female. Tailor is gender neutral. The same goes for stewardess/flight attendant, waitress/wait staff, etc.
DEL MAR was new to me.
Liked to see CONNIVE and LIES in the same puzzle. Connivers call inconvenient facts lies.
Steve, thanks for providing the great Tempest verse and lots of other goodies.
I change the HEPA filter in my Dirt Devil frequently.
Musings
-Steve’s excellent summative paragraph works for me!
-IT COMIC? After, “Is it plugged in?”, waddaya got?
-Kingston’s mournful TAKE Her Out Of PITY
-Did 2020 appear to SNEAK UP on you too?
-The Wisconsin Badgers gave away The Rose Bowl yesterday in the shadow of The San Gabriel Mts
-Taking MIL to the ER in an ambulance put her ahead of the 12 others waiting
-The media DISSECT some pols’ speeches to try to find a way to take offense
-As NFL players get hurt, it’s NEXT man UP at any position
-More common as a verb to me – “The Green Party has seen its IDEAS CO-OPTED by the bigger parties”
-O’SHEA yields a bountiful harvest of friendly letters, esp. vowels
Hi All!
I'm starting the New Year off right. Not only nailed the puzzle but I'm staying home to play with Eldest and power tools - we're going to build a frame for a sheet of music DW & I got her in Florence.*
Thanks Derek for the puzzle. I got the theme long before the fill and that helped muchly [is there a TENSE for that?] on the East side.
Great expo as is par for you Steve. Never hear the Ska tune b/f; thanks!
I cracked DW up when I said to Youngest, "[...] like this. Look, it's not rocket surgery."
WOs: DoLe (the banana / lettuce brand - Hi Jinx!) b/f DELI, something is under TENSES' ink, Torrents b/f, well, it just didn't work. FBI, NSA, b/f duh... CIA.
ESPs: OSHEA, DEL MAR, TARRY(? - look up later)
Fav: Hard to say today - too much fun stuff [CONNIVE, ENMITY, EMERIL]. I'll stick w/ Steve and go with EX CIA; great clue.
//LL'sM - I missed the TOTO / NIP AT juxtaposition - nice!
{B+, A**, A+}
TTP - I loved it (Colin Street fruitcake) as did Eldest. DW wouldn't touch it & Youngest was 'meh'. MIL said "It has the subtle sweetness that [Degos] like." MIL wasn't so keen on it either.
Spitz - palindromic and in Base3! Can you convert to Decimal for everyone? :-)
Cheers, -T
*The score is in old notation. The guy said it was from an 18th century music book. The sheet (with staffs front & back) cost us 20Euro but the MATs & glass has already run me $150! I'll build my own frame, thank you very much Michaels.
** reminds me of the old joke:
New Guy in prison:
At lunch someone stands up and shouts "28"
Everyone dies laughing
Another inmate shouts "86"
Roars of laughter.
New guy asks the guy next to him "why's everyone laughing?"
"Oh, we only have one joke book and everyone's memorized the order. We just shout the number and everyone knows which joke he's telling."
Confidently, the New Guy stands and shouts "62!"
Silence.
"What happened? Is 62 not funny?"
"No, It's funny. But, you know, um, some guys just can't tell a joke."
Hola!
Thank you for the fun, Derek Bowman and Steve, thank you for the after party as Anon-T likes to say.
I laughed at the ATTILA comment though wasn't Genghis Khan also a Hun?
Hand up for DOLE before DELI.
I've mentioned before that I was forced to read The Hunger Games while substituting for a teacher who was recovering from cancer surgery and I really disliked them. I can't understand why she assigned those books.
I loved this theme; it took me back to my SEAMSTRESS days when I sewed my own clothes and my daughter's when she was a toddler.
ENMITY. I'm humiliated to learn that all this time I've thought it was EMNITY.
I once knew someone who liked to CONNIVE plots about people and get them in trouble. She created TEMPESTS in a teapot as the saying goes.
SOMERSET was a wonderful movie with Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. Does anyone else remember it?
Have a pleasant day, everyone!
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Derek and Steve.
I FIRed with several inkblots and was left IN STITCHES.
(A BRAIN SURGEON DISSECTS in Anat (another CW favourite) many times before operating on a live patient to ALLEVIATE their problem. It is not an EASY job.)
Like TTP, I discovered that Heard Of was too short for the space. Perps gave LEARNED OF.
I entered ON ICE for 30A "chilling" and thought of Tin. Oh, not the literal temperature meaning, but EERIE was needed.
Hand up for ANCE before ENCE (Hi Jinx).
But I did get PASTE and DELI immediately.
I entered Trey to follow Deuce; then I realized it was tennis not cards and DH gave me AD IN.
"Plot" and "Appropriate" clues required verb answers today. Tricky. (I love the word CONNIVE; TARRY and ENMITY are oldies too.)
Cute observation LL's Mom about TOTO and NIP AT.
I noted 42A and smiled at "Can't-miss=NO LOSE" and 33D "Not leaving to chance=ENSURING"
I have seen PERSIMMONs in the grocery store around this season but I don't think I have ever eaten one. Is it like a kumquat only bigger?
I was thinking of Marble Slab Creamery when I entered CONE. We don't have Stone Cold Creamery in Canada. Tim Hortons ended their cooperative venture in 2014 after 5 years, due to "performance below expectation". It seems that they still sell it in some American Tim Hortons. (Probably low demand for ice cream in our long, cold Canadian winters! We need our Timmies' coffee to warm up!). Marble Slab Creamery is pricey too!
OAS - DH has Ukrainian heritage and I use that as my excuse if I don't get the decorations taken down before Jan 6.
Wishing you all a good day.
Good theme. It could of been a mess with cross reference clues,proper names and too many two word phrases but turned out to be acceptable.
Lucina - 'EMNITY' is how it sounds to my ear too. Write it out long-hand and there's a lot of humps after the 'E' :-)
C, Eh! - Marble Slab! That was the creamery I was thinking of too. We used to visit one w/ the Girls years ago near the old Block Buster video rental. The Girls would lard-up their ice cream w/ marshmallows, gummy bears, sprinkles, and whatnots. They (my family) would look at me funny when I said, "Vanilla. In a cup." On a lark, I'd go w/ a coffee, LECHE-like, scoop.
In Italy, I was a sucker for Gelato; stopping at every purveyor that looked like a hole-in-the wall, I would. DW never understood why I went with fruity flavours (lemon & raspberry were my favs) over decadent chocolates. I tried to explain how, the way it hits my mouth, opened the mind... Purity.
Cheers, -T
Husker: 2020 didn't "sneak-up" on me.
I started "toasting" with New Zealand.
Celebrating "New Years" 15 times took its toll.
But I made it to past 3:00am EST and called my brother in Burbank.
The New Year 2020 is tough here in Tarpon Springs.
It is "down" to 78 degrees with a clear blue sky.
Epiphany next Monday, January 6th is our big celebration here in Tarpon Springs.
Hope everyone has a safe week.
CHEERS!!!
Well, this started out as a Thursday toughie for me, but I was happy to get ANTON for the great playwright Chekhov, and then got another literary treat with Steve's lovely Shakespeare citation--not just a playwright but an amazing poet as well. So, many thanks, Derek and Steve. I knew the chef was Lagasse but spelled his name EMERAL and kept thinking that SPATS didn't make any sense for 'roasting'--oh, SPITS. I too loved your TOTO observation, Lucy Loo. Anyway, delightful puzzle and commentary.
TTP, the LA Times had an article about the shocking horse racing deaths at the race track, and apparently the problem may be that the horses are so heavily (if legally) drugged.
Owen, I too would give you all As for your neat poems.
Have a great day, everybody.
Musings
-Anon-T, me too on Gelato in Italy despite the fact that some of those stands would have been shut down by the FDA in a heartbeat!
-Hunger Games will not be on my “must see list” either. I just got the January 2020 Netflix list and it is full of trash, violence, mediocrity and films that are meant to teach me about America’s past and present cultural sins in graphic ways. Paying $20 for a ticket and popcorn should entitled me to some entertainment. It’s not useful to complain so I just vote with my pocketbook.
To remember whether the N or M comes first in enmity I think of ENEMY when I pronounce it or spell it.
Misty - some of us idiots LEARN OF our playwrites backwards...
Here's the Chekhov I knew before I LEARNED. :-)
Cheers, -T
I liked this puzzle a lot. I agree with inanehiker that it is a well put together puzzle. Absolute favorite clue/answer is "Some are imperfect" TENSES. A beautiful job, Mr. Bowman. Thank you.
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Derek Bowman, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Steve, for a fine review.
Puzzle went through fairly easily for a Thursday. Theme was excellent. Got IN STITCHES first with a couple perps. The other three fell quickly.
Liked 10A IPAD, since I did the puzzle on one. Cruciverb worked this time.
EX CIA was tough. Never heard of The Company before.
Got HEPA easily. I had heard that term before.
DYSTOPIA was unknown. Never saw that show or movie.
ENMITY is a good word.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Hi everybody. I enjoyed that and have nothing new to add. WEES. Thanks Derek and Steve.
Did any of you watch the Linda Ronstadt special on CNN called The Sound of My Voice? Really good. Her version of Blue Bayou brings tears to my eyes. When she and Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton teamed up and harmonized on Trio, I had to turn the TV off for a few minutes. That's one of my favorite albums. It's close to my idea of musical perfection.
Bill G, they did two Trio albums, both very good. You may want to look for Trio II.
A bit crunchy today, IMO, but got the solve.
I’ve been ordering Collins St fruitcakes for quite some time....I get the 4 minis. Everybody loves them. I like my slice (hunk?) slightly toasted with cream cheese.
If you like Linda R you’ll also like Alison Krauss and Union Station....try Paper Airplane.
A good chewy yet do-able pzl from Mr.Bowman. Funny theme.
Happily, however, good comics do NOT leave us IN STITCHES, as that would be most unpleasant. (Ow!)
Misty ~ That LA Times article brought back the sad story of the doomed horses. I say "doomed" because it is all so predictable. And I read in the NY Times that on average 10 horses a week died on US tracks in 2018. Very sad.
Ah, The TEMPEST. I had the pleasure of playing Prospero a few years ago. So many beautiful passages, but I guess my favorite is the epilogue--said by some to be Shakespeare's own farewell to the stage. It begins on a sad note, a valediction to the declining power of age:
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint...
~ OMK
____________
DR: 4 Diagonals today, a single followed by a 3-way.
The main (near side) anagram takes note of hard core audience members at certain rock concert and opera performances. I mean those who refuse to let their favorite singers quit the stage, the fans who are...
"ENCORE HAPPY"!
Well, I'm no BRAIN SURGEON or STAND-UP COMIC but for once I noticed the STITCHES theme after SEAMSTRESS & STAND-UP COMIC were filled.
SOMERSET, NIA, & DYSTOPIA (along with "Third Watch" & "The Hunger Games") were unknowns filled by perps today
Paul Prodhomme was from the Lafayette, LA area. EMERIL? He's from Massachusetts but lives here. Paul would cook meals at the Zurich Pro-Am for all the big spenders. One year when he was cooking and a .22 bullet came from long way off and grazed his arm. The golf course is surrounded by woods and hunting is legal but I think somebody was target shooting because May is not hunting season.
My wife's best friend from HS & college lives in DEL MAR Country Club Estates. DW set her up on a blind date, and I told DW that was a mistake. Her friend ended up marrying her date, who is a Plastic Surgeon in La Jolla and DW got stuck with me. I never feel poor until I drive to their house and pass some of those mansions.
Yellowrocks @ 9:35 --
And the male form of seamstress is 'sempster.' (I know: TMI again. Beyond archaic, probably the first time the word sempster has been used in public in decades!)
Misty, thank you for telling me of the LA Times article about the Santa Anita racetrack.
PVX, I was not aware of being able to order 4 minis from Collin Street Bakery. I searched to pull up the website and there was an article in the search results from CNBC's American Greed program about a long running embezzlement scheme from their controller. He and his wife stole $16M ! He went to prison in 2014 and then died in 2015. Another article in the hit list said there's a movie in the works tentatively being called "Fruitcake". It will star Will Ferrel and Laura Dern.
Dash T - similar in our family. Some like it, some not. That's why I thought I'd look up the minis that PVX wrote about. That would work out better for us.
I was a regular buyer of Paul Prudhomme's Magic food seasonings. Blackened Redfish Magic. Blackened Steak Magic. Pork and Veal Magic. Vegetable Magic. Great food seasonings.
ooh! Colin Street Bakery! My late brother, Fred, introduced me to their delicacies when he worked in Brownsville for a few years. After he sent us the first fruit cake, I ordered one every year after that until . . . no more sweets. Boo, hiss. I really miss all that and I love fruit cake.
Lucina ~
Count me as another Colin Street fan. Yummers.
I was introduced to the fruitcake many decades ago by my ex-wife's parents. They owned a popular music store in Ohio, one that offered music lessons to hundreds of local kids. Every Christmas they gave C.S. fruitcakes to their suppliers and to all their teachers and the parents of their best student clients. It was a terrific investment in good will!
Ever since, I have ordered a Colin street fruitcake. It is the juiciest, densest fruitcake in the world. One cake lasts through most of January.
~ OMK
You may not bathe in the Roman bath in Bath, but you can take tea in the beautiful tea room, listening to a string quartet as you gaze into the waters.
This way you get to stay dry while soaking up centuries of cool cult-chah.
~ OMK
Lucina, I'm sorry that you can't have the fruitcakes from Collin Street Bakery. My mother loved them. She grew up not far from their original Corsicana, Tx location. Only about 25 miles. They were already in business for almost 30 years when she was born in the 1920s. So for her, being stuck in Ohio after my dad married her, they were a taste of home.
I remember them as being part and parcel of our Christmas. As sure as there was going to be a Christmas tree. After she passed, my father sent them to me every Christmas until he passed. The funny thing was that I really didn't care for fruitcake unless it was the Collin Street fruitcake.
Ol' Man Keith, aren't they the best ? Now I'm getting hungry for some. I think I'll order that 4 pack of the minis that PVX wrote about !
BTW, if you've never had them, you might try one of those kolachi nut rolls from Butter Maid Bakery in Boardman, Oh. They are excellent ! I would recommend the original nut roll to start. They have a price reduction in January, so one is only 20.99. They also have free shipping on all orders of over $50.
When I first ordered, I was worried that they might be dried out by the time they got here. Not to worry, they were vacuum sealed and moist as they could be. Oh, and I searched the interweb, figuring I could find a local bakery in the Chicago area that sold them for less, but no, not yet. They are so good, and they freeze well, so ordering three is my game plan going forward. They even have a reduced sugar version.
Here's a link to their Kolachi page showing the various ones they sell:
Butter Maid Bakery - Kolachi Nut Rolls
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Derek! Great expo, Steve!
I found this easier than some in the past week but with some interesting word choices. Liked the theme.
SEAMSTRESS: I once sewed all our clothes except jeans for myself & two daughters and two sons when they were little. I tailored some wool suits but wouldn't want to be called "tailor". Most proud of a couple long fancy bridesmaid dresses sewn for two different weddings that looked professionally done well enough to cause comments.
DEL MAR: brought back memories of a very fun mild July day spent on the racetrack grounds at the San Diego County Fair with a delightful companion.
BillG.: I missed the Linda Rondstadt special on CNN but I did enjoy the Kennedy Center Honors tribute for her. Her Emmy-winning "I Don't Know Much" duet with Aaron Nevelle which he performed with Trisha Yearwood at the honors made me cry. I've been pulling up the YouTube internet tribute performance and the original Rondstadt-Neville duet most evenings ever since. Very moving.
Well,
I posted around midday from my Iphone.
It said I would be using my Google account,
(which is CrossEyedDave)
so I hit the publish button,
but it instead ate it, & regurgitated nothing?
Luckily, it is easy to reconstitute as I had no funnies.
Just reporting that I was in the waiting room outside the O.R.
while DW was having her hip replaced...
But I would be remiss if I did not tell you
that the nurses got a big kick out of the
theme "in stitches..."
IT Comic? Dilbert? I used to say that IT Projects began with a reward list and a blame list- nothing in the course of development ever changed it
I did this early morning but it was time for my MTG. We started this at my church with a friendly pastor and a question: "We need something on Thurs morning where everybody can speak their mind uninterrupted!". 40+ today
Re. Attila the HUN. Enormous battle in Gaul with Visigoths allied with Romans vs Huns. Huns ironically moved west because of pressure from the Mongols. Huns finally took an enormous ransom from Constantinople and settled in???*
Blue Bayou, originally Roy Orbison but actually better. Do they call that remix or remake. Any better? I use that song for prostate biopsies , ICU recovery, dermatology purple death Ray etc
I never hit steel as well as my old (lefty) Sam Snead's. I loved that driver so much that I stayed with it when they called it the "Rattler".
DYSTOPIAn is why Picard likes Star Trek and doesn't like Hunger Games and ilk. Not to speak of the CSO re. (ANTON) Chekhov. I took a Russian lit course and really liked those authors. Fav? The Idiot
Excellent xword today and breezy write-up from Steve.
Let's listen to some of that suggested music: Blue Bayou
Okay equal time, Roy's version
And finally the trio sung a Wilbur fav
WC
*Hungary of course. As in all that fruitcake, gelato and various other goodies. We need a spoiler: Do not read this blog on an empty stomach!"
WC
WC - I'll go with Ronstadt's version - easier on the eyes :-)
Re: Collin St. Wow! [oh, and interesting TTP. From FBI.gov] I didn't expect the reaction. Years ago DW's uncle by marriage (Italian and started a teacher's union back east - I'll say no more) sent us a CS Fruitcake. I think DW tossed it a year (or three) later [she always JOKEs "There's only 4 fruitcakes in the world and we just keep passing them about"]. I later learned CS was a famous thing. Hence picking up one w/ Eldest's on our back from Norman.
//TTP - I got the mini.
CED - Oh, my! I didn't know your DW was going in for an operation. God Speed to both of you.
PK - why do I have that feeling that you are reminiscing an old flame? :-)
BigE - I saw bits of The Hunger Games with the Girls (like Harry Potter - can't avoid it w/ teens in the house). It was very dystopian and hit you over the noggin with politics. See, Capital City is where all the money & power is and the powerful pick their "champion" from the rural provinces. The champions fight to the death for ??? and the Powerful influence the games / place bets on the outcome.
Think of any way it could be applied to, say, US?
//Maybe I got it wrong cuz, like I said, I only saw bits of it. I'd rather read Orwell.
Ah, the picture frame... Eldest & did it! [with only two trips to Lowes / Home Depot]. Routed a (near) perfect 3/4' deep 11/32" wide grove in an 8' board of red oak. Cut the 45's and slotted the corners for biscuits. 3 sides are now glued together.
It was so nice to use tools I've not touched in >3 years. Eldest had fun too.
Cheers, -T
D-O, Thanks for the info on Trio II. And I do like Alison Krauss.
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