20A. Dog, barking: DANGER ALERT.
30. Dog, begging: TREAT PLEASE.
46. Dog, ears erect: WHAT WAS THAT?
55. Dog, tail wagging: WELCOME HOME.
These don't require a lot of elaboration, though some of them can - and sometimes should - be interpreted in other ways. Dogs do have a rather limited vocabulary.
Hi Gang, JazzBumpa here as today's game warden. I've never had a dog, but our four kids all have a canine companion in their families, sometimes referred to as our grand dogs. Let's unleash our minds and pound our way through today's puzzle.
Across:
1. Minor misunderstanding: TIFF. Less severe than a spat
5. Long part of an arrow: SHAFT. Feathers at one end, point at the other.
10. Pride Month letters: LGBT. Now LGBQTIA+, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, and asexual or allied, with a + sign in case anyone was missed. Don't judge.
14. Sticky pod: OKRA. An edible plant part coming from abelmoschus esculentus, a flowering plant cultivated in warm to tropical regions around the globe.
15. Grammy winner Jones: NORAH. [b 1979] Ravi Shankar's daughter.
17. Letter starter: DEAR ______. The salutation.
18. Speechify: ORATE. Speak to an audience.
19. Soda __: fountain worker: JERK. Maker of sodas, malts and shakes.
23. "Understand?": SEE? Get it?
24. Common Scrabble tile value: ONE. Used with the most commonly occurring letters.
25. Afflicts: AILS. Causes health or other kinds of problems.
27. Satisfied sigh sound: AAH.
36. Driving problem: GLARE. This is why dash panel tops are dark. The reflection of a light colored object on the windshield obscures the view through the glass. The technical term is "veiling glare." Of course there can also be direct glare, as when driving into the morning or late afternoon sun.
38. Sinewy: WIRY. Slender and muscular.
39. Rio contents: AGUA. Spanish water.
40. Burton of "Star Trek: TNG": LEVAR. Levardis Robert Martyn Burton Jr. [b 1957] is an American actor, author and producer. He also played Kunta Kinte in the 1977 ABC minseries ROOTS.
41. Rhea cousin: EMU. Large, flightless birds.
42. Harry's mom Lily __ Potter: EVANS. The unrequited love of Severus Snape.
43. Not buttoned, as a shirt: OPEN.
44. "Bummer!": DRAT. Exclamation of disappointment.
45. It flows below the Pont Neuf: SEINE. French river, full of eau.
49. Nada: NIL. Zero.
50. Steel-toe item: BOOT. Protective footware.
51. "Just a __!": SEC. Hang on, I'll be right there.
53. Southeast airport code: ATL. Atlanta.
62. Thigh muscle, briefly: QUAD. A group of 4 muscles in the front thigh that connect just below the knee cap. They straighten and also bend the knee.
64. "Outlander" series novelist Gabaldon: DIANA. [b 1952] Her books merge multiple genres: historical fiction, romance, mystery, adventure, etc.
65. Big name in big projections: IMAX. A proprietary system of high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (approximately 1.43:1 & 1.90:1) and steep stadium seating. [Wikipedia]
66. Bear overhead: URSA. Either of two constellations, named as bears in Latin. Not the highway patrol in a helicopter.
67. Sprinter Bolt: USAIN. [b 1986] Jamaican sprinter who holds the world records in 100, 200, and 4x100 relays.
68. Daughter in the 2019 film "Judy": LIZA. Garland and Minelli, respectively.
69. Unwelcome diners: ANTS. At picnics and in pantries.
70. __ hose: PANTY. Close-fitting legwear covering the wearer's body from the waist to the toes.
71. Agenda bullet: ITEM. Keep the meeting on track.
Down:
1. Mary __ Lincoln: TODD. [1818-1882] Before marrying Abraham Lincoln and becoming first lady, she was courted by his political opponent Steven A Douglas.
2. Swedish superstore: IKEA. Purveyor of knocked down furniture and many other household items.
3. San __: Cal. city nickname: FRAN. Properly, San Francisco. The region is known to have been occupied 5000 years ago. The city was founded by Spanish settlers in 1776.
4. FX series inspired by a Coen brothers film: FARGO.
5. Noisy bedmate: SNORER. Guilty.
6. Traditional group dance: HORA. A circular folk dance that originated in the balkans.
7. Decimated Asian sea: ARAL. Formerly the 4th largest lake in the world, it has been shrinking since the 1960's due to Soviet irrigation projects diverting the rivers that fed it. Large portions of its four basins had dried by 1997. A restoration project by Kazakhstan had raised the water level by 12 meters between 2003 and 2008. You can read much more about it here.
8. Karma: FATE. The universe giving you what you deserve.
9. Course of treatment: THERAPY.
10. JFK-RMN link: LBJ. Readily recognizable U.S. Presidents.
11. "No, still not right": GUESS AGAIN. Try harder.
12. Snooze inducer: BORE. An uninteresting event.
13. Tot: TYKE. Moppet.
21. Go in: ENTER. Also a computer key
22. Up to, briefly: TIL. Until, more longly.
26. Split: LEAVE. Slang.
27. Luminous: AGLOW. Radiant, dazzling.
28. First Hebrew letter: ALEPH. More here.
29. Enjoy oneself immensely: HAVE A BLAST. TNT not required.
31. Fancy pitchers: EWERS. Large, wide-mouthed jugs
32. Focus on, as a bull's-eye: AIM AT.
33. Alternative to dare: TRUTH. TRUTH or dare is a game in which players must either answer a question truthfully or perform a dare. In one variant, the questions and dares are written on slips of paper, and the player must choose one of these, sight unseen, and cannot switch.
Also, a documentary movie about Madonna's 1990 Blonde Ambition world tour.
34. Branch of Islam: SUNNI. The larger of the 2 main branches. The other is Shia.
35. Watercolor prop: EASEL. An upright support typically used for working on or displaying paintings.
37. Totaled, as costs: RAN TO.
42. First name in beauty products: ESTEE. Lauder, née Josephine Esther Mentzer [1906 – 2004] was an American businesswoman. With her husband Joseph she founded the cosmetics company for which she is the eponym.
44. Went out with someone wealthier, say: DATED UP. Went out with someone higher on the social ladder.
47. Amaze: WOW. Impress excessively.
48. The same number: AS MANY. Equality.
52. __ dog: CHILI. In the Detroit metro area they're called coneys, and it's hard to get more than a mile away from a place that sells them. We like the Senate on Plymouth Rd.
53. Teal relative: AQUA. Blue-green shades.
54. Go bad: TURN. Turn sour, as milk or wine.
56. Legal thriller writer Scottoline: LISA. [b 1955] A cum laude grad in her B.A. and law degrees, both from the university of Pennsylvania. She was a legal clerk and litigator until the birth of her daughter when she left the law firm and took up writing. She has since written over 30 best selling novels.
57. Scott of "Hawaii Five-0": CAAN. [b 1976] The son of James Caan. He's been with Hawaii Five-0 since 2010
58. Tending to the matter: ON IT. Or at it.
59. Exclude: OMIT. Leave out.
60. Puzzle with dead ends: MAZE. A network of paths and barriers which one is supposed to find one's way through, into the center of, or out of.
61. Checkup: EXAM. Medical appointment
63. Prosecutors, briefly: DAS. District Attorneys.
That concludes another Wednesday. Hope this puzzle didn't bite, and you had a doggone good time.
Cool regards!
JzB
48 comments:
FIR, but erased lbgt for LGBT. "It's your thing, do what you wanna do, I can't tell you, who to sock it to."
Got my new monthly allocation of cellular data yesterday, and Microsoft pushed an update last night that used 3/4 of it. The resort's new wifi won't be ready for another month, so I guess I'll have to up my data plan. Sounds like an important update to fix a scary vulnerability, so I guess I'm happy to have it.
Thanks for the puzzle, Kevin. Way too much show biz for my taste, but the theme made up for it. CHILI dog, one of my favorite foods, was a nice bonus. And thanks to JzB for the fun, thorough tour.
An acrostic:
Lesbos was the home of poet Sappho.
Gaily she wrote how love could baffle
Both girls and boys,
Translating their joys
Quizzically to an emotive snaffle!
A pair of identical sisters,
LISA and LIZA were grifters.
They'd go bathing in AGUA
In bikinis of AQUA,
Then swindle both señores and misters!
{A+, B+.}
No problem and I went for the themers first. I WAGed the “I” in the near Natick name cross.
Good morning!
Is it really Wednesday? This one felt like a Monday, a mad dash to the bottom with no Wite-Out required. The few unknowns were easily filled by the friendly perps. Thanx, Kevin. JzB, I always learn something from your elucidations. Thanx.
TREAT PLEASE: There's one stop on my M-o-W route where five dogs anxiously await my arrival. I'd better have a pocketful of treats or there's likely to be a rumble...or growl.
Off to the annual pre-season tax meeting this morning. Hopefully they'll explain why they're making the lives of the volunteers so difficult.
Nice, breezy puzzle. This is the first time I can remember that I've had no erasures at all. Fun theme, too. Great job, Kevin!
FIR Cute theme. Interesting expo.
Has anyone here read The Outlander Series? Not I.
In real life I have never heard SODA JERK, although I have long been familiar with the term. As a Howard Johnson waitress during my college summers I worked the soda fountain, but was never called a jerk.
I have no interest in Harry Potter. My younger sister likes the series. All I know about it comes from these puzzles.
I find that most times a meeting run without an agenda gets off track and lasts way too long. An agenda keeps things coherent and in logical order, instead of wandering all over the landscape.
Many of today's names were familiar and the unfamiliar ones had good perps, but why do puzzle constructors feel the need to use so many names?
I was surprised to read today about cheating in the World Series. Such a downer. Is nothing sacred?
I see that a serious flaw was found in Microsoft 10 and a patch was issued yesterday. I am sure I have automatic Microsoft updates, but am concerned that I have not been asked to reboot my computer to install any updates in the last two days. Does this mean I have to download the patch myself?
Truth or Dare...truth!..screwed this one up. The mid south proper names did me in. Although I wagged almost all refused to put the final center "a". CAAN seemed right but was convinced that "sprinter bolt" referred to an action not a name so I foolishly left it blank. (Cruciverb canon # 1..never leave a blank. 1a... always WAG)
My wife's (not mine) shih tzu's DANGERALERT is one leg raised over the new living room carpet.
On vacay so doing the puzzle on line with that timer ticking off my time. With ink at home I just look up at the kitchen clock when I'm done.
Can you legally stop the online clock for bathroom breaks or make coffee?
Ink can be really messy but the occasional perfect no error puzzle is so visually satisfying. A work of art.
Plus the pen is mightier than my thumbs!
Too much time spent on that pocketed rectangular glowing, ringing, vibrating monster as it is.
Okay, WHAT WAS THAT? A doggy themed puzzle with lots of A&E proper names- too many. made it a little harder for a Wed.
known-LIZA & USAIN, NORAH, LBJ, ESTEE
unknown-LEVAR, CAAN, LISA, DIANA, EVANS
TRUTH or dare- never heard of it.
DATED UP- I've heard of marry up but not dated up. "If you can't be rich, have rich friends" is another saying I've heard many times.
Lemonade- the local paper printed LSU's scores for the years and I remember back in August mentioning they were playing Georgia Southern in the first game. You commented that G.S. was a tough team. I was hoping LSU was going to have a good year. It looks like they did.
YR, click on the Windows icon on the bottom left of your screen, as if you were going to power down your computer. If you have a red dot on the icon you click on to power off or reboot, you have the patch and just need to reboot to finalize things. If not, click on the gear-looking icon, then click update & security, then click check for updates.
Nobody noticed the Pangram?!
Fairly good puzzle, 'though I feel as others do; entirely too many obscure names from obscure cable bundles of late. We already give the cable co. ~$200 a month, and we don't get them.
I did finish this one with a few WAGs, -no mistakes.
Good morning everyone.
Got the top and right half quickly. Took a little longer to build the SW. URSA was firm, guessed at QUAD which gave AQUA and parsed WHAT WAS THAT. Perps took care of the rest.
Hope the EMUs can outrun the fires in Australia. Tragic.
BUOYs - Are of different colors which are shown on charts. On the East Coast they typically are red on the right side of the channel when returning from the sea; and green on the right as you are going to sea. Easy to remember the colors by intoning "red, right, return."
Off to play some bridge.
I also thought this was a pretty quick solve for a Wednesday!
Though first aware of LEVAR as Kunta Kinte in "Roots" and other acting roles, I'm probably most familiar with him as the host of "Reading Rainbow" on PBS Kids for over 20 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQfiWFwVF8M It was such a low key format but really excited kids about reading and using your imagination! It also gave parents recommendations of quality children's literature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FD1K8OvVCs
My grandfather was a SODA JERK in high school - his mother had died in the 1918 flu epidemic and his father's farmland he was renting failed - so the older kids just had to go make their own way. He lived in a room over a drugstore, he worked for his room & board at the soda fountain evenings and weekends,and went to high school during the day in a little town in Kansas which was a few hours from where his family was from.
Thanks JzB and Kevin!
I was a soda jerk when I was 16. Just a jerk now, some say.
Musings
-Change barking to hissing and they all work for our kitty
-I read that the Sanders/Warren TIFF was the only interesting thing from last night
-Barney Fife always called himself WIRY
-QUADS are stronger than hammies, so they strain easier
-“Don’t call it Frisco!”, says our cwd friend JD
-GUESS AGAIN – I hate it when people come up from behind, put their hands over my eyes and say GUESS WHO!
-TIL(L) Then by the fabulous Mills Brothers
-Is there a question to which you would never tell the TRUTH?
-John Mellencamp sang of “suckin’ on CHILI Dogs outside the Tasty Freeze”
-“News” outlets all seem to have an AGENDA; facts be damned.
FIR but too many names. Cute theme. Thanks Kevin. And thanks JazzB for the delightful tour.
Owen , both A++ !
Hola!
DIANA Gabaldon is from Arizona and lives in Paradise Valley just north of me. I have not read any of her books, though.
HORA/NORAH amused me. We haven't heard from Jayce yet but I believe he will object to San FRAN.
I wish I had some or even one of my grandmother's EWERS. She had one in each bedroom and they were lovely.
The movie "Judy" was really well done. Renee Zellweger gave an excellent portrayal. And speaking of movies, Little Women is also very good. Although it's a familiar story, the acting is impressive.
I still remember a terrible accident caused by a woman driving toward the GLARE of the setting sun and running into a bus which apparently she didn't see. It was tragic!
Thank you, Kevin Christian and Jazzbumpa!
Have a pleasant day, everyone!
I forgot to say I have never eaten a CHILI dog. In fact, any kind of hot dog is unappealing to me.
Thanks, Jinx. You led me to discover my updates wouldn't load. I called the Geek Squad and resolved it. All is well.
After a few days away, it was a treat to be greeted by this friendly dog puzzle! I had two unsolved spaces where three names came together (LISA Scottoline, Scott CAAN, and DIANA Gabaldon). Knowing DIANA would have solved it all; I guess that's on me for not remembering her. Still, very enjoyable!
Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Christian and JazzB.
I FIRed, saw the doggie theme (was that CHILI dog included?) with several inkblots.
Dang was changed to DRAT by the EWER perp. (Lucina, I have my grandmother's plain white EWER; I fill it with dried hydrangeas every fall.)
My letter order was mixed up for LGBT (Hi Jinx) and BUOY until perps fixed that corner.
I started with Rhine and then realized that I should be in Paris with SEINE.
I thought of Spat before TIFF but saw TODD and corrected my thought; similarly I thought of HAVE A ball before BLAST fit the spot.
Pangram today I believe.
I see Owen noted LISA/LIZA and AGUA/AQUA too.
I also noted ON IT and OMIT; RAN TO, AIM AT, ON IT were similar too.
We had JUST one SEC yesterday; MAZE today and Maize yesterday.
Wishing you all a great day.
AnonT - Just for you (and any other Rush fans!), some links to articles about Neil Peart with local input from his younger years.
PeartGrowingUpInStCatharines
LakesidePark
OpEd
This Wednesday puzzle went Monday fast, not a complaint.
No write-overs today as well.
And on to Thursday.
Hi everybody.
Thanks for the fun puzzle and writeup, Kevin and JzB. I was doing fine until I got to the block full of names in the south. I finally quit cussing and turned on red letters.
I believe that nobody from the SF bay area ever calls the place where they live San Fran. Maybe people visiting from out of the area...
I'm always flummoxed and uncomfortable with the 'Q' in LGBTQ. Maybe it's just me.
Gary, I love the Mills Brothers; likewise, The Ink Spots.
I liked Harry Potter, both the books and the movies. The young actress who played Hermione, Emma Watson, was very appealing. I hope she has a good career. The one flaw in the saga was that Harry and Hermione didn't end up as a couple at the end.
Greetings all,
I have become a lurker of late--doing most of the puzzles with mixed success and reading the comments as often as I can. I am a bit under the weather with a pretty decent case of diverticulitis and spent New Year's Eve and Day in the hospital on IV antibiotics. Still recovering slowly and often not focusing very well. I wanted you to know I am not ignoring all your insight, wisdom and wit.
I am enjoying the puzzles, the blog, and getting done whatever I have to do in baby steps. Tapioca, anyone?
Be well.
Seinfeld take on LGBQ
Does your BUOY rhyme with"Toy"?
I just happened to tune into TBBT with LEVAL as guest.
Oops. OBW* has struck again. I inked TIFT and when I saw the pop-cul down assumed I wouldn't know FARGO. Which of course I did.
FLN and re. YR on MLB "Cheating". Baseball old timers considered the (Ted) Williams Shift "cheating". It's de regueur today. I'd be curious to hear ex school teachers take on my Periodic Table example. Again, if the pureveyer is not willing to take preventive steps to avoid it , Draconian penalities are not an ethical remedy.
.c McCarthy hearings
WC
Lemonade, I think you missed a "to" there.
I liked this puzzle. Last to fill was the I crossing DIANA and LISA, which, guess what, happen to be two names I did not know. I remembered Scott CAAN because LW and I watched "Hawaii Five-0" once (and only once.) He must have a speech impediment of some sort; he mumbles a lot and is almost unintelligible.
Lucina and Bill G are right: my ears would hurt at hearing San FRAN, but not as bad as hearing "Frisco."
I, too, wondered about the Q in LGBTQ, not to speak of the additional letters. To me, that's like saying Honda, Toyota, Ford, Kia, Car.
Speaking of Honda, I'm glad your daughter likes the Civic, Tony. It's a very well-made car. And yes, you remembered correctly that it was LW and I who were checking out a Subaru, specifically the Outback. The Honda CR-V, although much more compact, is looking pretty attractive to us, too.
Wishing you all a good day.
Well, I finished the puzzle before heading off to my monthly Emeriti Board meeting this morning--lots of issues to deal with for retired faculty. Now back to the puzzle which was fun--thank you, Kevin--but a bit crunchy for a Wednesday, in my opinion. Like Naomi, having three names cross (LISA, DIANA) with one total unknown (CAAN) made the bottom a bit tough, but I liked seeing both LISA and LIZA. The western part of the puzzle was doable, and I loved all the dog theme answers. My Dusty would be so pleased if he understood English. And, JazzB, your kidding around about the dog stuff was also fun.
Thanks for reminding us about the MAZE/MAIZE continuity, CanadianEh.
So sorry to hear about your illness, Madame Defarge, and so glad you checked in with us today. Take good care of careful, and hope you feel better soon.
Have a good day, everybody.
Got a kick out of both poems, Owen!
Jayce, I was the same as you, finishing at the cross of DIANA and LISA. I had DUANE as my first stab, but the final "E" didn't make sense.
Shoulda asked my wife, as "Outlander" is her favorite TV show.
But it all worked out. Ta ~ DA!
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, NW to SE.
The anagram reminds me that whenever I visited Vienna (Wien, Wien, nur du allein) I put on my...
"GERMAN HAT"!
I suppose I might also have been greeted by an alternative anagram, as with...
"WHAT GERMAN!!"
Thank you, D-O. One of the treasures of my aging is leaving out letters or words when I type. I meant it to be there/
REDUX,
I have not read the OUTLANDER books, but if the STARZ version is accurate,I would add soft-core porn to the categories. I am not complaining, just commenting. Tobias Menzies who truly irritated me in his portrayal of BRUTUS in the very enjoyable HBO series ROME once again got under my skin in his portrayal of the head of the Randall clan.
Based on the trailers, I will eventually watch LITTLE WOMEN but I reread the book as part of my revisit the classics tour and was underwhelmed.
My learning moment was the follow-up reading I did on LGBQTIA+ when I did not recognize the "I." While I am familiar with the concept, I had not heard the term Sensitive Article from an I . So much to learn, but please listen to JzB and do not judge.
- Years ago we had a neighbor who owned a big St Bernard. Occasionally he would leave his "business" on our lawn. I would get a shovel and fling the detritus back onto their yard.
We owned a calico cat who was really a sweetie. (She lived to age 20.). One day the stupid St Bernard loped onto our lawn while the cat was outside. She got up on her hind legs, hissed and spit like you couldn't believe and made like a whirling dervish at the dog. The dog ran back to his own yard yelping and crying with his tail between his legs with the cat behind for several yards onto the neighbor's property. (I saw the neighbor observing this incredulously, like a deer in headlights.)
Watchcat was added to her resumé.
- The central bottom of 20 squares contained 4 names: LOIS, CAAN, DIANA, and USAIN. I was lucky to guess CAAN with 4 letters, and being able to recall USAIN. I think otherwise I would have had a DNF.
Yes, WilburC, my BUOY rhymes with Toy. That is probably why I started out spelling it Bouy. Buey pronunciation is American I believe.
Madame D - sorry to hear that you have been ill. Not a pleasant way to spend the holidays. Thanks for letting us know; I hope you will be on the way to recovery soon.
Spitzboov - I LOLed about that watchcat!
I forgot. Owen, two Sterling W's on the lick's today, especially that acrostic.
I see some nice people retrieved your car.
Mme D, take care of yourself. Nice to see you drop in.
WC
Hi, this is Kevin Christian. I made today's puzzle. Thanks for solving!
FIW today,
due to communication error...
Nice theme, appropriate Wednesday level. Overall, took me a bit longer to finish than usual. The one nit is too many names and other proper nouns. Becomes a bit of a guessing game.
Apologies for my thanks to Christian instead of first name, Kevin. Or perhaps Mr. Christian doesn't mind being called by his last name. Somehow I always find that practice demeaning; in the past, if a teacher called you by your last name, you were in trouble.
. . . and I see that Jim B @9:12 reported the pangram before me.
Kevin, thanks for stopping by. Really enjoyed solving your puzzle. I love dogs, plain and simple. They can be tough to read, but your clues captured the essence of some of their language.
Spitzboov, my sister had an inside female cat and a (mostly) outside male cat. A big tom. We lived on 5 acres at the time, and that outside cat kept the chicken coop and barn free of mice. He was also a bully to the much larger dogs.
By now, many of you may have seen the video of the cat that held 3 coyotes at bay in some place named Highland Park, CA. That cat looks almost like my sister's tom, only smaller. If you haven't seen the video, here it is:
Caught On Camera: Cat Fights Off Three Coyotes
Re: buoy..there's a soap still made called "Lifebuoy" advertised a lot when I was a kid pronounced Lifeboy..like the internet...if it was on TV it had to be correct
..plus the verb form (he was "buoyed" by the good news) is pronounced boy. Probably both correct in other contexts
But what do I know..I still say Feb-you-ary and Vanella.
Thank you, Kevin C., for the fun puzzle! Loved the theme! Excellent expo, JzB! Thanks.
This was fairly easy as I knew some of the names, for a change. I've read several of Lisa Scottoline's novels, which I enjoy.
I remember Levar Burton from "Roots".
The theme was right up my alley! DH and I both grew up with dogs; we share a home with our third canine and we occasionally dog sit for the grand dog. Also, I am a dog walking volunteer at a local no-kill shelter a few times a week. We get a training session every year to refresh how to read dog language.
We've had a nice run of mild winter temps that are going to end this weekend. It's been nice to have lows above freezing. For a few days we'll be lucky to have highs that warm. Spring is coming.
Have a great evening!
Enjoyable theme and all around nice puzzle except for the south central. What made this less fun was being naticked in the south central area by the obscure names. Why would a constructor feel the need to place four obscure names in one area?
Madame D. Sorry to hear you have been ill. I am happy you are gradually improving. You have been missed. Best wishes for a quick recovery.
Madame, sorry to hear that and hope you are feeling and getting better. Me too. I'm either having the flu a second time or have a severe cold, so the last week has been the pits.
Yellowrocks, the cheating wasn't just in the World Series. All season long... The investigation is ongoing, but it apparently started when Boston Red Sox manager Joey Cora was with the Astros a few years ago as a bench coach. He left the Astros coaching job for the Red Sox manager job, but by then the temptation was apparently too much for both teams to stop.
It's truly sad for baseball fans.
As hitters, we studied a pitcher's ever move to see if they were tipping their pitchers. Some little mannerism or quirk that a pitcher did before throwing a curve ball or a fast ball or a changeup. Maybe the way they held their glove, maybe the way the time they took to grip the ball. If you knew what to look for, it was just like a "tell" that poker players watch for.
As runners, we used to try to get to second base so we could pick up the catcher's signs. Two fingers, left thigh, three down might mean fastball up. Two fingers, left thigh, closed fist might mean fastball down. The key was that you had to get to second base to see what the catcher was doing. And then let your teammates know.
It was accepted. Part of the game. Catchers would change signs when the opposing team got a runner on 2nd base, with a clear line of sight as to what the catcher was doing.
But using camera technology is different.
It all appeared to have started in football, in the NFL, when the New England Patriots were caught illegally video taping the NY Jets back in 2007, and then stealing the defensive signs of the Pittsburgh Steelers who they beat in the AFC Championship using handwritten notes of what defenses and calls the Steelers were playing in particular situations. They knew when a blitz was coming, and from which side.
Just this year, the Patriots were again caught filming at a Cleveland Browns versus Cincinnati Bengals game. The temptation to win at any cost seems to be too much for players, coaches, teams and owners that are quick to look the other way, or who don't have the morals and ethics to stop.
Sad, truly sad.
Re. MLB/Redsox cheating. FLN@528, I gave the periodic table analogy. I discussed that with Phil on the way from sun City to Dunellon (near Ocala, Jinx-head east from Ocala on rte 200 and try breakfast Station).
He says that everyone knew the Periodic Table trick but they had tables all over the room. "No peaking at the table!!!". Ha,ha.
As I said, it's not Houston, it's not Boston it's MLB that refused to modify the camera shots because of $$money$$
Then again there's Wells Fargo.
WC
Btw I told no one about the PT
Madame Defarge:
I'm so sorry to hear that you have been ill and what a dreadful way to spend the holidays. It's miserable enough to be sick but to be unable to enjoy the holiday festivities just makes it worse. I hope you will feel better very soon.
Hi All!
WHAT WAS THAT, Kevin - all those names clump'd in the South? 64a DIANA or DanNA? Only the C in WELCOME saved me. Otherwise, thanks for a DOG-gone good pangrammic puzzle. And, thanks for stopping by The Corner.
Fun expo JzB; Cute pooch pics.
WO: BouY
ESPs: Did I mention there were a number of proper names? I only knew LBJ, ESTEE, LEVAR, USAIN (USane?) and Mary TODD.
Fav: I'm not a bum, I'm a JERK.
{A+, A}
Fun DR pair OMK!
MdF - so sorry to read of your illness; I hope it didn't put your knitting behind.
Nice to see you again at The Corner Jim B. Don't be such a stranger.
WC - Rhymes with Gooey.
C, Eh! - Thank you!
Would be cheating if I voted YEA for the statue in Lakeside Park? [RUSH 4:08. I found a clip from their '15 Houston show (I was there!) w/ a (recorded) intro by Eugene Levy; sound sucked as it was recorded on an iPhone]
TTP - you explained the difference between the "gamesmanship" cheating and out-right no-doubt-about-getting-the-signs-right-every-time shameful cheating much better than I did the other night.
WC - you'd have a point if everyone had a center-field-camera monitor/TV and noise-makes in their dug-out to signal the catcher's signal.
Lucina - Never a chili-dog?!? I love 'em and most hot-dogs (Chicago dogs are my fav!)
[in your best Jack Webb impression]
"Listen mister,
unlike you,
outside of cigarettes
I only have one vice
And a good Chilidog's it..."
-TOM Hanks as Friday in Dragnet the Movie
Jayce - We took delivery of the Civic tonight. I need to go now to coat it with deer repellent :-)
Cheers -T
Lucina - :-)
Ok, forgo the chili (it's really not that good, the chili) but really(?), no hotdogs? What do you eat at the ballpark taking in a Diamond Back game? [and don't tell me you've never done that; for the love of life, take in a ballgame!]
I get your aversion to most hotdogs - just roll some boiled bologna and stuff it in a bun; ewww - NOT good. OTOH, Nathan's has tasty dogs as does Ball Park w/ their All Beef variety.
Scandal? Was that wrong? [Seinfeld's George]. Um, yeah. :-)
Cheers, -T
AnonT:
I'm very particular about what chili I eat and most chili contains CUMIN which I detest. It's so sharp and chili should be savory and rich tasting. IMHO
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