google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, April 17, 2020, Joe Deeney

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Apr 17, 2020

Friday, April 17, 2020, Joe Deeney

Title: Ring around a black square, a pocketful of why.

This puzzle should garner much commentary and controversy. Those who have been reading my puzzle write-ups for many years know that I enjoy a visual theme as much as a witty one. Today's challenge has only on complete theme fill, the central grid-spanning 36A. Acknowledgment of success--four are hidden in this puzzle, each adjacent to a black square: ROUND OF APPLAUSE (15) the grid shows this creation better than words.



The great beauty of the final effort is the progression of the word
CLAP. It goes west, north, east then south. The next is north, east, south then west, and so on. Around as a circle. The rest of the puzzle is loaded with fun fill. CHIRPILY, HOTPRESS, AER LINGUS,  EMILE ZOLA.  EVERY TIME. GREY GOOSE, LIVE RADIO,  PUNCHLINE,  SOFT COLOR and  WATER LEAK with those highlighted in green making their LAT debut. MC REN also makes its major puzzle debut.

Joe has become an end of the week regular with TTP and HG each having blogged multiple JD efforts. I anxiously await your comments.

Across:

1. Nice with?: AVEC. The classic French city misdirection.

5. "The Empire Strikes Back" ice planet: HOTH. Vader employed bad STRATEGY.

9. Big bucks: STAGS. Not money but deer.

14. It's mostly talk: LIVE RADIO. A fun clue.

16. __ board: EMERY. A boring fill?

17. "Les Rougon-Macquart" author: EMILE ZOLA. This is the most incredible WORK. imdb.

18. N.W.A member portrayed by Aldis Hodge in "Straight Outta Compton": MC REN. The cast of historical MOVIE.

19. Upper bod muscle: PECtoral. Abbreviation - abbreviation.

20. Drainage system component: AIR TRAP. LINK. Not being handy I leave you all to the picture. But you might need it if you develop a 57A. Drip, perhaps: WATER LEAK.

22. Caustic solution: LYE. I will not lie about it.

23. Calendering machine for glossing paper: HOT PRESS. I point only to the dictionary definition of hot-press (Entry 1 of 3)
1: a calendering machine in which paper or cloth is glossed by being pressed between glazed boards and hot metal plates. I do not know what a calendering machine is.

25. Longtime sportscaster Sager: CRAIG. A much-admired sports reporter whose death revealed a family CRISIS.

27. Cash closing?: IER. Cashier- clever.

28. Chafing dish heaters: STERNOS.

30. "Your Unfiltered View of Government" sloganeer: CSPAN. Who knew?

33. Jesus in the outfield: ALOU. The youngest of the three brothers.

35. Entertainment awards acronym: EGOT.
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony.

39. "What __ one comes?": IF NO. You will have many leftovers.

40. Cutters: SAWS.

41. "Ready?" response: I'M SET. Not from me.

42. Michigan/Ontario border river: ST. CLAIR. Saint Clair River, outlet for Lake Huron, forming part of the boundary between Michigan, U.S. (west), and Ontario, Can. (east). Flowing southward into Lake Saint Clair, with a fall of 5.7 feet (1.7 m) in 39 miles (63 km), the river discharges through a silty, seven-mouth delta, with the South Channel (27-foot [8-metre] minimum depth) used for deep-drafted vessels. The St. Clair delta is the world’s largest delta that enters a freshwater lake. Britannica.

44. Kellogg School deg.: MBAMaster Of Business Administration.

45. Go after: CHASE.

46. In a cheerful way: CHIRPILY. "A new blog! (she tweeted chirpily)."

51. Abbr. that debuted in OED in 2011: LOL.

52. Kind of share: PRO-RATA.

54. MDX ÷ X: CLI.

55. "Three inches is such a wretched height to be" speaker: ALICE. Poor child, she did not understand what it was like to be a caterpillar.

59. World's fastest hedgehog: SONIC.

60. Always: EVERY TIME.

61. Boxer's reward: TREAT. The puppy, not pugilist.

62. 1987 Costner role: NESS.

63. ORD postings: ETAS. ORD- Chicago O'Hare.

Down:

1. Beth preceder: ALEPH. Not any longer, the popular transliteration of the Hebrew alphabet has the second letter as "bet."

2. YouTube alternative: VIMEO. This SITE.

3. Give the boot: EVICT. I think more of firing but it did not fit.

4. Toon collectible: CEL.

5. Less clear: HAZIER. Many CHOICES.

6. Olfactory triggers: ODORS.

7. Leans: TILTS.

8. Winter covering: HOAR. Rimes with boar.

9. Musical "throughout": SEMPRE. Italian, from the Latin SEMPER. Fidelis.

10. HBO competitor: TMC. Not really.

11. Carrier with a shamrock logo: AER LINGUS.


Perhaps better with a glass of...


12. Vodka brand: GREY GOOSE.

13. "Auld Lang __": SYNE. It seems a bit out of context.

15. Hit in the back: REAR END.

21. Stop working: ACT UP. This also is a very extreme example of not working unless you are talking about a machine.

24. Self-playing instrument: PIANOLA. The pianola (pronounce: "pee-ah-NO-la"), also called the player piano, is a piano that has a pneumatic mechanism so that it can play by itself. The air for this system came from a pump operated by the player's feet, and in some later models, an electric pump. When I was first married we bought a player piano and both of my sons learned to play as babies with the help of the rolls.

26. TripAdvisor offering: AREA MAP.

28. Illegal payments: SOPS. One definition is something given to pacify or quiet, or as a bribe: The political boss gave him some cash as a sop.

29. "Do not remove" mark: STET.

30. Football Hall of Famer Carter: CRIS.

31. Subdued shade: SOFT COLOR.

32. Funny part: PUNCHLINE. Do you remember?

33. A long way off: AFAR.

34. Common practice: LAW. So nobody gets good enough to stop practicing.

37. Rattan alternative: OSIER. Definition, any of various willows, as the red osier, having tough, flexible twigs or branches that are used for wickerwork.

38. Congress has a big one: LIBRARY.

43. Viewpoint: ASPECT.

44. Ceremonial headdresses: MITERS. This is a tall headdress worn by bishops and senior abbots as a symbol of office, tapering to a point at the front and back with a deep cleft between.

46. Covet: CRAVE. Thou shall not crave thy neighbor's wife?

47. Can't tolerate: HATES. Hate is more.

48. Nail down the victory: ICE IT.

49. South American carrier: LLAMA.

50. "Uh-oh!": YIKES.

51. Endure: LAST.

53. __ Lars, who raised Luke Skywalker: OWEN.
Owen Lars

56. "Homeland" org.: CIA. Not true, much of the nation's homeland security activity remains outside of DHS; for example, the FBI and CIA are not part of the Department.

58. 4G __: mobile device standard: LTE. LTE is an abbreviation for Long Term Evolution. LTE is a 4G wireless communications standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) that's designed to provide up to 10x the speeds of 3G networks for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks, notebooks, and wireless hotspots.

He may not be a DiMaggio, but Joe D. is on a hitting streak here at the Corner. I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle and writing it up for your enlightenment and comments. Be careful, be safe. Lemonade out.








47 comments:

TTP said...



Bravo, Bravo, Bravo ! Loved it, Joe !

Almost forgot to look for the ROUND OF APPLAUSE, but found them.

The solve wasn't quick. At all.

"The Empire Strikes Back" ice planet ?
"Les Rougon-Macquart" author ?
N.W.A member portrayed by Aldis Hodge in "Straight Outta Compton" ?
Musical "throughout" ?
__ Lars, who raised Luke Skywalker ?

No idea on any of those based on the clue alone. However, with enough perps each one was capable of being got. EMILE ZOLA came easiest. The M in SEMPRE and MC REN was my last fill. Felt the answer had to be SCREN or MCREN, and I finally settled on the M.

My bowling / golfing buddy grew up with Craig Sager, Ken Anderson and Dan Issel.

Great job, Lemonade. But in the case of 56D "Homeland", I think the clue is in reference to the TV series of the same name.

Mowed the lawn yesterday. Woke up this morning and there's two inches of snow on the ground and it's still coming down. Should be gone within a day or two.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Wow, that NW corner was a killer. Had to work out ALEPH, VIMEO and HOT. Could'a been ALEPA and ART, but V_MER looked weird. Finally WAGged correctly and came here expecting accolades. Bzzzzt! The real problem was New England. It was GREY/MCREN, not GRAY/MCRAN. DNF. Drat. Qwinky-Dink -- EGOT and EMERY both return for a reprise from yesteray. Well, ya got me Joe. Thanx for the tour, Lemonade.

CIA: This is correct for 56D, because it was "Homeland" -- the TV show.

LTE: Learning moment. Thought it meant Lite. I'll try to remember that if I ever upgrade to a 4G phone.

Lemonade714 said...

Thanks, guys. In retrospect, the " marks should have been enough to alert me to the clue being about the TV show. I have never watched the show. I agree that it was not an easy solve. I expect the difficulty has delayed comments.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, nailing the WAG at MCREN x SEMPRE. Erased free map for AREA MAP, snow for HOAR, and dli for CLI. The difficulty of doing arithmetic was probably a major reason that Roman numerals gave way to Arabic equivalents.

When I lived in Dallas, DW and I had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant near DFW. The piano music was beautiful, and before we were ready to leave I walked to the piano with the intent of tipping the player. Lo and behold, it was a player piano! I vowed to own one some day, and when we moved to Atlanta we bought an old grand, had it completely disassembled and restored, and had an automation system from Piano Disc installed. It still looks and sounds beautiful, some 25 years later.

DO, I would wait for a 5G phone.

I have ignorance and apathy about Star Wars trivia, so this puzzle wasn't special for me. I also don't care for a clue that references an acronym of an original name that most people aren't allowed to say (NWA). I guess EGOT is going to be the next "oleo". JESUS help us. But I did appreciate REAR END, but like our dearly departed Splynter, I'm more of a leg man. Lemonade's review, as always, was fun and informative.

Anonymous said...

This one took 13:49. Like a prior poster, the "M" crossing Sempre and MC Run was the last square standing. Round of applause came easily enough, but never saw the "claps".

Yellowrocks said...

Tough one. I got the theme and found the CLAPs. Loved it. One stupid cell. We have seen EMILE ZOLA countless times here and I missed the M. I never heard of VIMEO and wrote VIDEO.V-8 can moment. Duh.At least, EGOT was easy after learning it yesterday.
Here is the EMERY board we were looking for yesterday.
STERNOS, alas no more parties.
SEMPRE was perps and wags. SEMPER FI made it plausible.
If no one comes. . . Years ago we had a surprise snow storm after I had cooked all day for my party. I had to cancel it. So much food left over. Some could be frozen and/or reheated, but others had a very short shelf life.
My grandfather worked at a factory that made glossy paper like the kind used for Hershey bar wrappers. He gave us squares of all colors to play with. I don't know whether it was calandered or not. New term for me.
They toasted Auld Lang SYNE with many glasses of GREY GOOSE. On the way home they REAR ENDED the car in front of them.

Big Easy said...

I'll CLAP for Deeney for this toughie today. I finished it by the hardest in the NW. Never heard of either VIMEO or HOTH and EMILE ZOLA came from perps. AIR TRAP was also a new term; tried AIR HOLE be it wouldn't work.

MC REN and CRAIG were total unknowns and I had to WAG between GRAY or GREY GOOSE. HOT PRESS- I've heard 'hot off the presses' but not hot press. EGOT- learned it yesterday. CHIRPILY- another new term for me. OWEN Lars-didn't know of him either.

Like I said- a tough puzzle to finish. And for those of your who noticed the CLAPS, let's hope you don't 'get the claps' if you CRAVE the wrong person.

Jinx- I also changed FREE to AREA MAP and SNOW to HOAR.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-The starting corner opens with French and Hebrew
-I guessed/deduced Italian music word and the rapper correctly
-A WATER LEAK above and below the sink resulted in a $1,300 new sink/faucet yesterday
-What IF they had a war and NO one came?
-Calendering and Chirpily?
-It appears the Sager kids’ POR RATA share was zero. What a story!
-Lily can get the drawer open where her tuna TREATS are stored
-I doubt if my neighbor will EVICT any of her 16 tenants during these times
-We got a winter covering of 8” of mid-April snow yesterday
-ACT UP to me is working badly
-In The Godfather, Don Fanucci called getting SOP “wetting his beak”
-Normalcy seems a long way off
-Do you text/email with people who use LOL to excess?

inanehiker said...

This was a fun puzzle with the reveal clue helping to see the rotating CLAP without needing any circles.
I figured MC REN was similar to MC Hammer as a musical artist but WEES about whether it was GREY or GRAY GOOSE - somewhere in the brain recesses the GREY looked right.
The younger set uses VIMEO for low key showing of home grown videos.

Thanks Lemonade and Joe for a fun morning!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Started out with a vast sea of snow, but gradually it started coming together. Got AVEC quickly and tried ALEPH. Voilà. The SW and much of the middle then filled in. Getting the 9 ltr downs helped. Saw how the theme worked and was able to prefill the round CLAP in the SE, yielding PRO RATA and LTE. Wanted 'snow' before HOAR was clear. Had 'eject' before EVICT.
LLAMA lagged because I was looking for something like Avianca; but CHIRPILY capped it.
Liked ……ZOLA crossing HAZIER.
ST CLAIR River - Crossed it on the Blue Water Bridge from Port Huron, MI to Sarnia, Ont. years ago. Wonder where all the deltaic deposits come from since L. Huron outflow would be essentially sediment free.
After leaving L. ST. Clair, the channel becomes the Detroit River and descends another 5 ft. over 28 mi. to L. Erie.

jfromvt said...

Interesting reveal, so it was creative. But in the end if the theme isn’t obvious, and doesn’t help with solving the puzzle, then it doesn’t really excite me. This may have been a candidate for circles, even though I generally don’t like them. But overall it was a challenging puzzle.

My other nit, more an editing and timing issue, is EGOT and EMERY in back-to-back puzzles. Just bugs me.

Hungry Mother said...

It’s too bad this constructor had to settle the GREY/GRaY choice with something so obscure. Almost a good puzzle.

OMaxiN said...

FIW. Just like YR...I didn't change viDeo to VIMEO. Guessed SEMPRE, but no MCREN.
SE was the tough area for me. I totally missed the 4 Claps (as usual). The Peabody may still have a player grand piano. Wanted Fourdrinier to calendar paper but too many letters.
From yesterday: I was on an Incognito tab which will not keep passwords. No separate sign in required using a regular tab.
Thanks Joe & Lemonade
MO

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Thought I'd FIR but secretly knew better. FIW... Refused to change aceit to ICEIT knowing a "nonword" CHIRPILY likely needed an I not an A. Other corrections eject/EVICT

Calendaring? Glossing? Wha? How about "J'accuse" for Émile Zola? perpwalked that one. Using foreign language clues is fine if they are common enough. After 8 years of French I knew AVEC but unless one frequents a lot of frou-frous restaurants stick to Engish. SEMPRE is used musically as "throughout" but in conversation means "always" (throughout: "in tutto"..."per tutto")

By turning the Bull (Aleph) (alpha) hieroglyph with it's two straight horns upside down you get the upper case letter A the horns now at the bottom. Add Beth (beta, B) and you have Alphabet.

My failing short term memory kicked in for HAZIer and EGOT. Roman math is always a fun given.

"Jesus in the Outfield" sounds like a Halmark movie.

Additonal learning moments. Thought the only river between US and ONT was the St. Lawrence.

Unlearning moments.....

"After attacking Donald, Mickey was placed in a" ...CEL

"It crosses E. 10th street in NYC".......AVEC

"A knee in the REAREND by an oldster"....GREYGOOSE.

Sunny and clear right now. Just waiting for the next snowstorm.

oc4beach said...


Finished the puzzle at the 29:00 minute mark. Truly a Friday level puzzle. Lemon's tour explained a lot and was enjoyable. I filled it all in, but didn't see or even look for the CLAPs.

I think that Rich has found some new words that we will probably be seeing a lot of in the future. EMERY and EGOT. There's no way that the constructors came up with them on their own.

I knew some of the words right off. AVEC, HOTH, EMERY, SONIC and a few more. Most were reasonable fills, but CHIRPILY, come on man.

I didn't know SOPS, and I wanted TSA vs CIA. Perps ruled.

Before I did the puzzle this morning I read an article in the local paper about the difference between YouTube and VIMEO (which I had never heard of) so, it was a serendipitous fill.

I liked the South American carrier, LLAMA, but like others, I was looking for an airline. V8 can head slap.

I wanted the DETROIT river before perps told me I was wrong. So, ST CLAIR it was.

The only LIVE RADIO I listen to is sports and local news. The other stuff is just so much noise. (IMHO)

HG: We didn't get 8" of snow yesterday, but we had a number of white-out snow squalls move through central Pennsylvania yesterday. It made for some hazardous driving on some local roads and Interstates 80 and 99. However it just left a dusting of snow on the grass. My grass has been cut twice this spring so far, and a lawn service continued cutting my neighbor's grass during the snow squalls. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them.

Right now there is a snow squall going through our area. When is spring going to decide to stay.

With my kids sheltering in place I sent them some of their favorite Potato Chips (Middleswarth) via the USPS that the can't get in NJ or MD. Hopefully it with give them something they like to chew on.

IM: I hope you have a supply of Gibbles Chips to carry you through this social distancing.

Stay well and safe everyone.

Anonymous said...

Very enjoyable and doable with perps and wags.

Shankers said...

EGOT two days straight? Almost threw this one away, but ended up going from bottom to top sussing lots of unknowns such as hoth, mcren and LTE. Officially a FIW due to a minor misstep in the SE corner. We had a player piano at home when I was a wee lad and had such great fun pretending to be an accomplished artist. My one regret was not taking it up seriously. Maybe in my next life.

Misty said...

So, let's see, what did I get on my first run-through of this Friday toughie? Started with SYNE and LYE. I did lightly pencil in ODORS and TILTS but couldn't confirm them until I took a chance with EMILE ZOLA--although VIMEO looked wrong to me, and should have been VIDEO, I thought. Down below I got TREAT instantly--I knew that "Boxer" was going to be a dog and not a sports figure. And that, of course, gave me LAST. And I even got CLI--thanks to knowing my numbers. And so it went, although it took a fair amount of cheating for me to finish, and Lemonade to give me the CLAP theme. But still fun, all around, so many thanks, Joe.

Have a good weekend, everybody.

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Very late to the dance but better late than never! This is probably the only second or third time in all my 40 plus years of crossword solving that I couldn't unravel the theme. I guess I just didn't look hard or long enough to see the circled Claps. I also had a FIW because of conflating DMC Run (a known) with MC Ren (an unknown) which gave me Gray Goose crossing MC Ran. Don't ask, please! I had Coat before Hoar, based on the O A. Not keen on Chirpily, but I liked Craves abutting Hates and wasn't bothered by the repeats of EGOT and Emery. I thought some of the cluing a tad off kilter and, as usual, the plethora of proper names required plenty of perp help.

Thanks, Joe, for a Friday stumper and thanks, Lemony, for your most enlightening expo; without you, I would still be clueless about the theme.

oc4beach @ 11:12 ~ Fortunately, I received an order of Gibble's about ten days ago, so I'm all set for awhile. However, I do have to replenish my Dewar's supply in a few days; luckily, my purveyor delivers.

Stay safe, all.

Anonymous said...

Like yesterday, this was a slow, sometimes very slow, solve. Didn't know SOPS but perps were good. I thought it was Grey Goose, but I definitely wasn't sure of that.

Snow again today. 60's tomorrow. Gotta love Chicago spring.

Be safe and well everyone.

JB2

AnonymousPVX said...


Well, despite the, um, “creative” clueing I got the solve.

But geez, this was out there, even for a Friday.

Like others...GREY or GRAY....MCREN didn’t help that.

HBO and TMC are pay channels, and that’s all they have in common.

CHIRPILY, really?

Write-overs...VIDEO/VIMEO, SNOW/HOAR, SHO/TMC, PRIMARY/PRORATA.

And I got the solve, despite the FOG (Flat Out Guess) at MCR*N/GR*Y.

So on to Saturday. Stay safe.

Lucina said...

Hola!

This was a hard won battle for me so I'll take ROUNDOFAPPLAUSE though, no, I didn't look for or see the claps. Very clever, Joe Deeney! Thank you.

It's amazing what resides in the deep recesses of the brain and today some emerged. GREYGOOSE, Jesus ALOU, SONIC the hedgehog, HOTH. But I had snow and coat before HOAR.

VIMEO is a complete unknown though once I realized EMILEZOLA fit, VIDEO had to go.

I knew ALEPH but hesitated a long time until AVEC occurred to me. And as for the STCLAIR river, that is a learning moment for me.

I liked seeing PUNCHLINE crossing LOL.

CHIRPILY. Recently I did a puzzle by Patti Varol in my puzzle book in which the theme was Tom Swifties. Lots of fun with it.

Thank you, Lemonade, especially for colorfully illustrating the CLAP positions.

I'm sorry some of you are still experiencing snow! It was 90 degrees here yesterday.
My daughter and her family came last night for a short visit. They sat in the patio and we, my granddaughter and her baby, sat inside with the screen door between us. It was so good to see them.

Stay safe, my friends, please!

desper-otto said...

Misty, I'm glad you added "theme" to your comments.

Wendybird said...

Although I had to cheat a bit to finish, not knowing some of the names, I am filled with admiration that Joe Deeney could place the theme words so cleverly. I never would have seen them without the visuals on the grid, so thanks, Lemonade.

My favorite mis-direction wasLLAMAS.

Yellowrocks said...

I like chirpy. It has a slightly different nuance than any of its synonyms. I realized that we can change many adjectives to adverbs by adding LY so why not chirpily? It is a legitimate word and not that obscure if you think of it as a less common form of a known word. I actually enjoy these less common forms. Playing with words.

CrossEyedDave said...

Figures that today I could not find that YouTube video of rain on water sounding like applause.
Coincidence? Maybe...

Like EGOT and emery appearing two days in a row,
I have an MP3 player with 1,400 plus songs on it, that very often
Seems to think it's two for Tuesday by playing 2 songs by the same band
More often than not, even though it is set to "random" play.

The Brain is wired for these things to "stand out."
(Like seeing faces on Mars...)


It's all in your head!

(Google the science of coincidences...)

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Don't think I've ever heard CHIRPY. Remember organized sports? When players on opposite teams teams started getting frayed nerves and the extracurricular pushing and bumping started, the announcers always said "it's starting to get a little chippy out there." Not that it's trite or anything. Noo. I long for those days.

CanadianEh! said...

Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Joe and Lemonade.
Wow, this was a workout but eventually I FIRed (with plenty of inkblots). But I forgot to go back and find the CLAPs (not sure I would have been successful anyway!).

Hand up for Snow before HOAR, and debating ICE IT or aCE IT. CHIRPILY decided it (the sparrows won!).
Another hand up for the AHA moment with LLAMA (oh, not an air carrier!)
EMERY had a better clue today . . . and I remembered EGOT!!
Grocery CashIERs are increasing in value these days.

This Canadian spelled GREY GOOSE "properly" and guessed at the C in MCREN.
This Canadian entered the Detroit river (and stuck with it for far too long); DH gave me the correct ST CLAIR. (You Americans are forgiven for not knowing it.) Detroit and St Marys would also be correct for the clue at 42A and would fit the squares. Clue should have been more specific IMHO.
Ray@10:57 "Thought the only river between US and ONT was the St. Lawrence." - Don't forget about the Niagara River. Also the lesser known Rainy River and Pigeon between Minnesota and Ontario.

Wishing you all a good day. Stay safe.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Thanks Canada you had me "over a barrell" with the Niagara.

Ever seen the terrific movie "Frozen River"? About a Mohawk woman who smuggles immigrants across the St Lawrence between Ontario and NYS?

Steve said...

I quite enjoyed "____ BOARD" proving my point yesterday that an "emery" is not a thing :)

If you know that Grey Goose is made in France, then the E/A question answers itself. GREY in "European" English, GRAY in American English.

Tough, but enjoyable. Thanks for the tour, Lemonade.

Anonymous said...

Lucina,
Half my crossword is missing, said Tom cluelessly.

Kerry_in _Carefree

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Nope. I did not have the patience for all the names & foreign words and began just to not give a hoot. DNF

Thanks Joe - I did like the TREATs in the south (LLAMA was cute) but the north was a fun-sponge for me [total lack of knowledge].

Thanks LEM for the expo; I've never heard of the movie PUNCH LINE.

Wrong: LISTS (TILTS), SNOW but then not cuz AIR vent (P-TRAP too short), AERLINGaS, FREE MAP
WO: TSA -> CIA
Fav: C-SPAN. Nail'd it!
I also like that Rich redux'd EMERY (do you think he'd know we'd kvetch re: the missing board yesterday?) and EGOT.
I guess I learned EGOT from my kids (both huge fans of musicals) or maybe Colbert (ibid).... It was not new-to-me yesterday.

CED - I heard something on NPR last week about your random problem. The link'd article isn't it but the crux is the same - Gambler's Fallacy.

Have a great afternoon!

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

d-o@12:57
LOL!

Anonymous@3:06
I love it!

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Joe Deeney, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Wow! This was some puzzle. I got the long theme, but did not look for the word surrounding the square. I was looking for words touching the square in a straight line. My error, I should have been more open-minded. Once I saw it here, I liked it.

I had AMEC and MIMEO. I did not know the french word AVEC. Also had GRAY instead of GREY. No idea who MC REN or MC RAN was.

No problem with EMERY. Just hasd that.

No idea what SOPS was. Got it with perps.

I though LLAMA was very clever. Good one. Initially looking for an airline.

Our two inches of snow is still on the ground. Should be gone by tonight.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Jayce said...

Had a hard time trying to solve this puzzle, ending up with doing an "alephbet" run to get the C in MC REN. Didn't see the CLAPs. I worked as a plumber for 3 years and of course know about traps, but had never heard the term AIR TRAP. I didn't know the can of STERNO under the chafing dish was itself called a STERNO; I thought the term only referred to the fuel material in the can. Oh well; I don't really care enough to look it up.

We like the Kirkland brand of vodka from Costco. There is a debate about whether it is actually made by the same company that makes GREY GOOSE.

I have been REAR ENDed three times over the last 60 years.

I think the MITER (or is it MITRE?) valve in the heart is so named because of its two flaps' resemblance to that priestly headdress.

Good wishes to you all.

Lemonade714 said...

Jayce, you were close. The mitral valve permits blood to flow from the left atrium into the left ventricle, but not in the reverse direction. The mitral valve has two flaps (cusps). It is so named because it looks like a bishop's miter (headdress). numerous medical texts.

Lemonade714 said...

D-O, thanks for your concern about Misty and my reputation.

Steve, you should complain more often. Getting EMERY sorted in the next puzzle is impressive.

Picard said...

This may be my most favorite theme in recent memory which roused me to post today. I am in awe of the construction effort. I was almost finished before I figured it out. But it was essential to getting the NE corner.

WEES about some of the fill and clues.

11A used the term CARRIER as an air carrier. In psychology we call this "priming" for the misdirection in 49D. Very clever.

Learning moment about that meaning of SOPS. Has anyone else ever heard this usage? I knew ALEPH because of my Hebrew ancestry, but also because of my math studies. ALEPH Null is the "smallest" infinity. One of my favorite learning moments was discovering there are bigger infinities.

Last to fill was MCREN/GREY. We have seen GREY GOOSE before. At first I had MOOSE. Anyone else? Amazed to FIR.

Here are a few CELs and related memorabilia at the Disney Family Museum in San Francisco.

I have hundreds more photos at this historic museum. Has anyone else visited there? But I dug these out because we keep seeing CEL so often. I have at least one other set of CEL photos from another museum.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard, I have heard SOP meaning grift often enough so it wasn't a surprise.

Never heard of "priming" but it makes sense. When I was a kid, we used to trick others by asking: how do you pronounce s-h-i-r-t-l-e-s-s? (answer) CORRECT! How do you pronounce b-r-a-l-e-s-s? (answer) CORRECT! How do you pronounce T-I-T-L-E-S? (answer) You pervert! Is that the way you say TITLES?

BTW, I think a lot of unethical pollsters resort to that trick. Honest ones studiously avoid doing that.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of an old joke that involves chestnuts and walnuts. But it's best to not go there.

Picard said...

Jinx yes, that is exactly what psychologists mean by priming!

Here is a very brief explanation in Psychology Today

There are actually many kinds of priming.

Read this Wikipedia article to learn about these varied forms of priming.

Yes, people indeed can use this to manipulate for political purposes. What you are describing is called a "Push Poll". It is not really a poll at all. It is designed to catch people off guard with manipulative priming. Most "poll" phone calls during election season are Push Polls not real polls.

Anon at 6:41PM can you offer a pointer for those of us who are naive but curious?



SwampCat said...

Picard, I enjoyed your article and discussion on Priming. I took a psychology course in college on how to create a survey or test. So easy to prime.

As part of our lesson we had to take a test. The first part was all upbeat questions(leading, of course).

Are you generally happy? Is life good for you.. etc. Then came the loaded question, and the point of the exercise. “Is your sex life satisfactory?”

Well since this was given to college freshmen who really didn’t know anyone, what kind of honest response would you expect?

But after all of that happy talk, most of us said yes!

Then came the second part. Have you ever been hurt? (Who hasn’t! ). Is life perfect for you? ( is it ever?) And so on with negative questions. And then the loaded question, Is your sex life satisfactory?

All of the freshmen answered No!

Fascinating lesson on how to word a survey!

Wilbur Charles said...

TTP, that was my finale but my FIW came because of CED etco, eg I had GRAY. Ah, D-O too. And..
I had no idea about the ROUND OF APPLAUSE. Inexperience.

Dan Issel with the old ABA KY Colonels

Now, if only I'd remembered my A.C. Doyle:
"What of the shaft?
The shaft was cut in England:
A long shaft, a strong shaft,
Barbed and trim and true;
So we’ll drink all together
To the grey goose-feather
And the land where the grey goose flew."

There's a wonderful recital if you'd care to listen to the whole poem(from "The White Company"). Song of the Bow

Yes, Spitz, that was my route from Nashua to E.GrandRapids from '83-2003. MiL lived there.

In my day I worked for a laundry actually called "Calender Linen Supply" and of course they had the long HOT PRESSES".

WC

Ol' Man Keith said...

Sorry for posting so late.
I like to write early & hate
To linger this out.
But somehow I just forgot
That I'd finished & needed to jot
A gloating "Tada" shout.

Please forgive;
Of shame I misgive.
~ OMK

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I did not get the CLAPs. That's always good news. The bad news is I thought it was a themeless puzzle. Really painful puzzle, Joe! Thanks, Lemonade, for 'splainin' much of it to me.

On a bus trip to San Antonio we had a step-on guide who told us about "Haunted San Antonio" among other interesting points. I had seen her do the haunted tour on TV a few months prior. We ended up at this lovely hotel (whose name I've forgotten) and she was telling us about a gifted pianist who had played the grand piano in the common area there. We could hear the ivories tinkling away as we walked into that area, but no one sat at the keys. Really eerie! I CHIRPILY asked if the ghost of that pianist was still playing there. Everyone laughed. The guide didn't like losing the audience even for a minute and told me icily, "No, it's a player piano."

Steve said...

@Jayce - you're right. The blue Kirkland vodka is Grey Goose. Try a blind tasting one day. The red (and more expensive) variety is different, and, IMHO, not as good. Costco make you go to the store for alcohol though, you can't order it online.

Wilbur Charles said...

Picard, thanks for noticing "Primeing". I was up early this morning and finished my Jumble, poem and even today's xword.

But I'm unable to comment until someone opens up Saturday

WC