google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, April 18, 2020, Mary Lou Guizzo

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Apr 18, 2020

Saturday, April 18, 2020, Mary Lou Guizzo

Themeless Saturday by Mary Lou Guizzo




Today our constructor is Mary Lou Guizzo who C.C. calls "a very talented constructor". Here is her gracious reply to my note to her about crosswords, C.C. and her name that evokes memories of Ricky Nelson:

Hi Gary,

Yes, I’ve been serenaded with that song more than once, LOL!

You and my husband have much in common. He taught science (Biology and Anatomy primarily) for 43 years before retiring. I met my husband at The University of Dayton  and we now live in Oakwood, OH which is a suburb of Dayton.

I am a retired medical technologist with a Specialty in Blood Banking (SBB). I’ve worked in hospitals, private labs and the Community Blood Center for many years.


The youngster in that picture is my grandson who I miss immensely during these days of quarantine. I cut back on the time I devoted to constructing when I started watching this little guy shortly after he was born. But I still keep my hand in creating puzzles a little.

I most definitely have heard of the crossword rockstar, CC! I followed her blog almost from it’s start until I started watching my grandson, 3 days/week, 10 hours a day. She is a very inspiring and impressive person.


I’ve been constructing crosswords for a few years now (my first having been published in the WSJ in 2013, a puzzle co-constructed with Jeff Chen). I do like to include women’s names in my puzzles whenever possible as you will see in today’s themeless. I hope you enjoyed the solve. Thanks to Rich and Patti for accepting and editing this puzzle.

Thanks again for your kind words and for getting in touch with me. Stay safe and be well.
Best,

Mary Lou

[Gary p.s.] - Mary Lou is still disappointed that her Dayton University Flyers didn't get a shot a the NCAA Tournament. They were very highly ranked and as good as anybody this year

Let's say Hello Mary Lou and explore her lovely puzzle!

Across:


1. Joe __: SCHMO - Slang for "Joe Anybody". From English from the use of the "schm" prefix in Yiddish to dismiss something; as in, "Fancy, schmancy."


6. Exude: OOZE.


10. Classified times: EVES - December 24th and 31st, e.g.


14. Distant: ALOOF.


15. Foam footwear: CROC - Often seen at my clinic 




16. Place for a grinder: DELI.


17. Metropolis nickname: MAN OF STEEL 




19. 2004 International Tennis Hall of Fame inductee: GRAF - Steffi 


20. Liqueur flavoring: MENTHE.

21. "Wrong!": IT ISN'T.

23. Money layouts, say: PHOTO SPREADS - Of all the magazines Mary Lou could have chosen...


26. Engaged: BUSIED.


29. John Wayne film set in Tanganyika: HATARI - Swahili for Danger!




30. 15th-century ruler Axayácatl, e.g.: AZTEC - Here ya go! Blue on the map below




31. Sean who played Samwise: ASTIN A stouthearted Hobbit


32. Trip-taking aid: LSD.


35. She plays Watson on "Elementary": LIU - She plays Dr. Joan Watson in an updated version of Sherlock Holmes




36. Medalworthy acts: HEROICS - We see them every day now!


38. __ Day: Hawaii celebration: LEI - While we are celebrating May Day...

39. ISP choice: MSN.

40. Watts on the keys: ANDRE - ANDRE Previn on the keys would have more familiar to me


41. Absconds: FLEES - No one saw 
Andy Dufresne abscond with the duplicate bank books from Shawshank Prison


43. Sharper-tasting: TARTER.


45. Mall booths: KIOSKS.


46. Nakia portrayer in "Black Panther": LUPITA NYONGO - She won for 12 Years A Slave. We only saw the fabulous June Squibb in Nebraska




49. Melodic pieces: ARIOSI - A vocal piece falling somewhere between recitative and an aria. It literally means "Airy"


50. Doesn't toss: REUSES - Clever recycling cluing took some time 


53. __ waiting: CALL.


54. The better of a familiar pair: LESSER EVIL - Yeah, I vote too.


58. Wells' Weena et al.: ELOI - A true H.G. Wells tribe of Crosswordland 


59. Nevada city straddling the Humboldt River: ELKO - About 17 hours from me on the Platte River




60. Uplift: ELATE.


61. Old swift fliers: SSTS.


62. Cannon of Hollywood: DYAN - Jennifer Grant is shown here with her mother DYAN Cannon. Considering her dad was Cary Grant, her gene pool was pretty good!




63. Newton parts: DYNES More than you would ever want to know



Down:


1. "In the Lonely Hour" singer Smith: SAM A song of unrequited love

2. Refuse to talk, with "up": CLAM - "Get me a lawyer!"


3. Sharpen: HONE.


4. Heavenly dessert?: MOONPIE.




5. Beyond expectations: OFF THE CHARTS - The success of the Big Bang Theory show above 

6. String group: OCTET.


7. Bank deposit?: ORE - The Cornwall, PA Iron ORE Bank map from 1873




8. Kazan of "Olive Kitteridge": ZOE - ZOE, 
the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, played Denise Thibodeau. Frances McDormand played the title role in this Emmy Winner and is at the mic below. Zoe is in the red/white striped dress. Trailer



9. Like a much-watched 8/21/2017 alignment: ECLIPTIC - It was an ECLIPTIC event for Joann and me when the Moon's shadow came across Eastern Nebraska on this date




10. More out-there: EDGIER.


11. Pre-revolution French royal residence site: VERSAILLES The story of Versailles after the revoltuion (2 minutes)


12. African antelope: ELAND.


13. Sieves: SIFTS.


18. Rough end?: SHOD - Husker FB used to run ROUGHSHOD over most all comers. Sigh...


22. Altered for the better: TRANSFIGURED A part of Christianity 


24. "My bad": OH SORRY.


25. "Mercure" composer Erik: SATIE - A 1924 opera with decor and costumes designed by Picasso 



26. Skin soother: BALM.


27. Israeli weapons: UZIS.


28. Aerial daredevil: STUNT PILOT - Barnstormers




31. "As You Like It" forest: ARDEN - A lovely golf course is located near it in central England




55. English cathedral town: ELY - It is a 2-hr drive east from Forest of Arden golf course. The magnificent cathedral



33. Strive for: SEEK.


34. Ph.D. hurdle: DISS 8 most unusual DISSERTATIONS of all time


37. Necessitated: ENTAILED.


42. How a blown-open door may have been closed: LOOSELY.


44. Pungent spreads: AIOLIS - Burger King has it in here somewhere




45. One may be replaced: KNEE.


46. Ties: LACES.


47. Eurasian range: URALS.




48. "Ender's Game" author __ Scott Card: ORSON.




51. John in Wales: EVAN John in MANY languages


52. Surfer's stop: SITE.


56. Jamaican music: SKA.


57. Guitarist Paul: LES - Rick Harris wound up paying $90,000 to LES Paul's nephew on Pawn Stars for this guitar with a lot of provenance. 





Should you comment? Let Ricky Nelson tell you with another song:



48 comments:

  1. Here I am waiting for WC's comment to post. Happy Saturday, and I do remember Mary Lou commenting at the Corner in the early days before she was published. We have had many constructors in our Corner over the years.

    A fun Saturday with the hardest part for me being the spelling of LUPITA NYONGO .

    ZOE as clued was an unknown but it filled itself.

    Good to see you mary Lou and thanks as always HG.


    .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning!

    This one was lots easier than yesterday. Plus it was EGOT- and EMERY-free. I always like a puzzle that doesn't have a theme to miss. Don't think I ever heard of LUPITA NYONGO, but I got 'er. Thanx, Mary Lou and Husker.

    Now back to WWDTM...

    ReplyDelete
  3. So this one was easy for DO. Not for me. I tried Mary Lou, tried Mary Lou, tried Mary Lou but I knew she wouldn't do. DNF, giving up without a struggle. I stuck with it long enough to miss-fill ashe and sarte. But hey, it hasn't been that long ago that I wouldn't even try a Saturday puzzle.

    I thought LEI day in Hawaii was every day that ends in "y". How does one know the difference? Maybe I just hang out in the tourist places whenever I go there.

    I knew ELY in Nevada, but not in our former ruling country.

    Gary, those examples remind me that the degree really is "plied higher / deeper."

    I shocked - shocked I tell you - that Mary Lou would refer to "spread" as a money shot. But I'm no Larry Flynt, so who knows.

    On to the Sudoku and Sheffer crossword.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Y'all! Lots of learning moments in this puzzle, Mary Lou! Thank you, I guess. Enjoyed learning about you.

    Great expo, Gary! So glad to learn there wasn't a theme. I sure looked for one.

    I knew none of the proper names except DYAN & LES. Don't know these new actors because I can't stay awake long enough to watch movies.

    ReplyDelete



  5. Good morning.

    I have come to enjoy those crossword puzzles that (for me) put up a real tough challenge, and man o' man this one did (ymmv). Of course, not getting enough restful sleep may have a small part in it.

    I should have kept track, but I think I had more incorrect first fill answers than correct ones. In some cases, I had to try two or three words before getting to the correct one.

    So a fail today, but I'm not complaining. I'd like to see more puzzles like this on Fridays and Saturdays.

    Thank you, Mary Lou.

    Thank you too, Husker Gary. I am curious if you or anyone else knows why Superman would stand there and take bullets to the chest, yet duck when the bad guy throws the pistol at him ?

    ReplyDelete
  6. TTP, those blanks don't hurt, but that toy gun could.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It showed the absurdity of the show. Both the bad gut thinking throwing the gun at a creature where the bullets bounced off, as well as Superman ducking are ridiculous.

    245 years ago today was Paul Revere's ride.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Way too many unknown proper names crossing obscurity imho.

    ReplyDelete
  9. At first I thought this was going to stay a sea of white - but small toeholds and then it just started rolling and finished fast for a Saturday.

    Only slip up was putting ECLIPSIC crossing HASARI and having to change to ECLIPTIC to HATARI. The 2017 eclipse was amazing as we were right in the path and it was a relatively clear day.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyuuP-IO0nw

    LUPITA NYONGO is a wonderful actress but "12 years a Slave" is a hard movie to watch. She was Maz Kanata in the most recent Star Wars movies - but is unrecognizable because she is in a complete character costume.

    Thanks HG for the entertaining blog and Mary Lou for stopping by and for the challenging puzzle!




    ReplyDelete
  10. Good Morning:

    I must have been on Mary Lou's wavelength because I breezed through this in 19:09, pretty fast for a Saturday. I had Emit before Ooze and Ewan before Evan and needed perps for Lupita Nyongo whom I'm aware of, but not the correct spelling of her most unusual name. I liked the duos of Lei and Liu and LSD and Les, and the placement of Dyan next to Dynes. I didn't realize that Crocs are considered foam footwear. The second to last row struck me: Eloi, Elko and Elate: all Els. Seeing Cary Grant's daughter was a treat for this CG fan [Sigh].

    Thanks, Mary Lou for a fun solve and for sharing some thoughts with us and thanks, Gary, for another outstanding, informative review.

    Stay safe, all.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I think classified times refers to an abbreviation for evening used in ads.
    Also, while I'm at it, why is MSN referred to as an ISP, when it is really just a portal?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Musings
    -If you look at the Superman clip, the bad guy is shooting those blanks way left of George Reeves and then lobbing the gun two feet over his head. Hey, it was the 50’s with no CGI!
    -Keno – Thanks for pointing out EVE (EVENING) used in Classified (ads) times. I remember not liking my original explanation, soldiering past it and obviously never coming back to change it
    -Addendum – We got 7” wet inches of snow on Thursday night and by six o’clock Friday (yesterday) it was all gone and it will be 70F today. There is no place like Nebraska!

    ReplyDelete


  13. Thanks, D-O and Lemonade. I wish that Superman would circle the earth backwards enough times to turn the clock back and rid of us this scourge.

    Yes, KenoRunner, you are correct. As in "nites" for "eves".


    Yesterday, my groceries were delivered to someone else's house about 5 miles away, and left on the porch. The store made it right. Picked the order again and we got our groceries a couple of hours later.

    ReplyDelete


  14. Should have previewed. Yes, Husker Gary, that gunman must've had awful vision, and a torn rotator cuff.

    Our snow is melting very fast, and the deep green grass is quickly reemerging.

    Time to get productive.

    ReplyDelete
  15. So, am I hearing that one of the moderators has to begin the commenting? I just happened to get up early and do my dailies.

    I'm with IM in that this seemed relatively easy for a Saturday but not a gimme. No, I never heard the name of Ms NYONGO. At first I thought her last name was Ongo.

    It seems like I need perps for everything including VERSAILLES which I knew. And a tennis star with four letters not ASHE? Spelling AIOLI, I'M SORRY/OH… and SEAN/EWAN were my inkouts.

    This is my only FIR of the week. I've been ol' One-Box-Wilbur it seems.

    WC

    Ps, I went back to sleep figuring everything would be figured out when I awoke.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good morning everyone.

    DNK LUPITA NYONGO and spelling of AIOLIS, but got everything else. Had 'I'm sorry' before OH SORRY. Also had to tinker with 'busy at' to get to BUSIED with perp help. So, overall, I was satisfied with today's outing.
    Thanks Mary Lou for your fine note. Gary, a good job as always.
    ELKO - Considered Reno, but I think Reno is on the Truckee River. SKA seemed right so, a good WAG.

    ReplyDelete

  17. With my best effort I only got about half of the clues. So, Red Letters, Google and alphabet runs were used to fill in the rest of the puzzle. A true DNF. There were many interesting clues that Mary Lou had in the puzzle. I would like to see one of her easier themed puzzles sometime in the future. Gary, as usual, presented a great picture of the grid.

    At least Rich didn't insert EMERY and EGOT.

    The proper names got me except for DYAN and LES. The others needed perps and Google.

    At first I had GOTHAM CITY instead of MAN OF STEEL for the answer, but I got my superheros mixed up. Superman, not Batman.

    HG, we had snow most of the day yesterday, but other than making for some white-out conditions it only left a dusting on the grass. We didn't have much snow this year, but did have a lot of rain and cold weather. It's time for spring and then summer to show up.

    Have a great day everyone. Be safe.

    ReplyDelete
  18. At first I didn’t think I’d get through it, but plodded along, and got it done. Turned out to be a less daunting task than I thought, as is typical for a Saturday. A few too many proper nouns but overall a nice puzzle.

    ReplyDelete


  19. FIR only because I WAGed ELY/ECKO but the fact that I did finish means this was an easier Saturday challenge. Inkovers include eerier/EDGIER. Most clever clue map/LSD. So a "guizzo" (flicker/flash) of weekend luck.

    A mixed bag with harder FIW/DNF mid week puzzles. "Elementary and VERSAILLES" among two of my favorite cancelled series. Held off on HATARI..Thought I was confabulating "Atari". "Dakari" I knew was a TV show.

    Always wondered what the word meant... so..JC was an OK guy but on the Feast of the Transfiguration he got a lot better? Wha?

    Thought Samwise was a GOT role but realized he was a Hobbit love child of Patty/Cathy Lane and Gomez Addams.

    DISS? for dissertation? Hello? Mary Lou? Don't want to "dis" you but ...C'mon!

    The ELOI housed in the same spot as an earlier puzzle

    (Busy Hawaiian maternity wards 9 months after "LEI day?)

    Even worse.......

    "Isaac shouldn't eat his fig tarts before he __" ....DYNES

    English cathedral town named for TV apeman Ron ___ ELY

    This footwear is made of foam? That's a ____ CROC

    ....................................................

    BTW The retired author's skills as an SBB and serologist could be put to use during this crises.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Yesterday's and today's puzzles definitely got all the synapses firing away. The bottom half today was almost all perps, but it all came together nicely for a satisfying pat-on-the-back FIR. Ricky Nelson was a favorite of mine for his pure, smooth, soothing voice, but tragically gone too soon. Of course, Roy Orbison was tops in my book for his incredible range among other things. Which somehow leads me to contemporary "music" and the question, "Is it any coincidence that rap rhymes with crap?"

    ReplyDelete
  21. Interesting clues. Interesting puzzle and write up.
    I had a square of four cells that I couldn't suss. LUPITA NYONGO was totally unknown. I didn't get the ON in that one. I misses the RE in REUSES, which I should have known. I missed the NE in the middle of KNEE even though I had two knee replacements and repair surgery to one of them. DUH! So REUSES and KNEE were my downfall.
    I think my bad sounds so insincere. Just my opinion.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Oh Husker....

    You posted:

    "Mary Lou is still disappointed that her Dayton University Flyers didn't get a shot a the NCAA Tournament. They were very highly ranked and as good as anybody this year."

    tsk, tsk (lol)

    She's now also disappointed that you referred to her beloved UD as "Dayton University"!! She lives less than a mile from campus and just across the river from the legendary University of Dayton Arena where Obi Toppin had one of the greatest years of any flyer in history. Dayton! Flyers! GO UD!

    p.s. How'd NU do this year? jk ;)

    ReplyDelete

  23. Wow, had to dig deep to get this Saturday solve. But not without...

    Write-overs...OMIT/OOZE, ORAL/DISS, ALOE/BALM.

    There would have been many more but I don’t try and guess with these toughies, I just wait. So lots of white space before I dug in.

    I will say that this is the kind of puzzle I would have given up on earlier in my solving “career”.

    I do agree that there were a LOT of proper names, I also didn’t care for DISS. Hiss.

    “Quick, Superman, Duck!” Haha, that was a funny clip.

    And sad to say...not really...today is my last day on Earth....as a 66 year old. Some folks hate birthdays, I dislike the alternative.

    So stay safe, see you Monday (with any luck).

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hola!

    Mary Lou, thank you, for this splendid puzzle and for your appearance here. I really enjoy learning about the constructors and what inspires them.

    Initially I was sure this would be impossible for me to finish but amazingly I did! Luckily I know enough of Shakespeare to start with ARDEN forest then jumped around filling here and there. I waited on VERSAILLES while mulling over the spelling. Filled it and that entire strand came to life.

    AZTEC immediately went in, too and Lucy LIU then UZIS. LUPITA fell easily but NYONGO had to wait for perps.

    Like IM, I find it a treat to see the daughter of Cary Grant and DYAN Cannon, she, the lucky lady who married Cary Grant.

    Drat! I had I'M SORRY and I'M SORRY I never changed it. But I don't recall HATARI, either. My only write over was replacing TOP with OFF in OFFTHECHARTS. RE-USES was tricky.

    Many thanks, Gary, for your knowledgeable and insightful commentary.

    Have a fabulous but safe day, everyone!



    ReplyDelete
  25. "Hello Mary Lou" and other cornerites. It was a DNF due to a WAG at the cross of OH & HATARI. Never heard of the movie and it was a guess between OK or OH, MASARI, MATARI, or KATARI, AND ECLIPSIC or ECLIPTIC. But I correctly perped LUPETIN YONGO- total unknown and I only got it because the unknown Ender's Game author name wouldn't be ARSON, so ORSON it was. Didn't really know ASTIN, ZOE, or LIU but guessed 'em correctly.

    If it's Erik and a composer it's usuallly SATIE in crossword land.
    The MAN OF STEEL wasn't bulletproof in real life. Steve Reeves shot himself.
    MSN was an easy fill but I didn't know they were an ISP, just a webSITE.
    KNEE- one that was replaced-MINE
    DYAN didn't name her Judy, Judy Judy?

    Gary- you could have mapped ELKO to ELY, Nevada.
    Elko, Nevada 89801 to Ely, Nevada 89301
    2 h 52 min (178.4 mi) via NV-229 E and US-93



    ReplyDelete
  26. Thank you Mary Lou and Gary.
    This puzzle was interesting but too tough for me without a few look-ups. I have a long way to go to get beyond my current level.

    Like others, I had IMSORRY/OHSORRY, BUSYAT/BUSIED, EMIT/OOZE and other goofs that had me in a total mess. Oh well, never in, never win.

    I found the dissertation topics hilarious. I’d love to read the one about unicorns because I’ve always thought they do exist.... somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Wilbur- Arthur ASHE was a great tennis player who won TWO Grand Slams.

    Steffi GRAF was the greatest woman tennis player, better than Serena IMHO. In 1988 she won ALL FOUR grand slam tournaments and the gold medal in the Olympics. The Golden Slam.

    Her grand slam total? 22 vs. Ashe's 2. He died early after receiving a blood transfusion donated by someone with AIDS. Sad story. Another four-letter tennis player with ELEVEN Slams- Bjorn BORG. And then there's Billie Jean KING with 12 singles titles in the Slams.

    So your options are ASHE, GRAF, BORG, & KING.

    And why are people crying about EMERY. Every house probably has multiple emery boards.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Musing 2
    -Bucky, Mary Lou did gently correct me earlier to put University of Dayton instead of Dayton University but my memory being what it is, I did made the same mistake later.
    -UN or UNL or NU all work for my favorite university
    -p.s. How'd your team do from 1971 - 1998? :-) We had our time in the sun!
    -For what it's worth, Superman was played by George Reeves and not Steve Reeves. Steve played very different super heroes

    ReplyDelete
  29. Difficult at best for me - not as enjoyable as I had hoped but made it though with a bit of help.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Hi everybody.

    Thanks Mary Lou and Gary. I wasn't a big fan of Ricky Nelson's choice in singing material but Hello Mary Lou was my favorite by far.

    Being a bit of an amateur astronomer, I know the definition of "The plane of the ecliptic." I couldn't connect that with the clue however. How did the clue point you all to an eclipse of the sun? Is it that the earth, moon and sun are all in the same plane? The clue seems fuzzy to me.

    Lucina, I agree that Cary Grant was a very appealing fellow. Dunno how lucky it would be to have been married to him though... After one got finished drooling and patting oneself on the back for marrying such an attractive husband, would one still be happy with his kindness, helpfulness around the house, parenting, etc? Maybe such attractive people are often better admired from a little distance.

    I was helping Jordan with his geometry yesterday. He didn't get it, even with my help. He seemed upset, almost frozen. I was really discouraged when we called it quits. Then later we gave it another try and for some reason, things went much better. He had a more positive attitude and most of the homework seemed to make sense to him. Dunno what transpired in his brain but I am thankful.

    ~ Mind how you go...

    ReplyDelete
  31. FIR whilst in slogville. Lots of write-overs, but everything gettable eventually. Very crafty construction and a joy-filled challenge. Thanks for the diversion.

    ReplyDelete
  32. The biggest hurdle during my quest of a Ph.D in Mathematics was the battery of qualifying exams in Algebra, Analysis, and Topology. The Analysis exam was a long list of problems, each challenging enough to be a take-home exam. I almost got up and left the room, but, instead, stuck to it and did enough to pass the exam. Word in the hall was that each of several professors contributed one problem each and tried to impress the others with its cleverness and difficulty. Then, the word in the hall was that we would be expected to do all of the problems and be ready to produce them at our respective oral exams. I did them all and learned a lot. The only question at my oral exam was “Why doesn’t the Earth fall into the sun””

    ReplyDelete
  33. Saturday Stumper indeed...

    Enjoyed the write up, & Superman ducking,
    & it made me go searching Youtube for George Reeves Superman Bloopers,
    but sadly, there are none. There are behind the scenes clips for the
    Superman movies, & a nice (color) video about special effects in the old
    days, & how they got George to fly etc...

    But no,
    I am going to take advantage of 28. Aerial daredevil: STUNT PILOT - Barnstormers
    to point out that you can do this too!
    From the comfort of your home chair!

    Regulars will know how I rave about my flight sim game,
    IL2 Sturmovic Battle of Britain. So I thought I would take
    this opportunity to show you what it is like.

    1st of all, you need to know how to fly a real plane! (approx 9 minutes)

    If you like this, you can see more videos on my channel,
    but they have no oration. I just use Youtube as a waystation
    so I can posts actual battle vids on our Blog for discussions
    about tactics.

    Or you can watch much better prepared videos here.

    Here is our Website, Click on the three bars for more options like The Wrecking Crew Theatre for videos.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Actually, here is a nicely done video.

    Using a desktop personal computer gives you wonderful graphics clarity
    that YouTube cannot do justice.

    here is a typical home setup.
    However I use a 43" TV for my main screen, & a 15" monitor for my instruments.
    on the IPad I have radar & targeting info.

    You will need some type of headtracker to be able to look in all directions. I use TrakIR which clips on a baseball hat.
    The better ones (called Edtracker) work better, but I have heard wives say they
    makes their husbands look like Teletubbies...

    Oh, & did I mention, it helps to know how to fly a plane...

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hand up way too many proper names of people, places and things for my pleasure. Worst was that cluster in the middle: NYONGO/ARDEN/ASTIN/SATIE/HATARI. Second worst: NYONGO/ORSON/ELKO/DYAN/ELY. FIW with DIAN/ELI which seemed just as good.

    The clue for KNEE was clever. Why can't we have more clever and less Onomastics (LIU)?

    Can someone explain the clue for ORE? Does LOOSELY make sense for a door? Thank you Husker Gary for explaining PHOTO SPREADS. I see now that this was clever.

    Here we were experiencing ECLIPTIC Totality on 8/21/2017

    Even with all of my scientific understanding, it really was a transcendent experience. Did Husker Gary or anyone else get to experience ECLIPTIC Totality?

    Here I experienced some of the best STUNT PILOTs I have ever seen.

    That guy Chuck Aaron is the only person ever to do those upside down helicopter flights. This was his last performance of his career. So grateful I got to see it and to meet him.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Hungry Mother thank you for your DISSertation stories. Sounds stressful. Glad you prevailed! For my undergraduate and graduate degrees I just had to build something. The test was whether what I built worked.

    From Yesterday:
    SwampCat and Wilbur Charles thank you for the late night additions to the Priming discussion. I loved your examples SwampCat!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Bill G:
    You are right about that and if we can remotely judge from his four marriages, perhaps CG was not the best of husbands.

    Picard:
    I'm sorry you found this puzzle frustrating. It demonstrates how our different frames of references influences how we solve puzzles. I don't do well with scientific clues, but excel in the arts clues.

    ReplyDelete
  38. I too was nonplussed at the number of proper names. Especially on Saturday my hope is that a long across fill will provide plenty of down perps. My memory is bad: c above re. VERSAILLES.

    Marylou fortunately reversed the process by providing clues which though clever were gettable. Easy for me to say I'm always chirping away when I FIR a Saturday.

    WC

    Addendum: Since it was encountered here I've been fascinated by the word: disengenuous. In the song the girl who's just seen her boyfriend kissing her best friend tells her mother(to keep from telling her a LIE) that "Sad Movies Always Make me Cry". I thought this was perfectly disengenuous as I prefer to understand it. eg To deceive without exactly lying. My son disagrees. The web seems to favor him in that the girl , whether lying or not is being dishonest. Fine subject for a dissertation. Ok here's the Song

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  39. I suspect that Grant just thought his wives had a "best when used by" date. The evidence is that Virginia was 2 years younger, Barbara Hutton was 8 years younger, Betsy was 19 years younger, Dyan was 33 years younger, and Barbara Harris was "only" 31 years younger.

    But I think that the glitziest marriage resume was that of John Derek. Pati Behrs (2 years OLDER), Ursula 10 years younger, Linda Evans 16 years younger, and Bo 30 years younger.

    Glad I'm not rich and famous, let alone handsome. Being "stuck" with my darling wife for almost 30 years has been pretty good duty.

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  40. Took 100 min. to finish. Only missed EVAN and AIOlIS (still can't find that one!). Always have trouble with name dirivatives - can't find those in any of my references. Any time I hear mention of Rick Nelson, I remember how he was booed off the stage in the Madison Square Garden when he first sang his personal fav music ... C&W. That experience led him to write and compose his biggest C&E hit "Garden Party" his biggest C&W hit (and also a bit for John Fogerty). Love to play that song! I truly believe " ..if you can't please everyone, you might as well please yourself"!!

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  41. Bobbi, Did you mean AIOLIS?
    Aioli, allioli or aïoli is a Mediterranean sauce made of garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and an egg yolk. The names mean "garlic and oil" in Catalan and Provençal. It is found in the cuisines of the Mediterranean coasts of Spain, France and Italy.

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  42. Too hard for me, Could Not Finish.

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  43. Jayce, you're killing me...

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  44. Bill G @ 1438 said: "Being a bit of an amateur astronomer, I know the definition of "The plane of the ecliptic." I couldn't connect that with the clue however. How did the clue point you all to an eclipse of the sun?"

    I had the same hesitation but went with the perps.
    The clue invites an adjective. As such Merriam defines ECLIPTIC as : of or relating to the ecliptic or an eclipse

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  45. Enjoyed the puzzle today. Interesting back-stories and explanations, Gary. Now I know what you are doing when you are sitting in your back yard :)

    Doug

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  46. Thanks for the kind note, neighbor Doug! I'm glad that I told your wife to have you read this since she said you do the puzzle everyday. Come visit more often.

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  47. I finally met Idris Elba on the One World special tonight.

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