google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, May 15, 2020, Jeffrey Wechsler

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May 15, 2020

Friday, May 15, 2020, Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: PSST- S said to T

Like in the old days, Jeffrey is back for his every other Friday publication. Another simple but consistent theme; words which end SS are reparsed with the ending ST. Themers 1 and 4 have the first-word change, 2 and 3 the last word. As usual, the puzzle is filled with much sparkly fill  AIRLINE, ALL HERE, APPLIES, ATTIRED, DIES OUT, ENCHANT, I CAN SAY, MAHALIA, MR. RIGHT, PASSION, PONTOON, SAD TIME, STRAFED,  THE RACK, and TREAT AS. As with much of his efforts, the ones in ORANGE are being introduced to the LAT today. First the theme...

16A. Furniture maker's designated stock of wood?:  CHESPIECES (11). CHESS pieces.

31A. Accommodate Simba at one's hotel?: TAKE A WILD GUEST (14). Take a wild GUESS.

36A. Foggy playground vista?: A SWING AND A MIST (14). A swing and a MISS. Some baseball for C.C.

57A. Shipment of nautical parts?: MAST TRANSIT (11). MASS transit.

Next,

Across:

1. 911 pro: EMT. Emergency Medical Technician.

4. Like a certain elevated plane: ASTRAL. There are SEVEN planes.

10. Tack on: ADD.

13. "Ain't interested": NAH. Steve, is this American or from across the pond.

14. Present and accounted for: ALL HERE.

15. Word with honey or mud: PIE. I like Key Lime and my personal favorite

18. Bench press target: PECtoral.

19. Silent star of early talkies: HARPO. Another Marx on our card.

20. Like the Grinch: MEAN.

21. "Sing it, Sam" speaker: ILSA. The actual quotation.

22. Frightens: ALARMS.

24. Cherished activity: PASSION. Puzzling is one of my passions.

26. "Well-played!": NICE. Nothing French here.

27. Notable period: ERA.

30. Indigenous Alaskan: ALEUT a member of a people inhabiting the Aleutian Islands, other islands in the Bering Sea, and parts of western Alaska.

35. What may float your boat: PONTOON.
43. Be compatible: FIT IN.

44. __ Speedwagon: REO. The car, the band?

45. Rent-__: A-CAR.

46. A real keeper, romantically: MR RIGHT. Unless you are Diane Keaton.

49. Rant: TIRADE.

51. Bard's "Bummer!": ALAS. Shakespeare I.

52. Lack of impediments: EASE.

55. 1492 vessel: PINTA. Name the other two.

56. Brand "choosy moms choose," in ads: JIF.

59. Gender-neutral pronoun: ONE.

60. Not naked: ATTIRED. Hmm.

61. Professional org. since 1847: AMA. American Medical Association.

62. Old Glory hue: RED. White and blue.

63. First word of Dorothy's last line in Oz: THERE'S. No place like home. But is it really two words?

64. "I'm interested": YES. Meh.

Down:

1. Fascinate: ENCHANT. I like the old TV series GRIMM.

2. 1966 self-titled gospel album: MAHALIA. Ms. JACKSON.

3. Emotionally stressed, after "on": THE RACK. I do not think of it as an emotional stressor.

4. Swiss peak: ALP.

5. Poor, as odds: SLIM. And none.

6. What you might be in the Bible?: THEE. There is a Jason in the Hebrew Bible. READ.

7. Summary: RECAP.

8. Place for games: ARENA.

9. "__ Misérables": LES.

10. Submits one's résumé: APPLIES.

11. Wanes: DIES OUT.

12. Pour into a carafe: DECANT. Time to learn

14. Quark place: ATOM.

17. Binge: SPREE.

21. Alcatraz, for one: ISLE.

23. Affix, as a shoulder patch: SEW ON.

25. Spa amenity: SAUNA.

28. One may be given at a 29-Down: RING.

29. See 28-Down: ALTAR.

32. Acting like: APING.

33. "Ta-da!": DONE.

34. Title character who is never onstage: GODOT. I am still waiting to meet him.

36. Delta, for one: AIRLINE.

37. Fired on from above: STRAFED.

38. Units for gamers: WIIS.
39. County including the Muir Woods sequoias: MARIN.

40. "They've authorized me to report ... ": I CAN SAY. Too much politics.

41. Period of mourning, e.g.: SAD TIME. Understatement.

42. Regard to be: TREAT AS.

43. Key of two Beethoven symphonies: F-MAJOR.
Symphony No. 6 "Pastoral", Op. 68 (1808)
Symphony No. 8, Op. 93 (1812)

47. Baskerville Hall landscape: HEATH. Back again.

48. "Things sweet to __ prove in digestion sour": "Richard II": TASTE.
JOHN OF GAUNT- Act I - Scene 3
Things sweet to taste prove in digestion sour.
You urged me as a judge, but I had rather
You would have bid me argue like a father.

50. Air 2 or Pro: iPAD.

53. Move a bit: STIR.

54. To be, in Bordeaux: ETRE. Or not...more Shakespeare.

57. Calisthenics aid: MAT.

58. High-__ image: RES. Or Hi-Def.

Wow, what a week. Internet issues, and a tough week with my eye doctor, but we survived. Fun times with JW. Be careful, be safe. Lemonade out.


63 comments:

Bill G said...

Hi everybody. I got the theme and enjoyed it. Clever stuff. Fun fill too. Thanks Jeffrey and Lemon.

The Thunderbirds are supposed to fly over here about 1:40 in the afternoon. I am looking forward to it.

~ Mind how you go...

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you Jeffrey for a challenging whimsical romp thru CW land that suits your style to a T.

Thank you, Lemonade, for another great expo despite all your eye problems. Hope you are well.

Has anyone heard how our once-first-poster Barry is doing in this SAD TIME? Wasn't he from Brooklyn or somewhere in that hotspot NYC?

CHEST PIECES could have a racy connotation. Reminded me of an old HS boyfriend who went off to college. He wrote me that he was learning to play CHEST. He got teased a lot about that malapropism, especially since his brother had told us he was over sixteen now and had his "adultery" license to drive.

Took a while to find the literal answer to "float my boat": PONTOON.

Never have poured into a carafe, but I managed DECANT right away with no perps.

STRAFED was one too many letters to be SnipED.

Took me a while to elevate to this ASTRAL plane. Nirvana eludes me.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

For once, the theme did not STump me. Gotta like a puzzle that I actually understand. Needed to change THOU to THEE and LONG to SLIM, but otherwise this was a smooth solve. Easier than I expected. Thanx for the adventure, JW and for the explication, Lemonade. (Would've been cute if you'd found a JIF GIF.)

DELTA: It's also a dental insurance giant that I bid farewell last year. I think they may be the most profitable non-profit in the country.

MAHALIA: You have to be "of a certain age" to remember Mahalia Jackson, but in her day she was a giant.

PK, I noticed that same length deficiency in "Sniped." I believe Barry was from Boston, or at least from the Boston area. Or am I confusing him with Barry Bostwick? No, I think it's Boston.

PK said...

D-O, thanks for the correction. Still hope he's okay.

Lucina said...

Hola!

A Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle is worth being up so early for me! Thank you, JW. And thank you, Lemonade for another well parsed puzzle.

I have to admit I started slowly, filling in at random here and there but then I gained momentum and was DONE! This suited me to a T!

Surely everyone knows it was the Nina, the PINTA and the Santa Maria.

CSO to all those Californians who live in MARIN County. I believe that is Jayce and OMKeith as well as Misty. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Waiting for GODOT is certainly one of the strangest plays I've ever read. Definitely absurd!

It's a SAD TIME in the life of our nation with this pandemic taking so many lives and causing havoc in all parts of society. Our state will open today.

Ooh, yes, MAHALIA Jackson was a force of nature!

I'm now going to try to return to sleep. I'll be back later.

I wish THEE all a good day!

Wilbur Charles said...

NAH, NAH ain't from ovah theyah, it's been right heeah all the time.
And, adding a SHA to those NAHs
And… changing "job" to life….

I'm so used to INUIT that ALEUT was a struggle. The whole xword was a struggle. Did it in my insomniatic state. I finally took a long drink of chamomile tea. I misplaced my Tylenol PM. Maybe I should just stay with cham+Mel*.

I was thinking of a pain patch for shoulder pain that one "affixes" by pasting on. Jeff was referring to an epaulet(te)

GODOT - CSO to OMK** who referred us J'ers to that elusive character. Misty, feel free to decipher Beckett for us illiterati.

I liked MOORS for that bleak, hound infested hall. Not to speak of NIKE/IPAD- Apples are for eating
And DEF/RES.

This started easy for a Friday but I bogged down in the south. I hate to bring up the J again but I had unscrambled TIRADE into ATIRE(sic) and b@#$ed and moaned about careless editing. Mr S. convinced me I was right

And finally if MASS TRANSIT and Boston converge then we need some input from Charlie
Btw…
Lemony, I see your taste is more like Anon-T"s. But I liked all the links and always appreciate a JeffWesch

WC
* Melatonin. Did you hear the one about Mel fighting Covid?

**Not to speak of 48A

Big Easy said...

I CAN SAY that the SE gave me fits this morning.

40.D "They've authorized me to report"- in low light, my early morning brain misread it as "They're authorized to report to me". I CAN SAY was my last fill after changing I-MAC to PAD and Hi-DEF to Hi-RES.

I caught the theme at GUEST and backed up to fill the NW with a WAG for MAHALIA (a "local" around here). The way to finish Xwords puzzles is to TAKE A WILD GUES-S, not T.

MARIN- okay, redwoods are a type of sequoia, just taller and thinner. One of them fell and killed somebody this year in the Muir Woods.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-SWING AND A MIST made me laugh out loud
-A “Roughing the passer” penalty will “tack on” 15 more yards
-ALL HERE – Middle school kids love to take roll for me. High schoolers? Not so much.
-ISLE evokes a different image to me than Alcatraz
-AIRLINE – Do you choose ONE for the brand name or just the cheapest and easiest flight?
-STIR – What you don’t want to see if you have an anesthetized lion on the operating table

Yellowrocks said...

I liked this theme. It was slow going at first, but when I got CHEST for CHESS the solve sped up considerably. Knowing the gimmick helped a lot.
Aside from the T, I wait for one perp to choose ALUET or INUIT. "Although both the Aleut and Inuit peoples inhabit northern environments, particularly coastal environments, the Aleutian Islands are subarctic, while most Inuit populations are found within the Arctic circle . The Inuit population is significantly greater than the Aleut population."
The idiom, on the rack, has come to mean more the ancient instrument of torture. Since that kind of rack is not used these days, the current saying, on the rack, refers to suffering great physical or mental pain. "I was on the rack waiting to see whether I passed my CPA exam."
I was given a lovely decanter as a wedding gift. A guest let the very heavy stopper drop into the neck of the decanter and broke the vessel.
Lemon, thanks for the interesting blog. I am thinking of you as you navigate your eye problems. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

Took 10 minutes & 24 seconds. Fast for me for a Friday, especially a JW Friday. A lot faster than yesterday's.

I'm not of the age to have known Mahalia. The MRR in "Mr. Right" looked suspicious. I was confident in the odds being long, until slim rescued me. I think "Enterprise" should've preceded "Rent-"

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

What a treat to have a Bruce offering on Thursday and a Jeffrey offering the very next day, two of my favorite constructors! This had some bite and was a little slow in exposing the theme, but, eventually, the Aha moment came. Only two w/os, Board/Arena and Our/One. I liked REO abutting A Car, Ring abutting Altar, and the Res/Yes duo. Heath and Stir appear once again.

Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a fun and enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for your always spot on review of JW’s puzzles. I hope your eye issues get resolved.

We’re supposed to have some very nasty weather this afternoon and evening with very strong winds and heavy rainfall. The calendar says May, but Mother Nature is marching to a different drummer! My A/C serviceman is due this afternoon for the Spring checkup but needing a/c anytime soon seems highly unlikely. (I hope I have to eat those words come Summer.)

Stay safe, all.

Anonymous said...

Fun puzzle. Great write up Lemony. Hope your vision issues subside.

Thou/thee and def/res got it done. Beethoven's 5th and 9th get all the attention but the others are equally wonderful to me.

Stay safe all.

JB2

Wilbur Charles said...

Re. "Roughing the Passer"...
Some NFL accountant figured out how much Tom Brady's injury cost in TV revenue in 2008 and he became an Untouchable.

AIRLINE? If SW will get me there it's a no-brainer.

To sum up YR's explanation of RACK: It's a metaphor. And…. They're ALL RENT-A-CARS

I couldn't get any perps on the RING/ALTAR 'duo'. Then I grok'ed the theme and the V8 can fell.

Don't camera aficionados refer to it as Hi-REz?

WC

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

May 15, 1950

....70 years ago.."a date that will live in INFANCY"

Mom got a call from the family doctor (what's an obstetrician?) "Stella, you're too far past your due date, come into the office. We're going to induce you today."

Careful fetal heart rate monitoring and uterine contraction evaluation controlled by titration of a pitocin drip?....NOPE.(it's 1950)..seated in the Doc's waiting room leafing through magazines, a nurse gave Mom a shot every few minutes. "When you feel contractions go to the hospital."

She did and a few hours later out popped a fat ugly baby.
baby boy....

https://paste.pics/a086d86f6aea5184bb710716ecddc964

(Sorry like so many of you don't know how to do the URL text linkthing)

On to the puzzle...

An almost clean sweep Friday with one inkover I thought many would put Garbo for HARPO! ...Oprah's mirror image (Although the clue if read correctly was clear)

The fun long themed clues definitely helped.

Forgot about Mahalia Jackson often on "The Ed Sullivan Shew"..calling Alcatraz an ISLE makes it sound like a romantic resort. ("Come and stay awhile") and once again ILSA shows up to say hello.

Re: my previous Mr/Dr Rant.. MRRIGHT has no need for an abbreviation in the clue.

What we used to call PONTOON boats now more likely referred to as party barges.

ON THE RACK ...I don't get it
You can'tescape:

The old REO speed wagon was _________ with four whitewalls.....ATTIRED.

Police sting operation on an Asian restaurant....TIRADE.

1966 self-titled album.....SELF

At least it's not snowing. See you tomorrow

desper-otto said...

Wilbur, I see it often as Hi-Res. It can refer to either video or audio. But I doubt that my aging ears would hear any difference going beyond the 16-bit audio bit-depth of a CD.

Lemonade714 said...

RAY'S link .

Hi-rez; only if it is a rapper. WATCH IT

PK said...

Happy Birthday, Ray-O-Sunshine! May you have many more chuckle-worthy days!

jfromvt said...

Fun puzzle. I always enjoy well done play on word themes.

This took a little longer than usual, but not really sure why. NW corner was the last for me, had SCARES instead of ALARMS, which slowed me down.

Small things make my day. Our paper changed formats, and the puzzle was in a strange spot. Now they’ve moved it to a bottom corner, so it’s easy to fold up and put on my clipboard! Very happy...lol.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Thanks lemonade you made it look so easy..I've tried to embed the picture url in a text. All I can find online link text which doesn't work.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Link text...carat a href="url" carat link text carat/carat

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Thanks PK...with no party I get to eat the whole cake myself ��

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

?? was a bday cake emoji..lol

Shankers said...

My paper doesn't print the puzzle's title, so the theme didn't emerge til half way through. Like many others I had Inuit before aleut, and PGA before AMA. For some reason strafed came right away as did Godot, so a nice Friday FIR test from a great constructor.

desper-otto said...

Ray-O, check out Create Comment Links in the Olio section on the R-H side of the main blog page.

OMaxiN said...

FIR after seeing the theme answer A SWING AND A MIST. Had to change long odds to SLIM. The NW was the last to fill.

We made the very long trip from S.F, CA to the Redwoods National Park. Redwoods were amazing, but we could have saved a lot of wear and tear (not to mention cash) by simply driving across the Golden Gate to MARIN County Muir Woods. However, the return to Bodega Bay, Point Reyes & Don Pancho's in Petaluma made that trek worth the effort

Thank you JW and Lemonade.
MO

SwampCat said...

Wow! Another treat from our favorite word wizard! Thanks, JW, I even finished this one. Yay me! Of course it took half the day, but I’ll claim a rare victory.

So many clever clues. I loved What you might be in the Bible for THEE. Obvious, one you get it. Also What might float your boat for PONTOON. But my favorite was MAST TRANSIT, which also gave me the theme.

I also wanted Inuit for ALEUT, but perps wouldn’t let me have it. I loved those incongruous PIES. just for the mental pictures they produced.

Lemony, thanks for your usual sparkle. Good luck with the vision thing. And yes I knew about Jason. Interesting...

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

DO ..
That syntax doesnt work. I'll check with Bill suggested on the page.

Thanks

Hungry Mother said...

FIR, and liked the useful theme. Writeovers: THERACK 4 THEedge, RING 4 RIte, GODOT 4 GaDOT Not too bad for this end of the week.

desper-otto said...

Ray-O -- that syntax works after you publish your comment. I've been using it for years, exactly as it's explained. I used it in my 10:50 post. I'm not sure "Bill" is still around.

NaomiZ said...

QUESTION for Lemonade and fellow bloggers: is the TITLE something you invent after solving? Someone mentioned not seeing the title in the newspaper. I do the puzzle in pencil in the Los Angeles Times, and no title was printed there. I assumed that Lemonade invented this title, as it would have been too revealing if printed in the paper. Fine puzzle today, lots of challenges, but FIR. Never heard "on THE RACK" used except to describe torture, but the perps were there. Like others, I had to change "Inuit" to ALEUT. I thought finding MR RIGHT was fun.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Do....I thought that if it didn't work in preview it wouldnt work when published...thanks again

Lucina said...

NaomiZ:
Yes, the daily Blogger invents the title. Only on Sunday is there a title.

Ray-O:
Are you saying today is your birthday? If so, happy birthday!

Wilbur Charles said...

Actually, HARPO was Lucy's mirror image

Hi-REz said "ILLER"

Re. Linking. On example that's /a(rt carat) at the end. Begins with left carat and for every left there's a right and vv

WC

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Yep Lucina thanks. Hit 70 today.

Anonymous said...

A nice Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle. Good and fair clues and a theme that was easily sussed. IMO best puzzle of the week.

Irish Miss said...

Happy Birthday, Ray. 🎂🎈🎉🎁🎊 I hope you still have that impressive head of hair! 🙉

desper-otto said...

Happy birthday, Ray-O. I'm reading a Tracy Crosswhite mystery novel (ie: el cheapo on Amazon) and this morning I came across a passage that said you age normally until you hit 70, and then you age in dog years thereafter. I'm past 70, and I think that's about right.

Misty said...

Woohoo! A Jeffrey Wechsler Friday puzzle, and I got the entire top half before I started needing help. Started in the northeast corner with the easy ADD and PEC and then PIE and the rest filled right in. Then came the ALP and ALL HERE, but, like Desper-otto, had to change THOU to THEE. But soon I started to get all those delightful names: ILSA, and HARPO and GODOT. And so it went, a total delight, Jeffrey--many thanks. And thank you too for the helpful write-up, Lemonade.

Wilbur, instead of going on about Beckett and GODOT, you might want to look up the Wikipedia discussion of "Waiting for GODOT" on Google. It goes on and on, until at the end you see that there have been 184 references. Can't beat that.

Lucina, Ol'Man Keith and I live in ORANGE county, not MARIN. But thank you for thinking of us.

Happy 70th birthday, Ray--have a wonderful celebration.

Have a good day, everybody.

Wendybird said...

Great puzzle today. I do the LA Times print version and only messed up in the NW until I changed EDGE to RACK and SCARE to ALARMS to FIR.

Thank you Jeffrey and Lemonade for a lovely start to Friday.

I live in Orange County too, Misty. Dana Point.

Wendybird said...

Forgot. - Happy Birthday Ray-o. I used to think 70 was “old”, but now it’s in my rear view mirror! Have a great day!

Picard said...

As with most Jeffrey Weschler puzzles it seemed impossible until it wasn't. Fun theme and challenging but fair solve all the way. I think yesterday was harder for all the reasons people said. But I did find yesterday's theme very creative!

We read Waiting for GODOT in high school English class just as a performance came to our local theater. My parents took me and I was glad to see it performed. In our devout atheist family it was not absurd at all. It made perfect sense.

I only know MAHALIA from these puzzles. Can someone recommend one of her performances that might be familiar?

My friend Virginia took me on this memorable hike in MARIN County on Mount Tamalpais.

We got to see some amazing secrets there, including a plane that had crashed decades ago. Back then Virginia had no fixed address on the planet. She grew up in Asia, but her work is all on line so she would just live in a different city anywhere on Earth whenever she felt like it. She now actually owns a house in San Francisco.

AnonymousPVX said...


Happy Birthday Ray O.

I was wondering about the crunch in this Friday grid, looked at the author lone and stopped wondering.

Had to hunt and peck all around, as is the usual for a JW.

Write-overs...SCARES/ALARMS, MOORS/HEATH, PGA/AMA.

This has been a crunchy week with Saturday yet to add in.

See you tomorrow, stay safe.

desper-otto said...

Picard, just go to YouTube and look up Mahalia Jackson. Word of warning, she was a gospel singer.

Steve said...

Nice puzzle, thanks for the review, Lemonade.

I'd say the "ain't interested/nah" would be a colloquialism euqally used on both sides of the pond. The snooty upper crust over there would turn up their nose at the "ain't" and the "nah" though.

Steve said...

Oh - and Happy Birthday @Ray-o!

Lucina said...

Misty:
Thank you for the correction. For some reason I thought you lived farther north.

Picard:
As always those are amazing photos. Is that a mushroom growing out of the tree trunk?

Jayce said...

I solved this puzzle more quickly than I expected to. Even so, I had to change Rent-A-COP to Rent-A-CAR, CLOTHED to DRESSED to ATTIRED, THOU to THEE, and MATCH to FIT IN. The JIF showed me it was MAJOR rather than minor and of course MATCH would be wrong because there's no such thing as a key of M.

I live in San Jose in Santa Clara county. MARIN reminds me of the brief discussion of Steve's last name yesterday; I think Cheech of "Cheech and Chong" is named Cheech Marin. (Yes, I know the California county is pronounced maRIN and Cheech's surname is pronounced MARin. But still...)

I believe the Muir Woods redwoods as well as those in farther north California are called Sequoia Sempervirens while the ones in Sequoia National Park and other Sierra Nevada locations are called Sequoia Giganticus.

I chuckled at MAST TRANSIT and at how PONTOON and THEE were clued.

Good wishes to you all.

oc4beach said...


Wow, a JW Friday puzzle that I ultimately finished correctly at the 19:19 mark. I even got the theme early enough to help with the last two theme entries. Great puzzle Jeff. Lemon added a nice finish to the puzzle with his tour of the grid.

I had some to the same issues that others had. Not showstoppers, just a few speed bumps along the way. Perps as always were kind today.

IM @ 9:24am: The tail end of the storm that is pestering you in NY is supposed to hit Central PA around 7:00 pm with a lot of lightning, wind and rain. Not looking forward to it. Hope you weathered the storm.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Ta ~ DA!
Much fun today with Mr. Wechsler's handiwork.

I just saw Looking for Mr. Goodbar again on TV. I remembered it as a better movie than it is. It does have a fine cast. But Richard Gere's part is revolting, and Richard Kiley is under-used. Diane Keaton was stretched, but performs admirably. It's just the whole thing seems overwrought and sloppy. Richard Brooks directed.

Lucina ~ I grew up across from MARIN County (born and raised in San Francisco), so spent many a holiday and weekend among the redwoods across the GG Bridge.
I miss the beautiful Bay Area now that I live in Irvine, but I've outlived just about everyone I knew up there, so have settled (happily) for the "Mediterranean climate" of SoCal.
(Inside info: Those of us raised in NoCal were taught that the sun bakes the brains out of So. Californians. Still, they were somehow cunning enough to steal our water.)
~ OMK
____________
DR:
One diagonal today--on the obvious side.
The anagram?
In arguing in his 95 Theses against corruption in the sale of church offices, along with indulgences for the remission of sins, Martin Luther set out to…
TAME SIMONIES”!
(Hmm. Too political?)

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Argggg! One bad cell! JW wins again. Thanks, JW, for the fun.

So,... I'm sitting there stuck with no Themers flushed out. NW, Central, and Texas areas were near pristine. I kept looking at A SWIN---DAMIST, wanting a G for the 1st '-' for SWING which would prompt RING @28d. But then what's 'A---R' at 29d? It's not wedding... what other event do you get a ring? Super Bowl, World Series..., Um, there's a Boxing... No.

Another break and another stare-down this time focusing on '-----W---GUEST'... WILD(?)... hum... That'd be TADA = DONE(?), it could be RING, AL---R. ALTER; DONE (no not for me; hang tight...)

Now I've A SWING AND A MIST. '-----W---GUEST' agrees ST pattern but... PIoCES doesn't as doesn't TRANSIT [yes, I was that far along but denser than a ROCK (I wanted for course load yesterday)]. A leap of faith and filling ST before PIECES and TRANSIT finally confirmed what I wanted: TASTE @48d, got rid of dressED and the idea of clothED. Texas area DONE.

Last to fall was the NW. I noodled on -----WILD GUEST keeping theme fore... TAKEA - APING [wanted doing; had the ING waiting for fill].
Another leap of [misplaced] faith gave me 'on THE --g(-)' [maybe 'edge'? (Hi HungryMom)] for a bit. Bit by bit....

NICE One JW - just like Lem's expo. Thank you Lem and I hope they resolve your eye issue.

WOs: hand-up THOU->THEE; DRESSED->CLOTHED->mess-o' ink.
I need glasses: Lem's comment made me look again (closely). ALAS, it is not Dorothy's last name. I kept wanting KANSAS (maybe that's what they called her in Oz instead of GALE) and left THERE there w/ no clue wtf.
ESP: MAHALIA, THERES [see ING* above]
FIW: 52a was EASy making 54d yTRE. Already unsure of THERE, I left 54d alone.

Fav: REO Speedwagon. I knew that as a band long before puzzles taught me it was A-CAR.

FLN - DNF. I was ~ 1/2 done when things got really busy: 9a-3p was BlueTeam on-line contest, work, 4:30-6 CISO vHappy Hour, 6p-11 DC vMeetUp (and work), 11-2a work. From what I recall, I was having fun w/ Bruce's Puzzle. I did read y'all before bed (but still not finishing puzzle - I think I put it in Recyle(?))

Happy Birthday Ray-O! Pop will be 70 this year too. Fun mal-O-props - A+ on Thai Raid...
If you're still having html problems, email me and I'll do my best to explain... BTW, space the example exactly as is... extra spaces make it no workie

WC - I was thinking Lucy at Ray-O's HARPO | OPRAH

First (blind) date was at HS production of Waiting for GODOT.
More like waiting on her... She didn't show until near the end!
But, she was really cute AND 18 [TREAT AS: able to get me (and my friends in the cast) alcohol for the after-party].
So, I married her :-)

Cheers, -T
*or instead of common ending of ING for I Need Glasses, maybe MEAG for My Eyes Are Going? Crowd?

CrossEyedDave said...

It has been quite some time since I finished the puzzle,
so I have no idea what it was about...

I do remember that it was Inuit before Aleut...
(but that's kinda like belly buttons if you ask me...)

(yeah, it's been a long day...)

One thing I do remember, (finally)
is that I get to acknowledge Ray-O-Sunshine!
I have been meaning to welcome you to the Blog,
& love your input! (great stuff!)
Unfortunately, with only 5 posts per day, we kinda jealously
horde our posts...
(besides, I think you are gonna replace me...)

anywho...

Since this is my 1st cake to you:

Happy Birthday ray-O-Sunshine!

(P.S. are you related to little miss sunshine?...)

TTP said...



Dash T, you are a trip. "So I married her" reminds me of my future wife turning me in to security for not wearing my company badge on my first day on the job in Chicago. So I married her.

Happy Birthday, Ray-O !

Thank you JW and Lemonade. These types of puzzle are not my strong suit. I guess I'm too literal and expect a challenge that doesn't involve swapping some letters. Not that I didn't like the challenge. I always do, and am getting better at these kinds of puzzles, but this one just didn't do much for me. I thought yesterday's Bruce Haight puzzle was far more clever.

Also yesterday, I forgot to mention that C.C. had a puzzle, "Golf Goofs" over at Merriam-Webster.



Anonymous T said...

CED - ain't nobody gonna replace you. //and I'm jelly of Ray-O's cake; there's something about that yellow that screams early '70s

TTP - That is a true story. Oh, we didn' get married that night (4-MAR'88 was the play) we waited until after Basic Training / during AIT to see da Judge (25-SEP'88).
Here it is 32yrs later and still living in Herbert's(?) The Magic Cottage.

Cheers, -T

TTP said...



She had me at "hello". It was only later that I found out she was the one that turned me in.

Jayce said...

Bill G, did the thunderbirds fly over? Did you see them?

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Jeffrey Wechsler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Lemonade, for a fine review.

Started this puzzle late. I am in to this book right now and hate to put it down.

Puzzle was Friday Tough. Got most of it slowly. Caught the theme. Had trouble with A SWING AND A MIST.

Never heard the term ON THE RACK. New to me.

I thought PONTOON was very clever.

JIF works. That happens to be my favorite peanut butter (crunchy).

MARIN County came easily. I worked there, NOVATO. I was told at the time that Marin County has the highest per capita income of any county in California. That was almost 40 years ago.

We had a monster rain storm last night. Lost electric for an hour at 12:40 AM. Got some water in my basement. Not much sleep last night.

Anyhow, see you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

CED that cake is a masterpiece and aptly themed. Thanks all for the greetings. Had a drive by parade of in-the-car well wishers in the middle of a storm and tornado watch..

Little Miss Sunshine (a distant cousin) unfortunately hit the liquid sunshine and moonshine pretty hard and hasn't been seen or heard from in years.

Bobbi said...

Weird to comment on a Friday... Rarely have time. Shoulda, woulda ..a waste of time. I've said here often that an 's that's not a possessive really IS 2 words . but, then I'm pick. Give this entry a 5- meaning bad but not horrible. I actually got to see Mahalia Jackson perform. What an inspiration! On that same stage that night were the Beach Boys and Andy Williams.. I ushered and got to see the whole show FREE!!

CanadianEh! said...

Late to the party again today. Thanks for the Friday fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
I got the S-T theme early which helped the solve. P&P also needed.

Hand up for Inuit before ALEUT, and waiting for perps to decide between THEE and Thou, and MAJOR or Minor (I was expecting the more common N and was surprised at the J).

Happy 70th Birthday, Ray. (I think that makes you one of the Corner Juniors now!)
Wow, Bobbi, that concert had quite a combination of singers.

We finally had some warm weather today and I spent the afternoon weeding my perennial garden.
Wishing you all a good evening.

CrossEyedDave said...

I think it has been 5 or more years now,
that I have been unable to watch a favorite oldie
of mine, The Outer Limits (circa 1963)
(the newer ones do not have that Film Noir that I crave...)

The reason I was late to the party, is that I finally
found a way around the exclusivity, pay as you go, crap.

Daily Motion finally (& probably temporarily) has the rights to
The Outer Limits (1963), but you have to sign up to watch.
and i hate to sign up for anything, you never know what you are going to catch...)
But I found a way around it.

Look up your Fav O.L. episode in IMDB,,,
type in your browser, The Outer Limits, (insert name of episode here...)
above the search results in Google, click on "Video."
& usually the 1st, but anything more than a couple of minutes long,
will be Daily Motion-the entire episode. (in glorious B&W...)

For the Squeemish, I give you a feel good episode
that is a little Sci,fi... & less Horror than usual:

The Premonition...

Bill G said...

Jayce, thank for asking. But rats! We and a couple of neighbors waited outside for more than a half hour but the Thunderbirds were a no show. They either changed their schedule or their route. Double rats!

Lemonade714 said...

The Thunderbirds flew directly over our condo on Tuesday; it was awesome!

NaomiZ said...

Thanks, Lucina, for confirming! Nice to know what's going on.