"Brainstorming for New Periodicals"
17. Magazine for masseuses?: ROLF DIGEST. GOLF DIGEST
21. Magazine for nurses?: IV GUIDE. TV GUIDE
26. Magazine for golfers?: PAR AND DRIVER. CAR AND DRIVER
44. Magazine for crossword constructors?: PUNNERS WORLD. RUNNER'S WORLD
38. Magazine for beekeepers?: HONEY. MONEY
51. Magazine for pharmacists?: MEDBOOK. REDBOOK
60. Magazine for farmers?: HEN'S HEALTH. MEN'S HEALTH
We have another debut at the LA Times and Crossword Corner. Welcome, Stu Agler !
Rolf Digest was the first themer to fill, but I had never heard of Rolfing. Wikipedia tells me "Rolfing is a form of alternative medicine originally developed by Ida Rolf as Structural Integration. It is typically delivered as a series of ten hands-on physical manipulation sessions sometimes called "the recipe" Who knew ?
Consistency in changing only the first letter of the existing magazines may have made this puzzle a bit easier to solve, but it's still funny and punny. Excepting IV / TV, they all also rhyme.
Stu probably had more choices and could probably have created a Sunday sized grid with this theme. How about "Magazine for helicopter designers? Rotor Trend. Or, "Magazine for practitioners of animal husbandry ?" Sired. Maybe, "Magazine for Lumberyard professionals ? Wood Housekeeping.
I'll stop now and leave it to the professionals. Great job, Stu. We're now going to explore that which remains. And pardon me while I wander and reminisce.
Across:
1. Cook Islands language: MAORI. The Cook Islands are in the South Pacific ocean with 15 islands having a combined total land area of about 93 square miles. For perspective, the city of Chicago covers about 234 sq. miles. Los Angeles 469, and Houston 600 sq. miles. The land area of the Cook Islands is about the size of Milwaukee (96), Sacramento (98), Lincoln, NE (89) or Tallahassee (100 sq. mi.).
Spanish explorers visited the islands in the late 1500s and named one of the islands St. Bernard. British Navigator James Cook came to the islands in the 1770s, and named one of the islands Hervey Island. The name "Cook Islands" first appeared on a Russian naval chart in the 1820s.
78 % of the people on the island nation are Māori and another 7.8 % are part Māori. The official languages are English and Cook Islands Māori. The capital (and largest city) is Avarua, which might be a good answer in a crossword puzzle.
6. Place for mascara: LASH.
10. Rims: LIPs.
14. Ray __, NBAer with the most regular season 3-point field goals: ALLEN. Retired HOF'er with 18 years in the NBA making 40 % of his attempts from beyond the line for 2973 buckets. Active player Stephen Curry has hit 43.5 % of his 3-pointers during his 11 year NBA career, and is about 500 makes behind. Note the consistency in the non-shooting hand.
15. Northern Oklahoma city: ENID. Known as the "Wheat Capital" of Oklahoma for its immense grain storage capacity. It has the third-largest grain storage capacity in the world. Yes, that is a line of rail cars in the foreground. The place is huge.
There were some great shots on The Smithsonian Channel's Aerial America - Oklahoma the other day. If you don't get that channel, watch for it to be shown on The Smithsonian's Aerial America YouTube channel.
16. Legal memo phrase: INRE.
19. Campus area: QUAD.
20. Place with shells: SEASIDE.
23. Informal negative: AIN'T. Isn't wrong.
25. Chopper topper: ROTOR. One of my part time military jobs (ODAA - other duties as assigned)) was working as part of the team at the "Can Point" when I was assigned to Coleman Army Airfield, Coleman Barracks, 70th AVIM (aviation intermediate maintenance) Battalion, 1st Support Brigade (later, 21st Support Command), USAEUR (US Army Europe) at Sandhofen (Mannheim), Germany.
My real job was in the computer vans, 3rd shift, feeding stack after stack of 80 column cards into a card reader, and then inserting magnetic ledger stock into the platen feed of an NCR 500 computer system.
Any rotor wing aircraft that went down in USAEUR were transported to the cannibalization point for selected salvage. Rotor wings could not be salvaged for re-use, but were in demand by Air Cavalry battalions and companies around the country. They would be used as art on the hangars or as gate toppers at entrances to Kasernes that housed rotor wing companies.
Most impressive and awe inspiring was when the heavy lift helicopters came in for inspection and maintenance. The roar of the engines and sound of the rotors pounding the air was thunderous as the beasts approached and landed on the tarmac.
32. Salchow relatives: AXELs. Figure skating.
33. __-deucey: ACEY. A card game or a backgammon game.
34. Hook partner: JAB. Boxing.
37. Gobble (down): WOLF.
40. Coke __: ZERO. Zero calorie, sugar free version of Coca-Cola. Artificially sweetened. I've never had one.
41. __-Caps: SNO. Semi-sweet chocolates topped with nonpareils. White ones, of course.
42. "Be there in __": A SEC. What my wife says 10 minutes before she gets to the door as we are preparing to leave.
43. Wheel alignment: TOE-IN. What You Need to Know About Tire Alignment
47. Weasel cousin: STOAT. Not otter today. A stoat (top) and a weasel (bottom)
50. "Get lost!": SHOO.
54. Pal of Barbarino in "Welcome Back, Kotter": EPSTEIN.
59. Afterthoughts: ANDs. Oh, and the guy in the lower left is Barbarino and the guy in the top right is Epstein.
62. Leave in: STET. Don't dele. Obelisms. A proofreader knows these symbols.
63. Half of Mork's sign-off: NANU. Mork was the ET from the planet Ork on the sitcom Mork and Mindy.
64. Brew hue: AMBER.
65. __ d'oeuvres: HORS.
66. First column to add, usually: ONEs. Units. The first column of whole numbers to be added in a place-value numbering system. Typically in base-10 (decimal) for most people, and the second column would be tens, the third hundreds and so on. I know you knew that, but I'm building here.
Programmers and others in technology use other place-value numbering systems, such as in base-8 (octal) where the columns would be units, eights, sixty-fours and so on, and in base-16 (hexadecimal) they would be units, sixteens, and the third column two hundred fifty-sixes.
Quick, what's the first numbering system that comes to mind that is not place-value ?
67. Funny Anne: MEARA. So many roles, but perhaps best known as one half of the Stiller and Meara comedy team.
Down:
1. Second-smallest of eight: MARS. Our solar system's planets. The "Red Planet", fourth from the sun. Mercury is the smallest.
2. Ointment ingredient: ALOE. Keep washing your hands and try to find a sanitizer with aloe in it. Does aloe work ? Evaluation of aloe vera gel gloves in the treatment of dry skin associated with occupational exposure.
3. Cantina crock: OLLA.
4. Works the game: REFs. Referees the game or bout.
5. Team with the longest World Series drought (71 years): INDIANS. Should be championship drought. They were in the 2016 World Series, and they were leading it 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 series over the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs won the next two games, evening the series at 3 each.
In the seventh and deciding game that many pundits have called one of the greatest game 7s (and series) in MLB history, the teams were tied at 6 runs each after 9 innings. Then the skies opened up with a sudden downpour. After the rain delay play resumed, and the Cubs scored two to take an 8-6 lead in the top of the tenth inning. In the bottom of the tenth, the home field Indians plated one run with two out before the Tribe's loyal fans had their hopes squashed on a weak grounder to third baseman Kris Bryant.
It was only the fifth time in World Series history that a Game 7 went to extra innings, and it was the first time the extra inning Game 7 was won by a road team. The series and Game 7 were both dubbed "instant classics".
The Cubs won and ended a 108 year championship drought of their own; the longest in professional sports history.
6. Folklore tale: LEGEND. An example of early American literature was Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleep Hollow, but what inspired the work ?
7. Suffix with hex-: ANE.
8. "Absolutely!" in Madrid: SI SI.
9. Best Buy purchase: HDTV.
10. __ license: LIQUOR.
11. Greenland language: INUIT.
12. Madrid museum: PRADO.
13. Where the same questions are asked annually: SEDER.
18. "__ it my way": I DID.
22. Ethically uncertain, in Sussex: GREY. I loved Dash-T's explanation a few weeks ago that, "Gray is a color, while grey is a colour".
24. Spells: TRANCEs.
26. Treat holders: PAWs.
28. HR dept. concern: RELO. United Van Lines packed up my belongings and car when I was relocated from Houston to Chicago in late '87. The company footed the bill for my relocation moving and living expenses. Actually lived for almost two months in a new Holiday Inn that was still in the process of being constructed.
Then January came, and I learned fast that my southeast Texas blood and wardrobe was ill-equipped to deal with Chicago's gusting winds and biting cold that would shiver your bones. I ran to the mall and bought thermal underwear and the heaviest lined Burberry style trench coat I could find. I didn't bother to ask HR to foot the bill on those items. I know'd the answer was NO !
29. Alien from Melmac: ALF. Another extraterrestrial from TV land. Anne Meara played the grandmother in occasional appearances on the sitcom.
30. __ dancing: ICE. Like figure skating, but more freeform and interpretive.
31. "Oy __!": VEY. Oy vey ! This crossword puzzle review has gone on too long. But wait, there's more !
34. Boo: JEER. Please. Bear with me, it'll be over soon.
35. Seed covering: ARIL.
36. M's favorite agent: BOND. James Bond's boss and head of MI6, portrayed by Dame Judy Dench in eight of the movies.
38. 24 hrs.-per-day retail channel: HSN. Home Shopping Network
39. Wine: Pref.: OEN. From the ancient Greek word oinos. "The translators of the KJV, by uniformly rendering the Greek word oinos as wine, replicated the Greek word’s reference to both fermented and unfermented juice with an English word that, in their day, was similarly general in reference."
40. Wild place: ZOO. The nickname for Gerszewski Barracks in Knielingen (Karlsruhe) Germany, my second station while serving there. The Zoo had an entirely different atmosphere than Coleman. Still the military, but significantly fewer officers and Warrant Officers (mostly helicopter pilots at Coleman) and MPs than Coleman. Definitely more relaxed.
Coleman was the home to the USAEUR Confinement Facility, where soldiers in serious trouble awaited trial, were serving sentences up to a year, or for the most serious offenses, were awaiting orders for transportation back to the U.S. to serve extended time at Ft Leavenworth, KA.
42. Jam component: AUTO. Seriously, was I the only one that first thought of pectin ?
43. Type of fastball grip: TWO SEAM. Baseball. Even ardent fans may not be aware of the arsenal that Yu Darvish brings to the mound.
44. Blue Ribbons, e.g.: PABSTs. PBRs, for short. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Not my cuppa, but it'll do in a pinch.
45. Monkey used in research: RHESUS.
46. Future junior: SOPH.
47. Big hit: SMASH. As in an exceptionally popular TV, movie or stage show, or for tennis fans such as Sandyanon, the return shot answer to a poorly placed near-net lob shot.
48. :50, another way: TEN TO. Me: "It's ten to five. Are you ready yet ? Are you coming ?" Her: "I'll be there in a sec."
49. Stranger: ODDER.
52. "That's awful!": OH NO.
53. New Jersey university: KEAN. Not familiar. About Yellowrocks, is that near you ?
55. Domesticate: TAME.
56. People Magazine's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive: ELBA. Idris. Hi, Lucina !
57. Old Roman road: ITER.
58. Dragster's org.: NHRA. The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) and International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) are the two largest sanctioning bodies for drag racing. The Great Lakes Dragaway in Union Grove, Wisconsin is still going strong. The "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday" radio commercials for drag racing events can still be heard on radio stations across the country. Well, maybe not right now, but they'll be back.
61. Austin-to-Dallas dir.: NNE. For some, I-35 is known as Main Street, Texas. Almost half of the Texas population (and most of my siblings and extended family) lives along this central artery that starts in Laredo, Texas near the Rio Grande, and exits the state just north of Gainseville at the Red River. From there I-35 travels generally NNE all the way to Duluth, Minnesota, comparatively just shy of the border with Canada.
The reconstruction and widening of I-35 that started in 2012 is the second largest infrastructure project in the history of the state for TxDOT, the state's Department of Transportation. The first ? Building I-35 in the first place, which started in the '50s as part of Eisenhower's Interstate System. It will be nice, and much safer when it is finally done.
Use the Zoom In, Zoom Out buttons on the map to view greater detail or a wider view, and use your mouse to move around. "
Finally, here's the grid:
53 comments:
7:21 AM and no comments? Unusual!
FIR, but NW almost did me in.
Good morning!
Wow, TTP was chock-full of information this morning. I spent more time down the rabbit holes than I did on the puz. Wasn't familiar with GOLF DIGEST or MEN'S HEALTH, so those two themers were tough. Otherwise, this was a Friday sled ride down the slope. Nice debut, Stu. TTP, you outdid yourself. (Had to look up "Kasernes" -- new to me. Merriam-Webster spells it with a C. And from whence did you drag up "Obelism?" Wow. Just wow. And why are all five guys in that second basketball pic wearing number 30?)
Smithsonian Channel: DirecTVers will find it a Channel 570. "Aerial America" reminds me of the old "Industry On Parade" programs. Remember those?
AUTO: Dw's German uncle refers to traffic jams as marmalades.
A SEC/TEN TO: We normally eat dinner at 6, right after the national news. Dw's is already prepared, but I have to finish cooking mine. I've learned to give her a "two-minute warning" about 7 minutes before my dinner will be ready. That way I only have to sit waiting at the table for a minute or two before she arrives.
The clue for SOPH failed to call for a "short" or "abbr."
This one took 10 minutes 12 seconds to finish. I think reading the expo took longer....
Both were enjoyable. Resisted putting in Indians, given their recent appearance. ToeIn/Aril was a tricky crossing. Kean was unknown.
Good morning everyone.
Only white-out was: I had 'firsts' before PABSTS. Otherwise, a good challenge but not hard for a Friday.
Thanks TTP for 'setting the table."
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII in Europe. Hard to believe.
I caught the first letter switch after taking a hard look at a word I'd never heard of-ROLF but the perps were solid and SISI completing IV GUIDE confirmed my guess. Just a few unknowns today other than ROLF- EPSTEIN, Ray ALLEN, ELBA, KEAN- and my knowledge of SEDER is nil other than a Jewish family meal.
TTP- people ask me where I got my neat 'tool chest'- I laugh because it's a cabinet that was used to keep those '80 column card' programs that were used on IBM 1130 system. Oh, I remember the card jams of the card reader. 22 drawers 3 feet deep held the cards used to run programs. With a disc storage of 1.5 Megabytes, you couldn't keep them on the disc. And who can forget the mess that the keypunch made; the 'holes' were too fine for confetti.
Spitzbov- PABSTS only because PBRS was too short.
:50- TEN TO, before, til, of. Never believe DW when she says I'll be ready in A SEC.
Musings
-Blue Ribbons (Ribbons is capitalized) were not LAGERS but I had the right idea
-My H.S. buddy flew helicopters in Vietnam and then tourists into the Grand Canyon
-TTP, that wifely “Be there in A SEC” happens here too
-TTP2, is that the Roman Numeral numbering system?
-The Cleveland major sports championship drought only ended when LaBron returned home in 2016
-COVID-19 has delayed the JEERS that await the Houston Astros in baseball
-One site ranks Goldfinger as the best BOND movie ever made. This is the film where everything we know about James Bond was set in stone. He meets beautiful women (with silly names), he drives fast cars equipped with machine guns and ejector seats, and he foils the plots of nefarious madmen and their strange henchmen. Every subsequent film is just an iteration of the themes established with this one.
-Does anyone really pronounce SOPHOMORE with three syllables?
A side benefit of crosswords:
-While looking to see the location of The Cook Islands I stumbled onto some very familiar islands in that part of the world like Guadalcanal and spent an hour reading about the WWII history there. It was where the Japanese advance in that part of the Pacific was halted. The brass called the Battle for Guadalcanal Operation Watchtower but the Marines called it Operation Shoestring
Hi Y'all! Great fun puzzle, Stu! I got the gimmick after a couple but had forgotten the ROLF methods learned here (I think). Finally had to red-letter that "R" for the last fill of the day.
TTP: great expo. Enjoyed the ROTOR explanations & memories of your Army Air experience. My husband was a ret. USAF radar tech & private single engine pilot & my son was a USAF pilot.
Hex-ANE? What is that?
License: not marriage, driver, fishing, hunting but LIQUOR -- the one for which most of us didn't apply or receive.
Weren't we in a TRANCE just the other day. Mine is more like a "stupor" which didn't work here.
I like ICE dancing better than couples figure skating -- the lifts aren't so dangerously scary.
TTP: My uncle was the chief engineer building the Kansas Turnpike back in the 1950's which was the first segment of I-35 in this state. When the road was extended to the OK border, we used to giggle about the "backward" two-lane road that took over across Oklahoma from the state line. We're proud of Kansas-raised Eisenhower for being the "father" of interstate highways, probably the most important step toward a progressive economy in the 20th century.
Good Morning:
I’m as happy as a lark this morning as I finally got a much-needed haircut yesterday. My nephew’s wife is a retired hairdresser and as much as I didn’t want to impose on her (the word no is not in her vocabulary!), I couldn’t stand looking at the mess on my head or the “fur” on the nape of my neck, which conjured up visions of Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man’s transformation. I’m happy to once again be presentable and I’m going to celebrate by making a trip to the grocery store, duly masked and socially mindful!
This was a cute theme and fairly different, to me anyway. A couple of the magazine names took a minute or two to register, but I was familiar with all of them. I liked the duo of Rolf and Wolf and seeing the recent Prada teamed up with Prado, and another HSN appearance. CSO to CanadianEh at Grey. Another mnemonic for remembering the spelling is English=E, American=A. I needed perps for Allen, Kean, and NHRA. We also had a cute mini-theme of critter references: Wolf, Hens, Rhesus, Paws, Zoo, Tame, and Honey.
Thanks, Stu, for a fun Friday and welcome to the LA Times peanut gallery and thanks, TTP, for the extensive and educational write-up. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were being paid by the word! 🤡
YR, I love your new avatar!
My beloved mother left us 39 years ago today.
Stay safe, all.
Husker mentioning Guadalcanal reminded me that today is VE day - 75th anniversary. And the Washington Post has an interesting article on the last living Russian woman combat pilot from WW II.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/this-woman-flew-soviet-combat-missions-in-wwii-she-is-the-last-one-left/2020/05/07/0f6a9896-84aa-11ea-81a3-9690c9881111_story.html
Fun puzzle. Wonderful write-up.
JB2
Fun theme, which I figured out early with ROLFDIGEST.
Made a sloppy mistake, had ANIL instead of ARIL, then put RIO instead of ZOO, which left me with Coke RENO, which made no sense but thought it might be some unknown (to me) celebrity. Duh.
Being a baseball fan, got TWOSEAM, but that would be an unknown for a lot of people.
And we got Alf and Mork in the same puzzle. Just needed a reference to My Favorite Martian to fill out the trifecta.
I know it doesn't fit the pattern but I really wanted the magazine for masseuses to be Kneader's Digest
Stu, thoroughly enjoyable, but challenging puzzle. Most of it was the regular Friday level, but I needed help in the SE, so FIW. I liked the theme. Sometimes a great FIW puzzle like this is more satisfying than a too easy FIR. EPSTEIN, WORLD, HEALTH, TWO SEAM in one big blob. OY VEY! At least, I knew ROLF.
TTP, what a interesting and fact filled post. Thank you.
Acey deucey is a square dance call. I believe it will be months, if ever, before square dancing returns. Twenty or more people exercising within inches of one another for two hours is a petri dish for infection. After almost 35 years, I can now only participate virtually with my avatar.
Kean U in Hillside, NJ is about 20 miles by car from where I used to live. It is about 26 miles SW from here, near Newark. Hillside has a high crime rate, so I studied for my MA plus 30 at Wm. Patterson U in Wayne, NJ, about the same distance away.
The dictionary gives a two syllable and a three syllable pronunciation for SOPHOMORE. I think I have never heard it pronounced with three syllables.
I work best with schedules and deadlines. I am finding it hard to get things done on these endless days with not much to do. Now it's mañana, mañana.
Anon @ 9:55 LOL.
I reread this more than 4 times before I published and still I have an error, "a interesting and fact filled post." Grr. For writing that needs to be absolutely error free I must print it out and proof read on paper.
YR, just the other day I heard Alex Trebek pronounce it with three syllables. First time for me.
I was bracing myself for the customary Friday challenge when, much to my surprise and delight, the theme emerged then it was off to the races. My favo(u)rite was punnersworld although the others were equally clever. I knew Rolf from my days in Toronto years ago, but didn't know Kean. Speaking of the Cubs drought-ending championship, it's a crying shame that my childhood hero, Ernie Banks, could not witness it. Sadly, he passed one year earlier.
Irish Miss, you should have seen the write up before I condensed it ! Probably comes from having a lot of down time and reflection lately.
Husker Gary, yes, the first numbering system that is not place-value that I thought of, and that I think most people would think of... The good old Roman Numeral system.
Desper-otto, surprised you didn't jump all over that, but you may have missed it after emerging from one of the rabbit holes.
Obelism ? Where did I learn it ? Probably from solving or writing up crosswords.
Yellowrocks, I also like your new avatar.
PK, my grandmother opened a popular dining room in the dining room and parlor of a farmhouse, serving some breakfast but mostly hot lunch to the men that were building the interstate where it crossed the state line from PA into Ohio. As the men moved on, so did her business. Too rural to support a business for long. My brother might know more specifics, but I think it was only open for about a year or so. The farmhouse was still standing when I was back a few years ago.
Big Easy, yes I am very familiar with those 80 column card cabinets. Wish I had a couple of them now.
Spitzboov, yes I was reading about VE day in the "This date in history" section of an online paper yesterday as churches, synagogues and schools were already celebrating and prepping for special services. The article noted that when the announcement was forthcoming, while some were in stunned silence, and other in joyous and raucous revelry, others noted that we still had a job to finish in the Pacific.
Gotta run. Will catch up again later.
Since I crow about my wins, I must eat crow in public today. Never heard of TOE IN or TWO SEAM, EPSTEIN or NHRA. Defeat today in the southeast. Thanks for the challenge!
Got the theme quickly. ROLF was unknown but had to be right because of MARS. Then I totally botched the NE corner. Another Friday finished wrong. Cannot wait to see the Saturday puzzle.
Big Easy, back in the day, I sold millions of 80 column & 96 column cards and IBM Winchester Discs. Computer main frame memory was often measured in Kbytes. I think you even had to hard wire programs for the ancient IBM 402 tab machine. Hard to believe these old systems put a man on the moon.
MO
FIW ...cARANDDRIVER instead of PAR. Missed the perp PAWS. Did not catch on that it was only the first letter that was changed of each magazine name (Any Emags?)
SW and SE had me pulling out my now longish GREY hair. First/PABST (been fooled by that one before)
Alien to other to finally ODDER. (Figured there were 2 aliens mentioned: Mork and ALF.)
AXON failure to fire but hope Salchow .(AXEL) is now fixed in my brain's Cruciverb Lobe.
Haven't head the word SOPH used in conversation. NHRA unknown. Think of a Spell as an incantation or symptoms of an illness?
Thought mascara as a cosmetic was for lids not LASH.
A TRANCE is more of a semicomatous state .MAORI again.. AUTO was a head slap.
TWOSEAM seems too esoteric.
OEN...Enoteca It. for "wine shop"..
Oh! ...50 minutes before the hour is TENTO..clever! (Not Tonto's younger brother)
Wait for it..wait for it........
After the battle the lioness went off to ______ wounds...LIQUOR
When repeated will reveal the fairest......MEARA.
Monkey Treats _______ Pieces.....Rhesus
.
Spitz. When I lived in Europe the end of WWII was an April 29 date. Celebrated with parades etc. May refer to the date of surrender of the German forces. I see VE day is officially today.
I agree!
One of my best Fridays working on a puzzle--many thanks, Stu.
I didn't get the theme solution until the end, but I really enjoyed such items as HONEY for magazine for beekeepers, and IV GUIDE for nurses' magazine. Got ROLF DIGEST, though had no idea to what ROLF referred to. Got QUAD right away, and that gave me LIQUOR license (forgot that there was such a thing). Always hard for me to think of a ZOO as a place for wild animals--they seem so tame hanging out with each other, when you visit them. Anyway, delightful puzzle, and an amazingly informative write-up, TTP.
Thanks for pointing out all the sweet critters in the puzzle, Irish Miss. And congratulations on the haircut. Mine too is now down to my shoulder, and I fear I may look like an ancient teenager.
Hope you enjoyed all the comments, BobB.
Have a good day, everybody.
Reminder for our bird-watchers: Saturday is Global Big Count day.
MO
Thanks, Stu, for this Friday fun. I loved Ethically uncertain in Sussex...why Sussex? Oh, because it’s GREY not gray. Nice.
Nice that we had OY VEY right after the Paschal moon this week which sets the date of both Passover and Easter.
TTP, lovely long informative expo! I also though of Pectin for jam. And I took forever chasing all those links. Thanks.
JzB and Spitz, this is indeed a momentous anniversary. Now, we can look back and see that VE Day was only half the battle, but at the time is was a joyous celebration.
Today is also the birthday of New Orleans. Sigh... and we are stuck in our houses and can’t celebrate as we want to.
FLN, and before. Thanks for all the discussion of Star Trek. Picard, CED, and AnonT, thanks for the insight into The Inner Light. Of course, now you have me running after links to that, and other old episodes. I’m sure I’ll get hooked on the links-train and watch much more than I wanted to. One of the joys of crossword puzzling!
This Friday crossword went quickly, especially for a Friday.
And no write-overs today.
On to Saturday.
Stay safe.
According to the Farmer's Almanac, the Paschal/Easter moon was last month.
"This year, the March equinox occurs on Thursday, March 19. The first full Moon to occur after that date is April’s full Pink Moon, on Tuesday, April 7. This makes April’s full Moon the Paschal Full Moon as well. Therefore, Easter will be observed on the first Sunday after April 7: Sunday, April 12!" The full moon last night was beautiful. The Farmer's Almanc says,:The next full moon will occur on Thursday, May 7, 2020, at 6:45AM ET, and is known as the Full Flower Moon. Another name variations are the Full Corn Planting Moon and the Full Milk Moon."
Great puzzle today! Snappy, tight theme and the right amount of crunch. Plus, for some added flair, it's a pangram! Well done, Stu.
My only quibble is using "rolf"--I wish a less obscure term to use. Maybe because it was the first themed entry of the puzzle, but it really stymied my momentum. But overall, great job.
Also, I think 5-Down should have been clued as "Team with the longest World Series winning drought" or something along those lines. The Indians appeared in the World Series recently, and I think "World Series drought" could be interpreted as "longest amount of time since appearing in a World Series." But maybe I'm being hypersensitive, especially since I haven't seen any other comments to this effect.
For anon 9:44 AM
READ ALL ABOUT IT
I never heard of Kean either
Stu, you had me at Rotor. I was in the AF from 66 - 70. I did just about the same thing as you, in my supply squadron in NJ. Did all that stuff, and more. Sorted, collated, keypunched, wired the board plus doing the physical count stuff. This iso-stuff drags a person down, but, hope to see more of you. I enjoyed the puzzle, once I got the drift
Us right coasters got a break on this one. I kind of dead the friday ones, they hurt my head.
The levity of this one picked up my spirits.
Hi All. From the bottom feeder xword solvers assn, todays puzzle seemed unsolvable, but after getting some fill here and there it filled in. FIW as the SW corner did me in. I had ea_th which I wagged a "r" to make earth thinking farm and earth made sense. Didn't realize that the only letters changed was the first one. Tried to think of a mag with earth in the last name. Didn't know Kean and thus hen's health just wasn't going to happen. Thanks, Stu for the challenge.
I was a crypto maniac in the USAF and worked on the card punch, mag tape equip that really didn't work all that well. The CPU that controlled this system was huge. lol The teletype guys would sit for 8 to 10 hrs a day preparing messages. Made you believe in Star Trek. Thanks TTP for the info.
Stay warm, northern solvers!
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Stu Agler, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, TTP, for a fine review.
Great puzzle. Caught the theme with IV GUIDE. Most of the rest came easily. But, not all.
Tried FIRSTS before PABSTS worked better. I should have thought of that earlier.
Liked TEN TO. Good clue.
Not sure who ELBA is. Got him with perps.
NHRA came easily. Kind of overshadowed by NASCAR now.
INUIT for Greenland. Did not know that.
I wagged SISI and lucked out.
That Cubs / Indians game a few years ago was the best ball game I have ever seen.
Done here for the day. See you tomorrow. Might get snow in the AM.
Abejo
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PK @0933 INRE: HexANE. Hexane is a straight chain hydrocarbon compound with 6 carbon atoms (in a row; no branching) in the molecule. Heptane has 7; octane has 8. It is a distillation fraction from crude oil and is a significant constituent of gasoline. It has other industrial uses as a solvent.
Hola!
Yes! I do know who Idris ELBA is! What a hunk of a man! Thank you, TTP, for remembering that I am a fan. I first saw him in the series, Luther, on PBS.
And I pronounce SOPHomore with three syllables which, I believe, comes from many years of teaching ESL and proper pronunciation to foreign students. I also say li-bra-ry and Feb-ru-ary.
Puzzles with fill-in-the-blank are not my favorite but this was fast and not too frustrating. Of course, I had no idea who Ray ALLEN is but perps helped. And I enjoyed the puns.
In Sweden we saw the original studio where the ROLF method was developed. And I spent many hours touring the PRADO Museum admiring the works of art there. Those were different trips, of course, some years apart.
Today is the birthday of my friend, Mark; he was born on the actual VE Day 75 years ago. Last night we threw caution to the winds and celebrated his and my daughter's birthdays. Hers will be on the 11th, Monday. It was wonderful to have the whole family here enjoying a meal together. My grandchildren are growing fast and of course, surpass me in height.
Thank you, TTP, for your detailed explanations of everything! And thanks to Stu Agler for the fun puns.
I hope all are enjoying a peaceful day; for some reason I slept an unusually long time and it was almost ten when I awoke.
Fun today - fairly easy for a Friday pzl.
I needed my wife's help for EPSTEIN. "Kotter" is not a show I paid much attention to. My first guess was something like SPINETTI, which wouldn't fit.
(I wonder where that came from?)
Misty ~ I wondered too about ZOO as a place for "wild" animals. But then I've been watching some of the recent Zoo shows on the nature channel, and most seem dedicated to protecting the various species in environments as close as possible to their natural "wild" homes.
In most cases, they return rescued animals and birds to their original habitats once they are restored to health. They only "keep" ones that either become too dependent on humans to survive on their own or are so endangered they need help in regenerating.
Bravo to them!
~ OMK
____________
DR: A single diagonal today, on the mirror side.
The anagram? As an old marathoner I can attest that this is the part of the anatomy that becomes most numb around the 26th mile marker.
No, not the taped-over nipples, but the…
“RUNNER’S BUTT”!
Hi All!
The puzzle was just beyond my solving ability but a couple of lucky WAGs led to FIR.
NW [MAORI, umpS or REFS?, ALLEN, ROLF?; there is a Golf DIGEST so...]
and SE [ITER, NHRA, ELBA? - do I have EPST[EI|IE]N right?]
corners were complete fills of faith.
Congrats on the LAT Stu.
TTP - Holy Digressions Batman! That's ONE heck of an informative AND entertaining expo; I really enjoyed the personal (and baseball!) asides.
//LOL 'paid by the word' IM. \\wait TTP, that was pared down? :-)
Hardest themer to suss: [see ROLF above]
Runner up: PUNNERS WORLD... I had P---ERS WORLD across and A?TO, HS[Channel or Network], OE[N|R]...
//Only while reading the expo (and TTP assuring me it was NOT jelly related - I was going w/ Aspic but was a square shy) did it dawn on me: Traffic JAM. Oy!
HG beat me to Roman Numerals.
WOs: INUeT, PRADa, wine=OE (N or R? - tried N twice), 44a was going to be ----ER-WORds for a bit.
ESPs: SI SI... I had a plethora.
Fav: EPSTEIN, Vinny Barbarino, BoomBoom Washington and Horshack... One of my favorite shows in my ute.
//Does anyone remember Mr. Kotter, er Gabe Kaplan, doing a pretty good Mark Twain? I thought I did but my Google Fu is weak on this one
Wendybird - Me too! //Wait, to what do we agree?
OMK - Considering 44a, that's really funny.
Everyone's talking about crazy hair (I'm beyond Ringo and onto Animal) but I'm really starting to miss the gym [I just said that?!?]. I looked online to get some dumbbells [15-40lb] for curbside pickup and was told 'not available.' Thinking stores may not force 'associates' to schlep 200lbs to a customer's car, I thought "maybe they're just for in-store shopping." So, I called. Nope, they are out. Stores w/in 20mi AINT got dumbbells.
Long and short of it - anyone got some dumbbells [>=15lb] they want to get rid of?
Cheers, -T
I thought of the slang word, zoo, a wild chaotic place. The classroom of an inept, disorganized teacher can quickly become a zoo.
Wow. I lived in NJ for six months, 9/67-3/68 and I've never heard of KEAN. One good reason: No serious Sports team. I had a disastrous FIW but if I knew this I might have FIR
My other big one was not recognizing ELBA thinking EARTH would be part of the farm.
Re Guadalcanal-the Japanese filed a formal complaint to Switzerland: "The US Marines are emptying insane asylums and prisons (add teeth to the weapons used)"
In conjunction with Ike's roads the Oil/Auto Cartel bought out as much of existing public transportation as would sell (a lot privately owned).
My wife's a LMS* so I'm familiar with ROLFing. It's "kneading"*10.
I forgot to check late 5/7 posts. Re. VE Day vs 4/29/45. The latter marks the death of Hitler who bequeathed leadership to Admiral Doenitz. The seven day delay to armistice was to allow as many refugees as possible to escape to the West. It got me to find my Speer book** and reading the applicable pages
WC
** Lic. Massage Therapist- don't call them "masseuses"
***Inside the Third Reich. The head Nazis thought they would be running things. Talk about no clue.
FIR and felt it was very easy. My wife and I arrived in the north from Florida yesterday, so today was filled with chores. Very fun theme which helped a lot in the solve.
WILBUR ~Isn't it odd how in America a university needs to be big in Basketball or Football to have a major reputation.
Hence, KEAN U., as you say, is not known by the public--even inside N.J.
My university, UC Irvine, is listed as #1 on several lists, among the "Top-10" on many more, and we boast two Nobelists even though we are only 60 years old. We also happen to be rated high in Baseball, and we're always among the very top teams, often #1, in--you guessed it!--Water Polo!
But these don't count. The nearest we come to a Real Team, a Football Team, is serving as the practice field for the LA Rams.
~ OMK
TTP & OManiN- those old computer systems made great boat anchors. My 80 column card cabinet is built from HEAVY steet. Those cases of card were very heavy.
Memory & disc storage was very expensive way back when. Fortran programmers were great. They had to devise programs that both used the least amount of memory and disk space.
I didn't have a back-up drive so once a week I went to a Mobil oil office to use their system with TWO drive. My desktop, bought for about $600, has a Terabyte of storage. Do I need it? Nope, I back up everything on two clouds- Google Drive and Microsoft One Drive.
Hadda look up KEAN and ARIL to complete this puzzle today. Had POETIC and then DRIVER before LIQUOR license. Never heard of Coke ZERO. Didn't realize RELOcation was an HR concern. I did think of pectin or AGAR before AUTO emerged. Didn't particularly care for Blue Ribbons and PABSTs being plural. At least I knew RHESUS, MAORI, ROTOR, and several others.
Excellent write-up, TTP. Wander and reminisce all you want, sir.
I meant GUAR (gum). Not AGAR.
Okay all you Trekkies! You’ve officially wrecked my life now! In looking up the later episodes y’all recommended, (which I found and ordered,) I came cross a free amazon Prime download of the first season, which I liked. Been watching all day!! LOL Ole Trekkies never die...
This is the KEAN U I enjoyed
="https://paste.pics/8X3NE"
DO, yes I did hear Alex pronounce sophomore in three syllables. I think sometimes when we Cornerites say we have not heard or encountered something, it is actually there, lying deep in our subconscious mind.
Favourite Friday. Thanks for the fun, Stu (congrats on your debut) and TTP.
I'm late to the party tonight. I finished with two Google helps (for EPSTEIN & ELBA) and saw the changed letter magazines. (LOL re Kneaders Digest, Anon@9:55am)
But then I arrived here to discover that I FIWed. My Afterthoughts at 59A were Ands instead of ADDS; I could not figure out what :50 meant and no light dawned with my Ted To.
The SE corner was the last to fall. Was 56D and Easter egg with another magazine! We usually get Idris not his last name, (and yes I thought of Lucina immediately!).
Yes IM, I noted PRADO after Prada yesterday, but I missed the animal theme.
I thought we were getting a numbers theme with ZERO, ONES AND TWO SEAM.
I will take a CSO with GREY, and another one with 61A.
KEAN filled with perps thankfully; I'm glad that it was not just this Canadian who had never heard of it.
This Canadian says SOPHomore with 3 syllables; is it a Canadian thing?
Thanks for the laughs, Ray. I don't always comment, but I always LOL at your puns.
YR - I love the new avatar (but sorry you cannot enjoy it IRL for a while).
FLN, AnonT- that does look like my mesclun row (but I think every seed company has slightly different mixes of the greens in their mesclun mix). I am jealous that you are so far ahead of me with your garden. We had snow today and nothing will go in the ground for several weeks yet. Even my early Mother's Day hanging basket had to come inside to avoid the frost. O Canada!
Wishing you all a good evening.
Spitz: thanks for explaining hexANE so I could understand it.
TTP: your grandma saw an opportunity and cashed in. Good for her. I remember the days of almost frantic road building in the 50's & 60's. Boys graduating from our high school either went to do their obligatory military service or got jobs on road construction as a rite of passage. The military-joining boys mostly needed GI Bill money if they wanted to go to college later.
Soph-O-more? Huh! I'm not sure I've even been spelling that word with an "O" in the middle so sure don't say it with one. It just don't look right to me. Duh!
We agreed that SOPH needed “abbrev.” to make it agree with “juniors” etc.
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