Themeless Saturday by Trent H. Evans
Here we see him pictured with his good friend Donut and below is part of his generous response to my email:
As far as the puzzle goes, I constructed this one in May of 2019 when I had not yet done very much themeless constructing [Husker note: My note to him was the first he knew that the puzzle was going to run today]. I don’t recall very much about the process. I know I slapped down PEDAL TO THE MEDAL to start with and after roughing out a grid, the next thing I put down was FRED SANFORD. Sanford and Son was one of my favorites as a kid, and my high school band director seemed to have an anecdote from a specific episode of Sanford and Son to cover almost any life lesson he wished to impart. By the way, if you haven’t seen the YouTube clip of Fred wearing a mask and trying to socially distance from a sick Lamont, it’s worth your time [Husker note: Picture is in the write-up]. See, I told you there’s a Sanford and Son episode for all situations!
Since I made this puzzle, I started a crossword blog at gridtherapy.com and among the puzzles on the site are 15 themelesses as of now. I call them ‘Free Association’ puzzles in keeping with the ‘therapy’ motif (I am a psychologist as you said). Looking back on this LA Times puzzle, I’m still fairly pleased with it, but I hope I’ve improved with more practice. As of this writing, the most recent puzzle on Grid Therapy is titled “Addled” which coincidentally enough makes an appearance at 9-down in this LA Times puzzle.
I hope you and yours are as well as can be expected during these difficult days. Me, my wife Beth, and our four (!) teenagers have refrained from any acts of violence against each other over the course of our six or so weeks in lockdown, which I am going to call a win!
Take care Gary.
Take care Gary.
Trent
Now let's do some "Free Association" with the good doctor on this first Saturday in May
Across:
1. Groom like a groom, maybe: MANSCAPE - Everything below my neck remains, uh, ungroomed. TMI?
9. Is in store: AWAITS.
15. Green getaway: ECO HOTEL - This one is in South Africa
16. "Crud!": DARN IT.
17. Beneficiaries of preferential admission: LEGACIES - Youngest daughter followed oldest one into this Pi Beta Phi house on 16th Street at UNL
18. Delightful: DREAMY.
19. Texas congressman who ran for president as a Libertarian in 1988: RON PAUL - He got about 1/2 of the green section here:
21. Nice refusal?: NON - A Nice, en France, je dirais NON à manger des escargots (In Nice, France, I would say NO to eating snails)
22. When things just don't click: OFF DAY
25. Aide-__: mnemonic device: MEMOIRE - An easy to understand French loanword. I taught ROY G BIV for decades as a mnemonic device.
29. Gets stuck: BOGS DOWN.
32. Let go: AXE and 33. Let go: FIRE - Somebody's losing their job here.
34. Air freshener deliveries: MISTS.
37. High-speed metaphor: PEDAL TO THE METAL - Trent's seed entry. I remember it as CB lingo.
41. Give out: ISSUE.
42. Colorado tributary: GILA.
43. "So you admit it!": AHA.
44. "Star Wars" film subtitle: A NEW HOPE - I really liked the first Star Wars movie, went to sleep in the second one and have not returned.
47. Classist type: SNOB.
48. Breath-freshening brew: MINT TEA.
50. Board game conduits: CHUTES - A guy is offering this complete original game for $50 on eBay
53. Lawmaker: ENACTOR - Not lately
56. Barked: WOOFED.
59. Pregame party site: TAILGATE - Husker pre-game activities have graduated from the TAILGATE of pickups to elaborate affairs that are noted for inviting fans of opposing teams to join in
63. Tee off: ENRAGE.
64. Pavarotti classic: O SOLE MIO - Sherrill Nielsen with O SOLE MIO and then The King follows with It's Now Or Never
66. Broad Eastern cuisine category: PAN-ASIAN - A extensive PANASIAN menu
Down:
1. Harris of "thirtysomething": MEL - Then (1987) and now for "MEL" - Mary Ellen Harris
2. Flying phenom: ACE.
3. Eggy drink: NOG.
4. Fragments: SHARDS.
5. __ butter: COCOA.
6. Not very much: A TINY BIT.
7. Single animal-shaped candy?: PEEP - More than A TINY BIT of sugar!
9. Mystified: ADDLED.
10. Serious declaration: WAR.
11. Is for many: ARE - Groucho is funny, the Marx Brothers ARE hilarious
13. Divided island north of Australia: TIMOR - The west end of the island is Indonesia that is also known as West TIMOR
14. "Don't Rain on My Parade" composer: STYNE - I'll bet most of you know 1) What musical had this song and 2) Who belted out this Jule STYNE anthem
22. Beast known as the zebra giraffe: OKAPI - The only members of this family
24. Junk dealer in a '70s sitcom: FRED SANFORD - Here's a picture from the Sanford and Son episode Trent mentioned
26. Family nickname: MOMMA.
27. Tot's scrape: OWIE.
30. Peru panning target: ORO - The tragic story of mining gold in Peru (11:00)
31. Outset: GET GO - I liked Trent's puzzle from the GET GO
33. Speedy: FLEET.
35. Nevada tourist mecca: TAHOE - Michael and Fredo had a conversation in Michael's home on Lake TAHOE before Fredo went on a fatal fishing trip
36. Foundation pieces: SLABS - A cool, dry basement is very desirable in Arizona but most houses are build on concrete slabs because the rock hard caliche (kuh LEE chee) soil, made up of calcium carbonate and granite, means digging a basement can add thousands to the cost of a house
38. Bee or Em: AUNT - Opie Taylor's and Dorothy Gale's
39. With it: HIP.
40. Choice event: ELECTION
45. Prepared a bed, maybe: WEEDED - SEEDED got, uh, WEEDED out
46. Solo pilot?: HAN - HAN Solo and Princess Leia are frequent visitors in our crossword universe
47. Swells: SURGES.
48. Spoke Burmese?: MEWED - Our Lily prefers Siamese
49. Actress Massey: ILONA - Here she plays the Baroness Frankenstein in 1943's Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman
51. Casual greeting: HOLLA - "Hey dude, give me a HOLLA when you get home"
54. Perched on: ATOP.
55. 61-Down's dwelling: CASA and 61. Familia member: TIA - Nos encanta que TÍA Rosa visite nuestra casa (We love to have Aunt Rosa visit our home)
57. __ Four: FAB - The name of this tribute band
58. One may be bruised: EGO.
60. Challenging retort: AM I? - "Gary, you're going to eat that liver!"
62. Word that's sometimes an exaggeration: EON - I haven't seen my California cousins for EONS!
I also found this picture of Trent who plays trumpet in an Alumni Jazz Band that just recently toured Europe. I'll leave it to you to find Trent with his trumpet in hand. He's a real renaissance man!
Any comments for Trent?
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that I prefer themeless cw's -- less embarrassment involved. This one was nice. Also quick. I knew START was too Mondayish. Hey, that could be the GILA river. Ah, GET GO. Thanx, Trent and Husker.
AXE/FIRE: Nice pairing. I learned this week that only three of my former coworkers remain in that (once fairly large) IT department. Several employees were let go this past week.
MEL: I remember her recurring role in Stargate SG1. She mentored Daniel Jackson after his ascension to the higher plane.
SLABS: Virtually all houses in SE Texas are built on slabs. The water table is too high to permit basements.
I do cw every day...this was way out there!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the LAT Trent. You have been quite productive since your debut in the NYT in 2018. This is his sixth major venue where he is published. Maybe he could do a virtual concert with our own JzB.
ReplyDeleteAide-__: mnemonic device: MÉMOIRE is not a term I know but being half French made it a gimme. Hedy Lamarr and Ilona Massey , two of Louis B. Mayer's exotic MGM imports (Hedy from Vienna, Ilona from Hungary), were Hollywood roomies at the wish of Mayer, who dreamed up the idea from both a practical and publicity standpoint.
French, Spanish, and another reference to thirtysomething and GILA River are also featured.
Thanks,Gary.
Didn’t know HOOLA and was torn on ENACTeR and ENACTOR, but chose wisely (wildly?). Very easy for a Saturday with no write-overs.
ReplyDeleteOnce again too many proper names such as Mel, Styne, Ron Paul, Ilona, Han. One or two are Ok, but this seems excessive and shows a lack of creativity.
ReplyDeleteMOMMA is not a word; it's MAMA misspelled.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNice debut at the LA Time, Trent ! Welcome and thanks ! Enjoyed it, but had three errors.
First was the same as Gary, but I didn't WEED out the errant S. I ended up with ANE'S HOPE instead of A NEW HOPE. I've done enough crosswords to know that the character's name is ANI, but having never seen any of the Starwars movies, I thought maybe ANE was a sister or brother.
The second and third errors were the vowels in HOLLA. Never heard anyone say HOLLA before, and have never read it. Regardless, I should have caught PAN ASIAN rather than my PANoSIAN.
Still enjoying working in the gardens and keeping the lawn mowed and edged. Paying for it a little bit this morning. New aches and pains, and generally sore. Had to mow the lawn twice yesterday after heavy rains and cooler weather. First with John Deere to get it cut down to 4 inches, and then with the Skag walk behind to get it back to normal height with no wind rows of grass clippings. My wife says I'm too particular. That's her way of saying I'm anal about it.
But the bigger cause was that I've been creating another gardening area for perennials. This time under a 50 to 60 foot tall Blue Spruce. Soil pH under a spruce is in the acidic range, so I transplanted lily-of-the-valley, day lilies and hostas on one half of the 35 foot diameter of the drip line. Those plants can tolerate the acidic soil better than anything else I have in the gardens. Need to do a little research and pick out an azalea or Rhododendron to fill the back half of the understory. I'll spread a little hydrated lime later today to increase the pH level. That reminds me of yesterday, and the comments about lime water versus limewater.
Gotta run. MOMMA wants breakfast.
Thanks again, Trent and HG !
This lovely puzzle seemed difficult at first, but most of it was solved at regular Saturday speed. I gave up too soon and had two bad cells. I forgot RON PAUL. I had -A-L for PAUL. And I had PEE- for PEEP. I should have done an ABC run for the last P, then PAUL would have been evident. I had ERS for speakers' pauses instead of URS.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of the zebra giraffe, but the striped legs and longish neck led me to OKAPI right away, no perps needed. Which is more popular zebra giraffe or okapi? IMO, it is okapi.
Prepared a bed, seeded or weeded? I didn't know A NEW HOPE, but NEW was better than NES.
Merriam Webster says MOMMA is the less common spelling of MAMA. Hint to ANONs: LIU (look it up) before you go out on a limb. There is a comic strip named MOMMA.
Momma
At 4-H camp we prepared a friend's bed by short sheeting it. Did you ever do this?
prank
Gary, thanks for the great review. You never disappoint us.
TTP. I admire your energy. I love lily of the valley. New stems shoot up from the rhizomes every year. I have to keep pulling some of them up or so they don't take over the whole garden. This was one of my mom's favorite flowers. That is why I love them.
Well Trent, I'm glad you wife and kids haven't beat you up. Dolly Parton's new song these days: "Jolene Please TAKE My Man". Too much time together in the house.
ReplyDeleteI completed the puzzle but the HOLLA just had me ADDLED. I was hoping it was a misspelled Spanish hello- HOLA- because the the crosses were solid. Maybe in the Deep South we 'holler' at each other instead of HOLLA. And like Hungry Mother I waffled between Enacter and Enactor but HELLA made less sense than HOLLA.
MANSCAPE- new term for me but your picture is missing the cut off parts farther down. He probably shaved his legs too.
LEGACIES- my kids couldn't get into Harvard either
Aide-MEMOIRE- not known but an easy guess after a few perps
A NEW HOPE- the only title I knew of was 'The Empire Strikes Back'
CHUTES and Ladders- never heard of that game. Ditto for MEL.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHG, I liked Lily.
Got it all. No searches were needed. It helped that PEDAL TO THE METAL filled in early. Few unknowns like MEL and ILONA were easily perped. Had 'vow' before WAR. Also wanted 'offkey' before OFF DAY was suggested by SHARDS.
Aide MEMOIRE - I know it more as a type of informal diplomatic message; perhaps to clear up a fuzzy element of a Treaty.
Lake TAHOE is known geomorphologically as a graben lake.
HOLLA, all perps.
ReplyDeleteYour Dictionary:
"The definition of holla, or hollo, is a slang term meaning holler, which is a shout or call.
An example of holla is giving someone a call on the phone; give them a holla."
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this solve and finished in less time than yesterday's. My w/os were Bad Day/Off Day, Vegas/Tahoe, and Oh Rats/Darn It. I needed perps for Styne, Ron Paul, Timor, Memoire, and A New Hope. Holla was unheard of, as was Eco Hotel, although they're both acceptable. we had a mini family theme in our themeless, to wit: Momma, Aunt, Tia, and Dad Bod.
Thanks, Trent, for a challenging but quite doable Saturday; congrats on your LA Times debut, hope to see more from you, and Donut, too, very soon. Thanks, HG, for your usual sparkling and entertaining expo and for sharing Miss Lily with us. Equal time for our much-loved Felines and Canines.
FLN
Jayce, I chuckled reading your comment about entering Bichon for Endive. The Frisée spelling vs Frise was my hint and I was all set to fill in Lettuce, but not enough squares. I was pleased that you remembered my affinity for Bichons. I just turned my calendar to May and was greeted by a handsome King Charles Spaniel.
Stay safe, all.
This was a delightful . . . Um . . . dreamy Saturday crossword. Great start to my day.
ReplyDeleteJudie B
This Saturday puzzle was about my average FIW solve today. Had one bad cell (better than average) because I still don't know how to spell some simple words.
ReplyDeleteHolla is way out there for this Southern raised boy. Most of the proper names were helped by wags or perps. Only toe holds were LEGACIES & MINT TEA. Could not immediately recall Sanford and Son. Faster Than a Speeding Bullet did not fit.
Enjoyed trying the puzzle and the write up.
MO
FIR after a battle in the NE corner which finally yielded with fierce resistance. (Didn't expect MANSCAPE to appear in a CW...the pictures in the narrative reveals only part of the story...lol.)
ReplyDeleteEarly equatorial fill with PEDAL.. helped. Definitely not an OFFDAY.
Lucina greets us with cheery Sp. hola! but who says HOLLA? (Other than our Jewish friends who gift us a delicious loaf.)
From un peu de français MEMOIRE was a WAG otherwise never heard of the term. PANASIAN unknown expression for Asian cuisine (would make a good name for an airline). ENACTOR kinda clumsy but knew senator wouldn't fit.. never heard of an ECOHOTEL All perpwalked. Alumni families have LEGACIES at colleges, didnt realize this referred to the student.
Guess I'm just plain Ignert.
Our hospital has furloughed 20 percent of the staff. Management claims they didn't AXE or FIRE anyone. We'll see.
I've enjoyed a few KIRS. Plus OPAKI bubbled up from my brain's lobus cruciverbus.
DW gets teed off when I steal her just baked treats but not exactly ENRAGED! ...("Back away from the cookie JAR!!" ..."OK dear just put away the shot gun.")
The W in MEWED held me up forever until the end of an alphabet run. It's a cat!! (Myanmarese?) Next door neighbor to a Siamese Thailandese
Kept knocking my forehead over Red Foxx's Fred's Character's last name (Dummy it's in the title of the show!!)
Anyone who did yesterday's puzzle knew GILA river. Yet the constructor created the puzzle a year ago...coincidence? or Crossword time machine??
Sunny day finally. C U on Moon day.
Nice challenging Saturday puzzle. Started out slowly, but got FREDSANFORD early which helped, and then some of the other long answers. OKAPI used to be a regular answer, haven’t seen it for a while, so misspelled it as OPAKI then OCAPI. Will try and remember for next time.
ReplyDeleteOnce again it came down to a single letter personal Natick involving the first name of a not so-well-known person crossing a never-before-heard term. Way too many proper names.
ReplyDeleteI know Asian Fusion cuisine, so with a few perps I risked Pan Asian. Then I wondered what is the difference. LIU.
ReplyDeleteThe difference
Can't say I liked this puzzle much. Oddly enough, I had EXACTLY the same three errors as TTP above. Hollo? Really? It was a FIW in 22 minutes. Also didn't care for manscape and dadbod, but sussed them. For some reason my comments from yesterday were not published so I'll try one more time. It had to do with the word "snail". It reminds me of an old Herman comic depicting a protester standing outside a restaurant holding a sign that read, "Escargot have rights too". The PC movement germinated from there. Not really.
ReplyDeleteFIR with just the right amount of trouble. Our Southerners -- Big Easy and OMaxiN -- grew up hollering, but are innocent of the now popular HOLLA, which I'm sure came from the Deep South. "Wanna come t'dinna? Id be no botha. Holla back!"
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary thanks for sharing the fun story of our constructor Trent Evans and his band director and SANFORD and Son.
ReplyDeleteFIW with HELLA/ENACTER. Tried HOLLA/ENACTOR first but that obviously made no sense. HELLA sounded like a casual version of "hello" at least. Argh. Did correctly WAG cross of unknowns OKAPI/KIRS correctly. Otherwise I enjoyed the puzzle.
About two years ago DW and I watched the server in a Moroccan restaurant in San Francisco pour the MINT TEA in this traditional manner.
Here I was at the Cusco Cathedral in PERU which is adorned with plenty of ORO.
Very different than our simple Mission Santa Barbara.
Did anyone else try UFO before ACE?
Got NOG and SHARDS and COCOA, and they got me off to a good start before things got a lot tougher. But hey, it's a Saturday puzzle--and thanks for checking in with us, Trent. Cute pup in that picture--bet it appreciated seeing WOOFED in the lower corner. And a very helpful commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteOWIE and ORO helped me get BOGS DOWN. Then MISTS and MOMMA fell into place. And so it went. Loved seeing O SOLE MIO, and enjoyed seeing TIA's CASA in the same corner. And for some reason the FAB Four next to EGO amused me. Well, why shouldn't they have a big EGO, given how famous they were. Anyway, lots of fun, even if I didn't get everything, so thanks again, Trent.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
From Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteYellowrocks thanks for the explanation about that use of "crust". I know you enjoy historical novels. And thank you for the kind words about my photos of the MURAL tour in San Francisco. Very colorful, indeed! Some are also quite historical in their depictions.
Abejo thanks for the hand up regarding XERXES being Persian. It seems like a mistake to treat him as Greek. But maybe I am missing the point.
Lucina good that we have mutual admiration for our respective achievements! That SEA HORSE costume I wore on the unicycle was a monumental creation by my good friend Mary Price. She was Solstice Artist In Residence for several years. Part of the "costume" involved her modifying the unicycle! She is a genius!
WilburCharles you wrote "I like your FAKIR link". I hope it is not presumptuous that you were directing that at me? When I was a child I used to read and re-read that Believe It Or Not book that had belonged to my mother when she was a child. I never knew what to make of these extraordinary stories and images. The title made me wonder if they mixed in some bits that were not to be believed?
Hola!
ReplyDeleteSaturday puzzles are usually a big challenge but PEDAL TO THE METAL started me on this one and it blossomed from there. I see the GILA river flowed in again. In fact, it is now quite dry and is filled only after a good rain.
HOLLA mystified and ADDLED me. I've not seen it in print nor heard it.
I couldn't wrap my head around RONPAUL being in Texas. For some reason I thought he was from Kentucky. Must LIU.
Lake TAHOE is so beautiful and a delight to visit. The Catholic church there has a large picture window that allows one to look out into the lake during services.
MOMMA is a perfectly acceptable form of mama, mom, mother, etc.
My introduction to KIRS was in Paris and recalls some wonderful memories of that trip.
I am an AUNT to many nieces and nephews who affectionately call me TIA.
DADBOD, father figure, made me laugh!
Thank you, Trent H. Evans for this amusing puzzle and thank you, Gary for your analysis!
TTP: I would love to see a photo of that garden!
Enjoy a beautiful day, everyone!
ReplyDeleteOkay, this is the second time this week someone has anonymously declared “x” is not a word.
Thursday it was DOVE, said it wasn’t a past tense of DIVE.
MERRIAM-WEBSTER:
dove
\ ˈdōv \
Definition of dove (Entry 2 of 2)
past tense of DIVE
Today it’s MOMMA....same dictionary:
momma noun
mom·ma
less common spelling of MAMA
1 : MOTHER
2 slang : WIFE, WOMAN
If you want to declare a word isn’t a word, at least look it up first.
Unless you enjoy looking, well, incorrect.
Okay.
This Saturday puzzle went rather smoothly.
Write-overs...UFO/ACE, IDO/WAR, OKAPE/OKAPI, ELECTIVE/ELECTION, TIO/TIA.
See you Monday. Stay safe.
Gary, FLN, that's the kind of GT that I call a HOTROD.
ReplyDeleteWho knew, GILA makes a repeat a year after Trent clued it. Not to speak of HOPE.
I thought the first Star Wars was drek. #4 seemed well thought out and sent a message as opposed to beeps and saber blasts.
Some are puzzled by the declaration of War on Germany on 12/8/41. Germany had "sponsored" Pearl Harbor thus decalared war on the US. Ironically, Bluto had it right.
Ah, TIMOR not Timon. OMK's fault for all that Shakespeare. I had others. I stuck with ILENA. I messed up MEMOIRE. Looking back that and WOOF weren't that hard. Not to speak of MEWED. We bred cats for awhile. We had Siamese but no Burmese. I'm getting more and more bummed about no FIR. I assume turning on red letters = FIW
I had PAR, then TEN but I grok'ed DADBOD and the B did it. Medium hard xword.
Thanks Trent and Gary..
WC
We joke about DAD BODs here, not as a put down but as a feature of inevitable middle age spread. DAD BODs call for DAD JEANS.
ReplyDeletePicard, your Moroccan tea pouring servant reminds me the show put on by some bartenders. Why is the picture so blue?
What a fabulous gold adorned cathedral. I wonder that the gold is not stripped and stolen. A nearby city church had its railings along the front steps stolen and sold as scrap metal. At other places vacant buildings and construction sites have had the plumbing and wiring stolen. This is not a high crime area, but such things happen less than an hour from here.
Picard, your FAKIR Link led to a lot of reading. Which I footnoted late and with * trying to get away from religion ban.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my Sirius Radio is tuned to Beatles, I connected FAB Four with tRhese guys. Yes, the link says five but only four were big stars.
WC
Finished this much faster and better than usual. Almost FIR. My Natick was ANExHOPE with xEEDED. Did not remember the Star Wars subtitle and SEEDED was as good as WEEDED. Like TTP said about ANe.
ReplyDeleteWEES about HOLLA. As dialect, it makes sense.
Husker Gary, thanks for that PANASIAN menu, but Brattleboro is too far to go for takeout; I don't think they'll deliver to Clifton Park, either.
Cool pzl from Mr. Evans!
ReplyDeleteTa ~ DA!
The kind where you dunno what the clues mean 'til you get the answer.
~ OMK
___________
DR: It has been a dry spell, so glad to find the one diagonal today (near side).
What anagram does it offer?
Ah, yes!
A Golden Arches take-out dinner?
"McGRAB 'N' EAT"!
I am sorry for all those who think it is unfair for puzzles to use proper names, but that is the nature of a puzzle. Is it fair to use botany, or physics, or sports? These are just games. They are not going to make you any money when you solve them. Enjoy, relax.
ReplyDeletemeanwhile, HOLLA was making its LAT debut today. But it first appeared in this 1953 NY TIMES PUZZLE which predates my solving experience. Many of you need to spend more time with young people (and by young, I only mean under 40) and you would know the new language -modern English.
Forgive the preaching, I am a bit stir crazy.
Holy cow! I just finished, as in solved, today's NYT puzzle! (With considerable help from Google; is that cheating?)
ReplyDeleteI feel so smart! Go ahead, ask me anything!
Picard, I'm watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy and the head of KGB is called Karla. And...
ReplyDeleteWho should I see playing the role of Karla? Patrick Stewart. TTSP aired circa 1974. Karla never speaks and is bearded.
Episode IV, Streamed via YouTube
WC
Rabbit rabbit plus one!
ReplyDeleteI had to look some things up and turn on red letters and do an alphabet run in order to finish this puzzle, so I call it an FIW. Stuff I've never heard of nor would ever dream of: DADBOD, MANSCAPE, PANASIAN. I also did not know ANEWHOPE and couldn't remember good ole RON PAUL. I couldn't get ROSS PEROT out of my mind. I also wanted ATHENA Massey as the actress; I didn't remember ILONA. Sheesh.
No basements in any of the houses around here; I think it has something to do with making houses earthquake resistant. But there sure are plenty of below-ground parking structures, so I don't know.
Be well, all.
It is great to see all the new posters here celebrating this wonderful gathering place. Welcome one and all.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon, folks. Thank you, Trent H. REvans, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteJinx: Where have you been? I hope you are not ill or injured.
Puzzle was tough. I could not finish without help. NW corner got me. But, the rest of the puzzle went along fairly well.
Remember RON PAUL. I believe his son is in Congress. Rand Paul.
PEDAL TO THE METAL came easily.
TAHOE was easy. I worked in Stateline, NV. Continental Tel Co. Drove the Kingsbury Grade many times.
Well, I am out for now.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Yellowrocks glad you enjoyed the Moroccan tea pouring ceremony. Yes, I have seen this in other places. But it seems to be standard at Moroccan restaurants where MINT TEA is the standard drink of choice. As for the blue tint, the place was dimly lit with that bluish light. Because of the dim light the camera had to go to a high ISO (high sensitivity). That tends to make things more blurry and gives things weird colors, too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am glad you enjoyed the Cusco Cathedral. Yes, it is impressive that the ORO has not been stolen. I am guessing the Church has good security. As I say, our Santa Barbara Mission has none of that ORO. Very simple art.
Wilbur Charles thanks for the FAKIR explanation. As I child I thought it was related to the word "fake" and I wondered if it meant that what they did was like a magic trick. Sorry, but your link to the FAB Four/Five did not work. Can you please try to repost it?
Thanks for the tip about Patrick Stewart. I had no idea! Way cool! Too bad he never speaks in that role.
One more post today, if people don't mind.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first came to California I was a student for one year at UC Berkeley in the Physics department. I was still a teen and it was the first time I had to live on my own, not in a dorm. I rented a room in a rooming house.
I wanted to buy a little table top oven so I did not have to eat out all the time. I went for a very long walk with one of my new friends in search of such a thing.
We walked all the way to Oakland, a few miles away. To a salvage yard. They had a small used oven for just $4. The salvage yard was run by an old black man and his son. They were very nice to us.
As we left, my friend mumbled in my ear "It is like SANFORD and Son." I did not say a word. I just gestured back at the sign. The salvage yard was called "SAFFORD and Son". How about that?
By the way, that oven served me for over 20 years. Best oven I ever had.
I'm watching "The Zoo" and they're talking about Condors. A comment was that they are very smart. If they were human they would do the New York Times crossword puzzle in ink! What a great analogy!
ReplyDeleteHere in Vermont the Sunday paper is actually the Saturday-Sunday paper, so I already have the Sunday puzzle! Off I go! Only spent about four hours here at work today doing crossword puzzles. Don't tell my boss.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMy NW corner was a total disaster after i thought flying phenom was UFO. A UFO is a phenomenon, right? Whereas an ACE is an established expert. Anyway, it was all downhill (or uphill) from there. Looks like I spilled an entire bottle of ink on the page.
Never did get HOLLA, since I had entered ENACTER. So that gave me HELLO until I got PANASIAN, then my world started to collapse, especially when I went back to Nw corner to try to make sense of UFO.
NON, I did not make the connection with Nice, France; that cleverness went right over my head like a UFO.
Even after getting the answer from this page and filling in the perps I still didn't get PEEP until I saw the pic of those horrid little candies.
Appreciated the CSO of DADBOD. Especially lately after I've put on my own COVID-20.
Dave (yes, another Dave)
@7:21pn That's the Andean Condor.
ReplyDeleteHola, Lucina !
ReplyDeleteI will post a pic in a couple of weeks. Just don't expect great quality.
Actually, when you transplant, the plants look a little droopy for a bit until they recover. The good news is that I did find the sweetlime in the shed, so they should be perking up a little by the time the spirea (bridal wreath) starts blooming. I'll post pics then.
"Especially lately after I've put on my own COVID-20." LOL. Me too, Vermontah. Seven pounds in seven weeks. The fastest I have ever put on weight. I have to shape up this month.
ReplyDeleteVermontah @ 7:37. I came to quickly realize that when the word Nice is part of a clue it more often refers to the French town than personable or delightful and will require a French answer. Just sayin'
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteNope, could not crack the NW until looking up MEL leading to MAN-C---E getting flushed out and the downs followed. ECO HOTEL(?), um, OK.
DNF - K in OKAPI & KIRS is still missing, I see.
Thanks Trent for the puzzle - Saturdays are still above my pay-grade. Thanks HG for the expo and eInterview w/ Trent.
WOs: Free b/f I gave into FIRE; MaMMA, wrong MEdAL and TAle.
Fav: FRED SANFORD - took me a minute to recall his FIRST name. Growing up, I loved that show.
Picard / PVX - yep, I really wanted UFO but ECO-something it had to be.
Liked your SAFFORD & Son story.
Loved the DR OMK. I rarely eat McD's but, out driving a few days ago (just to be out of the house) I caught a whiff and seriously lusted some french-fries ... I've not had fried anything since quarantine.
Lucina - Look it up yet? You're thinking of his son Rand Paul, the Jr. Senator for Kentucky. Despite his (and father's politics), I don't think he was named for Ayn - but that's how I remember his name.
Hope everyone's having a wonderful eve b/f going to DREAMY land.
Cheers, -T
I don't know how I came across this,
ReplyDelete(kinda fell down the YoutUBE rABBIT HOLE...)
But it definitely does explain some puzzles for me...
In the spirit of puzzle solving, I kept watching,
& could not help thinking of Anonymous T's Alfa Romero...
So, I post it for you Anon-T,
just be aware that this is your future, (with an older car)
& be prepared...
(however, I did not expect I would learn welding as well...)
Sigh, thirty minutes of learning, against the tide of time...:
CED - I LOL'd at all the tools he presented 'cuz I'm listening to Car Talk [That's 888-227-8255, hello, you're on cah tahk] and the caller just confessed that working on cars was to support his tool habit.
ReplyDeleteI need to spray the Alfa's underbelly w/ a hose so I can get that arc welder.
The other thing Tom & Ray answered was "why do your have to remove 6 other things to fix one thing?" Weather stripping was another rabbit to chase... Pop calls this the 'begat system.' One thing begats another, and another... add infinitum
My only question re: this video - what's w/ the plastic gloves & N95+ masks? Car got COVID?
Thanks for the video. Cheers, -T
I originally mixed up Fred Sanford with the Jefferson's. I only had two letters left so I was thinking AL. There is an Al J. I think he's an NBA Basketball player. LIU, yep, Celtics. No wonder I remember him.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, "The Jeffersons" were a spin-off of Archie Bunker. At least I got the "Black" part right.
I do watch a little TV, Seinfeld, Cheers, Fraser, Mom...TBBT(The latter two are Chuck Lorre sitcoms .
I'm watching Burn Notice on AZ Prime right now.
WC
Ps, YR: Yep, I had broken 180 and just broke it the other way. The pool is closed so no water walking - it's either treadmill or shanks mare