Golf Strokes and Strong Arming by Gary Larson
TTP
is still recuperating from his at-home projects. He asked me if I'd
sub once again and give him a chance to get the drywall compound and
latex paint off his hands, and the ache out of his back. So, here
goes...
Gary
has given us a traditional letter swap puzzle with accompanying witty
cluing and ensuing hilarity. In this case the swap is fully explained
in his reveal answers:
63. Golf strokes...and when combined with 48-Down (Strong arming), and divided in four parts, a hint to four puzzle answers: PUTTS + FORCE = PUT "TS" FOR "CE." As my sister used to say to me, "Simple, stu."
17. Emulates Ogden Nash?: MINT SWORDS.
Oops -- MINTS WORDS (Mince words).
The Rhinoceros.
The rhino is a homely beast,
For human eyes he's not a feast.
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
I'll stare at something less prepoceros.
The rhino is a homely beast,
For human eyes he's not a feast.
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
I'll stare at something less prepoceros.
27. Imagined gifts?: PRESENTS OF MIND (Presence of Mind).
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44. What cheerleaders lead?: SPORTING CHANTS (Sporting Chance).
"Siss-Boom-Bee, kick him in the knee.
Siss-Boom-Bass, kick him in the other knee."
54. Tracks on a lily pad?: FROG PRINTS (Frog Prince).
And here's what else Gary provided for our consideration...
Across:
1. Throw off: EMIT. SCWA*
5. Like some firs: NOBLE.
I only learned of these recently. They're native to the Cascade and
Coast ranges along the West Coast. Reportedly, you can recognize them
by the vertically standing cones atop the branches.
10. After-school treat: MALT. C'mon. You put in OREO, didn't you.
14. Actress Anderson: LONI.
Guess
what? Her name is actually Loni Anderson. Who knew? She burst
(bust?) onto the scene in 1978 as Jennifer Marlowe, the buxom
receptionist at WKRP in Cincinnati.
15. Source of net profits?: ETAIL. It can also be the source of net losses.
16. Cooking acronym popularized by Rachael Ray: EVOO. I actually knew this -- Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
19. Early light time: DAWN. "O Jose can you see, by the dawn's early light..."
20. Can't stand: HATES. ABHOR would've worked, until it wouldn't.
21. Student of Graham: AILEY.
This one sent me down the rabbit hole. Turns out it has nothing to do
with crackers. Alvin Ailey was a dance student of Martha Graham.
Before my eyeballs glazed over I found this.
22. "Of course": SURE DO.
25. Ones working with maître d's: GARÇONS. French waiters.
30. Word on a dipstick: ADD. Have you ever tried to read the level of synthetic oil on a bright metal dipstick? Taint easy.
31. Country singer Blake who's a coach on "The Voice": SHELTON. This was his first hit (3:47) back in '01.
32. Noted work: MUSIC. The music is made up of notes...and rests, and other stuff.
35. Want ad initials: EEO. Equal Employment Opportunity.
36. Lies: RESTS. Where it sits.
40. Fiber-rich snack: RAISINS.
I used to think dietary fiber was a specific compound. Nope. It's
basically that which cannot be digested. It comes out virtually
unchanged from the way it went in. TMI?
43. Slip in a pot: IOU. Think poker.
48. Remote situation: FARNESS. Nose-raiser, if I ever saw one.
49. Gets more out of: REUSES. SCWA*
50. Gone by: OF OLD. OLDEN, PASSÉ.
51. Kooky: WEIRD.
53. Gifford's successor on "Live!": RIPA. Kathy Lee Gifford was Regis Philbin's costar before Kelly Ripa came along.
59. Rep on the street: CRED. Rep = Reputation. Cred = Credibility.
60. Deck with a Hanged Man: TAROT. SCWA*
61. Duck that lends its name to a color: TEAL. SCWA*
62. Wriggling: EELY. SCWA*
64. Like hunks and knockouts: SEXY. Personally, I don't see it...
Down:
1. West __: upscale store: ELM. I looked 'em up. They sell furniture. Hadn't heard of 'em but there is a store about 50 miles away in west Houston.
2. "Who, me?": MOI.
3. Certain keeper's charge: INN. The innkeeper is in charge of the inn, I guess.
4. Some church contributions: TITHES. Some people still do this.
5. Units of force: NEWTONS. How many figs to make a Newton?
6. Chiwere-speaking native: OTOE.
7. Breakfast snacks: BARS.
8. Topper: LID. HAT, CAP.
9. Yellow pair?: ELS. YeLLow.
10. It requires some orderly help: MEDICINE. Medical orderlies get the worst jobs, think of fraternity hazing.
11. Toyota model: AVALON.
There's a neighborhood lady who we meet on our walks through the
'hood. She drives one, and we refer to her as Mrs. Avalon when we're
not referring to her as "Our Lady of the Walking."
12. Bargain-basement: LOW END.
13. Tommy Tune's ten: TONYS. You can read about him here.
18. One-named Nigerian singer: SADE.
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21. Defensive covering: ARMOR. This was slow in dawning, but makes perfect sense.
22. WWII supply referred to as "meatloaf without basic training": SPAM. Official lunchmeat of Hawaii.
23. Pakistani tongue: URDU. SCWA*
24. Wine list heading: REDS.
25. Prepare for a Hail Mary: GO LONG. and pray...
26. Where to see a wake: AFT. Behind the boat.
28. Degree requirement, perhaps: THESIS.
29. Greet and seat: SEE IN. USHER into the house of.
33. Nickname in late 20th-century British politics: IRON LADY. Lady Margaret Thatcher.
34. Liked, with "for": CARED. "No thank you, I don't care for it."
37. Offenses: SINS.
38. Schlep: TOTE. HAUL.
39. Unravel, with "out": SUSS, in the mystery sense of unraveling.
41. TGIF part: ITS. "Thank GoODness It's Friday." Always follows "Sure Happy It's Thursday."
42. Libretto cousins: SCRIPTS.
44. "On Language" columnist: SAFIRE. William Safire (1929-2009) was a longtime NYT political columnist. He also wrote the On Language column in the NYT Magazine. You might remember his "nattering nabobs of negativism."
45. Move forward: PROPEL. IMPEL was too short.
46. München mister: HERR. München -- we spell it Munich. MIL lives there. She turned 95 a couple months ago, and is still as crabby feisty as ever.
47. Book reviews: AUDITS. CPA reviews.
51. St.-John's-__: WORT.
It's used in traditional medicine and warrants this high praise: --
"High-quality clinical evidence for its effectiveness remains absent."
Red-headed stepchild of Hydroxychloroquine.
52. Showbiz award "grand slam": EGOT. I learned this just a few weeks ago -- Emmy-Grammy-Oscar-Tony. At first glance, it looks like a rye fungus.
54. Uploading letters: FTP. File Transfer Protocol, but you knew that.
55. India-born author Santha Rama __: RAU (1923-2009).
 |
| She was best known for her travel books. |
56. Originally: NEE. Used in announcements.
57. Try: TAX.
58. Dodgy, on this side of the pond: SLY. I thought it meant iffy or questionable. Hmmm. It can mean both.
* SCWA -- Standard CrossWord Answer
And here's the grid. Desper-otto out.
42 comments:
DNF. Had to go to red letters only about half-way thru, and even then couldn't get the unknown naticks AvAlON + EvOO + AIlEY, and also one I should have easily guessed TAx + SExY. With so much of the puzzle incomplete, I only had MINTS WORDS when I got to the reveal, but that was enough to suss out the gimmick, which helped with all the others. Complicated but cute!
O.N. wasn't the only one to mint words; I think G.L. did too, with FARNESS.
Ogden Nash had a way with WORDS,
Humpty Dumpty would think him absurd.
He'd MINT ones he needed
When English impeded
The meanings his poems deserved!
In days OF OLD, the NOBLE breed
Had GARÇONS to fulfill their need.
To fit their horses' harness
When they'd head for FARNESS
So that they looked SEXY on their steed.
{A, B-.}
Good morning Cornerites.
Thank you Gary Larson for your enjoyable Friday CW.
Carol and I FIR in 47:15 min.
Thank you Desper-otto for your excellent review.
Ðave
D-O, you are getting quite comfortable in your blogging style. Nice to see. Would it be rude to compare MISS PIGGY and LONI ANDERSON ? I guess you would need to see my thoughts.
It took me a while to get the puns but the rest of the fill (as rather pointedly presented by Tom) was not Friday hard. I learned Santha Rama __: RAU back in 2009 from the now-retired Jack McInturff .
Thank you, Gary and Tom.
Thanks for being the super-sub again, Desper-otto ! Actually, you are so good at this, you should be the starter and I should ride the bench. Just a couple more months and the basement should be done. Then I'm going to need time to recover from the carpal tunnel syndrome. :>)
Couldn't focus this morning. Concentration was terrible. Finally picked up on Gary's theme in the last 5 minutes of the solve when I got PRESENTS OF MIND. Oh, the irony.
In the end, one wrong letter. No clue on AILEY and "Tommy Tune's ten" was TONeS, so AILEY was AILEe. I was running down my list of people named Graham. Billy. Bill (CSO). Otto. Graham Nash. Nothing clicked.
As an aside, generally all firs have standing cones and all pines have hanging cones.
Back to the grindstone. See all y'all later n'at !
OMG, what an idiot. I had saBLE for "Firs". Gah. Furs, you idiot. And…
I was vaguely aware of Alvin AILEY(But I spelled it with two E's. Missing the easy TONYS. Worst xword in many weeks since the Saturday I insisted "Toys with tails" were PEKES.*
I warned y'all about Friday. Saturday's no walk in the park but I think I got it.
Thanks for the informative write-up D-Otto. I knew NTS was 'nce' so I was firm with MINTS WORDS as I know Ogden a bit.
I'm anxious to see how Mon confreres (et soeurs) did today.
WC
*A similar clue did refer to the lapdogs
Ps, lemonade, you're a veteran of the xword wars. I'm still in the Minor Leagues, maybe AAA(Or maybe the 3-eyed Piedmont League-it really did exist)
desper-otto, thanks for explaining how to parse PUTTS FORCE. I don't know why I had so much trouble seeing that! Great write-up!
I guess it's an actual word, but I'm really not a fan of FARNESS. I wonder if it could have been made ARNESS (with a clue to the actor James Arness), with appropriate surrounding tinkering.
I see that while I was concentrating on the North I completely blew it down south.
I had hastily inked in SHOTS and tried to make everything around it work. PUTTS does explain the theme although I'd figured out the substitution.
Oh grievous day.
WC
Anon@820 I bleed for you
Good Morning:
I liked this puzzle very much but I found some of the cluing a little too “stretchy” which caused a few hiccups and delays. Of course, some of the difficulty can be blamed on the brain-draining lockdown. For example, I was all set to enter Kneel for Preparing for a Hail Mary. The clue needed Pass, but it’s Friday, so no Pass. Worse than that was knowing full well what the Showbiz award Grand Slam is, and, inexplicably entering ETSY. I doubt if today’s after-school kids would even know what a Malt is, let alone where to get one. My Lid was a Hat and my Low End started out as Lowest. I liked the EEO/EVOO, Els/Eely, and Eely/Ailey, duos and Tony’s and EGOT complemented each other nicely. Didn’t care for Farness and, no, DO, I didn’t know what FTP was, as I’ve never heard it or even seen it, but seeing William Safire brought a smile as I loved his On Language column.
Thanks, Gary, for a very clever theme and reveal (It took a minute or two before I parsed it correctly) and thanks, DO, for pinch hitting. You were in extra fine fettle today. I chuckled at your “Usher into the house of” pun and Our Lady of Walking. My biggest learning moment was Santha Rama Rau being female.
Stay safe, all.
Got the theme at SPORTING CHANTS, but FIW. Tommy's ten was TONeS thus unknown AILEe.
It took me a few seconds, but the brain finally engaged with C.C.s MINT SWORD.
Another enjoyable Friday. Thank you Paul and as always C.C.
MO
My error. Thank you D-otto for the MINT SWORD.
Good morning everyone.
Saw the TS substitution for CE early, but didn't SUSS or parse PUT TS FOR CE until I was done. 2 wrong letters in the SE but got everything else. Most perps were kind. Glad I could remember SAFIRE; I was always in awe of his command of the language.
A generous offering of fresh fill with words like PROPEL and GARÇONS. (Means 'boys' in French.)
I winced at FARNESS. Thought SEE IN was a bit stiff, too.
SPAM - Our Saturday lunch fare in port. (Only the duty section on board; a chance for the Mess Caterer to save some $$.)
A worthy challenge by Gary and a superb recap by D-O.
Clever theme but it took be a minute to parse the reveal - it would be fun if Paul came by and told us how he came up with it.
NOBLE firs was in my wheelhouse as my husband is from Oregon and that is my MIL's tree of choice at Christmas time!
Thanks to D-O and Gary!
This was an extended slog for me. FIW in the end due to the oft mentioned Ailee. I was thinking of Benjamin Graham, and just couldn't wrestle free of economics, but I doubt that would have helped anyway. So, take the demerit and move on.
First theme answer I got was Frog Prints, but didn't get it. The penny dropped after Chants perped in and I was able to fill in what remained of Sporting. Really had to stare at Putts Force to grasp how that was the reveal, but did get it ultimately. That said, I would have to rank that as one of the, er, less appealing reveals encountered.
Thanks for the challenge Gary and for the review Tom.
I figured out the TS for CE swap at MINTS WORD.But even though I finished I still didn't understand the FORCE PUTTS- golfers who try to jam the putt into the hole only to watch the ball roll 10' past. The PUT TS FOR CE breakdown for PUTTS FORCE never entered this simple mind. Took Saturday time to finish this Friday puzzle.
AILEY's & TONYS' cross was my last fill. Like TTP, Ailey was a complete unknown and I really didn't know who or what Tommy Tune was or did.`
FARNESS-is that a real word?; never seen it. Add West ELM and RAU to the list for other unknowns.
D-otto-Plaquenil (hydroxychloroquine) has been out for a long time as an effective treatment for the effects of malaria, lupus, and arthritis.
LONI-SCWA and a Mrs. Burt Reynolds
TAROT- if all the latest PC BS is causing tv networks to remove shows and Lady Antebellum to change the bands name, certainly they have to change the deck of cards. Hanged Man is not PC.
Gary sure provided an interesting, if undo-able on my part, puzzle. Even with Red Letters turned on with only half of the puzzle filled in, it was still a tough row to hoe. D-O, I agree with others that your expo was great.
I sort of got the theme with MINTS WORDS, but like others, I didn't get the theme clue PUTTS FORCE at all. It was a good thing that D-O 'splained it.
There were a number of stumbling blocks along the way. I didn't know ELM, NOBLE, RAU or AILEY, and I had WAITERS before GARCONS (technically right, but wrong language), SURELY before SURE DO, LOW before ADD, and I had a problem with FARNESS and TAX.
Perps as usual were my saving grace.
I knew Margaret Thatcher was the IRON LADY. I actually met her when she was on a state visit to the US in the 80's. I got to give her a tour of our Operations Control Center for the Solar Maximum Mission spacecraft when she was at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD for a visit to the facility. Impressive lady.
Sad News. I just heard that the 50th Super Bowl of Naked Volleyball has been cancelled for 2020 because of the pandemic. Sports are being hit hard this year.
I hope all are safe and doing well.
Well, if Thursday's are toughies, Friday's are real bears--but fun bears, especially if they're a gift from Gary. So many thanks, Gary, and thank you for helping out with a great write-up, C.C.
Busy day, but I'll try to check in again later. Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.
Pay back for finding every puzzle this week relatively easy. I absolutely loved the word play but DNF. Great theme. I, too, had TONES for TONYS, but it would have been found with a longer ABC run.
I turfed it in the NW with some silly mistakes. I though of INN and said it was part of the clue. No, it was not. I had SURELY for SURE DO, which nixed NEWTONS. I should have gotten SADE. SURE DO would have helped. Not the puzzles fault, but my faulty brain. It was not an impossible puzzle.
Meatloaf without basic training. LOL
They sell noble firs here as Christmas trees.
My generation had malts. You never see them these days. I had OREO at first, too.
FARNESS seemed odd, but it actually is a word. I think we had RAU before.
Well worth the effort.
What a pleasant day here! No HHH, no need for AC. Sunny and warm, but not hot.
Hi Y'all! Some good chuckles from this clever puzzle, thanks, Gary! Some good chuckles from Desperotto too. Thanks!
Saying that, man, this was hard! I had trouble finding the second words to all the theme entries because I couldn't come up with perps. Kept pecking away until they filled. i'll admit to several red-letter runs and multiple tries that turned red. Hand up for OREO. Knew who Graham was but didn't think of AILEY altho I've seen his troops on TV.
Finally got the themes filled in and saw the letter replacement & FOR CE as a reveal. However, FARNESS describes how FAR off I was in finding the second half of the reveal. I saw RESTS with SUSS hanging down and tried to make that TS the reveal. Duh! I don't know why I didn't connect PUTTS with that. Not sure I read the clue at all. Oh well, the chuckles put me in a good mood. Especially like the Ogden Nash MINTS WORDS because he sure did & I loved his work.
FBC! (Finished By Cheating...)
in other words: GDNF (Glorified Did Not Finish...)
Mints words?
Presents of mind?
Sporting Chants?
Frog "Prints" or Rex, or Rover, or whatever...
Learning moment:
Naked Volleyball is a real thing!
here is the somewhat sanitized version...
17 proper names, most of which I did not know.😖
Did someone say this was not hard enough for Friday? I beg to differ! I got the theme early, and although the Southwest was the last to fall, I understood PUT TS FOR CE, or FOR CE PUT TS, as you like. But shouldn't "Strong-arming" be "forcing," not FORCE? Cross that with the ridiculous FARNESS, and you have a difficult corner! My favorite bit was "Tracks on a lily pad," and my ultimate FIW square was the Y in TONYS. Like TTP, OMaxiN, and others, I had TONeS. Not helped by the proper name perps. Thanks, Gary, for the high "poince" of the puzzle, D-O for the solve, and Cornerites all for the good company.
Hola!
Ay, caramba! This was hard today. I got the letter exchange at FROG PRINTS and SPORTING CHANTS, finished the bottom without problems. But the top literally gave me fits.
When I see Hail Mary used in sports it makes me see red and ergo, my mind refuses to function well. I did know Alvin AILEY but sadly spelled it AInEY so that delayed AVALON for way too long.
Finally, I LU GARCON, got GOLONG and had misspelled SHELDON as SHELtON. Lots of white-out was used! I absolutely HATE to look up anything.
Also changed LET IN to SEE IN. E TOIL was cute.
EVOO and DAWN were early fill along with TONYS. Tommy Tune is a sight to see, with his long legs dancing and leaping across the stage.
OTOE waited until CREE and ERIE were dismissed. NOBLE clinched it.
I also loved Ogden Nash and William SAFIRE for their gifts, though so opposite, of language.
This was hard earned fun; thank you, Gary and Tom. D-O, you are a top notch Blogger!
Buenas tardes a todos! I hope it is a good afternoon for everyone.
Great puzzle, Gary, thanks for the write-up, D-O. I was struggling, I had a total mess in the NW, and then I parsed out the theme and that got me to INTS and then I could unravel the ravel I'd made up there.
Hey Lucy,
Has our hot weather of Wednesday gotten to you yet? Today is much more pleasant.
I loved both Ogden Nash and William Safire.
I thought D-O was using Schwa at first, but no. But what is a Schwa anyway? I never learned about them in school so far as I can remember. Short vowel sounds, OK. Long vowel sounds OK. But no Schwa. Hmm...
Cool to find my name in the puzzle.
~ Mind how you go...
I actually like Spam OK. I think I'll get some at the next opportunity.
Musings
-Couldn’t blog before 8:30 tee time as the puzzle took more time than usual. The gimmick was obvious and the reveal was wonderful!
-Me too on TONYS, YR. Had to run.
-Hand up for OREO instead of going to MALT Shop
-Alvin AILEY has to be way deep in that rabbit hole! Otto Graham, Billy Graham…
-Dipstick in my yute – Fill ‘er up with oil and check the gas
-Life is like golf, “Ya gotta play it where it lies!”
-My first keeper’s charge was a BEE
-Santha Rama LAMA DING DONG? You’d have to be of a certain vintage…
-Nice job, D-O. I saw C.C. listed as the blogger but a few sentences in, it was obvious that it wasn't our gracious leader! :-)
FIW with AILEe and TONeS. The NE corner was super hard for me and I failed. Nice theme, which I caught onto early. Tommy Tune, who the F are you?
Bill G, the schwa is the sound of the e in "the."
Wow, this was a Friday toughie, big time.
Couldn’t get a foothold anywhere, so just skipped around and filled what I could. Almost put it down.
No write-overs today, but mostly because I couldn’t even guess.
FARNESS looked and sounded sketchy, but...
Definition of farness
1 : the quality or state of being far off : remote state or situation
the farness of her house from the station
2 archaic : distant parts or regions
from the farness of the stars
So totally legit.
So if this is Friday, and it is, what awaits tomorrow?
See you then....stay safe.
Bill G:
Yes to hot weather already making itself comfortable here since last week actually. It has been in the 90s and 100s for a week.
I see that I had E-TOIL instead of E-TAIL.
Since this was about golf I had no idea what it all meant.
I see even PVX had trouble. I should have gone online as I would have done for a Saturday and blanked out boxes and tried other combinations.
I'd have clued PUTTS as "Short strokes*. And I could have looked at the down clues especially since FTs and RAh made no sense.
Xword seems easier seeing the final fill. I guess they all do. I did Sat; it doesn't get easier but P&P will get you through.
WC
*Then again the PC police would be all over Rich
Just got back from a bike ride on a recently completed Adirondack trail with a teenaged friend (he's 62).
..I ....can... barely.....catch .....my ........breath!!! 🥵
So started later...almost a DNF but finally realized Hoda couldn't be correct. "Gifford" is a last name. Once I WAGed RIPA the stubborn SW was finally conquered. But then the reveal revealed I had FIW 😟. Crossed SURE(t)O with SA(t)E. (Assume this is phonetic singer "sha-DAY"?)
Other inkovers included. LOWEst/END. THESuS/THESIS.
AILEY,RAU,SHELTON,SAFIRE ELM additional unknown proper names. Self-SUSSed. Held on to hostess too long before replacing with GARÇONS
"find a rosary" wouldn't fit for "prepare for a Hail Mary" ...I guess the "grand slam" EGOT stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony....(or a quartet of Sesame St puppets?). It self-perped. "....'E GOT all the awards, Nigel!".......NOBLE firs?? Wha?
"Net profit" hmmm? Related to fishing, tennis? Ah internet! Cute! Liked the letter swap theme. The noted work clue was my favorite.
FARNESS seemes clumsy but then remembered an old song "The Nearness of You" so.. meh
So...meh:
When the washer woman is done give the laundry to the ....IRON LADY
Popular TV series "This is ____" SUSS.
Rachael's transgressions....RAISINS
Enclosure for, or flock of, sheep.....OFOLD
Great job DO.
Did not get the Ogden Nash answer, but got the other three themers. I saw the gimmick from them and that helped me decode the theme.
>Roy
Ain't gonna lie (REST?), that was hard! Five hours on-and-off and still misparsed the theme [I was thinkin' NT - see: ---->]
For giggles, here's my DNF Grid.
And yes, D-O, I had OREO and stuck with it.
//MALT? What decade are we in?!?/
Hi All!
I see I'm in good company today.
Thanks Gary for the puzzle. It was a real noodler and fun (nearly) ducking the flying V8 cans.
//@8:20 - dude, it's a puzzle. Maybe not your cupO* -- I got a hoot out of it.
Great expo D-O. You should definitely piNTS-hit every few innings.
//TTP - man up, dude :-)
WOs: West End b/f ELM thanks to finally SUSS'n' theme. VINO b/f #fails.
ESPs: I'd LOVE TO relate 'em but I've forgotten by now. RAU was certainly one.
Fails: Missed the CSO to mes @13d, Love TO |vino (vEnt?), and EVOO among others.
Garmond [sic - I was thinkin' gourmand but I cans't spel good] was right out.
Wins: Filled IRON LADY and SAFIRE w/ confidence sans perps.
Fav: I'd lose all CRED if I didn't say File Transport Protocol (FTP). One of the few (only?) protocols w/ both data and control channels (TCP ports 20 & 21, respectively).
Didn't know what Tommy had ten of but Tommy Two [Tu] is Tone and 8,675,309 of Jenny[s] [3:52 of a one-hit-wonder]
{A+, B}
WC & NaomiZ - funny (peculiar, not haha), it was the SE that filled 1st for me. Like AveJoe @9:40, that's how the V8 bounced to the (near getting the) theme...
oc4 - that's cool you got to meet Thatcher. But, hey, if your going to advertise a link.... Spike it! :-)
//there you go CED!
But I don't like SPAM!
BTW, if that's what the really called it in WWII... LOL!
Cheers, -T
*should I be ugly and suggest the The USA Today?
No, I'll be nice....
Hand up for TONeS crossing AILEe. Yep, it was a toughie today, but overall I enjoyed the journey. Want West END for the upscale store, which of course messed me up in the northwest for a long time. Yep, I wrinkled my nose at FARNESS, but oh well. As for want ad initials, it always takes perps to know if it will be EEO or EOE (or even SWF or ISO).
I didn't realize RAISINS are high in fiber. Good to know.
LW and I tested out a Toyota AVALON but settled on the Camry instead. Both have almost the same front seat room, the main difference between the two cars being that the Avalon has more back seat room, which we don't need, especially at the significantly higher price.
Excellent write-up. desper-otto.
Excellent verses, Owen.
Nifty links, CED.
NaomiZ, "poince" good one!
I like SPAM too. Our neighbors are from Hawaii and happily share with us when they make musubi.
Good wishes to you all.
DNF. Great white wilderness in the far north.
Had EVOi for EVOO. Why I abbreviated Oil as I is unknown, and why I never saw it.
I LIU. FARNESS goes all the way back to Old English (Anglo-Saxon). That's about as legitimate as it gets.
Schwa is the upside-down small e that you see in pronunciations. It's the obscure vowel in the last syllable of little or in the usual pronunciation of the -ed past tense ending.
I think EOE (Equal Opportunity Employer) would be more common in want ads.
>Roy
TGIF! Thanks for the workout and the fun, Gary and D'otto.
Officially a DNF, but I see that I am in good company today. But I will congratulate myself that I got the theme early (I was all over the grid and got FROG PRINTS first and then FOR CE PUT TS). One major holdup was entering Fighting CHANTS before perps changed it to SPORTING; (actually I had to Google SAFIRE and that broke open the SW corner).
I did not know Tommy Tunes and thought it might refer to Top Ten Songs. That held up the NE corner. And of course I did not know AILEY. (Sorry, I did not see your CSO, AnonT.)
I had Wacko before WEIRD. Hand up for Hats before LIDS, and SUREly before SURE TO.
I had enough perps to see that Oreo was not the after-school treat. I also noted we had Breakfast snacks (BARS) and Fiber-rich snacks (RAISINS) to round out our day.
Greet and seat=SEE IN was an anticlimax when I was thinking about those maître d's and GARÇONS. No restaurants open here (except for take-out), but we get to extend our bubble to 10! Some grandchildren are going to get hugged!!!!!
50A "Gone by" made me think of Ago, Passed, before OF OLD finally filled the spot.
Lightbulb moment when I read d'otto's explanation of "noted work"= MUSIC. D'uh, and I play the piano! I was thinking of Opus.
DH gave me NEWTONS, AVALON and GO LONG. I helped him with the Jumble. (Spoiler Alert! - AFT means towards the direction of the stern, or we could use one of our hated A-words, Astern.)
Wishing you all a good day.
I got that there were homonyms used to make funny meanings. But I did not see the CE to TS pattern until I was done. I guessed RAO and EGOO so I could not even figure out PUTTS. When I finally got that, I got the theme PUT TS FOR CE.
But that did not help with that impossible mess of MALT/EVOO/TONYS/AILEY. For all I knew, going to the MALL was the after school treat. No way to guess EVOO or AILEY which are utterly unknown and un-guessable.
TTP, OMaxiN, Yellowrocks, NaomiZ, Hungry Mother, Jayce Hand up for TONES which makes more sense than TONYS when you see the word "TUNES". When is it "misdirection" and when is it a "bad clue" when so many make the same "mistake"?
I actually only got one square wrong with all of that mess, but it still leaves me grumpy.
Hand up SURELY before SURE DO. Which had me thinking of the Airplane bit.
Here is the SURELY bit from Airplane anyway!
From Yesterday:
Anonymous at 3:26PM explained TRESS for me. I really did not get it at all until they explained it. Then I laughed. Very clever!
As for TATTED, it might work as an adjective. "Joe was TATTED" if he was covered with "TATS". But it does not work as a verb as in "Joe TATTED in the Tattoo contest". The dictionary only shows TATTED in the making lace sense. I did get what they meant and got it "correct". But it is still not correct.
Anyway... The reason I uploaded that video of the Middle East Ensemble playing TABLA is to note that TABLA is used in the Middle East along with India. I hope someone watched the video as the music was quite other-worldly.
My paper doesn’t publish the puzzle title. So no hints as to the theme. Several boo boos.
Sewsweet - Only the Sunday LAT puzzles carry a title. The Mon - Fri puzzles have themes or gimmicks but no official title. An informal title is conferred on the crossword by the blog moderator. Saturday is themeless; also no title.
A tough Friday pzl, but no tougher, I tell myself, than it should be.
No, Jayce et al, not TONES or AILEE but TONY awards and Alvin AILEY. Years ago I booked Alvin Ailey's company into our theater in Richmond VA.
What a treat!
MISTY ~ I'm afraid this Bear caught me in her den!
What was wrong with today's edition of the LA Times you may ask?
- "Too many Lines and Typos and 'fun Bears,' oh my!!"
~ OMK
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DR: 4 diags today, one in hand and a 3-eay in the bush.
The front end anagram?
How to define my state? Because of a preceding premise, i.e. my condition upon facing too many Naticks?...
"HENCE ANNOYED"!
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