Hi Gary,
We're doing well too, thanks.
Here are some thoughts on this puzzle:
I began constructing this grid in March 2019 and I sent it to Rich Norris a couple months later. In October 2019 Rich asked for some revisions in the short fill. Soon after I completed these, he accepted the puzzle.
DANCE LESSONS was the seed entry for this grid, inspired by the fact that at the time I wrote it, my wife and I were learning how to rumba for our wedding dance! REGINA KING was another early entry, as she had just won her Oscar for "If Beale Street Could Talk". My research indicates that, as of this writing, her full name has never appeared in a newspaper crossword grid before; if that's true I'm very happy to debut it and I hope solvers enjoy seeing her in the grid.
Overall I'm pleased with the way the long fill in this puzzle turned out, but I think now there are a few too many clunkers in the short fill for my liking: A DUB, A TEST, SPAKE, and the like. If I were constructing this puzzle today, I'd try to reduce the number of these kinds of entries if not eliminate them entirely.
By the way, this is my 10th LA Times puzzle, all of which have been Saturday themelesses--including my very firstnewspaper crossword back in 2009. My thanks to Rich Norris, Patti Varol, and the editorial team who have given me the chance to share my puzzles in this venue; to the bloggers at Crossword Corner and elsewhere, thanks for sharing your thoughts on my puzzles; and to the solvers reading this, I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks again,
Kyle
Across:
1. Gym supplies: MATS.
5. Affectionate-poke-on-the-nose word: BOOP.
9. Cut souvenirs: SCARS - Some SCARS don't show
14. Without instruments: A CAPPELLA - "In the manner of the chapel" Usually two words, two P's and two L's. The A CAPPELLA group, Pentatonix, provides some instrument-like voice accompaniment in this haunting piece.
16. "Haystacks" painter: MONET - This time it was MONET
18. Soaked: SOGGY.
19. "The Twilight Zone" (2019) host Jordan: PEELE - Much more familiar with the guy on the right who created the series in 1959
 |
| Jordan PEELE Rod Serling |
22. Ballet move: PLIE.
26. Take a bad turn: GO SOUTH - Some people have seen their businesses GO SOUTH this year
29. "Semper Fidelis" composer: SOUSA - Oorah!
30. "Concord Sonata" composer: IVES - Wow, Charles!
31. Race units: LAPS.
34. Talked like Moses or Abraham?: SPAKE - And thus God SPAKE unto Noah,"Uh, you're gonna need a bigger boat"
36. Tart finish?: LET - A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry.
37. In actuality: DE FACTO - I may be listed as "head of household" but...
39. The last pope named Clement: XIV (1760 - 1774) Obverse: Clement XIV. Reverse: Jesus, Peter and Paul expelling the Jesuits which Clement did in their name
40. Cleaner brand with a macron on its first vowel: DRANO which makes the drain 42. Circulate: FLOW better
 |
| 1950's Can |
44. Ones known for excellent service: ACERS - 163mph tennis serve is the record
46. Many people make them at work: LIVINGS.
48. Blizzard portmanteau: SNOWMAGEDDON - A news media image after a 6" snow was predicted
51. "Rub-__ ... ": A-DUB - Three men in a tub
52. Root that may be cubed: YAM - We math peeps appreciate the two red herrings
53. Big battery: D-CELL.
56. Realm of Tolkien's Dwarves: MORIA - Here 'ya go!
58. Are useful: FILL A NEED - For good or ill, I do that here on Saturday
61. Cleared in a diner: BUSED.
62. Proverbial nonexistent meal: FREE LUNCH.
63. Nuclear trial: A-TEST.
64. Pamplona pronoun: ESOS. ESOS pantalones están sucios (Those pants are dirty)
65. BFN alternative: TTYL - Bye For Now vs Talk To You Later
Down:
1. Buddy: MAC and 32. Buddy: PAL.
2. "Rent-__": 1988 film: A COP - This turkey had some big name stars
3. Unlikely to titillate: TAME.
4. Small trunks: SPEEDOS - Google if you must
5. "Go easy on me": BE GENTLE when correcting any 49. Faux pas: GAFFE I make here
6. Copacabana greeting: OLA and 48. Copacabana steps: SAMBA - OLA. ¿Te gustaría SAMBA? (Hello. Would you like to SAMBA?)
7. Tree sacred to Athena: OLIVE - What's that all about?
8. "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!" group: PANEL - Here is Tom Hanks serving as a guest host
9. Texting format, briefly: SMS - I use Short Message Service for texting and love it when people respond quickly.
10. Confines: COOPS UP - We've all had months of this recently
11. Norman Conquest victim: ANGLO SAXON - When the last ANGLO SAXON king, Edward the Confessor, died childless in 1066, William of Normandy (later The Conqueror) invaded to take the British crown from two others 3-minute summary
12. 2019 Best Supporting Actress winner for "If Beale Street Could Talk": REGINA KING - Kyle is happy to have introduced her name into crosswords. Her IMDB
13. They may be treated with compresses: STYES - Saturday cluing for a staple
15. Country in the Caroline Islands: PALAU - Peleliu is a small island in the PALAU archipelago and saw bitter fighting in WWII
21. Strike symbols: XES - Here's the last two XES on Boomer's twentieth 300 game
24. Source of livestock feed: CHAFF - Dried chopped forage used to add bulk to animal feed
26. Deceptively adorn: GILD - There's no need to GILD the lily
27. Transmission conclusion: OVER AND OUT
28. Start of typical "Star Trek" navigation orders: SET A COURSE
33. Admonish: SCOLD.
35. Tense times, maybe: EVES - This dystopian song came to my mind
37. School house: DORM - My first DORM room was #237 in Morey Hall in 1964
38. Turns idly, as a pencil: TWIDDLES.
41. Green ones: NEWBIES.
43. Pesto ingredient: PINE NUT - among other ingredients
45. For example: SAY.
47. Inclined to opine: VOCAL.
50. Mideast dignitaries: EMIRS.
54. Advanced: LENT - I LENT/advanced a family member a lot of money to help adopt a child from China and in my heart I knew I would never get it all back. BTW, she was worth it!
55. Goranson of "The Conners": LECY - Then/now
57. Big name in home security: ADT - Is the sign enough to deter criminals?
59. Summer sign: LEO.
60. FedEx rival: DHL
Comments for Kyle?
59 comments:
Good morning!
Finally, a FIR. I really prefer themeless puzzles; there's nothing to miss. ACAPPELLA, which letters are doubled, is it the Cs, Ps or Ls. Let the perps decide. LECY, really? I let it stand. Initially I tried SLUE for "Circulate," but it was FLOW that made everything come together. Well done, Kyle. Enjoyed the tour, Husker. (Had to look up "Molassed" -- I couldn't believe it was a real word. And all those accidentals in IVES' sheet music made my eyes cross.)
PANEL: I listen to Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me while solving the Saturday puzzles. WGBH carries it at 7AM (Boston time). Our local NPR station doesn't air it for another four hours.
MORIA: The "Mines of Moria" play an important role in Part I of LOTR as ancient home of the dwarves and current home to the Balrog. Gandalf cries, "Run, you fools!" just before he slips into the abyss.
Maleddon, tried to force ma(e)lstrom in there. Spelled that wrong too. Chaff is the dried husk removed by thrashing a grain. Has no nutritional value and was surprised it is used as a feed filler.
FIW because I had ViCAL and didn’t proofread. Moral victory anyway. Some nasty names to plow through. I’m really not interested in so much trivia; more wordplay, please.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Tough for me. But fun to work out.
One nit to pick. 24 down. CHAFF.
I grew up on a farm, harvesting hay, straw, beans.
To me, chaff was the residue after all of the valuable parts were separated out for livestock feed. Most chaff was left in the field, though some (straw is chaff from wheat) was used for bedding. But never for feed. Animals don't - willingly - eat chaff.
Thanks for listening. Sorry to complain. The puzzle with my coffee was a great start to my day.
DD
27 down is incorrect. "Over and out" is contradictory. "over" means the other person should talk, and "out" ends the conversion.
Good morning everyone.
OVER AND OUT is absolutely not used in the military. The transmission conclusion is either OVER or OUT. OVER signifies the sender expects a further reply or response. OUT means the end of the conversation and a reply is not expected nor desired. OVER AND OUT is seen in some TV episodes and may see some use by undisciplined civilian transmitters.
Got most of the solve, but had 4 errors in the SE. I don't do 'Bye for now' so did not know the clue. I should have got the LL in D CELL, but couldn't parse DCE……. D'uh.
CHAFF - Notwithstanding the product depicted by Husker, we would never feed our cows CHAFF per se. Only the good stuff. Maybe more of a horse feed thing? I know they have tricky guts, so may need some specialized feed.
From Merriam Webster:
bus verb
bused also bussed; busing also bussing
Slow and steady was the only way I could finish today. I knew ACAPPELLA, just didn't know if it was C or CC, P or PP, and L or LL. And then were the unheard of unknowns- the movie and REGINA KING, Tolkien's Dwarves and MORIA, "Wait..." & PANEL, and The Conners and LECY. Never heard of the shows or fills- all perps. Twilight Zone- didn't know Rod Serling was back; PEELE was perps. No idea about the clue BFN and TTYL was my last fill to complete the unknown LECY.
I got the SOUTH-west moving with a WAG of OVER AND OUT. SNOWMAGEDDON- had to wait for perps on that one too.
DANCE LESSONS- ours went SOUTH after two sessions. DW didn't like it when I counted when dancing but that's the only way I could remember the steps.
TartLET- isn't 'she' a young tart?
D-otto, I'm with you on themeless puzzles.
Okay Spitz, TomH, & Anon@8:33- OVER AND OUT.
Another solid themeless from Kyle and the usual inspirational write-up from our Fremont Friend, Husker Gary. The hardest part was escaping the rabbit holes I went down after clicking on his links for Realm of Tolkien's Dwarves: MORIA and Tree sacred to Athena: OLIVE . These are both things I was familiar with, but I learned more and more about both.
I still find it interesting that my introduction to the actress REGINA KING was this SILLY MOVIE . I had seen her in many earlier performances, but none stuck until then. Her diversified ACTING HISTORY .
We are in our third straight very hot, very clear day here in paradise. Be safe.
In language, things are seldom black and white. While it is correct to say HOLA is hello in Spanish, in Portuguese the word for hello is OLA . I am sure many Brazilians would go to the Copa.
Good Morning:
This is my kind of Saturday puzzle, reminiscent of a Silkie. On the first pass, I had very little filled in and thought for sure that I’d never crack it open. Aah, never underestimate the power of perps, persistence, and patience. As usual, getting the long fill helps immensely with the solve and I found lots of fresh and lively fill to help me along. I had Pal at 1A until it showed up in another location, so Mac it became. I also had to change Pelau to Palau. Several of those pesky proper names slowed me down: Moria, Lecy, Regina King (although I do know her), and, as clued, Olive, Panel, and Ives. Twiddles is a funny word to say and even funnier to see! I thought of Lucina at Ola and Esos. It took me awhile to understand BFN; I use BBL (Be back later) when playing WWF.
Thanks, Kyle, for a very enjoyable offering, difficult but doable and thanks, HG, for another scintillating summary and vivid visuals. I liked the dance lesson video, but was disappointed with the lack of a musical demonstration. I also enjoyed Mr. Sousa’s rousing tribute to the Marines!
FLN
Belated Happy Anniversary to The Curmudgeon and Mrs. C.
Have a great day.
Good morning. A formidable challenge today that took 30:54 to solve, with three half hour or so breaks to refresh the D CELLS that were apparently powering my brain. Well, one was for the grocery delivery. Thanks Kyle ! Thoroughly challenging and enjoyable.
GO wrong and Warp factor were way off target, but quickly removed when the perps disagreed.
Wow, Boomer ! You sure put a lot of lift in that release. I saw no variation in those two deliveries. Definable, repeatable, perfectible.
I don't see any macaroon on that Drano can :>)
The team of Jordan PEELE and and Keegan-Michael Key always crack me up with their characterizations in their skits and senses of humor.
My immediate manager almost always closed calls with "Bye For Now"
Yes, CHAFF was unexpected for the clue, but I'll have to look it up to see if there is an alternate definition that is different than what I know from my youth.
Great job, Gary. I always enjoy your entertaining reviews. A great mix of links and visuals.
WIMS: "Belated Happy Anniversary to The Curmudgeon and Mrs. C." Sorry I missed that yesterday.
Things went North with this one. FIR. I appreciated Kyle's comments about the short fill. I would, though, add "Boop" to his list of things to rework. Betty blank might have been a better clue but that's too easy for Saturday, I guess.
Today was a tough one for me, but eventually got everything: The left side first, then the middle, then bottom right and worked up. Upper right filled last since I really wanted KEEPS IN instead of COOP UP and I didn't know Regina King and thought ACHES for compresses.
I also didn't like CHAFF as an answer.
I just figured BUSED was the USA spelling instead of BUSSED. I used to read a lot of British sci-fi and still think TIME TRAVELLER is correct instead of TRAVELER.
Also wanted to fit SNOWPOCALYPSE or BOMBCYCLONE at first, well known words here in the NE.
USS Beale, my home for two years.
OLA - Since OLA is Portuguese, and Copacobana Beach is in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil, the clue make a lot of sense to me. Probably a lot of SPEEDOS there, too.
Yesterday I tried posting twice, but it never published my entry so I'll try once more. First, a belated congrats to Spitz on his 55th anniversary. I am two years behind you. Mine is on April Fool's Day. Is there any more appropriate day than that to be yoked? Anyway, yesterday's satisfying FIR made up for one missed square on Thursday. Today was a different story altogether with a miss at 38D crossing 48A, so ultimately a FIW but I'll take it as a good try anyway.
Spitzboov,
"Early in January 1943, Beale began shakedown training off the coast of New England."
What is shakedown training ?
Is that working out readiness kinks with the ship and crew ?
Clem expelled the jevvies because they'd become too political. I wonder if tried to moderate them first .
I liked seeing SPAKE and I loved Gary's comment re. Noah and his boat which some claimed they have found RELICs of.
I just got ACERS as a tennis clue.
I believe it was "Fly you fools" . Wizards are often ? Cranky?
Ok, that s one seems to have a consensus of difficult. I managed the FIR so perhaps medium difficult. I had most of my trouble in NE especially when I realized PAL was taken and before Pads and Dull for TAME wouldn't compute. LECY seemed like a strange name.
WC
Agreed, Lecy was a bit of a punt. I did not know that answered but answered it with the fills from the other direction. Sort of like solving a crossword puzzle. Now it's time for a cuppa and an unkind doughnut. I miss Merl.
Sorry, but I was not too happy when I finished. I was glad that most of the seemingly difficult parts filled in nicely. But some bits really made me grumpy. TartLET? MORIA/ADT. Utterly unknown LECY and TTYL which could have been many other things.
HungryMother I am with you. More word play and less with the obscure stuff that you just have to know.
OK... I am feeling a bit less grumpy getting ACERS as a tennis word.
I had no idea there is a new Twilight Zone. Learning moment.
Here is a photo of my friend in front of my ivy-covered DORM. Soon after that they removed all the ivy.
Happy to see STAR TREK mentioned. I will say more in my next post.
From Yesterday:
Wilbur Charles sorry, but I am not understanding the "abroad" reference. Can you please explain the connection to late night TV? You are correct that I don't watch late night TV. In fact, I only watch TV if I can record it. I cannot imagine how anyone can deal with watching TV live.
SwampCat thank you very much for reaching out regarding Star Trek. The episode you are referring to was called "Day of the Dove". Indeed one can take it as a metaphor for the military industrial complex which profits from creating conflict and war.
What most intrigues me is that you said "Full disclosure: I loved this episode!". Can you please say what you loved about it?
Roddenberry was a complex person who served in the military and as a police officer. Yet he also had a positive vision of a future world that was very different. Star Trek happened because of that vision. People can enjoy Star Trek for the action or for the surprise plot twists. But he always had deeper meanings in mind.
Here is a long interview he did with "The Humanist" magazine in 1991 shortly before he died.
If you really want to understand what he had in mind, I highly recommend reading it. Here is one bit on page 9:
===
Star Trek is my statement to the world. Understand that Star Trek is more than just my political philosophy. It is my social philosophy, my racial philosophy, my overview on life and the human condition.
I have been able to comment on so many different facets of humanity because both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation have been so wide-ranging in the subjects they’ve covered.
===
From Previous Days:
AnonT I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your nephew in that tragic hiking accident. It was heroic of him to try to rescue his lady friend.
Fine puzzle. I had to eke this one out slowly. Trouble in the NW. I had PELAU and RENT A CAR, also a movie. I looked up the spelling of Palau and changed the E to A, allowing me to find COME AGAIN and RENT A COP and PEELE. Done. My FAUX PAS was I peeked for one spelling. Still fun. LECY was every single perp. Strange name. HG, as always, spectacular blog.
Like many of you I wondered about CHAFF being feed to cattle. Wiki says, " Chaff is indigestible by humans, but livestock can eat it and in agriculture it is used as livestock fodder, or is a waste material ploughed into the soil or burned." As an idiom it means worthless things.
TARTLET is just a small tart, usually only big enough for one serving, as the one HG pictured. Well known among bakers and dessert aficionados.
I use TTYL frequently in texts and emails, sometimes BRB, be right back. I have never seen BFN, but the TT suggested TTYL.
I afraid there will be no more DANCE LESSONS for at least year. This 6 ft. social distancing will last long.
Good Afternoon, All. xword was above my pay grade today but it is a learning opportunity so I like to read the recap, thanks HG for the 'splainin'. I had to review the spelling on buses as it seems wrong, but LIU and Webster says busses is an old spelling and common usage drops the extra "s". HG, liked your reference to Eve of Destruction, by BM. It's on my play list and it's lyrics are as applicable today as they were in 1965 or some things never change. Maybe someday I'll be able to claim that this puzzle was med difficult but I doubt it. Have a great weekend, all over and out. lol
TTP @ 1133 said: "Early in January 1943, Beale began shakedown training off the coast of New England."
What is shakedown training ?
The Beale was among the first of the new Fletcher class DD's to be built. After the initial sea trials to prove the builder's requirements, the crew needs training on how to operate the systems; deck, gunnery, engineering, and yes, supply, such as efficiently operating the galleys and messing, laundry, victualing and so on. It gives them a chance to train the crew, fine tune the systems, and perhaps verify that the crew is properly staffed; numbers, ratings, and watch stations. The next movement would be to a war zone, so they have to be ready to execute effective attacks while also being ready to defend the ship.
Wiki says it could do 35 knots. In the early 60's, Beale could do 36 knots. (or almost 41½ mph)
Is spake really a word?
Hola!
Kyle Dolan, you served us a difficult plate today! But I like it when more thinking is required.
Re: OLA v. hola. Sptizboov is correct
Since the Copacabana Beach is in Rio de Janeiro it makes sense since they speak Portuguese.
Yes, HOLA is Spanish and OLA is Portuguese.
What made this puzzle difficult, INO, was the obscure cluing. Once the fill was in place, it was so obvious. That is, except SNOWMAGGEDON and MORIA which are unfamiliar to me. I never saw REGINA KING in that show but it all worked out.
Bussed meaning "transporting by bus" is different from BUSED, "busing tables."
My favorite misdirection was for YAM, root that may be cubed. LOL
However, I FIW because I failed with DCELL/LECY. It was indecipherable to me but I was happy to solve most of this puzzle.
Thank you, Gary, as others have said, you add so much sparkle with your comments and graphics.
I hope you are all enjoying a fabulous day!
Picard, and all, one of the local over-the-air television stations here in SoCal broadcasts Have Gun Will Travel in the mornings. It's fun to watch the episodes on which Gene Rddenberry worked and see him develop the themes he later relocated from The Old West to The Final Frontier. On, and I do watch the episodes "live" if viewing something that was first aired sixty years ago can be called "live".
Spizboov, OK, got it. Thank you ! She was quite the ship with a proud history of service.
Well this was a bit beyond tough....”Silkiesque” indeed.
No write-overs as I couldn’t guess at some, and wouldn’t at others.
Agree that “over and out” is a Hollywood phrase, not a military one. As others have stated, it’s either “over” or “out”.
Didn’t care for “boop”...some say bonk, bink, bing, even bong.
Anyway, a tough Saturday go, the kind I would have quit on in the past.
So happy to get the solve.
See you Monday, stay safe.
Over and out has two different meanings in radio conversation. Using them together would be confusing. However, it has become a popular way to end a conversation indicating that you are finished speaking and you are not interested in what the other person has to say. Source: theidioms.com
For example, "You are not staying out until 2;00 AM. young lady. Over and out." I am more likely to say, "End of story." Some say, "And that's final."
Of course, some just use the saying to seem official as pretend radio operators or in Hollywood movies.
I think the extra S in bussed is more frequently used in bussing tables. We waitresses were told to bus as we went and never to return to the kitchen empty handed. Anything our customers or nearby customers no longer had a use for should be picked up on the way back to the kitchen. The bussers finished up when the customers left. I really enjoyed being a waitress with a good boss or maitre de, not so much with am inefficient or tyrannical boss.
I had a hard time thinking of BOOP, but now that that I hear it, I remember having met it before. Not much nose poking of kids or pets has occurred around me in ages.
I had to take a break today before coming back to FIR. I was stuck for a while with "legs" instead of LAPS for "race units," and therefore "guy" instead of PAL for "buddy."
SPAKE was easy and fun; it is the archaic past tense of "speak" and certainly familiar from the King James version of the Bible. I have not read "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche.
I didn't mind OLA as a "Copacabana greeting," either. I was supposed to arrive in Rio two weeks from today, but that's all cancelled thanks to the coronavirus. I prefer to speak the local language when I travel, and was certainly intimidated by the prospect of Portuguese.
Good weekend, Cornerites!
Crownvic89 I do not know your religious upbringing if any, but if you studied the King James Version of the Christian Bible The word SPAKE appears MORE THAN 500 TIMES .
I find it interesting that those who are quick to call out a constructor and editor for what they perceive is an error, never seem to come back after being shown they were not 100% correct. OLA anon@9:27
OOPs, one more comment.
Spake, ARCHAIC•LITERARY past of speak.
I had a prof who often said in jest, "Thus spake Zarathustra."
SPAKE is used in the King James Version of the Bible 579 times, thus the Biblical references in the clue.
Hello, Naomi Z.
Everyone recognizes the fanfare from Also Sprach Zarathustra -- the theme from 2001, A Space Odyssey...Bumm...Bumm...Bumm...Ta-Dum!
Great history, thanks.
I was a commo chief in the Army and also a police dispatcher while attached to an MP battalion. I join in the chorus against OVERANDOUT and I’ll add another: “copy that” instead of “roger”.
D-O, It hurts to admit this, but I had no idea about that connection. 35 years ago, I knew enough of that title to recognize it (say to identify it as the 2001 theme in Trivial Pursuit). But I never memorized the entire title and never had a clue that it had its roots in Nietzsche.
I guess I never had the opportunity to study Nietzsche other than to learn that "Nietzsche is Peachy!" :-)
A lot of these bad radio habits being discussed can be traced back to the CB era. Not that that's an excuse. But they certainly didn't use structured protocol. "Goat Head", "C'mon back" and "We be gone!" as just a few examples.
My bete noir is the idea that if someone had never heard or seen a word before it is not legitimate. I take it as expanding my vocabulary.
“To Richard Strauss, the composer, I take off my hat,” the conductor Arturo Toscanini once famously declared. “To Richard Strauss, the man, I put it on again.”
Rainy day at the lake. Went into town to get our local paper and tackle the fearsome Saturday CW challenge. I would have given up earlier after extreme frustration but the rain didn't abate. So after tearing my hair out, head slaps and multiple alphabet runs..
I finally FIR
So many inkovers looks like I emptied one of my 5th grade inkwells all over the puzzle including: scorn/SCOLD, blow/FLOW, tax/VEX, pasos/SAMBA, pal/MAC ("Hey 'MAC' you're not a pal).
Thought it was hOLA...Spitz and Lucina... was thinking of the club in Havana of song (Barry Manilow)...and Ricky Ricardo's nightclub.
The extreme SE was all guesses. NEWBIE not Noobie at least this time. Not a fan of portmateaux(s)
I went to Roscoe Conkling public grade school in Utica I describe as a DEFACTO Catholic school. The students were 90% RC (due to the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood) and our teachers were all middle aged, unmarried, Catholic Irish-American ladies.
Jordan Peele's "Twilight Zone" series first episode was a smart modern take on the old "Shatner/Gremlin in the window" story. The series recently renewed. Regina King excellent in "Watchmen" also renewed.
Still raining so....
Fish have no need of lungs as they are ______ ....GILD
The baker with the sweet-tooth would ______ all his jelly buns..... FILLANEED.
When repeated, who Popeye claims to be.......YAM
English-speaking American's brain connection....ANGLOSAXON
5 more days in the ADK. Weather been great till today. Tried to include a picture of my 10 y o grandson with a 14in bass he caught yesterday but still haven't got the html thing down. Imagine a bright smile.
Bright smile on my grandson...fish wasn't smiling..till we released it.
Hi All!
So close.... FILL AN --D. Is it LuCY @55d. //A NEED! dang.
Fun stuff Kyle. What Irish Miss said. Thanks for the grid.
Thanks for sharing Boomer's XES HG. Rest of expo was pretty good too ;-)
WOs: eVES b/f IVES, Legs b/f [cheat!] LAPS [thanks HG & hi NaomiZ!]
ESPs: REGINA KING, ESOS,
Fav: SPAKE
//LOL - Need a Bigger Boat HG.
Garlic, OLIVE oil, PINE NUTS, and basil. There's your pesto. And, I just got three pounds of anglehair from Italy so,... ITS ON!
I see the Military among us quibble with 27d. Yeah, that's how you can tell. :-)
//like my favorite joke to spot the EEs in the crowd:
Q. How many Electrical Engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Only one but he has to do it in the frequency domain.
Hummm... Burt Reynolds from Rent-A-COP and citizen band radio? [:57] Nice to read you AveJoe.
TTP - Thanks for the M818-A2 stories FLN. I too love Key & PEELE - if you haven't seen his movie Get Out yet, do but gird yourself first.
Very nice to see all the NEWBIES at The Corner piping in today. Stay & Play!
Cheers, -T
Too *#@! tough for me. My hat is off to any who stuck it out.
On top of a tough Sat. Xwd, my new iMac won't sign me in automatically under my old avatar, "Ol' Man Keith."
I have to manually enter my ID under "Name/URL," then try to work my way through the dimly lit & confused photos to prove "I am not a Ghost."
~ OMK
____________
DR:. AT least we have an abundance of diagonals today. Three on the near side plus one in opposition.
The anagram on the main diagonal (near to hand) seems to refer to a supportive citizen of the old Soviet Union, prior to 1989....
"A LATE COMMIE"!
Whoo! Like some of you, I thought I would not be able to solve this puzzle. The first fill I really knew was right was SOUSA. Many others were guesses, some turning out to be right (e.g. PLIE and LAPS and PONE) and some turning out to be wrong (e.g. PADS and BEEP). Little by little by little did the trick and finished the whole thing correctly. OH, I forgot to mention, I had to look up that new Twilight Zone guy in order to fix the PADS error.
LECY Goranson is an example of a proper name you either know or you don't, since names can be spelled in all sorts of unpredictable/random/personalized ways.
I liked the clue/answers SPAKE, DORM, LIVINGS, SPEEDOS, and FREE LUNCH. And I just plain love the word TWIDDLE. I am known to do that with my thumbs.
So thanks, Mr. Dolan, for a pleasurably challenging puzzle.
Thank you again, Husker Gary, for a terrific write-up, and good wishes to you all.
Wees on the puzzle...
FYI,
There are several free options
for the latest Twi-Zone offering if interested.
(I will watch them tonight...)
SPitz,
I found this while poking around the internet...
So said CED...
Over & Out..
Malodorous Manatee, I love that Arturo Toscanini quote.
A friend of ours who grew up in Vienna once told us that he would sometimes have discussions with his friends about such thinkers and artists as Nietzsche and the composer Richard Wagner. He and his friends had a running joke that went something like, "If it's Richard, please let it be Strauss. While you're at it, if you must bring up Strauss, please let it be Johann."
Tony, you'd be proud. I'm building Scallop Scampi for supper. No angel hair, though. So linguine will have to do.
I hope that your family is coping with this tragedy as well as possible. My thoughts are with you these days.
Above is from Avg Joe
Well, this on beat me up and left me for dead! Mr. Google couldn’t even save me. Got through maybe half of it or a little more, before I threw in the towel and came here for the expo and comments. Still, one should never pooh-pooh a learning experience.
Actually, I was rather proud of myself at the beginning. Although I missed 1A and 1D (PADS/PAL, instead of MATS/MAC), I got them fixed fairly quickly. I even got most of the long fills, but SNOWMAGEDDON??? Our locals wouldn't use that word here, even if I watched them. Oh, well, we’ve had a couple of one- and two-inch SNOWMAGEDDONS here in the Houston area since I’ve lived here. Give me a good old-fashioned blizzard up north, thank you. These people down here can’t handle it! I DID know SPEEDOS, though, but you'd NEVER catch me in one!
Later....
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Kyle Dolan, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
Started puzzle this morning after I got up. Finished about 5:00 PM. Worked on it on and off. Pretty difficult.
Some tough ones: PEELE, XIV, SNOWMAGEDDON, MORIA, FILL A NEED, TTYL, PALAU, OLIVE, PANEL, SMS, REGINA KING, GILD, PINE NUT, LECY, and maybe a few more.
Just plugged away and guessed a lot. Good mental workout.
I see our Constructor lives in the Chicago area. Maybe our Chicago group can meet up with him.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
Picard re. "abroad" I was referring to this comment from Anon-T:
" WC (and probably Picard 'cuz he was abroad) - The Late Nite Wars (just part 2)."
To wit, I congratulate you on being another fellow traveler for whom this late night entertainment drama completely escaped us.
WC
I started this puzzle most confidently, filling in a couple of long answers quickly: ACAPPELLA, OVERANDOUT and WARPFACTOR came easily. But then I got stuck. I read once that whilst playing golf if you're not enjoying a hole, just keep pitching and putting over and over, just pick up the ball and go on to the next hole. So I considered picking up my pen and just proceeding to the Sunday puzzle.
But then I thought of you cornerites and thought about how disapproving you would be that I gave up so soon, and kept with it.
Have to say, I DNF. "Distress" VEXed me. And "strike symbol" I thought of a strike in baseball and a work stoppage, but forgot completely about bowling. So ESOS 3-letter answers led to a SOGGY finish, but I did almost all of it! Thanks, all, for the unwitting encouragement.
Couple of little reflections, both on the puzzle, which was excellent, and the notes, which were funny:
I like that IVES and SOUSA pop up in the same puzzle. Two great American composers, with two very, very, very different styles. As it happens, they were contemporaries, but their musical style couuldn't be more different. Ives wrote: "Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair." Indeed, his music is not always (or ever) conducive to relaxing in an easy chair. It demands to be heard. There's a story that Ives' father, George, once had two marching bands march towards each other, to experiment with the effect of two musics mixing it up with each other. Happens a lot in his son's music.
Indeed, Ives sometimes quoted Sousa's music in his own, sometimes in several keys at once, creating a jarring effect. Sousa heard, or at least studied, some of Ives' music, which must have opened his eyes some. He wrote to Ives: "Some of the songs are most startling to a man educated by the harmonic methods of our forefathers."
You can hear a stunning performance of the Concord Sonata here.
But I digress.
Speaking of "classical" music, I might have solved 34A "talked like Moses or Abraham" if the clue had mentioned something about Zarathustra
WARPFACTOR, of course, was totally wrong. That answer WENT SOUTH. I had GO WRONG at first for GO SOUTH, which got me in all sorts of VEXation.
I know a kind of funny joke using the phrase COME AGAIN. It has to do with Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and a dry cleaner, and Monica says, "No, it's just mustard." Tee hee.
I used to perform regularly in the PALAU de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, one of the most stunning architectural masterpieces anywhere.
That's it. On to Sunday's puzzle!
VTer
Can I edit a post once it's posted?
The part about the funny joke should have read "hard-of-hearing dry cleaner."
When my daughter was little I would poke her nose and say BEEP! In fact, that was one of her first words. She'd poke her own nose and say BEEP! So cute. Now she's 23 and if I tried poking her nose and saying BEEP she'd probably punch me.
See if I wish anyone a happy anniversary again! Bah, humbug.
Gee! Lots of commentary today! Started this at 10:45 AM PDT - finished@ 5:30 pm! Lots of tomes used to finish. Never got NE corner since I really disagree that MAC is a "buddy". In common use it means someone you don't know. Looked it up in three dictionaries - none said it was meant to be used for a friend. .I had PADS & PAL there until I gave up. Great week so far. Passed out food to neighborhood families hit hard by the "shut down". Served over 500 families sent to us through the school district. Our foundation has raised nearly _$30,000 to provide the boxes filled with a week's worth of food for a family of four.
Hi everybody.
Vermontah: If you click on the garbage can icon at the end of your post, you can delete the whole post, edit it and repost it. Try practicing once before you do it to some long post that you wouldn't want to lose. I save mine to the clipboard before deleting it just in case.
Speaking of the two-step, Barbara and I took some group country dance lessons including the two-step and the waltz along with a few line dances including the Tush Push. Great fun. Keeping up ones proficiency was difficult without regular practice and we eventually grew away from it.
Music appeals to me due to melody, arrangement, lyrics, etc. with lyrics seeming to be last in importance (to me). Barbara had a public station on with a program featuring some folk music from the 60s. The lyrics all had to do with the typical 60s themes of anti-war, loving each other, etc. The audience was rapt and appreciative. We loved all of the folk music of that era, (especially The Weavers). But, I began thinking that the music and arrangements seemed lacking when you compare music like Barry McGuire's "The Eve of Destruction" to the Sousa march Gary included, "Semper Fidelis". No lyrics but I LOVE Sousa marches. The same with Scott Joplin. The folk music had worthy lyrics but Sousa and Joplin wrote music that appeals to me much more.
Just my two-cents worth...
~ Mind how you go...
OCTOBER 9 2021, HORRIBLE PUZZLE MAKING UP WORDS?? I SEE HOW IT IS
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