Theme: ONE FOR THE ROAD?
18. Organic gardening staple: COMPOST HEAP. Who remembers the car rental company, "Rent a Cheap Heap?"
24. One experiencing too much stress: NERVOUS WRECK. "A vehicle, airplane, etc., that has been badly damaged or destroyed.
51. Shipping need: PACKING CRATE. I did not know this, but CRATE is slang for an old rickety vehicle, especially a decrepit automobile or aircraft.
59. Aggressive male gorilla, for one: CHEST BEATER. A beater car is a vehicle that you run into the ground. They are typically older, high-mileage cars that still run well.
38. Jalopy found at the ends of four other long answers: BUCKET OF BOLTS. "A piece of machinery that is not worth more than its scrap value, often an old car."
Melissa here. On the downside to the weekend now. This was clever - I'd heard of all of these except CRATE. Who knew there were so many words to describe junky cars.
Across:
1. Drug used in microdosing therapies: LSD. What is microdosing LSD?
4. Corkboard item: TACK.
8. Whoop it up: PARTY.
13. Prefix for a lifesaving "Pen": EPI.
14. WWII wolf pack unit: UBOAT.
16. Irish actor Milo: OSHEA. He played the chief justice of the Supreme Court on “The West Wing.” Died in 2013 at 86.
17. __-relief: BAS.
20. Crafts, in Sevilla: ARTES. Spanish.
22. So yesterday: OUT.
23. Donkey: ASS.
29. Former province of eastern Cuba: ORIENTE.
30. Cry like a baby: WAIL.
32. Calligrapher's tip: NIB.
33. Post-WWII alliance: NATO.
36. Bend at the barre: PLIE.
42. Texas ALer: STRO.
43. H.H. Munro's pen name: SAKI.
44. DDE's WWII command: ETO.
46. Many, many moons: EONS.
48. Ensnared: IN A TRAP.
54. Jazz horn: SAX.
57. Part of a Swiss skyline: ALP.
58. Movie with gunslingers: OATER.
64. Stage legend Hagen: UTA.
65. OB/GYN test: AMNIO.
66. Dickens' "The Mystery of __ Drood": EDWIN.
67. Word before or after pack: RAT.
68. Like some pasta sauces: MEATY.
69. Male deliveries: SONS. Nice.
70. Application file suffix: EXE.
Down:
1. Israel's northern neighbor: LEBANON.
2. Slab on the grill: SPARERIBS.
3. Hand out: DISTRIBUTE.
4. Seat of Pima County, Arizona: TUCSON.
5. Blood-typing letters: ABO.
6. URL ending: COM.
7. "Bam!": KAPOW.
8. Greenhouse vessel: POT.
9. __ Wednesday: ASH.
10. "Better Call Saul" actress Seehorn: RHEA.
11. Herbal brews: TEAS.
12. Shrill barks: YAPS.
15. Take in the sights: TOUR.
19. Crock-Pot dish: STEW.
21. "Not a creature was stirring" time: EVE. From 'Twas the Night Before Christmas.
25. Magazine founder Eric: UTNE.
26. Senate posts: SEATS.
27. Consigliere's boss: CAPO. A Consigliere is an adviser, especially to a crime boss. Capos, short for caporegimes) are the appointed heads of crews, and are usually given responsibility for delicate tasks (like infiltrating union locals) Dons, Capos, and Consiglieres: The Structure of the American Mafia.
28. Decide not to run: KILL. Unexpected answer.
31. English major's field: LITERATURE.
34. Come __ standstill: TO A.
35. Next __: close relative: OF KIN.
37. Levy put on heirs: ESTATE TAX.
39. Farm output: CROP.
40. Hawaiian coffee district: KONA.
41. Microsoft search engine: BING.
45. Manage: OPERATE.
47. Sign of healing: SCAB. Or SCAR? Waited for the B in BEATER to be sure.
49. Future oaks: ACORNS.
50. __-la-la: TRA.
52. Swiss abstractionist Paul: KLEE. This is his Castle and Sun.
53. Tablets at a Genius Bar: IPADS. Cute.
54. Bogus offer: SCAM.
55. Sighed lament: AH ME.
56. Princess played by Lucy Lawless: XENA.
60. "Take a load off": SIT.
61. Hasbro product: TOY.
62. Couple: TWO.
63. A, in German class: EIN.
FIWrong. I put a WAG for the crossing of unknowns RhEA + O'ShEi, which turned out to be right, but didn't realize YiPS was supposed to be YAPS!
ReplyDeleteGood theme. I was starting to get it before the reveal, which came too early in the puzzle to figure out the whole theme ahead of it.
The COMPOST HEAP that Nellie kept
Was making her a NERVOUS WRECK.
She just knew
The worms would view
Her cooking, and judge her inept!
His first car was a BUCKET OF BOLTS,
The seat belts held it together, most.
But in that CRATE
He felt real great,
And it got him dates despite the jolts!
{A-, A-.}
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteYay, d-o got the theme before the reveal. My old F-150 was definitely a BEATER. We usually keep a vehicle for about 15 years, so our current car is the BEATER of tomorrow. Cute theme, Gail. Enjoyed the tour, Melissa Bee. (I looked at that map for a long time trying to figure out why Havana was nowhere to be seen. D'oh. It's ORIENTE (East) Cuba, only. Do they really have a state named Granma?)
FIR, with a few write-overs in spite of the helpful theme: OUT 4 Old, ...HEAP 4 ...pile, AHME 4 Alas.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-A Wednesday walk in the park until I had to change five words in the bottom rows
-If you’re an Elvis fan, you’re familiar with the lyric “caught IN A TRAP”
-On Sunday we took a TOUR of our neighbor’s dad’s wonderful museum
-DW’s hairdresser’s son had to wait a year to get to his $50,000/yr mechanic job because he took three attempts to pass LITERATURE and earn his H.S. diploma
-We will pay not ESTATE TAX because the Memory Care facility will soon have all my MIL’s equity
-Speaking of which, the facility called and we get to see MIL for the first time in three months today. DW is quite emotional about it.
BUCKET OF BOLTS? d-otto my BEATER is 17 years old, a 2003 Murano with over 187,000 miles but all it does is run. A 3rd card to keep the other two clean. Leaks oil, transmission fluid, leaking exhaust manifold, crack on windshield, hood and tailgate require a cut off broomstick to hold them up, needs two oxygen sensors,...etc. But the only costs are liability insurance and cardboard to place in the garage to keep the concrete clean.
ReplyDeleteOh, the puzzle. Piece of cake to finish this one today.
Microdosing LSD?- Who determines the dose because I don't think there is a 'standard' strength.
ORIENTE- didn't know but it was an easy guess. RHEA was total unknown.
UTNE-SCWA but other than that he's an unknown.
ESTATE TAX- "Tax the rich, feed the poor 'Til there are no rich no more?" By Ten Years After.
Good morning all.
ReplyDeleteFIR in good time.
Had to change three at the bottom TOY TWO SONS .
The rest fell into place .
I suppose an editor could KILL a story rather RUN it?
Cheers
This was a fun run - a bit of crunch here and there to keep it interesting. Some nice long vertical answers as well with SPARE RIBS, DISTRIBUTE, LITERATURE, ESTATE TAX.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband was studying to be a pastor all the students had what we called "Seminary mobiles" because everyone was living on a shoestring and their cars were held together with chicken wire- of course many stayed that way after because they continued to live on a shoestring as pastors! Our cars right now are 16 and 14 years old - but since they are Toyotas they don't seem like beaters- they are certainly high mileage but still very low maintenance.
Thanks Melissa for the blog and Gail & Bruce for the creative puzzle!
Easy Wednesday, at least for me. Took 5:33 to finish. Didn't know LSD in that context (but makes sense, in a way), and struggled to remember "Bing."
ReplyDeleteFIR. Nice theme and a fun puzzle. But what was not fun was almost being naticked at the crossing of a proper name Utne which was unknown to me and Oriente. Who would be expected to know an obscure clue like a former province of eastern Cuba? Lucky wag saved the day.
ReplyDeleteMost of us have probably owned BEATERS at sometime. I once had an Olds for 20 years. Purchased new, but 400,000 miles later it definitely qualified.
ReplyDeleteFIR after misses Mon. & Tues.
OSHEA and OATER return after what seems like a long absence.
Thank you Melissa, Gail, & Bruce.
MO
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gail and Bruce, for the fine puzzle. On first run I had COMPOST Pile and trapped for IN A TRAP. However, this old English major had no trouble with LITERATURE!
Thanks for the tour, Melissa.
Congrats on the theme D-O!
Number one grandson is coming in today from Dallas. His flight originates in Mexico, and I have no idea what the C-19 situation is there. I hope AA lives up to the protocol they are touting. Oh, well, he's out of the car and into the shower once he arrives here. Maybe I'll have him shower with Fels Naptha--it worked great on grass stains when his mom was little. Ha Ha!
I know I will have a sunny day (week) with our young visitor. You do the same.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteFLN - Lucina; Irish Miss first commented on the Brinks switcheroo
No problems with the solve. Perps helped with fill like OSHEA and EDWIN, and dog-bark genre YAPS.
Skipped around a bit in solving; so the reveal popped out early and focussed the theme fill.
Different clue for RHEA.
ORIENTE - Back in '58 and '59, the nightly news was replete with activities of the rebels in ORIENTE province.
Have a great day.
Mme Defarge, Mom always made us shower and scrub with Lifebuoy soap after swimming in the mill pond. Other folks got "water itch," but we never did. Don't really know if the soap brand was a factor, but Mom insisted.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gail and Bruce for a great grid!
With the reveal at 38A the theme was apparent and reminded me of a few junk cars I have seen.
TUCSON/ORIENTE is appropriate since TUCSON is (south) east of Phoenix.
KONA revives some long buried memories.
We have some ARTES in the puzzle: KLEE, LITERATURE, UTNE, EDWIN Drood, PLIE; it's always a treat to see those.
Spitz, thank you for that reminder. I do now recall seeing it on Irish Miss' post.
Melissa, thank you for posting the hierarchy of Mafia leadership. That is interesting and unknown to me except as individuals. Your commentary sparkled, too!
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteNice to see Gail and Bruce again and, as usual, they never disappoint. The theme was cute and helped with the solve, although the fill was pretty easy and straightforward. My only w/os were Wa Wa/Wail and Old/Out and the only unknowns were Rhea and Oriente. (Spitz’s memory is much better than mine.) I liked the duos of Pot and LSD, Tra and Rat, and Scam and Scab. CSOs to Lucina at Tucson and the Texas twins, DO and Anon T at Stro, again, if you please!
Thanks, Gail and Bruce for a mid-week treat and thanks, Melissa, for the entertaining tour.
Oas, how is your sister and the rest of the family doing?
FLN
Hey, Hondo, what a pleasant surprise to hear from you. Hope all is well and that you’ll join us often. Is Riley your dog’s name, or am I
confused? 😉
CED, you and Tin are welcome to knock on my door anytime, as are the rest of the Cornerites! Sorry to hear about your shoulder. 🙁
Ray O Sunshine, I know that feeling well! That’s why the constant changing of were to we’re drives me crazy! 🤨
SwampCat, I guess you could say you and I are autocorrect’s adversaries, but I’m sure many others (Ray O) share our fate. 😡
Picard, your topiary photos were neat. I vaguely recall a topiary/maze in “The Shining.” It’s an amazing talent, sort of on the same plane as ice sculpting. 🌳
My 19 year old Toyota Corolla is far from being a bucket of bolts, age notwithstanding. It has only 25,000+ miles on it and is as pristine looking as the day I bought it. I think I’ve driven it 3 times in the last 4 months. 🔩🔩🔩🔩
Have a great day.
FIR rather quickly. SCAR changed to SCAB, and ALAS changed to AH ME, thanks to CHEST BEATER.
ReplyDeleteWe often see the Utne magazine here. U-NE were good perps. ORIE--- suggested ORIENTE, which I have heard of. RHEA Seehorn was the only fill new to me, but it had great perps. Wagged LSD from the L, but didn't know microdosing.
I have seen BUCKET OF BOLTS, CRATE, HEAP, and JALOPY in old comic books and old movies, not much in real life. Remember the Archie comics with his jalopy? We weren't allowed to buy comic books, but friends shared.
I do hear BEATER these days, and WRECK is common.
I've see OATER in print a few times, and often in puzzles, but I never hear it said.
Welcome back, Hondo. You were missed.
Lucina, are the AZ wildfires near you?
My 5 year old car was just short of 100,000 miles before the lock down. Now it's just slightly over. There will be no 20,000 miles this year.
YR:
ReplyDeleteThank you for asking. No, the fires are much farther north and sad to say, are destroying forests in that area. Farther south they are burning quite close to TUCSON.I just hope people are evacuating as they are asked.
d-otto:
Re: Granma province in Cuba. When I looked it up I expected to find a different meaning but no, it's grandmother. It is named for a yacht which in turn was named for the owner's grandmother and used by Fidel Castro and the revolutionaries during their attempted siege. Now the yacht is enclosed in glass and can be viewed as part of the museum.
ReplyDeleteI drove through the puzzle in Wednesday time. Great Puzzle. MB's tour added greatly to it's enjoyment.
Only a few changes needed today. YIPS before YAPS, COMPOST PILE before COMPOST HEAP, TRAPPED before IN A TRAP and BAWL before WAIL.
I remember ORIENTE province from the news during the Cuban Revolution IN THE '50s. For some reason it stuck in my memory.
Perps were needed for most of the names, except for UTA, which we have had many times. For some reason I just can't seem to remember H. H. Munro's pen name, SAKI. I don't understand why he needed a pen name.
I've driven a few of those vehicles over the years. The first was a '58 DeSoto without a working heater. Girlfriend (now DW) said the broken heater was an excuse for me to get her to cuddle up next to me to stay warm. Another was a basic '61 Chevy Biscayne that had holes in the floorboard so that you could see the road. Pretty drafty and wet when it rained. Its only accessory was a cigarette lighter. Those were the days when we used to see how much pocket change we had so we could buy a few gallons of gas.
IM: DW has a 2012 Jeep Wrangler that she runs around in that has less than 12K miles on it (less than 1,500 miles per year.) The longest trip it ever made was 300 miles (once).
Have a great day everyone, and please be careful out there.
FLN, Picard now I understand SHEARS and "Topiary". We have the Arnold Arboretum in Boston. I'll bet you visited there while at MIT
ReplyDeleteI remember "Rent-a-Wreck"
Aldous Huxley suggested LSD for alcoholics and recruited a prominent AA' er to try to create a "Spiritual experience"*. It was dropped.
I started this yesterday, got halfway then finished at 530 this am. No difficulty as I recall.
In '63 I drove my '54 Chevy with a brake fluid leak. I remember dragging my foot in the gas station to stop.
WC
If you Google "Spiritual experience" CarlJung pops up
Another quick Wednesday walk in the park. Didn't care for the "kill" clue at all. Otherwise, perps aided the few unknowns. Since we're talking cars, I have a 2006 Infinity that I bought from my SIL in 2008 with 22K miles. 12 years later it has just a shade over 100K. Google tracked my mileage in April at 44 miles for the entire month! That's what stay-at-home does.
ReplyDeleteFIR with inkovers: alas/AHME, weep/WAIL, waited on perps for SCAB nor scar.
ReplyDeleteNever knew of "Rent a cheap heap" but heard of "Rent-a-wreck" ......It takes longer to pick up a car at the airport car rental line than going thru security. Even though everything was specified on the reservation on computer days before they till try to upsell you. It's the last roadblock before starting a vacation. Annoying.
Microsdosing LSD gives you a short psychedelic trip?
I doubt many will agree but IMO if an accented letter is used like PLÉ the the perp should require the same accented letter.
"Better Call Saul" one of my favorites. RHEA as Jimmy's SI Kim is excellent and I should remember her name.
My first BUCKET OF BOLTS was '63 Plymouth Valiant that Dad gave me for college til the floor boards rusted out and cut the brake line...😲
And you won't agree with.
God soon gave up making women out of _______ SPARERIBS.
Charlie's Chan' s second born boy: "Number _____ " TUCSON.
Celebrity Roast______ DISTRIBUTE.
PLIÉ en français🗼
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Woohoo! I got a Wednesday Gail and Bruce puzzle without a single error! Thank you, both, for this terrific treat. And I always enjoy your commentary and pictures, Melissa.
ReplyDeleteI started out slow, but got MILO O'SHEA. He starred as Leopold Bloom in the Joseph Strick film of James Joyce's 'Ulysses,' and since I saw the film before I read the novel, I always picture the character as looking like O'SHEA. My other favorite answer this morning was LITERATURE. Hey, I'm a retired literature professor, so got that one instantly (thank goodness).
Fun car theme, with lots of fun discussion here on the blog. I still drive my 2003 Subaru (has about 60,000 miles) and it's in perfect condition with hardly any problem over the years. My hope is that it'll just keep going for another seventeen years.
Fun poems, Owen, many thanks.
OAS, thanks for explaining KILL--totally puzzling answer to me.
Have a great day, everybody.
A publisher, newspaper or news broadcaster can choose to RUN a story. If they choose not to run it, they choose to KILL the story or not run it.
ReplyDeleteThe House and Senate can kill bills by voting them down or choosing not to act on them.
You can also kill a bottle of alcohol by finishing it off. He killed a bottle of brandy that night.
Hard Wednesday for me.
ReplyDeleteWonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Gail & Bruce, and melissa bee.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time with no inkblots. I also saw the Jalopy theme. No WAILing today. And no Google helps required. (I do not like or use BING!)
I worked this CW with the Downs first because LSD did not immediately occur to me when I started Across. (Did POT go with the LSD or the TEAS?)
Some great long fill with LEBANON, SPARERIBS, DISTRIBUTE, LITERATURE, ESTATE TAX.
I just LIUed re Genius Bar being Apple support area in their store. Perps & WAG gave me IPADS. Perps were also required for ORIENTE, TUCSON, RHEA, and CAPO (with that Consigliere clue). Hand up for thinking of Alas before AH ME.
My first thought for 24A was NERVOUS Nellie (I see OwenKL thought of her too). Hand up for waiting for perps to decide SCAB or SCAr (AH ME, it was recent healing!)
Smiled to see UTA and UTNE, SCAB and SCAM, NIB crossing SPARERIBS.
The clue for KILL seemed a little odd (maybe associated with location beside CAPO LOL). Oas & YR - thanks, now I see that editorial meaning.
"So yesterday"= OUT was not my usual term.
But I did like the clue for SONS.
MadameD- enjoy your visit with your grandson. (Does he not have to self-isolate for 14 days? All entrants to Canada are required to do that.)
Wishing you all a great day.
Yeah, OMK, that NE was a real WAG-fest.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
Thanks Gail & Bruce for a (mostly) smooth puzzle. ALAS, I was write-over-free until there.
Fun theme.
Fun expo mb. Like the definitions for the BoBs.
WOs: w/ SAX's A started writing ALAS even though MEATY was already there.... SCAr -> SCAB (you can barely tell it's a WO!)
ESPs: OSHEA | RHEA, ORIENTE, KLEE | EDWIN, UTA
Fav: Those long downs were sparkly.
{B+, A}
Cool tractors HG.
MdF - stay safe! Lots of hand-washing and no face touching!
Oh great, now Addition Center is going to think we're all on LSD 'cuz we clicked. Can't wait for those ads :-)
Microdosing is a Life Hack (fad?) from Silicon Valley [6:28]
A similar concept to the Ballmer Peak with alcohol. //but beer makes you sleepy.
LOL, IM. POT & LSD.
Uncle called his BEATER The Ghetto Cruiser.
//I think the PC police would come after him now.
Cheers, -T
oops - OKL re: WAG-fest. -T
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDo you think I can get some math at that Addition Center ? I think I've developed a tolerance for words solving all these crossword puzzles. Need a new fix. Maybe math will do the trick and break my dependency. :>)
ReplyDeleteIrish Miss'
Current collie is Casey. Riley was his predecessor.
I liked this puzzle. I don't know why, but every time I see UTNE (which is only in crossword puzzles) I think of Knute Rockne. Or Esme. Sometimes my mind works funny.
ReplyDeleteFels Naptha. Now that's a blast from the past. It seems they still make it, though.
Good wishes to you all.
Hondo great to hear from a fellow UConn follower. We have had many of their athletes appear lately. Glad to know you are still enjoying your furry friends
ReplyDeleteDamn, I see I never posted my early morning comments... aging is such fun
ReplyDeleteI think everyone has owned "a bucket of bolts" at some point,
ReplyDeleteusually your 1st cheap car...
I wouldn't mind hearing your B.O.B. stories-
(I am sure you have them...)
Mine would have to be DW's 1st car,
given to her and her room mate by her room mates Dad
for those 100 mile trips out to the Hamptons on weekends from Brooklyn.
(what was he thinking, it was fix or repair every 5 miles!)
It was some kind of weird European mini car (in blue, its saving grace...)
that had an electric fuel pump in the gas tank
that would pump gas directly into the back seat...
Believe it or not, it actually made about 20 100 mile trips
before it finally died. But BEFORE IT DIED...
We took it camping 50 miles upstate,
& about 99% of the way there, it stopped moving!
The engine worked (if you kick the fuel pump)
but the car would not nove, & made an awful noise when it did.
Turns out the Driveshaft linkage had broken, & the
driveshaft fell out of the car! Nothing connecting the engine to the
back wheels!
(We had a very nice lunch at the Orange Top inn in Tuxedo N.Y.
while the local gas station put it back together with duct tape...)
Also, DW taught me how to drive in the dang thingie!
(Parallel parking was a breeze when you don't care about your own car...)
But the trip I remember most (was not there when she died...)
had to be coming back from JFK on the Belt Parkway
in a Thunderstorm.
We had to pass under an overpass, and the sudden 5 inches of rain
somehow filled the entire underpass with water!
Cars in front of us waded thru, so we tried, & died...
DW to be was driving, & the guy behind us tried to push us thru,
but she had her foot on the brake!
Now all those holes in the floorboards no longer gave airconditioning,
& we were quickly flooded up to the ignition key!
Being the hero, I jumped out, & started pushing.
Screaming at DW to be to get her dang foot off the brake...
(I do remember slipping at one point & smashing my chin into the trunk.)
but it was such a little piece of junk, I was able to push it out easily,
& it started right up (after kicking the fuel pump...)
spitting water out the exhaust like some one with bad spring allergies...
I would like to hear your tales...
Definition:
ReplyDeleteReality...
& why I luv em...
Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Gail Grabowski & Bruce Venzke, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Melissa Bee, for a fine review.
ReplyDeleteWorked puzzle this morning after arising. Went pretty quickly. Caught the theme. Good one. I am sure has applied to all of us at one time or another.
A few unknowns: O'SHEA, ORIENTE, EDWIN, RHEA, KILL?????, UTNE, and perps helped.
Liked TEAS.
Had an MRI this morning. My error, I went to the wrong hospital, but they took me anyway. That test was horrible.
Have to run. See you tomorrow.
Abejo
( )
WC and Ray-O, I remember not only Rent-a-Wreck but also Hire-a-Heap.
ReplyDeleteMy current convertible is a 17-year-old Chrysler Sebring. Runs good, mileage only 120K, looks good. Keep thinking I should get a new one, but none of the current ragtops look like their trunks can hold set of golf clubs and pull cart with the top down.
ReplyDeleteThis Wednesday grid filled quickly without issue.
No write-overs today.
Hoping everyone stays safe.
See you tomorrow.
Hondo @ 1:51 ~ I thought I had the names mixed up. I knew they both had Irish names, though! ☘️
ReplyDeleteCED @ 3:13 ~ Some of your escapades bring to mind the cartoon character who always had a black cloud over his head. I don’t remember his name; I wonder if it was Dave! 😈
Joe Bltlspk, an Al Capp character with a dark cloud over his head.
ReplyDeleteSome have pronounced it Joe Blitter-Splik
WC
To be exact Joe Btfsplk
ReplyDeleteWC
WC. I remember that Al Capp character but don't give the CW constructors any ideas!!!
ReplyDeleteFun theme! My car is 25 years old, but I like it better than the new ones with their annoying touch screens and such. When I was a kid a 25 year old car would be a BUCKET OF BOLTS, but we have come a long way.
ReplyDeleteHand up the NE corner almost ruined it for me with RHEA/OSHEA/YAPS. Correct WAGs to FIR.
OAS Hand up thank you for the explanation for the mysteriously-clued KILL. As a writer I have had many of my articles KILLed. Usually due to editorial incompetence.
Has anyone ever heard OATER except in a puzzle? Yellowrocks?
Of the many PARTY occasions celebrated in this college town this "Floatopia" beach party was certainly unique.
Unfortunately, too many PARTY-ers got drunk and left huge amounts of trash, forcing a massive annual effort to fence off our beaches to prevent it. What a waste.
IrishMiss and Wilbur Charles thank you for the kind words about my TOPIARY photos. Yes, a special skill, indeed.
ReplyDeleteAs for the Arnold Arboretum, I must have been there, but I don't have a clear memory. I do remember riding my bike to the nearby Franklin Park Zoo. Biking through Roxbury to get there I had some unpleasant encounters which is what I mostly remembered. Boston was a very segregated city. I did not feel safe in Irish South Boston, either. People were very territorial and aware of who "belonged" and who did not.
From Yesterday:
CrossEyedDave, AnonT and Lucina thank you for the kind words on my TOPIARY photos, too!
Hope others checked out my ODENSE photos, too. If you ever read a Hans Christian Andersen tale as a child or read one to your own child or grandchild... that is where it came from! The place really does look like a fairy tale! Which is how I remember my childhood!
Irish Miss -
ReplyDeleteThanks for asking. Sister is doing okay in handling the business matters .She was always a take charge kind of gal. Emotionally she says its day by day. The worst was the stress of being spied on during the viewing visitation by the health officials to make sure that (under penalty of heavy fines) no one broke social distancing rules . Only ten people total at a time allowed to be in the viewing area and also at the graveyard for the burial, no hugs, no personal contact allowed. Her son, also a trucker arranged for over thirty truckers to drive by the cemetery honking as they passed. Sis says that was a stress reliever that day. The sons and grandsons in particular have a difficulty with closure as there was no way to properly say goodbye because of the restrictions in place. Six weeks after his passing Johnny remains the last statistic to die in a health region covering about two million people. He was the first to be intubated and the last of seven to die.
Hi Y'all! Great puzzle, Gail & Bruce! Filled it more smoothly than yours usually do. Great expo, melissa b.
ReplyDeleteThe theme is the story of my married life. I drove all of the theme cars. My husband was a top-notch mechanic, among other things, who considered it a matter of pride to keep vehicles, machinery, etc. running longer than anyone else could. He bought only very much used cars for me. As a result, I often found myself stranded in another part of the state with a car full of kids when the alternator, etc. died. Oh, goody, he had something more to fix. He loved it. I didn't. I've bought four brand new cars since he died.
DR: One diagonal only. Close at hand. refers to the tension that can build up between the shoulder blades, the...
ReplyDelete"SCAPULAE KNOT"!anagram
~ OMK