Saturday Themeless by Joe Deeney
Joe Deeney returns with a puzzle that was a real tester for me. As far as times are concerned, I won't show you mine if you don't show me yours.
Joe's reply to my note:
Hi Gary,Thanks for reaching out. Always good to hear from you, glad you enjoyed the puzzle. I actually hadn't yet heard from Patti and Rich that this was slotted, so good to know it’s coming up.In early 2019, I started playing around with themeless grids with a high number of 10 letter answers. I don't have stats for the LA Times, but on xwordinfo there is a page showing that the max published in the NY Times in a 15x is 14 answers of length 10. This grid is relatively unconstrained and has 16. I have another puzzle in Rich's queue with this same grid layout, and another one with 18 answers of length 10 from the same period of experimentation. The tradeoff with these grids is more answers of length 4 than 5 or 6, but as long as the long fill shines that doesn't bother me so much, though I know for some solvers it's not ideal.
The seed for this puzzle was EXCUSEZ MOI which I had hoped to clue [Pardon my French?] but I guess that required a bit too much of a grammatical stretch for Rich's taste – or maybe it narrowly missed passing the breakfast test. I'm glad the gist of my clue for SHOWER GIFT and ORDER A LIMO remained the same. I've been trying to work ORDER A LIMO into a themeless puzzle for a few years now with essentially that clue - very friendly combination of letters, especially starting and ending with a vowel.
Everyone is healthy and safe here, hope the same for you.
-Joe
Across:
11. Small complication?: PROB - See above
15. Agree to take the long way there?: ORDER A LIMO - Getting there is half the fun in a long car on a long route
16. Condominio, por ejemplo: CASA - Hmmm... A type of house and in Spanish
17. Dancer's driver: SANTA CLAUS and 18. First word in a classic poem about 17-Across: TWAS.
19. "Telephone Line" rock gp.: ELO - Here ya go!
20. Prepares (for): GETS SET - A man GETS SET for his 100th birthday jump
22. Stretch (out): EKE.
23. "Dark side" sci-fi group: SITH - Jedi enemies in Star Wars franchise
24. Stuffed grape leaves: DOLMAS - From Trader Joe's
26. Rodeo ride: BRONC - Bronc 1 Cowboy 0
29. Either Bush, in school: ELI - George H.W. and George W. were both Yale grads
32. Spanish wine region: RIOJA - A marks the spot
34. Like some agreements: PREMARITAL - Also called a pre-nup(tial)
36. I-9 ID: SSN.
37. Caddies and cozies: TEAWARE.
 |
| Antique tea caddy A cute little tea cozy |
38. Pub pick: IPA - A brew often seen here at the Crossword Pub
39. Towels, e.g., aptly: SHOWER GIFT - Now that's just a fun clue!
41. Katy Perry hit that starts "I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath": ROAR - Her feminist anthem
42. Youngest French Open champ: SELES - Monica now, Monica after being stabbed on court and Monica as a 16-yr-old French Open champ
43. Pueblo pronoun: ESA.
44. Like undercooked eggs: RUNNY.
45. Oscar-winning foreign language film based on a Fugard novel: TSOTSI (South African slang for thug)
47. Sarcastic retort: I BET.
49. Fix: RIG.
50. TV revenue source: AD SALES.
53. Neon tips?: ENS - NeoN
56. Actor Kapoor of "Slumdog Millionaire": ANIL - This story is of a boy from the slums of Mumbai not Johannesburg
58. Pierre's polite lead-in: EXCUSEZ MOI - I prefer Joe's "Pardon my French" cluing!
60. Wee: ITSY.
61. Galileo, notably: ASTRONOMER - One of my heroes but was not a big hit with the Pope!
62. NPR giveaway: TOTE.
63. Great bargains: SWEET DEALS.
A classy way to divide the Across and Down clues!
52. Entr'__: ACTE
 |
| Actually intermission for My Fair Lady |
And now back to our regularly scheduled review:
Down:
1. Prepare for cheese?: POSE - Gotta love this clue too!
 |
| Sat CHEESE (fromage?) |
3. Lic. figure: ID NO.
4. Barclays Center NBAer: NET.
5. Like some flaws: TRAGIC Hamlet's "To be or not to be" reveals his TRAGIC FLAW of indecisiveness
6. "Don't play," in music: TACET.
7. Hot, hot, hot: ALL THE RAGE - Name the song with this lyric (*answer at bottom of write-up)
8. Sorento and Sedona: KIAS - Car models
9. Big birds: EMUS.
10. Barely bested, with "out": NOSED - You may have to look for a while to see that Horse #2 not only didn't win but got third. (**reason at bottom of write-up)
11. Dietary info abbr.: PCT.
12. What an actor may bring to an audition: RAW EMOTION - Stella!
13. Honshu city: OSAKA JAPAN - OSAKA and Hiroshima are both on the island of Honshu and it's a 4-hr drive between them
14. Factor in bonus size, perhaps: BASE SALARY - I had a BASE SALARY every year I taught and my bonus was 0% of that
21. Hall of Famer who was an MVP and Manager of the Year: TORRE - 1971 MVP for the St. Louis Cardinals and A.L. Manager of the Year in 1996 and 1998 for the Yankees
23. Longtime NBC hit: SNL.
25. Only Super Bowl the Eagles won: LII - The NFL is doing their bit to keep Roman numerals alive
26. Victoria-Tasmania divider: BASS STRAIT - The diary of Andrew MacCauley's 35 hr crossing of the Bass Strait in a sea kayak
27. Doesn't stop to think about: RUSHES INTO.
28. Expert on ports?: OENOLOGIST - We see OENO associated with wine here quite often and LOGIST indicates an expert so...
30. Martin's partner: LEWIS - Two reasonable choices
 |
| Dean Martin and Jerry LEWIS Dan ROWAN and Dick Martin |
34. Each: PER.
35. "The one way possible of speaking truth": Browning: ART
37. "Creed" actress Thompson: TESSA - Her IMDB
40. Like spring snow: WET - This beautiful Johnny Mathis song has a lyric of "melt my heart like April snow" @~1:12
41. Sticking point?: RUT.
44. Forward, say: RESEND - What I do when I get a cool video from someone
46. Noodle nuggets: IDEAS - Even my noodle/bean/noggin has good IDEAS sometimes
48. Ply with drink: BESOT - George knew he could get the truth from Elaine with peach schnapps
51. Austin festival, briefly: SXSW - South by Southwest conference and festival. Cancelled this year
53. Austen classic: EMMA - Also my granddaughter
54. Coward with a knighthood: NOEL - He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1970 twenty-eight years after Winston Churchill vetoed her dad's desire to do so.
55. Knight titles: SIRS - Sir Noel had to wait
57. Caustic chemical: LYE.
59. Muppet friend of Elmo: ZOE - Rhymes with snow. With the diaeresis mark ZOË rhymes with snowy
** If you look closely the winning horse is between horse #2 and the horse at the top of the picture. The winner's nose is sticking out in front of horse #2. Horse #2 was declared the winner but someone spotted that the winning nose didn't belong to #2
Crossword Map Update
After four years,I decided to update my map of our LA Times bloggers. I went through the old map and deleted some names that didn't seem to be active any more. My memory is very suspect and I may have eliminated some people who are still contributing but I know we have some new members who are not included. I have also received requests from others who do not usually post but want to be on the map.
Please email me at gschlapfer@gmail.com if you want to add your name and location or edit what is already there. I am truly sorry if I have omitted anyone and am anxious to get the map up to date.
Gary
(click on image or open in a new tab to enlarge)
(click on image or open in a new tab to enlarge)
52 comments:
That was fun. And challenging ! Since you asked, Husker Gary, 35:05 with a good 10 minutes trying to carefully work out that SW corner. Wasn't going to let the win slip by.
That triple S had me second guessing, but then I remembered Bass Ale so STRAIT looked likely. But that still left TS-TSI, RI-, and AN-L. Knew the actor wasn't Anal, so that the other vowels and I looked most appropriate.
G was the best choice for Fix = RIG, so then it was simply O for OLOGIST and TSOTSI and it was done.
RIG, to me, is a temporary repair. Something done to temporarily get by such as a workaround or "band-aid", until the correct repair, the "fix" is put in place.
"Telephone Line" to ELO - Still have the album new that I bought at the PX store. The clever title of the album is "A New World Record"
Thanks, Joe !
Husker Gary, you might want to move Chairman Moe from Florida and put him over in Arizona with Thelma and Louise. :>)
Good morning!
I flailed around on the eastern seaboard with SNAG, ALE, and PRENUPTIAL firmly inked in place. Finally got 'er done. My final entry was that L in DOLMAS, because it looked more logical than DOIMAS, DOVMAS, or DOXMAS. Whew, another DNF avoided. Thanx, Joe and Husker. (Anon-T is "all wet." He won't like that.)
@TTP, rig and fix can both mean manage fraudulently, as in rig an election / fix an election
@ 7:07.. That's true. I had too much focus on repair.
FIR, surprisingly. It was a Saturday slogfest. Dean Martin and Jerry LEWIS was in my wheelhouse, but I’m 80.
Hi Y'all! EXCUSEZ MOI? First time we've had a constructor apologize for a hard hard hard puzzle. I'm debating on whether to accept the apology. It was a groaner for me, Joe Deeney. Finished in 36.07 just because I'm getting really fast doing red-letter runs. Whew! Rich needs to apologize too. I know constructors must be smart to produce puzzle, but sheez!
Gary, your fine expo was a balm upon a midnight pain.
DNK: TSOTSI? Groan!, SITH, DOLMAS (one I sorta knew but didn't), RIOJA, ANIL, NET (shoulda known but rarely watched the NETS), TACET, TORRE, LII, SXSW, ZOE.
Tried PREnuptial confidently. BZZT!
"ROAR" I learned was a Katy Perry song only recently. A friend sent me a neato parody on the song by three talented Kansas farmer brothers called "Chore". If you are at all interested in learning about the beef industry, it is funny.
L: FLN as with: "Shuffle off to Buffalo
And -T, If you need to ask the cost of
the lobster then…And… IM, The cell phone today is a camera with which one can text and phone.
Having had a "Dancer" clue, SANTA was a gift and there's NOEL at the other end.
This French aficionado had trouble. Nous and pardonez got ink before ACTE(CSO to OMK) and EXCUSEZ
Not to speak of a CSO to Misty in "SWEET" DEALS. Since it wasn't Evert , SELES was next. I like the LIMO clue.
Today is Tuesday, I've completed the week's solves. I was having breakfast and thought I'd take peek.* Lots of fast fills but I slowed way down. DOLMAS and RIOJA were all perps.
The clue for SHOWER GIFT was exceptional . I didn't know what to do with G_ _ _
Oh, no. I FIW*. Noodle nuggets were not morsels of pasta(oDEAS-I thought udons first) but the V8 can, IDEAS.
AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!!
WC
*The insert from Sunday has the answers, too
Ps, I'm with Joe on "Pardon…"
Aaarrrggghhh!!!! Please don't show that Eagles clip. Pain. Why not show Buckner too.
I thought the reference to SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and TSOTSI is a mini-theme of movies of awareness for third-world young men. I wonder if that was Joe's intention. Both movies are mentioned in some "best of" lists.
I did not recall DOLMAS and Austin festival, briefly: SXSW seems unfair except that it was filled before I saw the clue.
The 12 answers of 10 letters - an amazing feat of construction.
Thanks, Joe and Gary.
PK, I long for the day when you have a successful solve without using red letters. You can do it !
Here's the video:Chore (Roar Parody) Very funny parody.
Lemonade, I have never been to South by Southwest, but have family and friends that have been. One coworker friend that lives in Austin takes vacation and goes every year. (Hi, Frank !) SXSW is the longtime abbreviation for the event.
It may not have been a SHOWER GIFT but the clues for 17A & 18A were gifts to solvers. I found the long fills easy and made unheard of fills possible- TSOTSI & DOLMAS. I didn't know BASS but STRAIT was a gimme in the SW. Ditto for ASTRONOMER in the SE.
I wanted EXCUSE-A-MOI but Elmo's friend ZOE solved it for me.
Spring snow-WET. I'll never know living in New Orleans.
TEAWARE-new term but an easy fill.
ORDER A LIMO? I say don't because the low ceilings make it difficult to move around. Get a party bus.
Gary- Nobody is a big hit with any religious autority who questions their dogma.
Nope. Just couldn't connect with the thinking of the clues.
Good Morning:
I was on Joe’s wavelength this morning, so breezed through in 21:21. I attribute this to the very easy to parse long entries, particularly Excusez Moi (Joe’s clue was spot on), Order A Limo (Favorite clue), Astronomer, and Santa Claus, a bit of whimsy in late July. Mind you, though, I needed perps for several unknowns: Rioja, Tsotsi, Anil, Bass Strait, and Tacet. My two w/os were Gears up/Gets set and Rub/Rut. The fill was lively and the cluing top notch; what more can we ask for? Well, not to be picky, but I’d like a little more challenge from a Saturday puzzle. (I’m sure I’ll come to regret that wish, sooner or later!)
Thanks, Joe, for a delightful solve and thanks, HG, for a summary filled with facts and fantastic visuals and links, especially the Johnny Mathis song that evokes so many long ago memories of a saner, safer, happier world.
FLN
Wilbur, I doubt that I’ll ever even use the camera on my phone; I’m just not into selfies and unless Cary Grant is reincarnated, there is no one I’m interested in photographing. 🥱
Have a great day.
I enjoyed the new and challenging fill in the puzzle - at first a sea of white - but once I got a toehold in the long answers it would open a whole quadrant. And the clues were creative too!
Thanks HG and Joe!
I'm going back to my first cardio dance class today - not sure how I'll do - I checked it out before - x'es on the floor to keep people socially distanced, we'll see!
Good morning everyone.
Had TEA sets before TEA WARE so that bolluxed up the center. Flirted with 'pardonnez' but word count wasn't right. EXCUSEZ worked. Took help with 7 letters to finish. Got most of the long 10's w/o difficulty. Good to see BASS STRAIT; we don't see enough geography from that part of the world.
Appreciate Joe's dedication to including 16 long ten's.
Bonjour, cornerites. That was certainment a bit of a workout. Pardon my French (it has been a long time since High School) et EXCUSEZ MOI mais le coin du soud-ouest etait un peu d'un _____ du cluster.
Thanks for the comments from the constructor and for the great write up. I am a bit reluctant to admit to it, being much more of a fan of The Youngbloods, The Dead, and Big Brother & The Holding Company than of Sonny & Cher during that era of music, but I did know the answer without the reveal.
Being left off of the Crossword Corner Map motivated me to post today. Husker Gary, can you please add me back to the map in beautiful Santa Barbara, California?
Apparently, too beautiful now. Which makes housing difficult to find and utterly unaffordable for normal people. I hope I am abnormal enough that we can stay.
This may be the most difficult puzzle I have ever completed. And FIR, no less. Clever, tricky clues which I am good with: SHOWER GIFT especially comes to mind.
But oh too many obscure proper names. Ugh. And is TEAWARE really a thing? Learning moment. I suppose I feel a sense of accomplishment now.
From Yesterday:
I never heard of WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN and don't read mystery stories. It was a challenge from beginning to end. Got all the hard stuff and then FIW with ETAILER instead of EMAILER.
Here are (way too many?) photos of us in EILAT and at the Jordan border.
I don't have time to edit them to a smaller quantity right now. It is a beautiful little city. For at least 20 years I had wanted to dive in the Red Sea and that was my chance.
Here is my article on the Comet NEOWISE which everyone was talking about yesterday.
Yes, light pollution is a challenge, so we were fortunate to have some valuable tips from someone who had scouted it in advance.
NOEL Coward was a neighbor of Ian Fleming in Jamaica. Knowing Churchill* there was an ulterior motive behind his Coward dissing.
I liked Joe's clue re. Pardon my French. I'm still smarting from oDEAS. That's the last time I check answers. I'll go right down to opening the CC.
I knew that was Cher but my recall is horrible these days. My musical tastes mirror a few others in here ie 55-75. Fav=Buddy Holly
Good to see you, Picard. I think a link recently took us to a young Shatner.
Re. Difficulty. I'm with IM. But knowing MARPLE,SPADE etc helped. I know longer attempt to guage difficulty.
WC
Uncle!! Hard to believe I got Tsotsi, a complete unknown, through nothing but sussed, but the rest was pock-marked with blanks all over the place. So close in too many places. Biggest failure in a long time. Talk about pay grade/wavelength. Sheesh.
Nice puzzle. Great write-up.
I really had to look at the horse picture to see the actual winner. Really quite something. You can see some of the red of the winning jocks silks and a leg of the horse, but you need to look very closely.
I'm in Chicago and one of my resolutions for this year is to make a profile. I still have a few months!!!
Hot one in Chi today. Stay safe everyone.
JB2
I read the blog everyday but rarely comment.
The map me to email Husker Gary and comment now.
Hi everybody.
Gary, Galileo is one of my heroes also for sure.
I know "Slumdog Millionaire" was a very popular movie but I walked out halfway through. It was way too ugly for me.
TTP: LOL! I'm sure you don't wish for the day I can do a puzzle without red-letters more than I do. I no longer have the mental acuity or patience to have many of those days. I'm just proud I can get 'er done with a few little hints. Or a lot of hints as today. Too stubborn to just give it up.
I was sure the water near Tasmania was the Tasman Sea. World traveler I am not, but I enjoy studying maps. I'm just glad I got to as much of this continent before I had to quit traveling.
Strange day, I watched my grandson's HS graduation ceremony on computer. The ceremony was outside in the hot morning sun with masks and social distancing. Very minimal speeches from the principal and a few top students. Each of more than 500 young people marched across the stage when their name was called from a card they gave a person wearing gloves. They whipped off their mask, smiled for a camera and left the stage. No handshake, no hugs, diploma had been mailed a month ago. I watched an hour and 45 minutes to see my boy for a few seconds when my eyes were beginning to blur. I think the class was supposed to have more than twice the number there.
Here's the parody on Katy Perry's "Roar": https://www.movoto.com/blog/opinions/kansas-chore/?fbclid=IwAR2iVgJQZrECJcD8ARzVaNA9ILKSh93cRRXkf3f2-0kgDQbbdqIB1jTDIc4
Tough but fair puzzle. Had to take a little break (ok a nap), and came back strong to finish it up.
...Sitting on the deck watching everyone else kayaking and swimming frolicking in the lake on this perfect ADK day..
Why am I struggling with this puzzle? Gonna join the fun. 🎣 🏕 ⛵ 🛶. Summer is short in Central NY. Half way over. Where my inflatable raft and beer?
Maybe catch up with you later tonight.
Enjoy the the weekend.
I was just kidding with you, PK. Red letters or not, as long as it's fun.
I linked your Core Parody in my 8:16 comments.
Similarly, about 2020 HS Graduations, I watched my great-grand niece graduate in a very similar fashion as you described. It was on YouTube live. It was pretty neat, but I sure felt sorry for everyone in the extra layer of clothes in that hot Texas heat.
Gary, please add me, Lauren, in Yuma, AZ the World’s Lettuce Capital, and sunniest US city.Thank you
Mask up, be well.
Cleverly clued, but too rich (or chewy) for my blood.
I finished but only after several cheats.
In fact, the only sector I got completely on my own bat was the SE. It is interesting to see that Mr. Deeney started with EXUSEZ MOI because it was my first fill.
--Or my first long fill, following SIRS, perhaps the most obvious short fill in the grid.
I see on the map posted by Husker G that RIOJA is very near where I started my travels in Spain.
I did not know, dammit!-- or I might have availed myself of some Oeno-tasting.
Ratten!
~ OMK
My dental thing took less time than I expected yesterday, and I have only mild pain today.
She (the dentist) expected the session to go two hours, but when she started to make a "temporary" bridge, I said to forget it. She was concerned for the look of my teeth because we're building a bridge to cover a gap where my top front right incisor went missing.
Sure, if I look in the mirror, I look like a toothless hick. But who is going to see me these days? I don't naturally show my upper teeth anyway. And I don't have any trouble chewing when I eat.
So I said just skip to extracting the remaining root--and next session we'll do the real bridge.
Saved a lot of time.
At least a good 20 mins was added at the start of the appt while the staff checked my temp, asked the usual-suspect questions, and watched while I washed my hands (again!) and took off my mask to use a mouth rinse.
They were sure scared I was going to infect them. I think next time I must bring my own thermometer & check THEM out.
~ OMK
I liked this puzzle but it sure beat me up. I couldn't get on Mr. Deeney's wavelength and there were many answers I simply didn't know. I gave Mr. Google a good workout today.
As Big Easy pointed out, 17A & 18A were gifts, and among the very few I filled correctly right off the bat. Among the many I filled incorrectly were NADAL instead of SELES, DOLMEH instead of DOLMAS, TEASETS instead of TEAWARE, PRENUPTIAL instead of PREMARITAL, SPONSOR instead of ADSALES, TINY instead of ITSY, and HISANDHERS instead of SHOWERGIFT. I thought the "Honshu city" was a city with a rather long name rather than a 5-letter city name plus the name of the country JAPAN.
I flat out didn't know ANIL, TESSA, or TSOTSI but did know and correctly filled the first time BRONC, RIOJA, AUEL, EMMA, NOEL, and SIRS.
Heck of a good puzzle!
Good wishes to you all.
Just Lurking today,
Irish Miss,
Re: Phone Camera,
I took a photo of all my prescriptions!
Just lined up all the bottles with the label info showing, & click!
Now when I need to order something,
I can pronounce/spell the exact name/dosage/times per day etc...
Also, when a Doctor/insurance/whatever asks me about my Rx's
I just go, here! Let me text them to you!
(A picture is worth a thousand Rx's)
Hi All!
Took two cheats [and 3+ hours(?)] but P&P prevailed.
Thanks Joe for your experiment; nice way to while away a rainy day.
Great expo HG! Enjoyed the transition from acrosses to downs :-)
//yes I wanted ROWAN but ESA & GIFT wouldn't allow it.
//Oh, and where's the LA contingent - Swamp, BigE, & Hahtoolah?
Cheats: ROAR & BASS STRAIT
WOs: RDA b/f I realized it TWAS wrong. Ale -> IPA [after cheat on ROAR], Nous -> ACTE. Started WINE b/f I was buck'd off the BRONC. Tiny b/f cheat #2
ESPs: AUEL, RIOJA, TESSA, TSOTSI [I was so going to change the 'O' to an 'I' for TSI TSI but I was fairly certain spelling of 28d]. Though, much fill took copious perps & WAGs
Fav: I'll go w/ POSE - it was cutely clued, agreed w/ ELO [first fill], and got me going on the 10 stack.
How was 54d not SIR Robin? I mean, aside the fact there's only 4 squares to fill?
Also, why waste a cozie on TEA when there's an IPA next door? (Oh, that's a koozie :-) //my mind was on beer or golf or,... both!)
Youngest was NOT named after Elmo's friend. Even sans diaeresis, the pronunciation rhymes with snowy. I just call her Zee or Zed.
//Eldest's name (that she doesn't go by) starts w/ an 'A.' I can say "I've got kids A to Z so DW & I done. :-)"
I was planning on going to SxSW this year to observe (participate in?) the Hackathon. Alas...
DOLMAS - Eldest wants me to get her a metric sh**-ton so she can take them back to OU next week. Apparently not available in Norman.
PK - LOL! TTP beat me to linkin' it (thanks Bro!) but it was great - esp. when Youngest walked out here and heard it :-)
Thank you Picard! Those are great photos of Neowise.
In Florence last year, we had tickets for Uffizi but about 3 hours to kill(? we just ate? WTF?).
DW took me around the block and said, "I thought you'd like this..."
Museo Galileo. Way Cool! I mean, Uffizi was neat, but...
I love that Woman.
Cheers, -T
I tried to work this puzzle quadrant by quadrant. I found each of them to be slightly more difficult than the others combined. After my first run through I had a pristine grid except for BRONC at 26-A. Yowzers! Perseverance and a durned fool determination that it would not end this way finally paid off and after getting SANTA CLAUS and TWAS I finally got the toe hold I needed.
Hand up for PREnuptial instead of PREMARITAL. Took me quite a while to realize that that one needed fixing.
IM, I have discovered many uses other than taking selfies for my iPhone camera. Two that I use a lot are taking a picture of the label of something I have that I want more of (I don’t buy the wrong things much any more) and taking a picture of the lid of the crossword puzzle box while we’re tring to solve it (no more fighting over who gets the lid—and you can blow it up way big if your eyes are getting to be the way mine are).
Learning moment for me—I had no idea the Prime Minister had veto power over the sovereign. (Specifically regarding Noel Coward’s knighthood.)
Anyway, finally FIR in about half an hour. Thanks, Joe and Gary, for an enjoyable way to alleviate some of the Covid-19 boredom.
Stay well.
What a range of opinions on the difficulty of this puzzle. I struggled mightily and needed help from my resident guru, while a few folks asked for a tougher challenge.
Thanks Joe and Gary for expanding my knowledge base.
I got in my own way with tiny/ITSY, nous/ENTRE. MY favorite clue/answer was SHOWER GIFT.
Jean Auel’s books captivated me many years ago. Her tireless research to “get it right” for the time period won her several prestigious awards.
RIP Regis Philbin 7/24/2020 age 88
Another question.
Is a specific member of this community responsible for monitoring the comments and deleting them if they violate the “no politics”, etc. guidelines? I ask because recently, someone questioned their comment being removed and mildly protested. So I wondered.
Windybird = yes, there is a moderator. C.C. has entrusted him to DELE anything over the top. A benevolent King, him. Also keeps the SPAM Scams from posting.
//it's an open forum - anons can post w/o an account. Gotta be a PITA [Pain In The Donkey] to keep up w/ all of it. Yeoman work and all that.
Yuman - Regis passed too? :-(
I was bemoaning Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac.
R.I.P. both.
-T
CED and WikWak ~ Thanks for the suggestions but I’ve had a camera in my iPad for years and have used it only a handful of times, mainly to take winter wonderland snow pile pictures in January to send to my friend in Florida. I like your prescription photo use, CED, but I’m lucky enough to receive a 90 supply by mail, with automatic refills. I don’t have to do a thing except go to the mailbox. WikWak, I do the puzzle online, so no vision challenges!
So Far
Map Update Saturday
• California is getting very crowded. I hope you all can swim!
• Anon T has been moved back onto dryland
• Picard is added in CA
• Hungry Mother is in his summer home of Delaware not his winter home of Fla
• Bluehen is added to Delaware
• Wendy Bird has been placed next to Misty in CA
• Mary has been added to Wisconsin
• John28 has been added to Colorado
• Michael has been added to California
• Swamp Cat was good enough to add herself, Big Easy and Hahtoolah in Louisiana
• I put Malodorous Manatee in his CA place!! I only used the first part of his name but, c’mon…
• LEO III is added in Texas
• Yuman is added in, uh, Yuma
• Jan is a 10-year lurker who asked to be placed in cleveland. I wonder if she EKES out a living eating OREOS by Lake EIRE?
• Sarah joins our CA group
• Ed enters at Springfield, OH
• WikWak is back near Abejo in Chicago
• Paul who goes by gaspasser (a retired anesthetist) is in OK
We'll publish the new and improved map soon!
How can I mess this one up? Let me count the ways! Nope, I’m not even going to count them. Let’s just say that it wasn’t pretty.
I really started out all right. I got most of the long answers rather quickly (a couple of bumps here and there – nothing fatal), but there were some I didn’t get. Then the roof fell in when I was working on what I thought should have been easy fills. Nope, nope, and nope!
I can’t even count the number of I DON’T KNOWS I had, but there were quite a few. It’s OK, though, because I KNEW SXSW! Never been! Never want to go! It’s streamed, if there is anyone I want to see. Reminds me a little bit of Woodstock, but much larger, much better organized and probably better policed. I’m not sure, though. After all, it is held in the city whose motto is, “Keep Austin Weird!”
JOE TORRE: What can I say? In my humble opinion, he is one of the greatest, nicest and most decent people ever in the game. I NEVER had a nice thought about the Yankees, except when Torre and Derek Jeter were there. My daughter snagged Torre’s autograph at spring training once, back when he was managing the Cards. The lady standing next to her said to her, “You know, you just got the autograph of a future Hall of Famer.” Yepper! Oh, she also got Don Zimmer’s autograph once. (That’s what happens, when you’re a tall, skinny high school kid with long arms.)
On to Sunday!
RIP dear RFXP. The world will miss your wit and enthusiasm.
HG, I did not see Bluehen or WikWak on the map. My vision is failing.
A few minutes late and a dollar short. Thank you HG
Husker Gary: Great work on the map! You might want to move desper-otto and me down to the coast. I'm fewer than 50 miles from the Gulf, and d-o is probably around 80 miles away from it. In Texas (and I'm sure in Nebraska too), that's just around the corner.
Thanks again!
Husker, I think you are going to need a bigger map. :>)
I agree with TTP that a full-size state by state map would be nice
TTP was making a JAWS joke
Is there a bigger map, er, boat? :-)
-T
As a Redsox fan, I was glad to see Buck Showalter leave the Yankees. I considered him a very good manager. But then they hired TORRE and I knew the Sox were in trouble.
Why is it so difficult for MLB Execs to appreciate quality in managers? To close?
Redsox have a new manager. Ron Roenicke. He originally was dubbed "Interim". Then again, all managers are effectively "Interim" if they're not effective.
WC
If you click on the map or open it in a new tab it does become bigger.
H-G, you definitely outdid yourself today!! Thanks for the Seles photos, and we (or at least I) can never have too much Seinfeld. Though I've not gone "blue" (did set up a google account per instructions), please include me. I'm in inner city (NW) Houston. And thank you for all your time and efforts these years in providing the Cornerites with a map, which I refer to rather than clicking on the bios when reading posts to get a handle on their neck of the woods.
I thought this was fairly easy for a Saturday despite all the long answers. POSE (1-d) gave me POINT TAKEN which confirmed the easy perps. As others mentioned re TEASETS, I quickly filled that in and wouldn't let it go, trying to make Rossi work - V8 slap! It's Martini & Rossi (no, I was drinking coffee - evidently not enough).
Home stretch (FIR? - just leave in perped TSOTSI - really?); dang, it's Zoe, not Moe. Not too many young children in my family, and I'm only familiar with Miss Piggy and Kermit.
TTP and PK - I LOVED "CHORE" and watched the whole clip - talented group if they are indeed farmers' sons. Grew up on a small farm and though not familiar with those Midwestern chores, TX farms have their own due to the climate. Enjoyed seeing the cattle - loved Daddy's gentle herd of Herefords. "Roar" - not so much. I only watched 30 seconds, FF'ing along.
Belated greetings to the Cornerites. I spent the day on another project and came to the puzzle late. Suffice it to say that I had 3 spaces wrong today. FIW! I know we're not political here, but if Irish Miss runs for office, she has my vote, because I prefer for my leader to be smarter than I am. Picard, thanks for sharing photos of Eilat and of comet Neowise. Elucidating!
Amen on the difficulties.
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