google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, July 1, 2020 Bill Zagozewski

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Jul 1, 2020

Wednesday, July 1, 2020 Bill Zagozewski

Theme: I can't do any better than the unifier, so let's drive on over there and stop safely.

65. Intersection with flashing lights and bells, for short, and a hint to this puzzle's circles: RRXING.



We have two sets of crossing theme entries, with one across and one down in each, of course. These two-word entries all have the initial R for both words, and the entries cross at the 2nd R.  If you got the two circles in your puzzle, these are the locations.

30 A. Extreme reaction to traffic: ROAD RAGE.  "Any unsafe driving maneuver performed deliberately and with ill intention or disregard for safety."
~Crossing~
10 D. Volunteer with Teddy Roosevelt: ROUGH RIDER.  A member of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, which, ironically, would up fighting on foot.

45 A. "Standing" entrée: RIB ROAST.  A prime rib cut of beef, generally roasted "standing" on the rib bones, such that the meat does not touch the pan.
~Crossing~
29 D. "And away go troubles down the drain" company: ROTO ROOTER.  An American company founded in 1935, using a patented auger machine to clean tree roots and other debris from sewer lines. It also provides plumbing repair, sewer and drain services, and water damage cleanup services to residential and commercial customers.

Hi Gang, JazzBumpa here.  Rabbit, rabbit.  Now, note that the circled crossings are located symmetrically in the grid, with a 180 degree rotation.  Nice elegant touch.  Having safely encountered the RR CROSSINGS, let us now continue our journey.

Across:

1. Lion controllers: TAMERS.  Those who train lions or other big cats for use in protection or entertainment, according to Wikipedia.

7. From the U.S.: AMERican.

11. Pained cries: OWS.   I use more colorful language.

14. Spotted wildcat: OCELOT.  A medium sized cat weighing from 8 to 15 kg, native to the American southwest, Mexico, Central America and South America.  It is characterized by solid black spots and streaks on its coat, round ears, and white neck and undersides.

15. Brussels-based gp.: NATO. North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

16. Chapel bench: PEW. A long bench with a back to provide seating for the congregation.

17. Sorbetto alternative: GELATO.  Italian frozen deserts that are similar but not identical to sherbet and ice cream.

18. Hall of Fame guest of honor: INDUCTEE.   A person newly added.

20. House speaker after Ryan: PELOSI.  Nancy [b 1940] née D'Alesandro, was speaker from 2007 to 2011, and again currently, starting in January, 2019.  She represents California's 12th congressional district.

22. Coffee machine setting: GRIND.  Reduces the beans to a useful size for brewing.

23. "I'm at my __ end!": WIT'S.  Out of patience, with no more cares to give.

26. Like many flights to LAX: INTL.  International - i.e from foreign countries into Los Angeles. Travel through LAX was off by 95% in mid April.  Can't quickly find how it is doing now.

27. Skating legend Sonja: HENIE. [1912 - 1969] She was a multiple award winner in the Olympics, and European and World Championships, and movie star in the late '30's.  She died of leukemia.

28. More aloof: ICIER.  Cold.  Very, very cold.

32. '50s prez: IKE.  Dwight David Eisenhower.  [1890-1969]

33. Place to use a mitt: OVEN.  For heat protection.

35. Grafton's "__ for Evidence": E IS. From her Alphabet mystery series.

36. Went around in circles: GYRATED. Quickly spun or moved in a spiral.

38. Confound: BEDEVIL.  Confusticate and bebother, as Bilbo would have it.

42. Decompose: ROT. Come undone.

43. Suffix with gazillion: -AIRE.  One who has all that money and stuff.

44. Brian of rock: ENO. [b 1948] A self-described non-musician with several solo albums and collaborations with many others who are known as musicians.  He has also produced albums for several of them.

48. Strict precision: RIGOR.   The quality of being extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate, derived from the Latin word for stiffness.

50. Simply not done: TABOO.  Forbidden.

51. All-purpose vehicles, for short: UTES.  Sport utilities.

53. Sugar source: CANE.  In Michigan it's beets.

54. In __: unborn: UTERO.  In the uterus.

55. Dress down: BERATE. Angrily scold and criticize.

57. New in theaters: FIRST RUN.

59. Jalopy: BEATER.  Beaten up old vehicle

63. Vous, less formally: TOI. You, in French; and you, in French.

64. Pair on a Disney World hat: EARS.


66. Federal retirement org.: SSASocial Security Administration.

67. Actress Russo: RENE. [b 1954] American actress, producer and model.  She was in many movies through the 90's, and more recently appeared as Thor's mother in a series of superhero movies..

68. Corrects, as text: EMENDS.

Down:

1. Dress (up): TOG.  I've heard of TOGS as fancy clothing, but not of its use as a verb.

2. Opening day pitcher, typically: ACE.  The best starting pitcher on the staff.  Opening day seems to be something we might not experience this year.

3. "Coca Cola Cowboy" singer Tillis: MEL.



4. Slip by, as time: ELAPSE.

5. Repetitive learning: ROTE.  Memorization.

6. Vodka with Razberi and Ohranj flavors: STOLI.  Short for Stolichnaya.

7. Jennifer of "The Good Girl": ANISTON. [b 1969] She is am American actress, producer and business woman who reached fame and success playing Rachel in the TV series FRIENDS.  She then went on to make a series of romantic comedy movies that I never saw.

8. Capital on Luzon: MANILA.  In the Philippines.

9. Boarding pass info: ETD Estimated Time of Departure.

11. Going (for): OPTING.  Making a choice among options

12. Frank on the grill: WEENIE.   AKA the hot dog.

13. Stockholm native: SWEDE.

19. Pressed-pants feature: CREASE.

21. When rights are sometimes permitted: ON RED.  A right turn at an intersection, in this regard treating the red light as a stop sign.

23. "The Martian" actress Kristen: WIIG. [b1973] She is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer who has appeared in several movies over the past decade..

24. Eww-inspiring: ICKY.  Nasty and disgusting.

25. Concert level: TIER.  Rows of seating at some elevation.

31. Antelope playmates: DEER.  On the range, where the buffalo roam.

34. Reject, presidentially: VETO.  The president's or governor's right to reject a proposed law passed by the legislature.

37. Shady alcoves: ARBORS.  A shady sitting place or pergola usually in a park or garden, surrounded by climbing shrubs, vines or other vegetation. A grove of trees.

38. Dog to avoid: BITER.  Seems like good advice

39. 1970s Chevy subcompact: VEGA.  I wanted NOVA.

40. A party to: IN ON.  Knowledgable about.

41. Passed-down history: LORE.  Knowledge and traditions passed down through the generations.

43. Equally strained: AS TENSE.

45. Proportions: RATIOS.  The quantitative relationship between two amounts.

46. Spain and Portugal comprise most of it: IBERIA. A peninsula in south-western Europe.

47. The Tigers of the SEC: AUBURN.  Teams associated with the University.

49. Climber's tool: ICE AXE.

50. Clumps of hair: TUFTS.

52. Buffalo NHLer: SABRE.  Player on the profess


ional hockey team

56. Time in office: TERM.  With specified beginning and end dates.

58. "Norma __": RAE.  A movie about southern textile mill workers.

60. Bronze component: TIN. Mostly copper with about 12% tin and sometimes smaller amounts of other metals.  Brass, more dear to me, is copper and zinc.

61. Terminate: END.  Finish

62. Some NFL blockers: RGS.  Right guards.  Those in the first position to the right of the center in the offensive line of an American football team.

That's all folks.  Hope all you well trained solvers were able to stay on track.

Cool regards!
JzB




66 comments:

OwenKL said...

A BEATER car on a washboard road
Will make a ROUGH RIDER of any load.
When you've GYRATED for an age
At the ROAD you can RAGE,
It will still BEDEVIL you, that's its code!

When a RIB ROAST is working it way thru you gut
Is an awkward time for the commode to be on the futz!
Call ROTO ROOTER
Toot suite or sooner,
To fix the water closet for your butt!

LEO III said...

Happy July, everyone! Not many problems today. Had a couple of write-overs (I too wanted NOVA for VEGA, and I wanted DDE for IKE), but got them fixed.

Going back to sleep....

Hungry Mother said...

Two write-overs on this quick and easy puzzle: WIIG 4 WIgG and RGS for oGS. Firing on all cylinders on my 80th Bday.

Barry G. said...

Hey, all! This whole COVID-19 pandemic work from home thing has gotten my calendar completely out of whack.

Thanks for the birthday wishes two days ago (I'm actually now 54, though) and a belated Happy Birthday to our fearless leader, C.C.!

Lemonade714 said...

Before I come back for my puzzle comments I want to wish a wonderful Canada Day to all of our northern neighbors. I also wanted to chime in on the passing of the comedy legend Carl Reiner; may he keep them laughing wherever the next plane of existence is.

Rabbit Rabbit and we are officially in the second half of 2020

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Oh no! DNF on what should've been a gimme. Had WIENER that got corrected to WIENEE. Had I looked at PIW, I would've fixed it. Didn't look. Rats. Tin probably won't like that EIS answer. Entered SABRE, saw the RR and immediately changed it to SABER. Then read the clues for 65a and 68a and changed it back. Thanx, Bill and JzB.

RIGOR: Often accompanied by his good friend, Mortis.

ROTO-ROOTER: Got it, but thought of this ad first.

Happy birthday, Hungry Mother.

Wilbur Charles said...

First, looking back at the Wednesday solve I see a lot of wos. Nova/VEGA, Taro/CANE. WEENIE was all perps with the spelling of Sonja's last name questionable. Until I peruse the write-up. And …

Better late etc, Hbd CC and thanks for caring for the Corner. Now let's look at the comments. And I see another Hbd for HM.

Owen, great lick's; was toot a pun? I see Monsieur Beni gets a shout today.
I'll greatfully take the FIR .

Re. Re RR(XING) Was it here that I told the unnerving story of the Amtrak, the Fiat and the light at the end of the tunnel?

WC

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

WIIG was new and unknown, but 4 perps nailed it. Liked the RR theme. No problems with the solve.
We have strolled Sonja HENIE Plass in Oslo. Nothing special.

Off to Syracuse to get my skin examined.

Thanks JzB for your usual fine intro.

Wilbur Charles said...

As I breakfasted my oldies channel on cable had ELO sandwiched around two Anon-T favs: David Bowie and Police.

Posted to fill in as it's still dawn in Cali

WC

OMaxiN said...

Confidently filled weiner and rotated. Did not correct. Failed to get tada.
Enjoyable Wednesday puzzle Bill. Thanks for your review JzB.
MO

OMaxiN said...

Confidently filled weiner and rotated. Did not correct. Failed to get tada.
Enjoyable Wednesday puzzle Bill. Thanks for your review JzB.
MO

jfromvt said...

Easy Wednesday. At first pass, thought it was a needless theme, but it actually is well constructed.

Yellowrocks said...

I missed the clever theme, 2 R- R- words crossing at the circle. Lovely.
Me, too, WIIG was all perps and looked wrong. I kept it.
Norma Rae is one of my favorite movies. I have seen it several times. Its hard to believe that Sally Field, the same actress who played Gidget and the Flying Nun, (meh) was the talented star of Norma Rae and many other dramatic parts. Sally has won numerous acting awards over several decades.
Congress rarely overrides vetoes— out of 1,484 regular vetoes since 1789, only 7.1%, or 106, have been overridden. - Congressional Research Service.
Happy birthday, Hungry Mother and many more to come.
Happy Canada Day, CE.
I still remember the ROTOROOTER and Ajax commercials and many other after all these years. I wish jingles would replace some of the inane ads we see on TV now.

billocohoes said...

VEGA may have been the worst car of the last third of the 20th century. Besides burning a quart of oil every 200 miles (which cut off the fuel pump, leaving you stranded), humorist Dave Barry says at Vega Owners Conventions they bring their cars in large manila envelopes as they quickly turned to piles of rust.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning

No problems with the solve and only one w/o, Old Timer/Inductee, because I DOed, i.e. misread the clue. Icier and Ice Axe and Rote and Roto stood out. CSO to Tin at Tin and the dreaded _ _ _ ! Cute theme and reveal.

Thanks, Bill, for a mid-week treat and thanks, JzB, for ‘splainin’ it all so well.

Spitz, hope you get a good report.

Barry G, don’t be a stranger!

Happy 80th Birthday, Hungry Mother! Keep running those races! 🎂🎊🎁🎈🎉

Happy Canada Day, CEh! 🇨🇦

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Two lonely circles piqued my curiosity immediately. Very nice!
-No ROAD RAGE from me. Everyone has an attitude and a might have a gun
-For some reason, I thought Sonja’s last name rhymed with shiny
-Putting can BEDEVIL any golfer
-I can’t imagine anyone picking up their BAE in a UTE to go ELHI
-Willie’s very stylized Funny How Time Slips Away
-I knew that frank would have an I and some E’s to arrange
-A prof once told us that TIN was to the Bronze Age what Oil is to us now
-Happy Birthday, Hungry Mother. The origin of your screen name is very interesting

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks, Bill, for a very doable Wednesday. A little crunch for me in a couple of spots, but crosses made my day. JazzB, you have provided us with another very fine explication. Merci Beaucoup. Oops, Madame is off to her Italian homework (yep, Summer School on Zoom), so I should say, Molto Grazie!

RIGOR in education sometimes makes me laugh. Or cry. To lots of educators it means lots of work rather than depth and discovery. I saw this during the online schooling when my grands were getting tons of worksheets pulled from the Internet. Duh!

Yes, Anon -T, Carl, Mel and Jerry is worth the fee.

Happy Birthday, Hungry Mother. What a great milestone!!

Happy Canada Day, CEh!

IM, Stay well and be careful. <3

Picard, I wish you such good luck. Breathe deeply. Consider Madame D's favorite hobby of late: Purging eons of "stuff." It's a special kind of cleansing.

It's going to be hot here in Evanston, even with our old weather standard, "cooler near the Lake." Enjoy your day, and stay safe.

Bob Lee said...

I also thought WIGG at first but quickly corrected the spelling. I love her bits on SNL.

Since I had PEW, I knew Wiener wasn't correct (I before E), and thought Sonia was spelled HENNE (from a dim memory of her skating), but I fixed eventually.

I also didn't know RIBROAST was cooked standing up. Live and learn.

MEL Tillis was new to me but I got it with the cross.

And I kept looking at ASTENSE thinking, "What kind of word is that?" until it dawned on me it was AS TENSE. Duh!

Yellowrocks said...

Thanks, Gary. I was wondering just today where Hungry Mother came up with the screen name? HM, is your avatar named after the park or the river?
I have been visiting World's End State Park in PA since I was five years old. We grew up nearby and picnicked there many times every summer. Since we moved away we have returned to this lovely spot often as single families or with sibs and families. For many years Alan and I camped there with one or several of my sisters. Now Alan and I stay at a B&B nearby and visit as day trippers. Alas, not this summer. Nice to see it mentioned in your list, HG.
Spitz, good luck on your test.
I am finally getting my new washer delivered today, three weeks after the last one broke. The service contract has more than paid for itself.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Good theme and nicely executed. WIIG was new to me, too, although the perps took care of that in short order. I haven't watched SNL in many years. If I had I might have known the name. As mentioned, above, those two lonely circles did prompt some curiosity.

oc4beach said...


No circles, so didn't look for the theme, although after JzB 'splained it it made perfect sense. Good Wednesday puzzle and expo.

I had to guess at the spelling of WIIG. Don't know who she is. I had to change DDE to IKE because WIdG didn't make any sense.

Like others I initially had SABRE but when I saw RR____ I changed it to SABER before changing it back when the XING showed up.

Nice mid 80's day on tap. Hope it's nice where you all are. (or is it y'all)

oc4beach said...


Happy Canada Day, CEh.

Have a great Birthday, HM.

Anonymous said...

Fun puzzle. No snags. The usual wonderful write-up.

Always enjoy the side learning I get coming here: hungry mother is an example.

Lemony: technically today is the last day of the first half of the year since 2020 is a leap year. This is day 183 of 366.

Happy Canada Day! HBD's to those I've missed.

Hot as blazes here in Chi. Stay safe everyone.

JB2

Shankers said...

Fastest Wednesday ever. Two circles? Why even bother? Happy Birthday Hungry Mother on a milestone celebration. My wife had her 80th on 6/4. I have four years to reach that mountain myself. And to CanadianEh a happy Canada Day. I left in 1976 and didn't know it was changed from Dominion Day in 1982 til you pointed it out to me yesterday. No matter what I have nothing but positive memories of my seven fun years there.

Anonymous said...

5 minutes and 3 seconds to make it across the railroad crossing.
Clever construction, with the RRs crossing and the symmetry as pointed-out in the explanation, but they didn't contribute to my actual solving, which made it seem superfluous.
Surprised many didn't know Wiig. Thought she was an A list star these days.

Picard said...

FIW: WEENEE/HENEE seemed just as good.

I seem to be missing the Rail Road theme. How are those theme words railroad related?

Yesterday and today:
Thank you all for your encouraging words and words of wisdom during our major upheaval of forced eviction after 31 years.

desper-otto said...

Anonymous@10:25, she probably is, but you have to realize that we're B-list viewers.

Big Easy said...

JzB- American actresses I've heard of but two I've never seen- ANISTON or WIIG. I remember Rene RUSSO from 'Scarface' but that's about it. With Tillis as the clue it's either stuttering MEL or daughter Pam. TH RR crossing was an easy spot.

Does anybody remember the "RR Bar Burger" from ROY ROGERS' restaurants?

Tigers of the SEC- Missouri, Auburn (also Plainsmen and War Eagles), and of course the REAL Tigers-LSU.

STOLI- I'm not a vodka drinker but these different flavors are just 'line extensions' designed to get more shelf space in retailers. I think it started with the different flavors of rum, then bourbon, and now I've notice flavored beers. I don't think it will ever happen to SCOTCH whisky. As for those idiotic flavored alcoholic Seltzers that are the current fad, they will fade as soon as the girls who drink them grow up and pass legal drinking age.

Chevy VEGA- our company had three of them- total pieces of shit (POS). Those POS all leaked oil at about 20,000 miles and rusted out after 3 years. I almost agree with billocohoes assessment- there's always the YUGO. The company owner's father was a lower level GM exec, so he bought Chevy cars and trucks for delivery vehicles. Everything GM made in the 70s & 80s were total POS. They all rusted, transmissions with overdrive went bad after 50-60,000 miles, and I had to get them replaced with 3-speed Chevy 350's which was the only decent transmission they made. I'm not making this up- if you look up on the net about how to identify a 350 transmission there's a website called 'https://itstill runs'.

NaomiZ said...

Loved the puzzle, and loved it more when JzB 'splained how RR XING related to four "RR" answers that crossed.

Thought of desper-otto and friends at 51 across, and how they spent the glory days of their UTES.

Thanks, all.

Wilbur Charles said...

"B-list viewers". Good one D-Otto. We (again) are a divergent bunch. TIN was mined in Great Britain during the bronze age and then the islands retreated into mystery until Julie came along. Actually it was later, Claudius?

Then there was as the Pinto. But the Pinto wasn't my problem, I was the Pinto's problem

WC

Anonymous said...

Fans of the LSU Tigers (also of the SEC) are probably wondering "What about us? Aren't we the national champs or something?"

Misty said...

Woohoo! I got this fun Wednesday puzzle after having a hard time with yesterday's Tuesday one. Many thanks, Bill, and great write-up, JazzB. What a clever RR theme. Had trouble in the southeast corner until I finally decided it had to be ICE AXE. That gave me the X and made sense of the RRs. Woohoo!

I got ANISTON instantly--watched a lot of "Friends" in the day. Hoped the spelling of WIIG was correct, and thankfully it was. Nice to see Nancy PELOSI in the puzzle.

Happy 80th birthday, Hungry Mother.

Can't believe you got all those puzzle words into your first poem, Owen. And your second one cracked me up.

Hope you get a good result on your exam, Spitz.

Happy Canada Day, CanadianEh.


Lucina said...

Hola!

Thank you, Bill Z. and Jazzbumpa! I wondered why only two circles then saw 65A, RRXING. Okay.

The last time I rode on a train (Amtrac) was returning from Vancouver to Seattle. It was great fun and we had amusing fellow travelers who kept us entertained. Such good memories. That was about five years ago and one of the last sister trips we took.

I read the book, IBERIA, many, many years ago and have visited that land of my ancestors several times.

It has been several months since I sat on a PEW and still don't know when I'll return. Our new pastor is set to start today and don't know when we'll meet him.

Happy birthday, Hungry Mother!

Barry G: How nice to see you here!

I hope you are all enjoying a fine day today!


Malodorous Manatee said...

I do not remember the hamburger but I do remember the Double R Bar Ranch.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi Gang -

When I frst logged in, both of the embedded YouTube vids were no the ones I added, the first on being an ELO song, When I refreshed, the proper vis were presented. This is baffling. Did anybody else se vids other than the RR crossing and then.

Fun, well constructed puzzle and I thought the theme, though subtle, was clever and original.

Happy July, everybody!

Cool regards,
JzB

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Bill and JzB.
I got the RR XING but missed the intricacies of the double R words. Clever.
Hand up for arriving here to discover I FIWed; those Is and Es in WEENIE did me in. I had Weinie and did not note that Inductie was wrong.

1D TOG (up) reminded me of Tot from yesterday. 55D Dress down was not the opposite but BERATE.

Some clever clue writer could have joined the Antelope and playmates DEER with 33A OVEN. (Think about it and groan!)

WIIG and AUBURN required perps. And this Canadian can never remember your SSA. But I did get IKE immediately.
ARBOR is missing its U, but at least SABRE was spelled properly LOL! (Probably because that Buffalo team is so close to our (still closed) border!)

I noted the CSO to TIN, and also ICIER, and even the German EIS (d'otto saw it too)
ICKY crossing ICIER. and IKE was interesting also.

Thanks for all the Canada Day wishes. I will share them with any of our other Canadian readers (please post something and help me represent our national identity here!). We do love our country, but tend not to wear our patriotism on our sleeves. But plenty of red maple leafs out today, even if just virtually. I am wearing my Canada TShirt and the flags are blowing in the breeze.

Wishing you all a great day.

CanadianEh! said...

We had an ICE AXE also. I suppose since ICIER is meaning more aloof and not colder in the literal sense of Ice, the repetition is allowable.
Or is this TABOO?
Any of you constructors care to weigh in here?

CanadianEh! said...

Happy 80th Birthday, Hungry Mother.

CrossEyedDave said...

Happy Birthday Hungry Mother,
Unfortunately, Google misinterpreted my request...

Belated B-Day to Barry G,
You may want to save this cake for the next power failure...

Is the Breakfast crowd gone?
Yes?
Ok, then I can bore you with my search for puzzle theme silliness...
This was actually a fake photo,
but it went viral on the Internet...

Which led to...

which led to...

HG, Thank you for the State Park Name Links, very interesting...

Spitzboov said...

EXAM REPORT:

Doc burnt off a few keratosis blotches with liq. nitrogen. Took a biopsy from questionable area in left temple area. Being sent to Ithaca for pathology. They will let me know.
Doc did not say that this 82yo's skin was as smooth as a baby's a….

---------------------------------------------------

Happy Canada Day to CanadianEh!. In ye olden days it was known as Dominion Day.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I do remember the Double R but only a real trivia buff would know the names of these two guys from the Triple R
-p.s. I ordered a flag pole holder for a metal railing from Amazon on Sunday secure in the knowledge that it wouldn’t work. It came today and it is perfect. No local merchant had anything close

oc4beach said...


Big Easy @11:04am: Yes, I remember the Double R Bar Burger and you can still get them at the few Roy Rogers Restaurants that are still open in Maryland, Virginia and on some of the Turnpikes east of the Mississippi. Roy Rogers still makes the best roast beef sandwiches and burgers. We stop in Thurmont, MD to get one every time we visit our son in Maryland.

oc4beach said...


HG @ 1:41pm: They're Spin and Marty from the Mickey Mouse club in the 50's.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Easy enuff & interesting too for a Weds pzl.

I don't think I have heard the term BEATER before -- for old car. Not hard to guess, but unusual...

The only real challenge today was trying to decide between SABER and the more pretentious version.

Happy birthday to our young Hungry Mother!
~ OMK

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Bill Zagozewski, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Jazzbumpa, for a fine review.

Well, got up late last night. Could not sleep. Downloaded the puzzle and worked it. I was a little tired, so I laid back down. Got some sleep, but not what I wanted. I seems like not sleeping is a symptom of this thing I have.

Puzzle was fine. Got through it fairly easily. The theme I figured out at the end. I was confused because I had only two circles on my grid. After some deep studying, I figured it out. Pretty clever theme. Never seen that before.

CanadianEh:. Happy Canada Day! I was born and raised 28 miles from Canada (ERIE, PA). Always felt kind of close.

Tried HOT DOG, then WEINER, then WEENIE. Whatever works.

WIIG was unknown. Perps.

Tried NOVA before VEGA worked better.

Anyhow, I have to go. As tired as I am, I still have stuff to do.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

desper-otto said...

That was my guess, too, but OC4 beat me to it.

Anonymous said...

Nice Wednesday puzzle on the easy side.This puzzle did a fantastic job of being "solvable." The themers were universal and current enough. Proper nouns were rarely crossed with others, and when they were the intersectional letter was obvious.This is good work.

CrossEyedDave said...

Disclaimer:

***The Following is for education purposes***
(so you can ignore at your leisure...)

If you (like me) are getting desperate enough
to re-bingewatch everything, I would like to point out
why "I" like to peruse this Crossword Blog.
Being CrossEyedDave, (meaning everything I look at leads me
to look at something else,) I find a never ending source of
"things" that peak my curiosity. Today was no exception.


60. Bronze component: TIN. Mostly copper with about 12% tin and sometimes smaller amounts of other metals. Brass, more dear to me, is copper and zinc.

Copper seems to be a readily available element,
but how did the Ancients find Tin?
(& how do you combine them?)
A search of the internet revealed many links on how to recover precious metals
from todays junk, Zinc included (if you want to make Brass...)
But not Tin?

Tin seems to be already incorporated into everything!
So How did they find Tin in the past?
This 18 minute video is interesting because it shows modern methods,
& how to recreate them at home.

I was thinking of Subscribing to this site Titled
"How to make everything"
thinking I had found a treasure trove of curiosity quenching
bingwatching that would keep me busy for for months.

But I was wrong!

It proves that too much knowledge is a dangerous thing!
For, as I was perusing, I came across a recent video
that shows you how to turn beer into hand sanitizer!

Turn beer into hand sanitizer!

Sacrilege!

To Hell with Bingwatching!

Ignorance is Bliss!

I am so upset, I think I will go read a book...

Wheels42 said...

Happy birthday, Hungry Mother!

Wasn't a fan of this puzzle, personally. Too many non-words - INTL, AMER, SSA, RGS, ETD, EIS, AIRE, as well as duds like TOI, TOG, ASTENSE (green paint?), and OWS. The theme worked but for me it wasn't nearly dazzling enough to justify the inclusion of all of the answers listed above. As always, just one man's opinion, and clearly in the minority given the comments.

TTP said...

Didn't post my comments again this morning. Preoccupied with the scale in my magnolia. Heavy infestation requiring heavy pruning. It's bad. The secretions from the scale is known as honeydew. If you stand under the tree, you can feel it lightly dripping on you, and in the right light, it looks like it is raining. Don't want to lose that tree to those sucking insects.


JzB, that happens to me all the time. If yesterday's blog is still open in a tab, and I do a page reload, I often get today's blog with yesterday's videos. If however, I open my bookmarks and click the link to http://www.crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/ then the videos all load properly.


Here are my unposted comments, for what they are worth, from this morning:


Good morning. Thank you, Bill Zagozewski, and thank you, JzB.

Happy Birthday, Hungry Mother !

Happy Canada Day to our contingent across the border, most notably Canadian Eh and OAS, plus any lurkers that read here.

I had a Chevy Vega for a short time, and then sold it to buy my brother's Mercury Comet (upscale Ford Maverick :>). Sold it to my aunt when I went in the service. Then bought a Yamaha motorcycle after getting out of the service, and a beater Toyota Corona wagon with rusted-through floorboards for the winter. Pieces of plywood kept most of the slush out. Good thing it was only 5 miles round trip to school. My GF at the time had a much nicer and newer Ford Pinto.

Gotta get out in my magnolia before it gets too hot.

BFN. TTYL. CIAO. TATA for now. See all y'all later n'at !

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle, and after reading Jazzbumpa's explanation I appreciate the construction of the theme. Nevertheless, Wheels42 @ 3:46PM has a good point: an awful lot of non-words.

Had to change BEET to CANE. Knew Ms. WIIG for some reason.

Sometimes we would buy a STANDING rib roast.

I can't help but make a little verse with OCELOT, with Lucina's car in mind:

I do not think an ocelot'll
learn to shake a ketchup bottle,
nor lay a paw on brake or throttle.
But would it, with it's fur a-mottle,
make friends with that storied axelotl?


Happy birthday, Hungry Mother.

AnonymousPVX said...


In late today, had a big adventure....a visit to the dentist. All good.

This Wednesday grid filled quickly.

No write-overs today.

And I’m still running behind, so...

See you Thursday. Stay Safe.

And Happy Birthday to everyone concerned.

Jayce said...

When you cross a Vega with a Comet, do you get a Vomit?

The Curmudgeon said...

For everyone that wanted NOVA before VEGA, an urban myth: They couldn't sell the Nova in Latin America hecause "no va" means "doesn't go."

Caught the RR (just two circles?), but not the CROSSINGs until I came here.

CED: A lot of the craft breweries around here are making hand sanitizer.

>>Roy

Jayce said...

I am saddened by what is happening in Hong Kong, where my wife was born and grew up. It's so mind boggling how suddenly today there are crimes that did not exist yesterday.

CrossEyedDave said...

Curmudgeon@4:44
I actually tried 4 or 6 different ways to respond,
(none of them would pass the Thumper Test...)
So, not being poetic,
I am just going to respond with my original response,
which was to scream Aaaaaaaaaaaa
while running into the night...

Oh nuts!
Now you made me forget why I was posting in the 1st place...

Oh, I know!
That site I mentioned redeemed itself
because it also had a video of making beer from grass and dirt...

But,
since I cannot remember what I copied into my link file
now for this post, I am afraid you will have to take a gamble
& look at this link without introduction...
(hmm, I wonder what it is?)

CrossEyedDave said...

Oh, of course!
Now that I see it again, I was going to post it
under the guise that a "touchstone"
will help you not get railroaded...

railroaded...

theme link...

Oh, forget it. I will see myself out...

Lucina said...

Jayce:
I'm so impressed that you remembered my car's name is AXOLOTL! Actually I now have AXOLOTL 2. You might remember that my granddaughter was in a wreck with Axolotl #1 and it had to be disposed of. The current one just purrs like a kitten.

Jayce said...

Lucina, thank God the wreck killed the car and not your granddaughter.

Axolotl #1 and Axolotl #2 remind me of a family, friends of ours, in which the son, his father, and his grandfather were all named Paul. They called each other P1, P2, and P3.

Wilbur Charles said...

Jayce, shades of Ogden Nash. I think he graced the LA Xword scene awhile back.

WC

Jayce said...

Wilbur Charles, good eye.

Malodorous Manatee said...

TTP, what type of Yamaha motorcycle did you have? I had a Yamaha FJR 1300 for fifteen years. It was a wonderful bike for long distance riding.

CrossEyedDave said...

One way to avoid railroad crossings is to
Learn To Fly

P.S. Here is the original video, if interested...

P.P.S.
My 1st Bike was a
Kawasaki 400S triple
What a pain!
2 stroke, mix the oil with the gas
Scrape the carbon off the pistons every 2000 miles
(with a hacksaw blade)
& a clutch so stiff, my right arm was normal
but my left arm looked like Popeye...

Tomorrow, my second bike...

Malodorous Manatee said...

It's good to see there are other crossword enthusiasts who are also into riding motorcycles. I have not run into (idiom, not meant to be taken literally) many.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks for great work, Bill Z. & JzB! (Those two names together amused me.)

I enjoyed the puzzle & comments.

Happy 80th Birthday, Hungry Mother! I enjoy your posts.

Belated Happy Birthday, Barry G. Good to hear from you again.

Lucina said...

Jayce:
That's funny! I don't know if it's true but I heard that George Foreman named each of his 5 sons George and similarly numbered them.

Yes, I also am glad my granddaughter survived. She, that is, the car rear-ended one in front of her so all the damage was to the engine.