google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, September 5, 2020, Greg Johnson

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Sep 5, 2020

Saturday, September 5, 2020, Greg Johnson

 Saturday Themeless by Greg Johnson 

Greg's Saturday puzzle was a real speed run for me as he and I were simpatico all the way through.


Across:

1. Have plenty of force: PACK A PUNCH - Hurricane Laura comes to mind

11. Hardly any: A BIT.

15. Common Creamsicle float ingredient: ORANGE SODA.


16. Bausch + Lomb brand: RENU - People who wear contact lenses with a face mask probably don't have fogging issues


17. Light rail predecessors: STREET CARS.

18. Body shop concern: DENT - Using suction to repair your own


19. Pitchfork features: TINES.

20. French meat stew: POT-AU-FEU - Literally "pot on the fire". I first thought of Ratatouille


22. Groundwater-fed puddle: SEEP - SEEP as a noun. My golf course abuts the Platte River and has a very high water table, so we see these on occasion.

23. Dire destiny: DOOM a mouse's fate when they 25. Ride the wind: SOAR overhead


26. On the wrong side (of): AFOUL - One is said to have "run AFOUL of propriety"  when one 
28. Impulsively utters, with "out": BLURTS out something offensive (even/especially if it's the truth) without thinking

30. "I've got you": HOLD ON TO ME.

34. Starting course: SOUP.

35. Ship's dir.: ENE - Or direction from Accra, Ghana to Lagos, Nigeria

36. Carousel riders: BAGGAGE - Michael Richards as Kramer, hurt himself in this carousel stunt but jumped right up and finished the scene


38. It has one team in Can.: NBA - The NBA Champion Toronto Raptors

39. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group since 2003: AC/DC - I looked up their top 20 hits and didn't know any. 

41. "The Nutcracker" marcher: TOY SOLDIER - On the other hand, I am very familiar with this piece of music and loved the brilliant choreography


14. "The Nutcracker" sight: TUTU - The Sugar Plum Fairy certainly wears one

43. Crack, perhaps: DECODE - When he/she says ____, he/she really means____.

45. Calf-roping loop: NOOSE.

46. G-rated word of annoyance: DARN.

47. Give conditionally: LEND.

48. __ work: menial labor: SCUT - Being assigned SCUT duty was punishment on Grey's Anatomy

52. Casual question after "We took pictures": WANNA SEE - Sometimes the answer is no but you shouldn't just BLURT that out

54. See 3-Down: ASADA and 3. With 54-Across, grilled Mexican dish: CARNE - CARNE ASADA (meat grilled) has some lovely vowels 


55. Prepare for a surprise, perhaps: HIDE.

56. Expressed remorse, say: MADE AMENDS - My rule for kids, "Admit it was your fault, say you're sorry and fix it"

59. "First Lady of Song": ELLA - Fitzgerald

60. Toy featured in the 2002 film "The Man Who Saved Christmas": ERECTOR SET - The story of A.C. Gilbert who reluctantly quit making toys like his ERECTOR SET to make munitions for WWI but then convinced the government to let him start remaking toys


61. They're light-sensitive: EYES.

62. "That's all she wrote": END OF STORY - Husker FB this fall?


Down:

1. Message board entries: POSTS - Yours are a highlight of my day

2. Fitting name for a gallery patron?: ARTIE - Now that's fun!

4. Skateboarder's protector: KNEE PAD.

5. Suitability word on some games: AGES - The puzzle box said 2 - 6 years but it only took me three days

6. Stroke: PET.

7. Pac-12 member: USC.

8. Words indicating lack of offense: NO APOLOGY NEEDED.

9. Format for older computer games: CD ROM - The CD ROM's in this series saw a lot of use at our houses


10. "And __ thou slain the Jabberwock?": HAST.


11. Difficult: ARDUOUS.

12. Chef Boyardee product: BEEFARONI.

13. Waterslide aid: INNER TUBE and 
52. Waterslide cry: WHEE.

21. Handy communication syst.?: ASL - Reagan Thibodeau, using American Sign Language in Maine, is very expressive during COVID-19 press conferences 


23. Campaign website option: DONATE.

24. Expenditure: OUTGO.

27. Key ring thing: FOB.

28. Valediction reminder: BE GOOD - His show depended on people who did not follow his valediction 


29. Practice in a ring: SPAR.

30. Melon, facetiously: HEAD.

31. Dosage instruction: ONCE DAILY.

32. Flameless light source: LED CANDLE - Put away the matches and get out the batteries


33. Stone __: MASON.

37. Two-time U.S. Open champ: ELS.

40. Transparent 61-Across parts: CORNEAS.
42. Ending course: DESSERT.

44. Bad thing to leave at a crime scene: DNA - Uh, number 2, we'd like to visit with you


47. Pick up: LEARN - We bloggers are trying our best to LEARN the new Blogger language

49. Playground retort: CAN SO.

50. Milk container: UDDER.

51. "Delish!": TASTY.

53. Barrie's nonconformist pirate: SMEE - I'll bet you can pick him out


54. Book after Joel: AMOS.

57. Tourist opening?: ECO - Tulum is a small town on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 


58. Fed gp. fighting certain illegal trafficking: ATF - The new American Government started taxing spirits in 1789 to pay for the revolution and this was the birth of what became the ATF. Washington learned that Americans did not take kindly to this.



Comment below:


42 comments:

  1. Well for a Saturday puzzle it didn't PACK A PUNCH but there were very few gimmes and the term SCUT work is one I'd never heard of. After finishing the NE with P__AUFEU in place I had to wait for CD-ROM & HAST to finish POT-AU-FEU, unknown.

    DENT- they don't beat them out these days, just replace panels.
    CD-ROM- a lot faster than floppy discs.
    DONATE- I get tired of organizations of all kinds asking for money just to ask for more in another letter. We just go to Sam's and buy a carload of food and take it to the 2nd Harvest Food bank. Hurricane Laura Victims will receive it and there are no follow up requests in the mail.
    ACDC- Gary, I'm fairly certain you've heard "You shook me All Night Long"
    ASL- an impossible to kill, wasted gov. expenditure since every TV comes with Closed Captioning.

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  2. Good morning!

    Almost meet my doom in Southern California. All I had to work with was WANNA and DNA. Finally, DECODE bubbled up, and it all fell into place. Thanx, Greg and Husker.

    BLURTS: Reminded me of this Pickles strip.

    ERECTOR SET: Had one in my ute, and a Gilbert chemistry set, too.

    ECO: We went to Cancún for DW's 40th. (Yeah, it was a few years ago.) Visited Tulum on that trip, also Itza Chicken.

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  3. Good morning Gary and Greg. Thank you for the entertainment and the explanation. RATATOUILLE is a seafood dish, no meat. You also have BEEFARONI as a mini-theme with POT AU FEU . I liked the NUTCRACKER clecho and the CSO to me with CORNEAS . I did not know of the movie clued with ERECTOR SET or that the ATF started so long ago.

    Have a wonderful holiday weekend

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  4. Gary, thanks for your blog this morning. Your comment about AGES, taking 3 days instead of 2 to 6 years made me laugh out loud. A good start to the weekend.

    Thanks Greg for an easier than expected Saturday puzzle. FIR, though I found I had some missteps: "it's history" before END OF STORY, leading me to put "fbi" before ATF. Also had Tin SOLDIER and ORANGE cOlA before perps helped. I was preparing for a "sunrise", perhaps, with a HIkE before seeing LED CANDLE worked better than CANkLE. So, proofreading saved the day.

    D-otto, I read the Pickles strip in our Sunday paper. I identify with the grandparents in strips these days for obvious reasons.

    Don't work too hard this long weekend, you all. Enjoy!

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  5. Ratatouille is a vegetable stew, neither meat nor seafood.

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  6. The Raptors are .5 seconds from being down 3-0.

    Guessing it wasn't abbreviated, Ernie ELS was the only 3 ltr champ I could think of. Open can be tennis and champ M or F.

    And last night's Strawberry shortcake for DESSERT was indeed TASTY(not yummy as I thought at first ink)

    ACDC had an encore. SCUT was unknown. Usual difficulty per Saturday. I think ELS, NBA and perhaps USC were the only sports clues. A seeming barometer of difficulty in here.

    WC

    *.1 when it actually left the shooter's hand. The guy keeping time might have been slow

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  7. Took 15:08 today. Seemed solid to me. Didn't know "potaufeu."

    With the "a" in place for the rock band, I was really hoping it wasn't Abba or Asia. ACDC is tolerable. Surprised someone isn't familiar with "Back in Black," "You Shook Me All Night Long," or "Highway to Hell." But, that's life.

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  8. Anon at 9:05, thank you. Another brain malfunction as the bouillabaisse recipe came to mind.

    Silly me

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  9. Fun puzzle in the end but the going was slow at first. Great Husker write-up also. Lasso instead of noose held me up for a while.

    Going to be a pretty day in Chicago. Hope all of yours are great and safe.

    JB2

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  10. I seem to remember SCUT in another xword (here or elsewhere) defined as a rabbit’s tail. I wonder if that’s where “SCUT work” came from

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  11. It's a bit after 7:30 a.m. here and the ribs are already on the smoker. In the spirit of Meathead Goldwyn, Steve Raichlen, Izzy Eidelman and others, I will, in my mind (and stomach), balance the seeming disconnect between pastrami and St. Louis style pork ribs. The cucumbers and tomatoes have already been grown (difficult to do at the last minute). Valerie is working on the bread pudding, strawberry mascarpone meringue dessert, sourdough bread, potato and caramelized onion frittata, and the tomato tarte tatin. The 2005 David Fulton Petite Sirah (magnum) has been pulled from the rack and the Compass Box Flaming Heart 15th Anniversary Scotch is standing next to it. This afternoon my son and his family, including the two grand kids, will arrive. Three weeks ago I had a "milestone" birthday and my son had a "milestone" birthday two weeks later (it's really an anniversary of the birth but no one ever calls it that - an actual birth day is something else entirely, as you all know very well). Due to the logistics of the time in which we live, today we will celebrate a combined 110 years.

    All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I do not know when Valerie and I will get a chance to solve today's puzzle. Of course, in the time it has taken to write this, I might have at least established a toe hold or two. Oops, never mind any of the above, Valerie just emerged from the kitchen and is waving the puzzle at me.

    Have a great, and safe, Saturday, everyone.

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  12. Anybody else having problems printing/downloading the NYT today? I keep getting a "not found" error.

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  13. Well, that was weird. From SOUP to DESSERT. A post about food was appropriate.

    D O - I was able to pull up the Saturday NYT on my Chromebook last night without any trouble except that it was not available until a bit later than usual.

    Now, it's back to being a sous chef and furniture mover.

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  14. Hola!

    Thank you, Greg Johnson! This puzzle was suitably ARDUOUS for a Saturday though some areas filled easily. I got PACK A PUNCH right away and I love ORANGE creamsicles so that too emerged quickly. STREETCARS are a throwback to my youth! CARNE ASADA was also a give away for me.

    SCUT was the last to fall as I've not heard it in that context. BEEFARONI was not my first thought from Chef Boyardee and it took a lot of correction fluid to delete spaghetti.

    We customarily attended the Nutcracker ballet for many years so TOY SOLDIERS and TUTU appeared with no problem.

    ARTIE induced a chuckle and I take several meds ONCE DAILY, too but no DESSERT for me.

    d-otto:
    I saw what you did there which Itza Chicken.

    Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

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  15. Gary, thank you! As ever your graphics are much appreciated along with your congenial narrative.

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  16. Fast and easy today.
    Speaking of seeps, we had a very high water table where we lived in Lake Hiawatha. Every hard rain left seeps in the back yard. Because there was no longer a lake in town, visitors would ask, "Where's the lake?" In our back yard!
    Look at the ASL interpeter's face. In ASL much is conveyed through facial expressions and body language, absent in close captioning. ASL has its own grammar and word order. People for whom ASL is their first language have trouble with written English. SIL is an interpreter.
    Link text
    I have made ratatouille, an all vegetable dish with tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, etc.
    BLURT. Engaging brain before putting mouth in gear would prevent the need to walk back what was previously said.
    Bid Easy, good idea. I am turned off by organizations that thank me for my donation and immediately ask for more money. I cross them off my list. It's like:
    Thank you so much for the skirt you gave me for my birthday. Now would you please send me the matching top?

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  17. Speaking of different wheelhouses, scut or scutwork is very much in my wheelhouse. Isn't it interesting that what seems common to some seems obscure to others and vice versa?
    My son managed an accounting department. The newly hired young workers vigorously objected to scut work, routine or tedious work often viewed as menial. My son's boss saw a new hire put a notebook and pages to be punched on David's desk because she thought punching it was beneath her. The boss collared the new worker and asked, "Should this be done by a six figure exec and or by you?"
    Almost all jobs, especially at the bottom of the ladder have scut work.

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  18. YR, are you saying there was higher water at Hiawatha?

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  19. Good Morning:

    Because of the many solver-friendly long fills, I finished this in 20 minutes, at a leisurely pace, as is my style. Two w/os at ABBA before AC DC and Can I see before Wanna See. CSO to CanadianEh at NBA (Raptors) and to Lucina at Carne Asada, which also made me think of the rapidly approaching group Tamale-thon, eh, Lucina! I loved the clue for Artie and plopped it in post haste! Also like the two Nutcracker references.

    Thanks, Greg, for a fun and enjoyable solve and thanks, HG, for the bright and cheerful summary. Loved seeing the Toy Soldiers performance.

    MalMan, your menu is mouth-watering. Bon Appétit and congratulations to you and your son on your milestone birthdays. Have a wonderful family celebration!

    Have a great day.

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  20. Nice!!! (Not the CW French city)....FIR in record time for Saturn's Day usually difficult challenge with a few inkovers: tin/TOYSOLDIER. ASADo/A (Lucina when will I ever learn??)...do/BEGOOD.

    Never have seen SEEP as a noun. Husker I appreciate you ENE tongue-in-cheek directions. Some of the towns are pretty obscure. We only had old INNER TUBES at the beach ..watch out for inflation stem sticking you in the side...OWIE!!!.

    Dad was a mailmam and he was often given stuff on his route people no longer wanted or needed but we didn't have ....Hifi record player when someone bought a stereo. A near complete ERECTORSET when some family's kid got too old for it. Hours of fun.

    KIds are baggage? Oh..that kind of carousel. Speaking of kids...
    Remember this 60s jingle? No Chef Boyaedee when I lived in Italy!. Chef Boyardee (anglicized) Boiardi....boia means "executioner" (the guy with the hood and ax(e)). Boiardi = a family of (pasta) executioners?

    SCUT work: the bane of the medical resident.

    Speaking of.. food ..POTAUFEU ...like HG...my first thought was ratat..... but how do you spell it and had to be too long
    Valediction: new word "bidding farewell"....so say good bye to everyone in HS and you become the valedictorian! but BEGOOD?

    Sheriff Daffy Duck: _____ of the law....AFOUL.
    You call 'em wildebeests but it's_____ to me..NOOSE
    Opposite of "non" in LYONS ______ WHEE.
    Talented cow can UDDER backward, "_____ " DOOM"
    Della Street's boss: Perry ____ MASON.

    (Recommend a very different unique "back story" noir: NETFLIX "Perry Mason" ...Perry, Della, Paul Drake, Hamilton Burger all there and evolving in 1930's LA. )

    Leaves a-changing color in the ADK.

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  21. DO, LOL. It should have been called Lake High Water.

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  22. I really enjoyed this puzzle. Just right for a Saturday test. It filled sporadically going all over the place, top to left to bottom to right until the last letter to fall was the "p" in pot. Not quite as fast as all you other sprinters, but a satisfying FIR nonetheless.

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  23. Thanks Gary for the informative review.
    Always fun to learn a new word, Pot Au Feu, and new meanings for words I knew, scut and seep.
    Off to estivate as it will be 117 today, more record breaking heat. Next week are looking forward to a cool down of 102.

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  24. Thank you, I.M.

    For those who believe that Mr. Johnson might have gone a bit too easy on us today, you might want to check out his NEWSDAY puzzle of either yesterday or today titled "Numbers Game".

    Spoiler alert: among other challenges, it contains a SYZYGIES / NEWIES natick. I am still scratching my head.

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  25. DW and I often comment when a contestant is going into the final Wheel of Torture round with $20K or more, they're going to get the SYZYGY puzzle. Thing: S _ _ _ _ _ (The celestial objects at the end of 2001, A Space Odyssey are aligned in SYZYGY.)

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  26. Quite a surprisingly quick solve for a Saturday, but enjoying some of the fill slowed thingz down a bit. Loved ARTIE and SMEE / WHEE. UDDER silliness.

    Pot-a-WHO?

    CAN SO seemed kind of meh, but I’m sure there’s no way to make one of these without A BIT of awkward fill. I’m just in awe of those who can do this.

    Like Shankers, I roamed all over this puzzle, finding the perps I planted along the way turned into real answers as I sauntered about.

    Gary, where on earth (Earth?) did you find that Jabberwok sign? And how long did you hunt for it? Thanks for brightening my otherwise drab and dreary life!

    And of course thanks also to Greg for providing the entertainment!

    Stay masked. Stay well. Stay!*

    *That last was directed to my granddog, who’s visiting us for a bit.

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  27. Puzzling Thoughts:

    Wilbur -> I agree the Celtics should be up 3-0, but regardless, that pass, catch, and made shot was pretty DARN amazing

    My thoughts were that this would be an easy, Sat themeless, until I went AFOUL through most of the south/central region, and the area where Big Sur would be, if the grid were a map.

    Another hiccup occurred when I had SPURTS/BLURTS and ESP/ASL, POT EU FEU. I knew something was wrong, but I needed Gary’s recap to discover my mistakes ...

    I tried cheating on 60 across, but couldn’t find the words ERECTOR SET ... finally got out when I changed TEE/ECO at 57 down, and ICE/ATF @ 58 down.

    HU for ABBA/AC/DC.

    I certainty don’t have to MADE [sic] AMENDS for my errors!

    END OF STORY ...

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  28. I think this puzzle is masterfully constructed. A joyous journey to solve. There are so many places where I had to change my answer, too many to list, but most notable was having to change RICE-A-RONI to BEEF-A-RONI. DENT went in, came out, and went in again. So did LEND.

    Loved the clue for ARTIE!

    I love the word BLURT. It took me many years to learn not to.

    There used to be a restaurant in the nearby town of Menlo Park called Pot Au Feu, which, not surprisingly, specialized in French cuisine. LW and I were saddened when it went out of business. Almost next door to it was a place called The Wild Hare, which also went out of business; their specialty was "exotic" meats such as wild boar, venison, bison, ostrich, pheasant, alligator, rabbit, etc. The restaurant business is a pretty difficult one, it seems, and all too many don't survive long.

    We still buy Turbo Tax on CDROM.

    I love the Jabberwocky poem. In college I wrote an essay on the ambiguity of the phrase "and the mome raths outgrabe." If you include "All mimsy were the borogoves," it becomes somewhat less ambiguous. Fun stuff.

    I think I remember a song called "Johnny BE GOOD."

    Good wishes to you all.

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  29. I know I ran into Biff BOURGIGNON someplace, but all Google gives me are recipes.Anyone?

    >>Roy

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  30. Hand up stuck with RICE A RONI. Never heard of BEEF A RONI. Learning moment. Apparently the origin of SCUT is unknown. Never heard the term. Learning moment. Never heard of MELON for HEAD. Anyone else?

    Amused at clue for BAGGAGE! Had SAIL before SOAR. Anyone else?

    Always interesting to see how some find the same puzzle easy that others find impossible. For me, this was challenging as expected on Saturday. FIR.

    Thanks to Lucina and Canadian Eh yesterday for the kind words of encouragement about my photos... I did some work to come up with a set of STREET CAR photos.

    Here are my photos of the San Francisco Railway/STREET CAR Museum

    Everyone knows about the San Francisco Cable Cars, but the STREET CARS have an interesting history all their own. In recent years, The City has been collecting STREET CARS from around the world to use in service every day! My photos include STREET CARS from Milan, Italy, Boston and Los Angeles.

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  31. Also From Yesterday:
    Wilbur Charles thank you for explaining how you are able to see puzzles from the future! Sorry that the Tampa Bay Times has reduced its publication days.

    AnonT thank you for your puzzling comment and for your email. I will reply by email later today.

    Yellowrocks thank you for your reply and for your email. I will reply by email, too.

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  32. Whooot! I did it! A Saturday win all on my own -- in ink on paper!
    //"That's nice honey. Anyway," DW says back to whomever's ear she's bending over the phone.

    Hi All!

    Thanks Greg for the puzzle. STREET CAR and ORANGE???? (Crush?? [R.E.M.]) gave me early confidence. SE almost had me look at HG's grid but I came through finally at END OF STORY.
    //More fill was needed - P in POTAUFEU was last letter ink'd

    Great expo HG. We both have dance enthusiasts in our lives so Nutcracker is etch'd in memory. //every Christmas with both Girls in Ballet.... yeah.
    Also, I can understand that you don't know AC/DC's music. It's pretty hard-rock noise (but translates to the cello(?)) [AC/DC's Thunderstruck]

    WOs: PACKsAPUNC, uhoh. taCk DAILY (oh, I should Atone, er AMEND that). I had DEA b/f ATF & Etta b/f ELLA.
    ESPs: POT AU FEU, AMOS. BEG'OOD? (oh, parse it like HG done did...)
    Leaps of faith: SMEE, ECO, SCUT, WANNA SEE
    Fav: ARDUOUS - simply a fun word.
    Runner-up: ERECTOR SET - my favorite toy as a kid.

    MManatee - let me be the nth to congratulate you & offspring on milestones. When's dinner? DESSERT(? no?, nothin'?) Have a great time!

    Ray-O: Yeah - ruined pasta. Chef Boyardee's commercials had me begging my parents for spaghettios. I was an adult in college & got some... OMG, Army's spaghetti MRE (,1 ea) is better than that crap.

    YR - thanks for that ASL link. I took ASL w/ Mom at Northwesternin Evanston, IL (it was like a community-reach-out class) when I was ~8yro. Don't know why we drove all the way to every weekend for that but there it was. Class also helped me earn a Merit Badge.

    D-O: Stop! Beer came out my nose at "higher water at Hiawatha"

    Jayce - In a different time-line Johnny B. Goode :-)

    Youngest want Indian for dinner on her 18th. So, curry, I will favor. :-)

    Cheers, -T

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  33. To Anon-T and all other birthday wishers, thanks, again. I keep thinking of the song from Guys and Dolls - The Oldest Established Permanent Floating Crap Game in New York. My parents had to explain that one to me but I got, and retain, the gist of it. This birthday party has been strung along for weeks. I guess that is what happens when a "party" is limited to four or six socially distanced friends/family. What's buggin' me now is to hear Valerie on the telephone telling one person after another (she should meet DW) that "this is his last birthday." I think that she means the last of this year's celebrations but still...

    Dessert will be served around 6 p.m. PDT There's plenty. Stop on by.

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  34. HG, you were in fine(st) form today - loved your jigsaw puzzle box humor. And yes, it would take me three days - I'm horrible at finding the correct shapes and equally impatient.

    Since the Blue Jays are another Canadian team, I waited for the perps - MLB or NBA? Hi, C-Eh.

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  35. A great pzl today from Mr. Johnson!
    (Obviously it was a Ta ~DA! for Yrs Trly, or it couldn't have been "great.")
    But another element factored into the "great" label-- See below*!

    Jayce ~ Looks like we were on the same page. You too, Anonymous T, Irish Miss and brilliant others!
    Does this include you, Wilbur?

    The SW corner was the last to cave.
    ~ OMK
    ___________
    DR:
    . One diagonal, on the distaff side.
    * Believe it: Today's anagram uses fourteen of the fifteen letters--just one short of a CLEAN SWEEP!
    It refers to what happens when a movie or a TV series is so successful in its climax and falling action that it earns the public's interest in a sequel or subsequent season.
    Such an achievement can be said to have...
    "DENOUEMENT LEGS!"

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  36. Well, it took a while, and quite a bit of Wite-Out, but I FIR. I quite enjoyed this puzzle, and I was happy to complete a Saturday sojourn.

    My only three unknowns today were POTAUFEU, SCUT and AMOS:

    ***As I have said before, I know almost NO French.

    ***Everywhere I ever worked, we did our own SCUT (and thus I had nobody else to blame if anything went wrong in my assignment, or if I couldn’t find something).

    ***I have trouble keeping the books of the Bible straight.

    As far as the rest of the puzzle was concerned, there was quite a bit of trial and error, but it was quite fun working my way through the maze and having so many “a ha” moments.

    Thanks, Greg and Gary!

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  37. Mal man. Happy milestones to you both. Read the menu. Love bread pudding and 🍓 strawberry meringue mascarpone dessert 🍓whatever it is has to be incredible.
    So does the rest of the fare. Save any leftovers for the rest of us

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  38. This is possibly my best Saturday solve to date. Thank you, Greg, for the puzzle and thank you, HG, for the explanation.

    This afternoon I was reading a novel this afternoon and came across the sentence "Hard to keep that edge of horror over the death of another human being when it is surrounded by so much tedious SCUTwork." I think that's my first time seeing this term.

    Nothing else new to add to the discussion.

    Have a wonderful holiday weekend.

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  39. Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Greg and HuskerG.
    I finished this CW in good time for a Saturday. The SW corner was the last to fall.
    WEES since I am late to the party.

    But I will respond to my CSO, NBA ( I’ll take a second one at 31D). Yes, TXMS, it could have been MLB. But I think Greg and Rich knew that most Americans would think of the Raptors after last year’s championship win.
    WC and CMoe - that buzzer-beater basket the other night reminded us all of Leonard’s similar feat last year . . . and they went on from there. The team certainly was motivated for their win tonight. Exciting for Canadian fans.

    Picard - I enjoyed the STREETCAR photos.

    Happy Birthday to MalM and son!

    Wishing you all a good night.

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  40. MalManThat was cool; enjoy and many more.

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