Saturday Themeless by Jamey Smith
Today's constructor, Jamey Smith, appears to be making his initial voyage on the LA Time Crossword seas although he has been published in many other ports, er, venues. Searching for him yielded many Jamey Smiths on the web but I couldn't nail him down. Searching for Stella Zawistowski was a little easier to accomplish.
Except for NESPRESSO, Jamey's long fill were quite easy to ferret out and useful in the solve. I came down to the TOW_E/E_SOR crossing and was pleased when the "N" provided the "Congratulations" screen. ENSOR and TOWNE seemed right, so I gave myself a "got 'er done!"
Across:
6. "Nooo! Anything but that!": THE HORROR
15. Smog ingredient: OZONE.
16. Pursued: GAVE CHASE - What would crime shows be if no one ever did?
17. In a lather: SUDSY.
18. "It does seem likely": I RECKON SO - Sounds like a line from a Gary Cooper movie
19. Properties: TRAITS.
21. "__ & the Women": 2000 Altman film: DR T - Meh...
22. Rihanna hit that samples "Tainted Love": SOS - Here 'ya go
23. Morse bit: DAH - Go to this website. Type in your input and then hit Play to hear what you typed sounds like in Morse Code Dits and DAHS.
24. Yorkshire __, landmark London pub named for a slang word for strong ale: STINGO - The Yorkshire STINGO Inn on Marleybone Road, circa 1770
27. Maker of the Levante SUV: MASERATI - Ad - "Levante is a wind that blows across the Mediterranean, transforming from benign calm to gale force in an instant." If you absolutely have to spend at least $77,000 for transportation
31. Not so jumpy: CALMER.
34. Retail warning: AS IS.
35. Classic theater name: ROXY.
37. "Chinatown" screenwriter Robert: TOWNE - He won an Academy Award for his original screenplay. Can you find his name?
40. Painter's option: OIL BASE
43. "I don't see the __": HARM - Really? What a 42. Doofus: MORON.
45. J.Lo's fiancé: A-ROD.
46. Moved purposefully: STRODE.
48. Buttinskies: MEDDLERS - Mon Dieu, c'est ce bourreau Poirot! (My God, it is that meddling Poirot!)
52. Midge __, co-organizer of the Live Aid benefit concert: URE - Bob Geldof and Midge URE who organized the event.
55. Fútbol announcer's shout: GOL - La fútbolista marcó un gol (The soccer player scored a goal)
56. Powerless sort: EUNUCH - He might be lacking more than power
60. Meat- or wheat-based deli order: OLIVE LOAF.
64. LAN administrator: IT PRO - Remember that nerd in high school...
65. Coffee-making portmanteau: NESPRESSO - Nestle and Espresso. Nestle also makes Nesquik and Nescafe.
66. Flag: DROOP.
67. Flier with means: JETSETTER.
68. Matches exactly: SYNCS.
Down:
1. TV drama about the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815: LOST - Never saw it. Is it something like Gilligan's Island? 😕
2. Couleur de la Méditerranée: AZUR - The côte d'AZUR (blue coast) on a Nice (France) day
3. Cream __: SODA.
4. Skinny: INSIDE SCOOP - Ask the custodian. They know!
5. Hybrid instrument played by Prince and Lady Gaga: KEYTAR - Speaking of portmanteaus
6. It can precede Fridays: TGI.
7. Pair of threes, in craps: HARD SIX - Any pair in craps is called HARD
8. First female athlete to host Saturday Night Live: EVERT - 11/11/89
9. Busy and then some: HECTIC.
10. Spidey foe Doc __: OCK - Here the dialogue uses his more formal name
11. Density symbol borrowed from the Greek alphabet: RHO.
13. Tibia, per esempio: OSSO - OSSO is Italian for bone
14. Old Royale 8's: REOS - A 1931 version from Ransom E Olds' company
20. On the dot: SHARP - This posts at 3:30 am CDT SHARP
25. "N," in many assn. names: NATL - As a teacher I belonged to the NATL Teacher's Assn.
26. U.S. Customs service that expedites traveler clearance: GLOBAL ENTRY - Fill out the form and get an interview to qualify for a card if you are judged to be low risk. It will greatly expedite entry into America
27. Incapacitates: MAIMS.
28. Part of a U.S. military full-dress uniform: ASCOT.
29. Sprite rival: SIERRA MIST - "I'd like a Sprite." "Is SIERRA MIST okay?"
30. Peter with the debut solo album "Legalize It": TOSH.
32. Belgian painter James: ENSOR - Fellow Belgian Poirot would know his work
33. Bassoons, e.g.: REEDS - Not WINDS it turns out. "Yesterday we had Bass suffix - OON"
36. Yesteryear: YORE - What 50's show contained this invitation to view, "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear." (*answer below)
39. "The King __": AND I.
41. "It's my time": I'M DUE - This philosophy pays for all the glitz in Las Vegas
44. Digestive enzyme: AMYLASE - Product of the salivary glands and pancreas that help digest starches
47. Baby on a cliff: EAGLET.
49. Ancient Celtic priests: DRUIDS - Some are requesting the day off to celebrate the summer solstice at Stonehenge
51. Place to rule: ROOST - The hen rules our ROOST
53. As well as, e.g.: Abbr.: CONJ - Won't a Ford get you to Wal~Mart as well as a Maserati?
54. Out of the wind: ALEE.
57. Briefed about: UP ON - TTP did a bang-up job of keeping us UP ON the new blogging procedures
58. Marsh critter: CROC
59. Quick flights: HOPS.
61. Some suits, briefly: VPS.
62. "We must away, __ break of day ... ": Tolkien: ERE - From The Hobbit
63. On the side of: FOR.
Comments for Jamey? Click below!
45 comments:
Good morning!
This one was so far out of my ballpark that I couldn't even hear the crowd. Inked in BLEU at 2d. Wite-Out when I realized 15a had to be SMOKE. Things went downhill from there. Polar opposites? Gotta be TROPICS, right? Nope. Never heard of a KEYTAR -- does Alicia play one? No idea on NESPRESSO, either. At least I got the theme: make d-o feel like an idiot. Well done, Jamey and Husker.
Wracked my brain on this one, couldn’t figure out what I had wrong as I pored over the fully filled grid and eventually had to press the dreaded “reveal grid” box. I had SIS instead of SOS 🤷🏼♂️
FIR with one write-over: ROOST 4 Realm. I have two NESPRESSO machines, but didn’t know about Nestle being part of it. Nice to see a nod to Marlon Brando in the grid.
Kind of a grind but got thru it. Typical for a Saturday.
Definitely knew Global Entry! Applied last year and after pre-approval, they made my in person meeting "easier" by closing my states enrollment center and asking that upon returning on my next international flight to stop at a selected airport that I never use. Get a monthly email reminder. COVID silver lining that I now never travel...
Like D-Otto, I put bleu and smoke and couldn't think of any other possibilities for them so my NW corner was a mess. I did have SODA and KEYTAR right but otherwise I was LOST. Gave up and went to HG's review to find my mistakes. Thanks, Gary. I found out I missed TOWlE as well but got the rest of the puzzle right, which was more than I expected when I started. For Saturday, I'll take this FIW. Welcome to Jamey. Looking forward to your next challenging puzzle.
Now off to other weekend projects. Hope you all have a great weekend!
Good Morning:
I finished w/o help but it took a whopping 43:13 to do so. This was one of the most difficult Saturday puzzles in quite some time and, in my case, the obstacles were the staggering number of unknown proper names, both in the clues and the fill. Can someone please explain 53D As well as=Conj?
I appreciate your construction talents, Jamey, and congrats on your LA Times debut and thanks, HG, for such a pleasant, soothing review of such a frustrating solve.
FLN
Anon T and Lucina, thank you for your concern.
Have a great day.
Stella, Marlon Brando? What did I miss, Husker Gary and Hungry Mother?
DNF, mostly on the right side. More of a trivia game than a crossword puzzle.
Good morning everyone.
Surprised myself by actually finishing this doozy. Started out real slow with sporadic entries. Finally got the SE to solidify and then a couple more. Was lucky with WAGs. Only wite-out was I had 'ole' before GOL. Didn't know the enzyme but entered 'ASE'; the suffix ending for enzymes. Eventually got it all, except I had 'dat' for DAH. So, one wrong cell. I'll take it for a Saturday.
HARD SIX was guessable. "Hard cheese" was the extent of my knowledge. Heard of 'boxcars', though.
Thanks Gary for another fine intro.
Irish Miss, "As well as" is a CONJunction.
Musings
-ATLGranny – I was trying to make a point about the difficulty of finding out info on a someone with a more common name like Jamey Smith. I was referencing our self-proclaimed “Brooklyn brainy brawn” constructor Stella Zawistowski who was easy to find and gave us fun insight. I might also have used our distinctly named New Mexico puzzle author Pawel Fludzinski as well who was also a hoot! I had no intention of referencing Marlon or Streetcar Named Desire.
"What's playing at the Roxy?
I'll tell you what's playing at the Roxy.
A picture about a Minnesota man falls in love with a Mississippi girl
That he sacrifices everything and moves all the way to Biloxi.
That's what's playing at the Roxy."
from the title song of "Guys and Dolls".
Northeast stayed blizzard-white except for TGI until EVERT came to me.
A Saturday disaster. (Empty squares mocking me, "go ahead give us another 1/2 hr, try to shut us up")... Completed the SSW but the NNE was my undoing. I've never whined about it before but way too many proper names. (Agree with IM....CONJ: conjunction? Not sure)Also I assume instead of RECKON didn't help. For what it's worth inkovers: odea/ROXY, corn/SODA, winds/REEDS, dot/DAH (this one always fools me)
Jamey is that a smile or a smirk?!
I had AZUR but wait that's wrong, changed it to "bleu" ( like DO and ATL)...so changed OZONE to "cloud" (the Cote d' AZUR is a specific place) so LOST was lost. ....RANSOM WARE? KEYTAR?
Levante : "rising"... the sun rises in the east so a fancy way of saying "east". Via Emilia Levante (East Emilia Street)
Had to go to Niagara Falls, NY in the middle of winter to be interviewed for our GLOBAL ENTRY application two years ago. Next day traveled to Canada Eh's side for a spectacular view of the partially frozen Falls. The mist freezing in the air and a crossword coating of rime .
Even more disaster:
Who wants to star in a "National Treasure" film series? how about _____ Cage ? EUNUCH
I use to sketch big egos then I switched and ______... DRUIDS
Presenters of the Olympic gold. ...MEDDLERS.
I'd lay me doon _____.... AND I
Rejected donkey's query, "What's that _____ that I don't?"...ASGOT.
Nice Fall weekend day, won't last long. Enjoy the rest as I lick my wounds.
Good morning. The SE quadrant kicked my butt. Worked everything else out but just couldn't get a toehold in that SW corner except the S at the intersection of 59D and 68A.
Actually, I did have I'M DUE and AROD in that area as well. Could have had the ON part of UP ON if I had pulled the trigger on "in ON" for "Briefed about" but my entry of "lams" for "Quick flights" wasn't getting as I struggled with E_ _ i _ l for "Powerless sort." I also refused CROC for "Marsh critter" because it is a "Swamp critter" in most of the puzzles edited by Rich. A marsh critter here is usually a frog. >)
RANSOM WARE - Yesterday I was looking for a recipe online and selected one. The page loaded, and then a screen completely overlaid it, with words to the effect of "A virus is on your system trying to get your banking and credit card information. Call Microsoft at 8xx-xxx-xxxx." Yeah, right. As if. Haven't had anything like that happen in a long, long time.
"Buttinskies" - Locked in on the verbal sense (people that rudely interrupt) rather than the sense of people that pry into other people's business.
First out and out fail in a while, and I really enjoyed trying to solve it. Thank you, Jamey Smith, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Husker, thanks for the shout-out. I try. Blogger is still changing, but surely not addressing the complaints as fast as they come in. One of the issues I reported early on was fixed, and now it's not working again. It takes time to document and report problems to Blogger, and then it's a one way street. No feedback, and you have to keep checking to see if the problem has been fixed yet.
I've only seen commercials for "Lost" but have never seen an episode.
A neighbor down the street drives a variety of higher-end European automobiles, including a Maserati Ghibli. I think he must work in sales at one of the luxury auto dealers.
I agree this was a challenge - the NE corner was the most challenging for me. I lucked out on the TOWNE ENSOR natick- but ENSOR seemed right once I saw it- but would never have been able to come up with it!
Fun clue for the APIARY! Like IM it took me a few minutes to figure out why CONJ was the right answer before the lightbulb came on! I have never seen my son have an ASCOT for his full dress uniform in USAF - but maybe in other branches?
Thanks HG for the fun write- up and congrats to Jamey Smith!
Gorgeous fall day here heading into peak fall colors!
Tinbeni- two terrible things yesterday. The Yankees lost to Tampa Bay and exited the playoffs again. Then, Yankee great WHITEY FORD died at 91.
I could not finish. Nice job Jamey.
The hurricane hit 200 miles west of here but I have two big water oaks that shed small limbs and twigs every time the wind blows so I had a little clean up duty today.
As for the puzzle I FIR but had trouble with many, many unknowns that required perps & WAGS.
KEYTAR, TOWNE & ENSOR (coin flip between L or N on that cross), LOST, Doc OCK & DR.T. (police lingo for 'dead right there'), SOS, STINGO, Peter TOSH and Midge URE were unknowns filled by perps. I didn't know Chris EVERT did SNL or MASERATI but after a few perps they were easy fills along with the unheard of HARD SIX and GLOBAL ENTRY.
Had to change REALM to ROOST- no other writeovers.
"Chinatown" by TOWNE- they are still fighting over water out there.
SIERRA MIST-7 UP was too short.
billocohoes- if you live near Biloxi you will know that it does NOT rhyme with ROXY. We call it BIL-UX-EE. Don't shoot the messenger (me); It's not OX but UX.
Ouch! Ditto Desper-otto.
MO
TTP @ 9:12 ~ Thank you. I just couldn’t make any sense of that.
Ray O @ 10:23 ~ Your question to Jamey is similar to the one I was going to pose, i.e., “How can such a pleasant looking fellow create such a devilishly devious puzzle?” No offense, Jamey. (BTW, I haven’t gotten the shingles shot yet, but I did get my flu shot. 😉)
Why do I love doing crosswords every day? They calm me and give me pleasure when completed satisfactorily. Today, however, I must say was no fun whatsoever. For the first time in years I gave up in total frustration. Not like me to do that. Way too many obscure clues to even make it fair or get the slightest toehold anywhere. I repeat. NO FUN!!
Bleu went in but I was pretty sure 1d was Lost so I took bleu out in time and eventually filled the NW. In the end had a DNF with SAS/Ossa. A bit of a fun sponge imo.
Have a great day all.
JB2
Way above my pay grade today, but thanks, Jamey, for the challenge. HG, thanks for walking us through.
Big Easy, thanks for correcting Biloxi! I cringe every time I hear that song, as do all the folks on the Gulf Coast. That’s not a Regionalism.
We had no problems from the hurricane either. It hit to the west of us. Houston? You ok?
No patience for this one. I quit, like Anon @ 12:07. Frustrating day.
Back to back home buyers scheduled today. Some were no shows. It is impossible to downsize and pack, as the rule is no clutter. I can't delay starting to downsize until the house is sold. So much wasted time. I am thinking of saying no to some requests because I am in the middle of a project and it is cluttering the house, so ask me later.
This puzzle was a worthy opponent. As it was for most others here, it was a bit of a struggle. A Natick with TOWNE and ENSOR and with STINGO thrown into the mix, above, just to make the crosschecking a bit more difficult. RANSOM WARE took care of that and, voila, FIR.
Speaking of Ransom Ware, TTP, I had exactly the same thing happen to me yesterday!! I was working on the blog post and was rooting around online for something to use with what turned out to be an appropriate word for what then happened. I clicked on something innocuous and all of a sudden a siren sound was blaring out of the speakers and a screen appeared with what looked like a Microsoft Corporation logo and a warning that my computer was now unusable unless I called a phone number. I did not read the fine print but immediately pulled the plug. On reboot, everything ran normally. I had not experienced anything like that in years.
Puzzling thoughts:
First off, thanks HG for the explanation. WEES, this puzzle seemed way too difficult, even for a “super solver” such as myself! 🤡🤡
Seriously, great debut Jamey. You kicked my skinny butt with this one
Where do I begin with the errors? Let’s just say that the SE part of the map proved toughest. Even after looking up IRE, ENSOR, and DROOP (only on Saturday would the clue for DROOP be “flag”.
At any rate (is that a CONJ, too?) I am much CALMER now!
How about a l’ick and a ku to end the week?
We once knew a young fellow from Munich
Who enjoyed dressing up in a tunic.
When asked why, he just smiled;
“Women love me; I’m beguiled.
They all think that I’m really a EUNUCH
When asked what to choose
I told soda jerk, “just give
Me your INSIDE SCOOP”
Shingles is terrible! Shingrix is the answer.
Well I got the solve on one of the hardest...and worst clued...puzzles in memory.
Really, this was clued in the “I don’t want anyone to solve this”.
So much trivia and arcana. Hard to have fun with a grid like this.
Mom always said if don't have anything good to say.....
I have better things to do today,
Laundry.
I shared your pain.
Whitey Ford indeed was one of the greats. Casey Stengel babied him but Ralph Houk took off the wraps in '61 and he won 25. Speaking of Yankees, t had a win-win last night as my new team* won in dramatic fashion.
The principals in an earlier beanball war faced off and the guy who ducked the 99 mph beanball hit the game winning HR. The chickens came home to ROOST.
I solved this laboriously on Tuesday but I never know if it's truly difficult or is it me. I missed the Nanny CAM(rAM) and thus rOdJ /CONJ. As in Rodger and nanny goat.** NESPRESSO???, I like a DEcaf cafe americano
WC
* I've been rooting for Ray's when they don't play the Redsox. I rooted for TB but kept forgetting it wasn't the Patriots
**Mr S insisted. Perhaps I should have taken another look at the SW as I see "Rodger" with a g not J. And an EWE/RAM is not a goat (but #12 is once he learns to count)
I P&Ped finally replacing start with SHARP.
Hola!
Wow! Yowza! Jamey, you made us work today! THE HORROR! This was almost impossible but I persevered because all my housework and laundry is done. However, I took some time off to clear my mind.
The SE filled easily with a CSO to all the IT PROs here on the Blog. Then upwards the NE took a lot of time but finally it broke through once I GAVE CHASE.
Next the center filled as I'm familiar with ROXY from puzzles of YORE. I didn't know TOSH but it perped. I hesitated mightily over MASERATI because I was sure it had two Ts. No! What kind of Italian word has only one T?
I almost had a fatal flaw when I thought it was Nanny Fay (a movie?) but SIERRA MIST spared it. Oh, nanny CAM. I had to search for AMYLASE which I'm not sure I ever heard before, LOAF preceded OLIVE then I was home free! Never have I been so glad to finish a puzzle. It spread throughout the day but my motto on puzzles is, NEVER QUIT!
I've been expecting a service person from DirecTV and they texted it would now be between 4:00 and 8:00. Since I deactivated the bedroom TV, the one in the living room has been acting strangely.
I hope you all have enjoyed your Saturday! The temps are now below 100, 99 to be exact but it's nice.
Ah, a Moe-ku with a bonus Moe-l'ick
I managed over half of it,
but as the sense of reward began collapsing
& I felt my spirits DROOPing,
I turned to hints & cheats,
finally to outright peeks.
I didn't care for the cluing.
Misdirection and deflection can be fun, but these clues were mainly aimed at obscuration.
Still, I thank Mr. Smith for his time and effort. I know these pzls are all labors of love, and I appreciate his contribution.
~ OMK
Did I give up, or was I just completely incapable of finishing? The latter! Hats off to all who FIR. Like many others here, I felt the cluing and proper nouns were impossible. Still, I appreciate Jamey's effort, Husker Gary's solve, and many pearls among the comments. Ray - O - Sunshine's fill-in-the-blanks phrases are outstanding! I appreciate billocohoes' quote from "Guys and Dolls" re: the ROXY -- sweet memory trigger for me. JB2 gave me the best laugh when calling today's puzzle a "fun sponge." Ha ha!
Gary, I'm sorry I forgot to thank you for your extraordinary effort today.
Chalk it up as another learning Saturday...
Hi All!
Thanks Jamey for the puzzle. Got about 50% before I tossed-the-towel (Hi Shankers & YR!). First fill was ASCOT if that gives you a hint at struggle.
OMK - I like your sentiments; I'll second.
Thanks HG for stopping the hair-pulling. Nice expo to calm me down... (Lasik? OK. 17a is NOT irate? Now I am :-))
Fav: Meet James ENSOR... [TMBG].
Fun prose C.Moe.
Why, if you're going to spend money on a MASERATI (does 185 - Joe Walsh) would you get an SUV. I've seen Porsche SUVs too and thought "They got more dollars than sense."
Gotta hate those drive-by pop-ups TTP. RANSOMWARE is evil and making North Korea rich. Now, it could be a crime to pay up.
Swamp - Delta just gave us some outer-band winds. And today it's humid as anything. I hope all those between us are ok.
//Found out this morning my step-brother (Mom's 4th husband's kid - barely know him) is in Cancun. Been stuck there since Delta hit. But, um, I thought we weren't supposed to travel anyway(?)
Have a wonderful eve!
Cheers, -T
Anyone want a funny (to me anyway) story?
Brother had a Mazda SUV he left with Pop while he (Bro) was in Kuwait last year w/ the Army. This is a modern car with a parking-brake button...
Pop & Uncle (a trade carpenter) got Bro's permission to take the SUV to Arkansas to visit their Bro. Pop's doing about 85 mph when Uncle needed to charge his phone.
Rooting around for a USB outlet, Uncle saw the "P" and pulled it up, cord in hand thinking he found the outlet.
85mph and the brake just got pulled...
Pop told Bro this after-the-fact story. Bro's face went "WTF?"
Uncle says, "P? Why doesn't that mean phone? Make the button a B for Break. I've got some paint."
Cheers, -T
This puzzle totally stumped me. No way I was going to solve it without plenty of looking stuff up.
Well, I want to congratulate all of you FIRers, FIWers, and DNFers!
I was a DNEGSer (Did Not Even Get Started)! I went through my usual routine of printing out two copies (just in case I REALLY mess up and have to start all over again --- it happens), highlighting the long fills, and highlighting the clues for the long fills. Then, I sat down in front of the TV to watch the Oklahoma/tu football game and do the puzzle. (I haven’t given up completely on college football, but I’m getting close there too.)
I didn’t have a completely white grid after my first time through the clues, but I could tell that I didn’t have a chance, so Mr Google and I worked on it together.
Best thing that happened was tu lost in four overtimes, and somehow Texas A&M beat #4 Florida!
I looked up information about military uniform ascots, but I couldn’t make any real sense of the who or where or when or why, (well, too much to read, really) compared to the few times I have seen them worn. The only concrete fact I found was this picture of one of the most famous ascots:
Robert Duval's "LTC Bill Kilgore" Uniform
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"
This link was the only one that I could find that didn't bring up a whole page of other pictures. If you're interested, and I was:
All the Photos
I know everyone is champing at the bit to buy a MASERATI! Just remember, when you co, don’t….
Maserati in the Lake
Late to the Saturday party, but I made it. Thanks for the fun, Jamey and HuskerG.
This was a workout; I finished after several stabs at the blanks and a couple of Google helps. But certainly not in IM's time "whopping 43:13"!
And I arrived here to discover that I did not proofread again and had Ossa, giving me Sas instead of SOS. (No one will rescue me LOL!)
Plus taking a WAG at an unknown cross gave me aRT & the Women, and HARaSIX.
Let me count the inkblots as well.
Mazerati (I was looking for double T too Lucina) changed to MASERATI.
Stinko changed to STINGO.
I will chalk this up to Canadian disadvantage. (Hey, it's Saturday and I will take any excuse.) This Canadian has never heard of SIERRA MIST (Yes, Big Easy, I would have understood the Sprite - 7Up connection). And of course, I did not know GLOBAL ENTRY, which held up the whole huge area. (We have Nexus.)
Ray'o - we have to go to Ft. Erie for Nexus interview. Glad you remember your Niagara Falls visit fondly. On a beautiful snowy night in January 1982, DH and I stood in the middle of the Niagara Parkway by the Falls and it was totally empty. You could have shot a cannon either way and not hit anyone. We sealed the beauty and rarity of the moment with a kiss. Now with the Festival of Lights bringing more people to the Falls in the winter (well maybe not this year!), it will probably not happen again.
Wishing you all a good evening.
Dear Leo III --
Yes, those crazy Cav guys and their hats ... I guess they are trying to look like Custer (also a Lt. Col. at the time) when he had his 'meet' with the Lakota.
And the ascot would NOT be worn in combat, since any sniper worth his ghillie would love to have such a clear target. (Ditto for white name tapes on Army fatigues.)
If I may, I would like to join the chorus of dislike for today's crossword. Some of the cluing was atrocious (the eyes don't 'have' lasix, for example), but some answers were just bizarre: inter alii, stingo, keytar, hardsix, oliveloaf, nespresso, ....
C, Eh! - I couldn't get The Guess Who out of my head @1a.
Who said BOX CARS at 7d? Those are double-sixes. I still haven't learnt craps but everyone always seems to be having a good time around the table. Hang out for 20 minutes and free drinks show up! :-)
Michael - Hal's ASCOT.
Cheers, -T
Thanks, HG - glad you sailed through - gold stars for you! I found it more-than-Saturday difficult with too many obscure clues as others have pointed out. Had ?MIST, not fond of Sprite, so I relented and LIU, which gave me MASERATI (have to agree with others, $100K? LOST was a fav TV show until it wasn't, so that was my first fill. Never ever played craps or watched and no desire to, so I LIU'd. & the Women (not a movie-goer or follower), my last look up.
Anon-T @ 6:22 - lol - still chuckling five hours later! The irony of Uncle wanting to charge his "smart" phone and then pulls OUT the "P" button with cord attached. You didn't mention, but hope Pop and Uncle didn't suffer any whiplash. Which proves, some of us non-techie oldsters might be dangerous when we upgrade to smart phones (of course, me included). thx, Tony.
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