Title: Take a left and go north
I get to introduce another first time LAT constructor. I could not find any other publications for this August August, so welcome to the wild and wooly world of words. The theme has a visual curveball, so let us get right to it. Did the circles help?
I would have been stumped but for my problem with milk. When 20A took me to the doorstep of Lactose Intolerant but had no room for the "ant," I had two thoughts. 1. There was going to be a picnic theme with"ants" missing from all of the themers. 2. It was visual and the "ant" was going to crawl up the puzzle. Neither was correct, but I did grok that the end of the fill just went up. The circles made that choice obvious. A fun idea that created much room for sparkly fill. Ta-Da!
MINOR IN, SUMMONS, GOES BOOM, OPERA HAT, ABECEDARY, IN THE AREA, IRS AGENTS and SKATE PUNK
20A. Deficient in a certain enzyme: LACTOSE INTOLERA.
12D. It's south of Vesuvius: ETNA. Volcanoes. Etna, Stromboli, and Vesuvius. I have never eaten an Etna nor a Vesuvius.
24A. Brit's "Don't get upset, now": KEEP YOUR HAI.8D. Study on the side: MINOR IN. One of our new entries today; mine was English. I do not know the phrase keep your hair on, where is Steve now that I need him.
45A. Hand-to-hand battle: UNARMED COMB.
36D. Whack: STAB. Karate? Judo?
1. Key __: remote-start devices: FOBS. The word was appropriated from the watch fob, which grew from the German -the word Fuppe, meaning "pocket,"
5. Not straight, in a way: GAY. How nice that this word does not cause much reaction any longer.
8. Haggard of country: MERLE. One of the greats.
14. People: ONES.
16. Lock up the victory: ICE IT. A bit of hockey jargon.
17. They have taxing jobs: IRS AGENTS. Bad pun #1040.
22. Recede: EBB. and flow.
23. Court orders: WRITS. These days they are mostly just Orders, but it is a fine old word.
30. Org. fighting for refugees: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union.
31. Columbus' home: OHIO. Not the sailor but the city.
32. Some traffic monitors: NARCS. Drug traffickers.
37. Word after greater or lesser: THAN.
38. Very many, informally: MUCHO. Unless you speak Spanish...
40. Situation, metaphorically: BOAT. You would not want to be in my boat...from the ancient Greeks.
41. Passes (out): ZONKS. This word has been around since the 50s.
43. Take another tour: REUP. Reenlist.
44. "Enchanted" girl in a 2004 film: ELLA. Anne Hathaway is back.
51. Dwell on, maybe: RUE.
59. State with a panhandle: IDAHO. There are a few
60. Nearby: IN THE AREA. Stop by if you ever are.
61. Compare: LIKEN.
62. Georgetown cager: HOYA.
63. __ Malek, Best Actor winner for "Bohemian Rhapsody": RAMI.
ALL ABOUT RAMI
64. Neptune's are about 165 times longer than ours: YEARS.
65. Sandwich with a bit of crunch: BLT.
66. 2010 Ringo Starr album: YNOT.
2. Cajun food staple: OKRA.
3. Pear variety: BOSC.
4. Rock subgenre whose music is featured in "Tony Hawk's" games: SKATE PUNK. An inferable but unknown term for me. Apparently, Lucy, it is very popular in your area. LINK.
5. Blows up: GOES BOOM. Baby talk?
6. Actress Hathaway: ANNE. But wait, didn't we already see her today? A bizarre clecho? A blecho?
7. Himalayan with a thick coat: YETI. I have never petted one.
9. Food recall reason: ECOLI. Escherichia coli (abbreviated as E. coli) are bacteria found in the environment, foods, and intestines of people and animals.
10. Subleased: RELET.
11. Yarn weavers: LIARS. Very nice deception because Loom loomed big in my brain.
15. Fig. on a return: SSN. More taxing cling- hey it isn't April.
18. Pass: GO BY. Not to be confused with a desert.
21. Defunct airline: TWA.
24. Apt surname for a vet: KATZ. a purrfect name?
25. __ chamber: ECHO.
26. Panache: ELAN.
27. "Star Trek" linguistics expert: UHURA. Almost exactly 52 years since the airing of the KISS.
28. Kitchen gadget: RICER.
29. Just meh: HO HUM.
33. School primer: ABECEDARY. More unknown but inferable stuff. Not a great movie.
34. Candy with a gooey center: ROLO.
35. Still, as a day: CALM.
39. Collapsible headwear: OPERA HAT.
42. It's usually bad to be served with one: SUMMONS.
46. Hush-hush org.: NSA.
47. Sci-fi classic set on an arid world: DUNE.
48. "White Teeth" novelist Smith: ZADIE. The third new word added to the lexicon. Here SHE is.
49. Japan's second-largest city: OSAKA.
50. Catch-all survey option: OTHER.
52. __ of the valley: LILY.
53. Medical research agcy.: NIH.
54. Stuck-up sort: SNOB.
55. Texter's sign-off: TTYL. Almost time, but hang in.
56. Caspian Sea land: IRAN.
57. Film fish to find: NEMO. I wasn't looking but I think my wife caught and ate him.
58. Way of walking: GAIT. I have no idea but this stems from GATE which to me is the antithesis of walking, but it is a great segue for me to say TTFN, great to see you all here back at my Friday post. Happy birthday tomorrow to my firstborn son, and be safe all.
68 comments:
ANTman, IRONman and BATman are comic book heroes. Antman and Ironman are Marvel comics characters; Batman is a DC comic character. They are usually the LAST MAN STANDING after the final UNARMED COMBAT.
FLN ---I’ve gotta work today and tomorrow, so I don’t know if or when I’ll be able to do the puzzles, but I wanted to answer waseeley’s question:
No, the Texaco/Pennzoil mess was the mess back in the '80s, as a result of Texaco's swooping in and buying Getty Oil, after Getty had "made a deal" with Pennzoil. Texaco lost a $10 billion dollar lawsuit, the settlement for which was eventually lowered to $4 billion dollars (chump-change these days), and had to file bankruptcy.
Texaco didn't drop the Metropolitan Opera; ChevronTexaco dropped it. From the 5/21/03 NYT: "ChevronTexaco announced yesterday that it would withdraw its support from the Metropolitan Opera's Saturday afternoon live radio broadcasts after the 2003-4 season, ending the longest continuous commercial sponsorship in broadcast history."
Texaco died 6/30/02, which was the day I retired, so Texaco had nothing to do with dropping the Met broadcasts. As with all corporate mergers, the bigger dog calls the shots, history/precedence be damned. Matter of fact, ChevronTexaco dropped "Texaco" from its name in 2005.
We still have some Texaco-branded stations here along the Gulf Coast, because Texaco was such a strong brand down here. There might be some in other parts of the country (Texaco was always #1 in Oklahoma), but that's Chevron gasoline that's coming out of the pump.
We have similar situations with United/Continental and Exxon/Mobil. I could tell you stories about all three.
I warned y'all not to get me started (he said with a grin on his face).
Hope to get back later today. It depends on how busy we are, plus I have to get ready for tomorrow's Open Ramp Day.
Good morning!
ABECEDARY? Really? Actually that mid-Atlantic area is what did me in. There were just too many possibilities to WAG. Bzzzzzt. DNF. Thanx for the illumination on the theme, xtulmkr. Yes, I tried LOOMS before LIARS, and wanted that "bad to be served with" thingey to be a SUBPOENA, but ran out of room. If this is a debut, it's auspicious, August. Thanx for the expo, Lemonade.
FOB: Got one, but don't keep it in my pocket. If I do, I'll either set off the alarm or accidentally open the back hatch before the day is out. I never actually push any of the buttons on the fob. Its only purpose for me is as a proximity key. Why can't it just be flat, so it could reside in my wallet, like a credit card? [Rant over.]
xtulmkr - thank you so much! When I solved the puzzle I saw the ANTMAN BATMAN and then work intervened and I forgot. Yes, very clever August, sorry I did not point it out. But that was the key to the theme and I blew it
X finally illuminated the secondary theme. I noticed iron but missed bat and ant. Miffed that I didn't grok that.
I had RAMI and then thought I saw "Academy" in the down. Tough Natick in that cross. Pop-cul names are my bane. FIW but so close on what I'm sure(as D-O suggests) will be considered a difficult Friday.
I thought deficient would mean lacking and had the strange GiBY. All sorts of V8s:LIARS BOAT,GOBY and GOESBOOM. And of course the backwards circles as extension to the clue-answer while explaining the reveal.
So NYTimes Sunday has hit what last week was a quick and easy Friday. Bring it on Rich and thank Mr Miller for a great challenge. Getting a 99% is not so bad today.
WC
X being xtulmkr. I'm reminded of Joe Bltsplk(Blitterspik as Al Capp fans called the guy with the cloud over his head)
Managed to FIR, though the SE corner almost did me in. RAMI and YNOT completed ABECEDARY, which I didn't remember but looked possible. I tried to make ReMI work first. LIARS (hi DO) and ZONKS took some time too. LACTOSE INTOLERA looked like a medical variation until I got to KEEP YOUR HAI when I saw what the circles were for. Tricky theme, August. Nice debut! Thanks, Lemony, for explaining and xtulmkr for more about the super heroes. I knew the names but not that they were the LAST MAN STANDING.
With that surprising success, I can move on to the rest of the day. The weekend nears. Enjoy! YNOT?!
Top fill was smooth which gave me IRON man and ANT man.
I didn't like whack clue for STAB but BAT man fighting mano a mano with an UANARMED COMB lead me to how LASTMANSTANDING fit.
A fun challenge.
WC, I guessed he/she is an ex-toolmaker. But that could just be my trying to make sense out of some nonsensical letters, like "Mister Mxyzptlk" in the Superman comics.
Finished this Friday way wrong.
Wendie Malick yes, RAMI Malik no.
Not my school primer.
Got the stand up theme.
cONKS instead of Z.
Good Morning.
Congratulations, August, on what appears to be your first puzzle. Excellent start. It's Friday and I FIR!! My favorite was ABECEDARY. Don't know why, I've always loved that word!
Nicely done, Lemonade. Thank you. I, too, began to make some sense of things at LACTOSE INTOLER. . . . Huh? Ah, ha! The up side of ETNA. Most of what I didn't know like SKATEPUNK, was covered by crosses and WAGs. Good day for me.
Have a sunny day. We have one again here on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. I feel this must be record sun for November. I am grateful for it with everything else going haywire.
More like a Tuesday ..FIR..only inkovers Ante/ECHO . Didn't want to give up KEEPYOURHAt but it had to be MINORIN.Then I saw the HAIRON wrap-around. Aha, ooh, oho. Cute but why? Like the mysterious town of Eriepa I scratched my head over what manner of men IRSA GENTS might be
There's enough intolerance in the world why add LACTOSE to the list
One theory is that lactose intolerance was the genetic norm. No need for milk after infancy. As early man migrated away from sunny climates providing plenty of Vitamin D to colder climates with less sun, lactose tolerance evolved so that milk could be used as a Vitamin D source.
UHURA (Uhuru: "freedom" in Swahili). ZADIE unknown, why isn't LIARS spelled liers? "beggars can't be choosers" can "choosars be beggers?"
Is RELET present or past tense?
Ringo's album bubbled up from some cobwebbed cerebral abyss.
ACTUAL UNARMED COMBAT plus The knights who say "NIH"
On occasion ETNA GOESBOOM
ANNE Hathaway with words
Hasn't written LIKEN YEARS
YETI don't believe they exist.
Nice puzzle. I especially liked that the circled letters were Marvel Comics heroes. (At first I thought they were creatures when I had BAT and ANT and kept looking at -RO- until I got the LAST MAN STANDING answer. Very nice!)
But ABECEDARY? Who the heck thought that word up?
FIR but it certainly had it's moments with ABECEDARY being the most forgettable.
A very good job of explaining the theme by Lemonade. For some reason it made me think of an M C Escher drawing.
ANTS
I can't make out ABECEdary ?? either , I really don't want to google it, my laptop might laugh at me........
I didn't see the men standing till I came here on the blog , then I realized they were going up and not down.... I caught the idea about the last letters being missing and the turn 90 degree's and still never saw the MEN in there.....
Almost FIR except for that Do Da Day that I'm not going to google.....
Plus Tard from Cajun Country...
Good morning everyone.
FLN - Waseeley; I appreciate your response. My line of thinking, too.
Well, like others, I couldn't grok ABECEDARY. Thought BOAT and RUE were weak. But I did get to understand how the circles should be used and I got 100% of everything outside the SE.
FOB - Agree with D-O. My son's Tesla simply uses his smart phone for entry and proximity purposes.
FIR. Nice to see a bit of trickery in a LAT theme. Veteran NYT solvers are used to it, on Thursdays and Sundays especially. I had GOESBang for a while until perps.
Good Morning:
What an interesting concept and one done so well, to boot. I’ve seen this type of tricky construction before, but I think this one has an extra layer with the themers all being related to the reveal answer, i.e., they are all men and all super heroes. There was Friday level of difficulty, but the perps and wags got the job done. However, my brain failed miserably to understand the Katz-Vet connection. I never got past the Vet not meaning a serviceman until Lemony’s Purr comment. Speaking of Katz, a big Meow Shout Out to Lily, HG’s favorite, favored feminine feline! Ynot and Abecedary were unknowns, as was Skate Punk, but it was fun to see Osaka appear today, together with Zonks/Zooms, both fun words, and two full-named states, Idaho and Ohio.
Thanks, August, for a great Friday challenge and congrats on an auspicious debut. Thanks, Lemony, for the detailed and informative expo, especially the Purr enlightenment.
So far this week,
Tuesday-Positive Wellness Checkup
Wednesday-Positive car inspection
Today-Furnace checkup, hopefully, positive results
FLN
Anon T, I’m fortunate to have a trusted and honest mechanic less than 1/4 mile from my house. He has been servicing my car for 16 years and is immediately available in any emergency, I drop the car off, he drives me home and when the car is ready, he comes and gets me and we go back to the shop and settle up.
Have a great day.
Musings
-There’s a bell that goes off in my head when I know there’s no use. An obscure school book, an obscure actor and the most obscure Beatle did me in. I’ll take one bad cell and try to move on with my life
-At least ZADIE and NOLAN were discoverable and I enjoyed the gimmick
-So many NFL teams call on a kicker to ICE IT at the end
-Will we be seeing many WRITS Of Mandamus over masks and shutdowns soon?
-Panhandle people in my state feel culturally and politically closer to Wyoming
-Watson to Holmes or Hastings to Poirot seem a MUCH better use of FOIL
-A 4-letter candy described by its contents or geometric shape? Got it!
Good morning. Great debut, August. Thank you, Lemonade.
Pretty much top to bottom fill and no issues until the SE corner. Got the ANT and IRON going up pretty much at the same time. Then got BAT going up and LAST MAN STANDING pretty quickly too, and then paused a sec to figure out that I needed to append man to each of the circled answers.
That was simple. Figuring out the uncertainties to complete the SE was not. Specifically, if it was indeed RAMI, and whether the situation was TO A T or BOAT. Finally ruled out TO A T and put in the B, and then threw in the R and expected the Congratulations! popup window. Nope.
After glancing around the grid looking for typos, I felt one of those two letters must be wrong, but no other combinations seemed to work. Finally gave up and hit the "Check Grid" button and the letter b at the intersection of 48A and 48D lit up. Had no idea who bADIE Smith was, but had justified bOOMS for streaks, as in economic booms. In retrospect, I should have noticed that I already used BOOM in GOES BOOM.
So that was it. One error, and a new word learnt. ABECEDARY.
Oh, hand up for looms before LIARS.
Hats off to all of you who FIR, especially to my friend Ray-O who thought it was more like a Tuesday. The west-center slowed me a bit until Katz and zonks came into focus. For 40A I tried "to a t" never thinking of boat. Then 33D was a lost cause not knowing YNOT. Bottom line, two missed squares for a FIW, but I can't say I didn't enjoy the challenge.
Newspaper had circles so seeing the turn up was easy; Natick at ABCEDARY/YNOT.
ICing is a hockey violation and doesn’t lock up a victory, ICEIT refers to “time to put the champagne on ice.“
Friday fun
Hola!
Unlike Ray-O, this felt like Saturday. Yes, I found it difficult but did manage to fill in all but the SE corner and I'm very familiar with ABECEDARY. That shows me I am going farther and farther away from my teaching days. In Spanish it's easier to pronounce it, A-BE-CE-DARIO.
However I am not familiar with Ringo Starr's YNOT.
I did see the upward turns at IRON, ANT and BAT but did not associate them with super heroes. Popular culture beats me every time.
FOBS for cars are familiar to me; one of my friends drives a Prius and that is how she starts it, no keys needed.
I have to give August Miller an A for use of obscure, misdirected clues. INHO
ZADIE Smith's book is on my shelf so I knew her name. White Teeth is on the list of 100 books one should read. I would remove that one though. It does not measure up to the other classics on the list but that is only my opinion.
KATZ could also be clued as the restaurant in MY where a scene from Harry Meets Sally was filmed. Remember the line, "I want what she's having." Of course I visited and saw the table where it all took place.
If you have been following Dr. Fauci, NIH should be familiar to all.
Has everyone started your holiday shopping? I have a small dent made in mine.
Have a sensational day, everyone!
Thank you, Jason, for a fine tuned narrative. I don't have time for all the links but plan to return sometime later to open them.
Oh, no! I see that I flubbed NY with MY instead.
Well, August, you gave us a challenge, and I failed in the "mid-Atlantic area" like D-O. Never heard of abecedary; would not have come up with the very specific STAB for "whack"; CALM and BOAT both escaped me. I did see the theme, but couldn't finish UNARMED _O__A_. My OPERA HAT (never heard of that, either!) is off to you. Thanks, Lemonade, for explaining, and xtulmkr for showing us how those men belonged together.
Fascinating Friday. Thanks for the fun, August (congrats on your debut) and Lemonade.
I saw the interesting circle locations before I started this CW and wondered why there were only 3 sets of circles, all on the mid to north-east. I got the theme reveal and the corner-turn early in the solve which helped. But technically a FIW since I had Ringo's album as Knot and the unknown ABECEDARk. (I see that I am not alone.) But I did see the three men. Thanks xtulmkr for noting the Easter egg, UNARMED COMBAT.
ABECEDARY was just cruel. I was trying to parse and saw the A BE CE D but the lightbulb was not flashing. Merrium-Webster says it is "borrowed from Medieval Latin abecedārium “alphabet, primer”. Learning moment for the day. (Rich had better include it again tomorrow or Sunday or I will have forgotten!)
If you are lactase deficient, you are LACTOSE INTOLERANT. (Lactase is the enzyme that breaks down lactose.)
I noted BOOM and ZOOMS (hand up for Looms before LIARS). And like IM, I noted OHIO and IDAHO (although my first thought with panhandle was Texas- this Canadian did not realize that there were 9 panhandle states!)
Another hand up for Conks before ZONKS.
RELET and REUP today also.
My enchanted girl was the common CW Elsa before ELLA.
SoSo was too short - HO HUM filled the meh spot (which I applied to the Whack=STAB pair which don't equate IMHO).
DUNE was a WAG (could have been GOBY (Sic!) desert LOL for all I knew).
ZADIE and RAMI (did we not have him recently?) were aided by perps.
My British grandmother said "Don't get your pinny in a knot". (She probably thought that was more PC than knickers.) I also heard "dinna fash yersel’ " even though there was no strong Scottish background in the family. But I have never heard "KEEP YOUR HAIR ON".
Wishing you all a great day.
OPERA HAT filled with perps and I realized that it was logical that a collapsible hat could prevent the opera-goer from blocking the view of the person behind. I LIUed to find that it was actually for convenience, as hat could be held or checked during the performance. But what about the women's hats?? And would you KEEP YOUR HAIR ON?
OperaHat
Oh my! There was an entire wardrobe for Opera-goers with Hat, Cape, Coat, Gloves, Glasses.
OperaDressCode
Puzzling thoughts:
First thought was: Lemony, I am so glad that this was YOUR Friday turn to blog & not mine!! I would’ve been at a loss for words, quips, quotes, and about everything else.
Where to begin: well, as I am in the throes of maybe 4-5 puzzles in mid-construction, I am now thinking about revising them. Fill like this is in most of my puzzles, and I’d hate to be raked over the coals if one of mine makes it to the LA Times! 🤡
As for Mr? Ms? Miller’s work, there were elements of brilliance and disaster co-mingled in the grid. I, like our recapper, knew that LACTOSE INTOLERANT/INTOLERANCE had to be in the answer, so when I inked in ETNA I saw the “rebus”. 8 down went from MAJOR to MINOR as ACE IT made more sense than ICE IT. I usually think of ICE IT as something you do to a sprain
5-down went from INFLATES/GOES BOOM, but I already had BOOMS in 48-across as ZADIE would’ve been a complete WAG. LOOMS/LIARS; ABECEDARY/RAMI/Y NOT were complete unknowns. Though I did see Boehemian Rhapsody; good flick
OPERA HAT? TOP HAT is the one I know
KEEP YOUR HAIR ON? Maybe refers to the barristers in England who wear wigs in the courts of law. I can’t link from my iPhone but I think there’s a referral to that in A Fish Called Wanda
Oh, and CIA/NSA.
I had loads of fun!!
Hoping I get an easier puzzle to parse next week ...
Good puzzle but abecedary took a LONNNGGG time to get. Great debut and wonderful write-up by Lemony.
Another day in the 60's here in Chicago before November weather returns.
Stay safe and well everyone.
JB2
Must declare a DNF,
I gave up around Rami & the "Y" in not...
Hmm, Abecedary...
Just when I thought ElHi could not be more annoying...
Actually, 27. "Star Trek" linguistics expert: Uhura
threw me for a minute, because Uhura does not really fit the clue.
The correct response to the clue would have to be Hoshi Sato...
I have hated the keyless car FOBs ever since
I left one in a rented car, & it locked itself...
They have gotten better, but so have the bad guys...
you must see this...
(Also, watch part two where they found his car...)
Anonymous-T, forget they tin foil hat...
just wrap it around your key FOB to make a Faraday Cage!
Oh, I forgot the silly Theme link!
Pls excuse my 2020 mindset...
I’m with everyone else who mentioned ABECEDARY. I’ve never seen that word, I suspect it’s never been used here before but of course SEARCH no longer works, so who knows?
Having BOAT and YNOT made it a double NATICK IMHO, so if that’s what the author wanted, congrats.
Didn’t understand FOIL, thanx for ‘splainin’ it Lemonade. LOOMS became LIARS when ACEIT went in which turned into ICEIT when MINORIN finally occurred to me. LACTOSEINTOLERANCE became LACTOSEINTOLERANT in the same NE corner, so a bit of a mess with write-overs there, but slowly the CW came together. ABECEDARY a new word for me, which I will soon forget. As usual (DOH!) had to have the reveal ‘splained to me too. Still an enjoyable CW, thanx, August. And your usual sparkling write-up, thanx, Lemonade.
"Uhura is a translator and communications officer who specializes in linguistics, cryptography, and philology. She was an important part of the original series' multicultural crew and one of the first black characters to be portrayed in a non-menial role on an American television series." Star Trek Bible.
Thank you LeoIII! I'm glad you "got started"! Chevron's dropping the broadcasts was their loss. Many, but not all of the Met's listeners are wealthy (present company excepted!) and I'm certain the Toll Brothers' (builders of luxury homes) taking over the sponsorship has helped spread their brand. The Met is recognized by many as the greatest opera house in the world. But like "prophets without honor in their own land", they are viewed by many in the US as an elitest institution appealing to aristocrats. This a pity, as opera is a unique fusion of the arts: music, poetry, drama, dance, and visual art, with the stories it celebrates cutting across all classes and times.
This view is definitely not the case in Europe, where there are many regional and major houses and opera is affordable to and enjoyed by all walks of life. Now you've "got me going" and it's time for me to get on to today's puzzle!
ABECEDARY-
LA Times - Nov. 20, 2020
WSJ Daily - June 29, 2019
Chronicle of Higher Education - Dec. 19, 2014
New York Times - Feb. 17, 1994
New York Times - Nov. 1, 1987
I've read three definitions for it D-O and I still don't understand what it is!
I don't think it would have helped me Lemonade!
Very clever theme, which took me too long to see. I did not ice this one (complete it in an outstanding manner.)
I did ice the western column and the central column, but the eastern one did me in. I looked up three answers.
After finally perping abcedary it took long before I recalled seeing it before.
August, you got me fair and square.
Finally I am changing my address everywhere. A real PIA. The cable company which handles my cable, internet and phone is charging me $234 for Nov 22 through Dec 1. No partial months. My only other choice is to let them cut it off tonight at midnight.
I enjoyed the key fob talk, Gary.
I am still trying to decide whether to go to David's for Thanksgiving, even if it is family only with 4 people and 2 households.. David has been here once a week helping me to pack with no bad results. Kenny will be home. There are no Covid illnesses at Villanova U, but who knows how many non symptomatic carriers are there.
Call me crazy ("you're crazy") but hasn't ABEDEDARY appeared in other LAT puzzles? I knew it from somewhere (havent done any of the other puzzles Lemony posted.) Agree, obtuse and belongs in the corner with a dunce hat like ELHI and IRED..
ABECEDARY
I got stumped by SKATEPUNK and ABECEDARY/YNOT/RAMI. I did enjoy the "man up" construction and admire the geometry of it.
The way I see "Whack" = STAB is:
"I'll take a stab at the problem."
"I'll take a whack at the problem."
I like our car key FOB. I like that I don't have to insert a physical key into a slot and turn it. However, like desper-otto, I have sometimes set off the alarm or opened the trunk because a button on the fob in my pocket got pressed by the bottom rim of the steering wheel as I wriggled my way into the driver's seat. Then there's that battery that eventually needs replacing.
Good wishes to you all.
Hi All!
FIW - AB ACEDAMY [sic] #Dislexia :-)
Oh, and I had vOOMS.
Shankers - we had near identical solving experience. I recalled YNOT after fixing my GAIT... [see WOs]
Thanks August for the grid. Loved the theme. Got ANT BAT LAST MAN - and Aha! That helped with IRON. //What's MINORIN? Oh... Thanks for the parsing Lem.
Thanks Lem for salving the wounds with your excellent Expo - even if you missed the theme :-)
WOs: hand-up LOOMS. cONKS, TTFN -> TTYL, ISLE ->IRAN, wrong GATE for a bit.
ESPs: see FIW above, NOLAN, OPERA HAT (need one of those - that's Eldest's Major. Thanks for the info C, Eh!)
Favs: ZONKS is fun; GOES BOOM made me think of Marvin Martian (you had your chance CED!)
YR - that's highway robbery! See if you can get a manager. Or, cancel the cable part and just use the Internet to entertain yourself for a week.
Love me some Monty Python Ray-O //and LOL UN-ARMED!
LEO3 - Thanks for the back story on Texaco. Their building (the Mayan one) is across the street from One Allen where I worked for Ferrell North America (now the parent company of BlueRhino) who's game is Propane & Propane Accessories [Hank Hill]
D-O: Pop's truck alarms oft too because his FOB's buttons gets pressed when he kneels down. "Why don't they make the *^&@ buttons recessed?!," he asks.
IM - That's good. I've got a mechanic I trust too. I finally got MIL to go to them b/c every time her mechanic would "find" >$600 of stuff to "fix." As Click and Clack would say, "Hey, he's got a boat payment to make!"
CED - a) thanks for the Star Trek clip
b) I got an RF blocking wallet for me (those credit-cards with little wifi waves on them) and a RF blocking Passport case for DW (before she went to China & Russia) at the EFF table at Defcon a few years ago. If DW didn't love Italian wallet so much, I'd get her a wallet too.
//we have separate credit-card accounts (for "you can't blame me" reasons) so that risk is on her.
I have a link for LACTOSE INTOLERANT but the language and politics are too impolite for The Corner.
Louis Black's bit:
'When I was a kid we drank Milk. Four glasses a day and there was one kind - Moo F* Cow Milk. Now the milk aisle is a mile long [goes through 1/2%, 2%, fat-free...]
Lactose Free Milk? WTF is that?
If you're LACTOSE INTOLERANT, you can't have milk.
SO WHAT'S IN THE F-ing CARTON?!?' :-)
Cheers, -T
There's no such thing as an "obscure Beatle". Especially since Ringo is one of the two still alive. I have Beatles as my main goto on Sirius since only the pre-'66 stuff is banal. I actually like the post-breakup stuff better than the Fab4. Plus remixes by other musicians plus "Roots" stuff.
I had to close the Visa that paid sirius; now when they finally close me I'll wait for a much better offer. Plus, Betsy will only listen to Spa channel and abhors the Beatles.
Fortunately, when I perped YNOT I had a vague recollection. I should have stuck with RAMI though - I know how HG feels.
Yes, C-Moe, this rebus technique is a NYTimes specialty although as TTP might agree Evan Birnholz Wa-Post does it too.
Finally, it never ceases to amaze how the brain will fill all that white when I'm stumped.
WC
I've kept my credit cards and money in a RFID-blocking wallet for several years. But it never dawned on me that I'd need one for the car fob -- thanx, CED. I ordered a pair of RFID fob purses today. They'll be here tomorrow.
I hadn't thought of Marvin in years.
You Have Made Me Very Angry
Love Louis Black.... Same for cereals. I remember when you had a choice of Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies and Cheerios. Kix if you were lucky... Now the cereal isle goes on for days.
Good pzl with an enjoyable twist in the theme--a couple of twists, to be sure.
SKATE PUNK did me in. I had SKATE FUNK.
I enjoyed ZADIE Smith's first book. I have her second, but haven't got around to it yet.
I liked ABCEDARY. I only wish it were pronounced in some oddball, unexpected way.
That's just the verbal junkie in me.
Like the way Sir David Attenborough pronounces "Orangutan."
~ OMK
____________
DR: Today we're blessed with four diagonals, three on the near end and one more in opposition.
The central diagonal at hand yields a reference to the stupidest protest or most idiotic cry of pain. I mean the...
"DUMBEST OUCH"!
The anagram of the far side's solo diagonal refers to an outmoded, non-PC description of Asian porn, as...
"ORIENTAL RACY"!
My daughter went through a Marvin the Martian phase in high school and had a large collection of figures. Now that she's a Star Wars fan I don't know what happened to the Marvins. I'll have to ask her. The Star Wars collection she and her husband have is enough to fill outer space!
My venture into shopping was a shock! Prices have not only gone up, they have exploded!
Nothing apropos (well, maybe ties in with OMK's DR #1)...
If you have Hulu and the mind of a 10yro (Hi guys!), guess what?
Animaniacs is baaaaack.
In college, we'd interrupt studying (EE & CS majors! :-)) for the program (and Star Trek TNG).
Cheers, -T
ABECEDARY..... never heard that word in my entire life
A DNF for me.
August, congratulations on your LA Times puzzle debut. If the job of the constructor is to stump the solver (DOW appropriately of course), you certainly succeeded with me.
I was doing fine at the start until I reached the end of 20A at LACTOSE INTOLERA, missed the left turn (they're illegal on red in MD, sailed right past the circles and was out at sea in no time (somewhere around column 20 maybe?), when looking aft I saw that my answer boat was foundering, as the shoreline EBBed away. One of my problems is my impatience with themes, but I'm learning that I ignore them at my peril.
Things didn't get any better at the end of 24A, as my English Mother, a contemporary of QEII, taught me to "Keep Calm and Carry On". But as that wasn't working and as it rains a lot in Britain, I thought it might be "KEEP YOUR HAT ON", but that didn't work with the bottom of 8D, which I had munged by ACEing 16A instead of ICEing it.
By the time I got to 'ABECEDARY', my paranoia had kicked in and it might be 'AEBCIDIC', standing for 'ASCII EBCIDIC', the latter string being an obscure acronym that only old mainframers would recognize (perhaps August is leading a double-life? - but then it would be too long). And how many words are in this primer anyway? Twenty-six?
And the final indignity was missing 66A 'YNOT' - never 'eard of it. And this after listening to about 8 hours of Beatles music yesterday on our local Indie station's annual Fab 4 Fest. Oh and BTW, DNF
August, ya' done yourself proud by me.
waseeley - You got an extra I in there: EBCDIC. But ECC caught it :-)
EBCDIC uses 8 bit (FF) character encoding. ASCII uses 7 bits (7F) + a parity bit for error correction.
A handy table for conversion.
//I started programming on an Apple ][e when I was 12; did FORTRAN & PL/1 on IBM's 370 in college.
Cheer, -T
Anon-T @ 3:37, re: YR's cable/phone/internet bill.
Sorry, but that's what a lot of people's service bills are like. For example, in Vacaville, CA, last year I paid $215 a month for just cable and internet [AT&T], plus $45 a month more for landline [Pacific Bell, but owned by AT&T] -- no real way to escape, because Comcast was the alternative ... and those 'promotional' pricings sure disappear quickly!
RayO, and in the cereal world more sugar is always good. Even looking at the calorie count isn't easy because they mask it by changing the sizes. 160 / cup is the "no sugar added" norm.
-T, the math majors , mid 60s, would discuss the Adam West Batman and howl at Beverly Hillbillies. I'd become a snob by then with my Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. We called ourselves The Sports Club but that meant the Hockey team. I never got them to go to basketball.
-T, we even had six bit. 40 years dims memories. Go back another 15 and we got Fortran. I actually had better luck with machine language.
WC
Also, there's Roku to replace cable,dish etc. But with the package deals internet alone might be expensive too.
Then there's tethering cell to TV if you have unlimited cell.
A day for being reminded of old friends. First, Marvin. Now PL/1 PL/C.
Can one of you technologically advance people explain to me ROKU or any other non-cable TV Hacks? I have an antenna again, now. Sometimes it is great, other times not so much. I also have unlimited on my cell phone, how does that help?
You should be able to undelete an accidental delete...
methods may vary pending your operating system...
Also, re: Keyfobs:
I was reminded that I gave my old Minivan to my sister inlaw,
& she complained that whenever she parked, she would come back
and all the windows were open?
(not ideal in Brooklyn...)
Searching online for answers, I came up empty...
(Yes, CED could not find something online...)
But recently, I just happened on a site that showed
all the SECRET COMMANDS that can be input on various Key Fobs.
One of which was OPEN ALL WINDOWS.
(again, methods vary by manufacturer.)
very handy on those hot summer days...
Note: ever since I got a key fob,
I use a carabiner to clip my keys to my pants belt loop
so I don't scratch up the phone I keep in my pocket.
Never had my car do weird things behind my back...
I knew abécédaire from French; never saw the English before but when perps started to show it, the parallel construction was easy.
Wanted top??HAT before I went to the OPERA.
>> Roy
Sorry Lemon,
I have no clue about ROKU.
(you could say I am RokuLess...)
Besides, anything new gives me Agita...
In fact, lately, I have been going old school
& been kept entertained by Stuff like this...
Anon @ 8:13, the solution is easy. If you are a legitimate poster and not a troll, pick a name and Go Blue. Then your comments won’t be deleted unnecessarily.
Sounds like we're birds of a feather T. Thanks for reminding me that it doesn't need an I in the middle, as the C supplies the vowel sound. So AEBCDIC would have fit, but not perped. You really needed EBCDIC to read "core" dumps (the 360s I started on used real wire woven thru magnetic cores for RAM) and we spent a lot of nights down in the dumps in those days!
And my 1st PC was an Apple IIe too. I used to program it by poking and peeking ASCII 6502 bytecodes. I got a much later start than you - my early thirties.
WC - Ah, yes. IBM's assembly was register based just like Apple's (wasseeley knows what I'm talkin' 'bout!). Intel's stack-based instruction were a PITA to do by hand [read: I never got good at it :-)]
Anon@8:13 - TTP @7:06 said he was sorry. //CED - it's the blogger site, not a PC/Mac.
Michael - That's about what I pay for cable & internet too. My point was YR's only going to need it for about a week.
Roku, like Chromcast (Google's thingy) or AppleTV boxes are all TV-Internet interfaces that enables you to stream internet content to your TV (things like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc - even AirPlay (video from your iPhone)). NOTE: must have WiFi in your house.
Most newer "Smart TVs"* already have this feature built in. Comcast also allows you to access the streaming services through it's cable box. //We watch Netflix directly.
CED - I'm too afraid of chainsaws to do that. But Cool!
Krossword Kismet? The latest in the Marvel Movies that Youngest is "making" DW & I watch - ANT Man. [Trailer]. With Paul Rudd, it's actually quite funny (we stopped at 1/2 point - Youngest is back to her homework).
Cheers, -T
*I hate SmartTVs - they sell you the set and that's that. Any new vulnerabilities found in the software (typically a linux kernel) do not get patched.
Lemonade, to access ROKU you need
1 a broadband Internet connection.
2 a "ROKU" box, a gadget that connects to the Internet
3 via either Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable
4 an HDMI video cable between the box and your TV and finally
5 a subscription to the ROKU service, currently $5.99 a month. You control the ROKU box with a ROKU remote, which allows you to "stream" (download) content from the net from (lots of) service providers like ACORN, AMAZON PRIME, NETFLIX yada, yada, yada.
Bill
p.s. you can also buy Internet ready TVs that bundle the streaming service into the TV.
There are many free sources you can also access via a ROKU device. No monthly fees required.
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