Have a Seat and Stay Awhile. The circles spell out a type of chair.
17-Across. Holiday bloom: EASTER LILY. Easy Chair. An Easy Chair can come in all shapes and sizes. It is simply a chair that is generally large, soft and comfortable. Easter is less than 40 days away, so we will soon be seeing Easter Lilies.
26-Across. Taft's University of Cincinnati position: LAW SCHOOL DEAN. Lawn Chair. Lawn Chairs, too, can come in all shapes and sizes. We would take ours to the beach.
William Howard Taft (Sept. 15, 1857 ~ Mar. 8, 1930) had quite a career. In 1896, the University of Cincinnati established a Law Department. Taft, who was at the time a Federal District Judge, was named its Dean. He, of course, later went on to become the 27th President of the United States. After his term as President ended, he briefly became a law professor at Yale, until he was appointed to the United States Supreme Court. He served as the 10th Chief Justice from 1921 until his death 9 years later.
Taft in a Lawn Chair (chair circa 1900).
43-Across. UPS vehicle: DELIVERY TRUCK. Deck chair. These can also come in lots of shapes and sizes. As a kid, we had Adirondack chairs on our deck. At any rate, these chairs are used outside and not in the living room. The ice and snow storm has prevented many a UPS delivery this week.
And the unifier:
58-Across. Parlor pieces, and a hint to each set of circles: WING CHAIRS. My grandfather had a wing chair in his parlor. No one else could use that chair.
23. Jong and Durance: ERICAs. I am familiar with Erica Jong (b. Mar. 26, 1942), who is a writer, but am not familiar with the actress Erica Durance (b. June 21, 1978).
Erica Jong
Erica Durance
25. Oscar winner Kingsley: BEN. Ben Kingsley (né Krishna Pandit Bhanji; b. Dec. 31, 1943) won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gandhi in 1982 movie of the same name.
33. Things sometimes found under a tree: GIFTS.
35. Wolf cries: HOWLS.
36. 1959 folk hit with the line "Charlie couldn't get off of that train": MTA. Will he ever return?
37. Burden: ONUS. Also an obligation. See clue 85-Across in Sunday's puzzle.
38. Gave out cards: DEALT.
39. Animal house: LAIR.
40. Time of your life: AGE.
41. Prolonged battle: SIEGE. // Not to be confused with 1-Down: 1. Feudal lord: LIEGE.
42. Number that's part of a nap: FORTY. A possible theory on the origin of the term Forty Winks.
46. __ Plaines: DES. A city in Cook County, Illinois, just outside the Chicago area.
47. Familiarize: ORIENT.
50. Rice or wheat: GRAIN.
53. "Dilbert" creator Adams: SCOTT. Scott Raymond Adams (b. June 8, 1957) created the Dilbert cartoon in the 1990. Often his cartoons would almost exactly mirror what was happening in my workplace.
56. Day for voting: Abbr.: TUE. Tuesday is also the day that I provide commentary for this crossword. In Louisiana, voting is usually on a Saturday.
57. Sleek, in car talk: AERO.
60. Dryer trap target: LINT.
61. MLB Tiger, for one: ALER. The Detroit Tigers are in the American League in Major League Baseball.
62. Artist Max: ERNST. Max Ernst (Apr. 2, 1891 ~ Apr. 1, 1976) was a pioneer in the surrealism and Dada art movements.
63. Grandson of Adam: ENOS. A Biblical reference: Enos was the son of Seth, the third son of Adam and Eve. Sometimes his name is spelled Enosh. According to Genesis (5:6), Seth was 105 years old when Enosh was born.
64. Heap affection (on): DOTE.
65. Continues intensely, as a storm: RAGES.
Down:
2. Broadcasting: ON AIR.
3. Natural gas, coal, etc.: FOSSIL FUEL.
4. Atlanta-based station: TNT. As in the (Ted) Turner Network Television.
5. Goes up and down: SEE-SAWS.
6. Pamplona parlor: SALA. Today's Spanish lesson.
7. Vacation choice: TRIP.
8. Like a slippery garage floor: OILY.
9. Remit: PAY.
10. Be about to happen: IMPEND.
11. Palindromic bread: NAAN. You too, can make your own Naan.
12. Designer Gernreich: RUDI. Rudi Gernreich (née Rudolf Gernerich; Aug. 8, 1922 ~ Apr. 21, 1985) is not a Tuesday-friendly crossword guest. He was actually Austrian, but fled to the United States in the late 1930s to escape the Nazis. He became an iconic fashion designer in the 1960 and is best known for inventing the Thong.
13. "What __ can I do?": ELSE.
18. Singer Diana: ROSS. Diana Ross (b. Mar. 26, 1944) was the lead singer of The Supremes. Sadly, Mary Wilson (Mar. 6, 1944 ~ Feb. 8, 2021), one of the founding members of The Supremes, died earlier this month.
22. Hair products: GELS.
Hair Gel gone bad.
24. Lions and tigers: CATS. Oh, My!
25. Lightning flash: BOLT. Usain Bolt (né Usain St. Leo Bolt; b. Aug. 21, 1986) has been compared to a flash of lightning.
27. Support the team: CHEER.
28. Composer Carmichael: HOAGY. In addition to being a composer, Hoagy Carmichael (né Hoagland Howard Carmichael; Nov. 22, 1899 ~ Dec. 27, 1981) was also a singer, songwriter andactor.
29. Young hooter: OWLET.
30. Online advertising: E-MARKETING.
31. Arguing: AT IT.
32. __ a one: none: NARY.
33. Prod: GOAD.
34. "Bus Stop" playwright: INGE. William Inge (né William Motter Inge; May 3, 1913 ~ June 10, 1973) makes frequent guest appearances in the crossword puzzles. Sadly, he died by suicide at age 60. Bus Stop was adapted into a film, which starred Marilyn Monroe. The play takes place in a diner in the middle of no-where in middle America. Due to a massive snowstorm, a bus and its passengers are stranded at the diner and various impromptu romantic relationships are formed.
38. Fizzles out: DIES.
39. Centers of activity: LOCI.
41. Norse name similar to Stephen: SVEN.
42. To a greater degree: FURTHER.
44. Numbskulls: IDIOTS.
45. Campus cadets' org.: ROTC. As in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps.
48. Care for: NURSE.
49. Exams: TESTS.
50. __-force winds: GALE.
51. Equestrian's strap: REIN.
52. River of Pisa: ARNO.
53. Farm storage unit: SILO.
54. Tech news site: CNET.
55. Shrek, e.g.: OGRE.
58. Bundle of cash: WAD.
59. Altar in the sky: ARA. Ara, which is Latin for "Altar", is found in the Southern Hemisphere.
Here's the Grid:
חתולה
Stay safe and warm, everyone and don't let anyone else do your crossword puzzle if you step away before it is complete!
Great job,Hahtoolah. So many wonderful pictures and cartoons. I particularly liked President Taft in his lawn chair - so appropriate for today's theme.
I'm getting my second COVID shot this morning. I'm really psyched. Glad the weather's warmed a bit here in the East. There was about an hour outdoor line for the first shot and it was brutally cold. In my Philly area, Feb. has been one Arctic storm after the next, but now the snow is finally melting. The other good news is my granddaughters have their birthdays in a few weeks. We'll have a small outdoor gathering for immediate family. Yay! It will be great to hug the girls again.
Good Morning, my crossword friends. I hope everyone is recovering from last week's freeze. It's hard to believe that a week ago temps were in the teens, and yesterday it was in the 70F and I was sitting out in the sun.
So glad you popped in, Paul. We got our 2nd Covid shots last Wednesday and had no side effects. It's crazy how each state has its own rules on vaccine distribution. We were able to get our at the local pharmacy. We had a morning appointment for the shot. Due to weather conditions, however, the day's shipment was unable to reach the pharmacy, so the afternoon appointments had to be cancelled. Glad you will be able to see your granddaughters soon.
QOD: Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company. ~ Samuel Pepys (Feb. 23, 1633 ~ May 26, 1703), English civil servant and diarist
Anyone else not really inspired by the puzzle genre with: 1) three random long theme answers that could be anything and that that have nothing to do with each other, 2) circled letters at either end of the theme answers, and 3) a reveal that has something to do with splitting or ends or separating? I feel like we're seeing these more and more in the LAT, and I just don't get the smile "aha" moment from this type of puzzle.
Zipped right through this one. Noticed that there were circles, but failed to look at them. I did see the broken-apart chairs after the reveal. I did not know that Taft is a lawn chair??? Thanx for the fun expo, Hahtoolah (Is your grandfather named Sheldon?), and for the exercise, Paul. (Dw is also due to get her 2nd Covid shot today. Got my second two weeks back.)
RED: I vented about changing stop signs from yellow to red yesterday. Still think it was a very bad idea.
HOAGY: Probably best known for Stardust. He wrote it in 1927.
LOCI: When is it LOCI, and when is it FOCI? Nobody seems to know.
FIR, no write-overs. I saw the theme just before I filled-in the third themer and it helped. FURTHER and “farther” confuse me at times, as do “laid” and “lain.” Luckily, I married to an ex English teacher.
My wife and I got our 2nd shots a day early. A Publix pharmacist called on Sunday. We thought he was going to postpone or cancel our appointment, but he asked if we wanted to come for a couple of extra shots that they had on hand. We walked over a few minutes later. My wife has no reactions, but I was feeling very fatigued yesterday. Today, I’m back to normal. I agree that it’s not fair that tech whizzes have such an advantage in getting shots. We’ve had two other options for getting the shots. I’m especially advantaged as a runner because I have a lot of experience in trying to register for very popular races, especially Disney challenges.
On Sunday the clue for NLers was merely "Cards" My baseball awakening came in 1952 when the Redsox completed a blockbuster trade with the "Tigers". Pesky and Dropo departed, Kell and "Hoot" Evers came to Boston. Doerr and Junior Stevens retured. Williams was drafted back into the Marines and seeing the carnage, Joe's brother Dominic DiMaggio also retired. Who needs Free Agency. Furthur Redsox ANGST could have been added by clueing ENOS as " ___ Slaughter".
I thought it was spelled HOgie. Perps to the rescue.
My faithful friend Mr S. doesn't like to be called an IDIOT
Speedy Tuesday. I'd forgotten that it was Paul Coulter. Always enjoy the picturesque Hahtoolah write-up.
Today's offering took 4:25. I didn't know Hoagy or Rudi, and only knew of Erica Jong (but I wouldn't mind getting to know Erica Durance).
Please note that I'm not complaining of the unknowns, simply pointing-out what I view as new/unfamiliar territory.
I agree with the earlier anonymous poster in that having words hidden in other words does not add any "joy" to the solving experience, and often other parts of the puzzle suffer from a forced theme. It seems like such added work for constructors to create a gimmick to get published, when there's no shame in a solid themeless puzzle, and I think many would prefer that option.
This was an easy, breezy solve but my eyes saw Eas and I immediately thought Sea, then I saw Law and thought, hmm, what’s going on here? I never noticed the Y and N on the other end, so filling in Wing Chair (after removing Side Chair) was an Aha moment for me. I liked the Siege/Liege and In Re/In One duos and the mini creature-centric theme with Maul, Howls, Lair, Owlet, Rein, Fossil, and Cats (Hi, Mr. Meow!). Inge is becoming as ubiquitous as Erie.
Thanks, Paul, for a Tuesday treat and for stopping by; enjoy those hugs! Thanks, Hahtoolah, for a very informative and entertaining expo. I loved all of the cartoons but the Soapy Cat and Poker-playing Dogs got a big chuckle and the Gas Pump Dinosaur got a loud laugh! The picture of Taft brought home just how huge a man he was. I also enjoyed the Habanera performance.
I’m very happy to report that I’ll be getting my second COVID shot on Thursday. I hope I won’t have any worse a reaction than the very sore arm after the first shot.
Hey Paul! I enjoy your crossword puzzles via The Washington Post. Just wanted to share with you that the definition/explanation of “idiots” used in the laxcrossword.com is outdated. The definition utilized the word “Mental Retardation” which is no longer used. The accepted nomenclature is “intellectual disability.” As a member of the disability community as a parent of children with disabilities, I wanted to help spread the word to discontinue usage of an unacceptable term. Thank you for listening and I look forward to more enlightenment with the crossword puzzles that lie ahead.
I liked the theme. However, in this case if you didn't like the theme you could solve it as a themeless. The theme was not needed in the solve, but IMO it added to the fun. Susan, always so enjoyable. I was surprised to find GIFTS under the tree with a few perps. Cute. I didn't know that TAFT is a brand name for chairs. President Taft must have needed a huge one. These days hospital wheel chairs are huge. For deck chair I was picturing chairs on a cruise ship. My first thought for online advertising was it's a PIA. RUDI was new to me. I blush to say I missed the C in SCOTT and CNET. I have heard of CNET and an ABC run would have produced the C, as the most likely fill for SCOTT. I guess I "misremebered" that stop signs used to be yellow. Until 1954? I like the red. I read today that the back of the octagonal shape alerts drivers coming from the other direction that oncoming traffic has a stop sign. LGLASOW, as a parent of an son with an intellectual disability I don't mind the word IDIOT, as long as it is not applied to the disabled. For some reason, I do mind retard and retarded. My older son David had a doctor's appointment yesterday and hasn't called me. I am on tenter hooks. He is more likely to call with good news. He didn't answer my text with I'M OK. YR
LGlasgow - I hear you. I understand that certain words can cause some people deep discomfort. I would never associate the word idiot with intellectual disability. I believe the definition for "idiots" in today's LAT was "numbskulls," as in, annoying people. I'm sure must Cornerites know this, but it bears repeating that constructors submit clues along with their grids, but the final say is up to editors.
Musings -51F here yesterday. I sat in a LAWN CHAIR on our deck wearing a T shirt while barbecuing! -An EASter lilY would be poisonous to our 4-footed lily, so… -LOFT for rent in Manhattan -DES PLAINES – Fred Piscop also had this site of Ray Kroc’s first McDonalds in yesterday’s puzzle -Umpires will endure RAGES until they say “the magic word” -There is a huge FOSSIL FUEL pile and four acres of solar panels a quarter mile south of me -Two spaces before you get your $200 Monopoly salary, you might have to PAY a $75 luxury tax -The LOCI of points on a circle is called a circumference -A fun expo, Susan!
Thanks, Paul, for the fine Tuesday puzzle and for stopping by the Corner. Todah rabah, Hahtoolah, for the recap. It was very nice to see Felix The Cat stop by - I have a clip of him tagged and saved for the right moment - but you beat me to it! Now, where did Oswald hope off to? (To where did Oswald hop off?)
EASY solve, today. Thanks Paul. Started to note what went in the circles, but voiced 'aha' upon reading the reveal @ 58a. Most of the fill was workaday, but it kept my interest. Liked the 10 ltr downs. Had 'laird' before LIEGE. FIR. LOFT - comes from old English; akin to German Luft (air). USO - My older cousin participated for a while (circa 1945) LOCI or foci - Per the clue, it could be either one, since the concept of location isn't clear. But the perp LAIR gives us the 'L'. SCOTT - I read Dilbert every. Sunday. FORTY - Veertig in Dutch and L. German. The 'v' has the English 'f' sound. The 'g' has a very light gutteral glide. SVEN Forkbeard - King of England for 5 weeks. His genes curse through today's Royals.
A FIR Tuesday, thanks to Paul's EASY puzzle. Saw the types of chairs but wondered about WING in connection with all of them. Then I realized it described the position of the letters to the WINGs of the phrase. I agree with YR that themed puzzles add to the fun, but the theme can be ignored if desired. My main WOs were the spellings of RUDI and HOAGY (me too, WC), corrected by perps. Thanks for commenting too, Paul.
Hahtoolah, another rich review for today's puzzle. Thanks for all the additional info! I am sitting in my favorite chair, a winged recliner like your father's, inanehiker, which lets me keep my leg elevated, and is quite cozy. Hope you all stay cozy today and experience improving weather.
I've done all the puzzles for the last week, but I haven't had time to comment. We are up to our ears--er, gutters--with ice damming. Or is that damning? Hub is pPresident of our HOA so he's been overwhelmed with requests for a roofer. We are doing fine. I manage my ice pretty well. I don't heat the upstairs in the winter--heat rises and it slows the pace of the snow melt on the roof. (Aside from insulation) Our ten-foot icicles are now about 2 ft long. I should be back in crossword corner shape tomorrow.
Thanks to our constructors and explicators for weathering the storms. And it's finally sunny with no snow in sight.
Thanks for the fun today, Paul, Hahtoolah, and Rich! My daughter lived for some years in Florence, so the ARNO is one river I know. FIR and enjoyed it.
Typical 2's-day. The theme obvious even for me. Just moved an old WINGCHAIR to the mancave to make way for a new couch and electric push button recliner. My vertically challenged DW had trouble reaching the lever on the old one.
Hahtoolah, hope Taft's chair was double reinforced! Adirondack chairs supposedly tilt toward the sun. Habanera: "Love is a rebellious bird" huh? Like a defiant parakeet? 😄
Almost spelled it "Mall". Guessed at SALA, same as Italian (camera, stanza or sometimes SALA). The ARNO, was across its source the Appenine Mts from me.. Same with almost seasons for SEESAWS.
Haven't see IMPEND without the ing. Sorry HOAGY, first thought you were Hogey. SIEGE, the opposite of battle (starve 'em out so there is no battle)
A long Enoun 😡 spared from these "inventions" for awhile, knew it wouldn't last. Sleek as AERO without the suffix dynamic new to me.
Symtoms of idiotitis: 🙄 Food for us geezers.....FOSSILFUEL Emancipation: "you don't ____ anymore"...ONUS Some playwrights, give 'em an ____ and they take a yard!..INGE Number that's part of Lizzie's whacks _____ FORTY. Goblin's seat..IMPEND Desi's center of activity was _____ LOCI
Great visuals Hahtoolah... thanks for dropping in Mr. Coulter.
I'm glad there's only one name with the letters E_NST. Otherwise it would have been a Tuesday DNF! Then I would have had to go eat a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls and hate myself the rest of the day. =P
Thank you, Paul Coulter! I always like your puzzles and this one was a breeze. I finished so quickly I hardly noticed the theme until reviewing it later. How nice for you that you will see your granddaughters. Mine came over Sunday and I love having them here. I have three granddaughters and one grandson and they are growing too quickly. I am sure you find that, too.
The Dilbert comic is printed in the business section of the Arizona Republic so I don't always see it.
Hahtoolah, it's always a treat to read your Blog and chuckle at the cartoons you choose. I like your sense of humor.
EASTER LILY? My poinsettias are still alive! I hope they can co-exist.
Have an exciting day, everyone! It's in the 70s here and the sun is shining brightly.
Never heard of a wing chair, In looking it up it turns out the complete term Is "wingback chair," indicating the wings that radiate up from The arms on either side of the back.
Fun Tuesday puzzle, Paul--and thank you too for stopping by. And your pictures are always cool, Hahtoolah, thanks for that too.
Made me sad to learn that INGE died of suicide--I like his work so much. But glad I got most of the names, including BEN and RUDI and SCOTT and ERNST. Oh, and, of course, the ERICAS. My favorite clue was "things sometimes found under a tree." I kept thinking 'grass,' 'pine cones,' 'leaves,' but then it hit me: Christmas tree GIFTS! Lots of fun.
Thanks Paul for the fun Tuesday puzzle. I had a couple of hiccups (see: WOs) but I managed just fine. I did think they were called Wing-back chairs though.
Wonderful comic filled expo Hahtoolah! Loved the cat messing w/ the grid. AND then following up with a Samuel Pepys QoD? Nice.
WOs: TBS->TNT; wanted twenty winks and entered the TW; iVAN->SVEN, LOCI was pluraled S at first. ESPs: ERICAs, RUDI, HOAGY, ARA Fav: ID-10-Ts -- it's standard nomenclature for many help-desk invoices.
USO: Grandma met her second hubby at a USO dance. She was 6'+ and that dago was 5'4"; Gramps apparently enjoyed the view during the dance :-)
Back in the day, L0pht Heavy Industries was at the forefront of hacking tools. My computers and electronics bench is in my LOFT. //DW is trying to redecorate it :-(
We have those plastic deck chairs you can get on sale at Home Depot, And leave them out in the Florida sun all year long.
Just recently had some guests, One of which sat in the above mentioned death trap. He leaned back, and the back broke away from the chair with half of one Of one of the arms and deposited him head first onto the pool deck.
I thanked him for saving us the trouble of Finding this out for ourselves...
If you have these chairs, and they are discoloured from the sun, Throw them out now...
Walgreens called this AM...my Vax appt that was canceled last week (thanks Texas) has been rescheduled for tomorrow. I’ll believe it when I say “ouch”, but at least things are moving again. Still no other available appointments to be had anywhere, then again SC is #46 at distribution.
That chair Taft is in looks kind of like a glider. I wonder what it looked like later in the day, this is the man who had a custom sized bathtub.
To Madam Defarge, And anyone else with huge icicles hanging from their eaves,
I was plagued with this for years, And learned that the cure is to have a well ventilated attic.
Even with vents in the gables, or directly on the roof, Airflow from the eaves (think gutters) to the vents is most often Blocked by idiots installing insulation.
You will find that they stuffed the insulation all the way into the eaves Blocking the needed air vents that are installed between the gutters And the house walls for this very reason. You only need insulation over the living area, not the overhang That contains the vents and attaches to the gutters.
I fixed all this, and still had water dripping in between my walls Because the heat would melt the snow on the roof which would refreeze In the gutters which backed the melting snow up into the house!
You want zero heat in the attic!
So I used painters tape to cover up the cracks in the edges of the pull down Attic door. While doing this, someone used the bathroom, Turned on the light, which shone into the attic thru the air vent holes in The light fixture that are designed to release heat and stop fires from overheated lights.
I replaced all these lights with sealed LEDs and have no more problems.
So, if you have any hi-hat light fixtures with incandescent bulbs, You are dumping huge amounts of heat into your attic!
In our family, it's a term of endearment for the elders. As in "that crazy dago made a tamper from a 2x4 and a 2x6." Yeah, Pop made that and then told me to go pound sand :-) //we were building a patio behind the garage.
Great-grandpa, sponsored by his cousin, came over from Italy in the early 1900's (I have the log from Ellis Island framed in the front-room) and married his home-town sweetheart. Grandpa was born in IL but kept the old-world ways; as do Pop & I (ok, I'm pretty watered down...). We're proud Italian-Americans and poke fun at each other for nutty stuff we do/make.
Thank you Paul for a pleasant Tuesday puzzle and thanks to Susan as always for your witty, entertaining review. Now can you please assure us that no CATS were actually BATHED in the creation of this blog? :-)
While I figured out that the circled letters were all types of CHAIRS, I didn't really need that to solve the puzzle. Does my FIR still count?
23A I LIUd Erica Durance and it turns at that she is pretty famous, to Canadians at least. She played Lois Lane in SMALLVILLE and Dr Alex Reid in SAVING HOPE (neither of which I've seen). And not that it really matters, but she has also been named as one of the "Sexiest 100 Women in the World" along with several other similar accolades.
62A Did MAX ERNST create the first CLOTHESPIN DOLLS?
5D Well the BIG GUY could try sitting closer and closer to the SEESAW FULCRUM until he and the LITTLE GUY balance. Where is the PLAYGROUND LADY when you need her?
34D INGE is really GLUEY. His 3rd appearance in less than a week.
51D The ARNO also bisects FLORENCE, where it is best known for the PONTE VECCHIO, a covered bridge with jewelry shops all across it. Twenty-seven years ago on our first visit there, Dw and I bought each other new wedding rings to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. A year of so later I lost mine while tilling our 1/4 acre garden. Miraculously, later that summer while weeding the veggies I looked down in the dirt and there it was!
Gary @9:57AM Brilliant. My Mother always said "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all". And that was really a nice one. Touché!
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Paul and Hahtoolah. I FIRed in EASY time and saw the WING CHAIRS. (But I was a little disappointed that the WINGs were not very even (3,1 3,1 2,2) making for a very lopsided bird!)
(d'o, YR - I think that Hahtoolah's Taft picture had a typo in the caption. Should it be "Taft IN a lawn chair"? I see that Taft is a furniture company (learning moment), but is there really a Taft lawn chair??? Inquiring minds want to know . . .
I waited for perps to decide between Shed or SILO. Imminent would not fit, and IMPEND seemed too short without the -ing. Our 2020 "vacation choice" was not a TRIP but a Stay-cation. Canadian election day is MON not TUE.
The clue for FORTY brought a smile, as did the lightbulb moment for GIFTS. (Yes Misty, I was thinking of grass.)
Lucina, I still have my poinsettia on my kitchen table. DH gets tired of it and I move it to my plant rack in the window at the end of February; it goes outside as filler in the perennial garden for the summer (but it never flowers again unfortunately!).
No Covid vaccines here for the general public yet. Long-term care, retirement home people have been done and now health care workers are receiving. 80 and over next on the list as our vaccine shipments ramp up again after a few weeks delay for production improvements in European plants that we are receiving from. The sooner the better!
waseeley - you made me look up ERICA Durance as this Canadian did not immediately recognize her from that photo. But I do remember her from Saving Hope, but didn't know her name. I'm not a huge fan of that show with its angels!
Wishing you all a great day. (Snow is melting with today's mild temps of 40F. Love your cardinal photo, Ray-O.)
Thank You Mr. Paul Coulter for nice and easy puzzle. I enjoyed it. Thank you for also responding to our CW blog.
Thank you Hahtoolah for your humorous and perceptive links, and lots of hypertext go-to info. I was a-looking for your cats, and I was not disappointed ! I learned a new hebrew word - Todah Rabah ...from MalManatee.
Re: The word Idiots, ..... in our society today, it is always difficult to clue certain words in an inoffensive politically correct manner, and still use that word. Provided, of course that the word is still permissible, unlike, say, the N word. Anon-T's use of an old racial term, as above, however endearing the use of it, may be, construed or intended , to be .... calls for a detailed explanation, as above.
TAFT: We, in Ohio, have always been very proud of our Pres Wm Howard Taft, who served in the judiciary and then in the executive branch, and then as Chf Just, SCOTUS Sup Crt. Those days were the good ole days when such things were possible.
Although Wm. Howard Taft was never in the Congress, his son (Robert Sr.) and grandson (Robert, Jr.) were US Senators from Ohio, and his great grandson (Robert A., III) was a Ohio Gov.(1991-1999 ).
I am proud to announce that today I shall be 574 years young--in dog years.
According to my mother (who should have known) I was born at 7:19 pm PST just one day after my grandpa's birthday. She was a little disappointed that we missed his b'day. He was a twin, and she was NOT disappointed that I was not.
I remember the n name of RUDI Gernreich. He was in the news (1961), but not for inventing the thong. The thong (as we now know it) came much, much later. RUDI created the one-piece--shown in Hahtoolah's illustration, or "monokini"--a breasts-free swimsuit. I remember I vividly because I had just returned home from England to San Francisco, and found myself spending more time than usual down on the Marina and at the beach near Yacht Harbor, hoping to catch sight of some daring young ladies. (Nobody wearing RUDI showed up.) ~ OMK ___________ DR: A 3-way on the opposite side. The Main diagonal offers poor possibilities for an anagram. It's all vowels (all but one consonant). The top diagonal gives one possibility (11 of 14 letters) --a label we may attach to either the co-star (with James Cromwell) of the 1995 movie, Babe, or to myself (yrs truly) this evening when I dig into my birthday dinner (on order from our local Chinese restaurant). Yep, you guessed it, that label is... "ADORABLE PIG"!
Canada eh..There's a way to make a poinsettia rebloom the following season. A complicated exposure to the right amount of light and dark. Sounds too time intensive
Send us down a February thaw across our mutual border 🌤
I grew up in SPI. Nothing but Irish, Italians, Germans, Polish, and Black people there. I had friends in all groups (and sub-groups; Nerds, Dorks, Jocks, and Preps). When I moved to Shreveport, LA in HS, I, as an Italian, was a novelty. My friends called me "The Wop."
DW's HS friend who was dating a buddy of mine said to her, "You gotta meet The Wop. I can't date him 'cuz I'm going with [redacted] but you'd like him. He's al little nerdy though." DW became the She Wop / IBM (Italian By Marriage).
Later in life, at Tinker AFB, a buddy from back east thought it funny to call me 'Tony the Knee.'
None of this ever bothered me. Sure they thought I was mob material (never knew anyone in the mob nor did I do/run drugs) but it was all in good fun and kept the wackos at bay.
The Youngstown area had so many ethnic groups you would have needed a scorecard to keep track of who was what... if it mattered to you. For most of us young ones, it didn't matter as it did to some of the older people. Friends were friends and enemies were enemies, although most of the "enemy" business was really just school sports rivalries.
Pockets of ethnically and race related neighborhoods, communities and a few towns were common, but so many areas were fully blended. Perhaps I was naive and just wasn't aware, but I didn't see the ethnic issues growing up, except for a few out and out racists.
Guys on our football team picked up nicknames, and some of them wouldn't be considered politically correct these days. I could walk down to the basement and look through my high school yearbook and and under the class pictures I'd find nicknames of Wop and Polack and others that wouldn't get past the schoolbook editors these days. To the best of friends, they were just nicknames, but looking back now, I'm pretty confident that the slurs would have caused pain to some casual observers.
My Mom had a theory about inter-ethnic marriage. She felt people married within their own ethnic groups before World War II. After the war it became more common to see "mixed marriages". My Dad never left the neighborhood until he joined the Navy when the war started. He met and had close friendships with all stripes of fellow seamen. These more open minded ideas percolate back through the neighborhood and groups living just blocks away began to mix a lot more.
Anon T: Antknee, in our neighborhood your DW would be IBI....Italian by injection..��
Canadian: You are correct, I meant to say that Taft was in a lawn chair, although it looks as if he might be on a porch, so it could be a deck chair. At any rate, it needed to be a big chair to support such a big man!
OMK: A very Happy Birthday to you.
Leo: Hard to imagine that a week ago we were freezing and the trees were laden with ice and today, while we didn't make 80F, it was in the mid-70s and enjoying the sun.
My mother overheard her mil say ",Why couldn't Frank have married a girl from the parrish". Same mother who said "Joe's a nice boy but why do you have to be friends with an Italian".
I see that Taft does make chairs, but I do not see any lawn chairs. Happy birthday OMK. I hope you had a great day. My son and his three friends married girls from four different Asian countries. David and his Japanese wife will visit me tomorrow. I haven't see them since Dec 10. We didn't get to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas together. I am excited. We still won't have Kenny or Alan joining us. I missed my fasting labs this AM because my car was not dug out. I will go first thing tomorrow. I need the results in order to get an up to date glucose testing strip prescription. I like snow but enough already. Have a great evening.
SwampCat and other Louise Penny fans- just announced today is a new book called State of Terror to be published in October, co-written with Hillary Clinton. I don’t think it is a Gamache book. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hillary-clinton-louise-penny-novel-1.5924199
Penny has been busy with The Madness of Crowds coming out in August!
Owen - yes, I saw your verse very late. Liked the second a lot, give it an A, but I have to ding you on the first for rhyming stop with non-stop. LOL
Update to all on the shot. Very fast, no line at all. The first took a long time, but now, they've really got it organized here. No aches, either, by this morning. I've always been a lucky person, health-wise. Wish the same to all the good folks at the Corner.
Great job,Hahtoolah. So many wonderful pictures and cartoons. I particularly liked President Taft in his lawn chair - so appropriate for today's theme.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting my second COVID shot this morning. I'm really psyched. Glad the weather's warmed a bit here in the East. There was about an hour outdoor line for the first shot and it was brutally cold. In my Philly area, Feb. has been one Arctic storm after the next, but now the snow is finally melting. The other good news is my granddaughters have their birthdays in a few weeks. We'll have a small outdoor gathering for immediate family. Yay! It will be great to hug the girls again.
Good Morning, my crossword friends. I hope everyone is recovering from last week's freeze. It's hard to believe that a week ago temps were in the teens, and yesterday it was in the 70F and I was sitting out in the sun.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you popped in, Paul. We got our 2nd Covid shots last Wednesday and had no side effects. It's crazy how each state has its own rules on vaccine distribution. We were able to get our at the local pharmacy. We had a morning appointment for the shot. Due to weather conditions, however, the day's shipment was unable to reach the pharmacy, so the afternoon appointments had to be cancelled. Glad you will be able to see your granddaughters soon.
QOD: Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle company. ~ Samuel Pepys (Feb. 23, 1633 ~ May 26, 1703), English civil servant and diarist
Anyone else not really inspired by the puzzle genre with: 1) three random long theme answers that could be anything and that that have nothing to do with each other, 2) circled letters at either end of the theme answers, and 3) a reveal that has something to do with splitting or ends or separating? I feel like we're seeing these more and more in the LAT, and I just don't get the smile "aha" moment from this type of puzzle.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteZipped right through this one. Noticed that there were circles, but failed to look at them. I did see the broken-apart chairs after the reveal. I did not know that Taft is a lawn chair??? Thanx for the fun expo, Hahtoolah (Is your grandfather named Sheldon?), and for the exercise, Paul. (Dw is also due to get her 2nd Covid shot today. Got my second two weeks back.)
RED: I vented about changing stop signs from yellow to red yesterday. Still think it was a very bad idea.
HOAGY: Probably best known for Stardust. He wrote it in 1927.
LOCI: When is it LOCI, and when is it FOCI? Nobody seems to know.
FIR, no write-overs. I saw the theme just before I filled-in the third themer and it helped. FURTHER and “farther” confuse me at times, as do “laid” and “lain.” Luckily, I married to an ex English teacher.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I got our 2nd shots a day early. A Publix pharmacist called on Sunday. We thought he was going to postpone or cancel our appointment, but he asked if we wanted to come for a couple of extra shots that they had on hand. We walked over a few minutes later. My wife has no reactions, but I was feeling very fatigued yesterday. Today, I’m back to normal. I agree that it’s not fair that tech whizzes have such an advantage in getting shots. We’ve had two other options for getting the shots. I’m especially advantaged as a runner because I have a lot of experience in trying to register for very popular races, especially Disney challenges.
ReplyDeleteOn Sunday the clue for NLers was merely "Cards"
ReplyDeleteMy baseball awakening came in 1952 when the Redsox completed a blockbuster trade with the "Tigers". Pesky and Dropo departed, Kell and "Hoot" Evers came to Boston. Doerr and Junior Stevens retured. Williams was drafted back into the Marines and seeing the carnage, Joe's brother Dominic DiMaggio also retired. Who needs Free Agency. Furthur Redsox ANGST could have been added by clueing ENOS as " ___ Slaughter".
I thought it was spelled HOgie. Perps to the rescue.
My faithful friend Mr S. doesn't like to be called an IDIOT
Speedy Tuesday. I'd forgotten that it was Paul Coulter. Always enjoy the picturesque Hahtoolah write-up.
WC
Ok. LIU says Vern (Junior) Stevens didn't retire just lost effectiveness overnight. Traded after '52 Season.
DeleteDoerr had back problems.
Inconceivable that you would use that link for 1D) LIEGE...
ReplyDeleteClever theme today. My dad's last favorite chair was a WINGCHAIR that was also a recliner - it is now in my basement rec room!
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan & Paul!
Today's offering took 4:25. I didn't know Hoagy or Rudi, and only knew of Erica Jong (but I wouldn't mind getting to know Erica Durance).
ReplyDeletePlease note that I'm not complaining of the unknowns, simply pointing-out what I view as new/unfamiliar territory.
I agree with the earlier anonymous poster in that having words hidden in other words does not add any "joy" to the solving experience, and often other parts of the puzzle suffer from a forced theme. It seems like such added work for constructors to create a gimmick to get published, when there's no shame in a solid themeless puzzle, and I think many would prefer that option.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was an easy, breezy solve but my eyes saw Eas and I immediately thought Sea, then I saw Law and thought, hmm, what’s going on here? I never noticed the Y and N on the other end, so filling in Wing Chair (after removing Side Chair) was an Aha moment for me. I liked the Siege/Liege and In Re/In One duos and the mini creature-centric theme with Maul, Howls, Lair, Owlet, Rein, Fossil, and Cats (Hi, Mr. Meow!). Inge is becoming as ubiquitous as Erie.
Thanks, Paul, for a Tuesday treat and for stopping by; enjoy those hugs! Thanks, Hahtoolah, for a very informative and entertaining expo. I loved all of the cartoons but the Soapy Cat and Poker-playing Dogs got a big chuckle and the Gas Pump Dinosaur got a loud laugh! The picture of Taft brought home just how huge a man he was. I also enjoyed the Habanera performance.
I’m very happy to report that I’ll be getting my second COVID shot on Thursday. I hope I won’t have any worse a reaction than the very sore arm after the first shot.
Have a great day.
Hey Paul! I enjoy your crossword puzzles via The Washington Post. Just wanted to share with you that the definition/explanation of “idiots” used in the laxcrossword.com is outdated. The definition utilized the word “Mental Retardation” which is no longer used. The accepted nomenclature is “intellectual disability.” As a member of the disability community as a parent of children with disabilities, I wanted to help spread the word to discontinue usage of an unacceptable term. Thank you for listening and I look forward to more enlightenment with the crossword puzzles that lie ahead.
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme. However, in this case if you didn't like the theme you could solve it as a themeless. The theme was not needed in the solve, but IMO it added to the fun. Susan, always so enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to find GIFTS under the tree with a few perps. Cute.
I didn't know that TAFT is a brand name for chairs. President Taft must have needed a huge one. These days hospital wheel chairs are huge.
For deck chair I was picturing chairs on a cruise ship.
My first thought for online advertising was it's a PIA.
RUDI was new to me.
I blush to say I missed the C in SCOTT and CNET. I have heard of CNET and an ABC run would have produced the C, as the most likely fill for SCOTT.
I guess I "misremebered" that stop signs used to be yellow. Until 1954? I like the red. I read today that the back of the octagonal shape alerts drivers coming from the other direction that oncoming traffic has a stop sign.
LGLASOW, as a parent of an son with an intellectual disability I don't mind the word IDIOT, as long as it is not applied to the disabled. For some reason, I do mind retard and retarded.
My older son David had a doctor's appointment yesterday and hasn't called me. I am on tenter hooks. He is more likely to call with good news. He didn't answer my text with I'M OK.
YR
Hahtoolah: Excellent write-up & links. Good job!
ReplyDeleteThis was a FUN Tuesday solve.
I'm not recovering from last weeks freeze. It was wonderful here in the Tampa Bay Region.
Cheers!
LGlasgow - I hear you. I understand that certain words can cause some people deep discomfort. I would never associate the word idiot with intellectual disability. I believe the definition for "idiots" in today's LAT was "numbskulls," as in, annoying people. I'm sure must Cornerites know this, but it bears repeating that constructors submit clues along with their grids, but the final say is up to editors.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-51F here yesterday. I sat in a LAWN CHAIR on our deck wearing a T shirt while barbecuing!
-An EASter lilY would be poisonous to our 4-footed lily, so…
-LOFT for rent in Manhattan
-DES PLAINES – Fred Piscop also had this site of Ray Kroc’s first McDonalds in yesterday’s puzzle
-Umpires will endure RAGES until they say “the magic word”
-There is a huge FOSSIL FUEL pile and four acres of solar panels a quarter mile south of me
-Two spaces before you get your $200 Monopoly salary, you might have to PAY a $75 luxury tax
-The LOCI of points on a circle is called a circumference
-A fun expo, Susan!
Thanks, Paul, for the fine Tuesday puzzle and for stopping by the Corner. Todah rabah, Hahtoolah, for the recap. It was very nice to see Felix The Cat stop by - I have a clip of him tagged and saved for the right moment - but you beat me to it! Now, where did Oswald hope off to? (To where did Oswald hop off?)
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteEASY solve, today. Thanks Paul. Started to note what went in the circles, but voiced 'aha' upon reading the reveal @ 58a. Most of the fill was workaday, but it kept my interest. Liked the 10 ltr downs. Had 'laird' before LIEGE. FIR.
LOFT - comes from old English; akin to German Luft (air).
USO - My older cousin participated for a while (circa 1945)
LOCI or foci - Per the clue, it could be either one, since the concept of location isn't clear. But the perp LAIR gives us the 'L'.
SCOTT - I read Dilbert every. Sunday.
FORTY - Veertig in Dutch and L. German. The 'v' has the English 'f' sound. The 'g' has a very light gutteral glide.
SVEN Forkbeard - King of England for 5 weeks. His genes curse through today's Royals.
Love your intro, Hahtoolah.
Addendum
ReplyDelete-Finish the joke: ANON, “Doctor, doctor it hurts when I solve LA Times puzzles!”
A FIR Tuesday, thanks to Paul's EASY puzzle. Saw the types of chairs but wondered about WING in connection with all of them. Then I realized it described the position of the letters to the WINGs of the phrase. I agree with YR that themed puzzles add to the fun, but the theme can be ignored if desired. My main WOs were the spellings of RUDI and HOAGY (me too, WC), corrected by perps. Thanks for commenting too, Paul.
ReplyDeleteHahtoolah, another rich review for today's puzzle. Thanks for all the additional info! I am sitting in my favorite chair, a winged recliner like your father's, inanehiker, which lets me keep my leg elevated, and is quite cozy. Hope you all stay cozy today and experience improving weather.
Hi Everyone,
ReplyDeleteI've done all the puzzles for the last week, but I haven't had time to comment. We are up to our ears--er, gutters--with ice damming. Or is that damning? Hub is pPresident of our HOA so he's been overwhelmed with requests for a roofer. We are doing fine. I manage my ice pretty well. I don't heat the upstairs in the winter--heat rises and it slows the pace of the snow melt on the roof. (Aside from insulation) Our ten-foot icicles are now about 2 ft long. I should be back in crossword corner shape tomorrow.
Thanks to our constructors and explicators for weathering the storms. And it's finally sunny with no snow in sight.
Stay well, cozy and safe.
Thanks for the fun today, Paul, Hahtoolah, and Rich! My daughter lived for some years in Florence, so the ARNO is one river I know. FIR and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteTypical 2's-day. The theme obvious even for me. Just moved an old WINGCHAIR to the mancave to make way for a new couch and electric push button recliner. My vertically challenged DW had trouble reaching the lever on the old one.
ReplyDeleteHahtoolah, hope Taft's chair was double reinforced! Adirondack chairs supposedly tilt toward the sun. Habanera: "Love is a rebellious bird" huh? Like a defiant parakeet? 😄
Almost spelled it "Mall". Guessed at SALA, same as Italian (camera, stanza or sometimes SALA). The ARNO, was across its source the Appenine Mts from me.. Same with almost seasons for SEESAWS.
Haven't see IMPEND without the ing. Sorry HOAGY, first thought you were Hogey. SIEGE, the opposite of battle (starve 'em out so there is no battle)
A long Enoun 😡 spared from these "inventions" for awhile, knew it wouldn't last. Sleek as AERO without the suffix dynamic new to me.
Symtoms of idiotitis: 🙄
Food for us geezers.....FOSSILFUEL
Emancipation: "you don't ____ anymore"...ONUS
Some playwrights, give 'em an ____ and they take a yard!..INGE
Number that's part of Lizzie's whacks _____ FORTY.
Goblin's seat..IMPEND
Desi's center of activity was _____ LOCI
Great visuals Hahtoolah... thanks for dropping in Mr. Coulter.
. Yet another snowstorm as I type, looking out the window a cardinal braves the storm
I'm glad there's only one name with the letters E_NST. Otherwise it would have been a Tuesday DNF! Then I would have had to go eat a box of Little Debbie Swiss Rolls and hate myself the rest of the day. =P
ReplyDeleteNice to learn a new constellation, ARA.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Paul Coulter! I always like your puzzles and this one was a breeze. I finished so quickly I hardly noticed the theme until reviewing it later. How nice for you that you will see your granddaughters. Mine came over Sunday and I love having them here. I have three granddaughters and one grandson and they are growing too quickly. I am sure you find that, too.
The Dilbert comic is printed in the business section of the Arizona Republic so I don't always see it.
Hahtoolah, it's always a treat to read your Blog and chuckle at the cartoons you choose. I like your sense of humor.
EASTER LILY? My poinsettias are still alive! I hope they can co-exist.
Have an exciting day, everyone! It's in the 70s here and the sun is shining brightly.
Learning moment:
ReplyDeleteNever heard of a wing chair,
In looking it up it turns out the complete term
Is "wingback chair," indicating the wings that radiate up from
The arms on either side of the back.
a little further research revealed this...
Fun Tuesday puzzle, Paul--and thank you too for stopping by. And your pictures are always cool, Hahtoolah, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteMade me sad to learn that INGE died of suicide--I like his work so much. But glad I got most of the names, including BEN and RUDI and SCOTT and ERNST. Oh, and, of course, the ERICAS. My favorite clue was "things sometimes found under a tree." I kept thinking 'grass,' 'pine cones,' 'leaves,' but then it hit me: Christmas tree GIFTS! Lots of fun.
Have a good day, everybody.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul for the fun Tuesday puzzle. I had a couple of hiccups (see: WOs) but I managed just fine. I did think they were called Wing-back chairs though.
Wonderful comic filled expo Hahtoolah! Loved the cat messing w/ the grid. AND then following up with a Samuel Pepys QoD? Nice.
WOs: TBS->TNT; wanted twenty winks and entered the TW; iVAN->SVEN, LOCI was pluraled S at first.
ESPs: ERICAs, RUDI, HOAGY, ARA
Fav: ID-10-Ts -- it's standard nomenclature for many help-desk invoices.
USO: Grandma met her second hubby at a USO dance. She was 6'+ and that dago was 5'4"; Gramps apparently enjoyed the view during the dance :-)
Back in the day, L0pht Heavy Industries was at the forefront of hacking tools. My computers and electronics bench is in my LOFT. //DW is trying to redecorate it :-(
Nice to have you back MdF!
Fetch the Comfy Chair.
Enjoyed reading everyone! Y'all have a great afternoon!
Cheers, -T
We have those plastic deck chairs you can get on sale at Home Depot,
ReplyDeleteAnd leave them out in the Florida sun all year long.
Just recently had some guests,
One of which sat in the above mentioned death trap.
He leaned back, and the back broke away from the chair with half of one
Of one of the arms and deposited him head first onto the pool deck.
I thanked him for saving us the trouble of
Finding this out for ourselves...
If you have these chairs, and they are discoloured from the sun,
Throw them out now...
ReplyDeleteThis PC grid filled fast and no drama involved.
Walgreens called this AM...my Vax appt that was canceled last week (thanks Texas) has been rescheduled for tomorrow. I’ll believe it when I say “ouch”, but at least things are moving again. Still no other available appointments to be had anywhere, then again SC is #46 at distribution.
That chair Taft is in looks kind of like a glider. I wonder what it looked like later in the day, this is the man who had a custom sized bathtub.
Stay safe.
ReplyDeleteAlso, to some “dago” may be a cute word, with me I’d either ask you to apologize or step outside.
Just to get away from Monty Python for a moment,
ReplyDeleteAnd go with something completely different,
Here is the complete "inconceivable" quote.
Actually, I have started reading the 1st comment before
Watching YouTube videos as a guide to knowing whether it is
Worthwhile or not.
The first comment currently under this video says:
to be fair, the entire movie is a classic quote...
To Madam Defarge,
ReplyDeleteAnd anyone else with huge icicles hanging from their eaves,
I was plagued with this for years,
And learned that the cure is to have a well ventilated attic.
Even with vents in the gables, or directly on the roof,
Airflow from the eaves (think gutters) to the vents is most often
Blocked by idiots installing insulation.
You will find that they stuffed the insulation all the way into the eaves
Blocking the needed air vents that are installed between the gutters
And the house walls for this very reason.
You only need insulation over the living area, not the overhang
That contains the vents and attaches to the gutters.
I fixed all this, and still had water dripping in between my walls
Because the heat would melt the snow on the roof which would refreeze
In the gutters which backed the melting snow up into the house!
You want zero heat in the attic!
So I used painters tape to cover up the cracks in the edges of the pull down
Attic door. While doing this, someone used the bathroom,
Turned on the light, which shone into the attic thru the air vent holes in
The light fixture that are designed to release heat and stop fires from overheated lights.
I replaced all these lights with sealed LEDs and have no more problems.
So, if you have any hi-hat light fixtures with incandescent bulbs,
You are dumping huge amounts of heat into your attic!
End of rant!
PVX - I will apologize to you.
ReplyDeleteIn our family, it's a term of endearment for the elders. As in "that crazy dago made a tamper from a 2x4 and a 2x6."
Yeah, Pop made that and then told me to go pound sand :-)
//we were building a patio behind the garage.
Great-grandpa, sponsored by his cousin, came over from Italy in the early 1900's (I have the log from Ellis Island framed in the front-room) and married his home-town sweetheart. Grandpa was born in IL but kept the old-world ways; as do Pop & I (ok, I'm pretty watered down...). We're proud Italian-Americans and poke fun at each other for nutty stuff we do/make.
Cheers, -T
Anon T and PVX
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 16 (1966) I had apart time job at Firestone downtown Utica (80% of the east side was Italian-American).
My 22yo wise guy boss one day called my a "dumb guinea (sp?)"
I had never heard the term before.
Me: "A dumb what?"
Him: "Dumb guinea, an italian"
Me : "Like New Guinea? What does that have to do with Italians?"
Him: "Oh (f-word), nevermind"
You can't be insulted if you've never heard the insult...😉
Thank you Paul for a pleasant Tuesday puzzle and thanks to Susan as always for your witty, entertaining review. Now can you please assure us that no CATS were actually BATHED in the creation of this blog? :-)
ReplyDeleteWhile I figured out that the circled letters were all types of CHAIRS, I didn't really need that to solve the puzzle. Does my FIR still count?
23A I LIUd Erica Durance and it turns at that she is pretty famous, to Canadians at least. She played Lois Lane in SMALLVILLE and Dr Alex Reid in SAVING HOPE (neither of which I've seen). And not that it really matters, but she has also been named as one of the "Sexiest 100 Women in the World" along with several other similar accolades.
62A Did MAX ERNST create the first CLOTHESPIN DOLLS?
5D Well the BIG GUY could try sitting closer and closer to the SEESAW FULCRUM until he and the LITTLE GUY balance. Where is the PLAYGROUND LADY when you need her?
34D INGE is really GLUEY. His 3rd appearance in less than a week.
51D The ARNO also bisects FLORENCE, where it is best known for the PONTE VECCHIO, a covered bridge with jewelry shops all across it. Twenty-seven years ago on our first visit there, Dw and I bought each other new wedding rings to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary. A year of so later I lost mine while tilling our 1/4 acre garden. Miraculously, later that summer while weeding the veggies I looked down in the dirt and there it was!
Gary @9:57AM Brilliant. My Mother always said "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all". And that was really a nice one. Touché!
Cheers,
Bill
Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Paul and Hahtoolah.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in EASY time and saw the WING CHAIRS. (But I was a little disappointed that the WINGs were not very even (3,1 3,1 2,2) making for a very lopsided bird!)
(d'o, YR - I think that Hahtoolah's Taft picture had a typo in the caption. Should it be "Taft IN a lawn chair"? I see that Taft is a furniture company (learning moment), but is there really a Taft lawn chair??? Inquiring minds want to know . . .
I waited for perps to decide between Shed or SILO.
Imminent would not fit, and IMPEND seemed too short without the -ing.
Our 2020 "vacation choice" was not a TRIP but a Stay-cation.
Canadian election day is MON not TUE.
The clue for FORTY brought a smile, as did the lightbulb moment for GIFTS. (Yes Misty, I was thinking of grass.)
Lucina, I still have my poinsettia on my kitchen table. DH gets tired of it and I move it to my plant rack in the window at the end of February; it goes outside as filler in the perennial garden for the summer (but it never flowers again unfortunately!).
No Covid vaccines here for the general public yet. Long-term care, retirement home people have been done and now health care workers are receiving. 80 and over next on the list as our vaccine shipments ramp up again after a few weeks delay for production improvements in European plants that we are receiving from. The sooner the better!
waseeley - you made me look up ERICA Durance as this Canadian did not immediately recognize her from that photo. But I do remember her from Saving Hope, but didn't know her name. I'm not a huge fan of that show with its angels!
Wishing you all a great day. (Snow is melting with today's mild temps of 40F. Love your cardinal photo, Ray-O.)
Thank You Mr. Paul Coulter for nice and easy puzzle. I enjoyed it. Thank you for also responding to our CW blog.
ReplyDeleteThank you Hahtoolah for your humorous and perceptive links, and lots of hypertext go-to info. I was a-looking for your cats, and I was not disappointed ! I learned a new hebrew word - Todah Rabah ...from MalManatee.
Re: The word Idiots, ..... in our society today, it is always difficult to clue certain words in an inoffensive politically correct manner, and still use that word. Provided, of course that the word is still permissible, unlike, say, the N word. Anon-T's use of an old racial term, as above, however endearing the use of it, may be, construed or intended , to be .... calls for a detailed explanation, as above.
TAFT: We, in Ohio, have always been very proud of our Pres Wm Howard Taft, who served in the judiciary and then in the executive branch, and then as Chf Just, SCOTUS Sup Crt. Those days were the good ole days when such things were possible.
Although Wm. Howard Taft was never in the Congress, his son (Robert Sr.) and grandson (Robert, Jr.) were US Senators from Ohio, and his great grandson (Robert A., III) was a Ohio Gov.(1991-1999 ).
Have a nice day, all.
I am proud to announce that today I shall be 574 years young--in dog years.
ReplyDeleteAccording to my mother (who should have known) I was born at 7:19 pm PST just one day after my grandpa's birthday. She was a little disappointed that we missed his b'day.
He was a twin, and she was NOT disappointed that I was not.
I remember the n name of RUDI Gernreich.
He was in the news (1961), but not for inventing the thong. The thong (as we now know it) came much, much later. RUDI created the one-piece--shown in Hahtoolah's illustration, or "monokini"--a breasts-free swimsuit.
I remember I vividly because I had just returned home from England to San Francisco, and found myself spending more time than usual down on the Marina and at the beach near Yacht Harbor, hoping to catch sight of some daring young ladies.
(Nobody wearing RUDI showed up.)
~ OMK
___________
DR: A 3-way on the opposite side.
The Main diagonal offers poor possibilities for an anagram. It's all vowels (all but one consonant).
The top diagonal gives one possibility (11 of 14 letters) --a label we may attach to either the co-star (with James Cromwell) of the 1995 movie, Babe, or to myself (yrs truly) this evening when I dig into my birthday dinner (on order from our local Chinese restaurant).
Yep, you guessed it, that label is...
"ADORABLE PIG"!
Canada eh..There's a way to make a poinsettia rebloom the following season. A complicated exposure to the right amount of light and dark. Sounds too time intensive
ReplyDeleteSend us down a February thaw across our mutual border 🌤
Re: slurs....
ReplyDeleteI grew up in SPI. Nothing but Irish, Italians, Germans, Polish, and Black people there. I had friends in all groups (and sub-groups; Nerds, Dorks, Jocks, and Preps).
When I moved to Shreveport, LA in HS, I, as an Italian, was a novelty.
My friends called me "The Wop."
DW's HS friend who was dating a buddy of mine said to her, "You gotta meet The Wop. I can't date him 'cuz I'm going with [redacted] but you'd like him. He's al little nerdy though."
DW became the She Wop / IBM (Italian By Marriage).
Later in life, at Tinker AFB, a buddy from back east thought it funny to call me 'Tony the Knee.'
None of this ever bothered me. Sure they thought I was mob material (never knew anyone in the mob nor did I do/run drugs) but it was all in good fun and kept the wackos at bay.
Too much of the ethnic slurs? [So I Married an Axe Murderer - 3:42]
Cheers, -T
Didn't refresh before posting say...
ReplyDeleteLOL DR and Happy Birthday OMK! Keep those B-days coming* - we love your commentary!
-T
*yes, I know you're the oldest in your fam to make it this far. Keep on truckin' buddy-boy.
The Youngstown area had so many ethnic groups you would have needed a scorecard to keep track of who was what... if it mattered to you. For most of us young ones, it didn't matter as it did to some of the older people. Friends were friends and enemies were enemies, although most of the "enemy" business was really just school sports rivalries.
ReplyDeletePockets of ethnically and race related neighborhoods, communities and a few towns were common, but so many areas were fully blended. Perhaps I was naive and just wasn't aware, but I didn't see the ethnic issues growing up, except for a few out and out racists.
Guys on our football team picked up nicknames, and some of them wouldn't be considered politically correct these days. I could walk down to the basement and look through my high school yearbook and and under the class pictures I'd find nicknames of Wop and Polack and others that wouldn't get past the schoolbook editors these days. To the best of friends, they were just nicknames, but looking back now, I'm pretty confident that the slurs would have caused pain to some casual observers.
My Mom had a theory about inter-ethnic marriage. She felt people married within their own ethnic groups before World War II. After the war it became more common to see "mixed marriages". My Dad never left the neighborhood until he joined the Navy when the war started. He met and had close friendships with all stripes of fellow seamen. These more open minded ideas percolate back through the neighborhood and groups living just blocks away began to mix a lot more.
ReplyDeleteAnon T: Antknee, in our neighborhood your DW would be IBI....Italian by injection..��
Thank you for the B'day greeting, Anonymous T ~ You are a first-rate tracker!
ReplyDelete~ OMK
This is a test. This is only a test: Oakland Mill on Liberty Reservoir
ReplyDeleteFIR in pretty good time this morning. Figured out all of the long fills easily enough, and I even remembered to check out the circles.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Paul and Hahtoolah!
Eighty degrees today in beautiful downtown Clodine, TX, today. What a difference a few days makes.
Later…
HBTY OMK ! Whether it is in dog years or counting the orbits of our rock around our sun without the factor of seven.
ReplyDeleteManatee: בבקשה
ReplyDeleteCanadian: You are correct, I meant to say that Taft was in a lawn chair, although it looks as if he might be on a porch, so it could be a deck chair. At any rate, it needed to be a big chair to support such a big man!
OMK: A very Happy Birthday to you.
Leo: Hard to imagine that a week ago we were freezing and the trees were laden with ice and today, while we didn't make 80F, it was in the mid-70s and enjoying the sun.
My mother overheard her mil say ",Why couldn't Frank have married a girl from the parrish". Same mother who said "Joe's a nice boy but why do you have to be friends with an Italian".
ReplyDeleteWC
I see that Taft does make chairs, but I do not see any lawn chairs.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday OMK. I hope you had a great day.
My son and his three friends married girls from four different Asian countries.
David and his Japanese wife will visit me tomorrow. I haven't see them since Dec 10. We didn't get to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas together. I am excited. We still won't have Kenny or Alan joining us.
I missed my fasting labs this AM because my car was not dug out. I will go first thing tomorrow. I need the results in order to get an up to date glucose testing strip prescription. I like snow but enough already.
Have a great evening.
SwampCat and other Louise Penny fans- just announced today is a new book called State of Terror to be published in October, co-written with Hillary Clinton. I don’t think it is a Gamache book.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hillary-clinton-louise-penny-novel-1.5924199
Penny has been busy with The Madness of Crowds coming out in August!
I didn't get any poems out this morning, but Paul is one of my fans, so I can't disappoint him. Hope he still reads this belated entry.
ReplyDeleteThe fat lady's ARIA must STOP.
It's not Operatic, it's more like Pop!
It's not Sondheim,
But it's only daytime,
And SOAPY operas go on non-stop!
BEN would DOTE on ERICA.
He gave her GIFTS from Africa,
An expensive scent
From the ORIENT,
And other such esoterica!
{B, B+.}
OMKeith:
ReplyDeleteI hope you enjoyed your birthday today. Many happy returns of the day!
Owen - yes, I saw your verse very late. Liked the second a lot, give it an A, but I have to ding you on the first for rhyming stop with non-stop. LOL
ReplyDeleteUpdate to all on the shot. Very fast, no line at all. The first took a long time, but now, they've really got it organized here. No aches, either, by this morning. I've always been a lucky person, health-wise. Wish the same to all the good folks at the Corner.