google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, March 26, 2021, Gary Larson

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Mar 26, 2021

Friday, March 26, 2021, Gary Larson

 Title: Don't let this puzzle bug you because it is about a cartoon.


Gary has entered the fray seeking to publish scads of puzzles this year. I had the pleasure to blog two in January on the 15th and the 29th. He has been published in every major venue after his late 2018 debut in the NYT.  Today we are faced with the world of Phylum: Arthropoda (all arthropods), Class: Insecta (only the insects). Now if I only had John Lampkin's encyclopedic knowledge and picture library...but I digress. As it turns out, while I have heard of the movie, I never have seen it, Luckily, I do not believe that made the solving any harder. I could try to impress you with the knowledge that there are more than 900 MILLION species of bugs on earth or provide a LINK  to a wonderful British bug book (ok I love alliteration) instead it's time to actually talk about the puzzle.

It really does not play like a Friday, with a less than 5 letter per word average, but it is after all a tribute puzzle to the second film from the Disney/Pixar partnership. I have now watched it and am impressed with the theme as I initially thought Gary had taken actual parts of the movie to use. The long non-theme fill -  ACCOLADE, ATYPICAL, FORMERLY, MADE NICE,  RESTLESS, and TWIST TIE are all very nice. So let's examine the themers.

17A. Nightspot in "A Bug's Life"?: CRICKET CLUB (11). The question mark should have been enough to let me know it was not part of the movie. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's, developed the modern rules of play and conduct. Some HISTORY.

27A. Purse in "A Bug's Life"?: FLEA BAG (7) A literal clue for a pejorative in America for a very cheap, dirty hotel. It is now a hit British TV show. Fleabag.

37A. Fancy dance in "A Bug's Life"?: FLY BALL (7). Some baseball for Boomer and C.C. and some old South and dancing.

50A. Queue in "A Bug's Life"?: BEE LINE (7). By now we yanks have accepted the British queue for line, and while they might fly together I doubt they stand in line together.

58A. Fruity beverage in "A Bug's Life"?: BEETLE JUICE (11). I doubt that beetles or even Beatles would make a fruity juice but it does bring us good old-fashioned puzzle symmetry. We are not talking the Rolling Stones or David Bowie here. I guess I will never learn political correctness to give up on humor.

On to the rest...

Across:

1. Merged thespian union: AFTRA. I am too young to know of this union before the merger on September 17, 1952, when the Television Authority and AFRA (American Federation of Radio Artists) which had been formed big radio stars like Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, and others, merged to create a new union: the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. During my off and on work repping musicians and models I have dealt with them. They have now merged with SAG.

6. Stares: GAPES. Not a word I like.

11. Sault __ Marie: STE.


14. Show fear: COWER. The etymology from Middle Low German kūren ‘lie in wait.’

15. Draw in the air: AROMA. Very tricky, a draw meaning something that attracts others.

16. Disadvantage: CON

19. Throw __: RUG. Why is it a small rug; several can be used in a room.

20. Meditation sounds: OMS.

21. "__ Alyscamps": van Gogh work: LES
                                                                    
22. Canon competitor: LEICA. Cameras before cell phones became so sophisticated.

24. Hang out in the sun: LET DRY. Down here it is way of life.

29. "Star Wars" droid: ARTOO.


30. Normandy battle town: ST LO.

32. "Raising Buchanan" star Auberjonois: RENE. The movie seems interesting. 

33. Not-so-VIP group: D-LIST. We are obsessed with ratings.
 
34. Garlicky sauces: AIOLIS. Very common fill.

36. Private __: EYE. My eyes are far from private as so many people are examining them these days.

39. Disfigure: MAR.

42. Skeleton's place?: CLOSET. But how do you keep them there/

43. Hopping mad: IRATE. An Easter clue?

45. Mythological ship: ARGO. Oh my, another CSO to me.

48. Recipe info: Abbr.: AMTS.

49. Frozen custard chain in 14 states: ANDY'S. We have one of these frozen CUSTARD businesses in Lakeland, Florida, This is the home of Publix which does not yet offer the product.

52. Swallow: ACCEPT. Or spit?

53. Winged, perhaps: AVIAN.

54. Down: EAT.

56. Zip: NIL.

57. Member of the fam: SIS.

63. Day before Thanksgiving, e.g.: EVE. Day before everything.

64. Woolly, say: OVINE. Sheep family; cows bovine. 

65. Ancient Peruvians: INCAS.

66. Actor Benicio __ Toro: DEL. A successful PUERTO RICAN actor.

67. Alprazolam brand: XANAX. Don't you know all their generic names?

68. Believes: FEELS. Meh

Down:

1. Four-star review, e.g.: ACCOLADE. Historically from early 17th century: French, from Provençal acolada, literally ‘embrace around the neck (when bestowing knighthood)’, from Latin ad- ‘at, to’ + collum ‘neck’.

2. At one time: FORMERLY.

3. Flexible fastener: TWIST TIE

4. __ hall: REC.

5. Ancient sanctuary: ARK. Does this mean Noah's Ark or the Ark of the Covenant? We appear to have many religious scholars here now. But not, 7D. Rainbows, say: ARCS

6. Box office take: GATE.

8. Party pro: POLitician.

9. Earthbound bird: EMU. Just not Lemu.

10. Valuable fur: SABLEVERSUS MINK.

11. Professional copyist: SCRIBE.

12. Colorful bird: TOUCAN. Play this game...

13. Occupy: ENGAGE.

18. Tarzan player Ron: ELY.

23. Good listeners?: EARS.

25. They're allowed: DOS.

26. Cracking-up letters: ROTFL. Rolling on the floor laughing.

27. Fountain orders: FLOATS.

28. Veg out: LOLL.

30. Bully's reply: SAYS ME.

31. Land with yaks: TIBET.

35. Like a pelvic artery: ILIAC.

38. Advance: LOAN.

39. Tried to get along: MADE NICE.

40. Irregular: ATYPICAL.

41. Fidgety: RESTLESS.

42. Tab, e.g.: COLA.

44. Org. with an elephant in its logo: RNC. Republic National Committee.

45. Put down: ABASED.

46. Bring back: REVIVE.

47. Dr. Seuss' real last name: GEISELTHEODORE.

51. Mail collector: INBOX.

52. Had a bite: ATE.

54. Italian hot spot: ETNA.

55. "Jeopardy!" name for 36 years: ALEX. RIP. 

59. Actress Longoria: EVA.

60. German article: EIN.

61. Brand "choosy moms choose," in ads: JIF.



62. French article: UNE. Deux trois, time to go.

It ain't easy but I made it through another abbreviated write-up. It was a delightful puzzle and blessedly not too difficult. Thank you Gary and all of you, as we count down.


Today my wonderful, beautiful bride Oo was sworn in as an American citizen. She did it on her own






63 comments:

Anonymous said...

This one took 10:50, and there wasn't much to bug me. I have never heard of Rene Auberjonois or "Raising Buchanan," but the top-left section was the trickiest to figure-out, though I'm not sure why.

The spelling of "R2" as "artoo" does bug me, but that's not the constructor's fault as it seems to be the accepted way, for whatever reason.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Was zipping right along until I came to the ANDYS/ACCEPT stack. Tried ALDIS, ARBYS, and then twiddled my alphabet until ANDYS showed up. At one point ACCEPT was INGEST. Quite the Wite-Out mess. Thanx, Gary and Lemonade. (I'm about as far from a religious scholar as you can get, but I'm pretty sure the ARK clue refers to Noah's Ark.)

FLEABAG: It's a funny series. It was on Netflix...maybe still is.

BEETLE JUICE: I think the name of the movie was a play on the star Betelgeuse in Orion.

Got that deadbolt installed yesterday. It otto-locks after 90 seconds. Dw says Kitten D (yeah, we ran out of names) now worships it, like a golden calf.

TTP said...



Well nuts. Haste makes errors. Three of them.
1) Who is ALEc ? Thought the answer to the cross was XANAc.
2) Threw in B for the LIST of "Not-so-VIP group" as I was speeding along. Shoulda left it blank.
3) Had ABASED. Somehow ended up with an i where the S belonged.

Other than those three misteaks, it was all good. At the first "A Bug's Life" theme clue, my initial thought was that I'd be in for a long solve because I've never seen it and don't know anything about it. Didn't need to...

I really liked each of the theme clues and resulting answers. "Fancy dance" and "Queue" were the favs. FLY BALL and BEE LINE. Cute.

Never heard of ANDY'S. Looks like they are in Kansas and Missouri. Tinbeni's side business ?

Leers ? No. Ogles ? No. Gazes ? No. GAPES ? Yes. Gapers ? The oft seen red-eyed rubberneckers on the freeways and surface streets in and around Houston. OK, not just Houston. They're everywhere !

Also liked the area with the clues "Swallow" and "Fruit beverage" and the intersecting answers of ATE and EAT.

Thank you, Gary, and thank you, Captain of the ARGO.

inanehiker said...

Amusing theme - like Lemonade I thought at first these were all actual names and places in "A Bug's Life" which I saw once but it wasn't in the line-up of videos we owned and ran a hundred times when my kids were little. But they were all just generic bug references with a corresponding "in the language" phrase so I was off and running. I've never seen the movie BEETLEJUICE - I'm not a big fan of Tim Burton movies.

We have an ANDY'S 30 min north of us and 45 min south of us - no upgrade over the Culver's and Freddy's we have in town- so not a place we would go out of our way for.

Unfortunately, the XANAX was an easy one for me - second only to opiates- the benzodiazepine class is definitely a drug that is abused and has street value.

Thanks Lemonade and Gary!

Yellowrocks said...

Easy for a Friday. The theme was evident early on and sped the solve. Perps readily helped suss the names. Only ANDYS was totally new to me. Fun puzzle, Gary. Lemonade, your write-up was interesting and well done. It didn't seem abbreviated.
People often erroneously use FEEL when they mean BELIEVE.
B LIST before D LIST. That bad, huh?
Thought of GAZES first but knew the Z wouldn't work.
If you are not careful a throw rug can throw you. Stores do sell non-skid ones.

jfromvt said...

Fun puzzle, with a theme that was easy to figure out. Had some trouble with the NW (AIRDRY and BLiST), but eventually got it.

Mark said...

Another Friday fail. NW got me this time. Refused to change airDRY. Had BTEAM.
Never heard of ROTFL and LMFAO didn't seem crossword appropriate.

Big Easy said...

Oh boy, I had a hard time starting in the NW with the unknown AFTRA, FORMERLY two other entities. And on the theme answers I had filled CLUB, BAG, & BALL before the insects. Oposite for BEETLE JUICE-beetle was already in place by perps.

ACCOLADES to Gary for the puzzle with very few proper names (RENE, ELY, ALEX EVA, & DEL) that were easy ones.

GAPES- I'm with Lemonade on that word; never seen it (or SNARF) except in crosswords.
ANDYS- total unknown.
XANAX- a gimme for me. My job? I managed a wholesale pharmaceutical distributor and handled all the purchasing of drugs.

Mark@7:53- I also struggled in the NW with only ARTOO & EYE in place for a long time. Didn't know it it would be SHAKE, SWEAT, or COWER for 'show fear'. Wanted NERDS before D-LIST made it.

John E said...

Like Mark, I couldn't suss ROTFL. Finally quit trying after I quadruple checked perps.

TTP said...


ANDYS - "... with locations in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas."

There are 20 of them in Illinois, and 4 within about 10 miles of our house. I'd have never known.

Hungry Mother said...

FIR, but I had to eke it out. Nice to see SCRIBE in the grid.

desper-otto said...

I checked, there are 8 Andy's in Texas. The nearest to me is 50 miles away; the other seven are all more than 100 miles. Not surprised I didn't recognize the name.

Wilbur Charles said...

Lemonade, the play on words is a combination of said movie and star betalgeuse. Ah, D-O had it first.

I'll have to take FIW. I'll blame poor lighting and wrong glasses. I got the tense wrong and inked ABASEs, thus sEL Toro(Benicio). Mr S. alive and well.

Anon, I agree. If it's R2 then it should be AR TWO.

And here I was thinking these were Bugs Bunny cartoon shorts.

Speaking of opiates: which is vicodin vs percocet? I gather one is OXY and the other is HYDRO. Ironically, I'm in AA but have never had interest in drugs as I hear so many do.

This seemed easier than Thursday. I inked ROTFL right away but NW was blank because of that bad lighting*.

Thanks L214 and I hope the eyes and disposition improve. Tsk, tsk You of all people feeding the trolls.

WC

*That's my story and I'm stick'n to it

TokenCreek said...

Worked from NE to SW. AFTRA took five perps. Once I sussed the theme, and my brain started to clear, things sorta fell into place. Lend/loan PO box/in box. Lemon and the argonauts. Cute. Skeleton's place was a groaner. TC out

Malodorous Manatee said...

The insect theme became apparent fairly quickly and moved the solve along. Still, this one took about fifteen minutes to complete. I did not know ANDYS and, in the NW, I first tried to go with something to do with getting a sun tan rather that a laundry-related concept. That coupled with having no idea that anything "worse" than A or B-LIST was a term that anyone ever used slowed things down for a while. Hmmmm, who are the F-list celebs? D-List I know but it's not spelled that way and it's more of a SEC thing. Thanks, Lemonade for the recap. Abbreviated or not, it was fun and informative.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Larson has good stuff. Theme was neat. Three articles: LES, EIN, UNE; one define, two indefinite. Had GOP before RNC. Wite-out to the rescue. No problems; FIR.
ANDYS - We don't have any here in NY. Got from perps.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Lemon’s summative paragraph catches my idea of the puzzle exactly
- Disney has introduced Next Gen Queues to make the waits more pleasant
-Private EYE? Mais non! As he speaks of himself in the third person, Hercule would say - “Poirot is a detective”
-Wanna see what skeletons are in your closet? Run to be a POL.
-I watched a great documentary about how Gutenberg put SCRIBES out of work
-Judger Judy, “Put on your listening EARS!”
-ANDY’S Pizza in my college town was the greatest!!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a fun, fresh theme but not Friday level of difficulty, IMO. I, too, thought the answers would be movie-based rather than a play on words, but it made the solve easier. I liked Ate crossing Eat and the RNC/Pol, Arcs/Ark duos, and the hat trick of foreign language pronouns: Les, Une, and Ein. The icing on the cake was the creatures mini theme: Toucan, Emu, Sable, Avian, and Ovine. Never heard of Andy’s before or Raising Buchanan, although I’m quite familiar with René Auberjonois.

Thanks, Gary, for a fun Friday offering and thanks, Lemony, for the fun and facts in your review.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

I hope the solver who prides himself on speedy completions does not always aim to finish fastest in everything they do.

Malodorous Manatee said...

....talk about tee-ing it up! Some things ARE best done slowly - although fast can be good, also.

Further, and speaking only for myself, the app I use for the LAT puzzles has a built in timer so the time is always there - to be ignored or noted. I use the time-to-complete, and occasionally share that info here, as an indication, a surrogate if you will,for the level of challenge that the puzzle has posed for me. That level is formed by a combination of the cluing style, the vocabulary used, the number of b.s. abbreviations used, my synchronicity with the constructors mind set, and other factors. My mother, who was an avid solver, taught me that one has to get inside the head of the constructor. Thanks, mom! Neither pride nor competition are part of the equation.

NaomiZ said...

I enjoyed imagining the CRICKET CLUB, the FLY BALL, etc., and was glad not to be called upon to remember details of the animated cartoon, "A Bug's Life." The theme also helped with the solve, which I count as a plus. ANDY'S was unknown but perp-able; RENE was also unknown but made sense. FIR and it FEELS fine! Today we're going to banish the leavening from our home, and some of you ARTOO. Thanks, Gary, Rich, and Lemonade!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Agree with TTP....If you're not "cruciverbally" ogling or leering you are probably GAPING.

FIR....Nice Friday fun: one inkover:

Never heard of ANDYS. Is BEETLEJUICE the correct pronunciation of the star Betelgeuse? HS science teacher pronounced it more like "baytel guys" (hard "s")

Fidgety clue answer coulda been antsy to fit the bug theme. Phoebe Waller-Bridge won an emmy for her role in the great Brit series FLEABAG. (Mentioned by Lemonade, BTW enjoyed etymological explanations)

No CW visits to St.LO in like forever. Good omen for slow return to traveling?

Per the OT...In the end when the rain stopped an ARC 🌈 was set over the ARK. (And 900 million pairs of bug species hit the road.)

You have to ante____ TIBET
"______ can play at that game".....TOUCAN.
"______ a case for that new camera?" LEICA
Subsequent.....AFTRA
palindromic prescription ....XANAX

Hit 75 yesterday, snow 🌨 predicted Monday...ARRGGGHHH 😖

Lucina said...

Hola!

What a NICE puzzle from Gary Larson! I started in the NE and it just flooded together very quickly.

A Bug's Life was long, long ago so I barely remember it but it wasn't necessary for the solve. Of course, I love the play on words! FLEABAG is the funniest!

Seeing ALEX just makes me sad.

If ANDY'S is in Arizona I don't know where as I've not seen it. I will take a CSO at LET DRY which is what I do with my laundry; I hang it outside.

An ACCOLADE for you, too, Lemonade! Thank you for the stellar review.

ILIAC pain is nothing to laugh about!

CLOSET had the best clue, IMO.

Please enjoy your day, everyone!

AnonymousPVX said...


Well, I saw A Bug’s Life with my kids when it came out, didn’t help, so no need to have seen the film, as was stated by others. Also saw Antz as they were both out at the same time.

NW was last to go.

A few write-overs....

OGLES/GAPES, AIRDRY/LETDRY, BLIST/DLIST, TSPS/AMTS, POBOX/INBOX, ILIAL/ILIAC, MAKENICE/MADENICE.

Also never heard of ANDY’S, investigation shows one store in SC at the complete other end of the state.

But perfectly fine for a Friday.

Got the 2nd shot yesterday. Some arm soreness late last night, no biggie. But was nauseous this AM, that passed after a while. Nothing to note since, but I am a bit logy today. But in 2 weeks I should be GTG.

Keep staying safe, not the time to let up.

waseeley said...

We survived our TAXING encounter with H&R BLOCK yesterday and even got a bit of a refund. First puzzle I've solved in 2-3 days.

Thanks to Gary for your clever riffs on the Class INSECTA, a pswaydo-theme that didn't really require a knowledge of the movie, which I've not seen. And thanks Jason for an excellent review - nothing mythological about it! Several seaworthy craft in this puzzle.

Lots of good fill and clever cluing. Especially liked ARK as an "ancient sanctuary", fill occurring often in Xwds. But it is also a concept that makes frequent appearances throughout the ARC of Biblical history. Apropos of which, next week both Jews and Christians will be as BUSY as BEES, as Passover and Holy Week coincide. And for me there is the little matter of next Thursday.

This was a slow but steady solve, which I FIR. IMHO it was worthy of a Friday. I did have to skip over the NW at first and then meandered a bit in the ESE. Had ILIAL which mucked things up until I changed it to ILIAC, then perps took care of the rest. I then returned to a lot of white space in the NW. Had BLIST, but couldn't make it work with the little I did have for 1D. Letting go of the B for a D helped me get an ACCOLADE for 1D and the squares started to fill themselves. REC was the last to fall, as I wasn't expecting an ABBREV as a lead in for "hall".

Cheers,
Bill

Big Easy said...

OXY is a lot stronger than HYDROcodone. Percodan was always Schedule-II; Hycodan was schedule-III.

Anonymous said...

Nice puzzle and another great Lemonade write-up.

Had trouble getting started and finally got a toehold in the SW. P&P after that to FIR. The RNC and ANDYS cross took some sussing.

Rooting for the Ramblers tomorrow. An Elite Eight appearance would be remarkable!

Have a great day. Stay safe.

JB2

waseeley said...

Ray-O @11:29 AM I think your HS science teacher was probably right, as most star names come from Arabic shepherds. Not that I know anything about the pronunciation of Arabic. I think Betelgeuse means "armpit of the giant"! :-)

Misty said...

Friday toughie for me, but I loved the insect theme--lots of fun, Gary, many thanks.
And I always enjoy your write-up, Lemonade.

Lots of unknowns, especially ROTFL, AFTRA, LEICA, and others. But at least I got ARGO, INCAS, ARTOO, and a bunch more.

Have a good weekend coming up, everybody.

Yellowrocks said...

LIU American pronunciation of Betelgeuse is beetle juice. David and his friends had fun with this when they learned it in school. At the time we called KoolAid bug juice.

I haven't been allowed to dry laundry outdoors for more than 30 years.
Before that I didn't own a dryer and hung everything outdoors. In winter when I brought the jeans in they could stand up by themselves.

CrossEyedDave said...

Jiminy crickets!
This one gave me trouble in the NW with
Not knowing aftra and accolades, formerly, dlist and let dry
Blocking my perpage. I think cower opening twisttie finally
Broke open the corner...

I did have a minor nit with let dry versus air dry,
But in retrospect, it does fit the clue,
& I have to admit the constructor got me...

I enjoyed A Bugs Life when the kids were growing up,
especially the blooper reel.

Let's see what the Indian Hill Community Sign has to say...

Hmm,
Ok, here is an extra sign
to make up for the 1st one...

CanadianEh! said...

Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Gary and Lemonade.
I FIRed and saw the Bug theme (Snug as a Bug in a RUG).

Hand up for Air DRY before LET, B LIST before D,Ilial before ILIAC, PO before IN BOX, Gaze before GAPES. (I associate Gape with an open mouth or dropped jaw which is more than just Staring - unless you are Bug-eyed!)

Others have already noted UNE, LES, EIN, (can I add NIL?), EAT crossing ATE, and ARC and ARK. LOL Ray-O! (and per antsy!)
I wanted Sodas before FLOATS, but we had COLA at 42D (where I wanted Cost).
I thought of Quake before COWER but thought the Q would not perp easily.
Our CW favourite ETNA has been erupting lately (16 times in the last 5 weeks).
I smiled at clues for AROMA and DOS (vs. Don'ts). Not a ROTFL but almost.

Like inanehiker, I knew XANAX. This is one drug that has the same brand name in Canada as in the US. In the hospital, we used the generic names (although alprazolam was not in our formulary); in the community, brand names are more commonly used, as patients find them easier to remember and pronounce. But confusion can result, especially after drug plans start paying only for generics.

Is the Whole day before a holiday called the EVE??
Believes=FEELS was not a 100% match for me.

FLN, OMK - Shaw had some terrific insurance which enabled them to keep many of their artists on staff. Plus government grants, fundraising (and patrons who kept their ticket sale value on hold to use in 2021) have allowed them (and Stratford) to survive. We will have a new appreciation when we can visit again. (We did attend a Members Only outdoor concert at the Shaw last fall.) Digital is just not the same although it can reach a larger audience.

Wishing you all a great day.

ATLGranny said...

WC's Mr. Stupid visited me today for one bad square: FIW. I had "alar" in mind so didn't think enough about leaving ALIAN and RELIVED instead of seeing it was supposed to be AVIAN and REVIVED. The theme, as others have said, was a help even if not about scenes from the movie. (Thanks, CED, for the blooper reel!) All in all a good experience and I even navigated the tricky NW corner OK. So, thanks, Gary! And thanks, Lemonade for the tour. No apologies needed.

Finished the puzzle early this morning before my knee doctor appointment. I got a good report so all's well here. Hope you all are doing well too and nothing is bugging you.

unclefred said...

Big DNF. Never saw the movie, and assumed much was from the movie. Also just ran out of patience. You totally defeated me, Gary! Nice write-up, Lemonade.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

DNF - got stuck with bLIST & Air DRY, had no idea about ANDYs and I MAkE NICE. I feel really dumb not thinking of RNC instead of being stuck on some org trying to get poachers to stop stealing ivory...

Wished I was OMK @1a - I bet he knew.

Oh well, I had fun Gary. Thanks for the grid; I liked the theme which hit me at BEETLE JUICE (I had to work up from the south today) and, after wracking my brain for what bug could come before CLUB, helped with the solve(ish).

Fun expo Lem - enjoy'd the GEISEL video, I did. Thank you.

WOs: REVIsE
ESPs: Yes. Thanks for asking.
Fav: I'm with Lucina, CLOSET's clue was funny.
EAT xing ATE was a nice touch.

ARGO - I cannot not sing Birdhouse in Your Soul [TMBG] when I it...
After killing Jason off/
and countless screaming ARGOnauts

//The song is from the perspective of a nightlight - that line is about how s/he (the nightlight) is thankful he's not a lighthouse pictured on the opposite wall :-)

Weird Al will have you ROTFL. [@1:53]

Enjoyed reading everyone today (Youngest loved the puns CED!).

Cheers, -T

Spitzboov said...

BETELGEUSE - Our navigation class pronounced it 'beetle juice'.

Our ship frequently served a cheesy grape-like ade (drink) with lunch or dinner. It was affectionately known as 'purple panther piss'.

Jayce said...

Good puzzle. I liked it and all the bugs. FIR.

So, it wasn't AIR DRY or B LIST.

Yellowrocks said...

Unclefred, I didn't see the movie either, just some teases about it. Fortunately, the fill was not from the movie, just puns on bugs.
CE Dave, LOL The math puns make me number.

waseeley said...

CED, STOP, STOP! I had to finally come up for air. I'll never get through these comments at this rate. The IS guy needs to start selling RSS feeds

NaomiZ said...

Hey there, Cruciverbalists -- I've seen several references lately to "P&P" and today to "PP." People and places, I presume? Emile O'Touri at 10:53 AM wrote: "... when you stuff a week’s worth of PP into one day and you end up with just a plug-and-chug arcane trivia quiz." Ouch! I didn't see the puzzle that way. Anyway, just want to be sure I understand the abbreviation, which is not listed online with some of our other favorites.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

Not sure I have a whole lot to add to the conversation today, as I had doubts about several answers:

ANDY’S? ✅
GAPES? ✅
LET DRY? ✅
D LIST? ✅

I can ACCEPT ILIAC, although ILIAL was there first. Wasn’t sure that XANAX was a palindrome but ETNA confirmed

10 years in FL and 1-1/2 here in AZ and never once saw an ANDY’s. Culver’s though are all over the place. I remember Carvel when I lived in the NE. Are they still around?

Enjoy the weekend

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks, Anon-T, for the White and Nerdy link. Two other great Weird Al songs for people who like to play with words are Bob and Word Crimes. Bob consists entirely of palindromes.

BOB

Word Crimes

desper-otto said...

Naomi: Patience and perseverance

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 6:40 am and Wilber Charles,

The Star Wars books (not the movies) commonly refer to R2D2 as "Artoo" in the dialogue. So you see ARTOO or DETOO every so often in puzzles.

Bob

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

CM...There used to be a lot of Carvel Ice Cream shops 🍦 but just a few remain in central NY. Their ice cream cakes still availble.

Ilium...part of the bony pelvis; adj: iliac (like sacroiliac)

Ileum..distal half of the small bowel: adj; ileal.

My 9th grade Earth Science teacher was a super bright guy but had no flair for languages. Even at 14 yo I knew TSUNAMIS was not pronounced "TWOs na mees"...he murdered anything French; roche moutonée...("sheep back" glacial rock deposits) 🤭

Yellowrocks said...

Emile,
“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time.” Or so said the fifteenth-century monk and poet, John Lydgate.
Many of the puzzles that seem to displease you, please many of the rest of us. We would be unhappy if we didn't see these puzzles.
Please link an example of a puzzle you like..

Lucina said...

I like seeing unusual words like XANA in a puzzle.

MalMan:
Thank you for posting Word Crimes and BOB. I love those! In these days of so many graphics available, I believe teaching can really be spiced up if teachers avail themselves of those tools.

Lucina said...

Oopa. I meant XANAX.

Anonymous T said...

MManatee - I've never seen BOB. LOL!

To The Corner's Jewish contingent for Passover... More Weird Al :-)

//If you don't know the Offspring song Al is parodying, this is it. The beginning bars are from Def Lepppard's Rock of Ages.
//Spitz - I trust you can translate(?) You only need the first 10 seconds :-)

Cheers, -T

Spitzboov said...

-T - - They are gibberish picked to sound like German but aren't. Globen does mean 'globes', however.


Emile @ 1053; you found some clues just plain wrong. Could you tell us which ones?

Malodorous Manatee said...

I had neither heard, nor was even aware of, Pretty Fly for a Rabbi...but he gets to keep the tip.

Spitzboov said...

-T - - Hate to tell you this but NBC Nightly News had zip zero nada on the Suez blockage tonight. So I guess it is not really news and probably not worth concerning ourselves with.

BTW, I am blown away by pictures taken from satellites, 250 miles in space, showing the shipping company name Evergreen on the side of the stranded ship.

Yellowrocks said...

Ray-O, these funny phrases reminded me of you.
1. With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
2. You feel stuck with your debt when you can't budge it.
3. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
4. Once you've seen a shopping center, you've seen a mall.
5. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.
6. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
7. Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.

I will type more of these tomorrow.

Wilbur Charles said...

Atl, hah, Mr S is going to bill me for overtime.

I just got it. Jason aka Lemonade and the ARGOnauts.

-T, was it Mr S visiting you too? Or his cohort Whodatidiot,?

Spitz, and did they refer to the corned beef and cabbage as Purple Death?

Ray and I knew a teacher who raved about the delicious hores Da Vours he had at a party. I suggested to a fellow golfer that he shout HORE! not FORE as it's faster to say. Next time I played with him he was giving me looks.

Good ones YR.

WC

Ps, I am guessing we drop & to distinguish People vs Patience

Speaking of... I'm about start Saturday

Lucina said...

YR:
Very funny!

Lemonade:
Congratulations to Oo on her citizenship! You must have just posted that as I don't recall seeing it earlier.

Lemonade714 said...

yes just posted; between the ceremony and the first seder, it was the first chance I had to post. really proud of her.

Wilbur Charles said...

Finished Saturday. No not two full hours. I had dinner and some interruptions. But over an hour. P&P to overcome pps. Craig Stowe, so bring your wite-out and a good night's sleep.

As is usual almost every Saturday I never thought I'd finish and the white was everywhere. NE had me fooled until I banished Mr S and let in the spirit calked imagination.

Good luck, don't give up, don't ever give up* and be thankful for the pop-cul you know and don't hold it against me for knowing the de rigueur sports question (s)

Bon chance

Speaking of , I liked that "in Seine" pun YR even though a French purist might say Sen not Sane.

WC

*Coach V.

Wilbur Charles said...

Lemonade, that's great news and now you must be in a great mood. Until you tackle Saturday lol

Anonymous T said...

YR - I've seen all but #5 - funny.

Spitz - I thought so (re: gibberish) but thanks for trying.

WC - Ida Idiot //insert Click & Clack puns here.

Lem - Whoot! for Oo.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

AnonT:
Thank you for posting Click and Clack! I miss them so much on Saturday mornings. It was sad when one of them died a while back.

Anonymous T said...

Spitz @6:13 - I missed your post while catching up...
Market Place's Make Me Smart [FF to 2:31] says it's costing $400MM/hr for the Suez delay. And Cape of Hope is now the new route!?!

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Lucina - Tom Magliozzi (another nice Italian boy) passed in '14 at age 77. The memorial.

There won't ever BEE anyone funnier on NPR. -T

Anonymous T said...

Lucina - Years ago I was driving the Girls to dance class and heard this - My Fav Car Talk bit.

17,500mph! :-)

Nite, -T