google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday March 18, 2021 Joe Deeney

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Mar 18, 2021

Thursday March 18, 2021 Joe Deeney

 

Today's puzzle by Joe Deeney invites us to ideate on 4 theme clues and not accept the first thought that they invoke, but to go further and expand our minds a bit.  The MIND is a mysterious domain, IMHO not well-understood by modern science, and it has many ways to grasp REALITY and UNREALITY. Each clue tips us off that we are about to TRIP into Joe's world with the lead-in "No, no,[there's more] ...":

16. "No, no, more user-friendly than DOS. __!": PICTURE WINDOWS.  Not difficult to do.  MS WINDOWS revolutionized personal computing by creating a "user friendly" operating system.  The only problem is that the user interface (UI) has become an end in itself, with a stable of millionaire programmers who make a plethora of changes to every new release, whether they are needed or not.  END OF RANT.

25. "No, no, flatter than sharks. __!": FIGURE SKATES.  Fascinating fish.  If you're ever in Baltimore, be sure and go see the NATIONAL AQUARIUM.  The centerpiece is a 2,200,000 gallon POOL that can be observed from above and through glass below, and it's filled with SKATES, Black Tip reef sharks, many varieties of tropical fishes, and wet-suited HUMANS who are constantly feeding all of the above at eye level.

40. "No, no, bigger than Humvees. __!": THINK TANKS. Speaking of pools, these groups pool the MINDS of EXPERTS.  However some of these pools are just puddles actually.  I knew a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Maryland Medical School, whose business card simply said "Merrill Snyder, PhD - EXPERT".  Merrill defined an EXPERT as a "Drip under pressure!".

52. "No, no, scarier than iguanas. __!": IMAGINE DRAGONS.  Imagine this one ...
 


Wouldn't want to run into him in a dark jungle!  Run away!  Run away!  Oh and BTW, a KOMODO DRAGON's bite is poisonous and they climb trees!
 
Across:

1. Winnipeg NHLer: JET.  Okay sports fans. Here's their schedule for the remainder of the year.  Last Sunday the clue and the answer were reversed.

4. Dwellings: ABODESADOBES fit, but don't perp; but they're still dwellings.  Magnificent dwellings.
 

10. Retirement outfit?: PJS.  Cute clue.  Actually some non-retired  ZOOMERS wear them to work.

13. Tailless primate: APE.

14. Low-ranked British peers: BARONS.

15. "La Bamba" star __ Diamond Phillips: LOU.  I haven't seen this film, but Phillips had a major role in the long running modern western crime series Longmire, which I believe is still streaming on NETFLIX.  Phillips played Henry Standing Bear.  Great series, which I highly recommend.

19. Make the same point as: ECHO.

20. Ran: BLED.

21. Hogwarts letter carriers: OWLS.  Everything I know about Harry Potter, I've learned from CWDs (not very much).

22. Throws a bomb, in football: GOES LONG.

29. Some Strads: CELLI.  A word on one of the greatest craftsmen of all time.

30. Hosiery hue: TAUPE.

32. "The Great" pope between Sixtus III and Hilarius: ST LEO I.   Pope Leo the Great is probably best known for riding out from Rome to meet Attila the Hun in 452 and dissuading him from sacking Rome.  Just what he said to convince Attila to turn back is not recorded.  There is a monument to St. Leo the Great in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome:
 

34. "Peanuts" character spelled with a hyphen until 1981: PIGPENPigpen first appeared in Peanuts almost 67 years ago, in a strip published on July 13, 1954. Charles Schulz may have been initially inspired to create Pigpen after visiting a friend’s home in the early 1950s. One of the kids in the family came into the house looking very disheveled after a day of playing outside, and the parent’s first reaction was to call the child a “pigpen.” From his introduction in the strip to his final appearance in 1999, Pigpen, the boy with his own perpetual cloud of dust, has proven to be one of the most beloved characters in the comic strip’s history.  Here's his debut ...
 

35. __ chi: TAI.  My BIL is named Chi, but he practices KARATE.

36. At home with: USED TO.  There are a lot of people at home these days and it can be hard to get USED TO.

39. Also mention: ADD.

43. Former Cubs exec Epstein: THEO.

45. Hardy heroine: TESSTess of the D'urbervilles, a tragedy by Thomas Hardy.

46. Watchdog gp. created under Nixon: OSHA.  Who'da thunk it?

49. Traffic signals?: HORNS.  Leave it to George Gershwin to use them as instruments in An American in Paris:
 

51. Two cents: INPUT.

57. Bottom line: NET.

58. Polite refusal: NO MAAM.

59. Numbered hwy.: RTE.

60. Asian honorific: SRIShri (/ʃriː/; Devanagari: श्री, ISO: Śrī, Sanskrit pronunciation: [ʃriː], Non-Sanskrit pronunciation: [sriː]), also transliterated as Shree, Sri, or Sree, is a South Asian word denoting a title of respect used before the name, primarily as an honorific:
 
61. Leaves befuddled: STUMPS.  I was AT SEA, in a HAZE as to what to do with this.  But then this came to me:

62. Org. created in response to 9/11: TSA.

Down:

1. Mocking remark: JAPE.

2. Really cool: EPIC.  Like AWESOME, man.  Like this old story about the IRE OF ACHILLES.

3. Georgia __: TECH.

4. Disney monkey: ABU.  I remember ALADDIN (from grade school?),  but not ABU.

5. Mop manager?: BARBER.  Formerly a much more important role at court:
 

6. Promise of dire consequences: OR ELSE.

7. IKEA kit pieces: DOWELSPEGS wouldn't cut it.

8. City about 250 miles NNW of Dallas, TX: ENID OK.  Nobody said it was actually in TEXAS😊.

9. Govt. ID: SSN.

10. Clear of snow: PLOW.  My other BIL and I finally got to use our snow blower this winter  But they don't do so well with SLEET, which we get a lot of as we're on Maryland's FALL LINE.  In addition to being a geological feature, it is also the line along which cold Northern moisture laden air streaming down the Piedmont Plateau, meets the warmer air on the coastal plain, resulting in slushy wet snows:
 
The Fall Line

11. Fleshy fold: JOWL.

12. Puzzle (out): SUSS.  I hope you enigmatologist SUSSERS are enjoying yourselves!.

17. Alt-tab function: TOGGLETOGGLE what?  Not sure this worked for me.

18. GI ID: DOG TAG.

23. Yves' eager assent: OUI OUI.  Today's French lesson.

24. Turkey, for one: NATION.  As I got the first 4 letters with perps and as turkey's are NATIVE to North America, this clue gobbled up some of my time.

25. Brine-cured Greek cheese: FETA.

26. Uneducated group: ILLITERATI.  As opposed to the LITERATI, like us 'uns.

27. Travel authorization for citizens of a 27-mem. union: EU PASSPORT.  Prior to BREXIT it would have been 28-mem.

28. Zoomed: SPED.

29. Winter hrs. in IL: CST.

31. Terminate: END.   Wait, don't go!  There are 16 more clues left.  I think you'll like the rest, especially the last one!

33. Wasn't present?: ISN'T.  Well it could have become PRESENT between THEN and NOW.

34. Education support gps.: PTAS.

37. Stretch (out): EKE.  A usage of this word I'd not seen before.

38. RB stoppers: DTS.  Some other clues for this aren't PC anymore.

41. With 42-Down, city on the Pearl River Delta: HONG.  I knew this because GUANGZHOU is on the Northern end of this delta.  We had to take our adopted grandson Ray there to clear him through the American Consulate.

42. See 41-Down: KONGKONG is on it too.  Stopped over in both places at once on a puddle jump from GUANGZHOU and had a WRAP in the airport.

43. Starts to disperse, as a crowd: THINS

44. Round-tripper: HOMER.  See 2D for an EPIC by this author.

47. Looks (for): HUNTS.  As a kid, whenever we lost a baseball in the grass, the Catholics on the team would start praying to St. Anthony.  And he always came through, as long as we HUNTED long enough.

48. Befuddled: AT SEA.  See 61A.

50. Serious violations: SINS.  Well not all SINS are serious, but I won't go into that here.

51. Brand with a paw print on its logo: IAMS

53. Punctuating word indicating sarcasm: NOTIS TOO!

54. Long-legged runner: EMU.  A CSO to BOOMER, as BOOMING and DRUMMING are some of the EMU's characteristic behaviors.  Unlike the Ostrich, I learned from this article that they are ENDEMIC to Australia.

55. Lake Mead creator: DAM.  This is a really cool website about an EPIC National Recreation Area.  Be sure and run the video.

56. Genre for Master P or Heavy D: RAP.  I don't know these artists.  The only rapper I've ever seen rap was this one (all you constructors, perk up your ears!):
 


Here's the grid:

 


Here's hoping that Joe will stop by and update us on his new daughter, who I believe will have her first birthday this April.  I'll bet she's crawling all over the place by now!  Perhaps he could also chime in on the theme - the depths of the mind being what they are, there may be a hidden level that I've missed.

waseeley

Cheers,
Bill

Notes from C.C.:

Special sweet treat today. The first picture is Melissa's daughter and her daughter Jaelyn. The second one is Jaelyn's little sister Harper, so cute. Look at her eyes!

 

 




53 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Recognized all the themers as common phrases except for IMAGINE DRAGONS. Can anyone 'splain where that comes from? Did Pope Hilarius do standup? Bill, I think "Wasn't present" is pointing to the present tense of "wasn't" -- "isn't." Anyone else think that BARFER was a little breakfast-unfriendly? Oh, "Run" was BLED, not FLED. D'oh. I suspect if they held an election for the ILLITERATI of the Corner, d-o would be selected by acclamation. Thanx, Joe and Waseeley. (In the mid '80s, Our rig inspection crew also entered China at Guangzhou. We were on our way to Sanya on Hainan Island. The country wasn't open to westerners at the time, and it turned into quite the adventure.)

waseeley said...

D-O @6:49am Thanks for 'splainin'"Wasn't". Tricky meta-clue. And thanks to CC for the adorable pics of Jaelyn and Harper.

KS said...

Loved the Pete Seeger rap. Thank you!

inanehiker said...

I got a kick out of the theme. D-O - I fell into the same FLED that needed changing to BLED which changed BARFER to BARBER. I thought with the question mark - yes you often need a mop or at least the mom/dad does when it's your kid - they never seem to quite make it to the bathroom/ bucket.

Also for D-O - IMAGINE DRAGONS is a pop group - I've heard a few of their songs at my cardio dance and body pump classes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wtfhZwyrcc

Thanks Bill and Joe!

desper-otto said...

Thanx for the elucidation, inanehiker.

ATLGranny said...

Well, FIW today, one bad square due to ignorance (RBs and DTs ? sports related?) plus wrong tense: USED TO. The other error was due to sloppiness and failure to proofread carefully: ABe and PICTeRE WINDOWS. In spite of this, I really liked this puzzle, Joe, and felt good about avoiding most of the traps. I too had NATIve for Turkey, waseeley, and fLED for BLED, inanehiker, but perps cleared them up. (Thanks for explaining IMAGINE DRAGONS inanehiker!) And I tried to fit in goNe or weNT for ISNT. Other areas were easier to SUSS out and the theme soon became obvious. Thanks waseeley for the fun tour today. Hope to hear from you, Joe.

Sitting here in Atlanta waiting for the rain to pass through, still amazed that Georgia TECH didn't immediately come to my mind, I look forward to reading your comments during the day. Have a good one!

Wilbur Charles said...

THEO was GM of the Redsox. Interesting drama at the end(See below*). As you'll see Boston Sports is a madhouse.

Yep, don't knock St A. unless you've tried him. Have to be desperate.

Fairly smooth Thurs with lobe/JOWL and working out HONG KONG

WC

*It was a rough, and ugly, week in which the Globe blew a major story (announcing that Epstein had agreed to a three-year deal with the Sox), found itself under siege for its ties to the Sox, and had to cope with a torrent of venom aimed at Shaughnessy, who wrote an inflammatory column that may have played a role in queering the deal between Epstein and the Sox. The Herald, in its familiar role as the second paper with the chip on its shoulder, took every opportunity to scream "foul" and raise ethical red flags about the Globe’s conduct. And the popular sports-talk station WEEI did what it does best in any controversy. It poured gasoline on the fire.(from the defunct Phoenix)

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

14 x 15 puzzle today. Placement of the black squares makes the grid look like a face to me. Maybe to hi-light the JOWLs.
A fairly tough solve at first but the bottom was more forgiving. Saw how the theme worked and filled in PICTURE WINDOWS. I have an I-Mac so, guessed at TOGGLE. Also guessed at TAUPE spelling. Ultimately got it all so, good start to the day.

Barry T. said...

Re: 17. Alt-tab function: TOGGLE. TOGGLE what? Not sure this worked for me.

Alt-Tab toggles between windows (apps or multiple open files within an app) in the Windows OS. For those of us who are more inclined to use keyboard shortcuts vs. hunting for an icon to mouse-click, Alt-Tab is a real time-saver.

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Yellowrocks said...

ATL Granny, my downfall was at the same place. I don't get RB stopper/DTS. ???? I spelled Hong KONG as CONG. Blushing! Illerate. So I messed up USE(D) TO and (T)HINK TAN(K). Hong Kong has been in the news. So sad.
I had ENIDOK but couldn't parse it. Oh, Oklahoma, I was still in TX. I thought yesterday was quite easy. Pride goeth before a fall.
I started with bled and changed it to fled. BARFER?? OH, NO! Back to b.
During WW II, cooks eked out (stretched out) the meat with bread crumbs and other fillers.
I didn't care for the theme until Bill colorized the words picture, figure, think, imagine. I get it now. Very clever.

John E said...

I, too, had barf and fled.
BTW, can a grammar pro check my use of commas? I never seem to get it.

Spitzboov said...

John E @ 0923 - - Use a pair of commas in the middle of a sentence to set off clauses, phrases, and words that are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Use one comma before to indicate the beginning of the pause and one at the end to indicate the end of the pause.
I think you did it right.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Just back from our second shots. I kept thinking of Double Shot Of My Baby’s Love
-What a great puzzle by Massachusetts constructor Joe Deeney. Three of the phrases were definitely “in the language” and I guess the fourth one is a rock group
-Car prices are full of nonsense. It’s the NET price (or boot) that counts
-I’ve used the same BARBER for well over 40 years. I’m not sure he’s all that good but he’s a good guy
-I BLOW the snow and then after the PLOW goes by I have to go again
-I am typing this in Word and use ALT-TAB between here and the write-up. Then, it’s copy and paste and bingo, I’m done.
-NOT! I remember this first from Wayne and Garth
-Cute children (and mother)!

waseeley said...

John E @9:23AM As I tend toward long windedness, I just throw one in every now and then to give readers a chance to catch their breath.

TTP said...


Another beauty by Joe Deeney. Fun theme with great cluing. Nothing too difficult. Over too soon.

Had to change GOES deep to LONG.

I liked how Joe intersected HOMER and THEO. Epstein became president of baseball operations for the Cubs at the end of the 2011 season, then started a complete rebuilding of the organization. His efforts paid off as the Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016, overcoming the Curse of the Billy Goat, and ending the longest World Series championship drought in history. The previous year, heralded rookie Kyle Schwarber hit a mammoth moonshot HOMER in the playoffs against the St Louis Cardinals that landed on top of the Wrigley scoreboard. It's still there.

Excellent write-up, Bill.

"...this clue gobbled up some of my time." I like what you did there.

Yellowrocks, in American Rules football, Running Backs and Defensive Tackles.

John E - I find inspiration in cooking my family and my dog.


Here ya go, Gary: NOT !

Yellowrocks said...

COMPUTING
TOGGLE - switch from one effect, feature, or state to another by using a toggle.
"the play/pause button toggles between those functions"

unclefred said...

Spitzboov@8:46. Yep, I see the face too! Waseeley: Completely agree on the CONSTANT sometimes radical changes to MSFT products. Oh, and terrific write-up, thanx! Great CW Joe, I really enjoyed it. And was so proud of myself getting it done in what seemed like excellent time for a Thursday....then discovered I’d forgotten to write down my start time!! Rats!! WOs HOUSES:ABODES, PIGSTY:PIGPEN, LAH:LOU, ILLITERATY:ILLITERATI. Don’t know what I was thinking with that last one. Anyway, really nice CW!!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I appreciated this theme a lot more after Bill explained it so well. Like YR, I didn’t see the connection between the command words. Clever, indeed. Also, as others have mentioned, Enid OK was just a city I never heard of, i.e., Enidok. My Celli started out as Viols and Goes Long replaced Goes Deep. I liked seeing Hong Kong and Thins/Think. I can’t see Emu without visions of those crazy commercials which I think are getting more ridiculous by the day. Flo, Jamie, and Doug are all vying for the title of Most Annoying TV Personality of All Time, IMO.

Thanks, Joe, for a refreshing change of pace theme and thanks, Bill, for the fact-filled and entertaining review and especially for bringing the full picture of the theme to life, at least for this observant-challenged soul.

Thanks to Melissa for providing the photos of those two adorable girls. They have the bluest eyes I’ve seen,

My BIL is very weak and tired after the procedure, but that’s to be expected. At least he is home and, hopefully, he’ll feel better and get stronger day by day. Our St. Patrick’s Day dinner was more subdued than past years but it was nice to be together for a happy occasion.

I hope Tony has good news for us about the vaccine.

Have a great day.

Hungry Mother said...

Very nice theme, easy and useful. I still have my two DOGTAGs from serving in the Army from 1961-64. There’s a good reason why there are two of them.

Big Easy said...

I didn't get a newspaper today due to a storm knocking out power at the printing presses. Had to download the puzzle and print it. I got the theme at PICTURE WINDOWS and it was an easy solve for a Thursday. I only know of IMAGINE DRAGONS because of grandchildren mentioning the group.

ILLITERATI was an easy fill after enough perps were in place but its a new word for me. Thought VIOLS before CELLI until CST cured that thought.

ST LEO_- with only one letter missing it had to be I, V, or X.
THEO Epstein-perps.
EU PASSPORT- didn't know but it was an easy guess after EUP was in place.
BARFER- haven't seen that one; I guess HURLER could have also worked.

Master P, aka Percy Miller, is (or was) a local). I first heard of years ago because after he started making big money he moved his family to live in a gated community in Baton Rouge and it was next door to a friend of DW.

d-otto- this redneck would receive more votes than you in that election.
waseely- ABU- don't really know it but its a crossword standard fill along with EKE and NAS, DRE, RAP,...etc.
HG-Double Shot, by the Swinging Medallions- a One Hit Wonder.

Picard said...

Very creative theme that must have been a challenge to FIGURE out. Hand up did not get IMAGINED DRAGONS. Learning moment. Other learning moments were the laughably named HILARIUS and ROUND TRIPPER.

I watched this ABODE getting moved not in the usual way when I was riding my bike two days ago on an errand.

WA Seeley Thank you for the review and a reminder about how dangerous some DRAGONS really are.

Once again, this was me in the presence of a DRAGON on the Island of Komodo.

Did anyone else try SEEKS before HUNTS today?

Picard said...

From Yesterday:
CrossEyedDave, Yellowrocks, MalMan, WA Seeley, AnonT Thank you for your comments on my UFO Hike and Weird Al posts.

CrossEyedDave I am not aware of any restrictions on that loop of trails that we hiked. Some of our trails don't allow bicycles; mostly just the ones that are on City property. If you had an electric bicycle I think it would be OK on most of our trails, though I have never seen one. You still have to pedal those. What is not OK is something that looks and acts like a motorcycle.

Yellowrocks Glad you also prefer a loop hike to one that is DOUBLED BACK. The other type of hike you describe we call a "car shuttle". Best of all, but requires some preparation and logistics.

This hike through our Blue Canyon is one of the few Car Shuttle hikes I have done.

I very much appreciated it as it would have been too long for me if DOUBLED BACK.

Lucina Good to know that you also do not like a LEMON SLICE in your water. I am like you in also enjoying LEMONade. The LEMON SLICE in water is neither here nor there. It is not pure water and it is not LEMONade. And it makes me suspect it is covering for something bad in the water.

CrossEyedDave said...

Grid looks like a smiling puppy dog to me...

What do you
Picture, figure, think, imagine?

Anon said...

Unenjoyable puzzle with a senseless theme and too much misdirection.

NaomiZ said...

I enjoyed Joe's puzzle and Bill's write-up, along with all of your comments. I had NuT before NET, and thought of "Eurail pass" before EU PASSPORT, but everything cleared up quickly so I FIR. Thanks, Joe, Bill, Rich, et alia!

Lucina said...

Hola!

Wow! Joe Deeney, you have a wild imagination! I appreciated this puzzle more only after Bill's explanation. Thank you for that.

It was a fairly easy solve with some tricky cluing. ENID, OK is on Highway 40 and I have driven thorough it many times in the past when traveling to Charlotte to visit my sister who lives there. We may have stopped there for gas.

Clever progression of PICUTRE, FIGURE, THINK, IMAGINE.

I fell into the BARFER/FLED, BARBER/Bled trap and didn't correct it.

OWLS came easily because all i know about Harry Potter I've learned from CWDS.

In a recent documentary I learned that Nixon created OSHA. Who knew? It was one good thing he did.

Yes, HOMER could have been clued as the author of 2D, EPIC.

I loved visiting HONG KONG. Two great memories are the many foot spas and the plethora of linens we could buy. But by far better is the delicious food!

Again, thank you, Joe and Bill!

Have a beautiful day, everyone! It's rug cleaning day here at chez Dale.


Emile O'Touri said...

This PPP-laden schlock made every inch of progress in this puzzle a slog. It's really hard to imagine a more dreary theme than this.I'm on the record as not enjoying fill-in-the-blank clues and this puzzle was full of them. Seriously. stop with the Pope nobody knows.

Spitzboov said...

Lemon slice in ice water is our go-to beverage when eating out. Water quality is excellent here in greater Utica area. Simply eschewing sugars and not drinking before driving.

Chacun à son goût.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

Saw the 14x15; really didn’t pay attention to the block squares

FIW; had BARFER/FLED. Bill’s excellent recap showed me my error, but to be honest, now that I am mostly bald; I haven’t seen a BARBER in almost two years

JAPE/APE crossing was a bit befuddling

Yet I liked the crossing of PJS and JOWL

See you all tomorrow. I think you’ll like the puzzle

Yellowrocks said...

I loved the theme once I understood it. I like themes that are not too obvious. They wake up the old brain. I also like misdirections for the same reason.
LEO I is an example of crosswordese, words that appear so often we fill them in easily.
TTP, thanks. I finally realized RB could be running back, so I looked up DT. I prefer watching most other sports to watching football.

A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."
"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots, & leaves."

Have you read the book, "Eats, Shoots and Leaves"?

My sister and I took a car shuttle hike leaving my car at the end point. I pocketed the key and returned to the beginning with my sister. At the end of the hike we went to my car. No key!
I had gotten too hot and locked my jacket with the key in my sister's car back at the beginning. We started back walking by road which would take less time. After a half hour the park ranger stopped to talk to us and gave us a ride back.

Montana said...

The puzzle I got today from LATimes is not this one.
The date is Thursday, March 18, 2021 but different puzzle.

Montana

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

"No No think harder than a Saturday puzzle". Quite a challenge! I walked away, then changed chairs, proudly thought I'd FIR but actually FIW...(DO, inaneh and others)... I also had BARFER 🤢 (you'd need to manage a mop for that!). CROSSED WITH FLED (already changed once from sped)...but I SUSSED the clever theme early.

The mid North and SW were the last to go. A Texas town ending in OK? Oh it's OK a state well okay then....And I thought it was spelt dowls. Assumed APE 🦧 was generic enough to include simians with tails 🐒, Wiki says nope. Recently reversed Winnipeganswer for JETS.

Other inkovers: jeer/JAPE, Puma/IAMS, and/ADD. Didn't realize STLEO needed a numeral. Hilarius was a stand-up comedian in the Forum before he became pope. (DO you beat me to it!!!)...Pearl River is English so expected an Anglo town. Unusual clues for RAP artists. LOU Diamond Phillips is currently a co-star on one of my favorite series "Prodigal Son" ...THEO Epstein unknown. I join the ILLITERATI when it comes to all but obvious sports clues

Canine it game.....DOGTAG
Confuse Elmer....BEFUDDLE
Good name for a ball player.....HOMER

Every spring needed to reseed the lawn where our PLOW guy had piled alpine hills 🗻 of snow and scraped grass from the blade at the end of the driveway. This year hired a guy with an enormous vehicle driven snowblower, snow was evenly distributed and lawn looks in good shape.

Saw the Netflix docu on the college admission scandal last night. Chairman Moe can I make a CW "contribution" and have a guy do tomorrow's puzzle for me or at least get some early answers? 😃

Lucina said...

YR:
Yes, I have read that book and own it along with a small collection of other grammar books and dictionaries.

Melissa:
I forgot to mention your gorgeous daughter and granddaughter!

desper-otto said...

TTP, thanx for 'splainin' about RBs and DTs. I had been wondering about the connection between rubber bands and delirium tremens.

desper-otto said...

Of course, they could've been Robber Barons...

Lemonade714 said...

IMAGINE DRAGONS MUSIC .

If you want to point to a role model for people you should consider THEO EPSTEIN

So Montana, who created your puzzle.

Those eyes are wonderful and I have my granddaughter Harper also.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle and had pretty much the same experiences solving it as many of you did, especially that BARFER guy. Waseeley, thanks for your terrific write-up.

My wife was born and grew up in HONG KONG, the name of which means "Fragrant Port" in Cantonese. I agree it is sad what has been happening there recently. And yes, the food is outstanding.

Good wishes to you all.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

DNF - I forgot last week's Winnipeg's JETs and had CHIC for 'Really cool' (and hung on to it); Man! (nor Ape) would perp.
FIW too 'cuz I'm ILLITERATe.

Thanks Joe for a fun puzzle. First themer that filled for me was IMAGINE DRAGON. I quickly THINK'd my tank and FIGURE'd the Skate. With the problems in the NW, it took a while to finally PICTURE the WINDOWS.

Great expo Waseeley! I still have links to click later.

WOs: AnD -> ADD, ILLITaRATE b/f THEO looked better than THaO.
ESPs: many :-)
Fav: ISN'T's clue

Having driven to Norman, OK from Houston, TX (and back) many times, I know anything ~80mi. north of Dallas is OK.

Montana - nice to see you drop in again.

Spitz - I noticed the 14x15 too. OMK will be none so happy on the DR.

IM - Glad to hear BIL is doing OK.
I'll ADD, both Youngest and I got our first Moderna shot today so the whole family is a month away from protection.
The irony, at 2:30 today, DW complained about her salad having no flavor...
I gave her a licorice candy (she hates licorice)
She didn't immediately spit it out and actually took another bite.
She can't taste.
A person she was with last Thursday tested positive yesterday.
But, she just (345p) got a rapid test that came back negative.
Here we go again...

Play later!

Cheers, -T

LEO III said...

Thanks, Joe and Bill!

Who’d thunk it??? Somehow, I got an FIR today. I printed out the puzzle just before midnight, filled in what I could, and then went to bed thinking there was no way I was going to even finish this one. Got back to it after breakfast and with a huge assist from Mr. Wite-Out, I somehow corrected my original errors, and things started to fall into place. WOW!

Yes, I’m a keyboarder and not a mouser, so TOGGLE was no problem. The only bad thing is Mr. Kizzy was lying on my arm taking his nap while I was reading the expo and your comments. With his rear end lying by the keyboard and his tail swishing back and forth, and his back leg twitching, I had to turn off the keyboard, so that HE didn’t insert any political, religious or attack comments and get US banned. Since he’s still asleep, I’ve had to wrest the keyboard from under his rather sizeable tuchus, so that I could type. Didn’t faze him a bit!

I have been to Enid too. Gotta be going there to get there. I was attending wholesaler meetings in OKC, then Enid and then back in Tulsa, where the division HQ was located. We were driving back to Tulsa, and my boss (Regional Credit Manager) asked me if I would mind coming to his room after dinner, so that he could practice his (rather long and dry and had already put me to sleep once that day) presentation. “Uh, no, Bill. I’ve got a previously scheduled meeting with my Tulsa sales reps and some of my retailers tonight. I won’t even be able to do dinner.” The sales rep who was driving busted out laughing. He was going to the meeting with me too --- at the “Par-T Lounge,” the division watering hole, right around the corner from the division office. Yes, it was a rather long meeting.

Scary, -T! Glad she tested negative!

Yuman said...

I enjoyed “Longmire” on Netflix, and started reading the “Longmire” mystery novel series by Craig Johnson, who was mentored by Tony Hillerman, author of the “Navajo Tribal Police” mystery novels.
Loved the pics of your daughter and cutie granddaughters.

CrossEyedDave said...

1) why do Anons do the puzzle, and then complain about being puzzled?
(This is one puzzle I still have not found the answer to...)

2) forgive me Yellowrocks,
But I have heard that joke before,
Except, it was a Koala, and a prostitute.
And shoots was a bush...

3) Picard, ok, I get it. No gas powered smog producers.
But if electric is ok, then you might see me on the trail on one of these...
until I saw the price$$$

Anonymous-T,
Watch out!
If I spring for the off road tires ($500-)
I might give your Italian sports at some competition!

CrossEyedDave said...

Sports car! Dang it!
I saw the typo just as I hit publish!

Anonymous T said...

Lucina - Nixon also created the EPA. //OMG - there's Silent Spring again!

CED - Unlike the Alfa, I'm sure your electric hiking-scooter will always start ;-)

TTP, YR, Lucina, et.al.: Fun Word-Nerd book Word by Word.

Lemon slices in restaurants are dicey. I read once that many wedges have more bacteria on them than anything else in the kitchen (I donno about that). I still like it OK.

What I really like is what Youngest calls my Bougie / Boujee / Bourgie(?) water.
It's my fancy pitcher filled with ice, one sliced lemon, one sliced lime, and topped with water.
I usually drink two or three pitchers a day while working.

Cheers, -T

sasses said...

I appreciated the central position of Hong Kong - the bastion of colonialism until China reclaimed the territory. Also adjacent to the hub of Shenzen and down river from Guangzou. Amazing development and competition for commercial trade.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Not much time today to visit due to the many items on the to-do list. I do wish to say, though, that boy am I ever-so glad that Bill, and not yours truly, had the job of explaining today's theme. He was able to picture, figure out, imagine and think of ways to describe what was going on. Well done, Bill.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Don't know anyone else who enjoyed Longmire--until now, that is! Thanks for plugging it, Waseely!

Ta ~DAH!! Excellent PZL, Mr. Deeney, except --as noted on my behalf by Anonymous T--for the absence of Diagonals!!
Ergo, no DR...
~ OMK

Anonymous T said...

And there you are OMK. :-)

If I could re-do my earlier post...
'I gave her a licorice candy (she hates licorice)
She didn't immediately spit it out and actually took another bite.
She can't taste.' !!!
I'd have added #ItalianCovidTest :-)

Anyone want some music? //The -T kind...?

PICTURE WINDOWS kept bugging me. But why?
Aha!
It made me thing of, well, all things RUSH.
//how am I doing on my commas so far?

See, RUSH had a live album called Moving PICTURES [Rush.com - about]
and a studio record called Power WINDOWS.
Here's Marathon from the latter. [Live]

No?
Ok. Not WC's cuppa.
I get it :-)

Thanks for thinkin' about DW (St.) LEOI, er, III. She's sleeping now and maybe it's just nothin' but Huston allergies. TeleDoc said she should stay away from us for a week :-(
//BTW, LOL Par-T Lounge in Tulsa!

mb - I kept failing to thank you (and C.C.) for sharing the pix of your beautiful family.
//those look like Army BDUs your daughter is sporting (?)

Cheers, -T

Terry said...

Fragrant Port, ah so, been there but didn't know, thanks 😊

Wilbur Charles said...

YR, keys belong in pockets

"No No think harder than a Saturday puzzle". No, no. I just did Saturday. As Thursday was to Monday so Sat to Thurs. But Wilbur solved it so don't give up. Isn't the brain a wondrous thing? Of course, after it's done...Oh that wasn't so hard

Actually, the usual RB Stoppers are LBs(Linebackers). One thing about "difficult" xwords is knowledge of the given P or P is a great advantage. But for every THEO there's five pop-cul clues. And the constructor/Editor mind often sees sports completely different or is downright archaic*

Lemonade, interesting wiki take on THEO especially the gloss around that initial resignation and the falling out with Luchino.

-T, yep. Ironically YouTube has decided I like the Traveling WILBUR irs. And their later manifestations with Ringo and Paul thrown in. And Bob D.

WC

*c Saturday

Anonymous T said...

WC - What? YouTube is programming your playlist now?
Based in what I link to you?
//You did click it :-)

Well, It's Alright, I suppose.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

Ha!
Ignore this guy's politics and listen to his punctuation. This.
Commas really do matter :-)

Sorry, I can't sleep.
//can I blame the vaccine?

-T

johnking1893 said...

I do not understand the connection between "flatter than sharks" and "figure skates".

sasses said...

Thanks. I am now enjoying this series on Netflix.