Good morning, cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee, here, wishing everyone a wonderful Thursday. It need not be as joyous as it seems to be for our friend, above, for it to still be quite pleasant.
I, for one, am pleased to report that, in contrast to last Thursday's mind-expanding theme, today we are presented with a quite straightforward, easy-to-describe theme. At four places in the grid, our constructor, Emma Oxford, has placed definitions of KING. This solver found the theme entries to be helpful in completing the puzzle. Of course, there are many definitions of KING that were not used in this puzzle (e.g. a type of salmon, a chess piece and Stephen King) and perhaps Emma will treat us all to a King-theme-redux at some point in the future.
WE THREE FOUR KINGS (with a few more strewn about)
17 Across. King: HIGHEST FACE CARD.
King David?
33 Across. King: MALE MONARCH.
King Melvin Kaminsky
41 Across. King: TYPE OF COBRA.
King Cobra
57 Across. King: POWERFUL CHECKER.
Like The Man Said, "King Me"
The completed grid . . . .
. . . . and the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
1. Pacific island called "The Gathering Place": OAHU.
King Kalakaua Lived Here
5. Lots of land: ACRES.
10. Workshop gadget: VISE. A clamp, not a bad habit.
14. Cold-shoulder: SHUN. Rarely used, as it seems to be used in the clue, as a verb. Or, perhaps as in "he received the cold-shoulder"?,
15. Material from the French for a Scandinavian country: SUEDE. This marine mammal was not previously cognizant of the etymology. Then again, he also did not know that The Police had recorded a song called King of Pain. As a result, for years he wondered what had inspired this:
Weird Al, King of Suede
16. MLB shortstop who agreed to play third because Jeter was already the shortstop: AROD. Alex RODriguez. Wow, that certainly is one lengthy clue. Not to be confused with Chi Chi.
Les Nessman - WKRP
20. Used, as china: ATE ON. Small "c" china originated in the Jaingxi province of capital "C" China.
21. Belief ending: ISM.
22. Mudville dud: CASEY. CASEY At The Bat is the "Ballad of The Republic" written in 1888 by Ernest Thayer. Mudville in the clue, of course, is a reference to the town. And The Mighty Casey, of course, struck out.
The Might Casey
23. Theater section: LOGE.
25. "Queer Eye" fashion expert __ France: TAN. Often, we see Amy. "Queer Eye" is an American reality television series. Tanveer Wasim France (nee Safdar) was on the show.
26. Clara Bow nickname: IT GIRL.
29. By the seashore: COASTAL. She sells seashells by the seashore.
35. Society newbie: DEB. Slang/shortened form of DEButant.
37. Kuwaiti ruler: EMIR.
King Salman of Saudi Arabia and the Emir of Kuwait
King Salmon and Friends
38. Name synonymous with synonyms: ROGET. Created in 1805 by Peter Mark ROGET and released to the public in 1852.
39. Frosty glaze: HOAR. When humid air skips the droplet stage and goes directly to crystallization it forms HOAR frost.
Hoar frost
40. Place to relax: DEN. Or, perhaps, not relax. See also 65 Across.
Daniel In The King of Beast's Den
43. Disco lights: STROBES.
45. Pressing: URGENT.
46. "Who now the price of his dear blood doth __?": Shak.: OWE. A quote from Shakespeare could be used to clue just about any word in the English language.
47. Roman commoner: PLEB. Shortened form of Plebian. Those citizens of Rome who were not Patricians were PLEBians.
48. Part of a 13-piece suit?: SPADE. Not clothing but (another) playing card reference. I wondered, but only for a very brief moment, if the clue contained a typo.
51. 19th-century mystery writer with just one complete novel: POE. I didn't know that. The novel was The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.
53. Ristorante order: PASTA. Ristorante, Italian for restaurant, tells us the type of cuisine that we should be thinking of (of which we should be thinking?).
60. Short mystery writer?: ANON. Short, get it?, for ANONymous and, as an unknown, such an author would be a mystery.
61. Patch plant: BRIAR.
62. 23rd-century captain: KIRK. The Star Trek television series ran for only three seasons (1966 - 1969) in the 20th-century before being canceled due to low ratings. The show was, however, set in the 23rd century. One of the best-ever spoofs of the show was written by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Yes, he of The Monster Mash. He still owes me royalties.
Star Drek
63. Unfreeze: MELT. Thaw was another four-letter-possibly-correct response.
64. Golfer's set: IRONS. Metal golf clubs. Called IRONS to distinguish them from "woods" which used to actually be made from wood.
King Cobra Irons
65. Relaxing spots: SPAS. See also 40 Across.
Down:
1. Job safety org.: OSHA. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration. We've seen OSHA before. Remember the cowboy?
2. "It's __!": SRO show headline: A HIT. Standing Room Only means that all the seats have been sold. This Broadway show had its share of sold out performances:
3. Very significant: HUGE. King-sized?
4. Less saintly: UNHOLIER. As Cheddar is to Swiss?
5. Obstinate mount: ASS. It seems as if this answer shows up every week.
6. __ pie: CUTIE. Apple, Berry, Peach, and Fruit - any of these five-letter words might have sent us down the wrong path.
7. Touchdown signalers: REFS. Not an airport reference. A football reference.
8. Dutch cheese: EDAM. I know that we had this two weeks ago. M - A - D - E backwards.
9. Champagne label word: SEC. Used to denote the level of residual sugar (for SEC, it is 17 to 32 grams per liter) in the wine.
10. Unoccupied: VACANT.
11. Some S&L plans: IRAS. Individual Retirement AccountS are a crossword-ese staple.
12. Ticked off: SORE.
13. Water whirled: EDDY.
12. Ticked off: SORE.
13. Water whirled: EDDY.
18. 3-Down, poetically: ENORM. Poetically !? I thought that this was Valley-girl speak.
Frank and Moon Unit Zappa
19. Cybercurrency: ECASH. Egad, another "E" word !
24. "Hallelujah!": GLORY BE.
25. Diplomatic: TACTFUL.
24. "Hallelujah!": GLORY BE.
25. Diplomatic: TACTFUL.
26. Chatted with, but not IRL: IMED. Instant MessagED as opposed to talking In Real Life.
27. Subdues: TAMES.
28. Shimmer: GLINT.
Astronaut Photograph of Sun Glint
29. Pet store array: CAGES. Today's "I prefer to skip the graphics" moment.
30. Snack with Red Velvet and Key Lime Pie varieties: OREO. I have thought about constructing a crossword puzzle using only OREO for all of the answers but cluing it seventy-five different ways.
31. Acrobat maker: ADOBE. Developed by ADOBE, Inc., Acrobat is a computer standard for viewing, creating, printing and manipulating PDF (Portable Document Format) files.
32. Absorb: LEARN.
34. "Ain't gonna happen": NOPE. The clue is slangy, ergo the answer is slangy.
36. Frank's cousin: BRAT. The wurst pun today. Not your daughter to your brother's son, Frank.
39. Ridges with steeply sloped sides: HOGBACKS. Named for the resemblance to, you guess it, the backs of some hogs.
41. Loom: TOWER. Used as a verb as in "to TOWER over something". A bit of misdirection as one might have thought of a device used for weaving.
42. French pancake: CREPE.
Une Crepe au noisette s'il vous plait !
44. Capybara, for one: RODENT. Capybaras are the largest living RODENTs on Earth. They are semi-aquatic and are found throughout most South American countries. An adult Capybara weighs 75 - 150 pounds and can grow to be 3.5 to 4.5 feet in length.
47. Praline nut: PECAN.
Pralines
48. Unwanted email: SPAM. In prior puzzle write-ups, I have used Hormel and Monty Python graphics for this SPAM. What, now? Hmmmm. I guess that we could go with the current "junk email" use of the word, as clued.
49. Fried Dixie bread: PONE. Tom Lehrer referred to Corn PONE in his classic I Wanna Go Back to Dixie:
Live - 1967
50. Badly off base: AWOL. Absent WithOut Leave For some, a bit of misdirection in that the clue refers to a military base and not a baseball game.
51. Sound of a contented cat: PURR.
51. Sound of a contented cat: PURR.
Rocky The Flying Cat
52. Medley: OLIO.
They might have added "often found in crossword puzzles".
54. Decide not to go to: SKIP. I first tried to see if STAY would work.
55. Giga- x 1,000: TERA. In one sense, computer jargon.
56. Sacred cabinets: ARKS.
The Ark of the Covenant
58. "The Sopranos" org.: FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mafia would not fit. Mob would fit but all of the perps would have to change.
59. Store door nos.: HRS. Hours. Punt! It's time to leave, now . . . . .
Happy (just a tad early) Pesach
_____________________________________________
MM OUT
My comments before reading the Write-up. Difficult for me, capybara??? Hallelujah?? wos? Several. sheen/GLINT: Taper/TOWER; Snub/SHUN.
ReplyDelete_ _ _ ENT? 13 piece suit? Duh, SPADE(s). Aha, RODENT. It's not MAkE, it's MALE. And there's the W in TOWER and OWE. I thought Sinatra had a cousin named BReT then I realized it was a BRATwurst.
Thus COBRA (TYPE OF)
My brain went dead on that synonym for synonyms??? But realizing Clara was the IT GIRL gave me GLORY BE and thus ROGET popped.
Inky mess. But I FIR. WHEW. The top and bottom went smoothly once I spelt VIcE with an S.
Over in J-ville I penned "Wilbur at the Bat" last Summer. I had several takes on CASEY but I've lost "Grogan at the Helm" Somewhere in the bowels of the old DEC Notesfiles(precursor to blogs).
Let's read the Write-up
WC
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteNice, straight-forward puzzle. I don't recognize Emma's name. Is she new? If so, nice debut. If not, nice effort. Learning moment: SUEDE derives from SWEDE. d-o saw BOW and read BARTON -- "It Girl?" Noticed the CSO to C.C. with OLIO. Lucky for me, TAN France filled itself/himself/herself. Thanx for "I Wanna Go Back To Dixie" and "Star Drek," Mal-Man.
Now that I've replaced the front door latch, the deadbolt above it looks shabby. That's the project for this afternoon when I get home from M-o-W. There's always something.
Good morning. After the HIGHEST FACE CARD was in place the theme was obvious. Emma's puzzle had a few unknowns that were easily filled. I started to fill SWEDE but CWT on 6D didn't get it. Of course there's the Shak. fill that's usually a WAG or perps.
ReplyDelete"Queer Eye" & TAN-I thought the word police at the LA Times were TACTFUL and would SHUN certain words. Dixie- another word that they are trying to shun.
S&L and IRAS- I didn't know there were any Savings & Loans still out there. The FSLIC (their version of FDIC) has been defunct since 1989. The S&Ls were artificially kept alive through the FSLIC by Congress just like Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac; taxpayers picked up the tab.
IMED- got it but had no idea that IRL meant In Real Life.
HOGBACKS- a new term for me. The only 'steeply sloped sides' in S. LA are on the side of a ditch.
Has Emma been here before? I do not remember her puzzles here though I have solved a couple elsewhere. Either way welcome. The puzzle was fun and the theme of KING was fine. I did not know TAN as clued but like having a new way to present that fill. Off to get my MRIs of my orbs
ReplyDeleteBe well all
FLN, thanks for William Tell, -T. My HS adopted it and became #1 in State. I too left parochial* for public (5th grade)
ReplyDeleteMaloMan, greatly enjoyed your Write-up, now I have to go to web mode to get links.
S&L's were 'artificially' run out of business by Commercial Banks along with Mutuals. Credit Unions are thriving; who'd bank comm. if they didn't have to. I have Chase acct, though.
HOG BACKS are also known as Ridgebacks. Nothing came easy very Sat-like.
WC
This puzzle seemed rather straightforward clueing with nothing to strongly dislike. Took me 7:33.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know the Clara Bow "It Girl" connection, and had never seen "enorm" (although I don't doubt that someone, somewhere, sometime used it in a poem).
53 Across was "Ristorante order" (not "restaurant"), so I was resisting putting in "pasta" while waiting for something "more foreign."
[Lemonade714, my preferred title would be "Mr."]
Musings
ReplyDelete-I suppose the PASTA we ate in Italy was superior but I couldn’t tell
-VACANT – The Nebraska State Activities Association allowed 7,500 spectators in for the state high school championships. On the same day, a few blocks north, the NCAA and/or The Big Ten allowed no spectators in for Husker Volleyball which are usually SRO
-I’ve heard of grass football fields being called HOGBACKS because they are high in the middle to promote drainage
-In the first Indiana Jones, the Nazis were desperate to find the ARK
Addendum
ReplyDelete-A quick search revealed this:
Emma Oxford
Emma is a graduate student in particle physics who has long been solving crosswords but only began writing them about a year ago. She is a frequent poster on the XWord Muggles Forum under the username damefox and eventually hopes to construct meta crosswords. Outside of crosswords and physics, Emma is a fan of baking, running, jigsaw puzzles, reading, keeping her cat away from the houseplants, and social distancing.
-A picture of her
Manatee: Nice write-up & links. Good job!
ReplyDeleteWell this was a FUN Thursday puzzle.
Cheers!
Origin of the word suede. "The term comes from the French gants de Suède, which literally means 'gloves from Sweden' "
ReplyDeleteI was looking for a frosty gaze, instead of glaze. Cold shoulder?
Emma, thanks for a fine puzzle. MM, thanks for a great expo.
FIR today which pleased me since it had some challenges. I put THAW before MELT was obviously going to work better with the perps, as well as STOP before SKIP. For 12D I was thinking "ticked off a to-do list" so I entered DONE. Then the other meaning became clear, so SORE replaced it. GLEAM before GLINT was my last WO. Otherwise a clean fill and a fun theme. Thanks, Emma. I guess this is your debut here. And thanks to MalMan for adding to the fun. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteHope your Thursday isn't a terrible one and you enjoy the puzzle. See you tomorrow.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun, straightforward romp, although I stubbed my toe a few times along the way: Junk/Spam, Joker/Spade, Dan/Tan, and Snub/Shun. I can’t see the word “Olio” without thinking of CC. I liked It Girl above Male and my favorite C/A was Short mystery writer=Anon. There is a Hogback Mountain in Southern Vermont. My only nit is Unholier.
Thanks, Emma, and congrats on the debut appearance and thanks, MalMan, for the cheery and enjoyable write-up, not to mention the links and graphics.
HG @ 9:19 ~ Thanks for the background info and photo of Emma.
FLN
Dave, please wish Carol a Belated Happy Birthday from me. 🎂🎁🎉🎊🎈
Have a great day.
Quite easy today with a simple theme. When I was a soldier in Thailand in 1963, a few of us found a baby COBRA, wormsized, and played with it. Later I found out that the babies’ bite is even more lethal than the adults. Not too many names today - thank you!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteNice Thursday level puzzle from Emma. MM's write-up 'splained some of the things I didn't know, like In Real Life.
A few perps fill-ins today. Didn't know TAN, OWE, and I wanted RIME before HOAR became obvious. ENORM and ECASH were meh but unknown.
I would like to be COASTAL right now, I'm ready for some nice warm beach time. This week was my first real opportunity to put away my outside Christmas lights. They were covered in snow and frozen in the shrubbery for most of the last three months.
Have a great day everyone.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteNice fresh puzzle from Emma, today. Theme was fun. 4 kings; 2 game types, 2 life types. Fav. was POWERFUL CHECKER. Liked the longer downs to knit the grid together. Wanted arête before HOGBACK came into focus from perps. Thought of 'sheen' before GLINT became obvious. FIR
-T - FLN; I replied to your Suez comment.
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Emma (welcome here) and MalMan.
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time for a Thursday and saw the King theme quickly. (Was SPADE our Easter egg in the King theme?)
Just a few inkblots - Ired changed to SORE, Melt to THAW, Let In to LEARN.
Perps gave me TAN and RODENT.
I could copy and paste YR's comment @9:39. I LIUed SUEDE origin before I came here; and hand up for reading gaze before glaze.
I was thinking of IRONS for 45A "Pressing needs" but it was needed for "Golfer's set" in 64A.
We had a BRAT today, not an Imp.
I'll join IM with a nose-wrinkle at UNHOLIER. ENORM was second but I agree with ANON@9:01 that some poet has probably used it somewhere. I LIUed and apparently it is in the Scrabble dictionary.
Yes, MM, I mentally went through all the fruit pies before CUTIE perped. LOL.
Did anyone else think of Cabbage patch before BRIAR fit the spot?
Yes HG, those VACANT seats at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals are calling our names. We are booked for a performance in late July at the Shaw; Gypsy musical was cancelled because the cast and orchestra cannot practice properly under the current Covid restrictions. Stratford is going back to their roots with an outdoor open tent. (No details on plays, bookings yet.) And the beautiful new Tom Patterson Theatre was supposed to open last summer!! Aren't you glad you are retired OMK?
Stratford2021
Wishing you all a great day.
We have often heard the legend of Casey at the bat,
ReplyDeletebut have you ever heard, what happened after that...
Ha, great, thanks.
DeleteCouple of missteps, like shine b/4 glint.
ReplyDeleteHowever this puzzle finally made me look up
the difference between absorb and adsorb.
what "King" means to me...
gratuitous link for Anonymous-T
this one reminded me of Ray-O-Sunshine
Now, I am in danger of over-linking! Re-linking! And just too much,
But MM's unknown Star Trek booby prize link made me think some of you
May not have seen this gem. (Probably because it is 25 minutes-but worth it.)
It is a little true story titled William F*ing Shatner...
Great!
DeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThanks to Emma Oxford for a doable Thursday puzzle and thank you, Gary, for the background information on her.
Many good memories of that "gathering place" and its neighboring islands flood into my mind.
ROGET is one of my favorite "authors" and I own three versions of his books.
Ditto on thinking of C.C. when I see "OLIO".
EMIR could also be clued as king.
Thank you, MalMan for explaining HOGBACKS which made no sense to me.
Short mystery writer, ANON, was my favorite clue. POE may have written only one novel but has a significant contribution of poetry and short stories.
When visiting Savanah, GA, with my sisters one year, we gorged ourselves on PECAN pie and other delicacies made with PECANs. Why Savannah, one might ask? It's an easy drive from Charlotte where we were visiting.
Have yourselves a wonderful day, everyone! My Easter preparations continue. . . .
Ms Oxford gave us several definitions of the word "king," and MalMan gave us many more in a colorful commentary. I enjoyed every bit of the solve and the solution. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteC E Dave, I loved Casey's Daughters. Thanks for the lesson on adsorb and absorb. I haven't thought about that in decades and forgot how to explain it.
ReplyDeleteENORM seems so normal to me. I took up Anon's challenge to find it widely used in poems. No luck.
Friends and I signed up for in person dining last night. There was unexpected entertainment during our meal. The lights went out half way through the meal. The emergency lights came on and flickered out. Everyone in the dining room and lobby was herded into a hallway. Several dozen firemen and emergency personnel tramped through the downstairs. JCP&L had some kind of outage on our block. One of our emergency generators failed and it was thought that maybe the failure caused it to release carbon monoxide. Personnel fixed the generator and cleared the air in under an hour. We returned to our apartments with full electric service restored. The people in their apartments during the episode stayed there, but had no power. The staff was superb, proving calm, chairs, battery lights, water, and access to a bathroom off that hall. This is a well run establishment.
ReplyDeleteThis was a nice Thursday puzzle, always good to see a new author.
Rather strait-forward but not without a couple of nits,
DAN/TAN, SPA/DEN.
Off to finally get my second shot, looking forward to a sore arm..
Spring season here means yellow snow...no not the Frank Zappa kind, I’m talking about pine pollen that rolls down the road when windy just like real snow. Achoo.
Stay safe
ReplyDeleteHi all !
Congratulations on your debut, Emma ! Fun puzzle with 4 Kings. That might be a pretty good hand in five card stud. I liked the pair of grid-spanners.
Thoroughly enjoyed your review, MM. I had the same thought with IRONS and COBRA. Over the years, I've hit various sets of King Cobra irons at "Demo Days" at the local golf courses and at local pro shops, but never pulled the trigger on a purchase. I did buy a King Cobra offset head driver many years ago, but retired it after a couple of season.
I liked how you got both KING and EMIR in at 37A.
Thaw ? Warm ? Heat ? No, MELT.
On Monday, March 22nd we all celebrated PK's birthday. Among the other celebrities born on March 22nd were:
1931 - William Shatner, Canadian author, director and actor (Star Trek, T J Hooker)
2233 - James T KIRK, science fiction captain of USS Enterprise (Star Trek)
Enjoyed Wil Wheaton telling the story about meeting William Shatner. A few days ago I heard an audio clip of a producer mildly correcting Shatner for mispronouncing sabotage during a script reading. Shatner was offended that he was corrected and let the producer know it. He made the ending syllable sound like the end of succotash. Funny.
Yellowrocks, glad to hear that you are continuing to find your new digs so accommodating and friendly. Seems like you chose the best possible place.
Yellowrocks:
ReplyDeleteI also offer my congratulations to you for choosing such an apparently efficient and friendly place to live. When my time comes, I hope to find a similar one here although my daughter says, "no way, Mom!" We shall see.
For you armchair ship pilots tracking the ruction in the Suez canal, here is a link to the SUEZ CANAL Rules of Navigation. I see on page 86 they discourage general use of anchors and bow thrusters except in cases of absolute necessity. However the ship must have working anchors to transit unassisted.
ReplyDeleteAnchoring might not have been an option if insufficient scope to 'hook' the anchor in the seabed existed or if prohibited by presence of underwater cables or other infrastructure.
It would be interesting to know what the pilot did and what the Master's role was.
Ok, it was me. I had all sorts of trouble and y'all seen to have sailed through it. Most had one or two wos, I had a half dozen
ReplyDeleteWC
FIR in 23, which time surprised me as I struggled with parts of this CW and thought I took far longer. Very nice, enjoyable CW, thanx, Emma. Once I got HIGHESTFACECARD I was onto the theme, which helped. Only WO was STAY:SKIP. I love bratwurst, just seeing the word made me want one, off the grill with fried onions and green bell pepper, and brown mustard! YUM!! Then MM’s picture of brats on a grill really has me craving. Anyway, really liked this CW! And thanx so much for the entertaining AND INFORMATIVE write-up, MM!! Learned something about SEC and about Mega, Tera etc. A couple of weeks ago someone (you MM?) had a nice compact ranking of poker hands. Poker is a game I never learned. Just knowing rankings is a huge help. A good day to all!! Off to find some brats.
ReplyDeleteBit of a challenging Thursday puzzle, but still lots of fun, Emma--many thanks. And I always appreciate your comments, MalMan--thanks for those too.
ReplyDeleteGot Edgar Allan POE right away, but didn't realize he wrote only one novel. My favorite clue was the _____pie; I, of course, figured it would be a food, and laughed when it turned out to be CUTIE. MalMan, thanks for your picture giving us the solution for "Frank's cousin." Never occurred to be that this FRANK was a hot dog related to a BRATWURST.
Have a good day, everybody.
Enjoyed finding the Kings. Neat PZL.
ReplyDeleteThe difficult clues made sense only after perps gave me the answer. "Synonymous" was one.
"Capybara" another. Well, you already know the lineup.
I thought ENORM was fine. Poets must have used it. If not, then today's teens must already have adopted it.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals, one on the near side, a 3-way opposite.
The main diagonal (on this end) yields an anagram (13 of 15 letters) reminder of what we get when we carelessly toss our garbage into the ocean.
Along with offensive jetsam we also find way too much...
"GOO ALONGSHORE"!
I liked everything today.
ReplyDeleteMr. is a good title but you need to use it to earn it. Anon doesn't make it.
ReplyDeleteNice detective work HG; nice pic Emma; are you from Pittsburgh?
Good afternoon everyone! Fun puzzle today, Emma – welcome to the LA Times. And thanks for the lively tour, Mal Man. I especially enjoyed the Tom Lehrer link.
ReplyDeleteThe KINGs theme helped smooth the way for a hassle-free solve. The etymology of SUEDE was a cool learning moment. Favorite clue/answer today: Water Whirled = EDDY. Noticed we had a mini food theme with PRALINES, EDAM, the ubiquitous OREOS, CREPES and BRATS. Speaking of brats, I’m really hoping we can once again enjoy a summer festival season with brats, grilled corn, funnel cakes and other “essential” fare.
DH and I got our second Pfizer dose yesterday with no side effects so far. Still planning on masking up and social distancing, but looking forward to feeling a little less stressed when going out and about.
Take care all!
So, what the heck happened last night? Lemonade called out an anon, and even said "get a life", for supposedly giving the constructor a grade of "C" when in fact the anon was grading himself, not the constructor. Then Anonymous T pointed that out to Lemonade and Anonymous T's post disappeared (was deleted). Why was Anonymous T's post deleted?
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, doesn't telling someone to "get a life" come awfully close to being, if not actually being, a personals attack?
I don't understand.
Jayce - I deleted myself - not a happy post... //though I do love Back to the Future, TTP.
ReplyDeleteI had fun w/ Emma's puzzle but I can't say it was a win.
I tried to refresh FLN and ended up seeing today's grid.
I've gotta count it as a cheat. :-(
(Oh, it wasn't a Promoted CHECKER?)
Move pawn to eighth rank and you get a Queen. Emma, that's your next puzzle :-)
//wait - particle physics and a word-nerd? You're my kinda mind. (thanks HG for the background)
Spitz - I read you loud and clear. I can't wait to dig into the whaaaa??? on the canal.
//Tevor Noah [just watch to 1:50 before politics enter]
Back to work.
Play later. Cheers, -T
FIR! Given the fact that KING was the four long horizontal clues, it only took filling in a few of the top-row downs to get 17A. Then 41A and 57A fell, with 33A bringing up the rear. As MM and others said, they certainly made solving the puzzle much easier.
ReplyDeleteOnly a few perps needed today: EDAM (not really needed, but just to be sure), SEC (doesn’t apply to beer), TAN, ITGIRL and I didn’t know what a CAPYBARA is (and I won’t remember the next time either). Took me a while to figure out IMED, which gave me ITGIRL, which was my final fill. Had ECOIN before ECASH.
Thanks Emma and MalMan!
ROGET was my favorite.
Yes, I deleted my above comment. Some dummy made an error!
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIW. Forgot to proofread before saying "GLORY BE"; I now know that my Natick was at 2-Down and 4-Down, and at 14- Across and 20-Across; my paper copy says: ANIT (?!), UBHILER (?!) in the "downs", and SNUB and ATE IN for the "acrosses".
OOPS! Also had a few write-overs, too; ECOIN/ECASH and RED ANT/RODENT. Other than those errors it looks pretty good.
Congrat's to Emma for the puzzle and to our "salty sea cow" for the humorous and informative recap. As we speak, I am also enjoying a recommendation of his (MM) in a whiskey snifter - a dram+ of a pot still version of Green Dot Irish Whiskey.
I know it's 5:00 somewhere ... just pretending here that it's DST ... oh, and Tinbeni, if you happen to see this, there is ABSOLUTELY no ice ...
Thanks for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteUgh! I'll take Edie Albert and Eva Gabor any day. They deserve the Emmy.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry, I’m finding the puzzles lately to be very predictable and very easy to solve. The themes are very easy to figure out. Still dislike all the unknown people and places, I’ve never heard of. Still can fill in the puzzle, however.
ReplyDeleteJayce, I sense a pattern of reviewing and commenting on my comments; thank you. How can you get "personal" with someone who is not actually an identifiable person? If I offended you, I am sorry, if I offended it...how can I? Attacking a remark is hardly attacking a person. If I comment on someone's inordinately smelly feet, that is personal. If I comment on someone's criminal past, that is personal. If I disagree with the use of a word, that is discussion. IMO but then I am not in a good mood
ReplyDeleteAnd I adore Snoopy, best pet on earth. Thanks Charles Schulz, My opinion, best comic strip ever. Followed by number two, Blondie, and then Beetle Bailey. Lately, Curtis, adore that kid. For those of you who enjoy the comics, so many more I’m sure you enjoy.
ReplyDeleteLizza, welcome to the club. I've always loved comics including what some call the "Soaps". fe. LuAnn. Snoopy is hof material.
ReplyDeleteRe. Solving. The xwords are the same, you're getting better solve by solve as did I since I've been a regular hear circa 2014.
Keep posting, we'll love hearing more.
WC
Too late to play say...
ReplyDeleteThanks MManatee for the fantastic expo. I hope I have more time this weekend to click more songs & links
//really, you never heard King of Pain) b/f Weird Al parodied it?
YR - Here you go [Green ACRES].
Cheers, -T
You know it, CanadianEh!
ReplyDeleteSince this plague struck, I have been saying it over and over, how lucky I feel that I am no longer producing live theater. I would hate to be making decisions about when to hire and fire actors and other company members, or to decide when to re-open performances to real audiences.
So many people depend on resident theaters for their livelihoods. I have tremendous sympathy for them--and for the producing directors who have to make those decisions.
~ OMK