Theme: FIRST THINGS FIRST
(61. "Start at the beginning," and a hint to the four other longest
Across answers) - First can precede the first word of each theme entry.
18. 2010s sci-fi crime drama starring Michael Emerson: PERSON OF INTEREST. First person.
24. Completed in haste: DOWN AND DIRTY. First down.
39. Equine sprinter: QUARTER HORSE. First quarter.
53. Pull-and-peel food item: STRING CHEESE. First string.
Boomer here again, filling in another blogging gap, blogging another 16x15 grid.
I lived in Hopkins Minnesota from 1952 to 1997. Although I went to a Catholic High School in a neighboring suburb, my three sisters all went to Hopkins High. The reason I mention this is because a recent graduate named Paige Bueckers graduated from Hopkins last year after tearing up the Lake Conference and is now shooting hoops for UConn in the NCAA Tournament. I am not a huge Basketball fan but I am waiting for Major League Baseball starting the end of this week. Go Twins!
.jpg/320px-7_Paige_Bueckers_(cropped_2).jpg)
Across:
6. "Ditto!": SO AM I. Yup!
11. Qatar's capital: DOHA.
15. Largest members of the dolphin family: ORCAS. They are huge fish. I do not think any are swimming around in the pool at Tampa Bay's Stadium.
16. B's equivalent: C FLAT.
17. Iridescent gem: OPAL.
21. Two after epsilon: ETA. I was never any good at the Greek alphabet. But I know Alpha and Beta.
22. Full Sail offering: ALE. Canada Dry zero sugar Ginger ALE is one of my favorites.
23. "Rats!": DANG. I sometimes use a different word when I miss a ten pin.
30. Bill collection?: WAD. Nice to think about, but only if they are Benjamins.
32. Diva's numbers: SOLOS.
33. Stalls: BUYS TIME. Talk about BUYING TIME? I was watching the match play golf on TV last weekend and it took those guys forever to play.
35. NBA official: REF. They have a rough time in the NCAA Tournament.
37. "I'll skip it": PASS. The REF has to make a quick decision about whether a PASS was okay.
38. Noodle output?: IDEA.
42. Leave speechless: STUN.
44. "Silly me!": OOPS. DANG, I missed another Ten Pin.
45. Discouraging words: NOS.
46. NBC drama with two pronouns in its title: THIS IS US.
48. Brass in parades: TUBAS. I don't remember seeing TUBAS in
parades. They are big and heavy and not comfortable to walk down a
street two miles or more while wearing a band uniform on a hot summer
day.
52. Name that's also a Roman numeral: LIV. Super Bowl LIV was a year or two ago. Liv Tyler is the daughter of Steve Tyler.
57. Dresden denial: NEIN. I was in Germany once and learned this word first.
59. Castle queenside, in chess notation: OOO.
60. "Atonement" author McEwan: IAN.
67. Smoothie berry: ACAI.
68. Traffic cop?: NARCO. Drug traffic. 31. Anti-traffic org.: DEA.
69. More loyal: TRUER. TRUER words were never spoken.
70. Ping-Pong supplies: NETS. The Puzzlemaster Will Shortz is an avid player.
71. Kids: TYKES. I never got a chance to coach high school
bowling this year. They are kids but I think they might have to be
younger to be called TYKES.
72. Showing one's claws, so to speak: CATTY.
Down:
2. Playground rebuttal: ARE TOO. YES I AM!
3. Prescription, to a layperson?: SCRAWL. Hmmm. I don't think mine are SCRAWLED. They just show up in my mailbox on time, and C.C. keeps track.
4. Remote batteries: AAS. Very popular and necessary. We have a drawer full of them.
5. Prefix with metric: ISO.
6. Take to task: SCOLD.
7. Did in: OFFED.
8. Whom Clay became: ALI. Cassius Clay.
9. Fellow: MAN.
10. Wednesday kin: ITT. Proud member of the Addams Family but I cannot remember if ITT was a girl or a boy ??
11. TV explorer with a monkey named Boots: DORA.
12. Hygienist's request: OPEN WIDE. Wife's request - SHUT UP !
13. Can really play: HAS GAME. We'll see how many Major Leaguers HAVE GAME next week.
14. Ctrl-__-Del: ALT. I would stay away from the sequence.
19. Photographer Goldin: NAN.
20. Freezer aisle brand: EDYS. I've been eating Breyer's for dessert. They have no sugar added.
25. Shutout feature: NO RUNS. How many Pitchers will HAVE GAME ??
26. Crossing the pond, say: ASEA. He joined the Navy, to see the world but he only saw the SEA.
27. Pronoun-shaped girders: I BARS.
28. Hurry: RUSH. Speaking of RUSH. We lost Mr. Limbaugh a few weeks ago.
29. Emmy winner Cicely: TYSON.
34. Crying need: TISSUE. Okay if I just call it a Kleenex?
36. Cold coat: FROST. It looks like we Minnesotans might have to wait until November to see our breath outside again.
37. __ Challenge: soft drink promotion: PEPSI. That's my other soft drink, Diet Pepsi next to the zero sugar Ginger Ale.
39. Shake in fear over: QUIVER AT.
40. Series of dates: TOUR.
41. With 66-Down, nest egg option: ROTH. 66. See 41-Down: IRA. I have a regular IRA. I never understood the Roth kind. It seemed to have a lot of ifs, ands and buts.
42. Cardinal letters: STL. Home of the Arch. If you want to
take a ride to the top, it takes 45 minutes. I did not go. Instead I
visited the Bowling Hall of Fame. I was not in it and I heard that it
has been moved to Texas.
43. Metaphor for a treacherous situation: THIN ICE. It's not a metaphor here. We have laws to take ice fishing houses off the lakes by earlier this month.
47. Ain't right?: ISN'T.
49. Lebanon's capital: BEIRUT. Didn't he hit 714 Home Runs for the Yankees?
50. How flatware is usually sold: AS A SET. I always called it silverware, even though it was some other kind of metal.
51. Guard at the gate: SENTRY.
54. Time being: NONCE.
55. "We Got the Beat" group: GO GOS. You cannot fool me. This goes back to the 1970s. Are they still around?
56. Trig. ratio: COS.
58. Goddess with cow's horns: ISIS.
61. Ceiling fixture: FAN. We have one of these but we seldom use it. It can keep you awake.
62. Big bang letters?: TNT. Turner Network Television. It has
some classic old movies sometimes. I never knew that Ronnie Howard was
in "The Music Man" until I saw it on TNT.
63. Mare's meal: HAY. Mare's eat oats and Does eat oats, and Little Lambs eat Ivy.
64. Really bug: IRK.
65. Consumer protection org.: FTC.
Boomer
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteStumbled at FULL SAIL -- thought it was a clothing brand and entered TEE instead of ALE. Fixed. Cicely TYSON died just a couple of months ago. I remember her sterling performance in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Thanx, Joe and Boomer. (We watched Paige Bueckers last night in Monday's UConn/Baylor matchup. We never watch games live -- too many commercials.)
AAS: Yup, we buy 'em by the dozens from A-to-Z. AAAs also.
FAN: Ceiling fans are ubiquitous (love that word) here in the southland. We've got five -- one in each bedroom, plus one in the family room and outside on the porch.
ROTH IRA: Got one. Not sure it was a good idea. I'm required to take out more money than we need from my conventional IRA. Not sure when I'll be able to tap that tax free ROTH money.
Taxing day. Our site is operating three days a week until April 15th, then we go to one day a week through mid June. Texas' filing deadline was moved to June 15th due to the "Big Freeze."
FIR in spite of all of the names and the chess notation. I’ve played a lot of chess, but missed that one.
ReplyDeleteNo need for a "first" responder, but I finished in 9:11.
ReplyDeleteI found "Masai" to be pretty obscure, though I am a casual NBA fan. Struggled to realize orcas are family members of dolphins. "Nonce" crossing "ooo" was another challenge.
I didn't get the theme until afterwards. Couldn't you replace "first" with "second" or "third," etc., and get the same result?
Good puzzle. Appropriate Wednesday level.
Nice Wednesday puzzle. Didn’t care for the obscure Raptors president Masai or the scrawl answer to prescription.
DeleteCrunchy for a Wednesday. FIR. Needed the reveal to find the theme. Boomer, thanks for your willingness to fill in so ably whenever needed.
ReplyDeleteGreat puns. Cold coat/frost, crying need/tissue, bill collection/wad.
MASAI, all perps. I never heard of or read OOO in chess.
CSO to DOHA DOC. We would love to hear from you.
Quake at (too short), quiver at, quaver at
Computers are replacing scrawled handwritten prescriptions. I often wondered how the pharmacists could read them.
Is this the third day the rats have appeared?
This is the first time I don't have ceiling fans in many years. They are great when you need a little cooling along with the nice fresh air from open windows, but not enough cooling for AC.
I like the idiom, skating on thin ice.
Yesterday, I meant to remark that The Devil Wears Prada is one of my favorite movies.
My ROTH IRA will be the first investment I tap because it is tax free. With my large IRS refund this year I won't need it for a long time.
My fav NCAAer, Johnny Juzang certainly HAD GAME last night in the UCLA upset. They had a "Play-in" game so it's five wins for the Bruins.
ReplyDeleteMy WAG of TYSON for Cicely proved out.
Nice to see Boomer again this morning. Might have been last minute but this was no RUSH Job
WC
Wagged OOO and nonce.
ReplyDeleteToronto raptors, Ujiri? Huh?.wha?(Canada eh..suspect u r behind this! 👋).
ReplyDeleteD for 500 and for Dee? Changed to VIV but still incorrect..LIV, so ergo FIW.. plus didn't know NONCE so perped OOO wrong (had rOO reasoning the castle is the rOOk.) Are they the GOGO'S or the GOGOes? Full Sail ALE ...unknown (a Saturday level clue for a Wednesday level answer)
The theme eluded me, (evaded me even). First things? PERSON? DOWN, STRING? Wait that is the theme, but I still didn't get it till Boomer splained. ...plus thought DOWNANDDIRTY meant "determined, tough and maybe breaking the rules." Completed in haste? 🤔 Cassius to ALI 🥊🥊 ("One Night in Miami", based on a play so a lot of dialogue..great flick...Oscar contender). I also remember Tyson in "Jane Pittman" when she took a drink from the water fountain.
Wednesday kin oughtta be Pugsley but only ITT would fITT. Diva's numbers are usually CW arias except today, when they are SOLOS. Another inkover was aaa/AAS.
Hey! One man's SCRAWL is another man's Calligraphy! 😉
" ______? but I hardly know you!".....TISSUE
" ______ get out of the pool so soon?"....MASAI
They have interesting habits ....NONCE.
Have a nice 🐪🐫 day. One hump or two?
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteThanks Boomer for pinch-hitting. (A little baseball talk.)
Like John E above, OOO and NONCE were guesses. I had a dim recollection of having seen NONCE in the past. I've queen side castled a lot but did not know its appellation was OOO. A learning. Skipped around a bit to solve - Deeney is not easy - but was lucky with WAGS and FIR.
HAY - German Heu, Dutch hooi. (Sound the same - as the oy in 'boy')
Saw the 16 X 15 grid right away.
For the nonce, means for now. I used to hear it, but recently it seems to appear only in novels.
ReplyDeleteRay-O, I had similar thoughts about down and dirty, but even with just a few perps, it had to be the answer. LIU, I see that it is one of the dictionary definitions. I have never read or heard it used as hasty.
Merrimam Webster:
1: UNVARNISHED
the down and dirty truth
***2: made or done hastily : not revised or polished
a down and dirty solution
3: marked by or given to fierce often unscrupulous competition
down and dirty campaigning
4: BAWDY
down and dirty sexuality
5: SEEDY
a down and dirty neighborhood
6: relating to or involved with what is crudely basic and practical
down and dirty details
Musings
ReplyDelete-Starting with MASAI got my attention but all’s well…
-Once I was the FIRST PERSON on the FIRST STRING to make a FIRST DOWN in the FIRST QUARTER
-All ARIAS are SOLOS but not all SOLOS are ARIAS
-REF – My friend made a last second call in the state tournament this year that decided the game
-Most marching bands feature wrap-around Sousaphones and not TUBAS
-OOO was in yesterday’s puzzle for the much simpler game of tic-tac-toe
-A-Rod HAD GAME during the MLB season but folded like a cheap suit in the playoffs
-Two pitchers have given up 14 hits and still pitched a SHUT OUT
-See your breath? As I read Boomer’s fun review and type this, I see it is 23F in Minneapolis. :-)
-It’s 27F here and our birds will be on very THIN ICE in the bird bath this morning
Thank you Joe and thank you Boomer for all of the pinch bowling you've been doin' lately!
ReplyDeleteI agree with YR that this one was a bit crunchy, but lucked out on a few WAGS (ITT, NAN, and ALE) and FIR. I didn't really suss the theme (thank you Boomer), but a lot of the themers were common phrases and a word or two of fill filled in the rest.
NW was last to fall as I didn't know 1A Mr. UJIRI and was looking for a bike brand (HONDAS, KAWAI, etc.) instead of the more generic 1D MOPED.
59A Wasn't familiar with the chess notation OOO, but it perped in and I thought it might be the newer scheme. In the old days it would simply be K-N, as castling would be implied by that fact that the King moves 2 spaces and ends up on the first kNight square when castling Queen side.
29D In addition to RUSH we lost CICELY too.
41D Just the sound of a ROTH IRA makes me QUIVER.
49D BEIRUT. Once known as "The Paris of the Middle East", Beirut has suffered enormously since WWI. After years of civil war, just last year (August 4, 2020) a massive explosion of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer in the center of the port area resulted in damage to over 50% of the city, with 90% of the hotels and 3 of the largest hospitals being destroyed and leaving over 300,000 people homeless. The media seem to have lost interest in this story, but the catastrophe is ongoing - "Lebanon: A state in collapse".
Bill
ReplyDeleteBoomer, I am not familiar with the cable television showings or movies,
.... but don't you think the 62 DOWN
... Big Bang letters .... answer ....
... TNT ... refers to ..... ( 2,4,6 ) Tri Nitro Toluene, the explosive chemical ?
Agreed
DeleteWAZ...I agree with you about the Beirut issue. We Americans and the press lose interest too quickly in important world events. Utica has a sizable Lebanese Maronite Christian community that has been trying to help out.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI also agree with YR that the puzzle was a little crunchy today. It took perps, SWAG's (Scientific WAG's) and one or two LIU's. Nice to see Boomer back for an encore today.
Looks like Rich will be inserting OOO into some more puzzles in the near future. He is like a dog with a bone that he likes and won't let go of once he found it. Here are a few acronyms of OOO he can use as future clues.
Today is National Manatee Appreciation Day, so let's give a shout out to our resident Manatee.
Nowadays it's rare to get a paper prescription, even a computer printed one. Most are sent directly from the doctor's office to the drug store electronically. The only handwritten paper one I've had recently was from my dentist for an antibiotic.
Have a great day everyone.
Good Morning.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe, for keeping me busy this morning. I had to leave two times before I found the V8 can. NOONCE. Got it one third try. Do I remember that from Shakespeare? Stuck on Cardinal letters. Hmm. Oh, those Cardinals. I was thinking nth or such. I liked noodle output on the third pass. And so on. . . . Our stars were not aligned on first meeting but an FIR in the long run.
Thanks, Boomer, for going above and beyond your job description! Nice subbing. Husker would be proud.
Have a sunny day, everyone.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun puzzle, Joe. Thanks.
Boomer, thanks for pinch-hitting today. I too can't wait for baseball to start (and Joe teased us w/ plenty).
WOs: Lad -> MAN, I Beam -> I BARS, oat->HAY, OH...-> OOPS
ESPs: MASAI, IAN, NAN, TYSON
Fav: RUSH [I love the cover of Stone's Paint it Black at the beginning].
0-0 is King's side Castle, so w/ and extra square in the move, 0-0-0 is Queen's side.
In Cryptography, the nonce is an arbitrary number used only once [Wiki]
Foreigner's Double Vision starts "Feeling DOWN AND DIRTY." [@20s]
DW & I enjoyed the first few seasons of PERSON OF INTEREST [Trailer]
oC4 - I'd hope for OOO == Out of Office; we use it all the time to mark calendars for vacation or if we've got Dr. Apts.
Back to work.
Cheers, -T
Getting First things first, quarter horse, and string cheese helped me get the first word of the first two long answers, since I was originally stuck at the top left and center.
ReplyDeleteLoved OOO from chess instead of the typical tic-tac-toe clue. (I played chess a lot as a kid, so this one was easy for me!)
Had DARN instead of DANG at first. Also ARIAS instead of SOLOS.
It was a good challenge. I enjoyed it.
In a Traditional IRA the money you put into it tax deductible and you pay when you remove it.
ReplyDeleteA Roth IRA is theother way around. You put in taxed money and the withdrawals are tax free.
FIR, but took 26 minutes. Like Yellowrocks, I thought this a bit crunchy for a Wednesday. MASAI pretty obscure; didn’t know NONCE, and as ANON said, crossing OOO made for a problem. Still scratching my head at NORUNS. How is that a shoutout feature? You really gave me a workout, Joe, thanx (I think)! And thanx for double-duty, Boomer, with a terrific write-up, as always. My gf got her second jab this morning, now with both of us immunized maybe we’ll take in a Marlins game if one is happening on one of her days off work.
ReplyDeleteAgree on the level of difficulty.
DeleteJoe certainly gave me a challenge in the northwest! The basketball team's president of operations was a complete unknown, and I had to exchange "fast AND DIRTY" for DOWN AND DIRTY, and "arias" for SOLOS. FIR!
ReplyDeleteArdent Alchemist said...
Boomer, I am not familiar with the cable television showings or movies,
.... but don't you think the 62 DOWN
... Big Bang letters .... answer ....
... TNT ... refers to ..... ( 2,4,6 ) Tri Nitro Toluene, the explosive chemical ?
I am sure that Ardent Alchemist is right. My thought was that Boomer found this obvious and decided to discuss something more interesting to himself.
Thanks, Joe, Rich, Boomer, and all y'all!
ReplyDeleteWell I have to agree that this Wednesday grid was chock full of crunchiness.
Had to work to get the solve, the NW was tough.
Write-overs....CPLUS/CFLAT, ARIAS/SOLOS, ALAS/OOPS, VEE//DEE/LIV (geez).
Here in SC I also have ceiling fans in every room, 5 in the house and one in the screen room. The ones in the house allow a constant breeze obviously, which enables me to keep the AC at a higher temp. Fans run cheap. But NOTE - there is no point in fans running in unoccupied rooms.
IRAs...I was told by a tax guy years ago to “take deductions when offered while offered”. He counseled me to use a regular IRA with its current tax year deduction as opposed to the promise of a future deduction, adding that the ROTH would be better if I expected to be in a higher tax bracket when retired. (That would be a nice tax problem to have). Also, one cannot be guaranteed that the ROTH will remain tax free as designed forever.
Son continues to feel better, thanks again.
Stay safe.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteYes, I found this puzzle just a tad crunchy but quite doable. I started with DOHA and recalled the Doc who used to post from there.
My very last fill was MASAI. Talk about obscure! For me, that is.
When PERSON OF INTEREST started I really liked it and watched several episodes but then it became repetitive.
Oh! I finally got that it was cousin ITT! That Wednesday!
Hand up for ARIAS before SOLOS.
OOO repeats itself.
TUBA reminded me of Abejo.
For the NONCE we have a bit of Shakespeare.
Thank you, Boomer, for ably enlightening us. No THIN ICE for us here, just sunny skies.
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
I also have FANS in every room and they are convenient when the temps start the upward climb and before it's time to turn on the A/C.
ReplyDeleteWednesday Workout. Thanks for the fun, Joe and Boomer (and for pinch-hitting today).
ReplyDeleteI FIRed and got the theme early in the game, but plenty of inkblots and crunch.
Of course I smiled (Ray-O!) to see MASAI Ujiri right at the start. (Now you know how ASEA I feel when I get Americanisms like ROTH IRA, EDYS, Full Sail, DEA, FTC!)
His mother was Kenyan (father, Nigerian) which may be the source of his name, like the well-known Masai people of Kenya. Perhaps you Americans do not remember the incident immediately after the Raptors won the NBA finals in 2019. Lawsuit against him was finally dropped in Feb/21 and MASAI is speaking out.
WeHaveToMakeItBetter
I will also take a CSO at 3D, as I filled many a SCRAWLed Rx in my professional career. Usually, a pharmacist can get used to the particular idiosyncrasies of handwriting of the doctors in the community area or the hospital, but unfamiliar SCRAWL can be difficult to decipher. I found that turning the RX and looking at it from a different direction often worked. Plus, if you can read part of the order, often the rest can be figured out (but still best to confirm for safety). Nurses in the hospital would sometimes ask pharmacy to read the chart orders of certain physicians. Yes YR, computer-generated Rxs and e-prescribing were much appreciated, and certainly improve safety.
Hand up for Arias before SOLOS, Quake (again!), not Cower, before QUIVER, Darn before DANG.
I noted DORA crossing DOHA.
Yes, Boomer, I thought of that poem and wanted the Mare to eat Oat not HAY.
HAS GAME is not a known expression to me. Ditto for DOWN AND DIRTY as clued.
AnonPVX- glad your son is improving daily. Scary time for you all.
Wishing you all a great day.
DANG, I hate it when a puzzle starts with a complete unknown-MASAI- that requires perps. Did not notice the FIRST THINGS FIRST but the spanners were easy fill, although I'd never heard of DOWN AND DIRTY used to mean 'completed in haste'.
ReplyDeleteTHIS IS US, OOO (don't play chess), DOWN AND DIRTY- unknowns.
AAS- my remotes use one AA.
BOOMER-Regular IRA- you put pre-tax money in it and it is subtracted from your gross income. But you have to pay the tax when you start taking it out. A ROTH-IRA is funded by AFTER-tax money and there is NO TAX on any profit that you make.
I will likely never need to cash my IRA. It will go to my son. I am glad that if I live an exceptionally long time and need exceptional care, cashing my ROTH IRA will give me plenty of tax free funds.
ReplyDeleteOOO is castle queen side, OO is castle king side (I was secretary of the chess club at BYU. In fact, IIRC, I was the chess club that year. I did put on a tournament, but was otherwise lousy at recruiting. Also at chess.)
ReplyDeleteI suspect MASAI was not really expected to be known, just a filler with easy perps. Tho I started with ASYmetric before ISO.
Re Anon@7:37 -- Second and third work for all, I don't think there is a fourth person, nor a fifth quarter. Not being into sports, I don't know what the max might be for string (3?) or down (4?).
Solo vs Aria - What's the difference?
Unclefred -- shut out, not shout out.
I use the ceiling fan when I feel slightly out of breath. Increased air pressure = easier breathing. (If it's just a placebo effect, don't tell me.)
OwenKL @ 2:27: DOH!! Thanks for ‘splainin it!
DeleteI notice a few comments about SCRAWL. I worked for Merck pharma for 25 years. One of the medications we introduced was omeprazole, branded as LOSEC. It turned out many RPhs were reading it as LASIX due to the SCRAWL of the prescriber, and the FDA requested Merck rebrand the product, which was done as PRILOSEC. Multi-million dollar branding error by Merck, as all the sales brochures were already printed and had to be scrapped, all the prescribers had to be EMERGENCY re-educated about the name change, and the RPhs had to be contacted to keep in the loop.....quite the SNAFU.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteA cardinal rule while paying taxes, is generally ....
... Postpone, postpone, postpone, the paying off the tax(es)
... so long as you have made provisions for paying the tax, when it comes due.
Roth IRAS are funded with after-tax monies, when the taxes have been paid upfront. Only the interest and dividend income, and capital gains on it, will be taxed when withdrawn.
Generally, that is no fun at all, and you do not get the benefit of the compounding of the pretax monies. It only benefits in a minority of situations. Better to put aside all the pretax monies, as a regular IRA, and pay the taxes, as normally, when you start to withdraw the pensions.
Generally, post-retirement, you will be in a lower tax bracket. If you are still in a higher tax bracket, then you will presumably, still be having a higher income, and you can count yourself very lucky indeed !!!
NaomiZ, thanks for highlighting my note, ala Ardent Alchemist.
Bit of a Wednesday toughie--or would that be a 'crunchy', given the comments? Still, thanks, Joe. And Boomer, as soon as the sports discussion started I figured it had to be you, even if this wasn't Monday. But just as much fun, many thanks to you too.
ReplyDeleteMy German comes in handy almost every day--ja, not NEIN. OPAL also seems to come up daily. Maybe I should try to get one--in what? a ring? and earring? a necklace? Traffic cop was a funny, slightly misleading clue for NARCO, but I got it even though I'd avoid both at all costs.
Have a good Wednesday, everybody.
ReplyDeleteIn my State, all Schedule I, II, IIN, III, IIIN, IV and V drugs have to be written out in non-cursive letters. Obviously, a phone-in is highly recommended.
Schedule I ( no currently accepted medical use, like Heroin ... cannabis has special rules )
....requires two prescribing signatures, separate phone nos, for call backs for each signatory. Also other DEA codes for special NIH permission, are required.
Schedule II ( high abuse risk and dependence risk, most common narcotics, and stimulants and some barbitals )
... requires PRE PRINTED COLORED, Serial numbered, prescription forms, and the SSN pseudo-codes for BOTH the prescriBER and the patient. The state keeps a current, ongoing, online -Real-time, record of BOTH the doctor and the patient, as a permanent record.
Like many of you, I found the NW to be a big puzzle that was my last area to figure out. A couple of other areas were slow too and I was close to giving up and reading Boomer for the answers. But just before I did give up, answers started coming and FIR!!! Some wayward paths I took made me try to fit ebikes in place of MOPEDS and my mare got oat instead of HAY, making TYKES impossible. The expression I knew was "quick" AND DIRTY for a hasty job. That didn't work either. Most of the puzzle wasn't so messy so don't SCOLD me. Thanks to Boomer for being on the job and thanks to Joe for a challenging Wednesday (not ITT's kin).
ReplyDeleteHope you all are well. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow
oc4beach @ 10:55 --
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget that March 31 is also NATIONAL BUNSEN BURNER DAY. All those hours in chem lab finally paid off!
AnonPVX:
ReplyDeleteThat is good news about your son. I hope the progress continues.
Today I made another trip and I hope the last one to See's Candy Shop. My family will feel gluttonous with chocolate on Sunday. Maybe I'm buying so much because I can't eat it! Bunnies were all gone but they had plenty of chocolate eggs.
After reading the comments, I guess I'm the only one who has never heard the word NONCE before. Looked it up in the dictionary before putting it in as fill.
ReplyDeleteI still ride my MO-PED. Bought it in 1987 and it still runs great.
FIR, and I did get the theme.
ReplyDeleteBiggest problem and last fill was OOO/NONCE. I had the rest of the puzzle finished before I went to bed, but I was missing the O in NONCE (the first O in OOO), I decided to sleep on it. Upon further review after breakfast, I deigned to go with the O, for the win!!! I never was a very good chess player, and I never learned the shorthand. Like you, JJM, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the word NONCE. (I’m kinda surprised how many others of you had difficulty with these two. I thought I’d be the only one. You people know EVERYTHING! That's a compliment!)
I too questioned the clue for TUBAS.
Fewer name perps than usual today.
For some reason, DOWNANDDIRTY didn’t bother me the way it was clued, probably because my starting with the DOWN clues rendered it mostly filled in by the time I got to it going ACROSS. It also saved me from wrestling with MASAI.
Thanks, Joe and Boomer!
Thanks, Joe. Thanks, Boomer. Another "hard" day on the ski hill with the four year old and the seven year old (today!)....and their parents did far more lifting than did grandpa.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteI just got back from Lowes - garbage disposal died.
I tell you, there's what $2 or $3 millions dollars worth of stuff in that store?, And one cashier that rings it all up...
The line was 9 people deep when I joined and ~20 deep when they finally opened another register.
I'll put the InSinkErator in tomorrow with Youngest - so I can show her how to fix something else.
Lucina - that's exactly why we stopped watching Person of Interest (there was an arc over the seasons but by 3rd, we just didn't care).
We have six ceiling fans but they are seldom used - DW prefers the AC.
ATLGranny - I'm more familiar with Quick & DIRTY for a speedy "get 'er done" job.
JJM & LeoIII - there were plenty of folks (even some Blue ones) where neither NONCE nor O-O-O was their wheelhouse. I got lucky today.
OKL - LOL "I was the chess club that year."
MManatee - did you see oc4's 11:55a post? We appreciate you!
PVX - we're still thinking about you and yours.
Cheers, -T
The ARod "collapse" is easily explained by Mr Occam. He was getting $28 mil for season, 4.5/month. His pay for post season was peanuts(10%?) in comparison. Finally he realized his legacy mattered and his 2009 stats were fairly good.
ReplyDeleteGary, I had nine walks in six innings in a LL No-hitter. 0-0-9-11 was the line.
Alchemist, TBBT is on TBS which is a Turner network. Boomer was warm.
Oc4beach, try getting a SCRAWL for an opiate from a reputable dentist. To paraphrase only addicts can get those.
The MAaSAI are a Kenyan tribe as my brother the Missionary often talked about as I see C-eh explained.
Ok, apparently y'all were waiting on someone to LIU W dnesday ADDAMS. I like the bit about her Marie Antoinette doll*that she enjoys beheading.
DOWN AND DIRTY is a Poker expression eg "Give he a Spade to fill my flush(or a Club)"
I could play chess but not while drinking whereas Bridge it seemed to help. I got one international point in a duplicate tournament. 5NT* DBL/RE-DBL was my demise. I coulda been a contender.
WC
*It might have been five diamonds
Anon-T, I had not caught OC4's post on my previous visit. Thank you both for the CSO.
ReplyDeleteFun PZL.
ReplyDeleteBut once again, an asymmetrical grid prevents diagonals.
~ OMK
NONCE occurs mostly in poetry so unless one reads a great deal of literature, teaches it or just likes it, it's unlikely you would see that word much. It's also somewhat obsolete so not used much in modern writing.
ReplyDelete