google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, April 2, 2021, Jeffrey Wechsler

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Apr 2, 2021

Friday, April 2, 2021, Jeffrey Wechsler

  Title: Bite the bullet, it's over

Today we have a strong moralistic puzzle from Jeffrey that uses his writing mentor, Will Shakespeare, as the inspiration for this self-contained sermon. After Macbeth kills King Duncan for his wife, she tries to soothe him with, "Things without all remedy Should be without regard: what's done, is done." This is never as easy to do as to say, but JW comes up with a theme that fell into place (I would guess) when he realized that -what's done is done- is exactly 15 letters long. That has occurred to a few other constructors, but none used Jeffrey's approach. Where we get to appreciate his unique style is gridding this as a 15x16 puzzle, a tall order by any measure. You may not notice at first but look again. This choice allows him to insert 4 great fill BLOW A FUSE, HEARTACHE, MANIFESTO, and ON HIS BACK. To me, it elevates the whole experience.

The themers:

17A. "Take my advice: no use crying over spilled milk ... ": WHAT'S DONE IS DONE (15). Especially if you have a cat or dog that will happily lap it up.

34A. With 36-Across, "There's no going back ... ": YOU CANT (7). 36A. See 34-Across: CHANGE THE PAST (13). The eternal question of the space-time continuum.

48A. "Put everything behind you ... ": FORGET ABOUT IT (13). Said with an accent and feeling, an anthem for mobsters.

61A. "And look ahead.": IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON (15). Which thoughtfully is the perfect segue to discussing the rest of the puzzle. Let us repair to the minutia.

Across:

1. Honshu drama: NOH. Kan'ami and his son Zeami started this ART FORM in the 14th century.

4. Words before a recap: AS I SAID. Very often by bosses, teachers, and parents to those they control.

11. Audi rival: BMW. We have many cars lately.

14. Boise-to-Billings dir.: ENE. Standard-fill for a puzzle, but who really cares.

15. "Raging Bull" boxer: LAMOTTA. He was a brawler who fought the best and won half of the time.

16. Infamous Vietnam War site, My __: LAI. If you can bear the ignominy, the horror, and the pictures. The LINK.

20. Compact part: MIRROR. It was the key to the Guardian solving a mystery on the LIBRARIANS.

 

21. Greet warmly: SHOW IN. I guess this depends on how effusively you greet your guest.

22. Spumante source: ASTI. The bubbly faux champagne region in Italy. Moe can provide much more information.

23. PC core: CPU

26. Spot to get a bite on the street: CAFE. Especially if there are many mosquitoes around.

27. Rockets' org.: NBA.

28. Low cloud: STRATUS. Didn't I do clouds last week?

32. Two-__: half-price opportunity: FER. Here we do the BOGO.

33. Pouch: SAC.  Very important in the insect world,

35. Ship letters: USS. United States Ship (abbreviated as USS or U.S.S.) is a ship prefix used to identify a commissioned ship of the United States Navy and applies to a ship only while it is in commission.

39. Brewery vessel: KEG. Not to be confused with vestal. 

40. Celestial feline: LEO. We have one of our own, welcome.

41. Snoots put them on: AIRS. Nice clue/fill- to give oneself airs: to assume an unnatural or affected manner, esp. an unjustified air of superiority. 1701 T. Baker Humour of Age ii. 29 

45. Other, in Oaxaca: OTRO. Or otra?

53. Sigma follower: TAU. Learn the alphabet for Greek? You need many alphabets and more to communicate. LINK.

54. Shorebirds related to stilts: AVOCETS

55. Crux: NUB

57. Cards: WITS.

59. Up on the latest: AWARE.

60. Sax type: ALTO.

64. Force featured on "Bosch," for short: THE LAPD. Los Angeles Police Department is home to many shows. I am not sure if this is JW's clue but with all the programs over the years featuring the LAPD, for me, this would be the most obscure.

65. "So close!": NICE TRY.

66. Oodles: TONS.

67. They often take turns: CARS. This is such a blatantly clever and misleading clue that it has to be Jeffrey's. IMO it is so good, that I can't think of anything to say in response. So the challenge is readers: discuss the clue/fill using comparable wit and brevity.

Down:

1. __ Own Organics: NEWMAN'S. Paul, may he rest in peace.

2. Where "The Man With the Hoe" carried the world, in an Edwin Markham poem: ON HIS BACK.  Never heard of the Poem or the Poet but the "ON" was enough for me to fill in.
                               
                                                      The Man With the Hoe

3. Great sadness: HEARTACHE.  I don't do dinosaurs... heartache; agony, bitterness, despair, grief, heartbreak, misery, pang. sadness, suffering, torment, affliction, dejection, depression, despondency, distress, dolor, hurting, remorse, torture, etc. I do rely on 28D. Roget entry: Abbr.: SYNonym.

4. Plus: ALSO.

5. Iraq's __ City: SADR. Some recent HISTORY.

6. Brief "I think": IMO. In My Opinion

7. Oceanus, to Gaia: SON. So many myths, so many THEORIES.

8. Snacked: ATE.

9. "How sweet __!": IT IS

10. Sprint: DASH.

11. Lose it: BLOW A FUSE. The expression blow a fuse came into use in the early twentieth century and is related to the use of electricity in the average home. A fuse protects an electrical item from a sudden surge of electricity that may start a fire.

12. Public policy declaration: MANIFESTO. This is a statement of policy and aims, usually in writing, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate.

13. Cookout fare: WIENERS. Oddly this nickname for sausages in a bun came from the image of dachshunds.

18. One less than tetra-: TRI. 4 to 3.

19. OB or ENT: DOC. Obstetrician and Ear Nose and Throat.

23. Rock's Mötley __: CRUE. A very successful 80's band that AXE toured with during the 80s before one of the band's guitarists got killed in a car accident.

24. Formal agreement: PACT.

25. Four Corners state: UTAH. Naturally, there are FOUR of them

29. Dress, with "up": TOG.

30. Le Monde article: UNE. Just French.

31. Auto additive with a red oval logo: STP. Andy Granatelli and Mario Andretti

37. Seaweed product: AGAR. The SCIENCE.

38. Quite often: A LOT.

42. Supermarket chain with a red oval logo: IGA. It did not start out that way. 1960 version...

43. Overhauls: REVAMPS.

44. Put away: STOWED.

45. Titania's husband: OBERON. A tiny bit of Will Shakespeare.

46. Serving as a symbol: TOTEMIC. Totem is a fun word, making it an adjective is...creative?

47. Fin. neighbor: RUS. Finland and Russia.

48. Loyalty: FAITH

49. Start: OUTSET.

50. "Human beings ... may hide their feelings, but __ does not": Hemingway: A CAT. This is such a wonderful quotation and so apt here where we have our coterie of cat connoisseurs like HG. I can visualize Lily agreeing.

51. Fjords, e.g.: INLETS. Back to Scandanavia.

52. Teach privately: TUTOR.

53. Foolish sort: TWIT.

56. Superskinny: BONY.  My choice...

58. Battle of Normandy town: STLO. This has appeared hundreds of times in the major puzzles since it was first used in 1953, including last Friday.

60. Claim: AVER. Law word, silly.

62. Actor McKellen: IAN. A wonderful actor and best friends with another...

63. Andean root vegetable: OCA. Don't you want to learn to GROW THEM?

I keep thinking I can see an image here, but then I can't see much. If you have a thought share it, please. Thank you, Jeffrey, and all who have been on this road that C.C. built. Your words are the paving that made this last. Thank you, Moe for letting me be the caddy again this week for our number one (?) setter.


60 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Very clever with lotsa good stuff. What's not to like? I liked the "red oval logo" pairing for IGA and STP. Not sure I've ever seen any AVOCETS, but the answer came bubbling up from somewhere. I wonder if Hemingway came to that realization while at Key West with his passel of six-toed cats. CSO to Bill G with TUTOR, to Picard with the Ian McKellen photos, and to moi with BMW -- managed to roll over 6,000 miles yesterday on my M-o-W route. Covid's made it take 20 months to drive that far. Thanx, Jeffrey and Lemonade.

Anonymous said...

Took 12:10 today. Avocets, Newmans, and tog were unknown. Misspelling/mistyping "wieners" as "weiners" tripped me up for a while until manifesto helped right the ship.

Fine craftsmanship in this puzzle.

john in michigan said...

great puzzle, jeffrey is a friday wizard...hope everybody has a nice holiday weekend!

ATLGranny said...

I agree with the previous comments about Jeffrey's fine (and fun) Friday puzzle construction today. The themers were a huge help in solving so it took far less time to FIR with few WOs compared to yesterday for me. Thank you, Jeffrey, for a pleasant start to the day. And thanks, Lemonade, for explaining things so well.

Hope you all have a smooth start to the weekend too. And if not, the messages of the themers may help. Well, IT'S TIME TO MOVE ON to chores. See you later.

ARBAON said...

Haven’t “been here” in ages. Good to see at least one name I recognize. Shout out to Lemonade.
For a Friday puzzle this one was relatively simple. I had to rely on other fills for the wading bird and parts of the quote. The type Asian theater was a learning moment too.
Hope your Holy Days are fulfilling, be they Resurrection orPassover.

Hungry Mother said...

FIR without much resistance. I stumbled a bit on the NYT earlier, so this makes up for it. I do this puzzle in ink and the NYT on the app with my iPad, so it’s hard to compare the experience. I find myself more unwilling to take a wag when I’m inking in my thinking.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Happy to get SADR again, so soon. WHATSDONEISDONE reminds me of the earlier in the week firstthingsfirst answer.

You can be a real jerk about it and not greet warmly when you SHOWIN someone. Rarely BLOWAFUSE these days but I just might flipabreaker? 🙃

Inkovers: noe/NOH, (I should no better and NOH by now). Was "the man with the hoe" arrested by the vice squad? 🤭🤭🤭

The nether part of the puzzle was the last to fill. Once I sussed CARS (head slap, how obvious) blanks began to fill ....though being loyal to, and having FAITH in, are not equivalent. AVOCETS? (small avocados? Does IGA sell 'em?). What's Bosch?... whatever, THELAPD fit as did Hemingway's polydactyl CAT 🐈 so FIR and ITWASTIMETOMOVEON.

Isn't Lucina NEWMANS own? (Ongoing set to with IM and her man Cary Grant)

I remember reading this 1971 (21 y o) edition of National Lampoon . How bizarre this tragedy is paired with the themed answers in this puzzle

Then there's....

Bugler...TUTOR
L'effort...NICETRY
"I reverse over paid, _____?" CAN'TYOU PASTTHECHANGE.

LEO...when I was a TYKE, Dad would take me to Saturday matinée cartoons, I would wait in the theater lobby till he gave the all clear: MGM LEO had roared...(he terrified me)..cartoons had started.

Have a good Friday

Wilbur Charles said...

I just relooked* and behold this was a JeffWesch. TOTEMIC,AVOCETS should have been the giveaway.

I just finished Dark Sacred Night eg Not obscure at all pour moi

LAMOTTA got me started and my BMW is in the shop until next week($hudder)

Karl Marx issues his MANIFESTO in 1848

CSO to Anon-T (and a few others) with Motley CRUE. I'll pass, thank you.

56D, Is Twiggy there?

Lemonade, great Write-up.

WC

* That would be "gluey" in xword LINGO

Ps, So is Patrick Stewart the other guy?

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Mr JW for a very nice and delightful puzzle, and Lemonade for a humorous review.
I also have serious eyesight problems - ravages of age - and maybe its the DOB, you think ?

Thinking of puns, I notice 3 Down - Heartache.
Although it can also be viewed as something joyful, on occasion ...
Is Oolong-ing a word ? ;-P) Meant in happy jest.

Have a nice day and weekend, all.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Wechsler's wit appears unabated today! I loved this puzzle and smiled at every theme solve.

The most touching fill is HEART ACHE and sadly we have all undoubtedly experienced it. Mine was with the loss of my late DH. Yesterday I learned that my youngest granddaughter's great-grandmother on her dad's side died at age 96 so we shall have one less person at the Easter table. She and her dad are flying to SD.

I learned NOH from CWDS and there is a wonderful movie called The King of Masks, too. It's quite old but well worth looking for it.

OTRO did not have long to wait for the O when A LOT emerged.

This was fun! Thank you, Jason, for your scholarly precis.

Have a most joyful weekend, everyone!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Another fine Wechsler puzzle. Seemed a tad easier than others of his Friday offerings. We've had AVOCETS before. The theme expressions are very commonly heard. Noted the 15 X 16 grid. The elongated vertical layout and choice of black cell placement seems to give a facial expression of resignation. FIR.
@ 55a Crux as clue for NUB and @ 3d, HEART…….
I'll take a CSO at USS. Held off until perps clicked in. HMS, FGS, CSS and other nationalities as well as usage; CVS, SSN, LST were all possibilities at the OUTSET.

desper-otto said...

Ray-O, "(21 y o)?" Where ya been?

Sherry said...

Never on the same wave length as Mr Wechsler.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Leave it to JW to conjure up such an unusual theme with an equally unusual grid design. The somber tone of the themers did nothing to detract from the enjoyment of the solve. In fact, I appreciated the change of pace, highlighting serious words of wisdom vs humorous wordplay. There was still lightness, though, with A Lot/Tons, Cars/BMW, Twit crossing Wits, the A Lot/Alto anagram, and Leo/A Cat. (Hi, our Leo III). The Hemingway quote was rib tickling! Only w/os were Chi/Tau and Noe/Noh.

Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a very enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for your usual spot-on interpretation of Jeffrey’s work.

Have a great day.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

DO..I was 21 in 1971. I also seem to remember a MADD magazine cover with Alfred E. Newman uttering the same phrase. Can't find it.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Canada eh...Just dictated an OB US. Said "fetal" but for the first time the "voice recognition" software for some strange reason typed "foetal"! What's next? Oesophagus?

Yellowrocks said...

My Internet keeps cutting in and out this morning. I lost my post before I could save it. My motivation has also cut out. I love this puzzle, substituting one saying with another of the same meaning. Fun misdirections. More later.

waseeley said...

Can anyone tell me how to locate a specific blogger profile, given only the handle? Trying to look up the email of someone who rarely posts and thus can't just "point and click".

Bill

Spitzboov said...

waseeley - Google the handle and, say, LA Times crossword corner (jointly)
go to the site where the handle is and click on the handle link. That should get you the profile.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I have a hard time following the advice in Jeffrey’s brilliant puzzle
-An AVOCET is a bird and Hemingway is so right about CATS, so I’ll take a “got ‘er done”
-Yes, Lemon, at 4:15 am this morning Lily decided to not hide her feelings that she was hungry.
-Our “bite on the street” was a great Hot Dog CART. Andy has since retired.
-A TWO-FER is more accurate than “Buy One, Get One Free
-A brewery would seem more likely to have a VAT than a mere KEG
-Joe Friday was perplexed when Miranda Rights came to THE LAPD
-CARS – They can turn into a mall
-I wonder what Marx did with his profits from the sale of The Communist MANTIFESTO
-Lemon, I see someone holding open elevator doors on one leg

Big Easy said...

Yesterday !A was an unknown; today it is 1D&2D-NEWMAN'S and ON HIS BACK. Paul Newman I know of but the poem & poet were total unknowns. Ditto for "Bosch" and THE LAPD. But the theme was an easy guess after WHAT'S DONE IS DONE.

Th top 2/3 was fairly easy but the AVOCETS, STOWED, A CAT, AWARE, TOTEMIC, & LAPD area took some time to work out. The last four downs were crossword staple-ST LO, AVER, IAN, & OCA. Haven't seen JAI ALAI, HELOT or CAEN in quite a while.

Lemonade- For BONY you could have linked Larry Williams' song 'BONY Maronie who's is as skinny as a stick of macaroni'.
Wilbur- Karl Marx's MANIFESTO- whenever it's followed it always starts deadly and ends badly.

A puzzle by Jeffrey the way I like them; very few proper names or A&E references.

CrossEyedDave said...

I found this quite a bit easier than the normal
Jeffry Friday, except I cannot understand why
"Wits" is clued "card?" Is this a regional thing?

Oh well,

I'm sure I'll forget about it...

Anonymous said...

Can anyone explain 57a to me, please? Wits?

waseeley said...

Thank you Jeffry for an easy and fun Friday. I sailed in here with an FIR (but alas see 55A for my undoing) and to Lemonade for an informative and very interesting review

16A The village that Calley "destroyed in order to save it".

28A "Low cloud". Been struggling with Microsoft's "Cloud" storage. I call it "Fog" but) they call OneDrive. Ran out of "free" storage on it and various files on my PC started lighting up like a Christmas tree. The fix was to start paying them rental for 25GB/year of storage. Unplugged it and plugged in a 4TB drive for $88 bucks.

35A Coulda' been "HMS" so I waited for perps.

54A AVOCETS, beautiful birds. Had to wait for it to percolate up from below before seeing it.

55A. Crux/NUB. This was my nemesis which gave me an FIW. NUT worked and I thought "TONY" was "talk of the town" for "skinny".

57A. Jeffrey is such a card.

2D Thanks for that painting Lemony. Jean-François Millet's style is unmistakable. Favs are "The Angelus" and "The Gleaners". Sobering poem, especially during this season.

7D We are all daughters and sons of GAIA, or perhaps "cells" would be more apt.

13D Aus Wien natürlich!

50D and 40A A CSO to our Hahtoolah.

63D Thanks for the link on OCA Lemony. They sound worth trying to grow.

Cheers,
Bill

Lucina said...

Cards cab refer to highly humorous persons, such as yourself, CEDave! And therefore, WITS

Lucina said...

Oops. Can, not cab.

waseeley said...

FLN

The following was posted later last evening and not sure the right people saw it:

"Blogger mtnest995 said...

Haven’t posted anything in ages, but I read the blog every day. Haven’t seen this addressed by anyone else, but I’m having an issue with Cruciverb.com, which is my preferred way to work the puzzle. LA Times puzzle has not appeared on this site since 3/21. Anyone else having this issue? I’ve been getting the puzzle from the Washington Post - but I have to print it and that’s not convenient when we’re on the road using an iPad with no access to a printer. All comments appreciated.

April 1, 2021 at 8:12 PM Delete"

Can anyone help?

Bill

Anonymous T said...

FIR earlier, play later.

Waseeley - avatarhandle site:crosswordcorner.blogspot.com

That will bring up all LATs that avatarhandle posted on.

Hope that helps.

Cheers, -T

waseeley said...

Another FLN

"mtnest995 said...

Just curious how you’re able get the week’s worth on Sunday?
April 2, 2021 at 1:06 AM"

I believe this was addressed to Wilbur Charles @9:33PM

Bill

NaomiZ said...

CrossEyedDave and Anonymous at 10:41 AM, following up on Lucina's comment re: 57 Across, a "card" is a witty person, and so is a "wit."

This was a witty puzzle. Loved it and FIR. Many thanks to Jeffrey for the entertainment, and to Lemonade for more.

CrossEyedDave said...

Ah! Thank you Lucina.
I had no idea, until you pointed out it is something I forgot....

Hmm,

Speaking of moving on,
We just got back from Florida,
And DW is already after me to "move on..."

waseeley said...

Thanx T. That did the trick.

Misty said...

Woohoo! Woohoo! I love Jeffrey Wechsler puzzles (my favorite constructor), so this was a Friday delight even if it was, as always, a bit of a toughie for me. But very clever, and how nice to get Lemonade's always illuminating commentary.

My favorite item, since I've had so many dachshunds in my day, was, of course, WIENERS (hot dogs) as Cookout fare. So Hemingway liked CATS? I had no idea. Put HMS for ship letters because I kept thinking of the HMS Pinafore--nope, USS. And thanks for explaining the CARDS/WITS to us, Lucina.

Have a lovely Easter weekend coming up, everybody.

Anonymous said...

A JW puzzle and a Lemony write-up makes for a great day!

A little P&P was needed but FIR in good (for me) Friday time.

Got the second vaccination yesterday. A little arm soreness but nothing else. A real relief.

Stay safe and well everyone.

JB2

unclefred said...

Printed up the CW and thought, “Rats! A dreaded Saturday CW which I often fail at.” As I worked it I thought , “Oh, wow, I’m doing better than usual for a Saturday!” It wasn’t until I finished that the light bulb came on and I realized this is FRIDAY, not Saturday!! Anyway, a very enjoyable FIR in 24. I liked this CW a lot, thanx, Jeffrey! My only WO was CART:CAFE. Very nice write-up, too, as usual, thanx Lemonade! Enjoy the Easter weekend, everyone!!

AnonymousPVX said...


Well this JW Friday gem was like 2 different puzzles.

I just blew through the top half. It went so quickly I was thinking good old JW gave us a breather.

Uh-uh. The bottom,,, 1/3 ?..... gave me fits.

Write-overs...,,STORED/STOWED, TITULAR/TOTEMIC.

Doesn’t look bad, but had zero idea of 45D. Finally put in STOWED and then the fog began to lift.

So a more typical JW for sure, happy with the solve, finally.

Stay safe.

CrossEyedDave said...

You can't change the past,

but you can alter the present...

Yellowrocks said...

My internet seems steady now. I'll try again.
AnonymousPVX, I am glad your son is doing better.
I found the top half crunchier than the bottom half. How different we all are.
Cute misdirection with cars taking turns. Today a car took a sudden turn from a cross street right into my lane. I slammed on the brakes and my purse went flying. Whew! No collision.
More literally, at some intersections cars take turns, zippering in at a merge. At others, it's dog eat dog.
We have a pack of cards on the Corner who are much appreciated.
During my three week fellowship in Japan I met my DIL while she was on a business trip. She came along with our group when we went to see a NOH performance and explained it to us. It seemed heavy. We also saw a Kyogen play. It was much less serious, slapstick and satire. It was easier to understand and enjoy. Not knowing the language was not a barrier. I had my students make some similar Kyogen style plays when I returned to my school.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Good PZL, middling tough solve, but doable.
Alas: Asymmetrical, no diagonals.
~ OMK

Ol' Man Keith said...

I never got to Japan.
I saw the Grand Kabuki on tour in NY, the Bunraku puppet theater at the Edinburgh Festival, and two examples of Noh on tour.
One was an adaptation of Hamlet in Noh style, a fascinating exercise. It was a Japanese company on tour at Williams College, MA.
The other was a traditional Noh performance presented in L.A.'s Little Tokyo on an outdoor stage. It was a nighttime performance, lit only with torch light. The effect of flickering firelight on the centuries-traditional Noh masks was truly haunting.
If anything brings those old faces to life, it's natural torch light. I know I wasn't the only one in that American audience who felt the "presence" of ancient Japanese spirits.

I worked too with Romulus Linney (Laura's Dad) in staging a drama he wrote to present Noh conventions within the framework of Western theater. This was The Love Suicides at Schofield Barracks, a curious piece that provided justifications for the Noh tradition of splitting the action between dancers and a chorus.
~ OMK

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Whoot! I got a Friday JW 100%! Thanks Jeff for a fun puzzle; enjoyed the theme.

Thank you Lem for the fine expo; enjoyed the IAN / Patrick pics. Oh, I too thought of Jackie Gleason at "How Sweet..."

WOs: CArt -> CAFÉ (Hi HG!), Nor(?) -> RUS, lOtS -> TONS.
ESPs: NOH, SON | LAMOTTA, LAI, AVOCETS (that's Schlumberger's software), OCA, UNE
Fav: BLOW A FUSE was fun

Solve: Like PVX, the bottom 1/2 of the puzzle probably took me 5 times longer to fill than the top. When I finally recalled OBERON (we had that semi-recently) things got better (it is AWARE, STOWED, oh and aha! A CAT) but I was still stuck with THE LA_D (land?) and RE_AM_S (names?) - The V & P were last letters to fill.

FLN - mtnest995: WC gets the TB (Tampa Bay) Times which publishes the entire (new) week's LAT puzzles in Sunday's paper.

WC - Re: CRUE - I don't like all metal; loud is not the only requisite :-)

CED - @12:39 link throws a 400 :-(

Waseeley - glad you figured out that I forgot to say Google :-)

Hungry Mother: Ditto - gotta be careful w/ pen & puzzle (and you see I still make lOts of mistakes)

Anyone else have GET under YOU CANT and start belting the The Stones? [7:12]?
Just me, eh?

Good news last night! Eldest is coming in from OU tomorrow. With remote classes, she can stay until Wednesday morning b/f returning to her RA duties. Gonna build her an Easter roast, I am.

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

The “image” kind of looks like Jeffery Wechsler himself.

Lemonade714 said...

What a fine group in fine fettle today. I write to agree that I keep seeing a visual in the grid but can't quite make out what he had in mind. perhaps JW will let us know

CanadianEh! said...

Quick post to flag a new book for all our fellow-readers. I just finished THE ROSE CODE by Kate Quinn (author of The Huntress and The Alice Network) - fascinating story based on the hidden history of Bletchley Park, Britain’s now-famous codebreaking centre during the Second World War.
Back later when I do the CW; I have been engrossed in the book😁👍

CrossEyedDave said...

Anon-T.,
I dont know why your getting a 400 @12:39.
(anyone else cant see it?)
it was a picture of a scale,
that said,
don't forget to set your scale back
10 lbs this week.
(i.e: you cant change the past, but you can screw with the present...)

and with that, I cannot remember what i saved as a pic for
"whats done is done."
hmm,
I am going to have to just link & hit paste and hope for the best...

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

Jason, my pleasure to always have you recap a JW puzzle

I could've solved this earlier, but I waited until today and did it in pen on paper. I had two words misspelled but eventually corrected them. Alas, I ended up with a Natick @ AVOCETS and TOTEMIC, so I FIW

Today's grid was not symmetrical in the block squares, so a bit of counting gave me the 15x16 size. LA Times may be the lone site where something other than a 15x15 grid is allowed for a weekday puzzle

Speaking of puzzles, I have 6 themed puzzles submitted; have received an "accept" for two of them (they're in the final stages of being filled), and the other four are pending acceptance or refusal. I think the pandemic has motivated a lot of puzzle-constructor wannabies to try their hand at building a grid. I was blessed with having two mentors+. Hoping that the puzzle I submitted to the LA Times is accepted so I can look forward to the comments from this community. But given the backlog, my puzzle may not get reviewed until later this summer . . .

Chairman Moe said...

Oh, and Happy Easter weekend / Good Friday today . . .

Jayce said...

As Anonymous at 7:39 AM said, fine craftsmanship in this puzzle. I loved it. Smiled widely at the way CARS was clued.

Ol' Man Keith, very interesting. Thanks for relating your experience(s).

Good wishes to you all.

Lemonade714 said...

Rose how very great to hear from you
It is a special joy to hear from those who were here for years to know you are still out there
Great!

Spitzboov said...

At 2008 the ISS hove into sight in the NW, passed abeam at 53º elevation and then exited easterly down the Mohawk Valley. Cloudless night, no haze permitted excellent viewing.

NaomiZ said...

Ol' Man Keith, I want to echo Joyce in thanking you for telling us about your experiences with Japanese drama. Interesting, indeed.

NaomiZ said...

Not Joyce, Jayce! Aaaaughh! Damn autocorrect!!

Rambunctous Reader said...


Canadian Eh., Thanks for mentioning the book, The Rose Code ...by Kate Quinn, about the Enigma machine, and Bletchley Park.
It has high ratings on GoodReads, from ARC and the independent reviewers.

It looks, in its story line, like the movie, Enigma (2001, directed by Micheal Apted) with Kate Winslet.... from a book Enigma 1995, by Robert Harris.
Wikipedia has an excellent write up on that movie.


SPOILER !!! Ironically, the 'traitor' in that Enigma movie, turns out to some polish worker in Bletchley Park.
Whereas, in Reality !, the only traitor, in real life, was a 100 percent Britisher, JOhn Cairncross, who was a soviet agent.. See Wikipedia article on the Enigma movie.

And this is a fact .....IRONICALLY .... It was the Polish Cypher Bureau who delivered a manufactured prototype of the complete Enigma machine and the first 1000 decrypted codes, and All the cypher wheels, to the British and the French intelligence, ..... for free, ..... soon and just before, Poland had been conquered in late 1939.

This was a tremendous gift to the Allies .... and there is nothing mentioned about this in the movie, Enigma, ... or in the movie, The Imitation Game...
Read the Wiki on the Enigma machine, for the whole story.

Wilbur Charles said...

It was "mentioned" briefly in "The Imitation Game" that it was the Poles who provided the Enigma prototype.

I've mentioned this before that if the Germans were unaware that Enigma was compromised and they continued communication with their embedded spies* in Pearl Harbor it's a cinch the British knew all about the attack.

And the Brits would have to have told Roosevelt.

WC

" c. "The Eight Eyed Spy"

CanadianEh! said...

FranticFriday! But I made it back here and completed a JW CW. Thanks for the fun, Jeffrey and Lemonade.
I’m late to the party and WEES by now.

I found the southern states to be the hardest today. Speaking of states, this Canadian wanted to enter Iowa as the first 4-letter state I could think of for 25A. UTAH finally perped. My fellow-Canadian, Scott, who is doing well on Jeopardy this week was foiled the other night by a clue that was associated with Four Corners but actually mentioned the Three Corners Monument and wanted Nevada in the answer.
Interesting that OUTSET came up on Jeopardy also this week in the OUT- category.
(I smiled at the juxtaposition of OUTSET and INLETS😁)
But I did find my way ENE from Boise Idaho to Billing’s Montana. (OTOH, I went all around Scandinavia and even saw those fjords before RUS perped.)

LAPD would have filled more quickly if THE had not preceded it. Yes, WC, I knew Bosch ( and not the dishwasher!). While I am telling you all about my recent book list, let me add Law of Innocence, by Michael Connelly. It is a Mickey Haller book but Bosch comes in to help.

Thanks YR and OMK for your experience of NOH. I remembered the word from past discussions here.
Ray-O- re that dictation: wait for haemorrhoids to appear.

"Blogger mtnest995 FLN- I used to use Cruciverb/ Across Lite on my iPad on Sunday when I don’t get a newspaper, but it stopped. Now I use the Washington Post on my iPad and don’t need to print. Not sure of the problem you are having??

Wishing you all a good night.

CanadianEh! said...

Rambunctious Reader- Quinn mentions much of the historical info that you have mentioned in her Author’s Notes. She discusses the basis for her characters and plot, and where she deviated for her story. I won’t give any spoilers.

Lemonade714 said...

The Polish have never gotten much respect even when they do good things. As a Jewish man, the fact that they never considered Jews as citizens certainly was not nice, but they have many beautiful women proving nobody is perfect. Sleep well corner

Lucina said...

Lemonade:
I certainly agree with you on the beauty of Polish women. One of my best friends, now deceased, was first generation Polish and her three daughters are breath-taking beauties.

Alice said...

What a pleasure — Jeffrey Wechsler with a real treat. I loved today’s puzzle though I had to go through it several times to get it done. The theme is one we all need to remember because “You can’t change the past!” Still, it’s a bit hard to “Forget about it!”

ARBAON said...

Glad Lemonade remembered. Does anyone know about/hear from Dennis or Windhover?