Theme: ON THE RISE (65. Increasing, and a hint to 17- and 40-Across and 11- and 27-Down)- The last words are all synonyms for "pile".
17A. Place for junk: SCRAP HEAP.
40A. U.S. Congress, informally: THE HILL.
11D. Small order of pancakes: SHORT STACK.
27D. Nuclear reactor: ATOMIC PILE.
Boomer here.
Good Monday all! Looks like our buddy Fred decided to describe my collection of baseball cards in our home. I have quite a few complete sets, but along with them comes HEAPS and STACKS and PILES of cards in the garage and basement. Sadly there is no 1952 Mickey Mantle.
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| Boomer, 8/10/2019 |
I took a week off from bowling last week and got in 27 holes of that other sport called cow pasture pool. A 9 hole par 28 on Monday went pretty well, but an 18 hole par 72 on Tuesday could have been better. I am back on the lanes again today.
Across:
1. Soothing ointment: BALM. Last Monday was a BALMY 80 degrees in the land of lakes.
5. Criticize harshly: BASH. When I BASH a Titleist it only flies about 125 yards.
9. Deep-voiced singer: BASSO. In the High School Glee Club, 1st Bass was a Baritone, second Bass was just a bass.
14. Great Lake that stretches from New York to Michigan: ERIE. I remain overwhelmed by the enormity of all five of these connected bodies of fresh water.
15. Every 12 mos.: YRLY.
16. Significant __: partner: OTHER. I am saving the Titleists and switching to my OTHER Callaways on advice from my golf instructor, TTP.
19. Genetic twin: CLONE.
20. "Honey, I'm Home" singer Twain: SHANIA.
21. Wagons at midday socials: TEA CARTS. Okay but do not serve people lined up to vote in Georgia.
23. B and B's, e.g.: INNS.
25. Home of twigs: NEST.
26. Did a marathon, say: RAN. "If I ran the Zoo said young Gerald McGrew, I'd make a few changes and here's what I'd do". Dr. Seuss.
28. Relaxation of govt. rules: DEREG. They are really not
talking about this on the news channels often. Too much coverage of the
trial in Minneapolis. I've already decided on the result.
31. Skip, with "out": SIT. I wish our Twins would SIT out Miguel Sano.
34. Turn loose: LET GO. Or maybe just let him go.
36. Annoys: VEXES.
38. Oft-stubbed digit: TOE.
39. In time gone by: AGO. "A long, long time AGO, I can still remember when the music used to make me smile". American Pie, Don McLean.
42. Enjoyed a meal: ATE. Last Friday was Minnesota Walleye. We forgot Lent was over.
43. Web or nanny follower: CAM.
44. Reef makeup: CORAL.
45. Some youth ctrs.: YMCAS. By the Village People, and make the letters with your arms!
47. Cotton gin inventor Whitney: ELI. I'll bet the Cotton Gin Martinis tasted terrible.
48. Defy authority: REBEL. Johnny Yuma was one. Johnny Cash.
50. Approves: OKS.
51. Dimpled facial feature, perhaps: CHIN. My sister thinks this is C.C.s first name.
54. Game room missile: DART. Popular in bowling center bars.
56. From Tokyo, say: JAPANESE.
60. Overly large: TOO BIG. My baseball card collection.
64. Still in the game: ALIVE.
67. Distance runner: MILER.
68. Prescription amount: DOSE. My DOSE of Xtandi is pretty huge daily.
69. "Enchanted" movie girl played by Anne Hathaway: ELLA. ELLA was my Grandmother's first name.
70. Arterial implant: STENT.
71. Seeks answers: ASKS.
72. Doe or stag: DEER. "Doe, a DEER, a female DEER." The Sound of Music.
Down:
1. "Porgy and __": BESS.
2. Half a McDonald's logo: ARCH. 45 cents for a three course meal a long time ago.
3. Old Italian money: LIRA. Now it's the Euro worth about $1.20 US Dollar.
4. Definition: MEANING.
5. Manually: BY HAND. How I bowl.
6. "__ you comfy?": ARE.
7. Venetian blind piece: SLAT. We have some of these blinds on some windows.
8. Promote big-time: HYPE. Most Major League teams are done HYPing opening days.
9. Italian lawn bowling: BOCCE. My Uncle Gus taught me this game 40 years ago. There is no ten pin to pick up in bocce ball bowling.
10. Book of maps: ATLAS.
12. FedExed, say: SENT. I heard they are making a fortune while this Covid continues.
13. Unrefined minerals: ORES.
18. ATM code: PIN. I think if you knock over 10 of them on the first ball, you get a strike.
22. __-hair pasta: ANGEL. Delicious.
24. Extremely harsh: SEVERE. Winter is over here but some of our Spring days are pretty harsh.
26. Fit for a monarch: REGAL.
29. Get-well program, briefly: REHAB. I'm waiting for my bowling to REHAB.
30. Banished from one's country: EXILED.
32. Greek i's: IOTAS.
33. Golfer's pegs: TEES. I went through a few of these last week.
34. Doily trim: LACE.
35. Needing no Rx: OTC. I have a couple of Over the Counter meds next to my prescriptions.
37. Like a fox, it's said: SLY. I think he was leader of the "Family Stone".
41. Lena who sang "Stormy Weather": HORNE.
46. Took a drive: MOTORED. I put a few miles on the Santa Fe
this past week. I think I am over 1500 now. Our Governor has opened a
few things, but we still have not visited a restaurant or casino.
49. Wood-shaping machines: LATHES.
52. Place of refuge: HAVEN.
53. Chemically nonreactive: INERT.
55. Fish eggs: ROE. "Fish Eggs v. Wade"?
56. Traffic tie-ups: JAMS. Strawberry is my favorite.
57. Touched down: ALIT.
58. Ginger ale or root beer: SODA. Sugar Free Ginger Ale, YES, Root Beer NO.
59. "The Catch" actress Mireille __: ENOS. ENOS "Country" Slaughter mostly with the Cardinals and played Right Field. Back when I was two.
61. Liver secretion: BILE.
62. Shipwreck site: ISLE. Before Covid locked us down, C.C. and I
used to go for a walk around beautiful Lake of the Isles in
Minneapolis. If you have not seen or heard about Lake of the Isles,
then you never watched the opening song and view of the "Mary Tyler
Moore Show".
63. Stick shift choice: GEAR. I remember stick shift cars back in the sixties, I learned to drive on one. But I think they may be obsolete now.
66. "Shame on you!": TSK.
Opening day in St. Louis. Did you see the Graybar sign in front of the Clydesdale's?
57 comments:
Should hammer BASH your thumb or palm,
Swearing is a potent BALM!
With your BASSO,
Cuss words LET GO
while pain VEXES, till you're calm!
Dirty laundry PILED in a HEAP,
A HILL of dirt that needs a sweep
A STACK of plates
In dishpan waits --
Mom won't be back until next week!
{B+, A-.}
FIR, and easily done, but two write-overs: BALM 4 aloe and SEVERE 4 Strict. I haven’t seen BILE for a while. Also, YRLY caught me by surprise. Nice teaching moment for a noob.
Good morning!
Fred lobbed us a softball this morning. But d-o still managed to screw up 1a -- ALOE/BALM. Have I ever mentioned that I hate when that happens? Hooray for Wite-Out. Today I even got the theme -- it must've been really obvious. Thanx, Fred and Boomer. (No I didn't see the GraybaR. I didn't even see the Clydesdales until I opened that pic in a new tab and CTRL+ about three times.)
ERIE: I learned this past week that Lake Baikal in Siberia contains more fresh water than all five Great Lakes combined.
SLAT: We've got blinds on all windows chez d-o. A few windows also have curtains, but they're never closed.
GEAR: I've always driven a straight stick. My current car and dw's are our first automatics. Manuals are really pesky in stop-go freeway traffic. Lucky for me, I no longer have to experience that.
Hi, all. Haven't done the puzzle yet. D-Otto FLN: Yes. We are called "America's Dairyland" and I love cheese so I guess you could say I'm from Cheeseland. Except for three years @ Fort Sam Houston, I've been for 76 trips around the fiery Orb. 38 of the here in Token Creek. About 1 1/2 miles from where Wisconsin's 115th ANG flies their F-16s. Token Creek got it's name from a small body of water that flows thru it....Yes, you guessed it. From the first time I read your profile and saw you were were in Cheeseland and were a DJ, I always wondered where. I grew up with my right ear attached to a radio listening to what are now "oldies".
I'm with D-O - starting with crossword staple ALOE before BALM. Actually I usually post after him and I could at least half of the time say "whatever D-O said about the puzzle"
I have friends who actually prefer to use a stick shift instead of an automatic. Not me - I can drive a stick but I haven't done it enough to drive that way without concerted effort! I learned the summer after high school- my boyfriend at the time taught me on his parents' new Audi in the tiny town of Yates Center, KS. He probably didn't tell them - he said everyone should learn on someone else's car because you end up hard on the gears when you're learning ;)
Thanks Boomer - glad you are able to get back to church and hopefully back to the parks now that the weather is warm enough! and thanks to Fred!
Good Morning.
Today was pretty breezy. Thanks, Fred. My vow this week is to do my puzzle before anything else. "Stuff" has been getting in the way. I, too, jumped in with aloe until BESS showed up.
Thank you, Boomer, for the tour and the photos. The photo of Busch reminds me that so many of the "new" ballyards have already been blown up for new fields. Ah, I guess like all the changes in baseball, that's progress. Hmmm. Good Luck with your bowling today. Enjoy!
Be well, stay safe and have a sunny day today.
I thought of ALOE right away , but 1D was obviously BESS, so BALM.
Alan and I used to stay at a B&B in my childhood PA hometown several times a year. We really miss it. Also we greatly miss my youngest sister who lives near there.
I have never owned a tea cart and have seen them used only in restaurants and other public places. I am huge coffee fan with a never empty pot. I seldom drink hot tea, but I like iced tea "barefoot." I would rather drink water than sweet tea.
Japanese is a CSO to my DIL, Motoko.
SPRING has "sprung." The ornamental trees are flowering and some trees are getting green leaves already. Springtime gives a welcome lift to life.
In college my finance drove with his right arm around me and had me operate the gear shift. I have always had an automatic shift. I had trouble coordinating the clutch with a stick shift.
Musings
-HEAP, STACK and PILE can be verbs or indeterminate nouns. HILL – not so much
-We set out a web CAM last week and saw enough to call an exterminator for today
-Good professional advice – Don’t be a REBEL unless it’s a HILL you’re willing to die on
-Golf-crazy JAPANESE are celebrating Hideki’s Matsuyama’s Master’s victory from yesterday
-Matsuyama’s closest rival was ALIVE until he hit a ball into the water which cost him $600,000
-Seeing green after such a SEVERE winter is invigorating
-Old joke: Didn’t Elvis the pelvis have a brother named Enos?
-I wanted to watch the Masters live yesterday but we MOTORED to the fabulous Lauritzen Gardens in Omaha to see their Million Daffodils Display on a perfect Sunday afternoon. Where are those “Husband Of The Year” nomination forms? :-)
-OK, I taped the Masters and watched it when I got home but still…
Good morning everyone.
Easy solve today. Only wite-out was I had ……pile before ……HEAP. Slight pause with ON THE RISE until I got it parsed right. FIR.
ATOMIC PILE - - American power reactors are light water moderated. Canada's are heavy water moderated. I once toured a Canadian (CANDU) reactor under construction, just east of Toronto.
HAVEN - A harbor is a place of refuge. Akin to German Hafen, L. German Haven (think Bremerhaven), Dutch haven, Danish havn (think København). Copenhagen, means 'merchant's harbor'.
CSO to Ray-O- on BOCCE.
Thanks Boomer for the recap. From yesterday, does your church need reservations and require masks? That's what we've been doing since last May.
Super easy Monday. And the Sudoku in our paper was so easy today it literally required no logic. Not using much brain power this morning.
HILL doesn’t quite fit with the other three theme answers, which are man-made creations vs a geographical feature.
THE HILL, Congress, is a man-made feature IMO.
Boomer: Excellent write-up & links. Good job!
Yeah! When I entered "L.A.Times Crossword Corner" it actually came up.
(For 2 weeks, it went to the L.A. Times Crossword page and would not let me get to "The Corner" ...
This was an easy and FUN Monday solve.
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset ... I've been doing it every night ...
just couldn't tell Y'all.
Cheers!
Not all hills are geographical. You can make a hill of soil. "Hilling. Two common methods exist for planting seeds: "drilling," which refers to evenly spacing seeds in rows; and "hilling," which means planting in clusters of five or six seeds with spaces between the clusters. Hills are thinned to one to two of the strongest seedlings after germination."
Hasn't anyone here used a hoe to hill the beans? (verb)
Which brings to mind the idiom, “That doesn't amount to a hill of beans.” The underlying idea is that beans are so common that even a hill of them isn't worth very much, if anything at all."
A wonderful 12 minute FIR, thanx, Fred!! I even got the theme. As others have mentioned, 1a first thought was ALOE but fortunately BALM also popped into my pumpkin-head, and as 1d was obviously BESS, BALM filled 1a. First three answers all “B”s. My first thought was if this was gonna be a puzzle theme. Maybe another run somewhere in the CW with three “C”s? But....no, that was not the theme. Anyway, nice CW, thanx again, Fred!! Terrific write-up, too, Boomer, thanx for the effort!
Hola!
Thank you, Joe and Boomer! It was a short up HILL climb and was finished before my coffee brewed yet full of fun!
Aloe came to mind but I realized BESS would not allow that.
I like ANGEL hair pasta and it seems impossible to ruin it, but Saturday's meal did that. We decided we would not return there again.
Boomer, you look so cheerful in that photo and it's wonderful that you are again enjoying bowling.
Have a marvelous Monday, everyone!
Good Morning:
Hand up for Aloe/Balm and also the mistaken Opt/Sit. As unclefred noted, the top row was Balm Bash Basso; this rarely happens so it’s fun to see it once in awhile. I also liked Erie/Yrly, Toe/Roe, and Bile/Isle side by side. CSOs to Ray O and Anon T at Bocce and Lira, to Ray O and inanehiker at Stent and Dose and to all the Golfers at Tees. I needed the revealer to catch the theme which was hard to see early because of the mixture of down and across answers, a strategy favored by CC.
Thanks, Fred, for a smooth start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the fun and facts, as usual. Good luck on the lanes and the links.
Heading off for a checkup by my retina specialist and hoping for a good report. I dread the dilation drops as they seem to take forever to wear off. I also dread having a mask on for an extended period of time. Oh well, very small inconveniences for very worthwhile safety and protection.
Have a great day.
I was so sure 1a was aloe that I never even checked the down clue.
A diversion worthy of Michael Nesmith...
(His mother invented White Out.)
Regarding the theme,
what can I possibly say that won't get me into trouble?
Really easy, fast, Monday puzzle from Fred Piscop. Boomer added the tour down the lane to understanding the theme.
Some of the same issues as others. ALOE vs BALM, YEAR vs YRLY, OPT vs SIT and TREE vs NEST. I didn't know Mirielle ENOS, but perps filled it in along with a few others. Perps also took care of filling in many of the Down words before I got to them.
Our governor just announced that all Pennsylvanians can register to get a Covid Vaccine shot as of tomorrow.
It's National Cheese sandwich day. A good lunch time fall back with a bowl of tomato soup. I experiment with different cheeses and sometimes add other things like bacon, ham, or pickles. The trick is getting the frying pan to the right temperature and grilling the sandwich for the right amount of time (1 minute 10 seconds per side for provolone, and one minute for American cheese.)
ANGEL hair pasta is a favorite in our house. The kids called it Skinny Sketty when they were young. Oldest daughter still does not put sauce (more commonly known as gravy in Italian homes) on her Skinny Sketty, she puts the sauce on the side of the plate and eats it separately along with the meatballs.
After talking about food, I think I'll go fix some lunch.
Have a great day everyone.
A quick, fun Monday romp - good way to start the week.
FLN - TTP@12:25 - I agree that shellac as a finish is widely used in woodworking. I was just referring to using it in sports, like the Orioles got shellacked by the Red Sox over the weekend. It sounds like something Curt Gowdy might have said way back when, so it didn't immediately come to mind, but it's not really wrong per se.
Loved the puzzle, loved the review (especially the photo of Boomer and description of his baseball card collections), and loved OwenKL's poems (especially #1)!
Two quick COVID stories for you. I've mentioned that my daughter used to live in Italy; her in-laws are still there. They are waiting to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is in short supply, and which is given in two doses with a three month interval.
Story number 1: my daughter's MIL was at the market and saw two people shopping that she knew to be positive for COVID. She reported it to management, because they are not supposed to be in the market with active COVID, and management made an announcement on the PA: "We are aware that there are shoppers here today with active COVID; it's essential that you report immediately to the information desk." Twenty people showed up. Moral: stupid and selfish people are all around you. Beware and keep up all your self protective strategies!
Story number 2: my brother, a retired firefighter who is as active and fit as any man I know, had a powerful case of COVID in March 2020. He was living in NYC and managed to avoid the hospital. He lost his sense of smell, but oh well, right? Then he developed aches and pains that make it hard for him to get out of bed every morning, brain fog, and a continually evolving list of new troubles. It's been a year, and he is still suffering. Moral: you don't want to get COVID -- even a little bit. The vaccine may keep you out of the hospital, but it doesn't prevent you from contracting or transmitting the disease. I see so many folks celebrating the end of the pandemic. It's not over!
These stories are not exactly apropos of the puzzle, but since this is where bright folks meet in the morning, I felt compelled to share these anecdotes.
We are looking forward to outdoor dining in a month or two -- still not going to eat indoors at restaurants, still going to wear masks in public, still social distancing with kids and grandkids. YMMV.
Perfect Monday puzzle, a total delight--many thanks, Fred. I sailed through this one as soon as I saw it was BALM and not ALOE, and left only one blank, with SHAN_A, since I didn't know her name and didn't want to put in the wrong letter. But I got the rest of the puzzle perfectly--a terrific Monday treat! Woohoo! And, Boomer, loved your neat picture, and always enjoy your commentary, even with all the sports stuff. Great Monday routine all around.
Have a good check-up, Irish Miss.
And have a great week coming up, everybody.
A typical Monday challenge. Lotsa old friend answers so the MEANING of many clues was clear. FIR but with one misdirected inkover: oversize/ONTHERISE. ("shame on you, TSK!!") The theme included vertical perps which is rare and fun.
Was a good idea to hold off on ATOMbomb as well a Royal/REGAL. (RIP to one of the longest living/reigning "first gentlemen" in history.)
Spitz...think I mentioned before our neighbor city Rome, NY hosts the World Series of Bocce
Boomer, ever Bypass Bowling for Bocce?
Weren't we taught a NEST is not a home?
Late great Joan Rivers joke about a fat guy: "He has more CHINs than a Chinese phone book"
A Texan co worker in college asked to borrow a "PIN" ..when I told her I had none she pointed to the pen in my shirt pocket.
Add to the SCRAPHEAP:
The rocket launch is on...it's "____" .... AGO
Flock of female DEER......DOSE
Singing sea anemone group.....CORAL
Decorative bar room projectile, objet ____ DART
Forced to sit in the 3rd to last row....EXILED.
On vacation for a couple weeks..will see Massachusetts grandkids for the first time in months this weekend.
IM...is this lingering effects of ocular shingles?...hope your exam goes well.
Although I too had aloe instead of BALM, I was really in sync with this puzzle and finished with my best time in at least a year. Great write-up, too! A nice way to start the week!
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Fred and Boomer.
I FIRed in good time and saw that we were ON THE RISE.
One inkblot where SCRAP yard changed to HEAP.
I noted RAN and MILER, rhyming pairs SENT and STENT, DEER and GEAR, BILE and ISLE (but no Elba to be EXILEd on),
I also noted AGO, LET GO, BASSO, TOE.
Is a dimpled CHIN not called a cleft CHIN, as in Carey Grant? (For IM or is it Lucina?)
This Canadian knew SHANIA,
CSO to our Italian Cornerites with BOCCE, LIRA and ANGEL-hair pasta.
I’ll take a double CSO with DOSE and OTC. That soothing ointment (BALM) ( did we all think of Aloe😁😁😁) would probably be OTC.
Yes, YR, I have similar GEAR memories with my first boyfriend. But I never learned to drive a manual. I absolutely refused to have DH teach me when automatics are available!
Spitzboov - would that be the Pickering reactor you are referring to?
Wishing you all a great day. Stay safe- our Covid numbers are getting out of control here; variants are infecting our unvaccinated younger people and ICU numbers are rising, with cancellations of elective surgeries. We are in Stay at Home lockdown - again. Sigh! Haven’t hugged the grandchildren since August😒😢
This was a nice Monday puzzle without issues.
SCRAPYARD/SCRAPHEAP.
I am of Italian descent, I grew up in a town that was ~ 85% Italian and I can say without question that NO ONE EVER called red sauce “gravy”. Gravy is brown.
I have had a car with a stick shift forever. I bought my 2016 because it was the last car made with a manual from that brand. The thing is, with computer ignition control it is just about impossible to stall, in traffic or otherwise. Just give it some clutch and go, push it back in, no gas pedal needed at all. My kid moved the car for me one time, could not believe how easy it shifted.
Wherever you go, there they are...so Stay Safe.
On the gravy debate: yeah, I don't think you can call it an Italian term across the board. But if you're on Boston's North Shore or the suburbs of Providence, the red stuff is definitely gravy. Maybe just a regional thing?
And on the other thing: long live the Three Pedals!
Hi All!!
Thanks Fred for a fine Monday puzzle. Thank you Boomer for kicking-off the after-party in-style (lookin' good!)
WOs: SCRAPdraw[er] (oops), Royal -> REGAL
ESPs: ELLA, ENOS
Fav: BOCCE
{B, A-}
TokenCreek: Do you have a medical MOS (Army)? I was 15 weeks at Ft. Sam for 92B (Medical Lab Tech) training.
'86 Alfa is 5 on the floor and my '15 Honda Civic is 6-GEAR stick. I don't like automatics and the only nice thing about CVT (on DW's Giulia and Eldest's Corolla) is they tach out at ~2.5 once you hit cruising speed (even if cruising speed was 85mph).
I don't put marinara on ANGEL hair pasta; you need a thicker noodle for that.
Basil Pesto or a simple butter and garlic 'sauce' is perfect for the delicate noodle.
C, Eh! - I was listening to Day Six (a CBC programme) and, if I understood correctly, Canada is short on vaccines.
Later, on a different program (this one was US :-)), I heard that by June US will have enough vaccines to double-poke the nation ~3x over.
If both the above are true, I do hope we share with our hemispheric neighbors.
Cheers, -T
I'll throw in my two centesimi.
Our neighborhood in Utica was also about 85% Italian descent. (Only one Polish family on our block). Never heard the word "gravy" used for red sauce until university rooming with guys from such exotic NYC environs as Sheep's Head Bay and Queens Village.
Can. Eh! - - I believe it was Darlington. Pickering had already been in existence for awhile at that time. I think it was in the late 80's because their units came on line in the early 90's.
Ray-O - - Thanks for the reminder. I believe I've driven by the BOCCE site.
I don't call it gravy, but all of my NYC, Long Island, New Jersey and Philly Italian relatives call it gravy. So, maybe it is a regional thing. I agree AnonPVX, gravy is usually brown, and sometimes gray or white.
I HOPE stick shifts aren't obsolete, Boomer o' mine -- our Jetta is on its last legs and standard is the only way I know how to drive! :-)
Nice write-up, and sweet puzzle, Fred.
Switching from manual (my choice) to automatic can be dangerous....
DW & I were driving to Sulfur Springs from Houston in her Honda Odyssey to visit our niece. As we were approaching the exit, DW unbuckled to get her makeup bag (gotta pretty-up after a long ride, I guess).
I went to hit the clutch to "coast" down the exit.
Um, it was the brake.
DW flew forward and whacked her head on the dash. She was OK but so irate with me. Took about an hour for her to smile at me again.
Switching GEARs....
I've only heard 'gravy' on cooking shows. I've been to Boston's North End and, IIRC, they never said gravy.
Neighborhood of my ute (North End of SPI) was 35% Italian, 35% Irish, 10% Germans (who looked at Catholic Italians & Irish and musta thought - "Do yous know what a condom is?" :-)), and 10% Polish and 10% Black. It was a fun way to learn the world navigating our little area.
Kelly Clark - You can still buy manual transmissions. The thing that's becoming obsolete is an honest emergency, er, hand-brake. //now it's just a button(?!?) My mechanic told me a '15 was the best of both worlds re: manual / BY HAND-break.
Cheers, -T
Thanks Fred for a soothing start to a smooth FIR (ALOE I did have to refill it with BALM at 1A). And thank you Boomer for another mature (i.e. fully groan) review. I've often wondered whether those who play "cow pasture pool" are full aware of the unique hazards of such a venue.
As usual, I didn't RISE to expectations and suss the theme, but it had some interesting ANSWERS:
17A HEAPS immediately echoed Boomer's random findings on the golf course.
40A THE HILL got me wondering as to why not all members of congress are referred to as congresspersons.
27D The origin of the phrase ATOMIC PILE. And the slow DESCENT of scientists from the PINNACLE of public trust since 2 December 1942, when they allowed a foreign scientist to build a nuclear reactor in the heart of America's second largest city based purely on a squiggly HEAP of arcane equations. Enrico Fermi is perhaps better known though for this phrase: "Then where are they?". But that's a story for another day.
19A on the 22nd of February in 1997 the world awoke to the news that a DAM had become the MOTHER of her own TWIN. Read all about it!
28A REG/DEREG/REREG. The cycle repeats.
44A Reminded me of the recent visit by our intrepid friend, CORAL singer and heavy lifter, Stella Zawistowski.
Cheers,
Bill
FIR today as Boomer generously confirmed in his write up. WOs were aloe/BALM and Small STACK/SHORT STACK (It's been a while since last visit to a pancake place and obviously it didn't occur to me that small was in the clue. Doh!) Filled in the reveal by the downs and forgot to read it and find the theme fills! To err is human and I am feeling very human these days. But I enjoyed the puzzle, Fred, and overall had a mostly clean grid. Thanks again, Boomer. It's good to see you are getting out now for golf and bowling. Enjoyed seeing you again too, OwenKL.
We have had mostly stick shift cars including our current one. It was a big relief to learn how to stop and start again on a hill in Monterey, CA early in our marriage after growing up on the flatlands. No more worries about rolling back. But if we need to get another car, it'll probably be an automatic because of increased traffic congestion. Happy Monday, all.
Spitzboov - yes, it would have been Darlington. Pickering is one of the originals, and is actually scheduled to close in 2025 after Darlington is refurbished.
AnonT- Canada was caught short with no domestic manufacturing sites for vaccines (after several decades of governments not supporting Big Pharmaceutical companies to the extent that they wanted.). It started with the sale of publicly owned Connaught Labs (think Banting and Best discovery of insulin at U of Toronto) in the 1970’s. Trudeau government scurried early to make contracts with many companies, mostly in Europe, and Moderna and Pfizer vaccines came first. Pfizer had a delay to improve production back in January, and Moderna just had a delay. Biden government okayed sale of some AstraZeneca vaccine to Canada recently (it is not approved in US yet and probably not needed there). Second dose interval has been extended to 4 months ( for all but a few medical conditions) to get the first jab into as many arms as possible now. But vaccine amounts appear to be increasing and now age 50 and up are getting appointments. Priority groups like teachers, grocery store workers are next, but variant seems to be affecting the younger folks who were not originally thought to be a great risk. Thanks for realizing the need to share the vaccine with the world; Brazil is a Petri dish for variants right now. We are not safe until the world is vaccinated.
YR @ 9:42AM. The use of the word HILL in gardening is not a well defined term. I often used a HOE between rows to get rid of weeds, but I plant the seed in 2" drills. And paradoxically the word was used by my mentor (the previous owner of our house) to describe the shallow DEPRESSION used to plant some seedlings. But then after planting potato eyes in the bottom of 6" deep trench, I do HILL up the soil with a rake when the sprouts reach a foot or so. The additional soil depth protects them from "greening" if the cobblers get exposed to the Sun. The jury seems to be divided as to whether such coverings are toxic, but they certainly don't improve the flavor.
On the subject of transmissions. First let me say that cars are just a way to get from point A to point B to me. That said we're still nursing a 2008 Camry Hybrid on it's second ($5K) lithium battery (the width of the back trunk!). We'll probably replace it soon and probably with an automatic transmission (stop and go and stop and go are the NORM in the Balto-Wash. corridor and standards are a pain). That said, I will really miss the CVT (constant velocity transmission). The hybrid replaces the transmission (shifted or auto) with an ELECTRIC MOTOR powered by the L battery. The velocity of the transmission is directly proportional to the amount of gas you feed the IC engine. The CVT has smooth, superb acceleration and can easily take a BMW out of the gate. Especially useful in tight traffic. Sniffle.
Dam it Waseeley! (@1:45)
I got all excited!
When I saw "Dam" had a twin
I imagined a huge dam break contained by a smaller dam downstream
And eagerly clicked in the link!
(Boy do i feel sheepish...)
My taotao scooter has a Gy6 150Cc motor with
A constant velocity transmission.
Fascinating how it works, but complicated.
Weights and centrifugal force replace the gears.
For a simplified view one in action without all the techspeak,
see between one and two minute mark in this video.
I enjoyed this puzzle, Boomer's essay, and all your comments. I quickly checked and saw 1 down was BESS so I avoided putting in and having to erase ALOE.
NaomiZ, thanks for the two COVID stories. Very illuminating.
OwenKL, I liked your verses.
I have driven both manual and automatic transmission cars, and I have always preferred automatic.
Good wishes to you all.
I just read an article about a place in Manhattan Beach called Bruce's Beach. Made me think of Bill G, of course.
I told this sad clutch story once before,
So feel free to skip this (abbreviated) version.
I kept my 1st motorcycle in a rented garage 3 blocks from my
Brooklyn apt. It was a burned out used 3 cylinder 400cc 2 stroke lawnmower
On 2 wheels that belched more smoke than James bonds spy car.
Hey, it was a piece of junk, but I loved it!
It had a terribly stiff clutch that required all my strength to pull the handlebar lever.
My left, (& only my left) fore arm looked like Popeyes!
To get back and forth from home to garage I would ride my 10 speed bicycle.
After a year or so of a Popeye forearm training, I hopped on the bicycle to go home
& reached a stop sign that caused me to grab the handlebar clutch lever
With all my might,,, except it was my front brake bike lever
And I went ass over teakettle and landed in the Middle of the intersection...
Misty @ 11:23 ~ Your good wishes were answered! Thank you.
Ray O @ 11:37 ~ No, the check-up was not shingles related. I have AMD and see the retina specialist twice a year. I am very fortunate that my progression from the original diagnosis to now has been very slow and only one one eye is problematic. No discernible changes from the last exam, so that is excellent news, indeed. Thanks for the good wishes.
CEh @ 11:52 ~ Yes, dear Cary did have what was referred to as a cleft chin. Both Lucina and I are big Cary Grant fans, but Lucina is also partial to Paul Newman, I believe. I, OTOH, am 100 % smitten with Cary, although Gregory Peck isn’t too shabby, either! 🤭
Waseeley, I'm sorry the high-voltage "traction battery" in your 2008 Camry hybrid had to be replaced. Isn't it nickel metal hydride, though, not lithium? I am fervently knocking on wood about our beloved 2007 Camry hybrid, which is still going strong and serving us well. We did have to replace the 12-volt battery, though, which is not surprising since lead-acid batteries generally have an expected life span of only 5-6 years. What was surprising, though, was the price, about $500 (plus labor to install it). Expensive doggone thing. Our son keeps advising us to get a new car before the high-voltage battery dies, not afterwards. I think that's good advice.
The only fill of which I wasn't sure was 59D, but perps rushed to the rescue!
I hesitated before the first vowel in SHANIA because I'm unsure of the young lady's spelling. But then I reminded myself that this is WHY we must remember gthat the old Italian money is spelled with an "A," not an "E."
All in all, a fine PZL from Mr. Piscop, well examined by our Boomer.
~ OMK
___________
DR: Two diagonals today, one per side.
The nearer diagonal has only two vowels, not a great candidate for anagrams.
Ah, but the far side gives us an excellent response, the chief anagram (12 of 15 letters) answering a problem I have had for the past few hours.
I have been hearing over & over--in my mind's ear--"Un Bel Di" from Madama Butterfly.
How can I get rid of this operatic ear-worm?!
The answer resides in today's diagonal anagram. What I need is an...
"ARIA EXORCISE[r]"!
Hilling garden vegetable plants seems straight forward to me. You take a hoe and create a hill of soil, heaping it around the bottom of the plant stem. "Corn is also susceptible to being blown over in high winds. So one way to support the plants is to provide them a stronger base by scraping a "hill" dirt up around the plant once or twice a week until the corn begins to tassel." You also hill up pole beans. We had a huge vegetable garden in the 1940's. We six kids all worked in it and my older sister and I helped mom can the produce.
CeD @1:45pm Is LaoTzu's Way, half a motorcycle?
Jayce @3:23pm Agreed. We've already replaced one "charging battery", but paid only about $350 from a mail-order outfit in CA and did the work myself. But I'm not up to a second install (tricky) so I want to dump the car before next winter. I like Toyotas - they're pretty reliable and I tend to abuse cars, especially the bodies. Ours is pretty scuffed up and we're not likely to gets good trade-in. However I'm giving serious thought to buying a new hybrid. I know that rage is EVs, but I'm a late adopter. The lithium battery (can't be sure what the old one was but I'm sure the new one is L) only has few thousand miles on it and probably has some resale value. However DW has her heart set on a Subaru, so only time will tell.
OMK @4:08pm Why would you want to end 'Un Bel Di'? It's been dreary around here all day
One of our cars is a Prius hybrid - 2007 - a few years back it was expensive to replace the hybrid battery - but it came at a time that it was expected. And the price was nothing compared to a newer used car (or a new car- though we never buy those) and it has been running well the whole time we've had it. Expect to get a few more years on it - I love having fully paid off cars with low insurance costs!
Gary, at 530pm, Betsy wanted to go shopping. Matsuyama was up six. I decided I wasn't missing any drama. Then Mr Golf made his appearance. Fortunately, Mr Shaufele was the victim.
Hmmm, Timing the grill vs the nose test. Great idea.
I told my cousin that she could use my (wife's) car while we were on vacay. When she got to Logan, to her horror she realized it was a stick. She was stuck.
Awful late. Finished at 930 am but got car busy, both of them. Always enjoy Monday for Boomer's Write-up and added bonus: two l'icks from Owen.
Beginner level but thought I had a Natick with Enos but it crossed DOSE.
WC
My wife also likes the Subaru Outback, but we’ll see. She takes for-freaking-ever to make up her mind.
I had a CT scan of my torso last week. It showed that several ribs I fractured in a car accident last August still are not healed. I have an on and off pain level of zero to two or three and do not use Advil or any other pain medicine. I am concerned that this lack of healing or possible non union is not normal. What kind of doctor do you medical types recommend that I see?
FIR. I also saw BESS first, so I avoided the BALM/ALOE trap. Also, I only required two perps, BOCCE, and ENOS, but then hey, it's only Monday.
Definition of BRAVE: When I was stationed in Baltimore, my then fiancé/now ex-wife came to visit. Since my next school was going to be in DC, she wanted to get a job there. My car was a three-on-the-column Dodge Dart. I took her out to a school parking lot to SHOW her how to drive it. (Um, one does not TEACH anyone how to drive a stick! THEY have to TEACH themselves!) So, Monday morning --- and all week long --- she dutifully TAUGHT herself how to drive it --- in rush hour, both directions, on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway! Guts!
While I was overseas, she ended up driving that car across country - alone - twice!
LEOIII - MIL told me about 3 on the tree. I've never driven one of those.
Your story reminded me of my 1st car - a Mazda GLC hatchback. DW had a '76 Ford Torino but we needed a second car. FIL (I did mention we were married young? - I was 18 at the time) had a buddy at a dealership that had the used GLC for a good price.
I had to take it for a test drive. I'd never driven (not sure I even had a license at the time) a manual BUT I wasn't going to lose face in front of my new bride. I knew the theory of manual so I took it off the lot with confidence(!). Only jerked the car twice and never stalled out while tooling around Bossier City.
FFW to DW being brave. She'd twisted her left ankle and was on crutches but really wanted to visit me at Ft. Hood (#DesertStorm). [We'd junk'd the Torino by then]
She took off from Shreveport in the GLC and, with her left leg out of order, used her crutches to clutch!
//Coda - she found the only snake hole in the barracks' quad with her crutch and ended up bruising her knee but good. She still made it back to Shreveport in the manual transmission.
CED - thanks for the CVT video!
YR - I have no idea whom to see re: ribs but God Speed friend.
Cheers, -T
Boomer - This is for you. I stumbled across This Guy nailing a 7-10 split.
Cheers, -T
ATL Granny @ 1:48 -- Yes, those Monterey, CA, hills are killers; while at (the then) Army Language School, in (also then) B Company, the only way into town was to walk down Franklin Street, and then back up. I can't imagine driving that hill with a stick shift; it was bad enough on foot.
And for -T, it's not only parking brakes: I heard a story that a dad bought his girl a used car -- she had only seen/used keyless cars, but the used car wasn't keyless, and she didn't know how to start it with a key!
Boomer, hope you scored well. Even if you didn't, I'm sure you are happy that you are back to bowling. Oh, and if I'm your golf instructor, your game will probably go downhill fast! :>)
This poison ivy is driving me batty. Taking the Benadryl and using Calgel on the rashes and bumps has helped.
Saddened to see the news about what happened in Brooklyn Center. They were first reporting that it was in Brooklyn Park. Either way, that's still pretty close to you, so I hope things calm down and it doesn't get out of control.
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