Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa
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Our retired doctor from San Sanibel Island in Florida makes yet another clinic call for us here at the Crossword Hospital. I found Ed's puzzle to be just what the doctor ordered for this cold weather that is persisting here in the heartland. Ed is seen here with his beloved, late dog Tug. Here is Ed's commentary on the construction of this Saturday's offering:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for your inquiry and for all the hard work you and others do to make this site a success. I like doing themeless grids because I enjoy the challenge of thinking up clues. If a word hasn't appeared much before then there is a good chance to come up with a fun clue that is novel. With more commonly used words that is really hard to do. The seed for this grid was POPSICLESTICK and it was used only once before. The fact that it had 13 letters lent it well to the triple 13 pattern which I really like, especially if I can cross the bundle with a few longer downs. With this work Rich spotted the "POP" dupe but felt the two weren't related and so they stood.
Thanks to Rich for cleaning up the clues wherever he thought appropriate. I was happy I could avoid using too many proper names with this one. Best wishes for a better summer than last year.
Ed
1. Yielding no interest?: HO HUM.
6. Fight stopper: KAYO - Pronunciation of KO, which is a gramogram (that we had in Julian Lim's 4/14/21 puzzle) which is the abbreviation of KnockOut. OK?
10. Beginning on: AS OF.
14. Vonnegut literary device: IRONY
15. Old-fashioned leaves?: HIES - Macbeth Act I, scene V: Lady Macbeth: "Hie thee hither" (Come here)
16. Polynesian beverage: KAVA - Benefits, side effects and dosage
17. Comic-Con attendees: NERDS.
18. Happy: ALL SMILES.
18. Happy: ALL SMILES.
20. Self-declared republic in Ukraine: DONETSK - A 12 hr drive from Kiev
22. Breakfast on the go, perhaps: POP TART.
23. No real friend: USER - To George, Biff was a USER. Betcha know this movie! *
24. Shop __ you drop: TIL - For me it's computers and golf equipment
26. Lacked alternatives: HAD TO - What some parents feel (:06)
27. Blue Jays, in crawls: TOR - Watching the TORonto Blue Jays play from your hotel room looks pretty cool to me!
29. Omega, to an electrician: OHM - Jeffrey Wechsler had FARAD yesterday
32. Bass appendage: FIN - Sea Bass
33. Residential cliché: HOME SWEET HOME - Be it ever so humble...
37. How a close race may go: DOWN TO THE WIRE - and 64. Barely avoided tying: EDGED - It took some close examination of this photo finish to determine that the runner in the red and yellow top EDGED out the others
37. How a close race may go: DOWN TO THE WIRE - and 64. Barely avoided tying: EDGED - It took some close examination of this photo finish to determine that the runner in the red and yellow top EDGED out the others
38. It gets last licks: POPSICLE STICK - Doctor Sessa's seed entry
39. "__ dreaming?": AM I.
40. Ad trailer?: HOC - Latin: "For This" - Created or done for a particular purpose as necessary. I was on an AD HOC committee to investigate gum chewing in our school. No, really!
41. Rival sch. of Duke: UNC - It's 16 minutes on the Hwy 501
42. What closers often open, with "the": NINTH - Mariano Rivera was perhaps the best closer in baseball for the NINTH inning
47. Some fancy sheepskin boots: UGGS - Speaking of pitchers, Tom Brady did a pitch for UGGS
51. Make an impression on?: ENGRAVE - All players and staff on an NHL team that win the Stanley Cup get their name ENGRAVED on one of the bands. The next year the next team gets the same treatment until the band is filled and then that band is removed and flattened for display to make room for more bands on the cup.
56. Candy in a roll: LIFESAVER.
58. Difficult high school sci. course: AP BIO - A sample question from an AP BIO test
60. Pixar clownfish: NEMO.
61. Latin lover's declaration: TE AMO - "I Love you"
62. Pointed missile: DART - All three darts in the triple 20 band for a max score of 180! Wow!
63. Fangorn Forest creatures: ENTS - From LOTR (Lord Of The Rings). EFTS yesterday and ENTS today. Maybe I'll catch on soon.
Down:
1. Many an Indian: HINDU.
2. Two-wafer snacks: OREOS.
3. Mezzo Marilyn: HORNE - Marilyn Horne
3. Mezzo Marilyn: HORNE - Marilyn Horne
4. Sneaky currents: UNDERTOWS.
5. Computer game title island: MYST - Do players of this game go to Comic-Con?
6. Base shade?: KHAKI - A dominant color on many military bases
7. Afflict: AIL.
8. It acquired SeatMe in 2013: YELP - Here ya go
9. Bone on a menu: OSSO - Often on our cwd menu
10. Husky relative: AKITA.
11. Piece of silver: SALAD FORK.
12. Extended work period: OVERTIME - I was always on salary and never got extra for my extended hours
13. Bit of deceit: FAST ONE.
13. Bit of deceit: FAST ONE.
19. Letters on a dashboard: MPH - Or in a heads-up display
21. Period of time: STRETCH - If you don't beat the rap, you'll do a STRETCH in prison
25. Like landlines, nowadays: LOW TECH - Shh., we still have one
28. Official hotel of the PGA Tour: OMNI - This one is in PA
30. Sneaky snickers: HEHS.
31. Informal get-togethers: MEETUPS.
33. Anticipating: HOPING FOR.
34. With no assistance: SOLO - 14-yr-old Mansour Anis prepares to fly SOLO in a Cessna 152
35. __ bed: TWIN.
36. Slightly malfunctioned: HICCUPPED.
37. Caribbean island country: DOMINICA - It is about 650 miles from The Dominican Republic to the island of DOMINICA
38. Like some office walls: PANELED.
43. 16th-century council setting: TRENT - A 1565 product of that council. How'd that work out?
44. Attacks, with "at": HAS.
46. Mark replacements: EUROS - Since 2001, a Euro is worth 1.95583 Deutsch Marks
48. Evacuee's emergency kit: GO BAG - Here's what's in this $119 model
50. Got off one's rocker?: STOOD.
52. Windmill part: VANE - Were you amazed when you first saw the size of a wind generator VANE?
53. Tied up: EVEN.
55. Lessen in intensity: BATE - I am unable to BATE my enthusiasm for Ed's puzzles. (A sentence, while accurate, is not how I would ever say it.)
57. Home delivery asst., perhaps: EMT - Or even in the ambulance
*Biff Tannen was George McFly's USER in the Back To The Future franchise
66 comments:
FIRight, without too much trouble. Except BELL was the first word I put in, and the last word I had to take out to put that abomination KAYO in!
A Mae West LIFESAVER, for at sea risk,
Is more use than a POPSICLE STICK!
But a popular whore
Who could stop a war? --
Such a POP TART they need in DONETSK!
The British may have once gone tsk tsk
At the rebellion going on in DONETSK.
But after the HICCUP
Of the Brexit break-up,
The British are done doing tsk tsk!
{A-, B+.}
Good morning!
D-o enjoyed not looking for the theme or missing the reveal. Liked those stacked 13s in mid-court. Also liked the dearth of abbreviations: UNC, TOR, and EMT were all gettable. Wasn't there some beverage that was hyped with a raven-like voice intoning "Kava-Kava?" Maybe not. Thanx for the adventure, Dr. Ed and Husker.
USB PORT: Both my keyboard and mouse "talk" to the computer via a USB PORT. I like a Trac-Ball mouse; the mouse sits stationary, and the cursor is moved by rolling the ball with your thumb.
LOW TECH: We also have a land-line, because dw's calls to Germany are free. It works via VOIP, and I can also answer it on my smart-phone. I guess that makes it Hi-tech Low-tech.
The storms have come and gone, so it looks like a good morning to pedal 'round the 'hood on our geezer-bikes.
Dr. Ed is a very skilled constructor, who can imagine a themeless and present it. I do not have that kind of mind.
I also do not know much about the troubled area of DONETSK but it seems sad. BATE without its "A" was also interesting though it is becoming popular fill. My favorite clue/fill was 6. Base shade?: KHAKI .
TY Gary and ED
FIR in surprisingly fast time. Filled in two of the long answers almost immediately. This was more like a midweek puzzle for me.
Okay Ed, does anybody really know DONETSK? It was perps for me to fill Russia's new annexation. That along with MYST and YELP were my only unknowns filled by perps today BATE was filled by perps before I saw the clue. I was ALL SMILES sitting at my desk in my HOME SWEET HOME HOPING FOR a puzzle that was DOWN TO THE WIRE but it was an easy HO HUM (for a Saturday) NW to SE one today.
USB- my mouse, keyboard, & printer are wireless but I do have wired ones to back them up.
SALAD FORK- a useless utensil to clog up the silverware (flatware) tray in the kitchen drawer. Almost the same size as a regular fork.
LOW TECH for a land line? I don't think so. A 'smartphone' is basically a radio that communicates with a tower that uses fiber optic ....land lines.
Of
I'd think 'Old fashioned Come-ons ' would've been APTER for HIES
Aha, that kind of "Base". That kind lof KHAKI.
The Y in YELP gave me KAYO. The one baseball clue for NINTH was slow to dawn. I naturally had wane/BATE with the Mouse port supplying the B.
And… We had an AKITA for a month. Scared the local cats silly. Boy can they scamper up a tree fast
But Gary, you had 12 weeks off in Summer 😉
Ah, right next to last month's MONTSERRAT
And to enforce TRENT the Spanish sent an Armada. Senor, meet Captain Drake.
I was looking for a brand of dent filler for Mark replacement
Hmm, never thought of BELL. 2 Sports clues
Much like the calculators of yore I learned to 'Mouse ' with my right hand. I could add pretty fast. Anybody know "The Rule of 'Nines'"?
Yes, with a few perps the three 13 across were filled and we* were off and running. I solved yesterday morning and was late for my meeting because I got rolling
Doable as advertised, n'est-ce pas?
WC
*We being Owen, D-O, BigE** etal
**E, do you occasionally post as Curmudgeon?😁
Good puzzle, but it fell relatively quickly for a Saturday in 9:08.
Didn't know Donetsk, Kava, or any mezzos.
Good morning everyone.
What a nice bright puzzle to work on. The 13 ltrs across triple pattern was clever but not difficult and helped mitigate other more challenging sectors. Intersecting that with 4 9ltr downs made it more fun. Didn't know GO BAG but it perped readily; and was logical. Tinkered with DONETSK spelling but saw the 'K' would give me KHAKI. Many fine clues. No searches were needed.
KHAKI - From Hindi. Wish the Navy had kept service dress KHAKI for chiefs and officers. Very iconic IMO.
Good intro, Gary. Thanks.
Yes, D-O, KAVA is an acid-reduced instant coffee that I remember being advertised on the Paul Harvey radio show. But it doesn't contain any of the Polynesian kava-kava root or leaves.
Wasn't sure of the spelling of DONETSK but it was the scene of much fighting in WWII
FLN @ WC : You were spot on about todays DOABLE puzzle. Thank you Dr. Ed for this gem. Ah, the SOLO flight. Remember mine well even though it was about 30 years ago. Still carry my PP license. No expiration date on them. Waaay out of being current tho. Fine write up Husker. Always enjoy your sherpaness (is that a word?) on Saturdays as well as your daily posts. TC
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Just the right amount of trickiness, and I appreciate that there were so few proper nouns, with ones like MYST and DONETSK gettable by crosses.
I really liked "old-fashioned leaves" for HIES. Spent way too long wondering whether an old-fashioned drink had some kind of leaves for a garnish!
Dr. ED.... just got back from Sanibel a few weeks ago. My favorite place in FLA.Love it there. Wish I were at Island Cow right now eating breakfast!
Aways have a GOBAG (48D) ready for Sanibel
The best dog I ever had was my 145lb. AKITA (10D). There a a couple of pix of him on my blog page from the early 2000's.
Out to ride. Have a great weekend all!
Hola!
Dr. Ed, thank you! This was a clever, Saturday level puzzle that at first glance I thought would be impossible to fill. But it came together in under an hour which is how much time I allot for Saturday.
I love to set a formal table and SALAD FORK is definitely one of the pieces of silver (plated) that I use and today it will be set for twelve with an extended leaf in place. The other three will be at a separate, smaller table. I might ask for volunteers to eat outdoors.
My daughter laments my LOW TECH life style. Theirs includes the latest electronic gadgets with which they constantly communicate, including a Ring, ALEXA, an unbelievably (to me) complicated TV system, etc. But then, both she and her husband are NERDS.
Thank you, Gary, for unraveling Ed Sessa's puzzle which was anything but HO HUM!
Have a fantastic day, everyone!
Difficult, but got everything eventually.
My favorite clue/answer: What gets last licks? Not the Home Team. The POPSICLE STICK!
2nd favorite: What closers often open, with 'the': NINTH
Hated hated KAYO. I also had BELL at first. Would you write TEEKAYO? NO!!
Second worst answer: BATE. Who uses that instead of ABATE??
FIR fairly quickly today (waited until I finished my stretching exercises to report). Ed's middle section was very helpful since both HOME SWEET HOME and DOWN TO THE WIRE came easily. I wondered about POPSICLE STICK a little longer and noticed the POP in TART too. In general nice fill, Ed. And your review, Husker Gary, was also enjoyable. I liked HICCUPPED with all its double letters. The puzzle was a LIFESAVER for my FIR record this week. On to tomorrow with optimism!
Hope you all are feeling optimistic as the weekend begins. Rainy day here but interesting books await....
Wow! Easy for a Saturday. Only unknown was DONETSK. Only a few names and abbreviations. Fun puzzle. I liked the long answers. Great expo, Gary.
I learned GO BAG from novels. Reading novels has been very helpful for puzzle solving.
On this week's Wheel of Fortune crossword feature, none of the three contestants knew single bed. Surprised. A single bed is just the same as one bed of a twin set.
I wonder how HIES is an old fashioned come on. New meaning for me. I know HIE as found in period novels. It is old fashioned and means move quickly, according to the dictionary. "Her heart glowed with exultation, and she seemed to tread with the lightness of air as she hied homeward." Brown, Charles Brockden.
My school usually ended about June 20 with teachers coming one more day. We teachers had meetings for two days before Labor Day and worked on lessons at home for several summer weeks. We got paid for only ten months. We did not leave in the afternoon when the kids left, but helped students after school and did paper work in addition to taking work home. I usually arrived an hour early.
BTW, priests and pastors do not work only one day a week.
Lovely, sunny and warm afternoon. Rain coming tonight and tomorrow AM.
"Shop TIL you drop" made me smile. My sister could wear me out walking from store to store finding the perfect "whateveritwas", but I think many of the power shoppers did so from HOME SWEET HOME in 2020. My trick was finding a good bench seat in the middle of the mall. One day after finishing my addition, she and my wife coerced me into going to the LazyBoy store. I found a recliner to sit in. A couple of hours later, they had decided on a pair of rocker recliners, a love seat a brass table lamp, and some possible accent pieces that we might get at a later date. Gotta admit, I like and still enjoy their choices.
That N at the intersection of HORNE and DONETSK was my last fill, and appeared to be the most logical choice. Didn't have any recognition of either.
Otherwise, just bounced around the grid, letting some clues sink in while picking off the answers to others.
I'd have been here earlier, but have been taking it easy reading about Vonnegut, DONETSK, mezzo and Marilyn HORNE. There were only two comments when I started reading Husker Gary's fine review. Now there are 17, and now I am late for things I should be doing.
Congrats, ATLGranny ! Keep the streak going !
Me too, Yellowrocks. I know one meaning of HIE is to "go in haste" so HIES for "leaves" was fine.
Nice puzzle, Ed. Good Saturday challenge.
Enjoyable solve today! UGGS is headquartered just a mile from our house. Not in Australia as they would have you believe!
Yellowrocks and KSAs with many Saturday puzzles, I also found the long fill easier than the short fill. Do others find this, too?
Does anyone remember the UNDER TOAD joke in "The World According to Garp"?
Agree that DONETSK is a bit obscure. I have a friend Tatiana from UKRAINE who comes on many of my hikes.
DW took this photo of UKRAINE Tatiana and me in the Gaviota Hot Springs.
Tatiana is the one in the red bathing suit.
From Yesterday:
NaomiZ Thank you for answering the question of Lucina about the NEWT we were holding.
Here is a simple chart explaining the five classes of vertebrates: Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds, Mammals.
AnonT Glad you also enjoyed the learning moment about Weaner Pods of SEAL PUPS.
And thank you for the learning moment from Thursday about SILOs vs Grain Elevators.
Pretty easy for Saturday though got stuck in the NE - confidently wrote in "steak fork" before taking another look and having myself a little chuckle. Fun puzzle.
Good Morning:
I was truly on Dr. Ed’s wave length today as I think my solve time of 16:47 is a record for a Saturday. (Nowhere near Anonymous @ 8:39’s time, but I’m not a speed solver.) The easy to parse long entries just fell like dominoes and the only unknown was Donetsk, which perped easily enough. Bate was a nose twitcher but was more than compensated for by the clean grid, sparkling fill, and minimal three letter words.I fell into the Bell/Kayo trap and chose wrong with Hip/Hep. Nice CSO to CEh at TOR.
Thank you, Dr. Ed, for a truly enjoyable solve and thank you, HG, for your always entertaining and informative expos and for sharing the constructor’s notes, as well. I really enjoy seeing that sweet King Charles Spaniel with Dr. Ed.
Lucina, enjoy your family’s company and dinner festivities.
FLN
Anon T, I can’t believe daughter #1 is graduating in December. It seems like yesterday that she went off to college.
Have a great day.
Use of BATE seems old fashioned. Usually we say bated breath, but it is easy to suss the root.
Kind of an odd puzzle design but then again, all bets are off...it's Saturday...the wall-to-wall answers were fairly easy..but alas..unfortunately FIW! ...DONEnSK crossed with MYSn 😖
Don't lie...how many had HIP ere HEP? (Except you guys smart enuff to perp check first). NICEA (of the creed) toadally ridiculous, I was off by about 1300 yrs.
"There goes Janet Yellen about the state of the ECON again"...NINTH? (closer? wha? Oh baseball!). KAYO? not KO? (not okayo). HO HUM (what a bored lady of the evening does? 🤭)
Mezzo (half) Marilyn HORNE came outta nowhere ...Don't think typical Comic-Con attendees would appreciate the NERDS label. Assume an EMT would asst. (don't really need the abbrev.) in an unexpected home delivery otherwise "Call the Midwife!" (Don't forget your GOBAG). Crawls as in pub crawls? Speaking of crawls, TTP that kind of shopping I call "malling"
HG: a 14yo can't drive a car but can fly a plane? 😳....isn't it ABATE? (Can't recall this in a previous puzzle Lemony but then don't remember what I had for lunch yesterday)
HIES for leaves? (More "comes" than "goes" [leaves] IMHO). Kyna klumsy klew.
Our Chairman's gang....TEAMO
Lower limb joint replacement...IRONY
Pawn....HOC
Indebted to a guy.....OHM
Inter.....ENGRAVE.
End of a French icthyological documentary....FIN
Dr. Ed: Sanibel Island is our favorite. We have two timeshare weeks since '94 at Tortuga Beach Club every November we have never missed. Biking around the island is the best. JJM my kids/grandkids love "The Island Cow" (BTW could your AKITA climb trees like WC's 😉)
Just opened camp.
My ancient peddle boat is half sunk in the lake next to the dock, UGGs!😫
I keep adding to this comment so I can delay getting out the bucket and bilge pump. Didja here the one about the?.....
I used to play MYST but have never felt a desire to attend Comicon. Myst was parodied with a game called Pyst which I bought but never opened the box. Twenty-plus years later I might have a collectors item on my hands...if I can find it.
Today’s CW a true joy for a Saturday: I managed a 29 minute FIR after a very slow start. I was aided by good WAGs for the longest fills. Thanx Ed for a very enjoyable CW. And thanx HG for your usual terrific write-up.
Hi Y'all! Thank you, Dr. Ed for the home delivery of CWS. The labor took some pushing but was more fun and painless than other deliveries I've experienced. Thank you, Husker, for your excellent delivery of an explanation.
Shop TIL you drop? I've dropped shopping except online during the last two years.
Blue Jay crawls stumped me a while. Oh, TV-type crawls.
HICCUPPED & PANELED both gave me fits. We've had more "S"-ending words than "ED"-ending words lately.
Favorite fill was for "get off one's rocker" = STOOD. Nuts & insane didn't fit anyway.
SOLO: Was so proud of my husband the day he soloed after I'd saved my writing money to give him flying lessons for Xmas. He had his single engine license before his April 2 birthday.
I read thru all the clues first, and it seemed impossible. But it solved from the bottom, up in just minutes.
FIR, with no write-overs. A couple of unknowns with fair perps.
No. I never hide behind an alias.
A beautiful, perfectly doable PZL from Mr. Sessa.
Nice to have an EZ Saturday run!
Sadly, though, the single diagonal (NE to SW) has only a single vowel, limiting anagram possibilities to one word...
"FLETCH"!
Not exactly a widely used word--probably of interest only to archery fans these days.
It may be a fertile verb for seekers of metaphors. Anybody care to chance it?
~ OMK
I usually skip Saturday puzzles, but am glad I played around with this one for a bit. Lots of fun, thank you, Ed. And thank you too, Husker, for a very helpful commentary.
My first husband had us go to Dominica to do missionary work right after we got married, and I found I was pregnant just after we got there. A very primitive place back then, but with kind, gentle people. I developed problems and had to come home after six months, but I still remember its lovely natural beauty. Now California is my HOME SWEET HOME.
Have a lovely weekend, everybody.
FLN AnonT, thank you for the Chihuli link, I enjoyed it immensely as I do his/their work. I think there's a casino in Vegas with an installation of his and also one in Balboa Park, San Diego.
And Dr. Ed, I really enjoyed today's puzzle. I thought it was fair and creative and surprised myself by FIR.
Becky
Many thanks to Dr. Ed, whose puzzle left me ALL SMILES although it was DOWN TO THE WIRE in the NW where I wanted "geeks" before NERDS. FIR but DNK KAVA, DONETSK, or TOR.
D-O, we gave up the old landlines in our home offices for VOIP phones, mostly because the landlines malfunctioned in the rain. The phones are still desktop clunkers, but they aren't really landlines, are they?
Thanks, HG, for guiding us through, and Rich, as always, for ironing out the clues.
WC:
I am not BigE. Before I started posting as The Curmudeon, I posted as Roy.
>>Roy
Thanks, Ed, for a fun puzzle. Took me a couple of go-throughs, but FIR. EMT was last to fill since “home delivery” made me think of a package, not a bundle of joy.
PK:
Thank you for the good wishes. I am so HOPING FOR a good outcome and really eager to see and hug my family.
I also have become more of a shop at home person though SHOP TIL YOU DROP was my motto in my youth. I loved to shop at one time! If anyone had told me back then that limited walking would hinder me from shopping I would have laughed at them. But, oh, how time changes things.
I have never read one of Kurt Vonnegut's books but I read a charming short story by him in The Saturday Evening Post and want to try a book. Can anyone recommend one?
Lucina I read almost all of Vonnegut's books when I was a teen and loved them all. If I had to recommend just one, "Slaughterhouse Five" is truly memorable. It is based on his true experience in World War II and held as a POW in Dresden.
He breaks up the intensity of that experience with a wonderful time-travel science fiction fantasy. It is truly a unique creation.
But I also recommend "Breakfast of Champions". I don't think his earliest or latest works were as good as the ones in the middle of his career.
Lucina, Player Piano was, I believe, Vonnegut's first published novel. As such, his "chops" were not as polished as they later became. To me, who read the book after I had read several of his later works, it added an additional layer of appeal.
Lucina, I'd double-down on what Picard said and recommend Slaughterhouse Five.
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Dr. Ed and HuskerG.
WC said last night that this was an “unusually doable” CW and I agree.
I FIRed with just a few inkblots.
I had Hehe before HEHS. (Would those He’s go better with HAS?)
For some reason, I thought of VIN on the dash before MPH (you all know we Canadians travel in KM/H).
My bass had a Toe. Oh it’s a fish, not a musical instrument. (I LIUed and it is called an Endpin on the musical Bass)
I waited for perps to decide if the council setting was Ghent or TRENT. (OK, Ghent was a treaty in the 1800s)
Abate, ebb wouldn’t fit. BATE did. Same with TKO to KAYO.
Husker G, I don’t recognize anything in that photo as being TOR (but I will take a CSO). There is a Marriott hotel that you can watch the Blue Jays’ games from, but it is built into the Rogers Centre and that view does not look familiar to me at all, even with the dome roof open.
I’m off for a walk to enjoy our nice day. Read you all later.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is a truly awesome bookbut if you want to read his books by contemporary relevance I suggest you read THIS ARTICLE . Or perhaps THIS ONE . Some of writings from the 50s and 60s seemed prescient in our time.
I have told the story that when we were in college and SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE was published we were blown away and decided to call him. We tracked down his phone number, and he answered. We started extolling the wonders of his works, an he said (I will never forget) "Who give a **** what you think" and hung up. Inspirational.
Also. like our own dear Bill G., he went to Cornell
Husker - I think Canadian Eh! is right. I don't see the domed stadium in that picture.
WEES - it was a nice quick fill, and the only slowdown was DONETSK but the perps were solid.
WC @ 8:20 re "Rule of Nines". As a third-grader in my rural school, our teacher taught us how to check our addition/subtraction, etc. by "casting out nines." Is that the same thing?
D-O and Anon-T - guess your lawns got watered. I had less than 1/8". March totals were less than 1 1/2", and yesterday's rain contributed to 3/8" total for April. So much for weather.com. I'll just stick to spacecityweather.com from now on.
P.S., I'm still using casting out nines as a handy quick check.
I very much enjoyed doing this puzzle today. Mr. Sessa is another of several master constructors whose work I admire.
Yesterday we had a JW, today a Sessa...back to back gems from the “aces”.
I do agree that both yesterday and today’s puzzles were less difficult than expected.
No write-overs today, that’s from leaving blanks in answers like “H_P” and waiting for the correct vowel.
I rather like...and prefer...my landline, nothing like actual voice quality. Plus it works in a power failure.
Post Big Band Theory, most nerds are proud of themselves...and why not?
Stay safe.
I found the website with the ballpark photo
https://northernvirginiamag.com/things-to-do/travel/2019/04/15/6-hotels-where-you-can-watch-mlb-games-from-your-rooms-balcony/
Apparently six MLB Stadiums have adjoining hotels. That one was Oriole Park. The Rogers Centre photo was the third one.😁😁🇨🇦
Thank you Dr. Ed. This puzzle was just what the doctor ordered for my FIRst FIR on a Saturday in several weeks. And thank you Gary for the great review. You obviously put a lot of thought and work into coming up with all these great illustrations.
Lots of clever clueing in this puzzle, especially for HIE, POPSICKLE STICK, EMT, NINTH, KHAKI, and BATE.
And thanks Gary for the BIO on Marilyn Horne - a child prodigy and one of the greats of music. And speaking of BIOS, I took advanced biology in HS, but I flunked your sample test question.
48D GO BAG was new to me.
53D Had to change HIP to HEP to get EUROS to work.
Cheers,
Bill
I also need to thank Dr. Ed for his prescription for mouse connections. I use a USB port to connect my mouse to the laptop I'm currently staring at, and realized that I'd never bother to check whether it was BLUETOOTH equipped. When I got it I just transferred the USB wireless mouse from my old desktop PC. As the laptop supports Bluetooth, I've just "one clicked" a compatible mouse from Amazon. That will free up a USB port that I'd much rather devote to mass storage, in my ongoing effort to liberate myself from OneDrive, Microsoft's "Cloud storage" gimmick. Now if I could just liberate my self from Amazon!
Ray-O, so tt's called malling ? Makes sense.
Bill, before you ditch Amazon, pick up a Sabrent 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub for $10.75. Solves the port problem on PCs and Macs.
Dash T, you beat me to the punch.
Hi All!
Thank you Dr. Ed for the fine puzzle. Lots of fun stuff (POP TART, POPSICLE, LIFE SAVERs).
Alas, close but no cigar in the central-north.
Duh! Khaki... *hangs head in shame*
//but kAYO? DONETSk? wanted a y or i for that final k.
Thank you HG for the fine Saturday expo; I got lost second sentence in on the AP BIO test but no problem at OHM :-)
WOs: RPM -> MPH, wrong UNDER TOe, HEeS->HEHs, EfTs, PAintED ->PAperED - > PANELED office. Ray-O, I too was HiP b/f HEP.
ESPs: DONETS_ is among them.
Fav: NINTH as clued is cute (I'd argue Billy Wagner [you gotta get to 4:43 to see him pitching for Space City]).
But, what I really loved!!! - TOR (Hi C,Eh!), aka YYZ, [9:38 interview] is HOME SWEET HOME to my favorite band RUSH.
{A, B+}
No landline here. When I got DSL installed (as a backup to Comcast), ATT said they had to re-wire the whole house. I said, "Screw it, just put the modem in the garage and cut the lines."
IM - I know! Today she called an told us she got an invite to be inducted into PHI BETA KAPPA. I had to LIU 'cuz I was never that bright.
OMK - This movie [Trailer] is the only thing that comes to mind :-)
Lucina - The last Vonnegut I read was A Man Without a Country. I thought it was pretty funny.
Waseeley - get a USB hub. I have a few and they come in quite handy when I'm needing more devices (external keyboard, mouse, thumb-drive, etc) than I've ports in a laptop.
DW & shopped TIL we were exhausted today. We are trying recover our yard after the Big Texas Freeze. Do you know how much some palm trees cost?
//spoiler - $1,000 to $3,500! Who buys those w/o thinking 'are we going to get another freeze this winter?' That's a lot of money for an annual.
Y'all have a wonderful afternoon.
Cheers, -T
Hold up ! I got you by a minute !
TTP - I would have if I could get my HTML right :-)
//clean-up on aisle 6... sorry mate. -T
No worries, Dash T I'm used to it. :>)
Sorry to see Lizza quit posting because she was repeating her posts. I think D-O was correct. Something about the way she was re-accessing the blog comments. Refreshing the browser tab should have solved it.
TTP - I meant to tell Lizza not to worry about it. And, I think you're right; she was refreshing the browser and it likely prompted something akin to 'Repost your data?'
Lizza - don't let the high-TECH stuff get to you such you don't play with us!
Switching gears... Becky - glad you enjoyed the Chihuli link. Amazing what his team can do with glass.
Cheers, -T
Well emptied all the water out of the boat only to realize that the hull had filled with water and the boat is way too heavy for me alone to pull out of the lake... wonder if you can scuttle a pedal boat?
Lem 714 do you think "Who gives a ___ what you think" was Mr. Vonnegut's idea of IRONY? ....Sheesh. ��
Lucina I'm sure your dinner (sounds like totally prepared by you) was a success. Hope you got help with the cleanup.
Circa 68-70 Marine Corps had Summer Service C for officers eg. No Tie
And COCA Cola no longer has cocaine
There's a NERD World of competition gaming. One of them is Dota(2). Chinese dominate but there was a world class teen from Ukraine. $millions in the purses.
If a total of numbers is added and readded and there's a difference and the difference is divisible by 9 then you've transposed a number eg 54/45*
Next: I'll tell you how to count money
Anon-T probably knows FLETCHER
BTW, was just joking with BigEasy for being a tad curmudgeonly this morning. I had a smiley
TOR (3rd sports clue) is playing "Home" games in Dunedin, FL and...I believe the Raptors use Tampa's Arena.
WC
*I used tell folks visiting St Pete that if the Ave or Street gets to 9 then stop and go back
Puzzling thoughts:
Late to the party as usual for a Saturday; HO HUM
When I saw Ed Sessa was the constructor I knew it would be solvable, and it was. FIR with a minimum of W-O's
Is it HICCUP or HICCOUGH?
DOMINICA took a while to fill in although I did know of it
FAST ONE is a great puzzle filler with deceit normally a part of every xword
I just HAD TO thank RAY-O for the CSO to TEAM MOE!
Haven't seen a PANELED office since the '70's
I have a wireless mouse but the "antenna" fits into a USB PORT
FLN --> Dash T, so we bloggers are the puzzle Sherpa's??! Hey, let's not make a mountain out of a mole hill!! ;^)
Enjoy the rest of the weekend . . .
Ray-O-Sunshine: we don’t get to Sanibel every year like you, but we average about once every 2-3 years. We started going there when the kids were 4 & 5 years old back in 2003. Never have had a bad time there. It’s my “happy place”. This year we were there for a month (FEB 20-MAR 20). My wife and love to walk and bike, so we have a whole routine when we get there. We stay on the South part of the Island and ride to the beach in Captiva (Mucky Duck) hang out there in the afternoon then ride back to the condo for dinner. Other days we do a 5-7 mile walk in the AM and hangout at the pool in the afternoon. What a great place!!
C.M - didn't you mean 'mountain out of a MOE hill'? :-)
*ducks*
-T
Speaking of landlines, DW and I still keep an old dial telephone handy for when the power goes out, so we can still make and receive calls through our landline. Also, since the only service in our area is AT&T DSL or Comcast cable, and we have DSL, we need our landline for that. Frankly, sometimes low tech is better because it doesn't rely on vulnerable and unreliable high tech infrastructure.
Dash T @ 7:21
Damn auto-correct!! ;^)
TxMs,
What is casting out nines ?
Having asked that, I'm about to go to sleep, but had to ask. I know that if an error is divisible by 9, it means there's probably a transposed number, but I haven't heard of casting out nines.
Ray-O:
Yes, I pronounce my dinner a smashing success. The last of the guests left 45 minutes ago. And also the younger generation is good about cleaning afterwards. Then it takes me the entire following week to find everything but I don't mind. Searching for misplaced dishes reminds me of the good time we enjoyed. We even have some ribs left over to enjoy the next couple of days.
And yes, I do cook everything from "scratch." Only the dessert was brought by others.
Thank you all for your recommendations on Kurt Vonnegut's books. Those titles will go on my reading list.
Lucina:
How wonderful!
Your comment re: finding stuff after everyone leaves makes me think of Pop's wife (stepmom #2) after all five us kids (with our kids in tow!) visit.
a) she's German-American and has an order to everything
b) we love her
I'm sure we never put everything back in their places -- she must spend weeks getting her house back to square.
That she puts up with us is amazing.
My favorite memory is when Army-Bro got back from Iraq. He and I spent the night drinking beer and smoking cigs while catching up / telling stories.
Then it got to be light outside (?!?).
So, we took other brother's Alfa [yes, the one I now have] to the doughnut shop to get 'breakfast' for everyone.
Stepmom was the first to rise and was ALL like "Are you boys still up? Did you get those doughnuts?"
Her tone was sufficiently judge-y; we tucked our tails and finally went to bed :-)
ECON: Anyone catch SNL with 'Janet Yellen' break down NFTs?
[funniest bit is: "That's not a complement" / "I disagree." Pete Davidson is too funny]
Cheers, -T
Ray-o-Sunshine Actually, we stay about 3 blocks from you at Surfside Sanibel. Small world!
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