google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Tom Locke

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May 11, 2021

Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Tom Locke

No Ifs, Ands, or Butts?  The last word of each theme answer refers to one's tushie.  

17-Across. *   Youthful blush, say: ROSY CHEEKS.

26-Across. *   Idler at the shore: BEACH BUM.


53-Across. *   Parlor piece: LOVE SEAT.


62-Across. *   Frank holders: HOTDOG BUNS.

And the unifier:

37-Across. Hit from behind ... and what the answers to starred clues are?: REAR ENDED.  A bit of a racy theme, don't you think?

Across:
1. Urges to attack, with "on": SICs.



5. Actor Hawke: ETHAN.  Ethan Hawke (b. Nov. 6, 1970) has appeared on the Big Screen, television and live theater.  His first wife was Uma Thurman (b. Apr. 29, 1970).


10. Chew (on): GNAW.


14. Help out during exercises, as in a gym: SPOT.

This is why there are women-only health centers.

15. LP player: PHONO.


16. One of a model's repertoire: POSE.  Before he was an actor, Ted Danson (b. Dec. 29, 1947) was a model.


19. Common country suffix: -STAN.  Think of Afghanistan; Turkmenistan; Uzbeckistan; Tajikistan; Pakistan ...


20. Palindromic magazine: ELLE.  This magazine is often found in the crossword puzzles.


21. __ Alamos, NM: LOS.  Los Alamos is best know for being the home of the atomic bomb.

23. Oil field?: ART.  Cute clue.



24. Look up to: ESTEEM.

28. Double-crosser: RAT.


29. Lavish bash: FÊTE.

31. Spanish rice dish: PAELLA.  Yummers!  I had some fantastic paella when I was in Barcelona.  I have never tried to make it, but here is a recipe.


32. Not commissioned, after "on": SPEC.

34. Author Jaffe: RONA.  Rona Jaffe (June 12, 1931 ~ Dec. 30, 2005), was a prolific author.  I read a lot of her work when I was in college. 

36. Like Lady Liberty's crown: RAYED.


40. Farrier: SHOER.  Technically, although not just any shoer.  A farrier is essentially a podiatrist for a horse and does more than just shoe horses.


43. Quite a distance: AFAR.

44. Cocksure: SMUG.


48. Coming from the heart?: AORTAL.




50. "Your guess __ good ... ": IS AS.

52. Solver's cry: AHA!
55. Docking places: WHARFS.


57. Cold War mil. program: SDI.  As in the Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as the Star Wars Program.



58. Gate announcement, briefly: ETD.  Think of the gate at the airport.  Estimated Time of Departure.

59. Modern mining target: DATA.

60. Cantina cooker: OLLA.


67. Causing yawns, often: DULL.

68. Archer's weapon: ARROW.


69. Mine entrance: ADIT.  This word is derived from the Latin aditus, which means entrance.


70. Central Iowa city: AMES.  Ames, Iowa is the home of Iowa State University.
71. Watch partner: LEARN.


72. Peter or Paul (but not Mary): TSAR.  Peter I, Tsar of Russia (June 9, 1672 ~ Feb. 8, 1725) was known as Peter the Great.  Paul I, Tsar of Russia was the son of Catherine the Great.  He was not so great and was later murdered.

Down:
1. Cold War state: Abbr.: SSR.  As in the Soviet Socialist Republics.


2. Wall St. news: IPO.  As in Initial Public Offering.

3. "Les Misérables" girl: COSETTE.  There are so many versions of this Victor Hugo classic.


4. Bob or weave: STYLE.  As in a hair style.

5. Collectibles like ticket stubs and matchbooks: EPHEMERA.  These are things that are enjoyed for a short period of time.  Actually, if they are collectibles, don't they last and last?  The ticket may be used for a short period of time, but you can keep the stub forever.

6. Not just any: THE.  Meh!

7. Gardening tool: HOE.



8. Bracelet site for one on house arrest: ANKLE.


9. "Outta luck!": NO SOAP!  The phrase "No Soap!" apparently first appeared in publication in a nonsense poem in 1755.  You can read the poem here.




10. Docs who don't specialize: GPs.  As in General Practitioners.

11. Especially: NOTABLY.

12. Usually: AS A RULE.

13. Lost it: WENT MAD.

18. Musical pitch indicator: CLEF.

Treble, Bass, Alto, and Tenor Clefs

22. Close call: SCARE.

24. Trauma ctrs.: ERs.  As in Emergency Rooms.

25. Maple extract: SAP.


26. Perk from work: BENEFIT.

27. Two of them are better than one: HEADS.



30. When tripled, a 1970 WWII film: TORA.


33. Minotaur's island: CRETE.


35. Santa __: dry winds: ANAs.


38. Clear the board: ERASE.


39. Deplete, as a bank account: DRAW DOWN.

40. Grill-cleaning solution: SAL SODA.  I had never heard of Sal Soda.  Apparently it is a sodium salt of carbonic acid.


41. Gangster: HOODLUM.

42. One of the Wright brothers: ORVILLE.  Wilbur (Apr. 16, 1867 ~ May 30, 1912) and Orville (Aug. 19, 1871 ~ Jan. 30, 1948) Wright were aviation pioneers.  Because Wilbur died many years before his brother, Orville, Orville may have revised history to give himself a greater role in flight than his brother.

Orville, left; and Wilbur, right

45. Plunders: MARAUDS.


46. Old TV dial letters: UHF.  As in Ultra High Frequency.

47. Really good time: GAS.


49. Deadly: LETHAL.

51. Heavy carpet: SHAG.  Also a hair style.


54. Put on a pedestal: ADORE.

56. Facing the pitcher: AT BAT.


61. "Happy Days" diner: AL'S.

63. __-la-la: TRA.


64. Palme __: Cannes award: D'OR.  The Palme d'Or (French for Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Films Festival.


65. Actress Long: NIA.

Nia Talita Long (b. Oct. 30, 1970)

66. Philharmonic sect.: STR.  As in Strings.




Here's the Grid:


חתולה





57 comments:

OwenKL said...

The FETE was a BENEFIT affair.
ESTEEMED folks gathered there.
From near and AFAR,
NOTABLY, a TSAR,
When MARAUDERS came and gave a SCARE!

All he wanted was to wash his hands clean,
But there was NO SOAP in THE dispenser machine.
AS A RULE,
He was no fool,
But he WENT MAD from the lack of hygiene!

{C+, C-.}

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Tom amASSed quite a tush collection for this puzzle. D-o even managed to get the theme. AORTAL was back for an encore -- let the carping begin. Is it WHARFS or Wharves? According to Walt Disney, it would be WHARFS. SHAG, Hahtoolah said "also a hair style;" Austin Powers said, "also a verb." No Wite-Out needed this morning. That's a good thing. Thanx, Tom Locke (Is this a debut?) and Hahtoolah. (EPHEMERA can be long lasting, but it was designed to be thrown away after one use -- like most plastic, which seems to be collecting everywhere, even in the ocean deeps.)

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Crossword friends. A surprising theme, no?

Thanks, D-O for the expanded definition of Ephemera.

QOD: Each of us tells our own story even without speaking. ~ Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 ~ Apr. 1, 1991), American dancer and choreographer

Anonymous said...

Finished in 5:43. Very good puzzle for a Tuesday level.

inanehiker said...

A little chewy for a Tuesday - but still a pretty quick solve. Amusing to see AORTAL again so soon after its recent appearance and ongoing discussion- and this isn't even in a NYT crossword!
EPHEMERA is one of those words that I just like the sound of - and it almost sounds like its meaning!

Thanks Susan and Tom!

ATLGranny said...

FIR , but with some WOs unlike DO. SICS was not my first guess and I had RubY CHEEKS when I WENT ape after filling Solvent instead of SAL SODA (my grill was very dirty!) But in the END perps fixed it up and the themers were easy to find after the reveal. Thanks Tom for the twisty puzzle and thanks Hahtoolah for your excellent review. Well done! And OwenKL, you've graded yourself too harshly today.

Hope everyone is doing fine today. Look forward to reading your comments during the day!

TTP said...



Thank you, Tom Locke, and thank you, Hahtoolah.

Congrats on your LA Times debut, Tom.

FIW in super fast time. Keyed in AORTIC and never looked at the perps.

Oh wait, that was yesterday.

Today, after reading the reveal, I realized I'm just looking for some TUSH.

Remember that funny scene from Seinfeld ? NO SOAP ! NO SOAP FOR YOU !

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Gluteal puzzle today. Area everyone should be familiar with. No problems solving. FIR. Took awhile to get here; had to get through all of Hahtoolah's visuals.
AORTAL - 2nd day in a row. Doc I played bridge with last night was adamant; it's 'aortic'. Ray-O- said that yesterday. Web said aortal is crosswordese.
WHARFS - Wanted 'wharves'. Either is correct.
38d ERASE - - On Hatoolah's visual, the presenter is using Avogadro's number.
SICS - Our cow herding dog always responded to "sic'em". Followed by "Biet 'em an de Hacken" (Nip them on the heels (or fetlocks) in L. Ger.). Guess our dog was bi-lingual :-)

Anonymous said...

No butts about it might I derriére say a fun puzzle today!

CanadianEh! said...

Tushy Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Tom and Hahtoolah (love your title for today).
I ENDED this CW and saw the theme in good time with two inkblots. I was not aggressive in my start with Eggs before SICS On.
My “common country suffix” was Sian before STAN. Perps corrected me.

This Canadian did not know SDI and the S was an educated WAG with SODA.
The Y in RAYED took a while to suss. I must make a trip to see Lady Liberty when the border opens up.

Rich is hoping we WENT MAD with AORTAL two days in a row. Even Hahtoolah’s diagram has Aortic😮🤔😁
I agree with inane that EPHEMERA is a great-sounding word.

I learned ADIT in my early CW- solving days, but haven’t seen it lately. I smiled at the other meaning of “Modern mining target=DATA”. Should we call the doorway that those Ransomware hackers used The ADIT?

Wishing you all a great day.

waseeley said...

TTP @8:26am Wasn't that "No soup! No soup for you!" - the Soup Nazi.

waseeley said...

44A the pic for this is absolutely the SMUGGEST חתולה I've ever seen.

Malodorous Manatee said...

This is the first time I have seen this theme. Congrats on the de-but, Tom. Also, thanks, Hahtoolah, for recap. Now, it's time for me to get up off my keister and get to work so that I do not end up in arrears.

Hungry Mother said...

FIW when I didn’t notice that I needed an S at the end of 45d and wrote MARAUDe. 72a made no sense, but I ignored it. Careless, not “cared less.”

unclefred said...

FIR in 19, only one W/O: AORTIC:AORTAL, same W/O I had a few days ago! Nice CW, thanx, TL! Nice write-up, thanx Hahtoolah. I didn’t know SALSODA either.

TTP said...



Hi Bill. Yes, you are correct. It was my weak attempt at humor.

Spitzboov, our Shepherd (pictured) was bilingual as well. He was born as a German but grew up in 'merica. I taught him sitz to have him sit and platz to lay down, and then threw in some Nawlins "Who Dat" to put him on alert. Smart dog. Our previous GSD was born and lived most of his life in Texas. When we brought him home, he wouldn't go up or down the stairs from the basement to the first floor. Had to walk him out through the garage and up through the yard to the front door, and vice versa to get him from one level to the other. Good boy. Both were spoiled rotten.

Tom kept it clean. He could have had another compound word theme answer with the answer to "male donkey"

waseeley said...

Congrats Tom and thanks for this ground breaking puzzle. A really REVEALING theme and I BLUSHED when I saw it. And thanks for a very funny and tactful review Susan.

I must say I'm about up to my KEISTER with all the Cornerite puns on this delicate subject! BUTT nothing that a little talcum powder won't soothe.

And about the puzzle:

10A I bit on GNAW right away but then stalled in the NE, as no obvious DOWNS occurred to me, but after chipping away at the ACROSSES everything up there fell into place. And yes sometimes DOGS are better than CATS.

15A Hey that's my PHONO! A few years ago I bought an imported LP of some obscure German ballads by Carl Phillip Löwe that had not yet made it to CD. Needing something to play it on I bought a Victrola 7-in-1 Turntable. In addition to a turntable this versatile device has an AM/FM radio (the thing I use the most, always tuned to WBJC), a CD player/burner, a cassette tape player, and the ability to create MP3's that can be burnt to CD. An excellent value.

48A AORTAL strikes again. TOPANGA! TOPANGA! TOPANGA!

62A I certainly hope that no DOGS were consumed in the reviewing of this puzzle!

Cheers,
Bill

Edward Duarte said...

It’s been a long time since ADIT was entered in the Times XWord.

Vidwan827 said...


Thank you Mr. Locke for a nice and charming puzzle, with an unusual theme.

Thank you Hahtoolah for all those funny cartoons and delightful links, which made my day.
I especially look forward for all those esoteric choices on your blog.

For 38 Down ... Clear the board - ERASE ... i was trying to make head or tail out of the equation being partially erased. All I could make out was Heat of kinetics of Reaction, shown with the little triangles, and molal ( Molecular values Moles of elements/ compounds ) quantities of Helium, Hydrogen and Radium. Maybe some sort of radioactive fission ?
Thank you SpitzB for Avogadro's number - the 10 to the power 23 was a dead giveaway.

For 19 Across Country suffix - STAN ...the suffix is a persian/Arabic connotation of 'Land of' or 'Place of'. As in Tajikistan - Land of the Tajiks, Afghanistan - Land of the Afghans, .... Land of the Uzbeks etc.
Pakistan is an anomaly - it means Land of the Pure ( Pak=pure, here, akin to 'pure Muslims' - ) since it is an Islamic republic, and was founded with that intention and raison d'etre.

BTW, before 1947 or thereabouts, India , was known as Hindustan - Land of the hindus. This is now no longer used, except archaically, generally frowned upon, since India is officially, supposedly, a secular democracy., with no official state religion.

India - which means 'Land of the indus' is also a misnomer, since most of the Indus river tributaries flow through Pakistan.

Sal Soda - an archaic name for Sodium Carbonate, also called washing soda, is the most common filler ingredient in most laundry detergents.


Have a nice day, all.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a fun solve with no serious holdups. I wasn’t keen on Rayed or Shoer and Sal Soda was unknown, but, overall, the fill was clean, despite the over abundance of three letter words. That said, there were some nice groupings, including Shag/At Bat, SSR/Tsar/Stan/SDI, and GPs/ERs/Aortal (Hi Ray O and Inanehiker). CSO to Lucina at Paella Santa Ana’s, and Olla. We also had an A game from Tom with Paella, Rona, Aha, Data, Olla, Epherma, Tora, Soda, Tra, and Nia.

Thanks, Tom, and congrats on your debut and thanks, Hahtoolah, for another sparkling review and array of visuals and links. The rosy-cheeked baby is adorable and I also liked the Smug feline and the Aha pre-electricity “lightbulb.”

Have a great day.

Bob Lee said...

No soap radio! (Popular in NY when I was a kid...google it!)

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Begin carping..
AORTAL??? Again?... A terrifal insult to our intelligence. An epal slap in the face...a linguistal nightmare. Is the constructor neurotal? Truly pathetal!!.. Tragal even.. 😳
..end carping. (The diagram is misleading...the descending aorta is considered the section of the thoracic aorta from the aortic arch to the diaphragm. The section below the diaphragm is the abdominal aorta.)

The theme has an air of the derrière 🤭😉😁

STAN the man. Quite the mideast traveler.

Are there no Wharves run by dwarves? Whenever I see Jaffe I think of wild-haired actor Sam, "Dr. Zorba" ...always forget the Peter, Paul clue answer. Never heard the word PHONO for Aunt Rose's Victrola. Or... opting are we out of the Vietnamese menu choice.."PHO?...NO?" "Don't think so"

If a farrier SHOES a horse will it actual go away and stop bothering him? 🤣. Sal SODA sounds like a cartoon character. Didn't care for MARAUDS (but I guess what else do MAURADers do?) but H2HL, the cartoon was hilarious.😄

Inkovers WENTape/MAD.

Rte finder for general practitioners....GPS
Engine type replacing the windmill...ESTEEEM
The losing runner didn't attend the gala due to the agony of de _____ FETE
Trying to make syrup from an oak tree..What a ___ SAP.
Female bull in Seville?....TORA
Cocksure and SMUG, he's always ____ of everything...SHOER.

I consider AORTAL a Yoik a word that would start at a fist fight at Scrabble game.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

rant continues...

I just dictated the word "aortal" into the hospital word recognition software. It typed "internal"

I repeated it three times and it typed "aortic,aortic,aortic"

Not leaving well enough alone...one more time "aortal"...it typed "aortal" !horrors! the system has now added a nonsense word to its lexicon. 😲

(But you didn't hear that from me)

NaomiZ said...

Good puzzle and great review today! Words and phrases I didn't know and won't remember: ADIT, NO SOAP, and SAL SODA. Did not prevent a FIR. Thanks to Vidwan for more on SAL SODA, which is probably in my laundry room. Maybe I will remember it, after all. Ciao for now!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Cute puzzle, Tom! Forgot to look for theme until Hahtoolah's doggone good explanation. That was one tiny worried-looking wiener dog.

In juxtaposition with today's theme, 47d "really good time" = GAS is just wrong. No one has a good time when they have GAS.

I've heard of SAL SODA but didn't know it cleaned a grill.

WENT "ape" before MAD. HOODLUM was all perps when HOOligan didn't fit. Never saw MARAUD without an -er at the end. Didn't know there was a TSAR named Paul.

Ray-O: there is no such thing as a female BULL. Talk about gender confusion.

desper-otto said...

Ray-O, RCA plugs/jacks are often referred to as "phono plugs/jacks." In the olden days most audio amplifiers had a built-in "phono pre-amp" -- labeled simply "phono" on the front panel.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

DO
I thought the clue "LP player" was referring to a machine they played records, a phonograph..never heard it referred to as a PHONO. also.
I looked at the picture again and see the label VICTROLA.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

PK but if there WAZ..it would be called a Tora..

Lucina said...

Hola!

Nice one, Tom Locke! Thank you. And thank you, Susan, for your usual amusement with funny cartoons and excellent explanations. I especially enjoyed the lesson on CLEF styles.

I really liked this puzzle though it contained no puns but SPOT on rear ends.

ADIT is an old timey crossword term that I haven't seen in a long while.

Widwan:
Thank you so much for the lesson on -STAN of which I had only a vague notion.

I also have a vague recollection of my mother using SAL SODA.

SHAG hair style always makes me think of Farrah Fawcett.

HOE reminds me that I have flowers to plant before the day warms too much.

It's my daughter's 44th birthday today but we won't celebrate until Thursday. She wants all her children there when they return from their other parents' homes. One daughter is at her dad's, the other two are at their mom's. Yes, it's a blended family.

Again, thank you, Hahtoolah and Tom for today's entertainment.

Have a beautiful day, everyone! Owen, I give you all A's today.


Lucina said...

PK beat me to remark that all bulls are male, no female bulls. That would be a cow. People can fool around with gender identification but animals are firm about it. At least so far as I know.

Misty said...

Fun Tuesday puzzle, Tom, many thanks. And Susan, your pictures were wonderful, a total delight.

I had a bit of trouble in the northwest corner until I got the ROSY CHEEKS. Sweet baby picture, Susan. Fun to get items like LOVE SEAT and HOT DOG BUNS even without getting the theme until I came here. Had to look up the other Wright brother--oh yes, Wilbur and ORVILLE. Nice to see the Cannes Palm D'OR award.

Always enjoy your poems, Owen.

And Malman, your comments cracked me up this morning.

Have a good day, everybody.

AnonymousPVX said...


This Tuesday grid seemed a bit easier than yesterday, still appropriate for the day.

Write-over…..NOTABLE/NOTABLY.

When we brought our GS puppy home, we went to the door and opened it…he backed up. Actually a good thing, as I went in first followed by the wife, cementing the Leader role….whoever goes through the door, gets into the car or leads on a walk is the leader. What a great dog he was.

I loved the “hot dog” dog pic.

Stay safe.

Madame Defarge said...

Greetings,

Nice puzzle today. Thank you, Tom. My only hang up today was a stall on TSARS. I had trouble recalling TSAR Paul.

Nicely done, Hahtoolah!

I have been remiss in getting puzzles done if I don't do them first thing in the morning. I have created so many activities here, I think I am overbooked in my own home! This past week-end, I puzzle binged finishing all last week's puzzle during the day Saturday. It was actually fun and a wee bit decadent.

Have a sunny day!



Spitzboov said...

Some cats speak foreign languages, too:
Why are you looking like that; was that your mouse?

Ol' Man Keith said...

Deceptively difficult PZL today from Mr. Locke--but doable.
Hahtoolah's write-up is excellent, just as we have come to expect!

Yes, AORTAL does seem a strange word. But it is a better answer than MORTAL, which is where I thought we were heading.
Shouldn't that be a Yoink word, Ray? I am not sure, not being a Simpsons devotee. But just thought to raise the question.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
We have three diagonals today, all on the near side.
Using the central diagonal, I can get a jumbo anagram (14 of 15 letters), consisting of a social climber's expression when thumbing through an index of exclusive social groups (Bohemian Grove, Pacific-Union Club, opera first nighters, etc.). His/her reaction can be summed in three little words:...
"AAH, SUPER ELITES!"

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

OMK...correct YOINK ..My bad..

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-18 great holes this morning on a somewhat chilly day
-A few places almost made an a$$ out of me
-Grandson really enjoys playing his vintage LP’s on this new PHONO
-One Downton Abbey episode featured the Downton Village FETE
-I’ve mentioned before that my farrier friend has worked on giraffe hooves
-Good teachers, pastors, et al can read the signs when they are DULL. Our pastor does not have that skill
-Russia withstood the German onslaught and pushed the Wehrmacht back to Berlins. They just didn’t leave and the USSR was formed.
-My sister’s garage is full of EPHEMERA disguised as Beany Babies. Her cars sit outside
-New treadmill just arrived, gotta run!

NaomiZ said...

Gender identification in animals? Among invertebrates like snails and slugs, we find hermaphrodites, with both male and female equipment. But among vertebrates, we sometimes see "bilateral gynandromorphs," split in the middle between male and female. Especially in birds, there are occasional sightings, for instance of a Northern Cardinal that is bright red on one side and dull brown on the other. And that's no bull!

Yellowrocks said...

NaomiZ,well said. I was reading up on that also.I
HG, as a teacher of K-5 it is essential that we have the students eating from our hands. Otherwise bored students create chaos. This skill is also necessary whenever we are asked to give a speech or chair a meeting. I absolutely refuse to carry on if most are not following. Whatever it takes to bring the audience alive I will do.






Vidwan827 said...


Toro or Tora Troubadors ....

What if it was a castrated Bull ... could it then be called a TORA ??

Or, is it a lot of BS ? ... actually I've always wondered why BS is considered so much more important than the cow variety ... hmmm

Another Ray-O-Sunshine, Homophone and Homonym ....

TORAH, TORAH, TORAH .... what the Cantor might have shouted in the Honolulu synagogue, when the aerial attacks began on that day of infamy ...( Get it, protect it from damage, and take it underground ...)

PK, NaomiZ thank you for your kind words. Analyzing the words Sal Soda, probably means Salt of Soda. Most carbonates are called sodas, in layman language.
Sal Ammoniac is the salt of Ammonia, - Ammonium Chloride - generally the mineral form. It is used mainly in fertilizer, as a phophate complex, as a soldering flux material for copper pipes and electrical wire solders, as medicine as a cough supressant, and as a yeast and food preservative.

Also used a 100 years ago, as Smelling Salts, for reviving delicate ladies who fainted, at the mention of certain indelicate words ....

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Congrats on your LAT debut Tom. Fun puzzle, not a PITA at all.

Thank you for the Stones, Hahtoolah. Oh, and the wonderful cartoon-laden expo. Love'd the witch.

WOs: NOTABLe, HOODLeM [that held up DULL for quite some time]
ESPs: NO SOAP(?), ADIT is new to me, names other than ETHAN*
Fav: DATA mining was cute (Bitcoin didn't fit :-))

{A, B}

Spitz - Got the 10^23 too, eh? Funny re: bi-lingual dog.

LOL "GAS", PK.

TTP beat me to ZZTop.

Back to work. Read everyone else and play later.
Cheers, -T
*I met ETHAN once. He was on the balcony next to me at Bourbon Orleans while I sipped my coffee and smoked my cigarette.
Me: "How's it going?,"
"Good."
While I went in to take my shower, DW went out to the balcony.
...
"I just had a wonderful conversation with ETHAN Hawke."
Me: "Who?"
"The actor, I love his movies. You know who he is [then she named movies]."
Me: ???? "Where?"
"He's out on the balcony."

PK said...

A castrated bull is called a steer. Don't know what it is in Spanish.

Spitzboov said...

PK - - buey joven. maybe?

Jayce said...

I very much enjoyed this puzzle and Hahtoolah's comments.

PAELLA changed my WENT APE to WENT MAD. BEACH BUM changed my SHAVE to SCARE, which gave me RAYED (nose wrinkle.) At first I thought Peter or Paul was a POPE but NIA came along and disabused me of that notion, which in turn gave me AT BAT and MARAUDS.

I liked EPHEMERA and HOTDOG BUNS. Hand up for not knowing the term SAL SODA even though knowing the term washing soda.

Take care, all.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

FIW; clever theme and delightful recap

RAY-O and MM - chuckled at your comments

And adding to the mix of the use of "AL" instead of "IC", as I read PK's comment about a castrated bull being called a steer, I wondered then, is a castrated male might be called a eunal?

Chairman Moe said...

Correction: I FIR

Spitzboov said...

CM - not to mention the Tropal of Cancer and Tropal of Capricorn; and a gin and tonal

CrossEyedDave said...

Still no word from Bill G,

I wasn't going to post today
Because looking for silly theme pics for this puzzle
Was a real pain in the (err, rear end...)

Thank goodness for learning moments
like ephemera!

I mean, I searched almost everywhere...

this was the best I found...

Hahtoolah said...

Vidwan: Thank you for explaining the meaning of the suffix "-Stan". We always learn something from our crossword friends with each puzzle.

waseeley said...

T @4:41pm Thanks for the tip on the Stones clip. I didn't see it when I originally read the review on my phone. There is some kind of bug in Blogger that suppresses videos on cell phones unless the HTML is edited to remove a particular class statement. Susan may not be aware of it.

Boy the Stones were really young back then!

Bill

LEO III said...

FIW. Once again, two lousy squares! Didn’t know ADIT/NIA (O instead of I), nor SALSODA, so I was content with a LULL causing yawns. Oh, well….

Thanks, Tom and Hahtoolah!

Since I’m lousy at math, I texted 6.02214076×10²³ to both my daughter and my uncle. I assume that both of them will come up to the same conclusion Spitz did.

SDI was Reagan’s idea for stopping the nuclear arms race. Not only did it suffer politically from being called “Star Wars,” there were serious doubts whether it was scientifically feasible.

My daughter got it right. Haven’t heard from my uncle yet, but he’ll know it.

Wilbur Charles said...

Agree that Owen had excellent l'icks as always.

I was thinking DATe sites could be mined.

CED, your links were hilarious today

Whenever I travel I'm late getting to puzzles. Once I sat down it went smoothly. I always love hahtoolah write-ups.

WC

Lucina said...

Steer in Spanish is novillo. I did not know so had to look in my Larousse. I'm glad I still have it as I've considered donating it to the college where I taught. Maybe later, in a few years.

Crockett1947 said...

I do believe one of the clef designations should be Bass, not Base, no?

Wilbur Charles said...

Speaking of….

Just tell your
HOODLUM friends outside,
You ain't got time to take a ride

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

-T, you can show your dad that link. Our music back in the day.

Hahtoolah said...

Crockett: You are correct. It was probably just a case of fingers and brain not in sync! I made the correction.