google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Friday, June 18, 2021, Paul Coulter

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Jun 18, 2021

Friday, June 18, 2021, Paul Coulter

 Title: As we approach summer it is time for PUN IN THE SUN!

One of our friends and a regular - Paul Coulter - is back. For those who do not remember, his first LAT TIMES PUBLICATION was 6 years ago.  It makes me a bit sad to read comments all those we do not see here any longer. It was very hard introductory puzzle but we did get wonderful pics of our own Lucy Dale in her wimple. Today's puzzle was not as difficult if you have the 'proper' sense of humor; the themers are sound-alike puns. And like all of this type of puzzle, the humor is subjective, so you all might not be amused, but I was. Not to jump on the negative bandwagon, but this was not my favorite of Paul's puzzles. There were sacrifices to have the five long themers with 57 blocks dedicated to theme.  There was not much room for other sparkly fill. ISSUERS, MIDTOWN, UNCTION, NERVE ENDING and PAPER TRAILS do make the grid better but we do have an abundance of initialisms;  it is time to move to the theme.

17A. Winter wear made from tusks?: IVORY COATS (10). The Ivory Coast is both a pun and an anagram.

30A. Routines for barbecuing?: WIENIE ROTES (11). Wienie  Roast is a pun, but not an angram, but it does rhyme with 17A.

37A. Cuts back on one's livestock business?: GIVES UP THE GOATS (15). Gives up the Ghost must be the seed entry, and ta da also rhymes with...

46A. Carryalls made by Dior?: FRENCH TOTES (11). Many believe challah makes the best French Toast. 

60A. Useless castle defenses?: INNER MOATS (10). This also includes OATS, but is paired with yet a different rhyme Innermost. This an outlier, as it is one word, though I did find a clothing brand. I love that Paul found 5 different sounds that rhyme for his sound-alikes, but I am guessing some will say, "stop at four"and forget the outlier. But he would not have had the needed symmetry. Making puzzles is not for sissies. 

Across:

1. Jokers: WAGS. Unlike our Wild Ass Guesses, this goes back to the 1550s "person fond of making jokes,"  perhaps a shortening of waghalter "gallows bird," person destined to swing in a noose or halter, applied humorously to mischievous children.

5. Small ball on a string: PEARL. Our Friday cluing begins here.I needed the perps. Followed by a gimme...

10. Emulated: APED. Followed by personal poetry...

14. Classic Langston Hughes poem: I TOOLINK.

15. Portmanteau metal producer: ALCOA. No, no, no! AL CO A, aluminum company of america is not words mashed together.

16. Alley unit: LANE. Now we upset Boomer with a bowling non-sequitur. 

19. __-FREE: contact lens solution: OPTI. Which actually may be a portmanteau.

20. Asian holiday: TẾT  Tết short for Tết Nguyên Đán, Spring Festival, Lunar New Year, or Vietnamese Lunar New Year is the most important celebration in Vietnamese culture. While Asian cultures celebrate the lunar new year, only Vietnam calls it by that name.

21. Publishers: ISSUERS. A bit of a pun as they issue issues. 

23. Onetime Tide competitor: RINSO

26. Less formal alternative to a toga: TUNIC. The toga was considered Rome's "national costume," but for day-to-day activities most Romans preferred more casual, practical and comfortable clothing; the tunic, in various forms, was the basic garment for all classes, both sexes and most occupations. various.

28. Like many AARP mems.: RETired. I guess 'mems' mean members...

29. "A Chorus Line" number: ONE

33. Blows it: ERRS. But it is human, unlike...

35. Mythical monster: ORC.

36. Airport abbr.: ARRivals

43. Classified ad abbr.: EEOEqual Employment Opportunity 

44. Charged item: ION. I always pay cash when I buy ions.

45. Respectful group address: SIRS. Sexist, too.

51. PC linkup: LANLocal Area Network. A CSO to all of our techies.

52. Long, long time: EON. The largest unit of time; era = A unit of time shorter than an eon but longer than a period.

53. Loudly laments: KEENS. We are back to Friday, not a proper noun but "lament loudly over the dead, bitterly wail," 1811, from Irish caoinim "I weep, wail, lament," from Old Irish coinim "I wail." Hence "to utter in a shrill voice" (1893). We have seen it a few times. No relation to Elizabeth Keen.

54. First signs of smoke: WISPS

56. Manhattan theater district locale: MIDTOWN. A MAP

58. Blame: PIN. You can't pin that on me!

59. Others, in Latin: ALII.

66. Advance: LEND

67. "Cool!": NEATO. With another similar made up word 38D. Smashing: SOCKO.

68. Google results: URLSUniform Resource Locators, more for our savvy specialists.

69. Not at all cool: EDGY. I disagree, edgy can be way cool.

70. Midas' undoing: GREED. He had the touch.

71. What boors lack: TACT.

Down:

1. Popular console since 2006: WII. The active Nintendo console which you can buy used for $60.00 or so.

2. Off-roader's purchase, for short: ATVAll Terrain Vehicle.

3. Muck: GOO.

4. Varieties: SORTS.

5. Dispute resolution: PACT. Maybe music will help.

6. "Do Ya" rock gp.: ELO

7. 2010 health law: Abbr.: ACAAffordable Care Act. Not aqui.

8. Twisty pasta: ROTINI. It is Italian for twists, I believe.

9. Classic movie girl played by a boy: LASSIE. Fun and truthful clue. There are some very fun LASSIE FACTS.

10. 1966 N.L. batting champ Matty: ALOU. I can hear the grumbling already but the perps were fair.

11. Hard-copy evidence: PAPER TRAILS. If you watch Television crime drama the good guys are always looking for these.

12. Main course preceder, in France: ENTRÉE.  A typical French lunch will consist of: a starter (une entrée), such as a mixed salad, soup, some terrine or paté. A main course, (le plat principal), typically a choice of meat or fish, with potatoes, rice, pasta and/or vegetables; a cheese course (often a selection of local cheeses) and/or a dessert. Desserts are sometimes not detailed on the menu, so you have to listen to the waiter. 

13. Jefferson et al., religiously: DEISTS. The term is used chiefly of an intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries that accepted the existence of a creator on the basis of reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with humankind.

18. "Ouch!": YEOW. So many sounds...

22. Scrawny one: SCRAG. One who is scraggly

23. "The Witches" (1990) director Nicolas: ROEG. His BIOGRAPHY;           the movie 

24. Calvary inscription: INRIIesvs Nazarenvs Rex Ivdaeorvm

25. Source of feelings: NERVE ENDING. No namby pamby emotion here, just the literal site of feeling.

26. Md. athlete: TERP. Maryland = Terrapin.

27. Religious fervor: UNCTION. This was very hard as I associate the word with the act of anointing, but a deep dive shows this connection for the word.

31. Chit: IOU. And I want my money now!

32. Top medals, in Barcelona: OROS. There's gold in them there Olympics.

34. Caught in the act: SEEN. Caught you.

39. Have the __ for: HOTS. This idiom has no known origin, except perhaps the literal autonomic response to extreme sexual attraction.

40. Chicago-to-Lansing dir.: ENE. Going to Michigan!

41. Trick, in a way: TRAP. In a lie for example.

42. IRS IDs: SSNSSocial Security NumberS.

46. Doe, for one: FEMALE. She is back!

47. Stirred up: ROILED. Why not riled? If you roil someone you're stirring them up but not necessarily annoying them. To rile someone is to deliberately provoke or antagonize them. Vocab.com

48. Wielding an axe: HEWING. Or a new HOTEL in Minneapolis.

49. One percent of a G: TENNER. .01 x $1,000.00 = $10.00

50. Dip: SWIM. You must get wet!

55. Two-way, as a door: IN/OUT. Important in restaurants for the servers.

57. Like some sums: TIDY.  Some HISTORY.

58. Egg on: PROD.

61. Dumfries denial: NAE. Scotland.

62. Automne preceder: ETE. Simple French seasons

63. Altar in the sky: ARA. Moe just had it in his May 28 write-up.

64. Help for a sad BFF: TLCBest Friends Forever /Tender Loving Care.

65. Retired flier: SSTSuperSonicTransport. I hear they are coming back.

Gee, I just got started and we are done again. I sense some doldrums have overtaken the Corner, no doubt a product of too much pandemic. We must be positive and happy because this is what we get, and we appear on our way back. Paul, I thank you very much for the work that you put in. Finding 5 five letter words that rhymed but did not duplicate each other was awesome. I know it takes a lot to create a puzzle and thought the puns were great. Corner, as I continue as a part-time blogger, I appreciate all who tune in. Lemonade out. 


Notes from C.C.:
 
Here are few beautiful pictures of Lemonade's grandkids. Click here for more sweetness. And here for all the pictures Lemonade has shared with us over the years.

 


45 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

It took a while before latching onto the theme. Then things went dippingly. (SWIMmingly?) Still, it took twice as long as yesterday; must be Friday. UNCTION -- learning moment. Thanx, Paul and Lemonade.

KEENS: Anyone else remember the old radio show Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons? It was one of our favorites, along with Mr. and Mrs. North, and of course, Dragnet.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fun pun Friday a bit easier than the last few, thanks, Paul & Lemonade.

I got a kick out of seeing ONE. Strange that it took so many dancers for ONE.

Automne preceder took all perps before I realized it had to be a French fall day after summer.

DNK: ROEG, UNCTION, LAN, TENNER. Never heard SCRAG without "gly".

WAGS not WitS.

Thought the small ball on a string was rubber with a paddle on the other end of the string.
PEARL? Haha! Good one.

OwenKL said...

FIRight, but did stumble on a couple of unknown meanings -- I know "extreme unction" is another term for last rites, but didn't know what UNCTION meant as a stand-alone term. SCRAG I guess might be a back-formation from scraggly hair? The only Scragg I knew was Daisy-mae's family in Li'l Abner.

When a puzzle starts with a Wild Ass Guess,
It may be a harbinger of how the rest
Will need to flow
To be NEAT-O!
Or it could presage a SOCK-O test!

There was a girl from the IVORY COAST
Who got a job checking hats and COATS.
She checked in TOTES
Filled with FRENCH TOAST,
That leaked syrup surreptitiously on TENNER notes!

When doing audits on corporate spending,
The PAPER TRAILS are NEVER-ENDING!
It takes the tenacity
Of a collie like LASSIE
To not GIVE UP and go GOAT tending!

{A-, A, B+.}

Lemonade714 said...

Rest in Peace Herb Tarlek, there must be a place in heaven waiting for you and your clothing choices.

desper-otto said...

Lemonade, I'd not heard of "Lewy body dementia" before reading Frank's obituary. I LIU and learned that Robin Williams also suffered from it. It's the second most common type of dementia, after Alzheimer's disease.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Nice Pix, Lemon. Thanks for sharing.

Easy Friday today. Saw the theme after entering the 2nd long across. Liked it. Had loan before LEND and salade before ENTREE.
Not a big fan of French toast but I agree that Challah helps make a good one. In German it is called "arme Ritter"= "poor knights".

Off to deal with ARR at SYR airport and pick up no. 1 son.

Have a great day.

Wilbur Charles said...

After finally realizing that NERVE ENDINGS was two words and EEO not cEO was the abbrev, I FIW on Chorus Line and WAGS/WII. The first was classic Natick, the latter gettable especially since I'm very familiar with both words.

The long middle fill was last to grok. We're calling them homophones?

SWIM/PIN were a clever pair.

Owen, have to give all three a W but I agree #1 stands out.

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Ps, read through the old write-up to see if I'd solved or commented. Nope.

Fln, enjoyed pic of Lucina

ATLGranny said...

A happy Friday with a FIR! Must have been on Paul's wavelength as this was fast and easy in spite of a few unknowns: UNCTION and ETE. Thanks for explaining them, Lemonade. I didn't see the French seasons while filling. UNCTION was vaguely familiar but not with that clue. A couple of WOs: need to get INRI and INRE straight in my mind plus ALII was needed not ALIA. Got the theme right away for a change. An enjoyable puzzle, thanks, Paul. Thanks too for your witty review, Lemonade

Hope you all have a NEATO day!

Paul Coulter said...

Thanks, Lemonade. Yes, the goats one was my seed entry. I also get a chuckle from the image of a hapless king's misplaced inner moat. But you're right that this isn't my favorite sort of theme. I haven't worked with changes of sound a lot. It's rather an easy Friday, too. Maybe Rich's supply of harder puzzles has run low.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads. I had a tough time coming up with a gift idea for my son Dan this year. I wound up ordering matching outfits for him, my daughter-in-law, and the girls. Clothes aren't my thing, but I couldn't think of anything else. I was amazed when the four outfits actually arrived in the right sizes and colors, as the ordering process makes it very difficult to see if you've done it right. Hope Dan and the family like them.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Quite a challenge..Eventually FIR ☺

The ACA may be aca (aquí) to stay.
Twisty pasta (fusilli? "spirals, cavatappi?, "corkscrews")....I parsed the OTES sound early on.. then FRENCHTOTES gave the rest of the theme away. Couldn't figure out till the end how to fit WIENer/IE ROTES into the squares...(probably the weakest theme answer.)

Almost put ACE for retired flyer (it's always SST!!) and the usual airplane abbrev "et a/or/d" for ARR ✈

Inkovers: alia/ALII...lead/LEND... wails/KEENS..I figured Hard copy evidence would be singular...source of feelings would be plural...nope. NEATO is cool. But EDGY can also be very cool "Broadway" was too long for MIDTOWN.

"SOCKO" reminded me of Nancy's BF "Sluggo" Kept thinking of Mary Martin (a girl) playing a boy (Peter Pan). Boys playing Girls is Shakespearean but perps helped me realize we're talking about a gender confused K9.

Small ball on a string...Couldn't get the wooden paddle toy with the rubber band and ball put of my mind. (We kids were so easy to please.😉)

Google results...hits? 🤔. like Lemon8..thought UNCTION meant "anointing" like "Extreme Unction" (Last Rites)⛪

Became ostrich-like...EMULATED.
Yellowfin-like....TUNIC.
Nightowl opposites....DEISTS
Who shot J.R. ____ ?...HEWING.
Alto, ____ Basso progression....TENNER.
Dukes, _____ , Barons progression....URLS.

FLN.. Busy yesterday, only skimmed the blog; took a gander just now..... ERGO.."The horse b 4 Descartes", excellent...you guys are geniuses. 🙉

Off for 2 weeks. The weather better cooperate. 😡

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Elizabeth Keen... After 8 seasons...was anybody able to follow that crazy historical "who was who and who who wasn't who and who pretended to be who" on the latest episode of "The Black List"..

😖😖😖

Sheesh!!

🤪


Yellowrocks said...

FIR. I liked the theme which helped with the solve. Innermost being one word does not bother me.
My first toeholds today were three letter words and proper nouns. Sometimes they are useful.
Only ROEG was new to me, however I often need a few perps to aid my recall.
SOCKO is quite familiar, but I don't use it myself.
I sometimes feel roiled by circumstances, more likely than being riled by people.
I had U-C-ION which seemed to indicate UNCTION. I held off for a bit because I thought of unction only as anointing the sick and dying.

waseeley said...

Thank you Paul and Lemonade. Really enjoyed the puzzle despite an FIW (had TBALL for PEARL!). Can't stay (a mountain of weeding to do) but took the time to read Lemony's original review. Two observations: loved the pics of Lucina and I noticed that Paul used ARA in his first puzzle as well as today. He must have a thing about altars!

Hope to be back.

Cheers,
Bill

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A delightful challenge! Theme turned out to not be all anagrams
-Baking soda and water got the IONS flowing again in our battery-operated porch lights
-I like free airport parking lots where upon ARRival I can receive a cell phone call and go get the ARRiver
-URL’s no longer require the tedious “http://www.” when reciting the address. It’s understood.
-EDGY dredges up visons of Don Knotts to me
-When I finally saw GIVES UP THE GOATS and not DIVVY UP THE GOATS, ROED became ROEG
-Hitler and Stalin had a PACT of non-aggression. Your PACT is only as good as the PACTEES.
-PAPER TRAIL – After committing a huge crime, you might want to put away the credit cards and cell phone and being SEEN on the street

Malodorous Manatee said...

Paul, thanks for the puzzle and for dropping by/commenting.

Lemonade, thanks for the write-up and, especially, for the insights that you shared.

Frank, I hope that you have found your wall-to-wall shag carpeting, several fireplaces, and lots of mirrors.

Big Easy said...

A DNF today. Not familiar with the words KEENS, UNCTION or SOCKO. Tried FREIGHT OTES before FRENCH to make it work but that didn't help.

I caught the puns early. Not much A&E or proper names to fill today.

9D. Timmy is still in the well. LASSIE, go get help.

Lemonade714 said...

Ray, my wife and I were talking about that episode this morning on our way to my office. It seems the writers were trying to explain away all the years of inconsistencies by having a deus ex machina revelation. On the one hand it was a wonderful recap of the events to date, but other than the Katerina Rostova part (no warning needed) it was not helpful. Now we need episode 22.

staili said...

This took a long time but FIR. It took me quite a while to figure out what any of the theme entries were, but once I did, it started to fall into place. I liked the symmetry of -OATS/-OTES/-OATS/-OTES/-OATS as you read the theme answers from top to bottom.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

The cute theme was obvious early on and helped with the solve, especially French Totes. Roeg was the only unknown but lots of perps were needed for several answers due to the, IMO, off-kilter cluing. Some cute duos include SSN(s)/SST, ACA/Ara, and Ion/Eon. We also had a wee I team, with WII, Opti, Ali, Rotini, and INRI. CSO to Wilbur at Nae and to Ray O, Anon T, and AnonPVX at Rotini.

Thanks, Paul, for a Friday frolic and for dropping by and thanks, Lemony, for your very honest and detailed critique. The grands are really growing up before our very eyes, especially Charlotte who sports those glasses so well! Seeing that video of One brought back memories of seeing A Chorus Line on Broadway so many years ago. The performance of One was a spectacular show-stopper.

Have a great day.

unclefred said...

Rats. Another stinking DNF. After my rant about the number of proper names in CWs yesterday, here comes PC’s CW with only two proper names, and I struggled and finally ran out of patience and threw in the towel. In spite of getting the theme. Very nice write-up, Lemonade, thanx for all the time and effort u put into it.

Vidwan827 said...


Thank you Mr. Coulter, for a nice and challenging puzzle. Evetually, even I figured out the rhyming entries.
Thank you, Lemonade, for a charming and incisive review, and all the finer points of the language and idoms that I would never have understood.
Your pictures of your lovely family are an exquisite delight.
May they give you continual joy and happiness through the years.

I was not familiar with 'Gives up the ghost', and 'Weiner Roasts', ( .... I don't do much roasting, weiner or otherwise - ) but the phrases seemed reasonable.
I did not know that UNCTION, meant a religious fervor, but that seemed reasonable, as well. I have heard of extreme unction, as annointing last rites, in novels.

Have a nice day, and weekend, all.


Memforest said...

Fun puns and a solid puzzle, but I never had a chance with SOCKO crossing KEENS. Hadn't heard of either but I think I'm in the minority there. Otherwise good stuff!

Hungry Mother said...

Wagged KEENS and SOCKO and FIR. I enjoyed filling in the themers. A very worthy Friday offering.

Vidwan827 said...


From Last night - a comment for Lucina.

Thank you for your kind words. I know I am not that knowledgable, but I am passionately interested in certain fields, expecially history and biography from happenings, particularly, in my neck of the woods. I am deeply grateful to Wikipedia, primarily, ( God bless the editors - ) and I try, in that spirit, to spread some info along, to others.

Regarding the film, Water, the 2005, movie , .... it is a very sad film, which I saw only once, .... and I would believe, the story is plausible, and true to life, and the mores and models of indian hindu society in the 1930's and earlier, especially as regards to the treatment of hindu widows and on remarriage etc.

Deepa Mehta also made 2 other movies, ..... Fire, a 1996 film, wiki , , about a lesbian relationship, which was a commercial flop.....

and a third movie Earth, a 1998 film, Wiki .
Earth, is a very powerful, and yet a rather sad film, about the Indo-Pak partition. It is very highly rated, and deeply moving. The Partition, in the years 1947=1951, which I will not link, was a horrific and catastrophic period in indo-Pak history ... of a scale resembling an WWII holocaust, in jewish history. Different in many ways, but just as horrific !

Finally, Lucina, I thank you for all your personal stories about your family life, .... and I hope I may be able to, at least partially, emulate you, ...in your stoicism, your acceptance of the vissitudes of life, per your faith and your happy, cheerful and hopeful attitude, through it all.

For the limited amount of time, we have on this earth, in the near future, ... it is only way to live. God bless, us all.

Thank you for your bloggers, to allow me to say this.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Medalias de ORO to Paul Coulter and Lemonade on this fun Friday puzzle and its elucidation.

The WAGS were all easy and elicited many chuckles as I solved. I noted the progression of COATS, ROTES, GOATS and MOATS. Ha, ha. Very amusing. I especially liked FRENCH TOTES.

TUNICO is still used in parts of New Mexico especially by old folk who are descendants of the Spanish conquistadores and continue to speak the antique language. My maternal grandmother was one of them.

Vidwan:
Thank you for your response. I was not sure you would see my late night comment so I really appreciate it. I shall look for EARTH and hope to view it.

Have a NEATO day, everyone!

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you Uncle Fred forthe kind words, and the recognition it is not just proper nouns that make a crossword a challenge. Since nobody I asked, I will insert myself into the use of names be they out-dated or all too current.

When I started trying to solve puzzles (the NYT Sunday) with my parents I was very unhappy with clues like BITTER VETCH . Who knew Vetch, let alone a bitter one, which turned out to be ERS . I was reading and especially newspapers as my father read 5 every day- the NYTimes, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, and Norwich Bulletin in the morning and the Hartford Times in the evening. Like most children of the 50s, I read the comics and the sports sections first but read some of the rest. On Sunday, I really enjoyed the magaizine inserts which were different in the papers and included the NYT Book review and Magazine Section, Parade and Family Weekly in others. They each had puzzles. To me the crossword puzzle was a marketing tool of the papers and the puzzles included information they wanted to to have to sell their newspapers and their advertisers products. The proper names were the gimmes.There were not 200+ tv stations and multitudes of sports, but I learned some opera, some bsllet, some ancient beliefs and many "celebrities." I still do, though now I have the paper either read to me, or blown up to a very large font.

I wanted to know everything and reading helped. I cannot imagine not knowing about the cultural phenomena like the SIMPSONS or even the Kardashians who I find awful. But I know. I am amazed at how many here speak proudly of never having seen popular shows, movies, singers, authors, sporting events- on and on. I guess I am just lucky I am not a cat, as I would be long dead. So now I know bitter vetch and Eddie Vetter.

Lemonade714 said...

Vidwan, my brother from another mother, and Lucy who is Sister to us all - thank you for your unwavering positivity. Life is not simple of easy, but is better when shared

AnonymousPVX said...


This PC Friday grid was a good one.

Write-overs…HEAD/HOTS, ETAL/ALII.

See you tomorrow.

Misty said...

Fun Friday toughie for me, Paul, and thanks for checking in. And thank you, too, Lemonade. Nice to get both of your comments about the challenges of constructing.

Interesting that ENTREE is a French appetizer but a main course for most of us.
FRENCH TOTES cracked me up--very funny. So, too, did IVORY COATS--made from tusks--give us a break. But my favorite was LASSIE--haven't thought of that sweet pup in decades.

Have a great Friday, everybody.

CanadianEh! said...

Fabulous Friday frolic (credits to IM). Thanks for the fun, Paul and Lemonade (great photos).
I FIRed and saw the theme. (Agree that WIENER ROTES was the weakest)
One inkblot to change Alia to ALII, and another to take off my Canadian hat and change Alcan to ALCOA 🇨🇦 🇺🇸

Hand up for thinking of the paddle with elastic and rubber. Smiled at PEARL.
Another hand up for wondering if UNCTION met that definition. I was thinking of Umption but it is not necessarily religious.
I noted PACT and TACT. Inter-related?!
Sums are TIDY? and then I remembered the expression😁

Wishing you all a great day. Sun is coming out now after a showery morning.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

FIR

Thanks Paul and Jason; clever puns and a heart(rx)-filled recap

Happy Father’s Day weekend which also means watching the US Open from Torrey Pines. It’s anything but “bland”!

My “non-puzzle” related haiku:

The stubborn bivalves
Won’t open. I guess we’ll have
To flex our mussels

🦪 🦪🦪🦪💪🏻💪🏻

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Paul for the pun puzzle; caught the them at IVORY COATS and ROTES confirmed it. Thanks for stopping by with some behind-the-scenes.

Thanks for the Expo Lem. I enjoyed the ELO and boy are they growing up quickly.

WOs: moaNS -> KEENS, nNE -> ENE, hitS -> URLs
ESPs: KEENS | SOCKO (you're not alone, Memforest & HM - K was a WAG), I TOO, ROEG, ETE (as clued), SCRAG, ALII
Fav: ROTINI - Now I'm thinking summer pasta salad...
Runner-up: Remember the OPTI-grab? [The Jerk - 1:31]

{A, B, A+}
Cute Ku, C.Moe.

Enjoyed reading everyone.

Now to finish my chores so I can get ready for the Astros | ChiSox game tonight; vendor is taking us out to the ball game...

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the puzzle and, as always, Lemony's write up.

And a special thanks to all our bloggers who sacrifice their time to brighten our days. I don't comment often but I enjoy the blog and the comments daily. The corner is a lovely gift and I appreciate it greatly.

Have a safe day everyone.

JB2

Ol' Man Keith said...

A good PZL, a well-crafted PZL,
a PZL that challenged me, but that eventually cried "UNCLE!"
I had a good time. Thank you, Mr. Coulter!
Ta ~ DAH!

LASSIE was a source of great confusion for this child. Growing up, I would have sworn LASSIE was a boy's name.
~ OMK
___________
DR:
Just one diagonal, on the near side.
Its anagram (12 of 15 ltrs) seems to point to a role in a German drama, who, to judge solely by his name, is a non-Politically Correct Eurasian character.
I refer you to Herr...
"OTTO ORIENTAL
"!

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle, Lemonade's write-up, and all your comments.

Wishing you all a good day.

Lemonade714 said...

No parental, "C'mon laddie boy, you can do it!" for you growing up OMK?

Agnes, I believe one of the requirements of a Friday puzzle is "off-kilter" cluing. Speaking of ONE I have wonderful memories of many broadway shows over the years but I have not been in at least ten years. CHORUS LINE was one of many.

JB2, thank you, I am blushing

Lucina said...

Even though it is a HOT afternoon here (116) I am warmed more by your kind comments.

And I am thoroughly amused by all the hi-jinks. I'm looking at you, Dr. Keith, Ray-O, Moe, Owen, et al.

Misty said...

Lemonade, those pictures are so sweet. Thank you for posting them, C.C.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Lemonade ~

Sure, but I didn't transfer that knowledge over to the dog.
I could have sworn I heard Roddy MacDowell saying, "C'mon, Lassie! C'mon, Boy!" throughout the movie. Guess my memory is faulty...
~ OMK

Anonymous said...

While the puns were fun, I should have known from the very first clue this was going to be filled with nothing but "crossword-ese" - i.e. words that are found nowhere else save puzzles. Wags for jokers. Aped for emulated. (Who says "aped" at any time in a conversation?) Socko for smashing. Socko? Are we in a Bing Crosby movie? Scrag for scrawny one? One percent of a G is a tenner and cool is neato? In which decade? NO ONE TALKS LIKE THIS. Let's just work in Sanskrit next time. Or I'll climb into my DeLorean and work forwards through clues like this.

Anonymous T said...

Just home from the game... Wow!

Going into the bottom of the 9th, one out. Single.

Alvarez steps into the box...

A double(?) down the first base line and Yuri races the bases. Ball goes to the corner. The throw to the plate (was cutoff and not relayed quickly enough). Game over.

I've never seen, IRL (in real life), a game ending with that kind of excitement.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Lemonade:
Every time I post I forget to tell you how cute and grown-up your granddaughters look. I am sure you so proud of them.

Lucina said...

AnonT
That is great that you enjoyed such a good game! I'm happy for you.

Unknown said...

Went to a funeral of a GOOD friend this a.m. picked up today's thumper (worse than a "stumper"). DNF & DNA (Did Not Appreciate). Really in a bad mood and should have quit way before I tossed it.