google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Gary Larson

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Jun 29, 2021

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 Gary Larson

Broken homes.  Another word for one's house can be found "broken" circles in each of the theme answers.  This theme made me sad because it made me think of the condo in Florida that collapsed less than a week ago.  The husband of a friend of mine was in the building visiting family that day.

18-Across. Kooks: DING-A-LINGS.  Digs.

20-Across. Where fingerprints may be analyzed: CRIME LAB.  Crib.

59-Across. Cheerleading team: PEP SQUAD.  Pad.

61-Across. Contest with a puck: HOCKEY GAME.  Home.

And the Unifier:
38-Across. Like a well-trained pet, and a hint to each set of circles: HOUSE BROKEN.

Across:
1. Reaction to a bad joke: MOAN.  I would think Groan is a more common response to a bad joke.  Why can't you trust atoms?  * 

5. Mary's was little: LAMB.  Mary had a little lamb, it's fleas as white as snow.  (As kids, we thought the word fleece was actually fleas.)


9. Hip-hop headgear: DO-RAG.

14. Armory supply: AMMO.  As in Ammunition.

15. Plus: ALSO.

16. How many single people live: ALONE.


17. Singer McEntire: REBA.  Reba Nell McEntire (b. Mar. 28, 1955) is a country singer-songwriter.


22. 2020 Super Bowl number: LIV.


23. Beehive State native: UTE.  Utah is the Beehive State, and the name of the state is derived from an Apache word.  Ute means People of the Mountains.


24. Another name for the peyote cactus: MESCAL.  Everything you wanted to know about Mescal / Peyote, but didn't know to ask.

26. Significant times: ERAs.  This is becoming a crossword staple.  It is also the name of a laundry detergent.


30. Yemen's capital: SANA'A.


32. Paid in advance, as costs: UP FRONT.

34. Ancestry.com concern: DNA.

36. Michael of "Arrested Development": CERA.  Michael Cera (b. June 7, 1988) is a Canadian actor.


37. "Got __ ideas?": ANY.

41. Pub order: ALE.  A crossword staple.

43. Gets with effort, with "out": EKEs.

44. Witness: SEE.

45. Knights __: "The Da Vinci Code" group: TEMPLAR.  The Da Vinci Code was a 2003 novel by Dan Brown, which was later made into a movie.


47. White house?: IGLOO.  We find our Igloo Ice Chest to be very convenient while on vacation.  





51. Canadian gas: ESSO.  Hi, CanadianEh!  //  And 64-Down. Tank filler: GAS.

52. Populated with trees: WOODED.

56. Spanish Main treasure: ORO.  Today's Spanish lesson.  Hi, Lucina!

57. Tax preparer, for short: CPA.  As in a Certified Public Accountant.  Some of our regulars are CPAs.

65. Money drawer: TILL.
66. Boo-boos: OWIES.


67. Diaper rash cream additive: ALOE.  A fresh new clue for an old staple.

68. Vacation spot: ISLE.

69. Green sauce: PESTO.  Another crossword favorite.  I have been making homemade Pesto.


70. Phishing targets: Abbr.: SSNs.  As in Social Security Numbers.  The word Phishing first appeared arount 1996.

71. Is worth it: PAYS.  Did you know that in France, the word Pays means Country or Region?  For example, country ham would translate as jambon de pays.

Down:
1. Neiman's business partner: MARCUS.


2. Mafioso code of honor: OMERTA.  Today's Italian lesson.

3. Sleep aid brand: AMBIEN.


4. Linguist Chomsky: NOAM.

Avram Noam Chomsky (b. Dec. 7, 1928)

5. Soup scoop: LADLE.

6. Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid: ALIAS.  Butch Cassidy's given name was Robert LeRoy Parker (Apr. 13, 1866 ~ Nov. 7, 1908).  Apropos of today's puzzle, Butch Cassidy was from the Beehive State

7. 24-hour news service: MSNBC.


8. Marshy region: BOG.

9. Surrealist Salvador: DALÍ.  Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquess of Dalí de Púbol (b. May 11, 1904 ~ Jan. 23, 1989) is probably best known for his painting, The Persistence of Memory.  There is a fabulous Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida that is well worth the visit.


10. Twist who asked for some more: OLIVER.  A reference to Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens (Feb. 7, 1812 ~ June 9, 1870).


11. Harry's pal Weasley: RON.  Hi, JazzB.  Also the obligatory reference to Harry Potter.

12. Director Lee: ANG.  Ang Lee (b. Oct. 23, 1954) has a very impressive film resume.  He has also won 3 Oscars.


13. Some fridges: GEs.  As in General Electrics.

19. Top NFL players: ALL-PROS.

21. Common temple name: EMANU-EL.  The word comes from the Hebrew (עִמָּנוּאֵל) which literally means "G~d is with us".  If "Temple" is used in the name of a house of worship, it is likely a synagogue of the Reform movement.  Other Jewish denominations rarely use the word Temple when referring to their houses of worship.

25. Violinist Leopold: AUER.  Leopold Auer (June 7, 1845 ~ July 15, 1930) was a Hungarian violinist and composer.  He was also a well-known violin teacher.


27. Stable color: ROAN.

28. Raggedy doll: ANN.  I had a Raggedy Andy that looked just like the one below.


29. Snorters' quarters: STY.

31. Brouhaha: ADO.

33. Docs with doctored birth dates, say: FAKE IDS.


35. "Shoot": ASK AWAY.

36. Letterman's last network: CBS.


38. Skirt lines: HEMS.

39. Architect Saarinen: EERO.  Eero Saarinen (Aug. 20, 1910 ~ Sept. 1, 1961) and his father, Elie Saarinen (Aug. 20, 1873 ~ July 1, 1950) were both well known architects from Finland.  Eero designed the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.  Eero appears quite frequently in the crossword puzzles.



40. Neurologist's readout: Abbr.: EEG.  As in the ElectoEncephaloGraphy.

41. Had a bite: ATE.

42. "__ Misérables": LES.  Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1802 ~ 1885) is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century.

46. Pool player's target: POCKET.

48. "Little Women" author __ May Alcott: LOUISA.  Louisa May Alcott (Nov. 29, 1832 ~ Mar. 6, 1888) wrote many novels, but is probably best known for Little Women and Little Men.

49. How much medication is taken: ORALLY.

50. Loads: OODLES.

53. Milky gems: OPALS.  Hi, Kazie!  The Opal is the national gemstone of Australia.


54. Possessed person's possessor: DEMON.

55. Sporting blades: ÉPÉES.  A crossword staple.


58. Mexican money: PESO.


60. Medicine cabinet swab: Q-TIP.

61. Jump on one leg: HOP.



62. Have bills to pay: OWE.

63. Prefix with gender: CIS-.  As in Cisgender.  Webster's defines cisgender as: "of, relating to, or being a person whose gender identity corresponds with the sex the person had or was identified as having at birth."  We have seen this prefix in past puzzles.


Here's the Grid:


*  Because they make up everything. 

חתולה




Notes from C.C.:

Happy 55th birthday to Barry G, whose daily comments helped me greatly in my early days of crossword constructions. Hope all's well with your job and family, Barry!


July 2, 2016


41 comments:

  1. FIRight without problems, and saw the gimmick early.

    For several years (several years ago) I constructed cryptic crossword puzzles for the monthly "Knights TEMPLAR Magazine". Both the Masonic higher divisions -- York Rite and Scottish Rite -- have a Knight Templar degree. In the Scottish Rite it's just one of many, but in the York Rite it's a big deal, thus their naming their magazine that. (If you'd like to see a sample, look on page 12 of the archived issue HERE.)

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  2. Once I was a Knight TEMPLAR,
    As in olden days of yore.
    But I haven't paid my dues in years,
    So I'm a knight no more.

    Alas for CANADIAN Willy,
    His car wash is no more.
    For what he thought was H2O
    Was H2 ESSO 4!

    Mary had a little LAMB,
    It wasn't quite HOUSE-BROKEN.
    So everywhere that Mary went,
    The lamb left a little token.

    It followed her to A DO one day,
    Where she smoked a MESCAL button.
    And when the munchies settled in,
    The little lamb was mutton.

    {C, B, AA.}

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  3. Good morning!

    Guess who missed the reveal? But the circles were there, and d-o sussed that they were synonyms for ones place. I noticed the SO to JzB. Apparently diaper rash has been deemed breakfast-friendly. Thanx, Gary and Hahtoolah.

    FAKE IDS: In my ute the state driver license had no photo, and was just a piece of paper, but the ID card you needed for admittance to a beer bar (proof you were over 18) included a photo, embossed county seal, and was laminated in plastic. Didn't matter if you were 65 and gray; no ID card, no admittance.

    "Got any ideas?": Had a long on-line chat with the Mfr of the dehumidier in our walk-in closet. For six months it routinely produced about a quart per day. Then it stopped. The fan still ran, but the bucket remained empty. After several back-and-forths they decided the best idea would be to issue me a check for the full purchase price. I've got a new dehumidifier (different mfr) arriving today.

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  4. Good Morning, Crossword friends. I hope everyone is able to find a cool spot today.

    Happy Birthday Barry. I hope you are well and can stop by sometime.

    QOD: I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (June 29, 1900 ~ July 31, 1944), French pilot and writer

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  5. Hi Y'all! Funny & fast puzzle, Gary, thanks! Great theme.

    More really funny stuff, thanks, Susan. So sad that you knew someone in that collapsed condo bldg.

    This went so fast, I had only a couple hold-ups: Shoot= ASK AWAY & 6d ALIAS for Butch or Sundance. Forgot they had real other names.

    DNK: AUER, CIS. I know we've had CIS before but it just doesn't stick with me.

    ALONE. Alas!

    AMBIEN: My brother had some bizarre reactions after taking AMBIEN to sleep on a trans-Atlantic flight. His wife had to deal with an "unhappy zombie" in an overseas airport. He won't take that again.

    Happy Birthday, Barry! Your son must be as tall as you by now.

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  6. FIR, nailing my WAG at AUERxCERA. Only erassed LADel for LADLE. Seems to me that would be "laid-lee". No wonder I can't spel. UNTIE!

    Why do we need a qualifier when a person's perceived gender matches the birth plumbing? I'll buy into that when we have a European-American History Month.

    Congrats to the mighty Lightning for their fine victory in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. It was more important for them than for Montreal, who would feel great if they come away from Tampa with a split. But that win makes tonight's game more important for Montreal than for Tampa. Lose the first two and you are in deep kimchee.

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  7. This took me 5:02 to find my way home.

    I haven't been a fan of circles in crossword puzzles.
    I'm not a fan of any clue that looks anything like "Violinist Leopold."
    I'm also not a fan of mescal, but that one is my fault.

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  8. Good Morning:

    Pretty straightforward puzzle for a Tuesday. Only unknown was Auer which is really not unknown, just not remembered. Lots of fun stuff to comment on: CBS/MSNBC, Peso/Pesto, ESSO/Gas, GEs/Les, GEs/Gas, Crime Lab/DNA, and Owe/Owies. Yesterday, we had an A Game, today is the big O game: Ammo, Also, Igloo (Easter Egg), ESSO, Oro, Pesto, Ado, Eero, and Peso. Lots of fun CSOs, as well: Alan (Reba), Lucina (Oro, Peso), Ray O and Inanehiker (EEG), Kazie (Opals), JazzB (Ron), CEh (ESSO) and Ray O, Anon T, and AnonPVX (Pesto and Omertà).

    Thanks, Gary, for a Tuesday treat and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the colorful commentary and striking visuals. I liked your Atom joke and the Pig cartoon and laughed out loud at the Reading Glasses cartoon.

    FLN

    That’s a very unusual interest your eldest chose. The finished equipment is very impressive, too.

    Have a great day and stay cool.

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  9. There are several hundred common English words ending in -EL. Here is just a sample:
    ravel, squirrel, sentinel, model, channel.

    The term "man" can refer to either a transgender man or a cisgender man, just as the term "human" can refer to a man or a woman. In some instances it helps to be more specific.

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  10. I miss Barry G….we shared the same wavelength many times. Happy Birthday!!

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  11. Good morning everyone.

    Happy Birthday to Barry G. Hope you are doing well.

    Got it all without needing white-out. FIR. In addition to the 'BROKEN HOMES' we also have IGLOO which is unbroken. Only tough spot was AUER crossing CERA which was successfully WAGged.

    Enjoy the day.

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  12. FLN for Desper-Otto

    Logged into Prime Videos and Line of Duty did drop Episode 7. If you watch it before I do, don't give away the ending. And if they don't catch 'H' this season, don't give that away either, the bums.

    Play later.

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  13. FIR Tuesday, which was a fine puzzle with only one slowdown at AUER (totally unknown) and CERA (lurking in my memory). My choice of E worked. Lots of company for that fill problem, I see: IM, Spitz, PK, and Jinx. With the circles I saw what was happening with the second themer, but the reveal was unexpected. Learning moment when I looked up MESCAL a few minutes ago because I was confusing it with the drink mezcal. Many thanks to Gary and Hahtoolah for a pleasant start to the day.

    Happy Birthday to Barry G. Stop by and update us! And I hope you all are having a happy day as well.

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  14. Da Vinci Code was a straight plagiarism of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Baigent etal . Latter took Brown to Court in England to no avail. Verdict explained

    FIW, tBS. I should have rechecked Arrested Development, CERA sounds familiar. I'm pop-cul phobic

    The father of Louisa May was
    Bronson Alcott* I'm eccentric addicted

    I liked them all Owen, but yes, 3,4 were solid W's

    D-O, so a student ID from an obscure Midwest college would've left you dry. I "borrowed " my brother's draft card
    HBD, Barry. I recall your posts which means I've been around awhile

    WC

    ** I lived in Concord for five years. Passerby asked "Do you know where the Emerson House is?" I answered "Sorry, I don't know the neighbors "

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  15. Nice puzzle and the punny cartoons in the write-up were great. Many thanks, Gary and "Cat". I, too,know people who lived in the Champlain Towers South.

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  16. Waseeley, no worries. I'm just getting ready to binge Season Three.

    AUER: I'm only familiar with the "Ault" one whose first name was ADEN.

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  17. Guessed wrong at the crossing of Cera and Auer but otherwise a fun puzzle.

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  18. Delightful Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Gary! And, Susan, I always love your pictures--thanks for those too.

    Fun to start the puzzle with Mary's little LAMB. Lots of cool famous people, like DALI, NOAM Chomsky, LOUISA May Alcott, ANG Lee, and EERO Saarinen. My favorite clue was "White house" for IGLOO--cracked me up. Also OPALS appear a lot in puzzles, don't they?

    Have a great day, everybody.

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  19. FIR in 19. Last week one day in comments I said, "I'm gonna count how many names are called for in the CW, and if it's more than 5, I'm gonna pass it by". Well....by that measure I suspect there would be few CWs for me. So I hafta walk back that comment. Today's CW has, by my count, 11 names called for. Anyway, other than that complaint, this was a nice CW. I got the theme early, though it was really little help. No W/Os, which is unusual for me. Owen, very good on the limericks today. Especially the last one. That made me chuckle. I do the CWs by printing them from the local South Florida SunSentinel, and last week ran out of luck because no matter what I tried, my Epson WF-2650 refused to print, no matter what I tried. Rebooted it, deleted the driver and downloaded a new one, rebooted the computer....whatever I could think of. My computer skills are limited, so I finally called in Downtown Computer. Friday afternoon the tech changed how the printer printed from off WIFI to using a Windows program. Also used a USB cable to plug it into the home office HP laptop. When he left, the printer was printing from my office HP, my living room HP and my iPhone, the way it is supposed to work. 5:30am Saturday morning I tried to print the CW and guess what. Nothing....again. A different tech came Saturday and spent quite a bit of time on it. Finally got it to print....from the office HP only. Came back Sunday with a bunch of equipment to hook to the router, but spent a few minutes before installing all that stuff and got it to work from both HPs and my iPhone, so took the equipment away with him. It worked today. Fingers crossed. Any more problems and this Epson is gonna find itself in the trash. Downtown Computer made three trips to my house and probably spent two hours putzing with it, and the total charge was $100, which was less than I was expecting. But as I say, any more problems and I'll just replace the printer. I wish my computer skills were better, but at 76y.o., I doubt they are going to improve. Very frustrating when I can't even get a simple thing done like "Print". In my defense, even the techie said the problem was more than he can recall having in the past. Which made me feel I little less dopey.

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  20. Hi All!

    Fun, humorous theme, Gary. Thanks.

    Thank you Hahtoolah for the (as always) illustrated / comic-laden expo.

    WO: started putting OPAL in 50d's squares
    ESPs: AUER | CERA (I vaguely recalled, hence got the 'E' - Hi ATLGranny!), EERO, SANA'A, last two letters of ladLE (Hi Jinx!)
    Fav: Shoot == ASK AWAY

    Odd to see a HOUSE theme and 47a clued w/ house... with an unbroken answer. I see Spitz caught that too.
    ibid. GAS / Canadian gas.

    {B, B, AA++}

    Happy Birthday BarryG! Stop by if you're not too busy.

    FLN - IM, yep - Eldest dances to her own beat. Cool kid that way, too.

    It's raining cats & dogs at my HOUSE. This will be a good test if I configured the sprinkler's rain-gauge properly when I finally (after 11 years) put one in last weekend.

    Cheers, -T

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  21. D-otto, as for FAKE IDS people my age tell me that in NOLA nobody ever asked for an ID when they bought liquor or beer when they were 15. LA finally changed its laws a few years back to 21 being the legal age to buy booze. But here's the weird part. People can go to bars at 18 but not buy anything. And they can serve booze at 18 as a waiter or clerk in a store.

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  22. Thank you Gary and thank you Hahtoolah for your review, the great videos, and all the cartoons - there were so many goodies that I can't really pick a favorite.

    1A * GROAN.

    24A Sounds suspiciously to me like the person who wrote that FAQ was on PEYOTE at the time.

    70A The original "blue box" was actually a toy whistle that emitted a 2600 Hz audio tone, included as a freebie in boxes of Capn' Crunch cereal. The phone network used analog tones for switching signals and the whistles gave users the ability to disable the signals and compromise the network. John Draper created a small semi-conductor circuit in a "Blue Box" to replace the whistle and the phreakers were off and running. For more details ...

    9D I'm with Susan on the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. It has the largest collection of his works in the world. I personally think he was the greatest painter of the 20th Century.

    25D I cannot thank you enough Susan for the bio-pic on Leopold Auer. I had not previously heard of him. The film whetted my appetite to research more about this extraordinary musician.

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  23. This Tuesday go had a bit of crunch to it.

    Write-overs…ARMS/AMMO.

    I was dead tired last night, so of course I woke up at 3AM for no reason. Couldn’t get back to sleep, so I read for awhile, about an hour, then went back and got another 4 hours. So why so sleepy today? I love the aging process so much, it only beats the alternative.

    See you tomorrow.

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  24. Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Gary and Hahtoolah.
    I FIRed and got the theme. Hand up for an almost-Natick at the cross of AUER and CERA (I should have remembered a fellow Canadian who studied improv with Second City in Toronto.)
    I missed the Easter Egg of IGLOO, but did see STY😁

    I counted 20 three-letter fills. But I’m ok if IM is.
    I hesitated over EMANUEL since I am used to double M (and alternate Immanuel). Thanks for the background info, Hahtoolah.

    I smiled at the mini-medicine theme with AMBIEN, medication taken ORALLY (po=per OS), and QTIP in the medicine cabinet. We also had an EEG and someone (probably not certified) doctoring SSNS. Plus DNA at the CRIME LAB. (Aloe does not make the grade as I suppose it would be considered herbal😀).

    Re HOCKEY GAME last night: Montreal seemed overawed and tentative. They have been the underdogs all along in the post-season. Don’t count them out (or underestimate Carey Price!).

    Happy Birthday BarryG.
    Wishing you all a great day.

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  25. BigE - "a few years back"? It was '86 or '87 - I was just a year away from drinking age in Shreveport when they raised it to 21 (you bastards!). Fortunately, there was a loophole for "Private Clubs." Every bar became a "Private Club" with a $1 membership card available at the door.

    Oh, and one of my first jobs was the back-bar (for the waitresses to pickup drinks) at Don's Seafood. I was only 18 but had my ABO license :-)

    C, Eh! - don't forget doctoring the FAKE ID :-)

    Waseeley - I used a Red box a few times (#Walkman) in the early '80s to call my parents when it was time to fetch me up from the mall.

    Cheers, -T

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  26. Puzzling thoughts:

    FIR with no WO’s, and in the first pass through. Quite easy for a change. And I’m guessing that 4 entries and a reveal (47 letters total in 5 spots) contributed to the large number of 3-letter words and black squares (42). Glad that most of the 3-letter’s were actual words and not abbreviations. Thanks Gary and Susan.

    Not much going on here other than the heat. Thank God for a pool!

    Hand up for being one with a FAKE ID back in HS. It was 21 to buy beer et al in PA and MD. PA had paper DL’s back then that were printed on a typewriter. It was pretty easy to change the year to adjust my age by enough to purchase, and MD didn’t know I was using my “temporary driver’s permit license”, not the real one …

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  27. It spooked me a bit to see the only med to which I'm allergic as one of the fills today.
    AMBIEN is the culprit.
    Whenever I have to fill out papers for a new doctor, I have to list AMBIEN under the Allergy heading.

    What symptoms? For me, horrible hallucinations!
    They gave it to me once in the hospital. I woke up about an hour later, convinced the hospital was under attack from some invading army.
    I saw the dead and wounded bodies in the corridor outside my room. I started reaching around my bed to move the medical carts to form a protective barricade as I heard "them" coming down the hallway to get me.
    At first I didn't believe the nurses that came to tell me there was no attack. I figured they were put up to it by the "invaders."

    I was as convinced of my hallucination as many of the folk who believe the big lie their party leaders purvey. I can see where normally sane people can believe in nonsense.
    I hadn't drunk the koolaid, but I had ingested AMBIEN.

    Anyway, good PZL, Ms. Gelfand--and wonderful write-up, Hahtoolah!
    ~ OMK

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  28. Musings
    -18 holes in muggy, uncomfortable weather and then a pleasant trip to see my cute, young audiologist
    -AU_L/C_RA. “Got any IDEAS?” Nope and I guessed wrong. Oh well, it was a fun puzzle!
    -HOUSE BROKEN – Another great advantage of cat ownership!
    -We heard REBA sing the national anthem at an NU/OU FB game in Norman. She put in a lotta extra notes.
    -A surprise in SANA’A
    -You lose some leverage when you pay UP FRONT
    -I took AMBIEN once and the nightmares I had were, uh, a nightmare!
    -I saw “How much medication is taken” as dosage and not entry point
    -My 74-yr-old bride had to produce an ID to buy wine at a local grocery store last month
    -Always fun, Susan!

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  29. Liked the theme and the puzzle.What I didn't like being naticked at the cross of AUER and CERA. Typical Gary Larson PP filled "puzzle". Oh, the threes were annoying.

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  30. AnonT- I erred in writing “ someone (probably not certified) doctoring SSNS”. I meant FAKE IDS😮😀🤔👍
    Thanks.

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  31. T @2:07 PM Never 'eard of a Red Box. Very clever. Could it simulate the coins needed for LD calls?

    ABO License? American Board of Opticians?

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  32. OMK @3:04 PM I have a close friend who takes Ambien. It's what I attribute his irrational voting behavior to.

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  33. Cool puzzle; I liked it. I guess HOUSE BROKEN is a better, more upbeat, reveal than BROKEN HOMES would be.

    Hand up for guessing that letter crossing AU-L and C-RA. I guessed right.

    I cracked up at the clue for LAMB. I groaned that the answer at 1-across was MOAN.

    Dan Brown wrote about angels and DEMONs, too.

    Have never taken AMBIEN. Now I never will.

    Hahtoolah, loved your write-up and especially the fencing cartoon.

    OwenKL, I like your poems today (as I do on many days).

    Happy Birthday, Barry G! As Anonymous @ 8:07 said, we shared the same wavelength many times. I don't think you ever knew how many times I agreed with what you had to say.

    Good wishes to you all.

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  34. FIR --- but only because I (as others) chose the correct vowel for CERA. I was going to go with an O, but my avatar told me to put in the E. Thanks, Kizzy.

    Just ran my thumb over the grid, and I only felt Wite-Out in two squares, so it was a good day.

    FLN --- Thanks, Bill. It's good to be SORTA back, but I don't know how long it will last. "In the summertime, when all the leaves and trees are green," we have KID tours from local daycares almost every day at the museum. (I swear that one summer, one of the school districts ran through every kid they had!)

    Don't get me wrong: We love it (and we need the money), but it cuts severely into my crossword puzzle time. Actually, I'm only supposed to have to work Fridays, but this summer, there are a couple of local pilots who are trying to fly in and do a presentation for the kid groups (if they aren't out on a trip), and I like to be there to get them in and out safely. Hard to work on puzzles when they are there.

    Later....

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  35. Fake IDs ...When I remember my own youthful escapades and read about yours, I look with tolerant eyes on my son's and grandson's lives. We were no angels. Youth (and all of us) learn from our mistakes. The older I become the more tolerant I become. We and our progeny are basically good people despite youthful hijinx .
    Ambien does zero for me, good or bad. It is like drinking water. Therefore I cannot sleep at all on a 12 hour flight.
    At home I awaken at 5:00 AM or earlier no matter how late I fall asleep and often I cannot fall asleep before 1:00 or 2:00. I used to never get sleepy in the afternoon. Now that I take a Beta blocker I am sleepy or out of it every afternoon.
    Bill, Ambien leads to lots of irrational voting? The drug company must be reaping a windfall. LOL
    I, too, had a Natick at the E in CERA and AUER, but I have heard of the name AUER.



    I amsleepy and sometimes doze off in the PM.

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  36. Hey! The rain gauge worked! The sprinklers didn't come on today. +1 me.

    YR - as Youngest goes out with her friends past midnight, I wonder... Is she doing the same thing DW & I did back then? #mentalblock

    Barry G. - OK, answer this... Is 9a, DORA G. a relation? :-)
    //sorry Ray-O, you had your chance.

    Waseeley - Alcohol Beverage Operator(?). Or, maybe I confused my bar-tending days w/ my time in the Army at the Blood Bank.
    I can't find cite of the certificate I needed for the former.
    Re: Redbox quarters - never tried it for long-distance. Though, if I got a local number, the Bluebox should have gotten me there, I guess.

    Delusional dreams? Chantix!
    OMK, there were troopers belly-crawling in the back yard with M16s. I woke from the dream but they were still there! It took two more "wake-ups" before I was back in good ol' 1955 [BTTF - 2:06] / in bed safely snuggled up to DW.
    Other time, Eldest was doing her ballet twirls in a black tutu at the end of my bed and turned into a DEMON. I can't tell you how many Our Fathers & Hail Marys I, as an agnostic Catholic, prayed trying to break out of it :-)

    Smoked 15+ more years after that adventure, I did.

    Cheers, -T

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  37. Amazing, I had same Natick but knew AUER. I just thought letterman had moved to TBS like Conan.

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  38. By my experience with others who used ambien it is a horrible drug and should not be taken. It is much more delusional than the quaaludes of our day.

    Never owned or used a fake ID. Very happy birthday wishes to Barry G. who follwwed Dennis as our morning wake up poster boy. I miss all those who have moved on and enjoy the "sneak attack" * visits from those who stop by infrequently.

    This is the 5th appearance of CERA as fill here at the LAT in the past three years. He starred in many very successful movies

    Michael of "Arrested Development" lat Gary Larson Sun Oct 18, 2020
    Michael who played Juno's love interest in "Juno" lat Yaakov Bendavid & Yoni Glatt Sun Jun 14, 2020
    Michael of "Superbad" lat Paul Coulter Tue Aug 21, 2018
    Michael of "Arrested Development" lat Pawel FludzinskiSun Jun 10, 2018

    * A KIM'S CONVENIENCE reference which I am sure would not happy fill here

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  39. WC, how could it be a Natick if you know AUER ?

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  40. My husband also had a bad experience with Ambien. On a trip he took Ambien to help himself fall asleep in a hotel where we stayed. I awoke in the middle of the night and found that he wasn’t in our room. I found him outside our room, in his pajamas, walking around in the hotel halls eating popcorn and dropping lots of it all over the hallway. I brought him back to our room and made him get back into bed where he stayed for the rest of the night. The next morning he had no memory of his nocturnal walk and asserted “it didn’t happen”. I suggested he look out into the hallway. There was popcorn all over the carpet and in our bedroom as well. He never took Ambien again.

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  41. Trying to find something funny on the YouTubes before bedtime say...

    Waseeley - FF to 6:20 on this clip. Waz says he and Steve were robbed of an early Blue box (listen between the lines).

    Jayce - LOL theme == Broken Homes... Yeah, Pop's been married 3x; Mom 4. :-)

    LeoIII - I still need to make it out to Hobby Airport to visit. You working this weekend? (DW will be doing a 5K so I may have time on my hands).

    Cheers, -T

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