Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Craig Stowe
Our Torontonian friend gives us another puzzle from north of the border whose main feature is his pinwheel stacks of nine which were very helpful. Here are Craig's gracious comments:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for getting in touch. I've been trying for ages to fit LAVAZZA into a grid because it seems so crossword worthy, but I could never make it work. I decided to start with it as the main entry instead and work out from there. I'm not actually a huge LAVAZZA fan, though it's good. The grind we get here is too small for my French press. I get my beans from a Canadian company called Kicking Horse. I suspect LAVAZZA will be a little more familiar to folks.
I really wanted to say thank you to Rich and his team as well as to this blog for everything you do. This is about my 50th puzzle with the LA Times and it's not by accident that most of my publications are with this venue. I cannot stress enough to new and aspiring constructors how wonderful Rich is to work with. If he likes the general feel of a puzzle he will do what he can to make it happen. That is an amazing trait for any editor to have and it really helped me get to where I am today. The insightful commentaries made by the bloggers and regulars helped shape the styling of my puzzles over these past five or six years. I could go on but I'm starting to embarrass myself.
Sorry about having two affixes in a themeless, I originally had EPI- but a revision in the NE corner led to the inevitable -ETTE. Never having been pregnant, I thought ANTENATAL and prenatal were interchangeable but some of you may disagree.
Cheers!
Craig
Across:
1. Entertainment genre with a French name of uncertain origin: VAUDEVILLE - Origin of the word of the word. Early TV was heavily populated with former VAUDEVILLE stars
11. Wicked biblical king: AHAB.
15. "There's no point": IT'S USELESS
16. Kiwi plant: VINE.
16. Kiwi plant: VINE.
17. Biloxi or Gulfport: COUNTY SEAT - These two cities are both COUNTY SEATS of Harrison County, MS. There are ten such counties in MS with two COUNTY SEATS. What?
18. Suffix akin to -ule: ETTE - Buzz and Neal landed on the Moon in the small Lunar Module but I doubt it had a real kitchenETTE
19. Persona: IMAGE.
20. Johnny Cash's "At Folsom Prison" was recorded in one: STATE PEN.
22. Makes smooth and shiny, as hair: SLEEKS.
25. Voiced, in phonetics: SONANT - I'm always happy to learn
26. Heartland of America Park city: OMAHA - It is currently undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation down by the Missouri River
28. Emmy-winning journalist O'Donnell: NORAH.
29. Not at all fatty: LEAN.
32. Weave: ZIGZAG.
35. Downed: ATE.
36. "So __ heard": I'VE.
37. Longtime Italian coffee brand: LAVAZZA - Craig finally got this coffee into a puzzle! More info
38. __ es Salaam: DAR.
39. Flooey lead-in: KER.
40. Unmoved: IN SITU - NASA repaired the Hubble Space Telescope IN SITU rather than bring it back to Earth.
40. Unmoved: IN SITU - NASA repaired the Hubble Space Telescope IN SITU rather than bring it back to Earth.
41. Remove: DELE.
42. Gay leader?: ENOLA - Col. Paul Tibbets picked the B-29 he wanted off the assembly line in OMAHA where it was made. He then named that plane after his mother and flew it on that historic mission on August 6, 1945.
44. From Trondheim, e.g.: NORSE - The adjective NORSE refers to Norwegians or Scandinavians
46. Disclose: IMPART.
48. Was barely heard: PEEPED.
51. Viral oral malady: COLD SORE - Provide your own visual 😟
54. Comedian Kemper: ELLIE - Her IMDB.
56. Fastidious to a fault: ANAL - All currency in my billfold must be arranged in ascending order with the faces all in the same orientation. ANAL?
57. Check things out: POKE AROUND.
60. Russo of "Velvet Buzzsaw": RENE - Sometimes audiences like movies way more than the critics and sometimes...
61. Guided: SHEPHERDED - Successful coaches are sometimes said to have SHEPHERDED teams to championships
62. Saw: EYED.
63. "You betcha!": YES INDEEDY.
Down:
1. Caesarean section?: VICI - Bill Murray's variation on Caesar's proclamation of Veni, VICI, Vidi
2. They make up everything: ATOMS - Fun cluing
3. Prevailing: USUAL.
4. "The Pit and the Pendulum" setting: DUNGEON.
5. Appreciation: ESTEEM.
6. "Oy __!": VEY - Yiddish for "Woe is me!"
7. They, to Thierry: ILS - If Sonny and Cher sang I Got You Babe in French, it would start, "ILS disent que nous sommes jeunes et nous ne savons pas" ("They say we're young and we don't know")
8. Wranglers' cousin: LEES.
9. 180 is its max. score: LSAT.
10. Spanish pronoun: ESTAS - Elvis would have sang: ¿ESTÁS sola esta noche? ("Are you lonesome tonight?)
11. Brand with a Positively Radiant line: AVEENO.
12. Ranked musical listing: HIT PARADE - Take as big a bite out of this 65-yr-old trip down memory lane that you like...
11. Brand with a Positively Radiant line: AVEENO.
12. Ranked musical listing: HIT PARADE - Take as big a bite out of this 65-yr-old trip down memory lane that you like...
13. Like care during pregnancy: ANTENATAL - A synonym for PRENATAL
14. "I can relate": BEEN THERE.
21. Pacific archipelago: TONGA - 170 islands with white sand beaches that are mostly unoccupied
24. Makeshift blades: SHIVS.
27. On-__, off-__: AGAIN - Sounds like government mask policies
29. "Whatevs": LIKE I CARE - This slang for "Whatever" begs the question: How did "I could care less" come to mean the same as " I couldn't care less"
30. Toss-up: EVEN MONEY - Equally likely
31. Heathrow lander: AEROPLANE - When in Britain, spell as the British spell
33. Trio with notable beards: ZZ TOP - Bassist Dusty Hill ( left below) died this week at 72 years old.
34. Fair color?: AZURE - With apologies to Irving Berlin: "AZURE skies smilin' at me, nothin' but AZURE skies do I see:".
37. Inventors of a sort: LIARS - Clever!
41. Lament: DEPLORE.
43. Dished up: LADLED.
45. Blow a fuse: SEE RED - Two words
47. Meryl's "Mary Poppins Returns" role: TOPSY - I remember TOPSY as a character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
49. Duck: ELUDE.
50. Enjoyed a bistro: DINED.
52. Architect Mies van der __: ROHE.
53. Just makes, with "out": EKES.
55. Go around in circles?: EDDY - "Hey, Gary, didn't you use this picture in your write-up last week as well?" "Uh, yes, ya caught me!"
55. Go around in circles?: EDDY - "Hey, Gary, didn't you use this picture in your write-up last week as well?" "Uh, yes, ya caught me!"
58. It may be left of center: EPI - Meta clues can be really tricky
 |
| Philip AHN and David Carradine |
41 comments:
DNF. Got the entire N, W, and upper E, but the center/S was mostly white. Didn't know LAVAZZA, KAZAN, TOPSY, ELLIE, ROHE, AHN; unless there's a sense I don't know of, I don't think AZURE, PEEPED, nor EPI were fairly clued; and all of those left LIARS, IN SITU, POKE AROUND, SHEPHERDED, and YES INDEEDY without enough perps to guess.
A KIWI fruit grows on a VINE.
Could it be used to make green wine?
Oh, gracious, no!
Like grapes they grow,
But fuzzy, while SLEEK grape-skins shine!
Two county seats? Why duplicate?
One capital's enough per state!
Shouldn't the bounty
Of a seat be a county?
I'd DEPLORE this bipolar fate!
NORAH's lip has a COLD SORE
RENE kissed her, it's in store.
Still would TOPSY
Or ELLIE copy,
Since theirs is ANAL to DEPLORE!
{B-, B+, C-.}
Good morning!
Thought this one was going to end in tears, but d-o soldiered on and suddenly it was finished. The left side filled much quicker than the right. Don't recall seeing ANTENATAL or SHEPERDED in a puz before. LAVAZZA was all perps, and even then I wasn't sure it was correct. But as somebody said, all's well that ends well. Thanx, Craig and Husker. (Can something zipping around in orbit be considered to be "in situ?")
COUNTY SEAT: I've been to our's a couple of times, most notably for jury duty. It's over on the affluent side of the county away from us red-headed step-children.
VICI: We have a Caesar's Circle in our little town which we refer to as the Caesarian Section.
HIT PARADE: Years ago Time-Life released a series of hits from the '40s, '50s and early '60s titled Your Hit Parade -- more than 600 songs in all. Good series if you're old enough to remember 'em.
The final key to FIR was the K in SLEEK which led to (Elia)KAZAN. Hence the Z's opening up ZIGZAG and ZZTOP. When POKE replaced taKE I had PEEPED.
Not enormous difficult but tricky. Outside of ROHE and TOTSY I knew those obscure P&Ps.
I was familiar with Gavalia Coffee which really messed up the middle for awhile. Never heard of LAVAZZA
There's actually a reason for aligning the bills. If counting rapidly one places the stack between the fingers and flips through. One must avoid a bill folded which would count as 2.
Owen I always have to upgrade for inventiveness
I never know. This one seemed usual Difficulty and if Wilbur can FIR then how difficult can it be
WC
DNF, a usual Jinx Saturday. Of the 20 fills I managed, all were right so I got that goin' for me.
I liked the resurrection of the old high school chemistry class joke: Why can't you believe atoms? Because they make up everything.
I bought a couple of types of Whisker Bomb hot sauce hawked by ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons. Nice flavor, but even the hotter Have Mercy variety is a little mild for my tastes.
Thanks to Craig and Gary for the challenge. Gary, I go through my billfold every couple of weeks or so, and sort the bills and orient them so they face the same direction and have the same edge facing up. Got in the habit as the night manager of a McDonald's. I had to make the bank deposit after we closed, and the bank required all the bills be organized that way. These days I don't use cash much, so I no longer take the time to keep the bills organized in real time. (I also reflexively make change properly; truly a lost art.)
Gary, Great writeup as usual...thanks. One of the more enjoyable Saturday puzzles of late, and that is a high bar. Agree with Craig's comments re: Rich. The end result - a terrific series of puzzles. Loved all the 9 and 10 letter entries. Made the puzzle. LAVAZZA a great entry as well.
Pawel, thank you for your comment and I agree 9 and 10 letter fill are more fun to suss than 3 or 4 15s.
Craig you really have done well at the LA Times to reach 50ish in just 5 1/2 years, with 3 WSJ and 1 NYT thrown in. I think you were being modest because I count this as your 50th here.
I have tried LAVAZZA which is a nice bold Italian blend and sold for Keurig at OUR LOCAL PUBLIX .
Many Zs today, I am getting sleepy...thank you Gary and Craig
FIW today, but thank you anyway, Craig, for the clever puzzle. My downfall was the crossing with ELLIE and SEE RED. Didn't know Ellie or figure out SEE RED was two words so left an A there with a question mark nearby. Wrong WAG. Thanks Husker Gary for showing me where I went wrong.
But I got the NE corner after trial and error (bush/tree/VINE) when STATE PEN and HIT PARADE fell in place. I had tried to make ----gRADE work for the longest time. I put in LAVAssA quickly and it stayed complicating things until ZIGZAG came along. In the end, VICI, which was a surprise as I found the puzzle quite puzzling. YES INDEEDY.
Hope you all have a great Saturday!
Good Morning:
I found enough toeholds in every section to keep chipping away, except for the NE quadrant. Aveeno, Antenatal, and Sonant were slow to appear but, finally, I finished and was surprised that my time was a tad below my average for a Saturday. Other holdups were Topsy, Dar, Ahn, ZZ Top, and the never heard of Lavazza. I wasn’t keen on Ker, Epi, or Ette, but the clever cluing and fresh fill outweighed those small nits. My Atoms started out as Liars and, lo and behold, Liars showed up later, and Swede/Norse. CSO to Gary (Omaha) and Lucina (Estas).
Thanks, Craig, for a challenging romp and for dropping by and especially for keeping us entertained on a regular basis and thanks, HG, for another blockbuster review and visuals, clips, etc. Your Hit Parade brings back many memories, particularly as I had a major crush on Russell Arms. I even wrote to him and received a signed photograph. [Sigh]. (This must have been before Cary Grant stole my heart.) Sad to see, though, how cigarettes and smoking were glorified. No wonder so many of us fell for the allure of sophistication!
Have a great day.
All the Zs in the middle had me puzzled! I am so happy I get to come to this site and have the clues explained and find out what "zigzags" others had! Take care, and I'm off into the smoky haze to run the necessary errands! You all do impart a lot of wisdom, thanks!
FIR, but it was a challenge, especially in the NE. It's interesting that Craig commented on a couple of entries in that region. The first toe hold was in the SW but looking at the grid, now, it's difficult to recall how even that came about. COLD SORE and ANAL? Nah, what an unappealing way to start. I think it was AEROPLANE and ENOLA that let things take off.
Thanks, Craig and Gary, for a bit of very pleasant diversion before the rest of a busy day.
I had to really ZIGZAG to FIR after thinking it was USELESS to try and finish. In the NE it was the clever ANTE (not PRE)NATAL CROSSING the unknowns NORAH & SONANT after guessing ESTAS. Whew! I only got the center because yesterday we were in a restaurant that had a sign saying they 'proudly served LAVAZZA'. On a cruise a few years ago that was the only brand available and DW said it was the worst coffee she ever drank. (B.E. doesn't drink coffee) I'd forgot about that coffee; thank you sign.
But the entire South gave the most trouble. In the SE TOPSY, AHN & ELLIE were unknowns. Couldn't decided between EVADE or ELUDE, SPIN or EDDY, and ELVIS or ELLIE. YES INDEED-Y, I've never heard of the Y added. VICI was perps today; knew veni & vedi but couldn't remember the vici. LSAT- really didn't know the scoring but it looked okay so it stayed; not a lawyer here.
ZZ TOP's bassist, Dusty Hill, died this week. " A Sharp Dressed Man", he was not. But I did buy their album Fandango about 45 years ago.
This was an exercise in P/P but not too overwhelming. Most of the unknowns were handled by perps. These were definitely needed for LAVAZZA and for TOPSY (saw the movie but just remembered Meryl Streep as a crazy old aunt instead of Ed Wynn as crazy old Uncle Albert in the original Mary Poppins)
I'm with IM - fun clip about Your Hit Parade - but sad about the glorification of cigarettes- the effect of nicotine addiction on so many people's health and well being- they were really duped. I can still remember the ad "LSMFT" Lucky Strikes mean fine tobacco when I was a kid.
At first with Johnny Cash - they already had mentioned Folsom Prison - so I was trying to think what would fit e.g. cafeteria, rec room LOL?
Thanks HG - neat to have a reference to the Heartland of America Park on a Saturday for you!
Thanks Craig for the puzzle and stopping by!
Great puzzle! I only knew LAVAZZA because they have their logo on a lot of the shade umbrellas for outdoor cafes. I've never tried their coffee.
I did not know Biloxi and Gulfport were county seats within the same county! Gary and Craig, thank you for that interesting tidbit! I also didn't know Biloxi was so small - it's never had more than about 50,000 people.
Today I also learned that there is something called the kiwi VINE, which is a cousin of the plant that produces kiwifruit. I also learned that kiwifruit are native to China, not New Zealand, and were only named kiwifruit in the 1960s by New Zealand marketers.
I had to give up on the NE corner. For some reason I couldn't think of AHAB, and the down word Prenatal didn't fit, even though I had the TAL at the end. I also had Lavazzo instead of lavazza which didn't help either since that didn't give me TONGA (could only think of LARGO which was obviously wrong). Oh well, I made a valiant try.
I had to do a lot of guessing in many of the other sections before I got them.
I did really like all the Zs in the middle. That was a great combination of words.
Well, Saturdays are toughies for me, but I got a surprising numbers of items in this one and ended up enjoying it--many thanks, Craig. Great commentary, Husker Gary--thanks for that too.
Nice to get Oy VEY, right off the bat, both puzzle word and exclamation. So happy ENOLA Gay turned out to be right--what a great puzzle standard she's become. Got COLD SORE without any problem, but goofed by putting THIN instead of LEAN for a while. And so it went, on and off, lots of fun.
Jinx, loved your ATOM joke.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
The ATOMS joke was a gimme because it was fresh in my mind.
Here we are with my UCSB Physics friend Harry Nelson and his wife Audrey with Harry wearing the ATOMS joke.
Learning moment that a COUNTY can have two COUNTY SEATs.
Otherwise, way too many unknown names. Had KAZiN/LiVAZZA which seemed just as good as those unknowns.
How about this DUCK scene that we experienced on Thursday visiting our friends in the mountains above Santa Barbara?
Husker Gary Thanks for the OY VEY Brooklyn sign! Love it!
DNF. After 40 minutes I had about 3/4 of the cells filled, then got stuck, and ran out of patience. Having several cells filled WRONG certainly did not help. Put LOREAL where AVEENO was supposed to be as an unfortunately wrong WAG. DNK SONANT, which further buggered up the NE. DNK the evil king, so that was the last straw for the NE. LAVAZZA was another DNK. Perps got me all but the last letter which I guessed and stuck in an E. In the SE dopey me put EIDER in for 49D Duck, and DRANK in for 50D, Bistro. That thoroughly buggered up the SE. Anyway, 2 CW in a row now that killed me. Yesterday I gave up and resorted to Google, giving me a FIW, today I refused to do that and ended up with a DNF. Rats. Looking forward to an unclefred level Monday. Nice write-up, HG, thanx for ‘splainin things.
I thought this Saturday grid had some tough clues.
Write-overs…LIARS/ATOMS, NEAT/ANAL. There would have been a lot more if I had guessed rather than leave blank.
The “N” in VINE was last to fill.
Not to be elitist, but if you like coffee why the heck are you buying it already ground? Invest in a nice grinder and enjoy fresh ground coffee.
See you Monday.
I watched The Hit Parade every week in San Juan, Puerto Rico, one of the few english speaking T.V. programs we got. Dorothy Collins and Giselle Mackenzie (sp?) singing the same songs over and over again. "Secret Love" and "Green Door". We also got a spooky show that I called The Squeaky Door, but began with a voice over "Welcome to the inner sanctum". We also watched bull fights. Go figure.
I started school at the naval base, Daddy was stationed with the C.A.A. for two years.
Becky
TMI?
Becky
Becky, never. That was an entertaining and apt post.
Well, we almost struggled to a FIR, but we fell short with unknowns Lavazza and ZZtop crossing each other. We tend to combine forces when the puzzles are too much for either of us to solo.
Despite not crossing the finish line, I thought the puzzle was creative, intelligent and fun. Loved VAUDEVILLE, DUNGEON and INSITU, among others. Never heard of ANTENATAL, but I knew AHAB, so I figured it out.
Thank you, Craig, for a wonderful workout, and thank you , Gary, for always giving us an entertaining tour.
Azure skies and mid-70’s here today (around the corner from Misty). Pretty darned perfect! Enjoy the weekend, everyone.
Hello everyone.
Not as hip as Gary so, crapped out with ZZ TOP. Got all the 10 letter stacks. They made the puzzle interesting. Had 'report' before IMPART.
TRONDHEIM - Beautiful spot on the south shore of a large fjord-like bay. The Nidaros Cathedral there holds the remains of St. Olaf. A frequent puzzle visitor, his wall crypt dates from the 1100's, I believe.
ANAL - Gary is doing the right thing with his wallet. Wouldn't want to grab a 2 dollar bill by mistake when a 1 dollar bill covers it. Faces should face the front. Upside-down is OK. (I hold my bridge had with alternat colors by suit and each suit in descending order.
Have a great day.
Becky, is this the TV show you remember?
Hi Y'all! YES INDEEDY this was a challenge, but it's useless to DEPLORE Saturday difficulty. Therefore, thanks, Craig for a mind-stretcher & Gary for enlightening us.
Like IM I was surprised to finish in considerably less time than usual for a Saturday. First pass thru my only entry on the top tier was OYVEY. And I felt that sincerely. To start, Caesarian section wasn't "born". I've been pregnant four times but never heard of ANTENATAL. I tried "vitamins" there after prenatal turned red.
Whatever would we do without our frequent EKES out in the puzzle? We need to EKES out a lot of answers to vague clues.
I really like NORAH O'Donnell's newscasts.
DNK: LAVAZZA (don't drink coffee), Kiwi grew on a VINE,SONANT, DAR, ELLIE, KAZAN, TOPSY, ROHE, AUN.
Looked daunting with all the long fills, but I FIR after changing evade to ELUDE. Never heard of LAVAZZA, but the perps were solid. ZZ TOP's one of my favorite groups - they hail from the Houston area IIRC. Interesting in that its drummer, Frank Beard, is the only one not sporting one. Thanks, Gary, for the expo and the links. Never heard of two county seats in one county - how confusing that would be.
Take heart, those who DNK SONANT.
I studied phonetics for years and never heard anyone use the word.
Sure, it makes sense. But in practical usage we just say "sounded" vs "unsounded." Academics get a bad rap for using highfalutin words when in fact much of that is assigned by editors of journals and, well, comedians.
Becky ~ C.A.A.? Or C.I.A.?
Wilbur ~ Yep, lotsa Zs today!
What was weird for me was not filling KAZAN for 27D for the longest time. Despite his being in my field and my meeting him once.
But after I saw that MILLER wouldn't fit, I was only trying to squeeze actor names into that slot.
Shame on me.
~ OMK
___________
DR: WooHoo! Just one diagonal today--on the near side.
BUT the good news is that I can get a 15 letter anagram (15 of 15 letters) out of it! A rare day!!
OK: Imagine this situation: You are at the car dealership, about to close a deal on a new car, and all you need is to get a fair trade-in price on your old model.
The fast-talking salesman wants to give you much less than you want. This is what you say to him...
-or-
Wait!
Imagine you're undergoing an IRS audit. (Oh, No!) The appointed commissioner says the net profit from your business last year was nearly twice what you reported.
In a desperate, quakingly meek voice, you plead with him to...
"REËVALUATE IT, GUY!!"
Referring again to my anagram posted above,
that anagram quotation may well be used by a certain recent demagogic leader (not to be named here, to avoid politics) in dialogue with congressional investigators who may now have access to his previously withheld tax returns...
Heheheh.
~ OMK
Ol Man Keith -- Civil Aeronautics Administration, later changed to Federal Aviations Agency
Desper Otto -- YES!!!
It’s very certain that no investigators will look into the Ukrainian, Chinese and American taxpayer millions the Bidens have put into their pocket while not producing anything of any value. Keep your damned politics out of here. It’s already on 90% of the media!
Anonymous @ 5:00, please keep YOUR politics out of here.
I liked this puzzle and admire its construction although I could not finish it. Never heard of TOPSY and could not get the perps without it, nor it without the perps, so I had to look it up. Didn't know ELLIE Kemper either, but the perps filled it for me. Had to change SLICKS to SLEEKS, Still don't know why AZURE is a "fair" color. Excellent puzzle, Craig. Excellent write-up, Gary.
My wife loves NORAH O'Donnell but I can't stand her. To me she's almost worse than David Muir in the way she inflects her voice and contorts her facial expressions to make everything, and I mean everything, sound like a crisis. It actually, IMO, detracts from the meaning of what she is saying. Also, why spend so many precious seconds telling us that it is "breaking news" or that "we have a lot to get to tonight"? And, man oh man, does she ever preen when she proclaims a news story is "exclusive." Sometimes it seems it's all about her more than it is about the facts of the news.
Like Keith, I studied linguistics and have never heard the term SONANT. We always said voiced or unvoiced. (The "b" is bad is voiced; the "p" in pad is unvoiced.)
Trivia: Change 2 letters in LAVAZZA and you get RAGAZZA, meaning girl.
"No no, sweetie! Don't run away! It's just a cold sore!"
When I see AVEENO I think of Jennifer Aniston hawking it the TV commercials.
Good wishes to you all this last day of July.
a BIG Saturday blow out...plus lots to do today (but no excuse for a devastating DNF.) ☹
Let my fine whine commence:
SONANT? wha? Never see ANTENATAL used probably because most understand Pre and Postnatal. NORma O'Donnell wouldn't work, wonder why? ELLIE Kemper? (and I listen to a lot of comics on Sirious XM radio) Phillip AHN? (com'ahn!!). architect ROHE? oh?
Canada Eh If I don't wanna drive across the border do I take an AEROPLANE? ✈ would that then Kerb my enthusiasm for traveling?
KER flooey, really? on a Saturday (at least KER fuffle) "Cæsarian section" womb or salad? ("I conquered ", so?)...."makes smooth shiny hair" slicks? "They make up everything" liars? no, no, no and no. Although I "ate at" a bistro it was the raung thing to do. If you're not sleeping the only ZZ together is TOP.....Isn't STATEPEN an abbrev.? 🤔
Medaglia D'Oro (Gold Medal) brand coffee, not LAVAZZA, was what my parents used on the rare occasions they made espresso but both are expensive. I always grab a Cuban brand, Bustelo...plus I commit the mortal sin of using it to make a cappuccino after supper. (in Italy, never served after the noon hour, ) which I expiate by adding enough anisette so I no longer care. 😜
Dished up is serving something solid, LADLED like soup 🍵..ENOLA doesn't lead GAY, it's a separate word, AERO leads PLANE.
Where you are if at Cruise's house.....ATOMS.
We just want what's best, ____ parents...AZURE.
Off again, ____ again ...AHN
Grandkids back for a week..you all may be spared a few days of nonsense.😄
The anonymi are multiplying today like Pablo Escobar's pet hippopotami in Colombia. 🦛🦛🦛🦛
jayce @ 5:45 We're all gonna die!!!!!
Jayce- I gave up watching 'news'casts years ago. The so-called 'National news' is biased garbage with agenda driven comments, not reporting. But the newspapers are not much better. I subscribe to the local paper to get the crossword puzzle and the comic section.
TokenCreek, ohh noooo!
Big Easy, I hear ya. When LW watches the news I play a game or do something else. I peruse the Apple News app to glean what I can.
Surprised. I did not find this difficult (especially for Saturday) and FIR.
>> Roy
Real downer puzzle 4 me! First- shopping all day (Friday retirement checks). Finally got to puzzle after a late dinner (9 p.m.) Should have tossed when I peeked at 1D ("Caesarian section"). NOT cute but very deceptive. Actually that was the only "caving" moment. Well, into bed for some sleep before Sunday's challenge.
10-down: "estas" is not a pronoun. It's the second person familiar conjugation of the verb estar. "You are" can be stated as "tu estas" or simply "estas". Sorry for the missing accent marks on "tu estas" -- don't know how to add on the cell phone.
Post a Comment