google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, July 21, 2021 Daniel Raymon

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Jul 21, 2021

Wednesday, July 21, 2021 Daniel Raymon

Theme: I'LL SECOND THAT (38. "Amen!" ... or a hint to the start of four other long answers) - First words are all "twos".

17. Mole, perhaps: DOUBLE AGENT.

21. Either Bush 43 daughter: TWIN SISTER.

58. Braille is one: BINARY CODE.

64. Olympic event featuring death spirals: PAIR SKATING.

Boomer here again, filling in another blog gap.  

When I saw this theme, I could not help but think of a PAIR of our TWINS suffering a shortage of DOUBLES.  But I could not fit BINARY onto the baseball field.

Across:

1. Prepare to get up from one's plane seat: UNBELT.  Or maybe raise a glass from your seat at the bar and order UN BELT.


7. Sucker for a flame: MOTH.  I just do not see too many MOTHS any more.

11. Camera letters: SLR.

14. Hoi __: POLLOI.

15. Mine, in Montreal: A MOI.  I guess they still speak French in Montreal. I have relatives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and when they visited here their English was fine.

16. Rival: VIE.

19. Señora Perón: EVA.


20. Palindromic woman's name: ANNA.  Also ELLE.

23. Bit of body ink: TAT. Talked about this on Monday.

24. "The Black Cat" author: POE.  The poor Black Cat is blamed for a multitude of bad luck.

25. Locker room powders: TALCS.

26. Belgian expressionist James: ENSOR.


28. Stun: DAZE.  Sometimes for a festival it replaces the word DAYS.

32. Diamond Head locale: OAHU.  Why are there Interstate Highways in Hawaii ?

33. 1974 musical based on a 1900 novel, with "The": WIZ.  A Michael Jackson movie that does not have the Magic of Minnesota's Judy Garland as Dorothy.

35. eBay offers: BIDS.  C.C. and I have been putting some of my baseball cards out there with a little bit of success.

37. Drop off for a bit: NAP.

42. Meter preceder: ODO.  We have not yet reached 3000 miles on the ODOmeter of our Santa Fe.

43. Lake formed by the Hoover Dam: MEAD.  I have been there years ago.  I never took C.C. there on our Graybar reunion trips.  I never went down in the dam for a tour. We have one of these on the Mississippi near our home and when you've seen one, you've seen them all. It's kind of fun to bring popcorn and toss it into lake MEAD and watch the fish go for it.  

44. "Told __!": YOU.  Told me WHAT ??

45. Lox variety: NOVA.  Chevrolet used to make these.  I am not sure if they are still around.



47. Burst forth: SPEW.

49. Language in which "w" and "y" are considered vowels: WELSH.  Must be the Queen's English.

53. 2010 Barack appointee: ELENA.  Ms. Kagan of the Supreme Court.

55. Parrot: APE.

57. Bothered a lot, with "at": ATE.  I like restaurants but I ATE AT home for many months and I am sure you all know why.

62. Sooner State city: ENID.  OOOHHHklahoma where the wind blows sweeping down the plain.

63. Vivid dye: AZO.

66. Volleyball scoring unit: SET.  Also a number of complete SETS of Topps Heritage Chrome baseball cards

67. Small advantage: EDGE.  On the greens, there are small holes with EDGEs.  Words cannot describe how a ball can turn 90 degrees around the hole without dropping in.  I have run out of CROSS WORDS to say when this happens.

68. With 56-Down, type of black tea with another color in its name: ORANGE. 56. See 68-Across: PEKOE.

69. Journal's end?: ESE. Journalese.

70. Gaelic gal: LASS.

71. Persuasive pieces: ESSAYS.  I think these are easier to write than to construct a Crossword.

Down:

1. Reason for a restart: UPDATE.  No restart here, keep going with the down words that are left.

2. Political pundit Peggy: NOONAN.

3. Numbs: BLUNTS.

4. Idris of "Luther": ELBA.

5. "Kidding!" letters: LOL.  Ha Ha, do people still use LOL for Laughing Out Loud.  I do not really believe that they were laughing anyway.

6. Associate with: TIE TO.

7. Ancient trio: MAGI.  "Field and Fountain, Moor and Mountain, following yonder Star."

8. Black cat, to some: OMEN.

9. Quite a lot: TONS.  Yes, I still have TONS of baseball cards.

10. "Start the music!": HIT IT.  Or what fans may yell at Target Field to those guys with TC on their caps.

11. __ Savitskaya, first woman to perform a spacewalk: SVETLANA. Soviet cosmonaut.



12. Modern customer support option: LIVE CHAT.

13. Reacts in fear, as a horse: REARS UP.  First you place a tee in the ground.  Then you grab your driver and REAR UP.

18. Wonderstruck: AWED.  The guys in your threesome will be AWED when you swing.

22. __ Tomé and Príncipe: SAO.

24. Spectrum maker: PRISM.

27. Potterverse courier: OWL.  The OWL and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat.  

29. Cabin or castle: ABODE.  Our Castle is a comfortable three level home where the top floor is always warmer than the basement.  We got used to it.

30. Chard alternative: ZIN.

31. Water whirled: EDDY.  I never knew what causes these things.

34. Pizza pieces?: ZEES.  Actually in Minnesota, they come in triangles.

36. "Dred" novelist: STOWE.



38. Reveres: IDOLIZES.  Years ago, I was among fans that Idolized Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew.

39. Heart-y message?: LOVE NOTE.

40. Upper limit: CAP.  I still wear a cap with TC on the front.

41. Color: HUE.

42. __ hit: baseball single: ONE BASE.  Yes we see a lot of singles.  The "Bombas" boys are history.

46. Carrier to Tokyo: ANA.  A lot of Olympians will be taking a flight on this airline.  Not too many fans though.

48. Rolls of money: WADS.  Those guys went to outer space.

50. Pacific weather phenomenon: LA NINA.

51. Cheap: STINGY.  It's tough to be STINGY these days.  Gas and food are going up so stingy folks must stay home and stop eating.

52. Risk-offsetting investments: HEDGES.  I invested $5.00 in Minnesota lottery tickets Monday and I "won" $2.00.  That's about as close as I get to HEDGE investing.

54. Cosmetician Adrien: ARPEL.



59. When tripled, "et cetera": YADA.

60. Smokes, briefly: CIGS.  Not me, anymore.  When I quit they were about one dollar per pack.  Now when we go to Las Vegas they have vending machines offering a pack for $10.00.  Now I can lose $10.00 worth of quarters in the slot machine and stay healthy.

61. Crude metals: ORES.

62. JFK board data: ETAS.  Their guess for Time of Arrival.

65. Cue followers: ARS.

Boomer




48 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Saw "Daniel Raymon" and read "Damon Runyon." Can you spell dyslexic? This one came together faster than yesterday's -- no inkblots, no Wite-Out. Didn't notice the theme during the solve, but it was apparent after finishing. D-o even figured out that 38a must've been the reveal. Yay. Thanx, Daniel, and our pinch-hitting golfer bowler, Boomer. (Actually, the tour of Hoover Dam is pretty interesting, down, down, down, among the turbines)

"Grain Belt": Brought back memories of my ute, along with Hamm's, Schlitz, Blatz, Adler Brau. I could go on and on, but I'm getting thirsty.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but I thought it was Thursday-hard. DNK AMOI, ENSOR, SVETLANA,SAO, or that lox comes in varieties. Erased foe for VIE, journalist for journalESE, and MAjI (sloppy). Wasn't fond of the clueing for LOL. Also, presidents do not appoint supreme court justices, they nominate them. Unforced error.

On the other hand, I love that "parrot" can clue APE. And "numbs" for BLUNTS. Yes, BLUNTS numb, especially the high-quality stuff sold in the legal pot shops (or so I'm told.) Great CIGS! LOL.

Boomer, I hate it when a putt EDGEs out and comes back toward me. Last time that happened I came home with a new putter. Because the ONE that missed that putt didn't float. LOL.

Thanks for the challenge, Daniel. And thanks to Boomer for yet another fun tour.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Hi, DO, I saw Damon Runyon, also! No problems with the solve but needed perps for Svetlana and Ensor. The theme was obvious early on, but the reveal was a nice Aha. I liked the Orange/Pekoe duo.

Thanks, Daniel, for a mid-week treat and thanks, Boomer, for pinch hitting once again. Your wit and wisdom are always welcome and appreciated.

FLN

AnonPVX, very happy to hear of your good health report! How relieved you must be.

Have a great day.

OwenKL said...

FIRight handily enough.

But I protest the BINARY CODE description of Braille! True, the dots are either raised or flat. But the dots, by themselves, are meaningless. It would make as much sense to say the alphabet was binary because it's made up of lines that are either there or not. Braille letters are made up of 6-dot arrangements, so referring to it as a hexnary code could be correct (not hexadecimal, as that's 16, not 6).
The numerals on your alarm clock and calculator are made up of 7 segments that are each on or off, but you don't call that a binary code, nor a septnary code. Those segments make 10 characters, so they're a decimal (decinary) code. The English alphabet has 26 letters, so it's a 26nary code. Braille has potentially* 2^6=64 characters, so it could be a 64nary code. (Anyone got the Latin for that?)
(*Potentially, since the 64 include punctuation and combination marks.)

Lemonade714 said...

The LAT debut for Daniel who has had many NYT publications, including many variety puzzles.

It was a reasonably simple solve but there were many perp fill. For eample, I still have no idea why 65. Cue followers: ARS is correct, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of POLLOI and À MOI with OY and WA.

I nicknamed my niece SVETLANA after the cosmonaut.

Welcome to the Corner Daniel; and Boomer, you are the best.

Wilbur Charles said...

A lot of ink was spilled in the SW with scratch hit for the awkward (in fact never used at all) ONE BASE. There's no four BASE hit either.

Or, Boomer, even worse when the ball drops in for a look around and comes back out to sit half in, half out

I was stumped ere I saw ELBA

Had no serious clue as to NOV?/AN?

Actually this one went Wednesday slow for me compared to the Tuesday sprint

WC

Needless to say I enjoy a Boomer write-up even on a Wednesday. Never too much baseball and golf.

Congrats to Bucks and to a superstar who transcended Super

Yellowrocks said...

I saw the theme with DOUBLE and TWIN. I thought the reveal was clever.
ENSOR took all perps, but I after I filled it I realized I had seen it before. Therefore, there was no unfamiliar fill for me. FOE before VIE.
Years ago, returning at night from camping in PA, there were so many white moths dancing in my headlights it looked like it was snowing.
I agree, Boomer, we do not see nearly as many moths around the porch light as we used to.
It took a while to stop thinking of CHARD as a veggie and take a sip of wine. I do not like rosé zin because it is so sweet. It is popular among my friends. I prefer dry red zin, or better yet, Merlot or Cab.
On a trip I took 18 years ago with my sister we toured Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. We also took a lovely boat ride on Lake Powell. It is so sad to see the depletion of these wonderful lakes.
OKL, you almost had me convinced until I read this.
Binary
Jinx, I agree, Presidents do not appoint Supreme Court Justices.
Finally I realized why CUES is ARS. LMNOP(QR).

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

The Royal entourage has departed, leaving a knighthood and two beheadings.👑

Anyhoo..back to cruciv-urbia..

FIR with a single inkover: foe/VIE ..(I can't be the only one.. plus.. a bit clunky for rival) but reasonable humpday challenge with a gettable theme..🎼 "I'LL SECOND THAT emotion" 🎵

What many moonstruck young ladies say about Idris: "Able was I ere I saw ELBA"

Peggy NOONAN came str8 outta the depths of my cerebral CW storage lobe. Almost put "upload" for UPDATE. Climbed Diamond Head 10 years ago (have the T-shirt as proof) not sure I could do an encore.

PRISM asks a rainbow, "Where did indigo?" water whirled great clue. Perpwaited on WELc/SH, (pronounced OoELSH? "w" as a vowel )...Gaelic gal Ooelch miss? 😏

When is a parrot not a parrot.🙉....Must YADA always be tripled? ("Yada, Yada" won't work?, would have fit the binary theme)

"I'LL drink to THAT", was one letter too long. I thought death spirals related to "high divING"..nope. ENSOR unknown

Ancienf Persians and their favorite alcoholic honey drink ....MEAD
Popular soap since 1965: " ____ of Our Lives" ....DAZE.
"Told ____ !"....HUE
Mosquitoes and bees....STINGY

Relentless ark-worthy weather. Forget crosscountry gas pipelines..we should pipe our excess rain water to parts of the country that need it.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Liked the theme and most of the fill. ARS, not so much. Do we mean 'cue(r)'s? But even on the gluey fill, perps were strong. Liked the ORANGE / PEKOE. Did an alphabet run on WIZ crossing ZEES to get it right. Share Owen's concern about BINARY, but perhaps a Braille pro can set me straight. Otherwise, good job, Daniel.

Off to play some bridge.

Malodorous Manatee said...

I agree with Ray @ 9:05. I, too, put in FOE and and had to change it. I guess that rival was being used as a verb in the clue. Noun or Verb? Noun or Verb? One of the xword mantras.

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

Thanks, Daniel, for some Wednesday fun. TWIN SISTER was an easy first theme entry for me. I liked cue follower as I was looking in the wrong direction there. I wanted line, but that wasn't happening. I liked PEKOE crossing ORANGE. Aha! Braille is a BINARY CODE. Cool learning moment for me.

Boomer, thank you for another fine tour. I hope this isn't cutting into your golf. ;-)

Have a fine day. Here it looks like a make your own sunshine day.

Lucina said...

Hola!

It's one of those mornings when I awoke early! Mostly I breezed through Daniel's puzzle until I hit the SW corner. I knew it had to be LOVE NOTE and ELENA but NOVA stumped me. The car NOVA is familiar but not that variety of lox or the Japanese carrier.

Finally I just went for it and FIR.

I like the sound of SVETLANA. We had one living here at Taliesen West but I think she got homesick and either returned to Russia or somewhere else.

I love ORANGE PEKOE tea. Yes, Idris ELBA makes me wish I was young again.

The cemetery on Diamond Head is where many servicemen and women are buried.

Boomer, you are a trooper! Thank you for taking on DOUBLE duty!

Enjoy the day, everyone!

Lucina said...

Spitz:
Yes, I believe it's PQR, CUE AR. Actually, I didn't even notice it because it was filled by perps, ORANGE and ESSAYS. Clever cluing by Mr. Raymon.

EZ said...

Rs follow Qs...

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Late week cluing for NOVA and only knowing JAL as a Japanese Airline slowed my roll on this fun puzzle.
-Filling in BINARY CODE was easy but learning about it was even better. Dot/No dot – Duh!
-I much prefer an SLR to my iPhone as a camera but the latter is always with me
-18 holes of golf and mowing the lawn put over 7 miles on my iPhone ODOmeter last week
-“Told YOU!” My partner ignored my advice about trying to hit his ball through the branches of a tree.
-The same partner left a ball on the EDGE of the cup with 40% of it over but not in the hole
-One episode of The Crown showed Prince Charles struggling to learn Welsh and then giving a speech in that language for his investiture as the Prince of Wales
-A restart can cure a lot of computer ills other than installing UPDATES
-Abe’s comment upon meeting STOWE
-Off to mow. I’m pretty sure my electric mower will start.

ATLGranny said...

A Wednesday FIR to continue my current streak. Now I am getting more nervous about making a stupid mistake! Daniel's theme was a huge help and I suspected what was happening when I filled in TWIN SISTER. Thanks for the fun, Daniel. Are you new to us, too?

My main WO was having ScOtt/STOWE. I really liked seeing IDOLIZES next to LOVE NOTE. And I had a question mark by "cue followers" ARS until I thought of the letters Q and R. Tricky Wednesday clue. Thanks for helping out today, Boomer. We got to see you TWICE this week to continue the theme!

Off now for a walk before it rains again. Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Sherry said...

Besides all the names, two that crossed each other, I take issue with 3 clues. Chard alternative- Zin, baseball hit- one base, cue followrs-are. Seemed like cheats to me.

waseeley said...

Thank you Daniel for a slightly chewy Wednesday puzzle. Was going gangbusters until I got mired in the SW swamp, mucked around a bit and finally surfaced with an FIR.

And thanks for stepping up to the plate Boomer. Rumor has it that the TWINS are in the market for a DH (or two or three) - you should throw your CAP in the ring.

Speaking of the TWINS, they even made an appearance in a themer. Now if they would just SHOW UP at Target Stadium.

Speaking of themes and reveals, this one actually helped me get 58A BINARY CODE. Oh and Boomer if you want to squeeze BINARY onto a ball field, I'd suggest: "SAFE = 1" or "OUT = 0".

Some favs:

45A DNK if South Americans are big fans of NOVA lox, but GM's calling the car "NO VA" definitely didn't help sales.

49A The Queen is a big fan of Welsh Corgis, but the last I heard is that they actually speak a language called "Canine".

53A Jinx I'm with you on "NOMINATING", not "APPOINTING".

64A I guess the DEATH SPIRAL is the last HURRAH of a lot of Olympic PAIR SKATERS.

69A Held onto IS(M/T) as long as I could, but couldn't think of a HIT ending with an "I".

5D The new LOL is LMAO or ROTFL.

30D Wanted SPINACH or KALE but they just didn't cook.

54D DNK ARPEL, but very perpable.

59D YADA, YADA, YADA reminded me of this skit.

50D For those of you wondering "What are El Nino and La Nina?"

Cheers,
Bill

waseeley said...

OwenKL @8:24 AM Technically I agree: however "BINARY CODED" would have been correct. Computer codes are arranged in hierarchical "layers". In computers BINARY CODE is at the lowest layer, i.e. the "Physical Layer" designated by electrical signals. However above the Physical Layer are many other layers, which provide context ("meaning") to specific arrays of bits, e.g. ASCII or EBCDIC.

In the case of Braille, the BITS are either raised or flat, and it is their arrangements that code for meaning. In this case Braille would be standard for arranging "raised" or "flat" bits, analogous to ASCII or EBCDIC characters.

waseeley said...

YR @8:41 AM Wow! - thanks for the link on Braille (which I've saved). Much more useful than my technobabble.

p.s. Remind to get the specs on J & P Rose, a dry wine that I think you'd like.

Yellowrocks said...

One of my favorite breakfasts or lunches is a freshy baked onion bagel with cream cheese, Nova, sweet onion and capers, sometimes a tomato slice. Yummy.
I thought it would be a treat for my fish loving Dad when he visited, but he didn't care for the Nova.
"The quintessential smoked salmon—what you think of when you think of New York–style smoked salmon” — is Gaspe Nova, or Nova for short. “Nova” refers to both the geographical location where the fish is caught (Nova Scotia) and a style of smoked salmon, in which the fish is first cured and then lightly smoked."
This is surprising, because Dad loved British kippers. "Kippers, an iconic British breakfast dish consisting of herring that has been cured via kippering—split open, cleaned, salted, and smoked—and then usually grilled, broiled, or sautéed."

Edward Duarte said...

Easy peasy

Edward Duarte said...

Shout out to my great-aunt Eva Duarte Peron.

unclefred said...

FIR with no W/Os! Seemed to go faster than yesterday, although DNK: ENDOR, STOWE, ARPEL, or ANA. I agree with D-O, this seemed easier than yesterday, though. I also take exception to calling Braille “binary code”. Binary code is using 0s and 1s. Braille is an arrangement of raised dots. Has nothing to do with 0s and 1s. Yes, I did read the explanations some offered, but disagree. Other than that nit, a very nice Wednesday level CW, thanx, DR. A comment on Nova: two types of smoked salmon, Nova and belly lox, which is oilier. As usual an outstanding write-up, thanx, Boomer.

Misty said...

Bit crunchy for a Wednesday, but still a lot of fun--many thanks, Daniel. And I always enjoy your commentaries, Boomer.

The 2 theme was a pleasure, as the words filled in, DOUBLE, TWIN, SECOND, BINARY, PAIRS.
A number of names were unknowns to me, but I did know ELENA and SVETLANA. Those Zees in the middle, with WIZ and ZIN, surprised me, but were fun.

Have a good day, everybody.

AnonymousPVX said...


This mid-week grid was tough in the SW.

Write-overs…NOD/NAP, JAL/ANA, IST/ESE.

JAL threw me off big time for a while.

Didn’t like the clue for 5D either.

Thanks for the well wishes on my medical news. Still floating a bit.

See you tomorrow.

ATLGranny said...

Good medical news is always the best kind. Happy for you!

Lemonade714 said...

Thank you all for filling in the blank spot in my puzzle solving. I guess the "S" in fllowers justifies the ARS but not clue/fill I care for.

SBryce said...

A DNF for me. I had the same issues with the SW corner as others had.

I had ISM for ESE, so LOVENOTE became LOVEPOEM.

But I take issue with the cluing for 42D. __ hit: baseball single - ONE BASE. I thought that no part of the answer could appear in the clue, except suffixes, like "ing,' so anything with "base" in it wasn't going to happen.

A fat-finger typo on YADA kept me from figuring out BINARY, even though I already had CODE filled in. Doh!!

CanadianEh! said...

Wacky Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Daniel (congrats on your debut) and Boomer.
Like others the SW corner did me in. Plus I had several other FIWs
But I got the DOUBLE theme (plus the Easter egg of ONE BASE, although I disliked that base was in the clue).

A MOI was easy, but this Canadian had no idea about NOVA lox.
Thankfully ARS perped. And we had more letters of the alphabet with ZEES (although you all know that my pizza has Zeds 😮🤔😄
Hand up for FOE, but it never was corrected on my grid; thus leadin* to Sf spelling for SVETLANA and a LOVECHAT with the customer support person LOL!

Another hand up for thinking of the green chard vegetable before the abbreviated Chardonnay wine gave me ZINfandel.
Third hand up (oh we are only allowed TWO today) for Journal ist before ESE.

My personal Natick was the cross of NOONAN (I remembered her as Noones) and ENSOR. TAT corrected the E but the Essor was wrong.

AnonPVX- what good news re your health
Edward Duarte - 😮😮😮👍.
Wishing you all a great day.

Jayce said...

I liked the DOUBLE theme a lot, and liked the puzzle just okay. The way a few answers were clued did make my nose wrinkle, such as "appointing" a Supreme Court justice.
I liked the ORANGE PEKOE gimmick; it took me 15 minutes to realize what that "other color in its name" is: ah, black. Or rather, the "other" color is orange, with black being in its name. Or something.
Binary or not binary, that is the question.
I like ZIN(fandel). Also Cab(ernet Sauvignon) and Pinot( Noir). My wife only drinks Chard(onnay).
Never heard of ANA. Tried for too long to force in JAL. So, All Nippon Airways, eh?
Whenever I Parrot what somebody else said, I try to give that person credit. Sometimes I forget to. In any case, I don't equate that to Aping the other person.
But hey, it's a crossword puzzle, so...
Good wishes to you all.

Jayce said...

Edward Duarte, very cool.

OwenKL said...

Speaking of E.A.POE writing "The Black Cat"*, he also wrote "Gaily bedight, a gallant knight," in search of Eldorado. Which brings me to:

ABLE SIR DITE MET IDRIS ELBA.

*If you like going down interesting rabbit holes, check out the many iterations of Black Cat magazines!

Hand up for noun FOE before verb VIE.

44. "Told __!": YOU. Told me WHAT ??
As GW said to BR: "Told you, SEW!"

Sorry, I'm not convinced on Braille being in any sense binary. Define anything too broadly and it could be called a binary code, which then deprives the term of any meaning. And tho I haven't used it in years, I once considered myself an expert on Braille. I still use ⠠⠪⠢, Owen in Braille, as the signature on my artwork and memes.

If a toddle really wants a toy,
In France he may say it's mine, "A MOI!"
That would not pass
In a pre-school class,
Where it belongs, in Latin, to the HOI POLLOI!

The Jumble today touched technology's EDGES
With topiary tips for terraces and ledges.
A pressurized stream
Made a trimming beam
Being utilized for cutting HEDGES!

{B, B.}

Wilbur Charles said...



Actually the president "Appoints" the Senate confirms hence

RayO. Beatcha

Yada Yada

Lucina, I think you've got it
And Gary has BINARY explained eg Yes/No=> 0/1

PVX, considering the exhilaration to the news I shudder to think what the bad news could have been. I have condition where the bad news IS the good news

WC

Luciba, re. Suns, re. Chris Paul I heard "Myth of Sysiphus". So apt but seems out of the pay grade of sports commentary

Emile O'Touri said...

Because of the cluing, it was less of a joy and more of a strugglefest than I would've liked on a Wednesday.Proper noun pile-ups seems poorly planned.If the PPP was in your wheelhouse, I would guess you found this puzzle enjoyable. Not being in mine, I neither found this puzzle enjoyable nor liked it. Seemed more of a trivia puzzle than a crossword puzzle.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Somehow on my wave-length. Fun challenge, Daniel. Thanks also to Boomer for doing DOUBLE duty.

DNK: ENSOR (perps filled without reading clue), SVETLANA. YR, thanks for explaining how CUES = ARS. Didn't make sense to me. Neither did CHARD. I'm not familiar enough with alcohol drinks to know all the nicknames or even what drink goes with what name.

Though BINARY CODE was when both nostrils were stopped up with the virus.

Wilbur, Gianis certainly is the Bucks superstar. However, I think there should be a law limiting how many free throws one player can take each game. I got so tired of seeing Gianis doing his free throw warmup. Seemed to me that several Phoenix players also had fouls that were never called. The Bucks won because of free throws.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I see some folk actually liked "Cue follower" an d the fill at 65D.
Sheesh. I got it, but I gotta say, friends: I felt robbed.

Assuming the gag lies in the phonetic equivalence between the letters "Q" and "R,"the proper answer can't be ARS because the plural answer would be "R" and "S," or AR plus ESS, for something really awkward like ARESS.
And No, it can't just be to pluralize "R" because "Cue" is not itself pluralized.
Go figure.

Sometimes the trouble with cruciverbal thinking is how it leads us--even the best of us--into nitpicking and whining.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
One diagonal, far end.
Way too many vowels, so the only anagrams are words like...
"SOIREES" -and-
"SEERESS".

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I stand corrected. The constitution says "He shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint...Judges of the supreme Court...". So I guess when the nominee is confirmed, the president has thereby appointed the justice.

Jayce said...

Jinx, that is exactly the way I interpreted the actual text of the constitution.

Keith, you have a very good point about plural ARS as the answer to the singular clue. I wrinkled my nose at it but didn't really perceive why it bothered me. Now I know. "Cue followers" must indeed be at least R and S, the followers (plural) of Q.

Yellowrocks said...

Yes, now I see it! CUE is singular, so it can't be plural R's. Now I get the nit I agree.

Vidwan827 said...


Thank you Daniel Raymon for your really nice puzzle, and Boomer for your very nice and thoughful review. I had no issues with anything, but it was a long solve, that I enjoyed.
I got the theme early on.

But reading all your blogs I learnt that Braille, is a form of a binary Code. and i'm reading his biography right now. Very Interesting. I have always had very poor eyesight, but I'm grateful it wasn't worse.

Thank you also for pointing out the difference between a Nomination, and an Appointment.
I always thought Sup Ct Justices and Fedl judges ( etc.) were Appointed.
Altho' they still have to be confirmed, the Senate does not choose between two candidates ..... its either yes or No.

RayO, glad to have you back, your erudite humor has been missed.
So, now are you "SIR RayO in the 'hood" ? And what happened to the two beheadings ? Were they grilled on the BarBQ or deep fried ?


Prism asks rainbow: Where did indigo ?
Rainbow: It became Violet, ... and stop Yellow ing !

have a nice day, folks.

Lizza said...

Hello late to the game. Great puzzle. Got it all. Thanks for or the review and great clues.Hope you’re doing well.

Michael said...

At risk of speaking up among such erudite folk, ISTM that 'binary' just means a choice of two states, conventionally 'off' and 'on'. The context where the choice occurs can usually be electrical or magnetic fields. Braille qualifies as binary (IMHO and all that) because the field is instead physical, whether the surface is raised or not signifies 'on-ness' or 'off-ness', no other states possible.

Wilbur Charles said...

Emile, don't like PPP? Stay away from Thursday. I ran into a wall of them solving a few hours ago

I think I missed that CHARD clue. Oh, ohnay, like ZIN. My wine days are history. Do people use Chard, Zin and Cab in conversation?

PK you slay me wid dat stuffed node and yes, FTs were a big factor which Phoenix didn't seem to have as big an advantage in Game 5. But re. 5, ya gotta get da rebound on a missed FT.

But "followers" is plural. Since the clue is nonsense just picture a bunch of nerdy ARS chasing after that cute Q

WC

Wilbur Charles said...

Re. Braille. It's binary(Y,N) and similar to hexadecimal but a group of six vs 4*4

WC

Or... way to complicated for a brief explanation

waseeley said...

The ARS controversy could solved by changing the clueing to "Cure D'____. A.K.A. St John Vianney.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks Daniel for the two-times the fun puzzle and congrats on the LAT debut.

Thanks Boomer for pinch-hitting; you hit least a DOUBLE :-)

WO: elNIN_ -> LANINA
ESPs: AMOI, SAO | OAHU, ODO, AZO, ESE, ANA, ARPEL (guess my last corner to fill ;-)), ARS, SVETLANA
Fav: I liked the xing of ORANGE PEKOE (hi MdF!)
Runner-up: NOVA on a schmear of cream cheese on a bagel.

No idea where I know Peggy NOONAN from but recalled with just the N in ENSOR.

{A, B}
Vowel count is disappointing for the DR, OMK.

Would ARS Technica be too obscure?

Thanks for the BINARY Braille link, YR.

C,Eh! - I stopped at the Z and waited for perps b/f deciding on ZEE over ZED.

To help everyone remember -- Meet James ENSOR [TMBG]

Cheers, -T

Michael said...

We just had 'New Wave' a day or two ago, so 'ARS Nova' would be a legitimate predecessor.