Title: HBDTMe
David (DAB) exploded on the 15x15 puzzle scene in December 2016 with a publication in both the NYT and the LAT. I count this to be his 120th puzzle in the major venues NYT, LAT, UC and UCS but my eyes started to cross trying to count them all so YMMV. Add to that all of his work on his own website A little DAB'll Do you and you a creative and dedicated man making his mark. I blogged his initial PUZZLE HERE .
This theme to me is one of the trickier as it has both verbal and visual aspects. But is Friday so we must work a little harder. This is especially so since all of my fellow bloggers have upped their game so much.
I wonder if Mr. Bywaters planned this as a Friday, as there are not his usual amount of sparkly non-theme fill with DIADEMS, DINETTE, MAHALIA and GIVE OVER the lot. We also have 52 of the 74 words at 5 letters or less and 40 blocks which are many for a 15 x 15. But I liked it and did not find it easy which is my favorite combination for a Friday. Off we go...
7A. Hi?: THIN SKINNED (11). If you take the word THIN and skin it, which is taking its outside layer off, it become HI.
24A. A?: REDUCED FAT (10). This time if you reduce the word FAT, all that is left is A. Again, the outside layer is removed.
36A. In?: CLIPPED WING (11). Now picture clipping the word WING and remove the ends...
51A. Lower?: CUT FLOWERS (10). If you take away the F and the S... This is consistent, but for me CUT is not as precise as the others.
58A. Lea?: CLEAN SHAVEN (11). Also clearly part of the theme, and the perfect compliment to 7A, with the work being done to the first word. The 11/10/11/10/11 symmetry also is preserved.Across:
6. Not just bad: AWFUL. When I was in high school we used to go Friendly's a New England specialty restaurant and order the AWFUL AWFUL. Since fall is approaching it seems a good time to see this drink's HISTORY.
11. Italian word that becomes its English synonym when "h" and "e" are added: TRE. THREE.
14. May and others: CAPES. Using the first letter capital trick made this a very Friday clue/fill. I liked it.
15. Way to go: ROUTE. A literal one to follow just to throw us off.
16. Veer off course: YAW. Didn't we recently discuss THIS?
19. Org. that began as the National Congress of Mothers: PTA. History LESSON.
20. Head turner: ADONIS.
21. Ways to go: GAITS. Another tricky one as your gait is how you move.
23. Guilty, at times: PLEA. Not guilty, nolo contendre or guilty are the only choics in criminal courts.
28. Purpose: AIM.
29. Jewish deli specialty: KNISH. An eastern european jewish, or yiddish, snack food consisting of a dumpling stuffed with potato, kasha or other delights.
30. Bit of force: DYNE. This is a unit of force that, acting on a mass of one gram, increases its velocity by one centimeter per second every second along the direction that it acts. Also great for dine puns.
31. Dickensian objects of pity: WAIFS. Meaning "person (especially a child) without home or friends" first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense "lost, strayed, homeless."
34. "Fab!": NEATO. Very 60s.
40. Common bike-lock design: U-BOLT. No, not Usain; or is it?
41. Brief digression: ASIDE. But I digress...
44. "Not likely!": AS IF. Also a popular valley girl phrase of the 80s.
47. Annie who voiced Bo Peep in "Toy Story 4": POTTS. The former Designing Woman, Ghostbusters' receptionist is now:
53. Stuff: GEAR. Random.
54. Low bones: TARSI. I always loved when Bones would play with the baby's phlanges.
57. "The Blacklist" agcy.: FBI. What next for Red Reddington?
63. Cheering word: OLE.
64. Mall booth: KIOSK.
65. One can be public or sworn: ENEMY. Or a frenemy.
66. Cabernet or merlot: RED. Quit whining, some have it too easy.
67. Process parts: STEPS.
68. Analyze, in a way: PARSE. My life's work.
Down:
2. First name in gospel: MAHALIA.
3. Happening all over: EPIDEMIC. An all too timely clue/fill.
4. Ligurian Sea city: GENOA.
5. Pt. of 19-Across: ASSN.
6. Come up: ARISEN.
7. Captured: WON.
8. Amusement: FUN.
9. Eponymous people of the Southwestern U.S.: UTE.
10. Pigeon's perch: LEDGE.
11. Be exemplary of: TYPIFY.
12. Wicker material: RATTAN. In case you wondered, the word rattan is derived from the Malay "rotan", the local name for climbing palms.
13. Old computers and cellphones, say: EWASTE. Like this fill.
18. Michael Douglas' middle name: KIRK. That makes sense since his father, Issur Danielovitch, had taken the name to become Kirk Douglas.
22. Extras: ADD ONS. Crossing ADONIS.
23. "Give me your __": PAW. How sweet, but I don't know you well enough.
25. Kitchen set: DINETTE.
26. Sold for less, as a rule: USED.
27. Tobacco wad: CHAW.
32. Blown lines, say: FLUFFS.
33. Bro, e.g.: SIB.
35. Hermana de la madre: TIA. Sister of your mother in Spanish.
37. Cops, in slang: POPO. Originally from Southern California, where bicycle police, beginning in the 1980s, wore T-shirts marked 'PO', for 'police officer', in block letters. As these officers rode in pairs, their shirts would read 'POPO' when side by side.
38. Furrow maker: PLOW. Hopefully not in your brow.
39. Abandon: GIVE OVER. A stretch but I don't know the cute cartoons for words. I can only say...
43. Musical skill: EAR.
44. Represent: ACT FOR. What lawyers often do for clients hoping to not make them...
45. Subject to litigation: SUABLE. But all you can do is say...
46. Consolatory post-failure reflection: I TRIED.
48. Swimming __: TRUNKS. You ask WHY?
49. "Last four digits" IDs: SSNS.
52. The home team gets the last ones: LICKS. Not a joy from OKL or the Chairman, but Baseball and softball are unusual games, in that the rules are explicitly different for home versus visiting teams, since by rule home teams bat second in each inning.
53. Togo neighbor: GHANA. I once got an email from a young lady from Ghana who wanted me to help her sell her gold bars. The fact that she also wanted me to buy her some Milo made me a bit skeptical.
56. Apt collie name: SHEP. Owner was just too lazy to come up with a name.
59. On fire: LIT.
60. Fair-hiring abbr.: EOE. Equal Opportunity Employer.
61. Deadly viper: ASP. Poor Cleopatra.
62. Bill promoting science?: NYE. I am afraid the show is over, but we leave on a cute pun. I am 73 today which I find quite amazing, but I am very grateful for all of my added cyber friends some of whom I have met. Thank you all for the encouragement over the years; thank you DAB and CC our queen mother. Be safe all. Lemonade out.
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| Now you can guess what the colors and + signs mean! |
Notes from C.C.:
Happy 73rd birthday
to Lemonade, who has guided us for so many happy years. When he started,
he did not even know there's an Oo in this world and we waited for the
puz files late at night. Solve this mini I made some two months ago. Thank you for so many years of entertainment and hard work, Lemonade!
 |
| King Lemonade and Oo, Thailand |
Hi Y'all! A little DAB didn't do me in, but almost. Thanks for the challenge.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Lemonade, and thanks for all you do for us. I enjoy your posts.
I didn't get the theme until Lemonade 'splained. I'm still not sure that's a theme. More like an impish joke. I filled it easier than expected with perps & WAGs. Had a lot of "that can't be right?" moments that turned out to be correct as filled. Must have been getting DAB's thought waves without much rational thought on my part.
Am up doing laundry so I can run the dryer in the coolest hour of the day at 4 a.m. Slept most of the last few days when the heat was peaking.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteFinally figured out the literal theme. In each case the outer two letters (the rind?) was removed. No reveal to miss -- d-o's delight. Tried MATTHEW before MAHALIA elbowed in. Oh, not the book, the music. Annie Potts' current gig is playing Sheldon's Meemaw. Finished in under 15, which is about par for a Friday. Enjoyed the outing, D-A-B. Lemonade, happy birthday, young man.
Cute theme, tho I had to have all five before I saw it. Would have gotten nowhere with this one without red letters. SO MANY false starts! And complaints right from 1A, what's story got to do with it?
ReplyDeleteAs the WAIF ran UNSHOD at the beach,
Her TARSI were exposed to sand and heat,
Except for THIN SKIN,
That kept them within,
To play with phalanges in the feet!
Recycling is at an AWFUL place.
What can we do with E-WASTE?
It's hard to REDUCE
To parts for re-use,
And melting them down is for naifs!
{A, A-.}
DNF, not even close. Like a lot of Saturday puzzles, I gave up on this one because it just wasn't providing any pleasure. Filled 43 clues, 39 correctly.
ReplyDeleteFLN, OMK and others regarding broadcast news, here's a snippet from "Dirty Laundry" by Don Henley:
You don't really need to find out
What's going on
You don't really want to know
Just how far it's gone
Just leave well enough alone
Eat your dirty laundry
Sounds like you are mad as hell and aren't going to take it any more.
FLN #2, -T is FORD the acronym for First On Race Day, or Found On the Road Dead?
Took 16:45. Didn't like the SW corner. "Act for" is awkward, next to "suable" which I strongly resisted (triable, I can accept), and near "licks" which is just very poorly clued (and yes, I know, it's a Friday).
ReplyDeleteAlso, I dislike any clue that includes adding/substracting a letter (or in this case, multiple letters) to/from another word, especially a foreign word.
I guess this just makes me closed-minded....
Didn't know Cape "May" or "Mahalia," and "fluffs" was forced, but I can accept those.
ReplyDeleteGood morning. Happy birthday, Jason.
The run of FIW's is over !
Bounced around the grid looking for low hanging fruit. Noticed that LEA was in CLEAN SHAVEN, and then looked at CUT FLOWERS and saw LOWER. That gave me the theme, but that didn't help me a lot solving the other theme answers. Understanding them, yes. Filling them in, no. They each needed perps to see the phrases.
MAHALIA was the first thought for "first name in gospel singers" so that was LHF for me.
Furrowed brow before earth tillaged PLOW, paths were "ways to go" before GAITS, and cried before TRIED (I glossed over the word failure in the clue on the first pass).
TRE / three. Great clue today. Very recently solved a crossword with a clue of "Tre in English" so that helped.
D.A.B's crosswords always seem to have tough but fair clues, such as "Process parts" where you have to decide whether process is being used as a noun or as a verb. Many others.
Great puzzle today, IMO, and solving the theme was a good mini poser in and of itself.
All I an say is that I FIR. I had no idea what was going on and only noticed the clues embedded in the answers AFTER I finished. The NE was the hardest to complete thinking ERR & NOW before YAW & PTA. I was thinking of PC WARE before E-WASTE completed the puzzle. We used to call our tons of old computers 'Boat Anchors' because that's all they were good for.
ReplyDelete52D- At BAT, KICKS, PICKS were my thoughts, not LICKS for baseball- Thank you FLOWERS.
POPO crossing POTTS was a guess- both unknowns filled by perps.
U-BOLT- what you do when the POPO show up.
It was a toss up between CIA, NSA, & FBI for "The Blacklist". Unknown for me.
DIADEMS- heard the word before but that's it. Now I know. Another unknown filled with perps.
This was the hardest xword I've ever done on LATimes. It TYPIFIES NYT clueing. Then you throw in Italian
ReplyDeleteTheme was Greek to me. I FIW'ed when the Y's seems to be in the way and decided mAW could work. PTA came in my (half) sleep and explained that 'pt' was part not point.
I had more white left after an hour than any Saturday I recall.
The whole POTTS,SUABLE,FLUFFS etc was w/os. Liable and A lie seemed plausible.
Meanwhile back in Italy after replacing REfUSE with REDUCE and DiNt with DYNE I got close.
MAHALIA and OCT(duh) were big gets giving EPIDEMIC
I just needed to go The extra inch after all those miles*. Maybe Mr S was in charge and I needed a night's sleep
Nice picture lemonade. Oo is beautiful as the Thais so often are.
WC
**POPO Wilbur
Happy birthday, Lemonade. Yom hu'ledet samache. Thanks for your explanation of what, for me, was a difficult theme to grasp. What was going on became clearer as things developed but the solve still required a lot of "Wheel of Fortune" work - looking at what the letters that I had filled from perps and guessing at what the word would have to be. Figuring out how the answer fit the clue was more of an afterthought than it was a help in solving.
ReplyDeleteBTW, gates are a way to go (out)
ReplyDeleteYes, very little LHF except bottom of SW and WON,FUN,UTE section
WC
Thank you all for the birthday wishes and recognition of my special wife. CC thank you for everything
ReplyDeleteAnybody try pan- before EPI-DEMIC?
ReplyDeleteMy brother-in-law's mother was quality-control officer for Friendly Ice Cream. She insisted we call it Friendly, the apostrophe S was added after a couple of ownership changes. The chain is based in New England, has had stores up and down the East Coast.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Lemonade. All the best. מזל טוב
Finally got it all without aid. Had Matthew in the NW for the longest time before thinking that MAHALIA might work better. Also had 'liable' before SUABLE. Good puzzle.
PLOW - English plough. German Pflug. L. German Ploog, Dutch ploeg. I did my share of plowing as a youth; using both a tow-behind plow and later, a tractor mounted hydraulic operated. Usually 2 or 3 bottoms.
Have a great day.
How is the greek alphabet a story?
ReplyDeleteThank you David for your FIRable Friday foray. What a challenge! As I didn't see the theme until Lemony PARSED it, I got this puzzle entirely on perps. Thought maybe Rich was trying out his new RCG (Random Clue Generator). And HBD to C.C.'s MINI 1A, who TYPIFIES the standards of C.C.'s blogging team. BTW Lemony, I'm your ELDER by a year.😊 And thank you C.C. for ALL you do for ALL of us.
ReplyDeleteThe clever fill made this puzzle for me, and the literally "clueless" themers - you had to actually solve them before you could see what was in David's devious mind.
Some favorites:
1A Didn't get this until I sussed 1D. Let's see "5 letter Greek word starting with 'O'"?
14A Have been to the beautiful town of CAPE MAY a couple of times (a D.A.B. CSO to YellowRocks?) This fill fell out of 1D as well.
21A Started out with GATES. GAITS was a clever bit of misdirection.
39A DYNE knew it was a unit of force, but swagged that it was only a "bit", rather than a "megabit".
50A "WAY to go" NUMERO TRE.
2D MAHALIA Singer of Sanctified Blues.
3D Unfortunately timely fill.
56D There's a song about SHEP. My father used to sing it around the supper table and it would always leave us in tears.
Cheers,
Bill
FIR, no look ups until after I was finished. IMO this was easier than most Fridays, except for the top three rows. I saw the clues within the fill, but didn't think of dropping the first and last letters, so the theme fill made no sense to me until Lemon explained it. I just added letters that would make real words using the perps, like MM did. To my surprise they were correct.
ReplyDeleteTRE was my favorite today.
Lemonade, I often wondered why police are sometimes called POPO. Thanks. The history of men's swimming suits was interesting.
FLUFF and LAST LICKS were gimmes.
Your attorney acts for (represents)you. Do our representatives in Congress actually act for us or for their own or the party's ends?
Omega can mean the final part.
A very happy birthday, Lemonade. Thanks for years of wonderful blogs.
JohnK @8:57 AM Perhaps the ? indicates that OMEGA is a metaphor - as it is the ENDING of the Greek alphabet, it could symbolize the "ENDING of a Greek story". Or maybe not. YMMV.
ReplyDeleteTTP, I wouldn't have stumbled if the clue had included "singer." The clue on my puzzle was simply "First name in gospel."
ReplyDeleteWC @8:36 AM But after you go OUT a GATE, how do you get back IN? 😀
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-Good buildings start from the ground up and that is how I had to do this puzzle
-What – CLEAN SHAVEN? Doh, now I get the gimmick which helped going forward, er, upward.
-I once heard a DYNE defined as being the force an ant uses to do a push-up
-Parse - “The old man the boat.” Did you get that elderly are in charge of the boat?
-E-WASTE? This USED Apple I has sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars
-Some native grass preservationists try to undo the work of the PLOW
-If you are LIABLE I guess you are SUABLE as well
-Annie Potts – It took me until the final credits on Grey’s Anatomy to figure out who belonged to this familiar face
-Happy Birthday Jason!
Gospel (noun)can be short for gospel music. Mahalia sings gospel, a genera of Christian music. Omitting singer suckered me and some others to try Matthew first. Clever misdirection on a Friday.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteD-O, I didn't even think of the gospels until I read your comment after I posted mine. But then I appreciated that it was another good Friday level clue.
I've been outside since my earlier post watering the gardens and filling the bird baths. It has been in the low 90s every day with high dew points, so you start to feel clammy sticky after just a few moments. More days of it expected. Crazy weather patterns.
PK, do you get a reduced electric rate for off hours usage, or is it that you just don't want the added heat later in the day ? The electric and natural gas companies here installed smart meters. They don't have to have the walking meter readers as much as they once did. The electric company has an ongoing push to get homeowners to sign up for a service that allows them to slow down consumption during peak usage hours or events. All in return for a reduced rate. We had a small brownout yesterday due to the heat.
JINX: In my ute, we used to say Fix Or Repair Daily.
ReplyDeleteWhat can I say? Another FIR for Google; another FIW for me. Just too tough for me. And as usual did not see the theme even after searching for it until Lemonade ‘splained it. Happy Birthday Lemonade!! And thanx for all u do for the blog. I don’t even wanna say how long it took me to cheat my way to a FIW. Too embarrassing. DAB, ya got me. Looking forward to Monday.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteIt took awhile for me to understand what was going on but, finally, the penny dropped and what an Aha moment that was! Kudos, DAB. I had more than my share of stumbles, to wit: Matthew/Mahalia, CIA/FBI, As Is/Used, Liable/Suable, At Bat/Licks, and Tio/Tia. We had several fun duos with Fun/Won, Awful/Neato, Paw/Chaw, Gear/Ear, and Tia/Via. David brought his A Game, as well: Omega, PTA, Plea, Via, Mahalia, Genoa, Tia, and Ghana. CSOs to Lucina (Tia, Ole), YR (Cape May), Lemony, Hahtoolah, and MalMan (Knish), and Anon T, Ray O, and AnonPVX (Via, Tre, Genoa).
Thanks, David, for a challenging and enjoyable solve and thanks, Lemony, for the finely-tuned deconstruction of the theme and the spot on commentary. Thanks for your years of dedication and enlightenment and entertainment. Best wishes for a very Happy Birthday celebration with your beautiful wife Oo. 🎂🎁🎈🎊🎉 The icing on the cake has been seeing Charlotte, Harper, and Owen growing up.
Have a great day.
TTP @9:54 AM Like "good Friday level clue".
ReplyDeleteTokenCreek @10:34 AM What you said.
ReplyDeleteHappy B'day, Lemonade!
ReplyDeleteI bailed on the whole top of this puzzle.
I filled in Give me your...PAW and thought, that is totally STUPID! Same for OMEGA!
Thought MATTHEW for the gospel, then thought maybe ARETHRA but didn't fit.
I figured out the long answers from cLEAnshaven and cutfLOWERS but not enough letters to help with the other ones.
Oh well, on to tomorrow.
New here. Did the puzzle. Had to google to get the the theme and still don’t understand the colors. Can someone explain in English (not the acronyms…new and don’t understand them.)
ReplyDeleteThanks
Tough Friday puzzle, but they're supposed to be--so thanks, David. And great commentary, Lemonade, with lovely picture of you and Oo! Thank you for posting it, and Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteBusy day, and I wish you all a good one as well, with a great weekend coming up.
"Now you can guess what the colors and + signs mean!"
ReplyDeleteI confess that I have yet to figure that out.
Nannyhope@11:31, I understand that if you are new here that the acronyms can get confusing. As the 2nd sentence below "Leave your comment" states, "Please click on Comments Section Abbrs (under Olio on blog main page) for some blog-specific terms." You will find it a great help. Things like FIW mean "Finished It Wrong" and FIR mean "Finished It Right". I'm not sure what you mean that you "still don't understand the colors."
ReplyDeleteRed and yellow black and white . From and old childrens gospel tune .
ReplyDeleteBrian, Lemony used two colors to highlight squares in the grid and placed a note below the completed grid that I quoted just above @ 12:01 p.m. I suspect that Nannyhope may be referring to that in some way.
ReplyDeleteAgnes, your comment makes me blush, HG thank you as well, Bob Lee, Unclefred and Misty,thank you as well
ReplyDeleteThe colors have not ever been explained here Nannyhome
Yet….
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteD'OH !
Desper-otto, now I see what had happened. I had the same clue as you, for 2d with "First name in gospel" but when I was typing up my 8:05 comments, I added singers, so it became "first name in gospel singers", so a transcription error on my part. Sorry for the confusion.
I've been distracted trying to get a prescription refilled. The fiasco started July 21st. Aetna/CVS/Caremark said they'd be contacting the Dr.'s office because the scrip would be expiring on Aug 17th. They did contact the Dr.'s, office, 9 days after their July 21 email, on Aug 2nd. Not exactly very fast on their part. They sent me an email on Aug 3rd saying it was rejected.
Then I got an email from the Dr.'s office saying I needed to come in for a blood test, which I did on the 10th, which was the first available appointment. Dr.'s office said they would be sending in the prescription just as soon as the Dr reviewed the results, which he did on the 12th, because that's when he updated MyChart with his comments, and I got the automated email to read his comments.
I signed in to my Aetna account today because I haven't heard anything else and haven't got the refill yet. There's no record of receiving a new prescription when trying to "self-help" by going online to check status. Just that the old one had expired.
So I tried to call the Dr.'s office but got intercepted by Northwestern Hosp's central answering service. That person looked and said it was sent to Aetna on the 18th, so I should contact them.
So I called Aetna/CVS/Caremark and their rep just told me on the phone that they've never received the order from the Dr.'s office, but they would be contacting his office. They do it by fax, and they give the Dr.'s office 5 days to respond before sending a followup fax. (Really ? Fax ?) Also, that once they receive the order, it could take 8-10 business days to fill and mail the prescription out.
While on the phone with Aetna, the Dr.'s office called and left a message. They said they sent it on the 18th and have a return receipt from Aetna to prove it. They wanted to verify that it should be sent to Aetna/CVS/Caremark mail order processing. Please call them back. So I did, and got intercepted by the central answering service again. "Yes, that's where it should be sent, I told the rep" Also, please have the Dr.'s office call me back. Still waiting.
They each point to the other. Hope I get the pills before I run out. The pills reduce hardening of the arteries and help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Getting the prescription refilled from Aetna/CVS/Caremark mail order processing is likely to cause them.
Sigh...Another gimmick puzzle that wasn’t worth my time.Too bad "clueless" themers" were needed to increase the difficulty of his gimmick. Seemed cheap.Because of the cluing, it was less of a joy and more of a strugglefest than I would've liked on a Friday.I found it deliberately obtuse,disliked most of the clueing and found it not at all fun.
ReplyDeleteTTP, ain't the U.S. medical system great? I've avoided the whole CVS/Caremark thing. I pick up my scrips at the local Kroger store. Same price, less hassle. I'd prefer to use the one-mile closer Walgreens, but my Aetna policy says I've gotta use Kroger for best pricing.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to figure out the grid puzzle. Was it set up by DAB or Lemon? I'm guessing DAB since the + signs are all the "cheater" squares, blocks that, if they weren't there, would not change the puzzle's word count. For color, all the themers are included, so the odd ones are the ones needing analysis. TYPIFY, FLUFFS, GIVE OVER.
ReplyDeleteY repeats in one, VE repeats in another, and F threepeats in the last. Pretty shaky. V and F are lesser used letters, and that's about it.
The only other thing I can think of are that they may have been seed words to start the puzzle-building process, and red is those surviving from the first draft, and yellow those Rich made DAB do over.
ReplyDeleteThe colorized grid is from a separate tool that can be used to analyze crossword puzzles. Entries and grids are compared to (most of) the history of NYT puzzles. Red means that it's a unique answer - never seen before in an NYT. Orange would mean it's been seen once before, yellow would be twice before, green three times before, and blue four other times. OwenKL is correct about the + signs. Cheater squares.
Desper-otto, at one time when I first went on the cholesterol med, the insurance company required that ALL ongoing maintenance meds had to be delivered by mail order. They would only cover one 90 day fill at a locally approved pharmacy. So I was kinda forced to sign up. So I signed up for mail order, automated refill, and auto bill pay from a checking account. All I had to do was retrieve the order from my mailbox. I seem to recall that I went through this same thing two years ago. Going to see if mail order is still required.
ReplyDeleteA good news, bad news Friday fill.
Good news…got the solve.
Bad news…the clueing…must be the worst collection of clues recently, coupled with a theme that exists only in the constructor’s mind. And of course, all the gimmicks.
Write-overs…USE/AIM, GAFFES/FLUFFS.
Really a bad grid, with a healthy mix of everything I dislike in clueing. Another author just showing us how smart they are…not impressed.
Have a good one.
See you tomorrow.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteNo time to finish the puzzle or read all the comments. It's almost time to go to the airport. I wish you all good health pleasant puzzle solving! I'll see you in about 12 days. Please do say well, everyone! Hasta luego!
TTP @ 12:50 I too use Aetna and CVS. I just go pick up the Rxs. Even then, I get a text that the Rx is ready, but when I get there it's not. Either wait 15-20 minutes or come back. VERY irritating. Unfortunately, I take a lot of Rxs. I REALLY WISH they could synch them all: go pick up all eight at once, instead of one at a time. A help is I have the Rxs written for 90 tablets, not 30, so there are fewer trips to CVS. I have four one-week pill containers so I use to put together a month's worth at a time, and put a little sticker on top of the day that one of the meds could not be filled from there forward. Theoretically, everything is on automatic refill, but they wait until I'm down to two or three days before I'm due to run out, then text me that a new Rx is needed from the doc. I use Trinity Health. They have a patient page which I can not correct errors on. I stopped using Walgreens twenty years ago, but it is still listed as my drugstore of choice. I've tried everything to change that, to no avail. So you R exactly correct, it's a frustrating run-around that we could all do w/o.
ReplyDeleteHappy 73rd Lem! May your day be special.
ReplyDeleteHi all!
What can I say that Jinx (or Bob Lee) didn't? Holy crud - I did AWFUL!
MORAL (AESOP was Greek, right?) was wrong as was AT BAT (eventually fixed).
Purpose ≠ USE, and Cops had nothing to do with BOOSTIN' nuthin'.
Put another way: I got FBI / CLEAN SHAVEN(?) and below. Plus the North Central. And nothINg else but DYNE, WAIFS, EWASTE, and DINETTE xing UBOLT.
I really FLUBed(? - FLUFFS?) this one.
//At least I didn't enter 'ear' at 'Give me your' 'cuz I knew it was 'Lend' :-)
Thanks for the challenge DAB but above my ability / knowledge level. Thanks for bailing me out Lem; fun expo (and up your game, you did ;-))
{A, B+}
IM - I didn't feel all that Italian was aimed at me :-) Only got VIA, I did.
There you are PK... I just asked about you FLN. Glad you're just avoiding the heat and not ill.
Jinx - Fixed Or Repaired Daily? //TokenCreek beat me to it :-)
TTP - wait,... Fax? Oh, I thought ACA was going to computerize all this!
Actually, some of it is pretty magic. My Dr. give me an Rx and CVS texts me an hour later that it's ready(?). I didn't even bring in the note. But, when it doesn't work - what do they say? To err is human but to really foul things up takes computers ;-)
BTW, thanks for the color codes.
Didn't know POTTS as clued (Annie Lennox neither fit nor made sense but was the only Annie I could think of) but someone's gotta link her in Ghostbusters.
Enjoy CA, Lucina!
Cheers, -T
ReplyDeleteHave fun, Lucina !
D-O, one other thing. My neighbor and I were also on a different drug with the same dosage, prescribed in the same amounts. Mine was a one time thing. Her usage is maintenance.
My CVS cost was over $110. She told me that her insurance wouldn't cover any of her costs if filled at CVS, but would at Walgreen's, where she paid $90 something. She said she found out she could get it filled at Costco, and she paid less than $15.
I guess it could be due to her Medicare plan's pharmacy coverage, but getting it at Costco for 1/6th the price of Walgreens ? I'll also see if i can use Costco for the cholesterol med and see what they charge.
Dash T, yes I've had that experience as well with the Dr.'s office on a one time usage scrip. By the time I get home from the Dr, the local CVS has left a message on the phone saying it's ready for p/u. That's sweet !
Unclefred, that pill management effort sounds like when my wife was taking care of her elderly parents. I should count my blessings.
Happy Birthday, Lemonade -- ad multos annos!
ReplyDeleteFor me, David's puzzle is a great example of entries-and-clues-working-in-beautiful-harmony. Each theme entry is a legit phrase. Each "pruned" result takes the same amount of letters from each side. In the theme clues, the elegance factor is pushed up by the symmetry of the "pruned" synonyms. So sweet! (I'm a DAB fan.) :-)
TP, I'm near to weeping at your frustrating situation, and do hope it gets straightened out...distracting is a mild word for it!
A Friday FIR after a long struggle, especially in the NE which almost made me give up. But finally the downs, TYPIFY, RATTAN, and E WASTE, came to mind. I saw the theme letters in the theme fill, but didn't catch on to "shaving off" the outside letters. Too clever for me today, but maybe next time....
ReplyDeleteThanks DAB for a super challenge and learning experience. Thanks Lemonade for clearing up my confusion and the ADD ONS you provided. Happy Birthday to you today. Celebrate!!!
Happy travels to Lucina, and I hope everyone has a NEATO weekend.
Happy birthday, Lemonade, and thank you! I solved DAB's puzzle, but was completely perplexed by the theme clues and answers until joining you here. I said "wow" out loud several times, reading your explanation. Neato! And some of you other brainiacs got it, too.
ReplyDeleteI've been playing along without checking in for several weeks, as work and life got hectic, but this puzzle required consultation. Thanks to all for being here, and thanks to David Alfred Bywaters for the challenge.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kelly.
The mystery has been solved ! Finally got a call from the Dr.'s office. The office manager said she was on the phone with CVS for quite a bit of time before one of them noticed that last year's prescription for mail order was sent in on Aug 18th, 2020. Not this year.
Neither of the two Northwestern Hosp's central answering service reps that intercepted my call to my Dr.'s office noted the year. And neither did the office manager. Because the month and day for last year's order were right after the month and day of my physical this year, all three made the same error. I guess people, especially those in the medical fields, are harried, worn out and exhausted from the pandemic. I mean what are the odds that three people make that same mistake ?
Now, if it had been computers, some parity bit or cyclic redundancy check or algorithm would have flagged the disconnect. Or at least one hopes.
Tried to rush thru and the results were "not just bad" but AWFUL for the NE and SW. Thought the mom's organization was MAD. I quickly wrote in "pan" rather than a good old fashioned EPIDEMIC.(perpwalked). Rah for OLÉ which usually has some Spanish as a hint, both perp-corrected. Forgot my physics and DYNE, stuck with flubbs (blown lines) and I tried (post failure rejection). Actionable is the correct term for the clunky CW SUABLE.
ReplyDeleteSaw the clue letters in each answer but the theme? Not the foggiest...
Both most elephants and I thank you for the TRUNKS explanation (kinda figured it referred to more modest era apparel). OMEGA ends the alphabet and a Greek story? So omega is like saying "The End"?
If the statue of Adonis is not Jewish neither is David, his Michelangelo statue is uncircumcised as well and Mike shoulda known better. "First name in the gospel" could be a lotta folks..wait...it's "First name in (no "the") gospel".. hadda be MAHALIA.
HBD Lemony. You give Yul Brynner a run for his money.
Considering the usual plethora of français and some español a couple two three Italian word non é un grand ché
"Any one else for dinner?" ______ ADONIS
Young Native American......UTE
Deer remaining after hunting season...UNSHOD
Another scorcher...if anyone complains I'm gonna.....
Nice to read you again NaomiZ.
ReplyDeleteTTP - I've talked with a few folks/vendors that also have a "hole" in their calendars.
With the EPI[PAN]DEMIC, they (and I) feel like 2020 is a skipped|missed year.
That is, we say 'last year' when really we mean 2019*.
How a computer missed it,..? Leap Seconds? :-)
Cheers, -T
*I sent an email Tuesday: "So [insert name], we started looking at incorporating switches into our Vuln Management system[...]"
It was a >year ago we started that.
Corner Meta-Pollster asks...
ReplyDeleteI'm curious:
Did anyone click (like?) like The Rentals' "Friend of P" that I linked 2x over the last 2 days?*
Did you find it funny in a peculiar-sorta way?
Did anyone enjoy the ASIDE of who P (CARS' Ric Ocasek's wife) is or, for that matter, who Matt Sharp is?
Or cool that he, Sharp, was in Weezer and The Rentals -- two really good '90's bands when most music was still suffering from '80's-Pop left-OVERs?
That is, do y'all enjoy some of the esoteric (to you, maybe!) music info I post?
I'll stop if the results are >80% "Please, stop it!, -T" or "I just scroll past."
'Cuz, sometimes, it's a ton of work (of love) and time to put together / research a post.
Like, I was just looking at Weezer's Buddy Holly video and then went and found the 'how they did it' story (probably more than you'd want to know) to make it look like Happy Days.
It took 40+ minutes to draft this post.
But, if no one cares, I'll get back to weeding the garden in the 90F+ heat.
//please care - it's hot out there ;-)
Cheers, -T
*I see you smirking & 'Furrow maker'-ing your [wasn't] BROW, WC. :-)
TTP - Glad your meds got straightened out. I had occasional aggravation when I took warfarin (fancy rat poison) because I had to schedule frequent protime tests to validate the dosage. I switched to Xarelto and don't have lab tests, but it is a little spendy. Don't care.
ReplyDeleteI really like the prescription service associated with my Medicare Advantage HMO. I don't use auto-refill, because we spend so much time RVing that I want to be able to steer the "send to" address to meet up with us, or time the med to arrive when we're at home.
BTW, One way faxes get lost (I know that wasn't the problem in your case) is that the machines have memory so they can continue to receive faxes when they are out of paper. The sender gets a confirmation that the fax has been received, even though no hardcopy was produced. If the machine loses power, either due to an outage or because the person who reloaded the paper power cycles it to stop all the advertisement faxes, those stored faxes are lost.
-T, I haven't viewed it. I am less able to enjoy sounds from my PC than I used to. I'll explain that when I get some time to put the wording together. It's deeply personal and depressing.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteJust want to ad…First On Race Day.
Kaiser Permanente mails prescriptions to my house. Usually arrives in two days.
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr. Bywaters for a FRiday puzzle that nearly fried me .... no, seriously, it was a lot of fun... Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you Lemonade for making it all clear, and unravelling the mystery.
Happy, happy Birthday to my filial brother !!!
Mazel Tov und Brocha. Feliz Kompleanos !
Wishing you and Oo, much Joy and Happiness in the future,
As the years go by, 73 seems like a lot, and feels even more, but its still better than the alternative. Hope Oo has a great dinner planned out for you.
Hey, Lemonade ! Happy B'Day, Kid!!
ReplyDeleteGood PZL. Probably could've finished, but put it on ice while I dealt with my busy day.
Had MATTHEW before MAHALIA. Hey, I didn't go to Sunday school for nuttin'!
Got most of the long fills w/o cracking the theme.
I don't think it would've helped.
At all.
Brilliant. But as the Brits say, "too clever by 'arf."
Got a brand new super fancy power wheelchair delivered yesterday. Today it broke down.
The heavy thing wouldn't budge and sat right in the middle of my small office, blocking access to my desktop Mac and everything.
LUCKILY, I was able to reach the guy who services these before the weekend.
One of two motors has broken down completely. He couldn't fix it--but gave me back my old chair while I wait a week for fresh parts for the "new one."
I was never so happy to see my filthy, old cobwebbed, duct-taped chair.
I think I'll keep it when the new one comes again.
~ OMK
_____________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (13 of 15 letters) reminds us of the guy who used to pop up in the middle of medicine man shows, pretending to be interested in the products being hyped-- and pleading with the MC to offer an "even better deal."
And as the salesman obliged, more and more honest yokels in the crowd would pull out their wallets and purses to take advantage of the fresh deals.
Yep, I'm talking about an...
"APPEALER SHILL"!
MORAL (Hi Anonymous T)? Nope. OMEGA??????????????
ReplyDeleteWORSE? Nope. AWFUL.
MONTH? Nope. CAPES.
"Give me your" PAW????????????? Jeeez.
RAH? Nope. OLE.
PILLOW? Nope. ADONIS.
USE? Nope. AIM.
AS IS? Nope. USED.
POPO? Never heard of it, would never be able to guess it. 4 perps.
"Now you can guess what the colors and + signs mean!" No, I can't.
Like several of you, I didn't get the theme at all until it was explained.
At least I got YAW, DYNE, WAIFS, KIOSK, RED, and POTTS.
Happy birthday, Lemonade.
I thought I alone discovered DAB when I noticed his name recurring on various puzzle sites. last year I sent him an email thanking him for putting humor into his creations which I had found lacking in so many web offerings. He answered with a very sweet note. Today I rediscovered him and the LA Times puzzle. Wow. It took me an hour to complete the puzzle and another hour to figure out the reasoning. It was worth it. I'
ReplyDeletem happy to have found this place.
_T, Yes I very much enjoyed Weezer and the memories. I watched that show* a lot but didn't care for Fonzie.
ReplyDeleteAs to fln… I will go back and link. Btw….
You've got a massive CSO on Saturdays xword. Which is the easiest that I can recall. Easier than Friday by a factor of ten
OK, I gave "The Rentals" P a solid 59secs. But keep'em com'n. Apparently, TTP and perhaps even lemonade listen to that stuff.
WC
**Happy Days
OwenKL and JohnK I also do not understand why OMEGA is the ending of a Greek STORY.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain what a STORY has to do with the Greek alphabet?
Has anyone heard FLUFFS used for BLOWN LINES?
I have heard MUFFS used for that purpose.
As I neared the end of solving this puzzle I finally figured out that the clues involved letters in the theme answers. And I figured out that each theme answer involved some kind of reduction: THIN, REDUCED, CLIPPED, SHAVEN. But I could not figure out the full explanation until I read Lemonade's explanation. Very clever. I FIR but I am not fully satisfied for missing the theme.
Once again, here is my photo of Bill NYE receiving an an award from the Community Environmental Council in 2013.
MICHAEL DOUGLAS lives here in Santa Barbara and I have met him twice. One of my dance partners was his personal assistant. I was slow to realize his middle name would be his father's name KIRK. He generously donated money for a preserve which is now named the DOUGLAS FAMILY preserve.
Vidwan, my brother from another mother, many happy returns of the days and much health and love ahead
ReplyDeleteThank you again Keith
From Yesterday:
ReplyDeleteJayce Thank you for pointing our your earlier post about the MOOG SYNTH and Walter/Wendy Carlos and Switched On Bach. I was frustrated it is one of the few pieces of music you cannot find on YouTube. I immediately ordered a CD which apparently is hard to find now.
Wilbur Charles You are the main reason I am posting today. Thank you for the encouragement about my father's photos of our family when I was young. He was so good at documenting everything and I am grateful that you enjoy his photos! Hope you are able to watch the NATIVE AMERICAN Pow-Wow video now, too.
From Wednesday:
Learning Moment that THREE-PEAT was trademarked!
From Last Saturday:
oc4beach Learning moment about how dangerous that NEPAL airport is. I looked at the record of crashes. Many involved Otter aircraft. I have flown on that aircraft.
Lemonade Happy Birthday! Thank you for all your puzzle reviews, images and commentary!
ReplyDeleteActors fluff their lines, creating bloopers. Fluff is common enough to me. There are many examples of the use of this word on the internet.
ReplyDeleteHeadline, "Game of Thrones actors fluff their lines, struggle with props in blooper reel."
ReplyDeleteJinx, thanks. I too am glad it's now resolved.
Also, I remember all the ad faxes I used to get when I had the dedicated telephone line. Then I got the software on the computer and eventually deleted that dedicated line.
Dash T, where do I begin ? Yes, I take many of your links, but others I'll skip w/o looking. So for instance, I'm just not into, nor have I ever been, into anything Monty Python. Or the Three Stooges (not that you link them much), or Abbott and Costello or Jerry Lewis.
OTOH, Rush, yes, as I've grown to appreciate their music through the years. Just as I have grown to appreciate STP, Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains and the Foo Fighters. All just different strokes for different folks, and I wouldn't think many here would care for most of those groups.
What an awesome birthday; thank you all. Robert. Vid and all of you who have ever encouraged my blogging, way back when as C.C. said when we get the puzzle between 9 and 11 the night before and still have it up and ready by 4 AM. Be careful and be well all
ReplyDeleteFabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, David and Lemonade (hope your Birthday has been great!).
ReplyDeleteThis CW was a workout, and I actually filled it from the bottom up (hello HuskerG).
After CLEAN SHAVEN and CUT FLOWERS I started to see the theme. But I complicated things by seeing HAVEN as another form of LEA, and LOWER as a possible meaning of CUT. But there were no double meanings in the other themers, just the inner words.
Eventually I reached the top for the FIR.
WEES by now and I must run.
Wishing you all a good evening.
Dear Tony the -T:
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of your research , for sure ... but in the late 60s, the people I hung out with were more 'psychedelic', so I suspect I am about a bachelor's degree, seven years, and a wife out of sync. Keep it up -- eventually I'll get enculturated!
Ron Howard had hair??!!
-T @4:42 PM This is a test. Blogger has dropped two of my responses to you,
ReplyDeleteOh, heck, I did actually post that @4:32...
ReplyDelete//In my defense (and it's not much of one) - it was hot(!) and I was into an IPA after a bottle of Gatorade.
What was I thinking?
Actually, it was along the lines of "if it takes me 30 minutes to compose a post, what do our daily Bloggers go through to get their expo just right?" Then I thought about Weezer again... Anyway, it's a moot point - it's out there.
TTP - That's the beauty of the blog... You can scroll right past 'No sir, I don't like it.'
I liked Nirvana's / Foo Fighter's Dave Grohl even before he and Taylor Hawkins inducted RUSH into the Rock & Roll HoF [no link: too much potty-mouth].
But, Grohl having a drum-off [setup - stop at 2:02 and move on to...] with Nandi Bushell [payoff (look for her in the future)] made me love him.
//Michael - Zep's John Paul Jones plays base on this ;-)
BTW, Nirvana fans, did you see Grohl (and Cobain's estate) is being sued by the baby on the cover of Nevermind?
Glad to read your B-Day was all that & a Bag o' Chips, Lem. Keep on bloggin'.
Cheers, -T
-T @ 4:42 PM. I love your links and in fact plan to shamelessly plagiarize your interview of Charlie Watts next Thursday.
ReplyDeleteFinal(?) thoughts for the day...
ReplyDeleteJinx @4:44, I won't pry but I hope all is well with you.
WC - I'm plussed that you made it almost a minute ;-)
That's a stretch for a DR, OMK :-)
Waseeley - link away! Can't get too much Charlie Watts.
And Picard - folks indulged (dehydrated) me... I give back.
How you can easily access all those pics /vids from years ago is astounding*. I don't comment every day, but I do click, see, and appreciate the relevant (puzzle-wise) snaps. Thanks for sharing (even your personal photos!) with us.
Cheers, -T
*I have boxes of photos, um, somewhere.
Late to the party, but this was the worst puzzle in a while. Theme makes no sense. Not sure why I have to know Italian to do a crossword puzzle.
ReplyDelete