Theme: PLAYMATES (66A. Sandbox sharers ... and a
hint to the starts of the answers to starred clues) - The first part of
each theme entry can follow "Play".
17. *Vacation condo, perhaps: TIME SHARE. Play time.
21. *Foldable whittling tools: PEN KNIVES. Play pen.
33. *Nickname for Batman's Robin: BOY WONDER. Playboy.
46. *News article starters: DATELINES. Play date.
59. *Roadside ad medium: BILLBOARD. Playbill. My favorite was the Burma Shave sequence. "Rip a fender off your car, mail it in for a half pound jar. Burma Shave"
Boomer here.
Is this Heaven ? No it's Crossword Corner. PLAY Ball!
Across:
5. Wants to know: ASKS. Yeah, I have tried this, but never seem to get a helpful response.
9. Morocco's capital: RABAT.
14. Like much brandy: AGED. Also like a Crossword Corner blogger from Minnesota.
15. Feed, as hogs: SLOP. I suppose, if that's all you have. I don't know why they eat it.
16. Primer mes del calendario: ENERO.
19. French states: ETATS. Yes it's French for STATE. They just spelled it wrong.
20. Crème de la crème: A LIST. Santa makes one and checks it twice.
23. Took home after taxes: NETTED. We used to pull a Northern Pike into the boat up On North Star Lake.
25. Going __: bickering: AT IT.
26. Prefix with natal or liberal: NEO. It's NEW to me.
28. Get a hint of: DETECT.
39. Concrete support rod: REBAR.
40. Poet Khayyám: OMAR. Mindful of Ilhan OMAR, a representative from Minnesota. She has not received the negative press she got in previous years.
41. Leaf under a petal: SEPAL.
43. Double Dutch need: ROPE. For a Liberty Mutual Commercial.
44. Scrabble pieces: TILES. Usual trivia question. Which is higher value - a J or X. If you have a Q, Z, and K in your rack, how many points?
48. Artery inserts: STENTS.
50. Caribbean or Aegean: SEA.
51. Guthrie of folk: ARLO. "You can get any thing you want, at Alice's Restaurant."
54. Not family-friendly, moviewise: R RATED. "Field of Dreams"
movie was rated PG. Last Thursday's broadcast on Fox was the most
watched baseball game (maybe of all time). I do not know how they
decide this stuff. No one called me to ask what I was watching.
64. Accused's "I was somewhere else" story: ALIBI. Yup, I was on the golf course.
65. Onetime default Word typeface: ARIAL.
68. Starbucks choice: LATTE. I have heard that the price of
coffee is going up. I may have to borrow money from C.C. I never go to
the rip off places like Starbucks or Caribou. I brew my own on coffee
grounds from Aldi.
69. New Rochelle campus: IONA.
70. Artist Chagall: MARC.
71. Leg joints: KNEES.
72. Break loudly, as a twig: SNAP. Add Crackle and Pop, and coffee and you have breakfast.
73. Not fooled by: ON TO. Football Season. Quarterback (On Two) Hut, Hut.
Down:
2. Nimble: AGILE.
3. Send payment: REMIT. Not too often nowadays. ACH is great!
4. Latin "that is": ID EST. I took four years of Latin in High school and this is about all I remember.
5. Baseball bat wood: ASH. I wonder if the major leagues will ever adopt aluminum. They would have to move back the corn.
6. Waves-against-dock sound: SLAP. Also ASH against leather baseball sound.
7. Divided land: KOREA.
8. Disbursed: SPENT. $12.50 on 9 holes of par 28 on a cart. I found out last Friday that bowling will be starting before Labor Day.
9. Confirm, as a password: RE-ENTER. I hate when the computer asks me to do this.
10. Against: ANTI.
11. Wally's little bro, in old TV: BEAV. Jerry Mathers was a great kid actor. He never made the height of Ronnie Howard, though.
12. Prado display: ARTE.
13. Mix, as salad: TOSS. Or a bowling ball. A little tougher, and it doesn't taste as good.
18. Court figure, briefly: STENO.
22. Josh: KID. A favorite word of John Michael Higgins, of America Says. "I'm not Kidding !"
24. Homes for bears: DENS. Or Cub Scouts.
27. Had too much, briefly: OD'ED.
29. Garr of "Tootsie": TERI.
30. Poetic black: EBON. I suppose EBONY was too many letters.
31. Cod or Hatteras: CAPE. "You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod". Patti Page.
32. Half of seis (6): TRES.
33. Sources of much spam: BOTS.
34. Leave out: OMIT.
35. Harvard rival: YALE. Yale has beaten Harvard over the season series. Next game is around Thanksgiving.
36. Small songbird: WREN.
37. Govt. antipollution org.: EPA. Environmental Protection. We
needed that here in Minnesota a few weeks ago when Canada was burning.
I hope everyone is safe because the news is not so good with forest
fires everywhere.
38. "Darn it all!": RATS. I call the squirrels in our yard "RATS". They don't listen.
42. Lascivious look: LEER.
45. Horses' houses: STABLES.
47. West Coast NFLer: LA RAM. I am sure that those guys will be starting up soon.
49. Sign of a sellout: SRO. I really have not seen a sellout
(except maybe for the Iowa game.) Out field seats are still available
for most games after the Covid sanctions were lifted.
52. __ lazuli: blue gem: LAPIS.
53. Crease-resistant fabric: ORLON.
55. Rent-a-car biggie: ALAMO. High up Santa Anna, We're killing you soldiers below, so the rest of Texas will know.. And remember the ALAMO. Johnny Cash.
56. Industry bigwig: TITAN.
57. Movie critic Roger: EBERT.
58. '70s music genre: DISCO. I was around in the 70's but DISCO never caught me.
59. Pitcher's false move when on the rubber, e.g.: BALK.
60. Persia, now: IRAN.
61. Beer for dieters: LITE. Diet PEPSI for me.
62. After the deadline: LATE.
63. Comedian Carvey: DANA. I used to love his skit as the Church Lady.
67. Talk and talk: YAP. I could go through Harold Hill's "You can talk, you can bicker" but I am too tired.
Notes from C.C.:
Happy birthday to dear 6-Across! So lucky to have you on our little corner.
A Moroccan man from RABAT
ReplyDeleteWore an EBON fez as his hat.
He added a visor
To protect his eyes, sir,
And for politeness, he'd tip only that!
In ancient times, Etruscan folk
For a calender, would use a ROPE.
They'd tie a knot
To tick each day off --
You see why it's called a DATE LINE, I hope.
{A-, A-.}
Speed run today albeit I had head/DATELINES and LAPuS which hid IONA briefly. Who was that Coach who started at IONA?
ReplyDeleteFLN, the demise of public trans is an American tragedy. My Peoples Ency reported that big Auto and Oil conspired to buyout the transportation companies.
So… Who's birthday is it?
Two great l'icks Owen. I didn't know that about the Etruscans. The wrong tribe won their battle with Rome(the original barbarians)
WC
ReplyDeleteNice job, Kurt and Boomer.
Sam Fink's Disco ? (groan).
Happy Birthday, Joseph !
Fln, Picard, it was great that you dropped in and Diane Nyad's talk was great.
ReplyDeleteYou might have liked the Iowa cornfield baseball game the other night. eg Not just about baseball and ironically the game was so typically baseball (dreams fulfilled and then quashed and vv for the other team)
WC
I read in the paper that, with the new census count, Ilhan OMAR's seat may be eliminated. I have very mixed feelings about her, so I'm glad political discussions are taboo here.
ReplyDeleteWC I don't know if the Etruscans used quipus as calendars, but the Incans and other cultures did. Actually, Erato dictated that line to me, and she's been around long enough to know first-hand, so maybe the E's really did use DATELINES!
If your smartphone A.I. is named Siri,
You probably take her siriously! (Sorry.)
But it is a shame
She's only a name,
Otherwise she might dress in a SARI!
For Mormons, tobacco and alcohol are ain'ts.
And caffeinated drinks are also taints.
But a new sect is emerging
That allows these urgings --
They're called the LATTE-Day Saints.
{B+, B+.} (They can't be A's, they only used one seed-word each.)
Thank you Boomer and Kurt. C.C. what a nice tribute to MalMan.
ReplyDeleteAnd for you Boomer, Iona graduate DON McLean
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteGood through this one in sort order. Wite-Out need not apply. Thanx for the diversion, Kurt, and for the early morning humor, Boomer. (Par 28 sounds like the hole for moi.)
Apparently there was some big game on Thursday. Wasn't aware.
ALAMO: Rented from them in Phoenix one time. Nuff sedd.
Happy birthday, Mal-Man. That puzzle of C.C.'s was not Monday-friendly. Ufdah!
SHort order
ReplyDeleteFIR, but erased elite for ALIST, and headLINES. DNK RABAT, OMAR, and only sorta knew SEPAL.
ReplyDeleteI've never known a PLAY BOY PLAYMATE, but I did know someone who appeared nekkid a couple of times in the magazine. She was the fiancé of my golf buddy's son, and later became his DIL. Her first appearance was a "Women of Hooters" pictorial. Wonder how the young couple felt about dad and his geezer buddies ogling her. (Boomer - the dad also had a few 300 rings, and went to Vegas for the tournament every year.)
Another golfing buddy loves his TIMESHAREs (he has a couple of them.) Except for him, all I hear about are nightmares from folks trying to sell (or even give away) theirs.
Like him or hate him, Ted Turner built his empire on a bankrupt BILLBOARD company he inherited when his dad committed suicide. Ted's father intentionally raised him to have an inferiority complex, because he believed that those children tended to become overachievers in adult life. Mission accomplished.
Miller tried to trademark LITE and light (when used in beer brands) and won. However the appeals court reversed the decision, so now we have Bud Light. At least I used to have Bud Light. In vast quantities. It ain't "beer for dieters", Kurt.
FLN -T, at my age, CDs provide all the fidelity I can detect. Certainly better than cassette tape, even when Dolby-encoded. As you would probably guess, I was once a reel-to-reel man.
Thanks for the fun grid, Kurt. And thanks to Boomer for the punny pages.
This puzzle played out in under 4 minutes (3:55).
ReplyDeleteI don't care for the Moroccan city (Rabat) sitting on top of the Spanish word (Enero) sitting on top of the French word (etats).
Wilbur Charles, the young coach introduced himself as "Jim Valvano, IONA College" to which wags would reply "you're pretty young to be rich enough to own a college." He later won the national championship at North Carolina State. He died at 47, after founding the V Foundation for Cancer Research
ReplyDeleteThanks billicoes, I realized it wasn't Calipari nor Patino. That was a great Championship game and great scene with Jimmy V looking for someone to hug
ReplyDeleteBack when college bball was THE Game
WC
Such a pretty puzzle! A rare no WOs plus a FIR. Off to a good start this week! I didn't guess the theme before the reveal, but it made everything clear. I enjoyed it, Kurt. Thanks! And thanks for your humorous review today, Boomer. Glad to hear you'll be bowling again soon too.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Joseph, our MalMan. Celebrate! Good work, OwenKL. The link to quipus was interesting. Finally, thanks go to C.C. for the bonus puzzle today honoring our birthday boy. It was more challenging than Kurt's, as DO implied. Now it's time to do some cooking while it's still cool. Hope you all have a LITE schedule planned for today.
WC, Pitino was the first (and so far, the only) college coach to win an NCAA title with two schools in the same state. Now that they vacated his Louisville title, is he still the only one to accomplish that, maybe with an asterisk? It was a fluke when it happened. Pitino left to coach in the pros, then found out he wasn't very good at that level. His UK job wasn't available, but UL's was.
ReplyDeleteMarvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Kurt and Boomer.
ReplyDeleteWell, this was a quick solve to FIR, and get the theme.
I did have two inkblots - one to change RatedR to R RATED, and the other to change Yak to YAP.
I noted STENO and STENT, and SLOP crossing SLAP.
Yes, Anon@7:16- I see that the layering of RABAT on top of a Spanish word on top of a French word could have been a problem; but they were common crossword answers.
Happy Birthday MalMan. Great CW C.C. (But just a little crunchy changing Atom to Iota to . . . no spoilers here).
Wishing all my CW PLAYMATES a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteHappy Borthday to MM. Hope you have a great, special day.
Very easy solve after the last few days. Always enjoy Kurt's puzzles. No issues, no wite-out. FIR
A nice easy Monday, despite the tricky NE corner with all the foreign words.
ReplyDeleteRE: ARIAL font. I keep seeing articles how that uses a LOT more printer ink (27+%) than fonts like Times Roman, so I played around with them in Word. It sure looks like Arial at 12 point is about the same size and weight as Times Roman at 14 point, so I wonder if the comparison is not looking at that.
But they recommend for the lightest font to save on ink when printing is to use Century Gothic. Ugh-very skinny letters so I can see how you save ink when you print a page of that.
Anyway, since ink is so expensive (rip off?!), you can consider this a PSA.
Thank You Kurt Krauss for a very easy puzzle ... took all the fun out of it ... couldn't you have made it a little more difficult ? I know, its Monday, and all that, but ... ;-) Lol.
ReplyDeleteBoomer, Thank you for an enjoyable review. How do you keep in practice when its not bowling season ? Do you 'just roll' with an imaginary bowling ball ?
I just realized that ETATS is the exact reverse spelling for STATE ... ( trust the French to do everything in the reverse order ... ) ;-)
OwenKL, your poems and limericks are fantastic ! I dont know how you manage to compose them them so regularly on the run ! Great Talent !
CC, thank you for the mini puzzle, I tried ATOM, then IOTA before I got MOTE.
Happy Birthday, MalMan !
BTW, the MCAT exam is a pretty tough one, and requires a real high IQ reasoning... Ten years ago, I was helping three undergrads prepare for the MCAT exam, and I had a tough time, myself. Its not just a matter of cramming it up, it requires an innate quality for logic and reasoning... Fortunately, my students were able to wing it well, and got into a U.S. med school each, even if it was not their first choice of the particular med school. The alternative would have been a Caribbean med school at ten times the cost.
Have a nice day, all.
Thank you Kurt for a PLAYFUL start to the week. And to you Boomer, the Prince of Groaners, for another FUN review. And thanks to C.C. for her MINI and HBD to Joseph, my Thursday partner in crime.
ReplyDelete40A OMAR On the theory that "there is no such thing as bad publicity", Rep Ilhan now seems to be entangled in some kind of TO DO with her BRO.
66A Since HEFNER's daughter has taken over his MAG, the PLAYMATES have cleaned up their act.
29D TERI is DW's preferred spelling of her name.
31D Part of 39A's disguise.
36D WREN These tiny birds have the highest ratio of FEROCITY/SIZE of all feathered creatures. Don't even LOOK at JENNY's nest unless you're ready for an EARFUL.
Cheers,
Bill
A naked (themeless) easy Monday? Guess there was a theme afterwall. Can I count this as win even though not only didn't I get the theme, worse, didn't know one even existed? 😳 Inkovers: sepil/SEPAL, yak/YAP (Canada eh)
ReplyDeleteIsn't a cognate considered the same word but in a different language, therefore the CW sin of using as an answer a word in the clue?...States: ÉTATS.🤔 ("French political divisions" woulda been a better clue. The clue for ENERO wasn't "January")
Jinx..First PLAYMATES 😲 I encountered were in a magazine fold out in the barbershop when I was about 15, but I just read the articles. 😏.. STENTS, "artery insects"? wha?.. .oh....wait..inserts!!.😃... Spelt ARIAL finally without an "e"
Lotsa Monday nonsense...
Another songbird...ATIT
Hill dweller's cravat....ANTI
Walley's query after a first trip to McDonald's: "Where's the ____ ? " ...BEAV
According to a Friday's comment what most (but not all) ethnic guys like me do when we see a bank....RABAT
Praised with poetry (like Owen KL)....ODED
Sailor's bud...SEPAL.
Between dos and cuatros, gone without a ____ TRES.
"What's your sign? " ...DATELINE
Make more secure....TITAN
Boomer you are right, the price of coffee IS going up. Now it costs a LATTE!!
Happy B day Mal Man, (Joseph? is that a common Manatee name? not EMANuel or TEEodore?)
Ray - I @9:40 AM Don't want to rain on your parade Sunshine, but "French political divisions" are call "Departments". "ETATS" is the French word for STATES, as in the UNITED STATES ("Les Etats Unis"). I'll leave the question as to whether this violates the house rules to the Crossword Stasi.
Delete
ReplyDeleteOnce Across and once Down and done. Nice Monday puzzle from Kurt. Boomer's tour was as good as always.
Jinx: Miller didn't invent Light or Lite Beer. The first was from the Rheingold Brewing Company and was called Gablinger's Diet Beer.= I remember it from when I lived on Long Island in the 60's. It wasn't very good.
Happy Birthday MalMan.
Have a great day everyone.
Well, dang! I wrote a comment, hit publish and it disappeared! I undoubtedly did something wrong. Try again, and apologies if it appears twice. Anyway, a nice straight-forward Monday CW, a FIR in 12. Clever theme and reveal. Thanx, KK for this fun CW. Only W/O, RATEDR:RRATED. I wanted to write ELITE for 20A, but SATAN made me fill ALIST. I love Monday CWs!! So nice after FRI and SAT struggles. I don't even usually try SUN. Thanx for the nice write-up, too, Boomer. I'm not so sure about the groaner about Tony Bennet, though. And please don't put him in heaven ahead of his time! I read that he has another collaboration with Lady Gaga due soon.
ReplyDeleteI'm having to replace my entire roof due to termite damage. The first four roofers wouldn't touch it. Roofer #5 will have his estimate to me today. Re-roof or move. Big decision. The re-roof would be an installation designed and built for solar panels. I have enough roof area to put enough solar panels to have Florida Flicker and Flash pay ME every month if I go that route. All made necessary due to the EXTREMELY poor job Hulett Pest Control did on treating/preventing termites. Ugh!!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteIMO, this was about as close to a perfect Monday puzzle as you could ask for: A cute theme, an Aha reveal, a clean grid, and very few three letter words. I, too had Rated R at first but no other w/os. I missed the two duos that eagle-eyed CEh caught but saw these: Latte crossing Late, Slap/Lap(is), Omar/Omit, Lite/Late, and Arte/Rate(d). This was a nice, smooth solve.
Thanks, Kurt, for a pleasant start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the many chuckles and trips down Memory Lane. I don’t know how you can remember all the lyrics and jingles from back in the day!
Happy Birthday, Joseph, hope it’s a special day! 🎂🎁🎉🎊🎈Enjoyed solving CC’s tribute puzzle. Thanks, CC.
FLN
Anon T, I smiled at your nod to AtlGranny’s use of the word “grand”. It was my mother’s default descriptive for all good people, places, and things. “Oh, the wedding was grand.” “Oh, the bride looked grand.” “Oh, the church was grand.” “Oh, the dinner was grand.” I can’t hear or see the word without thinking of her. She was a grand old girl! Good news that your other Bro will be with you all for the celebration party.
Have a great day.
I forgot to compliment Kurt on managing to get five (5) theme clues into the CW, along with the reveal! Not just a very clever CW, but quite an accomplishment to get a total of six long fills related to the theme. Terrific job, Kurt!
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! Thanks for the fast & fun puzzle, Kurt! Thanks, Boomer, for more fun!
ReplyDeleteNo problems anywhere with this one. I really didn't know Rabat but after a few perps, filled it in like I knew it. I did know ETATS & ENERO.
I was shocked to find out when I read Boomer's expo that I'd failed to get the theme. Duh1
I saw something on TV the other day that Tony Bennett has been retired on doctor's orders because of Alzheimers. Not many people keep their voice into their 90's like he has. Boomer, your joke tickled me.
With C.C.'s fun puzzle, I knew who she meant with Valerie's love, but had no idea what MalMan's birth name was. Happy Birthday, Joseph! I enjoy your work on our behalf.
I agree with Irish Miss--this was a perfect Monday puzzle. Many thanks, Kurt, and you too, Boomer, for your always delightful commentary. A great way to start the week!
ReplyDeleteI loved the variety in this puzzle--different countries and places and people, India, Morocco, Korea, OMAR Khayyam, MARC Chagall, Roger EBERT, ARLO Guthrie. I even got ENERO in spite of a clue like 'primer mes del calendario.'
Enjoyed your poems, Owen.
Happy Birthday, MalMan.
Have a great week coming up, everybody.
ReplyDeleteJinx, that is interesting. Do you know if that is across all NCAA sports and divisions, or is it just basketball ? I'm going to try to remember it for the next time one of the boys starts up an arcane sports fact.
Bob Lee, that's interesting too. We don't print much. Lately, maybe one page every month or so for me. Except when running the golf league for printing golf scorecards and weekly standings sheets, and I haven't done that for a couple of years now. Over the last couple of years, DW often works from home and prints perhaps half of a ream's worth of paper (~250 sheets) every five or six months. So not much from her either.
We have an HP color ink jet printer/copier/scanner and the biggest problem with it is the relatively expensive cartridges seem to dry up before running out of ink. One black cartridge, and one tri-color. Usually the tri-color has the problem. Not that there's ever much need for color printing around here, but what irks me is that the printer won't print in black unless the color cartridge is also functional. The cynic in me thinks that HP does that on purpose to sell more ink cartridges.
A few years ago a friend was extremely frustrated with her wireless HP toner printer/copier/scanner when it would only print from 2 of her 3 computers. The computer that wouldn't print ran her business software. She couldn't get her payroll program to print checks and was in a pinch. I took a look and tried some things. Finally got it to print her payroll, but then, one of the other computers that was printing before would no longer print. Uninstalled and reinstalled the printer software. Updated the printer drivers. Restored the printer to factory settings and tried again. Temporarily disabled her security software to see if that made a difference. Nope. I got to the point where I could could get any two of the computers to print, but never could get all three to print. After about three hours, she left for Office Max or Staples or some such, and came home with the latest version of the same printer. I installed that one and all 3 computers could print to it.
She then gave me the old one. I tried to convince her to leave it installed as a backup, but she was going to throw it away if I didn't take it. So I brought it home and installed it in my network the next day. All 4 of my computers had no problems printing to it. And a 5th - DW's work computer as well. Weird problem. I called our friend and wanted to bring it back to her and install it, but she didn't want it. So since then, I've had an HP toner printer.
I used it often for the golf league three years ago, and then again two years ago to set up the golf league for the 2020 season before the plague hit and we cancelled the golf season. That's when it decided to run out of toner. I looked online to order the authentic HP toner cartridges. $69 a pop with a typical yield of 1500 pages per cartridge. I took a chance on a knock off replacement cartridge that had good ratings on Amazon. $34. Half price. Not bad. But then I saw that was for 4 cartridges, so 6000 pages for half the cost of the HP cartridge ! The math tells me that it would be 4.6 cents per page for the HP toner cartridges (which would still be less than ink jet per page costs), and a remarkably low .6 cents per page with the knock off replacement cartridges.
We're still on that first replacement a full 18 months later. We don't print much. But the default printer on each of our computers is the toner printer rather than the ink jet. Much more cost effective than ink jet.
But still neat to know that different fonts could use substantially more ink (or toner) than others. Amazing the lengths that nerds (self deprecating humor) go to to figure such things out...
ReplyDeleteThis Monday grid was a good one.
Write-overs…RATEDR/RRATED, YAK/YAP.
unclefred…are you using your Termite Bond to get the roof done?
See you tomorrow.
TTP, we've got two printers, a Canon ink-jet and a Brother laser (toner) printer. I only use the Canon as a scanner, and do all of the printing to the Brother. The toner cartridge seems to last forever, and I print at least 4 pages of puzzles daily -- a carton of 6 after-market toner cartridges cost less than one black inkjet cartridge for the Canon.
ReplyDeleteAfter yesterday's extraordinary LAYER CAKE theme construction anything would seem mundane. But I did enjoy this PLAYful theme.
ReplyDeleteRayOSunshine I consider it a FIR even if the theme cannot be completely understood. But I personally don't feel satisfied unless I completely get the theme and all theme answers. Does everyone understand that there is always a theme every day except Saturday?
The idea of a PLAY DATE is sad to me. Most of us grew up being able to PLAY with our friends any time by walking or biking over to see them. In the modern world of helicopter parenting and over-scheduled lives of children this autonomy and spontaneity has been lost.
Wilbur Charles, ATLGranny, WA Seeley, AnonT, BigEasy Thank you for your kind comments and encouragement regarding my post yesterday. I replied at some length late in the day if you missed it. Thanks to your encouragement I have rounded up another set of photos for today.
Here I was in RABAT, MOROCCO in June 1989.
I was on a mission with my friend Michal who had an import business. My job was to pretend to be her husband so that she would not be harassed too much. On the flight over to MOROCCO she befriended one of the mechanics for Royal Air Maroc who was sitting near us on the plane. His name is Hamid and he very kindly adopted us during our stay in RABAT. He showed us all around the city and took us to meet his family.
From Yesterday:
AnonT Thank you for the encouragement for me to dig out my Watts Tower photos of the unique art project by Italian-American Simon Rodia. I will see what I can do. Thanks!
Hi Everyone.
ReplyDeleteI had a rough time last week with what should have been seemingly normal puzzles. Soooo. . .I was glad to start this week with lots of fun thanks to Kurt and Boomer.
I really didn't have any trouble after the second pass. Now I have to finish yesterday's puzzle.
Boomer, you outdid yourself today. Lots of chuckles. Thanks, I needed that!
Sunny here. I believe it's causing the street construction crews to multiply. Yikes. Have a sunny day wherever you are.
PicardYou really, really need to get you photos captioned! I know it's an overwhelming task, but how about just captioning the one set you share with us each day? Piece by little piece.
ReplyDeleteWe love the photos by Bernstein,
They remind us of a delicate dream:
When we wake up
Such confusing stuff
Leaves us wondering what it all means!
Thank you all for your kind birthday wishes. To (mis)quote Paul Simon, "How terribly strange to be seventy-one." Thank you, C.C. for the puzzle. Wonderful gifts all of it.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-27 holes on a beautiful midsummer day
-The trip through the puzzle was pretty straightforward but the gimmick (5, Wow!) needed the reveal.
-I remember Burma Shave signs and billboards for The Black Hills and Wall Drug which are 450 miles away
-Grandson and friends eschewed rental cars and taxis in Chicago for Lollapalooza. He said even Uber was $50
-Driving time from RABAT to Rick’s in Casablanca is 1h 15m
-SNAP, crackle, pop is me walking when I get out of bed
-I never understood the hatred of DISCO and its infectious beat
-HBD, MM!
D-O, I checked both printers. They both have fax as well so full multi-function, although I haven't used fax for years. At one point around 93 or 94 when I started telecommuting full time, I had a separate dedicated telephone line for fax, one for dial-up into work, and one for voice. Plus the home telephone line. Ameritech must have loved having me as a customer. Glad those days are over.
ReplyDeleteAt one point, Ameritech was trying to get off the ground with a new marketplace venture they called New Media Enterprises to compete with and thwart the ever-growing rush and expansion of cable. Jinx could explain the limitations of telephone line delivery systems, but there was just no way that they could compete with the bi-directional multi-frequency bands and total bandwidth & throughput of cable. They just kept falling farther and farther behind. Eventually Ameritech merged or was bought out by Southwestern Bell, and then SW Bell bought AT&T, who tried again with their U-Verse offering. I think they've now given up. But I still remember when Ameritech tried their new venture, which soon became initialized as NME (enemy). It was doomed from the onset.
Anyway, I digress. The inkjet is a HP Photosmart and was much improved over the 4 in 1 HP that I bought way back when with my Windows 95 machine. At the time I bought the Photosmart, DW had a fairly nice digital camera with a storage card. I could either hook up the camera to the computer and download the images to save them, or just take the card out of the camera and plug it into the slot in the printer, and use the printer's display screen and software to print images directly without using the computer.
The new ink jet printer came with some special HP high quality paper for printing high quality images, and was surprisingly good. I just looked a couple of photos that I printed out years ago, and they've held up. I remember that the special HP paper was expensive too, so I substituted and used an ultra white 24lb paper and it was good enough for most purposes. Plus I was burning through the ink cartridges. It was cheaper to just burn the saved images to a CD or DVD and then take that to the local Walgreens or other photog shop. After the initial fun, I soon got bored with it all.
But I did learn that using the better quality 24lb paper made a visible difference for when it mattered. But for most printing, I just use regular 20lb paper. Knowing what I know now, and given the way we use the printer(s), if I had to it all over again I would have just bought a toner printer rather than the ink jet. A more creative visual arts type of person might prefer a quality color ink jet printer.
Nifty puzzle. Well done.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Joseph.
Good wishes to you all.
TTP, I only know about college basketball. It started when I made a list of 1) the number of states that have had a championship team, then 2) the number of states that have had more than one team win it all. That's a pretty sort list, so it was only minor scope creep to look up the coaches.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you tried updating the printer drivers on your friend's machines, but I had to ask. My favorite printer is an ancient Laserjet 1300. I've made it work for two of the machines on my home network, but can't get the third to print. Seems like I have some kind of problem every Patch Tuesday. One thing that happens a lot is that the printer's Mopier mode gets switched to off, and then the "number of copies" setting doesn't work. They also frequently turn off network discovery on all my machines on my private network. BTW, last week's patches finally fixed a vulnerability with Windows' printer driver installer software. Several other things have happened after an update, some taking a full day to fix. I hope Microsoft improves home/small office networking with 11. It is really terrible now.
Mal man... 71 like me...you are officially "on the wrong side of 70" when anyone asked your age..😆
ReplyDeleteI see that the Italian discussion thread started on Friday 13 August with THE SOPRANOS in the puzzle. This seems to have led to AnonT bringing up Simon Rodia and his Watts Towers creation. And his invitation for me to post my photos from April 2019 when I took DW and her sister there. Thank you for that invitation.
ReplyDeleteHere are my photos of the Watts Towers created by Italian-American artist Simon Rodia. SOPRANOS not included.
Unfortunately, scaffolding hides the lower sections of the towers. I may also round up my photos from December 1991 if you are interested.
ReplyDeleteJinx, yes, I updated the drivers. I did everything I could think to do, and began to think it was some Registry problem. I was going to reload Windows, but then, for whatever reason, I was able to get her payroll checks to print. To this day, I still do not know why I could only make 2 of 3 printers work at any one time. Good thing I was never paid to be a PC tech !
To answer Boomer's question about the "Field of Dreams" viewership, one answer is the Nielsen Ratings, but if you watch TV over cable, they know what you watch. They collect so much granular data about your viewing that you would probably not believe it. They can tell what you watch, when you watch, when you change channels, ad infinitum. For instance, Comcast has "Daily Updates" that usually run in the overnight hours. AFAIC, they aren't really updates, they are data collection from your set top boxes that is being uploaded to their servers. One way or another, under various guises or cutesy harmless sounding names or terminology, cable companies are collecting the data.
There's a ton of market value in that data and you can be assured that it's being sold. Or, as Dash-T often writes about Facebook, YOU are the product. They say that the data is aggregated, and that no personally identifiable information is sold, but it's there and could be hacked.
Love them or hate them, the behemoth cable providers of content and services are here to stay. At least for the foreseeable future. The Covid-19 crisis brought the disparity between the haves and the have nots, as well as the lack of high speed infrastructure development in rural America to the forefront, especially when it came to remote learning and access. In my mind, there clearly needs to be more competition to give customers more choice, which in turn would help improve existing quality in some areas and to also lead to lower prices to consumers.
A good Monday PZL to start a fresh week, thanks to Mr. Krauss, and with an additional nod of gratitude for Boomer's follow-up.
ReplyDeleteThe LA RAMs actually stated up this past weekend.
They lost 13 to 6 to the LA Chargers in their pre-season game at the new multi-billion $$ SoFi stadium they share.
The first stringers sat this one out. No need to bruise the top dollar earners when a game doesn't really count...
The stadium got good press. Anybody wanna buy a luxury box?
RE-ENTER. Yeah, I'm with you, Boomer. I don't like re-entering passwords especially, because I know they're going to tell me it's wrong! For one particular web site, I can never get it right, so I keep having to get a new code sent to me in order to change to a new password.
Every time this happens I change it back to the same password, and it tells me I am now golden.
But then the next time, we start the charade all over again with them telling me I am incorrect.
Sheesh!
Enough of my kvetching! Who's next?!
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals today, three close at hand and a fourth in opposition.
The center diagonal on the near side yields an anagram tribute (13 of 15 letters) to those well-meaning activists who take to the streets to denounce the takeover of all our lanes by a single type of tree.
They are especially against those of a particularly shady kind.
Hurrah! I thank the hardy...
"ELM PROTESTERS"!
On low priority sites where they want you to enter the password twice, I just copy / paste for the second one. I don't do that where I'm really concerned about security.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteLate again! On Mondays I volunteer at the church office so will inevitably be late since I need a nap when I return.
Thank you, KK, for today's puzzle. I liked it and the PLAYMATE theme. Two write overs kept it from a perfect finish. ELITE/A LIST, RIVET/REBAR. Otherwise, it was a SNAP.
We once considered buying a TIMESHARE but realized the pitfalls and decided against it. Some friends bought FIVE of them, which they used as they traveled often, but then had a hard time selling them after one of the spouses died. I'm sure they lost money.
I love that ETATS is state spelled backward!
Though I went to the beach in Morocco I am sorry that I failed to visit RABAT. However, from Picard's photos, it seems to resemble Casablanca which I did visit.
My printer is an HP Officejet Pro 6968 and works beautifully. Of course, I don't use it now as much as when I was teaching, but it's been great.
Thank you, Boomer. It's wonderful to see that you are in good form, still have your sense of humor and entertain us every Monday.
I hope you are having a very pleasant day, everyone! I, too, like the word, grand.
I haven't had to enter passwords twice, except for when I create new ones. I DO like the sites that send me a text message with a security code. That seems a lot safer than just logon and password credentials.
ReplyDeleteMy DW was a sales executive when we lived in Dallas. We used to go to her company's luxury suite for Cowboys games at Texas Stadium. Really nice - VIP parking, limited access elevator, open bar, good eats, but the best was that the suite had its own bathrooms. But she wasn't THAT much of an executive to have access for regular season games, just preseason. Wah wah.
I have Cox Communication's internet. I'll admit it, it is really very good - fast and reliable. I use a cheap utility called Net Uptime Monitor to keep track of them, and the improvement from the bad old days is remarkable. The biggest problem I have is that their email servers go down a lot, but email is not nearly as important as it used to be. I use DirecTV for TV content, so I can't comment on Cox TV service.
There was an important baseball game? Who knew? Not I. Now, Jeopardy! That's my game. I've enjoyed the guest hosts and really like Mike Richards who, it seems might be the permanent one along with Miaym Bialik (sp., I apologize, but you all know who I mean.)
ReplyDeleteMisty, how was your neighborhood party on Saturday?
ReplyDeleteSheesh, my wife sure likes to cook for the neighbors! Tonight is is baked (roasted?) chicken that has marinated in ancho seasoning for the last 2 days. At least I made the ancho "sauce." Roast an almost ripe, red in color, poblano chile until it is dark red and charred on the outside, then open it and scrape out the soft innards. That's ancho.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous T, the next time she makes lemon cake I'll let you know.
Oh, and Ray - O. You're outrageous! 😎
ReplyDeleteWaZ...Funny.. DW makes the same complaint.😆
ReplyDeleteSaw your earlier comment...I stand (and sit) korrekted.."Day‐par‐mawh"
HBD MalMan! Thanks, Kurt and Boomer. FIR.
ReplyDeleteWent out today to photograph UP’s Big Boy #4014, the world’s largest steam locomotive. At least, that’s how it is advertised, and I’m not about to argue. Anyway, I figured it would be taking the reverse route that George H. W. Bush’s funeral train took --- right past the subdivision where I used to live. Wrongo, reindeer! I was not a happy camper. Oh, well, it will be on display in downtown Houston tomorrow, so I'll see it there.
ASH --- I might have mentioned it before, but if you’re a baseball fan and ever find yourself in Louisville, take a couple hours out of your busy schedule and tour the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory. It’s right downtown, and it’s not far from Churchill Downs, which was the other place my daughter wanted to visit when I drove her up to school in Kentucky --- many years ago. Yes, you can watch them make baseball bats. If memory serves me (always an iffy question), I think they will make a personalized bat for you.
We also did the Toyota factory in Georgetown, but I must admit that it was not nearly a neat as the Corvette factory in Bowling Green. (My friend got to drive a Corvette about 20’ off the end of the assembly line. Luckily it wasn’t a stick shift! Upon further review, I doubt they let the hoi polloi drive the sticks.)
And NO! I doubt that aluminum bats will ever be used in Major League Baseball. They are too dangerous! The owners don't want to take a chance having their multi-million dollar players being maimed by them and still having to keep paying them if they are no longer playing. (Now WATCH! Because I said that they won't, MLB will probably start using them tomorrow!)
Later….
Hi All (I hope someone's still up... I just got off the horn arguing everything about life with Army (Ret'd.) Bro. We had loving fun cursing each other ;-))
ReplyDeleteThanks Kurt for the PLAYful puzzle. Thanks Boomer for the (very) PLAYful review.
WOs: Poc... - D'Oh! not enough room for pocketKNIVES.
ESPs: RABAT (nice pics, Picard!*), IONA | LAPIS
Fav: "My name is NEO [Matrix's Subway Scene]
{A, A- | B, A+ | A}
*snicker* a 'shady kind'a elm' DR, OMK.
Happy B-Day MManatee!
IM - I smiled at your Grand memories. Happy that ATLGranny provided us both w/ one.
TTP - what D-O said re: Brother laser printer. D-O: I also have an ink-jet I seldom use. And, everytime I do, the ink cartridges are dry and I gotta get more ("But, Dad, it's due tomorrow and I need color!")
Jinx, et.al. - Micro$ofts printer protocols have had >4 patches in the last month+. PrintNightMare Spooler bug is the gift that just keeps on giving.
Note: the bug has existed for years! (?!?)
//Sometimes, you just need to kick backward-compatibility to the curb.
Two-way cable systems you say? I took a 10Base2 'thick-net' cabling system and created localized CCTV cable-channels using the amplifying headers with a handful of new modulators to get Hauppauge cards to 'tune in' to local Tinker AFB 'channels' (when the Major wants to say something to everyone!) over RG6 drop-downs. It was tons o' fun with extra end-of-fiscal DOD money we gotta spend [or you don't get it next year] back in '96.
LEOIII - and the 'ta-wing' off of aluminum is annoying. If MLB lets aluminum bats in, I'm out.
//In softball it's not so bad 'cuz the soft ball dampens the noise.
//That makes me wonder... how do golfers put up with the Ping heads' 'tings'?
Cheers, -T
*and thanks for the Watts Towers pics! (what's the super-structure that seems to be built around 'em?)
Oh, and MManatee...
ReplyDeleteI'll take this moment on your day to thank you for taking on C.C.'s challenge of being a blog Sherpa. Not only are you stepping into the shoes of past luminaries we've all enjoy'd, you're doing it with panache.
That, and I'd argue with Ray-OSun:
You are on the right side of '70yrs. The alternative isn't so pleasant :-)
*and many moooore*
Cheers! -T
MalMan:
ReplyDeleteI do hope you have had a GRAND day today! I enjoyed the puzzle C.C. created for you.
Enjoy your youth while you have it! Yes, you are still young.
Tonight I have really enjoyed the nostalgic ride from PBS.
Ooh! the wind just kicked up fiercely! I hope we don't lose another tree. Several branches have been lopped off, too.
Yes, Anon-T, I'm still awake but not for much longer.