google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Sunday August 22, 2021 Roland Huget

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Aug 22, 2021

Sunday August 22, 2021 Roland Huget

Theme: "Musical Keys" - Each song contains a keyboard key.

23. Slogan from a cola jingle first aired in 1969: IT'S THE REAL THING.

36. Broadway revue featuring pop standards that won a 1997 Grammy: SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE.

48. Classic novelty song involving wing-flapping imitations, as it's commonly called: THE CHICKEN DANCE.

70. Song played at Blues home games: MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS.

83. 2000 Grammy-winning hit featuring Eminem: FORGOT ABOUT DRE.

98. French folk tune used in basic instrument lessons: AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE. This is new to me. Listen here.

We've had key hidden gimmick before. But Roland elevated this theme by narrowing down theme entries to songs or musicals. This is the extra layer I talk with with Agnes from time to time. Perfect title, Husker Gary-esque.

I have Alt, Esc, End, Tab on my keyboard. No Ins or Del, just Insert and Delete. How about your keyboard?

Across:

1. 2020 Anya Taylor-Joy title role: EMMA. The Jane Austin character. Anya Taylor-Joy also plays the lead character in "The Queen's Gambit".
 

 

5. They're dragged and dropped: ICONS.

10. Apple desktop: IMAC.

14. Oldies players: HI-FIS.

19. Forest jumpers: DEER.

20. G.I. Joe nemesis: COBRA. Wiki says he's a terrorist and the "nemesis of the G.I. Joe Team in the Hasbro action figure toyline G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero and G.I. Joe: Sigma 6..." Well, at last he's  wearing a mask.

21. Fleeting prefix, timewise: NANO.

22. Heaps: A PILE.

26. Amber, for one: RESIN.

27. Pekoe holder: TEA CADDY. Lots of great fill in this 140-worder. Roland is a terrific themeless constructor.

28. Origami staple: CRANE.

29. Moved slowly: INCHED. Toward.

30. River inlets: RIAS.

31. Con's decoy: SHILL.

32. Silvery freshwater fish: BREAM. Never had bream. Tasty?

33. Professional spinners: PR FIRM.

40. Laugh-a-minute types: RIOTS.

41. Baby party: SHOWER.

42. Reception dispensers: URNS.

3. CD-__: ROM. We also have 81. Obsolescent laptop feature: CD DRIVE. These two are the same, right, D-8?

44. Cultural opening?: AGRI. Agricultural. We won't attend the Minnesota State Fair this year. I really like their grain art.


45. Fly like an eagle: SOAR.

46. __ wave: SINE.

47. Kitchenware brand: EKCO. I bought the Oxo garlic press, which works great. But the smell is just too much for me. I'm back to green onions again.
 
53. Fold: PLEAT.

54. UFO pilots: ETS.

55. Coupling device: YOKE.

56. Start of a counting rhyme: EENIE.

57. Get cozy: NESTLE.

58. 67, for Beethoven's Fifth: OPUS.

59. Take responsibility: OWN IT.

60. Support, with "for": VOTE. We had a special election for mayor. One candidate  received 3,415 votes. The other received 3,414 votes. Then they had a recount. Now the lady's lead doubled to 2. The total population for Brooklyn Park is 80,068.


61. Burt's Bees parent: CLOROX. You probably have a Burt's Bees lip balm lying your house somewhere.

64. Insurance case: CLAIM.

65. Antitoxins: SERA.

66. "Today" rival, briefly: GMA. Good Morning America.

69. Central parts: CORES.

73. Fords of the past: LTDS.

74. Hawaii County seat: HILO.

75. This and that: BOTH. So who do you think should be the next "Jeopardy!" host?

76. __ Cong: VIET.

77. Nice summer: ETE.

78. "Bro!": DUDE.

79. Showy parrots: MACAWS. Such bright colors.

82. Symphony orchestra members: CELLI.

86. Many a binoculars toter: BIRDER.

87. Counterfeit: BOGUS.

88. Geeky-sounding candy: NERDS.


89. Contented rumble: PURR.

90. Tech class sites: PC LABS.

92. Race of Norse gods: AESIR. They lived in Asgard.

93. Mythical hero who captured Cerberus: HERCULES. The 12th labor.


97. Enrapture: ELATE.

100. Like highways: LANED.

101. Small decorative case: ETUI. Used to see this fill often.

102. Sporty Chevy: VETTE.

103. Art Deco artist: ERTE.

104. Small fry: TYKES.

105. Boosts: COPS.

106. Like chalet roofs: EAVED. Also 5. Winter cause of a roof leak, maybe: ICE DAM.

107. Rolltop, for one: DESK.

Down:

1. Polish language: EDIT.

2. Give (out): METE.

3. Road Runner cartoons landscape feature: MESA.

4. Mobile judge, perhaps: ART CRITIC. Mobile art.

6. Parachute lines: CORDS.

7. Toe the line: OBEY.

8. Heston was its pres. from 1998 to 2003: NRA. Charlton Heston.

9. Leap named for a Swedish skater: SALCHOW. New term to me.



10. Asthmatic's device: INHALER.

11. For the most part: MAINLY.

12. Dudek of "Mad Men": ANNE.


13. Bit player: COG.

14. Equestrian gear: HARNESS.

15. Former poisoning treatment: IPECAC.

16. Sole source: FISH MARKET. Great clue.

17. Rival of Bjorn: ILIE.

18. Dispatch: SEND.

24. Split __: HAIRS.

25. Tot's wheels: TRIKE.

29. Bedard who voiced Pocahontas in the 1995 Disney film: IRENE. She's a Native Indian.

31. Campfire treat: S'MORE.

32. Carried: BORNE.

33. Jabber: PRATE.

34. Privilege: RIGHT.

35. Course warnings: FORES.

36. Burger go-with: SHAKE. Boomer's comfort food.

37. Power source: JUICE.

38. __ point: FOCAL.

39. Put on quite an act: EMOTE.

41. Anklets, e.g.: SOCKS. These are almost in the no-show category.


45. Sitting Bull's people: SIOUX.

46. Grumpy mood: SNIT.

47. "Anything __ we can do?": ELSE.

49. Sources of shots: HYPOS.

50. Not familiar with: NEW AT.

51. Casual material: DENIM.

52. "Yu-Gi-Oh!" genre: ANIME. "Yu-Gi-Oh" is written like below three characters, literally "Games King".


53. Part of a flower: PETAL.

57. Start of two U.S. state names: NORTH.

58. They're found in veins: ORES.

59. Muffin topping: OLEO. Boomer likes Aldi's fake butter. It's not called Oleo.

60. Three-piece pieces: VESTS.

61. Symbol seen in viola music: C CLEF.

62. Numbers game: LOTTO.

63. Sales rep's form: ORDER BLANK.

64. Paparazzi quarry: CELEB.

65. Former Maine senator Olympia: SNOWE.

66. Artisan group: GUILD.

67. High-end German appliance brand: MIELE. New to me. "Miele" means "honey" in Italian.  "Miel" in French.


68. Up and about: ASTIR.

70. King with a magic touch: MIDAS.

71. Letter-shaped girders: I BARS.

72. Judge's response: OVERRULED.

74. Most Rwandans: HUTUS.



78. Greyhound crash sites?: DOG BEDS. Another great clue.

79. Cold oatmeal cereals: MUESLIS.

80. Heart chambers: ATRIA.

82. Approximately: CIRCA.

84. Colonel Sanders trademark: GOATEE.

85. Small coffee maker output: ONE CUP.

86. Like a deformed tree trunk: BURLED. Learning moment for me. Poor tree.

89. Golfer Calvin: PEETE. Most successful African-American golfer before Tiger.

90. Bombard, as with snowballs: PELT.

91. Ali, once: CLAY. Did you know his grandson Nico Ali Walsh is a boxer also?

92. Start to correct?: AUTO. Auto-correct.

93. Samsung product: HD TV.

94. Fishing decoy: LURE.

95. Laryngitis docs: ENTS. Guangzhou has not had any new COVID cases for a few months. Still,  you must have a negative COVID test result before you see your ENT. Poor Carmen had to have 2 COVID tests to see 2 different doctors, since each test result is only valid for 3 days.

96. Try to find: SEEK.

98. Post-Manhattan Project org.: AEC. Atomic Energy Commission.

99. "Fool (If You Think It's Over)" singer Chris: REA.

C.C.


36 comments:

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Wow! What a Sunday challenge. Took well over an hour. Thanks, Roland! Thanks, C.C. for several interesting learning moments. I'm too sleepy to remember what.

I have an old chest of drawers which is well over 100 years old and was brought to Kansas in the 1870's. It has a BURLED walnut face on the top drawer. Very pretty. I was delighted to find this after scraping off some old ugly black varnish many years ago.

Knew ETUI but put an N in there. Duh! Must have been from Ennui.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

No problems skating through this one. EAVE: Most homes in this part of the country have eaves, but many lack eave troughs, and nobody, but nobody, here has ever worried about an ICE DAM. Found all the circled keys. My keyboard also has Insert and Delete rather than INS DEL. So it's AUTO-correct? I thought it was OTTO-correct. Enjoyed the musical interlude, Roland, and your informative tour, C.C. (The CD-ROM is the disc, the CD-DRIVE is the machine that plays it.)

BREAM: In WI we called 'em bluegills.

DEER: A guy in the next town owns a game ranch. The other night a pack of six dogs dug under the fence and killed two dozen of his deer. He claims his loss was more than $150K. He must charge a bundle to let "hunters" shoot his deer.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW, missing BURrED and BREeM. Had I looked at the circles I would have fixed BURLED when I saw ...DEL.... I have both a DEL and DELETE key and an INS key on my HP laptop.

Big CSO to my beloved rescued racing greyhound Zoe, nee Jugni. Zoe has 8 BEDS and uses them all. Greyhounds have thin skin and delicate bones, and don't like to lay down on anything hard. But she's not spoiled or anything. Noooo.

Howard Stern's cousin Ritchie owns a competitor to Bert's Bees, called BeeCeuticals. DNK that CLOROX owned the big name outfit.

The next time I'm in Alabama I'll look up that ART CRITIC in Mobile.

MIELE is so high end that I can't even afford to know what it is.

Thanks to Roland for the fun puzzle. And thanks to CC for the thought-provoking tour. I was thinking about your question of CD ROM / CD DRIVES. In my motorhead thoughts I think it is similar to what I would try: "Iconic Ford engine" for WINDSOR, and "FBI-mobile" for FORD LTD. Kosher? I'll leave that to you constructors and Rich.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-The title helped in ferreting out this fun theme
-Clair de lune? Oui. AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE? Non
-Just ALT, ESC and DELete on our iMAC
-PR FIRMS are in charge of the lipstick in the pig sty
-I thought A LOROX might be a parent and an A CLEF a musical notation. Not so much.
-We own 7 Apple products and the school where I sub is all PC’s.
-I get Boost/COP but my students used to use COB, as in I COBBED a candy bar.
-DENIM – Friday option at school where I sub
-PETAL or SEPAL. Of course I got _ _ _ A L first
-Greyhound crash site? Oh so cool!

Picard said...

I got all the KEYS but did not realize each one was in a MUSICAL reference. FIR but did fully grasp the cleverness of the theme until the explanation by CC.

Favorite clue was MOBILE JUDGE for ART CRITIC.

COPS seemed wrong as I could not see how it relates to BOOSTS. Looked up BOOST and see that in some slang it means "steal". Has anyone ever heard of BOOSTS used to mean "steal"?

Always happy to see NANO as our company was the first ever NANOtechnology company.

Here I am in our Digital Instruments company brochure with the NANOScope controller that I designed.

CC Yes, my keyboard includes INS and DEL. I have learned a number of instruments over the years and, indeed, AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE was always part of the beginning repertoire. Learning moment: Not to be confused with CLAIR DE LUNE by Debussy.

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE by the Steve Miller Band is one of my favorite songs ever. Anyone else?

Learning moment about SALCHOW. What amazing skill to pull that off.

Picard said...

From Friday:
AnonT Yes, GET OVER IT by the EAGLEs indeed has become more relevant than when it was written.

TTP If I understand you correctly, you are saying you are OK with doing the reveal of the theme before finishing the theme answers. I feel the same way. In fact, I often try to do the reveal first as it can help with the rest. I realize that some disagree and want to see if they can figure out the theme on their own.

From Yesterday:
LfromAlberta Thank you for the shout out about my IV (Isla Vista) beach rescue photos and videos. Sorry that you needed such a rescue. I have a good friend from Alberta who is a very creative and talented artist.

Malodorous Manatee said...

It was, in a weird way, nice to see ETUI in a puzzle. Shades of Maleska. Perhaps we'll see SNOOD soon. Or, perhaps, it was an E-TUI.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard, Johnny Carson and Jack Webb did a hilarious deadpan skit about a criminal who COPped a copper clapper. Also, one might say that the NY governor allegedly thought it was OK to COP a feel of the policewoman who was assigned to guard him.

I think I will take a clue from you. Starting tomorrow, I'll look for the theme before getting to the meat of the grid. Would have cut my error rate in half today.

Picard said...

Jinx Sorry if I was not clear.

I am very familiar with the use of the word COPS to mean "steals". I was wondering if anyone has ever heard the word BOOSTS used to mean "steals"?

TTP said...

Nice job, Roland and C.C.

"Fool (If You Think It's Over)" by singer Chris REA is a beautiful song that he wrote for his young sister. Her first boyfriend broke up with her and left her devastated.

Picard, true. Accurately completing the solve AND understanding the reveal are my goals, but the two don't have to be in any order. Sometimes the puzzle theme is understood even before getting to the reveal (if there is a reveal). At other times, getting the reveal helps fill in theme answers and complete the puzzle.

And then there are the Sunday puzzles here (and the many daily puzzles elsewhere) where the provided title either hints to, or is the reveal.

Be sure to solve C.C.'s Sunday puzzle over at the USA Today website today. A prime example. https://puzzles.usatoday.com/

Oh, and yes, BOOST for steal. I've heard it most often in relation to car theft, as in "boosting cars", as in the "Gone in 60 Seconds" movie series.


FLN, Dash-T, yes "small ball", as Foxy Ned developed to effectively compete with the other baseball teams , and which has been heavily adopted by others since then.

But where I was going with was not only where the term came from, but, as you have often used the term "inside baseball" to thank C.C. and others for the behind the scenes info on crosswords that we might not understand or even know. The metaphor "inside baseball", especially in its current meaning, was the feature of a Merriam Webster word history "Words at Play" topic I came across recently. I found it interesting.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-inside-scoop-on-inside-baseball

Yuman said...

Bream, aesir, and burled were new to me. Read 88 A as “greeky” instead of geeky. A new candy from Greece?
The crossword clue in our local puzzle was “Jay successor, the answer is 3 letters ending in ay, and it’s not JAY. Any guesses?
Thanks to all of you for the kinds thoughts about Sugar, lots of pet lovers here.

TTP said...


Yuman, perhaps kay, alphabetically as the next letter when spelled phonetically ?

Misty said...

Neat Sunday puzzle, many thanks, Roland. And thank you, C.C., for your always helpful commentary.

Sundays are, of course, toughies for me, so I always get off to a slow start. But this morning's had a funny offer for me: all of the first answers I got were "E" words, and there were a number of them. Started with ETS, extra-terrestrials, I presume. The ETE for that French Nice summer, followed by ETUI, and the Art Deco ERTE. The last across was EENIE. On the downs I got ENTS for the laryngitis docs. That got me started, but it still took a fair amount of cheating to finish. But still, lots of fun.

Have a great Sunday, everybody.

TTP said...


Word meanings change over time. Yet we often use an incorrect word or terminology, but it is still commonly understood for what the writer intended.

Wiki is one such example.

Wiki is a website format, just as Blogger (the tool that the daily bloggers use) is a type of website format:

- Wikipedia is website that uses the Wiki format
- Wikipedia is arguably the most popular Wiki in the world
- Wikipedia emulates an encyclopedia while other wikis may contain other types of information.

There are many different wikis. FANDOM is a wiki. WikiHow is a wiki. TV Tropes is a wiki. Ballotpedia is a wiki. Know Your Meme and OpenStreetMap are wikis.

There's a Wikipedia entry, "List of wikis" that lists nearly 100 notable wikis, but there are plenty more than that.


Now that I've got that pet peeve off my chest, I'm going to go mow the lawn and leave you all alone.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Picard, @11:54 as TTP mentioned BOOSTing a car was once a commonly heard expression. In October I will be able to get my booster shot. I hate shots but I will be there on my first day of eligibility.

Anonymous said...

Can’t say I enjoyed this one. The long theme answers were disjointed, dated and forced to deliver the “keys”.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard, your comment was clear, my mind just jumped the track when I read "COP." But I thought BOOST was pretty common. Must be regional, or maybe I've spent too much time watching The Sopranos, McCloud, Rockford PI and the like, and reading crime fiction. I also did a cursory web search, and all I found is a CBS report that used the term to describe South American gangs and their organized shoplifting sprees in the USA.

waseeley said...

Husker @9:15 AM Perhaps you're thinking of the 3rd movement of Debussy's "Suite bergamasque" (today's his BD BTW). But I think "AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE" is the correct answer for 98A.

waseeley said...

Thank you Roland for a clever and TUNEFUL puzzle, much more enjoyable for me than the shellacking I got yesterday. And speaking of shellacking, thanks C.C. for yesterday's puzzle and today's excellent review. You are keeping busy these days!

1D Polish language - clever clue. Wanted SLAV, but eventually perped EDIT.

The only NIT I had was 3A ICONS. They are not "dragged and dropped", but CLICKED ON. I suppose it would be possible to drag and drop something ON an ICON to launch the app with appropriate data, as I've not seen this done (ICONS tend to be small targets).

Cheers,
Bill

desper-otto said...

Jinx, while watching McCloud have you ever noticed that Dennis Weaver claims to be a law officer from Taos, New Mexico. But he pronounces it as Tay'-oss. He'd obviously never been there.

Anonymous T said...

Sunday Lurk say...

I've heard boost==cop==steal==thieve. Cob, HG, is new to me.
//You think the kids heard Cop wrong? :-)

Picard - Cool Nanoscope pic! (and neat project/machine)
Fly Like an Eagle is a good song, but not in my top 50. Ode to Joy [17:44] has to be my #1 - it will make me SMILE even in the deepest of funk.
Stone's Paint it Black, RUSH (pretty much anything) and Rossini's Lone Ranger theme (William Tell Overture*) rank up there too. Toss in some Beatles and Mozart for good measure ;-)

TTP - Cool "inside-baseball" article. Nice to know I use it right!
Wiki is Hawaiian for quick.

waseeley - you can click and 'drag-and-drop' an icon from your desktop to the recycle-bin icon to delete the file.

Cheers, -T
*Buddy in HS (C.E. Byrd) was All State first-string viola and first-string offensive line in football. Imagine, big him with little viola playing Rossini. I still have the tape somewhere.

Big Easy said...

I started out stumped at 1A before I gathered some steam and IFR in about a half hour. Misread the 1A clue as ANDY Taylor and immediately thought OPIE. I filled the songs after the first word except FORGOT ABOUT DRE- never heard of it. The crossing of COBRA (unknown) and SALCHOW (heard of if but had zero idea about its spelling was a guess.

The 'Silvery freshwater fist\h' clue's answer-BREAM- crossing FISH MARKET seemed strange. I caught many bluegill and goggle eye bream but don't remember them being silver. They are small but when you catch one they fight hard and feel like a 5lb bass is on the line.

CLOROX- anybody notice the price of bleach lately? I used to pay under $1.00/gal but it's way up.

MIELE, REA, ANNE Dudek, IRENE Bedard were other unknowns filled by perps.
VOTE- looks like nobody bothered to show up at C.C.'s polls.
PC LABS- I doubt schools have those any more and if they do they are teaching outdated material.
IPECAC- will definitely make you vomit.
HUTUS and Tutsis- they don't like one another. Both groups also live in Burundi and Congo.

ENTS- COVID19 will never go away in our lifetime. Keeps morphing. Delta could be called COVID21. Governments are playing 'whack-a-mole' trying to stop it.

Anonymous T said...

BigE - I've already (TM)'d Covid21 :-)
Next nomenclature is 'Summer C.'
Now that we have a vaccine (and boosters) annual flu shots will be supplemented by annual C-shots. #Nostradamus :-)

A stroll down MEMORY LANE...
//Scroll past if you don't have time to indulge me. There's nothing puzzle here.

My All State first-string viola and first-string offensive line football buddy: The Story.

I met Andy (I'll call him that... 'cuz, um, that's his name) in my first public school experience since 4th grade (bounced schools as I bounced parents' custody). We moved from IL, where I went to Ursuline Academy, to Shreveport where I was enrolled at C.E. Byrd - a big, old, public HS in 'the city.'

After processing paperwork, it was already 5th hour. I went to Biology. A woman, older than dirt (she must have been there to see the first cell undergo mitosis) with blue bee-hive hair and old-lady cat-eye glasses, sat me next to a cave man. The kid was huge and had a beard (we're only 15!)!

The only words I heard, "You can sit next to Andy -- [unintelligible] isn't coming back to school so that chair is empty.
Don't worry, he won't bite."

Now, I'd see Teachers and was considering cursing my dad for WTF he got me into.
It was his job that moved us here.

I look at that Goliath next to me and he just smiles big showing his teeth as blue-haired Biology teacher said 'bite.' I slank into my chair.

Later that day, at my new Boy Scout unit meeting, there's Andy.
"Didn't we just meet in Biology?"
"Yeah, Ms. BeeHive is funny, isn't she?"
We became fast friends.

We lost touch a few moves after college [that and our wives really didn't get along].
We did catch up one night in Houston at Numbers for a They Might Be Giants concert.
But, that was that.

Glory Days [The Boss], eh?

Cheers, -T

Vidwan827 said...

I haven't done the CW, but came to read all the comments.

Jinx in Norfolk, @8.47 AM. It is nice you have a rescued greyhound, and I'm sure they're very gentle dogs. I was surprised that your dog Zoe, had a 'nee' Jugni ...

Firstly, that dogs have 'nee's as well ... I thought only female humans, and some male humans had 'nee's. Bob Dylan nee Robert Zimmerman...

Secondly, Jugni is a hindi name ... It means female firefly. Jugnu is a generic firefly of either sex. It is a rare name that I had completely forgotten. I wonder how the dog got an indian name, however appropriate.

Have a good coming week, all.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Vid, I only knew it was Hindu for "female firefly" because I LIU after we had signed the rescue papers. Animal racing names are often strange. Man-O-War? Named for a ship, or a jellyfish's cousin?

ATLGranny said...

A Sunday FIR, second in a row. Proofreading pays off! I enjoyed doing the puzzle this morning, but got busy before reading the blog just now. An interesting theme, Roland. Thanks for the nice puzzle. Thanks C.C. for explaining in your review. I had the same doubts others did with COPS and AU CLAIR DE LA LUNE. Also caused trouble for myself by entering HARdhat/HARNESS and bOwTiE/GOATEE.

Hope you all have been having a fun day. Onward to Monday!

TTP said...


I gotta hire a lawn service. Where's that ibuprofen ?

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle A PILE. Saw the computer keyboard keys but didn't see how they were musical keys until reading the write-up.
Busy day today. No time to write more, but enjoyed reading all your comments.
Best regards to you all.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Wow! It's really late. I'll have to read Anon-T and others after dinner which I will have to start soon.

My Sunday afternoon was spent at my daughter's taking some items to her. I had started the puzzle, but barely. It didn't take long to fill most of it but the bottom proved to be tricky. I've never listed to anything by Eminem so had a hard time finishing that line, then did not know the complete title of AUCLAIRDELALUNE. And yes, I mistook it for Clair de Lune. But I slogged through to the end.

It's getting really hard to see because my glasses are now too blurry for me. Must go buy stronger ones. News to me that CLOROX owns Burt's Bees. Who knew?

Also, I have to buy a new carry on bag. My current one doesn't have wheels and has served me well for many years. But now carrying it has become burdensome. Oh, how I hate getting old!

I hope you have all been enjoying your Sunday. Picard, that is an amazing contraption you have designed. I'm sorry; I know it's a well engineered machine and I congratulate you on it!

I have TAB, DEL and INS as well as another DELETE.

Anonymous said...

98A is hands-down the worst XW clue & answer in a long time. The clue is anglicized, so the answer should also be the English title of the song, "Clair de Lune". Using the French title w/o cluing it as such is unfair. Especially for a themer. Especially since the LATXW already relies far too much on advanced foreign words not in the average solver's wheelhouse. Also, if you gave this list of names to 100 people and asked them what they were famous for, you'd get deer-in-the-headlights 99 times: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ulrich Salchow, Anne Dudek, Irene Bedard, Olympia Snowe, and Chris Rea. Go ahead, ask your non-xword friends. This obscure PPP is getting ridiculous.

Wilbur Charles said...

I liked the clue for URNS. Aaron Roger's thinks he can fit in Jeopardy with NFL

I had the right perps for HERCULES with LES. The U cinched. it.

I knew SALCHOW but spelling it? Same for IPECAC and RESIN.

Phil's a big ANIME guy but worried about the Wokes declaring it child porn

When I frequented St Pete DOG track the dogs often 'crashed' at the first turn. Big dogs were trained to hem in smaller dogs to negate the latter's speed

Not John or Jimmy but ILIE Nastase who won one of those Majors

Time? Whatever it took Furyk to play 13 thru 16. Can he make the putt to tie on 18? Nope, lipped it.

Jinx, you actually posted what we all thought re. COP but…And...We know where your mind was

I think of Eddie Stanky and the gogo chi-sox of the 50s re. Small Ball.

Got it TTP. But, pour moi, "to wiki" is to go to Wikipedia

Anon@142, are you here for comic relief?

Yep, 'Polish' depends on pronunciation. As in 'Read'

-T, wasn't that Ted Danson as the "good" teacher*.

WC

I shocked an ex-teacher when I related a conversation I overheard from some ex-middle school teachers. They were reminiscing about their 13 year old girlfriends.

Jayce said...

Lucina, I also don’t like getting old and less “spry”.

Jayce said...

I just discovered a new (to me) wine, Gloria Ferrer pinot noir. Very pleasant and drinkable. Misty, it’s not merlot but you might like it. I do.
It’s on my buy list.

Anonymous T said...

WC - It was Nick Nolte that star'd in Teachers.

Jayce - I'm just entering the "less spry" / getting old stage. My trainer worked me hard yesterday and I'm sore all over.

TTP - when you find the ibuprofen, don't Bogart it :-)

Wishing all y'all a good week and happy puzzling.

Cheers!, -T

Lucina said...

WC:
Do you mean their 13-year old girlfriends or girlfriends of 13 years?

Unknown said...

This was one of the WORST puzzles LAT has ever published. I counted at least two dozen archane or just plain erroneous defs EENIE is a CHOOSING number (not "counting"). HI-FIs played albums, not the 45rpms from which we heard our "oldies". OLEO goes INSIDE a muffin, not on top. COPS means boost??? Not in my three thesauruses! AU CLAIRE DE LUNE is not the Claire d'lune I love to play on my piano. Where did Huget find his "nursery rhyme song" he clued??? This puzzled really went beyond the pale Shame to the editors!