Title: Speak up, no need for all the hemming and hawing.
I am pleased to welcome the debut LAT puzzle from a Nurse Practitioner from New Mexico for whom September seems to be a special month. Her first published puzzle was September 23 2020 a NYT with a picture ( a wonderful mini-me pic with her child) and some comments. And now a year and a day later...
The first thing that jumps out is that this is not a traditional Friday; three themers and a reveal that was more confusing than helpful for me. Also, Fridays average about 32 black squares and this has 38 such squares. It also has some very nice non-theme fill ...SOUP MIX, TENNIES, TOOTSIE, WRITHED, BOATDECK, STUNTMAN, EUROVISION, and LABELMAKER. The ones in green have never been in the NYT, the ones in red have never been in either LAT or NYT. But, this too is a bit outré, as two of the themers are only 8 letters long and you are not supposed to have fill longer than themers. Which are:
15A. Otolaryngologist's colleagues?: EAR DRUMS (8). A eye, ear, and throat doctor ends up a musical instrument.
Maybe.
43A. Rodent reduction measure?: VOLUME CONTROL (13).57A. Minuscule biters, and a clue to understanding 15-, 26- and 43-Across: NO SEEUMS (8). They are all over the place.
1. Acid: LSD. The drug of choice for a generation.
4. Pine product: SAP. Pine tree sap is used by the tree to transport nutrients. Pine tree sap uses include glue, candles and fire starting. Pine sap is also used for making turpentine, a flammable substance used for coating objects. (gardening know how).7. Swell: BULGE. Not a battle this time.
12. First name in pharmaceuticals: ELI. The HISTORY.
13. Irritated, with "on": WORE. A simple but deceptive clue.
14. 90% of Earth's volcanic rock: BASALT. ROCK
17. Reach for rudely: GRAB AT.
18. Home-away-from-home vacation: R V TRIP. The BEST
19. Departure notice?: OBITuary.
21. Historic period: ERA. Or you can wash your clothes.
22. PIN points: ATMS. I love this combination.
24. Big name in databases: ORACLE. Greek history and...
31. Rejoices: EXULTS. Exult means "to rejoice" or "to be openly happy about."
32. Foot specialist?: BARD. Wonderful clue/fill and CSO to our resident poets OKL, Moe and the rest.
35. Like burnt coffee: ACRID. Sometimes, it makes the coffee better.
37. Member of a noted sailing trio: NOD. Are you Winken and Blinken?
38. LGBTQ activist George: TAKEI. Lt. Sulu.
39. Hershey toffee bar: SKOR. Seen it too often
40. Home of The Trop: ST. PETE. The home of the Tampa Bay professional teams.
42. Clean Water Act org.: EPA.
46. One getting smashed at a bash: PINATA.
47. Big Island coffee region: KONA.
48. Faux follower: PAS.
49. Servers at affairs: URNS. Coffee or tea I hope and not ashes.
51. Donation drop-off site: TIPJAR. Lame.
55. Afghanistan's national airline: ARIANA. Unkown, not a grande clue.
59. They take things in stride: STOICS.
60. Nice ways to say yes: OUIS. The French silly pun.
61. Patel of "Lion": DEV.
62. __-pop: electronic music genre: SYNTH. The GENRE.
63. Test for M.A. seekers: GRE. Graduate Records Examination.
64. Medium claim: ESP. More - Extra Sensory Perception.
Down:
3. Gossip: DIRT.
4. Lipton product: SOUP MIX. PICTURE
5. Branch or limb: ARM.
6. Currency of 25-Down: PESO.
7. It may be closed at last call: BARTAB.
8. Winner of the most medals at the 2020 Olympics: USA. A quick clue after this delayed event.
9. Tiny office printer: LABEL MAKER. Another best
11. Sundance's sweetie: ETTA. Butch was never jealous. PICTURE
Read all about it. LINK.
13. Squirmed: WRITHED.
14. Certain break-dancers: B-GIRLS. Got me, " a woman who entertains bar patrons and encourages them to spend freely."
16. Attract: DRAW attention.
20. Where hands may be brought together: BOAT DECK. Deck hands work on the boat deck.
23. Double, often: STUNTMAN. The insurance on big stars has gotten too expensive so even the macho morons need stunt doubles.
25. Birthplace of Gloria Estefan: CUBA. Born September 1, 1957, Havana, Cuba.
26. Poured-over leaves: TEAS. Another nice clue
27. Cybersecurity concern: HACK. Hacking is an attempt to exploit a computer system or a private network inside a computer.
28. 2021 musical contest held in Rotterdam: EUROVISION. This old CONTEST discovered ABBA.
29. Get away to get together: ELOPE.
33. Default result: REPO.
34. Old phone feature: DIAL. You need the soap to wash your hands after words.
36. Decrease?: IRON. Iron out tension? Got me
38. Sneaks: TENNIES. Cute tennis shoe reference.
40. Hindu teachings: SUTRAS. Kama, kama Chameleon?
41. __ Roll: TOOTSIE. Not Dustin Hoffman?
44. Set in motion: LAUNCH. I love launch parties.
45. Format for much '80s music: TAPE.
46. Bash: PARTY.
48. Word with hall and press: PASS. I pass on using those examples.
50. Make out, in Britain: SNOG. I heard in 70s and 80s importrd BBC shows.
52D. "Hey __": classic hit: JUDE. See 26A.
53. Iowa college town: AMES. Not to be confused with Ed.
54. Request on an invitation: RSVP. Again, too much too soon.
56. River isle: AIT. Hey a new way to say eight."
58. Collective pronoun: OUR. Last fill and time to say good night.
FIRight. Not too hard for a Friday, but I did have a lot of t/os, like SnaPple < SOUP MIX and EXaLTS < EXULTS.
ReplyDeleteGot the gimmick when trying to make sense of the last themer, so it was no help with the earlier ones. And it really would have been helpful today. Excellent reveal.
Pity the poor PARTY papier PIÑATA.
Crammed with candy from cap to cauda
Like a goose for pâté;
Then come some birthday,
Clubbed as clean as the case of a cicada!
(Alliteration much?)
A SAP there was from ST. PETE,
Who thought Nigerian princes were neat.
He fell for a con,
Found he was led on.
But he persists to repeat and repeat!
The factor about camping that bums
Is the swarming of pesky NO-SEE-UMS.
Near invisible midges
Will raise little ridges.
But they also think mosquitoes are yums!
{B+, B, B.}
Good morning! (Yeah, still on Mountain time...)
ReplyDeleteUm...this one was definitely Friday-worthy. Failed to read the reveal, but did manage to get the theme. For once. My only stumble was hanging onto Pine TAR, like a sap, for much too long. Very nice, Margit, and thanx for the expo, Lemonade.
Has it come to the point that the Beatles need any kind of explanation? ie "English Rock Band"
ReplyDeleteBecause I've started Saturday* this ordeal doesn't seem so hard. But I had trouble sussing the UMs. And bad starts like RVTour and coax/DRAW.
SOUrMaX/SOUPMIX. The clues were very clever: BGIRLS,OBIT,REPO,PINATA, ATMS,URNS…BARD
Even Nina was too long for that 'sailing trio'.
ST PETE was LHF but many out of towners don't know that the TAMPA(Bay) Rays don't play in Tampa
Aha, I did get the SW correct. ARIANA and SYNCH were unknowns. AIT was obscure but vaguely recalled. Cay and Key wouldn't fit.
WRITHED was slow coming (Wiggled?). BOAT not poop(DECK).
Decrease was meant to picture De-Crease I thought. Except IRONing is supposed to put the crease in. ???
Yep I had Pine TAR too. For me, high, Friday difficulty as theme could be grok'ed but slowwwly
WC(got the FIR)
** If I finish this beaut it'll be a miracle
WC, thank you. The De-crease was beyond me and should not have been.
ReplyDeleteFIW. Again. Got my first WAG at BASALT x BGIRL, but missed the second at ARIrNA x rIc, making SYNcH wrong too.
ReplyDeleteI am on an RV TRIP now, typing from the Freightliner factory service center.
The world is a funny place. ARIANA flies while Alitalia flops.
George TAKEI is a funny guy. Loves Howard Stern, hates Bill Shatner.
I tried to shoehorn in some form of Vegas for "home of The Trop" until the V8 can landed. And I've parked my boat trailer there several times when racing in the NOOD Regatta out of St Petersburg Yacht Club. (NOOD means National Offshore One Design, and is pronounced "nude")
TV coverage of the Ryder cup starts in 10 minutes. USA! USA! No VOLUME CONTROL on that chant!
I cheated in just under 13 minutes because I had no idea which letter to put at the crossing of Ariana and Ait.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I enjoyed the puzzle with the unique theme and fresh/new answers.
The expo says you aren't supposed to have fill longer than the theme answers - is that really a rule? Are there written rules (symmetry) and unwritten rules too? Are those rules universally followed (NY Times, LA Times, etc.)? I'd appreciate any clarity you can provide.
Good morning Cornerites.
ReplyDeleteThank you Margit Christenson for your enjoyable Friday CW. Carol and I FIR.
Thank you Lemonade for your excellent review.
On August 31, 2021 at 5:06 AM I wrote that we were going into quarantine after a staff person tested positive. Thanks to each of you who wished us well.
We came out today and can eat in the dining room once more.
Ðavið
This one was a bit of a struggle but it ultimately fell. The SW was the site of my adversary's final stand because I kept trying to make Techno Pop work. I hadn't thought of Wynken Blynken and NOD for many, many moons.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I never did grasp the theme. Thanks, Lemonade, for explaining it. As always, in hindsight, it should have been "obvious". I am not sure, though, that it would have been of much help.
Sunday time for a Friday. Reveal was no help, I kept trying to imagine phrases with UM taken out, instead of added. Finally RV TRIP > SOUP MIX dropped the penny on EAR DRUMS
ReplyDeleteHand up on pine tAr.
Wondered if Lipton had acquired SOmineX
Nothing lame about TIP JAR
The Trop is a nightmare of a "ballpark." Roof is the same color as a baseball, pop flies hit overhead catwalks, bullpen mounds in the field of play. No wonder even as champions the Rays can't draw flies.
I liked the puzzle today and thank Margit for her debut offering. The reveal helped a lot when I worked my way down to it. My themers were incomplete until I found places for UM. Bad spelling choices (EXaLTS, hi OwenKL) and puzzlements (BGI???) also slowed things down but it came together for a FIR at last. Starting out with lots of white space, I wasn't so sure I could solve it.
ReplyDeleteThanks also to Lemonade for a helpful and humorous review. I too had trouble at first with decrease, only getting it after I filled IRON. Pine tar was my first thought too, but I saw PESO before I wrote it down. All in all a good start to Friday. Hope you all have a productive day.
Too vague.
ReplyDeleteairly str8forward. Ummm? I think the theme was leave out the UM. Ergo you no - see - UMS. Florida NOSEEUMS are the bane of beach sunset gazing. Suddenly attacking when the sun goes down, the itching the next day is insufferable. BARD? Foot specialist? Still don't get it. TENNIES, seriously?🙄
ReplyDeleteAlways fascinated by the CW discussions, dissecting the puzzle about how many black squares there are and different grid formulas. I'm happy just to FIR 😁
"Screen problem" used to be "snow" and "vertical" or "horizontal" roll. not GLARE (just close the blinds). "foot specialist"? BARD?. TENNIES? seriously? 🙄
Inkovers: tar/SAP (another sap like DO), RVpark/TRIP, EARworms/EARDR(UM)S.
None of "The 3 men in a Tub" fit the sailing trio. Nor Chris's ships.⚓
When I lived in Europe,..ABBA, in 1974 won the EUROVISION competition with "Waterloo"..I recall many European countries objected because the song was song in English and not their native tongue.
"PIN points", ATMS, I get it but kind of clunky. ORACLE was a WAG + perps. Held off on BGIRLS with B next to G.
Needle.....TEAS
Asthma symptom....OUIS
Fake Dads, "Faux ____"...PAS
Transgressed....SYNTH
What we did at the river isle picnic...AIT
Falling leaves have already covered the driveway aided and abetted by a lot of rain
🍁🍃🍂
Got up late today. Is it Saturday already? I stumbled all around this one and finally swagged an FIR at the end with BARD crossing REPO? Oh, "Default" is a NOUN not an ADJECTIVE!
ReplyDeleteSo thanks Margit for a very crunchy, but very delicious puzzle. And thanks Lemonade for another stellar review, especially 'splainin the theme
4A Like D-O I went for Pine TAR and stuck too it far too long.
24A Larry Ellison has done well by ORACLE. He has his very own Hawaiian island.
37A NOD and WINKEN. BLINKEN is a CSO to our currently beset Sec'y of State.
43A If you take way the UM in this clue you have VOLE, aka "field mouse". We used to have trouble with them in our garden until the neighbor's cat figured out how to get through our fence. They are now under CONTROL.
55A According to Aviation Safety Network, as of October 2012 ARIANA Afghan Airlines has written off 19 aircraft involved in 13 events, seven of them being deadly. Casualties totaled 154 deaths. And that was before the TALIBAN took over!
Liked 46A PINATA, crossing with 46D PARTY
14D B-GIRL b-girl; plural noun: b-girls
a young woman who is involved with hip-hop culture, especially a breakdancer. "with their own crews, competitions, and festivals, b-girls have now firmly found their place in the male-dominated world of hip-hop"
36D DE-CREASE? Oh yes, remove WRINKLES. A very imPRESSive clue.
Glad you're back Ray - O, and oh, the BARD specialized in IAMBIC PENTAMETER.
Cheers,
Bill
Mais oui say that Ray is in top form with his punditry?
ReplyDeleteBut, of course.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteDNF by one square - ARI-NA | -IT in the SW. Oh well. I feel good I got that far on this amusingly odd puzzle. Thanks Margit.
Thanks Lem for the expo. de-crease took me a minute too.
WOs: WaRE, SOUrMix
NC [no clue]: still don't get NOD
ESPs: NOD, DEV, [see above DNF]
Fav: hey, someone mentioned Cybersecurity :-)
Runner-up: PINATA PARTY clecho'd
Anyone else want something-o'cloCK to bring hands together?
//under-30 crowd has probably never seen an analog clock. ibid: a phone w/ a DIAL
{B, B+, B}
Nice to see you D4 and welcome back from quarantine.
Ray-O: "A poetic foot is a basic repeated sequence of meter composed of two or more accented or unaccented syllables. In the case of an iambic foot, the sequence is "unaccented, accented". There are other types of poetic feet commonly found in English language poetry." [Google]
Back to work.
Cheers, -T
De-crease would have made more sense, at least imho.
ReplyDeleteAnon T...I think I understand...So a good poet puts a "foot" in his mouth...🤣
ReplyDeleteFridays are always toughies for me, but this one was still fun--many thanks, Margit.
ReplyDeleteAnd great write-up, as always, Lemonade--thanks for that too.
Like others, I put TAR before SAP. But I did get the ARM and that helped with the across words. I also got OBIT--YAY!
Had trouble getting BARD, even though I had the D there for DIAL. But what a clever clue: Foot specialist! Cracked me up.
And, of course, I put in USA even though I don't know my sports. So happy it turned out to be right.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
Musings
ReplyDelete-What? “Otolaryngologist's colleagues” Is NOT EAR CHUMS. Wow!
-Pine TAR even worked for ARM going down.
-I recently had ABBA as a Saturday puzzle fill clued as the 1979 EUROVISION winner
-Moon rocks in its maria (“seas”) are mainly BASALT. YES, we did go!!
-TIP JAR – it’s uncomfortable when the wait person hands you your change right over that JAR
-I make no contribution to the BAR TAB for our golf group because I am the only one who does not drink beer
-Fr. Mulcahy once told Hawkeye he worked his way through Divinity School as a B-GIRL in San Francisco
-Private rocket firms want to LAUNCH people into space (where there is no air resistance) to send them from coast to coast in a half-hour or less.
-Signing a HALL PASS for a 6’6”, 290lb football player still amazes me
-A senior girl I just had in chemistry class is going to attend Iowa State to study to be a veterinarian this fall
-I see freshmen steaming in the door, gotta go
I looked it up...
ReplyDeleteNOD.
Never heard of it but it's cute.
Waseeley - That's my definition of BGIRLS too. Break-dancing was male dominated and the BGirls said 'we can too'. It's kinda like that HBO show re: skateboarding [Betty - Trailer (I only watched a few episodes)] and CyberSecurity.
Speaking of CyberSec, our second Jr. Analyst (both female), will be joining our team Monday. Can we dub them CSec-girls?
//answer: No!, they define themselves.
Cheers, -T
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of rocket transport (and the moon):
Missile Mail, 1959
On June 8, 1959, in a move that Postmaster General Arthur A. Summerfield heralded as being “of historic significance to the peoples of the entire world,” the Navy submarine USS Barbero fired a guided missile carrying 3,000 letters towards the naval auxiliary air station in Mayport, Florida.
Racing along at up to 600 miles per hour, the guided missile traveled more
than 100 miles, from the deck of the submarine off the coast of Florida to the air station, in about 22 minutes. “Before man reaches the moon,” Summerfield was quoted as saying, “mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India, or to Australia by guided missiles.” History proved otherwise, but this experiment exemplifies the pioneering spirit of the Post Office Department.
Not making the No-See-Ums cut today:
Preparation H ointment ? ASSUMED
Hi Gang -
ReplyDeleteSome days the puzzle gets you - or, n this case, me. Huge DNF in the NE corner, all the way down to ALBUM.
B-GIRL is a complete unknown
If EAR DRUMS for colleagues makes sense, somebody please explain. I don't see it.
Need the Google for the SW corner.
Just not on the same wave length today.
Happy weekend, everybody,
Cool regards!
JxB
JzB,
ReplyDeleteJust take out UM in the three answers. EAR DR.S
JazzB - EAR DRs [gotta not SEE 'UM's - that's why this puzzle is odd] is a otolaryngologist's* buddy.
ReplyDeleteTTP - really? ASS'd? :-)
HG - I can just picture it. You're sitting at your desk:
"Uh, Mr. Husker... can you sign this?" as you keep looking up and your eyes widen to take in the view of the hulking "Jr."
Sis's kid is a giant (by Italian standards) - 6'3" and 240.
"Hey, Uncle -T," he says in a voice deeper than James Earl Jones while he comes in for a hug.
"How have you been?"
'I'm going to be swallowed', I think to myself. :-)
//he's a good kid.
Cheers, -T
*An otolaryngologist is a head and neck surgeon, commonly referred to as an ear, nose, and throat doctor (ENT) -- a physician who treats diseases of the head and neck [more Google]
Thanks for a clever puzzle Margit. And a thorough expo Lemonade. I enjoyed the new clues. I struggled thru this one and used a lot of white out. But I finished . Sometimes I surprise myself.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteDash T, it was supposed to be ASS MED, but now that I'm fully awake, that would have been only taking out the U. D'Oh !
This puzzle definitely had me puzzled, very enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteNot at all like no see ums.
(The above is a chigger, a type of mite.)
ontological?
I can't find the clip, but 14 down,
Certain break dancers,
Could also have been clued "Father Mulcahy" (M*A*S*H*)
As I clearly remember him telling Hawkeye that
He worked his way thru Seminary School as a "B" Girl..
ReplyDeleteGot half way through the puzzle before I had to turn on Red Letters. Therefore, an official DNF. Interesting puzzle though. Good write-up by Lemon.
I knew NOD right away from the Eugene Field poem Wynken, Blynkin, and Nod. where they sailed off in a wooden shoe ... Into a sea of dew.
B Girl definition has various meanings based on the era and location in which it is used. A B Girl originally meant a Bargirl who was employed by bars to get male patrons to buy them drinks. That has morfed into Break dance girls today with a number of other definitions along the way. I won't go into detail about the other definitions.
I've never seen a Noseeum, so I guess they are good at what they do.
Have a great day everyone.
And don't forget Bat girls at the ball park.
DeleteIt's nice to see that St. Pete finally gets recognized as the home of the Rays, but it's not the home of all the Tampa Bay sports teams, the rest are all in Tampa.
ReplyDeleteBefore I tripped to the theme, I thought those "colleagues" were going to be EARBUDS.
ReplyDeleteOK, three of y'all [CED - you know I trust you #Calvin&Hobbes] said it's Bar Girl...
ReplyDeleteI can kinda go w/ that sorta "break" in activity.
//Story follows:
I maybe met one once but I don't think she was with the bar.
Buddy and I were trying to "HACK the Badge" at Defcon in Vegas while drinking pints.
We had four laptops out and cables going every which way.
It was a "slow" night so the bar-keep put up with us (plus, he knew the TIP JAR was going ka-ching$ for each one we swilled).
My buddy got sleepy (it was only 2a!?! [I'm not drunk just tired from lifting these glasses]) and retired to his room.
I kept working the badge-puzzle and, then, a young woman sat next to me.
She seemed curious and I tried to explain what I was doing; probably boring her.
I asked "What are you in Vegas for?" (I thought she was another hacker in town for defcon)
"I'm a student here."
Me: "Oh, what do you study?"
"School - nursing"
me: (?)
And then it hit me!
I need a magnet to unlock the next level on this Badge-Challenge!
Me: "Can you watch my gear? I think they have casino-chip magnets at the gift shop.
Bar-keep: I'll be right back - watch her watch my stuff. "
I locked my Screens and (literally) ran down to the gift store to pay $7 for a fridge-magnet that says "Lucky O'Sheas." [I still have it on my beer fridge]
I got to the next level on my HACK and she started getting really interested.
I explained it again, she moved in closely, and
The penny-dropped.
"Oh, no. No.
I'm so sorry but you're wasting your time.
You should get back out there to make your money tonight." (cringe - but it's true :-( )
The next morning (OK,... it was almost noon) on the way to a talk, I saw the same bar-keep opening up...
"Dude!, You didn't tell me she was a "working girl.""
"I didn't know - first time I've seen her in here."
UM, right(???)
Cheers, -T
ReplyDeleteThank you Margit C. for your very challenging puzzle, and thank you, Lemonade, my twin, for a very interesting and informative review. I am surprised you didnt 'see' Decrease for Iron, but I did not get that either, even after I got the answer. Thank you Wilbur Charles.
This was a very difficult puzzle for me, and I knew this right away ... but I did OK, and finished it. The clues often did not make sense, and the answers even less, but I've become used to it, for difficult puzzles, by now. When I came to NO SEE UMs, I figured EAR DRUMS are those parts "not normally seen" ... I didnt even suss out EAR DRS.
I never figured out why VOLUME CONTROL would scare off rodents. Our electronic 'mouse scarers' use ultrasonic technology, which humans cannot hear anyway, beyond the human hearing range ...
The 'take out UM' gimmick was cute, but just too sophisticated for me. Hopefully, I wont be fooled by such again.
But, I learnt a lot ...
I had never heard of NO See Ums. and I read the article and the one on Wiki, copiously. And thanks to CED, now I know, how small they are. Thanks CED. A very interesting excersize in insect zoology.
A SUTRA is not a Hindu teaching ... Google says. "A rule or aphorism, or a set or rules on grammar or on Hindu law or philosophy". Thats how I always have understood it. Like a form of, say, Jewish law, say, laws on (keeping ) kosher, etc.
Thus Kama Sutra, would be a set of laws, more as a manual, on Sex or love making.
By the way, the word Kama, is also very interesting. Kama is a very commonly used word, in everyday indian life .... it just means 'work', and 99 percent of the time, it has nothing to do with sex, of any kind. If someone were to ask you, what kama do you do ? .... he or she is least interested in your sex life or anything close ... they just want to know what is your profession, what job are you currently working on, or how do you make your living...
It is ONLY when you join the two as Kama Sutra, that the ancient sex manual is being referred to.
That 'Kama' has reference to an ancient demigod Kama, who was the god of sex, ... and who has been, for the last several hundred years, totally ignored and forgotten, except for his sex manual .... and that too, by voyeurs, mostly in western society.
Have a nice day, all.
The problem with noseeums is feeling them even though you do not see them. They can be all over your clothes before you know it.
ReplyDelete-T, I was always embarrassed when a young lady approached me in a bar uncertain as to the protocols and non-insulting ways to determine if she was looking for a good time or a financial reward. It is one of the reasons I think prostitution should be legal. Before I met my current wife, I was at a casino/hotel complex here eating in an "outside" restaurant when a healthy looking young lady started a conversation. I had been invited to a show and I asked her if she wanted tag along. On the way there we saw another young lady who was a bit drunk and weepy and she ended up coming along as well. A fun night until she asked me to drive her home because she was too drunk to drive. As we were leaving we were approached by aguy who was agitated and began cursing her, "Where did you go? I paid for the whole night." I slinked away and went home, alone.
How appropriate that my story followed Vidwan's Kama Sutra explanation
ReplyDeleteMy second post, hopefully not that long ....
ReplyDeleteI read about the debut constructor's ( debutante' ? ) profession as a Primary Care Nurse Practioner. Firstly, I am quite amazed at the variety of professions that CW constructors come from, and their powerful and complete control over the usage over english language and trivia, and slangs and obtuse lingo. They are not limited to writers and english teachers, but a whole gamut of professions. Like C.C., Anon-T and Chairman Moe etc.
Speaking of Nursing, I also marvel at the intellectual pursuits of nurses in the US. Unlike, say, nurses in many other countries, especially in the East and near and far east Asia, where they work as second fiddle to Drs, like hand maidens ... nurses in the US do enormous and challenging work, in parallel to Drs, and as my wife often recounts at night, they are the smartest profession around to work with, and trust your life to.... and often they are the most knowledgable people around, and give you some very sound advice on many many problems in your life. This has been my education. And I should know, some of my relatives arre in nursing.
Ray O Sunshine, good to know you are back with us ... we missed your input on the puzzle answers ...
On the Cw, I was familiar with AIT, NOD and the poetry FOOT, so all that helped.
I knew of ARIANA airlines, though... as to how the Taliban is going to be able to fly them, is anybodys guess ... they have more aviation planes and helicopters, that they will NOT be able to fly for the next 30 years.... welcome to the modern society. Maybe they will go the way of the Neanderthals.
I thought initially, that Gloria Estefan was from Iran, because there is a major town of Isfahan in that country. Then the peso dropped...
Over and out.
It took a lot of head scratching and backtracking to solve this devilishly constructed and clued puzzle. I had EAR CHUMS until I finally figured out the trick. Also POSSUM CONTROL wouldn't work. (Note to self: don't get DRAWN in by your overblown sense of cleverness.) Hand up for Pine TAR. At least I wasn't fooled by OBIT, ORACLE, TAKEI, or BARD. A very enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDeleteRe: Larry Ellison: UM, well, maybe I'll just best not say anything at all. Then there's that guy whose initials are MZ who just bought most of the beach on Kawai that a friend of mine has been going to as their family's "go to" place for years, until now.
"All hands on DECK!"
Anonymous T at 3:02 PM, good story.
Anonymous at 7:31 AM, good point.
Everybody, good wishes!
Re Larry Ellison. He bought the island of Lanai from Robert Murdoch (Dole Foods). Larry's recent guest was Bibi Netanyahu. Lanai used to be a beautiful island until a golf course covered the island's source of water and Murdoch burned the pineapples. What will the millionaires do in space?
DeleteIf you write volume control, a real thing, and pretend not to see the UM you have vole control, the actual answer to rodent control measure.
ReplyDeleteI like decrease, removing unwanted creases by ironing, which many do not do these days.
I think of a crease as an intended look as opposed to a wrinkle, but since I am terrible with an iron, except maybe a 7-iron, what do I know.
ReplyDeleteI guess I did not spend enough time explaining the theme, sorry.
Vid, my mother was a nurse and we recently passed the 99th anniversary of her birth. I know very well how important they are as well as knowing it was the prejudcies of the time that had her be a nurse rather than a doctor. I now have cousins who are nurse pracitioners, physicians assistants as well as doctors. There are some improvements in the 21st century.
Thank you all for your comments as I continue to learn mu role here
Not a clue. Too hard. Meh.
ReplyDeleteHard? Try Saturday. Some of the P&P may be known to some. I got most of it after much labor.
ReplyDeleteOne area is just not coming clear.
WC
Thought I finally got a Friday puzzle, but upon further review, nope!
ReplyDeleteIt took me all day to finish this one (well, I was working too), and there was a whole bunch of trial and error throughout, and I need to order in another tanker truck of Wite-Out, but I got it done. At the end, I was worried about the A where ARIANA crossed AIT (which I didn’t know), and I completely blew SKOR/IRON (had an L – never ate the stuff). Close, but no cigar!
NW corner was the last to fall for me.
Also, I got NOSEEUMS rather early, but I NOSEEUM the hook.
Still and all, I was glad to do as well as I did on a Friday puzzle.
Thanks Margit and Lemon.