Themeless Saturday by Adrain Johnson
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| CARINA! |
After only a month's absence, our friend Adrian Johnson has another Saturday puzzle for us. To refresh your memory, Adrian is from Laramie Wyoming and has graduated with a degree in International Studies from Macalaster College in Saint Paul, MN. I had a delightful struggle with the puzzle and had one bad cell at LE_A/CARI_A. Not knowing anything about Game Of Thrones is one thing but for this amateur astronomer to miss CARINA was a real disappointment. It seemed that a lot of consonants could have filled that cell. Sigh...Particularly impressive to me was Adrian's double stack of grid spanners with a central grid spanner thrown in for good measure. Wow! Adrian's notes:Hi Gary
Thrilled to be back with my third LA Times themeless, just 5 weeks after my sophomore effort at the end of last month. I'm back to my old ways with a grid heavy on 15-letter entries, yet somehow this puzzle has one less grid spanner than my February LAT debut. As for the fill... I haven't seen 54A, but I made a deal with my partner that if she finishes my crossword I'll watch it with her. Personally, I'm not a big fan of superhero/fantasy movies as a whole, but Endgame was more than a movie. Endgame was the culmination and turning point of the Marvel Cinematic Universe– a saga of 25 (26 on 11/5) films that's become a cultural phenomenon and touchstone for millions around the world.
My other seed, 15A, reminds me of how much of a pushover I'd be as a father... allowing my kid to act up and then telling them "okay THIS time I mean it..." but then not being serious, thereby provoking a never-ending cycle of mayhem and empty promises in our house. I didn't find it in any database or wordlist I use as a constructor, so I thought It'd make for an engaging and original start to the puzzle.
Crosswords are my favorite OUTSIDE INTEREST in life right now, and I can't wait to share more of my work with you in the months and years ahead!
-AJ
1. Make bold, maybe: STRESS - When you really want to stress a point
7. Advanced degree candidate's no.: GRE SCORE - I took mine and got my score (no.) in 1968
15. "No more kidding around!": THIS TIME I MEAN IT - A seed entry for Adrian
17. Hobby: OUTSIDE INTEREST - Here is my hobby where I am celebrating my first hole-in-one
18. Peck in the park, informally: PDA - "Get a room!"
19. Controversial oil well verb: FRACK.
20. "Whose __ was that?": IDEA
22. Headey of "Game of Thrones": LENA - LENA Horne didn't work for a Saturday puzzle
24. "Turning Tables" singer: ADELE - She and her lovely vowels are on stage here quite often.
27. Main ingredients in the Thai dish tam som: PAPAYAS.
30. Shuffle alternative: NANO.
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| iPod NANO iPod Shuffle |
31. Speak from memory: RECITE - Did you have to memorize and RECITE the Gettysburg Address too?
34. One-named "Chandelier" singer: SIA - Her IMDB
35. Start thinking about old unpleasantness: DREDGE UP THE PAST - A Thanksgiving tradition that should be abandoned. Get over it!!
38. Stately tree: ELM.
39. Gas up?: AERATE - Inside this dispenser are tanks of syrup for flavor and CO2 tanks for AERATING "gassing up" water, This combination produces a soft drink
40. World's largest fashion magazine: ELLE.
41. Responds to a minister, in a way: SAYS I DO.
43. Coarse cloth: TWEED - Professor Indiana Jones in a TWEED suit
44. Join (with): ALLY.
45. Sources of suffering: BANES.
50. Completely surround: BOX IN - This guy in D.C. got BOXED IN but refused to sell his small building for years even though he was offered $3M.
51. Food is tossed in it: WOK.
54. 2019 culmination of a 22-film story: AVENGERS ENDGAME - One of AJ's seed entries. I hope he and his partner watch it soon!
58. Thrift store merchandise: VINTAGE CLOTHING - A store in NYC's West Village
59. Free throws, usually: SET SHOTS - Wilt Chamberlain didn't in his early years but changed to overhead SET SHOTS later in his career because he didn't like how the underhand style looked. He missed a lot either way.
60. "You're absolutely right": SO IT IS - What I say when my lovely bride is right. When I'm right, silence...
Down:
1. "That's enough!": STOP.
2. Sound of a flop: THUD - In sports an athlete who falls down dramatically feigning being fouled despite being untouched is said to have "flopped". The THUD is manufactured
3. Romance writers' award until 2019: RITA - Accusations of racism
4. Assassin standout?: ESS - Yup, there's a lot of 'em.
5. Smother: STIFLE.
6. Libya's Gulf of __: SIDRA
7. Company with woodchuck ads: GEICO - GEICO also used pigs, squirrels, et al
8. Stars' play area: RINK - Their rink is in Dallas.
9. Lifesaver, briefly: EMT - Can't say enough good things about First Responders
10. "Catch my drift?": SEE.
11. Canopus' constellation: CARINA - Canopus is the brightest star in CARINA that is the "Keel Of The Argo"
12. Short promotion: ONE DAY SALE.
13. Hilltop: RISE - "They'll be coming over the RISE any minute now"
14. Place Sundance liked to see: ETTA - Ah yes, The Sundance Kid's girlfriend ETTA Place always has a, uh, place in crosswords
16. Substance: MEAT - Some college football teams don't get into the MEAT of their schedule until this time of year
21. Drudge or trudge: PLOD - I'm more used to the former word being a noun
22. Woodshop tool: LATHE.
23. Heaviest of the three modern fencing swords: EPEE.
25. Alfalfa's love interest: DARLA.
26. Suspicious plant: ENEMY AGENT - This scene from Stalag 17 had William Holden outing Peter Graves as the ENEMY AGENT who was actually a Nazi plant in their prisoner barracks.
27. The Panthers of the ACC: PITT.
28. Symbolic compromise crossing: AISLE - Not much of that being done in today's very contentious Congress
29. Having no more room, perhaps: SATED - If relatives are SATED they won't DREDGE UP THE PAST at Thanksgiving.
31. Thin in tone: REEDY - Anyone else think of Barney Fife?
32. Latvian capital: EURO - A KFC in Riga. Instead of a decimal point, the EURO uses a comma.
36. Olympic sprinter Devers: GAIL.
42. Op-ed features: SLANTS - One piece may "point with pride" and the next one will "view with alarm"
43. Care for: TEND TO.
45. Bartlett relatives: BOSCS - I posted pear types last Saturday
46. Double or triple skating move: AXEL - Count the revolutions
47. Boys of Sevilla: NINOS - The Boy Who Touched The Stars
48. Cuban team, for short: MAVS - HUGE made me think HAVS (sic) would work before I realized Adrian was talking about the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA team Mark Cuban owns
49. Name that sounds like its first two letters: EVIE
50. Poison lead singer Michaels: BRET.
51. Stand by: WAIT.
52. Start to science?: OMNI - OMNI and SCIENCE both sound very different in this word below
55. Cry of exasperation: GAH - Not UGH or BAH
56. Word with surf or trip: EGO - I knew EGO trip but not
57. Letters next to a 4: GHI - Even on my iPhone 11
Technically DNF. Three entries in the bottom 3 rows were mostly white, but I had everything above them. Hit the check-all button, only one cell went red, but it was in the cursed area. EdIE. An alphabet run got EVIE, the V unlocked AVENGERS, and the rest fell like dominoes.
ReplyDeleteNothing was given to me, the red letters just revealed one letter wrong. So I guess I could also call this technically FIRight!
geNTly used THING > _INT__CLOTHING > VINTAGE CLOTHING. Sooo many other t/os!GHI puzzled me the longest, I'd been thinking maybe a prescription abbreviation, until the obsolete dial phone hit me!
How about a cryptic clue? Easy to WAG, but kudos to who can explain it.
Outside and literally, internet's sincerest hobby
People DREDGE UP THE PAST to AVENGE
Old slights, and VINTAGE feuds to end!
THIS TIME I MEAN IT,
Let's crear the air between up
Let this be the END GAME around the bend!
OMNISCIENCE it a trait not a boon,
To know what everone else is doin'.
The power seems mucky.
Sometimes I'm lucky
To know why I came into this room!
{B, B+.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThere were sand traps a-plenty to get stuck in: FlAre/FRACK, huGe/MEGA, and riga/EURO. Managed to trip on each of 'em. STIFLE could've been clued as "Command followed by 'Edith.'" Tried ELIE for that name that sounds like two letters (Oh, it's supposed to be its first two letters. Read the whole clue, d-o!) and bAH for GAH. But AlENbER'S END GAME wasn't clicking. That V and G were my final fills. This one came in faster than yesterday, so life is good. Yo Adrian, nicely done. Excellent review, Husker.
SET SHOTS: During March Madness, the number of missed free throws always amazes me. The game could've ended differently if they'd made 'em. I guess they don't realize that free throws are "free" "throws."
GHI: My iPhone hadn't rung in about a month, so I wondered if maybe something was wrong with it. Went through all of the "settings" and couldn't find a thing. Lo and behold, there's an external switch that turns of the ringer, and d-o must've switched it. Fortunately, very few people have my number, so I didn't miss anything important (or so I think).
Fln, Don Cherry was the very popular coach of Boston's Bruins. Glib he's not.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky to WAG the N in LENA/CARINA. I watched early GoT but I never notice the actors.
That and the intro (When…) to Dec. Of Indep.
Having EvIE delayed AVENGER. I finally grok'ed GHI on the old telephone dial
NW and SW were trouble. ohno, uh oh weren't working
I finally caught on to the META clue on Assassins. There's a huge number of S's or should I say 'There's MEGA S's '
Adrian slipped in two Dallas sports refs. There used to be a traveling Cuban baseball team(?). I only got the hockey ref(Stars/RINK) from Gary.
ETTA was my first ink-in. Boy did I have a blank slate for the longest time
How many times will I fall for a EURO Clue. Needed all four perps
I prefer Aaarrrggghhh!!!!
Again, I left for a social gathering praying that absence would make the brain grow sharper and came back to FIR
WC
DNF, not even close. Completed 29 answers, 26 correctly. Can't believe I blanked out on EVIE. EVIE's in Sarasota is my favorite place in Florida, maybe in the USA. They have an excellent full-service car wash, a driving range, a miniature golf course, golf instruction, a fabulous dog-friendly patio, great pizza and burgers, TVs everywhere, and is the Florida home of University of Kentucky Alumni Association (not sure if it is officially that, but they show all the games and sport all the memorabilia).
ReplyDeleteYo Adrian, you enhanced my humility today. And Gary, your review was as fun as always.
FLN - TTP, nice job on the project.
what you might miss if you don't read the previous days late nite comments...
ReplyDeleteNow, onto the Saturday stumper...
Thank you Adrian for the challenging Saturday puzzle, always look forward to the themeless! I managed to fill the grid in 25 minutes but knew I has an error most likely in the SW where ALENBERS ENDGAME didn’t sound right. Like D-O I originally thought ELIE instead of EVIE, then I had my GAH moment and came up with AVENGERS, solved in a little over a half hour. Nice write-up HG, and hand up for the same thought on Cuban team, the “HAVS” (possibly the Cuban national soccer team?) because I had HUGE instead of MEGA, AND ONCE I had the M right I tried to think of the Spanish word for team...duh! Finally my abstract thinking kicked in and I knew it was Mark Cuban’s MAVS, voila! Not familiar with the constellation Carina, as I wasn’t with the name of a star that was an answer in a recent puzzle, guess I need to brush up on my astronomy....
ReplyDeleteThis took me 12:09, which felt longer, but that's not a complaint. Good misdirection.
ReplyDeleteHappy October 30, and welcome back to me. I have had so much catching up to do this is my first chance to comment on a puzzle. I really liked yesterday's Gary Larson taking over the world puzzle which was made for a Moe write up. I hate to dispel your wonder at 5 weekends in a month but this year that occurs ending on 1/31 5/30 8/29 10/31. Also, in the major publcations, Gary is still working on getting to "hundreds" here is an almost current LIST .
ReplyDeleteHG, have you had more hole in ones?
Today's themeless was not as challenging as some for me because all the fill I did not know were in the downs. I did watch and enjoy all but last season of GAME OH THRONES which helped. As clued I would never have gottrn GAH ; RITA ; or OMNI which I thought was very clever.
ELLE as the largest? What does that mean? FASHION MAGAZINE SALES
L714 - the reference wasn’t just to five weekends, it was specifically 5 each of Fridays, Saturdays, AND Sundays. This year there were two: January and October. Next year and in 2023 there’s just one month each. Hope you had a pleasant hiatus! Welcome back
Delete
ReplyDeleteFTW, Adrian Johnson ! So, did she finish the puzzle ? Did you enjoy the movie ?
Thanks for the review, Husker Gary. I especially liked your comment on SLANTS. So true !
Getting the gridspanners fairly easily sped the solve.
As an alum, I'm sure Moe nailed the answer to "Panthers of the ACC" even if he doesn't follow them these days.
SO true to SO IT IS cleared up the southeast. Riga before EURO was an early correction.
Drudge (21D) and DREDGE (35A). Both sound ? dreary ?
Speaking of nailing it, Michele Kwan nailed the first triple axel in competition history as shown in that gif Gary linked at 46D. Magnifique !
Thanks, Jinx. Next on the agenda for the garage is a flat screen. The 50" plasma TV in the family room started getting horizontal lines across the screen. It still has too nice of a picture to toss. The wall mount comes Sunday, and the new TV for the family room is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. Loved the plasma, but since they don't make them anymore, I'm going with an OLED for the family room.
Thanks for linking that list of Great Goofs, CED. I've had my share. The last one was installing exterior door weather stripping. Carefully measured and cut the two long side pieces and the short top piece from the three long pieces supplied in the kit. Cleaning up as I went along, I bent (into thirds) the leftover scrap piece from the top and threw it in the trash. D'OH ! It was one of the side pieces. Had to go buy another kit !
TTP, I do follow PITT; today they kinda $**t the bed though
DeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteYears ago, when I was just a little shaver, JzB counseled me on this blog not to over think the Saturday answers. Worked today. Hard getting a start but the center seemed fertile. Began to realize the stacked spanners were mostly common phrases. So they provided the main branches to hang the more difficult or unknown fill from. Liked the 10 letter downs, too. Favorite clue was probably for AERATE. Liked ETTA. also. FIR.
CARINA perped in. I did not know it. Canopus, of the clue, the heavens' 2nd brightest star, is not visible in the Northern US. Its declination is -52º so it can only be seen S of the low 30's N Lat. It is a prominent navigation star in the Southern Hemisphere.
Thanks Adrian and Husker for starting my day.
Good morning, and good that I have a great place to come to fill in my clueless-ness! I struggled HUGE-ly with the ginormous clue and wouldn't give it up as not being huge, so all that part of the SW was white. I, too thought of a Cuban team as being on the island and that meant coming to my computer and this helpful bunch! Thank you, Adrian, for a fun slog even if I was stifled. Take care, All and on to dredge up the piles of laundry, GAH! Or, as I too prefer, ARGGGGGH! Weather's set to change in the Black Hills and I'm not ready!
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-Lemon, my second hole-in-one was after I sliced my first tee shot twenty yards out of bounds into a cornfield. My next tee shot went right in and so I got a hole-in-one for a 3. My third hole-in-one came when I was playing alone and the only witnesses were a meadowlark and a squirrel.
-CED, I really enjoyed the house repair disasters. Last week I put in a new lamp socket and had not unplugged the lamp. GAH!
-SET SHOT free throws: Our favorite waitress is a high school girl in a local small town steak house. Last year she stood at the line and calmly made two free throws to break a tie and win the state championship with 0:00 on the clock.
-64F with clear blue skies today. No golf but I will be the lawn/garden greens keeper here.
-Canopus – one bucket list item is to see the sky below the equator.
-Go Huskers! Despite the last 20 years of mediocrity, the 376 consecutive home sellout streak rolls on.
HG - I’m sitting on three witnessed holes-in-one, and one that like yours was witnessed by a rabbit and a wren.
DeleteFIR after nearly giving up and looking at Husker Gary's helpful review several times. Finally areas began to fall and the puzzle was done. Whew! I needed Gary's review to understand GHI and EGO surf. Riga/EURO caught me too, WC and DO. MEGA came late (Hi, DO and YooperPhil) as well as realizing who Cuban referred to for MAVS. SO true/SO IT IS today, TTP. Overall it was quite a challenge, Adrian! Lots of surprises.
ReplyDeleteAnother home game for the Braves tonight. The tension builds....
Hope you all are doing well this weekend!
Thoughts, you ask?
ReplyDeleteD'oh CARINA!
Or, more precisely, GAH CARINA!
Saturday toughie, but with some fun items, thanks, Adrian. And always nice pictures, thanks, Husker Gary.
ReplyDeleteLiked your verses, Owen.
Getting ETTA and IDEA helped with that northeast corner, but took a long time before that ONE DAY SALE fell into place.
My favorite clue: Responds to a minister: SAYS I DO.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Gary, I'm trying to grok out your second ace. You hit OB on the previous hole? Didn't you re-tee and hit another tee shot? I'm sure it didn't come as a mulligan on the par 3. As I'm sure you agree, that doesn't count (except for an exceptionally rare way to make par).
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteSaturday stumper! Almost, that is. MAVS and VINTAGE impeded my victory. HUGE refused to budge and since AVENGERS is not my sort of show, it did not enter my thoughts.
I know EGO trip but EGO surf is new to me. And of course, I have no idea who BRET Michaels is much less Poison. Ugh! What a name!
RECALL finally gave way to RECITE. My memorization was IF by Rudyard Kipling in sixth grade.
Macy's ONE DAY SALE occurs at least once a week.
Sometimes our Book Club members DREDGE UP THE PAST and for me that is a source of consternation.
On my last trip to Europe the EURO was available but I missed each country having its own distinct currency even though it meant a constant exchange. I still have a few francs and marks and even Russian coins from prior trips. Finally, the airports provided a place to toss in leftover coins for a good cause but by then I had accumulated the above noted coins.
This writing took way too long because the landscapers knocked on my door several times to ask about the placement of plants under my windows. Yea! Colorful flowers will abound!
I liked the clue for AISLE. If only it were true.
Have a spectacular Saturday, everyone! It's a gorgeous day here!
Thank you, Gary! Your commentary always hits an ACE in my opinion!
ReplyDelete-Jinx, all my shots were on the Par 4 Hole #3. It is only 210 yards if you choose to shoot over the 30’ trees which I always do. My tee shot there did slice way out of bounds and so I just teed it up again on that hole after I took a nice easy swing, my partner said, “Gary, I think it went in the hole!” Yup, I got a hole-in-one for birdie three.
ReplyDeleteHoly smokes! Hitting it in the hole on a par 4! Too bad it wasn't an eagle. Guess you had to buy TWO rounds for everyone after that!
ReplyDeleteDouble eagle
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this PZL and thank Adrian Johnson for giving it to us. Thanks too to Husker G for a fine follow-up.
ReplyDeleteWith only two (or maybe three or four) cheats, I finished it in good time for a Saturday.
The trickiest write-over for me was 49D, which started as ABIE, then UBIE, and also OBIE and OVIE before EVIE!
M fave clue & fill? 28D. Because it stirred happy memories--too long ago!--of a functional Congress.
I see Misty's favorite was sweetly predictable--at 41A: SAYS I DO!
~ OMK
___________
DR: Just one diagonal, on the far side.
It offers a strange anagram (12 of 15 letters), involving the heaviest sword (see 23D) mentioned in today's XWD. As an example of metonymy, I would imagine it means a hired guard.
(FULL DISCLOSURE: As an undergrad I was captain of the fencing team. This was so long ago, dear friends, that we never heard of EPEEs. Our heaviest weapon was the foil.)
Nowadays, when fencers may only be found in athletic competition, this anagram suggests a bribed contestant!
Yes, I mean a...
"SALARIED EPEE"!
OMK @2:08 PM As in an "ASSASSIN"?
DeleteHi Y'all! AARGH! Adrian. Not much here on my wave-length, alas. Thank you, Gary, for soothing the bruised EGO. I feel obsolete.
ReplyDeleteFirst pass thru only STOP & SEE filled in the top tier. So much white. A whole lot of red-letter runs went on here with WAGs. Did fill 'er all in 43:10 minutes. Did get the Cuban team right away.
Thanx Adrian for a DDNF (Disastrous DNF) Saturday. Judging by the enigmatic smile on your face it looks like you enjoyed it a lot more than I did. But all is forgiven. 😀
ReplyDeleteAfter wandering around forever in the dark, leaving mini-FIWs all over the grid, I TITT in the SW. I even misread an LIU (as BerT not BRET!). The only thing that made it at all worthwhile was Gary's, as always, excellent and entertaining review. Congratulations on all those ACES. 😁
30A NANO. I have two, both PINNED to Balmer station WBJC 91.5 FM to listen to music while gardening, (also available at www.wbjc.com).
45A BANES. Don't sharpen my pencils as I always use a Tornado Crossword puzzle pencil for my solves (and FIWS & DNFs (GAH)).
48A MEGA. The SSW, where things fell completely apart. Dropped HUGE, but settled on GIGA, figuring it for a riff on "Ginormous". Unfortunately IVIE (Brit spelling) also worked for 49D. And the rest is history.
32D EURO. One of the few tricks I didn't fall for.
57D GHI. Got this on perps, but no idea why.
I'm reminded of the poster on a former colleague's office door: "Sometimes the Dragon Wins".
Cheers,
Bill
Whoo! I had to work long and hard to solve this puzzle. It was one of those chip away a little bit at a time processes interspersed with flashes of insight without which I would have been unable to finish. I had to look up BRET Michaels; never heard of him.
ReplyDeleteChanged DRILL to FRACK, DONATED CLOTHING to VINTAGE CLOTHING, and, yep, HUGE to MEGA. That U in HUGE kept making me want a name like UELL or something; do you remember Euell Gibbons, the twig-eating Grape Nuts salesman? Of course, Euell doesn't satisfy the clue. I was also thinking of UBEE, as is Eubie Blake, the pianist, whose name also doesn't satisfy the clue. Only after having chewed that bone down to the, uh, bone did I finally begin to realize that maybe, just maybe, HUGE was the wrong answer.
I smiled broadly at the clue for AERATE. Second favorite was WOK.
Good wishes to you all.
Jayce @2:36 PM I remember Euell, who first came to fame with his book "Stalking the Wild Asparagus". I actually stalked and found some. I'm sure it was asparagus as it contains the amino acid "asparagine", which makes one's pee smell funny.
DeleteSteady solve today for a Saturday- but a nice variety of clues!
ReplyDeleteHG - the William Holden movie was "Stalag 17" for which he won an academy award.
Stalag 13 was the parodied prisoner of war camp on Hogan's Heroes. My memory cue for
Stalag 17 was when our son was at the Air Force Academy - the 40 squadrons had nicknames and his 17th squadron nickname was Stalag 17 https://www.usafa.edu/military/squadrons/
Thanks Gary and Adrian!
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Adrian and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteI FIWed today in the SW. Like many of you, I had Huge which changed to Huga with SLANT and I could not correct.
This Canadian had to wait for perps to get PITT, since I did not know ACC. How was I to know owner Cuban of the MAVS. GAH!
But I did get that RINK for the Stars. This Canadian knows her hockey LOL.
PAPAYAS perped thankfully, as I had no idea what was in tam som. I LIUed. It is a salad and a popular street food in Thailand; it requires no cooking in a WOK.
I wanted our CW favourite Odie for 49D. Many names would work, but I think we have had EVIE with this clueing before. I must make a mental note.
Lightbulb moment when I read HuskerG’s explanation of GHI. It perped but I had no idea . . . D’uh! I wanted RAV4.
Same for NANO. I have an iPad mini but don’t know my iPods.
Same again for OMNIscience which I did not pronounce correctly. Thanks for elucidating HG.
My first thought for “suspicious plant” was the poisonous digitalis (foxglove), Both were too short to fit. Then perps gave me ENEMY and I entered Alien. Yeah, that SW corner is an inky mess.
I did enter EURO, not Riga.
Apparently SIA and ADELE have written some songs together.
Wishing you all a great day.
Vince is back!
ReplyDeleteJinx ~~ was driving to Siesta Beach today on Bee Ridge Road and saw Evie’s, the place was packed on Saturday afternoon, is that the one you speak of? May have to go there after your glowing review of the place :)
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteAnother Saturday, another DNF until cheats ensued. Thanks, HG, for letting me peek at your grid for the huGe* help; SO true IT IS.
I really enjoyed the top 1/2 of the puzzle, Adrian :-)
It was funny, I wanted END GAME (saw it with the Girls - which, by the way, Youngest made us watch ~12 of them 1st so we'd get all the jokes) but there were too many squares.
OK, maybe the Fast & Furious franchise(?) - they have a bunch of those [haven't seen any of them].
In addition to the aid, I really enjoyed the expo, HG. Your Op-Ed aside was spot on.
WO: sLOg leading to DRag--UP THE PAST
Googles: LENA, GAIL
Fav: LATHE - the one woodworking tool I don't have that I really want (but haven't had a project to justify the $$$ purchase to DW).
Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy is what I had to memorize for 10th-grade English.
{B+, B}
Cute DR, OMK.
Waseeley - Thanks for the Vince link. I love the kALE one (he says as he sips an IPA).
CED - thanks for the Great Goofs link.
When I built the box for my garage beer-fridge that extended my workbench, I did all the leveling measurements on the bay floor. Turns out, there's a slight slope to the floor (to let water run out of the bay-area(?)) that I never before noticed.
The goof turned out to be a feature - the refrigerator door closes itself :-)
Enjoyed reading everyone. Y'all have a great eve!
Go 'Stros!, -T
*Leading to wanting UGEE for the name... They make pen tablets. Buddy got his daughter (an emerging artist) one.
Actually, isn't EVIE short for Evelyn? My sister's MiL was nicknamed Evie pronounced Ev-EE. Does anyone know an E-Vee?
ReplyDeleteAs a lefty I would need a controlled hook on that 210 yarder. When I bought Haig woods (and Ping irons) for $100.00 from the guy that found Jesus I could controll a hook. But I got careless and they disappeared outside the 19th hole.
Before we moved to FLA we spent a week at Siesta Key. It's only an hour away, perhaps I'll check it out and play 18 on the mini
WC
WC @6:10 PM. We called my Mom's sister Auntie EV, but it was monosyllabic.
DeletePhil - That's it. The crowd was probably watching the big GA / Fla game from Jax. The indoor bar area has about the same amount of Gators regalia as it has Wildcats stuff.
ReplyDelete"The goof turned out to be a feature - the refrigerator door closes itself"
-T, you should get a Microsoft sticker and slap it on that fridge.
Hey you Cornerites in the Frozen North - Anyone going to observe the Northern Lights tonight? Supposed to be a good show. I remember seeing them occasionally while growing up in Kentucky. Too many clouds north of Norfolk tonight for us to see anything.
ReplyDeleteWC - Isn't an E-Vee a spacewalk? (I think they call them EVAs, on second thought. Maybe named for our old CW friend Eva.)
A real stumper. When I had to look up only two fills in the upper two thirds I was fairly satisfied. Then The Avengers End Game ended my masters game and I switched to the red letter mode to finish. GHI was all perps. It reads backwards from the 4 on the phone. Still, it was fun. Again so many proper nouns.
ReplyDeleteENEMY AGENT as poisonous plant was my favorite.
I helped Alan carve a pumpkin today. We seniors had our Halloween festivities all during the week and nothing today or tomorrow. I will take Alan back home tomorrow for his parties.
IIRC, Euell Gibbons once said something along the lines of "Natural" doesn't mean anything. There are plenty of natural things that will kill you dead. I liked Euell.
ReplyDeleteAm I mistaken that crossword puzzles are written to be solved. If a puzzle is so conveluted as this one that most solvers DNF, then it becomes a testament to the constructor's creation, not to his/her ability to cleverly mislead the solvers. No, I'm not calling for easier puzzles here. I'm saying the editors must do a better job of editing out misleading (not misdirecting) cluing. Frustration is not and indicator of a "good" puzzle? Your responses...?
ReplyDeleteSaturday puzzles are meant to be particularly difficult. It takes many years and a wide vocabulary to acquire all the knowledge needed to solve these kinds of puzzles. In my case I started at age 10 so that is many decades of crossword solving. What I find difficult these days is modern technological terms and current culture that I don't follow.
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