google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, October 21, 2021, Sam Acker

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Oct 21, 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021, Sam Acker

 



Good Morning, Cruciverbalists.  Malodorous Manatee, here, with a canine friend to present today's recap.

While our collie friend is excited about the ovine references in the puzzle and in the write up, s/he is not our puzzle setter.  Today, that would be Sam Acker.  I was able to locate a Crossword Corner write up of one of his puzzles from May, 2019 and perhaps there are others.  For today's challenge, Sam has designed what I believe is called a "Designated Squares" puzzle.  Let's start with the reveal:

56 Across:  You may not need a bookmark for one . . . and a hint to this puzzle's circles: PAGE TURNER.  Page turner, of course, being a term for a book that you, or our friend above, just cannot stop reading.

Other than the reveal, there are no theme answers per se.  However, at four locations within the grid we find sets of four circled letters, stacked two on top of two.  Each of these sets contains one each of the letters that spell PAGE.  At each location, start with the P and proceed clockwise and they all spell PAGE.  From top to bottom, the P's also rotate clockwise with the first P in the Northeast, the next in the  Southeast, the next in the Southwest and finally in the Northwest.  They TURN, if you will, both ways.   Clever.  Here is how they appear in the completed grid:



. . . and now for the rest of the clues/answers.  I was going to go with an abbreviated blog post today but thought, "Naaahhh!  We have enough abbreviations in the puzzle."

Across:

1. Wildfire prevention ads, e.g.: Abbr.: PSAS.  Public Service AnnouncemetS (abbr no 1)

5. Short video: CLIP.

9. Valentino classic, with "The": SHEIK.



14. Certain sax: ALTO.  Part of the orchestra got kidnapped last week.  Today, the perpetrators were located and arrested for grand theft ALTO.

15. Cocktail garnish: LIME.  Just ask Kermit.

 

16. Redhead of Bedrock: WILMA.  Wilma Flintstone From the Town of Bedrock



17. Top prize: GOLD MEDAL.

19. Highly skilled: ADEPT.

20. Lab eggs: OVA.  Today's Latin lesson.  In school, my classmates and I used to argue all the time about the plural form of the word for female sex cells.  We'd go on and on and wasted a lot of class time.  Eventually, it was resolved.  Frankly, I'm glad that's OVA.

21. Stereotypical baby "words": GOO GOO GA GA.  Ten letters, six vowels.  Helpful for a constructor.

23. Minimal damage: DENTS.

25. Mag. edition: ISS.  Punt!  An ISSue of a Magazine (abbr no 2)

26. Small but distinctive amount: DASH.    -T

28. Mandatory bet: ANTE.  Gotta' pay to play

29. __ Bar: Apple support service: GENIUS.  At Apple Stores (computer, not fruit) they call the help desk the GENIUS Bar.  A bit of foreshadowing for 55 Across.

32. CIA relative: NSA. (abbr no 3)



33. Homer's "Sailing a Dory," e.g.: SEASCAPE.  Winslow Homer is a famous American landscape (and SEASCAPE) painter.

Sailing A Dory
 

35. Insults, with "on": HATES.  Modern slang, I suppose.



37. __ land: LALA.  A state of mind characterized by its lack of  seriousness and/or unrealistic expectations.    More recently, a motion picture (though the leading l of land would have to have been capitalized in the clue to go there).

38. Word with date or dance: RAIN.  In baseball, do we now have Climate Change makeup dates?


40. Pickle unit: SPEAR.


43. Scottish winds: BAGPIPES.  A bit of word play.

 
Dropkick Murphys - Cadence To Arms


47. Number of "Friends" seasons: TEN.  I didn't know that.  I never watched the show.  I would have clued it as "Ardbeg ____ ".

48. Siesta wrap: SERAPE.  One of today's Spanish lessons.



51. NYC gallery: MOMA.  In New York City (abbr no 4)



52. Where women click on the links?: Abbr.: LPGA.  Really didn't get the "click" part unless the reference is to "really clicking" (doing well). (abbr no 5)

Ladies Professional Golf Association


54. Backing: FOR.  As opposed to opposing

55. Course from a bar: SALAD.  Course, of course, is polysemous.  In this case, a part of a meal.



60. Feminine side: YIN.  YIN / Yang  Taoism  Balance


61. Spawn: BEGET.



62. Square, for one: RECTANGLE.  A square is a RECTANGLE with all sides being of equal length.

64. Place for games: ARENA.  

65. Do some craftwork: KNIT.

Valerie Has Been Busy Recently


66. Troubles: WOES.  Pack 'em up, Joe

 

67. CEO's aides: ASSTS.  Punt.  ASSistanTS (abbr no 6)

68. Italian pronoun: ESSA.  Another of today's language lessons.  In English, ESSA can mean she, her, it, thereon or therefrom.

69. Words in many law firm names: ANDS.  Creative cluing.  



Down:

1. Temples with up-curved roofs: PAGODAS.

Near Chang Rai - 2017 - Photo By MM


2. Resident of Ljubljana, probably: SLOVENE.

Residents of Ljubljana - 2018 - Photo By MM

3. Margaret Mitchell's birthplace: ATLANTA.    She wrote GWTW.

4. Gardener's purchase: SOD.

5. Egyptian queen, familiarly: CLEO.  CLEOpatra (abbr no 7)  Not Liz? 

Photo by 20th Century Fox

6.  Venetian Resort.  LIDO

Hotel Excelsior - Venice, Italy - Lido Beach

7. "Just think!": IMAGINE.  

8. She's behind Harris in the current presidential line of succession: PELOSI.



9. Bravado: SWAG.  Usually, in this context, SWAGger.  SWAG is often clued as the free stuff you might get at a convention. (not the abbreviation for Scientific Wild Ass Guess).

10. Greeting from a sideline, maybe: HI DAD.  Usually, Hi Mom

11. Polished: ELEGANT.

12. Deadlock: IMPASSE.

13. Kit __: KAT.  A candy bar or . . . a bar?



18. Classic British sports cars: MGS.  My friends Mark and Diana recently acquired this 1950 MGTD.  (abbr? We'll give 'em a pass on this one because if you mentioned Morris Garages nobody would know what you were talking about)



22. Pac-12's Beavers: OSU.  Pacific 12 Division of the NCAA (abbr no 8)


24. Where Musk is CEO: TESLA.  SpaceX wouldn't fit.  It could have been clued as Inventor Nikola.

Nikola Tesla

27. Owns: HAS.  Patti PAGE had a Grammy.  Jimmy PAGE HAS two.

29. Gadot of "Wonder Woman": GAL.  GAL Gadot, not some random gal.



30. Org. concerned with PCB's: EPA. (abbr no 9)



31. Mail in a box: SHIP.   Repeating "Noun or verb, verb or noun?" can be a useful cruciverbalist mantra.

34. Pixar film in which Paul Newman voiced a Hudson Hornet: CARS.

36. Jung's inner self: ANIMA.


38. 63-Down genre: RAP.   I was eating some green onions when suddenly I started rhyming everything that I was saying.  Turns out they were RAP scallions.

39. It's just a number, they say: AGE. Don't we all wish that this was, in fact, true.

40. Home of the NHL's Blues: STL.  The National Hockey League's Saint Louis Blues (abbr no 10)



41. Pizza topping: PEPPERS.  Pepperoni would not fit.  Some of us enjoy ground hot pepper sprinkled on pizza.

42. Fascinates: ENGAGES.


43. Scrubby wastelands: 
BARRENS


Rocky Point Barrens, New York

44. 62-Across, for one: POLYGON.  What do they make POLYGONs wear when they're on probation?  Angle monitors.


45. Sent a note to, nowadays: EMAILED.  Perhaps the most acceptable of the E-words we now often find in puzzles.

46. Blue state: SADNESS.  Today, the talking heads use Blue State/Red State to denote political divides.

49. Little newt: EFT.  We often see EFTs and newts in our puzzles.



50. Boxer/actor Mickey: ROURKE.



53. Secret __: AGENT.  Secret SANTA? Nope.  Secret CODES?  Nope.

55. Spanish Mrs.: SRA.  Another of today's Spanish lesson - SenoRA (abbr no 11)

57. Flight sked info: ETAS.  Estimated Time of Arrival S  often land in crossword puzzles.  (abbr no 12)

58. TV series for 18 seasons: NCIS.  Naval Criminal Investigative Services.  A TV series often seen in crossword puzzles and the last of a baker's dozen abbreviations in the puzzle if you don't also count 63 Down. 

59. Jazz diva Jones: ETTA.  ETTA, too, often visits us

61. Sheepish remark?: BAA.  With the previous herding-dog/ovine references, Shaun the Sheep seems appropriate.



63. "Straight Outta Compton" group: NWA.  The rap group.


What color are all of the books in the Library?
Red.

On that note let's turn to a new page . . .

__________________________________________________

49 comments:

  1. FIWrong. Misspelt LeDO and didn't notice the perp. Did get the circles early, so the theme was easy.

    I'm having a problem lately. I do the LA Times daily, of course, but started doing a couple mini-puzzles (NYT & WaPo) and the USAToday puzzles a couple months or so ago, and last week added an Australian cryptic crossword and cryptic clue quiz. And occasionally do a NYT at the Seattle Times site, tho anything beyond Wednesday is just to stretch my mental muscles, with faint hope of solving. Plus weekly crossword & cryptic at the New Yorker (links are fluid). What this is building up to is that I'm having some real difficulty writing l'icks about just the LAT! I keep looking for words that were in one or another of those other puzzles! I am *NOT* going to try and write poems including any of the others, nor in any other blogs than the two I do already, here and JumbleHints! Just grousing about the roadblocks I set up for myself to the only place I have to grouse to. I'd get no sympathy at all if I wrote this in a poetry forum or science fiction page.

    BTW, I strongly recommend the two quickies I put in italics above!

    There is a girl from ATLANTA, U.S.A.
    Who still believes in Santa, okay?
    Not the jolly elf,
    But the one by myself,
    In New Mexico, where she'll find Santa Fe!

    In crosswords, foreign words we get used ta,
    And tricky clues from the lands of LA LA!
    But today takes the cake
    For words we must make,
    With a baby talk phrase, GOO GOO GA GA!

    {B, B+.}

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  2. Good morning!

    Enjoyed the puz, but really didn't care for the AND c/a. For some reason, d-o put in FDA for EPA needed to be. The turning PAGE straightened that out. Also tried ENAMORS before ENGAGES became obvious. Turning PAGE saved the day again. Thanx, Sam and Mal-Man. (I'll take the Friends clue. Ardbeg is too far from my watering trough.)

    SERAPE: Isn't that what Clint wore in those spaghetti westerns?

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  3. FIR, the turning pages helped. I wondered why don't we need a bookmark? Oh. The book is so absorbing we don't stop turning pages until we have read it all. I am not fond of books where it takes me 75 pages to begin to care. I keep putting the book down every few pages and taking it up again later.
    NWA and GAL needed every perp. That GAL/s metal bra is off-putting. OUCH.
    I remember a course about Freud and Jung. I couldn't care less, but I studied and got an A. So, I knew ANIMA.
    Melania Trump is a Slovene.
    I do not understand the objection to E words. The prefix adds a lot to the meaning and makes the word more specific, thus the E prefix seems necessary. There are many neologisms related to electronic (internet) usage.
    Hiking in the NJ Pine Barrens is slow going, slogging through the sand.
    Bagpipes need the wide open spaces to be appreciated. The most enjoyable bagpipe performance I have ever attended was The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, held outdoors and attended by more that 200,000 people. Thrilling.
    LALA reminds me of LA LA LINDA. Has anyone heard from her?

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  4. This took me 6:41 to right the page.

    Oh joy, circles.

    Doesn't look like the pictured pagoda's up-curved roof is up-curved.

    OwenKL, thanks for sharing the links. I hope to check them out later.

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  5. FIR in a few ticks under 14 minutes after I backspaced “yeno” and replaced it with “urke”... never recalled Mickey Rooney being a former pugilist but it fit after the initial placement of “Ro”. Also didn’t know that a square was also a rectangle, thought a rectangle was the shape of the majority of MM’s illustrations. Thanks Sam and Rich for a relatively stress free Thursday puzzle, and MM for your creative write-up!

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  6. I meant to ask ~~ anybody ever seen “googoogaga” in a puzzle before? May be a first :)

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  7. I think we see James more often than Jones for ETTA.

    Wiki says The Dropkick Murphy's "Cadence to Arms" is a reworking of "Scotland the Brave." I couldn't tell the difference, until they added the guitars.

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  8. You learn something new from the puzzles every day. Until MM explained it I was thinking that PAGE TURNER was some mechanical device to keep you from using your finger to flip the page. Never heard of the term. The circled letters were either GAPE or PAGE. I had an inkling that Margaret Mitchell was from ATLANTA and guessed the two TV shows after a letter was on the grid. SHEIK was an unknown but an easy guess after a couple of letters.

    After GOOGOO was in place by perps I was expecting DOLL for the musicians Goo Goo Dolls, not a Lady GAGA ending.

    HATES on- never heard that term.
    CLEO- I still can't convince my Palestinian neighbor that CLEO was Greek, not Egyptian.
    Filled it today North to South without an IMPASSE.
    WILMA or BETTY- didn't know her hair color; no color TV at our house.

    47. Number of "Friends" seasons: TEN. Times B.E. watched it: ZERO
    58. TV series for 18 seasons: NCIS. Also missed all 18 years of them too.

    Yellowrocks- RAP & NWA- obscenity and misogyny coming from them that they take to the bank. I hate it when somebody blasting that trash at full volume pulls up near my car.

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  9. Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band had the hit song TURN THE PAGE in the '70s. It's a rock classic. I love the opening alto sax as the video starts. The name of the saxophonist ? Alto Reed.


    "Eventually, it was resolved. Frankly, I'm glad that's OVA."

    MM, I can relate. I was hoping they'd quickly table yesterday's discussion about verbing nouns. :>)

    52A Click on the links - I took it to mean the click sound made on well-struck shots from the tee box and the fairways.

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  10. I see from the comments that, as usual, I took the longest to FIR: 32 minutes. Do I get a prize for slowest solver? "WILMA" brought to mind the hurricane that hit us here in FLL on October 24, 2005. I remember the date because my name is Fred and my birthday is October 24, so it was like the Flintstones: Wilma coming to visit Fred on his birthday! It was, BTW, the worst hurricane I've been through, and I've lost count of how many that would be. Maybe 12? 14? I dunno. Lost count. "BAGPIPES" made me think of getting a new neighbor, who turned out to be a madman. There he was, banging on my door and yelling at 3:30 in the morning! I was not too terribly upset with him, though, as I was still awake anyway....practicing my bagpipes. I got the "turning pages" theme immediately, which helped, and, yes, very clever the way they rotated clockwise with each one. Very nice CW, SA, thanx! And thanx too for the terrific write-up, MM. I always enjoy your wit, and appreciate the amount of time it must take to put it together.

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  11. Good morning everyone.

    Not so hard Thursday puzzle. Got it all w/o wite-out or look-ups. FIR. OK theme but had minimal impact on the solve. Liked the SQUARE RECTANGLE POLYGON segue. We had GOO GOO GA GA which has one kind of consonant and two kinds of vowels. Almost binary. Then we had LA LA.
    BEGET - Don't know if you can substitute 'spawn' for BEGET in the Bible.
    ANIMA - Note that most of the Psychic World factors seem to be elliptical in concept. No POLYGONS there!

    Thanks MM for a fine chuckle-worthy intro.

    Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar.

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  12. Thank you Sam for a PAGE TURNER of a PUZZLE, for which I scored only a horseshoe (see 23A). And thank you MM for an excellent review, your GROANERS exceeded only by the number of ABBRS. Your selection of musical numbers ATONED for it.

    Some favs:

    23A DENT. DENT sounded more than minimal and I ended up with a portmanteau of DING and DENT: DINT. Aren't SLOVINES, female SLOVENES?

    26A DASH. Very distinctive I'd say.

    32A NSA. PSST - speaking of -T, October is NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY MONTH, but don't spread that around.

    37A LA LA LAND. The Corner?

    52A LPGA. Click, as in HIT IT OFF, as in WITH EACH OTHER? Or maybe as in HIT IT OFF the TEE?

    9D SWAG. "SCIENTIFIC?", Don't be "SILLY!"

    11D ELEGANT. You're gonna catch it MM for that cartoon with your un-PC HEIGHT CHALLENGED ALTITUDE.

    43D BARRENS. Maryland has a SERPENTINE BARRENS in the Soldiers Delight Natural Environmental Area in Baltimore, County, a rare ecosystem with an abundance of the mineral Serpentine, that renders the soil toxic to most plants. Only plants that have adapted to it can survive and the open countryside is characterized by lots of grasses, shrubs, and small trees.

    46D IMHO The "talking heads" invented "RED" states and "BLUE" states to encourage controversy, thereby improving media ratings.

    53D AGENT. A clecho with 32A.

    OwenKL @5:22 AM Didn't you read the fine print when you clicked "ACCEPT" on the Corner "Policies and Conditions" It contains a buried clause giving the LA TIMES Crossword Puzzle Corner exclusive rights to all of your CWD puzzle poems! 😁

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  13. Musings
    -My golf partner loaned me just such a book this year. It used elements of golf as metaphors for life
    -How far have we come? Search YouTube for sexist PSA’s of the 40’s and 50’s
    -Auto body shop billboard: May We Have The Next DENTS?
    -I’ve gotten some great Apple GENIUSES but some are rude and indifferent
    -EPCOT featured a fun rock and roll band that featured a BAGPIPE called Off Kilter
    -A SALAD BAR in today’s restaurants?
    -The filming of Cleopatra nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox who had to lay off thousands of people. Revenue from Sound Of Music saved it
    -My AGE of 75 is just a number. It seemed a LOT older when I was a teenager.

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  14. Spitz @9:53 AM SPAWN is usually associated with darker BEGETERS.

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  15. Almost got it right on the first pass with no W/O's or erasures. But I had DiNgS before DENTS became obvious with the perps from SLOVENE and TESLA.

    Good puzzle and write up from Sam Acker and MalMan respectively.

    I am half SLOVAK which didn't fit where SLOVENE did. My other half has mostly Swedish, with a little German, English, Dutch, maybe a little Native American and who knows what else. I should try a DNA test to figure it out but I don't trust Ancestry.com, 23 and Me, or any of the other testing firms because of the way they misuse the data.

    I recently went to the AAUW used book sale where I was able to buy over 60 books for less than $50. They are lightly used books and will keep me going for quite a while enjoying them. After I read the PAGE TURNERS I will donate them back to the AAUW and get more books at the next sale.

    As HG said, SALAD BARS have mostly disappeared from many restaurants, but I did notice that the SALAD BAR in our local Giant Supermarket reopened last week.

    Have a great day everyone.

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  16. Thank you Sam Acker for a Thursday worthy appropriate puzzle, and MM for a very enjoyable and involved review. I'm not sure I got all the jokes.

    I rememer The Sheik, faintly, ... I think, thats the film that Valentino was famous for.
    I have never visited Apple's Genius Bar ... Ima gonna get rid of my Iphone, about as soon as I can. The Apple techs are incredibly haughty and snotty ... every time.

    Are Solvene's slovenly ? Actually, it was the part of Yugoslavia, with the highest per capita GDP, and the most westernized. And got their independence first.

    I was fascinated by the picture of the New Presidential Line of Succession ... I didnt know Blinken was that far back. I thought he would be number 3.
    Remember Gen Haig, as SecyOfState, after President Reagan was shot ... He said.'I'm in control now ... I'm in charge, here ... ".

    But wonder of wonders !@#!! ... who's there on number 13 ... our very own congresswoman Marcia Fudge ! .... the no-good, incompetent, so and so .... okay, No Politics... Just an opinion.

    If a Polygon, has to have three or more sides ... would a double convex lens qualify as a polygon ? It has only two (curved ) sides, but encloses an area- space, and is regular in shape.
    Maybe the polygon should have all straight line, flat sides....

    Did the gardener purchase the SOD ... at a bar ?
    68 Across ESSA ... Italian pronoun .... I was tempted to put in ... ITSA ..Hi Ray-O-Sunshine !

    have a nice day. all.

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  17. Hola!

    Home at last! Now I am home to stay for the duration but what a blast these past two weeks have been!! Initially I went to North Carolina where my sister lives but then we flew to NY then Connecticut where my friend, Kathleen, now lives. She is, in fact, in the process of moving permanently from Dix Hills, NY to CT. She had been maintaining both homes. While there I traveled to Mass. and Rhode Island where some other friends dock their boat. I learned that Jay Leno lives there, too. What a surprise. We had wine and cheese with crackers on the boat, a beauty!

    In Massachusetts we went to Salem for the Halloween festival. It was fun but extremely crowded. I know my daughter would have enjoyed it immensely. She loves Halloween.

    Ah. The puzzle. I am not so out of shape as I thought and finished it in good time though messed up GAGA as I had HIMOM.

    I saw the clever turning of the PAGEs in the circles. Not being a big fan of animation, especially since my grandchildren are grown, I did not see the moveie CARS but it was an easy guess.

    CSO to my late mother, LALA!

    Also, I have no idea what NWA means.

    I am always glad to see a nod to both Homer and Jung in a puzzle as I love the classics.

    It is my hope that you have all been well these past two weeks and have averted any and all tragedy.

    It's great to be back!

    Please enjoy the day, everyone!




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  18. Easy for Thursday. 4 PAGES? is there something else to the theme? Inkovers: torts/SALAD, (thinking "bar" course means law school). ISS iss kind of a stretch.🤔

    ESSA rarely used third person Italian pronoun for "she" or "it" when "it" is a feminine noun. "Lei" much more commonly used for "she". Lei is also the formal singular form of "you" (like Sp. usted), the formal plural "you" loro (like ustedes) also means "they" or "them". It's use as "you" was outlawed by Mussolini in the 1930's as a foreign affectation returning to the older form voi (like Fr. vous) If heard in public the speaker could be fined... Confused? 😖 quiz tomorrow..

    All this time never noticed Wilma was a red head with hair pinned up like Alice K. Now I understand why Jackie Gleason wanted to sue.

    Was tempted to put 6 Friends seasons..10! wow. To ENGAGE someone is to stimulate their interest in some task not "fascinate" them. A "square" has 4 equal sides. Square deal: equal to all "sides" Just sayin'

    Robber ____ ....BARRENS
    Gnome ticket....IMPASSE
    Question asked at an open parrot cage, "Where has _______?" POLYGON
    for Mal Man... A guy who BEGETS a lot of SPAWN...POLYSEMOUS
    or..Polish parrot spies rodent.....POLYSEMOUS

    OK OK ...I'll stop...😅😅😅

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  19. Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Sam and MalMan.
    I FIRed in good time (don’t worry unclefred, time like AGE is just a number here).
    I saw Gape before PAGE, but the reveal TURNed me around.

    Plenty of inkblots today.
    Hand up with YooperPHIL for Rooney before ROUKE.
    The NW corner was a mess until I got the Pledge train of thought out of my mind, and stopped trying to enter Glossy, Cleaned, and realized that it was like Polished Prose- ELEGANT.
    I waited for ARENA to decide between ETAS or ETDS.
    I thought of Breed before BEGET.

    Mitchell’s ATLANTA-based novel, GWTW, was a PAGE TURNER for me in my youth. I recall that my mother despaired of getting me to finish my chores until I finished it.

    My first thought as I filled in 7D was this song.
    Imagine

    Wishing you all a great day.

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  20. Why does Ljubljana .... remind me an infamous prison in Moscow, in the USSR where the KGB practiced their torturous craft ?
    It is also the headquarters of the FSB today.
    That name is Llubyanka ...

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  21. Did it become common knowledge that "Dropkick Murphy's" was a drying out spot west of Boston . They'd dope'em good if they had the bucks.

    SHIP as a verb as the V8 can descends

    Re. "Click from the tee box". What a resentment I had to see JStRagman hit 250 with his metal. 250 with my persimmon was real golf.

    And yesterday was the anniversary of HUAC

    Just for TTP, how about the anagramization of conversation

    23 and Me? You might like "Fair Warning" by Michael Connelly(Lincoln Lawyer) which goes into DNA trading and INCEL. I'm ⅔ way into Harlot's Ghost. Bay of Pigs about to start.

    WC

    Wasn't sure of the I vs U on SHEIK and fell for enamors/ENGAGED. But FIR.

    Good to see Lucina back.

    Maloman, another gem

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  22. Neat Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Sam. Liked your pictures, MalMan, thanks for those too.

    Was delighted when the whole northwest corner filled in easily, but then things got tougher.

    Nice to see a picture of WILMA--haven't thought of her for a long time.

    Have got to start considering double meanings of words. That way Scottish winds wouldn't be weather phenomena but BAGPIPES.

    Fun poems, Owen.

    Have a good day, everybody.

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  23. Lucina @0:52 AM We missed you! Sounds like you had a great time.

    You don't what to know what NWA stands for. It's the name of a RAP group, a thinly veiled obscenity, and "Straight Out of Compton" is a full length motion picture about the rise of "gangsta" RAP.

    I too am a big fan of Jung, a real GENIUS combining the worlds of science and mystical religion. He's what Freud should have been.

    The Homer in today's puzzle was neither the Greek BARD nor the father of BART, but rather the American painter Winslow HOMER, most famous for his seascapes.

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  24. Vidwan @10:45 AM Curved spaces are wandering into the world of non-Euclidean geometry

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  25. unclefred @9:51 AM ROTFL re your story of the post-midnight BAGPIPER!

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  26. Puzzling thoughts:

    FIR with just the one W/O DINGS/DENTS

    I saw the “PAGE” turning in the circled squares. Clever, and no forced words from the constructor, regardless the number of abbreviations. Thanks Sam.

    MalMan, what can I say? Your level of “dad” jokes is off the charts!! And of course I would’ve immediately known the answer to Ardbeg ___. Thanks for the mini CSO with the Three Stooges poster. As an aside (too lazy to email) I saw a bottle of 24yo Speyside SM (Kirkland) at Costco yesterday for under $65

    A mini spoiler alert re abbrs…tomorrow puzzle has its share

    Owen: liked your first limerick a lot. Santa Fe is a cool little town. Margaret and I did a three hour stopover this past August and visited the State Capitol before having lunch. The Capitol building is like visiting an art museum. Way cool 😎

    See y’all manaña

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  27. FIW, sheepishly raising my hand for HI DAD. Better clue would have been "never heard from the sideline".

    Valentino was the inspiration for the SHEIK of Araby line in Jimmy Buffett's "Pencil Thin Moustache"
    Oh, I could be anyone I wanted to be
    Maybe suave Errol Flynn or the SHEIK of Araby
    If I only had a pencil thin moustache...

    My favorite Homer is Breezing Up - I have a print of it in my trophy room.

    LIDO Shuffle is a great Boz Scaggs tune.

    Mickey Rooney couldn't be a boxer - he was too vertically challenged to punch above the belt. ROURKE worked in some very steamy movies (9 1/2 Weeks, Body Heat, etc.).

    Time to pick up Zoe from getting her teeth cleaned (and 2 pulled). Read you later.

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  28. We have ATLANTA as an answer and ATLGranny is nowhere to be found ?

    Yooper Phil, GOOGOOGAGA appeared in a NYT June 23rd, 2017

    Welcome back, Lucina. Glad you had a good time.

    Wilbur Charles, I'm not picking up what you are putting down, in re: "the anagramization of conversation". I'm not catching your drift.

    Bill, glad you like it. Bob Seger's music has always ranked high on my lists.


    Chairman Moe, I too was at Costco yesterday yesterday. First time in a very long time that I've been there and spent less than a C-note. The bill with tax included, came to $97.93, so not by much. OTOH, I only bought seven items.


    Canadian Eh, I apologize for not commenting sooner. Thank you for the second article on Covid in Canada. Perhaps a silver lining in that the vaccines weren't readily available for the second dose, especially if the second shot delay has bolstered the long term efficacy.

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  29. Lucina, so nice to hear from you again ... you have been sorely missed.
    Its is indeed delightful to hear of your peripatetic adventures, and for some of us, to vicariously enjoy through your travels ... the simple joys of life. Someone is spending her glorious years with all the pleasures of existence.

    RayOSunshine, what did you study in your years in Italy ? Classics or medicine ? Just curious. They must have been the best years of your life ...

    1. Behind a small rogue or a naughty donkey .... IMPASSE
    2. ...SHEIK ...

    Despite her impressive physique
    Fatima was really quite meek
    when a mouse showed its head
    In her tent, by the bed
    She let out the terrified SHEIK

    3. not at all intelligent ... DENTS
    4. Cockney, snake sound .... 'ISS

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  30. PTs2:

    Let's say Stefani Germanotta
    Gives birth to a really hip daughter.
    Would the first words she speaks
    Show up on Wikileaks
    When she says, "GOO GOO Lady GAGA"?


    ReplyDelete
  31. Wow! Thank you for the words of welcome. I can assure you I really missed doing the daily puzzle and reading your posts. You are all a wonderful group of people!

    CanadianEh! You really should take a bow and a pat on your back on behalf of your fellow Canadians who befriended the stranded Americans on 9/12 when they were forced to land in your country. According to the play I saw, the hospitality was not just welcoming, but outstanding. I thank you on their behalf.

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  32. CMoe:
    It is not only the Santa Fe capitol building that is like a museum, but many of the older ones are as well. I recall visiting the ones in New Hampshire and Vermont and thinking the same thing. They are priceless representations of a bygone era but still functional.

    Thank you for the correction about Homer, waseeley. Sometimes (most of the time?) I have a one track mind.

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  33. Hi All!

    Fun puzzle, Sam. Thanks for the grid.

    What an illustrated expo, MManatee. I too thought of Dewey Cheatem, & Howe at 69a.

    WO: was going for breed b/f BEGET
    ESPs: ANIMA
    Fav: I thought RECTANGLE crossing POLYGON was cute

    ISSue? Next time, let's go with International Space Station.

    {B+, B} //got 7/10 on the Cryptic Quiz but 4 of them were sWAGs

    Welcome home, Lucina. Salem, MA really shines this time of year. Years ago, DW & went. We bought a few children's book for the Girls; turns out one book was in the spirit of Wicca and it freaked out my Mom (very religious, her).
    Oh, NWA == "Niggaz Wit Attitudes" Dr. Dre (now of Beats fame) was part of the group.

    Jinx - were you reading my mind at LIDO?* [5:08]
    I was reading C, Eh!'s at IMAGINE and TTP & I were on the same wavelength re: TURN the PAGE.

    Back to work.
    Cheers, -T
    *LIDO in Japan?

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  34. After a hectic schedule, I return to my usual pleasures of doing the puzzle and reading the blog on the day ATLANTA appears as fill. What a coincidence! I have been able to find time for the puzzles but missed reading you all. (Thanks TTP at 1:37 PM)

    FIR today and enjoyed the PAGE turning theme. I admit to not needing a bookmark occasionally. Favorite fill besides ATLANTA was BAGPIPES. It caught me by surprise too, Misty. Thanks Sam for the puzzle and thanks MalMan for enriching the experience! I feel like I have a lot to catch up on, starting with all your links. See you all tomorrow.

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  35. TTP- yes, we may have lucked out with those unorthodox (but based on immunological research) vaccine decisions. But it will still require close attention to catch any signs of waning immunity.

    Welcome back Lucina. Did you see Come from Away on Broadway? I saw it in Toronto several years ago. What a wonderful display of Newfie hospitality. It makes my Canadian heart proud. I like to think we would all do the same thing under the circumstances.

    AnonT- you reading my mind LOL. I give you a classic by fellow-Canadian Gordon Lightfoot.
    IfYouCouldReadMyMind

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  36. I've been watching a fair number of "silent" films of late--thanks to TCM.
    I'm sorry to have neglected them over all these decades--merely because they came before my time and "looked quaint."
    What a trove they are. Some of the richest comedies, especially early Harold Lloyd & Buster Keaton (and everybody knows Chaplin's Little Tramp).
    But the more serious stuff turns out to be truly wonderful. And the early "stars" were brilliant actors. I'm reminded of them thanks to today's mention of Valentino's The SHEIK. Valentino was charismatic, but Ramon Navarro & Francis X. Bushman were also powerful on the screen--as were Garbo, Louise Brooks, & Mary Pickford.
    What a powerful social machine we have in film. Because of Valentino, the word SHEIK became popularized with a secondary meaning. It became hip slang for a "ladies man."
    It is a shame that the silents aren't readily available now. We have to seek them out.

    But what a "time machine" they are! I was just watching again The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, made in 1921--a full hundred years ago! It was a response to WWI.
    I'm in my 80s now, and I'm thinking what a wonder it would have been when I was a kid to look back a hundred years. --All the way to when my great great grandparents were alive, in the 1840s...
    And now kids of today have that privilege, thanks to Film.
    ~ OMK

    ReplyDelete
  37. FIW. Messed up the middle of the south. I know how, but I can’t explain why. I got the theme. In fact, figuring out the theme actually helped me with one of the groups of circles, but I forget which one it was. Hey! It was after midnight!

    MM, I’ve never watched FRIENDS (nor SEINFELD for that matter) either. I might have watched a couple of episodes of NCIS. I was a huge fan of JAG.

    ETTA JONES was a learning moment.

    unclefred --- No chance of your (nor anyone else) ever taking the “Longest Time Prize” for a FIR or a FIW or a DNF. I win the prize every day. I keep waiting for the Brinks truck to pull up with all that cash AND my parting gifts.

    My excuse for EVERYTHING that I do wrong is, “Like Bob Seger … ‘Breaking all of the rules that would bend’” (“Against the Wind” --- my second favorite Seger song, after “Still the Same”)

    Welcome back, Lucina! Thanks, Sam and MM!

    ReplyDelete
  38. I enjoyed this puzzle as well as MM's comments. Laughed out loud when I filled GOOGOOGAGA, because my wife sometimes says it instead of "rigamarole."

    Lucina, so glad you had such a good time.

    Good wishes to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  39. A lot of mentions of Bob Seger today, a Michigan boy and one of the R&R greats. Personal favorite is “Roll Me Away”...twelve hours outta Mackinaw City, stopped in a bar to have a brew 🍻

    ReplyDelete
  40. Had to delete two lengthy posts
    When one of the links did not go where I intended
    Very curious....

    So,

    For your amusement,
    An oldie but goodie,
    victor borge - page Turner

    ReplyDelete
  41. CanadianEh!
    Yes! It was "Come from Away" and it warmed my heart to know how well the Americans were treated by the Canadians. I am lucky to have a friend who was born in NY and knows the city so well. She always knows where to go and what to see.

    AnonT:
    Yes, Salem was a hoot!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Chairman Moe, do you think a person (me) who likes 12 and 18 yo plain GlenLivet would like that 24yo Speyside SM (Kirkland) at Costco?

    ReplyDelete
  43. TTP, I was giving an example of verbalization in the extreme. We seem to have gone anagram crazy these days. So I put it as a verb.

    C-Moe, SW got me on Tomorrow's xword. I peeked at an answer I was sure of; took another peek and lo and behold I was wrong. Then the corner fell despite the weirdest clue I've ever seen which I can't wait for you to explain tomorrow

    WC

    ReplyDelete
  44. TTP: Thanks for Bob Seger's TURN THE PAGE. Always enjoy the song. One of a series of songs about the loneliness of performer fame all the way back to Rick Nelson's TEENAGE IDOL. (Or possibly longer-Rick is from my youth.)

    To me, Wilma had gray hair. (We did not get color TV until years later.)

    >> Roy

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  45. Speaking AGAIN of Bob Seger, I read somewhere that the line that he most regrets writing is, "Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." THAT is probably my favorite line that he has EVER written.

    ReplyDelete
  46. Jayce - yes

    WC - not sure which clue but I’m sure you’ll explain tomorrow! I’m not gonna check tonight . . . 😂

    ReplyDelete
  47. WC: OK, I had to check before going to bed. I think I kno the clue . . .

    ReplyDelete
  48. Wilbur & C.Moe I hope you clarify which clue you're talking about tomorrow. I've done the puzzle now, and while there are a couple weird (but legit) words, I don't see any clues that would be out of place in even a mid-week puzzle.

    ReplyDelete

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