google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, November 17, 2021. Paul Coulter

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Nov 17, 2021

Wednesday, November 17, 2021. Paul Coulter

Theme: Done, but not with E's.  Theeclues would need a long "E" sound added at the end for the theme fill to make sense.  And even better, the "i.e." in the clue, suggesting "for example" is also the letter combo that needs to be added to the base clue to supply that sound.  Quite elegant.

17. Cook, i.e.?: BAKED TREAT.  Add the "E" sound for the COOKIE, not the baker.

23. Pink, i.e.?: LITTLE FINGER.  Not a Game of Thrones character, but add the "E" sound to get your PINKIE.

37. Rook, i.e.?: FIRST YEAR PLAYER.  With the added "E" sound a chess piece becomes a newly minted pro athlete.

61. Sort, i.e.?: AIR MISSION.  With the added "E: sound we get, not a separation and arrangement of things, but rather a SORTIE, defined as a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint - or something of that SORT. The term originated in siege warfare.  So the fill is a bit too specific for the clue.

50. E'er, i.e.?: BONE CHILLING.  When you add the "E"sound, it's not a Great Lake nor a response to seeing an elephant, but rather a reaction to something strange and frightening. 

Hi Gang, JazzBumpa here to E's us through this puzzle.  This is a clever theme, but a bit gimmickEE for my taste.  Let's see what else is going on.

Across:

1. "Encore!": AGAIN.  A request for another tune at the end of a performance.

6. Small strings: UKES.

 
Mandatory

 10. Big zero: NADA. Nothing in Spanish, adopted into American slang

14. Ballet bend that's a homophone for a cheese dish: FONDU. Watch this video - which is not at all cheesy -  and you can have fun doing it.


 

 15. One chip, maybe: ANTE. Start of a poker hand.

16. Love, in Lima: AMOR.  Spanish

19. Canceled: NO GO.

20. 1953 Alan Ladd classic: SHANE.

 

 21. Many a dictator's quality: EGOMANIA.  

25. Actress Ryan of "Courage Under Fire": MEG.   Meg Ryan [b 1961] is an American actress and producer. Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982.

 

 28. Nickname of 1950s Reds slugger Ted: KLU.  Theodore Bernard Kluszewski [1924 - 1988] also known as "Big Klu", was an American professional baseball player known for his bulging biceps and mammoth home runs in the 1950s decade. He played from 1947 through 1961 with four teams in Major League Baseball.

29. Meds-approving agcy.: FDA. Food and Drug Administration.

30. Climbing vine: IVY.

31. Brian of Roxy Music: ENO.    Brian Peter George Eno [b. 1948] is a British musician, composer, record producer and visual artist best known for his pioneering work in ambient music and contributions to rock, pop and electronica.

33. Upright: ON END.

42. Elevator stop: FLOOR.

43. Leaves in small bags: TEA.  Then boiled in water - just that.

44. Pitcher's stat: ERA.

45. Univ. dorm mentors: RAS. Resident Assistant is a live-in position held by students. Generally, the goal of an RA is to create a safe and comfortable environment for the residents of a dorm.

47. Enero begins it: ANO.  January is the first month of the year in Spain and many other countries.

49. __ Jones: DOW.  Dow Jones & Company, Inc. is an American publishing firm owned by News Corp and led by CEO Almar Latour.  The company publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News and Private Equity News.  Every day they publish the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a price-weighted measurement stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States.  I have commentary on my blog every business day, if you are interested.

56. City north of Des Moines: AMES, IOWA.  The home of Iowa State University.

57. Must-haves: NEEDS.  Self explanatory.

60. Stare open-mouthed: GAWP.  Yes, this is actually a word, and this is what it means.

64. Inner: Prefix: ENTO-. Or endo-  always need perps.

65. USAF noncom: TSGT.  Technical Sargent.

66. Lombardy's land: ITALY.  Northern region

67. Smartphone call record, say: LIST.

68. Citi Field predecessor: SHEA.  CITI is the home of the Mets. It was completed in 2009.  It replaced SHEA, with was built in 1964

69. Pluralizers: ESSES.  English language word construction.

Down:

1. Edwards, in Calif.: AFB.  Air Force Base

2. Dress like, for the costume party: GO AS. Impersonate someone.

3. Egyptian cross: ANKH.



4. Utopian: IDEAL.  Just about perfect.

5. Annoying sort: NUDNIK.  One who is a bore or a nuisance.

6. Old Mideast alliance: Abbr.: UAR.  United Arab Republics

7. Show respect, in a way: KNEEL.   A position in which the body is supported by a knee or the knees, as when praying or showing submission.

8. Eiffel Tower level: ETAGE.  Similar to the story of a house - in French.

9. Detonate: SET OFF.  Cause to explode.

10. Part of the "Hey Jude" refrain: NANANANA.  This goes on forever, and for my money, ruins an otherwise decent song.  YMMV.


11. "You're __ friends": AMONG.  Here among the cornerites.

12. Range rover?: DOGIE.  A motherless calf in a range herd

13. Loud, as a crowd: AROAR.  At a sporting event, frex.

18. Big name in 43-Across: TETLEY.   Founded in 1837 in Yorkshire, England. It is the largest tea company in the United Kingdom and Canada, and the second largest in the United States by volume.

22. Pain relief brand marketed to women: MIDOL.

24. Ditty: TUNE.  A simple song

25. Annoy: MIFF.  Be a NUDNIK.

26. Like villains: EVIL.  Well sure - they're the bad guys.

27. Greek lamb sandwich: GYRO.  The meat is a dense lamb meat loaf cooked on a rotating [hence gyro] vertical spit.

32. Breakfast cereal grain: OAT.

34. Checked out: EYED.  Leered or ogled, maybe.

35. Lyre-playing emperor: NERO.   Imperator Nero Cladius Divi Claudius filius Caesar Augustus Germanicus [37 - 68 CE] was the fifth emperor of Rome. He was adopted by the Roman emperor Claudius at the age of thirteen, and succeeded him to the throne. Nero seems to have been popular with his Praetorian guards, and with lower-class commoners in Rome and the provinces, but was deeply resented by the Roman aristocracy.

36. Sketch: DRAW.

38. Touchy subject: SORE SPOT.  Something difficult to talk about.

39. Singing sister of Toni Braxton: TRACI.  [b. 1971] is an American singer, reality television personality and radio personality. 

40. Authentic: REAL.  Not ersatz.

41. Pressed Italian sandwich: PANINI.  A grilled sandwich made with Italian bread.

46. Young hogs: SHOATS.  Weaned piglets.

48. Single-piece outfit for a baby: ONESIE.

50. Breakfast item: BAGEL.   A dense bread roll in the shape of a ring, made by boiling dough and then baking it.

51. Muscat native: OMANI.  Oman is a country on the south-east cleat of the Arabian peninsula.

52. Older efts: NEWTS. Semi-aquatic salamanders.

53. "If only": I WISH.  

54. Coffeehouse order: LARGE. Grande, perhaps.

55. Exploits: GESTS.  Adventures.

58. Sabado y domingo, por ejemplo: DIAS.  Saturday and Sunday, for example, are days of the week.

59. Exclusive: SOLE.  One and only - like a selected fish is a sole sole; or consider the bottom of a specific foot.

62. L.A. commuter org.: MTA.  Metropolitan Transportation Authority.    Not exclusive to L.A.

 

 63. Albany is its cap.: NYS.  Capitol of New York State.

That wraps up our Wednesday - not too hard and not too EEzy.  Did you brEEze through it?

Cool regards!
JzB



55 comments:

  1. Wow! Ugh! That one was Friday level, at least! NUDNIK? ETAGE? KLU? FONDU? PANINI? GESTS? (even spellcheck doesn't like any of them!) And a gimmick that I nearly needed a reveal to figure out? Good gimmick tho, once I finally grokked it! I had so many blanks and errors crossing the long answers that they took forever to suss!

    A Ghost Story

    The old house had an EERIE feeling.
    The howling wind was near BLOOD-CHILLING.
    From FLOOR to rafter
    The room seemed vaster
    But we would stay there, spirits willing.

    The FONDUE pots made sounds like chain.
    I wound the old Victrola up AGAIN.
    Between us was no more AMOR
    We had done this times before
    Reliving what we once had done in vain.

    The UKES were playing a mellow TUNE,
    The FONDUE bubbled like a witch's brew.
    We wiped our tears,
    And with tiny spears --
    We stabbed each other thru and thru!

    {B+.}

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  2. Thanks, Jazz. I enjoyed your song choices today, especially the Iz version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. On Halloween as I trick-or-treated with my granddaughters, we were greeted with the best rainbow I've ever seen. It had brilliant, wide bands, and spanned the sky. Everyone on the street stood there for minutes oohing and aahing. Then to top it off, a double rainbow appeared.

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  3. Good morning!

    Gah -- a mid-week DNF. D-o had BAKEr TREAT, knew of Plie, but not FONDU, and the only "Ted" he'd recognize would be Williams, not KLU. As a result N_RNI_ never appeared. Vaguely familiar with NUDNIK, but couldn't have defined it, and with that errant R, couldn't find it. Bzzzzt, enjoy your consolation prize. Thanx for the outing, Paul, and for the erudite expo, JzB. ("south-east cleat?")

    ANKH: Pickup up an open M-o-W route yesterday, and passed a house which had erected a concrete ANKH as a mailbox support -- the mailbox was fit into the circle. Interesting.

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  4. A difficult Friday CW on a Wednesday. Once again had to complete it on the laptop. Time for a new printer, I'm completely fed up with arguing with this one. Anyway, a lot of DNKs: GAWP, FONDU, TSGT among others. Although I managed to FIR, it was a 24 minute struggle, and I did not see the theme until I had finished the CW and went back for a second look. Thanx, PC, for the challenging CW, and the clever theme. Thanx too JzB for the outstanding write-up. Owen, you under-rated your poetic effort today, I give it an "A".

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  5. Spelled nudnik with ending with a c, so I got Clu instead of Klu. Sounded OK. NOT

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  6. Bagels are back along with our friend PC. Solving puzzles is very problematic but this one was in my wheelhouse.

    As an eleven year old Chicago White Sox fan, it was the acquisition of TED KLUSZEWSKI that helped them to their first post-season action since the 1919 Black Sox scandal.

    Thanks JzB and Paul

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  7. Re: 41. Pressed Italian sandwich: PANINI. A grilled sandwich made with Italian bread.

    Oops: Panini is plural; PANINO is singlular and therefore would be the correct fill for the given clue. A favorite irk-nit of mine.

    Hope everyone has a great day!

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  8. Paul, I really liked your theme! It took me a very long time to understand what was going on. I had BAKEaTREAT for the first theme answer, because that's what it means to Cook, right? I eventually figured out the "-ie" was missing from FIRSTYEARPLAYER, which couldn't be anything else but Rook-ie. But I still didn't see that "-ie" was hidden in the clue until much later, when the lightbulb finally went off. I like a theme like this, where it's a bit tricky but not too much so.

    That being said, this was a DNF for me, because I couldn't get the crossing T for stoaTs and Tsgt, both of which were unknowns to me. But now I know these two entries for the future!

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  9. I agree this one was tricky, and might have been a LAT Friday. Last year, the WSJ ran a similar theme from me. It had theme clues like "Miss, et al"
    and "Form, et al" Once you figure out this translates to Missal, Formal, etc., these produce answers like PRAYERBOOK and SENIORPROM. In both that theme and this one, the difficulty is finding words that don't share roots once transformed, then have the ability to act as clues for common phrases of convenient lengths. I enjoy playing around with crossword conventions, so you may see an e.g. theme from me one of these days. For those who enjoy extremely tricky themes, I recommend Fireball and Crucinova.

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  10. Relatively easy* but tricky in spots, ie GESTS/deeds, DOW/tOm and the ENTO,Ecto,Endo conundrum. Ecto is outer but I thought the opposite was Endo.

    We were on vacation at Old Orchard Beach in 53 and liked the big fight at the bar in SHANE.
    Jim ie**

    The Red(leg)s uniforms were sleeveless (or maybe just KLU's). Yep. L714, good input on KLU and Chisox. ETAGE was a snap for les francais but both may have been obscure.

    On to Thursday

    WC

    * And last Wednesday was tough for me and easy for others. Easy = little pop-cul, music but sports and French

    ** ICECREAM TOPPING

    Ps, Barry, another example of popular usage, ie I'll have a PANINI. Anybody try a grilled PBJ where actual raspberries go on the PB?

    Pps, I like your blog jazzb

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  11. Lotsa blank squares staring me in the face for awhile...a big leap from an easy Monday and Tuesday to a troublesome Humpday. Eventually FIR.🙄

    At first I thought the theme i.e. clues were typos..then by George, I got it.😃

    It's been awhile, I always fergit.. is it ANKH or ahnk? Brian Emo or ENO? ENTO or endo (JZB)🤔 ...Perpwalked all three.. Dictator? EGOMANIA?.. I thought we're supposed to stay away from national politics. 😉

    Inkovers: cDc/FDA, song/TUNE
    Pressed Italian sangwidge should actually be singular "panino"..(agree Barry T)...I Gawked when I saw it was GAWP (had this awhile back, shoulda 'membered) 😏

    "Show respect for"... Kowtow was too long and too bovine. Took a latte of time to finally change to a LARGE coffee order.😁

    Today's ocean's were originally.....ONESIE
    Older Gingrich.....NEWT
    Of course you realize this means ____ ! UAR.
    "ANTE one chip, maybe then ____ "..IDEAL
    "Off with his head? Surely your majesty_____ " GESTS
    Crossword challenge....KLU

    on to Thor's day

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  12. Tried fEaTS before GESTS

    Yes, WC, the Reds (and Pirates) uniforms of the late 50s wore sleeveless singlets. I heard the Reds had to borrow U of Cincinnati football jerseys for Klu to wear underneath his.

    Another nit for JzB, Albany is the capitAl city, the CapitOl Building is on State Street.

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  13. FIR, in spite of doubts, and actually saw the theme gimmick with PINKIE. Didn't see that the i.e. on the clue line spelled it out until later. Very clever, Paul!

    Perps were kind where I had doubts (KLU, NUDNIK and GESTS). Oh, and I fell into the LARGE latte trap too, RayO. I still wonder why Paul put an apostrophe in E'er, i.e. Ideas, anyone?

    And thanks go to JazzB for his Excellent review, complete with TUNEs. Hope everyone has a good day AGAIN.



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  14. Normal Wed. for me, except for two wrong answers crossing. I had two bad cells. It was my own carelessness. I had bakeR when bakeD made more sense for cookie, so I missed NUDNIK and the K in KLU. I haven't heard NUDNIK in ages. If I had had the D I would have guessed the K. No other unfamiliar clues. Perps helped.
    I noticed the missing long e sound in the clues right off, so that was very helpful. I didn't find where it went until JzB pointed out the i.e. Clever theme.
    PANINI is another word which we adopted and changed. In English it is singular, in Italian it is plural. LIU. Many other languages do this to adopted foreign words. Sometimes even bigger changes are seen.
    SHANE us one of my favorite movies.

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  15. Good morning.

    I won in overtime. It was a close game though. I fumbled early with MyDOL and LAttE instead of MIDOL and LARGE. Then bounced around the grid.

    The theme was fun. "Rook, i.e.?" was the first one to be solved. But I accepted it without considering the i.e. part. "Rook" is a common nickname for a rookie ballplayer, just as "noob" is a common nickname for a newbie gamer.

    Filled BONE CHILLING mostly on perps, and then considered the "i.e.?" ending in the theme clues. Got my aha moment, and then raced to victory, overcoming my early errors.

    Boy oh boy, Paul. You sure threw us some other knuckleballs today, too. I went from gape to gawk to GAWP. Then there was GESTS and NUDNIK, SHOATS, FONDU and ETAGE. Good thing that American crossword puzzles have perps. If those clues would have been used in one of those British style crosswords, it would have been a miserable failure for me.

    FLN, and today, BAGEL - I can relate with you PK. I would have been pretty close to thirty years old before I had my first bagel. In Houston, at lunchtime, with a coworker friend who was originally from Brooklyn. Open face, half with lox (first and only time I've had lox), and half with a schmear of something. Didn't care much for either, but I've since grown to like them with just plain old butter.

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  16. Thought 56 across was a reach. Clue asked for a city not city and state. Otherwise, cool puzzle.

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  17. HG, your link is broken.

    PC, where are your rainbow pictures? Sounds awesome!

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  18. AtlGranny, that apostrophe denotes a missing letter -- the V in EVER. Same as Ne'er -- again a V, in NEVER. Merriam-Webster spells both with the apostrophe.

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  19. As previously stated, relatively easy but tricky in spots. Fortunately, the I.E. theme was sussed fairly quickly. Thanks for the recap JzB and thanks for the great tunes. Israel Kamakawiwo'ole has long since been forgiven for mangling the lyrics as originally written.

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  20. FIW, missing GAsP x NEsTS. Never really remember my ents from my efts. Among other unknowns, I've never heard of GESTS or GAWP.

    I remember Big Klu from listening to Reds games with my mom on the radio our old Chevy. She usually started the engine for a few minutes sometime during the game because she was afraid that the old tube-type radio would kill the battery. We could only get WLW in Cincinnati at night, so we missed the "businessmen's specials".

    When I lived in LA, the RTD ran public transport. I also never missed the Edwards AFB open house. Best air shows ever. Worst traffic ever (except for I-15 from Las Vegas on the Sunday after Thanksgiving).

    Thanks to Paul for the fun. I really liked the gimmick. And thanks to JzB for another fine commentary.

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  21. Thanks Paul for a crunchier than me Wednesday puzzle, a challenge to which I did not rise. Stumbled on (my) NATICK at 65A & 46D. Believe it our not, I did did suss the theme this time, but it didn't save me.

    And thank you Ron for your erudite analysis. One of the things I like about your reviews is that you don't necessarily KNEEL before the almighty constructor, albeit a good one in this case.

    Now finished with my MEA CULPAS ...

    16A AMOR. I LOVE LIMAS, but have never had much luck growing them.

    19A NOGO. Chevrolet named one of its cars "NO GO" ("NO VA" in Spanish), and then couldn't understand why it didn't sell in South America.

    21. EGO MANIA. If that's a sufficient condition for becoming a dictator, we could be in big trouble.

    28A KLU. Got this on perps, but still couldn't figure out how Ted Williams could have gotten this nickname.

    43A TEA. Should be STEEPED with BOILING water, but not BOILED in it (the Brits refer to that sin as STEWING). One of my Mom's frequent laments when she first came to this country was that she couldn't get a "proper cuppa" here. One place you can in our area is "The Kate Pearl Tea Room" in Westminster, MD.

    60A GAWP? It perped, but I had to LIU just to make sure.

    61A AIR MISSION. Had HIT MISSION while noodling around with little piggies after ordering a LATTE.

    66A ITALY. LOMBARDI in ITALIA.

    5D NUDNIK. We are blessed to have no NUDNIKS on this blog (present company excepted of course 🙄).

    35D NERO. A colossal NUDNIK, who was eventually condemned to death by the Roman Senate. He chose suicide by dagger, rather than death in the "traditional manner", i.e. by flogging.

    52D. NEWTS. Hand up if you've seen an EFT outside of crosswords.

    55D. GESTS. Surely you JEST Paul!

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  22. It was a bit slow until the cookie, rookie, pinkie, sortie, eerie gave the aha moment and then it filled quite fast. 33A Upright was my first fill in Virginia - so I started with ERECT before perps changed it to ON END. Also had SONG before it became TUNE at 24D - the first fill of an area is an easy time to go astray. I try to not be too married to an answer that was put in first!

    Thanks JzB - know we will all be treated to music and to Paul for the puzzle and stopping by!

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  23. Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Paul (and for stopping by) and JazzB.
    Officially a FIW due to my personal Natick (oh I see it was a Natick for others) of NUDNIK and KLU. Hand up for not correcting BAKE a TREAT after I got the theme (great lightbulb moment!). That D might have given me the K. Ah well.

    Hand up for Erect before ON END, Gape to Gasp to GAWP (but not Gawk), Endo before ENTO, Latte before LARGE.
    Indiana was way too long; DOW fit.

    I noted other IEs in this CW (and even some I endings)- ONESIE, DOGIE, OMANI, PANINI., TRACI. Can I even stretch the theme homophone to EY and Y with ITALY, IVY, TETLEY. TEA and ANTE would be really stretching it!

    I smiled at NADA crossing NANANANA, and AROAR crossing AMOR.
    Another smile to see that BAGEL again after last night’s discussion.

    Yes waseeley, TEA (TETLEY or my favourite Red Rose) must be made with freshly boiling water (steeped but never stewed- GAWP). My experience with tea made on your side of the border is often just a teabag swished through hot water. (Another GAWP).

    Wishing you all a great day.

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  24. Puzzling thoughts:

    FIR with a few lookups and one w/o. I had to confirming the dictionary that sortie meant a military strategy, though if memory serves I’ve seen the word sortie used on signs in French speaking areas - I think it means exit?

    Thanks Paul. I got the theme with the LITTLEFINGER as I saw Pink i e clue and had my AHA moment.

    As another mentioned I was not expecting the city and state (AMESIOWA) in 56-across. Paul, I almost flipped you a different FINGER when that entry was sussed out!! 😜

    My w/o was LATTE/LARGE. FONDU/NUDNIK was sort of a WAG but they made sense, and ended up being right

    Surprised to see DOG i e and ONES i e as answers since the theme clues were offshoots of the i.e. ending

    Off to hit some golf balls and try out my “new” used clubs. I replaced my old set with more flexible shafts. The ones I had been using would’ve been perfect for KLU, maybe

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  25. Hola!

    Though I admire Paul's puzzles I am not fond of gimmicks. This one revealed itself in due time but late in the game with e'er, i.e? Eerie, ok.

    It's the first time, I believe, that AMES, IOWA has appeared together. It's usually one or the other.

    Never heard of that Ted so CLU looked as good to me and I had BAKE a TREAT. So DNF all around.

    TEA and TETLEY make a nice duo.

    Some abbreviations, like TSGT, are beyond my ken. I should have known SHOATS, however.

    I really wanted GAWk, but GAWP insisted. That was a SORESPOT.

    NADA over AMOR and NOGO sound like a sad soap opera in the making.

    Thank you, Ron, aka, JazzBumpa; except for your explanations much of this would be over my head.

    Have a beautiful day, everyone!



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  26. DO @ 9:18 AM

    Thanks for explaining. As Lucina said, E'er bothered me. Since I associate it with "ever" as you said, everie didn't work as well as eerie here. I'm guessing Paul put the apostrophe to make the clue have a recognizable word like the others: cook, pink, etc. Is that what you were thinking, Paul?

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  27. ATLGranny and Lucina - Yes, pretty much that was my thinking on e'er, though as always Rich has the final say on clues. We see EER in grids frequently, but it is of course spelled e'er. not that it's commonly seen outside of crosswords, but all of the words followed by i.e. in the theme clues were meant to be familiar.

    Lemony - I never post pics. I don't carry around a cell phone like most people, so I rarely take pics. More importantly, my granddaughters are very young, so my son and daughter-in-law don't want their images online.

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  28. Musings
    -Loved the puzzle and your insight, Paul!
    -When cookie/BAKED TREAT finally hit me I laughed out loud!
    -73F set a record yesterday. A big cold front and high winds make golf a NO GO today.
    -KLU was famous for wearing this jersey
    -TEA in bags? I can hear C.C. shuttering from 350 miles away.
    -RA’S in our dorm had the unenviable task of being narcs for liquor brought in, especially on weekends
    -I pulled NUDNIK out of my, uh, deep recesses of memory.
    -Me, an artist? I can’t even DRAW flies!
    -FLN also: Yeah, my first bite into a hard, chewy BAGEL I thought to be a doughnut, was not pleasant.
    -Yeah2, I’m sure I’m the only one who had L A _ _ _ for coffee and put in LATTE.

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  29. Clever Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Paul--and thank you for stopping by. Fun commentary, JazzB--thanks for that too.

    I started out slow with MEG Ryan and IVY, and didn't feel at all MIFFed.

    Then went over to the other side where I surprisingly got DOW Jones, which gave me DRAW and NERO. Looked up NERO--what a terrible person and ruler--but he apparently both sang and played the 'cithara' or lyre.

    Nice to see AMES IOWA and ITALY.

    Have a great day, everybody.

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  30. Stability @7:14 It’s sHoats not sToats. Yeah, I put in STOATS first too. AtlGranny @8:16 take the “v” out to make EVERIE become “eerie” which then become BONECHILLING.

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  31. Damn auto-correct! It’s supposed to say “staili” not “stability”.

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  32. I was puzzled about the theme clues but after both BAKED TREAT and LITTLE FINGER were filled mostly by perps I realized what was going on. But I still FIW. KLU was unknown and just like BobB I didn't know if it was NUDNIC or NUDNIK. I guessed C. FONDU was unknown but the clue answered it after FON was in place. ETAGE, GESTS, TRACI- all perps for those unknowns.

    GAWP- definitely a new word. SORE SPOT took care of it.
    SHOATS- learned that from crosswords.
    MTA or RTA- wait for the perp.

    Wilbur- I've never seen 'panino' listed on a restaurant menu, only panini.
    Jinx- you're not alone; never heard of either GESTS or GAWP.

    Paul Coulter- I wouldn't worry about the girls' photos being online. I'm sure one of your son's friends has already taken photos and shared them via FB, Instagram, Twitter,...etc.

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  33. Hi, All:

    Too late to add anything that hasn’t already been said except I loved the theme and caught on after Pinkie. Paul’s talent for thinking of clever themes is limitless, it seems. My only w/o was Endo/Ento and my favorite duo was Gyro and Nero. CSOs to Ray O and Anon T at Italy and Panini, Lucina at Dias, and to all my fellow Empire Staters, NYS.

    Thanks, Paul, for another fun solve and for stopping by and thanks, JazB, for an informative and entertaining summary.

    Does anyone watch the FBI series that is on TV on Tuesday nights? I enjoyed the first (FBI) and the second (FBI:most Wanted) but never warmed up to the third (FBI:International). However, the last several episodes of both the first and second series have had me shaking my head at the over the top story lines and gratuitous, IMO, violence and gore. I was so disgusted with last night’s episode of Most Wanted that I switched channels before it was even over. I doubt I’ll go back to watching either one again. End of rant!

    Have a great day.

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  34. Friday definitely. Keep em on fridays.

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  35. IrishMiss:
    I could not agree more with you about the violence on those shows. Last night I watched the Hallmark channel and was vastly entertained with a heartwarming story.

    Today, my friend, Kathy and I, are going to watch Belfast at the theater. It sounds good. I'll report later.

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  36. Paul @11:34 AM I'm with you on snaps of grandchildren. I have 8, ranging from 4 to 20, but have no intentions of splashing their pics all over the Internet, despite getting a steady stream of them from our son. But have I told you about my Chinese grandson? C.C. knows all about him.

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  37. HG @11:38 AM I was wondering where you kept it Gary. 😁

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  38. Lucina @1:03 PM I'm a big fan of Kenneth Branagh, but I suspect you'll see some violence in that one. Belfast on our list as well.

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  39. An unusually EZ PZL for Wednesday from Mr. Coulter.

    I did not post yesterday because I didn't have the XWD on time. My LA Times had stopped. It was halted abruptly because I had not paid my bill. I had no notice of delinquency and knew my bill was on an automatic payment plan.
    Turns out, when I canceled my old card I overlooked changing the plan to my new card number.
    All's paid up now, but I must wait to get the paper re-started.
    Meanwhile, I have to go online and print out the PZL.
    Whatta world, whatta world!
    (But if this is the worst I must face this month, I'll count myself lucky!)
    ~ OMK
    ___________
    DR:
    A 3-way on the near side.
    The central diagonal yields a brief anagram (11 of 15 letters) designating the small, cozy (non-cage) veterinary housing for cubs of the Panthera genus.
    I refer of course to...

    "LION KENNELS"!

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  40. I don't know why but this puzzle was not my cuppa TETLEY.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Could not find any suitably silly I.e.'s to link today,
    But that's ok,
    As I am as I am still digesting this weeks blog...

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  42. Anonymous T,

    Please look for my next post.

    Ðavið

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  43. Anonymous T,

    On November 14, 2021 at 5:20 PM you wrote "Robbing the cradle there? eh, D4 :-)"

    Your powers of observation are incredible. Yes, a cradle has been robbed.
    I was born on May 3 1944 which makes me 77.
    Your task is to tell me Carol's age.

    In fact I open the contest to anyone who wants to guess her age.
    The person who comes closest will win a priceless prize.
    The contest will run through close of posting on 11-18.
    I will report the winner on 11-19 if I can wake up.

    All data become the property of the no-accounting infirm of Falling Price WaterShed.

    This message will repeat on 11-18 am, then self destruct.

    Ðavið

    ReplyDelete
  44. Pretty obvious early on that the ie was missing from the end of the clue word. Kind of gimmicky, not sure why the clue wasn’t Rookie (as an example) in the first place. Overall, a typical Wednesday difficulty IMO.

    ReplyDelete
  45. D4E4H @694 PM

    David,


    67.

    Cheers,
    Bill

    ReplyDelete
  46. D4E4H

    a priceless prize can be interpreted as a "worthless" prize 😁

    Anyway trying to guess a woman's age is Like playing with fire..you can light up her face or suffer 3 degree burns.😥

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  47. Paul, I visited CruciNova and I see they're ranked 1-5, with 5 equivalent to NYT Saturday, so a Saturday LAT would probably be a 3 or 4. I enjoyed working the level 1 innuendo sample. The sample #Hashtag was a 5, and I only got 20% before I gave up on it. Probably could have gotten 50-70& with P&P.

    I also visited Fireball Crosswords. Not impressed. Good, but IMHO not outstanding.

    Both are $ubscription $ervices, but with a few free samples at each.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Dnf. Never heard of nudnic and didn't know 28a, so blank spot there. Too tricky for me. I had to unfold and check the paper to confirm this is Wednesday.

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  49. Thank you Mr. Coulter for a challenging puzzle, and quite a perplexing one - which I did finish, without understanding why.

    I blame it all on my love of geometry and other maths, I always think of i.e. as 'that is' or 'for instance' ... and have never pronounced them literally. But when I got Pink i.e. as 'Little Finger' ... I figured there was something afoot, that I did not seem to understand.
    Until I came and read the blog.

    Also not familiar with GESTS, and KLU, ETAGE, GAWP and T SGT.

    On the other hand, I was very familiar with NUDNIK, ... a typical jewish argot ... and most of my neighbors are jewish. Now, one of them is chinese, and I would have liked to have learnt something from them, as well ... but their english is difficult, almost impossible, for me to understand.

    Thank you JazzB for a very nice review.

    Ray-O-where-the-Sun-don't-shine .... its a delight to have you back, and read all your homonyms and other exciting trivia. We misssed you. I had three MD appts today, and was late to all three of them. I mentioned to one of them, about you, .... a radiologist blogger, named Raphael ...

    ... the Internal Med guy said, "Oh, the Arch Angel ?"....

    And I said, "No, the painter contemporary of Michaelangelo ... who died a premature death"

    And, my Doc, ( who has studied at Padua ( the real Padua, not the itty bitty town in Ohio..) ), told me about how all three famous persons, Raphael, Michaelangelo. Rossini and Galileo are buried in these pillars in a church of Santa Croce, in Florence, Italy, .... that was badly damaged by a flood in 1966, and the pillars holding the skeletons, collapsed,.... and, all the bones got mixed up.....

    Actually Google tells me Raphael was buried in the Pantheon, by his own request. My Doc must have gotten him confused with someone else.

    Have a good night, all.

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  50. From Late Last Night ....!!!


    Anon-T ... Thank you for looking up the Hardy-Ramanujam number, and the link that was so interesting ! I should really start reading the last nights late posts... !

    If anybody is interested in the life of the indian Mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan

    ... I would recommend his biography by the american author, Robert Kanigel (1991)...
    ... The Book is called 'The man who knew Infinity'.

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  51. Well, my friend, Kathy, had an unexpected event, so we changed our movie date until Friday. Ergo, nothing to report.

    ReplyDelete
  52. D4 - what? No hints?

    Hi All!

    DNF @ NUDNI_. The only letter I could think of was aLU.

    Thanks for the puzzle Paul. Felt more like a Thursday or Friday (ETAGE, GESTS, NUDNIK, GAWP -- all new to me) but the theme was so much fun (once the penny dropped).

    Thanks for the expo JzB. GAWP comment was funny. I checked out your blog but I didn't read all of it yet.

    WO: GAWk
    ESPs: New-to-Mes* above + UAR, DIAS, SHOATS, FONDU, TRACI
    Fav: PENINI in ITALY
    Runner-up: This time we had the Eft and gave the NEWT.

    {A}
    OMK - Good DR find with a short walk :-)

    Who else almost put in tOm Jones [It's Not Unusual on Ed Sullivan]?

    Did you know the Space Force also has a TSgt? [WikiP for the picture].

    inanehiker - that's how I always shoot my self in the foot - staying locked in on first ink and not re-thinking it if perps don't help (see Saturdays :-))

    C, Eh! - I'm embarrassed how long it took me to 'get' BAGEL (with -AG-L in place!) after FLN discussion.

    C. Moe @10:28a - nice catch on the other i.e.
    Lucina @10:29a - LOL the soap in the NE
    IM @12:31p - That was my experience with Law&Order Special Victims Unit; too discussing.

    Jinx - I drove past Edwards, AFB (and the space-port!) on my way to the nearby Borax plant for a gig. Missed the Shuttle (and they told me it turns over the plant!) by one day due to delays in landing :-(
    //But at the bar I got to meet a lot of NASA guys in town for the landing.

    Cheers, -T
    There should be a new abriv: NTM == new-to-me :-)

    ReplyDelete
  53. *Law & Order SVU comment should read 'too disgusting.'

    ReplyDelete

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