google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, December 16, 2021, Chris Sablich

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Dec 16, 2021

Thursday, December 16, 2021, Chris Sablich

 


Good morning, cruciverbalists.  This marine mammal is still up in the mountains so today's recap will, again, be a bit on the brief side.  A fortnight ago the recap was almost exclusively verbiage. This time, however, we'll lean more heavily on the adage that "a single picture is worth a thousand words." 

Today's puzzle setter is Chris Sablich (who previously had puzzles recapped by yours truly on 09 September and 26 August of this year).  This morning he and Daffy are not leaving much to our imagination.  Let's start with the reveal:

62 Across: 1996 Demi Moore film ... and a hint to how four puzzle answers were created: STRIPTEASE.

At four places within the grid Chris has dropped the letter T from a two-word expression and thereby morphed it into a different two-word expression with a different meaning.  Strip Tees.

17 Across:  Polished orator?: ABLE TALKER.  Formerly, Table Talker.  Table talk is defined as casual conversation around, you guessed it, a table.

22 Across:  Indication that the coffee is ready?: URN SIGNAL.  Formerly, Turn Signal

38 Across:  Regret the choice of wall paint color?: RUE BLUE.  Formerly, True Blue

50 Across: Carol Burnett, at the end of an episode?: EAR JERKER.  Formerly, Tear Jerker.  Carol Burnett tugged her ear at the end of each show as a message to her grandmother that Carol was doing well and that she loved her grandmother.


. . . and now for the rest of the story . . .

Across:

1. First name in old horror films: BELA.


5. They're earned at U's: DEGS.  DEGreeS.  When the topic was raised last time about constructors taking the first three letters of any word to use for an answer it was not meant to be a road map.

9. Serious wound: GASH.  Let's skip this graphic.

13. Suit, so to speak: EXEC.  A Suit, in this case is a slang, and somewhat derogatory, term for a business EXECutive.

14. Artist Matisse: HENRI.


15. Start to freeze?: ANTI.


16. __ fail: EPIC.  A modern bit of slang.


19. Like C's, in some cases: SO SO.  Are we grading on the curve?

20. One way to go to a party: STAG.

The Dave Clark Five - 1965 - Over and Over


21. Steak __: DIANE  A preparation usually involving Cognac and mushrooms.


25.  One in a large octet.  PLANET  Formerly a large nonet.


28. Southernmost of the Southeast's Sea Islands: AMELIA.


32. Main line: AORTA.


33. Palindromic title: MA'AM.


36. Skiff movers: OARS.  A skiff is a small, usually flat-bottomed, rowboat.

37. Corp. money manager: CFO.  Chief Financial Officer

41. Is, once: WAS.  The past tense of is is was.

42. "__ Shanter": Burns poem: TAM O.


44. Dance movement: STEP.


45. Bridge along the Arno: PONTE.  Italian for bridge.

47. Golf lesson topic: STANCE.


49. Becomes aware of: SENSES.

54. Like some online purchases: IN APP.


57. Small case: ETUI.  Crosswordese,

58. Field unit: ACRE.

64. Post: MAIL.  As in The Box Tops' "My baby posted me a letter."

65. Cry of success: I WIN.

66. Sign of early spring: ARIES.  Zodiac.


67. Senior __: PROM.  Moment would not fit.

68. Errors, say: STAT.  A baseball reference.  Short for Statistic.  R  H  E  Runs, Hits, Errors


69. PC connections: DSLS.  Digital Subscriber LineS.  

70. Gels: SETS.


Down:


1. Half a sex-ed metaphor, with "the": BEES.


2. Trade show: EXPO.

3. Floral necklaces: LEIS.

4. Explanation: ACCOUNT.


5. Financial statement items: DEBTS.  Usually, Assets and Liabilities of which Debts is a subset.

6. China's Zhou __: ENLAI.


7. System of shorthand: GREGG.


8. Warm the bench: SIT.  A sports reference.  Not in the game.

9. Probe that visited Jupiter: GALILEO.  Named for a famous Pisan (but not Fibonacci).


10. "She's a Lady" songwriter: ANKA.


11. British WWII gun: STEN.


12. Put on: HIRE.  You're putting me on, right?

14. "Who __?!": "Join the club!": HASN'T.

18. NBA commissioner Silver: ADAM.


23. Bring up: REAR.  Not "bring up the rear".

24. First killer whale to perform with a human: NAMU.


25. Accords: PACTS.

26. For dieters, in ads: LO FAT.  Ad-speak for Low Fat.

27. Coffee asset: AROMA.

29. They may be manicured: LAWNS.



30. Steaming: IRATE.

31. Beasts of burden: ASSES.

33. Ran into: MET.

34. Half a sawbuck: ABE.  A sawbuck is a ten-dollar bill.


35. Zugspitze, e.g.: ALP.  Germany's highest point.


39. Manipulative sort: USER.

40. Olympics fencing event: EPEE.

43. Ice cream purchase: ONE PINT.

46. Parts of cloverleafs: ON RAMPS.


48. Yokum cartoonist: CAPP.


49. Irving Berlin's "Blue __": SKIES.



51. Signs of crowd displeasure: JEERS.

52. Online biz: ETAIL.  An E word, again.

53. Deceptions: RUSES.


54. Goddess usually depicted holding an ankh: ISIS.


55. Food package amt.: NT WT.  NeT WeighT

56. Bizet's "Habanera," e.g.: ARIA.

The Royal Opera


59. Diligence: CARE.


60. Comedy club hit: RIOT.


61. Stately trees: ELMS.

63. Bit: TAD.

And now, with a special "Thank you" to Shaun The Sheep for his appearances today . . . .

__________________________________________________

________________________________________________



42 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIWrong. A natick at the cross of ADAm + AmaLIA, exacerbated by misspelling GALILaO.

I hadn't figured out the theme yet when I saw the reveal. I think I would have gotten it, but didn't get a chance to try.
TABLE TALKER reminds me of my Toastmasters Clubs, back when I could still hear. Is it a widely used phrase outside of that context?
I watch Carol Burnett on the oldies channel, but don't think I'd ever picked up on her tell.
BEES in sex-ed?

"Mort's Mortuary -- You stab 'em, we slab 'em"
Safeguards are installed, for that rare faux-succumb.
There's a buzzer in each coffin
For the corpse not really off-end!
But yesterday we heard an URN SIGNAL hum!

{A-} (Yucky poetry, great story!)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

No Wite-Out required. Zipped through this one top-to-bottom with only an occasional pause to check the perps. Caught the gimmick early on, and that helped somewhat with the solve. Thanx to Chris and Mal-Man.

ONE PINT: That's the way we buy BlueBell. In olden times we'd buy a half-gallon. No more.

ANTI-freeze: There was only one TV station on Guam back in the '60s. TV programs were videotaped (commercials and all) state-side and shipped to the island where we'd see 'em a couple weeks later. When local commercials were added, the programs would run long. The 4PM show aired at 3:30, and by 9PM shows were starting a half-hour late. It did seem weird to see Prestone Anti-Freeze commercials on an island where the all-time low temperature was in the mid 50s (and that was during a typhoon).

AMELIA: d-o misread the clue, and was thinking of an island in the Southeast Sea. Oops

STAT: Throughout the baseball season, our radio station would get line scores via teletype. Somebody, (not saying who) thought SD was South Dakota. Oops again. During the football season, ND was also not North Dakota.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased I WoN, lans for DSLS, and nails for LAWNS.

My family was into card playing. I learned math by playing blackjack for matchsticks. We kids were admonished for (t)ABLE TALK between partners in games like Rook, canasta and hearts.

Hand up for thinking "moment" for "Senior __".

Although I liked "Dancing at the BLUE Iguana" better than "Striptease", in her movie Demi graphically demonstrated the evils of implants. Nice subtheme today, with BEES, C's, REAR and ASSES.

Log4j made it to the business section of the Virginian Pilot today. Sic 'em, -T. Another headline was that a Hampton Roads community is discontinuing curbside recycling. It is just too expensive ($2 million per year) for their smallish city.

CSO to me (and probably about 10% of all Cornerites) at Aires.

Thanks to Chris for the fun puzzle, and to MalMan for the visuals.

Anonymous said...

This one took (ook?) 8:07 to finish. Seemed easier than a usual Thursday puzzle.

Didn't know about the ear pull and whatever/whoever Gregg is.

I was thoroughly confounded by how some online purchases could be "in a pp" ... oh, "in app." I guess it's going to be one of those days.

inanehiker said...

This clever puzzle moved smoothly even without the reveal clue until I got to Oklahoma where, since I didn't know to STRIP the Ts yet, I went from EAR PULLER to TUGGER to finally JERKER as it was the first fill for the area - but perps came to the rescue. I enjoyed the Carol Burnett show growing up - so I remembered the sign off - but who knew there were that many words to describe it.

Thanks MM for the fun blog and Chris for the puzzle!

Wilbur Charles said...

I left the insert behind so online for me and no congrats??
I had fallen for the ol' hidden ball trick. Nails/Lawns. The bridge was the Italian PONTE and the island AMELIA.

The theme enabled me to grok (T)EAR JERKER which helped straighten out the South. I didn't catch Carol's earpull

I thought it was Southeast('s) Sea ie. Pacific(Hi D-O). Perhaps they'd named an island after Ms Earhart. Was this deliberate on Rich's part. "Off the FLA Coast" is better

Is-WAS D- IN APP same

Cloverleaf clue was nice misdirection among the many RUSES today

Why did I have so much trouble with NT WT? I had IWoN slowing things down

Yucky? But exquisite Owen. A indeed. True? Wow I want one of those buzzers

Mostly easy but I FIW and had a lot of trouble in SW

WC





Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

The theme wasn’t exciting but the solve was fun all the same. Hand up for Nails before Lawns and needed perps for Amelia, as clued and Namu. Seeing Etui was surprising as I thought it was banished forever. I’ll join Jinx with the Aries CSO and add PK, as well! Also, CSO to Ray O and Anon T at Ponte. I appreciated the very low three word count.

Thanks, Chris, for a Thursday treat and thanks, MalMan, for a fine expo and for your dedication to duty while on vacation!

I hope everyone in Mother Nature’s violent weather path survived unscathed.

Have a great day.

ATLGranny said...

Yea, got another FIR today doing Chris's clever puzzle. It took me a while to figure out the theme but the reveal confirmed my suspicions. So I WIN! The fun for me was getting the fill from Thursday devious clues. Some WOs as early guesses were corrected: Robin/ARIES (hand up for this zodiac sign) and ort/TAD. Others as well plus extra time spent figuring out the NW corner. BEES finally came and I could fill in the blanks. Thanks Chris and MalMan for "aha" moments and smiles.

Hope everyone can find something to smile about today.

desper-otto said...

Jinx, were those Aires buenos?

NT WT --learned that from Mom, though she always added additional I's.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Our friend Spitz's obituary

if the above doesn't work use:

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/alvin-hollmer-obituary?id=31887707

I plan to attend services.

Lemonade714 said...

We are at the half-way point in the final month of 2021. When we were here last year we were all very oprtimistic about the end to the pandemic upset that we were at 250,000 daeths. Now that 800,000 Americans are gone we really need stamina to focus on better days ahead.

Thank you Mal Man and I agree about the often sad results from breast implants. This was in my wheelhouse. Now off to work on tomorrow's exposition

See you next time Chris

Big Easy said...

Good morning MM and all. I was in the mountains all last week in Vail, where it snowed over a foot last Wed. I caught the 'strip Ts' at URN SIGNAL but never heard of the movie STRIPTEASE. Today's unknowns filled easily after a few perps. Agree with Anon@7:36.

Knew of AMELIA Island but thought it was in GA, not FL. ARIA was a WAG.

ADAM Silver, NAMU (SHAMU?)-all perps. I remember when Southwest Airlines had one of their planes painted as an orca.

Was it NO FAT or LO FAT- waited for PLANETS to complete it.
ONE PINT? Only buy half-gallon or five quart containers and only when we have company; if we don't have it we can't eat it, no self control.

STAT for errors- had me stumped for a while. Wasn't thinking baseball.

IN APP purchase- the only one I use is Sam's Wholesale Scan & Go while you are in the store. Scan your own items, skip the lines, and walk out the door. But is it ETAIL if I'm physically in the store and only using the APP to pay for it?

Lemonade714 said...

Another teary moment; thank you Ray

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I’m subbing for five consecutive days for an FCS teacher who has Covid.
-Rotten Tomatoes gave STRIPTEASE a 13% but I’d rate this clever puzzle much higher!
-Golf STANCE
-The movie Titanic is Rose’s 3h 14m ACCOUNT of events of nearly 100 years ago
-Cwd veterans -They immediately fill in words very rarely heard in ordinary conversations like ETUI.
-I WIN – words my wife will never hear from me, especially if they are true!
-I want to name our next cat GALILEO but I know it won’t fly.
-Shorthand baffles me but not as much as the machine court stenographers use
-Thanks for the obit, Ray.

unclefred said...

WOW!! I have never been more NOT on the CW creators wavelength. I started with pen and paper, but after struggling, going thru the entire CW and coming up with seven fills ONLY, I went to the online version, turned on red letters, then proceeded to do (I didn't count them) alphabet runs. Again, Wow! What a struggle. Although I eventually filled all the cells, all those alphabet runs gives me a HUGE DNF. You beat me to a pulp, CS, great stumper of a CW. I'm sorry MM, I'll have to come back later to read your (I'm sure) entertaining write-up.

Yellowrocks said...

FIR. Very fast solve until I go to the bottom third. Then I saw the missing T's and thought of STRIP TEASE. AHA!
I expected EAR PULLER. The missing T gave me TEAR and then jerker. So that opener up the bottom third. I knew of Carol's sign off.
NT WT stumped me. After my shower I solved that corner. I-APP was new to me. I had to change IM IN to I WIN. The I saw NT WT.
Jinx, just ask me. I am an expert on senior moments.
BELA was a quick start. My husband loved horror movies and he was in control of the remote.
DO, I got Amelia from perps and wags. I, too, misread the clue, but filled it right, regardless.
My son was a CFO. He had to retire at 57 with 35 years of experience. They could replace him with someone with 20 years of experience with much lower pay. No business wants an almost retirement age person with a high salary history. Offering to take a cut doesn't help because HR worries you will be looking for a better salary constantly.
Grade inflation robs the DILIGENT. I noticed the difference when I went for my Masters DEG in the 1990's. Very few C's were given and there were many unearned A's. Therefore earned A's were meaningless.
I baked my sand tarts. More about that later.

Lucina said...

Hola!

It's surprising that some found this puzzle difficult. I filled it quickly with just a TAD of head scratching. Of course, I had NAILS at manicure then changed to LAWNS being unfamiliar with AMELIA Island. AMEnIA look just as good.

As Gary noted, we puzzle veterans know ETUI, ISIS, STEN, ANKA and other familiar terms from a long time of solving. However, I did not recall NAMU. Perps needed there.

Golf STANCE. I have never played gold but interestingly enough I recently won a golf club in my granddaughter's school raffle! Apparently it is a very good one and should fetch a good price on EBay. I'll look up the name and you golfers on the Blog will likely know it. It's amazing because although I buy tickets to support my grandchildren, I don't usually WIN. I simply consider it a donation. According to my daughter who did the research, it is worth $150. Imagine that, for a golf club!

GREGG shorthand was considered an obligatory course for anyone in high school considering a secretarial job.

Thank you, for posting Al's obituary, Ray-O. I'm glad you will be going; it is sure to be a comfort to Betty and the rest of the family.

Thank you, MalMan for the excellent EXPO and have a wonderful time!

Enjoy this day and every day, everyone!




Irish Miss said...

Ray O @ 9:40 ~ Thank you for linking Al’s obituary. What an interesting, fulfilling, and successful life he led. (By coincidence, McGrath, one of the funeral home names, is my maiden name.)

I didn’t realize the correct location of Amelia Island until reading the expo. That clue was a little tricky, me thinks!

If I’m absent from the blog anytime soon, it’ll be because some Legal Department (unknown) is going to bring charges (unknown) against me if I don’t respond immediately by pressing 1 and discussing this matter with the Federal Agent (unknown) in the Concern Dept. (unknown) I received three of these identical messages yesterday, same voice but different numbers. If they call again, I’ll answer just to see what I’m guilty of.

Becky said...

I do want to hear about the sand tarts, and thanks for the obit. I knew he was smart but it turns out he was extra smart!

The first theme I got was rue blue, and I thought that they would all rhyme. Nope. I got the missing "T" at urn signal. I'm way behind on Christmas but I don't care.

Picard, I also enjoyed your article on GMOs and the picture of you on top of that escarpment made me quake.

I'm here every day, but don't often comment. But I sure love reading everyone!! Merry Christmas and Happy Channuka to everyone!

Becky

oc4beach said...


I got the theme before I saw the reveal. Good puzzle and MM's tour was great.

I knew the story about Carol Burnett's ear pulling (in this case, jerking). DW watches the 11:30pm Perry Mason on MeTV and The Carol Burnett Show is just signing off, so we get to see the ear pulling each night.

Only a few WO's today. Had NAILS before LAWNS, and RENNE before HENRI. Plus I didn't know NAMU. Perps to the rescue.

DW was an expert at GREGG Shorthand, so I knew that one. Pitman was the other major shorthand system, but it was too long.

YR: I understand your son's plight. Being a 50+ year old and "Retired" (euphemism for being laid off) is tough.

A little more than a week to go before Christmas and I am soooo not ready for it.

Have a great day everyone.

Misty said...

Well, as I say every week, Thursdays are the start of puzzle toughies for me, but--like this one--they are still fun. So, thank you, Chris--and I always enjoy your commentary, MalMan--thanks for that too.

I loved putting in RUE A HUE for the paint color regret--but it turned out to be RUE BLUE. I should have paid more attention to the 'color.'

Yes, I too thought of manicured NAILS before LAWNS.

Never heard of, or ordered, STEAK DIANE.

Fun to put in all those Ts at the beginning of the theme items.

Have a great day, everybody.

CrossEyedDave said...

Irish Miss,
You are not alone!
I have rec'd several of these "Gov"t" calls
In recent days.
(Along with some one in Minnesota knowing
My car warranty is about to expire)

PSA ==. Hang up!

Better yet,
If you don't recognise the caller,
Let it go to voicemail!

(Deleting voicemail is my new hobby,)

Re; puzzle,
I dunno,
I am having trouble finding just the right image
Or video to lampoon the subject.
But do not despair!
In order to bring you the best on the internet,
I have vowed to go through each and every strip tease
Out there until I can find you the perfect images,
Even if I have to search all day!


P.s.
Canada seems to be working on the scam problem.
(The U.S.,? Not so much...)

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

FIR with several w/o’s: NAILS/LAWNS; NEMO/NAMU; EAR TUGGER/PULLER / JERKER

Hand up for mis-reading the clue @ 28-across

Excellent recap MM, as always

Chris Sablich, nice puzzle

A few computer terms : IN APP; ETAIL; DSL; USER

Picard said...

Hand up I found this difficult. Natick block for me with AMELIA, ADAM, DIANE, NAMU, STEN. And IN APP had me stuck awhile. No APPs for me. Lucky WAGs to FIR. Learning moment about AMELIA. I have been in that part of the country, but never heard of the SOUTHEAST SEA ISLANDS. I am more familiar with the SEAs of SOUTHEAST Asia where DW comes from.

Hand up never saw STRIPTEASE but it sounds intriguing. Fun theme.

It is not exactly a STRIPTEASE, but here are some of my videos of a pole dance party our friend Beth hosted two weeks ago.

The women may enjoy the guy Sam doing his thing. He was as good as the women.

RayOSunshine Thank you for the Spitzboov obituary. Can someone remind us the meaning of "Spitzboov"? It is not in the obituary.

Becky Thank you for taking the time to read my GMO article and for the kind words. One of my fellow music ensemble members let me know she was not happy and she refused to even discuss it. Sorry if anyone was freaked out by the MOUNTAIN RANGE VIEW of me. It was a bit precarious.

Here are the rest of the photos leading up to the MOUNTAIN RANGE VIEW.

The woman Karyn who took the photo of me first posed for a photo in that spot as you can see. She was having a great time and wanted to go even further out, but I gently discouraged that!

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Chris Sablich for a challenging puzzle, which I enjoyed very much. I wasn't familiar with some of the answers but they turned up anyhow.
Thank you Mal Man for a very illuminating review.

Thank you RayOSunshine, for posting the Obit on Alvin Hollmer - Spitzboov.
I always wondered what Spitzboov means and even Google doesn't know.... but on due diligence, I find, that in lo' or hi' Dutch, it could mean .... little crook... OR rascal... Or scoundrel.
Maybe that is what he wanted as a moniker. To each their own.

As a somber reflection, one really does not find out about a person's achievements and successes and note worthy events, until he/ she is finally, irrevocably, dead, .... and then its too late to compliment them, or admire their life ... but thats the way it is and has always been ... and so it goes for all of us. Spitzboov had a remarkable career, and a varied one, with many talents. I did not know he was a chemical engineer or that he had co-authored 2 LA CW puzzles, because his posts were generally fairly terse. It is noteworthy though that his hobby in cruciverbalism was considered important enough to be included in his obituary..
This shows that our passion is important enough, like any other sport ... like say, Golf... ;-)
I know of only one other such word for one who makes or solves puzzles ... more of the 3D kind ... is a Metagrobologist ( in a humorous connotation ) although Will Shortz used the word enigmatologist.

Have a nice day, all.


Ray - O - Sunshine said...

The NW was last to fall after BELA, EXPO, and LEIS...I wasn't sure sex-ed was "sex education" (Sex-Ed?). BEES stung me out of nowhere 🐝🐝🐝 and the rest fell into place. Liked the theme of words being stripped of T's. The movie was based on a the same named book by one of my favorite authors Carl Hiaasen. So Tom Jones sang the song but Paul ANKA wrote it.

Malman's picture shows a type 1 aneurysm of the ascending AORTA. Ah, a visit from our old friend ETUI. What is "geis"? ...oh...wait it's "gels"...nevermind 😆. So it's PINT, couldn't shoehorn in ONE scoop🍦.

No inkovers...😊

Southern most sea Island: Key West wouldn't fit. Almost tried EAR tuggER. Perps wouldn't 'low it.
When we would complain that our HS American Hstory teacher was talking to fast for us to take notes he'd say "Cut of your arm and write short hand".😳

Laurel, Tucci, et al......STANCE
Hawaiian play: "Arsenic and Old ___ " LEIS".
Those with DEBTS....OARS.
"Kip" is the Brit word for ____ ....INAPP
Dummy....NTWT.

Currently 52 degrees. Last record for Utica was 53 forty years ago...🥵

Irish Miss said...

CED @ 11:58 ~ I don’t answer any calls unless I recognize the name/number. Yesterday’s threats went to my answering machine. (Most scam and telemarketing callers don’t leave a message.) I get a chuckle, though, when I’m informed that the warranty on my 20 year old car has expired!

I thing Spitz once said that his moniker meant Little Imp or Rascal.

waseeley said...

Thanks Chris for a Thursday FIR and not too crunchy at that. The theme was simple, consistently executed and solve-enabling. And thank you MM for your "minimalist" review. Even at your least you're at your best. Love the picture of Carol Burnett, one of my all time favorites.

Busy today so I'll cut to the chase:

62A STRIP TEASE. As an ECDISIAST Moore was apparently no great shakes. After a VERY THOROUGH examination of all of the illustrations and the reviews for this film, I've UNCOVERED the fact that it got a 13% Rotten Tomatoes rating and more or less ended her career as a major star, although she continues to make films.

Cheers,
Bill

Ray - O @9:40 AM Thank you for Al's obituary. Please post the full one when it becomes available.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much, Ray.

Vidwan827 said...


Moving on, with the puzzle itself ...
I was not familiar with the idioms / common phrases, ... Table Talker, True Blue , so the movie STRIP TEASE did not carry any meaning for me. I am familiar with the Brit word Cambridge Blue - one who's played for the Cambridge Univ. in England, or more likely, oared, or punted, for them.

I am aware of Carol Burnett tugging her ears, but I thought it an omen for good luck ... or so to say, - break a leg.
"Apotropaic" ... meaning protective magic, which turns away the Evil Eye or bad luck ...

Not familiar with Steak DIANE ... what was she,? a vampire ?

I have always wondered what, if anything, the BEES teach us about sex education ... they have such a weird concept of it anyway.
I was tempted to have DEBTS as Debits, in financial statements, but one letter too much, and the answer was in a plural.

My father was a stickler and made me study GREGG shorthand,
50 wpm typing on a manual typewriter,
... and the Trachtenberg Method of basic Mathematics ( to speed up my routine mental calculations, mostly addition and multiplication.)
But I never kept in touch, all these years, so I am very rusty, at best.

Over and Out, have a nice day, all.

TTP said...


Ray-O, thank you.


Picard, excerpted from an early blog exchange between Kazie and Spitzboov:

K: "I'm curious about your name--sounds a lot like the German Spitzbube, meaning an impish boy--does that fit your description?"

S: "@ Kazie. Right on. My handle is Low German for rascal, rogue, or bandit. Akin to Spitzbube. Probably am closer to a pussy cat."


Spitzbube would be Standard High German - the official German language of Germany. Kazie taught it.
Spitzboov is Low German - A regional German language spoken in certain parts of northern and western German and into the Netherlands. Schleswig-Holstein, where Al's parents immigrated from, spoke the Low German language.

LEO III said...

Thanks for Spitzboov’s obituary, Ray-O. You beat me to it. I’d say that he was the epitome of a Renaissance man.

FIW. Had some trouble in the south and southwest with two incorrect squares in both places. Having seen the MM’s excellent expo, all I can say about MY effort is (Red Forman quote), “D!A!”

Got the theme and the missing T’s. I’ve heard of the movie and knew she was in it, but I’ve never seen it.

Actually, Southwest Airlines had three SHAMU planes, Shamu One, Two and Three. When the Shamu One aircraft was retired, it was replaced with Penguin One. It was all part of a 26-year relationship between Sea World and SWA, which ended in 2014. Don’t get me started! I THINK I have photos of all four of planes.

I knew why Carol Burnett pulled on her ear. I don’t watch Perry Mason as much as I once did, but I would often catch most of the CB show beforehand. It was a really, really funny show, the funniest skit of which was Tim Conway as the dentist working on Harvey Korman.

The Dentist

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

One of my favorites...

Carol Burnett scene from "Went With the Wind

Ol' Man Keith said...

Neat PZL -- 'tweren't easy, Mert!
That's why I'm proud to declare a brassy Ta ~ DAH! for Yrs Trly today.

I gotta kick outta this theme: could not see it coming, and it took some seconds after completion to work it out.

I had EAR YANKER before changing to JERKER. Ah, the refinements of which we are capable....

Fave clue? 46D, "Parts of cloverleafs"--definitely a winner!
~ OMK
___________
DR:
One diagonal to a side.
The near side gives us a JACKPOT anagram, a full 15 of 15 letters!
And I think it's a goody. In Britspeak it refers to the nuttiest of oraters at Hyde Park Corner.
Perhaps the guy who's wearing a Mosely BUF uniform while preaching the glories of Stalinist Russia.
Or the one who's on LSD while denouncing drunken driving.
In any event, it is most certainly the occupant of the...

"BARMIEST SOAPBOX"!

Lucina said...

CEDave:
Bravo! I applaud your courage and persistence in researching all those STRIP TEASE videos. what a trooper you are.

Jayce said...

I enjoyed reading all of your comments and have nothing to add.

Misty said...

Thank you for posting the illuminating and impressive obituary for Spitzboov, Ray-O.

And, MalMan, your pictures were a delight this morning, thank you for those too.

Yellowrocks said...

This senior moment maven put her TV remote in her cell phone case and carried it around from place to place. This evening When I went to make acall, "Surprise!"

Michael said...

CED @ 11:58:

We signed on to the "Do Not Call" list, and it looks like we're getting more spam than before. We just let any call at all go to voice mail; the aggravation is that they call on EST or IST, so the 6:15 AM calls are a bother.

waseeley said...

YellowRocks @7:17 PM That's really precious YR. You've just spawned some new textbabble: WNLAYWLWY🙃 ("We're Not Laughing at You, We're Laughing With You"!)

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thank you all for your kind comments. A busy day here in Crested Butte, CO where the overnight low will be 3F. That sounds cold to me.

Lucina said...

MalMan
I hope you packed some extra sweaters, coats, jackets, mittens, and caps! It sounds very cold.