google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday February 21, 2022 Timothy Schenck

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Feb 21, 2022

Monday February 21, 2022 Timothy Schenck

Theme: BODY DOUBLE (63. 1984 De Palma film, and a hint to five puzzle answers)

17. How a boat may rock: SIDE TO SIDE.

21. How boxers square off: TOE TO TOE.

27. How Fred and Ginger sometimes danced: CHEEK TO CHEEK.

48. How BFFs converse: HEART TO HEART.

55. How people may agreeably see: EYE TO EYE

Boomer here. 

Well the Rams fought the Bengals TOE to TOE last week, however it seems that Minnesota won also when the Rams offensive coordinator was hired as the Vikings head coach.  Kevin O' Connell was announced as the new coach of the Purple. He presented himself very well in a speech in front of several retired players and a guy named Bud Grant.

Across:

1. Skin growth: WART.  Oh I hate these.  They are a mess to get rid of. 

5. Learns via word of mouth: HEARS.  What?

10. Riot spray: MACE.  This will take your breath away!

14. Camera or eye part: IRIS.

15. Bates __: "Psycho" setting: MOTEL.  Alfred Hitchcock used to come up with really spine-tingling movies!!

16. Muslim holy man: IMAM.

19. Busting agent: NARC.  The only drugs I take are prescribed by a doctor.  But I see guys standing in the sidewalk of Lake Street that might as well have a "Drugs for Sale" sign on their shirt.

20. Ziti or rigatoni: PASTA.  All are yummy.  I really like "Angel Hair".

23. Generous slice: SLAB.  I could use a SLAB of cheese but I am not sure if my health allows.

26. Macho: VIRILE.  Not me anymore,  Maybe I ate too much cheese.

32. "The guy over there": HIM.

33. Stadium attendance counter: STILE.  It's amazing for the new football stadiums.  The Super Bowl packed SoFi in Los Angeles.  Vikings have a huge indoor facility.  Green Bay is still playing in the cold. 



34. Sports show rundown: RECAP.  About 40 of these in the day after the big bowl.

38. Not fer: AGIN.

40. Assumed name: ALIAS.  Smith and Jones?

42. Lotus position discipline: YOGA.  Not a Yankee Catcher.

43. Pulsate: THROB.

45. Furnish with a fund: ENDOW.

47. Fond du __, Wisconsin: LAC. A great Wisconsin suburb a few miles north of Milwaukee and near Lake Michigan.



51. Division in a church: SCHISM.

54. Black gemstone: ONYX.  Who would have thought a black rock could be a gem.

58. Use elbow grease on: SCOUR.

62. Take __ the waist: alter: IN AT.  I just tighten my belt.  I could get fat again.

66. "__ Talkin'": Bee Gees #1 hit: JIVE.

67. Birch relative: ALDER.  Sometimes used in furniture.

68. Cosecant's reciprocal: SINE.

69. Cake decorator: ICER.  There's a job I would not mind having.  Or could it be a hockey player?

70. Video chat choice: SKYPE.

71. Abbr. at the end of a list: ET AL.  A good place for 71-Across. 

Down:

1. Thin trail of smoke: WISP.  Sorry, I do not see anyone smoking anywhere near the VA hospital.  It is just not allowed.

2. Mozart's "Il mio tesoro," e.g.: ARIA.

3. Frees (of): RIDS.

4. Scary African fly: TSETSE.  A real ugly bug.  Do NOT let it bite you!!

5. Managed care gp.: HMO.  Health Maintenance Organization.  Not the best plan.

6. Camera named for a Greek goddess: EOS.



7. Going __: bickering: AT IT.  My favorite was Billy Martin with any umpire.



8. Second effort: REDO.  Okay, They are going to REDO my chemo in two weeks.  I hope it works.

9. Place to hide a metaphorical ace: SLEEVE.  I will put a golf ball up my sleeve if I ever get a Hole in One !

10. Beethoven's Ninth is written in one: MINOR KEY.

11. Stradivari's tutor: AMATI.  Italian violin masters.



12. Christmas song: CAROL.  I like "Silver Bells".

13. Roast host: EMCEE.  They don't seem to have Roasts any longer.  But the Game Show Channel has a lot of EMCEEs.

18. Conversations: TALKS.  You can talk all you wanna but it's different than it was.  "No IT Ain't" but you gotta know the territory.

22. Bleacher feature: TIER.  There weren't bleachers but how about that SoFi Stadium!

24. "__ boy!": ATTA.

25. Water heater: BOILER.  Ours works well but it only heats water.  Never boils.

27. Chew the fat: CHAT.  I like Billy Martin with any umpire.

28. Tipsy from wine, say: HIGH.  HIGH apple pie in the SKY hopes.

29. Kuwaiti ruler: EMIR.

30. "Cry Macho" (2021) star Eastwood: CLINT.  I remember "Rawhide".



31. Set out for, as a destination: HEAD TO.  We "SET OUT FOR" a casino in Wisconsin last October.  For now I need to get my legs back in shape.

35. Pepsi, for one: COLA.  I like Diet Pepsi - especially the "No Caffeine" version now.

36. Food thickener: AGAR.

37. Agreement: PACT.

39. One of Nolan Ryan's seven: NO HITTER.  Nolan was a whiz.


41. "Any day now": SOON.

44. Kiss from Consuela: BESO.

46. "And your reason?": WHY SO.  WHY NOT?

49. One-celled pond dwellers: AMEBAS.

50. "The dog ate my homework" is a sad one: EXCUSE.  Nick Knack Paddy Whack, Give the dog a bone.

51. Conductor Ozawa: SEIJI.



52. Pessimist: CYNIC.  One thing I like about the VA - There are no cynics.  They pretty much tell it like it is with a little cream. 

53. Throw with effort: HEAVE.  Shot Put

56. Egg yellow: YOLK.  That's a YOLK on you !!

57. Drain swirl: EDDY.

59. Passing words?: OBIT.

60. Arm bone: ULNA.  Connected to the wrist bone.

61. Fishing rod attachment: REEL.  I sort of gave up fishing.  Spent a lot of time at North Star Lake in Northern Minnesota when I was a kid.

64. "You betcha": YEP.

65. Dr. of hip-hop: DRE.

Boomer


 

37 comments:

  1. FIRight. It's Monday.
    Liked the theme. Surprised so many could be fit into the grid. Just finding that flood of infinitives is praiseworthy, but that all of them also involved body parts was grand!

    IRIS went AT IT with vigor and vim.
    SOON she was in it, up to her chin!
    She didn't, as a rule,
    Trust a MOTEL pool,
    But she was IN AT dawn to learn how to swim!

    Being a CYNIC wasn't cause of my SCHISM
    I prefer the term Skeptic for my -ism.
    Believe what you will,
    But it gives me no thrill,
    Just skip over me with your proselytism!

    {B, B+.}

    ReplyDelete
  2. FIR in 12. A marvelous Monday CW with only one DNK, SEIJI, but perps were easy, so no problemo. Also sussed the theme with the very first theme clue, which helped. Only WO SCRUB:SCOUR. Thanx TS for this Monday friendly, fun, witty romp. Thanx Boomer for the terrific write-up. You mentioned Lambeau Field in Green Bay. Not only is it an open-air stadium (the way all football should be played, in ANY WEATHER) but the stands feature aluminum benches, not individual seats. God help you if you go to a game in 10* weather without a cushion to sit on. You will literally freeze your ass!

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  3. As usual, a pretty easy Monday puzzle. The only clue I wasn't sure about was Seiji Ozawa, but the perps made it clear. FIR, so I'm happy.

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  4. FLN "The Who co-founder: DALTRY (Roger)

    The Who were probably best known for their Rock Opera Tommy and the best known ARIA from it was "Pinball Wizard".

    But Tommy was not the first Rock opera. Composer William Russo performed a series of Rock operas in Baltimore back in the 70s (?). He was associated with the the Peabody institute and the operas were performed in intimate settings with a rock band and soloists. I recall seeing at least two: "David" the story of the Old Testament king, and "The Civil War". They were real "happenings"!

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  5. waseeley @5:55 AM Forgot the link to William Russo's wiki. A very interesting guy!

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  6. Good morning!

    Zipped right along and proudly inked in BODY TO BODY when that first BODY had appeared. D'oh! Wite-Out, please. That was my only fox pass. I could tell from Boomer's expo that I missed a bunch of c/a's on my way through, because they were already filled in. Thanx for the Monday-easy outing, Timothy, and for the upbeat recap, Boomer.

    Fond du Lac : Literally "bottom of the lake," is situated at the lower end of Lake Winnebago. It's about 10 miles wide and 30 miles long. I used to point it out for my fifth grade geography kids, because the lake is the approximate size of Guam. They refused to believe that the little lake on the U.S. map was as big as Guam, which had it's own wall map in their classroom. Scale was a foreign concept.

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  7. Nice speedy Monday - like Unclefred had to change SCRUB to SCOUR when perps required. I also had to wait for perps on SEIJI as I know how to say Conductor Ozawa's name but not ever sure about the spelling.

    Thanks Boomer - keep working your program!
    And thanks to Timothy for the fun puzzle!

    The did some sort of upgrade or change in our computer system over the weekend -so starting to work early to make sure it is all working before I need to start my day!

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  8. Following is an iteration of my initial post on the Corner on last Saturday afternoon, in order to reach many of you who may not have seen it:

    I have been a regular visitor to this blog ever since the Washington Post started publishing the LA Times crossword. I have never commented because I was copying the puzzles and solving them well after the publishing date. I just want to thank everyone involved, from C.C. who created the blog, to all the reviewers, and all the congenial commentators. I have learned much from all of you, and I am grateful.

    Additional info: I came across a copy of a 12/1/13 Washington Post Magazine which contains an article by Merl Reagle celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the crossword puzzle. I realize that many of you may be familiar with it, or with its contents. It is a fascinating short description of the early years of the crossword, I found a link to it, and share it for those of you who may be interested.

    article_735f7d42-1c4f-51bd-bdaa-27f4659bb157.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. FIR, but my fox pass was scrub being fixed to SCOUR (hi I-H). DNK the music stuff, but easy perps made that insignificant.

    My big sis spent most of her chemistry-teaching career in an ENDOWed professorship. She was offered a promotion to department head, but turned it down because she loved classroom teaching.

    IIRC, when I got (too) tipsy from wine, I HEAVEd. Been a while.

    FLN: -T, next time we get the fill "SEE ME", you can link The Who's "See Me, Feel Me". Shouldn't be too long - I think that fill has its frequent filler card.

    Thanks to Timothy for the fun, Monday-easy puzzle. And thanks to Boomer for another day of humor. Hope the chemo doesn't kick your butt too bad, and more importantly that it does kick Big C's butt. BTW, I really like my Medicare HMO. All of the docs and facilities we were using with our PPO are in it, and we save around $10k a year.

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  10. I am obviously having trouble, but the identity of unknown at 7:11 a.m. should hav been flower power

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  11. This is flowerpower. (unknown 7:11) I am going to try one last time to get a post up with my name, and a link that will work to the Reagle article:

    https://www.niagara-gazette.com/archives/happy-100th-to-the-crossword-puzzle/article_735f7d42-1c4f-51bd-bdaa-27f4659bb157.html



    ReplyDelete
  12. Good Morning:

    Simple but cute theme and impressive with five themers, a fun reveal, and only six three letter words. What more could we ask for, especially on a Monday. My only stumble was Scrub/Scour and I see I wasn’t alone. In addition to the theme answers, we had some Easter Eggs with Head, Iris, Wart, and Ulna. Other fun entries were Imam/Emir, Virile/Him, Recap/Redo, Eye/Iris, Hears/Talks, Why So/Soon, and Chats/Talks. An additional treat was the mini musical theme with Aria, Seiji, Minor Key, Amati, Carol, and Dre. CSOs to Ray O and Anon T (Pasta), Lucina (Yoga and Beso), and Inanehiker and Ray O (HMO).

    Thanks, Timothy, for a fun and enjoyable solve and thanks, Boomer, for the chuckles and commentary. Sorry you’re having difficulty with the aftermath of your treatments. Keep on keeping on!

    FLN

    Lucina, I, too, will miss ACGAS and sincerely hope there is another season. I was close to tears last night seeing Tricki so listless and forlorn. But, fortunately, there was a happy ending for all.

    CanadianEh, I’m not much of a sweets enthusiast but those flans (Canadian-style) you posted are works of art.

    Have a great day.

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  13. FIR today but some WOs. Hand up for scrub/SCOUR and BODY to body/BODY DOUBLE. Also had a couple others I think of as auto fills when I mindlessly put fill in. Easily fixed by perps but not pretty.

    Thanks, Timothy, for a new theme and fresh fill. It was a fun start to Monday. And many thanks, Boomer, for your review. Hope the adjustment to your chemo next time works better for you!

    FLN I enjoyed watching those shows on PBS too, Lucina. New shows with plot twists and character development are rare on our PBS station lately. Hope you get your computer problem resolved.

    Hope everyone has a good holiday Monday.

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  14. A bit of a spelling BEE this morning with SCHISM and SEIJI

    EDDY again. I never see it clued as Duane ____?

    Fred, Sheaffer Stadium in Foxboro, MA had those aluminum benches. When the sun set in November…

    Here's that Merl Reagle article . I enjoyed reading it.

    Thanks for the entertaining write-up, Boomer

    WC

    BTW, I believe SEIJI replaced Arthur at Boston Pops

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  15. Merle Reagle was a true force in the crosswording world. Hard to believe that he's been gone for more than six years now.

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  16. Thank you Timothy for an easy Monday FIR, but with lots of interesting cluing and fill. I liked the theme, which END TO END did most of the work.

    And thank you Boomer for the recap. I love your free associations. And they don't cost a cent. You are in our prayers.

    Just a few favs:

    10D MINOR KEY. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, is a choral symphony, the final complete symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, composed between 1822 and 1824. This revolutionary work broke every rule in the book and marked the end of Classical Era. The Symphony is marked D Minor, but it contains many key changes throughout. The final movement, with the famous choral "Ode to Joy" begins in D Minor but is predominately in D Major with shifts to B flat Major and G Major before returning to D Major for the triumphant finale.

    51D SEIJI. Here's Seiji Osawa conducting the Finale to Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "The Resurrection".

    Cheers,
    Bill

    Flower Power @7:34 AM and also Wilbur Charles. Thanks for the Reagle link. He's my all time favorite constructor. IMHO his puzzle GRIDLOCK is the G.O.A.T of crosswords. If you haven't seen the documentary Wordplay, Merl is one of the stars.

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  17. Word of the Day president

    Pronunciation: pre-zê-dênt

    Part of Speech: Noun

    Meaning: 1. A person elected or appointed to preside over an organization, the highest ranking member of a management team, as 'the president of the New York Stock Exchange'. 2. The chief officer of the executive branch of a government or similar political organization, such as 'the president of the United States'.

    Notes: Do keep in mind that prez is often used as an abbreviation of today's Good Word, because the S in the full word is pronounced [z]. A more modern acronym for the US president is POTUS. The adjective is presidential and the office that a president holds is a presidency.

    In Play: Until 1971, Lincoln's birthday was celebrated on February 12 and Washington's birthday, on February 22. In 1968, however, legislation was passed that combined the two holidays into one to be celebrated on the 3rd weekend of February. The intent was to reduce the number of holidays in February and give workers a 3-day break from work. The result is that the holiday carries little meaning for most Americans: "The exchange student very proudly gave Galen a Presidents Day gift that triggered snickering among his friends."

    Word History: Today's word, of course, is the French version of Latin praesiden(t)s "presiding", the present participle of praesidere "to preside", based on prae "before" + sedere "to sit".

    For more info see Word of the Day

    Bill's comment: See also today's Jumble for a pun on this word.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Musings
    -A fun puzzle whose only obscure fill was in a neighborhood of “had to be” perps. 5 gimmicks? Cool!
    -Mr. Miyagi’s painting instructions: SIDE TO SIDE
    -The widows of two early prominent lawyers in our town have given ENDOWMENTS worth millions to our Y (second largest in the world) and Library among other places.
    -Sportscasters have lots of time to fill during pre-game and RECAP. Not much new ground gets plowed.
    -For some reason I chose ONYX for my Class of ’64 H.S. ring. I wonder if I can find it now.
    -Our town’s state champion cross country champion is a mere WISP of a girl. She’s in the middle on her tiptoes here.
    -I taught with a lovable CYNIC /Pessimist for years. His sister later told me his nickname growing up was Eyeore.
    -EMIR or IMAM? Oh, what the heck, let’s put in both.

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  19. Autocorrect strikes again! Your not You’re. Why does it insist on changing words like this? It happens all the time with Were changing to We’re. AARGH!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Too bad I already used the Spaceballs
    body double video in an earlier crossword apres ski.

    Sorry, but I am running out of material....

    50. "The dog ate my homework" is a sad one: EXCUSE
    not in today's comics....

    ReplyDelete
  21. I loved all the X-to-X phrases, especially that they were all body parts. Very clever!

    This got me thinking, what other ones are there? I came up with Nose-to-Nose, Back-to-Back, Head-to-Head, and Elbow-to-Elbow (as a long time NY subway rider, I was packed in lots of times).

    Hmmm...Neck and Neck doesn't fit. Did I miss any?

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  22. I loved, loved this puzzle, Timothy--many, many thanks for this pleasure. And so great to have you do your delightful Monday commentary, Boomer. We're all thinking of you and hope you're feeling better, so it's great to have you here today.

    I got those funny, cute BODY DOUBLES very early on and enjoyed seeing them fill in.

    Silly clues and answers made me laugh, like "that guy over there"--oh, you mean HIM?

    ARIA, AMATI, and Conductor OZAWA--am beginning to love seeing music items in puzzles.

    OBIT shows up in puzzles a lot. Guess, that's life--well, the end of life.

    MERL REAGLE got me started on crosswords and was my favorite constructor of all time. I was heartbroken when we lost him too early. I still have a number of his crossword books from the past.

    Owen, I liked your IRIS verse.

    Have a good day, everybody.

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  23. Hola!

    Nicely done, Timothy Schenck! Thank you.

    Sometimes Monday puzzles are ho-hum and blah but this one had some pizzazz even though the easy phrases filled quickly. My only stumble would have been SEIJI had I not known JIVE Talk. I love the BEE Gees.

    I see I'm in good company with SCRUB before SCOUR.

    I've never seen Psycho but some details are familiar from crosswords including the Bates MOTEL. Not a fan of Stephen King books or movies. My daughter, however, loves them.

    Luckily Ryan Nolan's NO HITTER was discussed here a few days ago otherwise it would have been a mystery to me.

    Have a lovely Monday, everyone!

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  24. Boomer, it's great to see that you are in good form and of course, with your typical sense of humor. Keep on keeping on!

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  25. CED, you will just.not.do. The others on the beach are asking "how do I unsee that?".

    Bob Lee, I remember my mom singing this old standard:

    The prettiest girl I ever saw
    Was sippin’ cider through a straw

    I asked her if
    She’d teach me how
    To sip some cider
    Through a straw

    First cheek to cheek
    Then jaw to jaw
    We sipped that cider
    Through a straw

    And now and then
    That straw did slip
    And we’d sip cider
    Lip to lip

    And now I’ve got
    A mother-in-law
    And nineteen kids
    That call me “Paw”

    The moral of
    This little tale
    Is sip your cider
    Through a pail

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  26. Puzzling thoughts:

    FIR. Thanks Timothy and Doug for the fun-filled puzzle and RECAP

    An oldie sung by a fun DUO, CHEEK TO CHEEK

    Two ku’s:

    Bad pickup line from
    Cosecant’s reciprocal:
    “Hey babe, what’s your SINE?”

    Forest denizens
    Pay homage to an old birch:
    Their elder ALDER

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  27. My CHEEK TO CHEEK video wouldn’t work in my HTML tag

    Copy and paste if you want to listen

    https://youtu.be/Go5-bKDCQM8

    ReplyDelete
  28. A nice stress free romp to a FIR in a few ticks over 8 minutes and only a couple backspacings, The theme was easy to suss after the first couple fills. A high percentage of the puzzle was filled by Across words and didn’t even see a lot of the Down words till reading the expo. Hand up for the SCRUB/SCOUR gaffe, and not knowing SEIJI. Noticed there was a half a themer with HEAD TO. Thanks Timothy the clever grid to start off the week!

    Nice to see you here this morning Boomer, hope that you will regain your strength, I know that chemo can take a lot out of people, but hopefully you’ll keep progressing. And as is the norm, you provided us with an entertaining write-up, thank you for that!

    ReplyDelete
  29. Thanks, Boomer, for the write up. I remember Bud Grant

    Flower power, you will get all of the idiosyncrasies of the blog's software figured out. They are far from intuitive. Hopefully, your previous attempt was not really your last try.

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  30. Thanks for posting the link to that wonderful Merl Reagle article, FP and thanks to WC for turning into a "hot" link.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Lost my "comment" when I went to cut and paste...yes I know how disappointed you all are...😉

    I remember admitting I always thought it was Bates Hotel...recently reconstructed and now called REBATES..😄

    , Dancing "CHEEK TO CHEEK"

    😳

    ReplyDelete
  32. Wilbur Charles:
    Thank you for posting that article by Merl Reagle. I really enjoyed reading it. Like most of you here, if not all of you, I am passionate about crossword puzzles which I have been solving since I was in fourth grade when our teacher gave us puzzles for our spelling words. At the time my dad was still alive and subscribed to the daily newspaper which is where I further discovered CW puzzles. Then, in the convent where there was no access to a newspaper for me, I found a publication that had cw puzzles with biblical subjects. I was in heaven! Pun intended.

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  33. I liked this puzzle. Like some of you I had to change SCRUB to SCOUR. Stay well, all.

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  34. A great Monday level PZL from Mr. Schenck, well covered by Boomer.

    Sorry to post so late. Fell asleep at the KB. Seem to need more naps these days.
    Guess I am getting older...
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    Four diags today, three of them in the near end.
    The center diagonal's anagram (11 of 15 letters) is a curious one, a bit of a nostalgia trip.
    As a kid, I loved spending summers at our Northern California Scout setting, Camp Royaneh.
    I see online it still exists. I wonder if it has gone co-ed?
    The name Royaneh stirs wonderful memories.
    I consider it an...

    "IDYLLIC WORD"!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hi All!

    Easy-peasy Monday, Timothy; thanks for the grid.

    Great-baseball! What an expo, Boomer. You read quite upbeat today.

    WO: AMATo, SCrUb (Hi UncleFred!)
    ESPs: AMATI, SEIJI
    Fav: JIVE Talkin' [Airplane]

    {B, A}
    Misty eye'd DR, OMK ;-)
    C.Moe - groan & cute. Also, there was likely a space between href=" and https - i.e 'href=" https'

    ++Merl was among the best and Crosswords (the movie) was great.

    CED - the obscenity comic is LOL

    Expected this from Ray-O...
    Calisthenics among the clouds: SKY PE

    And with that, I'll see myself out.
    Cheers, -T

    ReplyDelete
  36. Marvellous Monday. (Wait, unclefred stole my line early in the day, LOL,) Thanks for the fun, Timothy and Boomer.
    I FIRed this CW yesterday because our newspaper gave us both Sat. and today’s CW in the Sat. edition. Today is Family Day holiday, and we spent much of the afternoon playing outside in the snow with 4 of the grandchildren. We will sleep like logs tonight!

    IM FLN- yes those flans are beautiful. I am not quite as proficient.

    Welcome flower power. Keep chiming in.

    Good evening all.

    ReplyDelete

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