Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with the good news. No, our salty aquatic friend, above, is not swimming through the neighborhood distributing copies of "The Watchtower" but, rather, sharing the GOOD NEWS from today's veteran puzzle-setter, Bruce Haight. Here is a link to a 2015 interview for those interested in learning a bit more about him. Bruce Haight Interview
At five places within the grid Bruce has deployed answers that are idiomatic expressions for very good outcomes. He (and/or Rich) has cleverly clued those answers with references to occupations/activities. There is no unifier/reveal so let's start with those five clues and answers:
18 Across: Good news for the clean-up crew?: TIDY PROFIT. If you clean up something up you make it TIDY.
24 Across: Good news for the elephant trainer?: HUGE SUCCESS. An elephant is HUGE.
40 Across: Good news for the curling team?: SWEEPING VICTORY. Curling is a sport that uses brooms to steer the stones by SWEEPING the ice ahead of the sliding stone .
53 Across: Good news for the baker?: BREAD WINNER. Bakers may bake bread. A BREAD WINNER brings income into a family. As Publishers Clearing House used to say, "You may already be a WINNER." That said, I have never heard anyone call a successful outcome a "bread winner" so this one may be a wee bit different from the other four.
63 Across: Good news for the horror film producer?: MONSTER HIT. A Monster Smash? How about a Monster's Mash:
Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Cryptkickers
Across:
1. The Scotch kind might be double-coated: TAPE. A initial bit of misdirection for this fan of uisge-beatha. Others were much more likely to have instantly been on the puzzle-setter's wave length.
5. Poor benefits: ALMS.
9. Ludwig wrote für her: ELISE. Für Elise is one of Ludwig von Beethoven's most famous and popular compositions.
Bill & Ted "Recruit" Beethoven . . .and others
14. Genesis plot: EDEN. Two weeks ago this answer was clued as "Biblical Plot". Again, it's a place and not a cabal.
15. Christmas Eve no-no: PEEK. We send Santa a list and are then supposed to act surprised.
16. Places for curlers: RINKS. Not the hair salon. Ice rinks. See 40 Across, above or, er below? Two curling references in a single puzzle. Cool!
17. Rock's Lofgren: NILS. NILS Lofgren is a well-known musician. A member of both Crazy Horse (Neil Young) and Bruce Springsteen's E Street band.
20. Get ready to drive: TEE UP. A golf reference.
22. Brewery letters: IPA.
22. Brewery letters: IPA.
23. Scruff: NAPE.
28. Title for Nick Faldo: SIR. SIR Nicholas Alexander Faldo is an English professional golfer and commentator.
29. [Ah, me!]: SIGH. Alas would have fit. So would several other four-letter words.
30. Winningest baseball southpaw: SPAHN. Southpaw is baseball lingo for a left-handed pitcher.
Why is a baseball game a good place to go on a hot day? Because there are lots of fans.
32. Delta's primary hub: Abbr.: ATL. Delta Airline's hub is in ATLanta.
35. Taylor of "Mystic Pizza": LILI.
35. Taylor of "Mystic Pizza": LILI.
38. Sends out: EMITS.
44. Quarters with stories: HOTEL. This one took a while to suss out because a hotel can be a single-story building.
45. Clearance caveat: AS IS.
46. 1, 2, 3, etc.: Abbr.: NOS. Numbers
47. Choice cut: FILET. An animal protein reference.
49. Water-diverting feature: EAVE.
All About Eaves
52. Word with tip or tub: HOT. Word with tamale or sauce.
59. Thereabouts: OR SO.
61. Ma's his sis: UNC. UNCle Clever clue. A bit of a punt of an answer.
62. Prayer hands, e.g.: EMOJI.
67. Scrapes (out): EKES. Not to be confused with EEKS! MICE!
68. "The __ Holmes Mysteries," series about Sherlock's teenage sister: ENOLA. Often clued with reference to the airplane that dropped the A-Bomb.
69. Accident report?: OOPS. The ? tips us off to something whimsical.
70. __ burn: cutting remark, in slang: SICK. A learning moment.
71. Attach, as a patch: SEW ON. My mother used the iron-on kind. They didn't stay in place for very long.
72. Kindle competitor: NOOK. An E-book reader made by Lenovo and sold by Barnes & Noble.
73. Roles, metaphorically: HATS.
Down:
1. Like J, in a way: TENTH. J is the tenth letter of our alphabet.
2. Sayonara kin: ADIEU. Now, where did I put my Japanese / French dictionary?
3. Co-owner of the Pequod: PELEG. Captain Bildad and Captain PELEG were the owners of the whaling ship at the heart of Herman Melville's Moby Dick.
4. Comes later: ENSUES. Pun enters a bar. A fight ENSUES killing almost a dozen people. Pun in. Ten dead.
5. Like the name Robin Banks, for a yegg: APT. Robbing Banks. Yegg is slang for a burglar, particularly a safecracker.
6. Hula hoop?: LEI. A Hawaiian reference.
7. MASH worker: MEDIC. Mobile Army Surgical Hospital
8. FaceTime rival: SKYPE. We have all become more familiar with SKYPE and ZOOM over the past couple of years.
9. Stumble: ERR.
10. Meaning of "Simba" in Swahili: LION. Disney introduced many of us.
11. Trendy: IN FASHION.
12. Command to bypass pre-TV-episode material: SKIP INTRO. A streaming reference.
13. Aromatic compound: ESTER. An fragrant organic compound often detected in crossword puzzles.
19. Mountain __: PASS. Mountain HIGH, Mountain BIKE, Mountain LION, Mountain GOAT. Which did you first think of?
21. Chi follower: PSI. I should have paid more attention in school when the Greek alphabet was discussed.
25. Not-so-cute fruit: UGLI.
26. Table tennis powerhouse: CHINA. Where, or where, has "Ping Pong Diplomacy" led us!?
27. Bit of design info: SPEC. INFOrmation is abbreviated, so, therefore, is SPECification.
31. Oz. or lb.: AMT. AMounT
32. Firing result: ASH. At first I thought it would be something work related. A bit of an odd use of the word "firing". Ceramic ASHtray would have made more sense.
33. Sale phrase: TWO FOR ONE. Similar to BOGO.
34. When tripled, a holiday song: LET IT SNOW. Lyrics by Sammy Cahn. Music by Jule Styne. Recorded by just about everyone. Sinatra? Dean Martin? Michael Buble? Boyz II Men? Jessica Simpson? Nah, let's go with Leon Redbone:
36. Some smartphones: LGS. Some TV's, too.
37. Like Wrigley Field's walls: IVIED. Another baseball reference. Right up there with curling, today. This clue/answer made me think of Tom Lehrer's line about ivy covered professors in ivy covered halls.
39. __ admin: computer boss: SYS. SYStem Administrator. More abbreviations.
41. Unadon fish: EEL. A sushi reference. Unagi would not fit.
42. Working-class Roman: PLEB.
43. "__ the Light": 1972 hit: I SAW. This one led to some post-answer head scratching because the clue refers to the date of the Todd Rundgren song. Hank Williams wrote, and recorded, a song of the same name decades earlier. One with which us sea creatures are far more familiar.
48. Loyal: TRUE. An Axiom is something believed to be TRUE without question. You can trust me on this one.
50. Battle: VIE. I have a friend who is a big fan of the works of Karl Marx. If that makes her a Communist then So Vie T. What, no Dracula?
51. Tangle up: ENMESH.
52. Lakes mnemonic: HOMES. Also, SuperMan Helps Every One, Sally Made Henry Eat Oreos and SHO ME.
54. 2001 bankruptcy: ENRON. Likely the largest, most complicated and most notorious accounting scandal of all time. Arthur Anderson, LLP was the auditor. That firm is no longer in business.
55. Blessing lead-in: ACHOO. The response to a sneeze is often "Bless You". This custom dates back to a time when it was thought that when someone sneezed their soul left their body therefore requiring protection lest the Devil snatch that soul.
56. Finnish tech giant: NOKIA.
57. Oust: EJECT. One of the prerequisites for becoming a Kamikaze pilot was a fear of EJECTion.
58. Hazards: RISKS.
60. 1952 Olympics host: OSLO. We often visit OSLO in our puzzles. It has been clued many different ways.
64. Color like khaki: TAN. Why did I divide SIN by TAN? Just COS.
65. Wall St. event: IPO. Initial Public Offering Street is abbreviated hinting at an abbreviation for the answer. The last of eight abbreviated answers in today's puzzle.
66. Scolding syllable: TSK. Whether it turns out to be TSK or TUT we can fill in that leading T.
___________________________________________________
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DNF. Had almost nothing in the SE when I hit the check-all button, and discovered why. A solid block of red connecting that corner to the rest of the puzzle! Even one of the themers, BREAD earNER instead of WINNER.
ReplyDeleteMalMan you mentioned being on Bruce's wavelength, and I DEFINITELY was with this CW. It just filled right in, every clue seemed right in my wheelhouse. Well, almost every clue, PELEG was all perps. But this one I managed to FIR in 15, far better than my usual Thursday time. For me this was like a Monday CW. The HOMES mnemonic (strange word!!) came up and reminded me of my high school biology teacher, Mr. Mortensen, at Greendale High School in Wisconsin. King Peter Cooks Onions For Greendale Students. The taxonomic classification system: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. I still remember it and remember him as the best teacher I ever had. He had a sledgehammer made of balsa wood, and would walk around the classroom and randomly ask students questions. Get it wrong? You got bopped on the head with the sledgehammer! He also twisted ears! He also would occasionally bring in his concertina and play and sing for us. A wonderful teacher. Anyway, great CW, thanx, BH, and wonderful write-up, thanx, MalMan.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteZipped right through this one. Needed Wite-Out only once -- to replace Mountain LION with PASS. ENOLA Holmes? That must be on a channel we don't get. This blind squirrel was able to find Bruce's acorns, so life is good. Nice recap, MalMan.
SPAHN: I've only attended one MLB game, and that was the Braves playing in Milwaukee County Stadium. Don't know if I saw Warren SPAHN. Don't know who the other team was. Don't know who won. I was busy watching play-by-play announcer Earl Gillespie catching foul balls with his fishing net.
NOOK: I'm on Kindle number four. It's so much more convenient than reading the dead tree versions. Plus, it remembers where I was when I fall asleep reading.
Let It Snow: The Vaughn Monroe version featured prominently at the end of Bruce Willis' Die Hard movies.
I Saw The Light: I also thought of the Hank Williams version, MalMan. Do you remember I Saw Delight from the Clinton years?
FIR, but erased alas for SIGH, weir for EAVE, pun for APT, phi for PSI, and war for VIE. DNK SICK burn, and didn't remember ELISE, LILI, PELEG, unadon, and for some reason, thought "I Saw The Light" was an old gospel song.
ReplyDeleteCSO to our own ATLGranny.
Yesterday we got hot pants. Today we get HOT tip. Maybe HOTlanta tomorrow? Let's keep it going until the vernal equinox. High temp here today will be a frigid 68 degrees, five degrees below average for February 10.
LG is out of the smartphone business. Verizon did something to their network a couple of weeks ago which disabled WiFi on both my LGs. I now own a Motorola Edge.
NOKIA got the ashes of Lucent Technologies; DW's 401(k) now resides there.
Speaking of my DW, I got her a NOOK when they first came out. She really wanted one, but then didn't like it once she had one.
U-Fred, I'm again reminded how different we Cornerites perceive difficulty. I thought this was Thursday-hard.
Thanks for the fun grid, Bruce. My favorite was "blessing lead-in" for ACHOO. And thanks to the malman for the humor. My first thought for "Mountain" was "Home", the Arkansas town where my golf buddy resides when he's not in Florida.
FIW, because I put in hits instead of hats and didn't catch the misspelling of Nokia. My bad.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's a success or a winner, but I finished it in 9:04 today.
ReplyDeleteThere was trickiness in play today. A good Thursday level puzzle, in my opinion (which no one asked for).
Thanks Malman- great write up! Loved all the moving visuals. The Goldfish cracker thing was especially APT because my 8/8/14 NYT crossword was a tough Friday puzzle with Goldfish cracker grid art!
ReplyDeleteI remember going back and forth with Rich regarding appropriate "success" synonyms that could be included in punny phrases. I liked all four of the long verticals in the NE and SW and I can see how the SE would be the most difficult to get a toehold in. Hope solvers like the wordplay! Bruce Haight
Hi all.
ReplyDeleteFeels like Spring might be in th air today with a strong South wind.
Enjoyed the puzzle , especially the long fills making the rest come home quickly.
Had to change Egest to EJECT when EMOJI
and SICK showed up.
Mistake at LILI Livi thinking VGS 5gs for smart phones and didn’ t know LILI Taylor.
Fun time, thanks
Cheers
I liked the clever clueing but being on Bruce's "wave length" made it fairly easy.
ReplyDeleteWC
Sorry for not spotting misspelling of Splynter's name.
Also, fln, there was a prescient IPO discussion
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jinx and SS that this was definitely Thursday hard, particularly the SE quadrant. I was stymied there until Emoji broke it wide open. I loved the theme (as I usually do with BH’s offerings), but I thought some of the cluing was odd, not unfair, but odd; maybe it’s like Jinx said, a matter of perception and I guess Uncle Fred’s experience proves that notion. Anyway, my favorite themers were Monster Hit and Bread Winner, both spot on, IMO. Nils, Sick, and Nokia required perps which indicates my ignorance of so much pop culture. For some reason, I always associate Nokia as an Asian company. Lots of fun duos today: Apt/Amt, Nape/Tape, Hot/Hat(s), Psi/Vie, Tsk/Risk(s), and my fav, Adieu/Achoo. CSOs to ATLGranny (Atl), Tee Up (Golfing Gang, and Darling Lily (Lili, spelling aside).
Thanks, Bruce, for a fun theme and challenging solve and thanks, MalMan, for a humorous and enlightening review. Will have to make a return trip to see the visuals, as usual.
DO @ 5:48 ~ The Enola Holmes Mysteries is a Netflix series.
Jinx @ 6:36 ~ I have a Motorola Moto, that I use strictly for texting. My model was inexpensive but as far as this tech-challenged person knows, it has most, if not all, of the more expensive smart phones’ features.
I received 5 emails this morning from FedEx with 5 differing delivery dates for the same package. Oh well, I’ll just wait and be surprised at which day it’ll be!
Have a great day.
I caught the theme early which helped the solve. Fun puzzle. Fun blog today. I am learning, I circled the iffy sections to be sure I would get back to them. FIR in decent time.
ReplyDeleteWhen the bread winner brings home the bacon I hope we can have BLTs.
LILI needed every single perp. (ESP) I never heard of sick burn, it suggested the I for NOKIA.
I am not into emojis, but guessed the answer. I would say praying hands. Prayer hands sounds awkward.
Jinx, to me 68 is balmy weather. I do not like the 80's. Sunny and warm today. 48 by afternoon.
I love my Kindle. You do need to get the hang of it, like any kind of new tech. Then clear sailing.
Off to a heart check up. I expect no problems. Later I have dental checkup to see how my surgery is healing. Again no problems.
Thanks for stopping by, Bruce. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the recap. I will have to track down a copy of your Goldfish cracker puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMy internet service is scheduled to be completely reworked this morning as I switch from AT&T's obsolete DSL to Spectrum's semi-obsolete cable system. Other than satellite-based systems, those are my only two options. Hopefully, all will go smoothly and I will be able to come back here later today. If the changeover is left unfinished, I will need to drive down to where I get cell phone service. Here at the house I have poor-to-no cell service and need to use a mini tower that sends the signals via internet.
Thanks Bruce for an excellent puzzle, albeit with a bit of Fridayish cluing. Got the puns and the hidden reveal. And thanks for stopping by the Corner. We love our constructors!
ReplyDeleteThanks MalMan for the PUNishing review with lots and lots of sparkly bling.
A few favs:
9A ELISE and 2D ADIEU. Two Beethoven references in one puzzle! The former an unpublished "bagatelle", whose dedicatee remains a mystery, and the second Ludwig's "Les Adieux" Piano Sonata No. 26. Here's a brief clip from it played by Turkish pianist Fazil Say.
26D CHINA. PING and PONG are two of a trio of comical characters (w/PANG) in Puccini's unfinished masterpiece, TURANDOT, set in CHINA.
41D EEL. I love this stuff, but alas it gives me dyspepsia. UNAGI is a single piece, whereas UNADON is a bowl of it on a bed of rice.
54D ENRON. Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay thought they were the "Smartest Guys in the Room", the name of a 2005 documentary available on Prime. For 12 years Skilling was probably the smartest guy behind bars in Federal prison. Lay was smart enough to die before he was sentenced.
Cheers,
Bill
Not much to say about today's puzzle. (I imagine I'm going a reputation for terseness around here). When I got "huge success" as my first lone fill, the theme became pretty clear to me. "Lili" was a Natick, but my WAG proved right. And I just barely remember a baseball player named "Spahn." Two clues about curling seemed a little excessive, but I handled them okay. FIR in the end, so I'm satisfied. (I also imagine I'm getting a reputation for FIRing regularly (if not quite all of the time.))
ReplyDeleteOops! Not "going a reputation" but "getting a reputation" of course.
ReplyDeleteWord of the Day: fluvial
ReplyDeletePronunciation: flu-vi-êl
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Pertaining to rivers or other flowing streams. 2. Produced by a river or stream.
Notes: This word comes from a dysfunctional lexical family. Wiktionary is the only online dictionary confirming that the potential noun for this adjective is fluviality. Other dictionaries offer fluviation, but none list a verb, fluviate, which should underlie such a word.
In Play: Fluvial may refer to an action: "The huge Mississippi Delta is evidence of the powerful effects of fluvial activity." It may also refer to a result of that action: "The greatest example of fluvial erosion in America is the Grand Canyon."
See Alpha Dictionary for more info.
Bill's comment: Fluvial processes are also important in the creation of clay deposits, sorting clay particles by size as they are carried down stream. Clays with the smallest particle sizes are carried the furthest and are the most plastic ("throwable"), whereas those deposited close to the site of the original formation have the largest partical sizes and are the least plastic.
Musings
ReplyDelete-What appeared to be good fill turned out to be speed bumps but all’s well that ends well
-TEE UP – Warm, dry weather has allowed us to be able to get a TEE in the ground recently
-The memory of Nixon’s Ping pong diplomacy is one of Nixon’s great accomplishments his paranoia destroyed
-Is LET IT SNOW sexist?
-In geometry we learned Euclid’s seven AXIOMS
-ENMESH – Behind our computer desk we have cords for the iMac, modem, internet router, USB router, Spectrum cable and printer.
-ENRON took my uncle’s retirement money, his spirit and his dignity
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-TIDY PROFIT? - The bottom row of the touch screen on my dash quit working and so I went to the dealer to get it fixed. They said they would have to tear out the entire console you see on the right here and put in a new one costing me $1,200. I looked online and saw that the usual problem is just the screen that goes on top of the icons and it costs $70. The dealer said he would be glad to put it in for me which he did for $200. It works like a champ!
A SWEEPING VICTORY, a HUGE SUCCESS! ...ok..ok in other words FIR (No need for high-per-bowlee) just say a prayer of thanks..🙏 🤲
ReplyDeleteInkovers: aloha/ADIEU, pout/PEEK , nurse/MEDIC, apply/SEWON
In HS I relied on Clifford Noate's more "succinct" biographer of Capt. Ahab instead of Herman Melville's tome so needed NILS to complete PELEG and then TENTH (ah, J, 10th letter!) 😉
ORSO 🐻 (Italian: bear as in Riccioli D'Oro e i Tre Orsi, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"). LILI Taylor, unknown. SPAHN was partially perped. Never heard the term SICK burn and I also thought "firing" would be work related. Aren't Patricians at the top of the Roman pyramid? Like IM I assumed NOKIA was an Asian company.
Etc. means "and ____ " ...SEWON.
Renting contract...ELISE.
Zeros....NILS
Mote....SPEC
First Lady....EAVE. (see the next clue)
Tossed from Paradise for ____ an apple....EDEN.
On to Friday then back home...🎶 "Where it snows, where it shows, where it snows." 🥶
9a "Ludwig wrote for her", I identified as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote for ALIcE.
ReplyDeleteI see I wasn't alone with WEIR < EAVE, WAR < VIE.
The amateur BAKER was just a beginner,
His specialty was rolls for dinner.
At the County Fair,
His rolls were there,
And he got a ribbon for his BREAD WINNER!
There once was a Granny in ATL.,
Who cooked a mean FILET of cattle.
Her fame was grand
Across the land,
From ATLANTA clear to Seattle!
{A-, A-.}
Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Bruce (thanks for dropping by) and MalMan (still groaning at your 4D pun).
ReplyDeleteI FIRed in good time and saw the gospel theme.
Several inkblots ( but unlike others here, I had no trouble in the SE.
The clueing today seemed slanted to a younger group than us Boomers (unlike the other day, when someone (unclefred, Leo?) commented that the clues were in our wheelhouse but millennials might have been stumped). Plenty of misdirection too.
I went with Ant for “Ma’s his sis” until UNC perped. OK, not Ma’s husband’s sister.
SPAHN, ENOLA, and LILI perped, thankfully.
I ERRed at the start and entered Scotch MINT. ADIEU soon fixed that.
Anticipating a plural for “Quarters with stories” created an inkblot to remove the S. Macmillan Dictionary says quarters is plural. Should 44A be HOTELS?
I noted IPO and IPA, APT and AMT (IM beat me), ERR and OOPS, AS IS and TWO FOR ONE.
I TSKED to see the curlers/curling dupe. Our Canadian ladies won their first game in the Olympic curling this morning.
It was timely to clue OSLO with the Olympic connection.
Yes, Jinx, I smiled when I saw HOT again today. A leftover Easter Egg.
Another smile for the Prayer hands EMOJI and the blessing ACHOO.
Re LET IT SNOW tripled, we have more snow coming and this will be our third major winter storm in the last month. SIGH.
FLN- AnonT and TTP, glad you enjoyed my HumoUr! I’m glad to be your favoUrite Canadian.
AnonT- no great impact in our area from the convoy yet (but it may start at the Buffalo/Fort Erie border crossing this weekend). It has morphed from a Trucker’s protest into a “we’re fed up with Covid restrictions and want to go back to pre-Covid activities”. But can you stop fighting the war before you have won the battle? I’m not sure that Covid will negotiate a truce. But we must reach a “new normal” with risk assessment and protection for the vulnerable (increased hospital capacity, antivirals). And that includes protecting the rest of the world, and preventing huge outbreaks that may facilitate mutations that may be more harmful. (Covid is a wily virus!) Enough said here!
Wishing you all a great day.
Wishing you all a great day.
ReplyDeleteMalman in Drag, Lady McClary
Greets visitors to Sanibel Island
😁
What!? I was assured that each and every one of those negatives had been destroyed.
ReplyDeleteFLN,
ReplyDeleteSplynter!
Belated HBD and welcome back!
And for Ray-O,
belated Anniversary, and keep up the good work!
From today,
I especially enjoyed the punny write-up MalMan.
Bruce!
You make me work hard twice!
Once on the puzzle, and again looking for links to celebrate it!
Hmm,
I think this is going to require a separate post...
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteTook a bit but I matched Bruce's wits today. Thanks for the puzzle and swinging by The Corner with behind-the-scenes. My SE filled long before the much harder (for me) SW (I knew the lakes but forgot the acronym)
MManatee - I enjoyed the post-game, er tale-of-the-TAPE.
I read 17a as Rundgren and wanted Todd but ENSUE & ADios blocked me. Imagine my surprise as I read 43d's clue. Todd & Daryl Hall seeing the light.
WOs: ADios -> ADIEU, ahi->EEL, prime(?)->FILET
ESPs: TENTH(really, Bruce? :-)), SPAHN, LILI
Fav: NOKIA xing EMOJI was cute.
A HOT Tip-o'-the-HAT to ATLGranny.
{A, A(+ for the ODE :-))}
A stock-TIP I'm glad I didn't take: A buddy bought ENRON all the way down; he just knew they'd come back from <$0.25 and said we'd be sorry for not jumping in at that price. However, a year+ earlier, I went on a "snipe-hunt" investigating their "dark fibre" trading (Enron was in Allen 3 (I think Chevron is there now) & I was in Allen I) for a client -- very smoky-mirrors so I left buddy's tip on the floor.
The real crappy thing, Waseeley, that ENRON did was encourage (to the point of shame if they didn't) employees to invest in company stock. Not only did some of my friends lose their jobs, they lost all their retirement too. See: HG @10:27a.
IM - I'm sure you know those "delivery notifications" are scams; consider this a PSA for others :-)
C, Eh! Thanks for the Canadian perspective re: truckers.
Perhaps YR can correct me, but MacMillian seems wrong - at least in the usage I'm familiar with. Sgt to Pvt: "Go to your quarters." Plural quarters is >= 50¢ :-)
Ray-O / MManatee @11ish am - LOL!!!
Cheers, -T
Tidy profit?
ReplyDeleteNote, there is a typo in this link, the "you" should be "I"...
Huge success?
And with no training at all...
Sweeping victory?
I was torn on this one...
Any sport you can play in your PJs is a win win!
But, it's obligatory that I include cat pics...
Since when has being the breadwinner good news?
AND,
Monster hit would not be complete without the little girl named Boo...
Trivia points if you knew her real name was Mary Gibbs...
CED it was actually DW's BD Feb 8 but thanks for that delicious looking cake.😛
ReplyDeleteOur Wedding anniversary is Aug 9.
(1975). A day that will live in infamy 😅
Dang it all!
ReplyDeleteAll that work to get it right and it still went kerblooie...
Breadwinner?
And,
The obligatory cat pic...
CanadianEh! - I'll take the credit (or blame, if you will) for coming up with that statement about how a couple of days ago the puzzle seemed more slanted to senior citizens than millenials ("Arnie's Army" was one of the answers). Just so you know.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteTricky, tricky, Bruce! But I got on your wave length and finished in good time although I had a long telephone call which interrupted my solve.
SWEEPING VICTORY was my favorite.
Which reminds me, I am enjoying watching the WINNERs in the Winter Olympics. They are all amazing!
MONSTER HIT is a Halloween song, isn't it?
I liked seeing a different clue for our long time staple, ENOLA.
ALMS are often a TENTH of one's income if a person tithes.
I have a NOOK reader but haven't used it in a long time. I prefer real books. Oh, wait. I think I gave it to one of my sisters.
Have a delightful day, everyone!
A busy Thursday morning this sunshiny day with a FIR puzzle start. ATL at 32A was easy for me, as I am also a Delta frequent flyer normally. Sigh....
ReplyDeleteMy big slowdown was the NW corner with TENTH, NILS and HUGE unknown. A few other WOs elsewhere were easily fixed with perps, but my entering "sUrE" SUCCESS caused a big delay there. The three other themers made me rethink my sure success entry finally. Thanks for the interesting puzzle, Bruce. I missed seeing the good news layer of meaning in my rush to read the review. And more thanks for stopping by.
Thanks a HUGE bunch to MalMan for the fun pun-filled review. Your reference to uisge beatha at 1A gave me a learning moment when I LIUed and saw the connection to Scotch.
Thanks OwenKL for the special limerick! Hope everyone has a special day today.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR with zero write overs! I must've been on Bruce's wave length today as there were no ERRs nor OOPS
CSO to yours truly who spent 25 years employed by 3M - the founder of Scotch TAPE
Great puzzle Bruce; I was looking for a reveal, though ...
Pun-laden recap Joseph!
Anon T @ 12:31 ~ Actually, these were legitimate notices from FedEx about a delivery I was expecting. The first one gave a Saturday delivery, the second one gave a Monday delivery, then back to Saturday, then back to Monday and the last one, today. The package arrived about an hour ago. (Mrs. Cavanaugh’s English Toffee! 🤗) I have had those scam notices, as well, but this little cookie knows a scam when she sees one!
ReplyDeleteRay O @ 12:56 ~ You got married 3 months prior to when I said I Do.
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon. Thank you, Bruce and MalMan.
Well, I did it again. No congrats message, and all the squares were filled. Found that I had hit the L key rather than the K key, so my scolding syllable was TSL and the Kindle competitor was a NOOL. D'OH ! And yesterday, Wilbur Charles did the exact opposite when he hit the K key rather than the L key when spelling Splynter.
Got a real kick out of "Ludwig wrote für her" and "Ma's his sis" and "Quarters with stories" Noce puzzle, Bruce !
Yes, different issues for different people at times. I didn't slow down at all in the SE corner. I think the only correction I had was prime before FILET.
Curling - There was a news story on the other day about the olympic stones. They all are made from a granite that is only found on a tiny island off the coast of Scotland named Ailsa Craig. Only one company has made all of the stones used in the olympic game since 1924. Here's a BBC News article about the island granite, the stones and the company that produces them.
Nice save, Husker Gary. You turned a bogey into a par with that one.
Your puns made me laugh, MM. I didn't get your Scotch reference until I got it.
I didn't first think of Hank Sr. I first thought of Garth Brooks opening lyrics in this song, and then paid attention to the date in the clue. Todd Rundgren, for sure.
Did you get your service back already ? Who knows, maybe you'll like Spectrum cable better than DSL.
Bill have you ever heard of Kentucky Blue Clay ? I don't know how good it is for throwing, but it's great for pitching. :>)
Ray-O, HBD to your wife yesterday !
TTP 2:18 PM Sounds like it could be Kentucky Ball Clay, widely used in the industry. Is it really colored blue? Can't imagine what with.
DeleteTTP @ 2:18: Thanks for bringing a Scots nuance to 'being stoned.'
ReplyDeleteAppreciated Canadian Eh's views. Supported by science imho.
ReplyDeleteTTP - Um, Curling didn't become an IOC medal-sport until,... I want to say '94 (?)
ReplyDelete//I LIU; IOC granted in '92 and was in the '98 Olympics in Nagano. That is if you believe whatever WikiP tells 'ya. :-)
++you calling out clues for 9a & 61a; those were cheeky & fun. Props to Bruce and/or Rich.
Troll alert!
I'm sorry but... #SorryNotSorry :-)
Anything you can do with a beer in one hand and a smoke in the other is an activity / skill but not sport.
Sorry guys, but golf & bowling (I know that hurts Boomer, sorry Bro), while it takes skill and practice, does not require Adonis bodies.
Games you walk away from w/o a broken bone or bloody-self (or even if you do) with a dirty uniform -- that's sport even if played by haughty-taughties in white sweaters [I hear Cricket can get mean. Vidwan? Care to comment?]
That being said... When is IOC going to bless Chess? Oh, they did? and we'll see it in 2024(?)
#NOTaSPORT: (Army) Bro and me go through a 6-pack o' IPAs & 1/2 a pack of cigs pounding each other on an 8x8 board. He's only won* once (once!)
//I think I drank more than he that eve :-)
Cheers, -T
*Army Bro & I are quite competitive in Chess 'cuz we can beat everyone else in our circles (including Pop & CEO Bro). Army Bro is no slouch and that's what makes it fun. Plus there's a lotta trash-talk / SICK burns when an iffy move is made.
A lovely PZL today from Mr. Haight. Well parsed by MM.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of PZL that seems to have you licked before you start. But that's only because you need perps to narrow down your understanding of so many mis-directing clues.
My only "gimmes" were PELEG and ELISE.
Oh, and EKES, of course.
(It is getting so we should just begin with figuring out where EKES will be hiding. ENRON was running a close second recently.)
I forget if I posted here that Maggie has come home. But, just in case--she has!
~ OMK
___________
DR: Four diagonals today, two pure diags (one to ea. side) and two flankers on the near side.
The near central diag yields an anagram (12 of 15 letters) that takes yrs truly all the way back to junior high, when I spent much time between classes facing the mirror in the Boys' lav, combing & re-combing my hair into the desired Anatidae-inspired coiffure.
There were a few (only one or two at a time) daring girls who, with relatively short hair, imitated the same style.
Such a young darling was known as a...
"MISS DUCKTAIL"!
Michael, that thought never occurred to me, but I guess it fits :>)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that amazing though, that there's only one place in the world that has that very special type of granite ?
Dash T, I did not know that curling had only been in 11 Olympic since 1924 until reading your link. The Wikipedia article says that the 1924 curling event was made official in 2016. Even when you throw in the demonstration events, it's still only 11 out of 24 possible.
So you are of the opinion that playing bean bags, and pitching horseshoe or quoits aren't sports ? :>) How about darts ?
Come to think of it, you CAN play those games with a beer in hand.
Curling in the Olympiade: Scottish style.
ReplyDelete🥌
So you many ask how many stone is a stone but stone is only for people like Sharon Stone and Stone Phillips. 😄
Waseeley - Stab in the dark... Cobalt in the soil? *shrug*
ReplyDeleteOk, someone's gotta give love to CED's links...
Even when things go kerblooie they don't go KaBoom.
//Blogspot can be such a wily critter :-)
TTP - you made me LIU re: quotis. I've played that but didn't know the name.
//give it a little back-spin for accuracy ;-)
I also love me some Bocce; but again... Beer in one hand and all that.
Want a story?
Pop & UNC were traveling through eastern IL on the way back to SPI from (?? I donno ??). They stopped at a tavern for a drink. There were some guys playing and, somehow, Pop & Unc got roped into playing darts for $. Pop & Unc were grown-ass men but still got goaded into it?!?
Mind you, Pop can hit a squirrel on the wire with a slingshot (not that he does that for giggles - just he can)
Anyway,... The story goes:
Pop nailed a bulls-eye and 2 3x20s [for the peanut gallery].
The locals were not happy.
UNC paid the tab and they high-tailed it out.
Well, that's what I was told and they still stick to it 15+ years later.
Cheers, -T
Internet back up and running.
ReplyDeleteTTP, I am happy to hear that you picked up on the scotch reference. Slainte!
Thank you, waseeley for the link to the fine clip from Beethoven's Les ADIEUx. What a sweet reading!
ReplyDeletePELEG? I was curious to know more about this unusual (to my eyes & ears, anyway) surname.
Wikipedia notes that the owner's name, PELEG, contains the Hebraic root lettering for "sailing" (lehaflig להפליג).
A coincidence? Hmmm.
Given Melville's encyclopedic knowledge of many subjects, I think not.
What I noticed for the first time is that the name is only one letter shy of "Peg Leg."
Not that this offers a penetratingly deeper look into Moby Dick, but I thought it, well... interesting.
~ OMK
At the risk of Running out 'o Posts today Say...
ReplyDeleteOMK - I remember reading Melville's adventures of the Dickish White Whale in HS.
PELEG (nor SMEE) didn't stick with me until early adventures into xwordom.
Like you, I noticed PE[g]LEG (APT for a pirate's mate, eh?) lacking a first G in days gone past's grids -- and it stuck for future (today!) easy fill.
I know, I know.. but, being a dyslexic dolt, these little brain-tricks oft helps.
-T
Bluestone, KY is aboiut 10 miles from where I grew up. Copper made them that way. Don't know about blue clay, though.
ReplyDeleteSo "sport" requires Adonis bodies. I'll remember that when I watch the linemen Sunday. 'Course, Cincy's linemen may be chiseled specimens. That would explain their statistical performance this season. Sometimes bulk is more important than brawn. And no more sport classification for Sumo events. Golf may not be a sport, but Woods, Dechambeau and Kepka are definitely athletes.
Jinx @5:53 PM Copper would be a plausible explanation as a clay colorant. It's fairly abundant and much more common than Cobalt, which is usually found in ores of Nickel. IIRC it's pretty hard to extract from ores.
DeleteI liked this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTook all five perps to get SPAHN.
Had to change AFFIX to SEW ON.
Unagi is a type of Japanese fresh water eel. This may refer to the live fish or to this eel used as a cooking ingredient. Many dishes can be made from unagi, including unadon, a rice bowl with grilled unagi layered on top. My favorite sushi is unagi nigiri. I have eaten both that and unadon in Japan. Fresh water eel is becoming rare and so is quite expensive.
ReplyDeleteSubgenious-sorry to not credit you. I didn’t go back to check my source. We (actually, somebody else that I can’t remember who to credit) call your statement “the prescience of the blog”.
ReplyDeleteThanks sasses.
AnonT- mine is just the perspective of this Canadian. Others may and do differ.
OMK- glad to hear that Maggie is home. Loved the diagonal.
In our teens a neighbor boy, a neighbor girl, my brother and I sometimes played quoits, the guys against the girls. We used four metal quoits shaped like flattened doughnuts. They weighed four pounds. The object was to toss them over an upright metal peg from a marked distance. The rules were somewhat like horseshoe rules. Whenever Jenny and I were winning at any kind of game we played with those guys, our neighbor, Luke, would find a way to end the game before the final score, but not when the guys were ahead.
ReplyDeleteUnadon
ReplyDeleteSounds like a single-toothed dinosaur.
🦖
Another one square FIW: I had a A in the upper right-hand corner, instead an E. I knew neither.
ReplyDelete(Have I ever mentioned how difficult it is to type when my avatar is pacing back in forth rubbing his rather sizeable gut in my face? It’s hard to keep my fingers on the home keys.)
Excellent proofreading saved me from further embarrassment by FINALLY seeing the J in EMOJI/EJECT. Didn’t know NILS/PELEG, but perps and a WAG on the L (well, maybe not so wild) got them.
Nice puzzle, Bruce, and thanks for stopping by the Corner! Nice expo, MalMan!
We also have a cat named SIMBA. No, we haven’t translated his name for him. He already thinks he is. He’s the one who came to the front porch one Sunday morning. Kizzy saw/heard him out there and sounded the alarm. He’s been here ever since then. There’s a sign somewhere out on the main drag: “YO! Need a home? Go to….”
My first baseball game was watching Warren Spahn beat the Pittsburgh Pirates (well everybody did back then --- see previous comment re the Washington Senators) in Forbes Field. Sayeth Spahn: "Hitting is timing. Pitching is upsetting timing."
Hockey is played in a rink. Curling is played on a sheet. Misleading.
ReplyDeleteNot really misleading . In winter we would often gather at the curling rink or the skating rink.
Delete