Theme: SPLIT LEVEL (60. House with short staircases, and a hint to each row of circles)
17. WWII Russian battleground: STALINGRAD. And
19. "Piece of cake!": EASY. Grade.
24. More weird: EERIER. And 26. Joint covered by a bobby sock: ANKLE. Rank.
38. Rap genre: GANGSTA. And
40. Pisa's region: TUSCANY. Status.
47. Multitude: HORDE. And
49. Mount Olympus country: GREECE. Degree.
Boomer here. This one almost went over my head, even though we live in a split-level home.
News of the week: I received chemo therapy last Thursday and it seems as though the side effects have increased. The good news was the procedure was moved from the big hospital to the much smaller clinic closer to our home. The nurse who set it up stayed in the room the whole time and was very, very efficient.
Across:
5. Slack-jawed: AGOG. I was AGOG with the chemotherapy.
9. Flows back, as the tide: EBBS.
13. Sci-fi visitor: ALIEN.
15. Prefix for second or bot: NANO. Mork from Ork's favorite saying is NANU-NANU.
16. Paneling strip: SLAT.
20. Big to-do: HOOPLA. Hoop in Los Angeles.
21. Rooftop satellite fixture: DISH. We have one, and it works properly. Snow does not seem to be an issue now.
23. Animation frame: CEL.
28. Head of a manor: LORD.
31. __ Howard, director of the film "Frost/Nixon": RON. This guy is amazing. He's been on TV for over 50 years.
32. Dull-looking: DRAB.
33. Ostrich's kin: EMU. I really dislike the Liberty Mutual commercials.
34. Responds to hunger pangs: EATS. Not too much for me. Sometimes it comes back.
35. Least common: RAREST. I think my 1955 double headers fall into this category.
41. Done in the factory, as training: ON SITE.
42. Hairpieces: WIGS. I do not need one. The chemo has not yet taken my hair away.
43. Sleepy Van Winkle: RIP. I wonder if he woke up hungry.
44. Brewpub libations: ALES. I never liked beer.
45. Gallery hangings: ART. Mr. Garfunkel.
46. Concerning: AS TO.
51. Earth-friendly prefix: ECO.
52. Biblical kingdom near the Dead Sea: MOAB. In modern-day Jordan.
54. Beethoven's "Moonlight," e.g.: SONATA.
58. Latin god: DEUS.
62. Moist and chilly: DANK. Sounds like our Minnesota weather.
63. Lascivious look: LEER.
64. Fancy cake layers: TIERS. At every major league ballpark.
65. Samberg of "Brooklyn Nine-Nine": ANDY. Or Amos' partner.
66. Gambler's chances: ODDS. I know every chance at the craps tables.
67. First Bond film: DR NO. I thought it was Goldfinger.
Down:
2. Choir voice: ALTO. I was a bass, and still am.
3. Turin "ta-ta": CIAO. See you later.
4. Lent a hand: HELPED.
5. "Life of Pi" director Lee: ANG.
6. Floral exhibits: GARDENS. Spring is here but our garden is nowhere near ready.
7. "We're broadcasting" sign: ON AIR.
8. Many figures in the Marvel Universe: GODS.
9. Language suffix with Japan: ESE. Also with China.
10. Ursine hibernators that might actually be brown: BLACK BEARS. I have never seen one up close.
11. Swiss city on the Rhine: BASEL.
12. Subject for Vogue: STYLE.
14. Cairo's river: NILE.
18. Tells a story: NARRATES.
22. Annoy to death: HARASS.
25. Greek "i": IOTA. Very, Very small.
27. Agent pursuing a dealer: NARC.
28. Toymaker with worldwide theme parks: LEGO. We have one of those parks in the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN.
29. Arabian sultanate: OMAN.
30. Hangs out (with): RUNS AROUND. Hits a home run?
32. Lab procedure required of many athletes: DRUG TEST. I am no longer an athlete, however if you tested me now, I would fail.
34. High regard: ESTEEM.
36. Agitated state: SNIT. Too bad, life goes on.
37. Keyboarder's goof: TYPO. Thank heaven for computers. Just backspace and type over. Not so well with the old Royal.
39. __ the lily: overembellish: GILD.
40. Goodyear product: TIRE.
42. Trilled like a bird: WARBLED. I have never heard a bird WARBLE.
46. Virgil epic: AENEID.
47. Ibsen's "__ Gabler": HEDDA. I only remember HEDDA Hopper.
48. Salty expanse: OCEAN. We have been to the Atlantic, and the Pacific.
49. Stared in wonder: GAPED.
50. Young horse: COLT. Or Indianapolis football player.
53. Norwegian capital: OSLO.
55. Assert as true: AVER.
56. Seagull kin: TERN.
57. "What's more ... ": ALSO.
59. It can be cloudy or sunny: SKY. Big in Montana.
61. Form 1040 org.: IRS. Tax season again.
Boomer
Notes from C.C.:
In case you missed my note yesterday, it's the Cru Dinner time again. Michael Alpern is taking a break this year, his friend
Chris Aldrich will host the event, which officially kicks off the ACPT. You can read more details here. Here's a picture of Jeffrey & Mike at the 2019 ACPT.
 |
| Jeffrey and Mike Alpern, ACPT, 3/23/2019 |
49 comments:
Lynn Lempel who has had at least 250 puzzles published in the major venues, first appeared in the LAT back in 2002. She only recently came back after providing the NYT most of her work for years. She has made numerous appearances in C.C.'s interviews of other constructors who point to Lynn as a an inspiration.
One does not get to show off much on Monday but this is a creative and clean theme with a sprinkling of many topics and few proper names.
Boomer, all we can do is keep on and keep praying. You too are an inspiration. Be well all
Good morning!
Quick, but not as quick as a typical Monday. Took longer to skip the reveal and miss the theme. D-o had the circles, but forgot to look at 'em. [Sigh] Thanx, Lynn and the indomitable Boomer.
WARBLED : No bird expert here, but we hear one on our morning marches that sounds like a sports fan -- "De-Fense." Is that a warble?
FIW Monday! Had HEzDA x zEUS. Never heard of HEDDA Gabler, and thought DEUS was a tie score in tennis. (I actually thought that a "D" made more sense than a "z", but I thought I knew my Latin gods.) Erased ipas for ALES and emir for OMAN. Also DNK ANDY, BASEL or AENEID.
Project managers refer to GILD the lily as "gold plating". Means the same thing. I tell students that they should suspect that some requirements aren't being met when a person or organization touts the extra functionality or quality of their product or service.
Thanks to Lynn for the Thursday-on-Monday puzzle, and to Boomer for your continuing humor. I'm pulling for you.
FIR. Nice Monday romp.
Easy, breezy Monday - but had an extra layer of creativity with the theme.
I'm moving slow this morning after staying up to watch the Oscars - I had wanted to see CODA - now I will make a point of it.
Thanks Boomer and Lynn!
I played this Sporcle quiz yesterday and it made me think of you, Boomer and CC
https://www.sporcle.com/games/JackDots/missing-word-minnesota-az
So easy today, only fill new to me, Andy Samberg. Theme was evident from the second set of circles, but spit level house was an apt surprise.
Thanks to high school Latin class for AENEID, but needed perps for the spelling. I have been rereading some of the Greek myths lately. Many of their gods were not paragons of virtue.
I remembered this use of DEUS. "Deus ex machina, 'god out of the machine' is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem in a story is suddenly and abruptly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence."
I have visited BASEL, Switzerland.
I have a YouTube bird warbling in the background as I type.
Boomer and CC, sorry to hear the concerning test results. I am praying for improvement next time.
Saturday morning on my first day out of quarantine I went grocery shipping. I quickly put the cold food in the fridge, left the rest on the counter, and then slept for hours. Slightly dizzy and tired all day. Yesterday I went to church and then picked up Alan at 11:30 to take him out for lunch. Then we hung around at my apartment for a while (I am not up to running around)and I had him back to his home by 4:00. I felt much better and didn't need a nap. Encouraging.
I viewed the Oscar fashions online today. Most got a thumbs down from me, and many got a definitely not.
Proud as a peacock of our St. Peter's Peacocks.
The BLACK BEAR is the mascot of the University of Maine in Orono. The last time I was there they had a stuffed black bear in the football stadium men's room.
HEDDA, AENEID and DEUS dredged up from high school classes
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Lynn and Boomer (thoughts and prayers for a good week).
I FIRed in good time and saw the SPLIT LEVEL theme.
One inkblot to correct RAREER to RAREST. I noted my double E, reread the clue, and went from Less Common to Least.
Like YR, ANDY required perps. All the rest was straight-forward.
I noted TIRE and TIERS, LORD and GODS.
Agape was my first thought for 5A, but AGOG fit the spot. I smiled as I entered GAPED at 49D.
Perps decided AS TO and not In Re, AVER not Avow.
We can go on a tour today to STALINGRAD, OSLO, GREECE, TUSCANY, BASEL, MOAB, NILE, OMAN.
Wishing you all a great day. Cold and snowy here.
Easy Monday obvious theme.. No rare/unusual proper last names finally. (TIERS should have been circled ⭕⭕⭕⭕ as well
Inkover: harang/HARASS, Aeniad/Aenied/AENEID, (finally sheesh!)
Haven't seen OSLO in awhile, an old CW stomping ground. All the Adirondack BLACKBEARS I've seen were black. I started to write MEDE for MOAB but that's a person not a place. I understand Beethovan wrote the Moonlight SONATA one night when he ran out of candles. 😆
TUSCANY named for the Etruscans, contemporaries of the Romans. Genetically related to the Turks, an imaginative theory suggests they were descendants of fugitive escapees from Troy.
Alleviate"....ESE.
The lady's favorite equine. ....HARASS.
_____ it through the grapevine....HORDE.
Why seabirds hatch an egg...One good ____ deserved another....TERN.
_____ negatime, universal donor....TYPO
InaneH I too stayed up to watch the entire Oscars probably first time in 20years. After Will Smith slapped Chris Rock thought my TV sound was on the blink when Will exploded F bombs. Sorry, but what an overprivileged jerk.🙄 Though his performance in "King Richard" was excellent. First year I saw all the Best Pic contenders (online)
Snow was back with a vengeance this weekend with occasional white-outs in Central NYS. ❄❄❄☃️🌨
Hang in there Boomer.. 🙂
A Monday FIR. Thanks, Lynn. Come back again soon. I enjoyed your puzzle. The reveal was a surprise to me as well, YR, though I noticed the circled synonyms spread out. Oh, SPLIT LEVEL. Sure. Some fun fill with only a few WOs. I briefly had zEUS, too, Jinx. And I started spelling NARRATES wrong, as down words are harder for me to see. Instead of a TYPO, I'll call it a "write-o."
Thanks, Boomer, for the review, complete with your added comments. We look forward to your Mondays. Hope you soon begin to feel better.
Hand up for seeing evidence of a black bear while hiking in the woods. And Basel while passing through on the train. Visited friends in Tuscany so the puzzle brought back many memories. Hope you all have a good start to the week.
Good Morning:
Somehow, Lynn can make a Monday puzzle shine. Even though the cluing was a tad too straightforward, even for a Monday, the execution, the great surprise reveal and the low count of three letter words made this a most pleasant solve. No w/os and no unknowns and no complaints but lots of fun pairings: Nano/Dr No, Bash/Hoopla, Gods/Deus, Narc/Drug Test, Oslo/Also, Gaped/Agog, Tern/Ocean, and my favorite, Level above Tiers. Lynn also gave us a fun O parade with Nano, As To, Eco, Dr No, Alto, Ciao, Lego, Typo, Oslo, and Also. CSOs to Ray O and Anon T (Tuscany and Ciao), JazzB (Ron), and Tin (Andy).
Thanks, Lynn, for a very enjoyable start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for your steadfast dedication through thick and thin. I hope the coming days are brighter for you and CC.
YR @ 8:26 ~ I agree 100% that the fashions last night left much to be desired but left nothing to the imagination. I’m surprised that the companies that manufacture women’s undergarments are still in business because no one in Hollywood seems to wear any. I thought it was one of the worst Oscar shows ever produced. On a brighter subject, glad you’re feeling better and congrats on St. Peter’s history-making achievement.
FLN
HG, good luck with the hearing aids.
Michael, 😈
Have a great day.
As if usual for a Monday, this puzzle gave me little trouble. I had a bit of a brain fog and tried to put "disc" before "dish" but other than that it was smooth sailing. FIR, so I'm happy,
Betsy got stuck watching NCAA bball. She saw the EMU , laughed and said "That's funny but what's that all about?"
LEGO Land is between Tampa and Orlando
One test I fail big-time is an Insurance Questionaire and I don't smoke, drink, or have HIV.
I hit one of those BLAVK BEARS driving in Northern NH. Little fellow, got up and ran off. When I got to next town the locals were surprised that I didn't chase him down, finish him off and put him on the roof
I finished with no congrats. Realized I had BiSEL and SLiT. The weekly inset is in the car and I(actually Phillip) left the Sunday xword* at a lunch counter at the flea market
Boomer, I hope you get back to the alleys(oops LANES) by year's end
Easy Monday IMHO
WC
*So I'll find one when I go to Ocala later today. Dunnellon doesn't get the TBTimes. So I'll solve Sunday sometime later this week. I didn't want to solve a 16×15 online on the cellphone
Same with me, stuck with a Z on that square. It would have been fun to have the identical clues for HOOPLA and BASH.
Musings
-I saw the gimmick quickly but I biffed on the theme until the reveal
-When I had 100 kids at Cocoa Beach at EBB tide, they harvested A LOT/A TON of seashells
-I always thought HOOPLA surrounded a big to-do and was not the to-do itself
-DRAB describes our landscape here in early spring but perhaps that is why we appreciate spring so much
-ON-SITE training. Schools dub any presenter an “expert” if they’re from over 50 miles away
-Me too, YR, I learned DEUS ex machina doing crosswords
-Peter Coyote is the marvelous NARRATOR in the Ken Burns’ documentaries.
-1976 Olympics’ East German swimmers before DRUG TESTING
-AENEID – Talk about vowel roulette!
Addendum – Thanks for the good wishes, Irish. I found some very highly rated hearing aids (Lively Hearing Aids) online that are exactly like the $4,800 “loaners” my audiologist is letting me use for a few days. The online pair is $1,600 and has many, many online, face-to-face services to keep me from saying, “Huh?” so much. We’ll see how they work out. I appreciate all the advice I got on the blog and on my personal email.
The Maine Black Bears are not the only Brown Bears. Read this hair color LINK .
HG, steroids are/were amazing
Hola!
EASY but sparkling Mondy solve! Thank you, Lynn Lempel and thank you, Boomer. You sound energized which is amazing considering what you are going through
Because my 12 year old granddaughter has alopecia she has several WIGS she can wear although her own hair is growing back.
IrishMiss and Canadian Eh, I really appreciate your compilation of related terms in the puzzle.
Time to go do my Monday morning volunteering duty at church. I'll come back later.
Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!
FLN,
I did not post yesterday, as I could not find anything funny enough without going "to trashy." Plus, I finally received a replacement carburetor for the scooter, (the old one was clogged with ethanol, and they cut the heads off the float bowl screws??.) so I spent all day putting the dang thingie back together...
I would love to bore you with all my trials and tribulations with every step of this scooter maintenance disaster, I am sure some of you would find it amusing. But I will not. (Your welcome)
Hmm, maybe I should write a book...
Anywho, I digress...
FLN, Picard! Hilarious! never got the joke in that old Star Trek piece of the action episode,
I know they called guns heaters, and remember a part where the Boss calls Kirks Phaser "some kind of fancy Space Heater," but I cannot find the clip. I am going to enjoy having to watch that entire episode again!
Also, I could not link pics of it yesterday (TMI) , but in retrospect, except for being too easy, why could not the theme answer "Vulcanized Rubber" be clued as "Spocks Birth Control?" I mean, it is not obscene in any way. Would it not get past the censors? What say you Constructors out there...
Today:
I have linked silly split levels before, so today is more of a PSA.
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with this. actually, I kind of like it.
But I like what I found today even more!
check out this tiny affordable home!
A fine Monday offering from LL, which I managed to FIR in 17 with several interruptions. I saw the theme but didn't put 2 + 2 together for the reveal. Only DNK was ANDY.
Roofers are FINALLY here today to replace my badly termite-damaged roof. At one point, one of the roofers stepped on a piece of roof that was SO badly damaged, he fell through the roof....and through the ceiling into my house! Fortunately, he was not injured at all, but I now have a hell of a mess on and around my pool table. This also revealed how badly damaged the ceiling joists are! Now it looks like I will need to tear out the ceilings, replace the ceiling joists, and hang new drywall. Oy.
Thanx to LL for taking my mind off this mess for a while, and to Bommer for the nice write-up. Hang in there, Boomer. We're all pulling for you!
Delightful Monday puzzle with lots of artistic and cultural clues--made me happy. Many thanks, Lynn. And Boomer, so great to see you here on a Monday--made me even more happy! Take good care of yourself in the coming week.
Loved seeing BACH'S "Brandenburg concerto" as the first item, with Beethoven's "Moonlight" SONATA just a little further down. And on top of that an ART gallery visit in the middle.
Even more art, with ANG LEE'S "Life of Pi," and Ibsen's "HEDDA Gabler."
I once got a grant to spend a year in BASEL, Switzerland. Great place!
Hasn't RON Howard had a simply fabulous career? And he just keeps going.
Have a great week coming up, everybody.
WC, we drove past Legoland maybe 20 times this winter. Cypress Gardens water ski shows are held nearby, and we love the Hurricane Grille just about a half mile past Legoland. Loves me some Winter Haven.
Odd thing happened today on the way to lunch. A while back my aftermarket car navigation / radio system lost its GPS capabilities. Since Verizon forced me into an upgrade, I decided to get a magnetic mount for the dash and use Waze instead. I installed the bracket over the weekend, and today was my first road test. Got everything ready and started driving. When I glanced at the phone, it appeared to be blacked out, even though the voice was still enunciating. When I started thinking about it while waiting for a light to turn green, I tilted my head to the side, as I'm known to do when deep in thought. Voila! The screen was bright again. Turned my head upright and the display disappeared. Took my sunglasses off and the display was bright and clear, regardless of the tilt of my head. Found out that my polarized sunglasses work fine if I hold my phone in the normal portrait position, but blanks out if I orient the phone in landscape. I wear polarized sunglasses out of habit from my sailing days, but I guess I need to buy some non-polarized ones.
FLN K.U. won!!! i went there so I'm very happy. Not that I ever attended a basketball or football game. In the drama dept. you didn't have a whole lot of time time for that. But I certainly knew Hedda Gabler easy peasy.
My husband has directed at least 15 Star Treks, in the later episodes. I always have to ask him CW questions.
Becky
And as for the gowns last night, I think understructure is built into the outfits so there's no need for undergarments. but one has to be glued into some of the décolleté.
I didn’t/never watch the Oscars, but from what I saw online this morning, last night’s Oscar garb of “woke” women really promoted LEERING. Also, Hollywood was aghast at a display of “violence” that in much larger form is stock-in-trade for all their big movies. Do as I say not as I do.
I liked this puzzle.
unclefred, my sympathies. How upsetting, not to mention expensive!
IMO. Much worse than being merely bare, many Oscar attendees' dresses were downright kookie and even ugly.
Thank you Lynn Lempel for an easy MOnday puzzle with a twist. I never looked at the rings since i was in a hurry to solve the puzzle as soon as possible (ASAP ...),
Ironically, our first house was a split-level, and the lower floor was tiled ... and both our daughters fell off the carpeted upper floor, onto the tiled lower floor .... while using a baby walker !@#@@! ... you'd think the parents would have learnt a lesson after the first child's accident, by then. But, the kids survived OK.
Boomer, thank you for your instructive review. I feel very sad about your travails, and my best wishes and prayers are for you and CC every night.
I had no real problems with the CW, my fastest solve in a very long time.
Onto Tuesday ... Have a great day you all !
Grateful for this good start to the week from Lynn Lempel, with thanks too to Boomer.
My only writeovers were WIGS for RUGS and DANK for DAMP. Otherwise, smooth sailing.
Ray - O - Sunshine @9:21 ~ No need to apologize for your response to Will Smith's crazy night.
He is a favorite actor of mine, but I thought his behavior inexcusable. Chris Rock's GI Jane joke was benign and typical of the mild roasting that always goes on at these affairs.
How are comedians to survive if celebs (and their spouses) refuse to take a joke?
In his acceptance speech, Smith seemed to be excusing his conduct not just by saying he was protecting his wife, but that God called on him--get this!-- to protect just about every female (everybody?) in his orbit.
That strikes me as the kind of excuse that self-appointed vigilantes--and tyrants--use to justify everything from lynching to flat out war.
I think Denzel gave him the best advice. Hope he heeds it.
~ OMK
Hi All!
Jinx: You and me both; FIW w/ zEUS.
Thanks Lynn for the fun Monday puzzle. Thank you Boomer for the baseball infused expo; get well soon buddy.
WO: Awed -> AGOG. I almost wrote SPLIT ranch b/f perp-check.
ESPs: HEzDA, AENEID, BASEL
Fav: I like the word HOOPLA
Starship (nee Jefferson Airplane)'s "We Built This City":
Knee deep in the HOOPLA, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night
I've never seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine but I remember ANDY Samberg from his SNL days (2005-2012).
HG - That's a heck of a savings on the hearing aid!
Unclefred - sorry to hear about how bad your roof is damaged. Glad to read your contractor wasn't badly hurt.
CED - LOL "Spock's Birth Control."
During Covid we were 100% work from home. Now we're ON SITE 3 days a week.
Speaking of work... break's over.
Cheers, -T
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW as I never changed the HEZDA/ZEUS combo
Thanks CED for the tiny house link ... that actually may work as a second place for us for limited use in the summer. Looks better than a mfd home
OMK...
I looked back at my Will Smith comments. I wasn't apologizing. I agree with you completely, Christ Rock was engaging in the usual roasting that entertainers dish out and accept, particularly at events like last night. Smith's wife has alopecia, not a serious or life threatening disease and elected to shave her head and the GI Jane joke was not offensive. Whether Smith apologized during his acceptance speech is moot.
My niece who is in her early 30s also has near complete alopecia, shaves her head and looks beautiful.
My wits are returning. Sat. Sun.& Mon. puzzles FIR with no lookups and no red letters. Sat. I solved in many very short sessions because I was so tired. Sunday I solve in normal time and today it went very fast.
My friend is driving me to the square dance tonight Being co-president requires my presence.
I will see how much I can dance and how much I rest. Nice to be out among friends again.
Yellowrocks
I'm so happy for you that you will attend a sqaure dancing event which I know has been a passion for you in the past.
I forgot all about the Oscars last night so did not watch, however, the confrontation is in every news program so I get that. But who won Oscars? No one is talking about that!
For Boomer (and other American League fans):
I just found out that the Mariners signed pitching star Robbie Ray to a multi-year contract. Wouldn't it have been great had he gone to Tampa Bay instead? At least the TB Times would have a great headline: Rays sign Ray; fans see ray of hope for beleaguered staff in the Sunshine State.
We will be discussing last nights oscars for years to come,
And maybe that's a good thing...
There are many (sides?) aspects of this unfortunate event, and hashing them out can only increase your wisdom.
Anon-T,
Can you pls elaborate?
Why should we not click on riddle? He is blue, is this a new hack?
What happens when you click on it?
(I mean) saying don't do something is making it irresistible...
(Ack! Help! I want to click on it so bad! What's going to happen?)
It's another puzzle,
And you know us puzzlers, we just gotta know..
Apparently Chris Rock has been ragging on them for a long time.
Becky
CED - It's not that it's not safe but it's SPAM. Hover over the "blue" link and you'll see it goes to funtimejoke[.]net.
I didn't watch the Oscars but it seems 1/2 of Twitter thinks the slap was faked. Personally, I don't care.
Cheers, -T
Becky our Hollywood insider is correct. This article is about the long history between CHRIS ROCK and WILL SMITH . As Denzel said, in different words "the higher you go, the faster the fall is going down."
Those who believe it is fake news have been taken by the darkside. IMO.
BTW, this is the SPECIAL MAN that inspired Becky to give up her career to dedicate herself to their family so he could work.
Thanks Anon-T,
That explains it!
I won't click on it now.
It just seems bizarre that some one would post a spam link that 99.9 % would never click on...
Weird...
Yes Lucina, a whole Academy Awards show with some beautiful acceptance speeches and the media is obsessed only with “the slap”. Of the passionate speech by President Biden in Poland the only part the media is reporting on is the last sentence. It’s the same old “if it bleeds it leads” mentality. ‘Twas always thus and thus ’twill always be.
CED - just like any SPAM campaign (cheap to do 100 million times over), all you need is 0.01% to click to get $$$. I assume the joke site makes money from eye-balls, er, ads [there was a ton of ads when I launched it in my sandbox].
Now, about that scooter.
Details are what the Devil's in. Spill the tea.
If nothing else, are you having fun / learning something?
Cheers, -T
Good evening. Thank you, Lynn and Boomer.
Dash T, I've deleted that spam comment. Thanks. Hopefully no one linked to it I also deleted yours by mistake. CED, just because a name is in blue doesn't mean it is safe. The majority of the crap I delete is by spammers in blue. BTW, same goes for HTTPS versus HTTP. Just because the data can't be trapped and read in transit (as HTTP can), an HTTPS site can still be laden with malicious downloads.
My excuse for being so late is that I was up way too early this morning, then finally got back to sleep around 6AM for a few more hours. After a quick trip for provisions (still no Tater Tots here, Yooper Phil, what the heck is going on with Ore-Ida ?), I spent most of the day in the bathroom. And crawling around in the attic, amid the fiberglass insulation. Yuck. The N95 masks helped.
The combo ceiling light, power vent and heater in one of the bathroom ceilings went kaput. The replacement was supposed to be a perfect fit, but no. So the remove and replace that should have been done in a couple of hours max took almost six. Had to enlarge the opening in the plaster ceiling by 1/4" along the width and by 3/4" on the length. Cutting through drywall is one thing. Through plaster and lath is another. Big mess and lots of dust. Only needed two band aids.
Anyway, I did the puzzle so long ago that I just had to review it again. It didn't take long to complete. In fact, if not for the circles, it would have taken longer to get the theme answers than the solve. The USA Today and the Universal puzzles don't use circles, although the Universal usually tells you what letters (e.g. 5 to 8) to look at.
Boomer, you've shown that you are one heck of a trooper, and your wit and humor keep shining through. Keep it up !
Anon @2:21 Thanx for your comment. I was in the great room when I heard a "CRUNCH!!" followed rapidly by a "CRASH!" sound coming from my pool room. I walked in to see what was up with that, and one of the Mexican roofers was just getting up off the floor, after falling through the roof and the ceiling and bouncing off the edge of my pool table! He was very apologetic (I think, it was in Spanish, which I know only a few words of: "Una mas Cerveza, por favor!" is about it.) Anyway, fortunately, somehow he was totally uninjured, not even a scratch!! He just dusted himself off, apologized, and went back to work. But it looks like yet more expense is on the way. Oy vey!
Ray-O & OMK - I'll have to disagree with you about alopecia - many people who suffer from it are very sensitive and self conscious about it- no matter how much they have come to accept being bald. I don't think a disease has to be life threatening to have an impact on someone's life and their interaction in the world. I don't think it is appropriate, even for a comic, to make fun of a physical or mental condition a person has that they have no control of, whether it is e.g. a stutter or a gait impairment or a skin condition. I am not excusing her husband's reaction, but very glib to say that anyone who has these are fair game for people to make jokes about
Jayce:
Thank you. Perhaps I can find some of those speeches. I'll check around on youtube.
I was on the same HEZDA/ZEUS wavelength as others, so I had the same FIW Monday. Since I always check out the theme and reveal first (and once lived in a split level house), the reveal was penciled in first. Everything else fell into place --- eventually. It was a little trickier than a typical Monday puzzle (needed a few more perps than usual), but I liked it.
Thanks, Lynn and Boomer!
I haven’t watched ANY awards shows since --- well, I can’t remember when. In fact, the last movie that I actually paid coin of the realm to see was “When Harry Met Sally” way back toward the end of the last century.
One of the few movies I saw this year is BELFAST and that was exceedingly well done.
Murder on the Nile was good, too.
inanehiker @8:31 ~
I did not get the impression that Chris Rock was making fun of Will Smith's wife, not at all. I know that some have interpreted it that way, based on the relative seriousness of her ailment. But speaking as one older white guy (I probably represent a major portion of Chris' audience), I did not think it insulting.
I mean, just look at her! She looks gorgeous with that well shaped head! And she must know it, choosing to attend such a major glamor event in a beautiful gown.
I understood Rock's gag to be positive, eliciting smiles and chuckles of recognition because Demi Moore's GI Jane was an earlier example of a strong, shaven beauty.
Will Smith's initial response was to smile broadly at the gag. Jada looked puzzled, not in anger, but as if she didn't "get it."
(How familiar was she with Moore's look?)
What changed Smith's mind is an unfortunate mystery.
~ OMK
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