Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson
This is AJ's fourth solo themeless I have blogged and it was a delight to solve. Our Minnesota native is now doing great work for a startup group called BetterFi who are engaged in rural Tennessee helping residents with payday loan problems. Very cool!
Nice to hear from you again. I first filled this puzzle a little more than a year and a half ago, in September 2020. It was one of the first solo themeless grids I’ve ever put together. The thought process behind this one was simple, because I love pinwheel designs and wanted to make an aesthetically pleasing grid to challenge myself and see how well I could fill it. My favorite entry is GO NUCLEAR at 1A, a fortuitous, rather than intentional, find since the top was not where I began writing this puzzle. From there, the rest of the pinwheel you see here came to life . Once people are done with this one, I hope you check out the universal crossword freestyle that’s out today, also by me :)
Thanks for your time,
Adrian
1. Lose it: GO NUCLEAR - This was my first thought but, as it turned out, twenty minutes later it was my last fill
10. Malleable: BENDY.
15. One of two in a historic 1869 Utah meeting: IRON HORSE - One of them was from the U.P.'s eastern terminus of Omaha
16. Desensitize: INURE.
17. Coloring of some papers?: MEDIA BIAS - Mere facts take too little time, so BIASED yammering fills the rest of the 24-hr news cycle
18. Former birds only found on Mauritius: DODOS.
20. In this way: THUS - Booth may or may not have said this motto of the State of Virginia on that night in 1865
22. French military cap: KEPI.
23. Projection, e.g.: Abbr.: EST - A projection can be called an ESTimate
24. Fancy, in slang: PRIMO.
25. One-named fashion icon: IMAN - She frequently sashays across crossword runways
26. Lunar dark spot: MARE - This 2021 photograph shows Apollo 11's descent stage casting a shadow in the MARE Tranquillatatis (Sea Of Tranquility) where it landed in July of 1969.
28. 1930s J.B. Rhine coinage, briefly: ESP - Oh, now I get it, J.B. coined the word.
30. Uncanny: ODD.
31. Branch-dwelling rainforest reptile: TREE BOA - Not poisonous but still...
34. Eleventh-hour: DO OR DIE - In football it is sometimes called a Hail Mary pass play as time runs out. This one was successful.
36. Hardly reputable: SEAMY.
37. Defiant admission: SUE ME.
38. Proves: ATTESTS - I can ATTEST that this is the correct fill
41. Kept on riding: HASSLED
43. Lab sound: ARF.
44. Quote qualifier: SIC.
45. 2021 Pac-12 champs: UTES - UCLA fit but wasn't right
46. Muck: GOOP.
48. Word before hack or jack: PHONE.
50. "Never to suffer would never to have been blessed" writer: POE.
53. French for "unbleached": ECRU - Saturday cluing for a crossword favorite
54. Spill the beans: SING and 13. Rat (on): DROP A DIME - Henry Hill SANG and DROPPED A DIME on a lot of racketeers who subsequently went to jail. Henry had to go into witness protection in Omaha and other cities.
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Henry Hill and Ray Liotta who portrayed him in the movie Goodfellas |
55. Herringbone, e.g.: TWILL - The video you see below
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59. Required network announcement: STATION ID.
61. Dwarf, with "over": TOWER.
62. Presidential carrier that flew with an all-women crew for the first time in 2009: MARINE ONE - Major Jennifer Grieves can be seen in the cockpit.
64. Intelligence boss: SPYMASTER - Surprise!
1. Very short putt, in golf lingo: GIMME - TAP IN overstayed its welcome
2. Snack brand with a 2012 100th-anniversary "Daily Twist" campaign: OREOS - What a hoot!
4. Class division: UNIT - Samples
5. Cartoonist Addams: CHAS - Any idea what TV series his work inspired?
6. Throw to a tot: LOB.
7. Horn of Africa country: ERITREA - As you can see there was another 7-letter candidate
8. Tokyo brewer: ASAHI and 11. Ramen morsel: ENOKI - Some Japanese cuisine
9. Picked up: RESUMED - One amazing thing about Netflix is that it RESUMES a show right where I left off a day, a week or a month ago.
10. Raise a paddle, perhaps: BID.
12. Uncovered subject: NUDE MODEL - What did Picasso's model look like?
21. Passable: SO SO.
24. Country club employee: PRO.
26. Social media spreader: MEME - I liked this one
29. Group that follows a star?: POSSE - Aha, THAT star (look closely)!
31. Users of travelers' checks?: TSA AGENTS - This group that checks travelers, coupled with POSSE just above, took some time but AJ had two fun clues in a row.
32. Back in after going out: RETROCOOL - Bell-bottoms are back!
33. Dine expectantly?: EAT FOR TWO - Oh, expectant mothers!
35. Actor William of "Boy Meets World": RUSS - The dad
39. Informed advice: TIPS - The great Stubby Kaye, et al.
40. Great divides: SCHISMS.
41. Liszt's homeland: HUNGARY - His birthplace was here in what is now Raiding, Austria which was in HUNGARY until after WWI.
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42. Had a fast break?: ATE - Breakfast literally means breaking a night fast
47. Blender button: PUREE.
49. Coming up soon: ON TAP
50. Cab alternative: PINOT - Cabernet Sauvignon versus Pinot Noir: Which Is Better?
51. QB protectors, in football lingo: O-LINE - It is the job of the Offensive LINE of the KC Chiefs to keep Patrick Mahomes protected
52. Senior: ELDER.
55. Amy's mid-2000s "Weekend Update" partner: TINA - TINA Fey and Amy Pohler
56. Burdens: WOES.
58. TV drama settings: ERS.
60. South Carolina senator Scott: TIM.
41 comments:
FIWrong. It's Saturday.
I had oLDER < ELDER and (winie the) POo < POE.
TRIGGER WARNING: the second l'ick is quasi-political, but so generally held in America, I don't think anyone here will be offended.
GIMME some of them OREOS
Snacks of small stacked O's
A cookie suit
On white GOOP,
Keeps us from joining DODOS!
The world is holding its breath in fear,
Lest the Russian madman should GO NUCLEAR.
Had we not sunk
Ex-POTUS Trump,
It's for Putin we would cheer!
{A, A-.}
What follows is so plaintive that I cringe to write it. The long story was told late yesterday Now the part I hate. Is there anyone here rich enough that they can loan me $3000 for a few days. If so, email me (at owenkl.owenkl.com ) so comments on this don't clutter this blog.
FLN: -T & Lemonade. we're getting $4000 for the car at CarMax. I had Bren check out some dealers, and none offered more than $1600. I asked for $3000 above because that's all I think I'll need, plus a $K buffer. As for the delay, I have no idea.
Good morning!
Discovered that GO BANANAS wasn't going to cut it. Have I ever mentioned that I hate it when mess up 1a right out of the gate? Needed my trusty Wite-Out to fix Ucla/UTES, jOb/POE (sounded like something Job would have said), and SEedY/SEAMY. MARE finally convinced me the penultimate letter in ERITREA was E, not I. POSSE, because MAGI was too short. ATTESTS showed up for "Proves," but raised my eyebrows. Just because you ATTEST to something doesn't make it so. But I guess the thing could ATTEST for itself, and that would be a proof. Nits aside, got 'er done within my self-imposed 20 minute limit, so life is good. Thanx, Adrian and Husker.
Took 18:21. Very tough in some spots (such as the lunar dark one). Hate the "foreign crosses," such as enoki and Kepi, but those were eventually doable. Still, don't care for those.
Pac-12 champs? I guess it's football, but could've been another sport.
Really liked the clues for TSA Agents and Marine One.
"Oh goody"??? Oh after last box was inked. Started out with tapin/GIMME. But an anniversary cookie? Hmm. I wonder what the anniversary of its first xword appearance is.
Cab as wine again as ?INOT perped. Duh #1 of at least a dozen.
Oops, there's my FIW. I misspelled ERITRiA (I still bare the wound of DNeiPER from a year ago)
Speaking of Hail Marys, Doug Flutie is still pitching. Ads that's is.
Speaking of BC, Hill DROPPED A DIME on three B-ballers
My first solid fill? _OTRE. This xword was an ABYSS for a half hour.* NE all white. The human brain is a miracle.
POSSE was a perfect play on words
Re. 31 D.. The apostrophe AFTER Travelers' was the hint.
I coulda been a …
WC
D-O, at twenty minutes, nada to speak of
Good Morning:
This felt a little Silkiesque to me: first pass, lots of white space, second pass, a chip here, a chip there and, voila, fini! The only trouble was the fini had two careless errors. Poo instead of Poe which gave me Older/Elder and UTEP instead of Utes which gave me Rusp/Russ. Poo and Rusp looked odd but I was so sure of Older and UTEP that I accepted them, anyway. However, my FIW did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of the solve itself. I also went astray with Votre/Notre, Glop/Goop, and Asserts/Attests. Some cute duos were Drop A Dime/Tell, Asahi/On Tap, Est/ESP, and Arf/Sic.
Thanks, Adrian, for a satisfying, even if flawed, solve and thanks, HG, for your typical flawless and sparkling review.
Have a great day.
AJ- helping those with 'payday loan problems' may be a noble cause but most of the people who take out those loans will always spend every dime they make, regardless of income. Legalized Loan Sharks would be a better name for the industry. Money burns holes in their pockets.
The puzzle was almost blank for a while. The NW was the toughest to start and the NE was the toughest to finish. TAP IN or GIMME; SOMALIA or ERITREA? But I knew ASAHI & CHAS Addams. My NE started bottom-up. with UTAH, TOO LATE, & IMAM- all wrong. Finally got UTES, DO OR DIE, & IMAN. I knew HUNGARY & ATE would be correct but that was about it. I guessed DODOS; thought the were in NZ, duh!
Great clues for a puzzle that only had three unknowns filled by perps- RUSS, TINA, & ABYSS.
MEDIA BIAS- say it ain't so. Don't you love it when the 'journalist' somehow puts his opinion using the usual buzzwords in a factual story.
This was one of the hardest puzzles for me in the past few months. Couldn't get the NE until the end. Partially because WEES about putting tap-in before GIMME led me astray. I also led myself astray thinking Tartarus was a Titan instead of an ABYSS, but once I had ABYSS I had a parade of shady/seedy to finally landing on SEAMY. Also had slop to glop to GOOP in the SW.
I thought the "dine expectantly" clue was clever. Needed perps to decide if Liszt's homeland was HUNGARY or AUSTRIA - they are very close geographically and also the same number of letters.
Hoping for a beautiful day
Thanks HG for a fun write-up and to Adrian for puzzle and stopping by
DNF, giving in when the California coast was solid snow and wouldn't melt. Checked "old school" and replaced it with RETRO COOL, which freed up the rest, except that I also mispelled [SIC] ERITRiA. Big surprise.
I thought "tartarus" is a sauce you put on sea bassus.
I saw a video of TIM Scott doing a radio interview where a caller accused him of not understanding her point of view because he didn't know what it was like to be Black. Came as news to him.
My first reaction to "cartoonist Addams" was that I didn't remember that Scot spelled his first or last name that way.
Networks aren't required to do STATION IDs, stations are. I used to be amazed at the number of people who don't understand the difference between NBC news and WSAZ news, but I can ATTEST to it.
Thanks to Adrian for letting me play. I like it when Saturday puzzles are just a little beyond my reach, but are approachable enough to hook me in for the long haul.
And thanks to Gary for the excellent tour. But I have to admit that I think of the Kansas game to be the preliminary bout before the Duke / UNC main event.
DNF. This Saturday puzzle did me in. Half a dozen blank squares that wouldn't fill.
Like others, I first thought of "tap-in" rather than "gimme", and I thought of "Magi" for following a star rather than "posse." But I managed to correct my errors and come 'round right. FIR, so I'm satisfied. (Am I the only here who did?)
Jinx said:
I thought "tartarus" is a sauce you put on sea bassus.
(This has got to be the best thing I have heard all day...)
:)
Not buying OLINE for Offensive Line. Better would be "Gas tail"--- ending for gasoline.
I'm not buying "Dumentaryfilm for answer to March 25 "Ken Burns specialty." I read the reasoning-it makes no sense.
Nancy deForest
As one of the not-yet-extint DODOS my puzzle was so inked over I threw in the pen and found an online version...after a few entries some letters turned red..the "error" button switched on by itself, so I gave up..only the NE corner was self completed. THUS I DNF. ☹
Many unknowns..TREE BOA, RETROCOOL, OLINE, RUSS, PHONE hack..etc., et alia,, et alii...that would have required perps I didn't know either.
I mistakenly thought "Addams" name was Charles..I too thought "Tartarus" was a titan...Wouldn't let go of TAPIN. (ATE right next to HUNGARY 😁). I thought the jet was called AIR Force One🤔. According to the schism map southern Italians should be Eastern Orthodox?☦
First words of Adam to Eve.....IMAN
Lean in Budapest....Liszt
Note from teacher..SEAMY
RANT...
TSA AGENTS..My wife and I had TSA pre check on our boarding pass at Orlando airport last December, it was missing for some reason on our special needs daughter's pass. (We had taken her to Disney to celebrate her 40th BD.) The agent let her through with us without a problem. When we realized we were at the wrong part of the terminal and found the right one the TSA agent at that checkpoint wouldn't let her through the precheck line with us. He wagged his finger in my face "Nobody gets through without a precheck pass". Then they opened our luggage to "check" for who-knows-what which they hadn't done the first time. I guess as a punishment for me calling the second agent some choice words. Amazing I'm not on the no-fly list. 🙄
end of RANT
off to Wordle
Me too for today's puzzle. One square FIW where UTES and RUSS cross. Yes, I too put a P there, Irish Miss. Thanks, Adrian for a real challenge which I wondered if I would be able to fill at all. But most areas gradually did with WOs common to others: GIMME, POSSE, and ATTESTS. Maybe I will remember how to spell SCHISMS next time.
I felt a little HASSLED while doing the puzzle, but your smooth review, Husker Gary, explained away my problems. DROP A DIME. Now I see. Thanks! And yes, inanehiker, "dine expectantly" was a great clue. Overall a fun experience once the puzzle progressed.
Hope you all have a good start to the weekend!
Musings
-Ray – Marine One is the HELICOPTER the presidents fly to go to where the AIRPLANE Air Force One is parked. The picture shows Major Grieves at the controls of that helicopter on what is probably the south lawn of the White House.
-Anthony – O-LINE (offensive line) and D-LINE (defensive line) are common terminology these days in football
-Near the top of every hour, Husker FB radio broadcasters say, “We pause now for STATION IDENTIFICATION”
-MEDIA BIAS – It is said that these guys showed none
In the olden days when I was in radio, Station Identification was required hourly -- as close to the top of the hour as possible without interrupting program flow -- and at minimum must consist of the station call letters and location. The simplest (and classiest) was clear-channel 720: "WGN Chicago."
CED, thanks. One of the few bon mots I didn't steal from someone.
Ray, give a civil serpent a little authority and it will go to his/her head. But I will say that it concerns me that the first agent let someone without the precheck designation through the first time. Too bad they can't or won't use some kind of biometric, like a thumb print or iris scan that can be read at the security checkpoint, for you precheck folk.
I was traveling with my boat partner about 15 years ago. The TSA agent "recommended" that we take our shoes off and put them on the belt. I did so, but my partner declined. I went right on through, but they took him to the secondary inspection area and did everything but check his prostate. I've learned to approach government minions with the attitude that they are MUCH smarter than I am, and that they are doing me a favor by performing their function. I have also honed my acting skills by doing so.
Anthony G-M, O-LINE is absolutely in the vernacular. The play-by-play guys may not use it, but coaches and TV analysts do.
Anon @11:12 That was the recent CW that is my least favorite kind: missing letters. If I recall it was DOC that was the key to the theme, with the “OC” missing. Or it went vertical, or something like that. Ray-O u r right, the jet is Air Force One. The helicopter is Marine One. As for the CW, I did about a third of it on my laptop, amid many interruptions. I finally printed it out to await a time I could concentrate on it. Then, filling what I could remember from the laptop, and going after the second 2/3, I managed to FIR in 26 minutes. But that’s a cheat, since some fill I had already worked out on the laptop. W/Os, GOBERSERK:GONUCLEAR, ROW:OAR:BID, AUSTRIA:GERMANY:HUNGARY. That last one is an embarrassing demonstration of ignorance. Also tried to fill ETHIOPIA for ERITREA, but only got the “E” in there before seeing ETHIOPIA wouldn’t fit, so ERITREA popped into my pumpkin-head right away. (Or “WRITE-AWAY”?) POSSE could also be the fans of a movie star or music star, especially rap. V-8 moment when POE finally filled. Poe is one of my favorite authors, and not recognizing that quote is yet another embarrassment. Thanx AJ, for the tough but doable Saturday level CW. I liked it because I managed to FIR, which I usually cannot do on a Saturday. If I had to guess my actual time (laptop plus paper) it is probably about 40 minutes. But I won’t call that a booby prize winner, since I did manage to FIR. Husker Gary, thanx to you too for all the time and effort you so obviously put into this entertaining write-up.
Wow. This may now be the most difficult puzzle I have ever FIR. Hand up TAP IN made NW difficult. I knew the 1869 UTAH MEETING, but kept looking for something with TRAIN or RAIL. Hand up ATTESTS for PROVES seems wrong? Learning moment about ECRU origin and TARTARUS. OLINE took ESP.
But it was the NE that I thought would be a DNF. Don't even know what sport is PAC-12. Thought of UTEP. Crossed with unknown RUSS and sneaky clue for HASSLED had me stuck. Very slow to get BID as cued. When I got that, I got a toe hold. Wow.
My brother's DW Krisztina is from HUNGARY.
Here our family was together for my brother's birthday which is near Christmas. Krisztina from HUNGARY is in the middle with my brother.
Krisztina's parents amazingly survived the Holocaust in HUNGARY by pretending to be Christians. They are still alive in HUNGARY.
From Yesterday:
Tante Nique and Vidwan Thanks for answering my question about the Antler Arch in JACKSON HOLE. I have photos there in 1997, but it was ten years later when I was back to pose with it. Thanks for the tip about the National Museum of Wildlife Art, Vidwan. DW has not been to JACKSON HOLE, so I hope we can get there.
Tante Nique I took four years of French in high school. Interesting name you have there. Do stop by again.
Puzzling thoughts:
I think I'd rather have another "celebrity/blogger roast" than to work this puzzle again
No offense to Adrian
This just didn't mesh with my brain today
Between looking up words due to obscure clues (or ones I didn't get), and write overs, this did not give me a lot of pleasure
Enjoy your weekend
How is SUE ME an admission? Am I parsing the answer wrong? LOL
Hola!
No joy for me on this puzzle. I did manage to fill a big chunk of it but got stuck at the top. GO NUCLEAR simply did not appear so LIU. I hate to do that!
I've seen many TSA AGENTS and all have been professional and courteous. None have ever HASSLED me, I'm happy to say.
Dine expectantly was a clever clue, IMO.
My late best friend who was 6'2" used to TOWER over me. We were usually teamed together and it was nice when we cleaned. She dusted the tops of furniture and I dusted the bottom.
PRIMO means male cousin in Spanish.
"CAB" no longer fools me.
Have a spectacular Saturday, everyone!
Picard:
It's amazing that you can always find a photo to aptly fit in with the puzzle! Thank you for sharing so much of your family with us.
Ray-O-,
Re: TsA,
I hear ya! Every experience is a little different.
Flying out of Newark NJ they screen thousands of people each day.
I guess experience+common sense=efficiency...
However coming back thru Fort Meyers Fla, these guys must sit around a lot.
So when they see me coming, they think they need to earn their pay...
One caveat. DW once tried to bring home a pound of salt water taffy...
(Salt water taffy in the x-ray looks a hell of a lot like C4 plastic explosives)
Almost shut down down the entire airport!
If it makes you feel any better,
I once did a backpacking trip to New Hampshire, and along the trails, I found an old horseshoe.
Flying home thru Massachusetts, a little town called Waltham, on a tiny 8 seater puddle jumper,
This lady from TSA x-rayed my backpack, freaked out! And called the police!
You would have loved to see the dirty look she gave me when the cops pulled
Out the horseshoe that I had completely forgotten about...
P.S. I got the Wordle in 3 by accident!
You may be back for another rant very soon!
Woahisme @ 1:46
Lol!
Yes parsing can be a pain!
I think it might be the missing "so" that threw you.
As in, "So" sue me!
P.P.S.
if you need a laugh when things go wrong...
CED @ 2:20 PM...See what happens when you don't take your shoe off.😁
We have to take our shoes off because in 2001 Richard Reid tried to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami.
Can you image what TSA would make us do if he had hidden the explosives in his underwear.😲
Musings 2
Whoa - 37. Defiant admission: SUE ME – It’s admitting you are guilty of something but daring the offended party to do something about it. “Yeah, I ate the last potato chip, so SUE ME!”
Nice to hear from Mr. Johnson--in more than one way. Enjoyed his PZL.
Got most of it on my own, but not all. There's got to be a shorthand or acronym between DNF and FIR, something positive.
I mean, if you only hafta cheat two or three times--
on a toughie like this--
it should be met with some degree of approbation. No?
15A, IRON HORSE
Ah, I remember learning about the "driving of the Golden Spike" in my 4th grade social studies class at Sherman School (SF). I did not appreciate then the full significance of the event.
Wow! Imagine how it must've felt back then, 1869, the uniting of the ENTIRE continent, east to west!
You could already transmit news coast to coast,
in minutes via telegraph.
Since 1861.
And now, just 8 years later, after a terrible civil war, you could move your SELF,
physically,
in--what?--a week?
Right across the WHOLE country.
No, don't compare that with modern air travel.
Compare it with the only alternatives then. With wagon trains that took Half a YEAR.
Or, if you were traveling alone, you might sail around the Horn in 100 days.
(Be sure to bring a good book.)
~ OMK
____________
DR: I appreciate the perfect cross in today's grid.
Naturally, it obviates the possibility of diagonals.
As husker alludes OLINE might be too common to be considered "Slang"
Everybody's nightmare. Sat down after leaving Walmart at McDonald's and no cellphone. Aaarrtggghhh!!!!! Back to Wally's and voila. I left it in the cart at ck-out and girl said "Was the screen cracked?" That's the one
Payday loans replaced KITING Checks. Checks became same as Debit. Yes, outrageous usury
Picard I had 4 years too(French). Only five left asof senior year. Tres intensive. Taught I and II prior to OCS
SUE ME is often said with a hand gesture
WC
Hi All:
Nope. Just Nope. I got some smatterings in the Se thanks to the GIMME [not TAP IN?!? How is it not tap in?!??] TINA Fey's co-host. NE's DODOS broke that open.
Otherwise, not much to report.
Thanks AJ for the puzzle to noodle (too long for Ramen morsel) on.
Way above my pay-grade.
HG - Thanks for stopping the hair pulling... (POSSE not Magi [Hi D-O!] which didn't fit but stay'd in my head).
{A, A+ ('cuz you ain't wrong :-))}
//maybe Adrian's group could help with the advance(?)
I miss our dear Cornerite DODO...
BigE - MEDIA BIAS must exist - Which stories are you going to run? Notice an uptick in how dangerous fentanyl is? [It's dangerous to ingest but just touching it??]
HG beat me to it but...
Ray-O: MARINE ONE takes the Prez from the Airport to the Whitehouse (or vice-versa). I spent 12 weeks in DC consulting for USDA. I got to watch the three choppers fly overhead a few times [me thinks the other two are decoys(?)]
Jinx - I had Scot[t] Ad[d]ams of Dilbert fame in my head too. Time will tell if HG's Addam's family shtick CHAS sticks.
LOL TSA theater on both sides of the stage's edge.
//of my TSA stories:
I flew from HOU, through DFW (went out to smoke; so security again) onto SPI with a Leatherman in my backpack.
It was on the way home to Houston, the crack team at SPI confiscated it.
Another time, they (SPI) took a corkscrew from my backpack.
'Cuz, yeah, that's the tool I'd choose to take over an airplane.
CED - I was thinking along the lines of TARDIS :-)
Thanks for the Seinfeld bloopers.
Y'all have a wonderful afternoon. After puzzle, gym, puzzle, bike ride w/ DW, puzzle, lugging around stuff for her, and #PuzzleFail... I'm going to need a nap b/f Eldest & I build salmon & fixin's for dinner.
Cheers, -T
Ol' Man Keith,
Ah yes,
You reminded me of my first fall off the horse with this puzzle...
The clue said:
15. One of two in a historic 1869 Utah meeting...
I immediately inked in "Gold Spike." (It fit...)
Then, I thought, wait a sec...
Wasn't there only one gold spike?
There would be two rails...
Why would there only be one Gold Spike?
Believe me,
I spent more time thinking about this than I should have...
When the prohibitions against sharp tools first started, I had some mini scissors in my purse that were confiscated then another time in Charlotte I was held up for a loooong time when they could not find a bullet shaped item lodged at the bottom of my purse. It was a pen.
Ray, you're referring to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, aka the Underwear Bomber. Managed to get second degree burns on his Johnson, but didn't do any major damage to the plane. He was sentenced to life without parole, and his boss met Allah thanks to an American drone strike.
CED, I once carried on an 8 pound Danforth anchor on a flight from PHX to LAX without ado. But when I had a dozen golf balls in my bag when going from ATL to PHX, the TSA agent ran the picture back and forth several times, then called her supervisor over. They gingerly opened the bag, opened the box of Titlests, and ruefully sent me on my way.
I have been in deep reflection lately,
Wondering what I should do with the rest of my life...
(Irish Miss, being an Imp doesn't pay well, and the health plan is terrible...)
I even did one of those online, type in what you like to do, and we advise a profession questionnaires.
Do you know what it said?
I should be a Jeweler.
Jeweler?
Who the heck is going to give me a bunch of jewels to play around with?...
So, I thought maybe I could figure it out for myself.
I like to play guitar... (afraid of crowds...)
I like to fix things... (um no, remember the scooter....)
I know, I am good at posting funny things!
Maybe I could be a comedian!
(Hmm, nah, I probably would just get slapped...)
I would like to say hi to DODO one of our earlier posters who has passed on; penis jokes in a write-up of puzze by a man named Johnson. I can't say if I FIR or FIW because I didn't. Thanks AG and Adrian...are you related to Monk?
After great weekend solves last week and a fine Friday, today's puzzle humbled me. I see some others had a hard time, too. I liked eat for two and TSA agents.
When I was returning home after two weeks in Switzerland, the TSA decided to paw through my oddly shaped bag, two weeks worth of sweaty, foul hiking clothes. Yuck! They quickly zipped it up and passed it on.
Have a great week.
Yellowrocks
Hi Y'ALL! Thanks for the challenge, Adrian. Bless you, Gary, for your good sense & hard work.
This is one of those puzzles where I realized I didn't speak the same slang lang(uage) or colloquialism or whatever as the constructor. I first went "ape====". I never did GO NUCLEAR in my life. I tried IRON "spike" before HORSE. Great moment of progress but killed the Pony Express.
I "dined expectantly" 39 months of my life, so enjoyed that clue. Wondered if you men could possibly relate.
Yay, KU!
Late to the game, as usual ... Thank you Adrian Johnson for a very challenging puzzle that i finished and enjoyed. Lemonade, I remember Dodo, an early poster, and even saw a picture of her, with all the fine other ladies, including our Lucina...
Thank you HuskerGary for a fine and illuminating review. I read all abbout Henry Hill the mobster, and another dozen mobsters . ,,, got quite an education. Wasted four hours down the rabbit hole, on a Saturday.
RayOSun, sorry you had such a problem with the TSA, ... I would think they would have some consideration for handicapped folks, ... maybe a letter from her health care provider. I have finally got a handicapped car badge, for myself, and boy, does it help a lot when I go to the library etc.,
The TSA can be quirky at times, and sometimes downright racist ... the problem is they hire people of, in my opinion, barely average IQ, and put them in charge of examining people, some of whom are technical and financial geniuses, and there is an inevitable degree of envy ... and the TSA agents finally get to Lord It over the upper class, whom they wouldn't even meet in real life .... thats one of my theories, anyway. Their decisions are soo quirky, there is no rhyme or logic to their confiscation ... I've quit trying to make meaning of it.
I have been to atleast 16 countries around the northern hemispehere since 9/11, and nobody can so quirky as an USA TSA agent.... Others are just as thorough but far more polite .... and they have not undergone any unusual or spurt of hijackings or bombings, after 9/11, just like the USA ...
CED -- the Golden Spike ... was promptly pulled up and given to the President of the Union Pacific Railroad !!!
You all have a great Sunday tomorrow, and don't spend all at once ... ;-)
BTW, the map shown at 40D is grossly inaccurate, By the time shown (1054 AD [or CE]), ALL of North Africa and Spain were Moslem areas.
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