google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday May 2, 2022 Robert E. L. Morris

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May 2, 2022

Monday May 2, 2022 Robert E. L. Morris

Theme: I SEE (57. Words of comprehension, and a phonetic hint for the answers to the starred clues) - each theme entry is in the pattern of I* C*.

17. *Chilled caffeinated drink: ICED COFFEE.

28. *Cold War barrier: IRON CURTAIN.

44. *Close-knit, influential group: INNER CIRCLE.

60. *English name of a West African republic: IVORY COAST.

Boomer here. 

I had a little pratfall this past week and broke my left shoulder. C.C. is helping me around the house but I am pretty sure that I can drive with my right hand. Spring is almost here. No ICY CONDITIONS.

 Across:

1. Former Yankee slugger, familiarly: A-ROD.  I have many baseball cards of this guy.

5. Barrel of laughs: RIOT.  Our weather broadcasts.

9. "Joy of Cooking" writer Rombauer: IRMA.



13. Take away: MINUS.  Yes, MIN is in the US.

15. Skeleton prefix: ENDO.

16. Is sorry about: RUES.  I RUE the day I broke the arm.  It still hurts.

19. __-lock brakes: ANTI.  I think most models have these now.

20. Pt. of HDTV: DEF.

21. __ facto: IPSO.

22. "Moby-Dick" ship: PEQUOD.  The ships captain was Ahab but  I don't think he let Moby steer.              
24. Slim woodwind: OBOE.

26. Not well: ILL.  That would be me but you all know that. Chemo coming on Thursday

27. "Star Wars" pilot Dameron: POE.  


32. Blueprints: PLANS.  Very hard to read.

33. Orderly: NEAT.  C.C. keeps our home this way.  My job is the garden if winter ever ends.

34. Comply with: OBEY.  I did not obey the ER doctor.

38. Frying liquids: OILS.  Also paintings.

39. Holy book: BIBLE.

40. Small valley: DALE.  Racer Mr. Earnhardt as well.

41. Ward on "FBI": SELA.

42. Brazilian berry: ACAI. Some fruit I have never tried


43. Medicinal units: PILLS.  I keep the VA Pharmacy busy.

47. Legal org.: ABA. Yankee Aaron's batting average

50. Lummox: OAF.  Yankee Aaron J.

51. Peters out: DIES.

52. Tearjerker featuring Anna Chlumsky in her feature-film debut: MY GIRL.  Also a song by The Temptations.


54. Ceramics oven: KILN.

56. "__ the season ... ": TIS.  To be jolly!

59. Radar screen spot: BLIP.  I do not have radar, but sometimes my TV blips at me

63. Refrain syllables: LA LA.  Starts with FA

64. Majorino of "Veronica Mars": TINA.


65. Cosmetician Lauder: ESTEE.  Big name in smelly stuff.

66. Meadow moms: EWES.

67. Affirmative votes: YEAS.  Lots of politics going on out east.

68. Pass (through) slowly: SEEP.

Down:

1. In the thick of: AMID.

2. Risotto grain: RICE. A Roni. the San Francisco treat.


3. Part of the Three Musketeers' credo: ONE FOR ALL.

4. Lemon: DUD.  I disagree.  I like lemon on walleye.

5. NFL officials: REFS.

6. The 411: INFO.

7. "__ of Girls' Things": poem by Sharon Olds: ODE.

8. Metal tab that protects a shoe: TOE PLATE.  Pitching rubber.


9. Baghdad's country: IRAQ.

10. Accumulate, as charges: RUN UP.  We did some of this last week.

11. "Same here!": ME TOO.

12. "All kidding __ ... ": ASIDE. Sorry, I can never stop kidding.

14. Descendants: SCIONS.

18. Oil cartel acronym: OPEC. So, I wonder how much these guys are making when fill ups are $4.00 per gallon or more.

23. "Riverdale" actor Goree: ELI.


25. Tiny potted tree: BONSAI.



26. Slanted, as a typeface: ITALIC.  It means PAY ATTENTION .

28. 1970s tennis star Nastase: ILIE.  I never paid much attention to tennis.

29. Worldwide humanitarian gp.: UNICEF.  Right now they are devoting time to kids in Ukraine.

30. Concrete-reinforcing rod: REBAR.

31. "Sorry, can't help ya": NO DICE. You will never hear this at the craps table in Vegas.

32. Spots to buy stamps: Abbr.: POS.  Most are forever stamps now.

35. Mid-American Conference university in Indiana: BALL STATE.



36. Actress Fanning: ELLE.

37. "Of course!": YES.  We have no bananas.

39. Triteness: BANALITY.

43. Royal son: PRINCE.  Six years since his death, Minnesota is still honoring his memory.


45. Fin. neighbor: NOR.  Many of us transplanted Norwegians are here in MN.

46. In a lazy way: IDLY.

47. Saunter: AMBLE.  At my age that is called walking.

48. Internal regulation for a club: BYLAW.  I only know 1 to 5 wood and 3 to 9 iron.

49. Nimble: AGILE.  At my age, this word is not used.

53. Hoppy brews, briefly: IPAS.

54. Beer company based in Hawaii: KONA.  Silly me, I thought all beer came from Germany.


 

55. Some nest eggs, for short: IRAS.  Graybar took care of me however mine has money, not eggs.

58. Dance move: STEP.

61. "C'est la __!": VIE.

62. CIA predecessor: OSS.

Boomer


46 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was super quick -- only 5 minutes or thereabouts. Wite-Out need not apply. I could tell from Boomer's expo that I missed seeing several C/A's on my way through the grid. Got 'er done, so there's happiness throughout the RELM. Thanx, Robert and Boomer. (Goodluck on that blood test today.)

BLIP: Our local power company had a "planned outage" on Friday. There were more than a dozen of 'em between 3 and 5 PM on Friday...each lasting about one second. Just long enough to turn off the TV, computer, and music system, and to force a reboot of DirecTV and our router. Very frustrating.

BANALITY: A personal specialty.

Subgenius said...

Well, I solved the puzzle. But I protest the use of obscure proper names and obscure clues when there were more straightforward clues available. I mean, come on! This is supposed to be MONDAY MORNING PUZZLE after all!!

unclefred said...

Like Subgenius, I found this CW quite difficult, for a Monday, with far too many proper names. I counted 12 proper names, if PEQUOD and IVORY COAST are included as "proper names". I did manage to FIR but took a Booby Prize winning 23 minutes....OY!....for a Monday. RRLM, thanx for your CW, but it should have run on a Thursday. Boomeer, so sorry to hear about your "pratfall", and broken shoulder. Best wishes for a quick recovery. Keep us posted, please.

Lemonade714 said...

By my experience and the early reactions it is clear the change in editor has changed the puzzles. TINA Majorino, Dameron POE ELI Goree were not fill that would have been in a Monday. It was still solvable, but the times have changed.

More later as I continue m computer struggles.

KS said...

FIR, but found it a bit crunchy for a Monday.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased ayes for YEAS. DNK MY GIRL (except the previously mentioned Temptations version), POE (except the Raven's mascot and that guy who wrote about him), and TINA (except for Ike's ex).

Stanley Cup playoffs start tonight. I received a birthday tee shirt proclaiming
"Puck
[puk]
noun
1. a baseball for the hockey"

D-O, I'm shocked - shocked, I am - that you don't have all your electronics powered through a UPS. Can't imagine DirecTV without it. (My TV, monitors and printers just have surge protection, everything else runs through a UPS.)

FLN - -T, congrats on the decision to downsize. We are doing that in theory, because as much as we love our neighborhood and our 108-year old house, 3 stories plus a basement are a lot for one couple. Problem is that it is an ongoing job to de-junk the place to where it would show well.

Thanks to REL Morris for the fun, easy puzzle. And I tip my hat to Boomer for stepping up to the plate, even when you must bat one-handed.

Lemonade714 said...

In honoring C.C.'s continued success TTP mentioned her puzzles yesterday in Universal and USA; she also created Crossword With Friends the very popular competition for cell phones. The Burnikels are an amazing family.

Wilbur Charles said...

Having TOE PLATE was a status symbol for LL pitchers. I don't see it in MLB

I tried UNesco first.

Jinx, good luck with the "De-junking"

I agree with some that Patti V. loves obscure pop-cul. But perps were fair and with P&I I'd guess <10 minutes were needed

WC

ATLGranny said...

Starting the new week with a FIR. Thanks, REL Morris, for a good Monday puzzle with helpful perps. Unlike DO, my WOs were plentiful because of wrong guesses and carelessness. I put eRMA/ERMA, doseS/PILLS and UNesco/UNICEF (Hi, WC!). The reveal explained the theme which I had failed to look for as I filled. Oh sure, of course there's a theme. It's Monday.

And because it's Monday, Boomer is on the job in spite of his newly broken arm and all. Kudos to you, Boomer, for another humorous start to the week!

So, Jinx, did you just have a birthday or is your hockey shirt gift from earlier? Happy Birthday wishes just in case. By the way I'm glad you're not boycotting early week puzzles. I enjoy your posts.

FLN Good luck with your move to the new smaller place, AnonT. As Jinx said downsizing can be a challenge, but doing it when you're only 52 probably means you have less stuff and more energy.

I SEE it's time to stop. Looking forward to reading more posts later.

inanehiker said...

Quick solve today, only snag was having to change NO deal to NO DICE to make the perps work!
The unknown names were solved by perps, but POE Dameron - was one of the main characters in last 3 Star Wars movies (The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The return of SKywalker). I also liked the actor who plays POE- Oscar Isaac - in last summer's remake of "Dune"

Thanks Boomer and REL!



Anonymous said...

I was not the Information Czar today, needing a few seconds under 5:30 to finish.

I agree with the others that have recognized the increase in obscure proper nouns since the LAT re-editorized (c'mon, that sounds like a real word).

For clarity, the Star Wars character is "Poe Dameron."

Boomer, sorry to hear about your broken shoulder, but at least you've got another one of those.

CanadianEh! said...

Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Robert and Boomer (sorry to hear of your pratfall and shoulder injury).
I FIRed and saw the IC (ICee?) theme, but there were several inkblots.

Let me just quote ATLGranny: “I put eRMA/ERMA, doseS/PILLS and UNesco/UNICEF“
Plus I had Ecto before ENDO for my skeleton, and Iran before IRAQ.
Yes, there were a lot of different clues for all those names, but they perped eventually. But slightly above the usual Monday level IMHO.
This Canadian is not familiar with BALL STATE.

Let me beat Irish Miss in noting ELI/ILIE, YES/YEAS/ANTI.

SCIONS reminded me that I am hoping to do more Geneology sleuthing today on a new site.

Wishing you all a good day.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was not a Monday level puzzle for two reasons: 1) The non-straightforward cluing for well-known names, Poe, Tina, Kona, and Eli and 2) The non-Monday words, Bonsai, Scions, Ball State, and Banality. This is not a complaint nor criticism, just a personal observation and opinion. I saw the I-C theme early on and that made Inner Circle and Ivory Coast shoo-ins. My first thought for Holy Book was Torah or Koran until perps told me no, it’s Bible. Oodles of duos today with Info/Endo, Yeas/Yes, Eli/Elle, Def/Ref(s), OPEC/Oils, and Ill/Ilie. (That capital I bugs me). Plenty of CSOs, as well: Lucina (Dale and, I believe, La La), CEh, Ray O, and Inanehiker (Pills), Hahtoolah and Lemony (ABA), Bill W (Kiln), and Moe and Owen (Ode).

Thanks, Robert, for a smooth start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for entertaining and informing us despite your physical impediment. Feel better soon and be careful!

FLN

Anon T, good luck with your downsizing and new home adventures! (I have a PhD in moving-17 moves in 27 years.)

Have a great day.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...


WEES...
"The 411"? Sharon Olds poem? Actor ELI Goree? Anna Chumsky? TINA Majorino, Star wars POE? 🙉...Lemme check the calendar cuz not exactly Monday level clues ..ergo not the usual rapid fire head of the week performance but FIR and IC the theme.

OBOE back as loud as ever. IRONCURTAIN seems to have been dry cleaned and hanging again. I use REBAR as stakes to stabilize outdoor Christmas decorations

Is a female thespian an actor or an actress? Also I thought KONA made koffee.🤔

Inkovers: Ilia//ILIE, dell/DALE

Chips or slaw.....ASIDE
Petites boulevardes.....RUES
" ____ Sheep! get outta the meadow!"....EWES
Slippery winter driving condition....IC
I'm not saying in Toledo....NO DICE.

Boomer, driving with one arm? A good idea?Did you see my "bowling pins on a string" question last week?

ATLGranny said...

With your post, I see I erred in mine. It should have been eRMA/IRMA. I had it right on the puzzle in the end at least, and maybe I will keep those ladies straight in the future.

CrossEyedDave said...

Ok, so it's corny, somebody has to say it...

I dunno,
do you really think it was that hard for a Monday?

waseeley said...

Thank you Robert for a fun Monday FIR, with just a bit of extra crunch. Did I detect a hint of Patti punning in the cluing?

And thanks to Boomer, our Minnesota Iron Man for your review. You are an inspiration to us all.

Just a few favs:

1A AROD. BABE came to mind first, but it didn't perp.

38A OILS. Or "Art on walls".

40A DALE. A CSO to our Lucina, who is probably counting her church collection as I type this.

60A IVORY COAST. Côte d'Ivoire en Français.

42A ACAI. Added some of this to my smoothies for the first time this week. FWIW, the package says it's pronounced "A SIGH E".

39D BANALITY. No triteness in that Monday fill.

Cheers,
Bill

Monkey said...

I found the CW easy enough. The proper names didn’t bother me this time. Only snag, I misspelled BONzAI. That was dealt with quickly.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-An easy gimmick and Boomer coming through! I hope things for you and C.C. get better soon.
-Late week cluing – e.g. POE and ELI. Was it Patti or Robert? There’s a new sheriff in town.
-In the waning moments of play, NFL REFS are said to “swallow the whistle” as they do not want to decide the game
-I had not seen ODE followed by the preposition “of” and not “to”
-Mr. Miyagi’s discourse on BONSAI Tree

Lucina said...

Hola!

You people are amazing! Thank you, IrishMiss, for remembering my mother's nickname, LALA. We received a new counting schedule and I will go every other week so no, today I'm not on duty.

Yesterday I did not have time to finish the puzzle. We spent the afternoon with my daughter and her family because 1)a they will not have the children next week, and 2) daughter and hubby will be away for the weekend. Their wedding anniversary is the 4th and the 8th, besides being Mothers' Day is also Mark's birthday. He was born on actual VE Day. Lots of celebrating going on.

Today's puzzle was very easy with only ERMA changing to IRMA.

Wow! Two CSOs in this puzzle: besides DALE, also LALA. I guess that's the result of having names with four letters.

For me, "MY GIRL" recalls the Temptations.

There is no BANALITY on this site! You are all eloquent.

Several years ago we saw a display of BONSAI trees in B.C. Canada. They are amazing!

Luckily TINA perped. I would not have known that person, never having watched Veronica Mars.

From your comments it sounds like the Tony Caruso's are moving. I'll have to read yesterday's.

Have a great day, everyone!






Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks, Boomer. I hope that you will be healing quickly and feeling much better soon.

Misty said...

Fun Monday puzzle, even if not totally easy--nonetheless, many thanks, Robert. And, Boomer, so great to have you back today. Have a healthy week coming up, with good tests and all.

Puzzle that starts with a barrel of laughs is likely to be a RIOT.

How cool to get the PEQUOD showing up, not a frequent appearance in puzzles. Helped me fix IRAN and make it IRAQ.

NEAT to see the BIBLE right there in the middle of the puzzle.

I guess those PILLS didn't work very well, if the patient DIES. But that's C'est la VIE, I suppose.

Have a great week coming up, everybody.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

C-Eh! - BALL STATE used to play sports against our local uni. We used to joke that their teams were the Fighting Nads, and that their cheerleaders yelled GO! NADS! GO! NADS! GO! NADS!

(We were big on cheer parodies. We also made up one for our high school rivals, Sandy Hook. "Sandy Hook, Sandy Hook, we are IT! SH for Sandy Hook, and IT for IT!")

ATLGranny, my b-day was last month, but thanks anyway. I'm not boycotting anything, it's just that things change and just don't fit me anymore. The trousers I wore a couple of years ago are now 10 inches too big, but I don't hate them, I just need something else for the person I am now. BTW, I've thought that the LAT crosswords usually progressed (under Norris) in difficulty in this order:
Tuesday
Wednesday
Monday
Thursday
Sunday
Friday
Saturday

CED, the guy on ice looks like the two main Capitals goalies lately. Both can look brilliant at times, but both leak goals that they should stop. It's great that we made the playoffs, but I would be surprised if they make it through the first round.

Ray, I think "actress" has gone the way of "starlet".

Vidwan827 said...


Thank you R E L Moris ofr a rather crunchy Monday puzzle, which was surprisingly, a challenge.
Thank you Patti Varol for your editorial direction...

Thank you Boomer,( and CC ?) for stepping up to the plate for this review job - despite your trials and tribulations, ... I cannot imagine typing with a broken anything, leave alone a broken shoulder. I'm glad your humor remains unchanged, but it must be quite an effort.

Like others have said before me, the cluing for these 'new' set of Crossword puzzles, .... has risen up in the areas of difficulty, and that is sad, especially for a Monday, when you are supposed to entice new followers. I was most surprised when Lemonade, a General and Maven of CW puzzles, voiced such an opinion, earlier on today... !!

Maybe the new Guard wants to target a younger, more hip and eclectic audience. I hope they, the L. A. Times' management, have done their market research well.

I do the L. A. puzzle, firstly, because I want to come to this blog and share and understand the triumphs and pitfalls that others have gone through, and also partly to follow their lives... and I am too old to go looking around for other easier puzzles and corresponding blogs. Well, let us wait and see ...

I would like to thank the many others who try to introduce an element of humor in this blog, like C E D and Ray O Sunshine, and many others who I may have neglected to mention. I also come here to learn something new ( for me, ...) ... somewhere in between the titbits of inane info there lies a pearl, or two, waiting to be discovered, to add and enhance to the joys of life.
I better stop before I wax too much philosophy.

Have a great Monday, and the rest of the week, you all.

Kelly Clark said...


Thanks, Boomer -- I'm so sorry about your shoulder. PLEASE take care!

Picard said...

Hands up from other nerdy types here that IC stands for Integrated Circuit? My first one was the 555 timer. Yours?

Glad others are noticing that our new editor seems to use an over abundance of proper name clues and answers even when it is not necessary. Today I had to pause to get PEQUOD crossed with that utterly unknown ELI.

There is a dilapidated shed on weedy property about a 20 minute walk from our home. It took me awhile to realize it is home to the UC Santa Barbara KILN.

Here is a peek inside the CERAMICS shed to see the KILN inside. Paired with the weedy view outside.

Boomer Best wishes for a speedy shoulder healing and thanks for your humorous review.

From Yesterday:
CrossEyedDave Thank you for the fascinating carburetor video! I personally will be happy if I never have to deal with one of those ever again!

CrossEyedDave said...

Addendum to Picard,

Quite honestly, I hate taking apart those dang thingies,
(& apparently, they hate me...)

But, I have to say, I was about to take apart my weed eater carb to fix a runs on choke only issue,
when I thought, let me just try ramming some carb cleaner down this 25 year old piece of crap and see what happens...

Actually, I only wanted to burn off the year old (ethelyne) gas in the tank...

When, surprise to me, the dang thingie took off like it just came from the store. (After about 15 m8nutes of fiddling...)
Must have cleaned out all these nooks and crannies... no disassembly required...

Anywho,
I was told (by YouTube) that the metering diaphragm was probably stiff and no longer metering.
I am too cheap to buy a new diaphragm when the whole carb can be replaced for 20 bucks, but it turns out a product called 303 rubber seal protectant can restore the diaphragm if soaked overnight in it...

(Not CED approved yet, I gotta try this out first)
I heard of a guy that soaked them in pine sol (God knows why) and it does not work...)

Anywho,who,
I digress, I am really excited to get my old 2 stroke stuff running and adding to global warming..
(Yes, I like the smell of gasoline, but it doesn't smell as good since they took the lead out of it)

P.S. for a total mind blow,
check out this video on the above stuff I was babbling about...

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you, thank you, RELM, for a puzzle that I could enjoy and not struggle with. Somehow the unknown names perped in. Took me almost 15 minutes, but my laptop was doing strange things.
Tried Babe & Ruth before AROD. I wondered about an "N" before the "D" became apparent. Didn't know who Hank Aron(?) played for or how he spelled his name.

Saw the I C theme before I found the reveal. SCIONS & KONA slowed me up for a moment. Hand up for not knowing KONA was anything but coffee. Do they make alcoholic drinks out of pineapples?

Boomer, please take it easy and rest with that shoulder. Seems like activity makes shoulder breaks, surgery, etc. harder to heal. Even if you can drive with the other arm, movement there is attached to the injured wing. My very active brother is having a lot of pain in his shoulder a year after supposedly getting it fixed. Praying for relief from pain for you, Boomer. Thanks for letting us know about it and for doing the great expo.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Picard - My first experience with ICs were 7400 NAND gates on a breadboard. I was in a number systems and logic class (circa 1978), and we had to build various projects using the breadboard and jumper wires. The final was to figure out how to build a ring-tail counter that had one dark lamp at a time. By that time in the class it was pretty easy for me, and when I finished I realized that the other students weren't close to finished. So I borrowed a couple of chips from an unused student station, and modified the operation so that only one light at a time was on, instead of only one being dark. I called the instructor over to grade my project, thinking that he would be impressed by my ingenuity. Instead he told me it was unacceptable, and instructed me to rework it (which was easy, since I had just built the original project and negated each output).

That kiln building doesn't look too bad to me. But I can't figure out why it is sporting the sandbags, since it appears in the second picture that the roof is at least partially missing.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

First, not second, picture.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Jinx @ 12:15 pm...

36d clue was "Actress Fanning" . Many constructors use "actor" for both genders including the media.

Since there is no innate gender advantage to being male or female when it comes to acting maybe the "Academy" should present just a Best Actor Award to the best male or female actor and not individual best actor and actress awards. (Like "Best Director" not separate best male or female etc)

Just sayin'

😐

Ol' Man Keith said...

A nice piece of Monday PZL from Mr. Morris--properly served by our Boomer.

I shall say it once in this forum, and then I hope never to repeat myself.
"RICE (shudder)-a-Roni" is NOT any "San Francisco treat."
Buying ad space on a cable car should not entitle a corporate raider to call itself by the City's name.
As a native San Franciscan who rode a cable car to work every day, I swear such a sign was NEVER part of my City's authentic Genoese-Italian risotto dishes.
(My wife loves to get under my skin by humming that ditty. I don't need to have it repeated here.)
~ OMK
_____________
DR:
Only one diagonal today, far end.
Its anagram (12 of 15 letters) is a real curiosity. It apparently refers to the practice of Jewish mysticism in a particular corner of Los Angeles, CA.
(Yes, that must be what it means!)
It refers to the little-known...

"ENCINO QABALA"!

Jayce said...

I was hoping to enjoy this puzzle as I usually enjoy so many of them. I didn't. I can't put my finger on precisely why; suffice it to say it simply was not my cup of tea. Hand up for entering BABE before having to change it to AROD. I put in E--O and checked the perps to see if it would be ECTO or ENDO. I also used the perps to determine if it was BIBLE or KORAN or QURAN. Once I got the IC pattern it was easy to prefill the letter I at the beginning of the remaining two theme answers.

Why on earth, on Monday, clue POE, MY GIRL, TINA, ODE, and ELI that way?

Picard, yes on thinking of IC as Integrated Circuit. The first one I played with may very well have been the 555, but I don't remember for sure.

I continue to transmit good thoughts toward Boomer and C.C.

Take care, all.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

From last week:

Lucina - I sent an email to you with a different link for my Friday puzzle. Were you able to see and print it?

Again, thanks for all of the kind emails and comments re: my first "solo" at Newsday

As for today's xword: WEES about proper names and clues - ELI, TINA, and POE were all clued for a "younger" audience. I, too, had no idea that "POE" was the clued person's first name!

As many of us have come to realize, the X, Y, and Z generations will be the ones who either keep crossword-ing going, or not. I get to see the actual numbers of visits the Crossword Corner gets each day. The number of daily visits is in the low 4-digits (1,500 - 3,000), while there are usually fewer than 50 folks - on average - that offer a comment. It would be interesting to know how many of the "just visitors" are between 25-50 years old, e.g.

Today's puzzle from REL Morris was really quite tight and unforced. That is one of my "goals" as a new constructor. It seems "simple" but it really isn't! ;^)

"I" had no problem "C"-ing the theme. I also thought that the puzzle's theme was clearly a Monday-level in difficulty; the clues made it seem harder. I hope to work with Patti on a puzzle here someday ... just have to keep plugging away and create one that works for her

Thanks Boomer for continuing to provide a humorous and informative recap, despite your ailments. Your enthusiasm is contagious!

Ol' Man Keith said...

Jinx & Ray-O-Sunshine ~ I hear you re. gender-free titles, esp. as to actor/actress tradition
But then, I have always been a bit unhappy with the split between "Best" and "Supporting." Often the supporting award goes to the better actor.

But when I think twice, I see that by maintaining the old designations the academy allows for more artists to be recognized.
I'd rather see four people rewarded--than one--any day.

In fact, the only reason I see that the Academy shouldn't also break down the Directing categories (Best director of a drama," "...of a comedy," "...of a musical," "... of a slasher," etc etc.) or honor the individual performers in an ensemble piece is because the show would run much longer than it already does.
Now we can see the terrible deal the Academy made by going on TV in the first place. Time constraints are more important than honoring artists properly.
~ OMK

Michael said...

Hint to Jinx and -T: Make sure your new homes have plenty of storage space. You will be surprised, and --exhausted! -- in trying to downsize....

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised the "woke police" haven't leaned on our Robert E. Lee Morris. I'm pretty sure he was not at Gettysburg but common sense is not in their vocab.

Yellowrocks said...

Boomer, so sorry about your shoulder injury. I hope you heal quickly.
I edited my longer, chatty post this morning and then forgot to click on print. Gooone!
Time for my Zoom meeting now. I will try again tomorrow.
Having an urgent deadline in which to downsize and knowing how much space you will have when you move is a great motivator. Downsizing is a real PIA.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

C-Moe, Here's where I printed it:
https://www.arkadium.com/games/stan-newmans-daily-crossword/

Jinx in Norfolk said...

(Printed to my networked HP laser printer from a Win10 laptop using Firefox 99.0.1.)

Michael said...

Stared with the 8080, then the Z80, then the 8086 appeared. and everything about computers went murky. Still fondly remember the Kaypro ... the last understandable computer for me.

Chairman Moe said...

Jinx @ 6:10

Thanks for sharing the url

Lucina mentioned on Friday that she had trouble with printing from that link, so I sent her a .pdf in an email. She hadn't acknowledged so I wonder if my email might've gone into her spam folder

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Thanks for the fine puzzle RELM -- nearly a FIW at P_QUOD| _LI... 'I' or 'E'?
Like IM, the I-C theme was glommed onto at IRON CURTAIN.

And, thank you for the mighty-fine expo, Boomer. Good to see you're still in good humor after all your woes. Stop trying to get around so much and just chill for a bit, 'Bro.

WOs: changed I to E in PiQUOD [ME TOO saved PiQUaD]
ESPs: ELI, TINA|KONA, MY GIRL, SELA, ELLE...
Fav: BONSAI [Karate Kid - 4:52] //Hi HG!

inanehiker - that explains me not knowing POE. I was done with Star Wars after 3rd movie. To many years had passed to pick it back up.
And, C. Moe - I'm an Xer; puzzle didn't speak to me... //Erik Agard has up'd the USA Today from meh to interesting, so I have to give some props to the Young Turks. [Rod Stweart]

Jinx - the 'downsize' is temporary until the housing market becomes sane again. Then DW can get her dream home up-north (that's anything North of I-10, like D-O :-)). We love this house but...
ALTGranny - to that there will be no de-junking; just a large storage unit (my solution, Michael) for a couple of years :-)

IM - ?!? that's a lot of moves! This is our 3rd house in 25 years. If our bid ($25k over ask?!?) is accepted, this will be my penultimate move (unless DW kicks me to the curb).

C, Eh! / Jayce - what's an EctO-skeleton?* I know ExO but...?
EctO makes me think of plasm [Ghostbusters]

Picard, Jinx, & Michael - I remember the 555 timer along w/ the Zilog 8080 - I still have a couple of Z80s (late 80's version) in my IC / component tackle box (I'm sure some 555's are in there too) from my undergrad days.

Michael - LOL "last understandable computer." At the CPU level for sure. As CISC took over RISC in processing, all the pre-fetching, etc. optimization became too much for me to code 0's & 1's / assembly by hand.

Hope everyone had a great day and I hope to visit earlier tomorrow.

Cheers, -T

LEO III said...

FIR. I guess it might have been a little more difficult, but I’ve been complaining about obscure (TO ME!) names forever, so I’m not one to judge.

RELM, what I thought was really, really neat with your puzzle today was that I bet NOBODY filled in 1A FIRST! Anyone who did (correctly) is the absolute WAG champion of the universe! There are just too many of those guys with four-letter names or nicknames! Well done!!!

I’ve been griping about the Actor/Actress thing ever since I first heard it. All the died-in-the-wool feminists (both male and female) need to explain it to me. To me, “You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby” has been set back a couple hundred years.

I don’t have time to count the number of different abodes I’ve inhabited. Guess I’ll have to do that sometime.

Oh, Boomer! Be careful! Says the guy who comes home and is asked where did you get THAT bump or bruise or cut?!?!? Managed two of them a couple of Saturdays ago.

Lucina said...

Cmoe:
I'm sorry I had not commented sooner and I'm sorry to say that the puzzle did not print. My paper came out blank. I don't understand why.

CanadianEh! said...

LOL AnonT. You are correct re Ectoskeleton. It should be Exo. But I can find one usage. Phantom Works has a battle suit of that name. With all the mod clueing, we could have been correct!