google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday May 9, 2022 David Alfred Bywaters

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May 9, 2022

Monday May 9, 2022 David Alfred Bywaters

Theme: More to Follow - Last word, a synonym of "follower",  dupes the starting part of the first word. 

17. All-you-can-eat restaurant regular?: BUFFET BUFF.

28. Cemetery connoisseur?: HEADSTONE HEAD.

41. Obsessive Christmas-season ballet attendee?: NUTCRACKER NUT.

54. Trumpet flourish aficionado?: FANFARE FAN.

Boomer here again.  

I admit to being a BUFFET BUFF.  It's my second favorite activity in Las Vegas. (Of course the first would be the craps game).  C. C. and I have not been out there for over two years.  COVID sort of shut down the Graybar retirees reunion.

Across:

1. Got out of bed: AROSE. By any other name still smells the same, unless his name is Pete. 
 

 

6. "I double-dog __ you!": DARE.  To be great!

10. Inventor's need: IDEA. Alexander Bell invented a telephone and arrived at the patent office minutes before Elisha Gray. But, I wonder whom he called?

14. Off-the-wall: LOOPY.

15. Ill-fated biblical brother: ABEL.

16. Front page material: NEWS.  I read in the NEWS she buys booze by the vat.  What kind of life is that?

19. Discovery Channel's "Shark __": WEEK.

20. Water and Wall in NYC: STS.  Never thought much about abbreviations in crosswords.



21. Sunset locale: WEST.  Most of America is either west or east of the Mississippi.  C.C. and I are actually south of it.

22. Bit of advice: TIP.  Bit of pocket change.

23. Urge: YEN.  Still thinking of Las Vegas.

24. "I like it!": SUITS ME.

31. Asparagus unit: SPEAR.  Eat your green veggies.

33. IOUs: CHITS.

34. Software-made FX: CGI.

35. Late-night TV pioneer Jack: PAAR.  I never stayed up late enough to watch.


36. Capital city near the Sphinx: CAIRO.

37. __-a-brac: BRIC.

38. Earth Day mo.: APR.  Easter and Spring, normally.

39. Carried: BORNE.

40. Campaign poster imperative: ELECT.  Lots of voting is coming soon to a booth near you.

44. Fill to the brim: SATIATE.  And I have a large coffee cup.

45. The "A" of IPA: ALE.  I prefer Canada Dry.  It's not too sweet.

46. Elev.: HGT.

47. Epic story: SAGA.

49. In the past: AGO.  I can still remember how the music used to make me smile.  American Pie.


52. Greek queen of heaven: HERA.

57. Baking soda target: ODOR.  Orioles second baseman.



58. Deceitful sort: LIAR.  Pants on fire.

59. "Monty Python and the Holy __": GRAIL.

60. Taverns: PUBS.

61. Former constellation named for a mythological ship: ARGO.  Corn starch also.

62. Before the deadline: EARLY. We get up EARLY. Our paper usually arrives around 4:00 AM.  The L.A. Times has the largest circulation west of the Mississippi.  Our Minneapolis Star Tribune comes in second however.

Down:

1. Priestly robes: ALBS.  I do not see them wearing them anymore.

2. Embarrassing loss: ROUT.  Twins at Baltimore last Wednesday.


3. Punch-in-the-gut reactions: OOFS.

4. Sunscreen letters: SPF.

5. Glasses, monocles, etc.: EYEWEAR.  I only need mine to read.

6. Applies gently: DABS.

7. Be next to: ABUT.  Look behind you.

8. NFL arbiter: REF.

9. Will Ferrell Christmas film: ELF.



10. A crony of: IN WITH. The IN CROWD. 

11. Closely held confidence: DEEP SECRET.

12. Lamb nurser: EWE.

13. "That's a pretty big __": ASK.  And you shall receive.

18. Be inclined (to): TEND.

22. Bolos and ascots: TIES. I never wore either

23. 52 19-Acrosses: YEAR. 52 weeks.  In China, 2022 is the YEAR of the Tiger.  Not Detroit baseball nor Mr. Woods.

24. Evening party: SOIREE.

25. "Do __ others ... ": UNTO.  And they might do you back.

26. Marie Kondo's "The Life-Changing __ of Tidying Up": MAGIC.



27. Official order: EDICT.

28. Hunk on a magazine cover, e.g.: HEARTTHROB.  I never had one on Sports Illustrated.

29. Hard to find: SCARCE.  An Albert Pujols rookie card.



30. Rack one's brains: THINK.  I am convinced that a brain needs racking to finish a crossword.

31. Extends across: SPANS.  We have walked many times across the Mississippi.  Our northern bridge SPANS about a quarter mile.

32. __ New Guinea: PAPUA.

36. Dredge in flour before cooking, e.g.: COAT.  Chicken drumsticks work well.

37. Cookie Monster's color: BLUE.



39. Ill-behaved child: BRAT.

40. Make bigger: ENLARGE.  Portfolios were not ENLARGED last week.

42. Stogies: CIGARS.  Not bad, as long as you do not light 'em up!

43. Anoushka Shankar's music genre: RAGA.



47. Minor impediment: SNAG.  Bad news while fishing.

48. Frequent hairstyle for Diana Ross and Tracee Ellis Ross: AFRO.  I could never make my hair do this.  Now I don't have much hair left.

49. Off in the distance: AFAR.

50. "Wonder Woman" comic book writer Simone: GAIL.


51. Mere: ONLY.

52. Imitate a bunny: HOP.  House of Pancakes.

53. Academic address ending: EDU.

54. Ga. neighbor: FLA.  Played golf and visited Disney once in the 80s.  Fun vacation.

55. Balloon filler: AIR.

56. Stat for a pitcher: ERA.  Over 4.00 is not too good.

Boomer



 

54 comments:

  1. As usual for a Monday, an easy- peasey puzzle. Didn't know Gail or "The... Magic of Tidying Up" but the perps made them clear. FIR, so I'm happy.

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  2. Good morning ! Congratulations to my darling wife Zhouqin aka C.C. A crossword created by her is published in the Universal section on the game page of our Minneapolis Star Tribune. I went after it and finished about two-thirds. (I also did the Soduko in about 15 seconds.) Have a great day to all. I am off to the VA to see if I can get my shoulder fixed. Then back to Minnesota homeland for 80 degree weather for the rest of the week.

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  3. Good morning!

    Easy peasy with no reveal required -- d-o's kind of puzzle. This one came together in a flash with hardly a need to check the perps. Thanx, D.A.B. and Boomer (Good luck today. I imagine even typing is a chore with that shoulder fracture. I hope the VA docs can get you back on the road to receovery.)

    ELECT : We had a statewide election on Saturday. There was a proposition to limit how much property tax the state is permitted to collect, and another to increase the homestead exemption. Can you believe that they both passed? Yeah, 90% approved. The other 10% are apparently dead.

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  4. Hi Y'all! Thank you, D.A.B. for a sensible workable puzzle. Thank you, Boomer, for another humorous take on the puzzle. Good luck on your VA visits & shoulder repairs.

    DABS: the constructor's shout out to himself. Worth a chuckle.

    Got the theme with #2.

    Only unknown was GAIL but she perped easily. No red-letter runs today. Yay!

    Read "closely held conference" instead of "confidence" but got the DEEP SECRET with perps.

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  5. FIR, but erased inns for PUBS and fixed ARiSE. PAY ATTENTION TO TENSE, JINX! Same unknowns as Sub. CSO to our ATLGranny. I had the middle "L", but waited to see if ALA or FLA was the needed neighbor.

    I've used the G-rated question "does the Cookie Monster have BLUE fur?" when "does a bear [go potty] in the woods?" isn't appropriate.

    Thanks to DAB for the fun, easy puzzle. And thanks for the puns, Boomer. You and CC may be the only Minnesota folks who have only been to FLA once. When we're there, it seems like most license plates are from MINN, MICH, or Canada. I'll check out today's CC puzzle. I worked her USA Today puzzle from yesterday, yesterday. Glad you are having nice weather. Coastal Virginia is stuck between an offshore low and a high to our west. The resulting noreaster is holding temps in the 50s with winds in the 20s until Wednesday.

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  6. FIR. Simple, straight forward Monday puzzle, no gimmicks, no problems. Nice.

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  7. I was a PROcess Pro today in 4:40.

    Seems like a typical Monday puzzle.

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  8. Seems all have the same two DNKs: MAGIC and GAIL. FIR in 13, got the theme with the second theme clue, which helped. Thanx DAB for a very nice Monday level (unclefred level) CW. Very enjoyable. Thanx too to Boomer for his entertaining write-up. Keep us posted on the shoulder and chemo, please.

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  9. Great recap, Boomer, except I do SUDOKU puzzles not soduko.

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  10. Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, David and Boomer.
    I FIRed in good time, and saw the pair theme early.

    Hand up for requiring perps for GAIL. I wondered about Shark Geek, but perps made it WEEK.
    Who else thought of the Triple-dog DARE in A Christmas Story?

    I smiled to see the Condo MAGIC crossing the BRIC-a-brac that is usually the first to be thrown out.
    We had PUBS and ALE, SAGA crossing RAGA.

    THINK is an understatement for “Rack one’s brain”.
    Good catch, PK, re the DABS SO.

    We are now in election mode as the Ontario provincial race to ELECT our MPPs is officially underway. Thankfully we only have a month of rhetoric before the June 2 date at the polls. We will be SATIATED in the NEWS by then.

    Wishing you all a great day. Hope all the Mothers were as spoiled by their families on the weekend as I was.

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  11. Like Marie Kondo, this puzzle sparked joy but some clues did not and should be tossed: OOFS, put that in the file with uey and ired both don't bring me joy either 😐. Clever theme except HEAD STONEHEAD didn't seem to fit. 🤔

    Inkover: debts/CHITS

    "I kid you not" I can never remember if it's PAAR or PARR (Henry VII last wife 👸Katherine, who kept her head about her). CAIRO: KY-ro in Egypt, (but KAY-ro, NY...Irish M recently told me). "Greek Queen of Heaven" first thought was "Theotokos"...the constructor prolly meant Mt. Olympus, (with all its shenanigans 🤨..is not exactly "heaven")

    "Inventors need" is really cash (think "Shark Tank" but not a whole "Week"). "That's a pretty big " AS ...K (no, not ABUT). "RACK one's brains"... how Zombies start a game of pool? 🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️

    When I was little guy remember Gram insist Grampa smoke his "Stogies" and their pungent ODOR outside or in the cellar.
    A HEARTTHROB means my A Fib is kicking in 💕

    GPS indication.....ROUT
    You can dress how you like, don't fret over what _____ ....EYEWEAR.
    A good horror movie has lots of ___......SCARCE
    Tedious....BORNE.
    What if the lady dined?.....SATIATE

    Belated Happy mothers, grandmothers, great grandmother's and as my daughter Catherine reminded us, Godmothers day. (She is our oldest granddaughter's)

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  12. Good Morning:

    This was an easy, breezy solve, a typical Monday, newbie friendly. The theme was obvious early on which hastened the solve. Nutcracker Nut was my favorite. Gail was unknown but perps solved that quickly enough and the only w/o was Awoke/Arose. We had several fun pairings with Ale/Pubs, News/Week, Ago/Argo, Wear/Fare, and Heart/Head/Eye. CSOs to our Academics (Edu) and our Florida denizens (Fla).

    Thanks, David, for a fun start to the week and thanks, Boomer, for the fun and facts. Good luck with your appointments.

    FLN

    PK, I’m far from being an expert, but I have been solving for 40+ years and have seen many changes in the crossword world, some good, some not so good, IMVHO. Of course, as with life itself, change is inevitable, so we adapt and adjust but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.

    Have a great day.

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  13. Canada Eh

    I would recommend you see Canada's comic treasure Mike Myers in "The Pentaverate" limited series on NETFLIX, totally wacky and typically irreverant Myers silliness. Mike plays at least 7 roles. One scene where an American journalist is learning how to speak "Canadian" to go underground in Toronto.

    One character sports a t-shirt that says

    🍁 CANADA🍁
    Living the American dream without the violence
    Since 1867

    😄


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  14. Easy puzzle. I sussed the theme with the first themer. MAGIC and GAIL were new to me, but a perp or two sufficed to get them.
    Ray, that was my first thought, too, a pretty big AS*
    Our clergy still wear albs.
    We watched Jack Paar and later Johnny Carson almost every night we were home. We lost interest in the newer hosts.
    Can you imagine the abuse a kid would suffer with the surname of ODOR?
    I am getting around well with a walker with less pain,


    Although Kenny got this diploma in January and already has a good job, his graduation ceremony will be next Friday. David is having a party for him next Saturday and was planning to celebrate Mother's Day and Kenny's and Alan's birthdays on Sunday. I planned to pick up Alan and drive there for the weekend. Not. So David and family picked up Alan and came here yesterday just for the day. They brought homemade lasagna. What a lovely Mother's Day, birthdays and graduation celebration.
    Yesterday we had a fabulous Mother's Day buffet here with more choices than it was possible to sample. I sat there and talked with friends for an hour and a half.
    I hope all you ladies had a wonderful day.

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  15. 1. JAYCE my comments were not in response to anything you wrote yesterday or any day.

    2. I feel much of the reaction expressed by PL and YR but I have watched puzzle change many times since I first watched my parents solve in the early 50s. It just is. Sit back and enjoy the ride or get off the train, they will not go bak

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  16. Ray O Sunshine .... you always crack me up !! ;-)

    Thanks David Bywaters (DAB) for a nice and enjoyable Monday puzzle, ( for a change) . Restored my confidence in my CW puzzle solving.

    Thanks Boomer, for a funny charming review.

    Your IDEA about Elisha Gray, the noted Electrical Engineer, and professor at Oberlin, Ohio ... ...

    The alleged inventor of the telephone idea, which Alexander Bell, supposedly stole with his patent, ... a legal controversy.

    Actually, Elisha Gray, went on a very successful career, bought out a company, which became the very successful and massive ... Western Electric,... the right hand of ATT ...
    .... and was also the co-founder of GrayBar - where Boomer worked,
    .... and the name of GrayBar is the combination of Mr. Gray and Mr. Barton - his partner. GrayBar an employee owned company ... is one of the most successful companies of its kind, in the US.


    All this, took me down a large rabbit hole, and I spent an enjoyable hour reading all this....
    Thank you for my learning moment of the day.

    THINK ... used to be the world famous logo of Big Blue ...IBM ... and their engineers and programmers presumably did a lot of it ....

    The word 'chit' for IOU ... comes from a hindi word - chitti - which stands for a ( little ) letter, or note. Popularized by the British, during the Raj empire.

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

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  17. What a fun, easy puzzle. I started in the south for some reason, and got Fanfarefan immediately and knew then it would be an enjoyable ride. I need fun and easy on a Monday.

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  18. Lemony..one change since the 60's when Dad would do the puzzle before I got home from school was a two word answer was clued that way.... 1a. Fine fellow (2 words) ....answer NICE GUY.

    Also a theme that when multiple answers were linked spelled out a common phrase or adage seems to have fallen from favor. I actually like those.

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  19. A FIR Monday and very enjoyable. Thanks, DAB! Like PK and unclefred, I completely got the theme with the second, though I had noticed the B beginnings in the first as well as the FF combinations. I just missed seeing the repeated word and the overall meaning.

    I had some missteps due to pen getting ahead of brain: Esau/ABEL, alT/HGT, and aLA/FLA (my excuse is that Alabama is closer to me than Florida and I hadn't filled in FANFARE yet!) I agree with Ray-O that HEADSTONE HEAD isn't as familiar a phrase as BUFF, NUT or FAN, but whatever..... The theme was good and puzzle fill Monday appropriate.

    Thanks, Boomer, for your jolly review and general info. Please let us know what you find out today. Hope your shoulder is getting more comfortable!

    Time to fix lunch. Hope you all have a great start to the week!

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  20. Anonymous @ 7:26 AM

    I have appreciated your quips and especially today's observation that you were a PROcess PRO!

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  21. Actually, folks, a fan of the Grateful Dead is called a "Deadhead" so to call an aficionado a "head" isn't that farfetched, IMHO. Just a thought, on this delightfully easy Monday.

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  22. Vid Wan to add to the controversy

    Thomas Edison called a news conference to showcase his new invention. The reporters gathered around a clear glass bulb with a wire inside. Edison charge up a generator and the bulb suddenly glowed bright

    The press was astounded.

    "No, no" said Edison, "That's not it."

    He brought his mouth up close to the bulb and said

    "HELLO?"


    Cannot tell a lie, heard this on NPR ☺

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  23. My two cents worth...Sunday's puzzle was a doozie. Had too many cheats and look-ups that it wasn't fun anymore Even DW, and she's a pro, DNF. Now that Spring has sprung here in Token Creek, I just can't spend that much time working a CW puzzle. Probably just do a "JINX" and not even try. Unless it's a constructor who I already know like Jeff Wex or C.C.

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  24. As a side note, my comment today was the first time I did a "copy and paste" from Word Pad. My my, how easy was that??

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  25. Thanks for the recap, Boomer. Good luck today with the shoulder.

    Earlier, I had the opportunity to open the Shortyz crosswod app and have a look at what is titled "In A Sense" by Zhouqin Burnikel. I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone else so let's leave it at "look".

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  26. Musings
    -Warren BUFFET just finished his Berkshire Hathaway gathering in Omaha last week and it was attended by thousands of wealthy BUFFET BUFFS
    -Did you get a TIP to bet on 80 – 1 Rich Strike in the Kentucky Derby this year?
    -We are getting at least ten SPAM RISK (caller ID) calls every day. ELECT someone already!
    -Our Omaha paper is delivered early also. Where it gets tossed is a daily mystery.
    -Time to get off my Big AS*. I’m off to crank up my electric mower before the predicted 96oF heat gets here.

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  27. Delightful Monday puzzle, many thanks, David. And am always so happy to see you do the Monday commentary, Boomer, many thanks for that too.

    Yes, the assorted pairings made this puzzle a lot of fun. I too liked seeing that ALE ready to be served in the PUBS, maybe along with some NUTS. Since it was EARLY, I'm sure everything had a good ODOR.

    Also liked seeing THINK and IDEA, something we especially enjoy in our EDU.

    Have a great week coming up, everybody.

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  28. Enjoyable clever theme! A bit puzzled by HEADSTONE HEAD as CONNOISSEUR. Has anyone heard of HEAD used to mean CONNOISSEUR?

    Learning moment that ARGO is a FORMER CONSTELLATION that has been split in three.

    Here we paused at our own COOKIE MONSTER while I was leading a local hike.

    Ours is not BLUE.

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  29. Picard @12:49 PM Connoisseurs of fine weed?

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  30. What at dream team: DAB (DAB And Boomer) with which to start the week! A leisurely solve and a helpful theme. What more can we ask to SATIATE our cruciverbal YENS?

    A few favs:

    19A WEEK. Not TANK.

    21A WEST. A very informative comment Boomer!

    34A CGI. Computer Generated Imagery. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but CGI has given rise to what are now called "Deep Fakes", videos of people you know, saying things they wouldn't normally say. And guess what kids, you can make them yourself!

    61A ARGO. The cornstarch is made by Archer Daniels Midland. My hippie cousin works the night shift for them in Illinois and rides his Harley to Baltimore once or twice a year to buy crabs. A great guy, who is also a collector and expert on Staffordshire, England ceramics. He is definitely for real.

    2D ROUT. I don't want to talk about about. But then I'm only a fair weather O's fan.

    6D DABS. CSOs to today's constructor and one of my favorites. As I won't have a puzzle to solve this Thursday, I'll download one of the Saturday puzzles from his website of puzzles, Victorian novels, and beautiful Victorian art.

    43D RAGA. Ravi's daughter. Here's her formula for being a man's ideal woman. Good luck with that.

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  31. Picard @12:49 P.M. - See my comment @11:10 a.m. and Jinx's comment @12:40 p.m. Do these comments answer your question, at least partially?

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    Replies
    1. Oh, like Picard I wondered, but yes, I've seen deadhead, pothead and gearhead before. Thanks, Jinx and Subgenius! Makes better sense now.

      Delete
  32. Puzzling thoughts:

    Yellowrocks @ 9:48: imagine having the last name "Gross"? I guess I was fortunate to have grown up in an area where that surname was popular (York County, PA), and I'm old enough that the negative meaning of the word "gross" was not yet the primary one. I came to know it as "large" (from the German) or to mean 12 dozen. My kids, however, were often teased but they got over it.

    I suppose a baseball player named ODOR might hear after striking out: "You stink!!"

    FIR. Two w/o's @ ALT/HGT, and I began 28-across with the word DEAD, which was easily corrected when HEART THROB filled in 28-down. Thanks to those who explained further the word "head" as it pertains to a "connoisseur"

    Which of course had me think of a haiku:

    Grateful Dead fan who
    Lives on a cul-de-sac is
    A dead end dead head

    I really enjoy DAB puzzles as they are generally quite "tight" and ultimately solvable

    Boomer, thanks for keeping your wits and good humor throughout your medical battles

    A random thought: do you think that all puzzles should be solvable, or is it just fine to have ones that you spend a long time trying, but just can't solve? Even after looking some words up?

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    Replies
    1. Don't forget all of us Parrot Heads out here! (Buffet buffs?)

      Delete
  33. Thanks to Mr. Bywaters and to Boomer for a pleasant start to the week.

    I enjoyed the theme of repeating part of the object of desire to name the desirer.
    My own fave is 41A. I count myself as something of a NUTCRACKER NUT. I particularly enjoy how new versions treat the various national types, especially to see how they revise the formerly racist elements.
    I suppose my favorite part is the Pas de Deux, an extraordinary way of introducing children in the audience to the passions of life.
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    Three diagonals on the far side.
    The central line offers up a rich assortment of anagrams. I will only choose the one (11 of 15 letters) that speaks of an effect of cannabis on the susceptible brain.
    Some subjects have experienced difficulty in holding onto a particular concept, thought, or notion for more than, say, 10 seconds. This is a phenomenon we may call...

    "IDEA WARPING"!

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  34. C-Moe, I like a lot of puzzles that I can't solve; I see them as growth opportunities. What I don't enjoy are those that look like they were generated in honor of Entertainment Tonight, or have a lot of foreign words / geography, or appear to be written as part of a literature class project.

    We who have "S" as the last letter of their degrees are just as capable of coming up with clues that are easy for us, but obscure to those whose degrees end in "A". For instance, "ISO's third of seven" is a Monday-easy NETWORK fill for us, as is "Trig reminder" for SOHCAHTOA. But I'm not advocating for "nerd grids", just pointing out how un-fun they could be for folks who haven't pursued those educational avenues.

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  35. C-Moe and YR - My mom dated a guy named Parker Pieratt (pronounced PEE-rat). Had she not found my dad, I could have been Parker Pieratt Jr, no doubt "junior pee-rat" in grade school.

    BTW, military drill sergeants were known for nicknaming recruits. I have a friend with the last name of Bloomquist. On the first day of boot camp he became "Private Bloomers".

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  36. ATLGranny: Thank you. I'm glad you've gotten some enjoyment out of them.

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  37. Thx to DAB&Boomer Boomer, would that be Rougned ODOR?

    Always a handful of clues I discover during the write-up

    Started in ink finished online in ten minutes. Had to slow for a perp here and there

    Jinx, I could see that weather pattern from the Wells Fargo Golf tournament

    I actually thought it was Shark tanK.. The EWE was solid though

    Picard, you must remember "The Old Man in the Mountain"
    Sadly no more. Btw, Jinx just used HEAD as connoisseur re. GearHEAD(S noted by others)

    WC


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  38. Anonymous @ 2:35:

    Good catch on the "Parrot Heads" = Buffet [sic] Buffs

    Which prompted another haiku:

    Parrot Heads' least fav-
    Orite flick: "Whatever Hap-
    Pened to Baby Jane?"




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  39. Forgot to mention how I'm doing with the Covid. I got the Paxlovid late Friday and started taking it immediately. It seems to be working, as the deep debilitating coughing has disappeared, although I still have zero energy. The at-home tests are still showing a VERY positive "infected" line, so the virus hasn't given up. I do recommend anybody that gets this virus get the Paxlovid ASAP. It works, but hasta be started within 5 days of getting the virus. Damn tired of sitting in this house.

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  40. Gary, I'm glad I'm not the only one who filled in 13D "That's a pretty big AS*. I didn't think that it could be right.

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  41. I liked this puzzle and got a kick out of the theme answers. Like Ol'Man Keith, I am something of a NUTCRACKER NUT. IMO the most beautiful piece in that ballet is the Pas de Deux.

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  42. unclefred, I'm glad that Paxlovid is working for you and I hope you get better soon.

    So, Everdeen Mason, the NYT Games editor, has sunk his meathooks into the Wordle game and changed today's original answer because he thought it "might" offend some people. I sure hope this is not the first step down a slippery slope.

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  43. I wondered about that, Jayce, because I read the "Warning" before today's Wordle, stating that the answer was not meant to offend.
    But when I solved it, I could not for the life of me think WHY it might bother anyone.
    I did not know they had already changed it, that the original answer was FETUS.
    You could see how that might stir some controversy. (Or, should I say additional controversy?)
    ~ OMK

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  44. Writing poetry
    With seventeen syllables
    Is very diffi

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  45. Yeah, Ol' Man Keith, the original Wordle answer, before Ms. Mason changed it, was indeed FETUS. Of course, that word was programmed into the game even before the NYT bought the game, months and months before the document by you-know-who was leaked. What bothers me is that she singlehandedly, unilaterally, deemed it to be too offensive to publish. Sheesh, it's just a word, randomly selected from thousands of pre-programmed 5-letter in-the-dictionary words. I, for one, don't want a simple game I enjoy playing to be censored simply because some editor deems it possibly offensive to "some people" (her words).

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  46. Ha ha ha ha :) Good one, Malodorous Mana!

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  47. MalODORous at 6:11

    I smell a sea cow ...

    Well played, sir

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  48. Uncle Fred, hope you have a speedy recovery. Thanks for the info on the meds. I haven't had the shots so am nervous about getting covid. Knowing about the meds helps.

    Lemonade: it seems stupid to annoy or drive off your current fan base in hopes of attracting new younger cw solvers. Newspapers started making the print so small in their publications that many of us who are elderly can no longer read it. I think newspapers going online is a good idea, but it really hasn't enriched those newspapers, has it? Will younger people want to do crosswords when they go back to work full time or will they favor their electronic games? I'm not against change so much as being ridiculous about it.

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  49. Easy enough Monday puzzle. As others have said, I needed perps for GAIL, and I misspelled PAPUA, but NUT fixed that one.

    I’ve never learned The Life Changing MAGIC of Tidying Up, which kinda summarizes my life.

    Southwest Airlines used to paint some of their planes with SHARK livery for Shark Week. Looks like 2018 might have been the last time they did it, with five different ones. I’ll have to go back and check my photos.

    I wouldn’t call us HEADSTONEHEADS, but many photographers visit Glenwood Cemetery here in Houston. The first burial there was in 1872, and it is the resting place of many famous Houstonians, including Howard Hughes and Gene Tierney. Some of the architecture and statuary are amazing, and there is also a 100+ year-old oak tree there. Yes, I have photos of both of those graves and the tree.

    Isn’t CAIRO, IL, also pronounced KAY-ro?

    ReplyDelete

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