google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday June 13, 2022 John Lieb

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Jun 13, 2022

Monday June 13, 2022 John Lieb

Theme: GOAT (69. Superlative acronym spelled out by the starts of the answers to the starred clues)

20. *Title of many compilation albums: GREATEST HITS.

34. *Not at all talkative: OF FEW WORDS.

42. *Taylor Swift song with the lyrics "You can't get rid of it / 'Cause you remember it ... ": ALL TOO WELL.

54. *"There's no way to know yet": TIME WILL TELL.

Boomer here. I am not sure who could be the G.O.A.T today, but nominations are open! My nomination for G.O.A.T. is a pride of Minnesota, Judy Garland where Grand Rapids Minnesota celebrated her 100th birthday on June 10.  Judy is resting Somewhere over the Rainbow after her death in 1969.  Can anyone name a different movie that is rerun on telecast on dozens of TV stations every year?  Or also portrayed on high school drama stages if they only have a brain?

A very busy week is coming for C.C. and me with VA visits to Orthopedics, Oncology, Radiation, and a quick stop for a blood draw. We'll be there many hours which could include lunch in the cafeteria.  Been there once before and it was pretty ordinary.

 Across:

1. Mustang automaker: FORD.  I had one of these in 1968.  Dependable and economical.

5. Honey liquor: MEAD.  Honey and liquor don't seem to go together.



9. "__ Mia!": ABBA musical: MAMMA.

14. Nike rival: AVIA.  I did not know that NIKE had any rivals.

15. Convention center event: EXPO.  Great place for a baseball card show.

16. Noble gas in some lasers: ARGON.

17. Prepare for a newborn's arrival: NEST.  Perhaps if you're a bird.

18. Softball glove: MITT.  Catcher's glove is called a MITT.  Also Senator Romney.

19. Entice: TEMPT.  Pizza anyone??



23. Old 1-Across named for a horse: PINTO.  This was cheapest.

24. Stores: SHOPS.  I think SHOPS is better known as a verb.

27. Costello partner: ABBOTT.  ABBOTT labs in Minnesota made news for their baby formula product recently.



30. Sweetie: BAE.

31. Vote in favor: YEA.  Holler in New York when Aaron is introduced.


33. Actress Polo: TERI.  Phoebe's mom on "Friends".

38. Take along: BRING.  Maybe I should  BRING a lunch this week.

40. ISP pioneer: AOL.

41. Covert agents: SPIES.

45. "To be," in French: ETRE.  "Or not to be, that is the question".

46. Up to, briefly: TIL.  The end of time.

47. Directional suffix: ERN.

48. Agitation: UNREST.

50. White __ machine: sleep aid: NOISE.  Way over my head!


52. Sight-singing teaching method: SOLFA.  Two notes down the scale.

59. Infomercial dude: AD MAN.

62. Dancer Falana: LOLA.

63. Drink whose logo has frosted letters: ICEE.  Bag that helps deal with shoulder pain.  The VA sent one home with me.

64. LEGO brand for tots: DUPLO.  Huge LEGO display in Mall of America.  C.C.'s favorite megamall.



65. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB.

66. CBS military drama: NCIS.

67. Reproductive health pro: OB-GYN.

68. Pop artist Warhol: ANDY.  Sheriff  Taylor reruns.

Down:

1. Long, pointed tooth: FANG.  No, I have dentures. 

2. "Evvie Drake Starts __": novel by Linda Holmes: OVER. Pilot in "Airplane" 


 

3. Counterpart of run in calculating the slope of a line: RISE.


4. Unit of information: DATA POINT.

5. Foul ball caught at a game, e.g.: MEMENTO.  I only have one in my lifetime.  My son once caught two in the same game.

6. Have life: EXIST.  I guess that covers all of us.

7. Likely will, after "is": APT TO.

8. Biblical verb: DOTH.  I'll stick with "DOES"

9. "Crash Into Me" rock group Dave __ Band: MATTHEWS.  Take away a "T" and you have Milwaukee HOFer Eddie.



10. Childish retort: ARE SO.  AM NOT!

11. Old RKO rival: MGM.

12. Messy hairdo: MOP.

13. Industrious insect: ANT.  Not sure how they dig homes in our driveway.

21. __ for tat: TIT.

22. "No need to tell me what happened there": I SAW.  If the board is too long ...

25. Mineral that resembles gold: PYRITE.



26. Passover meals: SEDERS.

27. Facing the pitcher: AT BAT.

28. German capital: BERLIN.  Never got there.  I was only in Hardheim.

29. S.O.S alternative: BRILLO.  Steel wool.

30. Kristen of "The Good Place": BELL.



32. Strong point: ASSET.  Pile of money.

35. Young deer: FAWN.  Bambi.

36. Adversary: FOE.

37. The "O" of iOS: OPERATING.  The team did me about two weeks ago.

39. Contributes to, as a group gift: GOES IN ON.  Take up a collection.

43. Utah city near Provo: OREM.

44. Soothing song: LULLABY. In the tree top.

49. Super Bowl org.: NFL.  They are already practicing.

51. Setting of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels: ITALY.

52. Faint: SWOON.

53. Lubricated: OILED. Some get OILED in the bar.

55. "Boo'd Up" singer __ Mai: ELLA.  My grandma's name

56. Danish shoe brand: ECCO.

57. A Skywalker twin: LEIA.  a Princess.

58. For fear that: LEST.

59. Hullabaloo: ADO.

60. Name: DUB.  Beer brand spelled backward.

61. Fuel efficiency stat: MPG.  Advantage with today's gas prices!

Boomer



50 comments:

OwenKL said...

FIRight, despite ELLA crossing LOLA, LOEB, and ANDY. I knew ANDY, but still left 3 in a cluster.

Got the theme, but not legally. Hit the reveal. Usually I can skip to the next word without reading the reveal, but this time I saw one word. Start. That was all the hint I needed to get the theme as soon as I started looking for it.

Sill in a slump, poetry-wise.

Subgenius said...

To me, this puzzle seemed to have significantly more "crunch" than the average Monday puzzle, with words like "Solfa" and "Duplo." Nevertheless, I managed to navigate it successfully. FIR, so I'm happy.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

No problems this morning. Missed reading the full reveal clue, as usual, but did notice the G-O-A-T in the themers. D-o calls that a win. Thanx, John and Boomer. (Good luck with your heavy medical schedule this week.)

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR without erasure. Culture clues filled by perps made this one tolerable. I almost forgot LOLA at the Copa.

My former boat partner knows Dave Matthews, but I'm not sure exactly how.

Gotta pack up the RV and head for home. Nice 4-day weekend with a visit with my stepson (closer than my biodaughter) and his wonderful wife.

Near-CSO to John Lieb @ LOEB. Thanks for the puzzle; hope some of the pop cluing was from Patti, not you. And thanks to Boomer for the humor.

KS said...

FIR, despite all the crossings of proper names (yuk). And 52A is still a mystery to me. Solfa? Nope, not in my world.

desper-otto said...

KS, I think the name is a mashup of the 5th and 4th musical notes, sol and fa. No idea how it's supposed to work, though.

Anonymous said...

Finished this Monday's puzzle in 3:50, although it does really get my Goat when proper nouns cross.

Ella somebody with some "Boo'd up" song crossing some dancer and Lisa Loeb is an interesting choice. Just as OKL noted above.

Solfa? And for that matter, I have never heard of "sight singing".

Tony Express said...

Boomer, C.C. gets my nomination for G.O.A.T. wife. She certainly does an amazing job at loving and caring for you!

Unknown said...

Finished with no problems. Clues I didn’t know, perked nicely.
Boomer, years ago my step father was in VA hospital in Spokane, WA. My mother lived 200 miles away. I drove 400 miles to pick her up to go visit when school was out in spring. I took 2 of my sons, ages 10 and 12 along. We ate in hospital cafeteria every day. We stayed about two weeks.
Fast forward a month: my husband and kids traveled to Spokane to visit his relatives. Subject came up as to where to go out to eat. Both those sons said, "Let’s go to VA hospital cafeteria!! We love the food there!"

Montana

Unknown said...

How can I get my profile back?

Montana

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Fun & fast puzzle, thanks, John! Fun expo, Boomer, hope you get nothing but good news this week.

Last to fill: The "S" in NEST = prep for a newborn. DUH! And I couldn't come up with "U" in the DUPLO/DUB cross. DUPLO came after my kids & Gkids passed that stage, I guess. Didn't have the "D" in ADMAN because I thought it wanted the dude's proper name and there are so many commercials. I sure knew OBGYN tho. Been there done that.

Got the theme altho I'm not crazy about the G.O.A.T. designation fad. Seems a bit demeaning.

DNK: TERI, ETRE, SOLFA, ELLA.

PK said...

Montana, got a chuckle out of your VA hospital cafeteria story. Good to see you back.

Yellowrocks said...

This was not at all Monday-like. FIR without help by using perps and wags. I thought Monday puzzles were supposed to encourage beginning solvers. Proper noun clusters seem to be unfair to them.
I had the rest of the puzzle solved by the time I got to GOAT, but I do not believe that using the reveal to help to solve is cheating.
This was a fine, interesting puzzle for a Wednesday.
My friend, a kindergarten teacher, often spoke of DUPLOs in the 1970's. My kids were toddlers in the early 60"s. Duplos are like Lego blocks but larger for toddlers to handle more easily.
My fiancé in college was a music major, so I have heard of SOLFA and sight singing, the ability to read and sing music at first sight without having heard it before.
We have a strip mall called The Shops at Union Hill. We call small stores shops.
Being called the G.O.A.T is a high honor.

Sherry said...

Tough Mon. too many names., knew some of them but not all. Never heard of Solfa. 3 down was out of my wheel house. 17 across left me cold.

unclefred said...

Wow, this is a pretty crunchy CW, for a Monday. Of course, it IS the 13th! Maybe, as Pogo used to say, “Friday the 13th come on a Monday this month.” Anyway, second time for BAE and I still have never heard anyone say that, nor have I seen it anywhere but in CWs. What is that mess in the bottom center called? Maybe a “Quadranatick”? Four names crossing. I knew ANDY. Never heard of the rest, or of SOLFA, or a “Sight-singing teaching method”. SOLFA filled with all perps. I did get the clever theme, and did manage to FIR, but not even gonna say how long it took. Let’s just say about twice my normal unclefred Monday turtle time. Thanx for the Wednesday CW, JL. And thanx for the terrific write-up, Boomer. With all you have going on I don’t know how you do it. Best wishes for successfully navigating this week. During part of my time working for Merck I covered two VAs, and would eat in the cafeteria. The food was actually pretty good!

unclefred said...

Forgot to mention: evil of you, Boomer, to put a picture of a delicious looking pizza in your write-up today. You make me want a pizza for breakfast!

inanehiker said...

This was a nice Monday romp to get the week started. There will always be debates as to the GOAT in a particular field: Jordan vs James, Woods vs Nicklaus, Federer vs Nadal vs Djokovic.

DUPLOs are great for the littles - they don't need the same fine finger control as LEGOs and they are big enough that they can't be swallowed/choked on. And big enough to see so unwitting parents don't step on them at night- Ouch!

Just a small correction - TERI POLO was Ben Stiller's wife in "Meet the Parents" and TERI Garr was Phoebe's mom in Friends and a supporting actress in "Tootsie"

Thanks Boomer and John!

Have a late start to the office today - nice way to start the week!

ATLGranny said...

Thanks, John Lieb, for the Monday level puzzle that I could FIR, after the weekend unsuccessful ones. The perps were helpful, especially with the cluster of proper names at the bottom. Only the two Ls in ELLA had to be filled with a guess for the most likely letter. And thanks for the reveal which I needed to see the theme!

Boomer, it was great to see you on the job this morning with your usual humor and optimism. Hope the week goes smoothly for you and C.C.

Nice to see your post, Montana. Thanks for the story.
PK, it's interesting how the nuances of the term goat has flipped with the arrival of G.O.A.T.

Hope everyone has a great week. It's going to be a hot one here!

CrossEyedDave said...

photoshop makes everything great...


Montana,
Same thing happened to Magilla Gorilla recently, so I saved the notes.
Now rereading them, I am still a bit confused. But maybe they will help
Here's my notes:

Do this (in order):
1) Go to blogger.com. In the upper right corner, Sign Out.
2) Go to google.com. In the upper right corner, Sign Out.
3) Go back to blogger.com. In the upper right corner, Sign In with your BLOGGER magilla gorilla pw. (If you don't know that pw, you are SOL).
4) Verify/edit your blogger profile settings for Display Name (magilla) and Email address (koko banana). Scroll to the bottom and press Save Profile.
5) Open a new tab or window and go to google.com. In the upper right corner, sign into google with your google account id. (Your google account id may be your primary GMAIL id (and pw)).
6) Verify/edit your google profile name (Lou ?) and GMAIL settings under Personal Info.

Your blogger account should now be your magilla tailess primate id and your google account should be your primary GMAIL id. Emails will reflect "Lou".

The way you wrote your comment suggests that you have multiple GMAIL IDs. That's fine. Just sign out / sign in to whichever one you need at a particular time, and leave your blogger profile as is. Just remember that emails sent from Blogger will be sent to the gmail email id that you specify in your blogger profile.

Last step:

7) Go to crosswordcorner.blogspot.com. Scroll down to "Support This Blog" and click the Donate button and give generously :>). Nothing comes to me. It is a donation to our blog hostess that helps offset her costs.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Relatively easy Monday, (inkover: Luke/LEIA.). Fun theme.. Crossing ELLA with LOEB was a lucky WAG...TERI "Polo, SOLFA?, These and other unknown proper names are a lot for a Monday. The clue for 2D: "OVER", although gettable with perps, could have been clued more appropriately for a Monday rather than with an unknown book title. May reflect self-editing by one of the authoresses. Also I see the constructresses have opted to use "actress" for a female actor. 😃. Maybe tomorrow Meryl Streep will be an actor again

"TIT for Tat", we all know the Limerick 🙉. The famous exploding FORD PINTO. "MEMENTO", terrific 2000 film with Guy Pearce. BERLIN: wonder what became of all those capital/government buildings in Bonn?...BAE 🙄

When you provide your AOL email address you're showing your age 🧓..😄. A Nice Hamlet would say "ÊTRE ou ne pas ÊTRE"

I have a floor fan running for "white" NOISE to avoid hearing my colleague in the next office dictating cases. New to me, ECCO Danishshoes (doesn't the frosting and fruit get between your toes 🤣).. Learnt GOAT from prior puzzles.🐐

Honey liquor ...Winnie the pooh.+
Phyllis Diller's DH...FANG
Compilation of a boxer's best bouts...GREATEST HITS
"Girls Just Wanna Have _____ "...FAWN
For some, espionage is the ____ of life...SPIES

Hoping thou DOTH continue to progress this week Boomer. 👍.

Wilbur Charles said...

I had a PINTO in 71-73. Fun while it lasted

AARON Judge is going up for FA auction next year. 30mil per year may not be enough

The South Natick-fest almost had me. WAGs galore. LOEB, LOLA,ELLA but I survived for FIR. This was toughest Monday in memory

FAWN was George Smiley's bodyguard in LeCarre trilogy

Actually, the LOEB, LOLAs clues etc are meant to attract the new solvers. 20s killer partner of Leopold*, Copacabana cutie would be traditional clues

WC

*The Leopold and LOEB saga is fascinating. Bigger than the OJ Trial in its time. Wiki away at your leisure

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-After failing to see the gimmick, I simply read the first words in sequence and I SAW
-Baseball people WELL REMEMBER when a GOAT was a derisive name for a player who made a big mistake that cost a game. The name Billy Buckner comes to mind.
-We drove by a huge mall in west Omaha yesterday and 90% of the parking lot and SHOPS are unoccupied
-Every episode but one of Grey’s Anatomy is titled with the name of a song. I just finished watching Crash Into Me
-While eating at the top of the tower in BERLIN, it was easy to see where East and West BERLIN were divided
-MPG never influenced my car purchases. Will Miles/Kilowatt soon be a selling point?
-Memorial Day: LEST we forget

CanadianEh! said...

Maverick Monday. Thanks for the fun, John and Boomer. (Best wishes to you and C.C. for a good week).
I FIRed and saw the GOAT theme.
We are being dragged by Patti, kicking and screaming, into modern Crosswordese; today we have the quadruple possible Natick crosses already mentioned by many of you (LOLA, LOEB, ANDY, ELLA). I wagged the two Ls. TIME WILL TELL if we get used to it.

I picked the wrong twin and needed to change Luke to LEIA.
I had the B in ABBOTT and entered Bon Ami, but the scouring BRILLO pad was a better match for S.O.S. (Note the periods!)

Canadian fuel efficiency stat is L/100km. Under 6L/100km is considered fuel efficient.

Good to see you here today Montana.
Wishing you all a great day.

Wilbur Charles said...

Re. BB... watch your language Gary

Vidwan827 said...


Thank You C E D for that fascinating picture, Thats a Keeper !@#!@!
Your pictures are sometimes waay too funny !!

I have a problem, in IT, .... I can't get Wikipedia, my primary resource ... just that set of web pages ... am I being hacked ? How do I resole the problem ... its driving me crazy !! ... is it something I did ? I am always on Google Chrome, my only web searcher.


Thank you John Lieb for a crunchy Monday CW that I enoyed, very much. I did not know of Salfa, so that was a learning moment, and I struggled with the 'S' in NeSt.

Thank you Boomer, for your humorous review pn the blog. Its above all, great to see you in action, and know how you are holding. My best wishes and prayers for both you and CC. Let us hope for the best, that you continue to progress towards resolving your tribulations.

Re::Hospital Food:: I spent hours at the local hosp in town, and there are 3 cafeterias, the nearest one being a franchise by a guy named Wolfgang Puck ( ;-o) ... but I have lost my sense of taste and my appetite, with all the anti-rejecions meds - anti-viral, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal etc that I have to consume every 8 hours... that I felt just too sated to order anything. I pride myself on being a very good cook, but now I cook just enough for 2 people, for one minimal helping, because we have had to throw all the surplus away. OTOH, a good way to diet.

Have a great week, you all.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

FIR - on my computer - and figured it took me three times longer to solve

My typing skills are somewhat limited; I have to constantly backspace and re-enter misspelled words. Maybe I will go back to a newspaper/paper version

WEES - the clues for this puzzle and the less well-known words (SOFLA/DUPLO, e.g.) were not characteristic of a Monday offering

Liked the themers and the reveal - thanks John Lieb and Boomer

Yes, HG, I do recall when "GOAT" meant something more derogatory in baseball/sports speak. Now, if we could just have the same thing happen to the word GROSS ...

Ray-O @ 9:03 --> of course I remember the limerick that ends with the 21-down phrase. Were you aware of its updated version? (of course not, since I just created it ...)

A new MAMMA is fully replete
With her triplets, named Meat, Crete, and Pete.
'Twas fun in the NESTing
But not in the breasting,
When she found there was no teat for Pete

I am a sick puppy ...

Vidwan827 said...

I forgot to tcomment on the CW puzzle itself ....

I remember, the FORD PINTO ... the only car that came with a built-in Fire Extinguisher...

Re Evvie Drake .... I don't think a Pilot gets a chance to 'start over'.

Despite my love for Math, especially high school math, I was not familiar with Rise and Run ... good to know, tho'.

Baseball Momento - Although, I've never been to a baseball game ( or a football game, for that matter - ). I once bought a baseball that was supposedly, a momento from the old Cleveland Stadium, and autographed by the 'great' Raplh Bunch or Bunche. I know of 'a' Raplh Bunche, who was a Nobel Prize winner for Peace, (1950 the first person of color, to have got that award -) but I didn't know he played baseball.... In any case, the ball cost me a dollar, and I used it as batting practice, to improve my eldest daughter's batting practice and improve her hits. ( It didn't help. she still stank, and finally quit the game - ).

16 Across, lettered Noble Gas ... I had Xenon before Argon.

Google has some very nice videos about SOLFA, which are very helpful. Especially for a person like me, who has no idea about western music.

Have a nice day, folks.




waseeley said...

Thanx John for a pleasant meander thru the Monday word maze. Slightly less gettable than past Mondays (is this a trend?), but gettable NTL.

Thanks Boomer for another wry review. We're praying for you every step of the way.

Favorites:

GREATEST HITS. Mine are Beethoven's 6th, Sibelius' 6th, and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (excerpt).

Absolute favorite:

33A TERI. How DW likes her name spelled. She's my 30A.

More favorites:

34A OF FEW WORDS. No one's ever said that about me.

54A TIME WILL TELL. You'll SEE tomorrow.

69A GOAT. In the crossword world it's constructor Merl Reagle, a pure punster. My favorite is Gridlock, which you should be able to download.

9D MATTHEW'S. Favorite Gospel.

25D PYRITE. Don't be fooled! If you scratch it on a white tile, it leaves a black streak, while gold leaves a gold streak.

51A ITALY. NAPLES is there, right? Didn't this kinda sorta include the answer in the clue?

Cheers,
Bill

unclefred said...

CMoe: shoulda named one of the triplets "Tat". Then there would be a tit for tat.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Chairman M..there are CW police rules that'll getcha into trouble (no politics, religion, or name calling.) Thank goodness for us no rules against silliness 😝....yet.

Mom was born in Pyrites, NY near the Canadian border (site of a PYRITE mine)
Google: "Pyrite is used to create iron sulfate that is used to make nutritional supplements, ink, lawn conditioner, water treatment and flocculation, moss killer, and many other chemical processes. Iron sulfate which comes from pyrite is used to treat iron-deficiency anemia."

Chairman Moe said...

unclefred @ 10:04 --> Ray-O-Sunshine alluded to that familiar limerick that ends with the phrase "(no) tit for Tat". My "revised" version was just me being goofy/silly. The more familiar limerick begins with: "There was once a young lass that begat, Three male babies, named Nat, Pat and Tat ..."

Ray-O @ 10:21 --> if the silliness we create on this board is banned, then you, Owen, CED, and I will have to find another crossword blogging "home"!!

And according to Literary Devices dot net, when asked: "What are limericks intended to be?" Their answer was: "A limerick is a poem that consists of five lines in a single stanza with a rhyme scheme of AABBA. Most limericks are intended to be humorous, and many are considered bawdy, suggestive, or downright indecent. The subject of limericks is generally trivial or silly in nature."

And there you are ...

Subgenius said...

CMoe - IMHO, you, Ray-O-Sunshine, and Cross-Eyed Dave really make this blog an entertaining and fun place to come too. If your "silliness" was banned, I might have to leave, too!

Subgenius said...

Oh, and Owen, too, of course, I didn't mean to leave him out of this collection on "wits."

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

AWOL for two days playing w/ Sis. We're on a mission to feed her every "exotic" food you just can't get in SPI. So far, we've had Vietnamese Dim Sum breakfast and real TexMex. Tonight is Indian.

Anyway, Saturday took two Googles. FLN: Jinx - re-think using POP; everything is plain-text including your password. Email is the gateway to resetting your banking passwords...
=======

Thank you John for a nice Monday puzzle to ease in the work-week.

Thank you Boomer for the EXPO. I take my glove to every game I attend but yet to catch a foul MEMENTO. Nice to read you're takin' all the aggravation / medicine in stride.

WO: Kristen BaLe -> BELL
ESPs: SouthCentral was a WAG fest of names
Fav: clecho at FORD Mustang / PINTO was cute.

{*sadface*}
LOL, ChairmanMoe

Lisa LOEB was big in the '90s. Stay.

ARGON? OK. Play Xenon [Xe] in scrabble and wait for the challenge -- Buddy and I (engineers) finally beat our wives (English majors) that eve.

YR - re: DUPLOs -- Also so tots can play with LEGO bricks w/o swallowing them after seeing how they taste :-) [Hi, inanehiker! great minds ;-)]

Eldest's vocal finals included sight-reading/singing. I never heard her call it called SOL FA. //I'll ask her later.
Now is later - she said it's called solfege. //link mine; not her's.

Re: G.O.A.T. - growing up as a Cubs fan, it took a while to undo 'goat is bad-luck' in my head. //is that why there's Ivy at Wrigley? Mares eat oats [...] kids will eat ivy too?

WC - Pop had a red PINTO wagon. That's now the name of (CEO) Bro's DadBand.
//sit in the back and you can smell the gas tank :-o

Time for a nap b/f Sis gets back from class. Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Hola!

It seems that we have turned a corner for Monday puzzles, not that I object. I enjoy a challenge and this one filled the bill.

Of course, I am not a fan of Taylor Swift or any popular singer but the titles filled easily once I had a few letters.

DUPLO is new to me and I'm surprised my granddaughter doesn't have them for her toddler. Hmmm his birthday is coming up.

I love MAMMA Mia!

ECCO shoes are pricey!

Thank you, Boomer, for your humor and resilience in the face of long odds!

Have a great day, everyone!

Misty said...

Fun Monday puzzle, if a bit challenging, but still fun--many thanks, John. And Boomer it's wonderful to have you back this morning. I was hoping you'd feel up to it, and you did a great job guiding us through the process. Many thanks, and will pray that you and C.C. have a good week coming up.

Loved the baby theme, with the little one in a NEST, tended to by an OBGYN, and comforted by a LULLABY. Now that it's here it will have a life and EXIST, with its MAMMA taking care of it.

Nice to remember ABBOTT and Costello.

Bit of foreign country travel, with ITALY and BERLIN.

Have a great week coming up, everybody.

waseeley said...

CMOE @9:34AM Was? - auf deutsch bedeutet es "Great"!

Anonymous T said...

Misty: Does ABBOTT & Costello ever get old?Hu's on First. //Go Ahead... Say It.

So... Did y'all know - It's LEGO Bricks? Seth got schooled ;-)

Cheers, -T

Jinx in Norfolk said...

-T: My Outlook 2019 POP3 mail accounts have the following settings:

"Use the following type of encryption connection:" (SSL/TLS)
and
Require logon using Secure Password Authentication (SPA)" (selected)

Have I talked myself into a false sense of security? My main email host requires both settings.

Chairman Moe said...

waseeley @ 1:23

Ich denke du hast recht ...

Oder wie mir beigebracht wurde, als Antwort auf das, was Sie geschrieben haben, zu sagen:

"Genau"

Michael said...

C-Eh@ 9:20: Thanks for the mileage -- shouldn't we say 'kilometrage'?? -- explanation, something I had always wondered about. Works out, very roughly, to quarts per 62 miles

Ol' Man Keith said...

A neat Monday PZL from Mr. Lieb, managed for us by Boomer.

I don't know where Boomer found the time, with the Jan 6 Committee off to such an early start!
But we are grateful for his service...

I have a bottle of MEAD waiting for me in the garage, that I have not had the courage to open.
I know that sounds strange. But I am not a big fan of honey.

I don't recognize all these proper names, but the theme answers helped get me through.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Two diagonals, one per side.
On the near side, NW to SE, I see two possible anagrams.
One (12 of 15 letters) refers to the formal reprimands that are entered into an employee's record.
I mean those unpleasant...

"OFFICIAL 'TUTS'"!

The other anagram (14 of 15 letters) is the informal name given to a form of pugilism originated in the Congo.
They (probably) refer to it as the...

"VOLTA FISTICUFF"!

Jayce said...

My tongue is still wagging "la la la" after LOLA, ELLA, LOEB, LEIA, and LEST. Oh, and DUPLO, which sounds like a kind of duck-billed dinosaur, or maybe a comic book super villain.

TERI Polo has recently joined the cast of NCIS.

Some people draw sweeping conclusions from a single DATA POINT.

I guess if to EXIST is to "Have life," I exist but the chair I'm sitting on doesn't.

MPG is one of several factors I consider when shopping for a car.

Good wishes to you all.

CanadianEh! said...

Misty- nice catch on the baby theme.

Michael - it is easier to compare fuel efficiency than gas prices between US and Canada (I need an online calculator for the latter). Gas especially - remember to exchange litres to American (not Imperial) gallons, and the exchange on the dollar.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

OMK @ 3:44.. consider a fist fight sponsored by Alessandro Volta, between André Ampère, and Georg Ohm ⚡⚡⚡

😃

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Ray - If such a fracas were to have broken out, someone surely would have called The Law.

inanehiker said...

I got a chuckle about people including LOLA Falana as one of those new fangled crosswordese entries - she was at the peak of her fame in the 60s and early 70s. She is now 79 years old but hasn't performed in many years due to severe multiple sclerosis. The young people are probably shaking their heads wondering why someone from so long ago was in a crossword :)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lola_Falana

Jayce said...

Good one, Jinx.

Lucina said...

A friend from New York is here visiting her family and we met for lunch, had a nice chat catching up on our families, etc. However, I had told her to meet at a place with which I thought I was very familiar, but in the three years or so since I was last there, the place has exploded into a maze of new buildings and was unrecognizable! It's incredible the amount of building that has occurred. This is definitely no longer the barren desert.

What I worry about is what will happen when our water runs out! Yikes!

Ol' Man Keith said...

As a kid, I loved ABBOTT & Costello. Couldn't wait for their next movie.

I can still hear Lou Costello wailing, "He-ey, AB-BOTT!"

Later on, whenever I needed to teach comic timing, either in a class or to help actors play comic roles, I would have them learn "Who's On First." I swore, whenever anybody had to make sense out of that routine, they would necessarily learn the right way to play it--with enhanced timing.
~ OMK