Puzzling thoughts:
FIW, with my lone Natick of 23-down and 23-across.
There were several unfilled squares throughout, as I worked from top left to bottom right. It was in the very bottom right corner where the reveal: (71-Across. Work on software, and work to make sense of the answers to the starred clues?) DEBUG, resided. Once I saw that answer, I thought, OK, now the circles make sense! As I continued working at the "southern border" of the grid, I got the "aha" moment when I filled in (67-Across. *Cherry variety:) BROACHING, as I saw that when you get rid of the ROACH, what's left is the word "BING", or a "cherry variety". Very clever.
Now, a brief commercial message from our sponsor, Johnson Wax:
Back to the blog ... Constructors Emet Ozar and Matthew Stock have collaborated on a Sunday puzzle @ Universal, but I think this is the first of theirs @ LA Times. Both Ozar and Stock appear to have found the crossword puzzle constructor "itch", post-pandemic. Kudos to you both, and I hope you'll visit our blog to offer some comments on what gave the seed idea for this; I promise I won't bug you further!
It's not often that you'll see SIX entries AND a reveal in a 15x15 puzzle. I know that some critics would ding them for having 17+ three-letter words; or ding them for using circles; but c'mon! This had to have been extremely tough to fill while maintaining a tight and clean "feel". What struck me is that all SIX entries with the hidden bug are all quite common (as you'll see in the explanation below).
It also appears that Patti was lenient with Emet and Matthew in the clues, as none were too obscure for a Friday. Perhaps the puzzle was tough enough. Let's look at the other five entries:
15-Across. *Like sweater weather: CHANTILLY. Remove the ANT and the word "CHILLY" definitely refers to "sweater weather"
23-Across. *Spanish verb similar to the French "être": SMOTHER. OK. The word "SMOTHER" is quite common, but when I removed the "MOTH" the word SER did not make me "see the light". Guess I should've taken Spanish as my foreign language elective instead of German!! So Lucina, if Hamlet were done in Spanish, would the soliloquy be: "¿SER o no SER?"
29-Across. *Soft drink size: LITE BEER. Take the BEE from the LITE BEER and you're left with a "LITER" of (soda, pop, tonic, Coke) ... remember, we had that discussion of what people call a soft drink the last time I blogged?
48-Across. *River through Kazakhstan: G NATURAL. Swat the GNAT from this entry and you're left with URAL - the crosswordese answer for an Asian River. Not familiar with G NATURAL? Try this, but turn the volume down on your device before playing:
53-Across. *Top: LIMITED. I HOPE none of you were "ticked" off at today's puzzle, but I MITE understand if you were! OK, Moe, put a LID on it ... zip up your FLY ... show us the grid this time ... and 'splain to us all of the other clues!
Across:
1. Cheap kegful: PABST. Oddly enought, PABST is one of the domestic, non-craft BEERs that I'll drink. LITE BEER doesn't do much for me
6. Seal hunter: ORCA. Killer whale
10. Title for Horatio Magellan Crunch: CAP'N. They made this clue weirder than it had to be, TBH. How many other "CRUNCH's" do you know other than CAP'n?
14. "With any luck": I HOPE. Different meaning than when I used this phrase in the introduction
17. __ cut: PIXIE. The upper left corner was easy to perp today. Wanna see a PIXIE cut? OK:
18. Question that may elicit "Todo bien, gracias": ¿Cómo estás?. Are you "all good" with this clue and answer?
19. "Must you be like everyone else?": ET TU. "No, I'm not a BRUTE!"
21. __ card: SIM. Having recently upgraded my iPhone 7+ to a 13 Pro, I know all about SIM cards. I got two of them in this phone
22. Four quarters: ONE. A good "Friday" clue; four 25cent pieces = ONE dollar bill
26. "Latino USA" airer: NPR. WAG. I very seldom listen to any radio airers, but NPR seemed logical once I filled in around it
28. Choice word: EITHER. Moe-ku:
The two canoeist's
Decision on who sat where?
Your choice, EITHER oar
34. Sandwich not found in a kosher deli: BLT. And yet a lot of my Jewish friends LOVE bacon
35. Sap: DRAIN. I HOPE you weren't DRAINed by doing this puzzle - quite the opposite for me ... I am pretty amped up today
37. One of India's official languages: HINDI.
38. Footnote abbr.: ET AL. Moe ku:
Israel's airport
Shows a list of carriers:
There's El Al, et al
40. Rock collection?: ALBUM. Hmm not my most favorite clue today. "Rock", of course, refers to the music genre "rock 'n' roll". I still have several ALBUMs but no turntable
42. Slender: SLIM. Both of my SIM cards are quite SLIM
43. Crew member: ROWER. Only ONE bad ROWing pun allowed per blog
45. Rink ploys: DEKES. Are any of our male cornerites members of a college fraternity? Anytime I see the word DEKES I think of this fraternity, "Delta Kappa Epsilon", commonly known as DKE - or - Deke is one of the oldest fraternities in the United States, with fifty-six active chapters and five active colonies across North America. It was founded at Yale College in 1844 by fifteen sophomores who were discontent with the existing fraternity order on campus"[Wikipedia]. Several past US presidents were DEKES, including the two Bushes and Teddy Roosevelt
47. PC pioneer: IBM. Did anyone else wonder if the "PC" in the clue meant "politically correct"? If so, FDR fits, yes?
50. Roughhouse: RASSLE. I had TUSSLE before RASSLE
52. "Real talk," from a texter: TBH. To Be Honest. Don't you hate when someone answers a question with "To be honest ..."?? My reaction is always, "well, haven't you been honest with me before?"
54. "It's all about me" attitude: EGO. Moe-ku:
You can shut down one's
EGO, by telling them to:
"Put an ID on it"!
57. Deli slice: RYE. HAM fits on RYE, too
59. Article: ITEM.
60. Sacred Buddhist symbol with heart-shaped leaves: BODHI TREE. So, isn't there one word/phrase that always seems to show up in a puzzle, just when you think you knew them all? What's a BODHI TREE? I think it's in the banyan family. This:
63. Gulf ship: OILER.
68. Petting zoo critter: LLAMA.
69. Light-footed: SPRY. There is a village by this name near to where I grew up. Misty might know it, too
70. Dole (out): METE.
Down:
1. Spot on a die: PIP. One of several meanings of the word "PIP". But if you "double" the word PIP it means "goodbye" (PIP PIP, Cheerio!)
2. Pacific tuna: AHI. SKIPJACK just wouldn't squeeze into those three squares
3. Check point?: BOX. Good mis-direction clue
4. Jordan who won the 2017 British Open: SPIETH. Golfers around the globe refer to this as The Open Championship; not the British Open, FYI ... Jordan SPIETH finished in the top ten of this year's OPEN, won by Cameron Smith
5. Raised canines, say: TEETHED. Did anyone else have a dog in mind instead of a tooth? My grandson (age two+) went through his TEETHing stage - see his canines??
6. Transpire: OCCUR.
7. Density symbol, in physics: RHO. Once again, only ONE RHOing pun per blog allowed
8. Nanny __: security devices: CAMS. If the editor/constructor had known ahead of time, this clue could've been: "Nicknames of the top two finishers at The Open Championship" (Cameron Smith - first; Cameron Young - second)
9. Formally choose: ANOINT.
10. Gender prefix: CIS. [Wikipedia] "Cisgender describes a person whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. The word cisgender is the antonym of transgender. The prefix cis- is Latin and means on this side of."
Moe-ku:
When a sheep explodes
In front of straight cheerleader
It goes: CIS, boom, baa
11. Type of flute: ALTO. [Wikipedia] "What is the difference between a flute and an alto flute? The bore of the alto flute is considerably larger in diameter and longer than a C flute and requires more breath from the player. This gives it a greater dynamic presence in the bottom octave and a half of its range"
12. Think ahead: PLAN. This was my PLANner of choice back when I was a working stiff
13. SEC concern: NYSE. When I first saw "SEC" I was thinking "SouthEastern Conference" of the NCAA (which would have fit into that space, BTW). But this SEC is the Securities and Exchange Commission
16. Vegan protein choice: TEMPEH. How does this compare to tofu, you ask? Well, here's what I found: "Is tempeh the same as tofu? Tempeh is like tofu that's been hitting the gym – hard. Like tofu, tempeh is still made from soy but the whole bean is used in a fermentation process. Using the whole bean gives tempeh it's chunkier texture which holds its shape better, making it ideal for crispy cubes or 'bacon' rashers"[tofoo.co.uk]
20. Veggie chip brand: TERRA. Perps filled this in
23. Actress Jean of French New Wave cinema: SEBERG. The other half of my Natick today. A brief bio
24. __ Bradley: MILTON. When I lived in Springfield, MA way back when, MILTON Bradley had a facility in East Longmeadow. I sold them some packaging materials ... click on the link to learn more about the games they created, as well as a short bio on MILTON
25. Home of the Senators: OTTAWA. NHL team, and a CSO to Canadian, Eh?
27. Clutch hitter's stat: RBIS.
29. Smear with ink?: LIBEL. TATOO didn't seem to fit
30. Arctic native: INUK. Singular form on Inuit. This word appeared just once before @ USA Today on April 24, 2021 by Erik Agard
31. Join up: ENLIST. What I would've done back in 1973 if the draft was my only other option
32. Consumer-friendly?: EDIBLE. Lots of play-on-word clues today
33. Horn-__ glasses: RIMMED.
36. Director of the final episode of "M*A*S*H": ALDA.
39. Baltic native: LETT.
41. __ badge: MERIT. Anyone know how many MERIT badges are required to make Eagle Scout?
44. Guide for grading: RUBRIC. [Utah Education Network] "a RUBRIC for an essay might tell students that their work will be judged on purpose, organization, details, voice, and mechanics. A good rubric also describes levels of quality for each of the criteria"
46. "The usual": SAME OLD.
49. Blues partner: RHYTHM. I'm thinking that several of us Boomers remember this single that reached #3 in the Top 100 tunes in 1967 and made "The Happenings" a lot of money, I suspect. And they made a George and Ira Gershwin song from the 1930's "retro"
51. Literary device: SIMILE. A CSO to Yellowrocks. How does a SIMILE compare to a METAPHOR? [Merriam-Webster says] "A SIMILE is a figure of speech that compares two otherwise dissimilar things, often introduced by the words like or as ('you are like a summer's day'). A metaphor is when a word is used in place of another to suggest a likeness ('you are a summer's day')"
53. Feudal lord: LIEGE. One definition (as an adjective): concerned with or relating to the relationship between a feudal superior and a vassal. Wonder if this is the root of the word "allegiance"?
54. Dwindles: EBBS.
55. Trail mix: GORP. An acronym for "Good Old Raisins and Peanuts"
56. Compost bin emanation: ODOR. But composting truly makes the best dirt/soil
58. Lake whose name comes from Iroquoian for "long tail": ERIE. A crossword puzzle editor (not from the LA Times) once told me "hard clues can't be made hard with factual references that many/most won't know". Sage advice
61. Part of a stable diet: HAY. OAT fit, too. Note the play-on-words in the clue. Well, TWO can play THAT game! Moe-ku, and a CSO to Boomer, an erstwhile Grainger guy:
Bostitch employees
Get a free lunch at work. A
True, staple diet
62. Thyroid specialist, for short: ENT.
64. Where lots of cultures come together: LAB. Ha Ha
65. Aussie bird: EMU.
66. Dust cloth: RAG.
Well, look at me! I'm all "bug-eyed" from looking up word meanings and images!! Don't forget to comment below ...
47 comments:
Good morning. Thank you Emet, Matthew, and Chairman Moe.
Bounced around to where ever the answers took me. Like the Chairman, ROACH first and then DEBUG helped me fill in the circles. Knowing they were going to be bugs is the only reason I was able to get SEBERG. Wasn't Seberg one of the jukebox manufacturers of the 1950s ? :>)
NPR - same here, Moe. Not familiar w/ that program, but I had the N and the R, so P seemed logical and completed the unknown TEMPEH.
"Put an ID on it!" Funny ku.
Never saw the clue "Four quarters" for answer ONE until reading the review.
FLN, Jinx, yes, Baha Men, not Baja Men. Thank you.
Going to try to get back to sleep now.
I couldn’t get the phone to accept my “robot test” this morning so I’m back posting as “anonymous “, but this is Subgenius, And speaking of “anonymous “ I know SS (AKA Anonymous DNLC) is not going to like the circles, but I don’t see how I could have solved the puzzle without them. I had no idea, for example, what “gnatural” was until CMoe explained it. Anyway, maybe through sheer luck, I FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m relieved!
Maybe it will let me in now
Good morning!
Nope. Couldn't see SIM crossing the unknown TEMPEH -- looks like a misspelled Arizona city. Also looked askance at the BODHI TREE and TERRA, but let 'em stand. Does Boris Johnson call his do a PIXIE CUT? Needed the reveal (which d-o actually read, for a change) to understand that the circles needed to be removed from the theme answers. Cute. Nice debut Emet and Matthew. Fun review, C-Moe.
SEBERG: I think you were thinking of the Seeburg juke box, TTP. Wurlitzer was another major brand.
ENLIST: To paraphrase C-Moe, "What I did back in '67 when the draft was my only other option."
Took me 11:39 to guess wrongly at the same box that our esteemed guide did today: the "S" in the name of some actress of French New Wave cinema (how is that even a clue?) and a foreign word.
Oh joy, circles....
On a Friday!
The horror.
I agree that circles help the solver see the "hidden" themes, but it's really the themes that I dislike, and that publishing circle puzzles encourages more of the same type of puzzle ("cold fronts" where "brr" is added to the front, or "mixed greens," where either the word green or different types of salad are "mixed up"). While the themes are undoubtedly clever, the rest of the puzzle suffers because of it.
I will now step down from my soapbox.
TGIF
Learning moment: rubric.
( yes, that was an "attempt" at a pun....)
Good to see the return of "gimmicky" Friday, as it helps in solving the theme.
However,
Bodhitree?
Rubric?
Tempeh?
TBH, not only did I not like these words, LOL is the only texting shorthand I use, so...
Natick, Natick, Natick, & Natick!
While I did enjoy the solve,
it did not leave me in a humorous mood...
Thank You Emet Ozar and Matthew Stock for a very challenging puzzle, that I completed,.... by the skin of my teeth.
I got the reveal, DEBUG, but did not know the crosswordese protocol on what to do with it, so I said, 'thats life, some contraptual gimmick ...', and moved on.
Didnt notice the circles.
Thank you Ch Moe for the review blog and the explanation of the reveal.
Being originally from India, ( although, not buddhist - ) I was very familiar with the concept of a Bodhisatva .... ( = like a Buddha, or on the way to becoming one - )... so I knew of the BODHI TREE, Peepul or Peeepal tree, Wikipedia It is a long lived tree, of the fig variety, and the small fruits are somewhat (?) edible, even sweet.
As a schoolboy, in a public ( read, Very Private -) boarding school, I was 'taught' by smart alecs, that banyan trees harbored female ghouls, at night, .... and venomous snakes. The latter is partly true.
Ironically, though Buddha was supposedly born on the India-Nepal border, the biggest followers of buddhism, more than India, are the inhabitants of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma and parts of China, Japan and VietNam.
If you know how (some - ) fig flowers get fertilized, to fruit, with all the skeletons of the fig wasps inside, you would never feel like eating a fig again .... I happen to like figs. Youtube, 13 mins.
Have a great Friday, and a nice weekend, you all.
Good Morning:
It took me a few minutes to understand what was going on but I soon saw the pattern. I don’t like circles on late week puzzles, but I suppose they were necessary today. OTOH, though, eliminating the circles would have amped up the challenge of Friday solving. My only w/o was Paper/Pixie and unknowns were Bodhi Tree, Terra, and Inuk. My first thought for Thyroid Specialist was Endocrinologist not ENT.
Thanks, Emet and Matthew, for a fun Friday and thanks, Moe, for a delightful summary with lots of chuckles and learning moments. Loved your “Kus”. Sweet photo of grandson!
DO @ 6:04 ~ I don’t know what Boris Johnson calls his do but I call it a very bad hair day! It looks as if it never saw a comb.
FLN
Lucina, condolences on the loss of your ex BIL. You’ve had more than your share of sorrow recently. 🙏
Have a great day.
I got a big break with Jordan Spieth, my favorite golfer except I wasn't sure of the I/E order. ETTU settled that. And…
Metric seemed to answer the clue as did Dane for the Baltic.
Both had to be inked over(what a mess of a miracle FIR)- I just now inked S on SMOTHERED. As I type Jean SEBERG sounds familiar
Sometimes people say "I FIR but never saw the theme!". Finally grok'ing the theme saved me(ET TU D-OTTO?).
I've heard the expression COMO ESTAS but spelling it and filling the UNK TEMPEH(NtSo BODHI TREE) was the challenge
Speaking of… I'm not sure "challenge" will be the descriptor heard par mes freres(et soeurs) aujourdui
I had a SIM Card* issue.
Of course I inked ibid>etal
As C-Moe said, NW seemed easy except PIP,BOX just wouldn't surface and TEETHED was a V8 can
Because SEC was in my head I thought "Nanny" was like Fanny(Mae)
IMHO, I enjoy themed xwords, even this one (et hier) albeit grok'ing them and being familiar with pop-cul is a mixed bag. Two sports clues were a big help
WC
** SIM Card story will wait. But it may be helpful so I'll tell it later
Vidwan, I don't know how you solved sans theme and circles. BEE was the first I noticed
TGIF everyone! Today was a 2 letter FIW for me, not getting the B and I in RUBRIC. When C Moe reviewed the puzzle, I finally understood that fill. Thanks, C Moe, for a very educational review today, TBH.
As for your debut puzzle here, Emet and Matthew, I found it more challenging than the earlier posters did, but with patience and perp help I did better than I expected. Catching onto what was happening with the circles helped a lot. Thanks.
FLN Sorry to hear about your BIL, Lucina. And happy pedaling to Sumdaze during her holiday.
Have a good weekend all!
Tough puzzle. Only issue, an endocrinologist is the thyroid specialist not ent.
Musings
-Bad guesses on a Spanish verb and a veggie chip brand didn’t diminish the fun in this puzzle
-CHANTILLY made no sense until CH/ANT/ILLY gave me the gimmick early on
-I had no idea on BODHI TREE and TEMPEH but they went quietly. Hey, I knew Jean SEBERG!
-HAM not BTL and IBID not ET AL bollixed up the 9 o’clock area for a while
-I HOPE – Every golfers sentiment after every swing
-TBH – You have to first think, “Are they really asking for an honest answer?”
-I remember our girls’ discomfort while they TEETHED (I’d say while they were TEETHING).
-PLAN – My whole life is run by my iPhone
-His Grape Nuts pitch included the line, “Many parts of a pine tree are EDIBLE”
-My RUBRIC for project grading told kids exactly what was required. The best administrator I ever had told me, “Kids do better when they know what you want!”
This is Matthew Stock's 4th LAT crossword, so not his debut.
- Monday, Dec 30 2019
- Sunday, May 8, 2022
- Saturday, June 25, 2022 with Nova Qi
It does appear this is their debut as a team.
Moe, I'm not sure what you were trying to say at 49D. As a song, "I Got Rhythm" reached it's peak at # 3 during 1967. Of the Billboard Top 100 songs for the year, that ode about the guy that jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge was #3 for the year. Rhythm was # 37. There were some great songs that year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1967
I wanted to metion my cousin, an Endocrinologist, on Thyroid concerns, but several of you mentioned it first.
My first post was already too long. Most Thyroid problems show up in lab and blood tests, not on a physical exam ... but in the CW, only ENT would fit.
I have never seen a LLAMA at a petting zoo, unless they're out of this country. Sheep, Goat and deer more likely.... And, in the winter months, these pets are generally sold for meat...
Without belaboring the point, if the Peepal tree ( BODHI TREE ) leaves are dried and soaked in muddy water ... the chlorophyll ( green matter - ) falls away and leaves ( pun ? ) behind a delicate atlas of veins of the large leaf, which can be painted on and through the leaf.
Thus Peepal Leaf Art.
How humbling this puzzle was. I DNF it because I was not observant enough to see the theme. I knew there were bugs to be found throughout and I caught them, but still missed the DEBUGGING theme so I was puzzled by the likes of CHANTILLY and SMOTHER. Thank goodness for C-Moe’s wonderful write up and cute puns.
The kindest word for Boris Johnson’s hairdo is natural.
In the definition of CIS there’s a reference to sex assigned. I often wonder who did or does the assigning. I must be missing something.
I hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m looking forward to the Saturday puzzle when I hope to redeem myself.
Thank you Emet and Matthew. It was probably a good thing that the NW stymied me at first and I headed South looking for help. I found the reveal down in the DUMPS, where a lot of really low-level DEBUGGING is done, and immediately saw that the circles in the few themers that I'd already filled in were INSECTS. As I've done quite a bit of DEBUGGING in the past this turned out to be very helpful. But what I missed at first was that I had to actually "DEBUG" the puzzle itself to really understand what was going on. As it is, I came here fully expecting an FIW, but was delighted to C MOE's grid showing a FIR.
And thank you Chairman for an excellent review with great cluesplainin', kus, and other punny stuff. Do have a few questions though ...
Some favs:
19A ET TU. Still don't quite get this clue/fill.
40A ALBUM. Here's something you can play your ALBUMS on MOE. We have one similar to this in our sun room. Very versatile machines and not too pricey.
47A IBM. Didn't get the FDR ref MOE. Any 'splainers out there?
52A TBH. DNK this textspeak until its recent appearance in an LATCWP. Took a while to dredge it up, but it surfaced eventually.
54 EGO. Putting ID on an out-of-control EGO may be like throwing gasoline on fire. Not a SUPER idea.
69A SPRY. We've been up 83N many times on the way to Teri's hometown of Shamokin, PA, but don't recall an exit sign for SPRY. Is it worth a side trip?
3D BOX. Great clue. Didn't get it first time around and headed South looking for the reveal.
5D TEETHED. Another great clue, which I didn't get until I'd checked the BOX at 3D. My Mother used to swab our gums with Paregoric (a "prime number" back then) when we were TEETHING. Don't know if it's still legal.
23D SEBERG. She also had a PIXIE cut.
24D MILTON. Thanks for the link on Bradley MOE. An inspiration!
41D MERIT. Don't know MOE, but I'll ask my two EAGLE scout grandsons about it tomorrow at their mother's family reunion.
44D RUBRIC. Also a term used to define the details of liturgical rites. The term comes from rubrica, the Latin word for "red", as the text for these instructions in Roman missals and The Liturgy of the Hours is usually in red. They can be pretty involved.
Cheers,
Bill
Tante Nique @10:25 AM I think it's the obstetrician. They spin a bottle.
Brief visit; I'm on a bit of a vacay so thanks in advance for your comments and visit to the blog today. Have a great weekend!
Moe
Fun puzzle with a creative theme - thanks Emet and Matthew!
Definitely needed the circles for the solve - but hard to know if it was doable without. It would have been hard to see BING if the circles didn't help to pull out the bug letters.
Eagle scouts need 21 merit badges - I knew that only because there was an article in our newspaper as the first local girl to become an Eagle Scout was interviewed.
ENT is an okay answer for thyroid specialist - they are the ones who specialize in thyroid surgery and the endocrinologists are the ones who medically manage.
Thanks C-Moe for the fun blog!
Thank you waseeley for the answer to my question.
Hi Y'all! Frustrating puzzle, not fun, Emet & Matthew, you little BUGgers. Too many weird, misleading clues and fills. I figured out the BUGs half way thru which helped with the other circle fills. I filled it but MITE want to swat it instead.
Great expo, Moe!
Sad day at my daughter's house. She was sobbing when I called her. They had to euthanize their little dog which had been their "baby". (They have no kids.) Had kidney failure and could no longer eat. On the other hand, we had good news that my niece had given birth to a really beautiful baby whose cisgender is definitely girl. Niece is 42 so we were a little concerned. She has other kids.
I had to get a new Kindle. Very frustrated trying to set it up. Worked at it for an hour and a half and still haven't even managed to get it to accept my password. Aaargh! Why can't they make simple instructions that sense?
That should read "Why can't they make simple instructions that make sense?"
DNF. I may be a little pissy today. First, my cable connection went down at 9 pm yesterday, and they didn't get it fixed until after noon. Then I tried to navigate my health care system. DW had a pelvic ultrasound last week, which found a 6 cm (a little bigger than a golf ball) mass, and they recommended an MRI in the area. I scheduled the MRI for next Thursday, because the local hospital couldn't do it sooner. I called our insurance to see if it would be Ok to go to a different facility, and was told that I could go any in-network provider, but that I have to get preapproved, which takes a couple of weeks normally, or one week if it is urgent. My PCP's office say they don't make preapproval requests (can't reach the doc, just his LPN), and the diagnostic center that did the ultrasound doesn't do that either. So I'm stuck for now, unless I want to pay for it out-of-pocket. The craziest thing is that the insurance company is a subsidiary of the same health care system as the ultrasound lab and our PCP.
Anyway, I missed the circles and didn't get the DEBUG theme, became even more frustrated, and quit. But...
Aren't crude transports called tankers, not OILERS? Around here, OILERS take fuel to the ships while while they are docked.
A local middle school English teacher plead guilty yesterday to arson. He had a argument with his neighbor, and after dark lit a bag of charcoal under his neighbor's car. The car ignited, spread to her other car, then to her house while she, her husband and kids were asleep. Fortunately, security CAMS caught him in the act. He faces as much as life - not enough in my book, but what can we do. After all, no one was injured.
I've damned nearly given up bitching about the incorrect use of RBIS. It would have been so easy to make the clue "clutch hitters' stat" just by moving the apostrophe, which would have made the numbers agree. Its runs batted in, not run batted in. Don't blame me, blame Abner Doubleday.
C-Moe, why does your phone have two SIM cards? One for international use?
I think I've mentioned this before, but Zoe the greyhound's registered name is Jugni, Hindi for "female firefly".
Anyway, guess I'd best get back to my health care system battles.
Friday toughie, today, but that's what they're supposed to be. So many thanks, Emet and Matthew.
And I always enjoy your funny commentary, Moe, many thanks for that too. Loved the picture of your sweet grandson. But I'm afraid I've never heard of a village called SPRY. And those bulging blue eyes at the end scared the .... well, scared me.
I'm not crazy about insects, but DE BUG theme this morning was neat.
Nice to see Alan ALDA got to direct the final episode of MASH.
Nope, never owned a ROCK album.
Embarrassed that I didn't get SIMILE right away. I should know my literary devices better than that.
Have a great weekend coming up, everybody.
DNF, so this was a bit harder than recent Friday XWDs. Too many of the "bug" circles were unknown perps. And then there was that "unknown TEMPEH." (I'm quoting my fellow Cornerites.).
Chairman Moe ~ I didn't recall how many MERIT badges were required for Eagle, so was pleased that someone else (inanehiker) bothered to report the number as 21. I only remember that it took six to gain Star rank, which is the highest I ever went in my scouting career.
Oh, but I did attain the Order of the Arrow--which earned me that cool sash over my dark green Explorer uniform.
(I was only interested in the costume, I guess.)
~ OMK
____________
DR: Only one diagonal, near side...
and it's very low on vowels, therefore limited in anagram potential.
I'll choose the anagram (10 of 15 letters) that suits my respiratory status this morning. This is to identify the stuff that one woofs up from a hard but wet cough.
I call it...
"BARK PHLEGM"!
(Yu-uck.)
Technical DNF - I had to lookup SPiETH which made PIecE wrong... Oh, _ cut.
Hi All!
Thanks Emet & Matthew for the puzzle with a fun theme that really helped with the solve (once the
Thanks for the extensive expo, C. Moe. Fun Kus.
Re: your comment on 58d - can or can't be made hard[...]?
//IIRC, 10 more after Life for a total of 21 MERIT badges + a service project for Eagle. I went to Basic before I could get my service project in.
WOs: PApST, PIecE -> PIXIE, ham->BLT, ibid->ET AL, wresle [sic], ApOINT [sic]
ESPs: SEBERG, BODHI TREE, TERRA, TEMPEH, INUK
Fav: c/a at LIBEL
Choice word wasn't what I was thinking...
Houston Public Media airs Latino USA Sunday evenings after Splendid Table.
PK - sorry to hear about daughter's dog. Happy to hear about niece's baby!
Jinx - I feel ya... Dealing with for-profit heath-care is a pain-in-the-a**. We all had CO poisoning, all went to same ER, all got the same care. The hospital is in both my insurance and DW's (state=cheaper thus her & kids are on it network. I think we both have BC&BS. I got all four bills and mine was 2x each of theirs?!?
And that teacher is obviously an idiot...
Pop met step-mom #2 at CHANTILLY LACE in '87.
Back to packing the garage...
Cheers, -T
DNF today. Circles didn't help. True Friday puzzle.
DW had to have her thyroid removed by an ENT. Her PCP had put off doing anything about her abnormal blood tests by saying that she (the PCP) would monitor it and decide when the right time was. After one of her other doctors happened to review her levels he set her up with an Endocrinologist and then the ENT got involved with her case and removed her thyroid. The two specialists were upset with the PCP for missing the seriousness of her condition. Some doctors are considered "practicing" physicians because they don't have it right yet. End of rant.
Have a great day everyone.
A couple Saturday’s ago I commented on the “worst clued puzzle ever”.
I was incorrect.
This one is despicably clued, plus a gimmick.
I hated this puzzle.
Hola!
What a slog today! I worked on it on and off, in between doing laundry, and finally (!) finished. Not my favorite puzzle of the year!!
Some fill was easy but then we have TEMPEH? BODHITTREE? SEBERG (unfamiliar name), and why must a word by spread out across other words?
Yes, we had COMO ESTAS but that's only one easy one (for me).
End of rant! I think I must be getting too old for these challenges. My mind does not work as well as it once did. It's just BUGGING me that I'm no longer quick!!!!
Thank you, Emet and Matthew for the challenge and CMOE for blogging while on vacation! That's admirble!
INUK is unfamiliar to me. I have a friend whose surname is LETT.
In my front closet is a shelf full of vinyl ALBUMs but nothing on which to play them. I know I've mentioned this before and I'm grateful to whoever posted the phonograph back then. I shall buy one eventually.
I hope all are enjoying a fabulous Friday!
I see that AnonymousPVX shares my feelings on the puzzle.
oops. Misspelled ADMIRABLE.
I’m sure we could all write books about the bureaucratic nightmares we’ve had to navigate. So sorry Jinx for your frustrations.
Couldn’t that angry teacher just cuss out his neighbors and be done with it like normal people?
I liked this puzzle, even though it was a tough solve. I got a kick how DEBUGging the theme answers gave the, um, answers.
Hand up for not knowing TEMPEH or INUK, but the perps came to the rescue. That is how it should be.
Having studied different religions in college I knew BODHI TREE.
Not ever having studied or otherwise having learned Spanish I was quite taken aback at 18 across and 23 across. Gee, let's clue a Spanish word by likening it to a French word! Oh, and hey let's clue a Spanish phrase with another Spanish phrase!
I agree with Jinx about OILER and with Vidwan about LLAMA.
I didn't realize PABST was considered to be a "cheap kegful." The term "cheap" sounds derogatory, like cheap date or cheap junk. But ROTGUT didn't fit.
I totally sympathize with Jinx's travails with his health care provider. It makes me laugh (derisively) when advice to "call your doctor immediately" is given. Nope, no can do. All the doctors are unreachable; only a nurse, DA, or receptionist can be telephoned. The "primary care provider" (whatever happened to just plain doctors?) can only be reached by email and will only read it and maybe respond to it during office hours, which in my case is only 4 days a week. It is a very bad idea to get sick on a Wednesday, Saturday, or Sunday.
Chairman Moe, thanks for your recap; I learned some useful things. I usually learn some good stuff from you too, waseeley.
Good wishes to you all.
Got the bugs in the circle, but didn’t get the whole theme. Pretty obvious now. DNF in the NE corner, if I filled in ILLY on 15A would have finished it. Didn’t understand how LITEBEER was the answer to soft drink size. LITER..duh…
Fabulous Friday. Thanks for the fun, Emet and Matthew, and CMoe.
I FIRed and got the DEBUG theme, finally. What an Aha moment!
But plenty of inkblots.
My newspaper does not credit the constructor, and I wondered if we had a Canadian with OTTAWA (I was almost afraid to enter it because it seemed too easy!) and INUK (I think we have had that word here before).
Then with all the bugs, I thought the constructor might have been John Lampkin.
NY state area was my last to fill. I had my Canadian SIN card and was not familiar with TEMPEH (just Tofu).
We have had SEBERG here recently, but I required perps
BODI TREE was all perps.
I had a small nit with BLT (yes I wanted Ham), because the clue did not indicate a short form. But the name is rarely spelled out in full on the menu.
I liked the educational clue for ERIE.
ET TU (as clued) and TBH were not in my vocabulary but perped.
ANOINT made me think of the prophet Samuel anointing David as the next king after Saul.
Favourite today was 64d with those cultures coming together in the LAB.
Wishing you all a great day.
Jayce - I assumed it's 'cuz PABST is (or was - until hipsters drank it 'ironically') less expensive than Bud or Miller LITE (both of which are cheaper than mini-breweries like St. Arnolds or 3 Floyds
C.Eh! - Too easy?!? Maybe if I was thinking hockey...
Washington Senators was a baseball team in D.C. until 1960. I kept trying to think of the park/field they may have played in. It wasn't until I figured out the theme, filled MOTH, and - w/ the O_TAW_ - did the penny drop.
Anyone think that 48a is just 'NATURAL' 'cuz the G is silent? Just me?
The techies here probably know this: It was on or about 9 SEP '45 that Dr. Grace Harper coined DEBUG in computing after they removed a (dead) MOTH that was causing (short-circuit) errors from the Mark II.
Cheers, -T
Lucina @4:11 PM C my comment to CMOE re ALBUMS.
Jeffrey Wechsler produced today's Universal puzzle. LINK .
Jayce, my jaw dropped while watching the local news tonight. One of the USN's underway replenishment ships arrived home (Norfolk Naval Station) after an eventful deployment, which included an FA-18 being blown overboard from its carrier while fuel was being transferred. After referring to the ship by her name, the announcer referred to her as an "OILER". It still isn't one of the big commercial crude transports, which are tankers, but it did fit the clue. Also, I can't even get an email before my PCP's eyes. His LPN answers all of them, usually just to say "make an appointment."
OC4- When my PCP gets bad labs back, he asks DW or me to come back in for a retest. He's usually right - follow-up results are nearly always within range.
Many years ago a coworker drank a lot of beer, and only PABST Blue Ribbon. He called it "union beer", and said it was the only brand made entirely by union workers.
-T @6:13 PM Thanks for filling in the etymology of the word DEBUG. Teri actually met Doctor (and Admiral!) Hopper when she lectured at a local college. T even got one of Hopper's fabled "nanoseconds", a wire of the length that electricity travels in a NSEC). Alas it was lost in one of our moves.
Jinx @7:03 PM Docs know better than to trust lab results. I should know, I used to be a lab tech.
Xxxxxxxx So…
I kept getting a message "Can't connect, phone not registered on a network"
I tried 1. Restarting
2. Disconnecting wifi
3. Reconnecting wifi
4. Googling* it
Google said "Try 1, 2, 3
But…
It mentioned SIM Card
Aha….
I removed phone from its case and a credit card And insurance card. Put phone back into case and voila!!!
I now can make phone calls.
It was Phil who thought of the secret compartment. I had a $50 in there until last week
FYI, ET TU(Brute(Brutus)) is from Shakespeare where after 29 stab wounds the last one up with a knife is his old pal.
(Must you be like everyone else ?)
Thanks for that WC. I finally get it
Sorry everybody, too poopered out to read the 42 comments. I had a long day of reading highly technical medical info for a friend with breast cancer. Articles on TME, TAM M1 vs TAM M2 and the effects of different types of chemotherapy on the phenotypical ratio between M1 and M2. Tough reading, but I got it. Finally got to the CW at 10:37pm EDT, and managed to FIR at 11:16, a typical unclefred lightening fast time of 39 minutes. Only W/O OAT:HAY. I admit to not getting the gimmick until the reveal, which was, marvelously enough, the very last fill. Then and only then did I look at the theme fills and understand what CHANTILLY has to do with sweater weather, or how BROACHING is a type of cherry. That was a LITER size can of V-8 that beaned unclefred at that point. Very nice CW, thanx EO&MS. Thanx too to CMoe for another brilliant, educating AND entertaining write-up.
AnonT: Ironic that when you went to military service, the biggest service project ever, it would not count toward Boy Scout awards.
Jinx: to give you hope. My daughter had a mass in her abdomen that had us all excited. They removed an 8# benign fibroid tumor. Hope your DW will find something similar.
Jinx:
The granddaughter of one of my sisters also had a large tumor removed from her abdomen. When we all first saw her, we assumed she was pregnant. Not so. It was a very large growth.
This new wave of LA Times puzzles make you think more, but some of the answers are really stretches. Guess we could do without any hip-hop or those types of clues.
Post a Comment