google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, July 2, 2022, Angela Olson Halsted

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Jul 2, 2022

Saturday, July 2, 2022, Angela Olson Halsted

 Saturday Themeless by Angela Olson

Angela Olson Halsted is a legal secretary in Washington, D.C., and the mother of two college students. She is also a baseball fan and her favorite team is the Washington Nationals.

Angela's puzzle contained some very interesting and fascinating fill for which I can say, I was "TODAY'S YEARS OLD" when I became enlightened! The Chase slide rule was fabulous! So now, while I'm still wondering how I knew about WARNERS intimates, let's explore Angela's puzzle.


Across:

1. Acknowledged mistakes: ERRATA - I had some but they self-corected

7. Leads: CHAIRS - CHAIRperson over CHAIRman is fine by me

13. Secure, in a way: SEAL OFF - How we SEAL OFF our garden from the bunnies


15. One cog in the Big Red Machine: GRIFFEY.


16. Bach work: CANTATA What is a CANTATA?

17. Birthplace of Kamala Harris: OAKLAND - California, October 20, 1964

18. Ron Rifkin spy series: ALIAS - Ron and Jennifer Garner are front and center


19. Shortsighted one: MYOPE - Nearsightedness is MYOPIA so...

21. Number of Olympic medals won by Katie Ledecky: TEN - Here's some of them


22. Map marker: PIN.

23. Many chords: TRIADS - C E G
25. Saltimbocca flavor: SAGE - Mistaking Saltimbocca for the liquor Sambuca sent me into a blind alley before the herb appeared.


26. Spanish 101 word: ESTA.

28. Troubles: ILLS.

29. Chase with a slide rule: UTLEY - My favorite clue. This vicious slide by Chase UTLEY broke Ruben Tejada's fibula and so MLB rewrote the "slide rule" and it has informally been called the Chase UTLEY slide rule ever since. I knew the name and baseball fan Angela must have as well.

 

30. Age of enlightenment?: TODAY YEARS OLD - Another fun clue. I was TODAY YEARS OLD when I learned about the information below.

35. Oscar nominee who voiced Michelle Obama on "The Simpsons": ANGELA BASSETT.


33. Brody of "The O.C.": ADAM - Second from the left w/Saturday cluing 


34. Like one due for an inheritance?: MEEK - Another great clue! Yeah sure, you didn't first think of HEIR like I did. Unfortunately having HEIR in the clue violated crossword protocol. 


40. It may be pulled by an athlete: GROIN

41. Polo who played Rebecca on "Sports Night": TERI - Second from the left. I thought is was a smart, funny show but it couldn't find an audience after two seasons 



42. Emulate Kelly Slater: SURF.


44. __ buco: OSSO - Frequent crossword fare 

45. Beer mugs: STEINS.

47. Drag queen Bianca Del __: RIO.


48. Present mo.: DEC - The present (adj.) month is July but in DEC. you get presents (noun)

49. All thumbs: INEPT - Not him


50. Freezes, say: NUMBS.

52. Unavailable, in a way: ON ORDER - The couch for our sunroom has been ON ORDER since May 2.

54. Like Romeo and Juliet: AMOROUS.

56. "All You Need" intimates brand: WARNERS - Google if you must

57. Carriage return creation: NEW LINE - A remnant of manual typewriters with its own song.


58. Nats division: NL EAST - Angela's team.

59. Theologian for whom a Connecticut university is named: WESLEY Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT. My Father's Day puzzle constructor was Dr. Fred Ohles who is the President Emeritus of Nebraska Wesleyan University. He also was the constructor for the Feb. 3, 2021 LA Times Crossword.


Down:

1. "__ at Dannemora": Arquette miniseries: ESCAPE.


2. Pragmatic sort: REALIST - They would choose possible over insisting on perfect.

3. Met: RAN INTO.

4. Resort near Deer Valley: ALTA - It looks like a one hour drive


5. Done for: TOAST - Custer was TOAST when he underestimated the Lakota and Cheyenne warriors at Little Big Horn

6. Back on board: AFT - Back of the boat

7. Casino game: CRAPS.

8. Sharp increase: HIKE - You want how much for a gallon of gas?

9. Samuel Gompers' org.: AFL.


10. "... maybe not even that": IF AT ALL.

11. Went back (on): RENEGED.

12. World's largest natural harbor: SYDNEY - If you look closely, you can see SYDNEY's most famous landmark jutting out into the harbor 


14. Jaleel White's show: FAMILY MATTERS - He was the irrepressible Urkel


15. Roadside assistant?: GOOD SAMARITAN.

20. Lupita Nyong'o's alma mater: YALE - From a 2/1/22 Julian Lim puzzle: "50-Across. Oscar-winning actress for "12 Years a Slave": LUPITA NYONG'O"

24. Saudi capital: RIYAL - Either of these meals will run you 20
 RIYALS ($5.33) in Riyadh 


25. Stirs up: STOKES.

27. Not quite lento: ADAGIO - Both are slow, ADAGIO is 66 - 76 beats/min and lento is 45 - 60 beats/min

29. Presses into service: USES.

31. Arabian port: ADEN - If you want to drive from ADEN to Riyadh for that McDonalds deal, it'll take a lot of gas.


32. Frankincense or myrrh: RESIN Where can I get these?

35. Football club founded in 1886: ARSENAL - We say soccer, in London they say football


36. Love all?: NO SCORE - 0 - 0 in tennis's arcane scoring system

37. Honk: BEEP.

38. Unrest: TURMOIL.

39. Chicago daily: TRIBUNE.

40. Happen: GO DOWN - Everybody knew when the confrontation would GO DOWN in this minute-by-minute movie. 


43. "Woman in the Mists" subject: FOSSEY - Her book and a book about her


45. Comics dog in a Viking helmet: SNERT.


46. Olympia from Maine: SNOWE.

49. Time to beware: IDES - Last Saturday, Nova and Matthew had the very clever "55. Mid day?: IDES" 

51. Bing returns: URLS - Bing is a search engine 

53. Messenger __: RNA Interested? Here's a 2 min. video

55. Catlike Pokémon: MEW - There are 905 
Pokémons and I think you can pick MEW out of this limited assortment.


Angela, we would love to have you comment on your puzzle by clicking below.

39 comments:

Wilbur Charles said...

The key here was footholds that Angela kindly provided

"Slide rile"??? The only Chase with a last name beginning with U was UTLEY. About as obscure Sports clue imaginable. But he must have been a clever baserunner… I see his leg-breaker was the last straw.

"Utley also holds the major league record for most stolen bases in a single season without being caught, set in 2009 when he stole 23 bases."

GRIFFEY because of AFL(Not CIO) and Bench,Rose, Perez and Foster didn't fit

Aah. The Saturday V8 cans. "The MEEK shall inherit the earth"

The latest "Carriage return creation" is the Aldis quarter. A brilliant idea, eh?

This is the WESLEY who's more familiar

FIR!!! Canya believe it?

WC

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DNS. Counted 14 inane (IMO) clues and saved my lead.

FLN
TTP - You are right, I stopped following MLB when I moved away from Atlanta twenty years ago.
First I had heard of ghost runners or 7 inning double-headers.

I used to attend college ball at my hometown uni, and it's pretty good. Free, too in those days. Old Dominion has a good program here, but the games aren't free. Probably won't go see our AAA Tides, too close to MLB.

On to Sunday!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This one had a Silkyish feel. Looked impossible, but little by little it came together, until d-o fell apart with one bad square. MEL/LESLEY instead of MEW/WESLEY, and at one time I was supposed to be a Methodist. Tsk. That "Carriage return creation" began life as KA-CHING, but that's why they invented Wite-Out. There were plenty of names I didn't recognize: Griffey, Rifkin, Utley, Warners, Slater, Del Rio, Nyong'o, I'm lookin' at you. In most cases the perps came to the rescue, so no foul. Thanx, Angela (I saw that shout-out) and Husker. (No, I didn't think HEIR -- I thought GENE).

ARSENAL: So based on the cover illustration, did the team run out of ammo in 1988?

MEEK: As Roddy McDowell sang on Broadway in Camelot, "It's not the earth the MEEK inherit, it's the dirt."

desper-otto said...

Hmmmm. It actually should'a been McDowall.

Lemonade714 said...

Yesterday my workout was walking the beach with waves, undertow, and wind. Today it is unravelling many clues that made no sense while stopping to smell the roses of HG's links.

My sons played in Pokémon clubs, leagues and yet I never heard of MEW but I am allergic to cats.

I thought Like Romeo and Juliet: AMOROUS was silly and Roadside assistant?: GOOD SAMARITAN was very hard to suss.

Thank you Angela and Gary, and I too did not think of HEIR, at least not their, I mean there.

Wilbur Charles said...

Xxxxxxxxx Fln we had robo-ump talk. Now we see that human subjective judgement calls are needed to decide what is an UTLEY "Slide" vs a (newly) legal slide*.

* I'm putting this down here as MLB talk gas been Jinxed around here My Redsox lost the services of their MVP 2nd baseman, Pedroia thanks to the Machado slide. Said slide came AFTER the new rule. note, the umps should have ruled it a DP to penalize Machado for the illegal Slide. Personally I don't think Machado was even aware of the new rule. A lengthy, Unpaid suspension might have woken him up

Which begs the main issue, yep $$$$. A 200 mil contract for 7 years and an UTLEY Slide disables the player in year one? Kaching goes D-Otto 's register

.WC

Subgenius said...

I could hardly believe the answer was " today years old" but that's what the perps indicated. And I thought long and hard about whether "Arsenal" was spelled with an "a"or an "e." In the end, FIR, so I'm happy.

KS said...

FIR, but what a ride! "Today years old " seemed weird and off the mark, but loved the clue for "good Samaritan". Certainly a Saturday puzzle.

Lemonade714 said...

BTW, it took me a while to parse ALDIS as ALDI's.
I have a simple mind now.

Wilbur Charles said...

Actually Aldi may not have the '

I'll have to check the next visit

desper-otto said...

Lemonade, are you saying that AL DIS was a bit much?

Big Easy said...

In spite of all the proper names and A&E clues I almost FIR. But the UTLEY and TODAY YEARS OLD area got me. Never heard of UTLEY and TODAY YEARS OLD as clued still makes no sense to me. I filled SHAKES instead of STOKES but it wouldn't have mattered. I don't follow baseball but I do know of Ken GRIFFEY.

Unknowns filled by perps and WAGs were plentiful- OAKLAND, SAGE, WARNERS, ADAM, ANGELA BASSETT, TERI, SURF, RIO, WESLEY, ESCAPE, FAMILY MATTERS, YALE, ARSENAL, ALIAS, MEW.

Ledecky medals- I knew it was more than TWO but had to wait for perps- SIX or TEN.
Gompers org. was either AFL or CIO.

NEW LINE- about 40 years ago when we developed the our first PCs for pharmacists to use when filling Rx's, in the documentation one of the programmers wrote "punch NL" instead of NEW LINE (now it's ENTER on keyboards). One pharmacist called up and told us he was typing N L and nothing happened. Nobody outside of programmers and keypunch operators were computer literate back then.

Anonymous said...

So now to do LA Times Crosswords we have to know TikTok memes that will be around for, what, maybe another six months? "Today Years Old". GMAFB.

Monkey said...

Wow! When I first glanced at this puzzle, I almost gave up, but I persevered and, in spite of not knowing the majority of the proper names, I succeeded. It is a testament to Angela’s talent that i was able to finish this, I agree Silkyish, puzzle.

oc4beach said...

I just gave up and turned Red Letters on. DNF.

There were a few too many proper names for me today.

I left DC area before the Nationals moved in, but I guessed it was the NL EAST.

Have a great 4th of July weekend.

Misty said...

Saturday toughie, but still with some fun items, so many thanks, Angela. And thanks for the helpful explanations, Husker Gary.

Saturday puzzles often make me feel like an INEPT MYOPE.

But I still got OSSO buco, those beer mug STEINS, that messenger RNA, and that Arabian port of ADEN.

I'm not great on music, but I surprised myself by getting both CANTATA and ADAGIO.

My dumbest moment was thinking the "Present mo" would of course be July. Nope, we don't exchange presents in July, only on birthdays and in DEC.

Looking forward to the Sunday puzzle tomorrow.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Picard said...

Hand up this seemed impossible, but a lot of plugging away brought a FIR. But WARNERS/ARSENAL/SNERT is a Natick cluster that could have had other answers. Hand up way too many crossed unknown proper names. Learning moment Frankincense and myrrh are RESINs.

"TODAY YEARS OLD" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to this math/logic person. It makes no sense at all and I hoped to find out it was wrong. I will take it as a learning moment of a world that I have never entered.

Husker Gary I did Google WARNERS and it seems they use a diverse group of ages and body types for their models.

Here we visited the new OAKLAND Cathedral on Thanksgiving, just before COVID.

I am not religious, but I appreciated the unique beauty of the architecture. We were also treated to choir practice; I invite you to play my short video.

Apparently, KAMALA HARRIS likes to tell the story of the GOOD SAMARITAN. We passed that spot in the Holy Land near Jericho.

JGS said...

"Today Years Old" is just Halsted trying to be "with it". She probably heard it from her kids and thought "I'll be cool and put that in my puzzle". Stupid clue. Stupid puzzle.

TTP said...





I thought I posted my comments before leaving on my errand to the beverage depot for the holiday stock up and save event. So from hours ago, without further ado:


Good morning. Enjoyed this themeless. The clues and long fill made it a pleasure to solve.

The internet meme "TODAY YEARS OLD" was a quick fill. It practically perped in, but I recognized it from seeing it in so many YouTube and Twitter comments over the last few years.

I agree, Husker. "Chase with a slide rule" was brilliant. Chase Utley was an intense five tool ballplayer for the Phillies for years.

"Like one due for an inheritance?" With my perps, heir didn't fit and neither did gene. MEEK made me smile at the aha moment.

Other favs were "Carriage return creations", "Roadside assistant", "Love all ?" and "Happen"

Ken Griffey Sr and Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr and Stan "The Man" Musial" are from Donora, PA, just south of Pittsburgh. It is also infamous for the Donora Smog that killed 20 people in three days, 50 more over the next month, and sickening thousands for the remainder of their lives.

Gotta run.

Picard said...

From Yesterday:
Lucina Thank you for the explanation about CLOVE and WINE. I think there are cultural differences in these tastes. I love the traditional food flavorings at Thanksgiving, but not so much the Christmas ones.

Thank you for the very kind words about the festivities in our little city and my photos of them! Same for AnonT

unclefred Thank you for the warning about your COVID rebound experience after Paxlovid. I just took my last dose. I guess I will find out tomorrow.

It is difficult to know what to do now in terms of getting back to normal activities. Official guidance says I am free to rejoin society now. As long as I wear a mask for another few days when I am near other people.

We used to have a big fireworks display in the park across the street from us. But COVID seems to have ended that. We may go into town and try to stay far from crowds if DW is up for it.

TTP said...



Jinx, I still get into the stories, stats and comparisons of players and teams, and watch / listen to a couple of games every week. I get MLB's "Morning Lineup" email every day in my inbox with game recaps and video highlights of the prior day's games. And tune in to the MLB Network on cable. There are some amazing players in the MLB and it's fun (for me) to watch baseball history being made.

Picard, "I will take it as a learning moment ..." You got it ! Perhaps the most recurrent use of the phrase is, "I was TODAY YEARS OLD when I learned of ..." So, if you were 40 or so years younger, you could have written "I was TODAY YEARS OLD when I learned of TODAY YEARS OLD"

waseeley said...

Thank you Angela for a punful, funfilled Saturday. I did score a horseshoe, but not a cigar, for not knowing the UTLEY rule.

And thank you Husker for your explanations and links, especially the UTLEY rule. It certainly makes sense to me.

A few favs:

13A SEAL OFF. That fence wouldn't stand a chance against the herd of deer who lurk behind our garden Husker. We have an 8' high heavy mesh plastic "deer fence" to keep out what a Texas vintner I once met call "4 foot rats". But the bunnies long ago learned to chew thru it, so we had to re-enforce it at the bottom with 18" of chicken wire.

34A MEEK crossing 15D GOOD SAMARITAN were my favorites.

16A CANTATA. Bach used to churn these 20 minute WERKS out at the rate of about one a week. There are over 200 hundred extant Bach cantatas, but many more are thought to have been lost. They are usually scored for SATB soloists, chorus, and a small chamber ensemble.

41 TERI. DW's preferred spelling.

12D SYDNEY. The opera house there is hands down the most beautiful in the world. My Aunt Mae once conducted Benjamin Britten's Noye's Fludde there. IIRC a CSO to Boomer, who has also performed in it.

53D RNA. Really liked the video for this Gary. I'm supplementing it here with a slightly longer video from the same series which includes what happens next: the Messenger RNA (mRNA) exits the nucleus to the cytoplasm, and attaches to a PROTEIN complex called the RIBOSOME. The latter uses the mRNA as a template to synthesize the PROTEINS that the body requires for its structure and metabolism. A very important question in origin of life theories, which has remained unanswered since the discovery of RIBOSOMES in the late 1950's, is "If a PROTEIN (i.e. the RIBOSOME) is needed to synthesize proteins, where did RIBOSOMES come from?".

Cheers,
Bill

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you, Angela, for an interesting challenge. Read: very difficult. Thank you, Gary, for explaining.

TODAY YEARS OLD I still don't really understand and won't tomorrow years old. WAG, perp, red-letter runs.

A lot of the clues, I thought I knew but couldn't dredge up right away such as CANTATA & ADAGIO (slow to get it).

Too many clues I didn't know even when filled. "Chase with a slide rule": I pictured an engineer with a raised measuring device running after someone. Never heard of UTLEY.

I've liked Jameel White lately on "25 Words or Less" game show, but didn't know his last name or remember the show where he was Urkel.

Liked some of the long downs when I finally filled them, but never got to the happy stage.

Happy to have it raining here before the fireworks show nearby on Monday. Less worry about fire in the neighborhood with a good soaking.

Anonymous said...

Re: Sports Night…..2nd from left is Felicity Huffman. Teri Polo did not have a major role.

ATLGranny said...

Yes, a difficult FIR today. Thanks, Angela, for the challenge. My SW corner filled first, giving me hope that the rest would eventually fill. TODAY YEARS OLD didn't make sense though perps were solid, even after Husker Gary's review. Only when I read Anonymous @ 11:19 AM (and Googled it) did I understand. You obviously have more contact with the younger set, HG, than I do!

The sports references (GRIFFEY and UTLEY) were perped and otherwise unknown. NUMBS was slow to come. I had am--/ESTA, but not many WOs in general. I call it a successful puzzle day! Thanks, Husker Gary, for another interesting review.

I've had a good run of FIRs this week. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Have a good day, all!

YooperPhil said...

Quite suitable for a Saturday themeless, not easy but solvable with perps and patience and a lot of thinking in the abstract. Really liked the clues for MEEK, UTLEY, AFT and GOOD SAMARITAN. The clue for NEW LINE went right over my head as I thought of a carriage as a shopping cart, which is what they are called in some parts of the east coast. Never thought of typewriter even though my first one was a Smith Corona manual. Got a FIR, not sure of the time cuz my iPad rebooted a few times and had to start over. Thank you Angela for the very fine grid, and nice that you included a SO to yourself with ANGELA BASSETT ☺️.

PK ~~ even though I’m a baseball fan I couldn’t recall Chase UTLEY as a ball player, I had the same visual in my head as you.

TTP ~~ interesting story about the Donora Smog, I had never heard of it before.

Husker G ~~ thanks for the superb illustrative review, always know I’m in for an education on Saturdays!

Big Easy said...

After reading Gary's review and all the previous comments I still didn't get the TODAY YEAR'S OLD and forced myself to look it up. I guess it's the new "I WAS BORN, JUST NOT YESTERDAY" or something similar. I also had to look up anon@11:19's GMAFB comment and I agree with him/her.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I had at least heard of Chase UTLEY but had no idea any costar of a TV show that ran for two seasons
-Undoubtedly Angela had probably seen Utley play in NL East games against her D.C. Nationals
-The NFL instituted the “Ken Stabler Rule” after he had intentionally fumbled the ball into the end zone where it was recovered by his teammate for a TD. This is now not allowed.
-I have used this phrase here, “I was 75 years old when I learned…” when I discover something new. I’ve also learned what “stir the tea” means and what “edgelords” are among other new phrases.

TXMs said...

Thanks, HG, for your recap - I always enjoy them. Never heard of GRIFFEY or UTLEY, but I didn't follow MLB until just recently. Perps were fair and helped with the unknowns as clued, i.e. FAMILY MATTERS. My favorite was MEEK. Like Big Easy, I looked up the phrase, TODAY YEARS OLD, on two different sites, and think this meme is just ridiculous. Why not just say "I just learned..."? Younger people go out of their way to contort the English language, thinking it's "cute." Nope. FIR so I should quit complaining.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Nope. Tossed the towel.
I started the puzzle b/f Eldest & I went to a restaurant supply shop (to get her a nice stainless-steel stock pot and an 8" chef's knife) before a visit to H-Mart and lunch at Taste of China [no Americanized Chinese food there]. Then tried again. No dice.
//It was clearly time to crib HG's grid so I could do my chores

Thanks Angela for the grid. Thanks HG for bailing me out and the fine expo.

Fav: and the MEEK shall inherit the Earth [from RUSH's 2112 - I'll spare you all 24 minutes ;-)]

FLN - I agree TxMiss; I'm not buying another! streaming service just to get the game.

TTP - Twitter is also where I learned TODAY YEARS OLD. I get it 'cuz I learn stuff every day that, apparently, others knew (common knowledge?) already ;-) //does that help, BigE?

Back to cleaning out the garage - 'staging' the house left a mess of it :-(

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

A fine Saturday PZL from Ms. Halsted, clarified for us by HuskerG.
It defeated me in the end, but I knocked off about 80% before tossing the towel.

It was the kind of challenge wherein I knew I knew the fills but just couldn't remember them in the moment.
Tip of the tongue failures, y'know.

Ah, Saltimbocca! It "leaps in the mouth"!
A favorite of mine. I found that in big city Italian eateries they will make it for you even if it's not on the menu.
It makes the chef happy if you request it. (Excluding chain franchises, of course.)

Not a big sports fan, so unable to appreciate Husker's thrill at the UTLEY slide rule. But I get a sense of his insider knowledge kick via my own pleasure at 57A, "Carriage return creation."
Only old-timers like me can really appreciate the workings of a (gasp!) "Typewriter"!

I wrote my thesis on a rented IBM Selectric--producing an original and six (count'em, six!) carbons.
It was nearly 800 pages long. I can't begin to tell you how many carriage returns were entailed.
~ OMK
_____________
DR:
Alas, no diagonals today. The left line was broken after ADAM, and the right met its early end post-MYOPE.

Ol' Man Keith said...

It is reassuring to see so many sharp-witted colleagues allowing as how they don't get TODAY YEARS OLD either.
But I understand from the Corner discussion that the phrase has some currency among younger souls on various social media.
Like all idiomatic phrases, it becomes legitimate after X numbers of folk put it to use.

If I interpret it correctly, it can be used like "Eureka!"to exclaim a fresh understanding--the "enlightenment"--that has arrived at one's current "age."
I don't believe I shall use it myself.
Because (a) it would only be heard by peers of my age who would then require a long explanation,
and (b) we octogenarians are already fully enlightened, thank you very much.
~ OMK

Wilbur Charles said...

Xxxxxxxx

Wilbur Charles said...

Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxx WC

Picard, thx for the cathedral pix. Beautiful and informative for me . Btw my brother caught Covid at the same time as you and was given same advice after the quick recovery

TTP's am comments posted at 1151 juxtaposed with the 1147 am was humorous. I'm with TTP re. The xword and TYsO

BTW, Aldis requires a quarter to use a Carriage and when returned you get the quarter back

WC

This blog is a great learning experience

OwenKL said...

DNF today.
Wilbur, I did a reading once (for a Toastmasters contest(?)) as John Wesley Hardin. But the better known today is probably Wesley Crusher

As a senior in high school, I placed second in the annual slide-rule competition, beaten out by a junior! I still wore my slide rule in a belt holster. My sports letter had a sigma on it, because I was on the mathelete team. For Chase rule, I put UrkEl.

Picard cruel of you to not show what that building looked like from outside!

I liked "TODAY...". Just fell off the turnip cart.

Lots of Biblical references, including usually religious CANTATAS.

Anonymous said...

"TODAYYEARSOLD" What planet is the origin of that phrase? My latest copy of "American Slang" (2020) doesn't have it and I even asked my grandkids ...all I got were blank stares!! Also: as with other constructors, did Angels get a royalty payment for the two brand names she put into her grid??? I get tired of gratuitous use of brand slogans in grid defs. Don't we get enough of them everywhere we look? HEY, EDITORS!! Are you listening???

Jayce said...

There was a lot to like about this puzzle. The footholds were good starters and eventually I got it about 75% done then hit the wall, unable to make any more progress. Finally I looked up Jaleel White, which got me that long answer and lots of letters. But I still couldn't get TODAY YEARS OLD, which simply looked wrong to me, and my uncertainty about RIYAL being the currency of Saudi Arabia prevented me from cementing it in. So, more lookups and I got 'er solved. It's Saturday, so I'll count it as a FIR.

Had an absolutely nifty visit with our son and his new fiancée today. They were in Palo Alto doing some shopping, so we met them there at an excellent dim sum place where we enjoyed excellent food and 2 hours of chit chat and catching up.

Good wishes to you all.

Anonymous T said...

@7:06p...

Try again with Grands (assuming they're over 15yrs old)...

"I was Today Years Old when I learned..."

e.g. - Are you Today Years Old when you learned the L in Staples is a 1/2 open staple?.

Cheers, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

As opposed to "I wasn't born yesterday". Or is it similar to.