google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday August 3, 2022 Susan Gelfand

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Aug 3, 2022

Wednesday August 3, 2022 Susan Gelfand

Theme: LITTLE WOMEN (59. Louisa May Alcott classic whose main characters are hidden in the answers to the starred clues)

17. *"We'll never understand": IT'S A MYSTERY.

25. *Color named for a fruit: LIME GREEN.

34. *Large bovine of American folklore: BABE THE BLUE OX.

 50. *Political satirist who wrote "Holidays in Hell": P. J. O'ROURKE.

 
Boomer here again, filling in another Wednesday slot.

Interesting - I have a sister named Amy and a cousin named Jo.  Not sure if I am ready for a Wednesday.  I have heard her child is full of woe.

Across:

1. Maxims: SAWS.

5. Indian dignitaries: RAJAHS.  Interesting how native Americans acquired the tag of Indians.  Columbus had no idea where he landed.

11. Pizzeria order: PIE. So bye, bye, Miss American PIE.


14. Make bootees, say: KNIT.  I never picked up this skill.

15. Childish response: ARE TOO.  AM NOT!

16. Lenient: LAX.  Also a busy Airport.

19. Sports rep: AGT.

20. Familia members: TIAS.

21. __ Palmas: Canary Islands port: LAS.  Tra LA LA LA 



22. Ranch unit: ACRE.  A bad tooth.

23. Not just a few: EVERY.  EVERY day of the week comes another puzzle.

27. Public face: PERSONA.  In line ahead of PERSON B

29. Not yet firm: UNSET.

30. D'backs, in box scores: ARI.  ARIZONA, Take off your rainbow shades.

31. Residue in a charcoal grill: ASH.  Louisville Slugger bats.

33. Pt. of many long weekends: FRI.  Tough puzzle day.

40. Slithery swimmer: EEL. Yuck!

41. Loaf that may contain caraway seeds: RYE.  Seinfeld stole it from a lady



42. Rival: FOE.

44. Like a designated driver: SOBER.  I am this.  My meds do not agree with the stuff in that other bottle.

47. Weepy: TEARFUL.  It does not make me cry.  I never liked the hard stuff much.

54. "Phooey!": NERTS.

55. Umbrella spokes: RIBS.  Great dinner as well.

56. __ chi: martial art: TAI.



57. Ten, for openers: DECA. But I thought December was the 12th month.

58. Recede: EBB.  The  tide goes out unless it's laundry soap.

63. Wonderment: AWE.

64. Lipton drink: ICE TEA. Great stuff in Minnesota's hot hot summer.

65. High coif: UPDO.

66. Teller of corny jokes, stereotypically: DAD. Yeah, that's me.

67. Not strict with: EASY ON.

68. Discreet summons: PSST.  Do you want to know a secret ?

Down:

1. Compete in the Super G, e.g.: SKI.  We have some great ski slopes in Minnesota.  But I never had a pair of skis.

2. Colony critter: ANT.  I have had ants, but not in the house, only driveway.

3. Climbing vine with purple flowers: WISTERIA.  Sounds like something our Vikings may grow.


4. Connecting flights: STAIRS.  Three in our home.  Difficult for me with bad legs and shoulder.

5. Tampa Bay baseballers: RAYS.  Do they still have a pool beyond the outfield fence with a devil ray in it?

6. Horace's "__ Poetica": ARS.

7. "Fist of Legend" action star: JET LI.



8. Starting squad: A TEAM.  Twins are now an F team.  Pitching coach quit and went to LSU.

9. Neigh-sayer: HORSE.  A horse is a horse of course.  Mr. Ed.

10. __ latte: dairy-free order: SOY.

11. Director's call: PLACES.  Came in second at Churchhill Downs.

12. "So true!": I AGREE.

13. Magnitude: EXTENT.

18. Cinco de __: MAYO

22. Golfer Palmer, informally: ARNIE.  Had an Army of fans.

Boomer, Arnie's Army, 3M Championship 2018

23. Org. with a Climate Change section on its website: EPA.

24. Sink or swim: VERB.  Kitchen SINK is a noun.

25. Mascara target: LASH.  I keep my LASH mascara-free.

26. Hindu spiritual adviser: GURU.  Does he give stock tips?

28. The older of baseball's two leagues: Abbr.: NATL.  I am not old enough to remember when there was only one league.

32. Possessive pronoun: HER.

33. Vamoose: FLEE.  I'm outta here soon!

35. Pub round: BEERS.  "Beer, beer, beer said the privates - happy men are we, There's none so fair as can compare with the sighting infantry' 

36. Architect Saarinen: EERO.



37. Data unit: BYTE.  Take a BYTE of the Apple Eve.

38. Freeway exits: OFF RAMPS.  Slow down. 

39. Cross off: X OUT.

43. Overhead trains: ELS.  Golfer Ernie.

44. Cream cheese, e.g.: SPREAD.  Not my favorite.

45. Algonquian language: OJIBWA.



46. Rose and fell on the waves: BOBBED.  If it goes under, you caught a fish!!

48. Over again: ANEW.

49. Get back: RECOUP.  Investors got some of their dough back in July.

51. City near Syracuse: UTICA.  Not a small town.  Everything's big in NY.

52. Hotel postings: RATES.  Going up all the time.

53. Poker pot: KITTY.

57. Leader with an .edu address: DEAN.  Dean Phillips is our congressman from Minnesota.  Last week he suggested that Biden should not run again.  Makes sense. Joe B is four years older than me and I am not running. 


59. Fabrication: LIE.

60. Name of 13 popes: LEO.  I don't remember any of them.  I think there were 23 Johns.

61. Masthead VIPs: EDS.

62. "__ too shabby!": NOT.  Thank you!

Boomer

Notes from C.C.:

Happy birthday to our beautiful Melissa, the longest blogger on our team after me. Melissa and her mom Barbara B were avid crossword solvers and commenters back in 2008. After her world was turned upside down, she founded Adopt an Inmate project and has successfully facilitated thousands of adoptions.Event though she's extremely busy with her job, she continues to find time to blog for us. Thank you so much, Melissa!

 

Melissa

 

58 comments:

OwenKL said...

It's hard to be SOBER when BEER is about,
Good fellowship's not a thing to flout!
But in vino veritas
May sometimes defeat us,
Into spilling the TEA, and letting it all out!

Monica was TEARFUL into her ICE TEA.
Her COIF was ruined, twas easy to see!
She wanted an up-do
For the glamorous to-do,
Instead she was BOBBED to a Dwayne Johnson devotee!

{B+, A.}

Subgenius said...

FIR, but with a caveat. See, folks, lately I’ve been doing the cw puzzle on my phone most days of the week in order to save the expense of actually buying the paper. Today, when I was finished, I didn’t get the “turnover “ that indicates success, and discovered that I had “Atica” instead of “Utica.” So, FIR, but with a little help. Anyway, “I’m happy” to have solved it!

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

This was a nice romp with a well-hidden theme. There probably should've been a reveal. Thanx, Susan and Boomer for your yeoman service this morning.

Happy Birthday, Melissa Bee. Happy birthday, and I hope you're enjoying your day off.

Subgenius said...

Oh, and Happy Birthday, Melissa Bee! I enjoy your commentary each week, along with all the other witty and creative hosts!

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR with no erasure. I even remembered how to parse JET LI! Who said that slur about old dogs and new tricks?

P. J. O'Rourke was a great humorist. At the risk of being repetitive, his book Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government provides the most interesting inside view of our "leaders" that I've ever read.

P. J. was best known for his National Lampoon days. I had a photo published in that great magazine. The subject was a doc-in-the-box establishment near Los Angeles International Airport called "LAX Medical Clinic."

I am sometimes treated to soft drinks or bottled water when I go to restaurants or bars with a bunch of imbibing friends. I'd be SOBER in any case, but some places treat the DD.

OJIBWA sounds like it should be followed by Kenobi.

Be careful around WISTERIA Lane. Desperate Housewives live there.

Hotels post rack RATES, which nobody pays.

Thanks to Susan for the fun, Wednesday-easy puzzle. My favorite was "connecting flights" for STAIRS. And thanks to Boomer for pulling double-duty. Guess that's what happens when you marry the boss.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

So sad to learn of Vin Scully's death. He was the best play-by-play announcer I ever heard.

The best color / analyst announcer I ever heard was the late Joe Nuxhall, the long-time Reds pitcher and broadcaster. His strength was explaining mistakes and why they matter. His pet peeves included outfielders who couldn't hit a cutoff man, pitchers who struck out on three called strikes, and hitters who couldn't lay down a sacrifice bunt.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Enjoyed the puzzle, thanks, Susan! Also enjoyed your humor again, Boomer.

DO: You said there probably should have been a reveal. I thought LITTLE WOMEN was the reveal. Wasn't it? Having read LITTLE WOMEN, the novel, multiple times as a girl & adult and seen the earlier movie version, the theme was easy. The reveal let me go back and fill in AMY & JO where I wasn't getting enough perps.

I had just read the blog from last night when I got to the 4d clue "connecting flights." Thought of our travelers & had a laugh, then refocused to STAIRS.

Oneida before OJIBWA.

DNK: P.J. O'ROURKE.

Happy Birthday, Melissa B.

Methinks we need a law preventing anyone over the age of 60 from running for US president. It's just not a retirement-age job. Too taxing.

desper-otto said...

PK, you're right. Guess who never read beyond "Louisa May Alcott classic..."

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Two days in a row that I had no idea of the theme until filling in the reveal, and today’s reveal was one of the most delightfully surprising ones that I can remember. Props to the editorial staff for not spoiling the challenge and solving satisfaction by providing circles. My only hold up was Ojibwa but perps solved the spelling question. My favorite C/As were Neigh Sayer=Horse and Sink or Swim=Verb. I also admired the strong, in-the-language themers. Even the plethora of three letter words didn’t faze me in the least today; that’s how much I liked the theme. Great big CSO to Ray O at Utica.

Thanks, Susan, for a truly enjoyable solve and thanks, Boomer, for pinch hitting once again. You’re like the Energizer Bunny-you just keep going! I hope you know how much you’re appreciated.

Happy Birthday, dear Melissa. 🎂🎊🎉🎈🎁 Thanks for your many years of faithful dedication.

90 today, 95 tomorrow. This has been quite the hot summer, although far more bearable than many other parts of the county.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Took 6:29 today.

Ojibwa and Mr. O'Rourke were unknown, and I was stumped by the "h" in "rajahs".

Got to go.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I saw the theme Little Women early and JO helped with the satirist and language
-Me too, ATICA/PJORARKE looked okay to me. NERTS!
-Yesterday, Juan Soto’s AGT got him away from the bad Washington Nationals to the San Diego Padres
-Pro rasslers have to have a big public PERSONA
-EBB – Pat Boone lamented, “How you laughed when I cried, Each time I saw the tide, Take our love letters from the sand”
-I know a VB coach who upset a lot of parents when she put 6 promising 9th graders on the A-TEAM thinking they would be great as 12th graders. Uh, they weren’t.
-I cringe when I hear GURU used as a VERB
-RECOUP – Inept gamblers can keep throwing good money after bad
-Happy Birthday Melissa B!

billocohoes said...

Anon must be happy there were no circles to complain about today.

Yes, Tampa Bay still has the fish tank, even though the team changed their name from "Devil Rays" to just "Rays" with a sun logol

TTP said...



Good morning. Thank you Susan, and thank you, Boomer.

Happy Birthday, Melissa !

The crossword fell easily enough, and I got the theme. I didn't bother looking for the names because the only way I would have known them was from clues in previous crosswords.

There's a new documentary on Paramount Plus that supposedly reveals the real meanings of each of the lines of Don McClean's American Pie. Has anybody seen it yet ? I'm guessing he still hasn't revealed his motivations for each line.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

I never read "LITTLE WOMAN".. the type was too small 😆.... they were beneath me 🤣.... but I read the sequel "Large Marge" 😂.. OK, OK.. I'll stop. (DAD jokes) But I did know their names, the clues were fairly easy

it's all Greek to us wouldn't fit but "Familia" followed by "Palmas" , "MAYO" ...with all the Spanish in the Lat CWs I might try to take the Spanish 101 exam next year.

Residue in a charcoal grill: the skinny hot dog that fell through the grates...😄.

NATL league : how can you have a distinguishing adjective if there's nothing yet to compare it with. Why not just "the Baseball League..."Fist of Legend"? Not Ali?... EERO! where yah been guy? Too busy drawing up building plans to give us a CSO? ..UTICA college (class of '71) is now a Univeristy.

Kinda upset about UNSET

Dismantled teepee or (CW "tepee").....EXTENT.
Overhaul the chicken house...RECOUP
Ebert, Maris and Moore.....RAHJAHS
Brit butt....ARS (🙊)
Brit bus: double ____ ...DECA
"Fist" connect with his jaw but do it ____... JETLI
Ragù and Prego.....SAWS
Call it a "wildebeest" or " _____ ".. 'sup 2 U....ANEW
Amanda Blake, Miss ____ ....KITTY

HbD. MELISSA b 😊


Sherry said...

No issues with the names as the crosses filled them in. Knew "Little Women " So well that I was able to suss out the other names. Good Wed.

Yellowrocks said...

Easy one today. The few unknowns were easily sussed and perped.
I read Little Woman first as a preteen. I cried when Beth died. I have read it again at several different stages of my life. I have seen TV versions and two or three movie versions. This is one of my all time favorite novels. JO is my favorite character.
We Northeasterners know Utica, NY.
Attica Prison, NY, is infamous for its 1971 riot, which, at least temporarily, gave prisoners at that place more humane treatment. Alas, it did not last. BTW, I am not condoning prison riots.
LAs Palmas is a Canary Island resort, popular for its beaches. Like yesterday's example it is really the English name of the place.
In summer I have a constantly refilled ice tea jug.
Happy birthday, Melissa. Thank you for all those years of great service to the blog.

OwenKL said...

I've never read LITTLE WOMEN, but I was in it! I played Father. In a home with 5 women, I got very few lines!
JK. He/I got few lines because he was off being an army chaplain during the Civil War, and didn't return until the end of the final act.
Even with that personal connection, i hadn't a clue until the reveal, so this was a loss, despite the FIRight.

unclefred said...

Wait, WHAT? FIR in 12 minutes today? Monday come on a Wednesday this week. I loved this CW not only because I was able to FIR in great unclefred time for a Wednesday but because it is so very clever. Great deal of skill to hide 4 names in the theme fills. Lots of clever clues, too, like 4D and 9D, to name just two. I learned a lot about eels yesterday, and here they are again! “Pub rounds” should be “ALES” but that didn’t fit. Fun to have BEERS crossing SOBER. Thanx SG for the very clever CW! HBD MB! Thanx too to Boomer for filling in today and for the many smiles his wit brought me in his write-up today. Boomer, sounds like it’s time for an elevator at your house.

waseeley said...

Thank you Susan for this wonderful wander through Wednesday's word maze. It seemed a little easier than I expect for a mid-week. Maybe it's the LITTLE WOMEN's touch.

And thank you Boomer for pinch hitting on such short notice. I hope getting your own personal clue (66A), made it all worthwhile.

I didn't see the sisters in the themers until I came to the reveal and looked up. As I've read the book and seen several adaptations, I didn't need any circles to find them.

A few favs:

11A PIE. Delicious clue. American Pie celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and I believe that there was a special on it, revealing the MYSTERY of all the hidden references. Unfortunately it was on a streaming service that I don't subscribe to. Fortunately you don't need a subscription to YouTube to listen to the song.

41A RYE. I don't remember that episode, a dark side of Seinfeld that I don't recall.

54A NERTS. DNK this interjection, but apparently it has a lot of company.

4D STAIRS. This reminds me of when we moved to the top apartment of a 3 story house. The landlady almost had kittens watching 2 guys haul a refrigerator up 3 flights of rickety old wooden steps. Afterwards my DAD, who was a carpenter, replaced them for $150 plus the cost of the wood.

Cheers,
Bill

Thank you C.C. for linking Melissa's remarkable and thought provoking website, which I plan to explore further and to share. And thank you Melissa for this wonderful mission.

Monkey said...

I enjoyed this puzzle. Lots of clever clues. For a while though I had trouble with the NE corner but once I came up with LAX the squares got filled in.

I’m not familiar with NERTS.

Happy Birthday to Melissa.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Happy birthday, Melissa!

Thanks to Susan Gelfand for this surprisingly easy puzzle. I love the book, LITTLE WOMEN, and have read it more than once and have seen several versions of the movie.

How I love PIE! And though I can no longer eat it, I cheat a lot. My favorite is lemon meringue closely followed by peach. My mother made wonderful pies!

CSO to LEO!

ICETEA. Ugh! Should be ICED TEA.

Have a beautiful day, everyone!


CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Susan and Boomer.
I FIRed in good time and got the theme.
Yes I am a Little Women fan. My mother named us all after the characters (well, I was supposed to be MEG, but it is another story why I am not!). And my daughter just took me to Stratford for my birthday, to see their great production of it.

Hand up for not being familiar with NERTS.
I did not know JET LI and changed from JETer with perps. (When will Canadian star Simu Liu make the CWs?).

CSOs today to AnonT (DAD jokes), Ray-o (UTICA) (YR I had Atica at first), Lucina (TIA), Misty (EDU).
OwenKL was talking about Jokiest DAD jokes last evening.

I noted PIE/RYE/FRI, ASH/LASH, LAX & EASY ON, EBB & BOBBED, and even ANT & TIA - LOL,

Those “connecting flights” were stairs, not Hahtoolah’s AA missed flight the other day.
More misdirection with VERB clue.
Perps kept me from entering REgain before RECOUP.
Also waited for perps to decide between His and HER.

Happy Birthday melissa.

Wishing you all a great day.

CanadianEh! said...

I see Subgenius and HG wanted Atica too.

Nice catch, unclefred, with SOBER/BEERS.

CrossEyedDave said...

Happy Birthday Melissa!


Hmm,
According toThe Far Side,
Little Women was a big read...

Lemonade714 said...

Happy birthday mb and many more. She and I shared Wednesdaylwas tea a long time ago. Boomer you just keep getting better. The recent remake of LW was well done

Our granddaughters face tonight ! Thanks Susan

Jinx in Norfolk said...

So SOTO went to the Padres after turning down a $440 million, 15 year offer from the Nationals. Tiger Woods turned down $700+ million to play golf on the LIV tour. Nice to be in position to turn down that kind of money. 'Course, if I had Soto's talent, I think I would be happy making a mere $10 million/year if I got to live in San Diego. I would want to live in La Jolla, where a very nice house can be had for a mere $32 million.

Picard said...

Two proper name clusters made me grumble:
PJOROURKE/OJIBWA and RAJAHS/RAYS/JETLI. FIR only because we have seen JETLI recently.

I don't consider I have fully solved the puzzle until I understand every theme answer. I could not see "JO". I never heard of anyone with that name and wondered what letter I had wrong. Puzzle answers are always three letters or more.

SYRACUSE University is where my parents met.

Here are two photos of my parents at SYRACUSE.

The first is in front of my mother's cottage. The second is at my mother's graduation, including my father's parents.

Picard said...

From Yesterday:
AnonT, OwenKL, CrossEyedDave Thank you for the kind words about my WIZARD playing chess photo... and trying to figure out the chess game itself!

This was actually on our main downtown street, State Street. It has been closed to motor vehicles since COVID and it is a delight to hang out there now. The WIZARD was an interesting character and I hope to find out the back story someday!

MalMan Thank you for sharing your FLIGHT story. Oh, my. Just awful. My worst experiences have been with United and Delta. I never even heard of WestJet, but I see it is Canada's #2 airline. We are planning our first air travel since COVID and this is scary to hear.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Whoot! I found all the LITTLE WOMEN (and I never read the book(!))

Thanks for the grid, Susan. Fun stuff. IM @7:24 and unclefred @10:07 [I missed BEER/SOBER - nice] says it best re: theme.

Thanks, Boomer, for the mighty-fine expo. Cute, Person B.
//At Ft. Bliss Basic it was: '...as compare with the Air Artillery.'

WOs: X-Off, WOMaN[1:20]
ESPs: LAS (as clued)
Fav: I know it's a themer but P.J. O'ROURKE was the best WWDTM guest [FF to 41:00] R.I.P.

{A, B}

Happy Birthday mb! I always enjoy your alternate Wednesday post-puzzle analysis.

Picard - a) love the photo of your mom swept off her feet. b) put your reporting skills to work and tell us about the purple-fingernail'd Wizard. He setup board positioning very well and has a very interesting face.

LOL Far Side, CED. Thanks.

C, Eh! - Oh, snap! So now I'm a DAD-joker? At least Ray-O is DAD-JOKIEST :-)

Ray-O: If you don't sacrifice at least one hot-dog to the fire-gods, your cook-out will be a rain-out.
Ask me how I know :-)

American PIE - I memorized all the lyrics when I was 15. There was no Google then so I had to re-wind the tape i recorded from the radio and pencil 'em OUT in a notebook.
The similes in the lyrics are easy to unpack if 'you believe in rock-and-roll / music [<->] can save your mortal soul.'
//can you teach me to dance real slowoow...

Gotta run - next meeting in 4 min. Today has been a wreck; new house == $600 water bill. Seems the leak is on our side of the meter... It's always som'tin'

Cheers, -T

Misty said...

Fun Wednesday puzzle, Susan, many thanks for the treat! And Boomer, how great to see you back on a Wednesday, after you just served us so well on Monday! You're one of our heroes!

So much cool stuff in this puzzle, beginning with the critters: a neigh-saying HORSE, a baby BLUE OX, a KITTY, and an ANT and a little EEL.

Should we feed them some MAYO to go with the RIBS, maybe with a little cheese SPREAD to put on top of the RYE bread, or some SOY sauce on top? And for dessert a LIME-GREEN PIE and some ICED TEA might be nice. That would help them to stay more SOBER than having some BEER.

Okay, okay, I'm sure you're getting tired of my corny jokes, even though I'm certainly not a DAD.

Loved your poems, Owen.

Oh, yes, and Happy Birthday, Melissa.

Monkey said...

Lucina: The ICE TEA vs ICED TEA is a losing battle. Like loan as the noun and lend as the verb.

That’s language evolving.

PK said...

Misty, no one around here will get tired of your corny jokes. We all thrive on them. Just surprised when you started displaying more wittiness all of a sudden. But with these guys, it's catching.

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle a lot. Neato theme, some fun clues and fill. I did need help in the NE corner because, for some reason, the director's call just wouldn't come to me, and because I was looking for something pizzeria specific and therefore the generic PIE never entered my mind either. So, FIR with help.

Super-duper happy birthday wishes to you, Melissa B.

Well, after months of back-and-forth phone calls with the offices of 3 doctors, speaking with at least 3 Medical Assistants and at least 5 different telephone-answering and appointment-making receptionists, ALL of whom swore up and down that intravenous sedation is absolutely positively not available for an MRI, I finally wangled a visit with an actual MRI technician who graciously gave me a good look at the actual MRI machine (a so-called wide bore) and explained to me that they give IV sedation routinely "all the time" to their patients. He explained that all the doctor has to do is order it. So that is, finally, what they are going to do. The technician says an anesthesiologist will be on duty to administer the sedation and that I will be completely asleep and "unaware of my surroundings." I'm glad my obsession with this matter propelled me to keep harping about it until I got the results I need.

It does make me wonder why everyone insisted having what they strangely call "adult sedation" was simply not an available option. The generous answer is that they themselves didn't know (which I doubt) and the harsh answer is that they were flat out lying to me. Either way, that is not a good situation, because they all were either (1) ignorant or (2) lying. The only person who actually told me the truth was the technician himself.

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is a piece of cake.

Good wishes to you all.


Misty said...

What a very kind and touching response, PK. Thank you so much!
(And I'm glad you liked reading LITTLE WOMEN!)

inanehiker said...

Okay so seeing a trend on the blog - I'm with IM, YR, Lucina, et al who have read LITTLE WOMEN more than once and seen all the movie versions with a variety of actresses who put their spin on JO - the independent strong female character who loves to write (Katharine Hepburn to Winona Ryder to Saoirse Ronan)

I didn't see the the theme until the reveal - but easy to spot up in the others after that!

Thanks Boomer for pinch hitting the blog , and Susan for the puzzle.
HBD to Melissa - always enjoy your Wednesday blogs.
RIP to Vin Scully, beloved Dodgers announcer and to Nichelle Nichols - actress famous for playing ground breaking(and Crossword famous) role as Uhura on the original Star Trek

Irish Miss said...

CEh @ 11:16 ~ I’ll take a wild guess at Jo instead of Meg. I was supposed to be Kathleen but that’s another story, too.

Jayce @ 2:55 ~ Happy to hear that your tenacity was rewarded, but it’s too bad that it took so much time, effort and frustration to have your wishes honored.

CanadianEh! said...

Irish Miss- no to JO. My aunt died suddenly a few months before I was born, and I was named for her instead. I have a very old-fashioned name!

Anonymous T said...

Misty - I think I can speak for 99%+ of The Corner - we love your posts.

ICE'D TEA or ICE TEA - no matter as long as it ain't weak TEA.
//Larry Wilmore had a show on Comedy Central and he'd toss tea bags at guests if they didn't keep it 100.

Jayce - Good on you. Your post re: hoop-jumping made me think of this [Python]

Happy they're finally going to make you comfortable in the MRI.

Cheers, -T

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks for pinch hitting, Boomer.
Hippo Birdie Two Ewes, Deer Melissa, Hippo Birdie Two Ewes.

Yellowrocks said...

T
In a pizzeria if you order a pie, it always means a whole pizza, not dessert.
Dean Martin sang, "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore"
My mention of Attica prison was brought on by several solvers choosing ATICA for UTICA. Does ATICA exist?
Anon T said, "as long as it ain't weak TEA." I agree. I prefer a glass of ice water to weak ice(d) tea. BTW Why does no one object to ice water dropping the D.
Alan and two other residents of his group home have Covid, although Alan has no symptoms so far. All three are room bound. The other resident was in the hospital with another malady and is now spending weeks in rehab. So the whole house is down.

TTP said...



I did a search on the new documentary about McLean's American Pie. Apparently they revealed a couple of teasers for the press releases / articles to gain attention. I won't spoil it for anyone that wants to watch it on Paramount Plus, but he did reveal that the King was not a reference to Elvis, the Jester was not a reference to Bob Dylan and one or two more.

It's kind of neat that at the 50 year anniversary, he is finally revealing why he wrote certain lines and made certain references, ending all the years of the speculation and differing interpretations by pundits about what he truly meant (beyond the superficial meanings and obvious theme of America's loss of innocence).

The guy that has interviewed him multiple times said that McLean walked into the room for the last one-on-one interview, and he said that McLean had this look on his face that led him to believe that he was going to finally answer all of the questions.

I get Paramount, but not Paramount Plus. I may pay to watch it if I can find it as a pay-per-view event.

Misty said...

My goodness, another kind, unexpected message--thank you so much, Anonymous T--I appreciate it very much.

Lucina said...

My friend, Kathy and I, just went to see the movie, Where the Crawdads Sing, which we read for the Book Club and it is wonderful! It faithfully follows the book enhanced with the beautiful North Carolina scenery.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

TTP, can you see why my post went into the Write Only Memory file? I had a link to a Zillow page, so the algorithm might think it's spam. It was also a little bit of a conversation drift, but I didn't think it was that big of a leap.

TTP said...

Hi Jinx,

No, nothing from you in the spam or awaiting moderation filter. Your 12:12 comment from today was the most current.

Wilbur Charles said...

Xxxxxxxx This late we can use all the remaining bytes, eh?

TTP, FLN, How times have changed. As kids 7-10 we wandered all around Broxton on the EL. But I had an older brother. I left Egleston, alone to walk the two miles and headed the wrong way. Whe. I realized the error I put on a fake crying jag, some nice people like called the cops who took me to the station.

When Dad arrived he saw a jovial party with ice cream.

And… Anon-T, that black bishop had best retreat, all options are dire with peril. Now that Rook…

Well. I spotted AMY and MEG. I actually read that 60 years ago

Said(RYE) lady showed up at the Florida HOA of Seinfeld's parents(can't find a link). She remembered Jerry which was the end of Del Boca Vista for them

Re. DECA, Boomer, The Roman Calender started with March and Sept-Dec were 7-10. Emperor Julian straightened it out forgot Leap Year which Pope Gregory corrected adding a bunch of days

Joe Nuxhall played in a wartime game at age 15. On 8/3/44 a 16yrold kid played SS
And… On this day , 2006, our Chase Utley had a big day hitting

TTP, a Tampa disc jockey interpolated Bye Bye… I recall the "Marching Band" were the Chicago Police who certainly didn't yield an inch in 1968

My ICE TEA drink is an ARNIE(unsweetened of course)

Two great l'icks, Owen but I'm reversing the scores.

In FLA the PIE is Key Lime(Hi Misty*). Everybody says they make the best but I want TANG

Far Side…big lol CED

Jayce, congrats and kudos for tenacity. Answer: As usual, follow the money. Extra cost for sedation I'm guessing and yes, they all lied

WC



Wilbur Charles said...

And hbd to the lovely Melissa. I'm fascinated by Adopt an Inmate

Wilbur Charles said...

Xxxxxxxx The fascinating life of Amos Bronson Alcott
Father of Louisa May(wiki)

Irish Miss said...

CEh @ 3:39 ~ I, too, was named after an aunt, at my father’s suggestion, to honor and thank Aunt Agnes for all the help and support that she gave to my mother. I never liked my name and always wished I was a Kathleen. 😟

TTP said...

Wilbur Charles, so true and so sad that the tides have changed so dramatically. I rue for the parents that are now agonized by simply sending their children off to school. And, perhaps to the omnipresence of information technology and social media, the young innocents are no longer shielded from the evils that can and do confront us seemingly every single hour of every single day. Not like what we had as youths. Not at all.

As they've said, "This isn't your father's Oldsmobile" Times have changed. But I believe that there is an unyielding resilience, and that despite any and all adversity, good triumphs over evil and despair, and somehow, someway, there is always a path to something better. Among so many trials, I grieve now for the families and people in eastern Kentucky and the hardships they face, but they will endure.

Someday people of the future will look back on the 2020s and think in wonderment of how well we had it. Or perhaps not. Maybe the legacy our generations will leave is how bad we've screwed it up.

TTP said...


Whoa. I got way too heavy there for a blog about crosswords.

It might have been the Stella.

Jayce said...

Not too heavy as far as I’m concerned. Please don’t inhibit yourself.

Malodorous Manatee said...

What Jayce said.

Anonymous T said...

American PIE trailer.
Don McLean interview on Ausie TV.
I'll wait for Netfix or something to watch - Paramount+??? Really, I already pay out the nose for cable.

TTP &WC a) not too deep b) there's a growing movement for Free Range Kids[NPR 4m] as a backlash against helicopter-parenting. #AmenToThat!

Cheers, -T

waseeley said...

What
What TTP said.

Vidwan827 said...


Jayce,, ... DW is a pediatric anesthetist and she often does 'cases', supervising sedation for little kids who are scared, or with concurrent mental problems, or fidget too much, or have spasms etc., for the MRI and CAT scans. This is a pretty routine job, that many anesthesiolgists are simply 'allocated', in turn, to do this 'shift duty' ... atleast once a fortnight or a coupla times, during the month.


I did not follow all your travails, and your personal phobias or fears, .... maybe I was 'out' ... but Im glad you got to resolve it in the end ....

Thank you Susan Gefand for a fairly easy CW puzze, that I really enjoyed and was very familiar with the theme...

Thank you Boomer, for the double date, this week, pinch hitting, and your funny jokes ... and above all, delighted that you are improving. !@!!


Happy Birthday, Melissa Bee, ... and thank you for your yeoman ( yeo-woman ?) service to and for the Blog. I remember your pictures of a " Girls night Out" .... from Long Ago ... and wondered at all the fun and games that you all had.


I have read Little Women, atleast 4 times, in middle and high school ... I loved it, and also it gave me a strong pro-feminist outlook.

I also read the lesser known epilogues .... Little Men; Life at Pumfield, ... and Jo's Boys. I also read Good Wives .... which is really a sequel ... Little Women, Part 2.

Wikipedia ... Infact it indirectly led me to read a book, called Cheaper by the Dozen, by Ern or Ernestine Gilbreths (sic) , an efficiency and Math calculating 'expert and wizard' ....

and then into learning the TrachtenBerg Method for basic operations ( addition, subtraction, multiplication and division ) of Math. The method trains you to add subtract multiply and divide, mentally ... very accurately and rapidly.

Although like Typing and Shorthand ... this method also requires a lot of dedication and Practice, Practice, Practice .......

Have a nice day, folks, you all !

Thought of Ray O Sunshine, ...... at Utica NY.

I think it is called A-ticka and A-tocka for Cardiologists ( Ticka-tocka ) .... and U-tica for Radiologists .....

Vidwan827 said...



Further on the Subject of Little Women .... by Louisa May Alcott .....

..... a 100 years later, this book led to another, author, .... Ms. Geraldine Brooks, into writing the fiction book, March, suposedly about Louise Alcott's father.

He, who was generally missing in the first set of books, because he volunteered to serve in the civil war ... and this book won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.


Now, to choose my identity ....

Anonymous T said...

Inanehiker - just for you Vin on Letterman.
Phil Rizzuto, Milo Hamilton, and Harry Caray are in the same Venn diagram overlapping as best colo(u)r play. R.I.P. Vin. -T