[NOT QUITE] TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
Today veteran constructor Michael Lieberman (NYT & LAT) presents us with a simple theme, consisting of the names of 4 major businesses, each truncated by one letter and enclosed in circles in the long fills. And for those who didn't see it coming he then reveals his game with this pair of recursive clues:
57A. With 62-Across, matters left to settle, and what can be found in each set of circled letters?: UNFINISHED & 62. See 57-Across: BUSINESS. (do I hear some yawns from AnonymousDNLC?).
Here are the themers, short and sweet:
16A. 100% guaranteed: IN THE BAG. EBAY.
31A. Many night owls, in the morning: LATE SLEEPERS. TESLA.
41. Doomsday prophecy: THE END IS NEAR. DISNEY.
Here's the grid:
Now let's see if we can complete the rest of this business:
Across:
1. "American Idol" network: ABC
4. Mayberry boy: OPIE. A small town boy who made good. Here's Ron Howard telling Colbert that after all these years he still has problems with authority figures:
8. Add to a website, as a video: EMBED. E.g. the video of Ron Howard in the previous clue. I've found that the easiest (and most reliable) way to do this in Blogger is with the YouTube Share/Embed method. Contact me if you're interested in the details.
13. Florida, to the Keys: MAINLAND. Our community has a number of friends in Florida (constructors, bloggers, and solvers) who were severely impacted by hurricane Ian. Please keep them in your prayers.
15. Twisted: GNARLY. This is one of those words that has been twisted into several different meanings.
17. Put the blame on: ACCUSE.
18. "Top Chef" judge Simmons: GAIL. Gail Simmons is a trained culinary expert, food writer, and dynamic television personality. Since the show's inception in 2006, she has lent her extensive expertise as a permanent judge on BRAVO's Emmy-winning series Top Chef.
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Gail Simmons |
21. "The Baby-Sitters Club" author __ M. Martin: ANN. The Baby-Sitters Club (also known as BSC) is a series of novels written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic between 1986 and 2000, that sold 176 million copies. Martin wrote the first 35 novels in the series, but the subsequent novels were written by ghostwriters. The novels are about a group of friends who live in the fictional, suburban town of Stoneybrook, Connecticut, who run a local babysitting service called "The Baby-Sitters Club". The novels also spawned off a TV series and a film.
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Ann M. Martin |
22. "In __": Nirvana's last studio album: UTERO. In Utero is the third and final studio album by American rock band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993. Curt Cobain committed suicide a year later. Here's Pennyroyal Tea from the album, planned as a single prior to Cobain's death, released in 2014, and reached number one on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales Chart (click ...more for lyrics).
23. Be in arrears: OWE.
24. Long tales: SAGAS.
26. Hi-fi spinners: LPS. Long Playing Records. They're back! CD's are old hat.
28. Fitness revolution?: LAP. Or a place for a CAT to NAP?
36. Ranch unit: ACRE. OUNCE was too long.
39. Campaign manager?: AD REP. Well somebody has to keep track of all that cash being pumped into CAMPAIGNS and make sure that it gets thoroughly washed.
40. "Never Feed a __ Spaghetti": rhyming board book: YETI. Looks like a great Christmas gift for your two year olds.
44. Unruly crowd: MOB. We've been HEARING quite a lot about one of these over the last year.
45. L.A. school: USC.
46. Concert souvenirs, for short: MERCH.
50. Actress Thurman: UMA. She has her own STAR on the CROSSWORD WALK OF FAME, but Hollywood still hasn't called her yet.
52. Mixer at a bar: TONIC.
56. Fury: IRE.
60. Norse god with raven messengers: ODIN. Hugin and Munin are two ravens in Norse mythology who are helping spirits of the god ODIN, a self-centered "Wanderer" who prowled about his ancient kingdom as a relentless seeker after and giver of wisdom, but with little regard for communal values such as justice, fairness, or respect for law and convention.
In modern times another fictional ODIN lived in the Antipodes of Southern Australia and was his Northern counterpart's exact opposite: a kind, gentle, generous soul who at a young age lost his mother in a car accident, and promised her as she lay dying that he would do everything he could to keep her children together. His story is told via the genre of magical realism in the TV series The Gods of Wheat Street and stars Maori actors in all of the major roles. Streaming on ACORN:
61. Shortcoming: DEFECT.
64. Scramble alternative: OMELET. As least Michael's BUSINESSES weren't scrambled.
65. Handel work: ORATORIO. While Handel's best known oratorio is Messiah, he wrote many others, including the great work Solomon, based on the biblical stories of the wise Jewish king who built the first Temple in Jerusalem circa 1000 B.C. Probably the most recognizable section of this piece is the interlude The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. If you just happened to catch the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, it was played as James Bond (Daniel Craig) went to meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. If you didn't, here it is performed by The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields led by Sir Neville Mariner (3:17 min):
66. Junction points: NODES.
67. Cellist Ma: YOYO. Much more than just the world's greatest living cellist, Yo-Yo Ma is also a world class impresario dedicated to bringing great musicians together to play great music. That's easy to say, but selecting from his extensive catalogue of collaborations is not so easy. In this one, appropriate for the holiday season that will soon be upon us, he plays pizzicato cello to vocalist Alison Krauss' performance of The Wexford Carol:
68. Oft-redacted ID: SSN. There's a whole lotta redactin' going on these days. Seems like everybody's got something to hide ... :
Down:
1. Spanish friends: AMIGAS. Today's Spanish lesson.
2. Split fruit: BANANA. In 1904, the first banana split recipe was made in Latrobe, Pennsylvania by David Strickler, an apprentice pharmacist at a local drug store. Here it is.
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| All American Banana Split |
3. Using as an example: CITING. I got writer's block on this one. I just couldn't come up with an example to CITE.
4. Cheer for un gol: OLE.
5. Blue Ribbon beer: PABST. Pabst Blue Ribbon, commonly abbreviated PBR, is an American lager beer sold by Pabst Brewing Company, established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1844 and currently based in San Antonio. Originally called Best Select, and then Pabst Select, the current name comes from the blue ribbons tied around the bottle neck between 1882 and 1916.
6. Amazed: IN AWE. Like 60A ODIN this bit of crosswordese has deep roots in the Old Norse language and earlier.
7. Mystery award: EDGAR. The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America, based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film, and theater published or produced in the previous year.
Poe is buried in Baltimore. The reports of his death at the time were slanderous and false and were later found to be written pseudonymously by a rival. POE is also the name of the Baltimore Ravens' mascot.
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| Edgar Allan Poe |
8. Fence off: ENCLOSE. The herd of deer living in our back yard forced us to ENCLOSE our garden with an 8' fence.
9. Chatty bird: MACAW. I think this review could use a bit of color and here's everything you need to know about it.
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| Macaws |
11. Otherwise: ELSE.
12. Goes green?: DYES.
14. Org. with many left-wingers and right-wingers: NHL. Everything you need to know about ice hockey politics.
15. Empty space: GAP. As in [ ]
20. Hay fever cause: POLLEN.
22. Forever stamp letters: USA. A hedge against inflation?
25. Protected, at sea: ALEE.
27. Cacio e __: simple pasta dish: PEPE. Today's Italian lesson: "Cheese and Pepper". I'll bet even I could make it.
29. Field for Alice Neel and Kara Walker: ART. Alice Neel (January 28, 1900 – October 13, 1984) was an American visual artist, who was known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers. Her paintings have an expressionistic use of line and color, psychological acumen, and emotional intensity. Her work depicts women through a female gaze, illustrating them as being consciously aware of their objectification by men and the demoralizing effects of the male gaze. She has 75 works currently being exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Kara Elizabeth Walker (born November 26, 1969) is an American contemporary painter, silhouettist, print-maker, installation artist, filmmaker, and professor who explores race, gender, sexuality, violence, and identity in her work. She is best known for her room-size tableaux of black cut-paper silhouettes. Walker was awarded a MacArthur fellowship in 1997, at the age of 28, becoming one of the youngest ever recipients of the award.
In 1999 the Detroit Institute of Art removed her "The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts" (1995) from an exhibition entitled "Where the Girls Are: Prints by Women from the DIA's Collection" when African-American artists and collectors protested its presence:
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| The Means to an End: A Shadow Drama in Five Acts Kara Walker 1995 |
30. Trident-shaped letter: PSI. PSI is used in Quantum Physics to represent the wave function describing the wave characteristics of a particle. A CSO to any of the Corner's engineers or scientists who could explain this better in layman's terms (if that's even possible!).
However, if you're open to the possibility that there might be something to some of this stuff, I'd recommend that you explore the writings of Dr. Ian Stevenson (1918 to February 8, 2007) who was a professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia and did worldwide case studies of evidence for re-incarnation. For your convenience I've extracted a YouTube video from the above link of a 30 minute lecture given in 2002 by Dr. Stevenson to the UVA medical community, subtitled "Children Who Remember Past Lives" (also the title of this book).
32. Small amounts: TADS.
33. Decrees: EDICTS.
34. Soon-to-be alums: SRS.
35. Ritual flammable pile: PYRE. This brings us back full circle to 60A re the Norse God ODIN, who in Richard Wagner's The Twilight of the Gods has, through his own selfishness failed to prevent the destruction of his kingdom. In the climactic scene, the heroine Brunhilde, bereft at the murder of her husband and hero Siegfried, mounts her horse and plunges onto his funeral PYRE, the conflagration finally destroying all of Valhalla (7 min with subtitles).
36. 20s dispenser: ATM. How Automated Teller Machines work and how to use them.
37. John who plays Sulu in recent "Star Trek" films: CHO. John Cho (born Cho Yo-Han; June 16, 1972) is an American actor known for his roles as Harold Lee in the Harold & Kumar films, and Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek rebooted film series.
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| John Cho |
38. Brushed aside: REBUFFED.
42. Subtle distinctions: NUANCES. A crossword constructor's stock-in-trade.
43. World's largest theater chain: AMC. Founded in 1920, AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri and now headquartered in Leawood, Kansas. Here's what's playing at ...
47. Uber patrons: RIDERS.
48. Turning point: CRISIS. I think we're at one.
49. "Hidden Figures" star Taraji P. __: HENSON. Hidden Figures is a 2016 American biographical drama film, loosely based on the 2016 non-fiction book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, about African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race. The film stars Taraji P. Henson as Katherine Johnson, Octavia Spencer as Dorothy Vaughan, Janelle Monáe as Mary Jackson. Here's the trailer:
51. High-end German vacuum brand: MIELE. My original riff on this was "In a MIELE, no one can hear you scream", but Teri assured me that it had nothing to do with the movie Alien. She provided me with this MIELE guide to vacuum cleaners. I hope you can find one that doesn't suck your budget dry.
53. "Here we go": OH BOY. Purely perps. A bit sexist?
54. Logical opening?: NEURO. As in neurological.
55. "In my opinion ... ": I'D SAY. And as Teri will tell you, I often do.
57. Thick noodle: UDON.
58. "Finding Dory" fish: NEMO. Dory is a Royal Blue Tang. Nemo is a Clownfish.
59. Derby-sporting Addams: ITT. Everything you want to know about Cousin ITT. I think he might have a neurological problem.
60. Artist Yoko: ONO. Here's her "Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Her" from Lennon and Ono's Double Fantasy album (lyrics):
63. "Who am __ judge?": I TO. A famous quote by Jorge Mario Bergoglio in response to a question posed by reporters on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome in 2013. It delighted some on one side of the aisle and shocked those on the other.
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| Pope Francis Bishop of Rome |
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
Notes from C.C.:
Happy 75th birthday to Boomer! Thank you so much for the cards and notes you've sent to him. I'm saving them and will read to him when things get tougher.This picture was taken in 2003. The guy on the left is Tim, Boomer's old Graybar colleague.
May, 2003
42 comments:
FIR, but erased ziti for UDON. Lots of unknowns; the many pop cult fills were fun sinks. But I finally remembered John CHO, so constructors can give that one a rest.
I've spent a lot of time in various Florida keys, and have never heard anyone refer to Florida as the MAINLAND. Better would have been "the 48, to a wahine".
Homeward bound today. Going back to gloomy weather due to a couple of coastal low pressure systems. Should be home before the afternoon rush "hour" traffic.
Probably like many of you, at first I was wondering what in the world was going on with the circles. Some of them seemed to reveal almost a word, but not quite. Then, with the reveal, it all became clear. Like our moderator, I wonder what AnonymousDNLC (also known as SS) will have to say about this puzzle?
Good morning!
Got 'er done, and even figured out the circled "words" after finishing. Must admit that ANN Martin and The Baby-sitters Club were news to d-o. This was another No-Wite-Out day. Yay. Thanx, Michael and Waseeley. (You were at your musical best this morning.)
ENCLOSE : We've also got a local herd of deer. About ten of them show up around sundown to frolic in the back yard and drink the birdbath dry.
PSI : In my ute it was all about The Search For Bridey Murphy. Remember that?
PYRE : Gotterdämmerung has such a nice ring to it. Don't know what it means, but it rolls trippingly off the tongue in moments of stress.
First of all, HAPPY 75th BIRTHDAY BOOMER!! I hope you have a fun day. With no more chemo, you won’t be going to the V.A. as much, so I’m sure you’ll be missing the good V.A. cafeteria chow. I look forward to your Monday blog posts! As to the CW, started right off wrong, putting FOX at 1A creating a W/O when perps changed it to ABC. Many names, I count 14, of which I only knew six, so a whole lotta perping going on. Eventually managed to FIR in the warp-factor nine speed of 32 minutes. It took the reveal for me to finally see the unfinished business names. Clever. Thanx for the fun, ML. Thanx too to Bill for the terrific write-up. It is obvious you put a lot of time into giving us an entertaining read.
Oops! Forgot to wish Boomer a happy birthday. I hope Boomer and C.C. do something special today to mark celebrate.
Darn! I forgot to wish Boomer a Happy Birthday, too! Boomer, you are a great example of courage and fortitude! I hope you really enjoy yourself today!
Happy Birthday, Boomer!!! Hope you have a fantabulous b-day today!
FIR, but it was a slog. Nice Thursday puzzle.
It took me 7:04 to finish this one toda .
Without further ado: Oh joy, more circles.
When the puzzle loaded, I sighed, "Circles? On a Thursday?".
This theme does get a bonus point for a novel/clever approach, but I still feel this type of theme causes the fill to suffer (e.g., two of the first 4 down answers are foreign words and there's a foreign vacuum brand), and too many proper nouns (the tv cook, Cho, the author, the artists, and, of course, the omnipresent Ono, Uma, & Itt).
Happy LXXV Birthday, Mr. Boomer.
Respectfully,
Anonymous DNLC
FIR today, thanks to Michael's perpable puzzle. At first I thought the circles were words missing a Y at the end but TESL didn't work with that. When I got the reveal, I saw they were businesses instead. Interesting idea.
Thanks waseeley for your extensive review. I enjoyed the music as I went along. A couple of WOs due to sloppy thinking: tau/PSI and rebucked/REBUFFED (That's not even how rebuked is spelled!) But overall a tidy grid.
A very Happy Birthday to our Boomer today! Enjoy!
And I hope everyone enjoys the day!
I FIR...but the theme is UNFINISHED BUSINESS for sure....
Leaned a new term, not from the puzzle but from Waz's commentary..."recursive" "adjective:
characterized by recurrence or repetition."
Or.. Me continually muttering 🤬 when I can't suss a simple clue 🤭
Didn't get fooled and waited for ANN to show me AMIGAS....wait unless it's ONN..lol
Inkover: snarly/GNARLY, mynah/MACAW
UMA welcome back!! (You were great as Arianna Huffington in "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber").
Thought Miele vacuum cleaners were Italian (Miele = honey)...I hear those machines really suck!! 🤭. Oh a Greekletter shaped like a trident. 🔱
Thought it said "Scrabble alternative" (Monoply anyone? ) 😆
Bar Harbor and Bangor......MAINLAND
Where to find LATE SLEEPERS....EMBED
Company making plain wood furnitire..UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Waz.. lotsa interesting info. Thanks for taking the research time.
Happy 75th Boomer
I add my birthday wishes to Boomer to the chorus. HBD Douglas 🎂🎂🎂! And nice duds. Who's that beautiful woman beside you?
D-O @5:44 AM "Nice ring?" Cute! Gotterdämmerung ist Deutsch fur "Twilight of the Gods" ("Gods dimming"), the last opera in Wagner's "Ring" cycle.
Tremendous Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Michael and waseeley (and Teri).
Officially a FIW today, plus I was trying to unscramble and add a letter to the circle businesses. D’uh! My brain is an OMELET today.
I had a sea of white after trying the top across clues. Switched to Downs for better results. But the NE was last to fill. Even then, I had a Rep in the gym instead of LAP (I should have known that was a dupe with AD REP). I also was swapping Lanes instead of PLACES in the plane (Double D’uh) and didn’t know the Dragon star (plus didn’t parse as two names).
I loved the clues for BANANA and OMELET.
Tees was too short. The concert souvenirs were MERCH.
I changed Rebutted to REBUFFED.
NUANCES is a great word, from the French for shade, subtlety.
Ray-o- LOL re Late sleepers=EMBED!
Happy Boomer Boomer.
Wishing you all a great day.
After watching a recorded TV show, I wake up dw and ask if I should delete it. I warn her that she may have missed a NUANCE or two.
The puzzle seemed a bit easy for a Thursday. Didn't look at the circles until l filled in the reveal. Had a thought that the ends might have a meaning but while YEAY might be a cheer, but I didn't see any relation to the theme.
Happy birthday and all the best to Boomer on his 75th. Enjoy!!
Got it done. Didn’t think about the circles, thank goodness. I doubt I would have sussed them out…
Good Morning:
I really liked this clever theme and the totally surprising reveal. However, I agree with SS that the fill was adversely affected, leading to the negatives he mentioned, plus the plethora of three letter words, which I always find distracting. Ann, as clued, was unknown and Miele needed perps for the correct spelling. I stumbled over Mynah/Macaw (Hi, Ray O) and Soba/Udon. I think the puzzle could have been solved without the circles due to the straightforwardness of the reveal, which, in turn, would have definitely increased the challenge and overall solving satisfaction, IMHO.
Thanks, Michael, for a fun and fresh Thursday offering and thanks, Bill, for entertaining, enlightening, and educating us, once again. I enjoyed the Ron Howard segment very much, as well as the Hidden Figures trailer.
Happy Birthday, Boomer, enjoy your day. 🎂🎉🎊🎈🎁 Thanks, CC, for that lovely photo! 🤗
Have a great day.
Wow, the things I never knew. I'd never heard of Cobain until he died and only the vaguest recollection of the Baby Sitters Club
This was relatively easy for Thursday with unk-props intruding now and then to be perped
I thought it was YaYa MA
Like RayO I first read Scrabble then OMELET started cooking
😃BDay Boomer. I bought the card last week and misplaced it. Glad you're saving them to be read later
Fairly routine FIR, outside of those two bad squares Saturday I seem to have acquired a knack for latimes xwords
WC
Musings
-The theme required the reveal and the a few heartbeats. Loved it!
-Constructor Dr. Ed Sessa was separated from the MAINLAND when Ian took out the causeway that goes out to Sanibel Island.
-One farmer being able to farm thousands of ACRES has killed small Nebraska towns
-Rioting MOBS in Minneapolis gave C.C. a cause for concern as they moved into the suburbs.
-Tales of POE’s drug addiction were false, invented by a man whose work POE criticized.
-Fun clue of “Left and right wingers”
-A hilarious PSI sound alike skit: Jack Benny and Mel Blanc
-I thought of Buddy Holly when I filled in Oh Boy!
-Happy Birthday, Boomer!
Happy birthday to Boomer. Hope today is special for you and CC.
Clever theme, very doable CW. Really liked it. Oh, boy! Waseely gave us a cornucopia of interesting info.
When I was young and foolish, when we spent time in Galveston, we would go out for breakfast and I would order a BANANA SPLIT. Can’t do that anymore for obvious reasons.
I finished but still had no idea what the circled letters meant.
Hola!
Happy birthday, Boomer! Enjoy your day today.
OH, BOY! Michael gave us a doozy of a puzzle but easy enough for a Thursday. I finished quickly even while sipping my coffee. To me, circles are a needless distraction.
For someone with acute OCD like me, the UNFINISHED BUSINESS really rankles. IT MUST BE FINISHED! That's what my inner voice says.
The movie, Hidden Figures, was excellent and it educated us on what went on behind the scenes at NASA.
PEPE Le Pew is more familiar to me than the given clue. Thankfully, perps filled it. But, live and learn.
An OMELET with some sausage sounds like a good idea for breakfast today.
Enjoy a stupendous day, everyone!
Happy Birthday Boomer!
Just don't get a crik neck like I did trying to read it.
Every time I turned it, the stupid IPad turns it back sideways...
Love to read your Monday write ups! Keep ''em coming!
I was just thinking what I would want to do on my 75th.
I would soup up one of those electric wheelchairs, and take spin around that beautiful lake near you.
Perhaps bring a lunch, and make a picnic out of it...
Near me, every lake and trail has a "no motorized vehicles allowed" sign.
(They even threaten to confiscate bicycles!)
So do me a favor,
Kick that electric scooter into high gear and take out some of these young whippersnappers while they are on their ladders nailing up signs. If they confiscate your scooter, I'll get you a more souped up one...
Regards,
Dave.
Happy Birthday Boomer. I hope you enjoy your day. Glenn C
Re: todays crossword...
I dunno what makes me go "meh" about the theme.
It is a perfectly good xword, just seems, kinda, unfinished...
(I think Lucina nailed it, must be my OCD...)
Waseely! What a write up!
I have so many links in my open tabs bar that my iPad has slowed to a crawl...
(What makes you think I like all these links anyway?)
I will probably spend the rest of the day learning about Odin, and his birds. (Can't wait,)
But these links always send me down the YouTube rabbit hole!
For instance,
I cannot find any internet reference to imbedded stars on a crosswalk hall of fame? (Pls advise)
And the article about Cousin ITT, very informative, but you know I would have to find the real shameal....
And what about that spaghetti eating Yeti???
I just had to find out why you should not feed a Yeti Spaghetti so badly, that I went and had the entire book read to me! and you know what! They never did explain this Yeti business! Talk about unfinished business!!!
Hmm, speaking of unfinished business...
Happy Birthday, Boomer !
Here is the cake that Cross Eyed Dave made for you:
Happy Birthday, Boomer !
Had fun with this theme- I don't think I would have gotten the embedded businesses without the circles though!
I am out in Seattle visiting my 10 month old grandson and his parents - a few answers I would have gotten by only by perps - but I just ran it by my daughter who is in her 30s. She read quite a few "Babysitters Club" book in elementary- so she knew ANN M. Martin like I would have known John Grisham. And "Never feed a YETI spaghetti" she knew because they have that book. It has all the funny rhyming words.
We have been having a very intense allergy season - so I'm hoping the 2 days last week of below freezing weather are enough to shut that down a bit.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the fun blog and Michael for the puzzle!
Happy birthday Boomer!!
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Michael, for a doable puzzle. Thanks, Bill, for an AWEsome expo.
Happy Birthday, Boomer! Great picture of you and C.C. in happier times.
Lots of unknowns. Frustrating theme. Everything perped in better than expected.
Psycho-, socio-, ecco- b4 NEURO logical.
Husker: anything less than 1,000 acres will not support a farmer and his machinery habit.
Addendum
-As most of you know, Dr. Ed Sessa is a constructor we have had many times and he used to live off the southwestern coast of the Florida MAINLAND on Sanibel Island. Unfortunately, Ian wiped out the link to the Island and this is what he told me today:
Hi Gary
Thanks for thinking of us! Sorry to say houses like our one story on sanibel were hit with a six foot storm surge so we pretty much lost everything inside the house. We have been lucky to have such kind friends and perfect strangers help us out. we’ll rent down here for about a year while sorting out what to do with the house structurely and make plans to probably move to Virginia nearer family
Best wishes
Ed
Boomer Happy 75th Birthday!
Bill Seeley Thank you for your writeup that was eerily in synch with my thoughts! I also thought of Pope Francis and his wonderful WHO AM I TO JUDGE comment. And thank you for showing the KARA WALKER ART. I have seen it, but did not remember her name. Too bad it was censored.
Thanks for the GNARLY history. I knew one person when I arrived at UC Santa Barbara, a classmate from MIT. He quickly taught me the local lingo. Including GNARLY as a surf term and also from our mutual world of solving GNARLY math problems.
My first fill was UNFINISHED BUSINESS which helped for a fairly smooth FIR.
Here I was at the annual Solvang Christmas Tree Burn PYRE in January 2019.
That was just before my major surgery involving my stomach, diaphragm, lungs and esophagus. I am pleased that I am now about 30 pounds lighter than in that photo!
CrossEyedDave @11:54 AM I'm glad you raised those questions. Actually I don't expect that everyone will be interested in all the "bling" I dredge up from the Internet for each and every clue I annotate. I think of my reviews as more like "smorgasbords", from which solvers sample only those items that appeal to their tastes. As to the "Crossword Walk of Fame", well ... GOTCHA!
Now I have a question for you: How in the heck do you make all those beautifully customized and funny cakes and deliver them freshly baked each puzzle day? Digitally? Or you're actually a professional pâtissier, who gets up at 0 Dark Thirty, solves the puzzle, reads C.C.'s comments on who's birthday it is, and actually bakes a cake, and then photographs it? And who eats them? Sounds like one of those diets you haven't finished yet (and I hope you never do). If you don't want to give away your secret, my email address is attached to my profile. I promise not to tell.
From Yesterday:
Jazzbumpa, desper-otto I did some more searching about HAL/IBM and it seems it really was a coincidence. Life can really be like that.
Wilbur Charles Thanks for pointing out the TREK CSO. Had another one today, but I don't keep up with all these spinoffs on streaming services. We don't do streaming or cable. And thanks for taking a look at my MAKEUP ARTIST friend and the GNARLY fun we indeed have here in SoCal!
Fun Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Michael. And I loved all those great pictures in your commentary, Bill and Teri, thanks for those too.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Boomer. 75? Hey, for some of the seniors around here you're still a kid. Have a great weekend coming up, and we look forward to your blogging on Monday (and C.C.'s on Sunday).
Well, this morning puzzle did have quite a bit of negativity in it, didn't it? I wasn't too worried until I saw ACCUSE and worried if someone was going to be CITING someone? Maybe because they OWEd something, or because they had some DEFECT or other. I'd hate to see them REBUFFED just for that. Were they the ones with the UNFINISHED BUSINESS that annoyed? They're probably now worried that THE END IS NEAR.
But it made me happy to see a reference to those AMIGAS. It's usually the guys that are referred to with that word, but this time she appears to be a different gender, maybe in a CRISIS because she has something in UTERO, and is worried if everything will be okay. Wouldn't it be great if she woke up one day soon and said "OH BOY"! I'D SAY if that happened she'd probably name him OPIE (a favorite of mine).
Well, time to get an OMELET and a BANANA for breakfast. Have a great day, everybody.
Fairly easy for a Thursday I thought as I managed a FIR in 10:03 with some perp help of course. Saw the reveal but forgot to look back at the circles to figure out the theme, which I probably would have gotten with the circles, but wouldn’t have without them. Never heard of MIELE vacuums, but I really like my Shark for a lot less $$.
Boomer ~~ happy 75th, and good luck at the casino if that’s still in your plans! 👊🏼 Nice pic of you and C.C. too.
HG ~~ thanks for the update on Dr. Ed, pretty sad loss they had on Sanibel. We’re only about 30 miles away in Punta Gorda but were generally spared the wrath of Ian, although the endless piles of debris tell a different story, can’t go 100 yards without seeing the effects.
Bill S (and Teri) ~~ another outstanding educational review, I definitely learn a LOT when you blog.
WEES.
"HAL/IBM a coincidence." A L(ucy) in the S(ky) with D(iamonds) was not about LSD,Hotel California not about drugs etc etc. Not to speak of Horse with no Name and heroin.
The Poe link was very informative but lengthy. Any movies about his life?
WC
Our waseeley greets
us all, with this Lieberman
crossword for Thursday...
Welcome to the new retirement age, and felicitations on your birthday, Boomer!
You may still be a kid to some of us, but at least you are beating your old record.
WC ~ I remember seeing a documentary on Poe's life many years ago. There are several movies based on his tales, but I don't think there is an authentic movie about the man himself. There is an old silent melodrama, called The Raven and an oversimplified (sez Wikipedia) version called The Loves of Edgar Allen Poe (1942 ), starring Linda Darnell and Shepperd Strudwick (using the name John Shepperd).
Enjoyed this XWD, although the UNFINISHED fills seem a bit of a cop-out.
Righ ?
~ OMK
___________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Oops! This long anagram (14 of 15) refers...
Either
to every guy's attempt to leave a recorded message when the ex-girlfriend actually picks up (Oops, "Butt-dial!"),
Or,
being caught in the old days when your dial-up modem reached a porn site.
"Is that really what you're watching, John?!"
I mean that ever- ...
"POPULAR (Oops!) MIS-DIAL"!
Hi All!
I won't burry the LEDE - Happy Birthday Boomer!!
That center bit was a TAD of a workout. I had Pene [sic] pasta and enact -> EDICT. Took a spell to sort that out.
Thanks Michael for the grid; I caught a glimpse of the theme at APPL & TESL but didn’t connect the dots b/f the reveal helping me fix the center. Fun!
Great post-game, waseeley. Thanks for all the explanations & links.
WOs: [See: above]
ESPs: GAIL, ANN, PEPE, MIELE
Fav: RUBUFFED was fun.
Ray-O: I also read 64a as Scrabble... As OME_ET filled, I re-read the clue and finished off MIELE.
HG - Thanks for the update on Dr. Ed.
OMK - I wouldn't be surprised if the porn number was intentionally one digit off. Ever see whitehouse[.]com? [not .gov]
Well, wsseeley handled all (save CED's ITT) the links so I'm done for now.
Cheers, -T
Finishing the puzzle was easy; seeing the UNFINISHED BUSINESS was not seen until I went back and looked at the circles. Should have had a fill with NITWIT-ter for another unfinished tech company to go with EBAY, APPLE, TESLA. DISNEY-not so tech.
ONN looked strange for the unknown ANN. Had to change AMIGOS to AMIGAS.
GAIL, ANN, UTERO, MERCH (that abbr. sucks), PEPE, CHO, HENSON, MIELE- filled by perps.
YETA was a WAG- it rhymed and 'confetti' was too long.
AMC...MOTORS, maker of the Rambler and original retail JEEP.
Dr. Ed- glad you're safe.
happy birthday BOOMER.
Happy 75th b-day, Boomer! I hope you enjoyed your casino day!
Waseeley's write up was a musical treat. Thank you!
FIW but I did enjoy the theme. When I filled 31A, I noticed it almost said TESLa but the "a" was in front. A-TESL So I was trying to make that idea work. I needed the reveal to unGNARLYify things.
Hand up for reading "scrabble" instead of "scramble". Cute clue!
FAV: split fruit
Big Easy @5:03 ~
YETA?
~ OMK
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