High Fives
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| Click on Diagram to Enlarge |
Shannon Rapp, disguised as Nora Sharpe (a riff on Michael
Sharp of Rex Parker fame?), is no stranger to the LA Times.
Here's
a bit about her,
shamelessly plagiarized from Anon -T's review of her
August 31, 2022 puzzle
(and his debut to boot).
Today Shannon hints at ways that members of
underground societies
signal their identities to others in their groups
in plain sight. E.g. Freemasons
are well-known for their elaborate systems of handshakes to indicate their
level in the Masonic hierarchy; the 1st-4th century mystery religion of
Mithraism, a rival to Christianity, called new initiates
syndexioi, those "united by the handshake"; when an early Christian met a stranger on the road he'd reveal his identity by idly drawing a curved line arcing downward in the dirt with a stick. If the stranger responded by drawing the other half of a fish they would know that they'd met a fellow believer.
Shannon's four Zen-like themers show us the result of "one hand shaking" embedded in each clue ...
17A. *Bounce around the Caribbean, say:
ISLAND HOP. How about bouncing
around the Pacific instead? ISLAND HOPPING was the Allies' code name for their successful strategy in the Pacific in WWII:
25A. *1983 film that won an Oscar for Best Original Song: FLASH DANCE. Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer who aspires to become a professional ballerina (Alex), alongside Michael Nouri playing her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh. The film itself was a flash in the pan, but the song was a winner. It was composed by Giorgio Moroder, with lyrics by Irene Cara and Keith Forsey, was released as a single, and spent six weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Here it is sung by Cara ...
Sadly, as I was finishing up this review on November 26th and posting comments to the Saturday puzzle, Ray - O shared the news with us that Irene Cara had passed away the previous day.
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| Irene Cara March 18, 1959 – November 25, 2022 |
47A. *School of Hindu philosophy:JAIN DHARMA. Jainism, also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four Tirthankaras (supreme preachers of Dharma), with the first in the current time cycle being Rishabhadeva, whom the tradition holds to have lived millions of years ago (Vidwan we miss you; you would make all of this clear!). Jain monks, after positioning themselves in the sublime state of soul consciousness, take five main vows: ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truth), asteya (not stealing), brahmacharya (chastity), and aparigraha (non-possessiveness).
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56A. *Was completely clueless: HAD NO IDEA. When a crossword solver is completely clueless about the answers to two intersecting clues, we call that a NATICK,
And the reveal:
35A Greeting between members of an exclusive club, and what's hiding in the answer to the starred clues?:
SECRET HANDSHAKE.
Here's the grid:
Let there be no secret about the rest of the clues ...
Across:
1. Period after Shrove Tuesday: LENT.
Shrove Tuesday
is the day before Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent), observed in
many Christian countries through participating in confession and absolution,
the ritual burning of the previous year's Holy Week palms, finalizing one's
Lenten sacrifice, as well as eating pancakes and other sweets.
It's also
known as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday). Next year it falls on
February 21, 2023.
Good times will roll in New Orleans!
5. Lyricist Gershwin: IRA. IRA wrote the words to Summertime from George
Gershwin's
Porgy and Bess, and here ELLA and LOUIS sing it:
8. Inca __: Peruvian soft drink: KOLA. Inca Kola (also known as "the Golden Kola" in international advertising) is a soft drink that was created in Peru in 1935 by British immigrant Joseph Robinson Lindley. The soda has a sweet, fruity flavor that somewhat resembles its main ingredient, lemon verbena.
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Inca Kola |
14. Blues' org.: NHL. The Saint Louis Blues. Hand up if you're a Blues fan?
17. [Theme clue].
19. Tropical ray: MANTA. We visited the National Aquarium twice last week with 3 of our grandchildren. It's an exciting place. Here's a brief video taken by a visitor of some MANTA RAYS, SHARKS, HUMANS, and other denizens of the deep ...
20. Beg: PLEAD. "Not guilty your honor".
21. "It's open!": COME IN.
22. Brought into a discussion: CCED. "Carbon Copied". Or invited to blog by our fearless leader!
25. [Theme clue].
27. Adjust after a wrong turn: REROUTE.
29. Courts: WOOS. Or short for WOOSLE, my son's nickname for of one of my granddaughters.
30. "The Waste Land" poet: ELIOT. Thomas Stearns Eliot, an American poet born in St. Louis, MO (Hello inanehiker!). Here are some of his poems.
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T. S. Eliot |
32. Lab animal: RAT. Rattus norvegicus domestica. Researchers seem to prefer the albino breeds, e.g. the "Wistar" breed developed at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia:
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Isn't he cute! |
40. Sked "Don't know yet": TBA. "To be announced". You'll see it here first, as soon as they do!
41. Pack it in: EAT. This time last week, most people were "packing in the stuffing".
42. Petco Park player: PADRE. Some off season news on the SAN DIEGO PADRES. BTW the original PADRES were Franciscan missionaries that founded all the missions along the coast of California that start with SAN, starting with SAN DIEGO.
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Petco Park |
45. Animal that can run using its flippers: SEA LION.
47. [Theme clue].
51. Antique car design feature: FINS. Nice ends!
52. Houston team: ASTROS. It was a good year for the STROS and even more so for Justin Verlander. Hello Anon -T!
55. Sun block?: VISOR. Unclear on the concept. Must be the flat head ...
60. Pueblo dwelling material: ADOBE. Pueblos aren't the only dwellings that use ADOBE:
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Great Mosque of Djenné |
62. Willing parties?: HEIRS. Prime suspects in many murder mysteries.
63. Just scrapes (by): EKES.
64. Smelter's supply: ORE. Crosswords are loded with the stuff these days.
65. Show appreciation at a poetry slam: SNAP. Is this poet really a poet (or is she a meta-poet?) if nobody's snapping?
I wonder if people snapped at T.S. Eliot?
Down:
1. Lanai wreath: LEI.
2. First responders, briefly: EMS. Emergency Medical Services.
4. Feature of a magician's stage: TRAPDOOR. Here's Cosentino, an Australian magician, historian of magic, and collector of magic memorabilia with a brief demonstration of an antique TRAPDOOR:
5. Gulp down quickly: INHALE.
6. "Darkwing Duck" character Dr. __ Dendron: RHODA. Last week it was Sports Heroes, this week it's Foul Heroes. Darkwing Duck is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992, and was then re-run up until about 2007. Here's the opening sequence and the credits. I couldn't find anything on Dr. Dendron. She must be a plant.
7. French peak: ALP.
8. __ dragon: KOMODO. The Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis), also known as the Komodo monitor, is a member of the monitor lizard family Varanidae that is endemic to the Indonesian islands of Komodo, Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang. It is the largest extant species of lizard, growing to a maximum length of 3 metres (10 ft), and weighing up to 70 kilograms (150 lb). Trigger warning: these guys are scary:
9. 2000s first family: OBAMAS. It seems like decades ago.
10. Tablecloth fabric: LINEN.
11. Top story?: ATTIC. This clue is starting to form cobwebs.
13. NBC sketch show: SNL. Timely fill! I think this review could use a little more COW BELL ...
16. Well-reasoned: SANE. In whose opinion!?
18. Skillful: DEFT.
21. A major, for one: CHORD. Major CHORDS are TRIADS, i.e. three notes played simultaneously. A Major is a specific chord rooted in the key of A and consists of A, C#, and E. There other types of triads beside Major chords. This brief tutorial tells you about Major, Minor, Augmented, and Diminished triads.
22. Peak: CREST. E.g. 7D. Could also be a verb.
23. Big star: CELEB.
24. Writer Jong: ERICA. Novelist and noted sufferer from Aerophobia. She is also a poet.
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| Erica Jong |
28. Colorado's Sleeping __ Mountain: UTE. Ute Mountain, also known as Ute Peak or Sleeping Ute Mountain, is a peak within the Ute Mountains, a small mountain range in Montezuma County. It is also the location of the Ute Mountain Tribal Park in the Mesa Verde/Mancos Canyon area.
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| Sleeping Ute Mountain |
31. Sonar operator?: BAT. Is there an ECHO in here?
32. Pie chart lines: RADII.
33. Ohio hometown of poet Rita Dove: AKRON. Rita Dove was born in Akron, Ohio in 1952. A 1970 Presidential Scholar, she attended Miami University of Ohio, Universität Tübingen in Germany, and the University of Iowa, where she earned her creative writing MFA in 1977. In 1987, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her third collection of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, and from 1993 to 1995, she served as U.S. Poet Laureate at the Library of Congress.
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| Rita Dove |
36. Support pros: TECHS. A CSO to Anon - T, TTP, Jinx, et. al.
37. "omg so funny!": HA HA.
38. Tub with jets: SPA.
39. 50-50, facetiously: HALFSIES. "You cut it in half and I'll pick one".
43. Wrap: ENROBE.
44. Fangirls over, perhaps: ADORES. or ADORBS?
45. Greasy fingerprint, maybe: SMUDGE.
46. Merit: EARN.
47. Programming language with a coffee cup logo: JAVA. You don't code programs in JAVA, you brew them from objects called Java beans.
JAVA was the language de jour about the time that Teri and I retired from IT. Nowadays the trendy language is PYTHON. But just wait few years and there will be a new trend. The cynic in me says
that's because programmers aren't really interested in solving problems, they just
like learning new programming languages. The language Teri and I
started with was COBOL. It's still around, but it's not very cool. You won't even find it listed in the pie chart in the previous link, but a recent study estimated that there could be more than 775 billion to 850 billion extant lines of COBOL code currently running in production, and good money can be made writing and maintaining it.
48. Lines that break the fourth wall: ASIDE. Shakespeare was famous for them. But so were these guys ...
49. "No harm, no foul!": ITS OK.
50. Show again: RE AIR.
54. "I'm excited!": OOH.
56. "The White Lotus" network: HBO. A recent series developed by and for Schadenfreudians. What will they resort to next? But as my Mother used to say, "Misery loves company". No trailer here, as Miss Farrar wouldn't approve (I know I've linked that before, but just think of it as occasionally necessary bloggerese).
57. Annoying racket: DIN.
58. Notable stretch of time: ERA.
59. Nile cobra: ASP. And speaking of bloggerese, ASP is crosswordese that slithered into today's puzzle along with such favorites as DIN, ERA, SPA, ALP, LEI, and ORE. You can find a whole puzzle filled with this stuff at David Alfred Bywater's site in his meta masterpiece Alphabetical Cavalcade of Crosswordese.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri
for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
58 comments:
Good Morning:
Insomnia strikes again! 😴 The reveal placement gave the theme away too early for my preference, but it was very clever and up until that point, I didn’t see the scrambled Hand. Several clues were tricky and misleading, while others were pretty straightforward for a Thursday, a strange mix, I thought. I needed perps for the usual proper nouns, because of the cluing: Kola, Big, Rhoda, HBO, and Ute, plus the totally foreign Jaindharma.
Thanks, Shannon, for a Thursday treat and thanks, Bill for a wonderfully detailed and eye-catching review. I’ll come back later to check out all of the links, after I’ve shaken off the early morning fuzzies. Thanks to Teri, as well.
FLN
My sincere sympathies, Keith. I know exactly what you’re feeling as I lost my very best friend this past February. We were friends from the day we met in 5th grade and despite geographical separations and other inhibiting circumstances, we maintained a closeness that I hold dear to my heart. I’m so sorry for your loss.
Have a great day.
FIR, but erased KiMODA when OBITS doomed my original speling. UNTIE!
DW and I spent a couple of weeks ISLAND HOPping on a rented Catalina 36 sailboat. We boarded with a guy that was supposed to take us out to make sure we knew what we were doing. Before we left, I took a pencil out of my navigation bag and labeled all the lines that were lead to the cockpit. Then I pulled out my handheld VHS radio and GPS units and turned them on. The guy said "just drop me off at the fuel dock. You passed."
FINS was a big hit for Jimmy Buffett, and is a fan favorite at his concerts. His Landshark beer is named for that song. (In the song, a young woman finds herself swimming in a sea of young men at various places in the "little latitudes" where sailors hang out. The guys were "sharks that can swim on the land", and she was "the only bait in town." So she gets overwhelmed by "FINS to the left, FINS to the right."
Sometimes I think the only trustworthy things in life are JAVA Runtime, Tik Tok, professional wrestling, and harness racing.
FLN: Leo, yesterday I drove past a general aviation junkyard near Leesburg, FL. I knew about military yards where planes were sacrificed to keep other planes flying, but this was new to me. I'll have to stop next time and check it out.
Thanks to Shannon for the fun challenge. Plenty of unknowns, but perps served. I was going to complain about some of the clues, but with Patti as our editor I was afraid it might be a bad Rapp. And thanks to Bill for the review. I was in IT when everyone was sure the world would end on 1/1/2000, and retired COBOL programmers had unexpected windfalls as the code they supported needed revising.
Good morning!
There was a reveal? Missed it. Also the theme. Even managed a DNF. Wrote COLA, and when COMODO appeared, d-o let it stand. D'oh. Bzzzzzt. 'Tis a dark day, indeed. Thanks, Shannon, Waseeley and Terri. (So how many errors are there in that comic strip?)
Jinx @5:24 AM Thanks for the Y2K memories (nightmares?). Programmers realized this was going to BIG problem in the 1980's and shops began serious remediation efforts late in that decade. Companies that ignored the problem are no longer in business, and the world wouldn't have been in business either had it been widely ignored. I was working for a Fortune 100 company in Bloomington-Normal at the time and their Y2K efforts were well underway by the early 90's. The entire IT department was working on it. "Early binding" is endemic to compiled languages like COBOL, but is not a problem for interpreted languages like Java. I'd imagine that it's still a problem for COBOL.
I remember later reading one of those "Ask Marilyn" (the genius lady), where she agreed with an inquirer that "yes indeed Y2K was a hoax". Being a genius doesn't mean you know everything.
FIR in 19, a very good Thursday time for me. “2000s first family”. Wouldn’t that be the Bushes? Wouldn’t Obama’s be 2010s first family? Whatevs. Almost had JAINDKARMA, thinking karma would have something to do with it, but then TECH would be TECK. So since I didn’t know JAINDHARMA made as much sense. Overall a fun CW, thanx, SR. And thanx too to Bill for the terrific, video-link-loaded write-up.
Bill, some of the Y2K phobia WAS a hoax. I remember the breathless sales pitches for new PCs to replace those that were not Y2K compliant. If you read the impacts in small print, the most significant failure was that the automatic year change wouldn't happen on 1/1/00, and the user would have to do it manually. Of course there were thousands of systems that DID require fixes or replacements. And dear Marilyn DID get things wrong. My memory of one involved Monte Hall's Let's Make a Deal, and deciding whether to change curtains after the first of three was revealed. Just thinking about how you would program that decision makes you realize it is a 50% - 50% chance of getting the big prize, whether you change or not. She insisted in at least two columns that you should always change your decision.
BTW, my Apple II's built-in integer BASIC was an interpreter, while the Applesoft floating point version compiled. You could load Floating Point Basic from a cassette, but I bought an expansion slot card for it. If you wrote code to return the dividend of 1/2, it returned .499999999999.
Jinx @7:23 AM Not sure what you mean by "do it manually". Reset the system clock? Most dates were encoded as MMDDYY (you know, to save on space, efficiency, and blah, blah, blah). All date comparisons made against hard coded dates would have failed starting at midnight Y2K. The only viable solution that I'm aware of was to replace the YY's with YYYY's in all of the source code, JCL, and system utilities, recompile and test and retest all of the job streams. If there had been a simple way to finesse this problem I doubt that companies would have been foolish enough to spend multi-megabucks on it.
Re the Apple II, I had a buddy who made big bucks writing a decimal arithmetic package for Apples so they could do financial calculations. I think he's still living off the interest.
Very fast and easy for a Thursday. Only one totally unknown answer, RHODA, ESP. A perp or two and a wag dredged up the difficult ones. I completely missed the theme.
IMO in common parlance, in citing dates 2000's includes any years from 2000 to 2100. For example, the 1900s ended in 2000. We seem to calculate in centuries.
I think the panic over Y2K didn't take into account that the problem was largely solved by the time people panicked, thanks to the hard working techies thinking ahead.
FIR, much to my surprise. Never heard of Jain Dharma, had no idea about 44D and 48D, and snap made no sense to me. Somehow, with the perps and a few WAG's I made it through.
Whew! When I got to the SW I HAD NO IDEA if I would be able to FIR. 'Fourth wall'-unfamiliar with that term. 'Fangirls over'-are they groupies 'over the pond'? Hindu philosophy? zero knowledge on my part. But somehow I made some WAGs and got JAVA, ASIDE, ADORES, & JAIN SHARMA.
SECRET HANDSHAKE- didn't notice the shaking HANDs in the fills.
KOLA, AKRON, SNAP, NIL, RHODA, HBO- unknown as clued and filled by perps.
MD appt.- gotta go.
I was able to shake this one in 5:02 today, which I find fast for me for a Thursday.
Today, I didn't know Jain Dharma.
Tomorrow, I still won't know Jain Dharma.
Didn't know today's female poet, but Ohio hometown was enough of a clue.
Took a long time to make see/get "chord" for "a major," because it was actually "A major."
Wasn't somebody supposed to open with "Rabbit, Rabbit" today?
Where I was, Y2K biggest potential problem would've been interest calculation. But at home I signed into one application on 01/02/2000 and was told it certification had expired, I assume that was a Y2K error.
C, E-flat, and G walk into a bar. Bartender throws them out, says "We don't serve minors in here."
Anonymous @8:29 AM To paraphrase Richard Feynman re Quantum Mechanic, "Anyone who thinks they understand Jain Dharma, doesn't understand Jain Dharma."
billocohoes @9:01 AM You just did! Re minors. ROTFL 😂
Hola!
Fairly easy Thursday puzzle. Thank you, Shannon. In Hawaii you ISLAND HOP from one island to another.
So sad to learn that Irene Cara Died. I loved FLASH DANCE and her song. It was the first video movie we ever rented including the machine to play it. At the time we did not have a video player.
Clever clue for HEIRS.
I well remember RHODA Morgenstern.
I've never read any book by ERICA Jong.
Time to refill my coffee. Have a lovely day, everyone!
Bill, yes the user had to reset the system clock. Any applications that were running on those PCs had to figure out how to continue dealing with 2-digit years. There were a lot of work-arounds. I remember one that added 2000 to the date returned by the system clock.
We were so risk-adverse that we leased a lot of standby generators in case the power grid failed. We were 99% sure it was a waste of money, but the result of being wrong was too great to accept. WEe also staffed a war room to deal with any problems that might crop up. We started at 2200 Eastern, and when no problems arose by 0000 Pacific we closed down and went home. (We had spent $200 million on the effort, largely on an overdue billing system replacement.)
BillO, I've been to that bar. They also have a sign that declares "WE DON'T SERVE WOMEN IN THIS ESTABLIS1HMENT (however, you are welcome to bring your own)"
I went back and clicked on Bill's "Island Hopping" link, and discovered a treasure trove of WWII documentary footage. One video links to another, and I believe an entire day could be spent watching these very interesting documentaries. As is, I spent about two hours. Really, really interesting footage. I would encourage anyone with the time to give it a look. Another Thank You to Bill!!
We had our PC-based nventory system running on a PC-based database. I vaguely remember that if we set our system clocks back to 1900, we could still use MM/DD/YY for another year, giving the database folks time to fix their problem. They got 'er done sooner than they predicted, so it became a moot issue. We still had to change the date display format in all of our apps to MM/DD/YYYY.
Crud! I managed to get a DNF, FIW, and two WOs this morning, which surprised me. I was cruising along, working my way down the puzzle, starting to get excited about the possibility of a FIR with no WOs, which rarely happens for me, when I carelessly entered HAD NO CLUE and SMEARY without checking the perps. Then I saw it should be HAD NO IDEA and SMUDGE! Pride goeth before a fall....
I didn't notice the two blank squares I had left at the top as I had started the puzzle (R_ODA and aBIT_) nor the error in spelling KaMODO until I started reading the blog. That finished off my ego! But thanks for a mostly good feeling this morning doing the puzzle you created, Shannon. And thanks waseeley and Teri for the exposé of my hasty effort. I will do better tomorrow.
JAINDHARMA looked strange to me until I realized I had heard of both parts, JAIN and DHARMA. The reveal gave me the info I needed to see the HANDs of the theme.
I liked all the music and the extras you gave us today, waseeley. And, billocohoes @ 9:01 AM, your minor joke gave me a big smile! Thanks!
I needed that.
With our identical twin boys, I established the HALFSIES requirement of one boy dividing the shared treat, the other choosing first. No complaints to me then.
Wow, another bar joke! Thanks, Jinx @ 9:44AM. I am going to repeat them to DH at lunch.
Hope you all are smiling today!
Musings
- I remember JAIN and DHARMA from crosswords so give me a “got ‘er done!”.
-Listening to Irene’s powerful voice and watching Jennifer’s amazing dancing (with its famous waterfall) got my cold day on the plains off to a great start.
-“Not guilty” – Jack McCoy on Law and Order called this the Ryker’s Island theme song
-REROUTE – When I decide on a different route, my GPS works feverishly to get me to go back
-The YouTube videos of people capturing SEA LIONS and cutting them free of lines, nets and other junk and then watching them “run” away on their flippers is heartwarming
-Wait a minute! FINS are from antiques?
-Here’s our friend Tony in his ASTROS hat
-VISOR – Yup, a guy next to me in Omaha had his hat on backwards and was using his hand to block the sun
-COW BELL – Ah yes, back when SNL was more about brilliant comedy and less politics
-Tomorrow the temp will be in the TEENS and I will be hip-deep in TEENS
-Nice summary and videos, Bill.
Jinx @9:44 AM Sorry, I misunderstood. The environments that required all the remediation were System MVS/370 class mainframes with massive COBOL batch systems and CICS interactive system. A whole different kettle of fish. A real nightmare.
Starting the liturgical calendar CW wrong, this is Advent not Lent.
I still give my college ΑΦΔ frat bros our SECRET HANDSHAKE. ("A HANDSHAKE instead of a Kiss?", couldn't find a video of those old Listerine commercials)
"Passing words", good clue. OBITS: the only reason (plus the CW of course) we still get the local newspaper. CREST? I use Colgate 😁...ENROBE, only see in CWs. (I am climbing out of the SPA and need to ENROBE 🙄)..Rita Dove? UTE?
For some reason I consider "antique" cars as Model T Fords etc. 1950-60s cars with FINS as "Classic". Maybe cuz I wanna be considered classic and not antique..😃
I "smelt" a "lab animal!" 🐭.."cold temperatures could be hot (fever) 🤒
The second season of "The White Lotus" is set in an incredible seaside resort in Sicily but 5 episodes in and nobody is dead yet!! (Also quite provocative, you Seymour Butts than ever!!🙈🙀😳)
Transplant in a way....REROUTE
What the South did in the Civil War...CCED
Blunders....HIERS (see, there, I HEIR)
Anon T, from Housron, they call you "Tex"? Oh...those kyna TECHS 😄
Houston..I heired again
WEES about doable perps and smooth solving
Y2K was my last big endeavor. My company farmed the coding changes out to India subcontractors. Testing and implementation was a mini-nightmare. My heart couldn't handle the squabbling amongst the Indian team(Caste differences?)
I wisely took up limo and shuttle
HG, in Tampa, GPS 'feverishly' worked to get me on the toll road
FIR (starting another run I hope after yesterday's disaster)
WC
Hi all,
Thanks for the lovely and enlightening review!
I hope everyone enjoys the puzzle and maybe learns a thing or two. Thanks as always, to Patti, for being so great to work with.
It's Norah (with an H) and 100% most definitely, never in a million years, meant to have anything to do with Rex - just an anagrammish riff on my *own* real name.
See you again soon!
Thursday toughie, but with lots of neat items--many thanks, Shannon. And always enjoy your pictures and commentaries and even listened to some music this morning--thanks to you too, Waseeley (Bill?) and Teri.
Bit of a somber beginning starting with a TRAP DOOR maybe as a way to get out of the ATTIC and RE-ROUTE oneself to a better place. Maybe an ADOBE hut where some one might tell you to COME IN and give you a HAND SHAKE and then take you around to meet lots of cool folks: the EMIRS and the PADRE and lots of CELEBS with their HEIRS, and even a chance to say hello to the OBAMAS. After a cool visit like that it's time to spend some EUROS and do an ISLAND HOP and end up in a bar where you can enjoy a FLASH DANCE. Not a bad day, all around.
Have a great time, everybody.
What a good Thurs. puzzle!! I started out at the top thinking I was not in sync with this CW, but after a few easy fills (LENT, LEI, IRA), I worked it letter by letter until the answers appeared. Slow going but came together. Rest of the puzzle fell into place. Perps for JAIN DHARMA. Had no clue. Loved the theme. Didn't see it until after I finished and re-read 35A. Thanks Shannon. Good start to my day. And thanks, waseeley for the review. I always love it when the reviewer gives the background (previous puzzles by the constructor). I keep track to see if I've gotten better with a particular one. Tx.
Norah @11:32 AM My bad Shannon. Teri doesn't proofread all links, or she would have probably corrected me on that! Great puzzle, with lots of good grist for blogging.
Ray - O @10:44 AM "Houston, Ray - O's got a problem!"
I had a harrowing experience this morning which I’m still trying to process. I was at the check-out desk in a medical office located within a local hospital when several staff members started yelling Call 911. At that moment, a Security Guard backed through a doorway of the reception area and drew his gun. I couldn’t see the assailant who was brandishing a knife, and have no idea what happened next, only that the Guard came into the my area and was pretty well shaken. I was then taken to a sitting area while the entire department went into lockdown, maybe the whole hospital, for all I know. After about a half hour, I was escorted to my car by three employees who couldn’t give me any details at all. I don’t know if it was someone looking for drugs or just some unbalanced person, and I don’t know if he was apprehended, either. Very unsettling, to say the least. On the positive side, while waiting, I was kept company by a woman and her Therapy Dog, an adorable Shih Tzu named Molly, who had her own photo ID Badge! Unfortunately, it’s too early for a Dewar’s to settle my nerves!
Good morning. Thank you, Shannon, and thank you, Waseeley.
I often start my solves somewhere in the middle of the puzzle and then bounce around. Why ? I don't know. Today I started with the gridspanner at 35A, read the clue and entered SECRET HANDSHAKE. No perps required. The rest fell quickly, except for a slight pause at CELEB and a little longer working out the unknown JAIN DHARMA.
Bill, thanks for the tour de force. No stone was left unturned. And truth be told, like Teri, I don't read all of your links either. Take no offense. I only read if something interests me.
Irish Miss, that sounds scary. Glad you weren't harmed. If you want to take a small nip of the Dewar's after that, I don't think anyone is going to object.
FIR. SNAPs to Norah AKA Shannon for such a clever puzzle! FAVs: Top story?, A major, for one, Sonar operator? French bread? Willing parties?
ESP: JAINDHARMA. Learning moment.
IM @ 12:28. That is so scary! I am glad you are OK!
FLN: My condolences to OMK.
Thank you waseeley & Teri for all your work. FAVs: Summertime & komodo dragons
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR with a few scattered changes. As I mentioned once or twice before, solving these puzzles on-line means that there are no erasures or write-overs left behind, so I can't recall where I screwed up
Agree with many that this was an enjoyable puzzle with a clever theme/reveal, but perhaps easier than many Thursday puzzles we've had, recently
Norah, aka Shannon, thanks for stopping by. It's always nice to know that our constructors are willing to comment back to us as opposed to just lurking. Unlike Rex Parker in the NYT review, I think that the bloggers here are pretty fair, and usually "take the high road" when it comes to being critical. As for your comment about Patti "being so great to work with", I wouldn't know. She's rejected every one of my puzzle submissions ... maybe I should come up with a pseudonym and a different email address, and try again ...
See y'uns tomorrow [spoiler alert: it's relatively easy, for a Friday]
IM @ 12:28 --> glad to hear that you are OK. As you said, that was not just an unusual situation but scary, too
And I agree with TTP --> it's 5:00 somewhere; Dr Gross (malodorous manatee's new nickname for me) suggests a couple of fingers of Dewar's, on-the-rocks ... stat!!
TTP @12:45 PM I don't expect every one to read every one of them. I think of a blog as like a smorgasbord - if something looks tasty, take a bite. If it tastes good then eat it. It would be crazy to think that all Cornerites are clones. Besides I don't read them either. I have a bot that does that for me.
Irish Miss @12:28 PM I'm with TTP on the Dewar's. Your post time says it's afternoon.
CMOE @1:39 PM How about "Tex Barker"? You could use "Blue Lacy" as your avatar.
Hand shaking?
I dunno,
Sounds like shadowy business to me...
Rabbit, Rabbit!
I opened with my own "Rabbit Rabbit" contribution earlier--in the wee hours--on the Jumble site with OwenKL.
Go there to check it out!
A fine PZL from Ms. Rapp, brought to us in good style by waseeley!
I spotted 15 errors on the comic strip w/o even trying.
~ OMK
____________
DR: But, Alas, no diagonals! The week has not been good in this dept.
IM sounds frightening but more hospitals are running "active shooter drills". And your experience wasn't a drill. We had one yesterday except no one told us chickens what we were supposed to do.
A stiff Bloody Mary is in order.
OMK @ 2:25 PM
You reminded me that I counted 29 errors in the comic strip before I got confused about which ones I had already counted!
Irish Miss - may I add my voice to the chorus of relief that you were not harmed? In our relatively short time of knowing each other you have become very dear to me, and I would fain have one hair on your head disturbed. Thank heaven you emerged unscathed from your harrowing experience! Now in terms of the puzzle, like others, I found it relatively easy. In my misspent yute I spent quite a bit of time studying Eastern religions, so I was familiar with both “Jain” and “Dharma”, though not with the combination of the two. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Irish Miss,
I have been checking the local news feeds,
And nothing has shown up yet as a disturbance at local hospitals.
But, I would still like to help.
Can I come over and help you drink that Dewars?
Speaking of nothing,
A very disturbing event occurred to me today with the puzzle.
I swear, the clue I read was "nothing", to which I (electr9nically) inked "nil".
Then, reading reading the Blog, the clue was identified as "bupkis."
(I never saw Bupkis...)
(Hmm, that looks like link material....)
Anywho, it made me look back at the orig8nal puzzle clues I was given,
Looking for noth8ng,
And what did I see?
"Bupkis"
(I never saw bupkis...)
I swear...)
Hi All!
Move over, D-O. Hand-up for cOLA|cOMODO.
Thanks Shannon for the puzzle - went quickly for a Thursday but the theme was well hidden until the end. Also, thanks for stopping by The Corner. Come by more oft, we'd love to get to know you.
Waseeley: Thanks for the expo, more cowbell indeed! :-)
WOs: N/A
ESPs: kOLA, JAIN DHARMA
Fav: ASTROS! (LOL HG!) TRAP DOOR was fun too.
Every time I see ELIOT I think of Afternoons & Coffeespoons [Crash Test Dummies]. If you listen to the lyrics and wonder..., yes Brad Roberts (lead singer w/ unique voice) has honour degrees in English and philosophy from University of Winnipeg.
Y2K - Thomas Friedman argued in "The World is Flat" that brining on thousands of programmers from India to address Y2K jumpstarted their out-sourcing industry. I see WC was there at the beginning of that.
I never really learned JAVA (nor COBOL) - no real need. That and the whole beans library was as messy as C++'s (for simple things) AND they support poly-morphism which, if you thought GOTOs got you messy spaghetti, try to unwind someone who's favorite pastime was to morph standard libraries into his/her own! I am pretty good now at Python.*
FLN - Condolences, OMK.
Oh my!, IM. Hopefully by the time you read this a) the news will have told you what happened b) you've had your nip of Dewars.
Enjoyed reading everyone today.
Cheer, -T
*If anyone wants a rudimentary de-fang'r / re-fang'r with a GUI wrapper (written in Python), let me know.
Oh, "What's a de-fang'er?", you ask: A de-fang'r takes URLs and re-writes them to look like hxxp://www[.]crosswordcorner[.]com so you can safely toss them into discord, teams, or other media-platform that automatically resolves pasted URLs. //auto-resolution is very bad when investigating potential evil and trying to share with your fellow investigators - your tool just reached out to the attacker!
FIR, without too many problems. Having never heard of Jain Dharma, I came very close to inserting a K for KARMA, but I knew TECHS was definitely correct, I wasn’t going to fall for some crossword trickery. Also, the D was the only way HAND fit into 47A.
Thanks, Shannon or Nora or whoever you are! My philosophy: “I don’t care what you call me, just call me whenever it’s time to eat”
Sorry to hear about your loss, OMK.
Sadly, not only did we lose Irene Cara, Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac passed away yesterday.
Thanks, Teri and Bill!
Sorry, Norah. I hate misspelling ANYTHING --- especially someone's name!
Late today. Gone all day Christmas shopping (all done, first time ever this early), and hair cut.
Doesn’t anyone remember, or are you all too young, Erica Jong’s very controversial novel about female sexuality titled “Fear of Flying”.?
I too often start the puzzle in the middle or at the end. This made this one fairly easy to finish.
IM: I echo other comments about the frightening nature of you experiencing. We always think this happens elsewhere, not here.
Dash T, I agree with what you say, but don't you think that at the time... for a long time... COBOL and then later JAVA were the Pythons of their day ? I did a few things in REXX, just to automate some things I routinely did in XEDIT and later in Col XEDIT, but I was a hack that required a lot of help to do what I wanted/needed to get done. Yes, I am THAT old !
I was not aware of / never heard of a de-fang'er until you just wrote about it.
Leo, I watched a tribute to Christine McVie today. I had no idea she was the writer of so many of Fleetwood Mac's great songs.
Tante, my mother was reading Fear of Flying circa 1974, and I opened it up one day to somewhere in the middle of the book and just started reading. I though the author was Erotica Jong.
TTP - Not really. Python is a scripting language that is basically what Larry Wall wanted Perl6 (light-weight object-oriented [perl5 was not OO]) to be - but he took forever getting it out the door. It's good for quick & dirty but building Enterprise-Class software with either is foolish.
Java (just in time compile) is somewhere in between C and Perl/Python.
REXX?!? - You are dating yourself; I briefly came in contact with Lex (same?) in college.
Puzzle solving - I always start at the very beginning [1a|1d], a very good place to start. #Do-Re-Mi
Cheers, -T
Today I was absent almost all day because I went with my sister, Marge, to buy products for tamales which I believe I had mentioned already. It was a bit of a shock to see how much more expensive everything has become. The meat is almost double the price from last year. it's a good thing we don't sell the tamales because I shudder to think of how much we would have to charge for them.
so tomorrow I will be cooking meat all day since Saturday is filled with social engagements.
IM
I'm sorry to hear of your harrowing experience. That definitely calls for a shot or two of Dewar's.
On my route to and from the grocery store I pass a house where a black Lincoln is parked. It's at least from the late 50s or 60s with fins about a foot long. I exaggerate but that's what it seems. The car itself looks to be about a half mile long. It's a beauty.
Lucina - are you saying it was a Boat of Car? [They Might Be Giants].
Ray-O: I'm w/ you on Classic v. Antique :-) Last week, in (or about) Tiberon, there was a classic red-something with FINS on the side of the road w/ "For Sale" on the driver's side-window. It was a beaut!
Eldest said, "No Dad, Mom already can't put her car in the garage."
Cheers, -T
TTP @8:18 PM REXX was a fun language to write and very powerful. IBM supported it under OS/2 on PCs and VM/CMS on mainframes so it was easy to keep stuff synced across those platforms.
Tante Unique @8:04 PM check out the ref to AEROPHOBIA in my review. Looks like once again I've out-subtled myself! 🙃
-T @9:17 PM Isn't Python that language for Punctuphobes
AnonT
Yes. Very definitely. A BOAT. I'd like to take a photo but I'm afraid it would be misinterpreted.
waseeley - Oy! The worst part of Python is using spaces v. tabs for indentation.
How code is indented is mandatory for blocks of code [if-then, loops, etc] are parsed/interpreted. Switching from vi to notepad++ / *nix -> Windows can really screw things up.
During a stint of programming, "Lord! Give me {} or a ; to indicate when a loop / statement is over!!!!" is sometimes what I scream in my sleep. :-)
Lucina - Pix or didn't happen ;-}.
Re: Tamales - we both know why you make them... It's the Love.
And cost be damn'd.
//Italian sausage didn't get any cheaper either.
Cheers, -T
Anon-T @10:23 -- It seems that we know and understand the distinction between classic and antique, we are old enough to be certified Classic.
Waseeley, my background was hardware, but I used a lot of different software across multiple platforms in various staff roles. Never did anything with OS/2, but I got pretty good at using some of the VM/CMS tools and ISPF to manipulate large amounts of data from disparate systems, and then store and further manipulate it in MVS databases using SQL and QMF. All self taught. No formal training in any of it. For example some senior level would need to consider or make decisions based on info that came from systems that didn't "talk" to each other. Or, such as when data from disparate marketing, manufacturing and support systems needed to be melded. Typically, it was getting flat files and then using XEDIT to massage and align the data, and then import into DB2 shells that I had created and exported from MVS. Then send it all back to MVS and et voila, I had my own DB2 tables that I could query as needed. Or union or join with other DB2 tables. My buddy Mel was doing similar things in support of different lines of business, but he was automating some of the mundane steps using REXX, and that's when I started playing with it. He got really good at it, but there were many nights I continued doing the steps manually, burning the midnight candle to meet deadlines. Anyway, back on MVS, I would query to get selected columns and rows from multiple tables to produce output datasets or generate reports to answer the higher-ups questions or present the data in a more clear an concise way so the best business decisions could be made, and in some cases, so disagreements about best courses of action could be ended. Sometimes the analytics revealed that both sides were wrong or misguided / misled in their assumptions. The good leaders were those that asked for information and accepted the results without emotional attachments. The worst leaders were often those empire builders in newly created silos who made off the cuff decisions without data, or those that wanted the data to support their untenable positions. Ah, the good old days. I miss it. NOT !
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