Themeless Saturday by Lance Emfinger and Richard D. Allen
Like most Saturday puzzles, this one 19. " ... kinda": IT IS AND IT ISN'T and 55. " ... kinda": MORE OR LESS all that hard once you get some good starting fill. And, like most of them this one was fun too.
1. To boot: ALSO - The real cost or a car is not what price you get quoted or what they say your trade is worth. It's what the dealer wants you to pay "to boot" for getting the vehicle.
5. Clobber: WHOMP.
10. Hailee's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" voice role: GWEN - Hailee Steinfeld who played Spiderwoman GWEN Stacy and voiced her in the animate version as well
14. Greeters: DOOR PEOPLE.
16. Meander: ROVE.
17. Like, crazy old: SO LAST YEAR - No kid has come to school with a "fidget spinner" in years
18. Surface __: AREA - The actual surface AREA of Greenland is 14x less than Africa but doesn't seem so when it is on a flat map (Mercator Projection). Below you see it placed on a map of Africa.
21. Mean relatives?: MODES - The MODE is the most frequent response(s) and can be different from the MEAN (average value)
23. Names in the news: BYLINES - Here's two famous ones
24. Lab reports?: ARFS - Four-legged Labs
25. Wharton grad, often: MBA - The Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania
27. Blocking stat: SPF.
28. Grande opening?: RIO - The openings on the RIO Grande are a contentious subject these days
29. Biking selections: GEARS.
31. Game whose name comes from the Swahili for "to build": JENGA - How 'bout Giant JENGA?
29. Biking selections: GEARS.
31. Game whose name comes from the Swahili for "to build": JENGA - How 'bout Giant JENGA?
35. "Oh, my sides!": GOOD ONE - Nobody does it better...
37. Depart: HEAD OUT - Good guests know when to HEAD OUT
39. Wrapped: ENDED - The NFL season has finally wrapped. Now what?
40. Not as naΔ«ve: SLIER.
42. Computer language that works with HTML: CSS.
43. __-relief: BAS - This one was made in Lincoln's Yankee Hill Brick Mfg. facility and is on a wall in our capital city's Haymarket Area
45. Film director who shares a last name with 62-Across: ANG 62. Comic book legend who shares a last name with 45-Across: STAN - The Lees
46. Swag bag: TOTE.
47. Some reds: CLARETS.
50. "We're more than you think!" society: MENSA π
51. History that's more than colorful: CHECKERED PAST - Professor Harold Hill sang about such people
54. Company with a Magen David in its logo: ELAL - The Magen David is the Star of David or Shield of David on this airplane
58. Get upset?: LOSE - In 1980, the Russians were the victims of one of the biggest upsets in sport history
59. Amenities on some red-eyes: SLEEP MASKS.
60. "Sure, why not": LET'S.
61. Pre-makeover personality: OLD ME.
Down:
1. Podcast intros, often: ADS - We all pause our cursor over the Skip Ads tab
2. Place to go in England: LOO π
3. Something to chew on: SOLID FOOD.
4. Makes use of Speakers' Corner: ORATES - The original
5. Sprays down: WETS.
6. Georgetown athlete: HOYA - What's a HOYA?
7. Place for free spirits: OPEN BAR π
8. Quaint greeting: M'LADY.
9. Risks: PERILS - My first thought
10. Not put out to pasture?: GRAIN FED.
11. Less "Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes, e.g.: WORSE. and 47. "Nomadland" Oscar winner Zhao: CHLOE - She won for best director and the Rotten Tomatoes Freshness rating was 95%
12. Makes true: EVENS.
13. In a glass by itself: NEAT.
15. Wave function symbols: PSIS - Good luck!
20. Bill collector?: TIP JAR - Some have been supplanted by electronic options
20. Bill collector?: TIP JAR - Some have been supplanted by electronic options
21. "The Simpsons" character who counsels, "You should listen to your heart, and not the voices in your head": MARGE.
22. Constellation known to the Ojibwa as Kabibona'kan, the Winter Maker: ORION.
25. Fellows: MEN.
26. Sweethearts: BAES - Slang for Baby which will never be used in this house
29. Quit social media, say: GO DARK - Quit it all!
30. Protected area in soccer: SHIN.
32. Court plea: NO CONTEST - In 1973, Spiro Agnew pleaded NO CONTEST to expedite the proceedings
33. Short blasts: GUSTS.
34. Befuddled: AT SEA.
36. Epic fails: DEBACLES - The web has thousands of these
 |
| You had to see this coming! |
38. Neurologist's order, briefly: EEG.
41. Caused some hair loss: LASERED.
44. Appear to be: SEEM SO.
46. EV station lineup, maybe: TESLAS.
48. Minimal: LEAST.
49. Fish, in a way: TROLL - Not all the TROLLS are fishing in a body of water and they might be after this 57. Phishing fig.: SSN.
50. Schoolteacher of old: MARM.
51. Monastic quarters: CELL.
52. Pronounce: DEEM.
53. Leader whose regalia includes a tiara: POPE - The papal tiara is actually a crown and it was last worn by Paul VI sixty years ago.
56. Music genre of Toots and the Maytals: SKA - I'd like to hear one of their tunes
41 comments:
Gary took the words I was going to say right out of my mouth; that the difficulty level of this puzzle was “more or less “ what you’d expect on a Saturday. There was certainly plenty of misdirection, such as “blocking stat” for SPF (sun “block”, get it?). Not to mention certain obscurities, too. All in all, a challenging and fun puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
For a Saturday, this was (for me) a piece of cake, albeit a very tasty piece of cake. Less MERC CDC AANDW WAZE ZENDAYA nonsense (yikes, I can't even remember any good fill from last Saturday's puzzle without looking it up) and more GOOD ONE! IT IS AND IT ISN'T! OPEN BAR! SO LAST YEAR! ...so good.
Strangely, the various misdirections didn't puzzle me too much. The S in SPF was free and SPF came to mind quickly. No clue about JENGA coming from Swahili but it was easy from the clue. And the J helped a lot with TIP JAR.
CHLOE/ELAL is "meh" but very gettable from CH_OE even if you don't remember the crosswordese ELAL. MBA/BAES is probably rougher (I'm familiar with BAE, not so much all those deg. abbreviations). Maybe changing GEARS to GOERS to get rid of that awkward _AE_ pattern would've helped.
Overall, two bangers in a row this week. Here's hoping that the Sunday puzzle will be just as good but I doubt it.
Good morning!
My two Wite-Out moments both came in the top row with WHack/WHOMP and oWEN/GWEN. Otherwise, this was a smooth solve with plenty of aha/oho/hoho moments. DOOR PEOPLE seems contrived. My fisherman would have TRawLED, but the perps disagreed. Is CSS really a computer language? Finished this one with several minutes of my self-imposed limit still on the clock. Thanx, Lance, Richard, and Husker.
One thing I forgot to mention:
FLN: for Charlie Echo - I would be interested in discussing Robert Heinlein, H. Beam Piper, et.al. In more depth. If you “tap” my avatar, you can easily get in touch with me by email. I invite you to do so. Hope to hear from you soon!
FIR, but erased wallet for TIP JAR, toots for GUSTS, and SEEM tO. Toots are always funny, especially on the golf course, but the word was already used as a clue. I agree with A. Non that this was an easy Saturday puzzle. For me, much easier than Monday's.
The CLARET Jug is the prize for the Champion Golfer of the Year, given to the winner of The Open Championship (called "British Open" in the colonies.)
I've never gone to a MENSA meeting. I'm afraid that if I tried, the building would be hit by lightening as soon as I entered. A man's gotta know his limitations.
I'm with DO in questioning CSS as a language.
FLN : -T, the trains in Spain run mainly in the plain. No tunnels there. Actually, that wasn't a risk identification failure, it was a requirements identification failure.
Thanks to Lance and Richard for letting me play on Saturday, a rare occurrence here in Cornerland. And thanks to H. Gary for the fun, informative tour.
Saturday’s puzzle “much easier “ than Monday’s, Jinx? Not that I’m disagreeing, but what is the world coming to? Things appear to be *topsy-turvy!
Thank you, Lance Emfinger and Richard D. Allen, and thank you, Husker Gary
WHOMP (and Madam) before WHOoP before WHOMP and M'LADY
GRAss FED before GRAIN FED - D'OH !
stale before WORSE
Other than those, no miscues.
Agree about DOOR PEOPLE, but it's prob more PC than doormen.
I don't think Patti is concerned about degree of difficulty on a given day. But it was a themeless, so it had to be a Saturday. That (rule?) seems unchanged.
BAES - "Slang for Baby" - I know BAE as a "Before Anyone Else" or a "Best At Everything" close friend.
Gary, the hacker hero in your gif should have taken relief. And the penalty stroke.
FLN, sumdaze, and now you know what a tin knocker is ! It's not a deragatory moniker by any means. Just another name for the vocation among trade people.
s/b derogatory. Untie !
Door people was contrived, I had originally constructed it with POOR PEOPLE in that slot, and Richard had the good sense to flag it as a bummer entry. We liked the rest of the fill enough to land on DOOR PEOPLE, and hope it didn’t detract too much from the solve.
anon@8:03- are you Lance or a TROLL? Thanks for the infor.
I came close but it was no cigar today. The HEAD, SHIN, SLIER AREA foiled me. I had LEAD OUT (present tense, not past tense) for 'Depart", and was on the wrong wavelength for the soccer protected area- thinking where the goalie patrolled. Guessed SLIN-as MARGE'S hubby would say, doh! No V8 moment.
The only other 'trouble' I had was getting M'LADY, after changing WHACK to WHOMP.
DNK GWEN, JENGA, CSS, CHLOE, SKA- perps. My scant programming knowledge ended at FORTRAN, COBOL, & RPG2.
WAGS for SKA, ARFS, EL AL, TROLL
TIP JAR- I don't mind paying for service but some on them are getting ridiculous. You go to a deli, get in line, pay in advance, get your food, pour your own drink, and clean up your own mess but when you pay and option is a suggested tip percentage.
But the worst I've run across happened to me a couple of weeks ago at a SELF-SERVICE CAR WASH in Spring Hill, FL. One of the options was a 'tip for the staff', which consisted of one person who made sure you left front wheel lined up so the mechanism could pull you car through the car wash. The cleaning staff consisted of George and Diane who dried and vacuumed our own car. I gave myself the tip.
Today's puzzle took 10:36, more or less.
Not a lot to say about this one. Seemed easy for a Saturday, which presupposes the week-long progression of difficulty, a thing that seems to be waning.
I didn't know today's ladies (Gwen & Chloe). I never associated the Pope with a tiara.
I liked the clues for solid food, grain fed, and checkered past.
FIW. I had whoop instead of whomp and found no fault in O lady. On reflection, O lady really isn't quaint. But it seemed right to me. This was a nice Saturday CW, and I had no problems with the rest of the puzzle.
Good Morning:
I didn’t find this easy but it was definitely an enjoyable and satisfying solve. Despite the many unknowns, i.e., Gwen, Jenga, CSS, PSIs, Marge, and Chloe, I was able to chip away here and there and, finally, finish with a flourish! I thought the cluing was outstanding and the fill fresh and lively, especially Checkered Past, More or Less/It Is And It Isn’t, Sleep Masks, Open Bar/Tip Jar, Debacles, etc. Those gems negate the bland Door People and the questionable, IMO, Pope’s Tiara. Props, also for the low three letter word count.
Thanks, Lance and Richard, for a fair and rewarding challenge and thanks, HG, for your expert guidance and commentary. Loved all of the visuals. I’m not a hockey fan but I well remember the Miracle on Ice frenzy and excitement because my niece was there. The Phishing reference was quite coincidental as yesterday I received an email telling me that my Apple account was locked and to click on a link to reinstate it. Today, I received a text telling me the same about my Amazon account. From past experience, I knew they were both scams but if I had any doubts, the grammar mistakes in both messages were a red flag.
Have a great day.
Today's puzzle had some slow areas for me, but in the end I got a FIR. GRAIN FED was my last fill since I was thinking of not out to pasture in a figurative way, like not retired. And the area below WHOMP, an early guess, was almost impossible. PERILS was not my first thought, Husker Gary!
Thanks, Lance and Richard, for an interesting and challenging puzzle. And for stopping by, Lance. I appreciated all the fresh fill.
Thanks, Husker Gary, for leading us through the puzzle, adding illustrations and explanations. Very helpful.
That's it, MORE OR LESS. Have a good day!
I stumbled on TIP JAR crossing JENGA, unknown game to me, and SHIN and HEAD OUT, which In retrospect is so evident. Duh.
I really like the CHECKERED PAST clue.
I encountered more unknowns, but figured them out, like PSI, GWEN, CHLOE, CSS.
Definitely easier Saturday than most when I often start out with a sea of blanks. Lots of clever misdirections as others said.
For the first time ever, I printed the CW and also worked it online at the same time. The thought was, "I can use the red-letter help online to fill the printed version". As I said, the first time trying that. And the last. I discovered entering the fill online AND on my paper copy ended up taking me longer than NOT having the red letter help. Live and learn. Anyway, I did eventually manage to FIR, which for me is good. Many Saturday CWs are just above my skill level and become DNFs. I liked the wit in the long fills, and the fact that they are not some obscure name or place, but common sayings. Thanx LE&RDA for this Saturday morning entertainment. And thanx too to Husker Gary for his terrific write-up.
I was ready to plead NO CONTEST...after a half hour of few fills, this MENSA reject (they told me to try applying to their junior club: "HALFWIT") and doing so many alphabet runs it would impress a kindergarten teacher I actually FIR π
Inkovers: wind/ROVE, yips/ARFS, gee/RIO, ......isnot/...ISNT
"Red eye amenities"....free drinks fit but unfortunately isn't true anyway. Also Not guilty works for "Court pleas" but too obvious for a Saturday? Figured on a tennis clue..wrong, wanted a football clue for "blocking stat" wrong again. TIPJAR came outta no where with a bit 'o perpaid, clever, NEAT had a fun clue too.
Never heard of JENGA plus my Swahili is kynda rusty (and what no Spanish clues?). Thought it was spelt SLYER
"Miracle on Ice" ...went on a tour of the Lake Placid venue years ago led by a well-informed fellow who knew all kinds of interesting facts. Turned out he had been the Mayor of Lake Placid at the time of the famous game.
IM: your post explained the phishing/SSN connection..π
Snowing hard again...have a fun weekend.
Neat puzzle. After an ungodly long time, WAGs, SWAGs, and more WAGs, I thought I had actually gotten a Saturday FIR....bzzzt, no. Like KS, Olady looked good to me. FIW, but fun. SubG, would love to, but gave up on Email years ago when the last desktop bit the dust.
Hola!
Saturday stumper for me. I filled all but HEADOUT and JENGA which I played many, many years ago and had forgotten about. There was a time when our family played games at our gatherings but not since the pandemic. Our prior memories seem lost.
CHECKERED PAST made me chuckle. Perhaps we all have secrets which no one will ever know.
Many years ago my sister Marge (CSO) and I flew the red eye to New York but I don't recall if we had SLEEP MASKS.
Clue #10 made no sense to me since I haven't watched any of the SPIDER MAN movies but GWEN perped thanks to GRAINFED, WORSE, EVENS and NEAT. Where is Tinbeni anyway?
Thank you, Gary, Lance E. and Richard A. Have a fabulous day, everyone!
Ray-O
I opt for SLYER, too.
Thank you Lance, Richard, and Patti for a more relaxing than last Saturday FIR. I've now extended my Saturday streak to one!
And thank you Husker for a stellar review. You really outdid yourself on this one.
Lot's of favs in this one:
1A ALSO. The clue for this could also be a Britishism for "to put something in the trunk" of the car.
10A GWEN. DNK her, but she eventually perped in.
21A MODES. And also the MEDIAN. The value in the middle.
24A ARFS. The constructor's favorite pooch.
27A SPF. Not a football stat.
31A JENGA. DNK this one, but my proof reader did.
42A CSS. After using all three of the languages in Gary's diagram, I decided "I've had enough!"
47A CLARETS. We visited the MARGAUX community of Bordeaux when when we last visited France and brought back a bottle of this CLARET, we didn't pay $773 dollars for it!
50A MENSA. None of the brightest people I went to high school needed this to prove themselves. But one of the lesser achievers passed the test and used to brag about it incessantly on Fakebook. He eventually TROLLED me into GOING DARK because of our differences over the significance of Charles Darwin. I don't miss it.
58A LOSE. Let's hope the Russians LOSE the current contest they're in, and quickly!
10D GRAIN FED. At first I thought it had something to do with retirement, but then it didn't.
12D EVENS. I guess the customer couldn't find the TIP JAR. Or was it a TIP to management that the table needed a SHIM. Or did you stage that picture Gary?
13D NEAT. A CSO to Tinbeni. Has anybody heard from him?
15A PSIS. PSI. Anything is possible!
Cheers,
Bill
D-O @5:40AM & Jinx @6:37AM Not all computer languages are PROCEDURAL. CSS along with HTML are classified as DECLARATIVE LANGUAGES, specifying what should be done (make the page look like this), rather than how. Browsers have built in interpreters that recognize both HTML and CSS and act on them when displaying the page. But see my comment on 42A above.
Hi All!
Fairly easy Saturday - only one lookup (GWEN) to get me going. ALSO, I've one inky mess in the middle (moveOUT->HEAD | OCD -> EEG and I kept wanting to fill LEE instead of 1st name ANG).
I got lucky on my first-pass as JENGA filled w/o much thought. Where do these nibs of trivia reside and can I fill that with something useful - like why I went to the kitchen?
STAN was filled so NO CONTEST it had to be, Ray-O. //Save me a seat at Halfwit's club.
Thanks Lance & Richard for the fun fresh-fill puzzle [See: IM's @8:37]. Thanks HG for the great expo (I understand wave calculations in college - today, um, more or less).
Fav: OPEN BAR's clue was cute.
These SLEEP MASKS are super comfy and you can keep one in the bedroom, one in the den, and one at the office ;-)
D-O: CSS is a sub-set. It's really HTML (or, generally XML) describing styles (header, paragraph, etc.) for rendering. I wasn't plussed with the c/a pair. //waseeley said it better.
Valets / DOOR PEOPLE(?) [19:53 - Key & Peele]
@8:03 - Thanks for the "inside-baseball" Lance.
IM - The grammar mistakes in a Phish are not. They are intentional 'cuz the scammer wants to weed-out people who pay attention and focus on the rubes. Good on you for catching it.
Jinx - the risk is you don't identify all the requirements :-)
Time to make like a baby and HEAD OUT.
Cheers, -T
FLN, Anon-T
I researched, and tried to get my iPad using safari to see the alt-text, I followed all the instructions, and came up with butkiss. Nada. Zilch. However I did enjoy the websites comics! I am tempted to ask the Star Ledger to consider adding it to their comics line up as they need to replace Dilbert for reasons I cannot discuss here...
Today crossword however was much more on my wavelength, and for a Saturday found to be very enjoyable. Sussable, yet made me work for it. Everything I like about crosswords, with clever clueing...
There has been much discussion about science fiction writers of late, and I have hesitated to join in, as you would never be able to shut me up. But I can no longer contain myself...
Yes, Isaac Asimov is classic, among many others, and I have downloaded the Variable Star short story PDF to enjoy later. But I have to spout about Larry Niven for his short stories that all interconnect with his novels into one giant universe. Why Ringworld had not been made into a movie yet is beyond me.
However, Dune, by Frank Herbert, was a disappointment for me. Possibly because it was not on my wavelength. But I think it was a readability issue. I mean, I read book two, then book one, then book three, and never noticed my mistake...
No, for me the story has to grab me from page one.
For anyone that liked the Terminator movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger, the machines against humanity theme goes way back. One of the best written was The Beserker series, written by Fred Saberhagen. You can read the first short stories here.
Another well written story that has just stuck in my mind forever, (well, short of,)
(I thought it was Larry Niven,)
Is "Allamagoosa" by Eric Frank Russell.
enjoy it here...
To whet your appetite,
While it takes place in space,
It is your average navy ship,
Required to account for every inventory item it was issued...
Except, one of their issued items is an "Offog." And they can't find it!
This was not easy for me, but getting the long words early made it possible to get unknown answers. Did not know JENGA, CSS and also wanted toot until I realized it was a clue at 56d. Got POPE but did not think his headdress was a tiara. Blocking stat? - football?, stage direction? No, SPF. Good misdirection AS were GOOD ONE and TIPJAR. I liked this puzzle, Lance and Richard.
I’m @ 8:37 - Yesterday someone wanted me to buy Viagra!
I recommend A wonderful documentary, “Maiden”, about the first all women crew in the Whitbread sailing race around the world. In 1989, 12 women sailed 33,000 miles covering an AREA including Uruguay, Auckland, Australia, USA, and back to England. They came in second in spite of being ridiculed and told that they wouldn’t be able to finish the first leg. I’m sure addressing them as M’LADY would have made them laugh.
Anon Tony
The second and last of my two HS Caruso buds passed. Ernie Caruso established a successful investment firm "Caruso, McClean & Co" now led by his son, died about 10 years ago. Last week Jimmie Caruso who lived around the corner passed. We used to walk to school together and shared the same May 15 birthday.
Superb Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Lance and Richard, and HuskerG.
I FIRed - actually can I just echo Irish Miss’s first paragraph!?
I did have plenty of inkblots. Wind changed to ROVE, Three to WORSE (I was using a number rating!), Maxes to MODES (yeh, that would be Mins), Trawl to TROLL (hi d’otto).
I wanted Savvy before SLIER.
I’m hard-pressed to chose a favourite, I had so many. I started saying GOOD ONE with LOO, and repeated it with OPEN BAR, GRAINFED, NEAT, SPF.
I love the sound of DEBACLES (No matter how you pronounce it).
We had the long-@awaited BAES today.
Like Ray-o, I fit Not Guilty into the spot for NO CONTEST. Speaking of contests, you need a steady hand and an EVEN surface for JENGA.
The OLD ME would have said DOORman or lady, but that is SO LAST YEAR, DOOR PERSON it is.
Wishing you all a great day.
I liked this clever puzzle. Just enough footholds to get things started and then little by little from there. An enjoyable solve.
I loved The Beserker series by Fred Saberhagen.
Good wishes to you all.
Quite the shocker for me to get a FIR on a Saturday and (hold your horses) I did it in 26:37! Definitely a PR!
Thanks to Lance and Richard for the fun. Irish Miss @ 8:37 said it for me, "I thought the cluing outstanding and the fill fresh & lively." I hope to see your BY LINES again soon. Thanks, also, for posting, Lance!
FAVs: Place for free spirits, Modes, Blocking stat.
NOt guitly changed to NO CONTEST and goal changed to SHIN for the soccer clue.
Thanks, also to H-Gary for his helpful write-up. Another GOOD ONE!
Greetings! Did pretty well for a Saturday.Thanks Lance & Richard. Got the south & most of the middle on my own, then had to revisit the puzzle a couple of times to get the NC & NW. Curious how some things jump out when you put it down for a while after staring at it blankly for eons!!
Had to look up GWEN, JENGA, CSS.
Thanks, Husker Gary for a fun & informative recap.
HG - THe Hyde Park photo reminded me of a conversation I had there a few years ago. A bus tour guide who picked up passengers there told me that every Sunday, a large group of middle eastern men (this during a very contentious time between Iran and the USA) would gather at Hyde Corner and vilify the US. They chanted slogans like “ Destroy the USA” and “Death to America”. —— and then go across the street and eat dinner at Kentucky Fried Chicken!
Ray - O - Sunshine. - It is hard to lose friends who bring back happy memories. So sorry.
Waseeley - Years ago I was on a LA Times crossword blog run by Rex Parker (NY Times - Michael Sharp) and 2 other people, and Tinbeni was a daily contributor, always with funny comments about imbibing. I had wondered what became of him and many others there.
DOOR PERSON did not seem strange. —thought of Walmart.
Challenging puzzle that required chipping away until it succumbed. Great review, Gary, but am a bit curious about the smiley face emojis after Open bar, loo, and Mensa. That's quite an eclectic collection π.
Sorry, but total natick at the Chesapeake Bay area--
JEN?A and C?S.
I did not know CSS, either but, fortunately, did know JENGA.
Parsan @3:44 PM Thanks for that. I'm sure he's toasting us somewhere at sunset!
APROPOS of Rotten Tomatoes (and a CSO to MalMan π) -- we celebrated our 12 year old granddaughter's birthday yesterday with a trip to the Maryland Science Center, and the highlight of the visit was an IMAX film about Australian Olympic Gold Medalist snowboarder Torah Bright's Mountain Adventure: Out of Bounds snowboarding down three mountains along the chain from Antarctica to Alaska. Here's a promo and here's a trailer. I couldn't find it on the List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I suspect because they fear that it would wrap the needle around the pin of the Tomatometer. Look for it at an IMAX theatre near you.
Yeah, if I were POPE, I'd try to avoid wearing that so-called "tiara," too.
No wonder it hasn't been worn in public since Paul VI.
Impossible XWD today. The Enfinger/Allen team rely on personal or idiosyncratic expressions in combo nexus.
I appreciate that some colleagues had the P+P for enough "chipping away" to get results.
As for myself, I enjoyed the few areas where fills would appear after 10 to 15 minutes. That was my limit.
Among those I enjoyed (got) were the two Lees, (45A & 62A), (31A) JENGA (never knew it was Swahili!), and (24A) ARFS.
Several other fills and even a few sectors were fun because of the cluing.
~ OMK
___________
DR: Sorry, no diagonals. The 8x8 rule killed 'em off.
Same i/o's* as D-O on WHack/WHOMP and oWEN/GWEN but FIW on cSS/DSS(Why was NO CONTEST so hard?- Mr S again
Less than Saturday difficulty but certainly no Monday. Lots of lhf; lots of sparkle
I didn't even need my CBD smart pill
It may have been Asimov who said, paraphrasing, that SciFi is history disguised. Foundation is a good example but not being MENSA I couldn't write the annotated Foundation. Except…
It is assuredly about the founding of the Capitalist System after the Catholic/Monarchical System was obviously failing. After Versailles Hitler had some success bypassing and later attacking the System(or being attacked)
Spy novels(LeCarre,Deighton) use a similar trope but not in the scope of an Asimov. Tolkien more of the same. The key was not upsetting the highly sensitive British Secret Service
WC
* i/o = Ink Over. I like the challenge of ink. That $44.00 xword pencil is interesting
Dave, may I put in a word for Anne McCaffrey? I thoroughly enjoyed her Dragonriders of Pern series.
Ray-O: So sorry to hear about your buddy's passing. Pop tells me that's the hardest part of getting up there in age (and he's only 72).
But the circle of life - one of our Jr. Analysts gave birth today to a new (hacker?) Girl. -T
And we shouldn't forget Arnold Toynbee's works on the deep structures of history, which underlaid a number of SF writers in the 1940s and 50s -- even Heinlein's early timeline.
FLN - CED: I just tried this on both my iPhone and my iPad 2. Touch & hold on the image; in the pop-up you'll see the ALT-text above the 'open in new window' and other options. YMMV.
Cheers, -T
How can you justify saying it was “easy” if you had to look a fill up to get started?
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