google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, February 1, 2023, Wendy L. Brandes

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Feb 1, 2023

Wednesday, February 1, 2023, Wendy L. Brandes

Theme: There's no better way to put it than the 58A reveal below.

20. Forgettable band with a memorable song: ONE HIT WONDER.

32. "Pipe down!": KEEP QUIET.

45. Spot for spare change: COIN PURSE.

58. Element of irony, and what can be found in each set of circled letters?: TWISTED HUMOR.

Let's put the grid up here so we can see the circles.

The circled letters can be unscrambled to make a word relating to HUMOR: WIT, QUIP, and PUN.

Across:

1. Unexpected obstacle: SNAG.

5. "Pronto!" letters: ASAP.

9. Suffers after a Pure Barre class, say: ACHES.
A strenuous, low-impact workout based on dance, Pilates, yoga and low-impact rehabilitation exercises.

14. __ Top ice cream: HALO. Less cream and sugar than regular ice cream. I've never tried it. If you haven't either, you might want to read this first: A Dietitian’s Review of Halo Top: Nutrition, Ingredients, and Best Flavors.

15. Four Corners state: UTAH.
The Four Corners is a region of the Southwestern United States consisting of the southwestern corner of Colorado, southeastern corner of Utah, northeastern corner of Arizona, and northwestern corner of New Mexico.



16. "If only!": I HOPE.

17. "Will do!": ON IT.

18. Emperor after Claudius: NERO. Anyone actually know this from memory?

19. __ touch: MAGIC.

23. Jazz pianist McCoy: TYNER. Did not know his name. He worked with The John Coltrane Quartet. He
left Coltrane's group in 1965, becoming uneasy with the increasingly atonal and noisy direction of the saxophonist's music. “He had two drummers at that time,” Mr. Tyner said in 1976, “and I couldn't hear what I was doing.”

24. Unnecessary: NEEDLESS.

28. Pie crust fat: LARD.

31. Ace a presentation: NAIL IT.

37. Lingerie selection: TEDDY. "Teddy Bears" and "Teddies" - the Surprisingly Literal Etymology of "Teddies" Lingerie.

38. Musical ability: EAR. Are you TONE DEAF or MUSICALLY GIFTED? (A FUN test for non-musicians)


39. Old PC platform: MS DOS.

41. Snaky fish: EEL.

42. Shopping cart fillers: ITEMS.


48. Cook's Illustrated offering: RECIPE. From my last blog, I know we have at least a few fans of America's Test Kitchen here. Cook's Illustrated is an American cooking magazine published every two months by the America's Test Kitchen company.

50. Lake bird with a wild laugh: LOON. Loons always make me think of the movie On Golden Pond.

 
51. Sotheby's auctions, e.g.: ART SALES.

54. Fragrance: SCENT.

61. Like 18-Across: ROMAN.

64. Goalie's success: SAVE. According to Golf Digest, this is this is the greatest save in hockey history
.

65. Per-hour amount: RATE.

66. Not sleeping: AWAKE.

67. Diva's big moment: ARIA. Opera.

68. Simpson daughter voiced by Yeardley Smith: LISA. Did not know her name.

69. Came to a close: ENDED.

70. Shout: YELL. Anyone remember Rita Moreno's opening YELL from The Electric Company?



71. Opening for a hotel key card: SLOT.

Down:

1. "Ask me anything!": SHOOT.

2. Mary Poppins, for one: NANNY.

3. Out of this world?: ALIEN. Nice clue.

4. Went to a tutoring session, say: GOT HELP.

5. Many a godmother: AUNT.

6. Fret (over): STEW. Couldn't squeeze worry into 4 letters.

7. Judge who hit 62 home runs in 2022: AARON. Those of us who don't follow baseball wouldn't know this one. Plays for the NY Yankees. He is 6 feet 7 inches tall!

8. Galaxy, for one: PHONE. Sneaky.

9. Set one's sights on: AIMED AT.

10. "All the Birds in the Sky" Nebula winner __ Jane Anders: CHARLIE. Science Fiction is not my genre and I've not heard of this.

11. Monopolize: HOG.

12. Prefix with dermis: EPI. Meaning: upon or above.

13. Triple __: orange-flavored liqueur: SEC.  Meaning, "triple distilled," triple sec is made from the dried peels of bitter and sweet oranges. 'Sec' is French for dry so 'triple sec' literally means 'triple dry.'

21. Baghdad's country: IRAQ.


22. Room that may have a sectional sofa: DEN. Sectionals have gotten very popular in the last 5 years or so.

25. Respected leader: ELDER.

26. Cucumber salad, coconut rice, etc.: SIDES.

27. Panache: STYLE.

29. Bacardi liquor: RUM. Again with the booze!

30. Blu-ray buy: DISC. Blu-ray is the advanced version of DVDs. It is named "Blu-ray" because blue laser is used to read the disc, which enables to store the information at greater density compared to red-laser used in DVD. Seems like the trend is towards streaming services, and maybe both will phase out like VHS cassettes.

32. Knightley of "Bend It Like Beckham": KEIRA.


 
33. "Peter, Peter, pumpkin __ ... ": EATER. Children's nursery rhyme.

34. Build: ERECT.

35. Old name of Tokyo: EDO.

36. Work hard: TOIL.

40. __-cone: SNO. I feel pretty certain that SNO-CONE is a brand name, but google finds both  SNOW CONE and SNO CONE with no obvious distinction. All I could find was this article, about sno-balls vs sno-cones. Now I'm more confused than ever. From the article: "Editor’s Note: In my 35 years on this planet I’ve never once eaten anything called a sno-ball. Nor have I ever eaten a sno-cone served in an actual cone." But what about this sno-ball?


 
43. Error: MISTAKE.

44. Brought about, as a movement: SPAWNED.

46. Like a red-carpet event: POSH.

47. Opens, as a fern frond: UNCURLS.

 
49. Former quarterback Manning: ELI. NY Giants quarterback for 16 seasons, retired from NFL in 2019.

52. Writing contest entry, maybe: ESSAY.

53. Long look: STARE.


55. "Reply all" medium: EMAIL.

56. "Untrue!": NOT SO. Is too!

57. October 31 option: TREAT. Halloween - trick or treat?

59. Malicious: EVIL.

60. Hand out cards: DEAL.

61. "Insecure" star Issa: RAE.


62. Woolf's "A Room of One's __": OWN.

63. Fit to be tied: MAD.


41 comments:

Subgenius said...

I don’t mind circles, especially when what they reveal isn’t obvious, as was the case today because the theme answers were anagrams. Nevertheless, so figured out the theme pretty quickly although I had no idea what the reveal was going to be until I solved it. I didn’t find this to be a very difficult puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.

Subgenius said...

‘Scuse. In the above, replace the little word “so” with the even littler word “I”. Thanks.

desper-otto said...

Good morning! And welcome to February.

This heretic would think a HALO Top to be an angel's headgear. Learning moment. On the other hand, d-o has visited the Four-Corners monument (it's not very impressive), and is a frequent watcher of America's Test Kitchen. This one was an enjoyable romp. The names I didn't know were easily gettable. Thanx, Wendy and Melissa Bee.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased keria for the equally talented and beautiful KEIRA. UNTIE!

"Sofa crack" also fit for "spot for spare change." My dad called those things "pinch-penny purses."

My favorite ONE HIT WONDER was The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the song was Fire. It is my favorite because of the memories. I was a teen, and my parents scraped and saved for me to be able to go on a 5-week educational trip to Europe. In London, a bunch of us went to a nightclub where his act was playing. He had the top hit in England at the time, and it would become a big hit in the USA over the next few months. His opening act was an unknown musician named Joe Cocker, who went on to have more than ONE HIT.

Thanks to Wendy for the fun, easy exercise. And thanks to melissa b for explaining the fine points.

FLN:
Jayce - I love Rocky Point. When I was there last, there seemed to be more Americans living there than Mexicans. Great place for grown-ups to run away from home to. Loved the satellite horse race betting at the "casino" before there was much of that outside of Vegas.

CED - We are not worthy!!!

OMK - I like it - "Produce or Perish." I know a guy who runs a soup-and-salad bar restaurant who should have the same motto.

KS said...

FIR, with no problems. Got the theme early and finished fast. Rather easy puzzle for a mid week effort.

Anonymous said...

Took 3:55 for me to get the joke today.

Fastest Wednesday that I can remember.

Oh joy, circles.

I've been to the Four Corners too. My kids were young then and loved "being in different states" from their family.

Rabbit, rabbit.

Anonymous said...

FIR in Monday time. Quite a change from the last few Wednesdays.

Anonymous T said...

Hey You Guys! [Goonies]

A quick fun run from Wendy with some knotty humor. Thanks for the puzzle.

Thanks mb for the fine review - that guy doing the music test was way to dry to make it past Q #2 :-)

WOs: N/A
ESPs: CHARLIE (as clued), TYNER, KEIRA
Fav: Cook's Illustrated RECIPE. Pop gets me the hard-cover edition for Christmas.

Monday night, Freakonomics was about ONE HIT WONDERS. [49:17] It was interesting.

Jinx - how cool is that to see Joe Cocker just starting out. I think Norman Greenbaum has my fav one hit with Spirit in the Sky.
//Technically, Don McLean (American Pie) had two hits :-)

Another WFH day as I'm still puny (and cold!) and don't want to get my coworkers sick - but, at least I'm up early and at it.

Cheers, -T

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was an enjoyable solve, but would have been more of a challenge, leading to more satisfaction, minus the circles. I think we should have to expend a little more brain power on a Wednesday but, based on past offerings, Patti has a different opinion, rightfully so. I’m more familiar with Change Purse, but Coin certainly is just as descriptive. Tyner was unknown, as were Halo and Charlie, as clued. Aaron Judge was a gimme for this Yankee fan. No w/os led to a quick, easy solve.

Thanks, Wendy, for starting February off with lots of fun and thanks, Melissa, for adding to the fun with your delightful review. I really enjoyed the article on Teddy Bears as I’m a big fan of those cuddly creatures. I also learned that I have a pretty good ear for music, as I missed only two of the quiz questions, plus I now know the difference between Major and Minor chords! 🎹🎼

I posted a reply to several Cornerites late yesterday, re the All Creatures Great And Small quiz. Dont’t miss it, please. 😉

Have a great day.

OwenKL said...

White rabbit🐇white rabbit🐰white rabbit🥕.

OwenKL said...

There was a nice lady from UTAH,
Who filled all the laddies with awe
At the size of her chest
And all of the rest
Of the tissues she tucked in her bra!

To think I have only begun
My quest for the ultimate PUN.
It must be a QUIP
That shows off my WIT,
Like a wedding that's begun by gun.
(Shotgun, that is!)

YooperPhil said...

I found this puzzle to my liking, and quite jocular at that, a little easier than most Wednesday’s as my solve took a little less than 10 minutes. A few unknowns generously filled by perps, thank you Wendy for the midweek treat!

Melissa ~ nice write up today, especially liked the musical test where I got 13/15, #’s 12 and 15 I missed. Also liked your Amazon cart 🤣.

I live in an area where ferns grow abundant in the wild, just before they uncurl in the spring they are called “fiddleheads”, a tender green which people harvest and eat although I’m not real “frond” of them myself.

Add to the One Hit Wonder list ~ “Brandy”, by Looking Glass, and “More Today Than Yesterday”, by Spiral Staircase.

Anonymous T said...

YooperPhill:

(CEO) Bro is married to a Brandy - and she's a Fine Girl (puts up with his s***, she does). Good pick!

Nobody else wanted unFurl for the Fern clue?

Cheers, -T

ATLGranny said...

A wonderful Wednesday FIR from Wendy. It did seem easier than usual, but I am not complaining. Unlike IM I did have WOs but not until the last corner where I had put "false"/NOT SO, UNfURLS/UNCURLS (Hi, Anon-T), and glARE/STARE.

I unscrambled the circled letters quickly, starting with the first, but definitely needed the circles. I wondered how the reveal would describe the theme. Fun. Thanks, Melissa B for your review and the extras you provided. I passed the music test just fine. (Guess that explains why the high school band director offered me a chance to play the French horn in the band when I was a freshman. I was already in the chorus he directed.)

Near Aachen, Germany, you can go to the corner where three countries meet: Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands. It's a park with restaurants and activities to do like a tower to climb and a corn maze.

Hope you enjoyed the puzzle too. Have a good February!

waseeley said...

Thank you Wendy for a PUNderful puzzling Wednesday which actually required that I CIRCLE around a bit before getting my FIR.

And thank you as always Melissa for your inFORMative review, especially the article about TEDDIES.

A few favs:

18A NERO. ASAP - name another 4 letter Roman emperor ...

38A EAR. Got 13 out of 15. I failed.

50A LOON. Favorite bird.

67A ARIA. I'm behaving myself today (only because I'm pressed for time).

1D SHOOT. AIM AT it before you SHOOT.

10D CHARLIE. She writes about 3Ds: could she be one?.

32D KEIRA. Here she is.

Cheers,
Bill

YooperPhil said...

Anonymous T ~ thanks for the YouTube link to “Brandy”, I needed to hear it for the millionth time 😂, noticed it had 51 million views, add that to the millions of airplays, wonder what kind of royalties the song has paid to the writer and band.

Malodorous Manatee said...

I thank you, also, Melissa for the great recap. The linked article about teddies was full of information that I had not previously known.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-“I’ll take ONE-HIT-WONDERS for $1,000” “The answer is ‘This best-selling ONE-HIT-WONDER sparked a 1993 dance craze’”. Correct question below.
-Three state intersection - It’s a real hike to get to this marker!
-NEEDLESS to say I encountered a few obscure names but each came with easy crossings, so…
-Have you ever called out someone in front of you in the “!0 Item Limit” checkout line?
-My subbing RATE works out to be around $23/hr to sit around and do crosswords
-I spent a lot of time in the 60’ in my best friend’s Galaxy
-My school has a girl named Charlzie. She likes being called Chuck.
-This is Kiera Knightly playing Joan Clark solving a crossword puzzle to be allowed to work with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.
-ELI started 210 consecutive NFL games. Sometimes the best “ability” is “availability”
-“What is the Macarena?”

Monkey said...

Nice, relaxed puzzle this morning. FIR.

Although I didn’t know Tyner McCoy’s name, I remember hearing the Coltrane quartet at a little club called The Bohemian Caverns in Washington, DC in 1962.

The theme of this puzzle applies to the comments of a few cornerites. 😎

Lucina said...

Hola!

Thank you, Wendy and Melissa Bee! This puzzle was easy for a Wednesday although I had to wait until the end to fill ALIEN/HALO. TYNER is completely unknown.

NERO is unforgettable once you see the movie, I Claudius.

Although I have never seen The Simpsons, I learned LISA and other characters from crosswords.

Hand up for having taken a photo at the Four Corners with all fours touching each point.

CSO to my nephew AARON. And another CSO to my cousin's son, ROMAN. That cousin grew up an only child, had five of his own and now has numerous grandchildren.

LARD is also indispensable in making tamales.

Enjoy your day, everyone!

RosE said...

Good Morning! This Wednesday puzzle was a nice surprise! Thanks, Wendy!
I had an unusual fill pattern today, Central section top to bottom then finished the south and worked my way up.
DNK HALO or TYNER only WO was HALe -> HALO. I shoulda caught the tense in GOT HELP
Last fill was CHARLiE, another UKN.
I took the music test & scored 13 (but #10 & 12 were gimmies since I missed #9 & 11) But sadly, I can't carry a tune in a bucket! Well, I appreciate listening & singing (alone) in the car!
I remember On Golden Pond, but my more current recall is from Maine Cabin Masters. Lots of Loons in Maine!
RE: Fiddlehead ferns, (Hi Yooper Phil!) I first learned of them on North Woods Law, a local favorite for some in New England, but they must be carefully prepared to rinse out the toxins before consuming. I think I'll pass!
Thanks, Melissa for a great review!

unclefred said...

Last to fill was the NW, but eventually FIR. Nice theme, which I needed the reveal to see. Thanx for the mid-week perfect-for-a-Wednesday CW, WLB. Great write-up, too, MB. I tried the "musical ear" quiz, got 13 right, two (#9 and #11) wrong. I've got the tree guys here again, more cut-backs for the benefit of my solar panels.

desper-otto said...

Husker, I think it was '96 when that dance craze hit with the Bayside Boys Macarena cover. I remember the year, because I'd just survived a second corporate merger. The new employer organized a get-acquainted parking lot party and they played that song over and over and over.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

I just worked the USA Today crossword puzzle in the Ocala paper (meaning it is a couple of weeks old) by our web mistress CC. The theme, "Lane Change", points to anagrams of "LANE". 10 Across is "___-hit wonder". Small world.

Frequent crossword fill Baha Boys had a single hit with Who Let the Dogs Out.

I read that (no one-hit wonder) Al Green got tons of royalties for his Take Me to the River from the many artists who covered it, including Tina Turner, Foghat, Talking Heads, Mitch Ryder, Canned Heat and Lynda (who knew she could sing) Carter. But he received the most royalties from the company that marketed the Big Mouth Billy Bass, that stoopid plastic singing fish "as seen on TV."

CrossEyedDave said...

FIW,
No tada, could not figure out why. Had to turn on the red letters to discover I had "get help" instead of "got help."
(Never heard of halo ice cream. Oh Well...)

That four corner monument sounds like a real tourist trap!
30 miles from the nearest gas station/Kwiki Mart...
$8- to get in?
And when you get there, you find out it's 1,807 feet off from where it's supposed to be!

HG, your 3 corner is a 404 error.
We have a tri state lookout spot in New Jersey, you can get bitten by ticks from 3 states just standing in one spot!

There was a rumor that Spirit in the Sky got its fuzz tone by sticking a screwdriver through the speaker.
but there is more than one way to skin a cat...

I found a site that has 100 twisted jokes.
Here is number 12:

12. My mom died when we couldn’t remember her blood type. As she died, she kept telling us to “be positive,” but it’s hard without her.

here is the other 99 if you are so inclined...

Irish Miss said...

YooperPhil @ 9:22 ~ You and I missed the same examples. Does that mean we are Comrades In Ears? 🤣

For the longest time, I confused Keira Knightly with Natalie Portman. I do think there is a strong resemblance and find both equally attractive. I think the confusion arose seeing them both in perfume ads, albeit for different scents. Speaking of ads, my oft-stated annoyance with Doug and LiMu, (Liberty Mutual), and Flo and Jamie, (Progressive), has been overtaken by the man (nameless) in the pervasive Spectrum Mobile ads. His voice, antics, and repetitive spiel are very quickly muted. 🤐

Misty said...

Fun Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Wendy. And your commentary is always a delight, Melissa, thanks for that too.

I HOPE everyone enjoyed this puzzle with its positive theme as much as I did. It offered us a ONE HIT WONDER with a bit of MAGIC music for the EAR, and maybe even a chance to go to the opera and hear an ARIA. And if we put a penny in the SLOT would we end up with a COIN PURSE we could use to shop for some ART SALES? Or would it just be better to just SAVE that money? Enough TWISTED HUMOR--just have a fun day, everybody!

YooperPhil said...

Irish Miss ☘️ ~ good one on the “Comrades in Ears” comment, very fitting for today’s theme! ☺️ Not sure why I missed 12 and 15, could have been the pause between the chords/notes and my short term memory failed, or my hearing is not what it once was. I used to be able to restring a guitar and tune it to A440 by ear, like I had perfect pitch, now I need a tuner, at least as a starting point.

Coincidence that Mary Poppins was a clue today, last night DW and I watched “Saving Mr. Banks”, Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson were excellent.

👋🏼 🌹

CrossEyedDave said...

This wasn't meant to be a joke...
(Gods honest truth!)

I think my new IPhone has a twisted sense of humor.
I've had it several months now, and I am disappointed that the new battery seems to die so quickly.
It took a bit of getting used to, as instead of a passcode, it uses Face ID to allow access.

Now, I don't have a purse, like DW, so I carry my phone in my front pocket.
It wasn't until I was putting on my pants one day, that I noticed the phone was on by the light of the screen shining thru the pocket. Keeping an eye on it, I noticed it would randomly turn on, in my pocket, for no reason I could fathom...
(The buttons are disabled.)

Now, I am thinking, with this Face ID turn on feature, I should try carrying the phone in my "back" pocket for a while. Even at the risk of sitting on it and cracking the screen. Who knows? Maybe I can figure out who this phone "thinks" I am...

AnonymousPVX said...

The phone turns on the screen for a moment when an email/text is received.

CanadianEh! said...

Wonderful Wednesday. Thanks for the fun, Wendy and melissa.
I FIRed in good time and saw the Humour (for us LOONy Canadians) in the theme.

No real issues except to change Kiera to KEIRA. Perps were friendly for the few (only 3!) unknown names. I was going to WAG Tyler, but ALIEN gave the N.
We returned to RAE today.
We had SHOOT instead of AMA.

I learned EDO years ago in my early CW-solving days.
According to Irish Miss’s scale, the 12 three-letter fills in this CW are Acceptable.
My Pie Crust Fat is Crisco.
I noted that ONE HIT WONDER has a TWO in it if parsed incorrectly!

Wishing you all a great day.

CrossEyedDave said...

AnonymousPVX@1:15

My phone email is disconnected, as I use the IPad exclusively for emails, as I could never figure out how to link devices/accounts and having to mark everything/everywhere as read was driving me nuts!
(Note: if you send me an email to gmail under CrossEyedDave, I will never see it. I use optonline.net)
(I accidentally created the gmail trying to get on the blog 12 years ago...)

The text alerts me via sound, which I did not hear.

The buttons are disabled...
I use an on screen home button, which was still from my old phone when the home button cracked.)

No, I am afraid my phone thinks I am an Ass, (or worse!)

But I will take into account the screen activation when stuff arrives when I try to maximize battery life. Thanks!

P.S. On Golden Pond is free,on YouTube with ads.
Never seen it, I have added it to my list of things to watch...

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thank you, Wendy. I enjoyed this puzzle more and found it easier than the Friday puzzle by Wendy we had several weeks ago. Thanks, Melissa, for a great expo.

A good test for musical ability is to start singing before a group. If they listen quietly, you sing well. If they keep talking, don't sing for people again.

Hand up for UNfURL before UNCURL.

Didn't know AARON but had two A's and WAGd the rest.

Anonymous T said...

PK:

When Eldest was just a baby we'd hear her hummin' in the crib.
"Is that 'How Do I Get To Sesame Street?'," I asked DW.
Now, Eldest has a degree in Opera. The kid has an EAR.

I think I've posted this before - this trio was "All Rise" when AARON Judge came to bat at the Home Derby a few years back.

Nothing apropos but this came up in my side-channel links, and, it was LOL. What do you think aboot Minnesota, C.C.? :-)

Cheers, -T

Anonymous T said...

er, Home-Run Derby. -T

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle and melissa bee's write-up.

I got #9 wrong on the "tone deaf" quiz.

Good wishes to you all.

sumdaze said...

FIR but had to change Midas to MAGIC touch and aroma to SCENT. Thank you, Wendy!

Thank you for your excellent write-up, Melissa. That time lapse on the fern looks ALIEN.

I 2nd -T's recommendation of the ONE HIT WONDERS episode on Freakonomics. (See 8:01 of link.)

-T, I notice we listen to a lot of the same podcasts. Have you tried SmartLess. Very funny!

Wilbur Charles said...

I see I never posted

HALO stumped me but when perped I realized I see it at Winn Dixie all the time. No, I won't pay extra but on Bogo…

NERO's pal was Seneca who apparently knew St Paul. The first could have fit nicely into today's politics what with the blame game*

List of UNKs: TEDDY,CHARLIE,KEIRA(actually like HALO, I did know it), TYNER

We've had Issa RAE here before

Or.. Non steroid all time HR leader?(AARON,Hank)

* He blamed the big fire on the Christians

Wilbur Charles said...

During the lost decade(70s) I idly mentioned my Little League No-HITTER. In classic Cheers fashion a delegation descended on the library to settle the bets

Lo and behold, there was a no-hitter but on further study I had only pitched five innings. The manager had promised an 11 yr older one inning.

Ps… Same crowd frequented the Clubs where my new nickname became NOHIT(A play on my success at said clubs)

I do recall the stat line read 0-0-9-11(for six innings!!!). I assume it was 11 SOs, 9 BBs a stat for Ripley

WC

LEO III said...

FIR, but it did take some Wite-Out today.

Yes, -T, I UNFURLED it before I UNCURLED it! My only real problems today were also in the SE corner, and once I straightened it out, the rest of my mess fell into place.

Since I’m still boycotting ALL major league sports, I didn’t know anything about AARON Judge.

No problem with the theme answers; I got them pretty quickly.

I would have gotten TWISTEDHUMOR without the circles, but I doubt that I would have seen WIT, QUIP and PUN without them. I like the circles.

I haven’t been to Four Corners yet. It is on my list, because it’s there, and because I’ve never been there. It’s one of the 8,500+ other places on my “Places to Shoot” (photograph, that is) spreadsheet, and I’m running out of time. I HAVE been to Five Points in Philadelphia, though. Guess that’s not quite the same, huh?

Thanks Wendy and melissa!

Anonymous T said...

WC - for real? //I thought the lost decade was Covid 2020-2021 ;-)
My best play was an unassisted triple-play. No outs and we were playing the best little-league team in IL, Pawnee Lumber. I was at short. The monster hit the ball right over second with bases loaded. I snagged the ball in the air, stepped on the bag, and tagged the kid running from 1st. It was my time in the sun!
Aaron Judge is a mass of a player.

Sumdaze - OMG! Those four in you link are my favs! Only Andy Samberg & John Mulaney are funnier (Seth Myers is up there too - oh, yeah, & Colbert). I'm adding it to my feed (not that I'll ever get to it, but it's there) //are we the same age(ish)?
WWDTM w/ Jason Bateman.

Cheers, -T