google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, February 15, 2023, Enrique Henestroza

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Feb 15, 2023

Wednesday, February 15, 2023, Enrique Henestroza

Theme: DE-ICE


17. Get-together with a sketchy vibe?: OFF[ICE] PARTY.

23. Marketer's blitz campaign?: PR[ICE] INCREASE.

37. Intercom call on Take Your Child to Work Day?: SON[ICE] TO SEE YOU.

51. Shake Weight and The Flex Belt, per their infomercials?: BOD[ICE] RIPPERS.

62. Cold Hawaiian treat ... or a directive followed four times in this puzzle?: SHAVE ICE.

For me this seemed a tad above typical Wednesday level, mostly because of the theme answers - but made easier once I realized the gimmick. Remove ICE from these phrases to reveal a different phrase. SHAVE ICE sounds awkward without the D, but I'll accept it.

Across:

1. Tool that can be a musical instrument: SAW.

4. Not berthed: ASEA.

8. Designated: TERMED.

14. Confidentiality contract: Abbr.: NDA.

15. Spider-Man co-creator Lee: STAN.

16. Prophecy source: ORACLE.

19. Beam benders: PRISMS. Nice clue.


20. Cookie-based dessert: OREO PIE.

21. Spanish "those": ESOS. Ayer esos besos eran por san valentin. (Yesterday those kisses were for Valentine's.)


22. Salon job: PERM.

28. Affirmative replies: YESES.

30. General on a menu: TSOWho Was General Tso (And Why Does He Have His Own Chicken)? Recipe.

31. Sign of healing: SCAB. Always have to wait for perps to fill in the last B or R.

32. __ Cruces, New Mexico: LAS.

34. "Yeah, I guess": SURE.

36. Pickleball shot: LOB. From Wikipedia: Pickleball is an indoor or outdoor racket/paddle sport where two players, or four players, hit a perforated hollow polymer ball over a 36-inch-high net using solid-faced paddles.
Fun fact: It began soaring in popularity as the search for new activities during the coronavirus pandemic turned many people into “picklers.”


 40. Mud bath spot: SPA.

42. Bash who co-hosts CNN's "State of the Union": DANA.


43. Mo: SEC. This one had me scratching my head - but fellow guest bloggers helped me out. Shortened forms of moment and second, as in, 'wait a mo,' or 'wait a SEC.'


44. The Buckeye State: OHIO.

46. WNBA official: REF. Basketball referee.

47. A few bucks, say: STAGS. Nice clue. Animal, not cash.

55. Heaps: A LOT.

56. Limo destination: PROM.

57. Jack up: ELEVATE.

59. Nut used to make vegan cheese: CASHEW. Never tried artificial cheese, but what's not to love about cashews? Can anyone recommend?

63. Understood by few: ARCANE. Not unlike many crossword words.

64. Despise: HATE.

65. Org. with seven teams in Canada: NHL. National Hockey League.

66. "This Is Spinal Tap" director: REINER. In the film, Rob Reiner plays a documentary filmmaker named Marty DiBergi who is wearing the same hat throughout the entire film that says "USS OORAL SEA OV-4B" instead of "USS CORAL SEA OV-43." The hat was made because the Navy refused to grant permission to use the real Coral Sea hat. Fun fact: Mark Knopfler told Reiner that he would only do the theme for The Princess Bride if Reiner put the hat into that movie. You can see it in the little boy's room when his grandfather is reading him the story (though apparently it was not the actual hat from This is Spinal Tap because that one had been lost).


67. Lyft competitor: UBER.

68. Game Boy batteries: AAS.

Down:

1. Beagle who pilots an imaginary Sopwith Camel: SNOOPY. The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. 

2. Like premium streaming services: AD FREE. That'll be extra.

3. Communion rounds: WAFERS.

4. Urgent letters: ASAP. As soon as possible.

5. Narrow piece: STRIP.

6. Foodie website covering 25 metro areas: EATER.

7. "__ takers?": ANY.

8. Arcade achievements: TOP SCORES. Anatomy of Arcade High Score Tables.

 
9. Bad move: ERROR.

10. Ups the ante: RAISES. The phrase originated in betting games like poker. The ante is the amount the player commit to before the game begins. When a player increases the amount, it is termed as upping the ante. The cost, risk, reward all go up as a result of upping the ante.

11. Telethon VIPs: MCS. From the abbreviation MC, which stands for master of ceremonies. Emcee is a less formal way of saying master of ceremonies. Both terms are used in the context of events like weddings, banquets, and awards ceremonies, but, of the two, emcee is more commonly used in less formal situations.

12. Blight-stricken tree: ELM. The disease is still a threat, but fortunately, several resistant American elm and hybrid elm selections are available or being developed. Two insect vectors are responsible for transmitting DED: the native elm bark beetle (Hylurgopinus rufipes) and the European elm bark beetle (Scolytus multistriatus).

13. __ Moines: DES.

18. Grapefruit kin: POMELO. How to Eat a Pomelo: 5 Ways to Use This Giant Citrus Fruit.

21. Succeed: ENSUE.

24. "You can come out now": IT'S SAFE.

25. Rights advocacy gp.: ACLU. American Civil Liberties Union.

26. __ Tomé and Príncipe: SÃO.  Uninhabited until being discovered by the Portuguese in the late 15th century, São Tomé and Príncipe is a tiny archipelago situated in the Gulf of Guinea. It became a outpost of the slave trade under Portuguese rule, with sugar cane, cocoa and coffee all prominent exports. 


 
27. Recede: EBB.

29. Hourglass stuff: SAND.

33. Draw for some pictures: STAR POWER. Ah. Pictures as in films.

35. Contact lens holders: EYES. Haha.

37. Uttered: SAID.

38. Hr. for an after-lunch nap, maybe: ONE PM. Tricky when it's spelled out like that.

39. Interval of eight notes: OCTAVE.

40. Cry noisily: SOB.

41. Soup with rice noodles: PHO. Vietnamese soup dish consisting of broth, rice noodles, herbs, and meat.

45. Anne of Green Gables, for one: ORPHAN. Children’s Movies Have Too Many Orphans.

48. "Riverdale" actress Huffman: ALAINA. Canadian film and television actress.

49. "Caught red-handed!": GOTCHA.

50. Braces (oneself): STEELS.

52. Nobel-winning chemist Joliot-Curie: IRENE.  Irène Joliot-Curie was a battlefield radiologist, activist, politician, and daughter of two of the most famous scientists in the world: Marie and Pierre Curie. Very interesting from nobelprize.org: Women Who Changed Science.

53. Process that may involve PT or OT: REHAB. Physical or Occupational Therapy.

54. Roofing option: SLATE.

58. Of all time: EVER.

59. Subway unit: CAR.

60. "What __ those?": ARE.


61. Bio or chem: SCI. Sciences.

62. Moo __ pork: SHU. More Asian food! Apparently Moo Shu Pork is a very common home-cooked dish in China and the authentic Chinese moo shu pork recipe does not include any moo shu pancakes.



44 comments:

Subgenius said...

This puzzle seemed to me to be about the usual amount of difficulty I would expect from a Wednesday puzzle. Getting the theme (eventually) helped me complete the puzzle, especially “bod(ice) rippers.” FIR, so I’m happy.

Anonymous said...

Never heard of BODICE RIPPERS and WHOA, wasn't expecting that. SHAVE ICE was a bit perplexing as I've only ever seen SHAVED ICE, but that's what the Hawaiian treat is actually called. (Even though it's the exact same thing as SHAVED ice, apparently.)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Didn't catch the theme until the reveal. Who would've guessed? Anon@5:24, I guess that means ICE TEA could be the same as ICED TEA. This one came together quickly -- a nice mid-week diversion. Thanx, Enrique and Melissa Bee.

USS Coral Sea: I'm pretty sure it would've been CV-43. I served aboard CVA-31 (which began life as CV-31).

ELM: The small town of my ute had many elm-lined streets. Then Dutch Elm Disease struck. We lost four in our yard.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I didn’t catch the team until the reveal and I agree that the missing D seems odd, but apparently this spelling is correct in Hawaii. Having never heard of either of the infomercial products, Bod Rippers was slow filling in. Am not familiar with Eater, as clued, nor Irene, although I knew the Curie’s had a scientist daughter, but Alaina was a complete unknown. Wasn’t keen on Mo=Sec and the three letter word count was noticeably high. No w/os, though, so I guess that’s a plus.

Thanks, Enrique, and thanks, Melissa, for the informative expo and commentary. Sweet picture of Jaelyn and Harper.

My friend, Carole, is coming for lunch, so I’ll be whipping up some Bloody Marys! 🍹As Hahtoolah would say, Yummers!

BTW, YooperPhil, did you have any luck with the SB pool? I certainly didn’t. 😂 My niece had one square left, so one of the kids entered her dog’s name, Teddy, and, sure enough, Teddy was one of the winners! 😂

Have a great day.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased oyphan for ORPHAN. (Prefilled BODy _____ before looking at the downs.) Wouldn't have gotten PR INCREASE without the reveal.

Maybe -T will ask his scions about MO. I'm not yet a believer.

There are a lot more ORPHANs in old literature because there were a lot more ORPHANs in those days. Childbirth was much more dangerous than it is now, and breadwinning was much more dangerous in those days. And where I grew up, just being named Tolliver or a Martin was life-threatening back in their feuding days.

I remembered SHAVE ICE from my few trips to HI, and noted the "suspect" spelling.

Thanks to Enrique for the fun Wednesday exercise, and to melissa b for the interesting tour.

Anonymous said...

Took 6:35 today, and despite not seeing the theme until being nearly done, I persevered with no coward(ice).

I concur with the previous posters, especially Ms. Irish Miss. Bodice rippers, Alaina, and Dana were unknown to me. Tso & shu in the same puzzle seemed a bit too much Chinese food for my liking. I liked the clue for "stags".

Wilbur Charles said...

Yes, it couldn't be Mo(nth) because it had to be SEC because of hard perps(oCtave)

Upping the ANTE can also refer to literally raising the initial ante along with bet limits(amount committed to at start of the session)
At the Colonel's hooch we traded IOUs for chips and that was our "Limit". If we "busted" we could repeat(raise the amte)*

I believe it was IRENE not Marie who developed cancer from exposure to radium

FIW (easier than Monday )

** I won big that night.

KS said...

FIR. Failed to get the theme and yet filled the four answers correctly anyway. All four made very little sense to me. In my defense, the unifier would have made more sense had it been along the lines of de-ice.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-I have surgery at 11:30 this morning and it might require a one-night stay. I am STEELING myself.
-A fun theme where I learned that a BODICE RIPPER is not something a seamstress uses
-REF – It’s getting harder and harder to find them
-Jim Gaffigan does a bit where he says Netflix has made us really annoyed when we now watch shows with commercials
-One of the characters in the modern Hawaii Five-O sells this treat on the beach
-Off to Omaha. Let the laparoscopy begin!

Subgenius said...

To those not familiar with the term “bodice ripper” it refers to a romance novel, particularly one where the prose is of “purple “ passion. FYI.

Irish Miss said...

HG @ 8:09

Best of luck. 👍

Lucina said...

Hola!

Thank you, Enrique and Melissa Bee! This puzzle filled quickly with only one write-over, TOPSCORES/TOPSCORER. MO meant nothing to me so SEC looked right. Okay, REC. I also got the theme for once.

On my first visit to Hawaii, I was introduced to SHAVE ICE. It still makes me shudder and I have to STEEL myself.

One of my nieces loved going to the SPA and we haven't been there since she died. R.I.P. Christina.

CSO to my niece IRENE.

I am always the TOPSCORER in Scrabble.

SAO is saint in Portuguese, San or santo in Spanish.

Have a lovely day, everyone!

Big Easy said...

I found this puzzle difficult for a Wed due to unfamiliar terms, mainly SHAVE ICE. The rest of the US has snow cones but in the NOLA area it's a very competitive SNO-BALL business that custom makes each one by size and over 50 flavors at each sno-ball stand.

BODICE RIPPERS- Shake Weight and Flex Belt- all unknown
DANA, EATER, SEC, ALAINA, IRENE- all unknowns
CASHEW's Vegan cheese- only if you like Vegamite would you eat it.

ENSUE for 'Succeed' was a great clue.
SEC for 'Mo' was idiotic. Never heard or seen 'wait a mo' until melissa bee wrote it.

Did I notice the missing ICE. Nope.
Pickleball LOB- I'm very good at it. Just need to make sure you get it deep or your opponents will crush it right at you.

Gotta go. Where else? To play in a Mardi Gras PICKLEBALL tournament/perty that starts a 9:30.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Bob Lee said...

I had to do a lot of guessing, but filled in everything successfully.

The only Mo I've ever heard/used is short for Maureen.

I never did figure out the theme even after finishing. LOL on BOD[ICE] RIPPERS

Thanks for the link on General Tso's chicken - very interesting!

TTP said...


Thank you, Enrique and thank you, Ms Melissa

Clever little crossword that reminds me of the Evan Birnholz from a couple of Sunday's ago. Yes, some unknowns today, but the perped in easily enough. Learned that Anne was an ORPHAN.

Me too, Melissa. It took a little pondering to figure out why SEC worked with "Mo". Not familiar with Mo in that context, but hey, I'm sure there were terms we used that our parents didn't understand. That little area had to be worked out because I threw in case for "Lens holders" without checking perps.

59A CASHEW. "Can anyone recommend?" Yes. I get the Planter's 18 pack of 1.5 oz single serve cashews from Amazon. They are sealed in airtight bags so they stay fresh a long time. About $13, or $.50 an ounce. You can also get them in the 2 oz bags, but those are about $30 for 15 bags, so that's about $1 per ounce. What was the question again ? :-)

ASAP Rocky and Rhianna are expecting their second child as was revealed during her Super Bowl halftime performance.

My neighbor has borne some pretty significant costs having to have one towering dead Ash taken down. Then again a few years later, she had to have the crews come back with their 60' boom truck to significantly prune the ELMs and towering sugar maples. This was only after one huge branch fell across her roof, and another across the road.

Best wishes, HG.

YooperPhil said...

My take on this puzzle can pretty much be summed up by reading Irish Miss’ first paragraph, Mo = SEC? BODRIPPERS? ALAINA who? But I did manage a FIR in 14:39 thanks to generous perps, and I did get the theme after PR INCREASE when I looked back at OFF PARTY. Lots of Asian food today with SHU, TSO, and PHO. A nice Wednesday quality CW, thank you Enrique.

Melissa ~ thank you for today’s write up! I was unfamiliar with Sao Tome And Principe, so after reading your blurb I googled it and now know all about it, interesting history.

Irish Miss ☘️ ~ Alas, I was shut out on the SB pools also, but my winnings during the season probably has me about even on the year.

Wilbur Charles said...

FIR

YooperPhil said...

Pickleball is something I never heard of till a couple years ago, now I read it’s like the fastest growing game/sport in the country, played by a lot of seniors. Seems tame enough but I know someone who severed their Achilles’ tendon, another who broke their wrist, and another who suffered a back injury while playing. Be careful Big Easy! I think I’ll stick with golf and corn hole. 😂

ATLGranny said...

FIW today because I believed "mo" referred to month so put in dEC for December. I wondered about the perp but left it. Very tricky clue, methinks. Thanks, Enrique, for a Wednesday puzzler.

I felt good about the rest of the puzzle and suspected the theme early with OFF PARTY and BOD RIPPERS. (I'm familiar with that category of fiction but am not a reader of bodice rippers. Honest!)

Proper names and ARCANE terms were well perped today. Thanks, Melissa B for clearing up any remaining questions about the puzzle in your review. Are those your granddaughters in the sweet picture, as IM said?

Anon with no coward(ice)@7:42 AM
At least today's Chinese food terms appear frequently in puzzles. I am inspired to fix an Asian lunch today. Hope everyone has a good day! And good luck, Husker Gary.

waseeley said...

SG @8:12 The one who "Rips the bodice" is the male of the species. The novels were the precursors to Erica Jong's Fear of Flying.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

FIR but will have to see about the theme. (Nope never woulda figured it out and the full theme answers are kynda clunky)

Inkovers: San/SAO

The is the second recent puzzle where emcee has changes to MC. Because they aren't sweet and chocolatey enough, why not bake OREOs into a "pie". POMELO came outta nowhere which means it was stored in my special CW cerebral lobe for old puzzle answers. Almost filled Amanda but wouldn't perpwork and ALAINA is my oldest nieces name.

ELEVATE, RAISES, TOP(SCORE), (PR)INCREASE. kyna related?

Green Gables girl : "Big ORPHAN Annie?"...Not familiar with EATER.

Oliver's funny buddy ____.. STANLee
What's said just before the zombies attack: "You can come out now" _____ ITSSAFE
Cry over an extinct Swedish car..SOB
(And once again): At the Chinese theater Ed Sullivan put on a really good ___ ....SHU.

Valentine mystery. So when I got home last night DW informed me that the ❤ box of chocolates she bought me a few days earlier and had hidden so well so I wouldn't find it, open it and start foraging ahead of time was no where to be found...She couldn't remember where she hid it. 🥺

Lee said...

Lucina, your first answer was correct. The clue is plural so the last letter is S. See Melissa bees explaination in her writeup.

Yellowrocks said...

This was a typical Wed. level for me. The theme helped and there were good perps. I know bodice rippers and avoid them like the plague.
MO came easily. It is an idiom. "Please wait a mo. ("Mo" is short for "moment.") Hang on a mo while I get Katie for you."
I readily accepted shave ice. I believe it is not that arcane. Many know it, some do not. The things I have not heard of are not necessarily arcane.
We always say ice tea and ice cream.
"Shave ice is a frozen treat made by shaving a block of ice. The shaved ice is light and fluffy like snow and can be formed like a snow ball. It is then topped with sweet, colorful, flavorful snow cone syrups." It is a real "thing."
I love cashews and I love cheese. Cashew cheese? Not for me.
I frequently order General Tso's. chicken. Another favorite is moo shu "anything" with yummy hoisin sauce.
HG, I hope your surgery goes well.

RosE said...

Good Morning! Slow going today, but thought it was fair for a Wednesday. Thanks Enrique! NE was the last to fill. I, too, thought Mo would be DEC, but saw no period, so probably not an abbreviation. Felt 8D probably ended in S, so I waited and finally got to SEC.
DNK DANA, ALAINA or EATER.
Went back and saw the theme when I filled 62A, but it took me a while to see the ICE was attached to the second word, not the 1st.
Had to chuckle about the BODICE RIPPERS as unknown. It's a gazillion dollar business I guess aimed at a segment of readers, mainly women. So, gentlemen are excused for being unfamiliar. I may have read one or two in my younger days, but they do follow a pretty set format, so become rote very quickly.
Melissa, thanks for your very informative recap. I love grapefruit, but never had a POMELO. After reading your link, I must try them! I see a wide variety of unknown/untried foods in the produce section of the grocery, but I'm not that adventurous in trying new things. Andrew Zimmern horrifies me at some of the stuff he puts in his mouth!! But now I have learned I might like POMELO. Nice!

Lee said...

FIW. Got turned around with EATEa. Thought the first word was PAIN with CREASE. Knew Felicity but not Alania but perps were kind. No idea with Shake weight and Flex belt but they seemed to indicate something with "body" so tried a "y" but oRphan changed that. Bit of challenge today.
Yanks to Melissa for her fine writeup.

Lee said...

Urp, Thanks, not yanks.

Monkey said...

HG@8:09. Good luck on your surgery.

Unlike others here, this puzzle felt like a Mondayish one. Maybe because I figured the theme very early. My only head scratcher was Mo, but TOP SCORES helped. I knew it wasn’t abbreviation for month since there was no period after it.

I visited Anne of the Green Gables farmhouse on Prince Edward Island a few years ago. Charming little tourist locale.

All in all fun puzzle and informative review.

RosE said...

To clarify, I meant that ICE was attached to the 2nd word for NICE as opposed to the 1st word in the other themers.

CrossEyedDave said...

Finally, a puzzle Tinbeni might like...

However, YMMV

However,
one word of caution...

inanehiker said...

Very creative theme - definitely needed the reveal answer to get the theme - but so fun!
Wondering how long it took the constructor to come up with the theme answers - especially
SON(ice) TO SEE YOU

Slight slow down as I put in deemed before TERMED for 8A, otherwhise it was a steady solve.

Thanks Melissa and Enrique!
HG - surgery in T-33 minutes - hope they are on time- will be praying for you- laparascopic surgery always has a quicker recovery time!

Acesaroundagain said...

I had NO clue on Mo. I'm glad someone knew.

unclefred said...

I’m gonna give myself a mulligan and claim a FIR although I have one wrong letter. “Mo” was a real head-scratcher, and when I entered TOPSCORER and got REC for “Mo” it looked as good as anything else. And every other cell was correct, so…. A tough Wednesday CW. Any other comments I can think of have already been made , so tha-tha-that, tha-tha-that, that’s all, folks! Thanx for the mental workout, EHA. And thanx too for the terrific (as always) write-up, MB.

waseeley said...

Thank you Enrique for a N Wednesdayish puzzle ... and on Wednesday of all days!
Thank you Melissa for a most informative review and for explaining some of the more ARCANE fill.

A few favs:

4A ASEA. I guess things lying at the bottom of the SEA could be described as being ASEAABED.

16A ORACLE. Also the name of a DBMS company owned by Larry Ellison, who also owns one of the Hawaiian Islands.

21A ESOS. Adorable pic.

43A SEC. Only the guy who does Enrique's PERMS would know for sure if this was the intended fill, but it seemed to be the consensus of the team.

51A BOD[ICE] RIPPERS. Favorite fill (or at least what's in them 🧡).

59A CASHEW. I love CASHEWS, but they are pretty caloric. Here's a 4 star recipe I just scraped off the Internet.

12D ELM. When our neighborhood was created 100+ years ago, the developers lined the streets with ASH trees. About 10 years ago Emerald Ash Borers began infecting them one by one. It cost us $5K to have ours taken down.

26D SAO. Learning moment. Somehow I thought it was in the Caribbean.

41D PHO. My sister, who is married to a Vietnamese doctor, gave me this recipe which is still out on C.C.'s Ginger Roots blog.

52D IRENE. I'd not heard of her, but suspected she would be related to her more famous parents. Neils Bohr son Aage, also won a Nobel.

Cheers,
Bill

Ol' Man Keith said...

Turned out to be tougher than expected.

But P+P paid off in the end--except for 51A, which I filled with BOD Z IPPERS, because who ever watched these infomercials? And why wouldn't there be zippers for a Bod(ice)?
As for the perp, it just didn't occur to me that Anne is an ORPHAN. (I mean, why wouldn't she be an OZ PHAN...?)
~ OMK
___________
DR:
One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (11 of 15) sums up what is meant by "Lousy screw!" and "Dumb fish!"
These are...

"PRISON SLURS"!

Misty said...

Fun Wednesday puzzle, many thanks, Enrique. And your commentary was great too, Melissa, also thanks for that.

Well, glad that that PRICE INCREASE didn't create any problems for holding that OFFICE PARTY. And lets hope the kids can all still attend that PROM in their UBER or maybe in a subway CAR, after the girls got a PERM and after the boys got a SHAVE (though with no ICE whatsoever). The important thing is to make them all a happy EATER, by serving them an OREO PIE along with some WAFERS, and a CASHEW, and a POMELO (whatever that is). And afterwards they can all hang out at the SPA.

Let's have a good Wednesday, everybody.

melissa bee said...

luck to HG, hope it's all over by now. re: commercials, remember when video-tapes first appeared on the market? don't have the time right now to go down this rabbit hole but i vaguely remember one of the first movies released on video tape, and the fact that it included a commercial reduced the price significantly.

that pic is not of my grandloves, but adorable nonetheless.

irish miss, always a good day for a bloody mary :).

anon@7:42, there were actually three entries re: asian food: moo shu pork, general tso, and pho. love them all.

ks, i agree - a 'de-ice' reveal clue would have been great.

bigeasy, have only heard revolting things about vegemite and have never been tempted to try a cheese substitute .... but cashews are so yummy.

thx for that recipe, waseely, it looks easy enough. worth a try.

yellowrocks, re MO, perhaps a regional thing? i've lived in ca, az, tx, ok, or, and canada, and never heard it as short for moment. or maybe i just haven't been listening.

i've heard 'bodice rippers' my whole life, and always find it amusing. i started reading harlequin romances from my grandmother's and her sisters' bookshelves as a pre-teen and they (the books) were already old then. in that way they're sort of like the white zin of books. don't read or drink either now, but both served a purpose.

lee, yanks - lol. i like that better.

Yellowrocks said...

mb, The idiom hang on a mo is not used in my age group or social set. Different age groups and social sets have their own slang. I pick up much slang from novels, and lately,have seen many Britishisms.

Yellowrocks said...

PS, I am not implying MO is British.

Jayce said...

I enjoyed reasoning out the answers to this puzzle, smiling at the clever clues, reading melissa's informative write-up, and reading all your comments. Hand up for not knowing what "Mo" meant until after filling SEC from perps. LENSES had to be changed to PRISMS. Only later did I notice "lens" in the EYES clue. ALAINA took all 6 perps.

waseeley said...

YR @4:30 PM My chief source these day is crosswords, which of course has a lot of Britishisms.

Irish Miss said...

Ray O @ 9:40 ~ Has the missing box of chocolates turned up yet?

melissa bee @ 3:31 ~ Sorry for my erroneous assumption. Seeing those two sweet little girls just automatically brought Jaelyn and Harper to mind. (The Bloody Marys hit the spot today, as usual!)

Lucina said...

OMKeith
Little ORPHAN ANNIE immediately came to my mind.

R.I.P. Raquel Welch. She was one of my idols along with Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Fisher. I have always admired strong, beautiful women. Sharon Stone, too.

Tomorrow I'm heading for your neck of the woods but farther north. I see that the weather is cold and rainy.

KSM said...


"It is actually called Shave Ice. "To cool off, Japanese immigrants in Hawaii used their tools to shave flakes off large blocks of ice, and then coated it with sugar or fruit juice. In Pidgin vernacular, the refreshing treat became known as shave ice—not shaved ice. (On Hawaii Island, it's also called ice shave.)"

Husker Gary said...

Personal
-I’m home now after yesterday’s successful surgery at Omaha Methodist Hospital
-The surgery was performed by a former student who was recommended by my GP doctor who is also a former student
-The pre-op nurse told me was in my school where I taught, married a former student and graduated in my daughter’s class
-The anesthetist came in and when told I was Fremont named all sorts of people there he used to hang out with
-A surgical nurse was walking by my room and came in and said, “I’d know that voice anywhere!” She was a former student and married a former student who was the son of a colleague and had to give me a big hug.
-Then LPN came in to shave my stomach and she said she recognized me as a substitute teacher she had at Arlington High.
-All of a sudden, that huge hospital felt very comfortable.
-The best help I had was from my lovely wife who was such a great comfort and got me back on track when we got home.