google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday March 20, 2023 Jon Pennington

Advertisements

Mar 20, 2023

Monday March 20, 2023 Jon Pennington

 


Hello Cornerites!

sumdaze here. I am calling today's puzzle Double Play because all of the themers give us two 'plays' on the word GAME. More on that later. First let's warm-up with some uber-athletic baseball double plays:
A well-executed double play is my favorite thing about baseball.
Here are 10 super smooth ones. (2:17 min.)

Here are our three themers:

20 Across. First songs of musicals: OPENING NUMBERS.

26 Across. Collectible once sold with bubble gum: BASEBALL CARD.

44 Across. Ideal partner: PERFECT MATCH.

Then the reveal:

52 Across. In an advantageous position, or where both halves of the answers to 20-, 26-, and 44-Across can be placed?: AHEAD OF THE GAME.

All 6 words in the themers can be placed in front of, i.e., AHEAD OF the word "GAME" to create in-the-language phrases.
  • OPENING GAME:  generally refers to the first game of a series, tournament, or season.
  • NUMBERS GAME:  the use or manipulation of statistics or figures, especially in support of an argument.
  • BASEBALL GAME:  America's national pastime.
  • CARD GAME: Euchre, for example.
  • PERFECT GAME:  (baseball) basically, when a pitcher gets every opposing player out in all 9 innings without one batter reaching base for any reason.
  • MATCH GAME:  a TV game show that premiered in 1962. Contestants tried to MATCH  answers with celebrity panelists. The topics abounded with opportunities for double entendre.
Congratulations to constructor Jon Pennington on his L.A. Times debut! You certainly brought your A-GAME today! We look forward to solving more of your puzzles!

Now it is time to roll the dice and get this GAME started!

Across:
1. "Get outta here!": SCRAM.
6. Enthralled: RAPT.  

10. Tinted: HUED.

14. Port-au-Prince's country: HAITI.  I recommend the book 
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. It is about Dr. Paul Farmer and his work in HAITI as well as other locations.
Port au Prince slum Jalousie
15. Happily __ after: EVER.  Awww....

16. Norway's capital: OSLO.  The 1952 Winter Olympic Games were held there.

17. Director Welles: ORSON.  his top 8 movies

18. Quayle follower: GORE.  Dan Quayle was the 44th Vice President (George Bush). Albert "Al" GORE was the 45th Vice President (Bill Clinton).

19. Viral social media post: MEME.  This one was circulating in California last week during the atmospheric river events:

23. Countdown start: TEN.  I give this clue a 10.0!

24. Actress Arthur: BEA.  
Did you know that BEA served as a U.S. Marine?

25. "Très __!": BIEN.  What a marvelous fill!

31. Bowls over: FLOORS.  

34. Long journey: TREK.  It took Perseverance about 7 months to travel the 292,526,838 miles (470,776,457 km.) between Earth and Mars. NASA site

35. Fannie __: federal mortgage agency: MAE.  One big difference between Fannie MAE and Freddie Mac is where they source their mortgages. Fannie MAE buys mortgages from larger, commercial banks, while Freddie Mac buys  them from much smaller banks. more info

36. Igneous rock, before cooling: LAVA.  

37. Pt. of a minute: SEC.  "Part" is abbreviated, so is SECond.

38. Brand of spongy toys: NERF.  
You can use NERF balls to make clown noses.
39. Single: ONE.  
Single Scoop of Ice Cream

40. Italian tower city: PISA.  
Fun pic!

42. Worries no end: EATS AT.  
A person who EATS AT this restaurant should be worried.

47. Sanitizing cloth: WIPE.  

48. "Fortunate Son" band, for short: CCR.  Creedence Clearwater Revival
Coincidentally, I have recently been binging The Finder.  John Fogerty guest stars in Ep. 1 and sings this song.
Written by John Fogerty. Released on the Willie and the Poor Boys album in Nov. 1969

49. Kim Kardashian, to North West: MOM.  I'll save you the details. You are better off not assigning any brain cell real estate to this one.

56. Top poker cards: ACES.

57. Like so: THUS.  It modifies a verb, THUS it is an adverb.

58. Book of maps: ATLAS.  
Hey, wait a minute...

59. NBA Hall of Famer Frazier: WALTHoF website

60. Watson of "Little Women": EMMA.  She is sometimes clued as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter movies.

61. Invaders of ancient Rome: GOTHS.
The VisiGOTHS sacked Rome in the 5th century.
Today's teenage GOTHS shop at Saks 5th Ave basement.

62. 8-Down capital: LIMA. and 8. South American country whose capital is 62-Across: PERU.  

63. Yes votes: AYES.

64. Writing contest entry: ESSAY.

Down:
1. "Dagnabbit!": SHOOT.
Extra points because it says DAGNABBIT and he's SHOOTing!

2. __ diem: seize the day: CARPE.  

3. Like a soufflé, if everything goes well: RISEN.  
This one is for Doctor Who fans. (1:09 min.)
Clara Oswald, aka The Impossible Girl, (played by Jenna Colman) is the Soufflé Girl.

4. Lots and lots: A TON.  "Neighborhood" did not fit.

5. Hotel room fridge stocked with drinks: MINIBAR.

6. Peter Tosh's music genre: REGGAE.

7. Skinvincible cosmetics brand: AVON.  
9. Shake with fear: TREMBLE.  

10. Skills class rebranded as "family and consumer sciences," familiarly: HOME EC.
If you are curious, this is a link to a Pennsylvania school district's Family & Consumer Sciences curriculum.

11. IDs entered before passwords: USER NAMES.

12. Tall shade trees: ELMS.  In Greek mythology, the hero Orpheus rescued his DW Eurydice from the Underworld by enchanting everyone there with his harp music.  He then paused to play her a love song, at which spot the first ELM grove was said to have sprung up.

13. Mama deer: DOE.  A female goat can also be called a DOE but a female elk is a cow.

21. Loch __ monster: NESS.

22. Hornswoggle: BILK.  Dagnabbit! It's another old-timey word!

26. Feathery scarf: BOA.  
A "feather BOA constrictor" is when you wear a snake (real or fake)
as though it is a fashion accessory.

27. Second-stringers: B-TEAM.  When I lived in Hawaii, I paddled outrigger  canoes. In our club, your first year (for adults) is on the Novice B TEAM. Then you do two years on the Novice A Team before moving on to age groups. I am in the 2nd seat, calling out the Hut Hut Hoe so we all switch sides at the exact same time. We were doing our biggest race -- from the island of  Moloka'i to Waikiki Beach on Oahu. You can see our support boat in the background.

me with my Novice B TEAMmates

28. Circle segment: ARC.  I do appreciate an alliterative clue but this one gets an "Umm, actually...."
An example of a circle segment is all the colored area.
An example of an ARC is the 
red curve.

29. Hard to find, in Latin: RARA.  Meaning "rare", RARA is sometimes used as the second part in a plant's or an animal's scientific name. Example: a fungi called Keissleriella rara sp. nov.
While going from "hard to find" to "rare" to "RARA" is not too much to ask, I still find this one deserving of the Giant Leap Award.

30. Highly skilled: DEFT.

31. Graceless dive: FLOP.  

32. Rural road: LANE.

33. Inundate: OVERWHELM.  This can be good or bad.

37. Retired fast jet, briefly: SST.  what happened to the American SST

38. To the __ degree: NTH.  an English idiom meaning "extremely" or "as much as possible"

40. "A Salt With a Deadly __": 1988 hip-hop album: PEPA.  I was not familiar with this music but the word play was fun!

41. Pure Leaf beverage: ICED TEA.  I was not familiar with this beverage but "leaf" and "beverage" got me there.
42. Carve in stone: ETCH.

43. Land measure: ACREAGE.  an area of (typically agricultural) land but not necessarily measured in acres

45. Small Ford model: FIESTA.  (1976 - 2019)
BTW, it looks like he is driving on the shoulder of the road. Why???

46. Plays the role of: ACTS AS.

49. Ice cream drinks: MALTS.  Chocolate MALT recipe

50. Nebraska city: OMAHA.  CSO to Husker Gary!

51. In need of tidying: MESSY.  

52. Superfood berry: ACAI.

53. "Heavens!": OH MY.  

54. Seethe: FUME.  feel, show, or express great anger

55. Vintage Pontiac muscle cars: GTOS.  Definitely not a 45D FIESTA!

56. Hole-making tool: AWL.  
Time out for the grid:

Thanks for playing today!

54 comments:

Subgenius said...

Thanks, Sumdaze. Originally, I had only noticed that the first word in the themed answers pertained to “game,” but you showed me both parts did. So my respect for the constructor’s “smarts” increased quite a bit when I realized that. Otherwise, it was a lot like a standard Monday puzzle, a “walk in the park.” FIR, so I’m happy.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Easy breezy early-week difficulty, just like the olden days. Zip, zip, done -- no Wite-Out required. It was still called HOME EC back in my day, and the maintenance guys at school weren't called sanitary engineers. AWL is a major economic driver in these here parts. Thanx for the exercise, Jon (enjoyed your debut), and for the fun review, Sumdaze. (So were you an outrigger paddler before or after your stint teaching rodeo skills in Scandinavia?)

desper-otto said...

I wrote my comments before attempting today's Jumble. Honest.

Anonymous said...

A quick Monday, as it should be. OVERWHELM and MINIBAR were two pretty neat bits of fill. Out of the ____ GAME phrases, I especially liked NUMBERS GAME and MATCH GAME.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased tons, then a lot for A TON. I had trouble with the Canadian border on the first pass, but the downs made it easy. This one was old fart friendly, with CCR, HOME EC and WALT Frazier. Our Saturday sherpa got a cso @ OMAHA.

Thanks for the chuckles, Sumdaze. I've seen a bumper sticker "CARPE CARP (seize the fish)". And I loved, loved the Yosemite Sam visual. The funniest thing I've ever seen on TV was a prime time special featuring him and his pals. It was probably 50 years ago, but I still remember when he was trying to rein in the dragon he was riding: "Whoa, ya far-breathin' lizard." (Guess you had to be there.) Also, if I had to rescue people from hell I would blast It's a Small World After All repeatedly until they surrendered.

FLN: Bill, thanks for the gridlock grid. It printed fine.
-T I've read a book on the skunk works and Kelly Johnson, but it was before the days of the F117. I'll look for newer ones in the used bookstores I frequent.

KS said...

FIR. No problems at all, typical Monday. One tiny nit-pick: hued clued with tinted, seems a stretch for me.
Very clever theme.

TonyExpress said...

49 down, Malts. Alas, does any business have malts on their menu anymore? DQ and Sonic quit serving them here. And the manufacturers of malt powder say there's a huge decline in sales. Maybe it's because their biggest users discontinued offering them on the menu. So sad.

Token Creek said...

Charlie Echo: "The lake it is said never gives up her dead when the skies of November turn gloomy" Gorden Lightfoot. "The Wreck of the ......".

Anonymous said...

Took 4:47 for me to find my A-game today.

Clever word play, which I didn't notice until sumdaze enlightened me.

In a rare turn of events, I got today's actress (Emma).

Seemed like a good Monday puzzle, on an actual Monday.

unclefred said...

Wow, a truly enjoyable CW with few proper names and a very clever theme! What’s not to like? Thanx JP for this very fun CW. FIR in very reasonable time. No W/Os. I so enjoyed this CW! Thanx too to Sumdaze for the outstanding write-up.

ATLGranny said...

Well said, D-Otto, zip, zip, done today. A Monday puzzle that I FIR with no WOs! Thanks, Jon, for your debut puzzle, well crafted for a Monday.

The theme worked well, and though I was unfamiliar with Match Game, it seemed likely. Thanks, sumdaze for a review packed with humor and information including your latest teaser: a canoe race?!

Hand up for liking MALTS more than shakes. Stopping while I am AHEAD OF THE GAME, I wish you all a good start to Spring this afternoon!

unclefred said...

D-O, just did the Jumble, and now see why you posted your comment!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This is a fine example of everything a Monday puzzle should have: Clever/cute theme, readily understandable; Fun but easy cluing; A clean grid sans junk; A satisfying solving experience. An added plus is the timeliness and appeal of the theme, as Opening Day of the Baseball Season is right around the corner. Big CSO to HG at Omaha. No w/os, no unknowns, and no hits, runs, or errors, so no fouls!

Thanks, Jon, for a fun and smooth solve and congrats on your delightful debut and thank, sumdaze, for another well-balanced review. Your knack for highlighting the interesting factoids is impressive, as are the teasing tidbits of your past adventures!

Have a great day.

Husker Gary said...

Musin¬¬gs
-Middle men on double plays used to get away with not touching the bag but now they have to and runners cannot come in and take them out
-I heard ORSON say in an interview, that once he was seated next to Hitler at a 1930’s dinner and found him to be nondescript
-Take the $5 Snickers out of the MINIBAR and get a cheap one at the 7/11 to replace it the next day
-FLOPS are now found in NBA games
-Nice picture and write-up, Sumdaze!

Monkey said...

Lovely walk in the park this morning. It must be Monday.

Cute little cartoons sumdaze, weird map of US. I tried to figure it out, but couldn’t come up with a rationale.

SPRING is here. And sure enough our temps are rising like a successful soufflé.

TTP said...


Thank you, Jon Pennington thank you Sumdaze. Fun puzzle and review.

No sweat solving this puzzle or finding the games. Actually playing some of them might have created some sweat.

Spring has almost sprung. 4:24 CDT today. I'm AHEAD OF THE GAME in prepping the gardens.

Irish Miss, yes. MLB's 2023 season OPENING GAME is March 30th. The Orioles will be leading off against the Red Sox in the first game of the day. This will be the first time since 1968 that all 30 MLB teams will be playing on opening day.

Anonymous said...

The flop posted above was from a NCAA game.
The NBA has instituted fines for flopping.

Yellowrocks said...

Fun, easy Monday. With the reveal I quickly found both games in each theme answers.
In the USA we solvers raised in the "sticks," recognize that solid white line in the road. It does not indicate the shoulder. On a two lane road the solid white line to the driver's left indicates no passing.
My only goof was writing two answers in the wrong cells. Perps to the rescue.
HUE - "having a small amount of a specified colour added"
TINT - "having a color or colors of the specified type."
A gimme. In crosswords near synonyms are Kosher.
Yes, it seems to me a malted milkshakes is a rara avis these days. Has anyone had one lately? I liked them in the 50's.
It used to be you could take something from a minibar on a whim and buy the same thing at lower cost elsewhere to replace it before check out. Now the minibar is monitored electronically. Even if you just take something out of the mini bar to look at and put it right back you are charged.
We elementary and math teachers knew ARC right away.

TTP said...

Wow. Three comments simultaneously at 9:38.

Tante Nique, we almost had a "Jinx, you owe me a coke" situation with our Spring comments.

Yellowrocks said...

Proof reading failure
First line should be: in each theme answer, not answers, no S.
and
a malted milkshake, not milkshakes, no S

RosE said...

Good Morning! What a nice puzzle to start the week! Thanks, Jon. With careful review of the perps, I FIR without any WOs! Yea!
Filled CCR from the perps, who??, but recognized the band from the recap.
Thanks, sumdaze, for your fun recap. You've had some amazing adventures! Thanks for sharing. Crazy map of the US - who thinks those things up??? 😊
Interesting link to the Home Ec curriculum. I think, looking back, it should be mandatory, but in my school, it was only a second-class option for those not planning to further their education…. Wrong!!
Loved the Carpe Diem! Toon. Makes sense to me!! LOL!!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

To start out with, that frequent first clue has me always perpwaiting between scoot and SCRAM. The second, a wait between awed and RAPT. With the the third I almost skipped the perps and put dyed....but HUED? Took me a couple heartbeats (and I'm on a beta blocker so that can be a long time) to parse the theme.

Only "Tosh" I know is Daniel the crazy comedian. Miss his weekly show....so now it's ICEDTEA. 🥃. First thought was soul mate for PERFECTMATCH. Another first thought with a perped MA was MAgma a letter too short for MANTLE
Can one be whelmed or even underwhelmed 🤔?...PEPA?, believe there's an English pig by that name

Italian leaning tower city
I may have posted these pictures before. The taller leaning tower is almost twice the height of Pisa's bell tower. I climbed the taller tower a few times while at university. it was considered good luck before an exam.

Farmers' ire over land....ACREAGE
Earth spins on its....ACTSAS
Native Americans used every part of the Buffalo, even ______ ...AHEADOFTHEGAME
" ____ cry too if it happened to you".....HUED ..("It's My Party")

Jon Pennington welcome as a new cornerite victim ... er.. sorry I meant constructor 😀

Sundaze, an outrigger canoe competitor, impressive!!👍😃.

waseeley said...

To lift a few lines from the PSALMS ... Patti "has heard the cries of the poor" solvers and "there are shouts of victory in the tents of the just".

Thanks for that Joe and thank you sumdaze for an absolutely superlative review.

Some favs:

11A HAITI. Apropos of nothing, your mention of Tracy Kidder reached down into my memory and out popped a fascinating book by Kidder called The Soul of a New Machine. It's probably before -T's time, but Jinx may remember it.

20A OPENING NUMBERS. An alternate definition of NUMBERS GAMES, would be the illegal lotteries run by local mafiosi. They're still around, but have been supplanted to a certain extent by state lotteries, which usually have much bigger payouts.

31A As long as they're bowled over on a LANE.

36A LAVA. Note that there are two types of IGNEUS ROCKS: extrusive, e.g. basalt or obsidian from rapidly cooled lava, and intrusive, e.g. granite from magma that has cooled underground, perhaps for thousands of years, crystallizing into a coarse grained texture.

3D RISEN. I've not seen many of the post millennial Dr. Who's, but have seen all of those that preceded them 3 or 4 times. I only saw Jenna in a few of the new Who series, but followed her as the young queen in Victoria.

28D ARC. IMHO sumdaze the Giant Leap Award should have been given to this clue. Oh and BTW, did you take that picture? 😀

42D ETCH. Not just carved, but in a process called lithography, done with grease pencil drawings on a limestone (a sedimentary rock) block and then etched with acid. Similar work can be done on metal with resists and acid, or with a metal scriber.

51D MESSY. Showed the cartoon to Grandma -- Me: "Looks like our house when the grandkids have left". She: "It's not THAT bad!"

Cheers,
Bill

FLN

For those who missed all the late evening chatter yesterday about "traffic jams", I posted a copy of a puzzle masterpiece called "Gridlock" by the legendary crossword constructor Merl Reagle: 3 stacked ACROSS grid spanners X 3 DOWN grid spanners intersecting in the middle of the grid, consisting of every car model you've ever heard of. Here's a PDF of it. A real brain twister. Jinx says above that he was able to open it.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Not sure why the towers pic wouldn't open

Leaning towers

waseeley said...

Ray - O @10:23 AM The only TOSH I know is the Detective Sargent in the great TV series SHETLAND. Rumor has it she's getting a new boss.

Charlie Echo said...

Hurrah! For a soothing Modayesque puzzle of old! Real clues, answers "in the language", and a dearth of obscurity. BTW, Thanks Sumdaze for saving a bit of memory space in the NORTH WEST corner of my brain. Already too much flotsom and stuff floating around there!

CanadianEh! said...

Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Jon (congrats on your debut) and sumdaze.
As d’o has already said (LOL re the J), this was an easy-breezy CW. Perfect for a Monday.
I was AHEAD OF THE double GAMES and had only ONE inkblot (not TEN thankfully) to change Dyed to HUED (hi Ray-o, and LOL re your beta-blocked heart rate).

I noted a B TEAM in the centre with BASEBALL, plus the vowel progression of BEA, BIEN, BILK and BOA.

I smiled at that map of the USA in the ATLAS. The Great White North was not labelled at all, but I know where to find myself just above those Great Lakes.
(Speaking of Great Lakes, thanks Echo Charlie for the Gordon Lightfoot quote yesterday re Lake Superior. Token Creek got it.)

Time to SCRAM.
Wishing you all a great day.

CanadianEh! said...

waseeley LOL re your Psalms quote.
Yes, this Grandma smiled at that cartoon also.

Sorry I should have said Charlie Echo!

CrossEyedDave said...

Finally, a Monday worthy puzzle to make me feel I am ahead of the game, (if you treat the entire week of puzzles as a game...)

Caveat emptor...

I too, have noticed the Hotel MiniBar Game.
My response?
If they up the Tech, then I have to up my game!
a low tech solution to hi-tech minibars...

Anywho,
I just love to know how things work, and I found minibars frustrating, as I was afraid to play with them lest I get charged. Todays commentary made me investigate, and what I discovered is "very interesting."

Armed with this new knowledge, I can't wait for my next hotel visit. So its infrared sensors is it, I can beat those!

The Game Is Afoot!

waseeley said...

CanadianEh! @11:05 AM After Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot is my favorite Canadian musician and the "Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is one of the most moving songs I know. It never ceases to shed a tear.

Yellowrocks said...

I do not see the "stretch" in ARC, a very basic mathematical term. I taught it to fifth graders for many years. "In mathematics, an arc is defined as a portion of the boundary of a circle or a curve. It can also be referred to as an open curve." In language a 9 or 10 year old can understand, a segment of a circle. I love basic geometry, plane or solid. In solid geometry we cut, folded and pasted 3 D models of cones, cubes, rectangular solids, etc. for hands on.
I thoroughly enjoy basic math including plane and solid geometry, algebra I and II and even basic trig. Calculus and theoretical math leave me cold. My older sister is a math whiz, far beyond me.
A friend and I were tied for both the math and foreign language HS senior awards. She loved math and I loved foreign languages best. The admin split the difference and gave me math and her foreign languages.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Congrats on a great debut (? I've seen Jon's last name before(?)) puzzle, Jon. IM summed it up best but Sumdaze is right, we could have saved a brain-cell on MOM's clue ;-)

Fun expo Sumdaze - you keep outdoing yourself. I, too, love a good turn for two, but a suicide-squeeze is most exciting.

WO: BEE->BEA (I misspelled REGGee)
ESPs: N/A
Fav: CCR - While at lunch (Tejas Chocolate & BBQ*) yesterday, CCR came on the Muzak and I giggled. DW asked why so I told her I chuckle when politicians use music they've never listened to the lyrics of. I cited Fortunate Son and Born in the USA -- campaign staff should be sac'd (and one shouldn't vote for the non-curious / non-thinkers / folks that don't get irony :-))

For Jinx [ya fire-breathin' lizard]
I think it was Ben R. Rich's Skunk Works' personal memoir - this was when I was into Books-on-Tape so it's not on my shelf (as it should be) for reference.

TonyE - I also miss malts on the menu! I have a tin of Carnation's Malt'd Milk in the pantry to sprinkle on my ICED-cream and/or make vanilla malts.

Ray-O: we had Tosh ==> REGGAE last week so I knew it wasn't Tosh.0 //No links; too UNPC... wacky guy, him.

Wasseley - same thought here re: NUMBERS GAME. But there's no such thing as the Mafia and we don't talk business in front of the children.
//Back me up Ray-O :-)

YR - I once swiped a scotch from the MINIBAR just to try (I'd never had Scotch before) and later found one at the liquor store three blocks away. I replaced the mini-bar one from the basket and hoped they didn't notice the minor difference in the (same brand - The Balvenie) cap.

CED - I had to defeat the mechanical MINIBAR at a hotel in NYC to NOT charge me for removing a coke and inserting MOM's milk for keeping.
//We were in NYC to get the kids baptized at St. John the Divine - same place DW & BIL were christened.

Cheers, -T
*Take 59 up to 99 around to 249N, D-O. It's in Old Tomball. Craft / local beers on tap!

OwenKL said...

Volcanoes belch out LAVA and FUMES.
Smoke and ash from which lightning blooms.
At last TREMBLERS will subside,
Keep its magma inside.
But beware, in ten thousand years, it resumes!

HAITI, OSLO, LIMA PERU,
PISA, OMAHA, places, a few!
O'er the ATLAS we roam,
TREK far from HOME,
Is Stratford-on-AVON in view?

{A, A-}.

Wendybird said...

FLN my favorite Eugene Levy role is his two-left-feet part in Best in Show. He co-wrote it as well. Laugh out loud funny movie.

Lovely Monday puzzle - not too hard, not too easy, just right!! Thanks so much, Jon.
The tour by Sumdaze was so interesting and funny, it took me longer to read the cartoons and watch the clips than to do the puzzle!

Misty said...

Delightful Monday puzzle, many thanks for this great debut, Jon. And always enjoy your commentary, Sundaze, thanks for that too.

Great voyage in this puzzle today, giving us a chance to travel all over the world ATLAS: HAITI, and OSLO, and LIMA, and OMAHA. It was quite a TREK, hanging out with GOTHS under the ELMS, quite RAPT listening to REGGAE, playing with BASEBALL CARDS, and SHOOTING craps. This experience deserves an ESSAY, I think, and this is it, AYE, AYE.

Have a good week coming up, everybody.

AnonymousPVX said...


Malted fans…..FIVE GUYS has shakes and you can add MALT…but not all locations have the milkshakes.

Lucina said...

Hola!

Why is it so late on the Blog when it's only 10:42 A.M. here!

Jon Pennington gave us a fun Monday puzzle with no blah fill. Yea! I am in RAPTure over that!

There is Pennington Street and Pennington Square in Chandler, AZ.

My granddaughter, EMMA, has been in Paris all week during spring break with her mother. I can't wait to hear the stories and see the photos.

In high school, we girls took HOME EC and the boys were in Shop. I learned to measure accurately because my mother never measured anything when she cooked and in fact, we never owned measuring cups or measuring spoons. Of course, she never used recipes either. Yet, she was an outstanding cook and worked in restaurants for many years.

A car is not what I think of when I see FIESTA!

BASEBALL games have been in full swing here since early March and so have the visitors. While driving across town yesterday we noticed the dramatic increase in traffic. Of course, Taylor Swift was here, too.

Milk shakes are still available at Denny's but not MALTS.

Surprisingly, it's 64 degrees here at the moment.

Have a magnificent Monday, everyone!

Picard said...

With so many comments, not sure anyone will see this one.

sumdaze You really went above and beyond the call of duty! Loved the California rain meme, the Pisa photo, the EATS AT photo and you indeed get extra points for the DAGNABBIT/SHOOT clip. But you really warmed my heart with the Paul Farmer connection to HAITI. He is one of my big heroes for his innovative development work. He spoke here in Santa Barbara in 2008.

FIESTA is the biggest series of events in Santa Barbara, spanning five days. But the Solstice Parade is the single biggest event here.

Here is my article about our most recent FIESTA.

Don't miss the video of the 100 year old fire pumper! There is also a nice photo of us with the Spirit and Junior Spirit of FIESTA.

From Yesterday:
Jinx, Charlie Echo, sumdaze Thanks for the additional comments about the Point Mugu air show. Yes, Jinx, boat is a good way to watch the air show. We walked much of the four miles in with a local woman who said she used to watch from her boat. But some of the action is low to the ground and I was grateful to get a view spot at the flight line.

Charlie Echo, I also first saw the Blue Angels with my father in 1972 in DC. There have been several generations of aircraft over all those years since you first saw them!

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Anon T @ 12:O2

Absolutely no Mafia, "Black Hand" up to God. It just not "Our Thing"...
😎

desper-otto said...

Dash-T, that sounds like an interesting place, but it's a long way from my normal "stomping grounds." I gave up my EZ-Tag the day after I retired 13 years ago, so it'd be about a 50-mile trek on non-toll roads to get there. I seldom get as far west as I-45, and almost never continue further west.

Kelly Clark said...


Beautiful job! Congratulations, Jon Pennington, and thank you, Sumdaze!

Charlie Echo said...

Picard- Yes, I've seen 'em all. The F4 Phantom II in '69, the A4 Skyhawk during the OPEC gas crunch, and the FA18. All great, but the Phantom was the most impressive IMHO. One of the best ways to turn kerosene into noise! Or, as a Naval Aviator once told me, proof that even a brick can be made to fly if you add enough power!

Anonymous T said...

D-O: well, if you ever get over to my ACREAGE, give me a ring (The BBQ is good, chocolates better, and the beer stellar!)

Charlie Echo - I was driving to TAFB (Tinker Air Force Base - I was a DoD network guy) one morning and a B2-Stelth flew overhead and hung in the sky - very much like a Gold Brick shouldn't [apologies to Douglas Adams - R.I.P. good soul.]

C, -T

sumdaze said...

It was so nice reading everyone's happy comments today!

YR @ 11:58. I share your enthusiasm for math & geometry! I have no problem with ARC being a portion of a circle. I was pointing out that the word "section" in the clue accidentally drifted into a different geometry term with a specific meaning. I agree with everything you wrote. It's all good.

OwenKL. Loved your lines today!

Wendybird@12:29. Best in Show is one of my FAVs!!!

Picard@1:09. I thought you would relate to the CA rain meme. More on the way tomorrow....

sumdaze said...

Charlie Echo. First of all, LOL for 11:01. Thanks for playing! Also, I didn't get around to responding the other day about you being a door gunner. DH's dad was a door gunner for the UH-1. DH says that was a very dangerous job. And, to respond to your 2:09 post, DH's dad was also an engine mechanic for the F4. He was in the 1st class of just jet mechanics. Both DH and his dad served in the USMC. DH flew CH-53D. He says these were Alphas during Nam then fuel tanks were added to them in the 70's and they were converted to Deltas. I thought you might find all that interesting/relatable.

Charlie Echo said...

Sumdaze- Ah, yes. We knew the CH-53 as "The Jolly Green Giant".

Ol' Man Keith said...

I could not sign on to the Corner w/o passing through several hoops demanding I prove myself with my Google acct password, which of course I forgot, and then I had to change my password and answer *#@! security questions.

Meanwhile, the post I had already prepared got zapped.

In the future we will look back on this era as Punishment through Passwords. For all our high-tech quality of life improvements, the very worst of it is this password ordeal. It hits us at random, and when we are not planning ofr the extra minutes it consumes
~ OMK

Jayce said...

I loved this puzzle and sumdaze's write-up. As Irish Miss said, "Clever/cute theme, readily understandable; Fun but easy cluing; A clean grid sans junk; A satisfying solving experience." Others of you also gave similar appraisals. My thanks.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Bill, all I know about Haiti and how it ended up this way came from Caribbean by Michener.

Also, there used to be a network sports announcer who was also a hilarious comedian. One of his bits was to sing other songs in his best Gordon Lightfoot style. His National Anthem sounded just like Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. I don't remember who it was or find the bit on Google, but my search skills aren't the best.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Oh joy! Thank you very much, Jon, for a puzzle which can be classed as a real GAME. So many we get lately are not GAMES, but slogs. Thank you, Sumdaze, for another winning write-up.

A group of church members from my hometown supported a "Barefoot School" in Haiti which was badly needed. The poverty & ignorance there is unbelievable. They also brought over a young man whose family was exterminated. Educated in the US, I believe he is now a doctor. I asked him in an interview when he first arrived if he missed Haiti. He looked horrified and said, "No. Why would I?"

LEO III said...

Just stopping by for a minute or two to read everyone's comments.

Got two senior tours tomorrow, both scheduled for the same time. Hopefully, I can combine them for the introduction, and then split them among our other peeps, and then take them all outside together. Of course, there's a 30% chance of morning rain, so they might not be able to go out and get on the vintage airplane.

Did I mention that I'm OFF on Tuesdays??? Oh, well....

Nice easy Monday puzzle. FIR about as fast as I could write. Always happy when I actually KNOW the proper names, songs and performers.

Thanks, sumdaze and Jon.

Lucina said...

AnonT
I just sent you an e-mail. Please let me know if you received it. I'm not sure I have your correct e-mail address.

Anonymous T said...

Lucina - got it and responded.

Folks - I use KeePass (https://keepass.info/) to generate unique passwords for every account. It's a bit clucky but once you learn it, invaluable.

Anyone else watch the World Classic? [don't read the spoiler caption].

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Jinx
Me too! I believe I've read all of Michener's books and still have most of them.

Whew! What a day this has been. I spent most of the afternoon at the Credit Union because my checking account was hacked and tomorrow I will spend all morning calling all and sundry to explain about my change of accounts. If ever I could see those crooked dastards who did this they would be missing some balls!