google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, March 16, 2023, Jeffrey Wechler

Gary's Blog Map

Mar 16, 2023

Thursday, March 16, 2023, Jeffrey Wechler

 Today I have the privilege of reviewing Jeffrey Wechsler's latest contribution to the LAT puzzle canon.  For those of you who are new to him, here's an interview by C.C. in 2014. And here's a link to some of his more recent NYT puzzles.

In this outing he gives us some important tips on how to avoid taking responsibility for your mistakes ...


... with 4 theme clues that have punful fills answering questions with the pattern "Start of [someone's] argument with [someone else]?" ...

17A. Start of a tennis player's argument with a line judge?: THIS ISN'T MY FAULT.  "You can't be serious!"

25A. Start of an artist's argument with a gallery owner?: I'M BEING FRAMEDFRAMED is a 2009 BBC Masterpiece film and one of our favorites.  It's a sweet story about art, illusion, and love, starring Trevor Eve and Eve Myles.  When the London National Gallery's water pipes start to leak, they have to move their entire collection of priceless paintings to an abandoned slate mine in Wales.  Curator Quentin Lester, who’s managing the whole operation by himself, then has to cope with the curious residents of the nearby Welsh village who have been kept in the dark about what's going on inside the old mine.  

Rather than just a trailer, I'm embedding the entire video (1:28:55)*.  The first 4 or 5 minutes set the stage perfectly and if you decide you'd like to watch this delightful masterpiece later you can easily copy and save the YouTube link (right-click Copy video URL).  The film is in English, but be sure to click on closed captions (CC) when you watch it to make it easier to follow some of the Welsh accents.  *I guarantee that you'll love it ...

  46A. Start of a dress model's argument with a tailor?:DON'T PIN IT ON ME.   I'm sure my Mother, the last of the great British seamstresses, often heard this from brides who had binged a bit too much between the "final" fitting of their gowns and the day before their weddings.  But she specialized in quickly making any dress fit any shape.

60A. Start of a geometry teacher's argument with a student?: LET'S SEE THE PROOF.  Rachel shows you how to win this argument ...

Here's the grid:
 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

1. Marshy spots: BOGS.  Did I ever tell you the story about the time a buddy and I purloined a pile of peat we found stacked by the roadside in Ireland?  We found that it doesn't burn very well if it's not thoroughly dried.  In fact it stinks!

5. Diego Rivera creation: MURAL.
The History of Mexico

10. Escalator part: STEP.

14. "See here, old chap!": I SAY.  In the words of Hercule Poirot's long suffering man Friday, Arthur Hastings ...
And a tip of the hat to Husker who reminded me of this mannerism some time back.

15. Something in the air: AROMA.

16. Topiary piece: TREE.  Here's one of my grandsons petting a fox at the Ladew Topiary Gardens in Monkton, MD.

17. [Theme clue]

20. Recipient of many lists: SANTA.

21. Poise: COOLNESS.

22. Life-saving pro: EMT.

24. Rage: FAD.  Nice misdirection.  I fell into the mire of IRE, but managed to get out eventually

25. [Theme clue]

32. Place to put down stakes?: Abbr.: OTBOff Track Betting.  See last week's Thursday review for some stakes coming up this Spring.

34. City in western Yemen: SANAA (Arabic: صَنْعَاء), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, the video embedded in this link has some great scenes of SANAA .

35. Get the word out?: ERASE.

36. Kid-lit writer Margaret __ Brown: WISEMargaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for her achievements.
Margaret Wise Brown

38. Clean with elbow grease: SCOUR.  Hand up if you had SCRUB first?

40. __ novel: DIME.  The dime novel is a form of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S. popular fiction issued in series of inexpensive paper bound editions. The term dime novel has been used as a catchall term for several different but related forms, referring to story papers, five- and ten-cent weeklies, "thick book" reprints, and sometimes early pulp magazines.

41. Ties (up): EVENS.

43. OB test: AMNIOAmniocentesis is an obstetric procedure done to remove amniotic fluid and cells from the uterus for testing or treatment.  Amniocentesis can provide useful information about a baby's health.

45. British jazz element?: ZED.  Nice meta: the word "jazz" has two of these elements.  OTOH, Jazz music originated in the US and British jazz is derived from it.  Here's bit of the history.

46. [Theme clue]

49. Good guess in Battleship: HITBattleship is game of guessing, strategy and logical thought that dates back to before World War One and is known the world over for being a simple game that can be played with no more than a pencil and two pieces of paper.  Take a shot at this online version.

50. RR stop: STA.

51. Donations to a museum in a will, e.g.: BEQUESTS.

56. Take in: ADMIT.

60. [Theme clue]

63. "Songversation" singer India.__: ARIESongversation is the fifth studio album by American singer India.Arie. The album was released on June 25, 2013, by Soulbird Music and Motown Records.  Here's the song Brothers Keeper from that album (lyrics):

64. NFLer since 2016: LA RAM.  The LA RAMS originated in Cleveland in 1936.

65. Medicine Hat's prov.: ALTA.  The abbreviation for the province of Alberta, Canada used by Anglophones.  Francophones use ALB.  A CSO to CanadianEh! who lives in Toronto, ONTMedicine Hat is in southeast part of the province and is located along the South Saskatchewan River.
66. Brewer's flowers: HOPSHumulus lupulus, the common hop or HOPS, is a species of flowering plant in the hemp family Cannabinaceae, native to Europe, western Asia and North America.
Hops
Humulus lupulus

67. Dessert choice, for short: FROYO.  Or FROZEN YOGURT, for long.  Our grandchildren's favorite is Sweet Frog, whose mascots are "Scoop" and "Cookie":
 

68. Secure, in a way: SEAL.  The best way is with a kiss:

Down:

1. Odds and ends: BITS.

2. Org. that makes workplace safety posters: OSHA.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Department of LaborMarch is Ladder Safety Month:
Ladder Hero
3. Forward progress on the football field: GAIN.  Progress that may involve some PAIN.

4. Word with metric or merit: SYSTEM.   Everything that you want to know about the metric system and more.  And here's what the U.S. Office of Personnel Management has to say about their merit system principles.

5. __ o menos: "more or less," in Spanish: MAS.  Today's Spanish Lesson.

6. Garden fixture: URN.

7. Uniformed college gp.: ROTC.  The Reserve Officers' Training Corps ( ROTC) in the United States was created by Alden Partridge and began with the Morrill Act of 1862 which established the land-grant colleges. Part of the federal government's requirement for these schools was that they include military tactics as part of their curriculum.

8. Firing range purchase: AMMO.

9. "Stop teasing me!": LAYOFF.  When my oldest granddaughter has had enough she pleads "STAHP!"

10. Ordinary: STANDARD.

11. "Indubitably": TRUE.

12. Fish that may be hard to fillet: EELS.

13. Loved ones who are blessed at the Feast of St. Francis: PETS.  Many churches in the United States celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October 4 each year. The feast commemorates the life of St Francis, who was born in the 12th century and is the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment. It is a popular day for pets to be “blessed”.  And they bless us back.

18. "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" quintet: IAMBSIAMBIC Pentameter is the poetic meter used by Shakespeare, consisting of  5 pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables per line.  And this is how Jeffrey signs his puzzles.

19. Solar __: FLARE.  Solar flares are large eruptions of electromagnetic radiation from the Sun lasting from minutes to hours.  The largest flares are rated as X-Class on a scale of intensity similar to the Richter scale for seismic events.  These flares are often associated with solar magnetic storms known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) and are capable of creating long lasting radiation storms that can harm satellites, communications systems, and even ground-based technologies and power grids.

23. Socials with cucumber sandwiches: TEAS.

25. "Hedda Gabler" dramatist: IBSEN.

26. Like Inti Punku: INCANInti Punku (Quechua "sun gate") is an archaeological site in the Cusco Region of Peru that was once a fortress of the sacred city, Machu Picchu.  It is now also the name of the final section of the Incan Trail between the Sun Gate complex and the city.
Machu Picchu

27. "The Scholomance" trilogy writer Novik: NAOMINaomi Novik is the acclaimed New York Times-bestselling author of the Nebula Award-winning novel Uprooted, Spinning Silver, and the nine-volume Temeraire series, as well as a founder of the Archive of Our Own.   The Scholomance trilogy is about a school  for the dark arts in Transylvania.  The first two books are The Deadly Education and  The Last Graduate.  Here's a review of the final book, The Golden Enclaves which was published in September 2022.
Naomi Novik
28. Scrawny: GAUNT.

29. Yellow shade: MAIZE.

30. "A Series of Unfortunate Events" villain __ Squalor: ESME.  While solving the puzzle I glossed past the clue and seeing "Squalor", I immediately filled ESME, as she was the heroine of  this J.D. Salinger's novel.  Coming back to blog it, I noticed something more sinister going on, as she was described as a villain somehow involved in a series of children's  books about a "unfortunate events" chronicled by a guy named Daniel Handler, alias Lemony Snicket.  The saga is complicated by lots of intrigue, literary allusions, and other stuff,  so you can either read this, or watch this trailer for one of the adaptions [or both if you're a glutton for punishment]:
31. Safe document: DEED.

32. Was short: OWED.

33. DVR pioneer: TIVOTiVo Inc. was an American corporation with its primary product being its eponymous digital video recorder.  On September 8, 2016, TiVo Inc. was acquired by Rovi Corporation. The new entity became known as TiVo Corporation, which in turn, merged with Xperi in December 2019.  Now we just store the stuff in the cloud (aka "fog") and stream it on demand (aka "binging").

37. Raves (about): ENTHUSES.

39. Kia sedans: RIOS.

42. Some plants: SPIES.  Sneaky clue.

44. Ready: ON TAP.

47. The "se" of per se: ITSELFHow to correctly use ‘per se’

48. Colorful fabric: MADRAS.  "Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy."- Albert Einstein.  Checkered Past: A Brief History of the Madras Plaid Shirt.  Hand up if you wore them? 
51. Ho-hum: BLAH.  Relax, it's almost over.

52. Designer Saarinen: EEROEero Saarinen (/ˈeɪroʊ ˈsɑːrɪnən, ˈɛəroʊ -/, Finnish: [ˈeːro ˈsɑːrinen]; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan, Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., the TWA Flight Center (now TWA Hotel) in New York City, and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
Eero Saarinen
53. Swab brand: QTIP.

54. Spree: TEAR.  If the clue had been "Tear:", how likely would you have been to fill SPREE?

55. Texas MLBer: STRO.  A CSO to Anon -T

57. Tunneling rodent: MOLE.  Or a 42D.

58. Tiny amount: IOTA.

59. Nonstick brand: TFAL.  It seems to get stuck in a lot of crossword fill though.

61. Stable staple: HAY.

62. Angsty genre: EMOOPERA wouldn't fit.

Cheers,
Bill

As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism.

 
waseeley

* A note on the Framed video.  If you open the clip I think that YouTube will remember it, and it may show up on your TV streaming service if you use one.

46 comments:

  1. Even though on yesterday I seemed to continue my trend of being “contrary “ (I thought the puzzle was pretty difficult while most folks said it was easy) I’m going to go out on a limb again and say that this puzzle seemed pretty easy, especially for a Thursday. And did you notice that all the themed answers seemed like something a habitual criminal who had been caught might say? My favorite clue/answer? “Some plants “ - “spies.” I kept trying to find plants that fit the template “sp__s” until the V-8 can hit! Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning!

    Yay, there was no reveal clue to miss. Needed my trusty Wite-Out to correct so-so to BLAH (only four incorrect letters), but that was d-o's only Wite-Out moment. This was a fun romp. JW never disappoints. Thanx for the expo, Waseeley. (That was an interesting video tour of Yemen.)

    ALTA -- I've visited Calgary, Edmonton, and Ft. McMurray, but not Medicine Hat.

    ROTC -- Orientation lectures were mandatory my Freshman year. You couldn't hear 'em through the uproar of hooting and stamping, but you had to sit there.

    MAIZE -- I think I've mentioned my neighbor lady has two dogs, Maizey and Frank, a corndog and a hotdog, but not intentionally.

    ReplyDelete
  3. FIW, missing with scrub and not knowing the Kia nor the author (or any of her work). Erased tfar for TFAL and anmio for AMNIO (I blame both on decaf), and hand up for first scribbling "ire." Waited for STn/STA.

    El Toreo (the bullfight?) are Mexican restaurants in Silver Springs and Ocala. The Silver Springs location has a topiary of a bull at the parking lot entrance.

    I always want the singer to be named India.Ink. Will I ever learn? Doubtful.

    SANTA and SANAA. In Eastern Kentucky (the only location in Kentucky where I lived for my first 18 years), we said SANAA Claus, or maybe Sanna Claus.

    I intended to stop commenting on the merits or lack thereof of the daily puzzle, but I do love me some JefWech grids, even when I DNF or FIW. Always fun. And thanks to Bill and Teri for the fun, interesting tour.

    ReplyDelete
  4. FIW. I too had scrub instead of scour. Didn't know the Kia model or the writer so all seemed good at the time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A Jeffrey Wechsler treat today which I thoroughly enjoyed, but FIW. Dang! Hand up for entering SCrub but I left it and never caught the perp problem. (I see I'm not the only one.) Other hasty areas for me were soLe/EELS, Alter/ADMIT, and oAt/HAY. Perps straightened them out in time. Misdirection kept things interesting and I often felt on Jeffrey's wavelength.

    The themers were fun and used normal phrases. At first I was thinking of calico rather than MADRAS but DON'T PIN IT ONcE didn't make sense. Thanks, waseeley and Teri for all the info and for explaining ALTA. I guessed what it stood for but it seemed unusual.

    Jeffrey quoted Shakespeare today so he met our expectations. Hope you all are doing well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Took 11:44 for me to end the argument today.

    Sure seemed like a Friday-level puzzle to me.

    Lots of unknowns: Ibsen crossing Wise, Sanaa crossing today's writer Naomi, "Alta" (I only knew "Alb." as the abbr. for Alberta), madras, and the Diego Rivera's creation.

    As soon as I got it done, I thought of what my pal SubG would say: I finished it right, so I'm happy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Enjoyed the challenge a bunch. I was expecting something tougher than the typical Thursday given the constructor. I got SPIES, but still fell in the IRE trap. My NYT solve today was slightly faster than the LAT (and that includes sussing out the Thursdayish gimmick that this puzzle doesn't have), so yeah, this felt more like a Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good Morning:

    What better way to start the day than solving a JW puzzle? Even with such an obvious, delightful theme, I hit a few brick walls and, unlike SG, I didn’t think this was very easy. My major obstacle was hanging on to Scrub and Norma for Scour and Naomi much too long. Scrub gave me Bios for Rios, which didn’t make sense, but it took some time to scrub Scrub and then, of course, Naomi and Rios made sense. In addition to those stumbles, Wise, Hit, and Froyo needed perp help. The clues for Wise and Naomi have Patti’s fingerprints all over them. Other miscues were Will/Deed and Oat/Hay. JW also gets props for the scant number (10) of three letter words and some clever cluing, as well.

    Thanks, Jeffrey W, for a fine workout and I hope to see you soon and more often and thanks, Bill, for your always thought-provoking , truly informative analysis and commentary. I, too, enjoyed the video of Sanaa and all of the visuals and links, especially the photo of your grandson and the”fox” and that sweet boy and his lovable puppy. Thanks, also, to Teri.

    Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Unfortunately, I had SCrUb for FIW. NAOMI should have tipped me off. I did correct mauve/MAIZE. And will/DEED, oat/HAY. And, I did know RIOS but…

    ZED mystified me until I got here

    I was in search of a solid and an old xword fav EERO popped. An awful lot of pop-cul but I almost FIR

    Sumdaze, I thought this a very difficult xword and didn't spot the JW moniker until finished

    Being able to suss out the clever theme clues was a big help

    WC

    ReplyDelete
  10. 57 down: tunneling rodent. Mole. Moles and shrews are not rodents; they are in the Order Insectivora.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Good Morning! Jeffrey gave us a good puzzle today. Thanks, Jeff! Fun themers! But he got the better of me today.
    The top filled deceptively smooth. I found the middle crunchy but worked through it. The bottom did me in.
    DNK Battleship guess: HIT or SPIES.
    WAG’d NAOMI and ESME
    WOs: SCrub -> SCOUR; oAt -> HAY; ALbA -> ALTA. Comment: I’ve noticed the use in the Blog referring to WO to mean “write over” which it is, but I use it to refer to my handy-dandy BIC WITE-OUT. 😊.
    Thanks, Bill & Teri. I love the Hercule Poirot and Hastings clip! I think I’ve seen most of them, and some over and over.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Well, apparently, as my friends IM and SS indicated, among others, I have gone contrary to the general trend again. Although I, too, had to replace “scrub “ with “scour,” I had not realized it would be such a stumble block for so many others. My apologies!

    ReplyDelete
  13. FIW. JW "scrubbed" me today, but what a neat treat this was! I really enjoyed the clever misdirections that are one of his trademarks, and the perps were fair. A good head scratching start to my day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. THIS ISN'T MY FAULT, I say,
    San Andreas is that-a-way!
    In the Rockies
    Earthquakes are wocky!
    I'm safe and stable in SANTA Fe!

    Said the donkey, DON'T PIN IT ON ME!
    I didn't want at this party to be!
    I couldn't pass
    Because I'm an ass,
    But my assy ass should be pin-free!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Well for me another almost-gave-up struggle. But with a few cheats and some W/Os (SCRUB:SCOUR, OAT:HAY, BEQUETHS:BEQUESTS) eventually I did fill everything correctly. Since there were a few Google cheats, is it still a FIR? What do others say? Let me hear from some of you. If you use Google, can you still claim to FIR? An interesting challenge, thanx, JW. And an outstanding write-up, thanx, Bill.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Musings
    -Another Wechsler delight on a sub day that began with a bus evacuation drill in the rain
    -Fun clues for – FAD, OTB, ADMIT, SPIES,
    -“THIS ISN’T MY FAULT” – I always admire kids who are accountable and don’t pass the buck
    -“I’M BEING FRAMED” – Natural fill for Jeffrey who is a retired art curator
    -“DON’T TRY IT ON ME” was close but…
    -COOLNESS – If you can keep you’re your head while all about you are losing their’s, you may not understand what is going on. :-)
    -I not only had SCRUB first, I left it and moved on
    -Prof. Harold Hill asked parents, “Is there a nicotine stain on his index finger? A DIME novel hidden in the corn crib?”
    -I asked about a strange crop growing south of Munich. I was told it was HOPS. Duh!
    -Did anyone else see “uniformed” as “uninformed”
    -T-FAL demos are always part of state fairs
    -Nice job, Bill and Terri

    ReplyDelete
  17. JJB. Wow! I counted 7 folks that FIW. Awfully tough for a Thursday. Between Wendy (BW) and I we managed to FIR. LA Ram pretty tricky since they were in LA for almost 50 years before they went to STL. The themes were quite clever but, once again……a lotta names crossing each other. A fun puzzle, but wow!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hola!

    Yay! A JeffWex puzzle! It's been a while since we've seen one and I really miss his clever play on words.

    I see a lot of bright wite-out staring at me from the grid. Unfamiliar with NAOMI and garbled SCOUR. Yes, hand up for SCRUB first.

    FROYO? I'm sure I've seen it before but forgot it, thankfully.

    Of course I had no idea about any NFLr much less an actual name! LARAM?

    Some plants, SPIES, did not fool me.

    It's a sheer delight to fill real words, not gobbledygook, and meet a challenge to think through to the end.

    I believe that is the first photo of India ARIE though we frequently see her name.

    Inti Punku is meaningless to me but INCAN emerged.

    I really enjoyed the theme phrases. Thank you, thank you!

    To quote Gary, Yes, nice job, Bill and Teri!

    Also, a nice CSO to Canadian Eh at ALTA, Alberta, CA.

    Enjoy a beautiful Thursday, everyone! It rained most of last night here which means the desert will be in bloom!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Please stop the advertising of bug sprays/repellents. I will no longer look at this blog til the bugs go. I do enjoy it (not the bugs!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anon @12:56 PM Google is inserting the ad based some inscrutable (or BUGGY ?) algorithm Everybody get's different ads. Try clicking on the arrow in the upper right corner of the ad. You should get some options allowing you to suppress ads you're not interested in or are offensive.

      Delete
  20. I was happy to see Jeffrey Wechsler’s name today even though I knew I’d be in for a struggle. Like Lucina, I enjoy the challenge of real words, clever misdirections and creative themes. It always takes me a long time to FIR , but it’s so satisfying to finally gasp across the finish line. I had to change down/GAIN, toot/TEAR, oat/HAY.
    Uncle Fred, my feeling is FIR is if you finish correctly with no outside help. Maybe we can think of an acronym for using Google - FIWH ?

    FLN I am a Robert B. Parker’s Spenser devotee too, and I especially like Hawk! The dialog is priceless! Sad there won’t be any more adventures.

    ReplyDelete
  21. A Wechler puzzle and it's not Fri or Sat with every excuse in the book. Everybody has heard them all before. Matter of fact, ask any convict sitting in jail and they will tell you. I got 'em all without too much trouble. WISE, HIT, MAS, ESME- perps for those unknowns.

    BTW, MOLES are not rodents. They're insectivores. Still a pest.

    Can never remember if it's "SAANA' or SANAA but NAOMI too care of that. Ditto for "IRAE" or ARIE. Penned BEQUETHS before BEQUESTS.

    Anon @ 12:56- what's BUGGING you? Random ads just pop up on every website you go to, even the ones you pay for and you're NOT paying for this one unless you would like to Send C.C. a check, which I have done multiple times.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anon@12:56
    The Blog has no control over what Ads you see...
    Somewhere in your youth, or childhood, you must have requested the internet for bug control information, and they have been pestering you ever since...

    (Took me forever to get rid of the earwax ads...)

    Ray-O,
    Pls post...
    If you don't post soon, I am going t9 feel guilty forever!
    (BE BOLD!)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Fred, IMO you can feel free to define FIR any way you want. I am strict with my claim of it, but free with what an "erasure" is. If I have to fix it when my mind says "write an 'f'" but my hand writes an "m", I doesn't count as long as I see it right away. If I write fill in the wrong boxes, relocating them does't count. (This is especially convenient on Sunday grids, because my old man eyes can barely see the cell numbers.) But if I just mispel "anmeo", it is an erasure plus a chant of UNTIE!

    So I guess I'm saying its your score card and you can post anything you want. Like when I keep score in golf, if a playing partner counts a 3 foot breaking putt as a gimmie, I just write down the score (s)he reports. Because unless we are betting, it just doesn't matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More on FIRS. Their sap can be sticky. Sometimes I do what I call CLUS ("confirmatory lookups") to verify the meaning of fill that I'm about to fill. IT'S NOT MY FAULT if Google auto-finishes the answer differently. 🙄

      Delete
  24. CED - PESTering, I see what you did there.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I'll claim FIR, regardless of how many corrections I make along the way, so long as everything winds up correct and I didn't look up anything. One lookup = one DNF. Letting an incorrect entry stand = one FIW or one DNF.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Unclefred, I consider Googling info an "open book" puzzle. We learn so much from these puzzles!! And also, I may have the right answer, but I Google to verify spelling.
    FIW could be leaving an error fill or a blank, IMHO. Others may have a different take on it.

    ReplyDelete

  27. Moles and shrews are in the mammalian class and are mammals. The order insectivora has been abandoned.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. PVX @2:36 PM Wiki says the are now in the order Tapidae.

      Delete
  28. WendyBird, I have found the continuing Spenser books by Mike Lupica quite good, Ace Adams, not so much. I also like the Jesse Stone series, or maybe it's just Tom Selleck in the role....:-)

    ReplyDelete
  29. WC

    Owen, that assy ass l'ick is a solid W

    I've been reading the other Parker series on Chief of Police Jesse Stone. He's trying to control his alcoholism and fight crime. His adversary was Mr Peepers

    My only FIR exception is asking Phil for anything gaming or Japanese. Betsy for yoga or astrology. No Google whatever but I think editors invite us to do lookups

    WC

    ReplyDelete
  30. A fine Wechsler PZL, presented by waseeley.

    P+P (and little extra P) won the day.
    Fave Clue? 45A "British jazz element"=ZED. (Oy! Too clever by 'arf)

    Thanks, waseeley, for the entirety of Framed. I would love to view it, and may be able to squeeze it in sometime between the 30-plus TCM, Netflix, Prime Vid, Sho-time, and Paramount + features I have waiting in my streamed downloads. Aargh!
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    Four diagonals, three near, and one away.
    The central diag (near side) is a one-word anagram (11 of 15) that offers a description as to how many of us feel after laboring over a Saturday XWD...
    i.e.,

    "LOBOTOMISED"!

    ReplyDelete
  31. I shake hands with Irish Miss and Lucina for saying so well what I would say about this puzzle, from which I got much pleasure solving.

    I wondered a bit about HIT being a Battleship guess. To me, the "guess" would be something like "A5", the target of my "shot", and the ANSWER would be HIT or miss.

    Yep, I agree the clues for Wise and Naomi have Patti’s fingerprints all over them. Also maybe the clues for ARIE, INCAN, and ESME.

    Hand up for having worn plaid shirts. I still wear them, long sleeve ones. Not Pendleton's, though. Also hand up for entering IRE and SCRUB at first.

    Good wishes to you all.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Jayce- I have three dress shirts-white, light blue, light yellow.

    EVERY long-sleeve button up shirt I own has some type of plaid pattern, just not the lumberjack flannel type pattern. Every time I try to get rid of my ridiculous amount of clothes DW goes and buys some that I really don't want, need or and rarely wear.

    Shorts, dri-fit shirts, and tennis shoes-my daily 'uniform'.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Puzzling thoughts:

    FIW when I had to cheat on FROYO

    I am back to creating crossword puzzles ... not sure if they'll be accepted but will keep you posted

    waseeley - I solved DAB's puzzle today; very clever

    March Madness is upon us; already had an upset when Furman beat UVA

    ReplyDelete
  34. Waseeley @ 1:49 -- FWG? My middle name! (Especially since the nouveau régime.)

    ReplyDelete
  35. OMK @ 3:10 -- In my case, it's LOBOTISSIMUS!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Thanx to all that replied to my question about filling the CW correctly, but using Google a couple times to do so. I like Bill’s idea to call it FWG. So…..settled.

    ReplyDelete

For custom-made birthday, anniversary or special occasion puzzles from C.C., please email crosswordc@gmail.com

Her book "Sip & Solve Easy Mini Crosswords" is available on Amazon.

Please click on Comments Section Abbrs for some blog-specific terms.

Please limit your posts to 5 per day and cap each post length at about 20 lines in Preview mode.

No politics, no religion and no personal attacks.