google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, March 9, 2023, Neville Fogarty

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Mar 9, 2023

Thursday, March 9, 2023, Neville Fogarty

 

 

Today veteran Neville Fogarty makes his 23rd visit to the Corner, appearing here for the first time on Saturday October 30, 2010, reviewed by C.C.  Two years later she interviewed him on Sep 21, 2012, to provide us with a bit of background on this Jeopardy! and crossword wunderkind.  Today he presents  us with 4 themers that tell us that

Breaking Up is Hard to Do πŸ’”


Neil Sedaka's classic captures Neville's reveal perfectly ...

27D. Emotionally crushed, and an apt description of the circled elements [sorry YKW] in this puzzle?: ALL BROKEN UP.  Note that these elements are not only BROKEN, but they're ALL UP.   For those of you who read Hebrew this will be a piece of cake ...

3D. Sport with teams of quadcopters: DRONE SOCCER.  I DNK this sport but it's very clever and looks like a lot of fun.  This fill encapsulates our first broken element, which drones on and on [not unlike MOI from time to time πŸ™„]:

Broken Record

7D. Period of the Peloponnesian Wars: CLASSICAL GREECE.  The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Greek world.  And we all know that people in GLASS houses shouldn't throw stones:
A corollary of the
Golden Rule
9D. Foyer: ENTRANCE HALL.  A broken HEART is the most devastating break of all.  You can actually die from one.

Broken Heart
21D. Hollywood Foreign Press Association awards: GOLDEN GLOBESHere are the winners for 2023.  I broke my first, and only BONE (my clavicle) at age 70.  You can't splint it, you just have to keep it in a sling and wait for the ends to find each other.  The experience wasn't very humerus 😟
Fractured Clavicle

I think Neville makes BREAKING UP look pretty easy, but I'll bet that constructing this puzzle was HARD TO DO.

Here's the grid ...
 

Here are the rest ...

Across:


1. Mixes in: ADDS.

5. Pricing word: EACH.

9. Tidied, as a lawn: EDGED.

14. "An Officer and a Gentleman" star: GEREHere's a review.
Richard Gere and
Debra Winger

15. Run the show: RULE.

16. Many a flower girl: NIECE.

17. Lotion component: ALOE.

18. Wyoming national park: GRAND TETONGrand Teton National Park is about 140 mi Northwest of where my grandson is going to college in Lander, WY.  Every new student at Wyoming Catholic College arrives before the start of classes to spend a 21 day Freshman orientation in the "Grand Tetons Wilderness", one of the most remote areas in the Lower 48:
Grand Teton National Park

20. Charmin maker, familiarly: P AND G.  The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble.  My Mother's twin Arthur worked for their Baltimore Office for most of his career.

22. Put forward: ASSERT.

23. Needle hole: EYE.

24. Nocturnal birds of prey: OWLS.

26. Chicken tikka __: MASALAHere's a recipe.
 
Chicken Tikka Masala
30. "Everything must go" event: SALE.

32. De-pleat?: IRON.

34. Hor. map line: LAT.

35. Guitar lesson basics: CHORDS.

37. Military title for POTUS: C IN CCommander in Chief.

38. JFK alternative: LGA. LaGuardia Airport.
 
LaGuardia Airport

39. "Tabula rasa" philosopher John: LOCKEJohn Locke FRS (29 August 1632 – 28 October 1704) was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "father of liberalism".  He postulated that, at birth, the mind was a blank slate, or tabula rasa. Contrary to Cartesian philosophy based on pre-existing concepts, he maintained that we are born without innate ideas, and that knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived from sense perception, a concept now known as empiricism.
John Locke
However the new science of Epigenetics has shown that Locke's ideas are not completely true.

40. Video chat annoyance: LAG.

41. Live coal: EMBER.

43. Hobbit enemy: ORC.

44. __ polish: NAIL.

46. "The View" Emmy winner Shepherd: SHERRISherri Shepherd (born April 22, 1967)[1] is an American actress, comedian, author, broadcaster, and television personality. She currently hosts the daily syndicated daytime talk show, Sherri. From 2007 to 2014, Shepherd was a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, for which she received multiple Daytime Emmy Award nominations, winning one in 2009.
Sherri Shepherd
47. Purpose: USE.

48. Gurgling sound: GLUG. Today's French lesson: "Glug! glug! glug! I am the wine!" translates to  "Glou! glou! glou! je suis le vin!, a line in the prologue to composer Jacques Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, about a poet who has his HEART broken by his lover and her 3 alter egos.  It's my favorite opera (lyrics):


49. Post-WWII alliance: NATO.

50. "Wiggle" singer Jason: DERULO.  Unfortunately Derulo has been cancelled, so I can't comment on him.  You can read about it here. [that was easy!]

52. Sushi prep verb: ROLL.  Not only a verb, but the noun for the result, aka MAKI.

54. Brewpub barrel: KEG.

57. Meditate on: PONDER.

59. Gibbons of talk TV: LEEZALeeza Kim Gibbons (born March 26, 1957) is an American talk show host. She is best known as a correspondent and co-host for Entertainment Tonight (1984–2000) as well as for having her own syndicated daytime talk show, Leeza (1993–2000).
Leeza  Gibbon

61. "No need to mince words": LETS BE REAL.  Yes but physicists sure have minced a lot of words over [Geek alert]: just what REAL really is!. [End Geek alert]

65. __ pricing: UNIT.

66. Think alike: AGREE.

67. "West Side Story" pair: ACTS.  The 1961 movie won 11 Academy Awards.  However the composer of the soundtrack, a man named Leonard Bernstein, was not one of them. It was the first and only time he worked in Hollywood.  This number is from Act 1:

68. Old character: RUNE.  We have a lot of these on the Corner, present company included.

69. The Brownings, e.g.: POETS.  In 1845, Robert Browning met the poet Elizabeth Barrett, six years his senior, who lived as a semi-invalid in her father's house in Wimpole Street, London. They began regularly corresponding and gradually a romance developed between them, leading to their secret marriage and journey to Italy September of 1846.
 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
More about Elizabeth and selected poems.

Robert Browning
More about Robert and selected poems.

70. Garden annoyance: WEED.

71. Newspaper commentary: OPED.

Down:

1. Obviously impressed: AGAPE.  Also a Greek word for one of the four types of loveAlso a meal celebrated by early Christians.

2. Supply chain inconvenience: DELAY.  If the supply chain is a TCP/IP network (e.g. the one supplying you with this review) this is called LAG (see 40A)

3D [Theme clue]

4. Tourney rank: SEED.  A seed is a competitor or team in a sport or other tournament who is given a preliminary ranking for the purposes of the draw. Players/teams are "planted" into the bracket in a manner that is typically intended so that the best do not meet until later in the competition, usually based on regular season.  Here's where the term originated and how it works.

5. Rowing machine, informally: ERGThe term ERG (commonly known as a rower) stands for ergometer, a device that measures the amount of work performed in units called ergs.

6. Hearing-related: AURAL.

7D [Theme clue].

8. Layers on a farm: HENS.

9. [Theme clue]

10. Eating patterns: DIETS.

11. Word before "Shorty," "Smart," "Hard," and "Out," in film titles: GET.

12. Environmental prefix: ECO.

13. Bear's lair: DEN.

19. Evil spirit: DEMON.  This has an alternate spelling, DAEMON, which is not evil, but is a term used in multitasking computer operating systems for a computer program that runs as a background process, rather than being under the direct control of an interactive user (see 56D for an example).

21. [Theme clue]

25. Director Craven: WESWesley Earl Craven (August 2, 1939 – August 30, 2015) was an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and editor. Craven has commonly been recognized as one of the greatest masters of the horror genre due to the cultural impact and influence of his work. 
Wes Craven
27A. [Theme reveal].

28. Beer choice: LAGER.

29. Centipede maker: ATARI.  Here, give it a shot!

31. Ararat lander: ARK.  After the Flood Noah had to start all over again ...
33. Semi: RIG.

35. Billowy mass: CLOUD.

36. Belmont Stakes racer: HORSE.  The last race in the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes will be run this year on June 10th in in Elmont, NY;  the second race is the Preakness Stakes on May 20th in Baltimore, MD and the first, the Kentucky Derby, is on May 6th in Louisville, KY.  Here's a recipe for a Mint Julep to give you an early start.
Mint Julep
40. Shang-Chi player Simu: LIUSimu Liu (/ˈsimu ˈlijuː/ SEE-moo LEE-ew;[2] Chinese: εˆ˜ζ€ζ…•; born 19 April 1989) is a Canadian actor. He is known for portraying Shang-Chi in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.  Here's the trailer ...

42. Converged: MET.

45. Without help: ALONE.

46. Punkie Johnson's NBC show: SNL.  The supply of clues for this bit of crosswordese is apparently inexhaustible.

51. Part of a Cinderella story: UPSET.

53. Give a speech: ORATE.

55. Online periodical: EZINE.  A portmanteau of Electronic and MagaZINE.

56. __ community: GATED. Also  [Geek alert] gated (pronounced "GATE DEE" (for DAEMON)), the name of a background process (see clue 19D) in Linux systems used to control the routing of network traffic [End Geek alert].

58. Common result in championship chess: DRAW.  [Chess Geek alert] What is a DRAW and why is it so common in Chess? [End Chess Geek alert]

60. Currency symbolized by €: EURO.  My only comment on this symbol (€) is that Blogger choked on it in the HTML version of the puzzle and cut off the rest of the clues.  Fortunately I was able to reconstruct them from the printout generated by the binary puzzle file.

61. Track circuit: LEG.

62.  Self-image: EGO.

63. Italian three: TRE.   Today's Italian lesson. In Verdi's comedic masterpiece Falstaff, based on Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, the number THREE is repeated several times in the aria Reverenza! in Act 2.  In this modern dress production, Mistress Quickly (contralto Stephanie Blythe) is setting a trap for Sir John Falstaff (
baritone Ambrogio Maestri), who has been sending letters propositioning all the "merry wives" in the neighborhood (not realizing that some might be friends who compare notes!).  Quickly presents him with a letter from the virtuous Mistress Alice Ford inviting him to her home that afternoon "dalle due alle TRE" ("from two until THREE") when her husband will be away.  The egotistical knight assumes this is an invitation to a dalliance:

In the scene that follows (not shown here) Alice's husband shows up unexpectedly and, to make a long story short, Alice and her friends hide Sir John in a huge clothes hamper and then unceremoniously dump it out the window into the Thames!

64. Psychedelic letters: LSD.  Looks like this trip is over for today!

Cheers,
Bill

As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism, and especially for recommending Neal Sedaka's song title for the intro!

 
waseeley

51 comments:

Subgenius said...

Ah, circles, the bane of my good friend SS. Personally, though, I often find them useful, as in this case. For example, although I didn’t know what the underlying theme would be at first, I figured “glass” would be a component of it, so I was able to replace “classical period “ with “classical Greece” and so on. Eventually, I managed to FIR, so I’m happy.

unclefred said...

A struggle, a struggle, then looked up and realized I was done! I FIR and even saw the theme. Imagine that. Clever CW, nice clues, broken up four times. Nice. Only W/O INAWE:AGAPE. Thanx, NF for this entertaining CW. And thanx too to Bill for the terrific write-up.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased the airport lag for LGA, when lag was used elsewhere.

The Brownings brought to mind fine automatic rifles.

C'mon - a movie titled Get Hard? What was it rated?

GOLDEN GLOBES - The best award money can buy. Pia Zadora's older rich husband bought her one.

Never heard of Punkie Johnson, but 3-letter NBC show is as hard as filling OREO or OBOE.

Having seen Caddyshack even more times than I've seen Blazing Saddles, I can't see Cinderella without thinking of Carl Spackler, the "Cinderella Boy."

I've decided to quit bitching about the overabundance of pop-cult crap in Patti's selections. I must either give up the LAT puzzles or accept them. I'll also quit commenting on their enjoyment or lack thereof. So I'll just say thanks to Bill and Teri for the fun. I also have a list of favorite operas. It is the same length as my list of favorite rap songs.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Though d-o knows nothing of Drone Soccer, he managed to muddle through to victory. Thought MASALA was a character in Ben Hur. This one came together quickly, and despite those unknown names (LEEZA, SHERRI, and DERULO, I'm lookin' at you), it was Wite-Out-free. Yay. Thanx, Neville and Waseeley.

GIBBON: The only one I recognize is Ewell GIBBONs. He hawked Post Grape Nuts on old-timey TV. Must've been effective ads, since I still remember 'em. No grapes were injured in the making of the cereal.

ARK: Dreadful irony a few years back when the Ark Encounter theme park in Tennessee had to sue their insurance carrier for rain damage.

"Broken Heart:" Finally watched episode three of the Nature programs on canids last night. After several recuperating African Wild Dogs died for no known reason, researchers learned they had literally died of broken hearts. Thereafter, they tried to capture the entire pack of an injured animal. Recuperation went much smoother when the injured dog's family was nearby to provide emotional support.

Anonymous said...

Took 6:36 today to go for broke.

Oh joy, circles.
(Can't let my good friend SubG down.)

Didn't see the theme.

Didn't know Liu or Sherri, and had forgotten about Leeza.

I love Grand Teton National Park. It's beautiful. Some great hikes there. Very close to Yellowstone too.

TTP said...

Thank you, Neville Fogarty, and thank you Waseeley

Well nuts. I knew EZINE and LEEZA, but typo'ed and had ExINE and LEExA instead. At least I didn't break any bones during the solve, but my EGO is crushed. Stoopid typos. Oh well.

Nice work to get in the 15 letter grid spanner CLASSICAL GREECE, and use 13 letter Peloponnesian in the clue.

Overall, a smooth solve for this well-clued puzzle. I didn't know of DRONE SOCCER and I never heard of Jason DERULO, but that intersecting R was my last fill, and an obvious choice. At under 12 minutes, this may be my fastest solve of a Neville crossword.

Someone (RosE?) the other day mentioned liking the Bee Gees. Bee Gees - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart ('71).
While we are flashing that far back, here's another: The Bee Gees - I've Gotta Get A Message To You (1968).

Like them or not, the group had 9 #1 hits on the Billoboard Hot 100. Only the Beatles (20) andThe Supremes (12) had more.

waseeley said...

Jinx @5:56 AM I have to admit that my pretext for slipping in those clips was just two mono-syllables longer than your RAP list.

KS said...

FIR, but had to erase raked for edged. Too many proper names in this CW, but fortunately the perps came to my rescue. Clever theme, which actually helped with the solve.

Big Easy said...

Good morning. LET'S BE REAL and admit we ( at least I) noticed the circled words spelled UP but didn't see ALL BROKEN UP coming. I filled the left side first and noticed the circles only formed a word upwards-RECORD. After seeing BONE, GLASS, and HEART I still didn't see the theme. C'est la vie.

I always wonder what the French think about our GRAND TETON Nat. Pk., 38E?
LOCKE I knew but hope 'empiricism' never is a crossword fill.
DERULO, LIU, SHERRI or "The View"- unknown.
SNL is a staple; Punkie Johnson was unknown.

BONE- the orthopedic had to break one to do my knee replacement 14 years ago. The top of the tibia had cracked 30 years earlier while I was walking; my son was walking next to me and said it sounded like a rifle shot when it happened.

In some tennis tournaments the Top SEED is given a Bye if there is not an even (vs. odd) number of entrants. Nobody wants to face the top seed in the first round to go to the consolation bracket.

Lee said...

DO, correct, except that name was spelled MESSALA. He was played by Stephen Boyd,

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A good excuse and $4 will get you coffee at Starbucks: A wet paper this morning drove me to the LA Times site where the numbers in the grid now take up almost half the cell and bad typing hid wrong letters.
-An oh so clever puzzle where obscurities went quietly
-DRONE SOCCER looks like a great idea
-GERE and Winger famously did not get along on that set
-Did the president of P AND G actually ASSERT his company supports Satanism?
-LAG/DELAY – When we start talking to people who have landed on Mars, it will take between 4 and 20 minutes for them to receive us and the same time for us to get the reply.
-Yesterday, a #8 SEED UPSET a #1 SEED in the first round of the state basketball tournament.
-Could LSD and other psychedelic drugs actually be used in therapy?

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

My first thought upon seeing the circles was, uh oh, SS will not be happy with circles two days in a row! I, myself, was a little miffed, too, but I do accept that they were necessary today to emphasize the theme, visually. My only unknowns were Drone Soccer and Liu and my only w/o was Gulp/Glug. I thought the difficulty level was not quite Thursday level, but that could be a result of my knowing all of the proper names, except Liu.

Thanks, Neville, for a smooth solve and thanks, Bill, for the fact-filled and entertaining review. I enjoyed the musical videos but the treatise on Epigenetics made my head hurt, as did the “Real” lecture. I can’t make out the word underneath Ark in the Noah cartoon. Anyone? Thanks to Teri, also.

FLN

Michael, if I applied your suggestion to every company that has assaulted my ears and kept me on hold interminably, not to mention long, drawn out, satisfactory resolutions, I’d be rich! The most recent go-around is 8 calls, so far, to receive a credit from The NY Times. They bill you instantly, yet a credit, for their error, takes 7-10 days to be processed. BTW, my Verizon payment was acknowledged this morning.

Have a great day.

RosE said...

Good Morning! Fine puzzle today. Once I got into it, the fills came smoothly. Thanks, Neville. My only WO was DEvil -> DEMON. DNK: DERULO or LIU. Perps helped especially with CLASSIC GREECE.
TTP. Yes! Yes!! The Bee Gees. All smiles. Thanks for the memories.
Husker Gary, I'm curious about your troubles with the LAT CW site. I print out the puzzle from there every day without any of the problems you mentioned. Were you doing it online?
Irish Miss, I believe the word in the toon was MEATS. Mixed reaction to that.
Thanks Bill & Terri. A lot of your comments in the recap went right over my head, but I'm impressed with the breadth of your knowledge and interests.

Monkey said...

FIR but not aware of the theme until Waseely’s great recap. One problem I had was being fixated on the word ELEMENT. I took that for the narrow meaning in chemistry. What a clever theme. Too bad I missed it.

DRONE SOCCER? I’ll have to check this out. I’m fascinated by drones.

Several unknown names like LIU and LEEZA and DERILO, but perps got them.

Big Easy, @ 7:38. the story goes it was the French explorers who named these magnificent mountains TETONS.

Yellowrocks said...

It seems Friday puzzles are becoming easier. FIR Obviously the broken part of the theme answers should be going up. Duh! I missed it and was looking for anagrams.
I knew ERG was a unit of work, but didn't think of ergometer. ESP
DERULO and DRONE SOCCER also were ESP
I have heard of chicken tikka masala. I like chicken marsala, tasty and quick to make.
What did the classic Cinderella story have to do with UPSET, Nothing, I believe. This is a sports reference. DBpedia says, "In sports, the terms Cinderella, "Cinderella story", and Cinderella team are used to refer to situations in which competitors achieve far greater success than would reasonably have been best expected."
CINC is acceptable, but I almost always see CIC.
I do not like P and B for P&G or J and J for J&J. They are seldom written that way.
Fun puzzle, enjoyable expo.

Picard said...

Thank you Bill Seeley for your nerdy review that I can relate to. Love the LETS BE REAL quantum link. Enjoyed the BROKEN UP theme and BROKEN HEART helped me get the unknown SHERRI.

We saw this OWL in Madagascar.

From Yesterday:
sumdaze, AnonT, LEOIII Thank you for the kind and encouraging words about my WIND CAVE photos. I have better CAVE photos in more photogenic CAVEs. The WIND CAVE is more about the "being there" experience in such a vast complex with the WIND.

AnonT Thanks for the baseball TIME explanation. I was never aware that there was a clock running at all during baseball.

I missed the Scott Adams comment that prompted the flurry of follow on comments. Can someone say what the original comment was about? Was it deleted?

Charlie Echo said...

A crazy fast surprising FIR! The across filled so quickly I never saw most of the downs until the review. Very unusual for me, but as SubG says, I'm happy! Theme? There was a theme?

ATLGranny said...

FIR Thursday, continuing a weeklong streak. Thank you, Neville, for a manageable puzzle. Come back soon!

I needed the reveal to see what was happening with the circles (much appreciated) so the theme didn't help with the fill. But I noticed Neville was careful to have perps when needed for unknown names like DERULO. Often I had a smile when getting a fill that was cleverly clued. Those are my favorites, like old character describing RUNE.

Thanks waseeley and Teri for explaining things so well. UPSET as part of a Cinderella story puzzled me some, but I guess it refers to the plot twist of Cinderella making it to the ball and being chosen by the prince rather than the eager stepsisters or others. Is that it? (I see your take on this, YR, referencing sports. OK, I didn't think of that.)

Years ago we took a winter trip to the Grand Teton National Park to cross country ski. We stayed in Jackson Hole and explored the town. I especially liked the library with its jigsaw puzzle available to all and its welcoming rustic design.

Hope you all have a fine sunny day, everyone!

TTP said...

Loyola Chicago Ramblers

Wikipedia - "The team gained national publicity again in 2018, as a result of both their Cinderella Story-esque performance in the tournament, in which they upset numerous teams to reach the Final Four as an 11-seed, tying for the lowest seed ever to do so, and the cultural popularity of their team chaplain, the then-98-year-old nun Sister Jean"

By the way, Sister Jean is now 103 years old, and still leads the team's pre-game prayer. She also just wrote a book, "Wake Up With Purpose! What I’ve Learned in My First Hundred Years"

Lucina said...

Hola!

Did someone say BEEGEES? They are my favorite group! Sadly my copy of their top his was stolen when my car was burglarized.

Usually Neville's puzzles are much more obscure and difficult than today's. I finished it quickly and was amused by the downward theme. Lucky for Neville that CLASSICAL GREECE fit nicely! And GOLDEN GLOBES is a timely theme as they will soon be on the air.

No LAG and no bad CHORDS with this puzzle.

I never watched LEEZA Gibbons' show but I certainly know of it.

NAIL reminds me that I have to go to the salon today and have mine done.

I know that the EURO has made commerce more convenient for Europeans, but I really enjoyed having and using the specific currency from each country. Yes, it was a pain at times, but so much more colorful. I wonder if they still collect the leftover coins at the airport for charitable uses.

The Spanish and I suppose French pronunciation of TETON causes some surprised looks. Someone had a wild imagination when they named them.

Have a great day, everyone!

Lucina said...

Picard, I always enjoy your wonderful photos of various parts of the world, this time the wind caves. I liked the cute owl, too.

Wilbur Charles said...

Period denotes time frame not the location of the war

I broke a bone in my wrist(navicular ) in 76. VA put it in a cast for 6 months

The circles had me perplexed but I took another look this morning and the V8 dropped

Aha, P and G, another V8 drops
MASALA was a EG*(not EpiGenetically derived- speaking of… That's why breast feeding for as long as possible is so valuable)

Euell (Theophilus) Gibbons didn't fit. Dnk LEEZA

Waseely**? Old or ODD Characters on the corner. I guess I'm both

UCLA has moved into the top bracket of the NCAAs. No Johnnie Juzang but instead they have Jamie Jaquez Jr

Noah was the original alcoholic

"C'mon - a movie titled Get Hard? What was it rated?" Obviously a TEN

Re. LSD therapy. Bill Wilson in the 50s experimented with it in the treatment of alcoholism

MASALA was the battle won by Napoleon. Time was short so he ask the chef to deliver a quick dish

Picard along with Lucina I enjoy your pics. There's no clock in baseball, only action and un-action. fe. A runner slides into a base, asks for TIME to dust off. TIME is "IN" when pitcher, with ball, is at the rubber.

WC

* Educated Guess
** The geekiest guy on our DEC IT team was a Philosophy major

Charlie Echo said...

CHARLIE troop, 2/17 Cavalry ECHO Company, 1/327 Infantry. (Many moons ago).

Misty said...

Neat Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Neville. And I always enjoy your commentary, Bill, thank you and Teri for that too.

The word NIECE inspired a possible story about how her divorce left her UPSET and ALL BROKEN UP. Friends told her 'LET'S BE REAL', you just have to get out of your DEN and start a new DIET and drink some LAGER--but, whatever you do, don't smoke any WEED. She AGREEd and used her EUROs to get some NAIL polish, and start reading some POETS, and avoided the DEMON of being ALONE by hanging out with friends. It worked.

Have a good end of the week, everybody.

YooperPhil said...

Fun puzzle today from Neville which I would have never found the theme without the circles. And I’ll take a partial CSO at UP being part of it. Thanks to all who acknowledged this Yooper in their comments yesterday, I felt like a celebrity! πŸ˜‚

Bill and Teri - another outstanding review as is always the case when you take the reins on Thursday’s. I liked the Noah cartoon and I listened to the opera, good thing you explained it well and there were subtitles or I wouldn’t have grasped a thing.

Wilbur C ~ there has always been an unofficial clock in baseball as to the time allotted for a pitcher to throw his next pitch, but never enforced. This year they have implemented a clock in MLB to hopefully speed up the game. I believe the pitcher has 20 seconds to throw his next pitch and if he goes over that, the batter is credited with a ball. I think the batter has 12 seconds to be ready in the box and if not, the pitcher is credited with a strike. It has been called a few times in Spring training games already. Was very time consuming as practically every batter stepped out after every pitch to adjust his batting gloves -BORing!

waseeley said...

DAB fans: Here's his "A Plus" puzzle for the week from his website. You can solve it online or print it out.

Jinx @5:56 AM See Phil's comments on the Falstaff clip @12:25 PM. There's hope for you yet!πŸ˜ƒ

CrossEyedDave said...

FLN,
Anon-T,
I thought I had figured out how the XKCD html's worked, but your question made me look again. It was not until today that I act7ally saw the hidden messages imbedded in each comic. Very funny stuff!

Anonymous said...

If someone gets to Mars I doubt they'll be able to get back to Earth.

Anonymous said...

Look it up on YouTube. There was really nothing offensive the way he said it.

Husker Gary said...

RosE
-My problem was with the online puzzle. I've had to resort to it before but today the numbers in the cell were way too big.
Anonymous
-A lot of people thought Columbus and his men would never get back 531 years ago,
Yooper
-The look on my neighbor's face when I said YOOPER was one of disbelief
Bill and Terri
-Nice job

Ol' Man Keith said...

Today's Fogarty PZL is escorted in our Corner by waseeley.

This is one where the long answers are easy, and therefore give plenty of letters to aid in filling perps.

I didn't see the circled theme letters--or, rather, did not pay attention--till after I finished the XWD.
Then I made it harder on myself by not noticing the words were just spelled backward. Duh.
~ OMK
____________
DR:
Just one diagonal, on the opposing side.
Its anagram (13 of 15 letters) is perfectly suited for the Corner. No one can object to my writing about our new little MinPin, Buddy, as he is neither Republican nor Democrat--and he doesn't show any inclination toward a third party.
He is, quite honestly, an...

"APOLITICAL PET!

RosE said...

Husker Gary, I called my LAT CW site up again after I saw your comment, and just to be sure we're using the same website: https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword
Seemed to look okay.

Yuman said...

Late to the party, busy day.
Shouldn’t 61 down, Track circuit: LEG, be LAP?
Thank you Bill and Teri for the informative and fun summary.

Chairman Moe said...

Puzzling thoughts:

FIR with a few erasures

Thanks to the constructor and blogger(s) for the entertainment

[spoiler alert] tomorrow's puzzle is a bear

waseeley said...

MOE @2:58 PM Sound like a big dipper.

Ol' Man Keith said...

What's going on, waseeley?
Can you help solve this?

I posted my small contribution a couple of hours ago, but once again it has been wiped away. If it is not a human being actively doing this, then some weird Bot is in charge of CENSORING our pieces.
In today's case, it is supremely IRONIC that my post got censored. I will re-enter the only portion of that post that might have drawn a censor's attention:

This may have been in connection with my "DR" or "Diagonal Report."
I pointed out that there was one diagonal today, on the far side, and that its anagram (13 of 15 letters) referred to my new puppy, Buddy, who is "neither Republican nor Democrat, and not at all interested in a 3rd party, for he is an...

"APOLITiCAL PET"!

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Fun grid, Neville; thanks for the entertainment.

Thanks for the informative expo, waseeley.

WO: I was going for ENTRy hallway and inked the Y
ESPs: LIU, DERULO, LEEZA
Fav: I liked De-pleat in IRON's clue

FLN - Picard: there is no clock. Calling time just stops play. For example, when a player reaches first, he may ask for time to step off the base to hand his batting gear to the batboy. The opposing team can't tag him or pitch to the next batter until he gets settled. [see also: WC's post]
Cool owl pic.

Fun story, Misty. I like the happy ending.

CED - Glad you figured out how to get the extra xkcd joke.

I enjoyed reading all y'all today.
Cheers, -T

Jayce said...

I liked this puzzle.

waseeley said...

OMK @5:05 PM Are sure he's house trained?

Picard said...

Lucina, Wilbur Charles, AnonT Thank you for the kind words about my WIND CAVE photos and the Madagascar OWL photo. And thank you for the further explanation of TIME in baseball.

Charlie Echo Thank you for the explanation of your stage name here. There are a number of new people whose names mystify me, too. Perhaps RosE can explain her (his?) unusual pseudonym?

I am still curious about the Scott Adams comments yesterday. I am guessing they refer to a post that was deleted. I always enjoyed Dilbert for the brilliant insights into being an engineer in the corporate world. He makes fun of the nerdy engineers for working so hard for so little reward. But he saves his main attacks for the corporate weasels who have no creativity and use their limited imagination to sap the life out of those who do.

His latest rounds of comments make me wonder if he had some loose screws that finally fell out. Too bad. He is clearly a creative genius. I will have to check out the latest at his web site.

Misty said...

Thank you for your always kind comments, Anon T. I worry that my little pieces are too silly for everyone, but you cheer me up. Many thanks, and I like your postings too.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Neville, and waseeley and Teri.
I FIRed in good time and saw the ALL BROKEN UP theme. Clever - and we don't often have the themers and reveal all going UP and down.
I saw the circled HEART first and was thinking that the theme might have something to do with "Down-hearted". But the reveal and the other themers soon set me in the upward direction.

My lawn was mowed (mown?), then raked, (hi KS) (both in my head not on paper), before it was EDGED. (We had the WEED later)
I had Aim before USE, Devil before DEMON (hi RosE)
I had ENTRy as a starter, before it expanded to ENTRANCE way and then HALL.

Unknown names like LEEZA, SHERRI, and DERULO perped.
But this Canadian knew Simu LIU, originally from the CBC show, Kim's Convenience.

Tante Nique- did you find the "almost" Panda today at 20A. Parsing finally gave me the G.

Wishing you all a good evening.

Husker Gary said...

Musings 3
-RosE, this is what I had

TTP said...

Picard, you are guessing wrong. Read through the comments for the last couple of weeks and you'll catch up.

Old Man Keith, I don't know why Blogger decided to filter your earlier comments. It has now been marked "not spam" and has been published. Perhaps you have a "rep" with Blogger ? Refresh your browser and you will see it.

Husker, FWIW, I've never seen an online crossword puzzle that looked like that.

waseeley said...

Misty @6:21 PM We're all silly on this bus. πŸ˜ƒ

Wilbur Charles said...

C-Moe, the Friday xword did indeed take some work but I solved it except for the glaring Natick. Theme needed imagination

WC

sumdaze said...

FIW. DNK LEEZA or DRONESOCCER.
Neville, thank you for your puzzle. FAVs: Layers on a farm; the first parts of the clue for GET, and De-pleat?

I liked Waseely's title and his brilliant links. "Epigenetics" was especially interesting.

PK. Unless I missed your post(s), I don't think we've heard from you since you were having the nosebleed troubles. Please let us know how you are doing.

LEO III said...

FIR and got saw all of the breakups. I tried hard to have another one-square proofreading error, with LEEZA/EZINE, but Kizzy smacked me up side of the head (had to wake up from his tenth or so nap of the day) and gave me his “Look here, Dummy” look. I knew LEEZA was correct, but I guess I figured it would be more exciting to put in an S.

I had some unknowns, but the perp gods were smiling today. What is this rowing machine of which you speak??? “Exercise” is a four-letter word! I’ve NEVER prepped SUSHI, and I didn’t know some of the names. I thought from the beginning that AGAPE was correct, but it took me forever to see PANDG. Duh….

Tante Nique: I saw what you did there!!! RIM SHOT!!!

MY answer is if you don’t like baseball because the games are too long, don’t watch it! Go somewhere else! Of course, the owners need their revenue. It’s just another reason why I quit watching OR caring! Astros won the World Series: BIG WHOOP! ICCL!

Picard, I read it last week. I'll see if I can find it again, but it might have been taken down completely.

Thanks, Teri and Neville and Bill!

PK said...

Sumdaze, thank you for your concern for my health. I have been ill and sleeping a lot. Have done the puzzle & lurked here when I felt well enough to sit upright that long. After four gusher nosebleeds in an 8-day period last month, I told my daughter who took my humidifier apart and found the filter was dark with mold. Since sanitizing and a new filter among other remedies, I've had no more nosebleeds in the past three weeks. However, I don't seem to be functional for more than a few hours during a day or two a week. Think I have a flu or covid or something I just can't shake.

Anonymous T said...

PK - so nice to read you again. It may take a few more days to shake it, but you're a farm-girl/woman - you'll get past this. I'm just glad you pop'd in to let us know you're on the mend.

Charlie Echo - I knew there was a military connection just from the call letters. Ever train with 1st Cav from Ft. Hood? //That's where I spent Desert Strom.

C, Eh - I watched a trailer of Kim's Convenience and know I've seen an episode before. Funny stuff.

Misty - you're always lovely company.

Speaking of silly on the BUS, waseeley, our DEFCON/hacker group had a meetup tonight. Sometimes I think I'm the only sane one at the gathering.
One guy wanted to steal the Irish flag from the bar but didn't - he just hid it in a corner.
However, two others did [swipe it]. I told the thieving-boys they must replace it with a Happy Hacker [a hippie smiley face with a pirate patch] flag by April :-)

Oh, and no one knew what the word "finial" (#Crosswords) meant as I told them they couldn't swipe the finial from the flagpole too! :-)

Cheers, -T

Michael said...

Dear Tony, I think CHARLIE ECHO's point of reference is earlier than Desert Storm, like Lam Son 719 or so.