Today's constructors are LAT veterans and sometime collaborators Dan Schwartz and Shannon Rapp, aka Norah Sharpe, who invite us to enter the crossworld of benign Diplopia ...
Seeing Double
...
but don't worry, you'll get over it. Their theme was pretty obvious
from the get go and made solving this one pretty easy. Here are the two
word themers, all identified by the trailing "?" If you got enough
perps in either word you could guess them both:
17A. Double bond?: PROMISES PROMISES. This clue might refer to a covalent bond (sort of the chemical equivalent of community property) and the fill could be the name of a Broadway musical,with the title song sung here by the Divine Dionne Warwick:
26A. Double check?: TESTING TESTING. Performed by the sound gal (or guy).
43A. Double fault?: EXCUSES EXCUSES. The refs words to John McEnroe's in clue 17A on March 16, 2023.
58. Double jump?: SURPRISE SURPRISE. I suppose this means to get a jump on someone, or it could be a checkers move, but by the time you got to this clue nothing would SURPRISE you.
REVEAL? Who needs a REVEAL?
Here's the grid ...
Across: 1. Book that presents world views?: ATLAS.
6. Plus-one, say: GUEST.
11. Mo. town: STL. A CSO to inanehiker I believe ...
14. Finned predator: SHARK.
15. Spicy Korean cabbage: KIMCHI. Here's a recipe.
 |
| Kimchi (nice pot too!) |
17. [Theme clue]
20. Shady, in gamer lingo: SUS. Short for SUSPICIOUS.
21. Novelist Deighton: LEN. Leonard Cyril Deighton born 18 February 1929) is a British author. His publications have included cookery books, history and military history, but he is best known for his spy novels. His first spy novel was The IPCress File.
 |
| Len Deighton He looks like a tough cookie |
22. Early Canon auto focus camera: SURE SHOT. Surprise Surprise, there are still other cameras besides the iPhone, e.g. the Sure Shot Supreme.
23. Cutting edge: BLADE.
25. Numeric prefix: TRI.
26. [Theme clue].
32. Creates a lot of drama?: EMOTES.
34. "Double Indemnity" novelist: CAIN. James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is widely regarded as a progenitor of the hard boiled school of American crime fiction. Also a Marylander. Here's a trailer for the 1944 film Double Indemnity. Who knew that Fred MacMurray played bad guys? ...
A clecho for all our themers?.
35. "What __ care?": DO I. The anthem of our era.
36. Splash against gently: LAP AT.
37. __ Whip: frozen pineapple treat: DOLE. Also a former Senate Majority Leader and later a spokesperson for the little blue pill.
 |
| Robert Joseph Dole (July 22, 1923 – December 5, 2021) |
40. __ Lanka: SRI. A standin for Kerala, India in the remarkable series The Good Karma Hospital starring the incomparable Amanda Redman ...
41. Explorer with a talking backpack: DORA. The case of the missing backpack ...
42. "O churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop / To help me after!" speaker: JULIET. This line is spoken in Act 5 Scene 3 of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. In prior acts ROMEO has been banished to Mantua for killing Tybalt, but before he leaves, Friar Lawrence has secretly married the young couple. To forestall a forced marriage to Romeo's rival Paris, the Friar has concocted a scheme for Juliet to take a sleeping potion that will make her appear dead, and she will then be laid in a tomb by her family. The messenger that the Friar sent to Romeo to inform him of this scheme has been delayed and Romeo first hears news that she has died. He buys poison from an apothecary and rushes to Juliet's tomb to die with her. When he arrives and sees her lifeless body, Romeo takes the poison, and dies. Juliet then awakes and finding her poisoned husband, she berates him in the line above for leaving "no friendly drop" for her, and then stabs herself with his dagger (this clip may seem a little dark, but then it IS filmed in a tomb - oh and it's quiet, so turn up the sound) ...
43. [Theme clue]
47. Lil Wayne's "__ Block Is Hot": THA. I'm afraid Margaret said "Tsk, tsk ..." to this one.
48. Gridiron units: YARDS.
49. Challenged, as a verdict: APPEALED.
54. Emmy-winning sportscaster Buck: JOE. Had this been four letter fill the answer would have been JACK, his father. JOE Buck worked for Fox Sports from its 1994 inception through 2022, including roles as lead play-by-play announcer for the network's National Football League and Major League Baseball coverage. He served as the play-by-play announcer for the World Series from 1996 to 2021, with the exceptions of 1997 and 1999, when Bob Costas called those particular World Series for NBC.
 |
| Joe Buck |
 |
| Dal and Potato Soup |
61. Anger: IRE.
62. Many a "Grey's Anatomy" character: INTERN. There's a new crop every Summer.
63. Indian, for one: OCEAN.
64. Cook in oil: FRY.
65. Market where an amphora may be found: AGORA. A Greek container in a Greek market. Here's fancy one with the classic black and red terra sigillata slip glaze depicting scenes of the gods Hermes and Dionysus ...
 |
| Amphora ca. 540-530 BCE Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
Down:
1. Nile vipers: ASPS.
2. Drive-__: THRU.
3. Landlocked country on the Mekong: LAOS. LAOS, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic is in the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.
 |
| Laos |
5. All one can do: SKILL SET. A PITCHER needs not only a good ARM, but the ability to read the catcher's signs, throw strikes, field line drives hit straight at him, and pick off runners who stray too far from first base.
6. Base figs.: GIS. Not the one's in the previous clue.
7. Strike callers: UMPS.
8. Linen color: ECRU.
9. Cut: SHORTEN.
10. Speed chess equipment: TIMERS. Chess timers consist of two adjacent clocks with buttons to stop one clock while starting the other, so that the two clocks never run simultaneously. Chess clocks are used in chess and other two-player games where the players move in turn. A CSO to -T.
 |
| Chess Clocks |
12. __ James of "The White Lotus": THEO. Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis (born 16 December 1984), known professionally as Theo James, is an English actor. He is best known for portraying Tobias "Four" Eaton in The Divergent Series film trilogy. He has starred in the horror films Underworld: Awakening (2012) and Underworld: Blood Wars (2016) and the science fiction film Archive (2020). In television, he has appeared in the crime drama series Golden Boy (2012), the romance series The Time Traveler's Wife (2022), and the dark comedy series The White Lotus (2022).
 |
| Theo James |
15. "Antiracist Baby" author Ibram X. __: KENDI. Antiracist Baby is a 2020 children's book written by Ibram X. Kendi and illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky. The book, inspired by the author's 4-year-old daughter, was conceived as a tool for discussing racism with young children. I think this is a conversation that all people of color eventually have to have with their children. Perhaps it's a conversation that all parents should have with their children.
 |
| Ibram X. Kendi Ashley Lukashevsky |
18. Parking spots?: SEATS. Places to park your tush?
19. "Really, though?": IS IT. Apparently.
23. __ carotene: BETA. β-Carotene (beta-carotene) is an organic, strongly colored red-orange pigment abundant in fungi, plants, and fruits. It is a biochemical precursor to Vitamin A.
24. Request that rhymes with "One more!": ENCORE. French for AGAIN, i.e. "play it again" As the clue doesn't specify what to repeat, how about Yuga Wang playing Chopin's Waltz in C sharp minor, Opus 64 No. 2 ...
26. Debate issue: TOPIC.
27. Andromeda, e.g.: GALAXY. Hand up if you had NEBULA first? Messier 31 is one of the few GALAXIES that can be seen with the naked eye, but before the invention of the telescope it appeared in the night sky as a patchy cloud (nebula in Latin) in the constellation Andromeda. It is the nearest galaxy to our galaxy, the Milky Way.
 |
| The Andromeda Galaxy, M31 with satellite galaxies M32 (center left above the galactic nucleus) and M110 (center right below the galaxy) |
29. "Cats" star Elba: IDRIS. IDRIS isn't solely to blame, but in case you're wondering why Rotten Tomatoes scored CATS a solid 19%, ...
30. Squat: NONE.
31. Main idea: GIST.
32. Alternatively: ELSE.
33. Brothers known for "Duck Soup" and "Animal Crackers": MARX. A CSO to Chairman Moe. You know I couldn't let this opportunity pass ...
37. Hairstyles: DOS. Or today's Spanish lesson #1?.
38. Where to hang on the line?: BUS DEPOT.
39. Some craft beers: ALES.
41. Handing out, as cards: DEALING.
42. Judgmental type?: JUROR.
44. Southwest sch. with architecture inspired by Bhutan: UTEP. A learning moment for me. The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university and a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American student population (about 80%) after the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. On October 29, 1916, a devastating fire destroyed the main building of the University of Texas El Paso , prompting its relocation. In 1917, the new school facility was constructed on its present site above Mundy Heights at the Paso del Norte, with the land donated by several El Paso residents. In a period when United States architects were designing in styles adopted especially from Europe, Kathleen Worrell, wife of the university's dean, was attracted by photographs of the Kingdom of Bhutan in a 1914 issue of National Geographic magazine, which showed the dzong architecture style of its Buddhist monasteries. Many of the features of that style are incorporated into the buildings and layout of the UTEP campus.
 |
| University of Texas El Paso |
 |
| Tashichho Dzong, Bhutan |
45. Islamic law: SHARIA. SHARIA (Arabic: شريعة,) is a body of religious law
that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the
religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of
Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith.
46. Louisiana cuisine: CAJUN. Here's a recipe for Cajun Shrimp and Rice.
 |
| Cajun Shrimp and Rice |
49. "Ew! No!": AS IF. A rebuff to a come on?
50. Sound of a happy tabby: PURR. Sounds like a Tuesday clue.
51. Seals, to a 14-Across: PREY. It turns out that 14-Acrosses have bigger appetites than was previously thought.
52. Spanish "this": ESTO. Spanish lesson #2
53. Stag or doe: DEER.
55. Latin day: DIEM. Today's Latin Lesson. Often used in the expression "Carpe Diem" ("seize the day") or more commonly YOLO ("you only live once"). Or maybe not.
56. "Right away" letters: ASAP. "As Soon As Possible", as opposed to a medical term that a 62A learns right way: STAT ("IMMEDIATELY!").
57. Singer Horne: LENA. Lena Mary Calhoun Horne (June 30, 1917 – May 9, 2010) was an American dancer, actress, singer, and civil rights activist. Horne's career spanned more than seventy years, appearing in film, television, and theatre. Here she sings The Lady is a Tramp, but I think the lady has a lot of class ...
59. Mme., in Mallorca: SRA. Spanish lesson #3. This definitely calls for a CSO to Lucina. It also reminds me of the drama series The Mallorca Files about Max and Miranda, a classic pair of mismatched detectives thrown together on the (beautiful!) Spanish island of Mallorca ...
The picture above is misleading - after two seasons he still hasn't kissed her. But the series has been renewed for a third season, so there's always hope.
60. Early TV brand: RCA. A CSO to Misty.
Cheers,
Bill
As always, thanks to Teri for proof reading, for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
55 comments:
DORA and JULIET were having a spat,
Over a trivial contest to laugh at.
A new little kitten
Would enter the kitchen,
And whose saucer of milk it would LAP AT!
Annie Oakley was "Little Miss SURE SHOT".
A cool performer, every target she got!
In a shooting contest
Her opponent would sweat,
And nervously remark, "SURE'S HOT!"
I agree that this one was pretty easy. And with no circles and no reveal , what’s not to like? The only fly in the ointment might have been the possible Natick of “kimchi “ and “Kendi” but hopefully everybody got through that okay. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
In this namefests d-o recognized LENA, MARX, and DORA, but KENDI, THEO, and JOE were mysteries. No reveal is a big plus in my book. Got through this one quickly and unscathed. Thanx, Shannon, Dan, and Waseeley.
CAIN: When Waseeley mentioned The Ipcress File, it reminded me of Michael CAINe in the film version. I was impressed by his one-handed egg-cracking, learned how to do it, and have done it that way ever since.
Busy week with some sort of appt every day. Yesterday it was the quarterly dental cleaning, today it's M-o-W, and tomorrow it'll be cataract evaluation. Fun times.
Good Morning:
Very quick and easy solve despite the usual unknown suspects lurking throughout the grid, namely, Dole, Sus, Tha, Kendi, and Theo. Thursday puzzles used to have less obvious themes and a higher level of difficulty, but adapt we must. Misty’s ubiquitous RCA is becoming the new Erie.
Thanks, Dan and Shannon (Norah), and thanks, Bill, for the usual and much appreciated informative review. I’m sure Lucina will enjoy seeing Idris, even as a nasty cat. Speaking of nasty, Fred MacMurray played another bad-guy role, although less overt, in The Caine Mutiny.
Have a great day.
IM @6:23 AM One of the great things about blogging is the stuff we learn from our solvers!
Took 7:04 to get through this, chop, chop (oh, you've heard that before recently?).
As usual, I agree with what SubG and Ms. Irish Miss had to say.
Kendi and Sharia were unknowns. Len was a guess.
FIR, but erased kim che for KIM CHI. Almost overthought SHARIA, knowing there was an "h" sound, but thinking it was one of those occasions when it was another letter. THA was unknowable, so I applied Occam's BLADE and stuck with "H". Got the gimmick at SURPRISE SURPRISE, and quickly filled the other theme entries.
The living spaces in BARNS aren't the lofts, they are on the ground floor. In my half vast experience with BARN lofts, the only things living there are mice and owls. Odd bedfellows.
That would be "the first place TAMPA Bay Rays" to you, constructor breath. At 16 - 3, they sport the best record in MLB.
Speaking of MLB, Bill omitted an essential element in the SKILL SET of a pitcher - cover first base on any ball hit to the first base side. It used to drive me crazy to see a major league pitcher who couldn't / wouldn't do that every time. Kinda like a pitcher who couldn't bunt, a SKILL that the awful DH rule made moot. (I know I know, no religion. Sorry, not sorry.) 'Course I had our Greg Maddux as a paragon, right Atlgranny?
Thanks to Bill 'n Teri for the fun, informative tour.
Big Easy said...
My first Gomer Pyle SURPRISE SURPRISE was after changing AS IF to IS IT for 19D so that Dionne's PROMISES PROMISES would fill-AS IF showed up for the 49D fill.
DOLE, JULIET, JOE, DAL, THEO- not known as clued. Kendi & Cain were complete unknowns.
BUS DEPOT- filled it but still know how it pertains to the clue
UTEP- I still think of it as Texas Western University. Didn't know about its design.
THA- just a guess because it shows up in other Lil Wayne fills.
CAJUN Shrimp and Rice- the photo doesn't look anything like Shrimp Etouffee I've ever seen; it might be popular looking like that somewhere in the SW part of the state where most Cajuns live and rice is cultivated but I've never seen it in the Big Easy. The 'jambalaya' is usually with chicken and or sausage. The shrimp dishes around NOLA are usually with pasta (or grits for tourists). But NOLA has more Italian than Acadian people.
FIR. A few too many proper names for my liking, and few toughies like sus, dal, and of course kimchi which I spelled wrong at first and had to correct. Finally saw the theme but not till I got to surprise, surprise. What a surprise!
As Bill said - with the double theme answers it cut the solving time way down once you had half of solve for those.
There was a lot of play of PROMISES, PROMISES this year when Burt Bacharach died, who composed the music with Hal David for that song which was a part of the Broadway musical.
I have met Bob DOLE as he was the senator from Kansas all my growing up years. A friend worked in his office during and after college. He always shook hands with his left hand as his right was damaged from a WWII injury.
JOE Buck is from STL as his father was Jack Buck the beloved KMOX announcer for the Cardinals as well as networks announcer for baseball and other sports.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the fun blog and to Shannon & Dan for the puzzle!
This was a fast Thursday with an echo theme. Need only suss the first word and double it.
The old term (medical) INTERN was replaced decades ago with R-1 (first year resident) going on to R-2 (second year resident).
Wanted aerie (too long) for BARN. Two unusual food items: KIMCHI and DAL. "Andromeda" a GALAXY, and no, I didn't think of a nebula, not that smart. My first thought was strain..😃
SUS: SUSpect? Oh, SUSpicious!. Once again ASAP ("as soon as possible") does not mean "right away" (STAT)
"Hang on the line" at the BUSDEPOT or on the bus? We used to pull the cord ("line") to alert the driver to let us off at the next stop. Of all the JOEs...JOE Buck?
THEO James was in the second "White Lotus" series. Both seasons were excellent and am looking forward to the the third.
Off to beat the res of the family in miniature golf. 😉
Good Morning! The NW was an easy start, but being Thursday, I was wary. Sure enough the upper middle & NE were the last to fill.
I saw the theme when I got down to SURPRISE and went back to fill much of the East. The perps were well placed & kind throughout. Thanks, Dan & Shannon! All in all, a crunchy good puzzle.
DNK: THEO or KANE. One WO: dium -> DIEM.
TTP, 2D – where’s your UGH!! Okay, (o)UGH…
Thanks, Bill & Teri for your lively & informative recap. Learned about foods I’ve never tried: Kimchi, Dal and the Cajun Shrimp.
Sorry, meant, CAIN, not KANE
Any comments I may have added have already been said, so….Nice CW, fun, thanx DS&SR. Thanx for the excellent write-up, bill.
Musings
-SURPRISE, SURPRISE. Anyone else immediately think of Gomer Pyle?
-EXCUSES, EXCUSES: I assigned this project three months ago and you haven’t done SQUAT
-What is the capital of Albania? Got find an ATLAS or ask SIRI? Hmmm…
-BARNS: Being the in the hayloft of one on a July afternoon? Yikes!
-Nuke LaLoosh had a great ARM in Bull Durham but had trouble finding the plate
-In-N-Out Burger invented the first true drive-THRU restaurant in 1948
-I don’t sub in elementary because I don’t think I have the SKILL SET for that age.
-Those INTERNS on Grey’s Anatomy are on a show that really has legs
-Hang on the line/BUS DEPOT?
The Andromeda Strain was one of the best early SciFi movies ever made.
The echo made this easy, otherwise the clues would have been harder to get. Also the themers provided excellent perps.
I think of per diem.
Bats, rats and cats sometimes have LOFTy homes in barns.
Ray: "The old term (medical) INTERN was replaced decades ago with R-1 (first year resident) going on to R-2 (second year resident)."
I suspect the great majority of non medical people, including me, do not know this. Books, TV and movies still use the term, intern, when speaking of hospital personnel. Many college students become interns in other fields. I always find learning moments on this blog.
Bus depot made me wonder. But people hang on (in) line to board a bus at the depot.
In your area, do you stand in line or in line? I use both.
Gary, one of my favorite things to do when I was ten years old was to visit my friend Billy who lived on a dairy farm, sneak off to the straw barn and play at building forts and tunnels . We would lose a good 5 pounds of water weight by the time we tired of the play. But, it felt so cool when we came out.
My only trip up was putting in IbeT instead of ISIT. That changed when SURESHOT showed. ISeT didn't make sense. Revisiting TRe, TRI made more sense. Even though I filled it, BUSDEPOT doesn' make sense to me either
Great puzzle and writeup, Bill. Thanks to Shannon and Dan, too.
HG @ 9:22 AM IMHO "Hang" is slang for "Hang out" and the "line" is the bus line, and the obvious place to hang would be the BUS DEPOT.
A fun exercise those morning which I managed to FIR! The themers were easy once the double was understood. Thanks Dan and Shannon for a good start to the day.
It took me a while to see squat as "nothing" leading to the fill NONE. And BARNS with their lofts I finally figured out too. Big Easy, BUS DEPOT filled with solid perps but I think it refers to a place to hang out where the bus line pauses. Anyone else? I didn't think about the line on some buses that you pull to get off at the next stop.
YR, I always stand IN line.
Thanks waseeley and Teri for a thorough review of the puzzle. As to synonyms of ECRU, I was SURPRISEd to see the darker tones coffee and cinnamon included.
Hope everyone has a terrific Thursday!
Another fast FIR, but still too many obscure pop-cul clues for my taste. I guess that is the shape of things now. WAS-i thought a CSO to Chairman Moe's would be more Three Stooges.
I was born and raised in PA, where we stood in line. When I came to NJ right after college in 1960 I continued to say in line, but heard both on line and inline. On line seems to be an idiom in the NY metro area. After all these years, I use both equally.
As I get older, I seem to use both PA and NJ pronunciations of many words, accepting more and more differences as correct. I don't see the world as black and white, but as a blend of both. I am an OTOH person. Which ever side you come done on I can find a case for the other side. That is why I hesitate to post. I see the other side of many nits. If you see black, I also see a bit of white. If you see white, I also see a bit of black.
Fun puzzle and very interesting, informative write up - thank you DS, SR, and Waseeley.
Did not know the author CAIN but Double Indemnity was an exciting noir movie with Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray. It is fun to see movies where adults act like adults, even bad ones.
DOLE reminds me of Elizabeth DOLE, senator, author, attorney. She was as well known and respected (or disrespected) as her husband when they were a power couple in Washington.
THEO James was the heart-throb star, Sydney Parker, of the first season of “Sanditon” but he did not return to the show. It’s future was uncertain but it recovered and can now be seen on Masterpiece on PBS.
With TESTING TRESTING, GALAXY fit right in. Andromeda Strain is an exciting page-turner by Michael Crichton. It was is also a movie.
When daily politics and tragedies on TV get more than one can bear, Gomer Pyle “SURPRISE SURPRISE” and the Andy Griffith show, seen here in the evening, can calm your nerves and return you to an America that never was but looks so inviting.
Waseeley - Interesting Wiki about the Berger cookies. They look delicious. I’m wondering if my first German relatives who came here from Bavaria in 1749 knew about them.
Neat Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Dan and Shannon. And always enjoy your commentaries, Bill and Teri, thanks for those too.
I'm guessing the INTERN in this puzzle enjoyed seeing that SHARK in the OCEAN, and ended up feeding it some KIMCHI or some CAJUN snacks, before deciding that the critter would be safer in a pool at the SPA. The move apparently APPEALED to the SHARK, who PURRed as soon as it hit the water and has been happy ever since. He now has lots of friends, and THEO, DORA, LENA, and JULIET come and visit him and feed him every day.
Bill and Irish Miss, thank you for remembering that my Dad worked for RCA for so many years.
Have a great day, everybody.
Hi all! Thanks for another nice review, love to hear everyone's favorites. :)
unclefred said it for me @ 9:16.
Thanks for the traumatizing review, waseeley. I went to see Cats decades ago and walked out (at the end) wondering what all of the hype/praise/awards had been about. Had I gone to see the movie version I would not have waited until the end.
My first reaction to this puzzle when I realized the doubles was, "oh no! This is going to be too easy!"
I was wrong again...
There was enough crap (stuff) out of my wheelhouse to make this quite difficult.
(Substitue stuff for crap, as it's my fault, not the constructors...)
I can't remember "all" the things that tripped me up,
But "if" the clue was really place to hang "in" line=bus depot instead of "on line " as written in the write up, then it was a stroke of genius deception... (I am not going to reload the puzzle to find out if it's a typo.)
The one clue/answer I just cannot identify with is, as if=ew,no.
Ew no does not seem to equate, identify, or in any way resemble an adequate clue for "as if" to me. (Anyone?)
Anywho,
In trying to keep lighthearted,
what causes "you" double trouble? (Anyone?)
Charles @10:29 AM Fixed it. NO CSO to MOE NO MORE.
YR @10:47 AM I share that with you. I have a congenital ability (or curse?) to see both sides of an argument.
Waseely,
Thanks for the Marx Bros imbed!
I don't remember ever seeing the "trailer" for night at the Opera.
(Absolutely loved Harpos rendition of the MGM lion!)
I know this crowd isn't big in reading the comics,
But todays actually had quite a few good ones. I am not going to reload the newspaper to find and copy them all for you, because tech issues have been driving me nuts lately.
here is just a sample of what you have been missing...
Misty @11:32 AM And thanks to you Misty. You are my favorite MAD LIBBER, a game one of my granddaughters delights in playing.
CED @11:56 AM It was a toughie for me too, but I settled for "A rebuff to a come on?", i.e. the response from a lady to an unwanted pass from a guy: "AS IF I'd go out with you!" (assuming CIS genders of course). As for your link - like the perps say in the detective shows: "No Comment, No Comment ...".
In my area the first year residents are still called interns by the medical staff
Hola!
Thank you for the CSO, Bill. SURPRISE, SURPRISE also reminds me of Gomer Pyle.
Base Figs. flummoxed me until I thought of military BASES. Oh.
I've watched Sanditon from the beginning but don't recall THEO James although there are so many people in the cast, including soldiers, that it's hard to remember them all except the main stars.
To see CATS one must first of all, like cats. When we saw it we sat in the second row and one of the CATS came out to the audience and gently pawed my daughter. She loved it!
During my childhood the BUS DEPOT was a frequent HANGOUT, not for pleasure, but waiting for the next bus. That was our only mode of transportation besides walking.
There's a modern day person by the name of CAIN? Really?
IDRIS Elba has been in a couple of commercials recently. Not that I mind!
Yes. I also thought of Misty at RCA.
When attending a conference we were paid PER DIEM back in my working days.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Lucina, in our neighborhood when one of the kids at school does good, (makes the varsity squad, gets into National Honor Society, etc.) the family posts a sign in their yard. Last week we saw a yard sign mentioning their son Cain. Looked at it twice just to be sure.
BTW, if he got into NHS, do you suppose it would be because of the marks of Cain?
Must be regional then. Even in the dark ages when I was an IM R1/R2. 77-79.
Jinx @ 7:33 AM, even I with little sports knowledge know who Greg Maddux is. When we returned to ATL after living in Germany, he pitched for the Braves for 10 years.
YR @ 10:47 AM, please keep posting comments! I look forward to reading them and learn from you since in the US I have only lived in the South and Midwest. I also like languages and different cultures!
CED @ 12:03 PM, my hand is up for enjoying the comics, mainly what our local newspaper the ATJ carries. My favorite is "Pearls Before Swine."
D-Otto @ 1:16PM, "marks of Cain" (groan!)
Finally, waseeley, in your review comment for 47A, you mentioned a Margaret that would disapprove of Lil Wayne's "THA Block Is Hot". Who is Margaret? Curious minds want to know....
FLN….thanks to all those who sent birthday wishes.
Also…I did not bother to convert my 401k to a ROTH, as it would have saved me nada. I can pay the 24% per withdrawal, or I could have paid the 24% to convert. I’ll be in the 24% bracket for good unless they change brackets or I hit Powerball.
WEES.
I was so pleased with myself going through this CW quickly filling in, delayed filling a few along the way, got the theme right off, yes I thought of Gomer Pyle for the last one, then looking over the blanks, I fell off my lofty perch.
Couldn’t come up with BARNS, or NONE. To me squat to mean none is always accompanied with diddly. The NE remained blank, and SKILL SET area remained blank. This was not my finest hour considering.
BE@7:51. Yes SW Louisiana is rice country and in some areas Cajuns eat rice at least twice a day. The Atchafalaya is the dividing line between bayou country in the east and the plains in the west. Movie or TV shows many times mistakenly include Cajun characters as typical NO people, at least they have in the past.
Ack!
I missed a birthday on the blog while my newspaper crapped out on me!
Belated greetings AnonymousPVX!
Hmm,
It's kinda hard to find a cake for you, what does PVX stand for anyway?
(Come to think of it, being anonymous, I have no idea who you are either...)
oh well, best I can do under the circumstances...
Puzzling thoughts:
Thanks to the quartet today: Shannon and Dan / Teri and Bill
As Charlie Echo said, not sure why I got a CSO for the MARX Bros. I watched the trailer and was somehow expecting a Stooge to emerge ...
That said, one of my favorite funny lines from Groucho: "When I was in college I had a French Minor ... but when her visa expired, I had to send her back to Paris ... "
Or something like that ...
See you tomorrow. No [spoiler alert]. You're on your own. Words fail me ...
This puzzle was an insult to a Thursday puzzles..It would have made a decent easy Monday puzzle.
Where's my trickiness? Fastest Thursday time ever
MOE @3:02 PM Sorry you read the review before I destroyed the evidence. WHO knows whether it will happen again next Thursday.
ATLGranny @2:27 PM This is a reference to the legendary editor of the NYT, Margaret Farrar, who finally took crossword puzzles seriously. She did much to define not only the format and rules of construction, but also the acceptable content of crossword puzzles. The latter is often referred to as the Sunday Morning Breakfast Test, a meme which is almost synonymous with her name. It refers to a golden age in our nation when families all sat around the breakfast table on Sunday mornings and solved the Times puzzle together. The rule was that puzzles should never have clues or fill that would be unsuitable for the ears of the little'uns. Sometimes we reviewers have to make judgement calls on whether or not to include certain annotations, such as videos, images, or language that might violate this principle, which in this case, IMHO Lil Wayne's video most certainly did. A lot of this, and other stuff, is summed up in this classic article by the current Times crossword editor Will Shortz.
p.s. I just took the time to reread Will's article and I see that many of the same crosswars issues he talks about therein are still going on here on the Corner.
Cheers,
Bill
Hi All!
That was fun if not a bit harry in the Carolinas. Thanks Dan & Shannon for the diversion.
Mighty-fine expo, waseeley. I did not know that about UTEP. Thanks.
WO: ice -> THA
ESPs: KENDI, THEO, IDRIS, DOLE (oh, that makes sense),
Fav: BUS DEPOT as clued is cute.
//Hang(out) at the depot waiting on your line's/route's bus
{A, A}
Anyone else want "hickey" for "Parking spot" :-)
Hand-up: Jim Nabors' Gomer Pyle jumped immediately to mind @58a.
I'm sure I'm the only one that thought of Naked Eyes @17a.
Jinx: Barns - they're lofty [have a loft]. They owls live there so they don't have to eat-out.
Gotta run - I'll read past 9:52a later.
Cheers, -T
-T @5:12 PM LOL "Hickey" for parking spot. 😆
Thank you Waseeley for the link to Will Shortz, I enjoyed it immensely.
(The continuation, robots invade crosswords scared the hell out of me. And I did not read it...)
Anon-T,
hickey? Parking spot?
OMG! this is classic!
Tough-ish for Thursday.
But the double fills made things easier.
Why is it that I can never remember how to spell IDRIS Elba's name?
OMK
____________
DR: Asymmetrical grid, 16x15.
Cross-eyed Dave, the only thing worth reading in the newspaper is the comics. The rest of the so-called journalism is just opinions.
Anonymous @ 6:20
You made me go back to the newspaper and look again.
One thing I enjoy is the Almanac, today is the 13th anniversary of deep horizon exploding in the gulf, and forgotten people landing on the moon...
As far as the comics,
I read for deep social commentary...
And the occasional plumbing tips...
I really have to try this on the next major clog...
@6:20, You are an uneducated idiot, and are reading the wrong newspapers.
Impossible Natick at (K)IMCHI/KENDI. My guess was G. FIW. Not that big a problem for many of the gastronomic I see
The duplicate themes were a big help. 7 or 8 boxes filled.
Until then I was moving slow, skirting the Unks and working counter clockwise
I just got (the dread)hickey
Your welcome Shannon and belated hbd to PVX
C-Moe I'm in the NW of your Friday as I type
WC
Phew, author, author. Amazing clueing
FIW @ KE?DI /LE?
FAVs: Book that presents world views and Indian, for one
Lucina@12:58 "Not that I mind!" LOL!!!
Waseeley. Just want to say that I always appreciate the thought & work you put into your expos! Thursdays are my busiest days so I usually cannot make it to the Corner. If I'm lucky, I have a little time to hop, skip, & jump through the comments. Thanks for providing good landing spots!
sumdaze
You get me!
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