google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday May 22, 2023 Doug Peterson

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May 22, 2023

Monday May 22, 2023 Doug Peterson

  

Hello Cornerites and Happy Victoria Day to our Canadian solvers!

sumdaze here. Today's theme is    Early to Bed...  (Get it? "early" like "before")

Constructor Doug Peterson is back again after last Tuesday's HQ-themed puzzle. This time he has created for us a 14 x 15 grid with 4 themed clues and a reveal. Let's begin with the reveal:

55 Across. Complete a morning chore, and what the start of the answer to each starred clue can do: MAKE THE BED.  
According to the National Sleep Foundation,
about 7 out of 10 people make a habit of making their bed every day.

All of the starts of the starred clues can be paired with the word BED to MAKE a type of BED.

16 Across. *Stage show featuring traditional Irish music: RIVERDANCE.
And a RIVERBED is a channel in which a RIVER flows (or formerly flowed).

23 Across. *Candice Bergen sitcom: MURPHY BROWN.  (1988 - 1998)
And a MURPHY BED is a bed that is hinged so it can be stored vertically against a wall.

35 Across. *Extras in a bowl of chowder: OYSTER CRACKERS.
ubiquitous OYSTER CRACKERS
And a worker tends to an OYSTER BED in Hiroshima Bay, Japan.

44 Across. *1960s counterculture slogan: FLOWER POWER.  
The fashion world embraced FLOWER POWER
as seen in this photo of 60's model Twiggy.
And a FLOWER BED needs no explanation but here's a lovely pic from Kew Gardens, London.
So tidy!
Here are the other clues (I'll try to avoid making any blanket statements!):
Across:
1. Pushover: SOFTY.  

6. Pleased with oneself: SMUG.  (See Miss Know-It-All in 1A.)

10. Appt. book lines: HRS.  Appointment is abbreviated, so is HouRS.

13. USWNT star Kelley: O'HARA.  United States Women's National Team 
(Soccer)
Kelley's stats

14. Misstake in this clue, e.g.: TYPO.  One might argue that adding an extra S to "mistake" is more of a spelling error than a TYPO.

15. "Uh-huh": YEP.

18. Double-helix molecule: DNA.  
making Science fun
DNA sculpture at the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, CA

19. Digit that can be wiggled: TOE.  Oh, that type of "digit"!

20. One of the Three Bears: MAMAand 28 Down. Piglet's 20-Across: SOW.

21. Carpenter's fastener: SCREW.

25. Refine metal: SMELT.
(verb) extract metal from its ore by a process involving heating and melting.
BTW, smelled is the preferred past tense of smell in North America; whereas smelled and smelt occur with about the same frequency in British English.

27. Ensign's affirmative: AYE.  There had better be a "Sir" with that!

28. Creep around: SKULK.  

29. "30 Minute Meals" host Rachael: RAY.  Her talk show, The Rachael Ray Show, debuted in Sept. 2006. In March, she announced that this will be its final season.

31. Disappearing Asian sea: ARAL.  
The ARAL Sea is south of the Ural Mountains.

38. Unwanted garden plant: WEED.  highly subjective

39. Industrial tub: VAT.  
40. Lent a hand to: AIDED.

41. "I __ you big-time!": OWE.  What one might say to someone who lent a hand.

43. Train station postings, for short: SKEDS.  The "K" took some kontemplation.

49. Tilted, to a Brit: LEANT.  "Leaned" is the more modern form of this word for both Americans and Brits.

50. Hoppy beverages, for short: IPAS.  India Pale Ales  
not an IPA -- but perhaps "hoppy"
51. Dazzle: AWE.

54. Colorado NHLers, in headlines: AVS.  The CO AValanche(s) went 51-24-7 this season.

58. "Get it?": SEE.

59. Signed off on: OKed.

60. Giant squid's home: OCEAN.  I was happy to see OCEAN clued aquatically as opposed to a proper noun. Let's learn about the giant squid!

61. Bucks and boars: HES.  males

62. Throw to a tight end, say: PASS.  This clue is not as risqué as it might sound. A tight end is an offensive football player who does a lot of blocking but is eligible to receive passes.

63. __ dots: POLKA.  Yayoi Kusama uses a lot of dots in her art.  more examples

Down:
1. Separate, as laundry: SORT.  verb

2. Dayton's state: OHIO.  

3. #1 preference, slangily: FAVE.

4. Three, in Turin: TRE.  

5. Rabbi's headwear: YARMULKE.

6. Item sold in sheets and coils: STAMP.  Good clue! I was stumped.

7. Avian mimic: MYNAH.  
Here is a 2 min. video of a talking MYNAH bird plus experts explain why/how.

8. Bars scanned by checkers: UPC.  Universal Product Code
I found this article on barcodes interesting.

9. Elapses: GOES BY.  
As Time GOES BY was written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931.
It became more popular in 1942 when it was sung by Sam (Dooley Wilson) in Casablanca.

10. Prefix with electric: HYDRO.  According to the US Dept of Energy, hydropower currently accounts for  about 6.3% of total U.S. electricity generation.

11. Continue a subscription: RENEW.  10D (cont'd) ... and 31.5% of total U.S. RENEWable electricity generation.

12. Give rise to: SPAWN.  
17. Game room missile: DART.

22. More dilapidated: CREAKIER.

23. Major tantrum: MELTDOWN.  

24. Actress DaCosta of "Chicago Med": YAYA.  
Before Chicago Med, she was on All My Children, and Ugly Betty.
25. __ terrier: SKYE.  I first had Scot.
Bred to protect farms from foxes, badgers, and otters,
their long, thick coats made them appear larger and protected then from bites.

26. Creative inspiration: MUSE.  
These 9 MUSEs are found in a detail from The Parnassus by Rafael.
1509-1511 Fresco. Apostolic Palace, Rome

29. Maker of HD tablets: RCA.  Hi Misty!

30. "Wherefore __ thou Romeo?": ART.

32. "Sanford and Son" star Foxx: REDD.

33. Bloodthirsty Greek god: ARES.  the god of war

34. Perception-changing drug, for short: LSD.  Some people say that the Beetles' 1967 song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is code for LSD, but John Lennon says he wrote it after his son Julian brought home a picture he drew in school of his friend Lucy O'Donnell floating in the sky, surrounded by sparkling diamonds and jewels.

36. Winnebago driver, briefly: RVer.  
37. Place to buy frosted desserts: CAKE SHOP.  CSO to our Corner Cake Guy, CrossEyedDave!  

42. Swiffer alternative: WET MOP.  A Swiffer is a type of mop.
43. Thwack: SWAT.

44. Speedy DC Comics superhero: FLASH.

45. Flood barrier: LEVEE.

46. Sahara havens: OASES.

47. Roads with tolls: PIKES.  The name came about because at each tollhouse, a long pole called a PIKE was placed across the road. After travelers paid the toll, the PIKE was lifted.

48. Newspaper opinion pieces: OP-EDS.  It is a common misconception that OP is short for OPinions; however, an OP-ED piece was originally short for OPposite the EDitorial page.

51. Ill-fated biblical brother: ABEL.  Cane was the ill-mannered biblical brother.

52. Not very powerful: WEAK.

53. Irish novelist O'Brien: EDNA.  She was born on Dec. 15, 1930 in Twamgraney, County Clare, Ireland, making her 92 years old.

56. Pseudonym lead-in: AKA.

57. Green prefix: ECO.

Here's the grid. I bet Doug would have liked to have found a way to shift MURPHY 3 spaces to the left. C'est la vie!


I hope today's puzzle was a BED of roses for you; but, if not, 
bedder luck next time!

44 comments:

  1. Tho the perp may have an alibi,
    But if an alias is what he GOES BY,
    He may rue the day
    He used an A. K. A. --
    When he's accused as that other guy!

    There once was a tulip, dressed in red,
    With a lightning bolt on each side of his head.
    We were AWED at the speed
    That he grew like a WEED --
    He came as a FLASH bulb in the FLOWER BED!

    {A-, G (for groan).}

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  2. This was very much a typical Monday puzzle; i.e. a “walk in the park.” I’m sure most of us old-timers remember “flower power,” and the rest of the answers were equally easy to come by. FIR, so I’m happy.

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  3. Good morning!

    Doug is becoming a regular fixture at the corner. Wasn't familiar with KELLY, EDNA, or YAYA, but they filled automagically. Noticed the theme, if not the reveal. Nicely done, Doug and Sumdaze.

    WEED: We call 'em volunteers. Three of the five trees in our front island are volunteer loblolly pines. DW just planted a Natchez crepe myrtle in another island. I call him "G-nat"

    OHIO: With Dayton in the clue, I immediately thought of this song by Randy Newman.

    STAMP: They've gotten so expensive (and we send so few actual letters) that we buy Forever stamps in a 20-pack on a 2-sided cardboard card.

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  4. Oh, and one thing I wanted to add: While filling out the puzzle, I had no idea what tied the themed answers together, so the reveal was a pleasant surprise. Okay, Subgenius out!

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  5. FIR, getting my WAG at my Natick YARMULA x OHARA. (Not much of a wag; it kinda had to be "A" or "e".) The eraser got the day off.

    I saw RIVERDANCE at the Fabulous Fox theater in Atlanta. Great show and great venue.

    Dan Quayle's presidential hopes were dashed when he got into an argument with the fictional character MURPHY BROWN. Thank goodness.

    I know Rachael RAY from her dog nutrition products. Never saw her TV show.

    There were so many 60's slogans: "Make love, not war"; "Turn on, tune in, drop out"; "Never trust anyone over 30" are a few examples (that wouldn't fit.)

    I had no idea that RCA made tablets. One of these days I'm gonna buy a tablet.

    Aside to the Cornerite's golfers: What a show at the PGA yesterday! Brooks won his fifth Major, and Mike Block won our hearts. The best of the 20 club pros playing, Mike made a hole-in-one while playing with Rory McIlroy, made $288,333, and received an automatic invitation to next year's tournament. A weekend he will never forget.

    Thanks to Doug for another gem, and to Sumdaze for the clever and colorful review.

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  6. Thanks Doug for a RESTFUL start to the week!

    And thanks sumdaze for SNEAKING in another funny review (and not just on "sumdaze", but on "alldaze"). We're just pushovers for your "Dad" jokes.

    On the way out the door to my youngest grandson's "graduation" from Kindergarten, so I'll try to keep this brief {yeah sure]:

    A few favs:

    14A TYPO. This had to be premeditated. Shall we hang it on the usual suspect?

    18A DNA. April 25 of this year was the 70th anniversary of the ground breaking 1953 paper in Nature announcing the "Watson's and Crick's" "discovery" of the structure of DNA. Watson's best selling story of this discovery called "The Double Helix" has largely controlled the narrative of this tale, but there were two other people involved in the discovery: Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. Two books published in last 20 years (The Secret of Life by Howard Markel and the biography Rosalind Franklin by Brnda Maddox) tell a different story, that Franklin was "airbrushe out of the greatest scientific discovery of the 20th Century. Franklin actually supplied the hard X-ray crystallographic data that proved Watson's and Crick's theoretical model. Had she not had the decency to die of ovarian cancer before the Nobels were awarded in 1962, a compelling case could be made that she should have been "The Third Man" to receive the award, and not Maurice Wilkins.

    35A OYSTER CRACKERS. If you grew up in Maryland in the 1950-60's your 6th science classes would have had a entire course on the life cycle of the Chesapeake Bay oyster (and another on the other "shell fish", the Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab).

    38A WEED. Most are pests, by some like "Lamb's Quarter" and "Purslane" make tasty additions to salads.

    50A IPAS That Yellow Tail Moscato looks like it would pair nicely with Yellow Tail sushi.

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  7. Easy, yes. But YARMULKE MYNAH (with the H?) YAYA is not Monday stuff. I was only able to fill in YARMULKE off the Y because I've seen it recently in the New Yorker puzzle.

    I had SneaK before SKULK and something tells me I wasn't the only one.

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  8. FIR, but found it a bit crunchy for a Monday puzzle. Didn't know Yaya, couldn't think how to spell yarmulke, and had no idea about HD tablets. Luckily the perps saw me through.

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  9. There's a Dayton in Tenn. as well (site of the Monkey Trial) and probably others.

    Colorado hockey is the AVS in headlines, but the team name is Avalanche (singular)

    Any plant is a WEED if you don't want it there; Scott's weed-killer researchers consider grass in their plots a weed.

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  10. Easy peasy Monday. FIR. I could the NEA crossword puzzle each day as well as the LAT. When I solve I try to do them by starting at 1A and the build by only filling answers where I already have at least one letter. It is rare that I can do that with the LATS. Today I was able to do both in that manner.

    This method is only to challenge myself, but it is fun to try even if I am unable to complete the puzzle.

    Thanks, Doug and Sumdaze, for today's offering and analysis.

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  11. Took 5:26 today for me to "sleigh" this one.
    (Are sleigh beds still around?)

    Seemed a little tougher than a usual Monday to me.

    I didn't know today's actress (Yaya), soccer player (Ohara; Scarlet, where are you?), or Irish novelist (Edna).

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  12. Speaking of beautiful days, it was a beautiful couple of days in Richmond this past weekend. I went to a little urban park in my neighborhood here in the Fan on Saturday, and had a marvelous time. On Saturday afternoon, there was a big sign at the front of the park that said the park was reserved for a wedding from 1:00-6:00 p.m. However, I was there, along with a number of others, for most of the afternoon, and nobody tried to kick us out. Maybe they changed their minds?? Anyway, for whatever reason, we were able to continue to enjoy the beautiful green shadows on the grass and the delightful weather. As I said at the time , “if Paradise is like this, I can hardly wait to get there!”

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  13. Musings
    -I did the very easy puzzle the Omaha paper runs every day along with the LA Times’ version and then wasted time looking for a theme in that puzzle I did in a FLASH. Oops!
    -Doug’s fun offering and Renee’s write-up were worth the wait.
    -Joann planned our HRS carefully yesterday as we had 9 grad parties to attend
    -My TYPOS occur because my impatient mind runs much faster than I can type
    -Mahomes PASSING to tight end Kelce. No pair does it better.
    -FLN: MELTDOWN - Three days ago this incredible thing happened in Nebraska’s unicameral and built to a crescendo
    -Constructor Mary Lou Guizzo is proud to be from DAYTON, OH
    -To us, living in an RV looks like it would be fun for a day
    -I’m sure you will all have a nice day but I’m playing 18 holes with my grandson on a perfect day and then, as tradition dictates, we’re getting fabulous burgers at a small bar in a town of 50 people afterwards!

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  14. Wednesday on a Monday. Didn’t know how to spell YARMULKE, DNK YAYA. Finally did manage to FIR, but took longer than most Mondays. Thanx DP for getting the week started. And thanx Sumdaze for the terrific write-up. That mynah bird is amazing!

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  15. Husker, is that a one-hump or two-hump unicameral?

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  16. CED - Hey, that guy's got two shortarms!

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  17. Mondayish puzzle. Neat theme. I too had sneak before SKULK, although I really like that word. SKEDS took some reflection for me too.

    During the FLOWER POWER days, I put some big pastel colored flower decals on the sides of my beloved Corvair.

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  18. Good Morning! This seemed a bit of a challenge to start the week. Thanks, Doug. The upper middle was my last section to fill.
    I knew the Rabbi’s headwear but had no idea how to spell it. Seems like I still won’t the next time it appears in a CW.
    WO: YEh -> YEP
    Favorite clue: Piglet's MAMA. Cute!
    Perps for OHARA, LEANT, FLASH, YAYA & EDNA
    I filled all the themers and reveal but didn’t slow down long enough to put it all together. Not really one of my “must dos.” I like the recap for that. Thanks, sumdaze. Loved the MYNAH clip.

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  19. "You made your BED, now lie in it" (how can you lie in it if it's already made? 😲)

    Let me check the calendar...YEP it's Monday...my first across fill didn't come until I reached DNA! and still hadda perp HYDRO first for the D and not R. Luckily the brain synapses began firing and things started to move along....Inkovers: yes/yup/YEP

    Thought it said titled to a Brit, Your Majesty 😏..

    CAKE SHOP "slogan": FlourPOWER. 🥮. How can you tell it's a soccer team from USWNT?

    If you SORT laundry per instructions and only do a single item load for all the clothes that say "Wash Separately" it'll take days 😃

    Couldja buy a ton of forever STAMPS ergo never hafta pay any new price increase if they weren't used up? Or when it does sell em at a profit?

    Replace the Wildebeest at the zoo....RENEW
    Seein'.....DAYTON
    AKA...GOESBY
    Naval mutual punishment agreement.."An ___ for an ___...AYE"
    A Rabbi's "Dad" jokes....OYSTERCRACKERS

    Tried working outside at camp yesterday..The infamous Adirondack Black fly hordes were brutal, tiny but they draw blood..need one good hot day and they'll be gone.
    🦟🦟🦟

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  20. Fast FIR for a fun Monday run. DNK D-O's trio of gals, but it didn't matter. I spent more time chuckling over the review than doing the puzzle. Thanks, Sumdaze! TANTE NIQUE: My first car was a '62 Corvair Monza that I bought in '66 for $500 bucks. Great car, no matter what Ralph Nader said!

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  21. Thanks Doug for your carefully crafted Monday offering that I could enjoy and FIR. And thanks sumdaze for your extensive review, full of fun and info. The time you spent on it is appreciated!

    FAVE word today is SKULK followed closely by SPAWN. Sneak didn't appear on my grid since I waited, but I did notice quite a few other words starting with S in the puzzle.

    This SOFTY is signing off. Have a good day!

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  22. Google strikes again?

    What a co-inky-dink...
    I was looking thru my recommended YouTube list just after posting on the Blog, and imagine what a trivial surprise it was to find that google had sent me a video short about the company that sued Murphy bed for patent infringement!

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  23. Fun and a bit challenging puzzle, thanks Doug and a very interesting review Sumdaze!

    Do not know the actress YAYA but the word makes me laugh. Years ago my 3 yer old had a running fight with her friend. One of them would start the fight and it went like this: “YAYA” (yah yah), “don’t say YAYA”. “YAYA”. “I said DON’T SAY YAYA”, “YAYA’. and then there was a MELTDOWN. Katie, are you on this blog?

    HG @9:00 - remembering Rice and Montana.

    Happy day, all!

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  24. Easy Monday. TOE was my first fill. Mynah, stamp and yarmulke were among the many gimmes, providing perps for just the few I didn't know.
    HG, "My TYPOS occur because my impatient mind runs much faster than I can type."
    Me, too. Also my typing skills, as well as my always poor handwriting, have deteriorated with age. MISSTAKE could easily be among my typos.
    IPA is a favorite. We also like many varieties of Yellow Tail.
    As a tent camper for about 45 years, into my late seventies, I liked being closer to nature than possible in an RV. I had to give tenting up when my knees rebelled against driving in stakes.

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  25. Fun BED theme. Hand up had no idea RCA makes tablets. Learning moment. Cross with utterly unknown RAY and YAYA. WAGs to FIR.

    sumdaze Thank you for that memorably beautiful and psychedelic image of Yayoi Kusama and her POLKA DOTS art.

    You can see many a YARMULKE in my photo of my young cousin's Bar Mitzvah in 2004.

    From Yesterday:
    AnonT Thanks for the kind words and explanation about my Voltaire ENSHRINEE photo. I used the High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode to capture the bright highlights on the statue as well as the dark areas in the HALL.

    It is a merge of five images at different exposures. It still took a bit of Photoshop to even out the lighting. Thank you for the appreciation!

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  26. Good morning. Thank you, Doug Peterson, and thank you, Sumdaze.

    Easy puzzle, save for one word (YARMULKE) and a couple of the names (O'HARA, EDNA, YAYA), but the perps were fair. Had to wag the A in O'HARA/YARMULKE as the last entry.

    Had STeel before STAMP, and Scot before SKYE.

    Sumdaze, you can put me in that canp that differintiates spelling errors from typos :>)

    I've spent most of the morning in BED after spending too much time in the FLOWER beds this weekend. Saturday and Sunday was the start date for planting the annuals and the first two tomato plants. It's getting harder and harder to recover from all of the lawn and garden work. Going to have to scale back.

    Fun puzzle and wonderful review.

    #Adorable: Baby Tries Kiwi for the First Time

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  27. Yellowrocks @12:03: Have you tried using a mallet on those pesky tent stakes instead of your knees? (LOL- Just kiddin'!)

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  28. Bill from Cohoes, and Dayton, Texas not too far from Desper-(eight in Italian). I drove through it once.

    Jinx, agreed. A few shots here and there and Block could've been top ten. I think it was on the first hole, Block hit a driver 320 yards into the trap, then Rory stepped up and hit his 3 wood twenty yards beyond that same trap. I liked watching Hovland and Koepka go head to head, and Scheffler's charge.

    I golf like Koepka. We're both right-handed, we both use white golf balls and we both have a bag full of clubs. All similarities in our games disappear when we strike the ball :>)

    Lee, I also challenge myself with the solves. Just to make the solves more difficult. Some days, it is by working the outer perimeter of the grid first, then moving inward a row and column until done, trying to never read any clues until I get to that row and/or column.

    Other times, I start the solve by trying to get from top to bottom and west to east in the least amount of answers. I should have tried that today, because OYSTER CRACKERS was a grid spanner. Getting from top to bottom today would have been difficult in less than 5 moves. With 5 moves I could have done it with RENEW, MURPHY BROWN, MELT DOWN, OWE and WET MOP, but MELT DOWN would have taken a bit with just the M in place. 1 and 1 are the best possible due to gridspanners, but 3 and 3 would be excellent. Getting across the grid in 2 answers would be impossible because there would have to be an intersecting answer to tie them together.

    Today though, it was first solving the answers in the diagonal from the NE to the SW, then the diagonals from the mid-north to the mid-west, followed by the diagonals from the mid-east to the mid-south.

    See all y'all later n'at!

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  29. Neat Monday puzzle, Doug--a pleasure--many thanks. And your commentary is always a delight, Sumdaze, thanks for that too! And thank you for remembering that my Dad worked for RCA! Wish he were still here so I could tell him--he'd be so flattered to be remembered like this.

    Well, this puzzle definitely suggested a party to me, especially with people doing a RIVER DANCE --much safer than doing it in the OCEAN--and maybe with folks enjoying a POLKA after leaving the LEVEE.

    But my favorite part would be going to a CAKE SHOP afterwards, or maybe a place where you could order some OYSTERS, and sit at a table decorated by FLOWERs.

    All that would help us avoid a MELT DOWN, wouldn't it?

    Have a great week ahead, everybody.

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  30. FIR

    The theme was cleverly hidden until the reveal

    Enjoyed the puzzle and the wonderful recap - thanks, Doug and sumdaze

    Michael Block's performance @ the PGA Championship this past week has rekindled my desire to start playing again

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  31. Hola!

    It was counting day today so I'm really late to this party! Apparently some winter visitors are still here and that swells our collection. We are grateful to them! We also had money from the votive candles.

    So, when I finally got to Doug's puzzle it was a real treat and I felt SMUG after finishing it.
    What a surprise to learn the spelling of YARMULKE! I am a phonetic speller so never would have guessed that one.

    Since for many years I taught a class on Thursday nights I rarely saw MURPHY BROWN; only occasionally during breaks did I watch it.

    Every once in a while I watch Rachel RAY since I can't eat most of what she cooks.

    Learning moment for me that toll roads are called PIKES.

    I love POLKA dots on clothes.

    With the price of STAMPS increasing I shall have to cut back on Christmas cards. I used to send well over one hundred but with people dying, it has been reduced and now I'll have to pare it even more. That will be difficult.

    I also think of Misty's dad when I see RCA.

    Over time my knees have increasingly become CREAKIER.

    Casablanca is my all time favorite movie and I've watched it many times and so have heard AS TIME GOES BY quite often.

    I hope you are all enjoying a lovely, relaxing Monday!

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  32. Hi All!

    I made my BED (DW likes it that way) this morning at 5:30am. And then tried to suss out the puzzle. I had to print it 'cuz paper-guy doesn’t seem to have the same urgency as I on my route.

    Thanks Doug for the grid. Wednesday hard IMHO.
    //OK, gotta ask. Isn't Doug also the guy that does the Southwest magazines' airline puzzle too? I think I remember that(?)

    And thank you very kindly for the wonderful expo you put out today sumdaze. I still have stuff to click.

    WOs: Scot -> SKYE, tolls, RAe -> RAY, uRAL -> ARAL
    ESPs: It was so early, I don't remember. Let's just go with YAYA and end there.
    FAVE: I'm going w/ a theamer - FLOWER POWER. Mom was a hippie but she won't admit to that now [still takes a blunt, she does].

    So that's how you spell yamaka [sic]? I expected an H in there somewhere.

    {B+, A}

    LOL OYSTER CRACKERS, Ray-O!
    //they are the best on chili; soaks up all the fat & provides a crunch.

    YR - you have no idea how long it took this dyslexic to notice 14a was a TYPO.
    //amazingly, I am fast on a keyboard. I keep telling my co-workers they need to learn touch typing 'cuz it's so easy once you get the hang.
    And, I wouldn't have to wait on the dancing ellipses to see what they are going to say. (spell check is also very handy ;-))

    Picard - Wow! That's a lot of effort spent on one image but well worth it. #Art

    C'm'on TTP, you're still a young guy. Too many spoons in the pot is your problem ;-) //Pop is 72 and still swings a hammer or hoe like he was still 30.
    Also, was it Dayton? or Denton (where DW's friend taught the drummer of Deep Blue Something in English Lit.

    Lucina - I don't care what they cost, I'll paste a stamp on your Christmas card.

    BTW, DW is in Barcelona, Youngest is in Ireland, and Eldest went to a concert. Y'all are stuck w/ me & my loneliness ;-)

    Cheers, -T

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  33. I liked this puzzle. I usually like Doug Peterson's work. Enjoyed encountering some fun answers such as SOFTY, SKULK, YARMULKE, SPAWN, and CREAKIER. Did not enjoy the many 3-letter entries as much.

    Excellent write-up, sumdaze. Thanks.

    Husker Gary, regardless of one’s political party or one’s political philosophy, such behavior, it seems to me, is not only undignified, it also distracts from what the message is and invites only ridicule instead.

    LW and I had a lovely lunch and visit with our son today, since he was already in town at his San Jose office.

    Good reading you all.

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  34. DR: Asymmetrical grid, 14x15.
    ~ OMK

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  35. Jayce @ 5:54 pm, behavior like Georgia's MTG?

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  36. Jayce/Ray-O: let's cool it. The Corner is a friendly place and I think we all know were everyone stands on the red-blue spectrum [why does that seem gangsta?]

    So, (I told you everyone's gone and you're stuck w/ me) I had a serious case of the hiccups today... >2 hours thinking I was going to have a reversal of fortune / heart attack.

    I tried everything - sugar under the tongue, bending over and breathing, some weird thing my office mate said works every time.

    I finally built butter (hic), garlic, & garden basil (hic) over penne. Worked like a champ.
    It's good to be Italian ;-)

    Cheers, -T

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  37. I forgot to look for a theme

    I inked esau/ABEL. The former's fate was losing his birthright

    Rather slow going at first but then I speeded up

    Spelling YARMULKE is one thing But how to pronounce it Just as it's spelled I guessed(I see Anon-T has another one) And… btw my most useful class ever was typing as a junior. So helpful when I eventually used a keyboard

    TTP , adorable

    WC

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  38. Oof! I've had a busy day! Nice to sit down and read everyone's comments.
    I lucked out with YARMULKE because I spelled it like -T wrote, "yam__aka" then kept changing letters as the perps dictated. That gave me the "K" for SKULK.

    Thank you to ATL Granny and everyone else for your kind words! You make the Blog a good place to be.
    XXOO

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  39. I look forward to Mondays and the sumdaze write-up

    WC

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