Puzzling thoughts: So, after a two-month absence from blogging, my initial thought about today's crossword was what our constructor (Mr. Horton) offered at 41-across: ("Give me your best shot!":) BRING IT! And "bring it" he did, as this took me about 20 minutes to solve using my Across Lite software. As I alluded to a couple weeks ago, my solving skills may have atrophied a bit while I was hiatusing; but I have never been speedy when solving puzzles on-line. My typing skills are much worse than my solving skills, which slows me down considerably. Anyway, I finally got 'er done ...
This appears to be Landon's DEBUT at LAT; when I googled his name with a "crossword" reference, this is what came up. Congratulations Landon on your published puzzle(s); I'm sure we'll be seeing more from you in the future ...
So, if my "theme title" didn't give this away, the basic tie-in to all four entries is the addition of the letters "DLE" to common items. This added syllable gave the items a clever and punny twist. For example:
20-across. Table-tennis implement that lacks a partner?: BACHELOR PADDLE. I had a BACHELOR PAD for several years but don't miss it. Although, if it looked like this one ...
33-across. Combo deal of frankfurters, ketchup, mustard, relish, etc.?: HOT DOG BUNDLE. More truth than fiction in this entry ... remove the ketchup, make sure the mustard is either dark or spicy, make sure the relish is "dill", add some chopped red onions and sauerkraut, and you have the Chairman's perfect HOT DOG BUNDLE. The ones at Costco are pretty tasty, and contain some of the condiments that Moe likes
40-across. Sketch of a crime-fighting canine?: SCOOBY DOODLE. Probably my favorite of the four
And last, but not least ... 54-across. Gift for someone who loves the smell of potato chips?: PRINGLES CANDLE. It looks like someone else had this idea:
This kind of wordplay is right up the Chairman's alley ... and prompted me to come up with a Moe-ku. Perhaps Landon had this as a backup entry for today's puzzle?? Clue and answer in haiku format:
Recipient of
Deceased man's e-book reader?
His NEXT OF KINDLE
{groan}
Here is the grid:
Across:
1. Treat with supreme care: BABY. Desper-otto: did you get this one straight away? I didn't
5. Not messy: NEAT. Or how I like my Whisky/Whiskey pours ... sorry, Irish Miss! A CSO to a former Crossword Corner regular, Tinbeni
9. Piracy, e.g.: THEFT.
14. Prefix with futurism: AFRO. Friday clue
15. Wile E. Coyote's preferred supplier: ACME. Landon appears - from his LinkedIn account photo - to be a Gen X'er, so he was probably familiar with this from watching cartoons as a lad. Goes with 17-across. (Warner __:) BROS. The studio that produced this cartoon
35-across. (Tuscan waterway:) ARNO. Goes with 16-across. (35-Across, for one:) RIVER. We've had this one before
18. Couple: ITEM. PAIR also fit and that was what I inserted first
19. Cohesion: UNITY.
23. Impediments to inbox zero: E-MAILS. Once I got the perps, this filled in itself
24. Former NFLer Michael portrayed in "The Blind Side": OHER. Goes with 45-across. (Actress Bullock:) SANDRA, who played Michael's adopted mom; as well as 17-across (it's a Warner BROS production). Great story; decent film
25. "__ Misérables": LES.
26. Seder, e.g.: MEAL. I had "RITE" as my first guess; was I correct in saying that the SEDER is a RITE?
29. Once-common glove box item: AAA MAP. Not just any MAP ... a AAA map. They (AAA) always included one or two mistakes on their maps to ensure that no one infringed on their copyright(s)
38. "The Last of Us" cable network: HBO. WAG filled by perps
39. Hair __: CLIP. Moe is pretty much "sans" hair ... CLIP was not my first thought
46. Nimble: SPRY.
47. Tax org.: IRS.
50. Annex: WING.
52. Childish denial: ARE NOT. AM TOO was too short
58. Singapore __: SLING. Wow! Hadn't heard of this cocktail in a long, long time. Here is the recipe
59. Honolulu's island: OAHU.
60. Level: TIER.
61. Rapper Minaj: NICKI. Moe-ku 2:
When rapper NICKI
Hooked up with roommates, it's called:
A Minaj à trois
62. Like some coffee tables: OVAL. Ours is rectangular
63. Harold's "Ghostbusters" role: EGON. Who you gonna call??
64. Bare minimum: LEAST.
65. Jumbo: MEGA.
66. Blush wine: ROSE. Believe it or not, most rosé wine is not sweet. The wine is derived primarily from red grape varietals, and very little skin contact is seen during the crushing of the grapes and/or the fermentation process. Great for summer meals; we drink it all year long in Arizona
Down:
1. Duolingo alternative: BABBEL. 1-across and 1-down almost made this puzzle unsolvable for me. Quite obviously, I didn't know what Duolingo was (I do recall hearing the word, though), and I sure didn't know any familiar six-letter words that ended in BEL. I perped and WAG'd my way through this NW corner; it was my last section to fill
2. Triangular abode: A FRAME. TEEPEE was my first guess
3. __ area: brain region linked to speech: BROCAS. After guessing this word, I looked it up to confirm
4. Super Mario World dinosaur: YOSHI. Another WAG that seemed correct when I placed it into this space. I thought at first that SOSHI was its name, but once BABY was perped ...
5. Tool tapped by a hammer: NAILSET. This word hasn't appeared in a major crossword puzzle in awhile
6. Opposite of endo-: ECTO.
7. USA part: Abbr.: AMER.
8. Pace: TEMPO.
9. Canadian prime minister: TRUDEAU. CSO to CanadianEh!, but the recent big news about Pierre is that he and his wife of 18 years are getting a divorce ... any more "dirt" you can spread on this, C-Eh!?
10. Obstacle: HINDRANCE. Another lesser used crossword
11. Pernicious: EVIL. Friday clue
12. Swanky party: FETE.
13. Give it a whirl: TRY. Hmmm ... I recently submitted a puzzle that had "GIVE IT A WHIRL" as the reveal ... the puzzle wasn't accepted ... but now this clue shows up ... coincidence?
21. Red Muppet who visits Grouchland: ELMO. You had me at "Red Muppet"
22. Literary captain whose last words are "Thus, I give up the spear!": AHAB. Easily filled
27. Ritalin target, for short: ADHD.
28. Chicano rock band Los __: LOBOS. Most know this group for their song "La Bamba". Here is one that also popped up in a Google search
30. 16th century date: MDL. For as clever as this puzzle was, I'm OK with this; most editor's frown on using roman numerals unless absolutely necessary
31. Oscar winner Mahershala: ALI. Total WAG/perp; hadn't seen his movies or TV programs ... it happens!
32. Gusto: PEP. This word makes me think of the PEP Boys ... Manny, Moe, and Jack
33. Bamboozles: HOODWINKS. Moe-ku 3:
Clever bamboozler
Fashioned a new sweatshirt by
Adding some HOOD WINKS
34. "The __ Lab": Netflix docuseries hosted by Gwyneth Paltrow: GOOP. GOOP has become an oft-used word recently in x-word puzzles; probably because of this docuseries' popularity
35. Donkey: ASS.
36. Classic TV brand: RCA.
37. __ sequitur: NON.
42. Andrew who founded the Forward Party in 2021: YANG. Rumors are that he might run for Prez in 2024
43. Bram Stoker horror novel: DRACULA.
44. "His Dark Materials" heroine: LYRA. Margaret was familiar with her; not I
47. Rainbow hue: INDIGO. ROY G BIV (acronym for remembering): RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO, and VIOLET. The seven colors of the rainbow
48. Birling contests: ROLEOS. This crossword entry hasn't been used in quite awhile, either. Having perped the "L" I knew it wasn't RODEOS
49. "Tristram Shandy" author: STERNE. Has someone been keeping track of the proper names today? In case anyone wondered: [according to Wikipedia] "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, also known as Tristram Shandy, is a novel by Laurence STERNE, inspired by Don Quixote. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1759, and seven others following over the next seven years (vols. 3 and 4, 1761; vols. 5 and 6, 1762"
51. Low spirits: GLOOM. Interpreting this clue a different way ... the "low spirits" in my liquor cabinet include vodka, gin and rum - are mostly the ones used for mixers ... the top spirits (top shelf) are closer at hand! ;^)
53. Input: ENTER.
54. Ballet bend: PLIE.
55. Costa __: RICA.
56. Spot for Christmas lights: EAVE. Although TREE works, too
57. Carpet choice: SHAG. This almost fits with one of the theme entries (SCOOBY DOODLE) as SHAGgy was one of the human characters in the cartoon series
58. Weekly NBC show, for short: SNL.
Well, here we are at the conclusion of today's recap. I hope you'll offer YOUR comments below. In keeping with my new puzzle rating score (MOES scale), this one came in at a solid 5 point 6 ... See y'uns in a couple weeks ...
41 comments:
Legend is, the Tower of BABBLE
Is when people started to travel.
From Babylon
To hither and yon,
Since language began to unravel!
A HOODWINK is the ultimate HINDRANCE.
Can't see near, can't see distance.
Blindfolded eyes
Mean a surprise --
Will it be good or bad in this instance?
This was a toughie, for sure, as befits a Friday. But after I got the first themed answer, the gimmick was obvious, and that helped me solve the rest of the themed answers quite a bit. Probably, the toughest thing for me to get was the “AAA Map” which, in retrospect, also seems pretty obvious, although it certainly didn’t as I was solving it. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
BABY did not come to me immediately, but no foul. What raises d-o's ire is when the 1a or 1d answer is obvious...but wrong. Hand up for TEEPEE/AFRAME. Indigo got Plutoed, making ROY G BIV obsolete. Impressive debut, Landon. Welcome back, C-Moe. (After owning three, or was it four, dead Kindles, d-o now does his reading on his phone with the Kindle app.)
It's been more than a month since rain was last seen around here. Temps have been flirting with (or exceeding) 100° ever since. It's starting to get tedious.
Took 7:03 today for me to take this one for a spindle.
Unknowns for me included today's author (Sterne), today's heroine (Lyra), Goop, Afro, Arno, "birling", and the brain area.
Thanks to my kids' interests when they were younger, I knew Elmo and Yoshi.
Thanks, D-O, that's what I thought when I saw "indigo."
Fridays seem to have become the add/subtract letters day.
Moe, when I solved 41 down, (oops, not 41 Across), I thought of James Holzhauer of Jeopardy fame. He too is always up for a challenge.
Thanks Landon and congrats on your Corner debut. You're going to like it here. And thanks for the Friday FIR!
Thanks MOE for the explication and for the poetry. It's great to have you back. Like you, I didn't treat 1A with 1A, so the NW was the last to fall. So you'd rate this one between an APATITE and a FELDSPAR?
A few favs:
15A ACME. We haven't seen Wiley in these parts for a while. It's great to have him back too. I once showed one of his cartoons to grandson #3 and he pestered me for hours to show him more.
35A ARNO. Teri and I bought new wedding rings in a shop on the Ponte Vecchio that bridges this river.
1D BABBLE. An effort to overcome the BABEL described in Genesis 11:1–9.
2D A FRAME. Started with TEEPEE and then tried a WIGWAM before finally abiding in this one.
9D TRUDEAU. The other TRUDEAU is married to Jane Pauley.
57D SHAG. Brit slang for a something sometimes done on deep carpets.
Cheers,
Bill
FIW, missing AeRO x AeRAME. Shoulda gotten AFRAME, but I didn't see it until our Chairman threw the V8 can and it grazed the ol' cranium. Erased even for TIER.
Today is:
NATIONAL SON’S AND DAUGHTER’S DAY
PLAY IN THE SAND DAY
NATIONAL RASPBERRY BOMBE DAY
NATIONAL PRESIDENTIAL JOKE DAY
Don't know if presidential joke day honors presidents as butts of jokes or being jokers. Here's a sampling of both:
What's the difference between an argument in kindergarten and the presidential debate?
About 70 years.
Harry Truman: "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference."
George H. W. Bush: "People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that."
Piracy wasn't just THEFT, it was usually accompanied with murder. Usually the crew (and passengers, if any) of the pirated ship were thrown into the sea. As an adult, it bothers me that parents (including mine) are OK with kids flying pirate's flags.
I learned that "annex" is a synonym for "appendix" in international business documents.
I was in a restaurant in Ashland, VA that had a laminated menu offering "ROSE-a" wine by the "craft" or the "half craft."
NON Sequitur, by Wiley. One of my favorite comic strips. My favorite character is Lucy the horse.
FLN: Vid said "... having spent so many weeks in the ICU can rob your brain and your mind, and some of that is irreversible." Guess the ICU and Jose Quevero have a lot in common.
Thanks to Landon for the challenge that I was almost up to, and to our Chairman for pointing out my downfall.
FIW. The NW was my downfall. Didn't see baby and tried to make pats work. Unfortunately the perps were of no help. Babbel, brocas, and Yoshi weren't on my radar at all.
I have never heard the term Afrofuturism before. Otherwise, this puzzle was a slam dunk for me.
I knew Goop (lower-case oop) from long ago as the lanolin-based hand cleaner for removing grease and motor oil. I don't know how Paltrow got around the copyrights.
Jinx, PIRACY also applies to artistic and music copies, patent violations, and other intellectual theft.
I worked from bottom to top. This seemed too easy for a Friday until I tanked in the NW. I first thought of BROS, but nixed it because it was in shortened form. If I had just penciled it in it would have given me AFRAME. I looked up YOSHI, which rang a bell and BROCA, which didn't. I saw the added DLE early on which helped.
Ketchup, mustard and relish together are Alan's hot dog condiments.
Shag carpet goes along with this week's avocado and harvest gold of the 70's.
Long ago in WV an AAA map's route turned out to be an unimproved rutted dirt road over a steep mountain. I showed the map to an attendant at a gas station who said only vehicles like trucks and Jeeps could travel it. I had to go more than a half hour out of my way to get back on track. But the GPS has misdirected me twice over the years, also.
I believe that kids look at pirates and cowboys vs Indians as almost the same as fairy tales, even though they were real people. Hansel and Gretel were abandoned in the woods by their parents. They shove the wicked witch into the oven before she can roast them in it. The Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote drop things like anvils on each other and dynamite each other and we think nothing of it. If history is taught correctly real pirates, cowboys and Indians can be great hooks to interest kids.
I too worked this really nice puzzle from the bottom and flew through it until also for me the NW slowed me down. I eventually filled in AFRO and BROCAS, not knowing the latter or understanding the former.
I also didn’t know LYRA and OHER, but perps helped me out.
But all in all a fun puzzle. C-Moe. You have not lost your touch.
Tristam Shandy is a hilarious novel that I have read more than once.
Another unusually hot day with no rain.
Just like the Chairman the NW was a zoo of unknowns. I managed to get them all but Duolingo, BROCAS, YOSHI, and AFRO-futurism were new to me. I worked the Canadian border right to left, after guessing BACHELOR, which led to B-A-B-B-E-L, not BABEL (knew it from radio commercials). Rosetta Stone wouldn't fit. After the first DLE, the rest were easy.
WAGS and perps today-OHER, YANG, LOBOS, EGON, HBO, STERNE, GOOP, LYRA(she must be the star of the show)
A-FRAME- fyi, a TEEPEE is not triangular; neither is WIGWAM. they are CONICAL
SPRY-not at this age and I'm getting cabin fever from being in the house for 5 straight days due to COVID.
HOT DOG COMBO- I don't know what it costs at COSTCO but SAM'S lowered their price from $1.49 to $1.38. But they didn't lower the price of roasted chickens. It's a cheap lunch date for us; two combos and an ice cream to split for under $5.00.
This puzzle left me cold. S/B called "Proper Name Thursday puzzle" yuk.
My route today was down the right side and up the left. When the theme, adding DLE became obvious, the theme fills became obvious.
The NW was a bit sticky until l I went with BABY, my first guess and filled in BABBEL which I knew. Never heard of AFROFUTURISM, but it perped in.
Felicitations to Landon on his premiere outing and welcome back to Moe for his fine review. No practice needed to get back in the lineup.
Very easy for Friday. Last to fall was TIER crossed with ROLEAS (?). Alas yes I FIW, put EGaN. never heard of Steene. MDL coulda been MDI, I don’t mind Roman numerals cuz they’re letters. Not too keen on numbers used as letters like the “1” as an L
Unfamiliar with the term AFRO futurism, guess cuz it’s Friday the usual clues for the common answer AFRO were too easy.
HOTDOGBUNDLE,🌭 a new one for me (sounds like “the works!!”). …I had the HO but HOrnswaggles wuz a few too many letters so I didn’t get HOODWINKED
“Blush wine” A CSO to RosE? Is she really RosÉ 🍷😊
Can’t put Christmas lights on the EAVE anymore (fear of falling) but had to change from incorrect tree 🎄
On the Ponte Vecchio there ____ cheap jewelry shops…….ARNO
When Harrison Ford wandered off the set everyone queried…“Where did _____ ?“….. INDIGO
Our over budget expenses ______… Brocus
Head to camp after work for the weekend to see what’s left after the
storm.
Good Morning! Welcome Landon, and thanks for a fun puzzle.
And welcome back Chairman Moe!! Your haikus are priceless!! You haven’t lost a m.m. of your wit!!
I saw the theme as the puzzle developed & it helped me get to the finish line.
I caved and had to google ROLEO, STERNE and EGON in the SE
WO: car -> AAA MAP
All perps for BROCAS, YOSHI, OHER, YANG, LYRA and NICKI.
SCOOBY DOO – several years ago the road crew came around to seal cracks in the pavement. As a result, and a crew member with artistic flair, we have a neighborhood Scooby Doo!!
(Sorry I can't get the picture to copy into my comment)
FLN: Jayce, RE: Comments/ad – that happens to me! I just thought it was part of the Blog income…. Do I just keep using the back arrow or is it malware?
Good Morning:
I still haven’t gotten used to the absence of challenging Friday offerings, Ala Jeffrey Wechsler, so, therefore, I’m usually ambivalent, at best, solving what I consider earlier week themes and reduced level of difficulty offerings. This is no reflection on or criticism of the constructor, just a personal opinion and preference. Babbel, Lyra, Yoshi, and Egon were unknown, and I misstepped on Even/Tier and Rodeos/Roleos. Scooby Doodle was my favorite, also. Props for the low (11) number of three letter words but, IMO, nine fill-in-the-blank clues are not only too many, but are totally unnecessary, especially in a Friday grid.
Thanks, Landon, and congrats on your debut and thanks, Moe, for the fun and facts, especially your much-missed Moe-kus. I also like your MOES rating scale feature. Welcome back and rest assured that you haven’t missed a beat with your humor and blogability! 😉 (BTW, I was almost in dire straits for a week and a half while my ice maker was on the fritz, but the dastardly ice cube trays saved the day!) 🥃
Have a great day.
RAY-O-S – you got me!!! 🤣🤣🤣 BLUSH: a) Beringer White Zin is one of my favorites, and b) the bane of my youth was blushing. I could never hide my embarrassment because my face revealed it, which always lead to someone having to say, “You’re blushing!” DUH!! As if I didn’t know...😊
Irish M…. no ice maker?? horrible😳. So sorry. Must take one whole minute longer to make a Bloody Mary using ice trays🍹…. Thoughts and prayers 😁😄😄😄
Our fridge will be 30 years old next year, No ice maker, I don’t know how but we somehow have survived 😅
Our dishwasher hasn’t been working for a month. Can’t find anyone who will even come and look at it . Doing dishes when I get home by hand like a scullery maid from Dowtown Abbey cuz DW says she’s cooks dinner so I wash (when I should be Netflix binging 😫)
Ray O @ 10:57 ~ Just goes to show the difference in one’s priorities. I have a perfectly fine dishwasher which I rarely use as I find cleaning up for just myself is easy by hand. If I have an unusually large mess of utensils, pot and pans, then I’ll use the dishwasher. OTOH, an ice maker is my number 1 can’t-do-without luxury. BTW, I make Bloody Marys only when I have company but daily doses of Dewar’s require lots of ice! 🤣
DNF. Done in by the NW. Couldn't get any traction, and had to TITT. Too much to do today, but I did enjoy CMoes tour.
Today was a lot of fun - one of those where knowing the theme after the first solve sped along the solving of other theme answers with almost no perps!
One of my sons prefers BABBEL over DUOLINGO for learning a new language. He's very adept at picking up new languages. I have other retired friends who have enjoyed learning a new language just for the fun of it-one is a retired nurse in her 70's who is over 400 days on the app learning French.
Someone sent me this last week (author unknown) and it made me think of CM with his moe-kus:
"There once was a man
from Cork, who got limericks
and haikus confused"
Thanks for the blog CM and congrats on the puzzle debut, Landon
I had no idea this blog existed, but I love it! Thanks for all the comments on my LAT debut! It’s fun to see what parts were difficult for everyone, because I was thinking the SE corner would be the hardest. Of course that’s probably because many of my original clues in the NW were changed to a Friday level of difficulty.
As many others mentioned, the NW was a sea of unknowns, and took quite a while to work through. “Afro futurism”? Never heard of it. And DNK BROCAS or YOSHI. It took a while for BABY to finally occur to me, filling BABBEL got me started in the NW. a great many other things I DNK: ROLEOS, STERNE, EGON, ALI, LYRA, OHER…. Oy, how did I ever manage to FIR?? Also thought EXO was the opposite of ENDO, but it didn’t fit. A tough challenge even for a Friday, but after almost giving up a few times, doable….eventually. Thanx for the workout, LH. And thanx too for the outstanding write-up, C-Moe, nice to see you back. BTW, you have a typo in your write up: it’s 41 Down, not Across.
Landon, it's a real treat for us when a constructor stops by the Corner. Don't be a stranger.
Landon, thanks for your comments. We like it when a constructor joins the corner. Interesting tidbit about the NW being changed.
My white-out worked overtime today but I FIR. I didn’t know what a birling contest was so I googled and it is logrolling .. outdoor sport of the American lumberjack. Congrats on you debut Landon. A clever and Friday worthy puzzle…..kkFlorida
I liked this puzzle, even though the NW and the SE gave me fits. I had to ask Jack for help on a couple of answers so I can’t claim FIR.
I still miss those AAA Triptics when we do a driving trip - fun to flip the pages one by one as the destination neared.
Thanks for a fun Friday, Landon, and the tour was a bona fide Tour de Force, CM - thank you.
Hola!
WEES. You all have echoed my sentiments about this puzzle. Most of it was fun but the NW really stumped me. It may be because I had a major bout of insomnia last night and I was supposed to go to a funeral today.
The NE corner filled immediately and lulled me into thinking the rest would be just as quick. NOT! Well, yes except that YOSHI and BROCAS would not yield to me. The first is unknown and the latter is deeply buried in my brain. I finished by checking the grid to my utter horror.
ACME of course was my first fill. BACHELOR PADDLE was clever but in my still sleepy state I could not get beyond PADDLE.???
Landon Horton, I also offer my thanks to you for your appearance here. It is very encouraging when the constructor comments. I hope we see more of your puzzles and that I am more alert when they appear.
AAA MAP is how we arrived at our destinations so often in the past. I still like a paper MAP so I can see the surrounding areas of where I'm going.
I agree with Big Easy about the hot dog meal at Cosco. It used to be a regular Friday treat for my and my late friend, Betty, when she lived here.
Since sleep evaded me last night I finished watching "Doctor Garcia's Patients" on Netflix. That is an A-one movie.
I hope your day is going well, everyone!
Chairman Moe helps us through this Horton PZL.
I found the NW corner toughest as well. I couldn't crack it until I got 20A. Sometimes ya gotta work backwards from the long fill.
This would have been a perfect finish except for 48D and my bad spelling of 63A (See Diagonal Report [DR] below).
Gotta kick outta the theme! PRINGLES CANDLE was the least fave for me because I didn't make the connection between the scent of a candle and the "smell" of a "gift." My bad.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals, three on the near side.
The main (near) diag gives us an anagram (13 of 15) that depends on my misspelling of EGON as EGAN, a true Ghostbuster's error!
This anagram is what someone who yells BRING IT might scream at the next high-risk bozo.
Such encouragement might well be to...
"BE FOOLHARDIER"!
I have not done the puzzle yet nor read any comments yet. I wanted to say this first.
TTP, thank you for your advice last night at 9:21 PM. I have followed your instructions: I downloaded the Microsoft Security Scanner and ran it. It found no infections. Just to make doubly sure, I downloaded Malwarebyes and ran a scan. No infections found. (Windows Defender also found no infections.) But guess what? Just before reaching this page just now, I got the same ad. It also happens on my iPhone and on my iPad. As I described yesterday, the first time I saw that ad I clicked the "X" to close the ad and, boom, my PC became infected. I ran Windows Defender, which identified and removed 2 files. Ever since then my PC has been clean. I don't think my iPhone and iPad are infected either, especially since I was careful not to click the "X" in the ad. Just wanted to let you know.
Now I'll do the puzzle.
Sherry….today is Friday.
Ray O…..if the dishwasher is over 10 years old don’t fix it, replace it. Lowe’s has a Bosch tip line DW marked down from $1350 to $1100 until Wednesday. I have a similar model, just bought, it’s wonderful and so quiet.
Jayce, ok.
You didn't say what the Ad is about. Is it legitimate or shady? Is it the same Ad every time ? If so, I would suspect that your browser has been hijacked. Try accessing the blog using a different browser (eg Firefox, Chrome, Edge) than what you normally use. It may give you some additional insight as to where your problem is. Read about browser hijack here:
https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/threats/browser-hijacker
Also, you didn't mention what the names of the two files that were removed. Next time, jot them down and then google them. You may find additional info that tells you more about the malware.
TTP, thanks. Sorry I didn't jot down the names of the 2 files that were removed. At this moment I don't remember whether the names were even shown. Next time I see the ad I will do a screen capture of it for you.
Gosh, the ad popped up again. It is an ad for "Free download - Malwarebytes". That's the same ad as appeared the last time. As I recall, before I downloaded Malwarebytes in order to do a scan, it was a different ad. I saved this one as a screenshot in PowerPoint (pptx). Would you like me to email it to you, TTP?
I didn't click "Close", so my PC doesn't have any bad files. I could do it on purpose in order to deliberately get infected with them and then try to note down their names as I remove them. What the heck, I'll go now and do just that.
Thanks again for your advice.
Oh, I forgot to mention that the browser I use is Edge. I don't have any other browser on my PC so I can't try another one. Also, the same thing happens on my iDevices running iOS 16.6.
Please note that RosE at 10:18 AM posted:
"FLN: Jayce, RE: Comments/ad – that happens to me! I just thought it was part of the Blog income…. Do I just keep using the back arrow or is it malware?"
Jayce, thanks for the additional info.
Thanks, but I don't need a copy of the image. It occured to me, based on your getting an Ad for MalwareBytes after searching for it, that you are getting legitimate Ads.
When I'm reading on my PC, I get Ads at the top of the main blog page before the write up, and along the right side.
What I would ask you to do is to look very closely at each corner of the Ads. Look for a little right facing triangle in a robin's egg blue color, along with a little blue x. Click the triangle, not the x.
You'll get a Google page explaining why you are getting certain Ads, info about that particular advertiser, an option to report (to Google) a problem about the Ad, and an option to opt out of some Ads at the bottom of the page.
The part about clicking on Comments and getting an Ad is new to me. I right click the Comments link and "open in a New Tab." I don't get it, so this is new to me, but if you see that little blue triangle, it is coming from Google and is not a browser hijack, and it is also not malware.
However, if you believe that a particular Ad is not on the up and up, you can report it to google.
RosE, yes, Google makes money with all of the ads. Blogger is a Google App that is free to users.
This blogspot is not infected with Malware. Occasionally, a spammer will be able to post a comment that has a link or links to a site that is phising or that contains malware. Sometimes they will even have a blue username that is actually a link to a suspicious site. However, almost all spam attempts are being filtered out before making it to the comments section. When they do make it to the comments, you can generally tell which ones are spam.
The telltale indications are along the lines of subject matter that is inconsistent with what is in the crossword discussion or tangents that we take. Examples of those that are currently in the spam filter are:
- An anon commenting about the charms of normal skin (and providing a link to an article)
- Someone commenting "Nice Blog" and then providing a link for 'Help with Brother printers".
- Someone marketing office workstations, interiors and architectures.
Others are in foreign languages, or are promoting businesses or services in other countries.
You'll recognize them. Just don't click on them to explore. If they manage to get through, one of us will remove them.
Hola everyone, and dear Lucina. I am surprised that I am getting to post, right behind you ....!?! Thank you for all your kind words, the other night.****
****This post was delayed and posted five hours later...
Thank you Landon for a very challenging puzzle, .... since it is a Friday, a daunting challenge is to be expected.
Thank you MM or Chairman Moe for very interesting blog commentary. Your personal takes on some of the clues were very fascinating.
Thank you TTP, for all the trouble you take to keep the blog, malware free ....
.... and also produce valuable advice ( most of which I cannot understand and have no idea of ... ;-o) .... ) in an effort to help other people keep malware from their computers.
Vidwan, I try.
Welcome back. I must admit that I feared the worst for both you and Tinbeni, given your long absences.
With all of this talk about ads, and in conjunction with today's creative puzzle, my title would have been "Addle" or perhaps "Adddle"
I was certainly addled for a bit, but not by the added DLE. That helped lock in a few uncertain answers.
I nailed YOSHI. Don't know why, as I have never played any Mario Bros games. Perhaps from past crossword puzzles. BROCAS was perps.
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