Constructor Hanh Huynh recently made his debut with the LA Times
(July 7th, 2023), and now he's back with an exploration of
Critter Band Radio
We all know that animals use species-specific language to communicate
with one another. Hahn has apparently discovered that they have recently
begun to adopt modern human communications technology to develop a rather
cryptic form of inter-species communication, a kind of "pigeon trucker"
lingo derived from
Citizens Band Radio (CBR).
Each of his 5 themers are two-way exchanges in what could be
called Critter Band Radio. As they are a bit difficult to
follow I've taken the liberty of italicizing the speakers in
each clue; followed it with my translation of what was said (YMMV); and
provided a real-life example of the resulting fill ...
17A.
Gnat: "Bug spray sighting. Request for assistance." Bee: "__. Backup is on the way.":
FLY STANDBY.
Gnat (FLY) needs help. Bee has called AAA and radios
Gnat to STANDBY.
Here are three tips to FLY STANDBY like a pro ...
26A. Kittens: "Dogs, do you read us?" Puppy: "__. You're coming in loud and clear.": COPY CATS.
Kittens (CATS) are not sure their message is getting thru and Puppy radios back that their COPY has been received.
They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ...
36A. Bunny: "Come in, Hare. Return to base." Hare: "__. Wilco.": ROGER RABBIT.
Bunny (wife) has messaged hubby Hare (RABBIT) (who has been out on the town). "Where are you? He replies ROGER [-Wilco] (short for "will comply"), I'll come home right away.
Translation: Hare replies that he's headed home (with his cotton tail between his legs).
ROGER RABBIT is of course the protagonist of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, the ground breaking movie combining toons and live actors. Here's ROGER RABBIT's famous femme fatale wife Jessica Rabbit, a bunny of a different sort, voiced by real life femme fatale Kathleen Turner ...
50A. Bear: "Doe? Stag? Any deer got your ears on?" Deer: "__.": FAWN OVER.
Translation: Bear (either a smokey or a real bear prowling for prey): "Any members of the Cervidae family -- are you listening?" Deer: "Yeah, awaiting further instructions". Next the Bear might say Deer, meet me in the glen in 5 minutes".
As it turns out this Deer meets someone from Japan. In this early experiment in cartoon realism (with an uncredited soundtrack by Giochino Rossini) we can assume that FAWN OVER is meant literally ...
57. Pig: "Hen, put the hammer down." Hen: "Catch you on the flip-flop: __.": CHICKEN OUT.
Translation: Pig: "Floor it!" Hen: don't have time to talk; see you on the return trip".
CHICKEN OUT is also a metaphor for losing one's nerve. Here's Smokey and the Bandit with the most famous CHICKEN OUT scene ever filmed (with real CBR lingo) ...
Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Rae who plays President Barbie in "Barbie": ISSA. I think
there's a message in here somewhere ...
5. "We __ Overcome": SHALL. We're still waiting ...
10. Piedmont bubbly: ASTI.
14. Former name of a film-rating org.: MPAA. See next clue ...
15. Natasha's "Russian Doll" role: NADIA. Imagine Groundhog Night -- Natasha Lyonne plays Nadia Vulvokov, a software engineer who finds herself reliving her 36th birthday party in an ongoing time loop wherein she repeatedly dies and the process begins again. The trailer for Russian Doll was Rated R.
16. Like lemon drops: TART.
17. [Theme clue]
19. Letter-shaped fastener: T NUT. Here's the kind used to hold the plywood sides in our garden cart to the frame. I've had to replace one of them in the last thirty years or so ...
|
| T-NUT |
20. NBA stat: REB. Rebounds
21. Meas. of time: HRS. Hours.
22. Co-op divisions: UNITS.
24. Milne character with a "Gloomy Place": EEYORE. This was the most upbeat EEYORE clip I could find! ...
26. [Theme clue]
29. Primer mes del año: ENERO. January. La lección de español de hoy.
30. Prohibit: BAN.
31. Seating assistant: USHER. Last Thursday I ran a clip of a
movie for this fill based on a story by Edgar Alan POE.
This week I'll just help you find your clue. Number 31 right?
32. Stood the test of time: ENDURED.
35. "__ Twist, Scientist": kid-lit bestseller: ADA.
ADA Twist, Scientist
is a 2016 children's picture book written by Andrea Beaty and
illustrated by David Roberts. The story was well received and praised
for encouraging children, especially girls, to develop an interest in STEM.
The book also received a television series adaptation in 2021. Here's
the trailer
Our kid-lit heroine was named for the first computer scientist, Lady ADA Lovelace, who is also the namesake for a programming language ...
39. Wine datum: AGE.
41. Dished the dirt: SPILLED.
42. Lugged: TOTED.
45. Moray __: EEL. Creepy critters found at the National Aquarium in Baltimore -- and other places ...
46. Paper quantities: REAMS.
50. [Theme clue]
52. Stuck: IN A RUT.
53. Resulted in: LED TO.
54. Jewelry retailer Alex and __: ANI. Looks like ANI DiFranco and ANIkin Skywalker have competition in the cruciverbal world. There's one right up the road from me in Towson, MD. Here's a sample of their work ...
55. L.A. bus-and-rail overseer: MTA.
56. Uncommon Scrabble outcomes: TIES. The game of Scrabble© is manufactured by Hasbro, Inc. but for some reason they maintain the "official rules" in a single image PDF file, which can't be easily searched for text (I drew the line at running it thru an OCR app!). For the purposes of this review we will use the wikiHow How Do I Play Scrabble? (Official Rules and Tips to Score Big) which states that "If there’s a tie, then the player with the highest score before any deductions wins." It seems to me that this doesn't address the possibility that both players could have the same total for unplayed letters. Just pray that this never happens when you're vying with a rabid player (like my youngest sister! 💓)
57. [Theme clue]
61. Astrobiology org.: SETI. Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. There doesn't seem to be a lot of it on Earth, so I don't know why scientists hope to find any on the other side of the Universe 😁. But Earthlings are a curious lot and unofficially SETI has been around as early as 1896, when Nikola Tesla suggested that an extreme version of his wireless electrical transmission system could be used to contact beings on Mars. The trick of course is distinguishing "intelligent signals" (from intelligent beings) from "unintelligent" signals arising from "natural causes". The latest approach to this problem is to use Artificial Intelligence to aid in this search. Certainly an AI will know intelligence when it sees it, right?.
62. La Festa di San Valentino emotion: AMORE. Today's Italian lesson. Saint Valentine (Italian: San Valentino; Latin: Valentinus) was a 3rd-century Roman saint and martyr commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his Saints' Day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. He is also a patron saint of Terni, Italy, epilepsy and beekeepers.
63. German spouse: FRAU.
64. "Hey, c'mere!": PSST.
65. Introvert: LONER.
66. Country star Lovett: LYLE. Finally some music! LYLE Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is an American country singer, songwriter, record producer and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded 13 albums and released 25 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man" (lyrics) ...
1. "Now's a good time": IM FREE. ... or at least reasonable.
2. Abdominal organ: SPLEEN. Everything you'd want to know about the SPLEEN (and perhaps too much) ...
|
|
The SPLEEN (I don't think they're really orange) |
3. Take one's leave, informally: SAY BYE.
4. Small batteries: AAS.
5. Capture: SNARE.
6. "Frozen" villain: HANS. I've never seen Frozen, but this clip seems to tell the whole story and HANS IS absolutely evil. But I'm certain though that it will have a happy ending ...
7. Do some sums: ADD.
8. Ad-__: LIB. Yes, I am making this up.
9. Easy two-pointer, in basketball: LAY UP.
10. Rooms under roofs: ATTICS.
11. Red-and-white topper: SANTA HAT. The SANTA HAT has evolved through the ages. We have Thomas Nast to thank for one of the first modern images ...
|
|
Santa Claus Thomas Nast |
|
|
Santa Claus Haddon Sundblom |
Santa 'Claus, is of course an abbreviation of the name Saint Nicholas of Myra (circa 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor during the time of the Roman Empire and an heir of wealthy parents. St. Nicholas is legendary for secret gift giving, as is Santa today. The most famous account of his generosity was to three orphaned girls, who were left without dowries and would have likely ended up prostitutes had he not secretly thrown purses full of gold through their windows, enabling their father to arrange marriages.
|
|
St. Nicholas of Myra Icon by Jaroslav Čermák |
13. Addams cousin: ITT.
18. Large crowd: THRONG.
23. Washington Square Park sch.: NYU. New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature,[14] NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by Albert Gallatin.
|
| "To persevere and to excel" |
26. Airline, e.g.: CARRIER. Every cruciverbalist's favorite CARRIER is EL AL, right?
27. Possible score before a penalty shootout: ONE ALL.
28. Spanish spouse: Abbr.: SRA.
30. CrossFit staple: BURPEE. In high school we called a similar exercise squat thrusts. Here's how it's done ...
33. __ Moines, Iowa: DES.
34. Two-bagger: Abbr.: DBL.
36. Shares, in a way: RETWEETS. Wow, Hanh (or Patti?) has not been reading the news. This should be REXES (or REXS?) Help me out here folks!
37. Senator Sanders: BERNIE. BERNIE is the subject of this picture, which made photographer 38. "You have no __!": IDEA. I certainly don't!
39. DOJ bureau: ATF.
40. Net protectors: GOALIES.
43. Heeds a relationship red flag: ENDS IT.
44. Bit of Morse code: DOT. Not DIT, nor DAH, nor DASH (which was too long). I DNK that Samuel F. B. Morse, in addition to being the inventor of the telegraph in 1844, was also a famous painter. The immediate and long term impacts that Morse's simple invention had, would have, and will have on society are incalculable. The telegraph spread rapidly and gave rise to what author Tom Standage calls The Victorian Internet.
|
|
Samuel Morse* self portrait (with his name in Morse Code) |
47. Military storehouse: ARMORY. The Pikesville ARMORY in our neighborhood was built in 1903 and decommissioned in 2016.. We recently received word that the 14 acre tract of land on which it stands has been awarded to Baltimore County and approved for conversion to a community use space. The plans sound like it will be a major shot in the arm for this aging West Baltimore suburb.
|
|
Pikesville Armory December 2009 |
48. Shared, as a friend: MUTUAL.
49. Lady Liberty, for one: STATUE. She's more than just a STATUE and let's pray that she holds high her torch forever!
|
|
Lady Liberty |
52. Job at DC Comics: INKER. As all you real solvers know, the only way to solve crossword puzzles is in INK. Shoddy solvers such as I do it in pencil, so that we can erase our mistakes and no one will know about all our FIWs. Likewise shoddy cartoonists do it in pencil and then turn the real work over to an INKER. Here is a recent tribute to real INKER, Don Carlton, the man behind Gary Trudeau's success:
|
|
Don Carlton December 28, 1936 – May 16, 2023 |
56. Meas. of thyme: TSP. NSEC was too long.
58. Medical gp.: HMO.
59. Charged particle: ION. A hungry atom.
60. Gridiron org.: NFL.
* Since there was a paucity of musical opportunities in this puzzle I've decided to end the review with the haunting introduction to the Inspector Morse mystery series on PBS. This music has accompanied the show from its very first episode in 1987 and was originally created by Australian composer Barrington Pheloung (10 May 1954 - 1 August 2019) . Variations on this theme are also used during the credits for the recently completed prequel Endeavor. The theme is of course a musical pun on Samuel Morse's name (see 44D for a visual pun) ...
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
34 comments:
Starting off was a little rough, because at first I didn’t remember “Issa” Rae’s name. But eventually I got that straight and proceeded to the rest of the puzzle. It was a little more difficult than in the past three days, but far from impossible. The themed answers made sense, both as wordplays and in their own right, so they weren’t too difficult to suss. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Got "Fly, stand by" and couldn't parse it as anything else. Saw the humor in the others, though. Wanted KIDNEY as that abdominal organ. Nope. Got through the rest of the pzl unscathed. Nice Thursday effort, Hanh. (or should it be Huynh?) Excellent sum-up, Waseeley and Teri.
FLY STAND-BY: Back in my ute I flew military stand-by from O'Hare to SFO late one night. I was one of only five passengers on the 707. The crew moved us all into first class, and we had a party.
MORSE CODE: We rewatched Wag The Dog the other night. Part of the plot involves a soldier trapped behind enemy lines. He sends a message to his mother spelled in Morse code in his sweater: "Courage, Mom." If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. If you have seen, I recommend rewatching it.
Lady Liberty: We watched a pseudo-documentary about the statue on our local PBS station. Did not know there were chains at the statue's feet.
FIR, but erased ill standby for FLY STANDBY, nasa for SETI, and rtd for MTA. Oh come on, LA. Make up your collective mind. MTA until '64, then RTD until '93, and now it's MTA again? It's not as if LA doesn't have any other problems to solve.
Today is:
NATIONAL NONPROFIT DAY
NATIONAL THRIFT SHOP DAY (hmmmm, connection between these two?)
Black Cat Appreciation Day (I prefer BLACK LABS)
NATIONAL I LOVE MY FEET DAY (Narcissism and a fetish rolled up into one!)
I was hoping it would be Natascha McElhone, who I had actually heard of.
LYLE Lovett, AKA "The luckiest man around." Several of us Corner men know that we married women who are way to good looking for us, but LYLE's marriage to Julia Roberts makes him the Steph Currie of marrying up. OK, it didn't last much longer than the honeymoon, but who wouldn't happily settle for a honeymoon with Julia Roberts? Fill the jar with pennies, and never have to take any out.
I wouldn't care to see Julia Roberts in a THRONG, but take away the "R" and I'm all in. (Yeah I know. I'm a little obsessed. I lived in her native Atlanta when Pretty Woman came out.
Speaking of Atlanta, where is ATLGranny?
Thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the commentary, which was far more entertaining than the showbiz-ridden puzzle.
For all you DAB addicts, here's his latest puzzle All Will Be Well.
This was such a fun theme imagining all the animals on their walkie-talkies. I have never done CB radio - I'm sure it is a boon to all the OTR truckers
Quick start to the puzzle as I just went to see the "Barbie" movie on Tuesday night so ISSA Rae was a gimme. Haven't laughed out loud that much during a movie in quite some time.
I had a slight hold up when I mixed up Barry Sanders the NFL player for BERNIE Sanders the senator from Vermont.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the fun blog and Hanh for the puzzle!
Took 6:52 today, breaker.
Didn't care for the foreign languages today (Italian, German, & Spanish x2).
Started out knowing today's actress (Issa) solely from prior crosswords, but I didn't know today's actress's role (Nadia) or the Ada character.
I guess CB-speak was a precursor to text-speak.
I was never into CB, the military, ham radio, or on a police force but those messages are all familiar. Just don't have a puzzle with the number codes. 10-4. I learned that one from Broderick Crawford's "Highway Patrol".
I had trouble starting in the NW but rolled after getting the theme. ISSA was a WAG and NADIA was unknown. And NO, I didn't go see Barbie.
ADA Twist, Alex and ANI, NYU, MTA, HANS- three letter unknowns filled by perps.
VOCAL- just because some person or group is loud doesn't mean they have any sense. Anybody ever notice when a newspaper interviews or quotes the 'chairman' of hte XYZ group that nobody's ever heard of? They don't mention that there are only five or six members of that group.
SETI- what a waste of resources. If any civilization could make it from another solar system to earth it would be more advanced than humans could imagine.
LYLE Lovett is performing tonight in NOLA."An Evening with Lyle Lovett and his Large Band tickets at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans, LA for Aug 17, 2023 at Ticketmaster."
FIR. Didn't know burpee or Ada, but the perps solved that.
Is it just me or is the theme just a bit lame? Especially fly standby. Oh well, it's a Thursday CW and somewhat typical.
"I'M FREE, white, and twenty-one!"
Was once a woman's proposition.
But times have changed,
And a TART may refrain,
"I'm not free, but open to negotiation!"
"I love legumes, so I'm a P-nut."
"I'm cured now, so I'm an X-nut."
This VOCAL therapy
Seems okay to me.
"I love Earl Grey, so I'm a T-NUT!"
{B, B-.}
OKL @V {A+,A+}.
I got the theme with the first themed fill, which was a big help. The NW was difficult since I DNK ISSA or MPAA. Also DNK NADIA or ANI. Not familiar with “Alex and Ani” jewelers. Only W/O = ONEONE:ONEALL. EEL sealed the deal on that one. Don’t know what else to say about this CW, other than fun theme fills. Thanx HH for the fun. Thanx too to Bill for the outstanding write-up. I’ll come back later and look at the embedded links, they all look like fun.
Wanted to use TripleWorcScoreS for 56A but perps wouldn't allow. Had no idea what a BURPEE was but perps filled it in. Liked the new clue for our old standby OREO.
The theme was enjoyable once I saw the tie-ins with the phrases of response. FIR, so I am satisfied.
Cheers to HH and wasseley for their give and take of today's offering.
Yes, Jinx, where is ATLGranny? Don't recall a response from her recently.
Anybody know?
Musings
-A really fun gimmick? 10 – 4, Good Buddy!
-I used CB’s to keep in contact with my six buses of detasseling crews but they only work in “line of sight” unlike today’s phones that use satellites.
-Height obviously helps, but REBS are also a function of being aggressive
-Do you want to generate real interest in something? Get it BANNED.
-This math guy enjoyed getting reacquainted with the work of ADA Lovelace.
-MTA: Did Charlie ever get off that train?
-Why did the horses hate the mention of FRAU Blucher’s name?
-LAY UP : Basketball :: Tap In : Golf. Uh, they can both be missed.
-Simon and Garfunkel couldn’t stand each other but reunited in 1981 for a concert in Central Park that drew a THRONG of 500,000
-For WWII, my MIL became a telegrapher to help clear trains through a tunnel in Wyoming
-Like cel painters, INKERS are being replaced by digital processes
-Fun and informative expo, Bill and Teri.
This puzzle was a challenge for me but I really liked it. Thanks to HH for the animals, CATS (Freddy is my good mouser), who chases the RABBITs and FAWNs in my yard, loves to eat CHICKEN and an occasional FLY (ugh!).
A debate continues over the real author of the famous SANTA poem with Clement Moore getting the most recognition. Years after it was first published, the children of Henry Livingston, Jr. claimed their father had read the poem to them years before it was publish and that he had written it. Several generations of his family continued the claim. Many discussions, papers and debates about the authorship continue today and have taken part in magazines, newspaper and academic scholars have come to conclusions in schools from Vassar to the U. Of Auckland. No matter who wrote it, it was first published in 1823 in the Troy Sentinel and we Trojans are proud of that. Right,! Irish Miss?
Thank you Waseeley for the information about the INKER and thanks for te music from the now gone PBS shows that were intelligent, suspenseful and acted by the Brits as only they can. Also, darken to FRAU Teri.
Off to a special luncheon! Happy day, all!
Some additional information; I went back and did a bit of checking. Her last post was Saturday June 24, 2023. She had posted all that week and since then nothing that I could find by spot checking thru July and earlier this August.
Nothing in her last posts to indicate any problem. ????
Ahh, spellcheck!!! ! Danken (not darken) FRAU Teri!
I stumbled all over this puzzle. Lots of unknowns for me and I got impatient with reading the clues to the theme, though in retrospect it is quite cute, but a tad convoluted.
Thanks Waseely for the Morse theme. I so liked that series and then Endeavour which I have not finished.
Interesting Thursday, the theme? animal related responses to walkie-talkie or CB remarks that have an alternative meaning (did I get that all right?)
Inkovers: AMA/HMO, company/CARRIER, Eyeore/EEYORE…: “measure of thyme” (so TaP yer foot was wrong) cuz I read it as “Time” l. Have seen both seasons of “Russian Doll” as usual didn’t remember NADIA (“Na-dee-yuh” or “Nah-juh”?) “‘SAYBYE’”, Gracie.” “Bye, Gracie!”
St Nicholas “resides” in Bari, Italy not the North Pole.
Another gnu klu for OREO… “two bagger” sounds like street drug lingo 😉 (“hey, c’mere”: PSST)….. “Crossfit staple: Are those “squat thrusts” called that because if you’re not careful you might BURP from the wrong end or PEE (just a little) 😆😆😆
Can’t get enough oolong….. TNUT.
Tuba sound….MPAA
Divan…SETI
Ryan and Tatum…..ONEALL
Approaching month 2 without a dishwasher. I may soon suffer the hearbreak of dish pan hands 🤲
(Madge ultimately lost her cosmetology license for using an unauthorized unapproved finger soak) 💅
Groundhog day again. The string of Monday-esque CW(McCall?)s continues, albeit with a tad more crunch than previously. I, too, still wonder if Charlie ever got off that train. ATF (aka F Troop) is now ATFE. Added explosives to the name for a little more bang. I enjoyed the '70s CB craze on long road trips but soon the band was too crowded to understand, as everyone and their brother jumped on the (band)wagon!
Just back from 4 days camping in the Catskills.
(Got 3 inches of rain and lived in a cloud when it wasn't rainy)
Boy am I achy... good to get out of that wet tent.
I thought the puzzle had a very cute theme, which helped the stumpers. (Issa?)
Did a lot of WAGing (Wild Ass Guessing) so, if I were a canine, you could say I am a very happy dog...
Daughter#3 learned to be a music teacher at NYU! She now teaches 3rd thru 5th grade in NYC.
Interesting that SETI was in the puzzle, as I had just watched this short video...
I doubt many people here would have watched Contact, as it is a very long movie, but still fascinating if you are into the subject.
Here is the heartbreaking ending for all the people who don't want to sit thru the whole movie.
Thank you Waseely, lots of great videos, and even more links I will have to research later, as I now have to hose down all my camping equipment (muddy tent and tarps) and will have to hang them up in the garage to dry as we expect more rain today...
Nice job, Waseeley.
No time to comment, but FLN
- I thought you were using Firefox, not Chrome.
- To remove permissions for a site, search Google Chrome Help
- Look for the article "Change site settings permissions"
Basically, pull up the site on your Android
Click the Lock to the left of the URL, then Permissions
Change or Reset from there
Hola!
Thnks to HH for this puzzling puzzle. Most of it was fun and doable. However, I got stuck at LAY BY and couldn't get anywhere until finally LAY UP emerged. Sports are not my thing! Another snag was BURPEE. I couldn't believe that was sports related since it's also the name of a seed catalog.
I remember taking my daughter to see ROGER RABBIT and was a bit shocked by it at the time since she was really young. Silly me for thinking it would be an innocent cartoon.
And I remember going to see "Contact" when it first came out and thought it was fascinating.
Yes, that marriage between Julia Roberts and LYLE Lovett was very surprising at the time.
Wishing you all a very good day!
I'd always heard it as "over 21".
Enjoyed the radio communication part of the theme, but hand up I do not get how FLY STANDBY fits that theme?
The ROGER RABBIT movie was about the destruction of the LA MTA by fossil fuel and automotive industry criminal behavior. Interesting to have both in the puzzle today.
Here I got to see BERNIE up close and personal and got a hand shake from him.
I saw him at one of his first rallies, which was in Los Angeles in 2015. Record crowds for any candidate and totally ignored by the corporate media.
Picard @1:7 PM That should be parsed FLY STANDBY, a GNAT in this place a type of FLY.
OKL - I am shocked - SHOCKED I say - by that sexist first pome. Haven't been so upset since last night, when a man on TV said that for his next girlfriend he was looking for a pansexual. He explained that he loves a woman who can cook.
Big Easy - Why didn't the aliens interact with humans when they arrived on Earth? Gary Larson knows why. (Please let me know if the link doesn't work. I'm still figuring out Dropbox.)
Delightful theme that brought back memories. (Used to be a CBer.) Thank you, Hanh, for the romp and Waseeley for the fun review.
Good Afternoon:
My solving experience and reaction pretty much mirrors Tante Nique’s. Props for the solid, in the language themers and also for the consistency of the CB lingo. The Hans character from Frozen is new to me as is Burpee, other than the seed company. The things we learn from crosswords!
Thanks, Hahn, and thanks, Bill and Teri for another Thursday triumph of fun, facts, and entertainment. Your efforts are admired and appreciated.
The highlight of my day was a two hour visit over lunch with Parsan, a meeting that has been anticipated for several months. In addition to several shared coincidences that we unearthed through email correspondence, we discovered a few more today. For one, Parsan is well acquainted with a couple of my neighbors and, therefore, knows exactly where I live. She is a lovely lady and I’ve encouraged her to share some of her interesting background and adventures with us.
CED, I was wondering where you were. Welcome back!
FLN
Anon T, I’m greatly grateful to have you back, too!
Have a great day.
Have a great day.
Sorry, sorry!
Thanks for a delightful puzzle, Hanh. And thank you too, Bill and Teri, for your always helpful commentary.
This puzzle first made me feel a bit like a LONER, maybe one living in ATTICS, and feeling IN A RUT. But then, at some point, I felt I'M FREE, I can SHARE things with MUTUAL friends, who have TOTED on me and sometimes FAWN OVER me. In return for all that, I owe them some AMORE!
Have a fun Thursday, everybody!
CED 10:54 AM ...
IIRC the movie Contact begins with the receipt of a signal from outer space that is recognizable as containing information from intelligent beings. As the Wiki plot summary says "the signal contains over 63,000 pages of encoded data ... the decoded data reveals schematics for a Machine that may be a form of transportation for a single individual". This machine is subsequently built and eventually Dr. Arroway (Jodie Foster) is selected to be the individual who pilots it wherever it is pre-programmed to go. She makes some kind of journey, although IIRC the vehicle never physically leaves Earth, and when she emerges from it she has no proof to substantiate her claims of meeting "higher-level" beings.
Ultimately this movie is about faith, or as physicist Michael Guillen describes it in his book Believing is Seeing, an experience that apparently Dr. Arroway has gone through.
In the clip that CED has linked, the sanctimonious congressional committee still needs to explain where the 63,000 page plan for the machine came from and why the myriad people who built it were convinced to do so.
I enjoyed solving this puzzle and enjoyed even more reading waseeley's write-up and all your comments.
Owen, loved them!
I enjoyed HH's clever puzzle and learning that our Kelly C. used to be a CBer.
; )
FAVs: SANTA HAT, Meas. of thyme, and LYLE Lovett (IMHO, Julia got the better end of that deal.)
Thanks for your delightful write-up, waseeley. It sounds like you had fun parsing out the theme. Hand up for calling them "squat thrusts" back in the day.
Orphaned girls' father?? I'm confused....
Hi All!
Solved the puzzle when I got home from Austin and it seemed pretty easy for a Thursday. Thanks Hanh; fun theme I thought.
Thanks for the expo, waseeley - I've still got more interesting links to click later ;-)
WOs: N/A
ESPs: ISSA, ASA, ANI
Fav: two measures of two homonyms of 'time'
{B, B}
Picard - STANDBY is the radio lingo. "What's your 20 [location]?" "standby [I'm checking and will tell you very soon]"
Well it's late and I'm tired (6 hours driving with moving furniture in 104F in between will do that to a body). But, Youngest is moved in and spending her first night alone (she's always had us, roommates, or sleepovers with friends).
Cheers, -T
Post a Comment