google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, August 29, 2023 Amanda Cook

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Aug 29, 2023

Tuesday, August 29, 2023 Amanda Cook

Double Speak:  Each word in the two-word theme answer can be paired with the word Talk, to give us two (Double) new concepts.


18-Across. Java joint: COFFEE SHOP.  Coffee Talk / Shop Talk

Coffee Doublespeak

26-Across. In-demand spot at a busy bistro: EMPTY TABLE.  Empty Talk / Table Talk

Table Talk circa 2023


46-Across. Source of lumbar support: BACK PILLOW.  Back Talk / Pillow Talk



And the unifier:
58-Across. Deliberately ambiguous language, and an apt description of 18-, 26-, and 46-Across: DOUBLE TALK.

Across:
1. Kindergarten basics: ABCs.


5. 1996 film that earned Frances McDormand her first Oscar: FARGO.  Frances Louise McDormand (née Cynthia Ann Smith; b. June 23, 1957) portrayed Marge Gunderson, a pregnant Minnesota police chief investigating a triple homicide in the film.  The movie earned McDormand her first Oscar.  [Name # 1.]


10. Tapped brew: BEER.

14. Ever so: VERY.

15. Cooked at home: ATE IN.

16. Church recess: APSE.


17. Business maj.: ECON.  As in Economics.

20. Snooze: NAP.


21. Cash dispensers: ATMs.  This used to be a crossword staple.  We haven't seen the Automated Teller Machines in a while.


22. Beginnings: ON SETS.

23. Affixes in a scrapbook, say: GLUES.


25. Not too late: IN TIME.

30. Italian evening: SERA.  Today's Latin lesson.

32. __ number: product ID: SERIAL.


33. Activate, as an alarm: TRIP.

34. Resistance unit: OHM.  Everything you wanted to know about the Ohm but didn't know to ask.  It was named in honor of Georg Ohm (né Georg Simon Ohm; Mar. 16, 1789 ~ July 6, 1854), a German physicist and mathematician.  [Name # 2.]


37. Patio: TERRACE.


40. Deed: ACT.

41. Pedicure beneficiaries: TOES.


43. Improper treatment: MISUSE.

45. "Ignore that suggested edit": STET.

50. Muscle injury: STRAIN.


52. Oscar-winning song from "Selma": GLORY.  Selma is the movie about Martin Luther King's 1965 protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Georgia in the fight for Civil Rights.


53. With no markup: AT COST.

54. "How've you __?": BEEN.

57. "His Dark Materials" actor __-Manuel Miranda: LIN.  Lin-Manuel Miranda (b. Jan. 16, 1980) is probably best known for Hamilton.  [Name # 3.]


60. Edinburgh resident: SCOT.  Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland.  [Name adjacent.]


61. Poker pot starter: ANTE.

62. Code with dots and dashes: MORSE.  The Morse Code was/is a method of telecommunication using a series of dots and dashes to encrypt text characters.  The Code is named after Samuel Morse (né Samuel Finley Breese Morse; Apr. 27, 1791 ~ Apr. 2, 1872).  He led a very interesting life and in his early years was a painter.   [Name adjacent.]


63. __ Alto, California: PALO.  Palo Alto considers itself to be the Birthplace of Silicon Valley.



64. Clarinet need: REED.


65. Concluded: ENDED.

66. "... with __-foot pole!": A TEN.


Down:
1. Get even for: AVENGE.

2. "Don't freak out": BE CALM.  The history behind the Keep Calm slogan.


3. Appear unexpectedly: CROP UP.

4. Thesaurus entry: Abbr.: SYN.  As in a synonym.


5. Indisputable point: FACT.

6. Elemental particle: ATOM.


7. Officials who may cry foul: REFs.  As in Referees.

8. Animated pic: GIF. GIF = Graphics Interchange Format.


9. Low-scoring tie: ONE-ONE.

10. Jazz band member: BASSIST.

11. Collectibles such as ticket stubs and matchbooks: EPHEMERA.  Not a Tuesday word.  Probably more of a 12-Down word.  Webster's defines Ephemera as: (1) something of no lasting significance; (2) ephemera plural : paper items (such as posters, broadsides, and tickets) that were originally meant to be discarded after use but have since become collectibles.

12. Understood by a select few: ESOTERIC.

13. Counts at a gym: REPS.  As in Repetitions.


19. Sinusitis doc: ENT.  The Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor has become a crossword staple.

21. Until now: AS YET.

24. Sci-fi film extras, briefly: ETs.


25. "Let me see if that's possible": I'LL ASK.

27. Italian three: TRE.  More of today's Italian lesson.

28. Low-ranking soldier on base: AIRMAN.

29. Relating to element 56: BARIC.  Barium has the atomic number of 56 on the periodic table.  Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. 


31. Fitting: APT.

34. Bonus sports periods: OTs.  As in Over Times.

35. Warm element in some massages: HOT STONE.  Everything you ever wanted to know about Hot Stone Message but didn't know to ask.


36. Rom-com encounter: MEET CUTE.


38. Many a sports trophy: CUP.

The Stanley Cup.


39. Endorse digitally: E-SIGN.  During Covid, I found myself having to e-sign many documents.

42. Pulsed, as lights in a light show: STROBED.


44. Bracket shape: ELL.

46. Defiant retort: BITE ME.  Rather impolite.

47. Meme feline: LOL CAT.


48. Baltimore MLB player: ORIOLE.


49. Jazz trumpeter Marsalis: WYNTON.  Wynton Learson Marsalis (b. Oct. 18, 1961) is a New Orleanian Jazz trumpeter and composer.  He is currently the artistic director of Jazz at the Lincoln Center.  Below is a non-Jazz performance.  [Name # 4.]



51. Syst. with hand gestures: ASL.  As in American Sign Language.  As a point of interest, Dorothy Casterline (née Dorothy Chiyoko Sueoka; Apr. 27, 1928 ~ Aug. 8, 2023) lost her hearing as a teenager due to an illness.  She became  an American deaf linguist known for her contribution to A Dictionary of American Sign Language on Linguistic Principles, which considered a foundational work of sign language linguistics.  Dorothy died earlier this month at age 95.


53. Hebrew month before Nisan: ADAR.  Everything you wanted to know about the Hebrew calendar but didn't know to ask.

54. The __ of Avon: BARD.  Also known as Willie the Shakes (William Shakespeare; 1564 ~ 1616).  [Name # 5.]

55. Besides: ELSE.

56. __ out a living: EKED.

59. Immense weight: TON.

60. Galentine's Day destination, perhaps: SPA.  I just recently learned about Galentine's Day, which falls on February 13.  If the first link doesn't work, try this one.


And the Grid:


חתולה



40 comments:

  1. This was a rather straightforward puzzle. I found it to be a good deal easier than yesterday’s was. The reveal was satisfying and clever, too. I have no complaints about this puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.

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  2. Good morning!

    Guess what? D-o read the reveal and went looking for the theme. Found it, but don't think COFFEE talk is "in the language." You? Otherwise, today's puzzle was an easy romp. Thanx, Amanda and Hahtoolah. (I clicked to read about "galentine's day" but couldn't get there. Maybe you had to be a woman?)

    And the heat goes on...

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  3. Good Morning, Crossword friends. It will be a "cool" day here - the high is only predicted to be 89F. Take care all of you along the western coast of Florida.

    Maybe so, D-O. The link works on my iPad and computer. I added another/different link that appears to work if you want to go back and read about Galentine's Day. I don't know if Coffee Talk is an actual "thing", but I think of it as getting together with a friend to just have a chat over a cup of coffee.

    QOD: Knowledge and timber shouldn’t be much used till they are seasoned. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (Aug. 29, 1809 ~ Oct. 7, 1894), American physician and poet

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  4. FIR, getting my SWAG @ LOLCAT x LIN. I narrowed LO_CAT down to b,g,L,o,t,w or x, and "L" seemed to be most likely. Great puzzle for Entertainment Weekly. For the LA Times, not so much.

    Today is:
    ACCORDING TO HOYLE DAY (play by the rules, guys)
    INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST NUCLEAR TESTS (supercomputers to the rescue)
    NATIONAL CHOP SUEY DAY (what am I, chopped suey?)
    NATIONAL SPORT SAMPLING DAY (lots of opponents want Messi to give professional pickleball a try)
    NATIONAL LEMON JUICE DAY (Realemon, from the wonderful folks at Keurig)

    So yesterday we had a pregnancy PILLOW. Today we have the BACK PILLOW. The My PILLOW guy must be doing BACK flips.

    My favorite Spanish phrase is "¿Como esta frijole?" How you bean?

    Do you pronounce GIF's "G" as in "gulf" or "goeff"?

    The Ryder CUP teams will be announced today. A lot of the players who contended for last week's $18 million first prize will be playing for nothing but national (US) or continental (Europe) pride.

    Rich, powerful and famous people often resort to DOUBLETALK to cover up a lie.

    Thanks to Ha2la for the delightful review.

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  5. This is one of my favorite type of themes - where both the first and second words of a theme answer can be linked to another word.

    I am always recommending different extra PILLOW placements for people with various ailments(knee, back, neck, shoulder) to try to get the best night sleep.

    Susan - thanks for linking John Legend and Common's Oscar winning song "GLORY". I'm a big fan of John Legend - one of the youngest performers to win all the EGOT awards (a cwd staple).
    It's also timely as it was recently the 60th anniversary of MLK's March on Washington.

    CSO to Bill & Teri with ORIOLE

    Thanks Susan and Amanda!

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  6. Other than a little trouble in the NE corner, and then having bodYpillow crossing with illtrY throwing me off in the middle, I corrected and finished.

    Yes, much easier than yesterday.

    My favorite answer: BITE ME!! LOL, I'm a NYer.

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  7. Took 5:57 today to finish. Did it make you feel small, Ted?

    I didn't know which cat it was, didn't know the Italian number, the Italian evening, and need to revisit the Periodic Table.

    Clever double theme.

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  8. Jinx, even thought the guys who invented it say GIF should be pronounced with a soft G, like the peanut butter, I say since it stands for Graphic I'll use the hard G.

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  9. FIR. A bit softer than yesterday's puzzle, but I still found it to be a tad crunchy. Ephemera and esoteric were rough for a Tuesday. And I wasn't a fan of lol cat. The theme was just OK, not really liking coffee talk. The rest were fine.

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  10. Good Morning:

    I’m with Subgenius in having no complaints about this puzzle. In fact, there was much to like: A cute theme executed well; Minimal pop culture references (Jinx, did we solve the same puzzle?); Low (14) three letter word count; Lively Fill; No junk; Ephemera and Esoterica might not be Tuesday words but the perps were fair and the words are both fresh and fun. Baric was unknown but, once again, fair perps to the rescue. Like Inanehiker said, this type of theme is a favorite, especially when it’s well hidden, then the reveal comes as a real Aha surprise.

    Thanks, Amanda, for an enjoyable solve and thanks, Hahtoolah, for the fun and facts. Today’s cartoon winners are the disgruntled termites, the “gym” mouse, and the Sunglass-ed Cat.

    Have a great day.

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  11. Again, a little tough for a Tuesday but easier than yesterday. Only W/O = ONTIME:INTIME. Not a fan of MEETCUTE or COFFEETALK, and DNK some of the names, including LOLCAT. I usually I take notes as I work my way through a CW, so i can recall what I wanna say here, but no notes today, and anyway what I woulda said has been said by others. I did manage to FIR in, as usual, more time than a usual Tuesday. Thanx AC for the challenging CW, and thanx Hahtoolah for the usual fun and informative write-up.

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  12. Thank you Amanda for the pleasant puzzle. It seemed a little easier than yesterday, but then I guess we have Patti to thank for that.

    And thanks Hahtoolah for the mirth and the theme explanation.

    A few favs:

    5A FARGO. I've never seen this movie, although Teri has. Maybe this fill was the nudge I need to put it on my bucket list.

    20A NAP.

    21A ATMS. I think they are still dispensing 3 to 4 letters with some regularity.

    25A IN TIME. Had ON TIME, which made me finish this puzzle a little LATER than I should have.

    53A AT COST. I thiought at first that the clue implied "A lack of STETS".

    58A DOUBLE TALK. What crosswords are all about!

    29D BARIC. Barium is one of the Alkaline Earth elements (Periodic Table column 2). It is used in ceramics as a glaze flux (melting agent) to produce what ceramists call "Barium Matts". Here's a beautiful example by potter Michael Wein.

    49A WYNTON. Thanks Susan for that excerpt from what is one of Haydn's most famous works. It was one of the first pieces by him that I ever heard and I was hooked for life.

    Cheers,
    Bill

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  13. I thought, so that’s where the Monday puzzle went. Easier than yesterday by far. Neat theme, fun clues, what’s not to like. My only stumbling block for a while was LOLCAT and ORIOLE because, although I know better, I had Ron instead of LIN for Manuel Miranda. But I soon came to my senses.

    Galentine’s Day is a new one for me.

    Certainly enjoyed Hahtoolah’s recap with the delightful images.

    Nice to see Wynton’s name. That whole family is super talented. A friend of mine was teaching at NOCCA many years ago when Wynton’s father was also teaching there and Wynton was a student.

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  14. Hola!

    No time to read the comments right now. The toddler is not well so he can't go to daycare.

    I finished the puzzle easily enough with no STRAIN.

    Thank you, Amanda Cook and Susan.

    I love the HOT STONE on my legs after a pedicure.

    It's great to see EPHEMERA and ESOTERIC in a puzzle.
    I don't understand MEETCUTE.

    Have a wonderful day, everyone!

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  15. A tad easier ‘n yesterday but the
    theme DOUBLETALK ? I get that COFFEESHOP has double FF, EE, and OO but it ends there kinda . Ahhh….once again didn’t get the theme

    Inkovers: ontime/INTIME,

    “Coffee Talk”….H2LH please translate.

    I have administered an ocean of barium sulfate in my practice run into both ends of the digestive tract.

    So GIF s’posed to be pronounced with a soft G which explains why Choosey mothers don’t choose JPEG

    MEETCUTE? BITEME? “Galentine”?Seriously? Plus it’s only Tuesday. C’mon …and that goes for anyone who says bean for BEEN

    Where rabbit ears were once found…..ONSETS
    Radio collectibles …..EPHEMERA
    Cornflakes and Cheerios ID numbers……..SERIAL
    To render still…..BECALM

    Still raining , a month long pattern but considering hurricanes and fires elsewhere shouldn’t complain 😳

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  16. Good Morning! Good Tuesday puzzle – Thanks, Amanda!

    EPHEMERA, vaguely familiar, but saw it emerge as I worked the downs. I’ve got a few and I ask myself WHY did I keep these?? and would now like to get rid of, but maybe someone… so they just sit…

    I had to wait for the downs to decide it would be sprain or STRAIN.

    Loved your closing with the tourist sign, Hah2lah, and all the good info you gave us today. I didn’t slow down to suss the theme until reading the recap. Your toon humorously explained what “coffee talk” was, a term I’d never heard before.

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  17. Terrific Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Amanda and Hahtoolah.
    I FIRed in good time and saw the DOUBLETALK theme.

    I changed to IN TIME from On. Just a slight variation in meaning and fits the clue more closely.
    LOL CAT required perps.

    Hand up for appreciating EPHEMERA and ESOTERIC (especially in a Tuesday and beside each other).
    ATEN and ANTE anagram today. (Perhaps a stretch to include SCOT and (AT) COST.)
    And what do we make if ATE IN and A TEN?!

    We started with our ABCS and ENDED with A TEN.

    Wishing you all a great day.

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  18. Anon@10:40 -- "Talk" is supposed to match both words of the theme answers.

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  19. Thank you, Amanda for this fun and interesting puzzle. Thanks, too, Hahtoola for the outstanding tour. I loved listening to “Glory” and the gorgeous Haydn piece with Wynton Marsallis.
    I must say I was taken aback at BITE ME. I thought it was a very off color insult not ever used in polite company - don’t think of myself as a prude, but maybe I am?

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  20. The above comment is mine - Wendybird - but for some reason, it shows as Anonymous. Why??

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  21. Ray: you don’t speak Yiddish? Oy gevalt!

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  22. Monday came on Tuesday this week. FIR, but my coffee refused to say anything to me this morning. Just wasn't talking. MICHAEL FLN- the cannon-cockers I knew back in the day would holler "Watch your ears" before pulling the string. They also hollered "what?" and "huh?" a lot.

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  23. THANKS, Amanda, for a fun puzzle. Took me 7 minutes less to solve than Monday's.

    Enjoyed MEETing all your CUTE stuff, Hahtoolah. DNK: MEET CUTE, LOLCAT, SERO.

    Liked those nice juicy words EPHEMERA & ESOTERIC which I got right away to my surprise.

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  24. Thank you, Amanda, for your puzzle. Quick & easy themeless for me today. (Not complaining!)
    Hand up for oN TIME / IN TIME and being impressed by ESOTERIC & EPHEMERAL alongside each other.

    I always love your reviews, Hahtoolah! My favorite today was the WYNTON Marsalis music. Those acoustics must have been inspiring to the musicians.

    CanadianEh! @ 10:41. Spot on observations!

    Anonymous Wendybird @ 11:25. You're not a prude. We had another one last Wed. that just didn't sit well. I put them both in the category of "not horrible but we should strive for better."

    FLN: waseeley@4:09. No, not me sculling but it does look fun!

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  25. Fun Tuesday puzzle, many thanks, Amanda. And always enjoy your commentary, Hahtoolah, thanks for that too.

    Well, this puzzle got us off to some snacks and treats right at the start, where BEER was offered even before we got to the COFFEE SHOP. There we found an EMPTY TABLE on the TERRACE and got a seat. But, sadly, that was pretty much it for food and drink. Maybe it would have been better if we had ATE IN at home.

    Other than that, we were told to BE CALM and take a NAP, maybe on a BACK PILLOW. Not much chance to DOUBLE TALK, so this was a pretty uneventful visit. No problem, at least we got some rest.

    Have a great day, everybody.

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  26. Hi All!

    Thanks Amanda for a great puzzle. Thanks Hahtoolah for another fantastically humorous expo. I loved the Alligator posting!

    WOs: COFEE house [sic], I'LL see, LOL CAT in WYNTON's squares, hand-up for iN TIME.
    ESPs: N/A
    Fav: You don't see ESOTERIC every day

    D-O: COFFEE TALK [SNL 8:34]

    Mel on Sid's DOUBLE TALK.

    LOL "...don't choose JPEG", Ray-O.

    Lucina - in nearly all romantic comedies, you have the MEET CUTE moment when the main characters encounter and love follows. Here's one in a classic Resse's commercial ;-)

    ByTE ME. I was nearly fired for accidentally broadcasting that message to all the computers on the floor. I fessed up to my boss but fortunately my computer was named Natasha [Rocky & Bullwinkle] and everyone thought it was her (yes, we had a Natasha in the office) on her last day at the company.

    Cheers, -T

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  27. IM, after video review, the ruling has changed. I guess Entertainment Weekly isn't quite right. McDormand, the Selma song, LIN, MEET CUTE, LOLCAT, WYNTON and ADAR seemed ESOTERIC to me. Except for ADAR, I guess I would have been better to say they belong in AAUP: The Magazine, the official gazette of the American Association of Unretired People.

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  28. A fun 🏃‍♂️ run for a Tuesday. FIR and got the theme correctly. I liked the picture of the Stanley Cup ( Canadian Eh) Thanks Amanda and Hahtoolah…. kkFlorida

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  29. Musings
    -Back from 18 on a spectacular summer day
    -Some blind alleys and alternate fills made for a fun solve.
    -LO_CAT/_IN my one bad cell
    -Great cartoons today, Susan.

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  30. Enjoyed the DOUBLE TALK THEME. Hand up never heard of COFFEE TALK. But I also dislike COFFEE.

    I am a frequent visitor to PALO ALTO as my brother lives there.

    This guy was hanging out the whole time we were at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford in PALO ALTO.

    He always seems to be there.

    From Sunday:
    PK Thank you for the kind words about my BLUE FOOTED BOOBY video. Yes, birds are fascinating for their similarities and differences to us. These birds are unusual for their sexual equality. The male does his mating dance, but then the female does her reciprocal mating dance for him. I found that fascinating to see!

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  31. Nina @7:33 AM Thanks for the CSO. The O's are hot these days!

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  32. Enjoyed the clip, Tony. But it wasn't so much like coffee....more like buttah.

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  33. I enjoyed this puzzle but enjoyed reading y'all and clicking on your links even more.

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  34. Tougher than the normal Tuesday challenge. Didn't notice the Double Speak and have never heard of COFFEE talk. Usually hear BACK talk as BACK SASS.

    Patio. TERRACE, Veranda, front porch, back porch- TAKE YOUR PICK
    STRAIN or SPRAIN- wait for the perps
    Lucina, as for MEET CUTE- the only place I've seen that term is in a xword puzzle
    Anon@11:25-BITE ME- I've heard it said but not by someone from the South, just people from up north. We're either more polite OR say something harsher like KISS IT.

    EPHEMERA, GLORY, BARIC, LOL CAT- filled by perps

    Waseeley-In all my chemical and medical work and study, the term baric for a positive cation was rarely if ever used. Too easy to confuse with BORIC. Products were just BARIUM,...'BARIUM SULFATE' not BARIC SULFATE. Sometimes pharmaceutical brand names were changed because doctors' sloppy handwriting had pharmacists filling the wrong medicines. Generic names never changed names.

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  35. Jinx @ 1:19 ~ Vive La Différence! Even though you were unfamiliar with those particular entries, my comment was based on the low count, overall, of pop culture references, as fairly often there are 20 +, or more. 😉

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  36. Hahtoolah offers her usual illustrious dominance while presenting a Cook PZL...

    This was EZ PZ until the end. (Ain't that always the way?)
    I got stuck near the center, at 44D, when I started with ARC as the fill for "Bracket shape."
    The perps didn't help.
    It took me the longest time to go for ELL. Truly.
    ~ OMK
    ____________
    DR:
    One diag, far side.
    Its anagram (14 of 15) designates a lonely pit viper (So. American variety), as a...

    "LORN BUSHMASTER"!

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  37. BE @3:46 PM I've never heard the term BARIC used in the ceramics industry, but it is the only element I know that begins with BAR__. Potters use the carbonate, BaC03. The dust is toxic, but the compound, like pretty much all others used to formulate glazes and clay bodies, is insoluble in water.

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  38. Argg- I had a whole post responding to Picard re: who's that guy(?) and how HP was founded in Palo Alto (and I still have my 28s Calculator) and how Palo Alto Networks build some bitchin' firewalls that I've implemented.

    Want to see my calculator?

    //HP (founded in Palo Alto) made some great equipment we used in the EE lab. Oscilloscopes, wave-generators, and other fun toys to play with.

    Cheers, -T

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  39. Sending prayers and positive wishes to all who live in Florida. It looks beastly!

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