Working Title
Today's constructors are David Distenfeld and
Seth Weitberg. David's
December 10, 2020
puzzle is the first one I ever reviewed for C.C. See if you
Dr. Who fans can spot the mistake I made on the very first page.
And here's a capsule bio from
Husker's review of David's first LAT themeless. And today Seth Weitberg is making his LAT debut.
Today David and Seth give us 4 theme clues about the different kinds of
WORK that aspiring sports pros have to take on to support themselves
while they're waiting for their big break, while still aggressively
staying at the top of their game. Sometimes in order to make it they have to
team up with a buddy, and sometimes, as we see in this
Siskel and Ebert review of a film about a basketball star who
partners with a martial arts expert things don't WORK out too well (Tomato Meter 11%) ...
Here Roger's review in writing. Not to keep you in suspense any longer here's the reveal. I think this week's theme is a slam dunk (I hope! 😀) ...
62A. Guard aggressively, and an apt description of 18-, 24-, 38-, and 50-Across: DOUBLE TEAM. Double teaming is most often used against high scoring players, but it can have its disadvantages. For all of you basketball noobs (e.g. MOI) here is an explanation of double teaming.
And of course it's an APT description of the themers, because the fill for each clue consists of DOUBLE TEAM names ...
18A. Works as a decoy vendor?: HAWKS DUCKS.
The Atlanta HAWKS are an NBA basketball team.
 |
| Anaheim Ducks |
Note here that the teams are not necessarily in the same sport, and
thus you won't find an Atlanta Hawk double-teaming an Anaheim Duck.
24A. Works as a political consultant?:
BILLS SENATORS.
The Buffalo BILLS are an NFL football team.
 |
| Buffalo Bills |
 |
| Ottawa Senators |
38A. Works as a weatherperson?:
BRAVES HURRICANES.
The Atlanta BRAVES are a MLB NL baseball team.
We have two choices here ...
The Carolina HURRICANES are an NHL hockey team.
 |
| Carolina Hurricanes |
 |
| University of Miami |
50A. Works as a fast-food cook?: BROWNS NUGGETS.
The Cleveland BROWNS are an NFL football team.
 |
| Cleveland Browns |
 |
| Denver Nuggets |
Here's the grid ...
Across:
1. Improvise: AD LIB.
6. Woodstock supergroup, briefly: CSNY. Crosby, Stills &
Nash (CSN) was a folk rock supergroup made up of American
singer-songwriters David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and English
singer-songwriter Graham Nash. When joined by Canadian singer-songwriter
Neil Young as a fourth member, they were called Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY).
They are noted for their intricate vocal harmonies and lasting
influence on American music and culture, as well as their political
activism and often tumultuous interpersonal relationships. Here's the
title track for their album Déjà Vu. You've probably heard it before ...
10. Where to find bands on bands: RADIO. Here's the band for WBJC 91.5 FM. They don't play much band music, but they did once play the overture to the soundtrack for The Last Emperor which was written by David Byrne of the new wave band The Talking Heads ...
15. Whooping __: CRANE. For 50 years the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Maryland ran a captive breeding program to help save Whooping CRANES from extinction. We learned in school that they migrated every year to Texas. We never saw them in Maryland, but were able to catch glimpses of them in a birding trip to the marshes of the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas near the San Antonio Bay.
|
|
Young Whooping Crane |
17. Like most Ken dolls: BLOND.
18. [Theme clue]
20. Fielder's need: GLOVE. Teri and I are both left handers and my son is a right hander. Only one of my grandchildren is left handed and she is into sports. As a result of attending several Oriole games this past season she developed an interest in baseball. She had a birthday recently, so we bought her this left-handed fielder's GLOVE ...
 |
| Left handed fielder's glove |
21. Aliens, for short: ETS.
22. Layered dessert: TORTE.
23. Mineral deposits: ORES. Not all mineral deposits are ORES, but ORES
contain mineral deposits.
24. [Theme clue]
28. Meat and potatoes, often: ENTREE.
31. __ canto: BEL. Today's Italian lesson, BEL canto
translates as "beautiful singing". It designates an opera style
characterized by a relatively small dynamic range, an exact control of
the intensity of vocal tone, a demand for vocal agility, and clear
articulation of notes and enunciation of words. The three Bel canto
composers par excellence are Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) and Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835). Here's soprano Anna Netrebko showing us how it's done with Norina's aria Quel guardo il cavaliere ("That I look at the knight") from Donizetti's Don Pasquale ...
32. Sch. group: PTA.
33. Snoozer: BORE. I hope Anna didn't BORE you with her vocal antics. 😀
34. "I feel you": SAME HERE.
38. [Theme clue]
43. Set of promotional materials: MEDIA KIT.
44. Dory pal: NEMO. His name of course comes from the intrepid Captain NEMO, commander of the Nautilus submarine in Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the basis for this thrilling 1954 movie ...
45. Fender accessory: AMP.
47. World's second-tallest bird: EMU. The EMU belongs to a group of flightless running birds known as ratites, the most primitive of the modern bird families. The ratite family includes the kiwi, ostrich, cassowary, and rhea, all birds found only in the Southern Hemisphere. The emu is the second-largest living bird in the world (the ostrich is the largest).
 |
| Emu Dromaius, novaehollandiae |
50. [Theme clue]
55. Capital once called Christiania: OSLO. New to me.
56. Gas up?: BLOAT.
57. Sport with takedowns, for short: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts.
60. Horned herbivore: RHINO. Don't let one catch you eating any of their herbs!
 |
| Rhinoceros |
64. Toy truck brand: TONKA. My youngest grandson is crazy about them.
 |
| Tonka Mighty Dump Truck |
66. Step in the shower?: RINSE.
67. Promise: SWEAR.
68. Cond. once called shell shock: PTSD. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Very clinical sounding. "Shell shock" is a much more vivid term. My father was shell shocked during WWII. Afterwards he was electro-shocked by "therapists". He never talked about the war.
69. Car rental choice: SEDAN.
Down:
1. Icy Hot target: ACHE.
2. "Darn!": DRAT.
3. Statutes: LAWS.
4. Tats: INK.
5. Principal pal: BESTIE.
6. Boor: CHURL.
8. Kicks with swooshes: NIKES.
9. Mos. and mos.: YRS.
10. "Notorious" SCOTUS justice: RBG. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was "notorious" for being a formidable opponent in the court room.
 |
| Ruth Bader Ginsburg |
11. Participate in a meting?: ALLOT. You can ALLOT A LOT, but not an ALOT.
12. Garage convenience: DOOR OPENER. Our "convenience" no longer opens and it's on my to do list to fix. Fortunately it was stuck CLOSED, not OPEN!
13. Flip: INVERT.
14. "Friday Night Lights" city: ODESSA. Friday Night Lights is a 2004 American sports drama film co-written and directed by Peter Berg. The film follows the coach and players of a high school football team in the Texas city of ODESSA. The book on which it is based, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger, followed the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team as they made a run towards the state championship ...
19. Big name in bananas: DOLE.
24. Musical equivalent of two whole notes: BREVE. In music, a double whole note (American), BREVE, or double note lasts two times as long as a whole note (or semibreve). It is the second-longest note value still in use in modern music notation. The longest notated note is the longa, which could be double or triple the length of a breve, although its use is most commonly found in early music.
 |
| Alternative Breve notations |
26. Classic grape soda: NEHI.
27. Oscar winner Guinness: ALEC. Sir Alec didn't win it for this film. At this point he was still waiting for a promotion ...
28. Abate: EBB.
29. 55-Across's country: Abbr.: NOR. Its capital is 55A.
30. Helpful item when it's time to bounce?: TRAMPOLINE.
34. Sheep in the "Wallace and Gromit" franchise: SHAUN. Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion animated comedy franchise created by Nick Park and produced by Aardman Animations. It's an acquired taste. Here they are ...
 |
| Wallace and Gromit |
35. Puffin kin: AUK. An AUK or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct species that are divided into 11 genera.
 |
| Auks |
 | |
| The Great Auk James Audubon |
37. Goes on and on: RANTS.
39. Paradise: EDEN.
40. Virtual people in a video game: SIMS.
41. Dashboard Confessional genre: EMO. Here's Meatloaf back by popular demand ...
42. Square in a yard: SOD.
45. Cancels, as a launch: ABORTS.
46. 1990s series starring David Cross and Bob Odenkirk: MR SHOW. Mr. Show with Bob and David, also known as MR SHOW, is an American sketch comedy series starring and hosted by Bob Odenkirk and David Cross. It aired on HBO from November 3, 1995, to December 28, 1998. These guys are very funny, but a little edgy. This skit is called "Lie Detector"...
One thing I learned from this clue was how to beep out words that Margaret wouldn't approve of 😀
48. Make good as new: HEAL.
49. River rompers: OTTERS.
51. Wilder role: WONKA. Pure Imagination ...
52. Curved fastener: U BOLT. Not the sprinter, but one of these ...
 |
| U Bolt |
54. Develop mold, say: GO BAD.
57. Darn: MEND.
58. Tamale dough: MASA. Here's how to make your own.
59. "You said it!": AMEN. Today's Hebrew lesson "āmēn" (אָמֵן) = "truth, certainty".
61. Dory mover: OAR. See also 44A.
62. Kwik Seal maker: DAP.
 |
| DAP Kwik Seal |
63. Get even with?: TIE. I think this should just about TIE up this review!
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
40 comments:
I got the gimmick pretty quickly, and that helped with my rest of the solve, especially “Braves Hurricanes” which I consider a bit of a stretch, given its clue. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Aha, double bird names. Nope. Finally figured out that they were team names...even before the reveal. Who gnu? No Wite-Out required today. Thanx for the outing, David and Seth, and for the expo, waseeley and Teri, and for the screeching, Anna.
NEMO: In my ute I thought 20,000 leagues referred to depth. But that'd be about 50,000 miles -- all the way through the earth, and well on the way to the moon on the other side. Can you spell naive?
BREVE: Don't think I've ever run across that notation. I'd give it a four -- nice beat, but you can't dance to it.
AUK: Watched an episode of the revived Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom this past week. It was about efforts in Maine to save the puffins, and included vintage clips of Marlin Perkins back when the puffin program began. Remember him?
Nope. Too many unknowns for me; ran out of patience, so DNF.
Good Morning:
I liked this theme and reveal very much. It was a Thursday level challenge, IMO, with some unknowns but easily perpable: Breve, Shaun, Mr. Show, and SIMS. I also appreciated the fact that the themers were all pro teams and encompassed the four major league sports. There were several clever clues, including the clecho for Darns, and some fun duo entries, i.e., Tonka/Wonka, Emo/Emu, and Oslo/Nor.
Thanks, David and Seth and congrats to Seth on his debut and thanks to Bill for the usual brain-stretching review and analysis. I enjoyed the Mr. Show clip, a show totally unfamiliar to me but, thanks to Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, I'm very much aware of Bob Odenkirk's talents. BTW, who is Margaret?
My foot pain returned yesterday and, fortunately, I had a scheduled appointment with my Primary. Actually, it was my annual Wellness Visit. New X-rays showed an unhealed fracture, not simply a hairline as was described back in August. Waiting to get a date confirmed for an appointment with an orthopedic foot specialist. On the positive side, I passed all the cognitive tests with flying colors and physically, I'm holding my own, so all is well. (Except for the foot!)
Have a great day.
FIR, but I had to really work at it. So many unknowns for me, and the perps were not much help.
I was hung up on breve for the longest time, unable to fill two long answers when the light bulb went off and I got the theme as teams in sports. And then I saw the other teams in the answers, and thus was my aha moment.
Clever theme - like D-O - once I made the mental switch from birds to Pro sports teams it was a smooth solve. BRAVES HURRICANES made me think of all those Weather Channel reporters who are standing in dangerous storms in areas where people are supposed to have evacuated from- crazy!
Love to see the puffins on our biennial trip to Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, Oregon - but I've never seen an AUK. When we lived in St. Louis during grad school the St. Louis zoo was in walking distance and was free - so we were frequent visitors and our next door neighbor was an assistant vet there with many interesting stories.
Thanks Bill & Teri for the informative blog and to David and Seth for the puzzle.
Took 11:19 today for me to find the Magic Jets.
"Breve" was totally unknown, and I was highly unsure of "churl," plus, for awhile I was thinking it had to be a double NHL team to pair with Senators, and "Wild" wouldn't work. I also didn't know "masa", otherwise, Ms. Irish Miss sums it up very well, again.
It is nice to have a Thursday-level puzzle on a Thursday, and always nice not to have to deal with those dreaded circles.
FIR, but erased end for EBB.
Today is:
GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS DAY (my etailers already know too much about me)
NATIONAL SEAFOOD BISQUE DAY (lobster was once known as “the poor man’s chicken”)
NATIONAL LGBT CENTER AWARENESS DAY (community centers that provide advocacy, empowerment, and support)
BRAVES HURRICANES evoked Jim Cantore leaning into a raging storm. If you see Jim in your town, you know you should have already evacuated.
To entertain DW, I watch a lot of Secrets of the Zoo. The RHINOs on the show seem to really like their keepers, and love a good scrubdown with a brush. The keepers don't go into an enclosures with an adult. Those big guys could literally kill you with kindness.
My (crossword-favorite) ElHi school had an AV specialist who was married to our second grade teacher. He survived the Bataan Death March, and never recovered from his PTSD. Kind of a shell of a man, but he was a whiz with film projectors.
I love that RBG and Antonin Scalia were great friends. Total opposite on their politics, they set those views aside when not performing their duties at work. That relationship would make a great movie, and the world would be a better place if all of us would do the same.
When I moved to Texas I was told that they have only two seasons - spring football and regular (pronounced RAG-lar.)
Anyone seen SOD sold in squares? I've only seen them in long rectangles.
Thanks to David and Seth for the challenging Thursday puzzle. My favorite was "participate in a meting," which I read as "meeting" (as I'm sure you intended.) And as always, thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the fun review. If I was visiting my kinfolks in Olney or Frederick, I would come over and help you fix your garage door.
IM @7:26 AM Margaret Farrar is the original editor of the NY Times crossword puzzle. She coined the term "Sunday Morning Breakfast Test" for the suitability of crossword clue/fill. We've long since arrived at "Saturday Night Live". Here's Will Shortz's take on the subject.
Why NEMO's ship, the Nautilus,
Required an OAR is strange to us.
Perhaps a DORY
Might employ a
Paddle to Minneapolis!
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Made popular the songs they sung.
They were the top
At WOODSTOCK,
From rock and roll to swing they swung!
{A, B.}
Jinx @7:50 AM Well there is an opera that could be made into a movie. Scalia and Ginsburg both shared a love of opera, and that love was celebrated in an 2015 opera called Scalia/Ginsburg. Here's an interview with Ginsburg describing it. It could use better subtitles!
Bill @ 7:58 ~ Thanks for satisfying my curiosity. I'm aware of Margaret Farrah's tenure as Editor and her Breakfast Test standards but I wasn't thinking very clearly when I read your comment. In fact, my first thought was "Bill's wife's name is Teri and Margaret is Moe's SO." Convoluted confusion at its best! 🤣 Belated thanks to Teri for her weekly contributions.
Farrar not Farrah. I wish Autocorrect would speak when spoken to!
Irish Miss, Ottocorrect takes umbrage at four-letter words.
You mean “wish,” D-O?
This CW was not for me this morning. I know nothing about sports, teams, and vocabulary and names associated with them. I could see DOUBLE TEAM, but I couldn’t see how it could mean guard aggressively.
LN someone who had already done this puzzle did warn us that one had to be familiar with sports to do well on this CW.
IM☘️ Congratulations on a good check up. Hope your foot pain will be taken care of.
Terrific Team-Themed Thursday. I FIRed in good time and saw all the DOUBLE TEAMs.
Thanks for the fun, David and Seth, and waseeley and Teri.
(Thanks for the CSO with those SENATORS.)
No inkblots today, which is rare for a Thursday.
I did have to wait for perps to fill the unknown-to-me SHAUN, MR SHOW, and MASA.
Favourites were the clues for RADIO, ALLOT, BLOAT and SOD.
MIL was born in OSLO and had its C name as her middle name.
Several YRS. ago (on a recommendation from YR), read the Ann Patchett novel BEL Canton about a hostage-taking involving an opera singer. I’ll recommend it.
I had enough perps not to enter Cough after Whooping.
We have that TONKA truck (but a 1980’s version made out of metal). The grands love to play with it in the garden dirt (our sandbox is long gone!).
IM- sorry to hear of the continued foot problem. Hope it heals now.
Wishing you all a great day.
Musings
-This puzzle had a lot to like, e.g. learning (BREVE), devilish cluing (Step in the shower), rare usage (CHURL usually seen as an adjective in churlish) and a fun gimmick.
-In A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s line was, “You already have the truth” but he ad libbed, “You can’t handle the truth!”
-Sushi is low on my preferred meal list as I am a “meat and taters” kind of guy
-HERE, HERE gave way to SAME HERE
-We had two three-letter birds today
-RHINO: Omaha’s world class zoo had this addition recently.
-PTSD: My childhood friend has been a chain-smoking recluse since coming home from Vietnam
-RBG also added JABOT, which is prominent in her picture) to my vocabulary
-Mixed blessing: Harvesting a GLUT of corn which makes prices go down
-BRAVING THE HURRICANE? :-)
-Irish, your cognition is first rate!
Greetings! Slow going today, but a good Thursday puzzle. Thanks David & Seth. Welcome to the Corner, Seth.
WO: ALLOw -> ALLOT
After HAWKS DUCKS I thought the theme might be about animals, but when BILLS SENATORS appeared, I saw the teams. Nice combos!
I remember the Washington SENATORS baseball team.
Perps for BEL, BREVE, SHAUN and MR SHOW. CSNY: I know of this group, but never remember the initialism.
Thanks, Bill and Teri, for the entertaining recap.
I am not a sports fan, but I did get the theme and knew some of the TEAMs, which helped with the solve. Cross of MMA/MASA only worked because we have seen these before.
These young people did a TRAMPOLINE show in our 2018 Holiday Parade.
It is not the most amazing TRAMPOLINE performance, but it is impressive that these young people set this up to be pushed in our parade. And they had to do it over and over up the parade route. The lights are cool, too. The parade theme was "Santa Barbara Shines".
From Yesterday:
Vidwan Thank you for the further KITE comments. I had forgotten to comment on your previous story about the scary India KITE fighting contests with dangerous pieces. At our KITE Festival we have had KITE fighting contests, but nothing that would endanger spectators or participants!
I was right on the BAND wagon for this one. A lot of clever misdirection, but I didn't get fooled today. Must have dialed into the correct frequency this morning. I think more of pineapple when I think of DOLE. For bananas, Chiquita. HOT ROD immediately brought Lincoln to mind. A quick, fun run.
CEd! @11:00 AM I thought about going the Patchett route for BEL CANTO, but was seduced by Anna Netrebko. Patchett developed a friendship with the equally divine Renee Fleming during the writing and the book was used as the basis for several adaptations.
Picard @11:38 AM Way cool trampoline clip!
Hola!
Sports is never on my preferred list but I soldiered on with this puzzle and managed to almost finish but I can't say I enjoyed it. In fact, I never got NUGGETS and left it blank. I just did not want to bother with it.
However, it was surprising to see MASA with which I am very familiar and it won't be long before we start the process of making tamales.
ODESSA recalls my favorite author, Ken Follett, who wrote The ODESSA Files.
My nieces had a short-lived time with a TRAMPOLINE. Their mother deemed it too dangerous and got rid of it.
My gr-grandson loves his TONKA truck. And I enjoyed TONKA crossing WONKA!
ALTA(fem.) means high in Spanish.
Picard: thank you for posting that photo even though it's dark. I so enjoy your town's festivities.
HGary
That RHINO cub is so cute! The Phoenix Zoo also had a baby RHINO some time ago.
Have a terrific day, everyone!
Lucina, does that make ALTO the masc of ALTA? If so, why are all the ALTO singers feminine? (I think that baby rhino is called a calf.)
Hi Y'all! Thanks, David & Seth for a hard but interesting puzzle. Thanks, Bill & Teri, for your interesting take on the matter.
One year a group of us went to Kearney, Nebraska, with our binoculars to see the WHOOPING CRANES. From Feb.-Apr. each year over a million of the birds gather along the Platte River there. They are a noisy sight. I always liked hearing them fly over my house during migration, whooping all the way.
Thanks to Lucina, I knew MASA right away.
Irish Miss, sorry to hear your foot fracture hasn't healed. My last four foot fractures at one time, I was in a wheel chair for six weeks (2016) and they healed fine. Years ago when I had three little kids, the bone behind my left little toe was fractured and didn't heal for years. Kept shifting around and giving me mucho grief. I couldn't stay off of it -- seems necessary to do so for foot fractures.
Let's see if the other OLD solvers know this.
St. Louis HAWKS
Oregon DUCKS
Washington SENATORS
Boston, Milwaukee BRAVES
Miami HURRICANES
Chicken NUGGETS- had to throw that in.
With WONKA and TONKA, we need Larry CSONKA.
CHURL- a new one for me- all perps. Ditto for SHAUN and Mr. SHOW.
DAP- tried STP but the perps helped that unknown
BREVE- news to me. You can just 'TIE' two, three, or four whole notes or just 'hold' it.
Waseeley leads us through this Distenfeld/Weitmer PZL...
It started easily enough, but turned tough. I needed four cheats to get through.
I am surprised I didn't get 41D right away.
But was gladdened to see Waseeley's response, with the link to Meatloaf's great "Paradise by the Dashboard Light."
I know that number by heart--as I suspect do many of my generation--so I was going to skip the link.
That would have been a big mistake.
I warn other fans of the song NOT to let it go by without checking it out. What a beautiful video!
Catch the look on Meatloaf's face: "Lemme sleep on it--Baby, baby, lemme sleep on it!"
And that ending: "Prayin' for the end of time!" Wow.
~ OMK
_____________
DR: None. - Asym. 16Ax15D.
PK @2:06 PM You had me going on the WHOOPING CRANE migration until you mentioned "millions". I believe you are referring to the magnificent SAND HILL CRANES. It will be millennia before the former migrate in those numbers. 😀
Puzzling thoughts:
FIR with one correction; I had COUGH before CRANE in 15-across but perps rescued it
I am noticing more 16x15 puzzles these days
I had a similar thought as did Jinx re Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel. If he's in your town (during HURRICANE season) then you had better have left town. Cantore doesn't always do HURRICANE events. Recently, when the annular eclipse occurred, Cantore was monitoring the event from Albuquerque NM
Irish Miss, hope your foot begins to heal properly
No spoiler alerts for tomorrow's puzzle ... see you bright and early
Big Easy - I'm old, and a solver (at least today I am,) and I knew all but the St. Louie HAWKS.
Bill, I couldn't understand any of the audio from the interview - that may be why I've never heard of the show. But there was a link to a CBS interview which was clearer. Good stuff.
We can never have enough Sand Hill CRANES.
Thumper
(not a sports fan...)
But it does give me an idea,
I never pepper sprayed a puzzle before...
Hmm, food for thought?
CED, you think you know peppers? I heard on TV tonight that there is a new world record hottest, trade named Pepper X. No, despite the label, it isn't an Elon Musk business.
Thursdays are my one-thing-after-another days so many of you have already said what I wanted to say. Nevertheless...
Thanks to David and Seth. I had a one box FIW at MEDIAlIT X AUl.
FAVs: "Darn!" and Darn; clue for BLOAT, TONKA crossing WONKA, and EMO crossing NEMO
I needed the reveal to go back and fill in 24, 38, & 50 Acrosses.
I read Bob Odenkirk's book, "Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama", so MR SHOW was in the punchbowl but weasley's clip was the first time I've seen it.
Speaking of books, CanadianEh!@ 11:00. I also read & enjoyed "Bel Canto"; however, there was a huge error in it that kept taking me out of the story. You might remember that the Japanese character was trying to learn some Spanish. There was a storyline about him learning that "pan" meant "bread" in Spanish. Actually, "pan" is also the Japanese word for "bread" so it would have been a gimme for him to learn that word. Someone did not do their fact checking on that one.
Also, CanadianEh!, same same for whooping Cough.
H-Gary @ 11:04. That baby rhino is too cute. It looks like a toy!
Noted the 16X15 grid.
IM@7:26. If they every doubt your cognitive skills, give them the link to this blog. You are one sharp cookie! I hope your foot heals quickly.
Thanks to waseeley for his Thursday entertainment! I especially enjoyed all the music links. That's your jam!
I forgot to ask waseeley, was your Dr. Who error the spelling of David Tennent's name?
Bill Seeley, Since it was 25 years ago that we went, I googled the Kearney whooping crane before I posted and the reference there said a million birds. However, I cannot find that reference now. But we definitely saw whooping cranes in great quantities there. Our group leader was an ornithologist hired to speak to us. You weren't there so you have no idea what we saw. They were magnificent and unforgettable. They weren't sandhill cranes which we had in our local vicinity and which I saw regularly on the ground.
sumdaze @9:24 PM YESS!
PK @9:58 PM This wiki article on Whooping Cranes states that "The total number of cranes in the surviving migratory population, plus three reintroduced flocks and in-captivity, only slightly exceeds 800 birds as of 2020". This article also suggests that they are very rare and that there also approximately 800 extant birds. It also states that the maximum size of the population was around 10,000 prior to the arrival of settles to North America.
Thank You David and Seth for a very nice puzzle, which I solved, with some help ;-)....
Thank You Waseely and Teri for a very enjoyable blog. I had solved this puzzle late last night, but I did not want to reveal any secrets, except that they involved a lot of sports teams. However, I did not realize that the teams were from different sports ... well, for a person who doesn't watch TV, except for the Superbowl, what can you expect.
I m surprised that many of you found this rather difficult, ... maybe sports is a very varied and far spread activity that it is not easy to master ...
Irish Miss, Hope your fracture heals, and soon. Fractures in senior citizens ( yes, me too ..) is one of the most debilitating impacts in your life.
I get ATLEAST 10 WhatsApp messages ...every Week !!! ... from my various interest groups, on how to avoid fractures ... because, in the opinion of three orthopedic surgeons, fractures of any kind, in senior citizens can reduce a lifespan by 7 to 8 years...
I wish I could include the advice by these MDs, but that would take 4 blog pages ...
BTW never step on a stool or even a foot stool ... even if your life depended on it ....!
Have a nice Friday, and the weekend to follow... all you folks !
Bill: I would appreciate your googling "Kearney, Nebraska, whooping cranes" before you continue to try to make me out as a liar. The Platte River in Nebraska is in a direct path from the area in Texas to the one in Canada. The birds don't just migrate across the continent in one day. They stop at bodies of water in between. The article you cited is woefully inadequate and makes the mistake of many easterners in thinking there is nothing out here in the middle of the continent worth mentioning. When I was still on the farm in North Central Kansas, two whooping cranes were shot & killed at our local lake by a couple of drunk idiots. I was not writing for the newspaper at the time, so I didn't go up and see the birds which were found by our state Wildlife & Parks Rangers.
Desper-otto
I'm sorry to be so late to answer your question but I had not returned to the Blog since this morning. So, yes, ALTO is the masculine of ALTA when it's an adjective.
El arbol es ALTO. (The tree is tall.)
Mi amiga es muy ALTA. (My friend is very tall. fem.)
El pajaro vuela muy alto. (The bird flies very high.)
As for singers who sing ALTO, that is not an adjective, it is a noun.
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