Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with today's recap. Our puzzle setter, John Andrew Agpalo (who presented us with a Sunday puzzle back in July of this year) has constructed a grid with ten, count 'em ten, theme-related answers. Let's start with the unifier:
36 Across: Exciting but dangerous way to live, and a hint to making the starred clues match their answers: ON THE EDGE.
There are two components to "making the starred clues match their answers". First, the theme-related answers all "reside" on the perimeter or, if you will, ON THE EDGE of the puzzle. Second, the prepositional phrase "ON THE" has been omitted from each entry and we have been asked to supply that in our heads as we suss out the appropriate fill. When we add ON THE ahead of each entry then that clue is appropriately answered. Initially, attempting to figure out the answers left this solver scratching his head but, once the "AHA" moment occurred, the (mostly idiomatic) answers flowed smoothly.
Here are the themers (all marked with asterisks for our convenience):
1 Across: *Kerouac novel: ROAD. We had ON THE ROAD as an answer two weeks ago and, at that time, I stuck to the literary reference and resisted using the following. I have taken this second reference as a sign that I should yield:
On The Road Again
5 Across: *Free: HOUSE. If something is ON THE HOUSE then it is, at least when the phrase used idiomatically, free of charge (but not unlike an ion). This would not apply e,g, to a rooftop antenna.
10 Across: *Alert: BALL. ON THE BALL
1 Down: *Officially: RECORD. ON THE RECORD. We might hear also hear OFF THE RECORD but we don't hear OFF THE HOUSE or OFF THE BALL.
13 Down: *Keeping watch: LOOKOUT. ON THE LOOKOUT
39 Down: *Imminent: HORIZON. ON THE HORIZON Looming
50 Down: *Available for purchase: MARKET. ON THE MARKET
67 Across: *Precisely: NOSE. ON THE NOSE Exactly
68 Across: *Undecided: FENCE. ON THE FENCE
68 Across: *Undecided: FENCE. ON THE FENCE
69 Across: *Then and there: SPOT. ON THE SPOT
This is how all of this appears in the completed grid . . .
. . . . and here are the rest of the clues and answers:
Across:
14. Sea eagle: ERNE. This type of bird is a frequent visitor.
15. The Ivies, e.g.: OCTAD. In this case the reference is to the eight universities in the Ivy League. When solving, we initially do not know if the answer is going to be OCTAD or OCTET but we can go ahead and fill in the first three letters in either case.
16. Palm smartphone: TREO. Now discontinued.
Palm Treo 755 P
17. John of "The Suicide Squad": CENA.
18. Running start?: READY SET GO. Said before a race. Often, On Your Mark, Get Set, Go.
20. Anthem with English and French lyrics: O CANADA. Canadian, EH!
22. Eye surgery acronym: LASIK. Laser-Assissted In SItu Keratomileusis
23. Univ. dorm figures: RAS. Resident AdvisorS appear often in our puzzles.
24. Jonathan Larson musical: RENT. Loosely based on La Boheme
26. Powerful Chevy: CAMARO. Certainly the IROC version but my mom drove a CAMARO with a quite-under-powered straight six.
27. Celtic priest: DRUID. How did they create the first diagram of Stonehenge? They DRUID.
29. Skewered snack in peanut sauce: SATAY.
31. __ Malnati's: chain known for Chicago-style pizza: LOU. Operating mostly in Illinois with a smattering of locations in Arizona, Wisconsin and Indiana. So, if you had not heard of LOU, you were not alone.
32. King and queen: SIZES. A reference to mattresses. Just like two weeks ago only then it was twins.
34. Cassis cocktail: KIR. Creme de Cassis and white wine.
35. Safari shelter: TENT. Not a reference to an Apple browser. A clue that takes advantage of the leading-cap convention to try to fool us.
39. Tough: HARD. As in difficult.
42. In medias __: RES.
43. Snapped out of a daydream, perhaps: SAT UP. A bit of a stretch but not too much.
46. Latin for "eggs": OVA.
47. Special talent: FORTE. I cannot play loud music. It's just not my FORTE.
49. Jeans fabric: DENIM.
51. Curiosity and Opportunity: ROVERS. A reference to NASA's Mars exploration devices.
53. Scandinavian capital: OSLO. A frequent destination for solvers.
55. Nashville awards org.: CMA.
56. Words of empathy: I CARE.
57. Rat: TATTLER. Has anyone actually hear this word used? Tattle or tattletale, yes.
59. Boast in a restaurant window: ZAGAT RATED.
63. File's partner: RANK. RANK and File
64. Poetic paeans: ODES.
65. TikTok aesthetic: E-GIRL. Outside of this solver's ken.
66. Spanish "east": ESTE.
Down:
2. Vehicles of mine?: ORE CARS. As in extracting minerals from the earth. Not possessive. Hand up for first muttering that ORE CARTS would not fit and the clue is plural, dammit.
3. Fashion icon with a Fantasia fragrance line: ANNA SUI. Unknown to this solver. Thanks, perps.
4. Campus official: DEAN. As in DEAN Martin in the movie "Back to School".
5. Throng: HORDE.
6. Scads: OCEANS.
7. "Respect for Acting" writer Hagen: UTA. A frequent visitor.
8. Teary, maybe: SAD. Whenever I am sad my friend says "Cheer up man. It could be worse. You could be stuck underground in a hole filled with water." I know he means well.
9. Dreyer's partner in ice cream: EDY. William Dreyer and Joseph EDY.
10. Benchwarmers: B-TEAM.
11. Place to check for prints: ART SALE. Not fingerprints.
12. Shackle: LEG IRON.
19. Perform amazingly, informally: SLAY.
Stan Freberg - Saint George and the Dragonet
21. Elizabeth who founded the Red Door salon: ARDEN.
25. Grows fond of: TAKES TO. Like a duck to water
26. What casino workers are always dealing with: CARDS. Nice word play.
28. Active wear brand: IZOD. There is one brand of active wear clothing that I cannot stand. I guess that I am Lacoste intolerant.
30. Even numbers?: TIE. The score is even.
33. Houston squad, casually: STROS. The Houston Asterisks baseball club. Sorry, Texans, but it is going to take a while longer for this Los Angeles-born son of a Brooklyn-ite to forgive and forget.
35. Head of Québec: TETE. Québec signals to us that the answer will be en français.
37. R&B singer whose stage name is pronounced like a pronoun: HER.
38. Gal of "Red Notice": GADOT. Not just any gal, but Gal GADOT, the actress. Another one of those clues that takes advantage of the leading-cap convention to try to fool us.
40. California roll ingredient: AVOCADO.
41. Wreaks havoc on: RAVAGES.
44. Prepare for take-off?: UNCLASP. As in prepare to remove an article of clothing.
45. __ cheese: Southern spread: PIMENTO. Often clued with a reference to olives.
47. Stew (over): FRET.
48. Brand that boasts 24-hour immunity support: ESTER C.
52. Shake an Etch A Sketch, say: ERASE.
54. Stock holder?: LADLE. Stock, in this case, as in soup.
58. "__ chic!": TRES. Very stylish. Not:
60. Call, as a game: REF. Abbreviated answer but NOT an abbreviated clue. Odd.
61. Grow old: AGE.
62. __ ear: TIN. As in tone deaf. Fitting that we wrap things up with an idiom.
___________________________________________________________________
34 comments:
At first, I wondered if Jack Kerouac had written a four-letter novel that I was unfamiliar with, but soon I grasped the gimmick and with it the theme of “On the…”. Not a bad puzzle, IMHO. Pretty clever, and eminently sussable. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Oy, the modern world has left d-o behind. Got, but didn't understand: ZAGAT RATED, ESTERC, ANNASUI, EGIRL, plus LOU and GAL as clued. Can't believe I emerged unscathed from this one. Enjoyed your groany expo, Mal-Man. Thanx, John Andrew, for the diversion.
Thank you, John Andrew Agpalo. You were ON THE JOB with this one.
Pretty much what MM said in his opening. For me, it was, "I know this answer is correct, but it isn't making sense with the clue." Then it all made sense when I filled the reveal, and the rest of the EDGE answers filled quickly.
The only completely unknown was ANNA SUI, but the perps filled that one. ESTER C was slow in coming, and DW has it in the cabinet.
Willie Nelson turned 90 in April. On Sunday evening, CBS has a 2 hour special from his 2 day birthday party. I wonder if ON THE ROAD Again will be performed.
I had to laugh at that cat ON THE FENCE. They can be so weird.
MM, it took a moment to get DEAN Martin / Back To School. Oh, that Dean Martin.
AVOCADOs - I call 'em guacamole eggs. DW smirks.
Funny quips and puns, MM. I enjoyed the review. Thanks!
Good Morning! Too quirky for me. I missed the theme until I got to the recap, and then it all made sense. Thanks, MalMan, and I loved your punny jokes!
There were enough familiar clues/fills to keep me going, but I had to google OCTAD and EGIRL to get me to the finish.
WOs: SLAm -> SLAY; mOVERS -> ROVERS; Lasso -> LADLE.
FLN: Jinx, I was so glad to read your Irish Wolfhound received relief with acupuncture. I hope my comment didn’t give you the impression I was doubtful of its efficacy – not at all! I have a friend who has had much success for a painful condition, and I use acupressure for temporary relief of tinnitus when it begins to bog me down.
A FIW today for my performance, which I did not SLAY. I had trouble in the Dakotas. I filled GET GO and LIKES TO, (wanted LOOSE instead of HOUSE) before going back and filling HOUSE, OCTAD, ...etc. Not knowing SATAY didn't help. Filled GLAM for SLAY, had READY GET GO instead of SET, didn't look at RENL but would have filled RENT-duh!
The 'Running start' in every race I ever competed in was"
'On your marks', 'Set (three seconds)' and the starter gun shot. In big-time track meets it's all electronic and the starting blocks are wired and can tell if a runner 'jumps the gun' by even 1/100th of a second.
LOU Malnati's- unknown but an easy guess.
Palm TREO- probably the first smart phone
ANNA SUI, E-GIRL & HER- never heard of her, her, or her/him,they/them.
Good Morning:
I can't help thinking how much more enjoyable and satisfying the solve would have been without the asterisks. It is Friday, after all, but the difficulty level is practically nil because of the glaring *s. I saw the theme the second I filled in Road and House, although I had Loose before perps changed it to House. The point is, the element of surprise and the challenge of discovery were greatly diminished. That said, I loved the theme which was refreshing and a nice change of pace. I went astray at Ump/Ref and at the aforementioned Loose/House. I needed perps for Rovers, Zagat Rated, EGirl, Anna Sui, and Ester C.
Thanks, John Andrew, for a fun solve and thanks, MalMan, for the usual puns and Dad humor. Loved the "Dragon Net" spoof!
Have a great day.
FIW. Silly mistake at 2D not noticing the plural. I had ore cart instead of ore cars, didn't know Anna Sui and had Sue instead, and scratched my head at tezes. A little more care in rushing through the clues would have been advisable.
The theme was very clever. I got hung up on the fact that the answers were on the edges, and then the light bulb went off and I got them all. Last to fall was on the fence.
Took 11:37 today for me to get on with it.
Didn't know my "E"s today. EsterC, egirl, and I had tern before erne.
I knew today's actress (Gadot).
I enjoyed the clues for "art sale" and "cards."
PS. I also didn't know Annasui.
Friday fumble. Thanks for the fun, John and MalMan.
I needed a few Google helps (for ROAD, SUI, UTA, ESTER C) to beak the logjam (and ROAD gave me the ON THE theme - I already had the EDGE).
Clever but hard for me today.
Some Canadian disadvantage with LOU, EDY (but I learned here), OCTAD as clued with those Ivies, ZAGAT (apparently we have those ratings in Canada, but I am not familiar with them).
Hand up for Loose before HOUSE. I waited for perps to decide between REF and Ump.
LADLE was a meh clue/answer IMHO.
But I love my CSO with O CANADA. We usually hear the bilingual version with first two lines in English, next four in French, and remainder in English. I will take another CSO with TETE, since it was clued with a Canadian province.
Wishing you all a great day.
I thought the title was “On the Road” aha!! Now I get it , add on the that made the theme fun, provided lots of easy fill. Distributing answers “on the edge”’ of the grid took talent so I’ll overlook “Alexa/Siri I’m stuck with a nonsense answer, gimme a clue for ESTERC. Ended up being a relatively quick Friday
Enjoy researching name derivation:
ORIGIN:
Filipino (Akeanon)
NAME ROOT:
Agpalo
MEANING:*
this is a feminine given name from the FILIPINO (Akeanon) language. in the Philippines the name means “to strike”. AKEANON is a language spoken in the central Philippines. It is a member of the Austronesian language family.
Inkover: likes it/TAKESTO, slam/SLAY, unclamp/UNCLASP (to prepare for take off (flight) you need to clasp not UNCLASP your seatbelt unless “prepare to take off” clothes? Like UNCLASP a belt?)….
“O CANADA” you booted crowd for HORDE. Is there another anthem that starts with “O”? 🤔 ERNE, it’s been so long since we’ve seen this bird fly in and roost in a CW I feared it had gone extinct.
ANNASUI sounds like an Asian entrée.
So “to call as a game” is not to end it (like for bad weather etc.) To ERASE an etch-a-sketch you hafta shake it upside down In the early days of medical ultrasonography we called the then primitive images etch-a-sketch (“rain clouds over Rochester”)
A beautiful sketch! Who ____ ?….DRUID
How many to tango….TAKESTO
Life begins at ____ ……. FORTE
I M
Just finished both seasons of “Fisk” quirky and fun. Just 12 episodes 30 minutes each plus a great ending…perfect
FIR, but erased CAMeRO, yurt for TENT, pends for FENCE, and hand up for ump for REF.
Today is:
BILL OF RIGHTS DAY (seems they have one foot in the shredder)
CAT HERDERS DAY (tilt at your windmills first)
NATIONAL UNDERDOG DAY (UNC is a 3 point underdog tomorrow against my UK Wildcats)
NATIONAL WEAR YOUR PEARLS DAY (best way to tell if they are real is to bite them. Works for pearls too)
NATIONAL UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER DAY (love ‘em, but only have a couple)
NATIONAL CUPCAKE DAY (like them, but don’t understand how they became such a fad recently after all these decades)
INTERNATIONAL TEA DAY (just give me some grocery store decaf unsweetened, please)
I knew ESTER C only because of Larry King hawking them in TV commercials. Guess he didn't make enough money doing interviews for 250 years (or so it seemed.)
Wish I had waited for LASIK. Repeated RK surgeries wrecked my left eye, leaving me with poor vision that can only be corrected by special contact lenses.
I doff my hat to Irish Miss who found this one to be low difficulty. It stretched my abilities, especially down around Mobile Bay. Took me three sessions to finally get 'er done.
The casino workers who work craps and roulette tables are called dealers, but they don't deal in those roles (or rolls in the case of craps.)
FLN, RosE - no offense (that's "offence" to our O CANADAian Cornerite) taken to your acupuncture comments. As I (think I) said, I was a skeptic.
I didn't really enjoy this one, but I respect the cleverness of how it was assembled. But our MalMan delivered the chuckles big time to rescue the effort. Thanks.
I agrée with IM☘️ about the asterisks. They made the theme fills really easy. That ease however was offset by some obscure names like EGIRL, LOU, UTA, TREO, CENA. At first I entered BADOT, but the EDGE set me straight.
We hadn’t had IZOD in quite a while.
MM gave us a neat recap.
Hi All!
I got just enough to see "Record" and then it clicked that "On The" was missing and away I went.
Thanks John for the Fun Friday puzzle; I enjoyed the theme. Thanks MManatee for the expo - LOL Dragonet.
WO: PIMiNTO
ESPs: ANNA SUI | CENA, UTA, KIR, LOU, HER (as clued)
Fav: Bitchin' CAMARO [Dead Milkmen - 3:02]
Though it is nice to see the TREO remembered. I have the TREO 650 in a box around here somewhere (I fixed that thing so many times trying to stay out of Apple's iThing ecosystem)
FLN - PK, vidwan's mention of PK == Drunk is in relation to the movie PK that CED was lauding; just a coincidence it's also your inits.
In his song "Buy me a Condo," Weird Al references IZOD "I gonna get me da T-shirt wit' de alligator on." [Cite 3:53]
D-O: Next time you go to a fancy or upscale restaurant, look for Zagat in the window. Here's Houston's top SPOTs. Also, listen to any AM station for an hour or so (preferably during a STROS game), and you'll hear a commercial for ESTER-C.
Ray-O: Another anthem starting with an O? "O, say, can you see..." //reminds me of a joke of the guy from Mexico that goes to a baseball game and is asked how he liked it.
"Everyone was so kind. Before the game they all made sure my view was not blocked by singing, "José, can you see?"
I'll see myself out :-)
Cheers, -T
A rare Friday FIR! Catching ON to THE gimmick surely made it easier. (Not EASY!) A lot of unknowns, but perps were fair, and WAGs were lucky. Enjoyed this one after the light bulb finally went on, but I think I used up almost all of tomorrows supply of P&P! Great write-up by MM put the cherry on top.
Seems like just yesterday I was bemoaning the loss of gimmicky fridays. Imagine my surprise and pleasure when I opened my iPad to see all those shaded edges! I thought, it's going to be a fun puzzle! Thank you Patti Varol!
At first, confused, but quickly figured it out by "lookout." Which made filling in "on the edge" (and edges) much easier. But this was not an easy puzzle. I had many in the middle empty spots that required much alphabet running to complete. Enjoyed the word play. While vehicles of mine? Was a no brainer, I was completely stumped by king and Queen, until the last missing letter...
All in all, a pleasure to solve.
this image actually represents me, because I hate when mfrs force stuff down your throat as bundled software. I am very happy with chrome and safari thank you...
I am not sure why I found this image funny, maybe because all the others were so, so so...
obligatory cat pic...
hmmm.....
this link may be inappropriate but quite honestly, I had no idea what this guy was talking about, and had to look it up. It surprises me the opinions that some people put on their cars...
My goodness, I must have enjoyed the puzzle immensely today, because it has made me a little link happy...
another obligatory cat pic...
just because...
FLN, PK,
Yes, I am sure Vidwan was enlightening me, and had no idea you might be offended.
(Aside to Vidwan, thank you, I had no idea the title had meaning like that. I am enlightened..)
So PK, I hope you are ok with my posting about my cat, Pretty Kitty, whom I called Pk for 15 wonderful years.
And I am sorry you are sensitive to the Hindi meaning, you know, as Irish Miss would say, a shot of Scotch can take the edge off.
Um, er,
oh crap! I may be going over the edge here...
Really enjoyed the theme - I got it early with "On the ROAD" with Kerouac's novel so it sped up the solve considerably.
IZOD polos became really popular when I was in college- for those dressing preppy -I'm glad labels weren't a thing when I was high school. Certain styles were popular but didn't have to be a certain brand.
So much to do today - so I'll just thank MM for the fun blog and John Andrew for the EDGE-Y puzzle!
After filling a few of the edge answers I realized that something was missing from the answers. Figured out that "on the" as the missing element . The reveal confirmed it.
Had no idea what the restaurant boast was. Perps filled it in. The rest was pure shotgun fill with a couple of Google queries to confirm guesses..
Malman's recap and John's submission made a great merger. Thanks to them for their efforts.
Life may go on, but Christmas is only a fortnight away.
Wrap-up
Thank you John Andrew for the Friday challenge. Had my suspicions about the theme from the get go with the the Kerouac reference, then promptly forgot it -- but (did I ever say) there was no place to fill in the theme, so after some additional effort I did get a FIR.
And thank you MalMan for the hilarious review and the thorough explanation of all of John Andrew's circumlocutions.
Some favs:
47A FORTE. So I take it you play PIANO MalMan?
57A TATTLER. Actually I have seen TATTLER in the names of some smalltown rags that specialize in GOSSIP.
65A EGIRL. DANCE fit, but didn't perp.
2D ORE CARS. TRAMS was too short.
9D EDYS. DNK these guys were buddies. I guess the partnership melted.
28D IZOD. You really MILKED that one MalMan.
19D SLAY. My favorite clue, but only because of the Freberg clip. I'm sending it to my 2nd youngest grandson, who won't get any of the DRAGNET references (nor will his father), but who loves animals.
38D GADOT. I knew it was GAL right away.
Cheers
Bill
Musings
-What a hoot, uh, eventually. Having the reveal and pairing it with FENCE was my breakthrough! I must be one of the slower children.
-When the fills made no sense, I should have known other strategies were afoot!
-Unknowns and obscurities were only a minor annoyance. Kind of like me! 😊
-Many things are important in your golf game but keep your eye on the BALL is #1!
-My dentist and barber told me that have to be ON THE FENCE when talking to customers
-Running start/READY SET GO was very cool!
-Today’s country music is not my dad’s or uncle’s music!
-OCTAD were tarantula legs on the 12/2 puzzle
- Husker VB easily handled the Pitt Panthers last night and will be ON THE LOOKOUT for yet another National Championship this weekend. UNL has no seniors, plays five freshmen regularly and 8 of the 14 squad members are on the All Big 10 Academic Team.
Dash-T, you should know that I'm too low-class to visit a high-class, sit-down restaurant. We finally got a Salt Grass Steakhouse up our way. It's been open about a month, and the wait time is still 45+ minutes, even at 5PM. We've driven there twice, but have yet to eat there. AM Radio? Is that still a thing? (That from a guy who used to work in AM radio, but it was almost 50 years ago.) I'm not sure the AM tuner in my car even works. We don't have a "real" radio at home; I can listen to streaming radio on my music server. But an Astros game? No, thanks.
Thanks to all of you for your kind comments. I am very happy to learn that the puzzle-inspired references were found to be amusing.
Is "circumlocution" be deemed to be circumloc-ative? It is concise . . . but, still . . . In any event, it's a great word.
Inanehiker - I was in Jr. High when all the "designer" clothes came into vogue. Even at a Catholic School with uniforms, the rich kids would show off their "uniform compliant" polos with the Gator or "dude on a horse w/ a Polo mallet" on 'em.
Lee - I had to lookup the etymology of fortnight -- I always thought it was 2 days as there's bed-time and then from 2-4a a second night where bards write. But NO... "Fortnight is the time period of 14 days. The term itself originates from fourteen + nights. Hence, the time period of 14 nights or 2 weeks is considered as a fortnight. Apparently, the Anglo-Saxons counted by nights.
And then MManatee makes me lookup circumlocution: " the use of many words where fewer would do, especially in a deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive." //I think I knew that once.
CED - LOL links. CLIFFhanger is so, "why are you taking a snap instead of helping your cat?!?"
HG - last night, a TV at the happy hour bar was airing the Nebraska v. Pitt game. I turned to the guy next to me, "Hucksters are going to win; they have a great program." He was set aback that I knew so much about college VB; I didn't let on that a dude on the Crossword blog is my inside EDGE.
//Eldest's BFF went to Notre Dame on a volleyball scholarship; dropped out after a semester because there was NO time left for her engineering studies.
D-O: I love AM radio. After midnight, the crazy people come on the air and talk about bigfoots (yes, plural), UFOs, et.al. I can fall asleep to them droning on.
And, of course, there's no better way to follow baseball than an AM pocket radio. You can garden, putz in the garage, do whatever until the crowd gets loud and you zone-in. If you want to see the action, highlights are always available on the interwebs :-)
Cheers, -T
Ray O @ 9:40 ~ Glad you enjoyed Fisk. So far, no word on a third season. If you have Freevee, try King, a series about a female heading up a Major Crimes Force in the Toronto PD. I just started Season 2, Episode 2. So far, it has kept my interest and it is a little different from other police procedurals, inasmuch as there is some authentic (vs gallows) humor.
All right, CrossEyedDave you really cracked me up with that “metaphor” joke.
Bayou Tony - I learned more from color man Joe Nuxhall than from all my baseball coaches combined. He had two big pet peeves - pitchers who couldn't bunt, and outfielders who couldn't/wouldn't hit the cutoff man. He would say that everyone learned those skills in Little League, and no player ever outgrew the need for those skills. His home station was WLW 700 AM in Cincinnati, but was carried by a lot of smaller stations. I remember sitting in the yard in our Chevy with my mom, listening to night games. Due to AM radio propagation, we couldn't receive WLW during the day. Couldn't listen too long, because the radio tubes drained the battery pretty quickly. As an adult in Los Angeles, I became enthralled with the call of golden-voiced play-by-play man Vin Scully, and used to listen to Dodger games every chance I got on KABC.
Jinx - WLS (890AM) played the Cubs games in the afternoon.
I remember sittin' in the back yard in SPI with (paternal) Grands listening to Cubs' games while they smoked their unfiltered Camels and swilled their beers (Old Milwaukie) after finishing morning chores / canning something from the garden for the winter.
//they always woke at 4:30am (they usually hit the hay at 8:30p.) It was kinda hard on me to get up that early after watching Carson and whatever came on after but the smell of bacon and coffee...
To your point, there's nothing better than the voice on the radio painting a picture in your mind. Just like a good book.
Cheers, -T
I enjoyed solving this puzzle even though I had to look up ANNA SUI, LOU Malnati's, and ESTER C. I liked the "on the" edge construction. I also very much enjoyed MM's write-up and all your postings.
Today's interesting-looking grid caught my attention right away. Very clever gimmick, John! I'm with H-Gary on my aha moment but I was "off the" mark at OCnAD / UnA and DEan/CENe.
FAV: READY SET GO
Thanks to MalMan for a SPOT on recap an for providing his services all these years ON THE HOUSE!
FAV: Lacoste intolerant
The only KEROUAC NOVEL I know is ON THE ROAD. That finally broke through the theme mystery for me after filling in about half the puzzle, avoiding the EDGEs.
Cross of unknown proper names AN?ASUI/CE?A required a WAG to FIR. It seems that first name was an obscurity for everyone else, too. Hand up LOOSE before HOUSE. If ESTER-C claims even one minute of IMMUNITY SUPPORT it is fraud.
When I visited the Jet Propulsion Lab in 2005, the ROVER OPPORTUNITY had gotten stuck in the sand. It was a special treat to watch the engineers use a duplicate ROVER to try to figure out how to escape.
Here is my photo of the OPPORTUNITY ROVER replica being experimented with.
From Yesterday:
AnonT Thank you very much for the tip about Picard actor Patrick Stewart being interviewed on NPR. I downloaded it and listened to it today. Way interesting. A very difficult life for him and some very lucky breaks. Thank you!
HG, congrats to your Lady Cornhuskers. They won though I wouldn't say easily. The second set was within 1 point before the final service error. Still proud of my Pitt Panthers. 3 straight Final Fours (by Pitt) is nothing to sneeze about. Nebraska has a long history of volleyball prowess; Pitt will be a program to be reckoned with going forward. Stanford joining the ACC can only help their program. No question that Nebraska faces tougher competition in the B1G - especially when it comes to defense
Thanks MM for the humor. I used your Lacoste intolerant on FB today ...
A lot of head-scratching until I got to ONTHEEDGE — the big “aha!” hit, and from there on out I SLAYed it 😆.
MalMan, your reviews are always superb fun with all the offbeat & goofy gags, not to mention your video finds. I’m in awe of your resourcefulness — please keep giving us the cheap entertainment!
A tip o’ the ol’ fedora to Mssr. Agpalo for the snazzy theme and laying only one albatross on us: crossing two proper names with CENA and ANNASUI — nerny-nerny! 🤣
Finally, to Jinx: glad to hear that the needlework helped out your doggie so well. And yes, Vin Scully’s dulcet tones painted visuals like few others could; listening to his game calls on the AM airwaves was almost like seeing it in person! RIP, Vinnie.
====> Darren / L.A.
Thank You John Andrew Agpalo, for a quirky and challenging puzzle for this Friday. I had a tough time initially, but I figured out the gimmick, once the central clue opened up. The gimmick was very clever !!
Thank you MalMan for your charming, informative and very idomatically clever review and blog. It was indeed very interesting and introspective reading. Thank you for your contributions.
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Regarding:: From Last night ... Thank you TTP and CED ....
I had no idea that PK our co-blogger might get offended.... I went through, again, just now , .... through my post last night, and, in that post, .... I had very properly indicated that the words or initials PK, like her monicker, referred to the movie that CED was mentioning about.
I also paid my respects to PK herself, since I have read her posts from 10 years earlier....
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On the CW, I have had many Satay grilled meats , in Thailand and even in India. The peanut sauce takes some getting used to.
I did not understand ROVERS and EGIRL and ESTERC which perped themselves.
I am familiar with Esters, as a organic compound used extensively in fruity perfumes and fruit flavors .... but not as clued.
ANNA SUI, I've heard of ... She is second generation, Chinese American, ... her Wikipedia biography is very impressive ... she's really hard working !!!! Her bio has 12 pages !!! She collaborates with over a hundred different allied companies...
Ray O Sunshine, I am impressed as to how you researched the name of our crossword constructor, to find the origin of his surname ...!!!
Gaary Husker, I am impressed that a basketball VolleyBall college team can have such good students in Academics, as well as being in competitive sports ... that fact, I consider, to be a significant improvement. !!
PICARD - Bob Bernstein, - Thank you for the picture of the extra ROVER being analysed so as to simulate the original ROVER of in the Mars (?) ground ....
We don't realize, how complicated the mechanisms are, in trying to control and manipulate robot controlled and AI machines ....
.... when the signals, to and fro, for those machines, .... take as long as 5 to 15 minutes from the Planet Mars ... to the Earth .. and back to the Planet Mars itself ...
As you may be aware, India also lauched a Mars Orbital Mission, MOM. on NOV 5th,2013 into the Mars orbit ... and the orbiter is apparently still going strong ... the first Asian nation to do so, and on its maiden attempt. The satellite was supposed to last only 6 months, but is still going strong, ... 10 years later.
Have a nice weekend, all you folks.
SPOILER ....SPOILER
The Saturday Puzzle, is very, very difficult !!!
Too many puns, and fiendish ones, at that !!!
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