google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, December 14, 2023, Catherine Cetta

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Dec 14, 2023

Thursday, December 14, 2023, Catherine Cetta

 Tall Tales


Tall tales are often based on real people and real events, but those who tell them reveal a tendency to ...

62A. Embellish the truth, and what the sets of circled letters do?: SPIN A TALE.  

Yes, this puzzle has CIRCLES!  I know that some of you are not big fans of circles (and you know who you are 😁), but try to imagine how you would have described this puzzle's theme without them.  You may  recall today's constructor Catherine Cetta's last puzzle in which she used the phrase CHANGE AGENT to reveal what was obvious to all (but regrettably not to this reviewer 🙁), that the word AGENT had been scrambled into each of the theme fills.  In today's puzzle she has packaged the word TALE in 4 pairs of 2x2 boxes across 2 consecutive fill lines and then SPUN it by a single letter for each successive pair.  IMHO that arrangement wasn't easy to construct. Please post any suggestions in the comments as to how this theme could be described without circles!  Here's the grid ...

Here's the rest ...

Across:


1. Have a ball?: DANCE.  A CSO to Yellowrocks ...
6. Part of the fam: SIB.

9. Parking unit: SPACE.

14. Some foreign language exams: ORALS.

15. "The View" co-host Navarro: ANAANA Violeta Navarro-Cárdenas (née Navarro Flores; born December 28, 1971) is a Nicaraguan-American political strategist and commentator. She appears on various television programs and news outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, ABC News, and Telemundo. She is also a co-host of the daytime talk show The View, garnering Emmy Award nominations for her work. 
Ana Navarro
16. Super-duper: ULTRA.

17. Fashionable sort?: LATECOMER.

19. Reflexology targets: SOLES.  It sounds like acupuncture without the pinsHere's what a doctor has to say about it.
20. The "you" of "Do You Want To Build a Snowman?": ELSA.

21. Trumpet, e.g.: HORN.  Will a French HORN do?  Here's the 3rd Movement Rondo - allegro from Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 417 ...

22. One of Australia's six: STATE.  Here are Australia's six STATES, two Territories and capital cities.

23. Crow bar?: ROOST. 😀

25. Ship: VESSEL.

26. Store: STASH.

29. Lined up for a cornhole toss: AIMED.

31. Strikes and rebounds: CAROMS.  This guy could teach Isaac Newton a few things about ORB dynamics.  Note that the 8 ball goes in last, as it should.  And get a load of the stunned look on his opponent's face! ...
33. Copy: APE.

34. Moore of "G.I. Jane": DEMI.   Here's what Ebert had to say.  Here's the trailer ...
38. Pointed a finger at: ACCUSED.

40. Welcoming presence: GREETER.

42. "That's the __ ridiculous thing I've ever heard!": MOST.
43. Rowing need: OAR.

45. Deli slice: SALAMI.

46. Penne, essentially: TUBES.  Here's a recipe for PENNE Alla Vodka.
Penne Alla Vodka
48. Stirs up: RILES.

49. Attack: ASSAIL.

53. Emmy-winning journalist Connie: CHUNG.   Constance Yu-Hwa Chung (born August 20, 1946) is an American journalist who has been a news anchor and reporter for the U.S. television news networks ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC. Some of her more famous interview subjects include Claus von Bülow and U.S. representative Gary Condit, whom Chung interviewed first after the Chandra Levy disappearance, and basketball legend Magic Johnson after he went public about being HIV-positive. In 1993, she became the second woman to co-anchor a network newscast as part of CBS Evening News.
Connie Chung
55. Begin: START.

56. Televises: AIRSAIR May also be a noun like this one -- originally from Bach's Orchestral Suite No. 3 D major, BWV 1068.  It was transcribed from the latter by August Wilhelm to the famous Air on a G String, here performed by Rusanda Panfili ...
 
57. Test the weight of: HEFT.

61. Alabama city in civil rights history: SELMA.  While some of the major battles of the Civil Rights Movement were fought here, the modern city of SELMA has made major strides in equal rights for minorities.  Start for example with the fact that the city's current Mayor, James Perkins, is an African American ...
James Perkins
Mayor of Selma, Alabama

62. [Theme reveal]

64. HP rival: EPSON. IMHO,  EPSON's printers might rival HP's, but the former is not a major player in the development and marketing of server farms and enterprise management systems like Hewlett-Packard (full disclosure: I was an HP subcontractor for several years ).

65. Garment edge: HEM.

66. Even: LEVEL.

67. Romanov rulers: TSARS.

68. Mind reader's claim: ESP Extra Sensory Perception.  Scientist J.B. Rhine (September 29, 1895 – February 20, 1980), who coined the term ESP, claimed to have demonstrated it experimentally, but, other scientists were skeptical.

69. Optimal: IDEAL.

Down:

1. Agricultural giant whose mascot is Bobby Banana: DOLE.  He looks like a slippery character to me ...

2. __ Sea: lake documented in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register: ARAL.  Instead of the usual bird's eye view, how about a camel's eye view? ...
Aral Sea
3. 2019 World Series champs: NATS.  The Washington NationalsHere's the story.

4. Takes it on the lam: CLEARS OUT.

5. Keyboard panic button: ESC.

6. Potatoes-and-peas pastry: SAMOSAHere's a recipe.
Samosas
7. Obstacle to progress: INERTIA.

8. Rural sight: BARN.  Here's a BARN with another crossword favorite, a SILO ..
Silo and Barn

9. Doped (out): SUSSED

10. Tracts: PLOTS.

11. Map lover's book: ATLASAn ATLAS is typically a bundle of maps of the Earth or of a region of Earth.  Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it.  The origin of the term dates to 1595, and interestingly has ties to clue 46D.

12. Island with the ancient Minoan palace at Knossos: CRETEKnossos is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major center of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on the outskirts of Heraklion.

Here is the partially reconstructed palace ...
Palace of Minos
13. Artist's support: EASEL.

18. "Why, what's this!?": OHO.  Meh.

24. Units of resistance: OHMS

25. Zigs or zags: VEERS.

26. Con: SCAM.

27. Chipotle order: TACO.

28. Lines on a flight-tracker map: ARCSHere's a realtime flight-tracker map.  It doesn't show you any ARCS, but it sure shows a lot of planes in the air.

30. EPA concern: MPG.

32. Gangnam District city: SEOULGangnam (lit. South of the Han River), sometimes referred to as the Greater Gangnam Area, is a geographic and cultural region in SEOUL. The region is generally defined as including the city's affluent Gangnam, Seocho districts, and Songpa district which is separated by Tancheon, a tributary of the Han River.  Gangnam Style is also the title of a K-POP song satirizing the affluent lifestyle of the area's populace.  It's sung in Korean and fortunately I couldn't find a translation.😀
Gangnam skyline
34. On cloud nine: DELIGHTED.  How about a little faintly cute D(isney)-POP instead ...
35. Latin abbreviation in a bibliography: ET AL.

36. Spider-Man pointing, e.g.: MEME.  All of my researches point to this 1967 episode as the origin of this MEME ...
37. Spring perennial: IRIS.

39. Smack-__ in the middle: DAB.  And smack DAB in this middle of this puzzle is a DAB puzzle called Fed Up. And here's what David has to say about it ...

"That’s right—I’m fed up!  I’m fed up, for example, with politics, which is actually just an effect of tribalism, which is in turn just an effect of human nature, which is itself just an effect of nature in general, which is after all just an effect of whatever mysterious process created everything for whatever mysterious purpose.  So I’ll just do a crossword." 

I think we all have days like that sometimes. 😀.  Spoiler alert: I've posted David's theme at the end of this review, so don't read past my sign off if you intend to do his puzzle.*

41. Merit: EARN.

44. America's Test Kitchen output: RECIPES.  Like the NYT you need a subscription to get these RECIPES.

46. Giants: TITANSATLAS was a TITAN.

47. __ cocktail: SHRIMP.   Judy Kim is giving away this RECIPE for free.
 
Shrimp  Cocktail

49. Selling point: ASSET.

50. Choreography units: STEPS.

51. Topping for a 27-Down: SALSA.  Here's a recipe for SALSA.  I think Catherine just might  be a foodie!
Salsa
52. Knight's protection: ARMOR.

54. SEAL's org.: USN.  The United States Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's primary special operations force and a component of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Among the SEALs' main functions are conducting small-unit special operation missions in maritime, jungle, urban, arctic, mountainous, and desert environments. SEALs are typically ordered to capture or kill high level targets, or to gather intelligence behind enemy lines.  Probably their most famous operation was bringing down the leader of the 911 attacks.  See also 34A.
The Navy SEAL Trident
56. Tennis icon Arthur: ASHE.

58. Roof projection: EAVE.

59. Pest that pesters pets: FLEA.

60. "__ me about it!": TELL.  E.g. TELL me if you have a winning hand? 😁

63. Soccer star Krieger: ALIAlexandra Blaire Krieger (born July 28, 1984) has represented the United States at three FIFA Women's World Cups: 2011 in Germany, 2015 in Canada, and 2019 in France. She was part of the defense that held opponents scoreless for a record 540 minutes and helped lead the United States to become 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup champions.
Ali Krieger

Cheers,
Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley 

* All of DAB's theme clues are DOWNS starting with DEF, which when spelled UPwards is FED.

 

34 comments:

Subgenius said...

Yes, the circles were certainly a big help in sussing out the theme. In fact, they made the theme obvious (sorry, SS!). The only small difficulty I had with this puzzle was replacing “verbs” with “veers.” Other than that, it was smooth sailing . FIR, so I’m happy.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Temporarily went wrong with SIS/SILO rather than SIB/BARN. Nothing Wite-Out couldn't fix. Enjoyed the outing, Catherine, and your illustrious expo, waseeley.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but hand up for silo->BARN. Also roils for RILES, and pot pie for SAMOSA. And I was SO smug about pot pie!

Today is:
MONKEY DAY (CSO to our own. This day focuses on the non-human primates. Not only simians. but apes, tarsiers, and lemurs. The Beatles told us that Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey)
NATIONAL BOUILLABAISSE DAY (good stuff, but I prefer cioppino)
MARTYRED INTELLECTUALS DAY (day of remembrance for the large number of intellectuals who were killed by Pakistani forces in 1971)

I remember some wag saying "that's the most unheard of thing I ever heard of." Sounds like Frank Burns, but I can't find it via Google. Maybe I SPUN that TALE, but I don't think so.

I have just about worn out my Rand McNally Motor Carriers' 2015 Road ATLAS. Doesn't hurt to get an updated one every 10 years or so. In addition to the usual roads, this ATLAS lists underpasses with less than 13'6" clearance, and routes that are authorized for "standard" trucks. (Before Reagan, states had various weight and length limits. A law defined a "standard" truck, and prohibited states from imposing special requirements on specific routes. I usually stick to those routes in my motor home.)

Why do most people like a banana? Because it has appeal, of course.

Finally, a cocktail that even I can enjoy! I remember in the old days of Las Vegas, one could sit in a lounge, enjoy live music, and munch on $0.99 SHRIMP cocktails. As Archie and Edith sang, Those Were the Days.

I don't get how "lines on a flight tracker map" are ARCS. Unless they are long-distance flights transversing great circle routes. I use my FlightAware app a lot. We are across the street from an FBO (KGIF) and it is fun to see the types of planes and where they are coming from / going to. We occasionally see a jet, but haven't yet this season. We have seen a couple of King Air turboprops, which are kinda half-jets.

Thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for the interesting review of the grid.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Catherine presented us with a cute theme and clever reveal, a clean grid, minimal you-know-whats, minimal pop culture, no obscurities, all leading to a smooth, enjoyable solve. The circles were necessary to illustrate the reveal, as is sometimes the case, so no complaints from this solver. Favorite C/A was Crow Bar=Roost.

Thanks, Catherine, nice job, and thanks, Bill, for the Master Class on various topics and the lovely, soothing musical interludes from Messrs. Mozart and Bach. Loved all of the photos of the mouth-watering dishes, from Salsas to Samosas to Penne ala Vodka. Thanks, also, to Teri for her participation.

Last night, I watched the CNN documentary about the Chowchilla abduction of those children on their school bus. I remember when it happened but not any of the details. Seeing firsthand the fear and terror of their experience and the life-long effects of their ordeal was heartbreaking.

Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Took 6:35 today to get elated.

Oh joy, circles!
I noticed them as soon as I saw the grid, but then promptly ignored them and my last entry was the reveal, so minimal harm done.

I didn't know today's female athlete (Ali) or View co-host (Ana), but I knew today's actress (Demi).
I didn't care for "oho."
"Samosa" took a while.

KS said...

FIR. I am one of those who dislikes circles, so I ignored them.
I had sis and silo before sib and barn, which held me up in the NW.
As the puzzle progressed, and I began to notice the circles, I originally suspected some sort of play on words involving late. Never saw tale till the reveal. At least the proper names were at a minimum!

inanehiker said...

This was a steady solve with a clever theme - I hadn't looked at the circles yet when solving the theme so started with SPIN A yarn which then switched to TALE.

I like SAMOSAs but making them must be time intensive because even my friends who are originally from India just buy them from the International food store .

One family trip we took through the Deep South, the kids called the Civil/Civil trip since everything we saw had to do with either Civil Rights or the Civil War. Some of the sights we went to included the National Voting Rights museum in SELMA which was right at one end of the Edmund Pettus bridge as well as The Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery which has a beautiful memorial designed by Maya Lin (who also designed the Vietnam Memorial in DC) which includes the names of those martyred during the Civil Right Movement

Thanks Bill & Teri for the blog - enjoyed all the music and food involved in today's puzzle

Big Easy said...

A very good puzzle by Catherine today, with a few female proper names. ALI and ANA were unknowns. DEMI, CHUNG and ELSA were known. Arthur ASHE was the only male. I had no idea about 'reflexology, so SOLES was all perps. Big trouble in the Dakota area. I'd filled POT PIE for the pastry, which gave me either PAS or POP for the 'fam' part and I was stuck for a while. Wanted either SILO or BARN. After unscrambling everything I finally managed to FIR filling SAMOSA by perps. Never heard of it. Thought that was a Girl Scout cookie.

After the first three circled fills it was either EL TAL, LATE, or TALE for the 4th.
SHRIMP has/have become so cheap around here they almost have to give it away. I paid $2.50/lb the week before Thanksgiving. Too much imported stuff to make it worth their while for the local shrimpers to even try to trawl.

TTP said...

Good morning. Thank you, Catherine Cetta, and thank you, Waseeley

Fun puzzle, and fun review, but I'll have to get back to explore some of the links later.

No time this morning. Too much to get done.

Lee said...

Jinx, think of it this way: the Earth's surface is curved, so if a plane flies in a straight line, maintaining its altitude, the resulting path will also be curved. Since most flights don't go all the way around the world, which would be a circle, any flight would be part of a circle, hence an ARC.

CrossEyedDave said...

If you don't like circles, it might be fun to try and find the "tales"s that escaped the circles. There are several connected t,a,l,e's in mixed order that go in weird directions, (and zig zags, never thought of these as verbs before...)

Ah, if only...

Another learning moment, PK is Hindi for drunk? (Explains a lot about the the PK movie)
To me, (and why I started watching the movie in the first place,) was that it was the name of my cat, Pretty Kitty.
Another delightful moment from the film, the song, Love is a waste of time.


TTP, et al: I need technical assistance.
I cannot figure out why my Blogger Profile email contact hot link works for me (on multiple platforms, even when I am not signed in) but does not work for others... actually, in the past, I have received emails from many Blog members. But now I wonder if it was because I posted my email in a blog conversation, and they did not use the blogger hot link.

As a test, can you try to email me? My curiosity about how to fix something that may not even be broken is killing me!

RosE said...

Good Morning! Talk about circles – I started at the NE and worked my way down and around until I finished at the middle North! A circle in itself!! Yes, circles are fine and add to the fun of the theme. This puzzle was a gift for a Thursday. Thanks, Catherine.

WO: CLEAnS -> CLEARS

I knew all the names and relied on perps for CAROMS.
I waited for the perps for SIB (Mom? Dad? Sis? Bro?) and for CRETE.

Acupuncture without pins is acupressure. Sceptics abound. The world seems to be increasingly anti something, everything….

Thanks, Bill & Teri, for a pleasant musical interlude, recipes, bios and info.

Lee said...

I don't mind the circles. Cute theme, but before I filled the reveal l thought the word was LATE. I was disabled. The rest of the fill was straightforward. I, too, considered sis/silo but LATECOMER fixed that idea.

Samosas? Big Easy, I thought the Girl Scout cookies were samoas.

FIR, with no help today. Catherine and Bill, nice job on your team up to present and assess.

Bargaining with the devil only gets you burned.

Remember

Lee said...

Rose, I first tried echoes for 31A.

Yellowrocks said...

Very easy for a Thursday puzzle. Interesting theme.
Late comer took a few perps. It surprised me. I was into wearable fashion. Good misdirection. One advantage of being a senior citizen is that few people arrive late to my parties. Most of us are of the "on time" generation.
Waseeley, thanks for the square dance video. I can relate to all those steps. We only occasionally have fiddlers. We use a wide variety of recorded music of many genres with a live caller. I actually prefer that variety to having all fiddle music. Rip and Snort is a novelty call with all its winding in and out.
IM, that is the first I have heard of Chowchilla. LIU. How resourceful of the bus driver! How horrible the experience of the children.
I like to use a lot of horseradish in my shrimp cocktail sauce. There is a Shoprite sale on raw shrimp this weekend, $4.99 a pound, but usually they have only in 3-5 pound bags. It has come down somewhat.
Thank you Catherine and Waseeley for a fun exercise.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Being LATE tells me, “My time is more important than yours”
-I’d make a great Wal~Mart GREETER but it’s just too much time on my feet
-The 2019 NATS and the 2015 KC Royals both won World Series championships and then lost their stars to bigger salaries that winter and became mediocre.
-An ARC for a flight
-I’m a chemistry sub today and the kids this period are great and very smart. He left me a “meh” video to show and most of them are working on other assignments and I’m blogging. Hey, I get my $160 either way.

Monkey said...

Enjoyable SPINing TALEs. I can see where it would be difficult to construct such a grid. Kudos to Catherine.

I too started with pot pie, sis and silo.

I guess LATE COMER would be an Easter egg?

Thanks to Waseely and Teri for a great recap. I just love this blog.

Ray - o - sunshine said...


Love me some ⚪️⚪️
⚪️⚪️’s. Big help

One of those rare puzzles where it got easier the further south I traveled.
Nearly CAROMED & VEERED to a DNF in the NE till I realized parking place was actually SPACE and perped the rest for the win. Once again I fergit where Gangnam is

Inkovers: ✋pot pie/SAMOSA(?)… (would it pair well with a Mimosa?)

Soon the only thing left of the ARAL Sea will be a CW answer. And …the one place the Romanov TSARS still rule

“Penne essentially” or instead of “penne alla vodka” would you rather order TUBES with booze ??
“penne” pens or feathers when pens were made from quills. Today you’d ask for a “biro” not a “penna” a ball point pen named after its Hungarian inventor László Bíró

When not at anchor but on the bounding main….. ASSAIL
“Televises” the wrong show….AIRS
Tenses up….TITANS
“Everybody Wang ___ tonight!!” ……CHUNG


Monkey said...

Oops. SPINning.

Anonymous said...

Pretty easy for a Thursday. Seemed like a Tuesday

RosE said...

Lee, I had the downs SCAM and TACO which gave me the CA start, so the other downs in that section completed the fill. Perks to the rescue!

Irish Miss said...

YR @ 10:05 ~ If CNN's reenactment of the escape was factual, the real hero was a 14 year old named Michael Marshall. He overrode the bus driver's concerns that the abductors were nearby and an escape would be thwarted. Michael had the courage to pry the manhole cover away and by sheer grit and determination, remove a wooden enclosure by digging and clawing all around it and finally breaking free. The bus driver helped him once he began his efforts, but Michael took the initiative. The bus driver desires much credit, though, particularly for keeping the children calm and reassured, as best he could under such challenging circumstances.

On another subject, all five ShopRites in this area closed a couple of weeks ago. I was shocked because I thought they were doing well, particularly as they brought home delivery service into this area, long before the pandemic. Their reason for closing was they were unable to compete with the other markets. I was never in any of their stores, but I used their delivery service many times before my preferred store began delivery. Their prices were higher, for the most part, but they did have good sales.

Irish Miss said...

Deserves, not Desires. Autocorrect strikes again! 😬

Jinx in Norfolk said...

RosE, I was a skeptic about acupuncture until I had problems with my beloved Irish Wolfhound. A vet had him on steroids, with problematic side effects. I took him to a vet who was also certified in acupuncture and Chinese medicine. After a single 30 minute session, the dog walked like he had no pain at all, and the treatment was effective for several weeks. Since I doubt the dog was capable of placebo effect, I became a believer.

Lee, thanks for the thought experiment, and I see what you are saying. But that type of view is not an option on FlightAware, my flight tracker app. Maybe good fill for a bad clue, or maybe other flight tracker apps show that view.

H. Gary, yup, that's a great circle arc. FlightAware, at least, doesn't show them AFAIK. Maybe other apps do.

I thought SAMOSAS were how my order for some more mimosas sounded after I had "sipped" a few at brunch. "barkeep, some mo' 'mosas, por favor."

Yellowrocks said...

IM, thanks for supplying more info about the heroic Michael in the abduction incident.
We say, "Square dancing is friendship set to music." Square dancers are the friendliest people I know. I consider my club my best social circle. They boost me when I am low and rejoice with me when I am happy, more than any other group. They are fun and companionable.
I love the music and the rhythm.
Square dancing is a enjoyable type of exercise.
It is also mental stimulation. The first dance of each tip or set is free form and can include any combination of steps dreamed up by the caller, different each time. It keeps us on our toes. The second dance of the tip is a song with a set progression of steps.
And, of course, being the administrator/co-president keeps me thinking and problem solving.
I love it.

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Catherine, and waseeley and Teri.
I FIRed in good time and saw the SPUN TALES.
No inkblots since I wrote lightly when doubtful.
Perps were fair for any unknown names.

Hand up for silo before BARN, Sis before SIB.
I had Mime before MEME.
I love SAMOSAS. DIL introduced me to them. As inanehiker says re her friends from India, DIL buys them.

Good to have you back YR.

Wishing you all a good evening.

TTP said...

Waseeley, just before dark, I linked to that flight tracker and then zoomed in on my area. There was an image of a small plane flying nearby. Just about then, I heard a small plane flying. The county airport is fairly close. Sure enough, there it was. Neat.

Cross Eyed Dave, there is nothing to fix. The issue is on the other end.


Ray-O-Sunshine, check out Lemonade's opening paragraph in this blog post from Friday, February 17, 2012.

TTP said...


Dash T, I just watched a Lisa Desjardins interview with Geddy Lee on PBS News Hour.   Yeah, he, individually and they as a group, are all that. They touched, and they endure. Rock on!

TTP said...

Duh! Forgot to link it.

Here it is if you didn't see it.

Ray - o - sunshine said...

It’s beyond the statute of limitations to sue for trademark infringement. So Lemony gets a pass 😅

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Whew, long day at a CISO (Chief Information Security Officers (not my title but I'm apparently a "thought leader" so they let me join)) event. I finally got to the puzzle after the post-conference happy hour when everyone CLEARed OUT (and I finished my beer).

Thanks Catherine for the fun puzzle to noodle through. Thanks Waseeley for the expo confirming I got ANA right (who else confuses the words Mimosas (OJ & Champagne) with Samoas and Samosas*? Just me?)

WO: uRAL -> ARAL; Hand-up for SIS | SILO
ESPs: ANA & ALI
Fav: Penne - It's like baby Rigatoni (the latter you can put your fingers in and play with your food :-))
LATE COMER was cute as clued.

I almost went with kneES at "reflexology" (think patellar test with a little pointy rubber hammer) but ATLAS blocked it (whoot! I perp-checked before inking!).

Parking SPACE - the Final Frontier (downtown)... Speaking of SPACE, Picard, in case you didn't catch it: Patrick Stewart on NPR's Bull's Eye [listening to it while I draft this].

Jinx - Interesting about pet acupuncture. DW told me about her rich friend who took her dog to one and had similar results to what you reported.
And here I was thinking, DW's friend had "More dollars than sense..."

I love FlightAware - I always watch it when family is flying.

TTP - Thanks for the link to the Ged interview. As soon as Bull's Eye is over, I'm clicking!

Cheers, -T
*That's why I always get Youngest to order Indian takeout. Two of her (grade 4 through 12) BFF's parents were from India and she (Youngest) knows the names of all the dishes she'd eat over.

sumdaze said...

Thanks to Catherine for a nice Thurs. SPIN around the grid! The circles were a big help to me today!
FAVs: Connie CHUNG and LATE COMER (since I am one on The Corner)

As RosE already said, "Acupuncture without the pins is Acupressure". I'll add that Accu-Yoga is the use of Yoga postures to apply pressure, much in the same way.

The thing I like about SAMOSAs is every bite can be a little different flavor combination. I love when I get a burst of cardamom.

Thanks to waseeley for another interesting write-up! I could not stop watching the CAROMS video.

Anonymous said...

Circles…it HAD to be circles! (channeling my inner Indiana Jones…). But as it turned out, it was a semi-pseudo-para-DEMI-easy cruise, so the circles were a non-event. Fun one, Catherine, thanks for an enjoyable puzzle.

As for the NATS, et al…imho the playoffs system has ruined the game of baseball; I think for four of the past five years, the World Series has been played by the teams with the third- to fifth-best W/L records. What was originally designed to pit the best team in each league has become a farce.

I’ve had acupuncture on my bod — and it works well. The Chinese have had 5,000-ish years to get it dialed in, right C.C.?

====> Darren / L.A.

PK said...

From Wednesday. Vidwan, I don't know why you felt compelled to tell me that PK means drunk. These are my initials given me by my mother. However, since my physical condition has me dizzy much of the time, I certainly feel drunk. Don't drink alcohol at all because I can't tolerate it with blood sugar problems. If you were trying to hurt my feelings, you succeeded.