Good morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with a recap of today's puzzle which, fittingly, was constructed by not one but two puzzle setters. If you woke up feeling poorly this morning then this puzzle may not have been for you. However, if you woke up fooling peerly then you may have found that the solving went smeethly and agrooably. Let's start with the reveal:
66 Across: Tennis match with teams of men and women, or what 18- and 25-Across and 42- and 55-Across literally have: MIXED DOUBLES.
At two places (for a total of four clues/answers) Caroline and Katie intentionally mix up the double vowels (OO and EE) found in two common "word combinations" and, thereby, create amusing responses to the carefully worded clues. The first pair is at:
18 Across: Plays a trick on Miami's basketball team?: FOOLS THE HEAT and
25 Across: Spring occasion when people get really emotional?: APRIL FEELS DAY
FEELS THE HEAT and APRIL FOOLS DAY have traded double vowels
The second pair is at:
42 Across: Orange rinds of epic proportions?: OLYMPIC SIZE PEELS and
55 Across: Wagers about how many ingredients are in a bottle of shampoo?: CHEMICAL POOLS
OLYMPIC SIZE POOLS and CHEMICAL PEELS have engaged in a bit of vowel swapping.
Here is how this all looks in the grid:
.... and, now that we've participated in the vowels' key party, let's have a look at the rest of the clues and answers:
1. Baldelli who was AL Manager of the Year in 2019: ROCCO. Things start off with a reference to the Minnesota Twins baseball team.
6. Leave the dishes for tomorrow, say: SOAK. Here in the SOAKing Southland this seems, somehow, appropriate:
Box Of Rain (1972)
10. Fistful of dollars: WAD.
Clint Probably Got This Answer Quickly
13. Nook purchases: E-BOOKS. NOOK is Barnes and Noble's electronic reading platform/device.
15. Subject: TOPIC. Current events are a fish's favorite TOPIC of discussion.
17. Spa brand: OPI. Usually clued with a reference to nail polish.
20. Molecular messenger: RNA. A crossword staple.
21. Dump, as stock: SELL.
22. Breakdown helpers: AAA.
23. Monarch: RULER.
30. Cuban dance: MAMBO. O, possibilmente, italiano
33. Comforts: SOLACES.
35. UFC fighting style: MMA. Mixed Martial Arts
38. Prefix with gender: CIS.
"Mongo CIS" Just Does Not Seem Right
39. Some UPenn degs.: MBAS. Many schools offer MBA degrees. The UPenn bit was not very helpful.
46. Hands together time: NOON. Analog, not digital. Not applause.
47. Not awesome: MEH.
48. Big fuss: ADO.
49. Writer Joe Hill, to Stephen King: SON. A man gave his three boys a cattle ranch. He named the ranch Focus because that is where the sun's rays meet.
50. Amends last year's tax return, say: RE-FILES.
53. The Chi-__: R&B quartet: LITES. A pun-ish name.
53. The Chi-__: R&B quartet: LITES. A pun-ish name.
59. Titan, once: OILER. The Tennessee Titans football team started out in 1960 as the Houston Oilers before relocating to Nashville in 1997.
60. Prefix in some genre names: ALT.
61. __ Rios, Jamaica: OCHO.
65. School opening?: PRE. Some solvers might feel that the southwest, with its PRE, SEC and EST stack, was a bit 47 Across.
71. Wall St. regulator: SEC.
72. Cutting: SNIDE. A fairly ambiguous clue.
73. Writes to: EMAILS. Can we read EMAILS on our EBOOKS?
74. D.C. hrs.: EST. Anybody remember Werner Erhard?
75. African antelopes: GNUS.
76. Teaser: PROMO. As in teaser ad.
Down:
1. Bowl game officials: REFS. A football reference.
2. Cor anglais kin: OBOE. Clued many ways but not as many ways as OREO
2. Cor anglais kin: OBOE. Clued many ways but not as many ways as OREO
4. Work together briefly?: COLLAB. A punt (or slang depending on your perspective). COLLABoration "in brief".
5. Allows: OKS.
6. Gets home, in a way: STEALS. Another baseball reference.
7. __ and aah: OOH. What goes OOH OOH? A cow with no lips.
8. Imitate: APE. Used as a verb. See also 36 Down.
9. Telluride maker: KIA. An automotive reference.
10. Advertising exaggeration, perhaps: WORLD'S BEST.
11. CPAP target: APNEA. Continuous Positive Airway Pressure used to treat breathing problems. Philips Respironics recently recalled some of their CPAP machines.
12. Log with a lock: DIARY.
14. Guest __: STAR.
16. Copy shortcut: CTRL C. A computer user's technique.
19. Japanese "yes": HAI.
24. "I can help!": USE ME. We have seen this several times in our puzzles. Has anyone actually heard a person say "USE ME" ?
26. Pageantry: POMP.
27. Areas of interest: FOCI. Plural of FOCUS.
28. "Hamilton" role for Phillipa Soo: ELIZA.
29. Made less harsh: EASED.
30. Eclipse participant: MOON.
31. "Hope" singer Parks: ARLO.
32. City executive-to-be: MAYOR ELECT.
36. Imitate: MIMIC. See also 8 Down.
37. Amtrak choice: ACELA. A train ride often taken in our puzzles.
40. Healing plant: ALOE. A constructor's friend.
41. Bank acct. application digits: SSNS. Another crossword staple.
43. Greek muse of memory: MNEME. Inspiration for:
44. "Where the Sidewalk Ends" poet Silverstein: SHEL.
45. Straw __: POLL. An unofficial vote.
51. Gels: FIRMS. Used, here, as a verb.
52. Some kings and queens: SPADES. A playing card reference.
54. Weather map line: ISOBAR. Where do meteorologists relax after work?
55. Grove: COPSE.
 |
| A small COPSE set among a field of dandelions. |
56. Brings on: HIRES. They could have gone with the root beer.
57. Far from current: OLD.
58. Chiwere speakers: OTOE. OTOE visit us often. All About These Indigenous Friends of Crossword Constructors
62. Advertiser's honor: CLIO. The CLIO awards are named for the Greek goddess CLIO, the mythological muse known as "the proclaimer, glorifier and celebrator of history, great deeds and accomplishments.
63. Big wheel at sea: HELM. Not the idiomatic "big wheel" which might have led to trying to fit ADMIRAL or CAPTAIN into the allotted space. A big steering wheel.
64. __ buco: OSSO. A food reference.
67. Dutch bank: ING.
67. Dutch bank: ING.
68. Mark, as a box: X IN. Punt
69. Part of a prof's address: EDU. The ending for a university's email address. dot EDU
70. Plate official: UMP. Yet another baseball reference.
Y'er Out!
Okay. If you say so.
Everyone have a wonderful Superb Owl weekend.
___________________________________________________________
Notes from C.C.:
Happy Birthday to dear Splynter, who turns 53 years old today. I'm so happy and grateful that you're back to blog for us again.
 |
| Baby Splynter and His Parents |
46 comments:
The most difficult thing for me to get in this puzzle was the Greek god of memory: “Mneme,” although I wasn’t too surprised it started with “mn” , being aware of “mnemonics.” Other than that, I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle, and I found the vowel substitution quite clever, particularly the way it ran in parallels. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Only needed my Wite-Out to correct LET ME to USE ME. Caught the vowel switch early on, though it didn't really help with the solve. Still, finished in good time for a Friday. Thanx, Caroline, Katie, and Mal-Man. ("Sun's rays meet" went right over my head...until I thought about it.)
Oilers: I was transferred to Houston back in the late '70s as a manufacturer's rep. The sales manager at the Houston dealership was a former Oiler. He asked me if I was a football fan. I asked him if there was a local team. Yeah, we got along great. I think it helped that I reminded him of his ex-wife's divorce lawyer.
Took 8:39 today for me to mix and match.
Seemed like an easy puzzle for a Friday, even though it took me a while to figure out what was going on. "Fools the Heat" didn't make much sense to me.
Clever theme.
I didn't know the younger of the writers, nor how to spell "hi" in Chinese. I had "soothes" before "solaces."
The intersection of two singers (Ora & Arlo) wasn't particularly pretty, nor was the side-by-side of "ing" and "xin".
FIR, but erased royal for RULER, tres for OCHO, ooo for OOH, cleo for CLIO, and hie for HAI. I now have earned a badge in mispeling in Japanese.
Today is:
NATIONAL PIZZA DAY (I celebrate this one on March 14th)
NATIONAL BAGEL AND LOX DAY (not for me)
NATIONAL CUT THE CORD DAY (sponsored by the American Midwives Association. Sorry, it really supports TV programming delivery by internet instead of cable and, inanely, satellite)
MAMBO #5 is Bill Clinton's favorite song, especially the lyric "A little bit of Monica in my life."
WORLDS BEST - They can say tripe like this because of the legal concept of puffery.
"Log with a lock" I just saw an ad for a local portable toilet company named "Log House."
I think CLIOs go to the ad agencies, not the advertisers.
Thanks to Caroline and Katie, even though I liked the theme better than the overall puzzle. And thanks to our MalMan for the PUNishment.
I'll admit. It was a struggle to FIR today. Not only were there MIXED DOUBLES that I didn't initially see but I mixed basket and base and filled FOOLS MARLINS to start. ROCCO and OPI were unknowns. COLLAB? It took all pers for that bad abbr. Duh! Then I filled APRIL FOOLS instead of FEELS. I had to write over a lot in the north.
ORA- don't know who she is but any time there's 3-letter opening with Rita as the clue I fill it, like ORR and OTT.
MBAS- Wharton business school is at UPenn.
USE ME- a song by Bill Withers and what many guys say to women.
MNEME- new muse for me. There's no street in NOLA by that name, just Calliope, CLIO, Euterpe, Melpomene, Thalia, Terpsichore, Erato, and Polymnia streets all lined us side by side.
OILER- the owner of the Oilers, Bud Adams, was an egomaniac. He was jealous that head coach Bum Phillips got all the attention. He fired Phillips after the Oilers went 11-5 that year.
The Saints immediately hired him and finally became a winning team. The Oilers moved to Nashville because Houston wouldn't build Adams a free stadium.
FIR. A lot of very good misdirection in today's puzzle. Mneme had me for a while and then I remembered mnemonics and had an aha moment.
The theme was clever and it took a bit for it to sink in for me. I had all the long answers and spent some time scratching what's left of my hair, and then saw the light.
A fun Friday romp for me.
Good Morning:
This was a fresh, clever theme with solid, common phrases morphing into punny ones. Unknowns were Rocco, Lites, and Arlo, whom we've seen before but not often enough to remember. I stumbled over Erato/Mneme and Inca/Otoe. Some cute duos with Ape/Mimic, Refs/Ump, and Firms/Hires. Collab was a nose wrinkler.
Thanks, Caroline and Kate, and thanks, MalMan, for the concise and spot-on explanation of the theme. Chuckled at the "Gnu Friend" comic and the humorous "Current Events". After Ms. Loren's exuberant Mambo, there was another clip of one of my favorite scenes from Scent of A Woman, with blind Al Pacino performing a dazzling tango.
Happy Birthday, Splynter, hope your day is special. 🎂🎈🎁🎊🎉
DO @ 5:21 ~ I laughed out loud at your Oiler's story, especially the last sentence! 🤣
Have a great day.
Good morning. Happy Birthday, Splynter!
Thank you, Caroline Hand and Katie Hale I imagine that it takes a hale hand to put a puzzle like this together. :>)
Thank you, MM. I enjoyed the review and puns.
The Chi-Lites - "Have You Seen Her" and "Oh Girl" came to mind.
74A - Answer to MM's question: No. But then I googled.
A Total Solar Eclipse is coming to America on April 8th.
24D - Answer to MM's question: Bill Withers sang it all the way up to #2 in 1972.
I also know 55D as a mott, but I've never seen the word in a crossword in a puzzle. It would have been a good clue for a Friday or a Saturday.
Back later.
Half-way through this CW I figured out the MIXED DOUBLES letters. Cute.
Early on I wanted Valentine’s DAY, until I caught on. As I read MM’s nice recap, I discovered several entries I didn’t remember, and probably didn’t know, but perps surreptitiously were hiding them. For instance Stephen King’s SON, ROCCO, and OILER.
After patting myself on the back, I noticed one blank. Bummer. I didn’t get O-A and A-LO.
All in all a fine puzzle.
Nice warm day in store for us today. To quote Subgenius I’m happy.
Good Morning! I’m wary when I see Katie Hale’s name, but sometimes she surprises me. Today turned out to be one of those days. I wasn’t so sure when 1A was unknown, but once I looked it up, the NW came together. This and other learning moments. Thanks, Caroline and Katie.
Thanks, M-Man. I loved your opener!
Fun clue for SPADES.
I saw the theme when 66A tied the two sets together. Clever!
Learning moments & LIU: ROCCO, ELIZA, OILER, ARLO.
Happy Birthday, Splynter. 🥳🎂🎈🥳!
Fun theme and blog - I've got to drive in to KC to visit my mom - so not much time even though I'm not working today. Need to have "the talk" with my mom about stopping driving- thoughts and prayers appreciated that it goes well since she knows she's been slowing down the past several months and she is 92! But she is also very stubborn
Thanks MM and Caroline & Katie!
HBD Splynter!
Oops. I forgot to wish Splynter a happy birthday 🎊🎁🎂🎈
Inanehiker: good luck with your mother.
Oops. I forgot to wish Splynter a happy birthday 🎊🎁🎂🎈
Inanehiker: good luck with your mother.
Sorry for the duplication but Google made me do it. I’m innocent 😇
Musings
-Obscure names at A_LO/O_A are compounded by the fact that ARLO could have been clued by a crossword regular
-What a fun gimmick
-How to leave a casino with a fistful of dollars – Enter with an armload of dollars
-Faculty lounges at lunch usually see the men at one table and the women at the other. The TOPICS of discussion are very different.
-Ocho Rios does NOT actually have 8 rivers, it has these 4― Dunn’s, Roaring, Turtle and Cave
-So many NFL games seem to be decided by the calls the REFS do and do not make near the end
-When asked for a favor, a colleague used to say, “USE ME, abuse me, make me write bad checks”
-HOMES and ROY G BIV are two mnemonics I use in real life
-Seeing no way to get rid of the Queen of SPADES is a disconcerting in playing Hearts
-OTOES were concentrated near where NE, IA, MO and KS meet
-A slightly creepy CLIO winner
-inanehiker – When It came to “the talk” with my wife’s and her twin sister’s mother, they asked me to do it because she respected me and I can take a lot of emotion out of the process.
-HBD, Splynter! Your style is much appreciated here.
TTP @ 9:30, thanks for that answer. While I would probably recognize the tune if I heard, it the music that I was listening to in 1972 was mostly albums more in the vein of Live In Europe '72, Harvest, Greenhouse, Thick as a Brick,and Act 1.
I had trouble with ING and XIN but otherwise a very fun puzzle.
Got the FIR today with a lot of p&p, WiteOut, and extra coffee. Hard work, many unknowns, clever misdirection, and a feeling of accomplishment with Aha! Moments. An enjoyable outing, and a nice recap by MM. The last time I heard "Use ME!" was in a bar on Tu DO Street in Saigon, many moons ago.
The switched vowel pairs took a moment this morning, and I nearly took a break in the area of CHEMICAL, MNEME, and OILER (teams and players being mysteries to me), but then it all came together for a satisfying FIR. A fine COLLAB, Caroline, Katie, Patti, and Mal Man! Many thanks.
I appealed to the muse MNENE to help remember obscure answers that pop up all the time and I kyna fergit like Chiwere speakers. Was thinking “coeur Anglais” English “heart” forgetting that “cor” means “horn”. MNENE failed me, we’ve had this OBOE clue before
Further failed aMUSEment brought me one second away from giving up on the SW. Held on to FTC instead of SEC too long and “DC” hrs as DST. Was brain searching for the name or type of “shampoo”. Then axons started firing and it all came together CHEMICAL, COPSE, HIRES etc. (whew that was a close one. 😅)
Ingenious theme. ’m sure difficult to construct those long clue answers
WORLD reknown too long. At first I thought it said “Telluride” marker. Today I groove to the beat, yesterday I GROVE? 🤔
COLLAB? c’mon 🙄. SOLACES is a verb?
At one time there were two republics founded by Napoleon in northern Italy: La Repubblica Cisalpina (same side of the Alps) and Transpadana (across the river Po, Latin: Padanus). Where you could get your OSSO buco ?? 😉
Favorite selection…. TOPIC
Solid fossil fuel research facility….. COLLAB
Secure in a way….TITAN
Hoping for a clear skies here in Central NY when the MOON eclipses the sun on April 8. Some schools are actually closing that day.
🌔
Travelling, so I loaded the puzzle before leaving. Nearly finished, I was on the last two letters of the last word, "copse" when I touched something somewhere on the iPad that caused it to reload, but I was not connected to the internet. It used to be you could reload a partially completed puzzle, but not today...
Happy birthday Splynter! would you believe they act7ally make cakes like this!
Hola!
Happy birthday, Splynter! It's great to see you on the Blog again. I hope you celebrate in style.
This puzzle took a while longer than usual to solve but I have to remember it's Friday.
ROCCO is unknown to me so I had to wait for a few perps to fill it. Like DO, I like to start at 1A but not today. The only ROCCO I recall is Nancy's friend in cartoons.
Of course, I had APRIL FOOLS DAY which then had to change to APRIL FEELS DAY which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
SOOTHES altered for SOLACES and I don't like it as a verb.
Are there really eight rivers in Jamaica?
I liked the clue for WAD and I like the word COPSE. It's fun to say.
And I never leave the dishes for tomorrow but occasionally some pots or pans have to SOAK.
So, there is another clue for ARLO.
this was fun. Thank you, Caroline and Katie.
Boo hoo. Our trip to CA which was scheduled for the 17th has been canceled because of illness. I really hope we can go later.
Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!
Hola!
Happy birthday, Splynter! It's great to see you on the Blog again. I hope you celebrate in style.
This puzzle took a while longer than usual to solve but I have to remember it's Friday.
ROCCO is unknown to me so I had to wait for a few perps to fill it. Like DO, I like to start at 1A but not today. The only ROCCO I recall is Nancy's friend in cartoons.
Of course, I had APRIL FOOLS DAY which then had to change to APRIL FEELS DAY which does not exactly trip off the tongue.
SOOTHES altered for SOLACES and I don't like it as a verb.
Are there really eight rivers in Jamaica?
I liked the clue for WAD and I like the word COPSE. It's fun to say.
And I never leave the dishes for tomorrow but occasionally some pots or pans have to SOAK.
So, there is another clue for ARLO.
this was fun. Thank you, Caroline and Katie.
Boo hoo. Our trip to CA which was scheduled for the 17th has been canceled because of illness. I really hope we can go later.
Have a fantastic Friday, everyone!
Baby Boomer sports journalists were almost invariably ridiculously well-versed in baseball trivia from the 1960s and even before that, in the days when there were only 16 teams instead of 30 and we pretty much could name everybody. By the 1990s, we started noticing we weren’t nearly as good at current trivia but still knew everything about the old days.
So I have to say even I struggled with ROCCO Baldelli. I knew he had managed an unexpectedly strong team that year, but I needed perps to get his first name. He’s pretty obscure. So I write this anticipating D-O was frustrated by 1A today. I also found OILER to be a bit more inside-sports than I would expect most Cornerites to tolerate. The Titans are one of the NFL’s most obscure teams.
The theme was a bit MEH, and the unifier was one of my first solves, so the puzzle seemed easy for a Friday, but I sympathize with those who didn’t like MNEME, Chi-LITES, the Cor Anglais clue for OBOE, COPSE, and OCHO Rios, all of which I found pleasing. And you have to be quite a “Hamilton” fan to know all about the Schuyler Sisters –“Angelica (bud-a-dut-dut-dut-) Eli-iza (bud-a-dut-dut), and Peggy” (like Peggy is an afterthought). “And Peggy” is a joke among “Hamilton” fans.
Hi All!
FIW w/ a bad guess at 31d xing 34a. Oy! HG - I agree!, but Guthrie woulda been a gimme.
Thanks Caroline & Katie for the past-time grid. Theme was cute but an easy catch and (most) the fill fun.
MManatee - Any expo w/ a call-back to Blazing Saddles: *chefs kiss*
//re: USE ME - sure. If there's fun sh** todo and someone else is leading it, "use me" where needed is volunteering for whatever needs done.
WO: Xed -> X IN
ESPs: ROCCO, OCHO, & DNF squares
Fav: OILER's clue. I kept thinking "Clash of the..." but Luv ya Blue in the end. #HoustonOilers //hacker-buddy of mine made this sticker w/ Oilers' Blue.
COLLAB - I've been thinking about a hacker space for silly-fun, not quite out of beta works; Maybe call it COL-LAB LABS(?)
//And our birthday boy Splynter can join us! Not only does his expos have legs, he's a great designer of COOL projects. Happy Birthday!, man.
FLN - C, Eh! No, not a LIT party as everyone is high but Lit as in LegIT. There are lame (MEH) parties and those that are LIT - Music pop'in' and drinks drop'in' fun. //having college-aged kids keeps my lingo hep :-)
TTP - The Guardians were supposed to play but I heard they will postpone the game because of the April eclipse. The PROMO opportunities abound ala a mashup of Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court and Guardians(!!) of the Galaxy.
Inanehiker - just gift mom a tank of car :-) For reals though, DW's Aunt finally HIREd a driver after an accident and she's only [REDACTED] years old. #GoodLuck
Supposed to rain all weekend so I'm going to play in my (name to be determined) lab. //probably just clean this mess up, I will.
Y'all have a great Friday eve!
Cheers, -T
Fan and clever puzzle, thank you CH & KH. Good review, loved the GNUS and cow humor MM.
Rumba before MAMBO, and even then thought it was mombo, not knowing ARLO. with FEELS and FOOLS FLIPPING, it made the next two obvious.
Like mailmen, you never hear about an UMP or REFS until they get something wrong. They should be perfect, right? A bit defensive here having suffer the boo’s at my brother’s baseball games when he officiated.
inanehiker - Good luck with your Mother. This is a long story but to be short, my Mother at 92 drove her car through the back of the garage, hitting the laundry room wall and destroying the washer and dryer. She was not hurt. She also never drove again.
Happy day, all!
Above post is Parsan. What happened?
Puzzling thoughts:
Happy Birthday, Splynter - from one Aquarian to another
Thanks Mal Man for the puns, tunes, et al
Thumper
Lucina @ 12:24
Rocco, Nancy’s friend. I figured you might be thinking of Sluggo or Rollo, “the rich kid.”
These are the main characters in the comic strip
Did anyone else on the blog feel that? Initial report said 4.7 earthquake 7 miles from Thousand Oaks. Bit later said 4.6, and 8 miles from T O. I felt it in Seal Beach, but nothing falling, etc.
MM, I'm going to have to look up a few of those album names. The only one I recognized right off the bat was Thick As A Brick (Jethro Tull), and Harvest might be Neil Young. I'll check later. Bill Wither's USE ME always brings special memories of a time in my life. There's a video that I posted here years ago that I can't find now, but it tells the story better than I ever could.
Dash T, I'm trying to decide where I'm going to go to experience the eclipse. Central Texas? Southern Illinois? Somewhere in Indiana? Ohio? Erie PA? So many options, with family scattered along the path. Will there be hysteria in the animal kingdom?
Ray-O, thanks. I knew ROCCO didn't sound correct. Rollo.
Sandyanon, I didn't feel anything here. :>)
Thanks to Caroline and Katie for some Friday fun! I needed to suss the theme in order to fill in those Cs in CHEMICAL for the FIR.
FAVs: POLL crossing POOLS and Fist Full of Dollars
Thanks, also, to MalMan for an excellent explanation! Nice work with the "feeling poorly"/ "fooling peerly" line!
Happy B-day Splynter! I've been enjoying your blogs! CED found you the perfect cake. Three Aquarius bloggers seems above average.
Then there's ROCCO Mediate, a former PGA player who's won almost $18 million (not exactly Phil or Tiger money, but it'll keep fuel in the ole Corvette. In fact, it's about the same as the Fedex Cup paid for first place last year.)
C-Eh and I first think of Oilers as a hockey team.
FIR. Running late. No comment
Be my baby.
Now!
TTP @ 4:26 - You are correct about both Neil Young and Jethro Tull. The others:
Act 1 - The Seldom Scene (I was playing quite a bit of bluegrass banjo at that time)
Live In Europe '72 - The Grateful Dead
Greenhouse - Leo Kotke
... and I forgot to mention, probably because it was released quite late in 1972 - Will The Circle Be Unbroken - The Nitty Gritty Dirty Band together with
Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis, Vassar Clements and other quite recognizable names.
Very snazzy themers today, ya made me work to get ‘em all. By the time I got down to the reveal, though, I’d already fingered it out. Thanks for the fun, Ms’s Hale & Hand (that sounds like kind of cosmetics store…😆).
A lot of cw regulars making their appearance here — APE, OTOE, COPSE, MBAs, UMP, ADO, t’name a few. A couple of uglies, too, namely the proper-names cross of ORA and ARLO. Steenky señor, not COOL. But I’ll live…
Thanks to the MalMan for yet another round of entertaining puns and Dad jokes (a cow with no lips…oh-kay-yee); plus, I’ve never heard that particular Dead tune before!
I’d think USEME might enjoy common usage in BD-SM circles.
And yes, @Sandyanon, we felt that 4.6 here in the north end of the San Fernando Valley; I can hear/sense the sub-sonic rumble before the actual tremor hits — a “talent” I developed following the ‘94 biggie, when we had something like 300+ aftershocks. A dubious talent…
A belated Happy GNU Ear to y’all!
====> Darren / L.A.
Darren, where in the SFV are you located?
FEEL/FOOL Friday. Thanks for the fun, Caroline and Katie, and MalMan.
I FIRed and had an Aha moment when I go5 the theme.
Plenty of inkblots, most already mentioned by others.
Ray-o - all our school kids are off on April 8. Niagara Falls is supposed to be the best spot to observe this eclipse, and they are prepping for huge crowds hoping to combine a visit to this iconic tourist attraction with a rare chance to view an eclipse. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with clear skies.
Yes Jinx, I associate OILERS with the Edmonton NHL team.
Thanks AnonT for explaining LIT FLN. Did everyone else know that slang?
Happy Birthday Splynter.
Wishing you all a good evening.
inanehiker- A doctor who specialized in Alzheimer’s patients told us that he is always amazed that his patients will never forget that he was the one who took their driver’s licence away.
I hope your discussion with your mother went well. It is hard to lose the independence that driving brings.
Ray-O
Yes. thank you. I guess I was thinking of Rollo, the rich kid. it's true, the memory is the first thing to go and I haven't seen those comics in decades.
Thank You Caroline Hand and Katie Hale for a nice Friday's challenging puzzle. The central theme was too much for me, but I tried and was successful at completing the long answers and finally all the clues.
Thank You Malman for a very punny and extensive explanation of all the clues, especially the ones like the names that I was totally unfamiliar with ...
I have been down with some unending medico legal issues hence no postings ... but I thought I better post today, because tomorrow maybe irrelevant ...
RayOSun - you were absolutely right about Nancy's friends in her comics of Sluggo and Rolo ... gosh that was over 50 years ago ...
HBD Splynter, and may you have many enjoyable ones yet ...
CED ... wonderful cake ... blew my mind !!!
Have a great weekend everyone ... !!!
Re: Driving habits and the privilege of a driving license....
I have 'nearly' lost my driving license over the past 15 years, becasue of serious retinal detachments, and other eyesight problems ... but ... due to a kind woman in a particular county in charge of the DMV/ License dept., ... have always "retained" it .... by the skin of my teeth ...
So, ... I am 'Inane-hiker's' mother,.... in real life. I have not had a traffic ticket in 22 years, and all three of my accidents in the last 28 years, have been "rear enders" ... by someone else, behind me... who were too much in a hurry ...
Over 90 percent of accidents are caused by drivers driving too fast ... and rashly ... and/or under the influence ... not by slow and careful drivers...
BTW, the Great State of Ohio ... does not require a driver to be able to read english, or pass the english driving test of state laws and regulations ... to get a personal car drivers license... This is a fact.
I know this for fact, because I have (legally - ) translated the driving test questions ... and , the all-important answers ....
.... for atleast five different nationalities, infront of a mandatory, 'required' ... the constant gaze of a resident Deputy Sheriff, sitting across the desk, from me !! ...
.... including that test, for my hispanic cleaning lady ... 17 years ago ... without any problems. She still drives, ... now, far more confidently, ... without any lack of confidence, or fears.
BTW, ... I do not speak Spanish either ... so, go figure ...( I told her, to watch my eyes ... )
Soo, there is more than one way to skin a cat .... or something like that ...
we live in a world of constant mysteries .... just look around you, ... in bees, ... and trees ....
Vidwan said:
RayOSun - you were absolutely right about Nancy's friends in her comics of Sluggo and Rolo ... gosh that was over 50 years ago" ...
But, how am I just over 50(3)yrs and I know Nancy comics? Me thinks it (the comic) was in the Bazooka Joe bubble-gum wrappers (as the name of that sugar-coated, fast-flat chew?)
TTP - HOU won't be the best spot to see the eclipse but, I have a room and a welder's mask to view it from.
MMaanatee - I knew the other song references but you made me google Seldom Seen. Blue-grass folk ala ARLO & his Pop, Woody. Nice.
C, Eh! Edmonton was my second thought after Greek (Roman?) uber-gods.
Cheers, -T
I'm thinking I'll go to Texas for the solar eclipse. Much less chance of cloudy weather. Waco is near the center of the path of totality for the upcoming eclipse, and I have family there. As is nearby Elm Mott (elm grove - a copse.) Just a few miles west of Waco around Crawford, or a bit farther SW to Gatesville would be prime viewing. That's out in the country.
Dash T - Go west young man - to really witness the totality of the eclipse Perhaps in scenic Kerrville or Frederickburg. Or NW to where you served. Copperas Cove is gearing up. Lampassas just a few miles west would give you a longer totality. I have family in the Temple and Belton area, too, so it's a short drive west from there.
You can get a free app titled MyShake online which gives you a few seconds of warning for an earthquake of 4.0 or greater. Sponsored by LA County.
See my note about the free app MyShake provided by the govt. Gives a warning for quakes 4.0 or more.
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