Domestic Flights of Fancy
Hi All!Today Jon offers us four U.S. carriers as part of common things. Let's take a look:
17. Sadness that sets in after missing a flight?: DELTA BLUES. Blues from the Mississippi Delta; Delta is an airline based in ATL.
23. Countries listed on a flight board?: UNITED NATIONS. Headquartered in New York, the UN tries to keep the world more or less civilized. United Airlines is HQ'd in Chicago.
47. Rural areas serviced by just one airline?: FRONTIER TOWNS. A township founded by the settlers. Frontier Airlines is based in Denver, CO.
57. Flight that lasts seven days?: SPIRIT WEEK. The week before the big homecoming game #RahRahRah. SPIRIT airlines - the butt of late-night jokes.
Pretty straight forward theme that doesn't require much from me so let's just move on to the fill.
Across:
1. Maze runners: MICE.
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| "I solved the maze in fifty-three seconds, but it was a Monday level." |
5. Formal decrees: DICTA. Puts the DIC in dictator.
10. Help the chef: PREP. Sous in the kitchen.
14. Driver of Hollywood: ADAM. Listening to an interview, I learned he's a Marine Corps vet.
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| Adam Driver |
15. "American Fiction" actress Tracee __ Ross: ELLIS. She's an actress and Diana Ross's daughter.
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| Tracee Ellis Ross |
16. Stray: ROVE. I almost went with roam.
17. [See: theme]
19. Jon Arbuckle's dog: ODIE. Garfield comic.
20. F1 neighbor: ESC.
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| Standard Keyboard |
21. Friction reducer: LUBE.
22. Paint, toddler-style: SMEAR.
23. [See: theme]
27. Minimally: AT LEAST.
29. Spring bloom: IRIS. Blue Iris used to frequent The Corner.
30. Grilled sausages, for short: BRATS.
31. Out in the open: AL FRESCO. When DW & I were in Italy, we ate only one meal indoors. //I had the anchovy pasta.
35. Fun, as a party: LIT.
36. Jewelry retailer: ZALES.
38. Paddle kin: OAR.
39. Hit the gym: EXERCISE.
42. Church donation: TITHE. 10% is literally what it means and suggested by the church.
44. Tennis Court __: French Revolution event: OATH. The OATH that established the National Assembly in the Real Tennis room of Versailles.
45. Some patches: IRON-ONS.
47. [See: theme]
51. Filmmaker George who won five Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation: LUCAS. Hugos are for Science Fiction / Fantasy. George's are for Star Wars (1978), Empire Strikes Back (1981), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1982), Return of the Jedi (1984), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1990).
52. __-Free: contact lens solution: OPTI.
53. Honor society letter: PHI. As in PHI Beta Kappa.
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| National Honor Society |
56. Second son: ABEL. Cain killed him.
57. [See: theme]
60. Covered: CLAD.
61. Eagle claw: TALON.
62. Fabled napper: HARE. Aesop reference.
63. Numbers game: KENO.
64. Mantegna's "Criminal Minds" role: ROSSI. Didn't know his name but I know the face. Good Italian boy, him.
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| Joe Mantegna [WikiP] as Rossi. |
65. Pod in Creole cuisine: OKRA.
Down:
1. Took home: MADE. Net. After taxes.
2. Midmonth time: IDES. Beware the IDES of April. #Taxes
3. Do the math: CALCULATE. Take line 47 and subtract from... Ha!, No., just give the Gov't all that's left over and move on.
4. CPR expert: EMT. Needed after taxes :-)
5. Opens: DEBUTS.
6. "Suuure": I'LL BET.
7. Like crosswords: CLUED. Cute. I find clueing is the easiest part; gridding takes C.C..
8. Twist-__: TIE.
9. Saddlebag carrier: ASS.
10. Potential: PROMISE. As in, "-T had a lot of promise | potential..." that I'd get on report cards.
11. Wyoming's state sport: RODEO. Also Texas' state sport. Houston's Rodeo is 27 February through 17 March this year.
12. S.Pellegrino rival: EVIAN. Bottled spring waters. I associate S.Pellegrino with carbonated and Evian with still (though they (Evian) make sparkling now).
13. Coevals: PEERS. Coevals are contemporaries.
18. Misleading handle: ALIAS. Fake name used for mischief.
22. To-do: STIR. A row.
24. Clear: NET.
25. African river to the Mediterranean: NILE. Our Egypt offices are moving from Maadi to New Cairo City in June(ish).
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| I tried to highlight the Nile in red. |
26. Pound sounds: ARFS.
27. Qualified: ABLE.
28. Lucky Charms shelfmate: TRIX. There's an Eddie Murphy bit in this.
Eddie Murphy on Carson
31. Pour choice: ALE. Ha!
32. Figuratively: SO TO SPEAK.
33. Four-time Oscar-winning lyricist Sammy: CAHN. Samuel Cohen (June 18, 1913 – January 15, 1993), known professionally as Sammy Cahn, was an American lyricist, songwriter, and musician. [WikiP]
34. Smelter input: ORES.
36. Tubular pasta: ZITI. Among Rigatoni, Penne, Fileja, Cannelloni, Ditalini, Manicotti, and Macaroni. #KnowYourTubePastas
37. Tennis great Arthur: ASHE.
40. Portuguese soccer great who now plays in Saudi Arabia: RONALDO. Cristiano Ronaldo's WikiP.
41. Musical based on Eliot poems: CATS. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats is based on T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.
42. Specifically: TO WIT.
43. Overnight stop: INN.
45. PC problem solvers: IT PROS.
46. Corkscrew pasta: ROTINI. Great for pasta salads.
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| Recipe |
47. "Killing Me Softly With His Song" singer: FLACK.
Roberta Flack
48. Moscow money: RUBLE. DW had some left over from her Russia trip that we added to our international monies collection.
49. __ Spray: OCEAN. Cranberry Cooperative.
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| WikiP |
50. Foments: ROILS.
54. Munster mister: HERR. Today's German lesson.
55. KALLAX shelf seller: IKEA.
57. Viola's sect.: STR. A buddy of mine in HS was First STRing offensive line and First STRing Viola in the STRing SECTion.
58. Kung __ shrimp: PAO.
59. Seuss villager: WHO. As in Horton Hears 'em or The Grinch tries to steal their Christmas.
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| Whos in Whoville. (The one on the left (in blue) is The Dr. :-)) |
The Grid:
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| The Grid |
After I completed the grid I noticed ATL (Delta's hub) in AT LEAST and went hunting for the other airlines' hubs. There's United's ORD (O'Hare), Frontier's DENver, and I think Spirit is HQ'd in MIAmi. I don't think Jon intended this level of silliness but there you are :-)
WOs: Sous -> PREP, ROam -> ROVE
ESPs: ELLIS, ROSSI
Fav: 42d CLUED as "Specifically" is nicer parsing than the slight (at me) "What to do when the Alfa doesn't work." :-)
Cheers, -T
37 comments:
I got the theme of the airlines, but wondered about the second word of the themed clues; was there something more to the puzzle that I just wasn’t seeing. Apparently not, so I’ll just say that I’m disappointed about that. Anyway, I couldn’t stay disappointed. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Started right off with RATS, FIATS and SOUS. And followed it up with Wite-Out. Before figuring out that airline names were involved, d-o also tried ONE HORSE TOWNS. Bzzzzt. Got 'er done without serious personal injury, so this one goes into the win column. Thanx, John and Dash-T.
DICTA: Reminded me of this scene from The Big Bang Theory (0:20).
Yay, taxes are finished for another year. Avoided a penalty by a technicality.
FIW, missing DICTi x iSS. Figured it was some NASA lingo for a cargo hold.
Today is:
NATIONAL KITE FLYING DAY (I always think of kites in March)
NATIONAL GIVING HEARTS DAY (Donate to your favorite charity. If you play the card game hearts, it is good practice to always pass the lowest heart in your hand)
Erased roam for ROVE, avian for EVIAN, and exercize for EXERCISE. Hey - you exercise the way you want to, and I'll exercize the way I want to.
"Her name was Magill, and she called herself Lill, but everyone knew her as Nancy."
My driver is from Cleveland. The rest of my clubs are from Ping and Taylor Made. My tees are generic ones I get from Amazon, and my balls, well, that's TMI.
Thanks to Jon for the Thursday challenge. Truth be told, I like your line of Loudmouth golf apparel better than this puzzle. I do like those pants, although I don't own any. And thanks to -T for another fun tour.
Took 6:56 today, so I guess I could say I found this one a Breeze.
I didn't know the lyricist (Cahn), hesitated with the Russian currency and the pasta, and was thinking it couldn't be "dicta", but turns out I was confusing that with "obiter dictum" (which I looked up after solving).
My PC problem solvers have historically been non-pro; they've been amateurs and teenaged.
Nice smooth solve - once I got the airline name theme it sped up considerably.
FLACK's "Killing me softly" was in the music of my life file. That was way before you could look up lyrics on Google - so it took me awhile to get "Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words" back in the 70s
We've made many a 9x13 pan of baked ZITI to serve to cross country runners the night before meets.
The KC RODEO was partially sponsored by a service organization my dad was a part of-it ran 10 days every year in July. So we went every year-and again another era- my folks would run one of the concession stands some nights and they would just put us over in nearby stands with a stern warning to behave! Loved the barrel racing and calf roping - the Brahma bull riding was always scary to me as a kiddo.
Off to work - thanks -T for the blog - laughed out loud at the Eddie Murphy clip. Hope Bill (waseeley) is healing well from the cataract surgery. and thanks to Jon for a fun puzzle
FIR. I too threw down rats and fiats which set me back with the first long answer. United Nations got me the theme but I stared at Delta for the longest time, and that area was the last to fall.
This was a typical Thursday puzzle and fun to suss out, although I am not familiar with spirit week. Learning moment for me.
FIR, just the right crunch for a Thursday. I thought this theme was more interesting than yesterday's. The second part of each theme fill was suggested by the clues.
17A sadness
23A countries
47A rural areas
57A lasts seven days
The four names that didn't readily come to mind had sufficient perps to wag the answers.
Tithe is not just a donation, but donating one tenth of your earnings. Some calculate the tithe on gross earnings and some on net earnings. Now that I am dipping into my savings every month and don't know whether I might have a very expensive health crisis. I no longer tithe, but just donate.
I received notice that some of my tax forms from investments will be sent in late February.
Schools have spirit weeks. Here at independent living we also have spirit weeks with themes carried out in snacks, programs and wearing appropriate colors. February is heart month. We will have a heart spirit week with a heart health speaker and heart healthy snacks. We will wear red on one day.
Thank you Jon for the FLIGHTS of FANCY and the uneventful LANDING.
And thank you Tony for piloting the tour. So you have an office in Egypt? Don't answer that if you'd have to shoot me! Oh and I like the HQ Easter Eggs you dreamed up or are they Apophenia? Don't worry, I'm sure you're perfectly sane! Oh, oh -- did you try to jump start the ALFA first?
Some favs:
19A ODIE. His creator is no relation to our constructor JON I presume?
31A AL FRESCO. Also a classification (not a genre) of paintings created outdoors. Famous examples include Monet, van Gogh, and Sargent.
49A OCEAN. I cut mine 50/50 with apple cider and use it to take my morning pills.
54D HERR. A CSO to our dear Spitzboov -- a real MENSCH.
Cheers,
Bill
ps - Did somebody live an HTML italics opener unclosed?
Good Morning:
This was on the easy side for a Thursday but I needed perps for Oath and Opti and I went astray at Cukor/Lucas (Generational gap, for sure) and Writs>Fiats>Dicta. Cute duos of Abel/Able, Ziti/Rotini, and Hare/Herr. An enjoyable solve overall.
Thanks, Jon, and thanks, Anon T, for a great write-up. Eddie Murphy is very funny, if somewhat irreverent, but from what I've heard about his stand-up routines, the clip from Carson's show was squeaky clean in comparison. I love his laugh! I'm amazed at your keen eye in spotting those hubs; those groupings, whether intended or not, wouldn't have occurred to me in a million years. Also liked your Alfa/Tow It pun. Nice work, Tony!
Have a great day.
A nice little theme today. Thanks, Jon. Nice recap, -T.
Almost went with rats, but saw 2D was the ubiquitous IDES a d 4D the always popular EMT so MICE took over. Had a hard time remembering Ms FLACK until I filled the rest of the SW. Mr ROSSI and ROTINI keyed the SW. And, yes, Fabled keyed my choice for the napper as HARE.
ALFRESCO is also a favorite, along with ITPRO, which was my game until I retired. EXERCISE is what I don't get enough of, like most of us.
You make your own luck.
Bric-a-brac.
Tough Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Jon and AnonT (great catch with those airline hubs although a little stretching to find - but circles would have given an added dimension for that. Sorry SS!)
Officially a DNF since I had to resort to Google for Ms Ross’s middle name to open the N-centre for the Tada. I wanted Edicts for 5A and fought removing the final S to change to ASS. Oh I BET further muddied the waters.
Aha moment when I saw the airlines, even though this Canadian is not familiar with FRONTIER.
I started poorly with Rats in my maze before MICE.
Hand up for perps deciding between Roam and ROVE.
I have heard of being LIT at a party, but not of a party being LIT (fun). Regional expression?
Same question with STIR being a To-do. I wanted Snit.
This Canadian is not familiar with ZALES, but ZITI gave the Z.
I noted ABEL and ABLE, HARE and HERR (crossing).
CSO to AnonT with IT PROS.
Wishing you all a great day.
I too started with rats and fiats and had I guess for ILL BET. So I momentarily abandoned the north and flew on done the rest and had a lovely trip. Then back up north and came up with MICE and DICTA, and the rest fell into place.
The only phrase that puzzled me was SPIRIT WEEK. Not familiar with it but easy to figure.
I wanted Perrier as rival to San Pellegrino. My only unknowns were ROSSI but the Kung PAO shrimp came to the rescue and ELLIS.
A-t. Thanks for the Eddy Murphy clip and the FLACK song. I used to have her CD, tape, (?) whatever.
Diana Ross’ daughter! Oh, my, how time flies.
Good Morning! I was led astray by the NW corner and how easily it came together. Not so for much of the rest of the puzzle, but FIR!! Thanks for the challenge, Jon.
One WO: edict -> DICTA and a bunch of perp help & lucky WAGs for the unknown ELLIS, RONALDO and ROSSI, added to the unknown clue words Hugo, KALLAX and Tennis Court __.
ADAM seems to be appearing more frequently than the more familiar Minnie Driver.
I saw the names of the airlines for a theme but missed how the fills related to the clues. I wasn’t sure if that was all it was, but I suspected more. Kind of a meh to me.
Roberta Flack, Killing Me Softy,…. Magical 🥰, reduces me to mush….
Thanks, -T for the fun & info.
FLN. TTP, re: your recommendations. I’ve checked my Settings and made the change. TY!
We’re all appearing in italics now, at least on my site.
Ray-o- you are in rare form today! Thanks for the chuckles.
And thanks for the background re calculi.
I think you left something open and changed all of us who follow to italics. LOL!
Lee also gets a CSO with IT PROS.
Irish Miss beat me to those “noted” comments.
IM ☘️
Do you remember Frontier Townin the Lake George area of the eastern Adirondacks north of you? You’d take a train from the parking lot and get “held up” by bandits along the way (my little brother would start crying). At noon there would be a shoot out in the center of the town between the sheriff’s men and the bad guys . One would get shot and even fall off the saloon roof to his death. A child’s proper
introduction to to good ole American violence. 😃
Wees,
Rats/mice, roam/rove
Learn8ng moment dicta crossing saddlebag carrier was brutal. (I'm still trying to fit pony express in there somewhere...)
Lol Anon-T! You got me looking for EWr and SFO
is this inane, or just asinine...
Canada 🇨🇦 thanks for pointing out the Italics issue. Last time I made that mistake everyone’s comments who followed were italicized. So I deleted and corrected…..
Ingenious airline puns. Long theme answers so musta been difficult to constructs perps. Enjoyed this one ✈️
DELTABLUES: When they keep delaying your flight then cancel it 😫
“S(an) Pellegrino “ = holy pilgrim. “Help the chef” stir?, chop? mash? whip? “Coevals” yuh couldn’t just say “Co-equals” coudja” 😉 . You may be ABLE but are you “qualified”? (and ready and willing)
MICE? rats (✋), that wuzn’t the answer!!😖. ADAM not Minnie.
ALIAS, misleading? Clever clues for MADE and CLEAR. “corkscrew”’pasta cavatappi “pull-plugs” … ROTINI (“little wheels”)**
After yesterday’s ELLA I’m surprised that ELLOS wasn’t clued as “they” in Spanish. Only two nappers I could think of: Rip Van Winkle and Sleeping Beauty but “Fabled” gave it to the HARE. CALCULATE comes from Latin calculus for “stone”, using pebbles to count. Hence gallbladder and renal “calculi”
rouble too long, almost tried “kopek”.. nope a variant spelling of RUBLE
Make a demon do push-ups….EXERCISE
Coveting both your neighbor’s goods and his wife….COEVALS
Batman onomatopoetic…. PAO
Removes the rear part of…..DEBUTS
**Anon T, how ‘how ‘bout we collaborate on a book “Pasta for DUMMIES” 🍝
By the way it’s interesting that when speaking of specific gallstone and renal stone disease the names are changed from Latin “calculus” to Greek “lithos “Cholelithiasis” Chole refers to bile likewise “nephrolithiasis” nephros = kidney.
Thanks for the Tricks bit to start the morning, -T. Now, how am I going to concentrate on the tasks at hand throughout the rest of the day? That's Life, I suppose. Cheerio!
Hola!
Although this puzzle was a bit of a challenge, I have only two wite-out spots. DICTA replaced FIATS and OCEAN after NASAL spray. Then it all filled slowly and steadily.
Tracee ELLIS Ross stars in the TV show, Blackish, which I have sometimes watched. I recall many years ago when Diana Ross appeared here at Symphony Hall and made headlines because she brought all her children with her and they were lined up on the stage while she sang.
I laughed at OAR/ORES crossing.
Thank you, Jon Daly and Tony for your commentary!
I agree about Roberta FLACK and react the same way.
Ray O @ 10:18 ~ Yes, I remember Frontier Town, but I never went there. I also remember Storytown, The North Pole, and Gaslight Village, although I never went to any of those attractions, either. However, I did go to Hidden Valley Dude Ranch in Lake Luzerne and experienced about 5 seconds of sheer terror atop a huge horse before I was thankfully rescued! 🤣
I see the two airlines I have used in the last ten years didn't make the cut today. No SOUTHWEST or ALASKA. Only a few unknowns today. I don't follow soccer but have heard of RONALDO, just wasn't sure of the correct spelling and it intersected the unknown French Court OATH but it had to be a vowel, so "O" was the only logical letter. Tracee ELLIS, PEERS and ROSSI- 100% perps; Coevals is new to me.
I started badly with RATS and EDICT but the perps correct those. Didn't notice the 's' on decrees.
OCEAN Spray- that is also the name of a nasal spray, just salt water.
CALCULATE? I let TurboTax do it.
Kung PAO shrimp or chicken. Some restaurants have it as Kung BO chicken.
DELTA Airlines started as a crop duster in Monroe, LA and was headquartered there (not ATL) until WW-II. My best friend's grandfather was in one of the first group of pilots when they started flying as an airline back in the 1930s. He kept a single two-seat plane in his garage (Piper Cub??)
FIR quickly, but had to perp out unknowns RONALDO and ROSSI, with a bit of a WAG at oATH. Have been through enough airports to get a smile from the theme. Certainly the most challenging puzzle of the week so far. How come no one is whining? Many thanks to Jon, Patti, and -T.
Nice puzzle Jon, and I aLways appreciated the talent of Eddie Murphy, Anon-T. He was so funny in “Trading Places”. Your Alfa joke, also a laugh.
Funny how this works. Sammy COHN, not a common crossword entry, turned up in the blog yesterday because he was the lyricist of the Doris Day hit “IT’S MAGIC”. He had many hit songs including “Come Fly With Me”, “My Kind of Town” (“Chicago is”) etc. and the theme song for “The Odd Couple” TV show.
Anon @7:56 - I bet if you looked at the list of songs by COHN you would know at least one..
Ray-O-Sunhine - Loved the version by Miss Paggy!
Happy Day All!
A nice Thursday puzzle.
Managed to FIR with a copious amount of WiteOut. Too many names and fill-in-the-blank clues sucked a lot of the enjoyment out. I did enjoy the recap, -T!
Yes we went to Storytown (now Six Flags) and later Gaslight Village
Hey Bayou Tony - If you ask the IT PROS how to resurrect your dead Afla, they'll tell you to turn it off, disconnect the battery, wait for 30 seconds, then reconnect the battery. Should fix anything that's wrong with it.
Eventually got 'er done w/ red-letter help. I was embarrassed at how long it took me to remember Roberta FLACK. Oy. I did see the airlines, but some of second words left me scratching my head. Thanx AnonT for explaining, and for the great write-up. Thanx too to JD for the fun CW. After months of problems with electrical service interruptions many times a day (lights flicker, go off for a split second, come back on, forcing cable box, wifi, and several other electronics to reset, 10 or 12 times a day) and several "discussions" with my solar company, yesterday between the solar company rep, Tesla Powerwall Battery rep, and FPL, it was finally determined that the problem was my neighbor's travelers palm getting on top of the pole mounted transformer and shorting out "line two" of the feed to the house. FPL was here at 4:30pm to evaluate yesterday, and FPL crew showed up at 6:30 this morning to remove the offending palm fronds and repair some minor damage to the transformer. After months of frustration the problem seems to be solved. (Crossed fingers!). But now I'm poopered out after waking several times last night by power interruptions and then at 6:30 this morning by the FPL guys on my pool patio climbing a ladder. Yawn! Time for a siesta.
An enjoyable Thursday offering that was straightforward and clued well.
Roberta Flack wrote “Killing Me Softly” after being smitten at a Don McLean concert while he sang “Vincent”. The words and lyrics resonated deeply with Ms Flack.
….. kkflorida
MalMan @ 10:45 ~ I always thought you were a Corny Flake! 🤣
Good afternoon.
Thank you, Jon Daly, and congratulations on your LA Times debut! Thank you, Dash T. Nice title and review.
I liked the theme's common compund words all having a base air carrier, and the redefinition of each was fun!
A few of the clues kept me at bay until the perps gave me the nudge. I like fresh clues. There was only one clue that left me totally in the dark upon reading it. That was 13D: Coevals. The perps filled all 5 boxes. Or as Abejo used to say, "5 perps and I had it."
RosE, YW. Hopefully, that's the end of it.
Coeval just seems like an odd word to me and I don't recall ever having seen or heard it before. I'll chalk it up to my new word for today. It looks like I'm in good company, too.
I have most of the information for my taxes but am waiting for one crucial document. Congratulations to all who have already filed!
IM @ 2:12, and right you are . . .probably 'cause I enjoy Synonym Toast Crunch.
Hand up for changing RATS to MICE. Also had to change TACT to LUBE, CUKOR to LUCAS, and FUSILI to ROTINI.
"I didn't swear an OATH to "support" the constitution."
Was ABEL, son of ADAM, not ABLE enough?
Thanks to Jon and congrats on your debut!
FAVs: that definition of PROMISE, FLACK (I have a history with that song.), and ABLE & ABEL
I know I've said this before but OCEAN has so much potential. I am disappointed when I see it clued as a proper noun.
Sorry, waseeley, but the short intro told me you took this Thurs. off.
; )
OTOH, your "piloting the tour" line tells me you are back to your excellent form and ready to resume your post! I'm already looking forward to next week!
Thanks to -T for filling in! Good stuff! Your extra layer with the hubs was genius!!
For a Thursday, things weren’t going very well up top — so took a wander down South and built things from the bottom up (isn’t that how you’re supposed to build things anyway?😎). Once I got the airlines hook, it was a smooth flight to FIR.
Shared @Lucina’s giggle at the OAR/ORES crossing; although I missed the ABLE/ABLE brothers, I got the hairy HARE/HARE deal.
Thanks for a pleasing and fun puzzle, HERR Daly — just enough challenge without needing LUBE. You’ve inspired me to crack out the 12-string and pick out some DELTABLUES now!
And thanks -T for the ancient Eddie Murphy bit on Carson — he was funny from his get-go. My fave line of his was from “Beverly Hills Cop”, when he drives up to the posh country club in his beat-to-hell old heap, tosses the key to the valet kid and says “Park my car somewhere safe — all this s—t happened to it last time I was here”…it may’ve been an improv.
====> Darren / L.A.
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