google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, March 28, 2024, Emma Lawson, Amie Walker

Advertisements

Mar 28, 2024

Thursday, March 28, 2024, Emma Lawson, Amie Walker

 WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Today's veteran constructors Emma Lawson and Amie Walker present us with another vertical theme, sans circles or stars, but this one is a little dark. The reveal starts on the first row at 10D, so we know what's going on pretty much out of the gate ...

 10. Creedence Clearwater Revival hit with the line "I see trouble on the way," or what can be found in three long Down entries: BAD MOON RISING.  A song all about what could go wrong -- this MOON is not only BAD, it's RISING! (well maybe) ...

Credence Clearwater Revival
(things eventually went wrong with them)

8. Return correspondence?: RANSOM NOTE.  Clever clue, terrible business ...

18. Bella Hadid and Precious Lee, for two: FASHION MODELS.  Fashion models with last name Hadid are becoming crosswordese -- last Thursday we had Gigi (see 59D), this week we have Bella.  Here is Bella ...
Bella Hadid
... and here is Precious ...
Precious Lee

28. Key information for a hotel guest?: ROOM NUMBER.  A true story about what could go wrong ...

We recently stayed in mid-priced hotel in a small town in Ohio and when we checked in we were issued  the usual key cards, which had our ROOM NUMBER digitally encoded in them.  The second morning after returning from breakfast, we made several attempts to get into our room and concluded that for some reason the cards had stopped working -- so we went back to the front desk.  The desk clerk knew exactly what had happened and explained  that the circuitry that detects the key card was powered by a battery inside the door (presumably to guard against power failures to the hotel grid).  When a battery ran down, it could be remotely recharged from the hotel front desk and new key cards would be issued.  The BUG (remember BUGS from last Thursday?) in the system was that the key card had be used  within 2 minutes of the recharge or it was invalidated.  The clerk recharged the battery from the front desk and headed off to our room -- unfortunately we were on the 3rd floor on the far end of the hotel and it proved to be physically impossible for anyone other than Usain Bolt to reach our room within 2 minutes.  After several attempts to do this he said that the IT Guy had a way to override the system -- but that it was after hours and he wasn't there, but that  they would page him and would let us know when he arrived. In the mean time the hotel offered us a different room, but all of our stuff was in that room, including my CPAP machine, without which I cannot sleep.  So we went to lunch, came back, read USA Today, solved the crossword (which SS could probably knock off in 30 seconds), tried to nap on the lobby sofas, etc, etc.  Eventually the IT Guy showed up and was able get the door open  and we were good to go.

We usually visit this small town in Ohio at least once a year and they don't have a lot of hotels, but if we have to stay at this one again, it will be contingent on the desk clerk demonstrating that he/she can reach our room within two minutes (or if Usain happens to be staying in the hotel that weekend!).

I guess it's pretty obvious by now what's going on with the theme.  I have a slight NIT about that, as unlike the UPSIDE DOWN CAKES in last Thursday's puzzle you can't really tell whether these MOONS are RISING or SETTING.  Nevertheless they ARE ALL BAD.

Here's the grid ...
 
Across:

1. Tap: PAT.  A CSO to PAT.

4. Garment that may be draped in the nivi style: SARI.  The true Story of the Nivi Drape.
Sari à la Nivi
8. Buyer's incentive: REBATE.

14. Hoopla: ADO.

15. Jeff Bridges sci-fi franchise: TRONThe franchise began with the 1982 film TRON staring Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, a computer programmer and video game developer who is transported inside the software world of a mainframe computer where he interacts with programs in his attempt to escape.  It back then it had SOTA animation for 1982. I believe that there were other films as well. Hand up if you saw the original? 
16. Toyota sedan since 1994: AVALON.  They looked like this, but Toyota is discontinuing them.
Toyota Avalon, RIP
17. Gets just right: PERFECTS.  Someone once said that "the perfect is the enemy of the good".

19. Silently agreed: NODDED.

20. Places to pray: ALTARSA famous place to pray.

21. __ de deux: PAS.  Here's the Pas de deux from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet ...

23. Physics quantity: MASS.  Also a RITE than can be said at a 20A.

24. Rental agreement: LEASE.

25. Get off the partner track?: GO SOLO.  It's not all it's cracked up to be ...

27. Car alarm: HORN.  Here's the 3rd movement of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat major, K. 417, Rondo - allegro ...

29. Slick: SMOOTH. Or the Jefferson Airplane vocalist singing White Rabbit

32. Final Four game: SEMI.  March Madness is upon us!

35. Yahoo: OAF.

37. "Thanks, I got it": NO NEED.

39. Handi-Snacks cookie: OREO.  See 60A.

40. Have a loan from: OWE TO.

42. Like a dragon egg in Minecraft: RARE.  According to the Minecraft Wiki "A Dragon Egg is a decorative, egg-shaped block, which is dropped after defeating the Ender Dragon in the End. It is only dropped by the death of the first Ender Dragon, not by respawned Ender Dragons. It is also not possible to get from the creative inventory without commands. This do not apply [sic] to Bedrock Edition".  They look like this ...
Dragon's Egg
Egg shaped, but in a low-res digital sort of way.  Hand up if you're a Minecraft maven and can explain why they're so valuable?

43. Jackman's "The Greatest Showman" role: BARNUMThe Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, is a 2017 American fictionalized biographical musical drama about the life of P.T. Barnum.   I can never get enough of this portrayal by Rebecca Ferguson of BARNUM's love interest, the legendary Swedish Soprano Jenny Lind singing Never Enough (but actually sung by Loren Allred) ...
Not Loren Allred
45. "__ your heart out!": EAT.  Hearts were a favorite food of the Egyptian goddess Ammit, 'devourer of the dead and hearts' -- Chacun à son goût! 😀

46. Apple computer: IMAC.

47. Siete días: SEMANA. Today's Spanish lesson -- "Seven days" make a "week".

49. Centipede's multitude: LEGS.  A word with a multitude of synonyms ...
Plus  a CSO to MOE.

51. Body of work: OEUVRE.  Today's French lesson:
or an hors-d'oeuvre .

53. Firm: RIGID.

57. Chatted privately, briefly: DMEDDigital Messaging not in an open "chat room"

60. "It's not really working for me": MEH. This doesn't really work for me either -- but conductor Zubin MEHTA does -- here he leads the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in the last 3 minutes of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "The Resurrection" ...

61. Admonition to bickering kids: BE NICE.
 
62. Electric guitar effect: REVERB.  Not a new thing -- back in the Renaissance the stringed instruments had reverb, and in this Dr. Who clip from The Magician's Apprentice episode, time traveling Peter Capaldi shows off his REVERB chops on the electric lute (no stunt double), while treating us to a few bad puns  ...

64. "Back so soon?": YOU AGAIN.  Yeah, it's Thursday again. 😀

66. Audrey Tautou role: AMELIEAmélie is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film, a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story of a shy, introverted and quirky waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while dealing with her own isolation ...

67. Long for: MISS.

68. Vox populi, vox __: DEI.  Today's Latin lesson: "Voice of the people, voice of God".  A metaphor for democratic government used in a 1709 English political tract titled with this phrase.

69. Flexor counterpart: TENSOR.  Both are types of muscles.  It seems that the EXTENSOR has a stretch on today's fill.  Here are some examples ...
70. "Who __ could it be?": ELSE.

71. Parka part: ARMHOOD didn't fit.

Down:
1. Vatican-related: PAPAL. E.g. PAPAL BULL. It's not widely known but most Popes DO have a sense of humor ...
2. "I Drink Wine" singer: ADELE.  Not until the end of Lent we don't!  I don't think ADELE is observing Lent 😀 ...

3. Sandwich on a bolillo: TORTA.  In Mexico a TORTA is a kind of sandwich served on  white sandwich rolls similar to a small baguette called a bolillo.  A CSO to Lucina -- anything to add?
Torta on a bolillo
4. Typical opening?: STEREO.

5. Story shapes: ARCS.

6. Deteriorate: ROT.

7. What a mood board might provide, informally: INSPO.  A mood board is a collection of visual materials that evoke a particular theme, style or concept. Designers, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers and all types of creative professionals create mood boards to communicate and give them inspiration or "INSPO" (also a vaccine! 😀) and vision for a project.  Here's how to make mood board using a product called Milanote.  Here's an example ...
8. [Theme clue]

9. Former Bolivian president Morales: EVOJuan EVO Morales Ayma (Spanish pronunciation: [xwan ˈeβo moˈɾales ˈajma]; born 26 October 1959) is a Bolivian politician, trade union organizer, and former cocalero (coca leaf) activist who served as the 65th president of Bolivia from 2006 to 2019. He was his country's first president to come from its indigenous population.  Not to be confused with a Rachel Ray favorite 😀 ...
Evo Morales
10. [Theme reveal]

11. "M*A*S*H" star: ALDAAlan Alda (born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo; January 28, 1936) is an American actor, author, screenwriter, podcast host and director. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner and a three-time Tony Award nominee, he is best known for playing Captain Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce in the CBS wartime sitcom M*A*S*H (1972–1983). He also wrote and directed numerous episodes of the series. But he's done a LOT of other things as well.
Alan Alda
12. The ten in "hang ten": TOES.  Prehensile TOES that is.  "Hang ten" is slang for any of several maneuvers used in sports where all ten toes or fingers are used to accomplish the maneuver. In basketball it's hanging on the hoop after dunking the ball.   In surfing, the sport it's most commonly associated with, it's also called "nose riding", as it's done by perching on the very front of the surfboard ...
"Hanging ten"
How does she do that!!!?
13. Split __: ENDS.

18. [Theme clue]

22. Burro: ASS.  And the origin of the word burrito (the clue not the fill!)

25. Chew (on): GNAW.

26. Lav: LOO.  British slang.

28. [Theme clue].

30. Cubs or Bears: TEAM.

31. Juno's Greek counterpart: HERA.  While HERA and JUNO played the same role in Roman and Greek mythology, they were very different goddesses.
Hera vs. Juno
32. Cry loudly: SOB.

33. "-zoic" periods: ERAS. Here is simplified chart of Earth's geological ERAS, courtesy of the British Geological Survey ...
Nowadays when people hear the word ERAS they're more likely to think of this (Ms Swift has better PR men than the geologists😀) ...
34. No more than: MERE.  Could also be clued as "French for Mother".

36. Extra charge: FEE.

38. Advent mo.: DEC.  It can actually begin in late NOV. --  Advent begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (always falling between 27 November and 3 December), and ends on Christmas Eve on 24 December.  It is the beginning of the liturgical New Year.

41. Yarn: TALE.

44. Dubai's fed.: UAEDubai is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the country's seven emirates.

48. Madison in NYC: AVE.

50. Axle coating: GREASE.  Messy.  How about a 1978 film about a sheila from Down Under who becomes hopelessly devoted to an American greaser instead? ...
52. Pay to play, e.g.: RHYME.

54. Food Network chef De Laurentiis: GIADA. Giada Pamela De Laurentiis is an Italian American chef, entrepreneur, writer, and television personality. She was the host of Food Network's program called Giada at Home (2008–2015) .  Here's her recipe for Pasta with chicken and broccoli rabe.
Giada De Laurentiis
55. Less friendly: ICIER.

56. "Canadian tuxedo" fabric: DENIMSo why is it called a "Canadian tuxedo"?

57. "Dang!": DRAT.

58. Many a viral post: MEME.  The word MEME is a portmanteau of mime and gene and first appeared in a book by biologist Richard Dawkins.  Here was Dawkins' first attempt, but for some reason it didn't go viral ...
59. Level: EVEN.

61. Peck: BUSS. Often seen in PDAs.

63. __ de Janeiro: RIO.  Sadly, last year we lost Astrud Gilberto, an icon of RIO culture.  Here she is singing Stan Getz's arrangement of The Girl from Ipanema ...

65. Cruet liquid: OIL.

Cheers,
Bill

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

waseeley





43 comments:

Subgenius said...

I thought this was a fairly difficult puzzle, with foreign words, weird names, etc. Nevertheless, I got through it without any “red letters.” FIR, so I’m happy.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

INSPO? No idea. That N was a WAG. Thanx for 'splainin', waseeley. Didn't notice the bad moons on my way through the grid. Didn't notice the reveal, either. [sigh] Thanx, Emma, Amie, waseeley, and Teri.

AVALON: We come up with names for the strangers we see frequently on our daily march through the 'hood. One of them is Mrs. Avalon, because she drives one.

DENIM: D-o had a denim leisure suit back in the '70s, and he's been partial to denim ever since. Thanx for the history of the Canadian Tuxedo, waseeley. Hmmmmm, guess who's wearing denim while writing this?

waseeley said...

Here's the bi-weekly DAB puzzle: Six-Pack. David has this to say about it ...

Here’s another six-pack of heady, refreshing theme entries, cold-filtered and beechwood-aged as usual. Given their intoxicating wit, you might want to share them with a friend, or space their consumption over two or three days, just to be safe.

waseeley said...

waseeley @5:46 AM Just solved DAB's puzzle and found it to be an object delight!

inanehiker said...

This puzzle just moved right along - I had the theme reveal early on - so thought the MOONs might have to do with different MOONs in our solar system like Io and Phobos - but no- just the word MOON scrambled up

All the unknowns like EVO and TORTA filled easily with perps.

The movie, "AMELIE" got a lot of favorable reviews but IMO it was just "MEH"

Thanks Bill & Teri for the fun blog with all the musical links, and thanks to Emma & Amie for the creative puzzle

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIW. I disliked this one so much that by the time I filled everything except GIAnA x nEI, I didn't even do an alphabet run, I just picked a consonant and plugged it in.

Today is:
NATIONAL WEED APPRECIATION DAY (no, no, no. Not that kinda weed. A weed is anything that’s growing where it’s not wanted.)
NATIONAL BLACK FOREST CAKE DAY (one type of weed makes one crave this)
NATIONAL SOMETHING ON A STICK DAY (one type of weed makes one crave these)
NATIONAL TRIGLYCERIDES DAY (Crestor is on the job in my house)

I've heard of "chick flicks," but I think this grid is a "chick puzzle." Split ends, garments, Tautou, fabric, AMELIE, models etc. If I want to see a huge model, I'll see if Revell makes a kit of the CVN Ronald Reagan. (Yeah I know guys get split ends too; we just don't care.)

Since Emma and Amie mentioned the Final Four©, for those who are interested in college basketball: The NCAA Sweet Sixteen starts today, and will produce the Final Four on Sunday. According to ESPN analytics, a win by 10 of the remaining 16 teams would be historic. Stats show that the Finals winner should be from this group of six: Arizona, Gonzaga, Iowa State, North Carolina, Purdue and San Diego State. Of course, predicting results from past statistics is kinda like steering a car by looking only at the rear view mirror. We'll see.

Handi-Snacks? Oh hell, another great-looking treat for me to abstain from.

I was so proud when I filled WAH WAH without a single perp. Then I was so abashed when I erased it for REVERB.

Oh well, thanks a bunch to Bill 'n' Teri for providing today's fun.

Anonymous said...

Took 6:51 today for the moon to set on the fun.

This really was no fun, and the theme was lame.

But, I do like CCR.

KS said...

FIW. Missed rhyme and drat. The body of work failed me, brain fade, and threw down imed and missed the error with 57D. I should have looked more closely as irat is not an answer.
I failed to get the theme till I got here, even though I filled all the long clues.
This was a hard puzzle for me. Lots of foreign words and many unknowns. My guesser just wasn't working today.

Anonymous said...

Too many foreign words and obscure names. Not in my baliwick.

RosE said...

Good Morning! Good workout for today’s puzzle. Thanks, Emma and Amie. It kept me on my TOES! I was all over the place – no orderly direction, a few trial & errors and eventually came together. I never stopped to look for the theme and doubt I would have seen it until I read the Blog.

New to me: bolillo/TORTA; SEMANA; OEUVRE; AMELIE, dragon eggs (all ESP)

INSPO, kid slang, MEH….

Thanks, waseeley and Teri for the musical review.

YooperPhil said...

Pretty tough for a Thursday, but I manage a FIR w/o help in 28:38, the D in GIADA/DEI was my last fill and required an A-run. The same unknowns that RosE mentioned, add EVO. We are seeing more and more modern slang in CW’s ie: INSPO. And yet another clue for OREO. OIL and GREASE in the same grid. A little bit of Greek, Latin, Spanish and French today. Thank you Emma and Amie for your collaboration!

Bill and Teri ~ a very fine detailed review! When I think of SMOOTH, it’s by Santana, sung by Rob Thomas formerly of Matchbox 20.

Hope to see IM☘️ back soon.

Charlie Echo said...

Great tunes today, Waseely! Oh, the puzzle? MEH sums it up nicely. TITT. Not from my neck of the galaxy.

Anonymous said...

A clever and fun Thursday offering.

My wife wears her saris 🥻 draped in nivi style. She looks beautiful. Wish I knew how to post a picture onto the blog collection.

I liked the ransom note/return correspondence clue.

Thanks Bill and Terri for an informative recap.

…… kkFlorida

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-A wonderful puzzle for me as I had to struggle with clever cluing and names. However the names had escape hatches except for GIA_A/_EI where I guessed wrong and I can forgive that because I actually learned something – Vox Dei (duh!)
-Your MASS on the Moon is the same as your MASS on Earth. However, your weight on the Moon is 1/6 what it is on Earth.
-Lucy and Desi try to break the LEASE after a fight with Fred and Ethel.
-It was fun to see OUVRE again
-REVERB effects have made many poor singers sound better than they actually were.
-TORTA and bolillo went quietly
-We can add INSPO to the annoying and unnecessary truncated words we have these days.
-Fun write-up Bill and Terri.

Tehachapi Ken said...

I had to check my calendar to ensure that today was Thursday. The inscrutability level of the puzzle today was more that of, say, a Friday.

I plugged away at it for a while, figured out the theme, and then LI (lost interest). I'm just not that interested in garments or fashion, Bella Hadid/Precious Lee, mood boards, or Audrey Tautou. For the mood thing (7D), I actually--with perp help-- arrived at the answer of INSPO. Huh? I have never seen that word or phrase--if it's indeed correct--and that's when I LI.

On a different matter, it seems like we get OREO almost every day. I have never been a puzzle constructor, but I understand the need for vowels. For the puzzle constructors out there, is it true that you are always desperate for, in particular, the vowel o?

Lucina said...

Hola!

OEUVRE did not make it into my puzzle today. First, I had UAR instead of UAE and I failed to complete RHYME. So this was a DNF for me. However, I, of course, knew SEMANA, DEI, and RIO easily.

All the rest filled and I remembered BAD MOON RISING though I've never heard of the FASION MODELS Bella and Precious.

DENIM is my winter uniform and shorts are my summer one.

OWE TO and FEE crossing amused me.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. Today is MAUNDY THURSDAY.

Tehachapi Ken said...

Wendybird,
I keep forgetting to mention how well your alma mater is doing in March Madness! You no doubt know that both Duke's men's team and their women's team have made it to the Sweet Sixteen. I don't have the numbers for other years but as a follower of basketball I know it doesn't happen that often. This year, for instance, there are only three colleges besides Duke that have both their men's and women's teams making it this far.

The whittling-down process to get it down to the Elite Eight begins tonight. I wish your Blue Devils success!

waseeley said...

Autocorrect strikes again - make that "abject delight".

waseeley said...

AnonymousDNLC @8:00 AM What? No points for no circles!

Wendybird said...

Heavy sigh! I made steady progress through this interesting, challenging (for me) puzzle and had an FIR in my sights. I actually thought I had it - then checked the grid and realized Giana/Nei was GIADA/DEI - Bzzzt! How dumb not to get Dei! Anyhow it was a fun journey, and I thank Emma and Amie. Thanks, too, to Bill and Teri for your always entertaining tour.

Is Irish Miss on vacation? The. Blog isn’t the same without her.

Acesaroundagain said...

Missed the D in the chef I never heard of and the Latin. Shoulda known the Latin. Got the CCR song right off. Pretty easy after that. GC

waseeley said...

Lucina @11:35 AM Yes this evening we will watch our Archbishop was the feet of twelve of his parishioners. Not that they'll need it -- I had my feet washed on Holy Thursday once and they were never so clean before or since! 😃

CrossEyedDave said...

I'm in it for the sussing and aha moments, so this puzzle was just what I was looking for when all the unknowns finally perped in one way or the other. Except the clue/answer, "typical opening?" = stereo ???
I looked at this clue/answer siete dias to Domingo, and I could not fathom what stereo had to do with typical, or opening...

Hmm, how stereotypical of me...

I loved loved loved the Canadian tuxedo explanation! Bing Crosby? Really?!?!

Regarding the theme, I looked and looked, but I could not find anything silly enough to post for "bad moon rising."
But I did find something for the oft misheard bathroom rising...

Finally,
Reverb, the thing that makes your singing in the shower sound better...
Being a guitarist for many years, I was always mystified as to why, when you accidentally bumped (kicked, dropped, sat on or otherwise abused) your guitar amp, it sounded like a slinky on LSD...

I was todays years old when I learned: how a spring reverb works...

Monkey said...

SMOOTH and fun puzzle. I got the theme half way through but didn’t need it to fill the long answers. In spite of a few unknowns, I FIR.

I had not AGAIN, then THYME set me straight.

Many years ago the brand of clothing HANG TEN was popular. I still have a HANG TEN shirt. And I still have all my TOES.

I MISS Irish MISS☘️. I hope she’ll be back soon.

Thank you Waseely and Teri. What a story about your hotel adventure.

Parsan said...

This took a while with many unknowns, DMED, EVO, INSPO, SEMANA., but it finally all filled in. It was fun and challenging,thank you EL and AW. Thought FASHION MODELS was going to be fashionistas but that was one letter too short. Originally had ark as “parka part” before ARM. Took a while to get the vowels straight in OEUVRE.

It is interesting what each of us knows. If you know cars you probably had no problem with AVALON (didn’t know). If you know cooking shows and cook books GIADA was a given (did know).

Jinx - Ahem, “men’s Sweet 16”! The Sweet 16 for women will be in Portland and Albany with the “final 4” in Cleveland.

Bill, your hotel story was hilarious! I have one that took place in Canada (sorry Canadian Eh) that included a dog bite, tetanus shot, lost reservation, assigned room that had other people’s luggage, and then a 3 hour wait. But the food was good.

And thanks for the Mozart and Mahler.

Missing IM and her excellent evaluations!

Happy day, all!

Picard said...

As a CCR fan, I enjoyed the theme. The correct title of the song, of course, is "There's A Bathroom On The Right". Thanks for the appropriate cartoon CrossEyedDave.

waseeley Thanks for the multiple learning moments and the rather painful ROOM NUMBER story. Hand up last to fill GIADA/DEI to FIR. As a Latin student DEI was the only Latin word that fit, but I could not make sense of it until your explanation. Learning moment about HANG TEN. We watch surfers all the time from near our home, but I never knew what that meant!

Here I got to see JEFF BRIDGES up close and very personal.

He was presenting his film "A Place at the Table" to a small group of us, including our Congress member. About hunger in America. Most of the people in the film were working full time, but still were not getting enough to eat.

Here was my article about the JEFF BRIDGES film "A Place at the Table".

I indeed watched the original TRON. I had no idea there were sequels.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks for the informative and entertaining recap, Bill.
Thanks, also, for the DAB puzzle. I believe that I may have achieved Absolution.

waseeley said...

Robert @1:21 PM Thank you for your article on A Place at the Table. It's just plain wrong that this problem persists in America. I've bookmarked a trailer for this incredible documentary for possible future use in a review.

Bill

Picard said...

Bill/waseeley Thank you for taking the time to read my article about JEFF BRIDGES' film A Place at the Table and for your kind words.

His organization is called "No Kid Hungry" and I happily support it every year. Unlike charities that just give out food, he tries to solve the root causes.

JEFF BRIDGES used to live near one of our popular hiking trails and I remember him driving past us hikers and waving at us. He is very down to Earth and caring.

waseeley said...

Robert @2:50 PM Thank you for the reference to the "No Kid Hungry" program. I've bookmarked a link to it, again for possible further use.

waseeley said...

On Monday March 26 the morning after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, inanehiker included in her comments her "hope no one connected with waseeley was involved". I didn't read her comment until much later, but here was my reply in the last comment that day ...

"Nina @7:52 AM All in the city are connected to it. We are all in shock".

Here is a brief CNN article on the disaster including a short video. This event has had and will continue to have a catastrophic impact on the Port of Baltimore, "the port that built a city". The city, state, and nation have mobilized to do whatever is necessary to find the remaining victims, provide aid to their families, support the many longshoremen who will be without work an indeterminate time, to support the sailors on all of the ships that are now stranded in the harbor during this period. The latter are normally confined to their ships while they are in port and normally are not allowed ashore.

I received a mailing today from the Archdiocese of Baltimore with the following links to support programs ...

Francis Scott Key Bridge Relief Fund

Apostleship of the Sea

Teri is personally involved with the 2nd organization, as she helped start and coordinate our parish Apostleship of the Sea mission several years ago. Here is an article on this program.

Anything that you can do or contribute to help those impacted by this disaster will be a blessing to them and to you.

Bill

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Bill, yesterday I wrote to both my Senators and my Representative, urging them to support rapidly providing federal funds for clearing the debris and repairing or replacing the bridge. I asked them to ensure that 1) if the bridge is (re)built with federal funds, Maryland must not assess tolls on the bridge, and 2) the Department of State must attempt to recover these funds from the responsible parties (as applicable maritime law and trade agreements allow.) Hopefully others are writing as well. I don't think that individual letters do anything, but I think staffers tally the sentiment of the correspondence they receive.

NaomiZ said...

I've discovered there is NO NEED to know everything to solve the LA Times crossword, whose editor makes sure that Across and Down entries create a SMOOTH experience. I FIR and grasped the theme this morning with a strict time limit, and even got through most of the blog before I had to dash. Let's not be so RIGID! A couple of years ago, I often FIW or DNF, but was inspired by the better solvers, and didn't insult them by suggesting it wasn't worth my time. BE NICE!

Many thanks to Emma, Amie, Patti, Bill and Teri.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Hand-up on the FIW at GIAnA | nEI crossing.

Thanks Emma & Amie for putting CCR in my ear all morning. And thank you waseeley for the detailed review.

WO: started Corola at ACALON, IM'ED -> DM'ED
ESPs: TORTA, INSPO | PAS, SEMANA, OEUVRE
Fav: I'll go with DENIM just for waseeley's link.

I did see the original TRON and later put hundreds of quarters into the arcade game.

Enjoyed reading y'all between meetings.

Cheers, -T

waseeley said...

Thanx Jinx!

Big Easy said...

The puzzle was easy except 1A & 3D. Never heard of TORTA and PAT and its reverse-TAP- didn't click at firs. BAD MOON RISING and the other three down fills but the only thing I could figure out related to it was a bad spelling of MOON. FASHION MODELS was a guess; didn't know the two women.

unknowns today filled by perps-TRON, SIRI, RARE, SEMANA, OEUVRE, AMALIE, ADELE, INSPO & 'mood board'. Never heard of OEUVRE, TORTA, SEMANA, or INSPO. RoseE hadn't either.

I've never been locked out my own hotel room without any digital key working but I stay at a particular Hampton Inn and one time my key would work-once. It didn't work the 2nd time but DW's did. I told her to stay in the room while a got another key from the front desk (that would make her key invalid). That key worked ONCE. The third time the both worked for the next two days.

Wendybird said...

We set up an automatic monthly contribution to No Kid Hungry. Such an important endeavor.

Lucina said...

My sisters (all 4 of us) had a nightmarish experience in Myrtle Beach one year. We had been out all day and inadvertently left our hotel key inside the room! It was close to midnight when we returned and all the hotel personnel were gone! We made numerous phone calls to no avail; finally, frustrated, tired and sleepy we sat in the hallway and fell asleep there until some workers came by in the morning. That is probably the worst experience we had in all of our many travels.

Jayce said...

Picard, waseeley, and others, thank you for the excellent information.

Parsan said...

Bill and Teri - I’m having a problem entering my credit card. . It won’t take all the numbers.

Parsan said...

Oh, sorry, I figured it out. I am so bad at the computer!

CanadianEh! said...

Terrific Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Emma and Amie, and waseeley and Teri.
I FIRed in good tim, went back to find the MOONs (what no circles LOL!), but thought a little MEH because they were scrambled (OK, BAD) and not going straight up.

Several inkblots to change IM to DMED, Less to MERE, Kiss to BUSS.
I wanted a Toyota Corolla (hi AnonT) but AVALON fit the spot.

I will take a CSO with that Canadian tuxedo fabric. Yes, I have one.
Parson, where was that Canadian hotel so I can avoid it!
Favourite was the clue for RHYME.

Wishing you all a good evening.

Anonymous said...

Even without getting the moon theme, those big long fills came naturally — making today’s work a SMOOTH cruise — although I’d never have gotten INSPO without the perps.

Although I could never hang ten while surfing (could only hang 5 doing the “Paul Strauch Crouch”; any old longboarders on here will know what that is), the first band I played in was a surf-music group, and we used REVERB a lot (“Wipeout”, “Pipeline” and more). Classic surf-music sound!

Remember ROTFL from last week? Bill/waseeley, you had me doing it after reading the history of the Canadian Tuxedo!

Also, thanks for the clip from “TRON” — it brought back fond memories; back in my shootin’ days, I was the cameraman for the opening scene in that trailer, the dolly shot and pan-up to the Encom 511. First time I got to shoot with a Panavision Gold camera system, an amazing piece of equipment of the ERA.

====> Darren / L.A.