google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Monday May 6, 2024 Patti Varol

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May 6, 2024

Monday May 6, 2024 Patti Varol

  

Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here. Today's theme is:  

Editor and constructor Patti Varol treats us to one of her own creations. I am always impressed with Patti's gridwork and today is no exception. She gives us five themed clues, three of which are grid-spanners. 

17 Across. Dr. Seuss work featuring an elephant who declares, "A person's a person no matter how small": HORTON HEARS A WHO.  

23 Across. Skeptical reply to an assertion: BASED ON WHAT?.

39 Across. Very remote place: MIDDLE OF NOWHERE.

50 Across. "Should I stop pouring?": JUST SAY WHEN.

61 Across. "My motives have to remain a secret": I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY.

WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY are sometimes called the Five Ws of report writing. Patti has identified their placement at the ends of in-the-language phrases. The first one is my favorite because the character meaning of WHO is furthest from its interrogative pronoun usage.
It helped that Horton is the only elephant I know of in the Dr. Seuss universe.

When a 15X15 grid is divided up by five, long, themed answers, it will inevitably have some less-than-first-choice fill that is difficult to get around. Patti dealt with that by using familiar clueing in just the right places to help keep things at a Monday level. Well done! 

Why not take a closer look?

Across:
1. The "O" of EGOT: OSCAR.  "EGOT" is an acronym for the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.
Also...OSCAR is the name of the cat introduced in Season 4 of All Creatures Great and Small. I know we have some fans here on The Corner (including me!) I hope they will enjoy this 1:25 min. video.  

6. Pulitzer winner Jennifer: EGAN.  Here is Jennifer, receiving her prize in 2011 for her novel, A Visit From The Goon Squad.  more about this award
I have not read any of her books
but I knew her name from my volunteer work at my local library.

10. Some primates: APES.

14. Frighten: SCARE.  The movie Planet of the 10As SCAREs me!

15. Mouse catcher: TRAP.  
Remember this game?

16. See 4-Down: DECO.     and     4 Down. With 16-Across, style of L.A.'s Griffith Observatory: ART.  
more on art deco

20. IM pioneer: AOL.  Instant Messaging and America Online

21. Single: ONE.

22. Maker of EcoTank Supertank printers: EPSON.  "Printer" narrowed down my guesses.

28. "That ship __ sailed": HAS.  Use this idiom when you want to say that it is now too late to do something, an opportunity has been lost.  
I know I've used this one before, but it's so funny!

29. Harrison Ford's "Star Wars" role: HAN SOLO.  He appeared in six Star Wars movies.  wookieepedia
Confession:  For too long, I though his name was Hanz Olo.

33. More slippery, as a winter sidewalk: ICIER.  

36. Spring shape: COIL.  
It's a slinky on a treadmill!
38. Pea holder: POD.

43. Chowed down: ATE.

44. Fashion's Spade: KATE.  This is her website. She is mostly know for handbags, shoes, and jewelry.

45. Tries to avoid being seen: HIDES.

46. Tampers (with): MEDDLES.

49. Ryan of rom-coms: MEG.  
a gimme for us rom-com fans
55. Dads: PAPAS.    

58. Stately tree: ELM.  

59. "Blue Bloods" actor Cariou: LEN.  I have never watched this show so the crossing with 53 Down was a WAG for me.
Len Cariou was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on Sept. 30, 1939.

66. Math course with many functions, for short: TRIG.  In TRIGonometry, students explore the ratios between sides of right triangles -- sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant, and cosecant.

67. Word after "all the" or "just the": SAME.  Nice clue!  

68. Geek Squad clients: USERS.  Think "computers".

69. Long sandwich: HERO.  The longest sandwich was close to  a half a mile long (735 meters) and was built in Beirut, Lebanon in 2011.
Have I mentioned I love sandwiches?

70. Say the rosary, e.g.: PRAY.  
Bon Jovi released Livin' On A Prayer in 1986.
Jon met his DW when they were in high school. 

71. Magazine edition: ISSUE.  


What about the Down clues?

Down:
1. Federal org. that approves protective gear: OSHA.  

2. Shaggy's pal, informally: SCOOB.  

3. Celebrity chef Hall: CARLA.  I know Carla from Top Chef. She was also on The Chew from 2011 to 2018. Here she is:  

5. __ Speedwagon: REO.  Time for another big hair music break!  
REO Speedwagon released Keep On Loving You in 1980.
(They still had telephones with cords shaped like a 36-A in 1980.)

6. Prefix with "musicology": ETHNO-.  Ethnomusicology is the study of music in its social and cultural contexts.  more

7. Color of a correctly placed letter in Wordle: GREEN.  What a welcomed clue for all the Wordlists on The Corner!

8. Small battery size: AAA.  
What happened to B?
What happened to A?
Why do more As make it smaller?

9. "Weekend Edition" airer: NPR.

10. Learns to fit in: ADAPTS.

11. Church seats: PEWS.

12. Sound that bounces back: ECHO.  

13. In a few minutes: SOON.

18. Dozes (off): NODS.

19. Actor Astin: SEAN.  He played Mikey in The Goonies and 
Sam in The Lord of the Rings.  IMDb link

24. Leave fur on the sofa, maybe: SHED.  

25. __ Grey tea: EARL.  DH drinks this. I prefer the herbals.

26. Kvetch: WHINE.  The Yiddish word kvetshn (literally, to squeeze or pinch) comes from Middle High German. When used as a verb, kvetch means to complain habitually. As a noun, it is a habitual complainer.  
waseeley, are you and Teri still watching Northern Exposure (1990-1995)?
I am almost finished with Season 4. Joel immediately came to mind.

27. Saintly glow: HALO.  HALO lesson
Benozzo Gozzoli's Angels in Adoration (detail) (1459-1460)
Gozzoli used HALOs as a sort of speech bubble.
30. Opinion column: OP-ED.

31. Traditional tales: LORE.  Folklore and fairy tales can be found in the 398 section of the Dewey decimal system.

32. Poetic tributes: ODES.

33. Muslim leader: IMAM.

34. Give credit to: CITE.

35. Carded, briefly: ID-ED.

36. Sail (through): COAST.  To coast is to move easily without using power. I think of COASTing down a hill on my bicycle.
The Coasters released Poison Ivy in 1959.
Talk about double entendre!
(Added note:  Imagine my surprise when I read Husker Gary's blog last Saturday and saw that he had quoted this song!)

37. Many times o'er: OFT.  The first known use of OFT was before the 12th century. "Often" became commonly used in the 16th century.

40. Barely gets (by): EKES.

41. "Glad that's over!": WHEW.  A CSO to this month's graduates.

42. __ and mighty: HIGH.

47. "__ Unchained": Tarantino film: DJANGO.  The D is silent.  IMDb link

48. Unbridled desire: LUST.

49. "Good gravy!": MY MY.  
The Simpsons (11 seconds)
"It's just brown and water."

51. Alabama home of the National Voting Rights Museum: SELMA.  It is part of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

52. Bowling venue: ALLEY.  Bowling lanes on a Monday bring up fond memories.

53. Cary of "The Princess Bride": ELWES.  You might be hoping I will insert a 3:14 min. scene from The Princess Bride with Westly (Cary Elwes) and Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright). "As yooouuu wiiiiiiishhhhh...."  

54. Jawaharlal who was the longest-serving prime minister of India: NEHRU.  (1889-1964) He was also the first prime minister of an independent India (1947-1964). Some might better know him as Indira Gandhi's father or as the wearer of an eponymous jacket.

55. White part of an orange: PITH.  
56. Vineyard measure: ACRE.

57. Au __: nanny: PAIR.  
"Mom and dad have to migrate now, so we're leaving you with the au pair".

60. Wall St. index: NYSE.  "Street" is abbreviated, so is New York Stock Exchange.

62. Cook's meas.: TSP.  "Measurement" is abbreviated, so is TeaSPoon.

63. Corn shucker's unit: EAR.  
64. Yes, in French: OUI.  

65. Letters on the starship Enterprise: USS.  This is a Star Trek reference. Depending on whom you ask, USS has alternately stood for "United Space Ship", "United States Ship", and "United Star Ship". It also carries the letters NCC. Perhaps that foiled true fans?

Also, back on Earth, the USS Enterprise is a decommissioned aircraft carrier. In this case, USS definitely means United States Ship. In 1958 she was the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier. She currently sits at a pier in Newport News, VA.  

When can you see the grid? Right now! 
Where can posters leave comments?  Please comment below.
Who wants to join in?

40 comments:

Subgenius said...

I would say that the puzzle our esteemed editor gave us had a little more “crunch” than the usual Monday puzzle. On the whole, though, it was another Monday “walk in the park.” FIR, so I’m happy.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Yay, d-o saw the theme. One small nit: if you're color-challenged, you'll set Wordle to "High-Contrast" and the correct letters will appear RED, not GREEN. I've never seen The Princess Bride, so I remember Cary ELWES as the insufferable tornado chaser (with the horrible accent) in Spielberg's Twister. Boomer would've taken exception with the bowling ALLEY. Nicely done, Patti. Enjoyed your expo, sumdaze, especially the Trojan horse.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Really? There is more than one type of battery?

Jinx in Norfolk said...

FIR, but erased peel for PITH.

Today is:
MELANOMA MONDAY (the dermatologist usually freezes something off my skin during nearly every annual visit)
NATIONAL NURSES DAY (President Ronald Reagan signed the National Recognition Day for Nurses designation on May 6, 1982)
NATIONAL CREPE SUZETTE DAY (invented when a chef burned the sauce for the crepes he was serving to Prince Edward of Wales and his guest named Suzette.)
NATIONAL BEVERAGE DAY (My favorite drinking song is One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer, recorded by Amos Milburn in 1953. Never heard the original, but here’s George Thorogood’s version)

I actually marked all the long answers so I could get the theme, then forgot to come back after I finished the fill.

The Eagles' fantastic I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY was a huge hit back in the day. In this version, they make it appear that they just showed up for work one day, chatted and noodled around on their instruments for a little while, then played the song in one take. I'm sure that's not how it happened, but it is still a beautiful version of a beautiful song.

CITE can be great or awful. I have to CITE Boomer for teaching me that bowling establishments are "lanes," not ALLEYs. Or, the officer decided to CITE me for going 90 in a 55.

Although it sticks in my craw, I must say thanks to Patti for the fun Monday challenge. And, as expected, sumdaze provided tons of chuckles in her tour. BTW, youngin' - my family had a portable radio that used B batteries. This old radio used vacuum tubes, and needed the big ol' battery to provide 90 (IIRC) volts to the plates of the tubes. (Vacuum tubes consisted of filaments (aka cathodes,) plates, and (except for diodes) one or more grids.)

KS said...

FIR. Got the theme early after "what" filled in, and that helped with the other three long answers which I just threw down.
There were a few too many proper names (Carla, Egan, Elwes, for example) for my liking, and for a Monday puzzle. But I finished so I'm pleased.

Anonymous said...

Took 3:58 today for me to answer the questions.

I knew today's actress (Meg), but I didn't know pith, Carla, Len, & Egan.

Seemed like a lot of proper names for a Monday: Carla, Len, Egan, Elwes, Earl, Sean, Kate, Meg, Han Solo, Django, Scoob, Nehru, Epson, etc. I guess that's the trade-off for working in the 5 themed answers today.

If SubG is happy, and KS is pleased, then I'm ok with it.

Anonymous said...

Theme was doable but as usual names threw me. New word for me the Yiddish word kvetch.

Tehachapi Ken said...

Well, gang, we've got the real McCoy today. Our very own editor, Patti Varol, has put together a clever theme puzzle starring the five W's. And three of the five are grid-spanners!

There were perhaps too many proper names for my taste, but Patti was careful to avoid any Natick logjams. For instance, I abandon ship when it comes to, say, fashion or celebrity chefdom, but in both of these cases Patti provided nearby rescue perps.

This was a fun start to the week with an entertaining Monday-appropriate puzzle by our editor.

inanehiker said...

Fun day Monday puzzle to sail through.

I like KATE Spade's purses - She sold her company to Neiman Marcus, who then sold it to Liz Claiborne's group a number of years ago. Unfortunately, she died by suicide in 2018- she was originally a Kansas City native - so she is well known there.

LEN Cariou is a gifted actor - best known recently from "Blue Bloods" which I haven't watched except when visiting my mom as she watches it faithfully on Friday nights. I know him from being the OG Sweeney Todd on Broadway for which he won a Tony, also original cast of "A Little Night Music" and "Applause"

Thanks SD for the amusing blog and Patti for the puzzle!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

I've always enjoyed Patti's puzzles and I was not disappointed with this fun offering. It only took the WHO and the WHAT to see the theme, but it was fun to see how each theme "question" would be parsed. I don't object to proper names if they are well-known or easy to discern, but I understand that you can't please everyone. The solve was smooth, with no w/os and no unknowns and a just-right Monday vibe. There was also a mini theme with Halo, Pray, Pews, and Iman, and, of course, a reminder of our dear Boomer.

Thanks, Patti, for wearing two hats today, both successfully and thanks, sumdaze, for a top notch summary with oodles of information, music, and laughs. As usual, the cartoons were all hilarious but two of my favorites were Noah's Ark and the Trojan Horse. The best, though, was the "Popped" Corn which made me roar with laughter. (I'm easily amused! 🤣) The best of the best, though, was the ACGAS video which brightened my day, not only because of the adorable Oscar, but because it just reminded me of how much I love that show and those indelible characters! I also appreciated the subsequent equal-time nod with the cute canine photo! Thanks for all the warm fuzzies!

FLN

Lucina, I remember the early years on the blog when your comment usually began, Hola! and, many times, was followed by a Sashay or two!

Have a great day.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...



Except for “LA Griffith Observatory” “Supertank printers” and “Jennifer EGAN” a fair fun Monday Two long gettable theme answers asking the musical 4 W’s questions. Didn’t know 🍊 PITH.

Alabama has a National Voting Rights Museum (for or against?)

“Isn’t OUI yes in French?” …. SI ! (affirmative answer to a negatively asked question, en français)

There are PAPAS that try to remove corn husks but mother shuckers do a better job 🌽

IM pioneer? Not a CSO to IM ☘️

By ADAPTing and sucking in my gut I “learned to fit in” my suit pants 🥵

1961 The Shirelles tune: “Baby, ___”… ISSUE
Assassinated gangland style ….. OFT
”Can’t find your slippery, insensitive sister? Wait, think” ____ ….ICIER
“Kvetch” about a kosher red Jewish ____ WHINE
Electrical power is ____….BASED ON WHAT

Having 🐈aract surgery on OD on Wednesday. Will “give credit to” my oftham, optham, ophlam, … er…eye doctor… for improved CITE
🤓

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Patti pulled E_WEN/_EN out of her bag of obscurities. Renee guessed correcly, I did not. Tehachapi Ken said it was not a natick and ironically I chose his “K”
Former KC Chiefs quarterback LEN Dawson just wasn’t in the cards.
-EGAN and CARLA had all the necessary help
-Woman WHO was walking on ice had to wonder WHY she chose that footwear WHEN she knew WHAT the conditions were WHERE she was going.
-The sun will never rise on a day my DW pays what KATE Spade wants for a purse, er, handbag
-We called a former colleague Eyeore because of all his kvetching
-I always preferred COASTER brakes to hand brakes

Monkey said...

Well! I saw all the Ws, but DNF. I couldn’t figure out HORTON HEARS A WHO since I was stuck on RE _ , _T_NO . in retrospect it now looks easy enough to fill.

Otherwise smooth CW, unknown names like KAFE and ELWES showed up easily.

Ray-O @ 9:08. You get an A in French today.

Sumdaze regaled us again with fun recap.

Tehachapi Ken said...

Jinx gave us an agreeable account of the Eagles' composition of "I Can't Tell You Why." I would also like to talk about one of the Eagles a little bit.

My career has been in education, mostly as high school principal. For a couple years one of my students was the son of Don Felder of the Eagles. As a high school administrator, I found that my parents ran the gamut. Don Felder was at the top end of the stratum--supportive, friendly, understanding, helpful, and going well beyond what we expected from parents.
Whenever I hear the Eagles, or about them, it's hard not to have kind feelings‐-thanks to Don.

RosE said...

Good Morning! Thanks, Patti, double duty today! And a fine puzzle it was.

One WO. I started to put in the JO for John Astin, then thought twice, verified and went with his son, SEAN.
ESP for DJANGO, EGAN and ELWES, the perps were kind.

Thanks, sumdaze, for a plentitude of tunes, toons, clips and your fun commentary.

CrossEyedDave said...

An enjoyable monday distraction, thanks for the interesting write up!

There are A batteries, it's an in between size I have seen in some garage door opener remotes. Usually with an unusual voltage rating, so there is not a lot of call for them. B batteries go way back...

Speaking of CSO comics, Crabgrass (it replaced Dilbert) has gotten better now that the characters are more familiar. The 2 boys recently underwent a storyline where a substitute teacher gave them an idol that made them switch bodies. (Ala freaky Friday) it was a fun romp that they concluded today. I don't know why, but todays comic was the first that made me think of Husker Gary! maybe it was the job description... so HG, know any Goblins?

Oh, and an aside to Patti Varol!

unclefred said...

Terrific CW, very doable, in spite of all the names. As usual, I didn't see the theme, and thought it was themeless, but then again, I didn't search. Anyway, thanx PV, very enjoyable CW. I continue to be amazed at how much faster it is to FIR when I do the CW online, instead of on paper. Thanx too to Sumdaze for the fun write-up. I'm gonna hafta come back later for a more thorough reading of the fine write-up, right now gotta run.

Charlie Echo said...

Easy, breezy Monday. A few too many names, but fair perps. I think I spent more time on Sumdazes recap than on the puzzle! Loved the tardy dinosaurs and the wooden horse, and of course, "the Coasters are the Mosters". Don't forget the WWII USS Enterprise...one of the most famous ships in Navy history, sadly sold for scrap.

sumdaze said...

Thanks for all your comments!
IM@8:44. Thanks for mentioning the ACGAS video. It was fun getting the inside gouge from the cast.
H-Gary@9:20. "Women WHO...." Well done!
CED@10:12. "2-4 yrs" LOL!

Lucina said...

Hola!

Not so easy for a Monday but entirely doable. Thank you, Patti Varol and sumdaze for the walk down the lane. My computer does not like VAROL for some reason. Now in all caps it does.

HORTON HEARS A WHO is one of many other books I read to my daughter and granddaughters when they were toddlers. They are all now avid readers and I'm happy about that.

TRIG just brings back memories of how I suffered through that class.

Time to go. Have a wonderful day, everyone!

NaomiZ said...

Many thanks to Patti for the WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN and WHY of it all! I took a bit of a WAG in space 59 where ELWES crossed LEN, but otherwise, perps were fair. Marvelous Monday! Sumdaze, thanks for the enjoyable review.

Acesaroundagain said...

No problems. I wonder if Patti changes any of her own clues, heh, heh.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-CED, that cartoon arc must be a hoot. I’m going to go check it out.
-In my defense, I love my job and see the same kids in that small school (60 kids/class) year after year.
-I’m honored that so many of them invite me to their graduation parties. BTW, what is the record for most sheet cake eaten in May?

Husker Gary said...

Also, I had four of five green letters in today’s Wordle and still got it wrong. It’s amazing how many letters could have worked in that fourth slot.

Anonymous said...

Little crunchy for Monday. Sumdaze, Bluebloods has been the best show on TV for years.

waseeley said...

Thank you Patti and thank you Patti. I'm glad to see that you and the editor agreed on all the clever clues!

And thank you sumdaze for an unQUESTIONably fine review. And to answer your QUESTION re: Northern Exposure -- we're still sipping it slowly from time to time. Good wine takes time.

Favs: Believe me, you've only got time for one (make sure you don't skip the second link -- it might all fall apart) ...

15A TRAP. Yes I do remember Mouse Trap, a classic "Rube Goldberg", named for the great cartoonist. He has spawned a whole cottage industry of contests to build the most obfuscated one. For some reason Rube Goldbergs have always reminded me of the IT Industry (it just seems to get more and more obfuscated ).

Cheers,
Bill

Parsan said...

Many are offering HIGH praise to Patti and sumdaze for this enjoyable outing and I ECHO all of their postings.

HORTON HEARS A WHO was the favorite book of someone I know WHO read and read WHEN she was very young. Older now, she spends a lot of time taking selfies instead, and that makes me sad.

I want to ask a question that many of you may have long known the answer. Does Patti also construct a smaller puzzle that appears daily in my newspaper? (Yes, old school). That puzzle used to be too simple to enjoy but has become a little harder, more literate and thoughtful. For sometime now I have noticed the same words or a word appearing in both puzzles on the same day, always with different clues. `Today, HALO and OPT were in both puzzles and last week on Tuesday the word was “fuse” and on Wednesday it was “sass”. I know these are commonly used words but the frequency of duplication seems to beat the law of averages.

Happy day, all!

Anonymous said...

Very enjoyable puzzle except for three proper names: Kate Spade, Len Cariou and Cary Elwes. Oh and Yiddish word.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

CED, the first time I heard that joke you dedicated to Patti it was about a jigsaw puzzle, and it was a blonde joke.

Charlie Echo, there was just a piece (maybe on our local TV station) about CVN 65. Seems that they don't know what to do with her. With a sub, they can just chop it up, then send off the reactor chunk for long-term secure storage. The Enterprise has 8 reactors, and can't be cut into pieces as readily as a sub. Can't just pull out the reactors and make it into a museum / tourist trap. Can't tow her out to sea and sink her for target practice. Current thought is that they will probably hire private contractors to deconstruct it and remove the reactors for storage, but not anytime soon. At an original cost of about $450 million, Enterprise cost less to build than it will cost to dismantle.

The new Enterprise (CVN 80) is expected to be operational in about 5 years, and CVN 65 will probably still be afloat even then. After all, it only costs taxpayers $10 million per year to keep her in storage.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Parsan, I work the Sheffer (King Features) puzzle too, and wonder about the identical clues and answers. I wish they would publish the constructor's name. I wonder of they would have to pay more if they did so. Same for the Penny Press daily puzzle.

I always wondered whether Rich had Patti edit his constructions. I always found it helpful to have a peer review anything I have written. Regardless of how many times I proof my own work, gremlins seem to creep in.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

Oy! Names; I kvetch...

Thanks Patti for the 5 Ws puzzle. Thank you sumdaze for a wonderful expo.

WO: Pulp -> PITH
ESPs: [see: Names]
Fav: MEDDLES - SCOOB and his pals were always the "meddling kids" who solved the mystery ;-)

My HP 28S calculator takes N batteries.

Lucina - It was Algebra, TRIG, & Calc where I shined. Before then I was a C student. Math made so much more sense than any other class. #Nerd

HG - No SH**! After two guesses Worlde was whac-a-mole on the fourth GREEN. I finally got it on the 6th try.
//for the record, I had a magic teacher like you in 7th grade. He'd let me & buddy out of class to play, er, program the Apple ][es in the teacher's lounge. He saw us for what we were good at. He spelled his name on the chalkboard CA TA LA NO :-)

Waseeley - IT's turtles all the way down. The more abstracted we become form the machine, the worse security gets.

I gotta tend to work. Y'all have a great Monday.

Cheers, -T

desper-otto said...

Dash-T: "I gotta tend to work." Is that an abbreviated version of "I've got to pretend to work?"

Anonymous T said...

@D-O: hush, you'll ruin my gig ;-)

NaomiZ said...

Waseely @ 12:11, thank you for the link to "the most obfuscated one."
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w ]
I have watched a lot of domino / marble run videos in my time, but never one so grand and chaotic.

sumdaze said...

-T@1:13. Connecting SCOOB and "those MEDDLE-ing kids" is brilliant! I wish I would have thought of that!

CanadianEh! said...

Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Patti and sumdaze.
I accidentally worked the Sheffer CW (hi Jinx) in my newspaper and thought we had a very easy Monday.
Then I worked this one is almost the same time. Wow, Patti gave us a break today.
(I needed one after my kvetching yesterday.)
I saw the 5W theme early and filled in the last two.

I didn’t know CARLA, but I did know KATE and LEN. MEG took a minute to realize we needed the first name. .Gosling wouldn’t fit.

Ray-o - I hope your cataract surgery goes well on Wednesday. When does OS have a turn?
HuskerG- re that Wordle today: my usual first guess gave me all but the second and fourth letters correct. It took until my fourth guess to get the fourth letter correct, and then one more guess for the second letter. Almost a WHEW!

Wishing you all a great day.

Jayce said...

I enjoyed this puzzle and appreciated the theme construction. I've been shopping tank type inkjet printers, so I knew EPSON right away.

We've had discussions in this forum about indexes such as the Dow-Jones Industrial average (DJIA) or the S&P 500 not being markets. Today we have a stock market, the NYSE, clued as an index.

Loved your write-up, sumdaze. Thank you.

In the old days of vacuum tube radios, the battery that powered the filament (that part in the tube that gets red hot) was called the "A" battery. The (relatively) high-voltage battery that powered the tube's "plate" was called the "B" battery. I once built a radio receiver in which the "A" battery was the same 1.5-volt "D"-sized battery used in flashlights and the "B" battery was 22.5 volts. That "B" battery looked a lot like today's 9-volt batteries. Perhaps that is why the letters A and B were avoided when designating battery physical size, especially since "D" size was already specified. Later, the smaller batteries were called "C" sized, and then, going smaller yet, the letters "B" and "A" were skipped, leaving "AA" as the designation for batteries physically smaller than "C" size, and "AAA" for those that were even smaller in size.

Good reading you all.

Jinx in Norfolk said...

Jace, you've jogged my memory (which is the most exercise I've had in a while.) Seems like when I was active in amateur radio (circa 1963,) the voltages that supplied the plates was called B (or B+) even through it came from the power supply circuitry, which ran from the AC main. Probably a carryover from the battery days.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Thanks, sumdaze. I truly enjoyed the mouth-to-mouth cartoon (among others).

Anonymous said...

Minor point perhaps but the color of a correct letter in Wordle is white. The background is green (or red).