Oh! Oh!
Good Morning, Cruciverbalists. Malodorous Manatee here with a puzzle by Gunther Toody. Oh! Oh! Wait a minute. That's wrong on a couple of counts. First, isn't today scheduled to be Chairman Moe's day? Well, yes but we've traded days to accommodate some scheduling issues and Moe will be back in a couple of weeks. Second, our friend from "Car 54 Where Are You?", Joe E. Ross, did not construct today's puzzle. That was done by Robin Stears. To quote Chairman Moe (October 7, 2022):
"Robin is no stranger to either this blog or blogger; (see my Jan 1, 2021 recap) at last count she must have at least ___ puzzles (fill-in-the-blank, someone!) published at the LAT, and perhaps 1,000+ puzzles published in total. Maybe she will stop by today and help me with my math!"
At four places in the grid Robin has added the letter O to common words and phrases in order to create clever answers to the clues. Three of the four are riffs on entertainment staples. The fourth is a bit of an odd duck and/or, perhaps given the clue, a rubber ducky.
Here are the spots when the gimmick has been employed:
17 Across: Excellent rendition of a Belafonte hit?: ONE FINE DAY O. Harry Belfonte's "Banana Boat Song" was a big hit in the early 1950's. The "hook" was "Day O, Day-ay-ay O, Daylight come and me wan' go home." The clue also gives a nod to the song by Carole King and Gerry Goffin (recorded by the Chiffons). Here is ONE FINE DAY O :
27 Across: Help a former first lady feel better?: NURSE JACKIE O. "Nurse Jackie", as we have come to know her more recently, is the main character of a Showtime dramedy series. The clever reference is Jackie Kennedy Onassis who, in this case, is being nursed back to health. Here, she gives a tour of the White House.
59 Across: Give a cool cat a thorough bath?: SCRUB DADDY O. Scrub Daddy is a brand of sponges. Are you a cool cat? Can you dig it, DADDY-O ?
Across:
1. Insect-preserving resin: AMBER. We all learned about this from "Jurassic Park".
6. Kick in or kick off: START. Are we waiting for the drugs to kick in? Is the election season about to kick off?
11. Crunch targets: ABS. Not as in 48 Across. A workout reference.
14. Coupe de __: classic Cadillac: VILLE. Ah, tail fins.
15. Airport structure: TOWER. Control TOWER.
16. Shot chaser?: PUT. One of these type of clues. PUT follows shot in track and field.
21. Shabby: SEEDY. In the 1970's a SEEDY joint was something else. My friend knows just who he can trust in the SEEDY part of town to get him safe candy and sweets. He has treat smarts.
22. Novelist Louise who created the fictional police inspector Armand Gamache: PENNY. Thanks, perps.
24. Removed from power: DEPOSED. Also, a legal term.26. Bearing: MIEN. I before E except after C.
32. Red-hatted figure in Travelocity ads: GNOME.
35. Group before millennials: XERS.
36. Catch: NAB.
38. Push (for): LOBBY. As in K Street.
40. In this case: HERE. A bit obtuse but, hey, it's Friday so HERE it makes sense.
41. "Bravo, mi amigo!": OLE. A review Spanish lesson.
42. Squabble: TIFF.
48. Crunch's rank: CAPN.
55. As a soloist: ALONE.
57. Cut (off): LOP. Did you hear about the guy that had his ears LOPped off? He didn't either.
58. Pursue romantically: WOO. You know, owls never go on a date if it's raining. It's too wet to woo.
62. Beseech: ASK. If you are offended by my dad jokes, please don’t get mad and ask me to go to the artificial excavation filled with water. I mean well.
65. "You got it": YES.
66. Weapon in a scabbard: SABER.
67. Chucks: HURLS. As in to throw or to toss. Not to be confused with upchucks which could also be HURLS.
Down:
4. Rivendell resident: ELF. A Lord Of The Rings reference.
5. Second edition: REISSUE.
9. Lightsaber-wielding heroine: REY. A "Stars Wars" reference.
10. Torrid Zone region: TROPICS.
11. Italian mountain range: APENNINES.
12. Waste: BURN. As in BURNing through money, I suppose.
13. "Don't leave!": STAY.
18. Poetic contraction: NE'ER. NEvER
23. Cry from one atop a chair: EEK. As opposed to EKE.
39. Clocked out: OFF.
40. Piece of academic regalia: HOOD.
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53. Influence: SWAY.
61. Gru's long-lost twin brother in "Despicable Me 3": DRU.
Thru
__________________________________________
I had a little trouble spelling “Apennines” correctly, and “Shoji” was gotten through ESP. On the other hand, the gimmick was clear from the first themed fill, so I had that going for me, as Jinx would say. In the long run, I would say this Friday puzzle wasn’t as difficult as I expected. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteO, I get it. PARTY OFFI__O was particularly hard to parse, but that next letter had to be a V(END). Like Subgenius, d-o learned that he couldn't spell APENNINES -- one P, double Ns. EX BFF was just cruel. But it all came together, so I'd rate this a worthy Friday offering from Robin. Very punny, Mal-Man. (I agree, itself isn't a very funny word.)
XERS: A few of us are too old to be Boomers, let alone XERS.
TYPISTS: After getting kicked out of Biology, d-o took a year of Secretarial Typing, the only other class offered at that hour for sophomores. I've never regretted it.
"The First Family": Vaughn Meader had a successful career going, and then November 22nd happened. One of his cutest lines: "Vote for the Kennedy of your choice, but vote."
FIR, but erased resin (yes, it was part of the clue - I blame decaf) for AMBER, seller for SHIPPER, spat for TIFF, scrim for SHOJI, sword for SABER (sorry, C EH, SABre wouldn't work) and open for LION.
ReplyDelete"Gala for the cops" made me think of the lyrics from For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield (AKA Neil Young and Stephen Stills other band)
What a field day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singin' songs and a-carryin' signs
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side"
One Fine Day was also a movie featuring Rosemary Clooney's nephew.
Thanks to Robin for the fun puzzle. I really needed that after yesterday's offering that wasn't to my taste. And thanks to our MalMan for the fine review. I also noticed the ON ME/TREAT connection.
Took 9:13 today for me to finish-o.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea for the Italian mountain range or the Japanese room divider.
I didn't know today's writer (Penny, or as Sheldon would knock, "Penny. Penny. Penny."), nor did I know the painter. So, that upper-right section took the longest, especially the intersection of Penny and Ape 'N Nines.
What? That's how I parsed it.
The "split personality: exbff" is too cutesy for my taste. Shut put was good though.
Theme seemed evident from "one fine dayo".
Good morning all. I noticed the added 'O' at DAY-O but it took a little while to realize what was happening. It was filled before ONE FINE. Duh! PARTY OF FIVE-O took a while to figure out.
ReplyDeleteSCRUB DADDY and Scrub Mommy- I use both. A running joke- I get them every year for Christmas presents from my son.
It was another FIW today. I missed the cross of HERE and HOOD. I guessed WERE and WOOD. The academic HOOD was unknown to this TYYPIST. I was thinking along the lines of "WERE that the case" in the hypothetical subjunctive mood.
Louise PENNY, SHOJI, HOOD, TODD Eldredge, MARY Cassatt, DRU,- "Those are new ones___ON ME"
Thought "ready to order" as ready to BE ordered, so tried meSSY before BOSSY. OTOH all I had to do was look up to see a MARY Cassatt print on my living room wall.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter gave me a SCRUB DADDY for Father's Day
Interesting puzzle today- at first I thought the answers were all going to be TV shows since I solved NURSE JACKIE O and PARTY OF FIVE-O before the other two theme answers. I put in the DAY-O but couldn't think of a TV show title that ended in DAY. And the only TV show that I remembered ending in DADDY was "Make Room for Daddy" with Danny Thomas. Once I gave that up I was able to get the other theme answers to fill.
ReplyDeleteCSO to Canadian-Eh with Canadian author Louise PENNY - if you like mysteries you've probably already read some of her mysteries mostly set in Quebec. She was originally a radio broadcaster and host for the CBC(answer we had recently) before turning to writing. She has won the Agatha Award for best mystery 5 times - I'm sure Lemonade is a fan.
Thanks MM for the blog and Robin for the puzzle
Hidey-Ho, solvers and puzzle fans! This theme was inspired by a Connections set of words that could be changed by adding an -O to the end of them. So, many thanks to the Connections team for making my job easier. :D
ReplyDeleteThis blog post was a delight, from Gunther Toody to the manatee photo -- no notes!
Also, thanks to everyone for not mentioning that the "O" in "Five-O" is actually a zero. Yes, I knew that, but PARTY OF FIVE-O made such a terrific theme entry that I decided to ignore that fact.
Fans of "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)" can hear that song in the soundtrack of the movie "Beetlejuice," in which Catherine O'Hara is an absolute gem. Link to the video, and I skipped the dinner scene to get right to the song: https://youtu.be/KBoJnHUYAv0?si=6YE_6Ze6PSVhJL_4&t=93
Until next time, cheerio!
ReplyDeleteMM, and/or CM, I count today's offering as Robin's 41st LA Times crossword since C.C. started this blogspot. I always enjoy Robin's puzzles.
A few clues led me astray and to a longer solve.
I thought the Riverdale resident was one of Archie, Jugghead, Betty or Veronica's friends. Oh. Rivendale.
Torrid Zone region? Had to be Banana Belt, amirite?
Never heard of a SCRUB DADDY sponge.
AMBER - " We all learned... from Jurrasic Park." - a blockbuster movie I've never watched.
Chucks was HURLS but I first tested yeets.
REY - learned from crosswords. - another blockbuster movie I've never watched.
APENNINES - New to me. I wouldn't have buzzed in on Jeopardy.
EX-BFF - I read an article that said Gen Alpha (born 2010 and later) find BFF and BAE to be outdated (so last year?) They use the new text-speak BFS (best friends or boy friends) instead.
Stays on the range to long? I was all over the range at the golf course. Literally.
Not a quick solve today. I was all over the place. Coffee helped. Dramatically.
And there she is!
ReplyDeleteRobin, thanks! Glad you are visiting with us today. Thanks for the inside baseball, as well as the link to Catherine O'Hara's rendition. (Yet another movie movie I've never seen.)
Thanks for stopping by to visit, R.S. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteFIR. There were a few too many proper names for my liking, but there were also perps to help solve them.
ReplyDeleteI got hung up on lobby because ex BFF just looked so wrong. Although the last to fall, I did manage in the center section.
Got the theme early and that helped a lot.
Overall, very enjoyable for a Friday presentation.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a cute theme that was obvious from the first themer. Nurse Jackie O was my favorite, but Scrub Daddy O was unfamiliar to me. The cluing and fill, with few exceptions, seemed pretty straightforward and, therefore, I had no w/os, nor were there any unknowns. A pleasant enough solve, but nowhere near the difficult, but satisfying challenges of long ago Fridays.
Thanks, Robin, and thanks, MalMan, for a fun tour and for the many chuckles along the way. You sent me to the dictionary, however, with "ginchiest", a word I have never seen or heard. (Autocorrect came up with Gin Heist!)
Have a great day.
Because of the three unknowns crossing yesterday, today's puzzle was easier. Also I caught on to the enjoyable theme early.
ReplyDeleteMM, thanks for the info and humor. I prefer calling you Marvelous Manatee.
Two bad cells due to carelessness.
My teacher's scholarship visit to Japan and my later visit as a tourist taught me shoji. I would have loved to bring one home. Too bulky. I did bring home a very large fan. In those days there were fewer plane restrictions on carry on items.
Beneath, no nit. A private ranks beneath a corporal.
Did you catch that rainbow yesterday? Spot.
I don't understand jumping on a chair and screeching, "Eek!" when you spot a mouse. They won't hurt us. I just want them out of my house. Set a trap. Call an exterminator. I tried to save a bunch of Indian corn for next year. It attracted mice. I found corn kernels stashed in many places. An exterminator found mice in the attic and eliminated them. Buying new corn every year is cheaper.
Favorites were knight mares=steed and always ready to order=bossy.
ReplyDeleteNot too CRUNCHy. The easy theme entries helped which I say in light of a FIR (not too common for me on a Friday). Never head of the Scrub Daddy product
Inkover: reprint/REISSUE
OVERCOOKS or boils over? NAB or net? Perps to the rescue
CAP’N “crunch”… maybe there hadda oughta been an abbrev. in the clue?…. “Always ready to order” in stock? nope and too long anyway….then likewise ran out of squares when I tried to close the “Japanese” screen
PUT crossed with BURN the result of 2 meh clues. EXBFF is “ex best friend forever” for “split personality”… get the “split” part (EX) but “personality” as a BFF?
“SPHINX mostly” CONSonants wouldn’t work plus the “torrid zone” wasn’t the equator…ah, LOVE using “fancy” in the British way.
Rivendell. I was thinking of the TV Archie series “Riverdale” like TTP
What about “One Fine Day” Un Bel Di from “Madama Butterfly”
When I was in University we decided to take a car instead of the more efficient train (46 min) across the APENNINES from Bologna to Florence (55 miles) in a toy sized ancient Fiat 500. My buddy drove. Two choices, the autostrada (1 hr) or an old, section of the 185 BC Roman Via Flaminia Militaris single lane road called La Futa (part of the WWII “Gothic Line”) with multiple switchbacks up into and over the mountains which we opted for. The view was magnificent and towns picturesque but my first and only bout of severe car sickness put a damper on the whole adventure 🤢
Small edible pigeon…. SQUABBLE
Refused to continue sitting for the artist….. DEPOSED
Oft times enclosed in a jewel
case… SEEDY
When I was in skool June 21 was the first day of summer and in fact all the season first days were on the 21st. Guess it ain’t so.
Thanks Ms. Robin for stopping by. Ignore anything remotely negative sounding I said about the puzzle 🫣 What was I thinking?
NeatO theme this morning. A little crunchy, but doable with perps, for instance for SHOJI.
ReplyDeleteNow, that doesn’t mean I finished it right, i made a silly mistake abbreviating captain, CAPt, therefore I missed the LION, had no idea how to refer to the generation ( I get them all confused anyway) and had no notion of EXBFF, so the center was a little messy.
Regardless, I had fun with it, and enjoyed MM’s recap.
I’ve read all of Armand Gamache mysteries.
Musings
ReplyDelete-Yesterday’s natick-laden offering is offset by this wonderful puzzle! Even obscurities had some great off ramps.
-Vaughn Meader’s imitation of the Kennedy’s was a huge phenomenon in my H.S. years
-There’s a better TV theme song than Hawaii 5-0? I don’t think so!
-While extracting DNA from a sixty-five million old mosquito is said to be impossible, the idea did give rise to an amazing film if not a t-rex.
-Speaking of dinosaurs, cars like that de VIILLE are a good reason to watch Perry Mason reruns
-A Russian shot-putter invented the spin (not glide) method shown in MM’s fun write-up in 1972
--Both our daughters are GEN-Xers. The one most like me sent me this for Father’s Day
-Finish this Cool Hand Luke quote: What we have HERE…
-Myth about Lee surrendering his SABER at Appomattox: A historian said, “Lee never offered it and Grant never requested it.”
-A golf shot hit out onto the road always inspires a chorus of On The Road Again
-Yesterday, the sun was directly over the TROPIC of Cancer at 3:50 pm CDT
-The ISOBARS have been very close together during this windy spring
-Thanks for the visit, Robin. Modern slang calls police 5 OH.
Interesting point that you raise, Ray-O. If the answer is a proper noun that happens to contain a contraction or abbreviation should it be clued likewise? I, for one, do dunno.
ReplyDeleteRobin's puzzle certainly gave me one fine DAY-O! I wound up zipping right through to a Friday FIR.
ReplyDeleteMust have been on the proper wavelength, as I had no real problems this morning. Extremely clever, and very enjoyable offering.
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFirst off, my brother from another mother - Mal Man - did me proud today with his hilarious recap of my buddy Robin Stears' puzzle. My favorite of your "dad jokes" was the "I mean well". And Robin, my favorite of your entries was the NURSE JACKIE O
Favorite video was probably the Airplane "landing" scene
desper-otto @ 5:49 => isn't your generation known as "the Silent Generation"? If I'm not mistaken, the "Greatest Generation" goes from about 1900 to 1925 (give or take) and then the Silent Generation goes from 1926 to 1945. We boomers had a shorter run ('46 to '64), and the more recent generations are running about 15 years in length
As you might suspect from my post here, I have returned from my trip. Not the most pleasant of trips as most of the time I spent there (in OH) was cleaning out my mom's studio apartment. I made several trips to Goodwill, and one of her friends from church made several trips hauling items she wanted donated there. This may sound like an exaggeration, but I could not imagine anyone cramming more "stuff" into a 500 sq ft unit than she did
Mom recently moved into a hospice private room within a long-term care facility. Her days of "independent living" are, sadly, no more. She is 95, and up until she fell and broke her hip (2021) she was one of the sharpest and youngest nonagenarians you'd ever meet. She was never able to regain any degree of ambulatory movement after the hip surgery, and the most recent accident occurred when she fell and cracked some ribs
Having spent a week+ at her residence (it's a combination of independent living, assisted living, and long-term care/nursing assistance) had a sobering effect on me. She has many wonderful friends there but can no longer socialize with them due to her being (for all intents and purposes) bedridden. And there are too few staff attendants available to always be able to move her by wheelchair to the various activities within her building. And I and my sister (her only two remaining relatives) both live well beyond driving distance; thank God for Facetime or we'd have no visual contact with her. I can now fully empathize with those of you who have had similar experiences with elderly parents
The month of May 2024 could not have ended too soon. The month began with a rear-ender car accident that totaled my vehicle and continued soon thereafter with my Mom's accident. Between dealing with all of the insurance/car replacement issues and then with Mom, I am totally spent. See you again July 5th when my next blog is scheduled; taking some healing time off ...
It took some friendly perps to get my FIR in 18:54 today as the unknowns of SHOJI, DRU, MARY (as clued), and not being all that familiar with Italian geography, APENNINES, (Alps was too short). JEB was known to me and probably most of the Corner as W’s only three lettered brother, but some Canadians may not be familiar 😂. All in all an enjoyable solve, and thank you Robin for your fine work! I agree, PARTY OF FIVE 0 was some great fill (even if 0 is a number nobody says Hawaii 5 zero). One of my favorite TV shows as a kid, and as HG stated, one of the best theme songs ever, it’s going through my head right now as I picture the whole intro.
ReplyDeleteMM ~ thanks for your illustrative expo, loved the pic of the 59 de Ville, back in the day (before the proliferation of imports) when automobiles were easily distinguished because of their style.
C-Moe ~ I can empathize with your situation, stress can take its toll. Hope you can get some well deserved rest my friend.
ReplyDeleteThank you Robin for a relatively easy Friday FIR.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you MalMan for subbing for MOE. I'd be more flattering if it weren't for all of the granddad jokes. 😁
Some Favs:
17A ONE FIND DAYO. We have fond memories of a busker on the Paris subway with a sock puppet doing Karaoke to this classic Belafonte tune belted out on his boombox. Not something I'll ever forget!
20A ICE. This one came to me right away -- Chesapeake Bay sushi!
43A BOSSY. Lucy van Pelt comes to mind.
44A PARTY OF FIVE O. Wow what a coincidence! But you'll have to wait until next Thursday to find out just what that coincidence is.
48A CAPN. CAPN Crunch came with a whistle in every box, which had just the right frequency to hack into the old analogue phone network to make long distant phone calls anywhere in the world. -T could probably explain it, if he had been born by then. 😀
28D EXBFF. We've just started watching a series on Acorn called The Detectorists about two BFF's Andy and Lance. They become EXBFF's for about an episode after Andy finds a gold coin when Lance wasn't around. Andy even swore off his metal detector, but it didn't last. It's an acquired taste.
42D TYPISTS. The only useful skill I learned in high school, which I'm practicing as you read. Maybe not.😀
60D CIA. Apparently Krypos is a real thing. Some of the seers at Langley predict that the world will end when the fourth puzzle is solved -- as early as November maybe. 🙃
Cheers,
Bill
Greetings! Slow going, and a couple of missteps until I got all the blanks filled. Challenging but good. Thanks, Robin.
ReplyDeleteFun theme. Last to fill was PARTY OF FIVE-O which helped fill in the remaining East coast blanks.
There were a bunch of AHA moments from devious clues.
I don’t like kitchen sponges, but Scrub Daddy is irresistibly cheery, the only one I will use.
I tried GEN-X before XERS filled.
New to me: SHOJI. Rivendell, but ELF perp’d. DRU. I always thought STEED was a stallion, but LIU, can be any spirited horse, male or female. APENNINES – I had everything but the “P”
Willy Nelson – one of the best concerts I ever attended. I saw him at Merriweather Post in Columbia MD ages ago. Two other headliners at the top of my list were Johnny Rivers and John Denver. Fun times….
My vote for worst misdirection clue: Split Personality. More than meh! Boo hiss!
Thanks, MalMan, your reviews are always fun and enlightening. Loved the dad jokes!
I had to work from the bottom up to grasp this puzzle firmly. I wasn’t familiar with SCRUB DADDY, and I was looking for “Daddio,” which I’ve seen more often than “Daddy-o” as the beatnik term. The theme was more acceptable than some of the fill.
ReplyDeleteA reporter colleague forever tried to insinuate cusswords into his quotes by substituting a word that became his nickname: Bleep. I should have come up with that one earlier in today’s puzzle, because it was the key to my completing the most difficult portion, the NW.
But it turned out I finished it wrong because of the “word” GLOP crossing the unknown Travelocity mascot, whose name might well have been sNOME. I had already been treading on thin ice with the clue word “chaser” for shot PUT throwing me for quite a while.
That was only a bit of a stretch. Several I did suss were far worse reaches, enough for me to want to say to the editor, as this editor often said to our Bleep, “We’re not going to publish it that way.”
“Bravo, mi amigo” was so lame that I wasn’t sure OLE was right, at first. Is a typist (I’m one) a “keyboard pro”? . . .The runnerup in that category was EX-BFF, especially as clued. . . .Is “kiddie pool filler” a convoluted clue for HOSE? How many knights’ STEEDS were mares?
I couldn’t decide whether the “in this case”/HERE entry was clever or not. The same was true of oyster bed/ICE and, again, “shot chaser.” As my mother used to say, “I got it. I just don’t want it.” Meaning, “You’re trying too hard.”
Nothing in the puzzle was as clever as MalMan’s chuck/upchuck observation, but I did like several entries, including SHOJI, MINCE, MIEN, DEPOSED, APENNINES (after eliminating Dolomites and Appenines), the aforementioned BLEEP, and VEND, a verb Ignatius P. Reilly invoked to make his weenie sales job seem less desolate.
waseeley ~ oh yes, 10th grade typing class with manual Smith Coronas with blank keys so we were forced to memorize the keyboard. Nowadays kids know how to type by age three, just not in the traditional way. Wonder if there are classes in thumb typing?
ReplyDeleteI've been way to busy all month to provide any silliness, but I couldn't resist posting when I saw this...
ReplyDeleteAlso, thru serendipity, it seems an appropriate CED response to Weseelys' "Kryptos."
FIR and enjoyed it! Only unknowns were novelist Louise PENNY and skater TODD Eldredge. Perped! Well, I also DNK the TV show Party of Five, so that gave me pause.
ReplyDeleteLoved the videos and dad jokes, Mal Man. "I mean well". Ha ha!
Chairman Moe, it is so hard to be responsible for aging parents, especially with family members spread out around the country. Wishing the best for you and yours.
Internet issues made me late to the Corner, and now work is piling up.
Many thanks to Robin, Patti, and Mal Man today.
Hand up GEN-X before XERS. Even though we encountered many a SHOJE in Japan, I did not learn that word until solving this puzzle. Learning moment. Fun theme. Thought of MICHELLE O, but too many letters. Never heard of SCRUB DADDY or NURSE JACKIE, which slowed me down. FIR.
ReplyDeleteWhen I meet a woman named AMBER, I tell her my name is AMBER, too. She usually will give a puzzled look. My last name means AMBER in Yiddish.
My new drone SPOTS me without me having to pilot it. This is me unicycling in preparation for our big Solstice Parade tomorrow!
From Yesterday:
Lucina Thank you for your late reply to my late post about your husband's kind building and gifting radios. I would love to know more about them.
Did he buy the kits from a place like Radio Shack or Lafayette? Or did he gather the parts himself? When completed, were they in a finished box, or were they just a circuit board with the parts soldered to it?
Hola!
ReplyDeleteYea for Robin Stears! I agree with those of you who remarked on the cleverness of this puzzle. The DAY-O at 17A set the stage for the theme.
JACKIE-O is very familiar to me but not to everyone. I once overheard someone who was looking at a magazine cover say to her friend, "I wonder why they call her JACKIE-O?" It surprised me that she apparently didn't know of her marriage to Onassis.
I erred at PARTY OF FIVE-O because I had LEND instead of VEND AND it took way too long to ERASE it. In fact, only when I read the Blog did I realize my error.
The clue for EARS made me laugh.
My daughter loves GNOMEs and her GNOME collection rivals her husband's Star Wars collection. They are fashioned in every conceivable way, i.e. for holidays, fishing, rural and urban, etc.
MARY Cassatt is often clued on Jeopardy so that's a familiar name. However, SHOJI is not and that is the newest term in my acquisition of knowledge. It's never too late!
I am the ELDER sister of my six siblings and since I was the long anticipated daughter/granddaughter of my family, yes, I was very spoiled but was disabused of that over time.
Picard, thank you for inquiring. The radios were small, tabletop size and easy to carry though not like nor as small as the transisters of today. They were also electric not battery operated. In Phoenix there used to be a large warehouse type store that supplied electronic parts and that is where my DH bought all the kits which contained all the components to assemble them.
I hope everyone is enjoying a great day!
Chairman Moe, I empathize with you. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteStill too hot to do anything outside today, so...
Yooper, after posting my comments this morning, I drove to Menards in my pickup truck. I was third in line at the stop light. A car pulled up next to me in the left turn lane. I glanced over. The driver and passenger both had heads down, staring intently at their phones, and their thumbs were flying. The left turn light turned green, but both were oblivious until another driver behind them sounded his horn. Maybe 4 cars got through the left turn light instead of the usual 8 to 10.
Illinois law prohibits the use of handheld cellphones, texting or using other electronic communications while operating a motor vehicle. Hands-free devices or Bluetooth technology is allowed for persons age 19 and older. I wonder if the driver missed that question on the test.
The heat and the distracted-driver traffic makes me yearn to be on Mackinac Island. We went with another couple for an extended Memorial Day weekend one year. Three days, two nights was ample. All four of us had to buy sweatshirts when we got off the ferry! Golfed the Jewel and the other course on the island. We stayed at a lovely BnB instead of the Grand Hotel. The dress rules there were too formal for us. A very pleasant time.
I just checked the temps. It's 90° and miserably humid here, and 68° on the island. And it's 62° in Copper Harbor. If this continuing cycle of excessively hot summers keeps up, maybe we'll become yoopers!
Further comments:
ReplyDeleteRobin Stears Thanks for stopping by. What is "Connections"? Google can't help because that word is too common.
Lucina Thanks for the further information about your husband's radios. It raises many more questions.
Ray O Sunshine Hand up for BOILS OVER before OVER COOKS.
TTP The phones in cars thing is terrifying. Another new trend is to have windows that are blacked out so that you can't see what the other driver is doing or not doing. That is also illegal and also not enforced.
CrossEyedDave Thanks for the amusing Colbert video.
MalMan I missed the Homer GIF on the first pass. Hilarious.
I knew MARY CASSATT because she was on a postage stamp many years ago.
waseeley @11:48 I watched the Detectorists a few years ago. Yes, an acquired taste, but delicious!
ReplyDeletePicard ~ YP here, Connections is a game at the NYT, addicting line Wordle.
ReplyDeleteConnections were also a set of terrific history series hosted by James Burke and aired in the US on PBS. They should be a must-watch series for all current and prospective history teachers. Instead of just reciting events and dates, Connections tied events to consequences, which lead to other events and consequences, and so on. History makes more sense when you see how it all came about.
ReplyDeleteI usually like puzzles by Robin Stears and this one is no exception. My hunch is that some, if not all, of the "too cutesy" clues that several of you have pointed out are not Robin's.
ReplyDeleteGood reading you all.
Jinx, I loved that show Connections. Thanks for mentioning it.
ReplyDeleteHey-O! Thanks to Robin for another excellent puzzle and for stopping by to say hell-O! It took me several passes. Several answers went in then out then back in. No complaints. I enjoyed the solve!
ReplyDeleteFAV themer: NURSE JACKIE-O
Other FAVs: clues for LOVE, START, and BOSSY
Thanks to MalMan for his tour! I am a fan of the dad jokes. Please keep them coming!
FAVs were the EEK a mouse! comic and the Hawaii Five-O theme. I remember being at a live show on Oahu and the ukulele player rocked out the theme. The crowd loved it!
I first tried YEETS for 67A. Hi TTP!
I regularly process Louise PENNY books at the library. She is a very popular author with our patrons.
C-Moe. I feel for your situation. I am impressed both by your determination to do the right thing and your recognition that you need time to deal with it all.
Frantic Friday. Thanks for the fun, Robin (thanks for stopping by) and MalMan (great puns!).
ReplyDeleteOfficially a FIW since I messed up with PARTY OFFIcEO (I had officer on my mind and did not check re cend to VEND.
But I did get the other O themers.
Massive inkblots in the centre.
Hand up for GenX before XERS (and then we had EXBFF - meh!)
Another hand up for Spat before TIFF.
Third hand up for Capt (which never was corrected to CAPN, leaving LION as LIOt. (Ray-o, I had the same thought about no abbreviation in the clue, but when I saw MM’s illustration with the box, I relented.)
I’m out of hands for not knowing SHOJI. Thank you perps.
Small nits- I had BEG for “Beseech”. ASK seems a tad underwhelming IMHO.
The clue for REY used SABER. Dupe. (Thanks for the spelling sympathy Jinx)
Some of us have discussed Canadian author Louise Penny. (Thanks for the CSO inanehiker.) In fact, odd as it seems, it was somebody here in 2019 who mentioned this Canadian author. I started with The Kingdom of the Blind and I was hooked. I went back and read the books in order. The Grey Wolf (19th in the series) is to be released October 29.
YooperPhil- yes, even this Canadian knew JEB. FLN- thanks for the info about the Geordie Howe bridge. And yes, I want to stay overnight on Mackinac Island.
RIP, Donald Sutherland, iconic Canadian actor.
Wishing you all a good evening.
CMoe- I too empathize with you. Be kind to yourself.
ReplyDeletesumdaze @7:34 PM "Eek a mouse! How did I miss that one? It reminded me of the popular reggae musician Eek-a-mouse -- here his Police in Helicopter. "Herb" is slang for a Rastafarian sacrament.
ReplyDeleteThanks, everyone, for your kind comments.
ReplyDeleteCh.Moe, good on you.
Have a great weekend, all.
Go Oilers! What a comeback from 3-0. Game 7 in Florida will be unreal. Edmonton crowd is chanting, “We want the Cup”,
ReplyDelete