Theme: I've been framed!
1. Split apart: SUNDER. In the words of desper-otto, "have I ever told you how not having the correct entry in 1-across ...?" Well, hand up for trying "TEAR UP" as my first choice. The NW corner was my last section to fill as a couple of Naticks appeared and I had to look up one of the answers. From a grammar standpoint, the more familiar asunder is either an adjective or adverb; sunder is a transitive verb
7. Spit take sound: PFFT. If some of you (my hand is up) had trouble understanding the clue, here is a definition of "spit take": "(especially as a comic technique) an act of suddenly spitting out liquid one is drinking in response to something funny or surprising" - meh
11. PC accessories: MICE. Moe-ku #1:
Logitech rejects
Are sold in triple packets
And called "Three Blind MICE"
15. Disquietude: UNEASE. It's clues and fill like this that makes me ask the Thesaurussaurus if he's ok with it:
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| Moe, uneasiness and UNEASE are pretty similar |
16. Atmosphere: AURA. I threw this at the pigeons to see what they had to say:
17. Stench: ODOR. I'm actually happy to see this clued as "stench". Too often, lately, odor has been clued as aroma. An odor stinks. Period
18. Some notes: SHARPS. Neither MEMOS nor FLATS would fit ... this clue refers to musical notes, not Post-it notes
21. Do some character-building?: WRITE. Either Erik or Patti was really into the play-on-words cluing today. And that's just fine with me. In this case, the "character" would refer to a person within a novel perhaps
23. Is stunned: REELS. Did anyone try TASED, at first?
30. Stores up: AMASSES. Moe-ku #2 (with apology to my RC friends):
Whenever the Pope
Presides at the Eucharist
They're called "A" MASSES
31. Kung __ chicken: PAO. If this were an Incredibles character, it would be Kung POW Chicken ... OK, maybe that's a stretch!
32. Screen type: LCD. Since when is the Lowest Common Denominator called a type of screen?
35. Some WNBA fouls: TECHS. Meh; I call "foul" on this one. I've been a fan of basketball for 6+ decades and have NEVER heard a technical foul called a tech
36. Coffee Meets Bagel alternative: HINGE. Solved by perps. Turns out they are both dating apps. Had I known that I probably would've tried inserting ZOOSK first, as I actually once had an account with them
38. "I knew it!": AHA. Yes, I did. I didn't fall for OHO
39. __ mode: ALA. I think a good Friday puzzle should have fewer than 7 clues that are "gimmies"
43. Leslie's love on "Parks and Rec": BEN. Solved by perps. I never watched "Parks and Rec"
44. Vietnamese New Year: TET. This would be an example of a "gimmie" clue/answer
45. Robs of hobnobbing: SHUNS. I never hobnobbed very well
46. Had the guts: DARED. Moe-'lick #1:
At the nudist beach, someone was scared
To allow their whole bod to be bared.
So they felt like a newb
Only baring their boob;
But that's truly the most that they DARED
48. Polished off: ATE. My "reward" as a kid was to get dessert if I polished off my plate of dinner
49. Tabletop game with campaigns, for short: D N D. I spread out the letters in the solve to reveal that this is an abbreviation for Dungeons and Dragons
50. Overpraise: ADULATE. I'm not going to give plaudits to Erik or Patti for this clue/solve😉
55. Post-workout afflictions: ACHES. Nothing that 3 Advil won't cure, for me
58. "Allahu __": AKBAR. Aka, Takbir
63. Silenced: ON MUTE.
| This image made me think of an old Moe-'lick: One of my early childhood joys? Watching mimes do their act with such poise. After one of them died We all cried, as we tried To give him a brief moment of noise |
67. Part: ROLE. My role every other Friday is to regale you with my recaps at the Corner
68. Cut covered with a Bluey bandage, e.g.: OWIE. This clue must've taken some time to research
69. Tool for cutting spearing holes: ICE SAW. Here is a link to someone to call if you need it for the next time you go ICE fishing
70. Nocturnal hunters: OWLS. BATS fit too, if you consider seeking out insects to eat as "hunting"
71. Spidey's traps: WEBS.
72. Calm: SEDATE. My demeanor (as I write my blog) whenever a puzzle fits my "wheelhouse". I am quite sedate today; thanks Erik!
Down:
1. Questionable, for short: SUS. Oops - I now recall that I wasn't too sedate when I had the crossing of sunder and sus. I can only guess that sus is an abbr. for suspect or maybe suspicious
2. Granite State sch.: UNH. University of New Hampshire
3. Largest U.S. union: NEA. All you need to know about this union for educators
4. Poet Mahmoud who wrote the Palestinian Declaration of Independence: DARWISH. No clue on this. There are crossword puzzle solving moments when I feel totally ignorant. This was one of them
5. Hot shots?: ESPRESSOS. Another play-on-word clue. Espresso is normally served hot, and as a "shot". Want to know more (from a barista's point of view)? Click here
6. Dwell: RESIDE. It's where you live
7. Post production: PAPER. Recent examples of the clue, "post production"
8. Husky's hair: FUR. We have a few huskies in our neighborhood
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| I can't imagine how they take the 110+ degree summer temps with all of that fur |
9. To opposite: FRO. As in the expression, "to and fro"???
10. Letters before Q?: TAB. Look at your keyboard on your laptop or desktop ... just to the left (before) the letter Q is the tab key. The letters t a b are before the letter Q. This certainly wasn't a "gimmie"
11. Shed occupant: MOWER. Many homeowners keep their lawn mower in an outdoor shed
12. Inactive: IDLE. What I tried to be for a few days after clearing out mom's apartment
13. "I May Destroy You" star Michaela: COEL. No clue on this. There are crossword puzzle solving moments when I feel totally ignorant. This was another one of them
14. Goofs: ERRS. I had a few of them today. When you get to the image of the completed grid my errors will show as a black triangle in the corner of the letter's square
20. Gold, in Spanish: ORO. "Gimmie"
22. Poetic contraction: TIS. Moe-ku #3:
Tis tis tis tis tis
Tis tis tis tis tis tis tis
Tis tis tis it's TIS
24. Half a "Lion King" phrase: MATATA. It was either Hakuna or Matata
25. Denver dish: OMELET. I don't think that an omelet is found only in the capital of Colorado. In this case, it refers to the recipe for a Denver (style) OMELET26. Leave empty: VACATE. I left a few pieces of furniture and a couple of small appliances behind, so I didn't completely vacate my mom's apartment ... the retirement village said that they would repurpose all of it within their facility
27. Big-budget flicks: EPICS. Here are a few of the more recent "EPICS"
28. "My turn next?": CAN I. Whatever happened to our manners?? Shouldn't this be may I
29. Praetor's wrap: TOGA.
| They're all wearing togae [sic] |
32. Rodent in a study: LAB RAT. "Gimmie"
33. Orange puff: CHEETO. My error here (see grid pic) was to use the word CHEESE/Cheeto
34. Common allergen: DANDER. Moe-ku #4:
North Pole reindeer's name
Changes when pollen's present:
Donder's now DANDER
36. Member of the third-largest religious group: HINDU. I had HINDI/HINDU; I somehow thought that a member's name was the same as the language ...
37. Marathon need: ENDURANCE. GAS PUMPS did not fit
41. Advanced degs.: PhDS. Gimmie
42. Use a fork, say: TUNE. Not sure what I was thinking when I used the word TINE/tune. Maybe I thought that you could tine a piece of food (referring to one of the spears on a fork). I never said I was the sharpest knife in the drawer
47. Taken aback: ALARMED. The clue brought back a memory of one of my earliest Moe-'licks. I had one of my fellow "limerick and haiku" email members put this into a cartoon image:
50. "Cathy" cry: ACK. I had EEK/ACK. Then, as the perps appeared, I realized that the cartoon character "Cathy" said:
51. W.E.B. who wrote "The Souls of Black Folk": Du BOIS. This gentleman
52. Group chat fodder: MEMES. This?
53. Employ: USE. "Gimmie"
54. Has as a salary: MAKES. Did anyone try EARNS first?
55. Prefix with pessimist or Panamanian: AFRO. Friday clue for sure
56. Bird that can make tools: CROW. As in a crowbar, perhaps?? Can I crow about this discovery??!
57. College building: HALL. As an undergrad @ the University of Pittsburgh, we had many named HALLs
60. "Impressive!": WOW. What y'all must've been saying over-and-over again as you read the blog today!😀
61. "You __ me!": OWE. Not any more; all my debts and debtors have been paid
62. Tease: RIB. Kind of a "gimmie"
64. Powerhouse of women's soccer: USA. Seemed like a "gimmie". Here is a bit of info about their prowess
65. Bit of ink: TAT. This clue and answer are quickly becoming crossword-ese
66. One who might have a ram beau: EWE. And we end with another play-on-word clue that employs a homophone. Are you fond of this Rambeau??
On a personal note, my "biography" here (what's contained behind the blue "Chairman Moe") says that I started posting July 2014. One decade down; another one begun
Here is the grid. Hope you all are having a great 4th of July Holiday weekend!
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| I've been framed! |
40 comments:
My main problem was trying to put “AFL” or “CIO” where “NEA” was supposed to go. The other difficulty was the number of obscure names and terms. But I persevered through these. (Also I have seen “asunder” much more often than “sunder.”) Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
For 32A, I believe the LCD refers to Liquid Crystal Display, which as I recall was what one of my old digital watches had. Since I now use my smart phone to tell time instead, I'm unsure if such watches are being marketed these days.
As a non-American, I'm curious to know how many state nicknames you Americans actually remember. I think I only know Empire State for NY, Golden State for California, and Aloha State for Hawaii. And then from crosswords I kind of remember that there's a Hawkeye or Buckeye State but I can't remember which one off the top of my head.
Both UNH and SUNDER could've been avoided by replacing UNEASE with AT EASE and then SUNDER with BENDER, LENDER, or TENDER (if you're fine with the crosswordese suffix -ETH, I don't know whether it would actually be "better" than UNH).
I got PRO BOWLER and thought the theme would be hat-related. It's not really a Friday theme but it's tight and very well executed.
Good morning!
"Met person" evoked the METropolitan Opera to me, so with MUS in place, I completed it as MUSIC. D'oh. That NW corner was the last to fall. UNEASE came easily, but SUNDER and SHARPS were slow to fall. ESPRESSO finally broke the logjam. Erik always offers something esoteric, and today was no exception. Tough, but fair. Enjoyed your expo, C-Moe.
I thought the theme was fine, and Moe was correct about Boomer's likely reaction to alley but this had too many 3s and 4s to satisfy me as a Friday. The obscurities were very obscure for me (Moe your Michaela Cole link didn't).
Many years of Latin taught me:
Singular Plural
Nom. toga togae
So no sic needed.
It was nice to see that ESPRESSO has finally eliminated the EXPRESSO response.
Thank you Erik and Chris hope you all had a good Fourth and your grilling was thrilling.
Took just over 20 minutes, but went with sunter instead of sunder.
Did C-Moe ever tell you what D-O's tells you...?
I didn't know today's actress (coel).
Too many 3LW for me (and likely Ms. Irish Miss).
"Poet Mahmoud...." Ok, sure.
"Allahu" Ok, sure.
FIR. To be honest finishing the NW required several WAG's on my part, and I guess my guesser guessed right for a change. Sunder still has me scratching my head, and sus I still don't get. Really?
The theme was clever and I enjoyed "framing" my answers. The light bulb went off with optician.
Overall, except for the aforementioned NW, this somewhat hard Friday puzzle was enjoyable. Good prep for tomorrow's challenge.
FIW, missing my WAG at ADUrATE x ArARMED. divide>SUNDER, movie dictator>MOVIE DIRECTOR (potato, patahto,) hoardes>amasses, repose>SEDATE, and debois>DUBOIS.
AKBAR - the last word you hear before he detonates his vest.
Hand up for thinking of bats before OWLS. Both are very interesting and valued critters.
Agree that Patti misfired with TECH. I've mostly heard "tee" for a technical foul, and when a player or coach gets one, (s)he gets "teed" or "teed up."
I don't get ice fishing. Then again, I don't get snow skiing either. Even when I drank mass quantities of adult beverages, I didn't get it. I get apres ski at the lodge, annd that's about it.
"coffee meets bagel" = HINGE? "Creamed beef on toast" for "SOS" makes more sense, and it doesn't make all that much sense at that.
Thanks to Erik for another fine Friday stumper. I'll celebrate getting 5 of my 6 WAGs correct. Pretty good for my Friday skill level. or lack thereof. And thanks to our Chairman for yet another fine review.
FLN - Even though we are camping in the sticks, there were a lot of fireworks last night. Hopefully there aren't too many leftovers tonight.
Good Morning:
This was certainly a Friday level puzzle, with the numerous unknowns of Hinge, Ben, DND, Darwish, Coel, Matata, and Afro and Crow, as clued. However, I finished w/o help, so the perps must have been fair, or else I just got lucky, but the completion time was closer to a challenging Saturday. The theme was cute and the surprise reveal tied the whole thing together quite nicely. I found the cluing to be a mixed bag of clever and too cutesy, e.g., the clues for Crow and Ewe. W/os were Earns/Makes, and Pollen/Dander. SS was correct in pointing out my shared dislike of the 24 TLWs.
Thanks, Eric, and thanks, Moe, for the outstanding review and commentary. You explained the theme thoroughly and accurately and the entire overview was filled with facts and, in the case of the Epic films, figures. Out of those 20 "blockbusters", I have only heard of a handful and haven't seen a one! The video of Whose Line Is It Anyway was hilarious and the Moe-kus and 'Licks were all top notch, my favorite being the Mime 'lick. You were in rare form this morning and your humor was infectious! Bravo!
Have a great day.
Nice to have a shout out to UNH. I taught for many years at UNH’s Manchester campus, and my son will be starting classes at UNH’s main campus in Durham in a few weeks.
Difficult for a Friday, especially the NW. I looked up DARWISH. I knew sunder, with split apart being used as a verb. There are many references in print. "What some see as a means of protection has actually sundered two communities with a shared past, present, and future."
The New Yorker Nov 12, 2019
SUS for suspicious was new to me. LIU after solving. It's legit.
I knew that crows make tools.
"Yes, the New Caledonian crows have very big brains and they are outstanding tool manufacturers. So they'll take a stick, strip all the leaves off, and turn it into a hook by bending the tip."
The LAT uses many near synonyms like sedate. Sedate is more than calm. It needs to include serious and dignified. A teen with her feet on the dashboard and her arm out the window may be calm, but definitely not sedate.
Optician was hard for me. I didn't think of contact lenses.
For Post production I thought of the Washington Post which produces daily papers.
What SS asked if C-Moe ever told you what D-O says about 1A…sooo, starting in the NE working clockwise I somehow managed a FIR w/o help in 18:17. Typical Friday toughie with several unknowns which perped, HINGE, AFRO and COEL for three. 1A & 1D were the last to fill where I had _UN_ER, and _US. Took an A-run to get the S and a WAG to get the D, have never heard suspicious or suspect shortened to SUS, or heard of poet Mahmoud. SUNDER didn’t seem right without starting with an A. Erik and Patti came up with some nice clueing today, with both being CW editors I would expect no less! Thank you for the challenge!
C-Moe ~ thanks for your very detailed write-up today! A bowling reference in a puzzle always makes me (and probably a lot of Cornerites) think of Boomer. Always enjoy your Moe-kus and Moe-‘licks. I once had a husky/malamute mix with long thick fur, he liked nothing better than lying in a snowbank in freezing temperatures.
It took a while, but FIR in spite of several unknowns.like DARWISH, COEL, DND, HINGE, and BEN. Somehow perps revealed them.
I really relished the theme. Quite clever.
I too had earns before MAKES. For character building, at first I had emote, then the correct WRITE showed up.
I don’t understand AFRO as a prefix for pessimist.
Moe, you outdid yourself this morning with the Moe-kus and the review. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the majority of your images. I just got a big square with a blue question mark in the center.
DNF, I needed to reveal Darwish to even break into the NW Corner...
And without the Blog, I would never have seen the theme.
I guess you could say, The Blog is like my fine print...
Hi All!
Close but no cigar. Erik wins.
I entered diNE at fork usage (42d) and didn't look back as I went to tackle the NW corner - even when ESPRESSOS finally drip'd in, I didn't cross-check...
That NW was a noodler!
Thanks for the fun grid, Erik. And thank you, C.Moe, for the fantastic follow-up with fun kus.
WOs: serine | Mia [Ham] -> SEDATE | USA.
ESPs: um, yep.
Fav: Dungeons & Dragons - many well-spent roll-playing with dice*. And Eldest is into it now (thought the rules have changed).
Runners-up: the low-hanging fruit that got me going ;-)
Of course, there was 19a - RIP Boomer.
Jinx - FIL was a Marine and his favorite breakfast was SOS (Sh** On a Shingle) with a side of eggs.
Back to work. Y'all have a good weekend!
Cheers, -T
*Nowadays, we do cyber-incident tabletops using the dice to determine the extent of a breach / effectiveness of response. Sure, it's a bit nerdy but it's effective communication to other teams that they need to get their shtuff in order.
Good Morning! Well, I finished. That’s about all I have to say. This is the Erik I remember from previous LAT puzzles a while ago, not the Erik of more recent USA Today puzzles. It was a trudge for me. I thought the clues were too vague in more than some instances.
I saw the theme and that helped fill OPTICIAN.
DARWISH was a LIU, and lots of WAGs and WOs.
If you try to order a Denver OMELET in PA you get a quizzical look. It’s called a “Western” here.
PhDs. I had to wait for perps to see if MBAs would fit.
Hand up for “earns.” Also considered “works.
Thanks, C-Moe. You saved the day with your commentary, humor, toons and poetry!
A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played.
So many things I DNK in this CW, and some that I still don't understand, even after reading CMOE's nice write-up. DNKs: SUS, PFFT, TECHS, DND, DARWISH, PAPER, COEL, MATATA, and AFRO. CMOE did a nice job of 'splainin' most, but still don't get AFRO. How is that a "Prefix with pessimist or Panamanian"? Overall, this CW is just over my abilities. I did manage to fill it, but only with red letter support and a few alphabet runs. Quite the challenge, EA. Thanx for the terrific write-up, CMOE.
WEES -- the NW was SUS and last to fall. I would claim FIR, but I looked up "Granite State" in order to fill UNH, so I cheated.
DNK the dating apps, anything about Parks and Rec, poet Mahmoud, Michaela COEL, or AFRO as clued.
I did not fully grasp the theme until Chairman Moe explained it, especially why an OPTICIAN in particular would have a "contact page."
Nifty theme. From my point of view, thank goodness for gimme entries and three letter words ... without which, what chance would I have had?
Many thanks to Erik and Patti for the workout, and to the Chairman for making sense of it all.
Anonymous @ 4:07 => thanks for the correction on the LCD (which I knew, BTW) - just one of my feeble attempts at some humour today ;^)
Jason @ 7:36 => Thanks for the "grilling" kudo. You saw last night's post on FB? Also, I guess I've become so used to saying TOGAS for the plural that togae seemed wrong; thanks for the Latin lesson! I went back and checked the links and pics, but to you (and all others whose links and pics didn't work) my apologies. They are all working fine on my laptop. Not sure what went wrong. Maybe TTP will stop by and have a look
Irish Miss @ 8:44 => thank you. The pleasure was all mine to provide a bit of jocularity this morning!!
unclefred @ 10:24 => regarding "AFRO" as the prefix to pessimist and Panamanian. I honestly did not look either of those up nor gave it much thought. I'm going to guess that it refers to "Africa" as opposed to the hair style. Neither of these were familiar to me. I think I referred to it as "a Friday kind of clue" (or some such) rather than to describe it. As you no doubt know from reading most of my blogs, I am usually pretty selective in what I expound. Thanks for the kind comment! Hope you're not boiling in FL. My friends there are all complaining about the heat index this week
W-a-a-a-y out of my wheelhouse today. Not even red letters helped in the NW. Enjoyed the recap, Moe. That Husky is almost as good-looking as our boy Jake-O. By the way, our local bowling emporium. Which has been around since the live pin-setter days, is called "The Alley". See so, right over the door!
SEZ so!
Bayou Tony - I thought of you at lunch today. Across the street from where we were enjoying a great American dish - fajitas - there was a business proclaiming itself to be named "Security and Tanning Connection." I pictured you on a chaise by the pool with a sign proclaiming "quite - genius at work." BTW - did you use actual dice, or a random number generator utility?
Seeing Erik Agard’s name atop the puzzle portended a challenge, and the natick at 1A/1D quickly confirmed that analysis, although the natick turned out to be the only major source of jeopardy in the puzzle. The rest slowly came together. The theme entries made sense, and so, in retrospect, did the unifier.
DARWISH was an unknown, as were COEL, and HINGE (as clued). AKBAR was an educated guess aided by its crossing with ACK. The only major annoyances were AFRO, as clued, and TECHS, not only because it’s rarely said, but also because the clue implied something distinctive about WNBA rules, rather than just another tiresome plug from Patti for that league.
Thanks, C-Moe. I especially liked the nudist beach limerick.
I looked up AFRO Panamanian. Think of Italian American. They both have the same construction. Guessable from perps.
AFRO Pessimism is more esoteric. It is the name a radical book. "Wilderson insists that we must view Blackness through the lens of perpetual slavery." No chance of guessing that one. I'm glad that Panamanian was in the clue.
Bowling alley is still in the language, although Pro bowlers and some other serious bowlers eschew it. Yes, it is part of the name of some bowling places.
Togas and togae are both correct. I see and hear togas more often. Spellcheck flags togae.
I play Trivial Pursuit here on Thursdays. Some questions have more than one correct answers. If you don't choose the one on the card you are deemed wrong. When I return to my computer I look it up. I don't dispute it. I am just curious. It is after all just a sociable game with friends. I look up many things I hear or read, just for my own satisfaction and to build up my fund of knowledge.
Hola!
Is it really Friday? This seemed more like Saturday or am I just diminished? I think it's the latter because you all finished the puzzle whereas I did not. I finally threw it down.
SUNDER eluded me because I had ACTRESSES at 5D and refused to give it up. My failure. So that impeded OPTICIAN which I now see is really clever. Well done, Erik! Contact! Funny.
HINGE also never made it and I still don't get it. ENDURANCE? Yes! Definitely it's need for a marathon or any kind of race. Last year I did not go to the Redlands CA "Believe Walk" for the very reason that I lack that requisite.
AFRO-pessimist? Since when? AFRO-PANAMANIAN? I guess so.
ICE SAW reminds me of a long ago movie with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman and now I don't recall the title. Might be The Odd Couple.
it's so nice reading all your comments. Have a wonderful day and weekend, everyone!
It's needed. My error.
Lemonade, the same happened to me. It's the browser and the browser settings. In Firefox, the images for Husky and for Cathy would not load from the URL links*. I have Enhanced Tracking Protection configured in my Firefox browser. If you are using Firefox, you probably also have that configuration.
The images loaded normally for me in the Chrome and Edge browsers. I don't have the same tracking protection configured in those.
When you encounter an image that doesn't load, right click it and select "Open in New Tab" and it should display.
* CM, as you know, there are a couple of ways to put images in the blog. You can save a desired image to your computer, and then upload it to the blog, or you can link to it. Saving and uploading has distinct advantages over linking.
1) A linked image can suffer from link rot. The URL to the image may be valid today, and invalid in the future if the URL goes away or is modified. Scroll through the archives and you will find countless occurrences of blank images due to link rot.
2) A linked image may not load because of browser protections, as happened today. Today's failed to load for Lemony (and me) because of cross-site cookie protection.
3) A linked image (or the source website of a linked image) can be malware free today, but have malicious content in the future.
4) A website owner or administrator may disable inbound to a URL if unusual traffic to their site happens.
I much prefer saving and uploading. It's cleaner all the way around, but it does take a couple of extra steps. You won't fill up your disk drive, but if you do have concerns about storage on your disk drive, you can delete the images after you have uploaded them to the blog.
Once you have uploaded images, you can always find them again at https://www.blogger.com/mediamanager/albums (unless you also delete them there). Try the link and you will see what I mean. For instance, you will find your Out of Whack image stored there now.
Fun challenge today from Erik as expected with an amusing theme.
When the MUSEUM CURATOR is putting together pieces in a new display, he works at making sure the FRAME goes with the piece
WEES about SUNDER - I think of asunder at the end of marriage vows "those the God hath joined
together let no man put asunder"
Anyone with littles around would know about "Bluey" the animated kids' program out of Australia about an Australian blue heeler and his family. Both my grands favorite program out of the minimal screen time they have - hats off to their parents for not putting them in front of a screen all the time. They are at that age where a band-aid for an OWIE makes it all better
Praetor is a term I have been reacquainted with on the TV show "The Chosen" as the Roman centurion Gaius was promoted to Praetor in the last season
Lucina - I think the movie you were thinking of was "Grumpy Old Men"
Thanks CM for the fun blog and Erik for the creative puzzle
TTP - Great #ProTip. I always SnagIt / screen capture the image I want, crop it to what I like, and then upload to the blog. Local storage? Don't be silly... my HD is only 1/2 full.
Jinx - Oh, yeah... honest to goodness d4s, d10s, and d20s for the tabletop exercises. #OldSchool.
Cheers, -T
TTP: duly noted. Thanks! C-Moe
Thanks,TTP
BTW, I hope that I am not letting "the cat out of the bag" but I do believe that CC has a Wall Street Journal puzzle coming out tomorrow.
I use this link for WSJ puzzles: https://www.wsj.com/news/puzzle
TTP,
Link rot?
ACK!
my whole reason for existence is being attacked!
(My only hope is that doctors can find a cure...)
The puzzle was way out my wheelhouse today, a DNF. And when I saw ERIC as the constructor I knew it would be a toughie. Never heard of SUNDER (on asunder) or DARWISH and crappy fills like SUS shouldn't be allowed in a puzzle.
COEL, MATATA,- got 'em by perps but never heard of either. HINGE and AFRO-Panamanian- never heard of either and didn't fill 'em. AKBAR- only heard when some fool blows themselves up.
No ICE SAWs in either S. LA or on my grid today; had saw filled but ICE couldn't make it.
DND-Had no idea what "Tabletop game with campaigns" meant and know nothing about the game.
Kung PAO chicken or shrimp. I knew it and also eat it but Chinese restaurants around here list it as Kung BO.
Jinx- agree with you on the TECH.
Tony- I'm sure you FIL also said- SSS (Sh**, Shower, Shave)
Malodorous Manatee- I get an email from WSJ and can confirm you "cat out of the bag".
For those who, like me, didn’t understand AFRO pessimism, here’s the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry:
Afro-pessimism is a critical framework that describes the ongoing effects of racism, colonialism, and historical processes of enslavement in the United States, including the transatlantic slave trade and their impact on structural conditions as well as the personal, subjective, and lived experience and embodied reality of African Americans; it is particularly applicable to U.S. contexts
Lucina @ 1:20: "AFRO-pessimist? Since when? AFRO-PANAMANIAN? I guess so."
Monkey's explanation above is good as far as it goes, but how about 'Euro-pessimism or' 'Amero-pessimism; (in light of SCOTUS' recent opera)?
But 'Afro-Maori.' 'Afro-Frisian,' or 'Afro-Yakut'? It is as if someone is creating nonsense syllables to fit into a dead end.
And poor Lucina ... the high for Phoenix is supposed to be 116ª today ... ouch!
I’m in the “Saturday puzzle on a Friday” camp, too; this’un ran me in circles before FIR.
Really snazzy theme, although I grokked it early on with MOVIE DIRECTOR (probably thanks to my days in the film production trenches) and really liked Eric’s clues — with a couple of exceptions, #1 being the totally unnecessary obscurity for AFRO. Is it really necessary to go to such lengths in clueing?? PFFT; there have to be half a dozen more elegant — and rewarding — ways to clue that one. I will say that my day with Eric was saved by the fun ones like “ram beau”, “use a fork”, and “some notes”; that flavor of brain-twisting mis-direction ends up in a “OHHhhhh, I get it” moment, as opposed to a “wtf?”… and hand up for “earns” until perps steered it to MAKES.
Your collection of Moe‘licks was on fire today, Chairman! Had me laughing my arse off all the way through your review — please keep ‘em comin’, they’re always impressive, along with your Moe-ku’s 🤙🏽😎
Jinx, I think one has to have a bit of a need for speed to get hooked on skiing; in my “yute”, as you like to say, I had a go at ski racing (with lousy results) but I’m still enjoying bombing down the hill at my senior age. And it’s never too late to try — it’s great fun, and provides some great exercise when it’s snowy out. If you want to ease into the sport, start with ski-touring (aka cross-country skiing); you don’t even need a mountain to do that!
(Funny to be talking about snow sports as I’m cooking in 111° here in The Valley…)
Finally, I don’t think I’ve seen a liquid crystal display in donkeys’ years — not to mention LED’s! Remember those? Everything is now OLEDs and other exotica…
====> Darren / L.A.
Darren/anonymous: you need to get together with Malodorous Manatee this winter for some skiing. He's a big buff and lives just north and east of LA
Michael, I too live outside of Phoenix. We hit 117 today (Chandler)
inanehiker
Thank you! I believe it was Grumpy Old Men. They were ice fishing.
Yes, it's hot here; I thank and bless the inventor of A/C every day! Also, I don't go out very much, mostly to the mail box and back as well as to water my plants. Poor things. They are the ones suffering.
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