Happy Monday, everyone! sumdaze here to chat about Dan Caprera's puzzle. I spotted this gimmick from a mile away, making for an easy-breezy Monday solve. 
Theme: 
We have three well-chosen themed answers that BUILD up to the reveal. Circles are used to emphasize the progression.
18 Across. Common key in big band music: B-FLAT MAJOR.
I reached out to our own music man and Wednesday blogger JazzBumpa for some help with this one. Here is a song he suggested. It's a banger! I cannot stop listening to it!
Race to the Bridge
26 Across. "Stop futzing with that!": LEAVE IT BE.
48 Across. Actress who played Dorothy Zbornak on "The Golden Girls": BEA ARTHUR.
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| (1922 - 2009) |
Then the reveal:
60 Across. "The Stuff You Love" toy company, and what this puzzle's circled letters do: BUILD-A-BEAR.
 |
| "Stuff you love"...cute! I have never been to one of these stores. Have you? |
Notice that B, BE, BEA, and BEAR can stand alone (as opposed to being a part of a longer word) and that they alternate between the beginnings and ends of the themers. Looking good, Dan!
Let's see what else we can find in today's grid:
Across:
5. Official decree: EDICT.
10. Fiber in some muffins: BRAN. My Abstract Algebra professor, Dr. Clarke, made the best bran muffins! We would pack her office during office hours, snacking on her muffins.
14. Ending with hard or soft: -WARE. computer words
15. Misrepresent: BELIE.
16. Eastern priest: LAMA.
17. Self-images: EGOS. This clue made me think of selfies.
20. Tooth care specialist: DENTIST.
22. Catholic prayer beads: ROSARY.
23. Historic space station: MIR.
24. Not together: APART. and 30 Across. Together: AS ONE. fun pairing!
34. Cleveland's lake: ERIE.
35. Sundae topper: CHERRY.
37. Distant: FAR.
38. Plus: AND.
39. Large body of eau: MER. Eau and mer are French words for water and sea, respectively.
40. Female sib: SIS. "Sibling" is shortened, so is "SISter". I like it when my big bro calls and says, "Hi, SIS!"
41. Dog coat: FUR.
42. "Curses upon thee!": FIE. FIE is an interjection used to express disgust or disapproval.
43. Smaller than small: ATOMIC.
45. Houston MLBer: STRO. CSO to our Houston peeps!
50. Computer hard drive headache: CRASH. Friday's CrowdStrike CRASH -- Oof!
66. Emulate some species of jellyfish: GLOW. Jellies have no bones, brains, teeth, blood, or fins yet they are animals. This 2 min. video shows some bioluminescent species. 67. Sit for a spell: REST.
68. Desert havens: OASES.
69. Part of BPOE: ELKS. The Benevolent and Protective Order of ELKS was founded on February 16, 1868.
Down:
1. Picking one's jaw up off the floor: AWED.
2. Wise one: SAGE.
3. First heavy metal band to have a video air on MTV: IRON MAIDEN. I included some Metallica last week so I will skip the heavy metal video this week.
4. Wearing red and green, perhaps: FESTIVE. I like this clue...and this outfit!
5. Recedes: EBBS. The ocean EBBS and flows. I often go to the beach at low tide to collect sea glass. 
6. Nimble-fingered: DEFT. 
7. Not feeling too hot: ILL. That's chill without the ch. 😜
8. U.S. spy org.: CIA. "United States" is abbreviated, so is the "Central Intelligence Agency".
9. Colorful tropical fish: TETRA.
10. Big explosions: BLASTS.
11. Indian royal: RAJA.
12. Love, in Spanish: AMOR.
13. Quaint negative: NARY. Def.: (adj.) not any; not one.
19. Some eels: MORAYS. Here is a 2:27 min. video entitled, Facts: The Moray Eel. 21. Hot temper: IRE.
24. Actor Vigoda: ABE. (1921-2016)
25. Former name of Iran: PERSIA.
26. Flips (through): LEAFS. As a verb, LEAF means to turn over pages, especially to browse or skim.
27. "Rubber Duckie" Muppet: ERNIE.
28. "Law & Order: SVU" co-star: ICE-T.
29. Pulsates: THROBS.
31. Bonkers: OFF THE WALL. and 45 Down. Unusual: STRANGE. and 58 Down. Helter-skelter: AMOK.
56. Catan or Codenames: GAME. Thank you for the reminder that Catan is a game! We see it in puzzles every once in a while but I struggle to remember its name.
57. Historical spans: ERAS.
59. Trees with pliable wood: YEWS. One of the World's oldest surviving wooden artefacts is a yew spear head estimated to be around 450,000 years old. Uses of YEW
61. "Shaun the Sheep" sound: BAA. Shaun the Sheep is a stop-motion animated TV show from the U.K. It became available on Netfix in 2020. The show appeals to children and adults. Here is a 2:17 min. clip. Notice that they do not talk. That fact adds an extra layer to this fitting clue.
62. Ambulance gp.: EMS. Emergency Medical Services, more commonly known as EMS, is a system that responds to emergencies in need of highly skilled pre-hospital clinicians. EMS.gov
1. "I would never!": AS IF. Here is the line:
Alicia Silverstone in Clueless (1995) (16 sec.)
Clueless is a modern version of Jane Austin's 1815 novel, Emma.
5. Official decree: EDICT.
10. Fiber in some muffins: BRAN. My Abstract Algebra professor, Dr. Clarke, made the best bran muffins! We would pack her office during office hours, snacking on her muffins.
14. Ending with hard or soft: -WARE. computer words
15. Misrepresent: BELIE.
16. Eastern priest: LAMA.
17. Self-images: EGOS. This clue made me think of selfies.
20. Tooth care specialist: DENTIST.
22. Catholic prayer beads: ROSARY.
23. Historic space station: MIR.
24. Not together: APART. and 30 Across. Together: AS ONE. fun pairing!
34. Cleveland's lake: ERIE.
35. Sundae topper: CHERRY.
38. Plus: AND.
39. Large body of eau: MER. Eau and mer are French words for water and sea, respectively.
40. Female sib: SIS. "Sibling" is shortened, so is "SISter". I like it when my big bro calls and says, "Hi, SIS!"
41. Dog coat: FUR.
 |
| There is an Old English Sheepdog under all this FUR. |
42. "Curses upon thee!": FIE. FIE is an interjection used to express disgust or disapproval.
43. Smaller than small: ATOMIC.
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
starring Rick Moranis (1:44 min.)
45. Houston MLBer: STRO. CSO to our Houston peeps!
MLB is an abbreviation so Astro is shortened to STRO.
46. Spanish title: SEÑOR.
46. Spanish title: SEÑOR.
50. Computer hard drive headache: CRASH. Friday's CrowdStrike CRASH -- Oof!
52. Mine extraction: ORE.
53. Open, as a banana: UNPEEL. I will call foul on this one. No one says, "Can you please UNPEEL a banana for me?" #wince
56. Weekend trip, e.g.: GETAWAY.
63. Newborn's acquisition: NAME.
53. Open, as a banana: UNPEEL. I will call foul on this one. No one says, "Can you please UNPEEL a banana for me?" #wince
56. Weekend trip, e.g.: GETAWAY.
63. Newborn's acquisition: NAME.
Jim Croce with I Got a Name (1973)
64. Kitchenware brand: EKCO. Learning moment. Ekco Brands is the U.S. division of Vasconia Brands (Mexico's housewares leader in manufacturing and distribution).
65. "__ Mia!": ABBA musical: MAMMA.
Dancing Queen (1986)
Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, and Meryl Streep
66. Emulate some species of jellyfish: GLOW. Jellies have no bones, brains, teeth, blood, or fins yet they are animals. This 2 min. video shows some bioluminescent species. 67. Sit for a spell: REST.
68. Desert havens: OASES.
69. Part of BPOE: ELKS. The Benevolent and Protective Order of ELKS was founded on February 16, 1868.
Down:
1. Picking one's jaw up off the floor: AWED.
2. Wise one: SAGE.
3. First heavy metal band to have a video air on MTV: IRON MAIDEN. I included some Metallica last week so I will skip the heavy metal video this week.
4. Wearing red and green, perhaps: FESTIVE. I like this clue...and this outfit!
7. Not feeling too hot: ILL. That's chill without the ch. 😜
8. U.S. spy org.: CIA. "United States" is abbreviated, so is the "Central Intelligence Agency".
9. Colorful tropical fish: TETRA.
10. Big explosions: BLASTS.
11. Indian royal: RAJA.
12. Love, in Spanish: AMOR.
13. Quaint negative: NARY. Def.: (adj.) not any; not one.
19. Some eels: MORAYS. Here is a 2:27 min. video entitled, Facts: The Moray Eel. 21. Hot temper: IRE.
24. Actor Vigoda: ABE. (1921-2016)
 |
| Here is Fish with Barney (Hal Linden, b. 1931) and Nick (Jack Soo, 1917-1979). BTW, all good XWD names! Interesting trivia: Jack Soo was born Goro Suzuki. His birthplace is listed as "at sea; Pacific Ocean". |
25. Former name of Iran: PERSIA.
26. Flips (through): LEAFS. As a verb, LEAF means to turn over pages, especially to browse or skim.
27. "Rubber Duckie" Muppet: ERNIE.
29. Pulsates: THROBS.
31. Bonkers: OFF THE WALL. and 45 Down. Unusual: STRANGE. and 58 Down. Helter-skelter: AMOK.
A mini-theme developed in the SE.
32. Tiny South Pacific nation: NAURU. In 2022 its population was 12,668 people.
33. Typo, e.g.: ERROR. I got this one rite.
36. Costa __: San José's country: RICA. San José was one of the first cities with electricity.
32. Tiny South Pacific nation: NAURU. In 2022 its population was 12,668 people.
 |
| Click to enlarge. |
33. Typo, e.g.: ERROR. I got this one rite.
36. Costa __: San José's country: RICA. San José was one of the first cities with electricity.
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| I took this PIC of a piece of the Berlin Wall displayed in one of San José's central parks. |
39. Damaged: MARRED.
44. Just okay: MEH.
47. Spotted wildcat: OCELOT. OCELOT Fact Sheet
49. Biodegrade: ROT. Both are verbs. We are more accustomed to the adjective biodegradable.
51. San Antonio mission: ALAMO.
53. Airport transport, for some: UBER.
54. Microwave, informally: NUKE.
44. Just okay: MEH.
47. Spotted wildcat: OCELOT. OCELOT Fact Sheet
49. Biodegrade: ROT. Both are verbs. We are more accustomed to the adjective biodegradable.
51. San Antonio mission: ALAMO.
53. Airport transport, for some: UBER.
54. Microwave, informally: NUKE.
55. Photos: PICS.
56. Catan or Codenames: GAME. Thank you for the reminder that Catan is a game! We see it in puzzles every once in a while but I struggle to remember its name.
57. Historical spans: ERAS.
59. Trees with pliable wood: YEWS. One of the World's oldest surviving wooden artefacts is a yew spear head estimated to be around 450,000 years old. Uses of YEW
61. "Shaun the Sheep" sound: BAA. Shaun the Sheep is a stop-motion animated TV show from the U.K. It became available on Netfix in 2020. The show appeals to children and adults. Here is a 2:17 min. clip. Notice that they do not talk. That fact adds an extra layer to this fitting clue.
62. Ambulance gp.: EMS. Emergency Medical Services, more commonly known as EMS, is a system that responds to emergencies in need of highly skilled pre-hospital clinicians. EMS.gov
In conclusion, here is today's grid:
Bonus: I found this one while looking for BEAR memes:
45 comments:
At first, I thought this was going to be a puzzle with a “metallic” theme, but the circles dissuaded me from that. Anyway, it turned out to be another Monday “walk in the park.” FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
D-o might say, "Leave it alone" or "Let it be," but never "LEAVE IT BE." Similarly, d-o would peel a banana, but never UNPEEL it. Despite those fingernail-on-blackboard moments, this was an easy romp -- as a Monday should be. Thanx, Dan and sumdaze. (Loved the motivation poster.)
FIR, but erased MoMMA.
I've never asked a dancer at a bachelor party to UNPEEL.
ATOMIC can mean very small or very powerful, as in ATOMIC peppers at 90.000 Scovilles.
In his quirky song Mental Floss, the late Jimmy Buffett sang:
I'd like to be a jellyfish
'Cause jellyfish don't pay rent
They don't walk and they don't talk
With some Euro-trash accent
They're just simple protoplasm
Clear as cellophane
They ride the winds of fortune
Life without a brain
I agree that LEAVE IT BE is grating. Let It Be doesn't grate, and was the Beatles final studio album, released after the group had broken up.
Thanks to Dan for the fun, easy puzzle, and to sumdaze for another outstanding narrative.
FIR. Easy Monday puzzle with the only sticky answer for me being Nauru.
I got the theme finally but at first thought it would be words sounding like "B". B, be, Bea; this led me to assume the four letter version would "be" bees. Wrong!
So overall, despite being easy, this was most enjoyable.
Took 4:06 today for me to grin and bear it.
I didn't know Nauru, but I knew today's French lesson (mer).
Oh joy, circles!
Easy breezy Monday - with a cute theme - my kids were little when the Build-A-BEAR Workshops started in St. Louis and it's second store was in Kansas City where my mom lives - they were a little pricey, so perfect for a grandparent indulgence as well as a fun activity to go there to make the bear!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Build-A-Bear_Workshop
Thanks Renee for the entertaining blog - I'm a big Jim Croce fan so enjoyed the link along with the jazz rec from JzB and the ABBA song, it was a fun start to the morning
How could I forget these lyrics in Aerosmith's signature hit Walk This Way:
He said, "You ain't seen nothin'
'Til you're down on a muffin
Then you're sure to be a-changin' your ways"
I'm pretty sure they were singing about a BRAN muffin.
Good morning! It's good to see that this is starting out to be a (mostly) good week for everyone so far.
On another note, C.C. and I have today's Wall St. Journal puzzle. https://www.wsj.com/articles/final-draft-monday-crossword-july-22-2efb4280
Good Morning! Nice puzzle to start off the week. Thanks, Dan.
Perps for IRON MAIDEN, B FLAT MAJOR, NAURU.
Thanks, sumdaze. Loved the tunes & toons. The BEAR chase at the end was a hoot!
Super cute theme. All good, except as has been noted, UNPEEL shich seems to mean you put the peeling back on the banana.
Thank you Sumdaze for a neat recap. I usually limit myself to the weekend WSJ CW, but I’ll be sure to do today’s.
That should be which, not shich. Oops.
Had a bit of a fitful start for a Monday but once I got moving along the puzzle was purring like a “Catan” sorry I mean kitten.
Cute theme. We Build a BEAR with each letter as we descend. 🐻… Would have been interesting to have included some BEAR clues like panda, grisley, polar, care. This weekend a black bear broke into a neighbor’s camp during the night rummaging through their kitchen while they were sleeping. They scared it off. Reported to the Adirondack Park Agency. Revenge for Goldilocks breaking and entering?
NAURU and STRO kyndova WAG Natick.
I almost filled Elmo for ERNIE (too short anyway) and then nearly put THRumS (“ is that even a word??”) for THROBS. “Dogcoat”, I believe Cruella de Vil wears one 😳
Inkovers: anemic/ATOMIC
You “peel” a banana, wouldn’t UNPEEL be the opposite, put the peel back on? 😀. Like “attach ” and “unattach”
FESTIVE (“Festivus for the rest of us”)
English actor Moore who played James Bond…. RAJAH
“Come close to the hive, we don’t sting”….BELIE
What actors audition for…. APART
What the tired witch did… “Sit for a spell”
All of thee… YEWS
Have a great start ‘o the week. ☺️
Good Morning:
As a life-long Teddy Bear aficionado and casual collector, I thought that this was a delightful theme and enjoyable solve. I saw the B, Be, Bea, progression but the reveal, Build A Bear, was a complete and pleasant surprise. Seeing Mamma under Bear tickled my fancy, as did the several creatures and related terms sprinkled throughout the grid: Fur, Bear, Elks, Tetra, Morays, Ocelot, Baa, and Game. Nauru needed perps and Unpeel caused a nose wrinkle. Other than that, this was an ideal puzzle for a newbie, to not only solve, but to experience the satisfaction of seeing and understanding a very clever theme execution. Fun all the way around!
Thanks, Dan, from me and all my Teddys, and thanks, sumdaze, for the entertaining and informative review. Nothing like some ABBA music to start the day!
Have a great day.
I saw the word ladder with B-BE. Build a bear is a cute reveal.
Unpeel is not in the Oxford Dictionary, but the related adjective, unpeeled, is. The recipe uses unpeeled red potatoes. Don't peel them.
The LAT x-word often used colloquialisms. Leave it be is not grammatical, but is common colloquially.
Do compound words have endings? I think not. TWO WORDS combine to form a compound word. Ware is not an ending. Hard + Ware.
It knew Iron Maiden, although not a heavy metal fan. Only NAURU was unfamiliar, but easily perped.
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Dan and sumdaze (I LOLed at that Motivation cartoo).
I FIRed in good time, and saw the BUILDING BEAR (how could I miss it with those circles!)
Two inkblots MARRED my grid. I changed from Blow to GLOW (wrong fish), and to correct an ERROR filling FAR into 41A when it was needed at 37A. But I only had to change the vowel to make FAR into FUR (an Easter Egg for the BEAR!).
Let IT BE is more common than LEAVE. Hand up for thinking of the Beatles song.
MAURU was unknown to me but perps were fair.
If “lake” is in the clue, it must be ERIE. ECKTORP!
Inhabitants of “La MER” were abundant today with GLOWing jellyfish, TETRAs, MORAY eels.
We had MAMMA and SIS but SENOR was the closest we got to the male members of the family.
Wishing you all a great day.
Ach- my proofreading was lacking.
Cartoon not cartoo
NAURU not MAURU
So, a BEAR of a puzzle today. NOT!
I wanted CHERRY to be the sundae topping yesterday, but it was too long.
Is it trumpets that are tuned to Bflat??
Thank you Dan for UNPEELing the ways of BEARs and Sumdaze for revealing their surroundings.
Once in a lifetime is too often for some occurrences.
Velveteen.
Nauru seems to be appearing more and more in Xwords. I suppose that it is time I commit it to memory.
Gary Larsen (uncredited in the opening graphic - or perhaps he borrowed the idea from someone else) and Shaun The Sheep were a great way to greet the day. Thanks, sumdaze.
Oops, Larson not Larsen.
An easy, breezy start to the week, with a few nose-wrinklers. Not too shabby, and SD provided some nice music to brighten things up!
Monday’s are usually doubly enjoyable (today for me especially after 2 consecutive FIWs), first we get a puzzle which most of us FIR with relative ease (a few ticks over 10 for me), and second, we get treated to a sparkly, upbeat and illustrative review by sumdaze, And as a bonus, very few negative comments (although those are highly entertaining too sometimes 🤣). I’ve never heard the word futz or used the word FIE, or in what must be my sheltered life, known of BUILD-A-BEAR, although it’s a multinational company with over 5,000 employees. (thanks Wikipedia). We’ve got MER with TETRA, MORAYS, and Jellyfish clue (one of my favorite things to watch at an aquarium). “Leafs” is used here as a verb but can also be used as a noun as a plural for Leaf, right CanadianEh! 🇨🇦?
sumdaze ~ nice to see you involved in puzzle construction these days, I’m sure C.C.is the best collaborator/mentor you could have!
Really liked your write up today, especially the Jim Croce and big band vids. Is B FLAT MAJOR the same as A SHARP MAJOR?
My BEAR story ~ I live in a remote area with a fairly healthy population of black bears. Several years ago I had been out to a local restaurant and brought home the leftovers from the fish fry I had eaten and inadvertently left the styrofoam container on my vehicle passenger seat. Being a warm summer night I had had my driver’s side window open about a third of the way. Sometime in the night as I slept inside my house 20 feet away, a bear tugged on the window hard enough that it sprung up 90 degrees, still in the channel but now extending about 8 inches above the roof, which was my first look at what was hugely amiss! The bear had reached in and dragged the container across, leaving claw marks on the console and bear hair on the seat. He didn’t get the food though as it got trapped between the seat and the door. I never heard a thing.
Hi All!
I saw what was going on in the (hated by some) circles and it made the fill easier. Thanks Dan for a quick Monday run only to be topped by sumdaze's review - great Peanuts comic!
//I will check out the WSJ pzl later!
WOs: AdD -> AND & NApE (how I would acquire a newborn kitty)
ESPs: ICE-T x'ing MER was a good-luck WAG
Fav: Just for Splynter, I'll go w/ IRON MAIDEN.
Anything big happen this weekend? I was busy with both CrowdStrike bricking boxes and MS's US-Central Azure sh**ing the bed. Two un-related issues but DW's BFF was stuck in ATL for hours. Oh, AND I had to watch hours of Newhart clips... may God pickup the other end of that line.
C, Eh!, Mom always said "LEAVE IT BE" even though she was a big Beatles fan.
//Harrison's Here Comes the Sun is the first song I remember. I acquired it as a Newborn... well, I was 2yrs old and a slow learner :-)
Jinx - Why did we both think of Aerosmith at 10a? Ever see Run D.M.C.'s version?
//some backstory
//and just for self-indulgence - Run D.M.C. singing with RUSH and Heart
YooperP - that's a great (kindaofalarming) BEAR story!
MManatee - I learned to love Far Side when Gramps LOL'd at Cat Fud and said "'cuz dogs can't spell."
Y'all have a great week. Hopefully I'll have time to play again.
Cheers, -T
My kindergartener class loved going on a bear hunt. We acted it out similar to this video, making up obstacles and sounds.
Bear Hunt
Costa Rica was one of Alan's and my favorite trips. It's a beautiful country. We saw spectacular wildlife and flowers. Many days we boarded small water craft to float through the jungle.
WEES about "UNPEEL", but other than that a very nice Monday level CW, although I got off to a rocky start when my brain would not come up with "ASIF" at 1A. That was only temporary, as the perps filled it easily. Also DNK NAURU. Several years ago I took my GF to Washington, D.C., for the usual tourist stuff. One place we stopped was the U.S. Forest Service, which was actually quite interesting. At one point I said to my GF, "Look, it's Smokey the Bear!" pointing to a giant bear in Smokey's attire, holding a shovel. The forest ranger corrected me: "It's Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear". Oops. Anyway, very nice fun easy-to-suss CW, thanx DC. I very much enjoyed your write-up, too, Sumdaze, thanx for all the time and effort you put into it for us.
unclefred, back in '52 Eddy Arnold sang of
"Smokey the bear, Smokey the bear,
prowlin' and a-growlin'and a-sniffin' the air.
He can smell a fire, before it starts to flame,
that's why they call him Smokey,
that was how he got his name."
I wasn’t going to weigh in on this puzzle, which was fine despite the obscurity (to many of us) of Build-A-Bear, but there was a lot of interesting fill and a lot of comments to react to. (And you thought I would never end a sentence with a preposition.)
F and Bb are the keys I prefer as a singer, and they show up in our octet’s lineup quite a bit. The answer to the question about whether Bb major can also be A# major is that it might be true theoretically, but Bb has only two flats, B and E, so it’s far less cumbersome to score and sight-read than the too-many sharps in A-sharp major, and thus prevails .
I liked FIE and NARY, and PERSIA often elicits the religion of my early childhood, the Baha’i Faith. I also liked Jinx’s obscene Aerosmith comment, but a similar comment recently about the ’Stache’ entry was funnier.
I can’t believe I didn’t catch the UNPEEL error – and it IS an error. Kudos to those who caught it. . . . In “The Music Man,” young Winthrop says “leave me be,” but I haven’t heard “leave” used in place of “let” much of anywhere else during the past 60 years or so. It does grate a bit. I did like “futzing” in the clue . Seems Yiddish to me . . . . MAMMA doesn’t grate as much in the context of the ABBA musical as it does elsewhere, but “mama” is the default as far as I’m concerned. “Mamma” can be an acceptable alternative, but “momma” is an abomination that results less from people’s preferences than because they don’t know that kind of stuff. . . . To repeat: “MLBer” is not a term you’ll see in the sports pages. I see it primarily in the L.A. Times Crossword, though Rich allowed it way more than Patti does.
Thanks, Sumdaze, for a lively Monday discussion.
Thanks Dan for a beautiful Monday puzzle which I found very easy to BEAR.
And thank you sumdaze for another funny and very informative review.
A few favs:
22A ROSARY. Today's ROSARY prayers are meditations on the "Joyful Mysteries" which celebrate the events of Christ's early life.
34A ERIE. We didn't make it down to the lake this trip - there is a lot to do there, including fishing for Walleye (although we did have some for dinner at one the local restaurants).
50A CRASH. The CrowdStrike CRASH may still be reverberating back and forth across the net. I had to reboot my desktop twice and power off/on my cable modem to get things going this morning.
53A UNPEEL. I'm with you on this one sumdaze - not a very APEALING answer for the given clue.
63A NAME. Jim still has a NAME and thanks for reminding us Renee.
66A GLOW. I'll never forget being out on a friend's boat one still Summer night in a cove of the Chesapeake and the water below was AGLOW with jellies, almost as luminous as the Milky Way overhead.
19D MORAYS. Great video - I've always thought that MORAY EELS were dangerous preditors. Obviously they've been given a bad RAP.
44D MEH. I thought I recognized that cartoonist - Wiley Miller the creator of the great cartoon Non Sequitur.
61D BAA. Shaun the Sheep was a spin-off from a very popular British series called Wallace and Gromit. Wallace is a wacky inventor and Gromit is his dog, forever skeptical of his owner's schemes. Like Shaun, Gromit never utters word. In this clip they land on the moon to sample the cheese. If you look carefully I think you'll see Gromit making a cameo in the Shaun the Sheep sumdaze' vid.
Cheers,
Bill
C,Eh@10:07, that “male members” comment was getting dangerously close to the line! 😉😇
Hola!
BUILD-A-BEAR takes me way back to my daughter's childhood. She loved that store and the BEAR she built. She also loved to play TETRA on the computer.
LEAVE IT BE sounds awkward to me.
NAURU is an isolated island way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
I also loved COSTA RICA. It's a beautiful, peaceful country.
RANA always makes me laugh because it means FROG in Spanish.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Non Sequitur was banned by a number of newspapers a few years back, but I have forgotten why. Anyone?
D-O and U.Fred, Bill Hayes sang "Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier." Accounts I read said that Mr. Crockett would take great offense at that. He was David, not Davy. But the lyrics flow better with Smokey the Bear and Davy Crockett, so there you go. (At least most of the TV talking heads no longer say "the" Ukraine.)
Copy Editor, if there was such a thing as WMLBer, Patti would allow it ad nauseam.
Prof M, Wiley sneaked some profanity into the strip. Editors freaked.
Jinx, in the '50s Walt Disney created a 5-episode miniseries (before there was such a thing) on the life of Davy Crockett. It ran on the weekly Disney program. Fess Parker starred as Davy Crockett with Buddy Ebsen as his sidekick, George Russell. It was that TV series that Bill Hayes capitalized upon.
Interesting Monday puzzle, many thanks, Dan. And always nice to have you check in and give us your commentary, Sumdaze. Thanks for that too.
Well, not easy to come up with a narrative commentary on this puzzle. ROSARY caught my attention right away because I grew up as a Catholic and used it to say my prayer everyday. There was a little more support in this area, like a bit of GLOW, and a CHERRY, But not anything the IRON MAIDEN or MAMMA or the ELKS would support, I think. Not with all that negativity around, like BELIE, BLASTS, CRASH, MARRED, NUKE, ERROR, STRANGE, OFF THE WALL, GET AWAY. Not very FESTIVE, in my opinion. Maybe I should just stop and get some muffins with some BRAN.
Have a good week coming up, everybody.
This is the first LADDER puzzle I have seen in a while and it did not take too long to finish that climb. However, there were two areas that led me into the great GOOGLE wasteland.
1. The comment that ECKO was part of a Mexican Company.
2. The Island nation NAURA.
Growing up in Connecticut I was sure EKCO was a New England based company, but I knw sumdaze would not be wrong. Off I went and was gratified to learn the name come from the founder Edward Katzinger , a tinsmith from New Hampshire, who began making housewares at the end of the 19th century. It expanded, got sold, went public and eventually was gobbled up by the Mexican company.
That took a short while, but the dive into the history of NAURA was an extended project. I had heard the name because I once had a girl friend who had lived on Kwajalein an island in the Marshall Islands where her father worked as a civilian for the army missile base located there. The history of NAURA is rather sad with the island traded back and forth between nations, having a brief period of wealth and is now nearing death not only for its people but all living creatures. I wonder if Mr. Caprera had any ties to the atoll.
My friends from the band AXE toured with Iron Maiden both in the US and Europe and they did like to party but seemed nice overall.
CeH, and Prof M. male member comments and nothing when we just had MOREL?
Thank you all
Musings
-A fun puzzle that might have been a, uh, BEAR without the circles
I've very much enjoyed reading today's great comments!
After spending almost a week with a grid in my head head, it is always interesting to see where posters take the content.
I'm grateful to be a part of this community of life-long learners!
I had a huge Davy Crockett, er, doll in the Fifties. When the tail came off his coonskin cap, he became simply "Dave." I also had a pretty little Teddy bear. I named it Susan.
Lemonade, the growing empire of EKCO acquired and renamed a flatware company in New Haven, CT in 1943. Perhaps that is why you associate them with New England. Here is the fascinating history of Edward Katzinger, his ambitious son Arthur, and the story of EKCO: Made In Chicago Museum - Ekco Products Co., est. 1888
I knew of their history after reading about them for a blog I wrote in May, 2019. Remember TV dinners in the metal trays? Swanson specifically? A good read. At the end of the article, you can see that people are still commenting about EKCO products, and their time working at EKCO.
I just got hit with over $1000 in "Unrelated Business Taxable Income" (UBTI) tax. Never heard of it before.
Misty @3:12 PM I love your Mad Libs on the daily puzzles, with the constructor creating a word list and you weave selected entries into a story. Mad Libs are a favorite of one of my granddaughters!
Jayce, sounds like fraud to me. Possibly someone using your information for some scammy enterprise. Or, someone could be pretending to be the IRS hoping to intimidate you into paying money you don't owe. UBTI keeps nonprofits from escaping taxes on profitable side businesses. Can't imagine how it could apply to everyday individual taxpayers.
I suggest that you try to talk to someone from the IRS fraud line. Don't call any number or go to any URL you got from the notification.
My worst experience with the IRS was a few years ago, when they wrote to tell me that they had already sent my refund check to my "other" address in New York City. I googled the address and it came back to some guy who was on trial for tax fraud. I wrote them to suggest that maybe they could use google too, before sending threat-o-grams to honest taxpayers. (I didn't word it quite that way, but that was the gist.) I quickly got my refund, but no response to my letter.
Thanks Jinx.
Yooper Phil@11:02 - what a Bear story!
I did think of the Maple LEAFS but forgot to post about that. It is interesting that they are not Leaves.
AnonT@11:40- interesting that your Beatle-fan Mom used LEAVE IT BE.
ProfM@2:16- LOL! AS IF!
Jayce. Adding to what Jinx said...
If you look at the top, right-hand corner of your letter from the IRS, it will say "Notice" and then an alpha-numeric code. That is a general code for a particular type of IRS issue. (It is not a personal identifier for just your case.) You can Google "IRS Notice ___" and fill in the blank with the code from your letter. Doing so will give you an idea of what the tax issue is. It might be a good idea to do this before you call the IRS so you have more information going in to the phone call.
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