Happy Monday, everybirdie! sumdaze here.
Theme: 
We will begin with the starred clues:
17 Across. *Defiantly petty retaliation: TIT FOR TAT.
21 Across. *Purchase when planning a train tour: RAIL PASS.
26 Across. *Figure used for counting: CARDINAL NUMBER.
These are the Whole Numbers but not zero.
47 Across. *Wrecking ball swingers on a construction site: CRANE OPERATORS.
52 Across. *Ride the waves using wind power: KITE SURF.
And the reveal:
63 Across. Morning person, or a feature of the answer to each starred clue?: EARLY BIRD.
Each answer begins with a type of BIRD. In other words, the BIRD is EARLY in the answer.
 |
| Grand TIT, Ridgeway's RAIL, Cardinal Sandhill CRANE, and Swallow-tailed KITE |
Kudos to constructor Emet Ozar for packing this grid full with six themed answers. I also liked how he used all of the bird names in a non-bird way.
Here is today's grid: 
Coincidentally, last night I started reading Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan (author & illustrator).
Across:
51. Post-dubbing title: SIR. One definition of dub, as a verb, means to confer knighthood on. After you are dubbed a knight, people call you SIR.
57. Evening party: SOIREE.
62. "Know what __?": I MEAN. ...jellybean.
65. Rodeo rope: LASSO.
66. Highest sudoku digit: NINE. Sudoku is a puzzle in which missing numbers are to be filled into a 9 by 9 grid of squares which are subdivided into 3 by 3 boxes so that every row, every column, and every box contains the numbers 1 through 9.
8. Involve: ENTAIL. and 48 Down. Mom or pop: PARENT.
12. Many Thanksgiving desserts: PIES. This article reveals the results of a 2024 survey asking for America's favorite Thanksgiving pie. I like the line, "The correct answer is having half slices of three different kinds." 😝
13. Former geopolitical states: Abbr.: SSRs. My guess is that USSR stands for the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. So, without the U we have individual (not united) geopolitical states. Alone, each is a Soviet Socialist Republic. The final s makes the abbreviation plural to match states in the clue. Your thoughts?
18. Signed off on: OKED. Last month Grammar Girl did a podcast on OK. She said that OK and okay are both OK. The Associated Press style guide emphatically recommends the two-letter spelling. The New Yorker writes it as two letters with a period after each: "O.K."
22. Quaint hotels: INNS. The news reported on a hotel scandal. They outed the INNS. (ba-dum-tss)
26. "Close, but no __!": CIGAR. This idiom is used to say that a guess was almost correct or an effort was almost sufficient.
27. Jung's inner self: ANIMA. related article
28. Rambled for a while: RAN ON.
29. "You continue to __ me!": AMAZE. This is what I say to C.C.
30. Cha-cha kin: MAMBO. Both are dances.
31. Selma of "Legally Blonde": BLAIR. She played Vivian Kensington, Warner's other love interest who ended up becoming friends with Elle.
32. Capital of Italy?: EUROS. Clue writers love to trick us with the various definitions of capital.
33. Tachometer stats: RPMs.
34. Powdery mineral: TALC.
38. "So much for that": GUESS NOT.
40. Taverns: BARS.
43. Big name in media streaming: ROKU. Roku is a streaming device that enables you to watch shows on your TV. It can search major streaming services so you do not have to go to each service. It will make finding shows on, for example, Netflix easier but you still have to pay for Netflix separately.
45. Tie pattern: PAISLEY. 
49. City on the Hudson in upstate New York: TROY. CSO to some Cornerites!
52. Metric weight: KILO. One KILOgram is about 2.2 pounds.
53. Apple desktop: IMAC.
54. Exam: TEST.
55. Relax, as restrictions: EASE. let up on
56. Mediocre: FAIR.
58. "Yeah, right": I BET. showing doubt
60. Celtic language: ERSE.
61. Utopia: EDEN. I laughed at the caption on this one:
64. Genetic messenger: RNA.
1. Bank lobby conveniences: ATMs. 
5. Hot under the collar: SORE. and 24 Down. Tantrum: SNIT. and 59 Down. Work (up): RILE.
9. Gets ready, briefly: PREPS.
14. Swat (away): SHOO.
15. "__ further reflection ... ": UPON.
16. Fertile desert spot: OASIS.
19. Big name in blenders: OSTER. "Vitamix" did not fit.
20. Amount of food consumed: INTAKE. For example, a sea otter's food INTAKE is 25% to 30% of their body weight each day. They do not have a blubber layer like seals do so they need the calories to stay warm.
23. Pros with strong opinions on style: EDS. Professionals and EDitorS
5. Hot under the collar: SORE. and 24 Down. Tantrum: SNIT. and 59 Down. Work (up): RILE.
14. Swat (away): SHOO.
15. "__ further reflection ... ": UPON.
 |
| Get it? He could not see the vampire's reflection in his rearview mirror. |
19. Big name in blenders: OSTER. "Vitamix" did not fit.
20. Amount of food consumed: INTAKE. For example, a sea otter's food INTAKE is 25% to 30% of their body weight each day. They do not have a blubber layer like seals do so they need the calories to stay warm.
 |
| After eating, they spend a lot of time cleaning their "tables". |
23. Pros with strong opinions on style: EDS. Professionals and EDitorS
Style might refer to an author's distinctive way of writing or perhaps it is referring to a style guide such as The Chicago Manual of Style.
25. Company abbr.: INC. INCorporated
34. Writer/actress Fey: TINA. [b. Elizabeth Stamatina Fey on May 18, 1970] Tina's IMDb page
25. Company abbr.: INC. INCorporated
34. Writer/actress Fey: TINA. [b. Elizabeth Stamatina Fey on May 18, 1970] Tina's IMDb page
Tina Fey created the TV series 30 Rock (2006-2013).
She also starred in it, playing head writer Liz Lemon.
In this scene she dresses up as XWD favorite Princess Leah to get out of jury duty
then later marries Criss Chros (James Marsden) in the same outfit. (2:25 min.)
35. __ sum: bite-sized Chinese fare: DIM. 
36. Close tightly: SEAL UP. I started with SEcure.
37. Getting on in years: AGING.
39. Indent key: TAB. Today I learned that TAB is short for tabulator or tabular. It advances the curser to the next stop. Most style guides require a paragraph indent to be 1/2".
41. Insincere compliments: SMARM. obsequious flattery
37. Getting on in years: AGING.
 |
| Click to enlarge. |
41. Insincere compliments: SMARM. obsequious flattery
When a roomful of people all shout out insincere compliments it can become a swarm of smarm.
42. Dorothy who was in many Hope/Crosby "Road" films: LAMOUR. [1914-1996]
44. Heat in the microwave: ZAP.
46. Personal blurbs: BIOS.
50. Reggae kin: SKA. Here's a fun SKA music video:
42. Dorothy who was in many Hope/Crosby "Road" films: LAMOUR. [1914-1996]
44. Heat in the microwave: ZAP.
46. Personal blurbs: BIOS.
50. Reggae kin: SKA. Here's a fun SKA music video:
Real Big Fish ~ Sell Out ~ 1996
51. Post-dubbing title: SIR. One definition of dub, as a verb, means to confer knighthood on. After you are dubbed a knight, people call you SIR.
57. Evening party: SOIREE.
62. "Know what __?": I MEAN. ...jellybean.
65. Rodeo rope: LASSO.
66. Highest sudoku digit: NINE. Sudoku is a puzzle in which missing numbers are to be filled into a 9 by 9 grid of squares which are subdivided into 3 by 3 boxes so that every row, every column, and every box contains the numbers 1 through 9.
Do we have any daily sudoku solvers on The Corner?
67. "If all __ fails ... ": ELSE.
68. Group of eight: OCTET. Periodic Table fans will like this 3:41 min. video about the OCTET Rule.
69. Cafeteria carrier: TRAY. A 70-A uses one to carry a slice of pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, and carton of chocolate milk from the kitchen to the dining area. #DormFood
70. Adolescent: TEEN.
Down:
67. "If all __ fails ... ": ELSE.
69. Cafeteria carrier: TRAY. A 70-A uses one to carry a slice of pepperoni pizza, chicken nuggets, and carton of chocolate milk from the kitchen to the dining area. #DormFood
70. Adolescent: TEEN.
Down:
1. Italian region known for wine: ASTI. Its area is about 581 sq. miles (1,504.5 sq. kilometers). That is roughly the same size as American Samoa.
2. __ Mints: Girl Scout Cookies choice: THIN. Contrary to wishful thinking, eating them will not make you THIN.
3. Big name in applesauce: MOTT. The answer would be MOTT'S if the clue was "Big brand name in applesauce."
4. Spot for a catnap: SOFA.
5. Casual response to "You handled it?": SURE DID.
6. Choose (to): OPT.
7. Lion's sound: ROAR. Would you rather be able to purr or ROAR? Big cats like lions and tigers can ROAR but they cannot purr. The hyoid bone in smaller cats vibrate against their larynx to created a purring noise. Big cats do not have a hyoid bone. Instead, they have a fleshy length of muscle and cartilage which is used for ROARing.
3. Big name in applesauce: MOTT. The answer would be MOTT'S if the clue was "Big brand name in applesauce."
 |
| H-Gary's cat, Lily, demonstrates |
5. Casual response to "You handled it?": SURE DID.
6. Choose (to): OPT.
7. Lion's sound: ROAR. Would you rather be able to purr or ROAR? Big cats like lions and tigers can ROAR but they cannot purr. The hyoid bone in smaller cats vibrate against their larynx to created a purring noise. Big cats do not have a hyoid bone. Instead, they have a fleshy length of muscle and cartilage which is used for ROARing.
8. Involve: ENTAIL. and 48 Down. Mom or pop: PARENT.
Notice that both of these words cross three themers. Very challenging to construct! Locking in these two fill words likely dictated choices for other not-exactly-amazing fill. (I'm looking at you 5-D.)
9. Game sticks that are treated with chalk: POOL CUES.
10. Quality of a scratchy voice: RASP.
11. "Cómo __ usted?": ESTÁ. Spanish speakers use this version of "How are you?" when they want to show respect for the listener.
9. Game sticks that are treated with chalk: POOL CUES.
10. Quality of a scratchy voice: RASP.
11. "Cómo __ usted?": ESTÁ. Spanish speakers use this version of "How are you?" when they want to show respect for the listener.
12. Many Thanksgiving desserts: PIES. This article reveals the results of a 2024 survey asking for America's favorite Thanksgiving pie. I like the line, "The correct answer is having half slices of three different kinds." 😝
13. Former geopolitical states: Abbr.: SSRs. My guess is that USSR stands for the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. So, without the U we have individual (not united) geopolitical states. Alone, each is a Soviet Socialist Republic. The final s makes the abbreviation plural to match states in the clue. Your thoughts?
18. Signed off on: OKED. Last month Grammar Girl did a podcast on OK. She said that OK and okay are both OK. The Associated Press style guide emphatically recommends the two-letter spelling. The New Yorker writes it as two letters with a period after each: "O.K."
22. Quaint hotels: INNS. The news reported on a hotel scandal. They outed the INNS. (ba-dum-tss)
26. "Close, but no __!": CIGAR. This idiom is used to say that a guess was almost correct or an effort was almost sufficient.
27. Jung's inner self: ANIMA. related article
28. Rambled for a while: RAN ON.
29. "You continue to __ me!": AMAZE. This is what I say to C.C.
30. Cha-cha kin: MAMBO. Both are dances.
31. Selma of "Legally Blonde": BLAIR. She played Vivian Kensington, Warner's other love interest who ended up becoming friends with Elle.
32. Capital of Italy?: EUROS. Clue writers love to trick us with the various definitions of capital.
34. Powdery mineral: TALC.
38. "So much for that": GUESS NOT.
40. Taverns: BARS.
43. Big name in media streaming: ROKU. Roku is a streaming device that enables you to watch shows on your TV. It can search major streaming services so you do not have to go to each service. It will make finding shows on, for example, Netflix easier but you still have to pay for Netflix separately.
49. City on the Hudson in upstate New York: TROY. CSO to some Cornerites!
52. Metric weight: KILO. One KILOgram is about 2.2 pounds.
53. Apple desktop: IMAC.
54. Exam: TEST.
55. Relax, as restrictions: EASE. let up on
56. Mediocre: FAIR.
58. "Yeah, right": I BET. showing doubt
60. Celtic language: ERSE.
61. Utopia: EDEN. I laughed at the caption on this one:
That's all. Time sure flew by today. I bird you farewell!
45 comments:
I didn’t have too much trouble with this puzzle. In fact, I would say it was AWITP, as my good friend SS likes to say. (For those of you who don’t know, “AWITP” is an abbreviation for “a walk in the park.”)
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Saw all the birds and even noticed the reveal. Amazing. Cleverly done, Emet. I always enjoy your take on things, sumdaze. (Yes, I do the Sudoku every morning, along with the Wordle, Quordle, Waffle, Spelling Bee, Connections, and Strands.)
TAB: Python is the only computer language I've encountered where the indent is critical. Add a space or lose a space, and the program will terminate with an error.
FIR without erasure. Filled KITE SURF without a single perp, likely the highlight of my day.
In Microsoft Project, tasks are outlined using TAB to indent (demote) tasks, and shift+TAB to outdent (promote) them.
I do at least two Sudokus every day. My favorite is from sudoku.org.uk, and the other is from my local fish wrapper. I also use the Enjoy Sudoku app on my phone while waiting to be called for an appointment. (The Soduku.org.uk site doesn't use SSL, so some browsers balk at connecting to it. I use Edge.)
Who knew that the humble ROKU would someday grow up to be a crossword puzzle Ektorp?
Thanks to Emet for the fun Monday romp, and to sumdaze for the chuckles. My favorite was "any key" on mom's keyboard. I'm sure that tech support folks have heard "I don't think I have an "any" key to press," likely from a wizened citizen.
FIR. Saw the birds early on. In fact I sped through today's puzzle so fast I never noticed rail as one of the birds.
My only misstep was throwing down tango before mambo. No circles and just two proper names, Tina.and Blair. My kind of CW.
Overall a pleasant and enjoyable Monday puzzle.
Ducked my way through this one today in 5:29.
I didn't know today's actresses (Blair or Lamour), but I knew today's writer/actress (Tina).
I agree with my pal, SubG, that this was AWITP.
Good Morning:
If I was a beginning solver, I’d be as happy as a clam for not only solving this without any problems, but for understanding and enjoying the fun and clever theme. As a seasoned solver, not only am I appreciative and very much aware of these factors, but I’m also impressed with the execution, the cleanness of the grid, the straightforward cluing and fill, hardly any pop culture, and only a handful of TLWs. It’s not too often that a puzzle, let alone a Monday puzzle, checks all of the boxes. And the frosting on the cake was the CSO at Troy!
Well done, Emet, thank you, and thanks, sumdaze, for tickling our funny bones with your asides and witty word play. It’s always delightful to have Darling Lily grace our blog.
Have a great day.
I wasn’t awake enough this morning to notice all the BIRDs as I solved along and was happily surprised when I got to the reveal. I had noticed the CARDINAL the bird one one, not the one in Rome, but not the others.
Fun CW this morning. No complaints.
Thank you sumdaze for all the good info and funnies.
Not the typical speed-through Monday. Quite a few unkowns but adequately perped. The theme was for the *BIRDS and gettable. 🦆🦜🐓🦉🦩
Linguistically the Italian plural of Euro should be Euri (masculine plural) but from what I understand they use EURO for both singular and plural.
Was afraid SORE might be ired and RILE can’t be ire. The SILL better be extra wide if I’m planning a catnap there. Oh wait never mind, it’s SOFA.
Upstate city on the Hudson cornerite : Agnes of TROY (IM ☘️) [don’t let that wooden horse gift from Albany fool you!]
I used to do some low impact WAVE SURFing which was my first answer supplanted now by KITESURFING which is way too challenging. I just watch.
Inkovers : LLC/INC, secure/SEALUP, iPAD/iMAC
“College era “No TIT FOR TAT“ limerick😀
EDS as Editors?
Final entries of an anthology … ENTAILS.
Unfortunate low bottom line: ___ sum … DIM
How many get to vote for pope … CARDINAL NUMBER
Happy week
Marvellous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Emet and sumdaze.
I FIRed in very good time (see how early I am here today), and saw the BIRD theme at CARDINAL.
One inkblot area when I rushed to enter SEcure before perps required SEAL UP. (Think of Tupperware with those burp lids!)
I also changed RevS to RPMS.
I wait for DH to do the sudoku and Jumble in our newspaper before I do the CW. Sometimes I do sudokus myself.
I immediately thought of Irish Miss with TROY.
And a CSO to Copy Editor with EDS.
We have had a lot of PIES lately. We will be gaining KILOs.
Canadian federal election today. We should have a good turnout to vote, as the electorate is very engaged in this outcome. The advance voting (for the EARLY BIRDs) has already been recorded-breaking. Elbows up!
Wishing you all a great day.
LOL Subgenius, we will have to add AWITP to the ever-growing list of CW Corner Abbreviations.
I also do the WORDLE. I’m no _ _ _ _ _ today.
Thanks for your kind words.
If you enjoy both BIRDs and Jazz, you might want to check out this new David Murray record:
https://www.thebirdsongproject.com/#:~:text=Birdly%20Serenade%20will%20be%20available,pre%2Dorder%20the%20album%20here.
I was all over this one like a hawk, as I FIR in under 8, a nice easy puzzle to start the CW week. About the only true unknown was BLAIR, had to wait for perps for ANIMA instead of anime, and MAMBO and not mamba. IM☘️ eloquently described the grid to a T! Thank you Emit for your fine work.
sumdaze ~ thanks for your sparkling review, your style is always cheerful and bright! All of the full time bloggers have a unique style, most likely recognizable to regular Cornerites even if there was no blogger byline, that and the diverse comments always make an enjoyable read. I occasionally do a Sudoku, DW is an ace at the most difficult ones, I am not. My daily puzzle routine - LAT puzzle gets top billing (after I have read the previous days comments to make sure I didn’t miss anything), then from the NYT, Wordle, Connections, the Mini, and Strands. I never had any time for this when I was still working 🤣. I noticed you stated Dorothy LAMOUR died in 1946, 32yo, Wikipedia says 1996.
Ray-O - nice limerick!
This is everything a Monday should be - straight forward clues with minimal proper names. But this one is elevated even higher with five themers and a perfect reveal.
Kudos to sumdaze for pointing out the difficulty of having two down words crossing three themers.
When I'm not sure of an answer, but the clue is plural, I often enter a final "S" that may help with a perp. But this time, "insincere compliments" became SMARM.
There are many Tri-City areas in the US, but I was born in the upstate NY one that includes Albany, Schenectady, and TROY. My dad was a brilliant engineer (RIP) who graduated from Rensselaer (RPI) in TROY. Not sure why it is the CSO to Cornerites, though. Probably nothing to do with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra!
It is a CSO to New Yorker IM☘️
CSO = Crossword Shout Out.
Musings
-A fun puzzle coupled with Sumdaze’s always engaging commentary
-We currently have our annual 3-month invasion of Grackles at our feeders. We are looking forward to the orioles and hummingbirds to join our usual suspects.
-The phrase “UPON further review” is now a big part of FB games
-Pyramids that were SEALED UP thousands of years ago have been opened
-Discontinuing the SMARM can endanger your job. Telling the emperor they have no clothes is risky.
-Does King Charles (then Prince Charles) regret KNIGHTING this man?
-If all ELSE fails, I just do what my lovely bride told me three hours ago.
-Close but no CIGAR can get NFL kickers fired
-Nits are in season so, KILO is a metric prefix not a weight
-Lily was not impressed with her notoriety but I thank Renee for posting her pic.
Thx
No particular nits in this one, other than the usual paraphrase non-clues. I think I spent more time on the sumdaze recap than on the puzzle! Made for an enjoyable start of the week.
RB, I live within a stone’s throw from the RPI campus. Our very young years were spent ice-skating every Sunday at the Field House arena. What part of the A-S-T area are you from?
Schenectady, the city that Lights and Hauls the World!
Enjoyable Monday puzzle, many thanks, Emet. And your commentaries and pictures are always a pleasure, thanks for those too, Sumdaze.
Well, this puzzle was a bit of an EARLY BIRD for me this morning, sitting on my SOFA and looking forward to the puzzle INTAKE. Found some family issues, what with having a PARENT looking after a TEEN. Would he encourage him to KITE SURF or learn how to use POOL CUES or train how to MAMBO? He probably had to teach him not to expect any EUROS coming out of ATMS, and probably warned him not to hang out at any BARS or smoke a CIGAR. But I bet they're still having a good time.
I wish everybody a good time today too.
TROY also the home of ParSan.
I'm very impressed, D-O! If I did all those puzzles each day I would have time for nothing else at all!
TGIM, a terrific CW, well designed, nice cluing, not too many names, by my expansive count 12, but only DNK 2. Seems like we just had OSTER as a fill. I have an Oster blender that is probably 40 years old, still works perfectly. I also have an Oster griddle that I absolutely love, and use several times a week. Great company, making products that are designed to last. I thought of SECURE before SEALUP, but looked at the perps and avoided an O/W. I agree with HG @ 10:11, "weight" shoulda been abbreviated, since the full term in KILOGRAM. But that's the only nit I have with this CW. Thanx, EO for the fun. And thanx too to Sumdaze for the (as usual) terrific write-up. Those birds on a wire remind me of looking up after going through the carwash. I also liked the Automated Taco Machine. That might actually work? The octet rule sure brought back memories of long, long ago when I taught HS Chemistry for 5 yrs.
Hi All!
Thanks Emet for a Grid to play while waiting on my annual physical (6 months late ;-)). I caught the BIRDS EARLY and that helped.
Thanks sumdaze for the expo though I still needed to lookup LAMOUR (nope, I don't recognize her).
WO: sAMBa
ESPs: N/A
Fav: SIR's clue was cute -- I kept thinking of movies dubbed into another language :-)
The "Mom's Keyboard" comic was LOL, sumdaze! [STORY - Last week I hooked up Pop with a hacker-buddy who's working on a paper for class on how technology is used by >65yros. Pop isn't too tech savvy (one day ~2 years ago, he called proud of himself after his first Amazon order) but is learning. My buddy is sending him a few CIGARs for playing along.]
RAIL PASS - that's how DW & I got around Italy on our 31st.
I used to play Sudokus but they got boring after a while; every now and then one looks challenging, and I'll bite. I do the Wordle (took me 4 C, Eh! so I'm one today ;-)), Connections, and Strands daily. Sometimes I'll play with Letter Box but, after Eldest told me everyone is derived from two words, I gave up - I'm too dense for that kind of vocabulary. I'll end my day with a Chess.com puzzle just to keep the brain active 'till morning.
A nice CSO to IM at TROY made me smile. //RustyBrain - CSO is a Coincidental Shout Out. Many regulars know IM lives in TROY.
D-O: That TAB v Space thing is my biggest NIT of Python. Semicolons (;) to end a statement and squiggly-brackets ({}) to open/close loops / subroutines worked for C, C++, perl, et.al. for decades. The brain-trust that thought indentations based on TAB or Space (but not both!) should be publicly SMARM'd ;-)
HG - I think we all know from watching crime shows, what a KILO of drugs weigh :-)
Cheers, -T
YP@9:44. Thank you for the LAMOUR correction. (Dates seem to be my nemesis when proofreading. Ugh!) I just now fixed it. Thank you, also, for your kind words. I agree that our bloggers have their own recognizable styles. I enjoy them all and look forward to each of their days.
I very much liked this puzzle and sumdaze's write-up, for all the reasons Irish Miss and RustyBrain said. I used to do sudoku but got bored with them. I do enjoy Wordle, though. Good reading all your comments.
I was Impressive in three guesses on today’s Wordle.
Nice, C,Eh!!. I had nada green nor orange on guesses 1 & 2. Guess 3 got me 4/5 green w/ 1st letter grey. My stats show I'm mostly a 4/6 solver with more 3s than 5s, no 1s, and 54 6s (which beat 2's by 3). I only have a 96% win out of 666 (really?!?) played.
-T
ooops, I failed to include the first bit of my comment in cut&paste. It read:
'Nope. And an M xing ANI_A xing LA_OUR (27d x 42a) wasn't even on my list of potential letters after an ABC run. Alas, a DNF on a Monday...
//add one more name to your list, KS'
-T
Sumdaze: Thanks for your soaring review. I am especially appreciative of your splainin’ the VW+vampire toon; I wasn’t gettin’ it.
Actually if you go to á market in France and want á KILO of pears, you would ask for á KILO not á KILOgram, so weight didn’t need to be abbreviated.
Easy but fun, EO. As always sumdaze, an informative and funny review. Smarm new to me and SSRS a head scratcher.
This winter, watching the two male CARDINALs and their mates visit my BIRD feeder. each day made living in frigid, snowy TROY something special.
Sumdaze, the computer was hilarious and very close to home. My favorite, “Wait, what just happened?” Mine could have a key that read “video of my toes”or “Amazon - thought I order 1- you sent 4”.
Thank you all for the birthday wishes! Presents are fine, but the presence of my children, local son, daughter (Boston) and daughter (Chicago) made the day priceless.
Happy day,all!
Hola! Happy Monday, everyone! I had a nap after returning from my volunteer duties at church then finished the puzzle which I had started before leaving.
It's a good one Emet Ozar! Thank you! I'll just mention that my one pet peeve is adding "up" to verbs; I find it unnecessary, e.g., SEAL means to close something and so the up is not required but I get that it is needed for the puzzle and so is forgivable. However, it is generally overused.
I liked seeing Dorothy LAMOUR in the grid; she was one of the raving beauties of the 40s and 50s.
I'll add my CSO to Irish Miss at TROY. Her commentary is always thoughtful and enjoyable to read.
Hopefully everyone is enjoying a wonderful day! It's beautiful here in the mid 70s.
Well...KILO has become an expression of weight, as in "We investigated that KILO Jinx was carrying, and to his surprise and ours, his weed was just weeds." And if KILO for KILOgram wasn't slangy enough, remember Arlo Guthrie called them "keys" in his 1969 song Coming into Los Angeles:
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
But don't touch my bags if you please
Mister Customs Man
Kind of like kids telling their friends to “wait up!”
From yesterday. I was puzzled by the PIC OF GILGAMESH and perhaps I'm the only one who did not understand it. Looking it up I learned that GILGAMESH was a Sumerian king; I fear that my education has been lacking as regards to that era and the clue actually refers to the EPIC of Gilgamesh.
Ray-O: yes but "up" is overused in so many ways!
Others: Hurry up, listen up, feel up, cover up, eat up, and I'm sure many more that don't come to mind.
If your education was lacking, Lucina, my Canadian education was similarly lacking. I too looked up GILGAMESH (to see if the spelling was with an E or an A), and I learned about the EPIC. The things we learn doing CWs! But will I remember?
I didn’t get an account to keep track, but I think I average three or four guesses. I start with either STARE or CRATE , and if get “nada green nor orange”, I use MOUND. You have a great win record!
Got the Wordle on the last try.
Sparkling puzzle, Emet! So much fun! And Sumdaze, your EAGLE eye on the details of the construction, and your illustrations of the birds, were much appreciated.
Monkey @ 2:06: The thing is, we're not buying pears in Paris.
When I read about GILGAMESH I was amazed that I had not been introduced to those Sumerian tales and myths but, of course, decisions must be made about what to include, I suppose. Anyway, I found it fascinating and read the entire Wikipedia entry.
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