Saturday, September 19, 2020, Stella Zawistowski

 Saturday Themeless by Stella Zawistowski 

Our self-proclaimed "brawny brain" is back with another Saturday entry. Stella is a Brooklyn-based copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and a power lifter. In her last puzzle she introduced us to a North African egg dish called SHAKSHUKA which I have yet to try. 

This is what she had to say about this puzzle and her cluing/fill philosophy:

Thank you kindly! Here's a note on the puzzle:

My seed for this puzzle was TROUSER ROLE, as I am a lover of classical music (although not especially an opera fan). Since the last time I had a themeless published in LAT, I've grown a lot in terms of considering entries for their potential for solvers to realize after the fact what the clue was hinting at, even if they didn't know the term beforehand. I am definitely in the camp of "learning something new from crosswords is good" and not "solving a puzzle should be about figuring out tricky clues for things I already know." But I've moved more to the side of "learn the thing while solving the puzzle," not "see the unfamiliar thing, have to Google it afterward, and THEN learn the thing."

PIANISSIMO was not a seed entry, but now that you know I'm a classical music fan, you can see why I chose that over other possibilities for 14-Across!

Across:

1. On the move: ASTIR.

6. At least four yrs. old, for cognac: VSOP - Very Superior Old Pale

10. TV series for 17 seasons: NCIS - Some cases are solved on the barest of threads that can strain credulity but it's all fun and the bad guys always get caught in an hour

14. Like much of the first movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata: PIANISSIMO - Visual and audio representation of this beautiful piece played PIANISSIMO (quietly)

16. Bit of ceramic cookware: OLLA - "Cooking pot" in Spanish (a familiar crossword utensil)

17. Cold complication: BRONCHITIS.

18. Goes to court?: WOOS - Gotta love this one Stella! Court is used as a verb ("to court" is an infinitive and not an prepositional phrase (checked that with Yellowrocks!)) makes this fun. Wait, you put SUES first? Uh, so did I. 

19. What Kim might call Khloé: SIS - Kardashian fam. Either you know them or don't care.

20. Weather report word: HIGHS.

21. Trick users, in a way: PHISH.

Don't share your personal info!

22. Texter's signoff: TTFN - Ta Ta For Now

23. Most roguish: SLIEST. sly

25. Brit's Bordeaux: CLARET - What's this all about?

28. Menace, feline-style: HISS AT - Kitty's mad!

29. Duel purpose?: HONOR - Hamilton had been a "second" for 12 of these matters of HONOR before Burr killed him in this one. This plaque in Weehawken, N.J. marks the site

30. Rain gear preservers: BOOT TREES.

33. Latin lamb: AGNUS - AGNUS Dei mean Lamb of God

34. Per ssa.gov, baby name that's far more popular when "a" is added to it: ANN - How 'bout dat?

35. Airy spaces: ATRIA - Beijing lays claim to have the world's tallest ATRIUM at 620'

36. Having two equal-length legs: ISOSCELES - Good putters keep an ISOSCELES triangle shape all through their stroke

38. French darling: CHERI.

39. Like many renewals: YEARLY.

40. Expressed disapproval of: CHIDED.

41. Road hog?: HARLEY - Former students of mine run this hog shop in west Omaha

42. French wood: BOIS - Matisse's famous The Path in the BOIS de Boulogne 

43. Humor, e.g.: GENRE - Oscar 

44. Cantina breakfast component: HUEVO - Huevo Rancheros (Rancher's Eggs)

46. Old gum mach. inserts: CTS.

49. Not pizzicato: ARCO - A young girl plucking violin strings (pizzicato) with her bow at the ready to play ARCO 

50. Hot flower: MOLTEN LAVA - This flower is the noun from the verb flow. Fun!

52. Spa offering: PEEL.

53. Objection to hustling: DON'T RUSH ME.

54. Being of old Rome: ESSE - Another crossword stalwart 

55. "__ yes!": I SAY.

56. Tsukiji Market fish offerings: TUNAS - The final TUNA auction at this Tokyo facility before it moved to more modern quarters

Down:

1. Some PD calls: APBS 2. "Hey" assistant: SIRI - "Hey Siri, don't police say BOLO (Be On the LookOUT) instead of APB today?"

3. Sangre de Cristo Mountains resort: TAOS - Not a bad backdrop

4. Comfort, e.g.: INN - or Holiday INN

5. Shaky measurement standard?: RICHTER SCALE - The 1964 Alaska Earthquake was 9.2 on the RICHTER SCALE

6. Churchill trademark: V-SIGN.

7. Jedi nemesis: SITH - A Star Wars cadre 

8. They may be intentional: OMISSIONS - Pete Rose is still not in the MLB Hall Of Fame

9. Bldgs. with boxes: POS - Crossword constructor Evan Kalish has a website with pictures of over 10,000 Post Offices. Here he is in Crosby, PA.

10. "Listen up!": NOW HEAR THIS 

11. Sheltered from the outside world: CLOISTERED - Fewer and fewer people are choosing the CLOISTERED life

12. Response to a beating: I LOST.

13. Dress uniform part: SASH - George Washington's SASH was lost to history until it was rediscovered at Harvard's Peabody Museum in 2011

15. Loose-fitting dress: SHIFT - A straight, unwaisted dress

21. Green ice cream tidbit: PISTACHIO NUT - On the tree

22. Male opera character played by a female performer: TROUSER ROLE - A new phrase for me. This is when a male character is played by a female performer to make use of the higher voice. The most famous role is Cherubino (left in picture) in The Marriage of Figaro

24. Amphibious WWII craft: LST.

25. Masala-flavored drink: CHAI - In India, Masala means spice and CHAI means tea. Masala-flavored CHAI is spiced tea

26. Mill input: LOGS - LOGS in, lumber out

27. Travel delays, say: ANNOYANCES - We had one in Minneapolis and almost called C.C.

28. Certain cell contents: HONEY.

30. Hypes: BALLYHOOS - Famous Johnny Mercer song

Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy BALLYHOOEY Hollywood
Where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic
With just a good looking pan
And any barmaid can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan

31. Word on an Irish euro: EIRE - Seen here and in crosswords

32. Spoken: SAID.

37. "Maid of Athens, __ we part ... ": Byron: ERE - Lord Byron saying goodbye upon leaving Greece

40. Charge to get in: COVER.

41. Toast portion: HERE'S - The toastee in the scene appears often in cwd's

42. January's "Mad Men" character: BETTY - She should have dumped Don much earlier

43. Hang open: GAPE.

45. It's usually longer than a radius: ULNA.

46. Four-time Oscar-winning lyricist: CAHN - I'll be very impressed if you  know what goes in the two empty cells. Hint: Frank sat this one out. (* Answer below)

47. Rating for a show with lots of oaths: TV MA - That bar keeps changing as more and more "mature" words play across the airwaves

48. MS enclosures: SAE'S - When we filed by mail the IRS included a Self Addressed Envelope but we had to provide a stamp. So it wasn't a SASE.

50. When Michelangelo began "David": MDI - He finished in MDIII (II years later)

51. Sch. on Shaq's résumé: LSU - Shaquille O'Neal's son Shareef and daughter Amirah also became LSU Tigers 

*Call Me Irresponsible/Papa's Delicate Condition/ Jackie Gleason

Now that Stella has done all the heavy lifting, click below to leave a comment.

Friday, September 18, 2020, David van Houten

 Title: I AM what I AM 

I begin with wishing all those who will celebrate the Jewish New Year, starting this evening at sundown, Shana Tovah-שנה טובה. I renew my prayer for Abejo for a return to health.

I am neither Popeye nor a sailor man, but I am your guide through this add a bigram at the end of a phrase puzzle. Similar to my last Friday blog, this looks like a Tuesday with some hard clues added into to make it a Friday. The word count, average word length, and newness all bespoke an earlier in the week puzzle. It had charm and some trickiness, so here we go, first recognizing some nice long fill ADMIRALS, TERRIBLE, BASSINETS,  and UNDAMAGED.

Then to the theme:

20A. Nickname for the first Web user?: INTERNET ADAM (12). This a good guess for the first human in cyberspace. 

34A. General Motors toy?: BABY GRAND-AM (11). The piano becomes a toy car long out of production.

41A. Cheese snack for the road?: DRIVERS EDAM (11). My favorite phrase, though I do not believe EDAM is the choice of truck drivers. It is a semi-hard Dutch cheese originating in the town of Edam in the province of North Holland. It is made with part-skim milk.

55A. Hangover ... and a hint to 20-, 34- and 41-Across: MORNING AFTER (12). The last time I saw Jane Fonda in person was at a promotional party for this Movie. Good times.

On to the rest.

Across:

1. Sit tight: BIDE. Your time.

5. Lucy who played Watson on "Elementary": LIU. She was an interesting character; Angeline Jolie's first husband was not.

8. 10-Down instrument: PIPES. 10D. Part-goat god: PAN.

13. Isn't with more people?: AREN'T. Very cute, assuming more people speak English correctly.

15. Miller of "Room Service": ANN.

16. Winner of four FIFA World Cups: ITALY. Who can forget the headbutt by the star from France?

17. French toast part: SANTE. Speaking of France, Health!

18. Baby goat: KID.

19. Arc lamp gas: XENON. A xenon arc lamp is a highly specialized type of gas discharge lamp, an electric light that produces light by passing electricity through ionized xenon gas.

23. California peaks, with "the": SIERRAS. Extending more than 250 miles (400 kilometres) northward from the Mojave Desert to the Cascade Range of northern California and Oregon, the Sierra Nevada varies from about 80 miles wide at Lake Tahoe to about 50 miles wide in the south.

24. Peace, in Russian: MIR. Did you know that 21 September is the International Day of Peace? Here are 35 ways to say PEACE.

25. Pen name: BIC. I like this simple misdirection

28. Family nickname: SIS. I never had one, never will. I do call my Thai s-i-ls Sister.

29. Benjamin Hoff's "The __ of Pooh": TAO. If you like your philosophy taught this WAY.

30. Japanese wrestling: SUMO. Derived from Old Japanese verb 争ふ (sumapu), modern 争う (sumau, “to contend, resist, compete

31. Middle of summer?: EMS.

37. Stylish flap: LAPEL. Flap indeed.

39. Tarzan's Cheeta, for one: APE. Chimpanzees are part of the APE family.

40. Evasive maneuver: DODGE. Or an out of production car.

44. Until now: YET.

45. Vogue rival: ELLE. A magazine for stylish people. 

46. Volume-increasing addition, usually: ESS. Absolutely no idea.

47. Small untruth: FIB. Rhymes with rib.

49. Mall __: RAT. Or the MOVIE. 

50. Japanese yes: HAI. How funny; I did a "say it in many languages" for yes years ago. I bet we can find it now with our enhanced search engine.

51. Pitcher's malady: SORE ARM. Local resident TOMMY JOHN had an arm surgery named after him.

57. "Death of a Salesman" family name: LOMAN. Willy, Linda, Biff, and Happy.

60. Ambient music pioneer Brian: ENO.

61. SoFi Stadium NFLer: LA RAM. Oops, no, not part of the theme.

62. Winner of 15 Grammys (2009-2017): ADELE.

63. Fort Worth sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University.

64. Snail trail: SLIME.

65. Loser to Roosevelt and Truman: DEWEY.  He came close. There are advantages for incumbents. 

66. Remained idle: SAT. This write-up involves much sitting at the computer.

67. Keep: LAST. Comments?

Down:

1. Foundation: BASIS. There are many synonyms for each.

2. Afghan's neighbor: IRANI. More geography.

3. Al __: DENTE. Didn't he blog Thursdays here years ago?

4. Goes into: ENTERS.

5. Land O'__: dairy aisle brand: LAKES. My brand of choice and home of Boomer and C.C.

6. Competitive: IN IT. Still in the mix.

7. Intact: UNDAMAGED.

8. "Cars" maker: PIXAR.

9. Tabloid twosome: ITEM.

11. "Evil Woman" gp.: ELO.

12. Example, for instance: Abbr.: SYN. Very nice misdirection.

14. Adjective for Alexander's day, in a Judith Viorst kids' book: TERRIBLE.  THE BOOK

21. Mars rover org.: NASA. Did any of you watch AWAY with Hilary Swank?

22. Couture giant: DIOR.

25. Mac: BUDDY.

26. It might be spitting: IMAGE. Cute.

27. Dancer companion: COMET. Reindeering on your parade?

29. Varieties: TYPES.

30. __-cone: SNO.

31. Ranking member, as in a village: ELDER.

32. Actress Gibbs of "The Jeffersons": MARLA.

33. In need of mopping up: SPILT.

35. Baby beds: BASSINETS. It has been so long since I had a baby in my home, I had forgotten this word. They were wonderful when you did not want to leave your room to comfort a baby.

36. Military leaders: ADMIRALS.

38. Portentous time: EVE.

42. Bring up: REAR. Raising.

43. In __: confused: A FOG. All too often these days.

48. Come about: BEFALL. I see that as backward.

50. Dear: HONEY. So many sticky appellations.

51. Pig feature: SNOUT. Modern snout?

52. Naturally lit courtyards: ATRIA. Open areas.

53. Paper quantities: REAMS. 500 sheets.

54. Big Apple sports mascot: MR MET. Another appearance of the ball headed one.

55. Tom or bull: MALE. There are also many synonyms here.

56. Ancient Cuzco resident: INCA. Did they eat couscous there? So much HISTORY.

57. Bloke: LAD. Steve, I miss you already, though MalMan and Chairman Moe are doing great work.

58. Wordsworth wrote one to duty: ODE. Would you like some extensive COMMENTARY?

59. Pound sound: MEW. Do they really take cats to the pound?

I still am trying to adjust to the new rules to create a write -up but it is still fun to fight my way through the process. I hope we are still entertaining. Thanks, David. Lemonade out.

Thursday, September 17, 2020, Mike Peluso

Good morning, cruciverbalists one and all. Joseph, aka Malodorous Manatee, here. When C.C. approached me about joining the blogging team I felt pleasantly surprised. When I learned that my first assignment would be on a Thursday I felt a bit intimidated. Steve blogged on Thursdays. I do not know how many of his 354 posts were on Thursdays but he did choose to bid adieu on that day of the week and that is surely significant.

I started solving crossword puzzles thirty years ago. Far more recently, while searching online for an answer (or two), I stumbled across the L.A. Times Crossword Corner. Some time later I returned, scrolled down below the write-up, read through the comments and realized that I had descended into a warren of crossword nerds. Fellow crossword nerds. I am very pleased to have made the discovery.

In short, thank you CC for creating this space and thank you all for allowing me to play in your sandbox.

It is an honor to have been asked to be part of this team. Now, on to the puzzle.

I am less familiar with the work of Mike Peluso than I am with that of some other constructors. However, I greatly enjoyed this puzzle and his by-line is now solidly on the radar. The theme was clever and well executed. The grid, itself, is interesting and a bit out of the ordinary in a refreshing way.

Theme: Parlez-you Franglais? Four, ou Quatre, Homophones

Four pairings of the French name for a city or region with an English word.  The words in each pairing sound alike and, when read together, form a plausible proper adjective/noun combination.

17 A.   Excursion in a Loire Valley town?: TOURS TOUR.  Tours is a city in France located approximately 200 km southwest of Paris.  It is considered to be a gateway to use for exploring the chateaux of the Loire Valley.  Of course, one can also take a tour of Tours.

25 A.   Horse of southeastern France?: RHONE ROAN   The Rhone Valley is a region of France very famous for its wines.  A Rhone appellation with which some of us may be familiar is Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  These days, there are very good wines being made from Rhone varietal grapes that are grown in California, particularly in the Paso Robles area.  Two producers, among many, that you might wish to check out are Saxum and Herman Story.  There are several stables near Paso Robles where you can rent a horse be it a Roan, a Pinto or a Palomino.  Of these, the Roan is the horse most commonly seen in crossword puzzles.

36 A.   Relative in a Cote d'Azur family?: NICE NIECE.   Nice is another French city.  Located less than an hour's drive from Cannes, it is a pleasant place to visit.  If your sister's friendly daughter lived there you could have a pleasant visit with your nice Nice niece.

51 A.   Swindle at a French festival?: CANNES CON.   Home to a major film festival since 1946, Cannes is quite famous.  In 1954, actress Simone Silva showed up topless at a festival photo shoot.  Bones were broken in the ensuing scruffle.  If dancing, in lieu of toplessness, was employed to create a diversion as part of the swindle at the festival would it then be a Cannes Can Can Con?  

62 A.   Hybrid linguistic term that hints at the answers to 17-, 25-, 36- and 51-Across: FRANGLAIS.  The reveal, of course.  I took four years of High School French and am able to sorta kinda fake my way in Franglais.  Although I took only a single year of Italian (in college), I prefer to converse in Itanglese.

Across:

1.  Big bash: FETE.  A conundrum right out of the starting gate.  Four letters.  Is it going to turn out to be Gala or Ball, or FETE.

5.  Lestrade's rank, in Sherlock Holmes stories: Abbr.: INSP.  Do you know who this guy is?  Of course you do.

Inspector Gadget

9.  Music rights org.: ASCAP.  The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

14.  Hose color: ECRU.  Four letters.  Two of them vowels.  A crossword staple.

15.  Ward of TV's "FBI": SELA.  I have a love/hate relationship with proper nouns when they're used in crossword puzzles.  If I know 'em then they are a big help.  If not, let's just say that crossing two of them in a puzzle should be, at the very least, a misdemeanor.

16.  Rattle: DAUNT.

19.  Others, to Pablo: OTRAS.  A slight pause to determine if it might be Otros.

20.  Former trucking watchdog agcy.: ICC.  The Interstate Commerce Commission.  Be careful 'cause they're a checkin' on down the line.

21.  Newscast attention-getter: TOP STORY.  Not to be confused with:

23.  National capital on the Cape Verde Peninsula: DAKAR.  With a population of roughly one million people, DAKAR is the capital of Senegal.  The metropolitan area has two or three times that many residents.  Coincidentally, this is the second time in three days that we have seen DAKAR in the daily puzzle. 

29.  Improve, as a highway: REPAVE.

31.  Composer Rorem: NED.  Hi Diddly Ho, Ned.  Oops, wrong Ned.

32.  Rome's __ Veneto: VIA.  When I was seventeen we took a family trip to Italy.  On the Via Veneto I looked for, but, alas, could not find, Sophia Loren.

33.  Going down: SETTING.  I first thought that SINKING might work out but SETTING it was.  Perhaps, at some point in time, a sinking ship video will be appropriate.

35.  Way off the highway: RAMP.  THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE could not be made to fit in the allotted space.   

40.  Minute Maid Park player, to fans: STRO.   My mother hailed from Brooklyn and I from Los Angeles.  It is probably best, therefore, that we not dive too deeply into this topic lest an animated discussion ensue.

43.  Rickety, say: UNSOUND.  Of mind, body or structural integrity?

46.  "Queen Sugar" creator DuVernay: AVA.  We have seen quite a lot of her in crossword puzzles in recent months.  A cluing update to Ava Gardner.

47.  Clear dishes from: BUS.  A word with several meanings.  A couple more  can be found at 48 Down, below.

50.  More work: UTOPIA.  Okay, Mike, you slowed me up with this one for a few moments because there is always More Work To Be Done To Be Done.

54.  "Because __ so!!": I SAID.  The concept came up here recently in a discussion here about dietary laws.

56.  Relieve: UNBURDEN.  This is what would have happened had The Animals decided to sever ties with their lead singer.  Sorry Ray, and yes, everyone else, too.

58.  Day-__: GLO.

59.  "Dust-colored," in Hindustani: KHAKI.  I always have trouble with the spelling of KHAKI.  This morning was no exception but it got worked out.

64.  Aspect of a problem: FACET  See NUKED at 52 Down, below.

65.  Accommodates: FITS.

66.  "Desperate Housewives" character: BREE.  I almost went with BRIE within the context of this puzzle.

67.  Set of beliefs: CREDO.  Could have been ETHOS.  Thank you, perps, once again.

68.  Old-time dagger: SNEE.  I always have trouble remembering if SNEE is the knife and SMEE is the pirate, or vice versa.

69.  Lip: SASS.  Alternatively, and in what would have required a much lengthier clue, SASS is, and I quote, "...the most mature, stable, and powerful professional grade CSS extension language in the world."   I think they're talking about something to do with computers.  

Down:

1.  Reeking: FETID.  I can think of a possible synonym.  Ten letters.

2.  Nissan Leaf and Toyota Prius: ECO CARS.

3.  River through Reno: TRUCKEE.

Truckin' On The Truckee

4.  Scand. locale: EUR.   I suspect that this was one of the clue/answer parings with which the constructor was least happy. 

5.  Ratio phrase: IS TO.  ISTO   INTO   UNTO   UNDO   UNDI  Voila, une word ladder.  UNDI is a village in the Indian State of Andhra Pradesh.  Okay, that's obscure but I couldn't conjure up a better last rung.

6.  Synthetic rubber used in waders: NEOPRENE.  There is a tradition at Crested Butte Mountain Resort, where I often ski, of stripping down and skiing in the buff on the last day of the ski season.  I once told my daughter that I might give that a try.  She looked at me and said, "Dad, you ski with so much Neoprene on that it won't matter."  (Knee braces, back brace, elbow sleeve, etc.)

7.  Winter weather aftermath: SLUSH.  What one often skis on on that last day of the ski season.

8.  "Islands in the Stream" duettist: PARTON.  Dolly is justifiably famous for a couple of reasons.

9.  Loved: ADORED.

10.  Man-goat of myth: SATYR.  Goat-man, ergo, goat-woman.  Are they satyr-ists?

11.  Tough mutt: CUR.

12.  Japanese carrier that sponsors a major LPGA event: ANA.   A timely entry.  The ANA Inspiration Tournament, one of the five major champiobnships of women's professional golf, was played just this past weekend.  Mirim Lee won the event in a three-way playoff.

13.  Box score abbr.: PTS.

18.  Low clouds: STRATI.  Would a selection of violins, violas, guitars, harps  and cellos from the master be Stradi varius?  Amati pleased with that pun.

22.  "__ of Us": Joan Osborne hit: ONE.   I was not familiar with this ONE.

24.  City addr. info: APT NO.  Apt.

26.  Eggs: OVA.  Alternative clue:  plural of a single cell often found in crossword puzzles.

27.  Point: AIM.

28.  Velvet feature: NAP.  Another one of those playful, pesky, and potentially perplexing homonyms.

30.  London's Old __: VIC.  An over-200-year-old, 1,000-seat theatre in London.  Was it called The Vic when it first opened?

34.  Serengeti bovine: GNU.

        Tourist:  "Can you tell me how to get to the museum?"

        Wildebeest:  "Sorry, I'm gnu in town."

35.  Enlists again: RE UPS.  One of those where, when you look at the completed puzzle the next day, you ask yourself something along the lines of "what the heck is a reups?"

37.  Flood: INUNDATE.

38.  Richmond winter hrs.: EST.  Did anyone here attend Erhard Seminar Training?  EST, as it was known, had a significant number of enthusiastic,  proselytizing adherents in the 1970's and 1980's.

39.  Sounding like a dove: COOING.

40.  Cul-de-__: SAC.  Cul-de-sac comes from the French, n'est ce pas, originally meaning bottom of the sack.

41.  FDR power program: TVA.  Many people were displaced when the TVA dams were built.  The flooding was central to the film O' Brother Where Art Thou?   The soundtrack album sparked renewed interest in traditional American music.  In 2010, I got to see Ralph Stanley perform at a music festival high up in the Rocky Mountains.  The Seldom Scene performed, too.  Quite a delightful afternoon.

42.  Was a candidate: RAN.   Often clued with a reference to the Akira Kurosawa motion picture.

44.  Falls for lovers?: NIAGARA.  It is somewhat surprising that this particular tourist attraction has not sold the naming rights.

45.  Newsstand buys: DAILIES.

47.  1800s Mexican leader Juárez: BENITO.   Perhaps, it is a good thing that the theme was not Itanglese.

48.  Flash drive port: USB.  Universal Serial Bus.  A computer industry standard for cables and connectors.

49.  Shoeshine targets: SCUFFS.

52.  Microwaved: NUKED.  In my desk drawer is a copy of Life magazine published the week I was born.  The magazine was received as a gift decades later.  In the Letters to the Editor section of the magazine is a somewhat lengthy discussion about the correct F-Stops and Shutter Speeds to use when photographing nuclear tests in the desert near St. George, UT.  These were above-ground tests.  Can you say fallout?  Talk about placing one's focus on a less important FACET of an issue!

53.  Longtime Utah senator Hatch: ORRIN.

55.  They're just what the doctor ordered: DOSES.  Or, Faline's female sibling?

Doe's Sis?

57.  Massachusetts motto starter: ENSE.  Having scrupulously avoided taking Latin as a language in school, I need to look up these state motto clues if the perps do not suffice.

59.  Louisville-based fast-food company: KFC.  Although based in Tennessee, KFC is very, very big in China.  Yum China owns/franchises KFC as well as Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.  Thomas Friedman is correct, The World Is Flat.

60.  Laugh syllable: HAR.    Over the decades, The Simpsons has provided many chuckles.  This was a gag appreciated by budding and veteran mathematicians alike:

61.  Nolan Ryan, notably: ACE.  I was lucky enough to see The Ryan Express (a riff on the title of David Westheimer's novel Von Ryan's Express) pitch at the Big A.

63.  Dumbbell abbr.: LBS.  Doh!  This type of dumbbell.  Now I get it.

Well, that's it for the maiden voyage...with not a single reference to Tom Lehrer, Weird Al, or Mel Brooks to be found.  Have to keep some powder dry.  Big thanks to C.C., Tom, Chairman Moe and the others who are helping me learn how to navigate the blog.  Because of their generous assistance, things (hopefully) went better than they did for RMS Titanic.

MM Out

 _____________________________

Notes from C.C.:

 

Abejo's wife Linda informed me that he's now at the ICU and on a ventilator. Please keep your thoughts and prayers on him!

 

 

Abejo with his tuba at a church Fat Tuesday event.