google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Steve Blais

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Sep 17, 2013

Tuesday, September 17, 2013 Steve Blais

Theme: Hometown, USA - The last word of the unifier (VILLAGE) can precede the first word of the theme entries.

37A. 1996 Hillary Clinton best-seller, and what might be said about the start of 17-, 24-, 48- or 59-Across : "IT TAKES A VILLAGE"

17A. "American Idiot" punk band : GREEN DAY. Video(4:48) - (village green, the open square in many NE towns.)

24A. Performer who is heard but not seen : VOICE ACTOR. They give voice to cartoon characters, i.e. - (Village Voice, an alternative weekly paper in NYC)

48A. Table scraps, to the dog : PEOPLE FOOD. (Village People gave us YMCA)

59A. Boob tube : IDIOT BOX. TV - (village idiot, some get elected)

Argyle here. The strong theme must be why IDIOT was allowed in a clue and an answer. Other than that, nothing jumps out at me. A nit nibbles at me on 67-Across.

Across:

1. Terrible grade : EFF

4. Don of radio : IMUS. He has generated many controversies.

8. Got smart with : SASSED

14. Not feel well : AIL

15. "Brave New World" drug : SOMA. Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. Still relevant?

16. Developed a liking for : TOOK TO

19. James of "Gunsmoke" : ARNESS. There is lots of trivia about him.

20. Most insignificant : LEAST

21. Hopefully helpful track info : HOT TIP

23. Once, formerly : ERST

28. Thames school : ETON

30. QB's successes : TDs

31. "__ were you ..." : IF I

32. Meat-and-potatoes bowlful : BEEF STEW. If it is really good, I would 65A. Patronize, as a restaurant : DINE AT

36. Mil. school : ACAD. (academy)

41. "High Hopes" lyricist Sammy : CAHN

42. One printing defamatory text, in England : LIBELLER. Two "L's"

43. Prefix with gram : EPI. A smart remark.

44. Bars to scan, briefly : UPC. (Universal Product Code)

47. Boy of la casa : NINO. 49D. Father of la casa : PADRE Spanish

51. Zero-calorie protest : FAST

55. War hero played by George C. Scott : PATTON


56. Sitcom sergeant : BILKO


57. Like citrus juices : ACIDIC

62. TV's "__ & Greg" : DHARMA

63. Remove from power : OUST

64. Sch. in the smallest state : URI. (University of Rhode Island)

66. Source of some psychiatry grants: Abbr. : NIMH. (National Institute of Mental Health)

67. Whitney or Washington: Abbr. : MTN. My nit is these are both called Mount and that is abbreviated MT. Geographically they are mountains, I suppose.

Down:

1. Apollo 11 moon lander : EAGLE

2. Pink-slip issuer : FIRER

3. Bugs with bounce : FLEAS

4. Fails to be : ISN'T. Devilishly simple.

5. Stylish, '60s-style : MOD

6. Hollywood's Thurman : UMA

7. Greet someone casually : SAY HI

8. Uttered : STATED

9. Major heart vessels : AORTAs

10. Former Seattle NBAer : SONIC

11. Doubtful : SKEPTICAL

12. UFO pilots, in theory : ETs

13. Hair styles : DOs

18. Grammy winner Gloria : ESTEFAN


22. Halloween mo. : OCT.

24. Cast a ballot : VOTE

25. Dollar bills : ONES

26. Old enough : OF AGE

27. Bill attachment : RIDER

29. Sound of disdain : [TSK!]

32. __ tendonitis: arm muscle ailment : BICEP

33. Daylong military march : ÉTAPE. from French.

34. Addis Ababa native : ETHIOPIAN

35. Mart opening : WAL

36. The whole thing : ALL OF IT

38. Ristorante carafe contents : VINO. "A bottle of white, a bottle of red / Perhaps a bottle of rose instead" - Billy Joel

39. Footnoter's "ditto," briefly : IBID. (Latin, short for ibidem, meaning "the same place")

40. Deighton of spy-fi : LEN

44. Final syllable : ULTIMA

45. Scratcher on a post : PET CAT. If only it was just the post!

46. Corp. money manager : CFO. (Chief Financial Officer)

50. Hamburger topper : ONION

52. Wedding memento : ALBUM

53. Hybrid tennis garment : SKORT

54. Wasp venom, for one : TOXIN

56. "The other one, too" : "BOTH"

57. Throw in : ADD

58. Cubs' home: Abbr. : CHI. (Chicago)

60. MADD concern : DUI. (driving under the influence)

61. Doctrinal word ending : ISM


Argyle

Notes from C.C.:

1) Below are two beautiful photos from our Corner Northeast Contingent & Montana (Darlene) gathering yesterday. Please click here for more. So nice to finally "see" Hondo, who met with Irish Miss at a card show before. Irish Miss met with Santa Argyle a couple times.

This one has the clearest image when enlarged.

Left to Right: Marti, Dudley, Hondo & Montana


 Everyone smiles in this one, lovely!

Left to Right: Marti, Dudley, Hondo & Montana


2) For those who had trouble getting D-Otto's birthday puzzle yesterday, please click here for direct download of the PDF file; (Thanks, Erik Agard, for teaching me how).

65 comments:

HeartRx said...

Good morning Argyle, C.C. et al.

At 1-Across, my barely passing grade of “dee” became an EFF. I had never heard of GREEN DAY, so it’s a good thing the perps were solid in that corner. I had another hiccup by putting CoeN instead of CAHN for the “High Hopes” lyricist. Then one last stall at NIMH, before I was able to put this one to bed.

When I saw the revealer, I wondered why they had wasted “IDIOT” in the clue for 17A. So I was pretty surprised to see 59A appear with it as well. My only nose wrinkle was at FIRER, but that didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment.

Bill G., I loved the video you linked at 9:25 last night. Really fun to watch him!

We had such a great time yesterday. It is really interesting to meet others with similar interests, and there is always something to talk about. Thanks for posting the pics, C.C.!!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

Not sure what to say about this one, except that it definitely wasn't what I was expecting for a Tuesday. NIMH, LIBELLER, ULTIMA, SOMA and BILKO were all a struggle this morning. Cute theme, though!

Hand up for DEE before EFF.

[allenrat]

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks for fun puzzle, Steve, and great write-up, Argyle! (So good that you are better!)

No problems! Got ETAPE from perps.

Great pictures, folks! I wish I could meet with some of you!

How did you like the ending of The Newsroom? I thought it was great! Will there be more seasons?

(This beats blogging after midnight!)

Cheers!

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Argyle and friends. I liked the theme. IT TAKES A VILLAGE was an easy unifier, but it certainly helped me with some of the other theme answers. The theme made me think of all the quaint little village in New England.

Although I really didn't like the answer for Whitney and Washington, it was interesting to have the two highest peaks on the east and west coast. Mt. Whitney is the highest peak in contiguous United States and Mt. Washington in New Hampshire is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. Mt. Washington also experiences interesting weather patterns.

Nice to see the photos of the New England get-together!

QOD: Calculated risks of abuse are taken in order to preserve higher values. ~ Warren E. Burger (Sept. 17, 1907 ~ June 25, 1995)

[sietylow]

Zhouqin (C.C.) Burnikel said...

Lucina & JD,
Try here for a direct download. The cool constructor Erik Agard taught me a shortcut.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Great pics of the get-together. Bet you had a good time. I'm thinking of buying an egg-beater so I can have a Marti-style do.

I've now made America's Test Kitchen's "Best BEEF STEW" a couple of times. They're right with that "best." With two cups of wine, what's not to like?

I'm deathly allergic to the TOXIN in bee and wasp venom. There's an Epi-Pen in the fridge, but so far I haven't had to find out if I'd be able to shoot myself with it.

thehondohurricane said...


Hello everyone,

I too thought of Dee for one across, but looking at the corresponding down clues, I knew it "werrn't" right so IMUS started my solve. A learning moment ...never heard of the expression VOICE ACTOR, but it makes sense. Right Mel Blanc?

MTN didn't bother me at all, thought the cluing was right on. I've threatened to move to Mt Washington, usually expressed with a bit of vulgarity when we are are in the middle of one of those HHH stretches.

PEOPLE FOOD Riley's favorite. Hasn't met any he doesn't like so far.

Wasn't sure if I was dealing with a DNF or not until I checked in today. The M in NIMH was a wag. Decided ISM made more sense then Ist for 61D. Other then that, no major slowdowns or guesswork.

As Marti noted, great time yesterday. The time went by much too fast.

Weather perfect for spending the today out in the fresh air. Presently in the 40's with highs expected to reach the mid 60's.

Dudley said...

Hello Puzzlers -

Cruciverb is at it again, I see. Two days of missing puzzles. It does seem to be a more frequent problem now.

No speed bumps today, and just a few unknowns, such as Cahn. Seems we haven't seen Uma Thurman in a while. Hand up for Dee before Eff.

Thanks for posting pix, C.C.! That restaurant was quite nice, and conveniently near a public park and the railroad station. Hartford is a compact city anyway.

Cheers All

Yellowrocks said...

Even though I had It TAKES A VILLAGE early on, I didn't see the pattern until I was completely finished. I didn't need it,, though.
For me TSK is very mild reproof, said with a smile. I suppose if it is said with asperity it could express disdain.
As Argyle said, mountain is a landform. As such it fits the clue well. Mount and mountain can be synonyms. Mount is more frequently, but not always, used as part of a name rather than standing alone.
I liked Sgt. Bilko, zany, escapist fare.
Keith, I'm so glad you enjoyed Arthur. I thought of you frequently as I read it.
Great pics from NE yesterday. Sounds like fun.

Mari said...

Good morning everybody. Nice to see some faces to go with the names. A good looking bunch here at the Corner.

I noticed a lot of multiple word clues: TOOK TO, ALL OF IT, IF I, HOT TIP, IDIOT BOX, GREEN DAY, etc. etc.

Good to see both cats and dogs referenced in the same puzzle.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

kazie said...

Hand up for thinking DEE before EFF, but I resisted writing it in. I found this to be a bit sticky all through. Thought ESTE(B/V)AN might be right until the F appeared in BEEF.

My younger (now 34 yr. old) son was really into GREEN DAY during high school. I always thought the lead singer sounded as if he had adenoid problems.

Arbaon,
I posted the pancake recipe you were asking about last night at 10:13. Enjoy!

Tinbeni said...

Argyle: Excellent write-up & links.

Since I knew "The EAGLE has landed!" no problem with the 'Terrible grade' being an EFF.

Liked the PATTON / BILKO pairing.

Learned there is a garment called a SKORT (all perps!).

A 'toast' to ALL at Sunset.
Cheers!!!

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Great photos of the Northeasterners with the Montana interloper. Looks like you were having a nice time.

Most of the puzzle seemed easy. I plopped the grid spanner down quickly enough, but didn't try to get the theme. Liked the WALmart clue; it helped nail BEEF STEW. Thought parts of the fill were bland, though. (DINE AT, TOOK TO)
67a, As Argyle points out, both Whitney and Washington are mountains. And Merriam gives mountain as the definition for MTN. Maybe the editor's intent was to lean toward a later-in-the-week style of clue to nudge up the difficulty?

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Steve and thank you Argyle.

Didn't look for the theme while flying through it. Doubt I would have got it.

Had two type overs. Had a B where the second F belonged in Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan. I liked the Miami Sound Machine back in the day. Second type over was having SKIRT before SKORT.

Nice pics, and thanks for sharing.

Time to pay attention to work. Hasta luego.

Martin said...

Finished it. Didn't get the theme.

ARBAON said...

Kazie`s recipe. Wonderful!

WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES (from Scratch)
(This makes a huge batch. Divide it all by 3 and it is just right for two people.)

Sift together in a smaller bowl or measuring jug:

2 cups whole wheat flour
3 tsp (=1 Tbsp.) baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp. brown sugar (or see below for honey instead)

Beat the following together until fully blended in large mixing bowl or measuring jug (I use an electric hand-held mixer):

2 cups milk
½ cup oil
3 eggs
(1 Tbsp. honey if using instead of sugar)

Add flour mixture to liquids, fold in on slow speed and mix together until just blended and let sit a few minutes to fully meld. Cook on a hot skillet/griddle greased with plenty of oil. I use a large electric skillet set at 350 degrees.

September

kazie said...

I forgot to compliment the N-E contingent on a great lot of photos! It's so nice to "see" people here.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Didn't get the theme without our hero Argyle's expo. Then I had to study it a bit for the lightbulb moment. Thanks! Great puzzle, Steve!

"It Takes a Village" was a blatant plagarism by Hilary.
We already had the book by someone else when hers came out. I was so disappointed in her.

ESTAFAN: hands up for trying "B" & "V" first. So I got an EFF for this. Finally! Argyle, loved her song.

ETAPE? Frawnch? I didn't know they marched. I thought they just sat in their pill boxes and waved white flags as the enemy motored by.

I'm hiding out from NIMH. I don't want them to grant me any of that psychiatric stuff. LOL!

Enjoyed the pictures of the bloggers.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

A few hang-ups along the way but nothing serious. Liked bugs with bounce=fleas looking down toward scratcher on a post=pet cat. Meow, CED. Thanks, Steve, and, Argyle, it's good to see you back.

Great pictures of the Corner group get-together yesterday. Sounds like a good time was had by all; wish I could have been there. Wouldn't it be fun if we could all meet at our own little Crossword Corner Convention? (Smile)

A little on the chilly side but much better than last week's 93 degrees! At least this is what Fall weather should be.

Happy Tuesday.


Steve said...

Nice review, Argyle - I agree with your MTN/MT nit.

Learned ETAPE today, must file that away for future reference.

We've seen a lot of UMA recently.

Great photos you NE'ers!

Anonymous T said...

G'Morning All

Nice photos, thanks to C.C. for posting them! Faces to names/avatars and all that...

Mr. Blais's puzzle was fun, but I agree w/ Argyle (et.al.) re: 17a clue in 59a answer. Steve could have used GREENDAY's breakout "Dookie" as the clue. I suppose "American Idiot" is more well known as it got a lotta press when it was released as a non-FASTing protest to GWB.

I had WAGs here & there, but only one vowel out of place (EToPE/HoHN) at the end - French! I'd certainly earn an EFF in that class (Spanish was the only dee I got in HS).

Favorite was 1d. "Houston, the EAGLE has landed..." Other honorable mentions: 51a, 48a, and 38d (VINO tonight).

To answer Argyle - Brave New World is very relevant today as everyone chooses their own SOMA (football, American Idol, beer, THC), doesn't pay attention (which finger did I lick :-), and votes for the VILLAGE IDIOT.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Hello, friends!

I TOOK TO this nice puzzle easily and simply sashayed away nonstop. Although I started with IST, that changed when I recognized NIMH. That is the professional organization my daughter belongs to as a psychology major. I'm quite familiar with those initials.

My DNF however, at CAHN. I wrote COHN and never looked back. Drat!

PK:
I had not heard that about IT TAKES A VILLAGE. What book was it taken from and why would she be given a GRAMMY if that is the case?

Wonderful photos of the NE group meeting.

C.C.:
I get a blank page on the puzzle link.

Hoping you all are having a terrific Tuesday!



Lucina said...

oops! I see what I did wrong, C.C. Please ignore my comment about the puzzle. I got it.

How wonderful of Erik Agard to do that!

Vidwan827 said...

Thank you Argyle, for a great blog. Thank you Mr. Blais for a wonderful puzzle - I enjoyed solving it so much that I never thought of any nits.

"Skort" was a new word .... So that's what those things are called. I wonder when someone will come up with a skor-kini. - which would be a combination of a skort and a bikini, for those who prefer a skootch more modesty ...

I went to my puzzle rack, pulled out my SOMA cube, and played a few games.

BTW, someone had linked the compilation of puzzles that Will Shortz has. I believe that Jerry Slocum had the biggest compendium of collection of puzzles ever. He has donated 30,000 puzzles for a museum of puzzles at the University of Indiana, at Bloomington. He has also authored at least 9 books on puzzle collecting and puzzle making - I have 5 of them.

Have a nice day, you all.

Maverick said...

Ditto on COHN. I eyeballed ETOPE for a while, then let it go, figuring I would be introduced to the "weird word of the day". Instead it was ETAPE, which I should have known. Doh!

Maverick said...

I tried to squeeze in a PH on ESTEFAN. Hah!

Misty said...

The paper arrived at 6:30 this morning, and I was able to start the puzzle on the sofa with the dachshunds snuggled up next to me. No better way to start a Tuesday, especially with such a delightful puzzle. Practically a speed run, with a cool theme and a neat reveal--many thanks, Steve. Loved the pic of Sgt. BILKO, Argyle. Watching his show is a favorite childhood memory!

Can't wait to see "Newsroom" tonight. We just had to watch Valerie Harper on "Dancing with the Stars" last night. That is one brave woman, and she deserves this bit of additional fame, after having to deal with her brain tumor.

Loved seeing the photo of everybody. Not only a very smart bunch of bloggers, but a very good-looking one!

Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

CrossEyedDave said...

Beware!

silly

joke


ahead!

Vidwan827 said...

Lucina,

this is just in further to your question of PK, about the book,'It takes a village ...' by Hillary Clinton.

Apparently, the book was ghost written by a Barbara Feinman, now Barbara Feinman Todd, - who is a journalism professor at Georgetown Univ. - and who was paid $ 120,000 for her interviews of Ms. Clinton, and (ghostwriting ?).

Ms. Clinton, did not acknowledge the co-authorship, and did indeed get a Grammy for reading the book -in the category - best spoken word album.

However, unlike Milli Vanilli, she did NOT lip-synch the reading ....

For more complete details, go to, - "It takes a village" , on Wikipedia.

GarlicGal said...

Good morning, all.

Crunchy puzzle this a.m. Didn't we run across ETAPE a while back? (Or maybe that was another puzzle I did.) NIMH was a new one on me.

Fermatprime, loved The Newsroom. I won't make any comments since Misty hasn't seen it yet. But I did read that a 3rd season is in the works.

Desper-otto, no need for an eggbeater. You just need to buy the right kind of hair products...i.e. super glue! Or Gorilla Snot (not making that up, folks) or Got2Be super gel. I know this from personal experience!

Off to do errands. Have a great day.

Vidwan827 said...

C.E.D. !!!

The Greek "monetary policy" joke is the funniest, and the most intelligent joke, I've heard in a very long time !

Thank you.

I would be glad to pay you a $ 100 for the joke ... No really.

But, since you have also wasted 20 minutes of my time, given me a stomach ache, and thereby ruined my appetite .... Lets just call it quits.

But that gets you a Ph. D. in Jokology !!

Maybe they should just import more printing presses and keep printing their Euros on overtime. I hope JazzBumpa sees this joke.

Anonymous T said...

Vidwan827 - If only. That's the problem with giving up sovereignty over your currency (The Brit's were smart not to join the EURO). You can't debase it and print more. We (USA) got to print more - bread will be $5 a loaf in a few years, but we didn't collapse / see a depression.

As to CED's Greek joke, it reminds me of Wonderful Life, "your money is in Joe's house." If we realized we all owe to eachother, maybe we will be nice. My $0.02.

/end soapbox :-)

GarlicGal - I re-read all the posts, but I don't get the egg-beater thing. Inside joke?

I didn't link to GREENDAY earlier, as I am sure that most of you won't like it. But, there it is. LEM - a band you listen to?

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

O.K., I've tolerated these past two days' puzzles. Now bring on Wednesday's submission. I surely hope it is up to the challenge of facing off against my gigantic brain. Doubt it though. Most likely I will have to wait until Saturday.

Anonymous said...

anon @1:27. You`re confusing your ends...when it comes to "gigantic."

Anonymous said...

anon@13:30

God grant me the courage to change the things I cannot accept, serenity to accept the things I have changed, and the wisdom to know I'm different.

Don't try to refute me, you don't qualify*

*Apologies to Rat

ARBAON said...

...do not feed the trolls...do not feed the trolls...DO NOT feed the trolls

Abejo said...

Good afternoon, folks. Thank you, Steve Blais, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Argyle, for the fine review.

Argyle, caught your note on the 2 idiots. Good one.

Great photos of the NE meeting. Wish I could have been there. I bet you all had a great gab session.

Zipped through this puzzle pretty easily.

GREEN DAY was easy. That is my 21 year old daughter's favorite band. Any time they are anywhere near Chicago, she goes.

I had no problem with MTN. That what they both are, mountains.

NIMH was all perped.

As was ETAPE. Someone commented that it is of french origin. That explains my dilemma.

Cruciverb was off again today. Used the newspaper. The one thing I like about cruciverb is when you do the puzzle it tells you when you are correctly finished. The newspaper, of course, does not.

Liked the Greek story, C.E.D. Good lesson, somewhere.

Off to my day. I signed up for Facebook the other night. I have been dodging it for a couple years. I have more friends than I realized.

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

(clydpedi)

PK said...

Lucina, I went back and googled the book to make sure I knew what I was talking about. Vidwan was correct in what he wrote. I knew there was a big media stink about the situation at the time in 1997. I was in the process of writing a book at the time, so I was very interested in her being accused of
plagiarism.

There also was a children's book called "It Takes a Village to Raise a Child" by Jane Cowen-Fletcher which was the book we had. It came out in 1994, according to Wiki. I would have guessed earlier.

I never saw Hilary's book, living in a town with no bookstores. I thought it was the children's book, so I'm a little off base. Too long ago.

Vidwan827 said...

Anon T - Your point would be well noted, except, in the case of the US ...Please, read these statistics ....

1. Per the Federal Reserve Bank., the amount of US dollar money in circulation, ---outside of bank holdings, ---- is about $ 1.21 trillion, of which $ 1.16 trillion is in Federal Reserve Notes.

2. The. US $ 100 bills account for 77%. of all the US currency in circulation. (. The Treasury will NOT print any higher denominations, as a matter of policy, because it only ends up in the hands of the drug and arms smugglers ...).

3. There are 34 billion notes outstanding, and 6 billion notes being printed every year. A lot of smaller notes are also destroyed or burnt, every year, by the FRB, because they are torn or tattered.

4. About 72 to 78%. of this US paper money is held abroad, --- outside the US.... Where 1 or 2 % will be lost or unintentionally destroyed every year (!!). And an estimated 39 - 44%. will never be redeemed (!!). That's an outright gift to us....

5. The Rate of Growth of the outside currency holdings is 3 to 4 TIMES the rate of growth of domestic stocks.!!!!!!

Just calculate the seigniorage (. The profit that the US Govt makes on selling these notes, over the piddling cost that they spend, when actually printing the money -). .... And the interest free Treasury borrowing, on these foreign holdings, alone, even at short term rates, is over $ 22 Billion per year.

All figures from Federal Reserve Board papers by Richard E. Porter and Ruth A. Judson. Obviously a lot of guesswork, estimation and econometrics was involved.


BTW! true story. .... I was skyping with my 3 yr old grandson, and watching him play with his dinosaur train....

He says,'. I am getting a new dinosaur train for Christmas.... And it's being made in China, right now'.

Anonymous T said...

Vidwan - So on which point am I mistaken (not to digress the Crossword Corner into monetary policy - even thought we had the CBO on CSPAN today)? I'm aware of those WAGed numbers. Was it the quip about $5 bread?

My real point is that we can print $$ and increase circulation so that we don't have to round-robbin our debts ala CED's Grecian joke, but it may eventually catch up with us (like 13+% mortgage rates in the 70s?). The Greeks, as part of the Euro, don't have that option (the strong economies of Germany & France must agree). At least that's how I see it. I'm obviously not an economist...

As far as your post, 1. How is money held by banks (not Fed) not considered in circulation? I'm not DISing (yesterday), but truly curious.

There was talk of the trillian-dollar coins : -)

As for your 3yr old grandson - Nominate him to replace Benanke :-) He's got a clue.

Cheers, -T

Ol' Man Keith said...

Hi, all,

An OK Tuesday pzl. Nothing stood out for me. Well, I rather liked FIRER because it was awkward.

Tinbeni said...

tears ...
They cancelled racing today for "The America's Cup" due to 'winds being to high' ...
(They were blowing around 20 knots per hour)

The sun is over the yardarm ...
Cheers!!!

Anonymous said...

http://games.yahoo.com/game/la-times-daily-crossword-yap.html

Old Sage in Virginia Beach

Bill G. said...

Anon (3:56), that link looks good to me. It's the same format as the Mensa sight. Neither one has ads you have to sit through first. Good!

I enjoyed the photos. Yes, a good-looking group.

Marti, I'm glad you liked that video from yesterday. Did you notice the dancer was Bobby McFerrin of the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" fame?

They got that cruise ship upright. That was an amazing piece of engineering. It's nice when things go as planned.

Jayce said...

Hello everybody. Cool puzzle today, neat-o theme. After I got the first 2 theme answers and the unifier I immediately started looking for an answer beginning with IDIOT, and there it was! PEOPLE FOOD was the last to get solved.
I didn't fill in either DEE nor EFF until looking at the perps first.
Great photos of you all at the GTG in Hartford! Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful D-otto birthday puzzle yesterday, and pretty hard, too. Devilishly tricky and clever.
NIMH always looks like a Vietnamese surname to me.
I see out friend ETAPE showed up again today, as did the lovely UMA.
No America's Cup racing today; the wind and tide were too strong. Safety first for the sailors, who otherwise would otherwise gladly go out there and sail their asses off.
Best wishes to you all.

Jayce said...

Oops, sorry, Tinbeni. I didn't see your observation about the America's Cup until after I posted. Kinda nice to know someone else watches it.

creature said...

14rdtartiCC, I'm the oddball. I can't get the puzzle yet. I'm afraid I'll never get back to normal again.

Liked today's challenge and the comments.

I'm so tech challenged I'm worn out.

I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe I can find a friend to help me.

Love the photos Good looking group!

Mari and Kazie, so glad to see you two!

amen to the notice of the sun and the yardarm!

Peace!

creature said...

My problem is with CC's puzzle from yesterday.

I've just reread my mess. Pls forgive.

HeartRx said...

Further to Garlic Gal’s comment @ 12:38, my product of preference is “Dirt” by Jonathan. Nice smell, and lasts all day.

Anonymous T @ 1:01 re “egg-beater”, see desper-otto’s 6:50 AM post…he was making fun of my “non-hairdo.” (Marti, in the photos C.C. linked.)

Bill G. @ 4:04, yes I did know who he was – I sent the link to DH, and we both enjoyed it all over again!

GarlicGal said...

I'm checking in again. Anonymous T, see Desper-otto's post at 6:50am. It was in reference to a hair style!

The natives are restless early today...

Love this blog! Thanks again CC.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Yellowrocks,

"A new warrior, la!
And all the glories fall in for him."

I finished "Arthur" and am very impressed by how it holds up. Arthur Phillips has done his homework. He immersed himself in the scholarship to the point where I believe he could give Harold Bloom and Stephen Goldblatt a run for their money.
I don't know quite where to place him based on this one book; it is so multi-layered he could go to full out comedy or tragedy (and has meanwhile constructed a plausible period melodrama).
Not knowing which direction to try with him (from "Prague" to "Egyptologist"!) I just ordered "The Song is You."

Pookie said...

DNF today ETAPE/EPI.
Nice photos, I hope you guys had fun!

TTP said...

For no particular reason...

Just saw this on the evening news.

Here's an article about it Lungfish

Anonymous T said...

HRx & GarlicGal - Thanks. I ran all the way back to the top of the blog, and yep; there it was. Though I am keen on you hair Marti :-)

Speaking of D-O: The birthday puzzle from yesterday is still stumping me. D-O, if that was your wish, you got it! Maybe MIL will help tonight.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

I finally had a chance to finish the desper-otto puzzle. As my siblings used to tell me "you are so spoiled!"

That was fun and as Lemonade said, the reordering of the Latin phrase threw me off, for a minute.

And shout out to the SUSANS among us.

Loved the clues:
ladies in natural wool coats and silver wear! Brilliant stuff, C.C.

desper-otto said...

Anonymous T@7:09 -- I like Marti's hair, too. But I figured it would take an egg beater to make it so helter-skelter. After I "test solved" that puzzle, I told C.C I thought it was Thursday-Friday level -- tough, but doable. It definitely isn't what you'd expect on a Monday.

HeartRx said...

I'm thinking of getting a crew cut...

Anonymous said...

Re: "It takes a village"

I`ve seen the village and I do NOT want them raising MY child!

Lemonade714 said...

So late to the party...

Like Tinman, I loved PATTON and BILKO next to each other; hmm, lot of Green Day haters, they are okay and certainly have more famous songs without IDIOT in the name...just sayin'.

Not much that has not been covered, except how cool it is for our people to meet, and for us to see great pictures. Guys, do not pick on our Divine Ms. M, she has just channeled the Kinsey Millhone look.

Hahtoolah said...

Keith: I read The Egyptologist. It was a very strange book.

HeartRx said...

OK Lemony, so this is Kinsey Millhone:
Kinsey is 5'6" tall, and weighs about 118 pounds. She has short, dark, thick hair that she trims with nail scissors, being generally uninterested in her physical appearance. She is, however, very particular about her teeth, and even mentions other people's good teeth (especially men to whom she might be attracted).Her wardrobe consists mostly of jeans and turtleneck sweaters, though she also owns an extremely wrinkle-resistant "little black dress" for those occasions when dressing up is unavoidable. She does, however, place a great premium on physical fitness and jogs three miles every weekday.
...Yep, that just about describes me.

PK said...

Lemon & Marti, I happen to be reading Sue Grafton's latest Kinsey book, "W is for Wasted". Now I'll have Marti's image to insert in a formerly blank-faced mental image for Kinsey. The book is pretty good so far, but I'm not very far into it. I hope you don't get as beaten up as Kinsey, Marti.

Creature, you aren't the only electronics challenged
person here. My mind just goes TILT whenever anyone goes into computer-speak. I tried to do D-O's birthday puzzle, but wasn't making much progress with getting the process to work. I read some of the clues at one point and it looked interesting. Can't print it out because I still haven't had the geek in to fix my printer.

I tried to text today and can't figure out how I did it a couple days ago. Then I was returning a message and it worked for me. I'm frustrated.

Bill G. said...

Oh boy! A CC puzzle for tomorrow. It seems pretty hard but maybe it's just me...

Chickie said...

Hola Everyone, I did the puzzle early on but have been so busy getting things done after being away for 4 days that I didn't get to read the blog until now.

What a great group of pictures from the NE get together. Thanks for posting them for all of us to enjoy.

The puzzle today was fairly easy and those few unknowns filled in nicely with perps. Green Day was one of those for me. I thought it was a bit harder than most Tuesday offerings.

Voice Actor brought to mind Walowitz's mother on "The Big Bang Theory!.

The Village theme was very apt as we just got back from a very small town where everyone knows everyone else.

Our grandson's wedding was a big success. He and his new bride are honeymooning in Yosemite.

Things went as planned until about 9:15. Our celebration blew the power grid in Ojai and the entire town went totally dark for about an hour. The dancing was just really getting underway.

It wasn't really our celebration but two transformers that blew. Thank goodness for lots of candles which were on all of the tables.
They have a fun story to put into their wedding memories album.

Getting late and it's been a long day.

Anonymous T said...

Did any one see the AP report from Moscow? One guy shot another (non-fatal) arguing over Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" while queued for a beer. I suppose Kant should have included "don't argue with an armed drunk" in the essay... :-)

At least the kids (20 yrs of age) have read Kant.

-T