google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday, May 14, 2015 Kevin Christian

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May 14, 2015

Thursday, May 14, 2015 Kevin Christian

Theme: Vowel (sorta) progression

I say "sorta" because usually the vowel progression is in the answers. With this puzzle, the vowel progression is in the clues. The problem is to figure out the exact wording that the constructor used for the answers, since these are not all "in the language" phrases.

Five grid-spanners covers a lot of territory:

17-Across. BAN : LEGALLY PROHIBIT.

22-Across. BEN : SEQUEL TO WILLARD. Never saw either one - not a big fan of rats...

36-Across. BIN : TRASH RECEPTACLE.

45-Across. BON : AC/DC SINGER SCOTT. Did not know him. I was looking for something "good" in France...

53-Across. BUN : BREAD FOR A HOT DOG. Not this hairstyle?

It's only fitting that a vowel progression theme should also be a pangram, with every consonant accounted for.


Across

1. Charms : MOJOS.

6. 60-Across, e.g. : CZAR.

10. 1992 Matchbox acquirer : TYCO.

14. Candy message : I LUV U. I have been looking for this phrase on candy hearts for years, and have to say, I have never come across it.

15. Offend, in a way : REEK.

16. Old record problem : WARP. Hand up for "skip" at first?

20. '70s Sonny and Cher label : KAPP. I wanted Atco, but that was in the '60s.

21. Dramatist with three Pulitzers and three Tonys : ALBEE. None of them were for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

28. Spiral-horned antelope : ELAND.

29. Skunk River city : AMES.

30. Tornado survivor of film : TOTO.

31. Shakespeare's "__ Andronicus" : TITUS.

33. Edwards, e.g.: Abbr. : AFB. Air Force Base.

40. Greek org. : SOR.ority.

41. Lash LaRue vehicle : OATER.

42. Branch of Islam : SHIA.

43. "Deal __ Deal" : OR NO.

44. Very long time : AEONS.

51. Eastern garment : SAREE. And a semi-clecho at 52-Across. Eastern nurse : AMAH.

60. "Terrible" ruler : IVAN. Ivan the Terrible.  "Grozny" translates in English as terrible, but the Russian word actually connotes "causing great fear," or "formidable."

61. Histamine opener : ANTI. To help prevent those 33-Downs. "Gesundheit!" trigger : ACHOO. I wish I could find an antihistamine that would open my sinuses without closing my eyes!

62. Wet : RAINY.

63. Prized possessions : GEMS.

64. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" co-screenwriter : DAHL. Learning moment: Ian Fleming wrote the novel it was based upon.

65. Gas brand with a red-white-and-blue logo : EXXON.


Down

1. Grand squared : MIL.

2. Encouraging word : OLE. And a clecho at 50-Down. Encouraging word : RAH.

3. __ wine : JUG. [shudder!]

4. Reproductive cells : OVA.

5. Moped : SULKED.

6. Burial chamber : CRYPT.

7. Youngest Marx brother : ZEPPO.

8. __ Lingus : AER.

9. "Citizen Kane" studio : RKO.

10. Denim and chino : TWILLS.

11. Start of a '60s TV toon yell : YABBA...dabba doo!


12. Old-time news source : CRIER.

13. Elected : OPTED.

18. California NBAers, on a scoreboard : LAL. LA Lakers.

19. Least infirm : HALEST.

22. Paving stones : SETTSEverything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask...

23. What Mexican Olympians go for : EL ORO. "The Gold."

24. Doha is its capital : QATAR. I learned this when Doc was in Doha.

25. Pizzeria chain, familiarly : UNOS. Formally, "Pizzeria Uno" and now "Uno Chicago Grill."

26. Liquid 32-Down : WATER. And 32-Down. Solid 26-Down : ICE.

27. "My turn!" : I'M UP.

31. Grand __ National Park : TETON.

34. Spark producer : FLINT.

35. Sixth-day creation : BEAST.

37. Fooled (around) : HORSED.

38. Eastern royal : RANI.

39. "Just __!" : A SEC.

43. Loads : OCEANS.

44. One way to be washed : ASHORE.

45. Comparable to a house? : AS BIG.

46. Use a pocketknife, perhaps : CARVE. I would rather use skis.

47. Fantasize : DREAM.

48. Recurring Dana Carvey "SNL" character : GARTH.

49. Some spam : EMAIL.

54. __ diet : FAD. Another clecho at 55-down. __ diet :  ON A.

56. Strain : TAX.

57. New Jersey fort : DIX. Hand up for wanting "Lee" at first?

58. Lennon collaborator : ONO.

59. Dr. for women : GYN.ecologist.

Marti, out for the count!

53 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF due to naticks SEQUEL (I was expecting the name of a coworker of WILLARD Scott), SETTS (never heard that word before), and LAL (those scoreboard clues are always wags for me); UNOS (never heard of it) would have been if not for the Q+U perp letting me wag it. So many write-overs! SKIP>WARP, SIMON>ALBEE, VOTED>OPTED, WAIT>1SEC>A SEC.

Lemonade didn't care for my limericks yesterday, so here's some he might like better.

Getting older isn't all aches and pain,
For most, getting wiser is somewhat of a gain.
We've made some mistakes
So we've got what it takes
To properly ID them when we make them again!

No more skipping or jumping, I must walk with care
If I hope to be whole when I get here to there.
But when I was young
Go-karts were great fun,
Now I zip though the stores in their motorized chair!

Working a crossword or playing a game
I'm better than young folks straining their brain.
For them obscure trivia
Brings only oblivia,
But for me it's a trip down memory lane!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

I managed to successfully navigate through this one, but I hit a few reefs along the way and almost sunk.

JUG wine meant nothing to me. Went with TSAR instead of CZAR. Never saw SAREE before (instead of SARI) and would have expected a "var." in the clue. Never heard of KAPP and went with K-TEL instead. And, of course, had no idea whatsoever that BON was somebody's name (let alone a singer in ACDC, which is a band I've never listened to).

So, yeah. Lots of bumps along the way. Fortunately, the perps were solid and it helped that I actually knew that BEN was a SEQUEL TO WILLARD. I don't know my rock bands, but I do know my rat movies. Go figure...

Lemonade714 said...

BG, interesting...

Never heard of SETTS, some great 5 letter fill YABBA and ZEPPO come to mind. All that and Grid spanners..I really liked it.

Also,for 15 across REEK

Thanks Kevin and marti

Hahtoolah said...

Good Morning, Marti and friends. Interesting puzzle. I don't remember seeing a Clue Vowel Progression before. And all the answers spanned the grid! Clever. It also seemed rather daunting at first.

Marti, I remember seeing I LUV U on those cheesy candy hards that we exchanged back in grade school on Valentine's Day.

Hand up for Skip before WARP. I also wanted Ablest before HALEST.

I knew the "Toon Yell came from The Flintstones, but wanted Wilma before YABBA.

(There is something weird again with the way the blog seems to repeat itself within itself. Right after the YABBA comments, the blog has an insert that repeats.)

QOD: I don’t listen to the radio very much, but that could be because I don’t have a car. ~ David Byrne (b. May 14, 1952)

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I really liked this one. I prefer definition theme answers to quotations or in-the-language phrases. Hand up for SKIP and ATCO, but at least I got DIX right away. Speaking of records, remember when you purchased your turntable based on it's wow and flutter ratings? What, you didn't?

Interesting to see HORSED crossing OATER. RANI almost crossed SAREE.

Marti, I see you started that jug at 11:15. What time was the photo taken?

Big Easy said...

For all you AD-DC fans, this one "Shook Me All 'Morning' Long" because SCOTT was an unknown name to me, but I almost finished the thing.

Last waffle was the crossing of either FAT or FAD diet with TAHL or DAHL and I guessed wrong. But this was a harder than usual Thursday for me due to the unknowns- KAPP, TITUS, SETTS, TYCO, and UNOS. I was trying to guess some short version of DOMINOS.

BEN- A Michael Jackson song about a rat, Willard's brother or cousin.

ELAND- We went to eat crawfish at a local seafood restaurant, and mounted on the wall was an ELAND, BABOON, WILDEBEAST, LION, GEMSBOK, and other animals that the owner had shot along with the usual bear, deer, turkey. And it's a small place about 30X30.

I agree with Barry about BON, although I'm sure he's heard many ACDC songs.

C.C.- what a long interview. And Marti, I had to laugh at the picture of Sonny & Cher. There caveman outfits complement the YABBA DABBO DO, and I'm outta here on the way to a wedding on the beach in Destin.

thehondohurricane said...

Good morning all,


I had a fun time with this puzzle once I figured out the theme clues. BREAD FIOR A HOTDOG came first. Perps were beneficial in getting each theme fill. Never heard of .........SCOTT, but I wagged the G for GARTH and that gave the fill.

Have to leave. Worker Bees arriving to further the confusion... remodeling is such a nuisance.

Anonymous said...

The big surprise in this puzzle is IVAN (60A) = CZAR (6A). The usual crossword custom is to spell the Russian autocrat TSAR and the business or drug mogul CZAR.

Tinbeni said...

D N F ... I vowed to never enter a certain 3-letter word. (The ans.@ 32-d).
(I like my "puzzles" NEAT, also!)

Needed ESP to get KAPP, SETTS and AMES.
(To be honest, I don't care what 70's label Sonny & Cher used.
Never heard of SETTS before.
Never been anywhere near the Skunk River ... or that city).

It's a beautiful day here in Tampa Bay.
A "Toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!!!

Avg Joe said...

What Anon at 8:36 said. I don't ever recall the Russian despot being clued as Czar. So with A and R in place, I entered Tsar and had a tough time letting of of it. Zeppo finally forced it, which opened up crypt.

Enjoyed the puzzle and got the theme answers pretty much from the bottom up. Complete unknowns were Setts and Kapp. Everything else came with persistence. Especially liked the diet pair. I guessed them both correctly right off the bat, but had to wait for perps to solve the order of entry.

Good puzzle, and also enjoyed the interview. Thanks all.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

I can't believe I actually got this one done. A lot of it was out of my wheelhouse. But the only look-up was SETTS. First spanner solve was TRASH RECEPTACLE. Branching from there got me the bottom 2/3's. Many unknowns at the top, but bulled ahead with MOJO, I LUV U, CZAR (spelling), TYCO, KAPP, and ALBEE; LEGALLY PROHIBIT loomed, and WILLARD seemed acceptable. And voilà, it was done.
I want to thank Kevin for constructing the puzzle in such a way that he pulled out of me more than I thought I had.

Have a great day.

Fact Checker said...

SETTS

I'm pretty sure it's appeared here before (maybe in the singular?). Perhaps those who are able to search the archives can verify this.

desper-otto said...

In my ute I learned that it could be spelled CZAR or TSAR when referring to the Russian ruler. The modern business biggie is always spelled CZAR -- in my ute there was no such thing, or at least it wasn't called that.

Forgot to congratulate JzB yesterday on his solo NYT acceptance. That's quite a feat! Looking forward to seeing it.

Yellowrocks said...

Great limericks, Owen.
Fun puzzle, a little more challenging than most Thursdays.
I enjoyed the write-up, Marti.

As well as extremely bad, TERRIBLE can mean inspiring intense fear, like Ivan, or awesome and formidable.
It comes from the Latin, terribus, to frighten, which is the origin of TERROR.
DO @ 9;28. my thoughts, exactly on TSAR and CZAR. Again we have more than one spelling due to transliteration into a different alphabet.
Hondo, good luck with your building project. All my materials have arrived for remodeling my bathroom, set to begin the first of June.
Belgian blocks (SETTS) are used here to make curbs and edging.

C6D6 Peg said...

Thank you Kevin for a very nice offering. Loved the progression in the clues. DH got the answer to BEN, because I had no clue.

Marti, laughed at your (shudder) for the jug of wine, as I thought about you when putting in the answer. Also loved your Fred Flintstone glittery YABBA....

Husker Gary said...

Wow! 5 grid spanners with a vowel progression amazed this cowboy! MOJO and JUG mocked me for a while.

Musings
-People lined up for tickets when her now tame comedy was BANNED!
-I couldn’t name an AC/DC singer or song
-My sister caused this to one of my Four Season’s records! I was IRATE!
-The Skunk River got up close and personal with AMES in 2010
-The Wizard didn’t fool TOTO!
-Crazy/brave pilots at Edwards Air Force BASE (originally Muroc Army Field) was the basis for this fabulous book!
-The absolute worst DEAL OR NO DEAL decision ever! (1:04)
-Rainy again today! I wish we could ship it out to our west coast friends!
-JUG wine for Marti? PUHLLEEZE.
-It’s hard for the LAL to get better when they do this
-2012 Mexican team sporting “medallas de ORO olímpicas”
-Gilligan, et al, were washed ASHORE on an uncharted desert isle
-Kliinger’s mom knew he was in Korea despite this staged picture
-What song mentioned the vocal group, “The CRYPT kicker 5”?

Lemonade714 said...

While SETT has appeared three times in the LAT, the most recent is JUNE 8, 2011.

It is much ore common in the NYT.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi Gang -

I, for one, am delighted to see CZAR. I don't recall ever seeing TSAR outside of a crossword puzzle, and it always strikes me as an ugly bit of crosswordese.

What an impressive construction! Five grid spanners and a pangram. That rates several WOWs!

The only thing that seems forced is SAREE, and I'll gladly take that to get all that is wonderful in this grid.

The NYT puzzle that C.C. and I built is of the early week variety. If it hits a Monday, it might get printed in less than a year. If it's a Tuesday, it could be a much longer lead time.

By then, I'll probably have forgotten what's in it.

Cool regards!
JzB

Lucina said...

Greetings, my friends!

Thanks to Kevin for a fine puzzle which caused me to delve deeply into my brain; that's always appreciated.

Hand up for TSAR/CZAR although both have been used in puzzles. This took every across/down fill and with a few letters the long theme answers were revealed.

I can't seem to distinguish between the capitals of Dubai and QATAR and never heard of UNOS but finally worked them out. SETTS has been used before though it took a long while to drag it out.

Thank you, Marti, for a lovely review. I'm off to CA again for a few days. Later!

Everyone have a delightful day! Live each day to its fullest.

Boris said...

HG, Monster Mash?

Kevin Christian said...

This is Kevin, just stopping by to say hi. Thanks CC for interviewing me, I was honored and humbled to be asked. Glad that most everyone seemed to like the puzzle. Now on to the next one...

Unknown said...

I liked it yesterday
And I love it today!
Especially the motorized chair.thanks for the laugh

JJM said...

Compliments to the constructor for being able to make all those grid spanners. Got thru it in usual Thur time, I just wasn't a big fan of some of the cluing today.

Tinbeni…. NYR v. your TBL, now that's going to be a speed match!
ANA v. CHI: Man, those guys on the Ducks are huge! But, you can NEVER bet against the 'Hawks. Edge to the 'Hawks cause we can roll all 4 lines.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I did TERRIBLE at this. Really did REEK, but managed at last to fill it. Didn't understand many of the answers when they were filled. BREAD FOR A HOT DOG, I liked and understood.

I get SETT a lot in a word game I play. If I had ever bothered to look it up... Out here, pavers are usually molded concrete not stone. I SETT plenty of those in my landscape.

WARP: like when you are 8 yrs. old and leave your kiddy records and crayons in the back window of the car on a hot summer day going to grandpop's and they are ruined so both mom and dad say TERRIBLE things to you. Been there, done that. Alas. The window ledge was never the same either. No A/C in those days.

Rained most of the night. Raining now. Gray & gloomy for several days. Brain soggy. Keep going ACHOO! Pass the JUG! My taste buds aren't working anyway.

Thanks, Marti!

CrossEyedDave said...

Enjoyable puzzle today, just enough known versus unknown to make puzzling fun & rewarding when completed.

Except when I came to the Blog, I discovered I finished it wrong! (FIW)

Curiously, it occurred because 48D Dana Carvey role, I put "North." (Hasn't he played Oliver North?) 52A Omah/Amah? I dunno... But it resulted in 45 A (BON) being AC/DC Sinner Scott... (& I never questioned it....)

Ban?

Ben?

Bin? (Look Tin, he's not trash! No Ice!)

Bon? (OCD/C?)

Buns (Do you like em warm, hot, or toasty?)

Steve said...

I knew his name was BON SCOTT, so when my tortured mind parsed the answer as "AC/DC'S INGER SCOTT I thought I'd learned that his name was really INGER "BON" SCOTT.

Thanks for putting me straight, Marti!

Bill G. said...

Hi everybody. I started this last night and just finished it. Challenging and enjoyable say I. I didn't know SETTS and CARVE doesn't seem like something one would usually do with a pocket knife. But, I had fun. Thanks Kevin and Marti.

Eggs. I like 'em. That's why I get jumbo eggs at the supermarket. Today, one of the jumbo eggs was jumbo-er than the rest of them. A double yolk emerged. Excellent!

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts"

CED - great links today!

I had just one ink blot today: ABLEST before HALEST, which slowed down the NE. But once TYCO and YABBA fell, and I saw LEGALLY developing for 17a, that corner finalized

Great puzzle, Kevin and an equally informed recap, Marti.

Favorite clues/solves? Almost too many to recall. The WATER/ICE was good; liked the EL ORO for what Mexican Olympians seek

As for AC/DC, I am personally familiar with Cliff Williams, as I participated in a charity event at his home in Fort Myers a few years ago. The home is huge, as you can see in the picture, and had a room dedicated to his Grammies, Rock n Roll HOF, etc. Cliff is a really laid back and cool dude; not at all pretentious.

Madame Defarge said...

Hello everyone,

I am off my game today and had some trouble here. Eventually, everything fell into place with perps and WAGs. Mostly by now, WEES--especially SETTS, wanted flags.

Thanks Kevin and Marti. I knew that wine would get a comment. Agreed. C.C., thanks for the interview with Kevin. I am particularly impressed by constructors, so I really enjoy these. Speaking of constructors: Congrats JazzB!!

Yellowrocks said...

Bill, as kids we carved soap with pocket knives.

I have enjoyed several historical novels about Tsar Nicholas II. Winter Palace by Eva Stachniak was one of my favorites about Catherine the Great. Such intrique! The TSAR spelling is quite common, more common in reference to the Russian rulers than CZAR is.
Refernces:
"The princess was the niece of Napoleon I and a relative of King George II and the tsar of Russia."
US News May 12, 2015
"Nicholas senior is half Russian and his aristocratic grandmother fled St Petersburg after the tsar was ousted." BBC May 8, 2015
"Russians trusted the tsars; many believed in the Soviet revolutionary Lenin, then Stalin.
BBCDec 14, 2014
Link Tsar Nicholas II

coneyro said...

A brain challenge for me today. Really had to work for this one.

Love AC/DC but never knew individual names. Perps helped.

The song "Ben", sung by Michael Jackson is so beautiful. You would never know it is a tribute to a rat. I did see both movies many moons ago, and enjoyed them. Did not creep me out. Among my many pets, I've had mice, hamsters, and a BIG white rat named Rosie. Rodents are cool.(clean, domesticated ones, that is)

Speaking of CHER...Does this woman ever age? She is about 70 or so now, and still looks fantastic. Another of my all-time favorites.

CZAR/TSAR always have to wait. WEES about SKIP/WARP. Never heard of UNOS.

This week the TV stations announced what stays, goes, and their new line-ups for fall. The new season doesn't seem to be very interesting, and too many shows will be pulled too quickly. Doesn't pay to invest in a program, only to see it not given any chance to find an audience. Guess that's why so many viewers have pulled the plug and have Netflix and Hulu type subscriptions instead. Some of my new favs have gone bye bye, and I'm really po'd.

Anyway, that's it for me today. Til next time, folks.....

Chairman Moe said...

coneyro @ 12:44

There's no way that Cher can be 70! If that's true, then I must be . . . oh damn! I'm getting old!! ;^)

Though not QUITE as old as she . . .

Anonymous said...

Tough for a Thursday but quite doable IMHO thanks to good clueing. Most enjoyable even if the first pass through had me concerned.

A question before I write my features editor:

Does the theme - when there is one - actually print in other folks' editions or is it just indicated here in the blog?

I never see a theme printed so before I complain I would like to know. Thanks!

Jerome said...

A lot of themeage can be fun, but it usually comes with a cost. You'll have much less of a chance to have the fill really shine. The odds are that with less theme hogging the grid you won't get stuck with partial phrases, abbreviations and SETTS, UNOS, KAPP, AEONS, SAREE, RANI, and AMAH.

As bad as it gets-

QATAR- Instrument for Jimi HendriQ

Condoleeza becomes Eastern royal- RICE A RANI

I like my eggs OVA easy

How Edward mended his socks - ALBEE darned

TYCO- Letters before BB

YABBA- Gibberish from A BABY

A HORSE washed ASHORE because he was going potty and slipped off the poop deck

WILLARD, SCOTT, RAINY... all in the same grid. Go figure.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I didn't know about SETTS before either, and I had LEE for my first stab at a NJ fort. The alternate spelling for SARI surprised me too, but I was happy to see the common spelling CZAR used in place of our eccentric cruciverbalist TSAR.

All in all, a fine puzzle from Mr. Christian!

Anonymous said...

A theme is printed only on Sundays. Our blogger of the day makes up a theme name on the other days

desper-otto said...

Anon@1:12 -- Only on Suday does the LAT xword have a title. Saturdays are themeless, so Splynter is saved the trouble of coming up with a title. The other five days the blogger-of-the-day creates a title as part of the blog post.

Anonymous said...

This puzzle triggered some age old questions:

Matchbox or Hot Wheels?

Sonny or Cher?

AC or DC?

Zeppo or Groucho?

Shia or Shiite?

Aer or Cunning?

Flintstones or Jetsons?

Wayne or Garth?

Lennon or McCartney?

Irish Miss said...

Hi Everyone:

Late to the dance due to unexpected, but much welcomed, company and numerous side-tracks.

Enjoyed the puzzle and, like others, went astray with skip/warp and Lee/Dix. Also had Sen instead of AFB for Edwards. The silliest was horse for Lash LaRue's vehicle!

Unlike Tin, I like my Scotch with liquid _ _ _ over solid _ _ _!

Thanks, KC, for a challenging but doable offering and thanks, Marti, for the delightful expo.

Have a great rest of the day.

Bill G. said...

Some drops of water seem to be coming out of the sky and falling on the skylight. I've heard of this phenomenon before... Has it happened to any of you?

Jerome said...

Bill- It's only migrating geese in a pee formation.

Avg Joe said...

Art imitates life. Jeopardy fans, check out the double round today where one of our major topics of conversation today is part of the clue.

Paul in Montebello said...

Easy, accept got stuck for as few minutes as I wanted totally rather than legally prohibit...but a taste of the "jug wine" got me through.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

A GEM of a puzzle with 5 CARVEd out spanners. What a DREAM!

Thanks Kevin! Also, thanks for the interview and stopping by. Marti, as par, fun writeup. C.C. thanks for answering my question from last night. With that acceptance to paper time-lag, no wonder Marti forgot it was her puzzle last week.

WEES - this took work. After skip wasn't going to work, I kept thinking of yellowing records at Ft. DIX. Never heard of SETTS and the perps weren't solid for 18d (I had LAC - they're playing HOU now - and aLAND for the antelope). If 61a had a ? in the clue, I wouldn't have spent 10 min HORSEn' around trying to think of 4 letters for pollen. Eventually deCRYPTed it.

Anyone else see DIX below SCOTT AFB?

EXXON's new Houston campus to hold ~10,000 employees.

STS-1 landing at Edwards AFB (@6:28 - I imagine only HG will watch all 8:14 like I did :-))

It was RAINY last week and streets had puddles AS BIG as OCEANS - stay ASHORE and don't drive in 'em. (nothing like AveJoe's rain, though - you guys dry yet?)

Cheers, -T

JD said...

Too late to add anything of value, but I LOVED this CW!! It gave me both giggles, a-ha's and some struggles. Thanks!

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Kevin and Marti!

Somewhat chewier than usual Thursday. Scratched head at SETTS. No cheats.

Lots of thunder with not much rain. Really cold, too.

Had nap after long swim. Then watched Jeopardy. Amazing that no one got the final answer.

Cheers!

PK said...

Anon T: Interesting that those large buildings are urban camouflaged!

OwenKL said...

-T & PK: yipes, those rooftop murals are going to give Google & Yahoo maps conniptions!

Avg.Joe, fermat', or anyone: Okay, Jeopardy is over now. How about telling the few of us who don't watch it what the fuss was about?

Lemonade: no comment on the limericks today?

Anonymous T said...

OwenKL - I overlooked noting the book-end limericks. I LOV U's takes on aging between them. Granted I'm in the middle still...

And, yeah, what was the hubbub on Jeopardy? Bill G - you're still up...

Cheers, -T

Bill G. said...

Avg Joe, I caught the TS vs. CZ question on Jeopardy thanks to your heads up.

Anon T, it wasn't a big deal; just a question that asked about a ruler and noted that it could be spelled with a TS or a CZ. Or something like that...

Anonymous T said...

Oh, wow... CZ / TS? Ruler? Mmmm... I'll have to noodle on that one :-)

Did anyone get it right? It sounded from AveJoe they flubbed it... C, -T

Anonymous T said...

Oh double-wow! When I moved to Houston, I heard the legend...

HOT DOG - Rockets just came from 19 points down w/ 8min to play in Q4 to beat LAC 119-107. Clutch City is real...

Talk about MOJO!

Cheers, -T

Anonymous said...

This puzzle was darned clever/ 5 15-letter stacks is a new one on me. And when I figured the theme, and thought to myself "what will he do with BON" - could he? would he? - and then he did, I was overjoyed.

Only question is about tense - that "least infirm" was "halest." Perhaps the ed of infirmed was cut off in my edition? Or maybe "infirm" can be a past-tense adjective. Going to look it up now.