google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Thursday April 20 2017 Mike Peluso

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Apr 20, 2017

Thursday April 20 2017 Mike Peluso

Theme: Clecho Cluster - two closely-related pairs of clues.

17A. Breakdown : CATEGORIZED LIST. Like my monthly spending report from BofA. I won't tell you how each category breaks down, but I'm sure you can guess that "Food!" is a significant slice of the pie chart.

25A. Breakdown : ENGINE FAILURE. In all the flying I've done I've thankfully only experienced one engine failure - on a 737 climbing out of Las Vegas. There was a "pop" sound and the plane seemed to slide backwards for a second. Caused a few raised eyebrows, but no-one was heard to ...

42A. Break down : WEEP IN ANGUISH.

55A. Break down : CHEMICALLY DECAY. Aluminum 26 has a half-life of 720,000 years, whereas the isotope Aluminum 29 has a half-life of 6.6 minutes. I have absolutely no idea why.

Fun offering from Mike today. The theme is nicely done; the grid has eight "cheater squares" (Rich calls them "helper" squares) but four of them are the result of the two 13-letter entries so you can't do anything about those. There's some lively fill, two or three new words for me and some canny cluing to keep us on our toes. Throw in a smattering of French, Spanish and Portuguese and it all adds up to a good Thursday challenge. Let's see what jumps out.

Across:

1. Prepare for a car trip : GAS UP

6. Sack : BAG

9. Swedish autos : SAABS. The company went out of business in 2012.

14. Nearly half of New England : MAINE. With GAS UP atop MAINE I was looking askance at some odd letter progressions for the downs but it all came good in the end.

15. In the fashion of : A LA.  For example, the cajun dish Blackened Catfish a la Mer. Food!

16. St. __ Fire : ELMOS

20. Orlando-to-Miami dir. : S.S.E.

21. Hosp. staffer : L.P.N. Licensed Practical Nurse.

22. Ebbs : ABATES

23. Ready : SET

24. Corrida cry : OLÉ!

32. Island near Java : BALI

34. 1945 conference city : YALTA. Where Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill carved up post-war Europe.


35. Snitch : RAT

36. Leche, across the Pyrenees : LAIT. Your café con leche in Spain turns into café au lait in France.

37. "The Fall" novelist : CAMUS

38. Italian beach resort : LIDO. This was my last fill. I couldn't remember RADO and I wasn't sure of the actor URICH so I had to stare this one down. We had an open-air swimming pool in the town where I grew up called The Lido, so something jogged my memory regarding the source of the name.

39. Chicago destination, on airline tickets : ORD. O'Hare was originally named Orchard Field, hence ORD.

40. Higgs particle : BOSON. A Higgs Boson walks into a bar and asks everyone to join in an act of penitence. "What are you doing?" asks the barman. "Giving mass."

41. Object of devotion : ICON

46. Balderdash : ROT

47. Angel dust, initially : PCP. Phencyclidine. I knew this! From the movie "Trading Places", just to be quite clear.

48. Round drill : TREPAN. I think this was new to me - it looks vaguely familiar so perhaps I've seen it before. I find it's a pretty scary-looking piece of surgical equipment.

51. Purpose : USE

52. Clothing dept. letters : SML Small, Medium, Large sizes.

58. It may cause a financial crisis : PANIC

59. Coral __ : SEA. Site of a pivotal naval battle in the Pacific War in 1942.

60. Fast Bolt : USAIN. The world's fastest man holds the world records for both the 100m and 200m sprint.

61. Long range : ANDES. Nice clue! The range is 4,350 miles long from Venezuela in the north to Chile in the south.

62. Half a score : TEN

63. Ltr. holder : P.O. BOX

Down:

1. Acadia and Terrain : GMCS. SUV's.

2. Remote inserts : AAAS. Batteries for your remote control.

3. Location : SITE

4. Article in Arles : UNE

5. Pirate stereotype : PEG LEG. Avast, me hearties!

6. Amish project : BARN

7. Louisville slugger? : ALI. Another nice clue. Muhammad Ali hailed from Louisville.

8. Mediterranean strip : GAZA

9. Missouri State Fair city : SEDALIA. I confidently entered ST. LOUIS when I had the "S" and was singing "Meet me in St. Louis, meet me at the fair" to myself. Then I discovered I was wrong.

10. 2009 Verizon acquisition : ALLTEL. I don't recall these folks. They were headquartered in Little Rock so that might have something to do with it.

11. Lyon gal pal : AMIE. Funny coincidence with Arles also appearing in a clue today - I got a flyer for a Lyon to Arles wine-tasting river cruise with my wine shipment yesterday.

12. Company leader : BOSS

13. Erstwhile flier : SST

18. __-Free: contact lens solution brand : OPTI. Thank you, crosses.

19. WWII torpedo launchers : E-BOATS

23. Foul mood : SNIT

25. Neglect to say : ELIDE. Another nice clue.

26. Tanzanian border lake : NYASA. I went windsurfing on this lake when I visited Malawi years ago. There are both hippos and crocodiles in the water, so you need to focus on not falling in!

27. Irish statesman de Valera : EAMON. His career had mixed reviews.

28. Heaved : FLUNG

29. "Vega$" actor Robert : URICH

30. Rolex competitor : RADO. Must try and remember this name.

31. 007's alma mater : ETON. 007's creator, Ian Fleming went to Eton. His housemaster disapproved of many things, including "his attitude, his hair oil, his ownership of a car and his relations with women." Not bad for someone yet to turn 18.

32. Lose a big lead in : BLOW

33. Bern's river : AARE

37. Cold + Flu maker : CONTAC

38. Speech therapy subject : LISP. I had speech therapy as a kid to try to correct a stammer that I developed when I was six. It didn't help at all. I finally began to get it under control in my twenties.

40. "Ali" and "Milk," e.g. : BIOPICS

43. Early arrival : PREMIE

44. Daisy preceder : UPSY

45. Got slick after sleet : ICED UP

48. "More __ a Feeling": Boston hit : THAN. Classic ballad. Little late in the blog for a music link but it's too good to miss.

49. Tear : REND

50. Tweed lampooner : NAST. Boss Tweed of the Tammany Ring as portrayed by Nast in 1871.


51. __ Bator : ULAN. One of my school friends was recruited into the British Secret Service. She found it "quite fun" until they wanted to post her to Ulan Bator. Mongolia wasn't quite what she had in mind so she quit.

52. Wound protection : SCAB

53. Spring month in Porto : MAIO. Our Portuguese lesson for the day.

54. Forest feline : LYNX

55. Tax pro : CPA. I hope we all met the tax day deadline this week.

56. Loser to Meade at Gettysburg : LEE

57. That, in Barcelona : ESO. Home of the amazing Sagrada Familia Church. "Que *** es eso?" It's still not finished.


Just time to post the grid, and I think I'm done!

Steve


48 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

WEEP IN ENGLISH almost put this one in the loss column, but UPSY showed me the error of my ways. That whole NYASA-EAMON-FLUNG area was tricky. Thanx, Mike.

Steve, enjoyed groaning at your Higgs joke. You get wine shipments? Wow.

Remembered TREPAN from some scary historical show. They drilled holes in the skull to let out the evil spirits and called it "trepanning." Sheesh!

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning.

I am too early to this game today as I have nothing to offer but a DNF. I know I wont' be back to it today, so I checked with Steve. Wow! Well done, Mike. Steve, thanks for all the explication. I needed lots of help to see the light!

I'll be back much later to check on all your insights. Have a good day, everyone.

Tinbeni said...

D-N-F ... not on the constructor's wave-length ... not even close.

Good Job on the write-up Steve explaining my Rorschach Ink Blot.

Never heard of SEDALIA, Mo; Lake NYASA, couldn't pry out-of-the-memory-bank URICH or TREPAN.

Oh well, tomorrows another day ...

And there is a Sunset to "toast" tonight ... so all is good.
Cheers!

PK said...

Hi Y'all! I didn't WEEP but I got a little sad when I saw all the white spaces after the first pass. Perseverance paid off with more fills at the bottom and I worked my way back up a few letters at a time here and there. Thanks for the challenge, Mike. Thanks for a good one, Steve.

ALLTEL was my first cell phone provider because it was the only one available when I was on the farm. Didn't work well when I was on a bus trip across Canada. Had to switch to Verizon when I moved to the city because when I called 911, the signal bounced off a tower 50 miles away and rang the emergency line in my old home town three hours distant. This was because of the home town prefix on my number. Glad I didn't have a medical emergency when I found out.

NYASA: another new body of water.

RADO: never heard of it. Not into watches since cell phones came out with the time.

OPTI-free: probably isn't cost free. Never seen it advertised.

Speech therapy worked well almost immediately for my son who stuttered. The therapist asked us not to tell him why he was seeing her, so she just said he talked too loud. After he was grown, I said something about him stuttering as a child. He was astonished because he thought we'd never noticed that he did and wondered why.

inanehiker said...

Nice Thursday challenge - I had SCAR before SCAB so PO BOX took longer to figure out. I hesitated with PREMIE - because in the medical world we usually spell it PREEMIE. I am a very phonics oriented person and the first spelling looks like french with a short e - but it is listed in the dictionary as a less common spelling. But as it was the only thing that fit I already left it in.

SEDALIA was not only in my wheelhouse - it is just an hour or so down the highway from me.
SAABs- ironic that it is the epitome of the Swedish car but no longer exists. The main character in the book/movie "A Man called Ove" thought it was the only car worth your time.Really enjoyed the book- and the movie did a fair treatment of it.

Thanks Steve and Mike!

OwenKL said...

FIW¡ Misspelt CATaGORIZED, and didn't know the foreign perp.
AXE > BAG, IT'S A > UPSY, SULK > SNIT, MILK > LAIT, ANSWERS > BIOPICS (since, at that point, I had both ALI & MILK as answers)!

{C, C-.}

There once was a man from ULAN BATOR
He once was there, but he's not any more.
When his car he would GAS UP
The gas would be ICED UP
He decided to BLOW Bator for warm BALI shore!

BOSONS are like quantums that live side by side
In fact, if they PANIC, in each other they'll hide!
In colliders they're FLUNG
Where atoms are stung
To REND them to quarks, while bosons ELIDE.

Yellowrocks said...

I started this at the coffee shop and had mostly a sea of white. Later at home, sitting in my "crossword chair," things started to perk up. I always think better there. I thought this was more a Friday level, but I enjoyed the challenge and the theme. FIR
Totally unfamiliar entries, Alltel, Nyasa, Rado, Sedalia, were filled by perps. I, too, was singing "Meet Me in St. Louis," but I knew that was not it. CAMUS, EAMON, and FLUNG were my last fills, after I finally thought of ENGINE FAILURE. I knew CAMUS was an author and EAMON was an Irish name, so perps and wags did it.
DO, TREPAN brings up the same barbaric image for me. I have read many novels about the beginnings of modern medicine. The early use of the trepan on the skull was frightful, but often it was either that or death, sometimes both.
I wanted to spell it PREEMIE, too, but gave in to PREMIE.
Another gray day, so far. We really do not get a lot of rain, just grayness and mist along with a brief shower or two.

OwenKL said...

Very late (for me) today because of computer problems. Microsoft is trying to do a major upgrade on my machine, but it's not working. Tried twice so far, and both time it froze at 32% about a half hour into the process. And after I turned it off, it gave me problems trying to get it to turn on again. The turning on problem is a recurring glitch on this machine, but usually random, so I suspect it's connected, too.

Ah, well, my writer's block produced poems that really weren't worth the effort of posting early today anyway. I had to read up on bosons and how they differed from quarks before I could write that second poem, so I hope those of you who know the subject better than I won't be too affronted by my take on it.

Magilla Go-Rilla said...

Tough Thursday. I did about 40% and then gave up.

Big Easy said...

I didn't have ENGINE FAILURE, but I almost did WEEP IN ANGUISH in the SE with the Spanish and Portuguese. ESO I'd seen before but MAIO was a new one for me. I'm certainly glad that others might know what a TREPAN is, go to the fair in SEDALIA, or go swimming with the hippos in Lake NYASA but those three were perped.

ALLTEL- a gimme because they were a big cell provider down here, my son used them, and I have a friend who worked for them whose job consisted of paying people $2,000/month (and sometimes a lot more) to place cell towers on their property.

CONTAC- I never knew they came back with it. It was formerly made with 'tiny capsules' of phenylpropanolamine,aka PPA, inside a capsule. Same formulation as Dexatrim and other weight loss products pulled from the market over 20 years ago. PPA is not legal in the USA. I see it's now formulated as a combination of Chlor-Trimeton, Neo-Synephrine, & Tylenol ingredients.

PCP- was legal-for DOGS, and has been off the market for over 50 years-legally

BunnyM said...

Good morning all

Thanks Mike for a great puzzle. Enjoyed the theme and long fills.
Thanks Steve for a fun tour- informative and I enjoy reading about your interesting life. Wind surfing, hippos, crocs AND wine delieveries? I love it! ;)

Hit a few rough spots- had CATEGORIZE A LIST instead of CATEGORIZED and not knowing SEDALIA didn't help. Also didn't know ALLTELL or BOSON.
PREMIE threw me off as I've only ever seen it spelled as Preemie.
Had Idol>ICON and EAMON, NAST, RADO and ULAN were gotten via perps.

WEEPINGANGUISH is appropriate today. My aunt passed away earlier this morning. My Mom was with her which was actually a comfort. Mom thinks she finally decided it was ok to let go after telling her sister that everyone would be alright- she would look after her children and animals. It's still a bit of a shock since she was just diagnosed a little over two weeks ago.
Thank you all for your continued support and comments yesterday.

I did the puzzle to have something to put my mind on but I was too scatter brained and it took a long time, even for a Thursday.

As Splynter would say- Onward!

Happy belated birthday, PVX!

Happy travels, Lucina!

Tawnya- congratulations on your license and new job- how exciting! Thanks for the link for The Who/Squeezebox- that is my favorite song by them. We've missed you, too so hope you can pop in when your schedule allows it :)

Yellow Rocks- I do believe an epidural could help immensely with the numbness from your herniated disc. The pills I can think of would be some type of anti inflammatory and/or prednisone/steroids which can work wonders. I've tried all, with the doc being conservative at first with the meds, therapy, then epidurals and finally surgery ( hopefully you don't have to do that) Good luck- hope you can get some relief!

A gorgeous day for now; storms tonight. DH is home sick which is unfortunate for him but I'm secretly glad as I need the company.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

No 'breakdown' in today's solve; Eventually got it all w/o searches. NYASA was a small WAG, but the Y in YALTA was firm. Other unknowns like CAMUS were gotten from perps. Remembered when EAMON was in office.
Thought there was a higher-than-usual cheater square count, but Steve explained why half were needed for the the theme fill.

Anonymous said...

I disliked this puzzle. Too many foreign words/people/places.

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Steve’s summative paragraph is a smarter version of my thoughts
-NYASA and EAMON crossing a vague recollection of CAMUS…
-RADO and TREPAN made a brief trip into and out of my brain box
-My daughter and her husband only buy Swedish or German cars
-Driving across Nebraska can be boring but Orlando to Miami ain’t much either
-Much has been written about a dying FDR at YALTA
-Sheldon was stunned Penny couldn’t get Higgs BOSON Particle from this Pictionary drawing
-Has anyone used SCORE as a number besides ABE?
-Not a trip we are likely to make
-What’re ya sayin’ ‘bout ELIDE?
-BLOW a lead? Atlanta 28 New England 9 after 3 quarters in Super Bowl LI in Feb
-LEE apologized profusely to his men as they staggered back from Cemetery Ridge

Northwest Runner said...

Man, Thursdays have been hard this year. I've made it through some Saturdays faster than I got through this one, but I'm glad I stuck with it. Had to cross out aim and slung for use and flung. Camus is better known for other works, so I thought Lake Nyasa might border Natick as well as Tanzania, but overall this was a wonderful puzzle.

desper-otto said...

Scott Joplin, as a young man, is reputed to have lived in SEDALIA, Missouri playing piano in a house of ill-repute. It's possible that's where he contracted the syphilis that plagued his later years, and ultimately caused his death.

Sedalia Survivor said...

Sedalia was home to the 1974 Ozark Music Festival They never knew what was about to hit them.

Jazzbumpa said...

Hi gang -

Scraped together enough perps to suss the theme entries, which gave me enough perps to suss out the rest.

Never heard of RADO, nor LIDO, and had to G-spot URICH to be sure.

Very much dislike the NYASA - EAMON - CAMUS cluster.

SADALIA and TEPAN emerged somehow from the foggy mist.

So - a bit of a slog.

I'm feeling a bit better today. Things are looking up.

Cheers!
JzB

CanadianEh! said...

Tough Thursday workout. Thanks for the fun, Mike and Steve.
Like others, I had a sea of white but persevered and finished with just a couple of Google and red letter helps.

Unknowns included ALLTEL, RADO, SEDALIA.
I moved from Idol to ICON, Bosun to BOSON, Mayo to MAIO, and went down all the brands from Motrin, Advil, Tylenol until CONTAC appeared.

I hesitated to fill in ALI at 7D because it was used in a clue at 40D. Is that allowed??

I must memorize ORD to be able to fill it in quickly and not wait for perps.
We have RPNs not LPNs in Ontario.
I have had a PO Box all my life (never home delivery).

First child was a PRE(e)MIE (10 weeks early). Rough start but turned out fine. Glad we were in Canada or we would have had to sell the house to pay the medical bills!

CAMUS today for Misty?

Sympathy to BunnyM and family in the loss of your aunt.

Rainy, dull and cool day here but things are greening up!

Anonymous said...

Good puzzle, but as some have said, maybe more like a Friday level. Great write up by Steve, as always. Took forever to remember EAMON...going through the mental rolodex takes longer each year. The rest took time but fell in fits and starts.

Misty said...

I teach my last class at the Senior Center today, so was too distracted doing the puzzle this morning and didn't even get everything after lots of cheating. But I got CAMUS (thank you, CanadianEh!) and its cross with EAMON (since I work on Irish James Joyce, I got this) and so at least the middle filled in for me a little. Anyway, thanks Mike and Steve, enjoyed it even if it was a real toughie.

So sorry to hear about the loss of your aunt, BunnyM, but how lucky that she had such a loving family.

AnonT, thank you for your good wishes for my Dad, yesterday. He's unfortunately in a rehab facility with no telephones in the rooms now, so I'm praying his cell phone will work for my long-distance calls.

Have a great day, everybody!

fastfreddy said...

I had MANX for LYNX and I have never heard of an EBOAT. I had UBOATS,butI figured it out with Sedalia.

Yellowrocks said...

I can think of two other famous uses of SCORE meaning twenty.
1.Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream Speech.
"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”
2.Psalm 90:10 King James Version
"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”

Bunny M, my sincerest sympathy to you and yours on the death of your beloved aunt. It is comforting that your mom could be with her.
Thanks for your suggestions about my disc problem. I will set up an appointment this week. I know you have been struggling with your back issues, too. I'll cross my fingers that we both can avoid surgery.

Unknown said...

Mike, you need to get into the modern world of healthcare. I am a nurse & want you to know that hospitals generally are not hiring LPNs any longer. They are usually found staffing nursing homes.

Ol' Man Keith said...

I could blame my failure today on such words as RADO, NYASA, ALLTECH, and others with which I've had only thin acquaintance, but in truth the old brain was failing me on fills I have known very well. CAMUS is a perfect example. I know his work reasonably well, and I have been to the ANDES and to MAINE, and yet all these familiars dropped the ball.
(Like someone not-to-be-named but prominent in today's political life, I pass the buck to others - in this case to the words themselves. "Where were you guys when I needed you?!!")

So, I finished, but only with multiple Googles.
And yet I am grateful to Mr. Peluso for giving me a chance to try, and to Steve for 'splainin' it all.

AnonymousPVX said...

Despite getting the solve, this is to me one of the worst clued puzzles lately.

Not only French, but now Spanish to French. Then another Spanish clue and response.

This to me is just lazy construction. Lucky there's no languages from other planets - yet - because the clue would be khgcyit with an answer of #*^}*^#}€';$&$.

Michael said...

Dear AnonymousPVX:

"This to me is just lazy construction. Lucky there's no languages from other planets - yet - because the clue would be khgcyit with an answer of #*^}*^#}€';$&$."

I don't think we need to go extraterrestrial just yet ... everyone uses the Vietnamese word for lunar New Year ("tet"), but how about the Viet words for "fermented fish head sauce"? Or the name of the currency of Georgia? Or the Arabic word for 'girl'?

See what lurks in wait for us, when constructors want to pull our chains?

Yellowrocks said...

I don't believe using unknown words is lazy, especially if perps are provided. As the saying goes, "One man's (person's) meat is another man's poison." From Thursday on the puzzles are for those who like challenges and learning new words. I like learning words from other languages in the puzzles, especially when they appear again and again. Lait, for instance, is common in puzzles and in every day life as café au lait, which is espresso with steamed milk. We also see café con leche in our metropolitan area. Leche is common here in La Leche League, a mothers' breast feeding group.
I am pleased to learn of Lake NYASA. It seems most of us Americans know so little of Africa. It's time for a geography lesson.
SEDALIA and ALLTEL ring a bell with some of you. The rest of us can learn. When I feel a little non-plussed by some of this, I remember that sometimes my unique experiences make things easier for me and sometimes other bloggers' unique experiences make things easier for them.
I learned BOSON, LIDO, USAIN, and MAIO from crosswords.
I am not into luxury watches. I never heard of RADO, but I will file it away for future reference.
I loved this puzzle, although I can see why printing it on a Friday may have been better.

I raised my own CPA. My elder son always does my taxes. Think of all the money I invested in this, so I don't need to pay a CPA. But, on the other hand, think of all the love and support and good family times in our relationship, not to mention my delightful grandson.

Steve said...

@BunnyM - sorry for your loss.

@CanadianEh - it is allowed in the LAT, I believe it's not allowed in the NYT, or if it does happen the bloggers excoriate the constructor. They're meaner over there!

On the Nyasa subject, it came easier for me because Malawi was called Nyasaland before independence from the British in 1966. The name of the lake changed too to Lake Malawi; but the Tanzanians still use the Nyasa designation.

Wilbur Charles said...

Being a little tough on Mike, methinks. UNE, LAIT, MAIO??? Thank god for the CNA or LPN who fixed the bed when I had a tube coming out of my chest.

Steve, entertaining write-up. Owen, #2 was excellent. You're being way to hard on yourself.

Bunny, YR said it perfectly.
W
Misty, CAMUS had me thinking that you'd bring us some snappy Camus talk. Then I recalled that he's French. And deep. I tried DUMAS because of the M.

As a kid I couldn't understand why Ireland elected an Italian. However, I understood that he was effective. Hell, he had to deal with Etonians.

I remember URICH more from Spenser. And there's a LIDO beach in Sarasota.

I was driving over the Howard Franklin bridge when POBOX hit me. Why would one put a letter in PYREX?

WC

CrossEyedDave said...

Sorry I didn't post yesterday.
Between trying to find funny fish heads,
and a birthday cake that says AnonymusPVX on it,
I think I had an emotional breakdown...

Then there is todays puzzle, FIW Mayo/Usayn (53d/60a) (nuts!)

Irish Miss said...

Hi Eveyone:

A very, very late post due to a non-stop morning getting read for luncheon guests, then lunch and a long visit, then an even longer cleaning-up-the-kitchen, then reading the write-up and then, finally, reading the comments! Phew, I'am all tuckered out. There certainly was some crunch today and some unknowns (Nyasa, Sedalia, Trepan, Alltel, Maio) but the perps were fair and led to a successful solve.

Thanks, Mike, for a difficult but doable offering and thanks, Steve, for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us.

Bunnie M, sincere sympathy to you and your family at this time of loss and sadness.

AnonPVX, belated Happy Birthday.

YR, good luck in finding some relief.

My luncheon started off with a Bloody Mary (actually, two) for me and Cosmos for my two friends, shrimp cocktail, tossed salad, Coquille St. Jacques, rice with sliced almonds and assorted fancy cookies for dessert, and hot tea. Good friends, good food, good time; what more could one ask for? We topped it off by calling the fourth member of this friends-since-third-grade group to have her share the visit with us, if only by phone.

Have a great day.

Misty, hope you can communicate with your dad.

Tawnya, congrats and best wishes for the future.

Steve said...

@Canadian Eh! I checked with the experts, and Rich doesn't like it either so this was a "slip through the cracks" error. The Crossword Compiler software we all use checks for dupes in the grid, but it doesn't check the clues as well, so it's a manual effort and easy to miss. This one slipped past five sets of eyes - the constructor, the editor and three test solvers to boot, so congratulations on your sharp eyes.

@Irish Miss - that's what I call a way to start lunch! Cheers!

Jayce said...

Hard puzzle. Had to resort to Google many times. (Don't scold me; I am not saying it is a bad puzzle.)

Yellowrocks said...

Jayce, I know what you mean. Sometimes I, too, am just not on the contractor's wave length, even with Googling. Frustrating. Better luck tomorrow.

PK said...

Bunny, sorry for your family's loss. At least you know her pain was not more prolonged. I've had two friends who died within only a couple weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so I am wondering if this was your aunt's illness too. Always a shock.

Tawnya, thank you for your explanation yesterday about your smokerless hospital. That is a real commitment to good health that I can appreciate as one very allergic to cigarette smoke.

My SIL is an LPN who works in a rehab hospital. All LPN's there have been told to enroll in a school to upgrade to RN status or face unemployment there. He's hitting the books again at age 51, but says he enjoys it. His school tests enrollees in certain areas of their knowledge to allow them to opt out of studying things they've already picked up working as nurses.

SwampCat said...

THUMPER and I will take a pass on this one . My fault, I'm sure. Just not on the wavelength.

Steve, thanks for the expo.

Owen, you are MUCH to.hard on yourself .

Tomorrow is another day.....

Anonymous T said...

WEEPING in ANGUISH says...
Big Fat DNF.

Hi all!

Thanks for the puzzle Mike I see what you did w/ the theme and I like it. But, the stack of YeLTA[sic], NYASA, EAMON, CAMUS, and FLUNG (as clue'd) + RADO way over there (and filling 10d as ALLTEc], all being completely out of my wheelhouse, ... I'd not a snowball's chance in BALI of getting 25a.

Steve to the rescue again! Thanks for the Expo (and following up w/ C, Eh!, I noticed the ALI dup too). It's never to late in a post for music mate; I listened while reading all the Cornerites'.

WOs: Fiji b/f BALI (going for flOp b/f BLOW - thank you, Google, for AARE) Coral rEd b/f SEA - 66% wrong.
Fav: Steve's Higgs-BOSON punch-line.

{C+, A}

Bunny M - my condolences...

YR - Don't forget Lincoln lifting from the Bible for Gettysburg... "Four Score and seven.." MLK used those words to echo the emancipator.

IM - I'm always here post 6p so imagine my slog reading the blog :-)

PVX - Use UTF-8 for Universal fonts/languages... Oh, nevermind, there's no code-page for Klingon (I looked and I'm lying if &#F8D2; works)

Tom Petty's Breakdown. [8m]

Cheers, -T

CanadianEh! said...

Thanks for following up, Steve. AnonT and I will have to apply for a job as test solvers. LOL!

Irish Miss, your luncheon sounds wonderful (and hot tea even!). How special that your friends have kept in touch since third grade. That was not as easy before social media.

Anonymous T said...

Klingon std. [proposed]... -T

Yellowrocks said...

Anonymous T, yes, I was piggy-backing on Gary's Lincoln quote. Gary wondered whether SCORE was used otherwise than by Lincoln. These three are the only usages I know of. Score is listed as old fashioned.
Alan has not been able to work last week or this week. Tomorrow we will go for an ultrasound. In a way, I am hoping for uncovering some kind of treatable malady. This time the test catches him at a time when he is feeling terrible. Negative results don't give us a clue on how to procede.

Anonymous T said...

YR - D'Oh - I missed that. I was focused on clicking the shiny-link to GAZA. Short-Attentionspan Man! :-) -T

Argyle said...

Klingon speech.

Yellowrocks said...

As per my quote, the Bible says four score and ten. Lincoln most likely had this in mind when he said four score and seven. He was a master of soaring language. Many of Lincoln's moves, though wise in retrospect, would have been decried today, as they were then by some. Had Lincoln lived the reconstruction era would have been much more healthy for the country and to the South than what ensued. Lincoln had his faults and blind spots, but was very competent and wise over all.

Argyle said...

Longer version w/ sub-titles and translation. Klingon speech(1:59).

Misty said...

Thank you, Irish Miss. I was able to reach Dad on his cell phone this morning, and he was fine. I was pleased that his therapy now includes going up and down steps or stairs, because if and when he goes home, he can get into his house only by going up or down stairs. I'm just praying this will work. I'm also trying to talk him into getting one of those Alert devices to wear so that if he ever has another emergency at home, he can get help immediately. But that's all still in the future. But thank you for your concern.

Anonymous T said...

Misty - good to hear you heard from you Dad. My Pop puts in the systems for Life Alert in SPI; they'll find you someone competent when the time comes.

YR - Growing up in the heart of Land of Lincoln. I've been steeped in Lincoln's history. They built the Library* [25m] after I left. I've been to it a few times when visiting. The Civil war room (they didn't show it, but there's an animated time-lapse map that depicts the war front moving back-and-forth over the years with a dead-tally at the bottom - quite moving) and the Whisper Room (@11:30); NAST had nothing on those nasty cartoonists.

*Uncle C was a carpenter on the construction of the Library. They told him to take out a part of one wall. "What's behind it, where's the drawings?" "Nothing, now do it." He hit a main and flooded the 1st floor. The other guys called him "water boy" for the rest of the project :-)

Argyle #WinsTheInternet. LOL Frazer. Thanks. -T

Anonymous T said...

Draw out Tawnya and #takeBackInternet says...

Weird Al BARN Raising.

#ArgyleStillWins #sigh. Nite, -T