SATURDAY, Jun. 2, 2007 - Byron Walden

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Relative Difficulty: Yikes

THEME: none

A few minutes into this puzzle and all I had was COLTS (11D: Super Bowl XLI winners) and NOT (44A: "Judge _____, ..."). Then I made the mistake of looking at the puzzle author's name. I think at that point I sort of slumped over - and totally psyched myself out. If I had been a bit more thorough and diligent, I would have seen 21D: Many an 11-Down fan (Indianan) much earlier than I did, which would have given me good traction in the puzzle's middle. As it was, I stumbled around until, somehow, I got DRAGON FIRE (28D: It might singe a knight, in legend) off of just the "N" from NOT, and the SE quadrant fell (eventually) from there. Then I stalled again, even with the magnificent grid-spanning END / ON A HIGH NOTE in place (40A: With 41-Across, go out nicely). With a lot of patience, I finally managed to tame this thing, with just one square left in the "utterly unknown" category at the following crossing:

50A: Sour orange, in French cuisine (bigarade) - a true outer-space word
47D: Richard of "The 300 Spartans" (Egan)

They cross at the "G." I wrongly guessed "V" at first before getting the "G" on my second guess. It always feels like a real accomplishment to complete a Byron Walden puzzle, especially a Saturday. I end up feeling brutalized, but slightly happy as well. I have a few frowny-faces next to some of the clues / answers, but overall, an excellent high-difficulty puzzle.

Featured Five

7A: Deltiologist's purchase (postcard)

Now if "deltiologist" had been an answer in the grid, I would have lost it. Bad enough as a clue. "Deltiologist" is a comically high-falutin' name for "postcard collector." I briefly thought the word meant "one who studies river deltas," but then couldn't figure out what such a person would "purchase." This compound word forms part of a neat triumvirate in the NE, with POST and CARD sitting over LIMA and OHIO (16A: U.S. city whose name is pronounced differently from its foreign namesake), which in turn are sitting over ALAN and LADD (18A: "Two Years Before the Mast" star, 1946). So, the 3 8-letter answers break down into 6 4-letter words. I like that I randomly mentioned ALAN LADD in my blog not more than a couple days ago, and here he is, as if I conjured him up. Like magic. Or coincidence.

1A: Fix ... or damage (scrape)

Now this is horribly admirable, twisting the meaning of SCRAPE the way an assailant might twist a knife into his victim: "Noun ... or verb?!!" Sneaky. This took me a while to unearth. I tried for a while to think of some way that REPAIR could mean "damage." So sad.

2D: Coupling device? (civil union)

Yay! Perhaps my favorite answer in the grid. Not sure how I feel about "device," but I'll allow it, as the answer is so nice. That sort of rhymed. Anyway, I tend to think CIVIL UNIONs are a crock - I'm more of a gay marriage man, myself - but it's still nice to see some man -on- man action in the puzzle. Or woman -on- woman, if that's your thing. It's a very inclusive grid overall. See, for example, the apparently trans-gendered Prince INGA (32A: Prince in an L. Frank Baum "Oz" book).

41D: Gag rule, of a sort (omerta)

Super-hot answer, made somehow even more fabulous by being crossed with OMELET (45A: Western _____). What would you put in an OMERTA OMELET? What's the food equivalent of a mafia code of silence?

7D: Groundwork? (planting the seed)

This is my least favorite answer in the grid, which sucks because it's also the longest answer in the grid. I mean, the clue's cute, in its way, because it works on two levels - metaphorical and literal. But the phrase doesn't really hold up on its own very well. Somehow RUNNING THE TABLE or JUMPING THE SHARK or SHOOTING THE BREEZE all seem like self-contained phrases, where PLANTING THE SEED seems like it really needs context to come alive.

New To Me:

  • 25D: "Farewell, _____," 1965 top 10 Joan Baez album ("Angelina") - has BRANGELINA been an answer yet? I forget.
  • 39D: 1967 Peter Fonda film written by Jack Nicholson ("The Trip") - Is this a prequel to "Easy Rider?"
  • 26A: "Hansel und Gretel" composer (Humperdinck) - The other Engelbert HUMPERDINCK (1854-1921) [note: I intentionally left the umlaut off of the "A" in "Hänsel" because stupid Google will not find "Hänsel" if you search "Hansel" - a horrible search defect; most people (Americans, anyway) are way too lazy to bother with umlauts when they're Googling]
  • 9D: European two-seater (smart car) - WTF!?!?!?!
  • 1D: Marked difference (step change) - ditto
  • 46D: Muscovite, for one (mica) - uh, ditto
  • 10D: Pacific Coast evergreen (tan oak) - lived near the Pacific Coast for twenty-one years, never heard of it (though, to be fair, I'd never heard of most tree names)

Lots of nice pairings in this puzzle: FUR and ERMINE, TAN OAK and STATE TREES (30D: Candlenut and buckeye), and, best of all, the intersecting WAGER (35A: Something often laid at a window) and WIN IT ALL (35D: Sweep the competition).

It's the middle of the night, and so ... to bed.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

49 comments:

Anonymous 3:35 AM  

Very good write-up. Very tough puzzle. With no crossings, I
(b)rashly entered CAIROILL for 16A about the US city. There are probably dozens of cities that fit the description; don't know why I felt so confident about Cairo to enter it without any crossings. It really screwed me up in the NE.

I really like Quarfoot/Walden combos on Fri-Sat.

Linda G 9:34 AM  

Kratsman, you must enjoy punishment ; )

Excellent commentary, your Highness. It's always encouraging to know that words (and puzzles) that confounded me also confounded others.

A reader had to tell me that there were two Humperdincks -- not my area of expertise.

I'm heading out of town for the weekend. I'm not sure how I'll get through the day without checking back on all the blogs. I am definitely addicted.

Orange 9:43 AM  

This is quite possibly your gayest post ever, Rex. Me like!

There's one lone Smart Car traveling the North Side of Chicago—it really stands out in its aggressive weeness. In London, though, I think we saw a few every day—plus an even more ridiculously small electric car, plugged into a curbside (kerbside) socket for recharging. Should've taken a picture of it...or put it on my pocket.

Anonymous 9:47 AM  

You ain't kidding with the Yikes. The only thing I could get a toehold on was INTL because I knew all the words in ILGWU. Then I thought STATE TREES *might* be right because I knew that the buckeye was my state tree. But other that that ... even though LIMA is in OHIO, I certainly wasn't going there right off the bat because as kratsman says, it could have been any number of cities and I wasn't expecting the state name to be part of the answer anyway.

Rex, in re: the SMART CAR. I saw one of these up close and personal because they sell them in Canada too. We actually walked up to the owner on the street and demanded to see it and hear more about it. Gets something like 60 mpg and is probably the most unsafe vehicle you could imagine given its miniscule size compared to the rest of the vehicle stream. I think Mercedes is supposed to start selling them here sometime soon.

Marked difference should have been Sea change, I don't know what the hell a STEP CHANGE is. PLANTING THE SEED - yes, it was lame.

BIGARADE? Who knows about stuff like this? Apparently it's the precise orange that should go into "proper" marmalade.

I liked OIL for Standard offering of old. I usually don't get those kinds of clues but this time it popped right out. Liked the clues for ANAIS and TIGHT as well and the answer SANDALED. I just now 'got' Green marker.

The last two days have been real ego-deflating from a mental capabilities perspective. Yesterday, if I hadn't happened to know that Pascal's first name was BLAISE, I'd have been SOL!

Anonymous 9:50 AM  

I am always comforted that the puzzles I find challenging are tough for people much more puzzle savvy (knowledgeable) than I!
Or should I just have tackled it later today and would I have found it much easier?
I keep thinking about that old study I read somewhere using, I think, the NYT crossword-people working on it later in the day solved it much faster than those doing it earlier-having nothing to do with schedules or personal time clocks. Some sort of knowledge in the air phenomenon. I know I could not do yesterday's for the longest time, got bits and pieces at several points during the day, but then sat down at 8:10 pm and completed it in five minutes. I was very grateful to all of you who solved it earlier-those waves must have finally come my way.
And so, kudos to those of you who solve them first, and thanks!

Linda G 10:01 AM  

Two things I forgot.

Rex, re: conjuring up Alan Ladd by magic...or coincidence. Kind of like the whole Timothy Leary thing the other day...except I conjured up the whole theme ; )

And I loved the wedding cake photo. Sadly, I don't expect gay marriage to happen during my lifetime. My friends in Colorado would just be ecstatic to have a civil union and the benefits it would afford.

Anonymous 10:11 AM  

>What's the food equivalent of a mafia code of silence?

fish?

as in "sleeping with the fishes"?

for not keeping silent?

;-)

janie (not totally in love with the idea of a fish omelet, but remembering that lox in an omelet can be pretty tasty...)

Alex S. 10:38 AM  

Used pretty much every cheating device out there (short of looking at the actual answers on blogs) but if you found it difficult then I'm just glad I was able to find ways to even finish.

For the first time I really made use of guessing at word endings as help. "This word probably ends in ERS" or "ED" etc.

I really liked the clue for TIGHT and for some reason it game right to me, which gave me both the G and N in DRAGON FIRE. Which allowed the SE and END ON A HIGH NOTE to fall pretty quickly. But then the easy part was over.

When I finally got around to it the NW was the worst because I put in A SEA CHANGE instead of STEP CHANGE. STEP CHANGE is a phrase I've never heard but one that has its own Wikipedia page.

For the constructing experts out there, is having some common element between consecutive puzzles intentional? Thus we has two days of Timothy Leary. And C-Clef yesterday and G-Clef today?

Along with A SEA CHANGE, my other big whiff that was hard to get rid of was VEIN instead of REIN for "Silver holder". Though, once you get it, REIN is a much cuter answer.

Anonymous 10:47 AM  

What goes in an omerta omelet?
Mums? (Are mums edible?)
Actually, the first thing that came to mind when you asked the question, Rex, was thought of cold fish, possibly in relation to the French expression "muet comme une carpe," which conjures a dumb, wide-eyed stare when some commentary would be expected.
I wanted 10D to be tamarack, but it wouldn't fit.
For 35A (Something often laid at a window) I had jotted down PAGER, though I didn't really know why. My first impulse was PIE. I think this delayed my solving WIN IT ALL considerably. (How is PINI going to start a word or phrase that means "Sweep the competition?"). When I finally had PIN IT ALL, I remembered that the P in PAGER was tentative.
Linda G, there is indeed same-sex marriage as close as Canada (and in a handful of countries in Europe and...Africa!). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Canada

JC66 10:56 AM  

Today's puzzle was a bear!!!

BTW, there was a movie a few years back, The Italian Job, with Mark Wahlberg, Charlize Theron & Edward Norton in which the SMARTCAR was prominently featured.

JC66 11:01 AM  

Forgot to mention the 1st thing I filled in today was LAWN MAINTENANCE for 7D.

DONALD 11:06 AM  

There's a SMARTCAR in DaVinci Code too, driven backwards at top speed by Audrey Tatu.

Anonymous 11:11 AM  

Rexy,

Today's puzzle was insane. So difficult - took me over an hour to solve - but I loved the feeling of slogging the entire way. Had some wrong letters at the end (BIVASADE!!!) because I didn't know EGAN or OMERTA.

My first answer to put in the puzzle was ANAIS because I once submitted that exact clue to Will (which he changed and replaced with something else). After getting Nowhere for a long time, I entered DRAGONFIRE off of no letters and the SE fell, much as it did for you.

Thank god I read this blog, otherwise I would have Never heard of ALAN LADD, whose name I was oh so familiar with given your recent blog entry.

After finishing the puzzle, I couldn't decide if PLANTINGTHESEED was legitimate or a Waldenism. The exact phrase gets 115,000 Google hits - that's a boatload of hits. I think it would have felt less fake it were given a clearer clue about getting an idea in someone elses head.

DQ

Rex Parker 11:17 AM  

I can't tell you how happy it makes me when something in my blog happens to help someone solve a puzzle later on (e.g. ALAN LADD). Useful!

Glad someone else made the EVAN error.

rp

sonofdad 11:27 AM  

I made the Evan/bivarade error as well. That letter was a total shot in the dark.

Also, "planting the seed" gives rise to some pretty funny lines in "40-Year-Old Virgin" (a bit too inappropriate to post here, though).

Eggmaster 11:35 AM  

"(though, to be fair, I'd never heard of most tree names)"

Maybe if you ever left the poker, uh, Crossword table!

You know, if people like you had your way, I'd have to get divorced, marry a man, and have Satan give me an abortion. And then you'd raise my taxes! Go back to Russia.

Campesite 11:38 AM  

Brutal but admirable puzzle. I somehow 'saw' END ON A HIGH NOTE and CIVIL UNION reasonable early on. Still, there was a ton of stuff I didn't know. This was a bear.

We are not alone: of the top 100 searches on Google Trends today, at least half are in reference to Mr. Walden's puzzle.

Anonymous 11:41 AM  

From Wikipedia, "In common usage a step change happens when a situation changes in a discontinuous way: a big policy change after an election, a currency devaluation, the discovery of gold at Sutters mill for example. That is to say, a change like a step in an otherwise smooth graph." I still think your "WTF" response was bang on, and I kept wanting "green marker" to be the little thing one golfer uses to mark the placement of his/her ball while another player is putting. Many wonderful misdirecting (then Aha! Got it!) clues in this puzzle. Brutal but fair.

Linda G 12:11 PM  

mmpo, I should have clarified that I meant in the United States.

DQ, now you know what you put me through! I gave Katy credit for the fact that I finished yesterday's!

Orange called me an old broad in a comment on her site yesterday. The advantage of age is that I knew both ALAN LADD and Richard EGAN. Take that, you youngsters ; )

Anonymous 12:13 PM  

Well, I've lived on the Pacific Coast for going on 60 years and I've never heard of a TAN OAK.

However, being around that long gave me ALAN LADD and EGAN easily because I remembered the movies.

barrywep 12:17 PM  

Sounds like Will should pay DQ royalties for that ANAIS clue, or at least bump another of his puzzles up in line.
(The least he could have done was start the new rates on June1.)

Anonymous 12:27 PM  

Well, the one that came to me quickly thanks to spending so much time doing crosswords and reading this blog (once the I in INDIANAN was in place) was 20A: Silver holder.
Koo koo kachoo...

Anonymous 12:47 PM  

Alex, the strategy of guessing at word endings can pay off more often than not. Of course there are times when it'll screw you royally, too ;) But I've been resorting to that for quite some time, and I know it worked for me today on something, although I can't remember precisely what.

Alex S. 1:30 PM  

Not that it is much important but the cars used in The Italian Job (both the original and the remake) were MINI Coopers.

In The Da Vinci Code Sophie does indeed drive a SMART Fortwo.

Norrin2 1:51 PM  

You don't have to go to oscure Oz characters like Inga to find examples of transgenders. Princess Ozma herself, the ruler of the entire country, was turned into a boy by a witch named Mombi and grew up with no memory of ever having been a girl until Glinda the Good changed her back -- well, changed her front, I guess -- anyway, made her a girl again.

Anonymous 1:59 PM  

I was happy to see Terry Pratchett up there in the NE--good, fun read.
I'm the opposite of mmpo...I immediately thought of REIN for Silver, and the INDIANAN just fell out of it.
I assume that's a dieresis in 53D. Nice tie-in.

Anonymous 5:40 PM  

Well, I'm happy to see that so many others found this puzzle difficult. That puts me in the "thank god I'm not alone" category.

I never would have finished this puzzle without googling (some Saturdays I can some I can't but getting better). Also,I have to say that I made some major progress before resorting to outside resources. Some that I feel good about.

That pesky Silver didn't mess with me this time. Was it last week he threw me out of the saddle? Put "rein" in right away. (One of these days "silver" is actually going to refer to the metal -- but I'm keeping an eye out for that).

I was pretty sure on 27D "pies" and got "Anais" from the "i" even though I had no idea what a dieresis was. Woo hoo!

My big move was getting "Colts" with the just the "l" from Alan Ladd. I'm terrible with the sports clues. Terrible. If it's not Orr, Els, Graf, Elie, Ara or other big-ish names etc. forget it. So, Colts was good for me. Helped with Indianan too. Plus, I inferred whats-his-name was Dodd. Never heard of him. I'd love to find out he's from Lima, Ohio...but I doubt it. All that means, I got "postcard" from just the P,C, and D. I almost amazed myself~ sure didn't know what a "deltiologist" was.

So, a hard puzzle but good learning for me and a lot to like. I really enjoyed "Dragonfire" didn't put it in right away but that was a mistake b/c when I did I got fur and ermine and etc.

Anonymous 5:40 PM  

The ANAIS clue was mine, so I guess that Will just decided to give in and let it through this time.

That Google Trends page is very cool. At least right now, there are more searches for the bizarro
Times puzzle than for today's. I
think I should drive up to Mountain View and see if they won't give me a free lunch for all the business I'm sending their way.

I guess I'm feeling my age a little seeing so many people not knowing of ALANLADD. Of course, for
my cohort, the primary association is that he's Cheryl's father-in-law. (For years, I thought he was
her father.) If you don't know who she is, ask your dad about the original Charlie's Angels.

Byron

Anonymous 6:33 PM  

For the geologically challenged, MUSCOVITE is one of the two types of MICA (a mineral; the other is BIOTITE) that are components of igneous (volcanic) rock. Others include quartz, feldspar, olivine, pyrite, and...there's another one, but I'm blanking on it at the moment. Anyway, good puzzle words all.

I wanted "Green marker?" to be ECO. :)

And although I am under 40, I know about Alan Ladd and Richard Egan.

I too thought STEP CHANGE was annoying, but I *loved* the Terry Pratchett reference.

Anonymous 7:47 PM  

Here's what puzzles me - what does it matter when someone was born these days? We all 'know' about stuff that took place outside of our actual existence on this earth. Rex, for example, is a medievalist so he knows a lot about a time period - an epoch if you will - well before his birth. If you're an old movie buff and watch a lot of Turner Classic Movies, you really didn't have to be alive when Alan Ladd was to know about him - or whoever else. And so forth with a million other topics. Many of us in this group routinely admit to not knowing about things that are of this very moment. I think we all have a good chance of knowing about old stuff and contemporary stuff to the same degree provided we have interests and avocations that carry us beyond our mundane daily affairs. Am I right or am I right?
:D

barrywep 7:49 PM  

I find it fascinating that Byron and DQ , both math teachers came up with the same ANAIS clue.

Anonymous 7:58 PM  

Barry,
I think it just means that it was the last ANAIS clue left. Time for someone to remake "Henry & June".

Rex,
I believe the main ingredient in an OMERTA OMELET would be tongue.

Byron

JC66 8:22 PM  

Alex, thanks for the clarification. It's easy for me to confuse the Smart Car & Cooper Mini.

J

Anonymous 9:16 PM  

I just want to say that I'm looking here (as I do every day) and see the number of posts and the help that people are giving each other. It's a cool thing.

I thank Rex for creating/managing this blog -- and I know it takes him a lot of time but entertains and assists all of us in becoming better solvers.

I also, really appreciate it when the constructors stop by to give us a glimpse into what goes into that!

I was going to name each of you personally but was worried I'd forget someone.

Big thanks, for sharing your thoughts!

Anonymous 11:09 PM  

Cute little dieresis in the clue for 53A, as well... (Caraïbes)

Excellent, excellent puzzle. Was also mystified by the bitter orange, which I thought must be BITARADE. Alas, no.

Good stuff here today, and interesting comments from everyone!

Anonymous 11:11 PM  

Oops, meant 53D... Can't tell which way is up sometimes.

Anonymous 9:52 AM  

We do indeed got those pesky smart cars up here in Canada and, quite frankly, I'm tired of tripping over them.

BIGARADE? Never heard of it, and I hope to never hear of it again.

Liked your use of 'triumvirate' by the way, very classy -- a real 5-dollar word if there ever was one.


Pen Girl :)

Anonymous 11:28 AM  

Finished this mother without having to Google anything, which [to me] put it in the "challenging" category. Then I see posts here saying it was "hard" because it took over an hour to finish; hell, it took me 3 sessions over the course of the weekend to complete it. Different strokes, eh?

That having been said, I still had, er, no clue what some of these answers were [BIGARADE, SMARTCAR, STEPCHANGE, MICA] but since I had no doubt regarding the surrounding answers, I bit the bullet and pronounced myself done.

Appreciate that you, Rex, had the same feeling towards the more obscure fill and cluing as I and many solvers did. Considering some of the constructors' comments I read in the Cruciverb.com forum about appropriate and "fair" answers/clues, I sometimes wonder how a puzzle like this ever gets published: words supposedly should be within the realm of solvers' experience, but BIGARADE???? Puh-leeze....

Orange 8:29 PM  

Ah, but the words crossing BIGARADE are all (or almost all) fair, making it not impossible to suss out BIGARADE. I and many others didn't know Richard EGAN, but Egan is probably the most common E*an surname in this country. The most likely alternative guess, EVAN, is typically a first name. (rudiger, you say you didn't know MICA, so that would also make BIGARADE tough to get to.) Out-of-left-field words are semi-kosher if they're gettable via the crossing words.

Rex Parker 9:07 PM  

I wasn't sure if "Richard" in the EGAN clue was a first or last name, actually. I know it's more common as a first name, but for some reason Cliff Richard (most famous singer that no one in America has heard of) made me think "Richard" was a last name.

Here's an interesting "fact" from Wikipedia:

The acts with the most aggregate time spent on the British record charts: Current rankings (by weeks):

1. Elvis Presley (2,574)
2. Cliff Richard (1,983)
3. Queen (1,755)
4. The Beatles (1,749)
5. Madonna (1,660)
6. Elton John (1,626)

I told you he was famous ... somewhere else.

I believe that this is the only Cliff Richard song I know even semi-well - and I did not know until this second that he was the one who sang it. O no, he was the generic male voice dueting with my dear Olivia N-J on "Suddenly". Weird. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this lesson.

rp

rp

Anonymous 4:38 AM  

it's funny, but the ONLY one i got on a first pass-thru was HUMPERDINCK. different strokes.

DONALD 8:08 AM  

Wendy,

Absolutely correct!

Anonymous 12:02 PM  

Connie

I agree. Humperdinck was my first fill and only fill on first pass.
I guess music appreciation classes all those years ago paid off after all.

Anonymous 12:56 PM  

What an interesting blog today. I'm a 6WL on West Coast so I'm always at the end of things. I learned a lot. I was pleased that I somehow guessed Smart Car (must have heard it in passing).

But I kicked myself for overlooking Joan Baez clue (I gave up on puzzle after awhile--a loong while.) I even have that recording on Folkways of "Farewell, Angelina" by the original singer. Also have it by Baez somewhere. I think the composer, '60s folkie Richard Farina, called it "Deportee." (They won't know your name when you ride the big airplane; all they will call you will be deportee.)

Anonymous 7:40 PM  

6WL :::::

Hardest puzzle for me in a long time. Only real successes were the middle and the SE quadrant.

BMW originally called their update of the Mini Cooper the MINI (all caps). Later, they added back the "Cooper" to two models.

I agree with Wendy's point about people's knowledge having different era-centricity regardless of their age.

Only five gimmes for me: OMELET, PIN, ANGELINA, TIGHT and WAGER.

Katya -- You are not alone on this 6WL west coast thing. Beg to differ on the composer of "Farewell Angelina". ...it's Bob! It's even on the "Baez sings Dylan" album.

I guess you could call Gatorade with a sour orange flavor BIGARADE.

Now, I'll set my clock ahead six weeks, as I subscribe to the Sunday NYTimes.

Anonymous 9:59 PM  

Most of this was a pleasant slog. I got PLANTING THE SEED fairly early on, so had a good foundation to work with. Personally, I have no quibble with this clue/answer combination. It works on more than one level, which is always clever.

It was New England that elevated this puzzle to "difficult" for me. I had to look up "Deltiologist", and I had SPORT CAR for a time. (I even had a quibble prepared for that) The six word "triumvirate" really bogged me down.

Nice work, Byron. Rex, your comments are always entertaining. Is it my imagination or is your readership and comments section steadily increasing?

2-1/2 cups today.

Jesse Lukes 3:34 AM  

dear me... this puzzle required grad-student-essay type research to complete.

I do have one clue complaint, however: 48A SALT (a pinch)

I cook... a lot. If I ever saw "a pinch" as a recipe instruction I would directly wonder "a pinch of what, or a dash of what?" I would certainly not think 'salt' in any default sense. So I had 48A locked in as DASH because that would be a culinary simile. It held me up even longer than 43D.

Waxy in Montreal 3:03 PM  

What different backgrounds we NYT crossword bloggers seem to have. For me, 11D (Colts) & 21D (Indianan) were gimmes - but I'm an NFL fan- as well as 18A (AlanLadd) & 47D (Egan) - but I'm from their era. Richard Egan was a semi-big TV star in the '60's but Alan Ladd ranked up with the Bogarts, Pecks & Coopers in the late '40's and thru the '50's as a major star.

Unfortunately, knowing the G in Egan as well as some French led to mini-disaster for me on the cross as I was then "sure" 50A started with "AIGRE" for sour. But BIGARADE - give me a break!!

Anonymous 8:00 PM  

Ay Carumba!?! Anonymous, we were BOTH wrong. My song was written by Woody Guthrie. I had Angelina confused with Rosalita. And it was Goodbye, not Farewell. Sorry, everyone.

DEPORTEE (PLANE WRECK AT LOS GATOS) 1948:
Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees."

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