Milkman of musical fame - WEDNESDAY, April 15, 2009 — Michael Vuolo (Colorful glacial layer / Butchers discards)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

Theme: Cutlery — Three phrases (one spanning three entries) include words for dining utensils.

Word of the day: Globalism — an ideology that emphasized the current trend toward international organizations and institutions. (answers.com)

Hello, internet! It's Caleb Madison a.k.a. Calmad a.k.a. Bobby Digital (not at all) here, trying desperately to fill the comedically giant footprints left by Rex. I feel like I need a cool crossword pseudonym. Any suggestions?

On to the puzzle. This puzzle, Will tells me, was the fourth puzzle in the recent Boston Crossword Tournament. Altogether, this puzzle has a lot going for it. Though the two ells framing the center of the grid aren't exactly attractive, they make for some beautiful double 9s in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast. The theme is tight, and spans 61 squares, which is pretty impressive. That's about 1/3 of the usable (as in non-black) squares. Very nice.

I was smiling from square one, when I realized that MGS was clued via Stax's Booker T. instead of the measurement. I have all of those Stax records thanks to a box set purchased by my dad a while ago. When I listen to them, I like to play "Which Rapper Sampled This?"


Nice dancing. Have fun wiping the vaseline off of your teeth!

The only beef I have with this puzzle is the overabundance of 3-letter words. 25, to be exact. That's a lot. Some are fine: KIT (61D: Hobbyist's purchase), PEN (10D: Slammer), ASS (34A: Dolt) … but a lot of them are quite the opposite: INV (27D: Accts. payable receipt), CIE (28D: French bus. firm), OEN (40D: Wine: Prefix), MCI (41A: Co. acquired by Verizon in 2006) and others. The only one of those that was a gimme was OEN, which was an educated guess. The long downs were great, all spanning two theme entries each. "BABYMAKIN'," coincidentally enough, also fits in place of SOUL MUSIC (3D: Barry White's genre). Did that trip anyone else up?

THEME ANSWERS:
  • 17A: Have surgery (GO UNDER THE KNIFE)
  • 24A/37A/50A: Privileged (BORN WITH A / SILVER SPOON IN / ONE'S MOUTH) — Very cool how this phrase breaks up so evenly.
  • 60A: "Gimme!" ("FORK IT OVER, BUDDY!") — Very colloquial, but is the "buddy" part necessary? I feel like the clue's "Gimme!" could be friendly, while the answer seems like it should be yelled at a timid tourist by an angry New Yorker.
BULLETS:
  • 4A: San Diego Zoo attractions (pandas) — I had _AN_AS, and since I had never seen San Diego or its zoo, I put in "MANTAS" as in Manta Rays. I changed it when I realized that titto (7D: "Likewise" (DITTO)) was horribly, horribly wrong. I can imagine what titto would mean if it were slang, and I love it / it disgusts me. In retrospect, the movie "Anchorman" should have taught me this answer.
  • 26A: Colorful glacier layer (blue ice) — looking at a picture, it doesn't seem so "colorful." It's mostly just different shades of blue. This answer makes me think of "Zoolander" and his Blue Steel. Can't find the exact clip but that whole movie is pretty funny:


  • 48A: Designer's starting point (concept) — I got the beginning C, and wrote in "CONTOUR." I figured it was a fashion-y thing to start with, and the first three letters fit. Also, doesn't any creative project start with a concept? Is there something that my shopophobic brain isn't grasping here?
  • 56A: Geisha's accessory (fan) — Did anyone else write in "OBI"? I feel like I've been brainwashed to associate anything Japanese with obis.
  • 8D: One of the 12 tribes of Israel (Asher) — A much louder, catchier Asher has recently entered the cultural spectrum. My friend Gabriel showed me Asher Roth's song "I Love College" a couple days ago. I recognize its lack of musical talent, but nevertheless, it's an earworm if I ever heard one. I would put the YouTube video up, but it won't allow me to embed it. Here's a picture of him looking hip and collegial. I assume that sweater is an "Animal House" reference. If John Belushi had a baby with Glenn Close, and the baby was reared by a Yuppie and Bart Bass, it would look something like Asher Roth.
  • 19A: Fuzzy fruit (kiwi) — Finally! An excuse to post this:


    "Flight of the Conchords" — along with "The Wire," "Twin Peaks," "Arrested Development," and "30 Rock" — is one of my favorite TV shows. I'm seeing them in concert, for the second time, later today!
  • 23D: "Numb3rs" network (CBS) — I have a love/hate relationship with this show.
  • 39D: "Vas ___ Vas" (former derivative Spanish-language game show) (O No) — Ah the lengths Will goes to disguise our girl Yoko! The host of this Telemundo "Deal Or No Deal" spinoff looks like Peter Linklage.
  • 49D: Comrade of Mao (Chou) — Mao and Chou sounds like a brand of cat food. Also, the band Manu Chao:



That's it for me. Don't worry: Rex will be back soon.

Madison, out.


[Quick Note from PuzzleGirl:]

Got an email from constructor Eric Berlin the other day and thought I would pass along the info to you.
"I wonder if you might let your readers know of an event happening this week that they might enjoy very much. You perhaps know that in addition to constructing crosswords, I write puzzle-filled mysteries for kids. My second novel, 'The Potato Chip Puzzles,' comes out this week, and to celebrate, I'm throwing an online 'puzzle party.' Starting on Thursday, there'll be a puzzle on each of seven different kidlit blogs. Solve the puzzle, submit your answer, and you can win a copy of the new book... or even the grand prize, two dozen different children's books and novels from G.P. Putnam's Sons.

Full details here: http://www.winstonbreen.com/puzzleparty.html

I hope to see you and your readers there!"
I gave Eric's first book to PuzzleSon for Christmas last year and he loved it. We will definitely be checking out the puzzles this week. Thanks, Eric!

58 comments:

Hungry Mother 9:02 AM  

Perfect for a Wednesday, just on the edge of my solving skills.

JimD 9:19 AM  

The Sugalumps video was great. Thanks for the laugh.

Orange 9:30 AM  

Ah, Flight of the Conchords. Always appropriate, always much appreciated. The show offers pretty much the only American-based New Zealand humor for Rex's kiwi wife, Sandy. Is there any other kiwi-mockery available here? I think not.

Great write-up, Caleb!

Kurt 9:38 AM  

Caleb

A great write-up to go with a great puzzle.

As to your cool crossword pseudonym, how about DISCO MAN. It's an anagram of C Madison. And given your You Tube selections this morning, it just might be you.

PuzzleGirl 9:45 AM  

Thanks, Caleb. (Or should I say DISCO MAN?) Awesome F of the C video. Raising my hand for confidently entering OBI at 56A. I was also tripped up by entering pol where PAC was supposed to go. Me: "Ombidexterous? Huh?" I also thought TEVYE was kinda tough and wonder if people had trouble with that Y crossing a French word. SethG?

I will have Teena Marie's "Casanova Brown" stuck in my head the rest of the day.

dk 9:46 AM  

Caleb,

Great write up. Agree the puzzle was a joy. My only issue was the spelling of YAY. I always thought it was yea, but of course I cannot spell.

I think "cool young dude" might be a name or building on Rex's royal theme you might consider Prince Mad Son and I know of a castle north of Copenhagen you could use for a home base.

@kurts disco man could have the anti Simpson crowd in a snit.

@allen from yesterday: "come and get me copper!"

spyguy 9:48 AM  

DITTO on the great write up and puzzle sentiments. The only thing that gave me a bit of pause was the middle-south, when I had "POL" instead of "PAC", which made me want "OMNI" instead of "AMBI", and "UHOOK" for "UBOLT". Took me a bit to unwind that.

Love "Flight of the Conchords". Thanks for that clip.

To complete the circle of references, for anyone who checked out the Booker T and the MG's clip and thought the guitar and bass players looked familiar, those are Steve "Guitar" Cropper and Dominick "Duck" Dunn of the Blues Brothers, starring (of course) John Belushi.

Brendan Emmett Quigley 10:19 AM  

Bobby Bobby Bobby! Digi Digi Digi! (Nickname approved!)

Glitch 10:20 AM  

Count me in the (fast becoming)OBI crowd --- Pavlov lives!

Only problem was the last letter of the milkman. Knew the character right off, but spelled it TEVIA, didn't know COATE_, wasn't sure of ES_ (A or E), so stared at _TA_DY much too long.

Nice writeup, the style is in keeping with your puzzles.

.../Glitch

joho 10:24 AM  

@dk ... love your idea of continuing the royal theme. How about Prince Caleb, the mad son of King Rex?

@Caleb ... great write-up ... you brought up a whole new meaning for me when asked "One sugar lump or two?"

@Michael Vuolo ... wonderful Wednesday puzzle!

PIX 10:28 AM  

Minor point @50D: (Butcher's discards= Offals). Offals are the non-meat or bone parts of the animal. Many parts such as liver, tongue, stomach (tripe) are not actualy discarded but are sold (often by butchers) and consumed.


News alert for all Natick fans: today's Newsday (Long Island, NY paper) has this news item: "BJ's Wholesale Club says it will begin accepting electronic food stamp payments...The Natick, Mass.-based company..." Is that enough to make Natick a fair clue now?

Anne 10:36 AM  

I am still dealing with jet lag and did not plan to post today, but after completing the puzzle and seeing kiwi, panda, and Mao/Chou, I had no choice but to post.

I just came back from China where I stayed in a bed and breakfast located in a hutong (ancient walled community) in the heart of Beijing. While there, I met another guest, a man from New Zealand, who referred to himself as a "kiwi" which of course led to a discussion of the April 1 puzzle. He told me that the Chinese gooseberry was brought from China to New Zealand where it thrived. At some point marketeers changed the name to kiwi and export sales also began to thrive.

And I went to the zoo specifically to see the pandas. I thought they ate nothing but bamboo but one of them ate carrots the whole time we were there. Maybe I'm getting them mixed up with another animal.

We had a great time and everyone was wonderful and most people (especially young people) knew some English. My husband and I agreed that it was one of the most interesting (if not relaxing) vacations we have ever taken.

imsdave 10:38 AM  

Well done young sir! Excellent write up of a very fun puzzle.

It's rare when I see my middle name anywhere (ROY - named after my bookie uncle - I use his nickname "Bud" for my son, to complement his sister Kirin - the beer kids).

I always think POD(S) should be clued to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (original version only please).

I had a bit of a bumpy ride in the NE not getting the FRIST clue for a long time, and not quite knowing how to pronounce or spell PFFT.

LIPS could be clued as an Al Hirt partial "Sugar ____". (I hope this tune get's into someones head because I mentioned it - doubtful though)

Note to Chefbea - OFFAL is awful, but that's just my opinion.

OBEY always reminds me of my wedding vows, where we had that deleted at my behest.

Ciao all, ims(ROY)dave

@PIX - just heard a radio commercial for Golfer's Warehouse today - it mentioned a branch in Natick MA - Natick has arrived!

Anonymous 11:03 AM  

Natick with "Asher" crossing "Teri"? The "e" could easily be an "o" - unless either Asher or Teri is better known to the general population than to me.

Jeffrey 11:04 AM  

Hi, Celeb Caleb. Another person I met at the ACPT like Orange, Rex, andrea, puzzlegirl…hey, they’ve all written or guest-written crossword blogs! What about me? I can write. I can retrieve obscure music videos. I can usually solve a puzzle. Get me Celine Dion. I smell an anti-Canadian conspiracy. No wait, it’s my toast burning. Hold on a sec.

Ok. Where were we? Weird puzzle. Three letter words aplenty. BUDDY? Where did BUDDY come from? Split theme answers. Just weird.

Phyllis COATES was the first Lois Lane on the Adventures of Superman. Perfectly decent clue.

OFFAL is indeed awful. I forgot that word on purpose, as always.

Nice write-up, kid, he said grudgingly.

archaeoprof 11:22 AM  

The NE corner is nice. FRIST and FIFTH side by side. Well done.

Also loved the intersection of MGS with SOULMUSIC.

I'll be humming "Shotgun" for the rest of the day.

HudsonHawk 11:25 AM  

Nicely done, CMad. Thanks for the Green Onions clip. It always reminds me of American Graffiti, which is a good thing...

Lisa in Kingston 11:52 AM  

Puzzle was fun, but the write-up was more-so! Thanks, Caleb.
Weird bit of synchronicity for me: since I recently popped into the future, I'm also doing the puzzles in syndication. "Today's" puzzle is by none other than Caleb Madison!

fikink 12:05 PM  

An enjoyable read today, Calmad. I don't remember when I last heard Booker T ...and the MGS could also be clued with the old British car.

I agree that BUDDY is unnecessary and renders the fill artificial and forced for length.

Easy puzzle again if you figure out the longs, but splitting one expression over three lines bumps it up a bit.

Also, lots of forwarding of Sugarlumps this morning, Calmad. Thanks for the laughs.

Campesite 12:10 PM  

Nice write up and great clips. As for blogonyms, I like Calmad, but what about DigiSnacks?
-- Mark

edith b 12:14 PM  

I loved/hated this puzzle. I enjoyed how the "spoon" part of the theme was spread across the upper and lower Midlands and the other parts of it spanned the North and South. I enjoyed the Twin Towers in the NW and SE that cut through each part of the theme.

I hated all the short answers that were little more than random letters, taken three at a time. And, yes, I fell into the OBI/FAN and PAC/POL trap, apparantly, like everyone else.

I don't care how old you are, Caleb, you are ONE OF US and I find the whole discussion of age condescending. So there, my two cents worth.

Noam D. Elkies 12:14 PM  

Last of the Boston puzzles, and a good theme with a 31-letter(!) central answer that fortunately has symmetrical word breaks.

My solution times happened to be 6, 7, 8, 9 minutes in that order, each one including an extra minute to check for errors -- I didn't find any, but the first letter in today's crossword was a lucky guess, because I didn't remember whether 1D was Meg or Peg, and of course the 1A clue was useless. 54D:TEVYE I did know; ditto[7D] 8D:ASHER since they went with the respectable clue rather than whoever that Roth guy might be.

@PIX 10:28 -- I was wondering how I might have missed the questionable plural "offals"; the word looks awful enough in the singular (though the dictionary says it's originally just "off-fall"). But yes, 50D:OFFAL doesn't have the offending final S.

[Which reminds me: at the Boston tournament Shortz concluded his presentation with a Q&A (not to be confused with P&A, see today's 4A) and when the topic of errors in NYTimes puzzles came up somebody claimed that today's 49D:CHOU was an error! Will calmly explained why both Zhou and Chou are acceptable.]

My wotd is 10A:PFFT, which sort of rhymes with the intersecting 12D:FIFTH. Too bad that neighboring 11D wasn't FIRST...

NDE

fikink 12:27 PM  

Oh yes, I meant to add, OFFAL are not discards to someone making scrapple. So, as one man's gimme is another man's Natick, one man's discards are another man's scrapple.

Greene 12:38 PM  

Ahh TEVYE. I have very fond memories of Fiddler On The Roof since it was the very first Broadway show I was taken to back in the mid 1960s. Hard to believe that show is 45 years old.

Zero Mostel (who shows up in the puzzle from time to time) was still playing TEVYE when I saw it. He was absolutely magnificent in this part and audiences adored him, but he could be an odd and undisciplined performer. I remember that he would occasionally ad lib in Yiddish which would elicit howls from the Jewish half of the audience, but leave the rest of us in the dark. He would also add strange bits of comic shtick to his performance. I very clearly remember him stopping in mid scene to lumber to the edge of the stage and wring out a sopping wet milk rag over the orchestra pit. The house went wild, but I remember thinking "What does this have to do with Fiddler?" I didn't know about star turns or scenery chewing back then...I just felt bad for the guys in the pit.

Oh yeah, the puzzle. Loved it. Great fun and just right in difficulty for a Wednesday. Thanks to Caleb for filling in today and providing lots of amusement. What a fun week on the blog this is turning into.

chefbea 1:06 PM  

Thanks Caleb for a good write up. I thinks Andrea will come up with a good name for you.

As for offal : I use all the innards from poultry to make gravy , broth etc. Beef innards...Scrapple is good as is heart (tastes like beef).

Thought RR stop was sta.

@Anne - Koala bears eat bamboo

PuzzleGirl 1:29 PM  

Anon 11:03: I first learned of Teri Polo when she played Rebecca on the amazing (and criminally short-lived) "Sports Night." As today's clue indicates, she was in the wildly popular "Meet the Parents" movies. And she played Jimmy Smits's character's wife on the last season of "The West Wing." So, sorry: No Natick for you!

Anonymous 1:33 PM  

In the wild Panda eat nothing but bamboo, in zoos they've managed to expand their diet somewhat. Koalas exist almost exclusively on eucalyptus leaves, and never touch bamboo.

John 1:35 PM  

I never know if its STA or STN. I think Michael Douglas's son is named ASHER.

retired_chemist 1:35 PM  

@ chefbea - RR stop of course is STA, Just not always.

56A was OBI momentarily. Missing the theme, I had HAND IT OVER BUDDY, again momentarily.

Nice puzzle, and a very nice writeup. Didn't notice the weaknesses Caleb pointed out, but since he did I can see them. Thanks, Caleb - I'm learning from stuff like that.

Anonymous 3:08 PM  

kathkin said

@Caleb

hmmmm, what about xcal?

short and to the point yet?

chefwen 3:36 PM  

Don't tell Anthony Bourdain how awful offal is, he thrives on that stuff. Gaak!

Thought the puzzle was fun but a little easy for Wednesday, after getting a few of the long answers into place every else just flew in.

Guilty as charged with obi.

andrea carla michaels 3:46 PM  

You rock, Caleb! (Or whatever you young folk are saying these days!)

As I wasn't familiar with any of the references you were making, I was afraid there for a moment that there WAS something to this newer, younger, shinier thing...

@edith
I agree about the age/condescending thing, but not so fast on the inclusion! Maybe he doesn't WANT to be "one of us"! I'm not even sure I do! ;)

But then I realized I knew who Booker T and the MGS were and saw the Shindig video and all was right in my world!

(It's fascinating that it's a reverse world now...on that video there is a white bass player and white girls dancing all around to supposedly give him cred, and now it's usually the reverse! eg Justin and the rest)

Ooops, maybe don't want to go there, so let me go to the puzzle.

I loved the theme!
The only thing that would have made it better is if the FORK phrase came first
(and I agree, it needs slightly more than "gimme"...maybe "gimme that, mac!" to make it parallel)

This way you'd have FORK at the beginning, SPOON in the middle of the grid and in the middle of the phrase and KNIFE at the very end.

(Maybe Michael/Will thought it would make it too easy? I don't know, but I loved that the utensils were in a different position in each phrase)

The three letter fills were a bit of a mess...I had POL not PAC, trying to force OMNI-dextrous!)

I didn't fall for OBI, but I couldn't parse ONO for the life of me, even tho it was only three letters!!!


Oops, going on too long, it's not even my day to blog!
But I do want to echo foodie's sentiment of a few days ago thanking PuzzleGirl for all the editing help, all the embedding and consistency and moral/emotional support and egging on that she has brought to those of us who dare to sub!

(Believe me, Crosscan, it's harder than it looks! I was exhausted trying to do two days in a row...total new respect for those who do it every day...Tho I, for one, would love to read a full blog by you!)

Sent by my iphone from Malawi

Jeffrey 3:55 PM  

@andrea - I believe you. How anyone does this 365.25 days a year is beyond me. Let alone starting a second daily blog. Commenting daily is hard enough. (Although a one time guest appearance is intriguing. Why, I could - oops better save it, just in case.)

@any-rabbi-reading-this: to set the record straight, I did not burn toast. It was Matzoh.

Rabbi 4:24 PM  

@Crosscan: No one toasts matzoh! Hah!

edith b 4:51 PM  

@acme-

I'm not sure I are one either but I play one on a blog! and so are you if you are reading this.

Oh, and I agree, you rock 0r whatever it is you young folks say these days.

Stan 5:21 PM  

Loved the musical connections today. Too many to enumerate (and most already pointed out).

Had both OBI and POL.

Excellent write-up, Caleb!

SethG 5:40 PM  

PuzzleGirl, I did have problems with ELYSEE, but not 'cause of the French. Instead, it's just that I typed UBOKT for the fastener, then stared at xKYSEx for a few seconds. ELYSEE is a well known Champs, right? I think I inherited LPs of both Zero Mostel and Chaim Topol, and last year Doris linked to this guy.

Kokoreç, my favorite Istanbuli street food, is offal. Like Greek kokoretsi.

Digi-digi! (From Rexus Studio!)

Dr. DAN 6:19 PM  

Hi, everyone been reading this blog for a month or so, I mean the comments. I have been reading Rex's site for at least two years having some trouble posting hope this one gets thru. I hope to hear from somebody out there in the ethernet.Dr. Dan

Dr. DAN 6:44 PM  

Well I made it! password problems. I do the puzzles in syndication been reading about every ones past lives, kind of spooky. Does anybody have any ideas on how to bring people to this blog that do the puzzles in syndication?. I talked to Rex about it but he seems to think that there are syndicated people on this blog I have not found this to be the case. I'm here today but I can't discuss this puzzle, because I am six weeks in your past talk about time travel!! Later Dr. Dan

Jeffrey 6:52 PM  

Welcome Dr. Dan. My understanding is that despite how it seems in the comments, there are actually more people reading this blog in syndication than in "real time". Most commenters get emailed follow-up comments, even 5 weeks later, so they are read.

I suggest you and other syndicated readers comment away. Just skip all the "what we are doing today" stuff.

foodie 7:21 PM  

Liked the puzzle and really enjoyed the write up, Caleb! Each one of the guest bloggers has such a distinctive voice, it's great fun to see how they interpret their mission. It's also fun to guess who might be next in the line-up --although I will probably miss the rest, as I'm taking myself overseas. May be I'll stop by and visit Andrea in Malawi.

@Andrea, it took me a while to understand why you wanted to change out the FORK answer and the KNIFE answer... you're talking about locations in the grid! I kept thinking about how they are placed around a plate! I gotta stop thinking about food...

@ SethG, it makes me happy to hear you young hip guys talk about inheriting LPs. All these classic rock LP's in our basement that we can't seem to part with, maybe someone will love them someday...

@Dr. Dan: The only thing I can think is if there was another Wave of comments from the syndicated solvers. So after reading the comments that we made, you would add your own-- like "I agree with foodie from Wave I".. And for those of us who want to look back, Rex could put next to today's COMMENTS link another link to the syndicated puzzle, so we could travel back if we so desired to see what you all had to add. I hope I'm making sense?

foodie 7:26 PM  

PS @Dr. Dan: I guess all you have to do is start it, right? There were 113 comments on Caleb's puzzle that's in syndication today! You could add one and see if anyone of the new solvers answers you. It's doable, no?

chefbea 7:56 PM  

Dr dan... how do you feel about beets!!!!!

jae 8:46 PM  

Interesting puzzle and a fine write-up. Seemed about right for a Wed. to me. I did have a problem with the TEVYE/ELYSEE crossing and had to check the spelling of ELYSEE with my bride. When you're a crappy speller obvious wrong things look sorta OK at first.

@Dr. Dan when I was 6 weeks in the past a couple of years ago there were several commenters who would add their 2 cents (ala edith b) on the end of the 5/6 weeks later comments. I would assume this is still possible and being done??

Bill from NJ 9:17 PM  

I liked this puzzle in the way it played on the old quip theme in an updated kind of way. A lot of theme material played its way across the middle of the puzzle.

And three different people blogging so far this week. Way to go, Rex, in getting all kinds of different points of view expressed in your blog. I like that.

Frieda 9:26 PM  

I was in the OBI camp, too (too clever by half rushing that little word right in there!). Enjoyed seeing words emerge bit by bit, like ELYSEE or BLUEICE or indeed PFFT. And the SILVER SPOON just kept running. I thought there were a lot of 3's, too, not happy about Station being STA instead of STN (which it Always Is except of course when it's not, as retired_chemist mentioned). Something about abbreviations from abbreviations--grrgh--like random Roman numerals seems so much worse than other 3 letter romps, so this MCI seemed ok to me, and ETA as the letter rather than some terminal info was a preferable turn.

Nice write-up Caleb! and a fun Wednesday puzzle.

Frieda 9:28 PM  

Oops, Pfft! I meant STN instead of STA. Damage clearly done. Hopeless, now!

Stan 9:59 PM  

@DrDan -- Maybe it would be good if the syndication people started their posts with [Syndicated] or some such -- every puzzle could actually gain a second life!

Dr. DAN 10:00 PM  

Thanks to ever one for their suggestions. when it comes to the puzzles, I am a fanatic. I am ashamed to say I have been solving about ten years and a successful Fri. or Sat. is under ten google cheats, bad is over 15 cheats and five very unhappy hours,but I still finish and I learn in the process. It would be nice to commiserate over the same puzzle.

Chefbea I do like beets,cooking, astronomy, and of course puzzles.
thanks to all
Dr.Dan

Chip Hilton 10:11 PM  

Nice job, Caleb. Please report tomorrow on the FOTC concert. Love those guys. If you haven't seen it, check out 'Carol Brown' on YouTube. A song I love so much I don't even mind that it keeps me awake at night.

mexgirl 10:34 PM  

I love Manu Chao!!!
Thanks for the clip Caleb, and a very nice write-up too!

Lisa in Kingston 12:20 AM  

@ Dr. DAN, looks like we have some things in common: like puzzles, love to cook, I have a telescope that I have not dragged out in a year, and I grow my own beets!
Regards,
Lisa

Lisa in Kingston 12:24 AM  

Dang, I said the B-word. Glad it's late.

Lisa in Kingston 12:41 AM  

@chefbea we have a couple things in common, too!

TimeTraveller 12:46 PM  

While I have no feeling of participating in the conversation, it's occasionally nice to lob a comment from syndicationland into the mix. Perhaps Rex could insert some kind of divider between early and later comments?

Those of you who want to make a real stretch to find obscure clues in the names of musical groups get no love from me. MGs are sports cars; late in the week they could be something else. But on Wednesday? Seems like a reach to me.

Quite aside from the fact that I don't listen to that music. Just because I'm, um, somewhat older doesn't mean I didn't enjoy your post, Caleb. Good on you!

Deborah Boschert 2:28 PM  

I'm here from the syndicated version. I read Rex regularly but comment rarely. It would be nice to be able to differentiate between waves of posts, but of all the things I expect Rex to spend his time and energy on, this isn't one of them. I just enjoy reading.

Obi? Me too.

Wanted "me too" for 7D before I got several of the crosses.

syndakate 4:57 PM  

Deborah, ditto on "me too".

I really liked this puzzle. I was zipping through it too until I hit a dead end with Phyllis Coates. Never heard of her. It also didn't help matters that I was thinking of an actual diamond for 57a. Had the hope diamond on my brain thanks to 55a. I was thinking "the BOBO diamond? The BOBE diamond? Who's ever heard of this?" No one, obviously.

Anonymous 5:34 PM  

5wl...

Wow, there's alot of us here today. I now do the LA Times on the day it's published and the NYT 5wl in my local paper. Commenting both in realtime and in syndicated timeframe. Kind of weird some times. Had METOO as well. Maybe it's a syndication thing.

- - Robert

  © Free Blogger Templates Columnus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP