Ringo's drummer son — MONDAY, Dec. 28 2009 — TV sports broadcasting pioneer Arledge / Pregame morale booster / Gravy vessel

Monday, December 28, 2009



Constructor: Patrick Merrell

Relative difficulty: Easy

THEME: blank AND blank — familiar "blank AND blank" phrases where the words can also precede and follow (respectively) a common word

Word of the Day: ZAK (4D: Ringo's drummer son)Zak Starkey, (born 13 September 1965) is an English drummer, well-known as the first child of The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) and his first wife Maureen Cox. Starkey is mostly noted for his unofficial membership in The Who, since 1994. Starkey is the fourth drummer for the rock band The Who, playing with them live and occasionally in the studio. He is also known as being the third drummer of English rock band Oasis until summer 2008. Starkey has also worked on session and touring basis with artists including: Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, The Icicle Works, the Waterboys, ASAP and the Lightning Seeds. (wikipedia)

-----

Would've been a pretty dull puzzle without a. the added precede/follow part of the theme answers, and b. some pretty decent fill in some of the longer answers. In the end, a decent effort. Three partials (IT A, ME I, A RAW) seems a tad too many for a non-demanding theme like this one. OON (48A: Suffix with pont-) is wicked bad, and there's perhaps a bit more crosswordese than you'd like, but DEAR SANTA is at least timelyish, and CD RACKS is cleverish, and DONKEY, SEAWORTHY, PEP TALK, DENZEL, and BANZAI (56A: Buckaroo ___ (movie character)) are all pretty good. Not much else to say here, so I'll cut it short.

Theme answers:

  • 17A: One word that precedes "pit," one that follows it (cock and bull)
  • 27A: One word that precedes "key," one that follows it (room and board)
  • 45A: One word that precedes "play," one that follows it (down and dirty)
  • 61A: One word that precedes "hard," one that follows it (rock and roll) — this one threw me the most (when I was done), since I assumed the phrase involved was HARD ROCK, and then couldn't figure out what ROLL HARD meant. . . but no: ROCK HARD and HARD ROLL.

Bullets:

  • 4D: Ringo's drummer son (Zak) — high-end crosswordese. He's an accomplished drummer, but would never appear in a puzzle if his name was, say, BEN. For more high-end crosswordese, see also KARNAK (65A: Egyptian temple site).
  • 58D: Actress Lupino and others (Idas) — so many IDAs... if you are going to go with a plural name, I really prefer that you give me two examples. "And others" seems a cop-out.


  • 56D: Gravy vessel (boat) — like to think of this as part of a greater nautical sub-theme, with SEAWORTHY and DECK (32D: What a swabbie swabs).

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

80 comments:

retired_chemist 2:12 AM  

Easy. Enjoyed the theme, but needed crosses to get traction on the theme answers. Suffix -OON - "wicked bad?" Does that mean it's clever or it s**ks? Whatever, I got it instantly.

Largely unremarkable fill. Did not know Paul Anka wrote the English lyrics to My Way. Also did not know anybody but Sinatra sang it, Elvis and Sid Vicious inter alia.

Would have liked Olean to be the western New York city, but finding the neat animated stereo molecular model of the Olestra molecule in Wikipedia made up for my disappointment.

chefwen 2:43 AM  

Super easy even for a Monday, but it was kinda fun. Liked all the theme answers esp. COCK AND BULL. Not too much I can say about it. Agree with our host's write-up.

Bring it on odd Tuesday!

chefwen 2:44 AM  

How about "bring it on, not odd"
Wake up Wendells!

retired_chemist 2:46 AM  

Forgot my small whine - DISC is the usual spelling for 23A, and CRIS (e.g. Collinsworth, whom I watched today on TV) is as common as KRIS for the nickname spelling IMO. I know Kristofferson spells it with a K, but I was still not gruntled about the DISK/KRIS cross that could easily have been DISC/CRIS.

Anonymous 2:57 AM  

I agree that the standard spelling for this type of disc is with a "c". Missing a big chunk of one of mine, and it still likes to misbehave and move around at its own discretion. If I only had xray spex to check up on it!
By the way, when last in the UK, I think I may have had my room and board at the Cock and Bull Inn, where I ate Trix for breakfast while listening to rock and roll.

andrea c/k?arla michaels 3:58 AM  

Perhaps unconsciously bec of PatriCK's name, but there was a ton of C/K stuff going on in this puzzle: NECKS, COCK, CDRACKS, DECK, ROCK and endings that could go either way: ZAK, WAC, KARNAK (I had KARNAC)...plus coined-spelling creations of -CKS in TRIX/SPEX...
and as @r_c mentioned the whole DisK/Kris thing...

(FWIW, if it HAD been disC for the back thing, then there would have been a repeated word in the grid, sort of,bec the CD in CDRacks stands for compact disCs, no?)

It's all a bit WAC/K... but love the whole before/after theme...making me wish I could be more like PatriCK
(eXCept for OON/MEI)
I mean 3 Z's! 3 X's! 7 K's!

Love Roz Chast...Amazingly brilliant. I think she is the very first (only?) female cartoonist on the New Yorker staff...pathetic but true.

Ulrich 4:17 AM  

In this (rare for me) sleepless night, I have been trying to find more **and** phrases with the before/after thing and couldn't. NDE, who loves to weave a given theme into broader cloth, may be more successful. In any case, I very much enjoyed this puzzle.

@Andrea: Next time we meet (hope there will be a next time), you have to explain Roz Chast to me--I absolutely do not get her. As to female New Yorker cartoonists, there is (was? haven't seen her in a while) also Acocela (sp?), who pillories society types, with what sounds to me a pitch-perfect ear. Her I do get...

Ulrich 4:56 AM  

(up) front and back (up):
I got my metaphors mixed above...

Greene 7:07 AM  

Super easy puzzle, but lots of fun too. The theme was clever and added an extra layer to what could have been a pretty routine and tired set of "this and that" kind of answers. I loved all the answers where I paused to decide between a "C" and a "K." Even had to think for a moment about the spelling of ZAK (remember the whole ZACH BRAFF incident a while back?).

It appears that both the DISK and DISC spellings are acceptable in the medical literature. I casually typed both "intervertebral disk" and "intervertebral disc" into my search engine for The New England Journal of Medicine (home of a fairly rigid medical style guide) and got 18 articles which spelled the word DISK and only 2 articles which spelled the word DISC. I think they're both okay, although I prefer the former myself.

Anybody going to complain about having E. coli in their puzzle this morning? Nothing like coliform bacteria to really spice up a grid!

Finished with one error which took me forever to find. I abbreviated railroads as RDS which gave me KADNAK for 65A. Easy to fix, but for me, difficult to spot.

Elaine 7:22 AM  

Hand up for constantly having to sort out which came before and which came after. Missed a lot by solving mainly via Across clues...

I noticed the DISC/K thing, but checked Down and knew Kris with the K... Cris? really? not Chris?

AND, I ask you: is -OON a suffix? Words have letters! Not all words have pre- or suffixes! argh I guess I could look it up, but I hate to interrupt my rant!

May as well be Monday.

Anonymous 8:20 AM  

Roz Chast was also great in "Night Court."

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Bob Kerfuffle 8:39 AM  

Nice little twist on a familiar theme. OK Monday.

Dough 9:05 AM  

I thought it was a terrific puzzle, sprinkling in the Z's and K's. Plus a solid set of theme entries, fun to solve and marvel over. For a Monday, I think that's pretty praiseworthy.

Rex states: "4D: Ringo's drummer son (Zak) — high-end crosswordese." Here again is an age thing. To those of us who lived through Beatles time (B.T.), Zak is no "crosswordese," just more of the stuff we know. I assume by "crosswordese" you merely mean anything that you personally first encountered in a crossword. That's a very personal definition of an otherwise useful term.

xyz 9:06 AM  

This one was sooo easy, I am surprized anyone even bothered to do it.

DISC is much more commonly used, DISK is a bit affectatious in the medical community.

DISC/DISKs do not slip, they do not move around, they rarely extrude (part of the grisly or fibrous annulus) but mostly herniate (especially the soft jelly-centre nucleus pulposis. Bulging discs are essentially irrelevant for back pain causation. Something called an "annular tear" is grossly over-read by my back pain cohorts who love to operate (When you are a hammer, everything is a nail) and by Radiologists (not X-Ray SPEX [is twice in a few days too much for anyone else?] users.

Most significant back pain is from the SACRO-iliac (remember that one badly clued as "pelvic prefix a few days ago/) and lumbro-sacral junction.

But then again, with truth, what then would hypochondriacs have to regale us?

Needed crosses for most of the theme answers, didn't think it was a terrible puzzle at all, actually ...

cross of CDRACKs with ROCKANDROLL was pretty good especially with ZAK Starkey in the grid as well

oh bother, now to do the LAT after setting up my wife's brand new Lenovo which just arrived

xyz 9:09 AM  

@Dough

Crosswordese is any ROTE you know because of or from doing crosswords, it serves me well to think of it that way

Rex rully hates that though ...

eh...

PIX 9:16 AM  

"Disk of often spelled disc in names of body structures." (Basic Medical Language, Brooks & Brooks, 5th Ed)
" A piece of flexible connective tissue, called a disk (or disc)." Medical Terminology, Chabner, 5th Ed.
Bottom line: either is acceptable.

Zak is an easy one for many of the not-so-young members of the audience.

Fine puzzle for a Monday.

The Times about a month ago had a big page one (Sunay?) article about how E.Coli is still a major threat to the food supply in this country especially in hamburger meat (since the meat for a single hamburger patty can come from many many different animals.)

Parshutr 9:17 AM  

Shout-out for Denzel W. 55 years old today.
Otherwise, the puzzle was OTL.

PIX 9:18 AM  

"...big page one (Sunday)"

chefbea 9:30 AM  

I agree. soooo easy. I don't time myself but this was the fastest I've ever done.

Remember Johnny Carson as Karnak?? Maybe someone can find a clip of that on U tube.

chefbea 9:32 AM  

I did it!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnwyQFe3wRA

OldCarFudd 10:02 AM  

Easy, yes (it is, after all, Monday), but I thought this one was clever, with lots of Scrabbly letters. I didn't like OON; it's also a suffix of macar and typh and spitt, but I doubt these will ever catch on as crossword clues. I had no problem with DISK/KRIS, because I'm of the generation that knew and liked Kristofferson.

ArtLvr 10:11 AM  

I agree it was very cute for a Monday, with rarer letters as noted above. Hand up for standardizing K to end any DISK in English, unless you throw a discus. c.f. risk, whisk, etc. -- but not bisque!

Someone please remind me, is ONESIE referring to a one-piece infant outfit, or just the ITSY size? Do we still use the term Dr. Denton's? It's been a while!

∑;)

Glitch 10:13 AM  

Why I like this group ;).

@Greene wrote: "... I casually typed both "intervertebral disk" and "intervertebral disc" into my search engine for The New England Journal of Medicine (home of a fairly rigid medical style guide) and got 18 ... spelled ... DISK and only 2 ...spelled ... DISC. I think they're both okay, although I prefer the former [disk] myself."

@The Redanman wrote: DISC is much more commonly used, DISK is a bit affectatious in the medical community.

@Pix wrote: "Disk ... often spelled disc in names of body structures." (Basic Medical Language, Brooks & Brooks, 5th Ed)

Glad we got that settled.

.../Glitch

Anonymous 10:16 AM  

@the redanman:
Trust me, bulging disks are very relevant when it comes to pain. I had C5 and C6 discs both bulging this past summer and they pinched a nerve. It was the worst pain I have ever experienced including having my index finger amputated by an axe. It took Percoset/Valium and physical therapy before I was even able to sleep through the night again.

joho 10:18 AM  

Fun theme, well executed.

@Andrea ... there were also 3 U's, 3 W's 6 B's, 5 Y's and a V along with all those X, Y & Z's!

@the redanman ... I also liked ROCKANDROLL with CDRACKS and ZAK.

@Chef Bea ... as you noted we had KARNAK aka Johnny Carson in one corner and LENO, his successor in the other.

Plus DAS in the NE corner and ICH in the SE.

Better than average Monday to me. Thanks, PatriCK!

Greene 10:22 AM  

@Artlover: A ONSIE looks like a long T-shirt for a baby with a snap crotch. They come in all different sizes and make for very easy diaper access.

@OldCarFudd: I sometimes get the spelling of KRIS Kristofferson, the singer, confused with Chris Christophersen, the 1919 play by Eugene O'Neill (later reworked into the much more famous play Anna Christie which won a Pulitzer for Drama).

@Glitch: Doctors can't ever agree about anything. That's one reason why I usually write about the theatre. No room for disagreement there. ;).

Two Ponies 10:23 AM  

Yes, a nice Monday puzzle with fun letters and decent fill.
Darer was my least favorite fill.
A lot of what seems to me to be repeats. Onesie, itsy, nae, gar, but I did like that we got the entire x-ray spex.
I wonder if pontoon is French for floating bridge. Kinda makes sense?

My butcher grinds your order while you wait. That hamburger I trust.

PlantieBea 10:25 AM  

Easy but fun with the only glitch in the solve at the BANZAI spot where I had incorrectly entered BONZAI. Didn't get what the resulting CD ROCKS were. My husband and I watched "Taking Woodstock" last night, and the puzzle theme complimented the movie: lots of cock and bull to get the proper permits, room and board at a sinking motel, down and dirty at the most famous rock and roll concert of all time.

Greg Clinton 10:25 AM  

Onesie, now there's a fun word. Never heard it before.

Ulrich 10:51 AM  

If it's not an onesie, is it a twosie? And are there threesies, i.e. three-piece suits for babies?

slypett 10:55 AM  

It makes me crabby, when anything I could possibly say has been said!

Ooh! Oooh! Oooh! Got a RAWDEAL is incorrectly clued as "rooked". A RAW DEAL occurs when you you are dealt all red cards in a poker game--not necessarily a bad thing. (He said this with a poker face.)

Glitch 11:02 AM  

@Ulrich

Alas, "Threesies" are no more. They went out of style with the advent of "Business Casual".

.../Glitch

ArtLvr 11:17 AM  

Okay, guys -- very amusing, onesies twosies and Business Casual.. I guess I was thinking sizes like preemie, 6-mos., 1-year, etc. which never made for sensible gifts: 2-year's the only place to start.

∑;)

Anonymous 11:17 AM  

Rex;
I miss you posting your finish times. Gives me something to shoot for. Is 8 minutes a long time for this one?

jeff in chicago 11:19 AM  

Easy breezy. It's all been said. I was sure there was going to be a sub-theme dealng with all those Xs. But no. On to Tuesday!

Rex Parker 11:21 AM  

I don't post my times, usually. Spawns stupid complaints, so I just avoid the issue.

But since you asked, today was 2:50.

8 minutes is a great or a normal or a terrible time, depending on who you are. Your only useful point of comparison is you.

RP

ArtLvr 11:26 AM  

@ p.s. Greene -- Thanks again for your info on Merce Cunningham yesterday... The household here has a new 23-year-old au pair from Sweden, Tua-Lisa (!) and she's into dance of all types, so I've passed the info along.

∑;)

xyz 11:30 AM  

@Glitch: NEJM preferring DISK proves the point of being affectatious.

e.g. HEREDITARY

hair-a-dittery or he-red-uh-terry?
which is affectatiousier? :-) Med Lingo sure makes great croswordese!


@10:16 Any-none-muss

My regular job is to consult in Orthopedics on worker's comp cases. I'm almost blind from having to read cervical and Lumbar MRI's that were "just ordered to see what's wrong". MRI's to "fish" rather than prove a diagnosis in the spine are a pathetic waste of healthcare dollars. (Call your congressman NOW! for MRI use regulation). Glad you're better.

There's a lot of misconceptions that only the community right on top of this mechanical vs. discogenic pain topic truly can understand. (Must exclude "Pain Specialists" aka the "Pain Industry" as the potential abuse of great financial incentive is too strong to expect objectivity.) Even most other Orthopedists and especially primary caregivers don't have a good handle on it. Try a PHYSIATRIST, folks. (I'd like to see that clued PM&R Doc in a CW)

sp. PercoCet BTW

Finally, I'm glad the PT fixed you.

ap-o-polly-loggies for the digression

I still liked the puzzle! :-) Even if it was easy and if I think its easy, it is ...




@Rex I can't even fill it out that fast if I know the answers! that's awesome.

xyz 11:43 AM  

BTW

Other than the recommendation to see a Physiatrist for spine-related pain, the above posts by me do NOT constitute the offering of Medical advice, the interpretation of any medical test nor the endorsement of any specific medical care

There, that ought to do it.

retired_chemist 12:38 PM  

@ Anon 11:17 - Orange's blog usually has solving times of several on this list as well as of others. If you subscribe to the NYT online you can get many more times here. Click on "play against the clock," then "fastest" to see times. And be prepared to see a lot of REALLY fast ones.

Three and out.

Noam D. Elkies 12:39 PM  

Nice cluing twist for the A&B phrases.

wxordinfo remembers 11 previous instances of 48A:OON, all using ball- or even better bass-. Pont- feels weaker but arguably OK; better that than buff-, cart-, drag-, fest-, arhp-, lamp-, mar-, or sal-, to say nothing of Camer- ...

NDE

Karen from the Cape 12:44 PM  

As someone who was not alive during Beatles Time (BT), not only do I not know who Zak Starkey is, but I honestly thought Ringo Starr was a real name.

Buckaroo BANZAI is my second favorite movie of all time, starring the rock-and-roll neurosurgeon speed-record racer who is fighting off an alien invasion. All together now: Where are we going? Planet X! When are we going? Real soon!

I hate ordering MRIs for patients who 'just want to see what's wrong.' Half the time I tell them there's a bulging disc...but at a site different from where they are having pain.

Anon 11:17, 8 minutes should be enough for you to do okay at the ACPT, you get 10 minutes to solve a Monday level puzzle.

Elaine 12:46 PM  

@redanman
Teehee ("Silly laugh") over your disclaimer! See what a can of worms is created when one unmasks? My best friend from 2nd grade (we're now in our Sixties, BTW) had a laminectomy after horribly disabling pain that had lasted for months. Your advice re physiatrist is excellent, but do you know how many people don't live within reach of a care center where such a specialist is on staff? (Probably you do, actually.) People gotta take what they can get, which is usually an orthopedist. My friend is pain free now and retired from hoisting preschoolers--a double plus outcome, eh?

What, what, what IS a "redan?" I have never heard this term. Please include "how this might be clued in a cruel crossword" in your explanation!

retired_chemist 12:50 PM  

Re -OON:

nobody has mentioned our most important J- so far.... :-)

Texas Momma 1:01 PM  

@PlantieBea Let me recommend "Pirate Radio" with Philip Seymour Hoffman, as a good follow up of Rock and Roll history to "Taking Woodstock" Great fun!

Doc John 1:15 PM  

Not much to add to what everyone else said other than I had my first sub-4 minute time! (So it must've been REALLY easy.)
And speaking of The Who, they're playing the halftime show at this year's Super Bowl.

Sfingi 1:29 PM  

The theme was easy and good. Thought about how keyboard and cockpit were so 20th century and the phrases were much older.

Thought BANZAI was spelled "bonsai." The movie was stupid, but it had Jeff Goldblum and the late Vincent Schiavelli (Sicilian) in it, so I had to see it.

Mostly all-over easy, but had a personal Nattick: OBIWAN and OLEAN intersects ONESIE, a clever word we didn't have 30 yrs. ago.

Realized I mix up ECOLI and Ebola.

@Elaine - I remember the redding man or reddleman from Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native.
@Redanman - definitely agree with you on speed.

Saw Merce Cunningham, Robert Motherwell, and John Cage altogether on stage at Skidmore in the mid-60s. Thought they were all phonies. Haven't really changed my mind.

CoolPapaD 1:55 PM  

Both c and k are fine for disc(k), though it seems that when referring to infections or diagnostic testing involving said structure, "discitis" and "discography" are more common than their counterparts.

@Karen from the Cape - do they really make you stop after 8 minutes? What do they do with the later (Tue - Thu) level puzzles?

Anonymous 2:11 PM  

I just realized that today's constructor is also a blogger on another site.

retired_chemist 2:16 PM  

My original point was about a personal dislike for the K/C quasi-ambiguity. No problem with either spelling of DISK/DISC or KRIS/CRIS, just that for those who can't remember whether it's KRIS (yes) or CRIS (no), it is an uncheckable answer.

101 binary and out....

Steve J 2:43 PM  

Fun, if a bit quick. The theme was well-executed.

Only complaint was 30D: A DARER is the one issuing a challenge and doesn't have to do anything. The person who takes the dare is taking the risk. There's no risk involved in saying "I dare you to jump off a bridge."

Meg 2:45 PM  

@Chefbea: I also thought of Carson when filling in KARNAK. Nice memory.

I didn't like DARER at first because I figured that someone else would be taking the risk (as in "I dare you"); however, I suppose you can dare yourself.

Personally, I thought the theme was most clever! Since Mondays are often just not very exciting, I applaud Mr. Merrell for his creativity.

Shamik 2:59 PM  

@KarenfromtheCape: 10 minutes for a Monday level at the ACPT? Wooohooooo...my confidence has soared. Can't wait!!!! My family has been wondering why it took so may years for me to enter. I, too, would like to know how many minutes for the other levels.

Onesies also can have legs--not just long t-shirt styles, but still have all those snaps...again for easy diapering.

Elaine 3:02 PM  

@Karen from the Cape
There is a special circle of The Inferno for people who mention that they "weren't alive during The Beatles' heyday....
For what it's worth, I remember when they burst upon the scene during cough cough my final years in HS--and this is the first time I had ever heard Ringo Starr's "real name," and I had no clue about his son's name. Loved the music, but had no interest in being an obsessed fan!

RE: -OON

No one has mentioned PANTA- or L- or BUFF- (or did I miss it?)

Virginia Dare 3:30 PM  

@Steve, Meg, et al? -

If you DARE to take my name in vain, then you are a DARER, even if that is Not Quite in the Language.

And if someone DARES you to take my name in vain, they he is the DARER, but, by Walter Raleigh's pipe, I would say that is Not So Much in the Language Either.

Anonymous 3:48 PM  

@ Elaine.. Obsessed fan? Try common knowledge

retired_chemist 3:53 PM  

My favorite DARER, J. Alfred Prufrock.

"And indeed there will be time
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?"
Time to turn back and descend the stair,
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair--"......

"I grow old ... I grow old ...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?"

Anonymous 4:02 PM  

"Ich bin Berliner" = I am from Berlin.
"Ich bin ein Berliner" = I am a jelly doughnut.

Rube 4:17 PM  

@Elaine, I'll support you. We're of the same vintage and I never knew Ringo's real name either, until today.

FWIW, Diggory Venn was the name of the redler in Return of the Native. I named a reddish-orangish cat after him. (His job was dipping sheep in some reddish concoction, hence his title -- the guy in the story, not my cat.)

That was one great cat, too... miss him.

Elaine 4:34 PM  

@Rube
I'm going over the Rule of Three, here, but wanted to say Thanks. Don't you love it when someone needs to be Anonymous in order to be snotty? I doubt I've ever spent ten minutes (even when they were new) reading about The Beatles--but I still love their music. No need to know more!

And thanks for the "redler" bit--am still waiting for explanation from "Redan" Man on that term!

@Ret-Chem et alia

FWIW-- I think we rely on contextual clues to discern between DARER--one who assays to do something dangerous or nervy --and DARER-- one who poses a challenge to another. Both are correct.

Clark 4:37 PM  

We dared to take the cats on a drive that should have taken 7 hours but because of ice and snow took 10 and a half. Turns out, the cats are excellent travellers. Then we dared to put them in the car for the return trip after just 4 days. They are very happy to be home.

Sfingi 5:30 PM  

@Elaine - just saw the snarky comment from Anon 348. He DAREn't use his/her name. Or as the real old-timers - as in dead - would say "Dasn't."

As for me, risk averse, as the stock brokers say.

My youngest sister, by nine yrs., was obsessed by the Beatles. Until the Who came along. My sisters took piano at the same time. Baby "studied" Beatles, while the other studied Beethoven. Baby had some original music which I think disappeared when we gave away the upright. My 1st date with Hubster was to the first Beatles movie.

mac 5:58 PM  

Fresh and above average Monday for me as well! You have said it all. I didn't like darer and -oon very much either, but "mei" looks funny in the grid.

@Clark: my husband drove our son and his feline roommate to NY, about an hour and a half('s?) drive, and this was the first time the little guy behaved. May have been because he hadn't been fed since yesterday late afternoon.

Ulrich 6:05 PM  

@Anonymous: wrong on all counts

"Ich bin Berliner" ("I was born in/live in Berlin") is NOT what Kennedy wanted to say.

"Ich bin ein Berliner" is grammatically and idiomatically correct--everyone in the square understood it exactly the way it was meant. Later, someone who didn't know German created this jelly donut myth that just refuses to go away.

Clark 6:13 PM  

@mac -- I think our cats behave in the car because there is so much unusual stimulus flying at them from all sides that they just want to sit tight and ride it out. Obi is not a lap cat, but he spent much of the trip curled up on semi-puzzle partner's lap.

Glitch 6:53 PM  

@Elaine wrote:
"AND, I ask you: is -OON a suffix? Words have letters! Not all words have pre- or suffixes! argh I guess I could look it up, but I hate to interrupt my rant!"

You shudda looked up suffix! ;)

... and re: your Beatles comments, "obsessed" is an accusation , you should expect a strong reaction from us trivia (but non-obsessed) folk.

.../Glitch

Squeek 7:11 PM  

Not knowing Ringo's real name?
Wow.
I guess it's just another proper name to file away.
If I am supposed to remember Bambi's aunt and every member of Prince Valient's comic strip family then a clue about The Beatles is straight down the middle and across the plate.

Glitch 7:47 PM  

Hi Squeek,

Well said

.../Glitch

Elaine 8:45 PM  

I STILL don't know ole Bambi's Aunt. Just won't stick in the old gray matter. LOL

No, "obsessed" was not meant as pejorative-- but perhaps you were not born when the hordes of screaming, weeping fans mobbed the poor Liverpool blighters.... The Beatles were a creative and cultural break-- and that was enough for most thinking persons. Details were (still are) irrelevant, most of the time. Or so I opine.

"This was quite a tame discussion til lately! Does this mean I am a Blog Terrorist???" (she asked, with a secret thrill.)

@glitch
If you looked it up on Wiki, don't even bother me! A pre- or suf-fix has meaning as a stand-alone, and adds to the root word. It's not just the last few letters of any or all words. (Think -ist in pianist and then in list. See?)

Waaaay over posting budget...but likely to miss tomorrow in toto!
You guys are making me miss having a housecat....

Anonymous 9:00 PM  

@Ulrich,

Thanks -- I stand corrected!

Stan 9:05 PM  

@the redanman: Have you ever experienced debilitating, stunning pain as part of a medical condition? I have -- and I damn well appreciate (forever) the medical professionals that provided some relief from this.

Your point about the "Pain Industry" may be valid -- I don't even understand it. But until you have been there I wouldn't be so quick to judge.

Steve 9:29 PM  

I dare say, I'd completely forgot about common self-dare examples. And with "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock" being one of my favorite poems ever, I definitely should have remembered that. Thanks to several for the memory-jog.

ArtLvr 9:36 PM  

@ the redanman-- I think I read somewhere that failed spinal surgery is more common than any other kind... I do know about mobile MRIs which allow better visualization than the passive standard types which are making you nearly blind: look up Fonar Corp. to see examples of their more accurate Upright MRIs.

(Disclaimer) No, I don't own any FONR stock at present!

∑;)

sanfranman59 11:02 PM  

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

Mon 6:40, 6:55, 0.96, 47%, Medium

Top 100 solvers

Mon 3:39, 3:41, 0.99, 53%, Medium

Sfingi 12:28 AM  

@Stan - I believe Woody Allen said the medical profession is against chiropractic because it works too fast.
There's something to the "Laying on of Hands."

ich bin eine andrea 3:08 AM  

@Karen from the cape, @ Elaine
Which am I more shocked by...that someone could even have been born after the Beatles or that that same someone is old enough to be a doctor!!!??! How dare she!

Unknown 11:44 AM  

Anybody else think that "one who takes risks" should be the darEE, not the darER? 30D

xyz 1:01 PM  

@Stan
You lose. I am personally an Orthopedic annuituy. Pain meds are way over-rated. Incomplete personal list includes dislocated knee with ACL reconstruction & PLRI, lots of my own back & neck issues from car crashes, sports injuries, several (at least six) fractures - I live what I preach, sorry, pal, wrong tree to "ARF ARF" up here. haha

@Elaine - gracias however, most hospitals ought to have a Physiatrist, no matter how small nowadayz

also:
REDAN - clued as "notorious in war and the Lothians"
-a Famous golf hole at North Berwick West Links - the second most copied par 3 strategy in golf or a fortification type seen in battle descriptions in which an indirect attack [as is with the golf hole] is the way to conquer. It is on Wiki

@Karen from the cape - haha love your comment! Way too true.

@ArtLvr (has always loved your signature emoticon, BTW) - yes, back surgery is the most commonly "failed" and it is NOT pretty ... Have done way too many IME's on folks that would have been much better off had they never had their back operated on, not to say that used appropriately, it can be just awesome.

Old Ortho adage (mostly true) - back surgery cures leg pain, not back pain.

Glad to help and add a little (off?-)color to the joint

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