Constructor: Elizabeth C. Gorski
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: TOWN SQUARES (
35A: What the six groups of circled letters represent) — reading clockwise starting from the NW circled square, each set of squares spells out a word that can precede "TOWN" in a common name, word, or phrase:
- BOOMtown
- HOME town
- BOYS town
- DOWNtown
- CAPEtown
- FREEtown
Word of the Day: BIBI Andersson (
1A: Andersson of "Persona") —
Bibi Andersson (born 11 November 1935) is a Swedish actress. [...] Her intense portrayal of the nurse Alma in the 1966 film Persona led to an increase in the number of cinematic roles offered her, and she appeared that same year opposite James Garner andSidney Poitier in the violent western Duel at Diablo. More Bergman collaborations followed, as well as working with John Huston (The Kremlin Letter: 1970) and Robert Altman (Quintet: 1979). She made her debut in American theatre in 1973 with a production of Erich Maria Remarque's Full Circle. (wikipedia)
• • •
This theme is so tight you could bounce a quarter off it. Perfectly executed. The thematic equivalent of a stuck landing in gymanstics. Revealer is a self-standing phrase that also perfectly, literally explains the sets of circles. And the grid's got
BUSTIERS to boot (
47A: Close-fitting women's garments). Brilliant. My only complaint is that it was so damned easy. A couple proper nouns that I probably should've known (
BIBI, TYRONE) (
1A: Andersson of "Persona"; 46D: Old county of Northern Ireland), a bad guess at [
Words of denial] ("AM NOT!" instead of "
I DON'T"), and a total inability to process Roman numerals quickly and efficiently (let alone accurately) (see 22-Across) were the only things between me and a Monday-like time. Even with those snags, my time was solid Tuesday. But difficulty level is always at least a little subjective, whereas the technical merits of the puzzle ... I don't think they are.
Looks like
10D: Atlanta's main street (PEACH TREE) was thrown in there to slow folks down, because who the hell would know that outside Atlanta, but the answer's highly gettable (with some crosses) via Atlanta's location in Georgia and Georgia's being the Peach State. Maybe the
PALOMAR observatory is new or unfamiliar to some people. I know
PALOMAR best as a fictional Central American town in Gilbert Hernandez's stories for "Love and Rockets." I learned about the observatory (operated by CalTech in the Palomar Mtn. Range, in S. California) from crosswords, I think, and the answer came pretty easily for me today. I hope I don't end up seeing a lot of ATS, which seems slightly desperately clued at
31D: Cadillac model unveiled in 2012. I don't think that's a thing, that people know, the way they know, say, GTO or ALERO. Valid, but not what you'd call quality fill. But I'm nitpicking here, as
ATS and
SOOTS (
33A: Blackens with chimney grime) were the only answers that gave me any queasy feeling whatsoever.
I didn't know the
HI-HO had died (
15A: Ritz look-alike of old). I figured the Keebler elves were making them, probably because "
HI-HO" is something dwarves say and, well, dwarves, elves ... same general Tolkienish ballpark.
That's it for today.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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69 comments:
I was pleasantly surprised not to be annoyed by the circles which were both clever and cute. Very easy Wed. for me also. Started filling it in and only paused when I had to erase wail for KEEN. It also took me a second or two to remember that the Hale telescope is just a few minutes away from me at the PALOMAR observatory.
A smidge of zip with TROU and BUSTIERS... I'm on the "like it" side of this one.
The difficulty level was a bit elevated for me cause I didn't know HIHO or SOMMER (HIHu just didn't seem plausible), LEBON or ENA (I guess it's time to memorize ENA), SESE or TYRONE. Some lucky guesses brought me home. I did not know that SOOT could be a verb. "Drop ____" could be a lot of things, but if you're gonna drop something it might as well be TROU.
I'm not a fan of circles but these very innocuous ones didn't hurt at all.SOOTS/ATS slowed me down considerably but the reveal solved all! thanks much Ms Gorski-another fine job!
Solid and fun puzzle that was mostly easy for me except for two problem areas, one at the beginning and the other at the end. I opened with a mistake (lonI at 1-Across) and didn't know how to fix it until I realized that BIBI Andersson has two S's, not one. I still got the BOOM square pretty quickly and was expecting the puzzle to be about BOOM BOXES, which would give me plenty of reason to reminisce about them again like I did in my second blog post here.
KEEN as a definition for "wail" is new to me, so that slowed me up at the finish. Don't know why I've never heard of that before, but it was easy enough to get when SOAKS was the only thing that made sense at 50-Down. I wish TYRONE had been clued as the hefty character from the Guy Ritchie movie "Snatch," but that's just because it's one of my favorite movies and perhaps it'd be too obscure for the general audience. It might have been timely and cool if OWS had been clued as a reference to Occupy Wall Street, but I don't know how well people know of the abbreviation.
I'm a big fan of the clue for BED SHEET ("It may be fit for a queen").
Have only been to Atlanta once and PEACH TREE was a gimme. Lived in Scotland for 5 years but didn't know SCOTIA. Go figure.
I think I told this story a few years ago. I know, the memory is the first to go. The students at PALOMAR College arranged a bit letter P on the mountain with large boulders and painted them white, we could see the mountain when we pulled into our driveway and one of the visitors we had just picked up from the airport exclaimed "Wow, Wendy, someone just Peed on your mountain".
Love Elizabeth Gorski, love circles on my puzzles, this one was easy but cute.
So Evan, just a heads up. Snatch is not really a "couples" flic. One prescription for an harmonious marriage is knowing which films to watch together and which ones you should watch just by yourself (you will always watch the "couples" flics together whether you want too or not).
That said (@Loren), if your bride to be is a big fan of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Breaking Bad, No Country for Old Men, any Guy Richie film ... feel free to ignore the above advice. It'll be number 46 for us on Saturday.
That should be "to or not)." And, this was a typo correction so I claim the right to comment at least one more time.
@jae:
As a matter of fact, my bride-to-be is a big fan of "Snatch," "Lock, Stock, & Two Smoking Barrels," "Casino," "Goodfellas," "Fight Club," "Kill Bill," "Inglourious Basterds," "District 9," "Breaking Bad," "Game of Thrones," basically anything that combines violence with awesomeness. We've even had many a fun time watching bad horror movies from the 80s and ripping them while we watch. So even if those aren't typical "couples" flicks, I'd say we're well on our way to a harmonious marriage -- I'd hope so, since we've had nearly seven years of harmonious movie nights.
Congrats on Anniversary No. 46.
@Evan -- Impressive! Yes, you are well on your way! And while we are on the subject let me recommend a few you might have missed given your age: True Romance (an early role for Brad Pitt), Romeo is Bleeding, Natural Born Killers, Heathers, any Coen Brothers movie you haven't seen...
Nice puzzle. The last word I filled in was the theme hint.
@jae,
I believe what you mean is "Four and out!"
:-)
rp
No one else wanted TRACT for "Gut course"?
Don't Banshees WAIL or at least HOWL?
TROU, BUSTIERS, and ATEOUT.
What a night!
Save for ENA/LEBON cross, which I got right with by guessing the N, and ATS like @Rex being WFT -- wanted ATV, which would have been more cool -- this was all @Rex said: fun and easy.
Second SONATINA in the last few days, IIRC. BUSTIERS most definitely pass my breakfast test; I just ADUL-ATES them, is what I'm sayin'
Six four-letter words that can precede TOWN – check.
Six symmetrical spots in the grid to accommodate the SQUARES’ circles – check.
Eleven spots smack dab in the middle for the revealer – check.
Smooth, smooth periphery fill around the SQUARES and everywhere else – check.
A couple of bright long ones: SONATINAS and PEACHTREE – check.
Textbook Gorski. Excellent! No UNDUE BOO-HOOing here.
Liz, it’s hyperbole, but I have to say it: I ADULATE your FLARE for construction!
A bit too easy for my Wednesday taste, but cute. Fun to have BUSTIERS and the Wonder Woman reference. SCOTIA threw me for a sec, but then Nova Scotia kicked in.
I liked the "circles that are squares that are all types of towns" theme, nice layers to work my brain through. Somehow that Q right smack dab in the middle makes me happy.
Mostly easy-medium for me, but first had fenphen for EPHEDRA, and shag for AFRO, so those two corners had to be worked longer. Took a long pause to figure out IBMPC. And could not immediately recall what Wonder Woman used besides her plane and her wrist bands.
PALOMAR felt vaguely wrong to me until I realized I was also thinking Malomar.
I was 14 when Duran Duran was crazy-popular, so I not only know LEBON, but every other member of the band.
What does "drop trou" mean? I've never heard the phrase!
There's a doe in Bambi named ENA? I guess everyone else knew that, but not me, so I figured she must be EvA, and the singer guy must be LEBOv - didn't sound right, but since my first choice would have been LEBOw, I'd have finished with an error either way.
But that's just me. Nice puzzle! I was slightly bothered that the last two theme entries were names of actual cities, while the others represented other uses of the word TOWN, bu with six of them it's hard to complain.
Straightforward solve. Nice puzzle.
Did the puzzle post-concert late last night on the play against the clock app. When I travel (like this past weekend) I usually solve in Across Lite. I always feel vaguely dissatisfied solving on the computer. I periodically give computer solving a try, but I am a paper and pen guy. I can't really explain what it is about solving on a screen that bugs me, but it does.
What a fabulous puzzle! And while it may be a bit easy for Wednesday, it certainly wasn't easy to constuct. It's seamless. Liz is like a brilliant actor who never shows she's acting or, in her case, constructing.
I especially liked all the "B's" ... BEHEST, BOOHOO, BISQUES, BUSTIERS, BRUTAL, BRONX and BEDSHEET (great clue here!)
Brava!!!
(@jae ... at PALOMAR I could actually see the exit at PALOMAR Airport Road.)
Stars like Liz Gorski can get away with making us write in IBMPCS, MMCC, THE and SOOTS by giving us a chance to also jot down BUSTIERS, BISQUES and the delightfully clued SUPS in our grid.
The theme was blissfully uncomplicated but still fun as we progress to TOWNSQUARES from yesterday’s INNERCITY, with circled letters giving us a mix of non-specific towns (DOWN, BOOM and HOME) and specific locations (BOYS, CAPE and FREE) and except for LEBON and SOMMER, the entries used to generate the circled squares were all Crossword 101 answers.
Not to worry, Liz had some of her usual treats spotted around the grid to perk things up as PEACHTREE, BEDSHEET, PALOMAR, SCOTIA and ADULATES filled the bill nicely.
I’m sure Liz’s FREETOWN is the Sierra Leone version, but if there had been a way to reference it, she could have given us a new Natick by making it Massachusetts own FREETOWN (population 8870), located in the southeastern portion of the Commonwealth, not large enough to have its own DOWNTOWN, but repped in Congress by none other than the indomitable Barney Frank and certainly obscure enough to out-Natick Natick.
Thanks to Liz Gorski for a calm and considered Wednesday treat.
This is one of those puzzles that, if I had more crossword knowledge, would have been enjoyable for me. But for someone who has only been doing the Times crossword for 6 months or so, I'm left with the following reaction:
ENA? AEC? PIU? LOY? SESE? ATS? HIHO? Perhaps some of those reflect not having a great knowledge of "classic" things (like movies from 1934), but I imagine some come easily only if you've seen them before in many other puzzles.
@miette trou is short for trousers.
Great puzzle. As for keen...I think sound means sharp...and sharp means keen? anyone?
keen /kin/ Show Spelled[keen] Show IPA
noun
1. a wailing lament for the dead.
verb (used without object)
2. to wail in lamentation for the dead.
verb (used with object)
3. to bewail or lament by or with keening.
@Apu: I concur re: ENA as it crosses with LEBON (see my earlier comment). The others you mention, though, while being crosswordese (to many) are fairly crossed with other easily gotten words (easily in the context of a Wednesday puzzle.) For instance, I had no idea about ATS, but STAIRS, SOOTS and, eventually, the revealer, TOWNSQUARES, made this a moot point.
Hope that helps.
Who the hell would NOT know that Peachtree was the main street in Atlanta? Haven't you ever read/seen GWTW? Not only that, but there are multiple Peachtree Streets in Atlanta, not just the main one. There's more to these United States than the northeast.
9A: "Don't sit under the APPLE tree".
3D: One of Guy Lombardo's biggest hits was "BOO HOO". He recorded it multiple times for different labels.
Awesome!
Am I just not awake yet? Medium-challenging Wednesday time on this excellently executed puzzle.
@evan @jae - You need to add "Crime Spree" to your film noir list.
Fun puzzle - there's nothing better than a Gorski in the morning.
I have never agreed less with you, Rex. Terrible puzzle, boring theme, extremely difficult and with ridiculous fill for a Wednesday... BIBI, PIU, ENA, PIU... and then the SE confluence of PALOMAR, TYRONE, KEEN and SESE made it a DNF for this Saturday puzzle-solver. OK, this is partly sour grapes for the DNF, but I still think it stinks.
Medium time, GOOD feel to the puzzle.
PEACHTREE street is probably as well known as lots of NY landmarks.
BIBI Andersson - almost was LONI except (a) there is only one S in Loni's name and (b) Persona sounded too serious a film for LONI. Never saw it, but acc. to Wikipedia it is.
Hand up for PHENFEN, or FENPHEN, a spelling decision that I decided would wait for a useful cross, until that cross eliminated both. Took five before I believed EPHEDRA. Should be clued as the Greek goddess of weight loss.
ALBION (incorrect but related) before SCOTIA. TRALEE before TYRONE, ditto.
Used to wake up and see the Hale Observatory and MT. PALOMAR from my bedroom window when I was a postdoc. On the five or six mornings that weren't smoggy in 1965, that is.
Thanks, Ms. Gorski.
I found this to be a good puzzle but, like yesterday, got a little bogged down on some of the fill. Today is was the SE corner with PALOMAR, TYRONE, SESE, and KEEN. That corner seemed to have an UNDUE amount of (semi) obscure proper names. But the theme was fun and well executed.
I've only been to Atlanta once but it seemed that every other street, business, bridge, or whatever was Peach Tree Something.
@ jberg, I'm sure Ena is buried deep within the Bambi story but she actually only exists in Crossworld. Was Bambi written by Eda LeShaun?
(I know, it's just my second most annoying fill name.)
The SE was my messy area because Wail made Brews or Stews my first hot water guesses. Palomar finally fixed it.
Freetown is my only unknown of the theme answers.
@ Evan, Lock Stock is in my top ten favorite movies.
I really enjoyed this breakfast-time crossword feast - lots to savor. I had the first 3 circle-squares at the top, but didn't see the connection among them; decided to do the bottom three and see if I could get the center reveal. With "down" and "Cape" I saw the TOWN SQUARES - for one of those nice crossword little moments of triumph.
Liked APPLE crossing PEACH and BISQUE crossing ATE OUT, since I never make it at HOME. Nice to see the great BIBI Andersson get some crossword recognition and Elke get her last name in for a change. Loved the BUSTIERS and BED SHEET (which I resisted for a bit, thinking, "A queen would never wear a bed sheet").
When our daughter was an undergrad, she called home one night to say that in order to stay awake to study and evidently not anticipating an EASY A, she'd taken EPHEDRA along with a liter of Coke and didn't feel so well.
@jae - Congratulations on your 46th! You're one year ahead of my husband and me.
@orangeblossomspecial - Love your comment on PEACHTREE Street!
@Milford - "Shag" - how could I ever have forgotten this style?! :)
Looks like Rex had a happy ending when he finished the puzzle....
JFC
I wouldn't go as far as Greg C., but I'm sorry, no theme that requires you to cross ENA with LE BON right next to a theme entry qualifies as a historically well executed theme. I had EVA/LEBOV, which is far more plausible for the down clue and equally plausible for the across clue (LEBOV is a not-uncommon Slavic name).
This wasn't bad, but it was hardly spectacular.
Worked the puzz mostly south to north, which helps explain my one write-over: 37 D, had EMULATES before ADULATES.
I breezed through most of the puzzle, but the NE corner gave me some problems. I always forget ENA and LEBON, and this is the first time I'd heard the term "gut course." I also agree that the SOMMER/HI-HO cross was potentially tricky, though I vaguely remembered HI-HOs.
For the most part I thought this was a solid puzzle, without much bad fill (I'm looking at you, PIU and ENA). I do feel the need to complain about IBM PCS — while technically correct, this is a seriously outdated term and clue (especially now that IBM has ceased making PCs, so there's nothing left to "clone"). Wikipedia claims that this sense of the term "clone" fell out of use back in the 90s.
ENA does not appear in the Wikipedia plot writeup of Bambi,though she is listed in the cast. Davis's complaint seems valid. She is pretty obscure.
14 manyFeb (captcha) - a Valentine's Day shoutout?
@Bob Kerfuffle - Had the same problem. As you know, there is a difference which can be illustrated by the following two sentences.
When Rex EMULATES Liz Gorski, he fails.
When Rex ADULATES Liz Gorski, he succeeds.
Sorry, Rex, but this is part of my 12 part program....
JFC
Eight Us. thUmbsUp, Lizmeister.
Kinda wanted GOTOtown.
Hint-of-trouble spots...
PIu/BuSTIERS
SESe/TYRONe
SESE sounds like someone being urgently corrected for mistakenly headin' NW.
Guessed right at ENA/LEBON and TYRONE/SESE, first had TOWNhouses, which would have been cute. I don't mind a little easier than usual as payment for smooth, clever, and fun.
ENA has been used forty times as a NYT Crossword clue in this fashion(since Shortz took over editorship. ) Hardest clue: Faline's mother, in "Bambi."
@ Man, @Davis - I'd say the evidence presented shows that ENA is high crosswordese. Often in the NYT XWD, hardly mentioned otherwise.
Xwds is the only way I know it.
Botched this one. Easy for you, not for me. It brings me down to Earth when after having no problems at all Friday and Saturday, I get thrown by a Thursday, but...Never heard of Bibi Andersson. I messed up the NW , but there is no good excuse for writing "noonoo" and never thinking of "boohoo" ! IBMPCS is a very clever and apt answer that I just didn't see, having written "MACS" for the last four letters. Good puzzle. Bad solving my me.
It seems to me Banshees wail but ordinary women KEEN when they mourn. Rocking back and forth with your shawl over your head helps, too. ENA is Bambi's Aunt. Used to appear frequently in puzzles. I got BOON and BOYS first so thought all would be BO. SOOTS bothers me a bit.
All was revealed. I do enjoy a Liz Gorski puzzle so much.
@ Sparky - the dictionary lists SOOT as a verb, as well as a noun. One of the interesting (to me, anyway) features of English is how many nouns can be turned into verbs.
Excellent Liz Gorski, not surprisingly! Not easy for me, the NW with Bibi and IBMPCs and I too wanten Phenfen/Fenfphen. Palomar, Tyrone and AEC and lasso needed some crosses as well, but I enjoyed the solve a lot!
I saw the circles and for half a second thought today was Thursday. A great puzzle from Liz Gorski. Thanks for the pleasure of the solve.
Couldn’t think of TYRONE, which could have been TYROLA or TYROLO. KEEN (original answer was WAIL) and SESE are new for me, but there was only one combination that made sense.
Liked 2D as it had no vowels. Can TET be pluralized?
Is 53A a shout-out to @Evan and his potential response to the all important question this weekend?
The Mrs. and I will be together for 16 years this October and it’s been a blast.
Happy Humpday and National Relaxation Day!
Rex was right about jae. If you get him going on obscure pre 1995 noir movies he won't stop.
And, ENA has also been clued as the queen consort of King Alfonso XIII of Spain (or words to that effect), Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.
@Bird: Sure. TETS. I've even seen TNTS walkin' the grid before.
Better clue: "Students should prepare thoroughly for this week's spelling ___".
They just redecor-ated the local Village Inn. Nice, but a bit overly cutesy. Makes you want to smack the decorator around just a little bit. Fave wall decor: individually hung letters, spellin' out: "THE JOY OF". Cool. More fill-in the blanks!
Great write-up, Rex. I totally concur.
That said, I think that ATS is certainly fair game, given the huge amount of advertising they did for it during the Olympics.
Here's a fun fact about Banshee: Cedar Point was going to call their standup coaster Banshee, even had all the merchandise made for it. Then people complained that the Banshee KEENs as it's coming to take someone's life. That sort of put them off and they changed the coaster's name to Mantis.
Meant to say earlier...Bon Appitite!!!! In Honor of Julia Child's 100th birthday. Of course I baked a cake on my baking stone
@Doc John - Oh, yeah, "Mantis" is so much better than "Banshee." According to Wikipedia, "Mantises are exclusively predatory. They will only eat meat that they have caught themselves. Insects form the primary diet, but larger species of mantises have been known to prey on small scorpions, lizards, frogs, birds, snakes, fish, and even rodents; they will prey upon any species small enough to be successfully captured and devoured. [ . . . ] if the prey does not resist, the mantis will eat it alive. However, if the prey does resist, the mantis will eat its head first, and then carry on with the body in pieces."
HI-HO, HI-HO, it's off to work we go...
The TOWNSQUARES and circles were PEACHy-KEEN, it's true!!
Would've got the EASY-A
If not for the KEEN...BOO HOO!!
Uh, Rex? I can't see the LASSO in the picture of Wonder Woman. I'm sure that's why you put that picture there, to highlight her LASSO, 'cause that's what's in the puzzle. I don't get it, I can't see the LASSO. I also can't see her eyes; even now I'm hearing her say "the eyes are up here" in the back of my mind. Screw the LASSO.
Yeah, I have noticed ENA come up a few other times in recent memory, it's just the piece of crosswordese that seems to give me more trouble than any other (and on a Wednesday, I don't like to see potential crosswordese Naticks like the ENA/LE BON cross).
Come to think of it, I remember LE BON coming up recently; is there a database for checking this sort of thing?
@Davis, Cruciverb.com is your friend. LEBON's penultimate appearance was 1/1/12, Friday puzzle by David Steinberg. Ms. Gorski used it once before on 2/30/11, Sunday puzzle. LEBON has appeared just those 2 times in the Times, three times elsewhere.
Always love to use penultimate is what I'm sayin'
An EASY A-Zambezi(A) Wednesday.
Good week so far...
Loved the theme, circled answers and no bad fill. Well, PUI?
Glad I learned about the PALOMAR observatory in school (many light years ago).
Only BRUTAL decision came at KEEL/TYROLE or KEEN/TYRONE. Decided to DISOWN THE E in Tyrol- and go with TYRONE. Whew!
@MandA - Thanks. I also searched and found a few TETS. I still don't think it's pretty though.
I was going to skip today's puzzle (too busy!) until I saw Liz Gorski's name; I never skip her puzzles.
@orangeblossomspecial 9:42 AM said:
"Who the hell would NOT know that Peachtree was the main street in Atlanta?"
Uhhh, me......... I did figure it out eventually, though.
This also played harder for me than a usual Wednesday, but it was worth it.
This was waaaaayyy too hard for Wed. The thought of this being even close to "easy" soots my mind with fear. The tuff part, i think, is when I do what I do best, come up w/ answer, and build from it, then find out the "seed" is wrong. No better than on this one. My ENTIRE RLQ was RUINED by my "really, really tough" choice: B A D A S S. What else could it possibly be? B R U T A L? But yes it was BRUTAL, in many more ways than one.
Even the satellite TV station I receive out of Atlanta is Peachtree TV!
IMHO, Rex's bustier photo could only have been improved somewhat if it were of Elke Sommer wearing one.
Lastly, just a super keen Wednesday puzzle. Kudos, Ms Gorski.
Not easy for me. Stalled in the NW (forgot BIBI, figured both EBON and HMOS couldn't be right together because of the _BM___ of 2d--the IBM thing not at first occurring), I went on to get Home and Boys, so I thought it was somekind of a street slang theme.
The center was a total mystery to me; never heard of ATS. Downstairs, I got Down, then Cape...finally I go: hmm, cape, down, boys...HOME! AHA! About time, you're all thinking. Back to the NW and now BOOM is a must, and I knew the 3rd letter of 35a had to be W (with TO_N) giving me DISOWN and everything else fell quickly.
Alas, my fatal try in the natick square was also W (LEBOw/EwA), so I finished with one error. Perhaps I was thinking of the Striking Viking Ewa Mataya Lawrence. What, you never watch pool on TV? See what you've been missing?
Capchas are BRUTAL today.
Had a bit of a struggle in the NW. Never heard of BIBI, and don't think of a BEHEST as being urgent, but it all straightened out once I gave up olEstRA (an artificial fat?) as the diet thing. The other strange words like PIU and SESE came from the crosses, as did LASSO, replacing LASer. Must read more comics.
I'm surprised at how many of us have some connection with Palomar. We live not that far away, and both our girls attended Palomar College for a time, before moving on to four year schools.
If this is a marriage sweepstake, we have 52 going on 53 years. Some ups, some downs, but wouldn't trade the journey.
@DMGrandma, wow, thought we might lead the syndipack at 44 but your 52 will almost surely make you the champ. Congrats!
Finished with one write-over, AbU before APU which was required by both the crossword and the squares. Like others I needed a couple of educated guesses in the extreme SE corner to produce KEEN and SESE. My BEDSHEETS are "fitted", not "fit", and LASTLY is a word that should get more use.
I will never get an award for the "most years of wedded bliss", but if there's a category for "most marriages" I could be a contender. But seriously, congratulations to both @Waxy and @DMGrandma on your many years of marriage (not to each other - you know what I mean).
We just celebrated our 40th, so we're still wet behind the...nevermind.
OK, I've got to quit staring at Wonder Woman in her BUSTIER.
Good going @Waxy and @DMG. Let me add my kudos to @Diri's.
To those who like a tight, symmetrical puzzle and theme, you couldn't do better than Liz'z puzz today.
My only real pause was ADULATED. I grew up in SoCal so PALOMAR was a given.
Don't tell PITA, but I have a vicuna coat (and I'm not an INCA). I didn't learn until after having it made in Chile that the vicuna is, ahem, shall we say, not sheared for its wool. It is, however, now 30 years old and still looks brand new. I will pray for forgiveness.
Capcha: omeasent. Latin for "all smelling?"
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