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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: BOOKEND (37A: Shelf prop … or a hint to both parts of the answers to the sic starred clues) — two-part phrases (or compound words) where both parts can precede "book" in a familiar phrase.
Theme answers:
- OPEN SOURCE (18A: *Like software that can be freely used and altered)
- FLIP PHONE (26A: *Samsung or LG product)
- MATCH PLAY (47A: *Tournament competition)
- SCHOOLWORK (55A: *Class assignments)
- BABY BLUE (3D: *Like many a heartthrob's eyes)
- GOODYEAR (38D: *Company whose logo includes the winged foot of Mercury)
John Jordan "Buck" O'Neil (November 13, 1911 – October 6, 2006) was a first baseman andmanager in the Negro American League, mostly with the Kansas City Monarchs. After his playing days, he worked as a scout, and became the first African American coach in Major League Baseball. In his later years he became a popular and renowned speaker and interview subject, helping to renew widespread interest in the Negro leagues, and played a major role in establishing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.O'Neil's life was documented in Joe Posnanski's award-winning 2007 book The Soul of Baseball. (wikipedia)
• • •
I always forget who Buck O'NEIL is, and always want instead either Buck OWENS (uh, not a baseball player) or Buck … the guy who manages the Orioles. Buck … Showalter! Yeah, he doesn't fit. So if this puzzle does nothing else, maybe it ETCHES Buck O'NEIL into my memory forever. One can hope.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Can the O'Neils and O'Neals please agree on a single spelling. I always have to wait for that last vowel. Never naticked on it, yet, but there will be a day when I fail because I pick the wrong vowel.
ReplyDeleteNice theme that appears mid solve, but didn't really impact my solve. I see my town is clued by the suddenly awful baseball team. This all started with plane troubles trying to leave Boston. Boston, even when they aren't very good, have a deleterious on my Tigers.
"Masse" surprised me for a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteOdd to be so early to post. Too bad I don't have something scintillating to say. Decent Tuesday puzzle. Pretty dense theme. Six (times 2 equals 12) theme units.
ReplyDeleteHated it! The theme makes no sense, all the clues are totally wrong, and every answer word in the grid is completely misspelled!
ReplyDelete--Unhappy in SoCal
Good going, James! I've said here before that I really enjoy seeing, solving, and thinking about themes like this. And boy have I been sitting here thinking about this. MATCH BOOK and OPEN BOOK are a bit different from the others. OPEN BOOK –the phrase - is just a mental picture, right? I don't think we really use it as a pat phrase about actual books. "Kids, wash those towels and straighten up this room. There are too many open books in here, and they're making me all twitchy."
ReplyDeleteSo anyway, with that door, well, opened, I would have loved BABYFACE instead of BABYBLUE. DOUBLE CHECK is too long, but throwing a verb in there would have pleased me where it might have angered others. I also appreciate that he had no "roll your own" like "math score" or "grammar check." I mean, cripes, you can have any kind of book. "Hey. Where's my Theta Criterion book? You haven't packed it for the beach, have you? You can read it when I'm done with it. Sheesh. Take this Government and Binding Theory book instead. No one believes that anymore, anyway. Buncha crap."
Rex – I had never seen MYOB, either, but I don't text a lot. And when I do, I feel silly using all those abbreviations that younger, hipper people use. "R U studying HINDI now????? OMG!!!!!!Gr8!!!!!!" I also try to get my yours and you'res right. Wait. Your's and you're,'s?
And I like your coined term "StaggerStack." Indeed, that DOSSIER, BOOKEND, MERRIER middle is cool.
When I first started here, I was soooo intimidated because, well, because their are some wicked smart people here. Funny – now this is the place that I'm the least upset if I make a mistake because these wicked smart people are kind and understanding. Like @Z said – we all know The Deal. And we all know that we all know The Deal. If I were writing a formal essay, I would surely, hopefully, spell led correctly and fix all my it's and its – but here, we're relaxed and just having fun.
So I say to a misplayed whose or an errant apostrophe. . . . who care's?
Group hug.
I didn't get MASSE, as answer for "shot for those who have mastered English." Typing this now, it occurs to me that it might be a pool game reference.
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle but I didn't know what masse meant. Is @Henebry right? has to do with pool.
ReplyDeleteAlso never heard of myob...what does it mean???
Puzzle husband carried many parcels!!!
Lord Fisher wrote Winston Churchill in 1917 using the abbreviation OMG. So yeah, it's been around a while and you, OMG.
ReplyDeleteTypical Tuesday for me. Is the plural of ALOHAS a thing?
And could someone explain 47D MASSE? A shot for those who have mastered English? I'm missing it...
@Henbry, right you are. It needs an accent over the e -- it's when you apply super-English to the ball by pointing your cue almost straight down -- the cue ball will move in one direction and then reverse and come back, thereby going around a ball you don't want to hit.
ReplyDeleteI thought some of the cluing was a little loose -- like "speed away" for FLOOR IT, or "made a case" for PLED (tha't just plain wrong -- you plea when you say that you are not guilty, THEN, you make your case.) But there was lots to like, such as the LAPping DOG.
@Unhappy in SoCal, great sendup! You had me taking you seriously for a moment there.
What I learned (from the article just above the puzzle today): The Bob Newhart Show was set in Chicago. It always looked like Minneapolis to me.
Buck O'Neil was a true joy. He brought a smile to the face of everyone he met with his infectious enthusiasm and love of baseball. Every year in Cooperstown at the induction ceremony when the players would ride the trolleys along Main Street to the Hall of Fame, he would receive the loudest ovation from the assembled fans, who would chant "Buck, Buck, Buck" until he acknowledged them. His remarks at the induction of many Negro League pioneers in 2006 were elegant, even though he had inexplicably and disappointingly been denied a slot in the Hall. At the end of his speeches he would have everyone hold hands and sing "God Bless America". It sounds corny, but when he did it, it never was.
ReplyDeleteBTW I thought the. MASSE clue was wonderful.
Just so-so for me. Glad to learn MASSE. I remember MYOB well...my mom used it liberally.
ReplyDeletechafbea - MYOB = Mind Your Own Business; NCAA President: Masse is a billiard shot requiring a mastering of "spinning" the ball a certain way (English)
ReplyDeleteToday is bookish Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThe revealer suggested that the word BOOK could be used on either end of theme words. Or both words of theme entries are the ENDs of phrases that start with BOOK, as in STORE KEEPER. Or the BOOK of DANIEL.
As it is, it was an average "word the can follow x" theme of high density, which may be blamed for the high count of shorts. I did like the clue for OON, which could've also been "suffix with Rang". After AESOP and AEON I expected aegis and Aeneas.
Given the restrictions, the fill was pretty clean. I liked some of the longer entries: the MERRIER STEELER DOSSIER, and the PRORATE DETROIT FIESTA ASCENT.
Let me conclude with some FOREST Murmurs, conducted here by Arturo Toscanini.
I will AMBLE off to work now. Ciao.
MYOB = Mind Your Own Business. I thought everybody knew that. Didn't know Skandanavian Airlines goes to Tatooine, though.
ReplyDeleteMASSÉ, not to mention the mod fashions.
ReplyDeleteWell we liked it here. MASSE (awesome clue) and YEGG on a Tuesday a little tough when mixed with ONEIL, a gimme for those of us who love baseball, but tough on the rest. Nice tribute to Buck @RAD2626, thanks.
ReplyDeleteOld-fashioned wife nailed MYOB and new-fangled me got OMG so things balance - thought it was nifty placing them almost as BOOKENDs in the puzz.
@lms - I just know I'm going to use one of your wacky apostrophe constructions.
YEGG is new to me. So is MASSE. Got both with crosses. This puzzle felt difficult, but yielded in below average time so I concur with easy-med.
ReplyDeleteMe lo gusta pero no lo amo. Lo amas? AMAT must be Catalan, huh? ;)
ReplyDeleteMASSE and YEGG are new here. Glad to know them. Theme was ho-hum. SUEME and DETROIT are paired in both musical theater and civic jurispripudence. Would have been nice to see a theme answer MAKEGOOD, as both ends would have fit the musical theater mini theme.
Surely OON is a Zappa or a Chaplin granddaughter by now.
Public health note: Tylenol is NOT an actual substitute for Aleve. Aspirin is. Tylenol can be taken with Aleve or aspirin for pain relief and fever control. A mild overdose of Tylenol causes liver failure. Mrs. (Dr.) Kid has seen that happen with Type A parents of her patients. Not true for aspirin, ET ALIA. Other doctors here may wish to confirm. Don't mess around with Tylenol.
Super dense theme that didn't make me feel dense = perfect Monday/Tuesday puzzle!
ReplyDeleteFWIW the clue for MASSE was my favorite. And if you don't agree with me you can MYOB!
DOSSIER looks great in the grid.
Thanks, James!
@Casco Kid - but then there is the entire Reye's Syndrome panic over giving kids aspirin. Parenting is so much fun.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering if it is called apostrophe atrophy?
Masse is ridiculous for a Tuesday puzzle but at least I got it from the crosses. I did get Naticked, however, on the NE due to using "part of" instead of "sort of," because the two crosses didn't help. Is OSU Ohio State, and aren't they Buckeyes?
ReplyDeleteThe few tougher clues already mentioned were easily gettable w/ crosses, making this an very fair Tues. puzz. for me.
ReplyDeleteFunny how MYOB, which my friends and I often used growing up, was strictly a verbal comment, said w/ a snide tone of voice. I never saw it written down until the advent of the Internet and texting.
Learned a bit for a Tuesday, ONEIL and MASSE, which I will hopefully retain. Thanks, JT and WS.
Sorry for the 'an' typo.
ReplyDeleteOMG and many other texting acronyms had earlier lives on the Internet and dialup bulletin boards, back in the days when a 1,200-baud modem was pretty fast, so you truncated your messages when you could because long messages took forever to upload and download.
ReplyDeleteLiked today's theme much better than yesterday's. (Are the apostrophes correct?). Hand up for loving the MASSE clue. Mostly smooth solve here due to it being on the easy side. Liked PRORATE also, cool word.
ReplyDelete@LMS, was going to ask what a "double book" was, but reread your post and noticed the verb vibe. Now I get it. You are so clever.
@Leah712, yep, OSU is Ohio State and they are the Buckeyes, but, OSU is also Oklahoma State, the Cowboys, Oregon State, the Beavers, and probably a handful of other lesser known institutions.
I guess I'm in good company with those who never heard of MASSE before - added another word to my vocabulary (can't wait to use it in a sentence!) Crossword experience has taught me YEGG - somehow reminds me of a Dr. Seuss word.
ReplyDeleteNice exercise for a Tuesday!
Zipped through so fast I never saw some of the answers @Rex complained about. Easy and OK for me. I haven't seen MASSE for a long time. MYOB is classic. Very good.
ReplyDelete5 double O's -- subtheme
ReplyDeleteI especially liked MASSE and SUEME; everything else seemed standard, including the theme. And it felt more like a Monday to me with only a touch of resistance in the SW. As usual, I enjoyed the solve.
Anyone else been following this woman on Jeopardy who's won more than $300,000?
Pretty impressive to find six in-the-language words/phrases that meet the theme constraints. Some iffy fill is worth the price in this case.
ReplyDeleteMYOB...The motto of home brewers everywhere?
Never heard of MASSE, but I now know that I have executed this type of shot many times, all of which have been inadvertent.
I have seen YEGG only in crosswords. It will never look like anything other than a proper noun to me.
@Z – Hah! Love your "apostrophe atrophy" syndrome. How bout lets establish an Apostrophe Atrophy Trophy.
ReplyDeleteAlso – I'll see your sleepless night and raise you a tantrum:
My children never did this. Right.
My thought on MYOB was that it was a pool term: "Hey, MASSE your own ball, buddy."
Enjoyed it immensely, it was a cheerful FIESTA for the mind. Hard for me not to like something so BOOKish.
ReplyDeleteThe English can spin the language as well as a ball. Some parties you're invited to, you have to Mind Your Own Bottle. Safe to say, I like my YEGGS sunny-side-up. Inquiries about MASSE could be sent Care o' Me, but better to check out somme eye-popping videos on YouTube. No MASSE.
@SoUnhappyCal: Am intrigued by the idea of 'completely misspelled' vs 'partially misspelled'.
Liked SAS, which is also a Hungarian surname and the statistical package I'm used to. SAS is locally-based in CaryNC, and a fantastic employer; they provided on-site day-care and health services, relaxation space and M&Ms everywhere.
@loren: I like your take on OPEN BOOK. Theigh gave us a couple of OPEN BOOKS on our comps (you know what their like!), which was a relief in that you didn't have to try to have everything in memory, but actually much worse: with all the BOOKS available, the answers had to be that much better, the grading much harder. Thoughs are the brakes.
Hate to rePEAT myself, but some linguists may enjoy this. Think 'Ladle Rat Rottenhut' or 'Mots d'Heure Geuse Rhames':
Civile, si ERGO,
Fortibus es inero.
Nobile, deis trux.
Vatis inem?
Causan dux.
BOOK 'em, DANIEL!
I thought it was a pretty good puzzle and did not feel overwhelmed by subpar fill. Only "OON" made me wince a little. But that brings me to my complaint about the puzzle. Thing is, couldn't OON have been clued as "Bass end"? I mean, I would have expected a BOOK END theme to be suffixes for "book" (not that I can think of any) not prefixes or the starting words of phrases. As @AliasZ said, it seemed like the themes should be able to both precede and follow BOOK, ("bookend"). Or that the theme words should be the ENDS of the phrases, not the beginning.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe there's just something wrong with my brain. Maybe from reading too many of @Lorens post's.
@ Casco Kid
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your posts.
The following reference should reassure Dr. Mrs. Kid and all the parents anxious about frying their child's liver with a dose of acetaminophen.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/108/4/1020.full
The extraordinary safety of acetaminophen is best seen when you consider the number of doses administered every day (denominator) compared to the number of cases of fulminant hepatic failure (numerator). Not to minimize liver failure which is a really, really sucky way to die but it is fortunately quite rare in the non-suicidal overdose when considering the number of doses used in the US.
In significant overdose quantities (I won't share the toxic dose), liver failure can occur. Luckily, it is still rare. It also can be very nicely treated with NAC the antidote if administered in time.
The problem is two-fold. I can buy a 500 pill bottle of non-blister-packed acetaminophens at Costco. This is a set-up for catastrophe with an impulsive suicide attempt. In England where paracetamol (their name for acetaminophen), they limited the quantity you can buy as well as requiring blister-packing. Suicides plummeted.
In the US there are hundreds and hundreds of acetaminophen containing combination preparations ( think percocet, vicodin, tylenol PM etc.). The FDA has luckily recently limited the quantity of acetaminophen in these pills to 325 mg. Also they dropped to 3000mg the 24 hour max dosing.
Aspirin OD is a nasty overdose that I saw frequently in the 70's but relatively rare since few people use it except in the 81 mg dose.
NSAID's (ibuprofen, naproxen etc.) have real gastrointestinal, renal and cardiac issues. Their danger should not be minimized.
Even tap water in excess can prove fatal.
To quote Paracelsus (father of toxicology), " The dose makes the poison."
Support Poison Centers
US Poison Center hotline 1-800-222-1222
Oh, and @Casco Kid, thanks for the warning about Tylenol. Same goes for Vicodin, I assume, only more fun. A few years ago my daughter and some friends through (should I fix that? Or go with the Apostrophe Anarchists?) a birthday party for me, right after I had had bunion surgery. I was taking Vicodin for the pain, but I wanted a glass of wine because it was a party after all. So I had half my regular dose of Vicodin and half a glass of wine. The rest of the party was a pleasant haze. It was twice as anesthetizing as my full dose of Vicodin by itself, or a whole glass of wine would have been. And probably four times as damaging to my liver.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTore through this pretty quickly last night, and by this morning it's left little to no impression on me. Even in reading the writeup, there were several "that was in the puzzle?" moments.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the theme may not be the most exciting sort, but it was executed pretty well. The phrases were all good and in the language, and the implied book phrases were the same. The central stagger-stack (nice term) is good, too. A fair amount of glue is showing, but I didn't notice most of it as I solved, getting the bulk of it from crosses.
Thanks to @Doctor John for the Tylenol info. I had posted something about that in response to @Casco Kid, but the doctor's info is naturally much better. For those interested, "This American Life" devoted an hour last year to the issue of Tylenol and liver damage. They noted how dosing rules were recently changed, which is a good thing. Not so good is that this issue has been known about for 2-3 decades, but it's only in the last couple years that the new rules have been put in place.
I enjoy this kind of word PLAY so LAPped this one up, with its impressive number of solid theme answers. I especially liked BABY BLUE with its neigboring STEEL (blue). And how the two differently pronounced -IERs BOOKEND the center.
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked the puzzle even more after @jberg explained about MASSE, @Alias Z pointed out the BOOK of DANIEL, and @Casco Kid connected SUE ME to Nathan DETROIT.
I remember the YEGGs of my comic strip childhood always having stubbly chins and black masks tied over their eyes.
Thank you @Dr. John for the clarity and @Z for the additional anxiety. Mrs. (Dr.) Kid's story is based on medical student rotation in Montreal 20 years ago where a mother gave her son n+1 Tylenols every 3 (not 4) hours for 5 consecutive days. It was a true overdose, but clearly she had read the label and thought she could push the limits safely. An experimental drug saved the otherwise-healthy boy's liver -- at a cost of $100,000 CND. (Thank you, Canadian taxpayers.)
ReplyDeleteBut as dosages have been reduced to account for such mothers, risks have abated, so yes, I am pro-Tylenol. It is a safe drug when used as directed, etc.
Aaaaand, this just in the from the Department of Denotation, Correctness and General Pedantry: @Rex's use of a trademark on StaggerStack suggests his use of the term in selling a product. What might that product be? If he is not selling a product, a service then? And wouldn't that need a servicemark (SM) instead? And if he is just having fun with words and intellectual property, then isn't it just that much more fun for us to point out the incorrectness of the assertion of ownership of said nonexistent intellectual property. Is it not the case that value is protected, and it is only determined when there is an exchange of other value for it? And what would resident lawyers @SteveJ, @LudyJynn, ET ALIA (I think) have to say? And don't all real lawyers only ever ask question? And isn't life just one big deposition?
Answer the question!
That is all.
@Z I had no idea why MY tigers were tanking....
ReplyDeletethanks for the explanation...now for the remedy?
@schmuzz - When in doubt, blame the Yankees. If not them, the Sox will do. I'd say missing a few more of the opponents' bats would help.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the Apostrophe Atrophy Trophy (AAT), is winning it like getting a Tony or more like getting a Razzie?
Regarding pills, following doctors' orders seems like good advice until you read that over-prescribing antibiotics and opiates have led to all sorts of different societal ills. Life is just one big deposition, and we are all busy trying to answer without knowing the questions.
Easy-Med. Like yesterday, solved this as a themeless. Only trouble area was in the SW where I had briefly had SACHEL (sp) before PARCEL. I'm grateful all the crosses of MYOB were gettable; otherwise, I would've been screwed. That's all that I ask of Acronyms, Abbreviations, Suffixes and Prefixes (AASP(TM or SM?)) that they be fairly and straightforwardly crossed. Who's down with OPP.
ReplyDeleteThanks, @Dr John, for your post.
ReplyDeleteSome thoughts relating to adults only; as noted, children are something else.
As you note, anything ingested carries a risk at some point. Almost all my patients required pain management, whether acute or chronic; since every medication carries its own risk, my approach was to prescribe a mix of meds with different actions, aim for the smallest effective dose, and space them out. I may be on account of my seeing this most often, but it seems to me that (aside from questions of addiction to the controlled analgesics), the biggest risk overall lies with the nonsteroidal antiinflammatories. A single full-dose aspirin has been seen to cause gastric erosions in 5 minutes; deaths occur from acute bleeds after long-term chronic use of NSAIDs. At the time I wrote an application for our department at the VA to prescribe cox-2 inhibitors, I was border-line shocked to learn that number was 19,000 deaths annually...for medications obtainable OTC. As a result, I never prescribed the 800mg dose of ibuprofen, though cleared by FDA standards.
To be truthful, I was some perturbed when the low-dose NSAIDS came out OTC. Granted, it solved some problems of access ("I can give you an appointment with Dr. X in 4 weeks"), as well as reducing a lot of phone calls to pharmacies, but it puts the onus squarely on the shoulders of the user to assess the proper way to use the medication, assess any side-effects, and to consider possible interactions with other prescribed medications. Sometimes, those shoulders aren't quite broad enough. And of course, OTC meds tend to be overlooked in reviewing a patient's pharmacopeia.
I still suspect that change had to do with letting insurance companies off the hook for massively prescribed NSAIDa; naturally, they don't cover OTCs, now 100% the patient's expense.
Liked the point about the blister-packs; innovative thinking helps a lot.
End of rant; nothing ELS.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank God I try to always consult the crossword blog before taking over-the-counter pain medication. You guys may have just saved my life.
ReplyDeleteCan you prescribe something for abject boredom?
Evil
Wow, very interesting comments today! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteEasy-medium puzzle, masse was the only answer that made me look twice.
@DevilledYegg,
ReplyDeleteTake 2 aspirins and call someone ELS in the morning.
Buff OON
@Guys - How many times to I have to tell you to run your posts by ED first to see if they're fit for inclusion?
ReplyDeletePlease!?
Pretty nice Tues. Lotsa theme without too much dreck. Easy-medium for me too even though I had sAw before GAP (that'll teach me to check the downs).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of @Steve J "that was in the puzzle?"moments, I realized when I got here I'd put in the wrong version of @Z NEIL. Although, it wasn't a Natick DNF it was an "I never read the across clue" DNF, which is actually worse. Dang! Liked the puzzle anyway.
I lied, there's always s'more.
ReplyDelete@AliasZ: Seemed you rang crabby this morning. Being near a spittOON, I could hit it, despite AMBLE-opie, Ah!
LOWER-d, LOWER-d, I hope Life isn't a deposition! Some of us just aren't paying AATention to the questions. We'll likely find out when the last commercial airs.
Some residuals:
HAS UMA BABYBLUE or STEELERBLUE eyes?
I DO HUB the MERRIER Wives of Windsore had their preAMBLE in Arden FOREST.
With ANOSE for ODOR that LEFT ASCENT, that musta been a bloodhound, not A LAP DOG.
Stopped in at the P.O., found a veritable PARCELopolis.
Poe me, I fell in the House, USHERwise, nothing new.
In some ways, it's been a GOODYEAR, but I tread softly and tire more easily.
Get thee beHINDI, Satan; with all preceding items, I PLEaD DETROIT de Seigneur.
ASIA were.
Let's see does this score any deleted Devil Dogs.
I'm going to try to forget all the medical information included here today so I can screw up the courage to take my 2 low-dose aspirins. Oh yea, I did the puzzle too.
ReplyDelete@Casco Kid: I'm not a lawyer. I just argue pedantically like one.
ReplyDelete@Evil Doug: I find that a daily dose of "you don't have to read everything posted here" does wonders.
Went to WebMD's blog. Got tips on how to build quad stacks and unmasking rebuses (rebi?).
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@Leapy,
I prepared a very nice post a couple of hours ago that included links to Hungarian opera soprano Sylvia Sass, GAP-toothed Terry-Thomas, and to a bassOON concerto by Carl Maria von Weber. But something went wrong and I lost it. Not my sanity, my post.
I also mentioned that I thought about you as I was writing up an order to be shipped to a company in your town in NC.
Oh well, there is always tomorrow.
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak to my method):
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Tue 7:44, 8:46, 0.88, 16%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Tue 5:17, 5:21, 0.99, 43%, Medium
@AliasZoltan-not
ReplyDeleteWith luck, many tomorrows.
Serendip has my niece Sylvia, mother Marika and Roaring GAP in my state. I can browse for those links weber on tonight.
Suggesting you type posts elsewhere, copy into comment box. That way your posts can keep your sanity good company, as they do ours.
Easy-medium here.
ReplyDeleteDidn't see the theme on my own, perhaps because I didn't care. Themeless is fine.
Nothing to add.
Thanks, Mr. Tuttle.
@Mohair Sam
ReplyDeleteOh dear, I've just been looking at that bit you wrote: Old-fashioned wife nailed MYOB...
Among other things, it brings to mind one of my favourite Monty Python skits, in which thugs terrorize the locals with threats of nailing mothers-in-law to coffee-tables. Just good old-fashioned humour.
Good thing you left no hiatus.
Buck O'Neil is the best part of the Baseball documentary by Ken Burns.
ReplyDeleteListen to him speak on that show and you won't forget him. He's wonderful. :)
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak I've made to my method. 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.
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon no data
Tue 7:37, 8:46, 0.87, 13%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon no data
Tue 4:57, 5:21, 0.93, 22%, Easy-Medium
@Leapfinger ... I've been programming in SAS since the days of keypunch cards. Ah, those were the days.
Remember 'the Hustler'
ReplyDeleteMinnesota Fats i believe was the one applying a massė shot. Lift the cue almost verticle. Takes mastery of english or putting english or spin on ball because needs ability to control direction
Forbidden by poolhalls because of damage to felt top by non skilled.
Still needed crosses for me and I knew the word
Then there's WC Fields who tears the felt in a hilarious scene but not doing a masse...just being the stereotypical poolhall knowitall
I had a few brow-knits on the way to this solution. SOURCE book, FLIP book...are these things? BABY book I can buy, I guess--as a parent I love my offspring plenty but never put together an album of their infancy: who in creation has the time? Also, it took the HORIZONTAL crosses to come up with SKI: OK, I've heard of SKI bum, but bunny?? I'm guessing this might be the bum's date, I dunno.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the highlight of this grid is 47d--both clue and answer. If we mention W.C. Fields ripping the felt, how can we omit the classic moment between Ralph and Ed, when after much fidgeting, Ralph yells "Come on!" at precisely the wrong time.
My first captcha was a solid black bar; our phamous photographer has finally reached the nadir. I put "solid black bar" in the space provided, but it was rejected. Go figure. The replay gives me 2413, again yielding 0. Card. (Well, baccarat is not my game; poker is.)
Puzzle is a"mejh" Mondays and Tuesdays I just play the easiest way to get to all the corners and omit the early week (weak) fill. More serious as week progresses.
ReplyDelete189, +8; flip 'em over boys. (but would have stopped with the 1&8 of course)
oops no j in meh
ReplyDelete+8 at the end
typing with a rebuilt limb/hand
this time 607 =3. Card plz
= 8
ReplyDeletetime for more PT
616= 3, card again
Thank you, Mr. Tuttle for a fun tuepuz.
ReplyDeleteeons before AEON. virus before POLIO. sAw before GAP.
Elon Musk, who might be the brightest guy on the planet, just put his Tesla patents out as OPENSOURCE to other car makers. A stroke of genius. Take that, DETROIT.
Good luck in today's MATCHPLAY, Team USA.
@Rainy, just returned from a golf tournament in Suncadia, played on the two resort courses. If you haven't been there, it's worth the trip.
Capcha: 152. = 8.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Words like DOSSIER, YEGG, and MASSE are more fun than a bunch of trivia type names. Did have to wait for the i/e for the ball player.And learned a lot about pain killers!
ReplyDelete@spacecraft: Thanks for the card lesson. Had to cycle through a number of too-fuzzy-to-read numbers to get 2368 =19 = 0. So I guess I'm out, or do you keep drawing to get something? Preferred the poker hands, but anything beats the crazy letter combos!
Does anybody besides me still have a FLIPPHONE?
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the non-syndic comments I have a headache, but I don't dare take anything for it.
Capcha may or may not be 2809, which I guessing won't win anything - I still fuzzy on the rules despite @spacy's excellent tutorial.
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ReplyDeleteGreat Tuesday puzzle despite MASSE and YEGG. @DIRI, has the technology actually moved on beyond FLIPPHONES? I got a new one just last year.
ReplyDeleteHappy Canada Day to all my compatriots - maybe we should celebrate with a FIESTA too, eh?
Too bad, Team USA - played with great heart against Belgium. Nothing to be ashamed of.
1683 --> 18 --> 9