google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Jerry Eldstein

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May 18, 2016

Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Jerry Eldstein

Title: NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK

Husker Gary on board, blogging Jerry's wonderful Wednesday-level puzzle that combines a famous line from Coleridge's poem of the ill-fated, albatross-slaying sailor and eight, count 'em, eight phrases that can be formed when WATER precedes both words of two word theme fills. WATER, WATER everywhere indeed! Very impressive to this land lubber!




THEME FILL (where I freely admit there are alternate interpretations):


26. Oil conduit : PIPELINE - One of which, runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in Alaska or


WATER PIPE - A conveyance for a buzz




or


WATER LINE  - What has been receding behind Lake Mead during the SW drought



31. Electricity source : POWER PLANT - What is inside Hoover Dam that uses the waters of Lake Mead or


WATER POWER - a rough idea of what happens inside Hoover Dam




or WATER PLANT - A facility that makes your water potable



42. Reaganomics term : SUPPLY SIDE - Economic system where government gets less money and private enterprise gets to keep more or


WATER SUPPLY - What can be threatened when these run too much in dry years




or WATER SIDE - A great San Antonio location



47. Primary entrance : MAIN GATE - A Disney Park front door or

WATER MAIN - They can be spectacular when they break





or WATERGATE - Enough said!



The fabulous THEME REVEAL:


17. With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner ... and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47-Across : WATER WATER and 59. See 17-Across : EVERYWHERE. 




Now let's sail on to see what else Jerry has cast upon our crossword waters:


Across


1. Pricey : STEEP - Who ever thought water would cost more per gallon than gas?

6. Place for a chicken : COOP


10. Herring prized for its roe : SHAD


14. Use a lectern : ORATE - You'd better have a sandwich, el presidente is gonna be a while!




15. A fan of : INTO


16. Tortilla snack : TACO


19. Any minute now, to a bard : ANON


20. Tampa-to-Jacksonville dir. : NNE - It's 198.4 miles


21. Frosty coat : HOAR - A HOARY engraving from our poem du jour of the crew and that bird




22. Fern-to-be : SPORE


23. Criticize sneakily : SNIPE - Here it is usually to criticize as an ANON


28. Chef's tool : SPATULA


30. Fire, or fire-fighting tool : AXE - Or Gene Simmons' bass




34. Astronaut Grissom : GUS - He almost drowned on the second Mercury mission


37. Incriminate with false evidence : FRAME - Did OJ ever find the real killer?


38. __-Locka, Florida : OPA - Originally Opa-tisha-wocka-locka


39. Emaciated : GAUNT


41. Messy spot : STY


44. __ Kan: Alpo rival : KAL


46. Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails : SIMILES - The one about me ends ...as a rock


52. Exams for would-be attys. : LSATS


53. Shore eagles : ERNES - Our old cwd friend and a surprise prey




54. Object of worship : IDOL


56. Dick's wife, twice : LIZ - Liz Taylor was Mrs. Richard Burton twice


58. __-Seltzer : ALKA


62. Safe document : DEED


63. Left : GONE


64. Conundrum : POSER 


65. They may be split or tight : ENDS - Pretty easy to discern




66. __ buco: veal dish : OSSO


67. Make a mess of : MISDO - Okay



Down


1. Seeded : SOWN - Some consider the SOWER atop Nebraska's capital buliding to be, uh, controversial when its image is transferred to our sesquicentennial license plate




2. Convey : TRANSPORT


3. Completely eroded : EATEN AWAY 


4. Nice season? : ETE - Je n'étais pas dupe! (I was not fooled!)


5. Part of 60-Down : PER - My sister typed over 100 words PER minute 50 yrs ago. I once got half that.




6. "Ta-ta" : CIAO


7. Coming up next : ON TAP


8. Ferrell's "SNL" cheerleading partner : O'TERI


9. __ favor: Pedro's "please" : POR


10. Paper clip alternative : STAPLE 


11. Onetime capital of French Indochina : HANOI


12. Oak nut : ACORN - "Gee! Ahma tree!", exclaimed the mathmatically mature ACORN.


13. Charity, say : DONEE - I would think the DONEE receives the charity


18. Puppy : WHELP - Dura-WHELP makes a box for them




22. Masters and Johnson subject : SEX - Their research revealed sexual intimacy could last well beyond 70. Could, mind you!


24. Agenda line : ITEM


25. Partner of simple : PURE - 70-year-old Dolly has launched her 2016, 60-city PURE And SIMPLE Tour 




27. First lady after Lady Bird : PAT


28. Suntan lotion numbers, briefly : SPFS


29. Baseball's Matty or Felipe : ALOU


32. Droid download : APP


33. Snoozes : NAPS


34. Free from blame : GUILTLESS from  35. Not wanted : UNDESIRED calories?




36. Fr. holy women : STES


39. Places with rings and horses : GYMS - In Lego Land




40. Massive land mass : ASIA


42. Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst : SLA


43. Big name in pharmaceuticals : LILLY - And for our kitty (one L please)



44. Works on, as dough : KNEADS

45. Top prosecutors: Abbr. : AGS - Attorneys General


47. Maryland's Fort __ : MEADE - Named for the the Union Commander at Gettysburg


48. "Over the Rainbow" composer Harold : ARLEN - Some MGM execs wanted it cut from the movie because they thought it slowed down the pace


49. Signed in pen : INKED


50. DVR devices : TIVOS


51. Blissful places : EDENS


55. Treat often split : OREO - Found nestled among these most common cwd answers




57. Nothing : ZERO


59. __ trip : EGO


60. Typing meas. : WPM


61. __ polloi : HOI - Ah, ya gotta love the classics!




Wisdom, wisdom everywhere and plenty for us to read. Let those unfiltered comments rip!


The Grid




57 comments:

fermatprime said...

Greetings!

Thanks, Jerry and Husker!

Fun puzzle. No problems.

Wonder why Weatherly left NCIS.

Cheers!

OwenKL said...

A SPORE and an ACORN one day were to cross,
Decided their dallying led to no loss.
The hybrid grew tall,
With no leaf at all,
But had an unnatural attraction to moss!

The Sphinx stood guard, only PURE were in luck.
She'd ask them a POSER, the imPURE she'd eat up
A word of excitement, it ends U-C-K
On the left, an F, it starts that way.
She'd pass only those who pronounced it F***!

Some people are INTO an athletic sport,
Others, an IDOL (the Rock and Roll sort).
But if you want a hobby
You can do in the potty,
Playing crossword puzzles may be in your court!

{A-, B+, A.} My condolences to the impure who didn't finish that second limerick with the word firetruck. The Sphinx says "Burp"!

Barry G. said...

Morning, all!

A bit slower than earlier puzzles this week, but not too bad. Cute theme, although I must confess the phrase WATER SIDE seems off to me. I've heard of ocean side and river side, but never WATER SIDE. Maybe it's a regional thing?

Minor misstep with MAIN DOOR before MAIN GATE (before I grokked the theme, obviously) that slowed me down for a bit and I'll admit it took awhile to finally get SIMILE from the clue. Nice light bulb / V8 moment when it finally clicked in my brain.

unclefred said...

Very enjoyable Wednesday CW, thanx, Jerry! Got 'er done i thought rather quickly, but was surprised to see I ran a bit over my usual Wednesday time. Dang, how did that happen? I thought I motored right through it! Terrific write-up, too, thanx, Husker Gary! A bit naughty on the limericks, there, Owen....but limericks are SUPPOSED to be naughty, aren't they? ;-)

Hungry Mother said...

Very quick solve today, all in my wheelhouse.

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

I was going gangbusters, every WAG golden, until I INKED UNWELCOME -- shoulda been UNDESIRED. Took some time to get rid of that hanging chad in Florida. I've always been impressed when a constructor can come up with theme phrases where both words can pair with the same "key" word. Still am.

Back in HS I could type 75-80 WPM on a manual Royal. Today I'm lucky to do 60 on my computer keyboard.

Husker, think of that "charity" as the organization which is, indeed, the DONEE. I've been doing my charitable giving direct from my IRA -- it comes out of my minimum required distribution, but doesn't count as income. That effectively makes it a charitable tax deduction, even when we can't itemize. Sweet!

Husker, I think that water plant you pictured is used to treat sewage rather than to make water potable. Reservoirs in the SW have seen dramatic declines in water level. I was surprised to hear on the radio this week that Lake Travis, a major reservoir near Austin, is full. During the drought a few years back, it was almost dry.

GUS Grissom: Back in '59 during the early days of the space program the astronauts were required to make promotional appearances. Gus Grissom made one at a manufacturing plant and was asked to say a few words to the workers. Gus walked up to the microphone and uttered the immortal words, "Do good work." That was the entirety of his speech.

Tinbeni said...

Husker, Thank You for another wonderful write-up and numerous links. Great Job!

Jerry, Thank You for a FUN Wednesday puzzle with a nice theme.

Needed ESP (Every-Single-Perp) to get ARLEN. Otherwise a PURE speed-run.

A "toast-to-ALL" at Sunset.
Cheers!


fermatprime, I think we will see him with his own TV Series very soon.

Lemonade714 said...

I am always impressed by the effort made to find so many theme fill that will work. WATER SIDE is a very common concept throughout the South, with San Antonio only one of many with developments so named. We have quite a few in Florida.

For me the SE with MISDO and UNDESIRED was not exciting, but the rest was tight and getting that much themage in a 15x15 is impressive.

Michael Weatherly will be supported by NCIS in the fall when his already picked up new show BULL premiers this fall. His thoughts on why he and the character had to move on are HERE .

oc4beach said...


Jerry gave us a nice Wet and Wild puzzle today and HG splained it well with a lot of good visual aids. I motored through it today. My last word fill-in was the reveal WATERWATER. That was when the AHA moment hit.

No real sticking point today. Perps filled in the few initial blank spots that I had.

DO: When I was in High School I was one of two guys that took typing class and I was able to type about 50 wpm. It helped with all of the years of typing on a keyboard. Now I have to Hunt and Peck with one finger on my IPad and IPhone. I don't see how the kids of today can type with two thumbs on a phone keyboard. Amazing. Taking the class also helped in getting to know a lot of girls.

Fermatprime @ 4:40 am: I agree with Tinbeni, I think Michael Weatherly will end up with his own show. Do you think he will be a doctor, cop, private eye, lawyer or what.

Have a great day everyone.

oc4beach said...


According to Lemon's post, Michael Weatherly will be a doctor.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.

Nice puzzle. Liked the WATER theme since it was the focus of my professional career. No erasures; no lookups needed.
AGS - Interesting that official court documents seem to abbreviate Attorney General as ATTY GEN.
OPA - Hand up for being one; also, what my grand kids call me. Ich habe fünf Enkelkinder.
WATERSIDE - The watersides on our marine boilers had to be cleaned after every 1800 hours of steaming. (The firesides required cleaning after 600 hours.)

desper-otto said...

oc4beach, I've mentioned it before, but probably prior to you joining the corner. On the first day as a sophomore I managed to get kicked out of Biology -- for the year. It was a very small HS -- fewer than 200 kids grades 9-12. The only other class offered at that hour was Secretarial Typing, so that's what I took. I sure don't regret it, and yes, there were lots of girls in that class. I was the only guy. As a senior I got a very nice score on the Biology portion of the ACT, so I guess I didn't miss out on too much.

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was en enjoyable mid-week offering with just the right amount of bite. I had rime before hoar and guilt free before guiltless but both were quickly corrected. Neat theme, although the Texans might disagree.

Thanks, Jerry, for a fun run and thanks, HG, for the excellent expo. Lily is the "cat's meow!"

Have a great day.

Irish Miss said...

DO @ 8:56 - Would you care to elaborate on the reason for your unceremonious removal from that Biology class?

Tinbeni said...

What I remember ... TYPING was a "half-year" course I took after the 1st "half-year" course I took was Driver's Education (so I could get my Driver's License).
(Dad's requirement for all of his 4 kids ... and HE (Dad) was an Executive with AAA).

I was the only guy in class ... and the girl behind me was typing at 60 WPM from Day-1.

Well I didn't pass a "timed-writing" until the 11th week ... that was 20 WPM with less than 3 errors.

The last week (Week 18) I finally "ACED" a 45 WPM with ZERO errors.

But my grades were (for each 6 week grading period) D, C and finally A.

The only D or C I ever received in school.

Cheers!

Big Easy said...

Good morning. This was a very easy Wednesday and with the reveal at the beginning it spared me from having to make a guess because that is not my forte. I do love that it contained both SNIPE and UNDESIRED, which could be about our 'anonymous' posters.

This was one of the few puzzles that contained no unknowns; I always circle the clue for the unknown in the paper and this morning there were no circles. WPM- mine was 30 back in 9th grade typing class on the manual Royal ( we also had Underwoods and Remingtons)and all the keys on all typewriters were BLANK. I've never seen a computer keyboard with blank keys. The teacher subtracted 5 wpm for each mistake.

OJ is still looking for the killer.
Barry-there's probably at least 100 WATERSIDE grills in the country, every town has one by a lake or river. WATER PLANT is what I have a grip with because it doesn't manufacture water, just cleans it.

Big Easy said...

OC & D-O---my wife went to a small Catholic HS that didn't teach typing. She said in college she would only date boys that would type her papers for her. She can do about 10 wpm with the hunt and peck method which causes her to constantly look at the keyboard.

Avg Joe said...

This one put up a fight. Wanted transmit for transport, guilt free for guiltless, eaten into for eaten away and snark for snipe. Didn't enter any of them, so no erasures, but they were all speed bumps. Fun theme and clever reveal. Thank you Jerry and you as well Gary.

I took two semesters of typing. 1st one with manual machines, 2nd with electric. I don't recall the class makeup, but there were plenty of males....prolly about 50/50, so not nearly the gender imbalance most of you are reporting. Not sure why that was, it just was. Topped out at ~65WPM then and am probably still at 55+. The most useful course I ever took, in retrospect.

Anonymous said...

Waterside is a very common phrase all around the country, not just the south. (And probably the rest of the English speaking world) I often hear it when booking a hotel room. "Would you like a waterside room or pool side" "Slopeside room or parking lot side?"

unclefred said...

Yes, that was definitely a sewage treatment plant, not a water treatment plant. And just a thought: All plants are "power plants" when you think about the role chlorophyll plays.

Spitzboov said...

I began to really appreciate having taken typing in HS during active duty when, while in the duty section, I'd sometimes have to decode incoming messages using a crypto machine. The message would be in multi-letter groups of random letters, so it helped to be able to type without looking at the keyboard. Others, who had to hunt and peck, would spend hours in the crypto shack. If you skipped a letter, the decode sequence would be broken, making the decode process very messy.
When keypunch machines for computer coding came in, typing ability continued to reward, and continues to this day with personal computers. I wonder if the carriage return will ever come back.

TTP said...

Good morning all. Thank you Jerry and Gary.

Solved very early this morning, and then off to the hardware store. Taking a quick coffee back before getting back out to the gardens.

Though not theme answers, other partials fit with WATER. WATER SPORT, WATER WAY, WATER TAP, WATERLESS.

Have a great day.

Hahtoolah, we miss you !

desper-otto said...

Irish Miss, I honestly don't remember. I'd had that same teacher for Algebra the previous year, and we'd had some personality clashes. I'm sure I probably lipped off about something; I've a talent for that.

I do recall why I got kicked out of study hall a year earlier -- also on the first day of school. It was held in the cafeteria on long tables with folding chairs. I walked in, put my books on the table, sat down, put my feet up on the empty chair opposite me and....[Crash!]. The chair collapsed, and great was the tumult thereof. The study hall monitor was the HomeEc teacher, short and very stout. She got up and waddled over to where I was sitting and...[Crash!]...a chair collapsed in the opposite corner of the room. She pivoted in mid-stride and waddled over to that corner and...[Crash!]...a chair collapsed in yet another corner of the room. She gave up chasing the crashes, returned to where I was sitting, and banished me from study hall for the rest of the year.

The principal found out I'd been going home early, and assigned me special duties: assist the Chemistry teacher in setting up his daily demonstrations, go downstairs to the grade school with a projector to show movies, act as sound man for the musical extravaganzas held in the auditorium. Ironically, at the end of the year I was awarded a "Good Citizenship Medal" -- all as a result of getting kicked out of study hall.

Bluehen said...

Great puzzle today with a theme that was both intricate and tightly woven. That beautiful theme more than made up for a couple of meh fills. Dynamite expo, HG. I had some of the false starts as others, but the perps were solid. Nicely done.

I also took typing in school, but never did better than 40 wpm. That declined later with disuse to around 20-25 wpm. Then an industrial accident took the end of one of my home key fingers (my Ds all turned into Xs) so now I am a very slow hunt and peck typist. Oh, by the way guys, it's best not to ask a prospective secretary if she's a "huntin' pecker" when you have a Midwestern drawl like I do. Trust me on that one.

Let me get this straight. Michael Weatherly is going to star in a drama based on the early career of Dr. Phil McGraw, and the title of the program is "Bull"? How appropriate!

Chairman Moe said...

"Puzzling Thoughts":

The NW corner was the last to fall, as I had ENE instead of NNE at 20a - as a full-time Florida resident, I shoulda known that; only other write-overs were at 42d and 43d; perps solved both and once the "theme" was revealed, the puzzle made sense. Great recap by HG and great puzzle from Jerry Edelstein. Thanks, guys. Some cool words for a change: SIMILE, SNIPE, SPATULA, and WHELP are not ones used too often.

WEES, I, too had an elective class of Typewriter Studies (or whatever it was called back in the '60's when I was in HS). 9th Grade. Coed class; lots of guys - myself included - probably took it because Miss Nardecchia (sp?) was the teacher, and she was not tough on the eyes! She had some other prominent "assets" that she liked to show off; if you were having trouble she would stop by your desk and offer assistance. It's a wonder I learned anything . . . !! But to this day, I do know where all the keys are, and do not have to look at the keyboard while typing. But as others said, I cannot type on my iPhone with both thumbs. It's the index finger on my right hand that gets the workout . . .

My Wednesday haiku:

Her demeanor's cold.
And she charges to have SEX.
Could she be a HOAR?

Happy Hump Day . . .

Lucina said...

Thank you, Jerry Edelstein, this was a nice midweek challenge! I can't say I sailed through it but did manage to land safely ashore. To this south westerner where the land is so arid, a WATER theme is welcome though it rained a little this morning.

SHAD. Yum! I learned to love herring in Sweden.

My typing experience in high school was inauspicious since I have always been physically awkward and disjointed so I had to take typing twice and finally got to 40 wpm. However, with physical exercise, including yoga, pilates and aerobics, my mobility has greatly improved and I now type swiftly and of course without looking at the keys. It is one of the most valuable and practical courses I took. Learning to text on my flip phone was like a duck to water. No sweat. My thumb works best.

Thank you, Gary, for the high POWER trip.

Have a great day, everyone!

CrossEyedDave said...

I came through this puzzle high and dry...

Hmm, now, what to post...

Hmm, there has got to be something a little more optimistic.

At least I am prepared...

What do you see in all this water?

Just remember, April showers bring May flowers.
(May showers bring mud...)

CanadianEh! said...

We're all wet today. Thanks for the fun Jerry and Husker Gary.

Straight-forward sailing today with a few waves. Hand up for Rime before HOAR and MAIN door before GATE. My future fern was a Frond (it is fiddlehead season, yum!) before a SPORE.

I did well in my high-school typing class but I can't remember if I ever exceeded 100 WPM. Very useful skill.

Top-SEEDED Cavaliers trounced the Raptors last night 115-84. "#WeTheOther" was trending yesterday when CBS poll listed options for NBA league winner as Warriors, Thunder, Cavaliers, Other.

We have had plenty of PIPELINE controversy with Keystone XL, Energy East and Northern Gateway.

WATER POWER PLANT reminded me of Niagara Falls with Sir Adam Beck (Canadian side) and Robert Moses (American side) producing 1/4 of all power used in Ontario and New York State. Water is diverted to the hydro tunnels at night so the tourist attraction is not diminished in the daytime.

NiagaraPowerGeneratingQuickFacts

Have a great day.

Nice Cuppa said...

Thanks HG

Great write-up, although I noticed that you had somehow transformed Miss Oteri's Italian ancestry into Irish [ O'Teri]. You also missed an acute accent from dupé. Otherwise, parfait.

Great theme, although I did not like WATER POWER. It's called HYDROELECTRIC POWER where I come from.

I note that WHELP as a noun is "chiefly archaic" in Brit. usage, but not in U.S. - although from the comments here it may be headed that way. However, the VERB (to give birth to a whelp) is still alive and well both sides of the pond.

I was uncomfortable with SNIPE. In the sense clued it is an intransitive verb, so it needs a preposition/adverb – "snipe at" is the better answer. With (at) is a better clue. This is especially pertinent as there is a new usage of SNIPE as a transitive verb in on-line auctions.

Geographically, ASIA is not a single land mass - EURASIA is the land mass.

And once again, in support of the poor pigs - it's not their fault! They are clean animals by nature - only man forces them to live in filth.

Nice Cuppa said...

2 more observations:


1. AXE is clued with 2 distinct senses AND 2 parts of speech (verb and noun)! This is great cryptic cluing, but I thought in a non-cryptic it should be indicated by some punctuation. "!" would do the job.

2. MISDO ??? Not in my dictionary - pure crosswordese. MISDOING is OK, but not the back-verb.

Spitzboov said...

Canadian Eh @ 1216

Several of the bullets in your link. are misleading or incorrect. ie. The diversion figures appear to be pre 1950 Treaty. The Control dam extends over the international boundary (the 17th and 18th gates. The so-called tram between the powerhouses is used for stream gaging a couple weeks per year. Workers enter and leave the cableway via the US side.
The average River flow is about 205000cfs. Treaty specifies a minimum of 100000cfs to the Falls during Tourist hours, and 50000cfs at all other hours. The remainder is divided equally between the 2 countries with an adjustment for Welland canal flows to the DeCew plant near St. Catherines.

SwampCat said...

Quick and easy today. I must have been on the right WAVElength. Thanks, Jerry, and Gary for the informative write up.

Naughty naughty, Owen...oh wait.. You mean WE are naughty! Oh well, I'd give 'em all A+. Especially the fire truck.

I agree, Lemonade, that WATERSIDE is a common term. We even have subdivisions named WATERSIDE nestled beside bayous or lakes.

Lemonade714 said...

Anon at 9:53AM, you made me realize that having lived 44 out of the 46 years since I turned 18 in the South, my perspective has been effected. Travel is not like living somewhere.

Tom, you naughty boy you.

Misty said...

This was a speed run for me--very rare on a Wednesday, and totally gratifying. Thank you so much, Jerry--and I enjoyed your water pics, Husker Gary.

I must be the only who learned typing when I got my first computer, around 1990 or so, I think. There was no other way to use it and so it just happened.

Have a great day, everybody!

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Back from 27 holes on a spectacular spring day!
-Yeah, my dad was an STP (Sewage Treatment Plant) Boy and water carried the sewage out to the plant and most of the waste in the water was removed. So it does “treat” the water. ☺ I remember a sign in a Sioux City, IA restroom many miles upstream that read, “Flush The Toilet. Omaha Needs The Drinking Water”
-Shuttle astronauts drinking urine and other waste water after it has been treated during a shuttle mission. This will be necessary during the long flight to and from Mars.
-Otto, isn’t the donating organization the DONOR and the recipient the DONEE? I am shocked, shocked to learn you got booted out of class! ☺
-For most of us, typing was a girls-only class for those in the “business track”.
-Nice Cuppa, thanks for the gentle reminders and good info. The translation is from googletranslate.com and I thought it would just be fun to put it in there.

CrossEyedDave said...

Alas, I am not (34d) guiltless.
I learned the qwerty keyboard over the many times
I did the vowels, then all the consonants alphabetically
trying to get rid of that dang red letter!

Just in case there is nothing good on TV tonite,
Niagara Hydroelectric Power - Mega Project Harnessing The Power Of Niagara Falls"
A one & a half hour Modern Marvels special.

Ol' Man Keith said...

"Water water everywhere,
And not a drop for drinkin' -
Water water everywhere,
And every drop is stinkin'!"
For some reason we thought this junior high school paraphrase far superior to Mr. Coleridge's original effort.

A stalwart midweek pzl. Thank you, Mr. Eldstein. Well built and just tough enough - no surprises, except maybe the cluing of DONEE as "Charity."
Excellent review by Husker Gary. I especially appreciated the descriptive diagram of the Hoover Dam operation. Not too far above my comprehension level.

Kevin said...

Hi all,

For what is worth, C.C. has an excellent puzzle in the NYT. I know we all could get dizzy trying to keep track of her prolific output; nonetheless, this one was a perfect Wednesday treat.

desper-otto said...

Husker, the Red Cross is a charity. If you donate to it, you are the donor, and the Red Cross is the donee. I think that fits the xword clue "Charity, say." You mean to tell me you never got kicked out of a class? My academic "crime" career began in kindergarten. I had my own personal chair in the cloakroom.

Yellowrocks said...

I enjoyed this puzzle. Gary, I enjoyed your wit and pictures. WATER WATER gave away the theme.
Please indulge my word-nerd outlook. I am always looking for the broadest interpretation.
LANDMASS - A large area of land, such as a continent, that is wholly or mostly surrounded by water: That would be URASIA.
Especially with it broken into two words, LAND MASS, a broader interpretation would be just a very large area of land. I found this quote from a British periodical. “Game management and conservation have helped shape and enhance our landscapes for generations, and that management is now involved in some two thirds of the rural land mass of the UK.”
Just one point of view.
My dictionaries and quotations from common periodicals use the verb SNIPE with and without an adverb. “One lawyer sniped: “He is, in business, just a big overgrown boy.”
TimeApr 19, 2016.
“His vituperation reaches a crescendo in the conclusion where he snipes, “We should start calling this law SCOTUScare.” TimeJun 25, 2015

Yellowrocks said...

Continuing: Old usages are Kosher for crosswords, even more so when the material is still read today.
We find MISDO in Shakespeare’s Edward III. “What mighty men MISDO, they can amend.”
Whelp as a young mammal, especially referring to a dog, but also to many other animals, can be found in old literature like Tolstoy’s writings . However I have read WHELP, the noun, frequently in modern works, too.
More common in every day U. S. parlance, WHELP is a term of disparagement. “How dare that young whelp scold me!”
Still laughing from last night's late posts. Naughty, naughty! It brought back my teaching days and the boys taking my fifth grade simple machines lessons: lever, wheel and axle, ramp, inclined plane and screw. And putting nuts on the screw was the icing on the cake.

Matt Skoczen said...

Great puzzle! Very lovely and enjoyable theme! Thanks, Jerry E.! ---Matt Skoczen

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Really liked the water theme, having been a "water activist" in the late '80's 7 early 90's. Thanks, Jerry. Great work, Gary!

WATER PLANTS: kelp and water lilies. During my "WATER" days, I toured several water, electric, and sewage rehab plants and wrote stories. Fascinating.

I took 2 years of typing in high school on manual typewriters then a semester in college on a new-fangled electric typewriter. At the beginning of the college course, I typed 55 wpm with five errors. At the end, I typed 55 wpm with three errors. My droll wit teacher said, "I think you've reached your peak". When I started typing many hours a day as a newspaper writer, I got much faster especially after we got easy-touch computer keyboards. As editor, I once hired a typist who had a lot of office experience and then was horrified to find out she was the "huntin'pecker" type. She turned out to be very fast at it so we kept her. When I got my first home computer, I taught my 5th grade son proper keyboarding using my old typing book. He loved it. I didn't want him to develop any bad habits before proper instruction. Wasn't long before he was playing around with the computer and instructing me on the use thereof.

Cuppa: today's hog-raising facilities are surprisingly clean. I toured several large operations years ago. Hogs roll in mud to cool off and because they sunburn without protection or shade. The better facilities have misting coolers and the hogs are indoors.

Chickie said...

Hello Everyone,
A quick easy puzzle today with one misstep. WDS. instead of WPM threw off the SE corner for a while. I misunderstood the clue for 5 down so that didn't help at all. Misdo was a long time coming. I agree with others that this isn't the best choice for "Make a mess of".

Thanks Husker for a great write up. I loved all the links today. You worked very hard to entertain us all.

We had a Business emphasis tract in our high school and a college entrance tract. I had to talk really fast to get into the typing class because my mother thought I should know at least this one business skill. I'm so glad that I did take typing as it has been something I've used my entire life. I still have my pins that we received after each level of typing proficiency. I got my 75 WPM pin, but that was as far as I got.

We start our Elementary children off in third grade, now,with what we call keyboarding so they can be more adept at using the keyboards in the computer lab. By the time some of them are in 6th and 7th grade they are pretty good. This is a necessary skill in this Technology age.

Busy, busy time what with the end of school and all the meetings, graduations, colloquiums and finals taking place at the University. I've been there three times this week and I'm not even a student or a faculty member!!

Have a great day, everyone.

gmony said...

Missleading clue. 5 d and 60 d. Part of 60 d. Put PER and MIN so its PER and WPM? Crappy clue.

Lemonade714 said...

Finally got a chance to go to the NYT and what a lovely puzzle from C.C.

I was never a "touch" typist, but law school taught me to type 60WPM. Then I graduated, got a secretary and dictated.

Anonymous said...

"I was never a 'touch' typist, but law school taught me to type 60WPM. Then I graduated, got secretary and dictated." Then I embezzled over 34million dollars from unsuspecting innocent people, got caught and went to prison. Then I was released, joined a blogging community and lied to everyone there claiming I was still a lawyer. Then I convinced the sheeple I was a nice guy and they all look up to me.

Anonymous said...

5 D is just Per, part Of WPM. Words and minutes are the other parts. Where's the beef?

Irish Miss said...

DO - I have no trouble believing your tales of schoolboy stunts, as it's as plain as can be in your picture, particularly in those mischievous blue eyes, that you are a cut-up! 😈 (I imagine we all got into our share of hot water.)

Yellowrocks said...

Of course I know that you put nuts on a bolt, not a screw, but the idea was threads being an inclined plane. Forgive the hyperbole.

Tinbeni said...

Just got back from a SNIPE hunt ...

What a wonderful way to spend a day (or a night) In-The-Woods ... LOL

Alas, came back with an empty bag ...

Cheers!

Jayce said...

Meh.

CanadianEh! said...

Spitzboov @12:49. Thanks for the updated info. Should we tell the City of Niagara Falls since it is on their website?

Thanks CED for your Niagara link (no I did not watch it all)!

TX Ms said...

D-O @10:33 & 2:39. Sounds like you had an early start at "being a handful." :) Your poor parents, or were you a model child at home? Back to the study hall collapsing chairs - did the other students copy you or did you somehow rig the chairs to collapse on their own, since you seem to be inventive with a wicked sense of humor.

Spitzboov said...

CanadianEh! - I don't think it would do much good. Their version informs the tourist there is more water going over the Falls than it actually is. Since power diversions remove ½ the normal flow from the Falls during tourist hours and ¾ at other hours, the viewing experience of watching flow over the cataracts is a lot less than pre-project conditions.

OwenKL said...

Did a Google image search on WATER PLANT, and besides purification plants, also ran into various types of water lilies and their ilk, and also water bottling plants.

Strange, my half-semester typing class wasn't mostly girls. In fact, the only girl in the classroom was the teacher. But then, I did attend a boys only high school. I did get to be the only boy in an all-girl drama class in college.

Back in the '80s, when I learned my younger daughter was taking keyboarding, I was amazed that a deaf girl would be learning piano! Sometimes the language moves faster than we can keep up with it.

Anonymous said...

Qwerty indeed!