Thanks for sharing Vin Scully announcing Hank Aaron's 715th home run. A very special moment...
2
I miss George CARLIN. So funny.
ELO, REM, STEAMBOAT Willie, HANKAARON, Peter OTOOLE, Wyatt EARP, OLSON, PAVLOV, EMIL... on and on... SO AND SO.
Less time than a typical Friday. Way too many proper names. Non-thematic but kinda non-fun.
3
Anyone know how to find the answers to the "time test"?
Is it cheating if you google to see what exactly brachialis muscle is?
MP,
Before or after solving the puzzle?
@Barry Ancona Before. But I should have known based on what “bras” means in French.
MP,
As elsewhere in the comments, unless you're at a tournament, you set the rules, so it's up to you, for you, whether Googling is or isn't cheating.
SASS before GUFF and DIRT before AMMO, plus a bunch of interruptions slowed me way down today. But I agree that the longish answers had lightbulbs flashing. A minute or two over my half-hour target, but fin along the way.
1
@Dag Ryen
32:28 here, so I guess we were in the same ballpark.
Me too. AREYOUCRAZY before AREYOUBLIND, which I put in and erased a few times. Wanted ASONE and not ASIDE for far too long.
Tough. First pass through the NW yielded only ASL and OPERAS. FILEMENU sparred with "puLldown" for 3D until an ARM pointed to the former, and like Liz B., had "sass" before GUFF. The section eventully fell with VAGABONDS the crucial link to the NE. Had __IEN for 11D and just couldn't remember the name. Asked the wife if I was close, she Googled, then blurted out O'Brien! (I'm still counting this as a legitimate solve ...) The NE then fell quickly. The bottom half wasn't as difficult and I had no erroneous entries.
Lots of unknowns: GUFF (Sorry, Wags), APIA, OLSEN, EMIL, GLEN, NUTPINE (Yes, I live in the "southwest"), GOMER, LOM, AYLA, and RETRONYM. Really obtuse clues (in my mind) for FAIR, GASBAGS, RELY, ONMEDS, EYES, EMBARK, and BUYS. Lots of slang, btw!
Ditto yesterday: not my favorite puzzle. Am now dreading tomorrow's ...
1
"Asked the wife if I was close, she Googled, then blurted out O'Brien! (I'm still counting this as a legitimate solve ...)"
Ron,
Our crossword columnist, her relief, and many posters in these comments have said repeatedly that whatever a solver wants to call a solve for themselves is their choice. You need not claim "legitimacy" for your methodology; "rules" only apply at tournaments.
That being said, if you term getting help from an outside reference (here, Google) a legitimate solve, what would you consider an illegitimate solve?
I can’t say for sure but it sounds like Ron and I have similar self-imposed rules. I don’t consider using Google a legitimate solve, however I will occasionally ask my wife for her input with a clue. Now, if it turns out that she used Google to provide the answer, that would create a bit of a dilemma.
1
P.S. In asking what might be an illegitimate solve, I'm assuming "looking at the answer key" is already in there...
@Times
A kluge (spelled "kludge" by some, although it doesn't rhyme with "fudge") is an effective but inelegant fix. In hardware, it might be a ball of resistors soldered onto a "finished" board. We see a software kluge in the latest version of the comment system.
Indenting replies-to-replies is the most obvious way to thread responses. But it would take some major thought, starting with "do we really like this comment window stuck over a narrow part of our main column" and "what if some bozo purposely posts replies ten-deep."
Or, we can call in the kluge-meister who proposes, "why don't we leave all the replies and responses at the same (confusing) level but automatically add "@name" to every reply? Brilliant. And it looks so social media-y.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to erase them before commenting.
Martin,
Auto-adding "@name" is not only obnoxious; given the problems of the current system it is counter-productive. It encourages people to click "reply" on the post in a thread to which they want to reply. In a better system, that's exactly what they should do; in this system, doing so at best shows posts out of order (replies to replies) and at worst causes posts to disappear (4 or more replies to the thread-start). Instead of solving the reply problem, they have exacerbated it.
@me
I should really add a "thanks, Times, for fixing a bunch of stuff" response to my "get off my lawn" reply. I think (hope) the Thread Temporal Randomizer has been turned off (in honor of the upcoming not-male Doctor Who?).
[It's so tough when gender-sensitivity meets sci-fi. Gallifreyans aren't human so referring to the new Doctor as a "woman" sounds as wrong as calling all the previous ones "men." But I suspect "female Doctor" would be offensive to some. I look forward to the show enlightening me.]
Response is fast so I'm sure a lot of work has gone into scalability. It's still no Facebook, but Facebook isn't as trustworthy.
@you,
And, if people don't click twice, no more duplicate posts. And if people refresh themselves, replies go into the correct threads.
(It isn't that none of the problems have been resolved; it is that the problems didn't exist until the arrival of the new and improved system.)
Surprisingly easy for a Friday. Yet, I enjoyed it considering last Saturday's which I put down and didn't finish until Monday and a lot of head scratching. Finishing it was like lifting a dead weight. Ha, ha.
Looking forward to Saturday's again. Hope it doesn't take 3 days to finish it though.
3
A little on the easy side, but lots of fun fill. Must be a lot of ice cream parlours out there called SPLITSVILLE. It may not be too long before we see SPACE "force" in the fill. Oy.
3
Quick and fun. I enjoyed the fill I hadn't seen in awhile, like UPPERLIP, SPLITSVILLE,EMPORIUM, VAGABOND, SPACERACE, POLICECAR, and of course RETRONYM. Very tasty!
6
Will "Elected President" soon become a retronym?
18
I'm definitely not in the camp of people who found this puzzle fast and easy. For quite some time, I even wondered if I was going to be able to finish it. SASS before GUFF spoiled the NW corner for a long time, to the point that I was worried that SPLITSVILLE might be wrong. APIA was the only capital that seemed possible, but I knew there were others out there (SUVA, anyone?) and didn't know GLEN. (Well, I do know a guy named GLEN, but that's different). Also ASLEEP before ON MEDS caused problems in the NE. And even though I'm a SCORPIO, that didn't come easily because I was thinking APART instead of ASIDE at 21A.
The south filled in fairly easily, although I blanked on the word RETRONYM until I had some crosses.
But I was able to persevere and finish it, so yay me!
13
@Liz B
sass first as well -- must be a SCORPIO thing.
5
I forgot I had SASS before HUFF and then GUFF.
...or when sounding like A,
as in neighbor or weigh.
Perhaps a closer to home RETRONYM:
The New York Times Print Edition.
2
@Andrew
Even closer, Andrew, The New York Times Crossword Puzzle, Newspaper Version:
https://www.nytimes.com/svc/crosswords/v2/puzzle/print/Aug1018.pdf
Wen,
Except that's not what it's called, and retronyms are about what things are called.
(It's a PDF of the version that appears in print, but it's just called "The Crossword" on the web page where one may access it.)
You're right, Barry, but I couldn't link to the popup dialog that had a link labeled "Newspaper Version" that opens the PDF. You know, when you click the Printer icon in the upper right corner of the puzzle...
Fun puzzle. I liked the clue for PAVLOV and SPACE RACE particularly. I also like VAGABOND because the word always reminds me of a great line from Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue."
I filled SO AND SO pretty easily but don't think it's a great answer for S.O.B. LUMMOX and LOM held me up at the end, but I finished about halfway between my best time and average for Friday, so overall it was a good solve!
On to the weekend.
3
@Thom
I had EPITHET instead of SO AND SO at first. Oh, well...
I remember learning the term RETRONYM (which my spell check rejects) from an old "On Language" column of William Safire's in the physical newspaper. (Is that a new retronym?)
"Acoustic guitar" remains the epitome.
Perhaps it was this column...(though I'd have thought it was further back in time than 2007...):
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/magazine/18wwln-safire-t.html
4
@mjengling
This one is 15 years older ... but doesn't mention the puzzle-worthiness of the word:
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/01/magazine/on-language-retronym-watch.html
Reading Safire reminds me why I never liked reading Safire.
@David Connell
That was good for a good laugh, M. David.
Perhaps not the correct place to point this out, but I noticed that the "A Little Variety" puzzle for 08/12 only contains two puzzles ("Targets" and "Spelling Bee"), instead of the usual three. It appears there ought to be a third puzzle from Patrick Berry, but it doesn't appear.
There’s a bigger variety puzzle this weekend that’s getting special treatment — it bumped the third puzzle, but things will be back to normal next Sunday.
@Caitlin About that bigger variety puzzle: lots of fun, but a quibble, if I have the answer right: BEACH H*** is actually a single word.
A Gulczynski Friday?
SINUS UP!!
7
Anyone else initially have DIRT for 54A? I stuck with that for quite a while. Great puzzle.
6
@Treegarden
Apparently you mean 64A.
Agreed with @Viv.
Hand up for DIRT first.
I'm sure it would have been my first thought, but I had entered 37D and 38D before looking at the clue for 64A.
OoooKAY! This puzzle went down like ten-pins, but I don't know why! I simply sat down and PUT PEN TO PAPER and boom! At the same time, I was pleased to see RENOIR (his last painting, of anemones, was done just before he died--making art til the end!)..cuddled up to HANK AARON (yay, Atlanta!) For a moment I had a PULLET on the farm, which would have been fun, but one can't have everything.
I finished today's Wee Bee with 22 words, 82 pts, and saw the Queen Bee....briefly. Then she disappeared and I just get Genius. What?
On the Big Bee from last week I had OOLITH and MOLTO, both good crosswordese, but not on the Longo List. What?
(On the other hand, there were three words I should have put down but overlooked.)
The new Big Bee....well, I have 25 words, but not one with all 7 letters. Maybe it will come to me...
2
@Mean Old Lady Hand up for pullet. Just got Queen Bee and it hasn't reverted to genius.
MOL, I've never seen QB sit around - you get the notice and then the status bar shows Genius again - the puzzle presents as though there may be words yet to be found - only the next day, when you see a check mark next to every word, do you get the QB affirmation again. Enjoy that QB screen when it appears, because it is transitory!
@Mean Old Lady
Hang in there on the Big Bee...it'll come to you. It's a common word, and there a lot of words here. I'm at 31 points already, only one of which might be arguably "too scientific."
In New Mexico our nut trees are piñons. Their nuts are are gathered in the fall, and they have been in high demand since prehistoric times.
3
High five!
@Noel
My first thought was pinons, but it obviously didn't fit.
A most enjoyable Friday puzzle, and solved much quicker than my average Friday time. I particularly enjoyed the clue for TAB, although it took me forever to understand it. I was misled to search for a political term, while the answer was right in front of me on my keyboard. I'm not sure why Caitlin found it outrageous.
I have a nit to pick with 50D however. Chives being the plural of chive throws off the consistency of the clue-entry. If the clue had been "Chives or cloves" would one have considered a singular entry?
Andrew,
M-W validated my personal usage of "chives" as singular:
Definition of chive
a perennial plant (Allium schoenoprasum) related to the onion and having slender leaves used as a seasoning; also : its leaves —usually used in plural
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chive
@Andrew - I can't endorse your quibble about chives. When I plant chervil in my kitchen garden, I plant an herb. The plant is chervil, the leaves are chervil, the green or dried or ground bits of foliage are chervil. Five chervil plants are chervil. When I plant chives, I plant a bulb. One chive plant is chives. The herb is the green, leafy bit that is used in the kitchen. Those are chives. Chives is chives, not are; chives are chives, not is. (What I mean, and the dictionary affirms, is that chives with an s is a singular or uncountable herb.)
Cloves aren't herbs in any case - they are spices.
3
Barry and David, I still don't think it is as cut and dried as you make it out to be. (The subject, not the chives!)
OED definition of chive:
1. The smallest cultivated species of Allium ( A. Schœnoprasum), which grows in tufts, with rush-like hollow leaves and small clustered bulbs. The leaves are cut for use in soups and stews.
M-W states that the leaves are "usually used in plural".
If you were to cut one chive leaffrom your plant, would you refer to it as one chives or one chive? (Or neither?). I would have no problem to cut three or four chives from my garden, or a handful of chives, but one chives seems quite wrong to me.
I realize that cloves aren't herbs. I was simply looking for a similar plural item. More to the point perhaps, I would refer to a green onion in the singular, yet if cut into small pieces I would say green onions. I assumed chive to be a comparable item.
At first I thought this was more Saturdayish, but soon things started falling into place and like others I especially liked the long answers. I was quite chuffed that I remembered STEAMBOAT. Quite a few manes that I didn't know, but plenty that I did, so that evened out.
1
I knew that M Mouse was originally STEAMBOAT Willy, but for some reason thought I should put him on a RIVERBOAT.
Also thought I could um, make up a reason the 'conditioner' referred to REVLON. Sometimes, being half right doesn't ring a bell.
1
Is one really an “all-time record setter” if someone else comes along and breaks that record? Or is the constructor in the “Barry Bonds deserves an asterisk” camp?
@Pete
Read the clue carefully.
1
And, just to be clear,
YES
Barry Bonds and his ilk all deserve ("deserve") asterisks...
if nothing more...
@David Connell
BONDS is in the puzzle, "vaga-ly". . .
Very nice puzzle; thought the longer across entries were terrific and figuring each of those out turned out to be the key to finishing this for me (yes - I finished a Friday). Some unknowns and other things that I knew but couldn't remember right away, but those all came from the crosses.
I paused a bit over 19a, though I filled it in immediately. R.E.M. is a band from Athens, Georgia. The title of the album in the clue is taken from the slogan of a little southern food restaurant called "Weaver D's," which is quite famous down here.
In April of this year our Jimbo traveled to Athens. I had tentatively planned to meet him there, but family things got in the way (I really regret that). I had asked him if he planned to get a 'selfie' in front of the 'Automatic for the People' sign, which is a common thing to do for rock music fans. I'm sure he would have thought of it anyway, but he did get one. This is the picture. I hope this link works:
https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/31069121_10213494934421168...
..
And here's a favorite song by R.E.M. (not from that album) which seems vaguely appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtdhWltSIg
..
9
<reco>
Rich,
Thanks for sharing the photo.
2
@Rich in Atlanta
The link worked just fine, Rich. Thanks for that.
@Rich in Atlanta
Thanks for the link. Everybody hurts without JB.
2
TIME’S up, pencils down!...A pristine, rare bird of a Friday finale as I finished with an ERROR/strike-over free solve. Yay me! First answer was STEAMBOAT and the last was LUMMOX. The SW gave me fits until Peter O’TOOLE loosened the puzzel’s stranglehold on my progress...Is FILE Gumbo on today’s MENU?
This is “Do Ya” from you know who ya.
https://youtu.be/2aSpE5POV80
PAY IN Attention,
Bru
3
Identical solve experience from the first word to the last.
I think the clues to this puzzle skew old and male. I found it incredibly difficult, much harder than Thursday's.
@Jamie
Hmmm. I admit OLD, but....
3
More than old and/or male, I think the whole puzzle simply skews Damon. As for Damon being difficult, what else would any of us be, had we grown up having to spell 'Gulczynski'?
1
Great Friday puzzle. Seemed to be on the easy side of Friday. 2/3 my average. A lot of fun.
Great entries and clues to go with them. SPLITSVILLE, BEER BELLY, SPACE RACE, PAVLOV, TAB. Great to see HANK AARON.
Good to see the entries UPPER LIP, FILE MENU, RETRONYM, EMPORIUM, VAGABONDS (always reminds me of "New York, New York" - those shoes!).
Like some others, I had REDBOX before ITUNES, and mainly because Netflix didn't fit, and that automatically shifted to REDBOX.
I was fLUMMOXed in the NW. I had HUFF and was near-clotbu...wait, wrong puzzle...near-Naticked by GLEN and NUT PINE (I had _UTPINE and _LE_). So I had for 1D, HASBA_S. After revisiting HUFF with other possibilities, came up with GUFF, then GASBAGS, then GLEN and NUT PINE.
I often like to combine entries next to each other for some laughs. For example, drowning your sorrows in alcohol after a bad breakup might lead to SPLITSVILLE BEER BELLY. HANK AARON to ump: ARE YOU BLIND? that was clearly a homerun. PIGLET O'TOOLE - imagine him speaking with an Irish accent.
3
Thanks Caitlin for the Hank Aaron clip. TIL: that the reason the Yankees put pinstripes on their uniforms was to make Babe Ruth look slimmer.
With the range of change between the STEAMBOAT and the SPACERACE it's no wonder there are plenty of RETRONYMs around.
With lots of names and some off-beat cluing this puzzle did not yield easily, making it a satisfying solve, well calibrated for a Friday.
4
My firt pass after EMBARKing on the solve got me nothing except ARM and FILE MENU. Then, almost simultaously, UPPER LIP and PUT PEN TO PAPER appeared out of the \blue. ARE YOU BLIND annd HANK AARON followed.
But OHO, the crosses I had to bear! I am the LAMEST GOMER as regards movies (OBRIEN, OTOOLE, ALBA, AYLA, NIC) and pop bands (REM, ELO) but, with Google’s help, ad una bouna ORA, I got my gold star,
Warning: Google is not to be trusted implicitly, it gave me the wrong OLSoN, who temporily SKUNKed my BEER BELLY.
5
Amitai, I can't express how incredibly far you are from being a GOMER.
WaiMER: Welcome anytime in my Emergency Room.
Retronym? Grumble.
@dk
Why? It's definitely a thing.
1
It happens wen you've shot too many Barbies.
QB = 22 words/82 points. No bingo today. Two of the letters only start one word each. Nothing here that's really clotbur-ish or that we haven't run into before, with the possible exception of one word that's instantly familiar to those of us who are bebop fans...
5
@qatburger - I am one little four-letter word short, and obviously flustrated, to use a word inadvertently coined by a former colleague of mine.
3
@David Connell
I'm going to bet that the four-letter word you're missing can be found by taking one of the five-letter words, dropping one letter out and "smooshing" the letters together. (Actually, there are three of these such words in the set.)
@David Connell
How dare a word-based puzzle refuse to accept ABJAD?
If you're born around Halloween you're really a Libra, not a SCORPIO, due to Earth's precession over the past couple of millennia (the sun is now squarely in Libra on Halloween). Most of us are one sign off in the direction of the First Point of Aries (the first sign of the zodiac, beginning on the vernal/March equinox). Libra, btw, is the only astrological sign not named for a living creature.
Blue Moon,
I had to provide this link (once):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjxSCAalsBE
1
@Barry Ancona
Calgon, take me away....
Saw Hair from the 2nd balcony of the Shubert, in the year Nineteen Aught Age of Aquarius. Never did quite get over it.
This was entertaining and the work of a pro. The fill is clean and every area of the grid is well connected. There's fun in the clues (BEERBELLY, PAVLOV, TAB, SCORPIO) and answers (I noted 10). The puzzle had dash, sparkle, and was made with a twinkle in the eye.
How I love George CARLIN's deliciously twisted view on life. He could be goofy ("Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time."), he could be a little over-the-top but close to reality ("The other night I ate at a real nice family restaurant. Every table had an argument going."), and, even though he's been gone for a decade, he could be prescient ("When you're born, you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America, you get a front row seat.").
12
For those who enjoy both math and baseball, or appreciated the Hank Aaron entry, here's a little excursion with surprises all along the way:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCq04N9it8U
10
@David Connell
Well, I can't say that I enjoy math, David, but I found that really interesting and moving.
2
That was a very good video and story. Thank you, David.
@David Connell
Thanks for posting that interesting, moving story. My best two subjects in my teens - math and baseball.
The definition for RETRONYM in the column is a bit garbled. It's not when an item is no longer in use.
'A retronym is a newer name for an existing thing that differentiates the original form or version from a more recent one. It is thus a word created to differentiate between two types, whereas previously (before there were two types) no clarification was required.'
3
@PaulSFO
Agreed. The prime example is what Caitlin mentioned herself - cloth diapers. Conscientious people still use cloth diapers and consistently do so. For our first child, 11 years ago, we tried for a few months. But after a while...those poopy diapers just really got to us. Of course our parents and ancestors had to put up with a lot more.
@Wen
"Conscientious people still use cloth diapers and consistently do so."
Hopefully just the ones with babies of their own.
Acoustic guitar.
@ Caitlyn. Thank you for “hopefully, like “gasoline car” “!
1
A nice enough Friday puzzle, but what I really liked was Constructor Notes...
4
For the first decade of my life the Rotary Phone was the latest thing in personal communication devices. Dick Tracy's two-way wrist radio and Star Trek's Communicator were fantasies. Now the name for that venerable black corded device is a RETRONYM.
What will be the nature of the augmented personality processors which turn today's smart phones into relics for today's Post Millenials as they reach their so-called Golden Years? Will they be electronic implants, or perhaps biological quantum computers spliced into one or more of our 23 chromosome pairs at conception? Will that aging population be able to adapt to mind controlled, or mind controlling technology?
In any case, today's iPhone Xs and such are already well on their way to becoming tomorrow's relics and their names RETRONYMs. Enjoy them while they're still cool.
1
The sci-fi writers try to be so prescient, with names like two-way wrist radio and Communicator. They always miss that when the device gets here, it will be called a "phone."
5
Mike R,
I don't think you're quite that old. The rotary phone may have been the latest thing *in your home or neighborhood* for the first decade of your life -- they did not come into widespread use until Western Electric started making them for the Bell System in 1919 -- but the first commercial use of rotary phones was in 1904.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_dial
(I used a no-dial party line phone on a farm in the Catskills, but we had rotary phones at home. I also made a call on the Picturephone at the 1964 Worlds Fair, but Skyping came a few years later.)
The rotary phone wasn't especially new when I was a kid, but it was the latest thing even so ... "touch tone" phones didn't come along until November, 1963.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push-button_telephone
Nice. I like this classical type.
Worked out oddly for me, though; after about 3 minutes I had just STEAMBOAT and felt like I was struggling, but then under 10 minutes later I was done.
2
and Elke
A puzzle with some interesting esoterica-from GUFF to GOMER to LUMMOX ( not LUMMcow ?) etc.
To get my BEERBELLY I prefer Montana's Moose Drool to PAVLOV's dog drool.....
Liked seeing RETRONYM. I propose future ones : 1)PUT PEN TO PAPER (instead of fingers to keyboard), and seeing 2)'ERROR has occurred' on 'comment blogs'.*
Caitlin- thanks for the HANK AARON 715th.
TIL- SKUNK for 'shut out'.
Instead of searching for CARLIN's seven words, I'm looking for no more than two for a 'coronation'....
*am not sure of correct use of the word-but am sure somebody will correct me.
1
My Kindle's name is Ayla, after one of my earliest literary heroines.
3
Nothing against NJ, but for us in the Northwest 26-A is just something that appears with the crosses. Any claim to fame for that place?
@Xwordsolver Interestingly, it's named after a huge glacial erratic around which the town was built. Thank you, Wikipedia!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Glen_Rock%2C_N...
2
Coulda been _____ Ridge N.J. Just as obscure.
____ Burnie, Md.
____ Ellyn, Il.
next?
The police cars I knew were green and black with just a little white, but I learned about "black-and-whites" watching "Highway Patrol" with Broderick Crawford.
3
@Barry Ancona
Around here they are all tan - you have to look at the grille and antenna. One happened to get behind me yesterday on a country road where the speed limit is 30 but I usually go 45, at least on the straightaways. I felt like I could have run home faster.
2
this puzzle talked to me: my main man Wagner and his OPERAS and Ivan PAVLOV and his dog's saliva from my earliest Psych classes!
@judy d Clearly, the name PAVLOV rang a bell.
19
@Wags
But does the name Quasimodo ring a bell?
In the spirit of STEAMBOAT Willie, this one was right in my wheelhouse, especially since GUFF is one of my favorite words.
4
Caitlin,
I miss black and white cookies, but I really miss pink and greens, those marzipany ones with the chocolate. No bakery like a NY bakery.
1
@Martin Also no bagel store like a NY bagel store, which was where I bought the black and white cookies. I have to stop. I’m salivating on my IPad...
4
I agree with Martin--pink and green over black and white.
@Martin
What I miss from NYC delicatessens are proper dill pickles
1
LOM was a gimme for me. APIA seems like a fairly common example of crosswordese though I needed some crosses to remember it.
I had REDBOX at first for movie renter. I had AlonE before ASonE before ASIDE, which resulted in the NE being last to fall for me.
2
Easier than most Fridays. Or perhaps I'm getting better now that I'm at 16 months straight.
2
Rodzu,
At 16 months straight I'm sure you *are* getting better, but I also think this was an easier than usual Friday. Got almost all the longer entries after only two or three letters; that's rare for me.
3
Comments working tonight ?
Nope. Sorry.
4
Rolling the dice here!
1
Regarding HANK AARON, while I knew that Al Downing, who started his career with the Yankees, served up the gopher ball for #715, and I knew that Bill Buckner had started his career with the Dodgers, I’d forgotten that he was originally an outfielder.
53A made me think of Tom House, the relief pitcher for the Braves who caught Henry Aaron's historic home run. Tom House later went on to be pitching coach who among other things, advocating throwing a football as a training exercise. I believe it was Charlie Hough who said about this idea, "I may lead the league in interceptions".
3