Constructed by: Gerry Wildenberg
Edited by: Rich Norris
Quicklink to a complete list of today’s clues and answers
Quicklink to comments
Theme: Hard-Edged
Each of today’s themed answers is located around the EDGE of the grid. Also, each needs to follow the word “HARD” for completion:
- 35A. Gritty … and a description of this puzzle, which is also a hint to completing eight answers : HARD-EDGED
- 1A. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER
- 6A. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE
- 66A. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES
- 67A. Punishing work : (HARD) LABOR
- 12D. Hockey puck material : (HARD) RUBBER
- 15D. Stubborn : (HARD-)HEADED
- 38D. Real estate, gold, silver, etc. : (HARD) ASSETS
- 45D. Gotten with considerable effort : (HARD-)EARNED
Bill’s time: 7m 04s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est, Amazonian Googlies
Across
1. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER
Angry Orchard is a brand of hard cider that’s made in Walden, New York.
6. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE
The roof of the mouth is known as the palate. The anterior part of the palate is very bony, and is called the hard palate. The posterior part is very fleshy and is called the soft palate. The soft palate is muscular and moves to close off the nasal passages while swallowing.
12. 1988 Schwarzenegger cop film : RED HEAT
“Red Heat” is a 1988 action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi as a law enforcement officers out to nab a Russian druglord operating in Chicago. Arnie plays a narcotics agent from Moscow, and Belushi a Chicago detective.
The body-builder, actor and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Graz in Austria, the son of the local police chief. Schwarzenegger’s family name translates into the more prosaic “black plough man”. In his bodybuilding days, he was often referred to as the Austrian Oak. When he was Governor of California he was called “the Governator”, a play on his role in the “The Terminator” series of movies.
17. Entertainer nicknamed “The Schnoz” : DURANTE
Jimmy Durante was a very talented entertainer, with that wonderful, gravelly voice, as well as that large nose that he used in so much of his humor (and earned him the nickname “Schnozzola”). Durante appeared in the Broadway stage musical “Jumbo” in 1935. In one scene, he leads a live elephant across the stage, and gets stopped by a police officer who asks, “What are you doing with that elephant?” Durante replies “What elephant?” and brings the house down every night.
18. “Be Prepared” org. : BSA
As every little boy (of my era) knows, the Scouting movement was founded by Lord Baden Powell, in 1907. The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) soon followed, in 1910. And, the Boy Scouts motto is “Be Prepared”.
21. Monterrey Mrs. : SRA
Monterrey is a Mexican city, the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon in the northeast of the country. Monterrey is the second largest city in Mexico in terms of area, but third largest in terms of population (the largest area city in the country is Mexico City, and the most populous are Mexico City and Guadalajara).
22. Outlying area, briefly : BURB
As an extension to the term “suburb”, an “exurb” is an area beyond the suburbs at the very outskirts of a city. Often the term exurb is used to denote an area inhabited by more wealthy people.
24. Whitman of TV’s “Parenthood” : MAE
Actress Mae Whitman played “the daughter” in some successful movies early in her career. She was Meg Ryan’s daughter in “When a Man Loves a Woman”, George Clooney’s daughter in “One Fine Day” and Bill Pullman’s daughter in “Independence Day”. More recently, she played the lead in the 2015 teen comedy film “The Duff”.
26. Earth along the Elbe : ERDE
“Erde” is the German word “earth”.
31. Score silence : REST
That would be a musical score.
38. “… __ lovely as … “: Kilmer : A POEM
The American journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer is primarily known for his 1913 poem titled “Trees”. The original text of the poem is:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
Kilmer died a few years after writing “Trees”. He was a casualty of the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.
41. European volcano : ETNA
Mt. Etna is the largest of three active volcanoes in Italy. Etna is about 2 1/2 times the height of its equally famous sister, Mt. Vesuvius. Mt. Etna is home to a 110-km long narrow-gauge railway, and two ski resorts.
42. Seis doubled : DOCE
In Spanish, “seis” (six) doubled is “doce” (twelve).
49. Exploring Griffith Park, say : IN LA
Griffith Park in Los Angeles is often referred to as the city’s “Central Park”, a reference to magnificent park in New York City. However, Griffith Park covers over 4,300 acres, and Central Park is less than a fifth of that size, at just under 780 acres.
50. Sushi bar drink : SAKE
We refer to the Japanese alcoholic beverage made from rice as “sake”. We’ve gotten things a bit mixed up in the West. “Sake” is actually the word that the Japanese use for all alcoholic drinks. What we know as sake, we sometimes refer to as rice wine. Also, the starch in the rice is first converted to sugars that are then fermented into alcohol. This is more akin to a beer-brewing process than wine production, so the end product is really a rice “beer” rather than a rice “wine”.
51. __-Locka, Florida : OPA
Opa-Locka is a rather interesting city in Florida. Opa-Locka is located near Miami, and has a themed city plan that is based on “One Thousand and One Nights”. The city hall has a very Arabian look, and some examples of street names are Ali Baba Avenue and Sesame Street.
55. Hammer at an angle : TOENAIL
To toenail is to fasten using toed nails, nails that have been driven in at a slant.
62. Agenda opener : ITEM ONE
“Agenda” is a Latin word that translates as “things to be done”, coming from the verb “agere” meaning “to do”.
66. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES
The concepts that underpin the technology of contact lenses date back to Leonardo Da Vinci. Although Da Vinci didn’t propose the development of the contact lens, he did write about correcting vision by submerging the eye in a bowl of water. Over a hundred years later, René Descartes made a somewhat impractical suggestion, but along the right lines, of using a glass tube filled with liquid that could be placed in contact with the eye to correct vision. The first real contact lenses were developed by Adolf Gaston Eugen Fick, a German ophthalmologist, in 1887.
Down
3. FedEx alternative : DHL
Back in the sixties, Larry Hillblom was making pocket money as a Berkeley law student by doing courier runs between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After law school, Hillblom decided to parlay his experience into his own business and set up a courier service flying bills of lading ahead of freight from San Francisco to Honolulu. He brought in two buddies, Adrian Dalsey and Robert Lynn, as partners and the three were soon hopping on and off commercial flights and gradually making more and more money. And DHL was born … D (for Dalsey) H (for Hillblom) L (for Lynn).
4. Anti-discrimination org. : EEOC
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) is a term that has been around since 1964 when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was set up by the Civil Rights Act. Title VII of the Act prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.
5. Musical style of Anoushka Shankar’s 2015 album “Home” : RAGA
Anoushka Shankar is a British sitar player, and is the daughter of Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. Through her father, Anoushka is also the half-sister of American singer Norah Jones.
6. City near Venice : PADUA
The city of Padua is in northern Italy, not far from Venice. Padua has many claims to fame. For example, Galileo was one of the lecturers at the University of Padua, and William Shakespeare chose the city as the setting for his play “The Taming of the Shrew”.
9. Chef’s phrase : A LA
The phrase “in the style of” can be translated in “alla” in Italian and “à la” in French.
10. Sheriff’s badge : TIN STAR
In the Old West a “tin star” was a sheriff’s badge.
11. “CHiPs” actor : ESTRADA
Actor Erik Estrada’s big break came with the movie “Airport 1975”, in which he played the doomed flight engineer of a Boeing 747. A couple of years later, Estrada began a six-year gig, co-starring on the television show “CHiPs” as motorcycle police officer Poncherello.
The TV cop show “CHiPs” ran from 1977 until 1983. Stars of the show were Larry Wilcox and Erik Estrada, who played two California HIghway Patrol (CHP) motorcycle officers. I find it interesting that the storylines never once called for the officers to draw their firearms over the six seasons (how shows have changed!). Erik Estrada had to learn how to ride a motorcycle for the show, but wasn’t licensed to drive one during the whole of production. He eventually qualified, but only after three attempts to pass the test.
13. Original Dungeons & Dragons co. : TSR
Dungeons & Dragons is a complex role-playing game (RPG) introduced in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Incorporated (TSR). Dungeons & Dragons was probably the first of the modern role-playing games to be developed, and the most successful. It is still played by lots of people today, including my youngest son …
25. “Arabian Nights” character : ALADDIN
“Aladdin” is a famous tale in “Arabian Nights”, also called “The Book of One Thousand and One Nights”. However, there is no evidence at all that the story was in the original collection. It is generally believed that one Antoine Galland introduced the tale when he translated “Arabian Nights” into French in the early 1700s.
27. Hockey immortal : ORR
Bobby Orr is regarded as one of the greatest hockey players of all time. By the time he retired in 1978 he had undergone over a dozen knee surgeries. At 31 years of age, he concluded that he just couldn’t skate anymore. Reportedly, he was even having trouble walking.
28. Guy : DUDE
Our term “dude” arose as slang in New York City in the 1880s, when it was used to describe a fastidious man. In the early 1900s, the term was extended to mean “city slickers”, Easterners who vacationed in the West. The first use of the term “dude ranch” was recorded in 1921.
33. Author Ferber : EDNA
Edna Ferber was a novelist and playwright from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Ferber won a Pulitzer for her novel “So Big”, which was made into a film a few times, most famously in 1953 starring Jane Wyman. Ferber also wrote “Show Boat”, “Cimarron” and “Giant”, which were adapted successful for the stage and/or big screen.
36. “Better Call Saul” network : AMC
“Better Call Saul” is a spinoff drama series from the hit show “Breaking Bad”. The main character is small-time lawyer Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk, who featured in the original series. “Better Call Saul” is set six years before Goodman makes an appearance in the “Breaking Bad” storyline. The lawyer’s real name is James Morgan McGill, and his pseudonym is a play on the words “S’all good, man!”
37. Wander : GAD
“To gad about” is to move around with little purpose. The word “gad” comes from the Middle English “gadden” meaning “to hurry”.
39. Pheasant kin : PEAFOWL
The male peafowl is known as a peacock, and the female a peahen. The peafowl’s young are sometimes called peachicks.
40. Yellow ribbon holder of song : OAK TREE
A yellow ribbon is symbolically worn by people awaiting the return of a loved one, usually from military service overseas, but also from a penal institution. The song “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” tells the tale of a convict returning home. His loyal loved one is waiting for him and she ties a whole boatload of yellow ribbons around the old oak tree to greet him.
44. Pledge, e.g. : CLEANER
Pledge is a cleaning product that was introduced in 1958. It is primarily marketed as a dust remover.
47. Identity-concealing garb, perhaps : HOODIE
My wife gave me a hoodie for Christmas not so long ago, one with a Grumpy logo. Not sure why she chose that particular logo …
52. Lowly workers : PEONS
A peon is a lowly worker with no real control over his/her working conditions. The word comes into English from Spanish, in which language it has the same meaning.
55. Completes a street : TARS
The terms “Tarmac” and “macadam” are short for “tarmacadam”. In the 1800s, Scotsman John Loudon McAdam developed a style of road known as “macadam”. Macadam had a top-layer of crushed stone and gravel laid over larger stones. The macadam also had a convex cross-section so that water tended to drain to the sides. In 1901, a significant improvement was made by English engineer Edgar Purnell Hooley who introduced tar into the macadam, improving the resistance to water damage and practically eliminating dust. The “tar-penetration macadam” is the basis of what we now call Tarmac.
57. Tilted type: Abbr. : ITAL
Italic type leans to the right, and is often used to provide emphasis in text. The style is known as “italic” because the stylized calligraphic form of writing originated in Italy, probably in the Vatican.
58. “Not That Kind of Girl” memoirist Dunham : LENA
Lena Dunham is a co-star in the HBO series “Girls”, and is also the show’s creator. Dunham garnered a lot of attention for herself during the 2012 US Presidential election cycle as she starred in an ad focused on getting out the youth vote. In the spot she compared voting for the first time with having sex for the first time.
63. Shakespeare’s fairy queen : MAB
In Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Mercutio refers to the fairy known as Queen Mab. It seems that Queen Mab was Shakespeare’s creation, although she became popular in subsequent works of literature. For example, she is referred to in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick”, in Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility”, and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a large poetic work called “Queen Mab: A Philosophical Poem”.
Complete List of Clues and Answers
Across
1. Angry Orchard product : (HARD) CIDER
6. Bony part of the roof of the mouth : (HARD) PALATE
12. 1988 Schwarzenegger cop film : RED HEAT
14. Put an end to : ABOLISH
16. Clears a stoppage from : UNCLOGS
17. Entertainer nicknamed “The Schnoz” : DURANTE
18. “Be Prepared” org. : BSA
19. Party hearty : CAROUSE
21. Monterrey Mrs. : SRA
22. Outlying area, briefly : BURB
24. Whitman of TV’s “Parenthood” : MAE
25. Slightly : A TAD
26. Earth along the Elbe : ERDE
27. Lyric tribute : ODE
29. French course : SALADE
31. Score silence : REST
32. Guideline : RULE
34. Spot for wheels? : CAR AD
35. Gritty … and a description of this puzzle, which is also a hint to completing eight answers : HARD-EDGED
38. “… __ lovely as … “: Kilmer : A POEM
41. European volcano : ETNA
42. Seis doubled : DOCE
46. Beat the bushes : SEARCH
48. Note site : PAD
49. Exploring Griffith Park, say : IN LA
50. Sushi bar drink : SAKE
51. __-Locka, Florida : OPA
53. Not e’en once : NE’ER
54. Terrestrial newt : EFT
55. Hammer at an angle : TOENAIL
59. Sun shade : TAN
60. Destructive storm : TORNADO
62. Agenda opener : ITEM ONE
64. Administer an oath to : SWEAR IN
65. Made do : MANAGED
66. Contacts option : (HARD) LENSES
67. Punishing work : (HARD) LABOR
Down
1. Official rebuke : CENSURE
2. Security issues? : ID CARDS
3. FedEx alternative : DHL
4. Anti-discrimination org. : EEOC
5. Musical style of Anoushka Shankar’s 2015 album “Home” : RAGA
6. City near Venice : PADUA
7. Mistreats : ABUSES
8. Traditional accounts : LORE
9. Chef’s phrase : A LA
10. Sheriff’s badge : TIN STAR
11. “CHiPs” actor : ESTRADA
12. Hockey puck material : (HARD) RUBBER
13. Original Dungeons & Dragons co. : TSR
15. Stubborn : (HARD-)HEADED
20. Breakfast cookware : OMELET PAN
23. “Don’t forget our date” : BE THERE
25. “Arabian Nights” character : ALADDIN
27. Hockey immortal : ORR
28. Guy : DUDE
30. Breeze through : ACE
33. Author Ferber : EDNA
36. “Better Call Saul” network : AMC
37. Wander : GAD
38. Real estate, gold, silver, etc. : (HARD) ASSETS
39. Pheasant kin : PEAFOWL
40. Yellow ribbon holder of song : OAK TREE
43. “Almost finished!” : ONE TO GO!
44. Pledge, e.g. : CLEANER
45. Gotten with considerable effort : (HARD-)EARNED
47. Identity-concealing garb, perhaps : HOODIE
52. Lowly workers : PEONS
55. Completes a street : TARS
56. Purpose : AIM
57. Tilted type: Abbr. : ITAL
58. “Not That Kind of Girl” memoirist Dunham : LENA
61. Indian bread : NAN
63. Shakespeare’s fairy queen : MAB
Appropriate level of difficulty for a Thursday, at least to me. I was unfamiliar with 15 Down’s answer “headed” to the clue of stubborn. Hard headed yes, but just headed seemed weird to me.
29 minutes, no errors. Probably was more hard-headed to complete grids than sleep when I did this. Speaking of which, got an hour in on the WSJ, still haven’t solved it. Mr. Shenk came up with a good challenge (or I was just too tired). We’ll see when I finish it up. Then I guess I’ll see if I can work out what to do with this time data I got off of Bill’s NYT blog.
Hi Glenn. I just (I’m pretty sure correctly) finished the WSJ. I finally saw/got one of the long across mash ups and that led me to get the others. Very tricky grid, no doubt.
DNF for me after 79 minutes. Never heard of “KIRSCH” so needed that to make sense of the rest of the clues on that block. 3 letters total. Other than that, I was errorless.
For the second day in a row, I had trouble with the LAT crossword web site. I had almost finished the puzzle, but was having trouble coming up with RED HEAT. (I had put DSL instead of DHL and I didn’t know TSR, so I was staring at RED SEA_ and trying in vain to come up with a last letter.) Suddenly, the crossword site was replaced by a message saying I had won something or other and then the entire tab went away. When I brought up the LAT site again (listening to yet another ad in the process), it momentarily appeared to be working and then froze up, with nothing running but the clock. So I walked away in disgust. I would use the Mensa site, but it doesn’t work on my iPad. If this keeps up, I’ll have to find another way to do the LAT puzzle (maybe by printing myself a copy). Grrrrr …. ????
14:05, 3 errors, caused by putting “Red Seas” for “Red Heat.” Not a huge Arnold fan.
Thank heavens I was doing this online. I had ACLU before EEOC, UPS before DHL, HARDnosed before HARDEDGED, ERtE before ERDE, EnT before EFT, “uses lye” before UNCLOGS (yes, you read that correctly…). Also didn’t know PEAFOWL, TSR, or TOENAIL (in that sense). But I still managed to finish in 26 minutes, error free miraculously enough. No clue as to the theme. Then to top it all off, I was surprised at finishing a FRIDAY puzzle in 26 minutes……. Fortunately, there are no style points for these things. I erred, but I erred quickly, and I overcame.
Thought today was Friday because I’m taking a 5 day weekend yaaay. It’s all Bill’s fault for making me think I slept through Tuesday….
I just can’t equate DUDE with “a fastidious man” in 2017….
I’m exhausted. That puzzle had 187 squares to fill in, but I probably entered 500 letters into that thing before I got it right.
Best –
…also had “torrent” before TORNADO. Sheesh. That’s a lot of missteps.
@Carrie –
Just bothered to go back and check the last couple of days’ comments. I’m a diehard Cardinal fan, but I’m kind of an Astros bandwagoner now. Just by osmosis I’ve seen the team grow into what they are now – starting with a 111 loss team in 2013. Dodgers-Astros would be great theater, and it would be great nostalgia going back to their battles in the old NL West.
As far as Bella, I may be wrong (and hope I’m wrong), but I think she was part of the Pookie Exodus. Time will tell, of course, but I think that was the last time she posted.
Best –
@Vidwan … If the numbers in your darts puzzle are A and B, where A and B have no factors in common and A is larger than B, then the largest impossible score is indeed AB-A-B and there is an elegant way to see why this is so: Arrange the numbers from 1 to AB in a rectangular array, with 1 to A in the first row, A+1 to 2A in the second row, 2A+1 to 3A in the third row, and so on through the Bth row. Now, circle the possible scores. First, we can circle all the numbers in the rightmost column (because they are all multiples of A). We can then circle, in turn, the numbers B (in row 1 and column B), 2B (in column 2B modulo A, but possibly in the next row), 3B (in column 3B modulo A, but possibly in another row), and so on, through (A-1)B, and, each time, we can also circle all the numbers below that number in its column (because each differs from it by a multiple of A). It is easy to show that, because A and B have no common factors, each of these steps will involve a different column. The final step involves the number (A-1)B = AB-B and the number immediately above it, AB-A-B, has to be the largest uncircled number.
All of this is a lot easier to do than to describe, but if you carry out the process a few times with specific values of A and B, it is easy to understand.
This puzzle was waay too difficult for me. I am humbled, and the clues bring into focus just how little I know about crossword puzzle solving.
After an easy romp yeserday, I am now thoughtful as I try to analyze the answers which Bill has so thoughtfully provided for us. I salute those who could finish the puzzle unaided. My houseguests have mercifully left and I am alone with my thoughts, once more..
I was also surprised to find that ‘Joyce’ Kilmer was a man, and that he was tragically killed in WW I. Also, that ‘Joyce’ was his priest’s last name – I should be familiar with that concept, because 21 years ago, I was interviewed (voluntarily – ) by a local FBI agent, Mr. Joyce. who, I may mention, was serendipitously, investigating, someone else, totally unrelated to me. for a background check. For the record, I even offered him tea and cookies. which he gracefully accepted. 🙂
have a nice day, folks.
My second post. Thank You David, for that comprehensive mathematical analysis, which I still have to digest ….
All I can say is (a) If you saw the movie, ‘The man who knew infinity’, the theory of partitions comes up, and I think it has some glancing tangential relevance to the problem, at hand.
(b) Have you read the book ? ‘Count Down’ by Steve Olson, Mariner Press. ( Houghton Mifflin) c2004, ISBN 0-618-25141-3 .It tracks six american students who are in the International Math Olympiad, and has stories, jokes on mathematics (!), and problems with many solutions. You will enjoy this. The book is out of print, but used copies are readily available from Amazon. Enjoy, and thanks again.
@Vidwan … Thanks for the book recommendation. I have added it to my “wish list” and will order a copy soon. (My SO gave me an Amazon gift card for Xmas and I keep forgetting to use it. Maybe this will get me off my duff.) And thanks, also, for the cool darts problem …
Dave and/or Vidwan –
I’ve purposely averted my eyes from Dave’s solution to the math puzzle. I’d love to go take a look at it and do it myself. Can either of you remind me where to find it? I could go back through the comments, but I’m too lazy and I’m afraid I’ll see part of the solution. I have a few days free to indulge myself in this sort of thing.
And – agree that book is on my “to get” list. I used to do that stuff all the time, but I haven’t seen any recently. Why do these things go out of print??
Best –
Jeff, the problem is this;
There is a dart board with two circles, ( say, concentrically placed, although that fact is irrevelant – ) . One of the circles has a ‘value’ of 5, and the other 7. If you have an unlimited number of darts ( read, infinite ) and an infinite number of tries, what is the largest sum of points, that is NOT possible with these two numbers ? Like 1, 2, 3, 4, .. 6, 8. 9 etc., are not possible. What is largest ‘not possible’ number ?
Now, a rider, to this puzzle is ….another puzzle …. if you go to a McDonalds and buy chicken McNuggets …. they come in boxes of 6. 9 and 20 mcnuggets per box combinations.
What is the largest total sum/combination number that is not possible with the above 6, 9 and 20 number boxes ?
For David, this might mean a 3 dimensional matrix ….
Enjoy.
And another problem from the Int’l math olympiad. A boy scout goes up a single, one track, mountain path for a hike. The path is 5 miles long. He starts, at the bottom, on Sunday (say) at 9 am and reaches the top/apex/acme of the mountain at 1200 hrs – noon.
The top of the mountain has a hut, well provisioned, with bed and bathroom. The boy scout has his lunch, tea and dinner and sleeps in the hut. The next day, Monday, he gets up late, has a leisurely breakfast and starts down at 1100 Hrs ( 11 am) . Though coming down is easier, the boy now stops occasionally. ‘to smell the roses’, pick some flowers and enjoy the sights and countryside – and finally reaches the bottom of the hill, his original starting point, at 1900 Hrs ( 7 pm).
Now, this problem is;;; – how can you prove or deduce that there may be/or there is a point on that path, where the boy would have been, at the exact place and point – at exactly the same hour/minute/second time, vis-a-vis on Sunday ( going up) and on Monday (coming down) ?
Btw, this was the ‘easiest’ of the list of problems …..
Answers tomorrow….
Very tricky puzzle today; finished successfully after about 25 minutes. The NW corner gave me all kinds of problems, but I had CENSURE and finally put in RAGA and changed ups to DHL and it quickly came together.
Still, I had to wait to look at the site and check HEADED, TSR and REDHEAT. A lot of weird teevee and movie questions that I’ve never seen or plan to.
@Carrie Isn’t Griffith Park where your “pet” wolf howled from, when your computer crashed?
@Vidwan … I think the answer to the McDonald’s problem is 43. Using combinations of 6 and 9, you can get every multiple of 3 except 3 itself, so I arranged the numbers from 1 to 60 in an array of three rows of 20 and circled the 6, the 9, the 12, the 15, …, the 51, the 54, and the 57, along with all the numbers directly below each of them, and the biggest one not circled is 43. Brute force …
As for the other problem, the answer is yes, there is such a point and time. If you construct a graph with time of day on the X axis and distance from the bottom of the mountain on the Y axis, our scout’s Sunday trip and his Monday trip can each be represented by a continuous curve and the two curves have to cross somewhere. (Seems kind of counterintuitive, but there it is … )
Now maybe I can go to sleep … ???
Hiya folks!!
Dang, two wrong letters, in the same place as Dave and Nolanski and maybe Dirk: I had RED SEAL, and I KNEW it was wrong!! It’s another SPORCLEGATE!! I always get DHL and DSL confused — DSL has something to do with the internet, right?
Didn’t notice the theme at all. Tony, FWIW, not sure if you got this, but HEADED was a theme answer. I filled it in without realizing that…
@Jeff, I also hope you’re wrong about Bella…? Sad.
…. but come to LA for the Fall Classic!! I’ve always disliked the Astros, and it goes back to their 1970s uniforms. I do grudgingly admire them this year tho.
Hey Dirk! That sounds about right. I actually saw someone walking his pet wolf hybrid in Griffith Park once. The wolf was beautiful, but the guy was kinda surly… I think he thought he was pretty tough, having a pet wolf.?
Be well~~™ ⚾