LA Times Crossword 31 Jan 20, Friday

36 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword 31 Jan 20, Friday”

1. 13:23, 1 error.

   @Bill
   David Poole constructed this one.

2. The atob method decodes a base-64 encoded string. What the hell!

   1. Hi Joe. The answer for 20 Across is “A to B” denoting a narrow range.

3. Bad one

4. January 30 puzzle, Adolph Rupp played at Kansas but coached at Kentucky, Kentucky basketball venue is named Rupp Arena

5. Took awhile to figure out the “mini” part, but after that — it was still hard! Ended with cox/xbox. Not familiar with “cat’s paw.”

6. The “googlies” for today (1/31/20) are yesterday’s answers.

7. I was really forward to your explanation of some answers which are so very strange. But it is yesterday’s answers that appear.

   1. Ditto

8. 17:07, but botched the lower left corner with eBay instead of Xbox—d’oh!

9. I love to see the clues you write, but these are yesterdays clues. Disappointing, but then we all make mistakes!

10. But the explanations are not for Friday’s puzzle.

11. The Friday puzzle by David Poole lacked an essential quality of any good crossword: It was absolutely joyless, a grinding slog propping up an uninspired theme. Bellyflop. Yawn. Ugh.

12. Sure could have used an explanation for ‘igno’. Never heard/used that.

    1. Igno-mini (!)

       1. Actually, row 6 contains the entire word “ignominiously”, which does mean “in a humiliating way” (the clue for 29-Across).

          And, since I’m here … 10:26, no errors, no false steps … and I thought it was a very clever and enjoyable respite from the labor associated with my move from an old house to a new one … 😜.

13. The Friday’s explanations ((Jan31) are actually the ones for yesterday’s puzzle! FIX IT!!!!

    1. Pointing out the error is one thing. But even before Bill’s explanation, screaming “FIX IT!!!!” was WAY out of line. Can’t you see that this was just an “oops” of some kind? It’s not like you’re paying for access to this blog. If this is all it takes for you to go berserk, then you need to get a life, or get therapy.

    2. Hi Annie, are you aware that Bill writes this blog for our entertainment and for himself? He doesn’t get paid. No, he doesn’t make any money from ads; this is the only way he can write his blog without having to pay. Bill started some 10 years ago as a retirement hobby. Lots of people enjoyed reading it and it became popular. If he misses a day or posts the wrong write-ups (which hardly ever happens) he has a very good reason, and you have no reason to take him to task.

       1. Well said, ma’am.

    3. Wow. You need to relax, lady.

14. @Bill. Hi Bill. You do yeoman’s duty, each and every week, 7 days with no time off for good behavior. So you have no need to apologize to me for your lapse, pain meds or not. Thanks for all your hard work and I look forward to tomorrow and your explanations of the weird and the wonderful crossed up crosswords.

15. Lyres should be lutes.

16. 15:02, and again, escaped error-free. As usual, couldn’t visually separate A TO B, so made a reasonable guess with SKI BAG to complete it. Interesting little device, a “mini” puzzle within a puzzle, if you will.

17. 12:44 for me. Once I figured out the “schtick” it went faster, but I was stuck for a while thinking that IGNOMINIOUSLY was IGNOBLY (although that’s not what that word means). Once I got the “mini bar” thing stuff fell into place, BUT for some reason I was still blind to the top and bottom ones, where there was no split clue (MINI appears last or first). That slowed me down for a while because it kept me from getting “(MINI)ATURES” and since I didn’t know RAFA, I was at a standstill right at the end for a while. Eventually, as we used to say in college, “dawn breaks on the Serengeti!”

18. I feel I’ve been ignominiously treated!

    Eddie

19. Hello, Bill . . . Get off of those darn opioids as soon as possible. While they work for you in the short term, long-term ain’t good. Feel better!!

20. Was doing great until today. Had way too many errors and didn’t understand the theme even though I got “mini bar” early. Too many software, computer etc things for me. AND not very fun even after seeing the answers.

    Bill, you don’t need to apologize to any of us. You do a great job everyday!

21. This was a horrible crossword puzzle. 😠

22. Boooo! Too obscure even after I halfway got minibar. Too obscure

23. I thought this puzzle was deliciously clever. Lots of fun to solve. ANNO DO[MINI], IGNO[MINI]OUSLY, PRIME [MINI]STER, [MINI]ATURES. Ingenious! To all the whiners: shut up, go away, and do the ridiculously easy Tribune puzzle.

24. Moderately difficult/easy Friday for me; took 28 minutes with no errors. I knew something was up on the second theme clue, but was thinking ignobly, like Charley. I finally figured it out on PRIME-MINI-STER, but the first and last theme clues still had me fooled until I got here.

    The rest of the puzzle was pretty straight-forward and I just had to wait for a few crosses, although the “binary pronoun” seemed a bit off…is heshe a word?..spell checker doesn’t seem to think so.

25. Peter, kindly do not tell me to shut up and go away! Just skip the rest of my comment.

    Greetings y’all!!🦆

    DNF….this was too much for me. I do NOT like puzzles where entries are intentionally misspelled in service of the theme!! As far as I’m concerned IGNO is just a misspelled word, unless and until I figure out the theme, and I couldn’t hang around for it with this grid!😬

    Dirk! That’s written with a slash: HE/SHE. You’ve probably seen it. Looks weird without the punctuation. 🤔

    Be well ~~🍺🍺🍺

    1. I didn’t direct my comments to anyone personally – only to people who whine because the puzzle isn’t simple enough for them.

       I discovered that the easy-peasy “Tribune” puzzle is actually the “Daily Commuter Crossword”. If the whiners don’t enjoy challenging puzzles, maybe that would be more their speed.

       They are the ones who should shut up, go away, and do the no-brainer puzzles. I like obscure, misleading, devious clues and answers. Lots more fun!

26. Idiotic – a waste of time and space. Who polices this publication?

27. Dear Bill,
    Your puzzles and comments are a great source of comfort to me. It’s my go to each morning before I have to deal with the absurdities of my life.
    Yes this puzzle was quite a challenge but I kept at it. I’m quite the novice compared to your followers. It’s September 2020 and I’m still catching up! Lol! (not sure you will even see this response)
    I’m 73 and have had only a 9th grade education. I view my morning puzzles as a learning experience!
    I am grateful for it! Thank you!
    Never go away!! Lol!

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