"AP English" - January 8, 2021

[Orsys]

Got it. Needed a nudge (thank you!) but got it.

[Colin]

Ashore! Excellent, fun puz! We will have a vesper martini in honor of the new James Bond movie shortly to be released, looking forward to it.

In honor of Vesper & the beginning and end of the greatest Bond scene ever:

"I'm the money."
"Every penny of it."
- - -
"How was the lamb?"
"Skewered. One sympathizes."

“My name is Bond... Basildon Bond. Come up to my pad and let me envelop you!”

(That will probably not translate easily here!?)

[Tom Shea]

Since we're sharing...here's one I finished last week. I'm specifically attracted to this subject as I am a vinyl freak (NO, NOT THAT KIND!).


IMG_6967.jpg

Puzzles?? I'm still trying to piece together memories of the 70s!

forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=745&start=40#p42388

Wasn't at that show, but did make the 2015 Levi Stadium rainbow show. A friend printed up "I was there -- I think?" shirts.

The 70s are quite a bit fuzzier, for many reasons.

[Tom Shea]

Ashore! Excellent, fun puz! We will have a vesper martini in honor of the new James Bond movie shortly to be released, looking forward to it.

In honor of Vesper & the beginning and end of the greatest Bond scene ever:

"I'm the money."
"Every penny of it."
- - -
"How was the lamb?"
"Skewered. One sympathizes."

“My name is Bond... Basildon Bond. Come up to my pad and let me envelop you!”

(That will probably not translate easily here!?)

OK, I admit to resorting to google.

[NaluGirl]

Another last-minute solve for me, count me on the beach!

[tim1217]

Since we're sharing...here's one I finished last week. I'm specifically attracted to this subject as I am a vinyl freak (NO, NOT THAT KIND!).


IMG_6967.jpg

That is the kind of jigsaw puzzle I like - you can separate sections and they have straight lines. The one I am doing has shades of blue and black with other pieces that are shades of white and yellow. And no discrete objects

One of my favorite movies from the early 80's is 'Diva'. One of the characters spends the better part of the movie sitting on the floor of a large loft apartment in Paris chain-smoking Gitanes and doing this giant jigsaw puzzle of a wave. I'm sure I would at least be able to complete the bird in the lower right-hand corner.

[VincentM]

Whew -- finally ashore! A bit of work for me, but worth it.

[FKelly]

Wow, what a week. I felt compelled to do my civic duty and write my congressman and senators (and others) as well as the vice president and as many members of the cabinet as I could find email contacts for. I found that many of the cabinet level Secretaries do not have a means for email contact and that to contact the vice president you have to go through the office of the president. Perhaps that explains the strange phone call I received yesterday: 20 seconds of silence!
Finally, got around to the Puzzle Contest. Nice one from our old friend Pete and Michael Milam, someone new.
On beach and having a Sam Adams.

[Commodore]

Grid finished. Meta finished. IPA in hand. Settling in to watch my Patriots play their customary January playoff football this afternoon.
Umm.
Wait!
WHAT?!

[Tom Shea]

Grid finished. Meta finished. IPA in hand. Settling in to watch my Patriots play their customary January playoff football this afternoon.
Umm.
Wait!
WHAT?!


Screen Shot 2021-01-10 at 2.11.54 PM.png

As a Raiders fan, I have zero sympathy for you. This is year 20 for me.

At least you have an answer to the question: Can Belichick win without Brady and can Brady win without Belichick? The answer this year is no and yes.

[Bob cruise director]

Since we're sharing...here's one I finished last week. I'm specifically attracted to this subject as I am a vinyl freak (NO, NOT THAT KIND!).


IMG_6967.jpg

That is the kind of jigsaw puzzle I like - you can separate sections and they have straight lines. The one I am doing has shades of blue and black with other pieces that are shades of white and yellow. And no discrete objects

One of my favorite movies from the early 80's is 'Diva'. One of the characters spends the better part of the movie sitting on the floor of a large loft apartment in Paris chain-smoking Gitanes and doing this giant jigsaw puzzle of a wave. I'm sure I would at least be able to complete the bird in the lower right-hand corner.


IMG_6968.jpg

Some number of years ago, we were given the puzzle "the flat banana". We got the edge and the Dole sticker but after that every piece was identical so we gave up and donated the puzzle to someone.

[Bob cruise director]

Grid finished. Meta finished. IPA in hand. Settling in to watch my Patriots play their customary January playoff football this afternoon.
Umm.
Wait!
WHAT?!


Screen Shot 2021-01-10 at 2.11.54 PM.png

As a Raiders fan, I have zero sympathy for you. This is year 20 for me.

At least you have an answer to the question: Can Belichick win without Brady and can Brady win without Belichick? The answer this year is no and yes.

Tom
There are plenty of Jets, Bills and Dolphins fans who are also reveling in the Patriots misery. However for those of us who were Patriots fans through the 70's, 80's and much of the 90's where they were worse than awful, we are immune to the spears and arrows.

The comparison of who made who should not be judged on this year alone. Brady went to a very good team that needed a good QB. He then got them to add AB and Gronk to what was already an excellent receiver corps. The Patriots were without an average (forget about even good) quarterback, their tight ends sucked and their wide receivers were either young or not very good. You can't win in the NFL with that combination. It will take a few years for the Pats to retool especially with Buffalo looking good for a few years and Miami also looking quite good. Sorry Jets fans, your team will remain on life support even with Taylor Lawrence unless you get rid of the owner.

[Bob cruise director]

Wow, what a week. I felt compelled to do my civic duty and write my congressman and senators (and others) as well as the vice president and as many members of the cabinet as I could find email contacts for. I found that many of the cabinet level Secretaries do not have a means for email contact and that to contact the vice president you have to go through the office of the president. Perhaps that explains the strange phone call I received yesterday: 20 seconds of silence!
Finally, got around to the Puzzle Contest. Nice one from our old friend Pete and Michael Milam, someone new.
On beach and having a Sam Adams.

Fred and anyone else

We have worked very hard over the years to keep this blog nonpolitical. Please work to keep that way.

Thank you.

[MatthewL]

Thanks to all who nudged. Interestingly, all the nudges were very similar. They helped, and inspiration finally struck. I am ashore (I believe -- guess we'll find out). One question -- I tried to reply to the several PMs folks sent, but all the messages appear to be hung up in my Outbox, as opposed to Sent folder. Not sure why the messages won't go, but in any event, thanks again to all who nudged.

Matthew

[HunterX]

Since we're sharing...here's one I finished last week. I'm specifically attracted to this subject as I am a vinyl freak (NO, NOT THAT KIND!).


IMG_6967.jpg

That is the kind of jigsaw puzzle I like - you can separate sections and they have straight lines. The one I am doing has shades of blue and black with other pieces that are shades of white and yellow. And no discrete objects

One of my favorite movies from the early 80's is 'Diva'. One of the characters spends the better part of the movie sitting on the floor of a large loft apartment in Paris chain-smoking Gitanes and doing this giant jigsaw puzzle of a wave. I'm sure I would at least be able to complete the bird in the lower right-hand corner.


IMG_6968.jpg

Loved that movie! That was one of the "cult classics" we watched in college. Like "Harold and Maude." (Though that is a very different movie from Diva. I loved the little bit at the end of "Diva" where find out what kind of music the short thug is listening to. And the soprano Cynthia Hawkins was played by the Philadelphian Wilhelmenia Fernandez.

[Commodore]

My jigsaw this week. Sadly, the designer of these beautiful canoes, Pete Hornbeck, just died at age 77.
One of a kind gentleman-businessman-backcountry environmentalist. The Adirondacks will miss him.

[FrankieHeck]

The hardest puzzle I ever finished was solid purple. I started it sometime in the early- to mid-1980s, and then abandoned it. About five years ago, my Dad found it on a tray under my childhood bed, with just the border complete and glued together. He brought it over, and I arranged all the pieces by shape and brute-forced my way through it. I could not believe all the pieces were still there, with only a few having been nibbled by our old dog. Only puzzle I ever glued together and saved.

[CPJohnson]

Thanks to all who nudged. Interestingly, all the nudges were very similar. They helped, and inspiration finally struck. I am ashore (I believe -- guess we'll find out). One question -- I tried to reply to the several PMs folks sent, but all the messages appear to be hung up in my Outbox, as opposed to Sent folder. Not sure why the messages won't go, but in any event, thanks again to all who nudged.

Matthew

My understanding is that messages remain in your outbox until they are read by the recipient.

[Tom Shea]

Grid finished. Meta finished. IPA in hand. Settling in to watch my Patriots play their customary January playoff football this afternoon.
Umm.
Wait!
WHAT?!


Screen Shot 2021-01-10 at 2.11.54 PM.png

As a Raiders fan, I have zero sympathy for you. This is year 20 for me.

At least you have an answer to the question: Can Belichick win without Brady and can Brady win without Belichick? The answer this year is no and yes.

Tom
There are plenty of Jets, Bills and Dolphins fans who are also reveling in the Patriots misery. However for those of us who were Patriots fans through the 70's, 80's and much of the 90's where they were worse than awful, we are immune to the spears and arrows.

The comparison of who made who should not be judged on this year alone. Brady went to a very good team that needed a good QB. He then got them to add AB and Gronk to what was already an excellent receiver corps. The Patriots were without an average (forget about even good) quarterback, their tight ends sucked and their wide receivers were either young or not very good. You can't win in the NFL with that combination. It will take a few years for the Pats to retool especially with Buffalo looking good for a few years and Miami also looking quite good. Sorry Jets fans, your team will remain on life support even with Taylor Lawrence unless you get rid of the owner.

It's Belichick's team. He built it. His hands are on all the controls.

As far as the 80's, I remember being in Australia for all of January 1986. *Before* the interwebs existed. Sports pages there were football (the round ball type), cricket, Rugby, Aussie football, Aussie rugby football (not to be confused with Aussie football), sailing, betting parlors and other types of 'parlors'. Picked up the Sydney Sunday Herald and saw the Patriots were playing in the super bowl -- that day. Could not believe it. I told the Missus it must be a misprint.

Never went there, but remember the horror stories about Schaefer Stadium. And you did suffer greatly during that period, with some really bad teams and a horrible ownership. So welcome back to my world! At least we have the Jets (Acronym for 'just end the season') to look down on.

[Bob cruise director]

Thanks to all who nudged. Interestingly, all the nudges were very similar. They helped, and inspiration finally struck. I am ashore (I believe -- guess we'll find out). One question -- I tried to reply to the several PMs folks sent, but all the messages appear to be hung up in my Outbox, as opposed to Sent folder. Not sure why the messages won't go, but in any event, thanks again to all who nudged.

Matthew

Matthew

For me, the PM's are a little quirky

From my experience, PM's stay in the outbox until they are read - sometimes that means forever. They will disappear from the outbox when read or when you delete them.

When I create a PM and hit "submit", the PM does not go out. I have to scroll down and hit PM a second time. Probably I am doing something wrong but I have yet to figure out what.

Also for everyone, in Come Aboard/FAQ Solving Resources and in the Acapulco Lounge, there are muggles thoughts on Nudges - how and when to request and what to expect. Generally a PM to someone or someones who has the answer is best. Explain what you did and where you got stuck even if it is "I don't have the slightest idea where to go". This does several things - first it lets the person you are asking know in what area to guide you, also when you have a general broadcast, no one know whether you got no responses or 25 of them, finally it helps you establish a relationship with another muggle. This relationship is not a lifelong commitment so you can PM several people.