Monday March 25, 2019 C.C. Burnikel

Theme: MIDDLE EAST (57. Arabian Peninsula region, and what 16-, 20-, 36- and 50-Across literally have) - EAST spans across each theme answer.

16. Sellers of build-it-yourself furniture: IKEA STORES.

 

20. Mets' home before Citi Field: SHEA STADIUM.

  

36. Five-armed ocean creature: SEA STAR.

50. Leaves-catching brewing sieve: TEA STRAINER.

Boomer here.

East is east, and west is west. My friend Matt McNeil headed east to Detroit for the World Series of Bowling. He struggled a bit, leaving too many 7 pins, (Matt is a lefty) but managed to finish fourth in the Cheetah preliminary, and third in the big final tournament.  I am sure he cashed a couple of decent checks and made a good name for Minnesota.

Across:

1. Super bargain: STEAL.  Reminds me that MLB starts this Thursday and we have Byron Buxton.  I think he can steal a lot of bases if only he can figure out how to get on first, first. 

6. Effective on: AS OF.

10. Ed.'s backlog: MSS.

13. Bisect: HALVE.  I remember as a kid we had to TRISECT a Three Musketeers bar.

14. "Good Morning America" co-anchor Spencer: LARA.

15. Boarding site: GATE.  I'm not sure if I would show up if a Boeing 737 Max was at the gate.

18. Mythical monster: OGRE.

19. Delt neighbor: PEC.  Could be a personal electronic computer

22. Enemies: FOES.  Between Threes and fives.

23. Puts up, as a skyscraper: ERECTS.  Yup, I had an erector set when I was a kid also.  LEGO had not been invented yet.

24. Climate-affecting Pacific current: EL NINO.  I think I have mentioned that I once had a Storm El Nino bowling ball. It may still be in the garage in my used bowling ball cemetery.

27. Citrus-flavored soda, on its labels: MTN DEW.  Never liked it much.  I prefer Diet Pepsi.

29. Minnesota's state bird: LOON.  I've seen many of these birds on the lake. They emit a goofy call sound.

30. Final Four org.: NCAA.  All over the TV networks this week.  It will become more focused as 68 teams become "Sweet Sixteen" survivors.  My Gophers bowed out after making it to the round of 32.  It was not much of a contest, One of our best players could only last 4 minutes due to injury, but that's no excuse.  Michigan State proved why some teams are seeded 2 and others are 10.  But the Gophers have some very good underclassmen coming back.  See you next year, Sweet Sixteen.  

32. Eye-boggling work: OP-ART.  Look closely and you might see a hawk eating a chicken.

35. __-di-dah: pretentious: LAH. Hey - A - A, Good by

38. ''I'll pass'': NAH.  I am Naht sure if this is a word.

39. Decree: EDICT.

41. Wander about: ROAM. Anywhere I roam, where I lay my head is home.

42. Warehouse gds.: MDSE.

43. East Asian home of Acer and Asus: TAIWAN.  When I worked Pizza, we used to get mushrooms from Taiwan. Silly me, I thought that Taiwan was China. 

45. Like partly melted snow: SLUSHY.  I think you can get these at 7-11.

47. Merkel of Germany: ANGELA.

49. Molecule component: ATOM.  We have A Tom participating on this blog. Actually two of them.

53. Drag to court: SUE.  My name is SUE, How do you do. - Johnny Cash, "A boy named Sue".

56. Witty Bombeck: ERMA.  Fascinating lady whose column appeared in nearly every paper that had a crossword puzzle.  Sadly left us in 1996. 

59. Done with: OVER.  Airline pilot "Captain Oveur" in "Airplane" played by Peter Graves.  Peter Graves was born in Minneapolis and was the younger brother of James "Matt Dillon" Arness.

60. Falco of "Nurse Jackie": EDIE.  Wife of Mr. Lou Grant of Mary Tyler Moore Show fame.

61. Wheel connectors: AXLES.

62. Mario Bros. console: NES.  Of course I had a Nintendo. The Mario Brothers drove me nuts and then along came the "Adventures of Link."  Don't lie if you ever had one.

63. Ruby and scarlet: REDS.  I would have clued: "Pete Rose and Johnny Bench, for two".

64. Suspicious (of): LEERY.

Down:

1. Cruise vessel: SHIP.  "We sail the ocean blue, in our saucy ship of beauty."  Gilbert and Sullivan - HMS Pinafore.

2. Box office income: TAKE.  Sports venues hardly have box offices any more.  Seems you buy your ticket online, and pay with your smart cellphone.

3. Monthly util. bill: ELEC.

4. "Selma" director DuVernay: AVA.  Or Ms. Gardner

5. Classroom session: LESSON.  Some teachers used to teach a lesson with a paddle.

6. Soothing medicinal plants: ALOES.  I think Alexander G. Bell wanted everyone to answer the phone "Hoy Hoy"

7. __ Lee cakes: SARA.  "Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like Sara Lee."

8. Mine extractions: ORES.  Minnesota has a large industry of taconite mining.  Taconite is a low grade iron ore.

9. Make secure, as a seat belt: FASTEN.  Hard to believe, when I got my driver's license, no cars even had seat belts.

10. "Presto!" sticks: MAGIC WANDS.  We did not have magic wands either,  We had to go to Andy's gang and "plunk our magic twanger"

11. Peacock's gait: STRUT.

12. Appears to be: SEEMS.  Things are seldom what they seem.  Skim milk masquerades as cream.

15. Try for a long pass, in football lingo: GO DEEP.

17. Romantic ideal: THE ONE.

21. Fervent feeling: ARDOR.

22. Dolphin feature: FIN.  Also a detective on "Law and Order SVU"

24. Vogue competitor: ELLE.

25. Laundry batch: LOAD.  "Fry up another batch of bullheads Muriel - Here comes another load of voters"  - Hubert Humphrey.

26. Pitching masterpieces: NO-HIT GAMES.  Clay Buchholz tossed a no hitter for Boston in his second MLB start.  I think he was guest of Dustin Johnson at the Valspar golf tourney this weekend.

27. Bricklayer: MASON.

28. "Ciao!": TA TA.  No, my sister still ends here emails with CIAO.  (she told me she does not do crosswords, only Sudoku.)    

31. Irene of "Fame": CARA.

33. Poison ivy symptom: RASH.  There's a PBA bowler named Sean Rash.  He created some issues early in his career and other pros nicknamed him "Diaper".

34. Rock music's __ Might Be Giants: THEY.  Brandon Belt and Buster Posey might be Giants too.

36. Prop for a clown: STILT.  I've walked on stilts when I was young.  Not any more, now I am lucky if my legs are working.

37. Dutch beer brand: AMSTEL.

40. Ides of March victim: CAESAR.  How many croutons did you have on your salad Caesar ??         Et tu

42. Tight-lipped: MUM.

44. Not as cold: WARMER. We are getting there here in Minnesota. First days of Spring are producing mid-to- high 40s. People in the know are saying the melting of snow is moderate and could prohibit serious flooding.  I don't know about that.  The snow piles are pretty huge. I wish safety to those who may live in a flood plain.

46. Parent of Maybelline: LOREAL.

47. Used, as china: ATE ON.  Did you ever go to McDonald's and eat on your lap??

48. Chutzpah: NERVE.

49. South American mountain range: ANDES. Jorge, a bowling and golf friend of mine is from Chile.  The Andes mountain range to the east is just in the way.  Chile is a very versatile country on the Pacific coast

C.C. & Jorge, 7/7/2012

51. Staff assistant: AIDE.

52. "Look what __!": "Yay me!": I DID.  You can holler this when you finish this puzzle.

53. Bargain hunter's delight: SALE.  Major League baseball again, Pitcher Chris of the Red Sox.

54. App downloader: USER.

55. Site for handmade art: ETSY.

58. Application file suffix: EXE.

Boomer

Note from C.C.:

Mike Alpern, the host of the Cru Dinner, kindly sent me this picture of him and our Jeffrey Wechsler at the ACPT. You can also read Deb Amlen's article here about the tournament and the Cru Dinner. Rookies all received a free copy of signed crossword book. I'll link Mike's photo album when they become available.