Thursday, February 20, 2025, Amie Walker & Geoffrey Schorkopf

 

Food Trucks

Washington, D.C. Mall

Today's constructors Amie Walker and Geoffrey Schorkopf have dished up a tasty puzzle with 4 themers and a reveal that I think you'll concede is pretty straightforward (for a change!) ...  

17. Menu icon that resembles a patty in a bun: HAMBURGER BUTTON.  A hamburger button, so named for its unintentional resemblance to a hamburger, is a button typically placed in a top corner of a graphical user interface. Its function is to toggle a menu  or navigation bar between being collapsed behind the button or displayed on the screen. 

This reminds me a little of the trigrams comprising the hexagrams of the Chinese book of divination known as the I Ching, but that's a different kind of puzzle. 😀

23. Red-and-white pattern: CANDY STRIPE.  The pattern on the traditional dresses worn by young hospital volunteers.  One of my sisters was a "candy striper" at local nursing home when she was growing up.  I think it may have led to her becoming a nurse when she got older.

Candy Stripers
British Columbia, CA

40. Textured features that help soundproof spaces: POPCORN CEILINGS.  A popcorn ceiling, also known as a stipple ceiling or acoustic ceiling, is a ceiling with one of a variety of spray-on or paint-on treatments. The bumpy surface is created by tiny particles of vermiculite or polystyrene, which gives the ceiling sound-deadening properties. 

Popcorn ceiling tile

51. Intricate inversion on some roller coasters: PRETZEL LOOP.  This one is pretty intricate -- the Impulse roller coaster at Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park in Elysburg, PA.  My grandchildren love this ride, but no impulse will ever get Granddad onto this contraption ...

Impulse Roller Coaster
Knoebel's Grove Amusement Park

Theme reveal ...

62. Compromise, or what solvers do when filling in the first words of 17-, 23-, 40-, and 51-Across?: MAKE CONCESSIONS.  I'm sure you've noticed by now that the first word of each theme clue is actually the name for a common type of concession stand, e.g. a kiosk or a food truck, that has a limited menu of fast foods, e.g. HAMBURGER, CANDY, POPCORN, and PRETZELS.

My personal favorite food truck is operated by this guy, who once gave me a lesson in how to make Penne alla Vodka, including the quickest way to prepare fresh garlic cloves -- whack 'em with the side of a vegetable cleaver and the cloves will practically pop right out of their skins!

Here's the grid ... 

Here's the rest ...

Across:

 1. Food safety concern: ECOLI.  ECOLI is short for Escherichia coli, a bacteria that can be harmful, but also occurs in our intestines and is actually necessary for digestion.  Here is the difference.  Here is an image of the E.coli in our gut microbiome ...

Escherichia coli

6. Calif. airport with yoga rooms: SFO.  If you're a bare knuckle flyer this may be a good place to relax before boarding ...

 

9. Hypes (up): AMPS.

13. Like a dance marathon: TIRING.  They can practically be killers, like the film about a Depression era marathon, depicted in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses Don't They ...

15. Sticky stuff: TAR.

16. Wraparound dress: SARI.  Wedding saris are traditional garments worn for Indian weddings and other special occasions in Hindu, Punjabi and Bengali cultures. Also commonly spelled saree, this South Asian wedding dress is named after the Sanskrit word for "strip of cloth."  You won't be sorry for skimming this article for some truly beautiful saris.😀

A beautiful bevy of saris

17. [Theme clue]

20. Golden yrs. fund: IRA.

21. Iowa State city: AMES.  Ames is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately 30 miles (48 km) north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is the home of Iowa State University (ISU).

22. Strainer: SIEVE.  A collection of sieves of various mesh sizes is indispensable for the preparation of ceramic glazes ... 

Glaze sieves

23. [Theme clue]

27. Apple core?: IOS.  -- a pun on the word "core", which in computing refers to the central HW or SW component of a system -- in this case IOS is the core software component, i.e. the operating system, of Apple's iPhones.

28. Dawn goddess: EOS.  She had her day in the Sun two weeks ago.

29. "30 for 30" airer: ESPN.  30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online, highlighting interesting people and events in sports history.  Not all of these films are flattering.  Here's trailer for Brian and the Boz, a controversial film about the former Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth ...

31. On the wrong side (of): AFOUL.

34. Verify, in a way: CARD.  The verb not the noun.

37. Beat handily: ROUT.

40. [Theme clues]

43. Tennis great Sampras: PETE.  Pete Sampras (born August 12, 1971) is an American former professional tennis player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 286 weeks (third-most of all time), and finished as the year-end No. 1 six consecutive times. 

Pete Sampras
Wimbledon 1998

44. "Hold __ your hat!": ONTO.

45. Luxury watch: OMEGA. The end all of all watches, or at least the Greek ones? 😀

46. Rae of "Barbie": ISSA.  She played President Barbie in this clip called "Put the Constitution Back" ... 

48. Style manual org.: MLA.  MLA Handbook (9th ed., 2021) establishes a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. It is published by the Modern Language Association, which is based in the United States. According to the organization, their MLA style "has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses".

Amazon Link

49. Latin I verb: AMO.  Today's Latin lesson: AMO = "I Love".

51. [Theme clue]

58. "Divine Comedy" poet: DANTE.  Dante Alighieri (c. May 1265 – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian poet, writer, and philosopher. His Divine Comedy, is considered one of the most important poems of the Middle Ages and the greatest literary work in the Italian language. His use of the Tuscan dialect helped establish the modern-day standardized Italian language.

The poem consists of three parts: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso.  I recall reading The Inferno in college and discovered that it is a misconception that the 9th circle, the center of Hell and the abode of the Devil, is the hottest place in the Universe.  Instead it's the coldest because it is the farthest  away from God.

Dante Alighieri
Sandro Botticelli, 1495

My favorite part of The Inferno is Dante's encounter with the 13th Century Italian knight, Gianni Schicchi in the 8th circle of Hell, condemned for fraudulently altering a will in his own favor.  It's the basis for Giacomo Puccini's only comic opera, Gianni Schicchi.  Here is the most famous aria from the opera, O mio babbino caro, sung by soprano Renee Fleming ...

Lyrics

60. Feels sorry for: RUES.  Not pities, regrets.

61. Badminton team, e.g.: DUO.  Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock ("birdie") across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players per side).  The use of the word "team" in the clue implies the answer DUO.  

Here two Chinese duos compete in the mixed doubles
 gold medal match of the 2012 Olympics.

62. [Theme reveal]

66. Cold drink brand: ICEE.  The Icee Company is an American beverage company located in La Vergne, Tennessee, United States. Its flagship product is the Icee (stylized as ICEE), which is a frozen carbonated beverage available in fruit and soda flavors.  As I'm writing this there are 6" of snow on the ground outside that needs shoveling and for some reason this drink doesn't appeal to me. 😀

67. Inquire: ASK.

68. Bring about: INDUCE.

69. Playroom pile: TOYS.  My son tells me that coming downstairs in the dark in the middle of the night and stepping on a pile of LEGOS in your bare feet is not a lot of fun. 😀

70. ACLU focus: RTS.  The American Civil Liberty Union is concerned with defending rights.  

71. Chuckled, slangily: LOLED.  Laughed Out Loud, closely related is ROTFL, which is equivalent to roaring, slangily.

Down:

 1. Moral tenet: ETHIC.

2. "1, 2 Step" singer: CIARA.  "1, 2 Step" is a song by American singer Ciara featuring American rapper Missy Elliott ...

3. "Women & Money" podcast host Suze: ORMAN.  Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman (SOO-zee; born June 5, 1951) is an American financial advisor, author, and podcast host. In 1987, she founded the Suze Orman Financial Group. Her work as a financial advisor gained notability with The Suze Orman Show, which ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015. 

Suze Orman

4. Ad-__: LIB.

5. Shiba __: INU. Thank you perps.  Well not quite -- a Shiba Inu is both a breed of Japanese hunting dog ...

Shiba Inu

... and the mascot for a brand of eponymous cryptocurrency.   Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an Ethereum-based altcoin (a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin) that features the Shiba Inu—a Japanese breed of hunting dog—as its mascot. Shiba Inu is widely considered to be an alternative to Dogecoin; in fact, proponents of Shiba Inu have touted it in the past as "the Dogecoin killer."  If none of that made any sense to you, it didn't make any sense to me either - TLDR.  Scary looking logo -- a wolf in sheep's clothing? 

Shiba Inu

6. Take the wheel: STEER.

7. Language of Tehran: FARSI.  Farsi, which is the Persian word for the Persian language, is spoken in Tehran, Iran, but also in many other countries around the world ...

Farsi speakers
Worldwide distribution

8. Celestial body: ORB.  It has quite a few other meanings as well.

9. Italian bubbly: ASTI.  Asti (also known as Asti spumante) is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont, but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba. Since 1993 the Asti has been classified as a denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) and since 2004 has been Italy's largest wine product.

DOCG label

10. Quick deposition of a king?: MATE IN ONE.  MATE as in CHECKMATE, the move that ends a chess game -- the KING is attacked and has no escape.  Here are two chess games where WHITE can end the game with one move ...

Game 1

Game 2

The answers are given in standard chess algebraic notation at the end of the review.
 
11. City near Salt Lake City: PROVO.  Provo is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States and is the fourth-largest city in Utah.  It is 43 miles (69 km) south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem to the north and Springville to the south. The 2020 census listed the population as 115,162.

Location of Provo
in Provo County, Utah

12. Trig ratios: SINES.  In mathematics, sine and cosine are trigonometric functions of an angle. The sine and cosine of an acute angle are defined in the context of a right triangle: for the specified angle 𝜭, its sine is the ratio of the length of the side that is opposite that angle to the length of the longest side of the triangle (the hypotenuse), and the cosine is the ratio of the length of the adjacent leg to that of the hypotenuse. 

Sine A = a/h
Cosine = b/h

14. Cow chow: GRASS.

18. Setting for Big Ben, for short: GMT.  As the clock Big Ben is in London, England the time there is  Greenwich Mean Time.  This app will show you the current time there, your local time, and the time in many other parts of the world. 

Big Ben

19. Doesn't waste: USES.

24. Court ties: DEUCES.  Tennis courts of course.  Here are the rules (well known by 43A).

25. "Carpe diem" hashtag: YOLO.  More Latin: Carpe diem = "Seize the day", advice to take advantage of opportunities.  It doesn't necessarily imply that You Only Live Once, an assertion that was considered debatable by this University of Virginia professor.

26. Mani-__: PEDI.  A CSO to Lucina!

30. Like some fears: PRIMAL. Or the 1996 film Primal Fear, an American legal mystery crime thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit and starring Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand and Edward Norton in his film debut. The film follows a Chicago-based defense attorney who believes that his client, an altar boy, is not guilty of murdering a Catholic bishop.  

31. Tablet download: APP.

32. Sworn enemy: FOE.

33. Alt analogue on a Mac: OPTION KEY.

34. "Erin Burnett OutFront" channel: CNN.  Erin Burnett OutFront is an hour-long television news program hosted by Erin Burnett on CNN.  OutFront is broadcast live from CNN's Hudson Yards studios in New York City or on location from the site of breaking news events. 

35. Be in the picture?: ACT.

36. __ Speedwagon: REO.  Looks like they're Back on the Road Again ...

38. Comfy shoe brand: UGG.

39. Wand-waving org.: TSA.  Thanks to the TSA's wand-waving magic airline hijackings are now very rare.

41. Bellow: ROAR.

42. Lounge around: LOLL. LAZE fit, but didn't perp, among other words ...

47. Architect's detail, briefly: SPEC.

48. Soccer superstar Lionel: MESSI.  Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Major League Soccer club Inter Miami and the Argentina national team.  Here's some MessiMagic for all you MessiManiacs! ...

49. Own up to: ADMIT.

50. Collision repair franchise: MAACO.  When I filled this, I had to ask myself "do they still exist?" but after 53 years of operation they're still getting cars back on the road after accidents. MAACO Franchising, Inc. (doing business as Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting) is an American franchisor of auto painting and collision repair shops based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1972 by Anthony A. Martino and Daniel I. Rhode. 

52. Accounting giant __ & Young: ERNST.  Ernst & Young Global Limited, trading as EY, is a multinational professional services partnership, headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world.[8] Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms. It primarily provides assurance, tax, information technology services (including managed services in areas like Cybersecurity, Cloud, Digital Transformation and AI), consulting, and advisory services to its clients.

53. Stashes, as a football: TUCKS.

54. Calzone center?: ZEE.  Metaclue -- if this were a Brit puzzle the answer would be ZED.

55. Big name in near beer: O'DOUL.  It may be a big name, as in "recognizable", but this review of O'DOUL's near beer gives it poor marks.  In fact this review of the 19 best nonalcoholic beers doesn't even mention it.

56. Cup part: OUNCE.  HANDLE was too long and RIM was too short -- a measure of volume, not a container.

57. Not candid: POSED.

59. Simple tops: TEES.

63. Crew blade: OAR.

64. Lorne Michaels's show, familiarly: SNL.  This past Sunday February 16th, SNL celebrated its 50th Anniversary.  Here are some stars who participated in the 3 hour gala.  And here's Steve Martin's opening monologue, rated (just a tad) PG ...

65. Response to "Who wants to go to Disneyland?": I DO.  I guess "Vow on the altar" has become a bit dated.

Cheers, 

Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley

The answers to the chess quiz in 10D using algebraic notation: Game 1 -- NG6#, Game 2 -- RE7#.

Thursday, December 5, 2024, Amie Walker

 Lido Shuffle

Today's constructor Amie Walker treats us to a sans circles, embedded, scrambled word theme.  We'll start with the reveal ...

58. Boz Scaggs hit with the lyric "One more for the road," and what can be found in 17-, 23-, 37-, and 48-Across?: LIDO SHUFFLE.  The song was co-written by David Paich and was released on Scaggs' 1976 album Silk Degrees ...

 

Scaggs describes the origins of the work: "'Lido Shuffle was a song that I'd been banging around and I took the idea of the shuffle from a song that Fats Domino did called 'The Fat Man' that had a kind of driving shuffle beat that I used to play on the piano, and I just started kind of singing along with it. Then I showed it to David Paich and he helped me fill it out. It ended up being 'Lido Shuffle.'"  Among other things the title is a play on card shuffling or life on the road, but the word Lido has many meanings.

Here are the themers ...

17A. Petroleum giant co-founded by John D. Rockefeller: STANDARD OIL.  Not only was he the founder of Standard Oil, but he was also the founder the crosswordese ESSO, and a CSO to CanadianEh!

John D. Rockefeller
July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937

23A. Ambience setter, often: MOOD LIGHTING.  Back in the 60's we used Lava Lamps for mood lighting.  This clip lasts for 4 hours & 23 minutes ... 

... feel free to shut it off when you're finally in the mood😀

37A. Line for product placement?: NOT SOLD IN STORES.  Here is one of the original Not Sold in Stores products ...

48A. Martini garnish with blue cheese or red pepper: STUFFED OLIVE.  I'm not sure how I feel about blue cheese in my martinis ...

Stuffed Olives

Here's the grid ...
  

Here's the rest ...

Across:

 1. Strongly advised: URGED.

6. Slangy "Just say ... ": SPOSE.  I 'SPOSE that many Cornerites are not big fans of quote clues.

11. Sudden pull: TUG.

14. "Same!": SO DO I.

15. Ergo: HENCE.  Today's Latin lesson: "Therefore"

16. Prefix with tourism: ECO.  There's even a society for ecotourism.  It's okay with me, as long as they take hang gliders to get there. 😀

17. [Theme clue]

19. Noodle: NOB.  At NOB HILL I'm sure you have your choice of crosswordese UDON or SOBA.

20. Marina del __, California: REY.  Marina del Rey (Spanish for "Marina of the King") is an unincorporated seaside community in Los Angeles County, California, with an eponymous harbor that is a major boating and water recreation destination of the Greater Los Angeles area. The port is North America's largest man-made small-craft harbor and is home to approximately 5,000 boats. 

Marina del Rey

21. "Here's an __ ... ": IDEA.

22. Actress Kendrick: ANNA.  Anna Cooke Kendrick (born August 9, 1985) is an American actress. Known for playing upbeat and endearing characters in comedies and musicals, her accolades include nominations for an Academy Award, a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.

Anna Kendrick

23. [Theme clue]

27. Wood finishes: STAINS.  What's the difference between a wood stain and paint?

30. Puts on ice: COOLS.

31. Rainbow shapes: ARCS.

32. Vinegary marinade: ADOBO.  Adobo is a marinade, sauce, or seasoning composed variously of paprika, oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance meats, poultry, and seafoods.  Here's a recipe for Filipino Chicken Adobo.

Filipino Chicken Adobo

34. Kissing in the open, for short: PDA.  Here's a PDA from Dawson's Creek ...
 

37. [Theme clue].

41. Farm pen: STY.

42. Laden deposits: LODES.  ORES was too short.

43. Cold desert in northern China: GOBI.  It's in the Steppes of Central Asia (Alexander Borodin) ...

44. "Killers of the Flower Moon" people: OSAGE.  Killers of the Flower Moon is a 2023 American epic Western crime drama film co-produced and directed by Martin Scorsese.  Set in 1920s Oklahoma, it focuses on a series of murders of Osage members and relations in the Osage Nation after oil was discovered on tribal land. It is based on true events as documented in the 2017 book of the same name by David Grann.  It was also the FBI's first big case ...

46. Historic events: FIRSTS.

48. [Theme clue]

52. "My __!": HERO.

53. Sneeze trigger, often: DUST.

54. "Eh, kinda": ISH.

57. Unit on a Taylor Swift tour: ERA.  The Eras Tour is the ongoing sixth concert tour by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It began in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17, 2023, and is set to conclude in Vancouver on December 8, 2024.  Running over 3.5 hours, the set list of the Eras Tour comprises over 40 songs grouped into 10 distinct acts that portray Swift's studio albums conceptually.  The first ERA was Country music, and here is her first big hit, written when she was 15 years old -- a story about her boyfriend, and a paeon to Country music star Tim  McGraw ... 

58. [Theme reveal]

62. Uru. neighbor: ARG.  Argentina is a neighbor to Uruguay. 

63. Like a good watchdog: ALERT.

64. American buffalo: BISON.  The American Bison and the Native Americans of the Western plains had a symbiotic relationship.  When the California gold rush began in 1848, Native American tribes were seen as an obstacle to America's "Manifest Destiny", the inevitable Western expansion of European settlers.  The latter adopted a policy of the genocide of the American Bison as a way to bring Native Americans under control.  This story has a lot in common with the one recounted above in 44A.

65. Slice with caraway seeds: RYE.  RYE bread without caraway seeds doesn't taste like RYE bread.

66. Make holy: BLESS.

67. Four-award achievements, casually: EGOTS.

Down:

 1. USA rival in the space drama "For All Mankind": USSR.  For All Mankind is an American science fiction drama television series created by Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert, and Ben Nedivi. The series dramatizes an alternate history depicting "what would have happened if the global space race had never ended" after the Soviet Union succeeds in the first crewed Moon landing ahead of the United States. The title is inspired by the lunar plaque left on the Moon by the crew of Apollo 11, which reads, in part, "We Came in Peace for All Mankind".

2. Learning by repetition: ROTE.

3. Greeting to an Aussie pal: G'DAY.

4. Long stretch: EON.

5. "The Year of Magical Thinking" memoirist Joan: DIDION.  The Year of Magical Thinking is a memoir by Joan Didion, an account of the year following the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne in 2003. Published by Knopf in October 2005, The Year of Magical Thinking was immediately acclaimed as a classic book about mourning. It won the 2005 National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. In 2024, The New York Times Book Review ranked it as the 12th best book of the 21st century.

6. Whit: SHRED.  Let's see ...

7. Ride a Peloton: PEDAL.  Actually, as of this past Summer Peloton appeared to be back pedaling.

8. Musician Yoko: ONO.

9. Chem or bio: SCI.

10. Long swimmer: EEL.

11. Ones who may give backhanded compliments?: TENNIS PROS.  Har, har. 😀

12. The Huskies of the NCAA: UCONN.  The UConn Huskies (or Connecticut Huskies) are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Connecticut, with its main campus located in Storrs, Connecticut. The school is a member of the NCAA's Division I and the Big East Conference.

13. Emergency kit: GO BAG.  You can buy one, or build your own with these comprehensive instructions developed by the public service campaign ready.gov.

18. Big fusses: ADOS.  Shakespeare wrote about one of biggest fusses in all of literature ...

22. NL East city: ATL.  The home of the Braves.

23. Fail to see: MISS.

24. Clickable images: ICONS.  Here's the ICON on the Blogger menu that I clicked to insert this image ...

25. Tons: GOBS.

26. "Give a __! Don't pollute!": HOOT.

27. Without: SANS.  Today's French lesson. "SANS = without", as the scrambled word in today's theme is SANS circles.

28. Leisurely gait: TROT.

29. "Be a grown-up about it!": ACT YOUR AGE.  I'm trying!  I'm trying! Sheesh! 😀

32. Chimed in with: ADDED.

33. Game cube: DIE.

Die

35. Money owed: DEBT.

36. Seller's caveat: AS IS.  This review is provided AS IS.

38. "Frozen" snowman: OLAF.  Meet OLAF ...

39. Seating level: LOGE.  A private box or enclosure in a theater -- the front section of the first balcony in a theater, or the boxes to the left or right of the stage.

Loge Box Seats

40. Fantasy monster: OGRE.  Not all OGRES are monsters ...

Shrek

45. NorCal airport: SFO.

46. __ and chips: FISH.  Today's English lesson: "chips" are Brit for French Fries.

47. Hosp. room hookup: IV TUBE.

Traditional intravenous (IV) infusion therapy set:
1-pole/stand,2-IV bottle/bag,3-spike, 4-air valve,
5-drip chamber, 6-piggyback port,
 7-IV tubing, 8-roller clamp, and 9-cannula.

48. Gather wool from: SHEAR.  This is how they do it in New Zealand ...

49. "America's Got Talent" host Crews: TERRY.  Terry Alan Crews (born July 30, 1968) is an American actor, television host, and former football player.  Crews played as a defensive end and linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Los Angeles Rams, San Diego Chargers, and Washington Redskins.   He began hosting America's Got Talent in 2019, following his involvement in the same role for the program's spin-off series America's Got Talent: The Champions.

Terry Crews

50. Lingering scents: ODORS.

51. Yearns (for): LUSTS.  LONGS fit but didn't perp.  IMHO LUSTS is on the infrared side of the YEARNS spectrum.

54. "In that event ... ": IF SO. ERGO fit but didn't perp.

55. Card receiver: SLOT.  Nowadays you can TAP cards, but I still haven't got the hang of that yet ...

Universal Contactless
Payment Symbol

56. Female birds: HENS.

58. 9-Down class setting: LAB.  Science Lab.  I have some stories about adventures in our HS science lab, but I'm not sure the statute of limitations has expired yet. 😯

59. Under the weather: ILL.

60. Actor Billy __ Williams: DEE.  William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor, novelist and painter.  He is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise, but he has appeared in over 100 films and television roles over six decades.

Billy Dee Williams
 GalaxyCon Raleigh in 2023

61. Cookie fruit: FIG.  "If you don't care a feather or a FIG, you may grow up to be a PIG!" -- see last Thursday's puzzle -- 49A.

Cheers, 

Bill

And as always, thanks to Teri for proof reading and for her constructive criticism.

waseeley