Saturday, March 2, 2019, Andrew J. Ries

Themeless Saturday by Andrew J. Ries

If you follow my blogging at all you know I have a very soft spot in my heart for cats and today we celebrate International Cat Rescue Day.

We got our Siamese Lily at the Capital Humane Society in Lincoln, NE over four years ago (picture to follow). She has become an essential part of our household and has added much joy to Joann's and my life.

There are many more pets out there ready for adoption and it might be something to consider.

Today's constructor is Andrew Ries whose web site address you see here. It cleverly incorporates his first initial and surname.  Very cool!

 Here is a link to the last Andrew Ries puzzle I blogged where you can find a bio of Andrew along with a picture of him and C.C.

I won't say Andrew's puzzle was "purrfect" and you can't make me! I started in the NE and made steady clockwise progress until I crossed the finish line at SEX QUIZ.

Let's examine the other entries Andrew has adopted today (just a J and a K short of a pangram); none of which I judged to be catty!

Across:

1. Throws: SLINGS - Here "Slingin'" Sammy Baugh throws one for the Washington Redskins. Check out his signature.

7. Some confrontations: SCENES - "Don't make a SCENE"

13. Good-for-nothin': NO COUNT or NO ACCOUNT

15. Decide: CHOOSE.

16. Abroad: OVERSEAS

18. "Ben-Hur" Oscar winner: HESTON - I'm not sure I was ready for the violence when my friend's mom took us to see Ben-Hur in 1959

19. "Webspace" was added to it in Jun. 2017: OED - Oxford English Dictionary

20. Hot BuzzFeed feature?: SEX QUIZ - If Your Sex Life Was A Disney Character, What Would It Be?

22. "When we know, you'll know": Abbr.: TBA - You can announce the answer to the quiz above when you're ready

23. Substitute: PROXY - My lovely bride is her 96-yr-old mother's PROXY for everything in her life

25. "Tequila mockingbird" and "absinthe of malice," for two: PUNS - Fun!

26. Maverick on TV: BRET - If you believe gamblers in the old west looked and dressed like James Garner

27. Big __: SUR - The Pacific Coast Highway, that runs through this lovely place, suffered what The California Road Department called the "biggest mudslide in California history" in 2017

28. Development home: TRACT HOUSE - Pete Seeger satirized them

30. "The History of the Standard Oil Company" author: TARBELL - Ida was a muckraker of the early 20th century

32. Dunked discs: OREOS - How shall I clue thee? Let me count the ways.

33. Respectful assent: YES PLEASE 

35. Hardened, maybe: STALE - The rolls we had in Germany were not STALE but, oh my, were they ever hard. However, I loved to 53. Down: EAT them

38. Creamy sauce: ALFREDO.

40. Written argument: LEGAL BRIEF - Boomer might say, "Perry Mason's underwear" but I won't. 😙

42. NOW center: Abbr.: ORG - Betty Friedan is said to have come up with the acronym on a napkin during a meeting in her hotel room with her group of burgeoning feminists

44. Many a Baghdad dad: ARAB.

45. It helps you focus: LENS - I want this LENS for my iPhone

46. Part of some salesmen's deliveries: SMARM - I'm more accustomed to the adjectival form - SMARMY. How 'bout dat? I used adjective in its adjectival form!

48. Dietitian's calc.: BMI - Calculate your Body Mass Indicator

49. '70s Robert Blake cop show: BARETTA - Another TV trope - A maverick cop

51. Pillow talk murmur: COO - As in "Bill and COO". Name for two birds @ 46 Across?

52. Musical ineptitude: TIN EAR

54. Reference to a note: SEE BELOW - As promised, a picture of our Lily on Cat Rescue day

Our Rescued Lily!

56. Going for less: ON SALE - SETTLE didn't cut it

57. Come out of the bullpen: RELIEVE - The ultimate trip out of the bullpen  (two "f-bombs")

58. Like a date without a heart?: PITTED - Clever Andrew!

59. Picked up: SENSED.


Down:

1. Private eye: SNOOP 

2. They may put their initials on trunks: LOVERS - For me and my lovely bride

3. Wearing expensive jewelry, in modern slang: ICED OUT - Ice is slang for diamonds

4. 1994 Olympics host: Abbr.: NOR - The lingering image of those olympics in NORWAY is below. Tonya claimed 10. "Lies!": NOT TRUE but later admitted she knew "something was up"

5. Dress (up): GUSSY - A school marm might gussy herself up and sashay into town

6. Bygone blade: SNEE and 9. Dawn goddess: EOS - Two regulars on the cwd bench


7. Crystalline rock: SCHIST - From the Greek word for split (Schism from last Tuesday also comes to mind)

8. "In the home of," literally: CHEZ - You might eat at CHEZ Henri or more commonly say "S'il te plaît, viens CHEZ moi" (Please come to my house)

11. 1962 hit with the line "the samba's the quickest way to make amor": ESO BESO - ESO sometimes appears alone clued as "Spanish article" but here, of course ESO BESO means "That Kiss" a hit song for Paul Anka

12. Legal bodies: SENATES.

14. Return specialist: TAX PREPARER - I do my own with Turbo Tax

17. Fronts of cold fronts: SQUALL LINES it might be time to pick up your 50. Drivers' elevators: TEES and head for the clubhouse

21. Addams who can generate electricity: UNCLE FESTER.

Jackie Coogan playing UNCLE FESTER
in The Addams Family

24. Where doctors may catch a break?: X-RAY LAB - Gotta love this clue, after you hated it!

26. Yawning cause: BOREDOM - Director John Hughes told Ben Stein, who had a degree in economics, to just ad lib a horrendous lecture

28. "Angie Tribeca" airer: TBS - Here 'ya go

29. Gardening aid: HOSE and 31. 29-Down storage device: REEL - We've got three of these on our house

34. Sound from a purse, possibly: ARF - A clever clue but seems like a cruel practice

35. Thick table surface: SLAB TOP 

36. Ends: TERMINI - Literally the ends of the line. Plural for terminus

37. Playing on the field: AGAINST - Cornhuskers AGAINST the Sooners used to be a big FB deal

39. Wall Street whizzes, say: ORACLES.

41. Played loudly: BLARED - Because Kennedy Space Center is on Merritt Island, which is an animal sanctuary, NASA couldn't harm the woodpeckers tearing up insulated fuel tanks. Therefore they BLARED Metallica at them and the birds left.

43. It's good to be in one: GROOVE - We had this last Saturday where I mentioned Boomer having been in many of these while bowling

46. Pricey fur: SABLE - The habitat of this furry little carnivore

47. Did yard work: MOWED.

49. Block on a farm: BALE - Today they are much more likely to be this shape which is much less labor intensive

55. A, in German class: EIN - The indefinite article not the letter.  Dies ist EIN Kreuzworträtsel (This is a crossword puzzle)

After you comment, you might want to call/visit your local shelter to rescue a pet!

Saturday, July 14, 2018, Andrew J. Ries

A Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Andrew J. Ries 

On the Fourth Of July we Americans celebrate our declaration of independence. Ten days later our French friends celebrate Quatorze Juillet or, The Fourteenth of July which they also refer to as Bastille Day. That day celebrates the storming of the infamous prison and the beginning of The French Revolution. "Liberté, égalité and fraternité!"

I blogged another Saturday puzzle of Andrew Ries's last April 28 on Super Heroes Day. Below is a picture of David Hanson, Victor Borocas (who authored last Sunday's AAA puzzle), our own C.C. and Andrew (not Andy). Next to them is one of Andrew's published books of puzzles that is so apropos for his home state.

Andrew had a double major in film studies and history from St. Cloud State, which he calls a "hockey school", an hour NW of Minneapolis. He got hooked on puzzles by his grandmother and his passion has led to his now being a full-time constructor (as you can see by one of his books above). Andrew says it is not really work when you are doing what you love. He estimates he will do close to a hundred puzzles this year as his trade requires being prolific. I had a great exchange with Andrew via gmail and I hope we get to see a lot more of him in the future

I was also fascinated by the very clever logo for his website which incorporates Andrew's name and a familiar zodiacal fill we see here. C'mon, ya gotta love it!

I managed a 14-minute tour through today's puzzle as I seemed to be on Andrew's frequency beginning with a NASA gimme for me. 

Now let's storm the barriers and see what else A RIES has for us today:


Across:

1. Critical measurements in "Apollo 13": AMPS  - This NASA educator, who has seen Apollo 13 countless times and remembered how the ground crew in Houston figured out how to mete out the meager 20 AMPS the command module would have available to return to Earth.

5. "Yada yada yada" letters: ETC.

8. They may be wrapped at restaurants: FORKS - Pitas and sushi stayed in the kitchen

13. China neighbor: LAOS  - This will connect Kunming, China with Bangkok, Thailand through LAOS

14. Common pace for a slugger: TROT  - The most famous home run TROT in baseball history

16. "__ you special": AREN'T - Sarcasm d'jour 

17. In a big stack: PILED HIGH - How do you even attack this $22 Carnegie Deli sandwich?

19. Assessor's decision: VALUE - Oh look, my the house tax levy went down! Oops, never mind, the VALUATION on my house went up

20. Kind: ILK - Aren't we an ILK here at the corner and each of us a vital 7. Tooth not examined by a dentist: COG.

21. Car wash option: WAX - Is it worth it?

22. Serious reading?: RIOT ACT - King George I issued this decree in 1714 saying goups of 12 or more could be shot or impreisoned when assembling. He wrote it in German as he never learned to speak English and German survived in Buckingham Palace until WWI when they also abandoned their German family name and adopted the name Windsor.

24. B-complex vitamin: NIACIN


26. Old fad items packed in boxes with breathing holes: PET ROCKS - There truly is one born every minute

27. Conclude with: END ON - Some rude people don't heed the rule that fireworks were to END ON July 4th. 

28. Achieves: DOES

29. New job requirement, perhaps: RELO - Real estate agent speak for RELOCATION

30. "That makes sense": GOOD REASON

33. Convertible's spot: DEN - I assume Andrew did not mean someone ran into the house with their car

34. Help for ones seeing stars?: TELESCOPES - Galileo changed the world with his telescope by looking at the Moon, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn. His findings got him accused of heresy and kept him under house arrest until his death

36. Macabre rock genre: DEATH METAL - Google if you're more interested than I am

38. Where odds are posted: Abbr.: OTB  - Here are what the OTB odds were for the final leg of the Triple Crown this year

41. Modern capture?: SCREEN GRAB  - The picture above was a SCREEN SHOT (GRAB) from a website using Command + Shift + 4 on my MacBook Pro computer

43. Negri of silents: POLA - I'll bet you all know the "little tramp" with whom she had an affair (circa. 1922)

45. Starter starter?: HORS  - What HORS D'OEUVRE(S) (literally outside the work or outside the meal) are appropriate for a Bastille Day party?

46. "Nattering nabobs" veep: AGNEW - Spiro of Maryland - Nixon's VP and lightning rod

48. Track runners: TROLLEYS  - Omaha once had a trolley system that was second in size to only Boston

50. Many a head shop garment: TIE DYE.

51. Don't forget about: INCLUDE.

52. Have in hand: OWN.

53. Reddit VIP: MOD  - They are MODERATORS on the Reddit site with which I have no experience

54. One you usually don't want to meet: MAKER  -Rooster Cogburn once warned, "Prepare to meet your MAKER!"

55. Makeshift branch hanger: ROPE SWING  - The internet has a bottomless supply of "fails" on ROPE SWINGS. You can't fool gravity, inertia and centripetal force.

58. "Hello" balladeer: ADELE and 42. First artist whose first six albums debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200: BEYONCE - I'm sure they are fine artists but they are not on my iPhone playlist

59. Miss a syllable or two, say: SLUR  - Foster Brooks (correction) used this verbal device to make a good living

60. Formerly: ONCE.

61. Rich veins: LODES  - Gee, I wonder where they got the name of the TV Show with the man and his three sons in Nevada

62. Medium skill: ESP - I've told the joke here at least twice about the the crooked fortune teller who was running from the law - Headline - Small Medium At Large. Ah, you can't go wrong with good material!

63. Invader from below: WEED.


Down:

1. __ skiing: ALPINE - Sliding down a mountain using "fixed-heel" ski bindings

2. Sending out: MAILING - I can't remember the last time I got a significant communication via Snail MAIL

3. Round fabric pattern element: POLKA DOT

4. Compass dir.: SSE - This plane is heading SSE which is 160˚to the nearest 10 degrees on a compass and the 0 is dropped from the runway marking

5. Hunt in "Mission: Impossible" films: ETHAN - A Tom Cruise film franchise

6. Brand with a leporine mascot: TRIX  - Silly Rabbit, TRIX are for kids!

8. Solid, in a request: FAVOR  - "Hey, brother, would you do me a solid (FAVOR)?

9. Speaker: ORATOR - On November 19, 1863, famed ORATOR Edward Everett spoke for two hours but President Lincoln only spoke for two minutes at a cemetery dedication

10. Fastened anew, as a corset: RELACED seems to fit with 47. Squeezed (in): WEDGED.

11. Sandwich component?: KNUCKLE - "How'd ya like a KNUCKLE sandwich?"

12. "Boss of the Plains" apparel brand: STETSON - Mexicans claimed their tan galán (very gallant) hats were superior to Texan's plain STETSON hats. For those Texans, tan galán became...

15. Golfing groups: THREESOMES - A THREESOME playing winter golf on the Great Plains

18. Gradually goes down: DWINDLES - Jimmy Durante wistfully singing the September Song, "Oh the days DWINDLE down to a precious few"

23. "Come on in!": IT'S OPEN.

25. Whispered sweet nothings: COOED - Often paired with BILLED and I suppose I could look up why but...

26. They take things the wrong way: POACHERS - Killing those animals is contemptible 

28. Smallest Battleship pieces: DESTROYERS - Can you pick it out?

31. Connected with: REACHED.

32. Bottom-line positives: NET GAINS - Could be in dollars or yards

35. Looie's underling: SARGE - This second Looie never could get the respect of those under him

37. Metaphor for a potential crisis: LANDMINE - Do you know where they lie at family gatherings?

38. Best-case: OPTIMAL.

39. "The Wizard of Oz" plot twist--literally: TORNADO - Dorothy leaves b/w Kansas and winds up in Technicolor Oz

40. Denied access, on social media: BLOCKED - My niece's incessant politics and profanity made me BLOCK her

44. Genetic variant: ALLELE.

49. Casting array: LURES  - Where do you start?

50. Annoying sort: TWERP.

52. Numbered work: OPUS - The most popular "On Hold" music in the world is this OPUS Number One written for CISCO by Tim Carleton and Derrick Deel. 15 seconds is enough for me.

56. __ Miss: OLE  - How 'bout those Rebels?

57. "I. Am. Speechless.": WOW - Now how about some comments for Andrew and ce misérable (this miserable) that will Leave. Us. Speechless. 

p.s. I hope our Madam Defarge is knitting today in observance of Bastille Day! 

DA GRID