A THEMELESS SATURDAY PUZZLE BY CLAIRE MUSCAT ON NATIONAL BEER DAY
Claire Muscat has brewed up a wonderful Saturday puzzle for us on this festive holiday! I skated around from section to section and eventually I ran out of cells to fill in. The "S" in SCRAP PAPER and STEAD earned for me a highly desired "got 'er done!"
As often happens to me I got off to a 11. What you might get on a day off : SLOW START (Those are my faster solver friends ahead of me) but slow and steady carried the day!
Two triple stacks of ten's were impressive, helpful and "gettable". Now let's see what else Claire has for us this first Saturday of April where we it is snowing here on the Great Plains!
Across
1. Where thoughts can be organized : SCRAP PAPER - I've put some important phone numbers on the backs of some receipts I found near the phone
11. __ punk: No Doubt genre : SKA and 37. "It's Raining __": The Weather Girls hit : MEN - Neither are on my iPhone playlist
14. Not go off-script : TOE THE LINE - A mantra for members of Congress if they want reelection money or committee chairmanships
15. Zero-star fare : GLOP
16. They're hidden annually : EASTER EGGS - We asked our daughter if our 15 year-old grandson and 12-yr-oldgranddaughter still wanted an EASTER EGG hunt at Papa's. The answer was YES even on a dreary Easter Sunday.
17. Holds up : ROBS
18. Got into a pickle? : ATE - Not in the baseball sense
19. Xi preceders : NUS - Or 19. Belonging to the Huskers - NU'S
20. Kind of baseball league for pre-Little Leaguers : PEE WEE - Add your own caption
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| Is your team ahead or behind? |
22. Duplicates : DITTOS - Do you know this movie where Patrick Swayze couldn't say I love you back to Demi Moore but rather said this
24. Dogs follow them : SCENTS - Cool Hand Luke used pepper to throw them off the trail
26. Ruled by thieves : KLEPTOCRATIC - A new word to me but pretty easy to suss out as I am sure you all did. Many of our African UBER drivers in D.C. claimed this is what was going on in their countries where leaders are stealing all the money and commoners get nothing
30. Like some restaurant boxes : TO GO - Guilty! I have added TO GO when ordering at a drive thru
33. Crispy triangle : DORITO
34. One of two possible Passover mos. : APR or Mar
35. Indignant reply : I DO SO - Playground patter
38. Sip : NURSE - What I would do with a $20 cocktail
40. Charge : FEE - Where they abound
41. Lost control in a big way : RIOTED
44. Throw below deck, say : STOW
45. Bolo ties or bell-bottoms : FASHION CRAZE- What? They're not popular now? Next thing you know they'll say the same about my Nehru jacket!
48. "Camptown Races" refrain syllables : DOO DAH - Perhaps where you might have least expected it. (I would have posted the entire clip but it has "that N word" in it.)
49. Brick partner : MORTAR
53. Graduates : ALUMNI This blog has many of them with a degree in 9. University dept. : ENG
55. One using bugs : SPY
56. Media co. based in D.C. and Fla. : UPI
57. Best Actress between Jennifer and Julianne : CATE - The $35,000 Hermes bag Cate Blanchett carried in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine was worth more that the entire costume budget for the rest of the film58. Targets : ZEROES IN ON
62. Building blocks for tots : ABC'S
63. They take forever : ETERNITIES
64. Kinda equivalent : ISH - I consider myself "OldISH"
65. "Quit it with the attitude!" : DON'T SASS ME
Down
1. Begin to fast? : STEAD - Horton was STEADfast and stayed on Mayzie's egg through all manner of difficulties
2. Raccoon kin : COATI - I can see the family resemblance
3. Start over : RESET -Kids soon learn that real life doesn't have that button like their games do
4. Grisham hero, often: Abbr. : ATT - An ATTorney not the communication giant
5. Carbolic acid : PHENOL - In very dilute amounts, it is used in many household cleaners and mouthwash
6. Read carefully : PERUSED - Senators like Rand Paul were given 30 hours to PERUSE the 2,322 page Omnibus Budget bill
7. They may be blonde or red : ALES - They must have stayed up nights thinking up these names
8. Glutton : PIG
10. Franklin spelled it out : RESPECT - Tell me again why anyone else should sing this song
12. Laker great, familiarly : KOBE - Bryant
13. Arcing recess : APSE - I grabbed him in the APSE by the organ
15. Former Fox News anchor Van Susteren : GRETA - GRETA famously underwent plastic surgery during her career
21. 2001 scandal subject : ENRON - Bankrupted my uncle
23. Ring stats : TKO'S
24. Extend : STRETCH
25. Expression maker : COINER - We have COINED quite a few words here at the corner, e.g. Clecho
27. College in Claremont, California : POMONA - POMONA has joined athletically with Pitzer College and competes as the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens (smart chickens?)
28. __ jure: by the law itself : IPSO - by operation of the law is a phrase used to describe an automatic change in a legal situation that is a consequence of some other action or some other failure to act. You're welcome.
29. Word with neck or cut : CREW
30. Row : TIFF
31. Ancient performance halls : ODEA - Here's one on the edge of the agora in Thessaloniki
32. Shares expenses, in a way : GOES DUTCH - I haven't dated since LBJ was president. Is this a common practice now?
36. Star-studded hunter : ORION - My favorite constellation
39. Intervention target : USER
42. Like much table salt : IODIZED - Iodine was originally added to prevent goiters
43. Depresses : DAMPENS - Every group has "that person" who can bring everyone down
46. Development units : HOMES - My fair city is proposing putting 400 of them in a very small area just across the street from us
47. Lawn grass genus : ZOYSIA - This "warm weather" grass is better suited in southern climes as it hates winter
50. Arab Spring city : TUNIS - This was triggered by a fruit vendor's desperate act against an oppressive government. Google at your own risk to see what he did if you have forgotten.
51. "__ begins in delight and ends in wisdom": Frost : A POEM - A lovely sentiment
52. Certain cycle : RINSE - Just show me where to turn it on!
53. Antioxidant-rich berry : ACAI - Vowels, vowels vowels!
54. Chocolates, e.g. : LABS - Our neighbor had a hyper active Golden LABrador who had to be given to a friend with a farm and lots of land
55. Kind : SORT - "What SORT of person are you?" There is a wrong answer! 😏
59. WWII arena : ETO - Despite Stalin's pleas for America to open a front in Western Europe, America opened its European/African Theater of Operations in North Africa in 1942
60. Han and Leia's son Kylo __ : REN - Okay
61. "__ a date!" : IT'S - Let's do this all again next Saturday!
Pertinent and impertinent remarks now welcome:
DA GRID
