Saturday, January 19, 2019, Ryan McCarty

Themeless Puzzle by Ryan McCarty

 Going to the movies can be a great to mediocre event but the one constant of going is the beguiling smell of popcorn. Today we celebrate this simple delight on National Popcorn Day. A Univ. of Cal. at Irvine prof figured it cost $.10/oz to make and is sold for way more per oz. than a filet but how can you resist?

Popcorn comes in infinite varieties but for me, I'll take plain old yellow popcorn in real oil, salted and lightly buttered! Keep your chocolate, cinnamon, cheese and jalapeño flavors!

Our constructor today is Princeton grad Ryan McCarty ’14. Ryan info from the last write-up I did of one of his puzzles.

Ryan's puzzle drove me crazy as some of the clueing was two steps beyond fiendish but turned out to be really fun in the end, like getting that caraway seed out from between your teeth! I'll complain comment in my write-up of this puzzle where I quickly filled in the NE and then had a wonderful slog to the finish line at the DNIESTER River.

BTW, I think the grid design was incredible and very elegant! Ryan used only 22 blocks and only 62 words! Wow, those are some very impressive numbers!

All right, let's see what else popped into Ryan's head (ya had to see that comin'!) 

Across:

1. Barber's "Adagio for Strings" is in it: B FLAT MINOR - Oh, not a bigger musical work but the key in which it was written. Ryan!

11. Hits with a charge: ZAPS - "Don't tase me bro!"

15. Kerry Washington's "Scandal" role: OLIVIA POPE - I had to look up her and the show and same goes for 40. "Clown Prince of Hip-hop" Biz __: MARKIE. Biz MARKIE

16. Jukebox opening: SLOT - One of the first

17. Sang: NAMED NAMES - Film maker Elia Kazan joined the Communist Party in 1934 for a year-and-a-half.  Sixteen years later he NAMED NAMES of others who had joined the party to the HUAC committee so he could keep working. Most other Hollywood types kept quiet and Elia's party invitations diminished.

18. Villa-studded Italian lake: COMO - Ho una villa sul Lago di Como (I have a villa on Lake Como)

19. Salon boards: EMERIES - Emery boards

20. One taking things literally?: REPO MAN - 22. Angry: HEATED Matt Burch from short-lived Operation REPO TV show has a discussion with a car owner with delinquent payments.

23. Part of a football game-ending tradition: GATORADE - Coach Saban does not seem to be pleased with his GATORADE bath

24. Rear attachment: ENDER - Texting while drive can cause a REAR-ENDER car accident

25. Worked together: PARTNERED - When these two PARTNERED together, they became the #1 passing/receiving duo in NFL history 

26. Nailed, test-wise: ACED.

27. "Rabbit ears" antennae, e.g.: DIPOLES - We had a TV with the aforementioned devices that looked like this

28. Pixie and flip: DOS - HairDOS

29. Wheat whackers: SICKLES - Undoubtedly, someone with a scythe or SICKLE cut this wheat but these wheat whacking women in Punjab, India are not using either to thresh the grain 

30. Poor: BAD.

33. Washington team: HUSKIES - Oh, Washington University (UDUB) in Seattle   3,000 miles away from D.C.

34. Goat-man of myth: FAUN - Is this the right shot for Match.com? 

35. Rocks below bridges?: NOSE STUDS - This one below her nose's bridge are magnetic 

38. Cabinet member under Dubya: CONDI - The owner of the Cleveland Browns talked about hiring lifelong fan CONDI Rice as their new head coach. 

39. See 43-Across: OLD CHAPS - Our cheerleaders back in the stone age had a cheer: 43. With 39-Across, "Listen up, lads": "I SAY (clap, clap), OLD CHAP(S) (clap, clap),  Take the ball (clap, clap), fight back (clap, clap)". No really!

41. Boards around the house: DECKING - We switched out real wood for synthetic DECKING

42. Rocky Mountain rodents: MARMOTS.

44. Ones sniffing out trouble: CANINE UNIT - A valued member of the UNL CANINE UNIT

46. Reactor meltdown site: CORE - Not a geographic location but where the fission takes place

47. Old cooking show with a Creole theme: EMERIL LIVE  - BAM!

48. Outcomes: ENDS - That arm is merely a means to an END to this kitty

49. "Gotta split!": SEE YA LATER - I'm not saying alligator, you can't make me!


Down:

1. Unthinking, as a mistake: BONE HEAD - #78 Leon Lett celebrated too early and hustling #82 Don Beebe made him fumble before he got a touchdown which 4. Staved off: AVERTED the Cowboy's scoring a touchdown

2. Spanish steps?: FLAMENCO - Why do I remember the name José Greco after all these years?

3. Fruity refreshments: LIMEADES.

5. Larger, as a sum: TIDIER - A sorta variation on "a TIDY sum" 

6. Like gnus: MANED - I'm not saying "I already GNU that", you can't make me!

7. Draft choices: IPA'S - Englishman George Hodgson made a lighter colored Pale Ale by using coke-fired malt and he exported it to India where it became very popular. Hence...

8. __ de guerre: NOM - An assumed name under which one writes, paints or fights such as

9. Macbeth and Otello: OPERA ROLES - Both these OPERA ROLES created by Giuseppe Verdi (Joe Green in English) call for baritones

10. Puts down new roots: RESETTLES - The second generation of Hispanics whose families have RESETTLED in our town are really adapting 

11. Standard deviation measures: Z-SCORES - A Z-SCORE of +1 means one standard deviation above the mean (average) and a -1 means... Of course, it is figured by z = x – μ / σ,

12. Baseball family name: ALOMAR - Sandy, Sandy Jr. and Roberto

13. Salon stuff: POMADE - Johnny Cash's choice

14. Hopped-up: STONED.

21. Johnnycakes: PONES - Johnnycake. Johnnycake (also called journey cake, Shawnee cake, corn PONE or johnny bread) is a cornmeal flatbread. Johnny is thought to be a corruption of Shawnee Cake. Wiki

23. Retailer specializing in youth fashion: GAP KIDS - Had to erase GAP BABY

25. Impromptu competition: PICK UP GAME - Getting picked last is a trauma that lasts a long time

27. Golfer's yardage book data: DISTANCES - I don't write down the distances, I use this

29. Bar food: SUSHI - What? No bar nuts?

30. "There's no doubt about this": BANK ON IT - I can hit that green shown here on the Golf Buddy over the water from 123 yards out! I said I can, not that I will.

31. Hearing-related: AUDITIVE - Ryan!

32. River to the Black Sea: DNIESTER - Essentially from Kiev to Odessa

33. "Why, sure!": HECK YES - Do we get a lot of European Rivers in crossword puzzles?

34. Conventional writing method: FORMULA - TV sitcoms come to mind if you aren't talking about chemistry formulae - Lame sarcastic lines filled in with laugh tracks 

35. "Uh-uh": NO DICE.



36. "Little House" antagonist Nellie __: OLESON - Alison Arngrim, then and now

37. Digital camera insert, briefly: SDCARD - Scan Disk CARD

38. Steve of "Foxcatcher": CARELL - He recently lamented that his famous show, The Office, could never be made in today's PC climate. No matter what is written, someone will take offense. 

40. Craze: MANIA.

42. Like wetlands: MIRY - Ryan! 😏

45. Alumni newsletter word: NEE - I am totally okay with a woman retaining her birth surname. 

All this talk just gave me an idea. I'll be pop back to read your comments after a visit with Orville Redenbacher and the microwave! 

Saturday, January 12, 2019, Craig Stowe

A THEMELESS SATURDAY BY CRAIG STOWE

Today is a natural fit for the many tea connoisseurs on this site. This is one of many areas where my tastes are quite plebeian and can be satisfied with generic Lipton that you can see my green friend savoring below. I can hear C.C. and Steve roll their eyes right now! My mother's stock remedy for a cold was tea and toast. 

Our neighbor did bring us a large supply of Tazo tea for minding her house while she was in Minneapolis and it is delicious as well. Do you have a favorite?

Today's constructor is our Canadian friend Craig Stowe. I last blogged one of his wonderful themeless Saturday puzzles on U.S. Navy Day October 13, 2018. My start today was in the SW and then built quickly to a satisfying "got 'er done"

Across:

1. Likelihood of success: PROSPECTS - Kids are quickly learning what training or degrees greatly increase their PROSPECTS of success

10. __ change: CHUMP - CHUMP change to me and Warren Buffet are two very different commodities 

15. Ritz offering: HOTEL ROOM - Segue - Speaking of famous people from Omaha, Fred Astaire had a big hit in 1946 with this Irving Berlin song  written in 1927 about the opulent Ritz apartment/hotel at 465 Park Avenue in NYC. 

16. Award, say: HONOR.

17. Confides in: OPENS UP TO - Be careful what info you solicit

18. Invest, as with a quality: ENDUE - Not a common word for me

19. Word reportedly coined in Seuss' "If I Ran the Zoo": NERD - At the time it was just an silly imaginary animal -  And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo/And Bring Back an It-Kutch, a Preep, and a Proo,/A Nerkle, a NERD, and a Seersucker too!"

20. Glimpse: PEEK - What is the kitty glimpsing?

21. Ideal places: EDENS.

22. Puts on the right track: ORIENTS - My legally blind friend must be ORIENTED for every golf shot but does very well!

24. Trade talk subjects: EXPORTS 

26. Qtr. components: MOS - Your estimated tax payments for the 2018's fourth QTR are due in the MO of January, 2019

27. 1991 political thriller with eight Oscar nominations: JFK - Rotten Tomatoes consensus: "As history, Oliver Stone's JFK is dubious, but as filmmaking it's electric"

28. It may be flat: FEE - Not TAX as it turns out

29. Latin 101 word: AMAT - A fun one-minute chant

31. Sensitive subjects: SORE SPOTS.

34. It doesn't require a long answer: QUICK QUESTION.

36. One may include three kings: FULL HOUSE - Appropriate in the season of Epiphany?

37. Official records: ACTA - Learned (and almost forgotten) in cwd's

38. Chinese zodiac critter: RAT - The next Year Of The Rat is 2020

39. Hit in a box: BAT - This batter is out because his foot is completely out of the batter's box when he contacted the ball

40. Cartoonist Browne: DIK - When Mort Walker spun off Hi and Lois from his Beetle Bailey strip (Lois was Beetle's sister), he recruited Dik to do the art work while he came up with the gags. Dik eventually started his own iconic strip Hagar.

41. Flies: AVIATES.

44. Party store stock: PINATAS - Paul Coulter's Sunday's puzzle clued this as "One getting smashed at a bash"

48. British bishop's topper: MITRE - Some will recognize this MITRE-wearing bishop who had his own 1950's TV show. Answer at the bottom *

49. Hustles: HIES - Lady Macbeth to Macbeth - Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear (Hurry home, so I can talk to you)

51. Essence: CORE.

52. Conservatory exercise: ETUDE - This looks like some serious exercise

53. Strength, in a "1984" slogan: IGNORANCE - Explanation of all three

55. Gas that glows when condensed: RADON - It is usually not made to glow because it is so radioactive

56. Connected on LinkedIn, say: NETWORKED - It seems to make it easier to make a connection in the business world; much like Match.com does in the dating world. 

57. Clairvoyants: SEERS - A mathematician at Temple University coined the phrase "Jean Dixon Effect" where an occasional correct prediction by someone like Jeane Dixon is celebrated and their many wrong ones are overlooked 

58. Family guys: GRANDDADS - A proud appellation for many here!


Down:

1. Player of singles: PHONO - Mine was always stacked pretty high!

2. Rodeo competitor: ROPER - A hard event for me to watch

3. "Scary Movie" actress Cheri: OTERI - She is not on this poster and is listed way down in the credits. Fellow SNL cheerleader with Ferrell must have seemed too easy for Rich on a Saturday

4. Correspond, in a way: SEND E MAIL where you may find 5. TY may follow it: PLS - PleaSe and Thank You used by 43. Some Gen Z-ers: TEENS.

6. Goes off: ERUPTS which 13. The Italians call it Mongibello: MOUNT ETNA - Just last Christmas Eve

7. Manages: COPES - MIL has COPED with living alone as a widow for over thirty years

8. Lug: TOTE - Before collaborating with Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II wrote "TOTE that barge, lift that bale" for Showboat with Jerome Kern supplying the melody

9. Like many American workplaces: SMOKE FREE and restaurants, airplanes, bowling alleys and best of all for me - teacher's lounges!

10. Pet store sound: CHEEP.

11. 1953 John Wayne film: HONDO - Also a CSO to our Skip 

12. In the way: UNDERFOOT - One day of Kindergarten subbing cured me

14. Pushes (for): PRESSES.

25. Classic sports cars: XKES - In my teens our town's only doctor drove what is easily the most  23. Top-__: NOTCH  vehicle seen there then and since

27. Tilter's milieu: JOUST - Henry II famously lost an eye and subsequently died after a JOUST in 1559

29. Eau de vie counterpart: AQUA VITAE  (a-kwə-ˈvī-tē) - a strong alcoholic liquor (such as brandy)

30. Legion: MULTITUDE.

31. Suppressing: SQUASHING.

32. Soil: STAIN.

33. Magician's directive: PICK A CARD - A cool trick. Give it 30 seconds

35. Asian beef source: KOBE - If you are willing to pay $350 for KOBE beef, you can get this steak in The Old Homestead Steakhouse in NYC even though it is not on the menu. My lovely bride would 40. Repudiate: DISOWN me if I ordered it

36. Constitution bigwigs: FRAMERS - Legislators and judges have twisted and turned the 18th century words chosen 230 years ago

42. Passion: ARDOR.

44. Prefix with gram: PENTA - Religious symbolism in many sects including wiccans 

45. Maker of the Mighty Dump: TONKA - 1960's toy nirvana! (Name came from Lake MinneTONKA) 

46. Curving: ARCED - This blindfolded Globetrotter ARCED the ball perfectly

47. Cluster of sunflowers: SEEDS  - They are so closely associated with ball players, they are  in every dugout in bags or...

50. Disney CEO since 2005: IGER - He has announced that a Star Wars Land will open at Disney Studios in Orlando this year at a cost of a billion dollars after some older attractions are demolished. I may have to make my 41st visit.

54. Angling need: ROD - Equipped with a reel

*Bishop Fulton J. Sheen is the MITRE wearer