Saturday, January 20, 2018 Alex Bajcz

THE DOCTOR IS IN

A nice Saturday (corrected) workout supplied by Alex Bajcz (rhymes with badges). He did his B.S. and M.S. in Michigan and then, true to his crossword lineage, got his Ph.D. in, wait for it, ORONO, ME in Ecology and Environmental Science. It can't be more perfect than that. Here we see that Alec has scaled the 852' peak of Norumbega Mountain in Acadia National Park (more crosswordese) in Maine. I wonder if he had OREOS while at the summit. 😏


Husker Gary here at his Saturday post! l had to test many areas before I got one of these for a good start in this challenging exercise.

Here two things in my life that served as long fills and proved to be helpful:

18. Company that pioneered metal drivers in golf : TAYLOR MADE - They dominate my golf bag

23. Thing to get one's claws into : SCRATCHING POST - One of Lily's topped with her favorite perch

Let's now explore the rest of the delightful word environment Alex has proposed for us:

Across

1. Color in the brown family : ECRU 

5. Dusty trail figure : PARD(ner) - I imagine he might be dusty after a month on a cattle drive

9. Board that decides without voting : OUIJA - Didn't you always accuse someone else of pushing the planchette (yes, that is what it is called)?

14. Flow hindrance : CLOT - The cause of death for Jimmy Stewart

15. Not expected : UNHERALDED - If you follow college football, you know UNHERALDED University of Central Florida had an undefeated season and the Huskers then hired their coach for $5M/year

17. Duck-like bird : COOT -  or Today's blogger : Old ____

19. Perrier units : LITERS - I prefer my water not sparkle

21. Only one fed. holiday falls on it annually : THU - Oh yeah, it's when Macy's has a parade, the Lions play football and Black Friday is the next day! 😏


22. A hockey player may check with one : HIP

27. Often-glazed delicacy : ROAST HAM

28. Tail of a cartoon dog? : DOO - Ruh, roh if you didn't know Scooby DOO!

29. Actress __-Margret : ANN - This Swedish beauty  does not like being called Ann or Annie Olsson

30. Hosp. areas : ERS - You find DRS in ERS and ORS

31. Lake Itasca, vis-à-vis the Mississippi : SOURCE 

35. Out indefinitely : IN A COMA

38. Certain landing aid : PONTOON - Very handy if you're landing a plane on Lake Itasca

39. Sara Roosevelt's maiden name : DELANO - Sara and her little boy Franklin in 1893

40. Gordon Shumway's title alias, in a sitcom : ALF - I have never ALFED

41. "I didn't need to know that" : Too Much Information - Do you want to hear about my operation? 52. Strong denial : I DO NOT

42. Book after Exod. : LEV - Google the 76 things LEVITICUS prohibits. Some people have cherry-picked from the list to justify their beliefs

43. Settled things : MEDIATED

46. They go on until dawn : SLUMBER PARTIES - One of the rigors of having daughters

50. More at the end? : IER

51. Many a boat, to its skipper : SHE - In Latin ship means Navis which is  a feminine word

54. Fulfill, as a promise : MAKE GOOD ON - He did MAKE GOOD ON his famous promise!

58. Advanced : LENT 

59. Pac-12 student : OREGON DUCK - My cousin's brother is the head BB coach at OREGON where the DUCKS play on this very distinctive court

60. Colon, in analogies : IS TO - Did you ever take the Miller's?

61. Parachute fabric : NYLON

62. Bldg. units : APTS - With our new $300M chicken plant being built, our city is proposing to build over 200 APTS across the street from us.

63. Pipe organ component : STOP - Wow! That's a lot of 'em!

Down

1. O.T. book : ECCL - Pete Seeger turned this lovely passage into a hit song called Turn, Turn, Turn

2. Fancy enamelwork : CLOISONNÉ - (Kloy zuh nay) - Enamelwork in which colored areas are separated by thin metal bands, fixed edgewise to the ground. I had no idea but it's beautiful!

TIME OUT - Think of something you absolutely hate doing! Now insert that in the blank below.

3. Endodontic therapy : ROOT CANAL - ____ is about as fun as a ROOT CANAL

4. Says : UTTERS

5. Tries to pick up : PUTS THE MOVES ON and 33. Flirts with : COMES ONTO. A little mini-theme, Alex? 😏

6. Political commentator Navarro : ANA - Okay, if you say so.

7. Drummer's creations : RHYTHMS - Our crossword friend here provided RHYTHMS for a fairly popular group of British lads.

8. 2010 Commonwealth Games host city : DELHI - After gaining independence in 1950, India remained in a loose association called the Commonwealth

9. One making a splash? : OAR

10. Rail stop between Stuttgart and Munich : ULM

11. State in both the Pacific and Mountain time zones : IDAHO - Same for Oregon in that area

12. "A __ Fury": "Star Wars" DVD segment : JEDIS

13. More than competent : ADEPT

16. They may involve cheap shots : ROUNDS OF DRINKS - It was so hot on the day I got my hole-in-one that the ROUNDS OF DRINKS only cost me $50 ($20 tip for attendant) because most everyone else had gone home

20. Urban omnivore : RAT

24. Word of amore : CARA - Jay Black of Jay And The Americans still getting it done at 72 with fabulous CARA MIA!

25. Mob hiree : GOON - Luca Brasi, Don Corleone's GOON, wound up "sleeping with the fishes"

26. Show displeasure : POUT - Better not... 

27. Carefully timed operation : RAID

32. Worst of the worst : ROTTENEST

34. Lover of Geraint : ENID - Welsh folklore reworked by Tennyson 

36. Bad state for sailing : CALM - Blush, I first put IOWA!

37. Seat for a priority boarder : ONE-B - It takes good eyes to see that on this 767 that is an aisle seat in first class 

38. Part of a bargain, maybe : PLEA - 97% of Federal cases wind up with the accused entering a PLEA of guilty for a reduced sentence

40. Hyper : AMPED UP

44. "__ be a shame if ... " : IT'D

45. Mediterranean sauces : AIOLIS 

46. Do only what he says : SIMON - 
"SIMON says put up your hand!"
"Now put it back down!" 
"Aha, you're out!" 😛

47. "Rescue Me" star Denis : LEARY and 48. "Did I do that?" TV nerd : URKEL and 49. Sitcom with a 1974 wedding episode : RHODA. Three TV series that did not make it into our living room

53. Sporty car roof : T-TOP - Moviedom's most famous?

55. A big one might be fragile : EGO - See Bandit above

56. Geometric suffix : GON - C.C.'s  favorite pentaGON

57. Eighth mo. in the old Roman calendar : OCT 

Now you guys can tell the Doctor where it hurts:

DA GRID

Saturday, January 13, 2018, Alan DerKazarian

THEMELESS SATURDAY

In a Tuesday puzzle of nearly a year ago (1/17/17), Alan posted how he liked reading comments on his puzzles and added, "Armenians get to put a "Der" in front of their names if there's been a significant religious person in their family's history, like a bishop. In my case it was my grandfather's father, who was an important religious figure in Eastern Turkey in the late 1800s."

Alan's puzzle provided entertainment and provided new learning for this cowboy (marked in RED below)! Here are some of his gettable long fills that proved to be useful in solving:

20. '60s counterculture slogan : MAKE LOVE NOT WAR - This iconic Bernie Boston picture for the Washington Star is what always leaps to my mind for this sentiment 

25. Cry of dominance : WHO'S YOUR DADDY - Yankee fans having a good time at Pedro Martinez's expense

45. 20-mile annual Boston-area fundraiser sponsored by Project Bread : WALK FOR HUNGER - The Marathon and this are big in Boston

51. Excuse for rowdy behavior : BOYS WILL BE BOYS - A lame excuse that has definitely fallen out of favor

Now let's see what else Alan has for us:Across  
1. Video file format : MPEG - Moving Pictures Experts Group. Lots of internet videos use this format

5. Offenbach opera "Daphnis et __" : CHLOE - One interpretation of the story of the romance between two shepherd girls on the Isle of Lesbos written 1,800 years ago

10. Jerk's concern : SODA - The jerk is so called for this action of "jerking" the handle to get carbonated water

14. Former Sony brand : AIWA - I once had an AIWA boom box 

15. Aggressive corporate tactics : RAIDS - He played a corporate RAIDER and she played a, uh, Lady of the 24. Poetic night : EEN

16. Fast-food legend : KROC -  Ray Kroc did not invent McDonalds. He took (read stole) the McDonald brothers system and made it huge as seen in the 2016 movie The Founder

17. Presently : ANON 

18. Mail-order outlet for outdoorsy types : ORVIS and 19. Harpsichordist Kipnis : IGOR. A Vermont based outdoor company and a musician I did not know but that's why we have perpendicular fill.

23. Math ratios : SINES - Ah, back to stuff I know, opposite/hypotenuse 

30. "The Yankee Doodle Boy" composer : COHAN - Seeing Jimmy Cagney as Cohan singing Yankee Doodle Boy from the movie of the same name should be part of becoming a citizen! 😁

32. Big letters in toys : FAO - I recently posted the picture of Tom Hanks dancing on the  FAO Schwarz floor piano in Big


33. CBS Sports NFL analyst Tony : ROMO - His body finally said, "That's enough" and he's now in the broadcast booth

34. Map abbr. : RTE - In my part of the world we say "rout" and in other parts they say "root". You?

35. Loosed : SET FREE - Julia Ward Howe wrote, "He has LOOSED the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword"

39. Neat ending? : NIK - Felix not Oscar

40. After-lunch sandwich : OREO - Haven't we had this word before? 😜

42. Word with big or house : CAT - My loving wife with our BIG HOUSE CAT 

43. Together : AS ONE - When the Huskers do their tunnel walk, the fans rise AS ONE

49. "Macbeth" character : HAG - Shakespeare's non-PC designation 


50. Gay leader? : ENOLA - This plate tells you where my Mom worked during WWII and where this particular B-29 that became the ENOLA GAY was assembled

57. Defeat soundly : DRUB

58. Serve : AVAIL

59. Per : A POP - $2 A POP for bottled water makes it way more expensive than gasoline. Talk about marketing!

60. "No prob!" : EASY

61. Merci, across the border : DANKE - DANKE Schön worked for Wayne Newton and Ferris Bueller 

62. Nigerian pop star : SADE - Born in Ibadan, Nigeria

63. Cry of glee : WHEE

64. Orson Scott Card protagonist __ Wiggin : ENDER - Andrew ENDER Wiggin

65. Side for a dog : SLAW - KFC has wonderful cole SLAW



Down

1. Hat-tipper's word : MAAM - Can you tip a ball cap that is on backwards?

2. Fruit in un cóctel : PINA -Pineapple es "piña" en español (Pineapple is piña in Spanish)

3. Fuzzy Endor resident : EWOK - A Star Wars cast member

4. Hindu god with the head of an elephant : GANESHA 

5. Sings smoothly : CROONS - Harry Connick Jr., Michael Buble'...

6. "Family Feud" host since 2010 : Steve HARVEY 

7. Exists simply : LIVES OFF THE LAND 

8. Valhalla VIP : ODIN - ODIN rules over Valhalla - "The house of the slain"

9. ExxonMobil trade name : ESSO

10. Garb for schussing : SKI WEAR - Not much use here for us flatlanders

11. Transplant figure : ORGAN DONOR - This shows 1) I take a lousy picture, 2) my hair is gray and 3) I am a an ORGAN DONOR

12. Way out : DOOR

13. Spanning: Abbr. : ACR - The Royal Gorge Bridge near Canon City, CO spans ACRoss the Arkansas river at 1,000 ft up but all you can do is cross it and turn right around and come back

21. Only NFC team that hasn't played in a Super Bowl : LIONS

22. Talks acronym : TED - Thought provoking online talks about Technology, Entertainment and Design. See more at ted.com 

25. Area of expertise : WHEELHOUSE - Give me the microphone to talk about space and I'm good to go!

26. Nasser's org. : UAR - In last Saturday's puzzle it was 15. Group formed in Cairo in 1945 : ARAB LEAGUE 

27. Caviar : ROE

28. Key of Beethoven's Ninth: Abbr. : D MIN - This choral part still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up!

29. Tie on the farm : YOKE 

30. Talk big : CROW - Peter Pan's self aggrandizing anthem 

31. Not esta or esa : OTRA - Not esta (this) or esa (that) but OTRA (another)

36. "Foucault's Pendulum" author : ECO - Umberto ECO's satirical novel

37. Crew member : TAR - Or gob, swab, swabbie, salt, sea dog...


38. Apollo 11 lander : EAGLE - "Houston, Tranquility Base here, the EAGLE has landed"

41. "See ya later" : OKAY BYE 

44. Fish market offering : SEA BASS

46. NFL threes : FGS - The behemoths play for 59 minutes and then the smallest guy on the squad comes in to decide the game with his kicking

47. Facebook reversal : UNLIKE - I had to "UNFRIEND" several people in 2016 because I got tired of them 56. Expel strongly : SPEWing their political opinions whether I agreed or not. There's a time and place

48. Word in Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy : NOBLER - Sometimes it is NOBLER to "suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" than to "take arms against a sea of trouble." Hill worth dying on?

51. "My man!" : BRAH - Brother -> Bro -> BRAH

52. Cross a stream, perhaps : WADE

53. English : John :: Slavic : __ : IVAN In Spanish, it would be Juan and 约翰 in Chinese

54. Girasol, e.g. : OPAL - Yeah, I didn't know either. Also called Moon Opal

55. Sci-fi character voiced by Frank Oz : YODA - Oh, that's how it's done!

57. Green moisture : DEW - Early golfers are called "DEW Sweepers"

Time now for your pertinent or impertinent remarks:

DA GRID