Saturday, March 17, 2018, Alan Olschwang

A THEMELESS SAINT PATRICK'S DAY SATURDAY WITH ALAN OLSCHWANG

Another worthy Saturday puzzle! I fell for the bait and switch mode as the entire top tier fell easily after which I found I was in for a real fight. The triple stack of grid spanners was very impressive and helpful. I was so proud I got 39. Event on a fall highlight reel : INTERCEPTED PASS with

 I _ T _ _ _ _ P _ _  D P _ A _. 

Interestingly, those spanners made for a disproportionate number of Down clues as the 45 cells of the spanners didn't leave room for the usual number of horizontal entries.

Here is an interview in 2009 with Alan conducted by C.C. where he reveals he is a retired lawyer who developed his love of crosswords by watching his Dad do them in ink so he, of course, eschews using a pencil.

I hope this St. Patty's Day finds you in fine fettle and that you got the same pleasure out of the puzzle that I did!

Let's start with the wonderful stacked grid spanners:

29. Hose : PAIR OF STOCKINGS - Each Radio City Rockette here is sporting a lovely PAIR OF STOCKINGS! 

38. "Mom," e.g. : SITUATION COMEDY - Of all the SITUATION COMEDIES available, Alan chose this one

39. Event on a fall highlight reel : INTERCEPTED PASS - Some think this Malcom Butler INTERCEPTED PASS was the most important of all time as it won Super Bowl XLIX (I'm not sure why 49 is not IL). Some also say it was the dumbest play call in history.

Here's the balance of the former barrister's clues 

Across

1. Surfers' banes : WIPEOUTS - Talk about spectacular!

9. Figures in Spanish skating : OCHOS - Figure 8's. Cool cluing!

14. Caught : IN A SNARE

15. Concord, for one : GRAPE - Not a PLANE as it turns out

16. NBC slogan that covered "Hill Street Blues," among others : MUST SEE TV - When I watched this scene from Hill Street my jaw dropped when Belker delivered this "best ever TV line" starting at 1:00. Worth the wait!

18. Took on cargo : LADED

19. Orchestra area : PIT

20. Some functionally limited applications : SHAREWARE - SHAREWARE all kids were playing in the late 70's - Lemonade Stand

22. WWII camp : STALAG - Some thought Hogan's Heroes set in STALAG 13 came out too soon after WWII

26. Feature of some lights : LESS TAR

27. NL West team : ARI - ARIZONA Diamondbacks

28. Wee : SMA - Here  is SMA in a Burns stanza with an explanation I truly needed!

40. Zebra kin : ASS - Speaking of kin that are ASSES...


41. "Blueberries for __": kids' book awarded a 1949 Caldecott Honor : SAL - Last Saturday SAL was the name Jack Kerouac took for himself in On The Road.

42. Newsletter editor's filler : CLIP ART - My first, although limited, access to images  for my files

47. Has an online chat with : SKYPES - We SKYPED our granddaughter in Grenoble, France last year. That sill amazes me!

51. Like evil villains : REDUNDANT - e.g. Absolutely essential, Fewer in number, Merge together... Others?

54. Skeletal start? : EXO - Great lobster meat lies beneath one which requires a nutcracker to break through 

55. Sluggish : INERT

56. One who's not at all graceful : SORE LOSER

60. Put on : STAGE - Speaking of losers...

61. Popular Canadian beer : LAKEPORT - New to me

62. Opposite ends : POLES

63. License requirements, perhaps : EYE TESTS - It took about 15 seconds for me last year. Not what you would call an exhaustive process

Down

1. Timid types : WIMPS

2. Arctic inhabitant : INUIT

3. Ristorante regular? : PASTA

4. World-record finish? : EST - The margins of victory for Usain Bolt, the FASTEST man in the world, in successive Olympics

5. Switch statuses : ONS - Switches have ONS and OFFS I guess. C.C. would call this "gluey fill" as it is less than desirable but is necessary to hold the puzzle together

6. Gulf states fed. : UAE - United Arab Emirates

7. Tijuana trio : TRES - Por favor, dénos TRES margaritas (Please give us three margaritas)

8. Newborn mentioned in Genesis 4:25 : SETH - Said to have been born after the death of his brother Abel 

9. Gives more than the once-over : OGLES

10. Crows' crops : CRAWS - Like this gull, a crow has a Crop or CRAW where excess food is stored for later digestion or feeding young

11. Attacked : HAD AT

12. Work often with subtitles : OPERA - My favorite aria with Italian and English subtitles

13. Where the same questions are asked annually : SEDER - A ritual Jewish passover feast held on the 15th of Nisan

17. 1989 Firth/Bening movie : VALMONT - Also a huge world-wide manufacturer of center pivot irrigation systems 10 minutes from here in Valley, NE

21. Log onto after a crash, say : REACCESS - Computer speak

23. "CSI: Miami" actress Eva : LARUE - Did Lash have grandchildren? 😏

24. Like the arena after the home team's winning goal : AROAR - Our old friend Marty hated the "A" words

25. Present with many options : GIFT CARD

28. Timetable listings : STOPS - I once asked a concierge in downtown Chicago what STOP I should look for on the Red Line to get out for the Cubs game. He looked at me and said, "If can't figure that out, you're the dumbest SOB in world! Just get out when everybody else does!" Uh, it was the Addison Ave. STOP.

29. Meas. checked at a garage : PSI - The low PSI warning light led me to find a nail in my tire last month

30. River to the Rhone : AIN - Europe seems full of rivers that are full of water and vowels

31. Former comm. giant : ITT

32. Shuteye sessions : SIESTAS


33. Brownie maker : KODAK - The camera of my ute!

34. Suggest : IMPLY

35. "Great Public Schools for Every Student" org. : NEA

36. Whse. filler : GDS - Hey, those are my initials as well as an abbr. for GOODS

37. __ admin : SYS  SYStem Administrator

42. Like fresh lettuce : CRISP

43. Slow tempo : LENTO - Not LARGO I guess

44. As good as it gets : IDEAL - Don't let IDEAL get in the way of possible

45. Completely cleanse : PURGE - His name is synonymous with that word to me

46. Asks for a hand? : ANTES - Ya gotta pay to play!

48. Monterrey jack : PESOS - Ah the euphemisms for money

49. Apply : EXERT

50. Gets ready to file : SORTS

52. NCAA 'Cane's rival : NOLE - The Seminole Nation Of Florida fully supports the use of SEMINOLE as Florida State's athletic nickname. Below tribe members are shown with the FSU homecoming king and queen

53. Airplane platform? : TRAY

57. Supplement, with "out" : EKE

58. Give leave : LET - I give you leave to comment on Alan's fine puzzle

59. "... thus wide I'll __ my arms": "Hamlet" : OPE - So spoke Laertes 

DA GRID

Tabhair do thuairim dúinn! (Please give us your opinion! in Gaelic)

 
Notes from C.C.:

Tried many times still could not reach Argyle yesterday. His friend Jennifer said Argyle had the phone off the hook by accident. She also said Argyle is still very tired and still groggy from medicine, but he's stable and doing OK. I'll update you when I have more news. Miss you, Santa!

 

Saturday, March 10, 2018, Daniel Nierenberg

A THEMELESS SATURDAY FROM DANIEL NIERENBERG

Daniel's pleasant Saturday offering was fun to do and provided a nice learning moment for landlocked Husker Gary! I had never heard of a 13. Boat-lifting device : DAVIT before but I found this picture of several DAVITS that were attached to lower the too few lifeboats on the Titanic. White Star had installed extra DAVITS for when rules were changed to require more lifeboats but those extras were empty on this maiden voyage of this "unsinkable" vessel. 

Let's see what else Daniel has for us on National Pack Your Lunch Day! I'll trade you my Fritos for a Hostess Cupcake! Across

1. Oceanic ecosystem : MARINE BIOME - Here's some biodiversity in a MARINE BIOME. There is probably no 46. Deep-water fish : OPAH in here

12. Common intruders : ADS - They not only interrupt the Super Bowl, they cost millions to air

15. Mexican sugar substitute : AGAVE NECTAR - There's something besides tequila made from Agave plants. Who knew?

16. Home Depot purchase : SAW 

17. Black-necked flier : CANADA GOOSE - Our golf course is rife with them and they are aggressive in the spring when their goslings are running around 

18. Knoxville energy agcy. : TVA - Part of FDR's alphabet programs that supplies power to parts of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi,Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

19. Sportscaster Andrews : ERIN - Andrews 

20. Bradlee in "The Post" : BEN - A movie with some people  named Hanks, Streep and Spielberg

21. 2013 Culinary Hall of Fame inductee : EMERIL

23. Key used in shortcuts : ALT- Here's what I get when I hit the ALT/Option key with each letter of the alphabet on my MacBook Pro - å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ω

24. Word of warning : PRIVATE - PRIVATE Property

25. Downer at a party? : DEBBIE - An unfortunate alliteration for all DEBBIES

29. Waterside accommodations : BOATEL - Someone has turned 7 defunct boats into floating accommodations  just south of NYC

30. Not dense, in a way : RURAL - Once you get past Omaha and Lincoln in my state, things really thin out

31. Lindy relative : JITTERBUG

34. Deuterium discoverer Harold : UREY - Deuterium was first known as heavy hydrogen but now we call it an isotope. TMI?

35. They usually have spines : CACTI

36. Ornate metalware : TOLE - My first thought was of trays like this

37. Spots for sports stands : GOAL LINES - Perhaps the most famous GOAL LINE STAND was in the 1967 "Ice Bowl" between the Cowboys and the Packers. Game time temp was -15˚F. Bart Starr followed a Jerry Kramer block on Jethro Pugh into the end zone for a Packer win

39. Forks over, formally : CEDES

40. Collaborate : TEAM UP

41. "Even so ... " : AND YET - Rex Harrison sings, "I know that I could always be that way again , AND YET..." Next line and song's title?

42. "Thunderball" setting : BAHAMAS

44. Try hard (for) : GUN - Every college class I took had a hated GUNNER. "Sir you forgot to give us an assignment!"

45. Had taken, as a portrait : SAT FOR

46. Tagged, perhaps : OUT - Got 'em! The shortstop started celebrating before he even made the tag.

47. Territorial marking : POST - Yeah, I thought of another way to mark territory too

51. It may build up gradually : IRE

52. Skeet participant : TRAP SHOOTER - As done north of the border at the right? 😜

55. Styling creations : DOS - HAIRDOS that is

56. Italian cooking staple : TOMATO PUREE

57. Tolkien creature : ENT

58. Mall attraction : ANCHOR STORE - Brick and mortar stores are under assault by technology these days


'Down


1. Medieval weapon : MACE 

2. Seaweed product : AGAR - A gelling agent seen at the top of this recipe

  3. Indian palace resident : RANI

4. One of the Karamazovs : IVAN - Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov and Alexi Fyodorovich Karamazov 

5. "Deliverance" co-star of Jon, Burt and Ronny : NED - The less said about poor NED Beatty's fate the better!

6. Allow : ENABLE - Last week a former student invited us to see him work as a "bull fighter" at a PRCA Rodeo in Council Bluffs, IA.  We saw him ENABLE a lot of cowboys to get away from some very nasty animals! What a way to make a living. He did get a bad sprained ankle that night but the show had to go on then and the next night also as the cowboys really depend on him and his partner.

7. Cause : BEGET - Some books of the Bible recount a lot of BEGETTING

8. Small program opener : ICON - On all our electronic desktops

9. Plains tribe : OTO

10. Classy wheels : MASERATI - You can drive this off the Omaha MASERATI lot today

11. Religious recluse : EREMITE - Merriman Webster - One that retires from society and lives in solitude especially for religious reasons. You're welcome. 

12. Vehicle for some spiritual experiences : ASTRAL BODY - Google if you're interested

14. Depressed area : SWALE

22. Turned inside out : EVERTED - The most common ankle injury is an inversion not an EVERSION

23. Not feel well : AIL

24. Mrs. __, head of the kitchen in "Beauty and the Beast" : POTTS - Literally a Tea POT voiced by Angela Lansbury

25. Numb, in a way : DRUG

26. Marseilles money : EURO -  €1,00 = $1.25

27. Erratic driver's comeuppance, perhaps : BREATH TEST

28. Pungent spice : BAY LEAF - Here seen adorning a Margherita Pizza

29. __ tendinitis: arm muscle ailment : BICEP - If it hurts, STOP!

31. Two-faced deity : JANUS

32. 1997 film character getting a lot of buzz? : ULEE - (Short for Ulysses) Our cinematic bee keeper Peter Fonda

33. Heroic adventure : GEST - Gary Cooper played one of the three GESTE brothers in this film and he does carry out a BEAU GESTE to protect his aunt's reputation 

35. 1931 Oscar-winning Western based on an Edna Ferber novel : CIMARRON - Two very different posters for the same movie

38. "Raging Bull" boxer : LAMOTTA - A 1980 role for Robert DeNiro portraying Jake LAMOTTA

39. "Wolf" channel : CNN - Wolf Blitzer. Tricky, tricky!


41. Mailer, for one : AUTHOR - Norman Mailer - This NASA guy would really like to read Mailer's article that postdates the Moon landing by a month. YES, we really went!!

42. Something in back of a hit? : B-SIDE - Elvis and the Beatles had lots of A and B Sides that were both hits

43. Packer quarterback Rodgers : AARON

44. Feature of Sousa's music : GUSTO - The March King was the "Rock Star" of his era

47. Sulk : POUT

48. Catchall survey opción : OTRO - Other in Spanish 

49. Carnival draw : SEER - Do you remember the Tom Hanks movie where Zoltar was the carnival SEER?

50. Street adornment : TREE 

53. "Preacher" network : AMC - Make you wanna tune in?

54. Black __ : OPS

DA GRID

What say you?