Saturday, September 1, 2018, Greg Johnson

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Greg Johnson

Today literally kicks off a big time of year for my Huskers as it is the first football game with a new coach, Scott Frost, who is a Nebraska native and was the QB for the last Husker National Champion team.
This first Saturday in September also marks National Tailgating Day across the country as college football finally gets going. As you can see in this picture in Lincoln, tailgating has progressed mightily from setting refreshments on the tailgate of a pickup to tents and motor homes lining the streets outside memorial stadium and across the country with full buffets.

Husker fans are famous for spotting opposition fans and inviting them in to have a bite. Today, some Akron Zip supporters will dine alfresco with Nebraska Cornhusker fans who make the stadium the third largest city in the state for that day and where games have been complete sellouts for well over 50 years.

GO BIG RED!

Constructing for us today is Greg Johnson and this is my third Saturday puzzle of his I have blogged. I used my search and destroy method of solving and had one bad cell. For some reason, I knew SHASTI was a perfectly fine Hindu word and ON GO made some sense but it turns out SHAKTI/OK GO was the correct path. Now you can do your Don Adams rendition of Maxwell Smart saying his famous catch phrase.

Let's see what else Greg has for us today:

Across:

1. Reality show whose Dutch version was called "Now or Neverland": FEAR FACTOR - No pictures here as many of their stunts involved snakes, spiders and other fauna in some very close encounters

11. Conceal: MASK - Some meds just MASK the pain

15. "Now, look ... ": LISTEN HERE.

16. "Hairspray" mom: EDNA  - A conversion that took five hours every day of filming

17. Ballpark figure: ATTENDANCE - Teams list number of tickets sold, not how many seats actually had occupants

18. Film noir crime fighters: T-MEN - Treasury officers

19. Calendar abbr.: THU.

20. "__: Cyber": CSI - A CBS spinoff series that was cancelled in 2016

21. Fluctuates: VARIES.

23. Marsh growth: SEDGE - European Meadow Sedge used in a landscape

European Meadow SEDGE

25. Dinette piece with cupboards: CREDENZA - I've always associated CREDENZAS with formal dining room sets but I don't get out much

27. City on the Oka: OREL.

28. Org. in "This Film Is Not Yet Rated": MPAA - A documentary about how ratings are determined

30. Starts to slip and slide?: ESSES - Slip and Slide

31. Collection area: DONATION BOX - Some churches have a POOR BOX near the exit that try to tap into your aura of holiness as you leave

34. Chrysler Building style: ART DECO - This beautiful building was the world's tallest for a year

35. Source of suds: BREW PUB - BREW PUBS feature beers made on-site such as this one in Toronto

40. Label on some foreign goods: MADE IN CHINA - Hmmm...

42. Colorful almanac pg.: US MAP - I wonder if this map we had for our kids was MADE IN CHINA

46. For calorie counters: LITE.

47. Enjoying the Smithsonian, briefly: IN DC - We had breakfast with our friend and U.S. Senator Ben Sasse when we were IN D.C.

48. Pirates rival: PHILLIES - MLB

50. Fire starter: SPARK - If you teach/taught science, I'll bet you've done this

51. Drama set in '60s Manhattan: MAD MEN - A fabulous 4 min scene about MAD MEN and renaming Kodak's "Wheel." 22. 51-Across bigwig: AD EXEC Don Draper shows the art of advertising at its highest level.

52. Music genre: POP - MOP, BOP, RAP, nope

54. Spare a friend's feelings, maybe: FIB  - "Does this dress make me look fat?"

55. "Your turn": OK GO.

56. One level higher than: A STEP ABOVE - See preceding picture

60. British weapon acronym: STEN  - A submachine gun made by Reginald Sheperd and Harold Turpin at The Royal Small Arms Factory at ENfield

61. Source of shade: WOODED AREA.

62. Like apron strings: TIED

63. Temptation: ENTICEMENT.


Down:

1. Result of a gas shortage?: FLAT SODA - Dr. Wife's secret weapon

2. Must-choose situation: EITHER OR.

3. Top performer: A-STUDENT - Sam Cooke sang Now, I don't claim to be an A-STUDENT, But I'm trying to be. For maybe by being an A-STUDENT, baby, I can win your love for me. Name that tune! 

4. Cal.'s 101, e.g.: RTE - We took this Pacific Coast Highway tour a few years ago

5. Thrust and parry: FENCE - With your epee, perhaps

6. Words between partners?: ANDS - A partnership whose lyrics are quoted often here

7. Starbucks tea: CHAI - CHAI is the Hindi word for tea from cha the Chinese word for tea

8. Common base: TEN - An outgrowth of our number of fingers by most accounts

9. Mordor menace: ORC - For $70 this ORC costume, from Lord Of The Rings,  is yours for Halloween

10. "The Canterbury Tales" estate manager: REEVE  - Here it is a sample of how Chaucer wrote of OSEWOLD the REVE and how it is translated

11. Liverpool lengths: METRES.

12. Online forum VIPs: ADMINS - Ours head ADMIN. here is a lovely lady named C.C.

13. Eyes-closed event: SNEEZE

14. "The Wizard of Oz" setting: KANSAS.

24. Rags or bags lead-in: GLAD  - I'll bet you know the song that starts "Put your glad RAGS on and join me hon"

25. Fire: CAN - I've been lots of things but never FIRED/CANNED

26. Multiplication symbol?: RABBIT.

28. Mineral in thin sheets: MICA.

29. Smart dog: POODLE - I don't know if Greg was  going for something like this or being fashionable. Of course I chose the lowbrow option. 😬

32. Mayan structure: TEMPLE.

33. Landlocked Normandy department: ORNE - Departments (départements) in France are administrative levels below the national level. ORNE is Department #61 below in the southern Normandy area.

36. Light and fluffy dessert: WHIP  - We use Cool WHIP

37. Garment in a Gilbert and Sullivan title: PINAFORE - I don't know any show-stoppers from this comic opera

38. Like a car in storage: UNDRIVEN  - MIL drives her '92 Olds every two weeks or so and I bought a charger to "jump" her car when necessary

39. Syncopated rhythmic element: BACKBEAT - A quick tutorial on BACKBEATS in drumming and playing bass

41. Frozen Wasser: EIS - Unser Freund Andy mag EIS in seinen Getränken nicht (Our friend Andy does not like ice in his drinks)

42. Loftiest: UPMOST - synonym for UPPERMOST

43. Cosmic energy, in Hinduism: SHAKTI - Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki (lit.: Strength of feeling of existence) is a Hindi Soap Opera

44. Tiny Tootsie Roll: MIDGEE.

45. __ butter: ALMOND.

49. Amazed: IN AWE  - Skeptical Simon was IN AWE of Susan Boyle after she started singing

50. One of four ... and of thirteen: SPADE - So simple now...

52. Service with painted nails: PEDI - PEDI? Maybe. Paint? Never!

53. Gp. with many barrels: OPEC - I think most of us remember the OPEC oil embargo of the 70's

58. Youngster: TOT.

59. Loud sound: BAM - Half the name of Barney and Betty's 57. Youngster's address: SON.

Go ahead and comment if you have finished watching your favorite college football game today. If my Huskers do not clobber the Akron Zips today, I am in for a long autumn!

DA GRID:

Saturday, August 25, 2018, Patti Varol and Doug Peterson

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Patty Varol and Doug Peterson

What could be a better followup to yesterday's ICE CREAM puzzle by Jeffrey Wechsler than a day that celebrates one of the true delights made with it? 

Latrobe, PA is famous for being the home of golfing legend Arnold Palmer but in 1904 an apprentice pharmacist in Latrobe, David Strickland, invented a banana triple ice cream sundae that sold for a dime which was twice the price of other sundaes and it was a huge hit. Strickler bought the drug store and although his invention endures, the building was torn down years ago.

Latrobe is celebrating The Great American Banana Split Festival yesterday, today and tomorrow with many events. I wonder if anyone washes down a banana split with an Arnold Palmer? 

On this day celebrating this legendary sweet treat, Patty Varol and Doug Peterson have concocted this lovely puzzle that entertained me greatly but took 23 minutes before I could put the cherry on top! Patty is our esteemed editor Rich's very able assistant as well as being a constructor herself and I have received some great feedback from her and some "thanks, but no thanks" notes as well. I blogged a puzzle Doug constructed with Neville Fogarty this past February.

Patty Varol                    Doug Peterson

Let's see what else Patty and Doug have for us today as this (soda) jerk tries to make sense of it:

Across:

1. Knot remover: NECK RUB 

8. Not pointless?: ON TOPIC - Politicians always steer debate back to their talking points rather than staying ON TOPIC

15. Took too many courses?: OVER ATE - We had Thanksgiving FOOD COMA recently which could include the portmanteau 21. Hybrid roast: TURDUCKEN (a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck stuffed into a turkey)

16. "Marvelous": HOW NICE.

17. Sent along: RELAYED - Norman Rockwell captures Americana as well as anyone

18. One pulling his weight around Christmas: BLITZEN  - But neither he nor his friends would let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games

19. Caper: ANTIC.

20. Stuff on the deck: STAIN - After 15 years we have given up on STAINING and a 37. House coat: PAINT JOB and so we are installing a synthetic deck this week

22. Proactiv target: ZIT.

23. European underground nickname: THE TUBE.

25. Forbids: BANS.

26. Flood insurance, once upon a time: ARK - Professor Paul Esperante and others believe this could be the remains of Noah's ARK in Eastern Turkey near Mt. Ararat

29. Copycat's talent: APERY - I suppose... 

30. Alley goop: TAR - I like the play on Alley Oop! 

31. Toasting candidate: RYE BREAD

33. Grizabella the Glamour Cat's solo: MEMORY - It is the show stopper from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Cats

36. Single from Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks": TANGLED UP IN BLUE - Has never crossed my turntable, CD player or MP3 device

38. Some navels: INNIES.

39. Puerto Rico's __ de Morro: CASTILLO - CASTILLO (San Felipe) de Morro 

40. Hosp. sections: ERS where they are prepared to 58. Do an inside job?: OPERATE if need be

41. Warehouse supplies: SKIDS.

42. Darn things: SEW.

43. Vince with 18 CMA Awards: GILL - Not familiar with any of Vince's work that got him those Country Music Awards

45. Lacking versatility: ONE NOTE - Can you decipher this equivalent phrase? (* answer below grid at end of blog)

47. Raised eyebrow, e.g.: ARC.

48. Nine Inch Nails founder Reznor: TRENT - Okay

49. Stomach: ABIDE - Do you, like me, no longer ABIDE things you did years ago?

53. Brewery sugar: MALTOSE.

55. Where old records may be kept: JUKEBOX - Five plays for a quarter in my 6. Sporty truck, briefly: UTE (Yeah, I know it's a Utility Vehicle but I couldn't resist)

57. Congo line?: EQUATOR - Here are people in the Democratic Republic Of Congo (formerly Zaire and Belgian Congo) standing on said line

59. Fair rewards: RIBBONS - Granddaughter got many purples at the Lancaster County Fair this year

60. Small restaurants: BISTROS.


Down:

1. "Brothers & Sisters" matriarch: NORA - NORA is played by...

2. Square: EVEN - Game sevens are played when the series is EVEN at three games apiece 

3. Gael, for one: CELT

4. Nocturnal Asian snake: KRAIT - India's deadliest, 10X more poisonous than a cobra

5. Singer ranked #10 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time: RAY CHARLES - Too many hits to pick a favorite but this one always moves me

7. Framework for retiring: BED STEAD - No IRA here

8. "Yowza!": OH BABY - Sounds like a Ray Charles lyric to me

9. "Honestly!": NO LIE - Truman won??

10. Matching: TWIN - The TWINS and their mother - Joyce, Martha and my bride  Joann

11. Toronto's prov.: ONT - Would you do The Edge Walk from the 1800' foot tall Toronto, ONTARIO CN tower?

12. Party bites from the toaster oven: PIZZA ROLLS - A fav around here

13. Maroon at a chalet, maybe: ICE IN - A meteorological event not a color scheme 

14. Coppers: CENTS  - A man in England was not allowed to pay a £800 debt using 166 kg (365 lbs) of these 1 cent coppers

24. Olympic gear: EPEES.

25. Film fawn: BAMBI - Disney refused to let the National Forest Service use BAMBI in their anti-fire PDA's after one year and so Smokey the Bear was invented in 1944

26. Basic studio class: ART I - My college class so-named was boring beyond belief because all we did was take notes

27. "Deadpool" actor Reynolds: RYAN - Deadpool is the highest grossing R-rated movie of all time

28. Group concerned with good breeding: KENNEL CLUB - Looking like your owner is not necessary 

30. Camper's anchors: TENT STAKES - Not quite enough here. Definitely a 33. Bungle: MISDO.

32. Speakeasy circulator: B-GIRL - Father Mulcahy, "Why Hawkeye, I earned my way through divinity school as a B-GIRL in San Francisco!"

34. Word with home or slide: RULE - I might as well show my math students a buggy whip as much as a slide RULE. 

35. Stinging response: YEOW.

41. Ugly looks: SNEERS.

43. Xbox devotee: GAMER - How many hours/day is too many?

44. Kirkuk native: IRAQI - McDonalds is not allowed in Northern Iraq so... 

45. Name on "The Magnificent Ambersons" theater poster: ORSON - Mercury Players ORSON Wells, Agnes Morehead, Joseph Cotten, et al moved on to this project after Citizen Kane.

46. Pulitzer-winning film critic: EBERT - Of the above movie, EBERT wrote, "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942, a masterpiece with its ending hacked to pieces by the studio...)

48. Terry's role in the original "Wizard of Oz": TOTO - Terry/TOTO's memorial at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery (dog picture for our Irish Miss)

50. Structural beam: I-BAR - A baby I-BEAM?

51. Inflict on: DO TO - "What did you DO TO your hair?"

52. They're split: EXES - George Strait sings that all his EXES live in Texas while he hangs his hat in Tennessee. 

54. Check for drinks: TAB = Jay Z's bar TAB that included an $11,000 tip. I've never heard of Ace Of Spades Champagne. 

56. Org. with an "Odd News" web page: UPI - They recently led with a Calgary Museum that says it now has the world's largest working Rubik's Cube

If you can't get away to Latrobe, PA for the festivities today, why not leave a comment:

DA GRID:

*45 Across deciphered is "One Trick Pony"