Saturday, August 24, 2019, Ed Sessa

Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa

A breakfast favorite takes center stage today as we celebrate National Waffle Day. A beautiful waffle covered with maple syrup and and some strips of bacon? Yum, yum!

Of course this prompts the story of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair when an ice cream vendor ran out of little dishes in his booth but Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire in the booth next door, saw the solution. Using his waffle-like pastry - zalabias, he formed a cone, put the ice cream in it and, voila, a new treat was born - The Waffle Cone!

Our constructor, Dr. Ed Sessa featured a triple 13-stack in the middle like our Postlandia constructor Evan Kalish did two weeks ago. Now let's see what else Dr. Sessa has prescribed for us. A spoonful of sugar (gettable long fills) made this go down very nicely. 

Across:

1. Karate match exchanges: BOWS.

5. Nickname for Chicago's Ernie Banks: MR CUB - Ernie is always listed as one of the greatest (and nicest) players to have never been to a world series with his then hapless Cubs.

10. Gradually decrease: WANE.

14. Chamber phenomenon: ECHO.

15. Campaign suspensions: CEASE FIRES - Neither a CEASE FIRE, a truce or an armistice  is a peace treaty.

17. Biting: ACID.

18. Gadgets with small rotary blades: CAN OPENERS - A lost art?

19. Pub nibbles: NUTS.

20. Corrida shout: OLE - The barbarity of bull fighting repulses me

21. Christmas hymn start: ADESTE - Former students at big box stores tell me the Christmas stuff is filling up their storage areas. (ADESTE shoppers - O Come All Ye Shoppers)

22. Vent opening?: PRE -Late Middle English (in the sense ‘act in anticipation of’): from Latin praevent- ‘preceded, hindered’, from the verb praevenire, from prae ‘before’ + venire ‘come’. (etymonline.com)

23. One in a gun show?: GYM RAT 

25. Ax wielder, at times: BOSS - Well, he/she is the BOSS...

26. Lover of Euridice, in a Gluck opera: ORFEO (Italian for Orpheus) - If you must know

28. Anaheim stadium nickname: BIG A.

30. 1843 story narrated by a murderer, with "The": TELL TALE HEART - Poe's short story of a guilty conscience that became a 56.
Heavy burdens: MILLSTONES around the murderer's neck

35. Finger in the dike, so to speak: DAMAGE CONTROL - What my [insert candidate] meant to say...

37. Out until tomorrow: GONE FOR THE DAY - A NASA guy might be "Out To Launch"

39. Essential nutrient: SALT.

40. Split for a union: ELOPE - This cluing flummoxed me

41. Gush: SPEW.

44. Meteorological line: ISOBAR - ISOBARS connect points of the same pressure. It was a windy day in Delaware below

48. Units for many staples: Abbr.: LBS 

49. Blowup sound: KABOOM.

51. Bumped into: MET.

52. Didn't make it through committee, as a bill: DIED - Bills to legalize casino gambling have DIED year after year in our unicameral 

53. Beyond reason: INORDINATE - This summer's INORDINATE number of butterflies are very welcome

55. Land in a lake: ISLE.

57. Wonder Woman gal pal __ Candy: ETTA.

58. Pompano kin: SCAD.

POMPANO                                 SCAD

59. Black-necked shorebird: STILT - Like SCAD, this is wildlife out of my ken 

Black Necked Stilt

60. World power initials until 1991: USSR.

Down:

1. Slow cooker associated with Boston: BEAN POT - My friend said Bostonians hate "Beantown" as much as San Franciscans hate "Frisco"

2. Went down, in a way: OCCURRED.

3. Yield sign?: WHITE FLAG - One sports writer called a bad relief pitcher a "human WHITE FLAG"

4. Puts down roots: SODS.

5. "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer" doctor: MCCOY.

6. King's domain: REALM.

7. Worker with rattan: CANER - We had this in a daily puzzle recently

8. "For the Boys" org.: USO.

9. Advice for the itchy: BE PATIENT - Nebraskans are itchy for the start of football season

10. Port vessel: WINE BARREL - BARRELS full of Cockburn's Port WINE near Porto, Portugal 

11. "You __ lucky!": ARE SO.

12. "Fiddlesticks!": NERTS.

13. Pair of shoes?: ESSES - Yes, ShoeS has two ESSES

16. Ness, for one: FED - FED accountants did more to put Al Capone away than FED (g-man) Elliot Ness

23. Was a whiz on a quiz: GOT AN A - Curve wrecker!

24. Can't stand: ABHOR.

27. "Sesame Street" segment: ELMO'S WORLD.

29. Round up: GATHER.

31. Certain eligibility rules: AGE LIMITS - Alcohol AGE LIMITS for every country (scroll down below map)

32. Ali hooks, at times: LEFTS - Ali was not only good at throwing LEFT hooks he was incredible at avoiding them

33. "The Name of the Rose" author: ECO - If you must know

34. Work plans: TO DO LISTS - Mine grew from one to four last week due to my cell phone availability 

36. Safety features that have evolved since their inception: LAP BELTS - Neither mom nor baby seem safe here in these early models

38. Spousal consent: YES DEAR - "A soft answer turneth away wrath"

41. Works on pools: SKIMS.

42. __ attack: PANIC - Tony Soprano's Achilles Heel. The ducks he had bonded with flying away triggered this one

43. Target of a new vaccine: EBOLA.

45. Spender of rials: OMANI - This bucket would cost an OMANI 3.8 OMR (OMani Rials) or $9.78

46. Stimulating nut: BETEL - Chewing this nut can have horrible consequences. Google at your own peril

47. '50s headline event: A-TEST - The first A (bomb) -TEST was conducted in 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico as a successful conclusion of the Manhattan Project

50. Takes in too much, for short: ODS - See BETEL nut above

52. Spirit of Notre-Dame: DIEU - Que DIEU bénisse Notre Dame (May God bless Notre Dame)

54. "__ my problem": NOT - A mantra for some of us at this popsicle stand

Now don't waffle (you had to see that coming), we'd love to read your comments:

                                                                                                                                             

Saturday, August 17, 2019, Michael Ashley

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Michael Ashley

August 17th has been designated  to celebrate one of my favorite things in the world: The #2 Pencil! Like all of you, I have done the puzzle online occasionally and have also been forced to use a, gasp, ink pen but the old Ticonderoga #2 is my fav. All right, I am partial to the Paper Mate Sharpwriter too because it has a good eraser!

Someday this math/physics teacher will understand why students always seem to have a plethora of ink pens, markers and even crayons but hardly ever a #2 wooden pencil. I bought many boxes of them over the years and handed them out daily - usually to the same kids!

Today's constructor is Michael Ashley and this is a reposting from my blog of his puzzle on 10/27/18: I lived nearly 20 years in Manhattan, New York, and have now lived with my wife and two children in Scottsdale, Arizona, since 1993. Besides being a maniacal online chess buff, in my spare time I dabble at another sport which, on my better days, strongly resembles golf. 

Irrespective of what implement or technology you employed to solve Michael's offering, let's review its content. For me it was a quite fast but pleasant experience with, as usual, the long fills opening the floodgates.

Across:

1. Cute but nerdy: ADORKABLE - Congrats if you knew this, uh, cute portmanteau (ADORABLE/DORK)

10. Praises highly: LAUDS.

15. Area adjoining a bridge: RADAR ROOM - This bridge is one from which the ship is commanded and the RADAR ROOM supplies data for its safe passage

16. Hall of fame: ANNIE - A Woody Allen/Diane Keaton film

17. "Search me": I'VE NO IDEA

18. Service period: STINT - The hash marks on Command Master Chief Marilyn E. Kennard's sleeve indicate she has served many STINTS in the Navy

19. "Red Rocks" city: SEDONA, AZ from the air

20. Epic: BIG.

22. Vermont tourist destinations: INNS - Bob Newhart's TV Stratford INN in Vermont was really the Wayward Inn in Middlebury, VT

23. Animated queen: NALA - Disney's new live-action remake of The Lion King features Beyonce voicing NALA

25. Inc. relative: LLC - Limited Liability Corporation 

27. Match at the poker table: SEE.

28. Make a pick: OPT.

31. "My Way" singer, 1998: USHER - Definitely not Sinatra nor my cuppa tea

33. Jimmy: PRY - Forgot your key? Derivation of the term

34. Half a comedy duo: MEARA - My first encounter with them

Ed Sullivan, Ann Meara, Jerry Stiller

37. Apart from the rest: TO ONE SIDE.

39. Title voice actor in "Puss in Boots" (2011): ANTONIO BANDERAS - Ok

41. "Feels like" weather calculation: HEAT INDEX - We had a week of HEAT INDICES near 115F and now it has turned very nice

42. Be a debtor of: OWE TO 

43. DOJ branch: ATF.

Moire Pattern

44. Wavelike pattern: MOIRE - Wazzat?

45. Man cave, for some: DEN.

46. Bud: BRO.

47. Wrap up: END 

48. Very: SUCH.

52. Work to acquire: EARN.

54. Retract, as words: EAT -  Try to make your words very sweet, for you may have to EAT them!

56. '60s-'70s crime drama: THE FBI - Efrem Zimbalist Jr. was the star

60. Dogpatch name: ABNER - It's a Li'l name

62. Common epidemic factor: CONTAGION.

64. Veil: CLOAK- A dagger can be an accessory

65. Fronded rainforest plants: TREE FERNS.

66. Conform with: HEW TO - Many politicians HEW TO the dictates of their party or else...

67. United Federation of Planets service: STAR FLEET - "To boldly go..."

Down:

1. Onassis and others: ARIS - Another might be Fleishner 

2. 1993 Kevin Kline title role: DAVE.

3. Had too much: ODED - My Netflix bingeing might qualify

4. Was loquacious: RAN ON - I have a SIL who does that. She never fails to talk for ten minutes when ten seconds would suffice. TMI!

5. Icelandic monetary unit: KRONA - A KRONA = $.0081

6. Easy-to-read font: ARIAL.

7. Hunk's pride: BOD - Redux from last week

8. "Firecracker" singer Lisa: LOEB - Here ya go!

9. Online forgeries: EMAIL HOAXES - I'd be suspicious of EMAIL from that Nigerian Prince

10. Avila article: LAS - In Avila, Spain the plural of cockroaches would be LAS cucarachas

11. Not a source of support for: ANTI.

12. Trite: UNINSPIRED - I suspect most editors say this of unsolicited manuscripts 

13. Start of many a romance: DINNER DATE 

14. Catches sight of: SETS EYES ON - A memorable moment for millions

21. Close in films: GLENN - Her IMDB listings

24. Self-taught people: AUTODIDACTS - An interesting take here:

26. System of belief: CREDO.

28. D-Day hot spot: OMAHA BEACH - So many brave men died there 75 years ago

29. Porous: PENETRABLE - Bad football defenses can are often called porous 

30. Casual parting words: TATA FOR NOW - Way too cheesy for me

32. Not at all high: SOBER.

35. Go to seed: ROT - Dandelions breaking down and going to seed

36. "The Red Turtle" genre: ANIME.

38. Mend, in a way: SEW.

40. Words after all or hole: IN ONE - My first thought for all-in-one

49. Speak: UTTER.

50. Threshing remains: CHAFF - Wheat CHAFF dispensed out the back of this John Deere combine

51. German idealism pioneer: HEGEL - Here 'ya go

53. Spruce: NEAT - I use it with "up" as in Spruce Up something 

55. Libel or slander: TORT.

This site says - 1 is a crime, 2 is a tort and 3 could be either one

57. Gift from Prometheus: FIRE.

58. Joint component: BONE - 82% of NFL career-ending injuries occur with an injury at this confluence of BONE joints

59. Research ctr.: INST - Like the Massachusetts INSTitute of Technology 

61. One of the Big Five in Hollywood's Golden Age: RKO.

63. Org. awarded a Special Tony in 2016: NEA - The National Endowment For The Arts 

Perhaps in your comment, you can tell us what instrument you used to complete the puzzle.