Saturday Themeless by Wendy L. Brandes and John Lieb
Wendy is a lawyer, professor and children’s book author. Her puzzles have appeared in the Inkubator, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Boswords and Universal Crosswords. When she is not thinking about crosswords, she can be found knitting, engaging in vicious games of Catan, or rooting on the Yankees, Rangers, Giants and Swarthmore Garnet.
John is from Philadelphia but now lives in West Roxbury, MA. where he teaches math at Roxbury Latin School. He attended The Haverford School in Haverford, PA and studied math at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.
His FaceBook page contains personal information and this wonderful picture. As for the picture, John was kind enough to write: The story of the outfit is that at my school, the day before Spring Break is a dress down/costume day, and the Elvis costume was my outfit a few years back. Fun to walk around as the King for a day...
I made good time solving Wendy and John's puzzle. I found very little drek and skated around very nicely and I'll point out some of my favs. I think our friend Irish will like the dearth of 3-letter fill: COT EOS SAT SRS SUE TEM TKO
1. __ board: ABOVE - Here it is and its opposite
6. Crab organ: GILL.
10. Rumple: MUSS.
14. 24/7, say: RATIO - The RATIO of women to men public school teachers is approximately 3:1
15. One of the Three Rivers Stadium rivers: OHIO - The stadium was named in February 1969 for its location at the confluence of the Allegheny River and Monongahela River, which forms the Ohio River. It has since been torn down.
16. Opposing: ANTI.
17. Like the lines in a Mondrian painting: CRISS CROSS - Piet Mondrian's works have sold for $50M. No, really!!
19. "Sourced from the same material" abbr.: IBID - I loathed typing footnotes and bibliographies. Word makes it easier I'm told.
20. Baseball family name: ALOU.
21. McIntosh product: APPLESAUCE - I filled in APPLESAUCE and then had to see that an "a" was not in the name of the product. 🙄
23. Make potable, as seawater: DESALT - The Carlsbad DESALt plant near San Diego makes 50 millions gallons of water per day.
25. "Buona __": SERA - Good evening in Italian
26. Letters that end a fight: TKO 😀
27. Small holes: EYELETS.
29. Cholesterol drug: STATIN.
31. Spotted: CALICO.
34. Bread in a skillet: PONE - Corn PONE bread
35. Reluctant agreement: YOU'RE NOT WRONG - I'll bet the next word in this dialogue is "but"
39. Sumptuous: LUXE - I've never used it or heard it used
41. Actress Milano: ALYSSA.
44. One who may taunt "Mom loves me best": SIBLING - Remember the recent word of nibling?
48. Pro __: TEM- Translation: "For the time being". The Vice President is the president of the Senate but in his or her absence there is a president PRO TEM. The current one is Patty Murray of Washington state.
49. Diamond appraisers?: UMPS 😀
52. Waver: TEETER.
53. "Sesame Street" song that's complete rubbish?: I LOVE TRASH.
56. __ latte: CHAI - We see CHAI so often here that I will stop adding that it is Chinese for tea
57. Added amount: MORE.
58. Threat to global stability: ROGUE STATE.
60. Viola Davis achievement, in brief: EGOT.
61. "Now!": ASAP.
62. Reduces to tiny bits: RICES.
63. Some tax IDs: SSNS.
64. Big name in salad dressing: KEN'S - We like KEN'S but we love Dorothy Lynch Dressing that is made in Columbus, NE
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| I'm not sure Dave did such a great job! |
Down:
1. Boardwalk business: ARCADE.
2. Grain used in animal feed: BARLEY.
3. Useless: OTIOSE.
4. Red and green lights, e.g.: VISUAL CUES - Some people don't pay all that much attention to those cues
5. Aurora's counterpart: EOS - Godesses of Dawn
6. Fuel for climbers: GORP Most recognize gorp to be an acronym for its four main ingredients, "granola, oats, raisins, and peanuts.
7. Places with stacks of silver dollars: I HOPS 😀 - Here's five of them
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| From the 1920's |
10. Mother of Hermes: MAIA - It (had to) filled itself in
12. Gecko's specialty: STICKING.
13. Focus of some record keepers?: SIDE ONE - It could be an alternate for A-SIDE and B-SIDE but I like this:
SIDE ONE is playing below in this two-record set with side two on the top of the upper record. When Side two finishes playing, the two records are flipped over and side three will now play which is on the back of the upper record. Side four is on the back of the lower record.
18. Source of the Dutton family's wealth on "Yellowstone": CATTLE.
22. Didn't play: SAT.
24. Part of a billionaire's jet set?: LEAR - 10 billionaires with jets more expensive than LEARS
28. Trespasses: SINS - We Congregationalists asked to have our "debts forgiven" while the Methodists across the street were doing the same with their "trespasses".
30. Furious and then some: APOPLECTIC.
32. Help in turning a double into a triple: COT 😀 We used a rollaway.
33. Beverly Cleary's "__ Spofford": OTIS.
35. Treats baked in Swiss roll pans: YULE LOGS.
37. Squirm: WRITHE.
38. __ Goldberg machine: RUBE - You figure out what it does. 😀
39. W. Coast daily: LA TIMES.
42. Jane's "Glee" role: SUE - Jane Lynch as the P.E. teacher
42. Jane's "Glee" role: SUE - Jane Lynch as the P.E. teacher
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45. End of a course in Greek literature?: ITHACA - ITHACA is the home and kingdom of Odysseus, and it is the place he most desires to return to. It represents Odysseus' love for his home, family, and an end to his long and arduous journey. Yeah, I knew that. 😗
46. More like a Marie Kondo disciple: NEATER - An organizer guru
50. Essay text: PROSE.
51. Carl who said, "We are made of star-stuff": SAGAN.
54. Checks out: VETS.
55. Takes late courses: SUPS 😀 Uh, that's meal courses.
59. Sch. team captains, often: SRS.
