Saturday, February 27, 2021 Matthew Sewell

 Saturday Themeless by Matthew Sewell

Today's constructor is another in our long line of  PhDs - Matt Sewell. He is also part of the Minnesota Crossword Cabal and teaches literature and film at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Here are some comments from Matt:

Hello Gary, 

Thanks for inviting me to send some comments on this puzzle. My chief memory of its construction is of torturing myself over the SE; looking at my files, I see six different versions of that section (and those are just the ones I felt worth saving for consideration), each with its own balance of pros and cons. In a perverse way, that sifting process -- going  through scores of options to find the one that's just marginally better than the rest -- is a part of the craft that I really enjoy. Or at least I figure I *must* enjoy it, because I keep doing it! The puzzles I most admire are the ones where you can tell that the constructor never settled for 'good enough,' and that's what I strive for in my own. I hope solvers enjoy this one.

I'm grateful to Rich and the editing team for their improvements. Wish I'd thought of that clue for 56 Across!

Matt

Matt and I were on the same wavelength as I kept up a very good 61. Clip: PACE and finished in record time for a Saturday. 

Across:

1. From __: faintly: AFAR.

5. Demanding quality: RIGOR - Talk about requiring RIGOR

10. Yamaha's Grizzly and Kodiak, briefly: ATVS - Here's a $10,000 Grizzly

14. Francis used a Jeep Wrangler as one in 2015: POPE MOBILE.

16. Creep up on: NEAR.

17. Distortion for a cause: PROPAGANDA - Goebbels was a master at it

18. "Santa Claus and His Works" artist, 1866: NAST - Thomas NAST went from illustrations of the Civil War to creating the modern image of Santa Claus

19. Cloud-based access provider?: ST PETER - In the song Sixteen Tons Tennessee Ernie Ford sang, "SAINT PETER doncha call me cause I can't go. I owe my soul to the company store"
 
20. Silver Spring, Md., is part of it: DC AREA - It's a half-hour drive north of the Washington Monument 

22. Places to learn perspective: ART SCHOOLS - I remember my art teacher showing how Brunelleschi made a drawing of the Dumo in Florence with perspective

25. "Given what we know ... ": AS IT IS.

28. Likely to carry: LOUD 

29. Sanctions: OKS - Sanctions is a contronym because it can also mean to not OK

32. Its co-founder said, "I do get disappointed that so many members spend so much time solving puzzles": MENSA - Cool clue

33. French toast word: SANTE.

34. Dandy: FOP.

35. Irregular, as a job: ODD - ODD Job was Auric Goldfinger's servant

36. Most provocative: RACIEST.

38. Unsettle: JAR.

39. Backpacker's chain: REI - Recreational Equipment Incorporated will sell you this Rooftop Sparrow for 3,000 40. Bucks: CLAMS 

41. Provençal sauce: AIOLI.

43. Often eponymous period: ERA - Baseball had a "Dead Ball ERA" from 1900 - 1919 where the ball was much softer and one ball lasted the whole game. Then along came this guy named Ruth...

44. Engage: HIRE.

45. Feign interest in: PLAY AT - Joann watching TV golf with me 

46. Pick-up artists?: NEAT FREAKS - Oscar got so mad at NEAT FREAK Felix he threw his pasta against the wall

49. Dish from Valencian for "frying pan": PAELLA Here ya go!

51. To whom Brando said, "I coulda been a contender": STEIGER - Rod

55. Longtime morning host: RIPA.

56. One of several coming out together: LITTER MATE - How's this for a box 'o cute?

59. Fix, in a way: EDIT.

60. Arch supports: INNER SOLES - These $9 Wal~Mart INNER SOLES got rid of my plantar fasciitis just as well as the $50 pair a physical therapy place sold me

62. Gets in the game: ANTES - Wednesday ANTE was clued as "Stud fee"

63. Sprawling: VAST - Boeing's assembly plant north of Seattle is the largest building on Earth. Workers use bicycles to get around

Down:

1. Cell lineup: APPS - I have a great, free golf APP on my iPhone cell

2. Stronghold: FORT.

3. Per: A POP - Mother-in-law's Eliquis costs $500 A POP. She has to pay for the first scrip every January 

4. Wins again: REPEATS - Not so for the KC Chiefs

5. Writer's resource: ROGETS - Really, you can't think of another adjective for this overworked word?

6. Bridge beams: I-BARS - A condensed I-BEAM

7. Negroni need: GIN and...

8. Worn out: OLD.

9. Screen displays: READOUTS - When the service module on Apollo 13 blew up 200,000 miles from Earth, the NASA flight controllers couldn't believe their READOUTS showing triple failures

10. Year's record: ANNAL - Tom Brady, shown here with 11. Emotional oxymoron: TEARS OF JOY, will go down in the ANNALs of football history as the Greatest Of All Time.

12. Pottery wheel product: VASE - Name this movie (*answer below)

13. Mex. title: SRTA.

15. Like Amazonian society: MATRIARCHAL - China's last surviving MATRIARCHAL society

21. Some WWII message transmitters: CODE TALKERS.

23. Certain horse race: CLAIMER  - Races for second line horses

24. Tweaks: HONES - What a blogger does before they post

25. It may lead to un matrimonio: AMORE - Italian for matrimony. "Quando la luna incontra i tuoi occhi come un grande pezzo di pizza, questo è AMORE" (When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's AMORE)

26. Ritual Jewish feast: SEDER - A common feast for us crossworders to fill in 

27. The Mahabharata, e.g.: INDIAN EPIC - It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kaurava and the Pāṇḍava princes and their successors. Oh, that Mahabharata!

30. Billabong Zoo resident: KOALA  - In Port Macquarie NSW, Australia

31. Sail-extending pole: SPRIT.

33. Red Baron attire, Snoopy-style: SCARF.

37. Carrier to Malta: ALITALIA.

42. 1994 sci-fi memoir: I ASIMOV - A clever play on his first initial 

45. Derby dads: PATERS - If you're a dad NNW of London

47. Thrill: ELATE.

48. Cosmetic counter name: ESTEE.

49. Make ready: PREP - Lee Marvin's famous scene as Kid Shelleen 

50. Musical with the song "Another Pyramid": AIDA - Here ya go!

52. Bash: GALA.

53. Seine summers: ETES - Any guesses on what classic song would have this first line in French:  L'ETE et la vie est facile? **Answer below

54. Catch one's breath: REST.

57. Overnight spot: INN.

58. March Madness network: TNT - The NCAA knows that betting on the March Madness basketball tournament is essentially illegal but they love how it drives the TV ratings.

* Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze are the potters in the movie Ghost 

** Summer time and the living is easy

Saturday, January, 4, 2020, Matthew Sewell

Saturday Themeless by Matthew Sewell

Today's constructor is another in our long line of  PhDs - Matthew Sewell. He is also part of the Minnesota Crossword Cabal and teaches literature and film at Minnesota State University, Mankato (high of 28F today) but is currently on sabbatical in Richmond, VA. (high of 64F today). He has had puzzles published in the  NYT, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Universal / Andrews McMeel.

Of this puzzle, Matt was kind enough to write to me, "I was glad to be able to get a variety of frames of reference into this one -- as a solver, I like it when a themeless calls on many different types of knowledge. The shape of this grid emerged from some experiments in unusual patterns -- for instance, I was trying to limit 3-letter entries, especially adjacent ones, and I was interested in wide-open corners like in the NE and SW. I remember the NE corner coming together pretty quickly, which seemed semi-miraculous... and then I paid for that good fortune in the SW, which required some ingenuity. My thanks for Rich and Patti for their improvements, and I hope solvers enjoy the result."

Lights, Camera, Sewell!

Across:

1. Station lineup: CABS - The lineup of taxi CABS has been greatly diminished by lines here

5. Lacks calmness, in modern slang: HAS NO CHILL - I'll file this along with "YAS QUEEN" from last Saturday, in my "Never Heard Before, but Happy To Learn" folder 😐

15. Wrench or twist: HURT 

16. SiriusXM channel devoted to "the King": ELVIS RADIO.

17. Feature of some cheeses: ODOR  and 25. Semi-hard cheese: EDAM - is said to have almost no odor compared to other cheeses

18. Jigsaw-making process: DIE CUTTING - This machine has a DIE inside for CUTTING your own puzzles after pasting your picture on a special board

19. Site with many alterations: WIKI can explain 35. In an atom's outer shell, two electrons not bonded to another atom: LONE PAIR if you're interested

20. Kelly of "Anchors Aweigh": GENE - His costars were Frank Sinatra and Jerry Mouse

21. Fast-food order: TO GO - Without the space, cluing could have been "21. A 1925 eponymous hero of a 2019 Disney film"

22. Eurasian ecoregion: STEPPE - America's STEPPES

24. Improvement plan: REGIMEN - REGIMIN vs Regiment

27. Source of relief: OASIS.

30. Take off: DEPART 

31. Place with a bucket list?: KFC - You can get a KFC bucket in C.C.'s home town at 101 North Quinling Rd, Quinyonggung Rd, Xi'an China. 

32. Steamed by: MAD AT 

34. Familia nickname: TIO - Tuve catorce TÍOS en mi vida (I have had fourteen uncles in my life)
35. TV program generally targeted for women: LIFETIME MOVIE -Examples

39. With 38-Across, SLR since 1987: CANON 38. See 39-Across: EOS - The official SLR in Crosswordland

40. London's Old __: VIC - On the corner of the Cut and Waterloo Road in Lambeth, London, England

41. Loosen, in a way: UNSNAP.

43. Portfolio item: ASSET.

45. Brings back to the team, say: REHIRES - Yankee owner George Steinbrenner fired and REHIRED Billy Martin many, many times

47. Best Picture title locale the year after the West Side: ARABIA - 6' 3" Peter O'Toole played 5' 5" T.E. Lawrence

51. Uncommitted: OPEN.

52. What a reservation can prevent: WAIT - A very early Seinfeld episode was about not having a reservation and was shot on only one set. This is often cited as an example of the show "being about nothing"!

55. Philosopher influenced by Hegel: MARX - Last Saturday I had the MARX Brothers. 

56. Yellowish-tinted spirit: PALE BRANDY - Very Special Old PALE

59. Stress indicator: Abbr.: ITAL.

The Scream

60. Munch, e.g.: OIL PAINTER - Norwegian Edvard's most famous work

61. Period in ads: NITE.

62. Timely quality: PROMPTNESS - Is Munch's subject very 49. Steamed: IRATE about someone being late or upset because he just found out he was going to be undergoing an 2. Regular review: AUDIT.

63. Barely gets (by): EKES.


Down:

1. Dark-tongued dogs: CHOWS.

3. Destitute: BROKE.

4. Remove, as varnish: STRIP OFF 

5. Natural windbreaks: HEDGES.

6. "Fascism is __ told by bullies": Hemingway: A LIE - Wanna read the essay?

7. Old Norse name meaning "young man": SVEN.

8. Not so rough: NICER.



9. Pac-12's Beavers: OSU - It's about an hour drive from the Beavers to the Ducks

10. Early TV component: CRT - Philo Farnsworth's product

11. Genteel gesture: HAT TIP.

12. Like much spoken language: IDIOMATIC - 27 Canadian speech IDIOMS

13. Chantelle offering: LINGERIE - Google at your leisure 

14. Access, in a way: LOG ONTO.

23. Indy front-runner?: PACE CAR - This year it was a 2019 Corvette in Longbeach Metallic Red Tint for the Indy 500

26. Move beyond: GET OVER - "Hey, life's unfair. GET OVER it!"

28. "Game on!": I'M IN and 53. Play fare: ANTE - An interesting way to ANTE

29. The Apolima Strait separates its two main islands: SAMOA.

31. Greet affectionately: KISS HELLO.

33. Escape rooms: DENS.

36. Red annoyance?: TAPE - Government RED TAPE held up a viaduct in our town for seventeen years and finally it just became too expensive to build. Meanwhile a little girl died because her ambulance was blocked by a train for ten minutes.

37. Wheat germ nutrient: VITAMIN E - All you need to know

38. ABBA's genre: EURO POP - I never miss a chance to post an ABBA video. Enjoy!

e42. Evening hr.: NINE PM.

44. Mythical wine lovers: SATYRS - Guys out for a good time 

46. Proust character married to Odette: SWANN - Odette, in full Odette Swann, née de Crécy, fictional character, the vulgar wife of Charles SWANN in Remembrance of Things Past, or In Search of Lost Time (1913–27), by Marcel Proust. You're welcome.

48. Cloth-dyeing method: BATIK.

50. Beetle bars: AXLES - partsgeek.com can get you one. Very tricky, Matt!

54. Shakespearean warning word: IDES.

57. Christian denom.: BAP - BAPTIST

58. Slowing, in mus.: RIT - A very familiar usage

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