Saturday, August 10, 2024, Rich Feely

 Themeless Saturday by Rich Feely

I blogged Rich's LA Times debut in April and now he is back with this challenge. I zoomed through the NE and SE and had to fish around to earn my "got 'er done" on the western side.

Across:

1. Trust-worthy figure: HEIR.😀 - Many of my golf buddies are recommending we set up an irrevocable trust for our two HEIRS.

5. Guardians, on scoreboards: CLE - In 2021 the Cleveland Indians became the Guardians.

8. Daytime fare: SOAPS.

13. Item that may bring a room together: ACCENT RUG.

16. Accustom: INURE.

17. Deep-sea pod cast?: WHALE SONG 😀 - Whales are deep-sea animals whose "singing" can be done by a pod of whales acting as a cast

18. __ four: PETIT.

19. Offensive deception?: NO-LOOK PASS.

21. Patches, in a way: SODS 😀 

22. Goons: APES.

23. Fugitive's request: HIDE ME - Rick sticks his neck out for no one

25. Withstood: ABIDED.

28. Early Sony devices: BETA CAMS - Our video guy said a BETA CAM was the future and so we bought one. Everyone else went VHS and we soon had a white elephant. 

30. Creed: TENET.

31. Sent in: FILED - Today reporters simply send in/FILE stories from their computers. Before the digital age, reporters had to either call in their stories or drive to the newsroom to type it out to FILE it.

32. Also: TOO.

33. Maintain: HOLD - An air traffic controller might tell a pilot, "Maintain present heading and altitude" which means "fly straight and level"

34. Invoices: BILLS.

35. St. whose Charter Oak fell in 1856: CONN - An interesting story about a 650 year old tree

36. __ pro nobis: ORA - Pray for us

37. Fathers: SIRES - Secretariat had seven of his progeny in the 2023 Kentucky Derby

38. Family nickname: AUNTY - Clara Blandick played Dorothy's AUNITE Em

39. Elements of love and hate: SILENT E'S - 🙄 My last fill as the meta cluing hit me

41. Actress Cuthbert: ELISHA.

42. Sole protector?: GALOSH - Around here we use them in pairs and call them "five-buckle overshoes".

43. NASA __: research center in Silicon Valley: AMES.

44. Third novel in Marilynne Robinson's "Gilead" series: LILA.

45. "Just watch me!": YOU BET I CAN.

50. __ purchases: IN APP - Put simply, an IN-APP purchase is something that you buy when using an app on your computer or mobile device. 

52. Five-spice powder ingredient: STAR ANISE - Five spice is a blend of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, Sichuan peppercorns and fennel seeds.

53. Clerical home: MANSE.

54. "No sweat": EASY PEASY.

55. "The __ Scrolls": video game series: ELDER - If you have ever played or heard of this game, that makes one of us.

56. Sound before the orchestra begins: SHH.

57. 2020 NL batting champion: SOTO.

Juan Soto

Down:

1. Russell's "The Christmas Chronicles 2" co-star: HAWN - Kurt Russell and his longtime companion Goldie HAWN

Rotten Tomatoes Audiences
gave it a 44%

2. Fifth letter of the NATO alphabet: ECHO.

3. Bygone scheduling app: ICAL.

4. Added to a card, e.g.: RELOADED - Chuck E Cheese calls it recharging, just bring your credit card to pay for more games

5. Makes a borderline call: CROPS - Yours truly changing  the borderline in cropping this picture of me talking to 500 kids.

 

6. Moon goddess: LUNA.

7. Source of calcium and magnesium in compost: EGG SHELLS.

8. Taste: SIP.

9. "Hang on": ONE SEC.

10. Robotic sorts: AUTOMATONS - Disney has thousands of them

11. When Obergefell v. Hodges was issued: PRIDE MONTH - Obergefell v. Hodges: On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a landmark decision that the 14th Amendment requires all states to license marriages between same-sex couples and to recognize all marriages that were lawfully performed out of state.

12. Groups at the gym: SETS.

14. Tamagotchi alternative: NEOPET.

                          

15. Expressed impatience: TSKED.

20. Lots to build on: SITES - How bout these SITES to build on in Italy?

24. "Hi hungry, I'm __": DAD 😀

25. Literary musketeer: ATHOS.

26. "March to the beat of your own drum!": BE ORIGINAL.

27. Checked out: IN LALA LAND 😵 Where Mike Tyson put a lot of boxers

28. Gymnast honored with a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2022: BILES.

29. Posthumous "General Hospital" Daytime Emmy winner Eddy: SONYA - Fellow cast member and Emmy winner Robert Gossett paid tribute to the late SONYA in his acceptance speech.

31. Items that wind up on red trucks: FIRE HOSES - Wind up 😀

34. Quite wee: BITSY.

35. Cookbook categories: CUISINES.

37. __-cone: SNO.

38. Public house fixture: ALE TAP.

40. Go by: ELAPSE.

41. __ board: EMERY.

43. Humiliate: ABASH - You have the option to remain unabashed

44. Green shade: LIME.

46. Jazz venue: UTAH - The team kept the nickname when it moved from New Orleans just like the Los Angeles kept the name Lakers when they moved from Minneapolis. UTAH is not known as a hotbed for jazz and LA has very few lakes compared to Minneapolis. 

47. Parting word: CIAO.

48. Second: Abbr.: ASST.

49. "Self Explanatory" R&B artist: NEYO.

51. A pop: PER - We buy bottled water at a big box store for $.15 but at this game they are $3.50 a pop.

Saturday, April 20, 2024, Rich Feely

 Saturday Themeless by Rich Feely

This appears to be an LA Times debut for Rich. For some reason I had got a good jumping off place on the East side as ITALIAN ICE and SO LAST YEAR surrendered quite easily. I had a few bumps in the road, particularly with 24. NY and LA: STS. which I will address later.

Across:

1. Turn two fives into a ten?: ADD - A hilarious turn on this process

         

4. Key letter: PHI - Mine must have gotten lost in the mail 😊

7. Language spoken in the Gaeltacht: IRISH - Where IRISH/Gaelic is spoken.

 

12. Outstanding job: LOOSE END - The second definition is relative here.

15. Copycat's cry: ME TOO.

16. Best Original Song Oscar nominee with the lyric "Anywhere else, I'd be a ten": I'M JUST KEN - When Barbenheimer came out last year, I paid to see the latter and not the former.

18. Commandment word: SHALT.

19. Broadcast: GO ON THE AIR - BE and IS were replaced by GO

21. "Welp," quaintly: ALAS.

22. Act: DEED - On a corner of UNL's Memorial Stadium

23. Kir liqueur: CASSIS.

 

25. __ good: amazing: SCARY - Caitlin Clark

27. "Stop the negativity": DON'T HATE.

29. Polar formations: FLOES - Icebergs are large chunks of freshwater ice and compressed snow that break off glaciers and float southward on the Labrador Current. Ice FLOES, on the other hand, are chunks of frozen salt-water, also called pack-ice.

Penguins jumping between ice FLOES

30. Shakes up: JOLTS.

31. Chloé Zhao's alma mater: Abbr.: NYU - Chloé is a Chinese-American film maker. She won an Oscar for directing Nomadland

32. Frames: RIMS - ...or RIMLESS

33. Hermosillo houses: CASAS - Hermosillo is a city of nearly 700,000 in Mexico.

34. Level: TIER.

35. Urgent call, briefly: APB - All Points Bulletin has been replaced by BOLO - Be On the Look Out for

36. Flowing locks: MANES 😀

37. Chocolate source: CACAO.

38. Sealed: UNOPENED.

40. Spud: TATER - Billionaire J.R. Simplot of Boise Idaho made a "handshake" agreement with Ray Kroc in 1965 to grow potatoes for McDonalds French Fries. His company remains a big supplier of spuds for the company.

41. Seemed friendly: SMILED.

42. Many a rescue dog: MUTT.

43. Designer Cassini: OLEG - Well known as the designer for Jackie during the Camelot days

44. Photovoltaic devices: SOLAR CELLS - Our city's phase II of SOLAR CELLS a quarter mile south of me

49. Deli roll: BIALY.

51. Dawn of the moon exploration program?: EARTH RISE - During the Apollo 8 mission, Bill Anders took this picture of an EARTH RISE after they had passed behind the far side of the Moon and emerged on the other side.  

52. Didn't work: IDLED.

53. Epic: COLOSSAL.

54. Dips a toe in: TESTS.

55. Mint: NEW - This mint condition 2024 silver dollar is already worth $55.

56. Southern capital: Abbr.: ATL.

Down:

1. Former HBO persona: ALI G.

2. "__ arigato": DOMO.

3. "Cobra Kai" setting: DOJO - Moviedom's most famous karate studio is now up for rent

4. Bugs: PESTERS.

5. Pronoun choice: HE THEY - A person choosing these preferences would accept, "He solved the puzzle" or "They solved the puzzle."

6. Tattoo culture magazine: INKED.

7. Online convos: IMS -  Immediate Messaging

8. Discuss ad nauseam: REHASH - My first faculty had to REHASH the "gum chewing" issue for years because it was a pet peeve of the principal.

9. Treat in a little white cup: ITALIAN ICE.

10. Way passe: SO LAST YEAR.

11. Red __: HOTS - How they looked in my misspent yute.

13. Treats in tall tulip glasses: SUNDAES - See above

1950's picture

14. "Snowfall" org.: DEA.

17. Patron saint of children: NICOLAS - Ho, Ho, Ho.

20. Bloviates: RANTS - The political season is coming up

24. NY and LA: STS - 😫 I took the bait for two cities. After way too much time I saw there were no periods for abbreviations and that NY and LA stand for the STateS of New York and Louisiana. 

25. Toy for bodysurfing on land: SLIP 'N SLIDE.

26. Drive-through options: COMBO MEALS - 1,600 Calories

27. Shot in the arm, say: DOSED 😀

28. Capital of 20 countries: EURO.

29. German woman: FRAU.

30. Alias in court: JANE DOE.

33. Carolina team, informally: CANES.

34. Ribbons: TATTERS.

36. Allen known as the "Voice of the Yankees": MEL.

37. Purina brand: CAT CHOW - Our kitty doesn't do dry food

39. Milne character in a green striped romper: PIGLET - Every picture of PIGLET I saw had him in a pink striped romper. I found this one in an embroidery kit

40. Reptile on a green container of car wax: TURTLE.

42. Podcaster/comedian Marc: MARON.

43. "In memoriam" piece: OBIT.

45. Supérieur, par exemple: LAC.

46. Vanderpump of "Vanderpump Rules": LISA.

47. Trial for an aspiring atty.?: LSAT.

48. Persuade: SELL.

50. Passing stat: YDS - Tom Brady's passing YDS convert to over 48 miles