Saturday, May 13, 2023, Rich Norris

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris

Our former editor shows up with another engaging puzzle. I sailed along pretty good but POPO is not in in my vocab and so I'll take one bad cell (COPO/CBS) and try to get on with my life.

I wonder if Rich was familiar with all the proper names he employed. 🤨

Across:

1. Erosion control supply: STRAW MATS - These are ubiquitous around here as bypass highways with overpasses are being built all around our town and good spring rains are bringing the STRAW MATS to life.

10. Composer Bruckner: ANTON - All you'd ever want to know

15. Ahead of its time: PROPHETIC - Some claiming to be prophets are really looking for a profit

16. Held up: BORNE.

17. Pizza sauce choice: RED TOMATO.

18. Condition: STATE - The value of a dime depends on its STATE or condition

19. "__, Chef": Marcus Samuelsson memoir: YES - This is the story of his rise as an adopted child from Ethiopia who became a very successful chef in NYC. (pub. 2012)

20. Nabokov novel: LOLITA - A middle-aged man having relations with a 14-yr-old girl, what could possibly go wrong?

22. Condition that can interfere with focusing, briefly: ADHD.

23. Reagle of "Wordplay": MERL.

24. Go along: AGREE.

26. Pupil of Beethoven: CZERNY.

29. Things that are worth looking into?: MIRRORS 😀

31. Trope intro: HELIO - HELIO(Greek: helios/sun) tropes (Greek: trepan/turn) are plants whose flowers follow the sun across the sky. The prime example is the state flower of Kansas.

32. Summer Olympics racer since 1936: CANOE - Ernst Krebs canoeing in the 1936 Olympics for Deutschland 

33. Pac-12 athlete: UTE - Next year, USC and UCLA join the Big Ten and the Utah UTES, et. al. will be left behind

35. Round figure: ORB.

36. Like many '50s cars: TWO TONE - Oh, you mean back when cars had personality?

38. HBO __: MAX.

39. Court: WOO.

40. Romance novelist Brenda: HIATT.

41. Poor showing: NO ONE.

43. Chirp: TWEEDLE - Lewis Carroll invented TWEEDLE Dee and TWEEDLE Dum to encounter Alice in Through The Looking Glass

45. Coastal features of Washington and Alaska: FJORDS - Kenai FJORDS National Park, Home of the most beautiful FJORDS in Alaska

46. Bridget Riley genre: OP ART.

47. Rebuke, maybe: SLAP.

48. Fluffy rug: SHAG.

49. Last-minute, often: HECTIC.

52. "Death in Paradise" airer: PBS - A BBC import

55. Model 3 maker: TESLA.

57. Inescapable situation: BLACK HOLE - Not even light can escape

59. Some deco works: ERTE'S.

60. One who makes the rounds?: 😀 BARKEEPER.

61. Circular defense mechanisms: MOATS 😀

62. Anxiously awaits: SWEATS OUT - 1969 draft lottery

Down:

1. Agile: SPRY.

2. Corner: TREE.

3. Fish sticks?: RODS 😀 

4. Keenly intelligent: APT.

5. Totally different, slangily: WHOLE NOTHER.

6. Broadway classic with the lyrics "I can smile at the old days / I was beautiful then": MEMORY - The show-stopping song from Cats

7. In any way: AT ALL.

8. South American monkey: TITI.

9. Shetland native: SCOT - A SCOT who lives in the Shetland Islands has a cost of living nearly double the rest of the U.K. However, golf is reasonable at the Shetland Golf Course: £30 per day, £80 per week; £130 per fortnight

10. Six-pack contents?: ABS.

11. Tig with a recurring role on "Star Trek: Discovery": NOTARO - She is standing under the K in this picture

12. News about a possible exchange: TRADE RUMOR - These rumors were around all winter and he didn't go to any of these teams. If you care at all, you know where he went.

13. Testifying: ON THE STAND.

14. Sine qua non: NEED.

21. Vice president after Thomas: AARON Burr.

23. Hosp. scan: MRI.

25. Prize that may need to be altered if a player wins it again: GREEN JACKET - Here we see the 2019 Master's winner, Tiger Woods, helping the 2020 winner into his GREEN JACKET.

26. Eats: CHOW.

27. Process of dramatic character change: ZERO TO HERO - Tom was the 199th player picked in the 2000 NFL draft and sat out his entire rookie year. The next year the Patriots' starting QB got hurt and Brady finally got to play and became the Greatest Of All Time.

28. Gomiti, for one: ELBOW PASTA.

 
29. Lacking luster: MATTE.

30. Trying to resolve a tie, briefly: IN OT - Notre Dame coach (and cwd fill) Ara Parseghian was forever blamed for not trying to win this game in 1966 and "settled for a tie". It was another 30 years before the NCAA instituted rules so games could go IN(to) OT(overtime) 

32. __-fired: COAL - Our electricity is mostly generated in this plant 1/4 mile south of where I am sitting

34. Former union members?: EXES - That would be former marital union members 

37. Side to side?: WIDTH.

42. Alley follower: OOP.

44. Aerie newborn: EAGLET - EAGLETS born in this aerie are a short flight from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.

45. Title horse in a Mary O'Hara children's novel: FLICKA - My Friend Flicka was part of my b/w television childhood

47. Unsettling look: STARE.

48. Half-note feature: STEM.

50. Weakens: EBBS.

51. White __: hard seltzer brand: CLAW.

52. The law: POPO - From reduplication of the abbreviation PO (“police officer”), originally in reference to partnered bike officers in Southern California whose paired shirts would read POPO

53. Fromage hue: BLEU - My Greek wife hates BLEU cheese and olives in the Greek salad

54. Barcelona-born muralist: SERT.

56. Jenny, e.g.: ASS- Here's a link to the site below

58. Dads and lads: HES.

 

Saturday, January 21, 2023, Rich Norris

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris 

Our former editor, Rich Norris, returns under his real name and not any of the clever aliases he has used in the past:

I followed my usual pattern of toe holds on my way to conquer his crossword wall. It all felt very comfortable and doable. 

Across:

1. Hairpin: SHARP TURN.

10. Antiquated: MOLDY - In blue cheese the penicillium mold is okay to eat

15. Flier to Sharjah: AIR ARABIA - If you flew AIR ARABIA from Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates to Doha, Qatar for the World Cup, it's about a little over an hour flight.

16. Can't get enough of: ADORE.

17. Putter, in golf lingo: FLAT STICK - It's easy to find in the set below

18. Area bordering the Colorado Desert, for short: SO CAL - SOuthern CALifornia 

19. Sign in many a tree-lined nabe: ELM ST.

20. Ruby of "A Raisin in the Sun": DEE - We all know the name of the man in this scene with her

21. Fishing boat net: TRAWL - Emptying a TRAWL net

22. Team's pronoun: OUR.

24. Fixates (on): DWELLS - I heard you the fourth time!

26. Winter wardrobe component: FLANNELS - Shirts, pj's, etc.

31. Straight up: ERECT.

32. Bled: RAN - Oh, so that's why you separate the whites and colors

33. White Cloud Temple worshipper: TAOIST - White Cloud Temple in Beijing 

35. Hardly pleased: SORE.

37. Best Picture winner based on the memoir "The Master of Disguise": ARGO - A great movie I saw on Netflix. 

39. High-def screen: LCD TV.

40. Old-style challenge: SLAP.

41. Chinese border river: YALU - Chinese troops flocked over the border when U.S. troops got near the YALU.

42. Blackmail tactic: THREAT - Send those sexts at your own risk

44. Need to satisfy: OWE.

45. __ voce: SOTTO - Not me, I had to close the door when I taught.

47. Prep for future coll. students: AP COURSE - Some students now graduate high school with many college credits

49. Bit of forecast shorthand: T-STORM.

51. Patronizing term of address, perhaps: SON.

52. Bygone rulers: SHAHS - If you had _ _ A _ S you might have chosen a different bygone ruler

53. Orange tuber: YAM.

56. Dock: TIE UP.

60. Spells: HEXES.

61. "Don't blame yourself": THAT'S ON ME.

63. Subject of una serenata: AMORE.

64. Memorable drive?: HOLE IN ONE - This was my first one - 110 yds with a nice easy 9-iron

65. Parental units?: GENES.

66. Training in the mountains, say: SKI LESSON.

Down:

1. Call at home, maybe: SAFE - If you argue too much you might get 46. Discards: TOSSES- Tossed out of the game

2. Rise: HILL.

3. Saroyan's "My Name Is __": ARAM - A first edition you can get for $550

4. Sells out: RATS ON - In this movie, the late Ray Lotta (far left) played Henry Hill who RATS ON the mob in real life.

5. Carlsberg's "Probably not the best beer in the world" campaign, for one: PR STUNT - Like...

6. Half an even exchange: TAT - We all know the other part

7. Former auction website: U-BID.

8. Hall of Famer who holds the record for most career touchdown receptions: RICE - Jerry Rice caught 67 TD passes from Joe Montana and 92 more from Steve Young.

9. Undisguised: NAKED.

10. Perfect: MASTER - To MASTER a skill you would need to perfect your technique

11. Like helium: ODORLESS - colorless, ODORLESS, tasteless, non-toxic and inert `

12. Regional attribute: LOCAL COLOR - Lucy wanted to soak up LOCAL COLOR in this famous episode and did so in more ways than one

13. Determine an unlucky winner?: DRAW STRAWS - 😀

14. Cry: YELL.

23. Person with lots to offer: REALTOR - Around us, REALTORS want lots for lots

25. Solutions for spills: WET VACS.

26. Fight: FRAY.

27. Movie music that inspired the Connie Francis hit "Somewhere, My Love": LARA'S THEME - Here's the song with lyrics and lovely scenes from Dr. Zhivago 

28. Old English: ANGLO SAXON.

29. Highlands water: LOCH - LOCH Ness has the most water of all of them plus a mythical inhabitant.

30. "Seinfeld" woman who said, "They're real, and they're spectacular!": SIDRA - Played by Teri Hatcher

34. Instructions part: STEP - Could you go over that again? 😐

36. Foil cousin: EPEE.

38. Nonconformist: OUT THERE - Dennis Rodman is the poster child!

43. __ Roll: TOOTSIE.

48. Strike callers: UNIONS - In 1979, baseball's strike callers went, uh, on strike

50. Folklore: MYTHS - "We didn't really land on the Moon" 58. "Sorry, you're wrong": UM NO.

52. Messy do: SHAG - Laugh In's Sock It To Me girl, Judy Carne, popularized this haircut in the late 60's.

54. "Sure, I get it": AH OK.

55. Senegal neighbor: MALI - It's a 39-hour drive from Dakar, Senegal to Timbuktu, MALI

57. Mireille of "The Killing": ENOS - First time I've seen ENOS as a surname

59. Hammer part: PEEN - I'm guessing you all know which hammer has a claw and which one has a PEEN

62. Contacts list no.: TEL.

 

 

 

Notes from C.C.:

1) Happy 75th birthday to our sweet Madame DeFarge (Janice), who's always been so kind and caring to regulars on our blog. 

 

2) Happy 15th birthday to our blog! Thank you so much for visiting and commenting.