Saturday, MAY 11, 2024, Rich Norris

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris 

Our former editor Rich returns with a Saturday offering. 

Across:

1. Loaf traditionally made with clabbered milk: SODA BREAD. Authentic Irish soda bread is made with sour (clabbered) milk, not buttermilk, or milk soured by adding vinegar or lemon juice.

10. Dismiss: LET GO - He wasn't fired, he was, uh, LET GO.

15. New and improved, say: TWO POINT O 😀 

16. Slim young swimmer: ELVER - A young eel is called an ELVER

17. Decreases: RAMPS DOWN - Parka sales started to RAMP DOWN recently.

18. Mookie who was the 2018 AL MVP: BETTS - He won the MVP with the Boston Red Sox. Today he plays for the LA Dodgers.

19. Miner concern: ORE 😀

20. "Law & Order" actor Jeremy: SISTO.

Jeremy SISTO and Jesse L. Martin

21. Catalan artist Joan: MIRO - Señor MIRO has been a frequent visitor here of of late

22. Cry after seeing a good drawing?: GIN 😀

GIN!

23. Airport safety gp.: TSA - Yeah, I put FAA first too.

26. "Mad __": MEN - This 3:25 video is one of the finest TV scenes I have ever seen.

27. Precipitation that can hurt: HAIL - A 2014 HAIL storm in Blair, NE.

29. Knockoffs of the 1980s and 1990s: PC CLONES.

32. Brand that sponsored early soap operas: CAMAY - Proctor and Gamble used its line of soaps in the 1920's to sponsor these radio serials which became known as, uh, Soap Operas

33. About as bad as it gets: ATROCIOUS.

35. Bleak: GRIM.

36. "One L" author: TUROW - A signed first edition goes for $150

37. __ and void: NULL.

38. Journalist who co-founded the NAACP: IDA B WELLS.

40. __ cash: PETTY.

41. Beanies: KNIT CAPS.

42. Young lady: LASS.

43. Violinist Kavafian: ANI - Not the Cuckoo of long ago crosswords 

44. "I get it!": AHA.

45. Block: DAM - The Hoover DAM has blocked the Colorado River in Black Canyon for decades.

46. City southwest of Warsaw: LODZ - An hour-and-a-half drive on E30 across Poland

48. Hitchcock motel: BATES - The famous Bates Motel shower scene from Psycho took 78 Shots and 52 Cuts

51. Food __: DYE - A necessity for Easter eggs 

54. Even more distant: ICIER.

56. Hereditary chain: DNA STRAND.

58. Summer Daze cologne brand: CK ONE - Calvin Klein ONE

59. Generously given: UNSTINTED.

60. Bar: ESTOP  - In the field of contract law, promissory estoppel estops parties from claiming that no contract exists when another party was harmed through the reasonable reliance upon a promise by the first party. 🤔

61. Without restraint: LIKE CRAZY - The tornados blew LIKE CRAZY in Omaha on April 29th.

Down:

1. H-Town ALer: STRO - Eliding a Houston ASTRO baseball player. Some Nebraska fans wanted to use Skers for Huskers. Thankfully, it never caught on.

2. Preakness winner Man __: O'WAR.

3. Capitol cap: DOME.

4. Tablet program: APP.

5. Word in a Tom Swifty about Bruce Springsteen: BOSSILY - Bruce is known as The Boss, so...

6. Chamillionaire song with the lyrics "They see me rollin' / They hatin'": RIDIN - Like Diogonese searching for an honest man, my search continues for a rapper who lyrics I can print.

7. "The Killing" actress Mireille: ENOS.

8. Chem class fig.: AT. WT.

9. Taped message from the police?: DO NOT CROSS 😀 

10. Isr. neighbor: LEB.

11. Sch. type: ELEM.

12. Some NFL breaks: TV TIMEOUTS - The man on the sidelines with the orange sleeves raises his hand to signal the referees when to call a TV TIMEOUT and then lowers his arm when play should resume. 

13. Succeed: GET RESULTS - The debate rages about whether Kelly Clarkson ever used these 

14. Director Welles: ORSON.

22. Jason who was the 2000 AL MVP: GIAMBI.

24. Road warning sign: SLOW.

25. NYC rep since 2019: AOC.

27. Rough treatment: HARD KNOCKS - Your first thought too?

28. Self-critical evaluation: AM I AN IDIOT?

29. Singer who was one of the original judges on "American Idol": PAULA ABDUL - Randy and Paula tried to be nice in those early auditions but Simon changed TV forever.

30. Post-doc combo?: CTRL P. 😀 Post document for printing not post doctoral

31. Starting hour, perhaps: NINE A.M - I've never had a job that started that late!

32. Sci-fi FX: CGI - Computer Generated Imagery 

34. Calculated: SLY.

36. Stock sector: TECH.

39. Org. founded by Billie Jean King: WTA - I did a double take when I saw her playing a judge in an episode of Law And Order

40. Artificial: PLASTIC.

43. "... a grin without a cat" observer: ALICE.

45. Italy's Villa __: D'ESTE - The Villa d'Este (summer villa) is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains.

47. Philosopher known for "reductio ad absurdum" arguments: ZENO - Math students know of this famous paradox

49. Years in old Rome: ANNI - Villa d'Este fu costruita 550 anni fa (Villa d'Este was built 550 years ago)

50. Undertaking: TASK.

51. Focus of much analysis: DATA.

52. Santa __ Valley: California setting of "Sideways": YNEZ.

53. Current subject: EDDY 😀

55. Single situp, say: REP.

57. Prescription to fight stress, briefly: RNR - Rest (a)N(d) Relaxation. Characters in M*A*S*H usually went to Tokyo. 

BONUS: My granddaughter at her graduation party last night in Lincoln along with me, my wife, her twin and her twin's husband.

Saturday, May 4, 2024, Amie Walker

Saturday Themeless by Amie Walker

Amie Walker is an attorney/current stay-at-home parent to three little girls in Chandler, Arizona. When she’s not thinking about puzzles, she loves spending time with her family and singing in her women’s choir. Here is a picture of Amie on Jeopardy on 3/28/22. 

When I did her puzzle in January, I finished the bottom first and the headed back to the top. Today I did just the opposite and you can see by the graphic, the bottom was a struggle for me. Some of the cleverness and 21st century slang gave me a real challenge.

Across:

1. Exclusively: ALONE.

6. Tach readings: RPMS - My car runs so quietly that I have to look at the tach (far left) to see if the engine is still running.

10. Annie Lennox, e.g.: SCOT - Anyone else put ALTO?

14. Spot with spotty reception, perhaps: REMOTE AREA - We got no reception in the Redwoods 😀

16. "Don't start with me": UH UH.

17. Chore that's a bore: MENIAL TASK.

18. __ noire: BETE.

19. "Funny or Die" segment: SKIT.

20. Dishwasher setting: RINSE.

21. Country with the largest number of Quechua speakers: PERU - 4:30 of listening 

22. Time for scare tactics?: SPOOKY SEASON.

25. Sweeney of "Euphoria": SYDNEY - Famous Australian Opera House city is not "Saturday" enough 

28. Deep blush shade: BERRY.

29. Indulge: HUMOR.

30. Gridiron cues: HUTS.

31. Spell: JAG.

34. Moonrise direction: EAST.

35. Signs: OMENS.

37. Caesar dressing?: TOGA 😀

38. __ sample: DNA - #1 and #3, you're free to go. #2, uh, we'd like a word with you.

39. Listen to: OBEY.

40. 1990s TV nerd: URKEL.

41. Cookbook verb: ROAST.

43. Belief systems: CREEDS.

44. Waffle, perhaps: ICE CREAM CONE 😀 An ice cream vendor at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair ran out of dishes. Turns out the vendor next to him was selling thin waffles. Voila! 

48. Chew toy for a naughty puppy: SHOE.

49. Unsmiling: STERN.

50. AFC East team: PATS 

54. "Dance the Night" singer Dua __: LIPA - After sufficient appearances here, I have learned this name. 

55. Tool for turning over a new leaf?: SALAD TONGS 😀

57. Fairly matched: EVEN.

58. Personal driver?: EGO BOOSTER - Your ego might make you have more personal drive

59. Second place at a math Olympiad?: TENS 😀 Amie!

60. Fed. IDs: SSNS.

61. Bares fruit?: PEELS 😀

Down:

1. Plank supports: ARMS.

2. Allium cultivar: LEEK and 45. Allium cultivar: CHIVE.

The Allium Family

3. High-end hotel chain: OMNI.

4. "Wrong": NO IT'S NOT.

5. "Should we start wo u?": ETA - When r u getting here?

6. Flood with negative replies on social media: RATIO - Learning for me. At the bottom of social media like X (formerly Twitter and other social media) there is a list of the number of comments, retweets and likes. Comments are assumed to be negative and so if the RATIO of comments to retweets plus likes is more than 2:1, it is assumed to be a bad tweet. A poster can be said to have been RATIOED if there are a lot of comments.

Comments = 59K, Retweets = 21K
Likes = 6K. Bad RATIO

7. Jape: PRANK.

8. Casual-chic do: MESSY BUN.

9. Collections that include tokkuri and ochoko: SAKE SETS - More

Serving glasses - ochokos
Flask - tokkuri

10. Disappointing: SUBPAR - Not disappointing in golf at all

11. "You gouda brie kidding me," for one?: CHEESY JOKE 😕

12. Closing bars: OUTRO - a short, distinct closing section at the end of something (such as a piece of music, a performance, or a news report). A complement to INTRO.

13. Country group, briefly?: THE UN 😊

15. Cartoon boy in a Space Cub troop: ELROY - ELROY is at the left in front of his dad George Jetson in this 60-yr-old Jetson's cartoon. Yes, I said 60 years!

23. According to: PER.

24. Some hesitations: ERS.

25. Lose: SHED.

26. 10 jiao: YUAN - It takes 10 jiao to make 1 YUAN. 1 Yuan = $0.13 or about a dime. 

 

A new EV car in China costs about ¥100,000  ($13,912)

27. "Feel free to contact me privately on social": DMS ARE OPEN  - This tells the world that you're available and willing to receive and read direct messages from unknown people is by announcing your "DMs are open". A tactic you'll see used by journalists on Twitter looking for scoops.

30. "Watch it!": HEY.

32. Mellowed, perhaps: AGED.

33. Misses: GALS.

35. Loses sleep (over): OBSESSES.

36. HTML data: META TAGS - How the line above looks in HTML:

35. Loses sleep (over): <b>OBSESSES</b>.<br /><br />

37. Yoga stance also called Vrksasana (Sanskrit: वृक्षासन, romanized: vṛkṣāsana): TREE POSE.

39. One of two in a row: OAR - 😀 This hit me like a ton of cute! An OAR is one of two that are in a row in the boat and they are used to row!

40. Samovar: URN.

42. Lots: OCEANS - The Coasters sang, "It's gonna take an OCEAN, Of calamine lotion..."

43. Airbnb listing: CONDO.

44. Key: ISLET 

Quiet Cove Key, Florida 

46. Galia, for one: MELON.

47. "Deadliest Catch" boatload: CRABS.

51. Fee for a card-carrying member?: ANTE - 😀 He had to ANTE but is only carrying these lousy cards

52. Neutrogena product: TGEL.

53. Much of E. Europe, once: SSRS.

56. Exceed: TOP.