Saturday, June 1, 2019, Michael Wiesenberg

Themeless Saturday by Michael Wiesenberg

Today is National Flip A Coin Day. For those of us who work crosswords this can be a decision making aid. For instance - AVER/AVOW, AYE/YEA, DNA/RNA, etc.  This is what crossing answers and erasers are for.

Today's constructor is our former professional poker player from Calgary, Michael Wiesenberg. I suspect that at Michael's skill level, he did not have to resort to many coin flips to decide his strategy on a particular hand.



Michael's great puzzle today has four vertical and horizontal stacks of ten that yields only 28 blocks with 99 open squares

Sit in for a hand as we explore what Michael has dealt us today:

Across:

1. Luxurious ease: BED OF ROSES - Did anyone else also think of a Kevin Spacey movie?

11. Slangily admit, with "to": COP - Some will COP to a lesser crime rather than go to trial

14. See 3-Down: YOU WOULDN'T and 3. With 14-Across, "Bro, no!": DUDE - DUDE, YOU WOULDN'T... 

15. What you see hear?: TYPO - "What you see hear (here)" has a TYPO

16. Plays the nice guy?: ENDS UP LAST - Leo's motto and book title

17. Fins: ABES - $5 bill slang

18. Mariner's hdg.: SSE - Mariners on the Edmund Fitzgerald had a SSE heading on its final leg toward Whitefish Point on that fateful day in 1975 when  it sank in a horrible storm

19. Security issue: LEAK.

20. Eponymous diplomat Lord St __, friend of explorer George Vancouver: HELENS - His eponymous mountain blew its top in 1980

22. Peters out: DIES - DIES/EBBS was a "Flip A Coin" moment

23. Treading water, so to speak: NO WORSE - Not getting "aheader or behinder"

24. Quakers in forests?: ASPENS - Cottonwoods on the plains also make that sound



27. Harlequin output: ROMANCES.

28. '90s Rather co-anchor: CHUNG - They lasted three years together 

29. Caribbean native: CUBAN.

30. Univ. mentors: RA'S - Another coin flip with TA'S

31. Chloé fragrance maker: COTY.

32. Angel in Venezuela?: FALLS.

33. Soup made with stock called dashi: MISO - Making MISO soup with dashi stock

34. Pollution monitoring gp.: EPA.



35. Blender button: PUREE - One of many verb options on this old Oster

36. Thing that's spread: RUMOR.

37. Dressed for the beach, perhaps: SANDALED - and 36. Least prudent: RASHEST. Any port in a word storm

39. Symbols seen in pairs, briefly: PARENS  

40. How condemnation is expressed: SHARPLY - Even when tempered, "I respectfully submit that my friend from across the aisle is lying through his teeth!"

41. __ job: DESK - Technically, teaching is a DESK job but I rarely used mine

42. Set upon: COME AT - Google Mike Tyson

43. Jive: JOSH.

44. Show with a Miami spin-off: CSI - CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York and CSI Cyber. 792 episodes of this franchise have aired. 

47. Designer Cassini: OLEG.

48. Response to a con: I'VE BEEN HAD - I almost said that in a CraigsList 11. Phishing, e.g.: CYBER CRIME last month. 

51. Morse sounds: DITS - My name in Morse Code is --. .- .-. -.-- or in PARENS - (dah dah DIT, DIT dah, DIT dah DIT, dah DIT dah dah)

52. Choose not to continue: LET IT SLIDE - I know Uncle Bob wants to debate politics but...  

53. Prefix with conscious: ECO.

54. Close talks: TETE A TETES - Furniture so-named for those "head to head" talks

Down:

1. Passes at a tournament: BYES - Washington got a BYE because it had a better record 

2. Long, long time: EONS - EONS/AGES coin flip

4. Cries of pain: OWS.

5. It may result in free throws: FOULING - In a past, rougher era, the Detroit Pistons got away with a lot of FOULING

6. Nepalese money: RUPEES - An ad for the KFC in Kathmandu, Nepal with prices in RUPEES

7. Widemouthed stewpots: OLLAS - Spanish, from Latin olla, aulla pot; akin to Sanskrit ukhā pot and probably to Goth auhns oven

8. Badlands Natl. Park's state: S DAK - It's about the only interesting thing between Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

9. Navy lt.'s subordinate: ENS - Did you think of ENSIGN Pulver too?

10. Charlotte Amalie's island: ST THOMAS - Charlotte Amalie (named in 1691 for wife of Danish King Christian V) is on ST THOMAS and is the capital of The American Virgin Islands

12. Time to hunt: OPEN SEASON 

13. Owners: POSSESSORS.

15. Hawk's claw: TALON.

21. Obi-Wan portrayer: EWAN - Coin flip - My first fill of ALEC (Guinness) played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars. EWAN McGregor played a younger version of him in the prequels

22. Repudiate: DENY.

23. __ gas: NOBLE - NOBLE/Inert coin flip


24. It'll get you in: ACCESS CODE - We find it very convenient to have one on this doorknob

25. Mall portmanteau: SHOPAHOLIC.

26. Label, as feelings: PUT A NAME TO - It's hard PUT A NAME TO the feeling I have when a former student says something very nice about me (or something bad too)

27. Dominated: RULED.

29. 1990 Best New Artist Grammy winner: CAREY - Mariah's IMDB

32. At high speed: FULL TILT - Great running backs get to FULL TILT quickly

33. Gloom: MURK 

35. __ John's Pizza: PAPA - Last year Peyton Manning sold his interest in 31 PAPA John's franchises just days before PAPA John withdrew as the NFL's official pizza

38. Settled matter: DREGS - Part of a lovely, poignant Sinatra lyric that has more meaning as birthdays pile up

39. Former Spanish coin: PESETA - Now on the Euro

41. Guard dog originally bred in Germany, familiarly: DOBIE - DOBERMANS were named for dog breeder Ludwig DOBERMAN in 1890 who was a tax collector and took this dog on his route for protection

43. Singer with The Blackhearts: JETT - My favorite 

44. Gambler's marker: CHIT.

45. Marquis de __: SADE - When the word SADISTIC is derived from your last name... 

46. June 13, e.g.: IDES -  In the ancient Roman calendar, the fifteenth day of March, May, July, or October, and the thirteenth day of the other months.

49. Migration flight pattern: VEE.

50. Marlins' MLB div.: NLE - You'll find the National League East Marlins at the bottom of this attendance list

No need to flip a coin, we'd love to hear your comments.

Saturday, May 25, 2019, Daniel Nierenberg

Themeless Saturday by Daniel Nierenberg 

Today we celebrate that lovely "fruit of the vine" - National Wine Day.

Wine provides us so many cwd fills like TUN, CRU, OENO, PORT, ASTI, SEC, ROSE', NAPA, etc.

It also can be employed as a welcome reward in solving or for drowning one's sorrows for not solving. Hmmm... what vintage goes best with a Saturday Themeless Puzzle?

Our constructor today is Daniel Nierenberg who is working on his PhD in molecular biology,  Info on Daniel (Click on Read More). The empty cell you see below at 43 across/33 down shows you the location of my only error. DELORES seemed like a fine Cranberry to me and NAXES worked as well for an emery-rich Greek island. Buzz! Sorry, we were looking for an O. Thanks for playing Gary, we have some lovely parting gifts for you.

43. The Cranberries vocalist O'Riordan: DOLORES -  A now deceased lead singer for this group who was born in Ballybricken, Caherelly, Ireland in the east end of Limerick County

33. Greek island known for emery: NAXOS - The island of NAXOS is the red dot from where these emery rocks were taken

   Island of NAXOS                                    Emery rocks from this island 

Let's see what else Daniel has prepared for us in his puzzle lab today:

Across:

1. Golden __: RICE - Yeah right, I'm the only one who had _ _ _ E and put in RULE. Why this GMO rice is controversial

5. Soreness treatment: HEATING PAD - Ice first

15. Russian region rich in minerals: URAL - Nickel oxide, gold, platinum, chromite, coal , bauxite, talc, fireclay, etc. Probably no emery 

16. Marketeer in the 2016 film "War Dogs": ARMS DEALER - Movie trailer

17. It's to be expected: NORM.

18. Baroque chamber work: TRIO SONATA - J.S. Bach and his son C.G.E. Bach wrote many of these for usually two violins and a bass

19. Prefix meaning "within": ENDO - ENDORSE - EN (IN Latin for in or on) and DORSE (Dorsum - Latin for back)

20. Solo on-screen: HAN - Wanna go trick or treating?

21. Epithet for Tim: TINY.

22. Attended to barking dogs?: SAT - How sore feet became known as barking dogs

23. Bump-related: NODAL - NODAL corn root development as a function of planting depth

27. "One Time 4 Your Mind" rapper: NAS 

28. One may have its own tartan design: CLAN - Not just a SCOT

30. Adobe creation: ACROBAT.

32. Sitcom shoe salesman: AL BUNDY - Ed O'Neill as AL BUNDY and later as Jay Pritchett 

34. Fauvism pioneer: MATISSE - Named for les FAUVES (French for wild beasts) Read all about it

38. Lively dances in duple time: POLKAS - 96-yr-old MIL can still POLKA!

39. Lusters: SHEENS.

40. Test involving reading letters: EYE EXAM - No kids, 20/200 is very bad vision!  It means you need to be 20' away to see what a normal eye can see 200' away.

42. Considers closely: PEERS AT - See above

45. Trilogy, often: SAGA.

46. Super __: PAC 

49. Meal involving charoseth, a symbolic fruit paste: SEDER - A good bet for a cwd meal with five letters

50. Silent welcomer?: MAT - Ours

51. Narrow shore point: SPIT - Here are several

53. Boxer's statement?: ARF - Sandy wasn't a Boxer but as seen in this 1927 water color by Little Orphan Annie's creator Harold Gray, ARF was his only line

55. Drought-stricken: SERE - An old cwd friend

56. Place with flexible classes: YOGA STUDIO 

60. Get around?: COIL - The modus operandi for a Boa Constrictor 

61. Prying aid: CLAW HAMMER - A right and wrong way

62. "Radames' Letter" musical: AIDA - From Rice and Weber's broadway musical AIDA

63. Film genre named for a supporting performer: HORSE OPERA - Clever cluing for slang indicating Western Movies

64. Went like the wind?: BLEW.


Down:

1. Online role-playing game involving magical stones: RUNE SCAPE - Guiness recognizes it as the largest MMORPG (Massively Muliplayer Online Role Playing Game). I wonder if a player can 41. Change, briefly, as game software: MOD (modify) the game

2. Steel, for one: IRON ALLOY.

3. Bridge site: CARD TABLE - Also fun cluing

4. Saint in a Brat Pack title: ELMO - Meh... 

5. Old ownership word: HATH - 30 days HATH September... 

6. Misjudgment: ERRANCY 

7. Key with all white notes: A MINOR - No sharps or flats in the key signature

8. Chicken general: TSO - All you need to know

9. Lab coat attachments: ID'S - Dr. Frankenstein probably didn't wear one

10. "The Matrix" hero: NEO - The producer wanted Sandra Bullock for the role but she declined and Keanu Reeves got the part

11. Thomas Wolfe alter ego Eugene: GANT - More

12. Bagel choice: PLAIN - ONION BAGEL was in our "OB-themed" Monday puzzle

13. Insurance giant: AETNA.

14. Horse-drawn wagons: DRAYS - Wagons for heavy loads usually without sides

24. Abbey title: DOM - On this Wine Day, what could be more appropriate than to mention the fine champagne developed by the Benedictine monk named Pierre Pérignon in the Champagne region of France who was a DOM in the Abbey of Hautvillers 

42. Water in a green bottle: PERRIER - Another French drink but from the Gard region of France

25. Humiliates: ABASES.

26. Metal-working tool: LATHE.

29. Heated quickly: NUKED - My popcorn is NUKED in the microwave

30. Certain agency goal: AD SALE - Mad Men showed this so well

31. Levels: TIERS.

35. Cooking agent in some Indian cuisine: SESAME OIL - We would not have all the ingredients in our cupboard for this Chatpatta Channa and Potato Salad

36. Hitchhike successfully: SNAG A RIDE - Not from me I'm afraid

37. Attorney's specialty: ESTATE LAW - They are supposed to solve heir problems

44. Text file with instructions: READ ME - Uh, probably not gonna...

46. "Fooled you!": PSYCH.

47. Ohno on skates: APOLO - Most medals won by an American winter olympian

48. Relaxing smoke for some: CIGAR - Elaine and Jerry relax 

52. Shooting marbles: TAWS - A shooter TAW among target marbles 

54. __ song: FOR A 

55. Sign of healing: SCAB.

57. Goose, e.g.: SHE - What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander

58. Asian path: TAO.

59. One making calls at home: UMP - There are those who want to use technology to take away some of those calls

On a personal note, celebrating with wine in late May is/was a tradition in my former profession. Some of the kids were even as excited as we teachers were to head out for summer. 😙

Saturday, May 18, 2019, Ed Sessa

Themeless Saturday by Ed Sessa

I am very happy to mention any day that celebrates members of the Armed Services. The third Saturday in May is now designated Armed Forces Day and I salute all who have served.

Today's constructor is Ed Sessa M.D., our retired N.Y. pediatrician who is now a resident of Sanibel Island, Florida 

This puzzle was just what the doctor ordered (Hey, you had to see that coming!). I came up dry in the NW but the NE yielded quickly and pretty soon the entire east coast was fully populated and it was Westward Ho! 

Triple horizontal and vertical stacks always impress me 

Now let's see the results of Dr. Sessa's making a house call to our little part of the world:

Across:

1. Noble: ARISTOCRAT and 4. Address for a 1-Across, perhaps: SIR.

11. Tic __: mints: TACS - In a rare moment of comity last week, President Trump offered Speaker Pelosi a TIC TAC and she accepted it


15. Play with unseen players: RADIO DRAMA - Perhaps the most famous RADIO DRAMA performance of all time. Orson Wells doing H.G. Wells 

16. Buck heroine: OLAN - O-LAN is a strong but mostly silent Chinese woman in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth 

17. Certain clinic contributor: SPERM DONOR - Uh, BLOOD DONOR was close but...

18. Hall of Fame quarterback Graham: OTTO - We NFL fans from the 50's remember

19. Significant span: ERA

20. Satirized: SENT UP - A great purveyor of the art:

21. Kind of list: TO DO.

22. Homework shirker's comeuppance: NO TV

24. It may hold broken pottery: RUIN- I'm sure Pompeii's RUINS had lots of broken pottery

25. Hilarious: A HOOT 

26. Frozen beverages: ICEES.

28. Source of blowups: TNT.

29. They're off-limits: NO NOS.

30. Olympic figure skating gold medalist after Kristi: OKSANA - OKSANA Baiul and her doubles partner Victor Petrenko having some fun

32. Makes a lot of progress: GETS FAR.

34. Many an Irish song: LILT.

36. Try for a better hand: DRAW - Even if you DRAW cards, it's going to be tough to make this a good hand

37. Smirks: SIMPERS - Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered has the lyric "I'm a whimpering, SIMPERING child again" and I always thought whimpering and simpering were synonyms

40. Stir to action: AROUSE  and 52. Barbarian horde: HUNS - A WWI call to action

44. Mystical views: AURAE - AURAS didn't cut it

45. Saddle-making tool: AWL - Many holes are required

47. Muesli brand: ALPEN - Swiss style muesli made in Northhampshire, England

48. Constellation points: STARS - These STARS makeup the constellation ORION

49. Musician Lennon: SEAN - son of John and Yoko 

51. Banjo bar: FRET.

53. It includes AAPL and MSFT: THE DOW Jones Average - YTD for Microsoft and Apple

59. Steal, perhaps: DEAL - At Apple's IPO, the stock price was $22/share. Four splits and nearly forty years later it would be worth $11,144/share. What a steal/DEAL!

55. Devoured, with "up": ATE.

56. Thrill from Sills: ARIA - Beverly Sills at La Scala

57. Start: ACTIVATION.

60. Dropped in on: PAID A VISIT.

61. Mrs. Krabappel (Kruh bap' ull) of "The Simpsons": EDNA - The Our Gang Comedies had Mrs. Crabapple as a teacher who spelled her name slightly differently 

62. Giovanni Ribisi title con man: SNEAKY PETE - Here 'ya go


Down:

1. Former late-night talk star, familiarly: ARSENIO - Hall

2. Limp Bizkit genre: RAP ROCK - If you're curious

3. Has a thought: IDEATES - Example from Merriam Webster - "A psychotic would repeatedly IDEATE the act of committing murder" Awkward perhaps, but look at all those compliant letters

5. Farm males: TOMS.

6. More kooky: ODDER.

7. Pastry portmanteau: CRONUT - When a croissant meets a doughnut

8. Sounding off: RANTING.

9. Came (to): AMOUNTED - My birthday meal "came to" $102 and was fabulous

10. One may be rolled out in the park: TARP - Roll it out (cylinder is in left field) and then spread it out

11. "Macbeth" brew ingredient before "Witches' mummy": TOOTH OF WOLF - Do want fries with that?

12. City with a Penn State campus: ALTOONA - Last week we had Penn State Schuykill 

13. Persian passageway: CAT DOOR - This is not a Persian cat but it is a CAT DOOR that only opens when the cat with the right microchip uses it

14. Pompous sorts: SNOOTS.

23. Trattoria entrÈe: VEAL MARSALA.

25. Cochise player of early TV: ANSARA - Syrian born Michael who played Native American Cochise

27. Wading birds with camouflage plumage: SNIPES 

31. Tavern offering: ALE.

33. Refrain opener: TRA.

35. Domicile in front of 123 Sesame Street: TRASH CAN - You'd be grouchy too if you lived there

37. Medically closed up: SUTURED.

38. Khamenei or Khatami: IRANIAN.

39. What often comes before pie: SWEETIE.

41. Hoist: UPRAISE.

42. Take care of business: SEE TO IT.

43. Agreement between states: ENTENTE - One is shown in green below that fought during WWI

44. Barely: A SHADE - Just A SHADE short

46. Uppity: LA DI DA.

50. B.J. of "The Office": NOVAK - He played Ryan Howard on the show and also was a writer and executive producer

53. Light touches: TAPS.

54. Rippled, like chips: WAVY.

58. Point or pointer: TIP - I'll give you a TIP on how to use the TIP of that pointer 

I hope today puts today will remind you to say, "Thank you for your service" to any member of the armed forces you see today.