Saturday, June 22, 2019, Julian Lim

Themeless Saturday by Julian Lim

Today's constructor is Julian Lim who is an assistant professor in Singapore at Duke-NUS which is a collaboration between Duke University in America and the National University of Singapore. His areas of study would seem to fit right in with my issues! I fought off my behavioral disorders and was able to finish his offering quickly as his long fills were gettable and helpful!

Let's see what Professor Lim has for us today to combat any mental fatigue:

Across:

1. Marketing term involving supposed nutritional benefits: SUPERFOOD - What is this?

10. Dividing walls: SEPTA

15. Afford a view of: OPEN OUT TO - You can rent this house that OPENS OUT TO this view in the Honolulu area for $495/night.

16. '90s "SNL" regular Cheri: OTERI.

17. Skilled writer: WORDSMITH.

18. Run up, as debts: INCUR.

19. Starter followers: ENTREES - Here in Nebraska, I'd recommend a filet

20. Not for youngsters: R-RATED - A movie can keep a PG-13 rating with a couple of  "f-bombs" if they are not used in a sexual context

21. Take up again?: RE HEM - In the 70's, some girls "RE-HEMMED" their modest skirts in which they left home by rolling up the waistband to make mini skirts at school 

22. Arch with a point: OGEE - An old cwd friend 

24. Pay stub?: OLA - Julian! Tricky way to get PAYOLA

25. 1941 Bogart part: SAM SPADE - I'll bet most know what Bogie as SAM SPADE was referencing in this line to Ward Bond playing a police lieutenant  

28. Dry __: ROT

29. LeRoy Foster, for one: MURALIST.

30. Prayer's place: NAVE.

31. Robin's rhyming call?: HOLY GUACAMOLE - 50 variations on a theme

33. Bangkok bread: BAHT - This 39 BAHT sandwich equals $1.25 in Bangkok 

34. Rain-on-the-roof sounds: PIT A PATS - Interminable this spring in the Midwest

35. FAQ snippet: ANS - If you ask a Q, you expect an ANS

36. China quality: FINENESS - Porcelain and China are both terms that refer to dinnerware made of a FINE-particle clay

37. Metric meas.: KGS 50. Land with eland: VELDT - These largest antelope on the African grassland can weigh up to 600 KGS (1,000 lbs)

38. Epilepsy tests, for short: EEGS 

39. Tricked: HOSED - Love this commercial!

43. Romans, in a proverb: LOCALS.

45. Radcliffe grads: ALUMNAE - Graduates of formerly all female Radcliffe would be called ALUMNAE (plural of female singular alumna)

47. Profit: AVAIL.

48. Get at: INSINUATE.

51. Knocked too hard?: NITPICKED - A hazard for all bloggers

52. Kid's retort: ARE SO.

53. Gets even: SMOOTHENS - Most know this word but Seinfeld fans will understand (and want) this shirt

Down:

1. Planter: SOWER - A 1930 video of the 8.5 ton SOWER statue being lifted to the top of Nebraska's capitol building (:48)

2. On top, but only just: UP ONE - Toronto was UP ONE (3 games to 2) when The Golden State Warriors 36. Were conquered by: FELL TO them on 6/10/19. The 4. Upshot: END RESULT was an NBA title for Toronto

3. Western Australia's capital: PERTH - Gird your loins for a long trip if you are going to drive from Sydney to PERTH

5. Seasoning for lamb: ROSEMARY.

6. Steam: FUME.

7. Spunkmeyer of cookie fame: OTIS.

8. First National Leaguer to hit 500 home runs: OTT - This mint condition 1933 Goudey card will run you $42,000 

9. Hand-to-head cry: DOH.

10. Evening do: SOIREE - I wonder if Marie Antoinette served cake at her SOIREES

11. Peak in Catania: ETNA.

12. Push-up targets: PECTORALS.

13. What "never runs smooth," in a 1963 Gene Pitney hit: TRUE LOVE - His anguished voice spoke to my teen angst

14. Specification for a pilot: AIR DATE - If your TV pilot is good enough, it will get an AIR DATE

20. Much paperwork: RED TAPE - Even north of the border

22. Poppy products: OPIATES -  The difference between OPIATES and opioids

23. Garage vessel: GAS CAN.

26. Heckle and Jeckle, e.g.: MAGPIES - Cartoon birds of my misspent yute

27. Turning about: SLUING.

29. Where diamond gets a 10: MOHS SCALE - Talc is the softest on this scale at 1

30. Less: NOT SO MUCH.

31. Hair-of-the-dog target: HANGOVER - Origin of the phrase "Hair-of-the-dog"

32. Hawkeye's group: MASH UNIT. On M*A*S*H, Lebanese Klinger would call an easy task, "A proverbial piece of 33. Filo pastry dessert: BAKLAVA.

40. Dastardly sort: SNAKE 

41. Downed: EATEN.

42. Accomplishments: DEEDS - I volunteered to take lunch room duty for one year to help out my principal. 23 years later... 

44. Some are visual: AIDS - I believe in using visuals as AIDS in my blogging but people can still just scan for the bold answers and move on

45. Respecting: AS TO.

46. Cosmetic surg. option: LIPO.

48. Connections: INS - A great aid in getting a job

49. Strategic math game: NIM - I suspect Professor Lim has played this combinatorial game of NIM

Now presuming your Heating, Air Conditioning and Ventilation are fine,  comment on Julian's fun Saturday puzzle!

Saturday, June 15, 2019, Craig Stowe

Themeless Saturday Puzzle By Craig Stowe

Today marks the the celebration of a big source of renewable energy - Wind. As you can see by the accompanying chart, wind turbines are sprouting up at a good clip out here on the Great Plains. 

My daughter and her family just returned from a vacation in Palm Springs, CA two days ago and were amazed when they saw this huge wind farm on I-10 near there

The main issue of course, is how to store this energy when the wind is not blowing. This is being addressed in many ingenious ways

Today, Craig Stowe has blown up a challenging puzzle to solve. Let's see "watt" he has done:

Across:

1. Word with H or I: BEAM.

5. Key of Chopin's Étude Op. 10, No. 3: E MAJ - Gee, I'd love to hear some of that

9. Wont: HABIT - It is my wont to blog every Saturday 

14. Old: OUT OF DATE.

16. "The Faerie Queene" woman: IRENA - IRENA appeals to "The Faerie Queen" for help in Edmund Spencer's 1590 epic poem

17. U.S. gross national debt units since 1981: TRILLIONS - and the beat goes on...

56. Disproportion: IMBALANCE - Speaking of which

18. Fictional musket wielder: ATHOS - He was one of The, uh, Three Musketeers

19. Ready for action: HOT TO TROT 

20. Medieval feudal lord: THANE - Macbeth as the Thane of Glamis

21. Prepare quickly, with "up": WHIP.

22. Shudder: QUIVER - The master

23. Some partygoers: STAGS.

27. Aristotle in the 20th century: ONASSIS - Mr. Jackie O

29. River in Tuscany: ARNO - The ARNO 15. Runs: FLOWS  out of the Apennines, goes through Florence and empties into the Ligurian Sea at Pisa. There are no boat rides on the ARNO as much of it is not navigable  

30. "Middlemarch" author: ELIOT - An 1871 novel of provincial English life by George ELIOT (Mary Anne Evans)

32. Low digits: TOES.

34. YMCA leader and Peace Prize co-Nobelist John: MOTT - His Bio.

35. Coup group: JUNTA.

36. Normandy department: ORNE - France's NW Region of Normandy is divided into five Administrative Departments seen below. The beaches of Calvados were much celebrated nine days ago.

37. Lofty verse: EPOS - Here ya go!

38. Glyceride, for one: ESTER - Here ya go!

39. Tabula __: RASA - Latin for Tablet Erased

40. Japanese electronics giant: HITACHI.

42. "Black Velvet" singer Alannah: MYLES - Some nice Saturday listening/viewing

43. Sovereign: DYNAST - Yes, I suppose a DYNAST would have a dynasty

44. Early one-named Velvet Underground vocalist: NICO - 60's vintage

47. Great service providers: ACERS - They can make for tennis matches played with few strokes

48. Looked raptly: STARGAZED - Mine would be more directed at the heavens than anything terrestrial 

53. Photo finish: MATTE.

54. It may be a stretch: LIMOUSINE - At Disney Studios, Rock 'n Roller Coaster is a ride in a "stretch LIMOUSINE" at 57mph into a black light adventure with Aerosmith blasting in your ears! I'd allow "awesome" as a description!

55. Colorado's __ Park: ESTES.

57. Origins: SEEDS - 800 miles south of the North Pole lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault that stores nearly a million seeds from around the world

58. Nudnik: PEST.

59. Hit, as with snowballs: PELT.


Down:

1. Choice when you can't decide?: BOTH - An old commercial about this dilemma

2. Prefix with vision: EURO - Need more info?

3. Working: AT IT.

4. Shed: MOLT.

5. Bunker on Hauser Street: EDITH - Jeanne Stapleton won an Emmy for her wonderful portrayal

6. "The Piano" extra: MAORI - In this movie the MAORI unload Ada's piano on the beach in western New Zealand 

7. Never: AT NO POINT IN TIME.

8. Kid: JEST.

9. Break: HIATUS - Kids and teachers are on one now

10. Subject including the Renaissance: ART HISTORY.

11. Type of economics: BEHAVIORAL - Five interesting examples

12. From that perspective: IN ONE SENSE.

13. Cop show shocker: TASER.

22. Doha's country: QATAR - Doha is a 2-hr flight from Baghdad 

23. Word of equality: SAME.

24. Cup holder: TROPHY CASE.

25. Name wrongly associated with cake: ANTOINETTE - Most feel Marie never said "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" (Let them eat cake) in response to hearing the peasants had no bread. However it became a rallying cry for French revolutionaries 

26. Took the first step: GOT STARTED - Debate continues on how attribution to Marie Antoinette of "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche" GOT STARTED

28. One on a staff: NOTE - This NOTE is the top of my range

30. Kick out: EJECT.

31. Green: LUSH - Redux from last Saturday

33. Tranquility and Serenity: SEAS - A lunar reconnaissance orbiter caught site of the Apollo 11 landing site in the SEA of Tranquility 45 years later. (Yeah, we really went!)

41. Rate: ASSESS.

42. Big kahuna: MOGUL 

43. Some royal wedding guests: DAMES - DAME Judi Dench became the first woman to play James Bond's boss, M. Her role was modeled on DAME Stella Rimington, the real-life head of MI5 between 1992 and 1996

45. Feet in a meter?: IAMBS - Ba BUM, Ba BUM, Ba BUM, Ba BUM, Ba BUM (each "ba BUM" is an IAMB and of course there are five in this smart aleck's answers)

46. Balkan native: CROAT.

48. Err: SLIP.

49. Pronto: ASAP - Add Stat in a hospital 

50. E-__: ZINE - Not an online magazine but just for fun-  What time is it in EZINE, Çanakkale, Turkey right now?

51. Letter-bottom abbr.: ENCL - The ENCL can be a S.A.S.E. for an R.S.V.P.

52. Bugs' bane: DEET - The EPA now says DEET is safe when used as directed but this product advertises it is DEET FREE

Now the person in this house could comment on his computer that is powered by WIND and solar energy!

Saturday, June 8, 2019, Brian E. Paquin

Themeless Saturday by Brian E. Paquin

Today celebrates one of my favorite bakery items, Jelly-Filled Doughnuts. When I am vying for Husband Of The Week, I buy my lovely bride her fav, a cinnamon roll with maple icing. But while in the store, I buy myself a long john and have the girl go in the back and inject that long pastry (yeah, I know it's not in any way a doughnut) with a generous dosage of raspberry jelly. Yum! BTW, can it truly be called a doughnut with filling where a hole should be? 😏


Today I am blogging my fifth Saturday themeless by Brian Paquin in less than a year. 

I ripped through this in twenty-five minutes and enjoyed a lot of the fill (no jelly) and cluing along the way.

I hope you enjoyed Brian's puzzle and had a nice doughnut brimming with your favorite jam or jelly while completing the exercise.




Now let's see what has filled our grid today:

Across:

1. "Yikes!": OH NO and 53. Harassed "SNL" clay character: MR BILL - Having MR BILL and his signature cry of distress in the same puzzle can not be an accident (:05)

5. "Dance of the Seven Veils" play: SALOME - John The Baptist lost his head over this dance

11. Common commuter letters: MTA - But did he ever return?

14. __ red: BEET.

15. Got around: ELUDED - Dr Kimbell ELUDED Lt. Gerard for five years on TV

16. Slur in musical notation, e.g.: ARC - A slur ARC joins different notes not to be performed separately. It's called a tie when it connects two notes of the same pitch

17. Not at all slack: TAUT.

18. Shocking weapons: TASERS.

19. Spendable amount: NET - If you win a million in a Nebraska lottery, you will NET $406,700 after taxes. You will NET $700,000 if you take the 30 year annuity payout

20. Set of keyboard keys: ARROWS.

22. Season ticket holders, usually: HUGE FANS - Huskers have sold out every FB game since 1962

24. Personal ad "looking for": ISO - In Search Of... 

25. Boo-__: HOO.

27. Gates of philanthropy: MELINDA - She and her husband have formed the world's largest private charitable organization. 28. Impressive: NO SLOUCHes they, when it comes to sharing their wealth

31. Votes against: NAYS - When "independency" was first proposed to the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina voted NAY

32. Make a bad situation worse: FEED THE FIRE - Sometime said about a bad relief pitcher (Last Saturday we had "Treading Water - NO WORSE)

36. Magnificence: STATELINESS - I saw it while in the redwoods!

38. Many a "Twister" character: STORM CHASER - I enjoyed the Helen Hunt/Bill Paxton movie but this KC farm team on the prairie stirs things up 35 minutes from my house

40. "Not happening!": AS IF.

43. Colors in the family: SHADES OF - Click on any color to see SHADES OF that family

45. Rascals, old-style: VARLETS.

49. Bard's preposition: ERE.

50. __-pitch: SLO - SLO in/fast out

51. High seas greeting: AHOY MATE - And on the telephone if Alexander Graham Bell had gotten his way

55. Salon acquisition: TAN.

56. 1887 Verdi debut: OTELLO - Original poster for when it was performed at the Theater At The Stairway (Teatro Alla Scala)

58. __ rage: ROID - One side effect of taking a steROID is the rage it can generate

59. "__ too!": ARE - Am not, ARE too, ad infinitum 

60. Kind of calendar: JULIAN - Pope Gregory XIII's calendar replaced it in 1582 as the 1,500 year old JULIAN calendar was 11 days (correction) off


61. Girl of Avonlea: ANNE.

62. "Gnarly!": RAD.

63. "Either way": I'M EASY - An academy award winning song for a one-hit-wonder

64. Roman Catholic prelate: Abbr.: MSGR- The MonSiGnoR at my grandson's first communion lost the kids after 15 seconds but went on for 15 minutes anyway


Down:

1. Come into: OBTAIN.

2. Learns about: HEARS OF.

3. Obsessions, often: NEUROSES - Road Rage is listed an example of a NEUROSIS

4. German aviation pioneer Lilienthal: OTTO - In 1912, Wilbur Wright said of this glider pioneer, "He presented the cause of human flight to his readers so earnestly, so attractively, and so convincingly that it was difficult for anyone to resist the temptation to make an attempt at it himself"

5. Has every intention that one will: SETS OUT TO - Wilbur and Orville SET OUT TO take OTTO's curved surface gliders/flyers and put a motor on them

6. In the manner of: ALA.

7. Well-kept, as a lawn: LUSH - Ours has to be mowed every third day

8. Concert hall: ODEUM - A small theater of Greece or Rome

9. Emulate Time and Warner: MERGE - Our Time/Warner  cable company is now Spectrum

10. Ford who championed the Model A: EDSEL - Henry and son EDSEL unveiling the 1928 Model A

11. Procrastinator's word: MANANA - Sung here by the surprising cowriter 

12. Fashionable: TRENDY.

13. Plays the role of: ACTS AS.

21. New Orleans Saints chant: WHO DAT.

23. Tactful handling: FINESSE.

26. Earth pigment: OCHER.

29. Unleashes: LET'S FLY

30. Big wheels: HELMS - Here's one on the RMS Titanic 

33. Sheet of microfilm: FICHE -  from French fiche "card, index card, slip, form". Here is a microfiche reader that magnifies the fiche card where the information has been shrunk and stored

34. Singing like Pentatonix, e.g.: IN HARMONY - Acapella was one letter short

35. Keeper of many books: READER - Books fill his shelves or his eREADER

37. Meetings: SESSIONS.

39. On the road: ROLLING.

40. Gamer's icon: AVATAR.

41. About 30% of Africa: SAHARA - From space

42. Did a laundry job: IRONED.

44. Office item: FOLDER.

46. Tiny birthday cake, perhaps: EMOJI - Yeah, I've used one before too

47. Art of jazz: TATUM - Here ya go (alt. Goose of the Globetrotters) 

48. Stone marker: STELE - The seven foot tall basaltic STELE, Law Of Hammurabi, is now housed in the Louvre 

52. Director Kazan: ELIA - He named names to the HUAC and was a Hollywood pariah from then on

54. Name on the cover of "Dracula": BRAM - A $10,000 first edition 

57. Syllables in some madrigals: LAS - Can you count the TRA'S and LA'S

Go ahead and comment. I have a raspberry filled long john waiting for me!