Saturday, September 21, 2019, Evan Kalish

Themeless Saturday by Evan Kalish

Today's constructor is our old friend Evan Kalish who has gone "postal" by amassing over 30,000 pictures of post offices at his fun website. You may remember that in this picture Evan is holding a picture of the post office in Yellow Jacket, Colorado.

Evan's comments on today's puzzle: It’s easy to overlook 14-letter entries when constructing themeless crosswords. I thought it would be interesting to create a grid with comparatively few (66) words showcasing a couple of lively 14s in the middle, with “caption contest" being the seed. The grid layout is segmented though still fairly open, which enabled quite a few long, lively answers in the corners (my personal favorite being “I’ll be here!”)

His sixty-six word entry took longer than most for this solver as some fill that looked perfectly fine to me did not get Evan's "stamp" of approval. Hey, you had to see that coming.

Erin definitely did not simply "mail it in" today (enough already!):

Across:

1. Prepared for a shot: TOOK AIM - William Tell had nothing like this!

8. It dropped "Western" from its name in 1997: SAMOA - Not to be confused with American Samoa

13. By design: ON PURPOSE - My pedantic toes curl up when I hear "ON ACCIDENT"

16. Basic: PLAIN.

17. Come to one's senses: SEE REASON.

18. Not level: ATILT - There's this tower in western Italy...

19. Department store section: CARDS 

20. Pacific resort, popularly: CABO - Driving there from my house would involve using the Topolobampo Ferry to cross the Gulf of California

22. Some years ago: ONCE  

23. Like: ALA.

24. Westernmost African capital: DAKAR - The Obamas stand in the infamous "Door Of No Return" where many West African slaves boarded ships from Goree Island just two miles east of DAKAR, Senegal

25. Hardly Mr. Cool: NERD.

26. Commonly crumbled fare: SALTINES.

29. Word on Italian street signs: VIA - The VIAS (streets) on the west and east side of the Pantheon

30. Competition involving pictures: CAPTION CONTEST - The three finalists in The New Yorker Magazine CAPTION CONTEST #675 (and Evan's seed entry)

33. Hometown folks: LOCALS - What About Bob?

34. Portmanteau coin: TOONIE - Because Canada's $1 coin was called a Loonie because it had a Loon on the back, when Canada minted a $2 coin they conjoined Loonie and Two and got a TOONIE.

35. Longtime Warner Bros. output: ANIMATED SHORTS - They produced Looney (not LOONIE) Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons that entertained me for hours in my misspent yute and still play well today

39. __ player: DVD - I think we have two somewhere

40. Calm: SERENITY.

41. Legendary Asian: YETI - Legend indeed

43. "War on Peace" author __ Farrow: RONAN - Is his real father Frank Sinatra and not Woody Allen?

44. Network for cinema lovers: TMC - Today's schedule there

47. Homecoming figure: GRAD.

48. Headline: STAR - Who would be the STAR if this facetious poster was for a real event?

49. Pinky __: SWEAR - The Seinfeld made a Pinky SWEAR for "The Contest"

51. Completely lost: AT SEA.

53. Waiting line: I'LL BE HERE - Evan's fav corner entry

55. Imply: GET AT

56. Some of Nixon's Plumbers, formerly: CIA AGENTS - They pulled the "Third Rate Burglary" that brought down a president

57. Simpson of fashion: ADELE -Here ya go!

58. "Aha!": THAT'S IT.


Down:

1. Puccini 3-Down: TOSCA and 3. See 1-Down: OPERA. An interesting way to pair these two

2. Magic star of the '90s: ONEAL - Shaq with a former girlfriend

4. Member of an Iraqi minority: KURD 

5. "Wonder Woman" (2017) villain: ARES - Here ya go!

6. Microbrew option: IPA - A crossword standard 

7. Asti wine grape: MOSCATO - Italian for the French Muscat grape

8. Pampering place: SPA.

9. Brown on the Food Network: ALTON - Sticks and stone may break my bones but names can really slow down my solving


10. Ring centerpiece: MAIN EVENT - This poster was way before Ali was the MAIN EVENT.  It even did 12. Come before: ANTEDATE when he became Ali.

11. Cause of many '70s lines: OIL CRISIS - I remember a former student telling me, "Sorry, Mr. Schlapfer, we're out of gas."

14. Really absorb: SOAK IN 

15. With all judges present, as at a Circuit Court: EN BANC - French for "in bench". 

21. Lower-calorie cookie since 2015: OREO THIN - 13 fewer calories than a regular OREO and 30 fewer than a double-stuff OREO

24. Hardly Hollywood's most wanted: D-LISTERS - Some Hollywood D-LISTERS

26. Filter target: SPAM - The father of a boy I has in class was in charge of the successful popularizing of edible Hormel SPAM in Beijing, China

27. World record?: ATLAS.

28. High-and-mighty sort: SNOOT - He's called a SNOOT because his is up in the air

30. Exchanged for an equivalent: CONVERTED - I still have a €5 note from 13 years ago I have yet to have CONVERTED to dollars

31. Pucker inducer: ACID TASTE

32. Revolutionary-era loyalist: TORY.

33. Super Bowl LI performer: LADY GAGA - Talk about an entrance!

36. Hot: EROTIC - See above

37. View from Anchorage: DENALI - You can see its 46. Peak: CREST in the background, NW across the Knik Arm of The Cook Inlet

38. Warn, watchdog-style: SNARL AT

42. Utopian: IDEAL.

44. Many Beliebers: TEENS 

45. Cuban hero José: MARTI - Here ya go!

49. Dreamcast maker: SEGA - If you're interested

50. Sharpen: WHET - A WHETstone 

52. Had: ATE.

54. "What a terrible idea!": BAH - Ebenezer's opinion of Christmas. "What, you want the day off?"

If you want to, you may mail in your comments from America's smallest post office in Ochopee, Florida (seen below) which of course is in Evan's collection. Or you may simply comment electronically here!