Saturday, January 6, 2018, Daniel Nierenberg

THEMELESS SATURDAY

Daniel has offered a real challenge on this first Saturday in '18. I needed a fill to unlock each corner with the NE being the last to fill. This clue immediately below was not in the vocabulary for this science/space guy but... 

13. Plot devices for sci-fi travelers : TIME SLIPS - Spontaneous instances of time travel that Marty McFly discovered at 88 mph

Across

1. Vaudeville show, e.g. : VARIETY ACT - Old vaudevillians who brought their VARIETY ACTS to TV are given credit for selling thousands of sets. 10 point penalty if you don't know these two!

11. Cuban pronoun : ESTA

15. Group formed in Cairo in 1945 : ARAB LEAGUE - The original group of 7 now numbers 22

16. Make muddy : ROIL - A frequent political trick if they do not want to answer the question 


17. Reactionary '60s genre : MINIMAL ART - This piece sold for over $100M





18. Unfeeling : NUMB - Have you seen the weather around the country this week?

19. Identifies : PEGS

20. Just : MERE

21. Great canines? : DANES - My favorite DANE is Victor Borge 

22. Tart fruits : SLOES -And their famous product

24. Is bothered : MINDS - People that mind don't COUNT and people who count don't mind!

25. More or less, informally : SORTA - just about, nearly, kinda... 


29. Brightly plumed songbird : ORIOLE - All of these have graced our yard and the ORIOLE certainly stands out

31. Banned chem. contaminant : PCB

34. Most lascivious : LEWDEST - This is a hard description to obtain these days

36. Mess with : KID

37. Super Bowl MVP after Peyton : ELI - One of Eli's Super Bowl wins was greatly aided by David Tyree's (#85) famous catch that he pinned to the top of his helmet 

38. Final hour? : EXAM DAY - Teachers today soon learn that they had better be teaching to the EXAM

39. Galoot : APE

40. Big automotive initials : REO - Isn't this REO Speedwagon a beauty?

41. Like some observant Jews : HASIDIC - They'd stand out in my 'hood

42. Designing initials : YSL - Yves St. Laurent 

43. Place for porcelain, possibly : MANTEL - Here's a beautiful porcelain MANTEL clock 

45. Stuffed fare : TACOS

47. Zero, to Nero : NIHIL - Latin for nothing and the root for NIHILISM

48. Opposite : POLAR - My loving wife and I are POLAR opposites on some issues but not anything really important to us

52. Come to pass : OCCUR

53. Cryotherapy offerers : SPAS - Exposure to -200F air for a couple minutes is supposed to be a great treatment for pain

57. Give significance to, in a way : NAME - CITI paid $400M over 20 years to NAME this stadium home of the NY Mets

58. Travel in no particular direction : ROAM

59. Trial records : STENO NOTES - I'll bet she did!

61. Niggle : CARP - Niggle seems like a fun little word

62. Collectible, maybe : OUT OF PRINT - A Gutenberg Bible might be a tough find 

63. Charity : ALMS

64. Double helix pair : DNA STRANDS - We share 96% of our DNA with chimps.


Down

1. Improvises : VAMPS - Keep VAMPING, we're trying to get the show headliner sober!

2. King Triton's daughter : ARIEL

3. 2011 title cowboy chameleon : RANGO - RANGO and his "voicer" Johnny Depp

4. Sacred birds : IBISES

5. Stately street adornment : ELM 

6. __ spirit : TEAM 

7. School named for a Welsh merchant : YALE - Some of that merchandise he traded in was slaves but the movement to change the college name is going nowhere 

8. Ingredient in the Japanese jellied dessert yokan : AGAR - AGAR is the "gelatinizing" agent in this lovely dessert

9. Means of correction : CURE

10. Some action in "Full Metal Jacket" took place on it : TET - I  learned the abandoned Beckton Gasworks in East London was where the battle scenes were filmed.

11. 1844 Verdi opera : ERNANI - ERNANI was a bandit in this opera by Giuseppe Verdi (Joe Green according to Victor Borge)

12. Seem reasonable : SOUND OKAY - "Let's attack the center of the line on cemetery ridge at Gettysburg and split the Yankees!"

14. Liturgical dress : ALBS

21. Surprise bad guy : DIRTY COP

23. One who gets it all : SOLE HEIR - She was his SOLE HEIR upon his death

24. Assembled artwork : MOSAIC - We saw fabulous MOSAICS in the Vatican

26. Longtime pharmacy chain : REXALL - The REXALL of my misspent yute kept Playboys and condoms under the counter out of sight

27. Christmas poem opener : TWAS - A great holiday tradition. Now where is my sleep cap?

28. Let in : ADMIT

30. Pulitzer-winning biographer Leon : EDEL - If I feel interested enough, I'll post a picture of him...

31. Wave generator? : PERM - Getting one in 1935 with the Gallia Machine

32. Controversial technology involving carbon capture and storage : CLEAN COAL - It purports to extract CO2 from burning coal exhaust gases and store it securely underground

33. Part of a fictional six-million-dollar repair : BIONIC ARM 

35. Ancient Icelandic text : EDDA

46. Chihuahua neighbor : SONORA - Just south of Tucson 

49. Ipso facto, e.g. : LATIN

50. Fix : AMEND

51. Breaks in scores : RESTS

52. Killer whale : ORCA - I'm sure  54. Org. promoting veganism : PETA is not in favor of having ORCAS do this but might have felt the animal got some measure of justice at the end of this sequence as he 53. Surprise big-time : STUNNED the trainer as he 44. Hits hard : THUMPS her

55. Years in Granada : ANOS - Me? Tengo 71 años de edad

56. __ light : SOFT

59. Land development aid : SOD

60. "On Point" syndicating org. : NPR

A tough but eminently fair test to me. You?

DA GRID: