Saturday, August 4, 2018, C.C. Burnikel

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by C.C. Burnikel 

Today we celebrate one of the true staples of home, the chocolate chip cookie! Eating the dough, smelling the aroma of baking and finally eating the finished product with a glass of ice cold milk is a true sensory delight. My lovely bride makes one batch extra crispy just for me.

I hope you can get some of these wonderful baked beauties and enjoy them with my write-up or in spite of my write-up.

As you can see by the byline, our blogmistress shows once again that she can construct for any day of the week as she submits this beguiling themeless entry. Here she is pictured with me and the Husker t-shirt I took her when Joann and I met with her and Boomer in Minneapolis. She told me she has worn it twice and like anything else, I know it looked good on her!

As I read the cluing for 16 Across,

16. Walks caused by walks, perhaps?: TRIPS TO THE MOUND.

it occurred to me that something seemed familiar about that entry. Then, boom, it struck me that I had given C.C. that clue in response to a request from her for one of her great baseball fills. That is very cool but what is not so cool is that despite having written the clue and remembering that I had written it, it took way too many perps to remember what the fill was! Yeah, the Mensa people have no intention of contacting me. 😮 

Let's see what other gems our brilliant friend has for us today:


Across:

1. Biting: ACID.

5. Hooded African menace: MAMBA - Kobe Bryant bills himself and his shoe as The Black Mamba

10. One may be strapless: BRA.

13. Put on board: LADE - A bill of LADING from Valencia, Spain to Ashod, Israel via the Maersk Line

14. Girl Sebastian is referring to in the song "Kiss the Girl": ARIEL  - Advice from Sebastian the anthropomorphic Crab in The Little Mermaid

15. Poke: PROD.

16. Walks caused by walks, perhaps?: TRIPS TO THE MOUND - "Give me the ball, young man, that's one walk too many!"

19. Snatches: ABDUCTS

20. Always there: ETERNAL - JFK's ETERNAL flame at Arlington has gone out at least twice

21. Aware of: ONTO


22. "Battle of the Sexes" co-star: EMMA STONE - She played Billie Jean King to Steve Carrel's Bobby Riggs in the movie about their famous 1973 tennis match.

24. Dealer's order: ANTE UP  - Waddya mean I didn't ANTE UP?

26. Small grove: COPSE  - Most farmsteads around here have a small COPSE of trees surrounding the buildings including the chicken coop where you will find a 28. Fowl pole: ROOST.

27. Close one: PAL.

30. Graham who co-founded The Hollies: NASH - Later he left the Hollies and became the N of CSN&Y

34. 11th-century navigator: ERICSON - Leif makes celebrating Columbus Day seem silly 

36. Occasion to spiff up: HOT DATE.

39. Mother of the Titans: GAEA  - The mother of everything

40. App with pics, familiarly: INSTA  - Short for INSTAgram. 

42. Light color: RED - The RED light is on the right side in Japan

43. Cozumel coins: PESOS.

46. Impatient: SNAPPY -  He can't make it SNAPPY if he 48. Rests: TAKES A NAP.

52. Oct. 2017 Dodgers-Cubs matchup: NLCS  - A pricey ticket

53. Mine carriers: ORE CARS  and 57. Lose it: GET OUT OF CONTROL.

54. "Did it start already?": AM I LATE? - An OCD fear of mine

59. Imitated: APED.

60. King, e.g.: RULER.

61. "Hamilton" Tony winner Leslie __ Jr.: ODOM - Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the play and played Hamilton to Leslie ODOM Jr.'s Burr

62. Cantina condiment: SAL - Me gustaría la SAL en el borde de mi vaso de margarita (gustaría = like, SAL = salt, borde = rim, vaso = glass)

63. Convenient app for some drivers: E-PARK.

64. Scandinavian capital: OSLO.


Down:

1. Baja's opposite: ALTA - ¿Cuál fue la temperatura ALTA y BAJA del día? (What was the high and low temperature of the day?)

2. Creamy pasta dish: CARBONARA - Dr. Dolan used this fill in a puzzle I blogged on July 7th 

3. "That was a fact!": I DIDN'T LIE

4. Appoint as a posse member, say: DEPUTE - In High Noon, Gary Cooper tried to DEPUTE men and they all refused

5. Drudge online: MATT  - The editor of The Drudge Report

6. Cropped up: AROSE - Suddenly... 

7. Sch. in the 2008 film "21": MIT - Audiences liked it a lot more than the critics. I've watched it several times for the math, gaming and the story arc where the nerd becomes a player

8. Monstrous creatures: BEHEMOTHS - NASA's BEHEMOTH - the crawler/transporter that carried the Shuttle and the Moon Rockets out to the launch pad. Find the fire truck for comparison in size

9. Microbrewery fixture: ALE TAP.

10. Mars in music: BRUNO - Wayne Newton jokingly called BRUNO "so talented he makes me sick" 

11. Journalist Farrow: RONAN  - As fate would have it, RONAN made a big splash last week with this expose

12. Puzzle: ADDLE Here is a puzzle that might ADDLE you

15. Presage: PORTEND.

17. Rubs clean: SCOURS.

18. Private meal?: MESS - Most army privates would know what S.O.S. in the MESS Hall/Tent is

23. Mic holders: MCS - I had "Drop the MIC" in last Saturday's puzzle

24. Take down __: A PEG - One of the ongoing premises on Frasier was to see the pompous star taken down A PEG

25. Shih-__: mixed breed: POO  - The cute little dog with the unfortunate name

29. Introductory French course: ONION SOUP - I'd hope that one of the succeeding courses would be a filet mignon 

31. Holdings for many seniors: AARP CARDS - Getting one of these is a rite of passage like getting your driver's license, though perhaps less eagerly anticipated

32. Aid in changing a light bulb: STEP STOOL  - Yes, now just rotate the STOOL clockwise

33. Lamarr of "Boom Town": HEDY  

35. One side of New England's Bourne Bridge: CAPE COD  - Here is a 1970 b/w picture showing this bridge connecting the Massachusetts mainland with Cape Cod over the Cape Cod Canal

37. Some NBA periods: OTS.

38. Red wine substance: TANNIN - A naturally occurring substance found in grape skins, seeds and stems. White wine has less TANNIN and is less likely to give you a headache

41. Govt. code crackers: NSA  - The National Security Agency offers online code challenges like this one below where the hint is the Q in the code stands for an R in the answer

44. Hairy Genesis son: ESAU - Isaac and Rebecca's twins Esau and Jacob are born

45. "Being and Nothingness" author: SARTRE  - Jean Paul's essay in phenomenological ontology which rejects Kant's concept of noumenon. 

47. Overly: ALL TOO - We all know people who were taken from us ALL TOO soon

48. Forum wardrobe: TOGAS.

49. South American cornmeal cake: AREPA  - Shredded beef in AREPA

50. __ One: vodka brand: KETEL - Not a connoisseur so...

51. Harness race horse: PACER  - It appears a bunny wants to get into the race with these PACERS

55. 1981 TV groom: MORK  - A little of Robin Williams comedy can go a long way with me but I found him to be wonderful in Good Morning Vietnam, Dead Poets Society and Good Will Hunting where he showed his acting chops

56. Ticklish doll: ELMO  - Tickle Me Elmo was the hottest Christmas toy in America one year

58. Grapefruit League locale: Abbr.: FLA - In March we went the other way to see The Cactus League doing spring training in ARZ

I hope you enjoyed those cookies during this excursion and will tell you there is no law against seconds on the cookies as you comment and read what others of our merry band have to say. 

p.s. Happy Birthday to my youngest daughter today! Here she is shown with her youngest.

DA GRID