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
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.
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.
