Saturday, May 23, 2020, Sheryl Bartol

Saturday Themeless by Sheryl Bartol

Debbie Ellerin                  Sheryl Bartol

Today's constructor is Sheryl Bartol and in my search to contact her, I ran across the fact that she had co-authored a puzzle with Debbie Ellerin who is a frequent LA Times Saturday constructor. So I contacted Debbie and got the wonderful reply that SHERYL IS DEBBIE'S SISTER! Here is Sheryl's response to my note:

Hi Gary,

   Thanks for reaching out.  By way of background on me, I live in Evanston, IL and learned to construct puzzles from my sister (and sometimes co-constructor) Debbie Ellerin.  In retirement, in addition to constructing an occasional puzzle, I spend my time working with a homeless agency in my community “to end homelessness, one person at a time”. I also love traveling with my husband and three kids (and look forward to getting back to it post-pandemic), and competing in my family’s fantasy football league. 

I am excited about my debut LA Times puzzle and my first themeless puzzle.  I started the puzzle with the entry PROMPOSAL after being intrigued by the elaborate prom invitations devised by my children’s high school classmates. Other early longer entries were FORCEQUIT and MANOAMANO, which I thought were unique phrases. As I completed the fill, I was drawn to some words with personal connections. I am not sure if these clues survived the editing process, but I associate UPPER with the area of Michigan, that was home to my husband’s family. CREPE and EDAM were related to some of my travels, and I clued DESPERADO and HER with references to favorite Eagles and Beatles songs. The clue for APU came from my son Andrew who is a big Simpsons fan! All those hours of Simpsons watching finally paid off :)

Take care,

Sheryl

Now let's explore what the other of these two lovely sisters has to offer today with her LA Times and themeless debut:

Across:

1. Program shutdown of last resort: FORCE QUIT - If I push Command + Option + Esc, I get this window that allows me to FORCE any open program to QUIT if I choose it and hit Return

10. Like hair needing more rinsing: SUDSY - Not SOAPY it turns out

15. Shares secrets with: OPENS UP TO - Kids who do this to teachers can put the teacher in a difficult position 

16. Champs-Élysées lunch choice: CREPE - Shown below is the Crêpe salée chèvre miel et crêpes sucrées Nutella et spécialité banane (Savory Crêpe with goat cheese and honey and a sweet specialty Nutella and banana Crêpe) from the Creperie Framboise Champs-Elysees (White circle on map just off the Champs-Elsysse)

The CREPE dish mentioned above          The restaurant very near the Champs-Élysées

17. Spring roll wrapping: RICE PAPER - The steps showing the ingredients placed on RICE PAPER and rolled up with the finished product at the top

18. "The Tetons and the Snake River" photographer Adams: ANSEL - The master of b/w photography

19. Hardware item: T-NUT - 65 of them at Menards

20. "The Office" actress Ellie: KEMPER - Her IMDB

22. Zip in your step: PEP.

23. "__ Majesty": "Abbey Road" track: HER - A 23-second "throwaway" song that was "hidden" 14 seconds after the last track on Abbey Road. 

24. Hung in there: PERSEVERED.

26. Cool: RAD - The verb synonym  FAN didn't cut it

27. Rewards: DESERTS - Get what you deserve as "just DESERTS"

29. Pan flying: PETER - I was watching this at Grandma Opal's house the night my youngest sister was born

32. Aquatic diver: LOON.

34. Hawaiian staple: TARO.

35. Iowa college town: AMES - A 3-hr drive from my home to AMES for a Husker FB game (Huskers are 86 - 17 -2 against the Cyclones)

36. Hills complement: DALES - For me the Army Song will always start, "Over hill, Over DALE" but I'm not sure any more.

37. Cylindrical cheese: EDAM.

38. Word on a door: PUSH - Don't you all know the classic Far Side cartoon about this?

39. "A Holly Jolly Christmas" singer: IVES - Can you OD on a song? 

40. Wed on the sly: ELOPE.

41. Home of the Curve, the Pirates' Double-A team: ALTOONA 

43. Milk purch.: GAL.

44. "Bye!": SEE YA LATER - Yeah, we all know the next word in the Bill Haley and The Comets' song

47. Clean Water Act org.: EPA.

50. Support: AID.

51. Ill-__: like a poor clay model: SHAPEN.

52. Cultivated: GREW.

53. Ruler's domain?: ROOST - I know who rules the ROOST here!

55. In direct competition: MANO A MANO - Below #94 is going MANO A MANO with #79 which will 3. Come again: RECUR  all game long

57. Get used (to): INURE - How do you INURE yourself to this violence?

58. Senior's elaborate ask: PROMPOSAL - Last week it was 21. Down in Erik and Leslie's puzzle

 School dance invite portmanteau: PROMPOSAL - It appears Brooke said Yes

59. Notable Titanic casualty: ASTOR - John Jacob ASTOR was the richest passenger aboard the RMS Titanic and was thought to be among the richest people in the world at that time with a net worth of roughly $87 million when he died (equivalent to $2.3 billion in 2019).

60. Crumbly toppings: STREUSELS - Cinnamon coffee cake with STREUSEL topping!

Down: 

1. Tenth word of the Gettysburg Address: FORTH - Yeah, I had to figure out if Fourscore is one word or two

2. Speak up: OPINE.

4. Tech review site: CNET - CNET's best products for 2020

5. Medium claim: ESP - A medium with true ESP would be, uh, rare

6. Shook: QUAKED - The building on flexible pads doesn't SHAKE/QUAKE as much

7. Michigan's __ Peninsula: UPPER - You take the 5-mile long Mackinac Bridge, as seen here from the International Space Station, to get there from the lower Michigan peninsula 

8. They may follow bullets: ITEMS - This is an actual Power Point slide with bullet ITEMS that appeared sequentially (with sound of course) as I talked on planets with 7th graders. 

9. Undermines: TORPEDOES - A principal that didn't like me TORPEDOED a proposal I was making to the school board at the last minute. It passed anyway.

10. Close ones: SCARES - Wow!

11. Item near a sugar bowl, perhaps: URN.

12. Eagles title antihero: DESPERADO - Elaine's boyfriend was a huge fan of this song

13. Cop's surprise: SPEED TRAP - Hey, you were warned!

14. Site with many pans: YELP.

21. Ties up: EVENS - Carlton Fisk would not have gotten to hit his historic, game-winning home run in the 12th inning of Game 6 in the 1975 World Series if pinch-hitter Bernie Carbo had not hit a 3-run home run to EVEN the score in the 8th 

24. Putt-putt standard: PAR - PAR is 2 on every Putt-Putt® golf hole

25. Share around the campfire, say: RETELL.

26. Work on hooves: RESHOE - My farrier friend also works on giraffe hooves

28. "Have __": SOME.

29. Tevye, to Tzeitel: PAPA - She and her sisters don't want PAPA or Yente to make a match for them

30. Mayonnaise and salad dressing: EMULSIONS - A definition and a picture of EMULSIONS

31. Tried: TESTED OUT.

32. Illumination with a blob: LAVA LAMPS - They do a great job of showing how the heat inside the Earth melts rock to a liquid or LAVA which makes the LAVA rise to the surface and erupt. Plus the kids think they are cool!

33. Bullfight holler: OLE.

36. "Empty Nest" actress Manoff: DINAH  Her IMDB

40. Cup handle: EAR.

42. World metaphor, in Shakespeare: OYSTER - I doff my hat if you know the play and the speaker of this line: "Why then the world's mine oyster, Which I with sword will open" (*answer below the grid)

43. Mapping subject: GENOME - Here 'ya go!

45. Disassembled: APART.

46. Domingo, e.g.: TENOR - A wonderful three minutes of the Three TENORS singing Nessum Dorma (A wonderful 50. Bizet's "Habanera," for one: ARIA from Puccini's Turandot). Left to right - Placido, Jose and Luciano.

47. Remove entirely: ERASE.

48. Correctional: PENAL.

49. Some mil. absentees: AWOLS.

52. Scientifically engineered crops, for short: GMOS - A good cartoon explanation 

54. "Sold out" sign: SRO - The Husker VB sellout streak is at 268 at the 8,000+ seat Devaney Coliseum and the Standing Room Only tix ain't cheap!

56. Toon shopkeeper who once worked a 96-hour shift: APU - Apu Nahasapeemapetilon - The Kwik-E-Mart proprietor in The Simpsons.

*Pistol speaks the line to Falstaff in The Merry Wives Of Windsor