Saturday, November 21, 2020, Ed Sessa

Saturday Themeless by Ed Sessa

Today we get another pleasant house call from Dr. Ed Sessa of Sanibel Island, FL. shown here with his good friend Tug, a King Charles Cavalier who died three years ago. 

Some of the Ed's cluing elicited laughter like "Words before a request" but "Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat" and "Exmoor" startled me. However, they were quickly brought  to heel as the fill became obvious.

Here's Ed's very nice reply to my inquiry about this puzzle:

Hi Gary,

HOMICIDAL...CAT was Rich's clue and much thanks to him for requiring a rewrite in the NW to eliminate a bad entry at 1-D (PHENOLIC). I think CALVINANDHOBBES crossing EMERGENCY EXIT must have been seed entries for this puzzle, but am not sure. 

Usually I start with a grid design which I try to make a bit different and interesting and then work on fill. With fill I try to use more unique letters - Q,V,X,Z etc.-but am always on the lookout for words that might have good clue possibilities. Being an older constructor many of my entries may lean towards less use of modern catchwords and say rap stars. Younger solvers may not like that but that's what I tend to do. 

Listening to critics I really try to limit use of proper names, and with saturday puzzles the worst criticism one can receive is a DNF. I think Rich does a great job editing my clues for grammatical correctness and level of difficulty. For example, in this puzzle, SNEEZE I clued as "Nasal spray?" Cute perhaps, but  technically incorrect, "sneeze" being an action, not a result. I thank everyone on this blog site for their gracious comments and critiques. 

Ed

Across:

1. 2015-'20 TV hip-hop musical drama: EMPIRE - Drama indeed; no one looks very happy in this picture.

7. Toyota sedans: AVALONS - Their Corolla is the most popular car in the world but not plural and, uh, wrong

14. Outer organ layer: CORTEX - One site compared the brain's CORTEX to bark on a tree

15. Email staple: EMOTICON - I started with EMOTICONS then went to emojis and then my daughter showed me an IOS app called Bitmoji that gives me hundreds of pictures using my face. 

16. Pooh-pooh, with "at": SNEEZE.

17. Michelangelo's "David," for one: MALE NUDE - Everything on that 17' statue is larger than life

18. Do something to hide?: TAN - I love this clue, Dr., where "hide" is a noun 

19. Devoted: ARDENT - I am an ARDENT fan of Death Of A Salesman. I saw Lee J. Cobb's masterful performance as Willy Loman on TV in 1966. 

21. Name on the 1949 "Death of a Salesman" playbill: ELIA - Cobb, Kazan and Miller. Many say this was the apex of American Theater. It touches me more deeply as I become a: 29. Warhorse: OLD HAND.

22. Bad news word: ALAS.

24. Thrice, in prescriptions: TER - TID is TER In Die which means Three times daily

25. Nosh: SNACK.

26. Proportional gift: TITHE.

28. Extreme distress: AGONY.

 

31. "Curious George" co-author Margret: REY - Books by Margret and illustrated by husband H.A. REY

32. Start of a "Huh?" response: I SAID - Despite my hearing aids, my lovely bride has to repeat frequently 

33. Fix up, as an old pool: RELINE 

35. Comics characters in "Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat": CALVIN AND HOBBES - New to me but pretty obvious quickly (much more than ABECEDARY from yesterday!)

40. Duck soup: A CINCH 

41. Exmoor heroine: DOONE - A literary and geographic lesson for me. R.D. Blackmore's novel Lorna DOONE: A Romance of Exmoor is set in SW England on The Bristol Channel

42. Part of the 56-Across: SIB and 56. See 42-Across: FAM and 64. First arrival: ELDEST - I am shown here as the ELDEST of my SIBS with the entire FAM in 1955

45. Tucker of country: TANYA - Here is 13-yr-old TANYA in 1973 singing Delta Dawn which was a Top 10 hit for her. In 1974 Helen Reddy had a #1 hit with it 

46. Warblers' warbles: SONGS - After seeing PEEPS wasn't going to work, I remembered this as singers who embellish a song with their own style. Crossword regular Ella Fitzgerald leapt to my feeble mind

47. Law school beginners: ONE-L'S - Scott Turow's book about first year law students often appears on our crossword docket

49. High-__: upscale: END - Will my fish sticks really taste that much better?

51. __ Sea: Arctic Ocean arm: KARA - More geographic learning for me

52. Cut with light: LASE - What infamous laser-wielding villain said in this scene, "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"

53. It was delayed three months in 2020: TAX DAY 

57. Apple Pencil go-with: IPAD MINI - Could this revive cursive writing?

59. "Honest!": NO JIVE 

61. Try-before-you-buy item: DEMO UNIT - I'd like to get an iPAD MINI DEMO UNIT like the one you see above 

62. Ace of Base, e.g.: SWEDES

63. "The Mets have shown me more ways to lose than I even knew existed" speaker: STENGEL - Under Casey, the "lovable loser" Mets lost well over 400 games in his four years

Down:

1. Stoked: ECSTATIC.

2. 16th-century masterpiece: MONA LISA - Why The Mona Lisa is so famous

3. Like most OB visits: PRENATAL.

4. Mineral ending: ITE - The suffix 'ite', is derived from the Greek word, 'lithos', which means 'rock' or 'stone'

5. Exiled Shah Mohammad __ Pahlavi: REZA - His being allowed into our country in 1979 was not popular back in Iran

6. Bring into play: EXERT.

7. Start of many bar jokes: A MAN

8. Electric Chevy: VOLT - They quit making them in 2019

9. Put away: ATE - Joey Chestnut ATE 75 hot dogs in 10 minutes

10. Bedding: LINEN.

11. Concerned with pupils?: OCULAR - Eyes not students

12. "Fat chance": NO DICE

13. Disingenuous: SNEAKY.

15. Way away from danger: EMERGENCY EXIT - I like the extra legroom you get here

20. Start of a request for advice: DEAR ANN - C'mon, this was a great clue, wasn't it?

23. Hindu deity: SHIVA - All you'd want to know

25. Clerical assemblies: SYNODS - SYNODS for Evangelical Lutheran Churches of America 

27. Royal commands: EDICTS.

30. Org. studying epidemics: NIH

34. Digital read: E-BOOK.

36. Vardalos of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding": NIA - More recently Nia played a woman in need of a kidney transplant in Grey's Anatomy

37. Real: BONA FIDE - Health care workers and first responders are BONA FIDE heroes 

38. Cuts in lines: ENGRAVES - Oops! 

39. Fictional NYC thoroughfare: SESAME ST - My friend has run a day-care center in her house at 125 SESAME ST for 30 years ten blocks from our house

42. Big favors, in slang: SOLIDS.

43. Ticked: IN A PET - A phrase  I've learned here

44. "__ Mucho": 1944 #1 song: BESAME - Kiss Me Much in English. Some 1944 #1 hits

48. Conned: LED ON.

50. "__ avec les stars": DANSE - Even I could translate this phrase

53. Pointed part: TINE.

54. Indigo dye: ANIL - A common crossword source of dye 

55. Wail: YOWL.

58. Travel __: MUG - I bought this one for $3 off the clearance table at KSC

60. Clampett patriarch: JED - Song and dance man Buddy Ebsen gets to show his skills as JED Clampett with Aerosmith dubbed over Flatt and Scruggs.

                                                                                                                          

 

Notes from C.C.:

I made today's puzzle (11/21/2020) for the Crosswords With Friends app. It's co-edited by Amy Reynaldo and Trip Payne. The app is free. You can download it here via App Store and here via Google Play store.

The puzzle celebrates a few inductees of the 2020 Carnegie Great Immigrants.