Themeless Saturday by Stella Zawistowski
Our self-proclaimed "brawny brain" is back with another fun Saturday entry. Stella is a Brooklyn-based copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and a power lifter. This picture is of Stella and a fellow alto who sings with her in the Oratorio Society of New York. (Be sure to see the picture at the bottom of the write-up). Here's what Stella told me in her note on this Spring Equinox:
My seeds for this were INDIVIDUALISTIC and DIERESIS, the latter of which is definitely characteristic of my mild obsession with slightly obscure linguistic terms. (See my NYT puzzle of 10/31/20, in which ACCENT AIGU was one of the seeds.) I dearly love seasons 1 and 2 of "Stranger Things," so that's where my mind goes whenever I put EGGO in a grid these days!
Across:
1. Garbage delivery vehicle?: SPAMBOT - "A SPAMBOT is a program designed to collect, or harvest, e-mail addresses from the Internet in order to build mailing lists for sending unsolicited e-mail, also known as spam." You're welcome.
8. World Chess Champion Carlsen: MAGNUS - MAGNUS has a sponsor deal with Arctic Investments.
14. Susan Ruttan's "L.A. Law" role: ROXANNE - Susan is at the top next to another Susan who is a frequent cwd visitor - Ms. Dey
15. Used up a lot of: ATE INTO.
17. Like some stockings: TOELESS.
18. Attorney's knowledge base: CASE LAW - CASE LAW is law that is based on judicial decisions (e.g. Miranda Decision) rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. (Fourth Amendment: Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure)
19. "Anyone can play," on game boxes: ALL AGES - We spent many pleasant hours with our daughters playing this game for ALL AGES
20. Pretend: ACT LIKE.
21. "Who __?": New Orleans Saints chant: DAT - "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints"
22. Slowed: ARRESTED - Friction with the atmosphere ARRESTED the speed of the Apollo Command Module for its return to Earth
23. Intelligence: SMARTS
26. Beginning of an apology: MEA - If Pete had just issued an early MEA culpa for betting, he'd still be in baseball.
27. One Pillar Pagoda city: HANOI.
28. Riding a Segway, say: ON WHEELS - Does this look safe to you?
34. Free-spirited: INDIVIDUALISTIC - I nominate Stella!
37. Bestowed on: VESTED IN - I retired with a nice state pension. Then I taught six more years and got VESTED IN another one.
38. "Absentia" co-star __ Katic: STANA - I watched Season One which was a variation of the 1960's TV show The Fugitive. Season Two jumped the shark for me and I bailed.
39. Permit: LET.
40. Dishonestly obtained: STOLEN.
41. Runs on: BLABBERS.
46. Term of affection: HON - I am typing this right next to our HON file cabinet. What? That's not relevant?
47. Big name in portable illumination: MAGLITE - Wow! Zombie stopping!
48. Bond first bought by FDR in 1941: SERIES E - FDR bought his six months before Pearl Harbor. LIBERTY fit too but those bonds were sold during WWI.
52. New York natives: ONEIDAS.
53. Emergency sorting systems: TRIAGES - Where I first heard the word
55. Fruit in some Chinese New Year customs: ORANGES - Hey. I know this brilliant woman from China who lives in Minneapolis:
Hi Gary,
The words on the red envelopes are 大吉大利, meaning "big fortune and great profit". I mentioned on the blog a few times, it's a common practice for older people to give red envelopes to kids during Spring Festival time in Xi'an. The envelopes usually contain yuan in an amount consisting of lucky 8's such as 88, 888. Different customs in other parts of China. In Guangzhou, it's a tradition to give a unmarried person a red packet. Oranges are also considered to be good luck.
C.C.H
56. Hardly shines: STINKS.
57. Innocently charming: WINSOME.
Down:
1. Quinceañera honoree: Abbr.: SRTA - A tradition of introducing a young girl into society on her 15th birthday. Quince is Spanish for 15. Sidebar: I had 100 kids at a Disney Resort and two buses dropped off ninety 15-yr-old Argentinean girls who were celebrating their Quinceañera next to our rooms. Wow, that livened things up!
2. Group to select from: POOL - The NFL will soon take a dip in a POOL
3. "Beverly Hills Cop" cop Foley: AXEL - Eddie Murphy was great as AXEL but, come on, this movie had one of the best movie themes ever!
4. All thumbs: MALADROIT.
5. Less than 2% have this type: B-NEGATIVE - I'm A+. You?
6. Beginnings: ONSETS.
7. Rizzoli and Isles creator Gerritsen: TESS - She created the characters in her novels
8. Popular '90s dance: MACARENA - They must have lost a bet
9. How rush-hour traffic often moves: AT A CRAWL - The times below aren't even close to what it takes to get to see a Dodger spring training game at Camelback Ranch from Phoenix during rush hour
10. Beau __: GESTE - Beautiful GESTURE in French
12. Hard to see in, at times: UNLIT.
13. Chips on the table: STAKE
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| I'm All In! |
16. Wasn't square: OWED - Your bill 22. Comes (to): AMOUNTS to $15. Pay me what I'm OWED and we will be square
23. Homemade knife: SHIV - More like prisonmade
24. It may be braided for competition: MANE
25. Additions: ANDS.
29. One focused on the past: HISTORIAN.
30. Tallinn natives: ESTONIANS - There is American football in Estonia
31. Too many to name, for short: ET AL.
32. It may be a cue: LINE
33. Medical procedure: SCAN.
35. Chatter: IDLE TALK - Conversation at the stoplight?
36. Umlaut lookalike: DIERESIS - The two dots above the ï in naïve is called a DIERESIS and indicates the ï is pronounced separately. A seed entry for Stella.
40. Shepherd formerly of "The View": SHERRI - Her views on, uh, The View
41. Coll. QB, stereotypically: BMOC - Big Man On Campus
42. Turner and Wachowski: LANAS - I knew about LANA Turner and was fascinated to learn about LANA Wachowski and her sister Lily
43. Office plant, perhaps: AGENT - Be careful, somebody is listening and probably shooting video
44. Pancakes served with sour cream: BLINI.
45. Try to buy: BID ON.
48. Put overhead, maybe: STOW - Considering Stella's hobby, I thought this might be LIFT
49. Eleven's favorite breakfast brand, in "Stranger Things": EGGO - EGGO paid no money for product placement like the million dollars the Hershey Company paid to have Reese's Pieces in ET. The writers simply included them in the script and sagging EGGO sales consequently increased. p.s. I was a fan too.
` 50. Look: SEEM.
51. Ancient being?: ESSE - Ya can't enough Latin in a puzzle!
Here is an abbreviated group of the Stella's OSNY who performed Hadel's Messiah at the conductor's farm. The orchestra was inside a barn and the singers were just outside in a grassy area with many microphones. BTW, Stella is in the back near a tree and is the eighth person from the far right.
I've posted this link before but here's another chance to enjoy it.
Notes from C.C.:
1) Happy 83nd
birthday to Commander Al (Spitzboov), who is also a good friend to me
and Boomer off the blog. Spitzboov has met a few people on our blog,
including Argyle, Sallie and Grumpy.
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| Baby Spitzboov |
In Uniform
3) Happy 85th birthday to John28man! Always happy to see you on the blog, John!
