Saturday, March 27, 2021, Craig Stowe

 Saturday Themeless by Craig Stowe

A challenging Saturday offering from our native Newfoundlander who is now a Torontonian. Here are Craig's comments: 

Hi Gary, 

Thanks for the email and all the work you and the other bloggers put into this site.    

I started with ALL JOKING ASIDE.  There’s a trove of unused 14-letter phrases that are just waiting to be placed in puzzles, the problem being it is an awkward number to construct a grid around.  In this case I needed the corresponding entry before I could begin on the rest of the fill.  DEAD SEA 

SCROLLS seemed like a good choice at the time though it resulted in a block of names in the NE corner.   Filling a themeless puzzle is a balancing act between using crosswordese, abbreviations/affixes and proper names.  The fewer the better.  I did well on the first two at the expense of the third, I think.  Hopefully a few of the names will be familiar to folks. 

A quick thank-you to Rich and his team who make puzzles sparkle.  Favorite change for me was “Black Sabbath devotee, say” from my original “Tool fanatic.”  I guess my clue for CPA (“No. wonder”) wasn’t as clever as I thought! 

Cheers, 

Craig

Across

1. Heard but not seen, as sound effects: OFF CAMERA - Norm's wife Vera on Cheers was heard OFF CAMERA but never seen. When she was "seen" she had a pumpkin pie on her face from a Thanksgiving food fight.

10. Disconcerts: JARS and 14. In a fog: PERPLEXED describes Richard Gere when Julia Roberts did  19. Stand up: JILT him

15. Shore seen on TV: DINAH - We boomers remember this show and her Chevy theme song 

16. Tests: TRIAL RUNS.

17. Film composer Morricone: ENNIO - I've posted this Morricone piece before but it is an amazing film title song! It features many human voices but no words.

18. __-Caps: SNO - A frequent cwd treat

20. __ Waters, most senior Black woman in Congress: MAXINE.

21. Reached the nadir, with "out": BOTTOMED - Good golfers have the club BOTTOM OUT in front of where the ball is lying, about where the tee is.

23. Waffle center?: EFS - waFFle

24. __ spot: WEAK - Football coaches look for WEAK Spots in defenses

26. Court figures: SUERS.

27. Bluffer's objective: POT - The M*A*S*H poker players soon realized every time Charles was bluffing he started whistling. They cleaned him out.

28. Casual Fridays attire, perhaps: KHAKIS.

30. Account: TALE.

31. __ Valley: Tucson suburb: ORO.

32. Begrudges: RESENTS.

34. Breville product: TOASTER - More than we would pay

36. "__ luck?": ANY.

37. Five carats: GRAM.

39. Tswana for "fly": TSE TSE - Tswana is a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa

40. Bridge action: BID.

41. Sights seen by seers, maybe: AURAS - Here's how

43. Throw: CAST - Some fun Saturday listening

44. Doce meses: ANO - Hay meses en un ANO en Español (There are twelve months in a year in Spanish)

45. Valiant: STALWART.

47. Abstract: PRECIS.

49. Plant with corms: TARO - A new word cluing an old cwd favorite 

50. Greek letter used in the Shrödinger equation: PSI - Ok, but is his cat alive?

53. Put forward: POSED - I POSED POSIT as the correct fill

54. Black Sabbath devotee, say: METAL HEAD - Is Heavy Metal music your thing?

56. Hirsch of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood": EMILE - He plays Jay Sebring who was the ex-boyfriend of Sharon Tate played by Margot Robbie

57. Fair-haired: ASH BLONDE.

58. Estonian neighbor: LETT 28. Fourth-grade teacher in Springfield Elementary School: KRABAPPEL (kruh·baa·pl) - I had to change the last two letters of Bart Simpson's teacher to get LETT

59. Reels: SEES STARS - What a typical Mike Tyson opponent experienced 

Down:

1. Decides: OPTS.

2. Flowerless plant: FERN - Here ya go!

3. Texas river named for its chilly waters: FRIO.

4. Busy pro around this time: CPA - My taxes take a half-hour since I can never itemize above the new standard deduction 

5. "Seriously ... ": ALL JOKING ASIDE.

6. Distinction: MERIT - or...

7. Celebrates big-time: EXULTS.

8. Let: RENT OUT - "Trailers for sale or RENT, Rooms to let fifty cents" I'll bet you know the next line

9. They're seen in some wars: ADS.

10. Spell: JINX - One of the unwritten rules of baseball is "Don't talk to a pitcher who is throwing a no-hitter" because it will JINX him.

11. She plays Sheldon's grandma (Meemaw) on "Young Sheldon": ANNIE POTTS - I remember her as the secretary in Ghostbusters

12. Much of Vancouver Island: RAIN FOREST - Two Vancouver Air float planes flying over the island

13. Skechers milieu: SHOE STORE - It was a while before I saw there was no "T" in Skechers. 

15. The Israel Museum display: DEAD SEA SCROLLS.

20. Wine denigrated in "Sideways": MERLOT - Merlot sales plummeted after this scene (f-bomb warning)

21. Make madeleines, e.g.: BAKE.

22. Heart: MEAT - Let's get to the HEART/MEAT of the matter!

24. Conformist's phrase: WHEN IN ROME - There's a "no shorts policy" in St. Peter's Basilica . Here an American is putting on paper trousers he bought for 1 Euro from  a street vendor.

25. "Not too much": EASY DOES IT.

29. Automotive suspension components: STRUTS - Here ya go

33. First name in desserts: SARA - Nobody doesn't like...

35. See 55-Down: SEAT and 55. With 35-Down, precarious place: HOT - I wonder how Craig came up with this juxtaposition 

38. Blue- or gray-furred cat: MALTESE - Any kitty is fine with me

42. Wrap snugly: SWATHE - Two weeks ago, Mary Lou Guizzo had this for 1 Across

46. Small-muzzled horses: ARABS - Some question the practice of breeding for such a small, upturned muzzle

48. TD Garden NBAer: CELT - This new Boston Celtic home has a parquet floor just like the one in the old Boston Garden where these two met. I'll bet you know who these two are and if you don't, the answer is below *

50. Four-time Gold Glove winner Tony: PENA - Tony's was identical to this one for Gary Carter.

51. __ City: Baghdad suburb: SADR - Just across the Tigris River

52. Ancient midpoint marker, more or less: IDES - The IDES of March was 12 days ago

54. Family figures: MAS.

* Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell