Today we have a familiar member of our Saturday Themeless Cadre as the Supply Chain Project Manager from Massachusetts, Joe Deeney, enters our puzzle supply chain and delivers a real challenge. His devilish cluing did not do me in but I did have one bad cell where my lack of facility with the Spanish language (¡Ay, carumba!) and ignorance of Mamet Dramas (Go figure) left me with vowel roulette and I chose the wrong one (see the red cell below)! I'll have to take one bad cell and try to get through the rest of my day. 😒 Here are Joe's comments:
Hi Gary,
All good here, hope you are well. I made this puzzle in January 2020. The seed was CEREAL AISLE, glad to see my clue [Total area?] survived. I don't usually try triple stack grids but I guess I was in the mood at that time. Other than that I don't remember much about the construction, though I suspect I couldn't talk myself out of stacking ICE LATTE on top of HOT TAMALE.
All good here, hope you are well. I made this puzzle in January 2020. The seed was CEREAL AISLE, glad to see my clue [Total area?] survived. I don't usually try triple stack grids but I guess I was in the mood at that time. Other than that I don't remember much about the construction, though I suspect I couldn't talk myself out of stacking ICE LATTE on top of HOT TAMALE.
-Rich's [Crudely built city?] is an improvement over my original [Site of some crude buildings?]-I'd submitted the same clue for PEEPHOLE and EYEPIECES, [Looky here!], sorry to see it go for EYEPIECES but it was probably too much of a stretch
-I've submitted [Do partner, for a monkey] as a clue for SEE several times over the years, glad to see a form of it finally appear in print as [Monkey's do partner?]
-This one was a bit sports-heavy again after my sports-heavy March 31 puzzle - apologies to those who don't care for that, a quirk of the schedule that these appeared so close together
-Joe
Across:
1. Technique providing percussion with a string note: SLAP BASS - A chance for a Buddy Holly fun tune on Ed Sullivan with Joe Mauldin playing SLAP BASS.
9. Character in "The Iliad" but not "The Odyssey"?: ALPHA - Wow! It finally hit me The Iliad has an A (ALPHA) but The Odyssey does not
14. Summer pick-me-up: ICED LATTE - I treat myself to one occasionally on my way to summer morning golf15. Use as a bed: LIE ON - You made your bed and so now you're going to have to LIE ON it.
16. Spicy Mexican food: HOT TAMALE - If I had no conscience, I'd say, "Chili today but HOT TAMLE".
17. Extract metal from: SMELT - Also the past tense for SMELL in Britain
18. Surg. sites: ORS.
19. Ivy near an Acela stop: YALE - Yup, I see New Haven
20. Ado: HOOPLA.
21. Big rings: PEALS - Now that was a fun clue (after a struggle)!
23. NBA writer Zach: LOWE - If you're interested
25. Question of method: HOW - For this write-up, I learned HOW to type an ¡ on my Mac - Option +1
26. Durango, por ejemplo: ESTADO (a Mexican State) and 27. 1992 Mamet drama: OLEANNA (as if I would have an idea 😏) - Their intersection cost me a "got 'er done".
28. Crudely built city?: OIL TOWN - Cleverness from Rich. Here is Desdemona, TX that was built on crude oil money and is now a ghost town
31. Many of today's pro athletes: MILLENNIALS - Super Bowl Champ Tom Brady was born in 1977 and so is one of the last Gen-Xer's still playing pro sports. Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat was born in 1980 and so is one of the first MILLENNIALS to still be playing
34. Total area?: CEREAL AISLE - A very clever seed entry for Joe! You could also get some KIX and find some LIFE there too I'll bet
35. Result of an imagined draft: FANTASY TEAM - You pick a player at every position and score points for how well they do during the season
36. Gum with Ice and Fire varieties: DENTYNE.
37. Riverbed deposit: SLUDGE - Google if you must
41. B. A. Baracus portrayer: MR. T.
42. Warning accompanying a link: NSFW.
45. Ideal spots: EDENS.
46. Doomed 16th-century force: ARMADA - A good four minute summary
49. Criminal charges: RAPS - Indictments or charges
51. Bon __: MOT.
52. Pressly of "Mom": JAIME.
53. Subdivision showcase: MODEL HOME.
55. Jeanette's "Macbeth" (1948) co-star: ORSON - Jeanette Nolan costarred with Orson Wells
55. Jeanette's "Macbeth" (1948) co-star: ORSON - Jeanette Nolan costarred with Orson Wells
56. Lenses: EYEPIECES - Telescopes come with different EYEPIECES. You can choose an EYPIECE to see a large area or get high magnification of a smaller area
57. Touch-and-go: RISKY
58. Blessings: GODSENDS.
Down:
1. Makes a point?: SCORES - Kick a Point After Touchdown, cross home plate, make a Free Throw, kick a soccer goal...
2. Unleashes on: LETS AT.
3. Big letters in security services: ADT - A friend of mine only bought the sign4. Is far from a good sport: PLAYS DIRTY.
5. Perennial #1 NCAA football team since 2008: BAMA - If you're a College FB fan you know about Nick Saban's juggernaut in Tuscaloosa
6. Even slightly: AT ALL.
7. Fifth-cen. pope called "The Great": ST LEO - A marble relief in St Peter's showing ST LEO repelling Attila The Hun as St Peter and St Paul appear in the sky
8. Monkey's do partner?: SEE - Monkey SEE, monkey do. Who is mimicking who?
9. As well: ALSO.
10. Long way to go?: LIMO - Last Saturday Stella Z. had 18. Big wheels?: LIMOS
11. Look here!: PEEPHOLE - Or a Norman Rockwell knothole
12. Depressions: HOLLOWS - Some of those Appalachian "hollers" can produce some mighty strong spirits
13. __ Jamison, one of two NBA players with 20,000+ points who's not in the Hall of Fame: ANTAWN.
14. "From your mouth to God's ears": I HOPE.
20. Rears: HEINIES - Oh, those rears.
22. Feel bad about: LAMENT.
24. Succeeded in: WON AT - Hideki Matsuyama became the first Japanese man to have WON AT The Masters last Sunday.
29. Three-time WNBA MVP: LISA LESLIE.
30. Synagogue text: TALMUD - Here ya go
32. Performs surgery on, in a way: LASES - My dentist is looking into this. Yay!
33. Cambridgeshire cathedral city: ELY - The cathedral is at CB7 4DL in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England just south of the Prezzo Italian Restaurant
34. Like a sure thing: CAN'T MISS - 1919: "I know this guy named Charles Ponzi..."
35. Company founded in 1939 as Auto Avio Costruzioni: FERRARI - Enzo Ferrari got fired from Alfa-Romeo and was forbidden to use his name on a vehicle for at least four years. So he built the Auto Avio Costruzioni 815 in 1939
36. Key of Beethoven's Violin Concerto: D-MAJOR - Had to be [A - G] [Major, Minor or Sharp]
38. Submission to a radio station, briefly: DEMO CD - For $500 this her DEMO CD can be yours
39. Garden guardians: GNOMES.
40. Will of "Blue Bloods": ESTES - He's on Donnie Wahlberg's right below
44. Moved between banks, maybe: WADED- I rowed first
47. Berserk: AMOK.
48. Refuse: DENY.
50. Amps (up): PEPS - Even tapes can be amped up!
53. Once-big storage unit that's now quite small: MEG - I remember when MEGabytes were huge computer storage units and then gigabytes and now you're a slacker without terabytes!
54. Farm female: HEN.
