Saturday, April 24, 2021 Ed Sessa

 Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa

Our retired doctor from San Sanibel Island in Florida makes yet another clinic call for us here at the Crossword Hospital. I found Ed's puzzle to be just what the doctor ordered for this cold weather that is persisting here in the heartland. Ed is seen here with his beloved, late dog Tug. Here is Ed's commentary on the construction of this Saturday's offering:

Hi Gary,

Thanks for your inquiry and for all the hard work you and others do to make this site a success. I like doing themeless grids  because I enjoy the challenge of thinking up clues. If a word hasn't appeared much before then  there is a good chance to come up with a fun clue that is novel. With more commonly used words that is really hard to do. The seed for this grid was POPSICLESTICK and it was used only once before. The fact that it had 13 letters lent it well to the triple 13 pattern which I really like, especially if I can cross the bundle with a few longer downs. With this work Rich spotted the "POP" dupe but felt the two weren't related and so they stood.

Thanks to Rich for cleaning up the clues wherever he thought appropriate. I was happy I could avoid using too many proper names with this one.  Best wishes for a better summer than last year.

Ed

Across:

1. Yielding no interest?: HO HUM.

6. Fight stopper: KAYO - Pronunciation of KO, which is a gramogram (that we had in Julian Lim's 4/14/21 puzzle) which is the abbreviation of KnockOut. OK?

10. Beginning on: AS OF.

14. Vonnegut literary device: IRONY 

15. Old-fashioned leaves?: HIES - Macbeth Act I, scene V: Lady Macbeth: "Hie thee hither" (Come here)

16. Polynesian beverage: KAVA - Benefits, side effects and dosage

17. Comic-Con attendees: NERDS.

18. Happy: ALL SMILES.

20. Self-declared republic in Ukraine: DONETSK - A 12 hr drive from Kiev

22. Breakfast on the go, perhaps: POP TART.

23. No real friend: USER - To George, Biff was a USER. Betcha know this movie! *

24. Shop __ you drop: TIL - For me it's computers and golf equipment 

26. Lacked alternatives: HAD TO - What some parents feel (:06)

27. Blue Jays, in crawls: TOR - Watching the TORonto Blue Jays play from your hotel room looks pretty cool to me!

29. Omega, to an electrician: OHM - Jeffrey Wechsler had FARAD yesterday 

32. Bass appendage: FIN - Sea Bass

33. Residential cliché: HOME SWEET HOME - Be it ever so humble...

37. How a close race may go: DOWN TO THE WIRE - and 64. Barely avoided tying: EDGED - It took some close examination of this photo finish to determine that the runner in the red and yellow top EDGED out the others

38. It gets last licks: POPSICLE STICK - Doctor Sessa's seed entry

39. "__ dreaming?": AM I.

40. Ad trailer?: HOC - Latin: "For This" - Created or done for a particular purpose as necessary. I was on an AD HOC committee to investigate gum chewing in our school. No, really!

41. Rival sch. of Duke: UNC - It's 16 minutes on the Hwy 501

42. What closers often open, with "the": NINTH - Mariano Rivera was perhaps the best closer in baseball for the NINTH inning

45. Cool: HEP.

47. Some fancy sheepskin boots: UGGS - Speaking of pitchers, Tom Brady did a pitch for UGGS

51. Make an impression on?: ENGRAVE - All players and staff on an NHL team that win the Stanley Cup get their name ENGRAVED on one of the bands.  The next year the next team gets the same treatment until the band is filled and then that band is removed and flattened for display to make room for more bands on the cup.

54. It helps a mouse communicate: USB PORT - Here's a mouse with a retractable cable plugged into a USB PORT

56. Candy in a roll: LIFESAVER.

58. Difficult high school sci. course: AP BIO - A sample question from an AP BIO test

59. Subj. for Janet Yellen: ECON - Ms. Yellen has held many government posts that deal with the ECONomy. 

60. Pixar clownfish: NEMO.

61. Latin lover's declaration: TE AMO - "I Love you"

62. Pointed missile: DART - All three darts in the triple 20 band for a max score of 180! Wow!

63. Fangorn Forest creatures: ENTS - From LOTR (Lord Of The Rings). EFTS yesterday and ENTS today. Maybe I'll catch on soon.

Down:

1. Many an Indian: HINDU.

2. Two-wafer snacks: OREOS.

3. Mezzo Marilyn: HORNE - Marilyn Horne

4. Sneaky currents: UNDERTOWS.

5. Computer game title island: MYST - Do players of this game go to Comic-Con?

6. Base shade?: KHAKI - A dominant color on many military bases

7. Afflict: AIL.

8. It acquired SeatMe in 2013: YELP - Here ya go

9. Bone on a menu: OSSO - Often on our cwd menu

10. Husky relative: AKITA.

11. Piece of silver: SALAD FORK.

12. Extended work period: OVERTIME - I was always on salary and never got extra for my extended hours

13. Bit of deceit: FAST ONE.

19. Letters on a dashboard: MPH - Or in a heads-up display

21. Period of time: STRETCH - If you don't beat the rap, you'll do a STRETCH in prison

25. Like landlines, nowadays: LOW TECH - Shh.,  we still have one

28. Official hotel of the PGA Tour: OMNI - This one is in PA

30. Sneaky snickers: HEHS.

31. Informal get-togethers: MEETUPS.

33. Anticipating: HOPING FOR.

34. With no assistance: SOLO - 14-yr-old Mansour Anis prepares to fly SOLO in a Cessna 152

35. __ bed: TWIN.

36. Slightly malfunctioned: HICCUPPED.

37. Caribbean island country: DOMINICA - It is about 650 miles from The Dominican Republic to the island of DOMINICA

38. Like some office walls: PANELED.

43. 16th-century council setting: TRENT - A 1565 product of that council. How'd that work out?

44. Attacks, with "at": HAS.

46. Mark replacements: EUROS - Since 2001, a Euro is worth 1.95583 Deutsch Marks

48. Evacuee's emergency kit: GO BAG - Here's what's in this $119 model

49. Tide target: GRIME.

50. Got off one's rocker?: STOOD.

52. Windmill part: VANE - Were you amazed when you first saw the size of a wind generator VANE?

53. Tied up: EVEN.

55. Lessen in intensity: BATE  - I am unable to BATE my enthusiasm for Ed's puzzles. (A sentence, while accurate, is not how I would ever say it.)

57. Home delivery asst., perhaps: EMT - Or even in the ambulance 

*Biff Tannen was George McFly's USER in the Back To The Future franchise