Themeless Saturday by David P. Williams
I had a very nice time solving Dave's initial puzzle. It seems incredible that his first puzzle is a themeless Saturday effort. Linking EEPHUS PITCH and AS ALL GET OUT seemed a natural as you'll see. Here's a nice note from Dave:
Hi Gary,
A brief note below, if you wish to use it.
Thanks,
Dave
Since this is my first-ever published puzzle, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pluck the low-hanging fruit and say: “Hello, (Cross)World!”
I’m grateful to Rich for giving me a shot and also for greatly improving the puzzle with his editing. Any remaining deficiencies are solely on me. I hope the puzzle brightened your day, but if you wish to fulminate, lightning can be directed to semiwild.lava@gmail.com .
It's also National Chocolate Chip Day! So get out some milk and do some dunking along while celebrating Dave's first foray into crossword construction.
1. Exchange with, in sports: TRADE TO - The Colts had to TRADE John Elway TO Denver because he refused to play for them when he graduated from Stanford
8. Changing environment: CABANA - The first of some really "out there" cluing that makes for real challenges. No ecology here, just somewhere to change into or out of your swim suit.
14. "Hang on!": WAIT A SEC.
15. Conceived: IMAGED and 4. Bold type: DARER - Rank up there with HUGER for clanking off my ear
16. Sent abroad: EXPORTED - This company in my hometown has EXPORTED tons of specialty meat to Japan in the last 23 years
17. Source of biblical medicine: GILEAD - Here ya go
18. Inadvertently test an audience's tolerance levels: DRONE ON - Our pastor did DRONE ON for 20 minutes when the 100 kids were confirmed two weeks ago.
19. Color in four-color printing: MAGENTA - Shaquille O'Neal is pitching bottles of ink to refill your printer cartridge. Can you see the MAGENTA bottle in his hand?
20. What suspects may be charged with: TASERS - More funky cluing!
21. Mysterious glow: AURA.
22. What blue may mean, briefly: DEM - From the 1960 election
23. Giant Mel et al.: OTTS - On the list of famous OTTS he is #1 and the only one I recognize
24. Stained glass setting: APSE.
25. Excoriates: TARS - Synonyms for excoriate and none of them are TAR but I see David's intention
26. High-arcing toss first attributed to Rip Sewell: EEPHUS PITCH - Gotta love this! It's from the Hebrew word "efe" which means nothing. That batter will be as mad 32. "... like you wouldn't believe!": AS ALL GET OUT.
24. Stained glass setting: APSE.
25. Excoriates: TARS - Synonyms for excoriate and none of them are TAR but I see David's intention
26. High-arcing toss first attributed to Rip Sewell: EEPHUS PITCH - Gotta love this! It's from the Hebrew word "efe" which means nothing. That batter will be as mad 32. "... like you wouldn't believe!": AS ALL GET OUT.
30. Water music?: SEA SHANTIES - What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor comes to my mind. How about doing a chorus Spitz?
34. Shelter sound: BARK.
37. Liq. measures: GALS - 20miles/GAL is approximately 8.5kilometers/L
38. Foam footwear: CROC - Popular footwear at MIL's Alzheimer's facility
40. Former Bolivian president Morales: EVO - A turbulent presidency
41. Towel designation: HERS - HERS and OURS
42. Horn home: AFRICA - Another "it must be Saturday" clue 😊 It's easy to see how this name was 46. Figured out: GLEANED.
44. Ones moving to the right: NEOCONS.
47. Completely: IN TOTO - My first fill was ENTIREly wrong
48. Elaborate story, perhaps: TALL TALE - Nebraska cabbages
49. Esophagus: GULLET - You didn't put THROAT first like I did?
50. Bar barrier: AGE LIMIT.
51. Ride: NEEDLE - Kid, tease, nag, harass...
52. Cure-all: PANACEA - Good fer what ails ya! Prof. Pratt's meds probably contained alcohol, cocaine and/or opium
Down:
1. Amount often tied to income: TAX RATE.
2. Some wisecracks: RIPOSTES - I'll bet you know the insult that preceded this RIPOSTE. *Answer below
3. Enjoying prime time: AT ONE'S PEAK
5. These, in Cádiz: ESTOS - If Kramer said his line in Spanish, it would be "ESTOS pretzels me están dando sed"
6. MTV's "__ Wolf": TEEN - A TV version of this Michael J. Fox movie
7. Monk's condition, on the TV show: OCD.
8. Smoke: CIGARETTE - It's great that I rarely see any of these today
9. Friendly-sounding old Commodore computer: AMIGA.
11. It may be hidden: AGENDA - "Gee, look at this lovely wooden horse the Greeks have brought us!"
12. More pinlike?: NEATER - More Saturday cluing as in "Neat as a pin"
13. Iconic New Yorker cartoonist Charles: ADDAMS - Of the TV show inspired by his ADDAMS Family cartoon series that started in 1938 he said, "I'm up and down about the show. They are only half as evil as my characters."
14. Linked by custom with: WED TO - Chas ADDAMS said he used the slinky woman he was WED TO as a model for Morticia
19. Ruminations: MUSINGS - I post my ruminations everyday!
21. Floors: APPALLS.
24. Squared stones: ASHLARS - I've seen them, admired them and even laid them but never knew what they were called.
25. Divine type of rule: THEOCRATIC - Vatican City is too small to show up on the map. Clickable map of countries with THEOCRATIC rule
28. Dictionary detail: USAGE NOTE.
29. Op. __: CIT - Op CIT or Ibid:
1. Michael Legge, Precious Little (New York: Pod Books, 2015), p. 198.s
2. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
3. Legge, op. cit., p. 102.
2. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
3. Legge, op. cit., p. 102.
OR
1. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 39-41.
31. Country whose official language is Dutch: SURINAME - Another artifact of colonialism
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 39-41.
31. Country whose official language is Dutch: SURINAME - Another artifact of colonialism
33. Song whose second line is "And I will pledge with mine": TO CELIA - First, I learn landscaping blocks are called ASHLARS and now I find out "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" is actually is a line from a 17th century poem by Ben Johnson called TO CELIA.
34. Favorable: BENIGN - I would love to be in a more BENIGN climate in the winter
35. One way to go: AVENUE.
36. Dig with a snout: ROOTLE - And the learning keeps on coming.
39. Space __: CADET.
41. Flamingo, for one: HOTEL - Look carefully to see who was headlining there when this picture was taken
42. Three-time Emmy-winning choreographer Debbie: ALLEN - She also played a very forceful character on Grey's Anatomy
43. Guy: FELLA.
45. Not making any baskets, say: COLD - or not making any putts! Somedays the ball just will not go where you want it.
46. Lady of song: GAGA - Seen here as both a common and proper noun
48. When repeated, sound of impatience: TAP.
*Insult: Bessie Braddock M.P., "You sir are drunk". RIPOSTE: Winston Churchill "You, my dear, are ugly but I shall be sober in the morning!"
