Saturday, November 20, 2021, David Distenfeld

 Saturday Themeless by David Distenfeld

Dave's notes: Excited to be making my themeless, published debut with this puzzle. I'm a film producer and executive living in Los Angeles. This construction had a classic bottom-up approach, not unlike a colonoscopy. The seed entry was SLEEP AWAY CAMP - a genuinely formative place for me from ages 9-14. I went to Camp Kweebec, which was surprisingly not in Quebec, but rather Schwenksville, PA. 

My favorite clue that - Wait, we didn't come to a crossword blog to hear about ins and outs of the puzzle. Tell us more about the Camp Kweebec! Oh, I dunno if that's really appropriate here. Y'know I'm particularly proud of the clue 23-Across because - No, enough about the clues! We get it... "blonde" is a type of beer and beers have foamy heads, sooo clever, moving on. Back to camp! Rude, but okay fine. [Excited clapping] So, what were the memorable moments of your sleep away camp experience? Spare no details:

Sure, well...if I had to choose:

· Slow dancing for the first time ever to K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life”

· Getting stuck on the zip-line over the lake for two hours

· Kicking the game-winning goal during a shootout at age 9 – to this day the only goal I have EVER scored during a soccer game

· The annual trip to Zerns, a local flea market where incense, beef jerky and throwing stars could all be purchased under the same dusty tent

· Stealing a parking lot sign from Hershey Park to gift to the Head of Boys Camp

who for some inexplicable reason collected stolen signs and hung them on his cabin

· Any time that instructional swim was rained out

· Writing and performing a parody of “I Want It That Way” called “White France is Going All the Way” during the annual Battle of the Countries – my team was White France

· Playing high-stakes Simon Says led by the Head of Boys Camp who for some inexplicable reason always wore a pair of novelty boxers with fake plastic butt cheeks exposed in the front

· And of course, when they first started offering nachos with cheese at the nightly canteen

Lights, Camera
Crossword!

It was a truly special place befitting a truly special puzzle, or at the least the only puzzle the LA Times saw fit to run today, and I’ll take that!

All right, let's see what kind of puzzle David has, uh, produced for us.

Across:

1. Some Hispanic pals: AMIGAS - Failure to change genders slowed me down

7. Winnie-the-Pooh salutation: HALLO.

12. Barbara Eden and Barbara Walters: NONAGENARIANS - I wasted some time trying to make a connection between these two women. Of course it is that they are now both 90+ yrs old which is a "5 Down. Number that never goes down: AGE" (Hmm... AGE is going down in the fill here.)

15. Celiac sufferer's bar order: GLUTEN FREE BEER - Celiac disease - An immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.

17. Singer Brickell: EDIE - EDIE and her husband Paul Simon reconciled in court after being arrested for a "domestic disturbance" in 2014. She said she started the "disturbance" and they left the court hand-in-hand to see their son play baseball.

18. Result of shooting at the sun: LENS FLARE - It can add a lot to a picture. (BTW, I say picture and not photo.)

20. Admits: LET'S IN - Paper tickets are passé

23. Blonde with a large head, perhaps: ALE.

24. One often hailed: CAB - Speaking of passé. Hailing UBER, et al. via your phone is much more common

25. Some plugs: ADS - Free TV isn't really free

26. "The King and I" setting: SIAM - Here we see a 1 Baht stamp from Siam and a 1 Baht stamp from Thailand after the name change in 1938.

29. Lyre-toting Muse: ERATO - ERATO could officially be the muse of crossword solvers

31. "Tuck me in" garb: JAMMIES.

34. Roast holder: OVEN.

35. Love-spoofing '30s-'40s film genre: SCREWBALL COMEDY - Nobody did it better than Cary Grant

39. Drove, with "off": TEED - FORE!

40. Slipshod: ILL MADE - An ILL MADE Nike left shoe (see his sock?) famously gave out on Zion Williamson.

41. Place to rest: OASIS.

43. ... and then __: SOME.

44. Sundance TV owner: AMC - A _ C/_ A N A M A was my only tentative entry but AMC for a TV franchise made sense. It also makes sense that Robert Redford was its founder.

47. Columbus sch.: OSU - Ohio State University 

48. Tubes: TVS - "What's on the tube?" originated when the TV screen was a cathode ray tube.

51. Reacted to a depression?: SAID AH - Fun cluing! Anyone have a "gag reflex"?

53. Aggressive demand: LEMME AT EM - It seems more effective than "Let Me At Them"

57. Award-winning Cooper: MINI.

58. Old-fashioned opening: DEAR SIR OR MADAM.

61. Summer destination for many youngsters: SLEEP AWAY CAMP - See all David's memories at the top.

62. Gets licked: LOSES.

63. Impersonate convincingly: PASS AS  - Speaking of getting licked, the Huskers can not PASS AS even a mediocre football team this year

Down:

1. __ Moss, Portia Doubleday's "Mr. Robot" role: ANGELA - Portia's IMDB

2. Like many sandcastles: MOLDED.

3. Native Alaskans: INUITS - Sure I thought it might be ALEUTS too.

4. Airport array: GATES - After all my trips to Orlando, I have used a great many of their gates

6. Harris, pre-VP: SEN.

7. Storied also-ran: HARE.

8. Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, e.g.: ARENA - This famous venue famously holds only 9,300 people and is a tough place to play 

9. "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" girl, in a show tune: LIESL - The character was LIESL Von Trapp and here she dances to that tune with her young Nazi boyfriend who eventually betrays the whole family in The Sound Of Music

10. Chem class charge: LAB FEE.

11. Like Nash's lama: ONE L.

13. Art Rooney Award org.: NFL - Awarded for outstanding sportsmanship on the field. Teddy Bridgewate won last year

14. Phenomenon carved by waves: SEA CAVE - We have visited the Isle Of Capri which is home to a famous SEA CAVE called The Blue Grotto

16. Not for kids: R-RATED.

19. Black shade: EBONY.

21. Witness' words: I SAW - John E. Bingham was a witness to Lincoln's assassination and in a dramatic letter wrote what HE SAW

22. Latin for "clouds": NIMBI - Makes sense

27. Humanitarian Clooney: AMAL - AMAL (née Alamuddin) is the wife of George Clooney

28. Paper makers: MILLS - Wood pulp on its way to be made into paper in a 1947 paper MILL in Florida

30. "The Eternal City": ROME.

31. Yoda trainee: JEDI.

32. Mariners' saint: ELMO - Saint Erasmus of Formia also known as St. ELMO. 

33. Hustles: SCAMS - If it sounds too good to be true...

35. Option if the bar is raised: STOOL - Just such a bar in the 1940's

36. Quit: CEASED.

37. Documents with a Key Skills section, maybe: RESUMES - 99+ examples

38. Classic concert halls: ODEA - ODEA and its vowels are a frequent cwd fill 

42. Assembly with speakers?: STEREO - Why does this guy pull up beside me at so many traffic lights?

44. Shoe brand with a three-stripe logo: ADIDAS.

45. Bahrain's capital: MANAMA - It's a 20 minute drive from MANAMA, Bahrain to Saudi Arabia on the King Fahd Causeway.

46. Bubbles and Bonzo: CHIMPS - Bonzo's co-star went on to bigger things 

49. They may be put on pedestals: VASES - VAYSES not VAHSES for me

50. R.E.M. lead singer Michael: STIPE - His IMDB

52. Apples for teachers, maybe: IMACS - The school where I sub has all Windows machines except for the media production classes. 

54. Place for a Santa sighting: MALL.

55. Aces have low ones, briefly: ERAS.

56. Shorten a plot: MOW - Fun cluing! 

59. Genre for Eve: RAP - Search for her lyrics if you must

60. One of four singers on 2001's "Lady Marmalade": MYA - This song, from the movie Moulin Rouge,  is famous for its sexually suggestive French chorus of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?", which translates into English as "Do you want to go to bed with me?" 

MYA, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim