Saturday, April 16, 2022, John Ewbank

 Saturday Themeless by John Ewbank

Today we welcome John Ewbank from "across the pond." John is a technical writer in the U.K. and constructs puzzles as a sideline.  He told me he has been to America and visited Colorado but doesn't know where Nebraska is.  Yes, I did send John a map. 😊 Of course if I did visit Highclere Castle in the county of Hampshire (where a lot of Downton Abbey was filmed), I probably wouldn't realize I was very near the county of Surrey, so there is that. John seems like a very nice person and here are his notes for us:

Hi Gary

            - I’m from the UK and mainly a setter of cryptic crosswords for the Times of London, but got into setting US puzzles during lockdown. This is my first published themeless but I’ve had a couple of themed puzzles published in other papers. A cryptic background isn’t a huge amount of help, but it does make it a bit easier to come up with sneaky clues.

            - I believe I didn’t really have seed entries – I just played around with some stacks until I found something good. Not the recommended way of doing it but I get there in the end!

            - I originally had “Small talk” for GOOGOOGAGA and “Dan’s speciality” for MARTIAL ART, both of which I thought were rather good. Ah well. [Dan is a ranking system in martial arts - hg]

            - I seem to remember that the north east was the toughest, although I’m happy that PIN SETTERS made it in. Not the most exciting entry but it’s a fun clue.

Across:

1. Brew orders: CREAM ALES - What is CREAM ALE?

10. Rest of the day?: NAP - Fun!

13. Baby talk: GOO GOO GA GA.

14. Actress Polo: TERI - I remember seeing her in Meet The Parents

15. "No worries": IT'S ALL GOOD - Substitute Saul for "IT'S ALL" and follow GOOD with Man and you get Jimmy McGill's name when he became a shady lawyer 

16. Actor McGregor who's a UNICEF ambassador: EWAN.

17. Big ask, sometimes: NEED.

18. Criticize: DISS - Slang for disrespect

19. They're minimal in a keto diet: CARBS.

20. Killer __: BEE.

21. Its common tuning is known as "My dog has fleas": UKULELE - My first instrument 

23. Damon and Affleck, often: COSTARS - Matt Damon in front of Ben Affleck in a scene from the fabulous Good Will Hunting

27. "The Big Bang Theory" regular: RAJ - RAJ's reply to Leonard

28. Net judge's call: LET - Tennis serves that touch the net but make it over.

29. Moving pictures?: OP-ART - I'll post just a link because these can be disorienting 

30. Music genre term coined by Nigeria's Fela Kuti: AFRO BEAT

32. Just: MERE.

33. Young partner: ERNST.

35. Put in a hold: LADE - Ironically this shows the hold of a ship being LADED with grain in Odesa, Ukraine

36. Beholden: INDEBTED - In a recent book, Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon were INDEBTED to the Everly Brothers for their influence on Beatles music.

38. Canadian put-down: HOSER - The McKenzie Brothers made Canada proud 

39. "__: Vegas": CSI - Another cog in the CSI TV franchise

40. It might be bitter: END.

41. Post office inquiries: TRACERS - The USPS once lost a three foot long tube that was sent to me and a TRACER turned up nothing

43. Iberian titles: SENORAS - Spain and Portugal make up Iberia 

45. Sound often heard at Cirque du Soleil: OOH - Our Wisconsin constructor Carly Schuna is skilled at these German Wheels

46. LPGA golfer Yani, the youngest to win five majors: TSENG - Why Asian women dominate the LPGA

47. What players sometimes miss: CUES - I was in 1776 when a man missed a CUE and, poof, two pages of my best dialogue got skipped!

49. Big party: FETE.

53. Not for the prudish: RACY 

54. Combat tradition: MARTIAL ART.

56. Format favored by big-shot directors?: IMAX.

57. Church staple: ORGAN MUSIC.

58. Signature piece?: PEN  - This A.T. Cross pen was a favorite of Barack Obama and sells for $110

59. Chucks: DEEP SIXES - Could be from six fathoms when something is thrown overboard or the depth of a common grave.

Down:

1. République de __ d'Ivoire: COTE - Now the the Ivory Coast. Yesterday we had Ghana that used to be The Gold Coast in its colonial past.

2. Symbol of Lancaster or York: ROSE - The War Of The Roses in the 15th century

3. "Yikes!": EGAD.

4. Internet pioneer: AOL.

5. Crumble: MOLDER - An alternate spelling

6. Texas A&M athletes: AGGIES.

7. Only landlocked country in Southeast Asia: LAOS.

8. Tries to find oneself?: EGO SURFS.

9. In need of perking up: SAD.

10. Latest movie, say: NEW RELEASE.

11. Oman's Haitham bin Tariq, e.g.: ARAB LEADER.

12. Ones working after strikes: PIN SETTERS - Before it was done by machines

13. Part of a Bond order: GIN - Why James Bond wants it "Shaken, not stirred"

14. Turquoise kin: TEAL.

19. King work: CUJO.

20. Sonar operator?: BAT - Oh, not a human one

22. Mario __: KART.

23. Regular line in a newspaper: COMIC STRIP - This line has  been a regular for decades

24. Password that's weak by modern standards: OPEN SESAME.

25. Rush hour metaphor: SARDINE CAN.

26. Baobab, for one: TREE - Disney modeled this "Tree Of Life" in the Animal Kingdom park on the African Baobab TREE that can live for over 1,000 years

30. As well as: AND.

31. Group working together: BLOC.

33. Peak also known as Mongibello: ETNA - Ways to clue ETNA

34. It led to the blacklisting of Trumbo and Chaplin: RED SCARE.

37. Notable unsinkable ship sinker: BERG - After hitting the iceBERG, the Titanic radio operators sent out the Marconi distress call of CQD. They then joked, "Well we might as well try this new SOS message because we'll probably never get to use it again!"

A reproduction of Titanic's radio room
for the movie Titanic 

38. "A likely story!": HAH - "The Titanic is unsinkable!"

41. Keep the beat, in a way: TOE TAP - Even at 99-yrs-old my MIL's TOES TAP when I play YouTube polkas for her

42. Bow applications: ROSINS.

44. Banded gemstone: ONYX.

48. Hard-to-resist thing: URGE

49. Continuous movement: FLUX.

50. Little difficulty: EASE.

51. Shailene's "Divergent" role: TRIS - It seems to be de rigueur for these young women to be wielding a firearm 

52. Space-saving letters: ETC.

54. One who might delete a Reddit post, briefly: MODerator

55. "__ to believe ... ": AM I.