Saturday, May 6, 2023, Adrian Johnson

 Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson

Our Wyoming native who went to college in Minnesota is now doing great work for a startup group called BetterFi, a nonprofit working to end predatory lending in Tennessee. 

The last puzzle of AJ's I had was on9/24/23 and like that  puzzle, this one was 

full of fun word play. If a clue seemed too simple, I knew I had to rethink what else he might be getting at and was never disappointed by the fill!

Across:

1. Light touch from a decorator: ACCENT LAMP 😀

11. Zabaglione base: EGGS - Talk about yer Saturday cluing! 

15. "That's what my intuition was telling me": I HAD A HUNCH that 11 Across might be hard for some 

16. Wolfe of "Black Orchids": NERO - Saturday cluing for a familiar fill but Wolfe was a tipoff for me

17. Game-changing: MONUMENTAL - This was the theme of Susan Gelfand's 5/26/23 puzzle. 

18. Old autocrat: TSAR.

19. Floating junk: SPACE WASTE - Also called space junk or space debris. It's all going thousands of miles per hour

20. Cutest of the litter, maybe: RUNT - My wife would seek out the RUNT

21. Noise: ADO.

22. Secretive group?: GLANDS 😀 - Yes, add an "e" and secret becomes the verb secrete and glands do secrete useful chemicals

24. Jazz drummer Blakey: ART.

26. City on the James River: RICHMOND - McClellan's ill-fated attempt to take RICHMOND in 1862 took place on the peninsula with the James River on the south and the York River on the north

30. Boxer's mouth piece?: SQUEAK TOY 😀 I had to suss out what AJ wanted for the dog

32. Gender option on some surveys: OTHER - When I started teaching in 1968, we asked the kids to put down their gender, religion and race.

35. One committed to an orderly society?: NUN -  😀 The NUNS at my daughter's school are in the order of School Sisters Of Christ The King

36. Of no help: USELESS - Some hilarious "You're as useless as..." lines. ...ejection seats in a helicopter made me laugh out loud.

38. French summer: ETE - Hmmm... Not a Nice summer.

39. Race-ready, in a way: LANED - If you look closely, you can see the Jamaican women LANED in 3, 4 and 7 got the gold, silver and bronze in this 100m final.

41. Classical piece that's the basis of the 1965 hit "A Lover's Concerto": MINUET IN G - Here are both of them

     

43. Biometric reading: IRIS SCAN - This iPhone allows you to charge a purchase using an IRIS SCAN

45. GPS prediction: ETA.

46. Last stop before leaving for vacation, perhaps: KENNEL - Joann would leave me at the KENNEL before she would leave Lily

48. Racket of lamb: BAA 😀

50. Fad: RAGE.

51. Doug Wright's "I Am My Own Wife," e.g.: ONE MAN SHOW - More info. Last Saturday we had Robert Morse's ONE MAN SHOW in Tru

58. Some fluffy slippers: UGGS - At one time, Tom Brady was their spokesman. 

59. Dolphin kin: PILOT WHALE - They can be docile or aggressive with humans, so...

60. Source of smoky notes in whiskey: PEAT.

61. Uplifting historical figure?: ELISHA OTIS - He did not invent the elevator. He simply made it safe for passengers with his safety brake.

62. Cornstarch brand: ARGO - A box from 1919

63. Mythological swimmer: SEA SERPENT - Uh, we're gonna need a bigger boat

Down:

1. Targets: AIMS.

2. Veal cut: CHOP.

3. Veronese's "The Wedding Feast at __": CANA - Where it is said Christ changed water into wine

4. Train conductors, say: EDUCATE - Train is a verb and not an adjective for conductors

5. Tagged: NAMED.

6. All available options: THE WORKS.

7. __ Bar: nutritional snack: LUNA.

8. Myrmecologist's study: ANTS - From the Greek for ANT: Murmex 

9. Exam for future residents: Abbr.: MCAT - These residents are of course doctors

10. Physiological humor believed to cause sluggishness: PHLEGM - 😀 Oh, that kind of humor 

11. Competitor: ENTRANT - Ya gotta be in it to win it

12. Response during allergy season: GESUNDHEIT - Gesundheit was borrowed from German, where it literally means "health"; it was formed by a combination of gesund ("healthy") and -heit ("-hood"). Wishing a person good health when they sneezed was traditionally believed to forestall the illness that a sneeze often portends. You're welcome

13. Majestic: GRAND.

14. Out of __: SORTS.

23. Like some change: LOOSE - I never carry any coins any more

24. Cerulean kin: AQUA - This color

Cerulean colored clothing

25. Calvin's increasingly outrageous snow art, in "Calvin and Hobbes," e.g.: RUNNING GAG - 

27. Objects: ITEMS.

28. Baby ailment: COLIC.

29. Pet for Harley Quinn: HYENA - Harley is in the DC Comics stable and her two HYENAS are named Bud and Lou. I'll bet most of us get that reference, but if you don't, see the bottom of the write-up.

30. Ego Nwodim's show, for short: SNL.

31. Journalist Cornish: AUDIE.

33. Italian volcano: ETNA.

34. Rule, for short: REG.

37. Go for the bronze?: SUNBATHE - Very different from the sprinter in Lane 7 above.

40. Miranda whose case inspired the Miranda warning: ERNESTO - ERNESTO's conviction got thrown out by the Earl Warren Supreme Court because of what they judged to be a coerced confession. He was retried and convicted with other evidence.

42. Place to pick up leaves: TEA SHOP - I wonder if C.C. has ever been in this one in Xian, China 

44. Pitches: SLOPES - The pitch of a roof might depend on how much snow your area gets

46. Gene dubbed the "Founding Father of the Modern Drum Set" by Modern Drummer: KRUPA.

47. Avid: EAGER.

49. Nobelist Sadat: ANWAR - ANWAR Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin 

52. African flower?: NILE - 😀 AJ chose to use flower as a noun from the verb flow.

53. Kazan with an honorary Oscar: ELIA - Many remembered how ELIA had named 8 people who had joined the communist party to the HUAC committee in the 50's and refused to stand or applaud when he got this award

54. Flowerless plant: MOSS - FERNS also do not have flowers (the blooming kind)

55. Spike Lee's "She __ Me": HATE - In Spanish 

56. "Chocolat" actress: OLIN.

57. __ Point: WEST.