Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris
Our former editor shows up with another engaging puzzle. I sailed along pretty good but POPO is not in in my vocab and so I'll take one bad cell (COPO/CBS) and try to get on with my life.
I wonder if Rich was familiar with all the proper names he employed. 🤨
1. Erosion control supply: STRAW MATS - These are ubiquitous around here as bypass highways with overpasses are being built all around our town and good spring rains are bringing the STRAW MATS to life.
10. Composer Bruckner: ANTON - All you'd ever want to know
15. Ahead of its time: PROPHETIC - Some claiming to be prophets are really looking for a profit
16. Held up: BORNE.
15. Ahead of its time: PROPHETIC - Some claiming to be prophets are really looking for a profit
16. Held up: BORNE.
17. Pizza sauce choice: RED TOMATO.
18. Condition: STATE - The value of a dime depends on its STATE or condition
19. "__, Chef": Marcus Samuelsson memoir: YES - This is the story of his rise as an adopted child from Ethiopia who became a very successful chef in NYC. (pub. 2012)
20. Nabokov novel: LOLITA - A middle-aged man having relations with a 14-yr-old girl, what could possibly go wrong?
22. Condition that can interfere with focusing, briefly: ADHD.
23. Reagle of "Wordplay": MERL.
24. Go along: AGREE.
26. Pupil of Beethoven: CZERNY.
29. Things that are worth looking into?: MIRRORS 😀
31. Trope intro: HELIO - HELIO(Greek: helios/sun) tropes (Greek: trepan/turn) are plants whose flowers follow the sun across the sky. The prime example is the state flower of Kansas.
32. Summer Olympics racer since 1936: CANOE - Ernst Krebs canoeing in the 1936 Olympics for Deutschland
33. Pac-12 athlete: UTE - Next year, USC and UCLA join the Big Ten and the Utah UTES, et. al. will be left behind
35. Round figure: ORB.
36. Like many '50s cars: TWO TONE - Oh, you mean back when cars had personality?
38. HBO __: MAX.
39. Court: WOO.
40. Romance novelist Brenda: HIATT.
41. Poor showing: NO ONE.
43. Chirp: TWEEDLE - Lewis Carroll invented TWEEDLE Dee and TWEEDLE Dum to encounter Alice in Through The Looking Glass
45. Coastal features of Washington and Alaska: FJORDS - Kenai FJORDS National Park, Home of the most beautiful FJORDS in Alaska
46. Bridget Riley genre: OP ART.
47. Rebuke, maybe: SLAP.
48. Fluffy rug: SHAG.
49. Last-minute, often: HECTIC.
52. "Death in Paradise" airer: PBS - A BBC import
55. Model 3 maker: TESLA.
57. Inescapable situation: BLACK HOLE - Not even light can escape
59. Some deco works: ERTE'S.
60. One who makes the rounds?: 😀 BARKEEPER.
61. Circular defense mechanisms: MOATS 😀
62. Anxiously awaits: SWEATS OUT - 1969 draft lottery
Down:
1. Agile: SPRY.
2. Corner: TREE.
3. Fish sticks?: RODS 😀
4. Keenly intelligent: APT.
5. Totally different, slangily: WHOLE NOTHER.
6. Broadway classic with the lyrics "I can smile at the old days / I was beautiful then": MEMORY - The show-stopping song from Cats
7. In any way: AT ALL.
8. South American monkey: TITI.
9. Shetland native: SCOT - A SCOT who lives in the Shetland Islands has a cost of living nearly double the rest of the U.K. However, golf is reasonable at the Shetland Golf Course: £30 per day, £80 per week; £130 per fortnight
10. Six-pack contents?: ABS.
11. Tig with a recurring role on "Star Trek: Discovery": NOTARO - She is standing under the K in this picture
12. News about a possible exchange: TRADE RUMOR - These rumors were around all winter and he didn't go to any of these teams. If you care at all, you know where he went.
13. Testifying: ON THE STAND.
14. Sine qua non: NEED.
21. Vice president after Thomas: AARON Burr.
23. Hosp. scan: MRI.
25. Prize that may need to be altered if a player wins it again: GREEN JACKET - Here we see the 2019 Master's winner, Tiger Woods, helping the 2020 winner into his GREEN JACKET.
26. Eats: CHOW.
27. Process of dramatic character change: ZERO TO HERO - Tom was the 199th player picked in the 2000 NFL draft and sat out his entire rookie year. The next year the Patriots' starting QB got hurt and Brady finally got to play and became the Greatest Of All Time.
28. Gomiti, for one: ELBOW PASTA.
29. Lacking luster: MATTE.
30. Trying to resolve a tie, briefly: IN OT - Notre Dame coach (and cwd fill) Ara Parseghian was forever blamed for not trying to win this game in 1966 and "settled for a tie". It was another 30 years before the NCAA instituted rules so games could go IN(to) OT(overtime)
32. __-fired: COAL - Our electricity is mostly generated in this plant 1/4 mile south of where I am sitting
34. Former union members?: EXES - That would be former marital union members
37. Side to side?: WIDTH.
42. Alley follower: OOP.
44. Aerie newborn: EAGLET - EAGLETS born in this aerie are a short flight from the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center.
45. Title horse in a Mary O'Hara children's novel: FLICKA - My Friend Flicka was part of my b/w television childhood
47. Unsettling look: STARE.
48. Half-note feature: STEM.
50. Weakens: EBBS.
51. White __: hard seltzer brand: CLAW.
52. The law: POPO - From reduplication of the abbreviation PO (“police officer”), originally in reference to partnered bike officers in Southern California whose paired shirts would read POPO
53. Fromage hue: BLEU - My Greek wife hates BLEU cheese and olives in the Greek salad
56. Jenny, e.g.: ASS- Here's a link to the site below
58. Dads and lads: HES.
