Aug 12, 2023

Saturday, August 12, 2023, Rich Norris

Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris

Our former editor returns with a very doable Saturday exercise. He also gives a very nice shoutout to C.C.

Across:

1. Draft pick?: OXEN 😀 OXEN are draft animals

5. Bentley of "Yellowstone": WES - Second from left

8. __ Canarias: ISLAS - Canary Islands was obvious but I had to work to get ISLAS

13. Backs: SIDES WITH

16. Use, in a way, with "off": MOOCH and 37. Used, in a way, with "off": SPONGED.

17. Texas Revolution figure: SANTA ANNA.

18. Ask: PUT TO - I PUT TO you this question, does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost over night?

19. Hot: ON A STREAK.

20. Like some accents: ACUTE.

21. Uniform item, often: CAP - At the Pentagon Mall store - $29. At a street kiosk by Ford's Theater - $9

22. Best Original Song Oscar winner for "No Time to Die": EILISH - Billie won with her brother Finneas for this Bond theme

24. March honoree, familiarly: ST. PAT.

27. 21st century explorer: DORA.

28. Job listing ltrs.: EEO.

30. Golf shot: CHIP - Tiger's on #16 at Augusta is probably the most famous

31. 2002 AFI Life Achievement Award honoree: HANKS - At 46, he was the youngest to get it

32. Pandora or Spotify: APP.

33. Demolish: RAZE - My childhood home finally got RAZED two years ago, twenty years later than it should have been.

34. Rest stop visitors: SEMIS.

35. Take the lead: STAR - Henry Winkler declined to STAR as Danny Zuko in Grease

36. Snack brand since 1921: UTZ - Not familiar in my town

37. Cocky gait: STRUT.

38. Olympian queen: HERA - A wife of Zeus

39. Org. honored with a commemorative stamp for its 50th anniversary in 1960: BSA.

40. Assistant's job, often: PREP.

41. Deserving of: WORTH.

42. "Criminal Minds" actress: AJ COOK.

44. Cut (off): LOP.

45. Runners at the corners, say: TWO ON - That means a baseball team has runners at 1st and 3rd base.

46. Request to be heard: INDULGE ME.

52. Garden hose gasket: O-RING - Of course this NASA guy immediately thought of the O-RING on the Space Shuttle Booster that failed on that cold January day and caused the Challenger to blow up.

53. TV series that teamed a conspiracy theorist with a doctor: THE X-FILES - Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was the conspiracy theorist and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) was the doctor turned FBI agent.

54. Poet whose work helped establish modern Italian: DANTE.

The Inferno - Canto I

The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion, and the Wolf. Virgil.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

Ahi quanto a dir qual era è cosa dura
esta selva selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!

Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.

55. Critters with discs on their extremities: TREE FROGS.

56. Wasn't indecisive: OPTED.

57. Kennel sound: YAP.

58. "Fuller House" actress Ashley: LIAO - In the middle below

Down:

1. __ buco: OSSO - Italian for "bone with a hole"

2. Capital of Shaanxi Province: XIAN - This is the hometown of our gracious hostess, C.C.. Here is a beautiful picture of her in her old XIAN "hood" where her brother Andy still lives.

3. "The Incredibles" designer Mode: EDNA - It is commonly believed that multi Oscar-winner Edith Head was the inspiration for this cartoon character.

4. Loser to Explorer in the first browser war: NETSCAPE - This was my first browser and I remember how thrilled I was to use it via my dialup modem.

5. __ Country: WINE.

6. Volcano where Zeus trapped Typhon, in some myths: ETNA - Zeus, volcano, c'mon...

7. Agree: SHAKE ON IT.

8. Chevys retired in 2020: IMPALAS - I didn't know that

9. Sans __: carefree: SOUCI - French: Sans (without) SOUCI (worry)

10. Odyssey dreamer: LOTUS EATER - Speaking of sans souci...

11. Behave as required: ACT THE PART.

12. Brake __: SHOE.

14. Occupied, in a way: SAT AT - The famous 1960 lunch counter SIT IN in at a Woolworth's Lunch Counter in Greensboro, N.C.

15. Distort: WARP - Did'ja ever...

23. Bugs: IRKS.

24. Really clean: SCRUB - My idea of "clean the deck" is using a garden hose for ten minutes. Joann's is two hours with a power washer attached to a 2,700psi compressor.

25. Closing words: THAT'S A WRAP - In some movies, "THAT'S A WRAP" is heard after the first scene is filmed way out of sequence.

26. Pie seller, casually: PIZZA JOINT - This is a one where we got a great pie on top of the Island of Capri which is called Anacapri.

27. Block: DAM UP.

29. Media mogul born in Mississippi: OPRAH.

In Kosciusko, MS

31. Summons whose last word is often repeated: HERE KITTY - Repetition does not seem to help with our kitty.

34. Minute Maid Park player, to fans: STRO.

35. Meg Ryan's screen name in "You've Got Mail": SHOPGIRL.