Saturday Themeless by Rich Feely
This appears to be an LA Times debut for Rich. For some reason I had got a good jumping off place on the East side as ITALIAN ICE and SO LAST YEAR surrendered quite easily. I had a few bumps in the road, particularly with 24. NY and LA: STS. which I will address later.
1. Turn two fives into a ten?: ADD - A hilarious turn on this process
4. Key letter: PHI - Mine must have gotten lost in the mail 😊
7. Language spoken in the Gaeltacht: IRISH - Where IRISH/Gaelic is spoken.
12. Outstanding job: LOOSE END - The second definition is relative here.
16. Best Original Song Oscar nominee with the lyric "Anywhere else, I'd be a ten": I'M JUST KEN - When Barbenheimer came out last year, I paid to see the latter and not the former.
18. Commandment word: SHALT.
19. Broadcast: GO ON THE AIR - BE and IS were replaced by GO
21. "Welp," quaintly: ALAS.
22. Act: DEED - On a corner of UNL's Memorial Stadium
23. Kir liqueur: CASSIS.
25. __ good: amazing: SCARY - Caitlin Clark
27. "Stop the negativity": DON'T HATE.
29. Polar formations: FLOES - Icebergs are large chunks of freshwater ice and compressed snow that break off glaciers and float southward on the Labrador Current. Ice FLOES, on the other hand, are chunks of frozen salt-water, also called pack-ice.
Penguins jumping between ice FLOES |
30. Shakes up: JOLTS.
31. Chloé Zhao's alma mater: Abbr.: NYU - Chloé is a Chinese-American film maker. She won an Oscar for directing Nomadland
32. Frames: RIMS - ...or RIMLESS
33. Hermosillo houses: CASAS - Hermosillo is a city of nearly 700,000 in Mexico.
34. Level: TIER.
35. Urgent call, briefly: APB - All Points Bulletin has been replaced by BOLO - Be On the Look Out for
36. Flowing locks: MANES 😀
37. Chocolate source: CACAO.
40. Spud: TATER - Billionaire J.R. Simplot of Boise Idaho made a "handshake" agreement with Ray Kroc in 1965 to grow potatoes for McDonalds French Fries. His company remains a big supplier of spuds for the company.
42. Many a rescue dog: MUTT.
43. Designer Cassini: OLEG - Well known as the designer for Jackie during the Camelot days
44. Photovoltaic devices: SOLAR CELLS - Our city's phase II of SOLAR CELLS a quarter mile south of me
51. Dawn of the moon exploration program?: EARTH RISE - During the Apollo 8 mission, Bill Anders took this picture of an EARTH RISE after they had passed behind the far side of the Moon and emerged on the other side.
Down:
1. Former HBO persona: ALI G.
4. Bugs: PESTERS.
5. Pronoun choice: HE THEY - A person choosing these preferences would accept, "He solved the puzzle" or "They solved the puzzle."
7. Online convos: IMS - Immediate Messaging
8. Discuss ad nauseam: REHASH - My first faculty had to REHASH the "gum chewing" issue for years because it was a pet peeve of the principal.
9. Treat in a little white cup: ITALIAN ICE.
17. Patron saint of children: NICOLAS - Ho, Ho, Ho.
20. Bloviates: RANTS - The political season is coming up
24. NY and LA: STS - 😫 I took the bait for two cities. After way too much time I saw there were no periods for abbreviations and that NY and LA stand for the STateS of New York and Louisiana.
25. Toy for bodysurfing on land: SLIP 'N SLIDE.
39. Milne character in a green striped romper: PIGLET - Every picture of PIGLET I saw had him in a pink striped romper. I found this one in an embroidery kit
47. Trial for an aspiring atty.?: LSAT.
48. Persuade: SELL.
50. Passing stat: YDS - Tom Brady's passing YDS convert to over 48 miles