Sunday January 5, 2020 David Kwong

Theme: "Initial Offerings" - The initials of each three-word entry are also contained in each theme entry.
  
23. When the Commodore 64 computer was released: NINETEEN EIGHTY TWO. (Thanks, Owen).
     
30. World capital since 1931: NEW DELHI, INDIA. Steve traveled their for business once. Toxic smog.

52. 1982 Physical Tour singer: OLIVIA NEWTON JOHN.

67. "Excuse me ... ": PARDON THE INTERRUPTION.

85. What a shutout lowers: EARNED RUN AVERAGE.

104. Capital near Siena College: ALBANY,  NEW YORK. Two places in our theme set.

116. Highest grossing movie of 1980, with "The": EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

I like EARNED RUN AVERAGE answer the best as ERA is an common abbreviations, very apt initial.

So nice to see David Kwong's byline. He's a magician and a fantastic crossword constructor.

Across:

1. Extra NHL periods: OTS.

4. Official order: EDICT.

9. Prefix suggesting savings: ECONO.

14. Weightlifting units: REPS.

18. Like a nonexistent chance: FAT.

19. Provides an excuse: ALIBIS. Did not know it's also a verb.

20. Queen Amidala's "Star Wars" home: NABOO. Forgot. We had this before. We also have 112. Lucas droid: ARTOO.

21. Rink move: AXEL.

22. Christmas buy: FIR.

26. Clean Air Act org.: EPA.

27. Eye drop: TEAR.

28. Looks for prints: DUSTS.

29. Driveway hoops game: H-O-R-S-E. Unfamiliar to me.

34. Bart Simpson's grandma: MONA. We see ABE more often.

35. One might be slipped: DISC.

36. California's Santa __ River: ANA.

37. Character who said about her father, "Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself": REGAN. Sounds like Rich's clue.

40. Amigo of Fidel: CHE.

43. Doctrines: ISMS.

47. Tennis great: ASHE.

50. Hood: GANGSTER.

57. Corrida participant: TORO.

58. Bug: NAG.

59. Novel makeup: PROSE.

60. Prey for a Hauskatze: MAUS. Gimme for Spitzboov. Hauskatze is house cat in German. We also have 51. German town: STADT.

61. Starchy roots: TAROS. I love taros. You can find taro cakes in some dim sum places.

62. Card game shout: UNO.

63. "Cotton Candy" jazzman: HIRT (Al)

64. Defeat: LICK.

65. Low-pH stuff: ACID.

74. Son of Seth: ENOS.

75. "Gigi" playwright: LOOS (Anita)

76. Assures, as a win: ICES.

77. Cal Poly campus site, initially: SLO. OK, San Luis Obispo.

78. Zoo features: CAGES.

81. "Beloved" novelist Morrison: TONI.

82. Lab dish eponym: PETRI.

83. Give the chance to: LET.

84. Word on a bill: UNUM.

89. Place to get a lift: SKI SLOPE.

91. Aspiring atty.'s exam: LSAT.

92. Sushi roll wrap: NORI. I like these hand rolls. Sometimes I spread a thin layer of wasabi inside.

93. Camera move: PAN.

94. Ahead: ON TOP.

96. Personal quirk: TIC.

98. Org. giving G's and R's: MPAA.

102. Declines: EBBS.

110. Stiller's partner: MEARA.

114. Quick reminder: MEMO.

115. Hindu title: SRI.

120. X, at times: TEN.

121. Cut out: OMIT.

122. Attach with twine: TIE ON.

123. Unsettling looks: STARES.

124. Bread grain: OAT. Never tried oatmeal bread.

125. Living __: WAGE.

126. Professional gps.: ASSNS.

127. One of the vitals: PULSE.

128. With 87-Down, fairly: PRO. 87. See 128-Across: RATA.

Down:

1. Insult: OFFEND.

2. National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall site: TAIPEI. Gimme.

3. Soda shop supply: STRAWS.

4. Architect Saarinen: ELIEL.

5. Alice's cat: DINAH.

6. Andorra's region: IBERIA.

7. Op. __: CIT.

8. Half a fly: TSE.

9. Ho-hum feeling: ENNUI.

10. Type of salad: CAESAR.

11. Parting words?: OBIT.

12. Quaffs with punch: NOGS. Eggnogs.

13. Massage reaction: OOH.

14. Ersatz silk: RAYON.

15. Tool for removing broken screws: EXTRACTOR. Do you have this in your tool box, TTP/D-Otto?

16. Seats arranged in rows: PEWS.

17. Shrub with a purple fruit: SLOE.

19. Chip in a pot: ANTE.

24. Baseball Hall of Famer Roush: EDD.

25. Beachwear for the immodest: THONG.

31. Lowest multiple of CLI that fits in this space: DCIV. Wow, can anyone explain this to me?

32. Thunderstruck: IN AWE. I'm in awe of the above clue.

33. Creator of the GOP elephant: NAST (Thomas)

34. "Death in Venice" author: MANN.

38. Freudian topics: EGOS.

39. "Dilbert" cry: GAH.

41. Subway fare?: HERO.

42. God with a quiver: EROS.

44. Drawing tools: SIPHONS.

45. First quarterback to exceed 5,000 passing yards in a season: MARINO (Dan)

46. Derisive sounds: SNORTS.

48. Superfamily including gibbons: HOMINOIDS.

49. Makes into law: ENACTS.

52. "Movin' __": '70s-'80s sitcom theme song: ON UP.

53. "Smallville" character: LANA.

54. Horror film helper: IGOR.  "Young Frankenstein".

55. O.T. queen: ESTH.

56. Artful dodge: JUKE. Learning moment for me.

61. More under the influence: TIPSIER.

64. Soccer great Messi: LIONEL. FC Barcelona. Has anyone shopped via Rakuten?

65. Inverse trig function: ARCTAN.

66. Big name in tequila: CUERVO. Wiki says Jose CuervoIt is "the best-selling tequila in the world".

68. Thinks: DEEMS.

69. SpaceX CEO Musk: ELON. One of the Most Admired Men in 2019.

70. Nothing, in Nantes: RIEN.

71. Madonna's "La __ Bonita": ISLA.

72. Cassini of fashion: OLEG.

73. Reference book reference: NOTE.

78. Verge: CUSP.

79. "Lonely Boy" singer: ANKA.

80. Testing subject: GUINEA PIG. Nice fill.

81. Palm smartphone: TREO.

82. World leader who's a judo black belt: PUTIN.

85. Long times: EONS.

86. Pertinent: APT.

88. Frost-covered: RIMY.

90. Kind of pneumonia: LOBAR.

95. Benefactor: PATRON.

97. One of two in a crash: CYMBAL.

99. Recovery place: POST-OP.

100. Overdue debt more commonly pluralized: ARREAR. True

101. Quite a bit like: AKIN TO.

103. Shiny, in product names: BRITE. Love this lint roller.

105. Butcher shop cuts: LOINS.

106. __ choy: BOK. With oyster sauce.

107. Is closer to reaching: NEARS.

108. Run the show: EMCEE.

109. Bowl-shaped pans: WOKS.

110. "I'm ready to come in now": MEOW.

111. John's first partner on American TV's "The Avengers": EMMA (Peel)

112. Clearance item caveat: AS IS.

113. Highways: Abbr.: RTES.

117. Bus sched. letters: ETA.

118. FRA neighbor, to the IOC: ESP. France. España.

119. Onetime Beatle Sutcliffe: STU.

C.C.

Saturday, January, 4, 2020, Matthew Sewell

Saturday Themeless by Matthew Sewell

Today's constructor is another in our long line of  PhDs - Matthew Sewell. He is also part of the Minnesota Crossword Cabal and teaches literature and film at Minnesota State University, Mankato (high of 28F today) but is currently on sabbatical in Richmond, VA. (high of 64F today). He has had puzzles published in the  NYT, Newsday, The Wall Street Journal, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Universal / Andrews McMeel.

Of this puzzle, Matt was kind enough to write to me, "I was glad to be able to get a variety of frames of reference into this one -- as a solver, I like it when a themeless calls on many different types of knowledge. The shape of this grid emerged from some experiments in unusual patterns -- for instance, I was trying to limit 3-letter entries, especially adjacent ones, and I was interested in wide-open corners like in the NE and SW. I remember the NE corner coming together pretty quickly, which seemed semi-miraculous... and then I paid for that good fortune in the SW, which required some ingenuity. My thanks for Rich and Patti for their improvements, and I hope solvers enjoy the result."

Lights, Camera, Sewell!

Across:

1. Station lineup: CABS - The lineup of taxi CABS has been greatly diminished by lines here

5. Lacks calmness, in modern slang: HAS NO CHILL - I'll file this along with "YAS QUEEN" from last Saturday, in my "Never Heard Before, but Happy To Learn" folder 😐

15. Wrench or twist: HURT 

16. SiriusXM channel devoted to "the King": ELVIS RADIO.

17. Feature of some cheeses: ODOR  and 25. Semi-hard cheese: EDAM - is said to have almost no odor compared to other cheeses

18. Jigsaw-making process: DIE CUTTING - This machine has a DIE inside for CUTTING your own puzzles after pasting your picture on a special board

19. Site with many alterations: WIKI can explain 35. In an atom's outer shell, two electrons not bonded to another atom: LONE PAIR if you're interested

20. Kelly of "Anchors Aweigh": GENE - His costars were Frank Sinatra and Jerry Mouse

21. Fast-food order: TO GO - Without the space, cluing could have been "21. A 1925 eponymous hero of a 2019 Disney film"

22. Eurasian ecoregion: STEPPE - America's STEPPES

24. Improvement plan: REGIMEN - REGIMIN vs Regiment

27. Source of relief: OASIS.

30. Take off: DEPART 

31. Place with a bucket list?: KFC - You can get a KFC bucket in C.C.'s home town at 101 North Quinling Rd, Quinyonggung Rd, Xi'an China. 

32. Steamed by: MAD AT 

34. Familia nickname: TIO - Tuve catorce TÍOS en mi vida (I have had fourteen uncles in my life)
35. TV program generally targeted for women: LIFETIME MOVIE -Examples

39. With 38-Across, SLR since 1987: CANON 38. See 39-Across: EOS - The official SLR in Crosswordland

40. London's Old __: VIC - On the corner of the Cut and Waterloo Road in Lambeth, London, England

41. Loosen, in a way: UNSNAP.

43. Portfolio item: ASSET.

45. Brings back to the team, say: REHIRES - Yankee owner George Steinbrenner fired and REHIRED Billy Martin many, many times

47. Best Picture title locale the year after the West Side: ARABIA - 6' 3" Peter O'Toole played 5' 5" T.E. Lawrence

51. Uncommitted: OPEN.

52. What a reservation can prevent: WAIT - A very early Seinfeld episode was about not having a reservation and was shot on only one set. This is often cited as an example of the show "being about nothing"!

55. Philosopher influenced by Hegel: MARX - Last Saturday I had the MARX Brothers. 

56. Yellowish-tinted spirit: PALE BRANDY - Very Special Old PALE

59. Stress indicator: Abbr.: ITAL.

The Scream

60. Munch, e.g.: OIL PAINTER - Norwegian Edvard's most famous work

61. Period in ads: NITE.

62. Timely quality: PROMPTNESS - Is Munch's subject very 49. Steamed: IRATE about someone being late or upset because he just found out he was going to be undergoing an 2. Regular review: AUDIT.

63. Barely gets (by): EKES.


Down:

1. Dark-tongued dogs: CHOWS.

3. Destitute: BROKE.

4. Remove, as varnish: STRIP OFF 

5. Natural windbreaks: HEDGES.

6. "Fascism is __ told by bullies": Hemingway: A LIE - Wanna read the essay?

7. Old Norse name meaning "young man": SVEN.

8. Not so rough: NICER.



9. Pac-12's Beavers: OSU - It's about an hour drive from the Beavers to the Ducks

10. Early TV component: CRT - Philo Farnsworth's product

11. Genteel gesture: HAT TIP.

12. Like much spoken language: IDIOMATIC - 27 Canadian speech IDIOMS

13. Chantelle offering: LINGERIE - Google at your leisure 

14. Access, in a way: LOG ONTO.

23. Indy front-runner?: PACE CAR - This year it was a 2019 Corvette in Longbeach Metallic Red Tint for the Indy 500

26. Move beyond: GET OVER - "Hey, life's unfair. GET OVER it!"

28. "Game on!": I'M IN and 53. Play fare: ANTE - An interesting way to ANTE

29. The Apolima Strait separates its two main islands: SAMOA.

31. Greet affectionately: KISS HELLO.

33. Escape rooms: DENS.

36. Red annoyance?: TAPE - Government RED TAPE held up a viaduct in our town for seventeen years and finally it just became too expensive to build. Meanwhile a little girl died because her ambulance was blocked by a train for ten minutes.

37. Wheat germ nutrient: VITAMIN E - All you need to know

38. ABBA's genre: EURO POP - I never miss a chance to post an ABBA video. Enjoy!

e42. Evening hr.: NINE PM.

44. Mythical wine lovers: SATYRS - Guys out for a good time 

46. Proust character married to Odette: SWANN - Odette, in full Odette Swann, née de Crécy, fictional character, the vulgar wife of Charles SWANN in Remembrance of Things Past, or In Search of Lost Time (1913–27), by Marcel Proust. You're welcome.

48. Cloth-dyeing method: BATIK.

50. Beetle bars: AXLES - partsgeek.com can get you one. Very tricky, Matt!

54. Shakespearean warning word: IDES.

57. Christian denom.: BAP - BAPTIST

58. Slowing, in mus.: RIT - A very familiar usage

Comments on Dr. Sewell's puzzle?

Friday, January 3, 2020, Kevin Conway

Title: What the  'L is going on here?

Lemonade here beginning 2020 welcoming another new constructor who begins with an "add-a-letter" theme which was easier for me than the reveal. I hope Kevin stops by to explain his take. There are numerous Kevin Conways in the world, so I will wait to hear from him. In my ongoing discussion of solving themed puzzles, I mentioned two weeks ago that first I look to clue/fill 17A. Today I saw -
17A. Lawyer's missing text?: LOST CLAUSE (10) [LOST CAUSE].
Then I look for the mirror fill, here it is:
54A. Another name for the five-second rule of dropped food?: MORSEL CODE [MORSE CODE] (10).
The pun is better in 54 A, and it certainly reveals the theme.
The rest -
22A. Offer from one unwilling to negotiate?: STICKLER PRICE  [STICKER PRICE](13) and its mirror -
44A. Military directive?: BATTLING ORDER [BATTING ORDER](13) fit together nicely Then we have the bonus of a reveal:
35A. Calendar period that 17-, 22-, 44- and 54-Across are celebrating?: L-WEEK. My only thought as shown in the Title I chose was HellWeek, the time when pledges make their final pitch for membership in fraternities/sororities. But a reveal that needs a reveal would be new.

The puzzle itself is a classic Friday.
The distribution is fair.

Stats		Average Values by Day of Week — 15 x 15 only						21 x 21 only
This puzzle		Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Blocks	34	37.5	37.3	37.4	36.8	31.4	30.7	73.9
Words	72	77.0	76.8	76.3	74.8	69.6	68.9	139.3
Open Squares	83	69.3	69.4	69.7	72.9	91.3	94.7	122.7
Scrabble Avg	1.52	1.57	1.58	1.59	1.58	1.56	1.56	1.55
Avg Word Length	5.31	4.87	4.89	4.92	5.06	5.59	5.66	5.28
Freshness Factor™ Percentile	77.2	18.5	26.2	30.7	46.1	78.1	84.3	62.6

The green highlighted squares show which daily puzzle average is closest to this puzzle for each statistical category.

If this is a debut, Kevin packed in lots of fun non-theme fill like NATIVES, RETURNS, SET ATOP. UBER CAR, ALKALINE,  UNDERPIN, DISK SPACE, INTERPOSE,  OPEN DOORS, and  SETS ASIDE.

On to the solution which did not leave me cranky, but see if you spot why below:

Across:

1. Sports headwear retailer: LIDS.


5. Joplin's "Me and Bobby __": MCGEE.

"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose
Nothin', don't mean nothin' hon' if it ain't free, no no..."







10. Charlie Brown's "Darn!": RATS.
  
14. Comic strip dog: ODIE.Garfield's pet.
Not related to 59A. Tributes in verse: ODES.

15. Variety: ARRAY.

16. Poetic black: EBON. 1350–1400; Middle English eban, ebyn ebony < Anglo-French eban(ne), Old French eban, ebaine < Medieval Latin ebanus, for Latin (h)ebenus < Greek ébenos, of Semitic orig.

19. Prepare to fly, maybe: TAXI. On the runway.

20. Type of battery: ALKALINE. ALL you want to know.

21. Coherent: LUCID.

25. Chicago Outfit gangster: CAPONE. Not called the mob nor the mafia in Chicago - just the "Outfit."

27. One for the road: SIGN. Cute clue.

28. Be flexible: ADAPT.

29. Saves up: SETS ASIDE. The way we were taught to save.

34. Hot __: MIC. Another name for a microphone that is turned on, in particular, one that amplifies or broadcasts a spoken remark that is intended to be private.

36. Wooden shoe sailor: NOD. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night. Sailed off in a wooden shoe,— Sailed on a river of crystal light. Into a sea of dew. By Eugene Field.

37. Create opportunities: OPEN DOORS.

40. First owner of the expansion Los Angeles Angels: AUTRY.
Gene Autry was a singing cowboy who became a movie star and rich enough to be awarded the expansion baseball franchise. This time of year his Christmas contribution - he was the first to record Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane), and Frosty the Snowman. Additionally, he co-wrote Here Comes Santa Claus.

42. Travel prefix with méxico and perú: AERO. National airlines.

43. Monks' homes: ABBEYS.

49. Spring time: APRIL. Notice that it is two words.

50. Support: UNDERPIN. That is where the pins go when Boomer and TTP bowl.

53. Makeshift blade: SHIV. Thank you to the gypsy population, this is from chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger") from 1915.

56. Group of online pages: SITE. What a perfect description of so many sites.

57. Of past times: OLDEN.

58. Garage sale term: AS IS.

60. Greet with howls, as the moon: BAY AT. Or is it bays at?

61. Restaurant menu heading: REDS. Whites, or rosés?

Down:

1. Showgirl of song: LOLA. It is actually a very sad SONG.

2. Worshipped object: IDOL. Originally from Latin idolum ‘image, form.’  Hence the Hebrew law against worshipping graven images.

3. Modern capacity measure: DISK SPACE. Alternatively referred to as disk space, disk storage, or storage capacity, disk capacity is the maximum amount of data a disc, disk, or drive is capable of holding. Disk capacity is displayed in MB (megabytes), GB (gigabytes), or TB (terabytes). All types of media capable of storing information have a disk capacity, including a CD, DVD, floppy disk, hard drive, memory stick/card, and USB thumb drive.

4. Put on, as a high shelf: SET ATOP.

5. Bad intentions: MALICE.

6. Street organ feature: CRANK. Monkey not included. See 47D.

7. "Oliver Twist" food: GRUEL.

8. Warning service co-coordinated by FEMA: EAS. The Emergency Alert System is used by alerting authorities to send warnings via broadcast, cable, satellite and wireline communications pathways.

9. Part of a needle: EYE.

10. Investment gains: RETURNS.

11. Old calculators: ABACI.

12. Like guilt-trippers, say: TOXIC. There are so many KINDS.

13. Nasty: SNIDE. My favorite.

18. He played Dirty Harry: CLINT. Unlike John Wayne or other famous western stars, his real name is CLINT EASTWOOD, Jr.

21. Women's links gp.: LPGA. Ladies Professional Golf Association.

23. __ Park, Colorado: ESTES. A very small town at the base of Rocky Mountain Park Northwest of Denver. A gimme since my son moved to Denver. I went there for a moment.

24. Actuary's specialty: RISK.

25. Army gear, briefly: CAMO. Camouflage
 is the use of any combination of materials,
 coloration, or illumination for concealment,
either by making animals or objects hard to
see (crypsis), or by disguising them as something else (mimesis).

26. Take __: swim: A DIP.

29. Pass out: SWOON.

30. Always, to a poet: E'ER.

31. Put between: INTERPOSE.

32. "Finding __": 2016 sequel: DORY. A blue tang from the earlier Finding Nemo.

33. Dreyer's, east of the Rockies: EDYS. I scream you scream...

35. Loughlin of "Full House": LORI. Perhaps in bad taste, while she remains at the center of the College Admissions Scandal.

38. Indigenes: NATIVES. Indigenous people.

39. Lenovo rival: DELL. More computer talk.

40. Egyptian president __ Fattah el-Sisi: ABDEL.
This MILITARY MAN who is only 5'5" tall.

41. Ride available via mobile app: UBER CAR. I have never heard anyone use this term...just UBER.

43. Passionate: ARDENT.

44. Bartolo in "The Barber of Seville," e.g.: BASSO.

45. Ladybug's lunch: APHID.

46. Overdone: TRITE.

47. Half a stringed instrument: GURDY. Hurdy Gurdy.

48. Southend-__: ON-SEA. Southend-on-Sea is a resort town on the Thames Estuary in Essex, southeast England.

51. "Already taken care of": I DID.

52. Fabled loch: NESS. Do you like this clue better than Eliot?

54. Flash __: MOB.

55. Old ending for "Motor": OLA. We still have a factory here.

What a way to begin a new year, a new decade (?) 1-10, or 10-19?
Welcome, Kevin and welcome back for another year all. Lemonade out. Thank you, fellow bloggers, for all of your help and another year of work.

In the "it's a small world" I was speaking with my son, Aaron and he told me he had made dinner, and sent a picture because it was a Thai/Lao dish he had learned to cook when he worked in a Thai restaurant while in college (long before I met Oo)

It is called Laab (Larb) Gai. I had never heard of it. Then tonight on the great American baking show one of the semifinalists was making some Larb filled pastries. Recipe

Thursday, January 2nd 2020 Derek Bowman

Theme: Sewing class - the theme entries all refer to the reveal answer later in the puzzle:

17A. One who leaves garments 50-Across: SEAMSTRESS. Probably a little old-fashioned now; I'd probably use "tailor" to describe needle-wielding men or women.

25A. One who leaves audiences 50-Across: STAND-UP COMIC. I worked with a guy once who was an IT consultant and had a stand-up comedy act riffing on  .... IT consulting. It didn't strike me as something that would exactly leave you rolling in the aisles.

38A. One who leaves patients 50-Across: BRAIN SURGEON. Very, very small ones, I hope.

and the unifier ...

50A. See 17-, 25- and 38-Across: IN STITCHES

A high-quality puzzle from Derek for the second day of the New Year. There's some real sparkle in the fill and some very elegant construction with the stacked 9's and 8's in the downs in the northeast and southwest. Nary a clunker to be seen, there's plainly a lot of effort that's gone into this one. A lot of the markers for this puzzle are more "Saturday-like" - average word length, number of blocks, those kind of things.

Let's see what else jumps out:

Across:

1. Common email attachments: PDFS

5. Fired (up): AMPED

10. Tablet with Siri: IPAD

14. Singer between Melanie and Joan at Woodstock: ARLO. Arlo Guthrie appeared between Melanie and Joan Baez's sets at the 1969 festival at Yasgur's Farm, which was actually nowhere near Woodstock being a good 60 miles away.

15. Drag one's feet: TARRY

16. Prepared-salad seller: DELI

19. www addresses: URLS

20. Feel compassion for, with "on": TAKE PITY

21. Some are imperfect: TENSES

23. "Louisiana Real & Rustic" chef: EMERIL. One of his first cookbooks, published in 1996. Lagasse and his mentor, Paul Prudhomme were responsible for the creation and development of what was described as "New New Orleans" cuisine.

24. Plot: CONNIVE

28. "It's all false!": LIES!

30. Chilling: EERIE

31. Yoga surface: MAT

32. Kid around: JEST

33. Formerly employed by The Company: EX-CIA. I think this might have been my favorite clue of the day.

34. Campsite bunks: COTS

35. Longship propeller: OAR. Hopefully more than one.

36. Playwright Chekhov: ANTON

37. Cold Stone buy: CONE. The Cold Stone Creamery ice-cream parlor franchise, not without its critics in the franchise world.

41. Approach stealthily, with "on": SNEAK UP

42. Can't-miss: NO-LOSE

46. San Diego County racetrack: DEL MAR. "Where the surf meets the turf". It certainly is a lovely spot, but I think Santa Anita, with its backdrop of the San Gabriel mountains is prettier.

47. Violent storms: TEMPESTS

“Full fathom five thy father lies;

Of his bones are coral made;

Those are pearls that were his eyes:

Nothing of him that doth fade,

But doth suffer a sea-change

Into something rich and strange.

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell: Ding-dong

Hark! now I hear them,—Ding-dong, bell.”

- William Shakespeare, The Tempest

49. Point after deuce: AD IN. Advantage to the server in tennis. I didn't know this before crosswords taught me.

52. He reveals the Wizard: TOTO

53. Bite like a puppy: NIP AT

54. Air filter acronym: HEPA or High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance, which his something of a mouthful. This fixed my "CON LECCE" mistake at 34D. Not quite sure what I was thinking there.

55. Several: A FEW

56. Full of hot air: GASSY

57. "Not so fast!": EASY!

Down:

1. Tomato __: PASTE. Had PURÉE first. Was wrong.

2. Fantasize: DREAM

3. Raisin bran tidbit: FLAKE

4. Bath's county: SOMERSET. You can't bathe in the baths in Bath, sadly. They say the water quality is not safe as it's untreated. Didn't seem to do the Romans any harm though.

5. Number one Hun: ATTILA. I don't think I could name another Hun if my life depended on it.

6. Convenience store: MART

7. Salmon, to bears: PREY

8. Ambulance destinations, briefly: E.R.'S

9. "The Hunger Games" setting: DYSTOPIA. A great word, but I'm not sure I'd use it to describe the "setting" for the Hunger Games movies. I'd say the setting was the locale, which may have been dystopian. Minor niggle.

10. "Search me": I DUNNO

11. Orangey fruit: PERSIMMON. The wood of the tree was used to make golf clubs back when woods were made of wood. Would Woods' woods be wood? Tiger should tell us.

12. Make easier to bear: ALLEVIATE

13. Studies in detail: DISSECTS

18. Rods for roasting: SPITS

22. Suffix with persist: -ENCE. Least favorite of the day, but sometimes you need a crutch.

24. Smokehouse process: CURING

26. On deck: NEXT UP. Baseball.

27. House Beautiful subject: DECOR

28. Got word about: LEARNED OF

29. Biblical descendant of Jacob: ISRAELITE. And a great excuse to listen to some ska courtesy of Desmond Decker and The Aces.

32. Employment statistics: JOBS DATA

33. Not leaving to chance: ENSURING

34. How café is often served: CON LECHE. Usually espresso and scalded milk mixed 50/50.

36. "My Way" lyricist: ANKA

37. Appropriate: CO-OPT. Later-in-the-week example of cluing. Are we looking for the verb or the adjective?

39. Grumpy response to "Are you awake?": I AM NOW

40. Bad blood: ENMITY

43. Actor Milo: O'SHEA

44. Pedometer count: STEPS

45. Long exam answer: ESSAY

47. Baking amts.: TSPS

48. Greek vowels: ETAS

51. Long of "Third Watch": NIA. A very useful name for crosswords. There were only four three-letter entries today, as I mentioned at the top of the blog word lengths tend to get longer as you progress through the week.

And that wraps things up for this Thursday. I hope you all had a good New Year, onwards to 2020!

Steve