Saturday, May 15, 2021, David P. Williams

 Themeless Saturday by David P. Williams 

I had a very nice time solving Dave's initial puzzle. It seems incredible that his first puzzle is a themeless Saturday effort. Linking EEPHUS PITCH and AS ALL GET OUT seemed a natural as you'll see. Here's a nice note from Dave:

Hi Gary, 

A brief note below, if you wish to use it.

Thanks,

Dave

Since this is my first-ever published puzzle, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pluck the low-hanging fruit and say: “Hello, (Cross)World!” 

I’m grateful to Rich for giving me a shot and also for greatly improving the puzzle with his editing. Any remaining deficiencies are solely on me. I hope the puzzle brightened your day, but if you wish to fulminate, lightning can be directed to semiwild.lava@gmail.com .

It's also National Chocolate Chip Day! So get out some milk and do some dunking along while celebrating Dave's first foray into crossword construction. 

Across:

1. Exchange with, in sports: TRADE TO - The Colts had to TRADE John Elway TO Denver because he refused to play for them when he graduated from Stanford

8. Changing environment: CABANA - The first of some really "out there" cluing that makes for real challenges. No ecology here, just somewhere to change into or out of your swim suit.

14. "Hang on!": WAIT A SEC.

15. Conceived: IMAGED and 4. Bold type: DARER - Rank up there with HUGER for clanking off my ear

16. Sent abroad: EXPORTED - This company in my hometown has EXPORTED tons of specialty meat to Japan in the last 23 years

17. Source of biblical medicine: GILEAD - Here ya go

18. Inadvertently test an audience's tolerance levels: DRONE ON - Our pastor did DRONE ON for 20 minutes when the 100 kids were confirmed two weeks ago. 

19. Color in four-color printing: MAGENTA - Shaquille O'Neal is pitching bottles of ink to refill your printer cartridge. Can you see the MAGENTA bottle in his hand?

20. What suspects may be charged with: TASERS - More funky cluing!

21. Mysterious glow: AURA.

22. What blue may mean, briefly: DEM - From the 1960 election  

23. Giant Mel et al.: OTTS - On the list of famous OTTS he is #1 and the only one I recognize

24. Stained glass setting: APSE.

25. Excoriates: TARS - Synonyms for excoriate and none of them are TAR but I see David's intention 

26. High-arcing toss first attributed to Rip Sewell: EEPHUS PITCH - Gotta love this! It's from the Hebrew word "efe" which means nothing. That batter will be as mad 32. "... like you wouldn't believe!": AS ALL GET OUT.

30. Water music?: SEA SHANTIES - What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor comes to my mind. How about doing a chorus Spitz?

34. Shelter sound: BARK.

37. Liq. measures: GALS - 20miles/GAL is approximately 8.5kilometers/L

38. Foam footwear: CROC - Popular footwear at MIL's Alzheimer's facility 

40. Former Bolivian president Morales: EVO - A turbulent presidency

41. Towel designation: HERS - HERS and OURS

42. Horn home: AFRICA - Another "it must be Saturday" clue 😊 It's easy to see how this name was 46. Figured out: GLEANED.

44. Ones moving to the right: NEOCONS.

47. Completely: IN TOTO - My first fill was ENTIREly wrong

48. Elaborate story, perhaps: TALL TALE - Nebraska cabbages

49. Esophagus: GULLET - You didn't put THROAT first like I did?

50. Bar barrier: AGE LIMIT.

51. Ride: NEEDLE - Kid, tease, nag, harass...

52. Cure-all: PANACEA - Good fer what ails ya! Prof. Pratt's meds probably contained alcohol, cocaine and/or opium

Down:

1. Amount often tied to income: TAX RATE.

2. Some wisecracks: RIPOSTES - I'll bet you know the insult that preceded this RIPOSTE. *Answer below

3. Enjoying prime time: AT ONE'S PEAK

5. These, in Cádiz: ESTOS - If Kramer said his line in Spanish, it would be "ESTOS pretzels me están dando sed"

6. MTV's "__ Wolf": TEEN - A TV version of this Michael J. Fox movie

7. Monk's condition, on the TV show: OCD.

8. Smoke: CIGARETTE - It's great that I rarely see any of these today

9. Friendly-sounding old Commodore computer: AMIGA.

10. Christian in films: BALE - An impressive IMDB

11. It may be hidden: AGENDA - "Gee, look at this lovely wooden horse the Greeks have brought us!"

12. More pinlike?: NEATER - More Saturday cluing as in "Neat as a pin"

13. Iconic New Yorker cartoonist Charles: ADDAMS - Of the TV show inspired by his ADDAMS Family cartoon series that started in 1938 he said, "I'm up and down about the show. They are only half as evil as my characters."

14. Linked by custom with: WED TO - Chas ADDAMS said he used the slinky woman he was WED TO as a model for Morticia 

19. Ruminations: MUSINGS - I post my ruminations everyday!

21. Floors: APPALLS.

24. Squared stones: ASHLARS - I've seen them, admired them and even laid them but never knew what they were called.

25. Divine type of rule: THEOCRATIC - Vatican City is too small to show up on the map. Clickable map of countries with THEOCRATIC rule

27. Enjoys: HAS.

28. Dictionary detail: USAGE NOTE.

29. Op. __: CIT - Op CIT or Ibid:

1. Michael Legge, Precious Little (New York: Pod Books, 2015), p. 198.s
2. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
3. Legge, op. cit., p. 102.

OR

1. Danielle Ward, Any Questions? (London: DTRT Publishing, 2017), p. 30.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid., p. 39-41.

31. Country whose official language is Dutch: SURINAME - Another artifact of colonialism

33. Song whose second line is "And I will pledge with mine": TO CELIA - First, I learn landscaping blocks are called ASHLARS and now I find out "Drink To Me Only With Thine Eyes" is actually is a line from a 17th century poem by Ben Johnson called TO CELIA.

34. Favorable: BENIGN - I would love to be in a more BENIGN climate in the winter

35. One way to go: AVENUE.

36. Dig with a snout: ROOTLE - And the learning keeps on coming. 

39. Space __: CADET.

41. Flamingo, for one: HOTEL - Look carefully to see who was headlining there when this picture was taken

42. Three-time Emmy-winning choreographer Debbie: ALLEN - She also played a very forceful character on Grey's Anatomy

43. Guy: FELLA.

45. Not making any baskets, say: COLD - or not making any putts! Somedays the ball just will not go where you want it.

46. Lady of song: GAGA - Seen here as both a common and proper noun

48. When repeated, sound of impatience: TAP.

*Insult: Bessie Braddock M.P., "You sir are drunk". RIPOSTE: Winston Churchill "You, my dear, are ugly but I shall be sober in the morning!"

Friday, May 14, 2021, Kevin Christian and Bruce Haight

Theme: How to avoid a lot of 3-letter fill in a crossword puzzle? Use them in the entries!!!!"

Looks like we have an "all-star" collaboration today, as Kevin Christian and Bruce Haight - two renowned crossword constructors - joined forces to create a clever puzzle that features four commonly used crossword "exclamations", each of which is a 3-letter word. All four of the entries are "clechos", and if your printed puzzle did not provide the circles, it may have been more difficult to "get". And while there is no "symmetry" in the placement of the circled "reveal" in each phrase, I think that finding four phrases such as these is quite unique.

As the entries tell us:

16-Across. Exclamation clued by its circled letters: AINT GONNA HAPPEN, "NAH"!

27-Across. Exclamation clued by its circled letters: HOLD EVERY THING, "HEY"!

So, as an aside, I was losing "steam" when I finally solved the puzzle, and of course, thought of this when I saw the answers to 16-A and 27-A:

47-Across. Exclamation clued by its circled letters: LOOK WHAT I FOUND, "OHO"!

And if Kevin and Bruce left out one of the "O's" in LOOK, I could've inserted this:

57-Across. Exclamation clued by its circled letters: THAT HITS THE SPOT, "AHH"!

Could this image be better captioned as "AWW, THAT HITS THE SPOT?!"

Across:
1. Captain Kirk's home state: IOWA. I guess if you're a "Trekkie" you know this: Riverside, IOWA is where James Tiberius Kirk was born, on March 22, 2233. It was there he was raised by his parents, George and Winona Kirk

5. Court case determination: FACT. I'm guessing that Sgt Joe Friday was stating this, just in case it went to court

9. Rudiments: ABC'S. "Rudiments" = "basics", of which learning the "ABC's" are

13. Old-fashioned way to settle a dispute: DUEL. Most famous one, I guess, was Burr v Hamilton

14. Mila of "Bad Moms": KUNIS. Milena Markovna KUNIS is an American actress and producer, originally from the Ukraine. Married actor Ashton Kutcher in 2015; they have two children

15. Unhappy look: MOUE. Might you say that Moe has a MOUE?

19. __ the line: TOES. Obeys. Of course I used the past tense first, TOED

20. Tag sale reminder: AS IS. Is it "tag sale", "yard sale", or "garage sale"? Depends where you're from. I remember "tag sale" being the phrase when I lived in New England ...

21. Certain sib: SIS. "BRO" also fits

22. Monte Carlo attractions: CASINOS. Monte Carlo is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo CASINO is located. Wikipedia. There are 4 of them

25. Nutty confection: PRALINE. PRALINE is a form of confection containing at a minimum culinary nuts, usually almonds and hazelnuts, and sugar; cream is a common third ingredient. More Wikipedia

29. Game with Reverse cards: UNO. Plays a lot like "Crazy Eights"

30. Amos who covered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit": TORI. Nirvana is the band that originally recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in 1991. TORI Amos "covered" (meaning that she, too recorded this song - with permission, of course) a year later. Kurt Cobain is credited with the lyrics; Nirvana with the music. Here is TORI's version:

31. Singer whose "Breathe Me" was part of the "Six Feet Under" series finale: SIA. "Breathe Me" and its remixes have been featured in many TV shows and movie soundtracks, most notably "Everyone's Waiting", the series finale of the HBO drama series Six Feet Under. Wikipedia. SIA is: Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, born 18 December 1975, and is from Adelaide, South Australia

32. Litter peeps: MEWS. MEWS, MEOW, MEWL are used to describe sounds made by cats/kittens

34. Campy wrap: BOA.

36. Cougar maker, for short: MERC. I got this one straight away. MERC - short for MERCury (a division of Ford Motors) - was the maker of the Cougar; a luxury sports car

40. Chicken general: TSO. Moe-ku:

I ordered Chinese;
Forgot the name of the dish.
You know, TSO and TSO

43. Normandy beach: JUNO. Did you know this was JUNO and not ST LO??

46. Me. neighbor: QUE. Is this a nitpick on my part? I did get the answer (QUE, as in short for QUEbec) but somehow wanted the clue to be ME instead of Me.

51. Wayne Manor feature: BATPOLE. I had BAT CAVE at first. "To the BATPOLES"

52. Out together: ON A DATE. Another one that filled itself in quite quickly; the expression "out ON A DATE" usually means being together

53. QB stat: ATT. Abbr for ATTempt, as in a QuarterBacks passing statistic

54. Go out with a bang: SLAM.

56. Neutrogena shampoo brand: T-GEL. What's in T-GEL you ask? Water, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Polysorbate 20, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Bishydroxyethyl Dihydroxypropyl Stearammonium Chloride, Fragrance, Cocamide MEA, PEG-120 Methyl Glucose Dioleate, DMDM Hydantoin, Tetrasodium EDTA, Sodium Hydroxide, Citric Acid, Sodium Chloride, Triethanolamine.

Yeah, I want to put THAT on my head

62. Cut down: HEWN. The past participle of "HEW"

63. Some Sunnis: KURDS. SUNNI: the larger of the two main branches of Islam, which differs from Shia in its understanding of the Sunna, its conception of religious leadership, and its acceptance of the first three caliphs. KURDS are an ethnic group of Muslims native to Kurdistan, a mountainous region of Western Asia. About 98% of KURDS are Sunni, according to Wikipedia

64. Wedding dress option: SARI. I wonder if iPhone assistant Siri would wear one to her wedding?

65. Part of Q.E.D.: ERAT. Old school clue and answer. I smell ERAT ...

66. "House" actor: EPPS. As in Omar EPPS. He is most widely recognized for his work as Dr. Eric Foreman on the hit series, "House, M.D."

67. They have it when things pass: AYES. Cute clue. "The AYES have it!"

Down:
1. Civil rights pioneer __ B. Wells: IDA. Was born during the Civil War; was a founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). A whole lot more can be found here

2. All-vowel avowal: OUI. Very clever clue. I never even thought of the French word for "yes" but it certainly fits

3. Didn't rush things: WENT SLOW. For our resident grammarians: is this OK or should it be WENT SLOWLY?

4. Mint in a tin: ALTOID. I know they still sell these, but it's been since forever that a tin of these candy breath mints found its way into Moe's shopping cart

5. Party goal: FUN. Well, it was FUN up until her Daddy took the T-Bird away

6. Chlumsky of "Veep": ANNA. Anna Maria Chlumsky is an American actress. She co-starred on the HBO series "Veep", playing the role of Chief of Staff Amy Brookheimer

7. Govt. agent: CIA SPY. This answer seems like a "made up" phrase to me, but it fits

8. Gift shop stock: T-SHIRTS. I often wondered, what does a T-SHIRT really cost?

9. Jack (up): AMP. Seems to me that T-SHIRT prices are jacked up, but that's another definition. Here is our Thesaurussaurus's take:

OOPS! AMP didn't make the list . . .

10. Visits suddenly: BOPS IN. This brings back memories of my youth. We used the term "BOP IN" more informally than this clue suggests, but I'll be damned if I could find the origin of this expression via Google search. Best definition I found to suggest the clue is: BOP (verb) "move or travel energetically", as in "we've been bopping around the Mall all morning"

11. Prompting: CUEING. I put CLUING in at first; but CUEING is a term used in theater when an actor knows when to speak their lines

12. Gut feeling: SENSE. "Indigestion" wouldn't fit

14. Pristina's country: KOSOVO. Learning moment for those who are geographically challenged? Pristina is the capital of KOSOVO and the seat of the eponymous municipality and district. Here is a map, courtesy of Google:

17. "The Maids" playwright Jean: GENET. I had no clue; all perps. This puzzle was full of PPP

18. Japanese beer brand: ASAHI. I've drank it before; not bad

22. Pal: CHUM. The word CHUM has several different meanings

23. Top-notch: A-ONE. But is this a Top-Notch sauce?

24. 14-Down native: SERB. 14-Down = KOSOVO. Hmm. This is what I found on Google: "KOSOVO is a mainly ethnic Albanian territory that was formerly a province in SERBia. It declared independence in 2008. SERBia has refused to recognize Kosovo's statehood and still considers it part of SERBia, even though it has no formal control there. ... The dispute over Kosovo is centuries-old"

26. Actor Hemsworth: LIAM. Luke also fit, but not Chris

28. Spanish wine: RIOJA. How geeky would you like Moe to be today regarding wine? So, RIOJA is a name for a wine region of N Spain; not too far from Pamplona. The primary grape grown there is Tempranillo, although Grenache (Garnacha) and Carignan are also harvested, as well as a couple other red and white grape varietals, but to a lesser degree. There are many laws that govern the producers of wines in RIOJA, but I will save that for another time

33. "Enough!": STOP! That's an exclamation, too!

35. Start to focus?: AUTO. A feature of many cameras

37. Workplace concern: EQUAL PAY. EQUAL PAY deserves a one-word comment: "yes"

38. Littlest in the litter: RUNT. Isn't THIS the truth?!

39. Give away: CEDE. This is quickly becoming a staple word for crossword fill

41. Smidgen: SKOSH. OTOH, SKOSH is not

42. Solemn and wise, supposedly: OWL LIKE. This guy, perhaps?

44. Often critical innings: NINTHS. As in the NINTH inning in baseball; a classic

45. Adult: OF AGE. 18 or 21? Thoughts?

47. Agitated state: LATHER.

48. River to the St. Lawrence: OTTAWA. And the nation's capital city. A CSO to Canadian, Eh!

49. Intensify: HEAT UP. It is starting to itensify, temperture-wise here in TVOTS

50. Ukrainian city: ODESSA. A port city on the Black Sea

51. Immerse (in): BATHE. Literal: wash by immersing one's body in water

55. Car ad fig.: MSRP. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price

58. Demo letters: TNT. Tri Nitro Toluene; as in short for "demolition"

59. QB stats: TDS. Clecho. TouchDowns, via the pass. Peyton Manning holds the record for a single season with 55 TDS; 2013 with the Denver Broncos

60. Miner concern: ORE. Nice play-on-words. Not "minor" concern, but "miner", as in someone who works in a mine

61. "__ the season ... ": TIS. to be jolly, FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA

And with that, the grid:

Moe has left the building . . .

Thursday, May 13, 2021 Steve Mossberg

naral

Woodin' you know it that our constructor Steve Mossberg has gifted us today with a small forest of trees bracketing four themers:

18. Words of deferential obedience: AS YOU WISH.  Whatever. The tree in this clue is the ASH,  popular for creating the baseball bats known as Louisville Sluggers.  Our neighborhood was planted with these beautiful trees along the road when it was founded back in the early 20th century.  We had one in our front yard, but sadly they were all felled by a lowly insect called the Emerald Ash Borer.  These images don't begin to capture the beauty and grandeur of these trees:

24. Trendy coffee additive: OAT MILK.  The OAK.  Another magnificent tree, but hardier than the Ash.  There are many varieties of OAK: E.g. WHITE, RED, BLACK, CHESTNUT, and PIN.  The tree in the lower left is a WHITE OAK and I'm pretty certain it is the WYE OAK that stood on Maryland's Eastern Shore for over 400 years.  It was the largest White Oak tree in the United States and the State Tree of Maryland from 1941 until its demise in 2002.  My first visit to the Wye Oak was on the day it was destroyed by a storm.  It was splayed all over the town.

31. It helps achieve a crispier pie crust: PIZZA STONE.  Not a mineral I'm familiar with.  But I am familiar with the PINE.  Unlike the previous deciduous trees, PINES are conifers.  The former drop their leaves in the Fall and the latter drop them continuously, but in much smaller quantities.  One of the keys to identifying conifers is the number of needles in each sprig.

39. One way to find a website: BING SEARCH.  Bing is Microsoft's search engine.  While BIRCHES generally prefer Northern climates, the PAPER BARK BIRCH seems to do well in Maryland.  Not only do they shed their leaves in the Fall but their catkins in the Spring.  And their bark slowly sheds off in large sheets year round, hence their name.  Here's one planted years ago, just outside our garden:

And the reveal bundles them all back together:

54. Do a campground chore, and a hint to the circled letters: SPLIT WOOD.  They say that chopping wood warms you twice: first when you're splitting it and then when you're burning it.

 Across:

1. Core-strengthening exercise: PLANK.  This type of plank (as opposed to a piece of WOOD) is an exercise: "a push up that you hold it until you say 'uncle'".  A CSO to our unclefred!

6. Longtime Manhattan punk rock venue: CBGB.  Stands for Country BlueGrass Blues, but  a funny thing happened on the way to the founding of this club. It became so famous they had to make a movie about it, starring Alan Rickman and Malin Åkerman.  The movie was RATED R (not sure about the trailer):

10. Uno más de siete: OCHO.  "One more than 7".  Lección de español de hoy.  A CSO to Lucina, a DIEZ in my book!

14. Some area factors: RADII.   The areas of circles and ellipses.  Make no bones about it.

15. Warning from a king: ROAR.  You generally only encounter this royalty on Safaris.

16. "The Daily Show" host Trevor __: NOAH.  I've never seen this show as it comes on after my bedtime.  The original NOAH was STREAM-ABLE.  Why should TREVOR be any different?

17. Medicine cabinet brand: ORAL B.  Tooth paste or floss.  I prefer REACH FLOSSERS.  Despite the excessive size of my mouth, my hands are even bigger.

20. Super Bowl award: MVP.  I thought it was going to be this one:
 

Vince Lombardi Trophy

21. Outlaws: BANS. 

23. Runs across: SPANS.  Like the trees across today's themers.

26. Poetically huge: ENORM.  Like Beowulf's GRENDEL maybe.  Grendel's the one on the right.

27. Bodega cash source: ATM.  The three letters and "cash" were a dead give away.  A bodega is a small corner store or market that sells groceries and wine. Many bodegas are located in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods of large cities.  The word bodega means "wine shop" in Spanish, and it shares a root with the French boutique, and the Greek apotheke, or "store."  Whatever they're origin, they're not charities.

28. Jazz classic, say: STANDARD.  Here's God Bless the Child sung by Billie Holiday, who was born in Philadelphia and lived for a time in the Sandtown neighborhood in West Baltimore:

34. Dude: GUY.

35. Tunneling critter: MOLE.

36. Singer/songwriter Janis: IAN.  Society's Child, another classic

37. Nosh: BITE.

38. Silent communication syst.: ASL.  American Sign Language.  We have a signer at Mass and it amazes me that she can listen to the priest behind her and interpret for the deaf people in front of her at the same time.  And she's the only lay person I know who says ALL of the words in the Mass.

43. Wrangler relative: CHEROKEE.

45. Customizable Nintendo avatar: MII.  A Mii (/miː/ MEE) is a customizable avatar used on several Nintendo video game consoles and mobile apps. On the 3DS and Wii U, user accounts are associated with a Mii as their avatar and used as the basis of the systems' social networking features, most prominently the now-defunct Miiverse.  Sounds like it was all about Mii.
 

46. Hired muscle: GOONS.  Unfortunately an enduring feature of modern life.

47. Pyromaniac: FIREBUG.  Enough with the crazies.  I recall that Johns Hopkins University was doing research on FIREFLIES when we were kids and they would actually pay us small sums of money to collect them in Mason Jars.  Here is everything you ever wanted to know about these amazing creatures.

51. Shot banned in some pool halls: MASSE.    Masse shots have a greater potential to damage the cloth on the pool table. If an establishment doesn't allow those shots it's probably because most of the players in an average pool room aren't of high enough caliber to execute them.  This one's for all you pool sharks out there:

52. Tree hangers, at times: HATS. Clever clue. Wanted BATS, but perps told me Lucina wouldn't hear of it.  A HOLA to Lucina!

53. Jewelry company Alex and __: ANI.

56. Photo-sharing app, familiarly: INSTA.

58. "Stop right there!": HALT.

59. Not doing much: IDLE.

60. Replace a dancer, perhaps: CUT IN.  Another cute clue.

61. DaCosta of "Chicago Med": YAYA.  For all you "Chicago Med" fans.

62. Oolong and Pu'er: TEAS.  I've had Oolong tea before, but Pu'er was new to me.  Here's the scoop.

63. Prepared to be knighted: KNELT.  A Knight's female equivalent is a Dame.  The youngest person to receive a Damehood in modern times was the sailor Dame Ellen MacArthur, who was 28 when she was honoured. Tennis player Andy Murray is the UK's youngest knight after he received a knighthood in 2016 at the age of 29.   The names of honorees are preceded by either Dame or Sir and they can also use DBE and KBE after their names, the "BE" being the anachronistic "BRITISH EMPIRE".

Down:

1. BOGO, say: PROMO. Hey, they rhyme!

2. Early insect form: LARVA. Trillions of Brood X Cicadas are way beyond the LARVA stage and may be upon us as you are reading this.  "Seventeen Year Locusts" are a real force of nature and by my calculations this will be my fourth CICADA EXPERIENCE.  They are harmless, but their high pitched singing for perspective mates, multiplied by millions per acre, is so deafening night and day, that I've purchased contractor ear muffs so that DW and I can hear ourselves think while we work in the garden.  Aren't they cute 😊:

3. Change as needed: ADAPT.  We're gonna' have to ADAPT to these critters for about a month.

4. Soccer score word: NIL.

5. Spectate intrusively: Var.: KIBBITZ.

6. Turn (up), as volume: CRANK.  Oops!
 

7. Meeting caller: BOSS.

8. "Hunger" memoirist Roxane __: GAY.

9. Bond before Craig: BROSNAN.  Pierce Brosnan OBE is an Irish actor, film producer and environmental activist. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 and portraying the character in multiple video games. The first actor was of course was Sir Sean Connery KBE, who died last year.

10. "Let's keep going!": ONWARD.

11. Cousin of card tricks: COIN MAGIC.  There are copious coin trick videos out there, but we only have time for one:

12. Popular avocado variety: HASS.  One of my favorite fruits and the only one for which I know the Product Lookup Code (#4225).  The name is not a type of avocado, but rather the name of Rudolph Hass, who developed the original cultivar commonly referred to as California Avocados.  Here is everything you want to know about them.

13. Cry with a head slap: OHH.  Nothing to see here.  This is a non-violent Corner.

19. Leading by a bit: UP ONE.  That's all it takes.

22. Michigan city or college: ALMA.  A CSO to JzB!  Everything you want to know about the town of  Alma, Michigan (and I mean EVERYTHING) and its College.

25. Kid's menu diversion: MAZE.  It's amazing the ways you can distract kids.  Youngest grandson is just getting into jigsaw puzzles.

26. Stiff collars: ETONS.  You can order your very own ETON COLLAR here.

28. Put on: STAGE.  Somebody just told me "You ought be on the stage - there's one leaving town in 10 minutes - be on it!"

29. Gehrig teammate: RUTH.  The older of the two, Babe Ruth, was Lou Gehrig's hero:
 

Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth

30. Easter supply: DYE.

31. Suitable for the upper crust: POSH.  See 26D if you wanna' be.

32. Risking a ticket: ILLEGALLY.  Misdemeanors like parking, speeding, jay walking, whatever.

33. Trig ratios: SINES.  Today's math lesson.

35. Bub: MAC. noun.  The OED defines BUB as "An aggressive or rude way of addressing a boy or man".  One of the OED's definitions for MAC is "A form of address for a man whose name is unknown to the speaker."  IMHO you're taking a bit of a risk by being rude to a man you don't know.

37. Baguette spread: BRIE.  Here's a recipe. 

39. Help for a parade-watching tot: BOOST.  Full disclosure.  I do NOT work for President Brie.

40. "You didn't fool me!": I KNEW IT.  You can't be too careful these days.  I always try to get at least 3 independent sources for claims I read in the media.

41. Send forth: EMIT.  In the last decade of the 19th Century  Marie Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henri Becquerel discovered that certain substances EMITTED radioactivity (alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays).  All three were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, Marie being first woman to receive a Nobel Prize.  Pierre died in a Paris street accident in 1906.  In 1911 Marie received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry, this time for her isolation of two radioactive elements,  Polonium (#84), named after her native country Poland, and Radium (#88),  Unaware of the dangers of radioactivity she took no precautions in her lab work.  She later died of aplastic anemia in  July of 1934, believed to have resulted from radiation exposure . 

42. Miserable in mid-flight, perhaps: AIRSICK.  I used to travel quite a bit for work and never developed airsickness.  Seasickness was a different matter.

44. Bilingual Muppet: ROSITA.  Rosita lives on Sesame Street.  Here she is with her puppeteer Carmen Osbahr:

47. Crew cut cousins: FADES.  Whenever I used to get my biannual haircut I'd tell the stylist to cut off as little as possible (so as not hasten the inevitable), but just enough that DW could tell that I got a haircut.  Now that DW is cutting my hair, she just has her way with me.  Here's one example of apparently many FADE styles:

48. Keep moist, in a way: BASTE.

49. Ending at: UNTIL.

50. Top-of-the-beanstalk dweller: GIANT.

51. Film-rating org.: MPAA.  I hope they don't give me any grief for the clip at 6A.

52. 44-Down's "Hi": HOLA.  Lucina gets at least three CSOs today!

54. Unlikely to make the first move: SHY.

55. Linguistic tribute: ODE.  Cwd glue.

57. Vow taker: NUN.  These VOWS usually include chastity, poverty, and obedience (see 18A).  Since nuns appear frequently in crossword puzzles (this past Monday in fact),  and as this is the last clue, I thought I'd close with an article providing little more info on this subject.  I'll just highlight a few things from it.  First a distinction should be made between NUNS and SISTERS, collectively referred to as RELIGIOUS women. NUNS live in monasteries (closed to lay people) and devote most of their days to prayer, meditation and housekeeping.  SISTERS on the other hand "live in the world" and are involved in services to society such as education, healthcare, and social work.  They may live in convents (which lay people may visit under certain circumstances) or they may even live in houses or apartments with other sisters or by themselves.  Another important point the article makes is that women religious are found in many other religions besides Christianity, such as BUDDHISM, JAINISM, and TAOISM.

Here's the grid:
 

waseeley

Cheers,
Bill

Wednesday May 12, 2021 Freddie Cheng

 Theme: Here's That Rainy Day.  And here's today's theme song.

 

Each person in the theme entries notably has the item we need on a rainy day - though, notably, they have it when it's not raining.

19 A. Julie Andrews Oscar-winning role: MARY POPPINS.  A magical English nanny blown in on the East Wind - presumably with the help of her - well, we'll see.

 

26 A. Character who sings "When You Wish Upon a Star": JIMINY CRICKET.  Disney's adaptation of the un-named talking cricket in Carlo Collodi's original story The Adventures of Pinocchio..  In the movie, he is Pinocchio's official conscience.

42 A. Emma Peel's partner on "The Avengers": JOHN STEED.  He has much more to his story than his highly charged association with Mrs. Peel.

So - on to the unifier.  55 A. With "The," Netflix title superhero team ... and a hint to something associated with 19-, 26- and 42-Across: UMBRELLA ACADEMY.  As you have probably gleaned by now, the common characteristic is that each of the theme-noted characters is equipped with an UMBRELLA, with varying degrees of functionality - but always as a fashion accessory.  The UMBRELLA ACADEMY is new to me.  The Netflix series is adapted from a comic book series of the same name, first released in 2007.  You can read more here.

Hi, Gang - JazzBumpa here, hoping to keep your skies clear and your shoes dry.  Let's venture into the weather and see how things go.

Across:

1. Boyfriend: BEAU. A male admirer.

5. Still, briefly: THO.  Truncated "although."

8. Taunt: GIBE. An insult or mocking remark.

12. Chief Norse god: ODIN.

13. Adler in Sherlock Holmes fiction: IRENE.  A former opera singer, and an opponent Holmes admired for her cunning and wit.  Sjho only appears in one story: A Scandal in Bohemia.

15. "I got this, boss": ON IT.

16. __ Khalifa: Dubai structure that's the world's tallest: BURJ.   With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding antenna, but including a 244 m spire[2]) of 828 m (2,717 ft), the Burj Khalifa has been the tallest structure and building in the world since its topping out in 2009.  [Wikipedia]

17. Apple throwaways: CORES.  The central part with the seeds.

18. Bout enders, briefly: TKOs.  Technical Knock Outs.  These occur when a referee or court side physician determines that a boxer is incapable of defending himself or has sustained a serious injury; or for some other reason cannot continue.

22. Crimson Tide nickname: BAMA.  Truncated. Alabama.

23. Hightail it, old-style: HIE.  Go quickly.

24. Caps for Highlanders: TAMS.

29. By oneself: SOLELY.  

30. Garden clippers: SHEARS.

32. "Best in Show" actor Willard: FRED. Frederick Charles Willard Jr. (1933 – 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. 

33. Pack animals: MULES.

37. "Shucks!": DRAT.  Dad burn it!

38. Approved, briefly: OK'D.  Gave the OK to.

39. Part ways: SPLIT UP.  

 

 41. Operative: SPY.  More generally, a skilled worker.  I was not aware of this usage.

44. Luminance: SHEEN.  Characteristic of a bright and shiny surface.

47. Towing org.: AAA.  American Automobile Association.

48. Twiggy abodes: NESTS.  Bird homes.

52. Clothing store department: WOMENS.  Along with MENS and CHILDRENS

54. Justice Gorsuch's predecessor: SCALIA.  Antonine [1936-2016] was appointed to the Supreme Court by Reagan in 1986, and was confirmed by a vote of 98-0.

59. Born, in bios: NEE.  Generally used in wedding announcements to refer to the bride's maiden name.

60. Santa's elves' workplace: TOY SHOP.  At the North pole, of course.

61. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" director Anderson: WES.  Wesley Wales Anderson (b.1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their symmetry, eccentricity and distinctive visual and narrative styles.

62. Dog's warning: GRR.  Growl. 

63. Up-and-down rides: SEE-SAWS.

64. Sign at a hot show: SRO.  Standing Room Only.

Down:

1. Hope with jokes: BOB.  Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American stand-up comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete and author. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 54 feature films with Hope as star, including a series of seven "Road" musical comedy movies with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner. [Wikipedia]

2. School URL letters: EDU.  This is the top level domain name for academic institutions in the U.S.

3. Sent by plane: AIR-MAILED.  Transported with at least one leg of the journey by plane.  This typically is quicker and more costly than surface mail.

4. Removed stuck paper from: UNJAMMED.  As from a printer of copier.

5. Prize on the mantel: TROPHY. A decorative object awarded as a prize for victory or success.

6. Like many a rescue: HEROIC.

7. Sale limit, briefly: ONE PER.  One to a customer

8. Prepared to skinny-dip: GOT NAKED.  NAKED - or merely unclothed, like mother EVE?

9. Fountain pen mishaps: INK SMEARS.  Messy

10. eharmony profile part: BIOgraphy.  

11. Sci-fi beings: ETS. Extra-Terrestials - Visitors from another planet.

13. Bone-chilling: ICY.  Brrrr!

14. Sixth sense: Abbr.: ESP.  Exrta-Sensory Perception.  Presumed knowledge or ability without the use of the normal 5 senses.

20. Amtrak track: RAIL. The continuous line of metal bars upon which a train moves.

21. Something to scratch: ITCH.

22. One-named Icelandic singer: BJORK.  Björk Guðmundsdóttir [b 1965] is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, and DJ. 

25. Watch fastener: STRAP.  Keeps it on your wrist.

27. Female folklore deity: NYMPH.  A mythological spirit of nature imagined as a beautiful maiden inhabiting rivers, woods, or other locations.  Not actually deities, they are personifications of nature, and typically toed to a particular location.

28. Put into circulation, as stamps: ISSUE.  

29. Bay Area airport code: SFO.

31. Messy dorm room, say: STY.  By reference to swine.

34. Arm bone: ULNA.  The thinner and longer of the two bones in the human forearm, on the side opposite to the thumb.

35. __ Cuddy, Dean of Medicine on "House": LISA.  Played by Lisa Edelstein.

36. "At Last" singer James: ETTA.  Jamesetta Hawkins, [1938-2012] known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. 

 

 39. Shakespeare's 150+: SONNETS.  Fourteen line poems of various rhyme schemes.  The last is No. 154. Make of it what you will.

The little Love-god lying once asleep,

Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand,

Whilst many nymphs that vowed chaste life to keep

Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand

The fairest votary took up that fire

Which many legions of true hearts had warmed;

And so the General of hot desire

Was, sleeping, by a virgin hand disarmed.

This brand she quenched in a cool well by,

Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual,

Growing a bath and healthful remedy,

For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall,

   Came there for cure and this by that I prove, 

   Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

40. Ballpoint covers: PENCAPS.  A word you won't encounter every day.   They may prevent 9 D.

42. Boobird's output: JEER.  Rude, mocking remark, generally in a loud voice.

43. Kaput, as a battery: DEAD.  Out of juice, so to speak.

44. Took a cut, in baseball: SWUNG.  With a bat.

45. Baseball dinger: HOMER.  A home run - a batted ball hit beyond the outfield and out of the field of play, in fair territory.

46. Glowing leftover: EMBER.  A small piece of glowing wood or coal in a dying fire.

49. Oodles: SLEWS.  Big bunches.

50. It may set off a beeper: TIMER.  

51. Right to decide: SAY SO.  Just so.

53. Gin fizz flavor: SLOE.  The sloe is an astringent berry fond in English hedge rows.  Sloe gin is made by infusing gin with these berries.  The fizz is made by combining sloe gin with lemon juice, soda water simple syrup and a fruity garnish.

54. Garbage boat: SCOW.  A flat-bottomed boat with scooping sides.

56. Caustic cleanser: LYE.  Sodium hydroxide, and that's the truth!

57. Pack animal: ASS.  An ASS is a donkey.  A MULE [33 A] is the offspring of a male ass and a female horse.

58. "Bingo!": AHA.  Just so!

That wraps up another Wednesday.  Hope yours wasn't rainy.

Cool regards!

JzB