Saturday, April 16, 2022, John Ewbank

 Saturday Themeless by John Ewbank

Today we welcome John Ewbank from "across the pond." John is a technical writer in the U.K. and constructs puzzles as a sideline.  He told me he has been to America and visited Colorado but doesn't know where Nebraska is.  Yes, I did send John a map. 😊 Of course if I did visit Highclere Castle in the county of Hampshire (where a lot of Downton Abbey was filmed), I probably wouldn't realize I was very near the county of Surrey, so there is that. John seems like a very nice person and here are his notes for us:

Hi Gary

            - I’m from the UK and mainly a setter of cryptic crosswords for the Times of London, but got into setting US puzzles during lockdown. This is my first published themeless but I’ve had a couple of themed puzzles published in other papers. A cryptic background isn’t a huge amount of help, but it does make it a bit easier to come up with sneaky clues.

            - I believe I didn’t really have seed entries – I just played around with some stacks until I found something good. Not the recommended way of doing it but I get there in the end!

            - I originally had “Small talk” for GOOGOOGAGA and “Dan’s speciality” for MARTIAL ART, both of which I thought were rather good. Ah well. [Dan is a ranking system in martial arts - hg]

            - I seem to remember that the north east was the toughest, although I’m happy that PIN SETTERS made it in. Not the most exciting entry but it’s a fun clue.

Across:

1. Brew orders: CREAM ALES - What is CREAM ALE?

10. Rest of the day?: NAP - Fun!

13. Baby talk: GOO GOO GA GA.

14. Actress Polo: TERI - I remember seeing her in Meet The Parents

15. "No worries": IT'S ALL GOOD - Substitute Saul for "IT'S ALL" and follow GOOD with Man and you get Jimmy McGill's name when he became a shady lawyer 

16. Actor McGregor who's a UNICEF ambassador: EWAN.

17. Big ask, sometimes: NEED.

18. Criticize: DISS - Slang for disrespect

19. They're minimal in a keto diet: CARBS.

20. Killer __: BEE.

21. Its common tuning is known as "My dog has fleas": UKULELE - My first instrument 

23. Damon and Affleck, often: COSTARS - Matt Damon in front of Ben Affleck in a scene from the fabulous Good Will Hunting

27. "The Big Bang Theory" regular: RAJ - RAJ's reply to Leonard

28. Net judge's call: LET - Tennis serves that touch the net but make it over.

29. Moving pictures?: OP-ART - I'll post just a link because these can be disorienting 

30. Music genre term coined by Nigeria's Fela Kuti: AFRO BEAT

32. Just: MERE.

33. Young partner: ERNST.

35. Put in a hold: LADE - Ironically this shows the hold of a ship being LADED with grain in Odesa, Ukraine

36. Beholden: INDEBTED - In a recent book, Paul McCartney said he and John Lennon were INDEBTED to the Everly Brothers for their influence on Beatles music.

38. Canadian put-down: HOSER - The McKenzie Brothers made Canada proud 

39. "__: Vegas": CSI - Another cog in the CSI TV franchise

40. It might be bitter: END.

41. Post office inquiries: TRACERS - The USPS once lost a three foot long tube that was sent to me and a TRACER turned up nothing

43. Iberian titles: SENORAS - Spain and Portugal make up Iberia 

45. Sound often heard at Cirque du Soleil: OOH - Our Wisconsin constructor Carly Schuna is skilled at these German Wheels

46. LPGA golfer Yani, the youngest to win five majors: TSENG - Why Asian women dominate the LPGA

47. What players sometimes miss: CUES - I was in 1776 when a man missed a CUE and, poof, two pages of my best dialogue got skipped!

49. Big party: FETE.

53. Not for the prudish: RACY 

54. Combat tradition: MARTIAL ART.

56. Format favored by big-shot directors?: IMAX.

57. Church staple: ORGAN MUSIC.

58. Signature piece?: PEN  - This A.T. Cross pen was a favorite of Barack Obama and sells for $110

59. Chucks: DEEP SIXES - Could be from six fathoms when something is thrown overboard or the depth of a common grave.

Down:

1. République de __ d'Ivoire: COTE - Now the the Ivory Coast. Yesterday we had Ghana that used to be The Gold Coast in its colonial past.

2. Symbol of Lancaster or York: ROSE - The War Of The Roses in the 15th century

3. "Yikes!": EGAD.

4. Internet pioneer: AOL.

5. Crumble: MOLDER - An alternate spelling

6. Texas A&M athletes: AGGIES.

7. Only landlocked country in Southeast Asia: LAOS.

8. Tries to find oneself?: EGO SURFS.

9. In need of perking up: SAD.

10. Latest movie, say: NEW RELEASE.

11. Oman's Haitham bin Tariq, e.g.: ARAB LEADER.

12. Ones working after strikes: PIN SETTERS - Before it was done by machines

13. Part of a Bond order: GIN - Why James Bond wants it "Shaken, not stirred"

14. Turquoise kin: TEAL.

19. King work: CUJO.

20. Sonar operator?: BAT - Oh, not a human one

22. Mario __: KART.

23. Regular line in a newspaper: COMIC STRIP - This line has  been a regular for decades

24. Password that's weak by modern standards: OPEN SESAME.

25. Rush hour metaphor: SARDINE CAN.

26. Baobab, for one: TREE - Disney modeled this "Tree Of Life" in the Animal Kingdom park on the African Baobab TREE that can live for over 1,000 years

30. As well as: AND.

31. Group working together: BLOC.

33. Peak also known as Mongibello: ETNA - Ways to clue ETNA

34. It led to the blacklisting of Trumbo and Chaplin: RED SCARE.

37. Notable unsinkable ship sinker: BERG - After hitting the iceBERG, the Titanic radio operators sent out the Marconi distress call of CQD. They then joked, "Well we might as well try this new SOS message because we'll probably never get to use it again!"

A reproduction of Titanic's radio room
for the movie Titanic 

38. "A likely story!": HAH - "The Titanic is unsinkable!"

41. Keep the beat, in a way: TOE TAP - Even at 99-yrs-old my MIL's TOES TAP when I play YouTube polkas for her

42. Bow applications: ROSINS.

44. Banded gemstone: ONYX.

48. Hard-to-resist thing: URGE

49. Continuous movement: FLUX.

50. Little difficulty: EASE.

51. Shailene's "Divergent" role: TRIS - It seems to be de rigueur for these young women to be wielding a firearm 

52. Space-saving letters: ETC.

54. One who might delete a Reddit post, briefly: MODerator

55. "__ to believe ... ": AM I.

Friday, April 15, 2022, Blaire Bas and Bruce Haight

Theme: Silent, Special K

Puzzling thoughts:

Hi folks! C-Moe here, back after a short hiatus due to a run of Jeffrey Wechsler Friday crossword puzzles - which our elucidative blogger Lemonade714 so cleverly recapped. But my vacay is over; and it's back to my usual schtick as I amuse and educate those readers who come here wanting to learn more about today's puzzle.

Bruce Haight - who's no stranger to cruciverbalists - has teamed up with Blaire Bas - once again - to provide us with some Monday merriment. Oh wait? Did someone forget to tell Bruce and Blaire that this is Friday, and the puzzle "kneeded" to be more difficult?? Just kidding, of course, but overall I was "knot" very challenged by either the fill or the clues. But that didn't mean it wasn't enjoyable; it most certainly was!

First off, how many of you recall that Bruce - and his stepdaughter Blaire - debuted as a duo here back on August 5, 2020?? They gave us a "WELL-ROUNDED" quartet of celebrities (LUCILLE BALL, MINNIE PEARL, KEITH MOON, and ALICE MARBLE) that day. As you might also recall, Blaire is Bruce's 22 year old stepdaughter who was sheltering in place and doing online classes at UCSB ("Go Gauchos!") during the early days of the pandemic. She was an all A's student at last report; perhaps she has graduated, and maybe did so "___ cum Laude". Hope that Bruce and Blaire will stop by today and add their comments

The entries:

18-across. More desirable entanglement?: BETTER KNOT. As is the case with all of today's entries, the common thread is the addition of a "silent k" to a word beginning with the letter "N" ... and producing a punny result

23-across. Political upheaval around the castle?: KNIGHT SHIFT. I am guessing this also has something to do with (32-down. Activity with castles: CHESS), as the KNIGHT stands right next to the CASTLE (aka, ROOK)

39-across. Need something warm and fuzzy?: HAVE A KNIT TO PICK. No nits to pick with this puzzle, Bruce and Blaire

52-across. Something small, sad, and a-pealing?: LITTLE KNELL.

61-across. Understood the routine?: KNEW NORMAL.

So if I had to be a betting man, I'd say that Rich wanted to get Bruce and Blaire's collaboration in before he retired as LA Times editor, and that's why this ended up on a Friday. Glad that he did.

Or maybe is it because the letter "k" indicates that something is Kosher, and since today is the beginning of Passover, maybe the extra "K" means that this puzzle is no longer treif??**

Let's explore the rest ...

Across:
1. Autumn bloomers: MUMS. Bloomers as in flowers, not pants

5. Toy similar to a Transformer: GOBOT. My son played with these back in the 1980's

10. Lift for a run: T-BAR. CHAIR wouldn't fit

14. Too many to name, for short: ET AL.

15. Rage: WRATH. I had a HS classmate named Lee Rath. He was always calm and peaceful

16. Westchester college: IONA. Westchester County (New Rochelle, NY) school of higher learning: IONA College. A private Catholic college founded in 1940. Their teams' nickname are the Gaels

17. Con: RUSE. ANTI also fits

20. Last name in diets: CRAIG. As in Jenny CRAIG. When her advice on dieting no longer was successful she started a classified advertising website (CRAIGslist) ... although that last "fact" might be a RUSE

22. Like some ice cream holders: CONOID. A word with which I was not familiar, but it makes perfect sense

26. Club __: MED. Founded in Paris in 1950 as "Club Méditerranée SA", Club MED specializes in "all-inclusive" vacations. Since 2013, Club MED has been owned by the Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group

29. Ireland coat-of-arms image: HARP.

30. "The Raven" woman: LENORE.

32. Sleep on it: COT, while you are doing this: (31-down. Afternoon refresher: NAP.)

35. Ruhr refusals: NEINS. The "Ruhr" is an industrial region in Germany. We often see the city named "ESSEN" used with a "Ruhr" clue

38. French menu preposition: AVEC. Frawnch word meaning "with"

43. When many plan to take off: Abbr.: ETDS. I'm not a big fan of using a plural for abbreviations; except when the puzzle is one that I am submitting!!

44. Lewis with 12 Emmys: SHARI. She was a ventriloquist who hosted a kid's TV show back in the early days of television. Learning moment for sure about the 12 Emmys. I didn't even know that the Emmys were around back then

45. Very foreign gp.?: ETS. Another abbr pl

46. 1862 battle site: SHILOH. The Battle of SHILOH was one of the earlier "major" battles of the Civil War (or The War Between the States, depending on your preference)

49. Advance: LEND. MOVE also fit

51. ID theft target: SSN.

60. Cookie with stripes: SAMOA. Girl Scout cookie

65. Aquatic diver: LOON. CSO to Boomer and CC - the Minnesota state bird

66. "Primal Fear" actor: GERE. Richard GERE

67. Worked around home?: UMPED. I liked this clue. Umpire's "work" around "home plate"

68. Dried-up: ARID.

69. Superior: BOSS.

70. Some old rulers: TSARS.

71. Tourney advantages: BYES.

Down:
1. Pfizer rival: MERCK. Drug manufacturer - MERCK SHARP and DOHME

2. Option for one who's lost: U-TURN. Could be when the driver of the car says: (58-across. "Got me!": NO IDEA.

3. Kenyan native: MASAI. All perps. The MASAI are a nomadic people of East Africa

4. Seasonal transport: SLEIGH. Santa drives one, so I've heard

5. Hudson Riv. crossing: GWB. Short for: "George Washington Bridge" which connects Fort Lee, NJ with NYC (Manhattan)

6. You can dig it: ORE. A little tune for your enjoyment ... "Grazin' in the Grass is a gas, can you dig it"

7. Cookie quantity: BATCH. If one BATCH of Girl Scouts Cookies = one BOX, then their bakery produces about 200 million BATCHes each year, approx

8. 10th-century emperor: OTTO I. This might be referred to as "forced fill", as the name OTTO I is not on the tip of many tongues in everyday conversation. But without accepting it, this puzzle could've had a major roadblock

9. Patriots' org.: THE NFL. Is either Bruce, Blaire, or Rich a New England Patriots fan? Not MY favorite team! I root for the OTHER NFL TEAM with 6 Super Bowl victories

10. __ bar: TIKI. We encountered one of these recently when Margaret and I went to Turf Paradise Race Track in Phoenix; they had a TIKI bar located near the rail

11. Type of film in which seven actors have played the lead: BOND MOVIE. Off the top of my head: Connery, Moore, Lazenby, Craig, Brosnan, Niven, and Dalton. Can anyone guess in which order they fell?

12. Tijuana time span: ANO. Doce meses, and a CSO to Lucinda

13. Double-crosser: RAT.

19. __ learning: ROTE. Any football fans recognize this former SMU and NYG player??

21. The Gold Coast, now: GHANA. This Gold Coast; not THIS Gold Coast

24. It's quite a slog: TREK. A CSO to our own Picard; this board's biggest TREKkie

25. Short rides: SPINS. Does anyone say "let's take a SPIN" these days?

27. Standing: ERECT. Adjective form; a verb form clue might read: "Construct"

28. Flattens: DECKS. And no one ever said, "FLATTEN the halls with boughs of holly ..."

33. Court recitations: OATHS. "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" "I do"

34. Banquet offerings: T.V. DINNERS. Excellent clue, although I don't think that Banquet can call them "T.V. DINNERS! Back when I was a kid, I might have had one of these for supper, but back then they were produced by Swanson ... remember??

36. Medical research org.: NIH. National Institutes of Health. From their website: "The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is made up of 27 different components called Institutes and Centers. Each has its own specific research agenda, often focusing on particular diseases or body systems. Find contact information for each Institute and Center at https://www.nih.gov/institutes-nih/nih-institute-center-contact-information"

37. Stable area: STALL. Most Friday clues have multiple words that can fit into the grid; likewise, most Friday words have multiple clues that can describe them. This week, for example, I decided not to STALL, and finished working on my blog with days to spare

40. Night sch. subject: ESL.

41. Nursery sight: TREE. See my comments for 37-across ... BABY fits, too, doesn't it??

42. Pen output: OINKS. How interesting that a pig pen produces an "OINK" whilst a Bic pen produces "INK"

47. Ken who directed many "This Is Us" episodes: OLIN. This has become Margaret and my favorite weekly "soap". Brilliant writing and acting; amazing use of flashback and future scenes while staying in the moment. If you've not followed this show, I highly recommend it. This is the last season but it can be found streaming on Hulu I think

48. Holed up: HID OUT. As opposed to "holed out" (a golf term), where the answer might've been "TAPS IN"

50. Forensic facility: DNA LAB. Sure, why not?!

53. Agreement list: TERMS. The TERMS of my Agreement with C.C. were that I would faithfully blog every other Friday puzzle, and accept no compensation! And I asked, "Where do I sign?"

54. Southeastern city on its own bay: TAMPA. CSO to Wilbur Charles and tinbeni; two of our Cornerites who reside within the greater TAMPA BAY area. Am I missing anyone else?

55. Georgia campus: EMORY. CSO to my son-in-law who is their percussion instructor

56. Sarge's superior: LOOIE. According to dictionary dot com: "What is meaning of looie? a lieutenant of the armed forces. ˈlu i / PHONETIC RESPELLING. 🎓 College Level. noun Slang. a lieutenant of the armed forces

57. Secures, as a contract: LANDS. When a clothing supplier loses a contract with a certain retailer, would they call that a LANDS' End??

59. Is behind, maybe: OWES. Moe OWES only on a vehicle he purchased a couple years ago. All other bills are paid off monthly

61. Org. seen in some 11-Downs: KGB. "No politics" rule here at the Corner is preventing me from saying a lot about this erstwhile Soviet Union spy organization ...

62. Modern prefix: NEO.

63. Atmo- kin: AER.

64. Gp. based in SLC, Utah: LDS. Also known as the Mormon Church, founded by Joseph Smith in 1830. The Corner also asks us not to discuss religion here ... but since this is the last clue and I've offered no Moe-kus (until now) ...

The NYFD
Formed a faith-based church that's called:
The Ladder Day Saints

Here's the grid:

What are your thoughts?? BTW, the IRS has given taxpayers until Monday the 18 April to file their taxes. It used to be the 15 April. Did I miss something??

**(A last minute addition to my blog) So, on second thought, perhaps because April 15 marks both Good Friday AND the beginning of Passover, the IRS granted us the weekend to complete our taxes; if we haven't already done so. And while I am not Jewish, I did find this little ditty to provide for all of our Cornerites who are part of "the Tribe". I hope you'll find it entertaining as well as harmonious. Chag Pesach Sameach! Oh, and I hope someone will explain some of the parodies within this compilation... ;^)

Thursday, April 14, 2022, Josh M. Kaufmann

 

Today we are visited by Josh M. Kaufmann, who appears to be making his LA Times debut by asking us an existential question in the reveal to this themed puzzle:

58A. Head-scratching words ... and, phonetically, a feature of the four longest Down answers: WHY ON EARTH?  We've all seen this before, but now might be a good time to be reminded of it again:

Josh answers this question with 4 Down clues, often a giveaway to a visual theme.  In this case the theme puns on two homophones: the letter Y and the reveal word WHY, the former perched atop a synonym for the word EARTH.

3D. Big name in travel guides: LONELY PLANET.  Lonely Planet is an Australian travel guide book publisher.  Founded in 1973, the company had sold 120 million books as of 2011.  Their books look like a great way to find your way around Sagan's pale blue dot.

13D. Newspaper rival of the Bugle in the Spider-Man universe: DAILY GLOBE. This clue takes us off of the planet and enables us to explore the fantasy world inside our mind.

21D. Oz, for one: FANTASY WORLD.  Here's the moment when Dorothy tells Toto "We're not in Kansas anymore":

24D. Anaheim attraction: DISNEYLAND.  This attraction was a FANTASY of Walt Disney originally designed and built under his supervision in 1955. 
 

Here's how the theme stacks up:
 

Across:

1. "Leaves of Grass" name: WALT.  Written by another WALT with a fantastic imagination,  Leaves of Grass is a poetry collection by American poet Walt Whitman. Though it was first published in 1855, Whitman spent most of his professional life writing and rewriting Leaves of Grass, revising it multiple times until his death. Perhaps the most famous poem from it is his ode to Abraham Lincoln, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", added after Lincoln's assassination.

Walt Whitman
Frontispiece to the Leaves of Grass

5. Links to a social media post: TAGS.  Everything you might want to know about TAGS, HASHTAGS, and CATEGORIES.

9. Ivy, e.g.: Abbr.: SCH.

12. They're better boosted than inflated: EGOS.

13. Actor Willem: DAFOE.  William James Dafoe born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor (Venice Film Festival), in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award.  Dafoe plays the hired assassin  J. G. Jopling in the Wes Craven comedy/drama Grand Budapest Hotel.  Here's the ski chase scene where he is being pursued by the heroes Gustav H and Zero, and at the very end almost turns the table on them:

14. NCAA's "Tide": ALA.  I tried RED first, as in CRIMSON TIDE, but it didn't perp.

15. Where many blood cells are produced: BONE MARROW.  Some more facts about blood.

17. Witty retort: MOT.  French for "word".  Usually proceeded by BON, literally "good word" or idiomatically, a response to a zinger.   The phrase MOT JUSTE  means "just the right word".

18. French film: CINE.  Where we get our word CINEMA:

etymonline.com

19. Be in session: SIT.

20. Neutralize: DEFUSE. 

22. Indigo plant: ANIL.

Dictionary.com

23. Pleased: GLAD.

25. Challenges requiring nerve: DARES.  Dares usually involve risks.

26. Like some Sundays: LAZY.

27. Aleppo's land: SYRIA.  Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Syrian governorate. with an official population of 4.6 million in 2010.

29. Alliance acronym: NATO.  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is much in the news these days.

30. Champs-Élysées lunch choice: CREPE. The Champs-Élysées being the boulevard in Paris, France.  Everything you need know to make a variety of French crepes.

32. Carrying process: GESTATION.  This normally takes about nine months.  When our IT projects used to run behind schedule and management  started piling on more help, we'd tell them: "Nine women can't make a baby in one month!".

34. Break in the action: LULL.

36. German pop star who sang "99 Luftballons": NENA. I have a sneaking suspicion that these were just the perps needed to make the themers 24D and 21D plus the fillers 28D and 33D work.  So Josh googled it and came up with "NENA".  As luck would have it, just like the band, he got one HIT.  Here it is (in the original German (English lyrics)), complete with audience participation).

37. The very beginning: SQUARE ONE.  Sometimes we have to go back there.

41. Russian rulers: TSARS.  A modern TSAR is currently pursuing a disastrous effort to make a comeback (see 29A).

45. Go left, say: TURN.

46. Does as told: OBEYS.

48. First name in fashion: YVES.   Yves Saint-Laurent (1 August 1936 – 1 June 2008) or simply YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century.

Yves Saint-Laurent

49. Wild party: RAGER.  In the 60's we called them "Happenings".

51. "Enchanted" movie girl: ELLA.  In case you're considering showing streaming this for your grandchildren, here's a capsule review, complete with trailer.  See also 46A for Ella's problem.

52. Gradually withdraw: WEAN.

53. Playground retort: ARE TOO.  We start learning BON MOTS early.

55. Droop: SAG.

56. "The Hobbit" creatures: ORCS.  ENTS would have fit, but 21D needed this meany:

An Orc named Grishnakh

 57. Buffet server: URN.  A buffet served is a buffet urned.

61. Brief moment: SEC.  An eternity compared to a NSEC, shorthand for NANOSECOND.  Here's Admiral Grace Hopper, the inventor of COBOL, explaining just how short that really is ...

62. Fix: AMEND.

63. Protected, at sea: ALEE.

64. Word with devil or dog: SLY.

65. Brooklyn ballers: NETS.  As most sports are played with balls, I don't understand why the honorific "baller" was bestowed upon Basket ball players.  Anyway, as one might expect The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn.  Here's the rest of their story.

66. Puts in: ADDS.

Down:

1. Online group study: WEBINAR.  These are older than you think, in more ways than one.

2. Fret (over): AGONIZE.

4. Mao __-tung: TSE.  This Chairman is becoming crosswordese.

5. Style of some surf and turf: TARTARE.  Raw fish I love; I'm not so sure about raw meat.

6. Cont. south of Western 31-Down: AFR.  Unless you perped this, you'd have to fill 31D first.

7. "Glad that's settled!": GOOD.  "Well, as long as we all agree on it".

8. Stitched up: SEWED.  Also Brit slang for someone who is framed for a crime.

9. Katana-wielding warrior: SAMURAI.  Samurai were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876.  Not someone you'd want to mess with.

Samurai warrior

10. Approximately: CLOSE TO.

11. Slams, slangily: HATES ON.  Its more subtle cousin is THROWING SHADE.

16. Inbox list: Abbr.: MSGS.

18. Advanced math subj.: CALC.  The key word in the clue is "Advanced" and as this is not a subject that I'm qualified to explain, here's a CSO to Jayce, Picard, et al, for help with any technical comments on this.  However I did find this entertaining cartoon on the history of Calculus in a series called "Maths by Lisa".  It traces Calculus' origins back to the Greeks, provides visual explanations of what it's all about, and resolves the controversy over who actually developed it. It's about 10 minutes long:

28. Joined the clean-plate club, say: ATE.  My Mother enlisted the whole family.

31. See 6-Down: EUR.

33. Queen's subject: ANT.

35. Celestial feline: LEO.  A CSO to LEO III.

37. Big name in blue jeans: STRAUSS.  As in Levi Strauss.  Also my chance to slip in a piece of music by the Waltz King JOHANN STRAUSS II.  I'm positive you'll recognize this:

38. Bicker: QUARREL.

39. Reason for pacing: URGENCY.

40. Half or full holds: NELSONS.  A nelson hold is a wrestling hold executed by one person from behind the opponent, generally when both are on the mat face down with the opponent under the aggressor. One or both arms are used to encircle the opponent's arm under the armpit, and secured at the opponent's neck.

42. Turned aside: AVERTED.

43. Arrives at: REACHES.  Just a few more clues and we'll arrive at the end of this review.

44. W-2 IDs: SSNS.  Tomorrow is the deadline for filing your taxes!

47. Wise one: SAGE.

50. Atkinson of British comedy: ROWAN.  Rowan Sebastian Atkinson CBE (born 6 January 1955) is an English actor, comedian and writer.  After watching at least two dozen clips of Mr. Bean (they're very addictive) I started to get hungry and  settled on this one ...

54. Woeful cry: OH ME.

59. Still: YET.

60. Roadside help letters: AAA.  American Automobile Association.  We rate them⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.  They've almost never failed to get us back up and running.  Given that your battery will probably die about once every 5 years and the replacement is free with basic membership, they're a great deal.  The only exception we found was that they don't replace "charging batteries" for hybrids (the battery that starts the car, not the one that stores a charge when you're decelerating).  Here's what you need to know.

And as always, special thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive suggestions.

 waseeley

Cheers,
Bill

Notes from C.C.: 

Melissa sent me these two sweet pictures. She said "this was a little performance at jaelyn's school - she was the dance leader for an adorable 'Nine to Five" song and dance. Harper was there to cheer her on". 

Harper is Jaelyn's little sister. You can see more of their pictures here.