Saturday, August, 18, 2018, Tracy Bennett and Erik Agard

Themeless Saturday Puzzle By Tracy Bennett and Eric Agard

Today is National Geocaching Day. My first attempt at this sport was done using a similar GPS device and reading it while driving at 60 mph. My dippy partner from Omaha was about as useful as a screen door in a submarine.

We found our "cache" in a cemetery and it contained one playing card and then we found four other cards at four other sites to make our poker hand and compete for quickest time and best hand. When we got back to the classroom, a group of young ladies who did not even have to leave the campus had beaten us by one minute although our poker hand did beat theirs! Am I crying discrimination? Well maybe I'm just whispering 😇

Competitive? Me? Yeah, a little!

Today's constructors are Tracy Bennett and Erik Agard. I had a themeless Saturday puzzle from  Erik on June 2 of this year and will repeat my link to Erik Agard interview with C.C. 

Here is some bio info on Tracy - Tracy lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., where she manages a staff of 17 copy editors for Mathematic Reviews. Married to a jazz drummer, with a 12 -yr-old son she describes as "puzzling". Tracy started constructing crosswords after attending her first ACPT in 2011. She credits Patrick Berry's Crossword Puzzle Challenged for Dummies for teaching her the ropes.

Tracy Bennett                        Erik Agard

My solve yielded as many empty cells as Alcatraz in 2018 until I hit the SE corner where I couldn't fill fast enough and then worked my way back north and those cells soon looked like Alcatraz circa 1939. There was just enough spice to make for a delightful etymological brew.

Now let's see the eclectic fill supplied by this twosome:

Across: 

1. Break away from the pack: PULL AHEAD - No matter how they come out of the blocks, he knows he can PULL AHEAD

10. Mixer setting: WHIP  - Oster must have had someone in charge of assigning these verbs

14. One in a deli dozen: ONION BAGEL 

16. Accent sound?: HONK - Car names like the one on this Hyundai allow much cluing mischief

17. Eligible voters: ELECTORATE - Not going there...

18. Bill nos.: AMTS - The Persian character for 1,000 is ۱۰۰۰. I assume Tracy and Erik did not mean AMTS on bills you pay

19. Strips on a tree: TINSEL - Besides adorning Christmas trees, metal strips can also scare away birds from orchards and vineyards

20. Under-the-bed figment, hopefully: MONSTER - I never looked!

22. "__ 281": film about the making of "Citizen Kane": RKO - 281 is the original production number of this RKO movie and this documentary tells the incredible story of the many difficulties in making what some consider to be the best American movie of all time. Want to know more?

23. Crest: APEX - ACME, we'll give you the next puzzle

25. Capital city that's home to the Garden of Babur: KABUL - Developed in 1528 and named for the first Mughai Emperor. Babur's burial site is here

27. "__ Blues": "White Album" track: YER - If you must -  John singing Yer Blues with the Plastic Ono Band

28. Heat fig.: BTU.

29. Burrito filling word: ASADA - A Carne ASADA (literally "meat grilled") burrito 

30. "Be right there": WAIT JUST A SEC - A "Leaving Mantra" for my wife and two daughters  

34. Words dismissing the statement that preceded them: SAID NO ONE EVER - ... and yet they persist

36. "That's enough of that": WE'RE DONE HERE - Kitty in charge

37. "__ porridge hot ... ": PEASE  - The original singular was pease, and the plural was peasen. Over the centuries, pease became used as the plural, peasen was dropped, pea was created as a new singular, and finally pease was respelled peas. You're welcome!

38. Cybertalk elements: IM'S - Grandkids want to came to see us for the last weekend before school. The event was set up with 10 Internet Messages 

39. "Portlandia" network: IFC - Independent Film Channel owned  by AMC Movie Corporation

42. Rhyme scheme for Edward Lear: AABBA - Our own Owen brilliantly utilizes this scheme at this electronic popsicle stand

43. Sounds from squeaky toys?: YIPS - Our neighbor's dog is a Toy Poodle and his YIP is annoying

45. Emulating: ALA.

46. "The Wiz" tune with the lyric "You're the bravest of them all": BE A LION - An inspirational song with a stellar cast!

48. Samples: TASTES.

51. Former?: MOLD - Shaking the Jell-O after it has been removed from the MOLD

52. Seriously sedate: PUT TO SLEEP - Two sad days when we did this to our first two Siamese kitties

54. Dictate: RULE.

55. Covert '50s-'70s federal flier: AIR AMERICA - The CIA's "airline" that flew out of these East Asian bases and was disbanded after the Vietnam War ended, so they say...

56. Eminem-inspired word for a rabid supporter: STAN - A depressing song about an obsessed Eminem fan named STANley Mitchell and what happens to him. MTV censored some of the graphic lyrics and images. Google if you must

57. Wicked "stawm": NOR'EASTER - Neither Christmas NOR EASTER were at our house last year. Yeah, I'll keep my day job.


Down:

1. "The only thing that matters": cummings: POETRY - Whatever floats your boat, e.e. 

2. Not typical of: UNLIKE - UNLIKE most, e.e. often used lower case letters for his name 

3. Property claimant: LIENOR - I suppose

4. Loans drawn as needed: Abbr.: LOCS - Our potential Line Of Credit is very high but will never be used

5. Stud stake: ANTE - a way to answer the poker question 43. "Coming along?": YOU IN?

6. Spanish cable network: HBO LATINO - It is on channels 517 (E) and 524 (W) in our town

7. Audition user?: EAR - Used here as a synonym for hearing

8. Height of one's ability: A GAME

9. Cleanse goal: DETOX - My dad went through this in 1971 

10. Hockey announcer's "Great stop!": WHAT A SAVE - Certainly applies here

11. Principal place of operations: HOME BASE - Union Pacific RR's is in Omaha

12. One breaking in: INTRUDER.

13. World Cup tiebreakers, for short: PKS - On Penalty KickS, the goalie has to guess, left/right/middle, high/low 

15. Dance judge Goodman: LEN - Okay

21. Camel performers: SKATERS  - Here is a SKATER doing a Flying CAMEL SPIN. The origin of the CAMEL name is up for debate (Hmmm..., three sports GIF's in a row)

24. Deceive: PUT ON 

26. Wisconsin's Fond du __: LAC  - It means "bottom of the lake". In this case it's Lake Winnebago

28. Agreement with Satan, by most accounts: BAD DEAL - A trailer for a wonderful musical about Joe Hardy (Tab Hunter) selling his soul to Satan (Ray Walston) to become a great ball player in exchange for his soul

30. Capital of Hesse: WIESBADEN - This central German town's name literally means "Meadow Bath" for its hot springs, 14 of which are still active

31. Average __: JOE - See Joe Hardy above and our own Average Joe who rarely shows up any more at our electronic popsicle stand and is sorely missed

32. Not cool: UNHIP - 33. "I'd say ... ": SEEMS TO ME to me Grandpa that the chains and backward ball cap on you is UNHIP

34. Check into: SEE ABOUT - Last week I posted the 1964 Beatles appearance on Ed Sullvan. Here's another trip in Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine to see this super group on Shindig in 1964 singing this fill

35. Strauss opera: ARABELLA - A choice between this Strauss Opera or Damn Yankees? With my plebeian taste, it's not even close

36. New Deal agcy.: WPA - The Works Progress Administration built the Oak Ballroom in Schuyler, NE using oaks from the nearby Platte River

39. Disappointing reply to "Where's the last chocolate truffle?": I ATE IT - Then three-year-old granddaughter made me a birthday cupcake but when she saw me she said, "Papa, here's the deal I ATE your cupcake". Ten years later this June it became part of my Father's Day gift from her!

40. Cool-weather material: FLEECE.

41. Reagan defense secretary Weinberger: CASPAR - A Republican workhorse

44. Opening: INTRO - I try to use a "holiday" and some public domain bio info on our constructors

47. Hoppy initials: IPA - India Pale Ale - A British brew named for it popularity with British soldiers in India

49. On the water: ASEA  might be a 53. One on the water: TAR - Just add an "e" to "On"

50. Shutterbugs' buys: SLR'S - My iPhone camera is great and always handy but there are times I wish I had a Single Lens Reflex camera 

51. Woolf's "__ Dalloway": MRS - I like to compare how different publishers present a book

Now I hope you can find your way to cache your comments without needing a GPS device:

DA GRID: