Saturday, August 31, 2019, Neville Fogarty and Paolo Pasco

Themeless Saturday Puzzle by Neville Fogarty and Paolo Pasco

I celebrate two special days today - International Bacon Day and the first game of the FB season for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

As the saying goes, there are two types of people: 1) Those who love bacon and 2) those that are wrong. From midsummer BLT's are a staple in our household. The wonderful bacon can be had year round but garden fresh tomatoes are the perfect complement in this. Okay, it really is important in a club sandwich as well but let's not belabor the point!

Today's constructors are Neville Fogarty and Paolo Pasco

Across:

1. Literary reminder: BOOKMARK.

9. Mideast presidential name since 1971: ASSAD - He has presided over a lot of misery

14. Dutch treat?: APPLE PIE - Is it really Dutch or Deutsch? Oh well, it's delicious even without bacon 😙

15. More green: LUSHER.

17. Regular order: THE USUAL - At the DQ, mine was a raspberry malt

18. Hoped-for airport monitor update: ON TIME - Two weeks ago my granddaughter's Newark to Omaha flight was two hours late. Bad weather over WVA force her plane's route north to fly 27. Routing preposition: VIA the Great Lakes instead. 

19. Word preceding an opinion: CENTS - "My two CENTS worth..."

20. Chided: TSKED - Hmmm... 

22. Base used often: TEN - Your computer would see 22 in base 10 as 10110 in base two

23. "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" playwright: ALBEE and 34. "Gone Girl" girl: AMY - Two movies that are unnerving portrayals of marriage

24. Longtime ISP: AOL - Not MSN it turns out

25. Common picture postcard color: AZURE - An AZURE sky on a postcard from the Cote d'Azur (the French Riveria)

28. Ones bringing charges, briefly: DA'S

30. "Gotcha": I SEE NOW - "Gotcha" as in "I understand" not "I fooled you"

32. Canal speaker: EARBUD - My bluetooth enabled hearing aids preclude the use of ear buds which I was always losing anyway

35. Buds: PALS - Non-auricular buds

36. Limit-enforcing tactic: SPEED TRAP - One site rates Sarasota, FL as the worst in the country


39. Consort of Shiva: KALI - Continuing our mini theme of unhappy couples, KALI is shown standing on Shiva's chest

42. Vientiane people: LAO - Vientiane is the capital of Laos

43. Story collection including "Robbie": I ROBOT - Isaac Asimov's nine short stories including one entitled Robbie

47. Trying to lose: ON A DIET - I am down 21 lbs but have hit a plateau 

49. Comics fight sound: BAM.

50. Blackjack component: ACE - You can have 21 without an ACE but it's not a blackjack

51. Asian noodle dish: RAMEN - 48 pkgs for $9.89

52. UFC sport: MMA - Mixed Martial Arts. About anything goes

54. Philosophical principle that rules out unlikely explanations: RAZOR.

56. 48-Down victim: EGO - A fragile EGO can be hurt by a careless 48. 56-Across damager: INSULT.

57. Diamond ploy: STEAL - A polite end to a failure to STEAL. Definitely not a 62. "Whew!" evoker: CLOSE ONE.

59. Preppy collars: ETONS.

60. Garfield's successor: ARTHUR - Chester helped make merit rather than patronage a basis for government jobs

64. Vacanza a dicembre: NATALE - Italian - NATALE è una vacanza a dicembre (Christmas is a holiday in December) 

65. Quick, provocative reactions, as to current news: HOT TAKES - Often wrong with no apologies later

66. Finish choice: MATTE.

67. Hoodwink: OUTSMART.


Down:

1. Robin's milieu: BAT CAVE.

2. Laertes' sister: OPHELIA 

3. Place for free rounds: OPEN BAR.

4. 1971 title detective: KLUTE.

5. Wack: MESSED UP - Judge Judy would say this but would omit the "H"

6. Toon storekeeper: APU - A Simpson's character

7. Vaqueros' props: RIATAS - Lasso to a cowboy

8. Kutcher's "That '70s Show" role: KELSO - Typical dialogue

9. Moisturizer ingredient: ALOE 

10. Sweet treat: SUNDAE - Religious blue laws were circumvented by changing the Y to E

11. Mach 1 flier: SST - The "Mach Meter" at the front of the cabin told passengers how fast the SST was traveling relative to the speed of sound (Mach 1). This meter shows the plane is going 2.02 times the speed of sound (about 1,300 mph)

12. Yellowfin: AHI TUNA - Know your tuna

13. Analgesic brand: DEMEROL - Another pain reliever in the opioid family

16. Starts over: RENEWS.

21. Artist who influenced Schiele: KLIMT - I learned of KLIMT in this movie

26. Marx Brothers straight man: ZEPPO.

29. Youngest to win six Grammys in one night: ADELE.

31. Its flag has two green stars: SYRIA - The left flag represents Assad's current gov't and the right one is the one that preceded Assad and is flown by those who want to overthrow him

33. 45 half: B-SIDE - I read that clue until it made sense. Oh, 45 rpm records.

34. Excitement: ADO.

37. Fictional invitation written in currants: EAT ME.

38. Seat sides: ARM RESTS - Solution for arm rest issues?

39. Hangul alphabet user: KOREAN - Gary comes out something like 게리

40. "Lolita" character Vivian Darkbloom, to Vladimir Nabokov: ANAGRAM - I wonder when Vladimir discovered that

41. Rival of boxer Robinson: LAMOTTA - Jake (The Raging Bull) LAMOTTA fought Sugar Ray Robinson six times and only won once

Jake Lamotta            Sugar Ray Robinson

44. Arm on a shoulder: BAZOOKA - A BAZOOKA is certainly classified as an ARMament and it is indeed placed on a shoulder to fire. (All right, Neville, Paolo or Rich, who came up with this clue?)

45. "Woe Is I" author Patricia: O'CONNER - $12 at Random House and grammatically correct 

46. Least gassy: TERSEST - Long-winded people can be called gassy

49. "Cat __": Jane Fonda film: BALLOU - Lee Marvin was the stole this movie and won an academy award in the process! 

53. Like action heroes: MACHO.

55. Prioritized players: A-TEAM.

58. Evolutionary diagram: TREE - A modified family tree for Henry Fonda that begins in Nebraska

61. Overhead expense?: HAT - The "overhead" expense for this HAT was $24.99 at the Pentagon Mall. It was $8.00 at the kiosk across the street from Ford's Theater.

63. Slugger Mel: OTT.

Have yourself a BLT while fresh T's are still around and don't scrimp on the B. Then leave us some pertinent or impertinent comments: