Saturday, December 7, 2019, Stella Zawistowski

Themeless Saturday by Stella Daily Zawistowski

Not to demean today's date, but this is a day that will live in infamy for me. STELLA!! (How tired must she be of hearing that?)

I had three natick black eyes (two of which now make more sense looking back) that you can see in the grid: 

* A vowel coin flip with names EMM_TT/N_LS. I picked an "E"

* No idea on an obscure TV show crossing an obscure expression -  AG_RO/AN_IE. I should have let go of ANNIE

* Completely unknown Finnish currency and a North African poached egg dish. As you'll read, Stella wished she could have gotten away from that crossing.

I wrote to Stella about this puzzle and this was her gracious reply:

As I look back on that puzzle, I wish I’d tried harder to get rid of that SHAKSHUKA/MARKKA crossing! And though EMMITT Smith is, I think, fair game in a hard themeless, I’m no longer crazy about him crossing another proper name. 

All this reflects that, as many puzzles as I’ve been a part of making, I’m still getting more experience every day as a grid maker. When I was half of Daily and Venzke, he made all the grids and I wrote the clues. So I’m far more experienced as a clue writer and theme thinker-upper than as a grid maker.

My seed entries in this puzzle were PAX ROMANA and SHAKSHUKA, the latter of which I think is a delicious dish more people should know about. As you may have seen in discussions on Crossword Twitter, I’m all for unfamiliar but interesting words in puzzles, especially themelesses. I’ve tried out quite a few things I’ve learned about from puzzles (like reading Leon URIS novels, which I love), and if somebody looks up what SHAKSHUKA is and decides to try eating it, I’ll have paid it forward a bit.

Here is a very interesting interview with Stella, who is a Brooklyn-based copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and a power lifter

I felt the same anguish that Stella is showing in this picture at the right where she is making a dead lift :-). In the interview, she labeled herself as a "brawny brain"!

         Stella                                        Stella doing a dead lift

Now let's get to the other heavy lifting

Across:

1. Hardly rah-rah: APATHETIC 

10. Peeved cries: DRATS.

15. Period that ended with the death of Marcus Aurelius: PAX ROMANA - Many consider the ascension of his erratic son Commodus in 180 AD to be a disaster after 200 years of ROMAN PEACE

16. See 20-Down: EIGHT and 20. Group of 16-Across: OCTET - I first this might be a type of animals paired with what a group of them is called but I liked this generic cluing

17. Regimen: TREATMENT.



18. Former TBS comedy "__ Tribeca": ANGIE - A Steve Carrell produced show that starred Rashida Jones who was in The Office with him

19. Longtime E Street Band member: NILS LOFGREN - Not NELS it turns out

21. Storage areas: CLOSETS - a physical one and 21. Storage area: CLOUD an electronic one

25. Gives the cold shoulder, in slang: ICES OUT - A cruel activity in a school lunchroom 

26. Like the weakest excuse: LAMEST.

27. Jones of jazz: ETTA - A remarkable career

28. Certain tournaments: OPENS - A tournament where anyone is welcome to try to qualify and the 34. Org. that runs some 28-Across: USGA supplies places to try to qualify for the U.S. OPEN

29. When body temperature is typically highest: AFTERNOON 

35. Bight, e.g.: INLET - Learning for me with solid perps - generic name for a bend or curve in a coastline

36. Words before many words: IN SO - Louis the XIV claiming he never actually said, "I am the state". Another Stella gem.

37. Sci-fi super weapon: DEATH STAR - You can build your own with this $499 LEGO kit

39. "The Lady of the Lake" author: SCOTT - Sir Walter SCOTT poetry from 1810

40. Touched down: ALIT - The last two of twelve American astronauts ALIT on the Moon 47 years ago

41. Rival of Kaspersky: MCAFEE.

42. Employment hot topic: WAGE GAP - I never saw one with my teaching colleagues

46. With nothing owing: PAID FOR - A burning mortgage is a sweet scent

47. Public relations specialists: IMAGE MAKERS - They make chicken salad out of chicken, uh, manure

49. One who can't pass the bar?: TOPER - So many euphemisms for drunks.Etymology

50. Savory North African poached-egg dish: SHAKSHUKA - Recipe for the dish which Stella is promoting 

55. Get ready to break: CREST.

56. Dissuade from doing: TALK OUT OF - Some people can not be TALKED OUT OF leaving an area where a flood CREST is approaching and often require a 57. Last-minute: HASTY, dangerous rescue

58. Unjokingly: IN EARNEST.


Down:

1. Well put: APT.

2. Standard course number: PAR - PAR is 70 at my course

3. Splitting tool: AXE.

4. Singing syllable: TRA.

5. Sex appeal: HOTNESS Cheryl Burke is high on the HOTNESS scale as she dances with 6. NFL great Smith who won "Dancing With the Stars" in 2006 : EMMITT

7. Asian weight units: TAELS - A 100 TAEL dark tea cake (5.39 oz)

8. Fawlty Towers et al.: INNS - Basil Fawlty tries to communicate with his waiter Manuel at the INN

9. Useful remedy for getting stuck in snow: CAT LITTER.

10. Unkind thing to turn: DEAF EAR.

11. Championship awards: RINGS - Uh, not this year, Bama

12. Combative, slangily: AGGRO - I ain't arguing with the brawny brain Stella! Merriam-Webster says it is an informal, British word.

13. '60s-'70s South Vietnamese president: THIEU - Nguyễn Văn Thiệu was the last president of The Republic Of South Vietnam

14. Medical tube: STENT - Help for clogged vessels 

22. Slip: LAPSE.

23. Onassis' first: OMEGA - In Greek Onassis is spelled Ωνάσης 

24. French upper house: SENAT.

27. Key of Beethoven's "Eroica": E FLAT.

29. Ristorante courses: ANTIPASTI - Usually the first course

30. Battery acronym: NI-CAD - Usually labeled with chemical symbols for Nickel (Ni) and Cadmium (Cd)

31. Binary, in a way: ON OFF.

32. Bony prefix: OSTEO - Orbiting astronauts can lose as much as 10% of their bone mass which is similar to what OSTEOporosis can do to senior citizens 

33. One who pays attention: NOTER - Stella!!

35. Faith with five pillars: ISLAM.

38. Julie of "Airplane!": HAGERTY.

39. Cut out: SCISSOR - Scissor as a verb? Yeah, I guess.

41. Pre-euro Finnish currency: MARKKA - With Jean Sibelius on the bill

42. First speaker in "Macbeth": WITCH - In Act IV these three witches chant the more famous, "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble"

43. Marvel Comics' original Enchantress: AMORA - If you're interested

44. Reacts in wonder: GAPES.

45. Discharge: EGEST - One must digest SHAKSHUKA before it is EGESTED 

46. "A Guide to Confident Living" author: PEALE - by the author of The Power Of Positive Thinking
48. "Star Trek" villain: KHAN - Star Wars earlier and now...

51. Catalaunian Plains combatant, 451 AD: HUN - Attila was turned back and was dead two years later

52. Adaptable vehicle, for short: UTE - A vehicle name I only see/hear in these environs

53. Ali had 37: KO'S - Muhammad was "The Greatest"

54. Blackbeard's backward: AFT - Backwards on Blackbeard's boat, Queen Anne's Revenge, would be toward AFT - the back of the boat. Another great Stella clue!

Queen Anne's Revenge replica used in
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 4

I hope that after flexing your brains you are now ready to comment: