Today on this first day of December, we celebrate National Christmas Lights Day. Depending on your taste, this house is either a wonderful, festive expression of holiday spirit or a prime example of going overboard worthy of Clark Griswold from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
At our little outpost here on the Great Plains, outside lights are illuminated on the day after Thanksgiving although some of our neighbors have had their lights on for over a week which does not seem right to my lovely bride.
Some households wait until the first Sunday of advent and take them down after epiphany. Your preference?
President Grover Cleveland had strings of these light installed on the White House Christmas Tree in 1895.
This ad here shows how the Edison Decorative and Miniature Lamp Department sold their electric product as a safer alternative to using candles on Christmas trees.
Today's constructor is Fredrick J. Healy and I have found out that he has had several themeless Saturday puzzles published here in the past few years.
Across:
1. Early Greek lyric poet: SAPPHO - SAPPHO of Lesbos was a poet of antiquity whose work is mostly lost. In some circles she has become a symbol of modern feminism
7. Roll by: ELAPSE - Somehow, 50 years have ELAPSED since I started teaching
13. Strong desire: CRAVING.
15. Respectful bow: SALAAM - Cultural coin-flip?
16. Friendly greeting: HEY THERE - A wonderful song from The Pajama Game sung by George Clooney's Aunt Rosemary
18. Eastern religion: SHINTO - The state religion of Japan until 1945
19. Novak Djokovic's org.: ATP - Association of Tennis Professionals
20. Place to gas up for free?: OPEN BAR - that may be accompanied by a 22. Beer __: NUT or two or fifty or...
23. Memorable Gregory Peck role: AHAB - As I recently blogged, Peck said at one time he was embarrassed by his portrayal
25. How work may be done near a deadline: MADLY - I waited until Dec. 23 to bury $100 (in baggies) in Jello for the kids Christmas presents and had to work MADLY to get done. It was great fun to see them eat their way to cash.
26. Drain: TIRE - Didn't you TIRE of the political nonsense in the ads last month? Talk about your obloquy!
27. California's __ Verdes Peninsula: PALOS - Some modest housing on the peninsula
29. '70s radical gp.: SLA - The Symbionese Liberation Army famously kidnapped Patty Hearst where she may or may not have developed Stockholm Syndrome
30. Singer Stefani et al.: GWENS- The first name of the rookie teacher who ran in to tell me to turn on my TV on 9/11/01 during class
31. Reception for champions: THREE CHEERS - Hip, hip... 3X
34. Scrooge types: CHEAP SKATES - In the late 18th century a "skate" in America was a name for mean person. Cheap was later added to compound the felony
35. Fruity treat: BANANA SPLIT - To be eaten, not worn!
36. Jazz guitarist Herb: ELLIS - Remember Jeffrey Wechsler's recent TRELLIS ISLAND
37. Terre dans la mer: ILE - Literally "earth in the sea" (Island)
38. Wetland birds: TERNS.
42. Caffeine-rich seed: KOLA - No Pepsi after 12 noon for me
43. 1960 Random House acquisition: KNOPF
45. Wild way to run: RIOT - A headline about an embarrassing Australian loss to Scotland in Rugby46. Web crawler, e.g.: BOT - A internet application that can perform repetitive tasks quickly for good or ill. Okay...
47. Hit the skids: GO TO POT - "The idea here is of chopping ingredients up into small pieces before putting them in the pot for cooking, and from this comes the sense ‘be ruined or destroyed'" You're welcome!
49. Pressure meas.: PSI.
50. Designer Pucci: EMILIO - Haute couture is not my cup 'o tea.
52. Traditional Dixie dessert: PECAN PIE - Please keep the pronunciation 54. Comment: REMARKs civil!
55. Reptile named for the warning sound it makes: RATTLER.
56. Stars: GREATS - Norma Desmond, "The Stars are ageless, aren't they?"
57. Death Star "super" weapons: LASERS - What else on Christmas Lights Day?
Down:
1. Award-winning ESPN writer/reporter Jeremy: SCHAAP - I much preferred his sports writer dad Dick Schaap
2. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's first female inductee: ARETHA - Powerful and soulful!
3. Check alternative: PAYPAL.
4. Many a GI: PVT.
5. Old Ritz rival: HI HO - Pitched by an Old TV Character
6. Afternoon hr.: ONE PM - One day at this time, I finally decided retirement was a great option
7. Lamb product: ESSAY - Charles Lamb wrote the ESSAYS but he used the pseudonym of Elia which was the last name of a fellow worker at South Sea House in London
8. Memorable lion suit wearer: LAHR - The lovable Cowardly Lion from Oz
9. 2001 biopic: ALI - Will Smith as The Greatest
10. Burro's baskets: PANNIERS - The Burros laden with PANNIERS The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre
11. Former GM cars: SATURNS - More GM cars will become "former" next year as GM retools for the future
12. Doesn't act well: EMOTES - THere's nothing worse than a ham EMOTING in a turkey
14. Stage makeup staple: GREASE PAINT - This gave us the haunting Who Can I Turn To?
17. Programmer's problem: ENDLESS LOOP - Sometimes you just have to shut the machine off and start over
21. McCormick offering: BLACK PEPPER - A staple in our cupboard for decades
24. Gulf of __: Baltic Sea arm: BOTHNIA - I knew this about as well as I did Gabon last Saturday 😏
26. Modern poster: TWEETER.
28. Trees whose fruit yields a moisturizing butter: SHEAS - More Africa geography: Here a woman is processing SHEA Tree nuts in Burkina Faso
30. Catch on: GET IT
32. Bolted: RAN.
33. Bryan's "Malcolm in the Middle" role: HAL - That's Bryan Cranston as Hal on the left and as Walter White in Breaking Bad seven years later
34. Use a certain two-handed signal: CALL TIME - Making the T with your two hands will indicate a TIME OUT
35. 19th-century women's rights advocate Amelia: BLOOMER- Amelia did not invent BLOOMERS but she wore them and advocated their use in her newspaper so women could dress in less restrictive clothing. Therefore, her name became associated with them.
36. "La Dolce Vita" actress: EKBERG - Ms. EKBERG eschewed Ms. BLOOMER'S apparel in this Trevi Fountain scene from La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life)
39. Flow in small waves: RIPPLE - Seen above
40. More inclined to pry: NOSIER.
41. "M*A*S*H" actor David Ogden __: STIERS - Major Charles Emerson Winchester
43. Screwballs: KOOKS.
44. Kind of point: FOCAL - Did Archimedes really start Roman ships on fire with polished shields reflecting sunlight to a FOCAL point in 212 B.C.?
47. Prepared (oneself) for action: GIRT - I have GIRDED my loins but never did I GIRT them as far as I know 😊
48. "Catch ya later": TATA.
51. A.L. West team, in crawl lines: LAA - The Los Angeles Angels have been referred to as HALOS in these puzzles
53. Some Windows systems: NTS - Sheldon on operating systems
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