Saturday, September 7, 2019, Erik Agard

Themeless Saturday by Erik Agard

Perhaps you remember constructor Evan Kalish and his Postlandia web site from August 9. Evan's hobby of collecting pictures of post office from all over this country has amassed over 30,000 pix.

Today we honor the men and women who staff those facilities and deliver our mail faithfully despite any and all weather conditions. Our carrier is a hard working woman whose muffler announces her arrival two blocks away. She even gets out of her truck and puts the mail in our box when it is blocked by vehicles who should not be there.

Today's constructor is Erik Agard. I have wrestled with Erik's incredibly tough puzzles at his website - Glutton For Pun and thought today's offering would equally tough but I did manage a fairly fast (22 min) journey and had a good time in the process. I also had some exchanges with Erik about the contents of this puzzle and delighted in his mostly terse but pithy replies to me.

Enjoy this fun exchange between Erik as a Jeopardy champion and Alex Trebek.

Across:

1. Peak of early 2000s cinema: BROKEBACK - The "Peak" Erik was referencing was the Mountain in the title of what some called a groundbreaking movie 

10. Martin Sheen's first name at birth: RAMON.

15. Doesn't honor: RENEGES ON - Don't all politicians do this

16. Blow away: AMAZE.


17. "Let's rock and roll!": IT'S GO TIME - When Jerry Seinfeld upset Lloyd Bridges as Izzy Mandlebaum, this was Lloyd's response:

18. Actor Max von __: SYDOW - His IMDB

19. Verb that sounds like a letter: ARE.

20. Holders of leaves: TEABAGS which might hold 29. Contents of some 20-Across: CHAI tea



22. Rank aboard the Enterprise: Abbr.: ENS - ENSign Pavel Chekov was a navigator on Captain Kirk's Enterprise

23. Turbine blade: ROTOR - Wind turbine ROTORS being transported are a common sight on our highways

25. Moved, as a movie camera: DOLLIED - 

27. "Claws" star __ Nash: NIECY - Yikes!

31. Get choppers: TEETHE - This time of an infant's life can make a parent a 32. One up, barely: SLEEPY HEAD.

36. Oozy substances: GOOS.

37. Prefix for "six": HEXA - These HEXAgon tiles can make for a lovely 2. Nostalgi-cool?: RETRO look

38. Class with no struggles: EASY A - Football players populated these classes when I was in college

39. Unwieldy thing: HULK - Erik, you could have clued "Incredible thing"

40. British boxer Khan: AMIR - Here 'ya go

41. Album info: LINER NOTES - The LINER NOTES on this album by these four lads has a price tag well into five figures

43. Talking points?: ROSTRA - The point at which FDR delivered his "Day Of Infamy" speech was from behind one of the more famous ROSTRA in history

45. Role for which Liam got an Oscar nod: OSKAR 

46. Show ardor: ENTHUSE.

48. Occupied: IN USE - When in Rome...

52. IPA, say: ALE.

53. About 5, for coffee: PH LEVEL.

57. Humanities degs.: BA'S.

58. Enjoy a season in a day, perhaps?: BINGE - Can you watch an entire season of The Sopranos in a day?

60. Therapy subjects: AVERSIONS - No therapy will cure my lovely bride of her AVERSION to (or 6. __ noire: BETE - a thing thoroughly detested) roller coasters

62. Run onstage?: EMCEE - I have run many a program as an EMCEE

63. Wrap up: TERMINATE.

64. Judges: DEEMS.

65. Duty for the bereaved: ESTATE TAX


Down:

1. Patch plant: BRIAR - Please don't throw me in!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9oWq9zIXTY
3. Beginning: ONSET.

4. Pabst dispenser: KEG - My TAP proved to be dry


5. Journey with strokes?: EGO TRIP - Everyone who provided Johnny Manziel with strokes for his EGO TRIP as a college quarterback quickly abandoned him when he was an NFL flop

7. Gobi locale: ASIA - In China and Mongolia

8. Search high and low: COMB 

9. Apt eye rhyme for "bread": KNEAD - An "eye rhyme" is two words that are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Bread and KNEAD meet that criteria and since you obviously must KNEAD bread dough the "eye rhyme" is apt.

10. Fight in the sticks: RASSLE

11. 2019 Emmy nominee Adams: AMY.

12. Escaped: MADE IT OUT - Many athletes have MADE IT OUT of horrible home lives via sports

13. Polar environmental concern: OZONE HOLE - Is it healing?

14. Paper departments: NEWS DESKS.

21. Approached nightfall: GOT DARK.

24. In the world: ON EARTH

26. Looney Tunes surname: LEGHORN - Foghorn was modeled after this fictional Southern politician from the Fred Allen Show. This pretend Senator refused to ever wear a "Union suit" or drive through the Lincoln Tunnel when he visited New York City and he claimed to drink only out of Dixie cups.

28. Metaphorical margin of victory: EYELASH.

30. Having only two answers: YES NO - Many a fragile adolescent psyche hung in the balance with this YES/NO questionnaire 

32. Fight over covers, perhaps?: SHARE A BED - I've done this for over 52 years with equitable cover sharing

33. Citrusy flavor: LEMON LIME 

34. "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very __ is an act of rebellion": Camus (attributed): EXISTENCE - A credo for many a revolutionary

35. Votes for: AYES.

42. Succeeds to the max: NAILS IT.

44. Sri Lankan currency: RUPEES - This house in Sri Lanka can be yours for Rs. 37,000,000 (Rupees) or $206,000

47. Send to cloud nine: ELATE.

49. WWII sub: U-BOAT - Pole Marian Rejewski, Brit Alan Turing, and others at Bletchley Park, broke the Nazi Enigma code to help shut down the horrible U-BOAT damage 

50. Gift list addressee: SANTA.

51. Cape Ann's county: ESSEX - Cape Ann is a rocky cape with towns Rockport and Gloucester 30 miles NE of Boston 

54. Nights before: EVES.

55. Rapper Lil Uzi __: VERT - If your life is bereft of vulgarity, violence and misogyny, google his lyrics

56. Singer Franklin, Aretha's elder sister: ERMA - The Franklin girls and their Dad

    ERMA                       C.L.                        ARETHA 

59. Opal, for one: GEM.

61. Suffix with salt: INE.

Try to remember to say something nice to your postal carrier today or this week.

Saturday, August 24, 2019, Ed Sessa

Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa

A breakfast favorite takes center stage today as we celebrate National Waffle Day. A beautiful waffle covered with maple syrup and and some strips of bacon? Yum, yum!

Of course this prompts the story of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair when an ice cream vendor ran out of little dishes in his booth but Ernest A. Hamwi, a Syrian concessionaire in the booth next door, saw the solution using his waffle-like pastry - zalabias. He formed a cone (cornucopia), put the ice cream in it and, voila, a new treat was born - The Waffle Cone!

Dr. Sessa featured a triple 13-stack in the middle like our Postlandia constructor Evan Kalish two weeks ago. Now let's see what else Dr. Sessa has prescribed for us. A spoonful of sugar (gettable long fills) made this go down very nicely. I would imagine Dr. Sessa has used MRI, EKG, ECG, EEG, ICU, HDL, CAT or others of our cwd friends in his practice.

Across:

1. Karate match exchanges: BOWS.

5. Nickname for Chicago's Ernie Banks: MR CUB - Ernie is always listed as one of the greatest players to have never won a world series with his hapless Cubs.

10. Gradually decrease: WANE.

14. Chamber phenomenon: ECHO.

15. Campaign suspensions: CEASE FIRES - No peace treaty 68 years ago

17. Biting: ACID.

18. Gadgets with small rotary blades: CAN OPENERS - A lost art?

19. Pub nibbles: NUTS.

20. Corrida shout: OLE - The barbarity of bull fighting repulses me

21. Christmas hymn start: ADESTE - Former students at big box stores tell me the Christmas stuff is filling up their storage areas. (ADESTE shoppers - O Come All Ye Shoppers)

22. Vent opening?: PRE - Hmmm...

23. One in a gun show?: GYM RAT - These are the guns being referenced

25. Ax wielder, at times: BOSS - Well, he/she is the BOSS...

26. Lover of Euridice, in a Gluck opera: ORFEO (Italian for Orpheus) - If you must know

28. Anaheim stadium nickname: BIG A.

30. 1843 story narrated by a murderer, with "The": TELL TALE HEART - Poe's short story of a guilty conscience that became a 56. Heavy burdens: MILLSTONES around the murderer's neck

35. Finger in the dike, so to speak: DAMAGE CONTROL - What my [insert candidate] meant to say...

37. Out until tomorrow: GONE FOR THE DAY - A NASA guy might be "Out To Launch"

39. Essential nutrient: SALT.

40. Split for a union: ELOPE - This cluing flummoxed me

41. Gush: SPEW.

44. Meteorological line: ISOBAR - ISOBARS connect points of the same pressure. Where is there high wind on this map? (*answer below)

48. Units for many staples: Abbr.: LBS 

49. Blowup sound: KABOOM.

51. Bumped into: MET.

52. Didn't make it through committee, as a bill: DIED - Bills to legalize casino gambling have DIED year after year in our unicameral 

53. Beyond reason: INORDINATE - This summer's INORDINATE number of butterflies are very welcome

55. Land in a lake: ISLE.

57. Wonder Woman gal pal __ Candy: ETTA.

58. Pompano kin: SCAD.

POMPANO                                 SCAD

59. Black-necked shorebird: STILT - Like SCAD, this is wildlife out of my ken 

Black Necked Stilt

60. World power initials until 1991: USSR.

Down:

1. Slow cooker associated with Boston: BEAN POT 

2. Went down, in a way: OCCURRED.

3. Yield sign?: WHITE FLAG - One sports writer called a bad relief pitcher a "human WHITE FLAG"

4. Puts down roots: SODS.

5. "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer" doctor: MCCOY.

6. King's domain: REALM.

7. Worker with rattan: CANER - We had this in a daily puzzle recently

8. "For the Boys" org.: USO.

9. Advice for the itchy: BE PATIENT - Itchy here means having a strong desire to get going

10. Port vessel: WINE BARREL - BARRELS full of Cockburn's Port WINE near Porto, Portugal 

11. "You __ lucky!": ARE SO.

12. "Fiddlesticks!": NERTS.

13. Pair of shoes?: ESSES - Yes, ShoeS has two ESSES

16. Ness, for one: FED - Accountants did more to put Al Capone away than FED (g-man) Elliot Ness

23. Was a whiz on a quiz: GOT AN A - Curve wrecker!

24. Can't stand: ABHOR.

27. "Sesame Street" segment: ELMO'S WORLD.

29. Round up: GATHER.

31. Certain eligibility rules: AGE LIMITS.

32. Ali hooks, at times: LEFTS - Here are some quick ones!

33. "The Name of the Rose" author: ECO - If you must know

34. Work plans: TO DO LISTS - Mine grew from one to four last week due to my cell phone availability 

36. Safety features that have evolved since their inception: LAP BELTS - Neither mom nor baby seem safe here in these early models

38. Spousal consent: YES DEAR - "A soft answer turneth away wrath"

41. Works on pools: SKIMS.

42. __ attack: PANIC - Tony Soprano's Achilles Heel 

43. Target of a new vaccine: EBOLA.

45. Spender of rials: OMANI - This bucket would cost an OMANI 3.8 OMR (OMani Rials) or $9.78

46. Stimulating nut: BETEL - Chewing this nut can have horrible consequences. Google at your own peril

47. '50s headline event: A-TEST - The first A (bomb) -TEST was conducted in 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico as a successful conclusion of the Manhattan Project

50. Takes in too much, for short: ODS - See BETEL nut above

52. Spirit of Notre-Dame: DIEU - Que DIEU bénisse Notre Dame (May God bless Notre Dame)

54. "__ my problem": NOT - A mantra for some of us at this popsicle stand

Now don't waffle (you had to see that coming), we'd love to read your comments:

           

                                                                                                                                             
*It's very windy in the Mid-Atlantic part of the country

Saturday, August 10, 2019, Evan Kalish

  Saturday Themeless Puzzle by Evan Kalish

On this day we celebrate one of America's favorite pastimes - Bowling.

I have fond memories of this great game when my Dad used to bowl on the second floor above a department store where the alleys employed men pin setters.

On this National Bowling Day, I have to post a video of the best video/blogger I know - Doug (call me Boomer) Burnikel as he gets his twentieth perfect 300 game!

Today's constructor is Evan Kalish. Besides producing wonderful puzzles,  you can go to his web site and learn about him and his amazing hobby of collecting photographs of as many American post offices as he can. He has surpassed the 30,000 level.

Also at his site, you can click on any state where cities in that state will pop up and you can click on the link to the left of that city and see a picture of that town's post office that Evan has posted.

Evan calls his quest Postlandia. The picture Evan is holding here is of the post office in the unincorporated community of Yellow Jacket, Colorado.

When I contacted Evan, he had this to say about today's puzzle: "So what the LAT is running was the very first version of what I eventually achieved with this puzzle. I was never happy with the LAT one when I first started constructing. Only once I revisited that center stack with actual constructing software, a good word list and actual skill did I get the LAT to work!"

And now, fresh from the 68025 Zip Code, let's see what Evan has, uh, posted for us:

Across:

1. It's read monthly: GAS METER - Here in 68025, METERS are read remotely.

9. Myers partner in personality type research: BRIGGS - Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother Katharine Cook BRIGGS created a personal inventory. Here you can take an online version of the test to see where you fit below:

32. Exam given in spots?: RORSCHACH TEST - Here's an online version of that too

15. Part of a backup plan: AUTO SAVE - Is very useful if your battery suddenly dies

16. "Ni-i-ice!": OH COOL.

17. Walked all over: TRAMPLED and 56. Completely dominated: ATE ALIVE.


18. Word on some special plates: DEALER.

19. Klutzes: OAFS.

20. Understand: KNOW.

22. Added conditions: ANDS - "No Ifs, ____ or Buts"

23. Two-tone shirt wearer: REF - Also called Zebras (or worse) by fans

24. Word with side or prop: BET - A side BET or a Prop (proposition) BET is made on a issue apart from the outcome of the game. e.g. In the 2019 Super Bowl you could make a prop bet on whether any team will score a touchdown in less time that it took for Gladys Knight to sing the National Anthem

25. Crunch beneficiaries: ABS and 9. Gym rat's pride: BOD - Exhibit A

27. Like: A LA - A LA mode that means fashion of the day but that phrase is now usually used to indicate "served with ice cream"

29. Contributed to: FED.

30. Issuer of three-part nos.: SSA - Here's a famous number the Social Security Administration issued to this guy when he was working in Des Moines, Iowa

31. Gulf of __: OMAN - Evan, here is a picture of the Duqm Village, OMAN Post Office. No charge! 😙

35. "I know, right?": TELL ME ABOUT IT.

36. Hypothetical apocalyptic climate effect: NUCLEAR WINTER - Massive nuclear events could cause firestorms whose smoke would block the Sun

37. Single: ONLY.

38. Transparent collectible: CEL.

39. Sticker in a garden: BUR - In 1941 George de Mestral, inspired by the BURS that stuck on his clothing, used biomimicry to invent Velcro.  

40. Issa of "The Mis-adventures of Awkward Black Girl": RAE.

41. Islands sound: SKA - All you could want to know

42. __ stop: BUS.

43. Hold up: ROB.

46. Red state?: RASH - Maybe you could use our old cwd friend Aloe Vera

48. Hideout: LAIR.

50. Term popularized by le Carré: MOLE - Le Carré introduced this term for an insider spy in his 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy 

51. Have a positive impact: DO GOOD - Our Oahu guide said, "Missionaries came to Hawaii to DO GOOD and wound up doing very well"

53. Rustic home: LOG CABIN - Who was the last U.S. President to be born in a LOG CABIN which is shown here?. Hint: He was elected in 1880 (Answer at bottom of blog *)

55. Outwitted, in a way: ELUDED.

57. Div. with MLB's southernmost team: NL EAST - MLB thought the Miami Marlins would attract baseball-crazy Hispanic fans but that didn't happen and they now have the worst attendance in baseball

58. Rush hour metaphor: SARDINES.


Down:

1. Gainesville athlete: GATOR - Their fans do the GATOR Chomp

2. Glowing rings: AURAE - Various characteristics of different AURAE

3. Servers and such: STAFF.

4. Spring honorees: MOMS.

5. Unverified way of seeing: ESP.

6. Exchanged insults, as competitors: TALKED SMACK - Yeah, I think we know who "said" this

7. Wedding, for one: EVENT - The last wedding EVENT we attended had a 15-min ceremony and then food 5-min later! Yay!

8. Second chance: REDO.

10. Emu relatives: RHEAS - The mystery of the flightless birds

11. Confident assertion: I CAN.

12. Middle Eastern leader who grew up in Milwaukee: GOLDA MEIR - In 1917 Golda married Morris Myerson in Milwaukee. She later changed her name to MEIR

13. What an anchor does: GOES LAST - In a relay race, the anchor runs the last leg

14. Camera initials: SLR - Here 'ya go

21. Sinus-clearing condiment: WASABI on a 35. Sushi bar order: TUNA ROLL.

24. TV comedy pioneer: BERLE.

26. Nonkosher lunch, probably: BACON BURGER - This one has 780 calories and 113% of your daily saturated fat value.

28. Tiny tunneler: ANT.

29. Recklessness: FOLLY - This is the bank draft that paid $7.2M (about 2 cents/acre) for Seward's FOLLY

30. Wrapped accessory: SHAWL.

31. Web-footed animal: OTTER.

32. Group of local amateur teams: REC LEAGUE - REC(reation) LEAGUE


33. Oreo O's, e.g.: CEREAL - Our ubiquitous friend Oreo in the clue rather than in the fill

34. Many Rwandans: HUTUS - Hotel Rwanda shows the violence of the HUTU/TUTSI conflict 

36. Paired conjunction: NOR - Did anyone else think of this? 

41. Sole providers?: SHOES.

42. Flora and fauna: BIOTA.

43. Crime-fighting sidekick: ROBIN - "Holy Crossword, Batman!"

44. Antipasto morsel: OLIVE  - From anti (latin for before) and pastus (latin for food) for a appetizer course 

45. "Seinfeld" surname: BENES - Elaine's last name

47. Source of fizz: SODA.

49. Remark with a sigh: ALAS.

50. Neighbor of Algeria: MALI - For me here in Fremont, NE, the phrase "From here to Timbuktu, MALI" indicates about 5,600 miles

51. Cubs' home: DEN.

52. Early EPA concern: DDT - The debate continues as to whether its ability to control malaria balances its ecological effect 

54. Scoundrel: CAD.

I hope you found the picture of the post office in your Zip Code. Meanwhile you can electronically send us any comment you have on Evan's puzzle and save a trip to aforementioned post office.

* John Garfield was the last American president to be born in a LOG CABIN