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.