Saturday, July 22, 2023, Ed Sessa

Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa

It has been over two years since I have had the privilege blogging one of Dr. Sessa's Saturday themeless puzzles. He is a master constructor and even the obscure fill of today had plenty of help to complete. Here we see him with his late puppy Tug. 

As you know, Dr. Ed was displaced from his idyllic Sanibel Island by Hurricane Ian and after searching for new quarters wound up on the Florida mainland just across from his old digs on Sanibel. 

Across:

1. Bee team: SWARM 😀

6. One who handles liner notes?: 😀 PURSER  - One of many jobs a PURSER handles on a cruise liner.

            

12. Gorillagram get-up: APE SUIT.

14. Individually: APIECE.

15. [yawn]: BLAH BLAH - Read the room!

17. Northernmost capital on the Mississippi: ST. PAUL.

 
18. Need for some kiddie pools: AIR.

19. Bit of Springfield graffiti: EL BARTO.

21. Actress Wray: FAY - She'll always be remembered for this role

22. Orhan Pamuk novel featuring a blizzard in Turkey: SNOW.

24. Choir section: ALTOS.

25. Carpentry joint: DADO.

26. Lab burners of old: ETNAS - In my lab we called them Bunsen burners

28. When day is done, to Donne: EEN - Poetic contraction for evening

29. "The Newsroom" creator Sorkin: AARON - AARON is on the front right

30. Wielder of a Neutrona Wand: GHOSTBUSTER - A model of Peter Venkman with one. "Who ya gonna call?"

33. Number cruncher: BEAN COUNTER.    

34. Fine and dandy: RIGHT AS RAIN - A very appropriate sentiment for summer in Nebraska

35. Some consoles: SEGAS.

36. Tent stake: PEG.

37. Lives like a queen?: RULES - We have one at our house.

41. Footlocker clasp: HASP.

42. Get ready, in a way: TEE UP - Fore!

44. Slow roller from first to third?: TARP - Yes, it rolls out slowly and covers first base to third base, but don't get caught under it.

45. High point of a Ricola commercial: ALP.

46. Places with some good deals: CASINOS - 😀 After years of resistance, Nebraska has finally legalized CASINOS.  Temporary ones have already generated millions in tax revenues while big new facilities are being constructed like this one in Lincoln.

48. Orange County airport, on luggage tags: SNA - This is the airport code for this airport in Santa Ana, CA.

49. Plug: STOP UP 

51. QB stat: TD PASSES.

53. Blow one's horn: TOOTLE.

54. "Baseball is 90 percent mental. The other half is physical," for one: YOGIISM - Ya gotta love YOGI Berra!

55. Name of the pig on "Green Acres": ARNOLD - ARNOLD Ziffel to be exact

56. Parking ticket issuer: VALET - 😀 You get a ticket so your VALET can retrieve your car

Down:

1. Support after a break, perhaps: SPLINT 😀

2. Start to aggravate: WEAR ON.

3. Volcanic fallout: ASH - From the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens

4. Unsophisticated sort: RUBE.

5. Jovovich of the "Resident Evil" films: MILLA - Hollywood has a penchant for scantily attired, young women toting weapons

6. Personal histories: PASTS.

7. Until: UP TO.

8. Letters set in stone: RIP - Rest In Peace

9. Plymouth voyager?: SEAFARER - Puritan was one letter short. Those who did make the 66-day trip in 1620 were indeed SEAFARERS.

10. Country named for its location: ECUADOR - ECUADOR is Spanish for equator. ECUADOR is one of the few places on Earth where the 0^o line of latitude goes through Ciuad Mitad del Mundo, which is a few miles north of Quito.  Some say it is off by 250 yds but on March 21 and September 21 they have no shadow there.

11. Need: RELY ON.

12. Put down: ABASE.

13. Artistic settings?: TABLESCAPES - Probably too fancy for a grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup.

16. "Such a shame": HATE TO SEE IT - An instate boy was a huge disappointment!

20. Fictional news anchor who ended broadcasts with "You stay classy, San Diego!": RON BURGUNDY.

23. Equal Pay Day issue: WAGE GAP - I've never taught at a school where there was a WAGE GAP between men and women teachers. Nor was there one between great and mediocre ones. 

25. Bread sold in cans: DATE NUT.

27. Pahlavi dynasts: SHAHS - The SHAH had his shortcomings but after he left...

29. Up: ASTIR.

31. Maple Leafs prov.: ONT - The Maple Leafs play in the Scotiabank Arena, 40 Bay St., Toronto, ONT M5J 2X2, Canada

32. "__ cerveza, por favor": UNA - One beer please in Español 

33. Hip hugger?: BIG SPOON - 😀

34. One who moves a lot?: REALTOR - REALTORS in our neighborhood are trying to move building lots for $75,000 apiece

35. Peak in the Cascade Range: SHASTA - C.C. and I did a puzzle 9 years ago that had the names of peaks in The Cascade Range differently clued.

38. Dog star: LASSIE.  Not Sirius

39. "A Lesson Before Dying" writer __ J. Gaines: ERNEST.

40. Unavoidable jerk: SPASM - We have an unavoidable jerk in our golf league. 

42. Cordoned (off): TAPED.

43. American vodka brand with a Russian name: POPOV.

46. Gather selectively: CULL - My MIL had to periodically CULL the non-laying hens out of her flock 

47. Extensive account: SAGA.

50. Sick days, personal days, etc.: Abbr.: PTO - Personal Time Off

52. Part of RSVP: SIL - Voulez-vous S'IL vous plaît commenter l'énigme du Docteur Sessa? (Will you please comment on Doctor Sessa's puzzle?)

 

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