Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Jerry Eldstein

Title: NOR ANY DROP TO DRINK

Jerry's wonderful Wednesday-level puzzle combines a famous line from Coleridge's poem of the ill-fated, albatross-slaying sailor and eight, count 'em, eight phrases that can be formed when WATER precedes both words of two word theme fills. WATER, WATER everywhere indeed! Very impressive to this land lubber!

THEME FILL:

26. Oil conduit : PIPELINE - One of which, runs from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in Alaska or

WATER PIPE - A conveyance for a buzz

or

WATER LINE  - What has been receding behind Lake Mead during the SW drought

31. Electricity source : POWER PLANT - What is inside Hoover Dam that uses the waters of Lake Mead or

WATER POWER - a rough idea of what happens inside Hoover Dam

or WATER PLANT - A facility that makes your water potable

42. Reaganomics term : SUPPLY SIDE - Economic system where government gets less money and private enterprise gets to keep more or

WATER SUPPLY - What can be threatened when these run too much in dry years

or WATER SIDE - A great San Antonio location

47. Primary entrance : MAIN GATE - A Disney Park front door or

WATER MAIN - They can be spectacular when they break

or WATERGATE - Enough said!

17. With 59-Across, words from a fictional mariner ... and a hint to both parts of 26-, 31-, 42- and 47-Across : WATER WATER and 59. See 17-Across : EVERYWHERE

Now let's sail on to see what else Jerry has cast upon our crossword waters:

Across

1. Pricey : STEEP - Who ever thought water would cost more per gallon than gas?

6. Place for a chicken : COOP

10. Herring prized for its roe : SHAD

14. Use a lectern : ORATE

15. A fan of : INTO

16. Tortilla snack : TACO

19. Any minute now, to a bard : ANON

20. Tampa-to-Jacksonville dir. : NNE - It's 198.4 miles

21. Frosty coat : HOAR - A HOARY engraving from our poem du jour of the crew and that bird

22. Fern-to-be : SPORE

23. Criticize sneakily : SNIPE - Here it is usually to criticize anonymously

28. Chef's tool : SPATULA

30. Fire, or fire-fighting tool : AXE - Or Gene Simmons' bass

34. Astronaut Grissom : GUS - He almost drowned on the second Mercury mission

37. Incriminate with false evidence : FRAME - Did OJ ever find the real killer?

38. __-Locka, Florida : OPA - Originally Opa-tisha-wocka-locka

39. Emaciated : GAUNT

41. Messy spot : STY

44. __ Kan: Alpo rival : KAL

46. Fit as a fiddle and tough as nails : SIMILES - The one about me ends ...as a rock

52. Exams for would-be attys. : LSATS

53. Shore eagles : ERNES - Our old cwd friend and a surprise prey

54. Object of worship : IDOL

56. Dick's wife, twice : LIZ

58. __-Seltzer : ALKA

62. Safe document : DEED

63. Left : GONE

64. Conundrum : POSER 

65. They may be split or tight : ENDS - Pretty easy to discern

66. __ buco: veal dish : OSSO

67. Make a mess of : MISDO - Okay


Down

1. Seeded : SOWN - Some consider the SOWER atop Nebraska's capital to be, uh, controversial when its image is transferred to our sesquicentennial license plate

2. Convey : TRANSPORT

3. Completely eroded : EATEN AWAY 

4. Nice season? : ETE - Je n'étais pas dupe! (I was not fooled!)

5. Part of 60-Down : PER - My sister typed over 100 words PER minute 50 yrs ago. I once got half that.

6. "Ta-ta" : CIAO

7. Coming up next : ON TAP

8. Ferrell's "SNL" cheerleading partner : O'TERI

9. __ favor: Pedro's "please" : POR

10. Paper clip alternative : STAPLE - Also an alternative for stitches

11. Onetime capital of French Indochina : HANOI

12. Oak nut : ACORN - "Gee! Ahma tree!", exclaimed the mathmatically mature ACORN.

13. Charity, say : DONEE - I would think the DONEE receives the charity

18. Puppy : WHELP - Dura-WHELP makes a box for them

22. Masters and Johnson subject : SEX - Their research revealed sexual intimacy could last well beyond 70. Could, mind you!

24. Agenda line : ITEM

25. Partner of simple : PURE

27. First lady after Lady Bird : PAT

28. Suntan lotion numbers, briefly : SPFS

29. Baseball's Matty or Felipe : ALOU

32. Droid download : APP

33. Snoozes : NAPS

34. Free from blame : GUILTLESS - or from  35. Not wanted : UNDESIRED calories?

36. Fr. holy women : STES

39. Places with rings and horses : GYMS - In Lego Land

40. Massive land mass : ASIA

42. Gp. that kidnapped Patty Hearst : SLA

43. Big name in pharmaceuticals : LILLY - And for our kitty

44. Works on, as dough : KNEADS

45. Top prosecutors: Abbr. : AGS - Attorneys General

47. Maryland's Fort __ : MEADE - Named for the the Union Commander at Gettysburg

48. "Over the Rainbow" composer Harold : ARLEN - Some MGM execs wanted it cut from the movie because they thought it slowed down the pace

49. Signed in pen : INKED

50. DVR devices : TIVOS

51. Blissful places : EDENS

55. Treat often split : OREO - Found nestled among these most common cwd answers

57. Nothing : ZERO

59. __ trip : EGO

60. Typing meas. : WPM

61. __ polloi : HOI - Ah, ya gotta love the classics!

Wisdom, wisdom everywhere and plenty for us to read. Let those unfiltered comments rip!

The Grid

Sunday, December 28, 2014, C.C. Burnikel

Theme: I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 8.... 

Today I get to ESPouse some comments on this ESPcially fun puzzle by our Extra Special Puzzlemistress C.C.!

ESP Testing in Ghostbusters. Remember which subject did well?

Seeing SPIRIT and SPEED early sent me down a blind theme alley but then I saw the very clever ESP grouping split between two words as either ...E SP... or ...ES P... Seven Across and two Down. Coupled with her always fun cluing made for an enjoyable time on this last Sunday of 2014.

Theme Answers

23A. Nonconformist : FREE SPIRIT 

33A. Roadword warning : REDUCE SPEED

45A. Candy that comes in three colors : REESES PIECES - E.T's favorite!

70A. X Games pursuits : EXTREME SPORTS - Knock yourself out! Probably will.

89A. Position held three times by Henry Clay : HOUSE SPEAKER - LBJ knocked heads together and got more things done than as VP.

103A. Athlete's setback : ANKLE SPRAIN 

117A. Pledge drive talk, essentially : SALES PITCH - Like during this fabulous show

15D. Colorado Gold Rush area : PIKES PEAK - The temp dropped 50˚F as we rode the Cog R.R. to the top

80D. Polite acceptance : YES PLEASE

...and the Reveal:

97D. One with the ability hidden in nine puzzle answers : PSYCHIC - The reveal! How come they aren't  getting rich by betting on football or playing the lottery?

Across

1. Holed, as a putt : SUNK - "It's in the hole!" Caddyshack

5. Gives and takes : SWAPS 

10. Unlit : SOBER - Clever. 

15. Showy display ; POMP - Hey, whatever floats your boat...

19. Neat as : A PIN - A wifely trait that my daughter's didn't get

20. ____ firma : TERRA - Some of California's TERRA sometimes is not so firma 

21. Butt (in) : CHIME

22. Google Nexus competitor : iPAD - Joann always seems to have hers out despite not wanting one initially 

25. Predecessor of Begin : RABIN

26. Superman's cover : KENT - Really? The glasses and the curl fooled you?

27. Choice cut : FILET

28. Went for a seat : RAN - My best friend's son ran for and now has a seat in the U.S. Senate

29. British aristocrat : EARL - My favorite contribution by an Earl

30. Get hot on Twitter : TREND 

31. Longtime Guardian cartoonist Asquith : ROS 

37. Equally not : AS MAD - as a wet hen?

39. Rosemary relative : OREGANO

41. Tolkien forest giant : ENT - We might as well learn it. It's not going away

42. "Moneyball" Oscar nominee : BRAD PITT

44. Boneheads : NINNIES

48. "Gimme __!": start of a Rutgers cheer : AN R 

49. "10538 Overture" band : ELO

51. Good buddy : PAL 

52. HDTV brand : RCA - Now made by S. Korean Company, On Corp,  in China

53. Pulls a fast one on : SNOWS - Can anyone say Bernie Madoff

56. Don McLean song that begins "Starry, starry night" : VINCENT

58. Large spitz : AKITA - Built for when it 53A's

62. Parts of teacups : EARS - A tea connoisseur like C.C. would know

63. Central Utah city : OREM

65. Pomegranate color : RED - I only learned last week how to eat a Pomegranate

66. Dragon roll ingredient : EEL

68. Room to chill : DEN - Mine's my sunroom

69. Still undecided, briefly : TBA - Like televised college football games

73. Permitted : LET - In tennis LET serves are not permitted

74. Huge load : TON 

75. Uni, in sushi bars : ROE

76. You, to Goethe : SIE

77. Tax-sheltered accts. : IRAS - This is the time of year we wished they were Roth IRA's

78. They may be placed : BETS - A scene where the guy on the left BETS on 22 Black on Bogie's advice

79. Delivery expert, briefly : OB/GYN Leonard, "Raj you should be an OB/GYN like your dad". Raj, "My God Leonard, I can't even look a woman in the eye!"

81. Canal transport : GONDOLA

83. Forward : PUSHY

84. "Ich bin __ Berliner" : EIN - JFK gave Berlin hope 36 years before the wall came down

86. Has too much, briefly : ODS

87. Styling stuff : GEL - Yeah, it really works on you!

88. Pop holder : CAN - It was glass in my ute and I got 2 cents for returning them

94. Troop support mission : AIR DROP - These kept Berlin alive in '48 and '49

98. Looks for flaws in : INSPECTS - Did anyone ever get one of those bikini inspector jobs?

99. "The Royal Tenenbaums" director Anderson : WES

101. Eavesdrops, with "in" : LISTENS

102. Stretch : SPELL - Whether  is a bad SPELL of weather

107. Ottoman governor : BEY - Why do I think they weren't elected?

108. "You __ right!" : ARE SO

110. Olympian war god : ARES

111. Auction group : LOT

112. Stern with a bow : ISAAC

114. South Pacific capital : APIA - Looks pretty good from the cold prairie in December

115. Tea grade : PEKOE

119. Brings together : WEDS

120. Revise, as text : EMEND - Certainly part of this process

121. Map fleck : ISLET

122. Spice Girl Halliwell : GERI

123. Hebrides tongue : ERSE

124. Fellas : DUDES

125. Insincere : PHONY

126. Teeny amt. of time : NSEC - Time it takes for the idiot behind me to honk his horn when the light turns green. .000000001 sec

Down:

1. Paella ingredient : SAFFRON - Do you know the same song I do with SAFFRON in the lyric?

2. Existing independent of experience, in logic : A PRIORI - True by definition - All triangles have three sides? Yes. All tall people like basketball? Nope!

3. Eponymous market analyst : NIELSEN - We hated being a NIELSEN family

4. Joint where kids are welcome? : KNEE - even on artificial ones

5. Son of a Gun! vinyl protectant maker : STP

6. Oddballs : WEIRDOS - Big Bang is making Oddballs more mainstream

7. Pianist Claudio : ARRAU - No chance

8. Royal issue : PRINCE - There's probably one in the POMP picture above

9. Held court : SAT 

10. Junkyard metal : SCRAP - We got $20 for our old barbecue grill

11. Midwest hub : O'HARE - a "gots to have" even when just connecting through O'HARE

12. Fundamentalist region : BIBLE BELT - I think I live in the buckle of that belt

13. Longtime Brit. music label : EMI

14. Second-home income, perhaps : RENT 

16. Feature of club nights for wannabes : OPEN MIC

17. Official order : MANDATE

18. Safeco Field summer hrs. : PDT - Beautiful home of the Seattle Mariners close to the Puget Sound

24. Stretches to the limit : STRAINS

29. Where el sol rises : ESTE

31. Extremists : RADICALS - One man's radical is another's champion

34. Ernest Moniz's dept. : ENER - The present's Secretary of Energy

35. 2001 scandal subject : ENRON - Substitute Kenneth Lay for Bernie Madoff from above

36. Who and No: Abbr. : DRS - or J and Dre

38. Rehab hurdle : DTS - My dad went through these

40. Chews (on) : GNAWS 

43. National Humor Mo. : APR

46. Blunted blades : EPEES - Could someone look up how often we've had this word in 2014?

47. Construction site sight : SANDPILE 

49. Continually : EVER -"ForEVER and EVER, Hallelujah, Hallelujah" are words in of one of the most beautiful vocal pieces ever penned

50. Citrus drink : LIME SODA - Usually Lemon/Lime

53. Squabble : SET TO

54. Big wheel : NABOB - Would have remained in obscurity without Spiro Agnew needing alliteration with Nattering and Negativity

55. Borneo rainforest denizen : ORANG - My daughter's friend was told to stay behind the orange line when walking by the ORANG cages at the Omaha Zoo. They were smart, strong and had long arms.

57. Words to live by : CREED 

59. Wastes time : IDLES

60. Brush targets : TEETH - Joann tell the grandkids "It's time to tickle the ivories"

61. Fidgeting : ANTSY - Ever teach a Kindergarten class?

63. Good Grips kitchenware brand : OXO

64. Google Maps offering: Abbr. : RTE

66. Depression __ : ERA - Even with expendable cash, Joann's mother still shops like it's the dirty 30's

67. "The X-Files" extras : ETS -Spielberg had the one that liked REESE'S PIECES "phone home" in his movie

70. Two-time British Open champ : ERNIE ELS - It's said his swing is identical to Michelle Wie's. Not much else ;-)

71. Belarus capital : MINSK

72. __ exam : ORAL - Never had to take one

78. Cake pan trademark : BUNDT

81. Gets buff? : GOES NAKED

82. Role-playing game beasts : OGRES

83. Carrot cousin : PARSNIP - I've never crossed the path of this veggie

85. Pres. advisory team : NSC - JFK and the NSC said no to missiles in Cuba and Khrushchev blinked

88. DXV ÷ V : CIII - If the forum has DXV togas and V senators, how many does each get?

89. "To each __ own" : HIS - this song was #1 for three performers in my birth year

90. Hypothetically : ON PAPER - Where this made sense

91. Handles for surfers : USER IDS

92. National org. with the slogan "everychild. onevoice" : PTA

93. "Babe" extras : EWES - Did they say their lines sheepishly?

94. Twelve Steps support group : ALA TEEN - Could'a used that growing up

95. Money-back lures : REBATES - Just take 'em off the price and save some paper

96. Plot size, perhaps : ONE ACRE

100. Make waves, in a way : SPLASH

104. Danish coin : KRONE

105. Victoria Quarter city : LEEDS - Third largest city in the UK. Been there, Steve?

106. Rich boy in "Nancy" comics : ROLLO - Richie Rich was in a different venue

109. Rebuttal piece, perhaps : OP-ED

113. Fire __ : SIGN - Ares, Leo and Sagittarius 

114. Leave wide-eyed : AWE

116. Feathered six-footer : EMU - Not that's a REAL Big Bird!

117. Nurse : SIP

118. Muddy home : STY

My ESP tells me I'd better get busy with my chores! Thanks for a lovely Sunday Puzzle and all you do for us "Denizens Of The Puzzle"! 

Three more days until 2015. Does anyone know of any unbreakable resolutions?