Saturday, August 29, 2020, Gail Grabowski

Saturday, August 29, 2020, Gail Grabowski

Today's constructor is our former MS English teacher Gail Grabowski. Her puzzle is another pinwheel style like Joe Deeney's from last Saturday and has only 27 blocks

Once I got a toehold in the NE, I was sailing along and then some major speed bumps in the SE had me struggling to finish. Gail's cluing was just abstract enough to keep me searching for fill but that is what makes Saturdays so challenging.

Let's see what Gail has for us today:

Across:

1. Followed: ADHERED TO

10. Charlie Parker genre: BEBOP - My grandson is named Parker in Charlie's honor 

15. Carpenter's accessory: NAIL APRON - Nail guns make these pockets less full today

16. Not in the dark: AWARE.

17. "Perhaps": I'M NOT SURE - My thoughts as I use the new blogger site

18. Convene again: RESIT.

19. Wild: MAD - I'm just WILD/MAD about golf

20. More than a little: SOME.

21. Language class subject: TENSES - I blog this puzzle, I blogged this puzzle, I will have blogged this puzzle. Very appropriate for our English teacher 

22. Changed by time: AGED - Coopers making barrels to produce AGED whiskey

24. Took in slowly: NURSED - Many whiskey drinks need to be NURSED if you are going to be able to drive home safely and legally

26. Volatile letters: TNT.

27. Sports artist Neiman: LEROY - Husker coach Bob Devaney in LEROY's distinctive style

29. Comics socks: POWS - This took me a while

30. Start to fill?: AUTO.

31. Green: NEW

33. Diner's grazing spot: SALAD BAR - These may never come back 

35. Checked out: SCANNED.

39. Bass product: PALE ALE - Shoes? No. Fish? No. Music? No. Oh, it's ALE

40. Southwestern state symbol: LONE STAR.

42. It sells in advertising: SEX.

43. 11-time Gold Glove-winning shortstop Vizquel: OMAR - Making plays like this

44. Bring (out): TROT.

46. Instrument with an end pin: CELLO - Now it makes sense

50. Noir sleuth: TEC - Private eye, P.I., sleuth, deTECtive, etc.

51. Frequent fliers: JET SET.

53. Be overly sweet: CLOY - I'm more used to hearing it as a participle as in, "The cloying movie made it hard for me to stay to the end."

54. Did some course work: COOKED - Somebody COOKED that soup. Fun clue, Gail.

56. Release: EMIT.

58. Shuttle __: BUS - Here comes a Disney Shuttle BUS to pick us up at All Star Sport Resort

59. Douze mois: ANNEE - French - Douze (twelve) mois (months) is a ANNEE (year) The double EE made me uneasy for a while

60. Now: AT PRESENT.

62. What a hitchhiker aspires to be: RIDER.

63. Enclosure for dangerous underwater cinematography: STEEL CAGE - That's all that protects this diver from an 18' Great White

64. Clothes closers: SNAPS.

65. One who won't give: HARDLINER.

Down:

1. __ shelter: ANIMAL.

2. Crash or crush: DAMAGE.

3. Get in the way of: HINDER.

4. "Don't Bring Me Down" gp.: ELO - The 3-letter house band for crossword puzzles

5. "Aw, nuts!": RATS.

6. Japanese electronics giant: EPSON.

7. Devise: DRUM UP - We've all seen this way to DRUM UP a Mouse Trap

8. Capa wavers: TOREROS - Three TORREROS with the Matador

9. Gender-neutral pronoun: ONE.

10. Revealed: BARED.

11. Bremner of "Black Hawk Down": EWEN.

12. Low-pitched wind: BASS TUBA.

13. Avenue after Reading Railroad: ORIENTAL - Even on this earliest known version if you look carefully

14. Seller of Lab supplies: PET STORE - Not for my science lab but for a Lab dog

21. Model 3 autos: TESLAS.

23. "Conspiracy Theory" director Richard: DONNER.

25. Trade: SWAP.

28. Aches: YENS.

30. Commercial bigwig: AD EXEC - Do you know the unusual wife of this TV AD EXEC? (*answer below the write-up)

32. Soaked: WETTED.

34. Co-star of Meryl in "It's Complicated": ALEC - Meryl did star with ALEC Baldwin in that movie but this is a picture of our cousin, and my former student ALEC Bohm, whose first MLB homer was a 443' shot for the Phillies last week.

35. Toys that run on tracks: SLOT CARS - The SLOT CARS here are being propelled by bikers!

36. "Door's open": COME ON IN.

37. Amazon predator: ANACONDA.

38. Projectile with a flight: DART - It always seemed funny to me that the bullseye is not highest possible score on a throw

41. Nile home of a historic stone: ROSETTA - Rosetta Stone

45. State of mind: TEMPER - Effective teachers have a more easy-going TEMPER

47. New England retailer since 1912: LL BEAN - The flagship store in Freeport, Maine

48. Room for leisure activity: LOUNGE.

49. Bed occupant: OYSTER.

51. Shows disapproval, in a way: JEERS.

52. Ready to pack it in: TIRED.

55. Stay fresh: KEEP.

57. Snitch: TELL - Should I snitch on that guy who snitched a candy bar?

60. Shade of gray: ASH.

61. It may be natural: Abbr.: SCI.

* AD EXEC Darren Stevens was married to Samantha Stevens who happened to be Bewitched 

Comment below:

Map

Saturday, March 21, 2020, Joe Deeney

Themeless Saturday  by Joe Deeney

A favorite picture of Joe's taken at the San Francisco Exploratorium

Joe's gracious response to my email about this puzzle:

Gary,


Thanks for reaching out! I'm glad you enjoyed the puzzle. Hope all is well with you.

I built this grid in early 2019. Rich requested a revision of the SE in late August and accepted the puzzle in early October. Original SE stack was LET IT SLIDE, IRON-WILLED, and MANGO SALSA, with QAEDA and 44-Down, which in hindsight isn't a very good answer. I'm glad Rich pushed for a revision here. 

I hadn't tried making many puzzles with stair-step 13's before and wanted to give it a go with this puzzle. SAID NO ONE EVER was one of the seeds I played around with and when I found this stack it seemed like it had a lot of potential to build off of.

I hope everyone gets a satisfying Saturday workout with this one.

-Joe

Take it away Joe:

Across:

1. Cathartic magnesium compound: EPSOM SALTS - My lovely gardener wife uses EPSOM SALTS to supply her tomato plants with a cathartic release from soil depletion

11. Bygone Bulgarian bigwig: TSAR - Bulgaria's last TSAR was Simeon II whose office was abolished four days after my 9/11/46 day of birth.

15. Some drag racers: ROCKET CARS - For every action...

16. Scott of "Arrested Development": BAIO  - 21 years after he was Chachi in Happy Days 

17. Comment denying kinship: NO RELATION - Latin variation of "post hoc, ego propter hoc" in this witty 1:43 West Wing scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsI36TzIikY
18. Bob Ross painted with one: AFRO - Soft spoken artist

19. Dog follower, maybe: SLED - Nome or bust!

20. "Disturbia" singer, familiarly: RIRI - Nickname for Rhianna 

21. Raise: ERECT.

22. "The Cocktail Party" monogram: TSE - A play based on Alcestis by the Greek playwright Euripides. You're welcome! 😏

23. Former Carson Daly employer: MTV  - Curious?

Parker Sibley at UNC

24. Horn for Parker: SAX - Our grandson's father is a professional musician and named his two sons for famous jazz sax musicians, one of which was Charlie "Bird" Parker. Grandson Parker is now on a drum (not a SAX) scholarship at The University of Northern Colorado

26. Where to find Ruth and Aaron: Abbr.: HOF and 51. Came clean: ADMITTED IT - If Pete Rose had just ADMITTED IT (he bet on baseball), he would be in the Hall  Of Fame by now. 

27. West in old movies: MAE.

28. Small book size: OCTAVO.

30. Words that contradict what preceded them: SAID NO ONE EVER - And yet they continue

34. Perpetual loser: CELLAR DWELLER - Another phrase for a team that is in the bottom of the standings like the 1966 Cubs

35. Game time?: HUNTING SEASON.

36. Hydrocodone, e.g.: OPIATE - Threw mine away after surgery

37. "Too Many Rappers" rapper: NAS - Okay

38. Holstein's hi?: MOO.

39. "Flags of Our Fathers" setting, for short: IWO - A Clint Eastwood film

41. Vegas summer hrs.: PDT.

42. Windy City train org.: CTA.

45. "Baywatch" actor: EFRON.

47. Superman's mom: LARA - Wife of Jor-El on Krypton. Stepmom on Earth was Martha Kent

49. Physics Nobelist the year after Einstein: BOHR - Every physical science teacher in history has had his students make a model of the BOHR atom. Science peeps will know what atom this is. (*Answer at bottom of write-up)

50. "Count on me!": I'M IN.

53. "Aww!": CUTE.



54. Source of some long flows: HEADWATERS - The HEADWATERS of the Mississippi River are in Minnesota's Lake Itasca where you can wade across Old Man River

55. Freezer aisle brand: EDYS.

56. At risk: IN JEOPARDY - Corona Virus seems to have us all IN JEOPARDY 


Down:

1. __ Blofeld, Bond bad guy: ERNST 

2. Combines: POOLS - Some workers POOL their money and buy large amounts of lottery tickets

3. Slope of loose stones: SCREE - I showed a man skiing down SCREE in Austria last week

4. Passed: OK'ED.

5. Sideshow __ of "The Simpsons": MEL - If you're really that interested

6. Gave it another go: STARTED ANEW - I retired but then taught six more years after a year away from the classroom  

7. When Prospero says, "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on": ACT IV - Sam Spade's version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp7130Bjec4

8. Hideaway: LAIR.

9. Dix moins sept: TROIS - 10 - 7 = 3 in any base ten math language 

10. I-9 ID: SSN.

11. Uphill aid: T-BAR.

12. Sanctuary: SAFE HAVEN - A controversial topic these days

13. Protection from planes: AIR COVER - At the Battle Of The Bulge

14. Support: ROOT FOR - Only families of players and coaches were allowed in to ROOT FOR their team at the Nebraska Boys State Championships last week

21. Does very well: EXCELS AT.

23. Do the bare minimum: MAIL IT IN - What many NBA players do until the playoffs

25. Welk intro words: A ONE AND A TWO.

27. Mediterranean country in which English is an official language: MALTA - My first five-letter country starting with M is a 22 hr flight away. The official languages in Macao are Cantonese and Portuguese but English is common too but no where near the Mediterranean 😜  

29. Final purpose, to Aristotle: TELOS.

30. Factor in committee assignments: SENIORITY - Competence? Not necessarily!

31. Houston's __ Stadium, named for an energy company: NRG A lovely drone tour if you're interested 

32. Has too much, briefly: OD'S.

33. Run a tab, say: OWE.

34. Coffee, in diner slang: CUP OF MUD - Diner vernacular for coffee 

35. Hockey advantage: HOME ICE - Of the last 17 Stanley Cup playoffs, the 13 champions had the advantage of playing on HOME ICE

40. From days past: OLDEN.

41. __ parade: PRIDE.

42. Python pro: CODER - A sample of what a CODER might produce in Python language

43. Bronze ordinal: THIRD - Will there be a summer Olympics?

44. Like Taos, say: ARTSY.

46. Folks: ONES

48. Key of Mozart's clarinet concerto: Abbr.: A-MAJ - The clarinetist starts playing after a 2:00 intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT_63UntRJE
49. Version to debug: BETA - It appears The Iowa Caucus app needed to be debugged 

51. Sashimi selection: AHI.

52. Light knock: TAP - For $650 you can have this note about a poem featuring TAPPING written in Poe's own hand.

Comment at will:

* That is a model of a Carbon Atom - Atomic #6