Saturday, October, 17, 2020, Sheryl Bartol

Saturday Themeless by Sheryl Bartol

Today's constructor is Sheryl Bartol from Evanston, IL who learned to construct from her sister Debbie Ellerin whose byline we see here also. This is a very attractive picture of the two sisters.

This was Sheryl's lovely response when I asked her about this puzzle: 

Hi Gary,

Nice to hear from you again.  This puzzle went through a lot of iterations and rework.  In the end, it was quite different from where I started, as I discovered new word combinations along the way.  Here are a few comments on some of the entries:

One of my favorite words is EMOTICON which I often use in my emails ;) 

We play a lot of board games in my house, especially during a pandemic, which inspired my CARTEL clue.  

I am also a big Indian food fan, hence the way I clued LENTIL.

Lastly, I love the change that our dear editors made to my clue for POET, which was not nearly as clever.

I hope everyone enjoys solving it!

Thanks,

Sheryl

Across:

1. They clean up: JANITORS - They are a great asset to any school or business especially these days.

9. Menu category including shells: PASTA - Conchiglia is Italian for conch shell

14. Park, for one: OPEN AREA.

15. Monopoly player?: CARTEL - OPEC used to be one

16. Sign in many restaurant windows: UBER EATS which can lead to this delivery service

17. Emblem on a dollar bill: US SEAL.

18. For or against: SIDE - You might have to 57. Retreat from, as a previous statement: WALK BACK - Wait, that's not what I meant

19. Parisian street food: CREPES - Parfait in French means perfect. Oh, but you already knew that.

21. CPR group: EMS The difference between EMS and EMT

22. "__ Story": TOY.

23. Reasons for sighs: CLOSE CALLS - Put down that cell phone!

25. Female rabbit: DOE.

26. Like "Home Alone": RATED PG.

28. City NNW of Park City: OGDEN.

31. Many glasses are sold as one: PAIR - I got my first PAIR at 15. You? 

33. Queen dowager of Jordan: NOOR - A Jordanian Queen born in Washington D.C.

34. Browning but not cooking: POET - A clue change Sheryl admired for Elizabeth Barrett Browning 

35. Have the ability to: COULD.

36. Ripped: TORE.

37. Barbecue tool feature: TINE.

38. Fireside sight: LOGS.

39. Like some tricks: DIRTY.

40. Showed scorn: SNORTED - Yeah, I'm the only one who first put SNEERED

42. "Erie Canal" mule: SAL - I’ve got an old mule and her name is Sal, Fifteen years on the Erie Canal. She’s a good old worker and a good old pal, Fifteen years on the Erie Canal

43. App update messages, say: PUSH ALERTS - It's up to you whether to get 'em  or not

46. Award show VIPs: MCS.

49. Egg dropper: HEN - I conducted thousands of these over the years sans any HENS

50. Plane, for one: EVENER - After a trip through the PLANER

51. "What can I help you with?" speaker: SIRI.

52. Clear out: VACATE.

54. It often includes a colon: EMOTICON - Sheryl says she really enjoys these like :-) I have found Bitmojis which are pretty cool!

56. Amtrak speedsters: ACELAS.

58. Gives up: CEDES - There are several below

59. Clomps (through), as a puddle: SPLOSHES - Yeah, I'm the only one who put SPLASHES. Even GALOSHES made more sense instead of this word that is foreign to me (and my spellchecker) 

Down:

1. Renaissance faire contest: JOUST.

2. Challenging H.S. science class: AP BIO - A page on Speciation from an Advanced Placement Biology  book

3. Clingy, say: NEEDY.

4. Memo intro: IN RE.

5. Menlo Park, N.J., notable: TAE - Edison and his staff are said to have comprised the first R & D facility 

6. Pythia of the Temple of Apollo, for one: ORACLE - This ORACLE was always a woman and was said to have made her prophecies after inhaling fumes (hallucinogenic?) that rose from cracks in the Earth in the temple at Delphi.

7. Vintage: RETRO - Acme dinettes are still in production 70 years later

8. MS enclosures: SASES - Self Addressed Stamped Envelopes ("en vuh lopes" or "awn vuh lopes?")

9. Volkswagen sedan: PASSAT - In German, PASSAT means "trade wind"

10. MGM motto word: ARS.

11. Safe room barrier: STEEL DOOR - This safe room from the Atlas Company might interest you if you live in Oklahoma's "Tornado Alley"

-

12. Baseball or soccer: TEAM SPORT.

13. Start of a Shakespeare title: ALL'S -Well That Ends Well - "Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to no one." Act I scene i.

15. Its lines have lines: CUE CARD.

20. Hazards: PERILS.

23. Sting: CON - I'd pay to see it again - A 2019 version?

24. Ingredient in the Indian dish dal: LENTIL - Indian LENTIL curry with spinach 

25. Discourages: DETERS.

27. Like a cloudy London day: GREY - How that "colour" is spelled where you might be able to see only a few "metres"

28. Goes (for): OPTS.

29. Gentle parting sentiment: GO IN PEACE.

30. Criticized publicly: DENOUNCED - Election day can't get here fast enough 

31. Charley, in Steinbeck's "Travels With Charley": POODLE.

32. National Mustard Day mo.: AUG.

35. Adheres ... or separates: CLEAVES - A poetic expression of the less common definition

39. "__ Kapital": DAS - Karl Marx's work on the eventual collapse of capitalism 

41. Angle symbols: THETAS.

42. Boardwalk activity: STROLL.

44. Online show offering Hollywood info: E-NEWS.

45. Update after a new survey, maybe: REMAP - After Lewis and Clark's survey

46. Biblical prophet: MICAH

47. "Time in a Bottle" singer: CROCE - The song and scenes tug at my heart

48. Some islands have them: SINKS.

49. Temperature control syst.: HVAC - Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning 

51. They're often rivals: SIBS - I'm sure there was none of that with Sheryl and Debbie!!    

It was their schtick!

53. Ginger __: ALE.

55. Ring decision, briefly: TKO.

Comment below:

Saturday, September 19, 2020, Stella Zawistowski

Saturday Themeless by Stella Zawistowski 

Our self-proclaimed "brawny brain" is back with another Saturday entry. Stella is a Brooklyn-based copywriter at a pharmaceutical advertising agency and a power lifter. In her last puzzle she introduced us to a North African egg dish called SHAKSHUKA which I have yet to try. 

This is what she had to say about this puzzle and her cluing/fill philosophy:

Thank you kindly! Here's a note on the puzzle:

My seed for this puzzle was TROUSER ROLE, as I am a lover of classical music (although not especially an opera fan). Since the last time I had a themeless published in LAT, I've grown a lot in terms of considering entries for their potential for solvers to realize after the fact what the clue was hinting at, even if they didn't know the term beforehand. I am definitely in the camp of "learning something new from crosswords is good" and not "solving a puzzle should be about figuring out tricky clues for things I already know." But I've moved more to the side of "learn the thing while solving the puzzle," not "see the unfamiliar thing, have to Google it afterward, and THEN learn the thing."

PIANISSIMO was not a seed entry, but now that you know I'm a classical music fan, you can see why I chose that over other possibilities for 14-Across!

Across:

1. On the move: ASTIR.

6. At least four yrs. old, for cognac: VSOP - Very Superior Old Pale

10. TV series for 17 seasons: NCIS - Some cases are solved on the barest of threads that can strain credulity but it's all fun and the bad guys always get caught in an hour

14. Like much of the first movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata: PIANISSIMO - Visual and audio representation of this beautiful piece played PIANISSIMO (quietly)

16. Bit of ceramic cookware: OLLA - "Cooking pot" in Spanish (a familiar crossword utensil)

17. Cold complication: BRONCHITIS.

18. Goes to court?: WOOS - Gotta love this one Stella! Court is used as a verb ("to court" is an infinitive and not an prepositional phrase) makes this fun. Wait, you put SUES first? Uh, so did I. 

19. What Kim might call Khloé: SIS - Kardashian fam. Either you know them or don't care.

20. Weather report word: HIGHS.

21. Trick users, in a way: PHISH.

Don't share your personal info!

22. Texter's signoff: TTFN - Ta Ta For Now

23. Most roguish: SLIEST.

25. Brit's Bordeaux: CLARET - What's this all about?

28. Menace, feline-style: HISS AT - Kitty's mad!

29. Duel purpose?: HONOR - Hamilton had been a "second" for 12 of these matters of HONOR before Burr killed him in this one. This plaque in Weehawken, N.J. marks the site

30. Rain gear preservers: BOOT TREES.

33. Latin lamb: AGNUS - AGNUS Dei mean Lamb of God

34. Per ssa.gov, baby name that's far more popular when "a" is added to it: ANN - How 'bout dat?

35. Airy spaces: ATRIA - Beijing lays claim to have the world's tallest ATRIUM at 620'

36. Having two equal-length legs: ISOSCELES - Good putters keep an ISOSCELES triangle shape all through their stroke

38. French darling: CHERI.

39. Like many renewals: YEARLY.

40. Expressed disapproval of: CHIDED.

41. Road hog?: HARLEY - Former students of mine run this hog shop in west Omaha

42. French wood: BOIS - Matisse's famous The Path in the BOIS de Boulogne 

43. Humor, e.g.: GENRE - Oscar n

44. Cantina breakfast component: HUEVO - Huevo Rancheros (Rancher's Eggs)

46. Old gum mach. inserts: CTS.

49. Not pizzicato: ARCO - A young girl plucking violin strings (pizzicato) with her bow at the ready to play ARCO 

50. Hot flower: MOLTEN LAVA.

52. Spa offering: PEEL.

53. Objection to hustling: DONT RUSH ME.

54. Being of old Rome: ESSE - Another crossword stalwart 

55. "__ yes!": I SAY.

56. Tsukiji Market fish offerings: TUNAS - The final TUNA auction at this Tokyo facility before it moved to more modern quarters

Down:

1. Some PD calls: APBS 2. "Hey" assistant: SIRI - "Hey Siri, don't police say BOLO (Be On the LookOUT) instead of APB today?"

3. Sangre de Cristo Mountains resort: TAOS - Not a bad backdrop

4. Comfort, e.g.: INN - or Holiday INN

5. Shaky measurement standard?: RICHTER SCALE - The 1964 Alaska Earthquake was 9.2 on the RICHTER SCALE

6. Churchill trademark: V-SIGN.

7. Jedi nemesis: SITH.

8. They may be intentional: OMISSIONS.

9. Bldgs. with boxes: POS - Crossword constructor Evan Kalish has a website with pictures of over 10,000 Post Offices

10. "Listen up!": NOW HEAR THIS 

11. Sheltered from the outside world: CLOISTERED - Fewer and fewer people are choosing the CLOISTERED life

12. Response to a beating: I LOST.

13. Dress uniform part: SASH - George Washington's SASH was lost to history until it was rediscovered at Harvard's Peabody Museum in 2011

15. Loose-fitting dress: SHIFT - A straight, unwaisted dress

21. Green ice cream tidbit: PISTACHIO NUT - On the tree

22. Male opera character played by a female performer: TROUSER ROLE - A new phrase for me. This is when a male character is played by a female performer to make use of the higher voice. The most famous role is Cherubino (left in picture) in The Marriage of Figaro

24. Amphibious WWII craft: LST.

25. Masala-flavored drink: CHAI - In India, Masala means spice and CHAI means tea. Masala-flavored CHAI is spiced tea

26. Mill input: LOGS - LOGS in, lumber out

27. Travel delays, say: ANNOYANCES - We had one in Minneapolis and almost called C.C.

28. Certain cell contents: HONEY.

30. Hypes: BALLYHOOS - Famous Johnny Mercer song

Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy BALLYHOOEY Hollywood
Where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic
With just a good looking pan
And any barmaid can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan

31. Word on an Irish euro: EIRE - Here and in crosswords

32. Spoken: SAID.

37. "Maid of Athens, __ we part ... ": Byron: ERE.

40. Charge to get in: COVER.

41. Toast portion: HERE'S - The toastee in the scene appears often in cwd's

42. January's "Mad Men" character: BETTY - She should have dumped Don much earlier

43. Hang open: GAPE.

45. It's usually longer than a radius: ULNA.

46. Four-time Oscar-winning lyricist: CAHN - I'll be very impressed if you can know what goes in the two empty cells. Hint: Frank sat this one out. (* Answer below)

47. Rating for a show with lots of oaths: TV MA.

48. MS enclosures: SAES.

50. When Michelangelo began "David": MDI.

51. Sch. on Shaq's résumé: LSU.

*Call Me Irresponsible/Papa's Delicate Condition/ Jackie Gleason