Saturday, February 3, 2018, Pawel Fludzinski

DR. FLUDZINSKI IS ON CALL TODAY

After having Alex Bajcz Ph.D. as our constructor two weeks ago, our Saturday environs today are blessed with Pawel Fludzinski Ph.D (Pah' vel   Flu gin' ski). After some pleasant email exchanges I found  his doctorate and post doctorate work was in organic chemistry and he has just retired to Santa Fe, NM after 31 years of working for Eli Lilly in Pharmaceutical R and D. Eight of those years included stints in England and Japan. 
He had a friend who knew Will Shortz, introduced Pawel to Will and after that Dr. Fludzinski took up the challenge of constructing crosswords with his first one being a 9/18/11 Sunday LA Times puzzle. Pretty impressive.

Pawel's license plate tells you both where he lives and about what one of his passions is.

I earned a "got 'er done" in Pawel's challenging weekend offering but those of you familiar with The Family Circus, might recognize that the path I took resembled this circuitous route as the boys in the cartoon frequently take in getting from point A to point B. BTW, this also resembles my path in the grocery store.

Pawel's puzzle was anything but a, uh, bitter pill to swallow and I am going to start with his long fills which were so helpful once a few of their cells were filled.

19. Jesse Owens, e.g. : OLYMPIC ATHLETE - HOAX ALERT! Hitler never did congratulate Jesse for his 1936 Olympic wins, as Jesse expected, but this 2013 photoshopped image made the internet rounds. Jesse did feel snubbed in that FDR never contacted him in any way to acknowledge his tremendous accomplishments. 

50. Canine epithet : MAN'S BEST FRIEND - 'Nuff said! 😀

5. Real estate investment strategy : FLIPPING HOUSES - Tarek and Christina starred in Flip or Flop on HGTV. His job was negotiations and labor and hers was some decorating but mainly simply looking photogenic. They're divorced but are still on the show together.

16. Voting bloc term used by Nixon and Trump : SILENT MAJORITY - Howard Beale's fabulous call to arms for this group in 1976's Network

Now let's see what Dr. Fludzinski has prescribed for us in the balance of his puzzle:

Across

1. Bundles together, as wheat : SHEAFS - One SHEAFS wheat into SHEAVES

7. EPA concern : AQI - Air Quality Index Current air quality across the USA

10. Cab alternative : UBER - I've sung their praises here 

14. Field meeting : HUDDLE - "Okay guys, 3 OUT, SLOT HAT - 73 GHOST TOSSER ON SET. BREAK!"

15. Choral extreme : BASS NOTE - The E♭Paul Robeson hits in Old Man River on the word "jail" is listed as a "Notable low note"

17. Predestine : ORDAIN - ...do ORDAIN and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

18. Countermeasure : ANTIDOTE - Milking venomous snakes is the first step to producing an ANTIDOTE

21. Advance : SPOT - Look kid, I'll SPOT you 10 points

22. Part of NAFTA: Abbr. : AMER - North AMERican Free Trade Agreement

23. Rats along the Rhine? : ACH - ACH du lieber! Ich habe gerade eine Ratte gesehen! (Oh my God, I just saw a rat!)

26. Rage : IRE

27. Where snowbirds flock in winter? : SUNBELT

31. Feller's tool? : CHAINSAW - Here's a pretty good feller!

34. Cheap smoke : STOGIE

35. Stick : CLING

36. Hamm from Alabama : MIA - An all time great soccer player born in Selma, AL

38. Windows predecessor : MS-DOS - Tedious forerunner of icons (GUI - Graphic User Interface)

39. Five-book collections : TORAHS - The first 5 books of the Jewish Bible are such a collection

41. Serious betrayals : TREASONS - Here is a famous group committing TREASON

 43. Henry VIII's third : SEYMOUR - Jane SEYMOUR came between Anne Boleyn and Ann of Cleves but died with her head intact.

45. Kunal Nayyar's role in "The Big Bang Theory" : RAJesh Koothrapali - You either know this or don't care 

46. Ultra-secret org. : NSA - National Security Agency

47. River to the Seine : AUBE - In the same vein as Where's Waldo, can you find the AUBE?

48. Winged figure of myth : EROS

56. Monthly subtitled "The Magazine of Maine" : DOWN EAST - Ya gotta love this cover and the topics

57. Portugal's capital, locally : LISBOA - Easier to find than the AUBE

a

58. Having an accent : STRESSED - "CON flict" is mostly a noun while "con FLICT" is mostly a verb

59. Speedily : AT A RUN

60. Astronomical dist. : LT YR  - LighT YeaR

61. Slight opening? : ESS - Slight

62. End zone quartet : PYLONS - If the ball is inside or touches one of the PYLONS at the corners of the end zone, it's six points!

Down

1. Wave off : SHOO

2. Fling : HURL

3. Result of pulling the plug? : EDDY - Circling the drain

4. __ apple : ADAM'S  

6. Year-ending ceremony participants : SENIORS 

7. Quatrain rhyme scheme : ABAA - Dylan Thomas's final stanza

8. Airline with a kangaroo on its logo : QANTAS - QANTAS on the left and on the right...? *Answer at the bottom of the write-up.

9. Common canal site : ISTHMUS 

10. Position near the top of some organizational structures : UNDER BOSS - Sotto Capo

11. Spare tyre site : BOOT - A spare TYRE (tire) in a Land Rover BOOT (trunk). Oh so British!

12. Kitchen finish? : ETTE

13. "Pioneer Woman" cookbook writer Drummond : REE - Ree's show is a favorite of my wife's

20. Backups' backups : C-TEAM

23. Bank nos. : ACCTS

24. Techie on "24" : CHLOE - Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) and Jack (Kiefer Sutherland seem to be having a hard day on "24"

25. Hirsute : HAIRY

28. __ Heath: Thomas Hardy setting : EGDON - It is said that EGDON Heath was as much a part of The Return Of The Native as the characters

29. They have their pride : LIONS

30. Championship ice dancer __ Virtue : TESSA - Along with her partner Scott Moir 

32. So to speak : IN A MANNER 

33. Verbal deftness : WIT - A highly prized trait here

37. Rue stop? : ARRET - Here's an ARRET sign where Rue De Buade crosses Rue Jardins

40. Naval fortification : SUB BASE - The Nazi U-boat SUB BASE built in what was then occupied France

42. Winter cap feature : EAR FLAP - Found on a certain hunter of a "cwazy wabbit" 

44. Piece maker : REESES - M & M's turned down being in ET and REESES pieces cashed in 

49. Twine fiber : SISAL - 50# hay bales tied with SISAL twine - $6 apiece

50. Suffragist who co-founded Swarthmore : MOTT - A powerful trio

51. Off the mark : AWRY - Where best laid plans of men and mice can go

52. EPA issuances : STDS - STanDardS

53. Iberian river : EBRO - For 32€, you can be outfitted to do this on a five mile stretch of the EBRO River in northern Spain

54. Truth or consequences, e.g. : NOUN - Pretty tricky, Pawel!

55. Aykroyd and Patrick : DANS

56. Broadband choice, briefly : DSL - Digital Subscriber Line. Usually the slowest connection

If the puzzle made you uneasy, I'll bet Pawel can hook you up with an ANTIDOTE! 😀 Now tell us your symptoms by commenting:

DA GRID

*The logo on the right is from Alaska Airlines

Saturday, January 27, 2018, Andy Kravis

DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?

Andy's very challenging but fair Saturday puzzle left me playing a mental edition of this game:

The puzzle came down to an obvious vowel for the crossing of these two words:

10. Official cocktail of New Orleans : SAZERAC - Made with SAZERAC Rye Whiskey and assorted goodies

27. Court dance : PAVANE - A slow, processional dance of 16th century Europe. I wonder if Cole Porter could have written When They Begin The PAVANE if he were alive in 1588.

Suffice it to say "I" made a bad pick but had a good time. Two stacks of nine-letter words and twin ten and eleven letter stacks looked very impressive to this humble blogger!  Well let's see what other treats Andy has for us:


Across

1. Longtime employer of 26-Down : ABC SPORTS and 26. "Miracle on Ice" commentator : AL MICHAELS - Al called out, "Do you believe in miracles?" when the USA beat the  46. "Miracle on Ice" loser : USSR

10. Double shot? : STUNT - Fabulous clue! Here's Johnny Depp with his STUNT Double

15. "Geek sighting!" : NERD ALERT - Name calling abates when you really need one!

16. "Mad TV" alum Lange : ARTIE - You might know troubled ARTIE better as this guy's sidekick if you go for that type of entertainment

17. Runway-ready : DRESSED UP - Models properly adorned taking off down the runway


18. Boarding pass data : ZONES - Seating areas like this flight from Jeddah to Cairo

19. Pay stub abbr. : YTD - Year To Date

20. Kid gloves, so to speak : CARE - Parents have to know when to treat their child with kid gloves.

21. Turn down : REJECT

22. City on Lake Michigan : GARY - Or your humble Saturday blogger

23. African capital formerly called Salisbury : HARARE - Salisbury, Rhodesia became HARARE, Zimbabwe as the British Empire continued to shrink

24. "Cool, dude!" : GNARLY - Beach lingo

28. Hard-to-count quantity : PILES - PILES are much harder to count than stacks

29. Emit a powerful magnetic force? : OOZE CHARM - Delightfully phrased by Alan Jay Lerner and wonderfully sung by Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady describing a pompous Turkish man who dances with Liza

32. It's all downhill from here : ACME

33. Hoofed it : HIKED

34. Comics pooch : ODIE - Here with his best friend

35. They're matched by foundations : SKIN TONES - Foundation/SKIN TONE match chart

37. Take forcibly : WREST

38. Like milk of magnesia : CHALKY - Mg(OH)₂

39. "You Gotta Be" soul singer : DES'REE

40. Old-time feature film preceders : SHORTS - "One-reelers"

41. Corduroy feature : WALE - The "ridges" in the material that can make that swoosh sound when walking

42. Rose __: reddish mineral : QUARTZ

43. Big name in hair trimmers : WAHL - I bought one because Paul Harvey was pitching them. Meh... 

44. Big Ten sch. that competes for the Paul Bunyan Trophy : MSU - Naturally enough, the other team is Michigan

47. Singer __ Marie : TEENA - Claimed to be a black artist with white skin

48. Exposes to public scorn : PILLORIES

50. Goldbrick : IDLER - Is Beetle Bailey the most famous one?

51. Ruins things? : ARTIFACTS - Pompeii is nothing but these

52. Pains : PESTS

53. 1790s political powder keg : XYZ AFFAIR - Our young country refused to pay a bribe

Down

1. "Honey, I'm Good" singer Grammer : ANDY - Not on my playlist but I think I've posted enough pictures of singers I don't know

2. "Sesame Street" roommate : BERT - He of the paper clip collection

3. Street __ : CRED - Short for credibility which can be gained by some overt act

4. '60s protest org. : SDS

5. Units of pressure : PASCALS 

6. Owner of a legendary lantern kicker : O'LEARY - Most say her cow did not start the Chicago fire but it makes for a good story

7. Put through the wringer again? : REDRY

8. "Can't argue with that" : TRUE

9. Brand sold at Pep Boys : STP

11. Agent that undermines from within : TROJAN HORSE - Modern day application 

12. "Cure Ignorance" magazine : UTNE READER - I only know this from crosswords. My ignorance is probably incurable anyway. 

13. Victoria, to William IV : NIECE - Yup! William IV had a brother named Edward and Edward's daughter was Victoria 

14. One of many taken in school : TEST

21. Rhapsodized : RAVED

22. Britt Reid's alter ego : GREEN HORNET - See alter egos below

    Chen Zhen       Britt Reid      Bruce Wayne      Dick Grayson

23. Shore weather phenomena : HAZES 

24. Med school admissions data : GPA'S

25. __ of time : NICK - When the superheroes above appear 

27. Cooler : POKEY - Colorful name for a jail

29. Hog calls : OINKS - For calling hogs at this school  it's SOOIE!

30. Obey a court order : RISE - When Officer Byrd says RISE for Judge Judy, you'd better or he will 31. Parcel (out) : METE out a big time glare

33. 1980s-'90s Notre Dame football coach Lou : HOLTZ - A great coach and speaker but a horrible TV football analyst

36. Medieval Turko-Mongol settlers : TARTARS

37. Comfortable : WELL OFF

39. National flower of Mexico : DAHLIA

40. Jacket material : SUEDE - Jerry Seinfeld muses about why water can hurt Suede when it comes from cows who stand out in the rain.

41. Strauss piece : WALTZ - Professor Higgins and Liza doing just that

42. Common applicator : Q-TIP

43. Like an Irish Terrier's outer coat : WIRY

44. Flaky mineral : MICA

45. Long-distance calling org.? : SETI - The best movie about Search for Extra  Terrestrial Intellligence scientists 

48. __ Romana : PAX - Sometimes it was PAX Romana or else!

49. Battle of Britain gp. : RAF - Royal Air Force

Your take?

DA GRID