Hissssssssssssssss

THEME: 2 ESSES + 2 ESSES = 4 long, fun theme fill.

20A. Confident: SELF POSSESSED . Or maybe when a Demon invades his own body?

26A. Second-counter's opening: ONE MISSISSIPPI . My first thought was wondering who was the first counter.

41A. Evaluation by co-workers: PEER ASSESSMENT .

47A. Professional hitter?: HIRED ASSASSIN . Did anyone go for baseball? I thought of the wonderful series of books about Keller a hit man created by Lawrence Block, who has many series characters, all of which are quite flawed, but the books are fun.

And the unifier:

61A. Each of the four longest puzzle answers has two pairs of them: ESSES .

And as a little bonus, a half answer, 16A. Essence: SOUL .

Lemonade here, and getting to blog a Dan Naddor, I was so excited, but I found this to be an unusually easy puzzle from Dan, with flashes of brilliance but it went too quickly…well, let’s get right to work.


1A. "Stay" singer Lisa: LOEB Reality Bites she met Ethan Hawke, and gave him a demo, he then played the song for Ben Stiller, who was directing the film, and it ended up playing during the credits, and becoming a #1 hit, without ever being released anywhere else.

5A. DeMille with an Oscar: CECIL B., the original movie mogul.

10A. Short pans?: UGHS. This is classic Dan Naddor, not only do you have to recognize the pun (PANS – PANTS) but you have interpret PAN to mean to be critical of, then you can get the answer.

14A. The Dixie Chicks, e.g.: TRIO . There were three of them, but I think they broke up.

15A. Wet, in a way: RAINY .

17A. Bell sound: DONG .Well the bell is rung, and I bet this inspires our DF ladies to read this puzzle more carefully.

18A. Make a delivery?: ORATE .

19A. Salinger title girl: ESME . This is our fifth visit from this character this year.

23A. "In a sec": NOT YET . This took some perp work.

25A. Sierra Club founder John et al.: MUIRS . I guess this is better than the Ghost and Mrs._______.

31A. Inventor Howe: ELIAS. My grandfather was a tailor, so I had this one sewed up.

32A. Bonehead: IDIOT. This word is a favorite of baseball announcers when describing poor decisions by players.

33A. Fontanne of Broadway: LYNN . Along with her husband Alfred Lunt she was a dominating force on Broadway for many years, still working into the 70’s.

34A. Mix: BLEND. My fist thought was TOM.

35A. High-quality cotton: PIMA There, now you know everything.

39A. Son of Sarah: ISAAC . We had the discussion of ISHMAEL, and ISAAC, ABRAHAM’s first two sons.

40A. Cream dispensers: TUBES . I thought of coffee, and then of LOIS…

45A. Cut into slices: CARVE. Made me think of peanuts.

46A. Materialize: APPEAR .

52A. Ahmadinejad's land: IRAN . Not a nice man.


53A. Nut-yielding tree: BEECH . Ah the memories, BEECH NUT .

54A. Perlman of "Cheers": RHEA . Married to Danny DeVito for many years.

57A. Telescope part: LENS.

58A. Carpenter's machine: LATHE .

59A. Rows: OARS. OAR, OAR your boat, gently down the stream…

60. "__ Anything": "Oliver!" song: I’D DO . I like this one better.

62. Fargo's st.: N. Dak.. To balance or SDAK.

Yay, let’s get down tonight, I did some work for KC in the 80’s.

1D. Inc., in London: LTD. Abbreviation for Limited, popular in many countries.

2D. What Pizarro sought: ORO . Gee, we just saw OAR; anyway, a double dipper, you have to know the explorer, that he sought gold, and the Spanish word for gold. This is not the old White Sox left hander, Juan Pizarro.

3D. Brain: EINSTEIN .

4D. Under-the-bed hider: BOGEY MAN. What plagued Tiger and Phil down the stretch at the Open.

5D. Partner of Seals: CROFTS. We had a beautiful Summer Breeze by my place tonight.

6D. Tombstone lawman: EARP . They were still in Kansas, Toto.

7D. "Later!": CIAO . Rhymes with HAO NAO BRAON CAO.

8D. QB's misthrows: INTS . Since QB is abbreviated, so is the answer.

9D. Cleaning compounds: LYES . You do not buy them in packs.

10D. Exhausts: USES UP. I thought of fumes.

11D. Dirt: GOSSIP . Makes sense when you are reading the Enquirer while you wait in line at the grocery store.

12D. Scapulae-to-ulnae bones: HUMERI . There must be punch line here somewhere.

13D. Mushers' vehicles: SLEDS.

21D. Luau souvenirs: LEIS. Ah, the good old days when we had a Hawaiian contingent.

22D. Discharge: EMIT . Honey, DISCHARGE on the VISA is way too much.

23D. Christmas air: NOEL . Air?

24D. Without siblings: ONLY . How many of our midst are only children? I am the third of three boys.

27D. Marner of fiction: SILAS , where were the Spark Notes in my day? A book by a woman named George; I was confused. He was a nasty miser, but he wasn’t, geeze.

28D. Think tank output: IDEAS .

29D. Subsequently: SINCE .

30D. Landscaper's supply: SOD . I love the British use, SOD ALL…

34D. Jamboree gp.: BSA . Boy Scouts of America.

35D. Lift weights: PUMPING IRON . I wonder what Arnold will do now.

36D. Sting victim's wail: I BEEN HAD . Sounds kinda Arabic.

37D. Actress Suvari: MENA . Cute, what did you all think of AMERICAN BEAUTY ?

38D. Galileo's sci.: ASTR . ONOMY.

39D. Burned up: IRED . I get the concept, of IRE, but I cannot find it in a dictionary.

40D. Recipe amts.: TSPS . Always this or TBSP.

41D. Like socks, hopefully: PAIRED .

42D. Trip to the bank, say: ERRAND .

43D. Nonetheless: EVEN SO .

44D. Pane holders: SASHES . Windows, the old kind you look through.

45D. Common cook-off dish: CHILI . CHILI today, Hot TAMALE.

48D. Skilled: ABLE .

49D. Neptune's realm: SEAS .

50. Match makers?: SETS . very tricky, in honor of the Wimbledon Fortnight, Tennis matches.

51D. Hurt: ACHE .

55D. Procter & Gamble detergent: ERA . Well, at least it avoids any political discussion of equal rights.

56. "Shoot!": ASK .

That’s all folks. I wish you each a very happy and hurricane free summer.