Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: Help, I have a DOC sticking up from my side! Is he covered by medicare?

I am back and so is Jeffrey for another Friday this time with a visual theme that is very creative but not always appreciated here at the Corner. And frankly, not immediately apparent to me even after writing up so many of his efforts. My first notion was the removal od the letter OC from each of the long fill. That really made no sense with the reveal. I also had fixated on the down fill starting with COD.

Going back to look at the grid, it is obvious these two concepts interesect. Add to the never accidental use of the word UP, the reference to "direction" and the theme jumps out. You can see the words pivoting on the D. 

It features three themers and a reveal leaving much room for other sparkly fill - RESEALS, ATTUNES TO,  ENEMY LINE, LAUNCHPAD, OVERUNDER REST MODES and WORRISOME. To make his reveal work, he pairs three long across fill with three appropriate down fill which I will put together to finish the explanation. 

Themer 1:

17A. *Guide for Smithsonian visitors, say: MUSEUM DOCENT.(10). Is DOCENT a known word? Paired with: 9D. Indulge: CODDLE.  This is the up DOC to which the reveal refers, as each long theme answer has DOC sticking out and going up.

Themer 2:

22A. *Ken Burns specialty: DOCUMENTARY FILM (13). KEN is quite famous for his work. His CIVIL WAR and Baseball films are great. This is paired with: 16D. Eccentric old guys: CODGERS. My hand is up not down the front of my pants. The second of the reverse DOC going up.

Themer 3:

42A. *Southeast Asian colonial region dismantled in 1954: FRENCH INDOCHINA (13). As a child of the 50s and 60s I was very aware of the French pull out of the area and involvement of the US to "preserve" the region. This may be a factoid lost in the miasma of aging. Paired with: 39D. Fish-and-chips fish: COD. When we eat out, this is often my meal of choice, especially now that my red meat intake is limited. It does make me wonder why it is called a COD PIECE? The third and last DOC going up.

The reveal: 49A. Classic Looney Tunes tagline offering some "direction" in solving the starred clues: WHAT'S UP DOC? I am sure the world has heard Bugs Bunny say:

The grid to get the "picture." 

Now we are ready for the rest of the story:

Across:

1. Earth, for one: ORB. And, 19A. Food scrap: ORT. I love this start!

4. Dred Scott decision Chief Justice: TANEY. Even after C.C. foreshadowed this very famous and awful decision by the SCOTUS,  it took my brain too long to pull out the name of this controversial man who served for 28 years. Incidentally, he was from Maryland and a Roman Catholic. Remind anybody of anybody? JK Bill.

9. Leg section: CALF. I never thought of ordering a thigh and a calf.

13. Two-digit sign: VEE. For victory.

14. Thrifty to begin with?: ECONO. A well worn prefix for inexpensive.

15. Central Plains tribe: OTOE. Many Os to begin this puzzles; this LINK is a glance at this word's xword history.

16. "__ la vie": C'EST. A very French phrase which can used in many different situations, from Frank Sinatra's THAT's LIFE to 

20. Hardly libertine: PRIM. I stumbled for a bit when I put in PRIG.

21. Pithy saying: ADAGE. Pithy goes back to the 1300s, "strong, vigorous," from pith meaning "full of substance or significance" is from 1520s. 

26. Fairy tale figures: GNOMES. In modern times they are lawn ornaments. Or a famous song, gnome, gnome on the range where the hobbits and the orcs do roam. The Online Etymology Dictionary LISTING for GNOME.

27. Mother __: LODE. Lucy is it likely this is a translation of Mexican Spanish veta madre, a name given to rich silver veins?

28. Money with hits: EDDIE. This is funny Money. He left us in 2019.

29. Retreats: LAIRS. From Roget. SYNONYMS.

31. Word with bonds or games: WAR. An all too real reference today.

34. Line holder: REEL. Fishing line.

35. Barely detectable: FAINT. The magic clue that solves the crime is often...

36. Tiny particle: MOTE. Likely from Dutch mot "dust from turf, sawdust, grit."

37. Future H.S. grads, probably: SRS. Seniors, hopefully.

38. Volcanic eruption sight: PLUME.

39. Nested supermarket array: CARTS. I never thought of them as nested. 

40. Nana: GRAN. Sunday, C.C. added Nai nai.

41. "Amen to that!": SO TRUE. 

45. Earth's volume?: ATLAS. Ha ha, a book- a volume about Earth. I like it.

47. Mandlikova of '80s tennis: HANA. She will always be remembered with NAVRATILOVA.  Hana's MEMORIES.

48. Mexican pinch?: SEL. More Mexico, this time the Spanish word for salt.

51. Office figure: BOSS. Often just a figurehead. Can you name them all? They have become...

52. Legends and such: LORE. We have had this word often lately.

53. Cloth-dyeing method: BATIK. I was dying to think of a pun but could not.

54. Pro using a siren, perhaps: EMT. Emeregency Medical Technician. Do all the drivers get licensed? I guess if not they would be...

55. Went after, in a way: SUED. IMO, the court system has become unwieldly and too expensive.

56. Objects of worship: IDOLS. As long as they are not GRAVEN? I guess photos are fine.

57. Earth opening?: GEO. Fun clue for the word that derived from the Greek, gē earth, covering everything from GEODISIC domes to GEOMETRY. Also a nice way to end part I.

Down:

1. With 3-Down, sportsbook option based on the final score: OVERUNDER. 3D. See 1-Down: BET. This based on total points scored by both winning and losing teams and with it is greater than or less than. An important part of parlay betting.

2. Game system turnoff options: REST MODES. You need to leave it on just in case.

4. What a siren does: TEMPTS. An A-LIST of sirens. A deliberate use of siren (54A) and its other meaning.

5. Lexus competitor: ACURA. Honda's luxury car.

6. Polite denial: NO SIR. Yes sir. No Ma'am, yes ma'am.

7. Combat demarcation point: ENEMY LINE. Behind Enemy Lines is the name of a few movies, as well as the plot.

8. "__ busy?": YOU. You know I am, we all work hard of these write-ups. Geez, Louise! 

10. Starting players: A-TEAM. See 4D. 

11. Sleep-inducing, maybe, as a lecture: LONG. I had trouble with this as it seemed too easy.

12. Fancy party: FETE. Not a gala, or a ball.

18. "Downton Abbey" personnel: MAIDS.

23. Man's name that becomes a measurement when one letter is moved: EMIL. MILE. I wonder if that is how Miley Cyrus got her name?

24. Once called: NÉE. Miley was born DESTINY HOPE CYRUS.

25. The Alamo, e.g.: FORT. Another deceptively simple clue/fill.

29. Starting point of many modern missions: LAUNCH PAD. A timely CSO to Husker Gary who I signed up for a future Blue Origin launch as a birthday surprise.

30. Intention: AIM. It was intention to fulfill his dream of looking down on all Earth.

31. Unsettling: WORRISOME. I hope Joann does not find it...

32. Puts in sync with: ATTUNES TO. Doing my part to improve your life here are my tips in a romantic relationship:

Listen before you speak. ...

Ask questions to understand. ...

Notice your partner's nonverbal cues. ...

Use validating statements. ...

Identify your triggers. ...

Feel and own your feelings. Or not.

33. Zips again, as a Ziploc bag: RESEALS. Why not rezip?

35. Rich dessert: FLAN. Where does Flan make its money? It is just custard, sort of. Speaking of which, there is a wiki sight English words suffixed with -tard

36. Subject with shapes: MATH. I prefer ART. 

38. First Amendment concern: PRESS. Freedom thereof...

40. Like Romano, often: GRATED. I have watched Everybody Loves Raymond a few times and thought he played a very irritating character, but he did not grate on my nerves.

41. Chips, say: SNACKS. Unless you are in Great Britain.

42. Emergency device: FLARE. Not to be confused with FLAIR, though both can be quite dramatic.

43. Couldn't not: HAD TO. The old double negative manuever.

44. How tuna may be packed: IN OIL. Or water, but not both at the same time for oils are hydrophobic (not homophobic) or “water fearing.” Instead of being attracted to water molecules, oil molecules are repelled by them.

45. Hole makers: AWLS. Almost a Shakespeare quote, AWLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 

46. "O Julius Caesar, __ art mighty yet!": Brutus: THOU. This  quote is uttered by Marcus Brutus as he stands over the dead bodies of Cassius and Titinius, another soldier who was fighting to kill Caesar. Brutus is suggesting even dead JC was able to bring retribution to the conspirators. And JW gets to bring us a quote from Act V, Scene 3.

50. Where, to Brutus: UBI. Just the Latin for where, you are not his chariot driver. As most of us who studied Latin for years, the fake phrase SEMPER UBI, SUB UBI was always good for a laugh.

51. Entreat: BEG. They did not beg for their lives but all committed suicide. Is suicide a cowardly act? Are you begging for mercy to be done with ths write-up? You win, Lemonade has left the building beaten and exhausted once more ridden around the mind of Jeffrey Wechsler at dizzying speeds needing to step back, regroup and soldier on.

I loved the challenge and look forward to all of your comments.

Jeffrey Wechsler

 Title: Add three letters and call me in the morning.

Doctor Wechsler has built another extra large grid (15x16) to permit room for his three 16 letter theme fill. Each of them has the trigram (three letter) AMA added to a base phrase. We also have the rare benefit of a reveal on a Friday which helps solve this puzzle even if you are not used to JW's tricks.

ACACIAS, BAILEYS, CRYSTAL, CUSTODY, DEADPAN, ECSTASY, ENROBED, ENSNARE, NUREYEV, RIPENED, UNDERGO, VANILLA, ELECTRIC, and LUCIDITY are all interesting non-theme fill, a benefit of having 15 extra spaces in the puzzle. The first of the themers may be the most challenging.

18A. *Crèche, for example?: CHRISTIAN DIORAMA (16). With DIORAMA not an everyday word and the final fill combining a clothing designer with the trigram to create this religious piece may be a bit outre. But then it may have been the puzzle's inspiration.

26A. *Recent president scrutinizing a book on jurisprudence? : OBAMA EYING THE LAW(16). This also is tricky because the phrase obeying the law is invaded by the AMA creating separate words.

42A. *Animal rights goal in the Andes?: JUSTICE FOR A LLAMA. (16). We get Ogden Nash's 2 LLama; with all the commercials they are now appearing in I would think llamas are the richest of the working beasts. Finally, the reveal...

54A. Altered, in a way ... and a hint to the org. that helped create the answers to starred clues: DOCTORED UP (10). The American Medical Association. Since 1847, 175 year anniversary.

Across:

1. "'And hast thou __ the Jabberwock?'": Carroll: SLAIN. What a wonderful quotation to begin a creation aimed at people who love words. The poem may appear to be total nonsense but it has been studied and discussed such as this ANALYSIS by Dr. Oliver Teale. His blog is even more successful than the Corner.

6. Steady guy: BEAU. Boyfriend from the French.

10. Event involving hidden matzo: SEDER. Passover (Pesach) begins this year at sundown on April 15, which is also a sabbath. 
                        

15. Shell material: NACRE. The inside of the shell of some mollusks also known as mother-of-pearl. Here is a picture of a vintage Egyptian folding chair I was given some time ago with nacre insets.

16. Loads: A TON. Simple, and clearly a big load.

17. Horror film burden: CURSE. My thought is poor Lon Chaney and the curse of the werewolf.

21. Geode feature, perhaps: CRYSTAL. Geodes are spherical to subspherical rock structures with an internal cavity lined with mineral materials. Very pretty.

22. Dressed: ENROBED. Back to our naked Emperor from my Wednesday write-up.

23. Current type: ELECTRIC. No, not anymore. Now I want only my wife. Oh, electric current, never mind.

34. Grammy-winning pianist Peter: NERO. This MUSICIAN was extremely popular during my growing years of the 50s and 60s.

35. 2020 N.L. batting champ Juan: SOTO. This 23 year old from the Domincan Republic has already logged 4 years in the majors. STATS.

36. "Sula" author Morrison: TONI. This was her second novel and Goodreads says, "This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines from their close-knit childhood in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation."

37. "That describes me, right?": AM I NOT. This sound philisophical and historical as well as being a rallying cry of the modern young.

40. Paradise: HEAVEN. Ah, religion a forbidden topic here but an interesting one.

47. Sugar suffix: OSE. Sucrose, lactose, maltose...

48. Clear thought: LUCIDITY. Dictionary says this word is the quality of being easily understood, completely intelligible, or comprehensible. A goal for a blogger?

49. Spirit that's also a game: GIN. Alchemists in the Middle East were the first to master distillation. They were hoping to not only change lesser elements to gold but to make medical elixirs. To do so, they would distill liquid, collect the vapor, and gather the “spirit” that came off the material. Gin is a very competitive card game.

50. "Molto __": "Very good": BENE. An Italian lesson for a change!

52. Trough fill: SLOP. Historically people save their food scraps and spoiled food and served them to their pigs in the trough.

53. Huge amounts: SEAS. I guess this is something likened to the sea especially in vastness such as a sea of faces

59. Plain: VANILLA. I have had bosses and secretaries who called manila folders "vanilla folders."

62. Soviet-born ballet immortal: NUREYEV. I am not a great fan of ballet, but he was amazing.

66. Broad-topped trees: ACACIAS. Hard to believe these are in the pea family

                            

67. Catch: ENSNARE.

68. Safekeeping: CUSTODY. When they throw you in jail, safekeeping is not your first thought.

69. Poker-faced: DEADPAN. More Stephen Wright, right?

Down:

1. '60s civil rights gp. inspired by student sit-ins: SNCC. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the culmination of many sit-ins by young blacks in 1960. It also spawned many impressive black leaders.

2. Lion player Bert: LAHR. Since Detroit traded away Matthew Stafford so the Rams could win the Super Bowl, Bert is back to being the most revered lion.

3. "__ in the Dark": 1988 Neill/Streep film: A CRY. Not the original title, but a movie based on a true story of a New Zealand woman who was wrongfully convicted of murdering her baby daughter. You-tube will not let me use it, but look at the movie trailer, and you will see Streep really is magical at becoming a character.

4. Bearded bloom: IRIS. At first I thought of Morris Bloom and his make believe wife, but without the capital B it must be this beautiful plant.
 5. Iced drink brand: NESTEA.

6. Irish liqueur made by an English company: BAILEYS. It may seem that this liquer has been around forever but Baileys was invented in London in 1973 by a team of professionals hired for the job. These included Tom Jago, head of innovation and development for International Distillers & Vintners (IDV), who was from the U.K.; David Gluckman, a South African; and Hugh Seymour-Davies, an Englishman from Oxford and Eden. They aparently do not like apostrophes.

7. LAX stat: ETA. Estimate Time of Arrival

8. Chicago's __ Center: AON. For our big city midwestern readers this skyscraper was completed in 1974 as the Standard Oil Building. With 83 floors and a height of 1,136 feet (346 m), it is the fourth-tallest building in Chicago, surpassed in height by Willis Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, and St Regis Chicago. AON has bought naming rights to this and one in Los Angeles.

9. Experience: UNDERGO. There are good experiences and not good ones. Undergo makes me think of the now good ones.

10. Really burn: SCORCH. The wiktionary says it is from Middle English scorchen, scorcnen (“to make dry; parch”), perhaps an alteration of earlier scorpnen, from Old Norse skorpna (“to shrivel up”). It reminds me of the scorched earth caused by war.

11. Catalan cash: EURO. In Catalonia they now use Euro.

12. Colorless: DRAB. Such a potentially mean word. 

13. Girl in a Salinger title: ESME.The short story For Esmé with Love and Squalor is a post World War II story which I am not sure I ever understood. Here is an ANALYSIS. This might be a ...

14. Curl up with a good book, say: READ. As it tells an interesting..

19. Story: TALE.

20. D.C. part?: Abbr.: INITial.

24. AFL partner: CIO. AFL–CIO, in full American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations, American federation of autonomous labour unions formed in 1955 by the merger of the AFL (founded 1886), which originally organized workers in craft unions, and the CIO (founded 1935), which organized workers by industries.

25. Blasted stuff: TNT. Very cute clue.

26. Out working: ON A JOB. If it weren't a three word answer this would be very easy.

27. Puzzle: BEMUSE. I know A-muse, and B-muse, but what is C-muse? Is it musical?

28. Ascended: ARISEN. Another word with many connotations.

29. __ Blanc: MONT. A mountain and a pen; talk about being versatile.

30. Shorthand for unlisted items: ET AL. Latin, Et alia.

31. Romantic-sounding herb: LOVAGE. Native to Southern Europe, lovage is a member of the parsley family but tastes like celery. My wife will feed me anything green she finds.

32. Lethargy cause: ANEMIA.Low red blood count caused by many serious and not serious matters.

33. CeCe with 12 Grammys: WINANS. Not related to the Wynan brothers. BIO.

38. Natural resource: OIL. A topic I will not touch now.

39. Horned Frogs' sch.: TCU. Texas Christian University began as a private co-ed college in 1869. The STORY.

40. Seuss cat's trademark: HAT. I cannot get this to LINK directly.

41. English cathedral town: ELY. An Anglican CHURCH.

43. Sheer joy: ECSTASY. What you are likly feeing that this tour is almost over.

44. Baklava dough: FILO. Also a famous detective, no relation to Director Vance.

45. Smell: ODOR.

46. Came to fruition: RIPENED. A tiny pun since the word was take from fruit becoming mature. 

51. Official proclamation: EDICT. Synonyms for edict: bull, decree, diktat, directive, fiat, rescript, ruling, ukase.

53. Use plastic, say: SPEND. Some of my credit cards are no longer platic.

55. Miscellany: OLIO. One of C.C's words. 

56. Wearing, with "in": CLAD. The robe convering the emperor.

57. Beach feature: DUNE. And a hit movie and book and a natural sand formation.

58. Up-there bear: URSA. Well there are two, a major and a minor.

59. Brief cleaner: VAC. I just throw mine in the washer with the rest of my clothes.

60. Pressure opening?: ACU. Not tire?

61. "Illmatic" rapper: NAS. He is a very respected rapper who only recently is getting his full recognition depite being around for 25 years. As a 73 year old sheltered white man I will never be able to fully appreciate his artristy but the world does.

63. Jabber: YAP.An odd semi-dupe with the opening poetic reference, which was likely intentional.

64. Live-ball __: baseball period: ERA. It is the dead ball era which ended when Babe Ruth (the ball player, not the candy bar) started smacking home runs in record fashion in 1919. We now have the livlier ball era.

65. S.A. country, to the IOC: VENezuela.

Ed Sessa

Title:

Do you see what I see? LYRICS+

Happy Mittwoch, lemonade filling a blogging gap returning to the day of the week of my first blogging gig here, sharing Wednesday with Melissa B. I do not get another rookie setter but the great Dr. Ed Sessa. It may not be a Friday, but it is not a walk in the park. It is a visual theme without normal theme symmetry or exact theme fill. Instead you need to study the grid and "see" what picture appears when you not only highlight the double Os (no James Bond theme here) but highlight each BUS above the Os.  So today we start with the highlighted grid and work backwards.

Using your childlike imagination which may be a little dormant, you can see a yellow school bus on its two round wheels. There is overall puzzle symmetry including the two grid-spanners, but that would not help locate a theme.

The magic pairs are:

18A. Catskills restaurant job for young Jerry Lewis:    B U S BOY.

19A. Acted with total independence: ANSWERED   TO NO ONE.

This is a challenging 15 letter fill, but crucial to the plan. Lewis was a soda jerk but never a bus boy.

24A. Farm units:                        BUSHELS.   Doris Day

29A. Some wind components:  OBOE REEDS. They make the sound.

31A. Smooch:                              BUSS.   kiss, kiss

38A. Melville sequel to "Typee": OMOO. This is classic crosswordese for the vowels.

45A. Garment aptly named for where it's worn:       BUSTIER. 

50A. What the filled-in circles do, in a tots' song: GOROUND AND ROUND.  Another 15 letters.

I will not touch the bustier reference, but will continue to the rest.

Across:

1. Animal fat: LARD. Once controversial, is it making a comeback?

5. Mer, here: SEA. French lesson.

8. Business entities: FIRMS. When used in a title, "firm" is typically associated with businesses that provide professional law and accounting services, but the term may be used for a wide variety of businesses, including finance, consulting, marketing, and graphic design firms, among others.

13. State as fact: AVER. A popular law word.

14. Photo: PIC. Nic?

15. Patronize a bistro, say: EAT OUT. I think the bistro reference was to make getting the "out" part more easily as they often offer both inside and outside dining.

16. Cover for a king: ROBE. Especially if it is an Emperor who ordered new clothes.

17. Onassis, familiarly: ARIstotle.

22. Parrot's screech: AWK. Not really. LINK. It is more well known word to computer programmers now. 

23. Voiced sounds: SONANTS. Hmm,  (ˈsəʊnənt) / adjective. phonetics denoting a voiced sound capable of forming a syllable or syllable nucleus. inherently possessing, exhibiting, or producing a sound. okay.

28. Yeoman's "yo": AYE. So many ways to say yes.

35. Fluids used for blood typing: SERA. plural noun: sera

an amber-colored, protein-rich liquid that separates out when blood coagulates.

36. Theater reservations: SEATS.

39. Rep on the street: CRED. Reputation gives you credibility.

40. Delay one's decision: SLEEP ON IT. This procrastintor's phrase has an early example which can be found in the State Paper of Henry VIII (1519): "His Grace…sayd that he wold slepe and drem upon the matter." Yes, the Henry the VIII.

42. Camera variety, initially: SLR. Single Lens Reflex. I will defer to Picard and waseely who like taking pictures.

44. Fills with passion: ENAMORS. Merriam Webster (MW) says, this is from the Middle English enamouren, from Anglo-French enamourer, from en- + amour first used in the 14th century meaning to inflame with love. Anyone here been inflamed recently? Splynter?

49. Smack-__: DAB. Not David Aldred Bywaters but a phrase from the 1890s meaning "exactly, squarely." Do you like:

Version 1                                                        Version 2

55. React to with a belly laugh: ROAR AT. Yes! NOT aroar!

56. New start?: NEO. Has anyone watched the new Matrix movie?

57. Inside information?: X-RAY. A really fun clue/fill as that is where docs findout what is going on inside.

58. Queen of puzzles: ELLERY. There are so amny famous female detectives, but this time it the these GENTLEMAN who were the Queen.

59. Big name on Wall Street: DOW. Dow Jones is a combination of the names of business partners Charles Dow and Edward Jones who along with Charles Bergstresser founded Dow Jones & Company in 1882.  

60. To be, to Livy: ESSE. His HISTORY. Esse is to be in Latin.

61. "__ what I had in mind": WASN'T. This is the happy response to  my passive/agressive "I guess I should go."

62. Stop on the road: INN. A place to say. 

63. Some coll. requirements: SATS. The Scholastic Aptitude Test  is a standardized test designed to measure basic critical reading, math and writing skills. No longer universally accepted but still offered.

I used to teach an LSAT prep class. If you want to try a new SAT I will send you a practice test, send me your answers and I will tell you how you did.

Down:

1. Mother on Krypton: LARA. Lara (née Lara Lor-Van) is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by DC Comics. She first appeared in the Superman comic strip and was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Lara is the biological mother of Superman, and the wife of scientist Jor-El. They like hyphenated names.

2. Big name in romance fiction: AVON. Avon has been publishing award-winning romance since 1941. It is recognized for having pioneered the historical romance category and continues to publish in wide variety of other genres, including paranormal, urban fantasy, contemporary and regency. It is now owned by Harper Collins.

3. Civil War soldiers: REBS. Them damn rebs! 

4. Overtook, with "of": DREW AHEAD. All you need to KNOW.

5. Kills it on stage: SPARKLES. HMM. 

6. Auld land: EIRE. 

7. Essential fatty __: ACIDS.

8. Florae counterparts: FAUNAE.

9. "The program's starting!": IT'S ON.

10. High-tech worker: ROBOT.

11. Elementary particles: MUONS.

12. Lid bump: STYE.

15. Dark wood: EBONY.

20. Still-life subject: EWER.

21. Newlywed, at times: TOASTEE.

24. Pear variety: BOSC.

25. Lyft competitor: UBER.

26. Really ticked: SORE.

27. Blows a fuse: SEES RED.

30. Indian lentil dish: DAL.

31. Early hip-hop hardware: BOOM BOXES.

32. Curt refusal: UM NO. Whi is this Curt and why is he refusing? What is he refusing? Was it Curt Flood?

33. Evening in Avignon: SOIR. Simplment, en Francaise.

34. Tipplers: SOTS.

37. Demote to the minors: SEND DOWN.

41. Host before Carson: PAAR.

42. Comic store owner on "The Big Bang Theory": STUART.

43. Full of fuzz: LINTY.

45. Half a Yale cheer: BOOLA. Boola boola has been around since about 1901, but it may never had a better performance'

46. Range with one end in Kazakhstan: URALS.

47. Philosopher Kierkegaard: SOREN.

48. Zuckerberg Media founder Zuckerberg: RANDI.

50. Raised on a farm: GREW. Speaking of the flora and fauna.

51. Bright light: NEON.

52. __ Major: URSA. Another bear.

53. Democratic donkey designer: NAST. Most Americans would be surprised to learn that both political symbols, the donkey and the elephant were created by the same political CARTOONIST in the late 19th century.

54. Beauty salon supplies: DYES. Can you think of a three letter beuty supply as we say adieu to to this puzzle and prepare for my next appearance at a club near you on Friday, March 11, 2022.

Grid on top so I will be saying my thanks to Dr.Ed and to all of you now. Maybe you a joke or a cartoon I could put in here...anyway, nice to visit Wednesday and talk about this gem. Lemonade out.