Jeffrey Wechsler

Title: Shh, I am trying to think, and I lost an H. 

Jeffrey is back with a puzzle that mostly plays very easy for a Friday. I do remind you that all final clue/fill pairings are up to the editor(s) so don't heap too much praise or too many complaints on JW. It is nice to know we will still get puzzles from our veterans like Jeffrey, Doug Peterson, Rich Norris, Gary Cee, and others. Today is a Friday staple, adding letters to a word in a phrase and cluing the created combination with wit and charm. Today we have a bi-gram (2 letters)  added- SH. RABBIT SHEARS and HOCKEY SHRINK  are both laugh out loud fill. The puzzle is also a symmetrical one with 13/12/12/13 themers. 

19A. Storage area for Christmas toys?: SANTAS SHELVES (13).  I think it is perfectly natural that Santa's helpers who are all elves, would store their work product on SHELVES. We do not even need to debate whether Santa himself is in fact an elf.

24A. Clippers used by Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail?: RABBIT SHEARS (12). If you not know Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail from the Beatrix Potter books you might be stumped, but I imagine all would recognize a cotton-tail as a type of rabbit.

40A. Analyst for Ducks and Penguins?: HOCKEY SHRINK.(12). This challenged my link finding ability and made me cry "oncle." Is there are psychiatrist for hockey players would they work to make them meaner? You my reading audience are welcome to find a perfect link and make me look foolish.

46A. Earthquake-resistant?: FIT FOR SHAKING (13). This a very cerebral fill, which made me think before getting the clue/fill. Many new tall buildings are constructed to withstand major tremors. More than half of the world's 7.8 billion population live in cities and urban areas, and 2.5 billion more are expected to join them within the next 20-25 years.(arch daily). The world has had the horror of the collapse of the Twin Towers in New York City and in SoFla, we had Champlain Towers South, a 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, United States, partially collapse. Ninety-eight people died. 

Now that Jeffrey has lightened the mood, let us examine the rest.

Across:

1. __ Cass: MAMA. Cass Elliot was a member of the successful 60s band The Mamas & the Papas. They only were together from 1965 to 1968, but since that was the end of high school and start of college for me, I recall them fondly. As far as who I would have fondled...never mind. 

5. Some Sappho poems: ODES. JW has brought his whole artistic side to this puzzle, first music then poetry, though I doubt he was in high school when she was writing. 

9. Not great, chancewise: SLIM. And his partner, NONE.

13. Malicious: EVIL. MAL is a root word in many languages for bad and has been used by writers, poets and movie makers forever. Oo love musicals, so we recently watched the Disney series of movies called the DESCENDANTS which was based on the premise that all of fictions bad people had children were were equally bad. Or were they? 

The CAST.

14. Ruminant with striped legs: OKAPI. The okapi, also known as the forest giraffe, Congolese giraffe, or zebra giraffe, is an artiodactyl mammal that is endemic to the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo in central Africa. Although the okapi has striped markings reminiscent of zebras, it is most closely related to the giraffe. Wiki.

15. Locks in a stable?: MANE. Staying in four legged mammals for $800 Alex, where do horses mainly live?

16. Chimney concern: NEST. Birds however can live anywhere, except maybe in a... 

17. Horror movie locale: CRYPT. Which freedom...

18. Rankles: IRKS. the bees.

22. "The Comedy of Errors," for one: FARCE. I love how JW sneaks in his Shakespeare with this play. It is the story of the farcical misadventures of two sets of identical twins. Many years earlier, the Syracusan merchant Egeon had twin sons, both named Antipholus. At their birth, he bought another pair of newborn twins, both named Dromio, as their servants. Why name both sons the same? For comedy of course. One son, and one servant were lost at sea, eventually reunited leading to much laughter of confusion.

23. Prepped: READY. Past participle? This not getting ready but already ready.

29. Cookies that once came in collectible tins: OREOS. This is a replica of a 1918 can.

30. Flying things: WINGS. Cute misdirection as wings are very often integral to flying. 

31. Basic nutrient: FAT. Despite what Jack S. thought fat is important in a human diet. What HARVARD RESEARCHERS found.

34. Hors d'oeuvres carrier: TRAY. Not the waiter but his instrument, but not a

35. Hand-picked instrument?: BANJO. Very cute visual clue.

36. Arrived: CAME. Boomer told me NOT to comment on this though it might be...

37. Very popular: HOT. No pictures, sorry.

38. Canine that preys on red kangaroo and swamp wallaby: DINGO. I know nothing of the RED KANGAROO or the SWAMP WALLABY   I know DINGOS are from Australia and like to eat babies. "A dingo ate my baby!" is a cry popularly attributed to Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton, as part of the 1980 death of Azaria Chamberlain case, at Uluru in the Northern Territory, Australia. The Chamberlain family had been camping near the rock when their nine-week-old daughter was taken from their tent by a dingo. Maybe?

39. Après-ski drink: COCOA. Ahh. chocolate.

42. Initial phase: ONSET. I am waiting for this to be the WORDLE word. (I wrote this Monday, August 28 at 8:13 PM, life can be amazing!)

45. Cy who pitched the first perfect game of the modern era: YOUNG. Again I could find no film of this all time great (511 victories!) but here is a retrospective on Cy and other baseball greats.

                                    

51. Touched down: ALIT. Like a mosquito on your arm.

52. Still in the game: ALIVE. It is imperative to be alive to play the game.

53. Dish (out): DOLE. Bob failed in many triesto become President.

56. Inheritance factor: GENE. My first wife's uncle Gene was not nice.

57. Records, in a way: TIVOS. All you would want to know and more as TiVo has its own site. TiVopedia.

58. Aerial enigmas: UFOS.

59. Set up: Abbr.: ESTD. ESTablisheD. Good for businesses and buildings.

60. Pour out forcefully: SPEW.  I use this word with rhetoric or vitriol not volcanoes.

61. Some lit. degrees: MFAS. Masters of Free Association? I recall when I used to get lit my mind wandered; oh it is doing it again.

Down:

1. Guys: MEN. 

                                        

2. Hail, in a hymn: AVE. Do you think of  Ave Maria? Or  Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant  ?

3. Falter: MISS A BEAT.

4. Assistant in Mass production: ALTAR BOY. The capital M gives it away; Boomer was an Altar Boy, not just for the wine.

5. Pod that may be fried or pickled: OKRA. Such a debated food, but I married a woman raised in Birmingham who loved it. Maybe try this RECIPE.

6. Diary pages: DAYS. So simple it was hard.

7. Actor Omar: EPPS. He has had a good career for a young man. His IMDB.

8. Order of Darth Sidious: SITH. There are many here who scoff at the STAR WARS epics, and there are many who love them. Sidious is a most central character but he died. Or did he?

9. Shows satisfaction: SMILES. There are happy smiles. relieved smiles and satisfied smiles which are not all nice.

10. Silk source: LARVA. You probably all know silk comes from a silkworm. Bombyx mori, the domestic silk moth, is an insect from the moth family Bombycidae. It is the closest relative of Bombyx mandarina, the wild silk moth. The silkworm is the larva or caterpillar of a silk moth.

11. Tatted up: INKED. I grew up in a religious home where marking your body was s sin because you had to be too arrogant to improve on the perfection creation had been. 

12. Out of order?: MESSY.

14. Chamber group: OCTET.

20. CBS military drama with regional spinoffs: NCIS.

21. __ on the side of caution: ERRS.

22. Grain of emmer, spelt, or einkorn: FARRO.

24. "Divergent" novelist Veronica: ROTH.

25. "Boys Don't Cry" Oscar winner: SWANK.

26. Trunk hardware: HINGE.

27. "Have a ball!": ENJOY.

28. In the past: AGO.

31. Going head-to-head: FACING OFF.

32. "You're __ friends": AMONG.

33. Deck chair wood: TEAK.

35. Shaving brand: BIC.

36. Mineral in abrasives: CORUNDUM.

38. Inflict upon: DO TO.

39. Woo-shik of "Parasite" and "Train to Busan": CHOI.

40. Hoisted: HEFTED.

41. Wanda who plays Dr. Karl in the "Bad Moms" films: SYKES.

42. Old enough to vote, say: OF AGE.

43. "Frasier" role: NILES.

44. Stretch: STINT.

47. "Phooey!": RATS.

48. Intimate apparel item: SLIP. 

49. Bee flat?: HIVE. Very cute, the apartment where the bees live.

50. State openly: AVOW. AVOW = AVER another APEX ACME choice.

54. Mauna __: LOA. I tried for years to get my clue, "it's higher than LOA" in a puzzle, no chance.

55. Start of spring?: ESS. Silly end to the puzzle but the word SPRING does start with an S.