Crack-tastic

Crack that whip

Give the past a slip

Step on a crack

Break your mama's back

--Devo

"Get Cracking" is the name of today's Newsday puzzle by Billie Truitt. Here are the theme answers:

20A: Protecting from harm (SAFEKEEPING)

11D: Besetting from two directions (WHIPSAWING). Here is a chart showing an example of whipsawing (courtesy of Incredible Charts.com).

29D: Odds-offering operation (BOOKMAKING). Also refers to the more-genteel art of physically assembling a book for binding.

56A: Airlines' cooperative agreement (CODE SHARING). This is when one carrier markets services and places it on another carrier's flight. How confusing! It's bad enough you have to deal with the TSA and body scans.

Alphabet soup:

3A: "No work tomorrow!" (TGIF)
24DA: OR workers (RNS)
46A: American Hunter publisher (NRA)

Oh, the places you go:

44A: Lake Erie city: TOLEDO
51D: Hawaiian airlines destination (KAUAI)
52D: Manila's island (LUZON)
70A: City north of Cologne (ESSEN)

The name game:

1A: Specialized glove (MITT, as in Romney)
67A: Don Trump's mom (IVANA)
48A: Homer Simpson's mom (MONA)
5D: Hudgens of High School Musical (VANESSA)
60D: Wolfe of whodunits (NERO). Crosses with. . . .
68A: Roberts of Romance novels (NORA)

One clue that stumped me was "Billy Bookcase seller." I had no idea what it was until I discovered it was made by IKEA. Putting together IKEA furniture isn't easy. In fact, it could nearly end relationships. Ask me about it another day.

Ikea Billy Bookcase

For today's crytopquote, we actually have one of my contemporaries. The author is the actor Johnny Depp (b. 1963) and his words of wisdom are:

Puppies!

The only creatures that are evolved enough to convey pure love are dogs and infants.

Johnny Depp

Aren't the dogs to the right cute? Dogs and babies love us unconditionally, no matter what happens. When infants grow up and start talking, it's all over.

As an actor, Johnny Depp has undergone an amazing transformation from the teen idol on "21 Jump Street" to Willy Wonka to Tonto. Some roles have fared better than others. He has also had a very colorful personal life and has dated Jennifer Gray, Sherilynn Fenn, Winona Ryder, and Vanessa Paradis, the mother of his children.


Today's JUMBLE features four kangaroos in Beatles' wigs. The caption reads; "The animal band needed a new drummer, so they hired ______.

Word list:

NACPI = PANIC
DEYSE = SEEDY
GEETRR = REGRET
GOOLNB = OBLONG

Scrambled solution: ANISDRRTOG
Solution: DINGO STARR

Imagine how the real Ringo must feel.

It's a beautiful day here and I enjoyed a nice walk outside. That will change, unfortunately.

Till tomorrow. . . .

Signing off,
The Puzzlechick