The biblical scholars among you will be pleased to see Mount HOREB in the puzzle today (“Biblical peak”) at 31 down.  That’s where God gave Charlton Heston the Ten Commandments.  It’s also where the burning bush incident occurred, and where Mo struck the rock to get water out of it.   According to Exodus 3:5, the ground of the mountain was considered holy, and Moses was commanded by God to remove his sandals.  This is also the source of the modern day requirement to remove your shoes for airport security, although many of the Israelites filed papers to obtain exemptions.

The puzzle is highlighted by six down answers that go all the way from the top to the bottom, i.e,, six 15-letter answers, quite a feat of construction.  My faves were FREAKING AWESOME (clued by “Amazeballs”), and TEMPORARY TATTOO (clued by “Erasable ink?”).  A few months ago, “temporary tattoo” was nicely clued by “Mom for a day, e.g.”  (Get it?)

Two ballplayers are in the grid.  The first is “Slammin’ Sammy,” which had to be golfer Sam Snead, except there were only four squares to fill.  It turned out to be Sammy SOSA.  He appeared right below “Muscly” for BUILT, in his case via steroids.  And “Six-time Dodgers All-Star Ron,” is Ron CEY, nicknamed The Penguin, by his HS coach for his slow waddling running gait.  He had a heckuva career, including being named MVP of the 1981 WS in which the Dodgers beat the Yankees.

I had no idea why “Resting spot for some buns” would be NAPE, but a comment in Rex explained buns meant “hair buns.”  

“Auntie Em and Uncle Henry, for two,” was a great clue for KANSANS.  

In the new-stuff-learned dept., the clue for POLARIS, the brightest star in the constellation, commonly known as the North Star or Pole Star, taught me it is actually three stars.   Also ANEMONES can refer to either the lovely plant in the buttercup family, or, as a Sea Anemone, a predatory marine organism, so named because it looks like the plant.

Several of you (Hi Liz and Joe!) took me to task for neglecting to call attention to yesterday’s blatant tuchas appearance in PAIN IN THE ASS, and less so in KICK IN THE PANTS.  So I won’t neglect to mention today’s sightings:  The hidden tuchas of Angela BASSETT, and the phonetic rears in “ASCENDS.”  The latter is clued by “Takes the throne, say,” which puts a bathroom spin on that “throne.”  And don’t forget those buns, see above.

Okay, gotta run. Heading upstate for the weekend. Happy puzzling, puzzlers.