SATURDAY WITH GAIL
Traction today was as hard to obtain as was our icy streets last week. The NE corner bewitched, bothered and bewildered me. As often happens I got started at the bottom but I definitely found Gail's puzzle fair and challenging.
Now here's a few of the long fills I found interesting:
1. Steve McQueen's co-star in "The Getaway" : ALI MACGRAW - So good they made a sequel!
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| 1972 1994 |
17. Defect : BREAK RANKS - Not many do here
12. Portmanteau for workout clothing worn socially : ATHLEISURE - Ah, my vocabulary continues to grow
66. It helps you get up : STEP LADDER - STEP LADDER? Nifty! Footwear choice? Dicey
68. Commercial challenges : TASTE TESTS - Remember?
Here's what else Gail has for us on "If Pets Had Thumbs Day"
Across
11. Hollow : VALE - I got the geography connotation eventually
15. It doesn't include overtime : BASE SALARY - The BASE SALARY at my most recent school is $37,000 and my salary maxed out at MA + 36 would have been $76,000
18. Online shopping option : CHAT - Their webpage
19. Organic soy milk brand : EDEN - Okay, it's Saturday cluing
20. Org. hacked during the 2016 presidential campaign : DNC - Her book was a fascinating read but I don't think she'll be getting any Christmas cards from Hillary
21. Some edible plant parts : STALKS - Rhubarb would be my favorite
23. Morally base : SORDID
26. Vein contents : ORE and 30. Vein contents : DEPOSITS
27. Texas-Louisiana border river : SABINE - Even when Texas was not in the Union yet
34. Red-hot : ON A TEAR
36. Superfan : NUT
37. "On the Road" narrator : SAL - SAL Paradise was the name Jack took in his book
38. Company with back-to-school buys : BIC - Is anything as uBICuitous as a BIC pen?
39. Flowery lines : ODE
40. Crock-Pot and Cuisinart: Abbr. : TMS - TradeMarkS - Indicated by ® or ™
41. News gp. : UPI - United Press International
42. 1940s mil. zone : ETO - Here is an Eisenhower jacket with a European Theater Of Operation insignia high on the left shoulder
43. Excite, with "up" : REV
44. Wilde forte : EPIGRAM - Here's one I have always liked
46. Sounded right : RANG TRUE - Oscar's EPIGRAM RANG TRUE to me the first time I heard it.
49. Joan of Arc's crime : HERESY - Pope Leo X called Martin Luther " a true heretic".
50. Shorten a yard to mere inches? : MOW - I'm still using my snowblower and so it may be a while
51. Crate up : ENCASE - "We drug Kong, ENCASE him in a crate and take him to New York. What could possibly go wrong?"
53. Where Excalibur was forged : AVALON
56. Buff end : OON - Not ALO
57. Bering Sea port : NOME - Also the home of the finish line of the world's most famous dog race
61. Amy's "Sisters" co-star : TINA - Amy Poehler and TINA Fey of SNL fame. Rotten Tomatoes said, "Meh"
62. One with a lot of wheels : AUTO DEALER - Mine sold my MIL an 58. GM line until 2004 : OLDSmoblie 27 years ago and it is still going strong!
65. Bands in the East : OBIS - More clever Saturday level cluing
67. Substantial content : MEAT
Down
2. Hog product : LARD - The secret of my MIL's great apple pies
3. Understanding answer : I SEE
4. Is not to be taken lightly : MEANS IT
5. What it doesn't hurt to do : ASK
6. Checkout counter device : CARD READER - At the Apple Store last week my "genius" used a handheld device to scan the UPC on my purchase, READ my credit CARD and send me a receipt via email. I don't know what he would have done if I'd wanted to use cash
7. Sweat __ : GLAND
8. Like bad butter : RANCID - Gail got two scents in on these last two entries
9. Craft for couples : ARK - Couples of animals. Why did Noah take two mosquitos?
10. "The Swiss Family Robinson" author : WYSS - I truly thought this would be an author I would know but, uh, no
13. News source, perhaps : LEAK - Many a "LEAK" is just a trial balloon
14. Defib specialists : EMTS
22. Places for piggies? : TOOTSIES
24. Very few : ONE OR TWO
25. End of a ristorante request : DENTE - Si prega di fare la mia pasta al DENTE. (Please make my pasta just firm to the bite)
27. Unlit? : SOBER - Lit is one of many euphemisms for drunk
28. One of the original Pointer Sisters : ANITA - How 'bout a little Pointer Sister disco to pump up your Saturday
29. Passion caused by strips : BACON MANIA
32. Cantina fare : TAPAS - Estas tapas en Granada, España un aspecto delicioso (These TAPAS in Granada, Spain look delicias)
33. Disreputable : SLIMY
35. Cabaret offering : REVUE - I suspect a critic would offer a review of this, uh, REVUE
45. Hurled weapon : GRENADE and 60. Throws wildly, say : ERRS - Not a good combination
47. Bring up the rear : GO LAST - I will read this at my MIL's funeral. She always waits until all are served before she is.
48. Online reminders : E-NOTES
52. Appropriate : COOPT - "uh PRO pree ate" not "uh PRO pree uht"
53. Splitting target : ATOM
54. Hard-to-describe feeling : VIBE
55. Tweed's caricaturist : NAST - People like Kim Jung Un don't have such impediments as Thomas Nast
59. Fulfill : MEET - Just because you can MEET the requirements to teach doesn't mean you can do it!
63. Hagen of the stage : UTA - UTA was the original Martha when Albee's Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf opened on Broadway in 1962. I'll bet most of you know who played Martha in the 1966 movie
64. Down : EAT
What say you?
DA GRID
38 comments:
NE corner got me. Online shopping option - chat ?? Couldn't give up vain for hollow.
Good morning!
Yup, tried VAIN, but EMTS was solid. VALE finally appeared. SHADY morphed to SEAMY and then to SLIMY. But what almost sealed a DNF was the "On The Road" narrator. Was it CAL, HAL, SAL...ooh, that'd make it ATHLEISURE. Phew! Thanx for the close call, Gail.
Husker, "two scents" -- I saw what you did there.
It was a toughie, but I did it! ATHLEISURE and BACONMANIA were new ones for me. Challenging, but fun puzzle!
Sabine river did me in.
A Saturday exercise it was today, having to do a few laps around the grid before finally going ON A TEAR and finishing. Before I get to the MEAT of the SORDID details and say it took ONE OR TWO (actually many) WAGs before getting a toehold in the SE and working North. I wanted SATE before MEET and waffled between SAD, LOW or EAT for 64D. EDEN soy milk, SAL, TINA, ANITA Pointer, EPIGRAM- solved by perps.
33D-SEEDY to SEAMY to SHADY before if finally became SLIMY.
PUMP HANDLE-if you live in NJ or Oregon you might not know. And you get to pay more.
ATHLEISURE- yoga pants is all the women wear around these parts-"everywear" I go.
DNC-Having a photo of Donna Brazile by her book "Hacks" is perfect because that is all she is. She was a local political hack before working her way to the top ranks. And speaking of Louisiana---A local Louisiana joke.
Cajuns also refer to themselves as a 'coonass'. And Texans always brag about everything bigger and better. So we ask them:
"Do you know the difference between a coonass and a jackass? The SABINE River." Doesn't go over too well in Texas the other side of the river.
Time for thie "buffOON" to say goodbye.
NE corner was last to fill. Loved the challenge.
Robert Robertson, any ancestors from upstate NY? Our neighbor up the road was a Robert Robertson.
My email is in my profile.
Good Morning:
This ranks right up there as one of the most difficult Saturdays I've ever solved. It took me 1:30 to get the tada because I'm too stubborn to get any outside help. I think the only thing that kept me from giving up is my respect and admiration for Gail's craftsmanship. But, I will admit, I was sorely tempted. I caused some of my angst by staying with Pere too long before correcting to Abbé. I then compounded my travails by entering Alie McGraw instead of Ali MacGraw. Adding to my woes, I misread Splitting target as Spitting and Unlit as Unit. Either I need new glasses or more sleep! Sabine was an unknown as was Wilde's forte; I could only think of Satire or Sarcasm. W/os included Cart/Chat, Tacos/Tapas, Alerts/Enotes, Sad/Eat, Glen/Dale/Vale and the aforementioned Pere/Abbé. Not familiar with Baconmania or Athleisure but perps saved the day.
Thanks, Gail, for a true Saturday stumper and thanks, HG, for rewarding my efforts with another dazzling "revue."
Have a great day.
Way too difficult.............did not enjoy at all....
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday. Really tough one by Gail without Bruce. But it was fair with some devious cluing. HG drove the tour bus through the puzzle without hitting any potholes. Admirable output by both Gail and HG.
I started out doing well on the NW corner before it slowed down to a crawl. I basically agree with WEES.
Getting ATOM and NAST helped fill in the South and then I slogged through the rest of it with a little Red Letter help at the end.
Gary, I hope you had another good night's rest last night.
Have a great day everyone, and I hope the storm didn't cause any troubles for our Northeast members.
Hello Puzzlers -
This one was head-banging tough. I really struggled over Athleisure, a complete unknown, and a few of its neighbors. Cart made sense, replaced by Chat only under pressure from perps. Technical DNF today. Thanks Husker for steering around the potholes!
Yesterday’s Nor’easter was on odd affair. There was chaos and calamity on both sides of us, what with heaps of snow over by IM and Spitz, and hurricane force wind speeds on the coast. Somehow the Connecticut River valley remained relatively tranquil. We found ourselves in a slot which featured light rain and a few gusts of wind. Go figure!
CanadianEh! FLN 302P
Thanks for your concern. Please see my post. Open my profile, and send me an e-mail. I will 'splain why I haven't posted.
Dave
Tough one. Never finished. But, I enjoyed the tootsies video!!!!!!!
Good morning everyone.
I'd say we got about 18" in the Utica area.
Tough one today, but Gail gives good challenges. Problem with traction in the SW and center East. Finally got AVALON; (Main town on Catalina Island). Got BACON MANIA, but don't really 'get' it. Had 'seam' before ATOM. Thought of 'hair', too.
ANITA - My Sister's name, too.
SABINE - Knew it but wouldn't come to me at first. Thought of Pecos and Brazos which were non-starters.
HERESY - Per HG's comment. Pope Leo X is one to talk. Cardinal at 13- go figure - . Termed a hedonist by some writers. Glittering ostentatious wealth of Rome floored Luther on his first visit there.
Not an EPIGRAM, but a nice thought by Tom Hanks:
"There's this misconception that the Navy is this cruise ship, and you get to go out and sail around, and every now and then, you have to swab the deck. But, no, it is a very impressive group of young people that live at sea, in this place that's very uncomfortable."
Very challenging and fun. Must say I take issue with “tootsies” as a place for piggies - I thought tootsies and piggies were synonymous - no?
Husker Gary:
Though I seldom "solve" the Saturday (or Sunday) LA Times Crossword puzzle,
I do enjoy reading your write-up's.
They are very informative.
GOOD JOB !!!
Okay, it’s Saturday and supposed to be rough.
But BACONMANIA? Really?
Also...not trying to be “that guy”....but they didn’t make a “sequel” to the Getaway....it was a remake.
Lots of do overs..in ink...UNIT b4 ITEM, ADOPT b4 COOPT, PORK b4 LARD, IN LAST b4 GO LAST, SAD b4 EAT, SATE b4 MEET.
Whew, tough one, happy to get the solve.
I've always thought of tootsies as feet--so that's where toes go. Just the way we used it in west central Illinois about a thousand years ago. (Not to be confused with "tushies" :D )
The NE also slowed me down, so I skipped to the bottom and worked my way back up; that helped a lot. Fortunately all 3 of the long fills down there popped right into what I'm pleased to call my mind, and that helped a whole bunch. Took about 25 minutes, all told.
Tough? Yes. Saturday? Yes. Just right, then.
Off to a granddaughter's first birthday party! Should be fun.
Hi All!
Gail - I'll just chalk this up as a learning-day. You and Google school'd me. After 5 Googles (my limit), I just gave up. //I got things todo! Youngest is in dance competition today
Thanks for the Expo HG. Rhubarb over celery STALKS?
BTW, A pic of OBIS would have helped :-). I Googled it and found 'Catalog of Oberland Colege Libraries' and 'Organized Bandits of (who cares)'. Oh, OBI plural. See why Gail got me but good today :-)
Instead of the normal WO/ESPs I'll just post what I "got" before cheating:
DNC, RANCID (something about that crossing seems interesting)
ITEM, EMTS
ORE, SABINE*, ETO, cvs (not BIC), amp (not REV), NAST, sate (not MEET)
Pork for LARD didn't help; Broken anything wasn't defective
I too read Appropriate as meaning apt.
Google and HG's grid to the rescue :-(
Dudley - That's funny (peculiar, not haha) about being in the middle of two storms. It looks ugly and I heard folks died from falling branches. Y'all stay warm, safe, and dry up there.
FLN - Picard: So I'm again cute by 1/2. I was typing "address Picard's Question" but hit the SPACEBAR before the U. I thought it funny 'Picard's Q.' so left it as a little, er, very little, joke.
Spitz - BACON MANIA - there's bacon in everything now. I've even seen (and tasted; not bad -- salty/sweet/fat that sates the palette) chocolate-covered deep-fried bacon at the IL State Fair.
Gotta run - Youngest dances again soon
Cheers, -T
*BigE - not being a native Texan, I can LOL @ the SABINE delta between asses.
How exciting to get a Gail Grabowski Saturday puzzle! Didn't get very far without cheating, but found it a lot of fun. So much so that I looked up C.C.'s enjoyable interview with her. So, many thanks, Gail. I of course had HOG STIES before TOOTSIES and then loved seeing that sweet little pig playing with the toes. Also liked your STEP LADDER picture, Husker Gary.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Anon-T: if I recall correctly, there was a smallish building just between the entrance to the fairgrounds from the infield parking lot and the grandstand that specialized in bacon stuff. I'm pretty sure it was called MOINK BALLS ON A STICK. Turned out to be beef (Moo) and pork (Oink) mooshed into a ball and deep fried. Couldn't bring myself to try one, but loved the name. My brother and I spent one day at the fair operating a special event amateur radio station from a booth under the grandstand.
Husker (from Feb 27): I prefer the Smothers Brothers' version:
Dick: "I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy."
Tom: "I see by your outfit you're a cowboy too."
Dick: "You can see by our outfits that we are both cowboys."
Tom: "Get yourself an outfit and be a cowboy too."
A wonderfully well illustrated response, HuskerG!
But who's going to tell that stiletto-heeled model not to step on the top tier of her fancy STEP LADDER?
Egad, M'lady!
I agree, Ms. Grabowski's pzl is both "fair and challenging." It cost me three lookups to reach my Ta- DA!, so it can't count as a pure completion.
But it was fun all the way.
I always like to be reminded of Thomas NAST, still our country's ranking political cartoonist. And of UTA Hagen, whom I had the good fortune to see in Mr. Albee's original Broadway staging (some thirty years before I had the extra good fortune of working with him on our own production).
____________
Diagonal Report: None. Not a single one.
.
Hi Y'all! How does Gail dupe thee? Let me count the ways: WEES! I won't say Gail is sadistic, but darn near! Good workout never-the-less. IM, it only took me 40 minutes to fill. Okay, I merrily red-lettered my way through a lot of it just to get enough letters to WAG the rest. Okay, several places I red-lettered the whole word. Couldn't help myself. Gail made me do it.
Gary, your expo was a healing balm to the cw EGO. Big Easy: very good chuckleworthy post!
I did know SABINE from news reports about it flooding not long ago and I thought it worthy of remembering. The name took a minute to float to the top of my mind though.
ATHLEISURE was new to me and is sure to never appear socially on my body.
My gas comes out of a PUMP nozzLE not a HANDLE. A HANDLE works the nozzLE but...
I discovered I never knew what is an EPIGRAM so I couldn't fill that without help. Got the Oscar WILDE part. Yay me!
Didn't get "Buff end = OON" connection until I saw it in Gary's blog.
Picard: my goodness, your town has more little festivals than any other town on the planet, methinks. I may look about moving there so I can have some fun too. Keep up the good work.
Gotta say, that clip of the lil' pink piglet licking the piggies is as darlin' as anything I've seen all year.
My my.
Husker Gary, where do you find your media?
Nice, challenging puzzle today. I was doing well until stalling in the extreme NE when I had to leave for a meeting. Upon returning I finally got it! STALKS and VALE for DALE saved me. WYSS was well known by me, but hard to dredge up. I reread the book several times.
We prefer a butter crust for apple pie instead of lard. The butter crust apple pie is commonly ordered for birthdays in our family instead of cake. We put candles on it. My MIL insisted it was not a birthday without cake so she brought one from a bakery. The apple pie was always more popular.
Our gas pump handles are programmed to automatically shut off when the tank is full so there is no chance of overflow. Sometimes to avoid making change, the attendants keep pumping to get to the nearest dollar. On a very hot day moving from three cents to one dollar can cause the gas to overflow. For another nit, different model cars having gas caps on different sides of the car impedes the traffic flow as gas pumps. Why not make it uniform?
I agree TOOTSIES means foot. BOOTSIES is cute.
Me too, seedy, seamy , slimy.
I love bacon, but IMO the current bacon mania is disgusting. I don't like the pumpkin mania even more, but then I don't like most pumpkin items.
Big Easy, you are edging into the political?
HG, I recognized your inimitable style right off. Bravo!
Musings
-Thanks for the kind words! I go to sleep on Friday nights worrying that my 3:30 am post will have a glaring error.
-Yeah, AnonymousPVX, I guess it was a Remake and not a Sequel. Thanks for the gentle correction. Sam Peckinpah’s first version had enough violence to last me a long time.
-Anonymous T – Celery pie? :-)
-Irrespective of what “tootsies” are, I couldn’t resist the picture of the little piggy playing with the man’s tootsies
-There are two types of people – Those who like BACON and those that are wrong! :-)
-Otto, I’m glad you saw what I was going for with “two scents”. I thought “Gail got in her two scents” could be taken wrong
-Wik-Wak – The Smothers Brothers version was fun but Marty Robbins is a real favorite of mine
-Keith, find my media by using my stream of consciousness mind and search for something unique.
Thanks, Yellowrocks, for noticing Big Easy being political.
I am fine with this. What bugs me is that right wing political comments rarely get flagged. It seems that liberal comments are the ones that are usually called out here. I say, let people say what they want. We are grownups.
YR & Anon@3:21---I was not being political. I was commenting on the photo ( which was not put there by me). The person shown with the book lived in the same high-school district as me and went to Grace King High School, less than one mile from my house.
As for political, you can't buy politicians; they are only for rent. Ever try to talk on one of the 535? Better make a big donation. I never donate a cent or support any of them.
C, Eh! I was just flipping through the sports page and I'll be damn'd -- Toronto does have a Basketball team (RAPTORS we learnt last month). They're listed as one of 4 in a difficult stretch for the (tied for #1) Houston Rockets. I checked the standings and Raptors are #1 in the East. Can you tell, I really don't follow basket ball? #BoysOfSummer
WikWak - I can't say I recall the Moink balls but I'm sure, if my Army Bro saw them, he'd make me take a taste (he's 12 years my junior but can kick my ass). The boy is crazy about Bacon anything. #BroCulture. #NoPumpkinYR :-)
Tie'n' in Picard's Puppet Fair and something I heard on NPR's 'Ask Me Another', is puppeteer-ing really one STEP below magic-shows on the entertainers' LADDER? OMK - I expect a full thesis on this :-)
HG - Yeah. Celery Pie, with beef, peas carrots, um, ok, a pot-pie :-)
In between dances - time to get DW's clothes from cleaner (she heads to Italy tomorrow w/ her students - y'all gonna get sick of me) and then maybe a nap b/f next dance @7. Cheers, -T
I had to go back and look at Big Easy's post to see what was considered political. Still not sure unless you mean the "Hack" information. I spent so many years interviewing politicians, I think that was a pretty mild observation.
AnonT: Thank you for explaining the "Q" and "Encounter at Farpoint" issue from yesterday! It flew right past me. Regarding puppeteers, these guys seem to enjoy every minute of it. I suppose if your job is nothing but fun, you never have to work!
PK: Yes, we have a lot of festivals and special events. Thank you for appreciating what we have. But it is a virtuous cycle that can be duplicated anywhere and everywhere. Rather than moving here, I highly recommend creating such events in your own community!
Here is how I might summarize the virtuous cycle:
1) A walkable downtown creates a sense of community. This is how most of America was before suburban sprawl. A Main Street with local shops you can walk to.
2) A sense of community leads to local events. It can be anything from a holiday parade on that Main Street to a truly innovative event that is unique to your town.
3) Local events lead to more community participation. Which leads to more desire to make a livable, walkable community. Go back to #1 and repeat the virtuous cycle in your own town!
I should mention another learning moment in this puzzle. I know two "ON THE ROAD" references. One was the journalist Charles Kuralt whose ON THE ROAD was a regular feature on CBS News.
The other was Jack Kerouac. Neither of those names fit. Learning moment that Jack Kerouac used the pseudonym SAL PARADISE in his book ON THE ROAD.
So late to this party. I had the western half done then went to pick up my friend and we went to see Lady Bird and did a little shopping.
Lady Bird is a fine movie but not in my top two. I put it at #3, The Post and Darkest Hour are still my top 2.
It's almost time to start dinner so I'll just say that ATHLEISURE broke my record for doing this unassisted. I've never heard the term. VICAR occurred to me in the nick of time. St. Joan of Arc was of course burned for HERESY, then TAPAS emerged along with SAL, who? Thank you, Gary, for that information.
I'll have to read you all later. Time to make meatloaf.
I do hope you've all had a lovely day! Laurie Metcalf was wonderful in her part. I would give the Oscar to Meryl and Tom, but that's just me.
Word play misdirection was brilliant, but maybe my familiarity with Gail's puzzles helped me see past it. What did me in was somehow thinking the author was Wyse and not Wyss. That and lead and not leak left be totally lost on the plant part.
What I discovered and liked about Gail's puzzle is that although it took me a long time to get a toehold, once I did I could branch out. BASESALARY was my starting point then the downs filled quickly. I continued downward on that western strand slowly, inching my way down. ETO gave me a base from which to proceed. It took a long time to suss a-PRO-priate. Maybe I channeled Gary.
Across the bottom, STEPLADDER started me off and the rest fell in place.
It was the NE as I mentioned earlier that stopped me in my tracks but after searching for ATHLEISURE, the game was up. So much of this was clever cluing especially, vein contents twice.
I e-mailed fermatprime and she said she is fine, relatively speaking, but is highly engrossed in gaming.
Thank you, Gary, for adding to the fun.
Stay safe, all you storm bound folks.
Picard:
Those puppets are impressive! I assume they were handmade by the people there and like PK I think you must have more parades and festivals than any place else.
Lucina - Thanks for the update on Fermat. C, -T
Why must everyone make a comment about everything?
Good Monday evening, folks. Thank you, Gail Grabowski, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.
This was one tough puzzle. Never finished until today (Monday).
The difficulty for me was the cluing. Very good misdirection.
I got the entire puzzle, but had some mistakes in the Southwest corner. Had A LOG instead of ATOM. Had LILA instead of TINA. Had FOLLOW instead of GO LAST. Had BACON MELTS instead of BACON MANIA.
Anyhow, I was happy I got it done, even with errors.
See you tomorrow.
Abejo
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