google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, July 4, 2020, Julian Lim

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Jul 4, 2020

Saturday, July 4, 2020, Julian Lim


Themeless Saturday by Julian Lim

Another fine puzzle from our Singapore professor Julian Lim. As I look at his specialties at Duke University - University of Singapore I can find many traits of mine that could use remediation


Here is Professor Lim's tweet about a recent investigation of his: We did a non-inferiority analysis comparing group training via videoconferencing during the Covid-19 pandemic with similar content delivered in-person this year and last year. Abstract


After you digest that, here is an analysis of Julian's puzzle on the 244th birthday of our country.


Across:

1. Reward for giving, perhaps: TOTE BAG - How do I get this one?

8. Usually not eligible for tenure, as a professor: ADJUNCT - I was an ADJUNCT prof once and the dean came in to see why my adult students were laughing. He had never heard laughter from that room before


15. In sum: OVERALL.


16. Heedless of the consequences: BRASHLY.


17. Dug: WAS INTO


18. "The Meyerowitz Stories" co-star: SANDLER - I can easily recognize four of this group of five from the show. 




19. Xenomorphs, e.g.: ETS - Sigourney Weaver's antagonists in the Alien movies. Here under happier conditions.


20. Switch positions often: JOB HOP - Me? Not so much as I taught for 42 years and have subbed for 8.

22. Razor handle: ATRA - ATRA is the name, or handle, for this Gillette product  which has also has, uh, a handle and we see here often


23. Uses for snoozes: LIES ON - Lily LIES ON about anything in our house




25. Not lots: A FEW.


27. German article: EIN This speech still gives me chills (irrespective of how some translate it)



28. Out of __: SORTS.


29. Range makeup: Abbr.: MTS - A range of MounTainS 


30. Make official: ENACT.


32. Tandoori bread: NAN - NAN bread being cooked in clay cylindrical oven called a tandoor 


33. "Looks to be the case": SO IT SEEMS


35. Safari, say: IPHONE APP - Safari is also the browser I use on my MacBook


37. Au naturel: UNCLOTHED - Reminiscent of yesterday's discussion about nudists and face masks


39. Racing Unsers: ALS - You'd have to blow up this image to see AL senior in the second generation and AL junior in the third generation 




42. Lectured: SPOKE.


43. Mate: PAL.


44. Flabbergast: FLOOR.


46. Sch. with a Phoenix campus: ASU - 13 minute drive between these the Phoenix and Tempe campuses 




47. "Ashes" (2018) singer: DION The voice of an angel How old am I? The first DION singer for me is DION and the Belmonts


49. Shaky start?: SEISMO The latest earthquakes in the USA as determined by SEISMOeters


50. Things to pick: NITS - We can have quite a crop here on certain days


52. Like some dramatic refueling: MIDAIR - Could you clean the windshield too?




54. Some tech sch. grads: EE'S - Electrical Engineers. Don't we have some Double E majors here?


55. Hip: CLUED IN.


57. 2010s TV series that explores hacktivism: MR. ROBOT.




59. More than vex: TORMENT.


60. Opposite of a scenic route: BEE LINE - From Orlando International, we took the BEE LINE west toward Disney or east toward KSC (corrected - hg)




61. Frames on a diamond: INNINGS.




62. Whole number: INTEGER.

Down:

1. Drying agents: TOWELS.

2. Standing acclaim, at times: OVATION - One that's hard to earn




3. Mosaic piece: TESSERA - An 800-yr-old Byzantine example of TESSERAS beautifully arranged despite wear



4. "__ tu": Verdi aria: ERI. "ERI tu che macchiavi quell'anima" (It was you who sullied that soul)

5. Pete Seeger wrote a book on how to play five-string ones: BANJOS.


6. Brown in the kitchen: ALTON - Not sauté it appears




7. Jell-O serving, say: GLOB - How many GLOBS in a cup?


8. Strong core components: ABS OF STEEL.


9. Fall loosely: DRAPE - An example on our deck




10. 1, at times: Abbr.: JANuary



11. Food and Nutrition Service org.: USDA - USDA inspectors who wear this badge have coveted jobs in this meatpacking town

12. Minnesota Wild, for one: NHL TEAM.


13. Mullahs or ministers: CLERICS.


14. Very tough boss: TYRANT - Who was worse than Ebenezer Scrooge?


21. Deferentially: HAT IN HAND - "Make your words sweet as you may have to eat them someday"

24. Dancer's boss, informally: ST NICK - Rudolph's too

26. Cry: WEEP 


29. Irrelevancies: MOOT POINTS - Your plane has already left, so why you missed the plane is a MOOT POINT.


31. Katmandu native: NEPALI.


33. "The Chi" airer, briefly: SHO - (the shy) chronicles life on the south side of Chicago




34. Blue: SAD.


36. Beseeched: PLED - A fun song from Godspell (hg)


37. 20th Greek letter: UPSILON - Can you name the two other 7-letter Greek letters?


38. Sign with a crossed-out horseshoe-shaped arrow: NO U TURN 




40. Take a licking: LOSE BIG.


41. "__ Like You": Adele hit: SOMEONE - Video in black and white


42. __ Spíritus: Cuban city meaning "Holy Spirit": SANCTI - This city of 465,00 is at least a four-hour drive from Havana




44. Polecat relative commonly kept as a pet: FERRET - I only had to let one kid bring his to class before I realize they have an unpleasant odor too.


45. Team listing: ROSTER 1961 Yankee ROSTER. 


48. Using WhatsApp, say: IMING - My Apple IMING (Instant Messaging) works fine


49. Fire engine feature: SIREN - My hometown used a SIREN to summon volunteer firemen and also tell us when it was 7, 12 and 6 o'clock


51. Highway behemoth: SEMI.


53. Both ways at the start?: AMBI - Zach Galifianakas as an AMBIdextrous flute player on SNL


56. Man cave, for some: DEN.


58. World Cup "Way to go!": OLE.




Comments for Julian?

52 comments:

desper-otto said...

Good morning!

Guess who went forth on the fourth and fashioned a DNF. Yup. I had a GLOP of Jell-O resulting in JOPHOP which made no sense. I figured it was some newfangled thing outside my universe, so I let it stand. Bzzzzzt! But no fireworks. Just one bad letter -- that was enough to seal the deal. Thanx, Julian and Husker.

Disciple of NAN'L said...

SOITSEEMS, ABSOFSTEEL, BEELINE, EES, WEEP ... this puzzle was doubly fun!

Bob Lee said...

Up early...couldn't sleep, so what better way to get going than doing today's puzzle?

I got STNICK right away for Dancers' boss. I loved that clue!

I had a bunch of false starts before fixing, like SEEMSITIS instead of SOITSEEMS and its cross WAIL instead of WEEP. Also LOSEBAD instead of LOSEBIG and its cross FEELANE instead of BEELINE.

After sorting those out, I had to stare at the middle for a while before I got those long answers going down.

I didn't get MTS for Range Makeup as I kept thinking "Home on the Range" so a large open land like the song (Kansas motto, right? No mountains there!).

Overall a challenge and lots of fun puzzle. Thanks!

Hungry Mother said...

FIR, no write-overs, but a rather slow solve. Very nice challenge. ADJUNCT professors are the sweat-shop laborers at the other end of the spectrum from the pricy research professors who don’t teach any classes. In my 30 years on campus I saw the demise of higher education typified by the subordination of Provosts to the bean counters. End of rant.

inanehiker said...

When I saw Julian Lim as constructor and then an on-line solve (since no paper here on holidays) I thought I was going to get stuck, as my mind just works better solving on paper--but I made it through! Thanks Julian for the challenge!

I had BLOB before GLOB and for 23 A I was thinking of the noun for USES and the snooze button for SNOOZES - so was a little slow there.

Enjoyed all the links and blog HG - but since I'm one of the first people to comment - a few minor NITS - it is a SEISMOmeter - with an extra m. And enjoyed the "We BESEECH Thee" clip which is actually from "Godspell" instead of "Jesus Christ Superstar" - it is a much more upbeat musical than JCS!

We had a huge thunderstorm last night - so the outdoor concert was cancelled. Hopefully it will be better weather tonight for the fireworks! We are going to watch "Hamilton" tonight now that it is streaming on Disney + . Another one to add to "1776" for Independence Day repertoire!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

This was a challenge, but a very enjoyable one and one that required help in the NW quadrant. Normally, I don’t seek any outside help, just persist until I finally reach my Tada. No such luck today, though, because I was stymied in that corner. I had Curtain before Ovation, thinking Curtain Call, and the devious (but fair) cluing for Towels (Drying agents) and Tote Bags (Reward for giving) threw me way off. The long fill was excellent but not as easy to suss out, unlike many Saturday grids, so this added to the difficulty of the solve. I thought Glob was clued oddly but I liked Pals and Als, and ETs and MTs. My other w/os were Buck Naked/Unclothed and Seismi/Seismo. CSO to Lucina at ASU. My favorite C/A was Dancer’s boss=St. Nick and it didn’t fool me one bit, to boot.

Thanks, Julian, for a struggle, but ultimately satisfying solve and thanks, HG, for another outstanding review and visuals. Was that the famous Miss Lily or a stock photo?

FLN

WC, I guess I got what I asked for, eh?

Enjoy the Fourth, 🧨 all, and Happy Birthday, America! 🗽🇺🇸

OMaxiN said...

Yep another Saturday FIW. The S. & S.E were mostly empty.
HG, I had to look at your MCO directions upside down.
MO

Big Easy said...

It took a while but I finished. The unknowns- song, TV show, movie, and city took a while. And I didn't know DION was still around. Oh the other DION, Celine, but I'd never heard the song so it would not have mattered. I ran myself into dead ends filling NAPS ON, BUCK NAKED, and NUMERAL before having to change them to LIES ON, UNCLOTHED, and INTEGER.

TESSERA is a new word for me. I wanted TERAZZO (terrazzo) but knew it wasn't correct; I couldn't spell it correctly anyway. MR. ROBOT, SANCTI & SOMEONE were unknowns that worked their ways onto the grid. Thank you Mr. Perp.

ALTON Brown- get a more recent photo. He has no hair.

Lemonade714 said...

HG, despite your extensive space knowledge, you got your directions from MCO wrong. Located on Merritt Island, Florida, Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is north-northwest of Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic Ocean, midway between Miami and Jacksonville on Florida's Space Coast, due east of Orlando International. The Atlantic Ocean is always east.

While not easy, this was not impossible as most of Julian's puzzles are for me. We have not seen TESSERA since a 2016 John Lampkin puzzle.

Thank you Gary and Julian

Lemonade714 said...

BTW, who were the 4 out of 5 Gary, and who did you now know?

Husker Gary said...

Musings
-Thanks, Lemon! I've only taken the Bee Line a hundred times but I did switch the directions.
-I did not know the guy on the left. Here are the names
-Ben Stiller lives very near our blog's Chef Wendy on Kauai

Madame Defarge said...

Good Morning!

Happy Birthday to US!

Thanks, Julian, for a Saturday puzzle I was able to finish. Unlike Hungry Mother, I had several write overs in the NW. I can never decide whether to go with my first impulse or wait for another pass. I guess that's what erasers are for. (I use an Erasermate pen.)

Thanks, Gary, for a very fine tour. Congrats on your 42 years in teaching. I did 31, and subbed for five between staying home with the kids and returning full-time. Middle school the first time and high school the second.

Have a safe and distanced Fourth. I hope all the local bombs bursting in air around here have not resulted in injuries.

Spitzboov said...

Good morning everyone.


I knew the solve would be daunting upon seeing Julian's name at the bottom. Kept probing for a sure starting point and finally began with NEPALI. SE and SW filled out from there. I use Safari, too, so entered searchAPP @ 35a, but Safari is a browser on my IMac. Finally saw that IPHONE APP would work and drove on. NW stumped me and finally looked up ERI. That was enough 'seed' to finish the NW and the puzzle. TESSERA was a learning. The ALTON mis-direction was sheer genius.

Thanks HG for another great hot washup. (From Jackspeak of the Royal Canadian Navy

Hot Wash-Up:

A debriefing held immediately after an exercise has ended.
)


Hope everyone has a great July 4th. We anticipate good weather today.

TTP said...



Good morning. Thank you Julian, and thank you Husker Gary. Loved the opening fireworks display and more throughout your review.

I wish we would get back to having some really tough puzzles. The puzzles we've been getting are all like a walk in the park. Or SO IT SEEMS.

Just kidding. Today's FIR too exactly 35 minutes. Kind of neat that it finished exactly on a full minute.

I noticed that when the timer was over 10 minutes, I didn't have a lot of progress, so I counted my completions. 15 words (out of the 70 total) at that point, mostly around the middle of the grid. Decided to really focus at that point.

Some first and second and third thoughts that didn't work out:
Guitars before BANJOS
Recklessly, brazenly and bravely before BRASHLY.
Browser APP before IPHONE APP.
Vacillate for "Switch positions often"
Finally before OVERALL at "In sum"
Some before A FEW at "Not lots"
Irritate at "More than vex"
Air to air before MIDAIR
DION of "Runaround Sue" fame is still releasing new material ? Oh wait, Celine Dion. D'OH !

So there was some bite in today's puzzle for me besides the total unknowns and the "unknowns as clued", but it all worked out in the end. The last letter to fill was the then obvious S at WAS INTO that also completed the unknown TESSERA.

Well, time to go climb the ladder again to get to the upper branches of the magnolia tree. Today will make it 6 days in a row of killing all the scale I can reach. I've made serious progress and am now down to the last few areas that I can reach. The dripping secretion (honeydew) has abated substantially, so now I'm less concerned about losing major limbs and even the whole tree. Another trunk-to-crown spraying with horticultural oil is on slate for next week.

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

When I turned the page of the newspaper to the puzzle I was faced with a daunting endless sea of white squares. Punishment from the CW gods for the sin of hubris belittling yesterday's relatively easy puzzle

So many inkovers, and repetitive alphabet runs I lost count In the end I FIR. Whew!

The North West took forever. I knew BANJO had to fit in but TOTEBAG seemed a odd answer for its clue. I changed hipHOP to JetHOP to finally JOBHOP. Expected drying agents to be a chemical substance. Didn't understand LIESON for "uses for snoozes" until I read the narrative. Kind of weak.

Remained in the nude too long until finally became UNCLOTHED (let's not get back into the nudist discussion FLN). Could only recall Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman in the "Meyerowitz Stories". Both fit but were wrong. Forgot Adam SANDLER. BRASHLY: means the same as "rashly" (too short a fill), perhaps a portmamteau of Behaved Rashly. Should have parsed Rami Malek"s MRROBOT sooner, one my favorite series.

HG: Are those MIDAIR planes refueling or mating? Plus that's the biggest Cuisinart food processor ever!

Thought I was clever recognizing immediately that Dancer was a reindeer but santa was too short an answer. Even considered santac ( c for Claus) eventually perpwalked. Has NAN (naan) gone the tsar route?

To add to today's fireworks:

When a pair of pants unravels it's time to ______..
SOITSSEEMS.
He's not really sick. It's just_____...ENACT.
Every Christmas Grandma _____ me a sweater ....NITS.
Half a farmer's coverup......OVERALL
The vase broke in half, ______ pieces...WASINTO

Quite a challenge. Happy 4th. Be safe.

Malodorous Manatee said...

Happy Independence Day to those on this side of The Pond.

Nice Saturday puzzle. Had to change SEEMSTOBE to SOITSEEMS. If I had a nickel for every time I got a tote bag in a crossword puzzle I'd have a dollar or two. The Alton Brown reference was good to see. For the motorcyclists here it may evoke memories of his Feasting On Asphalt series.

It turns out that Eddie Izzard was correct. JFK really was saying "I am a doughnut."

oc4beach said...


I was able to correctly finish a Julian Lim Saturday puzzle but it took over 30 minutes. Good one Julian.

Living in a college town, I know a number of ADJUNCT professors who feel that they are not appreciated by the university administration and are just fodder in the educational system. Tenure is often elusive.

When I joined the workforce in the 60's JOBHOPping was not the norm. You went to work for a company and 40+ years later retired from that company. Not so anymore. After 28 years, 7 months, 14 days and 6 hours later that ended (but who was counting). The nature of business changed and employees became expendable.

NITS was easy after our recent discussions about nit picking.

I had AERIAL before MIDAIR for the refueling and I wanted INTERSTATE before BEELINE, but it didn't fit. Perps were very helpful today.

Hope to watch some fireworks tonight from our back yard. They cancelled all of the other FourthFest activities but are going to have a shortened fireworks display.

Have a great Fourth of July and be safe.

Anonymous said...

“We Beseech Thee” is from Godspell, not Jesus Christ Superstar.

Shankers said...

As Misty often exclaims, Woohoo!! I was ready to pack it in almost immediately, but decided to give it the old college try. The bottom half filled in first albeit slowly. Thanks to tons of perps and susses worked back up to the top. Miraculously the NW came into focus and the last to fall was abs at 8D which then gave me brashly. Yay! A Saturday Lim FIR. It's going to be a good day I can just feel it...like 110° in Scottsdale. WOOHOO.

NaomiZ said...

I was pretty confident about "abdominals," but the crosses forced me into ABS OF STEEL. Was able to FIR after that. SO IT SEEMS I have earned an OVATION. Thanks, Julian and HG.

AnonymousPVX said...


Well, this beauty of a JL left me with a bad cell, yet I feel pretty good about getting the rest.

Bad Cell...EPSILON instead of UPSILON, which left ENCLOTHED across. Should’ve spotted that, but after my last fill I put down the pen down instead of checking.

Write-overs...SAUTÉ/ALTON, ABDOMINALS/ABSOFSTEEL, SANTAC/STNICK, DIDO/DION.

I also flashed on the older DION instead of Celine.

Also kind of proud I remembered TESSERA.

Enjoy the 4th, Stay safe. See you Monday.

Wilbur Charles said...

Have I not seen an additional A in NAaN?
I inked in SEARCH APP. At that point I would have gone online except it was Tuesday. So I got into a staring contest with the xword. OVATION was the key find.
Ditto on the original DION. I thought he was making a comeback. Yes, I've heard of Celine.

Another problem was making BANJOS fit. What to do with the J?

I mentioned yesterday that the pronunciation of a word is critical. The soft vs hard S in Uses* is key to understanding Snoozes. I thought perhaps it was a candy.

It's 5am EDT. Owen or TTP should open the door in two hours.

Was it that hard? Doesn't seem so looking back but the NW was entirely white for a long time .

WC

** I discovered two more words since going back to sleep at 5am, almost oversleeping and in my ten am MTG saw: proceeds and object.

Unlike most ST NICK required six perps and a long stare. It didn't help that there were so many ink blotches.

CrossEyedDave said...

Tough, tough Saturday.
Things like, Seismo got me off to a shaky start...
("so it seems" was hard to parse also...)

Actually, 1A did get me off to a very easy start,
as DW signed me up (without my knowledge) for AARP
& I just received a free Tote Bag!

At least I think it's a Tote Bag?

It has no top, but does have handles,
but has several dividers, like a file sorting folder,
& is lined with silver?

I think it is some kind of portable ice cooler?!?!

Anywho, I was contemplating how to use the dang thingie
after I came in from yardwork, & was sweating profusely.
When I closed it up, it gave such a gust of fresh air,
that I now use it as a bellows to cool myself off...
(Methinks I will write AARP & thank them for such an ingenious gift!)

(second thoughts:)
Ah yes, Good O'l Alton Brown...
Who else do you know who gives cooking lessons
using puppets?

Actually my fav episode is salsas & dips,
where he is in an insane asylum, & is visited by a reporter...
I learned everything I know about Salsa & Dips from that episode...
(Crazy, but true!)

Wendybird said...

Thank you, Julian, for a tough but doable puzzle. As a Duke alum, I feel an affinity with you - but that doesn’t ease my struggles!

I put SHOTS for jello serving before BLOB (revealing my checkered past). Favorite misdirection was TOWELS, and favorite long answer was ABSOFSTEEL (I wish)

Thanks for the tour, Gary. The corrections some folks made re Godspell and SEISMO seemed to be already done. I’m confused.

Gorgeous 4th here in Dana Point, but the beaches are closed. Too bad, but folks kind of brought it on themselves. Hopefully things will improve.

CrossEyedDave said...

P.S.,
Big Easy,
"He does have (some) hair!"

Anywho,who,

You made me look for a more recent picture,
&, Lo & Behold! (I found something!)

When life gives you Lemons,
You make Lemonade!

When life gives you onions!

Now, forgive my curiosity,
but when he says add baking soda to the onions to increase browning,
(is that an Alton thing?)
(Alton Browning...)
(Oh forget it...)
Anywho,who,who,
It makes me wonder,
if adding Baking Soda to increase Ph will make browning
more efficient, will the same work for Hash Browns?
(I must try this out.)

This is the stuff I live for,
Curiosity and that Aha moment!
Will the baking soda increase the hash browning?
I now have something to experiment with...

(but don't worry,
whatever I discover, I will forget it tomorrow...)

And get to do it all over again!

Anonymous said...

Slow and steady got it done. WEES about some fun clues. Great write-up by Husker as always.

Very hot here in Chi. But I wasn't going out anyhow. Will watch the fireworks on TV later.

Have a safe and fab 4th everyone.

JB2

Malodorous Manatee said...

Is there a term for the aspect of puzzling where we get completely stumped and put the puzzle down only to return to it some time later and start filling in the squares as if it was an exercise in simplicity?

Anonymous said...

Overall a very fine puzzle, but I am not loving GLOB for "Jell-O serving." It's not wrong per se, but I agree with the definition from Google of "a lump of a semiliquid substance," giving an example of melted cheese. Jell-O isn't really semi-liquid, at least not in the way that melted cheese is. Jell-O's not going to drip or move around once placed. But I may be alone on this way, and it's a small nitpick in a great puzzle.

Spitzboov said...

Merriam Webster says that nan is less common than NAAN. I have seen both before; but usually NAAN. My theory is that the latter is more of a drawl, perhaps from S. India? :-)

I see that Wendy and Misty live near each other. Have you two ever met?

The INTEGER of the day is 6, the number of feet of social distance separation needed. Except in Canada where it is 2, the number of meters of separation needed. Going metric has forced Canadians to social distance 6¾" more than in the US. I wonder if that is enough to have an effect on risk data.

desper-otto said...

Malodorous Manatee, there is a term for that. It's "Saturday."

CED, yes baking soda does promote browning for many foods. I use it for pork chops.

Bill G said...

Question: Do all manatees smell bad?

From LLN, Any comments on "Finding Forrester"? Really good sez me.

Ol' Man Keith said...

Just as I suspected....
This was another Saturday slammer, our prize for recent Friday-softies, Friday-frivolities.
And it was just too tough for yrs truly.
Oh, I might have done better had I been willing to spend more time, but I guess that is one of the determining factors, separating your serious cruciverbalist from the... well, semi-serious.

I did well in the SW and NE sectors, then gave in to a single temptation, then another cheat, and then... I went full bore--
on all cylinders--
straight down the ol' Primrose Path.

But a clever pzl--and my thanks to Mr. Lim. (Too bad he didn't provide any diagonals.)
~ OMK

CanadianEh! said...

Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Julian and HuskerG.
Well, WC warned Leo last night to print 6 of these. And the inky mess in my newspaper show that he was correct. This CW required P&P, but in the end was doable. Hand up for having trouble inthe NW. I figured it must be a person in the kitchen and resorted to Google for the unknown-to-me ALTON. That helped the finish.

I overthought 1D and desiccants (sp?) was too long. I wanted Naps on before LIES ON, in the nude before UNCLOTHED, out of sight or range before SORTS.
And my Jello was served in a bowl (like the stomach of Dasher's boss (that was a wonderful clue!). Blob and then GLOB just did not seem right (although I like Wendybird's shots LOL!).

Sometimes I get TOTEBAGS from charities, but more often they send labels, stickers, cards, pens, even socks. I never thought of them as rewards- more as incentives to guilt you into giving.

Wishing all my American friends a Happy 4th of July.
Stay safe.

Jayce said...

I loved this puzzle and expected it to be quite a challenge upon seeing Julian Lim was the constructor. This is exactly the kind of puzzle I like because it makes me, um, puzzle over it and yet it eventually can be solved without "cheating." Thank you, Mr. Lim.

So Safari was not ADVENTURE, au naturel was not UNDRESSED, the refueling was not AERIAL, the serving of Jell-O was not BOWL, and the opposite of scenic route was not HIGHWAY or FREEWAY. Obviously Dancer's boss was not CHOREOGRAPHER, either. Ah! SANTA ... um, nope.

Fun stuff!

Footholds, i.e. answers I felt >=99% sure of, included ERI, BANJOS, ALS, ASU, NITS, NEPALI, UPSILON, and INTEGER. I was pretty sure that 3-letter tandoori bread had to be NAN, but that spelling of it made me less than 99% sure.

I love the clues for TOWELS, LIES ON, SEISMO, and especially AMBI.

Happy 4th of July.

Malodorous Manatee said...

True, Desper-otto. Now I will have to think of Saturday as a verb as in "It was tough sledding at first but then I Saturdayed it."

BillyG, yes in my quite limited experience. I guess my moniker is repetitious, repetitve and redundant.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Thanks, Julian & Gary!

When I read that Julian studies "mental fatigue" (among other things), I laughed out loud. Julian Lim puzzles always give me "mental fatigue". From comments, I surmise that I'm not alone in this. Anyone who finishes deserves an OVATION.

MIDAIR: I once had an airplane ride seat mate who had been a 20-year USAF master sgt. who claimed he had written the manual for MIDAIR refueling missions. Interesting guy.

Hand up for TErazzo before TESSARA, learning moment.

Range was not "lea" but MTS. Okay, go high not low.

Anonymous T said...

Hi All!

On days like today, 'Worlds Worst Crossword Solver' TOTE BAG would be in order.

Thanks Julian for the grid but it was above my pay grade for this JOB. So, I'll just HOP into....

Excellent expo HG. Thanks for the nudges providing extra play in the NW & south.

WO to write home about: IN THE NUDE (hi Ray-O! & C,Eh!) fit but didn't work with wanted perps.
Noggin Slapper: ST. NICK //I was so off in ballet-land's left field
Second prize goes to ALTON's clue. But,

Fav: MR ROBOT [Trailer]. Probably one of the most realistic portrayals of what hacking looks like. And, like most hackers I know, we do it for the good (Hacktivism)
//Storyline got boring after season two (think: X-Files after the movie*) so I moved on...

With the O in 3rd block who else wanted a Jell-O shOt serving?
//Wendybird knows how to party!

I missed everyone the last few days while I was in IL for the service. Last night I did the puzzles I missed. Thursday's was fun -- *SHRUG*. Friday's I had the same SOlution as, IIRC, OMaxiN.

BillG - never heard of Finding Forrester - maybe something to see in my post-travel self-quarantine.

TTP - I went down the Browser path too. Two Ps don't happen at the end(?), Then I'm looking at IN THE NUDE (confidentially ink'd) and RH going down @36a (rhea? oh, no...). As my BANJO gently WEEPs. //I found a few with a banjo but, um, you (I) really can't listen after 30 seconds.

MManatee - that you know Eddie Izzard [1:07 of 4:11] that well... #InstantLike.

CED - thanks for the ALTON link. Wonder how many Covid cooks still have their sourdough starters? //didn't need it - Youngest loves baking so we had ~2lb of yeast (and 50lb of flour) on hand.

I can't recall the exact setup for DW's most (in the family) famous quip but she drop'd this on my Brother:
"Oh, your 'girlfriends?'... AMBI and Dextrous?" //with palms presented

Cheers, -T
*you know that feeling? Really?!?, how much deeper does this conspiracy theory go? Burn Notice did the same thing.

Lucina said...

Hola!

I finished this puzzle hours ago but was watching Independence Day with my granddaughter. It's such a good movie!

Someone mentioned Finding Forrester; I highly recommend it.

For a Saturday Julian Lim delivered us a fairly easy one, that is until the NW corner. I started at the SE bottom with ROSTER and blossomed outwardly.

I'll take a CSO at ADJUNCT and another at ASU where I earned my Masters. I taught ESL night classes as an ADJUNCT for 26 years and loved it.

Over the years I have received quite A FEW TOTE BAGS.

I hope you are enjoying your 4th of July!

Lemonade714 said...

The comments have a life of their own today, taken over by CRD and his Alton Brown episodes, and the apparently almost fill "SANTAC." This reminds me of the now forbidden ZANTAC .

We have both personal fireworks all day and now thunder; glad I am not a small dog.

Spitzboov said...

Speaking of TOTE BAGS, the Dermatologist I saw on Wed. gave BH and me each a nice TOTE BAG with samples: SPF 50 Anthelios 3ml and purifying foaming cleanser 15ml; both by La Roche-Posay. Nothing like a little swag to help your day along.

Bill G said...

Hi everybody.

We don't seem to get tote bags for contributing to worthwhile charities. Instead, we get requests for further contributions. Rats.

Have any of you read "Iron House" by John Hart? It got good reviews. He seems to be a capable writer. But I'm about a third of the way into the book and I'm still not completely sure what is going on. Worse yet, I don't really care that much. Rats again.

Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well-done.
Ernie Kovacs


~ Mind how you go...

Wilbur Charles said...

MaloMan, I have the same sensation. I figure it's the cerebellum working on what the cerebral cortex feeds it. When I have a sea of white I try to cram the clues into my brain to percolate.

I had the vaguest of ideas that I'd heard ALTON and it might have been Brown. Not enough to merit ink.

I found "Burn Notice" getting repetitive: Mom drops in at the worst time, girlfriend shows up with an arsenal, crooks cook, innocent victims weep with joy.

Lemonade I'm jealous. I have to beg my dermatologist for any little doodab. $40 /visit plus what FlaBlu gives him. Anybody ever have to sit through the purple cone of death? They bombard you with ultraviolet Ray's: sting, sting, sting.

WC

SwampCat said...

Prof Lin, you win! Waaaaay above my pay grade, but I loved the challenge . So many clever clues.

HG, thanks for making sense of all I
didn’t understand

Love Alton Brown!!! ❤️ And yes I find baking soda helpful for browning. I met him at a book signing and he’s just as zany in person.

Bobbi said...

I'm sorry, but I'm a purist, so I HAVE to argue that NAAN is ALWAYS the way to spell the Indian bread. Why do constructors always use NAN. Otherwise I always LAY on a bed when I rest. The only time I LIE in a bed when I sleep is when the cop wakes me and I say "I haven't been drinking!" Another Saturday toughie but I slogged through it. HAPPY 4TH TO ALL and to all, a"good night!"

Anonymous said...

Bobbi, you are a fake “purist.” If you LAY on a bed you are doing unmentionable things !

Bobbi said...

OOOPS! I forgot: I, too, am an education veteran: 32 yrs in middle school classrooms, three years Adjunct College Prof,, 28 yrs on the school board, author of a book on education and an Inductee into the National Teacher's Hall of Fame!

Anonymous said...

And yet you never learned the difference between LIE and LAY. Pity.

Anonymous T said...

Hey @:10:24. GFY. Many of us at The Corner have advanced degrees but hang-ups of one sort or the other. I've never gotten Lay|Lie right either. Also, I have dyslexia which is why I do xwords - helps reinforce letter patterns.

So, unless your house has no glass, put down the rock.

-T

Abejo said...

Good evening, folks. Thank you, Julian Lim, for a fine puzzle. Thank you, Husker Gary, for a fine review.

Well, it is late. I did the puzzle this morning after rising. It was a good one.

I do not have a lot of time to comment now, since I am going to bed shortly (on the floor).

See you tomorrow.

Abejo

( )

Anonymous T said...

Anyone else watching the Penumbral Lunar Eclipse along w/ the neighborhood's fireworks? I can see the 1st bits of Earth's shadow now.

Cheers, -T

Wilbur Charles said...

Bobbi, congratulations on knocking off a Jeremy Lin Saturday toughie. I at least got your joke. I can just hear those cops after a long day "You shoulda seen this souse claiming he hadn't a drop to drink all day!"

Isn't "Lay" past tense equal to "lied"?

Then again "Now I lay me down to sleep...". I forget the rest.

Zzzzzzx

Mikaela said...

Whew, that was a bit of a slog, but ended up with no errors. Has so many trial and errors in the middle section (TABLEAPP and MOBILEAPP before finally getting IPHONEAPP, thrown off by ABDOMINALS before realizing it was ABSOFSTEEL). Eventually overcame, and I leave feeling accomplished for the day!