Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin
Our retired computer systems developer, and now crossword constructor, from Kingston, Ontario returns today with a lovely little puzzle.
I had a very quick and pleasant tiptoe through the cells as the long fills were very helpful and gettable.
Here is Brian's gracious and informative response to my request for info on this puzzle including on the process of cluing and editing by Rich and his staff which we have discussed here recently:
Hi Gary,
It really saves me time that you provide the published clues in your emails. It makes it easier for me to update my records. Thanks for that.
Here are my comments:
This grid is similar to the one I used for my last appearance in the LAT. Namely, the longer entries cross in the middle. When those entries are filled, it just leaves me 4 mini-puzzles in the corners. It is kind of my lazy grid because it takes advantage of the strengths of computers. But any grid can fight back strongly, and I usually have to try this and try that on my own to make it work.
I actually hadn't seen that puzzle for quite a while, having submitted v1 in May of 2019. I see that I have a lot of proper names in the grid. I keep telling myself to stop doing that, but I just don't seem to listen. Most of them are well known, but some of the clues have been "Saturday-ed" to make the difficulty level appropriate. How many people know that Bonny Blue's birth name was Eugenie? The clue that I was disappointed to lose was for 24D CAYENNE: "Moderately hot chili pepper" (a reference to the rock group, of course). But there were significant cluing improvements done.
Brian
1. Actor Richard Anthony Marin, familiarly: CHEECH - Cheech (sans Chong) made an appearance on Grey's Anatomy and was billed as CHEECH Marin.
7. TV's "Moonlighting," for one: DRAMEDY - We crossworders know it's a portmanteau of Drama and Comedy. I think Grey's Anatomy would qualify as one.
14. Sarcastic comment to a complainer, maybe: POOR YOU.
15. Bonnie Blue's birth name, in "Gone With the Wind": EUGENIE - Rhett and Scarlett's post-war baby
16. Eno, for one: ANAGRAM - So clever, Eno is an ANAGRAM of One and is another "meta" clue Jeffrey Wechsler told us about last Saturday.
17. Erodes: ABRADES and 39. Sign of aging: WEAR - This is my 25-year-old "tiller that won't die". Even the ABRADING and WEAR on the belt doesn't motivate me to buy a new one because everything still works.
19. Greek vowel: ETA.
20. Venison source: DEER.
21. "__ consummation devoutly to be wish'd": Hamlet: TIS A - TIS A gloomy part of this famous soliloquy
23. Ancient Peruvian: INCA.
24. Capital of French Guiana: CAYENNE - On the other side of the South American continent
25. Mother __: EARTH - This picture of Mother EARTH rising over the Moon was taken in 1968 by Scott Anders on Apollo 8. He said, "We came all this way to explore the Moon and what we found was the EARTH."
29. "I don't believe it!": YEESH.
31. Hard __: CASH - "Atta boys" are nice but I'd prefer HARD CASH
33. Non-discrimination letters: EOE - As opposed to EEO this time
34. Time-saving words?: YADA YADA YADA.
38. Made something more desirable: SWEETENED THE POT - A perk for some people who work for ABC/Disney is an all-access pass to Disney Parks.
41. Typical Louis L'Amour work: WESTERN NOVEL - He wrote a 100 of 'em.
42. Rd. service club: AAA.
43. Ill-advised move: NO NO - Don't bring your queen out so early!
44. Lyon lasses: Abbr.: MLLES - An abbr. for Mademoiselles
48. Beetle larvae: GRUBS - If you see these guys, you have sod webworms!
48. Beetle larvae: GRUBS - If you see these guys, you have sod webworms!
51. Techie, often: NERD.
53. Do an usher's job: SEAT - A verb here
54. Symbol of innocence: LAMB.
56. Col. neighbor: NEB - NEB's Lake McConaughy attracts a lot of COL peeps
58. Matter-of-fact opening?: AS A
62. Old rubber?: ALADDIN - Fun change of rubber from a noun to a verb
64. Winning steadily: ON A ROLL.
65. Metaphor for misfortune: ILL WIND - The Gulf Coast has had too many of these!
66. Advil rival: TYLENOL - My doctor said to say away from the ibuprofen in Advil and use the acetaminophen in TYLENOL
67. Bill of __: LADING - Here's one from 1775
Down:
1. News anchor Chung: CONNIE - CBS said Connie and Dan's bad chemistry led to bad ratings and was part of her losing the gig. You can look up "the rest of the story"
2. Sounding rough: HOARSE
3. Joule part: ERG.
4. Victorian heroine: EYRE - Charlotte Bronte's first novel written under the male pseudonym of Currer Bell
5. Raccoon kin: COATI - A cute 52 sec. video showing these two members of the Procyonidae family
6. Risky aerial act: HUMAN CANNON BALL - You don't see guys of this caliber very often anymore
7. Kaput: DEAD AS A DOORNAIL - All you'd want to know about this phrase
8. Sticks figure: RUBE - The most famous RUBE who lived in the sticks?
10. Half a comedy duo: MEARA - Ann MEARA and Jerry STILLER's son Ben lives near our cwd friend Chef Wendy on Kauai
12. Rolled game piece: DIE.
13. "You betcha!": YES.
14. It may be a blast: PARTY.
22. So far: AS YET.
26. Gather: REAP - What ye sow
27. Well attachment?: TO DO - I spent a lot of yute in my friend's well TO-DO household
28. Cops: HEAT - The HEAT Is On sung by Glen Frey of The Eagles. He was paid $15,000 to play guitar and sing this song for Beverly Hills Cop
30. Word with crime or watch: HATE - HATE Crime is disgusting but familiar, however I had to look up HATE Watch which is where one watches a TV show they actually hate like I did last night when I watched a competitive cooking show for two minutes.
32. Couch potato's buy: HDTV.
35. "The 'Burbs" actor: DERN - Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it a 53%. Their audiences gave it a 71%
37. Long-distance calls?: YELLS - 2020 Texas A&M YELL leaders
38. Plunder: SWAG - Nominees in the best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best director categories get a SWAG Bag containing $215,000 of goodies.
40. Biblical twin: ESAU.
45. Introduction: LEAD IN - In the beginning, Seinfeld benefitted by having Cheers as a LEAD IN
46. Letting up: EASING.
47. Artist's aid: STAND - Yeah, I tried EASEL first too
49. Sit on, as a horn: BLARE - The temptation is very strong after 10 minutes in a drive-thru lane but I don't because everyone today has a weapon and an attitude. I let it go!
50. Elegant room: SALON.
 |
Stockholm Royal Palace Meleager Salon |
55. Ventimiglia of "This Is Us": MILO - MILO is on the right (HG correction)
57. __ eagle: BALD.
59. Clever remark: MOT - I'll bet this is a real page turner
60. "__ ideas?": ANY 61. Baseball exec Steinbrenner: HAL - Yankee owner HAL might be asking "ANY ideas?" since the Yankees have won only one World Series in the last 20 years but have spent millions.
63. SADD concern: DWI - Driving While Distracted (DWD) is a big problem also
43 comments:
A very slow start in the north this morning. So I went south, which I found easier to complete before heading up north to FIR. The spanners were easy fills after just a few letters. The A&E fills for unknown shows and people always are the most difficult.
George wouldn't fit so HAL Steinbrenner was perps. MILO and 'This is Us'-both unknown. GWTW'S Bonnie Blue's real name- EUGENIE, DELLA and DERN were perps.
DRAMEDY- never heard of but an easy fill after all seven perps.
And then there was the pepper-CAYENNE- another unheard of place filled by perps.
HATE watch is a term I'd never heard.
Long day ahead. TTYL (I learned that from doing puzzles. I'm not into emojis, emoticons, or abbr for texts).
It's nice to be back in the LA Times in such interesting times. I hope everyone is well!
Thanks to Gary for his always-interesting narrative. I didn't understand the clue for RUBE ("Sticks figure") until reading his stuff. I was being a bit of a rube, I guess. It also took we a while to understand BLARE as "Sit on, as a horn". In my world, one leans on a horn rather than sitting on it, but either works I suppose.
There should be lots of newspaper reading today, so one hopes for an increase in puzzling as well!
Good morning!
Wow, this one went fast, probably because HUMAN CANNONBALL, DEAD AS A DOORNAIL, and SWEETENED THE POT all came to me immediately. I did notice the plethora of proper names, but the perps were solid. Thanx, Brian and Husker.
CHEECH: He's a killer Jeopardy!player. Who'd a thunk it?
BLARE: I've never gotten horny in the drive-thru lane, but I have ordered, and then pulled out of line and left a time or two when the line just wasn't moving.
ETA: This is a four-letter-word to the folks in Nicaragua and Honduras.
NO-NO: Husker's chess comments reminded me to ask, have any of you watched The Queen's Gambit on Netflix? I thought it was pretty good.
Since there is sometimes discussion about how many clues are changed by an editor, I did a quick analysis of this one:
15 unchanged clues.
22 minor changes (e.g. "Source of venison" to "Venison source").
35 significant changes.
So, out of 72 clues, almost half had significant changes.
That might be typical. Editors are experts at clue writing, and they have to coordinate the clues of many puzzles.
I understand that Will Shortz has changed every clue on occasion.
Wow! Fast for a Saturday, but very interesting. Hi, DO. Starting in the NE I progressed steadily going clockwise with just a very brief pause to finish in the NW.
Thanks for a great review, Gary.
Loved the Tupperware comic strip. Ain't it the truth! I carefully organize the closet with a good system and after a few months it's hard to find the right lid. I wash the bottoms on the top shelf of the dishwasher and wash the lids by hand because the heated drying warps them. So the lids and bottoms get separated.
Tylenol doesn't do anything for me. I use Advil for tough pain and nothing for mild pain.
I have read many of L'Amour's westerns and also his historical novel, The Walking Drum. It was an intriguing story and I loved the historical references. Reading the plot just now, it seems impossible that one man could get into so much dire trouble in so many locations and be able to escape. But it did not seem unrealistic while reading it years ago.
Some sources list Bonnie Blue's given name as Eugenia, with an "a" instead of an "e".
Fun puzzle. The long answers were all great, but getting WESTERNNOVEL was the one that unlocked the puzzle for me.
Like many a Saturday - this started a little slow but I had the same experience as D-O the long fill entries came pretty quickly and then all the dominoes fell!
I used to like the DRAMEDY "Moonlighting" - one of the first hits for Bruce Willis. He and Cybill Shepherd had good chemistry and humor in their interactions running a detective agency.
Thanks HG and Brian!
Thanks to all for your kind words re: my mom yesterday. Her COVID symptoms 2 weeks out are mostly severe nausea and headache without respiratory symptoms. I took her to ER for IV fluids and they changed up her med for nausea and I was able to bring her home. I will stay the weekend and then my sis will tag team coming up from Texas. My job is to keep plying her with liquids, soup, crackers to keep her from getting dehydrated. My plan is to have her drink every time commercials come on- hopefully she will continue that after I'm gone!
FIR again. A record week for me! As others said, the long fills helped a lot. After filling AS YET, I suspected YADA YADA YADA was the next fill needed, with only the Y in place. The grid spanners needed more help. And yes, HG, I wrote in the usual easel/STAND. I was going to give my couch potato a beer before perps revealed the HDTV. I tried several versions of MLLES, wanting two M's. Other puzzlements worked out, giving me a FIR. Did I already mention that? ALADDIN was my favorite fill. Old rubber, indeed!
Thanks to Brian for the puzzle and comments. I had no idea so many clues would be changed by editors. And thanks, Husker Gary. I look forward to your Saturday reviews. Good Saturday to all of you!
Thought CHONG for 10D to pair up with CHEECH 1A. ROMCOMS wasn't clued plural so DRAMEDY made sense and led me to Ann MEARA.
Gary, YADAYADAYADA reference was a true LOL for me.
A fast FIR Saturday.. a rare, pleasant occurance but having fairly str8 forward wall-to-wall clues a big help. Did not get YADA till the bitter end though. Stuck too long with cells/YELLS.
Always hesitate on the middle letters of MLLES. Had NEV for NEB till BALD eagle. Yep/YES ( yepseemed more appropriate for the clue). ALADDIN: old story about a young rubber. (How did that clue make it passed the CW censors? ðŸ¤) Another inkover: dui/DWI. When I had enough perps I took a stab at CAYENNE, fingers crossed.
Gary...In the picture Milo is at the far right end. Justin Hartley is in the middle. Stopped watching "This is Us" last year. As many series after enough seasons they seem to be reaching for plot ideas.
Great Eno ANAGRAM clue but too bad about YEESH (had notso) the one clunky outlier...Sheesh!!!
Gospel singer Jackson's zoologist sister.....MAMMALIA. (not a clue answer but couldn't resist)
Curly, Larry, and Chairman____.....MOT.
Did Jane ____ when she married "Rooster?"....EYRE
(Worcester: "Wooster", Rochester: "Rooster"?)
Was so hungry coulda ____ _____ ETA HOARSE
Smart kids' list....ONAROLL.
"Barbara Eden reminds me of _____" EUGENIE.
It would be fun if Mr. Paquin, our Ontarian would create a Canadian puzzle with as many northern neighbour spelled answers as possible. To be fair Canada eh..you'd have to sit that one oot .
Milo is not in the middle...he’s on the right end..at least in the picture posted.
Good morning everyone.
Another brilliant LEAD-IN, Gary. Thanks.
After getting the long downs crossing the grid spanning across, the puzzle ended up on the easy side. FIR. Seeing YADA…… developing helped. Favorite clues were for ANAGRAM, ALADDIN and TODO.
SALON - We've attended diplomatic receptions at various SALONS in the US and Canadian capitals. Always wondered about all the schmoozing that must go on there.
Brian - Thanks for checking in. Knowing you're from Kingston, I wonder how Chez Piggy is doing during this pandemic.
Musings
-Brian, your notes on the construction of the puzzle were great but this math person really loved the clue alteration data! I had no idea that the number was that big. Thanks so much!
-D-O, I binge-watched Queen’s Gambit and found it very enjoyable. Anya Taylor-Joy’s nuanced performance was great and her face is mesmerizing.
-Typing Anya just now reminded me that we had that name last Monday in George Jasper’s UC puzzle. Boomer blogged it this way: 48. "Avalon" author Seton: ANYA. And more: 66. Novelist Deighton: LEN. 10. "A Brief History of Time" author Stephen: HAWKING.
-Thanks, Ray, I’ve never watched the show and assumed Milo was the lead and would be in the middle.
-Any TV series that is on for an extended run eventually gets pretty deep in the weeds for story ideas.
One the C&C's was a regular on That 70s Show. I had a Sgt like that in 'Nam. I remember the other lieutenant and him discussing who would stay with the $$ in the Jeep while the other joined me in the PX.
So… As I walked down one aisle there was the Lt.; In the next aisle:the Sgt.
I ran for the Jeep. The $250,000mpc plus an additional $60,000 in green was in tact. Phew.
I took my RnR in Sydney. Then a 3 day in Thailand.
Getting the B on Col. neighbor: simplified things. Hazy geo area for me.
Haha, the rubber of lamps with genies. Seven perps
Two minutes is my max for Anon-T's hard rock links. And,..Serves you right for using drive thru.
I have ½ Master point in bridge re. Chess which couldn't be played while drinking hence discontinued
WC
" Tylenol doesn't do anything for me" nor me but like Gary: "No nsaids"
Good Morning:
As others have said, the spanners and other long fill were helpful with the solve, but I was still challenged in some areas. Unknowns were Eugenie and Cayenne and I had Rune before Rube. I liked the duos of Seat/Heat and Die/Dead, To Do/No No, and Tylenol following yesterday’s Anacin. Milo is my favorite actor on This Is Us, (Ray beat me to correcting the picture identification error) which I still love and seeing Cheech reminded me of another favorite, but long gone show, Judging Amy. Cheech played Tyne Daly’s love interest. CSO to HG and a close-enough CSO to Jayce at Yeesh/Sheesh!
Thanks, Brian, for a Saturday challenge and your insider comments and thanks, HG, for a great review and links, especially for the Della Reese trip down Memory Lane. I was hoping that your favorite was going to be my favorite, also, and it was!
Inanehiker, best wishes for your mother’s recovery.
YR, thoughts and prayers for your nephew and the entire family.
Have a great day.
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Brian (greetings fellow- Canadian) and Husker G.
No Canadian advantage here today. I needed P&P but eventually FIRed.
I commented yesterday on the four fill-in-the-blanks . . . Four again today. Meh! Changed clues Brian?
I also commented on use of acetaminophen (TYLENOL) over Anacin. Different twist today with Aleve. TYLENOL is easier on stomach and fewer drug interactions than NSAIDs.
Beautiful day here. Off to enjoy it. Back later maybe.
Hola!
This was unusually easy for a Saturday. Thank you, Brian Paquin!
As has been noted, the long spanners facilitate the fill.
CHEECH and CONNIE are a blast from the past! CONNIE has been long gone from the TV scene but her husband is still on the air.
Yes, I had EASEL then STAND. That was my only write-over. I was ON A ROLL all the way.
I've read only one of Louis L'Amour's NOVELS, The Walking Drum, chosen by our book club.
No, I didn't recall EUGENIE, Bonnie Blue's name; seven perps required.
Lovely to see MAHALIA Jackson's name and recall her fulsome voice.
And I'm always pleased to see some Shakespeare in the puzzle.
I wish you a most pleasant Saturday, everyone!
This was relatively easy for a Saturday (with the emphasis on relatively). The long answers were a very big help particularly WESTERN NOVEL, DEAD AS A DOOR NAIL, and YADDA YADDA YADDA. Had LOOT before SWAG but that was changed fairly quickly. Great job on the write-up. It's difficult to get the text placed next to the graphics (grid, in this instance).
Tough puzzle, but HG's blog was great and Brian's notes on the editor's cluing was very interesting. Lots of unknowns but learnt a lot.
Tylenol (Acetyl para amino phenol, APAP ) is the wonder drug today, just a shade better than to Aspirin (Acetyl Salicylic acid ). Aspirin is great as a blood thinner for post heart attack recovery, but could be a problem on the stomach. Tylenol is also easily filtered by the kidneys, very important !!
The other modern NSAIDS are not so useful unless your heart and kidneys are in very good condition. Anacin is a combination of Aspirin, Caffeine and Phenacitin ... not favored nowadays. Aspirin alone will do a pretty good job.
Had Eno as an ANTACID at first. By the way, Eno works better than baking soda ( sodium biCarbonate) for many baking needs, IMHO. It just works much faster. Eno is just baking soda and citric acid in an anyhydrous mixture.
The Queen's Gambit, is a A+ show, I loved it ! Netflix just financed a winner. Great acting. by all.
Other chess movies are 'The Pawn sacrifice' (Bobby Fisher) and 'Searching for Bobby Fisher'.- about a child prodigy, not Bobby.
Canadian solvers might want to check out my website http://www.cancross.com/
I have lots of 19x themeless Canadian puzzles there. Not interactive though, you have to print the blanks.
I was never able to make a big splash in the Canadian market, so I looked stateside. Much better response.
I never became a Sudoku person, but I do like my own 6x9 fully diagonal (and interactive) puzzles. Near the bottom of the main menu. 6x9 is less intimidating to me. And I think I invented that kind of puzzle...not sure.
My favorite Louis L'Amour book is far from being a western novel. It's "Last of the Breed" set in Russia during the cold war. A spellbinding story with a great twist of an ending.
I think the clue and answer for 29 across really ingest air.
KS
Nice Saturday challenge. The top and bottom thirds went fairly quick. Eugenie was all perps. Loved the clever clues for rube and Alladin. I held on to core at 31A too long then after changing to cash, the middle third filled in nicely for a satisfying Saturday FIR. Now on to ten hours of pigskin antics. Go IRISH!!
Anon@10:56, Anacin had to drop the phenacetin when it was outlawed for medicinal purposes -- in Canada in the '70s and the US in the '80s.
My hopes sank in the barren north, but RUBE and DEER got me going! Ultimately FIW because I had hard CASe and decided eDTV was just something I didn't know yet. Should have known HDTV since that is how I enjoyed The Queen's Gambit on Netflix. Can you really HATE watch a show for only two minutes? DH HATE watches shows for several seasons. I give up early -- but not on the crossword. Thanks, Brian, Gary, and Cornerites!
Old Rubber? BEST CLUE EVER!
But I did think that Half a comedy duo: should have been CHONG to go with 1-Across.
Loved the yadayadayada pic for the clue...actually LOL’ed. She should have tried that with the judge.
Which I also did last night when I saw the Liberty Mutual commercial where LIMU is playing volleyball and then sits on the ball like it’s an egg. Maybe it’s the election count nerves but I almost had tears from laughing so hard.
Speaking of which they announced PA for Biden, which would seem to wrap it up...I wonder how much interest there is now in the other 4 states count now, haha. GA is about to become the News of the World come January.
Nice grid, no issues, although YEESH is kind of ugly.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is known to cause severe liver damage and is a component of may OTC and presription drugs. Fatal overdoses from severe liver disease have occurred in people unknowingly taking more than one drug with acetominophen in it. People with liver disease are usually advised to avoid it entirely.
Although it was a crossword answer recently there are no MAGIC BULLET pain relievers.
https://acpinternist.org/archives/2014/05/acetaminophen.htm
Thanks for the Aggie reference on Yells. Gig'em and Whoop!
Gary, Mahalo for the shout out. Fun, semi easy Saturday puzzle and a great review.
Easy few minutes.
Cute scene in GWTW when Mammy announces The baby’s name
Anon@1056, nice summary of the NSAID vs TYNENOL ramifications. My kidney disease means none of the former.
"CSO to Jayce at Yeesh/Sheesh!", I was thinking that too.
I think the TYNENOL warnings derived from excessive use. I bite of a bit along with 1/2 a midnite.
WC
Um, well, gawsh, there is much that I liked about this puzzle and much that I didn't. One example of what I liked is the ALADDIN clue. One example of what I didn't like is that ugly YEESH. I also had a hard time with so many names, many of which I had never heard of.
Gary, I liked your review approximately 5.374 times more than the puzzle.
Today is a good day.
Good wishes to you all.
No problem with YEESH. I know someone who uses it. YEE-- brought it quickly to mind. Yeesh and sheesh can be used interchangeably. Both are very informal.
I was happy to see some of you have also read The Walking Drum. I read it twice.
I still can't believe a Thursday like puzzle on a Saturday.
I went to visit Alan this AM and ran some errands this afternoon. Done, basically a mental health day. It feels great to relax.
Hi All!
Brian - You got me again. The SW wouldn't fall w/o Googling MAHALIA. DNF (and MIL texted "Loved YADA YADA YADA!"* so that gave me that //she had fun too!).
Thanks for the puzzle - loved the long phrases (and Flea!)
Thanks for the expo & interview HG. I can relate to the Tupperware comic.
Oh, HATE watch! Thank you. It's like many (not I) did with Tiger King at the beginning of the C19 shut-down.
WOs: OKIE -> RUBE, DRoMEDY, EMMA -> ERMA -> EYRE
Insult to Injury: YEP @13d stayed for a FIW too!
Fav: CHEECH is more than a funny stoner comic.. [8:18]
//Wait, D-O... CHEECH on Jeopardy!?
Runner-up: c/a @ ANAGRAM
YEESH - not what Jayce say.
jfromvt - Yep (er YES), that was my first long fill too. Buddy of mine loved L'Amour's books. I was more into SciFi.
inanehiker - I'm assuming that not booze to drink every commercial break :-)
Good to hear she's doing well.
I'm an aspirin guy - don't want anything stronger in my body (unless beer counts).
//If I'm really ill, Jack & honey :-)
Re: Biden -- This morning NPR interrupted Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me to tell me.
Cheers, -T
*2m later she texted - "Oh no - Did I spoiler? Sorry if you've not finished yet."
Dear friends, since the topic of pain relievers/NSAIDs came up, it's worth noting that we are all members of a tremendous, world-wide, chemical experiment: we humans have been chemists for maybe 200 years, and the effects of our syntheses -- especially drug and long-term interactions! -- are still being discovered. Lab rats, we are...
Yep, YEESH is pretty ugly.
Otherwise, an enjoyable pzl from Mr. Paquin. Fairly easy for a Saturday.
I hd ANRADES (whatever that is) before ABRADES--because (thinking like Irish Miss) a RUNE is definitely a "Sticks figure."
Happy to see the Election called at last. I don't believe it is a political statement to rejoice that our national nightmare is coming to a close. Whichever side you were on, we all need to take part in the great national healing.
"E pluribus unum" needs to be prevail in every state and region. Mr. Biden will need our help and support in uniting us after such intense rivalry.
Bless him.
~ OMK
SHEESH!! Everyone saying how easy it was and how fast they got it done!! Not me!! SOFA for HDTV slowed me for the Longest Time!! Having been befuddled at the top, I finally got a grip in the SE, and went from there. Lot of write-overs today. But eventually (like 39 minutes) got ’er done. Thanx for the mental workout, Brian, and the excellent write-up, HG!!
unclefred - 39m?!? Dude - I was at this for hours on & off (stained a patio swing in between). Focused time had to be >1hr. Cheers, -T
Brian I really enjoyed this puzzle as I FIR and I usually don't do well on Saturday puzzles. On the edited cluing for Cayenne, I learned a new capital, and even that French Guiana wasn't in Africa! As for Cayenne being "moderately hot", Chacun a son gout, YMMV. I used to do a lot of Indian cooking from a recipe book that routinely called for Tsps of the stuff. I had to use a quarter of the measurement to get tolerable Scoville levels.
Gary, re Abraham's 40D family tree. His historic impact was greater than just thru Esau's twin Jacob, who fathered the modern Jews. Esau's descendents became the Edomites, the ancestors of the modern day Jordanians. And Abraham also had a son Ishmael by the slave girl Haggar. The Ishmaelite's descendents settled in modern day Saudi Arabia.
Ray’o- thanks for adding acetaminophen side-effects (and note re inadvertently taking too much because it is in so many products. I did not take time to enlarge.
Brian- thanks for the link to your Canadian CWs. I’ll try it out . . . and dare anyone here to try it too.
Saw a mention of The Queen’s Gambit. Highly recommend! I’ve watched it twice already.
I'll be gone for a couple of days to help celebrate a friend's birthday. Take care you all and stay safe.
Post a Comment