Saturday Themeless by Craig Stowe
A challenging Saturday offering from our native Newfoundlander who is now a Torontonian. Here are Craig's comments:
Hi Gary,
Thanks for the email and all the work you and the other bloggers put into this site.
I started with ALL JOKING ASIDE. There’s a trove of unused 14-letter phrases that are just waiting to be placed in puzzles, the problem being it is an awkward number to construct a grid around. In this case I needed the corresponding entry before I could begin on the rest of the fill. DEAD SEA
SCROLLS seemed like a good choice at the time though it resulted in a block of names in the NE corner. Filling a themeless puzzle is a balancing act between using crosswordese, abbreviations/affixes and proper names. The fewer the better. I did well on the first two at the expense of the third, I think. Hopefully a few of the names will be familiar to folks.
A quick thank-you to Rich and his team who make puzzles sparkle. Favorite change for me was “Black Sabbath devotee, say” from my original “Tool fanatic.” I guess my clue for CPA (“No. wonder”) wasn’t as clever as I thought!
Cheers,
Craig
Across
1. Heard but not seen, as sound effects: OFF CAMERA - Norm's wife Vera on Cheers was heard OFF CAMERA but never seen. When she was "seen" she had a pumpkin pie on her face from a Thanksgiving food fight.
10. Disconcerts: JARS and 14. In a fog: PERPLEXED describes Richard Gere when Julia Roberts did 19. Stand up: JILT him
15. Shore seen on TV: DINAH - We boomers remember this show and her Chevy theme song
16. Tests: TRIAL RUNS.
17. Film composer Morricone: ENNIO - I've posted this Morricone piece before but it is an amazing film title song! It features many human voices but no words.
18. __-Caps: SNO - A frequent cwd treat
20. __ Waters, most senior Black woman in Congress: MAXINE.
21. Reached the nadir, with "out": BOTTOMED - Good golfers have the club BOTTOM OUT in front of where the ball is lying, about where the tee is.
23. Waffle center?: EFS - waFFle
24. __ spot: WEAK - Football coaches look for WEAK Spots in defenses
26. Court figures: SUERS.
27. Bluffer's objective: POT - The M*A*S*H poker players soon realized every time Charles was bluffing he started whistling. They cleaned him out.
28. Casual Fridays attire, perhaps: KHAKIS.
30. Account: TALE.
31. __ Valley: Tucson suburb: ORO.
32. Begrudges: RESENTS.
34. Breville product: TOASTER - More than we would pay
36. "__ luck?": ANY.
37. Five carats: GRAM.
37. Five carats: GRAM.
39. Tswana for "fly": TSE TSE - Tswana is a Bantu-speaking ethnic group native to Southern Africa
40. Bridge action: BID.
41. Sights seen by seers, maybe: AURAS - Here's how
43. Throw: CAST - Some fun Saturday listening
44. Doce meses: ANO - Hay meses en un ANO en Español (There are twelve months in a year in Spanish)
45. Valiant: STALWART.
47. Abstract: PRECIS.
49. Plant with corms: TARO - A new word cluing an old cwd favorite
54. Black Sabbath devotee, say: METAL HEAD - Is Heavy Metal music your thing?
56. Hirsch of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood": EMILE - He plays Jay Sebring who was the ex-boyfriend of Sharon Tate played by Margot Robbie
57. Fair-haired: ASH BLONDE.
58. Estonian neighbor: LETT 28. Fourth-grade teacher in Springfield Elementary School: KRABAPPEL (kruh·baa·pl) - I had to change the last two letters of Bart Simpson's teacher to get LETT
59. Reels: SEES STARS - What a typical Mike Tyson opponent experienced
Down:
1. Decides: OPTS.
2. Flowerless plant: FERN - Here ya go!
3. Texas river named for its chilly waters: FRIO.
4. Busy pro around this time: CPA - My taxes take a half-hour since I can never itemize above the new standard deduction
5. "Seriously ... ": ALL JOKING ASIDE.
6. Distinction: MERIT - or...
7. Celebrates big-time: EXULTS.
8. Let: RENT OUT - "Trailers for sale or RENT, Rooms to let fifty cents" I'll bet you know the next line
9. They're seen in some wars: ADS.
8. Let: RENT OUT - "Trailers for sale or RENT, Rooms to let fifty cents" I'll bet you know the next line
9. They're seen in some wars: ADS.
10. Spell: JINX - One of the unwritten rules of baseball is "Don't talk to a pitcher who is throwing a no-hitter" because it will JINX him.
11. She plays Sheldon's grandma (Meemaw) on "Young Sheldon": ANNIE POTTS - I remember her as the secretary in Ghostbusters
12. Much of Vancouver Island: RAIN FOREST - Two Vancouver Air float planes flying over the island
13. Skechers milieu: SHOE STORE - It was a while before I saw there was no "T" in Skechers.
15. The Israel Museum display: DEAD SEA SCROLLS.
20. Wine denigrated in "Sideways": MERLOT - Merlot sales plummeted after this scene (f-bomb warning)
21. Make madeleines, e.g.: BAKE.
22. Heart: MEAT - Let's get to the HEART/MEAT of the matter!
24. Conformist's phrase: WHEN IN ROME - There's a "no shorts policy" in St. Peter's Basilica . Here an American is putting on paper trousers he bought for 1 Euro from a street vendor.
25. "Not too much": EASY DOES IT.
29. Automotive suspension components: STRUTS - Here ya go
33. First name in desserts: SARA - Nobody doesn't like...
35. See 55-Down: SEAT and 55. With 35-Down, precarious place: HOT - I wonder how Craig came up with this juxtaposition
38. Blue- or gray-furred cat: MALTESE - Any kitty is fine with me
46. Small-muzzled horses: ARABS - Some question the practice of breeding for such a small, upturned muzzle
50. Four-time Gold Glove winner Tony: PENA - Tony's was identical to this one for Gary Carter.
51. __ City: Baghdad suburb: SADR - Just across the Tigris River
52. Ancient midpoint marker, more or less: IDES - The IDES of March was 12 days ago
54. Family figures: MAS.
* Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHad to cheat to make sense of my inkblot. Finally got it all filled, but I'll take a DNF. Problem areas: SHOCKS/STRUTS, CHINOS/KHAKIS, RISE/JILT, SHOE AISLE/STORE, ad nauseum. Thanx, Craig and Husker.
TOASTER: I have a rule: never pay more that $20 for a toaster. Our current $16 specimen is six years old and still going strong.
CPA: We're waiting to hear if our Tax-Aide group will continue past April 15th now that the filing date has been extended to May 17th nationwide. Note: If you do quarterly estimates, your first one is still due on April 15th.
ANNIE POTTS: I first became aware of her in the TV comedy series Designing Women.
WHEN IN ROME: Those paper trousers are right up there with neckties. Who knew that god is offended by bare legs? I'll pass.
I needed my wife to give me MAXINE, which I couldn’t remember. I felt pelted by names in the NW, maybe because of the RAINFOREST.
ReplyDeleteNice tough Saturday puzzle - just the right amount of challenge for me - that is, just a tad above my level. Was able to finish after allowing myself a couple of LIU's on who/what Breville is and which Hirsch was in that movie. Some really amazing construction by Craig, with all those long words side by side! Definite head smack when I finally noticed the lack of T in Skechers, which unlocked the NE - - although Dinah Shore was a pretty dated reference. Pauly Shore is more recent but did not work. Or how about the clue, "Roadside eatery in New Hampshah?" =P
ReplyDeleteNice Saturday puzzle with the right level of challenge. Got a few of the longer answers early, and the rest filled in.
ReplyDeleteGot up early for Saturday, finished the Sudoku also. I guess golf is on early (10:00) so could be a couch potato day. A lot of upsets in the match play format they are playing this weekend, so could be a journeyman that eventually wins. I know them all, but casual fans probably don’t.
I thought the two clues Craig had were great and no more obscure than Rich's
ReplyDeleteJersey didn't fit but I thought there was a Pauly
I had the easy F on waffle not grok'ing that I needed the plural. That really held me up on the Skechers clue.
What's a war zone without a poker game. My Lt buddy from Intel I never caught bluffing.
I remembered PRECIS after five perps. Is it out of use or am I? The word I never heard of was "comm"
Black Sabbath devotee? I tried Anon-T but it didn't fit.
If it was just clued Hirsch I'd have inked ELROY (Crazy Legs)
Strangely I recall CRABAPPEL but need to change the C to get KHAKIS.
And just as strange ANNIE after the two TT's
"Ain't got no cigarettes"
I miss ol' JINX. POL rules get to him?
The Israelis grabbed hold of the SCROLLs after '67 and put a tight hold on the them and censored big-time. Eisenman* was instrumental in freeing them. I liked his book "James the brother of Jesus"
The animus of "no shorts" in Church has faded away (especially in FLA)
I believe it's the identical parquet floor. Russ used to have Wilt over for dinner to soften him up before big games. It helped when This happened
PENA was hanging fruit for me as perhaps ENNIO was for others
WC (Delirious about my clean FIR)
*"Eisenman led the campaign to free up access to the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1980s and 90s, and, as a result of this campaign, is associated with the theory that combines Essenes with Palestinian messianism (or what some might refer to as "Palestinian Christianity") – a theory opposed to establishment or consensus scholarship."
Ps, great Write-up Gary. Agree, great xword Craig. Easy to say now I had all last night to finish.
DeleteI have not looked up BREVILLE or its products and do not buy expensive toasters. I would have struggled with the original clue for METAL HEAD
ReplyDeleteI love my many pairs of SKECHERS as they are very comfortable.
I did not remember ENNIO but it all worked out. HG, I doubt the Gold Gloves for TONY PENA have Johny Bench's picture on the trophy.
Thank you, Gary and Craig
Another Saturday surprise. FIR! It was slow going for a while but a few lucky guesses here and there gradually filled it one. Had some misses causing WOs: denims before KHAKIS, siamese before MALTESE, shocks before STRUTS. The proper names mostly were known or helped by perps. No complaints. My last fill was the e in MEAT and SUERS, finally thinking of people who sue. And parsing SEES STARS was tricky for a while. Good job, Craig. I enjoyed the challenge. And excellent tour as usual, Husker Gary. Thanks for enriching my morning.
ReplyDeleteHope you all are having a good start to the weekend and nothing PERPLEXES you for long!
ReplyDeleteNot my fastest Saturday, but 24:49 was pretty good. Must have been on Craig's wavelength.
Filling in most of the long answers sped the solve. DEAD SEA SCROLLS went in with the D from DINAH, and I had already determined that it was ALL JOKING ASIDE rather then 'kidding' ASIDE. For whatever reason, most of the long answers went in fairly easily, except ANNIE POTTS in the NE and the duo in the SW of WHEN IN ROME and EASY DOES IT.
The first 4 down answers (OPTS, FERN, FRIO and CPA) went in with nary a thought. That was a great way to get started on a Saturday,
Principal Skinner and Edna KRABAPPLE have been in a carrying-on relationship for many years now. It wouldn't surprise me that at some point Bart probably yelled "GET A ROOM !!!" at them from the secrecy of the school bus. Too much PDA for the young lad.
The Australian company Breville makes TOASTER ovens and TOASTERS and other kitchen appliances.
As for the names, I didn't know ENNIO and EMILE but they easily perped in. I knew MAXINE and TONY, and recognized it would be ANNIE POTTS w/o a lot of perps. Every one knows SARA Lee, and nobody doesn't like her according to the ad jingle. Wasn't fooled by "Shore seen on TV" even though she was popular before my time.
Glad PRECIS perped in.
Time to read the review.
A new trend in the puzzles to have really obscure clues and answers?
ReplyDeleteWilbur Charles, you never heard of it because the word is not "comm" but "C O R M", a problem I often have when reading Arial font.
ReplyDeleteGood morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteStarted out a bit daunting, as was to be expected, but things settled down and it was solved without aid. FIR. Pondered over doce mes and finally decided we were dealing with a dozen months or ANO. SW corner was last. Had LETT early, but since I don't watch Bart, KRABAPPEL needed patience, but with PRÈCIS and POSED, and WHEN IN ROME, the corner filled in. Had Siamese before MALTESE, and toss before CAST. Having SWATHE the other day helped there.
KRAB APPEL is 'crab apple' in Dutch.
MORRICONE - Very popular. See Norwegian Kings Guard at Tattoo starting at 4:00.
KHAKIS were daily aboard-ship wear for officers and chiefs during my service time.
Thank HG for your usual superb intro.
ReplyDeleteAdditional thoughts after reading the review and other comments:
- Thanks for adding your comments, Craig ! It's always fun to know what the seed entry was.
- Didn't know that Vera was never seen on "Cheers."
- Also didn't know some of those sounds in "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" were actually voices. Neat.
- That Breville toaster you pictured is a higher-priced but lower-rated 4-slice toaster than the top rated one at ~ $100.* Still steep. The top rated 2-slice toaster is $80. Designer level appliances.
- Spanish I in high school has come in handy.
- Filled in TARO and wondered briefly about corns. Oh, corms.
- Saw Black Sabbath in concert in Germany. Ozzie was the driving force, and he had a great solo career afterwords.
- A la "The Men Who Made America", there was another docu-series on "The Food That Made America". They might have added "Fat" to the end of that title, but they did cover more than the fast food joints. The parts about "The Cereal Wars" and Birdseye were especially interesting.
- I think I've written before about the local Midas shop that quoted me almost $1K to replace the STRUTS on a minivan I once owned. It was "something else they found." I took it to another shop for a second opinion. It didn't have STRUTS. It had shocks. They were due, and it cost ~ $850 less. Rip-off franchisee. Obviously never going there again.
- TONY Pena came up with the Pirates and had some good years to start before being traded away. But for most of the Pirates fans of that era of baseball, Manny Sanguillen was "The Catcher." He had such a large strike zone he could hit balls way out of the box, and legend has it he could even get base hits on balls thrown behind his back. He swung at everything. Johnny Bench had better homerun power, but Manny hit for higher averages year after year. He retired from a long career as a catcher with nearly a 300 average, still one of the best in modern baseball for a catcher. Johnny had an incredible run of MVPs during the same time frame. The only year he didn't win the MVP in that run was when Manny won it.
* Breville makes the four highest rated TOASTER ovens, as well as the top 2-slice and 4-slice TOASTERS according to the current article I just read from the leading independent, not-for-profit, membership-funded consumer products testing organization. Just read the article. They were on my short list for a TOASTER oven eight or ten years ago.
Great job, Gary.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI was definitely on Craig’s wavelength this morning I as finished this in record-breaking time. Yes, there were numerous proper names, but all of them were familiar, to me, anyway, and fun to boot, especially Annie Potts who I really enjoy as Young Sheldon’s MeeMaw. The long fill was lively and practically filled itself in, to wit: When In Rome, Easy Does It, All Joking Aside, etc. Cute duos with Any/Ano, Hot/Frio, and, Pot crossing Potts. There was also a mini O theme with Ennio, Oro, Ano, Taro, Sno, and Frio.
Thanks, Craig, for a super Saturday solve and thanks, HG, for the generous dose of wit, humor and wisdom.
FLN
Congratulations to our newest citizen, Oo.
Have a great day.
Long, doable (is that a word?) fills helped a lot. Took a while but finally got. I cherish the journey as well as the end so this was fun for moi. Dreary, rainy day here in Token Creek.
ReplyDeleteThe NE shut me down. 😖 As Craig graciously admitted: three stacked proper names perped with a 4th first and last name ...An easy way to make a Saturday puzzle hard. I was sure of only one: DINAH ("MWAH") Shore. I had enough letters to guess at ANNIE POTTS (from "Designing Women") and ENNIO...but still DNF...JINX (a spell? more like mild ongoing bad luck), blanked on MAXINE and JARS.
ReplyDeleteDidn't waste time trying swaddle since we recently had SWATHE. PRECIS = abstract? (You mean the French word précis that means "precise") Huh!! Wha? 😳 (The computer algorithm musta come up with that one.) Sussed out FERN quickly because it was a recent answer. I have a nephew of Mexican heritage named Fernando called "FERN".
Was never a steady Simpsonite but remember Bart's teacher sassy Edna Krabappel.. "kra- BOPPLE" ...(voiced by Marcia Wallace till she unfortunately died)...could only recall Judd Hirsch.
Was thinking distinction meant "the difference between"
My only Breville product was an espresso maker. Worn enough Skechers footwear to at least start the answer with SHOE... not purchased from a SHOESTORE but Kohl's department store.
Inkovers: offstaged/OFFCAMERA, t-shirts/kahkis/KHAKIS, opine/POSED, /toss/CAST, mancoon/MALTESE. ARABS?..oh.."small-muzzled" not "small, muzzled" horses, my bad
HG Great write up, (think you left the word doces out of your Sp. phrase.) Agree with WC, nothing wrong with Craig's original clues.
Walk away from the toad ...STALWART
Dorothy's Tin Man.....METALHEAD
Aral Sea manuscripts...DEADSEASCROLLS
5-armed "fishes".....SEESTARS
Best man or Maid of Honor...TOASTER
The Iraq conflict, a _____ time....SADR
Celebrating our special daughter Catherine's 39th birthday today with a small vaccinated family group. She was sick with Covid on her birthday Dec 9. 🎂🎁🎈
A tough one today before I finally got to FIR. Many wrong dead ends that I had to back out of.
ReplyDeleteMy WILDERNESS became a RAIN FOREST; CAST was TOSS; KHAKIS were SLACKS.
ENNIO, KRAB APPEL, EMILE, PSI, TARO, Tony PENA, ORO Valley- all unknowns
This c-level solver is either moving up or just happened to be on the constructor's wavelength today. I put pen to paper so usually some ugly write-overs or blank squares. Still a FIW due to phi instead of psi (hadr didn't look soo bad).
ReplyDeleteBTW, does execute time ANON only post when times are under 10 minutes? Or possibly takes the weekend off. Have noticed the occasional kerfuffle over this practice - would think a little consistency would be appropriate IMHO.
Irish Miss reminded me to send "Congratulations!" to Oo for becoming a citizen yesterday. Thanks Lemonade for letting us join your celebration!
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Craig Stowe! I was on Craig's wave length almost immediately and easily started filling cells.
DINAH Shore is a blast from the past! And I really like MAXINE Waters; she speaks her mind forcefully. ENNIO emerged gradually as I couldn't recall the exact spelling.
ORO Valley is located just north of Tucson. It was once an inexpensive place to retire but don't know if that has changed.
SADR City was often in the news a few years ago.
I love Skechers and have several pairs including some I bought at a dedicated Skecher's SHOE STORE.
That RAIN FOREST in Vancouver Island supplies moisture for the famous Rose Garden.
POT and ANNIE POTTS amused me.
Have a sensational Saturday, everyone!
Ray O @ 9:41 ~ Happy Birthday to Catherine; hope she enjoys her belated celebration. 🎂🎁🎉🎊🎈
ReplyDeleteThank you IM..I'll tell her you send greetings 😊
ReplyDeleteAdd my best birthday wishes to Catherine too, Ray O!
DeleteI thought today's Saturday stumper was easier,
ReplyDelete(Until it wasn't)
oh well
I thought I had a possible nit with 49. Plant with corms: TARO
ReplyDeleteAs plant (singular) should not have multiple "corms."
(Or at least the English language was being abused...)
And I was all set to venture out into the internet for proof
When I thought, "lemme check the Blog first..."
(Good thing I did as the blog had pictures and everything...)
It was a learning moment, as my only knowledge of corms was
Finding survival food. Like skunk cabbage has an edible
Corm for survival situations, but only if you prepare it properly.
The oxelate crystals in the corm will burn your tongue and mucus membranes,
And damage internal organs, but can be neutralised by cutting into thin
Slices and completely drying (in an oven) before eating...
So I went looking for more knowledge,
online but only made it two minutes
Into this 8 minute video before getting munchies, and ditching the whole thing
To go case the kitchen for potato chips...
CED, just wanted to say that I LOVE your posts and always look forward to them.
ReplyDeleteIt's been TD Garden for EONS now and this Bostonian keeps forgetting that, sheesh! Anyway, a super-duper puzzle, Craig -- and I LOVE your clue for CPA :-)
ReplyDeleteInteresting experience today at break-lunch. I grabbed the Ocala newspaper and there was a xword. Hah, I said, this local, country bumpkin xword I can do in my head.
ReplyDeleteSo I started.Nope, nope, huh?....
Then I checked the fine print. Copywrite Nytimes.
I may try to solve it. I'll make it a weeks project. Anybody solve Nytimes Saturday xword?
Just as I was feeling good about FIR on La-Times. I see Irish Miss and some others didn't think today was so hard.
I can never tell. PENA seemed obscure to 95%.
Re. Brackets. I'm at 60% but I still have Syracuse. What a story on Jim and Buddy Boeheim, eh? Name of the tournament?
Johnny Juzang
WC
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Craig (glad to have a fellow-Canadian here again and even one Canadian clue at 11D!) and HuskerG. Although officially a FIW, I enjoyed this CW (even though it required P&P and two Google searches).
ReplyDeleteSeveral Aha moments as the mist cleared and areas filled.
But I arrived here to discover that the Natick crosses (for a lot of us I see and even Craig admits it!) of ENNIO, ANNIE POTTS, MAXINE defeated me. I had Annie crossing Ennio. Close but not a match.
Plus my hand is up (with Anon@10:17) for choosing the wrong Greek letter (Phi) giving me Hadr.
Background was too long but OFF CAMERA fit. Ditto with Jeans to KHAKIS.
Another hand up for wanting kidding instead of JOKING, and Siamese before MALTese.
My Spanish memory from a previous CWs finally gave me ANO. Ditto with SWATHE.
I used my "phone a friend" and asked DH, but he didn't know PENA (Google cheat required). He also didn't know where the TD Gardens were, (hello Kelly) but another Goggle cheat gave me Boston, and then DH immediately gave me Celtics (which I shortened to CELT). All in a day's fun.
The way it was positioned in the CW with the phrase going up, I guess we were "sitting on the HOT SEAT". Actually, I just noticed that the TOASTER is sitting on the HOT SEAT!
Ray-O- I thought of PRECIS in the same manner as those Abstracts for Medical Journal articles.
Lucina, are you thinking of the Rose Garden at Butchart Gardens? Yes, they are beautiful; actually the whole place is gorgeous.
Here is an informative link about Vancouver Island RAIN FOREST, difference between tropical and temperate rain forests, and more. (open the pdf also for maps etc.)
VancouverIslandTemperateRainforests
Ray-O- best wishes for a wonderful late celebration for Catherine.
Lemonade - congrats to Oo on her citizenship. (Even if it is American and not Canadian LOL!)
Wishing you all a great day.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteLet's see... OPTS, CPA, DINAH (also b/f my time), SNO, MAXINE, PSI (I useda could sovle Shrödinger's math), IDES, PENA, METAL HEAD (on a lark), MAS and then a long stare at a blank grid.
Ok, FRIO, RENT OUT... another long stare (and my Grape Nuts).
Needed a couple of cheats to keep playing. Big Fat DNF in my book.
Thanks Craig for the puzzle to play while aiding with a system migration at work. Also thanks for stopping by with some inside-baseball.
As usual, HG, thanks for letting me crib from your grid :-) Fun expo too.
Fav (post cheat): EASY DOES IT [Eagles]
Ray-O: Another big Corner (belated) HBD to Catherine.
Curious - which vaccine did she get post-C19? Did it make her 'relapse' a bit?
WC - Re: Pauly Shore. Don't like him; he made fun of DW's outfit and accent when she interviewed him for university-TV after his show in Monroe, LA. And she worked really hard to lose her Sothern accent for TV (ole (oil) was the hardest for her :-))
//DW was a Radio/TV/Film major b/f a Shakespeare class turned her into an English major (and with only 1 semester left!!! and a scholarship for the last semester). Remember, we were married through college.
TTP - Let's see if I can guess the magazine you mentioned re: TOASTER. I've had a subscription for over 25 years now :-)
Enjoyed reading everyone!
Back to work... (we're doing a migration :-( )
Cheers, -T
My NCAA limerick du jour:
ReplyDeleteIndiana hotels intervened
With the basketball teams quarantined.
Before games one and two
They knew just what to do:
Get prepared for the new Suite Sixteen
Congratulations to Oo!
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle except for MAS. Had to look up KRABAPPEL in order to break open that SW corner. Thought of Misty at MERLOT.
C-Moe, I'll see your suite and double down with
ReplyDeleteThe old UCLA Bruins had a hellava gang
Alcindor, Walton the whole shebang
Yes those were days of glory
But 2021 is another story
Until along came Jump'n, Johnny Juzang
WC
Just going back through the grid while the Server Team dallies say...
ReplyDeleteRemember when Vyvyan ate the Tele b/f the TV Taxman could nick him? He claimed it was a TOASTER.
I'll see meself out. -T
ReplyDeleteWow, this was a toughie.
Started off “on the wavelength” or so I thought.
Got the solve after a LOT of reviewing.
Some write-overs though...SORE/WEAK, WIN/POT, CRABAPPLE/KRABAPPEL (and I haven’t missed an episode), SHOCKS/STRUTS, SERB/LETT.
And I always heard “all kidding aside”.
UCONN ladies won big, now they have Baylor (won in OT) on Monday, can’t wait.
I finally had my 2nd Moderna shot Thursday. Sore shoulder that evening, tossed and turned all night, didn’t fall asleep til 3 AM, woke up at 7. I had a sip of tea which then “returned” itself, then that was the end of the nausea. Logy all day. Fine today. Worth it.
Stay safe.
After a long 40 minute struggle that I almost gave up on several times I’m gonna claim a FIR even though one letter is wrong. I had LATT instead of LETT as Latvia is next to Estonia (I think) and WHENINROMA works as well as WHENINROME (for me at least) so I’m gonna award myself a FIR. After so much struggle I deserve it!! Other than that sniggle an enjoyable if difficult CW, thanx, Craig! PRÉCIS was new to me, too. Also had to choose FERN ALGA MOSS for 2D; PERPS to the rescue. Nice write-up, HG, thanx for all the wit and work that went into it. At the end after so much struggle I actually was surprised it was only 40 minutes. I know, I know, someone’s gonna say he or she got a FIR in five minutes. I’m just proud of getting a Saturday CW completed. Usually, I fail Saturdays. Well, maybe I failed today too because of the A vs E I mentioned. I’ll still stubbornly claim a victory.
ReplyDeleteSuper Saturday, Mr. Stowe! FIW because I made a WAG at ANNIE waTTS, and although I knew that wOT and aRO were wrong, I failed to come up with POT and ORO. My bad!
ReplyDeleteOur Breville TOASTER oven is a workhorse, and saves us from heating the large oven when baking small items.
I appreciated seeing that favorite moment from the movie Sideways, which even referred to yesterday's Xanax.
Kerek @ 8:37 AM asks whether there is a new trend for the puzzles to have obscure clues and answers. Has it not been ever thus? And of course the difficulty increases every day from Monday through Sunday.
Any time I read about how Rich has changed a constructor's clue, I am very grateful to Rich.
Congratulations to Oo!
Thanks, Husker Gary!
Unclefred, we're sorry, we'll have to convene the FIR-FIW Jury. YR, Lucina, ATLgranny, … Perhaps Anon-T. And Wilbur. Last time they marked me FIW when I thought I had a case.
ReplyDeleteAdd Naomi to the jury. I liked "Has it not been ever thus?". So I'll add "What sayest thou?"
WC
Unclefred, I would say you have done a stupendous, valiant job, even with one bad cell. Kudos. I would take exception to LATT, even if you give yourself a break on Roma. Even Lett is becoming obsolete.
ReplyDeleteWilbur @ 2:24 ~ I did today’s NY Times puzzle by Michael Hawkins. It was challenging but P and P paid off with a successful completion.
ReplyDeleteSaturday puzzles should be and have always been a tad more difficult. In fact, a Saturday puzzle of long ago is what brought me to this LAT site in search of an obscure clue/fill.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI agree Saturday is toughest, I had always thought they increase in difficulty from Monday to Saturday, with the big Sunday grid usually a Wednesday/Thursday level.
YR, Henry Clay at his most diplomatic couldn't hold a candle to your response.
ReplyDeleteOk, Fred, we'll give you the FIR. Mainly because we went through the Litt/Latt/LETT business awhile ago.
IM, I got the SW. A few squares elsewhere. I don't really have a NYTimes level brain these days. I see that "fog" you talked about awhile back has lifted.
I read where NYT had strived for diversification and the Rap and slang is there. I'll get back to it in the morning.
WC
Gary, I just now saw your question and sent you an answer.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteJust now getting caught up on posts after 10:00. The better part of Saturday was spent tending to one of the gardens. Felt good to get my hands back in the soil again. But good night ! I wore myself out. I knew I was tired so I decided to lie down for a few minutes. That was around 6 PM after supper, and that's all she wrote. The next thing I knew it was after 2 AM. Then a few more hours of sleep after that !
Anonymous "c-level solver" at 10:17, why don't you "go blue" by creating a Blogger profile ? You can add as much or as little about yourself as you want, and add an avatar image if you'd like. There is a link to general how-to instructions on the main page of the blog. If you are using a smartphone, you may have to scroll all the way to the bottom and use the "View Web Version" button to get to the main page with all of the links.
Dash-T, looking back at how long I've been a CR subscriber, both print and online, I might have bought the lifetime membership way back in the day and saved some geld. Shame on Pauly Shore.
Liked your NCAA limerick, Chairman Moe.
Unclefred @ 4:37, there is a Glen who (don't know who Glen is)recorded 4:10 as his completion time. On paper. Maybe he's a court reporter and does it in shorthand ? :>)
NaomiZ, the toaster oven I got is laboriously slow and is in its box in the basement. Thanks for the feedback on the Breville.