Saturday Themeless Puzzle by Ryan McCarty
After only a month's wait we get another great entry from Ryan McCarty who is our senior federal consulting manager in D.C. BTW, I asked Ryan to tell me what his job entails but I would be lying if I told you I understood it! 😕 Here are Ryan's gracious comments on this entertaining puzzle:
Hi Gary,
Good to hear from you again! Write-up is below:
I'd been eyeing this grid design for a while with its wide open center of intersecting quint stacks. The middle 5x5 square is made up entirely of those stacked 9-letter words, which adds a solving challenge due to the lack of shorter entries nearby to use as toeholds to break in. Because of that I tried to keep all of these center words pretty well-known and inferable. As you might imagine, it took a lot of trial and error to get a viable middle, and then even more effort to get solid corners. Using a number of common letters in the middle certainly helped. Overall I'm happy with this first attempt at the grid shape, and I've since played around some more with this design.
I also just recently launched my own indie puzzle blog McGrids! I'm exploring crossword construction in several parallel series, including asymmetrical grids, vowelless, wide-open middles (like today's), and others. If you haven't yet checked out the wealth of indie crossword puzzles out there, I highly recommend it! They've been some of my favorite discoveries during the pandemic.
Thanks,
Ryan
1. Mess up: ERR.
4. Traveler's reference: MAP - I don't miss folding the old paper ones
7. Botanical garden adjective: LUSH - Omaha's LUSH conservatory at Lauritzen Gardens is an great example
11. Fetid: NOISOME - Derivation
15. Shoddily attached, usually: TAPED ON.
16. Viagra alternative: LEVITRA and 44. Arouses: IGNITES 😏
17. Affair VIPs: EMCEES.
18. 1960s girl group named for its lead singer: RONETTES - VeRONica Bennett formed this group in 1957. Here they are lip synching a big hit of theirs on American Bandstand.
17. Affair VIPs: EMCEES.
18. 1960s girl group named for its lead singer: RONETTES - VeRONica Bennett formed this group in 1957. Here they are lip synching a big hit of theirs on American Bandstand.
19. Opts for another tour: REUPS.
20. Like some romantic dinners: CANDLELIT
21. Benedict Cumberbatch superhero role, casually: DR. STRANGE.
23. Sonic boom creator?: SEGA - I couldn't fit in Chuck Yeager
24. Inflatable emergency transports: LIFE RAFTS - This one is Coast Guard approved
27. Like some serious accidents: NEAR FATAL.
29. __ vivant: BON - "A sociable person who has cultivated and refined tastes especially with respect to food and drink" Easy "Check For Understanding!" 😁
34. Collectible Camaro: IROC - International Race Of Champions
36. Listen in: EAVESDROP.
38. Wood stove successors: GAS RANGES.
40. __ burger: BISON - Lean and great tasting!
42. Just below par: ONE UNDER - These guys shot ONE UNDER par and finished 18th at this year's Masters. In this chart you can also see their lowly earnings.
43. Jar: JOSTLE - A JOSTLE can be a prelude to getting your pocket picked
45. Result of a certain property payment delinquency: TAX SALE.
46. One getting checks for quarters: LESSOR - If you live in quarters you rent from me, I am the LESSOR who will take your check
47. Took part in an ugly campaign: SMEARED - If SMEARS didn't work, they would never be 48. Spotted: SEEN again.
49. Beneficiaries of exercises called Russian twists: ABS - My back muscles might not care for this if I take a 50. Crack: TRY at this.
Down:
1. Emerge from the wings: ENTER - Two brilliant comedians debate this word in a screenplay 6. Compose(d), perhaps: PENned by Neil Simon
2. Racked up cellphone charges, perhaps: ROAMED - My wife/bookkeeper says we don't have ROAMING charges any more
3. Aptly named giant in surfing sportswear: RIP CURL - Not a lot of surfing on the Platte River
4. Amount that's sometimes larger than it sounds: MODEST FEE.
5. "A Sorta Fairytale" singer Tori: AMOS - A six minute concert version
7. Stabilize, with "off": LEVEL - An airplane's attitude indicator for LEVEL and not LEVEL flight
8. Associates: UNITES - The 5th definition at synonym.com
9. Resolved, in a way: SETTLED.
10. "Wish me luck!": HERE I GO.
12. Slowly comes through: SEEPS IN.
13. Family feuds: VENDETTAS - The Hatfield ( below) and McCoy feud started in 1878 over a stolen pig.
14. Jah worshipers: RASTAS - Here ya go
16. Gloomy looks: LONG FACES - I am not telling that horse joke!
18. Broke 100, maybe: RAN A FEVER - Some golfers celebrate when they break 100 (score less than) as do some beginner bowlers (score more than). If you RAN A FEVER today, it can keep you from entering a building.
20. Fairy tale ball arrivals: CARRIAGES - I had C A _ R _ _ _ _ _ and snuggly entered CABRIOLET which fit too (yeah I know it's singular).
25. Places to see small, colorful trucks: SANDBOXES - Cute!
28. __ Kelly, woman with the most lifetime "Jeopardy!" winnings: LARISSA - She won nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Yes, you know the question to this Final Jeopardy answer LARISSA is facing. I'll put that question below* BONUS - What movie made this piece famous? Hint: One of the stars of that movie is in the picture for 39 Down.
29. Group that includes Chevron and BP: BIG OIL.
30. Florida harvest: ORANGES.
31. What poor instructions make: NO SENSE - Lego instructions make sense to me
33. Writing letters, some say: LOST ART - Actually writing letters is a LOST ART for me but I communicate more than ever using electronic means.
35. Carnival offering: CRUISE - Can they make a comeback?
37. Worker with many questions: POLLER - I don't mind POLLERS but get upset when they become a push POLLER
39. Composer Bruckner: ANTON - I don't know this clued composer but I do remember Susan ANTON who is seen below with boyfriend Dudley Moore who is mentioned in 28 Down
41. Poor: NEEDY.
43. Framing piece: JAMB - Door part
45. Org. with Behavior Detection Officers: TSA - The ACLU has real issues with these general criteria
*Final Jeopardy Question - What is Bolero? BONUS: The movie 10 made this piece famous again in 1979 and starred Dudley Moore and Bo Derek
57 comments:
FIRight, tho it took some P&P.
There once was a girl named LARISSA,
Whose charms matched a dose of LEVITRA!
But she was a lost tart,
With age, she LOST ART.
No longer could she play the geisha.
Her bosom, a once perky brace,
Grew longer than her sad LONG FACE.
And her ass, once so fine,
Grew way out of line,
As a massive REAR-ENDER her fate.
{A-.} One poem, two verses, also rated {M.}
Oops, forgot the tradition.
🐇,🐰.
I really, really liked this puzzle. I liked that there were so many long-ish answers, but Ryan achieved his goal of having enough of them be gettable that the puzzle was not overwhelming. And having so many longer answers meant that there was very little crosswordese.
I also thought the cluing was particularly clever. Little twists and wordplay without going overboard. There were so many I really liked: "like some romantic dinners" for CANDLELIT, "places to see small, colorful trucks" for SANDBOXES, "broke 100, maybe" for RANAFEVER are just some of the ones I enjoyed. They are not gimmes, so there's a little stab of satisfaction at getting them, but they aren't frustratingly opaque, either.
Really great job, Ryan! And I see that you wrote the NY Times crossword today as well, so it's a double-author day for you!
drstRANGE
gasRANGEs
oRANGEs
Woke up at the CRACK of dawn again and couldn't sleep, so I solved the puzzle. FIR Not difficult for a Saturday. Spot on expo, Gary.
CANDLE LIT, ORANGES and ERIE CANAL were low hanging fruit to give me a boost.
Loved the misdirections. Sand box, cruise, broke 100, lessor, dos.
RIPCURL was the only new fill, but perps and wags did it. HAD A fever before RAN A. The N in RAN gave me DR STRANGE and the TA DA,
Poor instructions which are translated from another language often make NO SENSE. These days some instructions have become only illustrations.
Time to pick up Alan for the weekend.
Good morning!
SoddenLink is still down, but I'm resting assured that they are doing everything possible to restore service. If only there were a reasonable alternative...
The Wite-Out got its exercise this morning with hAd A FEVER and TAX lien. Worst was that BACON burger which made LOST ART very slow to appear. Would a "Sonic boom creator" be NOISOME? And shouldn't that B have been capitalized? Enjoyed the exercise, Ryan, and the expo, Husker. (I managed both parts of your extra credit question.)
ERIE CANAL: My great grandfather took advantage of the Erie Canal when he relocated his family from the Mohawk Valley to Wisconsin back in the 1850s.
Hi Y'all! Very interesting grid design for this Saturday-worthy challenge. Thanks, Ryan! Great expo, Husker, thanks.
I'll LEVEL with you. Some of the clues made NO SENSE to me: sonic boom creator was not "jets" but SEGA. What? Crack = TRY? Okay, I'll take a crack at the rest. BISON didn't show up as a burger without lots of perps, despite the fact that I used to live near a buffalo ranch.
My tailbone did not benefit from Russian twists. Thanks to a chiropractor it didn't stay dislocated many years ago.
SANDpilES before BOXES. My kids had piles. (Stop laughing!)
DNK: TORI, LEVITRA, ANTON, LARISSA, RIPCURL, Benedict Cumberbatch = DRSTRANGE. Hey, I did know RONETTES! That was my dancing era.
HERE I GO back to bed. Woke up too early.
Finished in 10:29.
Noisome was new to me, and Larissa is obscure, but otherwise solid answers/fill.
Very enjoyable Saturday puzzle.
My great grandfather worked on the ERIE CANAL too. Don't know in what capacity. His son helped build the railroads opening Kansas. Westward HO!
Sonic (the Hedgehog) is a video game character/franchise created by Sega. I believe the boom in the clue refers to the splash/demand that Sonic created in the marketplace, not the "Boom" that appears on the image of one particular game title in the review. I think there were many different video game titles released that had "Sonic" in the title.
One thing a map gives me is the various towns. Where they start and end.
Jets wasn't cutting it for that Sonic boom. When SEGA perped I recalled that hedgehog
Ironically and topically for our time, it was the American Indians that contributed to the near extinction of the buffalo. US paid bounties and knew that when the buffalo were gone the indians would retreat to the reservation
Given the O, ORANGES filled 7 boxes as did CANDLELIT. I agree I see with Ms YR. Btw, "can't sleep " was me yestermorn so I did Friday and Saturday
I liked the LOST ART of written letters. A book of stamps lasts me awhile now.
Solid W today Owen, that flowed nicely
IMHO, Ryan and Rich didn't want to give away the Sonic clue
I thought LUSH off the gitgo but didn't think I could fit it in. The V gave me the NE. I had to change CIA to TSA to make SE and finish
WC
This puzzle was a quicker solve than most Saturdays - I think because some of the answers were "in my wheelhouse". Some recess of my brain remembered that NOISOME had to do with bad smells instead of loud sounds - or that NW corner would have been slower. I had a minor slowdown with MODEST SUM before perps changed it to FEE. And since it was my first entry into the middle, I had NEAR DEATH before NEAR FATAL. Like WC, I had to wait for perps to decide on CIA vs. TSA vs. NSA.
Only nit was on the clue for DR STRANGE - I don't think going from Doctor Strange to DR.STRANGE makes it casual (eg if the answer was Doc Strange) but just an abbreviation.
Thanks HG and Ryan!
Hope everyone has a beautiful Spring Saturday- Kentucky Derby day - we were invited to a Derby party, but it's an hour away and needing to wear a hat - we've got too many things on the docket today to go!
Whew! I did it again! FIR #13. (Not an unlucky number for me today.) Oh, and Rabbit, Rabbit, for May 1st.
I agree with staili and other early posters that this puzzle was great. Thanks, Ryan. I had a big question mark by NOISOME but perps were solid. I too hAd A FEVER and my first fill was wakes up for IGNITES. MODEST FEE came when I changed tenses on TAPEs ON. (Must pay attention...) Otherwise a clean grid.
Thanks, Husker Gary, for your helpful and interesting review. Learning moment reading about NOISOME and the ERIE CANAL history.
I've been enjoying your poems too, OwenKL. Keep them coming.
Please don't JOSTLE me. I'm walking without a knee brace for the first time in ten weeks. Exercises continue but encouraging progress keeps me going, slow but steady. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
I loved this puzzle since the long answers were ones I could come up with after a little thought and only a few letters. Thanks!
Sonic Boom creator had me scratching my head until SEGA come to me from Sonic the Hedgehog. Great clue.
Good morning everyone.
Quite an interesting puzzle. Across clues end @ 50a, Down clues end at #45d. Usually they're in the 60's, sometimes low 70's. Thought I would have a huge fail today but then it came together. Only ERRor was I had 'bacon' for BISON so, FIW. Sigh.
Cluing was excellent.
Is today SATURDAY??Easy-Peasy.
The first thing that struck us, as with most of you, was the unusual grid. A solid Saturday offering. The clue/answer for Broke A Hundred/Ran A Fever was very clever especially with the other golf reference.
A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks, "Why the LONG FACE?"
Stuck with SEEDY instead of NEEDY which gave me BISOS Burger. What? Anyone else? But the light went on and I FIR. I don't like fat in meat, so BISON works for me. In 1997 I was staying at a Holiday Inn in Wyoming and they were hosting the National Bison Association convention.
Learning moments about NOISESOME, DR STRANGE, CLINTON'S BIG DITCH and RUSSIAN TWISTS. Liked NO SENSE clue!
Here is my article about our recent visit to our local BOTANICAL GARDEN. Since this is a desert, it is not super LUSH.
From Yesterday:
PK, OwenKL and Lucina Thank you for your comments about my iFly flying experience in a JUMPSUIT. Good to know this wonderful experience is available in other places. My skydiving friend told me this actually uses more energy than jumping out of an airplane. Those blowers are super powerful.
Malodorous Manatee Sorry for being dense. But I cannot figure out what you meant by. "The wrong part was delivered by the endive vendor so I will be here for a while." Can you please explain?
Good Morning:
This was a Goldilocks puzzle through and through: sparkling fill, clever cluing, and a just-right Saturday level of difficulty. I needed perps for Rip Curl, Larissa, Rastas, Levitra, and Dr. Strange, and I went astray on Bacon/Bison, Pane/Jamb, Lien/Sale, and Sum/Fee. All were easily corrected and I was a happy solver. Oil/Gas was cute and myfavorite C/A was Carnival offering=Cruise. CSOs to all the New Yorkers (Erie Canal), all the Floridians (Oranges), and all the Golfers (One Under).
Thanks, Ryan, for a very satisfying solve and thanks, HG, for another stellar write-up and for sharing Ryan’s thoughts. Years ago, I saw Susan Anton and Dudley Moore during intermission at a Broadway show. I knew she was taller than he, but not as much as your picture shows.
Have a great day.
Picard, I was posting using my cell phone and between fat thumb syndrome, lots of glare on the screen, and auto correct the word endive ended up in the post quite out of place. As I was at the shop for over four hours on a very hot day in the beautiful San Fernando Valley, an endive salad would have been welcome.
A very solvable puzzle, but it definitely had a few hard entries: Fedid/NOISOME? I’m not familiar with LEVITRA, and don’t remember any ads on tv like we see for Cialis. Rattle > JOSTLE.
While SEGA appeared from perps, thank you Anon @ 7:55 for explaining.
Picard, I enjoyed you photos.
A typical but fun Saturday challenge. The last letter I fearfully inserted was the I fearing it was wrong. Thought NOISOME meant "bothersome" not fetid..so I accidentally FIR. Just a slight VENEER of difficulty. (If George Washington had VENEERs then he did in fact have wooden teeth)
I saw Benedict Cabbage Patch in DRSTRANGE but don't get how the answer is "casual", (agree InaneH) . VENDETTA usually not between families. When we were in grade school (50s - 60s) there were window rattling sonic booms all the time ("a plane breaking the sound barrier" we'd say) Not anymore. Anyone know why?
Lot of clever misdirection. I over thought some clues...***let's see, "Florida harvest?" oysters? ***...Inkovers: awakens/IGNITES. I was biking in the countryside last year and pedaled past a farm with a large herd of BISON. (Never "herd" of such a thing in Upstate NY)..Fred Flinstone's Bronto burger wouldn't fit anyway...
Every school kid in NYS knows "Clinton's Ditch" If it would stop raining me and my cousin would be kayaking on the canal today!!
Thought it was "pollster" ...RONETTES lead girl's name was RON? Thought the check quarter connection would be a hockey thing (but as my sports minded son points out to his clueless father..in hockey they are periods not quarters).
Olive's overweight brother....BIGOIL
Sot in a botanical garden....LUSH
Missing round table head, casually...LOSTART.
Sunlight trying to SEEPIN on a week of cold and rainy weather...just in time for my week off to end
WOW! This puzzle created an explosion of ASSOCIATIONS. Thank you Ryan for a delightful, not too difficult start to my weekend. Your explanation of the puzzle took me right into the mind of a deviously merciful constructor who provided us with enough hatch ways to wiggle our way into all that white space. And thanks Gary for your informative and illuminating review (highlights to follow) - "you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't take the classroom out of the teacher".
23A Sonic Boom creator? The question mark indicated that we shouldn't jump to conclusions so I did recall SEGA. But then I also associate this with a different SONIC HEDGEHOG, a GENE that plays a key role in embryonic development. As scientists tend to have a whimsical nature, the discoverer of this gene was poking around for a name when he heard his children playing SONIC BOOM, and "the rest is history".
32A All I knew about the ERIE CANAL before this morning was that it was "up North" somewhere and intersected in someway with the lake, a frequent appearer in CWDs. The link taught me that it was what historian Thomas Cahill calls a "hinge of history", a transformation connecting many places and aspects of American life.
33A LOST ART. Letters have been largely supplanted by electronic mail, but few people these days (Cornerites excepted!) take the trouble to compose and spell them correctly. Ya know wad I meen?
14D RASTAS. I'm not sure I agree with all of their theology, but they do administer some interesting sacraments.
28D Rumor has it that Ravel wasn't particularly fond of all the fame the simplistic BOLERO brought him, as he had many musically far superior compositions (e.g. Le Tombeau de Couperin, Daphnis and Chloe, The Mother Goose Suite, etc, etc).
Hand's up if you thought of BO Derek as the star in the movie that made BOLERO an instant modern sensation. Imagine my surprise when I got to 39D and Gary had riffed from ANTON Bruckner to Susan ANTON to Dudley Moore the co-star of 10.
I am familiar with Anton Bruckner (not one of my favorite composers) and BOLERO is by Ravel (one of my favs). The association is that BOLERO is Ravel's single, short foray into "minimalism" and most of Buckner's works might be termed "Romantic minimalism": overly long, dense, repetitive pieces that some people find fascinating. I've never been able to warm to them.
45D Was this a joke? The TSA's criteria might be better terms "Signs You Might be a Stupid Terrorist".
FLN to -T It's only a matter of time now before constructors are cluing "Obfuscatory legal defense" : CHEWBACCA.
Cheers,
Bill
Hola!
For a Saturday, this was not too difficult and I breezed through some of it, especially in the center. LIFE RAFTS, NEAR FATAL, ERIE CANAL filled easily but I am unfamiliar with DR. STRANGE and HAD A FEVER interfered with RAN A FEVER. FIW, drat!
LARISSA was unknown, too, so JOSTLE did not emerge, but bottle instead. Drat again!
SEEDY also, not NEEDY. Hi, Picard!
Nose wrinkle at POLLER. Pollster is the usual form. In the dictionary POLLER is the very last form which indicates it's not the usual way but acceptable.
My GPS provides a MAP to guide me and I frequently consult it when going to an unfamiliar place.
For me, writing is not a LOST ART and I often write even if it's a short note just to keep my writing skills honed and to support the U.S. Mail. I'm a frequent customer at the Post Office and like the commemorative stamps.
Thank you, Gary, for another satisfying Saturday narrative!
Happy May Day, everyone!
Picard @11:17AM Nice pics Robert. Is that YARROW in center the 3rd pic?
I'm sure you probably visited when you were on the East Coast, but your pass would probably get you into Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA if you're ever back this way. DW and I have been there many times. KS also bills itself as "The Mushroom Capital of the World".
Ray-O @12:02 PM You really need to get a part-time gig subbing to Rich as a clue writer!
Extremely good CW, grid, cluing, all brilliant, even though I had some write-overs: RONDELLS:RONETTES, LIFEVESTS:LIFERAFTS, BACON:BISON. And NOISOME is a new word for me. RIPCURL was all perps. Even though it took me 30 minutes, I’m proud to FIR, I often DNF a Saturday. Thanx very much Ryan, well done. And thank too for the excellent write-up, HG!! Very entertaining, as always!
staili at 6:15 AM said it all so well.
Many thanks to Ryan for a satisfying solve, and to Husker Gary for explaining the bits I got right but didn't understand. (I'm looking at you, IROC and TRY!)
This was a great Saturday grid.
Write-overs….MODESTSUM/MODESTFEE, ALLIES/UNITES, ONION/BISON.
Not trying to start anything, but my understanding was the US Government put a bounty on the Buffalo in order to eliminate the Indians from the plains. The Buffalo were slaughtered from trains, among other places, and only the “hunters” used only the pelts, leaving the rest. The Indians used the whole buffalo. This strategy worked well, destroying the Indians main source of everything while also nearly making the buffalo extinct. Hard for me to say the Indians were a cause of this, as the goal was to eliminate them as well, the buffalo killing being the method to do so.
Stay safe.
A double-Ryan Saturday, indeed! And this one is as delightful as the NYT. Not a clunker in the grid and interesting clues, too. Had RATTLE before JOSTLE, but ultimately FIR. Thank you!
Picard, liked your Santa Barbara Botanical Garden pics.
Someone the other day mentioned planning to plant gaillardias. Once I planted them, they showed up every year. Loved them. Just one more thing I miss about my farm life.
I feel so obsolete. Sonic the Hedgehog is new to me. Not into video games. Haven't even watched anyone play.
Rabbit rabbit, too late to say anything worth reading, but I will comment that Ms. Anton had on 4" heels and Dudley Mocassin loafers. To me what is more intriguiging is how braod she is next to him. I will exit stage left with a MUSICAL TRIBUTE to their romance.
PVX, that's the irony. With the bounty the Indians joined in the slaughter. Short sighted as indeed their vanishing led the indians vanishing. I'm reading Teddy Roosevelt biography where it's mentioned
WC
An alternatively EZ and too-chewy PZL from Mr. McCarty...
Just when I was rolling along, happily filling one solve after another, I would hit an impossible conjunction of unknowns.
I'm not saying the clues weren't fair. They were just awfully wide of the mark. I mean "Crack" for TRY? C'mon...
And I mean, who actually eats a BISON Burger? I see recipes on line for making your own, but where can you order one?
Are they legal? I see it is illegal to kill one without a permit. What are the conditions for a permit?
~ OMK
____________
DR: Just one diagonal, on the near side.
Its anagram (14 of 15 letters) designates a person whose position on the web may explain why some of your internet surfing may at times simply go awry. I refer to a...
"SYSOP FREEBASER"!
OMK:
BISON ground meat is available at the grocery story though I have never been tempted to TRY it.
I haven't been watching much of the news lately so today I turned on CNN and am amazed, just amazed at some of the reporting! Not by them, but what they are saying other channels which shall remain unnamed, are still reporting about events of January 6th and more recently. Pardon me while I crawl back into my shell!
Hi All!
Thanks Ryan for a fun puzzled. Looked daunting but, with a few cheats [LEVITRA, LARISSA, ANTON, and what's a vivant?], I got it done.
Informative & fun expo HG. Thanks again for the interviews; that always adds something special to Saturdays.
WOs: eyes -> SEEN; you can't hold a CANDel to my spelling ERRs
ESPs: No, thank you, - I'm cheating.
Fav: DR STRANGE. Youngest had us watch all the Marvel movies so I knew my favorite Sherlock was in them.
Learning moment - Bill Clinton wasn't the Clinton Ryan was getting at.
Good to read your Knee news and that the healing is going well, ATLGranny.
PVX - MODEST sat there modifying nothing (pay?) until LIFE filled.
Lucina - For news, I listen to NPR during the day and, then at night, watch late-nite hosts' monologues while DW watches (or listens on Sat Radio in the car) CNN all the time. But, I know more (like what's going on in other countries) and am less stressed / outraged.
Yesterday MManatee's phone adds endive, today Ray-O's spell check puts us in the Cabbage Patch... Vegetables are revolting!
OMK - You misdefined a "SYSOP FREEBASER."
S/He is someone using Wireshark (aka Ethereal).
//Years ago [read: before corporate], their tag-line was "Sniffing the glue that holds the Internet together." The software captures network packets in real time - even on a 10Mbps line, that's a lot to sniff. :-)
Cheers, -T
OMC.. as I alluded to.. Bison are raised domestically in Central NY. Have had a bison burger..pretty good.
WC..I don't think I could handle wielding the absolute power of Rich, man of mystery. Ripping up the hard work of constructionists and force my changes and expect them to smile while publically proclaiming how much better my clues were.🧐
Besides the buffalo (bison) there were bounties on Native Americans scalps even in the 19th century. We had many ways to eliminate both them and the buffalo when they got in our way.
By total coincidence, last night we had BISON burgers for supper. Really.
As for the puzzle, I would say what staili said, except staili said it better than I could. I did, however, need to look up Ms. Kelly's name, whom I did not know at all, partly because there is no way I would have been able to suss TAX SALE, a term with which I was utterly unfamiliar.
Unknown @ 6:51 AM, good catch on those RANGEs!
waseeley @ 12:11 PM, I very much enjoyed your comments today. I do like ANTON Bruckner's fourth symphony but nothing else by him. He was a strange guy.
Happy May Day to you all.
Bison like Deer require an experienced cook who knows how to bring the flavor out of lean meat; the same is true for cooking chicken and turkey as well. Fat = flavor.
Lucina ~ Thanks for the info. No, neither am I tempted to try the meat of a threatened species.
I switch back and forth between CNN and Fox "News," just to keep abreast of the divide that stalks our land. Their biases are clear after just an hour's viewing. The selectivity (of items to cover) is the main sign of CNN's left-of-center angle, but I tend to trust them in their actual reporting. Their opinion pieces are pretty clearly labeled. Fox, OTOH, blurs reportage and opinion, and they assign positions to the left that very few if any responsible people hold.
Oh, how I wish we could get back to trusting "mainstream" news. The so-called "niche" news-streams present two entirely different worlds. The problem with mainstream news, it seems to me, is that they are not willing to go certain hot places or to take a stand where a stand is warranted. That's what opens up the opportunity for extremist channels.
Remember when we could all trust "Uncle" Walter Cronkite?
~ OMK
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe, Jr. His father died and he was later adopted by his mother's husband who was a Clinton. Neither the original Clinton political family , George and his ephew DeWitt had any famous political progeny that I know about; Maybe you Erie people know more
WC, a very tiny minority of Native Americans joined in the wanton slaughter of the bison. The great majority of those who participated in it had European roots. The great majority of the Native Americans were outraged by the wholesale destruction of the bison. They slaughtered only for necessities.
Buffalo or Bison? Wiki says,"The term buffalo is sometimes considered to be a misnomer for this animal, and could be confused with "true" buffalos, the Asian water buffalo and the African buffalo. However, the name buffalo is listed in many dictionaries as an acceptable name for American buffalo or bison. Samuel de Champlain applied the term buffalo (buffles in French) to the bison in 1616 (published 1619), after seeing skins and a drawing shown to him by members of the Nipissing First Nation, who said they travelled forty days (from east of Lake Huron) to trade with another nation who hunted the animals. In English usage, the term buffalo dates to 1625 in North America, when the term was first recorded for the American mammal. It thus has a much longer history than the term bison, which was first recorded in 1774. The American bison is very closely related to the European bison (also known as wisent.)"
Many scientific articles disagree, but the term buffalo has been used in the West for centuries and I, for one, will not give it up. Buffalo is "in the language," technically correct or not
The role was DOCTOR Strange, I suppose the word "casually" in the clue points to changing the spelling to DR as someone else guessed. I can find no other reason.
AnonymousPVX @2:09 PM I'm with you PVX. The genocide of the indigenous people of America was indirectly thru the slaughter of the BISON and directly via other means. This has been depicted in Kevin Costner's film "Dances With Wolves" and long before that in the songs of Buffy Sainte Marie, e.g. "Now that the Buffalo's Gone", "My Country 'Tis of Thy People You're Dying", and "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee".
T @4:09 PM The original SNIFFER was a hardware box the size of portable sewing machine that we used to lug around and tap into the network to find out what was going on under the cover. If the net got too NOISOME we had to do something about it.
Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley basically reported the news the way the male WASP wanted to hear it. Anyone one out of that loop was confronted with push back. The current news organizations deal with new reality of a multicultural USA in different ways. Some embrace it, others want to go back to how it was and feel it should be.
Ray-O @4:11 PM I'm with you on that too.
Jayce @4:38 PM Yes, I forgot the 4th. It is enjoyable.
Bill Clinton wasn't the only President who changed his name.
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was born Leslie Lynch King Jr., and like Clinton took his adoptive father's name. Another Presidential name change was Hiram Ulysses Grant, who was changed to Ulysses S Grant due to a typo on his military academy application. Like Harry S Truman, the middle initial did not stand for anything else. Grant's nickname with his friends was always Ulee, like the crosswordese role of Peter Fonda.
Great Saturday puzzle. Seemed easier than usual.Light on the names and crosswordese for a change.
( A ) for bravery
Had to ask DW she remembered RONNETTES
Ditto on POLLER . Pollster wouldn’t fit. Needed perps to convince me. Felt a little like arm twisting.
My sons Political Science PHD thesis covered much of that subject. Colonialism. Etc . Not too popular a choice but we were proud to see him tackle a sometimes thankless subject.
Superb Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Ryan and HuskerG.
I needed P&P, but this CW turned out to be not too daunting for a Saturday.
Yes, I am very late to the party and could just state that staili@6:15am pretty much said it!
Hand up for Rattle, then Bottle before JOSTLE, Had before RAN A FEVER. LIFE boats before RAFTS.
Cialis was too short, LEVITRA fit.
I fought NOISOME meaning fetid. Thanks for the word origin HG.
Yes. MalMan, I smiled at “Broke 100” crossing ONE UNDER, but only ONE was golf-related. But BIG OIL crossing GAS RANGES brought a smile.
This Canadian said to herself “what does Bill Clinton have to do with the ERIE CANAL?” I LIUed re NY Mayor Clinton. Learning moment . . . and I’m not far from ERIE.
DH and one son had BISON burgers many moons ago at a restaurant near Yellowstone Nat. Park. I was not brave enough to try it, but they liked it.
Good evening all.
I love hamburgers and occasionally we go to Denny's for that. They usually have excellent ones but not tonight. It was bad, bad and even the replacement wasn't much better. It was dry and tasteless. Perhaps I should have ordered a BISON one!
I believe I've mentioned before that I cannot get through the first few pages of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". It makes me too emotional.
Jayce:
You didn't say how the BISON burger tasted.
50 A & 8 D real "stretches" - otherwise a fun challenge! Bring Sunday on!!
Just realized I never ate any BISON meat despite living near that ranch where they did package and sell BISON meat. I did a newspaper story on the place and took pictures. Reason I didn't eat it was we had a freezer full of choice beef that we raised. The summer we had Mexican exchange students staying at our home, we took them to see the buffalo. One was studying to be a veterinarian and was so excited over the animals. The herd of buffalos stood and looked at us over the fence then turned, raised their tails straight up and stampeded away over a hill. Exciting to see a stampede. They never are really domesticated and require a much stronger stockade fence. Those guys used old telephone poles with more strands of barbed wire higher up than we used for cattle.
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