Themeless Saturday by Tracy Gray and Jeff Chen
In today's puzzle we have another Jeff Chen collaboration; this time with veteran constructor Tracy Gray who seems to be making her first LA Times appearance.
Their long fills were very "gettable" and even the usually sarcastic French expression at 28 Down was familiar.
Across:
1. "Yeah, like I believe that!": WHAT A CROCK - Al Pacino completes this phrase in a colorful manner about 25 seconds into this famous scene.
11. Yo-yo, say: VARY
15. Lozenge flavor: HONEY LEMON.
16. Together, on scores: A DUE - The a2 below is musical notation shorthand for A DUE
17. Competitively whipped: EATEN ALIVE.
18. Eighty-six: TOSS - Several possible sources
19. Bailing aid: EXIT - If you want to "bail out" of a situation, an EXIT would be helpful
20. Shiny sheet material: SATEEN
18. Eighty-six: TOSS - Several possible sources
19. Bailing aid: EXIT - If you want to "bail out" of a situation, an EXIT would be helpful
20. Shiny sheet material: SATEEN
22. NBA Sixers, on scoreboards: PHI - Wilt Chamberlain is the most famous player the PHIiladelphia 76ers ever had and shot free throws underhanded. His made so few, the 76er's could not depend on him to 32. Put away a game: ICE IT.
23. Brooklyn-based handicrafts etailer: ETSY.
25. Blew off an early appointment, maybe: SLEPT IN - OCD me has never done this
27. Contractors' needs: PERMITS
30. Maroon: STRAND - What was the name of the ship that foundered and left this group STRANDED? *Answer at bottom
31. Quinque follower: SEX.
34. Beetle Bailey nemesis: SARGE.
35. Letters on Drago's track suit in "Rocky IV": CCCP - This isn't his Soviet Union suit track suit with the Cyrillic letters for USSR, but you can get this autographed ring jacket signed by Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago) for $349
35. Letters on Drago's track suit in "Rocky IV": CCCP - This isn't his Soviet Union suit track suit with the Cyrillic letters for USSR, but you can get this autographed ring jacket signed by Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago) for $349
37. Stuffed: SATED.
39. Board at Belmont: TOTE - The TOTE board at Churchill Downs would have shown these numbers for this year's Kentucky Derby. A $2 bet on Medina Spirit would have returned $26.20. Even if this winning horse is disqualified you get to keep your money but the owner has to return his winnings.
40. "Precision Crafted Performance" sloganeer: ACURA - Honda's luxury line
42. Brawl: MELEE.
44. Recipe word: ADD.
45. Light cutters: LASERS - "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!"
47. Some are made in garages: DEMO CDS - I suppose they could make one there if they are 49. Proficient in: ADEPT AT playing
51. "Narcos: Mexico" actor Michael: PENA - He's on the right
52. Brainiac: WIZ.
53. Like some mules: SLIP ON.
55. Fold, as a poker hand: MUCK - Throw your cards in to indicate you are quitting the hand
59. "Hitchcock" role: ALMA - The wedding picture of Alfred Hitchcock and his wife and vital collaborator ALMA. Alfred's brother is behind him and his mother is behind ALMA.
61. Movie in which Ricardo Montalban says, "Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb ... 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'?": STAR TREK II
63. Healthy look: GLOW.
64. Hitting close to home: ALL TOO REAL.
65. Place for roots: SOIL.
66. Comes to one's senses: SEES REASON.
Down:
1. Apt "squee" rhyme: WHEE - Squee is new to me!
2. Deceptive act: HOAX.
3. Not behind: ANTI - The ANTI marijuana and ANTI sports betting people are losing ground in this state
4. Waver: TEETER - Yikes!
3. Not behind: ANTI - The ANTI marijuana and ANTI sports betting people are losing ground in this state
4. Waver: TEETER - Yikes!
5. Writer Rand: AYN - Familiar to us solvers
6. Some Beethoven works: CLASSICS and classical
7. Its anchor shouldn't weigh it down: RELAY TEAM - The anchor is the last runner on a relay team and here is our hometown Fremont anchor runner finishing the 4 x 400 relay Thursday to clinch the first Girl's State Track Championship in school history
8. Fail to mention: OMIT.
9. Pirate hideouts: COVES - This marks the North Carolina COVE from where this pirate launched many of his raids
9. Pirate hideouts: COVES - This marks the North Carolina COVE from where this pirate launched many of his raids
10. Does floor work, maybe: KNEELS - These could help
11. Tub for chocolate: VAT.
12. Street cleaner's program: ADOPT A ROAD - Kramer adopted a road
13. Some NFL scores: RUSHING TDS.
14. "Well, of course!": YES INDEED.
21. Makes: NETS - My sister once asked me, "What is this FICA that is always subtracted from my check?"
24. "I'll never be able to unsee that!": TMI
26. Keister: PRAT - Tom Locke's May 11, 2021 puzzle was built on these euphemisms - Cheeks, Bum, Seat and Buns. It turns out that PRAT is also a name for buttocks. Thus a pratfall is...
27. Petty offense: PECCADILLO.
27. Petty offense: PECCADILLO.
28. Nice statement of indignation?: EXCUSEZ MOI - What the peccadilloes above might say
29. Put in a spot: SITED.
31. Reprobates: SCALAWAGS
31. Reprobates: SCALAWAGS
33. Relocates, sci-fi-style: TELEPORTS.
36. Sous-chef's work: PREP - From "sous", the French word for under. The second-in-command in the kitchen
38. Foul creature that guarded Azkaban in the Potterverse: DEMENTOR - My dearth of Potterverse knowledge required this to fill in itself, which it did.
41. The "A" that makes STEM into STEAM: ARTS
43. Loads of lifetimes: EON.
46. Some dips: SALSAS.
48. Cell component: CAMERA - Will this telephoto lens really allow my iPhone cell CAMERA do this?
50. Viscount, e.g.: TITLE.
54. Wan: PALE - Ah, 11th grade English class
56. Instruments played by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole: UKES - Guaranteed to lift your spirits today!
57. European aloha cousin: CIAO - An Israeli cousin too. This got Lemon's seal of approval although the Hebrew is read in the opposite direction. 😊
58. Firing place: KILN.
60. Boring thing: AWL.
62. Topper for a chirashi bowl: ROE.
60. Boring thing: AWL.
62. Topper for a chirashi bowl: ROE.
*Gilligan and his fellow ship mates were MAROONED when the S.S. Minnow foundered
40 comments:
DNF. CamERA + PENa + mUCK. I was fixated on biological cell, and while I briefly considered jail cell or cell phone, they didn't seem promising. PENA and MUCK were unknowns. MUCK? I more expected what a poker player would say when forced to fold! Overall, a very difficult puzzle.
One wonders if a character of A. A. Milne
Would like if HONEY LEMON his pot was fillin'?
"Hunny" he'd devour,
But lemon is so sour;
He'd probably consign the CROCK back to its KILN!
When will the ANTI-conspiracy nuts SEE REASON?
When will be the end of the PECCADILLO season?
When they're EATEN ALIVE
In a C.I.A. CIcadA hive?
It becomes ALL TOO REAL when it leads to treason!
{A-, B+.} You have any idea how hard it was to keep that second poem from becoming partisan?
Owen, it was plenty "partisan"
I coulda FIR . Since rAtERA was obviously wrong I should have waited to log in. MUCK???* tUCK was the closest I could conjure up. My big mistake was rEcOrDS vs DEMOCD. I'm still in the 50s, who makes records. Perhaps I should have gone online.
I inked in broadcasts for the anchor value. Fits, eh? I loved Al Pacinos speech. Shades of HUAC Commie baiting. When I guessed RELAY TEAM , got rid of isles for COVES the whole N, NW fell.
Difficult? Not for Gary. fe. HONEY LEMON shouldn't have been so hard. Nor RUSHING TDS but not as I would think. SARGE I should have inked right away.
Before SCALAWAGS I thought scoundrels for reprobates Fortunately I'd perped MOI so EXCUSEZ followed. I remember Chingway from a game and guessed 5. But I can think of a lot of clues for SEX
PERMITS. Easy for contractors a nightmare for individual homeowners.
I shouldn't have left SITEr. But I have to travel so time is of essence.
Re. Wilt. Bill Russell wasn't a great free throw shooter except when he needed to ICE IT. I'd love to see his 4th qtr %
I should have had ETSY "in a snap". I did ink CCCP.
And…
We have un,deux,trois,quatre,cinq,six,sept,huit,neuf,quarter
If Picard sees that I had wars/TREK... Sorry Robert, not a fan of either. I lost track of HP after the third. Never saw the movies.
WC
An intersting collaboration as Jeff Chen is known for his mentoring efforts, but a quick look into the past shows that these two first collaborated on a NYT in 2014 and have done some more together. As Gary pointed out, this is Tracy's LAT debut though she has branched out to the Universal and WSJ in recent years.
Luckily for me, I used to watch the World Series of Poker when it was on ESPN and learned the term MUCK but did not know DEMENTOR but it filled.
Congrats for the Fremont team but it looks like the other girl was having too much fun to run.
The hebrew is the modern style with marks to indicate vowel sounds; the original Torahs had no such aids.
FLN, thank you Bruce for stopping by and your kind words; thank you Jeff, Tracy and Gary. I am off to watch my granddaughters dance recital later today so life is good
Good morning!
Whew, what a workout. In the end, that I in PICCADILLO, the one that isn't there, was my downfall. Bzzzzt. DNF. Was proud of myself to figure out what that A in STEAM stood for. WIT/WIZ, CHI/PHI, ALL TOO TRUE/REAL slowed me down enroute to the dénouement. Thanx, Tracy, Jeff, and Husker.
MUCK: Sounds like a euphemism to me.
PRAT: I worked with a guy named PRATT, with an extra T.
Ricardo Montalban: "Revenge is a dish best served on rich Corinthian leather."
Lots of creative fill but eventually filled out nicely. Fortunately the M in MUCK filled with the CAMERA lightbulb moment because I would have never figured it out otherwise.
Thanks HG and congrats to Tracy on the debut!
During our stay here in DC - we went to the new Eisenhower Memorial (opened Sept. 2020)- it was well done and I met up with a high school friend - so apropos for 2 Kansas women to visit! The visit was enhanced by a volunteer guide and the National Parks ranger who told the back story of how it was designed and implemented with the clash of the ideas of Frank Gehry the architect and the family members as to what their ideas/vision for the project was.
https://eisenhowermemorial.gov/design
Good morning. A really good crossword today. Especially since it was a FIR, albeit longer than normal. My last area to resolve was the SE. Wanted KILN but it wasn't working. Had entered ALL TOO nEAr and was certain of UKES and CIAO. It was (finally) DEMO CDS that led me to CAMERA and then MUCK, and that was the aha moment !
I learned that reprobates does not mean to probate again. SCALAWAGS was mostly perps until my mind's eye recognized the word, and I was like, "huh ?" Good thing, because I needed that first A in ALMA as I was clueless with the clue "Hitchcock role."
I wanted vacillate for the clue "Waver" at 4D, but it was too long.
Also wanted librettos for "Some Beethoven works" but it wouldn't fit, and as I probated later, it was Bach that was into writing / composing librettos more so than Beethoven. waseeley would not have made that mistake.
Squee was new to me too, Gary.
Lost one of the nose pads on my glasses last evening. Off to the vision center in a little bit. Even with a magnifying glass I wouldn't be able to see that tiny screw, much less get it lined up and threaded in. DW is correct (again); time to get my vision tested and get another set of specs.
Or, as my old buddy Dave (that used to live around the corner from D-O) used to say, "When you get one, get two."
Had tUCK, so FIW. One square wrong in the NYT today also, so a sad Saturday.
Good Morning.
Now that was a workout. I've been at it all morning with a couple of breaks--to switch the laundry and rest my brain. The low hanging fruit was still often out of my reach. I threw in STARTREK, but had no clue about the last two letters until I returned later with CIAO and KILN. HONEY LEMON was my first random guess on the long fills. It took quite a bit of time, but it was worth it. Thanks Tracy and Jeff. Nice tour, Gary! I have not seen Scent of a Woman, but it's now on my list. Thanks for that, too.
Have a sunny day.
I was doing okay for a Saturday, successfully pecking away at it until I turfed it in the SE. I never thought of cell phone so I missed camera, then muck and Pena. Hi OKL. DO, MUCK does sound more like a euphemism for the first letter.
This puzzle still was fun, better than one I can fill in as fast as I can write. I can see possibilities that I missed, so it was actually doable. Glad I was more successful yesterday when most of my first thoughts were correct. Today it took second and third thoughts.
Watching Gilligan's Island I am amazed at the clothing and props the castaways come up with on a desert isle. Also it is amazing that visitors arrive from time to time and are able to leave, but not the castaways.
YES INDEED, I'd love to say that I FIR but I would be lying. I knew the "Quinque" clue was five in some Romance language but my SIX went to SES and didn't really know the French spelling of 'excuse me'. I've never written PECCADILLO but figured the second letter was an "E" instead of "I". Filled ESCUSEZ MOI. French intersecting both Russian and Latin in one clue? Not 'Nice' or nice. BE isn't a WIZ on the correct spelling of foreign words.
DEMENTOR & PENA were both unknowns but made it onto the grid by TELEPORTOR.
Gary- you have more Potterverse knowledge than MOI. Everything I know about it (and The Simpsons) came from working crossword puzzles.
My RUNNINGS TDS changed to RUSHING TDS.
ALMA, MUCK, PENA, ROE- perps for those fills. ROE was a WAG; never heard of the other three.
Wilbur- I wanted RECORDS but SITER wasn't correct.
LASERS- It's interesting about the laser beam about to cut Bond in half. When that movie was made, workable cutting lasers hadn't been built.
DNF for me. A few naticks in the south. This was a real cross*word* puzzle. Thanks for this Jeff.
Good Morning:
I thought the puzzle had lots of fresh, lively fill and was basically crosswordese-free, with a minimal number of three letter words, all contributing to an enjoyable solve. However, it was FIW due to the Peccadillo/Sex crossing. I don’t like using unfair as an excuse, but, IMO, the clueing for Sex and, also, for Alma were unnecessarily obtuse, even for a Saturday. Dementor and Muck, as clued, were unknowns, but inferable. I had Caves before Coves and Twee before Whee.
Thanks, Tracy and Jeff, for a tough challenge and congrats, Tracy, on your LAT debut and thanks, HG, for another edifying and entertaining expo. That scene, and many others, from Scent of A Woman was filmed about a mile from my home on the campus of Emma Willard, a private girl’s school, K-12. I believe that particular scene was shot in the Chapel. Famous grads include Jane Fonda and Kirsten Gillibrand.
Have a great day.
Somebody has to say it, What A Crock! 😄
Well, at least some of it. Muck was unknown until perped as was Dementor. Does J K Rowling pay royalties to Barry Hansen for this?
This puzzle was a doozy. Reading the Across clues first, I didn't get an answer until ETSY. In the end, I was stuck in the NE and asked DH if he was familiar with the NBA Sixers. When he said, YES INDEED, Philadelphia, that gave me PHI and I was able to FIR. WHEE!
Thanks, Tracy, Jeff, Rich, and Gary!
A combo of DNF/FIR...One really stoopid mistake: "Starwars" IV (I even saw "The Wrath of Khan" a million years ago and the clue quote mentions Cap'n Kirk 🙄). Didn't know MUCK for fold.🃏 ♣️.. Had RANKINGTDS
Was sooo tempted to write in "eucalyptus" for lozenge flavor and get a quick leg up but checked a couple perps first and AYN Rand put a stop to that. 86 was 10 more too many trombones. I just realized I don't know how to count to ten in Latin..SEX, huh... (Seems ETSY gets lotsa free advertising through the LAT CW. )
PREP (as its anagram "perp") so as not to put USSR but CCCP.
Nice doesn't fool me anymore and quickly filled in sacrébleue! 😳...Wrong!!
Put away a game not aCEIT?... 🤔
My thinking was... ANTI is against, "ante" is not behind but before like "antebellum." keister "rear" was totally perped wrong. Had PRA(blank) _...then recalled prior puzzle discussions for PRAT (pratfall)
Some are made in garages DE SOTOS? DE FORDS? no, DEMO CDS would have needed more perps...(BTW does anyone say "garage" as two syllables? I lazily say "graj", unless you're a Brit and say "GAIR'-ahj")... is STEAM something other that water as gas? Apparently so.
"squee" qualifies as a YOINKS 😯 (a word that would start a fistfight at a Scrabble game)
Chirashi? ...(Me, myself, and I, slowly becoming a "tub" for chocolate 🍫)
the Hebrew is read in the opposite direction so it's pronounced Molahs? "Owie Scotty, I said 'beam me up not beat me up!"
Amazing Golden Archer!! ....WHATACROCK!!
Lock....STRAND.
Stop with the jokes! You're ___ me! KILN
Loved PECCADILLOS between armadillos
CIAO a tutti! 👋
Hi Y'all! Squee! IMHO this whole puzzle qualifies as a PECCADILLO! Sorry constructors but there was so much obscure stuff, unknown names, & movie's I hadn't seen, it just wasn't fun.
Never in my life have I had quinque before SEX! What, Gary? It's not an alcoholic drink or kinky foreplay? Oh, thanks for the info and all your great blog material. You are the BALM.
Did anyone FIR without help?
Never heard of TOTE Board so I was sure I was wrong. But I was mistaken about that. Perps forced it. Did get PRAT from PRATfall; learning moment. But I was done in by S instead of X at cross of SEX and EXCUSEZ MOI. My Latin and French teachers would both be sad.
PK I loved your Kinky SEX comment!
Wilbur Charles Thanks for the shout out, even if to express less than enthusiasm for my secular religion of STAR TREK. Started to enter WRATH OF KHAN but wrong number of letters. It was one of my less favorite films as it was more negative than positive. I can enjoy STAR Wars in the same way I enjoy Harry Potter as good fantasy. But they are not visionary like STAR TREK.
Here is my short video of our local UKE group playing down by the Santa Barbara Harbor.
Maybe not as memorable as your Over the Rainbow post Husker Gary but it is down home playing!
Picard, your uke group looks like it is having fun. Make music, not trouble.
A toughie I thought, but chipped away and got most of it, except for a few misspellings. Tough but fair.
WC - Russell the greatest winner of all time, 11 NBA championships, 2 NCAA, Olympic Gold. Wilt, not so much, great stats but seldom took his team over the top, even with great talent along side him.
No surprise, but I had the same problems as many of you. I finally gave up and read Husker Gary's review. Thank you for clarifying things. (I thought jail cells might have cameras watching?)
DNF due to the NE corner. EXCUSEZ MOI but I also had trouble spelling that expression and perps didn't "bail" me out. So, a record total of 12 bad squares. However, I am feeling proud of the tricky fill I did get right so all's well, Tracy and Jeff. It was a worthy Saturday challenge.
Now I need to get back to MUCKing out the house. Hope you all have a productive day!
WHEE! FIR, but not without a workout -- the clues were devilishly clever. Beautiful work, Tracy and Jeff!
PK, neither have the ŕest of us. I'm waiting for my first quinque.
Well, I had to do the “walk away” solve method.
When I came back the empties just filled in, like magic.
Write-overs….RUSE/HOAX, LAIRS/COVES, SES/SEX, GAZE/GLOW.
There would have been more if I guessed, but on a lot I couldn’t even do that.
If I have to look it up then it doesn’t count as a FIR, that’s just me.
Stay safe.
Having no idea who or what "'Hitchcock' role" meant, and wildly leaping into the void of ignorance, I thought the French put-down was 'ExcusezToi' "Well, excu-u-use you!" and the role was 'alTa'. ("Squee" is also on the hit list ... the whole puzzle was, well, a big puzzle.)
Musings
-Very interesting info about The Scent Of A Woman, Irish. I went on to read about Emma Willard and her great role in higher education for women.
-I knew ALMA because I watched a documentary of Hitchcock recently. He was a really odd duck but he gave a great deal of credit to his wife to whom he remained faithful for 54 years until she died
-Yes, YR, I agree about Gilligan’s Island. Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away was much more realistic including doing his own primitive dentistry. Yikes!
-Me too, PVX. If I have to look it up that’s a foul!
A typically tough Saturday PZL, worthy of a... well, a Saturday!
Thanks to the Gray/Chen team!
And of course to Husker G as well.
It was at my first grown-up job that I first heard the term "CROCK" used to refer to customers. I was just 17, and my part time job was as a shoe salesman, pushing ladies' shoes at a popular store on Market Street, San Francisco.
I was a terrible salesman--because I took time with my customers. I rarely earned a commission, just my base pay.
The full-time guys constantly referred to their female customers as Crocks.
If she caused a salesman to bring more than a couple of pair of shoes, she was a Crock. If she took more than 15 minutes of his time, she was a Crock. Anyone who wasn't a quick, easy sale was a Crock.
These guys were absolute cynics.
I thought it interesting that we had no female sales personnel. I wonder if that has changed.
When you go to buy ladies' shoes nowadays, can you get a female shoe salesperson?
~ OMK
____________
DR: Only one diagonal today, on the near end.
None of the available anagrams use more than 12 of the 15 letters. And none seems particularly amusing. I will go with the two-word phrase that refers to a well-seasoned cocktail, or perhaps just a fine joke well-told.
Either of the above can serve as a lubricant for a good conversation.
In other words, a...
"TALK OINTMENT"!
Nope. Just nope.
Yep. Nope!
I don't usually bitch about a puzzle. I do bail out on the Sunday NYT once in a while if it's too cutesy. But don't think I ever quite an LAT. This one I did. At about 80% filled. Fun sponge all the way.
Huge DNF.
Since I set a limit of two hours on LAT for Saturdays, I finished less than half of this entry. Remember, I use reference books from my library to help solve puzzles. I couldn't find 2/3 of the defs in this puzzle. The constructors seem to be enamored with slang and obscure media references ... not the best mode of constructing puzzles. DNF and NO FUN today!
PK I second Picard 's chuckle re Chingway before SEX. And your appreciation of (UKE) Folk who know how to have fun.
Picard, to be fair, TREK is better done. When Kirk was around I didn't watch TV. Like some other CCers I was a book reader. Just picked up Anna Kerenina. And Mailer's "Harlot's Ghost". To fill in my conspiracy interest. And Two Michael Connellys and a book written in 1924* that's very apt today.
Naomi, if you ask a family member it's FIR but 50% of the credit goes to DH
WC
*Mein Kampf
Re. Today's xword. I give credit to inventively clever clueing. I had a busy morning and quit too soon. Leaving SITEr was a giveup.
Maybe I can redeem myself tomorrow
Wilbur Charles, I think you are very kind to say, "Naomi, if you ask a family member it's FIR but 50% of the credit goes to DH." This is generous to me, and DH enjoys it, too. You might have said I DNF!
I think Picard was onto me as well, in terms of my exaggerated claim.
You made me smile.
Wilbur, Is chingway how you pronounce quinque? Looked like kin-key to me, in my great ignorance. I couldn't even guess at its being Latin. Don't know if this counts as a learning experience. Might remember it.
Hi, sorry I ‘m so late. Just finished this tough one. Really hard. What bothered me most was that I couldn’t get the z in excusezemoi. Ugh and duh. Challenging and fun. Thanks everyone, hope you’re all well.
Naomi, I mentioned once that I'll ask Phil my son gaming questions or Betsy yoga or astrology. 50% if it leads to FIR. We solvers don't perhaps realize the skill we have acquired.
PK, at 530 central time I followed Owen with a post. The Greek owner of a bar used to play a game where each would throw one, Two or three fingers and if the sum was five would shout "Chingway ". They sure had fun.
WC
"Cingway" is Southern Italian dialect pronunciation for the number 5, cinque
This sounds sort of like an old finger game called "Morra"
Wilbur & Ray-O, okay, gotcha. Should have known cinque would be 5. Root word for Cinco de Mayo. Boy, the stuff we are exposed to in cwds.
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