Saturday Themeless by Freddie Cheng
Today Freddie Cheng joins our Saturday themeless parade and, as you will see in his comments, it may be a while until we see another one. This was a real workout for me following my usual Saturday pattern of establishing a base camp and working from there. Nicely done, Freddie!
Hi Gary!
I’m originally from the UK, with a background in electrical engineering with a PhD in telecoms. Have been working in finance in NYC, where I have lived for the last few decades.
This is only my second published themeless, and my first attempt at a 66-worder. I guess I still have a lot to learn, since I must admit I found the whole construction process to be a real slog!
It's been about two years since I first started this puzzle, so with fresh eyes, I can see that 16A is going to be tough going for most people. Probably a necessary evil at the time though, to enable those nice verticals in that NE corner. I believe the puzzle was seeded with the 7D grid-spanner, as I remember playing around with SCREENED IN PATIO also, to try to get to a flashy enough SE corner.
I see that about half the clues were changed/improved. Luckily my personal favorite [for 35D] made it through intact.
Although I do have another 66-worder slated for publication in a NY Times Saturday, it’ll will probably be a very long time before I’ll attempt another one of these!
Cheers,
Freddie
1. 153-year-old group that became unisex nationally in 1995: ELKS - A group of ELKS at Gouverneur Elks Lodge No. 2035 in Gouverneur, NY in 2019
8. Get some air: INHALE.
14. Assuring word on a cleaning product label: NON-TOXIC
17. "The Sound of Music" song opener: DOE A DEER - Am I the only one who put THE HILLS for "The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Music" which is the first line of the song that actually opens the movie?
18. Stronger-than-steel material: KEVLAR - I think of bullet-proof vests when I hear KEVLAR
19. Like protozoans: ONE CELLED.
21. Prefix with motor: SERVO - New to me. Here a SERVOMOTOR from a hobby shop moves the airplane with feedback from the handheld controller.
25. Cruise stop: PIER - PORT crossing 13. Slips: ERRORS ERRATA looked right
26. Salt sources: SEAS - We watched our neighbors house for a few days and she brought us a gift of chocolates topped with SEA salt. Interesting!
27. Quirks: MANNERISMS
30. Second sight, say, briefly: ESP
31. Perfectly executed: DONE TO A TEE - Origin
32. "All peachy!": JUST DANDY.
33. Targets of some blocking software: ADULT SITES.
35. Adobe file format: PDF - Our agent in Branson, MO sent us this PDF for our "escape from Covid captivity"!
39. Jazzman Saunders: MERL - I'm much more familiar with MERL(E) Haggard
40. Instruction unit: STEP - Gotta love Ikea's visual directions
42. Salt's companion: MATEY - I'm thinking Spitzboov and our other sailors at our site would have rarely used this word
43. Drink with a 2021 Peeps variety: PEPSI.
45. 2019 pop biopic: ROCKET MAN - Considered having this Elton John song played at my funeral but...
50. As it happens: REAL TIME - The internet is full of REAL TIME video
51. Cause to lose it: ENRAGE.
53. Seat of Ohio's Montgomery County: DAYTON - Home of our good friend and constructor Mary Lou Guizzo
54. Growth chart nos.: HTS.
Down:
2. Canadian coins: LOONIES
 |
| A LOON is on the reverse and the Queen is on the Obverse |
3. Shinbone neighbor: KNEECAP - Shinbone was also the town where this movie bad guy died.
8. "Gross!": ICK.
9. Vetoes: NOES - Not NAES
11. Apt slogan on merchandise featuring MLB slugger Aaron Judge: ALL RISE - "Here come da Judge"
12. "I need solitude": LEAVE ME
24. African currency whose singular form is part of its country's name: LEONES - $1 = 10,230 SLL. This bill would be worth about a nickel.
28. Less likely to chillax: ANTSIER - Chillax is a portmanteau of "CHILL out" and "reLAX." Okay, I'll admit my shame at putting TYPE AER first!😟
29. Roentgen cousins: RADS - Radiation units. Google if you must
31. Noted starter?: DULY
35. Loved cheese lovers?: PET MICE - MICE are "cheese lovers" and if they are a PET, I suppose they are loved
36. Visualize: DREAM UP.
37. Bug stoppers: FLY NETS - $46 to get one for Dobbin
39. Have some impact: MATTER
44. Shakespearean standard-bearer: IAGO.
47. Foe of CONTROL on "Get Smart": KAOS.
*Kevin played REN in Footloose.
40 comments:
FIRight, tho it was a slog. THE HILLS < DOE A DEER, TANKER < COALER (oiler didn't fit), DOOR WAY< IN PORCH, PORT < PIER, AIRGEL < KEVLAR, LET ME BE < LEAVE ME.
A dear DOE, A DEER, was dealt
A disappointment of becoming an ELK.
It wasn't, they said,
That they were not co-ed,
But they didn't have a lodge in her veldt!
The purpose of a SCREENED-IN PORCH,
Is to keep the bugs out, of course.
A mesh of FLY NET,
For entrance and exit,
Wouldn't help Uncle Fred's termiteish sorts.
{A-, B+.}
Good morning!
Thought I'd aced this one, but Husker showed me I'd made one costly mistake -- should'a been MOSTLY. DNF. Also fell into that PORT/ERRATA trap, but managed to fall out again. "Props" evoked Spitz. Thanx for the challenge, Freddie, and for the tour, Husker. (You do know how Rocketman turned out for Wolowitz, right?)
"Branson" -- We took a driving vacation through Arkansas a number of years ago. We thought of continuing to Branson when we were in Fayetteville, but nixed the idea. We prefer to remember those entertainers the way they were, not the way they are.
JUMPSEAT -- Once spent six hours in the JUMPSEAT of a Chevy pickup for the 350-mile drive from Brownsville to Houston. Needed help getting "unfolded" when we finally arrived.
Much harder than the typical Saturday for me. I'm not loving that the weekend difficulty level seems to be rising.
Some inexact cluing didn't help. I don't think visualize=DREAMUP. Seems that LEAVEME should be LEAVEMEALONE or LEAVEMEBE with that clue. And PETMICE is way too Green Paint-y for my taste. The neighboring trio of PETMICE/DREAMUP/FLYNETS made that SE corner quite hard for me. COALER and SERVO near each other in the NE were a challenge as well. It's a generally well-constructed puzzle, and I FIR, but it was not a smooth ride.
Thank you Freddie for a Saturday challenge, that for the want of an nail I'd have had a FIR instead of a FIW (well a DNF actually). More on that later, but first a CSO to Gary for another stellar review! And special thanks for the Ode to Billie Joe.
This was a fairly smooth TRAWL until I ran AGROUND in the SE. But the seeds for that FOUNDERING were laid smack dab in the CENTER of the puzzle, despite a hint from an answer that MATTERED in WEST CENTRAL.
There was so much good fill from our POLYMATH constructor that I don't know where to start. How about the beginning?
1A CO-ED ELKS? Who da' thunk it? ELK are CO-ED for sure, but I guess the ELKS are no longer just a FRATERNAL ORDER. FAMILIAL?
5A ABS was a no-brainer, which with 11A NON-TOXIC TURNED 5D into AXEL and then 6D into BIEL.
7D I had SCREENED WINDOWS before IN PORCH.
8A Had BREATH before INHALE, which led to 8D ICK and KEVLAR, but what fuel ship begins with C?
10D was obviously HAVE PITY then 21A SERVO helped perp in the NE and bingo not OILER or TANKER, but a solid fuel for a 16A COALER.
2D The L in ELKS suggested LOONIES, and the L in 23A suggested LEONES.
Starting at the 22A stack, RICKS, SEAS, and ESP fell easily. I relied on the last of the 3 for a lot of fill and should have seen the 26A SEA as a forward hint to 42A MATEY.
But my downfall began by ending 28D with past tense D, rather than the comparative R. ANTSIED cause me to miss the obvious ROCKET MAN for 45A and I'm certain that I might of at least finished, if not FIR.
Alas, alack, woe is me. Well not really. Great puzzle!
Cheers,
Bill
ERRORS? "Would you believe" I did remember KAOS from 'Get Smart' and I FIR today? My NW had ERRORS for a while after I filled PATELLA and wanted SHAPELESS. I left the NW alone before doing it last to FIR. KNEECAP and ONE CELLED opened it up. BIEL was perps.
It took a few WAGs to get this one today. DAYTON, PEPSI, LEONES were just that. FLY NETS, REN, MERL, & MELS were unknowns filled by perps. My mother's first name was MYRL.
Two correct answers in one fill -TO A T inside of DONE TO A TEE.
Gary- your 500 LEONES is worth a lot compared to a couple of bills I have. What do you think a 10,000 Bolivares bill from Venezuela is worth? Or a 50,000,000,000.00 (50 Bilion) Dollar note from Zimbabwe?
stalli- "inexact cluing" make the puzzles fun. They wouldn't be challenging if the clues were straight forward.
Good Morning:
This was, indeed, a true Saturday workout but, surprisingly, I finished in below average time. I got lots of footholds early on and was breezing right along until I hit a brick wall in the SE corner, as per staili @ 7:48’s comments. Servo, Merl, and Ren, as clued, were unknowns and Coaler was a nose wrinkler but any faults in the grid were easily forgiven due to only eight three letter words compared to yesterday’s onslaught of 30! CSO to CEh at Loonies.
Thanks, Freddie, for a very enjoyable solve, your efforts paid off, IMO and thanks, HG, for the entertaining and informative review, as always.
FLN
Tin, good to hear from you, don’t be a stranger! 🥃
Have a great day. (Our weather is more like early April than the end of May, rain, rain, and more rain, plus low temps. I had to put my heat back on.)
NW filled pretty quick but the rest was a grind.
A coal-carrying ship is a COlLiER but that doesn't fit.
Unisex doesn't seem quite accurate, but the BPOE isn't a school so co-ed isn't right either.
Funny, for some reason I was trying to think of the opening line of Ode to Billie Joe before I even started the puzzle this morning.
A bit of a slog solving as well. PETMICE took a while because I thoughtr Packers fit there somehow. I had a pet mouse that I named Andamo and kept in a hamster cage my office when I was a professor. Our lady janitor refused to enter the room at first. Some time later she was bringing Andamo home with her when I went on vacation. She would even let him out of the cage to run freely around her house, something I never did. Andamo was a retired lab mouse and developed a tumor on his hip. I set him free in a corn field.
Thanks Freddie and Gary. I enjoyed this Saturday romp. Usually I both look forward to Saturday and dred it at the same time. It's all between the ears for me. Today I was in tune with Freddie. Very satisfying as I really botched yesterday. TC
Enjoyable puzzle, "mostly." Didn't care for the constructor's clue for "pet mice," especially crossing a proper noun (Merl). I did not know "servo," but having been to Dayton several times came in handy. Took me 13:38 to finish.
Good morning everyone.
Thought it would be tough, but the NW filled in right away. Then the rest slowly came in, too; STEP-by-STEP. I, TOO, TRIED FOR TANKER AT 16A, but with ALL RISE, tried COALER (see below) and it worked. Only wite-out was I had port before PIER, and flirted with Elyria (53a) before DAYTON was clear. CSO to Can.Eh! @ LOONIES. FIR; no references were needed. In spite of the glueyness in the NE, I thought it was a very fine puzzle with plenty of fresh fill as Freddie and Gary pointed out.
PIER - In my mind, cruises call or stop at ports; cruise ships moor, tie up, or berth at PIERS.
COALER - Wanted collier like others did. But COALER is legit; just never used TMK.
One time, our Task Group with an aircraft carrier, and seven destroyers in a circular screen, were steaming in formation when an Italian collier appeared crossing through the same sea space. When in formation, course is held until the OTC (Officer in Tactical Command) changes it. Finally a signal came out to "maneuver independently to avoid shipping". The radar picture showed a formerly tight formation disintegrating while a single foreign-flagged transport continued unflinchingly at 10 knots to her destination,
First-rate intro, Gary. Thank you.
FLN Husker Gary @5:03 PM and T @11:01 PM
I take back what I said about "little green men", the "ETS" answer to 11A UFO occupants. Just a joke.
I'm only raising this topic because next month the US government will publish an omnibus report of data on UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sightings, many of which appear to defy the known laws of physics. The report purports to extensively document sightings dating back decades that have not as yet to been explained by scientists. From what I gather the publication of this information is being driven by several factors:
1. National security. If one of our terrestrial enemies has such technologies this is significant. If these sightings derive from extra-terrestrial sources this is much more significant.
2. Apparently these sightings have increased in recent decades. The report should be able to quantify whether this is true.
3.Information about UAP sightings has largely been under the control of the Defense Department. The scrutiny of these sightings by trained observers such as scientists has largely been lacking (see below).
I was on the fence about these phenomena until I read this book by investigative reporter Leslie Kean. Now I'm convinced there is something to them:
UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record
While Kean is not a scientist or a trained observer, in preparation for this book she extensively interviewed many people who spend a lot of time in the skies and whose very lives depend on their observational skills.
With regard to the need for scientific investigations of UAPs, Scientific American published this article last year:
‘Unidentified Aerial Phenomena,’ Better Known as UFOs, Deserve Scientific Investigation
For anyone interested in this topic, but who doesn't have the time to delve into the written material I've listed above, I'd recommend viewing this 12 min. Politico video, which briefly summarizes the whys and wherefores of the pending government report:
Stellar Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Freddie and HuskerG.
I just kept picking away at this CW, and FIRed in good (for me) Saturday time. Perps and WAGS to the rescue.
Several inkblots in the NE corner. Hand up for Port before PIER. (I agree with Spitzboov about that clueing.)
Also had Take before HAVE PITY. Agree that COALER was a gluey nose-wrinkler. Another nautical with MATEY (because Pepper wouldn’t fit to go with the Salt SEAS).
I also had to change JUST Dishy to DANDY in the centre.
I thought of uncle Fred with the clue for 7D; I see that Owen KL did too😁
It took a while to parse ADULTSITES correctly. I was thinking of AD blockers at first.
Breathe would not fit- INHALE did.
I’m not sure if I loved or hated the clue for PET MICE🤔😮👎👍
Yes, IM, we turned on the heat also. And brought in some of the flower pots. LOONEY weather.
Wishing you all a great day.
I loved this Saturday puzzle. For some reason, I was in Mr. Cheng's wheelhouse, although I know nothing about boats! Did not have to google or Wiki anything.
Becky
The NW almost filled itself. Then came the "those whom the gods would humble they first make proud" moments. Nice to see Freddie acknowledge the COALER situation. We first had to sort through the OILER/TANKER bit but at least the possible, but common, misuse/mis-cluing of OILER was not in play. SCREENED IN PORCH (not patio) was a pretty quick fill as were a couple of the other long-ish answers and those all helped FIR. Great recap with fine mix of exposition, graphics and humor. . . and I now know what a FLY NET is and where Chillax came from and what it means. Thanks!
Wees!
Ah! Ya gotta luv (or hate) Saturday puzzles
Because Inexact clueing is the name of the game..
Cruise stops are not isles, but the pier therein.
Salt mines are outdated, sea salt is all the rage...
And the fuel is coal (also frowned upon these days) but they did have
Special "colliers" back in day.
(Hmm, must be downgraded to plain coalers these days...)
Which reminds me that as of yesterday's puzzle,
I have to update my crosswordese internal dictionary,
Nene is no longer just an Hawaiian goose anymore..
Freddie, thank you for the puzzle and for your contribution to today's blog! I was able to FIR by myself, on paper, with no cheats. There was a moment of despair, looking at the largely unfilled NE and center, followed by a quick solve. Like OwenKL, I had "let me be" before LEAVE ME. Like Big Easy, I think that "inexact cluing" is part of the fun. Thanks for the roundup, HG!
I was coming along well and solidly today until I hit the SE. I looked up two answers there. I guess you can justify PET MICE, but it was my least favorite fill and my biggest hold up.
My sons love me and I am a cheese lover, thus a loved cheese lover. Sheesh!
No nit with COALER. I have seen it used for train cars and ships that carry coal exclusively. Collier is probably said more frequently than coaler these days.
MATEY as salt's companion was devilishly clever, my favorite.
Many thanks for this Saturday puzzle, Freddie. And nice write-up, Husker Gary, thanks for that too.
I got off to a good start with ABS, but things soon got tougher. But I enjoyed some of the incidental pairings, like having IN FEAR right above ENRAGE. No wonder the first guy was scared if the second guy was in a rage. Glad one of the guys at the top right was able to HAVE PITY.
Lots of insects in this puzzle, needing FLY NETS and SCREENED IN PORCHES. And, Owen, you picked right up on those insects.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
Well this was a toughie for sure.
And I will add, the clue for 35D is just weak.
Write-overs..BEAL/BIEL, TAKEPITY/HAVEPITY, PORT/PIER, MAINLY/MOSTLY, SCREENED WINDOWS/PORCHES/INPORCH, AFRAID/INFEAR. So quite a few.
Hungry Mother…I’m sure you meant the best, but a white lab mouse set free in a field has no chance.
Stay safe, enjoy the holiday weekend….although as a retired guy this has little meaning, hahaha.
I was stuck for a while, so put this aside for a few hours. (ex. I also had PorT-ErraTa).
My brain must have been working behind the scenes, as when I came back to it I suddenly broke the logjam in multiple spots. Finished everything with no errors.
Last week I complained about the answer TOAT (to a t), and this week we have done to a tee. Haha...did not fool me this time.
Hi Y'all! Thanks for a fun, but challenging puzzle, Freddie. I enjoyed this one. Thanks for enhancing the fun, Gary.
For some reason I was chuckling over JUST DANDY over ADULT SITES over ENEMY LINES. I was trying to find a theme.
Hand up for WEES. Did not know how to spell BIEL.
My late husband was an ELK. One of the reasons the ELKS went co-ed was financial. The one in our town was full of older men whose wives liked to use the excellent dining and drinking facilities. There had been a rule or understanding that widows were excluded from the club after the man died. Younger men were not joining at a rate to replace the deceased and their affluent bankrolls. So women were allowed to become members to support the facilities and apparently now join the ritual teams.
Vidwan, I hope you saw my message to you from late last night.
Hola!
Yes, I agree! This was tough but Saturday puzzles should be. In fact, when I reached the SE I also took a break then came back with a clear mind.
SCREENED IN PORCH was a common sight in Phoenix before A/C was available. Often people slept there on very hot nights, which was most of the summer.
MATEY, of course, reminded me of Spitz but as noted, not likely used by him. PIER, too, though that started as PORT. My ERRORS were soon exposed.
Once PORCH emerged, REAL TIME, CLOSE CUT and ROCKETMAN surfaced.
I'm not familiar with MERL Saunders so LIU.
DAYTON is the headquarters of the Order I once belonged to so I've visited there many times. In fact, I attended the University of Dayton a few summers. Circa, 1963. Many of my friends still reside there and I last visited in 2005 for the 50 year reunion then again a few years later.
This was challenging but fun. Thank you, Freddie Cheng and thank you, Gary, for eloquently guiding us through it.
Have a fun-filled weekend, everyone! We've reached over 100 degrees already!
Hi All!
Got everything West of DENTANTE but I couldn't crack the East without a little nudge from HG's grid... LET ME BE seemed solid but nope (Hi OKL & NaomiZ).
Also, I kept thinking of something before motor - diesel didn't mesh w/ my 12d.
Thanks Freddie for the fine puzzle. Let's see, an EE in finance... you a quant?
Thanks HG for the wonderful expo and a few nudges. Of course, your constructor correspondence is always appreciated.
WOs: eww -> ICK (thanks HG), LET ME BE (ibid), YEs, and I left out an N in MANNER (post 12d cheat) and didn't realize it until I had a square left-over - a bigly WO.
Google: MERL
ESPs: MELs, spelling of BIEL (and DEER*)
Fav: KAOS. Love me some Get Smart.
Runners-up: LOONIES for C, Eh!
And Dandy made me think of Carlin [@ 0:33 of 4:07; TV-MA].
{A, B+ (with luck to Unclefred)}
FLN - Waseeley, my mind's not closed; I'm just thinking of the whys. Why would they (ETs) not say hello? If they got here, then they are as advanced (weapon-wise) as Cortez was to the Aztecs; they'd have nothing to fear from us. If they are here to study us, then why the butt-probes?; we don't do that to MICE... :-)
PET MICE - I see pet as a verb. If you loved on something, you may have PETted it(?).
PK - that makes sense re: ELKs. I knew a guy that got into the Masons; he, at 30 years old, was the youngest by at least 20yrs.
Y'all have a wonderful afternoon!
Cheers, -T
*DW still makes fun of me 'cuz I'd sent her letters from Basic; "Deer K----,"** they'd begin. I can never remember the E|A difference.
**I was fawning over her :-)
For some reason I thought this was an easier-than-usual Saturday puzzle. I only needed half the usual peeks at the grid and most of my wags were right. Thanks you, Freddie, for the puzzle exercise. Thank you, HG, for the expo.
Hand up for LEtmEbE/LEAVEME. I wanted carbon for "stronger then steel material, put it the line above where it should have been, really messed up that corner. Took a couple peeks at the grid to straighten out that corner.
For those of you not fortunate enough to experience the Cicada invasion, I'll share with you. You can see holes where the nymphs emerged, the discarded exoskeletons, and adults hardening their shells and drying their wings so they can fly. The tree in our front yard. The warmer the temperature the louder the singing. The symphony in our back yard. I'm over it, yet we still have a couple more weeks of this. Glad it only happens every few years.
Have a good weekend.
This is for Ms. PK.,
From Last night .... Thank you, very kindly, and I am very grateful for your kind words.
They were a big relief, and very flattering. I am moat flattered ... Thank You,
I have to admit I was fooled by the clue for 44D.
It takes some close reading to refer to IAGO as a "Shakespearean standard-bearer."
I was thinking--as I imagine others were as well--of a character in a title name position. But Mr. Cheng (or his editors) is accurate in interpreting his given army rank--"Ensign"--as technically a standard-bearer.
Not the rank that IAGO wanted, but the one with which he was stuck.
Excellent poems today, Owen--especially #1.
~ OMK
___________
DR: One diagonal, NW to SE.
It offers an interesting anagram--a Super Jackpot, a full 15 out of 15 letters!!
I did not understand this one at first, but I think I have worked it out.
DISCRETION ADVISED:
This anagram refers to a gentleman with an unusual condition, a real astronomy fan. This person tends to experience an unusual arousal whenever certain periodic heavenly orbs (such as Haley's special fireball) appear in the skies.
Just as certain people experience pains in their joints when storms are coming, this man can tell when one of these fiery apparitions is approaching.
He refers to them as his...
"TUMIDNESS COMETS"!
Wow, another tough solve for unclefred, but one I HAD to do to find out the “insect resistant home feature”. As Owen pointed out it turned out to be a huge disappointment as a SCREENEDINPORCH would be no help at all to me. I spent most of the day patching the holes in the floor and painting over the patches in the exterior walls. The Hulett guy mentioned before he left that he’d left some white overfill on my pavers outside, and I told him not to worry about it. It was only today I saw it was quite a mess. Required scrapping followed by wire brushing followed by scrubbing to clean up the mess. As for the CW, 8d I thought of UGH, then YUK, but couldn’t think of how that would fit with 8a, 16a or 18a. Thought of BREATHE but it doesn’t fit and BREATH wouldn’t seem right. Finally INHALE and KEVLAR gave me ICK which meant it had to be a COALER. Thanx, Freddie for this tough Saturday brain-buster. I did manage to FIR in 43 minutes, but it was a real slog. HG your write-up was sparkling and fun. Thanx for all the work u put into it. Now....back to patching holes. I hope everyone has a good Memorial Day holiday.
Vidwan - I don't think you could offend anyone here even if you tried. I read your FLN and thought, "I get it [what you were saying re: neutrality] but Steve was fun 'cuz he called 'em balls and strikes." No need to fret; You and your (non political/religious/personal attacks [you've never done that]) opinions are more than welcome at The Corner.
Pat - thanks for the videos. The sounds of cicadas reminded me of my ute in IL. //we don't have 'em much in HOU.
OMK - Once again, I got a learning moment/had to LIU from your DR. #Thx.
In context, LOL! And congrats on the 15.
Today I harvested my first non-cherry tomatoes and a bell & banana pepper. Time for some dunky-dunk [floating salad w/ peppers, tomatoes, vinegar & olive oil, SALT & pepper. Throw in a cuke if you got 'em].
//It's called Dunky 'cuz you can take some folded bread and dunk it into the mix and slurp the flavored vinegar off the bread! Yummers - so better than SAVORY in the Summer.
Cheers, -T
I loved this puzzle. To me, just the right amount of difficulty. Plenty of write-overs, TANKER to COALER being one of them and PORT to PIER being another. ANTSIER went in, came out, and went in again, as did INHALE. Really scratched my head over PET MICE, but eventually "got" it. Answers that came immediately include LOONIES, STACKS, RICKS, PDF, and ANTENNA. A very satisfying 35 minutes.
MATEY always makes me think of what Inspector Morse's friend Chief Superintendent Strange often calls him.
Take care, mateys.
Thx for the recognition, Anonymous T.
Yes, I was proud of the FULL 15/15 anagram. WooHoo!
~ OMK
Vidwan: you are welcome & I'm glad you answered me.
Re. Baez baserunning. He's automatically out when he runs back to home. What a goat rodeo
Gary, talk about old school shaving. BTW, it's a soft C in Boston. Also, Billy Joe was followed by Ronstadt and it wasn't Blue Bayou.
Duh, DULY noted. Yep, PET MICE was last fill for FIR
I can't believe I remembered KAOS..
I finished this on Friday but the posts took awhile to read. I was curious to gauge the corners difficulty assessment. The key was putting it down and coming back.
No comments re. DENTATE??
One comment. It's a rare Saturday that's not much harder than the hardest weekday. I have an advantage in being able to start early. Pressure makes for difficulty. A Psych major should do a thesis on factors affecting solving. Similar to sports psychology.
WC
Fln, it looks like a good CASE was made for SYNtax and SYNonym . I still vote for the former but I'd love to see Rich opine.
WC
Pat:
You have my sympathy on the infestation of cicadas! This year they seem to have detoured from our region to yours. The last time they were here it was horrendous! Crunch, crunch everywhere I walked! I don't miss them. Of course, the hot weather has just barely started and they might yet make an appearance.
AnonT:
I so envy your plentiful harvest! The only thing I can harvest is rosemary. It's lush! But my ferns, oh, my! They are thriving. Too bad they are not edible. They even have tiny white blossoms.
Some of my former students worked at a KEVLAR factory in Mesa though I don't know if it's still there.
I don't recall who it was but in the past I knew someone whose favorite expression was, "Isn't that JUST DANDY."
How about "That's just ducky "
I dropped that one from my repertoire
Lucina @5:49, This too will pass. If my dog didn't feel obligated to eat each and every bug, it wouldn't be too bad.
-T Glad to give you a memory. They are LOUD!
DNF today in spite of several breaks to see if that would help. But no, the section from JUST DANDY (not!) down to HTS stayed blank. I struggled to get MANNERISMS and DONE TO A TEE, but much of the puzzle had clean fill and looked great. So your puzzle was a challenge, Freddie, but thanks anyway. And thanks, Husker Gary, for your help. It is always interesting to see what other people had trouble with and where I went wrong. And to think I spent much of the morning painting a SCREENED IN PORCH and missed getting IN PORCH! On to tomorrow!!!
On a culinary note, -T, I never heard of floating salad, but that's what I throw into a blender to make gazpacho. The bread goes in, too! Late summer farmers market tomatoes are destined for this!
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