Saturday Themeless by Matthew Sewell
Today's constructor is another in our long line of PhDs - Matt Sewell. He is also part of the Minnesota Crossword Cabal and teaches literature and film at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Here are Matt's comments:
Hello Gary,
Thanks for your note, and for the work you do on the LAT puzzle write-ups. If I recall correctly, this puzzle sprang from an experiment in grid shapes. I tend to like the look of grids with relatively few Across entries -- this grid has just 31 -- and a low number of 3-letter entries (here, 8). Hopefully that translates to solver enjoyment, but I'll leave that to your readers to decide. I appreciate the editing team's improvements to the clues; I wish I could take credit for 26 Down!
Matt
1. DIY creators of under-the-skin data storage devices: BIOHACKERS - Fascinating info. In this example, you see a device implanted under your skin that can store your medical data, chart your activities or perform procedures. The data can be read by a smartphone.
11. Home of the NCAA's Mountaineers: WVA.
14. Cap: UPPER LIMIT.
15. Leave behind: SHED.
15. Leave behind: SHED.
16. Fights: DOES BATTLE.
17. __-price sale: HALF - But it was marked up by 300% so ...
18. Loan app fig.: SSN.
19. Quick tennis match: ONE SET - If you want to get it over quickly, the first person to win 6 games by at least two games wins the SET and the match.
20. Adjective evoking past times: OLDE.
17. __-price sale: HALF - But it was marked up by 300% so ...
18. Loan app fig.: SSN.
19. Quick tennis match: ONE SET - If you want to get it over quickly, the first person to win 6 games by at least two games wins the SET and the match.
20. Adjective evoking past times: OLDE.
21. Tolkien creature: ORC - Actor Steven Ure under all this ORC makeup for a The Lord Of The Rings installment had to fight off a panic attack.
22. __ Beach: Fla. recreation spot: ST. PETE - The Tampa/ST PETE area is currently the home of the NHL Champion Lightning, the NFL Champion Buccaneers and the MLB Champion Rays. They now call themselves Champa Bay.
24. "Not right now": I'M BUSY.
27. Tree of Madagascar: BAOBAB - Today I learned about the BAOBAB (bāō bab) or Bottle tree. Each of the trees in this picture is at least 800 years old. More info
 |
| The Avenue Of The Boababs |
29. Bar order: NEAT - Our Tinman's "usual" - No ice!
30. Fast cash venues: PAWNSHOPS - Although this show was mostly staged, it was a fun watch. "Really, you have Hitler's actual toothbrush?" 😀
33. Musical exchange in many gospel songs: CALL AND RESPONSE - Six of the best minutes you'll spend today!
36. Departure notice: ALL ABOARD.
37. "Not that much": LESS.
38. Thinking of stealing, maybe: ON BASE.
39. Middle numbers in some measurements: WAISTS - Twiggy's measurements- Bust - 30", Waist- 23", Hips - 33"
41. Impassive: WOODEN.
43. Key to going back: ESC - Upper left key on your keyboard
44. Hindu royal: RANI - The wife of a Raja or Rana
45. Distributes online: SHARES - I used my FaceBook account to SHARE before and after pictures of the house of my youth that was finally being torn down (before it fell down) this month.
44. Hindu royal: RANI - The wife of a Raja or Rana
45. Distributes online: SHARES - I used my FaceBook account to SHARE before and after pictures of the house of my youth that was finally being torn down (before it fell down) this month.
49. Wellness center: SPA.
52. Goddess of Ellis Island?: ISIS - I got the fill here but struggled with an explanation. I wrote to our friends Yellowrocks and Lucina and they saw it as EllIS ISland. Thanks Kathy and Lucy! Meta Clues (self-referential) can hide in plain sight! Matt told me he will take the blame/credit for this cluing and that he was glad to see it got through.
55. Radio host John: TESH.
57. 11-Across is on it: EST - Yes, Morgantown, WVA is on Eastern Standard/Daylight Time
58. Worked for: REPORTED TO - In subbing, I worked for the school district but always REPORTED TO the secretary (administrative assistant?) who really runs the school anyway. BTW, sub wages have been raised to $150/day for next year
Down:
1. Spring sights: BUDS - A welcome sight here in the midwest
2. Zoom and Lyft had them in 2019: IPOS - If you purchased $10,000 of Zoom at its Initial Public Offering, it would be worth $18,000 today
3. Not taken: OPEN.
4. Chaps: HES - Men? Nope.
5. Leafy spots: ARBORS - The founder of ARBOR Day was J. Sterling Morton. His mansion is now a tourist stop in Nebraska City, NE and is replete with many "leafy spots" or ARBORS.
5. Leafy spots: ARBORS - The founder of ARBOR Day was J. Sterling Morton. His mansion is now a tourist stop in Nebraska City, NE and is replete with many "leafy spots" or ARBORS.
6. Writer who created the Ryanverse: CLANCY
7. Beach flier, often: KITE - ERNE? Nope.
8. Rescue squad VIPs: EMTS.
9. Heat up: RILE.
10. "Boss of the Plains" tops: STETSONS - $149.99
11. Sea creature fossil components: WHALEBONES - My former dentist had a wonderful collection of art on WHALEBONES which is called scrimshaw.
12. Word from Afrikaans for "field": VELDT - Also a sci-fi short story by Ray Bradbury
13. Charge that may be related to traffic: AD FEE - With such huge viewer numbers (traffic) The Super Bowl AD FEE is $5M/thirty seconds
15. One who's often patronizing: SHOPAHOLIC - Fun clue! Symptoms
21. Zany: OUTLANDISH.
23. Cooking meas.: TBSP.
24. Quechua speaker: INCA - (keh chuh wuh) A beautiful map of South American languages
25. Sit-down event, usually: MEAL.
26. Job not included in the original "Around the World in Eighty Days": BALLOONIST - but in the ads...
27. Dance class support: BARRE.
28. Super-impressed: AWED.
30. Kiss cam images, briefly: PDAS - Public Displays of Affection
30. Kiss cam images, briefly: PDAS - Public Displays of Affection
31. "Over here!": PSST.
32. Cong. period: SESSion
34. Caen cleric: ABBE.
32. Cong. period: SESSion
34. Caen cleric: ABBE.
35. Disappointing phone call result: NO ANSWER - They are not near the phone, their phone is turned off or they are blowing you off with caller ID.
39. Garden tool: WEEDER.
40. Go-ahead: ASSENT - After days of delay, Ike said, "Ok, let's go!" for June 6, 1944
41. Do novel work: WRITE - In an interview with Brian Lamb, I heard Shelby Foote say he wrote his massive three-volume The Civil War: A Narrative by hand using a dip pen
46. Sweet spot?: HIVE.
47. Have __: drink in moderation: A NIP - Abandoning A SIP gave me WINE DEALER
48. Go back over: REDO.
49. Arrived home evasively: SLID - The most famous steal of home in baseball history. Yogi Berra thought he had tagged Jackie Robinson out. What do you think?
48. Go back over: REDO.
49. Arrived home evasively: SLID - The most famous steal of home in baseball history. Yogi Berra thought he had tagged Jackie Robinson out. What do you think?
50. Shut (up): PENT - Sometimes it is hard to keep emotions PENT up
51. Ship that sailed from Iolcus: ARGO - Can you find Iolcus on the map?
54. Nail: ACE - I did ACE this puzzle by filling in all the correct letters but had to get help with the ISIS fill. 😔
40 comments:
FIWrong. A SIP instead of A NIP (I wondered what a WIsE DEALER sold), and IRIS (goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods) instead of ISIS (goddess of motherhood, magic, death, healing, and rebirth). I don't see what either has to do with Lady Liberty or Ellis Island. Did some reading up on the statue, and see an early concept for it was to be at the Suez Canal in Egypt, but even then ISIS wasn't involved. (I also didn't know about the shackles on the statue, either.)
[Aaagh! Just read the expo and see I was blind, blind, Blind! And I've been doing the USAToday puzzles recently, and they have a hidden word like this nearly every day!]
What an idiot I am, I am!
To not see the goddess in ELLIS ISLAND!
Not Liberty,
But there to see --
ISIS between the Ell and the land!
The ARGO was built in the shipyard of IOLCUS,
The Mediterranean was to be its locus.
Its carved oak WOODEN prow
Thru the water would plow,
And converse, and predict, and its foe cuss!
{A-, B+.}
I misplaced my newspaper copy so I solved on line. Good thing. OUTrageous/LANDISH and employedby/REPORTED to would've been messy w/o's.
As usual, completely blank, no hope. An hour and ten later: Congrats. Let's checkout Gary
I see Matt calls them write-ups too. Chuckle
I was pretty sure, eg. hoped, that I had WVA right. I was a college bball aficionado Circa 1970-85. Yep, latter is year of marriage.
Publix calls them BoGos - beware Buy 2 get #3 free. 1/3 markup=no bargain
I had Siesta(Key)/STPETE(Beach)
No. Ray's lost in WS, merely ALEast Champs. Still drawing flies as Montreal waits
NEAT/malt; glades/ARBORS. ABBE/pere
I see in addition to ON BASE, later Matt had SLID. Two canny baseball clues which no doubt perplexed 80% in here. As it did moi. Btw, OUT!
ISIS? I thought many Egyptian immigrants. Talk about canny: well done gals.
EST, groan. How about soleil direction to Pierre?
Connelly over CLANCY for me. Just read his latest
Shelby's German script looks like mine.
Liked them both, Owen
WC
Good morning!
This one took some sideways thinking, but at least there was no theme to miss. Nice. Look askance at GOES BATTLE. Oh, perhaps it's not BUGS. D'oh. Similar abasement at SIPS/NIPS further down. Giving myself extra credit, because I saw the hidden ISIS immediately. Thanx, Matthew and Husker.
BIOHACKERS: In the first movie of the Bourne franchise, a subcutaneous capsule contained the number of a Swiss bank account that the amnesiac Bourne didn't recall. Mayhem ensued.
Hello everyone. This one took me quite a while to get but I completed it. Thanks HG and Matthew Sewell for a great job. Just caught on to the Ellis Island answer, very good. Veldt is unknown to me. So many things I really enjoyed about this puzzle. Shopaholic, I became one because of home reno. You need a lot of new things. Oddly I knew baobab.Hope the weather is getting better for all in the SW and western states. I was very surprised to hear that Oregon is in a terrible heatwave. Have a great day everyone 😊
Well Matt, I like your "low number of 3-letter entries". Those usually end up as abbr. or Spanish fills when an English word won't work. But I hate it when 1A is a fill I've never heard of. I got BIOHACKERS after I changed MEN to HES and RISE to RILE. This BUD'S for you. That was the only unknown that I had to fill mainly with perps in order to ACE today's puzzle. Fast solve for a Saturday.
I had to take a WAG for the cross of BAOBAB and SHOPAHOLIC; it was either A or O and I really wasn't sure. I thought the Mountaineers were from WVUniversity but UD FEE didn't make sense.
Wilbur- I agree with your assessment of BOGO. I once meant buy one, get one FREE; now it's buy one get one 50% off. That's why women buy two pairs of shoes, thinking they got a bargain but really spend 50% more than they intended.
OPEN- Gary, referring to you cartoon, I did that earlier this week at a restaurant. One of the chairs at our table had something spilled on it and hadn't been wiped clean. I asked the people at another table if I could swap chairs with them.
Oh happy day, (oh happy day), a Saturday FIR in one sitting and one cup of coffee! Unheard of lately. A final proofread caught BUgS/BUDS (hi DO) and there were other WOs, but still....
Thanks for your helpful and entertaining write up, Husker Gary. I didn't understand ISIS until you explained. Thanks also to Matthew for the puzzle and comments. I had slow areas but must have generally been on your wavelength. CALL AND RESPONSE was an easy fill and helped speed me along.
Hope you all have a great weekend! ALL ABOARD!
Difficult puzzle to complete. Thank you Mr. Sewell for the intricate maze.
Thank you HG for a very good explanatory review, especially about ISIS.
I found the article on bio-hacking very interesting, but beyond my understanding.
Lucina, if you could, please send me a token email at Vidwan827@gmail.com. I wanted to give you some info, that might interest you, but I'm having problems, emailing you.
Have a nice day, all.
Thank you Matt for providing me with the opportunity to DO BATTLE with this challenging puzzle, which I almost FIR (too bad this isn't horseshoes!). And thanks Gary for the excellent explanations and illustrations. You are the ACE on our team.
Well I'm with OwenKl on A SIP at 47D and also didn't bother to ask myself "What the heck is a WISE DEALER?", thus an FIW.
However ...
1A BIO HACKERS was the last to fall. I was trying to start it with RF-ID, but it didn't fit. BUGS then BUDS, finally gave it away.
27A Knew of BAOBAB (from de Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince I think), but didn't know much about it. Thanks for the excellent link Gary exploring this highly useful tree. Given the dire climate situation in the American SW, in all seriousness, some entrepreneur might want to look into cultivating it there.
52A This had to be a meta-clue, but I didn't suss it. Very clever.
57A This perped, so I didn't really wonder about it. One of my favorite WBJC classical DJ's is from WVA, but I was sad to hear yesterday that he's moving North to Philly.
10D Thought that "Boss of the Plains" was a TV show, but eventually STETSONS emerged as the "tops" (which are often HATS).
15D SHOPAHOLIC. Not funny. CURSE you ONE-CLICK!
46D A SWEET GIF for a SWEET SPOT.
51D I wasn't able to find IOLCUS on the MAP, but a double-TAP and a GOOGLE enabled me to find it in Greece, North of Athens.
Cheers,
Bill
Just went back and watched "Oh Happy Day" Gary and discovered that Anthony Brown is from Baltimore! And it will be a happy day, as DW and I are getting together with my sisters and spouses to celebrate our dearly departed Mother's birthday, with a pot luck of all her favorite dishes. I'm bringing Shepherd's Pie.
Husker Gary: Nice write-up & links.
Yup! We do call this area Champa-Bay
Now the Tampa Bay Lightning are going for another Stanley Cup.
NEAT the only way to enjoy Scotch, Rum or Ouzo.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
Cheers!
Good morning everyone.
Good puzzle today. Not too hard. Got the SW - NE broad diagonal early. Finished up in the NW. Wanted Banyon before BAOBAB became clear.
VELDT - Came easily.
ARGO - From Husker's map, looks like they had a sojourn through the Danube Valley.
WRITE - I've also read that Shelby Foote would strive to WRITE 500 words / day.
BH and I are celebrating our 56th anniversary today. A special dinner out, tonight, to mark the occasion.
Congratulations on your 56th wedding anniversary!
Hi Y'all! Very interesting & fun puzzle, Matthew. Thanks. You are also a CHAMPION, Gary! "Oh Happy Day", brightened mine. Always a HAPPY DAY when my daughter brings the groceries in an hour.
Took several watchings but finally had to laugh at what happens to the beer on the kiss cam video.
NO ANSWER: how I treat unlisted cellphone calls.
Started slow with lots of white at the top. Gradually filled in a few letters. Kept me interested, trying to guess what attached to HACKERS, etc. BIO & WVA were the last to fill. Had red-letter finally.
Didn't realize Clancy wrote so many books I hadn't read. In his prime, I didn't live near a book store.
Happy 56th anniversary, Spitzboov & BH.
I had a happy day last night when some good friends from my former town dropped in to see me. They had rain on their wheat harvesting project so hopped in the car and came to the city to attend a funeral. The wife had been taking chemo for cancer last time I saw her & looked so poorly, I was concerned. This trip, she looked so much better, I rejoice: Oh Happy Day!
Good Saturday challenge with no unfair Natick crossings and some fun clues. Hand up for MEN before HES. Thanks for explaining the mysterious ISIS clue!
Here is a unique CALL AND RESPONSE event I recorded.
The lady in orange was celebrating her 75th birthday with this CALL AND RESPONSE dance called Ring Shout. I was the official videographer for the event and glad that she was happy with my work!
Good Morning:
I’ll begin by wishing Spitz and Betty a very Happy 56th Wedding anniversary and extend best wishes for many more. Have a wonderful night out!
I struggled mightily with this bear but by using all the P and P I possess, I finished w/o help in 1:05, twice my average Saturday time. I held onto Men, Erne and Nip far too long, but finally, finally saw the light and got my Tada. I found the cluing and some of the fill tricky, but, in the end, fair and logical. I felt like I was solving a Silkie but without the more generous Silkie segues into some toeholds. I have an ex-sister-in-law who is a shopaholic, in addition to several other questionable behaviors. I guess that’s why she is an ex SIL.
Thanks, Matthew, for a truly challenging but rewarding offering and thanks, Gary, for being such a dedicated Saturday Sherpa. Your expos add much joy to my morning. 😉
Have a great day.
***Rant to follow, feel free to skip***
Waseeley (I think it was) asked the other day how to keep track of a slew of complex passwords. I was going to recommend that he use LastPass password manager. But today, when I attempted to log in to the Barnacle via LastPass, LastPass asked me to verify the master password. OK, that's happened before, no problem. I entered the password and received a message that they had sent a verification email to me, and upon receipt I should enter the verification number. OK, that's happened before, no problem. Oops, problem. Email didn't arrive to my email app. Screen said if the email fails to arrive, try it again. Tried again. No joy. Screen said if email still fails to arrive, check with your email provider. OK, but I couldn't log in to the email provider's site, because the password is locked up in LastPass. No problem, I'll just go through the "forgot password" routine and reset my password. Got logged in, but there's no record of any email from LastPass.
I managed to find a screen where I could open a service ticket with LastPass. I did so, and immediately got a confirmation email from LastPass that they'd received my ticket, and that my business was very important to them, and that they'd try to respond with 72 hours. Meanwhile, I can't log in to any of my financial sites. I can't log in to any of my medical sites. I can't get any of my routine newsfeeds. Worst of all, I can't log into the NYT crossword site!
The confirmation email from LastPass listed my "incident number" and provided a link where I could check the status of my ticket or provide additional information. Decided I'd update my ticket and let them know that I received their ticket confirmation email, so why can't I receive their log-in confirmation emails. Guess what? Yup. Before I can update my ticket I have to log in to LastPass, and then I get that screen telling me they've sent a confirmation email, which I don't receive. Catch-22.
Ain't technology grand?
End of Rant.
Sorry, Sip not Nip.
D-O…thanks for the tale of woe, I was thinking of getting a PWM, and it would have been the highly rated Lastpass. Looks like I’m taking a flyer on that.
This was a deviously clued Saturday grid. The NE waited to fall and it took some work to do so.
Write-overs…ERNE/KITE, MEN/HES, WVU/WVA, MUMS/BUDS, YORE/OLDE, ASSERT/ASSENT, WINESELLER/WINEDEALER.
So I was happy to get the solve.
See you Monday.
DO, that is so frustrating. I sympathize. That happened tome with AOL so I dropped them. Were you able finally resolve it?
FIR on a Saturday. yay! I loved the punny fill. I was right on Grant's wavelength and sussed must of Grant's puns quickly.
OKL, ISIS is found in the spelling. Underline the IS in ELLIS and the IS in ISLAND and you will see ISIS.
This one took awhile mostly because the upper west took the longest to fill, but eventually got 'er done! Doh' moment was when I had WV but knew it was a university and since it wouldn't take U - wondered what other college initial would fit!
VELDT came quickly because growing up the KC zoo had a large open area for the African animals, which was quite innovative at the time, called The Veldt. As a kid I had no idea of the origins of the word.
Thanks HG and Matthew!
Our area had 6-10" of rain yesterday - went from droughts to flash floods - so wish we just had a nice soaking rain every week.....
Hola!
Thank you, Matthew Sewell and Gary! Today's puzzle was fun! I can't always say that on a Saturday. INCA started me on the primrose path then NEAT. Hello, Tinbeni!
I won't elaborate but step by step helped me ACE it. Hand up for A SIP before A NIP. No, WIsEDEALER made no sense and of course, being a SHOPAHOLIC I expected a white sale to be linens! Ha, ha.
VELDT gave me fits! I just could not get the final V! FIW! Yet I've read so much about South Africa and the Boers.
As I write this the WEEDER is being used by the landscapers who are here today.
I've never read a CLANCY novel. Oh, wait, I think I read one once and decided it's not to my taste.
Spitz and Betty, congratulations on your 56th anniversary! Lucky you! Have fun.
Today I'm going to a family fest. My ex-BIl, who has pancreatic cancer, is 79 and since he is the the father and grandfather of my nieces and grandnieces, they are celebrating. He wrote that he expects it to be his last birthday celebration. They all love board games so that is the planned activity. I'll take Scrabble.
Have a wonderful day, everyone!
YR, I'm mildly miffedd. You apparently didn't read my entire comment, nor my first l'ick. :-(
Very fair puzzle, with few names. Clancy was new to me. BIO HACKERS was the last to fill, although it makes perfect sense.
My typos above @12:04 are the result of saying, "I'm busy," and still trying to post "right now."
Sorry!
The leaves of the trees on the main street in our development used to overarch the road and make a shady arbor. So pleasant. Then they began shedding branches and limbs during storms so they had to be removed. I miss them.
OKL, Sorry, I did read your fine poems and there were many thank yous for the explanation HG posted. I thought someone was still asking about it. I had the wrong name.
Too tough for me. I finished after about five (or ten?) cheats.
I don't want to add to the moans and groans, so I'll just say this was an expected tough Saturday grid, after a challenging but eminently do-able Friday PZL.
Congrats to all (any) who finish w/o help, and sympathy to all the rest!
Have a great weekend!
~ OMK
_____________
DR: With only one diagonal, on the far side, and a total of three consonants, we're lucky to get any anagram (7 of 15) at all.
Let's just make do with...
"TEAWARE"...
and call it a day.
Like OKL, IM and Lucina, I had sIP. Unlike them, I didn't fix it (or WIsE SELLER.) I'm starting to cook more, and was surprised that so many recipes call for white or red wine. I'll have to visit Total Wine and pick some up, a task I would have found terrifying 3 or 4 years ago. Now it's no more tempting than having a carton of Marlboros in the closet.
When I was an engineer at Marshall U's PBS affiliate, we referred WVU as "University of South Pittsburgh." BTW, the 57A clue is wrong - they are on EDT this time of year. Small nit for a fine puzzle.
I love St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach. St. Petersburg Yacht Club is delightful, and is just down the street from the muni airport. Now if I only had a pilot's license. And an airplane.
D-O, I was thinking of switching from Dashlane, but after reading about your experiences I think I'll stay with them.
Congratulations to Spitz and your saintly DW on your 56th.
Wow, this puzzle is exceptionally clever. And had devious cluing! Little by little I got toeholds and footholds here and there, and after an hour and a half of very enjoyable mental exercise I solved the WHOLE thing without having to look anything up. I now have a sore arm from patting myself on the back. Bottom line: I had fun!
Hand up for needing Gary's explanation (which in turn needed explanation from Lucina and Yellowrocks) to understand ISIS.
Thanks to all of you for your comments, of which I read every word.
Good wishes to you all.
Spitz, Happy Anniversary, Navy! Who's the captain in your home port? :-)
Tin, I will also add Bourbon and Tequila (the good stuff) to that which is enjoyed NEAT 🥃🥃🥃
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW; I never let go of MEN in 4-down, nor SIP in 47-down. I thought maybe it was supposed to be BIO MARKERS for 1-across, but I knew Clancy was correct. BIO MACKERS made no sense, but I kept it. Along with DOEN BATTLE. Go figure! And while the term WINE DEALER is ok, it’s not one I use or hear very often
W/O’s: WVU/WVA; EST/SSN; AMAH/RANI
Despite not finishing it correctly, I did the puzzle in a fairly fast time for a Saturday. Some good downward fill: BALLOONIST SHOPAHOLIC WHALE BONES & OUTLANDISH
HA to Spitz and his BH
DO —> for the very reason you ranted about, I have never used a password manager; either on my PC or iPhone. I don’t trust them.
Thanks to all for the good wishes.
Husker @ 1638 - - You got that right.
Hi All!
After 45 min w/ only a handful of fill, I gave up and started woodworking w/ Eldest (we're building a book sewing frame - it will be similar to this).
Thanks for the puzzle Matthew - above my pay-grade (in a reasonable time).
Thanks for the expo HG. I see now it would have taken me a lot longer -- like forever :-)
{A, B+}
I'll take a spot (o' tea), OMK.
Happy 56th Anniversary Spitz & Betty!
D-O: Did you see my link to KeePass the other day? It's local to your box - no Cloudiness like LastPass.
PK - do you have an iPhone? Settings->Phone->Silence Unknown Callers. If a caller is not it my contacts, my phone doesn't even ring. It will note the call in Notifications and take a message if the caller leaves one. Greatest Thing Ever (next to friends dropping in; good to hear about yours).
Enjoyed reading everyone.
Cheer, -T
Happy 56th Anniversary Spitz & Betty!
WC
-T, at 45 minutes I was where you stopped. As Jayce said, box by box the grid fills.
I had a longer post but lost it when I hit preview
Happy Anniversary to Al and Betty. I hope you enjoyed your special meal as part of the celebration.
Odd that we had BALLOONIST today. I saw on the national news today that 4 or 5 died in Albuquerque as a hot air balloon plummeted an estimated 100 feet.
I knew of a wedded couple in Houston that were recreational parachuters. They were friends of co-worker friends. To paraphrase PVX, all was fine until it wasn't. His chute deployed. Hers didn't, and neither did the backup safety chute. Sad.
Haven't been here for a while. Been super busy, and I either don't finish the puzzles, or by the time I finish them, it's too late. I don't even get here to read the solutions or your comments!
Anyway, I did finish today's puzzle. Took me a long time, and I thought "wisedealer" looked just fine, so I had a great big FIW. For me to get to within one letter with a Saturday puzzle is a major achievement. (Likewise, I still have four blank squares in yesterday's puzzle, but that too was a good day for me.)
I'm going to try to get back here more often. Retirement is such a busy time!
Later....
Way too hard for me today,
Had to WAG/cheat my way thru it.
Never would have understood the Isis reference without the Blog explanation...
Happy anniversary SpitZboov,
I had a cake all picked out, but when I went to post
It loaded about 2000 characters. I hate when that happens.
Normally with the PC I just hit undo,
But I cannot find that opti9n with the iPad so had to hold the back button
For a half hour to get rid of it.
(It wasn't that great of a cake anyway...)
DesperOtto,
I had the same problem with not receiving email verifications.
I was in Florida at the time, and when I got home and connected
To my home WiFi, I could the the verificati9n email easily.
It has someth8ng to do with the home I'd location you used orig8nally
And if it doesn't match, no email...
My house closing date was missed because my buyer's smart phone did not recognize the bank's phone number. The smart phone flagged it as spam. This made endless red tape for me.
Happy anniversary Spitz and Betty.
LEOIII @8:17 PM. Good to hear from you today. You had me a bit worried. Today's puzzle was a toughie. I too FIW, but it was a lot of fun.
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Matthew and HuskerG.
This was a workout but I finished with two errors. CVA instead of WVA (this Canadian had no clue); this gave me Chaledones for 11D and messed up BAOBAB. Ah well, I figured out ISIS when it perped👍
Loved the baseball clues.
Tern before KITE, off the wall before OUTLANDISH, Raja before RANI.
Is PAWNSHOPS crossing SHOPAHOLIC not a major NoNo with the repeat SHOP?😮🙁
Yes Tin, this Maple Leaf fan now has to cheer for the Montreal Canadiens to be patriotic
Happy Anniversary Spitzboov and Betty.
Good evening all.
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