Themeless Saturday by Jamey Smith
From the last puzzle I blogged for Jamey on 3/6/21: I’m a native Texan and worked at the University of Texas at Austin, my alma mater, for many years. While there, I moonlighted as a freelance writer for local nonprofits. Now semi-retired, I can devote more time to my real passion: taking it easy. :-) A few years ago, in the mood for a new hobby, I blithely plunged into crossword construction. How hard can it be, I remember thinking. Well, dozens of humbling rejections later, it somehow continues to be an enjoyable and stimulating diversion. That’s been especially true this past year.
Here's Jamey's note about this puzzle:
Hello again, Gary, and everyone else!
As a constructor I’m happy when I can find room for a couple of evocative entries like DRAGON BOAT and DOO-WOP GROUP. (Even if they require a dab of crossword glue to hold them in place … lookin’ at you, APERCU.) Clue-wise, I’m in debt to Rich for bringing in more splashes of color throughout. I like what he did with ELEPHANT EARS, for one example.
By the way, to me elephant ears are ornamental plants with oversized heart-shaped leaves. But as the clue indicates, they’re also apparently a fairground treat akin to what we call funnel cakes in Texas. Let’s open it to the floor — what do you call these fried dough snacks where you live? (Besides “heart attack on a plate.”)
Jamey
Across:
1. Signs of a sale: RED TAGS.
8. "Gimme a sec ... ": HOLD IT.
14. "Yowza!": BOY OH BOY.
15. Brief outline: APERCU - Jamey calls this gluey fill but it's what we bloggers attempt to provide
16. One on a binge: CAROUSER.
17. Get back: REGAIN - Wars have caused Germany and France to lose and REGAIN Alsace-Lorraine several times
17. Get back: REGAIN - Wars have caused Germany and France to lose and REGAIN Alsace-Lorraine several times
18. Serves on a sailing vessel: CREWS - Sometimes those CREWS have to really lean into their work
19. Coach in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame: SABAN.
21. "Whaddya know": GEE.
22. "This goes no further ... ": OFF THE RECORD - A patriotic song and dance
25. Lifelong chum: OLD PAL.
28. Went with again, editorially: RERAN.
29. It drains the east side of the San Juan Mountains: RIO GRANDE.
32. In the box: AT BAT - Late in the game that box is just a 35. Obfuscate: BLUR (noun)
36. "Wolves of the Calla," vis-à-vis Stephen King's "The Dark Tower": PART V - It was PART V of "The Dark Tower" series
38. Soft drink choice: COLA.
39. Clog cousin: SABOT - This company simply calls this footwear a SABOT clog. Some say the word sabotage comes from when Luddites threw their SABOTS into new machinery they wanted to stop from functioning.
41. Radio City, for one: MUSIC HALL.
43. Soap star Susan: LUCCI - She played Erica Kane from 1971 to 2011. She had good genes and good doctors
45. Stickpin kin: TIE TAC.
46. Organ-shaped treats that David Foster Wallace dubbed "cinnamon toast from hell": ELEPHANT EARS - Not all that negative: "An ELEPHANT EAR is an album-sized expanse of oil-fried dough slathered with butter and cinnamon-sugar, sort of cinnamon toast from hell, really and truly shaped like an ear, surprisingly yummy, it turns out, and undeniably elephant-sized"— David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, 1997.50. :-D: LOL - Inventor of the emoticon
51. Outrage: ANGER.
52. Ante matter?: CHIPS - Poker chips that you must ANTE to play a hand
56. S.O.S alternative: BRILLO.
58. Confucian text, with "The": ANALECTS - Not on the tip of my tongue. All you'd wanna know
52. Ante matter?: CHIPS - Poker chips that you must ANTE to play a hand
56. S.O.S alternative: BRILLO.
58. Confucian text, with "The": ANALECTS - Not on the tip of my tongue. All you'd wanna know
61. Indefatigable: TIRELESS.
62. Scottish sprout: WEE LAD.
63. Put to rest: SETTLED - Not for some as you see below
Down:
1. Niagara constant: ROAR.
2. Thornfield Hall governess: EYRE.
3. The Del-Satins or the Shirelles: DOO WOP GROUP - Gotta love it!
4. Until now: THUS FAR.
5. Exerciser's target: ABS.
6. "Whither __ thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?": Kerouac: GOEST - A lovely essay on his book, On The Road
7. Red wine grape: SYRAH - Interchangeable names for wines from the same SYRAH grape
8. Zimbabwe's capital: HARARE - The currency is HARARE can be very volatile. Some places accept American dollars and some don't. Next week they might again
10. KFC selection: LEG - Harare (pop. 1.3M) has four very successful KFC's and in this ad peg their prices to American dollars
9. 1968 to now, in pro tennis: OPEN ERA - This was when the big tournaments started to allow pros to participate
11. Traditional Chinese racing craft with a namesake festival: DRAGON BOAT - A tradition that is over 2,000 yrs old. The boats are human powered and have DRAGON decorations.
12. Not so affable: ICIER.
13. Well-pitched?: TUNED - On my iPhone
14. Secret message letters: BCC.
20. Some tête toppers: BERETS - Ce soldat de la Légion étrangère française a un BÉRET vert sur la TÊTE. (This French Foreign Legion soldier has a green BERET on his head)
20. Some tête toppers: BERETS - Ce soldat de la Légion étrangère française a un BÉRET vert sur la TÊTE. (This French Foreign Legion soldier has a green BERET on his head)
23. To-do: FLAP.
24. Gets a good scolding: CATCHES HELL.
25. Regal regalia: ORBS
26. Mexican singer Downs: LILA - Her IMDB
27. Secret agent's onus: DOUBLE LIFE - Let's sing - "Secret agent man, secret agent man. They've given you a number and taken away your name."
30. T.S. Eliot's "The __ of Cats": NAMING - This poem became a musical number in Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Cats which was based on T.S. Eliot's Book Of Practical Cats.
27. Secret agent's onus: DOUBLE LIFE - Let's sing - "Secret agent man, secret agent man. They've given you a number and taken away your name."
30. T.S. Eliot's "The __ of Cats": NAMING - This poem became a musical number in Andrew Lloyd Weber's musical Cats which was based on T.S. Eliot's Book Of Practical Cats.
31. R&B group __ Hill: DRU - Google his lyrics if must. I can't/won't print them
33. Ristorante menu preposition: ALLA - Salmone ALLA Grilica - Well-seasoned Salmon on the grill
37. Résumé, briefly: VITA - We see it here often but usually as Curriculum VITA
40. Real name of superhero Black Panther: T'CHALLA.
42. Small round ornament: CIRCLET.
44. Probably didn't go up the river: CANOED - If Burt Reynolds and Ned Beatty wanted to go up the river, they'd have to paddle faster than the current. But they had bigger problems
ahead.
46. Arm-wrestling support: ELBOW - WAL (World Arm Wrestling) completion
47. TV producer Michaels: LORNE - SNL
48. Natural dairy sources: TEATS - Yup, I've been to many dairies.
49. Actor Hudson who played Winston Zeddemore in "Ghostbusters" films: ERNIE.
 |
| ERNIE, Harold, Bill, Dan |
53. Frozen treat brand: ICEE.
54. VA concern: PTSD - A problem that can be exacerbated around the Fourth Of July
55. Snake's sound: SSS.
57. Hip word in hip-hop handles: LIL - There's a bunch 'em and most of their lyrics are not printable in this venue either.
59. Forger's focus, maybe: ART - This firm in NYC is famous for making very high quality reproductions of art work but the owner must never represent it as an original. Why replicate?
DNF. When I gave up, the NE corner had some white cells. Which was not surprising. When I pressed the check-all, most of the rest of that corner turned red. Once cleared the dross, I was able to fill in the rest without further aid. And the other 85% of the puzzle I got right the first time.
ReplyDeleteType-overs (other than several misspellings):
as of yet < THUSFAR
rudER < ICIER
sEE < GEE
roBe < ORBS
COke < COLA
mayday < BRILLO
HOLD on < up < IT
Tar may seal a cracked parking lot,
Or seal a wooden ship from rot.
But WELL-PITCHED today
Went a different way,
To mean well-TUNED for a MUSIC slot!
THE NAMING OF CATS, per Eliot,
Takes careful attention to tittle and jot.
Hid from human sight
Is his DOUBLE LIFE,
Needing extra names that we know not!
{B+, A-.}
Learning moments: Coach Saban, grape Syrah, the Analects of Confucius,Wolves of the Calla Part V of Dark Tower, Lila Downs . . . active googling over here.
ReplyDeleteLotsa fun, good times!
Fun to find you here on my favorite blog. I have relatives nearby in Arboga and Stockhom. Grandparents were from Lillekirka in Orebro. I still cannot speak or understand Swedish. How do you manage!!!
DeleteWell, thump a bunch of Saturday puzzle. Managed to complete 13 fills before I just lost interest. All correct, per HG. But I am happy for the more accomplished puzzlers who need more of a challenge. On to the King Features CW and a couple of sudokus.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteAnd thus ends my short winning streak. Was working this one counter-clockwise and things were looking up. But d-o hung on to PRECIS (APERÇU) for way too long. Finally had to turn on red letters, and only the E remained. Eventually worked things out in that corner, but it's still a DNF. Thanx, Jamey and Husker.
DOUBLE LIFE: For the longest time I thought Johnny Rivers was singing, "Secret Asian Man."
CANOED: After all those years, Burt and Ned have both made it up the river.
This was too hard for me, but still a nice exercise. LILA DOWNS sounds like a wonderful and talented person who lived for a while in Minnesota; Confucian text, with "The": ANALECTS was a term I did not know/recall even though it has appeared in the LAT twice before. Also DRAGON BOAT while inferable from perps was not in my lexicon.
ReplyDeleteThe more interesting aspect of this solving experience is that for unknown reason, when I awakened, the song SECRET AGENT MAN was playing in my head. Then I came here and...
Thank you Gary and Jamey
BOY OH BOY, I almost FIR today. But I didn't know if Stephen King's book was a PART B or the fifth chapter of a book. I guessed wrong. A FIW. VITA for Resume an unknown.
ReplyDeleteBut I did correctly fill quite a few unheard of unknowns that I will never remember- SYRAH, ANAELECTS, LILA Downs, CIRCLET, ERNIE Hudson, DRU Hill, NAMING, T'CHALLA.
Had to change HOLD ON to IT and TABLE to ELBOW.
APERCU-seen it in earlier puzzles; that's about it.
LUCCI- a local girl and BOY OH BOY, those TEATS got bigger with age.
LOL for :-D- filled by perps; had no idea what it was about. Not into emoticons or emojis.
For the "up the river" clue I was thinking Sing Sing.
HARARE- I have a $50,000,000,000.00 bill from the same bank. Once inflation takes over it's hard to stop. Those idiots in DC need to stop the deficit spending or the USD will follow the Zimbabwe dollar to the toilet.
SwenglishMOM- STOG for you today
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteDespite a FIW, I enjoyed the solve. I was parsing Part V as something TV and had Pay TV and the rapper named Dyu seemed plausible, considering their penchant for esoteric names. Anyway, all of the other unknowns were filled by perps: Ernie, Analects, Harare, Tchalla, and Lila. My w/os were Toned/Tuned, Taming/Naming, and the aforementioned Pay TV/Part V. Some cute duos include: Saban/Sabot, Cola/Chips, ICEE/Icier, and Like/File.
Thanks, Jamey, for a fun, albeit incorrect, solve and thanks, HG, for another entertaining and informative commentary.
I just received a text from Shop Rite saying that the personal-sized (small) watermelon that I ordered was unavailable, would I like to substitute the regular-sized (large) one. Guess what my reply was! 🍉 👳
FLN
Thanks to Tracy and Kevin for stopping by the Corner.
Have a great day.
IM, at our supermarket they usually have "chunks" of watermelon as well as complete watermelons. The chunks always cost more.
ReplyDeleteSuper Saturday workout. Thanks for the fun, Jamey and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteMy CW was an inky mess , but I almost finished and almost FIWed. Does that count?
I had an empty square at the cross of PARTV and DRU. That R was a personal Natick and I was parsing incorrectly - looking for a TV.
Then I arrived here to discover I messed up the NE corner. I had HOLD on and Odier (thinking of Odious). I thought “well- pitched” referred to baseball and my pitcher was able to stay in the game for all nine innings, giving him a Niner. Oh, it was a musical term😮😁🎶
APERCU has been seen before, but the clue did not even seem to match HG’s definition.
My queen was wearing a Robe not holding ORBS. I had Fuss before FLAP. This Canadian took a long time to see RIO GRANDE, but OTOH I have heard the ROAR of Niagara often ( as recently as last weekend).
The unknown names eventually perped, thankfully.
22A- “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”
Busy day again. Read you all later.
Have a great day.
One bad square so FIW today, but still feel good about today's challenging puzzle. Had many of the same problems as earlier posters, but my downfall was having an I instead of A at the crossing of HARARE and SABAN. Thinking more about it might have caught the error as I proofread since it wouldn't have sounded right but.....
ReplyDeleteSo much white space as I started! BOY OH BOY! It was a good feeling as answers came along. Thanks, Jamey. And thanks to you, Husker Gary. Good work today on the review and the always enjoyable contact with the constructor.
Hope you all have a Super Special Saturday!
Hola!
ReplyDeleteWooHoo! My arm aches from patting myself on the back! I really thought this puzzle would be impossible to finish. P and P proved me wrong. LORNE Michaels started me and slowly, very slowly the bottom blossomed.
ANALECTS seemed wrong but all else around it fit. MUSIC HALL and TIE TAC seem so mundane but they loomed like a threat with all those blank squares.
I know nothing about Stephen King yet PART V just emerged. The same with DRU and TCHALLA. No idea about either one.
SABOT has long been a crossword regular so I liked seeing its return. And I guess we westerners can take a CSO at RIO GRANDE. And of course, T.S. Eliot is tops in my book so The NAMING of Cats is a welcome fill.
APERCU is fun to see! HARARE also emerged voluntarily.
BOY OH BOY OH BOY! I am so pleased with myself right now. Thank you, Jamey Smith for the challenge and thank you, Gary, for the nice narrative.
I'm not used to finishing so quickly on Saturday! Now what do I do?
Have a sensational Saturday, everyone! I'm OFF to water plants.
Nice puzzle and wonderful write-up as always by Gary.
ReplyDeleteFIR but the southwest hung me up for too long with "mayday" as the SOS alternative. Other than that, a slow steady solve.
Have a great day everyone.
JB2
Well, Saturdays are pretty impossible for me, but I still had a look at this one, and got MUSIC HALL, and that down SSS, and, like CanadianEh, put ROBE for that regal regalia, which turned out to be wrong. But still a fun start--so, many thanks, Jamey.
ReplyDeleteAnd always enjoy your commentary, Husker Gary.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
I just saw some national weather which showed some awful hail in Nebraska yesterday. Gary I hope it did not hit you or yours; the thought of softball sized iceballs falling from the sky may not be a hurricane but I do not want to be there when they fall.
ReplyDeleteI wish all protection from all the weather destruction out there
Meanwhile, the Seniors are playing much better today in Omaha. You watching in person Gary?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteTypical experience with a Saturday Themeless puzzle. I had to turn Red Letters on with only about a quarter of the words filled in and not all of them were correct.
PAR TV showed up because of perps, but it didn't make any sense to me what PARamont TV had to do with Stephan King.
Again from perps I had _ _ ALECTS so I confidently put in DI for DIALECTS. Wrong.
I wanted JUST BETWEEN US but it didn't fit so OFF THE RECORD ultimately perped in.
I didn't know APERCU but wrongly tried AGENDA.
In Central Pennsylvania we have Funnel Cake at the county fairs and art festivals. Usually they are just sprinkled with powdered sugar or strawberry compotes or other fruits, but rarely is there cinnamon involved. They are occasionally referred to as a heart attack waiting to happen. Still have to have one.
Oh well, time for lunch. Have a great day everyone.
Just looked at your pictures again, Husker Gary, and they are fantastic! Thank you again, for that treat.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is the one of those spectacular DRAGON BOATS! Fabulous!
My husband and I work the Saturday puzzle together. He makes a copy of the newspaper puzzle and I work the newspaper. We like paper. I so appreciate this column on days when we have an issue. The issue today was the cross of sabot and Tchalla. We consider that unfair because we have never heard of it��.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first post. Thank you to all the contributors. I’ve learned so much.
This was a slow and steady Saturday challenge - it always seems daunting when the NW is the last to fill. I didn't think the secret message letters of 14D were going to be the mundane BCC. I thought the DOO-WOP GROUP was going to be some kind of POP GROUP since I was filling the middle up - so had to get the P out to allow the W in.
ReplyDeleteI also thought you had to be retired to be in a Hall of Fame - so I kept trying to put BEAR or BRYANT in before giving up and perps headed me to SABAN.
Slightly slowed when I went from PART I to PART V since I'm not a King fan.
I love ELEPHANT EARS- though they are huge and decadent- thanks HG for explaining and pictures, since they aren't funnel cakes. We can even get them at the grocery store bakery.
Total unknown was ANALECTS - though surprised I haven't seen them more in crosswords with all the common letters- probably too long for frequent fill!
Thanks Gary and Jamey!
Just finished watching Ashleigh Barty win the women's Wimbledon final - an Aussie with indigenous roots - first to win for Australia in 50 years since Evonne Goolagong!
BOY OH BOY..if I continued to make changes, my pen would have run out and as it was, the NW corner had so many inkover errors that I could hardly read what I wrote. Although God intended for CWs to be done on paper with a writing tool (it's in the bible) there's definitely an advantage for those of you who can digitally delete distracting errors. Needless to say ...a
ReplyDeletebig fat DNF!!☹
Had Niagara "flow" which is wrong as the falls can freeze over but that would mean the ROAR would stop too, right?🤔... so the "F" gave me "feeTAG... but nothing worked with the Shirelles I was convinced was galPOPGROUP . At various times I had and changed swabs (CREWS), AttahBOY
NE: Je n'ais pas PERÇU APERÇU (I did not perceive), wanted a LrG soda from KFC. HOLDon left ICIER AND TUNEDIN incomplete. wanted to try no hit for "well-pitched"
Once again fell for the SOS/mayday trap but corrected it..also almost filled "bestie" for OLDPAL.🙄
No excuse that I'm doing the puzzle during breaks at work, I'm off today...concentrating so intensely on the back deck that at one point a squirrel thought I was a prop and walked over my foot!🐿
Adding insult to injury...😊
George Jetson's auto....TIRELESS
The victrola won't work if the needle is ______ OFFTHERECORD.
Colonic shock procedures...ANALECTS.
Cockney Garage.....CAROUSER
Have a great weekend. no more! ⛈☔
ReplyDeleteThis Saturday slog did not fill easily at all. Wow, what a toughie.
Write-overs…HOLDIT/HOLDON, HUH/GEE, FETE/FLAP, HIST/VITA, TABLE/ELBOW, COINS/CHIPS, EDYS/ICEE.
And that was with me leaving stuff blank for crosses.
Have a great weekend, although as a retiree I seldom go anywhere on the WE, that’s when the working folks are out running around.
See you Monday.
Big DNF. Struggled at the start, then read all the clues and could see I’d spend an hour and then give up, so just threw in the towel early. Reading HG’s excellent write-up I see words I don’t know: APERCU, ANALECTS I would have had to fill via perps, and there were too few “gimme” clues in the perps, so…..gave up. A fine CW JS, but just too difficult for me.
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-Thanks for the inquiry, Lemon, there are any number of sites to show how the wind and hail did take a toll across the state especially in Omaha but not here. We simply got a welcome 2” of rain.
-The dealer where I have bought cars for 50 years got incredible hail damage a few years ago and so he is constructing huge metal roofs over half the vehicles at his dealerships to prevent that from happening again. He said the savings in insurance premiums alone will pay for the process quickly.
-The Senior Open is being played at the Omaha Country Club today but attendance is really limited. I attended one live event and found it to be very unsatisfying when you can’t see everything that is going on. I can be impressed with 300+ yard drives just so long without knowing how the rest of the field is doing. Jim Furyk was leading the last I saw.
-Welcome, Joy! We look forward to seeing you again. I’m a paper and pencil person too!
This one was absolutely unsolvable . . . until it wasn't. We got a toe-hold in the SW and then just kept plugging away. APERCU bubbled up through the tar from who-knows-where. Valerie got BOY OH BOY and OFF THE RECORD. We ended up with a FIR while still wondering what the heck PAR TV meant. Thanks for enlightenment there, H.G. as the only Stephen King I ever read was The Shining which, by coincidence, I read while staying at an old ski lodge high up in mountains.
ReplyDeleteRay-O
ReplyDeleteIt might be worth your while (and sanity) to invest in a white-out pen for those occasional times when you make an error. I love mine! Staples has them though I suppose you could order on line.
Joy
Welcome to the Corner! I think you'll like it here.
I could recall DOO WOP GROUP only because PBS features many of those on its fundraising programs about once or maybe twice a year.
Thank you Jamey - I really liked this puzzle despite a DNF. I finished it fast for a Saturday, until the unavoidable return to the nagging NATICK* in the NE at 9D and 19A. The puzzle had some great FILL and Gary's excellent review helped filled in some blanks in my crosswordese, e.g. "SABAN" now inextricably linked in my mind to the crosswordese "BAMA" (the "CRIMSON TIDE", right?)
ReplyDeleteFAV FILL was "The ANALECTS" at 58A, which I was able to dredge up from the depths of my subconscious. Maybe it's because I'm more a TAOIST than a CONFUCIAN.
15A When I saw the finished grid, I recognized APERÇU as the past tense of French verb APERÇEVOIR ("To Perceive") but DNK its definition for "Brief outline". My AGENDA simply wouldn't perp.
36A Perped what I WRONGLY parsed as PAR TV, which I later confirmed as Paramount's streaming service.
39A SABOTAGE of computer systems is much in the news these days. And LUDDITES are still around, but usually connote those of us critical of modern technology's tendency to create more problems than it solves: e.g. RANSOMWARE.
43A Looks like the post-operative LUCCI on the right might have been hit by one of those fast moving SANDSTORMS, a topic of much discussion on the Corner yesterday.
46A AKA "Heart attacks on a cinnamon roll". DNK David Foster Wallace, but he was a apparently a talented writer and English professor (not necessarily the same thing), who died too young ... as did ...
40D ... the ACTOR who played the CHARACTER T'CHALLA in the movie BLACK PANTHER: CHADWICK BOSEMAN
50A The term EMOTICON wasn't really coined until AFTER the widespread availability of GUIs, e.g. the UI for MS Windows, introduced in 1985. In the dark ages of computing everything was done with text, sort like we make our comments here. The first human-to-human communications apps were mainframe/mini-based email systems and it was quickly realized that a terse means for expressing "I'm only pulling your leg" or LOL, ROTFL, or LMAO was needed to prevent misunderstandings. I remember proposing something I called "ASCOE" ("ASCII Standard for the Communication of Emotions"), but it didn't go viral. In 1982 Professor Fahlman beat me to it. :-)
47D We saw LORNE just this past Thursday. What would the Crossword World do without SNL?
Cheers,
Bill
*I define a NATICK as two intersecting FILLS that I can't fill. YMMV.
Joy @11:46 AM Nice of you to join us. You'll love it here.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear of another PENCIL PUSHER among a forest of TATTOO ARTISTS (INKERS?) & WHITE OUTERS. I do my puzzles with my trusty TORNADO CROSSWORD PUZZLE PENCIL. Perfect lead softness for any kind of paper, and most importantly for this human, a great ERASER.
Speaking of EMOTICONS, I notice that some commenters ARE able to embed them. When I try to embed them from my cell phone, they get munged. Is there some widget I'm missing that enables their entry into a TEXT BOX on the BLOGGER COMMENTS section (i.e. ici!)
ReplyDeleteBill
p.s. If someone spills the beans, I promise not to go overboard with them. Maybe Spitz can help. :-)
Was, my first email account was on BBN's Telenet. With great effort, intercompany Telemails could be exchanged. I remember that part of my wife's address was "Country=USA, Domain=Cowboy1." One nice feature of Telenet was that until a recipient opened the Telemail, you could UNSEND it and it was as if it had never been sent. The downside was that there were per-minute connection charges, so everyone used client software that would send and retrieve a few times per day.
ReplyDeleteWe liked it so much we bought the company. We had a proud tradition of making big investments in markets that would soon be obsolete. We cornered the markets in flashcubes, pagers, and airplane telephones for example.
I now see that WEELAD is not some obscure Scottish version of Brussels Sprouts. But cross of unknowns LILI, SABOT, TCHALLA did me in. Yes, we have seen SABOT before and I will try to associate it with SABOTAGE. I did manage to figure out that other cluster involving unknowns ERNIE, ANALECTS, CIRCLET. And the unknown cluster involving SYRAH, SABAN, OPEN ERA.
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary Thank you for the Emoticon and ANALECTS learning moments. And, wow. Famous Flat Earth People. Thanks.
Here is my video of us experiencing the ROAR of NIAGARA from Canada two years ago.
Yesterday I took the bus and then walked a mile to get food for my tree frogs. For the first time ever they did not get their shipment. The pain was pretty bad, but it was worse coming back with nothing.
Today will be my first time driving. To music rehearsal. Our director very kindly offered to give me a ride. But she has a new baby and I think it will be good for me to do this.
Irish Miss, PK, ATLGranny, Jinx, Vidwan, Picard, CanadianEh Thank you for the good wishes! The pain is still pretty awful, but the biker shorts are definitely helping!
Lucina Perhaps you can cast your magic spell my way at Noon on Sunday?
Picard - Looks like Tourist Season Flows; 100000 cfs total. ~10% on the American Falls, the rest of it on the Horseshoe Falls. The International Border is a few feet this side of Goat Island in your video. During non-tourist hours, the total flow reduces to not less than 50000cfs, but the crestline remains unbroken (by Treaty.)
ReplyDeleteWaseeley @1252, I'm not up on the emotican stuff. Did you mean to refer to someone else?
DO @ 9:22 ~ All of the local markets have halves, quarters, cubes, slices, etc. of watermelon and I normally buy a couple of packages of either the slices or the cubes. However, unfortunately, online ordering doesn’t have those options; you can only order the whole melon. I thought the small one would be a safe choice but no way would I ever buy a large one again.
ReplyDeleteJoy @ 11:46 ~ I hope you’ll join our Corner Community! Welcome.
Picard @1:16 ~ Glad you’re up and about, but be careful.
Musings 2
ReplyDelete-I just got an email with this text: Today's LA Times crossword puzzle: Wouldn't you agree that the Shirelles really were not a doo-wop group? The girl groups of the early 60s had left doo-wop behind for a more streamlined melodic sound.
-I agree but Google associates The Shirelles with Doo Wop, constructor Jamey is really smart and I love that song, so…
-We just had another cloudburst, our rain gauge only goes to 5” and it is nearly full.
Fun puzzle, fun write-up...thanks to both gentlemen! I love the word APERCU,for the record. And here in Massachusetts we call those ELEPHANT EARS "fried dough." :-)
ReplyDeleteSpitz @ 1:41 PM No, I meant you, but not for how to use emoticons. I just figured that if I did go OVERBOARD with them, you'd know what to do. :-) Actually I guess that's an emoticon for an anchor - maybe I should have used this one:----O
ReplyDeleteWay above my pay grade. Got about 70% of it but 30% of it stumped me completely. Even looking things up often didn't help. Threw in the towel. A good puzzle; just too hard for me.
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! Thanks, Jamey, for a challenge. Great expo as usual, thanks, Gary.
ReplyDeleteAfter a troubled night because of rumbly grumbly thunder storms for several hours, I was not expecting to encounter all these unknowns in the puzzle and come out in a good mood. But I did. I kept coming up with enough surprising things right to overlook the hard stuff.
Got CHIPS right away. Yay me!
Shocked to see CATCHES HELL which was my first thought, but didn't expect to be right.
Udders B4 TEATS.
ELEPHANT EARS to eat? Never heard of them. I live such a deprived life.
Hand up for DNK: ANALECTS, SYRAH, HARARE, TCHALLA, APERCU, LILA & book by Stephen King. Probably some others I forgot to write down.
IM: you are smart to stay away from those hostile big bully watermelons. Recovery takes so long.
Very brutal Saturday puzzle. I gave up with the clue for D-49. I had absolutely no idea what A-36 was about.
ReplyDeleteSpitzboov, are you saying that the flow over Niagara is controlled? I haven’t heard that before, and it sounds daunting.
From that map, it appears to my untrained eye that the Rio Grande drains the west side of the mountains.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CanadianEh that the clue for APERCU did not even seem to match HG’s definition.
The emoticon in the picture in Gary's write-up is :-), not :-D.
At least I knew ANALECTS.
Again I say, it was a good puzzle. I'm not complaining.
Jayce, I believe the Rio Grand does drain the east slope of the Rockies and flows east around Texas into the Gulf of Mexico. The Colorado River drains the west slope and flows west to the Bay of California between the Mexican mainland & Baja California.
ReplyDeleteAlice - Very much so. On an annual basis, about 65% of the natural river flow is diverted for hydroelectric power diversion. Roughly 35% of the natural flow goes over the Falls. The Niagara Treaty of 1950 governs these operations.
ReplyDeleteTwo boxes. I consider that a miracle even though any Saturday solve is a miracle for the likes of me. me I debated with Mr S on Ti/oNED. The U wouldve been obvious if I'd continued. But… bITA seemed as good as anything else for resume
ReplyDeleteI electronically inked Shula/SABAN. Online there's no Wite-outs.
Maybe those Luddites were right. I see the flat earth society is still going strong
I actually was able to grok LUCCI. If there was a novel called General Hospital it'd be 5000 pages long. BTW, after a slow start I'm about to begin Part C of Anna K. The truth is out, apres ca, le deluge
CHIPS gets a big W for cleverness. I tried to fit ChaoS
NtSof TAMING of Cats. No such thing, eh. I remember the cat who loved me, speaking of secret agents
NtSof TaBle where the ELBOW Pads sit
I brought my PTSD into the MarinesCorps where it was rudely awakened from that dormant state
Owen, per usual Rachet up those grades. I'll just award them W's
I too thought baseball and no-nos. The regulars are making me feel better. 98% is pretty good. And..
OK, the curriculum VITA(e?).
Picard, been there teice:1952,1986(honeymoon). I remember the black raincoats and the Mist which I believe is the name of that boat
WC
Thank you, PK.
ReplyDeleteTough, tough, TOUGH PZL from that cocky Mr. Smith!
ReplyDeleteEZ enough to smile when you've FINISHED with the thing.
Today's DNFs way outnumbered the FIRs. I managed about a third of it before turning to cheats.
I admit to enjoying a few things on my way, like ELEPHANT EARS. That was fun.
Also liked filling HARARE. I think one of the happiest changes of post-colonial Africa was the morphing of Rhodesia into ZIMBABWE. Just on phonetic grounds.
Among the nations of the world, new or old, "Zimbabwe" is the most fun to SAY!
Rhodesia, named for Cecil Rhodes a major diamond miner, imperialist, and white supremacist, HAD to be changed to fit into a newly woke world.
Col. Rhodes also endowed the famous Rhodes Scholarships. Arguably these grants to attend Oxford University are the most distinguished graduate fellowships in the world.
How long, one wonders, before the Rhodes Scholarship will be changed to some less provocative name?
~ OMK
All I can say about today's is:
ReplyDelete¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bob @5:05 PM "Rolling on the Floor Laughing?"; "Drowning in Soup?". There used to be scores of ASCII "emoticons".
ReplyDelete(=ʘᆽʘ=)∫
ReplyDeleteWilbur C:
ReplyDeleteDid you really have TAMING of cats? If so you have an error, it's NAMING of cats.
Ray-O@11:53
If it's in the Bible to use ink and paper (which I do because I received the heavenly message) I want to know where: chapter and verse please! Or is that the Bible according to Blessed St. Ray of the Crossword Corner?
Lucina..After he loaded the Ark Noah asked how he would pass the time for 40 days because the rains had knocked out his DIRECT TV and Internet. So he was given tablets with crosswords and a stylus.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously I enjoy using a pen and ink with the newspaper laid out on the table on the deck 😊 or at work getting away from computers, screens,and typing during needed breaks.
St. Raphael 😇
My usual slog toward the finish line for a Saturday. Finally labeled this a DNF after two hours of pulling out my hair (to no avail), I caved and admitted defeat. Seems that lots of solvers joined me in caving. Question: When a large number of regular solvers here cave and peek -or even worse, DNF - does that mean the regulars had an "off week" or that the constructor went off on their own little tangent into la-la land?? I'd be interested in some replies!!
ReplyDeleteIt took a bit of searching, but I finally found this on crosswords. I think it's an admonishment to use pencil and not ink.
ReplyDeleteI Corinthians 1:17 [Trust] not with wisdom of words, lest the cross should be made of none effect.
:27 But [the Creator] hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
Lucina, I fixed taming but still had those two FIW squares. I had to give the "cat who loved me" to my roommate who sincerely loved the cat.
ReplyDeleteUnknown, good question. The Wilbur rules says "If he can solve it it's solvable ". I've learned that unsolvable xwords miraculously fill in the second hour(or 3rd). Is there a neurologist in the house? Granted I had those two bad squares *
3
Quite an illustrious group that joined me albeit with different squares. To support unknown the P&P seemed obscure like the Panther character
Owen, :-D*2
WC
Of course, pen and paper! Is there any other way? Yes, actually, when I was a newbie at solving I used pencil because I erred so much. With time, practice and some knowledge it becomes easier. It also helps to have the vocabulary of a thesaurus!
ReplyDeleteRay-O:
I liked your Noah explanation.
Speaking of tablets. Recently I bought my youngest granddaughter a sketching tablet because she likes to draw. When I gave it it her and said "Here is a tablet for you." She said, "This isn't a tablet." Her dad then explained the difference. Generation gap????
82. "__ body meet ... ": IF A. Unfamiliar with this reference.
ReplyDeleteIt's not from a Three Stooges movie. It's the opening line of a famous poem by Robert Burns (who, incidentally, was a poet laureate of Freemasonry). He wrote it in a Scottish dialect, so the original line read "Gin a body meet a body, comin thro' the rye". It's a euphemistic poem about a tryst in a dew-soaked grain field. It's been set to music a couple times, so there are several YouTube videos of it, and various English versions of it.