Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin
Two weeks in a row with a Canadian constructor. Last week it was Craig Stowe and today it is Brian Paquin, who lives on the north shores of Lake Ontario in Kingston, Ontario. Here are Brian's very interesting comments about this puzzle:
Hi Gary,
Nice to hear from you again! I hope that all is well.
I was kind of sloppy with this puzzle, and only 15 of my clues survived unchanged (some others were close).
I might have fallen into the trap of thinking that since a lot of clues are changed anyway, I wouldn't put so much effort into them. Of course, that results in more clues being changed.
Also, I had submitted 10D as ALOT, but that duplicates 29D LOTSIZE. Missed that one!On the subject of duplication: the revised clue for 1A BOP is "Jazz genre". I would have thought that that would duplicate the JAZZ part of 43A. That's OK with me though: I think that concerns about duplication are overdone to the point of obsession.
I often include a lot of proper names, but there are 6 more of them than I submitted. For example, I clued 4A BEAKER as a thing, and 26A NOR as a word. And a reworking of the S/E corner added some. I think that Rich must be an even bigger fan of proper names than I am, which is also OK with me. I hope that it sits well with solvers!
Brian
1. Jazz genre: BOP - My grandson Parker's namesake
4. Muppet assistant of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew: BEAKER - Not the lab glassware Brian submitted
10. About: AS TO.
14. Award-winning sportswriter Berkow: IRA
15. Words often following "head over heels": IN LOVE - I'll bet you can find it below:
16. Pub order: BEER.
17. Negroni component: GIN.
18. Asian island capital: TAIPEI - Every red symbol below is a McDonalds in Taipei (Population 2.6M)
19. Bowie's bride: IMAN - Singer David Bowie and his model wife IMAN. My first thought was of the veteran of The Alamo Jim Bowie who was married to Ursula Maria de Veramendi. Yeah, I knew that! 😁
20. Has another look at: RECHECKS - What we bloggers do over and over
22. Spot: NOTICE, I've heard a lot of reasons why the lookouts didn't NOTICE the 28. Arctic hazards: BERGS - The most famous BERG in history
24. Too quickly: IN HASTE.
25. Cone producer: FIR.
26. Rus. neighbor: NOR.
27. Early muscle cars: GTO'S - Pontiac's entry into this genre
26. Rus. neighbor: NOR.
27. Early muscle cars: GTO'S - Pontiac's entry into this genre
28. Indolent: BONE-LAZY - Or LAZY BONES or BONE-IDLE
30. One-time renown: FORMER GLORY - Norma Desmond's renown was far behind her and there would be no more 57. Movie parts: SCENES with close-ups fo Mr. DeMille
34. Some street performers: MIME ARTISTS - or not
35. Causes of color blindness: MUTANT GENES - Color blindness in men is around 8% and in women is around .4%
36. Unpleasant digs: POTSHOTS - Don Rickles made a living doing these but would not be able to today
37. "I hate the Moor" speaker: IAGO
41. Balderdash: ROT.
42. Bygone greeting: AVE.
43. Top 10 Carole King song of 1974: JAZZMAN - Featuring the instrument Charlie Parker was famous for
46. Onetime Texas home of both Bushes: ODESSA.
48. Creek traveler: CANOEIST.
49. Catalan surrealist: MIRO - The obvious name for this work is El Sol (The Sun)
50. Neckwear accessory: TIE PIN.
52. Printer resolution spec.: DPI.
54. Protect, as a museum exhibit: ENCASE - Buzz, Michael and Neil peruse an ENCASED Moon Rock they brought back on Apollo 11
55. Frodo's sidekick: SAM.
56. Banks on a runway: TYRA.
Down:
1. Many a semi: BIG RIG - Driven by concrete cowboys
2. Acquaint: ORIENT.
3. Mexican Villa: PANCHO - Blackjack Pershing chased PANCHO until WWI called him away
4. Quick meals: BITES.
5. Legally establish: ENACT.
6. Similar: ALIKE.
7. "Keystone" klutzes: KOPS.
9. Bringing under control: REINING IN - Government spending?
10. -ish: A BIT.
11. Advanced study groups: SEMINARS.
12. Pot cover: TEA COZY - Not a cooking pot or a big belly
13. Cantankerous: ORNERY.
21. Wigs out: HAS FITS.
23. "... and you know what happens if you don't!": OR ELSE.
25. Score direction: FORTE.
29. Home buyer's concern: LOT SIZE.
32. Overhauls: RENOVATES.
33. Lacking in luster: MATTE.
34. One speaking indistinctly: MUTTERER - One of my first bosses was a MUTTERER and delighted in yelling at us kids when we asked him to repeat what he said
35. How teens often act up: MOODILY - I have been 38. In the thick of: AMIDST teens for over 50 years and have seen this only occasionally. 😆
36. Cue: PROMPT - Antony's cue
39. One of the Magi: GASPAR - "We really don’t know the names of the Magi because the Bible doesn’t tell us. In fact, the Bible is silent on how many wise men visited Jesus. However, tradition has it that the three wise men who came to seek and honor the infant Jesus were named GASPAR (or Caspar or Jaspar), Balthasar, and Melchior." You're welcome.
40. Flight board status: ON TIME.
43. Kyoto's country: JAPAN - In 1868 the capital of JAPAN was moved from Kyoto to Edo (which was renamed Tokyo)
44. Sambuca flavoring: ANISE Sambuca is a colourless liqueur made from anise and has its origin in Italy. The liqueur contains distillates of green anise and star anise. Sambuca has high sugar content (350 g/litre) and an alcohol content of 38 percent by volume
45. Partitions: ZONES - We live in ZONE 5 which limits plants we can use
47. Ice cream treat: SODA.
48. "Finally" singer Peniston: CECE.
48. "Finally" singer Peniston: CECE.
51. Co. follower, perhaps: INC.
Thanks to Rich Norris for running the puzzle, and Gary for another one of his amazing commentaries. As Gary points out, 39D can be spelled GASPAR, CASPAR or JASPAR. That's quite a set of choices for someone who is unnamed in the Bible. And possibly a challenge for someone solving a crossword. As for me, I didn't know any of those names: I submitted GASHES in that spot, with AMIGOS in 38D.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteWas going great, except for a slowdown in the northeast. With OR SO for "About" and UKR for "Rus. neighbor," d-o floundered about. A major Wite-Out application provided some options and things finally came together. Thanx for stopping by, Brian, and for your always elucidating expo, Husker.
Color-Blind: Guilty. It was mom's fault. Mothers bestow color-blindness on their sons, and their daughters are carriers.
"Kyoto's country": Was a beautiful city when we visited. Tokyo, as it appeared on TV these past weeks, is a far different city than I remember. Do you suppose my 50-year-old memories are faulty?
MIRO: When I worked in downtown Houston I'd walk past a Miro creation every day in front of what was then called the Texas Commerce Bank Building.
A relatively quick FIR today, with a little help from our crossword curious visitor. What fun, Brian! Many thanks for the interesting puzzle and information about it. It's always a plus on Saturday to have constructor interviews. Thanks, Husker Gary for facilitating that and for explaining the puzzle so well.
ReplyDeleteMOs were ska/BOP, HAS a fit/HAS FITS, and MUmmbler/MUTTERER (I know spelling is wrong but it's harder to see going down than across.) All fixed by perps and my final proofread caught a careless square just in time to have a FIR. Glad I took the time to RECHECK.
Hope you all enjoy your Saturday!
42D, Pot cover: my first thought was incense, then Lysol or Fabreze. But no, nowadays many people don't cover their pot anymore.
ReplyDeleteSomebody was taking POT SHOTS at the people with the MUTANT GENES, aka MIME ARTISTS, and the Keystone KOPS were on the way to solve this dunnit. Lots of possibilities today. IRA, IMAN, TYRA, SAM, MIRO, IAGO, CECE, GASPAR, TRE. IN HASTE they go the wrong 'perp'- it was the CANOEIST.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all. This insomniac was up early and solved the puzzle at 2a.m. with only one change- RANCHO to PANCHO. BOR didn't look like a type of jazz that Carole's JAZZMAN would play. I was thinking of a villa, as in Rancho Santa Fe, not PANCHO Villa.
Brian & Rich- 1A needed a better clue. CASPAR- he's The Friendly Ghost.
Indolent- BONE LAZY was my last fill; never heard of that term, just LAZY BONE-S.
Never heard of BEAKER but with Dr. Bunsen in the clue it was an easy fill.
IRA, CECE, IMAN, GIN, GASPAR- filled by perps & guessing.
MUTTERER- I wanted mumbler but it wouldn't fit.
Tony Express- I laughed at your comment but with all the stoned drivers these days it's no wonder that traffic fatalities are way up even though miles driven is way down.
HG, it's norMa Desmond, not Nora
ReplyDeleteTook a while before I saw "digs" as insults, not a residence.
My Enchroma sunglasses correct for my colorblindness, but because of my prescription I can't get them for indoors. Maybe after my cataract surgery, in case I ever go to an art museum.
This was a miracle FIR, I must have had a dozen white squares when I restarted this morning. TEACOZY broke the ice(I'd had BERG and MIME but couldn't fit them). Hah, those figs aren't holes, ouch that V8 can hurts. Let's get back to Gary. BTW, I should have guessed the OMAHAS CSO
ReplyDeleteSo NORway abuts Russia? I tried to fit Ukr.
Another V8, AVE. RENOVATES was 8:25 EDT. Only IMAN of the P&Ps was strange
Triple duh, not the villa(ge) but the guy. All those names were perps so I didn't notice there were so many
This started so easy I didn't know it was a Saturday. Then the Wall.
WC
Very easy Saturday puzzle, meaning that even JINX was able to FIR (which was also 25A fill). Erased reclicks for RECHECKS, loses it for HAS FITS, recreates for RENOVATES, and stutterer for MUTTERER. DNK BEAKER, IRA, SAM, BONE LAZY, TRE, CECE, or what negroni is. Didn't really know were the Bushes lived, but Midland wouldn't fit so I figured it had to be ODESSA. Midland -Odessa is the heart of Texas awl country.
ReplyDeleteHand up for wanting "incense" for "pot cover." Never heard of TEA COZY, but I guess that's what inspired BEER Koozies(tm). I say BEER kouzie; some friends say BEER COZY.
Thanks to Brian for another fun puzzle, and to Mercury (HG) for the fun tour.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI found this on the easier side for a Saturday, but I had to work hard in a few areas due to so many unknowns: Beaker, Jazz Man, Sam, Tre, and Cece. Music-related pop culture will always be my nemesis. The beverage trio of Gin/Beer/Soda was cute and, of course, the big CSO to HG at Omaha’s, as well.
Thanks, Brian, for the puzzle and your thoughts. Rich’s penchant for proper names surprises me as I always thought the editors preference was less not more. Maybe today’s changes were made to increase the difficulty. It certainly worker for me on Beaker! Thanks, HG, for another fun and factual tour.
FLN
Anon T, if those pies and that pot of sauce taste as yummy as they look, you had yourself a mighty fine meal. Pop deserves 🏅🏅
Have a great day.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteFinally got it all after much white-gunking out and MUTTERING. Had 'has a cow' before HAS FITS. Exquisite puzzle, actually; just hard for me to think of some of the fill; like REIGNING IN. The three long middle stacks were a bit tricky but fair. Good job Brian.
It must be nice to live in ZONE 5. We're in ZONE 4 but always wanting to plant ZONE 5 stuff, so we suffer Winter kill.
BERGS - The Titanic route to the collision site would have been more of a great circle. The depicted chart show a rhumb line. Don't know how they would have known the iceberg route. Must have had a tag saying "Made in Qassimiut"
Thanks Gary for another fine start-off.
REINING IN - Darn auto-fill.
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian Paquin for a challenging puzzle, with suitable long fill.
ReplyDeleteThank you Husker Gary for an illuminating review.
I had a hard time with REIN IN ---- ? REIN IN G--- ?
I was fascinated by your Rebus squares .....
and maybe you could / should give out the answers, for the curious minds ...
I got ....
Back Pain
shaking tremors ? shaking moves / vibrations ?
Block Stick ?
Head over heels, in LOVE
Count down ( a CSO to you, our NASA afficianado - )
upside down Apple, topsy turvy Apple, inverted Apple ??
Thank you. Have a nice day, and a good weekend, all.
Vidwan: I don’t have the answers but guessed
ReplyDelete-Back pain
-Shaking inside and out or Shaking all over or Shaking up/down
-Short end of the stick (okay, I looked up that one)
-Head over heels in love
-Countdown
-Apple turnover
My students loved doing these
Maybe it's just "a whole lotta shakin' goin' on."
ReplyDeleteTough but fun Saturday puzzle--thanks, Brian, and thanks for checking in with Gary and us. And always enjoy your commentary, Husker Gary.
ReplyDeleteI actually got a start with AS TO in the northeast corner, which helped me get SEMINARS--hey, I've taught quite a number of these over the years. BEER took a little longer to dawn on me--haven't been to a pub in half a century and prefer my Merlot at home.
Got a few of the names--PANCHO, MIRO, TYRA--but not CECE. And have never heard the expression BONE LAZY--but I guess I'm not often indolent.
Hope you're all enjoying a great weekend.
Creative puzzle which was certainly was do-able.
ReplyDeleteClarification on D-Os comment about color blindness: it is on the X chromosome and recessive - so it is more common in men because their other chromosome is a Y and can get expressed easier without an X that is not color blind to offset. But women get color blindness when they get an X chromosome with the color blindness gene from both parents (mom may not know she is a carrier until her child has it). If the two parents know they have color blindness then all their children will be color blind.
Have a great Saturday - thanks HG and Brian!
I'm getting the impression that BONELAZY might be a regional thing. It's well known to me, but maybe that's because I've been called BONELAZY at lot...
ReplyDeleteWow. I was hoping to come here and see many cornerites remarks about the difficulty of this CW, so I would feel better about my 46 minute struggle. Instead, there are more comments the other way. I had almost all white squares until 48A CANOEIST, along with perps JAPAN and ANISE finally got me a toe hold. Too many DNKs to list. I put DALI where MIRO should have gone which really buggered up the SW for a while. Bushes: DALLAS? ELPASO? Nope. Tried STUTTERER but it wouldn’t fit. Finally MUTTERER broke the SW, as the E finally lit the lightbulb with ODESSA. Also, too many names for my taste. Overall, I almost threw in the towel several times on this CW, which for me at least was a toughie. BERGS coulda been FLOES. I really struggled to an eventual Saturday FIR. Quite a workout, BEP, thanx. It’s always interesting to look at a finished CW and then say, “Geez, that doesn’t look like it should have taken so long.” Thanx to HG too for his outstanding write-up.
ReplyDeleteThank you Brian for a typical Saturday crunch (well not typical, as I FIR). And thank you Gary for another great review. And I'm with you on RECHECKING over and over (although with me, at least one ERROR always get through).
ReplyDeleteRandomly selected clues:
16A Didn't know they sold 4 letter drinks in PUBS. In Cwds it seems that all you can buy is ALE.
28A My Mother used to call me the FLIPFLOP of this phrase.
14A Sorry IRA, but wrapping fish with the digital edition of the BMore Sun just isn't possible. We now hoard old newsprint for packing material and such. BTW, you can buy unprinted newsprint in bulk from Amazon.
24A IN HASTE. Great quote Gary. I lost count of the number of times I quoted General Bergman as I was cleaning up management's mess.
34A Don't know why I had so much trouble with this clue, as MIMES are every constructor's silent partner. I wonder if there were actually two co-conspiratorial MIMEs in that GIF?.
35A One of my nephews is color blind, but it hasn't affected his actuarial abilities. Dw can't recall anyone on her side of the family who might have passed on the MUTANT GENES.
36A Great piece of indirection. Tried "RATS NEST", and ALIKE, but none perped.
43A JAZZMAN. Great King, et. al. clip!
48A Wanted CANOER, but CANOEER looked odd, and CANOEIST seemed a bit pretentious, but was needed to complete the fill. Either way you look at it the answer had three consecutive vowels.
3D Another great misleader (some Mexicans would drop the "mis"). Not villa, by Villa, as in PANCHO.
12D Went with the American spelling, even though the TEA COSY was invented by the Brits, who spend a lot of time chatting over TEA, and like it warm. They're pretty serious about this stuff. The most common INTERROGATION in British crime shows is "Want a cuppa?".
Cheers,
Bill
Red-green here (protan type).
ReplyDeleteMy maternal grandfather was color-blind. Only had daughters. Each daughter has sons….all color blind.
ReplyDeleteNegroni can also be anagrammed as Reno gin. Thus the word 'gin' is also in the name.
Thus the clue could have been 'In the Negroni'.
Visit the Taj Mahal to ... Se Minars
Criticise a korean american comedian .... Pan Cho
Tinbeeni's order on scotch .... Not Ice
Later.
The debate rages - BONE LAZY v. LAZY BONES V. BONE IDLE
ReplyDeleteI do not know it as regional but if you look at GOOGLE nGRAM VIEWER you cna get the usage facts if you must
I spent too much time on 3D, mistaking it for a lower case "villa" before--duh!--it finally dawned on me.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Mr. Paquin.
Had a good time with this one, although DNF. The upper quarter and the lower SE sector cooperated with me. It's on me that I didn't have the patience for the rest.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Just one diagonal--on the far side.
It offers an anagram (14 of 15 letters) that refers to a big cat (lion or tiger) that might be playing with you before she decides she's had enough fun, and--closes the deal!
-or-
maybe its just that dang *#@! new hair-do that won't behave.
I mean of course, a...
"SNARL TORMENTOR"!
This is one of those puzzles where for the longest time I don't know and won't guess an answer so I go on to the the next clue and so on until I finally hit upon a "gimmee" which gives me that ever so crucial toehold. In this case, it was white all the way down to the definitely known IAGO, DPI, and SAM. Among the downs the definitely known answers were KOPS, JAPAN, and ANISE. From those knowns I then tried the reasonable guesses, which included TAIPEI/MANILA, INLOVE, GTOS, ROT, AVE, DALI/MIRO, TYRA, BERGS, OSAGES/OMAHAS, MATTE, AMIDST, and GASPAR. With those to get me going the rest was P&P to the finish line. 55 minutes well spent.
ReplyDeleteWhat I especially liked:
FORMER GLORY
MUTANT GENES
POTSHOTS
PANCHO
SEMINARS
TEA COZY.
Nose wrinklers:
BONE LAZY (I've only heard bone idle, in British TV shows)
CANOEIST (does that make me a rowboatist or a sloopist or a kayakist?)
BOP (yes I know it's legit, but my nose doesn't twitch at BEBOP).
Did not know at all:
CECE Peniston
TRE Cool
IRA Berkow.
Sorry if that's too much detail.
Good wishes to you all.
Jayce - Detail just right. I second most of your choices.
ReplyDeleteJayce, I guess that would also make those frequent visitors to LAT crosswords, the Unsers, racists. And I guess a gunslinger played by John Wayne would be a Shootist.
ReplyDeleteLOL. 1976 film starring John Wayne.
ReplyDeleteWell done S-anon
ReplyDeleteTHE SHOOTIST had a great cast.
There it is. At the very tip of the NW corner russia abuts
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nationsonline.org/maps/Map-of-European-Russia.jpg NORway
WC
I couldn't make the link work
DeleteI'll try a simple one
We had Ronnie and the Daytonas yesterday, here's the
ReplyDeleteBeach Boys scion which I like better
WC
Version, Google is so sneaky
DeleteWorked on and off (interrupted by a camp owners association party 2 - 5pm, Hey, so I had a couple glasses of wine)...gave myself a 7pm limit...so DNF..🙄
ReplyDeletethe NE corner was my downfall: BONE-LAZY? 🤨(c'mon, sounds like a layman's term for Osteoporosis)...Pint for BEER, Mottle for NOTICE ("spot"). Took a while for FIR for cone producer since we had "ice cream" SODA a bit further down. Figured the "score direction" was Italian and HAD to end in an "O" (Lento, piano,) Finally filled in FORTE. Had FORMER but lacked the "GLORY' . ORNERY was a blank except for "E"
Held off on floe for BERG. Thought also it was "CASPAR , the friendly Magi" (Gaspare, Italian, "Gahz-PAH'-reh"). (btw the friendly ghost is spelled Casper). 👻
In my display of the commentary it looks like Husker printed "Re iningin" (like Bone-lazy?)..oh..wait...REIGNING IN and the Irish Native American tribe looked like the O'Mahas. Tried to work the word "lid" into pot cover adding to the mess.
Husker, your "boss" yelled at you "kids"!! Did you live and work in a workhouse? ("can I have more, sir?").
So to punish me for a incomplete puzzle an extra dose of nonsense...
Denims with 3 legs.....MUTANTGENES
Using a word processor...TIEPIN
Bangkok earnings....TAIPEI
Carry a spare, just ____ ...ENCASE.
Not really sick, just ____ ...ENACT.
In Spain it's _____ the plain...REIGNINGIN
One more day of fun then back to the work'ous.
ReplyDeleteRay O Sunshine .... Wouldn't TAIPEI be the ambitious, proactive, rigidly organized, workaholics .... who are prone to heart attacks ?
RayO, your imagination is boundless. T(h)ai Pei(pay)-great one
ReplyDeleteWC @9:45 PM Ray - O per Vidwan is a real TYPE A.
ReplyDeleteHi All!
ReplyDeleteThank Brian for the Saturday puzzle. I needed a lookup (IMAN) about 3/4th of the way to finish.
Thanks for the expo, HG. LOL MIME gif.
WOs: HAS a fit, wrong Reign at 1st, misread 28a and tried yesterday's BIGOTtED [sic] which lead to tiTle?? for Home buyer's concern
ESPs: POT SHOTS (oh, not rat traps), GASPAR (?), IRA, PANCHO, AVE(?), CECE, TRE
Fav: BEAKER as clued (sorry, Brian - but Muppets are better than lab jars ;-))
FLN - IM, I had too much pasta last night so saved my pie for today. Both were delicious.
OMK - AS TO your DR: Cats love to toy with mice until they lose their squeak ;-)
Jayce - never to much detail (well, over 25 lines is but you seldom come close :-))
Google nGraph of "Lazy Bones", BONE LAZY, and Lem's Bone Idle.
Enjoyed reading everyone!
Thai pay / TYPE A - snicker, snicker...
Cheers, -T
re: my Google nGraph link - just hit the search icon (spy/magnifying glass) to the left of the input to get the graph.
ReplyDelete//sorry, it's my 1st time playing with nGraph.
Cheers, -T