Saturday Themeless by David Distenfeld
Dave's notes: Excited to be making my themeless, published debut with this puzzle. I'm a film producer and executive living in Los Angeles. This construction had a classic bottom-up approach, not unlike a colonoscopy. The seed entry was SLEEP AWAY CAMP - a genuinely formative place for me from ages 9-14. I went to Camp Kweebec, which was surprisingly not in Quebec, but rather Schwenksville, PA.
Sure, well...if I had to choose:
· Slow dancing for the first time ever to K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life”
· Getting stuck on the zip-line over the lake for two hours
· Kicking the game-winning goal during a shootout at age 9 – to this day the only goal I have EVER scored during a soccer game
· The annual trip to Zerns, a local flea market where incense, beef jerky and throwing stars could all be purchased under the same dusty tent
· Stealing a parking lot sign from Hershey Park to gift to the Head of Boys Camp
who for some inexplicable reason collected stolen signs and hung them on his cabin
· Any time that instructional swim was rained out
· Writing and performing a parody of “I Want It That Way” called “White France is Going All the Way” during the annual Battle of the Countries – my team was White France
· Playing high-stakes Simon Says led by the Head of Boys Camp who for some inexplicable reason always wore a pair of novelty boxers with fake plastic butt cheeks exposed in the front
· And of course, when they first started offering nachos with cheese at the nightly canteen
 |
| Lights, Camera Crossword! |
All right, let's see what kind of puzzle David has, uh, produced for us.
1. Some Hispanic pals: AMIGAS - Failure to change genders slowed me down
7. Winnie-the-Pooh salutation: HALLO.
15. Celiac sufferer's bar order: GLUTEN FREE BEER - Celiac disease - An immune reaction to eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.
17. Singer Brickell: EDIE - EDIE and her husband Paul Simon reconciled in court after being arrested for a "domestic disturbance" in 2014. She said she started the "disturbance" and they left the court hand-in-hand to see their son play baseball.
18. Result of shooting at the sun: LENS FLARE - It can add a lot to a picture. (BTW, I say picture and not photo.)
20. Admits: LET'S IN - Paper tickets are passé
23. Blonde with a large head, perhaps: ALE.
24. One often hailed: CAB - Speaking of passé. Hailing UBER, et al. via your phone is much more common
25. Some plugs: ADS - Free TV isn't really free
26. "The King and I" setting: SIAM - Here we see a 1 Baht stamp from Siam and a 1 Baht stamp from Thailand after the name change in 1938.
29. Lyre-toting Muse: ERATO - ERATO could officially be the muse of crossword solvers
31. "Tuck me in" garb: JAMMIES.
34. Roast holder: OVEN.
35. Love-spoofing '30s-'40s film genre: SCREWBALL COMEDY - Nobody did it better than Cary Grant
39. Drove, with "off": TEED - FORE!
40. Slipshod: ILL MADE - An ILL MADE Nike left shoe (see his sock?) famously gave out on Zion Williamson.
41. Place to rest: OASIS.
43. ... and then __: SOME.
44. Sundance TV owner: AMC - A _ C/_ A N A M A was my only tentative entry but AMC for a TV franchise made sense. It also makes sense that Robert Redford was its founder.
47. Columbus sch.: OSU - Ohio State University
48. Tubes: TVS - "What's on the tube?" originated when the TV screen was a cathode ray tube.
51. Reacted to a depression?: SAID AH - Fun cluing! Anyone have a "gag reflex"?
53. Aggressive demand: LEMME AT EM - It seems more effective than "Let Me At Them"
57. Award-winning Cooper: MINI.
58. Old-fashioned opening: DEAR SIR OR MADAM.
61. Summer destination for many youngsters: SLEEP AWAY CAMP - See all David's memories at the top.
63. Impersonate convincingly: PASS AS - Speaking of getting licked, the Huskers can not PASS AS even a mediocre football team this year
Down:
1. __ Moss, Portia Doubleday's "Mr. Robot" role: ANGELA - Portia's IMDB
2. Like many sandcastles: MOLDED.
3. Native Alaskans: INUITS - Sure I thought it might be ALEUTS too.
4. Airport array: GATES - After all my trips to Orlando, I have used a great many of their gates
6. Harris, pre-VP: SEN.
7. Storied also-ran: HARE.
8. Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium, e.g.: ARENA - This famous venue famously holds only 9,300 people and is a tough place to play
9. "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" girl, in a show tune: LIESL - The character was LIESL Von Trapp and here she dances to that tune with her young Nazi boyfriend who eventually betrays the whole family in The Sound Of Music
10. Chem class charge: LAB FEE.
11. Like Nash's lama: ONE L.
13. Art Rooney Award org.: NFL - Awarded for outstanding sportsmanship on the field. Teddy Bridgewate won last year
14. Phenomenon carved by waves: SEA CAVE - We have visited the Isle Of Capri which is home to a famous SEA CAVE called The Blue Grotto
16. Not for kids: R-RATED.
19. Black shade: EBONY.
21. Witness' words: I SAW - John E. Bingham was a witness to Lincoln's assassination and in a dramatic letter wrote what HE SAW
22. Latin for "clouds": NIMBI - Makes sense
27. Humanitarian Clooney: AMAL - AMAL (née Alamuddin) is the wife of George Clooney
28. Paper makers: MILLS - Wood pulp on its way to be made into paper in a 1947 paper MILL in Florida
30. "The Eternal City": ROME.
31. Yoda trainee: JEDI.
32. Mariners' saint: ELMO - Saint Erasmus of Formia also known as St. ELMO.
33. Hustles: SCAMS - If it sounds too good to be true...
35. Option if the bar is raised: STOOL - Just such a bar in the 1940's
37. Documents with a Key Skills section, maybe: RESUMES - 99+ examples
38. Classic concert halls: ODEA - ODEA and its vowels are a frequent cwd fill
42. Assembly with speakers?: STEREO - Why does this guy pull up beside me at so many traffic lights?
44. Shoe brand with a three-stripe logo: ADIDAS.
45. Bahrain's capital: MANAMA - It's a 20 minute drive from MANAMA, Bahrain to Saudi Arabia on the King Fahd Causeway.
46. Bubbles and Bonzo: CHIMPS - Bonzo's co-star went on to bigger things
49. They may be put on pedestals: VASES - VAYSES not VAHSES for me
50. R.E.M. lead singer Michael: STIPE - His IMDB
52. Apples for teachers, maybe: IMACS - The school where I sub has all Windows machines except for the media production classes.
54. Place for a Santa sighting: MALL.
55. Aces have low ones, briefly: ERAS.
56. Shorten a plot: MOW - Fun cluing!
59. Genre for Eve: RAP - Search for her lyrics if you must
60. One of four singers on 2001's "Lady Marmalade": MYA - This song, from the movie Moulin Rouge, is famous for its sexually suggestive French chorus of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?", which translates into English as "Do you want to go to bed with me?"
 |
| MYA, Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim |
DNF. Still had a couple white cells in the SE when I hit the red button, and then a bunch of red.
ReplyDeleteNONAGEbARIANS, which made as much sense to me as NONAGENARIANS, and why is NFL honoring a curmudgeon?;
Misspelt LIESa, and didn't catch the blond misdirection;
Had SLEEPoverCAMP and hadn't solved any of the perps;
b_mAMA was unknown capital, had AbC < AMC; MImI or MIcI because I was thinking person (Sheldon Cooper?), not car; hadn't considered tongue depressor for SAID AH (and a nit, not a reaction because the AH precedes the depression).
ELMO was so lazy, he went to SLEEP AWAY CAMP.
There time would PASS, AS he became a champ.
Instead of romp and play,
They wore JAMMIES all the day.
He could sleep at any desk, and never get a cramp!
DEAR SIR OR MADAM,
Tho you don't know me from Adam,
I enclose my résumé,
And my expected pay,
I'll be there Monday to get up and at 'em!
{B, B.}
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteNope. How can d-o go wrong? Let me count the ways. Along the route I thought "Place to rest" was INTER and "Paper makers" were WASPS. Fixed. But Florida/Georgia did me in. Traveled a lot in years gone by, but never visited Bahrain. That ___AMA capital could'a been almost anything except YO MAMA. That first letter would probably be a B (ABC, BBC, NBC) -- M never crossed my mind. Stupidly thought Bonzo and Bubbles were ClownS. Bzzzzzt. Like Owen, I was thinking Cooper was a person, not an automobile. Today's outing was a primer in how not to solve a crossword puzzle. I did love DEAR SIR OR MADAM and LEMME AT 'EM. Thanx David (my only memory of Hershey are those Hershey-kisses-shaped street lights) and Husker for another exceptional expo.
RESUME -- Last night's Jeopardy! champ told how in High School she and a friend had decided to form a literary club. They only held one meeting; they were the only two present. She was elected president and her friend was vice president. She said it looked good on her college application resume.
I am Celiac so 19 across was a gimmie. Prior to my diagnosis my drink of choice was an IPA. I have tried many GF beers and ales, they all suck. You can't make good beer without barley malt.
ReplyDeleteDNF, giving up after 26 fills (23 of which were correct). After looking at the crib sheet I could have probably doubled that number with a little more P&P, but I've conditioned myself into a "we are not worthy" attitude about Saturday grids. But I did have AMIGAS, because "some" wouldn't have been there had it been AMIGoS, so I got that goin' for me.
ReplyDeleteThe Cowboys' award-winning Amari Cooper is on covid-19 protocol and not available for tomorrow's game at Kansas City. I fear the effect.
Cameron Indoor isn't a tough place to play because it is a crackerbox, it a tough place to play because Coach K produces fabulous teams year after year (last year's covid-19 season being the exception that proves the rule). I hate his guts now, but will love and admire him after he retires at the end of this season.
Welcome to our blog semi-famous producer DAVID DISTENFELD who may have a new career in the puzzle world.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this puzzle and I will now add BOOKSMART to my list of movies to watch. BTW, from last night, Oo and I are watching the new RED NOTICE movie which is quite silly but fun. When she falls asleep, I shut it and save for another day.
The Thailand stamp shows King number 9 who served for almost 70 years. I do not recognize the Siam stamp King.
I did not know STIPE MYA or MANAMA 0r ANGELA but found helpful perpendiculars.
Part of my current 'work' involves helping individuals and families discuss and prepare what we call "advance directives." Your living will, health car surrogate, DPOA etc/
Thank you all for the nice comments on my rushed effort.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteUnlike yesterday’s struggle, I strolled through this in 23:12 with very little resistance. The long fills were not only helpful, but smile-inducing, to boot, particularly Screwball Comedy, Dear Sir or Madam, Sleep Away Camp, etc. Jammies brought a chuckle as did replacing Clowns with Chimps ( Hi, DO!). There were several unknowns (Manama, Angela, Mya, etc.) but perps were very solver-friendly. CSO to Oo at Siam, now Thailand.
Thanks, David, for an enjoyable and satisfying solve and for sharing your boyhood hi jinks and thanks, HG, for entertaining us with the constructor’s input and your own distinctive voice in your summary. Especially appreciated your acknowledgement of Cary Grant’s comedic chops. Of course, he was just as talented in his many dramatic roles, as well.
FLN
Lucina, thanks for your comments on Belfast. Glad you enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing it.
Anon T, Red Notice is on my viewing list, as per Ray O’s suggestion. Thanks.
CED, have you stopped shaking yet? What a traumatic and frightening close-call you had!
Have a great day.
I got Bahrain capital wrong and also had AMIGoS /onE. I thought NONenARIANS sounded funny(I suppose ONE can go down to zero)
ReplyDeleteSneaky sports with golf(TEED) and baseball(ERA). And Buckeye football (OSU)
I nominate SAID AH for clue of the year
My pop-cul phobia struck with Mili Cooper. Forgot about that little car. I thought that was my FIW until NW
Hmm. Where was I reading about sandcastles recently?
I inked ola?/ELMO. I hastily inked ADIDAS but it wasn't perping(until it did)
Loved #2, Owen and your prescient poem hier J. BTW, who's the curmudgeon?*
3 squares from a FIR. Average Saturday. Having the xword available all week I suppose is a cheat in itself. Lucky me
WC
* I get. I was thinking Terry Bruschki
Today, I needed 13:22 to get this. Manama was completely unknown, and I also was thinking of people Cooper, not auto Cooper. That problem crossing was my last square.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know "Angela," or the actress, or the show/movie she apparently was in. Couldn't think of Mya, but got 2 of the other 4 singers, which were no help whatsoever.
I don't think of "teed off" as the same as "drove."
Solid puzzle overall.
I've been to Cameron Indoor, so I hesitated - why do you need five letters to spell "dump?" The reason the students stand the whole game is that there's no legroom, and if you sit your knees are up near your chin.
ReplyDeleteMANAMA was unknown, and the clue for SAIDAH didn't really click.
Anon@8:12 -- TEED Off / Drove is a golf clue.
ReplyDeleteMy wife is from Schwenksville, PA, and as a child, I spent many Saturdays at Zern's, which was a very popular place to get fresh meats and produce, in addition to the things the puzzle creator mentioned. Sadly (or maybe not), it closed several years ago.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteLike some others, a FIW for me today. MANAMA, unknown to me, looked fine as MoNAMe and the perps seemed fine (SAID oH and PASSeS). I didn't think of a tongue depressor, but a mood depression or hole in the road instead. I see now the other clue " Impersonate convincingly" is the wrong tense for my answer PASSeS. Another learning moment.
Other trickier areas I struggled with were caused by having SLEEP over CAMP way too long and not remembering STIPE. That all worked out eventually, as well changing "pajamas" to JAMMIES for progress there. Thanks David for a challenging Saturday morning and for your puzzle explanation. Thanks Husker Gary for a very able and interesting review today.
Great debut, David. I didn't know that you had produced Sausage Party, which I saw and enjoyed and that particular Borat flick which I saw. Welcome to the Corner. Clever cluing today with many amusing twists and turns. That some of the lengthier answers were "get-able" helped quite a bit and the few total unknowns were perp-able.
ReplyDeleteGary, thanks for the comprehensive and entertaining write-up. It's always nice to see Ogden cited. I grew up reading Ogden Nash and Richard Armour which probably explains a lot.
This puzzle was slow and steady as a Saturday should be - SE was my biggest hang-up.
ReplyDeleteWhere I grew up no one called summer camp SLEEP AWAY- but I've watched enough movies like "The Parent Trap" to figure out SLEEP AWAY CAMP- especially in the East where kids would get sent off for a month in the summer or so it seemed. David's experience reminds me of Allen Sherman's "Hello Muddah, hello Faddah" (A letter from camp). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yFTOvO0utY
We have friends who are moving to Bahrain this month - so MANAMA was a gimme - for countries so small, I'm surprised that the capital and the country aren't the same like Djibouti or Guinea Bissau.
Thanks HG and David!
Hola!
ReplyDeleteThis was tough. Thank you, David, for the challenge, up to which I failed to rise. The bottom licked me. I could not get rid of SENATE so STEREO never made it nor did TVS. I was thinking ELS as in trains. All in all, a mess.
However, I managed the top nicely and even spelled NONAGENARIANS correctly. One of my friends has celiac disease so I'm acutely aware that she can't eat any gluten products.
I thought HULLO was Pooh's call so changed the U to A when ARENA emerged.
I also recalled LIESL. Wow!
Yes, I also have visited the fabulous SEACAVE in Capri.
CSO to Owen at ERATO. Though I don't often mention it, I really enjoy your poems, Owen.
I suppose I must have mentioned that a daughter of one of the MILLS brothers boarded at our school. Her father collected her every weekend but at the time I was unaware of his talent or fame. She was simply a sweet, shy girl in my class.
Jeanne Crain was in a long ago movie in which she PASSES AS white though she was black.
Thank you, Gary, for opening up the mysteries in this puzzle.
Have a sensational Saturday, everyone!
Super-duper Saturday. Thanks for the fun David (congrats on your debut) and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteI was on David’s wavelength today, and finished in good time. But I arrived here to discover that I FIWed due to the same Natick as others here, that M in MANAMA. ( yes I guessed at the B thinking of ABC).
Of course this Canadian also required perps and WAGs for OSU, ARENA (I have mentioned before that ours usually have ice and aren’t called stadiums), NFL. But I got SEN.
Other names requiring perps included ANGELA, MIA, STIPE.
I didn’t know Eve, and waited for perps to decide between Pop or RAP.
I wanted Overnight CAMP before SLEEP AWAY.
My Santa sighting was on the Roof before the MALL.
We could sit on our STOOL at the bar for ALE or GLUTEN-FREE BEER. But that Bar had nothing to do with ONE L (law)and our discussion a few days ago arising from Galop.
Hand up for choosing the feminine AMIGAS after seeing “some” in the clue.
Another hand up for loving the SAY AH clue. (OwenKL, as I recall, my doctor depresses my tongue before he asks me to Say Ah, so no nit here.)
Third hand up for Pyjamas before JAMMIES.
Wishing you all a great day.
FLN Didn't get to yesterday's puzzle as we spent all day getting ready to see Dune, seeing Dune, and talking about Dune.
ReplyDeleteIf you've read Frank Herbert's books you may or may not like it. I haven't and did. Dune Part 1 is not as uplifting as LOTR, but it is similar in scope, i.e. EPIC, as was the CGI.
Thank you David for a FIR, your beginner's luck making this pretty smooth sailing for a Saturday. With some of the OLD SALTS, we're usually not so lucky. Your blurb about SLEEP AWAY CAMP brought to mind the many wonderful Summers I spent at BROAD CREEK SCOUT CAMP in Whiteford, MD.
And speaking of "old salts", thank you Husker for another PICTUREsque, as well as informative, review. 5D may be going DOWN, but you and I aren't.
Liked:
1A AM_G_S. Knew right away that 3D had to begin with an I, and I knew that I knew the answer, but had to wait a while for it to surface. Then I came of AGE right after GLUTEN FREE BEER, as 15A was a gimme.
20A LETS IN. At Dune last night, we were issued paper tickets by the KSP (Kiosk Support Person) in the lobby, to give to the bouncer at the turnstyle to be LET IN.
25A. ADS. We like to pay for TV up front, thus we stream everything.
31A JAMMIES. Coziest clue.
40A ILL MADE. Loved the meta review pic - oops + "ture", but I don't think ZION did.
51A SAID AH. SAID "AH" when this finally clicked.
57A MINI. Wanted GARY, but knew it wouldn't perp with "I" + Apple's "produit de jour". BTW Husker, how do teachers "keep the doctor away" these days?
28D MILLS. Paper making requires not only wood, but lots of water, and like most MILLS are located on rivers (originally as a power source), but also to conveniently dispose of all of the waste they produce. The Luke paper mill that operated on the Potomac River in Maryland for 131 years, closed in 2019 leaving 700 employees without work. This doesn't include the number of logging jobs lost by the suppliers of wood pulp.
35D STOOL. A limbo bar, with an option to STOOP? But then realized that BARS are set HIGH for the convenience of Barkeeps, who stand behind them all day. The customers come and go, although some live there too.
49D VASES. Hand up if you stood an IDOL on it first. I've made lots of VASES but it was the last thing I would have thought of.
Cheers,
Bill
Oh and a CSO to BigEasy. Today's Google Doodle is for birthday boy Edmund Dédé (November 20, 1827 – January 5, 1901), a New Orleans born composer, who later moved to Paris. Here's his Méphisto masqué for piano.
Learning moment: pyjamas is the way Canadians spell pajamas.
ReplyDeleteinanehiker @10:51 AM Ironically that little ditty from "The Dance of Hours" a ballet from Amilcare Ponchielli's "La Gionconda", one of the darkest operas ever written.
ReplyDeleteThoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, thanks David! Fun clues that stretched the brain but remained solvable, no Naticks or obscure references, superbly satisfying long fills. Best way to spend a Saturday morning - a cup of coffee, dog snoozing beside me, and an excellent crossword such as this.
ReplyDeleteI zig zagged through the upper half of the puzzle, filling all squares and making inkover corrections....only to come to a screeching halt in the bottom half.🙄 (One time when I asked our dear daughter Catherine [who loves "The S of M"] which VonTrapp daughter was her favorite she answered..."Weasel"😁)
ReplyDeleteDidn't make the "pajamas"/JAMMIES error cuz I knew George was AMAL's only "Night Visitor" and the Latin word for "clouds" couldn't have the letter "J" in it. (btw..shouldn't "Yoda trainee" be singular: Jedo?😆). I watched every season of "Mr. Robot" but ANGELA needed perps. It's not SEAglass (one "s" to many).
I hear NONAGENARIAN Barbara Eden is living in a "retirement bottle"😮
C'mon...there was no TV when Sundance was alive. "Lady Marmalade" who? huh?😳
So I scrapped the disastrous southern half of the puzzle and accepted a big DNF😫. It's a sunny but cold Saturday with lots to do.🌞 (good excuse)....Irish M, 23:12 amazing!!🤯
Husker: At first thought that was a photo of two INUIT boys in bathing suits on a beach!!!. but it was for the "sandcastle" clue.😆
Carpenters' words....ISAW
Starts again...RESUMES
Ailing housekeeper....ILLMADE
"Are you sure this is Thailand?" "Yes ____ "... SIAM
David, what are schwenks? and what are they doing in PA?🤔
Congrats to Mr Distenfeld on a lovely debut puzzle! I flew through this one in 5:30 (usually takes 11-12) and greatly enjoyed the ride. I felt like I was on the same wavelength as the constructor throughout, which is never expected but always a plus. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteNeat Saturday puzzle, many thanks, David. And thanks for the great pictures, Husker Gary, I enjoyed those too.
ReplyDeleteNice to see the photos of Barbara Eden and Barbara Walters. Was surprised to learn their AGE.
Also nice to be reminded of LIESL in the "Sound of Music."
Got SIAM instantly, and ERATO right next to it.
I guess lots of kids will be heading to the MALL soon to see Santa.
Wilbur, I too thought the SAY AH picture was a funny solution for reacting to depression.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
What ever happened with Dave's contest to guess the age of his companion Carol?
ReplyDeleteAnd the Winner is:
ReplyDeleteFirst I want to thank each of you who commented on the PIC of Carol and me on 11-14. Thanks to C.C. for posting it.
The fun started when -T wrote "Robbing the cradle there? eh, D4 :-)" The contest started on 11-17. waseeley immediately guessed 67.
Ray - O - Sunshine followed with this wisdom "A "priceless" prize can be interpreted as a "worthless" prize.
Anyway trying to guess a woman's age is Like playing with fire.You can light up her face or suffer 3rd degree burns."
Carol's face lit up and she giggled at each comment.
-T made the youngest guess at 66. I had written this cryptic statement "Yes, a cradle has been robbed." No one noticed that Carol had done the robbing.
ATLGranny won with this post, (drum roll please)
"Dave4, I seem to remember Carol is a good bit older than you are, though she doesn't look it. Maybe in her 80's or early 90's?" Carol was born on 3-24-1928. She is 93 and old enough to be my mother. If we had met when she was a senior in highschool, she would have baby-sat me and would have had to change my diaper. Now I change it myself, and we have fun together.
Vidwan827 completed the fun with "D4E4H ... I wouldn't even hazard a guess at your wife's age ... looks can be very deceptive !" Thanks for the compliment. We are not married.
ATLGranny's priceless prize is the satisfaction of being able to remember that Carol is older than me.
Congrats girl!
Ðavið
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR with my misteaks at the SE corner and one on the southern border:
I had POSSES instead of PASS AS; MIMI instead of MINI; MANAMA was never known so that would’ve been perp’d anyway.
Puzzle was pretty easy for a Saturday, yet I still managed to screw up
Thanks David and HG
Speaking of movies, Margaret and I watched Three Billboards near Ebbing Missouri last night. The acting was superb. I can see why the actors who played “Mildred” and “Dixon” won Oscars
LOL d’o- I learned that Americans spell it as pAjamas when I filled a previous CW with the Y. And there isn’t a U!
ReplyDeleteD4- Wow! Carole is a NONAGENARIAN, I never would have guessed that AGE. What a gift to be that youthful @93. May you both enjoy your “fun together”.
AAAADRIANN !!!! @ 12:02 "I flew through this one in 5:30 (usually takes 11-12)"...HOLY CrOssWord Batman...I couldn't copy a completed puzzle with the answers that fast. Truly impressed. Betcha do the Monday puzzle without even looking at the clues!
ReplyDeleteD4E4H @ 12:51 ...2 questions posed by a woman to which a man must always answer "No" (see, I didn't end the phrase with a preposition)
1. "Want to guess how old I am?"
2. "Does this make me look fat?"
Lucina @ 10:56
Jeanne Crane in "Pinky". There is a new Netflix movie I have yet to watch: "Passing" about the same subject set in the 1920's.
Waz@ 11:13
Saw "Dune", liked it....Thimothée Chalamet is in everything now but please.....somebody feed that kid!!!
Irish M, I forgot to mention a favorite series: 3 seasons: "Manifest" on Netflix..the last season (conclusion) TBA..so time to catch up.
As you can see..lotsa time on my hands for once...hmm...maybe I'll go to the gym 🏋️♂️..(Yeah right). **** blows the dust off the membership card*****😆
Ray - O @1:54 PM Yeah, Paul did look a little scrawny for a hero. But in the end his agility with a knife gained him entry to the Freman, as well as quench their thirst for a coupla hours, maybe. And I thought those worms were supposed to be sandetarians.
ReplyDelete"Lot's of time on my hands"? I might have something for you to read.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteI got pretty far before cheating. Needed some real help from HG's grid to untangle sped -> TOOK(off) and LUKE crossing. That helped finish much of the south b/f I cried 'Uncle' at _YA and realized (from another cheat) that I had CEASEs. The D made all the Difference.
David, Congrats on your themeless* (@11:35 SAID it) and thanks for the eInterview w/ HG.
I have some of those same memories of Boy Scout CAMP - especially the general-store array. The permanent BS camp (Camp Bunn - land donated by the coffee maker guy) had a zip line that went right into the lake. It was only the first 3 seconds that you had to hang on tight 'cuz you were still over land.
Thanks for the expo HG; I always learn a few things from your POST GAME analysis.
WOs: [see above]
NTMs: MYA, MANAMA
Fav: SAID AH was cute c/a.
Runner-up: REM's STIPE. [Orange Crush - 4:09]
Ya'll were thinking people too? Then I went to thinking barrel makers.
How I am supposed to know an award winning cooper? He work for Jack Daniels or something?
{B, A+ (ERATO is strong with you)} //oh, and that's Andy Rooney who's the curmudgeon, not Art as clued.
D4 - I just took Ray-O's number one under to cover the spread :-)
When I read ATLGranny's post, a light bulb dimly lit up as I vaguely recalled that, yes, ALTGranny is closer to right.
Ray-O: You made it through all of Mr. Robot episodes? I dropped out sometime during season 3 - it was become Burn Notice drawn out. Mr. Robot did get the technicals right re: hacking.
Enjoyed reading y'all!
Cheers, -T
*FYI - David has 2 other LATs. 9/21/20 & 12/10/20.
Anon, in golf lingo as D-O explained "TEED off" and drove are the same.
ReplyDeleteAha, that curmudgeon.
I was watching "Burn Notice" on Prime and yes it was running out of ideas. Something akin to Mailer's Harlot re. CIA hijinks.
Speaking of… Have you navigated your way south, Jinx?
Reading yesterday's posts I had all I could do to stay mum. ERA fe. That stared me in the face (Ace). I was thinking Par. So much for being the baseball guy.
WC
I was unable to finish this puzzle without looking up several of the answers. This is not a complaint; the puzzle is excellent but my knowledge was not extensive enough to figure out some of the answers. I did fill AMIGAS correctly, though, because of the "Some" in the clue. Of course I put in GARY Cooper at first, and then when that didn't work I foolishly put in BRAD. I learned that there are INUIT in Alaska; I had thought they occupied Canada but not Alaska.
ReplyDeleteRay-O, I love your reference to the singular "Jedo."
Owen, I especially like your second poem today.
Good wishes to you all.
WC - no, but I'm zipping around attending to last-minute details. Yesterday I took the RV to top off the propane tank, and the automatic entrance step quit working. I'll fix that tomorrow and take out some last-minute stock-up items, then we are going to Raleigh for Thanksgiving. Leaving Saturday for the leisurely (2-day trip spread across 4 days) trip south, arriving in FL the following Tuesday.
ReplyDeletePoint of order: this is the 5th puzzle publication for Mr. Distenfeld and his third LAT to go along with a Universal and a WSJ. It is his first publication of a themeless effort.
ReplyDelete5 minutes is not fast for competitive solvers, just not possible for most of us.
We did watch the end of the Rock, Ryan Reynolds and Gal Godot RED NOTICE which was fun and filled with trickery. Red Notice is even worse for a spy than BURN NOTICE .
WC - I read 55d's clue and thought 'cards - one or high? What numbers? Baseball.." and inked ERAs sans perp.
ReplyDeleteThat does NOT make me the baseball guy. You and Boomer, however...
Between the two of you, y'all could write an encyclopedia.
Re: getting hacking right. Some entertainment does (The Matrix*, Mr. Robot, et.al) and some we nerds pan endlessly to the point of meme.
The absolute worse portrayal was NCIS.
I mean really? Really?
Unless you're Bynars (Star Trek TNG reference!), two folks can't operate the same keyboard. Oh, and all that jargon & flash-y screen bulls**t is just that.
Cheers, -T
*in Reloaded, Trinity used nmap, a network mapping tool, via an ssh tunnel.
Good evening all. For what I thought was an easy Saturday I managed to FIW in the SE. The owner of Sundance TV was not ABC, it was AMC. BANAMA looked as good to me as MANAMA. Both were unknowns. I knew ABC is owned by Disney but didn't think AMC was any type of owner of a lot of networks like Discovery, Paramount, or Peacock.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of these women- EVE, MYA, AMAL Clooney, or ANGELA Moss but the perps took care of them. At least I knew LIESL and EDIE Brickell. Where were the men?
SLEEP AWAY CAMP- I guess with day camps, tennis camps, cheerleading camps, ...etc. they have to rename what used to be called 'camp', which were all "sleep away".
I almost did this 100% w/o cheats. But I confess to one lookup at the end.
ReplyDeleteBecause I had too much faith in my personal reaction to 35D. Before I capitulated to writing it over with STOOL, I was sure my original fill was right.
In fact I still think it was brilliant and that it should have been the fill.
Didn't anybody else get it?
The proper fill ought to have been...
SHRUG.
OK, OK, as I say, I gave in.
~ OMK
___________
DR: One diagonal today, on the near end.
Mmmm. It offers a yummy anagram.
We have all heard of Mama Mia, or the music thereof-- right?
Today's anagram (11 of 15 letters) refers to those maternal parents who believe in self preservation.
I mean, of course, all those...
"MAMA MUMMIES"!
Just finished watching "My Octopus Teacher" fascinating but kept falling asleep. Maybe the 2 shots of anisette in my evening coffee 🥴
ReplyDeleteOMK @ 6:52...I did a double take then read it again and laughed..when I read "Before I capitulated to writing it over with STOOL"..sheesh did you run out of ink? 😆😅🤣😂
Nope. Huge DNF. Struggled for quite a while and still had me totally stumped down south of the equator. Didn’t help to enter CLOWNS where CHIMPS was supposed to be. Total defeat for me. Just out of my meager ability level. Thanx for the write-up, HG.
ReplyDeleteBTW...My grandkids go to a day camp for a week in the summer, Picked up by a bus..so not all are sleep overs.
ReplyDeleteWatched the ENTIRE season 2 of "Tiger King" last night, it was so insane I couldn't tear myself away. Perfect example of truth stanger than fiction. 🐅
ReplyDeleteGood morning. *
No gold star today on today's homework.
Could not get the crossword to load at the WaPo site for the longest time. Tried the LAT site and started there, but I don't like its user interface. Finally got the WaPo site to load.
Anyway, another tough puzzle with plenty of misdirection and opportunities for errors. Thought that my error was at my last fill of the first M in Bahrain's capital. Figured that Sundance's owner had to be AbC or AMC, so I went with AMC / MANAMA.
But no congrats message, and a cursory glance around the grid did not reveal any obvious error. So I turned on error check mode and my G in LENS gLARE lit up. Then I looked at the crossing entry, LAB gEE. What ? So then I read the clue "Lab course charge." Don't know how I missed that, but I did. I had not previously heard of LENS FLARE, but LENS gLARE made sense to me, so it went in and I never looked back. D'OH ! Always check the perps !
I'd also never heard of a SLEEP AWAY CAMP. Just summer camp.
Thank you David, and congrats on your themeless. Fun stuff.
As well, thank you, Husker Gary. Good read. Funny, in re your 21D comments for I SAW ... I was flipping through the channels on one of my recent sleepless nights, and watched a bit of a 1956 episode of "What's My Line ?" Last Witness to President Abraham Lincoln Assassination I've Got A Secret.
* My comments from early this morning. Forgot to post before my run to the store. Then yard work. Then a bit of college football; the OSU game featured in today's puzzle. Tough game for Sparty and Heisman hopeful Kenneth Walker. Then more yard work. Then supper. Then asleep around 6 PM, and up after midnight. My hours are royally messed up.
Well sonnova...
ReplyDeleteTTP - I just look'd back at my paper and I too have LABgEE. And here I thought I read every word of HG's expo... Blind to my own errors :-(
SLEEP AWAY CAMPS is something I learned from watching old clips of Borscht Belt comedians.
You ain't the only one with bad sleep habits. I finished cluing a grid (for an internal corp IT newsletter puzzle) and took a nap. I woke & watched a crappy movie (The Tomorrow War*) over dinner with DW & then SNL (that's when DW checked out).
Why I'm still up?, I donno.
Cheers, -T
*It's a SciFi movie but the writers seem oblivious to how fictional timelines work.
ReplyDeleteDash T, it's now after 3 AM and I decided to check for postings by the bad guys after finish the Sunday LAT by DAB.
Glad to see, no, sad to see that I'm not alone, though misery does love company.
I gotta try something else to get back on some semblance of a normal schedule. It seems that every night I'm asleep before 8, and then up way too early.
Just had a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. That and PBJs always seem to make me sleepy. Sugar rush effect ? Seems to be working.
Also just noticed that the program I watched and linked was "I've Got A Secret", not "What's My Line ?" Those two shows seemed to be very similar to me.
Busy, busy day. Started preparing for Turkey Day! Quick solve until SW corner. As a summer camp director in California for twenty years I NEVER heard them called "SLEEP AWAY" camps. Local colocialism, perhaps? And, am I living in the past??? I STILL get letters and advertising addressed to "Dear sir or madam..."!!
ReplyDelete