google.com, pub-2774194725043577, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0 L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Saturday, January 1, 2022, Adrian Johnson

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Jan 1, 2022

Saturday, January 1, 2022, Adrian Johnson

 Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson

After collaborating with Jeff Chen in Feb. 2021 this is AJ's third solo Saturday Themeless.

Hi Gary,
Thanks for reaching out. Thrilled to have the first LAT of 2022! I knew I had a few puzzles due to come out around this time, and I'm super excited one of them landed on New Year's Day. Hope you and family are enjoying the holiday season, and that you have a merry Christmas and a happy 2022. I'm now an Americorps fellow in southern Tennessee for the next year, working at BetterFi, a startup that aims to free impoverished families from payday lenders, help them develop credit and provide financial counseling and assistance. It's been great so far. 



Here are some notes: 

Happy New Year everyone! I'm thrilled to be back in the LA Times, and to have the first LAT puzzle of 2022! I hope this puzzle of stacked 12s in a 16x15 grid, a layout I'd never seen or solved before, provides a welcome diversion as we begin 2022. This puzzle was a blast to construct, starting with the "Permanent marker?" clue for TATTOO ARTIST, one of my favorite clue/answer pairings to date. I'm also really pleased with the animal pairing of HAPPY AS A CLAM and ORIGAMI CRANE to open the puzzle. It was surprisingly straightforward to drum up stacks of lively 12s and connect them with fun, engaging fill, though I'm convinced this puzzle is largely a fluke since my other attempts at 12 stacks have flamed out into heaping piles of nothingness. I hope to continue pushing out high-quality, enjoyable and innovative crosswords throughout the year, and can't wait to be back at Crossword Corner again soon! 

Thanks, 
Adrian


Across:

1. Over the moon: HAPPY AS A CLAM "at high tide" finishes the real phrase because clams can only be dug at low tide.


13. Figurehead?: Abbr.: CPA - Their busy time is coming up

16. Japanese art piece that symbolizes good fortune and longevity: ORIGAMI CRANE How do you do make one?

17. Inlet, to the sea: ARM.


18. Much-photographed event: TOTAL ECLIPSE - Here's me taking a picture of me watching this event as it began in 2017


19. Fairy-tale disruption: PEA - On Broadway it was Once Upon A Mattress


20. Son of Akhenaten: TUT.

21. "To recap ... ": IN SUM.

22. Law school course: ETHICS.











24. Tangents: ASIDES.


26. Throbs: PULSATES - Your head today? Not mine.

28. Drawing game: KENO.














29. Sound of alarm: GASP.

31. Connection point: NODE.

32. Aid in fixing rough borders: EDGE TRIM - They can hide a lot of roughness


35. Dickered: HAGGLED - What MSRP?

38. Program resource: HELP MENU.

40. Last part: BACK END - Tom Hanks made $65M on Forest Gump when he negotiated a BACK END deal to get a percent of the profits from this mega hit.

44. Offer not seen by competitors: BLIND BID 


49. DOL watchdog: OSHA 

50. "My stars!": EGAD.

52. Hill assistant: AIDE - Both in the House and the Senate 

53. "Who, me?": WHAT'D I DO?

56. Papyrus plants, e.g.: SEDGES - Egyptians made paper from the stems of this SEDGE starting in 3,000 BCE


58. Vet: SCREEN - Many candidates do not get sufficiently vetted. Surprise!

59. Island in a popular board game: CATAN - The 3-D version of this board game I have never heard of

62. Dance step: PAS - Hopefully not faux

63. Crew implement: OAR.


64. Iran, for one: ISLAMIC STATE.

67. It may be plucked on a beach: UKE - Yes he could play it too


68. Vader underling: STORM TROOPER.

69. Talking stuffed bear in a 2012 film: TED.


70. Permanent marker?: TATTOO ARTIST - Fun clue, AJ!


Down:

1. Provocative opinion: HOT TAKE - The lifeblood of Twitter

2. Galvanized: AROUSED - His speech galvanized millions


3. Placing in direct competition: PITTING - When the NFL was PITTING its games against the NBA on Christmas Day the NBA got routed

4. __ Tour: PGA - Speaking of which, ratings for the PGA Tour got a big boost two weeks ago when Tiger teamed with his son Charlie in a Father/Relative event.


5. Amy Klobuchar, for one: YALIE.

6. Chorus of approval: AMENS.

7. Unleashes: SICS.

8. Women's Rights Project org.: ACLU.

9. Pinches together: CRIMPS.


10. 2.5 miles, at Indy: LAP - Can you find the four golf holes inside the track that are part of the course outside?


11. Elgort of "The Fault in Our Stars": ANSEL - Two teens with cancer meet in a support group and fall  in love


12. Some contests: MEETS - At the school where I sub, two girls alone will win many track MEETS this spring


13. Building partly burned by Britain in 1814: CAPITOL - Admiral G
eorge Cockburn (COH burn),  planned and executed the burning of public buildings in Washington. His portrait shows D.C. afire in the background.


14. Antedate: PRECEDE.

15. Brought together: AMASSED.

23. Get hooked?: HANG.



25. John in court, maybe: DOE.

27. Maintained: UPHELD.

29. __ Age: post-Civil War period: GILDED - After his triumphant Downton Abbey series, this year Julian Fellows is presenting another period piece set in NYC in the 1880's.


30. Gig gear: AMP - "Roadies" have the job of moving and setting up AMPliferS for the gigs


33. It accounts for about 7% of all printed English words: THE.

34. "The Villain in Black" rapper MC __: REN - Google him if you must 

36. "The Phantom Menace" boy: ANI.


37. Cause to race: GUN - A GUN can start a race or if you GUN your engine, you can make the motor race 

39. Wall St. asset: MBA.

40. Gracefully exits: BOWS  OUT - Some athletes "stay too long at the fair"

41. Bread named for how it's baked: ASH CAKE How do you do that?



42. Blackened: CHARRED - What your ASH CAKE might get

43. "Sexual Politics" author Millett: KATE Here ya go

45. Witness to a delivery, often: DAD.

46. 2000s Red Sox hero, familiarly: BIG PAPI.



47. Conceives: IDEATES - One of those vowel-laden words I only see here

48. Madeleine or Napoleon: DESSERT.


51. Soap Box Derby entrant: GO CART - (GO KART is an alternate spelling) These are "gravity powered" GO CARTS. My friend had a motorized one in my ute.


54. Dmitri Mendeleev, religiously: DEIST A list of some famous ones

55. Photo-sharing app, for short: INSTA - Instagram 

56. Triangular pelvic bones: SACRA.
57. Former CNN journalist David: ENSOR.

60. Snowball pile, say: AMMO - Finally, cute cluing for this ominous word

61. Jazz great Puente: TITO - Fred Armisen did a hilarious sendup of Tito on SNL


65. Parking __: LOT 


66. Little one: TOT.




59 comments:

OwenKL said...

DNF. The NW corner got me. I had HOsTilE instead of HOTTAKE, and that screwed up the words across from it. Throw in a trio of blanks in that corner, and it was a loss. Considering how white the grid after my first pass, I'm still amazed I got anywhere near as I did.

I've been told the Albuquerque Hot-Air Balloon Fiesta is THE most photographed event in the world. But I guess an ECLIPSE isn't in the world.

A TOTAL ECLIPSE of the Sun
A celestial PAS de deux. IN SUM:
The Moon plays a part,
It obscures the Sun's arc,
And gets a halo for what it has done!

A clam seems to smile from ear to ear,
Except a poor clam has no ear to hear!
Nor eyes to see
What's on T.V. --
So he's HAPPY AS A CLAM with his career!

{A, A.}

D4E4H said...

Good morning Cornerites,

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, 
Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit, 
Rabbit, Rabbit.

Ðavið

OwenKL said...

Rabbit rabbit!
Ðavið Thanks for the reminder!
For you n00bs, there used to be a superstition that if the first two words you said on he first day of the month were "Rabbit rabbit", you would have a good month. Variations were 3 rabbits or white rabbits.
Many of us here at the Corner continue this. I emphasize, we do it as a tradition, not a superstition!
🐇🐰

unclefred said...

DNF. Too tough for unclefred. Coming here and looking at the solve and at the write-up, what’s up with 53A? Doesn’t make sense and Husker Gary omitted it in his review.

unclefred said...

Oh!! And Happy New Year!!

desper-otto said...

Good morning! And Happy New Year to all.

Was getting no traction with the stacked 12s in the NW, so I completed the rest of the puzzle and circled back. ORIGAMI CRANE finally popped to mind, SOLAR changed to TOTAL, and things quickly fell into place. Ack! Came here to learn that it was a dreaded DNF for the first day of the new year. Thought KATAN was more likely than CATAN as an island name, so d-o went with GO KART. Bzzzzzt! Thanx for playing, have a slice of ASH CAKE. Thanx for the challenge, Adrian, and for the expo, Husker.

Now it's off to end of the year chores: Putting up the new year-at-a-glance calendar, recording the end-of-year IRA values for RMD calculations, starting a new folder for tax receipts, and creating a new spreadsheet to record 'em.

desper-otto said...

Unclefred, parse it as "What'd I Do?"

Subgenius said...

I only missed one letter. Like the previous commentator, I put "go-kart" instead of "go-cart.". Oh well, at least I'm not alone!

Subgenius said...

I'm trying to figure out why I keep getting published as "anonymous" rather than as "leo23dc" or my name "Darryl C"

Wilbur Charles said...

The PEA clue was cute. It looks like I FIR after sleeping on the NW and finally getting solar ECLIPSE which had to become TOTAL for PITTING .

Stud wouldn't fit Drawing game. Nor would enfUSED/ AROUSED
I finally groked YALIE as in Eli.

ACLU as clued was strange

The taint of PED use never tainted Big Papi's popularity in Boston*

WC

* Nor Tom Brady's despite the taint of alleged cheating (with the specially inflated footballs

Jinx in Norfolk said...

DNF, not even close. Completed 23 entries, 20 correctly. In other words, just another average Saturday at Casa de Jinx.

KS said...

FIR, edgetrim did me in.

ATLGranny said...

Yes, I agree with earlier comments: it was slow going today. I finally worked my way up from the bottom, with my last fill HOT TAKE and TOTAL ECLIPSE. Solar and lunar just didn't work. But, FIW, sigh, because I changed GO CART to GO kART. Like DO, not knowing the island's name, Katan seemed more likely. I am still amazed I managed to fill the grid since it seemed so unlikely at first. Thanks, Adrian, for a huge challenge.

Thanks, Husker Gary, for getting us off to a good start this New Year's Day. It was helpful also to read Adrian's comments. Thanks for arranging that.

Thinking positively is my motto for 2022 and I wish all the best for my fellow Cornerites!

Wilbur Charles said...

CATAN was a WAG and C/k is arbitrary. Didn't know Mr DOR.

Owen, agree. Straight W's today. Erato and a few other muses were generous today.

I was trying to think of a Japanese word(s) for ORIGAMI CRANE

I couldn't think of what kind of TAKE ws provocative

WC

Worked from bottom up

Anonymous said...

Took me 18:41 to ring in the new year.

"Edge trim" seems redundant to me, as it's usually "edge" or "trim." I also figured it was Katan, not Catan. I had help line before help menu, which, well, didn't help.

Ani and Vader - one in the same.

Happy 2022!

unclefred said...

Oy. Of course. Thanx.

Yellowrocks said...

Above my pay grade. I didn't even bother to red letter it or LIU. I greatly appreciated the puzzle as I read Gary's excellent review.
I am quite familiar with ideate in print. I found many examples.
"These workshops and ideating sessions were invaluable, and the excuse to get creative with play-do and post-its was one of my favorite parts of the course."
Forbes Apr 7, 2015
Yesterday with Alan here I didn't get to finish the puzzle until 11:00 PM. I finished with just a few LIU. I still enjoyed solving it.
Our New Year's party at the Oaks was cancelled as a Covid precaution although we have no problems as yet. Alan and I had cheese and non alcoholic wine at 10:30 and tuned in to watch the ball drop at midnight with a toast and a hug. David, Motoko and Kenny called right afterward. A pleasant evening with a wonderful family.
Happy New Year to all you Cornerites. Here's to a healthy and happy year.

Yellowrocks said...

We spent several days with David and family over Christmas and so I didn't do the puzzles.
CED, I'm glad to have you back. Your mentioning birthday cakes reminded me that CC would celebrate my birthday here. I looked back to the Christmas blog and read all your well wishes. Thanks for remembering me. It was a great birthday. We celebrated it in the evening with all the goodies of a family birthday and extra gifts.

inanehiker said...

Interesting puzzle that filled with P&P. I got a few of the long fills in the top and bottom which helped move things along.
Jefferson City was right in the path of the TOTAL ECLIPSE in 2017 - we had people here from Canada to Houston and it did not disappoint. What surprised me - but shouldn't have - was that when it was dark all the crickets started chirping like it was night time. We weren't near the big crowds so it was a neat experience.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyuuP-IO0nw

CATAN started out being called Settlers of CATAN - started being popular in the 2000s among the high school /college crowd in the US even though it started as a German board game in 1995 and now is shortened to being CATAN. The aim is acquire resources like wood, brick, ore and build settlements. Our kids introduced us to it when they came home from college.

Happy New Year to all! Thanks HG and Adrian!

Irish Miss said...

Good Morning:

Happy New Year and may it bring brighter days and an end to the COVID nightmare.

This challenge was reminiscent of a Silkie Saturday. At first pass, I thought it was going to be hopeless but a chip here and a chip there proved me wrong. As usual, entering the long answers opens the flood gates and today we had several fresh and strong phrases: Origami Crane, Storm Trooper, Tattoo Artist, Islamic State, Happy As A Clam, etc. Several unknowns slowed me down, but the perps helped a lot: Catan, Ren, Ensor, and Ash Cake. My w/os were Run/Ren and Kart/Cart. Cute pairings were Tot/Lot and the melodic CPA/MBA/PGA.

Thanks, Adrian, for a difficult but doable offering and for sharing your thoughts and thanks, HG, for enlightening and entertaining with such ease and charm.

RIP, Betty White, a classy and beautiful lady in heart and soul. She, indeed, was a Golden Girl.

Have a great first day of a brand new year!

CrossEyedDave said...

Blue unknown @ 6:29 & 6:55,

When I click on your blue unknown, it say
You have not elected to make your profile public.

It's one of the settings in your google/blogger account setup.

Picard said...

Impressed with the construction with so many long answers and so few black squares. But GO KART is spelled with a K. It really is. And crossing it with the utter Natick CATAN is utterly unfair. KATAN is a real word, by the way, that could have been used. Hand up got WHATDIDO and had trouble parsing it. I FIR with GO KART. Too bad Adrian Johnson FIW.

Adrian Johnson I do appreciate your notes. And I also appreciate you including DEIST. And thank you Husker Gary for the list of famous DEISTs. DEISTs believe that there was a creator of the universe, but after that the universe followed strict physical laws.

As a kid I made a GO KART with my French Canadian neighbor friend Michel. The big challenge was finding wheels off of an old lawnmower to use for wheels. Our maiden voyage was down a steep hill on our street. It ended in hitting a tree. He was in front steering and I was in back. When we got home my mother tended our wounds and she said it looked as if we had just returned from battle.

Hand up SOLAR before TOTAL ECLIPSE.

Here is my photo of a TOTAL ECLIPSE just as it was ending TOTALity.

I had heard for years that a TOTAL ECLIPSE is a life changing experience. I understand all of the physics, yet it really did have that effect. I was also told not to waste time taking PHOTOGRAPHs but I could not resist taking a few.

Picard said...

CCAny more news about Boomer?

From Yesterday:
Chairman Moe Thank you for calling attention to our PEDAL PUSHER photos in TEL AVIV.

From Thursday:
CanadianEh Thank you for the validation about also being misdirected by USED A BIT! It was a clever misdirection!

Lucina said...

Hola! Les deseo un prospero ano nuevo! I wish you a prosperous New year!

Thank you, Adrian Johnson, for this challenge. It's not a good start to the year for me. HELP MENU is not what I had and I've always seen GO KART not CART. I'm also not familiar with CATAN so that was a bust.

However, starting at the bottom I did well all the way to BLIND BID which I also did not know and just left two blanks. I forgot about ANI.

C. C. has often mentioned BIG PAPI so I knew that and chuckled at DESSERT for Napoleon and Madeleine.

I'm definitely not on top of my game so my resolution is to sharpen my wits this year and focus more sharply.

Another chuckle was from THE as fill.

I have an issue with GILDED AGE as the post-Civil War period. It is usually known as the re-construction period. The Nation was in tatters, families had been torn apart by choosing opposing sides and the war itself left destruction everywhere. The assassination of Lincoln divided the country as much as the war had done. It was anything but GILDED and was in fact, quite tarnished. The 1920s are usually called GILDED.

I did not know ASHCAKE but it makes sense.

Thank you, Gary, for explaining so much of what I did not know.

I wish everyone a happy day and best wishes for the year ahead.

Lucina said...

Picard:
That is a brilliant photo!

Becky said...

I can't believe I FIR, without googling anything! Of course it took me the whole Rose Parade -- which is at least two hours. When I got up this morning I heard that incredible stealth jet in my bedroom -- we now live in Pasadena two blocks from Colorado Blvd. It was thrilling and very loud. Maybe it isn't a stealth jet. I know they had another name for it. And it was very fun to see two parachutists land on the parade route right where they were supposed to. This was on T.V. of course.

Great puzzle Mr. Johnson!

Safe and healthy and happy New Year to everyone. I, too, would like some news about Boomer.

Becky

waseeley said...

Happy New Year everyone! Here's a timely ...

Word of the day: resolution

Pronunciation: re-zê-lu-shên

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A dedicated promise and firm commitment to do something. 2. A formal decision, rule, or law. 3. A solution or means of ending a problem. 4. Reduction of a substance to its elementary constituents, as 'the resolution of sunlight into different colors'. 5. Fineness of detail in a picture, as 'a high-resolution video screen'. 6. Clarification, conclusion, as 'the resolution of the plot of a novel'.

from the alphaDictionary

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Happy 2022, let's hope it's not a year of terrible 2's.😏

I knew I was in trouble with three long parallel across clues. Then figured a "Japanese good luck piece" would have dragon 🐲 somewhere in the answer..の “no"...oddTAKES? made no sense

No paper today, Googled an online puzzle and the Arkansas Democrat Gazette CW popped up. I disabled the red letter icon but it kept flicking back on, giving away answers so I gave up. ☹

Some observations...
"Law school course" is usually torts, not today! "Drawing game": couldn't squeeze pictionary into four spaces..not even bingo or lotto . "Provocative opinion" the current fad conspiracy theory wouldn't fit. WEES, it was GOkART on prior CWs...Unknowns: CATAN, REN, ANI, ENSOR.... Did CINDERella make ASHCAKES? 😄

Adm. George Cockburn antedated/PRECEDED the "Proud Boys" who tried with others to finish his job about a year ago..."The Fault in Our Stars" a great flick...PEA: more like a fairy-tale irritant.."Maintained" avowed or averred?, neither today. Vet the Vet who wants to be a Vet.🤔

New Year's nonsense..

Crew team, told to paddle hard ___ they'd lose. ...OAR
Results of partial canine laryngitis....BOWSOUT
Fished for yesterday's "Arctic Trout"...CHARRED
What the dyslexic bandit maintened he did in banks....UPHELD
Papyrus, Parsley ____ Rosmary & Tyme...SEDGE.

Adrian, BetterFi sounds like a terrific organization. 👍

How about "Rabid Rabbit?" 🐇🐇🐇

Malodorous Manatee said...

"Hi Gary,
Thanks for reaching out. Thrilled to have the first LAT of 2022!"
- Adrian Johnson

Anybody care to guess who constructed tomorrow's first LAT Sunday of 2022? I "time shifted" my computer so I do know the answer. Congrats, C.C. Is this what is known as "letting the cat out of the bag"?

Happy New Year!

Big Easy said...

WHAT'D I DO this morning? I got a total ass whipping in the NW today. The North was almost as white as the north pole. Correctly filled TUT, LAP, ACLU, & IN SUM. ANSEL Elgort was unknown I had no idea, or couldn't care where Amy went to school. My Tangent thoughts were of the math order and wouldn't know that KENO was 'A drawing game'; thought it was a gambling game.

The term EDGE TRIM is new to me; looking a the photo I see what I've always heard as 'molding' and finished OFF with the 'quarter-round' or 'shoe' molding to cover up that moldings imperfections. And always paint it before you cut it and put it in place; makes life easier.

Then I'm calling FOUL on the clue for GO CART (go kart). Go carts have ENGINES. Soap Box Derby cars are powered by gravity. And it crossed the unheard of CATAN crossing the unheard of David ENSOR. At least I WAGged the unknown CHARRED ASH CAKE.

FIW (really a DNF),Uncle, Rabbit, whatever. I bombed today.

waseeley said...

Thank you Adrian. After a few rocky starts, I'm starting to warm to your puzzles, although I still had to rassle this one to the ground and beat it to a FIR with a pencil.

And thanks as always to Gary for another star studded, sparkling review.

Some favs:

20A ETHICS. A CSO to our legal beavers Susan and Jason.

31A NODE. Gee, I wonder how many NODES are needed to connect all the Cornerites at EDGES of the CORNER to wherever it is that Blogger lives. Care to SWAG that one Dash -T?

40A BACK END. Sounds like HANKS really knows how to HAGGLE.

58A VET. Who VETS the VET VETTORS?

59A CATAN. I've dabbled with CATAN with friends and grandchildren. It's a resource optimization game (sort of like Monopoly with COAL, ORE, GRAIN, etc.), but it doesn't take an MBA to win.

67A UKE. One of my grandsons plays the UKE, but Santa brought him a GUITAR for Christmas.

5D YALIE. One of my final perps.

23D HANG. So nothing to do with fishin?

43D KATE. I had to drag her up from the depths.

45D DAD. I was a witness to my son's delivery, but Teri had to keep waking me up so I didn't miss it. Stop me if you've heard this ... Her water broke around 11 PM as we were walking home from seeing "War and Peace" - the version where one of the women dies in labor. After which we had to drive 35 miles to the only Lamaze OB-GYN in the area. It worked, because 52 years later we have 8 grandchildren. Have I told you about my grandchildren? 🥰

65D LOT. Here's that clip from my favorite diva.

And again a Happy New Year to all!

Cheers,
Bill

waseeley said...

Picard @12:15 PM I think that ECLIPSES all of your previous pics PICARD, many of which have been great.
MalMan @1:27 PM I think that's a well kept secret MM.

tiptoethru said...

Back again after waiting to find the puzzlers out because our paper doesn't publish on holidays or Sundays. I muddled my way up from the bottom and like a lot of others waiting to see if there was a KATAN or a CATAN. And the hope that REN really was the name of the rapper. Fun puzzle! I hope everyone's new year is starting out warm as it's only 3 degrees here in the wilds of the Black Hills. (Sunny, though.) On to the chores and thank you to all the regulars and puzzle creators for keeping this site up and running so I have a place to come check out the real answers behind the answers! On to another year of puzzling through!

NaomiZ said...

Happy new year, Cornerites! It's been many moons since I checked in, but I needed Gary's help in the NW where I failed completely on 1, 16, and 18 across. TOTAL ECLIPSE was not on my radar for a "much-photographed" event, but Picard provided good evidence. May you all be healthy and HAPPY AS A CLAM (at high tide) this year. (And there's *another* thing Gary taught me today!)

Jayce said...

Happy new year greetings to you all.

Took me 55 minutes to FIW. Had to look up who that Elgort guy is, and I entered GOKART/KATAN.

Jayce said...

Picard, fabulous photo!

WikWak said...

Hoo, boy! This toughie took at least half an hour and started, as for so many cornerites today, with a nearly blinding sheet of white in the north. Luckily, the south was more forgiving and filled in much more quickly. Finally, some filled-in verticals coming up into the north allowed an FIR.

Hand up for cringing at GO CART. Even if it had been Kart I would still have cringed; I have never heard the unpowered Soap Box Derby entrants called any kind of cart.

Loved HAPPY AS A CLAM and Husker, I have wondered all my life what made them happy. Thanks for finally helping me to understand this saying!

Spent most of New Year’s Eve reorganizing the garage so the new truck would fit. We beat the snow by about an hour. Happy New Year to us!

It’s starting to feel a lot like… a nap. Happy New Year to everyone here.

Vidwan827 said...


Happy New Year, All ! Best Wishes for all, for a year with Joy, Peace and Happiness...

Rabbit, rabbit, hare and tortoise,
Keep solving puzzles, without a porpoise ....

I'm just following tradition, although I'm not superstitious ...
... get thee behind me, black cat !

Thank You Adrian Johnson for very tough puzzle. I appreciate what puz constructors do, and that the Saturday one is meant to confuse and confound, so I guess its a part of the game, even its the beginning of the new year.

Thank you HuskerG for an illuminating review. Your picture of you vis a vis total eclipse is very pretty ... BTW, nice nostrils.
Atleast I learnt how to make an Origami crane ... so now I can haul the old sofa to the second floor...

As everyone else has already written, the CW was difficult for arcane sayings, knowledge, names and even an error (or two). I completed all of it with a lot of help, and am perfectly satisfied with my efforts.
The GO CART (GO KART) controversy, I can relate to. I have actually attended the Derby trials in Akron, Ohio, my back yard. And a Chevy sales manager, once tried to entice me to build the doodad, and even offerred to pay for the materials ! But my daughters were not interested.

Have a great day, all.



OwenKL said...

Picard, KATAN is a real word -- in Basque, Czech, Finnish, Indonesian, and Japanese. Not in English. At least not in my dictionary app.
I'm surprised so many people missed CATAN. It's appeared more than once in clues, tho I don't recall seeing it in a grid before. Never played it, so didn't know it was an island, either.
I agree it should have been KART, but CART is a common enough variant.

Ol' Man Keith said...

HAPPY NEW YEAR Everybody!

No diagonals today, but a fine PZL from Mr. Johnson to start 2022.
A few cheats got me almost to the finish line, but I screwed up in the middle.
Could not suss 38A. I had something like HELPDELU.
Don't ask me what a DELU is.

But it is a bright, sunny day here in SoCal--after a week of darkly-grim (but welcome) rains. So all is well on this first day of the New Year, regardless of what OMK fills in his grid squares.
He types this as the second showing of today's Rose Parade is running on our TV screens.
Always cheerful and civic-minded, the Parade tolerates no grinches! 2022 is off to a rolling start!!
~ OMK

CrossEyedDave said...

From the CED dictionary:

Go "K"art

Go "c"art

And just for *hits & giggles,

a no go cart...

Anonymous T said...

Hi Cornerites!

Another Saturday, another DNF. And this puzzle seems especially difficult; fit for those who compete in such things. I'm saying: In a normal puzzle, @1a is 'elate'.
//This is why IM awes me.

Good job Adrian. Jeff C has taught you a little too well :-)

Thanks for extra-play after peeking at your grid, HG. Always nice that you reach out to constructors (and they respond!). Also nice shot of you looking at the ECLIPSE w/ proper eye-protection - some presidents could learn from you.

WO: Clamps -> CRIMPS
ESPs: I wish!
Fav: Nope, sorry folks. I simply didn't make it that far.
Wait NO... HAGGLED*

{B+, A}

Great pic Picard! What a CORONA!

Waseeley - what was the question again? :-)
DW had started nesting big-time and somehow I started too. I'd just finished sweeping the garage, opened a beer to relax, but it was suddenly go time. Eldest was born a few hours later.

43d == my pet name for DW.

Here's to all the Cornerite's Happiness & Health for the New Year.

Cheers, -T
*best movie ever! [Mel's Blazing Saddles is #2] And financed by George Harrison - a cartoonish summary

Anonymous T said...

Didn't refresh b/f posting say...

LO F'n L on #3 CED.

-T

Lucina said...

I am now HAPPY AS A CLAM because the Christmas tree and all decorations have been put away! My mother always insisted on leaving them up until Epiphany, that is the feast of the Magi. But I just can't. I want thinks cleaned, put away and start the New year with a fresh look.

C.C., do you have any news about Boomer? I hope he is doing well.

Malodorous Manatee said...

The above seems to call for a Monty Python reference.
No it doesn't.
Yes it does.
No it doesn't.

PK said...

Hi Y'all! Although I have come to enjoy a good challenge, I'm sad to say I wasn't as enthusiastic over this puzzle as was our Adrian. I felt blind-sided much of the time. In the top half for the first pass thru I had only PGA, LAP & TUT. However, OSHA & the 3 long bottom lines came easily & I worked back up. Used red-letter runs aplenty to get some toe holds.

Gary, thanks for lifting our spirits over the humps.

48d Thought Madelein or Napoleon were champagne bottle sizes not DESSERTS. ESP

Hope tomorrow's puzzle will be more fun.

Best wishes for a better year for us all.

Wilbur Charles said...

I immediately thought of Paris as a place England might have set a fire to in 1814. Closer to home it was.

-T, as I hit your link I bet Mr S it'd be Blazing or the King Arthur thing. Aha, Brian. I really need to check out my Streamers for those movies.

Between RayO and CED(Just for starters) we're never short of humor in here. (LO f*%&n L is a good one, thought it was a typo).

Btw, don't you think "Life of George would make a great movie. I like his album with Dylan, Orbison* and the boys

What year was that ECLIPSE. I think I got careless trying to view it. Oh well, cataract surgery would have happened anyhoo

WC

* I found an oldies station out of Ocala and Roy was singing and I had to wait before exiting

Michael said...

WHAT'D I DO to earn such a TOTAL ECLIPSE??

Jinx in Norfolk said...

WC - 99.7? They had a problem yesterday and were operating on very low power. Fine today, though.

Wilbur Charles said...

I have it at 100.1??? Possibly the same. Ots an oldies show complete with countdowns: Today it was top 5, 1/1/1970 led by Diana Ross

Ray - O - Sunshine said...

Lucina

You stopped at 7/12 days to Epiphany, (which for some reason is celebratied tomorrow only 8 days after..So much for Twelfth Night) No extra Lords,Ladies, Maids, Birds, or Rings for you.

Vid

Re: your comment...I had a great Chem 1 Kollidge professor from the Philipines; "Hydrogen peroxide is used for bleaching porpoises"...FLN thought Huxley's "soma" was a corruption of the Latin word for sleep "somnum" thanks for 'splainin'

😊

waseeley said...

-T @3:26 PM Here 'tis:

31A NODE. Gee, I wonder how many NODES are needed to connect all the Cornerites at EDGES of the CORNER to wherever it is that Blogger lives. Care to SWAG that one Dash -T?

Well, YOU asked for it.

Anonymous T said...

Waseeley - that's what I thought you said :-( Four?

It's still 73F but they promise freezing by morning. This is how you Houston.

Cheers, -T

Yellowrocks said...

Epiphany officially is January 6 every year, 12 days after Christmas. In my youth we celebrated it in church on the exact day. These days some churches do not have services that day. This year the Episcopal lectionary terms Jan 2, Christmas II and Jan 9, Epiphany I.

Lucina said...

Yep. I just checked my calendar and tomorrow is the Epiphany of the Lord. Strange.

My two granddaughters will be with me tonight. Youngest is spending the night so her parents can have a date night. Oldest has temporarily moved in while she searches for an apartment. At this time of year not many are available as "snowbirds" arrive. My solitude is broken.

Anon-T:
Is that ice or leftover snow? I am surprised.

waseeley said...

I was talking total Nodes (all end nodes and hops for all the Cornerites + Blogger server farm nodes). Don't you have vaze of determinink zuch think s? Or maybe it's just 42 (see Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or the number of generations between Abraham and JC (according to Luke anyway)).

Okay, so I'm a little bit off my rocker. But then we knew that already. 🙃

Anonymous T said...

First to Waseeley - as he humored me. We have ~50 regulars [posters per/mo]. A total network would be Nlog(2)N connectors (if I'm not misremembering combinatorics - you're going to make me read tonight, aren't you :-))

Ray-O: I didn't come here for an argument.

Lucina - those are frost blankets over our plants out front. With the warm December we had, they think it's Spring and in full bloom. Gotta keep 'em safe.

Cheers, -T

Lucina said...

Anon-T
Thank you for 'splaining.

Anonymous T said...

Holy wow!
They promised us a cold-snap.

I felt the pressure drop and stepped outside to look. Every cloud moved East to West while rising quickly right into Orion's belt. In a matter of 40 minutes it's a clear sky and some cold brisk breeze.

Spitz would have loved this and explained the thermals.

C, -T