Themeless Saturday by Evan Kalish
I had to walk away several times to get this one to unfold corner by corner. I'll tell you where I struggled as I go through the write-up. Here are Evan's generous comments:
Hey Gary, When I first developed this puzzle in May 2020 I thought this grid was a great for developing interesting—and intersecting—stacks. The seed was the final across entry (clued as: [A masterpiece!]), which was a fairly novel entry at the time and, in my mind, perfectly placed. I always try to incorporate as many unique answers as possible in my themeless grids without sacrificing fill quality. While this 66-word grid meant I couldn’t include as many novel entries from my personal word list as I might like, I was pleased by XWord Info's Freshness Factor analysis of the grid!Clue-wise I was pleased that my proposals for COMING OUT, MOUNT SINAI, and EMPTY NESTS made the cut. Re: the latter, while I’m not a parent I’ve found that I often try to incorporate some aspect of the parenting experience into my cluing. I was a bit sad that a couple of my other angles didn’t make the cut, but that comes with the territory. Rejected clues included:
— Figures considered nobility in “Flatland” (OCTAGONS)
— Sources of unattended towels, to some hotel "souvenir” seekers (POOL AREAS)
— Occasions for some high-profile appearances? (BAD HAIR DAYS)
Finally, I liked the mirroring clues of BLEH and ICK, as well as the reference to “Arrival” for ETs.
Thank you for all for solving. I hope you enjoyed the puzzle!
Evan
As many of you will remember, Evan's hobby is collecting photos of post office around the country and he has visited over 10,000 of them. Here's his website: Postlandia.
CBS recently did a CBS Morning piece of disappearing post offices which included a lovely interview with Evan.
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| Answer |
Across:
1. Store sign words suggesting longevity: OPEN SINCE - This clothing store in our town just closed last December after having been OPEN SINCE 1925.
10. Confess: OWN UP.
15. Ellen Morgan's revelation in a 1997 episode of "Ellen," e.g.: COMING OUT - Hilariously!
16. Awesome relative: NEATO - NEATO seems a little less emotional and more dated than the much-overused Awesome
17. The blue ribbon: TOP HONORS - Not always
18. Activation key: ENTER.
19. Genre qualifier: ALT - My dad and his brothers loved Country Music growing up. ALTernate Country of today would not work for them
20. New __: drink that made a comeback in 2019: COKE - It was reintroduced in limited quantities to support its use in the Netflix series Stranger Things
19. Genre qualifier: ALT - My dad and his brothers loved Country Music growing up. ALTernate Country of today would not work for them
20. New __: drink that made a comeback in 2019: COKE - It was reintroduced in limited quantities to support its use in the Netflix series Stranger Things
21. Chem class measuring technique: PH TEST - New Coke has a pH of approximately 2.5
22. New Orleans' Cafe Lafitte in Exile is one of the oldest of these still operating: GAY BARS.
24. Fiddler, for one: CRAB.
25. Baroque: ORNATE - GILDED? Nope.
26. Aleichem who created Tevye: SHOLEM - Aleichem SHOLEM's stories of Tevye And His Daughters formed the basis for the very successful play and film Fiddler On The Roof. More background28. Obligations: NEEDS.
29. Surpass by skipping: LEAP FROG
31. Badge holder: SASH.
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| He has all 135 Merit Badges |
32. Sheds: MOLTS.
33. Bottom lines, often: SUMS - The SUM for our 55th anniversary dinner Thursday night was $91 with no appetizers and a free dessert
35. Big parks: STADIUMS.
37. Apt rhyme for "cents": PENCE - A British PENCE = $0.0138
38. Time out: SIESTA.
39. Role played by a sufferer, maybe: MARTYR.
33. Bottom lines, often: SUMS - The SUM for our 55th anniversary dinner Thursday night was $91 with no appetizers and a free dessert
35. Big parks: STADIUMS.
37. Apt rhyme for "cents": PENCE - A British PENCE = $0.0138
38. Time out: SIESTA.
39. Role played by a sufferer, maybe: MARTYR.
40. "Phooey!": RATS
41. Adds to the cost of: MARKS UP.
42. Hardly lasting: SHODDY - A SHODDY Nebraska soddy.
42. Hardly lasting: SHODDY - A SHODDY Nebraska soddy.
45. Paycheck signer: BOSS.
46. #34, familiarly: IKE - Between HST and JFK
47. Notes featuring Atatürk: LIRAS - This drove me crazy until it dawned on me.
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| 200 Turkish LIRA is about $14.80 |
48. Threaten to isolate: CLOSE IN ON.
50. Terse farewell: OK BYE
51. Drying agent: DESICCANT.
52. Thompson of "Westworld": TESSA.
53. Satisfied cook's gesture: CHEF'S KISS
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| Taylor must have really liked something |
1. Stop signs, usually: OCTAGONS.
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| Even in Montreal and Paris |
2. Places where you might see butterflies: POOL AREAS - Oh, that butterfly!
3. Sources of some college-years woes: EMPTY NESTS - Oh, from the parent's point of view.
4. Bethesda research org.: NIH and 48. Org. in much recent news: CDC are searching for a 8. Solution: CURE for Covid
5. Arctic travelers: SNOCATS.
6. Mute, say: IGNORE - Find it
6. Mute, say: IGNORE - Find it
7. Secluded spots: NOOKS.
9. Arrivals in "Arrival" (2016): ETS - Can Professor Louise Banks communicate with the ETS and save the world?
9. Arrivals in "Arrival" (2016): ETS - Can Professor Louise Banks communicate with the ETS and save the world?
10. Fair share, at times: ONE HALF.
11. Wigged out: WENT BERSERK.
12. "Mom" actor Corddry: NATE - His IMDB
13. Colorado tribe: UTES - Were they all underage?
14. Left on a liner: PORT - Not starboard
21. Respect, in slang: PROPS - Proper respect
23. Personal management problems: BAD HAIR DAYS
24. Text exchanges, say: CHATS
26. Film that ends with a King's speech: SELMA.
24. Text exchanges, say: CHATS
26. Film that ends with a King's speech: SELMA.
27. Big name in tablets?: MOUNT SINAI - Oh, those tablets! No electronics or pills.
29. Big lugs: LOUTS.
30. Chevy Tahoe counterparts: GMC YUKONS - They're both huge
32. Like eyes betraying nostalgia: MISTY.
34. Caduceus pair: SERPENTS - Hawkeye hardly ever wore his
36. Israeli border lake: DEAD SEA.
37. Interstellar measures: PARSECS - What is a PARSEC?
39. Mountain formation: MASSIF - What is a MASSIF?
41. Bullwinkle J. __: MOOSE - Best friend of Rocket J. Squirrel
42. __ car: toy racer: SLOT - A SLOT for every car and every car in its SLOT
43. Raise: HIKE
44. Travelers in distant circles: ORBS - We are finding out that some of those distant travelers are Earth-like ORBS going around distant suns.
45. "Keep that away from me!": BLEH.
49. "Keep that away from me!": ICK.
45. "Keep that away from me!": BLEH.
49. "Keep that away from me!": ICK.
28 comments:
Oofda! Er....Good morning!
Yes, heavy lifting was involved. Enjoyed the battle, even though I labored to create a DNF. Twenty-five minutes in, I had to "check" one answer when I was stuck in the SW. Went wrong in several places Bump/HIKE, Euros/LIRAS, I'm Off/See Ya/OK BYE. Hooray for Wite-Out. Unless I miscounted, there were only a half-dozen 3-letter answers in this grid. It was fun, Evan. Great expo, as always, Husker.
ETS -- Would also be the answer for The Arrival, a 1996 Charlie Sheen movie.
OCTAGONS -- We visited an interesting, unfinished OCTAGONal house in Natchez a few years ago.
FIWrong. Filled it in with no ta-da, so hit the check button, which showed I had OCToGONS misspelt. Hubris did me in, since I was sure of that spelling, even tho oLT didn't make sense -- maybe "old" by some pretentious prescriptivist who still uses "spelt" instead of spelled.
For Roland:
EYES BETRAYING NOSTALGIA may be MISTY,
Thinking back to the good times in our history.
Years of the past,
Before you had to pass,
Preparing my place in that land of mystery?
I guess the time has come for my COMING OUT.
It certainly is a time when all can hear my shout!
I try to be discrete,
But it knocks me off my feet!
Eh? What's that? Oh I thought you said the common GOUT!
{No grade, A+.}
DNF, but didn't struggle with this one. Finished 26 fills, 17 correctly.
FLN: Fred, I loved John Prine. I heard a cover of his "Paradise" masterpiece on the radio yesterday while driving through Frostproof, on the way to lunch in Avon Park. But my favorite is "Dear Abbey". (BTW, I love Janis Joplin music. Satchmo's as well. Guess I like the uniqueness. I can't tell the difference between today's pop tarts.)
Good Morning:
This was a mighty challenging struggle but P and P saved the day. The cluing was Saturday-devious and some of the fill was difficult to guess or parse. That said, I enjoyed the solve and was pleased that I finally FIR w/o help. I went astray at Penne/Pence, thinking Penne is almost a homophone of Penny=Cents, See Ya/Ok Bye, Creds/Props, Went Bananas/Berserk, and Yuk/Ick. I know Bleh has appeared before but 👎. Perps were needed for Sholem, Gay Bars, GMC Yukons, Serpents, and Massif. My most troublesome area was the SW because I could not think of Slot Cars for so long and Hike was slow in coming, as well. I liked the Mt. Sinai/Dead Sea and CDC/NIH duos, as well as the CSOs to Misty (Misty), Lucina (Siesta), and Ray O and Inanehiker (Serpents).
Thanks, Evan, for a Saturday stumper that I finally solved successfully and thanks, HG, for the super-duper expo. Only saw half of the links/visuals so will return for another peek.
Owen @ 6:34 ~ That was a very thoughtful tribute to Misty.
Have a great day.
A good workout from Evan this morning. I filled OPEN SINCE and OCTAGONS and then it was a sea of white for a while. The rest of the NW was the last to fall. The butterfly clue had me stumped (thanks Gary), my Genre qualifier had to change from AGE to ALT, never watched "Ellen", or heard of Cafe Lafitte in Exile.
SELMA was a WAG. SHOLEM, TESSA, & NATE were filled by perps. No other problems today.
GMC YUKONS was a gimme. An Auto twin with the TAHOE. Hyundai Palisade & Kia Telluride are also twins.
CDC, NIH, & CURE- let me know when there is a CURE for any virus. FLU, Common Cold,...etc. None that I know of; only treatments. I'm not worried about getting HIV or herpes.
LIRAS- I thought the plural of lira was 'lire'.
Finished in 21:15. Half of the time was spent in the bottom right.
Really resisted stadiums, figuring it would be stadia. Initially made the same error OwenKL did, with octogons rather than octagons. And, I went bananas before I went berserk.
As usual, I enjoy a good Saturday themeless puzzle, and this was no exception. Although I wondered if there was a theme with "coming out" and "gay bars" within the first several answers.
I mirrored the experience of IM with slow steady solving with P&P. I had a few changes that corrected by perps - changed LEAP over to LEAPFROG. I had hems for the bottom lines before SUMS. That was slowed down because I first wanted to spell BERSERK with a Z. Took me awhile to fill the Caduceus pair of SERPENTS, as I knew they were snakes but that was too short so waited for perps. DESICCANT came out of the brain recesses but took perps to recall whether it was two Ss and one C or vice versa.
Amusing clue favorites:26D Film that ends with a King's speech for SELMA; 27D Big name in tablets for MOUNT SINAI; 23D Personal management problems for BAD HAIR DAYS.
Thanks HG for the always fun write-up and thanks Evan for coming by and sharing your thoughts on the puzzle
I don't time myself, like SS and some others, but I know it took me a long time to solve this puzzle (as others have said.) Getting "sash" for "badge holder" took a while as did "massif" (which,also, was a bit of a WAG.) And I thought of "pulsars" first before "parsecs." But eventually, though considerable P & P (hello, IM!) I FIR, so I'm happy.
By the way, I'm also happy that I was able to activate my new (replacement) smartphone yesterday, and now I can text my friends and family again (I am very close to my two brothers). It's great!
Wow, that was a toughie! Made a couple of passes through the whole shebang, and only got good traction in the southeast corner, oddly. then turned on error check mode. (Hey! It's not like it's an easy peasy Monday offering!)That gave me a bit of a boost. Finally finished it in about 22 min.
A rare DNF today on this Saturday stumper! The SW finally did me in until I read Husker Gary's review down to SHODDY. Then I was able to fill the last nine squares. Same problems as already mentioned, and major spelling issues. Anyone else put Dish towel/DESICCANT? One of my major slowdowns. PROPS to those of you who FIR today!
Thanks for the brain buster today, Evan. Good challenge! And thanks to Husker Gary for clarifying the fill and contacting our constructor. It is always a learning experience.
OK BYE for now. Have a good day!
'Wow!"
I was totally not on the constructors wavelength...
(Evan must be so relieved)
Just having a bad xword day.
At one down, i put "hexagon."
Knew the "hex" was wrong, but had the "agon."
I must have tried to write "octagon" at least three times?
How does anyone spell O.C.T. Wrong?
(I must have been putting the right letters in the wrong boxes...)
And Mount Sinai was a mystery!
But luckily before I read the write up the tablet/Sinai thing
Hit me like a V8 can (really hard too!) I
I think there must have been 15 entries that totally baffled me.
No, ten! Make that ten!
The clue "big park" for stadium seemed a little unfair to me.
But I guess "arena" would be way too easy for a Saturday.
Just to ease my frazzled wavelengths,
I googled stadium synonyms and "park" is just not there?
Is this park thing a regional dialect?
CED, when I was a kid we would go out to the ball park. Granted, it wasn't a high falutin' facility. But I can see how a stadium could be called a park.
A typical Saturday puzzle with a very slow start, not helped by the fact that I began groggily at 4AM. So after flailing about for 25 minutes and not a whole lot of progress I went back to bed and slept on it for a couple hours. Things started coming together on my second attempt and ended up with a FIR w/o help in 44 minutes total solve time, but not without multiple backspaces, as I had TRENDY before SHODDY, PULSARS before PARSECS, and GMCACADIA before YUKONS (not seeing the plural). DNK SHOLEM, NATE, MASSIF, DESICCANT, or CHEFS KISS, and Caduceus is not in my vocabulary. Perps were definitely the key to getting this one done. Thank you Evan for the challenge, nice grid with Saturday worthy clueing!
HG ~~ another fine educational review! Thanks to your links I now know what PARSECS and MASSIFS are, don’t ever recall seeing the latter in a CW.
Anon@8:16- I was thinking the same as you. More people in NOLA knew of Ellen's brother Vance,musician, before she got on tv.
Well, Saturday's are always toughies for me, but I still enjoy them--especially when they're NEATO, like this one. Many thanks, Evan. And I enjoyed your helpful expo, Gary, thanks for that too.
Well, of course, my biggest thrill was finding MISTY in the puzzle. Thanks for that, Evan, and thanks for noticing with poem and comment, Owen and Irish Miss.
Do cooks really show their satisfaction with a CHEF'S KISS? Interesting.
Nice to see GAY BARS in the puzzle--something that doesn't come up very often.
Had no problem remembering that Bullwinkle was a MOOSE.
Nice picture of the scout wearing all those badges on his SASH.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Desper-otto@11:00
Ah, I see.
An American name for an American game...
Not exactly Cricket to this old ex Aussie...
Word of the Day invious
Pronunciation: in-vi-ês, in-vi-ês
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Without paths or roads, impassable, inaccessible.
Notes: Invious land is nothing to be envious of unless you are looking for wildlife. The pronunciations of these two words are very close, so remember the difference the initial letters make. This becomes a real problem in places like New Zealand and the US South, where E is pronounced [i] before [n] and [m] (nasal consonants). In New Zealand this shift occurs everywhere, so that [bid] could be bid or bed. One solution would be to use the second pronunciation.
In Play: For those of us who love the outdoors, this word specifies one of our reasons for loving it: "Our family enjoys hiking the invious areas of the Colorado Rockies." On a plane even higher than the Rockies, we can say things like, "Dermott is a valuable member of our team because he isn't afraid of driving his thinking into invious territories," giving out-of-the-box a well-deserved rest.
Word History: This Good Word comprises Latin in- "not" + via "way, road" + an adjective suffix.
For more info see Word of the Day
Thank you Evan for a wonderful Saturday puzzle, which with much wailing and gnashing of teeth I was finally able to rassle to the mat. For quite awhile I thought the CURE was INVIOUS (see W.O.D.), but after COMING OUT in the NW I CLOSED IN ON a FIR, and extended my winning streak to ONE. This puzzle gets TOP HONORS for a Saturday themeless.
Thanks Husker for another fine review and especially for inviting Evan to stop by. It seems that this Postman rings more than twice, in fact over 10K times!
The cluing in this one was really excellent, with lots clever punishment, misdirection, and connected clues.
Some Favs:
1A OPEN SINCE. D-O's lament. First fill was ETS ("Arrival" was a great flick) but OLDE SHOP(S) didn't fit or perp. Breakthrough after taking out COKE, then putting it back to find NOOKS as cozy places.
21 PHTEST. The optimal PH for a vegetable garden in the Land of Pleasant living is 7.
25A ORNATE. As musical styles go Baroque music (Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi) is not as ornate as its successors ROCOCO (Bach's sons) and CLASSICAL (Mozart and Haydn). Here's the 3rd movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #5.
24A FIDDLER. Clecho to 26A SHOLEM. "Fiddler on the Roof" is based on "Tevye's Daughters".
39A MARTYR. From the Greek for "Witness".
46A IKE. Finally got it that #n is crosswordese for "President #". We also had a VP: 37A PENCE. But I don't think that the number of VPs equates to the number of Presidents.
37D PARSEC. That calculation works out to 3.26 light years.
41D MOOSE. G.O.A.T. Cartoon series.
Cheers,
Bill
I have been a regular visitor to this blog ever since the Washington Post started publishing the LA Times crossword. I have never commented because I was copying the puzzles and solving them well after the publishing date. I just want to thank everyone involved, from C.C. who created the blog, to all the reviewers, and all the congenial commentators. I have learned much from all of you, and I am grateful.
We very much appreciate your kind comments, flowerpower, so please come back regularly. You'd clearly be a very congenial commentator.
Whoot! Nailed a Sat!
//took almost two hours (I listened to WWDTM twice) but I got it done.
Thanks Evan for the puzzle and it's background. Thanks HG for the expo; the M*A*S*H reference told me what a Caduceus is.
Tale of the Fill: NIH, ETS, COKE, NOOKS, MOOSE, PARSEC, PEN_E [s or c?], CDC, eek, CHEFS KISS, DESICCANT (two C's)...
Back to the NE - Argh, actors... Oh, CORDDRY!, not Rob so must be NATE and, just like that, filled up everything to PH(? technique? you stick an indicator strip in it). Any way, after that it was a lot of Noodlin'. SW was last to fill (orb? - but you didn't say poetic! :-))
WOs: otoe->UTES, eek-> ICK, Grocers -> GAYBARS, BAsSERK [Erik the Viking], AMC b/f GMC
ESPs: SHOLAM, CRAB (as clued), LIRAS, TESSA, BOSS (oh siGNer not isNGer!)
Fav: not that I knew this until HG's expo, but Fiddler over SHOLAM is a nice touch.
{Very nice, A}
FLN - Dick S. - LOL and good on you OWNing UP.
I did read y'all but with DW coming home after construction, I had a lot of clean up to do. That and it was her B-Day (I think 39th, (again)).
CED, I justified Stadium same way D-O; Yankee Stadium is a big ball-park. Thanks for the History of the World, Part I link.
Nice to meet you flowerpower. Feel free to drop in anytime.
PARSEC is a unit of distance.
Y'all have a great afternoon!
Cheers, -T
That was a tough one. Right side had me stumped, took a nap, and the light bulbs turned on. Thanks for a good puzzle.
Thanks, Mr. Kalish, for your well conceived PZL.
I have to say that it had me going. The upper corner (NE) was relatively easy, leading to a series of fills down the right hand side.
That set me up for a hard fall on the opposite flank. I finally had to cheat to get a toe-hold on the left.
45D was kinda tough. I didn't really expect anything between MEH and BLECH.
Main write-over? Changing MOIST to my friend, MISTY. A very nice reveal.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Three diagonals today, all on the far side.
The central diag offers an anagram (12 of 15 letters) celebrating a dance favored by certain arrivistes.
If you're been watching The Gilded Age, you will know to watch out if you're a member of the "old set" and some of the more bumptious new people take over the floor for their ...
"UPSTART POLKA"!
I didn't have any issue with STADIUMS being big parks as 13 MLB STADIUMS have park in their name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_Major_League_Baseball_stadiums
Historically some of the most famous are called that like Fenway Park and Candlestick Park
And there are currently more than the number of Fields (eg Wrigley) and Stadiums (eg. Busch, Royals, Yankee)
I loved this puzzle. Some wonderfully fiendish cluing and fresh sparkly fill. Thanks for giving me an hour of solving pleasure today, Evan.
flower power @1:40 PM. Another visitor from the 60s! Welcome, you are among friends.
Comments before reading Gary. 1. Please tell me y'all considered this hard even for a Saturday. I started early this morning and didn't fill much but I know my MOOSE and a little of the NE.
I did a bunch of things went a bunch of places and restarted about an hour ago.
Miracle!!! All squares but 2 filled. But… Since it wasn't creds* because of LEAPFROG then I'll go with ?? CROPS? and SHOLEM. And…
Let's try BLEH and hope DESECCANT works.
Now for the write-up
Aaarrrggghhhh!!!! When I changed creds I forgot the first letter, P. Duh, PH TEST . Mr Stupidity is laughing at me.
Mom is one of my favs but couldn't tell you the actor names. That goes for everything (OK, 70s Show I could guess multiple choice)
I could've got PROPS(c above); didn't know MASSIF/es
RATS, I coulda, shoulda since CHEFS and PH/PROPS was very gettable. So close. I never thought I'd come near finishing.
Thanks IM. Yes I echo the paean to Misty's dear Roland. well done, Owen. #2 rates a W, too. I've had gout, ICK
Congrats to all the regulars that FIR. I thought that a Will Shortz Sat. submission was forwarded over to Rich.
WC
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