Themeless Saturday by Ella Dershowitz
Hi Gary,
When not sitting at my computer staring at tiny boxes, I am an actor. I’ve long been obsessed with solving crosswords, initially as a backstage activity and then as an always activity. I discovered constructing as a pandemic hobby and am now equally obsessed with the puzzle that is constructing. This is one of only three themelesses I’ve ever made. I was trying my hand at them, but I have since returned to the comfort of themed puzzles with their higher word counts and non-codependent corners. Major props to those who make lots of themeless puzzles - I find it so hard!
The seed entry for this puzzle was lucid dreaming. I was talking about the concept with some friends and realized it hadn’t appeared in a puzzle yet (it has since I believe). One thing I love is when I learn a new word or phrase from my dictionary while constructing. That happened here with “baby moon” - I saw it was an option for the upper right corner and assumed it was related to the moon in the sky, so I looked it up and was surprised to discover what it actually means. I also love it when editors made puzzles a zillion times better, as Patti did here with so many awesome clues. One of her additions I particularly appreciated was the love for my hometown (Boston) in the Beacon clue! Hope the solve is as challenging yet fun for you as the construction was for me!
5. Van Halen icon: HAGAR - The original front man David Lee Roth quit Van Halen to pursue a solo career and was replaced with Sammy HAGAR.
 |
| Sammy HAGAR. David Lee Roth |
10. Shortening in some cookie recipes: TBSP - Tablespoon is shortened to TBSP.
14. "Keep talking ... ": TELL ME MORE 18. "Likely story": I BET- Yeah, I BET the kitty is interested
16. Fade: WANE.
17. House blends, e.g.: TABLE WINES - In the United States, the term primarily designates a wine style: an ordinary wine which is not fortified or expensive and is not usually sparkling. You're welcome.
19. Trap during January, maybe: ICE IN.
20. "Euphoria" actor Eric: DANE - I have never seen "Euphoria" but remember him as Dr. Mark Sloan in Grey's Anatomy
21. Nej : Swedish :: __ : Russian: NYET - Omaha - "Is the answer yes or no?" Stockholm - "Är svaret ja eller NEJ?" Moscow - "Ответ да или нет?"
22. Doesn't work hard: COASTS - What a senior does during the last six weeks of H.S.
24. Sabermetrics input: DATA.
27. "The Boys of My Youth" writer Jo __ Beard: ANN - Saturday cluing 101
28. Jolly good: AOK - This event is why May 5 is also National Astronaut Day
30. Lock: SHOO-IN - House incumbents are virtual SHOO-INS for reelection
32. United in a cause: ALLIED.
35. Word with string or sing: ALONG.
36. Focus of a diary in some sleep therapy sessions: LUCID DREAMING During a lucid dream, you’re aware of your consciousness. It’s a form of metacognition, or awareness of your awareness. Often, lucid dreaming also lets you control what happens in your dream. You're welcome.
39. Campus group: SOPHS.
40. Yellowish pink: SALMON
41. "And all that": ETC ETC.
43. Forrest player: TOM - Very devious, Ella! 😁
44. Bitey dog: CUR.
47. Unlikely to pipe up: SHY.
48. Buckwheat noodle: SOBA - With sesame seeds
51. Chemical synthesized in the liver: KETONE - Here ya go
53. Sail a zigzag course: TACK - Sailing into the wind
55. Résumé concerns: GAPS.
57. Put a handle on: NAMED - Mom's sister gave me my handle
58. Gardner of mystery: ERLE - Perry Mason's creator is a familiar cwd visitor
59. Chow from a halal cart, e.g.: STREET MEAT - More info
61. Caught up to, in a way: TIED - On August 11, 1951 the NY Giants were 13 1/2 games behind the NY Giants but caught them and TIED for the NL lead on the last day of the season. Bobby Thompson then hit the most famous home run in baseball history to win the 3-game playoff series.
62. Yoga class respite: CHILD'S POSE.
63. Covers up a plot?: SODS.
64. Five Pillars faith: ISLAM.
65. Taylor-Joy of "The Queen's Gambit": ANYA.
1. Aegean peninsula: ATTICA - ATTICA contains Athens and its suburbs. The rest of the peninsula is called, uh, Rest Of Attica.
2. Boston street where Cheers is located: BEACON - It's on the corner of BEACON and Brimmer Street in Ella's hometown
3. Retailer with Outdoor Discovery programs: LL BEAN - 114 miles NNE of Cheers in Boston
4. Golden Globe winner Tracee __ Ross: ELLIS - The mom
5. Fell: HEW.
6. During: AMID - Desiderata: "Go placidly AMID the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence."
7. Reproductive gland: GONAD.
8. __ rock: ARENA - Taylor Swift is in the picture somewhere
9. Starts over: RESETS.
10. Either "Twelfth Night" sibling: TWIN - Gender bending comedy
11. Vacay for parents-to-be: BABYMOON - Cute.
12. Disdainful: SNEERING.
13. __ zoo: PETTING - Hey, as long you're PETTING us...
15. Experts who prefer open-minded people?: MENTALISTS.
23. "No need to convince me": SOLD.
25. Flashes of insight: AHA MOMENTS - Engineer Percy Spencer was working with this very radar device that emitted microwaves. Percy then noticed the candy bar in his shirt pocket had heated up and melted. AHA!
29. Ribs: KIDS.
31. "Chocolat" actress: OLIN - Lena OLIN is at the bottom of the picture and is on the left in the big picture.
32. Aleve target: ACHE.
33. Cy Young stat: ERA - The pride of Omaha had an incredible 1968 Cy Young-winning-season
34. Muscle worked by a reverse fly, for short: DELT.
36. Rake: LOTHARIO: LOTHARIO is a male given name that came to suggest an unscrupulous seducer of women, based upon a character in The Impertinent Curious Man, a story within a story in Miguel de Cervantes' 1605 novel, Don Quixote. You're welcome.
37. Repurposed creatively, as trash: UPCYCLED - Can be seen in your local Wal~Mart
38. Wildly: AMOK.
39. Elements of Petrarchan sonnets: SESTETS - A very famous Petrarchan sonnet by Emma Lazrus
44. "That can't possibly be true": COME ON.
45. Weirded out: UNEASY.
46. Herbal brew: RED TEA - Also called...
49. Mikvehs, e.g.: BATHS - Jewish ritual BATHS
50. National Scrabble Day month: APRIL.
52. City across from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge: TAMPA.
54. Shoe brand with a Kate Spade New York collection: KEDS - When I was a kid and now
60. Genre that includes techno: EDM - Play as much of Electronic Dance Music as you'd like.
36 comments:
DNF. Big time! One of the few times I was forced to fill it in with the red on full time.
Words I'd forgotten or never knew before (as clued): ATTICA, BEACON, BABYMOON, UPCYCLED, COG.SCI., RED TEA, Mikvehs (I thought it was"good deed"), TAMPA (I thought the Skyway Bridge was in the Grand Canyon), EDM, HAGAR, TABLE WINES, Sabermetrics, SHOOIN, SOBA, KETONE, STREET MEAT, CHILD'S POSE. plus a few proper names.
She took her TWIN BABIES to a PETTING ZOO.
Petting some SALMON, they wanted to do.
Typical KIDS
Wearing new KEDS --
A doctor and a lawyer, both forty-two!
A COGNITIVE SCIENTIST had a notion
She could understand the brain's emotions,
But she lost her wits
To a MENTALIST!
In TWIN LUCID DREAMS, they pledged their devotion!
{A-, B+.}
Good morning! (or is it moroning?)
Nope. "Twas not to be," he said unashamedly. Familiar with "cognoscente," but COGSCI, EDM, and ARENA Rock did me in. Could've looked at 'em forever, and still not gotten 'em. Thanx, Ella and Husker.
I had "lard" before "tbsp*". And, even though I have some familiarity with yoga from my hippie-dippie youth, it took me a good while to come up with "child's pose.". But even though this puzzle was the usual Saturday slog, I managed to FIR, so I'm happy.
DNF. SE corner did me in. Not a yoga person so child's pose meant nothing. I didn't like shoo-in, I always thought it was shoe-in. And I still think so! And arena rock? Hmmmm!
This started out a challenge - I had to solve from the NE then go down and end up in the NW- the opposite of my usual solving pattern. Like SG - I had LARD before TBSP. When I lived in Chicago the best baked goods were from the Czech and Polish bakeries in my neighborhood that all used LARD. I'm sure most of them have converted to other ingredients now due to artery clogging effects of the LARD. The coronary care unit was very busy in our hospital!
Only ATTICA I knew was the prison in upstate NY which had the riot in 1971 - but it filled by perps, originally wanted Ionian - but no perps corroborated that!
A few changes - ovary was changed to the generic GONAD and recycled got an upgrade to UPCYCLED to make LUCID DREAMING fit.
I had visited the mikvehs at Masada on the top of a mountain in Israel- so remembered they were ritual baths to symbolically make one pure. A friend originally from LA went to one there before his wedding. OKL - the good deed is a mitzvah in Hebrew.
Thanks HG and Ella Dershowitz!
Oh and I'd heard of BABYMOON since my kids and all their friends are having babies - one went off to Iceland - usually some location that you want to go to before you have kids- and squeaking it in. I personally wouldn't want to do that because of traveling especially longer distances with the increased risk of blood clots in pregnancy and would restrict it to countries/locations with good ob/neonatal care in case something happened on the trip...
When we were in that life stage couples would sometimes go on what we laughingly called the "Conception kick-off" trip- toss the birth control and go on that wish list trip but before you had to worry about travel, miscarriage, morning sickness - could still drink alcohol etc.
Oh - and I just noticed that Ella's dad Alan is the famous/infamous lawyer who represented people like OJ Simpson, Patty Hearst, Harvey Weinstein
Took 17:22 this morning.
Good Saturday puzzle - tricky with some unknowns, but doable.
EDM had to replace my ELM, because "Chill Pose" made just as much (well, more, if I'm being honest) sense to me as a "child pose" for a yoga respite. Honorable mentions for trickiest were: Lothario, CogSci, Baths, and Red Tea (not Red Sea).
I lived the "Van Halen icon" clue.
Loved! Lol
You mean there isn’t a “chills pose?” And Elm isn’t a genre of techno? Got everything else in collaboration with husband.
Hand up for a DNF today. I was totally not on Ella's wavelength today and had to keep peeking at Husker Gary's review to fill in sections I couldn't get on my own. That used to happen often when I started out doing weekend puzzles.
Your debut got me, Ella, but I look forward to more chances to solve your puzzles. Thanks for the introduction today.
And many thanks to Husker Gary for a very needed review today. Your explanations were essential as well as entertaining.
I had our old favorite crossword fill "oleo" for the shortening in some cookie recipes. Also thought of lard since Crisco and butter didn't fit.
Hope you all have a sweet day!
DNF,
Thanks to the Blog for splainin' tbsp as "shortening used in cookie recipes."
Brilliant! Just brilliant!
I still don't understand (blank) rock as "arena" though...
Great write-up, Gary, but did you really have to bring up Bobby Thompson (my mom was from Brooklyn)!? :-)
Expecting family company shortly.
Above my pay scale. I can get a FIR most Fridays and Sundays, but few Saturdays. I did get a rare FIR last Saturday.
See you all later this evening.
Argh. I always struggle with change and I’m finding these crosswords with the new editor are too easy. What’s weird is the puzzles I think aren’t challenging enough others struggle with and the puzzles I slog through are a breeze for others. I miss a challenging Wechsler and I hope he’ll be back. I’m hanging in there to see how this all nets out.
Ella placed way too many unknown clues and answers for this geezer to FIR or even FIW; just a DNF. I filled the SW and everything to the right of AHA MOMENT but the NW & N was almost all white. I penciled in ABLE, knew GONAD, figured it would be either ICE IN or INICE but that was it. ATTICA, BEACON, Jo ANN Beard, Eric DANE, LL BEAN or DATA(as clued), ELLIS, and ARENA rock were unknowns and didn't give the spanners a chance.
The South wasn't much better. SELA & APRIL (or March) were gimmes but even with MEAT & POSE on the grid, Mikvehs, STREET MEAT, CHILDS POSE, & COG SCI were four unfamiliar terms. I'd never heard of UPCYCLED (only RE), LUCID DREAMING or BABYMOON but I got those.
GAPS for 'Resume concerns' didn't register as I'd never had to write one.Lucky.
LOTHARIO because David Lee Roth's rendition of Louis Prima's "Just a GIGOLO" wouldn't fit.
EDM- no idea; one letter short of a cheese and I'll pass on your offer to "Play as much as you'd like".
inanehiker- ditto for LARD & OVARY before changing them.
Mister Canoehead- I wanted EDDIE for the Van Halen clue but GONAD wouldn't allow that.
JudyB- with Patti in control I've noticed more proper names and if you're not into TV, movies, or the rest of A&E they are harder to finish. I watch no tv shows or movies.
I was defeated this morning. Too any unknowns and proper names. Oh, well. Next time.
I don’t know why I’m asked to log in to Google each time now.
Between Friday and today, consecutive FIW, can’t remember that happening, but hats off to the constructors and editor, they aren’t supposed to be easy on these days and I enjoy the challenge, and if I can’t get a FIR I know I am learning new things and hopefully retaining them in the memory bank for the next time the same words/clues appear. A very fine piece of work Ella and Patti, always nice to see the constructor base expanding with fresh ideas and will look forward to more of your work Ella! Today I was done in by the Deep South central, DKN COGSCI, EDM, CHILDSPOSE, or what a Mikveh was, but perps brought me within a couple letters of a successful solve before I clicked on “reveal grid” after nearly an hour.
HG ~~ as I’ve come to expect on Saturday’s, a fine illustrative review and very educational, thanks for your time and effort for all to enjoy!
JudyB ~~ I very much agree with your assessment, some puzzles that I find extremely difficult, others find easy and breeze through, and vice versa, I guess it all depends on an individuals field of knowledge 🤷🏼♂️.
Puzzling thoughts:
Does finishing it correctly count if you have to look up half the answers?
Street meat?
Up cycled?
Cog sci?
Gonad? Are all body parts fair game now? We had nipple ring a week ago, yesterday. Don't mean to "snipe", but how soon until we see the anagram of "snipe"?
Look, I'm no prude. But I'm feeling a bit curmudgeonly. I fear that those of us who are among the"older Boomers" (and older than that) will soon find these puzzles less fun to solve
Rant over
Heading to the pool
I like Zandon and White Abarrio in today's KY Derby
A puzzle with multiple AHAMOMENTS but yet alas a DNF (stopped with about 3/4 filled).. my excuse is watching my 13 yo granddaughter perform in a made-for-kids version of "Into The woods" and then my grandson's soccer game.... during our Mothers' Day weekend at my daughter and SIL's in Massachusetts. "ILLBET" you say? "COMEON"? You just didn't know the answers!!! 😉
So per our constructor (based on her picture is she old enough to be using words like GONAD? 😳)...BABYMOON is really a thing. Hmm...so that vacation my folks took to Atlantic City NJ in August 1949 (four months after their Niagara Falls honeymoon) explains where I came from 9 months later.👼
Lotsa unknowns or as we say especially on Saturday...learning moments..."Sabermetrics"? (sword size?), "Ross"? HAGAR (not the horrible one) CHILDSPOSE, EDM...ETCETC...
But happy to see a familiar CW actress, SELA.. (today not an actor I guess). ...Don't get ARENA rock... Mistakenly read "Mine" field. 🙄
Inkovers: safron/SALMON, lard/TBSP (cleverrr!) , countingsheep/ LUCIDDREAMING,(Kept reading dairy instead of diary🙈), mum/SHY, ovary/GONAD, rbi/ERA ,
Disdainful cabal....SNEERING
Cerebral inventory....MENTALISTS
KIDs reaction to, "finish your dinner!" ....TABLEWINES
This may be old but true...
Them: "Ray where r u from?"
Me: "Utica, NY"
Them: "Oh that's where Cornell Univeristy is."
Me: "No that's Ithaca."
Them: "Oh that's where the prison is"
Me: No, that's ATTICA! 🙉
plus I thought ATTICA was a Greek city not a peninsula, "Peloponnese" way too long
The soccer game just started and I'm freezing🥶
Nope. This was beyond me. I tried but...Nope.
Just as I suspected!
Yesterday's XWD was so EZ it was an accurate predictor of today's near-impossible challenge.
Kudos to Ms. Dershowitz for coming up with this monster. And an extra round of claps for Husker G's manly reception, both courteous and unshaken. (I will not say UNEASY.)
There are (IMHO) two kinds of tough PZLs.
I only discover which I'm dealing with when I start to cheat.
In the first, I metaphorically strike my head & utter "Doh!" These make me feel bad, because the fills tell me I should have persisted. I knew these answers but was just too *#@! LAZY.
Today's is the 2nd type. These fills are beyond my capacity to supply. Oh sure, I could have figured TOM as the "Forrest player." I think I even knew (far in the back of my so-called mind) that SOBA is the name of Japanese "buckwheat noodle"s.
But COG SCI as the abbreviated answer to "Mind field"?-- and ETC ETC as the doubled-up answer to "And all that"? My brain (Ol' Faithful) just won't stretch in those directions.
(I can hear it still: "Lemme alone, Keith!")
I can only be respectful of Ms. Ella and feel grateful that I bailed when I did.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Four diagonals, three on the near side.
The central diag offers up an anagram (13 of 15 letters) in tribute to Italian opera, especially to that music which is so yummy--
packed with umami--
as to include edible songs.
Of course, I refer to...
"EATABLE ARIOSI"!
Oh, I must add a special Thanks for 10A.
I'm proud of cracking that one before I quit.
The fill was like 15D, one of those sweet mental alignments of constructor, editors, and me.
~ OMK
Hi Y'all! Groan! Whine! 47:33 minutes to fill with red letters blazing the trail. You live in a different world than I do, Ella. Hope your actress job becomes full-time successful.
Thanks, Gary, for soldiering on & making sense of stuff we never needed to know.
Knew mikveh from Faye Kellerman's first novel, "The Ritual Bath". Must have read that book at least 4 times many long years ago. Could I think of it today. Nope. Not until I stumbled on a "b" to start.
WEES except I didn't give up and quit. Stubborn to the core.
Never heard of LUCID DREAMING or therapy connected. I do a lot of L.D. but I'm not going to keep a diary. The content is beyond private.
Nope nope nope. No way. Impossible for me.
Well, I managed to get the Paxlovid yesterday, took a dose (three pills: two pink, one white) last night and the second dose today. Today the "brain fog" set in, and Google pretty much did the CW for me. I did fill all the cells correctly in 45 minutes with LOTS of Google cheating. I'm actually surprised I managed to fill it at all, even with Google's help. So, is that a FIR? Don't think so. 1A could have been ABLE or HALE. And so it went. Too many DNKs to list. Well, I've been out of bed for over 4 hours now (LOL) so time to go back to bed. Thanx, ED, for the Saturday level CW. Thanx HG for the terrific write-uo.
Ditto... I'm part of the DNF crowd! Too many defs came from the constructor's brain, not any on line dictionary or info spot. That makes solving a guess at how the constructor's brain functions...something that's difficult to do. But isn't that the editors' responsibility to do??
Dear all:
In light of the almost total DNFs shown above -- and mine now being reported -- I propose that we file for a Disaster Emergency Allocation from FEMA -- and pronto! (A refreshing air drop of mint juleps wouldn't hurt.)
I'd also like to second Chairman Moe's rant at 2:22, and OMK's definition of 'Class 2.'
Thank you Ella Dersh--- for a very challenging themeless CW, which I finished with a lot of lookups, and unfortun did not enjoy at all.
In retrospect, I can well imagine, that I, a definite NON-PUZZLE Consructor could very well compose a CW puzzle with arcane clues, that I bet most of you would find impossible to solve without copious lookups ...... For starters, how many of you have heard of the Apgar scores ???? ... or Linus Pauling's middle name .... or what prizes he won ? Also who knows what the Best scientist is known for ????
Thanks also to Husker Gary for a very nice and clear blog review. I especially read and liked the article on NYC Halal Meats ... although I would never eat sTREET FOOD ... even in the heart of american cities...
There were lot of Learning Moments, and I took the opportunity to get an education .... of sorts.
I now remember Baby Moon, ... especially, 14 years ago ..... in case of one of my neighbor's daughters who went to Roma, Italy when pregnant ... ate some lobster ( she was a vegan ...) by mistake, got a serious reaction and Epi shock, went into a coma, had to be air lifted to the US, and eventually never recovered ... and died 5 years later .... sad sad story.
Inane Hiker's point on going to nearby places, where excellent prenatal and med care is available for a Baby Moon, is a Very Good Point 1!!!
Of course, the best choice, is to stay pat ..... at home, at peace and rest ... or avoid having a Baby in the first place, until you are totally and perfectly ready ....
I know enough Hebrew to know the difference between Mikveh and Mitz-vah. All my jewish neighbors here ... B T W , apropos to inanehiker, .... I though the Mikbeh's were ONLY for women, who had just finished their monthly periods of menses, of menstruating ... I did not know that even Men have to go through the mikveh ....
have a nice evening, all.
Moe, you fell for the Derby Hype. If you read about the winning horse's workouts, history, etc., it should not have been as shocking as the tv prognosticators want you to believe. I had to give up betting for Lent; I lent all my money to sure thing gamblers.
DNF. A complex Saturday puzzle with hard clues and made even harder with proper names from TV.
Vidwan @ 7:41 -- I think I can match your imposing challenge about Apgar scales and such, and counteroffer with: the name and rank of the founder of the capital of Georgia.
[It's Saint King Vakhtang 1, founder of Tbilisi in Georgia, truly obscure enough to match "STREETMEAT" OR "COGSCI"!]
Hi All!
Big Time DNF.
I only got ABLE, NYET, IBET, BABYM___, MRI, PETTING zoo, UPCYCLE, SHY, ISALAM, APRIL, EDM (hear a lot of EDM at hacker meet-ups) on my 1st pass and it was slow going until I got cheats from HG's grid (Hi ATLGranny!)
Thanks Ella for the puzzle and congrats on the LAT debut.
Thanks you HG for the fine review and providing a cheat-sheet.
Fav: LUCID DREAMING.
I read about it in Omni magazine years ago and practiced doing it. Basically, once you realize your dreaming you can control it. To tell your dreaming, get in the habit (while awake) of reading things, putting it down, the reread it -- if they match you're probably not dreaming.
{B+, A}
Interesting DR, OMK :-)
Welcome to The Corner, Team Joy & Bill.
Unclefred - So sorry you caught COVID. It's not fun but they have better drugs since I had it. Take care.
Michael - I don't think STREET MEAT is obscure; I've heard it many times.
CED - LOL suicide comic.
Enjoyed reading everyone!
Cheers, -T
I don't know if I should still feel bad about the one square FIW or good about coming so close. For the record after one hour I still had mostly white.
I find if I've been thinking hard about clues for a (relatively) long time answers will click in.
It's a great advantage to have the puzzle available prior to Saturday although I don't solve too early else I'll have completely forgotten it.
Lemonade apparently very few checked those workouts since the horse v80-1. Betsy came by looked at the horse and said "Anyone could see by looking at him that he'd win"
WC
Puzzling thoughts:
Lemonade @ 8:10:
FTR, I did not have any money on this year's Derby. Had I actually bet $, I'd have boxed the 1-3-10-15. I was unaware that Rich Strike drew into the field until I started watching, so I never checked the colt out. His pedigree suggests the distance is no problem. He looked like he could easily go farther, so I won't be surprised if he runs well in the Belmont
I've been following the ponies since the late 1970's. I don't think I've ever seen such a large payout for a Superfecta. It was over $350K for a $1 ticket ...
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