Saturday Themeless by Debbie Ellerin
Today I am happy to blog my 9th Saturday themeless puzzle from Debbie Ellerin. She is a retired computer programmer that has moved to Los Angeles after tiring of Boston winters.
SISTER ACT: In this picture she is seen with her sister and fellow LA Times puzzle constructor Sheryl Bartol.
Across:
1. Netflix series starring Lee Jung-jae: SQUID GAME - Synopsis: "Hoping to win easy money, a desperate Gi-hun agrees to take part in an enigmatic game; not long into the first round, unforeseen horrors unfold." Lee Jung-jae is 456 in the picture
10. "Where the Impossible Becomes Possible" park: EPCOT - I've been there over 40 times and would return tomorrow.
15. MLB great who said, "Play so good they can't remember what color you were before the season started": HANK AARON.
15. MLB great who said, "Play so good they can't remember what color you were before the season started": HANK AARON.
16. Poor showing: NO ONE
17. Fried side: ONION RING - Fresh, never frozen, thank you.
18. Comfort-first footwear: CROCS.
19. Banned spray: DDT.
20. Language similar to Thai: LAO - Hello in Thai: สวัสดี (S̄wạs̄dī). Hello in LAO: ສະບາຍດີ (sabaidi)
21. Server's need: RACKET.
22. How Mulan appears for much of "Mulan": AS A MAN - Groundbreaking on gender identity
25. Bar food: SUSHI.
26. Logic game with clickable cells: MINE SWEEPER - An iPhone obsession for me
29. Laughable: ABSURD.
32. "Spread the word": PASS IT ON.
34. Short notes?: IOU'S - The note is probably short and has to be written because your funds are short
35. App glitch: BUG.
36. Costa __: RICA - In San Jose, Costa RICA, this meal cost 1990 colóns. The currency is named for Christopher Columbus, known as Cristobal Colón in Spanish.
37. Often turned down, in a way: DOG EARED.
40. Pointless tiles?: BLANKS.
42. Lucky charm: RABBIT'S FOOT.
44. Max on the drums: ROACH.
48. Charge: ACCUSE.
50. __ Vegas Aces: LAS.
53. Pupper: POOCH - An affectionate name for a dog or puppy
54. Colorado county with Mesa Verde National Park: MONTEZUMA.
57. Danish astronomer Tycho who lost part of his nose in a duel: BRAHE - His notes tracking the Great Comet of 1577. (TY coh or TEE coh, BRAH or BRAH hay or BRAH see)
58. Kudos: ACCOLADES.
59. Quite full: SATED.
60. "Perfection" gesture: CHEF'S KISS.
Down:
1. Pumped?: SHOD - Yup, pumps are shoes and in a recent Sunday puzzle, we had "Letters on some pumps: EEE"
2. Chance for some grilling: Q AND A - If I give a space talk, grade school kids are much more likely to engage me in a Question AND Answer session than high school kids
3. Hand and foot: UNITS.
4. When doubled, classic New Orleans song: IKO - This Mardi Gras song is too fun not to post!
5. "This Is Us" creator Fogelman: DAN - At the left
6. Gale player: GARLAND - Yes, Judy GARLAND played Dorothy Gale. BTW, Toto's real name was Terry. You're welcome.
7. European rocket: ARIANE.
8. Part of MSG: MONO.
9. Lang. of Ghana: ENG - 68% of Ghanians speak ENGlish
10. Boxes up: ENCASES.
11. Thief who may set off a glitter bomb package: PORCH PIRATE.
12. Gingerbread house?: COOKIE TIN - One might "house" gingerbread cookies in a tin
13. Not now: ONCE.
14. Bechdel __: TEST - New to me but interesting to learn
21. Regrets: RUES.
23. Off-menu small bite: AMUSE-BOUCHE
My granddaughter with a French major had never heard of this word/phrase
24. Orbiter until 2001: MIR.
25. Party favors: SWAG - This year's Oscar's SWAG Bag was valued at just over $137,000 and included items ranging from designer popcorn to a voucher for $12,000 worth of liposuction.
27. Future chips: SPUDS - Steve Gangwish is standing in front of a bin of SPUDS that are raised on several farms in Nebraska for Lay's Potato Chips.
28. Paper loser: ROCK.
29. Swedish folk duo First __ Kit: AID - Two sisters from Stockholm. An obscure musical reference that had a pretty obvious fill.
30. Rude, crude dude: BOOR.
31. Make easier to swallow: SUGAR COAT - Yeah, I know, you thought of this too.
33. "One Mic" rapper: NAS - No links or images from me
35. Broderick of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch": BETH - Beth is on the right. I would have known this "highest charting" Kiss song
38. Mortified: ABASHED.
39. Tahdig ingredient: RICE - "Tahdig (Persian: ته دیگ, tah "bottom" + dīg "pot") is a specialty of Iranian cuisine consisting of crisp, caramelized rice taken from the bottom of the pot in which the rice (chelow) is cooked. It is traditionally served to guests at a meal." You're welcome.
40. Brag about: BOAST OF.
41. Bowie album with "Sound and Vision": LOW - A 45-year-old album
43. Literature Nobelist Anatole: FRANCE - Okay...
47. __ table: TIMES - One place where I support rote learning
48. LAPD alerts: APB'S - Today - BOLO - Be On the Look Out for
49. Sox manager Alex: CORA.
50. Drink of Scotland: LOCH - Drink is slang for a large body of water and so... I wasn't sure about this and so I contacted Debbie. She said her cluing was "Nessie's hangout". C.C. and Irish also agreed with my take.
52. Photon's lack: MASS - CORA and MASS were givens for this baseball fan/physics teacher.
54. Bub: MAC.
55. Literal edges: ELS - LiteraL
56. Drummer Starkey: ZAK - Ringo and Maureen Starkey and young son ZAK in mid 1960's
DNF. Several blank or wrong cells, all along the left side. Once the deadwood was eliminated, I got the NW without trouble, but still had to ask the computer to fill in a triple natick:
ReplyDeleteAMUSEBoUCHE, a term I have never seen before, and two unknown proper names BETh + RoACh.
I haven't been able to rhyme for days now. I think it may be another sign of encroaching dementia.
I didn't find this puzzle to be as difficult as some Saturdays have been. The pop culture references were more well-known than usual and the misleading clues were less misleading than usual. FIR, so I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteHave I ever mentioned that I hate it when 1a isn't a gimme. No, not this week. The rest of the puzzle filled nicely, but d-o needed a quick peek to get 1d SHOD. That allowed HANK AARON to appear, and everything fell into place. DNF seems to be my aka lately. AMUSE BOUCHE and PORCH PIRATE were very nice. Thanx, Debbie and Husker.
FIW. SW corner failed. Never heard of Brahe, and the perps were no help. I still do not think proper names should ever cross in a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAmen on that. If I wanted proper name I would do the TV guide crossword
DeleteHi Y'all! ACCOLADES to Debbie for a rip-roarin' challenge. Thanks, Gary, for a soothing balm to a difficult solve.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle took me 2 seconds less time to fill than yesterday's at 35:28. At least I'm consistent. This was a WAG fest for me. First pass on the top tier had only fills of HANK AARON & RUES. HANK was a WAG. I had never heard of SQUID GAME or a bunch of other stuff including the CROCS commercial. Never worn any.
I lived in Colorado three summers sixty years ago. I have been to Mesa Verde several times since and love it there. Couldn't remember MONTEZUMA until half perped in.
Reading & CWs are supposed to be a deterrent to dementia. Sometimes I think the opposite is taking place with some crazy hard clues.
Unlike earlier in the week today relatively rapid fill on the bottom, lotsa blanks up top for awhile. TONS of unknown personal names (not a clever Saturday challenge requiring brain work..but either ya know or ya don't know, nothing cerebral)
ReplyDeleteI was headed for a DNF cuz of the NW when I finally remembered SQUIDGAME. (So now a word in English with a Q not followed by a U?) but with a couple of perps filled in all the blanks for a rare Saturday FIR. I didn't understand SHOD (just read the reveal, sorry, wrong), GARLAND (oh Judy, cute), ARIANE (huh?)...as clued
Drummer Ringo Starr: Richard but not that "Starkey" No, No, Nooo. 🎵. I remembered BRAHE Tycho from reading and documentaries about Gallileo. I knew what was intended by CHEFSKISS 😘 but didn't know the CHEF part. "Bar food" does not mean abstain or fast, 😄
New Orleans song: Alls I could think of was "Jumbalaya" (me-oh, my-oh, on the bayou)
Owen: You'll soon rhyme, just give it thyme. 😊
BTW the blog page doesn't show the whole revealed puzzle..maybe just mine
Tell George dubya a joke....AMUSEBOUCHE
Result of too many sit-ups....ABSURD
"Herman" of the "Hermits", Peter ____ NOONE
Maybe? A decent weekend finally 🌞
Maybe this has already been posted and discussed.
ReplyDeleteFor the past week or so, there is a bug in the puzzle operation.
When I click into a cell to begin a new word, the right side column (ACROSS or DOWN) does not jump to the associated clue.
The associated clue does appear on the yellow band at the top of the puzzle.
But the column does not scroll up/down to reveal the clue and become highlighted.
Does this happen for anybody else?
Thanks much.
DD
A tough Saturday and a DNF. Some clever clues and I liked porch pirate. Our new editor sure likes to inject obscure proper names. I don’t think the puzzle constructors are submitting puzzles with obscure names as it’s been a trend lately. I believe it’s our new editor putting her “mark” on the puzzles. It’s very annoying and doesn’t make the puzzle any better. IMHO
ReplyDeleteI won't SUGARCOAT it. It was an 'almost' FIR but an ultimate DNF. 1A got me. I filled S_UI_GAME, _ANDA, & _AN. Squid Game and DAN Fogelman were unknowns. I have no interest in paying for Netflix. I managed to get the rest of the puzzle. ACCOLADES to those who could FIR, I couldn't.
ReplyDeleteIt took WAGs and perps to get the rest. AS A MAN, RABBITS FOOT, MONTEZUMA, BETH, RICE, FRANCE, CORA were unknowns.
Max ROACH, Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Rufus Jones, Elvin Jones- I knew all those great drummers. Ringo wasn't even close. Didn't know ZAK was a drummer.
AMUSE-BOUCHE- 100% perps. No way in hell I would have known that.
Tycho BRAHE did all the heavy work for Kepler when it came to studying the stars.
HANK AARON- my favorite player of all time. Playing in Milwaukee & Atlanta he never got the press as the NY, LA, & SF players but he was better than any of them. Numbers don't lie. Runs, HR, RBI, & even stolen bases.
This was a challenging puzzle - but P&P paid off - similar to a Silkie. It was a big Gimme to have SQUID GAME as 1A - I haven't seen it, but it won lost of awards like Golden Globe, SAG and narrow it down to have a Korean named actor there aren't many options.
ReplyDeleteI have watched those funny videos where a PORCH PIRATE gets their comeuppance after stealing a person's package after it was delivered.
I also have a COOKIE TIN that is shaped like a gingerbread house - very meta. Similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/GINGERBREAD-HOUSE-COOKIE-JAR-TIN/dp/B005S780F2
A lot of people like capsules better for medication because the gelatin/SUGARCOATing make them easier to swallow.
I've always liked the way Tycho BRAHE's name sounds -word/trivia nerd that I am.
Thanks HG - I enjoyed the IKO IKO link - as that was an unknown. Thanks Debbie for the puzzle
Inaneh..as I read your comment I just downed 3 ibuprofen gell caps. Woke up with such a stiff back I couldn't bend over to put my socks on...🙄 and a lot.of outside work to do at camp this weekend.
ReplyDeleteOh to be 60 again..😄
Amuse bouche, sometimes amuse gueule, a not so refined term, is quite commonly used in France. However, soup and mousse would not fit the definition.
ReplyDeleteDifficult Saturday, so DNF. I didn’t know Squid Game, so didn’t get QANDA. Many proper names that stumped me. Yet lots of fun and clever clues.
I thought of going over the xword one last time since NW and BL?NKS was ??. BLANKS!! Talk about a V8 can
ReplyDeleteI didn't know squat about that SQUID GAME but I ran a mental alphabet run on ?ANDA and settled on W. Fiendishly excellent clue
Finally the last V8: IKO. To think I coulda FIR to paraphrase James
I had PORCH PiRITE making BLANKS that much tougher
The key to the BECHTEL nonsense is how the B # correlates to the P#(profit)
I translated the French and got the picture but AMUSEz (la) Bouche is someone who talks too much
Lays Chips N'AMUSE ma BOUCHE.. I like Cape Cod
I just finished "The Rise and Fall"[of Rock and Roll] which had a chapter on Bowie but I still had to perp LOW
A mix of LHF and obscure especially the pop-cul. The regular clueing was intimate ate like Q AND A.
I guess CORA is my equivalent to SQUID GAME
WC
I often skip Saturday puzzles because they're so difficult, but this one had some manageable items in different places, so I enjoyed trying it. Many thanks, Debbie, and thanks for the helpful commentary, Husker Gary.
ReplyDeleteMy first item was ABSURD for "laughable." What else could it be?
Also figured out the Pointless tiles had to be BLANKS. And that helped me get BOAST__.
Can't believe I remembered Tycho BRAHE.
And I, of course, loved getting that COOKIE TIN for the Gingerbread house.
Thanks again for all those manageable items, Debbie.
Owen, we love your rhymes--don't give up. No problem if you take a few days off, but keep trying. It'll be great if it works.
Have a good weekend, everybody!
DD. This past week I’ve been doing the puzzle online and no problems. I fervently believe gremlins inhabit the cybersphere.
ReplyDeleteThank you Debbie for a Saturday slog. With a slow but steady pace I finally won the race. I almost lost my way down in the SE, but as LOCH would have it, I prevailed. Some of the cluing on this was tricky, but it was perped well enough to get a FIR.
ReplyDeleteThank you Husker for another fine, well illustrated review. It's always great to place a face with a constructor name. Today we got two for the price of one.
Some favs (and not so favs):
1A SQUID GAME. I've not seen this series, but it sounds like an abomination, showing the depths to which the entertainment industry has sunken.
10A EPCOT. I've only been there once, but I'd go back in a heartbeat.
15A HANK AARON. Thanks for the full quote on this one Gary.
22A AS A MAN. Gender bending performances in plays and operas have been around for centuries, including young men playing women in Elizabethan plays, and in operas with women playing men (a.k.a. "trouser roles").
25A SUSHI. My favorite food. If it weren't so expensive, I'd eat it all the time.
29A AID. Had ADE for awhile as I thought it might be a pun on a Swedish name (it isn't), but it didn't perp.
34A IOUS. The reason I ditched ADE. I suspect that we've seen the clue for this before.
35A BUG. One of the laws of programming is "The definition of a complex program is one which contains at least one BUG". Corollary: "If it contains a BUG, there are undoubtedly others".
57 BRAHE and 7D ARIANE were in there somewhere and eventually drifted to the surface.
1D SHOD. Clever clue.
23D AMUSE-BOUCHE. A delicious way to get a CHEF's KISS.
31D SUGAR COAT. I recall this being themed reveal fill some puzzles back.
Cheers,
Bill
My only thought is ...
ReplyDeleteThat I WILL be "Toasting-Everyone" at Sunset.
Cheers !!!
ReplyDeleteThe clueing seems to worsen by the day. Proper names I’ve never heard of, TV shows that no one watches (or their stars), crossing each other.
If you know anyone trying to give up solving, point them here.
And this IS NOT CLOSE to a SILKIE….his were solvable and seldom if ever had as many NATIKs as we see now.
I was able to solve the whole puzzle without looking anything up, so, as Subgenius says, I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteSparkly fill that I appreciated:
HANK AARON
ONION RING
AS A MAN
MINESWEEPER
PASS IT ON
DOG EARED
RABBIT'S FOOT
ACCOLADES
PORCH PIRATE
COOKIE TIN
AMUSE BOUCHE
SUGAR COAT
ABASHED
Names I flat out did not know:
SQUID GAME
Max ROACH
DAN Fogelman
Bechdel
BETH Broderick
Alex CORA
ZAK Starkey
Of these I am likely to forget all except ZAK Starkey.
Names that I did/do know:
CROCS
Costa RICA
MONTEZUMA County
Tycho BRAHE
Judy GARLAND (and Dorothy Gale)
The French ARIANE rocket
Anatole FRANCE
SAUDI
So that's that.
Good wishes to you all.
Okay, so, let me count how many names actually crossed each other in this puzzle:
ReplyDeleteSQUID GAMES crosses with DAN, ARIANE, GARLAND, and IKO.
HANK AARON and ONION RING, same as above.
ROACH crosses with BETH.
BRAHE crosses with CORA.
MONTEZUMA crosses with FRANCE and ZAK.
A fine challenge from Ms. Ellerin.
ReplyDeleteMediated by HuskerG. FIR by moi.
Last to fill was MINE SWEEPER. I had MINE CRAFT in mind, and that kept holding me back.
Misty ~ How could we both remember BRAHE?
My worst class as an undergrad was a required course in Physics (w/ my lowest grade), and yet the guy's name stuck!
Next thing you know, we'll be recalling Kepler!! Huygens!!!
~ OMK
____________
DR: Three diagonals on the far side.
The central diag tells us with its anagram (14 of 15 letters) that French words have become common in certain professions.
Here we find a designation, formerly seen in famous kitchens, of a job that assists the chief public sales agent when Lots of art works or memorabilia or repossessed items are put up for sale.
This person often moves the items onto the stage, into public view. He or she may be designated a...
"SOUS-AUCTIONEER"!
Chen’s kiss.
ReplyDeleteMaybe???
Steve
Valerie and I worked our way through this one slowly but steadily. After an FIR we looked up Amuse Bouche just to double check. I need to start taking prevagen, or Scotch, because the Dorothy Gale reference went right over my head. Doh!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gary, for the informative and entertaining recap.
Speaking of Prevagen, does it work?
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteSaturday puzzles are usually stumpers and this one almost was but it took a long time to solve because I worked on it between doing other things, answering the telephone, etc. My first fill was MONTEZUMA. I lived in Colorado for five years and didn't actually recall that county but had the UM and it clicked.
Also for some reason Anatole FRANCE jumped out at me so I must have heard the name at some time.
Costa RICA was one of my favorite places to visit.
Though I've never seen EPCOT have heard enough about it to recognize the clue.
CROCS are about the ugliest shoes, IMO, that I've ever seen.
Has everyone been watching Mattea ROACH on Jeopardy?
MASS to me means something else entirely!
Finally, ACCOLADES to Gary for his always informative and well illustrated narrative. Thank you. Owen, please continue writing; I really enjoy starting the page with your poems.
Jayce, limited data indicates probably not.
ReplyDeleteFIW, desperately filling in blase for BRAHE. Oh yeah, that guy's name was BLAISE.
ReplyDeleteI really resisted writing DAN Fogelman, thinking it was a trap for us who would think of DAN Fogelberg.
Like WC, I thought of Bechtel for Bechdel.
Compare those inspiring words from Hammerin' HANK ARRON with the whine from journeyman NASCAR racer Bubba Wallace - "Somebody put a rope with a noose on my garage door!" (Psst - Bubba - the FBI found a picture that shows the noose had been there for a year. It's not always about YOU.)
Thanks to Debbie for the fun. This was one of those that was too hard for me, but it kept me entertained while I flailed away at it. And thanks to Gary for another gem.
This is Jayce. Yes, Lucina, I watched and remember Mattea ROACH from Jeopardy.
ReplyDeleteJayce @ 2:28 -- ROACH also crosses with RICE, another Natick (Really. how many of us have even heard of 'tahdig'?)
ReplyDeleteWHEW!!! A toughie. Got BRAHE right away (studied History of Science in U. of Copeny). Faltered on CHEF'S KISS ... thought it was VOILA! but it didn't fit. Really disliked the misdirection for DOG EARED since it has been a century since it was used as "turning down page corners"!
ReplyDelete"Speaking of Prevagen, does it work?"
ReplyDeleteI knew the answer once but now I forget
WC
Took 13:21 to finish today - had a much, much later start than usual.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know many of them.
ReplyDeleteIt was a tough, tough puzle, but I managed to complete it, without enjoying it. But thanks anyway, Debbie Ellerin.
Thank you Husjer Gary for your explabatory review blog, and Ms. Ellerin and hes sis's picture.
I did not know lots of things, The Rice in Tahdig, perped ... Tyco Brahe, I have heard as much as Kepler and Galileo etc., He was one of the first major astronomers.
Ray O Sunshine .... AMUSE BOUCHE, ... If mispronounced, would sound very, very, sexist, and would definitely make a feminist real mad .... and negate the reason for a date, in the first place ....
They could've just called it ANTI_Entree ... as in AntiPasta or Antipasto .... (Anti, being 'before'- )
One of the 'treats', common in restaurants, in the indian cities, .... that I sometimes miss here in the US, is an assemblage of Paan ( meaning 'leaf') which is given to guests, .... after lunch or dinner.
It is the leaf of a particular pepper plant, made as a wad .... with lots of sugary treats, honeyed rose petals, ... and mint, and fennel and scrapings of roasted betel nut.
The concoction, if well prepared, will freshen your breath or mouth, aid in digesting the pungent food, and give a very temporary sense of well being. It is not considered addictive like khat etc., but betel nut chewing may be considered addictive in Viet Nam etc.
It is not by any means considered as a drug or likewise, in India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
I recommend this to all ... ATLEAST, JUST ONCE ... despite the fact that raw areca or betel nut, in chronic use, has been linked as a carcinogen on oral cancer.
Google it, if interested. It may be available in some of the bigger cities in the US.
It is also available as a prepackaged wad, sealed in plastic, in some bigger indian stores.
Have a nice weekend all.
Anon at 8:02 what or where is U of Copeny? Mr Google does not know of this place.
ReplyDeleteWHEN I WAS a kid, I was in a play by Anatole FRANCE.
ReplyDeleteThis was for San Francisco's Marina Players in The Man Who Married a Dumb Wife.
I played a Harlequin character. I had no idea what the plot was about.
~ OMK