Saturday Themeless by Enrique Henestroza Anguiano
Enrique is a new constructor for me at the Saturday Themeless Depot and I have to tell you I had a great time. I finished in very good time, loved the clever fill and had great confidence in the names I knew not. Enrique has a great website full of crossword wit and wisdom at https://datalexic.com
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| Enrique's Oakland, CA Employer https://www.askmediagroup.com |
1. Tools that may cause webpages to go down: SCROLL BARS - What a hoot to start with such a clever clue
11. Ersatz: SHAM - Yeah, I put FAKE first
15. "I said what I said": YOU HEARD ME.
16. Grilled fruit in tacos al pastor: PINA - Pineapples (PINAs) are often included in tacos al pastor (in the style of the shepherd).
17. Relaxes: SETS AT EASE.
18. Uses one's discretion: OPTS.
19. Cardinal pts.?: TDS - The NFL's Phoenix Cardinals score TDS
20. Racetrack doc: VET.
21. Takes the wrong way: SWIPES - STEALS could have worked
23. Confer (upon): BESTOW.
26. Words of concession: I LOSE - Tipping over your king in chess is a silent way of conceding
27. Second cousin?: MOMENT - Wait a second/MOMENT
30. French region that produces GSM blends: RHONE - "The acronym “GSM” is a short-hand reference for a red wine blended from these three 33. Grenache, Syrah, or Mourvèdre, e.g.: RED GRAPEs
32. Juvenile retort: ARE SO.
37. Home of the Kraken: SEATTLE.
37. Home of the Kraken: SEATTLE.
40. Streaming option: NETFLIX.
41. Champurrado, for one: HOT DRINK - A thick, Mexican chocolate drink
43. Goddess of peace: IRENE - Also spelled Eirene
45. Motes: SPECKS - Luke 4:41 And why beholdest thou the MOTE that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
46. Worshipper of the sun god Huitzilopochtli: AZTEC - "Huitzilopochtli (weet·see·luh·powch·tuh·lee) is the
49. Neglect: DISUSE - My bicycle has fallen into a state of DISUSE.
51. Roughly 3.26 light-years: PARSEC - PARSEC and light-years are both astronomy units that are measures of distance and not time. Google if you must.
53. "Candidly," initially: TBH - To Be Honest, I just learned this phrase in this Justin Daneau puzzle of July 11, 2022: 51. "Frankly," in texts: TBH.
54. White lie: FIB - I've told a few that spared some feelings. "Does this ___ make my ___ look ___?"
57. Brouhahas: ADOS.
51. Roughly 3.26 light-years: PARSEC - PARSEC and light-years are both astronomy units that are measures of distance and not time. Google if you must.
53. "Candidly," initially: TBH - To Be Honest, I just learned this phrase in this Justin Daneau puzzle of July 11, 2022: 51. "Frankly," in texts: TBH.
54. White lie: FIB - I've told a few that spared some feelings. "Does this ___ make my ___ look ___?"
57. Brouhahas: ADOS.
58. In person: FACE TO FACE.
62. Ready: RIPE.
63. Protester's medium: OPEN LETTER - In August of 1963 Martin Luther King wrote an OPEN LETTER from the Birmingham, AL jail that helped change history. Here's all 5 1/2 pages of it
64. Set (up): TEED - This obvious golf reference also applies to comedy straight men as well who have TEED/Set up jokes for their partners. Dean Martin made millions doing it but got tired of it.
65. Like maple-glazed bacon: SALTY SWEET - My fav candy bar is too.
Down:
1. Pt. of GPS: SYST.
2. Like some softball teams: COED.
4. "Ex's & __": Top 10 hit for Elle King: OHS.
5. Good motto to follow in a National Park: LEAVE NO TRACE - Amen!
6. Most recent: LATEST.
7. Royal involved in baseball's Pine Tar Incident: BRETT - BRETT later joked it was lucky that his teammates kept him away from 6'6" home plate umpire Tim McClelland who disallowed BRETT'S home run because of the pine tar too far up the bat.
8. Canine care org.: ADA - Our canine teeth not our dogs
9. B&B units: RMS - Rooms
10. California-based chocolate brand: SEES - The mammoth Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha has featured them for decades.
11. Like a review that's not very revealing?: SPOILER FREE - Hey, don't mention anything about Norman Bates' mother in the review.
12. Semiaquatic mammal: HIPPO.
13. Stud fees: ANTES - You have to ANTE to play stud poker
14. En __: MASSE.
22. Footwear with overlays: WING TIP SHOES - I wore my Florsheims until they literally fell apart.
24. NHL legend: ORR.
25. Question of time: WHEN - It's not a question of if, it's a question of WHEN.
27. Beer-brewing mixture: MASH - MASHING is the term given to the start of the brewing process, where crushed grains are mixed with water to form a porridge-like mixture called the MASH.
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| Copper Beer MASH Tun |
29. Charcuterie fare: MEAT.
31. Elizabeth Acevedo's "__ to the Head Nod": ODE - Here it is
34. Actor Guinness: ALEC - What Sir ALEC really thought of playing Obi-Wan
35. Sakura color: PINK.
38. Cap: LID - I tip mine to you if you knew this author 47. "White Teeth" novelist Smith: ZADIE.
39. Diana Rigg's first name: ENID - I was "today years old" when I learned this.
42. Fish that symbolize love and friendship: KOI.
45. With nuances: SUBTLY.
46. In pieces: APART.
48. Familiar theme: TROPE - TV/Movie TROPES about elderly people
50. Angioplasty tube: STENT.
52. Fiscal execs: CFOS - Chief Financial Officers
54. Lot: FATE.
55. Frozen brand: ICEE.
56. "Sesame Street" roommate: BERT.
59. "The Hate U Give" actor KJ __: APA - Rock solid crossers necessary!
60. Disneyana collectible: CEL - CEL drawer/painters have gone the way of the rotary dial telephone.
61. Celebratory acronym: FTW - I'll take Leslie Ugams For The Win
We invite you to comment below, Enrique.
39 comments:
Xxxxxxxx X Sad to hear that our Becky passed. A late poster.
An agonizing FIR pour moi. SUBTLY took some work and caused massive inkovers in SE saved by STENT, OPEN LETTER and finally perping in SALTY SWEET.
The West had issues* since I forgot (The) Kraken was a team and a 3ltr fish? Cod?, Ahi?; Diana's first name?
I went to sleep with a lot of white and then the squares filled
Now to read Gary's take. This one was unusually easy until it became very hard. Very little pop-cul (Korean rapper?)
I'll just post now
WC
* NtSo Champurrado????
Gary, loved the write-up I started to ink 'real' for Ersatz until SHAM perped
I like PINA al Pizza
Oh my, the KRAKEN are NHL? I've really abandoned hockey. I loved ORR but a big college bball game was OPTed out for the Bruins one night and I gave up hockey. Played on the ponds on skates 3 sizes too big but quit to focus on bball
I had a brain seizure on 'Neglect'. Had (not)USE at first
I just read MLK's letter. I love the quotes
I had malt/MASH; When I saw Star Wars I agreed with ALEC completely. Rubbish
WC
Good morning. Thank you, Enrique, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Tried LEAVE NOThing before TRACE because I had IncaN before AZTEC. Also had Steals before SWIPES. Plus, RED wines before GRAPE. Despite those miscues, it all came together FTW !
Gary, your use of "today years old" cracked me up.
Sorry to hear about Becky.
Subgenius, glad that you are now able to use your Blogger profile from your iPhone.
Good morning!
Not a chance. That San Francisco area just would not come together. It maybe would have helped if d-o realized that the Kraken was a sports team. The rest of the grid was complete, but a Wite-Out mess. BEST DRESSEs, LEAVE NOThing (Hi, Gary), and YOU HEARD it, for example. Thanx for the challenge, Enrique, and for the tour, Husker. (Could the AZTECs really not tell the difference between a hummingbird and an eagle?)
Sorry to hear about Becky. She never let on that she was having health issues.
Yes, thanks to you,TTP! Thanks a million! As to the puzzle, I wondered if the correct term was “disuse” or “misuse” but thought “Enid” was a more likely name than “Enim” and I was right. Also, I didn’t know what “FTW” stood for until I read it from our moderator (“today years old?) Other than that,it was the usual Saturday slog. FIR, so I’m happy.
O.K., O.K., I know people are gonna post that they FIR in like 5 minutes. But it took unclefred one hour and three minutes to FIR. 12D OTTER was stuck there seems like forever. I wanted FAKE for 11A, but that didn’t work with OTTER. Consequently, the NE was a huge problem and the last to fill. PINA and OPTS finally got the OTTER to swim away and make room for the HIPPO. 1A also stymied me for the longest time. 6D NEWEST turned out to be wrong, but it persisted for too long, too. When SCROLLBARS finally appeared it took a while for the V-8 can to hit. BESTDRESSED is is NOT a good description of 23D Red carpet list. That would be VIPs, ELITES, ATEAM….none of which fit, but BESTDRESSED is not …. enough on that subject. Anyway, an overall struggle to complete this CW. There are too many DNKs to list. CWs always remind me of the many areas that remain of which I am appallingly ignorant. Who was it that said, “The more you learn, the more you recognize your own level of ignorance”. Well, I badly butchered that quote, but it was something like that. I don’t know if I can say this CW was fun, but, anyway, Thanx, EHA. And thanx too to HG for the terrific write-up. I read the entire letter you linked from MLK Jr., and it is really interesting that so much of which he speaks has seen improvements, yet so much persists, and in some cases is regressing. I also loved the definition HG inserted “The cry of the devil disguised as clergy.” Wow!!
Good Morning:
I finished w/o help in average Saturday time but the first pass yielded very little fruit, so things looked bleak. Eventually, the long answers began to fill in and provided toeholds here and there which, in turn, led to the Tada! The cluing for several entries had me stymied, to wit: Seattle, Hot Drink, Aztec, Pink, Koi, Enid, and Apa. I thought the Kracken was the mythical monster and only learned of the hockey team from the write-up, I never heard of Sakura or Champurrado or Huitzilopochtli or Apa, not to mention Diana Rigg’s first name or that Koi was a symbol of anything. I also stumbled over Minute/Moment, Newest/Latest, Malt/Mash, and Misuse/Disuse. I appreciated the abundance of sparkling fill, especially the long answers, the relatively low three-letter word count, and some clever cluing. I would have preferred non-proper name cluing for Sees, Ohs, Ode, and Cel, but I fear that trend has become a trademark of the editorial staff.
Thanks, Zachary, for a challenging, yet ultimately doable solve, and thanks, HG, for your always entertaining and enlightening review and the terrific eye candy graphics. I especially enjoyed the Charcuterie board as last night’s birthday girl arranged a stunning one for pre-dinner snacking. I’ll take a tip of your hat as I knew Zadie Smith, not from reading her books, but from reading book reviews.
FLN
Lucina, condolences on the loss of your uncle. Safe trip.
RIP, Becky.
oc4beach, our corn season is basically the same as yours and I have corn every night, if possible, for the entire season. We call the bi-color corn Butter and Sugar. My motto is “A Day Without 🌽 Is A Day Without ☀️.”
Have a great day.
FIR! Even me! Saturday! But erased akc for ADA, I give for I LOSE, eggo for ICEE, and after resisting overwhelming evidence for a long time, en garde for en MASSE.
Two NHL nods today. Can't wait for the season to start. Unlike MLB and NBA, its salary cap has teeth and force teams to set free players they would really like to keep.
The motto I follow in pristine places is the old reliable "take only pictures, leave only footprints".
Thanks to EHA for the Saturday-worthy puzzle, sans a lot of pop-cult nonsense. My favorite was the clue for ADA. And thanks to HG for your unending wit.
After a long struggle in the NE, I FIR! In the end I had to resort to a different color of ink in the near-solid squares to see my fill. What a feeling of accomplishment now! Thanks, Enrique, for a properly challenging Saturday puzzle.
Thanks, Husker Gary, for explaining the puzzle today. I was close to giving up although the rest of the puzzle wasn't so hard. Many of your comments about the puzzle, I agreed with. Hand up for knowing Zadie.
Unclefred, you finished faster than I did today. I had fake/ SHAM, otter/HIPPO, steals/SWIPES, suite/MASSE and numerous tries for I LOSE. Enrique, my long study of Spanish failed me today when it took so long to come up with PIÑA. A couple of minor WOs otherwise.
FLN Sorry to hear about Becky's death. I remember her posts.
And welcome to Sumdaze! Does your avatar mean you bicycle regularly? That was my main exercise before I broke my kneecap. Now I march around the neighborhood as Desper-otto calls it.
Hope you all have a splendid Saturday!
PS, I forgot to acknowledge that this is Enrique's debut. Come back again!
Finished in 11:47, but had "misuse" instead of "disuse." Never saw "Enim".
So, UncleFred, congratulations. I'm jealous.
Didn't know, well, a lot: KJ Apa; GSM blends, Champurrado, "Disneyana", FTW, Acevedo or her work, nor Zadie nor his/her work.
I love the "Leave No Trace" motto, and have followed it for years.
Uncle Fred, I, too, had "otter" for a while before I got "hippo." But I figured that 26 A would be "I lose" or "I lost" so I learned the error of my ways.
Enjoyed the puzzle and your write-up. I appreciate learning the Aztec pronunciation. Fun to see your Nebraska reference to the Furniture Mart.
Maybe the correct quote is, "The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know"?
Whatevs.
"The more I learn the less I realize I know." Socrates. Found the correct quote.
I thought it was "The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get."
That's definitely true!
Another PS to my earliest message
FLN: Lucina @4:14 PM
I hope your road trip to the funeral of your uncle goes well today. It looks like a hot day for you, but maybe you will be in the mountains and cooler when you get there. Traveling with your granddaughter gives you time to reminisce.
Sad to hear about Becky our friend from TV land. As others have already said the puzzle contained many unknowns, so I now will learn if I retain any of this information. Thank you HG and welcome to our world Enrique.
Most enjoyable Saturday puzzle that I have ever attempted,
probably because it is the one Saturday in which I cheated the least and had a suss fest.
(I did have to look up Sakura, and figured out it wasn't a Japanese restaurant...)
At the same time, it had all those impossible, unknown, unknowable clues that made no sense,
and yet were sussable via the perpage eked out letter by letter.
Quite the satisfying enigma...
Enid? Not Emma?
Knew Kraken came from the sea, but was surprised when it turned out to be Seattle..
The only nit (if there is one) would have to be "set at ease?" I just feel the clue was devious.
Hmm,
Now I realize what set me off, it's not "set" at ease, it's "sets" at ease..
A fun puzzle. I think the clue for 16A should of been “ the fruta in tacos al pastor “ as the answer was pina not pineapple.
Hard but doable puzzle. I too had otter because I had MOCK instead of SHAM. That got corrected once I found the HIPPO.
I just now understand 1A. Duh.
Uncle Fred: you beat me to the Socrates quote. Plato wrote in “The Apology” about Socrates making this point when he tried to explain why the oracle had declared him the wisest man. He proved that he was wiser than many of the people he interviewed on the streets of Athens because they thought that because they were knowledgeable about one subject, it made them experts on everything. Socrates at least knew that he was not the wisest, so that made him a wise man.
Have a nice weekend all.
Hand up STEALS before SWIPES had me stuck in that area. No idea about ZADIE, APA or FTW. ESP. Learning moment about ENID. And KRAKEN.
SEES because "Ghirardelli" would not quite fit. Tough but fair puzzle. FIR.
Here is my video of AZTEC dancers in our Fiesta parade before COVID.
Good to see PARSEC. PARallax of one SECond of arc. If you close one eye at a time you can see things move left or right due to PARallax. Cosmic distances are so vast that at one PARSEC, the PARallax is only one SECond. A SECond being one 3600th of a degree. The visible universe is billions of PARSECs across! Meaning there is no way we can estimate those distances by PARallax. Very clever techniques are needed!
Beautiful day by the lake Made breakfast for DW and DD...couldn't get a toe hold on the puzzle...opted to unlax (One of my Dad's silly terms) and just review the review...so now I C Y.....lots of superlative clever clues and unknown PN's. Admire all the FIR's, I wouldn'ta been one of you. 😁
The traffic into Old Forge, our adirondack village, is backed up. The Water Park, Water Safari is open and there the annual Antique Show this weekend. This antique will probably check it out tomorrow.
Enjoy the rest of the weekend
🌞
D-O: A corollary to your quote: "We never seem have time to do it right, but we always find time to do it over."
Hi All!
I too made an inky mess in NE w/ otter, otps [dyslexia], and steels [sic].
Thanks, Enrique, for the doable Saturday grid - some real fun in there.
Great expo, HG. Thanks for Sir Alec's letter link and defining FTW.
WOs: NE is mess, Trap->TEED, SUBTLe, TaPSHOES | aRENE
ESPs: OHS, ENID, ZADIE, AMA, FTW
FUN: SCROLL BAR's clue, George BRETT, LEAVE NO TRACE, SPOILER FREE, ANTE's clue.
Fav: RHONE over RED GRAPE - I'm sure these didn't slow C. Moe down at all.
Uncle Fred - I listened to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell me 1.5x during my solve (show is an hour long).
I wanted wort before MASH showed.
We always get SEES chocolates when visiting DW's aunt in SFO.
Eldest made this charcuterie spread for MIL's b-day party.
Jinx @8:07 - that's the motto we learned in Boy Scouts.
Jinx @12:42 - Pop would say to avoid doing it over or if you tried to cut-corners on anything: "If you don't have time to do it right, then don't do it 'cuz you will never find the time to fix it."
Speaking of time... Gotta run. Cheers, -T
Xxxxxxxxx WC
Picard, we've found the children. How many of those parades do you have ?
SUBTLY was a nuanced clue. Tried softly first. And superSWEET on that bacon.
A curiously do-able Saturday PZL from Mr. Henestroza Anguiano, unpacked for us by our own HuskerG.
I say "curiously do-able" not just because it is relatively EZ for the end of the week, but that it follows a comfortable Friday.
Hasn't it generally been true that soft Fridays are followed by hard Saturdays? Eh?
Don't mistake me, it was still a challenge, just not in the same league as our toughest.
PARSEC ~ Question for our astronomy buffs:
I get why HG says this is a measure of distance, not time, as the "second" refers not to the clock but to a portion of arc.
BUT given the vastness of our subject, isn't it accurate to say that this is a measure of BOTH distance AND time*?
Aren't ALL distances in space and ALL timings automatically spacetime?
Just wonderin' ...?
~ OMK
___________
*DR: And speaking of space/time, I must point out, sadly, that there are no diagonals today.
Excellent. Time well spent. My only miscue was wines for grape, even though the number didn't agree. Thankful for two or three that filled themselves. Yes, in space, time is as essential as a coordinate as 3D location since all is in motion: There, but when there?
I had high hopes for today when my first fill was a long one, Leave No Trace; but, ultimately, I could not work out the Kraken clue. Nevertheless, plenty of fun wordplay --"scrollbars" being my favorite.
When I lived in Japan, I partook in the Japanese custom of o-hanami (observing & enjoying the cherry blossoms -- sakura さくら ). It's a lovely memory. Everyone's mood was as light as the delicate petals.
ALTGranny @ 8:36 et al. Thank you for the welcome! Yes, my bicycle is my preferred mode of transportation!
Re. "observing & enjoying the cherry blossoms"
An April rite of passage in Washington DC. I was mostly occupied by OCS that April of 1968
Arm-chair physicists say... OMK - Distance is NOT time. Time dilates in a gravity-well and the faster you go the greater the mass dilating time. But, far-ness / distance doesn't change a bit - at least until we discover new physics. #BeamMeUp :-)
I await being corrected by those more knowing (Quantum much?) than I.
Sumdaze (aka Renee) - I mistyped your moniker yesterday. Apologies.
But, I'm glad you brought up Cherry Blossoms.
Like WC, I was in DC (doing an IT gig at USDA for 18 weeks) for an April bloom - Japan's gift to the US makes DC not so swampy once a year. Totally amazing.
Cheers, -T
Not the Krakens but the Astros just put down SEATTLE for the series win. Tomorrow for the sweep? //Sorry, Michael [that is where you post from, no?]
Verlander [Twitter vid] was on fire. C, -T
Sorry to learn about Becky.
In my backcountry days the motto was Pack It In Pack It Out so I first went with that - but it would not fit the allotted space.\
Speaking only for myself, solving quickly has its appeals but those are far down the list. The journey from WTF to FIR or FIW (but close) is, for me far more smile-inducing.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Enrique, I enjoyed this puzzle altho it took twice as long as yesterday's. Thank you, Gary, for more info & fun.
The NE was last to fill WINGTIPS & SPOILER FREE along with every other word in that block gave me problems. Had to resort to red-letter runs to fill.
Other long fills came easier. Mostly I filled the downs & WAGd the acrosses.
KRAKEN & SEATTLE had enough perps that I got them no problem when I read the clues. Didn't know KRAKEN was a team of any kind.
Lot=FATE was all perps. I was thinking a piece of land.
DISUSE is a word I DISUSE.
Stud fees = ANTES? Oh phooey. I've been re-reading Dick & Felix Francis series about horse racing so my mind wasn't on stud poker.
Anon-T@6:14 - Yeah, JV is a beast. Recovered from Tommy John surgery and throwing like he was in 2019 - at 39! Maybe I missed C-eh's comments. Called a friend in Toronto last night (Blue Jays' die-hard), and she said the score was 27-3 - "Pamela, are you watching a basketball game?!!" Yeah, Tony, our guys broke Seattle's team record-setting 14-game winning streak. Hope the Astros' bats warm up.
Never heard of KRAKEN until the recent political dust-up, but the perps, luckily, helped so a FIR. I agree that SCROLLBAR was the best - so simple yet so deceiving.
Dear -T:
Nope, Seattle is far away ... I live an hour south of Salem, which is an hour-ish south of Portland. High for Sunday: 92º, RH 30%, so you can see why I don't live in Texas. /g\
Couldn't even get started with this very boring puzzle. After an hour of angst and only seven fills, I just gave up!
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