Saturday Themeless by Kate Chin Park
making them in 2021, and credits mentorship both formal and informal for her growth as a constructor. When not awash in words or sawdust, Kate loves to read, eat the food her partner cooks, snuggle with her hostile-to-everyone-else cat, and watch the Golden State Warriors. Here is her website
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| Some of Kate's work |
1. Spa service: MUD BATH - Yeah, I know, MASSAGE fits too.
8. Rosebush pest: APHID.
13. Acrobatic Brazilian martial art: CAPOEIRA - This came letter by crossing letter.
14. Sleeping spots for some dogs: CRATES.
17. Decorative threads: TINSEL.
18. Dispatched: SENT - Robert E. Lee greatly regretted he SENT Pickett on that charge
19. Stands out: POPS.
21. Either parent, for some kids: MOMMY - Our neighbor's grandson Peter in Minneapolis has two wonderful mommies
24. Many a "Thirty something" character: YUPPIE.
26. Be imminent: IMPEND.
29. Many modern diets: FADS.
30. "Bright Dead Things" poet Limón: ADA.
33. Running early?: FALSE START - A FALSE START and a face plant
35. Neutrogena product: T/GEL.
36. Some journal entries: IDEAS.
37. Clinch: ICE - Clinch and ICE both infer that the other team can not now possibly win even though the game is not officially over yet.
38. "Love Actually" actor: GRANT - Hugh is in the top middle and had a 39. Main role: LEAD.
40. "Good gravy!": JEEZ LOUISE - My last fill was changing the the G to a J
42. Head for Vegas?: LAS.
43. Achy: SORE.
44. __ Awards: high honors for comic books: EISNER - Named for Will Eisner
45. Regard: ESTEEM.
47. Looney Tunes explosive: TNT.
48. Unforced __: ERROR - Hitting the ball into the net is one
50. Pointillism elements: DOTS. Just such a painting of a 56. Late gathering: SOIREE by Edmond Cross
52. They might be game: FOWL - A good friend skipped my daughter's wedding for the first day of pheasant season.
58. Not much at all: JUST A BIT.
60. Person to split a bill with: COSTAR - The playbill not the restaurant check
61. Age line?: I FEEL OLD.
62. Home and away, e.g.: TEAMS.
63. Braced: STEELED - We've all STEELED ourselves for possible bad news
Down:
1. Zebra mother: MARE - As it is for all equines
2. After: UPON - UPON further thought...
3. "I also have good news, though!": DON'T BE SAD.
4. Beseech: BEG.
5. MagSafe Charging Case inserts: AIR PODS.
6. Goals in a hat trick, e.g.: TRIO - A hat trick is accomplished when one player scores three goals in one game. Huh?
7. Features of some positive messaging: HAPPY FACE EMOJIS or...
8. Make a scene?: ACT.
9. Takes one's time at the mirror: PRIMPS
10. Capital west of Ha Long Bay: HANOI - About 2hrs west by car
11. Message during phone tag: IT'S ME AGAIN - Cell phones have helped with this issue
12. Believe: DEEM.
13. Opposite of trans: CIS - Short for CISGENDER - "Denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their birth sex." CIS is from the Latin for "on this side" as opposed to trans which means "on the other side"
15. Underhanded: SLY.
20. Family name on "Ugly Betty": SUAREZ.
25. Hrs. at T-Mobile Park: PDT - Here we see the roof at this Seattle park closing and opening.
26. Journalist Gwen honored on a U.S. postage stamp in 2020: IFILL.
28. Standing order?: PLEASE RISE - "Here come da judge!"
31. Packed: DENSE.
32. Change one's skirt?: ALTER.
34. Like a pagoda: TIERED.
35. Hands-on experience, hopefully: TRUST FALL - No! Fall backward!
38. Enter: GO IN.
40. __ Bruin: UCLA mascot: JOE - Joe and Josephine
41. "Decisions, decisions ... ": LET'S SEE and 46. "Yes and no": SORTA as sung by our cwd friend Ella Fitzgerald:
First, you say, you do
And then you don't
And then you say, you will
And then you won't
You're undecided now
So what are you gonna do?
43. Twitch __: STREAM - Make your own STREAMing channel
48. F1 neighbor: ESC.
49. Daikon, e.g.: ROOT - Radish
51. Hairy bunch: TUFT - A combover challenge?
53. Thin reed: OBOE - It is a beautiful addition to the chorus of this song
54. Stormy: WILD.
55. Pt. of LLC: LTD - What they are and 8 examples if you're interested
57. Critical-care ctrs.: ERS.
59. Workout wear: TEE - TEE shirts are not allowed on many golf courses.
43 comments:
Nope. Got the CIS and MOMMY fills and quit. If I want to get wokeness indoctrination, I'll tune in MSNBC.
FLN - Thanks to my Cornerite friends for the encouraging words about my wife's condition, and the insights on the medical profession.
FLN - I guess any tap-to-pay device can interfere with cell phone operation. I don't think it was that $50 bill, but if you send it to me I'll perform further testing.
Good morning!
Slowly worked my way around, but came to an impassable snowbank in the mid-Atlantic states. JEEZ LOUISE was in place, but not much else. Didn't know ADA, GRANT, TGEL, or EISNER, and wasn't familiar with a TRUST FALL. Bzzzzzt. If you scored a no-peeky, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din. Thanx, Kate and Husker.
I’m testing this
I certainly had no idea about “capoeira “ but that’s what the perps indicated. Same goes for “Ifill”, again, perps came through. And I don’t know where I pulled “Suarez” from but it came to me somehow. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
I guess the aphids are here to bug us all summer. My unknowns are the same as others, Gwen Ifill didn’t.
The TRUST FALL had to be a fake stunt, I hope
Thank Kate and Gary
I finished this in 10:54 today.
Like others, I had no idea on "capoeira," "Ifill," "Suarez," "Ada", and "Eisner."
"Pops" right next to "Mommy" is amusing (to me).
Good (themeless) puzzle though.
Jinx in Norfolk, seeing more and more of the woke bs in puzzles lately.
Good Morning:
I finished this in well below normal Saturday time, albeit not as quickly as SS, but I go at a leisurely pace as I’m not a speed solver by any means. There were many entries that required perps: Capoeira, Suarez, Eisner, T Gel and, as clued, Ada, Air Pods, and Stream. I smiled filling in (Hugh) Grant because I thought of Bill G’s often-mentioned fondness for Love, Actually.
Thanks, Kate, for a satisfying and enjoyable Saturday solve and thanks, HG, for always entertaining and enlightening us, particularly with the constructor’s mini-mini bio. Your comment about your friend skipping your daughter’s wedding reminded me of my brother-in-law’s campaign to have us change our wedding date to accommodate his obsession with not missing the opening day of deer season. He lost the battle and lived up to his role as Best Man.
FLN
Jinx, best wishes for a positive resolution to DH’s medical issue.
Have a great day.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Kate, for a doable puzzle. Thanks, Gary, for letting me know I couldn't find a theme because thar warn't none.
DNK: CAPOEIRA, AIRPOD, JOE, EISNER, SUAREZ, Daikon=ROOT, ADA. I had forgotten Gwen IFILL altho I used to like her news shows on PBS. Didn't know they put her on a stamp.
Jinx, hand up for being annoyed by "woke" references. I don't care who loves who, but don't like my cw invaded.
Clinch = ICE? Meh! Twitch STREAM, so many new terms I can't keep up.
I FEEL OLD. Sure do.
Good morning. Thank you Kate, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Well, D-O, I wouldn't call myself a better man than you because I correctly completed this CW with no lookies. It took me a 43:11 to do it while watching This Old House, and when I filled the last letter, I wasn't sure I would get the Congrats message.
A lot of corrections today. If I had been doing this on paper, I'd have erased through it in a couple of places. Right off the bat I had a FALSE START when I started out with massage. Jiu jitsu before eventually working out CAPOEIRA. As Gary said, every single letter was filled by the crosses. Preens before PRIMPS. Seance before SOIREE. Games before TEAMS. Not sure before LET'S SEE. MeDEA before MADEA.
Took the most time working out CAPOEIRA area, SUAREZ, T-GEL, EISNER and HAPPY FACE EMOJIS. Don't know Apple stuff, so AIR PODS was a guess based on fill.
Even with all of that, there were other answers I was absolutely certain of and they were the ones that became key to the solve. All in all, I liked the challenge and enjoyed the puzzle.
Nope. This CW is just too difficult for me. Add “Thirty Something” and “Ugly Betty” to a long list of sitcoms I have never watched. TWITCH is a channel?? I guess I need to watch more TV. But it won’t be FOX, I can live without all the deliberate disinformation. KCB, you got me. I filled less than 1/3 before throwing in the towel. CIS and TRANS are also chemistry names describing molecular structure, BTW. W/Os before giving up: TRES:TRIO, HIPPIE:YUPPIE. Did I mention I’ve never seen “Thirty Something”? When I saw JEEZLOUISE I thought, nuts, that’s an expression I use. Thanx for the excellent write-up, H.G.
Ancillary learning
-I had no idea on the ADA in this puzzle and so I thought, surely there are more famous people named ADA in history. This math major discovered the most famous was ADA Lovelace who was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron (whom she never met). She did meet Charles Babbage at a party in 1833 and helped work on his Analytical Engine which was the forerunner of the modern computer. She is called the first computer programmer because of her work in writing actual programs for this machine.
-Wow! Poet progeny, female mathematicians, forerunners of computers! She would have been an even more obscure ADA but ain’t learnin’ grand?
Oh yeah, PREENS:PRIMPS for me too. Forgot about that one.
Took a while, but finally got it done. Hade MASSAGE, but soon realized that was wrong. Once I got HAPPYFACEEMOJIS and JEEZLOUISE, the puzzle filled in.
Husker Gary Thank you for the TRUST FALL fail clip! This was my last fill as I had no idea what it could be. Then the light went on. Hand up for GEEZ->JEEZ.
No idea about bizarre "MADEA" and was sure it was wrong. Hand up I don't STREAM and TWITCH seemed odd. I think of Galvani discovering a battery by the TWITCH of a frog's leg. Had no idea about that TRIO or ERROR. Amazed to FIR!
Here is my CAPOEIRA video from Solstice last month.
Even so, I struggled with the spelling.
It amazes me that, even though I have an iPhone, I was unfamiliar with Airpods. And I'm actually going to try to buy some today, so I can listen to music and audiobooks with privacy on my iPhone. I just knew I wanted some iPhone "earbuds," didn't know they were called "Airpods." Of course, my brother, who I'm going out with in a few minutes, would have known, but it's good to be preinformed.
Trust Fall
-When I got my Masters in counseling, we did trust falls to make the point of giving compete trust to another person
-In my physics class, I taught kids that as long as their base (feet) was between their center of gravity and the center of the Earth, they could stand and not fall. I then did trust falls to show how far they could lean before their c of g was outside their base causing them to fall. About half of the kids fell back (not forward!) completely on the first try.
-FWIW, I know of AirPods because I see them all over in high schools but don’t have any because my Bluetooth hearing aids fill that function.
-Off to mow!
I always turn on the red letters on Saturdays in anticipation of a tough go, today was a good option to tough it out without help, except for the unavoidable Saturdays Naticks. Easier than usual, except when it wasn't...
Thanks for "splainin" HG, I LOLd at the trust fall!
Only query has to be the clue, "loony tunes explosive?"
(On a Saturday?)
Why not just go with the old " explosive letters" clue...
Hmm, I wonder how many people would immediately know if the clue was "trinitrotoluene " without any abbreviation notation.
Subgenius,
Thank you for the kind comment the other day, it made my day.
In response, maybe I can help by sharing some of my research.
( note, I always appreciate the many kind comments I have received, thank you all...)
I am the type of cranky, cheap old fart, that will wait for a new movie to come out in tv, hates updates, and would never give up my old wired earbuds for something new fangled that costs a thousand percent more, and is easily lost.
However, your comment made me research, and I was surprised to find that there are ingenious ways to find the missing buggers!
Did not know that "find my phone" can find EarPods.
Did not know you can get 'ear hooks."
And best of all, you can just "buy a wire" and connect them together!
A fun Saturday with some modern lingo that was new to me. But I enjoy learning new stuff. The SE corner was problematic as I had “mane” instead of “tuft”. Lots of clever clueing. I enjoyed this puzzle.
Addendum...
From now on, I will chuckle gleefully instead of cursing while untying my knotted earbud wires,
thinking of how much money I saved not getting AirPods.
But, once again, these little daily annoyances led to more research.
I invite you to look up yourself the many YouTube explanations of why the dang buggers always knot up.
(It has to do with Math!)
A fun subject for Bill G and HG!
However, if you are a Boy Scout working on a Merit badge, you can solve this dilemma by yourself with Knots.
In example A, you can see how.
But there is a better, improved solution.
In example B, you can improve on this technique .
First, skip the slip knot, as it only tends to create another knot if using headphones.
Instead of the slip knot, make this your headphone end. ( as opposed to plug end )
By putting your plug end thru the final wind, instead of part of the loop as in exhibit A, you create a quick release!
Just pull on you headphone end and the whole thing cleanly unravels!
DNF, but almost. Didn’t get trust fall because I had goal instead of fowl, otherwise in spite of the many unknowns the squares got filled in. I used to watch Gwen Ifill, but I had to look up the spelling of her name.
A furniture maker as a puzzle maker. Interesting. I can see how the two might fit.
We solvers who have LBTQ relatives or who may be LBTQ themselves are hurt by some of these comments. Dissing this sort of thing is not the same as merely mentioning it.
Thank you, Yellow Rocks.
Saturday puzzles are toughies but still fun--many thanks, Kate. And thanks for all the cool pictures, Gary.
Tough start, though I got MARE and APHID. Hey, I know my animals, even my FOWL.
Fun to see POPS next to MOMMY.
Silly mistake: I put in DISNEY instead of EISNER. Actually, not silly. I just looked them up and there were tons of DISNEY comic books. They just didn't sponsor any awards.
My favorite CO-STARS in the old days were Sonny and Cher.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
+1 To YellowRocks. Also, MOMMY was an enjoyable crossword clue. I came across it early and eventually thought, "Hey, this might be MOMMY or DADDY so I'll put a Y at the end and try to get some cross letters."
YUPPIE was a fine answer and clue.. may I suggest LAT crosswords have solidly crossed into Gen X.. many of us Xers still remember Thirty something, used or are aware of Twitch, and immediately think of cis as the opposite of trans from our day-to-day exposure to modern media.
I really really wanted to like this puzzle, but somehow after solving it I came away feeling empty and unsatisfied. I was struck again and again with the feeling that many of the clues were far too cutsie-poo for their own good. Some, however, I thought were nicely clever, such as the clues for ACT, FOWL, and TUFT. I haven't yet read Gary's recap or any of your comments, so I still don't understand "Goals in a hat trick, e.g." = TRIO. The clue for CRATES is just weird.
Of course I had to do a lot of looking things up, but doing so didn't really result in a meaningful learning experience because I likely won't remember most of the people's names I looked up. I probably will remember the EISNER awards, though. I never heard of, nor do I care enough to remember CAPOEIRA, TWITCH STREAM, or TRUST FALL.
Now I will go read Gary's recap and all your comments. Seeya later.
Another enjoyable time spent. I got hung up on "rehem" instead of the more obvious "alter," insisting on pounding a square peg into a round hole, but after that everything else fell into place. Happy weekend, everyone.
I’m not sure how or why certain words can cause such upset by acknowledging their existence in a crossword.
Okay, now I understand "hat trick." The I in TRIO crossing CAPOEIRA almost did me in, but I figured that EIRA made sense because it looked like a familiar ending to some Portuguese names I've seen (e.g. Texiera and Oliveira) and the Port wine Madeira. But TRIO is one of those fills you get solely by perps and still don't know what the heck it is.
Yanno, by golly, it strikes me that cluing, say, the name or role of an actor by referring to a TV show or movie they played in (e.g. "Love Actually" actor: GRANT and Family name on "Ugly Betty": SUAREZ and Tyler Perry persona: MADEA) is, well, just plain lazy. Pick a name, pick a show, pick a persona or role, and voila, a ready-made clue-answer. No thinking required. Heck, even I can do that: Lochdubh policeman played by Robert Carlyle. Took me all of 1 minute to come up with that.
Jeez Louise, I've turned into a curmudgeon!
Sheesh.
Good wishes to you all.
Like many of you, my writeovers included MASSAGE --> MUDBATH, PREENS --> PRIMPS, SOAP --> TGEL, NEBULA --> EISNER, IPHONES --> AIRPODS, and CODATE (yeah, I know) --> COSTAR.
QOD:
"Abraham Lincoln once said: 'We’re just about as happy as we make up our minds to be,' and how true that is!"
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Yellowrocks@1:04 (&Java Mama @ 1:19)
Forgive me, but were you referring to a deleted comment?
I can't seem to find what you were referring to...
The only reason I bring it up, was because I got in trouble last night for a comment I made, although it was not thru bias, or ignorance, but oblivioness that got me in trouble.
I don't know what set you off, but I found the whole trans versus cis thing enlightening.
(Of course, it's Latin, no wonder I don't understand it...)
Anywho, (spoilers ahead)
We were watching only murders in the building, when two female characters kissed, and I said, "yuck."
Well, the tirade that befell my ears was unexpected, but I learned something.
But in my defense,
I have been saying "Yuck" to kissing in movies ever since Elvis hit the screen...
I haven't changed,
But the world around me certainly has...
In the last few years the woke crowd has insisted I believe:
- I won't get COVID 19 if I get vaccinated
- Cloth masks will keep me from getting COVID 19
- N95 masks make me more susceptible to COVID 19 than not wearing any mask
- Men can get pregnant
- "Woman" is undefinable
- Riots are mostly peaceful
- America and Europe can solve global warming
- Trump was a Russian agent
- Hunter's laptop was misinformation
- The IRS is apolitical
- The FBI is apolitical
- Two quarters of negative growth do not a recession make
- Spending more will reduce inflation
I don't give a tinker's damn who puts what in or on who's whatever (as long as all involved are consenting adult humans), just don't cram it down my throat (so to speak) in crossword puzzles, sports, or TV / movies. I am just fed up with all of the "speak this way or be shunned."
I got most of today's PZL from Ms. Park, but failed in the end by three or four cheats.
Our two small dogs used to enjoy sharing a CRATE.
This was, of course, before those *#@! coyotes snatched them right out of our fenced yard, one in broad daylight.
Sorry. I mustn't get started...
I actually tried to squeeze AMERICA (first name of star Ferrera) into the SUAREZ slot.
Am not sure why "Hairy bunch" is a single TUFT...? But OK.
Husker G gives it a "Comb-over challenge," but no challenge to the definition.
SENT?
Hmm. HG's dum bellum response seems sorta outta left field...
Had HUG and INK before ICE.
I liked it when Peter Boyle (Frank Barone) used to say "JEEZ LOUISE" before settling for "Holy Crap!"
I think he also used to say "Jeez-aloo!"
Kinda old-fashioned-cool! No?
Now, here's how old fashioned I am:
I thought the rationale for MOMMY was that a kid just starting to speak (10 mos.?) may call both Mommy & Daddy by the same name.
I just forgot that kids can actually have two MOMMYs now.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Too bad there are no diagonals.
I enjoyed your PZL, Kate, but why start a grid with all four corners black?
I mean, why?
CrosseyedDave @ 10:18 a.m.-Actually CED, I found out that “AirPods “ are much too expensive for the likes of me. I picked up some regular Apple earbuds for twenty bucks today, and am happy to have them. Thanks for all the good advice. In the end, I relied on my brother and sister-in-law. They’re always looking out for my welfare!
Just mentioning the word is not cramming it down your throat. Jeez Louise!
Jinx, entirely out of line today!
We have a friend whose favorite expression is the old fashioned HOLLY MOLLY. I love it.
Nice puzzle today with many new clues. I liked the female theme with mare, mommy, mother, Ada Limon, Gwen Ifill, jeezlouise and Madea (trans not cis). As our constructor said "don't be sad, please rise and be happy!" I hope to see more from Ms. Park!
Hi All!
Crash & Burn... In my defense, my head wasn't in it. Todo list a mile long getting ready for next weekend's Big Move / fixing City inspection's nits so as to let.
Beautiful woodwork, Kate! I may steal your keychain idea. The puzzle, where I solved w/o much consternation, was cute.
Thanks for the walk-through, HG. Needed your grid for a few nudges.
@9:24a - I know ADA Lovelace and even programmed in her namesake language, ADA, once just for giggles.
Fav: TNT's clue.
UncleFred - a Twitch channel is akin to a YouTube channel - it's only on the internet. Twitch originally existed for (video) gamers to play / watch each other play. Like Zoom, Covid gave it a big main-stream boost.
Well said, YR.
If where I work (BigOil) can be inclusive...
Back to knocking out my todo list. Cheers, -T
Finished 4/5 of this enjoyable romp in 35 minutes but tripped and fell (peeked) in SW corner. "Age line" did me in ... maybe because I'm too old to understand what it meant???
Do y'all remember, from the other day, when DROP was used in the context of a new song release?
I was watching The Gray Man [Netflix Trailer] w/ DW last night and, when the girl put the needle to the 45, I thought 'drop the needle.' Maybe that's how DROP == new release(?).
Just a thought (while I'm procrastinating the next bit of garage to pack).
Cheers, -T
Thank you Kate Chin Park, for a very challenging puzzle. I had a tough time, and was barely able to finish. A humbling experience, soon forgotten.
Thank you Husker G for a charming review blog, that explained most things.
I remember cis- and trans- beginning with my beginning lectures on Organic Chemistry in the 10th grade onwards...
when, I first heard the story, of ....
August Kekule (Wikipedia - ) who, dreamt up the stereo scopic concept for the circular 6 belt of carbon atoms , in the Benzene molecule ..... He kept thinking and when asleep at night ... he was thinking of a snake biting its own tail .... when
.... his sub conscious mind conceived of the 'Chair' position and the 'Boat' position for the carbon atoms, linked together .... the first one is a Trans- position, and the second one is a Cis- position.
The above Wiki article explains his ideas in some non-technical detail. It may be an interesting read, ..... if you just scan over the whole article.
Remember, this was at a time, in the late 1800's, .... when we had no idea of X Ray Crystallography or Gas Chromatography or any sophisticated tools.
These complex concepts were all imagined in the minds of simple dedicated human beings ...
Have a good rest of the weekend, You all.
YR: methinks you protest too much.
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