Saturday Themeless Puzzle by Lewis Rothlein
Lewis Rothlein lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where he teaches yoga. His work life has taken a winding course, from being a journalist, to a syndicated newspaper columnist, to teaching elementary school, to owning a yoga studio. He began solving crosswords after seeing the movie WordPlay and several years later, he began making puzzles, where his favorite part is coming up with clues that make him go "Yes!"Across:
1. "Growing Up in New Guinea" author: MEAD - Some say she is the world's most famous anthropologist
5. Softball club: BAT.
8. Retirement option: SERTA - The surface to which we retire every night
13. Semi bar: AXLE - Here's a hometown semi with multiple AXLES
14. Sage: GURU. Surely a GURU would be 9. Sage: ERUDITE.
15. Place to get bike wear: TREAD.
16. Screen symbol: ICON.
17. Lollapalooza: ONER - Okay...
18. Cost as much as: RUN TO - A simple oil change these day can RUN TO over $50
19. "Whatever you're thinking, no": DON'T GET ANY IDEAS with your 47. Drives: URGES. - A good pre-date declaration
22. Bit parts?: REINS - Hi Yo Silver!
23. Less sound: SHAKIER.
24. Gets out of a slump?: SITS UP.
26. "Hold on": WAIT.
27. Baltic port: RIGA - RIGA, Latvia on the, uh, Gulf of RIGA
34. Outer bank?: ATM - Fun clue!
35. Frank exchange?: TOFU DOG - Would I exchange a Fairbury Husker Dog for a TOFU DOG? Frankly, no!
38. Pet __: PEEVE.
40. Italian pronoun: ESSA - ESSA is Italian for "it" but I read it is rarely used any more
41. Free of lumps: SIFT and 57. Free of lumps: EVEN.
42. Bluegrass legend Scruggs: EARL - The breakthrough song for Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt
44. Small cutters: XACTOS.
46. CrossFit set: BURPEES.
49. Ohno who won "Dancing With the Stars" in 2007: APOLO - One fewer L than the moonshot
50. Cake that traditionally has coconut-pecan icing: GERMAN CHOCOLATE.
53. Severity: RIGOR - The word for RIGOR in RIGA is Stingrība
54. Patatas bravas, por ejemplo: TAPA - "Spicy Potatoes" in a TAPA bar
55. Go very slow, or very fast: DRAG - In a tractor pull a sled is DRAGGED slowly. In a DRAG race the vehicles go very fast
56. Deal-maker: AGENT - MLB star Juan Soto's AGENT thinks he can get him a $500M contract
58. Breakfast brand: EGGO.
59. Like salsa: ZESTY.
60. Convertible's spot: DEN.
58. Breakfast brand: EGGO.
59. Like salsa: ZESTY.
60. Convertible's spot: DEN.
61. Off! ingredient: DEET - Here ya go
Down:
1. Part of the inn crowd: MAID.
2. Condemn harshly: EXCORIATE and the more familiar 41. Took to task: SCOLDED.
3. Recharging period: ALONE TIME.
4. Bridge inspector?: DENTIST.
5. Hit close to home?: BUNT - What every hitter should do when the third baseman is shifted way over toward second.
6. Products helpful when buying flooring: AREAS - Rectangular AREAS are a product of length times width
7. Attract attention: TURN HEADS.
8. Attracting attention: STRIKING - See previous clue
10. "Hamilton" Tony winner __ Elise Goldsberry: RENEE.
11. Volga region native: TATAR.
14. Makes a major decision?: GOES PRO - ~0.5% of high school baseball players get offered a pro contract
20. Masai Mara migrant: GNU - Here's a group of GNUS moving through Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve
21. Vegetable related to lilies: YAM.
24. Even trade: SWAP.
28. Words from a runner: IF ELECTED - Broken presidential promises
29. Giancarlo's "Better Call Saul" role: GUS - Giancarlo Esposito played the passive-aggressive and ruthless GUS Fring.
31. Magnified: WRIT LARGE - Meaning: "Very obvious." The success of a candidate is usually WRIT LARGE by their amount of campaign money.
32. Some coverage: TV FOOTAGE.
33. Old boomers: SSTS.
35. Social event where Alice is asked, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?": TEA PARTY - Lewis Carrol wrote that he never intended for there to be answer.
36. Many a Zapotec: OAXACAN - (Waa Haa Cun). Zapotecs are a group indigenous to this area of southern Mexico.
39. State whose capital is named for a French city: VERMONT.
43. Driver's "Star Wars" role: REN - This character is Kylo REN. In Footloose, Kevin Bacon played REN McCormack.
45. PFC's address: APO - Army or Air Force Post Office. FPO is the Navy's Fleet Post Office.
46. Color whose name comes from Old French for "natural wool": BEIGE - Derivation with a BEIGE background!
48. Prepare cheese, in a way: SHAVE.
50. Austrian city on the eastern edge of the Alps: GRAZ - A little over 2hr SSW of Vienna
51. Transparent: OPEN.
52. Awards acronym: EGOT - Mike Nichols and Rita Moreno have won the PEGOT - Peabody plus the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. Richard Rodgers and Marvin Hamlisch have one as well when you substitute Pulitzer for Peabody.
39 comments:
Hi Y'all! Lewis came up with many clues that made me go "What?" Filled it, but...groan!
Bless you, Gary!
Decided to put this one in my "wait for the fixit guy" stack. I scanned the clues, and since there were double-digit ones that I DIDN'T have a clue about, decided that I would tackle it in the future. Onward. That porch won't paint itself.
Good Morning:
I have mixed feelings about this puzzle, which I guess is because I found some of the cluing unnecessarily difficult and, to me, frustrating. . OTOH, some of the cluing was very clever and delightful. It was a challenging and mostly satisfying solve, but the If Elected/Gus/Essa/Oaxacan area was my downfall. Maybe Tofu Dog should have been more obvious but I was fixated on Frank being a German reference (no idea why) and I had I’m Elected and was looking for a German word that began with Tom. In retrospect, a little more patience and perseverance would have solved the issue.
Thanks, Lewis, for a Saturday stumper. I feel as though I know you from your daily presence on that other Blog. Congrats on your LA Times appearance. Thanks, HG, for entertaining and informing us once again, but I’ll have to return to appreciate all of the, for now, invisible graphics. 😉
FLN
Ray O, I watched that Oscar show and I’m sure I saw Jessica Chastain’s acceptance speech, but either I was half asleep or too stunned by the preceding Will Smith debacle to really remember it. So, I watched it minutes ago on YouTube and, like you, I was equally impressed with her poise and eloquence.
Have a great day.
Good morning!
My cheese got a workout this morning -- GRATE / SHRED / SHAVE. My salsa were pretty tame -- TASTY rather than ZESTY. Got 'er done, but what a mess. Those stacked nines were fresh and fun. Not a DRAG at all. Thanx, Lewis and Husker.
TREAD: I recently replaced my 10-year-old bicycle. It wasn't tread wear. The center bearing -- the one that supports the large sprocket and the pedals -- had failed. I figured the bearing bore was probably damaged, and the bike wasn't worth repairing.
Not a bad puzzle for a Saturday. A few things that might have elicited a "I did not know that" from Johnny Carson:
ONER ?
BURPEE(S) - thought they made seeds
WRITLARGE
Also, RUNTO pretty rare these days, no?
Anon-a-Tom
Didn't know everything, but clever and lots of fun.
My crossword pleasure has doubled since finding this site.
I took me THREE HOURS to solve this crossword puzzle this morning. My last solves were "Serta" and "If elected...". But, through P and P (quite a LARGE amount of P & P) I was able to come through. FIR, so I'm happy.
This was challenging but solvable like a good Saturday should be. Last fill was TOFU DOG and IF ELECTED like IM - like HG I would never pick the TOFU over a regular hot DOG - preferably Vienna Beef from my years in Chi-town. But I do like TOFU with my pad thai!
I go to a cardio dance class at the YMCA - which has all ages (10 to 83) and shapes- but if the instructor throws BURPEES into the routine all of us over 50 just shuffle back and forth - I like the way she tells us to just modify what works best!
I'm off to the state bowling tournament for Special Olympics - my friend's daughter with Down Syndrome is quite the bowler- I'll make sure it is a bowling center, Boomer.
Thanks HG and Lewis
Good morning. Thank you, Lewis, and thank you, Husker Gary.
My clock says 4 hours, 45 minutes, and 18 seconds. There was some deep sleeping that got done on that time, and it seemed to help with some of the crazy cluing. BURPEES ? Products sold from the seed company. I'll have to ask my CrossFit training neighbor, although I'm sure now that it is legit.
Only one changed letter from when I put it down earlier. 41A from soft to SIFT as I reread the clue, and tried a verb answer rather than an adjective answer. That helped. A lot ! I was getting nowhere with the O
Plus, changing I'm elected to IF ELECTED allowed me to "see" TOFU DOG. I needed that U because I didn't know GUS. Never watched that program, although I did hear it get pretty good reviews.
Plus a couple of good guesses. I took a chance on T for WRIT, and then an A in OAXACAN and ESSA. I never heard the phrase WRIT LARGE before.
Outer bank for ATM was a decent clue that held me at bay for far too long.
The 4 day music festival LOLLAPALOOZA held in Grant Park in Chicago drew nearly 400,000 visitors. Not counting this year's economic input, the festival has generated $2B in revenue for Chicago since 2010. The city recently signed a contract to host it for another 10 years.
This Saturday stumper took me 21:19 to finish. I think I had a similar experience to Ms. Irish Miss.
Was confounded at: Oaxacan, Renee, oner, Mead, Essa, Riga, Gus, Tater, Tapa and Writlarge.
I didn't like the clues for: run to and tofu dog.
I liked the clues for: bunt, tread, and drag.
If SubG is happy, then I'm happy.
Lotsa clever fun misdirection. Was sure I wouldn't but FIR...Inkovers: wrestle/GOESPRO, chug/DRAG, grate/SHAVE, brake/TREAD
Always forget the answer for the "lollapalooza" clue. TATARS: ethnic group too impatient to cook their steak 😆
I remembered Giancarlo's last last name: Fring.."crossfit set": BURPEES? (seeds? toddler's eructations?) Anybody 'splain that?
ESSA (she) like all Italian pronouns almost never needed. The verb and adjective alone define the gender and "third person singular"..."È bella" (she is beautiful)
Old Boomers (redundant...😆)...When I was a kid we used to hear "sonic booms" all the time what happened?....VERMONT, named for a French green mountain...BEIGE: Not just French but old French! ⚜
"pet" that needs no feeding...PEEVE.. ..Oh no! There's an Ohno besides Ono!!??
Now I understand why NEWT Gingrich is deathly afraid of snakes.🐍
Goldsberry, GRAZ, unknowns
Snacked on small chocolate candies that don't melt in your hand...EMINATE
Leave Seoul...EXCORIATE
Baseball players' cake....BUNT
God to Adam & Eve...DON'T GET ANY IDEAS.
Inventor of a swimming pool game, Marco was _____ ...APOLO
Mr Rothlein, if I could even get myself into that yoga position I'd never get up again..😫
"...his favorite part is coming up with clues that make him go "Yes!"" Well, he certainly succeeded today. Several of the clues were "twice removed". For instance, to get DEN you had to grasp that convertible referred to a sofa and not to a car. To get SERTA we had to grasp that retirement was referring to sleep and not leaving a job. Frank, of course, turned out to be neither Sinatra nor an open discussion. Concise and enlightening expo, HG. well done. No, not a steak.
Inanehiker
I remember going to one of the first Special Olympics. Even before our daughter competed..Celebrities were on parade, the kids didn't recognize any of them except for the last. Muhammad Ali..they surrounded him hugging him, shaking hands, holding on to his legs, he could barely move. He was beaming, They were ecstatic. Etched in my memory
@Irish Miss -- Don't know how you made the connection with my commenting self on "the other blog", but yup, that's me.
@Subgenius -- I am so inspired by your persistence -- bravo!
@Ray-O-Sunshine -- Loved your punny clues!
So, this was my first Patti Varol edited puzzle, and she did a magnificent job polishing this puzzle. Those of you that do the LAT puzzle regularly are lucky to have her.
My favorite clues were those for TREAD, AREAS, DRAG, and TOFU DOG, and I loved Patti's clues for BAT, SITS UP, DEN, and DENTIST. When I made the puzzle, BURPEES (the exercise) had never been in a major crossword before (it has since shown up), and I was pleased to get it in, and, at this later point, I'm glad Patti axed my clue [Eructively-named bodyweight exercise].
Lewis: Thanks for stopping by. Google does not know "Eructively" as in:
[Eructively-named bodyweight exercise]
Can you please explain?
Lewis @ 11:04 ~ I’ve been reading that Blog for several years and learned a long time ago that Lewis the poster was also Lewis the crossword constructor. (In fact, we exchanged a few emails a while back, but I can’t remember what initiated the contact.) I enjoy reading your comments and admire your ability to always praise the constructors efforts, no matter any shortcomings. Thanks for dropping by. 😊 BTW, my favorite C/A was Make A Major Decision=Go Pro.
BURPEES and TOFU DOG left me in the dust, but fortunately my love of German chocolate cake was my salvation. And so I'm off to get a slice right now.
A mind boggling Saturday with some cleverly worded clues. However I am growing weary of the editor changing the constructors original clues to obscure food or recipes. It happens too often and is becoming boring.
I refuse to spend time on a crossword clued like this.
People spent hours solving? No way I would.
So I didn’t.
For those of you who are wondering "eruction" is "burping." A fancy name for a decidedly unfancy activity.
And, by the way, "burpees" have nothing to do with "burping." "Burpee" was the last name of the gentleman who invented the exercise.
I think that WRITLARGE is a terrific entry, but EXCORIATE????
Puzzling thoughts:
FIW. needed reveals at NEWTS, GRAZ, and WRITLARGE
The NW fell first; needed to look up a few answers (RENEE, TATAR, OAXACAN); had a few corrections (GREW LARGE/WRIT LARGE; ADDS/ADOS)
As others said, some clues were "home runs", others were BUNT(s), and there were a few foul balls
Thanks Gary for the ERUDITE explanation of it all
Lewis, thanks for stopping by. It's always nice to hear from the constructor du jour; wish that the Wienbergs would've stopped by yesterday ...
@Irish Miss -- Thank you for those kind words. That terrific clue, by the way, for GOES PRO, was from Patty.
@Irish Miss -- Aargh! I mean Patti!
Thank you Lewis for a Saturday challenge, which WFIR (needed Teri for to verify MEAD (she majored in ANTHROPOLOGY)). As I began this puzzle I commented to her that it seemed unusually easy for a Saturday, but as I descended into the depths it got murkier and murkier. Two hours later after penciling in SERTA, I took that as a note from Lewis that I should head up stairs and RETIRE for a nap.
I think this puzzle was fair and square, just hard (for me at least). Lewis made little reliance on P&P (just (4 instances I could count. YMMV (oh, and one of them will be appearing again, RSN). But countless times he must have said "Yes" as he filled in another clever clue.
Thanks to Husker for another informative and entertaining review. But why IS a "Raven like a writing desk?" - they have both been used by POEts!
8A SERTA. "Yes!"
15A TREAD. "Yes!"
17A ONER. This ONE was a stretch, i.e. the single word clue was TWELVE letters long!
22A REINS. "Yes!"
30A NEWT. Garter snakes can also tackle small VOLES and harmful garden INSECTS, but neither fit.
34A ATM. "Yes!"
46A BURPEES. I know the seeds, but not the exercise. I am starting to dabble with YOGA (hi Lewis!), more geezer speed than this fill.
49A APOLO. Knew him from a previous puzzle I reviewed. He must have honed his dancing skills as an Olympic Gold medalist in speed skating.
1D MAID. "Yes!"
4D DENTIST. "Yes!" Not that I'm crazy about dentists.
5D BUNT "Yes!"
6D AREAS "Yes!"
28D IF ELECTED. "Yes!"
50D GRAZ. This held me up for a very long time in the SW, as "Linz" would have also fit and perped with ZESTY. The "Linz" is the nickname for Mozart's Symphony No. 36. Here's a snippet from the 4th movement (2:56 min)
Cheers,
Bill
Sandy in AZ @ 9:09 AM You're in good company!
Lewis - I echo everyone's thanks to you for stopping by. Great puzzle!
Ditto
Sub G @1:12
Thanks for the BURPEE explanation. I guess if you can't make it selling seeds..try crossfit..😀
I always smile when on the Massachusetts turnpike traveling to my daughter's house when I pass the exit for Belchertown. I imagine walking down the street or shopping there with the citizenry constantly burping.
🥱
When you are certain that "Retirement Option" is PartA (Medicare), 8D really gets hard.
I had a good (long!) time with Mr. Rothlein's PZL. Nicely delivered by Husker G.
It took a good deal of P+P, but it turned out to be not only head-scratching but delightfully do-able.
Ta~ DAH!
So that's what BURPEES look like. I am happy to be an on-looker!
FLN, A note regarding my "scolding" of Chairman Moe yesterday, taking him to task for naming the classic Japanese haiku after his own avatar name (as Moe-ku).
I did not realize that it was another respected colleague who'd re-dubbed the form some time ago, so Moe himself should not have been EXCORIATEd.
And the poems were truly a treat!
In any event, it was all in fun, so I hope no reader thought the ribbing was in earnest.
My sincere respects to the Chrmn!
~ OMK
___________
DR: Two diagonals, one per side.
The far side offers an anagram (13 of 15 letters) on anagrams. We are in META-GRAMMING territory!
Imagine what you could do playing word games with, say, a particular breed of dog.
How far could you go with a,...
"PUG, ANAGRAMMED"?!
Got it? I'll start.
#1 variation = GUP.
OK, now you go...
Strenuous Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Lewis (thanks for dropping by) and HuskerG.
I FIRed, but this was a workout (and not BURPEES)!
Others have already commented on the many shades of meaning that caused the clues to misdirect.
I thought that French colour was ecrue (unbleached) , but it was boring BEIGE. And ecru has no E.
My cheese went from Shaved to GRATEd (with no shredding like d’o).
They make a TOFU DOG? Not my choice.
I smiled broadly when the math product gave me AREAS.
I think I have commented previously about GRAZ. We visited it on our Switzerland-Austria tour (hi Misty). About an hour to the west is the town of Piber, where we visited the stud farm for the Lipizzaner horses.
Then I was reminded of our Kenyan safari with those GNUS in Masai Mara.
Brian Paquin- EXCORIATEd is also a term used for severely rashed skin (ie. to describe the bottom of a baby with a bad case of diaper rash). That’s pretty harsh!
Welcome Anon-a-Tom and Sandy in AZ.
Wishing you all a great evening.
DNF but I enjoyed some of the clever clueing nonetheless. The "areas" clue was my favorite.
I once saw someone wearing a t-shirt that said, "Burpees? I thought you said Slurpees!"
Thanks to HuskerG and Lewis!
@waseeley -- Ahh, a fellow wordplay lover!
OMK @ 4:07 PM OK, I'll byte: How about GPU?
Lewis @4:53 PM One of my very favorite videos!
Easier than the usual Saturday offering. Very good misdirecting clues. I glanced it early this morning but had to check in for a Pickleball Tournament at 7:00 am. Finished when I got home in about 15 minutes. I only had a few unknowns filled by perps and WAGS. I've never seen "Better Call Saul", late Star Wars or "Hamilton" but GUS, REN, & RENEE were easy guesses after a couple of perps, even with ESSA being an unknown.
DON'T GET ANY IDEAS- standard word from girls on first dates.
Patatas bravas looked like potatoes so TAPA was an easy WAG.
SHAVE- tried GRATE and SHRED first
SERTA or SEALY for retirement option- wait for perps. ROTH IRA too long; SEP too short
TREAD- on my 4th set of tires for my bike
IF ELECTED I'll do absolutely nothing that I promised. Standard procedure for elected officials. Unless you contribute heavily to "my" PAC and campaign.
Sorry, no new poems today. This wasn't a crossword, it was a torture chamber.
However I was reminded of another of my old favorites from 4/15/2014:
Why Is A Raven Like A Writing Desk?
A writing desk, known as a secretary
Is a place for papers, quite sedentary.
The raven, a flyer
Will roost a bit higher;
In treetops he keeps his station airy.
OMK @ 4:07
As I meant to say in our off-line chat yesterday, no hard feelings and I knew you were just poking a little fun. I (like Moe) have a pretty thick skull from all of the slapstick I get from Curly and Larry!! I will keep the ku's coming as they fit into my blog
I? ELECTED??? I settled on I'm a DOG. I had GUS but erased it. I had z/X on OAXACAN
WEES re the clever clues and great to see Lewis drop by. I spent the day with family celebrating my uncle's 100th birthday. He's one of the few remaining WWII vets.
No interest in xword talk* to for CC's xword corner
WC
* Nor Jumble versifying
Ps, I'm honored that C-Moe liked my coining "Moe-ku"
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