Saturday Themeless by John Lieb
John is from Philadelphia but now lives in West Roxbury, MA. where he teaches math at Roxbury Latin School. He attended The Haverford School in Haverford, PA and studied math at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.
I am happy to add this for John: Also, it would be great if you could mention Boswords, a series of online crossword competitions that I co-direct ... our Fall Themeless League is starting up in a few weeks and if solvers want to see more info, they can go to www.boswords.org.
1. Consultant on a family history project, perhaps: GRANDPA - All those resources have passed away and I missed a chance to consult.
8. Spot for a note to self: POST IT.
14. Braided accent piece: ROPE RUG.
15. Univision language: ESPANOL.
17. "Ya feel me?": AM I RITE - Slang variation of a slang expression
18. Get more out of: RECYCLE.
19. Delivers à la Tig Notaro: DEADPANS - 7 minutes worth
19. Delivers à la Tig Notaro: DEADPANS - 7 minutes worth
21. Elite: A-LIST.
22. Calls a ball a strike, say: ERRS
23. Contracts of confidentiality, briefly: NDAS - We had "HUSH MONEY" last week as a possible part of Non Disclosure Agreements
25. Bone: Prefix: OSTE - From the Greek word ostéon meaning bone
26. __ milk: SOY - For lactose intolerant people
27. "Do you see anyone laughing?": READ THE ROOM.
30. Cannery row: TINS - Rows of cans from a, uh, cannery
31. Put on the line?: AIR DRY - Very common sight in my yute but rare to see now
32. Grasped: HELD.
33. Amy and Molly in "Booksmart," e.g.: PALS 4. Amy and Molly in "Booksmart," e.g.: NERDS.
34. Fills a flat again: RELETS.
36. Church recess: APSE.
37. YA novel by Matt de la Peña about a gifted athlete: BALL DON'T LIE - Synopsis
39. "Scrumptious!": YUM.
42. Time toggle: AM/PM.
43. Lacking direction?: LOST.
44. Object formed by two faces in a classic illusion: VASE.
42. Time toggle: AM/PM.
43. Lacking direction?: LOST.
44. Object formed by two faces in a classic illusion: VASE.
45. Augurs: BODES.
47. Jumps on a scale?: PAY HIKES - No weighing or musical intervals
49. "This is bad, even for you": A NEW LOW.
52. Phoenix team: THE SUNS.
53. Pass on to one's followers, say: RESHARE - A common FaceBook activity
54. Device that is never free of charge?: IONIZER.
55. Uranus, e.g.: SKY GOD.
56. HS class with a mean teacher?: AP STATS - A mean (or average) would be a very introductory part of an Advanced Placement Statistics class
Down:
1. Marks: GRADES.
2. Horror film pioneer: ROMERO - George ROMERO is said to have started the Zombie craze with this 1968 "classic" where death does not 6. Cut short: PUT AN END TO life
3. Place with great buzz?: APIARY.
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| The Sweet Cheeks Farm and APIARY in N.J. |
5. Dullard: DRIP.
7. Handouts from a chair: AGENDAS.
8. Each: PER.
9. Sugar suffix: OSE - dextrOSE, fructOSE, glucOSE, lactOSE, maltOSE, sucrOSE
10. Adoption org.: SPCA - My wife would walk out with all the pets in the Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals shelter.
11. Word game option for Swifties: TAYLORDLE - A variation of WORDLE based on Taylor Swift
12. Teeth lost by some hockey players: INCISORS.
9. Sugar suffix: OSE - dextrOSE, fructOSE, glucOSE, lactOSE, maltOSE, sucrOSE
10. Adoption org.: SPCA - My wife would walk out with all the pets in the Society For The Prevention Of Cruelty To Animals shelter.
11. Word game option for Swifties: TAYLORDLE - A variation of WORDLE based on Taylor Swift
12. Teeth lost by some hockey players: INCISORS.
13. Novelist who fought in the Crimean War: TOLSTOY.
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| Lt. Leo TOLSTOY |
16. "They're gonna do what they're gonna do": LET 'EM - Bad advice for a substitute teacher
20. __ trombone: SAD - We all know this sound but I, for one, did not know it had a name. Jazzbumpa?
24. Shuttle stop: Abbr.: STAtion
27. Stirred (up): RILED.
28. Toy also called a kangaroo ball: HIPPITY HOP.
29. Sabotage with a magnet, maybe: ERASE - It may or may not do it.
30. "I need to understand": TELL ME WHY which you can say to the 32. Troubleshooting locale: HELP DESK. They might reply, "Uh, maybe you got a magnet too close to your hard drive."
34. 1976 debut punk album: RAMONES - This punk group with its plethora of vowels and low scrabble value consonants is on the bill often here
35. NBC show Jay Mohr writes about in "Gasping for Airtime": SNL - His struggle with anxiety and trying to get his "stuff" on the air at Saturday Night Live.
36. Ancient French region: ALSATIA - Also ALSACE is in France's far NE corner on the border with Germany. It has changed so often during the centuries that it is not quite French and not quite German.
37. Fictional king who "lived among men and learned much": BABAR.
38. Leading: TOP.
39. Japanese crime syndicate: YAKUZA.
39. Japanese crime syndicate: YAKUZA.
40. Early web forum: USENET.
41. Salutation abbreviation: MESSRS - Plural for mister
44. Pop in: VISIT.
46. Foundry waste: SLAG - Byproduct of steel production
48. Female lobsters: HENS.
50. Two places higher than bronce: ORO.
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| Plata ORO Bronce |
51. Join: WED.
26 comments:
Hi Y'all! Got 'er filled, thanks, John. Wasn't sure we were using the same language for awhile with all the white spaces and bloody red letters from wrong fills, but slowly put it together.
We lived with GRANDPA one summer when I was 13 and got started as a genealogist writing a family tree on a roll of butcher paper. Grandpop was interested in everybody & knew his stuff.
ROPE RUG? Never heard it called that. Had braided RUGs on my hardwoods early in my marriage.
Read "universal" instead of Univision for ESPANOL so couldn't understand it when it popped in at first.
Thanks, Gary, for another super expo.
Too tired to mention other snags, of which there were many. Think I'll go back to bed.
Well, I have to admit it. I got so tired of trying to complete this puzzle that I ended up turning on the function that shows you what errors you made, (Is this what people mean when they say “turned on the red letters “?) There were only three or four of these, but I just couldn’t see them. So it’s not a FIR or a FIW, it’s a FIWH ( finished it with help,) So I can’t say I’m particularly “happy “ about it, but I am glad I was at last able to finish it, anyway.
Ufda...er Good Morning!
Tough, tough, tough. UMPS/ERRS, ATEAM/ALIST, PLANET/SKY GOD, ALGEBRA/AP STATS. If there was a simple way to go wrong, d-o found it. What a Wite-Out wipeout. Thought those "Swifties" were Tom Swifties, so TAYLORDLE made no sense. Finally got 'er done, but didn't find the experience particularly fun. Thanx, John and Husker.
ERASE: Story from my ute. Our phone book included a statement, "When a recording device is connected, a beep will be provided..." I thought it would happen automagically. Hmmmm, recorders use magnetic tape, so maybe it could be magnet-related. I had a bulk tape eraser, so I set the phone on it, turned it on, and.....nothing. Forgot about it, until dad came home for lunch ranting and raging that he'd been calling for hours, and nobody would answer. Time to call uncle Buck who worked at the phone company. He came over, couldn't find anything wrong, but swapped out the phone, and that solved the no-ring problem. A few weeks later he reported to my dad that the permanent magnet in the phone's ringer had mysteriously become de-magnetized. Dad didn't think it was all that mysterious, "Tom!!!"
FIR. That's right, I'm Jinx and this IS Saturday, but I FIR. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Like D-O, planet-->SKY GOD, algebra-->AP STATS. Also fixed coyotes-->THE SUNS, area rug-->ROPE RUG, and jars-->lids-->TINS. Too many unknowns to list. The Georgia-Alabama-Florida region was the last to fall.
Love D-O's story. When I worked at the college radio station as a high schooler, I got a call from one of my teachers. We chatted for a while and disconnected. A few seconds later he called back and irately told me to turn of the recorder. I didn't know what he was talking about, and then remembered that the "recording" beep tone was set up to always sound on that line. I explained that to him, told him that I didn't record his previous call, then told him I could disable the tone with a patch cord. But he settled down and and said everything was OK. I found out later that he verified my story with the station manager. (He was my all-time favorite H.S. teacher, so I was crushed that I had made him mad, and a little disappointed that he wasn't sure I was being truthful.)
Thanks to John for the Saturday grid that even I could finish. And thanks to Gary for the interesting tour.
I managed to finish this one in 21:11.
Most of my time was spent in the lower-right.
Yakuza? Usenet? The abbreviation "messrs" (does anyone still use that?)?
Not sure why the class wasn't just stats, but AP Stats - felt the clue should've indicated that (even on a Saturday). The "ancient French region" wasn't really a clue, if you know what I mean, and I'd never heard of a hippity-hop (nor a kangaroo ball).
Of course, it did not help that I (confidently) entered "Coyotes" where "The Suns" belonged.
I also struggled with the unknown, "Ball Don't Like" crossing "Babar," because Augurs/bodes wasn't coming to me.
Despite my difficulties with the lower-right, I enjoyed the puzzle.
Didn't we used to call it degaussing? But, then again, we were not simultaneously dealing with "the Taylor Swift universe".
DNF. Tore through the top like I knew what I was doing, only to stall on the bottom. Struggled until I finally gave up and looked up Yakuza and Ramones, complete unknowns to me.
MalMan - In Hampton Roads we have what the Navy calls a "deperming station", but is shown on the NOAA charts as a "degaussing station". There is a similar station near San Diego. Some of the modern ship designs have systems that inhibit "perming".
I forgot to mention that I spent a lot of time on the USENET, specifically comp.dcom.isdn. In its heyday USENET was an even bigger time sink than YouTube. But since there wasn't a profit motive, most groups were either unmoderated or very lightly moderated, and the concept fell prey to overwhelming spam.
FIR but it wasn't quite as enjoyable as last Saturday's puzzle (it felt like that one had a lot more clever misdirection, like "Some spooky stories"). I knew YAKUZA and judging by the comments it was VERY helpful. I can see why... MESSRS is by far my least favorite entry in the puzzle, but at least the SS in the middle was free given the plural clues. Also not a fan of OSTE- without the O, and A NEW LOW on its own felt a bit odd. On the other hand... HIPPITYHOP, TAYLORDLE, READTHEROOM and AMIRITE were great! Unlike KS, I was initially stumped by the NW and it was the last corner I filled in. Now onto the ways my brain messed with me during the solve.
I got APIARY quickly and I thought 1A was DNAsomething (??) Also I completely overthought "Cannery row" (great clue). I was fairly sure that 6D had the word NEED in it and I had TIES... thinking "Cannery" was hidden capitalization (a brand I didn't know that makes TIES???) But no. Just...cans. The biggest "OOOOHHHHHHH" moment was when I found out 1A was actually GRANDPA (I entered GRANDMA before getting 6D).
KS - The Ramones were a big punk rock group in the late 70's through the 90's. Although I'm not a punk rock fan, I was intrigued that Joey Ramone wrote (and the band performed) a tribute song to financial reported (then with CNN, now Fox News) Maria Batiromo. They also contributed to the soundtracks of a couple of Spiderman movies. Not exactly an out-of-the-mainstream punk group.
10 comments seems about right.
The fearless “new” editor seems to be succeeding in their quest to make the LAT Crossword a pariah.
Really, now we have to be deep into Taylor Swift (NEVER) and intimates of Amy and Molly. Who?
This is getting beyond sad.
Hola!
Saturday is meant to be difficult but for me this was beyond that. Some fill was easy, THE SUNS, of course, and ESPANOL but that's it. Most of the remainder was an uphill battle.
CSO to myself at AIR DRY where my laundry is hanging at the moment in this 95 degree weather.
Some fill I would never had even guessed so LIU, i.e., BALLDONTLIE and APSTATS which I finally understood.
In my youth we had neighbors named ROMERO and at one time I thought I was in love with Bobby from that family.
My first novelist at 13D was Tolkien but TOLSTOY then emerged and made more sense.
GRANDMA gave way to GRANDPA though it was my great-grandmother who had hand-woven RUGS she had made. I really wish I knew what happened to them. I remember how colorful they were, all oval shaped crafted from old stockings, rags, etc. Now it's a lost art, I suppose.
Thank you, Gary and John for today's entertainment!
I hope you are Having a fine day, everyone!
My kid had a HIPPITY HOP 50 years ago. Did I remember what it was called? No. It disappeared quickly one night. Small house. Enthusiastic hopper. Drove adults crazy.
FIW but enjoyed the challenge.
FAVs from John Lieb: Fills a flat again, Put on the line?
FAVS from Husker: Read the Room, Agenda, & 30D
I'll take a CSO for Cannery Row
Not too terrible Saturday stumper,
I managed to finish it with WAGs and vowel substitutions.
Degaussing brings back memories...
here is an excellent example (2 minutes) that explains degaussing Color CRT TVs.
I also remember degaussing my old 7 inch reel to reel tape recorder, still have the tool somewhere...
The reason was constant tape running over the playback head eventually magnetize the head, which in turn would erase the (higher frequencies) on the tape. Come to think of it, I still have the reel to reel down the basement. Probably haven't used it in 40 years because it would no longer rewind.
I have since found out that the repair is easy.
Just remove the reels then remove the plate there under, to reveal the innards.
The rewind works by a mechanically engaged rubber drive wheel. The rubber wheel not only dries out, but after much use gets "glazed" and slippery. You can replace the drive wheel, but it is simpler just to rough up the edge of the wheel with a file, or sometimes even a clean pencil eraser will work to remove the glaze. They also sell a spray that can make the wheel sticky, but it sounds like a unitasker...
Big congrats to all who got a FIR. This bear did me in in the NW. Never ever heard of Tig Notaro (MLB player?), ROPE RUG (I've never heard it called that. Or Romero or Amy and Molly, for that matter. Don't know slang: "U feel me?" or AMIRITE, and don't care to know. My correct answers were due to WAGs: Kangaroo ball and HIPPITYHOP; TAYLORDLE. Too much of a struggle due to some weird cluing. [I'll climb down from my soapbox now]
One square from a satisfying FIR. I had inked mmM, went to mUM when USENET grok'ed. . DNK the Japanese mafia but YUM was obvious. .
Got started late yesterday. Just like every Saturday there were stops and starts. Went to the online because I had inked abbreviated/ PUT AN END TO. The former too long
This one seemed more hopeless than most. Never give up, never cheat; let the cerebellum do what the frontal cortex can't
Changing v to P on APIARY and real/RITE filled NW
Univision? I thought it said Universal (Hi PK) and tried Esperanto and kept the ESP.
I perped Romero but thought it was Cesar
Aha, (TAYLOR)SWIFTies
I've read a lot about TOLSTOY but didn't know that
My Japan-focused son wasn't around so FIW without him. But this morning I asked him about J-mafia and he immediately spouted YAKUZA
Not SAx trombone
As Gary said fln(-?), Saturday is a grind and glad it's only once a week. It's like the last, high hill on a hike. But…
Clueing is tough enough with obscure pop-cul
WC
Whew, quite a puzzling puzzle! Sorta kinda satisfying to have solved it; not 100% satisfying because I had to get help by clicking on "Check grid," which revealed a lot of incorrect letters, too many to mention here. I misspelled YAKUZA as YAZUKA at first, had GRANDMA instead of GRANDPA, PLANET instead of SKYGOD, and SPANISH instead of ESPANOL. I also wanted HOPPY-something instead of HIPPITY-something and something-MATH instead of something STATS. I thought I was so smart having BATTERY as the never free of charge device, but no, it was IONIZER, which taught me that the Japanese word is YAKUZA. And so it went.
Total unknowns to me include:
BALL DON'T LIE
ROMERO
TAYLORDLE
RAMONES
Amy and Molly and "Booksmart"
HIPPITY HOP kangaroo ball ("ball" in clue and BALL in answer, by the way.)
In my work with magnetometers, and in my earlier work in audio tape recording, I have used bulk degaussers many times. Once I accidentally got one too close to a color TV set (when they used Cathode Ray Tubes) and totally messed up the color and badly distorted the image.
Good wishes to you all.
Hi All!
The NW stymied me... boor @5d didn't help a lick. I ended-up taking a handful of cheats (REairs, Bores, ALSATIA, etc.) from HG's grid for extra-play. Thanks for the puzzle and some inside-baseball with HG, John.
I had BORE for Aug[e]rs and thought it cute we had BOOR above. Both were wrong :-(
At lest RAMONES was a gimme.
Fun expo, HG. Thanks for the Tig standup. Now I remember her. Also, LOL "READ THE ROOM" comic.
Fav: POST IT. I have scads of them around my desks (work & home) and in the workshop. I keep pads everywhere to remind myself later with a quick note. I also put my daily to-dos on them - they don't hit the recycle until everything is to-done.
Nit: USENET does NOT use the WWW protocol and had nothing to do with the World Wide Web. USENET uses NNTP (Network News Transport Protocol - started in '79/'80 and codified in RFC 977 in '86)) existed before Tim Berners-Lee invented the WWW protocol ('The Web' in '89) at CERN.
Jinx - back in the day, my USENET time-sink was alt.music.rush
I love the magnet story, D-O! Pop always knew who took a screwdriver to what :-)
Kai introduces The Numbers on MarketPlace with 'sad trombones' when the market is down. Here's a clip of getting corrected about the wa-wa-trombone. JzB - what say you?
Y'all have a great Saturday eve.
Cheers, -T
I liked this PZL from Mr. Lieb--and the grid design. Visually attractive, but sadly lacking in diagonals.
Husker G does the honors today, with the usual aplomb. (Cf. Little Jack Horner.)
Not too much of a challenge for a Saturday XWD, but enough to tie me up for the a.m.
I could not for the life o'me decide between HENS and DOES for "Female lobsters."
Full Disclosure: I spent one very early morning aboard a lobster boat off the coast of Maine. As the greenhorn, my assignment was to stick the pegs in the claws of the critters. (Nowadays, rubber bands are used to keep the claws from opening.)
Neither Captain Ben nor my crewmates showed me how to sex them. So, this morning, in order to work out the fill for 48D, I had to weigh whether it made more sense to call the males STAGS or COCKS.
You all see my dilemma.
I also had trouble with 31A. AIR DRY eluded me entirely because I clinged (clung? clang?) forever to HOPPITY-HOP (Instead of HIPPITY...)
~ OMK
We all accept the penitential nature of Saturday crosswords -- 'no pain, no gain' sort of thing -- but I submit for your consideration that today's was over the top. Examples have already been listed by earlier posters.
If slang is going to be the clue, "ya feel me?", the answer has to be within cultural norms and spelling, otherwise it becomes a wide-open field for any possible monstrosity, er, ah, 'creative overreach' ... am I rong?
Overall, just no fun. (YMMV).
As I look back over complaints (not to say "howls" or even "whines") from fellow cruciverbalists, I admit to some surprise.
I didn't find this as difficult as did several other shipmates. I DNF'd, but nearly got it, which is saying something for a Saturday PZL.
I estimate I got 85% on my own, definitely cheated thrice, and left two/three wrong--the aforementioned HOPPITY & its AIR DRY (and STA) perp.
At 17A, I didn't like the spelling of AM I RITE? either, but we have to allow that the clue--"Ya feel me?"--was purposely mis-spelled as well.
I remembered YAKUZA from any number of movies. But No, I was not au courant with "Booksmart" or "Swifties." (Didn't I mention three cheats?)
All in all, this was, after all... a Saturday game.
~ OMK
____________
PS. Before I forget, I want to acknowledge the compact wisdom in Wilbur Charles' phrase, "... let the cerebellum do what the frontal cortex can't."
(I don't agree with the first part of his sentence, where he says, "Never cheat." For me, it is sometimes the only way to finish the *#@! grid.
And why not? It is perfectly fine, so long as you don't try to fool others [see my notes above], and are not lying to yourself.)
Chalk up my late post to Thumper’s all-day struggle to finally convince me to follow his well known dictum.
OMK, that "never cheat" advice is pour moi, seulement..
If I allow myself that luxury I will use it. That part of my brain cannot succumb. It will block out the answers
Granted the temptation was strong today what with YAKUZA. NtSo "Tig notaro " which turned out to be a person. I thought it was a Mexican notary public
Ironically, if I'd waited ten more minutes Phil would have given it to me but I'd have to share credit with him. Family is my only exception since I love to get them involved
Betsy, fe. Knows her yoga
IM, forget the bunny. Let us have it full frontal
WC
This puzzle had three spots where I was confident with wrong first guesses: Phoenix Team MERCURY, Spot for a note to self MIRROR, and HS Class with a Mean Teacher ALGEBRA or PRECALC.
I'll put an exclamation mark on DNF. really didn't try after researching local high schools who offered APSTATS. Sorry, guys, none of them listed AP Stats in their AP listings. Where do you get these clearly arcane answers?? Shame on you for not doing your homework!
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