Saturday Themeless by Brooke Husic and Michael Lieberman
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Today we continue our run of brilliant young constructors. It is Brooke's initial appearance here and Michael's third after Monday and Sunday solo appearances.
Brooke Husic is from Glastonbury, CT and is currently doing post doc work in Berlin computational chemistry and machine learning work on molecular kinetics.
Mike Lieberman is a litigation partner in Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on Supreme Court and appellate litigation.
I had my usual Saturday experience as I came upon some fun fill where the bedeviling cluing first gave me fits but then generated a very satisfying shout of, Voila! The NE corner seemed to be rife with subtle clues. Decoding that Silver was actually Long John Silver led to my conquering of that area.
I will address the clues where I had similar experiences in the write-up as they are numerous. I enjoyed the puzzle but would not want to work something this complex all day as indicated in the graphic below:
1. "That ... can't be right": WAIT REALLY - More like, "WAIT, REALLY?"
11. Kitty: POT - Usually the amount in play in a poker game. Did you ever play Monopoly where all fines were put in a "kitty" on the Free Parking square where the next person to land there got the money?
14. Cuisine that may be served on banana leaves: INDIAN FOOD.
15. Shawarma bread: PITA - If you're ever in Omaha...
16. Nickname for fans of Instagram's most-followed musician: SELENATORS - The 1940's might have had a band of SINATRATORS.
17. Orsk river: URAL - The Ural flows through Orsk and then down to the Caspian Sea
18. Shepherd's charge: EWE and 34. 18-Across call: BAA.
19. Revise: AMEND.
20. Responsibility: BLAME and 35. Accepts responsibility for: OWNS.
21. Michelangelo's milieu: SEWER - In my deepest memory I dredged up that this was a Mutant Ninja Turtle and I guess he surfs in the SEWER. Anyone else think of STONE (marble) for that "other" Michelangelo?
23. Nap: SIESTA.
25. __ Ocho: Little Havana's main drag: CALLE - I knew Ocho is eight and CALLE is street, so...
25. __ Ocho: Little Havana's main drag: CALLE - I knew Ocho is eight and CALLE is street, so...
27. Snack puff: CHEETO.
29. Needle: ANNOY - How Don Rickles made. his living. He'd be out of work today.
32. Hit a bunch of keys?: ISLAND HOP - Island keys finally occurred to me after struggling with computer, piano and door keys!
35. At a high frequency: OFTEN.
36. Farm critter: ANT - 28. Goes (for): OPTS gave me the last letter of T, so, this was not a cow, pig or hen.
37. Provide real-time commentary on social media: LIVE TWEET - All you need to know
40. "__ Dragon": PETE'S - Original movie was released in 1977
42. Only two-digit number spelled without the letter "T": ELEVEN - This math major learned this today!
43. 49-Down choice: ESSIE - and 30. Digital service provider: NAIL SALON and 49. 30-Down treatment, for short: PEDI. Not in my vocabulary but it filled itself in
45. Most artful: SLIEST.
47. Dull and dirty: DINGY.
49. Divides: PARTS.
50. Swiftly: APACE - Work on the bypass that will take 10 minutes off our drive to Lincoln continues APACE
52. "There you __!": ARE.
55. Fashion designer Saab: ELIE - If you'd like to see some of his $2,000+ items
56. Real or faux expression of gratitude: THANKS A LOT.
47. Dull and dirty: DINGY.
49. Divides: PARTS.
50. Swiftly: APACE - Work on the bypass that will take 10 minutes off our drive to Lincoln continues APACE
52. "There you __!": ARE.
55. Fashion designer Saab: ELIE - If you'd like to see some of his $2,000+ items
56. Real or faux expression of gratitude: THANKS A LOT.
59. Goofy-sounding person?: VOICE ACTOR - Nobody did it better or more OFTEN
60. Gerund ending: ING.
61. Symbolic centerpiece at Passover: SEDER PLATE.
Down:
1. Well-suited to be a mentor: WISE.
2. From scratch: ANEW - "Come on baby, let's start ANEW, Cause Breaking Up Is Hard To Do"
3. Remains neutral?: IDLES.
4. Deuce, e.g.: TIE - Part of tennis's
5. Took off: RAN AWAY - A recurring issue at Boy's Town
6. Crown topper: ENAMEL - Oh, that crown
7. Realm of the "Divine Comedy": AFTER LIFE - Not exactly for reading at the beach
8. Diving bird: LOON - The TERN also dives but not today
9. Time __: fictional alien race: LORDS.
10. Units for Newton: Abbr.: YDS - Oh, that Newton! Fiendish indeed.
11. Silver adornment?: PIRATE HAT - Oh, Long John Silver. Fiendish too.
12. Electronic synthesizer whose name comes from the Japanese for "tadpole": OTAMATONE - Here's this weird looking, sounding instrument playing a song (1:12). New to me.
13. Account: TALE.
15. Had rhythm: PULSED - My rhythm is around 52 beats/minute
20. Restoration playwright Aphra __: BEHN - The first English woman to make living by being an author. I had no idea of who, what, when, why or where.
22. Friendly introduction?: ECO.
24. Words from the willing: I CAN.
26. Name on many a foundation: ESTEE - Oh, makeup foundation.
29. An end to reason?: ABLE - That seems to be, uh, REASONABLE
31. Center piece?: NAVEL RING.
33. 1983 album with the hits "China Girl" and "Modern Love": LET'S DANCE - Had to be
38. Internet company solicitations?: E-VITES - This completely works for me
39. Basic tops: TEES.
40. Conifer goo: PINE SAP.
41. Sleep lab test: Abbr.: EEG - My test showed I was having 33 apnea events/hr. CPAP has that down to an average of 4/hr.
44. Feeling worse: SICKER.
46. Lake whose name means "the lake" in Washo: TAHOE - The Washo people lived on the border of CA and NV mainly around what is now Lake TAHOE
48. "Big Three" summit site where Chekhov wrote "Three Sisters": YALTA - A 1900 picture of Chekov's dacha in YALTA, the town where FDR, Stalin and Churchill met in 1945.
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| 112 Kirova St., Yalta, Crimea |
51. No longer due: PAID.
53. Ginger or ginseng: ROOT.
54. Peut-__: French "perhaps": ETRE - Il était peut-ÈTRE malade (He may have been ill).
56. Sharp products: TV'S.
57. Knee part studied in an MRI: ACL - Tearing an Anterior Cruciate Ligament has ended many an athletic career.
33 comments:
For some answers, I thought, “This CAN’T be right!” But,somehow, they were.Particularly “Selenatons” and “Essie.” This puzzle was quite a slog, even more so than most Saturday puzzles, But through P&P, somehow I came through on top. FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m relieved!
Sorry, that should be “Selenators”. Sometimes I can’t read my own writing!
It was fairly smooth sailing for me EXCEPT that NE area. DNK "OTAMATONE", I had a feeling "kitty" was not CAT but I couldn't quite remember that it's also a poker POT, 15A felt like it could be PITA, NAAN or ROTI, and I thought 17A would be a bit of crosswordese I didn't remember (I kinda kicked myself when I got URAL because "Orsk" definitely sounds Russian). Somehow got everything by WAGing "PIRATE" while assuming the answer was some kind of HAT (though I didn't realize what "Silver" meant). Many fun clues with VOICEACTOR being my favorite.
I'm not too familiar with "keys" being islands - funnily enough, I got that one because I also make crosswords, and ISLANDHOP is in one of my recent puzzles.
DNA (Did Not Attempt).
The Bible, some folks tried to AMEND.
Others tried OFTEN simply to defend.
Then there ARE some,
Whose fight is done.
Those people say to the rest, Amen!
To the NAIL SALON she went for a PEDI.
Her polish brand of choice was ESSIE.
She saw ELIE SAAB
Lard on a gob,
So figured she, and her feet, were ready!
{A-, B+.}
Thought I'd pulled off a miraculous FIR then saw that ESSIE is a nail polish and ESTEE is Lauder and make-up. I had oSTEo for the 2 box FIW
Not Saarinen this week.
The last I saw of Serena she had 6 match points and a dozen DEUCEs.
After perping YDS I thought "Could that be Cam Newton?". Not many YDS from him lately
Lots of LHF for a Saturday mixed with unfathomable clueing. One "Hail Mary Hero's home town*" clue did me in.
WC
* Doug Flutie Heisman winner from NATICK, MA
Good morning. THANKS A LOT, Brooke and Michael, and and thank you too, Husker Gary
Close, but not quite. 2 errors.
1) I had Two for "Deuce", changed the w to I when I finally sussed INDIAN FOOD, and forgot about the o. So Selena's fans were SELoNATORS.
2) Aral or Ural. If I had been paying attention, I would have seen PaLSED instead of the needed PULSED.
Didn't know names ELIE or BEHN, but they perped in easily enough.
Never heard of OTAMATONE or ESSIE. TY, perps.
Fav clue was "Goofy-sounding person" and that filled quickly, but I was struggling a bit with "Silver adornment" and kept thinking of old what's his name's horse.
"Name on many a foundation" was also a clever clue.
Remarkably, 'urologist' fits in the spaces provided for "Digital service provider"
1983 album with China Girl and Modern Love ? Easy for me. Bowie's best album. And, for you trivia buffs, Stevie Ray Vaughan played lead guitar on that album before he became famous in his own right.
Hi all ~~ I haven’t posted for a while, but I do come to the Corner everyday to get everyone’s take on the days puzzle, always interesting and enlightening, so thanks to the bloggers for your time and effort, and to all who comment, this place is certainly an education!
Managed a FIR today but it took lots of thought and 44:36 to get it done. Very tough as a Saturday themeless should be, with some really great clueing IMO. Thank you for the challenge Brooke and Michael! (Brooke, I see your solo byline in the USA Today also, so congratulations on the daily double :) HG ~ another fine synopsis, always enjoy your Saturday blog (and on all other days, your “musings”).
FY ~ Anon T, I can relate to your stint as an Altar Boy, as I also indulged in the leftover wine in the cruet after Mass, (unconsecrated as only what was poured into the Chalice was blessed). Also I remember the wafers (hosts) came in a white box, and we’d eat some of those out of the box, pretty bland.
Lemonade ~~ don’t sell yourself short as a blogger, you are right up there with the best, always entertaining, humorous, educational and brilliantly done!
I was able to finish this in 17:52, but struggled in the upper-right. I was sure "Silver" was referring to the Lone Ranger's horse, I over/under-thought "pita" (as the earlier Anonymous did), and took ages to get "blame."
Good, tricky Saturday, though I didn't care for Estee/Essie/EEG crossing.
Our leading candidate for worst clue of September, "Restoration playwright Aphra".
Winner for worst clue of August, "Soyinka who was the first Literature Nobelist from sub-Saharan Africa." (Answer: Wole).
Both clues were from Saturday puzzles.
FIR, but quite a slog. Lots of unknowns. Perps and a few WAG's completed the fill.
Well this was quite a challenge - I had a few misdirects that slowed it down even further but slowly parsed it together.
I had the SE so knew it had to be SELENA Gomez- but didn't know what her followers are called - the only one I knew like that was Swifties for Taylor Swift followers.
Like a few others- I was thinking of the Lone Ranger's Silver for the 11D - but once I had the HAT part I knew that the horse never wore a hat!
I had PINE tar before PINE SAP- which slowed down the SEDER PLATE answer- and having herb before ROOT for 53D (even though I know it's a spice) took awhile to get straightened out.
Hilarious TTP that urologist would have fit in the NAIL SALON space, a creative clue.
My husband had just read Dante's Divine Comedy last year - and so I confidently penciled in purgatory, since inferno and paradise wouldn't work - but it turned out to be the more generic AFTER LIFE.
I also thought Shawarma bread sounded like INDIAN FOOD and naan or roti would be a nice clecho so was waiting for perps- but no- it was a Middle Eastern dish and used PITA
I also waited for perps as to whether it would be EEG vs EKG or ECG as heart monitors are also used during a sleep study.
I don't wear makeup unless it's a super special occasion - but I'm aware of the ESSIE and ESTEE products - but I'm sure that was a hard cross for those who don't know of that realm
Thanks HG for another fun blog and to Brooke & Michael for the challenge.
FYI for those who would venture to a movie theater these days - today is National Cinema Day and most theaters' tickets are 3$ no matter if they are regular, 3D , or IMAX.
YooperPhil, thank you. I am still having fun. Much of this puzzle was great but a bit was too obscure for me. For example, Aphra Behn was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era.(Wiki). My minor in college was English literature. Nothing; SELENATORS bzzt. Though I enjoyed her in ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING . On the other hand OTAMATONE nothing came to mind.
HG, I am always blown away at your Saturday write-ups; and overall really enjoyed the pairing of Brooke Husic and Michael Lieberman .
A DNF today. I got the bottom half okay but it you don't have Instagram or you don't know who Selena Gomez is of whatever SELENATORS is, then you can't get the NW filled. At least I filled ANEW, IDLES, SEWER, LOON, and YDS. At least I knew Cam Newton and about the ninjas.
Kitty- CAT or POT- I filled CAT but it wouldn't have mattered; never heard of OTAMATONE synthesizer, only the MOOG.
ESSIE, BEHN, PETE'S, ELIE- were not filled; never heard of any of them. Haven't been in a nail salon either. But I did get NAIL SALON and PEDI.
WC- Serena had match points against her last night and lost. She's a great tennis player but a sore loser. Threw a fit when Kim Clijsters beat her in the finals; threw a fit when Osaka beat her in the finals; and last night the commenters were talking to her for a long time when the girl who beat her was graciously sitting a waiting to be interviewed. For Serena it's always about Serena. Venus is older, has won 7 Grand slams and is still playing.
BLAME is not close to "responsibility." The terms are totally different. Perhaps the editor is to BLAME; it is her "responsibility" to ensure semantic accuracy.
To give you an idea how old I am, LETS DANCE recalled for me Benny Goodman's theme song, which I still listen to sometimes. I am certain never to have heard anything by Selena Gomez, whose picture I have seen and who is quite pretty.
An ant is a "critter?" Not just usually found on a farm, either. C'mon!
Hadn’t seen OTAMATONE before, but it’s kind of a cool word, and I would think we’d see more of it as long-fill, seems like a good word from a constructor’s point of view with five vowels out of nine letters.
Shepherd's charge"... Reach outer space in 1961? (I guess that's spelt: Shepard). "End of reason" the last few years wouldn't fit. "Divine Comedy realm" besides Paradiso, Inferno, and Purgatorio? "Electronic synthesizer", Moog won't fit. Ah, Lots of clever misdirection I see. Was tryna remember what Justin Bieber's fans are called ("beleibers" hadda LIU just now), but wouldn't fit.
(I think PETE'S Dragon was sold to Daenarys "Khaleesi" Targaryan from"Game of Thrones")
....Aaaannnd Im done, less than half completed with DW giving me the stink eye, stuff to do, errands to run, people coming over.. maybe later..🐊
Anon @ 10:22, an ANT is a creature (critter) and you can observe their activites and colonies in ANT farms.
Good luck to everyone else. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.
Fun Saturday toughie, many thanks, Brooke and Michael. And always enjoy your pictures, Gary, thanks for those too.
INDIAN FOOD suggested we might get a food theme in this puzzle, especially with PITA bread right next to it. But except for the CHEETO that seemed to be it--until we got to the end and there was a SEDER PLATE.
The body also got a bit of attention in this puzzle, with someone at the NAIL SALON maybe getting both a PEDI and a NAVEL RING as well. Maybe also a little cleaning of the tooth ENAMEL.
Well, that's about it for me this morning. THANKS A LOT again for a fun puzzle. I'm off to my SIESTA. Have a good weekend, everybody.
Missed PETE’S dragon and ESSIE, otherwise the rest got filled after much erasing. The south was all filled in but the north needed some work. For Deuce I had two, but I also wanted Indonesian for the banana food and I couldn’t figure out what Michelangelo was doing in the sewer. I had cat for POT.
4 years ago I HIT A BUNCH OF KEYS. We did a tour of all the Florida keys. Learned so much about limestone, coral reefs and mangroves. The lowest ever recorded temperature in Key West is 40, so yards are adorned with all types of exotic flowers.
DNF, not being able to approach the Canadian border. Filled 54 entries, all of which were correct.
I think I've been on all the Florida Keys that are reachable by car. My favorite place is No Name Pub on No Name Key. But my favorite way to ISLAND HOP is bare boat chartering in the British Virgin Islands. Anybody need a captain?
I loved the clues "hit a bunch of keys", "goofy-sounding person", "Silver adornment" and "center piece".
Wait! Newtons ARE units, aren't they? Nothing could "force" me off THAT side track.
This is the type of Saturday puzzle I like. Too tough for me to finish, but not because of Millennial fill like SEWER and ESSIE. Thanks for the workout, Brooke and Michael.
Got my RV out of the shop with two new heat pumps. Took it to the truck garage to get my state inspection. Found out that their only inspector is in training early next week, so it will be a week or so before he will be able to get to it. No problem, just call me when it's done. Sigh.
FLN to Jayce. Apropos of all the discussion about Earth tremors yesterday, you might consider re-posting the video link you shared some years back on the remarkable project you participated in to deploy a network of seismic stations along some of the California ridges, in order to give long range warnings of impending Earthquakes (as opposed to APBs that one is about to start). I'm sure some of the newer Cornerites have not seen it (and I'm not sure where I stashed my link).
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Thank you Brooke and Michael. It was only through sheer pigheaded determination that I managed to FIRish this. I qualify the FIR because GOOGLE auto-corrected one letter of a SWAG for 12D and then the NE fell into place.
Thank you Husker for pointing out all the nuanced cluing, of which there was A LOT. This stuff was tough, but on the whole fair.
Some favs:
11A POT. Settled on this instead of CAT and that ultimately led to PIRATE HAT. TIN FOIL wouldn't fit.
14A INDIAN FOOD. We were vegetarians for 2 years back in the 60s and ate this cuisine almost exclusively. Don't remember eating off of banana leaves though.
16A SELENATORS. I'd heard of SELENA, but not her fans. ATORS perped in before I got her name.
21A SEWERS. When 5D RAN AWAY perped in I knew that Michelangelo wasn't the guy who frescoed the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I could visualize the NINJA TURTLES, but not their name.
29A ANNOY. You're probably right about Rickles Gary. NOT PC or too much competition.
55A ELIE. A couple of those dresses would make a nice down payment on a SAAB. Although they're no longer being made, their parent company is now making NEVS ("New Electric Vehicles").
59A VOICE ACTOR. Oh THAT Goofy.
7D AFTER LIFE. According to DANTE you've got three ways to spend it. You definitely don't want the first one.
9D LORDS. The first fill for this WHOVIAN.
10D YDS. Actually these would work for ISAAC as well. The METRIC SYSTEM wasn't introduced into England until 1965 and due to its odor of BREXIT, some old timers still don't accept it. It never made it in the US. I find it indispensable for formulating and mixing ceramic glazes.
20D BEHN. A learning moment.
41D EEG. I had to have 3 sleep apnea tests before they were able to diagnose my APNEA. Now I can't sleep without my CPAP machine. In fact I have a date with mine for a NAP right after I post this.
Cheers,
Bill
In the end, I was missing the E where ESSIE and EEG crossed, never having encountered that brand of nail polish, and not being sure of which sleep lab test was intended. SELENATORS and BEHN were unknown, but eventually filled. Grateful for all your comments and contributions.
Gosh, I actually liked doing this puzzle. Yes, it was very very hard, and yes, I had to look some stuff up, but figuring out the answers gave me satisfaction. As Husker Gary said, "...a very satisfying shout of, Voila!" As for synthesizers, all I could think of was Moog, as many of you did, Korg, Roland, and Yamaha. And, like several of you, I wondered what the heck Michelangelo was ever doing in a SEWER. If I had ELEVEN hands, I'd put them all up. Thanks to Brooke Husic, Michael Lieberman, and Gary Schlapfer.
Here is the video that waseeley referred to:
Earthquake Early Warnings: Days instead of Seconds?
Anon @10:22 "Critter" is slang for animal (as opposed to a plant). These critters aren't found ON farms they're found IN farms, ANT FARMS that is.
AGM @9:51 AM Who has RESPONSIBILITY for that mistake? Who is to BLAME for it?
Waiting for Lucina to get CALLE Ocho. The fwanche was as basic as it gets.
I had ?LA?E for "responsibilty". BLAME was the noun, place would be the verb.
This one required thi king even though I grok'ed a few like ISLAND HOP (with several perps)
WC
OK, Ta ~DAH!
This PZL from the Husic/Lieberman team (moderated by HuskerG) is the first Saturday XWD I have spent any real time on in quite a while. So I am not being overly self-congratulatory in announcing my victory!
I think I was encouraged to stick with it because of its gimmes. We all search for those inside-fills that fit our particular backgrounds. For me, of course, this is theater. So my two early fills were...
BEHN (20D) (I've never read Aphra BEHN, but remember the name; she was the first female playwright in the period when women were allowed to act as well)...
and YALTA (48D) because of the Chekhov connection.
What made this latter feel especially close is that I once had the privilege of playing the title role in a production of the comedy, Chekhov in Yalta, by John Driver & Jeffrey Haddow. Yes, friends, your humble servant played the master, Chekhov himself, in this bittersweet play.
This connection rather endeared the XWD to me. Plus, I found it solvable at just the rate and time I was willing to spend with it.
In the end, the only fill I wasn't sure about was SEWER (21A) for "Michelangelo's milieu." I appreciated HuskerG's equally flustered response.
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (12 of 15 letters) is a bit of a nit picker. It seems to refer to that final touch of personal preening before meeting one's friend/partner for the evening, or perhaps before greeting the guests one has invited (and tries stylishly to "out-do").
Can it be that such a small final gesture can make the difference? To push the envelope of chic-ness? And achieve that last...
"TONIER TITTLE"?!
Interesting comments, OMK.
Hi Y'all! Thanks, Gary, for your courage. If I said THANKS A LOT to Brooke & Michael, I confess it would be a "faux expression of gratitude". Collections of obscure clues ANNOY me and make me feel SICKER.
That being said, because I had red-letters to tell me when I was on the wrong track, I filled it in 37 minutes. I had some correct WAGs in the NE that surprised me by being right such a POT, PITA, & URAL. This got me started so I worked down and back up. NW was last to fill and almost impossible.
Long John Silver was a PIRATE under that HAT.
ANTS are also found ON farms. Lived on one & know this for a fact.
When SEWER perped in, I looked at it until I vaguely remembered the Ninja Turtle altho my kids never watched that show. Picked up on the Michealangelo name because it was so not a good fit.
Hi All!
DNF - I couldn't get enough crosses to agree in the north: they were Justin Bieber fans, wasn't F=ma Newton, Silver wasn't Lone Ranger's horse, and foundation wasn't under a building or endowment funder. In the SE, PINE tar was 4/7th right. After an hour, I tossed the towel and got on with my chores.
Thanks Brooke & Michael for the puzzle. Thanks HG for some extra-play cheats and explaining things.
Fav: LETS DANCE. Bowie's music is still playing in my head.
FLN - I enjoyed the Earthquake stories. Thanks everyone!
{A, A}
Inanehiker - I heard about National Cinema $3 tix yesterday. The only movie out now that I want to see is Peele's Nope [Trailer] But I can't sit still during a thriller - I'll wait till I can watch at home and PACE about.
In college, DW would baby-sit/tutor kids for extra cash. She was introducing one 7 year old to art...
"And this is Michelangelo's Creation of Adam," as she turned the page
Kid: He's a painter too?
DW: How do you already know Michelangelo?
Kid: He's cool and likes pizza and skateboarding
//true story!
Cheers, -T
-T, I suspected as much re. David Bowie
I had a lot of white so I went and solved the Jumble, perhaps wordle too. When I returned the boxes filled magically. OSTEO seemed to fit foundation, at least Mr S. agreed. Btw, the CoQ10 seems to be working a bit; I've gone from imbecile to doddering fool. The "Why did I come to the kitchen" syndrome combines with "Why didn't I bring the ??? from the kitchen?"
WC
Sorry, mates, I must needs be a contrarian. How in heaven am I -- as a male -- supposed to know the name of some unspecified 'choice' for a pedicure? And then naticked with a sleep lab test that offers three choices? Restoration playwrights? Japanese word for 'tadpole'? Centerpieces at Passover?
As admirable as all your skill sets are ...
"Rabbit, rabbit."
Gotta say, these two put their heads together to come up with THE most obtuse clues possible! Nice obfuscation job 😎 altho I agree with above comments regarding ANT and BLAME, it’s a bit too heavy on millennialisms for my palate, however…
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