Saturday Themeless by Emet Ozar and Matthew Stock
is an 8th grade math teacher in Gainesville, Florida.
Emet |
1. Part of one's inheritance: TRAIT
9. Targets of some reconstructive surgery, initially: ACLS - Football season sees many problems with the Anterior Cruciate LigamentS
13. Annual telethon held by Comic Relief: RED NOSE DAY - I learned of this event while subbing and I paid a kid $2 for a RED NOSE
16. "Works for me": COOL.
17. "Hm, maybe": I SUPPOSE SO.
18. Concerning: AS TO.
19. Strike zone?: LANE - Here's a double strike on LANE 13. We dedicate this to our favorite bowler Boomer!
20. Call from a night owl to an early bird: DON'T WAIT UP.
22. Like many beep baseball players: BLIND - A wonderful explanation of this sport for the BLIND and visually impaired that features a beeping ball and buzzing bases
24. Alphabetical order?: BLT.
25. Mileage, so to speak: USE - One of these has a lot of USE and high mileage
25. Mileage, so to speak: USE - One of these has a lot of USE and high mileage
35. Dojo curriculum: MARTIAL ARTS - Daniel and Mr. Miagi visit the hostile Cobra Kai DOJO. Now what was the name of that movie? 😊
37. __ box: BENTO - When our granddaughter took us for sushi, she recommended we get a BENTO box, which we did.
39. Org. whose agenda is up in the air?: FAA.
42. Not fast: EAT - Before a blood draw, we have to fast and not EAT that day
43. Short filmmaker?: CAM - Short for CAMera or CAMcorder
45. Stories: YARNS.
47. Dish also called horiatiki: GREEK SALAD - My half Greek wife does not like blue cheese, black olives or grape leaves.
56. Coward with a knighthood: NOEL - NOEL Coward (1899 - 1973)
57. Spanish soap: TELENOVELA - A portmanteau of Television and Novela
Down:
1. Hat with a teardrop-shaped crown: TRILBY - Putting FEDORA first wasn't that bad
7. Place with a snake in the grass: EDEN.
8. Cold War capital: EAST BERLIN - The guy at Checkpoint Charlie in EAST BERLIN assured me this was part of the wall.
9. Flavonoids-rich berry: ACAI.
10. Play clothes: COSTUMES.
11. Symbolic flowers in Buddhism: LOTUSES.
12. At an angle: SLOPED.
14. Turf: SOD.
15. Make one's voice heard, in a way: YOWL - Yell and Howl did not work. Yawp from 10/18 didn't work either
21. Professional who goes through the motions?: ATTORNEY - C'mon, that was funny
23. Basic security feature: DOOR LOCK.
28. "__ Is Betta Than Evvah!": 1976 album: ETTA - New cluing for a cwd favorite
30. Kid: TEASE.
32. Army __: ANTS.
33. Stout grain: MALT.
34. Florida NFLers: JAGS - Jacksonville is considering building a new football stadium
36. XTC song with the lyrics "Hope you get the letter and / I pray you can make it better down here": DEAR GOD - Here ya go.
37. "Away with thee!": BEGONE.
39. Bistro side: FRITES -
40. The Big A team: ANGELS - The Big A Stadium when the California ANGELS opened it in 1970. They became Anaheim ANGELS and are now the Los Angeles ANGELS.
41. "To repeat ... ": AS I SAY.
44. Little help?: ASST.
46. Source of the Mexican drink pulque: AGAVE - What is pulque and how is it made?
48. Long fish: EELS.
49. Singer Lovett: LYLE - Yes, he was married to her for almost two years.
49. Singer Lovett: LYLE - Yes, he was married to her for almost two years.
I had the “y” at the end of a kind of hat and “derby” didn’t fit, so then I thought of “trilby” and that turned out to be right. And I thought the expression of the “night owl” would be “Don’t wake me up!” But that didn’t turn out to be quite it; but I got it eventually. And somehow the name “Mother Jones” came to me. It wasn’t particularly easy (what Saturday puzzle is?) but eventually I managed to FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteNW as starter was completely blank but I started to fill box by box. IN PEN seemed strange but RED NOSE for "Comic" didn't.
ReplyDeleteFIR in reasonable time.
I wasn't sure what a Dreidel was and I still don't know but TOP perped in.
Naturally filling the long acrosses(I SUPPPSE SO etc) was a big help
WC
Good morning, sorta.
ReplyDeleteFEDORA wasn't right at 1d. Have I ever mentioned....? Slowly, but surely, this one came together. I think I can...I think I can...I knew I could...I knew I could...Oops, I couldn't. Husker showed me the error of my ways...an IR PEN and a RED ROSE DAY. Who gnu? Bzzzzt. [Sigh] At least it didn't take a long time to reach the abasement. Thanx, Emet, Matthew, and Husker.
USE : I was shocked when I had to replace the tires on my car at only 13,000 miles. "They're performance tires," he said. "Well, that's crappy performance," I replied.
DNF, not a surprise for a Saturday puzzle. In fact, I just barely started. Filled 20 entries, 18 correctly. Missed with washington and bucs, but got ACLS, ASTO, YET, FAA, EAT, NOEL, RES, MESSY, EDEN, ACAI, TOP, SOD, ANGELS, ASISAY, LYLE (the luckiest man who ever lived), APES, DEN and DOM.
ReplyDeleteI may very well go to Gainesville on 2/22 to see the Wildcats play the Gators in a matinee game. I'll be staying in Silver Springs, less than an hour away. Biggest problem is DW's attention span. I know she will start fidgeting in the first half, and will want to leave at halftime. And I can't leave her alone for the four hours it would take. Maybe I'll see about a senior citizen service, maybe a day care type of group for the memory challenged, to keep her safe for a day.
I guess the Astros got Verlander to forget the "how to finish" lessons he learned here as an ODU Monarch.
DO, you are probably buying tires you don't need. At our advanced ages we shouldn't ever drive over 100 mph, so any speed rating should do. They probably have a low tread wear rating, which translates into better high-speed dry pavement cornering characteristics. (The traction rating is a wet-pavement rating, so it has more to do with tread pattern than tire chemistry.) If you don't drive it hard, you can opt for better tread wear ratings. I would stick with the OEM temperature rating, but if you don't drive it hard, you could go down a grade on that (maybe from A to B). It is best to stay with the OEM size and load rating.
ReplyDeleteI hardly ever wear my tires out. I change them when they are 7 or 8 years old, < 40,000 miles. I've been getting Michelins when Costco has them on sale. (My RV sports Toyo tires, because I couldn't find Continentals with recent manufactured dates when I needed to change them @ 7 years.)
Jinx, these were the OEM tires that were on the car when I bought it new. I expected at least 30,000 (hopefully 40,000) miles out of 'em.
ReplyDeleteAlmost gave up several times. I did manage to FIR but took 42 minutes to do so. DNK TRILBY, making the NW a slog. DNK HORIATIKI, which sound Japanese not Greek to me, making the SW a slog. W/Os TOY:TOP, YELL:YOWL. Overall a real slog-fest. Quite the challenge, thanx (I think) EO&MS. I DID know MOTHERJONES, as I subscribe to the magazine. Outstanding, deep-depth investigative journalism. Thanx too to HG for the outstanding write-up.
ReplyDeleteI finished today's themeless puzzle in 12 minutes even.
ReplyDeleteI wanted an extra space added when I had "Mother _____" and had no idea who/what it could be.
I also didn't know Trilby, the Greek salad, and was thrown off course by the Spanish (Beso and Oeste). I also had yell before yowl, and "in re" before "as to."
From a solving standpoint, I liked the clue for "horiatiki", whereas sometimes, some constructors might have chosen to have "horiatiki" as the answer (one of those, "look it up" type of constructors). If that were the case, then I would hope that every single perp would be abundantly clear/fair. I am just stating my opinion, and I'm sure others may differ.
Enjoy your weekend everyone.
FIW. NW corner was a bear. Guessed Red Rose Day, and had no idea about inpen. So one square wrong. Rest of the puzzle fell into place with some patience
ReplyDeleteTook a lot of thought, patience, perp help and 34:22 to FIR. Lots of DNKs, TRILBY? FRITES? NW last to fall. Never heard of Pulque but I know agave makes some good tequila! Very fitting puzzle for a Saturday, thank you for the early morning brain wrack Matthew and Emet, always enjoy a challenging themeless!
ReplyDeleteHG ~~ another fine review, appreciate your efforts. A “Horiatiki” should have Kalamata olives and feta cheese, not black olives and bleu cheese.
Hi Y'all! Wow, a challenge that was almost an enigma, Emet & Matthew. Too much. Thank you, Gary, for 'splainin' good.
ReplyDeleteRather than list unknowns, it's easier to SAY that TOP, COOL, AS TO, & OEST were my only fills in the top tier on first pass. This puzzle never wore-a fedora. I knew of TRILBY but it took until the end to think of it.
The lower part went a little better and I jumped around and worked back up. Thank you, red letters. Took me 35:33 to slog thru.
Got BENTO on the 1st try. Yay me! Learned it doing cws.
A challenge today from Emet and Matthew, but I slowly FIR. My last fill was changing RED rOSE DAY to NOSE, finally remembering I had heard of it. (Hi, D-Otto)
ReplyDeleteOther WOs were yell/YOWL (hand up, Husker Gary and Anon) Norte/OESTE, and green/GREEK SALAD (horiatiki didn't seem like a Greek word to me either, unclefred). I knew Dreidel and I guessed TRAIT so TRILBY popped into my mind for the hat. A slow solve with so many Saturday long words and phrases. My observation, not a complaint!
Thanks, Husker Gary, for all the information about the puzzle fill and constructors today.
Enjoy your Saturday, everyone!
DNF, apparently "comic relief doesn't give aid to Sudan" (yes, I really wrote that in) so the NW corner was toadily screwed up and incomplete. 🙄
ReplyDeleteLOTUSES or Loti 😁 ? I tip my hat to you who know what a TRILBY is (still looks like a fedora to me, such a subtle difference). 🧐
Food glorious food....😋
I don't understand what all the menu items are so I always order the BENTO box when we frequent our nearby Japanese restaurant...and ...usually order the GREEK SALAD at our local lunch diner but if I said "horiatiki" to the waitress I might get slapped!!..😃. Fries as a "Bistro side" just a tad short but not en français FRITES 🍟. Liked the "alphabetical order" BLT
Put north first cause I read too fast. Then norte and finally OESTE, Spanish 101, along with BESO and TELENOVELLA
"Profesional...motions"...cool clue. MOTHER JONES only know its a mag. "Kid" is not always a little person. "Beep baseball?" Fascinating... from the blog blurb
if it's not inherited you gotta go out and learn a _____ TRAIT.
Feast in honor of a special reindeer....RED NOSE DAY.
She said she could knit but it's just....YARNS
Barnyard motel...INPEN
Come on guys...grab a rake!! I NEED HELP!!! 🥺😰..
🍁🍂🍂🍁🍁
Challenging at first - but then it filled at increased pace as it went on.
ReplyDeleteI thought XTC was probably a Kpop group - but I hadn't heard of them anyway - thanks for the link HG - it was an interesting music video for it.
WC - a dreidel is the toy used at Hanukkah with a hebrew letter on each side that kids play a game with to win gelt - gold wrapped chocolate coins.
Lots of foreign food today - time to go to an international market in downtown Seattle to sample their wares!
Thanks HG and Emet & Matthew
Saturday Stumper. Thanks for the fun, Matthew and Emet, and HuskerG.
ReplyDeleteI finished this workout, but required several visits to Mr. Google. But it is Saturday, and looking at the low number of posts here so far, I suspect others are plodding through also.
Plenty of inkblots.
Hand up for Fedora. TRILBY was one of the last to fill.
Another hand up for Yell before YOWL.
My dreidel was a Toy before a TOP.
Tales turned to YARNS.
My salad was Green before GREEK. My nephew’s wife is Greek, and I always ask her to bring the salad. Yes, Yooper Phil, kalamati olives and feta cheese. Yummers!
I thought of Password before DOOR LOCK, and TSA before FAA.
This Canadian has learned EDYS, but my American sports knowledge is lacking. A Google search for that big A gave me ANGELS; same for JAGS.
Plenty of misdirection today. I wanted ASAP or STAT for that alphabetical order. Oh, food order. I love BLTs.
I don’t quite get DON’T WAIT UP? An early bird would never wait up for a night owl. I see subgenius had similar thoughts.
Wishing you all a great day.
DNF. I had too many wrong answers to succeed, so I gave up. Kudos to those who worked it out right.
ReplyDeleteFrom yesterday,
ReplyDeleteTTP, you helped me greatly! I must be missing a few neurons in my old age, as once I forget something, it's like it never existed...
You did make me research tho, and I have discovered that the iPad photo feature has all the needed thingamawatzits!
Just select an image, hold your finger on it for a sec, and the copy/add to photos options comes up.
Add it to photos, open photos, and click on edit. You can rotate, enlarge, and even write messages on your image! (As well as stuff I never imagined!)
The only missing piece to the puzzle is how to get it back on the internet so you can repost it on the blog. (I use Shutterfly.)
Ray-O
I can't help with a rake, but maybe my imagination.
Tell you what I would do...
Do you have a lawn tractor like TTPs?
Take off the bags and discharge tube and use it in side discharge mode.
Drive around your yard perimeter until all the leaves are blown t9 the center, preferably on a staked down tarp. And remove by towing them away with your lawn tractor.
Don't have a lawn tractor?
(I see those nice woods back there!)
You must have a lawn mower...
Just make one way powered passes from house to woods using side discharge and blow the dang thingies back into the woods!
And just because I cannot post without being at least a little impish,
( and to tease our Picard...)
What would our future selves do to solve these problems in the past?
Picard, before the invention of the 3 seashells...
CED- that Picard link is hilarious . . . and unfortunately all too true to life.
ReplyDeleteA total bomb out today. I filled 1ABC-TRAIT, BEE, & ACLS,- 9D-ACAI and my fill was 37A-BENTO. It wasn't even MESSY because it was a complete sea of white between those areas. At least I did compete the SE thanks to LYLE Lovett and a correct WAG of TELENOVELA that gave me the toehold. After about 15 minutes of nothing else I put LANE, YET, SOD, TEASE, and TOY( TOP was correct) and that was it. A fat DNF.
ReplyDeleteRED NOSE DAY, GIGI Hadid, BLIND baseball, OESTE, MOTHER JONES, horiatiki, TRILBY, AD UNIT, INPEN, ETTA is ..., Custom Ink- I don't know anything about those fills or clues, but I always order a GREEK SALAD at the Italian restaurant by my house.
Tires- I just got some yesterday- for my bicycle. My fourth set. I've got over 12,000 miles on this bike. Car tires have become very expensive Four tires for a medium sized crossover or SUV will cost about $1,000 after mounting, balancing, waster fees, and disposal fees. Jinx-Tires for your RV will make you take out a loan.
After a slog I still FIW. Had TRUST instead of TRAIT in the NW corner. Didn’t look quite right but by that time I’d pretty much said THWI…
ReplyDeleteMother Jones filled in because I lived in Jacksonville for 44 years and I put JAGS instead of the usual answer “BUCS” + I had already correctly guessed Martial Arts and Dollar signs. Also had Monterey but couldn't shoehorn in Lays for Edys
Husker Gary Thank you for all of those wonderful images and explanations. Double STRIKE was a new one for me. Amazing. Sad that your half-GREEK wife does not enjoy the best parts of a GREEK SALAD.
ReplyDeleteCrossEyedDave Thank you for that PICARD video! I feel really stupid and have no idea how that was made. Can someone explain?
Hand up with many others had to decide between TOY and TOP for DREIDEL. Hand up NW seemed impossible, not knowing TRILBY or BEEP BASEBALL or INPEN. WAG to FIR. YOWL was also a huge challenge.
We were privileged to get into the private LOTUSland gardens in nearby Montecito.
Fussy neighbors with a lot of money and power make it difficult to get in.
Here was a beautiful LOTUS in that pond behind us.
Did anyone else today try IDIOT BOX before BENTO BOX? My favorite neighborhood Japanese restaurant stopped serving BENTO BOXes during COVID and never started them up again. I think the profit margin is low on them.
From Yesterday:
Learning moment about SHEET being a ROPE, not a SAIL.
I really don’t understand the emphasis on speed for some of the Cornerites. I think it’s mostly the online solvers. I’m one of the printed page solvers, and I like to take my time over a cup of coffee. Still, today’s challenge took a loooong time and required some hints from Jack to finally FIR. Thanks Emer and Matthew for a real challenge. I learned some new things today, like Beep Baseball Players and Trilby. This was not a “gottcha fest” but a genuine tough learning experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks as always to Husker Gary for the always entertaining and educational tour.
CED @ 10:59
ReplyDeleteWhen I had more time and ambition (accent on the second) I did what you suggested with the center tarp. We have a leave blowing service actually do the job. They were blowing the leaves into the woods but they blow back so DW convinced the boys to blow the leaves curbside where the town will vacuum them up
🙂
Thanks, HG, for helping me identify my error! I thought a "strike zone" was a "lake" but couldn't make sense of "adukit." Oh: laNe and ad uNit. Foiled by a single square. Very fair perps for unknowns like TRILBY and DEAR GOD. Good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteFor a Saturday I found this fairly easy with just a slow slog in the center, but once a few letters were in, the rest came quickly.
I am very familiar with the Monterey airport. It's where we landed back in the day when Claire lived in Carmel. Now that she lives in Petaluma we go to SFO.
The only time I hear of MOTHER JONES is when a broadcaster quotes from the magazine.
COSTUMES is an appropriate fill for this weekend with Halloween approaching.
Wow! A new clue for ETTA.
My mother was hooked on TELENOVELAs and one year we all were for a few weeks when the featured family was named Sandoval. Spanish soap operas last for only three months and then a new one starts. It's not forever ongoing as I understand English ones are. I've never been a fan of soap operas except when they were on the radio and then we listened faithfully every night.
Picard
That is a hilarious video of Picard trying to use the toilet. And the photo of the water lilies is impressive. I like the agapanthus in the background, too. That is one of my favorite things about visiting California: the gorgeous greenery and abundance of flowers everywhere.
Thank you, Gary for the timely review.
Have a sensational Saturday, everyone!
Wendybird:
ReplyDeleteMy solving experience is very like yours. Slowly sipping coffee while thinking and writing.
Friday toughie, but still fun, many thanks, Emet and Matthew. And always enjoy your commentary, Husker Gary, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw COSTUMES I looked forward to a Halloween theme. But 'twas not to be. Or was it? I mean, Halloween could certainly be a RED NOSE DAY for kids playing around with COSTUMES, and one or two of them might want to dress and look like an OGRE. On the other hand, maybe this puzzle looked forward to NOEL or Christmas when we might get some ANGELS visiting. Or are those ANGELS just hanging out from EDEN? I SUPPOSE we'll have to WAIT and see.
Well, time to get some lunch. I should probably look for a few BITES and maybe EAT that GREEN SALAD at the bottom of the puzzle. And see if I can find some MALT to drink with it.
Anyway, have a good weekend coming up, everybody!
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteNope. The only completely filled corner is NE. Toe-holds were hard to come by and even then, I was clueless on corresponding crosses.
At least I filled MOTHER JONES with only two perps.
Thanks Emet & Matthew for the puzzle.
Thanks HG for the mighty-fine expo & some extra-play.
//YooperPhill beat me to the Greek Salad ingredients
Bzzts: epA [FAA], tAleS [YARNS], TOy [TOP]
Fav: Samantha BEE. She and her husband, Jason Jones, were both The Daily Show 'correspondents.'
LOL ordering horiatiki, RAY-O.
I'm crying re: Picard video, CED.
Wait D-O & Jinx, y'all aren't drag-racing like the Prez? Biden hit 118 mph.. [5m clip from Leno's Garage].
Cheers, -T
Big E - Tires were about $500 each plus installation when I last bought them, I think 4 years ago. And I'll need 6. Maybe I'll just call an end to it then. I'm not too sure how long it will be safe for me to drive such a beast. Maybe there's an evaluation service that I will be able to use to assess my abilities. I made an offer on an estate-owned RV before I bought this one. It was 7 years old, and had less than 2,000 miles on it. I included new tires as part of my offer. Not only did the family reject the offer, they told the agent that they thought I was trying to cheat them. Yes, the tires looked new, and no, I wouldn't have driven them at interstate speeds. The agent agreed with me, but they wouldn't budge.
ReplyDelete-T, I'll bet there were some Secret Service agents that needed a change of underthings when he did that. I wonder whether the training center had extra emergency equipment on hand, just in case.
As a Medtronic insulin pump user, 4D had me stuck for a bit. INSET, short for Infusion Set, is the thing that goes into your skin for the pump to infuse insulin through, so I had that blocking me from seeing 17A ISUPPOSE for far too long. I mostly don't do injections so it took a while to remember INPEN is a thing. Sometimes too much knowledge is a disadvantage!
ReplyDeleteI will say that InPens and the like are a pretty handy use of tech. One of the big disadvantages of injections vs using a pump is that the pump keeps a record of bolus injections and "insulin on board," while injectors traditionally don't. And it's surprisingly easy to forget this stuff--"Wait, did I inject for that cookie or did I just think about it?"--so having a way to check can save you a lot of trouble, even a visit from the EMTs if you screw up. So the InPen and its ilk actually have a digital readout so you can check this stuff if you're in doubt. It's one of the more dangerous conditions to treat b/c you have to make these decisions repeatedly throughout the day based on a formula that juggles multiple factors (carbs in what you're eating, your own insulin sensitivity, etc), so it isn't like most medications where your Doc tells you what your daily dose is and you just follow orders. Anyway, don't see this stuff show up in XWords very often so it's kinda nice to be included.
What Wendybird said.
ReplyDeleteAnother Saturday toughie.
ReplyDeleteI estimate I did 30% unaided of this demanding Ozar/Stock construction. HuskerG deserves combat pay for escorting this one.
Very impressed to learn of Beep Baseball! I appreciated the link to the YouTube explanation. I got the message, happily followed how these BLIND athletes do it, but still find it hard to imagine! Very impressive!!
And I do like MOTHER JONES & what she had/has to say.
~ OMK
___________
DR: Just the one diagonal, on the near side.
The anagram (13 of 15) refers to a special fall day each year, a so-called "movable feast," as it can fall on different dates in the autumn, according to circumstances.
The chief circumstance?
This is whenever the homliest two people of a community, of whichever genders (incl non-binary), find one another and do not hesitate to seal their union with uno BESO!
Sometimes this falls on Sadie Hawkins Day (1st Saturday of Nov), sometimes on Thanksgiving (last Thursday) but it can happen anytime in the fall. (Narcissists, beware of mirrors!)
I am speaking, of course, of the...
"UGLIEST HEYDAY"!
DNF with big gaps in the NW and SE. Hand up for Fedora first. I was going to say I tipped my TRILBY to those of you who FIR-ed but Ray-O beat me to that one. Being a west-coaster, I'm always late to the game. On the plus side, I can take a CSO for MONTEREY.
ReplyDeleteWhen LYLE Lovett came to MONTEREY, he told the audience that he felt right at home listening to the coyotes barking all night but in the morning he learned it was the sea lions. ��
Thanks to Emet and Matthew for putting my brain to work and to Husker Gary for making it sound simple.
Ray-O, my yard looked like yours earlier today. Around 4 p.m. my yard man came roaring in on his mower and ground those leaves to dust. My green grass looks lovely. However, after all the dust, I can hardly see out my windows. Probably take another 3 mowings this year. I have three big maples still loaded with leaves.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of critters we have 3 young geese and three yearling guinea hens
ReplyDeleteThe latter apparently already went at it with a trespassing cat. Feathers but no sign of the cat
WC
Looking at those Dom Perignon prices, you can see why boxed Gallo is featured here.
ReplyDeleteWilbur, did the guineas survive?
ReplyDeleteThe guineas are fine, PK. They are tough birds plus they will fight as a team
ReplyDeleteWC