Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris
57. Island nation in Oceania: KIRIBATI - The horizontal part of my Natick
58. "Mic Drop" band: BTS - The vertical part of my Natick. Is this one of your favorite Korean groups?
Now let's move on to what I did get:
Across:
1. Mint: BRAND NEW - Name the 1966 hit with this lyric (answer at bottom of write-up): I just found me a BRAND NEW box of matches, and what he knows you ain't had time to learn!
9. "__ luck!": LOTSA.
14. Long way to go?: LIMO RIDE - Long refers to the length of the car not the length of the trip
15. Porter, for one: BEARER - This porter/BEARER is also called a sherpa and, of course, is the reason most people make it to the top of Everest.
16. Ancient language in which "ir" means "the": OLD WELSH.
17. Shaky: INFIRM.
18. Console with Party and Fit games: WII - A WII Fit with accessories
19. Briefly appeared: GLEAMED.
21. Go where one shouldn't: PRY.
22. Hitch: SNAG - Life is what happens after you make other plans
24. Dance company founder Ailey: ALVIN.
25. Belt: SWAT.
26. Superficial: GLIB.
29. River valley known for Riesling: RHINE - Riesling grapes on the banks of the Rhine
30. " ... to so __": Churchill: FEW - Winston's tribute the RAF for their efforts during The Battle Of Britain.
32. Part of an outmoded garage set: TIRE IRON - There are some still around
34. Exploit a position of trust: FEATHER ONE'S NEST.
38. Arranges for deferred payment: RUNS A TAB.
39. Symbolic 100%: PIE - If you can't get it all...
40. Waiting expectation: ORDER - 😀
41. Higher ed. hurdle: GRE - Graduate Record Exam
43. Smartwater rival: NAYA - bottled natural spring water, drawn from a spring in the Laurentian Mountains, in southern Quebec, Canada.
46. Mad magazine caricaturist Drucker: MORT - A literary mainstay of my yute
47. Stabilizing components: KEELS - This surfboard has what is called twin KEEL fins for stability
49. Stable gear: TACK - The TACK room for the Budweiser Clydesdales connotes a different sense of stable
51. Go __: APE.
52. Small sailing ship: CARAVEL - A model of Columbus's flagship CARAVEL the Santa Maria
54. First name of two Spice Girls: MEL = Here ya go.
55. Bit of needlework: TATTOO 😀
59. Very hot celestial orbs: O-STARS.
60. Generic confrontation: US VS THEM - This finally hit me
61. Lesser number?: B-SIDE - I Want To Hold Your Hand was a breakthrough hit for the lads but the B-SIDE, I Saw Her Standing There, became a bigger seller.
62. Ring-necked bird: PHEASANT - My friend has a business where hunters come to his farm to hunt ring-necks.
Down:
1. Squanders: BLOWS - Atlanta blew this lead in Super Bowl LI
2. Getting agitated: RILING.
3. Radio control: AM-DIAL - News radio saved this AM-Radio
4. "Spring the trap!": NOW.
5. Vestige: DREG.
6. Nabisco name since 1967: NILLA - Wafers, of course
7. Unpopular debuts of 1957: EDSELS - EDSELS were the wrong car at the wrong time but this 1958 EDSEL in Lake Havasu, AZ is now for sale for $60,000.
8. "This just isn't working": WE HAVE TO BREAK UP.
9. Advance: LEND.
10. Clod: OAF.
11. Security element that may be detected by Silly String: TRIP WIRE.
12. Peppers between jalapeño and tabasco on the Scoville scale: SERRANOS.
13. "M*A*S*H" unit: ARMY TENT - This is the actual M*A*S*H unit on which the movie and TV show were based
15. "Très __": BIEN - something nice that could be said of people in Nice 25. when they show mastery of: SHINE AT some skill.
20. Add: MIX IN.
23. Fragrance assortment, e.g.: GIFT SET.
27. "Joy Shtick" writer: BEHAR - Her 23 yr-old book
33. Missouri's Cori Bush, e.g.: Abbr.: REP.
34. First of many steps: FROM A TO B.
35. Continental rider's purchase, once: EUROPASS.
36. Big name in racing: ANDRETTI.
37. Wild party: RAGER.
42. Quenya or Sindarin, in fiction: ELVISH - Languages of The Middle Earth constructed by J.R.R. Tolkien. This came slowly.
44. Company whose logo is interlocking tuning forks: YAMAHA.
45. Blackjack combo: ACE TEN - Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
47. "Get Smart" org.: KAOS.
48. Be of use: SERVE.
50. "The Kiss" painter: KLIMT.
52. Workout focus: CORE - CORE exercises
53. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" novelist See: LISA.
56. Bit: TAD.
Here's the earworm song with "BRAND NEW box of matches" in the lyrics:
Notes from C.C.:
2) Happy birthday also to Lemonade's beautiful wife Oo. This is a picture from their 2017 trip to Thailand.
1) Guess what? Today is also Rich's birthday. Thanks for the great puzzle, Rich! For those who are not aware, Rich was the previous editor for the L.A. Times crosswords. He's also one of the best themeless constructor in this country.
 |
| Rich and his wife Kim |
2) Happy birthday also to Lemonade's beautiful wife Oo. This is a picture from their 2017 trip to Thailand.
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteThings were going great...until they weren't. Those stacked eights in the SE did me in. Didn't know KIRIBATI, couldn't see US VS THEM, and though it should have been obvious, PHEASANT didn't come to mind. Bzzzzzt! Along the way, NAYA (?) raised an eyebrow. Was thinking Continental Airlines, so EUROPASS didn't come easily. Rich provided a worthy challenge, and d-o proved himself unworthy. Happy Birthday, Rich (and OO). Excellent review, Husker.
PHEASANT -- There used to be pheasant pens in my home town where a local hunter group raised pheasants, and then released them into the wild just prior to hunting season.
Like Husker Gary, I was dunfamiliar with “Kiribati “ but my WAG at the “b” turned out to be correct. Also, I first had “limousine” instead of “limo ride.” Furthermore, it took much thought to get “us vs. them” because “Klimt” didn’t look quite right. Finally, it took a while to get the “y” in “Yamaha” because I was unfamiliar with “Naya” water. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteNot “dunfamiliar” (I’m surprised autocorrect let that pass) but “unfamiliar.”
ReplyDeleteDNF, not even close. Filled 15 entries, 13 correctly. Got MORT, KAOS and YAHAMA, but missed MEg and sat (for GRE).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure everyone has heard the story of the high school sophomore who had always gotten straight A grades. She was heartbroken when she finally received her drivers license, because she saw that she got an "F" in SEX.
FLN - CED, thanks for the Casablanca vignette and the tutorial for gocomics.
-PK, get well soon.
ReplyDeleteGood morning. Thank you, Rich, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Happy birthday to Rich and Oo.
That southeast corner did me in. The rest was all filled correctly, but took me far longer than any Saturday or Sunday in recent memory.
Husker, I've always said, "Life is what happens while you are preparing for the future."
PK, I hope you are feeling better today.
PK, hope you're feeling better this morning. It's a mystery how we manage to catch "bugs" when we've had no direct contact with others.
ReplyDeleteDNF. I was going along like I knew what I was doing until I got to the SE corner. Never heard of Kiribati, forgot Klimt, and BTS I guessed at.
ReplyDeleteCatchy provoking clues altho weird obscure ones thrown in for kaos…. :)
ReplyDeleteThis one kicked my butt today. Took 31:44.
ReplyDeleteLike the others, the bottom-right corner was confounding for me.
UsvsThem appeared. BTS was the only _T_ band I could think of. Didn't know the author, the painter, the island country, or the Smartwater rival. Hadn't heard of "feather ones nest".
I don't want to talk about it. 🙃
ReplyDeleteHeaded to a wedding. See y'all tomorrow.
Cheers,
Bill
Yay! I finished a Saturday!
ReplyDelete(It only took every red letter in the alphabet...)
Hmm,
Two birthdays for people that I have never seen post on the Blog...
I don't want to post cakes you can't eat for people who may never see them!
Please post, because, I don't want to be this guy!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI join those lamenting the SE quadrant quagmire. Who knew Rich could be so devilish? I managed to finish w/o help but it took longer than SS and much longer than my usual Saturday solve time. The cluing was tricky and some of the fill needed perp help desperately, i.e. Kiribati, Naya, Klimt, Elvish, etc. Props for the minimal pop culture references and the relatively low three letter word count. My only w/os were Relic/Resin and ELO/BTS. I’ve heard of both but wouldn’t recognize their music if my life depended on it.
Thanks (I think?), Rich, for a challenging, if somewhat torturous solve and thanks, HG, for your always delightful and detailed review. Great visuals, as usual.
Happy Birthday, Rich, hope you’re enjoying your retirement, at least from editing. 🎂🎁🎊🎉🎈
Happy Birthday, Oo. 🎂🎊🎉🎈🎁
PK, hope you’re feeling better.
Have a great day.
I'm always impressed by your solving skills, Irish Miss! I didn't mean to leave you out. You are amazing!
DeleteNope. Big DNF. Couldn’t fill the SE. couldn’t fill the NE. Couldn’t fill much of the rest either in spite of spending 31 minutes trying before I threw in the towel. Ya got me Rich. Just too much for my meager abilities. Thanx anyway. And thanx too to HG for the terrific write-up. HBD Rich and Oo.
ReplyDeleteDNF, I knew KIRIBATI, but the NE destroyed me. Eventually I managed to fill TIRE IRON and ARMY TENT, but with SPY instead of PRY, I couldn't see TRIPWIRE. No idea about the peppers.
ReplyDeleteMe too. DNF today. I filled only three words on my first pass, including PHEASANT, then got some ideas for the top part which worked well. Finally I started peeking at a word in Husker Gary's helpful grid and trying to fill some more on my own. KIRIBATI was my first peek, but it didn't help much. All in all I looked at 13 and was able to fill the rest of the puzzle. Subgenius, I am impressed by your FIR! Good job!
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary,you did well to have only one natick today. Thanks for preparing a goodly amount of interesting information for us. My father hunted pheasants on farmland near our home and I remember walking along with him one time.
We used Eurail passes many summers while travelling around Germany and Switzerland. It's handy to hop on trains without needing to get a ticket each time.
My favorite entry was that of the Silly String use. Thanks for the picture.
Happy Birthday to Oo and to Rich, our puzzle constructor. It was a learning experience and I don't blame you for my DNF! Hope you are enjoying your retirement. And I hope you are feeling better today, PK. It seems like a mystery how you were exposed to the virus.
I cried uncle this morning. Too many unknowns for me. I now see some clever clues I SHOULD have gotten but my mind was not focused enough. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
ReplyDeleteBut I admit, great CW this morning.
Ran through too top end fairly easily but too many arcane fills in the the bottom, especially the SE corner. Oh well…
ReplyDeleteTough Saturday puzzle, Rich--many thanks and no problem, Saturdays are supposed to be tough.
ReplyDeleteAnd appreciated your always helpful commentary with all the cool pictures, Gary--thanks for those too.
Well, some worrisome slight violence at the beginning, with a FEW BLOWS and that SWAT and that SNAG. Makes you worry that it could KEEL someone over, maybe over a TRIP WIRE, and end up making them INFIRM. I think we should offer a GIFT SET to calm the poor loser down, if that happens.
But there was some cheer here and there as well, with both BRAND NEW and OLD WELSH stuff to enjoy, and a new EDSEL that absolutely GLEAMED and managed to SHINE AT everybody, even at night under the STARS. And there was that PHEASANT, ready to FEATHER ONE'S NEST.
Have a fun weekend everybody.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t think Rich Norris could put together a crossword with such horrible clues, but there it is.
Another Saturday POS crossword.
Hola!
ReplyDeleteWhew! I finally managed to finish this in between doing Saturday chores, namely, laundry and watering plants.
Loved the clue for LIMO RIDE. Rich has always given us some fun word play. Also congratulations on the low name count. I'm familiar with LISA See and have read several of her books.
SERRANOS! Yum! I used to have one planted outside but it did not survive.
I would have known MORT Sahl sooner than MORT Drucker.
MMMMMM, Riesling! My favorite wine.
PK, I'm sorry to hear that you are unwell. Please take care of yourself.
Happy birthday to Rich and happy birthday to Oo.
Enjoy this lovely day, everyone!
DNF. LOTSA tough clues today, as is appropriate for a Sat. On the plus side (not sure if that is the A-side or the B-SIDE), I did well in the SW.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rich, for your puzzle. I hope you have a fun birthday!
And I'll TACK on a Happy b-day to Oo as well!
FAV: Lesser number?
59A: DH taught me the mnemonic, Oh, Be A Fine Guy/Girl, Kiss Me!
PK: I hope you're feeling better today. Get plenty of rest.
I, too, was flummoxed by the SW quadrant. Couldn't figure out what a lease holder would charge. Also, not familiar with OSTARS ...but now I'm an expert in astronomy. A two hour slog, but gotter dun!
ReplyDeleteI had to do "Check grid" a number of times, erasing the many red cells that had the wrong letter in them. Sort of like semi-restarting several times. In this manner I learned that LOAN, RELIC, LIMOSINE, OLD NORSE, SWIG, AVAIL, and MATT were wrong. Took perps to determine whether it was Très CHIC or Très BIEN. Had to look up KIRIBATI, however, which enabled me to finish this very difficult puzzle correctly. So, FIR with plenty of help. Whew.
ReplyDeleteBy the way did anyone else enter Rodin for thé Kiss? That really threw me off.
ReplyDeleteNice work today. Thank you, Mr. Norris--and you too, Husker G!
ReplyDeleteI thought this one might do me in. But P+P allowed me to do most of it on my own.
Well, in truth, I did resort to a couple of cheats, but only because I grew over-eager to see the remaining clever fills.
My fave? That's a tough call. But I will go with 16A--OLD WELSH. But only because I recently discovered how deep my Welsh ancestry goes.
Maybe a descendant of King Arthur himself...
~ OMK
____________
DR: I normally don't post a "DR" (Diagonal Report) when there are no diagonals.
Today is different--only because I cannot help but notice how ostentatiously Mr. Norris is being in avoiding diagonals.
The grid pattern of black squares is arranged right along the lines of any potential diagonals.
It is one thing to block out the 8th square on the 8th line, as certainly the subtlest way to block diagonals. But to actually blacken EIGHT slanted squares on each side, with ALL of the middle lines of darkness directly on the diagonal lines, THAT takes truly superior designing.
I am suitably impressed!
Well this puzzle was done in parts - partly because we are hosting a guest and taking her sight-seeing and lunch - but it was one of those where I put myself down the primrose path and then had to back off and realize some areas needed to be re-worked entirely.
ReplyDeleteCase in point - where most people jumped to PHEASANT right away - I put in comorant- which is the right number of letters and did end in ANT. I thought of ANDRETTI at first - but since it would have been the first fill- I waited for perps to confirm; and since I had Go PRO and BIG before APE filled it wasn't confirming my ANDRETTI!
I waited for perps to decide whether it would be SAT or GRE. Also had GIFT bag before perps turned it into SET.
I also didn't have a clue with Quenya in 42D - and had the EL - so thought it was a Spanish word - so maybe it was another word for El Nino in fiction.
KIRIBATI was my gimme - because I learned its location from Sporcle Geography quizzes - before I always thought it was somewhere in the Indian Ocean between Africa and India which is actually either the Maldives or Seychelles. But it is now firmly planted in my brain in Oceania. Another gimme was REP Cori Bush from my state Missouri - she is from St. Louis.
Thanks HG for a fun blog and thanks and happy birthday to Rich!
Two bad squares which is a moral victory. nTS/BTS, never heard of KLINT??? Nor KIRIBATI. I also had MEg
ReplyDeleteThis was extremely difficult with ¾ still having a lot of white when I went to sleep last night fight. But…
I took a CBD smart pill and put it together. No fixing SE but I'm not bothered when it's pop-cul unknowable
Clues were very clever, took a lot of imagination. Ironically the NW went fast but then everything stopped.
PIE finally smacked me in the face along with CORE and PHEASANT. Thebline sports reference, ANDRETTI helped with SW. I inked over infear/INFIRM
WC
BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, is a South Korean boy band formed in 2010 and debuting in 2013 under Big Hit Entertainment. The septet—consisting of members Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook—co-writes and co-produces much of their own material. They are enormously successful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the birthday wishes for my bride
Super late to the game. I love the word “flummoxed “ because that’s what I was today about this puzzle. Very impressed by all who solved. Holy cow! Best wishes to all. Such a very smart group of people here.
ReplyDeleteLemonade, you and your lovely wife are incredible in that beautiful picture. Best wishes to everyone.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteWe hosted a couple for dinner (I built stuffed bell-peppers and fettuccine w/ garlic-butter sauce) and didn't get to the puzzle until about 1:30am after cleaning up. The couple were a hoot and we visited for nearly 6 hours.
//One's a professor w/ DW and the other is a specialist in mass-disaster medicine - she travels the world directing response & speaks five or six languages (only two of which have the same root-language).
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who couldn't get traction on this w/o copious cheats! #LearningDay
Lurk tomorrow, er, um, later today.
Cheers, -T
D'Oh! Happy (belated) Birthdays to Oo & Rich. Hope it was all that and a bag of chips.
ReplyDeleteLOL CED!
-T
This puzzle is a killer. "Shine At!" Really! You should go to cruciverbalist jail.
ReplyDeleteThat was a fun one! Really, really tough in the SE and was completely stumped by "FEATHER ONES NEST" for basically the whole time I was picking away at it. Couldn't finish without internet help, but enjoyed the challenge.
ReplyDelete