Saturday Themeless by Tony Caruso & C.C. Burnikel
1. Gives a bit: SAGS
5. Violently eject: SPEW - Mauna Loa is reminding Hawaiians that those islands were built by volcanoes
9. Literary heroine who had "very little to distress or vex her": EMMA - We have come to know Anya Taylor-Joy from The Queen's Gambit but she recently did a turn as EMMA in a 2020 movie
13. Bad link indicator: ERROR PAGE
15. "Sacred __": Bocelli album: ARIAS.
16. Largest plot on a block, typically: CORNER LOT - If you like to mow and blow snow (for those of us who do)
17. __ Hall: MONTY.
18. Grift: SCAM.
19. Quaker's parent: PEPSICO - One of hundreds of products in that fold
21. One-named singer who co-wrote Rihanna's "Diamonds": SIA - SIA used her hair covering her face as a gimmick at one time
24. Look over: EYEBALL - "Don't be EYEBALLIN' me boy!"
26. "Guilty Crown" protagonist __ Ouma: SHU - Okay...
27. Qualifying term: UNLESS.
29. In real time: LIVE.
30. Sea-__: TAC - We took off from there last week in Taylor Johnson's puzzle
32. Cycle starter?: UNI.
33. __ Burger: BOCA.
34. Rough landings?: ETAS - The Estimated Time of Arrival is a rough guess.
35. Stimulates, in a way: WHETS.
37. Azadi Tower country: IRAN.
38. Surge: RISE.
39. Spa sound: AAH.
40. Bills: BEAKS - This conjured up an old joke
41. Ox with soft wool: YAK.
42. Magnitude: SIZE.
43. Rice porridge often topped with slices of century egg: CONGEE - Much learning for me. Was this submitted by Tony or C.C.? 🤔
44. Velshi of MSNBC: ALI - Here ya go
45. One-to-one odds: EVEN BET - Heads or tails
47. Compass dir.: ESE.
48. Remote access?: CHANNEL - 😀 We now use our Allo to remotely access a new CHANNEL
50. Arendelle snowman: OLAF - Frozen is making big inroads into fills for crosswords
52. "Jesus Christ Superstar" king: HEROD - In HEROD's Song, he taunts Jesus with, "Prove to me that you're no fool, Walk across my swimming pool."
53. Tell all: NAME NAMES - In the 1952 HUAC hearings, our crossword acquaintance Elia Kazan NAMED NAMES of people he knew to have joined the Communist Party in the past. Hollywood reacted with great hatred and condemnation of Mr. Kazan.
52. "Jesus Christ Superstar" king: HEROD - In HEROD's Song, he taunts Jesus with, "Prove to me that you're no fool, Walk across my swimming pool."
53. Tell all: NAME NAMES - In the 1952 HUAC hearings, our crossword acquaintance Elia Kazan NAMED NAMES of people he knew to have joined the Communist Party in the past. Hollywood reacted with great hatred and condemnation of Mr. Kazan.
58. Canopy makers: TREES.
59. Turning point?: USE BY DATE - Turn bad?
60. Bering Sea barker: SEAL.
61. Works on the road: TARS - Last Saturday, we were tarring roofs. I'm betting a lot of you know the movie that had this great scene tarring a road activity (*answer at bottom)
62. Breakaway group: SECT.
Down:
1. NCAA division: SEC - The Southeast Conference has won 13 of the 22 NCAA FB championships since 2000
2. Not prone to crushes, for short: ARO - This filled itself in but ARO is short for AROMANTIC as in not romantic, i.e. develop little or no romantic attractions. 5 things you should know about aromantic people
3. Sound of frustration: GRR.
4. "Daughters and __": intergenerational tale by Ivy Compton-Burnett: SONS - Daughters and Sons is an acidic comedy of cold deceptions, mistaken identities and family struggles for dominance.
5. Turns the hose on: SPRAYS.
6. __ d'Or: PALME - The award for best film at the Cannes Film Festival. I had to go back to 1994's Pulp Fiction to find a film on this list of past winners that I've seen
7. Nwodim of "SNL": EGO - Talk about yer Saturday cluing. Her IMDB
8. Sign of tackiness?: WET PAINT - 😀
9. God who took a bow: EROS - Oh, that kind of bow. An ARO person could still be in for these activities.
10. Rental for a renter with too much stuff: MINI STORAGE.
11. Green tea treats: MATCHA CAKES - Tony says this is a familiar term for him because Houston has a sizable Asian population.
12. "Obviously ... ": AS YOU CAN SEE
14. Break: RECESS - A lot of memories are made here in grade school. Some of those memories keep people from coming back for reunions
15. More than enough: AMPLE.
20. Tupelo-born singer: ELVIS - We toured Elvis' shotgun birth house in Tupelo. The name stems from the fact that you can see straight through the house from the front door to the back door like the barrel of a shotgun.
21. "Below Deck" vessels: SUPER YACHTS - Nine seasons on Bravo
22. Message of endorsement: INITIAL HERE.
23. Winter destination in the Wasatch Mountains: ALTA SKI AREA - 40 minutes SE of Salt Lake City
25. Delaware's state bird: BLUE HEN - This bird from Kent County England is one of three American State birds that is not native to the country. It is also the name of a commenter that I wish visited us more often.
28. Lighten: EASE.
33. "Très __": BIEN - Ce puzzle est très BIEN
35. Sign away: WAIVE.
36. Coffee flavor: HAZEL NUT.
40. Green field?: BOTANY.
42. Ships off: SENDS.
43. Glitterati: CELEBS.
46. "Doom Patrol" actor Matt: BOMER - He plays the character called Negative Man in this TV series. You're welcome. 🤷
49. Sydelle of Netflix's "GLOW": NOEL - She plays Cherry "Junk Chain" Bang in the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling 🤷
51. Passing fancies: FADS.
54. Actor Butterfield: ASA - His IMDB
55. Astronaut Jemison who was the first Black woman in space: MAE - Finally, a person with whom I am familiar in this closing flurry of names.
56. "... need I go on?" abbr.: ETC.
57. Play area: SET - The simple steel swing K-Mart SET we had for our girls in 1975 would look pretty lame today.
*Paul Newman, George Kennedy, et al., were working on tarring that road in 1967's Cool Hand Luke
49 comments:
Well, I admit Tony’s and C.C.’s puzzle got to me. In fact, certain “white spaces” that I couldn’t seem to fill, even after hours of trying, led me to “give in” and turn on the “red letters.” So, while I’m not particularly “happy” about that, I am happy I was able to solve this puzzle, so perhaps I shouldn’t say “FIR” but rather “FWH” (finished with help).
Or rather FIRWH (finished it right, with help).
I went around the grid multiple times with little to show for it. Still a sea of white. Then slowly but steadily the bottom half started filling in. Then the north west filled in. Alas, I hit a brick wall in the northeast. Sacred arias? Matcha cakes?? Nope. Had to resort to the red strike throughs to finish. Now I’ve got to get moving. That Christmas tree isn’t going to cut itself down.
Good morning!
Thought it was MONTe HALL. That made AS YOU CAN SEE slow to appear. Wite-Out, please. Qualifying term: OR LESS. Nope. It took a WAG to get the H in SHU, and an alphabet run to get the B in EVEN BET. Finished, but it took a full 20 minutes, one cup of coffee, and two mini blueberry muffins. Thanx, Anon-T (great looking family), C.C., and Husker.
Nope. Big DNF. Couldn’t even cheat my way to a fill. By my count 17 names, few of which I knew. Never heard of MATCHACAKES, or many other entries. DNK “Below Decks” was a show. Not a good effort today on my part. I think I’ll just go back to sleep.
Too many unknown proper names.
FIR!!! Saturday!!! -T & CC!!! But erased damon, then bomar, for BOMER, and blue jay for BLUE HEN. Too many unknowns to list, but I will mention that I got my WAG @ SHU x MATCHACAKES.
MONTY brought to mind lyrics from Jimmy Buffett's Door Number Three:
And I don't want what Jay's got on his table
Or the box Carol Marel points to on the floor
No I'll hold out just as long as I am able
Until I can unlock that lucky door....well
She's no big deal to most folks
But she's everything to me
My whole world lies waiting behind door number three
CSO to Picard @UNIcycle
I watch Below Decks, Below Decks Mediterranean, and Below Decks Sailing Yacht, but I haven't been able to stay interested in Below Decks Down Under. The yachts in those shows use pseudonyms, but Google reveals all.
In Virginia, there are some rights that you cannot WAIVE, regardless of what the paper you signed says.
NCAA "Divisions" are just that: D(ivison)-1, D-2 and D-3. All NCAA teams are in one of the three divisions, but a few (e.g. Notre Dame, until Covid-19) are not in any conference. NCAA runs the divisions, but not the conferences. But if that isn't as confusing enough for a Saturday, all US athletic conferences are NCAA "affiliates". (Men's D-1 basketball is topsy-turvy this season. The "experts" have been wrong on almost everything in this young season. And conference play hasn't even started! I love this time of year. Florida vacation, college basketball, and Dick Vitale back at the microphone!)
Thanks to -T and CC for creating a Saturday grid that even I could complete, even though it required a lucky guess. And thanks to Gary for the interesting review.
DNF. I was moving right along, despite never hearing of aro or matcha cakes, till I got to the SE corner. Congee, Asa, and Bomer were not familiar to me. I finally gave up and looked them up.
Good Morning:
I was pleased as could be to see Tony and CC’s byline, especially on a Saturday. I wasn’t disappointed with the fill (mostly) or the grid itself, but much of the tough cluing had Patti’s handprint all over it. I doubt that Tony and CC would go the extreme of cluing a simple word like Sons using a 1937 novel’s title. Several other C/As seem to mirror this trademark habit, i.e., Arias, Iran, Olaf, Ego, Noel, Asa, etc. I accept the difficult C/As that can’t be clued easily, such as, Shu, Congee, Matcha Cakes, Alta Ski Area, Super Yachts, etc., but why pile on by cluing common words in such uncommon ways. Aro had me bewildered and I stumbled at Ach/Grr and Damon/Bomer. Loved seeing Bluehen and, as HG said, he and his mouth-watering menus are missed. Other than that, I finished w/o help (and a few WAGs) in slightly less than normal Saturday time, which was surprising, considering the challenging clues and fill.
Thanks, Tony and CC, for a Saturday-worthy effort from a talented duo and thanks, HG, for your always enjoyable review and eye-opening visuals. Nice photos of the Caruso Clan and our dear, cherished CC.
Have a great day.
Well this was a challenge- but P&P paid off eventually. HAd to start of in the lower parts of the puzzle and work up. I thought 21D was going to start with LUXURY with the R and Y filled but perps switched it over to SUPER YACHTS. I had Sea-DOO before it changed to Sea-TAC. 21A went from NAS to NWA to SIA. ALTA is a crossword staple but ALTA SKI AREA was not! 57D I thought more of a SET as where you act in a play rather than the play set we had in our backyard.
CONGEE I thought of as it started to fill - but it always makes me think of a conger eel.
Like JINX I thought of NCAA divisions as I, II, III so I confidently put III before needing to change to a conference like SEC, since it was my first fill.
I remembered BOCA Burger- as it was one of the first veggie burgers you could buy at the store. It was one of the main sponsors for Michael Feldman's "What'da Ya Know" on NPR radio which was recorded in Madison, WI where I lived for 9 years. I went to a few of the recordings with out of town company- tickets were free or then went up to a whopping 5$ and they would serve Boca Burgers before or after the show.
Thanks HG for the amusing blog and thanks to Anon-T and CC for the challenge today
Oh and I liked Matt BOMER in "White Collar" , never heard of "Doom Patrol"- definitely Saturday cluing!
What a great triple play to start the day. It did take a few passes but one nice thing about solving on the computer is that when you make (what turns out to be) that final guess it tells you that you were right.
Thanks, Anon T, C.C. and H.G.!
Puzzling thoughts: I could almost mirror Irish Miss' comments about the clueing. And as others said, the SEC is NOT an NCAA Division
But what a thrill to see both Dash T and C.C. in today's puzzle byline! Thanks, too to HG for providing his usual excellent recap
For the record, I had to look up a number of answers. This puzzle was far above my "pay grade" ...
Quite a leap from an easier than usual Friday puzzle to today's brain grinder. I was sure I wouldn't get near to finishing but kept going back. Resisted tearing up the puzzle paper page and stomping on it....and eventually FIR 😁 (Can't remember doing so many alphabet runs.)
Some truly ingenious clues peppered with exotic Proper Names....
"Ouma",Velashi, Sydelle?, Butterfield, rice porridge? (Do the 3 bears know about this?)...."need I go on?" Abbr.
CC & Tony how about a fun Monday level collab. next?
Inkovers: cult/SECT, Janis/ELVIS, chickory/HAZELNUT, ahh/AAH, Monte/MONTY, banger/CONGEE (as in "bangers & mash), lot/SET, Bob's/BOCA (What's in a BOCA "Burger"?)
I've seen Matt BOMER in lotsa TV and movies but not "Doom Patrol"....Anya Taylor-Joy was also in a recent fascinating psychological thriller movie called "The Menu"
The Midas touch.....PALMEDOR.
Found in Cupid's quiver....EROS.
Chicken without a rooster...BLUEHEN.
Trying on clothes that finally fit they uttered _____ of relief...SIZE.
Tony nice pic of the family....Re: yesterday's "anonymous" discusion.... I always wondered why you went with an "anonymous" handle too. But I suspect it really isn't. Prolly everyone else knew this but me: Anonymous T is a near anagram of Antony/Antonius 👍
Couldn’t agree more!
FIR but way too many proper names and obscure foods to be enjoyable.
Hand up to object to SEC as a division, though I'll accept in lower-case. The Southeastern Conference itself has East and West Divisions in football. I also might've tried "one" or "two"; Inanehiker is correct that they are properly Roman not Arabic numerals.
Musings
-inanehiker – I solved the puzzle unaided but missed the gist of Play area/SET. I was thinking like a dad when I thought of the Play SET we bought for our girls when we really could not afford it. Will you take away my “got ‘er done” for the error in my write-up? :-)
-I completely agree with Irish on “Saturdayizing” cluing for pretty common fill, e.g., Henry Miller play, “All my ___” seems fairer.
-I had some great exchanges with Tony about careers and Canadian TV humor! He's a hoot.
-45F, blue skies and no wind on the prairie today.
I wasn't on Tony or C.C.'s wavelength this morning but somehow I managed to FIR. The NE took the longest with unknowns SHU, BOCA, CONGEE, and MATCHA CAKES . I guessed EMMA, IRAN, and tried MONTY Hall- Let's Make A Deal- to finally finish it. AAH!
ARO & EGO-never heard of either but left 'em due to solid perps.
SIA, ALI, BOMER, ASA, & NOEL- complete unknowns along with the clues- " GLOW", "Doom Patrol", "Diamonds", and "Guilty Crown". SONS was an obvious fill for "Daughters and Sons", also unknown. SUPER YACHTS filled itself by perps- "Below Deck" another unknown.
SNL quit being funny 30 years ago. Never watch it.
SeaTAC is not only an airport. It's also an incorporated city. Seatac, WA.
USE BY DATE- that's what I keep telling DW. My Use by date is getting closer by the day.
SEC is not a division of the NCAA but it is the U.S. SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION. One has LSU, Bama, two bulldogs (MS State, The Dawgs), Gators, Aggies, Razorbacks, multiple Tigers (Auburn, Missouri, & LSU), Rebels, Gamecocks, Vols, Wlldcats- the other regulates the stock markets.
Not worth wasting my time anymore.
Finally!
A Saturday stumper where I can be sure "the constructors" will "splain" it all...
I can say I finished it, but I went in with the red letters on...
-.-.-.INTERLUDE-.-.-.
DW: (making cookies) "I'm out of ground ginger..."
Me: ok I'll go...
(4 minutes later)
You're making me so mad, you won't get up!
What? I was just typing on the Blog...
Etc...etc...etc...
-.-.-.Continuance-.-.-.
(Sheesh, I bet she won't even let me taste the cookies...)
Anywho,
Being a known constructor puzzle, I "refused" to hit the reveal button, and played 25 letter Yahtzee with a lot of spaces until they stopped being red. I am grateful for the "gimmes" that were interspersed evenly throughout the puzzle which enabled some enjoyable sussing. Thank you...
little does DW realize who she's dealing with...
My iPad pretty much filled this puzzle since there were so many names I didn’t know. And still DNF. GRR.I liked the Turning point? clue SELL BY DATE.
Nice photos of Anon-T and family, and CC.
Good morning. Thank you, Dash T and C.C., and thank you, Husker Gary.
It was nice to see Tony and C.C. as the constructors for today's crossword.
Those trip' elevens in the NE and SW looked intimidating.
It was a good Saturday challenge.
I had to ignore some of the clues because I had no idea who or what. As in, MATCHA CAKES and SHU, but all I needed was the H, and it was the most likely letter.
At "Bad link indicator" - I wanted 404 Not Found, then just Not Found. Nope.
I would bet $5 that Tony's submitted clue for MONTY had nothing to do with Hall and everything to do with Python.
All in all, I thought there were some pretty clever clues today, offset by some complete unknowns. But, the perps were all fair. So not quick, but not impossible either.
Speaking of NCAA Divisions, in football, NCAAA Div III is commonly referred to with the a abbreviation D3. The D3 football semifinals are today. #2 Mount Union hosts #12 Wartburg, and #1 North Central hosts #3 UMHB. I have ties to both Mount Union and the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. North Central is only about 20 minutes away. I was hoping that the semis would be televised. The finals should be aired next week.
You could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw the byline for this puzzle. It had everything that's great about the Corner, including 2 constructors (a MAESTRA and her MENTEE), 3 of our best bloggers, 2 of our ace commenters, and lots of perplexed Saturday solvers. What's not to like, except for my one-letter FIW, but more on that later.
Thank you Tony and C.C. for a truly challenging puzzle and thank you Gary for the interviews and the fine, well illustrated review. Loved the beautiful people pictures and the hat.
Where to start?
9A EMMA. My first fill and she was lonely for quite some time while I circled around the grid chipping away at LHF (and finding little of it).
15A ARIAS. I'm familiar with BOCELLI's work, but not this album, but you'd a thunk I'd guessed it right away and not much, much later.
48A CHANNEL. Clever.
41A YAK. Got this early, but couldn't figure out what to to with the K, until much later when I saw the white slopes of the ALTA SKI AREA filling in with letters.
59A USE BY DATE. More clever.
1D SEC. Don't follow the NCAA, but this eventually perped in and I guess you could justify the use of lower case "division", as a "generic subgroup".
2D ARO. DNK this abbrev. Very informative link - it has become increasingly difficult to keep track of the nuances of gender this days.
7D EGO. We've seen her before and she's from Baltimore. There's a very vibrant Nigerian community here, including several members of my Church.
9D EROS. Could one of his darts be an antidote for ARO (not that there's anything wrong with it!)?
11D MATCHA CAKE. Came here with MATCHA BAKE, which is technically correct, but it gave me BOBA instead of BOCA. The irony here is that I've had them before, but prefer MORNING STAR burgers. But then that would be too long.
15D AMPLE. Had "A MILE" (something about A MISS being as good as ...), but changed it when I realized that QUAKER'S (which we had for breakfast this morning) "parent" was PEPSICO.
20D ELVIS. We had a SHOTGUN apartment in downtown BMORE when we were first married. Guests in our living room had to go thru our bedroom and the kitchen to get to the bathroom.
57D SET. Don't know if this was mentioned, but SET could also be the background for a STAGE PLAY.
Cheers,
Bill
Jinx Thanks for the shout out about UNICYCLE. I have dozens of photos of me riding a UNICYCLE. But you inspired me to dig out my video from 2004 of an exceptional UNICYCLE rider Kris Holm riding as a promo for a new sporting goods store that is long gone.
This video quality is poor on my primitive camera. But this UNICYCLE rider Kris Holm did a stunt series that is worth watching.
AnonT and/or CC Can you please tell us which of these proper names were your doing and which were added later? Hand up, my feeling throughout the puzzle was GRR and I am guessing it is not your fault. Did FIR.
Hola!
Congratulations, Tony! Well done and many thanks to C.C. for mentoring you.
I started at about 7 this morning and worked off and on between telephone calls, looking up information from my insurance company, etc., etc., etc. Then I really dug in and finally finished.
You served us a fine dish, Dash-T and C.C. although I have no idea what CONGEE tastes like nor have I ever had a BOCA burger. To me, BOCA means "mouth" in Spanish. No idea about MATCH CAKES, either.
BOTANY was one of my favorite classes in college mostly because we had a wonderful professora. I went to a women's college so all but one of our profs were female. Profesor Blanco taught Spanish.
Arendelle? No idea but OLAF just emerged. BOMER is unknown, too. My first fill was (Matt) DAMON but that was a bust.
SIA? Another unknown to me.
Nwodim? Someone's name is EGO? It could be considered narcissistic. Or erudite since it is Latin.
Sigh. I have to wait until Monday to view my car and assess the damage. I have to admit I'm enjoying the rental. It's a Rav 4 SUV. Muy NICE.
I hope you are all enjoying your day.
No HAZELNUT coffee for me. I like mine to taste like coffee. Period.
How about a puzzle that has nothing but proper names never known, the latest trend words abbreviated that no one uses, and names of shows and their stars that no one watches?
Oh….wait….
Picard:
That unicyle rider is amazing! I can't imagine what it takes to balance like that. Thank you for sharing.
Tony, the photo of your family is also very nice. It's good to put faces to those you have so often discussed. Yes. Your wife is beautiful!
Interesting and fun Saturday toughie, Tony and C.C.--enjoyed it, though with lots of help, many thanks. And always enjoy your commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
Well, AS YOU CAN SEE, this tough puzzle did WHET my appetite a bit with lots of fun food. You can imagine yourself on a SUPER YACHT on your way to a SKI AREA, with a cool breakfast on the way. There are MATCH CAKES, and PITAS and some CONGEE (not my favorite) that you can enjoy along with some HAZELNUT coffee. And the whole time the CELEBS on board are listening to ARIAS and to tapes of ELVIS singing, making the place even neater, though I wish they'd also given us some LIVE music. Well, time to land on shore--see you later.
Have a great weekend.
How fun to open the puzzle and see a collaboration between C.C. and Tony! I was so motivated to solve it. In the end, I filled them all without help except I could not get 1A SagS.
I knew CONGEE from watching "Top Chef". They often try to "elevate" a dish from their childhoods.
I had RuSh for way too long in 38A. Any guesses why I thought it might be that word?
FAVs:
MONTY ("Hall" sends the brain in another direction at first.)
Turning point?
Green field?
Earlier this week I saw ASA Butterfield in a Christmas movie, "Your Christmas or Mine?"
UNIcycle made me think of Picard and then he posted! So happy to read you today, Picard!
Like waseeley, I thought "Play area" was referring to a theatrical SET.
I appreciate H-Gary's very professional review of our friends' puzzle.
Hi Y'all! Thanks for a great learning experience, C.C. & Tony. Loved your family pic, Tony. Great expo, Gary.
This was a SUPER challenge that almost decked me. First pass thru left more white space than the ALTA SKI AREA. Many unknowns. I filled 'er but only after many red-letter runs to get some toe-holds.
Missed you, Picard! Now I'll go back and watch your unicycle video.
HuskerG leads us on a tour of this Caruso/C.C. PZL:
Impossible for moi to finish OMO, but with ____ (<--fill in the blank) Cheats,
anything is doable!
Strange that I balked at HAZEL NUT, as it is a favorite flavoring in my own coffee.
That is, when I am not drinking my other favorite--New Orleans Chicory, shipped monthly from Café Du Monde!
Gotta hate it when it is either of the IRAQ/N countries.
How often do we fill I R A--while waiting for the concluding perp...?
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (11 of 15) refers to a bunch of vulgar idiots, sinners for sure, but not serious ones.
Just a SET of ...
"VENIAL ARSES"!
Welcome to Natick City -- further words not needed.
Hi All!
Wow! That NE corner was a bugger ;-)
Late to my own party - took DW to the airport this morning. She'll be in Morocco all week :-(
At least the folks there will be in a good mood as they're still in the World Cup.
Thanks, Cornerites, for your kind words. I know the names / TV shows are pretty obscure 'cuz I don't know them either (GLOW, Guilty Crown, Doom Patrol). I had to lookup CONGEE when C.C. put it in the grid (I've heard of it but didn't know how to define it).
The puzzle started with C.C. having already put together most of the grid and she reached out to me asking if ERROR PAGE was a real thing. I responded with what HG said - a 404 Not Found - and then she asked if I wanted to clue it.
Heck yeah! Plus, the grid had some very sparkly fill. Big Kudos to C.C. on those impressive stacks.
Thanks Patti for accepting our puzzle. Yes, a few changes but the grid stood (folks, that's how good C.C. is).
I'm proud some of my original clues made it all the way through (God who took a bow, Quaker's parent, Remote access?, Turning point?, Green field?, "... need I go on?"). I will take blame for 1a but spread it to WikiP: "The conference is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The SEC participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I in sports..." [emphasis mine]
Shows you what I know :-)
I don't remember if "Sign of tackiness?" is mine or not but I like it. Makes me think of all those old send-ups with the guy sitting on a park bench in his new suit.
//the computer with the original puzzle on it is a Win7 'garage computer' and it's dead for now so I can't look it up.
WOs: GNU -> YAK, AnA -> ASA, ERROR code ->PAGE
//I know what you're thinking, but remember it can take months from submission to publication. I've slept since then!
TTP - you'd have bet wrong. Of course Python was my first thought but around the same time I was cluing, The Cornerites had the discussion about Marilyn vos Savant telling everyone (for years now) that you should always switch doors on the Monty Hall problem (also used in Computer Science).
But, in the interest of humor - Nudge, Nudge.
Waseeley, you were on my mind at 15a.
Nice to see you today, Picard. Uni was for you.
Fun story, Misty. I always love the imagery in you mash-ups.
Lucina: I'm with you - no fru-fru in my coffee (black, no sugar). //Hold that thought - Yes, OMK, Café Du Monde's Chicory coffee is fantastic!
10d - I was thinking of Carlin there. I have two MINI STORAGE units 'cuz way too much "stuff."
Good luck getting a cookie, CED!
Cheers, -T
Oh, Ray-O... I almost forgot.
It was OMK that called me Anonymous -T first in a response to a post when I was still Anon at The Corner. I liked it so made the avatar in GIMP and created a blogger account. Took a little doing to keep my gMails separate but now Chrome just remembers me.
And now you know ... the rest of the story.
Cheers, -T
-T @4:52 PM And here I've always thought it was because of all that cloak and dagger and undercover stuff you're into. 🙃
-T @5:05 PM Thanks for that Dashing T. Funny it took me so long to guess it.
Well, that was unnecessarily difficult. The cluing felt harder than normal. Just hard to see the joy here.
My experience in (successfully, i.e. without looking anything up) solving this puzzle is in many ways the same as many of you have described. I.e. WEES.
Thanks for posting, Picard.
Excellent World Cup football games today.
Good wishes to you all.
The two "G"s: Good cluing and Gratuitous cluing.
Lots of Unks, where do I start on this disaster. 1. noLESS/UNLESS 2. SIA? I think we had it once 3.BOCA Burger?? 4.BEAKS GRR; I thought I did an alpha run, must have skipped K. 5. I thought of YAK but it didn't seem to fit 6. ALI ?. of all the ALIs you picked this one 7. I had NuMErAtES 8. Aha TREES - No idea 9. MATCHA CAKES ditto 10,11: 21+22 D 12. I had ALTA then was lost 13. I should have had BOTANY 14. BOMER??
I perped in a bunch of pop-cul ETC that were Unks (ASA,MAE,CONGEE,SHU)
D-Otto, I am impressed. I'm thinking if I'd taken a week or two with lots wite-out maybe FIR. Jinx, nice job and IM,InaneH ETC
I guessed ACC first but SAG gave me SEC. I ignored Div as inaccurate
Lucina, I bought a Rav4 in May. Got 11500 on it already but I like it. How about the auto-steering and radar stopping?
I got NW,NE and middle. In retrospect clearer thinking might have brought it home. I see some knew the arcane pop-cul like ASA, BOMER.
I called off the hitman on Tony.
Usually I love to see CC as author(=Doable).
If I'd gone online and worked with YAK and hadn't been a purist with"or" LESS…(I could've been a contender)
Good to see Picard back. I'll check out the UNI Link when I get my late night wifi signal strength
WC
Jayce, thanks for not giving away results. I have both on tape
Emile @5:21 Well it helps to be a masochist if you're into CROSS words. 🙃
Lucina, my daughter has a 2011 RAV4 that has been a trusty vehicle for her.
Hiya, Anon(ymous)-T @4:41 !
I hadn't realized that I did that for you.
Glad it did not offend--and doubly glad you took it on.
~ OMK
AnonT, it took all day to finish the NE section, letting it percolate while I watched the World Cup, fixed lunch, watched more World Cup, took a walk, etc. etc. And finally while listening to the PBS fundraising show about folk music, the last words filled: ARIAS, MONTY, PEPSICO, and SHU.
For a while I had "AS all CAN SEE" and "More STORAGE," and I was unsure about the spelling of MATCHA as my memory of that word was vague. I had "real"Burger, then "Bob's" Burger, before BOCA muscled its way in.
I thought of luxury YACHTS too, inanehiker, but didn't have room for two Ys. I didn't realize Canopy referred to TREES, suspecting it was some IT term or program or video game put in by you, AnonT.
Getting a FIR today WITH NO HELP WHATSOEVER felt like a great accomplishment. Thank you AnonT, C.C. and Husker Gary, it was quite a puzzle!
Thanks for the family picture, AnonT. Your wife doesn't look old enough to have those girls! Very attractive family.
Picard, thanks for sharing the video of the amazing unicycle rider! Stop by more often.
Have a good night and I'll see you all tomorrow!
ATLGranny - A Picture of Dorian Gray, DW is... I wish I could hold up to the test of time as well as she.
//and I wouldn't know 1/2 the stuff I do if it wasn't for her.
WC - Hitman? Remember, I'm Italian, I take these things seriously :-)
Lucina - you may find a high-seated car is easier to get in and out of. If insurance pays you off, get yourself a treat.
I went over to Diary of Crossword Fiend and Stella (y'all remember her Saturday Stumpers) said nice things about my cluing! I'm #Fanboi'ing over here.
MIL, however, wasn't so nice :-)
She tossed me under the bus at the pop-culture! and called me a 'devious snot.'
However, she FIR. So there! //she does ink on newsprint too.
OMK - yep. You did it. And your avatar is the icon I used for the puz2blog program I wrote to help The Corner hosts with the foundation of the expos.
But, Jayce, how'd you feel about the play "Mrs. Lincoln?"
//Which "?" clues vex'd? Just curious.
Cheers, -T
Took me 14:30, but had a long day before that.
I've been so accustomed to driving small sedans that I had no idea how nice an SUV can be to drive. This one has all the bells and whistles which I don't need since my driving is very limited now. Of course, it's large and possibly a gas guzzler. I'll know when I return it and have to refill it.
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