Saturday Themeless Puzzle by Amanda Rafkin
Across:
1. Rhyming description of one who's very extra: DRAMA LLAMA.
11. Alternative bands?: AM/FM.
15. Tried: HAD A GO AT IT - I took three attempts at a unicycle and it did not work out!
16. Wedding dress option: SARI.
15. Tried: HAD A GO AT IT - I took three attempts at a unicycle and it did not work out!
16. Wedding dress option: SARI.
17. Weary response to a rant: ARE YOU DONE?
18. Not winning or losing: TIED and 50. Nadal's nickname: RAFA - is TIED with Gilles in the match below
19. French military cap: KEPI.
20. Dispatch: SEND.
21. Oft-used tissue: SINEW - Here's a big one
22. Works in a museum: ART.
23. Egg layer: HEN - Here's a HEN with a lot of eggs
24. Catchy song: BOP.
26. Needle pt.: ESE. 😀 Compass needle, of course.
27. Took the reins: LED - but...
28. Muppet who had a cameo on "The West Wing": ELMO.
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| Allison Janney, ELMO, Stockard Channing |
29. Sara's "And Just Like That ... " role: CHE - Some might remember Sara Ramirez as Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy
30. D.C. figure: POL.
31. "We might want to hire a chef": I DON'T COOK. 😀
33. Leaves in tears?: WEEPING WILLOW. 😀 Chad and Jeremy's 60's version of a 1932 song
35. Indiana's conference: THE BIG TEN.
36. Quite a stretch: EON.
37. Olive __: OYL - Popeye joined this cast in 1929 as a minor player
38. Negatives: NOES.
39. Hrs. not observed by most of Arizona: DST.
40. Chemical ending: ENE - Since we already had ESE as a direction, this went as a suffix
41. "So frustrating!": GRR.
42. "__ Sure the Boy I Love": HE'S - We can't get enough 50's and 60's rock and roll! These are The Crystals and Phil Spector's "wall of sound".
43. "Captain Marvel" actor: LAW - He played a character called Yon-Rogg.
46. Connection points: NODES.
48. "The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On" poet Franny: CHOI.
51. Perched on: ATOP.
52. Sarcastic reply to a bogus offer: SEEMS LEGIT - Also "Yeah, right!"
54. Turn signal?: I'M UP 😀 My turn every Saturday.
55. "The underdog is rallying!": UPSET ALERT - NFL fans know Super Bowl III was a huge upset. The Jets were owned by 49. Oil tycoon who once owned the New York Jets: HESS. Leon HESS.
56. Court decisions: LETS. 😀
57. Creative outlets?: ETSY STORES.
Down:
1. Home of the Bengal Classical Music Festival: DHAKA 
2. Pinker: RARER.
3. Crack: ADEPT - We have some crack solvers here that are very ADEPT
4. Brief petition: MAY I?
5. Back: AGO.
6. Messed (up): LOUSED.
7. Encumbered: LADEN.
8. Boatloads: A TON.
9. "My whole worldview just shifted": MIND BLOWN
10. Put away: ATE - Some people can really put away the groceries! They usually have 23. Seconds or thirds: HELPINGS.
11. City that a bubbly person might enjoy: ASTI - A city between Turin and Genoa that is famous for its sparkling wine
12. Breed of the Guinness World Records' longest cat: MAINE COON.
13. Charity concert, perhaps: FREE SHOW.
14. Hump day time: MIDWEEK - Geico has had some very clever commercials
21. Scoured: SPOTLESS.
25. W alternative: OMNI.
28. Noses (out): EDGES.
30. Left a drag show?: PEELED OUT. 😀
31. Cut off: INTERCEPT - Do so at your own peril.
32. Solidify: CLOT.
33. Suggestion made with confidence: WHY NOT ME?
34. Grammy-winning album with the hit "Earfquake": IGOR - I can't post any part of this "song"
35. Surface for digital art: TOE NAIL 😀
39. Rational believers: DEISTS.
42. Like a hygge dwelling: HOMEY. Hygge- It derives from a sixteenth-century Norwegian term, hugga, meaning “to comfort” or “to console,” which is related to the English word “hug.”
43. Oktoberfest choice: LAGER.
44. Lit: AFIRE.
45. L.A.'s __ Towers: WATTS.
47. Actor Omar: EPPS - Hugh Laurie had some very non-pc exchanges with Omar EPPS on the show House
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| Hugh Omar |
50. Settle elsewhere, in jargon: RELO.
52. Refuse to settle: SUE. 😀 SUE or settle?
53. Target of dumbbell rows, informally: LAT.
56 comments:
No comment.
Great write-up! Appreciated the cool illustrations, thanks!
A really fun, tough puzzle - except for DHAKA crossing KEPI. That was just mean! So FIW =(
This puzzle has been “wickedly hard” the last couple of days. I survived it, but not without turning on the “red letters “ to tweak a couple of things. So I’m happy, if humbled.
FIR, but it was a slog. Last to fall was the SE. I tried interrupt first at 31D and found dead ends everywhere, especially since I didn't know Choi or Law and had Rafi before Rafa. Finally I saw "seems legit" and all fell into place.
It should be her last. Most of the clues don't make any sense.
I agree with Anonymous @8:08…eg, “seems legit” does not sound like sarcasm. The suggested “ yeah right” is more like it.
I also agree with anon. This was ridiculous?
GRR. I had Nays which changed to NaES. Never thought of IGOR. OBW goes FIW again. That's after deciphering the NE and SE(I'M UP…) Pinker through me until I filled RARER)
I just realized I had RAFa thus WiTTS. SO Two box Wilbur today
Re. LETS.. Shame that Arraez pulled a muscle, brave of him to play on and not withdraw
Fortunately we has MAINE COON and Lisa LOEB recently
Re. Intercept(I had INTERupt at first) Why would the simple concept "Don't hit the other car" be so foreign to Fla drivers*. "Cut off" never existed in Boston if one signals which they don't down here)
Easier than most Saturdays but as alluded some of the clueing was…? OK devious. OK, maybe a reach. Enough LHF to perp my way through
WC
**No wonder "Stand your ground" passed.
Took 16:40 to finish today.
"Grr." Spent about the last 5 minutes back in the top-left corner struggling to make sense. Kepi crossing Dhaka isn't fair. I misread "petition" for "position," which flummoxed me there too (yeah, that's on me).
Awfully obscure clues for Loeb, Igor, and Law. Ok, there's a poet named Franny.
ENE and ESE in the same puzzle. I appreciate the challenge, but I can understand every single word of what D-O wrote today at 5:41am.
This was a challenge for sure- but P& P eventually won the day
At first I was just trying to put BIG TEN in, which didn't work. So then I thought Indiana conference might be the Eastern, from the Pacers in the NBA- nope for that as well. So perps helped me head back toward "THE" BIG TEN GRRR!
Main language of Bangladesh is Bengali - so I deduced that The Bengal Classical Music Festival being in the capital DHAKA - I alway hesitate a second on that spelling between that and Dakar the capital of Senegal
Thanks HG for the always fun blog and Amanda for the puzzle!
Anonymous @ 8:08 summed it up nicely. Some of the clues were just absurd.
I went to the premiere of a documentary on The Ozark Music Festival at our state historical society yesterday- it was sort of a Midwestern Woodstock in July 1974 30-40 people in the audience had actually gone to the festival in their late teens and 20s Made me wonder if any of our Cornerites had been there?
https://flatlandkc.org/arts-culture/missouri-woodstock-music-festival-documentary/
Come on friends, it’s Saturday! DNF but appreciate the in the language phrases and I congratulate Amanda on her debut in the LATimes. Some of the clueing was head scratching or worse, like the clues for DRAMA LLAMA, and SEEMS LEGIT, but the clues Amanda submitted may not be the clues we get.
Some clues were “aha’s” like 35d. Digital art - TOENAILS and 33a. Leaves in tears - WEEPING WILLOW.
Especially interesting is HAD A GO AT IT, I DON’T COOK, ARE YOU DONE YET, and WHY NOT ME.
I did not come close to finishing this puzzle but if you look at the grid and imagine different clues, I think it is a very fine puzzle. Just my opinion here in NY on a sunny day.
Happy weekend ,all!
I thought it was a very good puzzle, with some great clues, if you think out of the box a bit. NW corner and MAINECOON were the last to go, but I got it tight.
Certainly some great clues like leaves in tears and left a drag show. Many however I had and still have no clue about like DRAMA LLAMA, wedding dress option, catchy song, seems legit as clued,. Then there were the many unknown names CHOI , CHE as clued, IGOR, LOEB.
In spite of all that fog, FIR, but I had to resort to Mr GOOGLE’s help.
I would love to hire a chef; I cook but not my favorite pastime. Once when DH and I were building a townhouse the space for the kitchen was long and narrow, so I suggested making a closet out of it instead. That did not go ever well. LOL
Thank you Amanda for a real Saturday challenge, which I didn't get anywhere near. Congratulations on your debut and thanks for all the incredible punning.
And thanks Husker for filling in all the white spaces. I'm just glad I'M NOT UP every Saturday!
A few favs from the stuff I did fill in:
19A KEPI. We had this before, but it wouldn't surface. I'm including it in hopes that doesn't happen again.
26A ESE. Took awhile for the pointer to come round, but here is where it landed.
31A I DON'T COOK. Not a problem either Teri or I have. The closest we get to a CHEF is occasional carry out SUSHI. But then there is my sister Mary.
33A WEEPING WILLOW. Favorite clue.
37A OYL. DOH! fell for that one.
48A CHOI. Got this one on perps. I'll have to check out her poetry.
57A ETSY STORES. Teri filled this for me while I was on a break.
2D RARER. SHEAR fit here too, thinking PINKER might be sewer slang for the SHEARS used to rough out patterns.
3D ADEPT. Not today I wasn't. More like I CRACKED UP!
12D MAINE COON. Such an odd name for a cat breed, which IIRC we purred on the Corner a few months back.
13D FREE SHOW. So this had nothing to do with 30D PEELED OFF? 😁
TTYL, time for my nap!
Cheers,
Bill
I liked this puzzle - and, it was hard cuz had many things unfamiliar. I learned (maybe - we’ll see) a lot. “seems legit” doesn’t seem “sarcastic” to me either - but I’m not very sarcastic (maybe Amanda isn’t either?) 😏😉
Good Morning:
I’m late due to errands and a blood draw appointment. I echo previous criticisms of some of the cluing, which I think is unnecessarily oblique, e.g., the clues for Law, Homey, Igor, etc. My major criticism, however, is the “Green Paint “ entries, such as, Free Show, Upset Alert, and Etsey Stores and Seems Legit, as clued, plus the unknown, to me, Drama Llama. On the positive side were the very much in the language I Don’t Cook, Had A Go At It, and Are You Done. I finished w/o help but also w/o any pleasure in just shy of 45 minutes. That alone attests to the difficulty I encountered.
Thank you, Amanda, and congrats on your LA Times debut and thanks, HG, for the always entertaining and informative review. Thanks for providing the interview with Amanda which was a very insightful portrait of her constructing incentives and philosophy.
Have a great day.
CanadianEh, you’re in my thoughts and prayers. We’re here for you.
This one had far too many "things a person might say"-type clues/answers to suit my taste. Also, yesterday Glow Up and today Hygee! I'm too old to become a "New Ager" but this seems to be the direction that crossword puzzles are headed and that's not just here at the LAT. Well, at least it helps keep the mind flexible.
GRR about sums it up for me, also. Deceptive clues I like, but the clues today mostly left me with "huh?". Nowhere near my wheelhouse. Great write up, HG. Going back down the rabbit hole now for some more Chad & Jeremy.
FLN….Anon T I think….no such thing as too much cheese…
I-M☘️ @ 11:23. What are “Green paint” entries?
Finished but like Tante I had to rely on Mr Google. Too many unknowns. The clues were pretty tricky, too.
I broke in at the NE, couldn't extend into the center. The SW gave me fits until I saw _O_NA__ as TWO words. PulLEDOUT again kept me out of the center. A bunch of P&P got the SE together and sent me upwards into the center. Had KEPI and ART and AGO and ATON but it took a lot of thinking to fill the rest.
Glad Gary was able to analyze this toughie. Amanda, thanks for your contribution to our education.
Have been doing crosswords for years and this was one of the worst.
This puzzle was DOA for me. Even after guessing WEEPING WILLOW, PEELIED OUT, snf MAINE COON I couldn't get enough TOEholds to make it happen. At least I got RAFA, EPPS, LAT, THE BIG TEN, OYL, HEN, OMNI, and ELMO. But I LOUSED up today. Amanda was on Earth and I was somewhere in the Oort Cloud on this puzzle.
Just too many unknowns I'd never heard of, both clues and fills. DRAMA LLAMA, BOP (I've heard it called a 'hook' song), CHE or Sara, HE'S, Fanny CHOI or the poem, the term UPSET ALERT, ETSY STORES (only the online website), Bengal festival, Earfquake or IGOR, Hygge dwelling, HESS (I knew it wasn't HUNT, who owned the CHIEFS).
Didn't know whether to fill DST, MDT, or even PDT.
PEELED OUT- never tried because I valued my clutch and tires more than trying to 'lay rubber' in multiple gears.
Adele- I agree with you on the SEEMS LEGIT; not sarcastic IMHO.
I DON'T COOK and ARE YOU DONE YET sound like something a 'trophy-wife kept woman' would say to husband.
Tante Nique @ 11:41 ~ My reference to Green Paint refers to words/phrases that are vague expressions that, while legitimate words, are not every day responses or descriptions but, in other words, are tailored to fit a specific clue. For example, Upset Alert fits the clue “The underdog is rallying”, but is Upset Alert common usage? Certainly not in the same vein as the in-the-language Had A Go At It or Are You Done are. I believe Rex Parker is the one who coined the Green Paint descriptor to describe such examples of nonspecific fill. 😉
I was wondering about “green paint” too but, as sometimes happens, didn’t want to ask about a phrase that others seemed familiar with. Thank you, Tante Nique, for stepping in where I “feared to tread” and thank you, IM, for explaining it. Now I have a sense of what a “green paint “ expression is! Thanks again!
FIR. Yup. Took me three sessions, but I got a Saturday. Erased lie for EON, oil for OYL, rafi for RAFA, odor for IM UP (hey, things stink when they turn), shear for RARER, goofed for LOUSED, tons for A TON, eat for ATE, bath for ASTI (bubble Bath, anyone), interfere, then interrupt for INTERCEPT. Way too many unknowns to list.
I thought the Bengal Festival must be held in Cincinnati, but it wouldn't fit.
One of the guys I golf with occasionally is named Mike. It seems to rattle him when he approaches a put and others in the group chant MIKE-MIKE-MIKE, what day is it? Since it bothers him, we have stopped using it. Yeah, right.
I'm reading The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly. So far the hero seems to be a kid from the downtrodden fictitious neighborhood Rodia Gardens, named (in the book) for Simon Rodia, the architect of WATTS Towers.
Thanks to Gary for the fun review.
TO second what SubG said, above, thanks, TN, for raising the Green Paint question and thanks, IM, for providing one of the best explanations of its application (pun intended) that I, for one, have yet come across.
IM, the networks bring us NFL UPSET ALERTS on sundays when they break in to the game you wanted to watch to show you a little of a game you might find interesting because it looks like the betting favorite might lose.
Tough, but interesting puzzle this morning, many thanks, Amanda. And always enjoy your helpful commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
Saturday puzzles are always a bit MIND BLOWN, but this one at least didn't leave me WEEPING. I guess I was just (if barely) ADEPT enough to manage, so guess it SEEMS LEGIT that I'm okay with it. Therefore, I don't need to RELO but will just stay on the blog as always.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
'42. Like a hygge dwelling: HOMEY. Hygge- It derives from a sixteenth-century Norwegian term, hugga, meaning “to comfort” or “to console,” which is related to the English word “hug.”'
I'm sorry, but my 16th century Norse failed me, alas ... there's no consolation in this miserable clue.
There were some parts of this puzzle I liked and some parts I didn't like, and neither one has anything to do with how hard or easy those parts were. I had to do a lot of looking up and grid checking, without which I would have not been able to complete the puzzle.
I had KEFI, which certainly didn't help solving that corner. Having AMA at the end of 1-across I tried something MAMA but that didn't work. Eventually DRAMA LLAMA emerged but I didn't know what it is. I still don't, but I'm not going to make the effort to look it up, because (1) I can pretty much guess what it means, and (2) I don't really care.
That Olive had to be OIL or OYL. That chemical ending could be damn near anything: ANE, ENE, ASE, OSE, ITE ...
I'M UP is a signal?
Anyway, I appreciate Alternative bands, which for some reason didn't fool me, and Creative outlets. At least I learned there such things as ETSY STORES. Or are there? I'm not gonna look it up.
Good wishes to you all.
Well that was a Freudian slip. PEELED OFF? Sheesh!
Husker G brings us today's challenge from Ms. Rafkin.
I found this PZL entertaining throughout. Tough for sure, worthy of its Saturday position, but doable in the end.
The balance between arbitrary long fills and easier short perps seems just about right.
You know you've been doing XWDs a lo-ong time when your first fill is KEPI and your second is DEISTS.
~ OMK
_____________
DR: Two diagonals, one per side.
The near side anagram (14 of 15) offers a label that I believe reveals a misogynistic streak.
Either as a slur against female constructors generally, or this is a label reserved for crosswords created by established witches!
I refer, with apology, to the non-PC tag of...
"HAGRIDDEN GRIDS"!
DNF today after struggling all morning. I kept INTERrupt which caused problems for SEEMS LEGIT, which I considered but couldn't make work. I didn't know CHOI, so no help there. However, when I started the puzzle, I didn't dream I would get so much right! So thanks Amanda for your challenging debut puzzle.
Thanks Husker Gary for sorting out the puzzling puzzle fill. I see I also erred putting NaES like WC so I would have had a FIW to break my streak anyway. Oh well.
Hope you're having a nice weekend, everyone!
I-Miss@2:08. Thank you for the “green paint” explanation and as lagniappe ( as we say in LA) I learned about Rex Parker. Fabulous!
Inane Hiker at 9:35. I was in attendance at the Ozark Music Festival in Sedalia. It was the first concert I ever went to. Quite the experience, best as I can recall!
Anyone try split/ADEPT for Crack?
Jinx I recently read "Fair Warning " a sequel to "The Scarecrow"
WC
Jayce, I guess that were supposed to understand it as a signal that it is now my TURN (e.g. to bat).
Michael, right on! (I'm sorry, but my 16th century Norse failed me).
Jinx @ 2:33 ~ Ah, yes, but I doubt that they preface that programming segment with “The underdog is rallying”! 🤭
SG @ 2:18, MalMan @ 2:30, and Tante Nique @ 3:32 ~ I’m glad you now have at least a general understanding of GP, as I used it. It’s not the easiest concept to explain but I think you’ll know it when you see it. 😉
Thank you and Amanda Rafkin, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Gary, a small correction. This is Amanda's third LAT. She paired with Ross Trudeau on a Tuesday in March of 2020, and had a previous solo on a Thursday in October in 2022. Thanks for posting Deb Amlen's interview with Amanda.
It took three passes, and 49:18 of solve time in three attempts over the course of the day. I blew it by having NaES rather than NOES crossing the unknown IGOR. IGaR looked just as fine to me.
Had some pretty good (or lucky) guesses, but also had some pretty odd stumbling blocks took too long before finally getting the correct answer. TOENAIL was an example of the latter. I was also thinking W was a magazine and for far too long had Elle as the answer where OMNI belonged.
I've only known BOP in the sense of being a genre, not as a catchy song. I've seen plenty of scoured pans that were not SPOTLESS. ELMO broke the logjam as a good guess.
Hand up for INTERruPT before INTERCEPT, and I think that interrupt is the better answer for the clue. But SEEMS LEGIT fit and CHOI seemed to be more likely than than rHOI.
"Leaves in tears" for WEEPING WILLOW was my favorite clue.
I'm with MM on feeling that there were a couple (or a few) too many expressions a person might say. Stress on might. I counted at least four of them.
Wilbur Charles, you asked "Anyone try split/ADEPT for Crack?" I tried CLEFT at first, I think because I had an F from the incorrect KEFI and the T from ART.
Yeah, that Rex Parker guy is interesting.
I almost forgot. A work pal in Phoenix told me a story about his stint working in Africa for GTE. He employed a jack-of-all-trades local as a full-time house man. One day he came home to the sight of all of his pots and pans being out and on display in his kitchen. They shined! My buddy didn't have the heart to tell him that they had been Teflon coated, and that scouring them removed the nonstick surface. He said the guy must have worked all day to make them pretty, so he just acted pleased and used them that way until he came back to the USA. First-world problem.
Thank you for your puzzle, Amanda. It was sooo haaard!. No UPSET ALERT from this underdog. These answers just were not in my punchbowl so I had to TITT.
FAV: Surface for digital art
Jayce@2:55. RE: DRAMA LLAMA. Love your no-DRAMA approach!
H-Gary. Thanks for helping me with the empty boxes. Wow, you are one ADEPT blogger!! I am privy (not the toilet) to the numbers. You help so many people every Saturday. People come here to get their questions answered and you are there for them. Well done & much appreciated!
Renee (aka Sumdaze), your comment is greatly appreciated. I treat the blog like preparing a lesson which I did for nearly 50 years. I tried to make any learning as palatable as possible and put in a "hook" to make a concept easier to grasp. You had the unenviable position of following our much-love Boomer and you have done a stellar job.
I looked it up. Etsy is strictly an on-line etail site. As far as I can tell they have no brick-and-mortar stores. So, saying "Etsy store" seems to me kinda like saying "Amazon store" or "Newegg store." 'Course Apple has their online "Apple store" where you can buy iPhones and stuff on line, as well as brick-and-mortar Apple stores where you can buy ... you guessed it. Speaking of iPhones, I am slightly dismayed to see my iPhone XR described as "old."
Speaking of old, this day next year my (younger) brother will turn 80; that day all four of us siblings will have an "8" as the first digit of our ages. Yikes.
Okay, I caved. I looked up DRAMA LLAMA because I wanted to see how it is different from drama queen. It has something to do with some fella named spitting.
Husker @7:26 wsumdazes
Michael @2:53 PM Teri filled hygge. But then one of favorite vloggers is "Diane from Denmark".
Gary, as culpa for taking you for granted. And ..
As a guy who taught French I. A Technical HS I certainly appreciate your chosen profession
Lesson Plan? I don't need no stinking lesson plan
WC
Mea culpa
Waseeley @ 8:25: Congratulations to your wife! I've got to go viking more often; a little looting and pillaging, to polish my Middle Norwgian up for when King Olaf is in town.
Where's the editor of these puzzles: Ms Patti Varol? What exactly does she do? Approve every puzzle, no matter how bad?
Bottom-right corner was a no-go for me.
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