Saturday Themeless by Rachel Fabi and Rebecca Goldstein
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| Rachel is a Associate Professor of Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University. |
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| Rebecca is a research scientist at Merck, developing cancer immunotherapies. |
Today we have a lovely challenge from two constructors who are prominent in the Medical field.
Like last week there were some respites along the way that made the solve very smooth.
Across:
1. Poor, unfortunate souls: WAIFS - Did anyone else's imagination run to Dickens?
6. Catch a ride to the beach?: SURF - 😀 From the ocean side
10. Small songbird: WREN.
14. Walk in the park, say: AMBLE.
15. Chiwere speaker: OTOE.
16. Spot that generates a lot of buzz: HIVE 😀
17. Cap: LIMIT.
18. Commercial pest control?: BODEGA CAT - This one is a mouse catcher and a greeter.
20. Aegean spot called the "Island of the Poets": LESBOS.
22. Tour de France crowds: PELOTONS - either the whole pack of 219 riders from 22 teams participating in the Tour de France, or the V-shaped main pack of riders drafting off one another. Peloton literally means little ball or platoon.
23. Nosy one: BUTTINSKI.
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| There's a witch in there! |
25. Fall back: RETREAT - Many of the thousands of British troops who escaped at Dunkirk, France back to England in 1940 would cross the channel the other way to Normandy, France in 1944 on D-Day.
30. Eur. kingdom: NOR.
31. Explorer Bancroft who was the first woman to complete an expedition to the North Pole: ANN. This, of course, is NOT the ANNE Bancroft who played Mrs. Robinson.
32. Stevenson villain: MR. HYDE - This 1886 first edition will run you $6,500.
35. Stuck again: RETAPED - Patrick Mahomes reinsured a sprained ankle but just had the trainer RETAPE it right over his shoe so he could finish the game.
36. Iroquois Confederacy nation known as the "People of the Standing Stone": ONEIDA.
37. Pussy foot: PAW.
38. __ milk: PEA.
39. Mule sound: LONG U (ū) 😀 Nice meta clue.
40. Got one's exercise on track?: RAN LAPS - Many tracks ask casual runners to avoid the inner lane where most competitors run in a meet.
42. "Just listen!": INDULGE ME.
44. Feature of pugs and Pekingese: SNUB NOSE.
47. "Gracias" reply: DE NADA.
51. Element of environmental economics: CARBON TAX - Here ya go
53. Open-source operating system: LINUX.
54. Right hand, often: AIDE.
55. Apt rhyme for crocodile: NILE.
56. Gathered documents: INTEL.
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| NCIS agents doing just that |
57. Bubbly spec: BRUT.
58. Nailed (it): ACED.
59. Likely to bend over backwards, maybe: AGILE.
Down:
1. Missing element in an open floor plan: WALL.
2. Parisian pal: AMIE.
3. "Think" PCs: IBMS - IBM's one word famous motto
4. Twit: FLIBBERTIGIBBET - Describing the main character in The Sound Of Music.
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown!
6. Sound of distress: SOB.
7. Perfect: UTOPIAN.
8. Gopher, e.g.: RODENT.
9. Emotions, slangily: FEELS - Slang strikes again
10. "Nothing. makes. sense.": WHAT IS HAPPENING? - Name the great movie with this scene. *Answer at bottom.
11. Part of P.R.: RICO.
12. Emmy nominee __ Rachel Wood: EVAN.
12. Emmy nominee __ Rachel Wood: EVAN.
13. Clears: NETS.
19. Vehicle operated without a license: GO KART.
21. Layers on layers: STRATA.
24. Hamilton bills: TENS.
49. Head-to-head combat: DUEL - The gentleman on the above-mentioned $10 bill took second place in this famous DUEL.
25. Nevada senator Jacky: ROSEN.
27. Sorts: TYPES - It takes all sorts...
28. Exclamation point?: IDEA.
29. Cab, for one: RED - Cabernet wine of course
30. "That's so wrong": NONO.
32. Sounded pitiful: MEWLED - Kitties come to mind
33. D.C. insider: POL.
34. [Shrug]: I DUNNO.
35. Called up: RANG - A Brit might say, "I RANG you up" to say they had made a call.
37. Light beer?: PALE ALE.
40. __ chic: RUSTIC.
32. Sounded pitiful: MEWLED - Kitties come to mind
33. D.C. insider: POL.
34. [Shrug]: I DUNNO.
35. Called up: RANG - A Brit might say, "I RANG you up" to say they had made a call.
37. Light beer?: PALE ALE.
40. __ chic: RUSTIC.
41. Joni Mitchell song with the lyrics "A ghost of aviation / She was swallowed by the sky": AMELIA - A true renaissance woman
43. "The Secret History" novelist Tartt: DONNA.
44. Natural bandage: SCAB.
45. "Monsoon Wedding" director Mira __: NAIR - Time off for a depilatory today
46. Language from which "cummerbund" is derived: URDU.
48. Opposing: ANTI.
52. Struck (out): XED.
*That movie is Poltergeist
37 comments:
When his POST-ITS fell to the floor,
Dan RETAPED them on the WALL, to be sure
That no mice finders
Of his reminders
Would know a BODEGA CAT was in store!
A woman named Sappho, of LESBOS,
Of her bisexual nature did boast!
"On top or below,
Either way I can go."
And poems of her FEELS she wrote!
{B, B+.}
Good morning!
Had to realize that S-O-S isn't a sound before BODEGA CAT could appear. Guess who REmirED and REgluED before he RETAPED? Poets is not the first thing that came to mind at LESBOS. Who else inked in SOY milk? Hands, please. Thought so. Finally got 'er done, but it was a Saturday-worthy struggle. Thanx, Rachel, Rebecca, and Husker.
This puzzle seemed to me to be much fairer and more suss able than Friday’s “torturous “ debacle. And, yes D-O, I fell into the “soy” milk trap too, at first. But ultimately I managed to FIR and can once again say “I’m happy “, unlike yesterday. Hooray!
On a very difficult Saturday 10 months ago I misspelled DNIEPER reversing ie/ei. Did the same only I had ONeiDA(and ROSin,TeGIBBET). SO FIW on a doable Saturday
Went to sleep with B?Ur/NAI? but woke up with BRUT
My first thought, too, was soy but didn't ink it. What I did ink was pirate then MRsmee finally grok'ing the obvious HYDE and spelling HAPPENING with two P's
I also had to change SOs/SOB
This FIW doesn't hurt although RO(as in ROW)SEN (Not the bag pitchers use) should have been guessable
The CBD gummy made all the difference
WC
And...
Two W's today, Owen.
Brilliant
Good Morning:
There were numerous unknowns, at least to me, but P and P saved the day. I, too went astray at SOS/Sob but chose Oat instead of Soy before Pea Milk (which I’ve never heard of) materialized. I also stumbled at Exit/Axle and Notes/Intel. The fill was unusually lively, especially with the challenging Flibbertigibbet, plus What Is Happening, Indulge Me, and the evocative Buttinski. The cluing, for the most part was clever and Saturday-worthy, although the clue for Feels was a tad too cutesy and the wordy treatise for Amelia was, well, too wordy.
Thanks Rachel and Rebecca, for a challenging but doable workout and thanks, HG, for the always informative and enlightening review. Enjoyed all of the relevant visuals, especially the cute Snub-nosed Pug.
FLN
Michael, 😌
Have a great day.
FIR, but what a workout. Had sos before sob and never heard of a bodega cat.
Also flummoxed by flibbertigibbet, something else I had never heard of, even knowing "The Sound of Music".
Overall what started out as easy for me, I got stuck in the center east for too long, long u aside.
Hand up for SOs before SOB. If 1A was, say, some name I didn't know, I would've guessed GLIBBERTIGIBBET instead of FLIBBERTIGIBBET, but the F waas clear from the crossing.
LONG U... had one look at the clue and only came back to it with LO_GU in place. My first thought was mule as in the shoe. No idea what sound that would make.
Close but no cigar today. Couldn't think of POST ITS or the LONG U for the mule. Thought NORway but waffled between OH NO and NO NO. So the middle of FLIBBER_I_IBBET, which was all perps, didn't make it. If I'd remembered I wouldn't have known how to spell it or pronounce it.
AMELIA, ANN, ROSEN, DONNA, NAIR, and BODEGA CAT were unknowns filled by perps. No IDEA about them but I got 'em.
With the exception of MR. HYDE all the proper named people were female. Even the BUTTINSKI, Mrs. Kravits.
Good Morning! A Saturday-worthy puzzle today. Thanks, Rachel & Rebecca!
It was open-book for me at about the half-way point. But that’s okay – learned some stuff.
Bray: too short -> neigh: wrong -> LONG U: aha!!
WOs: SOs -> SOB
Sen -> POL
shabby -> RUSTIC
soy -> PEA (ugh!!)
I have an issue with the cluing for IDEA – too far a stretch…..IMHO
Loved the long fills @ 4D & 10D
UNKs: DONNA, NAIR, LINUX
AXLE – Oh, that! Thanks, Gary! And for an entertaining & enlightening recap.
FIR, but with help. Had to look up Ms Tartt to break the logjam I had I the SW. Was thinking Public Relations for 11D until the V8 can hit and Puerto RICO popped out.
UTOPIAN got me started in the north. Lots of businesses have a resident cat so Bodegas can too. Took almost all the perps until flibbertigibbet fell.
Lots of P&P for this solution. Thank you, ladies, for the workout.
Rose, my first guess was PET milk. That was a brand of condensed milk, back in the day
Got 'er done. Glad to see that others FIR in good humor as well.
I first filled in the NW and the SE, then struggled through the rest one letter at a time. I had to look up the Nevada senator, EVAN, and NAIR. Funny how such a short word twit is defined by such a long one, which by the way i didn’t know they were synonyms.
I unfortunately hung on to SOS and had no idea what sODEGACAT could possibly be. My bad.
I really don’t like slang in CW puzzles because I’m not at all up to date on that. I don’t watch enough TV, in fact practically none, so FEELS didn’t come easily.
I tried soy milk then oat milk before reluctantly filling in PEA. Never heard of it. Could asparagus milk be far behind?
Lee@10:26. What do you mean back in the day when referring to PET milk? I buy PET milk regularly. I love it in my coffee in the morning.
Finally! A genuine crossWORD puzzle, as opposed to a crossNAME puzzle. The names which appeared were perpable, WAGable, or known. The clues were clever and fair, and the unknowns struck me as a learning experience rather than a trivia fest. Hand up for SOS. and I never heard of PEA milk, but the FIR gave me a feeling of accomplishment instead of exhaustion. Loved flibbertigibbet and buttinski.
I too fell into the SOS/sob and SOY/pea assumptions . And my W.O. got used several times. But I enjoyed this creative puzzle. Just the right amount of challenge with some fun and intelligent cluing. …kkFlorida
Tante Nique @ 10:51 ~ “Could asparagus milk be far behind?” My almost identical unexpressed thought was “What’s next, asparagus milk?” 🤣 I watch a fair amount of television but have never heard “feels” used in that context. Much of today’s slang seems, in many cases, a shortening of standard words e,g, Totally Adorable=Totes Adorbs, Okay=K, What’s Up=‘Sup, etc. I’m more in tune with the initialisms of BTW, IMO, IIRC, etc., which I will use in texting, but otherwise use sparingly. 😉
Thank you Rachel and Rebecca for a reasonably easy Saturday puzzle, which I somehow managed to FIW anyway.
And thank you Husker for showing me the (avoidable) ERRORS of my ways.
Not Favs:
15A OTOE. The plural of the tribal name (not OTOS), which of course gave my 9D FSELS (DOH(IDEA) due to a FTPR(IDEA)).
and
11D RICO. I had RIRO(?), double DOH(IDEA), giving the prey of the BODEGA CAT, i.e. the BODEGA RAT. I used to have a CAT colored like the one in Gary's pic, named SHINO after a Chinese glaze.
Actual favs:
20A LESBOS. The birthplace of the Greek poetess Sappho, and the origin of the island's eponym.
22A PELOTON. Got this on perps, but as it has something to do with bikes it made sense.
37A PAW. A weapon of the BODEGA CAT.
38A PEA. DNK PEA MILK. I'd try it but it sounds like the commercial varieties contain PHOSPHATES, which I've been told are not good for my kidneys.
58A ACED. A lot easier to ACE than yesterday.
7D UTOPIAN. The idea that we'll ever have a puzzle that EVERYONE likes(IDEA).
41D AMELIA. IMO Joni Mitchell is also a renaissance woman, at least in the arts. Poet, painter, pianist, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter in a class with Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and the Medieval troubadour Walther von der Vogelweide. Here's Mitchell's version of AMELIA with the words. Her affection for Earhart is palpable.
Cheers,
Bill
IM☘️@11:29. All I can say is the cliché Great minds, etc.
Fun Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Rachel and Rebecca. And your pictures are always a delight, Gary, and, yes, I too loved seeing that sweet little pug.
I wondered if those WAIFS didn't SET OUT on a journey today, after they were a bit ASTIR and ready to AMBLE. They seem to have made a RETREAT into a RUSTIC area where they RAN LAPS because they were feeling pretty AGILE. Once they were tired, they rented a GO-KART, and picked up a kitten with a cute PAW, but didn't let it catch a RODENT. All in all, this trip felt pretty UTOPIAN to them.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Well, this is the puzzle everyone wanted on Friday!
Much easier than the usual Saturday fare. Except, I could not for the life of me, parse, bode gacat...
Learning moment: they make milk from peas?
(Is that like squeezing blood from a stone?)
Which reminds me, I always look at my bran flakes milk twice, since I read somewhere that milk actually comes from the blood of the cow...
Joni Mitchell's Amelia, is from her wonderful album called Hejira.
My favorite is the last track, refuge of the roads.
But all the tracks on this album are favs of mine. The only problem is I can never get Alexa to play it.
I say Hejira, and she gives me some gobletygook. (Yeah, she's a flibbertigibbet.)
It's like, I want to hear The Doobie Brothers "Taloose Street." But no, she will only play the whole album! And I have to keep saying, "Alexa, next song" like a dozen times just to hear what want...
A.I. is still stupid, but hmm, sorry. Somewhere this post veered off into a rant...
FIW, not being smart enough to erase SOS for SOb. And I thought SOb was a shout-out to me, since I've been called one a time or twelve. But I did erase reglued for RETAPED, run laps for RAN LAPS (TENSE, Jinx, TENSE!) asst for AIDE, go cart for GO KART, and pilsner for PALE ALE.
Since I don't drink milk, I'm pretty sure I don't pea milk.
The tag line for Lurch of The Addams Family was "you RANG?"
A BUTTINSKI is also an important tool for a telephone technician. I carried one until I was promoted into management.
I got AMELIA without a single perp and without ever hearing of the tune. The fill was in the clue. Take THAT, AI.
I also thought of that commercial for POST IT. One of the best insurance commercials I've seen. CLIO bait? It was also my favorite clue/answer today.
Thanks to Rachel and Rebecca for the fun, easy-for-A-Saturday (meaning even I could put letters in all the boxes, albeit with multiple reset breaks) puzzle. And thanks to Gary for the fun tour.
Tough but solvable. Had many of the same trouble spots as those mentioned above.
I agree with TN on the use of slang which seems to have become more and more commonplace. Anyhow, that's my feels on the subject.
Pretty tuff puzzle. Lots of unknown names. Some poor cluing (IMO) exclamation point, idea? Never heard of feels. Must be a feminine thing. Don’t get axle as a “escape shaft”. Who ever heard of pea milk? Like I said, some obtuse cluing.
Took 17:07 today.
Flibber.... was unkown (and unsightly).
Today, the ladies were not kind to me, as I didn't know Jackie the senator, Ann the explorer, Nair the director, or Donna the novelist. Thanks solely to other crosswords, I knew Evan the actress.
Soy before pea. Actually, I think I tried every other imaginable 3-word answer before pea milk.
JJB: I think it by "Escape" it means Ford Escape.
Thank you, Rachel and Rebecca, for your Saturday challenge! I finally TITT in the mid-west, preferring NOpe to NO NO plus being unfamiliar with the Nev. senator did not help.
FAVs: PELATONS (I've been watching Le Tour highlights daily on youtube.) and the clue for HIVE
I already had the "P" so I did not fall into the "soy" trap today but I did start with that brand of evaporated milk, PEt milk.
"Hear me out" fit for 42A, until it didn't. Also, flatNOSE before SNUBNOSE.
Yes, H-Gary, I thought of Dickens at 1A. Thank you for your always excellent write-up! I had AXLE but could not figure out why it worked. Now I know.
CED @12:25 PM If I were forced to pick a favorite Mitchell album it would be Hejira, but they're all so wonderful. I think she was the best songwriter of the 20th Century and she ranks up there with 19th Century Lieder composers I mentioned above. But she wrote her own poetry --'they stole theirs!
Timely tribute to the Tour de France on Bastille Day. My favorite Neilson is in the peloton.
I agree with what Charlie Echo at 11:22 AM said:
"Finally! A genuine crossWORD puzzle, as opposed to a crossNAME puzzle. The names which appeared were perpable, WAGable, or known. The clues were clever and fair, and the unknowns struck me as a learning experience rather than a trivia fest. Hand up for SOS. and I never heard of PEA milk, but the FIR gave me a feeling of accomplishment instead of exhaustion. Loved flibbertigibbet and buttinski."
Thanks for 'splainin', Gary.
Edward in LA CA: when I am in distress I SOS
Edward in LA CA: I LOVE UHT milk
Has anyone of this illustrious company ever imbibed 'pea milk'? (And why would anyone bother to make it???)
I see that there is a new code word in the editor's toolbox, 'slangily', which seems to parse in English as 'I made it up.'
PEA milk was introduced in the UK retail market by the brand Mighty Society,[5] and in Australia by the Freedom Foods Group.[10] It was introduced in the US Whole Foods Markets in 2015 by Ripple.[1] By 2018, pea milk was available in more than 10,000 stores in the US.[11] Major consumer product company Nestlé released its own version of the drink, called Wunda, in 2021.
Quoted from Wikipedia.
I've seen PELOTON in the Tour news but have a better idea now. Isn't it related to a fitness machine?
To borrow, if One Box Wilbur can come oh so close then the Saturday xword is doable
Anybody notice INTEL/LINUX side by side? DEC had a Unix version which Tony will know the name. Also had DECALC which I far preferred to Excel
On to Sunday. Perhaps I should finish last Sunday
WC
BROHUGS to all
WC
Tante Nique @ 7:15 -- Thanks for Wiki info on pea milk.
I still have trouble wrapping my mind around the concept, though; I thought 2%, non-fat, lactose-free, oat, soy and almond sort of rounded up the market. BWDIK?
I do not remember who here recently recommended "Tea With Mussolini" (perhaps Lucina???). I want to thank you for the recommendation. I borrowed it from the library and watched it tonight. I loved every minute!
sumdaze @10:19 PM Yes it was Lucina. We bought a copy of the DVD and loved it. Great flic!
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