Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan and Jennifer Marra
Today, Kyle, a regular Saturday constructor and sometime collaborator from Chicago, teams up with Jennifer Marra to present us with a real challenge. I worked this one from the SE up to the NW and earned a nice "got 'er done!"
Jennifer lives in Connecticut with her husband following the defection of their grown children. She worked as an electrical engineer wrangling numbers and retired early to take on words. When she’s not writing fiction, she can be found constructing crosswords. Jennifer met Kyle through a Facebook puzzle site after stalking him through his numerous publications and this is here initial entry at the LA Times and says he is a great teacher and won’t let a puzzle leave the safety of his computer until it’s ready for the world.
Across:
1. Long-distance relationship?: STAR SYSTEM. This one took this amateur astronomer awhile but it simply refers to a star and all the heavenly bodies that orbit about it.
11. "bfn" alternative: TTYL - Bye For Now and Talk To You Later. There are hundreds of these.
15. Overwhelmed by mosquitoes: EATEN ALIVE - This swarm is in Arctic Alaska
16. "Easy now": WHOA.
17. Landmark whose address is 768 Fifth Avenue in New York City: PLAZA HOTEL 😳
18. Flooring trees: OAKS.
19. Character: TENOR - The TENOR of many political debates these days is very unpleasant
20. __ favor: POR - and 34. "Don't mention it," in Spanish: DE NADA. "POR favor, tráeme una bebida". "¡Gracias!" "DE NADA." (Please get me a drink. Thank you. You're welcome.)
20. __ favor: POR - and 34. "Don't mention it," in Spanish: DE NADA. "POR favor, tráeme una bebida". "¡Gracias!" "DE NADA." (Please get me a drink. Thank you. You're welcome.)
21. Foundation options: TONES - Oh that foundation
22. MLB playoff round: NLCS - We followed our cousin and my former student Alec Bohm in the National League Championship Series last year.
24. "Is that how you see it?": THINK SO.
26. Saltimbocca herb: SAGE.
29. Made oneself scarce: HID.
31. "Ocean to Ocean" singer Tori: AMOS.
32. Equal: ARE 😀
33. Palme d'Or field: CINE - French for cinematography
40. Desert of the Maghreb: SAHARA.
42. Number of players needed to play Klondike: ONE - Hence the name Solitaire
43. Monopoly token until 2013: IRON.
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| A vintage set |
44. Paragraph opener: TAB.
45. Vintage Pontiacs: GTOS - I'll let Ronny And The Daytona tell you all about them!
46. Isn't really hot?: ACTS MAD 😀
49. Old autocrat: TSAR.
51. Some fundraisers: RACES.
52. Lithium-__ battery: ION.
54. "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" singer: SIMBA.
58. Whistleblower-protecting org.: OSHA.
59. Comprehensively defeated: TAKEN APART - Sports slang here:
61. Heated contest?: MEET - Some track MEETS have preliminary races called heats that determine the final contestants.
62. Local number, at times: ANESTHESIA - 😀 This number rhymes with summer and numbs you for a medical procedure. My dentist uses a local and I just can't talk for a few hours afterward.
63. Makes sense, with "up": ADDS.
64. Practiced but did not compete: REDSHIRTED - A common procedure in college athletics. Here ya go.
Down:
1. National Teddy Bear Day mo.: SEPT - Okay
2. Narrative: TALE - Morgan Freeman does a great job doing the narration in this wonderful movie.
3. __ end: AT AN - 100F days are AT AN end here.
4. Go to commercial, say: REZONE 😀 You might not like it if land next to you gets REZONED from residential to commercial.
5. Jam: SNARL.
6. "Boo-__!": YAH.
7. Janitorial closet feature: SLOP SINK.
8. Big name in "handmade" vodka: TITO.
9. Navratilova rival: EVERT
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| Martina Crissy |
10. Allen who was the first host of "This Week in Baseball": MEL.
11. Athletic advantage: TWO ON ONE
12. "Some help you are": THANKS A LOT - You pretty much need the eye roll too!
13. Makes the team?: YOKES - 😀 Usually oxen
14. Sudeikis role: LASSO.
21. Kitchen counters?: TIMERS 😀
23. American who may have a quinceañera: CHICANA - A CHICANA is an American woman or girl of Mexican descent
25. Held a claim: HAD DIBS - Bonus points if you know the name of this movie and on what morbid thing they HAD DIBS. (*answer below)
26. Lip: SASS.
27. Cantata component: ARIA - Okay
28. Wed: GET HITCHED.
30. Delivered: DEALT 😀
33. Rebounds: CAROMS.
35. "Wildlife" writer/director: DANO.
36. Plot lines: AXES.
38. High chairs?: BAR SEATS.
39. Asset for some writing contests: NEATNESS.
45. Beef source: GRIPER - Biff appears to have a beef with Marty in Back To The Future
46. Musk: AROMA.
47. Like some sausages: CASED.
48. Title woman in a "little ditty" of 1982: DIANE - Earworm alert
50. Beer with sushi, maybe: ASAHI.
55. Halyard pole: MAST - The halyard is the rope used to raise the sail up the mast
56. Larson who plays Captain Marvel: BRIE - No cheese in a Saturday puzzle
57. Barely: A TAD.
59. 2022 Todd Field film about a conductor: TAR - Cate Blanchett plays a fictional, world renowned conductor named Lydia TÁR. Rotten Tomatoes review
60. Ultimate: NTH.
*The movie was Stand By Me and the boys HAD DIBS on the dead body of Ray Browers.
35 comments:
Didn’t know “Tito,” didn’t know “Dano,” and had a hard time coming up with “Lasso,” as clued. Put through P&P, I ended up making it through this challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Got 'er done, which on recent Saturdays has been better than par for d-o. This one came in well under 20, so no complaints. Thanx, Kyle (Kyler?), Jennifer (nice debut), and Husker (fun expo).
In an hour we'll hit the road so we'll be in position for the Johnny Cash/Preparation H "Ring of Fire" eclipse. I've never seen a near total eclipse. This one is the opening act for the total eclipse next spring.
DNF. It was either TITT or cheat, and I was out of P&P. Filled 59, 55 correctly. Two errors in one cell - ACT MoD x CHICANo. The other two were the result of getting my beef from a GRocER.
Today is:
NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE RIDE DAY (I’m still licensed, but no longer ride)
NATIONAL DESSERT DAY (hold the high-fructose corn syrup, please)
NATIONAL REAL SUGAR DAY (brought to us by the American Dental Association)
NATIONAL COSTUME SWAP DAY (sounds like an adult Halloween party game)
BE BALD AND BE FREE DAY (I’m bald but not free. Reasonable, though)
NATIONAL CHESS DAY (would be a better game with a “shot clock” like those guys use in Central Park)
I LOVE YARN DAY (I’ve been told to tend to my knitting)
Thanks to Kyle and Jennifer for the fun. I like puzzles like this one that are just beyond my abilities, but I just hate it when I can barely get started. And thanks to H. Gary for another great review.
A finely constructed Saturday challenge for sure, and thank you Kyler and Jennifer for that, although I have to admit to a rare FIW, mainly due to the fact that I never saw “Number” as containing a silent B, (great clue!) Also never heard of TAR, and couldn’t remember that “H” was the 4th letter of the Japanese beer, which left ANESTHESIA as a total jumble which I couldn’t WAG my way out of.
Thanks Gary for another stellar write-up! I knew TITO as it is my preferred vodka for a Bloody Mary (wonder what IM☘️’s preference is).
Took 12:47 today to finish this fine theme(and circle)-less puzzle.
I didn't know Tar or Dano. Took a long time to see/get numb-er and to get rezone for "go to commercial." Good Saturday clues.
I didn't like "por" for "favor," as there's no indication of it being foreign word. Similarly, I didn't care for "cine." Hadn't heard of "chicana" before.
I knew today's actress (Brie) and female athlete (Evert).
Nailed it, but not fast. Challenging clues for an anesthesia of answers.
Loved the clue for REZONE.
Funny, I had GR--ER and read the clue "Beef source" so the answer had to be GRocER, right? It didn't fit. Hi, Jinx!
Desper-otto, have fun. Unfortunately, they aren't having the eclipse around here :>)
DNF. The SE corner did me in. Didn't know Tar, Asahi, or Brie, and was completely unfamiliar with red shirted.
Considering that I was able to complete the other corners, and even threw down "sit back and relax", with a minimum of difficulty, i really thought I was on a roll. And then I was "red shirted".
Good Morning:
This is what a Saturday puzzle should be, IMO: Challenging, but doable (42 minutes), clever, misdirection cluing, lively fill, no junk, and a more than acceptable 3 letter word count of 10. The solve was reminiscent of a Silkie inasmuch as it was slow going at first, then here a chip, there a chip, and, before you knew it, fini! I especially liked Sit back and relax, Thanks a lot, Get hitched, Eaten Alive, Had dibs, and Think so, all of which are not only familiar phrases, but strongly evocative. I went astray at Scales/Timers, Car/Bar Seat, and Diana/Diane. Simba, Tito, and Dano were unknown, as clued, and until reading the review, I thought Simba was a new pop singer I never hear of. I failed to equate the King in the clue to The Lion King.
Thanks, Kyle and Jennifer, for a very satisfying and enjoyable solve and congrats, Jennifer on your debut and thanks, HG, for a dazzling array of colorful and relative photos that enhance the excellent review. Coincidentally, I watched the first two episodes of Lessons In Chemistry on Apple TV last night starring Brie Larson and Apple TV also presented the Ted Lasso series.
YooperPhil @ 7:46 ~ I'm not fussy about the vodka in my Bloody Mary as I don't like a strong vodka taste. Nice of you to drop by, we haven't heard much from you in quite some time.
FLN
Anon T, if anyone can console youngest in her time of grief, it's you, her loving Dad. 🙏
Apropos of nothing other than trivial tidbits, my car was 22 years old yesterday and has an odometer reading of 29,006 miles. (I must say the car looks like it just came off the showroom floor!) Another hard to believe, but true, tidbit is that I, personally, have not put gas in the car in over 3 years. I'm Avis central for anyone in the family who needs to borrow a car and it's always returned with a full gas tank. That's your laugh for the day! 🤣
Have a great day.
This was not to be for me. I was on the wrong wavelength.
HG enlightened me nicely but not enough for me to go back and finish this CW.
A long and convoluted process today to get a FIR. I started in the NE and zigzagged down the board. Worked the SW and across the bottom. Finished in the NW when I got SLOPSINK and EVERT.
Best clue today was definitely "Local number". I had most of it perped when that V8 can hit.
Thanks to Kyle and Jennifer for their adventure in trivia and Gary's synopsis of today's offering.
Another rainy weekend here in the NE, good for curling up with a book.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
A bientot
It's hard to SIT BACK AND RELAX when trying to complete a Saturday puzzle but somehow, I managed to FIR in about 30 minutes. There are always some unknowns that require guessing and solid perps. TAR, SLOP SINK, ONE and Klondike, Paul DANO, TONES, TENOR as clued, & DENADA fit in that category today. I knew the name BRIE Larsen but didn't know Captain America was "female."
Reverse the vowels of TENOR and you get the TONES of the debate and Foundation option.
The NW was the last to fall today with a guess of SEPT- the only month with a 4-letter abbr. and STAR SYSTEM.
I'll steal from Hahtoolah and make a 'quote of the week' from Gary's friend and former Nebraskan Ben Sasse, who is now the President of the University of Florida?
"We will protect our students and we will protect speech. This is always true: Our Constitution protect the rights of people to make abject idiots of themselves"
Altogether a clever puzzle without an excess of Proper Names yet I DNF: for one, I never heard the term REDSHIRTED which was the only answer that would fit, so I ASSumed I had worked the SE corner incorrectly and didn’t fill the letter “I”. Back up to the NE I didn’t get the clever clue TENOR /“character” and although all I needed was the “A”, STAR SYSTEM seemed wrong.
Inkovers: GETmarried/HITCHED, end/NTH…(Whoo didn’t put hoo first without perpaid?)
I always forget the Japanese beer name. Aren’t all “sausages” CASED? (or they’d be just a pile of meat.)
I sharp slap to the forehead that actually left a handprint for the “Conductor film” clue. Kept thinking trains. When an orchestra leader finally dawned on me recalling the film TÁR (which I didn’t particularly care for)
Took awhile to realize that “bfn” was “bye for now” …. Almost tried the usual TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).
Foundation options were skin TONES not some type of building blocks. But I remembered the “little ditty” of Jack and DIANE. Haven’t heard the term CHICANA(O) since HS. Thought it was derogatory, guess not anymore
“ I Just Can’t Wait to be King 🎶” Prince William wouldn’t fit 🤴I hear he hums it around King Charles 😉
Since “National Teddy Bear Day mo” (a given for Jinx) is an an abbrev. hadda be SEPT by default…. and LEIS don’t hafta be made of flowers 🌸 🌺
“Local” ANESTHESIA. I always grin to myself when I administer “local” in a single sub dermal location with a 25g needle (the thinnest, shortest that exist) and the patient tells me first they are afraid of needles and then go on complain about the momentary discomfort but yet they are literally covered with tattoos.
Nope. Another DNF. This CW is just over my ability. After 20 minutes of struggle I still only about a third of it filled, and came to a dead end. I celebrate a bit when I manage to fill a Saturday CW. Not to be today.
BOINK!!! Another dented V8 can. I finally figured out who I was confusing Brie Larson with. It is Bree Van de Kamp from the TV show Desperate Housewives, played superbly by the beautiful and talented Marcia Cross (who looks nothing like Ms. Larson.) Yep, I was a fan of the show. Yep, I remitted my man card.
Ray-O, I'll never remember all of the special "days" I list. The steel sieve that resides in my cranium just doesn't cut it. Also, I like knowing about the tattooed sissies.
Big E - Love the Sasse quote.
Hi Y'all! This was a groaner for me, but I was encouraged to learn that I filled it in 42 minutes, the same as Irish Miss. But I used a lot of red-letter hints. Impossible otherwise.
Thanks, Gary!
Tried "senorita" before CHICANA because I had heard of their coming-of-age parties.
Supposed to be able to see some of the solar eclipse from here, but is very cloudy & dark, so don't think it will be a successful event. I'm not going to stand out in the street with hope in my heart.
The "stand out in the street" comment is because there are so many trees in my neighborhood, the middle of the street is the only place I can see the sky.
Hi All!
Nice debut!, Jennifer. (I knew I didn't recognize your name... Kyle on the other hand - Oy! look out). Thanks both yous.
I got about 1/2 way through the puzzle before we went out to look at the eclipse and then forgot about it until I visited The Corner and realized I DNF.
Oh well, the eclipse was fun :-)
Thanks HG for filling in my gaps! Wonderful expo and I loves me some John Mellencamp. Anyone hear him on Fresh Air? I listened to this on the way to Austin for Youngest's apartment-hunt trip.
RE-ZONE? No Houstonian knows what that means. Down the street of our (not-cheap!) neighborhood are two vape shops, a massage place, a liquor store, gas station, and a junk yard.
IM - a) kind of you to say re: Youngest. B) I didn't finish your sentence before my brain jumped to "3yro gas?!? NO! Drain the tank before you start it..." then I read the rest of your gas story ;-)
//my daily-driver is 8 years old and has less than 70k miles on it. COVID years gave the commute-ride a break.
Ray-O: LOL tattoo boy afraid of baby-needles. All I could think of at Local Number was union. Didn't fit. .//I was fine with needles until I had to do it as an Army phlebotomist. I hated poking people and now I hate getting poked.
SIT BACK AND RELAX evokes The Offspring.
Y'all have a great Saturday!
Cheers, -T
💀
For those of you who like me enjoy a chronic dose of horror/mystery l highly recommend the Netflix limited series “The Fall of the House of Usher” (just finished binging last night); a contemporary take on the story that uses the original tale as a base. Each of the 8 episodes that advances the narrative is the title of a EAP short story, “The Black Cat”, “the Telltale Heart,” The Pit and the Pendulum” etc. Be forewarned though not for the queasy of stomach. 😳
Maybe you should have been “0utstanding in your field” 😁 . We are completely overcast so didn’t even try looking . It woulda been only 20/30% here anyhoo
The clues were very tricky and often fooled me. An enjoyable solve. Had no idea what NLCS is until reading Gary’s explanation.
DNF. Some clever clues and misdirection today, too clever by half for me! Finally TITT, and went to HGs recap to clear things up.
I found this really difficult. Last area to fill was NW with unknown TITO, MEL, YAH, NLCS, SLOP SINK slowing me down. Never heard of KLONDIKE. Some clever clues. FIR.
TAR was shown for free at our Santa Barbara International Film (CINE) Festival. At nearly three hours long, free was not enough to get me to watch.
Good to see all the talk here about the eclipse today. For us, it was a ten minute walk to an array of telescopes and other devices for viewing, courtesy of our astronomy club that we belong to. We got 70% totality here.
Here are my photos from the eclipse phenomenon of our STAR SYSTEM this morning.
From Thursday:
waseeley, Charlie Echo, PK, Lucina Thank you for the very thoughtful and heartfelt kind words about my ISRAEL article and photos. My DW has a cousin in one of the areas far from Gaza that was hit with rockets. She is OK, but houses burned around her. And the cousin has friends near Gaza who were murdered by the Hamas attackers. They were caregivers and nannies. The families and the caregivers were all murdered at close range.
The news is covering the response it as "retaliation" but that is not correct. The goal is to oust Hamas and install a new government in Gaza that no longer terrorizes the Palestinians in Gaza or the people of ISRAEL. A very big (but necessary, IMHO) challenge that no doubt will kill innocents. Very sad all around.
Sorry to have been off line the past two days. Something shocking happened after that post that I am still trying to process.
Picard - Great snaps! We did the colander trick too. I also have a welder's mask to view Sol.
The coolest thing was the shadows from the trees on the pavement - they were all 1/2-moon'd!
Anyone remember reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? The Yank knew when the eclipse would come and became a hero for bringing it back (much to Merlin's chagrin). I'm probably missing the point of Twain's story (a Swiftianish Parody?) but that (and him having a match (lighter?)) stood out to me.
Cheers, -T
*bringing it back - it being the Sun.
Blogger really needs an edit option :-) -T
Picard, thanks for the eclipse pics.
Dash T, "A Swiftianish parody?" Have you been hanging out with English professors again?
TTP - Yeah, she's really pretty and whip-A**-smart. -T
Hola!
Late to the party today. I was just sitting around looking things up on my telephone! But finished the puzzle in good time. I mostly filled the answers myself but needed help with TAR which I never saw and RED SHIRTED which is meaningless to me. LASSO is another one I never watched.
Also did not know the address of the PLAZA HOTEL. Of course, my first fill was DE NADA followed by CHICANA on which I'll take a CSO then POR favor.
As far as I know Chris EVERT lives here in Arizona and ran a tennis camp but likely retired by now.
CSO to my friend's daughter, MEL.
CINE is also Spanish for movie.
Today's lesson for me, MUSK means testicle in Sanskrit.
Yes, I believe I shall SIT BACK AND RELAX.
I hope you are all enjoying a wonderful day! I missed the eclipse.
Husker G captains us through a typically tough Saturday PZL by the Dolan/Marra team.
I'm proud of myself for managing about 50% before cheating.
But I couldn't have been more wrong on my initial fill for 1A. I don't know where I might have ended up, but I had PHONES (not SYSTEM) for my final 6 letters. (Yes, I knew EVERT at 9D.)
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, near side.
Its anagram (11 of 15) may serve as an apt slogan for those opposed to the anti-historicism of our contemporary "cancel culture."
"ABOLISH NADA!"
Picard @2:31.great pictures thanks. My grand niece is at Crystal Beach, Texas and got some good ones too. Here we just experienced a darkening in the house as we were preparing lunch.
Late post. DNF, but I did want to comment on 59D TAR (full disclosure -- I've not seen it). The picture in the review of course is NOT Cate Blanchett, but rather Marin Alsop, Maestra Emerita of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Some controversy arose when the film came out as both the fictional Tar and the real Alsop are Gay and some suggested that the latter might have been the model for the former. IIRC this was vehemently denied by the film producers, but it was very hurtful to Alsop. The personalities are the two are exact opposites -- Tar is presented as pursuing an aggressive no holds barred climb to the top of conductor ranks. Alsop on the other hand spent years paying her dues in regional orchestras around the world and her appointment to the BSO was well-deserved (although controversial, for other reasons that I won't go into here). I saw her conduct many times and she was and still is at the top-ranks of major symphony orchestra conductors, male or female. She was also very active in community outreach in Baltimore, local philanthropic activities, and even developed a program called OrchKids to encourage young people in the pursuit of musical careers.
Thank YOu Kyler Dolan and Jennifer Marra for a very challenging Saturday type puzzle. I did about 50 percent before I started the red letters and got through all of it. There was a lot to learn... though some of the items, I may not care to remember forever...
Thank You HuskerGary for your explanations, which made everything much easier.
I still dont understand why 'equal' is a clue for 'are' ... I looked in the other CW blog, and googled the answer, but its something that is so rudimentary that nobody seems to have explained it ...? Maybe its something equivalent or synonymous in a grammatical sense ?
Lucina, thank you for teaching me that 'musk' in Sanskrit means testicles. I learn elementary Sanskrit for four years, but I never came across that word in my studies...
Also knowing my teacher,... and the mores of the times, over 60 yrs ago, I doubt my teacher would have even explained the concept to us schoolkids ... we were living in a repressed society in those days ...
MY DW is an anesth--- and so I've heard a lot of anesthesia jokes, over the years... but one that comes to mind, is mildly borderline passe' ... to pass the blogger test, so I better tell it separately, in case it gets deleted ... so my main message passes through intact...
Have a good weekend, all you folks...
DNF, but had fun trying. Thanks to Kyle D. and Jennifer M. FAVs: Plot lines, EATEN ALIVE, and Go to commercial, say
I cannot believe I fell for that "number" trick again!
Thanks for all the help with your write-up, H-Gary. Thanks also for the "bonus points". I sure needed them today!
Also thanks to Jinx who I am pretty sure told us about the teddy bear thing last month.
Another thank-you to Picard for his eclipse pics! Too many clouds here.
There is a guy who visits his dentist for a painful toothache.
The dentist tells him - I'll have to extract that tooth, but don't worry, I will numb the pain completely before I start the surgery on the tooth...
The man asks - How are you going to numb the pain ?
Dentist - I'll just give you a Lidocaine or Articaine shot ....
Patient - Is it an injection ? Please don't give me any injection, ... I definitely do not want an injection... I'm terrified of injections ...
Dentist - Okaay, then I will give you a liquid opiate combination ...
Patient - No, No, No ... I do not want any opiates, they make me feel woozy all day and tomorrow. That is out !
The dentist then suggests some other sedatives, but the patient objects to all of them ... he is apparently allergic to most of the other sedatives as well ...
Finally the dentist tells him to wait a minute, he goes into his private office and comes out and gives the patient a small blue capsule, and tells him to injest it with a glass of water ...
Patient - What is this ?
Dentist - This is a Viagra pill ...
Patient - Will it definitely kill the pain ?
Dentist - Nooo, ... but it'll give you something to hold on to, while I extract your tooth ...
Sri Vidwan -- Two and two ARE four. Or, EQUALfour. (I agree, the cluing is obscure, pseudoSaturday-ish.)
Vidwan827
I just laughed very loudly at your joke! I'll have to share it if you don't mind. So my guess is that Viagra is as effective as is advertised!
I did not go outside for the eclipse but just noticed the sum dimming slightly at the appointed time. The only eclipse I can recall and for which we were very excited I was living in San Luis Rey, Ca. some time in the early or mid 60s. We were all prepared with special glasses and followed the entire process of the eclipse.
My grandmother believed that an eclipse was some kind of omen. Apparently she had witnessed one in the early part of the 20th century. I'm not sure exactly when.
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