Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris
It's old home week as the former LA Times puzzle editor makes yet another triumphal return. I was so surprised when the "Congratulations" window came up and I will point out some of my rough spots as I blog here. However, if you look at the puzzle graphic, you can see where my last fill was a desperate guess at the Natick Rich planted at the conjunction of ABUJA and JANIE. I'll take a "got 'er done" out of petty cash.
1. Stop for an assessment: TAKE STOCK - A lot of NFL teams have doing that as we are near the halfway point of the season.
10. Reverence: PIETY.
15. Brown group: IVY LEAGUE ๐ Cleveland fit but...
16. "Mad TV" alum Lange: ARTIE.
10. Reverence: PIETY.
15. Brown group: IVY LEAGUE ๐ Cleveland fit but...
16. "Mad TV" alum Lange: ARTIE.
17. Shade named for a river: NILE GREEN.
18. Callas title role: NORMA.
19. "Aww!": SO CUTE.
23. 2019 Tyler, the Creator album: IGOR.
24. Bridge installer's deg.: DDS ๐ My dentist has not installed any bridges for me but has crowned me several times.
25. Feature of an Oscar statuette: SWORD.
28. Rose __: PARADE - It was on our bucket list and we were not disappointed!
35. Singing competition, familiarly: IDOL - The first winner
36. Dominated, in gaming: PWNED - Leetspeak is a system of modified spellings used primarily on the Internet.
37. Indian royal: RAJA.
38. Handout to the hungry: MENU ๐
39. Winery discard: LEES - All you want to know
38. Handout to the hungry: MENU ๐
39. Winery discard: LEES - All you want to know
40. Old ski lift: J-BAR.
41. Pair with quite a lot of pull: OX TEAM ๐
43. Type: KEY IN - Demonstrated by a very famous keyboarder!
44. Branch: ARM - The FBI is an ARM of the justice department
46. Pro __: RATA.
53. Yupik craft: UMIAK - an open boat made of animal hide stretched over a wooden frame, traditionally rowed by Inuit women. Yeah, I knew that ๐
58. Keyboard ornament: GRACE NOTE - an extra note added as an embellishment and not essential to the harmony of melody. My music teacher colleague's immediate first thought was of Patsy Cline singing Crazy.
60. Word from the Greek for "working together": SYNERGISM - If everybody does their job, this could be a huge gain.
Down:
1. Solder element: TIN - If you know chemical symbols, you can see this is 60% Tin and 40% Lead
5. Proceeded without pause: SEGUED - The Beatles rocked the house on the Ed Sullivan Show and then Ed had to SEGUE to a magician named Fred Kaps.
8. Stick on a table: CUE ๐
9. Contests with numbered balls: KENO GAMES.
10. "Let's get toasty" fast-casual chain: PANERA.
13. Hardly bold: TIMID.
14. Junior and senior: YEARS.
21. Mulled (over): PORED.
23. Rio region: IPANEMA - Tall and tan and young and lovely...
27. University town northeast of Augusta: ORONO MAINE - Hmmm, now what university is close to Augusta, GA? Oops...
34. Story: YARN.
36. Court answers: PLEAS - A PLEA of "Not Guilty" isn't always the same as "Innocent"
42. Short rides?: TRIKES ๐
43. Off-__: KILTER - The Canadian Pavilion at EPCOT had a band called OFF KILTER who featured a bagpipe in their rock and roll show.
44. Nigerian capital: ABUJA - Yeah, I had LAGOS first too. The capital was moved from there to ABUJA over thirty years ago.
45. Century 21 rival: REMAX.
47. "Lovecraft Country" Emmy winner Courtney B. __: VANCE - One of those clues where you wonder whether the clue was Rich's or Patti's
49. Send: MAIL.
50. Campus figure: DEAN.
51. French mine: A MOI So cette maison est ร MOIS (This house belongs to me)
52. Court units: SETS - In volleyball teams used to have to win five games to win a match. Games has now been changed to SETS like tennis. Last month, #2 Huskers beat the then #1 Badgers 3 SETS to 2 SETS.
46 comments:
Alas, this puzzle defeated me. True, I managed to FIR, but only by turning on the red letters. I discovered that I had carelessly put “remix” instead of “Remax” and I had no idea what letter should go in “Abu_a,” but with the other letters in place, I finally came up with “j.” So, while I’m not particularly happy about that, I am happy to be here with you friends, so I’ll leave it at that!
Good morning!
It took 20 minutes to create my DNF. D-o crashed at ABUjA, too -- tried an L. Bzzzzzt, thanx for playing. There was some clever misdirection in this one -- GRACE NOTE and IVY LEAGUE, I'm lookin' at you. I remember VANCE as Jonesey, the sonar operator, in The Hunt For Red October. There's a SWORD in the Oscar statuette? This was a worthy challenge which proved d-o unworthy. Thanx, Rich, and thanx, Husker, for the tour.
If there was anything even vaguely enjoyable about this puzzle, it totally escaped me.
Good morning. Thank you, Rich Norris, and thank you, Husker Gary.
I had a good time solving this one, but I did not FIR. I had DARtEELING TEA and tBAR. D'OH !
OTOH, I did get lucky with a few guesses, especially at ABUJA with UMIAK and JANIE as the crossing answers. I was considering lANIE and oMIAK or aMIAK, but took a shot with the U and J combo as it seemed more likely. Pure luck there. I also had to think hard about the R in VRY and GRACE NOTE. Now it seems simple. I had never heard of a GRACE NOTE. Thanks Gary!
No idea about VANCE. Or TARTT. Couldn't think of a cleansing soap named DALLAS, but then realized TV soap. AHA !
Had foe before VIE. Also had lotteries before KENO GAMES. And ITS A before A BOY.
Wasn't fooled by ORONO MAINE, but the clue made me smile. I think I've seen the clue before.
PWNED - my first fill because I started in the middle. PWNED isn't limited to gaming. It's where it originated, but it also can mean controlled or compromised as the words in Gary's image shows, such as in security breaches. Has your user id or email id ever been compromised in a security breach? You can find out by searching at Have I been pawned?. It's a valuable tool that I've linked here before. Read the Wikipedia on it if you are uncertain about testing you email id there.
L’etat, C’est moi …. The state, is me …. Famous words putatively said by Louis the 14th, to the French legislature…. Declaring the concept of monarchy absolutism …
Alas ‘Moi’ was still a letter short ….
Tough, tough puzzle by the Da Vinci of Crosswords…. It was a miracle to complete as much as I did …
Abuja, was s faint call for Nigeria, and certain phrases slowly rise to The surface …. But the going was slow ….
You can take a man out of his field of passion ( and retire him -) but you can’t take the passion out of the man.
I paraphrased somebody out here …..
Have a great weekend , all you folks .
Good Morning:
Rich has presented us with several Saturday challenges and this one was certainly a tough one. I finished w/o help in just slightly above normal Saturday time, but not w/o some nail-biting and head-scratching. Tricky and devious cluing is to be expected from Rich and he provided many mind-stretchers today. I needed perps for several entries, mostly because of the cluing, to wit, Avis, Norma, Panera, E Trade Baby, Igor, and the devilishly difficult crossing of Abuja/Umiak/Janie. My w/os were Leg/Cue, Come Here/Same Here, Gun/Tin, Beaming/Beamish, and Nets/Sets. Thumbs down to Vry and Pwned and thumbs up to a very clean grid and a scant number (8) of three letter words.
Thanks, Rich, for a real mental workout and thanks, HG, for the always informative and entertaining commentary and the colorful visuals, especially Darling Lily in her Ivory Tower! The video of Liberace brought back memories of manual typewriters and the dread of making typos on letters with several carbon copies!
A salute to all Veterans. ๐บ๐ธ
Have a great day.
FIW. Totally unfamiliar with pwned, and when I used to ski it was called a t-bar, never heard of a j-bar.
Also the cross of Abuja and Jamie got me.
Proper names again, why oh why!
Way too many unfamiliar names and terms for me. I didn't get too many answers on my first sweep through, and when I checked them many were wrong. So I quickly gave up solving on my own and revealed answers I knew I had no chance of getting. I don't have issues with any of the answers, there were just too obscure.
DNF, but I did fill 49 clues, 45 correctly.
Today is:
VETERANS DAY (honors all who have served)
NATIONAL SUNDAE DAY (honors all who have slurped)
I continue to be amazed that ARTE Lange is still alive. He's survived obesity, a $2,000 a day drug addiction, dangerous sex habits (frequents"commercial company") and the pandemic. Hope you get better both mentally and physically, funny man.
For the hundredth time, it's "The Tournament of Roses PARADE."
I've returned to 60/40 tin/lead solder after trying to be environmentally friendly by using the lead-free solder. That stuff is brittle, and eats soldering iron tips like I eat (crossword-favorite) Oreos.
"Nothing sucks like an Electrolux" was an ad campaign in a time when that verb didn't have a negative connotation. Not nearly as poor in taste as the email Nike sent to the runners of the terrorist-bombed Boston Marathon. The subject line read, "Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!"
FLN - Bayou Tony, thanks for the video. I've watched part 1, but part 2 will have to wait. DW has to be preoccupied due to her short attention span. Although most of the Californians I knew don't talk with that accent, they were obsessed with traffic and directions. It's because the traffic is sooo bad in the LA basin. My introduction to it was driving in stop-and-go traffic on I-15 nearly all the way to Las Vegas. Leaving shortly after midnight on July 4th. (It was also an introduction to desert heat - when we finally arrived at dawn, a bank sign showed the temperature to be 102 degrees.)
Thanks to Rich for the fun. I enjoyed getting SYNERGISM, OJAI, REMAX and NILE GREEN. And thanks to H. Gary for the fun review.
Took 23:33 today for me to guess wrong at that wicked Natick in the bottom-left corner. I think I guessed L first, then hit the "solve" button. Frankly, I'm proud I got the rest of this one as there were lots of unknowns and obscurity.
The intersection of the Indian district with an Indian royalty made me think, "this puzzle could use an editor...."
I finally did a Saturday puzzle correctly but had to back out of a few dead end streets I had filled with incorrect WAGS. I knew ABUJA and DARJEELING but was unsure of the spelling.
TOSCA before NORMA (both unknown)
OPEN SKY before OPEN AIR
FOE before VIE
OATHS before PLEAS (had OWNED before the unknown PWNED)
I-GOD before IGOR (unknown)
TRIM before SKIM
T-BAR before J-BAR (unknown)
COMMUNISM and SOCIALISM before SYNERGISM
Then you have other unknowns solved by perps you hope are right. ARTIE, SWORD, VRY(what is that?), BEAMISH, Courtney B. VANCE, TARTT, KYLO, JANIE Crawford,
36. Court answers: PLEAS - A PLEA of "Not Guilty" isn't always the same as "Innocent" I have a lawyer friend who tells his criminal clients "I'll do my best to make sure you are 'not guilty' but don't ever tell me you are innocent. We both know you did it but don't ever tell me you did."
My first trip through this puzzle yielded nothing but blanks and I knew I would have to give up, but surprise, surprise, between WAGS and perps, I finished, well almost, darn it, I was so sure oWNED was correct I ended up with nonsensical oLEAS.
NILE GREEN and SO CUTE got me started. At first I had it’s a instead of A BOY, kayak instead of UMIAK, foe instead of VIE.
I first thought the Augusta here was in Georgia. I had forgotten that Gabe Koter’s crew were named the SWEAT HOGS. I used to watch this show with the unforgettable John Travolta.
All in all a puzzle with lots of crunch, but doable.
November 11 used to be known as Armistice day when WWI ended. Both my grandfather (my mother’s father) and my father served during that war.
Glad to see I'm not the only one who feels that way.
Nope. Needed too much help.
No man is an island.
Tata
Finished - w help. I learned a lot today - thx!
DNF. (Close though) Thanks or no thanks to the NW. Doesn’t one “pause” at a TIMECLOCK ? ๐ค guess not . I have heard of the Blue Nile so NILEGREEN was a surprise. “Zipcar”?
I just finished the entire old series Gilmore Girls “Luke’s nephew” was a young Milo Ventimglia. Hey it kinda fit!
Rich hadda ask Siri/Alexa, or Googled PWNED to come up with a clue for such a jumble of letters. Plus lotsa proper names or “you know it or you don’t “ answers with just a smattering of mindbenders .
The blank in ANUtA crossed with tAMIE was a wrong WAG:
Inkover: tale/YARN, ogie/OGEE, Tbar/JBAR, foe/VIE. “Rival” as a verb not really VIE …“You rival/vie them in bravery”? “Callas role” Tosca? NORMA? Is it canoe or kayak nope UMIAK, “Jr & Sn” class woulda been wrong.
“The Goldfinch” allz I remembered was the author’s last name ended in two TT’s
Oscar better be careful where he holds that SWORD since he’s nekked. ๐ณ (I almost filled naked ☺️)
DDS good misdirection. Coulda put “eng”
I worked out SYNERGISM: knew SYN was the “together” part and ERG is a “unit of work”. Just added the GISM.
Mom had an Electrolux vacuum cleaner that looked like a bullet on metal sled runners. Didn’t know they made washers or dryers and that Whirlpool made vacuums . BTW me ‘n my bud fixed our Whirlpool washer yesterday using YouTube vids. Just cost me a beer and lunch!!
What cattle rustlers do…. TAKE STOCK.
Sudden salutation….OJAI.
Does Rich read our comments or does he just ig ___ …… NORRIS.
Salute to all our vets. Our city streets are filled with thousands of banners with individual pictures, names and conflicts veterans have served in. ๐บ๐ธ
This was one of those challenging but ultimately do-able puzzles with P&P
I probably had most of the same misdirections as Big Easy, like him I knew ABUJA, for me it's because I like to play geography quizzes on Sporcle- so Lagos has been drummed out of my head as a capital. The one I haven't incorporated into my memory of useless knowledge is Kazakhstan because it keeps flip-flopping between the easier Astana and Nur-Sultan. I think it's Astana right now.
Courtney B. VANCE is an amazing actor - winning Tony, Emmys - He so delves into his roles that it is easy to forget that is him in all those roles. The clue probably had "Lovecraft Country" because that was the show he won his most recent Emmy, but a non-Saturday cluing would be for his other Emmy for "The People vs OJ Simpson" where he played Johnnie Cochran, Simpson's lawyer or "Law and Order: Criminal Intent". He and Angela Bassett have been married for over 25 years.
I knew Carroll's poem was probably "Jabberwocky" but needed the perps since it has so many crazy words like glabrous and BEAMISH. Continuing on the literature front, "Their Eyes were Watching God" is a classic that I'd recommend if you haven't read it before.
Thanks HG for another fun blog and to Rich for the puzzle
Musings
-My mom’s dad also fought in WWI and by all accounts came home as a different man. This Iowa farmboy had experienced horrible events and also received a dose of mustard gas. PTSD was unheard of and he was just supposed to continue on as if nothing had happened but his life started on a downward spiral from then on.
Dnf for me after a couple hours. Wags got Abuja and Janie, but not being at all familiar with grace note and crosses of vry and Vance ended it. Also never heard of Dallas soap until after finishing the light bulb came on! Toughest one for some time.
This one left me frumiously Bandersnatched today. Got a serious crick in the neck from watching everything whiz past far over my head. Too many know-it-or-you-don'ts and fill-in-the-blanks for my taste, but YMMV.
VRY must be text shorthand for VERY.
So it wasn't ownz'd...
Hi All and Happy Saturday!
Very nice to see Rich back behind the puzzle (wonder if Patti even tried to edit it?) but the grid was above my paygrade #DNF. Thanks, Rich, for putting me in my place.
Thank you, HG, for the sparkling review. I was hoping for a little more SWEAT HOGS but that's just me.
WOs: yep.
ESPs: copious.
Fav: SWEAT HOGS [into. Been going through my head all morning]
Runner-up: ARTIE Lange. He was disturbed but hysterically funny spinning his YARNs. Jinx knows. //BTW, wait for the very last one in Part II re: accents w/ Pete Davidson.
HG - Maternal Gramps was hit w/ something in WWII. Everyone said he wasn't the same. All I really knew of him was a) Boilermaker b) had a fantastic bar in the basement c) there was a room we were NOT allowed into (which held all our Hot Wheels that fell into the registers) d) he drank diet Shasta and smoked Kent menthols e) he shook a lot. He was a barrel of an Irish man. He was in the European Theater while paternal Gramps was in the Pacific.
-T
I thought crosswords had clues?
I did not enjoy this puzzle. I did, however, very much enjoy reading what Vidwan wrote yesterday.
This was the only puzzle I can remember where I simply gave up. Never heard of KARO, WADE, that there is a SWORD in the OSCAR, ABUJA, JANIE, UMIAK. Never heard of ARTIE or NORMA or most of the other proper names, but I did WAG them. TARTT looked impossible, but perps forced it. As a musician, I am familiar with playing GRACE NOTEs, but I was delayed by the misdirection of KEYBOARD ORNAMENT.
Did not know about the CLASSICAL MUSIC FESTIVAL in OJAI.
But here CLASSICAL bassoon player Andy Radford posed with me at the OJAI Libbey Bowl for a Pops concert.
Andy lives in the complex across the street from us and he recognized us from the Farmers Market. OJAI is about 50 miles from here. Fun to meet a neighbor so far from home! He also plays CLASSICAL in the Santa Barbara Symphony and gave us free tickets!
From Tuesday:
I agree with Anon at 7:21PM "I love pecan PIE. It’s pumpkin PIE I can’t stand."
In fact, it is the only PIE that I like. All of the others are way too sweet or filled with unpleasant spices for my taste.
VERY challenging. VERY fun. Thank you, Rich!
Bayou Tony - I'll bet Rich not only encouraged Patti to edit this one, I'll bet he had her look over the ones he used to publish with himself as the editor and one of his nom de puzzles as constructor. After all, as Abraham Lincoln never said, "He who represents himself has a fool for a client." Pretty close to the same deal with writing and proofing.
I forgot to mention that the local oldies station has a theme every afternoon where they ask the listening audience to contribute songs that fit the theme. As examples, themes have been "songs with sax solos" and "songs with 'bad' in the title." Thursday they had "songs from groups that should be in the RRHoF, but aren't." I agree with you on America. The station's favorite was Jethro Tull.
Amen
Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, Rich!
GRACE NOTES- lead-ins faster than a 1/16th note. Some piano players' styles use a lot of them. Listen to Charlie Rich playing "Behind Closed Doors" and he probably has 100 of them.
Jinx - no doubt re: Patti edits. I have my Angel Editor [he knows who he is] review every expo I do and catches things that were only cute in my head. Oh, and typos & malaprops (I confuse easily).
And now I have Locomotive Breath and the flute* rattling my brain. Thanks!
Ooops, oldies "BAD in the title" just triggered Jim Croce.
I can nap w/ that ;-)
Cheers, -T
*is there another R&R band that features the flute? Yeh, I didn't think so.
Charlie Rich for @2:33.
Lots of cute *fill* in the piano bits. -T
SAME here
Knew Donna Tartt and Courtney B Vance. The end.
Husker Gary is on duty, serving up a Norris PZL...
Some obscure fills today, crossing with esoteric ones. What fun!
Having performed my one man show as Lewis Carroll for a few years, I have to take issue with 48A.
The Chessy cat might qualify as "All smiles" (literally so), but "beamish" is richer than that, dontcha know?
~ OMK
____________
DR: One diagonal, far side.
Its anagram (12 of 15) is of one who complains naggingly about precipitation, or a...
"RAIN YAMMERER"!
Happy Veterans' Day!
Thanks, Rich and H-Gary. It was all worth it to see the SO CUTE pic of Lily.
Bayou Tony: Can't think of any other R&R bands that feature a flute, but there are a few of my favorite songs that have good flute soli. To wit: Canned Heat – Going Up The Country, The Mamas & The Papas – California Dreamin’, Chicago – Colour My World (guess Chicago IS close to the Canadian border,) and Van Morrison – Moondance.
About 50 years ago I spent a lot of time with a lovely and talented young woman. Her favorite instrument was a guitar, but she was a great flute (and piano) player too. She lived on a farm, and she and her sister (who was a professional musician) would occasionally invite a handful of friends to a musical session in their empty silo. The acoustics were amazing. She would have both her guitar and flute in the silo, and would switch, depending on the song. She would always bring her flute on our occasional camping trips (in my tent and VW microbus days,) because it didn't take up much room. We ended up meeting a lot of great people who came to listen, and sometimes brought instruments and voices to add.
No doubt about it. I don’t care who constructed it. Worst Saturday puzzle ever. Obscure names and proper nouns throughout. Thank you ww2 vets, you were the best.
Here's a list of names from this puzzle, including brand names, place names, company names, logos, etc.:
"Mad TV" alum Lange: ARTIE
Callas title role: NORMA
2019 Tyler, the Creator album: IGOR
Syrup brand since 1902: KARO
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" protagonist Crawford: JANIE
Zipcar parent: AVIS
Luke's nephew: KYLO
Whirlpool alternative: ELECTROLUX
"The Goldfinch" Pulitzer winner: TARTT
"Let's get toasty" fast-casual chain: PANERA
Super Bowl debut of 2008 revived in 2022: E-TRADE BABY
Rio region: IPANEMA
13-time All-Star inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2023: WADE
University town northeast of Augusta: ORONO MAINE
Indian district known for a beverage: DARJEELING
California classical music festival city: OJAI
Nigerian capital: ABUJA
Century 21 rival: REMAX
"Lovecraft Country" Emmy winner Courtney B. __: VANCE.
Jayce
Thanks for doing what I wanted to do but was too lazy . The percentage of proper names soared in this puzzle. As we have one theme-less puzzle a week there should be one day a week set aside for a puzzle with no proper names. A level playing field for everyone.
Wow! A 40 minute slog for me. I filled much of the E side but over 2/3 remained white and I had to resort to red-letter runs in almost every word, sometimes every letter in words. Blew my mind to the point I couldn't come up with Tartt, altho I read "Goldfinch" some time ago and have seen it on my Kindle in the lists. Also couldn't get Dwyane WADE even tho he's a favorite retired player and I knew he'd won this year. Frustrating.
Guess Rich wanted us to have a battle of words to celebrate the day.
THank you to all you veterans who have served. I am the mother of a USAF pilot, now retired, of whom I am very proud. My husband was in USAF during Korea. I had ancestors in the Revolutionary War & Civil War and uncles & cousins in WWI & WWII.
As Irish Miss said, tricky and devious clueing; I think I was all the way down to 50A (DALLAS) before I inked in a fill…and then proceeded to work bass-ackwards to (finally) FIR. Next aha moment was OVENTIMER, but I drew mostly blanks for the rest of the Across clues. Down fared better — ELECTROLUX lit the lightbulb, likely thanks to the “X” in OXTEAM, and I was off to the races. DARJEELING fell in as a “gotta be”, even though it then killed tBAR (I’ve been a skier for half a century, but have never seen/heard of or rode a JBAR; must be a back-East-y thing…).
As usual, Husker Gary’s run-through was great fun; that clip of Liberace’s “Typist’s Concerto” was a blast from the past (lighting the mini-chandelier was a stroke of hilarity!). My Mum told me once that around age 5, I was a huge fan of the guy, and used to mimic his flamboyant hand moves as he played on TV ca. 1956…of course, at that age y’knew nuthin’ about sexual preferences, and of course none of the adults would say anything!
All in all, a slightly mind-twisting romp through the squares; fun stuff, thanks, Rich!
====> Darren / L.A.
PS — I agree with @Jayce and @Ray-O: an obscene amount of proper names!! Someone, PLEASE — build a CW with ร of them…. ====> D.
Started late so didn't have enough time to invest in this one. I can't believe 2 editors allowed Ox team, a pair would be oxen team. Just saying. Besides all the proper names, never heard of pwned. This one was just too obscure.
Funny, I enjoyed it and I got an FIW. ๐
Ray - O @7:40 PM Every other Thursday I post a link to a David Alfred Bywaters puzzle. They are pretty much devoid of proper names. He's one of the most enjoyable constructors I know.
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