Saturday Themeless by Daniel Okulitch and Doug Peterson
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| Doug Peterson |
I had great fun doing this puzzle and finished in good order. The bottom third had some red herring options but I did manage to winnow out the chaff (How's that for a mixed metaphor?) while enjoying the cleverness.
1. Wolf: SCARF - Interesting opening with wolf and scarf as verbs
6. Magical country introduced in a 1900 children's novel: LAND OF OZ - OZ was my first thought but the rest took a while. It is now a modern day amusement park too.
14. Paying guest: ROOMER - Of course gossip about this guest would be a...
15. Steak source: ALBACORE - Not the first thought of this guy from the Beef State
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| Two ALBACORE tuna steaks |
16. Adrenaline, e.g.: HORMONE.
17. Enterprise vehicle?: STAR TREK - A LEGO version
18. Result of an acid test?: ALTERED STATE 😀 Oh, that acid!
20. Navigator's dir.: SSE.
21. General from Alderaan: LEIA - Seen here with Han Solo
22. Released: OUT and 66. Getting away: ESCAPING - Andy definitely got OUT but he had to do it by ESCAPING.
23. "Ars longa, __ brevis": VITA - Art can far outlive its creators
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| A drawing of a pig that is at least 45,000 yrs old |
25. Tswana for "fly": TSETSE - Pretty logical from the clue
28. School of tomorrow: ROE 😀 I really enjoyed this once it dawned on me. These ROE will never form a school of salmon.
28. School of tomorrow: ROE 😀 I really enjoyed this once it dawned on me. These ROE will never form a school of salmon.
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30. Vegetable pod in some callaloo recipes: OKRA - Callaloo is widely known throughout the Caribbean and has a distinctively Caribbean origin, utilising indigenous (Xanthosoma) plants and modified with African influences, such as OKRA. You're welcome.
36. Elevated for driving: TEED 😀 Fore!
37. Sense strengthened by playing peek-a-boo: OBJECT PERMANENCE - understanding that items and people still exist even when you can't see or hear them.
42. Motown trio in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: SUPREMES - I immediately filled in this wonderful group and it turned out to be right. 60's rock and roll always makes for a nice interlude
43. Spy-fi side, often: USSR and 46. Part of 43-Across: SOVIET - Them dern Ruskies always make for good villains
44. Sanskrit honorific: SRI.
45. __ daisy: SHASTA - Lovely blooms in our flower beds
49. Jettison: TOSS - The Solid Rocket Boosters of the Space Shuttle were jettisoned at a height of about 30 miles above Earth.
52. Subj. of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine: IVF.
55. Sports __: BRA.
57. Relatively far?: TWICE REMOVED.
61. Some deli slices: PASTRAMI
63. Obsolete piano pieces?: IVORIES - Also...
64. "SNL" character who sang in "Italian": OPERA MAN.
65. Sand dollar habitat: SEA BED
67. Surrealist Max: ERNST.
Down:
1. Company outing?: SORTIE.
2. "Bring it on!": COME AT ME BRO.
3. Don Juan's love: AMOR.
4. French comic book writer/editor Goscinny: RENE - That's about as obscure of a RENE we could get. RENE included himself in the bottom right. Granddaughter says the sense of this is that the chef is offering to prepare parrot in cream if they get hungry. The parrot is, uh, declining.
5. Middle Corleone brother: FREDO - A warning from his younger brother Michael.
6. Ultimate dinner guest?: LAST TO ARRIVE - As opposed to being the penultimate arriver
7. Utah ski resort: ALTA.
8. Outlet with court coverage: NBA-TV.
9. "Is it too risky?": DARE I.
10. Fall Classic mo.: OCT - World Series games of my yute were day games with the long shadows of OCTOBER on b/w TV.
11. Left behind: FORSAKEN.
12. Rush discoveries: ORES.
13. Quarterback Bratkowski in the Packers Hall of Fame: ZEKE - Any NFL fan will know that ZEKE (#12) was a vital backup for oft-injured Bart Starr in the Packer glory years.
14. Bacon bits?: ROLES - 😀 Uh, not Sir Francis Bacon but Kevin Bacon. Kevin's 10 best ROLES. Yeah, I'm partial to him as Jack Swigart in Apollo 13.
16. Stop: HALT.
19. Revenue management strategy: SURGE PRICING - occurs when a company raises the price of its product or service if there is an increase in demand. Uber fares going up when there are more potential fares than cars is an example.
24. So dang cute: TOTES ADORBS - Slang for totally adorable. Way too "cutesy" for me.
26. Humanities maj.: SOC.
27. Battle of Isengard fighters: ENTS - Some who did know of Zeke Bratkowski might be more acquainted with the Lord Of The Rings.
29. One-named supermodel: EMME.
31. TV remote button that's usually red: REC.
32. Stand buy: ADE 😀 - You have to have some miles on your tires to know who is pictured in this LEMONADE stand. I know the names of four of the characters.
34. Cataloged work: OPUS - Beethoven's very familiar Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor is "OPUS 27, No. 2",
35. Southern roots: YAMS.
37. Buckeye State sch.: OSU.
38. "Butter" K-pop band: BTS.
39. "Be right there!": JUST A SEC.
40. Book before Esth.: NEH.
47. Fabric associated with the Isle of Harris in the Hebrides: TWEED.
48. Contributes: ADDS.
50. Narrow band: STRAP.
51. Hindu sage: SWAMI - Hmmm...
53. Bichon __: FRISE - Translates to curly haired small dog. From Agnes (Irish Miss): "This is an almost replica of my beloved Bichon Frisé, Fluffy, still missed after over 20 years." Husker: I was as pleased as I could be to post the picture from our good friend.
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| The Grand Lodge In Chicago |
56. Many Drake songs: RAPS - Drake is a Canadian rapper
58. "The Marvels" star Vellani: IMAN.
59. At any point: EVER.
60. Gripe: MOAN.
62. Bit in a chorus line: TRA 😀
34 comments:
Good morning.
Thank you, Daniel Okulitch & Doug Peterson for the challenge, and thank you Husker Gary for the review. Good stuff all the way around.
From the sound of Gary's opening, it seems as if we had different takes on the bottom half of the puzzle. The south fell first in short order, and gave me enough footholds to make steady progress as I worked my way back up north. I stumbled slightly in the north. I had STAR ship before TREK. On the other side, it was only after finally thinking of Kevin Bacon that I gave up on Francis. Cute clue.
I started in the middle. Force of habit lately. SUPREMES was my first entry and my first thought. It locked in by OPUS, YAMS and a hunch guess of EMME. The intersecting ROE clue was cute.
TOTES ADORBS - Things You Totes Need To Stop Saying if You're Over 30. The blog post was from 2013. Many of the reader comments in that blogspot are also worth the while.
OBJECT PERMANENCE is a new term for me. The concept, no. The term, yes.
Sports BRA or bar? Perps.
STRiP before STRAP.
Book before Esth? Perps for me to get NEH. Around 12 or 13 years of age, my sister could recite the names of all of the books of both the Old and New Testaments. That seemed like a big deal to me at my age of 9 or 10.
Malodorous Manatee has made his own PASTRAMI. I gathered from his writings that it's not a quick process.
I think that Max ERNST and some of the other surrealist artists must have been painting in ALTERED STATES as a result of their acid tests.
OSU - #1 in the college football playoff rankings. #3 in both the AP and the Coaches Poll.
Irish Miss will be happy with the Bichon FRISE pic.
Back to bed.
Read all y'all later n'at.
I didn’t know what IVF stood for until Husker Gary filled me in, and “totes adorbs” was definitely not “totally adorable” but somehow I ended up solving this very challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy (and relieved!) .
Good morning!
The bottom came together quickly, the top not so much. Anyone else try GOLD for those "Rush discoveries?" Finally duplicated my grid online and cheated with red letters to melt the snow in the northwest at 1d-2d-3d-4d-d5 and 14d. Humbling. Thanx, Daniel, Doug, and Husker.
Check STUB: Our county is up-to-date in most things, but still requires paper checks for property tax payments -- no cash, no debit/credit cards, no bank transfers. Same with our local MUD for the monthly water/sewer payments. Weird.
Hooray! My first saturday FIR in weeks. Last to fall was School of tomorrow. Love crosswords where unknown proper nouns can be completed using perps!
DNF. Filled 28, with only Enya being wrong. Congrats to those who managed to finish this one.
Today is:
NATIONAL BISON DAY (Roger Miller's song probably wouldn't have been a hit had it been You Can't Roller Skate in a BISON Herd)
NATIONAL CANDY DAY (just listing this drove up my blood sugar - can't eat 'em, can't resist 'em)
Thanks to H. Gary for the fun review.
After some weeks of too-hard or too-easy, this seemed like a Goldilocks puzzle. I should expect no less with Doug P. at the (co-)helm! Managed to fix enough errors and grin at some clever clues to FIR in about 30. Thanks for the write-up, Husker G. Especially the chart explaining cousins! I've wondered that over and over, and now I finally know. Have a great Saturday, all!
DNF. Roe and IVF escaped me altogether. Didn't remember Emme or Frise. Eventually the corners filled in for me but the middle of the puzzle just wouldn't fall.
This for me was an especially tough Saturday puzzle.
Took 18:27 today.
This puzzle seemed like it belonged in the opening to "A Tale of Two Cities."
Some really good clueing and fresh answers. Too may really obscure things/people - even for a Saturday (Operaman, which I knew; Zeke, and I'm an NFL fan; Iman, Emme, ents, shasta, surrealist, etc.) and too many foreign words (amor, vita, sanskrit something, swami, tsetse, etc.).
Even though we're only 4 days in, we have a strong candidate for worst clue of the month:
"French comic book writer/writer...."
A complete fail
*Oops. That worst clue candidate should read, "French comic book/editor Goscinny".
Saturday stumper. Thanks for the fun, Daniel (greetings fellow-Canadian) and Doug, and HuskerG.
I required a couple of Google helps in the NW corner to finish, but I consider that good for a Saturday.
Plenty of fodder for Star Trek fans today.
My sports Bar changed to a BRA.
My initial WAG of DNA finally perped to IVF.
Strip changed to STRAP.
I thought of Elks but knew we needed an abbreviation. I had to wait for perps to remember BPOE.
I learned TOTES ADORBS doing CWs. I never hear it, but then my friends are the wrong age.
Favs today were the clues for ROE and ADE.
CSO to Irish Miss with FRISE.
Wishing you all a great day.
Good Morning:
For those who finished in much less time than I did (45:18), I tip my hat. I was close to TITT, but the warm, fuzzy Bichon Frisé memories, as TTP mentioned, kept me going. I won't list all of the unknowns but there were at least 12, an unusually high number for a non-Sunday grid. The Northeast corner was a bear due to struggling with Land of Oz, Albacore, NBA TV, Zeke, and holding on too long to Not Taken instead of Forsaken. My w/os were Renter/Roomer and Bar/Bra, but both were quickly corrected. The cluing was deviously misleading (compliment) and the fill was fresh and lively, with the exception of Totes Adorbs, one of the most inane phrases I've ever heard. Props for the scant (12) number of three letter words. Overall, I'd rate the puzzle as a Silkie on steroids!
Thanks, Daniel and Doug, for a very challenging but ultimately rewarding solve and thanks, HG, for another delightful review and commentary. Enjoyed the melodic moodiness of the Moonlight Sonata interlude and the zany Opera Man, a character totally unknown to me. The photo of Ann Dowd showed a familiar face put to an unknown name. I, too, have fond memories of the daytime World Series games. During my high school years, if we were well-behaved, the Nuns would bring in a TV during study hall so we could see some of the games. I remember one Nun in particular who disliked the Yankees intensely, I guess because they were so dominant at that time.
FLN, glad you checked in, Tony, as I was beginning to wonder about your absence. Hope you're feeling more like yourself! 😉
Have a great day.
I see we have a reappearance of TOTES ADORBS. I remember it from an earlier puzzle but it was one of my last fills. There was a lot of white until I guessed ZEKE and after the Z took me from Kansas to the LAND OF OZ the rest filled in short order. Sometimes it only takes one letter to get you going. DOWD, NEH, IMAN, RAPS, VITA- perps for those unknowns.
IVF- didn't know it, never seen that abbr., and hope not to see it again in a puzzle. I prefer the old fashioned way.
COME TO ME BRO- took mostly perps; never heard it
OPERAMAN- don't watch SNL but it was an easy fill for that unknown.
OBJECT PERMANENCE- new term for me
RENE or Renee- always a good fill for any unknown French person
Wow! FIR on a Saturday! A real workout, with tons of clever red herrings, which eventually led to a satisfying finish. (With tons of wite-out!) NW corner was the last to fall, after a third cup of coffee, and a couple of breaks. ZEKE was well-known to this life-long Packer fan, and opened up OZ and the NE corner. As BIG EASY said, wagging RENE helped! I like a challenge with so many Aha! Moments. And a great recap, also!
Hola!
The LB is on the loose so I can't take too much time. This was fun from Daniel and Doug. We can always count on Doug Peterson for a good workout and I see that he has a protégée.
What a weird clue for "wolf" which I believe should be "wolf down." Wolf by itself to me implies an animal.
LAST TO ARRIVE was just that as I had BEST but could not go anywhere with it. LAND OF OZ and ALBACORE finally made it.
STAR TREK and LEIA make good bedfellows, er, crossword companions.
I have to cut short my SORTIE because I hear strange noises coming from the other room. The LB is on the loose. LB = Lightning Bug, i.e, my great grandson. He had spilled his milk earlier.
Have a sensational Saturday, everyone!
Hand up this was very difficult with so many obscure unknown names. TOTES ADORBS was one of my first fills. Yes, we have seen this before. It is so annoying that I can never forget it! Did anyone else think the ONE NAMED SUPERMODEL was IMAN? Very odd to see that as an obscure answer to another clue.
Hand up ROE clue was very amusing. Several of my friends have had IVF so I know, it but not as clued. I was hiking with a friend who at age 54 has a nine year old daughter. Thanks to IVF.
CanadianEh I think you may be confusing STAR Wars LEIA with STAR TREK?
We got these views of Mount SHASTA on our way to the Total Eclipse in Oregon in 2017.
But I never heard of a SHASTA DAISY. Tried OOPSIE DAISY. SHASTA/NEH cross last to fill to FIR.
From Thursday:
inanehiker Thank you for explaining your name here. Are you a hiker?
TTP Thank you for sharing the SPIRAL STARECASE song. I had the exact same thought when I saw that answer. Learning moment they deliberately misspelled their name! They sound exactly like Chicago.
From Yesterday:
WEES about ZHUZHED IT UP. Hand up DITTY before SHANTY. Amazed to FIR.
Since I read Instant Replay as a child, I knew Zeke, but Vita and therefore Totesadorbs bested me for two blank squares (V and T). I don’t watch nba tv as I catch the bulls on regular channels! Not that I would have known it anyway but shouldn’t slang be noted? I guess not.
Thank you Daniel and Doug for a challenging Saturday puzzle. Teri and I ganged up on it and EKED OUT a FIR -- which is more than I can say about yesterday.
And thank you Husker for another superb review. You're spoiling us BRO!
Some favs:
6A LAND OF OZ. I didn't get this right away (NARNIA was too short and THE ONE HUNDRED ACRE WOODS was too long). But later when I perped in 6D &D, 8D, 9D ...
16A HORMONE. Got this late too, but only because I got distracted. I tend to be an "opportunist" solver, filling lots of short stuff first and wandering around a lot.
17A ROE. Favorite clue.
43A USSR. Only the name has changed.
57A OBJECT PERMANENCE. Filled OBJECT PERCEPTION first, but Teri worked on it while I was napping and the second word had to go.
63A IVORIES. Another clever clue.
64A OPERA MAN. No comment.
66A ESCAPING. Very interesting illustration Husker -- Morgan Freeman was also in Shawshank Redemption and coincidentally he co-produced Madame Secretary, starring Tea LEONI, who was in this past Thursday's puzzle. Teri liked the trailer, we started watching it, and we're hooked!
14D ROLES. Another clever clue.
27D ENTS. This eventually perped in, but at first I thought it had something to do with NORSE mythology, which in a way it did, but as told by J.R.R.Tolkien.
32D ADE. I can only remember Alfalfa and Spanky.
34D OPUS. Whoever named it the Moonlight Sonata mustn't have heard the third movement.
Cheers,
Bill
TOTES ADORBS!? Totes HORBS!
Finally the LB is napping! Thankfully he expends so much energy he wears himself out.
This was more fun and more doable than many Saturday puzzles. Thank you, Doug and Daniel!
Opportunist? is that what you call it?
TOTES ADORBS I knew only because we have seen it before.
Mark is not feeling well so I need to call him and find out how he is doing or if he needs anything.
Of course this was a very difficult puzzle. I was able to solve it only by looking up many many answers. Some really good stuff such as the clues for ROE and ROLES. Some nose-wrinkling stuff, too, such as COME AT ME BRO, TOTES ADORBS (yes, I know we've had it before), and that French comic book writer entry. Anyway, as Gary often says, I got 'er done. Not a whole lot of satisfaction, though.
Naturally I also immediately thought of Irish Miss at Bichon __: FRISE.
Picard, thanks for the photos of Mount Shasta. LW and I have seen it from the south, west, and north sides, and it is a beautiful mountain from any angle.
Good wishes to you all.
For those who may have missed it, HG replaced this morning's Bichon photo in his review with one I sent him of a look-alike of my Fluffy. Thanks, so much, Gary, for humoring this crazed Bichon Frisé fanatic! 🤗
Picard @2:26 PM Stunning photographs Robert!
IM @3:01 Fluffy is the embodiment of totes adorbs! 😊
Hi Y'all! Very tricky, frustrating, and challenging puzzle, thanks, Daniel & Doug. Great expo, thanks, Gary.
I actually knew OPERAMAN from my brief viewing period long ago of SNL. Lot of other names I sure didn't know. I had a beginning E & tried EllE before EMME.
My daughter had IVF years ago. Very expensive. Miscarriage with much anguish. She raises dogs only since.
Hi All!
OUTside of STAR TREK | ORES, HALT | HORMONE, and TSE TSE, I could not get much going on in the North. After my the breakfast, lunch, and having my car washed, I tossed the towel.
Thanks Daniel & Doug for the fun puzzle and thank you HG for the mighty-fine review.
//I can only remember Buckwheat & Darla. I know the name Alfalfa but couldn't ID him in that image.
Fav (of what I got): OPERA MAN - Adam Sandler is too funny.
Hand-up thinking of IM at 53d!
TTP - OBJECT PERMANANCE was my first "big fill" and opened up the south for me.
Beautiful shots, Picard.
Gotta run. Cheers, -T
A couple of sailing friends were unable to conceive, and went through a lot of treatments ending in IVF. They had a darling little boy, but decided they wouldn't undergo it again. (The husband is of Greek heritage, but I'll spare you the jokes he had to bear during their ordeal.) After settling in with their only child for a year or so, she found out she was pregnant, and now they have a darling daughter. Well, whaddya know!
Picard
Lovely photos! Thank you. If you ever decide to do a photo book you will have plenty of them to work with. One of my friends makes a photo book every time we take a trip and they are such a wonderful way to recall the good times we enjoyed.
Well, the LB is now gone with his mother so I can finally enjoy my solitude.
I had so little time to as usual pull my hair out and agonize over a Saturday puzzle that after a couple runs I gave up.
So just some fun:
Buckwheat, Porky?(Spanky’s bro), unknown, Alfalfa, Spanky
Jettison: the name of a futuristic cartoon family. EMME was the Aunt in “Land of Oz” story.
Dorothy: “Scarecrow I’m gonna miss you most of all”
Lion and Tin Man: “Hey we’re standing right here!
JINX …3 nieces had IVF cuz they didn’t get pregnant in the first year of marriage. All had a baby then were surprised when each had another kid the natural way the next year. One now has 4 little kiddies under 6.
Dad told me the Elks “BPOE” meant Best People on Earth. (Sheesh, I shoulda known he was kidding me)
I had a cousin TWICE REMOVED from a bar for getting into drunken brawls
DO: a MUD check to pay for water/sewer? You should demand clear H2O if you’re gonna pay for it.
🐾 IM you referred to thyself as a crazed BICHON … wait for the rest …Frisé fanatic. 😇
TTP, CanadianEh, Jayce, Anon T, Bill, and Ray O, I appreciate the CSO to me and my Bichon-itis! 🤣
Bill G @ 3:08 ~ HG uttered those exact sentiments when he received the photo.
Ray O @ 6:25 ~ I don't understand your point. 🤔
The French composer Francis Poulenc wrote a ballet called “Les Biches” (“The Does” (female deer)). So I got curious and learned that biche means female deer while bichon means little dog. Now I know.
Its kinda late, but I have been missing posting for several days past, so I decided to put in my two bits worth ...
Thank You Daniel Okulitch and Doug Peterson, for a very challenging puzzle, that I soon got stuck in the mud... I finally put in the correct answers with a lot of Google help, but still could not understand a couple of clues... TOTES ADORBS ??? and ROLES for Bacon bits...
I finally understood what concept Peek-a-boo was supposed to reinfornce ... ?? I thought it was just an element of suprise, to reinforce the mental image of a familiar face ... how wrong was I ???
I never realized that IVF was soo important to some people ... when there are so many other options available ... I guess its a question in people's minds about Nature vs. Nurture...
Talking of which I would like to recomend a fantastic movie from Japan, called -- Like Father, like Son. 2013.
This is the YouTube trailer to this movie, Like father, like son. Not to be confused with a 1987 american movie of the same name.
I recommend the above movie, VERY HIGHLY. !! I loved it so much, I bought a copy of it for my DVD collection. It is in Japanese with english subtitles, and emphasizes the importance of nurture vs. nature. It made me think a lot, and cry a little, at the end.
Thank You HUsker Gary for your dedicated and sincere blog posting answering all the unexplained questions. Next to C.C. .... you are the person most dedicated to this blog, I think.
BTW, when I wrote down TseTse ... I wondered if it was pronounced ...' C C ' ?? Just like Tsetse means 'fly', maybe, just maybe ... CC could mean dedication and perseverance ... in some other language...
Busy all day, despite it being a Saturday.
Very challenging puzzle, Dan & Doug — some rather diabolical clues. But let’s all make a deal, shall we? Retire ludicrous things like TOTESADORBS, ZHUZHED and other such affected slang, okay? The occasional French cartoonist I can stomach…but not dumb-ass invented words! They ruin your otherwise well-crafted CW; sorry.
Hand up for Iman, Mssr Picard; well-known in the model world, Elle (Macpherson) maybe, EMME not so much.
Husker Gary’s review, as always, a high point of the day.Thanks for the cheap entertainment!
====> Darren / L.A.
Just more idiocy allowed by patti
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