Saturday Themeless by Ryan Patrick Smith
Ryan Patrick Smith lives in Austin, TX and is a writer, editor, gamer and frequent moviegoer who has been constructing word puzzles for over a decade. He says he is pleased to be making his LAT debut today. His work has previously appeared in the NYT and other venues. He and I have been visiting via FaceBook messaging and he is a very nice guy.
The northeast corner was a real struggle for me as you can see above which occupied my screen for a long time although I had HANS and ALOE tentatively. After nice explanations from Ryan and some research, I acquired some learning and relief from my completion anxiety! As I've said before, I am smart enough to know how little I know.
1. Like some windows: ONE WAY - Windows on your house can become these as well.
7. Notes app?: SHAZAM - I have SHAZAM on my phone and have used it many times but took "Notes app." to be an app for note taking! 😑 Any time I hear music I don't know, I run it thorough Shazam and after a few notes, it gives me the song, the artist, the lyrics and a chance to play the whole thing.
13. Sotomayor alma mater: YALE LAW.
15. Gap: LACUNA - Ryan told me that as a film nerd, he wanted to use LACUNA because it was a NYC firm in the movie Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind that creates gaps in memories. I had no idea but my brilliant solver/constructor friend from Lincoln knew it immediately but had never seen or heard of the movie.
18. GM system: ON STAR - I have it in my new car for "free" for three years but I do everything on my iPhone anyway
19. Pub fixture: TAP.
20. Motion-sensing Xbox peripherals: KINECTS.
22. Tender robot?: ATM 😀 and 42. 22-Across figs.: AMTS.
23. Disney heroine whose sister is beguiled by 8-Down: ELSA and 8. See 23-Across: HANS - From Frozen
25. Texas MLBers: STROS.
26. Smoothie option: ALOE - I did not know our cwd favorite ALOE was edible!
27. Instagram feature since 2020: REELS - More
29. Pedant's preoccupation: NIT 😀
30. Small garden party?: GNOME 😀
31. Subject with strange attractors: CHAOS THEORY - I got it but here is the complicated explanation. I would have gotten "Idea posited by Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park."
34. "Speak of the devil": LOOK WHO IT IS.
35. Contribute to: HAVE A HAND IN - What I do here every Saturday for this wonderful blog
36. Gambits: RUSES.
37. Wane: EBB.
38. Features of some classic coupes: T-TOPS.
43. French multimedia artist who refers to her work as "carnal art": ORLAN - Perps took care of this name
45. Put out: SORE - I warned Ryan that some solvers might be "put out" by his puzzle.
46. Voyage opener: BON 😀
47. Hazardous 55-Across maneuver: WHEELIE and 55. Moped kin: SCOOTER.
47. Hazardous 55-Across maneuver: WHEELIE and 55. Moped kin: SCOOTER.
49. Actress Tyler: LIV - I really enjoyed her in the That Thing You Do that Tom Hanks wrote, directed and starred in.
50. Muscular: BRAWNY.
52. Trip down a hill: SLED RIDE.
54. Repetitive Black Eyed Peas hit: IMMA BE - I got the idea in the first ten seconds and then shut it down! It's the first and last time I'll listen to it.
56. Taken for: SEEN AS - I might be SEEN AS not liking the song above. Ya think?
57. War reporters, often: EMBEDS.
Down:
1. Peacemaker po'boy morsel: OYSTER - I've never had/seen one. You?
2. Celebrazione religiosa a dicembre: NATALE -Translation from Italian: Religious celebration in December - Christmas
3. Pass: ELAPSE - I am going to let my newspaper subscription ELAPSE.
4. Not yet set: WET - The man is standing on cement that has already set to work with cement that is not set and is still WET
5. Model Wek who was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in 2013: ALEK.
6. Longtime Toyota subcompact: YARIS.
7. Mirage enticement: SLOTS - OASIS left quickly and I caught onto the Mirage hotel/casino in Las Vegas
9. Cooling systs.: ACS.
10. "SacrÈ bleu!": ZUT ALORS - No chance for me! I knew of Sacre Bleu but my French-major granddaughter, who lived in Grenoble for a while, said ZUT ALORS is a cruder form of "Oh My" and is not often heard in America. Marcel Duchamp is an avant-garde artist and some his works include bicycle parts as you see below.
11. Gray area?: ANATOMY - My favorite clue! The TV show is Grey's Anatomy
12. Role for Laura in 2019's "Little Women": MARMEE - I had no idea about Alcott's characters
14. Never got off the ground: WENT NO WHERE.
17. Things that may take a turn for the worse: PERISHABLES.
21. Medicine cabinet supply: COTTON BALLS.
24. Mosques' mihrabs, e.g.: ALCOVES.
21. Medicine cabinet supply: COTTON BALLS.
24. Mosques' mihrabs, e.g.: ALCOVES.
26. Rubs the rite way?: ANOINTS 😀
28. Low pair?: SHOES 😀
30. Question after a moment of silence: GET IT?
32. Dossier letters: AKA.
33. Screened: HID.
34. Uniform feature, often: LAST NAME.
35. "I know, but please try": HUMOR ME - I suppose someone said that to Justin Bieber
36. Some wedding parties: RABBIS 😀
39. Rock whose name means "egg stone": OOLITE.
40. __ oneself on: PRIDED.
41. Cuts off: SEVERS.
43. "And how!": OH YES.
44. One who might have a grand opening?: NIECE - We have several grandNIECES
47. A'ja Wilson's org.: WNBA.
48. Ancient Dead Sea kingdom: EDOM.
51. Ashy: WAN.
53. Take badly?: ROB 😀
Another Saturday toughie. But this time, unlike some in the recent past, I was able to get a pretty good handle on it. The hardest thing for me to get was “kinects” because the perp was no help. But finally, through P&P, I was able to put it together. FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeleteThis seemed awfully easy for a Saturday puzzle. More what I would expect to see on a Wednesday. Or Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteReally?!
DeleteI’m kidding, of course. After about 30 minutes I hit the proverbial brick wall. I turned on the red letters, saw the sea of red, and decided it was time to move on to other endeavors.
ReplyDeleteMy usual Saturday DNF. Filled only 15, 10 correctly. I was proud of getting ANOINTS, and havong done a Patti puzzle or two, figuring that a 4-letter fill for a person with a common last name and a made up first name would be WNBA.
ReplyDeleteToday is:
NATIONAL WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA DAY (the culmination of a yearlong mission to remember the fallen)
BARBIE AND BARNEY BACKLASH DAY (permits parents to turn off the annoying cartoons and songs. Add Frozen to that.)
NATIONAL CHOCOLATE-COVERED ANYTHING DAY (where the hell was this day when I was dating?)
Thanks to H. Gary for the interesting review.
Husker Gary, we had almost the same ending. As I was concentrating so much on that northeast corner, I also forgot to put the i in RABBIS in the lower left. Not sure why I left it blank in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I stopped at 1 hour in.
I'd guess that I spent at least the last 15 minutes or more on that NE corner, and looking at the completed grid in the review, there is no way that I would have completed it.
I'll have to get back to the rest of the review later. I'm exhausted!
Sometimes when I get stuck and reveal an answer I regret it, because it's one I should have known. That did not happen on this puzzle for any of the reveals I did. And I was not going to get the perps without exposing more letters. I got very little enjoyment from this one.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. No enjoyment whatsoever.
DeleteDNF. This Saturday puzzle got me stumped. Left lots of white squares when I threw in the towel.
ReplyDeleteWith answers like lacuna, Orlan, and Imma be I didn't stand a chance. Better luck next week.
Zutalors is cruel
ReplyDeleteNo kidding! Ridiculous in my opinion.
DeleteThank you, Ryan Patrick Smith, and thank you, Husker Gary.
ReplyDeleteI was oh so close, but no cigar as shown in the image above. I enjoyed the challenge.
Husker, like you, there was no way I was getting ZUT ALORS. Unlike you, I have never heard of the SHAZAM app.
Coincidentally, I just watched "That Thing You Do" one day last week. I'd seen it a long time ago. Back then, I did not know who LIV Tyler was. Anyway, fun little movie.
30D question: What rock group consists of four members, but none of them sing? Answer: The Ventures. "Walk, Don't Run", "Wipeout" :-)
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of a puzzle that places more emphasis on trying to outwit, rather than please, the solver, IMO. I welcome challenging puzzles, particularly on Saturdays, but the difficulty level has to be balanced with fairness. If your puzzle contains a large number of unknown, obscure, or uncommon entries, the overall cluing should be more temperate. After the first pass through the entire puzzle, I was staring at a sea of white and was so frustrated that I turned on red letters to reveal the entire puzzle, something I've never done before. The unknowns were legion: Shazam, Lacuna, Kinects, Reels, Orlan, I'm Mabe, Alek, Yaris, Hans, Zut Alors, Edom, Oolite, and Alcoves, State Rep, and Aloe, as clued. Some were finally filled in due to perps, but not enough to encourage even trying for completion.
Thanks, HG, for the usual eye candy and comments. Loved the "Trojan" Horse. 😉
Have a great day.
I couldn’t have said it better! Thank you for your tactful and honest response. I always appreciate your comments Irish Miss. After many years of LA Times “crosswording” this is the first time I have left a comment of any kind. Definitely the most terrible puzzle I have ever attempted.
DeleteHated it. Agree with Irish Miss completely. I enjoy a challenging Saturday puzzle but this was not fun at all and needed better editing.
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all! Groan! Impossible without red-letters. I had them on from the beginning and did fill it in 51 minutes thru sheer stubbornness. I agree with Irish Miss that this was not designed to please. None of the unknowns were anything I'd think worth remembering.
ReplyDeleteMy grandson and I had a long phone visit the other night. He is doing really well in his first post-college national company sales job. We discussed the fact that he knows how to talk to older people having been raised in a small town and visited with people all his life. Too many early 20's people have been stuck in their age-group and don't seem to relate to anyone older. Maybe this is Ryan's problem?
Thanks, Gary!
ReplyDeleteThank You Ryan P Smith, for a confounding, challenging and for me, a difficult puzzle.
Did it last night, and didn't bother to check why the answers which perped ... were 'korrect'.
Thank You Husker Gary, for all the explanations. I love your anecdotes, ... and missed the references to your day job, and your cat ... Zut alors !@*%$
I used to be impressed at the 'other' achievements of the constructors, and what famous universities they attended, and so on ... but no more ....
AS I said before, ... I could have constructed a puzzle just as difficult, that would have confounded you all, ... but maybe not passed the Patti Varol test...
My lovely DW, who cleared her med college exams 50 years (plus +) ago, says she had used Gray's Anatomy as her textbook, as well... and so did my daughter ( 20+ yrs ago ) .
The theories on causes of disease may change and so do the drugs and therapy (Improve?) but the human anatomy remains the same ...( except for the Transgender etc. ? ...)
Talking of docs, I better ready to meet my never ending list of doc appointments for this Saturday ... we don't want to keep them waiting ... keep the economics of the hospital moving ...
Have a nice week end you all, and I will come and read your smart (Alec?) comments, later.
Irish Miss said it best.
ReplyDeleteToo cute, too clever, too obscure.
Not at all fun or rewarding.
I can usually knock off the Sat puz in 10-12 minutes.
After 8 reveals and 10 minutes with little to show for my efforts, I moved on.
DD
Took 44:44 today. Nothing speedy about that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't care for this puzzle. I was going to say it in stronger terms, but (like others) I will simply say that I echo the words of our inimitable Ms. Irish Miss.
I a.ways try to fill in the whole puzzle before I come to the blog no matter how many lookups I need to do. Sometimes the lookups help fill the perps of the long answers and I can guess what they are. Today probably more than ten. I had French in high school and college and have even heard of ZUTALORS but no way did it appear in my brain.
ReplyDeleteI had filled maybe ten answers before the brick wall made its appearance. Mr Google to the rescue.
I agree with most folks but their view of this puzzle, ot fun at all.
There were some "Doh" moments when perps made answers obvious as well.
Gary, a masterful job of review and Ryan, your sadistic construction will live on in the annals of terrorism for crossword buffs everywhere.
Fall has fell, but winter just drags along.
Semantics
Irish Miss speaks for me as well. The constructor's goal seemed to be to stump, rather than challenge, the would-be solvers. I got zero enjoyment out of this disaster.
ReplyDeleteI don't feel qualified to even ask questions about this Saturday stumper, but if I did, it would be stuff that everyone else does not seem to have any problems with.
ReplyDeleteCan some one please explain to me how one gnome can possibly be in any way connected to a party?
(Or,rabbis either ... oh wait, unless they part of the wedding party? No , that would be bride, groom and family, no?)
I gave up after 20 minutes.
ReplyDeleteMy Saturday time is more valuable than trying to solve an A.I. generated puzzle…
…. kkFlorida
WEES. So far the comments are close to unanimous. Too bad. There were a few clever clues like Mirage enticement, rubs the rite way, but sooooooo many totally obscure words and names defeated me.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never heard a fried oyster po’boy, and DH eats them frequently, called peacemaker. That name must be used in other parts of the country but not in LA.
ZUT ALORS is a ubiquitous expression in France, a polite way of saying merde alors.
Let’s hope the Sunday puzzle is more fun.
It might be easier to name the few things I did fill than to list the total unknowns that I would have never filled. After the few clues I did fill correctly I WENT NOWHERE. At least I'd heard of YALE LAW but had no idea where the justice went to school.
ReplyDeleteI LIVE in NOLA and I have never heard of a 'Peacemaker POBOY (it's one word, not two). Just an 'OYSTER poboy' which I've never heard anybody ever ask for cheese. If you want lettuce, mayo, and tomato you order it 'dressed'. I detest mayonnaise and have creole mustard instead.
SHAZAM, LACUNA, KINECTS, ORLAN, IMMA BE, ALEK Wek, ZUT ALORS, MARMEE, OOLITE- are those words 'Elvish' or 'Esperanto'? Not in my limited English vocabulary.
I forgot to thank HG for his valiant effort at explaining this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYa gotta be kiddin' me! TITT. Not worth my time. I, too will Echo what Irish Miss said. I could not have said it better. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteI had the red letters on but still couldn't get the NE corner. Even when I revealed Zutalors I was clueless. Everything else was done in 25 minutes. After 15 more I gave up on the top right two lines. I'm glad I did. Never heard of these things. Not bad just too many unheard of entries. GC
ReplyDeleteI was sure this was impossible as everyone else said. I am at a disadvantage as I don't do phones or "APPS". Cross of unknowns ALE?/?INECTS a challenge. Hand up WATER then OASIS before finally getting SLOTS. That area was the last to fill. Learning moment about MIHRABS. I am sure I have photos. Perhaps another time.
ReplyDeleteI took four years of French in high school, so I did finally figure out ZUT ALORS. I only learned of SHAZAM this week. I tried it on my real computer to recognize a very common classical piece. Totally useless.
With all of the good reasons to find this impossible, I am almost ashamed to say I FIR with no help. Did anyone else manage this? No need for shame if you could not. As a math person CHAOS THEORY was a gimme. Without that I probably would have given up.
I PRIDED myself on capturing this gentleman popping a WHEELIE at the Santa Barbara waterfront.
From Yesterday:
Vidwan Thank you for the kind words about my Mars ROVER photo and for the further information.
AnonT In case you missed it yesterday, thank you very much for sending me the link to the Patrick Stewart interview. I had no idea about any of that and it very much changes my understanding of him. I had thought he was a famous Shakespearean actor who felt he was stepping down into a vulgar world with Star Trek. He had a very tough life and made the best of his lucky breaks. I was honored to see him perform once in Santa Barbara.
ReplyDeleteIf I wrote what I feel the comment would be removed as it was last week.
But what to say that doesn’t get bleeped?
Horrible clues referencing other horrible clues, clues no one has heard of, answers no one has heard of.
A friend called about the crossword, he asked “Are they really trying to make us stop doing the puzzle?”
I had no answer.
But Irish Miss has a ton more tact than I.
I myself cannot understand how this alleged “editor” maintains her position.
Cornerites often cite a generation gap in crossword construction that has not only rankled older solvers by inundating them with cultural references they don’t know, but also is resulting in some changes in traditional strictures. Notably, it used to be verboten for solvers to look things up, whether via encyclopedia or Google. Not anymore. HG has quoted a couple of young constructors who contend there’s nothing wrong with looking things up to solve a crossword. Many solvers still disagree, and I’m one of them, so of course I took a big fat DNF today. Patti Varol seems oblivious to this disconnect. Worse, she doesn’t to pay attention to anything we criticize in the Corner.
ReplyDeleteCopy editor @1:17. I remember the first time I was aware of the expression “generation gap” was in the rebellious 60s. Yet we still seemed to have cultural references in common and we understood each other on both sides of the divide.
ReplyDeleteWith the advent of “social media” the cultural references became diluted and a MULTITUDE of “famous people”, vocabulary words, and cultural references began appearing and we were forced to do triage based on our age and level of education.
I’ve also noticed, but it might just be me, a Disneyification of puzzle clues.
I hope I have not annoyed anyone with my little soap box rant.
I *liked* the puzzle and FIR on paper with no lookups or other cheats, so I have to say that all the whining in the Corner today surprises me. I did think that many people would stumble over ZUT ALORS, but it was a favorite expression in high school French decades ago.
ReplyDeleteTo the question of how one GNOME can be a small garden party, well, he is one party in the garden who happens to be small. Similarly, RABBIS are often parties involved in weddings. Mazal tov, Ryan Patrick and Husker Gary!
Oy! WEES. No way I stood a chance (not that I don't DNF most Saturdays, mind you).
ReplyDeleteThanks Ryan for the puzzle. I got ~15 right but acai (ALOE) was right out.
//Where in Austin are you? Youngest is at UT (well, not now - just came home for Christmas last night!)
HG - you saved my hair from being further pulled out. Great expo to salve my wounds.
An OYSTER Po'boy is my go to at Ragin' Cajun's lunch spot. But cheese? Please.
//I also like catfish, crawfish, & gator tail Po'boys. BigE knows (do you not like the slaw on it?)
SPIOLER ALERT! Y'all remember 54a.
The generation gap is there in the grid. There's stuff I kidna know 'cuz I watched Frozen with the Girls and other stuff 'cuz I do tech work and play with a younger crowd. I suppose all of it is to get younger folks to puzzle-play but to us Old Farts... TITT.
NaomiZ gets the win for the day :-)
Picard - can you pop a WHEELIE on your unicycle? :-)
//and you're welcome for the Patrick Stewart interview - I thought the same re: Shakespeare to Trek... Scales removed from me eyes.
Cheers!, -T
Howdy, everyone! Constructor here. Appreciate your taking the time to play my puzzle, even if your feelings on it ended up being less than positive. :) The edits I received made some clues harder and others easier -- I imagine it was a wash in the end in terms of overall difficulty.
ReplyDeleteI maintain this is a nasty but ultimately fair puzzle -- despite some of the comments I've seen, there's really not much in it that's hyper-contemporary. I strive to mix diverse pop culture references and challenging vocabulary in my grids, and I think I've successfully done that here. But it's your right to disagree, and I look forward to reading your remaining reactions as they come in.
The anon at 5:28 and 5:30 was not d-o. But it sure could'a been. My Supreme attended Harvard. My small garden party was an aphid. I stumbled too many times to mention, and gave up 15 minutes in. Basta!
ReplyDeleteWhat Irish Miss said.
ReplyDeleteHey @RPS: Thanks for swinging by The Corner. It's always fun to get some inside-baseball from a constructor.
ReplyDeleteMy kvetching is just that; I mean, well Saturdays are always hard.
But! I keep playing (I remember when a Wednesdays were a challenge) to get better and learn schtuff. And today, thanks your grid & HG, I did.
Cheers, -T
Thank Ryan Patrick for a very clever Saturday puzzle, which I REELED into and out of over the course of a couple of hours. I am not SORE at you. despite coming to this review thinking it was a FIR. I got a lot of help from Teri in my absence, and it was all FIR, so I'm the one to blame for the remaining NITS that were wrong.
ReplyDeleteThank you Husker for showing me the error of my ways and for another fine review.
Favs and nemeses ...
1A ONEWAY. I had ONE BAY, figuring the outcome of a BET was not yet set. Major DOH moment, as Teri and I watch a lot of detective shows and there is always at least one scene where the perp is in the interogation room and other COPS are watching him get grilled through a ONE WAY window.
15A LACUNA. Somehow I knew this, but I can't remember how.
40A LIV. She became famous as the half-elf ARWEN in LOTR. She was an expert archer and ARAGORN'S main squeeze.
54A IMMA BE. Thanx for the warning HG. I ELAPSED it.
1D OYSTER. I prefer mine on the half-shell with a little cocktail sauce.
10D ZUT ALORS. Sacré bleu! -- for some reason this was not in a LACUNA!
30D GET IT. Favorite pic!
Cheers
Bill
RPS - Ryan Patrick Smith Thank you for stopping by. In retrospect I would generally agree that it was "nasty but fair". My biggest NIT is having proper names cross. As with ALEK and KINECTS. And SHAZAM/HANS/ONSTAR/MARMEE. I would be curious if you could tell us if any of those were changes from your originals?
ReplyDeleteNaomiZ I actually feel better now, knowing someone else finished it with difficulty, but without help.
AnonT Thank you for the validation regarding Patrick Stewart's Shakespearean roots. In the first season he kind of over-acted as if he were on stage, rather than on TV. It is a different skill.
Funny you should ask about me doing a WHEELIE on my unicycle. Sometimes when I am riding, people make that request. Not sure if it has any actual meaning? If it is about riding on one wheel, obviously the whole ride is one long WHEELIE!
I am still disappointed that these programs like SHAZAM don't really understand the music they are "hearing". That is why they can't recognize classical music, I think. It makes me worry about what self-driving cars are "seeing".
Thanks to RPS for his uber-challenging puzzle and for stopping by The Corner! If this was the end-of-year final, I had a major fail. I TITT early and was glad I did because when I saw H-Gary's grid I knew there was no way to recover from my early guesses--plus the long list of unknowns (to me).
ReplyDeleteFAV: Clue for GNOME (I did get that one!)
Thanks to H-Gary for persevering! You must have invested extra time this week just sorting the grid. I very much appreciate being able to come here to satisfy my curiosity and learn new things!
This was a very challenging puzzle taking way longer than usual - but I enjoyed it - even though it sometimes seemed like CHAOS THEORY instead of game theory!
ReplyDeleteNice to see a shout out for Aja Wilson who is like the Lebron James of the WNBA - several titles and MVP awards in the last few years. Interesting I heard her interviewed on NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and her first name came from her father loving Steely Dan's 1977 song "Aja" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FMrz7OwLo
Ray-O and I would have an advantage with the word LACUNA - which comes from the Latin root for Lake and it means any kind of small gap or pool looking area in an organ - very small strokes in the brain are often LACUNAr infarcts.
MARMEE was the mother of Jo,Beth,Meg, and Amy in "Little Women" I've loved the book and all the last 4 movie iterations from 1933 (with Katharine Hepburn) to 2017 (with Saoirse Ronan)
Thanks HG for the informative blog and Ryan for the puzzle!
Ryan thanks for stopping by - don't take the negative comments personally - there are some on the blog who repetitively dis the answers, clues, the editor no matter who the constructor is!
Left something out that I was having a syntax problem with (thanks TTP!)
ReplyDelete7A SHAZAM. I have a link on my phone to WBJC FM, which will immediately show me what's playing. You can try it now and it works anywhere in the world that has Internet access. It also includes a button that you can use to stream it on your computer or phone.
Whole lotta “Nope!” on this one; Along with almost everyone else, I’m in @Irish Miss’s camp — and I think this is the first time I’ve seen near-universal distaste for a puzzle here on the Corner! “emphasis on trying to outwit rather than please” pretty much sums it up.
ReplyDeleteWhile I give RPS props for stopping in, I think his best take-away for future endeavors would be to heed the advice of Ms. Miss: remember that part of doing these is to have some fun and enjoyment. ZUT ALORES indeed!
My usual m.o. when confronted by a cw of this ilk is to “cheat selectively” — I’ll source all the proper names just to get a leg up and get started; but even doing that didn’t swing the pendulum far enough. FIW. (The motivation for RPS’ use of LACUNA is about as obtuse as can be imagined).
‘Nuff from me; I think everyone else has already covered all the bases regarding this one…sorry, Ryan, but no cee-gar 😵💫
====> Darren / L.A.
Way too esoteric
ReplyDeleteProbably my worst performance in eight years. Somewhat relieved to read that others also struggled. I guess sometimes I'm just not on the right wavelength.
ReplyDeletePicard - I think the Interwebs are watching me.
ReplyDelete//where's my tin-foil hat?
Unicycle WEELIEs just popped into my feed.
Cheers, -T
Figured I'd weigh in one last time to address a couple points above. :)
ReplyDelete1. Re: crossing proper names. I personally only see this as a major issue if it's two obscure people's names crossing -- ALEK meeting a KRIS or what have you. I would argue SHAZAM and KINECTS (the later especially, given the etymology) are pretty inferable in context, and in any event they require different kinds of knowledge than the "person's name" kind. So balance is preserved, at least in my book.
2. Re: motivation to include LACUNA. To clarify, my original clue for LACUNA was "Aptly named memory erasure company in 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.'" So the movie reference was the explicit angle. The LAT editors simplified that clue a bit, mostly to save space on the page I reckon (plus it's a lesser-known word).
3. Thanks to Anonymous T and everyone else who piped up with some kind words! I'm proud of this puzzle even if it didn't land with everyone. :) Hope to be back in the LAT soon!
I’m new here, and to crosswords. I’m hoping crosswords help me delay Dementia. You are an amazing community! I just read through all of your comments and everything else that was written for this puzzle. It takes a crossword puzzle to another level, similar to walking through a museum with a guide. Thanks to most of you for helping me feel more and less ignorant. :) Marcwithak
ReplyDeleteI would hope that a new crossword puzzle creator would benefit from the comments of experienced solvers. Doesn't seem to be the case here today.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was fine. It was just tough. The comments were mostly nasty and mean spirited. People that solve the LA Times crossword puzzles want basic crossword clues and answers that are easy to get. Most of them should stick to the USA Today. If the puzzle is too tough, they blame the setter, the editor and everyone else. What a bunch of posers.
ReplyDelete