Saturday Themeless by Kristian House
This is Kristin's seventh LA Times puzzle as a sole and co-constructor. His first entry was in late 2017 just a month before I started as the regular Saturday blogger in December of that year. I am now starting my seventh year at that post.
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| Kristian, of Oneta, NY, says he is a "Dad, Math Content Writer, Crossword Puzzle Creator and Supporter of the Infield Fly Rule" |
Across:
1. Band that contributes to knee flexion, for short: ACL - Many an athletic career has been ended by an injury to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament
4. Hot breakfast cereal: FARINA.
10. Beaker's syllable: MEEP - Beaker was the lab assistant to the wacky Muppet scientist Dr. Bunsen Honeydew. (Did anyone else think of MEEP being the call of the Roadrunner as he ran from Wiley Coyote?)
14. Ice cream novelties discontinued in 2022: CHOCOTACOS - The Good Humor Company discontinued this item as a cost saving move.
16. Concerning: IN RE.
17. House money, at times: CASH OFFERS 😀 It sure beats waiting for the prospective purchaser to sell his house first.
18. "Now!": STAT.
19. Tarantula legs, e.g.: OCTAD - Any group of eight
20. Meadows on TV: TIM - A lot of us here probably first thought of Audrey (addendum link - h.g.)
21. Like the air in a greenhouse: MOIST - Humid means the same thing and has six letters but...
22. Second-largest branch of Islam: SHIISM.
24. Zip: NADA - zero, bupkis, nil, naught, etc.
26. Mens __: REA.
26. Mens __: REA.
27. Ink spot?: TAT.
28. Landry who was the first coach of the Cowboys: TOM - Always nattily attired
30. "La Dolce Vita" star: EKBERG.
32. Capitol gains?: SENATE SEATS - It's a close proposition these days
35. Modest reply to a compliment: WHAT CAN I SAY.
36. Reeling feeling: SHAME SPIRAL.
37. Stare daggers (at): GLOWER.
38. Department of the Interior head Haaland: DEB - The first Native American cabinet member.
39. "The Simpsons" character once voiced by Hank Azaria: APU - Hank quit voicing the character because he said it was reenforcing stereotypes and he felt bad about it.
42. Many a Monet: OIL.
43. Doesn't keep: ROTS.
46. Johnson who won the 2020 Masters Tournament: DUSTIN - I didn't get the name of the gentleman on the right who is presenting the jacket. 😀
48. Simmers: STEWS.
50. Shake a leg, quaintly: HIE - I got, "Come here so I can tell you something."
52. Dark times, informally: NITES 😀
53. "Small world": OH HI.
54. Teased: MESSED WITH.
56. "Coming Home" singer Bridges: LEON.
57. "No one's being straight with me!": IT'S ALL A LIE.
58. AAA and BBB: ORGS 😀 - If the AAA doesn't treat you right, report them to the BBB
59. Like some park passes: DAY USE - So you want to go to Disney World...
60. Inclusive word: AND.
Down:
1. Confront: ACCOST - I had ACC_S_ and used another but incorrect word
2. Three-step process?: CHA CHA 😀 The dance characterized by the triplet Cha Cha Cha rhythm is commonly just called the CHA CHA. You're welcome.
3. Flipped: LOST IT - An unfortunate trait of Bobby Knight
4. Some Hamilton Beach appliances: FOOD STEAMERS - A double header
5. Org. for traffic cops?: ATF - Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
6. Host: RAFT - Candidates will be making a RAFT (host) of promises next year.
7. Trap during February, maybe: ICE IN.
8. Kamali who uses silk parachutes in many of her designs: NORMA - This is her 1974 "parachute dress" in international orange.
9. Burro: ASS.
10. Umami-rich paste: MISO - Umami means "savoriness" in Japanese
10. Umami-rich paste: MISO - Umami means "savoriness" in Japanese
11. Aggregate: ENTIRETY.
12. Things that get bad marks: ERASERS 😀
13. Collar attachment: PET TAG - We call them Lily's license plates
15. Cardamom-infused brew: CHAI.
21. Rakes it in: MAKES A BUNDLE - What many who go to Vegas delude themselves will happen to them.
23. Lil Nas X album with the hit "Industry Baby": MONTERO - Google if you must
25. Sought-after: DESIRED.
29. Safari runners: MACS - 😀 The browser on my MacBook
31. Canaanite idol: BAAL - Need more?
32. "Killing Eve" actress Fiona: SHAW.
33. Bug: TAP.
34. Oklahoma city: ENID.
35. Completely: WHOLE HOG.
36. Act like a snake: SLITHER.
37. Strike out?: GO SOLO - The story of why Diana struck out on her own is in the 12/1/69 Soul Magazine article
39. __ the Hun: ATTILA.
40. Cobbler pan: PIE TIN.
41. Held back, as tears: UNSHED - An uncommon but easily sussed word
44. __ rhythm: brain waves pattern: THETA.
45. Actress Spacek: SISSY - Was this 47-yr-old movie anyone else's first thought?
47. YouTube star JoJo: SIWA - Go to YouTube and search for her if you must
49. Lands: WINS - A boxer can land a punch, a gymnast can land a vault, a salesman can land a contract, a fisherman can land a fish...
51. Biblical twin of Jacob: ESAU.
54. Central: MID.
55. Half the characters in "Kill Bill"?: ELS - 😀 Last week we had the meta clue for two iotas in Illiad (Iliad in Greek is Ιλιάδα). Today we have four EL'S for half the eight letters in Kill Bill.
48 comments:
I certainly didn’t know that legal term. And I had forgotten all about “choco-tacos.” But somehow, through P & P, it all came together. Certainly, it was another in a long line of Saturday toughies. But I got through it okay. FIR, so I’m happy.
This was so difficult that I tried the 26 routine … plugging in all (Solo ?) letters of the alphabet to see what sounded even a bit half crazy… so, it’s over and I can go back to sleep…
Thank you to the constructor for doing his job ( my phone does not allow look backs …) on this themeless and thank you Gary
Thank you Husked Gary for a job well done and your lucid explanations.
Saturday is a day of rest, ( Ha!!!!). Snd we await Thd long Sunday puzzle tomorrow…
I felt the personal names were so unfamiliar … Thd clue might as well read … my neighbor, my boyfriend, or my regular mail carrier …. Why not ? …. Or the next preferred POTUS OF the USA…. Lol.
Good morning!
Nope. AS TO, OCTET, SINUS, and ALL led to a DEATH Spiral. Methinks d-o is getting too old for Saturday puzzles. WHAT CAN I SAY?
Welp, I almost got a FIR. Alas, a handful of clues confounded me and I ultimately had to resort to red letters and one alphabet run in order to get ‘er done. Anyway, I finished my Christmas shopping last night, so I’m happy.
Nope.
A two letter fail. A tentative early entry that was wrong. GLaREs. I changed that A to O when the long perp WHOLE HOG became obvious, and left GLoREs, because it is a word, and it means stares.
If I had known Fiona SHAW or Lil Nas T's album name, it would have been a win. In retrospect, SHAW and MONTERO sound better than SHAr and MONTEsO.
Other names I did not know perped in: NORMA, PEEP, LEON, DEB, SIWA
Who is Audrey Meadows? The only Meadows on TV I could think of was TIM.
The other names were gimmes: TOM, EKBERG, DUSTIN, SISSY, ESAU, APU, ATTILA.
Thanks, Kristian and Husker Gary. Good challenge and good review.
One last thing. Vidwan, or should I say, "Thumper, the Still Pumper Plumper", that's you at 5:28 and 5:33, correct? It sure seems to be in the style of your writings. If not, someone has done a really good job of copying you.
TTP, Audrey Meadows played Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners segment of The Jackie Gleason Show. Her older sister Jane was also an actress, married to Steve Allen.
Desper-otto, thanks!
I know of Jackie Gleason, and I've heard of The Honeymooners and knew he was the star, but I've never seen it. Now I'm further curious, because it sounds like there were two programs. I'll look it up.
TTP, it was a segment of The Jackie Gleason Show that was later reissued (and maybe supplemented) in syndication as . Art Carney ("Sheesh, what a grouch!") (remember him?) played New York plumber, Ed Norton. Joyce Randolph played Ed's wife, Trixie. It was a two-couple sitcom, similar to I Love Lucy.
Hmmm, I'm sure there was a The Honeymooners in there.
Nope III. But then again, I don't expect to FIR Saturday grids. Filled 39, but had irk and OCTet. (My trantula originally had 'hairy' legs.)
Today is:
SKYWARN® RECOGNITION DAY (spotters complete training through a variety of formats and communicate through amateur radio)
NATIONAL SPECIAL EDUCATION DAY (DIL has had a very good career in this field)
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY (draws attention to slavery that still exists in the world)
NATIONAL FRITTERS DAY (deep-fried and served hot with dips, drips, or dustings of seasonings)
NATIONAL MUTT DAY (saved the best for last)
Had to wait for abu/APU, asap/STAT, and atilla/ATTILA.
Got sidetracked onto bond ratings for 'AAA and BBB.'
If I ever forget TOM Landry, just stick me in the Old Cowboys Fans Home. I'm done at that point.
Thanks to Kristian for the challenge, and congrats to those who finished it. And as always, thanks to H.Gary for making some sense of it.
FIW. Today was a workout with several errors on my part, as well as many unknowns. Misspelled Shiism, never heard of chocotacos and Montero, and most of the NW did me in. Took a few WAG's and was wrong.
Once again a nasty crossing of proper names made the SE difficult. Dustin ans Siwa. Perps saved the day there.
Okay, the reading helped a lot. And I learned a bit of TV trivia. TV's first spin-off? The Honeymooners, from the original Jackie Gleason show. I know for certain that I never saw that original version, but I'm starting to recall some things about The Honeymooners that makes me think that I surely must have seen some episodes at some point.
Wasn't the recurring theme that Ralph and Ed often got in trouble by trying to outsmart or fool their wives? The scenes were around the kitchen table and they would plot while the women were somewhere else. Then there would be scenes where Alice and Trixie were in the kitchen figuring out what the guys were up to, while Ralph and Ed were somewhere else. A lot of the story lines were shot in that kitchen, IIRC. As it was coming back to me, I remembered that the guys were bowlers, or maybe that was in an episode I saw, and they had to come up with a plan to be able to make a tournament or big game or something. But they had to get the bowling balls out of the house. Something like that.
Speaking of messing up with your wife, this commercial cracks me up every time. The expression on her face! Talk about the "Stare daggers at" clue, she's not happy with him! WeatherTech "Oh Fudge" commercial.
I added a link in the blog to Audrey Meadows who played the long-suffering wife of Ralph Kramden played by Jackie Gleason in the wonderful sitcom The Honeymooners. How could you not know of this woman from a TV show that is nearly 70 years old? :-)
Good Morning:
I'm happy to say I finished w/o help but it took a whopping 1:15:00 to do it. I'm sad to say there was little joy and much frustration along the arduous trek. There is a fine but recognizable line between tough, mis-directive cluing vs tough, unnecessarily vague or devious cluing and, IMO, today's offering had way too much of the latter. That whole upper left and central part of the grid was Natick-ville on steroids, for me. I'll admit my inability to come up with Farina* was a major factor, but the unknown ChocoTacos, Norma, Tim, ATF**, plus the vague cluing for Raft and Cash Offers bear some blame, as well.
I had only two w/os, Dot/Tat and Glares/Glower but needed perps for several unknowns, i.e., Shaw, Leon, Shame Spiral, Montero, Theta, and Meep. *Before Farina finally materialized, I couldn't get beyond Purina, even though I was 99% sure that Purina was a dog food. Oh well, I was in the right church but the wrong pew, so to speak, but they do sound alike! **All I could think of was DEA, TSA, and ATC. On the positive side, the three letter word count (14) was quite acceptable, even more so as 12 out of 14 were actual words. Most impressive to me was the strong, lively fill, especially What Can I Say, It's All A Lie, Makes A Bundle, Whole Hog, etc.
Thanks, Kristian, (I think), and thanks, HG, for the usual fun, facts, and commentary. I can't decide if that look on Darling Lily's face is innocence or guilt! 🤣 Thanks for entertaining and enlightening us for all these years!
Have a great day.
Kristian’s hometown was misspelled- it is Oneonta, NY!!
FIR but not happy with the crossed obscurities and proper names. Why not just say "five letter woman's name" for clues like 8D and be done with it? The last names are even worse.
Here is my article about our TARANTULA adventure last year.
From Thursday:
waseeley, sumdaze Thank you for the ROBERT PIN CSO note!
Too hard for me. Too many unknown names didn't give me enough letters to get many other answers. When I make two sweeps through and only have a few answers I'm confident in and a few guesses, I take the easy way out with the online puzzle. First I check the grid, which showed about half my guesses wrong. Another quick pass in case erasing the wrong guesses gives put me on the right track for any, which I don't think happened. Then I just reveal answers which I know I'll never get. Even then I struggled to finish this one.
Anytime a clue refers to Lil Nash X or You Tube stars I'm just going to reveal answers unless the perps reveal all letters. I have no desire to google them to learn more about them. Get off my lawn.
The only other one I really disliked was the kill bill one. Let's just almost randomly take a few letters from a clue and make it an answer. No, don't do that, unless you want me to live up to my handle.
There weren't even any clever answers, just hard ones. No joy here. The only good thing to say is that it's over.
Took 31:15 today, and seemed to take much longer than that.
I do enjoy themeless puzzles and challenges, and there were a few really good clues/answers today, but there were simply way too many "proper obscurities".
These comments deserve to be re-posted:
"FIR but not happy with the crossed obscurities and proper names."
-Picard @ 9:51
"No joy here. The only good thing to say is that it's over."
-Whiner @ 9:58
"I'm sad to say there was little joy and much frustration along the arduous trek. There is a fine but recognizable line between tough, mis-directive cluing vs tough, unnecessarily vague or devious cluing and, IMO, today's offering had way too much of the latter."
-Ms. Irish Miss @ 9:27
Another puzzle with too many obscure name references and multimeaning clues. Finished it with multiple lookups and guesses, but it wasn't fun. Too many troubles to cite.
Speak softly, yelling just hurts feelings.
Wonders
Husker Gary,
Can I use the excuse that I wasn't born yet? Plus, I may not have been able to see any of the reruns that might have been on during my youth, as my one sister always had control of the TV when mom and dad were busy with other things :>)
Earlier, I had only read about Jackie Gleason. I should have taken the link to the Wikipedia article on The Honeymooners. I just read that. Yes, I must have seen at least a few of those episodes at some point or another.
This was a typical Saturday challenge - but with P&P I made it through.
I had heard of FARINA - but more used in other countries - in my area we always called it Cream of Wheat.
I don't like horror movies - so though I knew SISSY SPACEK was in "Carrie"- I like her Oscar winning role as Loretta Lynn in "Coalminer's Daughter"
CHOCO TACO was a gimme for me - they are decadently yummy. I never bought them for our house, but when I used to do inpatient medicine I had my own reward system. On the weekend I would be covering for my 8-9 partners in 2 hospitals - so seeing 15-25 patients that had to be admitted, discharged, or somehow seen. The one hospital had them in the doctor's lounge freezer so after 3 floors I would get lunch and then when I finished at one hospital and was heading to the other I would reward myself with a CHOCO TACO. I was sad to see them go, but by then I was only doing outpatient clinic so wasn't a regular consumer :)
I remember The Honeymooners because my dad was a big Jackie Gleason fan - Alice Kramden had more than one actress play her - Audrey Meadows was before my time - I remember Sheila McRae
TIM Meadows is much more familiar as a ten year cast member of SNL and around my age.
We've bought many a DAY USE pass for Oregon state parks where my husband is from - two of my favorite are Cape Meares and Ecola
Thanks HG for all your work over the past 7 years and to Kristian for the puzzle
A big DNF today. Not only not on my radar, but off in a parallel universe somewhere. Summed up perfectly by Anonymous @10:13. Much of it still unable to be grokked after HuskerG 'splained it. I know Saturday puzzles should be tough, but this one approached the ridiculous. A little fun would have been nice.
After several searches on Google for unknown proper names, which I will never remember anyway, I TITT. I was no longer in the mood for solving this puzzle.
HG’s recap was helpful.
Well, here we go again! Not sure what it is going to take to get these people to relent and make us some decent CWs. At one time or another I think just about everybody has complained about the structure and clueing of these puzzles. Again today, way too many obscure names and terms most anybody would be completely unfamiliar with. Bad, bad. Maybe a letter to the paper, I don’t know. The editors are definitely no helping.
Way out of my league, I didn't have a chance...
Learning moment: host/raft (although I'll never use it...)
"Meep" while I didn't know it from the clue, was familiar to me.
here is some Christmas music, without the "p"
There are clues, there are horrible clues, and then of course there is today’s crossword.
I agree with Picard.,,,why not just say “woman’s name” ?
Got the solve sans enjoyment, which seems to be the editor’s goal.
Wow! I feel as if I just approached this puzzle with an eager smile and got a pie in the face! There were so many unknown (to me) names and unfamiliar terms, like MEEP, coupled with very long answers, that I couldn’t seem to hook on and get going. You folks who FIR without much trouble have my admiration. I guess I’m still not ready for prime time!
Thanks, Kristian for the impossible challenge, and thanks, HG, for putting a smile back on my face with the great tour.
Onward to Sunday!
Inanhiker, you gave me a couple of chuckles. First, I misread "...I used to do inpatient medicine..." to be '...impatient...' medicine.
Then my so-called mind read "...15-25 patients that had to be admitted, discharged, or somehow seen. The one hospital had them in the doctor's lounge freezer so after 3 floors I would get lunch..." and I thought, where did she practice, Hannibal Lecter General?
As the famous saying goes, it's not you, it's me.
Saturday crosswords should be hard, but when they are not fun, that’s a problem. Been happening too often with the new regime.
@Jinx -at 1:25- that is hilarious!
A Saturday bust. Lotsa mistakes I stuck with to my eventual downfall humid/MOIST, hairy/OCTAD. Justin/DUSTIN annual/DAYUSE …I thought the term was “Shia”? …”Beaker”, lab assistant to Dr Bunsen Honeydew but couldn’t remember the syllable he kept saying (but not “groot”). Hamilton Beach FOODprocessor wouldn’t fit. Once again couldn’t remember a cast member from a show I watched: SHAW from “Killing Eve”
CHOCOTACOS ? (Can it be a “novelty” if it’s discontinued?) “mens” REA? (What about women, see SHIISM? ) SHAME SPIRAL? TripleB?
We not only have to know rappers but their albums too😲
Only knew EKBERG cuz she was oddly coincidentally on a recent puzzle. (Alexa and Siri gotta quit the crosstalk).
Peter Pan had a relative who was a cobbler?
“Kristian house” great clue for church. BTW Anonymous @ 9:44 Googled but couldn’t find Oneta NY closest I know is Oneonta (SUNY college town) or maybe Oneida (silver and stainless flatware).
Thanks Kristian for a challenging Saturday.
I apologize that the editor ruined your clever puzzle by putting her scent all over it with the infusion of obscure proper names and naticks.
……kkFlorida
WEES.
Thanks Kristian for your Saturday submission. I TITT but I did like seeing CHOCO TACO. Unfortunately, too much of the fill was uninteresting to me. Perhaps another audience was in mind. I also find the name knots frustrating.
H-Gary, thanks for your recap today and congrats on your 6 years on the job! I'm always happy to see a Lily pic. Your knack of finding the perfect illustrations to explain the answers is so helpful!
Whiner @ 9:58. GOML is LOL -- worth the previous anguish.
TTP. I always thought The Flintstones was inspired by The Honeymooners.
Another obscurely clued, not fun Saturday.
Kristian definitely MESSED WITH my mind today. Did I manage to FIR? NADA.
FOOD STEAMER is an appliance I had no knowledge of.
SHAME SPIRAL- never heard of it.
CHOCOTACOS- never heard of it either
MEEP- never heard of it or 'Beaker'.
Mens REA- I'm not a lawyer-unknown
SHIISM- I confidently filled SHIITE, duh!
MOIST- started with HUMID, switched to MUSTY0another duh!
ATF? Nope- I filled DEA.
ENTIRETY- mind was thinking verb, not noun
If I claimed to say I solved today's puzzle IT'S ALL A LIE (I did get that one)
TIM Meadows- at least I got that one-by perps, but not the unknowns below.
EKBERG, DEB, LEON Bridges, NORMA Kamali, MONTERO, Fiona SHAW, SIWA- were these unknowns filled by perps? Not a chance, no way, NADA.
WHAT CAN I SAY- I bombed today. Let me SLITHER out of here with my tail between my legs.
Jackie Gleason (Ralph Kramden), Art Carney, Audrey Meadows and THE JUNE TAYLOR DANCERS. The last time I saw The Fat Man was in "Smokey and The Bandit" as Sheriff Buford T. Justice.
Coincidences are interesting.
One of the unknowns of this puzzle was CHOCO TACOS. This afternoon I was doing a CW puzzle in another newspaper and one of the clues was “(blank) Taco (former good humor treat)” . Well, I was proud to fill in the answer immediately.
This one was not to be -- after wandering around for hours and getting everything down South, I finally TITT in the FAR NORTH (is it February already?). Clever puzzle Kristian and no real regrets, but as my Mom used to say "Misery loves company" and it seems that several fellow Cornerites shared my suffering.
Thanks Husker for melting the ICE FLOE up North and filling in the dry land. Loved that tasteful JPG for the great 30A 😁. I've seen most of Fellini's movies at least once (and 8 1/2 8 1/2 times), so I'm sure I must have seen The Sweet Life
I have only one complaint -- When is a constructor going to clue "Biblical twin" for five letters and give JACOB his due? Most people have heard of ISRAEL, but most people think EDOM is a Dutch cheese.
55A ELS. Clever meta. I've never seen this movie, but for some reason I don't like it. Probably all the death threats. 😲
Cheers,
Bill
Yeah, same here, had to change SHIITE to SHIISM.
Sumdaze, YABBA DABBA DO!
Now that is a program that I remember from my youth, and I can easily name Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Bam Bam, Pebbles, and Dino. They lived in Bedrock, and Fred and Barney worked at the quarry, IIRC for Mr Slate.
Flintstones, meet the Flintstones, we'll have a good time, a yabba do time, we'll have a real good time!
Then there was the Jetsons, too.
I asked DW if she remembered Johnny Quest. I got a "Johnny Quest?" followed by, "I remember Fat Albert." HEY HEY HEY!
I’m with Irish Miss, Picard and Whiner — it’s obvious that one of the constructor’s main aims on this one was to lead users as far astray as possible. ‘Nuff said.
====> Darren / L.A.
Jinx @1:25 PM ROTFL!!! 😂
Darren @7:21 PM It use to be called "Misdirection". Nowadays it's call "MS-direction".
Darren @ 7:21 ~ Bear in mind that the Editorial Staff say has the final approval on the clues and the power to change each and every one, if so inclined. 😉
The only thing that made today's abomination tolerable was CEd's "Meeeeee.... symphony. I concur with the usual suspects ... shamespiral? Siwa?
Ray'O: You were within range. "Shia" is short for 'Shia A'li,' the 'party of A'li.' ('Shiism' smells to me like some intellectual imposition.)
Patti Varol's obsession with pseudo-celebrities definitely ran rampant through this puzzle. Boo! Hiss!
I knew Audrey Meadows because it was a weird name that fascinated me back in the olden days. We didn't have television until I got married at age 22. Not sure I missed much but maybe a few cw fills.
Thank you, Gary, for your steadfast dedication to our blog.
Never heard of chocotacos, but Klondike Bars are usually at home in my freezer.
I'm a relative beginner at CW but I personally found this puzzle fascinating. Kristian House has a very nuanced sense of the wider scope of shared meanings among words, as in raft and host for example. I really learned a lot about how to expand my thinking when working a puzzle. I'd like to save this one, file it away and do it again in a year or so. Thank you so much Kristian House, I'll keep an eye out for more of your work.
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