Themeless Saturday by Stella Zawistowski
The look the face of our weightlifting constructor Stella reflects some of the anguish I felt as I worked my way through the latest of her always always challenging puzzles. After bobbing and weaving through the grid, I had enough letters to start to make sense of her ten-letter fills and finish up. Her top two ten-letter fills were fun to learn. As you can see in the grid, I did have one cell where my coin flip failed. My lack of knowledge of three-string Japanese instruments and Rhianna's music was my undoing.
1. Unplanned adoption: FOSTER FAIL - FAILING at being a FOSTER parent for a pet and then falling in love with and adopting that pet hardly seems like a FAILING to me. 😀
11. Adoption org.: SPCA.
15. Intended to prevent a torrent, perhaps: ANTI-PIRACY - As usual, Stella has a term I have never encountered that fell into place: Torrenting is a term used for distributing and downloading unusually large files like those for movies using the BitTorrent protocol. More
16. Name on the highest-grossing concert film in history: ERAS - It has grossed over $250M in gross sales against a $15M budget
17. Certain Central American: SALVADORAN - The lovely custodian at our school is COSTA RICAN and that name went in first.
18. Natural traps: WEBS.
19. Olympic badminton team, e.g.: DUO.
20. Victor Hugo's world: MONDE - MONDE is French for world
22. Sea bream, in a sushi bar: TAI - ... and my culinary education continues
23. Sushi bar list: SAKES - As long as we're at the sushi bar...
25. Snooty creatures?: ANTEATERS. 😀
27. Divine: PREDICT - Carnac's gift was to be able to divine the answers without first seeing the questions.
29. "Awesome!": SWEET and 30. "Awesome!": YES.
31. Cheer (up): BUOY.
33. Working days?: STINTS.
34. Practitioner of traditional medicine: HERBALIST.
36. Burlesque: SATIRE - A BURLESQUE is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
39. Smallest ratite: KIWI - Ratite: A bird having a flat breastbone without a keel, and so unable to fly.
40. Elle King's "Ex's & __": OHS - A Top Ten album
43. Subject of the 2014 documentary "Game Over": ATARI.
44. Jam: BAD SPOT.
46. Get rich: MAKE A PILE.
50. Melancholy work: ELEGY - I wasn't all that melancholy when dirge didn't work 😀
51. Salt target: ICE.😀
52. Levi's Stadium player: NINER.
53. Word with Days and Holiday: INN. 😀 Motels
54. Well-thought-out: SANE.
56. "Hubba hubba!": VA VA VA VOOM - We had this recently with only two VA's but I remember it better with three
60. Let out: EMIT.
61. Feature of non-eco-friendly containers: ONE TIME USE - Why our landfills get full
62. Syllables in Rihanna's "What's My Name?": NANA If you need some raunchy lyrics
63. Moved mindfully?: TELEPORTED - Star Trek did this a lot. Kirk never actually said, "Beam me up Scotty." Teleporting by mind
Down:
1. Scale tones: FAS - Do, Re, Me, FA, So, La, Ti, Do
2. Rashly: ON A DARE.
3. Name on some church-run hospitals: ST LUKES.
4. Saved to watch later: TIVOED.
5. Org. that regulates HFCs: EPA.
6. Free (of): RID.
7. Step one: FROM A TO B. 😀
9. "It's all too much": I CAN'T.
10. Paul of "Hollywood Squares": LYNDE - One of his many zingers: Peter Marshall: According to Tony Randall, “Every woman I’ve been intimate with in my life has been…” What?
11. Compete on "Project Runway," say: SEW.
12. Many a fan of "The Baby-Sitters Club": PRE-TEEN.
13. "Willkommen" musical: CABARET.
14. Sue Bird's WNBA record 3,234: ASSISTS.
21. Home of New York's Museum Mile: EAST SIDE.
23. Northern __ apples: SPY - Here ya go
24. Like the Chukchi people of Russia: SIBERIAN.
26. Fool: TWIT.
28. Fix: CURE.
32. Yona of "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic," for one: YAK - No idea.
28. Fix: CURE.
32. Yona of "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic," for one: YAK - No idea.
33. Media personality JoJo: SIWA - No idea.
35. Let out: LIBERATE.
36. Instrument played with a bachi: SAMISEN - A one minute sample
38. Fooled: TAKEN IN.
40. Expand, in a way: OPEN OUT.
41. Upturned feature of some snakes: HOG NOSE.
42. Pen: STY.
45. Shard: SLIVER.
47. Pirouette, essentially: PIVOT.
48. Unworthy of consideration: INANE.
49. Tool box item: LEVEL.
55. Text to someone who's late: ETA.
57. Velvet rope crosser: VIP.
58. "O Deus ego __ te": Catholic hymn: AMO - My God, I love Thee,
59. Scrip spec: MED.
BTW, our newspaper carries the LA puzzle and a second puzzle they call The Daily (Commuter) Crossword that is much easier. For years this puzzle has had Jacqueline Mathews listed as the constructor. Ms. Mathews of Spokane has retired and now the daily constructor has been Stella Zawistowski for several weeks (see "Created by" under the puzzle). Looks like Stella has a steady gig.
49 comments:
Wow! What a toughie! Everything came together eventually but it took nearly an hour before the “V-8 can hit” and I realized that “ya_” was a THING not a person’s name! Anyway, through P&P I survived this very challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m relieved!
DNF. Filled 28, 23 correctly.
Today is:
NATIONAL BANANA CREAM PIE DAY (sometime in the 1800s, the traditional custard pie mutated into the appetizing and flavorful banana cream pie)
NATIONAL OLD STUFF DAY (strive to make the day new, not the same old day it was yesterday)
Well, when the first two across fills = FOSTER FAIL and SPCA - were top-of-mind, I thought "hey I have a chance." Then I went to the second row, and remembered it's a Saturday, and I yam what I yam.
I don't FOSTER for the same reason I don't volunteer at the local SPCA. My number of pets would quickly exceed the legal limit.
I'm pretty sure there was a Chukchi's Pizza near where I used to live. They hosted a lot of kids birthday parties.
Those doohickeys on RVs that OPEN OUT are called "slides." My Phaeton has four.
So does Stella actually construct daily puzzles? I may be shortchanging Eugene Sheffer. I always assumed that he was the editor of the puzzles that carry his name. (I do the LAT, Penny Press and Sheffer every way. Two Sudokus as well.)
Thanks to Stella for the tough Saturday special, and to H.Gary for the fine explanation.
Well, Stella has served up a real Saturday head-scratcher, for me anyway. My first run through the grid yielded me only 3% of the answers, and I wasn’t really positive of those. But by some half a miracle I was able to FIR, I’ll usually give a puzzle an hour before I TITT, today it required 1:16:53 and a couple walkaways to clear my head. The top two spanners, FOSTERFAIL and ANTIPIRACY were entirely perped, as were the seven letter verticals in the SW, SAMISEN and ATACAMA. DNK what a ratite was but KIWI led me to believe it was a fruit till Gary’s expo 🤷♂️. Stella Z ~ nice to see your byline in the LAT again, I like your style whether themed or themeless, and thank you for the challenge!
HG ~ if ever a CW needed an expo, this one certainly did for me as I was in the dark on almost all of it, thanks for dissecting this one, hopefully I’ll retain some of the things I learned. Today was sort of a game AND a test. 👊🏼
Took a few seconds less than a half hour today to finish, luckily.
The bottom-left corner was brutal.
I think I'm in the minority here, but I don't tend to care for puzzles by this constructor.
"Samisen" next to "Atacama," both crossing "nana" is a great example of why.
I don't understand the "mindfully" part of the teleported clue. I was expecting something telepathic.
DNF. The SW completely did me in. Samisen was totally unknown to me as was Atacama. And I thought I really had this one as the upper part of the puzzle filled in as well as the lower right. But alas, not good enough.
ATACAMA desert in Chile is OK, but that led me to pArody instead of SATIRE, and SAMISEN and SIWA are just so many random letters.
I was so proud of myself for the last few days' ability to quickly FIR. Then along came today. A huge DNF. Wow! After 15 minutes I had hardly filled anything before throwing in the towel. This CW is far above my meager abilities. Ya got me, SZ. Thanx for the nice write-up, HG.
Stellar Saturday, but Stella did me in! Thanks
HuskerG for explaining.
Officially a TITT when even my Google searches couldn’t give me any answers.
But this Canadian did know Northern SPIES. I love those apples for pies.
Wishing you all a great day.
Good Morning:
This was a FWH due to the SW corner, so aptly described by SS @ 7:50. And I'm part of his minority in not really caring for this constructor's style. There were too many completely unknowns for me to list, but Samisen and Atacama were two of them. Had Nana been clued in a less specific way, a solver may have had a better chance of figuring out the correct answer. A difficult and challenging puzzle can be very enjoyable and rewarding to solve, but only if its cluing and fill are fair. Today's offering didn't meet those expectations, IMO.
Thanks, HG, for your always delightful recap and colorful visuals. I agree on Foster Failure and think it's a ridiculous term. It seems as though our current culture demands a "label" for everyone and everything.
Have a great day.
Add me to the small list of folks who do not care for this constructor's puzzles. Too many obscurities drained the fun right out of the solving process.
ESP stands for extra-sensory powers. Those powers include telekinesis, teleportation, telepathy, etc. These powers are executed using the power of the brain, e,g, mind. So, teleportation is moving yourself with your mind.
I'm with IM, I finished with help. I knew Taylor Swift had the highest grossing film, but it took a bit to remember the name. Knew the ATACAMA desert since I am a fan of the History Channel's Ancient Aliens.
A couple of strategic lookups helped the old V-8 can out and with the entry of SAMISEN the logjam eased. Had PRETEEN and wanted carousel but it was too long. The two eSse's in 14D brought ASSISTS. The V's in PIVOT and VIP gave me VAVAVAVOOM. MAKEAmint turned into MAKEAPILE, and INAne transformed into INANE.
What a workout! Great job Stella!! Hats off to Gary for his expert analysis today.
Wander alone to find yourself.
Benefactor.
Sorry INApt became INANE.
This puzzle was Tough as Nails and I almost blew it. Stella really Threw her Weight around on this one! When I finished I knew something was amiss in the NNE and I called in my proof reader to take a look at it. She did and in a minute she said "DUH - you need to change the L at 1A to an F [which I had earlier changed from an F to an L!]. With that we got a collective FIR (Teri didn't really say DUH - she's actually very polite!). So it took two hands on the hammer to drive this FIR in. How does anybody do a puzzle like this in ink?
[Sigh of relief]
Thank you Stella for another masterpiece. Glad you got a permanent GIG, but please don't be a stranger to the Corner (but maybe be a little gentler on your next Saturday puz!).
And thank you Husker for another fine review!
A few favs:
22A TAI. None of the sushi bars we frequent are tony enough to serve TAI. They do serve SAKES, but we usually just order white wine.
39A KIWI. Had RHEA but apparently it was too big.
3D ST LUKES. Legend has it that he was a physician -- a CSO to NINA and RAPHAEL.
23D SPY. They've snuck into puzzles before - IIRC sometime back I blogged a puzzle with apple varieties as the theme.
37A ATACAMA. We also had this in an earlier puzzle. It is purportedly the most ARID region on Earth. I definitely think we should establish a colony on MARS and I hope that ELON MUSK is the first one to go -- and stays there!
45A SLIVER. Shards are the fate of pots I don't like.
48D INANE - another CSO to our favorite HIKER.
Cheers,
Bill
TITT on this one. IM☘️ said it best. I’ll have to make a note of this constructor’s name and not bother with her puzzle.
HG was a pleasure to read.
See you all Sunday.
Ouch. TITT. I know it's Saturday, but....I'll just Echo Irish Miss on this puppy. Could not manage to teleport myself anywhere close to the planet Stella lives on.
Totally agree with (the other) Anonymous as to "Samisen" next to "Atacama," both crossing "nana"
both of which I Googled and it still took a couple ticks over 45 minutes to FWH. Not fun at all, especially on 2 hours of sleep…
Very tough, but finally for with the help of looking up some guesses to see if I was correct. Agree that the sw was incorrigible, with the NW not far behind! And I found that Samisen is generally spelled Shamisen…
Can anyone explain how ‘nana’ is syllables in a song?
It took me an hour to FIR. I was stymied by FOSTER FAIL (Has D-O ever mentioned . . .), SAMISEN, SIWA, the second “awesome” being YES, and “It’s all too much” for “I CAN’T.” At least that last one wasn’t the loathsome expression “I can’t even.”
I needed perps for the Central American entry, but only because Nicaraguan, Guatemalan, and Costa Rican all fit. ATACAMA was an easy one for me. My Latin American geography knowledge is pretty good, although I failed to suss Suriname in last night’s Final Jeopardy. (Note to Arizona Jim and Tehachapi Ken: I posted a brief description of my 1969 Jeopardy experience at the end of Friday’s comments.)
My favorite entry turned out to be the “hubba-hubba” answer, because of a favorite Playboy cartoon from the late Sixties, before the magazine lost its class. The setting is the stage door of a burlesque house, where we can see marquee signs touting dancer Tempest LaVavavoom, and there she is with a young man, introducing him to an older couple, saying “. . . And these are my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gerald N. LaVavavoom.”
This CW had the most forced and convoluted answers I have personally ever encountered. The fun was gone from square one. I think certain contributors have forgotten this is supposed to be an interesting but PLEASANT experience. How about a little less attempt at urbanity and a little more at pleasing the solvers. The ladies in particular seem to on some sort of mission to stump us. Enuff already.
Ugly clueing by an author specializing in horrible clues.
I don’t even bother with Saturdays now, they are designed to be unsolvable.
I just stop by now to see how bad it is.
It’s bad.
I thought I had attained a higher level of solving ability since my last failed attempt at one of Stella’s puzzles. Alas, I went down in flames again, only completing this puzzle by using Google multiple times, which results in no satisfaction at all. I applaud those of you who FIR, but as for me, Stella will be on my “Don’t even bother” list from now on. Always going for the “Gotcha”, and she got me!
Looking forward to a challenging but doable Sunday adventure.
Hand up this was very difficult. My brother briefly had a HOG NOSE SNAKE when we were kids. Learning moment several unrelated species have this feature. RIM before ICE.
Got all of the tough areas and misdirections. Notably DIVINE -> PREDICT. But the at the center I just gave up. No idea about YAK or SIWA. FIW with YAZ and SITA.
Here my Solstice friend Katie performed BURLESQUE at our Wildcat Extravaganza organized by our friend Beth.
Learning moment that BURLESQUE could also mean satire.
FLN. Copy Editor, what fun to read about your Jeopardy adventure. Why don’t you give it another whirl since they seem to be reaching out to past participants lately -“Second Chance”, etc. We’d all cheer wildly for you!
WENDYBIRD: At age 18, I was able to summon any knowledge I had instantaneously. At age 72, I know more, but too many things I know elude me somehow. In addition, the L.A. version of the show had two rule changes, the first of which absolutely works against me. When the answer card is revealed, the players are not allowed to buzz in until Ken finishes reading the question, and then too often all three are trying to buzz in at the same time. In my day, you could ring in as soon as the card was exposed (but "remember the Jeopardy: if you are wrong, the amount allotted to the answer will be deducted from your winnings."). I was very fast. Now there's a trick to it. The second change, by the way, was that only the first-place finisher each day wins the money amount accrued during the game. If you're good at arithmetic, you can guess what the Final Jeopardy wagers will be. I used to love it when the third-place finisher would win up with, say, $30, and moderator Art Fleming would brand it "carfare."
I forgot to congratulate Ken and Copy Editor on their exciting Jeopardy experiences.
BTW, where is our dear Tony? I hope he has recovered from his cactus calamity!
Thanks, Irish Miss, but I only made it through the Jeopardy prelims; Copy Editor did the main event AND was Champ twice and almost a third time.
Hey guys, regarding today's puzzle, methinks we may be protesting too much. This is a Saturday, and Stella has produced a demanding but fair Saturday puzzle. And she did it without resorting to dozens of obscure names like we usually suffer through. Hers is a true crossWORD puzzle, not a crossNAME puzzle. Also, keep in mind that constructors have to run the gauntlet of editing. We don't know which of Stella's clues have been not hers, but the editor's.
And I like that Stella covered everything from geography to Victor Hugo to NASA to Paul Lynde to the WNBA's Sue Bird to literature to the 49ers.....
Another one lost. Hey editor, do you think the constant loss of participants is good for the LA Times? I guess when very few are left and there is no reason to keep you around, you will finally wake up. So typical of the left coast mentality.
I thought this was a challenge - but I expect that with a SZ puzzle! Some Saturday misdirect - I knew that Taylor Swift's ERAS tour film was the highest grossing in its category but when the clue said "name" - neither Taylor nor Swift would fit
JoJo SIWA is one of those celebrity personalities like the Kardashians who is just a celebrity for being an on-line presence and doesn't actually have much talent.
IIRC - Le MONDE is one of France's leading newspapers
ATACAMA was also a gimme for this geography/map nerd!
ST LUKES was a gimme as I was born at St. Luke's hospital in Kansas City. I also worked there 2 summers during college as a patient transporter (but I never TELEPORTED anyone)
I remember Paul LYNDE always got the center square once he was a regular - I was too young to get much of the double entendre humor he used
Thanks HG for the fun blog and Stella for the puzzle!
I've just had a crazy week that went from trip to a conference to California - right into have my daughter and fam visiting from Seattle - everyone including from the 2 year old to my 92+ year old mom are all napping so I had a minute!
Got about 80% filled in before I TITT, which is par for the course on a Saturday.
That SW corner did me in like everyone else—thought it was TAKEN BY, not TAKEN IN and that the song lyrics were YA YA, not NA NA… Up top could not figure out FOSTER____ or ANTIPI____.
But this seemed like normal Sat difficulty to me, so am surprised to see all the negative reviews. Here are some examples of clues I was unable to solve:
NY Judge: AARON
Victor Hugo’s world: MONDE
Divine: PREDICT
Fix: CURE
Let out: EMIT
I think these clues are fair and clever. They might throw you off the track a little but heck, it’s a Saturday!
What I thought was unfair was having a “My Little Pony” character nearby JoJo SIWA… I would’ve needed a PRETEEN here next to me to have any chance at that. And the link between them was KIWI, but then you’d have to know whatever the heck a ratite is.
Copy Editor: I also want to congratulate you on your Jeopardy appearance and multiple wins! And I’m curious—what was your guess on the fateful Fort Sumter Final?
Ken @ 3:37 ~ You may not have reached the same level of success at Jeopardy as Copy Editor, but I still think you deserve recognition for getting as far as you did. I stand by my critique of today's puzzle and I'm also well aware of the editor's role in the cluing process. In this case, it seems fairness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Shall we agree to disagree? 😉
Well...the good new is I filled in the NE correctly. I liked that Natural Traps clue! Seems like it's been a while since I got a FIR on a Saturday.
Thanks to H-Gary for filling in all the gaps for me. You are a consummate educator!
March is "coming in like a lion" here....
This puzzle was too hard for me. As CanadanEh! said, even my Google searches couldn’t give me any answers. For example, doing a search of "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" for a character named Yona was fruitless. I found characters named Princess Luna, the pony Twilight Sparkle, her dragon assistant Spike, and her friends, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, but no mention of Yona or a yak.
I did know ATACAMA because we installed an earthquake monitor there, near the port city of Iquique. It turned out that Victor Hugo's world was not PARIS, but MONDE, it was MAKE A PILE, not MAKE A MINT, it was ANTEATERS, not ELEPHANTS, and it was PREDICT, not GODLIKE.
Looking forward to the big Sunday puzzle tomorrow. Good wishes to you all.
O.K., I printed a list of abbreviations, but TITT is mentioned from time to time and I don't see it on my list. What is a TITT?
UncleFred ~ Threw In The Towel
Hola! Oops.
It looks like I am in agreement with most of you on this puzzle. When I looked at it this morning I knew it would be a slog and a drudge so after a few feeble attempts I put it away and watched "Oppenheimer" instead. What a good movie! And great acting by all, especially Cillian Murphy which I learned on TV is pronounced Killian.
As to the puzzle, after seeing the correct fill I was surprised that the cluing was so misleading but then, why should I be, it's Saturday, after all. In my defense I have to say that new cultural references is where I am weakest.
Congratulations to all who finished today!
I hope your day was wonderful, everyone!
Lucina @6:02 PM A very young Cillian also played a friend to to a very young Scarlett Johansson in Girl With a Pearl Earring
ARIZ JIM I knew it was wrong but I had to say something, so I tried the Serapis
I started this early this morning, and only got a couple of answers. But when I looked closer, more appeared, until eventually I got about 80 percent done with a lot of sussing...
Anon@ 11:32, (can anyone explain how "nana" is syllables in a song?)
Nope, can't explain it, but,,,
I'm sure whomever listened to 50's groups like Sha Na Na could splain it, but it was before my time....
In my time, it was more like this...
Of course, Irish Miss! I just think Stella was taking an undue amount of heat. And BTW, I was a DNF like many of you. I had to throw up the white flag in the center section. I was stuck on FROMATOZ on 7 down instead of FROMATOB. That fouled up 34 across, and nearby perps didn"'t help, like some media person named JoJo, and Yona from My Little Pony.
A Saturday DNF is par for the course for me. I thought this puzzle was fun, especially with clues like the noted NY Judge turning out to be Aaron Judge.
Of course, Irish Miss! I just think Stella was taking an undue amount of heat. And BTW, I was a DNF like many of you. I had to throw up the white flag in the center section. I was stuck on FROMATOZ on 7 down instead of FROMATOB. That fouled up 34 across, and nearby perps didn"'t help, like some media person named JoJo, and Yona from My Little Pony.
A Saturday DNF is par for the course for me. I thought this puzzle was fun, especially with clues like the noted NY Judge turning out to be Aaron Judge.
Don't forget the big hit (and stadium favorite) from Steam:
Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye
Mon Dieu! I wonder if Art Fleming had even heard of the Serapis. One of the few warships that was born British, became American, and died for la France, right?
Chiming in ridiculously late, but I did FIR on paper with no cheats! I started while waiting for a call back from the veterinarian, tried again at lunch while my dog was having tests, and finished this evening after bringing the good boy home. Is my headache from the puzzle, or because I missed my morning tea? Even though I was able to finish, I thought this puzzle was inSANE. Stella and Patti, please have mercy upon us! HG, well done. I would not have liked to solve it with a deadline.
waseeeley
Oh, my goodness! That is one of my favorite movies but it was so long ago and I would not have had any idea about who Cillian Murphy was back then and I likely was rapt on Colin Firth, anyway. But Mr. Murphy has made quite an impact since I watched Oppenheimer.
TEHACHAPI KEN -- Art Fleming was no airhead. Cornell alum. I'm pretty sure he knew what my guess meant.
I certainly meant no disrespect to Art Fleming. He gave Jeopardy a compelling start, and is the one who turned me on to this quiz show that outshone the competition from the beginning.
Jeopardy continues to be the best, and a compelling reason for its decades-long success, I believe, lies in the people who have been behind it. Even in my brief time on the set at the try-out, I was impressed by the behind-the-scenes staff, with their professionalism and talent.
Jeopardy has had few hosts, and I think Alex Trebek and Ken Jennings have been so competent and engaging in large measure because they have known that they are stewards of a successful instititution formed in no small way by Art Fleming.
Welcome to Vague Obfuscation Saturday! After my first pass gave me almost Ø, I was about to ready to TITT; but being the stubborn cuss I am, gave it one more stab — and somehow recalled that NASA uses the ATACAMA Desert for their Mars sim, and that led to ATARI, and off to the races I went, to (by some odd miracle) FIR despite the vague clues. One to many VA’s leading to the -VOOM part, though…
Typical Saturday puzzle; I think I had more fun cleaning the garage earlier today.
====> Darren / L.A.
Darren, our man in Lost Angels: "Cleaning the garage" usually isn't 'fun', but today we're dispensed from rigorous definition. Besides, something was accomplished (unlike a certain other nuisance today.)
Lucina, keeping up with new cultural creatures like this 'SIWA' lady, brings to mind this Lenten word: evanescent.
Copy Ed, the speed bump of aging is that the the memories seem to accumulate by the ton, but our tools to access them are only tbsp. size.
BTW, "TITT" is a new addition to the Xwrd Catalog -- it means "Toss In The Towel," like today.
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