Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris
Our former editor Rich returns with a Saturday offering.
Across:
1. Loaf traditionally made with clabbered milk: SODA BREAD. Authentic Irish soda bread is made with sour (clabbered) milk, not buttermilk, or milk soured by adding vinegar or lemon juice.
10. Dismiss: LET GO - He wasn't fired, he was, uh, LET GO.
15. New and improved, say: TWO POINT O π
15. New and improved, say: TWO POINT O π
16. Slim young swimmer: ELVER - A young eel is called an ELVER
17. Decreases: RAMPS DOWN - Parka sales started to RAMP DOWN recently.
18. Mookie who was the 2018 AL MVP: BETTS - He won the MVP with the Boston Red Sox. Today he plays for the LA Dodgers.
19. Miner concern: ORE π
20. "Law & Order" actor Jeremy: SISTO.
 |
| Jeremy SISTO and Jesse L. Martin |
21. Catalan artist Joan: MIRO - SeΓ±or MIRO has been a frequent visitor here of of late
22. Cry after seeing a good drawing?: GIN π
 |
| GIN! |
23. Airport safety gp.: TSA - Yeah, I put FAA first too.
26. "Mad __": MEN - This 3:25 video is one of the finest TV scenes I have ever seen.
27. Precipitation that can hurt: HAIL - A 2014 HAIL storm in Blair, NE.
29. Knockoffs of the 1980s and 1990s: PC CLONES.
32. Brand that sponsored early soap operas: CAMAY - Proctor and Gamble used its line of soaps in the 1920's to sponsor these radio serials which became known as, uh, Soap Operas
33. About as bad as it gets: ATROCIOUS.
35. Bleak: GRIM.
36. "One L" author: TUROW - A signed first edition goes for $150
37. __ and void: NULL.
38. Journalist who co-founded the NAACP: IDA B WELLS.
40. __ cash: PETTY.
41. Beanies: KNIT CAPS.
42. Young lady: LASS.
43. Violinist Kavafian: ANI - Not the Cuckoo of long ago crosswords
44. "I get it!": AHA.
45. Block: DAM - The Hoover DAM has blocked the Colorado River in Black Canyon for decades.
46. City southwest of Warsaw: LODZ - An hour-and-a-half drive on E30 across Poland
48. Hitchcock motel: BATES - The famous Bates Motel shower scene from Psycho took 78 Shots and 52 Cuts
51. Food __: DYE - A necessity for Easter eggs
54. Even more distant: ICIER.
56. Hereditary chain: DNA STRAND.
58. Summer Daze cologne brand: CK ONE - Calvin Klein ONE
60. Bar: ESTOP - In the field of contract law, promissory estoppel estops parties from claiming that no contract exists when another party was harmed through the reasonable reliance upon a promise by the first party. π€
61. Without restraint: LIKE CRAZY - The tornados blew LIKE CRAZY in Omaha on April 29th.
Down:
1. H-Town ALer: STRO - Eliding a Houston ASTRO baseball player. Some Nebraska fans wanted to use Skers for Huskers. Thankfully, it never caught on.
2. Preakness winner Man __: O'WAR.
3. Capitol cap: DOME.
4. Tablet program: APP.
5. Word in a Tom Swifty about Bruce Springsteen: BOSSILY - Bruce is known as The Boss, so...
6. Chamillionaire song with the lyrics "They see me rollin' / They hatin'": RIDIN - Like Diogonese searching for an honest man, my search continues for a rapper who lyrics I can print.
7. "The Killing" actress Mireille: ENOS.
8. Chem class fig.: AT. WT.
9. Taped message from the police?: DO NOT CROSS π
10. Isr. neighbor: LEB.
11. Sch. type: ELEM.
12. Some NFL breaks: TV TIMEOUTS - The man on the sidelines with the orange sleeves raises his hand to signal the referees when to call a TV TIMEOUT and then lowers his arm when play should resume.
13. Succeed: GET RESULTS - The debate rages about whether Kelly Clarkson ever used these
14. Director Welles: ORSON.
22. Jason who was the 2000 AL MVP: GIAMBI.
24. Road warning sign: SLOW.
25. NYC rep since 2019: AOC.
27. Rough treatment: HARD KNOCKS - Your first thought too?
28. Self-critical evaluation: AM I AN IDIOT?
29. Singer who was one of the original judges on "American Idol": PAULA ABDUL - Randy and Paula tried to be nice in those early auditions but Simon changed TV forever.
30. Post-doc combo?: CTRL P. π Post document for printing not post doctoral
31. Starting hour, perhaps: NINE A.M - I've never had a job that started that late!
32. Sci-fi FX: CGI - Computer Generated Imagery
34. Calculated: SLY.
36. Stock sector: TECH.
39. Org. founded by Billie Jean King: WTA - I did a double take when I saw her playing a judge in an episode of Law And Order
40. Artificial: PLASTIC.
43. "... a grin without a cat" observer: ALICE.
45. Italy's Villa __: D'ESTE - The Villa d'Este (summer villa) is a 16th-century villa in Tivoli, near Rome, famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and especially for its profusion of fountains.
47. Philosopher known for "reductio ad absurdum" arguments: ZENO - Math students know of this famous paradox
49. Years in old Rome: ANNI - Villa d'Este fu costruita 550 anni fa (Villa d'Este was built 550 years ago)
50. Undertaking: TASK.
51. Focus of much analysis: DATA.
52. Santa __ Valley: California setting of "Sideways": YNEZ.
53. Current subject: EDDY π
55. Single situp, say: REP.
57. Prescription to fight stress, briefly: RNR - Rest (a)N(d) Relaxation. Characters in M*A*S*H usually went to Tokyo.
BONUS: My granddaughter at her graduation party last night in Lincoln along with me, my wife, her twin and her twin's husband.
42 comments:
After due consideration , I finally understood what “two point O” meant (“2.0”). Other than that, this puzzle was the usual Saturday slog. But, through P&P, I managed to get through it. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Saw Rich's name as the puzzle setter, so decided I'd give it a shot. Should've known better. Got IDA B WELLS and TUROW immediately; the other names, not so much. Thought Calvin spelled it CLINE. D'oh. TWO POINT O might have been TWO POTATO? Most of my missteps worked themselves out, but RAMP DOWNS worked too well with AT NO. Bzzzzt. The great northwest remained mostly snow-covered. Thanks for playing; enjoy your ceramic Dalmation parting gift. Ya got me, Rich. Thanx for the expo, Husker.
HAIL: Just received the final insurance payment yesterday. We replaced our HAIL-damaged roof back on April 18th.
NINE AM: My starting hour was usually 5 or 6 AM. The latest I can recall was 7 AM, back when I was in high school.
DAM: That must be an old photo of Hoover Dam; there was still a lake behind it.
2 violinists named Kavafian: Ida & Ani, I picked the wrong one.
I did not enjoy this puzzle at all. There were a ridiculously large number of proper names of people I’ve never heard of. In my opinion, this was a lazy effort on the part of the constructor. I love a good challenge, with clever wordplay, but this was no fun whatsoever.
Good Morning:
I'm always pleased to see Rich's byline as I know I'm in for a challenge, particularly with a Saturday offering. Today, Rich teased us a little with some clever cluing and rewarded us with oodles of strong, lively fill: Soda Bread, Atrocious, Like Crazy, Ida B. Wells, Paula Abdul, Hard Knocks, Get Results, Am I An Idiot, etc. Two Point 0 had me confused because, for reasons unknown, I was seeing an extra T and parsing it as Two Point To. The generous perps helped with the stumbling blocks of Ani, CK One, Zeno, CTRL P, and Ridin', but no w/os necessary. I thought the difficulty level was Saturday perfect.
Thanks, Rich, for an enjoyable and satisfying solve and for remaining in our crossword world and thanks, HG, for the dazzling array of visuals. I enjoyed the Mad Men video and would wish that today's Mad Men would take a few lessons from its message. Some of today's commercials are so ridiculous, they're insulting. Jeremy Sisto has a new role on FBI, which I have recently stopped watching because of the non-stop, loud, thumping, melodramatic and totally unnecessary background (really foreground!) music. Congrats to your lovely granddaughter and thanks for sharing the family photo. My great-nice graduated yesterday from Mass General School of Nursing.
FLN
The comments about climbing the Sydney bridge piqued this acrophobic's interest. Upon reading a detailed description of the preparations for the climb and the climb itself, I've decided that it's never going on my bucket list. π€£
Have a great day.
DNF. I went down in flames in the SE. I had DNA string before strand and could not make anything work. I've never seen the show Sideways, and probably wouldn't have known the place anyway. Also, "am I an idiot" would not come to me and the perps didn't help. I guess the answer accurately describes me today since I feel like an idiot!
The presence of so many proper names was annoying, like trying to remember how to spell Giambi. This was a far less than enjoyable puzzle and I give it an emphatic "YUK".
Took 14:59 today.
This was tale of two crossword puzzles. One without a lot of obscure names.
I didn't know the actress (Enos), the actor (Sisto), the violinist, the Polish city, today's Italian lesson (Deste), today's Latin lesson (anni), the California valley, what a Tom Swifty is or the word choice (though with BOS___ I had a good guess what the next letter was), or the soap brand.
I had uns_inted for awhile, and luckily guessed "t".
Bossily next to Ridin next to Enos next to atwt - all crossing Sisto?
That area could've used a third editor.
I remember what a great scene that Mad Men carousel scene is. Masterful writing in that episode.
I finally TITT. I counted some 19 proper names, most of which I had never seen before, so after a few passes through the grid, I decided to do something else.
The oppressive heat and humidity that had been hanging over us finally left, so this is a good morning to be outside.
Nice photo HG. Congratulations to your lovely granddaughter.
No fair! Two violinists with 3-letter names. Went with TdTIME OUTS. BZZZT. Knew ALICE saw the cat, but what about the "I"?. Artificial PLASTIC got me going in the SE. All in all a tough row to hoe for me.
Dindin is a meal, dinner is a trap. Jim Hutton in Who's minding the Mint.
Waiver.
DNF, filling 48, only getting HARassment wrong.
Today is:
DW and my 33rd wedding anniversary (she doesn't have a clue what that means)
NATIONAL DOG MOM'S DAY (adopted mom. Otherwise, this one would literally be a bitch. BTW, Westminster dog show is tomorrow and Tuesday)
NATIONAL EAT WHAT YOU WANT DAY (isn’t this any day that ends in “y”?)
NATIONAL BABYSITTER’S DAY ((crossword favorite) Ethan Hawke "dated" the babysitter after he broke up with (crossword favorite) Uma Thurman)
NATIONAL MINIATURE GOLF DAY (the first standardized minigolf course in the USA was the Thistle Dhu course, built in 1916 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. This year’s US Open will be held in Pinehurst, but not on a miniature golf course)
CORNELIA DE LANGE SYNDROME AWARENESS DAY (genetic disorder also known as Bushy Syndrome or Amsterdam dwarfism)
NATIONAL BIRTH MOTHER’S DAY (celebrates the brave women who give up their child to provide it with a better future)
NATIONAL ARCHERY DAY (improves upper body strength and mental focus, among other benefits)
STAMP OUT HUNGER FOOD DRIVE DAY (the largest one-day food drive in the nation)
NATIONAL TWILIGHT ZONE DAY (hard to believe that it was only produced for five seasons)
NATIONAL FOAM ROLLING DAY (therapy that's been called the poor man's massage)
Nice cso to tomorrow's sherpa at SUMmer DAZE.
Pretty impressive that the One L sells for $150. Assuming the book cast $10 new back in 1977, it's a pretty health return. Had that $10 been invested in the S&P 500 index in 1977, it would be worth about $500 today.
Those early PCs were cloning the "true blue" IBM PC. The best way to see whether a clone was truly IBM-equivalent was to try to run Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The worst hail I've ever seen broke the headlights out of parked cars. Windshields? Faghetaboutit.
We just had Ms. Abdul clued in the same context.
Like a dog passing a fire hydrant, Patti just had to leave her mark @ RIDIN.
Thanks to Rich for the challenge, and to H.Gary for another fun explanation.
I don't like to criticize constructors but Rich's puzzle was rich in ATROCIOUS fills and clues of proper names I'd never heard. BETTS, BOSSILY and Tom Swifty, GIAMBI, SISTO, ANI Kavatian, CKONE, SODA BREAD, YNEZ, LODZ, UNSTINTED, ENOS or 'The killing', Villa D'ESTE. Chamillionaire and DIDIN, and 'Sideways'. I did manage to finish most of the right but gave up on the left after a few wrong guesses.
Too many unknowns for this guy.
SODA salad, TWO potato, IVORY, didn't make it.
2.0-number.number. TWO POINT ZERO
2.O-number-letter. TWO POINT O
Typical Saturday with a slew of unknown proper unknowns and obscure way-out clues. (I’m always thankful there’s no Saturday theme to grok as well.) I DNF at least 1/4 of the puzzle as I ask myself the musical question “AM I AN IDIOT?” My usual summer excuse is that there are too many chores to do outside on a Saturday. (DW: “Are you done with that puzzle yet?”) π
Inkovers: FAA/TSA (always make this mistake).
Milk made out of “clapboards”, huh? The first bread type to come to mind and it fit was sourdough starting with SO but 3d hadda be DOME.
“Good drawing cry”Bingo too long. I forgot what a Tom Swifty was, (from a previous CW?)
When I was a teen guys wore a cologne called “Canoe”. I even tried it (in the puzzle) cuz it fit but was perped-out.
“π»ist Kavafian” ? ANa was wrong.
On the Disney cartoon the Cheshire Cat’s smile morphed into the crescent moon π
Other than Claus figured a female “Santa” would have a name ending in “A”…. Wrong π and then first spelt it INEZ (var: Ynes, Ynez, Ines) a Spanish/Portuguese CSO to IM ☘️Agnes
ELEM really? Not ELHI π. And do they really call Houston “H-town” ?
DW and her sister had ___ of fun visiting Poland….LODZ
7 years bad luck if you break a ____ (painting)…..MIRO
Ancient Roman play about an orphan…..ANNI
Congrats to all you word wizards that FIR. π€
This was a challenging but interesting puzzle
I had forgotten about the term "Tom Swifty" but I am also apart of a group that plays around with words and every once in awhile someone will start with one and everyone adds examples in the comments.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/tom-swifties-puns-that-turn-adverbs-into-punchlines
I remembered the movie "Sideways" but took a minute to remember how YNEZ was spelled- I knew it was a variation of the name INEZ but played with INES and ENEZ before landing on the correct spelling as I already had the NE with perps.
Another Paul Giamatti movie we recently watched was "The Holdovers" on Amazon Prime - wonderful and touching - about a motley crew of people who have to stay over on Christmas at an Massachusetts boarding school - I can see why DaVine Joy Randolph won the the Oscar and it was nominated for best picture.
I'm with HG - I have never had a starting time for work be 9 am!
One of my favorite memories of a trip to Europe as a student was going to Villa D'ESTE outside of Rome at nighttime when all the fountains were lit and it was otherwise dark except for lights along the paths
https://villae.cultura.gov.it/en/the-locations/villa-deste/#gallery-9751014/15
Thanks HG for the fun blog and to Rich for the puzzle!
We had the Northern lights last night which were amazing and supposed to repeat tonight!
Ray-O -- And do they really call Houston “H-town” ? Yes they do.
Ah thanks. So I ASSume A-town (Austin) , G-town (Galveston) and L- town (L-Paso)?
Greetings from U-town (Utica NY
π
Ray-o, it's only called A-town when the governor is in residence. (His name's Abbot. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.)
DNF. WAY above my pay grade today.
The level of unknown names was preposterous imho. As so,embody said, 19 proper names, many of them crossing. Folks, you’re taking all the fun out of these cws, to spend less time constructing them. Not a good policy fo keeping a group of solvers. I used to do the NYT Sunday puzzle and it was HARD, but ultimately still FUN. Try doing the same. Nuff said.
Ray-O, where I've lived, Los Angeles is called "Shaky City," Dallas is "Big D," Atlanta is "Big A" or "Hotlanta," and I can't find one for Norfolk. Probably should be "Naval Ring."
Big Easy, of course you are technically right. Bit everyone I know say "two dot oh," not "two point zero." Here's an interesting article about upgrading from Girlfriend 4.0 to Wife 1.0.
"Like a dog passing a fire hydrant, Patti just had to leave her mark @ RIDIN."
If that doesn't violate the "no personal attacks" rule, I don't know what would. If you can't find something constructive to say... Excessive bitterness and vitriol in the comments on a daily basis. It's sad what the blog has become.
Thank you, Rich and HG.
Three attempts totaling 37 minutes to complete it over the last 4 hours, with mind clearing activities in between. The breaks made a big diff, especially in the NW. But in the end, it was the crossing T at UNSTINTED and DESTE. Both unknown. In retrospect, the T was most likely.
Funny. After the first long break, I looked at the puzzle and had AMIAN_DI_T. W/o reading the clue, the two letters that could have fit were U and S.
Someone needs to remind constructors: DO NOT CROSS Proper Names. THEY FIW with cross of utterly unguessable ENO?/SI?TO. I did a truly WAG to fill that square correctly. However, hand up, had TD TIME OUTS.
Here my UCSB Physics mentor Virgil Elings was on the cover of SANTA YNEZ VALLEY Magazine.
Many things in this area are named for him now.
From Yesterday:
sumdaze and Irish Miss Thank you again for the bonus puzzle and solving the IRONIC mystery!
Chairman Moe Thank you for the further comments about the SYDNEY bridge. Yes, it may not have put your life in danger, but our brains don't like us climbing tall ladders. Truly a shame you lost the photos. Is there any way they might still be recovered? A good IT person at your old work place might still have a backup.
Charlie Echo Thank you for sharing your own SYDNEY experience and thank you for the kind words about my photo! Way cool that you got to see the Opera House under construction. I did the tour and it is amazing that design was ever selected. And even more amazing it was successfully constructed.
I like to like the puzzles, but I do think Rich blew it with all the sports and actors today. TWO POINT O is a stretch, as it is rarely spelled out, and it crosses BOSSILY, RIDIN, ENOS, and AT WT, all unknowns to me. Also DNK SISTO, ELVER, and GIAMBI.
The rest of it was not a problem. Usually, perps are fair. Today, not so much.
Rich, we love you -- come back with a better one! HG, congratulations on the graduation, and thanks for unraveling the mysteries. Patti, thanks as always for looking out for us.
I can’t remember fighting harder to FIR without help. So many WAGs! I finished with the PC CLONES/CTRL-P entries and the TWO POINT O/AT WT combo.
But the real reason I ultimately succeeded was that the puzzle had enough names to give me toe holds. I’m generally far more receptive to names than most Cornerites. Those I knew today were GIAMBI, BETTS, ORSON, SISTO, CAMAY, TUROW, IDA B WELLS, LODZ (with perps), BATES, ‘STRO, MAN O’ WAR, PAULA ABDUL, Santa YNEZ, WTA, and, of course, ALICE. Names I didn’t know included ENOS (despite her many appearances here), ANI, D’ESTE, CK ONE, ZENO, and, of course, Chamililionaire and the hip-hop title.
Erased “hard bricks” for HARD KNOCKS, and struggled forever next door with AM I AN IDIOT. I guess I’m not.
NOTE TO RICH: Most references I’ve ever seen to ALers, NFLers, etc., have occurred in your puzzles. In my vast experience, they are not sports page terms. But we do miss your stewardship of these puzzles, and this was an excellent Saturday puzzle, grueling though it was.
HG: Loved your mention of Billie Jean King on Law & Order. An even odder judge choice was Fran Lebowitz, and there were others as well.
“Sideways” is one of my favorite movies. I’ve even dined at the Hitching Post.
I remember LODZ from James Michener's "Poland", where an American couldn't find it on a map, because it's pronounced WOOJ due to diacritical marks - ΕΓ³dΕΊ
Nope. I started working this CW on-line, saw how many names there were, and decided not to waste my time on it. Great write-up, HG, thanx for all your time and effort.
Thank you Rich -- it's great to see you again! But today it was close but no cigar.
Thank you Husker for another great review and for showing me the error of my way.
Not fav:
27A HAIL. Misspelled this as HALE, which sent EDDIES through the closely ABUTTING cells and resulted in a DNF.
Favs:
15A TWO POINT O. Clever fill, which took advantage of the fact that O and 0 are both round.
32A CAMAY. RINSO and CHEER fit but didn't perp.
36A TUROW. We usually get "One L" as the clue. Eventually it perped in.
41S ANI. Here she performs a violin arrangement for Schubert's An di Musik ("Ode to Music") followed by an English rendition by the audience. I've never seen that before!
46A LODZ. Convinced myself that this was LINZ, a city in Austria from which Mozart's 35th symphony derives its name. I had even queued up the finale from the 4th movement. When the FILL didn't perp I changed it, but decided to keep my mistake for this comment.
6D RIDIN. Husker -- the only RAP I've ever been able to use in a review was this one from Lil' Nas X's Old Town Road.
9D DO NOT CROSS. Had to change from CRIME SCENE.
29D AM I AN IDIOT. If I answered that you wouldn't believe me.
39D WTA. King was also famous for her "Battle of the Sexes" with Bobby Riggs.
47D ZENO. My high-school math teacher told a parable about Zeno's Paradox ...
"If all the boys and all the girls in class lined up on opposite sides of the room,
And walked toward the center of the room and stopped halfway,
And then kept repeating this forever, they would never reach one another,
But eventually they would be close enough for all practical purposes."
Cheers,
Bill
p.s. to Husker -- I'm guessing your granddaughter is the one in the middle right? π
BobB @7:11 AM I thought Kavafian's first name was IDA too, but when ANI perped in I thought I was wrong. Didn't realize there were two. I believe ANI is the elder of the two.
RE STARTING TIMES. Mine were always "Zero Dark 30", as I was always commuting somewhere to get to work at whatever the official start times were.
Teri never had an official start time and she would often push it til noon. This was because she was doing batch production support, fixing COBOL programs and JCL streams. All of the jobs ran at night, so she was forever on call and never really knew how long it would take to fix a problem. She had a very understanding boss.
Puzzling thoughts:
Got about 85% of the puzzle but after 38:00 I decided to reveal the letters I couldn't get with perps or WAGS
Irish Miss @ 8:11 -- I am a bit acrophobic myself, and quite honestly I had a few concerns about doing it. But my host (the distributor I had in Sydney) had already spent a few hundred dollars for the experience so I did not chicken out. They really prepare you for the climb with the exception of the totally vertical ladders. I may have exaggerated their height (probably more like 15') but they were the most difficult part
Picard @ 12:18 -- I left that company in 2009 and took the climb in 2008. The company has since been sold to another group and I no longer have any connections with them. Good IT person or not, I fear the photos are gone but I will search for them when I go through some old work files. No worries, though ... your mind's image is all that's important
Irish Miss Thanks for your comments on the SYDNEY bridge.
Chairman Moe Thanks for your further comments on the SYDNEY bridge experience. Yes, I would imagine you were committed when it came time to face it. 15' is a lot, but 25' would be past my comfort limit.
Good if you can do some searching. I have to think that any business operating after 2009 would keep files it obtained in a purchase. It costs almost nothing to store them.
I get your point about your mind's image. The problem is being able to share that image. I have a hiking friend who had some of the most unique travel photos I have ever seen. It was not just the places she went. It was the people she met and the things she did.
Her apartment building was destroyed in a massive regional fire a few years ago and she lost everything. I was more upset about the loss of her photos than she was. As you say, she still had the mental images.
What unclefred said.
IM@8:11. I also dislike heights but they basically handcuff you to the bridge for the entire experience. It's really safe. I did the climb on 12/30/2009. What makes that special is each New Year's Eve Sydney does a fireworks show and, as part of the show they light up an image on the bridge. They keep it covered so it's a big surprise. However, those doing the climb can see behind the tarp for an early reveal. It was a yin-yang, IIRC.
Jinx@9:55. Happy anniversary! At least you can celebrate your memories.
inanehiker@10:21. Thanks for the added info. on Tom Swiftly. I was thinking, "Did he write for Rolling Stone?" Also, ditto on The Holdovers.
Thanks to Rich and H-Gary for their Saturday offerings! That Mad Men scene was by far my fav today. Also, nice family pic!
Moe and sumdaze, despite your valiant efforts to minimize the concerns and maximize the rewards, I'll stick to Terra firma, thank you very much. Even some of Picard's more adventurous photos make my stomach do flip-flops! Add me to The Holdovers fan club! Or The Leftovers as my girlfriend referred to it! π€£
Hola!
Saturday slog! I, too, took my time and interrupted my solve to do other things though I don't have to cook tonight. I'm going to my daughter's home to celebrate her 47th birthday + Mothers' Day.
As is usual on Saturday I skipped around and filled what jumped out at me; the eastern bloc filled almost immediately though ELVER took a while to recall. We've seen that little eel before and MIRO very recently.
Then I recalled WELLS but could not remember the IDA B part; Google to the rescue. Sci FX means nothing to me!
Prize for the most obscure clue of the day goes to CTRL P. Prize for the clearest clue and what started me on this odyssey: PAULA ABDUL.
I hope your Saturday has been amazingly wonderful, everyone! I have such vivid memories of this day 47 years ago!
Thank you, Gary. Nice photo of you and your family. Congratulations to your granddaughter!
The proper nouns did for me today.
I guessed Giambo rather than Giambi. That gave me "knot caps" - not an impossible answer to "beanies". :-(
I also had Sisko for Sisto. That gave me "atwk" which didn't look like anything, but then again, abbreviations often don't.
As an aside: Do chemists use At as an abbreviation for Atomic? It is also the chemical symbol for Astatine.
DNF - Too many unknowns fo me but I really liked seeing ATROCIOUS, AM I AN IDIOT, TV TIME OUTS, and LIKE CRAZY. Say no/LET GO, Syr/LEB, boss man/BOSSILY, tamp down.RAMP DOWN.
A true MAD MEN story from the 50’s.. I don’t know if TV management spends promotion money this way anymore, but once a station I worked for chartered a plane at LaGuardia Airport and flew 50 MAD MEN (of course no women!) from major Ad. agencies in NYC to the Capital Region for the day to encourage them to buy commercial time on our station. Back then “talent” was often asked to do other jobs, so several of us flew on the plane as flight attendants and served breakfast to the men. We poured more scotch and GIN at 11a.m than coffee. Once in Albany, we were bused to Saratoga for a day at the races, back to a country club for dinner, and then our guests were poured on to the plane to return to NYC. The TV show got a lot of things right.
HG - Lovely family, beautiful granddaughter.
I could not solve this puzzle.
Hi All!
WEES - too many names. So, I filled what I could and let HG finish the rest for me ;-)
Thanks Rich & Thanks HG.
I did know Chamillonaire's RIDIN' 'cuz Weird Al parodied it as White and Nerdy.
As a consultant, I usually set my hours around traffic patterns. I'd set my on-site meetings for 10a -> 3p and get back to walk the kids home from school. At my "new" gig, I go into the office T,W,Th and it's 7a -> 7p to avoid traffic.
D-O: LOL!!! @10:45a.
Hope everyone had a great day. And Happy Mother's Day for all the Moms out there.
Cheers, -T
okay OKAYYY…we got it the first three times.
π€¬
π€£ππ½
awww c’MON, Rich — really?? This puzzle was, even for a Saturday, ATROCIOUS!! Were you trying for a new world record on “proper names in a crossword”? I’m almost never a TIIT kinda player, but this one took me to the brink. The only saving grace was some clever clueing (“miner concern”, “current subject”) but that wasn’t enough to save this from being a bum trip. Sorry, dude, but no cee-gar today, even though it was nice to see you turn up here again. π
====> Darren / L.A.
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