Saturday Themeless by Rich Norris
Across
1. Hustle: MAKE TRACKS.
11. Back in the day: ONCE.
15. Be fashionable, in a way: ARRIVE LATE - Who came up with the idea that this is fashionable and not rude?
16. Rock, paper, or scissors: NOUN - A meta clue, not a game that is also called Roshambo 😀
17. Planter's purchase: SEED PACKET - A sure sign of late winter/early spring
18. Defense mechanism: FORT - No one died in the bombardment of this FORT. However, one Union soldier died firing a ceremonial salute as they evacuated.
16. Rock, paper, or scissors: NOUN - A meta clue, not a game that is also called Roshambo 😀
17. Planter's purchase: SEED PACKET - A sure sign of late winter/early spring
18. Defense mechanism: FORT - No one died in the bombardment of this FORT. However, one Union soldier died firing a ceremonial salute as they evacuated.
19. Web ending: CAM.
20. Online service since April 1, 2004: G-MAIL - I've used this service for 20 years
21. Asleep, say: IDLE.
22. Woodstock performer between Melanie and Joan: ARLO - They're all on this poster, just not in that order
24. Chemistry suffix: ENE - One of many possibilities
25. Earn: PULL IN - "Take in" and "Rake in" suffered deletion
27. No longer usable: RUINED - Sumter was RUINED and never reused and is now a historical site. I toured it on an incredibly cold March day in Charleston Harbor.
29. Event for day traders?: SWAP MEET - A SWAP MEET at Orange County College
31. __ Dei: AGNUS.
32. Even slightly: AT ALL.
33. Beats Electronics co-founder: DRE - Dr. DRE sold his company to Apple for $3B
34. Classic CIA-vs.-KGB spoof: SPYS.
36. Some 1990s GM subcompacts: GEOS.
38. Continent with aardvarks: Abbr.: AFR.
41. Stand rituals: OATHS - Perry closes in on the witness who is on the stand
43. Gulf of Guinea capital: ACCRA - It is a day trip along the Gulf Of Guinea from ACCRA to the Cape Coast Castle which was a big part of the slave trade.
47. Words of gratitude: BLESS YOU.
49. Really relished: ADORED.
50. Barrel racing events: RODEOS - Barrel racing events are not RODEOS, they are an event IN a RODEO.
 |
| Our small school has five girl barrel racers |
51. "Crocodile Rock" label: MCA.
53. __ of Maine: TOMS - I've never seen this label on shelves around here
55. "WarGames" org.: NORAD.
57. Santa __ winds: ANA - a few weeks ago we had 33. Ortiz of "Love, Victor": ANA 🙄
58. Word with lots and straws: DRAW.
59. Fallible one: MERE MORTAL.
61. Inverse of nano-: GIGA Nano = 10-9 and Giga = 109
62. Convenience one can bank on, familiarly: ATM MACHINE - Just outside a casino area. Hmmm...
63. Website for artisans: ETSY.
64. Spots that rarely offer good views: CHEAP SEATS.
Down:
1. L'Oreal product: MASCARA.
2. Provider of partial coverage?: AREA RUG.
3. Russian government metonym: KREMLIN
4. Fast break for millions: EID 😀 The end of the month-long fast of Ramadan
5. Letters to alert moms and dads: TV PG.
6. Bawled (out): REAMED.
7. Highway through Whitehorse: AL CAN.
8. Most thick, as cosmetics: CAKIEST 🙄
9. "Power Hits" series record co.: K-TEL - Crocodile Rock (51 Across) made it onto this K-TEL Album
10. Three of a kind, say: SET - Three of a kind in poker is called a SET
11. Like most older movies: ON FILM.
12. Improvised: NOODLED - Noodling is the musical equivalent of doodling. It is mostly uninspired, and lacking in direction or inspiration, but on occasion the result is beautiful and meaningful.
13. Even less straight: CURLIER - Curvier went in first but...
14. Informal alliance: ENTENTE - WWI
23. "Drinks are __": ON US - Yesterday, I got charged $2.00 for a glass of water in a bar
25. Faint: PALE.
26. Data transfer: UPLOAD.
28. Married hombre: ESPOSO.
30. Source of tail winds?: WAGS 😀
32. Regarding: AS TO.
35. Celebratory chorus: YAYS.
37. Macbeth, for one: SCOT - Shakespeare's Macbeth is not an historically accurate play about this actual monarch
38. Shorten: ABRIDGE.
39. Gas use exhortation?: FLOOR IT 😀
40. Discount showers: RED TAGS - Here, showers rhymes with mowers not towers
42. Request to a skeptic: HUMOR ME.
44. Dalmatian's home: CROATIA - Ancestral home to two and four-legged Dalmationas
45. Leftover: REMNANT.
46. Product promotion vehicle: AD SALES.
48. Inland passage: SEAWAY.
49. Traveler's aid: AAA MAP - I don't have to fold up my GPS app.
52. Rajas topping: CREMA - Rajas (strips) Poblanos (peppers) topped with CREMA (a cream sauce)
55. First country to legalize same-sex marriage: Abbr.: NETH.
56. Medics: DOCS.
59. Jake and Amy's baby, on "Brooklyn Nine-Nine": MAC. - Of all the MAC's in all the world, Rich or Patti chose this one.
60. MLB scoreboard heading: RHE - Don Larsen's perfect World Series game in 1956.
34 comments:
Well, that was a work out! Of course, the older movies are “on film” but it took me ages to get that. And I didn’t think “esposo” looked right, but that’s what the perps demanded. Anyway, after BST* I managed to solve this challenging puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
*I suggest a new “Corner” acronym:
Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
Good morning!
I was surprised to see Rich's byline so soon after his last appearance. I miss the Saturday offerings from back in the day when Rich was editing the crossword. D-o found lots of ways to go wrong on this one. Hand up for CURvIER. Tried IN MONO (on film), EMI (MCA), and THANK (bless). Had no idea about TOM'S of Maine, but I'll take a CSO anyway. ATM MACHINE belongs up there with La Brea Tar Pits. Thanx for the Saturday stumper, Rich, and for leading us through the grid, Husker.
THAT was an excellent crossword puzzle.
FIW, missing SEED PACKEr x SEr. Still had a lot of fun.
I think "fashionable late" started with A Listers. "Oh I have so many events pulling on me, and I got here just as soon as I could." Morphed into "if I come late, everyone will think I'm a social butterfly." But as usual, I could be way off base.
Never saw SPYS. Now it's on my list of catch-up flicks when my situation changes.
I REALLY wanted "State" of Maine, from The Hotel New Hampshire.
Like D-O, I think I need to stop by the ATM MACHINE so that I can pay the tooth dentist.
I knew Whitehorse from watching Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet. Then it was a short hop to ALCAN.
If you buy the drinks, you have the ONUS to ensure all who partake are of age.
My first thought for "source of tail winds" was "beans," but it was too long.
I thought the clue for AD SALES could have been better. I think "AD buys" fits the clue better. Maybe "Mad man revenue source" would be better? Copy Editor, please opine.
FLN: Michael, are you a dentist in Ventura?
Thanks to Lila Cherry for the fun grid that even I could complete. I completed it wrong, but I completed it. And thanks to H.Gary for another fun review. They are even better on the rare Saturday when I actually finish the puzzle.
FIR. I got hung up in two places: old movies are on film, of course. Doh! And I wanted com for a web ending. My mind thinks internet I guess.
Although this was a typical Saturday struggle and workout, I muddled through and made it happen.
Overall a very enjoyable puzzle despite the sweat I had to put into it. It was a fun solve!
A very fine creation from our former editor, nice to see that Rich hasn’t retired from constructing (I wonder how much editing Patti needs to do on one of his puzzles). Typical Saturday for me, whereas after 20 minutes I was still looking at a sea of white, thinking I may be headed for the dreaded FIW or the much worse TITT, but after some corrections I got the congratulatory message in 41:34. Had to change CLEveland to Runs, Hits, Errors, On me to ON US, thank to BLESS, and my last fill, change the V to an L in IDLE, where I like others initially had curvier and not CURLIER. Id’ve is a correct contraction but I couldn’t relate it to sleep 🤷♂️. MACHINE is a definite redundancy. Thanks Rich for a very satisfying, enjoyable solve!
HG ~ thank you for tasking yourself with reviewing the hardest (usually) puzzle of the week, always an education when you take the reins (very fitting). I now know what a metonym is. Also, a SET may be good in poker, but it’s bad in Euchre and some other card games.
This was a typical P&P Saturday workout with some fresh fill
I had com before CAM for the web
As a first fill, for fallible one I had human being
I had to tag along with my grandma to many a SWAP MEET or flea market on a Saturday as a elementary kid. She was quite the wheeler dealer.
We had a GEO Prizm for many years with our young growing family. Back then a carseat wasn't needed after 4 years old, so we used it even with 3 kids.
Thanks HG for the fun blog and Rich for the puzzle!
Same sex marriage, my research came up with a different answer but didn't fit the grid.
Denmark was the first country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage in 1989, when it passed a law called a "registered partnership" that gave same-sex couples the same legal rights as married couples. In 2012, Denmark replaced the registered partnership law with a gender-neutral marriage law that came into effect on June 15, 2012. The new law also allowed same-sex couples to get married in the Church of Denmark, with each member of the clergy able to decide whether to perform the ceremony.
Took 27:06 today, but I got it, so like our pace setter in the pole position, I'm happy.
I had many of the same missteps as those posting earlier than me: curvier, thank you, and in mono.
Quite a few unknowns, including these Toms.
D-O and Jinx, be sure to enter your PIN Number in the ATM Machine on the way to the department of redundancy department.
Good Morning:
It too me 1:15:26 of Subgenius's BST to finish w/o help, and the BST was accompanied by a healthy dose of IS (Irish Stubbornness! Rich's puzzles are usually difficult but doable, but I had my doubts about this one early on, when the grid was a sea of white after the first pass. The cluing was brilliant and the fill was super fresh and lively which, in turn, challenged the solver to come up with one of many right answers, practically at every entry. For example, who would, at first glance and without any perps, come up with Fort as an answer to Defense Mechanism, or Noodled for Improvised? The grid was loaded with such variables. Esposo was the only true unknown, although K-Tel, Gmail, MCA, and baby Mac needed perps, and corrections were needed for Mega/Giga, Com/Cam, RCA/MCA, and On Me/On Us.
Thanks, Rich, for a true Saturday stumper and for your continued presence in our solving sphere and thanks, HG, for your continued presence as our dedicated and much appreciated Saturday Sherpa! Loved the wagging tail pup, the four-legged Dalmatian, and the nostalgic reminder of Don Larsen's singular World Series feat.
I watched a Netflix movie last night titled The Beautiful Game, which is about the Homeless World Cup Championship games, an actual event, unbeknownst to me previously. It stars Bill Nighy and is worth watching, especially if you enjoyed Ted Lasso. Two other movies I stumbled on by accident and enjoyed are Mend The Line with Brian Cox and Forgotten Love, a Polish film but dubbed in English. If you have the patience to wade though the vast offerings on these streaming outlets, you can find some hidden gems.
Have a great day.
Gave up on yesterday's CW due to the number of unknown names. Gave up on today's CW because it's just beyond my abilities. The last straw was when "Beans" didn't fit for "Source of tailwinds?". Waiting for Monday.
Loved finishing a Saturday relatively early! I too went with curvier for a long time until near the end when I figured if there could be a detente, there must be an entente! Which of course led to fort and idle.
If I’m not mistaken, the AlCan highway was early on jokingly referred to as the Oil Can highway as the Army Corps of Engineers left empty oil drums (gas drums?) all along the side of the road as they built it…? Vague memory. Never knew about Dalmatians! Or Esposo. Fun today.
FIW by one square! I put EsE for the chemistry suffix, which gave me ALCAs for the highway. I should have figured that one out, but I didn't. Bzzzt!
This puzzle was tough, with quite a few unknowns, including SPYS, MCA, KTEL, rajas con CREMA (looks good), the first country to legalize same-sex marriage, and Jake and Amy's baby.
Jinx at 7:26 is right (IMO) about AD SALES not fitting the clue. A product promotion would be an ad buy.
Still a good experience today! Thanks for the reminder that although I often FIR, I am a MERE MORTAL. BLESS YOU, Rich, Patti, Husker Gary, and Cornerites all!
Rich’s puzzle wasn’t easy, but the solving certainly never reached the level of frustration some Saturday puzzles inflict. I plugged away and got ’er done.
As I solved, I thought people who like puzzles with terms from dictionaries, rather than encyclopedias, would like this one, but there were plenty of names and places, like S*P*Y*S, ACCRA, CROATIA, ARLO, AGNUS, and ALCAN, most of which I knew immediately. I figured the fast break clue had something to do with Ramadan, but I needed perps for EID.
My WAGs apparently weren’t too wild. When I saw the thick cosmetics entry would end in “est,” CAKIEST was my first guess. Ditto for AAA MAP. ABRIDGE took a while, though. I know a lot of MACs, but didn’t know the baby. I also needed perps for RHE, which I understood but found to be a bit too much “inside baseball” for most people.
There weren’t many of the dreaded paraphrases in quotes. Rich neatly avoided that issue with his “gas use exhortation” clue, and also with the HUMOR ME clue. Others should take note.
Thanks for the explanations, H.G., even though you threw in Fort Sumter, the subject of my long-ago Jeopardy downfall.
ADDENDA: My wife likes the TOM'S of Maine products. She gets them at Trader Joe’s. . . .I was pretty sure MCA was Elton John’s label. “Crocodile Rock” is one of my karaoke staples. I can take it or leave it, but crowds love it.
When scheduling last Thursday's review I happened to notice that Rich Norris was the constructor for today's puzzle, and it was on a Saturday. Not in my wildest dreams did I expect to get a FIR today. Thank you Rich! And I'll borrow a tip from Subgenius -- it took a lot of BST and about 5 rounds of circumnavigation!
And thank you Husker for another fine review and for confirming that I wasn't dreaming.
A few favs:
16A NOUN. Rich didn't fool me.
18A FORT. But he almost got me with this one -- one of the downsides of having a BA in Psych.
19A CAM. I guess they were keeping an eye on it to stop it from boiling -- it'd ruin the coffee's flavor.
22A ARLO. The name that was missing from that list was Joni Mitchell, who got stuck in traffic and didn't get a chance to perform. But she later she made the the event famous with this song.
31A AGNUS. Latin for Irish Miss!
38A AFR. I started with AUS, which worked with 38D ABRIDGE, but the rest of the letters didn't perp.
53A TOMS. I perped this but didn't know what it was -- Teri told me it was a type of toothpaste.
39A FLOOR IT. Cleverest clue.
52D CREMA. Looks delicious. I just found this recipe.
55D NETH. SWED->NORW->NETH.
59D MAC. Yeah, that was definitely the last to fill.
Cheers,
Bill
p.s. to IM -- we really love Bill Nighy! Some of our favorites are A Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Living, The Bookshop, and a cameo in the best ever episode of Dr. Who -- Vincent and the Doctor -- for a small fee you can stream the whole episode on Prime.
Quite a challenge for me. Hand up stuck with CURVIER. Had no idea where is WHITEHORSE, so I tried things like EIGHTY and US TEN. Reluctantly forced by perps to get mysterious ALCAN. No idea about RAJAS who are not from India. Misspelled AGNES hence mysterious ONES instead of ONUS. That one square FIW.
I am glad that others were peeved about ATM MACHINE. That easily could have been clued as:
"Convenience one can bank on, redundantly"
Is Patti really so clueless? Pun intended.
Here I recently went hiking with SKEPTIC Magazine publisher Michael Shermer.
Is anyone else here familiar with SKEPTIC Magazine and/or Shermer? He has one of the most interesting and educational podcasts around now: https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/
He used to be fairly conservative and libertarian, but now I value that he stands outside any political category. I also appreciate that he takes donations for his podcast and they are free. I recommend checking them out.
From Yesterday:
sumdaze Yes, we totally hiked up to Fushimi Inari shrine What was most interesting was the path up there with all of the hundreds of red torii gates. It is amusing how people pay for erecting them to buy good luck. I am a SKEPTIC.
Excellent puzzle by Rich. I too wonder how much editing Patti does to his puzzles. Yes, I too started with curvier but knew that wasn't going to work. Getting ready to face a week that promises to be only hotter and more humid every day. Ugh
A Goldilocks Saturday - tough but doable.
BTW Joni Mitchell wasn't stuck in traffic. Her manager decided an appearance on Dick Cavett the following Monday would be better for her career. Turns out she could've done both as she was joined on the talk show by CSN and the Jefferson Airplane, both of whom performed over the weekend. (I just accidentally typed "weedend" LOL)
This is my favorite puzzle ever, that I couldn’t complete without help from Google. So I’ll say FWH - finished with help. Still, the clues were so excellent that I didn’t feel frustrated to have to look up a few proper names/terms in order to get going again.
Learning moments too - METONYM is one I hope I can remember.
Thank you so much. Rich, for demonstrating what a crossword puzzle should be.
Thanks HG for always providing one of the best things about Saturday’s Corner. I’m not a dog person, but if that adorable little wagging face had looked up at me, I could not have resisted him/her. I always love hearing Joni Mitchell too.
Gary, I enjoyed everything about the recap. . . except the very end. This long time Los Angeleno and son of a Brooklynite definitely can do without any reference to Don Larson.
Beautiful grid! Thanks, Rich and Gary!
MalMan @ 1:38 ~ I chuckled at the stark contrast of our respective comments to HG about you-know-who! ⚾️
"June is bustin' out all over." Behold the Ides of June!
Welp, when I saw that Rich was the constructor, I anticipated the puzzle would be hard. It was. I don't know how much of the cluing was his or the editor's but several of them seemed stretched pretty thin. Maybe I'll list the ones I feel that way about in a subsequent posting, but first I am now going to read Gary's review and all your comments.
I.M at 2:10 😁
Planter’s purchase sack of peanuts didn’t work 🥜 ….rain or plain of Maine? No that’s Spain 😁
Had F _ RT for defense mechanism. One letter missing. But no. It can’t be that 😳, but it would work right? 😁 (continued past the letter A on my vowel run and stopped at O for the win)
“Fallible one” not the pope wouldn’t work and effs: “letters to alert Moms and Dads” didn’t pan out either. awning for provider of partial coverage a no go as well. And Jimi didn’t perform between Melanie and Joan
Sometimes we say the “Agnus Dei” in English sometimes Latin: Father Tom likes to keep us guessing
Thus a not uncommon Saturday disaster. At camp till tomorrow but too cold to do much on the lake so instead decided to get frustrated after a half hour trial with only a half filled LAT Saturday puzzle
😲
Well, I'm a MERE MORTAL so it takes me a while to finish a challenging, if delightful, Saturday puzzle. That's why I ARRIVE LATE here today, and without much of a SEED PACKET of comments. At least I don't have to go to the ATM MACHINE to get help with Saturday puzzles. And this one didn't even trigger any OATHS from me, so no RED TAGS and nothing was RUINED. And when you do puzzles at home, you also don't have to pay for CHEAP SEATS. Well, time to CURL up on that AREA RUG on my couch, and UPLOAD some more puzzles.
Have a great weekend, Rich, and loved all your pictures, Gary--thanks for those too.
Hola!
Although I finished the puzzle it is brightly lit with wite-out in a few places. I wanted MAKE HASTE but no, too short so waited until I had a bit more fill.
I did not know the exact date G-MAIL started so that is a learning moment for me and not an April Fools joke.
ESPOSO was my first fill as it always is when it's Spanish.
Shopping at ETSY can yield some really unique items.
DOCS can be confusing as it might be DOCuments as well as DOCtors.
I've never seen Brooklyn Nine-Nine so MAC was unknown, many thanks to perps.
ROMANIA gave way to CROATIA. That is another learning moment as is the NETHerlands event.
Thanks to Rich and Gary for this entertaining grid.
I hope, everyone, wherever you are that it's cool and free from flooding.
Dear IM, no one should have to because a FORT isn't a mechanism. Defensive position I will give you, but not mechanism. Machines are mechanisms. Processes are mechanisms. FORTS are neither. They are used for defense but aren't mechanisms. Bad clue.
This was a tough bur extremely fair grid. (Except as noted to IM@9 :24 above)
5hrew in MAKETRACKS when isaw 9D was KTEL. That let me complete most of the left half of the puzzle. The right half way tougher to obtain a toehold. Replacing inre with ASTO got me ATALL and so on. The only way I got FORT was with perps. Best clue/answer of the day was Fallible one/MEREMORTAL. No need to specify Worst.
Being a math major, inverse of nano/GIGA was a gimme. ONFILM was another great fill.
Bury me not on the lone prairie. It's COLD out there!
Biblical.
Wasseley @5:03, Yes, with perps as I mentioned above and to IM. I get your meaning but that is spelled with an "A".
Lee @5:08 PM I believe you're thinking of Ray - O who implied that. 😀 I think that 'Defensive mechanism?" would have made a bad pun -- the ? could imply the means by which something comes about, in this case the defense of those within it. I admit, it's a stretch. The fact that it was only 4 letters certainly made it easy to perp.
Thanks, Rich, for your tough but enjoyable puzzle! I'm happy to have filled the grid today -- not error-free, but filled nonetheless. Show-er, not shower! Good one! I also liked the clue for DRAW.
I knew Jake named his baby after the Die Hard guy but I couldn't remember the Die Hard guy's name. John McClane. (Bruce Willis movie)
K-Tel was in the punchbowl.
Thanks to H-Gary for another excellent tour! FAV: learning about "metonyms".
Jinx @ 7:26 -- I m retired, in Albany ... Oregon ... but remain, El Gringissimo.
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