Themeless Saturday by Lance Enfinger and Bob Weisz
I had an enjoyable Lance and Bob co-construction a month ago and I had a fun solve again despite obscure names.
The top four lines filled very quickly especially the 10-letter cells. I had a pleasant struggle in the 3 o'clock position where SPED was wrong for race and I had to suss SALT from the clue of "cure". 😀
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Lance is a pharmacist who moved to Mint Hill, NC, so his family could be closer to nature, hiking, and adventure. He helps his amazing wife homeschool his three kids.
Across:
1. Tool for someone with attachment issues: HOT GLUE GUN - It feels good to semi-confidently fill in 1 Across
11. Pros who work according to schedule😀?: CPAS.
15. "I haven't even gotten to the good part": THERE'S MORE.
16. Spot to 14-Down: RINK and 14. Skim the surface?: SKATE 😀
17. Part of a full count: THREE BALLS.
18. Pond plant: ALGA.
19. Long: PINE 😀 My good friend is from Long Pine, NE
20. Message with a slammed door: AND STAY OUT 😖
22. Jack of "Twin Peaks": NANCE.
24. Fourth-highest mountain on Earth: LHOTSE.
25. Cold one: BREWSKI 😀
28. Person in labor: PEON.
29. "Queen of the Blues" Washington: DINAH - 40 seconds of rare footage of this wonderful performer
30. Foil a foil: PARRY 😀 A successful thrust and an unsuccessful PARRY
32. COINTELPRO org.: FBI - COunter INTELigence PROgram
35. Exact location, slangily: ADDY.
36. Yankee great who wore No. 9: MARIS - #9 Roger Maris hits his famous #61 home run in 1961 and is greeted at home plate by #7 Mickey Mantle
38. "Definitely": YES.
39. Ashtray array: BUTTS - Yuk!
40. Change for a 20: FIVES.
41. Sassiness, informally: TUDE.
42. Infamous fly eater?: OLD LADY - I remember singing this song
44. "Stand strong": BE FIRM.
47. Weasel: SNEAK - This man was a SNEAK at Los Alamos, NM during while working on The Manhattan Project. He shared atomic bomb secrets with the Soviet Union.
48. Serious violation: ILLEGAL ACT.
50. Title of respect: MAAM.
54. Useless, batterywise: DEAD - Been there, done that
54. Useless, batterywise: DEAD - Been there, done that
55. Lot lot: SALES FORCE 😀
57. Like challah: EGGY.
58. Solved crosswords in a waiting room, say: KILLED TIME.
59. CNBC topic: NYSE.
60. Publisher's guideline: STYLE SHEET - Sample
Down:
1. Intro to web programming: HTTP.
3. Arctic __: bird that flies between poles: TERN.
4. New York's High Line or Boston's Emerald Necklace: GREEN WAY.
5. Film producer Daniels: LEE.
6. Wells Fargo rival: US BANK.
7. Free: EMANCIPATE - These child actors EMANCIPATED themselves from their parents as teenagers
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| McCauley Drew Ariel Calkin Barrymore Winter |
8. Half of a "Do You Love Me?" duo: GOLDE - GOLDE and Tevye's famous duet from Fiddler On The Roof.
9. Many search results: URLS - Here is the URL for last month's collaboration of these two gentlemen:
https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2024/06/saturday-june-1-2024-lance-enfinger-bob.html#google_vignette
10. Big and little spoon, say: NESTLERS.
10. Big and little spoon, say: NESTLERS.
11. Drawer in a box: CRAYON 😀
12. Spirit guide?: PILOT 😀 Here a Spirit Airline PILOT greets a passenger
13. Cattle breed: ANGUS - Here are some in a feed LOT in Wisner, NE
21. Bridge call: AHOY - Is that what the captain is saying?
23. Incinerator residue: ASH.
25. NYE, for Psy: BDAY - The Korean Rapper was born on New Year's Eve 1977
26. Badger: RIDE.
27. Stops: ENDS.
28. Sentence structure: PRISON CELL 😀 - A wax figure of Al Capone in his actual PRISON CELL on Alcatraz.
31. "The only way to run away without leaving home," per Twyla Tharp: ART.
32. __ bean: FAVA - _ _ _ A was not LIMA, uh, eventually
33. Ran: BLED - _ _ E D was not SPED, uh, eventually
34. Wee: ITSY.
36. Dirty looks from a spa attendant: MUD MASKS 😀
37. Creature domesticated in China more than 5,000 years ago: SILK MOTH.
39. Small town: BURG.
40. Org. concerned with recalls: FDA - The Food and Drug Administration issued a Class 1 (most serious) recall of my CPAP machine two years ago and I got a replacement.
41. It's bound to change colors: TIE DYE.
43. Reveal: LET SEE.
44. Leader from Scranton: BIDEN.
45. Parting words: ELEGY - I know I read this in H.S. but I hope there won't be a quiz.
46. Standards: FLAGS.
47. Oscar nominee Hawkins: SALLY.
49. Café au __: LAIT.
51. "Voyage to India" Grammy winner: ARIE.
52. High point: ACME.
53. Converge: MEET.
56. Hook-and-ladder cos.: FDS - Kramer on a hook-and-ladder
30 comments:
I’ve never seen “Addy” as slang for “address” and I never heard of “Lhotse” mountain but somehow, through P&P, I managed to solve this very “sneaky” puzzle. So, for the first time in a while on a Saturday, I can say, FIR, so I’m happy.
Mark it down. It is now the 21st century, and Jinx FIRed a Saturday LAT puzzle. Must have been a very easy one. Erased cia for FBI, stoat for SNEAK, pass for AHOY, fled for BLED, and see ya for ELEGY.
Well, my previous attempts at a Lance Armstrong joke landed flat, so I'll pass on THREE BALLS.
The FBI staff had to clean up after Director Wray incorrectly opined under oath Wednesday that maybe Trump didn't get hit by a bullet.
There are so many laws on the books that it is hard to go through a routine day without committing an ILLEGAL ACT. Hopefully most of the time the ACT isn't a serious violation.
I thought that maybe Lenin (McCarthy wouldn't fit) co-wrote Do You Love Me, but the song I was thinking of was written by Berry Gordy Jr.
"The only way to run away without leaving home" couldn't be [crossword favorite] LSD.
Thanks to Lance and Bob for a Saturday special that even my dumb mass could solve. And thanks to H.Gary for the fun review.
FIW. Stupid mistake putting down Goldy instead of Golde. Didn't know the actor so Nancy seemed logical.
I too threw down lima before fava and quickly corrected when fives appeared.
There were lots of clever clues, and a lot of learning moments for me. Didn't know Lhotse, unfamiliar with addy, and tude was a mystery.
But overall, this was an enjoyable puzzle.
Thoughts.?
(Well, you asked...)
Very sorry to hear about Tinbeni, he will be missed. Thank you for tracking down his obit.
Saturday puzzles are usually above my pay grade, and I get no enjoyment out of being stumped.
So, if I do (as this puzzle mentioned) want to "kill some time," and still have fun, I do this:
Many have complained about all the names sucking the fun out of it. May I suggest what I did on this puzzle. I do all the acrosses, then all the downs, then go back and hit reveal for every name I would "never, ever" know. This left me with a doable puzzle that revealed quite a few enjoyable misleading clues I would have never seen otherwise.
Unfortunately,
Based on HG's last comic concluding the write up, I am going to hell...
(At least I had some fun along the way...)
Which reminds me,
I should add to my will,
"Pls alert the crossword blog I am gone."
Which makes me wonder,
"What would you all say about me?
P.s.
If it's slang I never ever heard of, I would hit reveal for that too...
Addy???
Oh, soooo close! I spelled BURG with an E then couldn't make anything out of TEDE [TUDE]. Grr. Especially after correctly figuring out the unknown mountain. I knew K2 followed Everest, then...? K3 and K4? LOL
My favorite clues were the colorful ones for CRAYON & TIE DYE. Hardest probably was Ran = BLED. All in all a nice challenging Saturday, even though I FIW.
From Last Night:
Darren Thanks for the validation about the crossed proper names. It happened again today with GOLD?/NANC?. Did WAG that for FIR. This puzzle seemed very difficult for me.
MUD MASKS was hard to get, but when I got it I agreed it was clever. Our Jewish Community Center left CHALLAH on our doorstep during COVID. Others needed it more than we did, but it was a sweet gesture.
COINTELPRO was part of a very dark era of dirty deeds against ordinary citizens who did nothing ILLEGAL.
Here I was up close and very personal with TWYLA THARP in 2015.
I think I had VIP access for this event.
For me, this CW was a mixture of clever clues like SKATE and RINK, and PRISON CELL, totally unknown names, and there were several, in fact the only one I knew was DINAH, classics like EMANCIPATE, and unfair like ADDY, and the worst one like BDAY, a combination of abbreviation, slang, and pop culture name.
In spite of all this, I kinda FIR, kinda since I looked up a couple of these unknown names like LHOTSE.
Thank you so much HG for a fine review.
Tough Saturday. I thought this an enjoyable puzzle with some clever misdirection, but alas...it was above my pay grade, as is the case for most Saturdays. The Southeast corner did me in. Hmmm, perhaps I'll give the CED method a shot on the next cross-name outing!
That was satisfying! The puzzle seemed impossible for a couple of minutes, but I was able to find some toe-holds. DINAH Washington and Roger MARIS were gimmes. So was the OLD LADY who swallowed a fly. Facebook reminded me only a couple of days ago that I inadvertently swallowed a fly while hiking in local redwoods about 10 years ago, and of course that song got mentioned.
Other likes: PARRY, the “sentence structure” clue, GREENWAY, and SILK MOTH.
Dislikes: The BDAY/ADDY natick, the HTML/HTTP quandary, the clunky LET SEE, and the clue for TIE-DYE, along with some of impediments mentioned below.
THREE BALLS and EMANCIPATE gave me traction in the NW. BIDEN and EGGY challah paved the way in the SW. I conquered the NE after realizing the “bridge call” was AHOY, not “pass.” Only then did I remember LHOTSE, which hardly anyone would know off the top of their head. I also had “lima” before FAVA.
Had to wait for perps to pick GOLDE over Tevye. I played Perchik, the radical student who marries No. 2 daughter Hodel, in an early amateur production. Perchik had a song in the musical that wasn’t included in the movie and also is no longer in the musical. I was pre-cast only because of the song, so . . .
The SE fell last despite another entry that elicited something else I’d thought of recently, wondering about our “style” on MEEMAW. I’m used to stylebooks rather than STYLE SHEETs, though.
Something I thought of yesterday would have improved the Jack NANCE entry. I was thinking about how impossible it is for a vice president’s tenure to impress anyone and recalled that John NANCE Garner said the office was “not worth a pitcher of warm spit.” Except he mentioned a different liquid.
Well after a half hour yielded only about 50% fill I figured I may be headed for the dreaded FIW (or the worse DNF). Not one to TITT I slogged along for another 15 minutes and had the grid filled, but no congratulatory message, so I pored over the puzzle with a couple walkaways and corrected my mistakes for a FIR in a half marathon time of 1:07:51. Changed fled to BLED, berg to BURG, then jumbled around some letters to finally come up with right combo for PARRY, NESTLERS and LHOTSE (never heard of that mountain and the spelling seemed so off, LH to start a word?? The “E” in GOLDE/NANCE was a WAG. MARIS was the only name I knew (he had one great year in 1961, but a whole slew of Yankees had greater career stats. Ektorp of the day was ARIE. Thought GREEN WAY was a reference to commuter trains as I know Boston has the GREEN Line 🤷♂️. Worst clue of the week, and possibly the month - NYE for Psy, did anybody know that off the top of your head? Forgot about the OLD LADY who swallowed a fly, knew of the one who lived in a shoe. All in all, a real challenge today, but that’s what I like about Saturdays, thanks Lance and Bob!
HG ~ another splendid review which is the norm when you have the reins.
Picard - nice photo of Twyla!
It was a DNF again for a Saturday puzzle but I got close. I filled NESTLESS for the two different sized spoons and PARSY made as much sense as PARRY. NESTLERS is new to me. Also had BERG instead of BURG crossing the unknown TUDE. I managed to fill many unknowns by perps. GREEN WAY, EGGY, ADDY, FBI, LHOTSE, NANCE, ART, SALLY, GOLDE,LEE, BDAY, ARIE, OLD LADY.
Changed SILKWORM to MOTH to make the SE work.
That 'Infamous fly eater;- song I've never heard.
Rusty- TEDE makes as much sense as TUDE.
JINX- surely you remember "Do You Love Me?" Ahem, I filled CLARK. I don't think the unknown GOLDE's version is as popular as the 60s song by THE DAVE CLARK FIVE. "Now that I can dance"
Overall, good, tricky stuff. Loved the cluing for THREE BALLS, MUD MASKS, CRAYON and PRISON CELL. NESTLERS is fair, but that's some kinda word to get in there and okay, FLAGS as standards, sure. But I am gonna join the group gripe about BDAY. I pieced it together fine, but c'mon. Psy hasn't been famous for probably nearly 12 years, and even when he was at his absolute most famous, what percentage of the population would know his birthday? There isn't anyone more culturally significant who has a New Year's Birthday? Maybe they just liked how it flowed -- NYE, Psy, BDay -- there's some assonance there, I guess. Weird clue! Otherwise, very satisfying.
FIW! Had fLED, not BLED, and no idea what FfI meant (the correct answer being FBI). Also erred with RIlE (the word rile) vs RIDE, because AlDY (aldy) meant as much to me as ADDY. Went down in defeat, but at least not to hell!
And I didn't have a bad 'TUDE about the puzzle. Clearly a good Saturday stumper, as many of you FIR.
Thanks to Lance and Bob for the exercise, and to Husker Gary for kindly explaining. The crossword cheaters in hell is a wonderful cartoon! But IRL, everyone should enjoy the puzzle the way they like. Enjoy the weekend!
FIR, but it took a couple hours off and on. So happy to finish and enjoyed much of the challenge, but with some of the same ol same ol complaints: personal names (Golde and Nance - neither of which I knew), and the use of clues using ‘slangily’ or ‘informally’ which mainly serves as license to use an obscure non-word such as addy or tude. The clever clueing definitely got me several times as only at the end did clues like sentence structure, mud masks, sales force come out.
Oh yeah - and to know the bday of a Korean rapper when so many not obscure references would suffice and could still be Saturday worthy!
Tough, but interesting Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Lance and Bob. And you always do a good job, Gary, thanks for your commentary too.
Well, we didn't get off to a cheerful start with that HOT GLUE GUN, and THERE'S MORE and AND STAY OUT didn't make things any more comforting. By the time I reached BUTTS I was ready to quit this disgusting puzzle. But a work with DINAH and an OLD LADY can't be all bad, I figured, especially with the FBI there to check things out. But come on, we still got an ILLEGAL ACT and were told that solving this puzzle just KILLED TIME?
But things got a little better when I looked at some of the down items. A TERN could be a sweet bird that hangs out on the GREEN WAY, and could EMANCIPATE us from all this negativity. And if GOLDE knows something about love, that's nice too. Not a good time to SKATE but we can go for a RIDE instead. But I think I'd better stop before I have to deal with those MUD MASKS that I hope folks don't have to wear in PRISON CELLS, and I don't want to worry that it's time for my ELEGY.
So, have a lovely (and much more cheerful) weekend, everybody.
Puzzling thoughts:
Well, per HG's final cartoon, I will spend my afterlife in hell (save me a spot, CED). I cheated several times today
CED @ 8:45 => per your question, I would always remember you as the poster with the crazy birthday cakes, among other very clever and corny cartoons
Regarding the full count clue and solve ... here is a look back at a Moe-ku I penned some six years ago (with a baseball theme):
Male Siamese Twins
Pinch-hit; got a Walk, 'cause they
Started with four balls
Big Easy - The version I linked was by The Contours. Didn't remember the DC5 doing it.
YP - Tibetans probably don't think an LH start is odd, since in addition to co-hosting that mountain, they have the city of LHasa (nearly a million people living at almost 14,000 feet.)
This was a fun challenge - what I didn't know perped along or used deductive reasoning.
For instance - one of the last to drop was the 4th highest peak LHOTSE - I figured that it would be in the Himalayas too like Everest and K2. I had the OTSE by perps and the other perps were leading me to LH - which is a weird letter combo - but the capital of Tibet is LHasa which is nearby and there is a dog breed from that region LHASA apso. So in it went for the win!
Favorite clue was "it's bound to change colors" for TIE DYE - remembered when I was a kid
Thanks to HG for the blog and Lance & Bob for the puzzle!
RIP Tinbeni - will toast you at sunset with NO ICE
Jinx and I were on the same wavelength!
I’m bound for hell, too.
inanehiker, what do you yell when someone else says the same thing you do, at the same time?
"Jinx!"
Chairman Moe, your haiku is hilarious.
NZ
No! The defense is wrong!
On another note, what do you do with an elephant with three balls? Walk him and pitch to the rhino.
Hola!
As usual on Saturdays I worked on this puzzle off and on in between doing other things like going to the post office for stamps before they closed at 1 PM. I got nice ones of Ruth Bader Ginsberg. My friend's birthday is coming up so I want to send her a series of cards, one each day for five days. When you've been friends for 60 years it's fun to prank each other.
This puzzle was full of obscurities for me. I had no idea about SALLY, GOLDE, NANCE or ADDY. TUDE doesn't even sound right. Of course, I've heard of Roger MARIS but had no clue about his number. ALEXA to the rescue! We wore MUD MASKS at the spa when we used to go regularly.
I thought the house cat was domesticated in China but, then, SILK MOTH makes more sense. I tell my Chinese-American friend that her ancestors invented everything!
We hand not seen crossword regular India ARIE for a while.
What other leader is from Scranton than BIDEN?!
Aa usual on Saturday, this grid glistens with wite-out. Thank you, Lance and Bob for the workout and thank you, Gary for the write-out.
I hope you are all having a great Saturday!
Tried once, spent roughly 20 minutes to get five or six fills, and gave up. Came back much later and decided to stubbornly plug away at it until I filled it, right or wrong. 1A I was trying for "Scissors" or something thinking the other way around about the clue. Took forever for the much battered V-8 can to put another bump on my noggin. Was proud to get CRAYONS on first go-round. BRIDGE CALL = cleverest clue. Plugged away at second effort and an hour or so later was suddenly surprised to see ... no more blank cells! YAY! I FIR!! Wrong. BERG instead of BURG. Crap. All that burning of all-too-scarce brain cells to get to the point of ONE cell wrong! I'll take it as a win anyway, against this brain crusher of a CW. DNK LHOTSE, ARIE, GOLDE, NANCE. Big WAG on that E cross, but NANCE just seemed most likely. Never heard of the old lady who swallowed a fly, but I did inhale one once in my youth. I don't know about FLAGS for standards, how a PILOT is a spirit guide, never heard of ADDY and WEES re BDAY. Well, something to keep me occupied for 90 something minutes. And...one...stinking...cell... Thanx LE&BW, I think. And definitely thanx to HG for an excellent write-up. The THREEBALLS fill reminded me that Confucius say, "Baseball wrong: man with four balls cannot walk."
There is nothing exact about ADDY, IMO!
My favorite clue was for CRAYON. Having raised a daughter as well as reading to my grandchildren has familiarized me with "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly." The whole book is quite amusing.
YooperPhil Thank you for the kind words about my TWYLA THARP photo!
Back now from leading a challenging but enjoyable hike and then music rehearsal.
…and I’m with C-E Dave; just look ‘em up! ===> D.
Welcome back to Obfuscation Saturday, everyone! Yet another case of constructors getting their jollies by attempting to make the clues as obtuse as humanly possible…
At least there were some clever ones mixed into all the mud, like the clues for CRAYON and AHOY.
As I mentioned above to Mr. P., I’m with Cross-eyed Dave with all these obscure proper names; knowing them is not a matter of knowledge so much as how steeped in pop culture one is (even old pop culture like GOLDE from “FOtR”) so I also just go to Google when they crop up. I don’t consider it cheating so much as preserving mental health.
When it comes to stuff like ADDY and BDAY, it helps that I’ve worked a lot amongst Gen Z and millennials — both of these terms are common in texts & IMs (I’m constant texting “send me ur email addy” so I don’t wear out my effing thumbs…).
Chairman, your Moe-ku about the Siamese twins killed! 😎👍🏽
Next up: a (hopefully) relaxing & entertaining Sunday puzzle!
====> Darren / L.A.
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