Saturday Themeless by Katie Hale
Katie, Patti's assistant editor, is a stay-at-home mom living in the London inner-city Borough of Hackney.Her puzzle required some real head scratching in places but was a pleasant excursion.
1. Help with spelling: WAND - Oh, that kind of spell! 😀
5. Up: AHEAD - The famous analog Master's Tournament Scoreboard shows Patrick Reed is ONE UP on second place Ricky Fowler -15 to -14 (under par scores are posted in red).
10. Like cotton candy: SPUN.
14. Steinbeck twin: ARON - Eden, ARON and Cal, hmmm... Genesis anyone?
15. Herd stray: DOGIE.
16. Transparent block in Minecraft: PANE - This appears to be a thing in this game
17. Event responsible for the northern lights: SOLAR STORM - This amateur astronomer confidently entered SOLAR FLARE first.
19. Nobel city: OSLO.
20. Pro across town from a Cap: NAT - In Washington D.C. the NHL Capitals play three miles north of Nationals Park where the MLB NATionals play
21. Takes the cake?: EATS 😀
22. Himalayan kingdom: BHUTAN - A few hundred miles east of Mt. Everest
24. Sappiness: TREACLE - A mainstay of my lovely bride's very successful Hallmark Channel movies.
26. Shout to: HOOT AT.
27. Heady list: BEER MENU 😀
29. Listserv setting: BCC - Blind Carbon Copy.
31. Asa's "Sex Education" role: OTIS - Kate or Patti's Saturday OTIS.
33. God who favored the Trojans: ARES.
34. Steak meat: AHI - Tuna is not what we first think of as steak here on the Great Plains
39. "TMI!": ICK 😳 - 10 signs you're sharing TMI
40. Née: BORN -
41. Sea __: BASS.
42. Important body part in balancing: TOE.
43. Delicacy often prepared à la Bourguignonne: ESCARGOT.
46. Sappy types: MAPLES 😀 A different kind of sappy from 24 Across - Treacle
48. Some high-end speakers: ORATORS 😀 Some high-end speakers can charge $250,000 and up for an appearance.
52. Take another shot: REFILM - Stanley Kubrick did 148 retakes to get this scene from The Shining the way he liked.
53. Winter layer: COAT 😀
55. Chamber opening?: ANTE - The ANTEchamber where one waited to see QE II at Buckingham palace.
56. Late night lament: I CAN'T SLEEP -I never miss an opportunity to post 60's Rock and Roll
59. Chandon partner: MOET.
60. "In the Bedroom" Oscar nominee: TOMEI.
61. Too: ALSO.
62. Off: AWRY.
63. Awards for very good plays: ESPYS - Uh, athletic plays. 😀 The 2024 list of nominees
64. __ Coe: Highlands hiking spot: GLEN - Scottish highlands
Down:
1. Never happened: WASN'T - The Y2K disaster.
2. Loud: AROAR.
3. "The Prince of Tides" star: NOLTE.
4. Genomics focus: DNA - Put simply, genomics is the study of an organism’s genome – its genetic material – and how that information is applied. All living things, from single-celled bacteria, to multi-cellular plants, animals and humans, have a genome – and ours is made up of DNA. 😗
5. Super Bowl goal: AD SALE - $$$
6. More in demand: HOTTER.
7. Alter __: EGOS - Superman, Bat Man, Spiderman, Mr. Hyde, et al.
9. Spiritual that lists body parts: DEM BONES. 💀
10. Declaim: SPOUT - This is an election year
11. Shell stations?: PASTA BARS - A small one
12. Lets off the hook: UNLATCHES 😀
13. "__ Bible": Arcade Fire album recorded in a renovated church: NEON.
18. Signal to start playing: RECESS BELL - Those 4th grade eyes are locked onto the clock as it approaches 10 am, 11:35 am and 2:00 pm.
23. Digs in canals: HOUSE BOATS - Digs is slang for where one lives and this HOUSE BOAT was used in Sleepless In Seattle.
32. Resemble: TAKE AFTER - Speaking of Sleepless in Seattle, here is Meg Ryan and her son Jack Quaid
25. Somewhat: A BIT.
26. German address: HERR - HERR Stephan Schläpfer is a distant cousin (and a great guy) we met in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
28. Luau backdrop, perhaps: MAUNA - Hawaiian for mountain
30. Op. __: CIT - I have never used this term in my real life.
31. "Calm down": OH COME NOW.
35. Card: WIT.
36. "Free Solo" setting: YOSEMITE - The 3,000 ft. vertical face of El Capitan
37. Fantasy monsters: ORCS - From LOTR
38. Nineteenth Amendment campaigner: CATT - Women's Suffrage
45. Complimentary: GRATIS.
47. Reverence: PIETY.
49. "Another Love" singer Tom: O'DELL.
50. First name on "The Morning Show": REESE.
51. Nurse: SIP ON.
52. Protagonist in many a Diwali story: RAMA - Diwali marks the day Rama, Sita and Lakshmana return to Ayodhya after 14 years in exile. Exiled by his own father King Dasharatha, Rama, his wife Sita and his brother, Laxmana, face various hardships as they travel through the forests. Okay...
53. Stay out for the night: CAMP.
57. NYSE listings: COS - Companies
58. Twitch hitch: LAG - Twitch is a streaming service and it can sometimes have a hitch which results in a LAG, I guess...
Note from C.C.:
Happy birthday to dear Melissa, who guided us for many Wednesdays in the past. I've never met anyone as brave and tough as Melissa.
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42 comments:
DNF, filling 20 answers, 12 correctly. About the only one I was proud of was knowing NAT. Interesting that the hockey team's logo spells the name capitals, all lower case.
I was so sure of SOLAR flare. Here's your conical hat, Jinx. Now go sit in the corner.
Ohh! I did know NOLTE and ARON, so I've got a little bit of my show biz chops still left.
Bah, no like. Arcade Fire? Who knows them? I really dislike these type of puzzles where the creator goes so arcane…
Well, I admit it.
I turned on the red letters AGAIN. I just couldn’t get my mind off of “soft” for the taffy. But, with the help of those red letters, I finally came up with “spun” and that freed up the “roadblock “ in the northeast section. So, I’m not particularly ‘happy’ about that, but I am happy that I was finally able to solve this challenging puzzle, although “with help.” Subgenius out !
P.S. Format remains fine.
Important body parting balancing: couldn't get away from "ear" until I turned on red letters. Last section to complete.
Took 26:29 today.
Phew.
Struggled with this one. Rooney? Mauna? Otis?
I had solar flare originally, too. I didn't like the intersection of moet and rama -- my last guess/space.
Seemed like an awful lot of names, even for a Saturday.
I feel like Arcade Fire is well known for not being well known, yet often playing on Saturday Night Live. I can't name a single song of theirs.
Omg, this was brutal - borderline unsolvable. It seemed like there was a trivia question everywhere you turned. There must be two dozen ways to clue NEON, and we get “Arcade Fire”? I’d much rather you try to make your puzzle more difficult with witty cluing. Just loading it up with geography (BHUTAN, MAUNA), LOTR, Diwali, Wagatha, ODELL, REESE, ARON, DOGIE, . . . Talk about ICK !
Please don’t do this to us again.
"Uncle!" When my first pass yielded only a dozen words that I felt confident with, I settled in for a fight but never got much traction. Finally threw in the towel after a half hour. I don't know what my wheelhouse is, but this is definitely not it.
DNF. I threw in the towel in the NE. Once again a clue for something only the constructor and maybe one other person might know: an obscure band, Arcade Fire. Who?
I struggled through this puzzle and persevered as best I could with some success, but for that one area.
And I had high hopes when I threw down solar storm, and again with "I can't sleep". But the white flag went up in the end.
I'm not a fan of clues that refect the constructor's personal likes and ideas. It would be like me cluing my first pet's name. Who would know that?
So overall I partially enjoyed this puzzle except as noted above.
your pet
TITT. This is not my kind of CW. Between the trivia names, the expressions that could be interpreted so many ways like OH COME NOW. I would never say that to mean calm down.
I thought about entering HOUSE BOATS, but I was stopped by the clue using the preposition IN instead of ON.
There were some clever clues like the one for MAPLES and BEER MENU.
I did enter ESCARGOT with confidence. As HG explains the best part of this recipe is the butter parsley and garlic. You could put that on rubber bands and I’d gladly eat it. LOL.
Super Bowl goal clue AD SALES seems a little cynical.
Anyway, thank you HG for your nice review.
Hats off to anyone who managed a FIR on this one, I didn’t come close only filling about 60% of the grid before I TITT, a resounding defeat. I don’t give up easy but with ROONEY, REESE, CATT, O’DELL, RAMA, MOËT, and OTIS (as clued) I had no chance. If the clues for TOMEI and NOLTE would have included the names Marisa and Nick I could have gotten those without perp help, but that’s Saturday clueing 🤷♂️. DEM BONES?? Thanks Katie for the challenge which was a little out of my reach today.
HG - thanks for the education today, delineating everything I didn’t know, which was a LOT today. Hand up for FLARE before STORM. I think a zero got dropped from your speaker’s fee.
This one caused me to recall Merle Reagle's motto: Twisted But Fair. Lots of clues that could be taken several different ways. IMHO,well done, Katie!
Good Morning:
I didn't TITT but I also didn't do a happy dance, either. I counted approximately 24 proper names/nouns, 4 of which could have been clued as common words, no proper reference needed: Pane, BCC, Glen, and Neon. This practice is a pet peeve of mine because I find that it's usually utilized to make the answer more difficult to discern. Every single clue/answer doesn't have to be a hair-pulling, teeth gnashing moment. I thought some of the cluing was very clever, but the overall solving experience was diminished by the numerous unknowns. Saturdays are supposed to be challenging but they should also be more satisfying and enjoyable than this one was.
Thanks, Katie, and thanks, HG, for the detailed review and commentary. Escargot are a favorite of mine, as is The Prince of Tides. In The Bedroom was a gut-wrenching movie that really showcased the talents of Maris Tomei and Tom Wilkinson.
Happy Birthday, Melissa, hope it's a special day. 🎂🎈🎉🎊💐
Have a great day.
“Hmmm, I think I’ll Google ‘things that are only known to a small niche audience’ and then load them into my latest crossword grid! What fun (for me)!”
ICK. Just ICK. Sums it up perfectly. Arcane clues, obtuse paraphrases, and tons of unknown, obscure names. TITT, life is too short to waste time on this.
Oof! DNF! The northeast did me in. I was pretty excited to get UNLeasHES, but the correct answer was UNLATCHES. Perhaps someone will explain how BCC is a listserv setting. And AHI for steak meat? Oy!
WEES re: obscure names and confusing clues. The one thing I was really confident about was the important body part in balancing. According to the doctor who examined my broken little toe yesterday, only the big toe is of any importance in balancing. She said she could cut my little toe off and I'd never miss it. No, thanks!
Many thanks to Husker Gary for cheerfully explaining these mysteries, and happy birthday to Melissa!
With all of the obscure references, sideways allusions and outright double or triple meaning clues this puzzle was a disaster. No way does anyone finish it without help.
No attaboys today, except to Gary for his monumental effort at review.
Nuff said.
Bark
Oops I forgot one thing in my comments. Happy b/day Melissa! 🤗🎉
I usually print the CW, and try filling in ink. Today the first pass yielded a totally ridiculous six (6) fills. Second pass added...ONE (1). After much cussing and grumping I TITT, only to decide much later to come back and try filling it online, w/ red-letter help. Holy Moley! Even that didn't seem to be much help. Several alphabet runs, which yielded fill that I looked at and thought...oooo,kaaaay. I got stubborn and thought, I'm gonna fill this, no matter how long it takes. Even then, online w/ red letters on, it took 35 minutes to alphabet run my way to a finish. I came back two hours later with my paper copy just to see if I could even remember what I had filled online. Oy. I started a list of DNKs, but turned out too many to even list here. So, overall, this CW is just FAR too difficult for me. AND as if the difficulty level wasn't enough, the CW was just not in my wheelhouse. Too many obscure names. ODELL, CATT, RAMA... And obscure words. TREACLE? WHAT? I had to look it up to make sure it is really a word. OPCIT? There WERE however several really good witty clues, like for WAND, MAPLES, BEERMENU, REFILM and ADSALE. And my mind could not come up with BHUTAN. KH, thanx for this way-over-my-head-in-so-many-ways CW. Very nice write-up, HG, best part of this experience by far. HBD Melissa!!!
Oh, forgot to mention, I had SOLARWINDS on my very first go-round. When I went to the online version and filled it the red letters lit up like crazy. Eventually I did get SOLARSTORM, but I object: it does not take a solar storm to make "northern lights".
This puzzle should never have seen publication with these clues.
Unlike Merle and others, many of these constructors don't have the skill set to make a tough puzzle without resorting to the type of crap we experienced today. You'd never see this P.O.S. at the ACPT or even in the NYT.
Unlike Rich Norris, these editors don't have the ability to re-clue a puzzle to make it tough, but fair and reasonable.
The failure rests squarely on Patti Varol as editor, and on her assistant editor, Katie Hale, who submitted it as the constructor. Obviously, Varol is failing as a mentor and guide to Hale.
Garbage in, garbage out.
There were a ton of proper names but I actually finished this faster than normal for a Saturday. Must have been on the same wavelength to get some of these tricky clues. Judging by the overall angst about this puzzle, I am happy to have solved it.
Thanks to Gary for a lovely writeup. I expected a few nasty comments here, and I wasn't disappointed by y'all. Anon 12:22 didn't even spell Merl's name right, so I take that post with a grain of salt. Garbage in garbage out indeed.
Wow, was that a slog! Took more than an hour to FIR, what with the extremely obscure suffragette CATT and the usual run of dialogue non-sequiturs one expects from Patti and her acolytes.
This puzzle had 20 entries, in my opinion, that were unknowns, horribly clued, or otherwise problematic, like the lame CO.S for NYSE listings, and MAUNA, which may or may not mean both “mount” and “mountain.” It’s usually seen only in the former context. This came up in Friday’s puzzle, in which “MTS” was presented as an abbreviation for “mountains,” a word usually abbreviated “mtns.” Many of you have already cited my other problems with today’s grid.
Three of the literary references hit home. Aron and Caleb are the younger pair of brothers in “East of Eden.” The 1950s movie with James Dean isolated Cal’s situation in the late chapters without much context from the rest of the book. GRATIS brought to mind “What Makes Sammy Run?” Sammy Glick used that word to brag about his sex life. And TREACLE elicited one of my favorite literary characters, the hypoglycemic Dormouse from the tea party in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” I also liked the clues for WAND and HOUSEBOATS, and was glad to see DOGIE, BHUTAN, ESCARGOT, and DEM BONES in the puzzle.
As solvers, we expect Saturday puzzles to be challenging. That doesn't mean they can't be satisfying and fun at the same time. And to the LAT's credit, I feel that their Saturday puzzles--as tough as they are--generally have the solvers' best interests in mind. Not today.
Today's was more a crossNAME puzzle than a crossWORD puzzle, for one thing, and as such, the constructor's goal seemed to be one of obfuscation, not to provide a pleasant and satisfying experience for the solver.
This was insanely difficult. Hand up way too many unknown crossed proper names. In the end, got all of those. And then FIW with one careless mistake: I WANT SLEEP instead of I CAN'T SLEEP. Hand up EAR before TOE. MOUNTAIN before YOSEMITE.
I will always remember DEM BONES from this finale of the 1960s show "The Prisoner".
After so many bizarre episodes, the finale was even more bizarre.
My comment on today’s puzzle is simply a resounding Thumper! Many others have expressed my specific feelings exactly.
Husker G’s was a bright spot in the general gloom.
Happy Birthday, Melissa🎂🎁
Interesting but tough Saturday puzzle, Katie Hale, but Saturday's are supposed to be tough.
And thank you for your always helpful commentary once again, Gary--always a treat.
Well, instead of complaining and weeping about all the things I couldn't get, I decided to do what I often do, nowadays, and that's to just take the words and make a poem out of them. My apologies to all of you who find this annoying, but at least it still keeps the puzzle words more or less in our discussion. So here it is:
"Awkward Answers"
I bet kids who live in a dorm
often experience a solar storm.
Dealing with clue-words that are a lot hotter
is naturally going to create some bother.
They'll ask 'what's your secret',
and be told it's a matter of winning a bid.
They'll go to bed saying "I can't sleep"
and be told "Let nothing you from sleeping keep."
Have a good Sunday coming up, everybody.
I simply lost interest after 30 minutes.
The format of this page has gone all goofy again. New is NOT necessarily better.
Oh wow! A really, really tough one for Saturday. Pieced it together, bit by it and finished but wasn't familiar with OP CIT, Tom ODELL, or Coleen ROONEY and with the inclusion of OH COME NOW, it definitely felt like it tilted a little British in its cultural tastes. And Some really fun cluing on AD SALE, BEER MENU, MAPLES and UNLATCHES. I liked it a lot as tough as it was, and while the comments here may suggest the obscurity of Arcade Fire, they did win an Album of the Year Grammy in 2011, so I think that should count for something!
Katie needs to find another line of work, cause making up crosswords ain't it. Worst puzzle I've ever seen in my life! 75 years worth.
Hola!
Ah! I am in good company today in lamenting the obscurities in this puzzle. Even ALEXA didn't help. If it's a good challenge I don't mind it but this was beyond reasonable, IMO. I did know Nick NOLTE as I have seen that movie more than once. It's a masterpiece, IMO.
Some of the names are beyond my wheelhouse and I'm a well read person.
Happy birthday, Melissa!
I hope all are enjoying a fabulous day!
Catt, treacle, Otis, Rooney, Reese, ODell and a few others, total unknowns. My shells had to do with oysters not pasta. My canals were in the ear, not ones with boats. I finished about 2/3 of the puzzle but is another Saturday DNF for Big Easy . My hoot at was holler. Orator was not to be, as I was thinking of a name brand speaker. That makes about 6 weeks in a row for Saturday puzzles I have not completed.
I mean, of course, The Prince of Tides.
And now this page is back to its "normal" format.
Wow. Finished this one after a few breaks. Enjoyed the challenge and surprised by the number of dnf's and upset folks. Good job.
No, this puzzle sucked.
Thanks to Katie for this Saturday challenge! I filled about 75% today, having the most difficulty in the NE. FAV: Take another shot
NOLTE was in the punchbowl but I do not remember actually seeing the movie.
Hand up for EAR before TOE.
TREACLE was a learning moment.
Thanks to H-Gary for, as Misty puts it, your always helpful commentary--always a treat!
I'll see your SOLAR flare before SOLAR STORM and raise with my SOLAR flare then SOLAR surge then SOLAR STORM. I asked DH for help with that one and he said "geomagnetic STORM". I said, "Thanks, but too many letters."
Happy birthday to Melissa!
DNF (and took half the day to manage that!). I had SHOUT and NOON for SPOUT and NEON. That gave me HANO - which could be a Minecraft thing for all I know.
I'll cry 'foul' on the Listserv clue - BCC isn't a setting any more than the body of an email message is a setting.
I've come to hate Saturday's puzzles with their obtuse cluing and overabundance of proper names.
To quote Snoopy: “BLEAH!”. Yet another obfuscatory Saturday pile of confusing and misleading clues covering way too many proper names. Dysons suck less.
=====> Darren / L.A.
Just leaving another frustrated DNF comment for posterity.
For a nominally California-based puzzle, this was unexpectedly rife with anglophile references and briticisms (a quick google says Katie is from London). Add in a couple frustrating fakeouts (SOLARSTORM, not FLARE?), a general lack of friendly toeholds, and some just plain weird ones (PASTABAR? HOOTAT?) and this is just impenetrable, and not in a fun way.
Much of this one feels more like an inventory of the author's own interests and personal experiences, too specific and rangy for anyone else have a shot.
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