Saturday Themeless by Maddy Ziegler
After quite a few Saturday puzzle fastballs (including yesterday's BRITA exercise), Maddy's initial LA Times offering is a nice changeup. I had an enjoyable 20-minute stroll and really liked her three, helpful grid-spanners!
Happy Autumn Equinox Eve!
Tomorrow at 7:43 a.m. CDT The Sun will be directly over the equator |
1. Only marsupial native to the Americas: OPOSSUM - A possum is a type of marsupial, native to Australasia. An opossum is also a type of marsupial, but one that is native to the Americas. A video explanation
8. Least approachable: ICIEST.
14. Repeating numbers: REPRISES - You can find the reprise in the album track list
Jodie Foster in Contact |
30. Entertains with a story, say: READS ALOUD - Some of the best time I ever spent with grandchildren
33. Flapper's cut: BOB.
41. Slice: PIECE.
43. __ car: CABLE - Tony Bennett sang about the city Where little CABLE cars climb halfway to the stars
44. Actress Seyfried: AMANDA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
48. Kills it: SLAYS.
49. "Good Luck, Babe!" singer Chappell: ROAN - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
49. "Good Luck, Babe!" singer Chappell: ROAN - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
51. Tribute poem: ODE.
54. Kellogg's Light-Up Saber Spoon, Super Sugar Crisp Mystery Ball, Alpha-Bits Pocket Printer, et al.: CEREAL BOX PRIZES.
My 1950's Prize that used baking powder for "fuel" |
58. Eczema treatment brand: AVEENO.
59. Nonverbal "D'oh!": HEAD SLAP.
Down:
1. "The Elder Scrolls" beasts: ORCS.
4. Sp. honorific: SRA.
5. Host's request: SIT.
6. Volunteer's offer: USE ME.
7. Award for Simone Biles: MEDAL and 53. Award for Simone Biles: ESPY - She also got one of these
8. Classified ad shorthand: ISO - In Search Of
9. Agree: CONCUR and 10. "Agreed!": I'M SOLD.
11. Scarf: EAT UP.
12. Lay dormant: SLEPT - Cicada eggs can lie dormant for years
1905 |
18. Halls of fame, essentially: MUSEUMS - The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is on my bucket list.
41. Check list?: PAYEES 😀 They each get one...
42. Outrageous: INSANE.
44. Naproxen brand: ALEVE.
45. Members of a stable family?: MARES 😀
46. Took a toll on: TAXED - TAXED by taxes
42. Outrageous: INSANE.
44. Naproxen brand: ALEVE.
45. Members of a stable family?: MARES 😀
46. Took a toll on: TAXED - TAXED by taxes
55. L.A. City Council leader?: LOS 😀
56. Nutrition fig.: RDA.
57. Philosophy: ISM.
56. Nutrition fig.: RDA.
57. Philosophy: ISM.
7 comments:
Maybe I was just on the constructor’s wavelength or something, but I went through this puzzle fast as lightning. I don’t think it took me ten minutes to complete it, from top to bottom. Even words I did not know, such as the name “Manu”became easily accessible through friendly perps. I certainly made up for my debacle of yesterday! How did the rest of you do? Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Definitely easier than yesterday's adventure. Most of my WAGs turned out to be correct (I'M SOLD, MESSES, DRAMEDY, I'm lookin' at you). CONCUR evokes DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. Mom had a BOB back in her flapper days. It all came down to _OH/R_AN. Yay, d-o WAGged an O. Nice debut, Maddy. Enjoyed the expo, Husker.
Well nuts. Two days in a row with one error. Two days in a row with the error in the SW.
This time it was a careless entry that should have been caught. I had AVErNO and PAYErS. D'oh! HEAD SLAP!
The southern third fell first and fast. We just had Chappell ROAN a week or so ago, and her surname was also referenced in the Universal a couple of days ago as 'Femininomenom" singer Chappell. I don't know either song. I guess we won't be seeing much of the horse color clue except in early week puzzles.
I tried COLOR COMMENTAtor but one too many letters, so I changed it to COMMENTAte, and then finally COMMENTARY.
Fun fact: SAN Bernardino - The county is the largest in the contiguous United States, and larger than nine of the states. It is also larger than dozens of other countries. I just learned that while reading articles about the fires.
I never saw the clue for Spurs great Ginóbili while solving, but that would have been a gimme. He was fun to watch, and he was never afraid to take it to the hole against the bigs.
Thank you, Maddy, I enjoyed your puzzle. Me too Gary, a fun 20:40 today. I enjoyed your review. BTW, I couldn't keep my eyes open, and went to bed. I missed the second half of the game, but watched the highlights on ESPN and read a couple of articles. A blow, but they'll be fine.
FIW, mostly because of mispeling OPOSSoM (UNTIE!) which caused me to miss o mE ME instead of USE ME. Erased dave for the equally-wrong RyAN, along with six others that yielded to correct fills, notably "open pandoras box" for CREATED A MONSTER. Observe the tense in the clue, Jinx!
To my ear, the folks who live there just say "San Berdino" (or sometimes "San Berdoo.")
Since it's Saturday, I would have expected "join two pieces of wood together" for SCARF.
Thanks to Maddy for allowing me to play on Saturday, a rare treat. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review. BTW, Twister is much more fun at a kegger. BTW part deux, checks can have multiple payees. Insurance checks, for example, require the owner and the lienholder to both endorse. Same for IRS refunds for tax returns filed jointly. But you knew that.
Well, Patti took it easy on us today with this fine debut offering from Maddy, I don’t think too many avid solvers will be BAMBOOZLEd by this one. Maybe not my record Saturday time, but the FIR in under 15 is well below my average for a themeless. About the only unknowns were the triad of the not so famous AMANDA, LEON and ROAN (like d-o my last fill was that O, and I assumed it was their first name 🤷♂️). The clue for TOKYO was and Ektorp, although it coulda been Osaka or Kyoto. Favorite clue of the day “Carve out a career”. Thanks Maddy for the grid and Patti for the fair editing!
HG ~ your Saturday write-ups are always a treat! Especially liked the tire swing cartoon, right on! I actually worked out in San Bernardino County and never pronounced it with that second R, or even knew it was there. I’ve been to Cooperstown and Toronto (hockey), but still need to go to Canton and Springfield to complete the H of F Grand Slam. Our golf group has the same “one mulligan per nine rule”, Thursday a playing partner used his on the first hole cuz his first drive went deep in the woods, second was topped and didn’t make it as far as the ladies tee, which cost him a round of drinks 🤣. I also liked ‘The Breakfast Club”, as a teacher I’m sure you can really relate to that!
A good puzzle today!!!!!
Wow, YP - you guys take it easy on the poor sap who doesn't clear the ladies tee. In Texas (where I picked up the game) the penalty is a little more embarrassing.
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