Saturday Themeless by Maddy Ziegler
Happy Autumn Equinox Eve!
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| 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
16. Mogadishu language: SOMALI.
17. Unleashed unintended consequences: CREATED A MONSTER
19. Stimulator of Vitamin D production: SUN.
20. Spurs great Ginóbili: MANU.
22. Bleak breakfast: GRUEL.
25. Carve out a career?: SCULPT - Carve out AS a career.
27. Some flowering succulents: ALOES.
29. Picked up: HEARD.
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| 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.
36. Broadcast booth role: COLOR COMMENTARY - Tom Brady's debut got mixed reviews
39. Walk-__: ONS - Nebraska is famous for kids who WALK-ON without a scholarship and become stars
40. Game element that requires a hands-on approach: TWISTER MAT.
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)_/¯
46. Harajuku district locale: TOKYO.
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.
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| My 1950's Prize that used baking powder for "fuel" |
58. Eczema treatment brand: AVEENO.
59. Nonverbal "D'oh!": HEAD SLAP.
60. Meddles (with): MESSES.
61. "The Bear," for one: DRAMEDY - I really liked this great DRAMEDY
Down:
1. "The Elder Scrolls" beasts: ORCS.
2. Arequipa's land: PERU
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| At an elevation of 7,300 ft. |
3. Easy shots: OPEN GOALS.
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
13. Many a tree swing: TIRE.
15. __ Bernardino: SAN - Don't most people not pronounce the "R" in the middle?
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| 1905 |
18. Halls of fame, essentially: MUSEUMS - The Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, NY is on my bucket list.
23. Mulligan: REDO - Our group allows one mulligan for the front and back nine.
26. VMI student: CADET.
27. West Coast gas brand: ARCO.
28. "Gold-Diggers Sound" singer Bridges: LEON ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
29. Pal: HOMIE.
31. Played a part: ACTED.
32. Like some diets: LOW CARB.
33. Buffalo: BAMBOOZLE.
34. Lacking a paper trail: ORAL.
35. Storage unit: BYTE.
37. Make out: NECK.
38. Printer part: TRAY.
42. Outrageous: INSANE.
44. Naproxen brand: ALEVE.
45. Members of a stable family?: MARES 😀
46. Took a toll on: TAXED - TAXED by taxes
47. Equal (with): ON PAR.
48. Con: SCAM.
50. "Wow!": OOH.
52. Bricked: DEAD.
55. L.A. City Council leader?: LOS 😀
56. Nutrition fig.: RDA.
57. Philosophy: ISM.
56. Nutrition fig.: RDA.
57. Philosophy: ISM.
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.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely 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.
ReplyDeleteThis 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!
ReplyDeleteTo 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!
ReplyDeleteHG ~ 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!
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.
Delete“The Breakfast Club” has a sweet spot to me; I shot part of the opening title sequence (the last card, where the David Bowie quote “explodes” into the first scene). We built a 10’ tower in my studio, with the camera at the bottom aimed straight up and protected by a Lexan window. The quote was silkscreened onto sheets of glass, which we blew out with an air cannon while shooting at I think 96fps (4x over-cranked) to get the slo-mo effect. It was pretty cool — but very scary to be watching all those shards fall into the lens while shooting from underneath the base!
Deletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF--IfvbioQ&pp=ygUeYnJlYWtmYXN0IGNsdWIgb3BlbmluZyBjcmVkaXRz
====> Darren / L.A.
A good puzzle today!!!!!
ReplyDeleteToday's start. Woke up before 5. Fixed coffee for sleeping DW. Went to feed cat and what was on the porch? An OPOSSUM, commonly called a possum.
ReplyDeleteI managed to FIR today having trouble guessing the proper names I DNK. AMANDA, MANU, LEON, and ROAN. I wanted Ryan but YOH instead of OOH didn't make sense for 'Wow". That 'O' was my last fill.
DEAD- DNK. Not familiar with the term, 'bricked'
HOMIE- had no idea how it was spelled. HOMEY?
TOKYO and PERU were guesses. COUPE replaced my SEDAN guess.
CEREAL BOX PRIZES- Cracker Jack toys wannabes
Walk-ONS- a restaurant chain started in Baton Rouge by two 'walk on' LSU basketball players who didn't have a scholarship.
MUSEUMS- not HOFs are museums. DW is in the LA State Tennis HOF but there is no building, just people.
Dead=brick is a hacker's (not in the vile sense) term, I think. It refers to converting a bit of technology into something only suitable for use as a boat anchor.
DeleteI remember in the early days of smart phones, hobbyists installed a root kit to access all the junk the service provider added. For instance, Verizon phones refused to charge using any other USB cable other than the ones provided by Big V. That could be corrected fairly easily by installing a root kit, which allowed the user/hacker access to the phone's root directories where all that custom stuff lives. There is always a warning, something on the order of "installing this root kit will void your warranty and may make your device unusable." AKA bricking the phone.
If the LA State Tennis HOF has no building, where is their hall?
DeleteBE from my phone
You get a banquet, attended by a couple of hundred people, guest speakers talking about your career, and honors. She was inducted along with former NCAA men's singles champion, Don Leycraft. Former Australian women's doubles champion and Tennis Channel announcer Chanda Rubin, was a previous inductee, and she was also one of the speakers. Also there were a couple of former Wimbledon men's doubles finalists attending as a tribute to their coach.
Diane kept saying "how did I manage to be included in this group"?
sounds like quite a racket. (oh, I had to have balls to post that one)
DeleteTook 9:29 today.
ReplyDeleteEasier than yesterday's puzzle, and easier than a usual Saturday, to me.
Nice to see a few other posting their times.
I knew today's actress (Amanda), though I'm not sure why or from what.
I love "The Bear," but find it odd that for Emmy purposes, it's considered a comedy. Dramedy seems more accurate, but there's definitely more drama than comedy.
Ultimately, the NW did me in. But overall I found this to be a very enjoyable Saturday puzzle. A great start to the weekend, which is just going to get better. It’s my son’s birthday, so my wife and I will be traveling to Durham , NH to have lunch with him.
ReplyDeleteFIW. One square wrong and a "head slap" when I saw the right answer. "Ooh". And all because I'd never heard of Roan before and couldn't imagine it'd be right.
ReplyDeleteBut this was definitely easier than yesterday. The long answers just seemed to come easily. I struggled a while in the NE, but it finally fell.
So overall an enjoyable puzzle!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteBased on some of the rapid finish times, I'm embarrassed to say this took me 1:06:00 and came within a whisker of being a DNF. My only excuse, a poor one but an honest one, is that I was sleep-deprived while attempting to solve it. I decided to give it one last look this morning before TITT and, lo and behold, the sticker-wicket NW corner finally succumbed to my P and P. Opposum, Peru, Orcs, Reprises, Use Me, etc., came together and I had my hard-earned Tada!
The trouble I had in that area didn't diminish my enjoyment of the overall solve. The fill was exceptionally lively and fresh, especially the three strong grid-spanners. Manu, Leon, and Roan were unknowns, but the perps were fair. The grid was clean, with a very acceptable TLW count of 12, and no dreck. Never heard of Bricked meaning Dead, but I certainly know what that fun word Bamboozle means!
Thanks, Maddy, for a rewarding mental workout and thanks, HG, for pointing out the puzzle's strengths and highlights. As usual, your visuals were striking and spot on with their depictions of the content.
Have a great day.
Mr. Smarty Pants, AKA, Autocorrect struck again. I typed Sticky twice but, apparently, Sticker won the battle. 😬
ReplyDeleteYes, this was definitely a quick Saturday and easier by far from yesterday. The only swag was Roan crossed with ooh! FIR.
ReplyDeleteI'm not used to finishing a Saturday this fast. So much so that I puzzled myself looking for a theme...
ReplyDeleteWhat a breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed this CW. Although there were a few unknowns, perps were kind. Not much else to say.
ReplyDeleteThank you HG for the nice review.
One reason I look forward to Saturday puzzles is the challenge. When I go through all the clues, and have only entered 5 words that I know for sure, I refill my coffee and buckle up for the ride. This one was a chauffeured limousine that failed to test my driving skills as I gazed out the window.
ReplyDeleteLotsa fun today. I especially liked HEAD SLAP and TWISTER MAT, and got a smile out of NECK. The few Naticks have been enumerated by others. I learned how to spell OPOSSUM (not opposum as I imagined), and learned from Husker Gary that a POSSUM is another sort of beast.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to Maddy and HG!
What a difference a day makes! Tough, as I knew none of the obscure names, (as usual!) but fair perps brought me to the FIR. I really enjoyed this puppy. Hey, HG! I had me a set of those Kelloggs baking soda propelled frogmen, too! Ate a LOT of cornflakes for 'em!
ReplyDeleteAfter Friday’s nonsensical exercise this gem of a puzzle was a welcome return to normalcy. I did not know “bricked” could mean “dead,” so upon finishing, I headed to Google to learn the context. The top results had a different definition, and in the interest of propriety, I will just leave it at that!
ReplyDeleteOverall, I found this puzzle to be enjoyable and just challenging enough. No circles, ridiculous gimmicks, overly cutesy cluing, or constructor arrogance to be found!
Rah Virginia Mil, Rah, Rah, Rah. You know I get excited when my alma mater is in the clues. Actually we were called "Keydets" but essentially we were all Cadets. Besides that I really enjoyed this puzzle. No obscure names. Very well constructed. Nice Saturday fun.
ReplyDeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR in 20:25 (on Across Lite - probably relates to about 13:00 if done pen and paper). As other have said this one was quite easy compared to Friday's. And as others have said, the clues for ROAN and DEAD were "different". When I looked at "bricked" as a clue my mind saw a basketball player horribly missing a free throw
Thanks to the constructor and re-capper
My solve was more top-to-bottom than usual, especially for a Saturday, which was a sign that it wasn’t terribly difficult. Nevertheless, the obscure ROAN nearly led to an FIW. The puzzle also had a needlessly obscure LEON in it, but not too many obscurities or outrages.
ReplyDeleteMy least favorite entry was OPEN GOALS. Unless it’s a soccer term, nobody ever uses that term. There’s an open look in basketball and the open net in hockey, and the open base in baseball, but . . .
I liked OPOSSUM, SOMALI, GRUEL, BAMBOOZLE, and NECK. I sort of liked DRAMEDY, but I so wanted the answer to be “novella,” in reference to the William Faulkner version of “The Bear.” Guess that would be too egg-heady.
Delightful Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Maddy. And always enjoy your commentary, thanks for that too, Gary.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle started off pretty unpleasantly with ICIEST and CREATE A MONSTER--not my idea of a happy place. But soon the SUN came out, and along with it the comfort of art, the chance to SCULPT a statue or write an ODE that would be enjoyable to READ ALOUD and could be HEARD by a happy audience. And, after that, a chance to listen to a COLOR COMMENTARY. Sounds like a great way to start a morning that now deserves some CEREAL (no GRUEL) and a chance to take a nap.
Enjoy the rest of your day, everybody!
Well everybody liked this Saturday grid, including me, so as soon as the “editor” sees that we will never have another.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteYes! I CONCUR! For a Saturday this was about as enjoyable as a themeless puzzle gets. Thank you, Maddy! As for time, since I slowly sip my coffee while solving it stretches the time much longer than it otherwise would. But to finish a Saturday puzzle is a major accomplishment for me. Quite often I just either don't finish it right away and leave it for later or Horrors! Give up.
But today was different and I kept looking for a fill that would trip me up. It didn't happen and I asked ALEXA only for help with ROAN. an unknown to me. As was mentioned we'll see the horse color only in early week puzzles. Thank you, Gary, for a fine introduction today. Have a great day, everyone!
My first encounter with AMANDA Seyfried was in "Momma Mia" where she played Meryl Streep's daughter on a Greek island.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Maddy for a rare Saturday FIR -- in 26:20, no less! Your clues provided helpful footholds and many of the long answers matched my first thought.
ReplyDeleteI know it was themeless but it was fun that the 3 grid-spanners all began with the letter C. A CoinCidenCe??
Chappell ROAN was a guest on WWDTM a while back. She is SLAYing the music world.
9D Agree was CONCUR. At first I thought I might have to remember that word "accede" from yesterday. Oof!
Thanks to H-G for the tour. Happy to see you survived your challenging week!
sumdaze, she is slaying the music world. She's getting a lot of attention in the media. I think we'll see her name and song titles more frequently.
ReplyDeleteHave you solved the USA Today crossword puzzle today?
No, I had not but I followed your link just now. I probably would have spelt it incorrectly had I done that puzzle first.
DeleteI didn't solve it until later in the day, and I thought, "what a coincidence!"
DeleteNow that sufficient time has passed, this comment won't need a spoiler alert.
DeleteAs I wrote earlier, we had ROAN last week, and then she was in the Universal on the 19th. Then here today, and the coincidence was that in today's (the Sept 21st) USA Today puzzle title was a lyric quote from one of her songs. Not only that, but the answer to one clue was her full name, and another answer was for one of her song titles. And in Sally's Take, she referenced the same NPR WWDTM podcast that sumdaze cited above.
I have a feeling we will be seeing singer ROAN as an answer to a clue more frequently than the horse color.
Super Saturday. Thanks for the fun, Maddy and HuskerG. This was a rare Saturday CW that I was able to complete (albeit with three Google visits for ROAN, VMI (Canadian disadvantage), and the U in MANU. Somehow I remembered AMANDA.
ReplyDeleteBut overall an enjoyable solve.
I thought of Oliver Twist with GRUEL, and then we had TWISTER.
I noted COUPE crossing TIRE.
I love the sound of BAMBOOZLED,
When in Cooperstown, I let DH go off to the Baseball HOF (MUSEUM seems odd IMO) to enjoy to his heart’s content, while I strolled through the town, enjoying the beautiful day and visiting the shops. We were both happy.
Wishing you all a good evening.
I like the word BAMBOOZLE.
ReplyDeleteThe last cell I filled was that O crossing ROAN and OOH; I tried Y and then I at first.
Thank you, Gary, for teaching me (us) that a POSSUM is different from an OPOSSUM .
I thought the clues for SCULPT and LOS were a tad too cutesy for their own good. But I did like the clues for PAYEES and MARES .
I had GINZA before TOKYO.
Three recent Supreme Court CONCURrences were really dissents, falsely characterized as concurrences. The meta-data proves it.
Good reading you all.
I learned that I have been misidentifying OPPOSUMS my whole life. I hade one that used to visit me at my back sliding glass door to beg me for food. He would stand up and was sort of cute. When I was away at school there times I would been happy to get some GRUEL . Thanks Gary and Maddy which sounds like a folk singing duo to me.
ReplyDelete