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.
16 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.
Today'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.
I 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.
Took 9:29 today.
Easier 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.
FIW. 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.
But 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:
Based 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. 😬
Yes, this was definitely a quick Saturday and easier by far from yesterday. The only swag was Roan crossed with ooh! FIR.
I'm not used to finishing a Saturday this fast. So much so that I puzzled myself looking for a theme...
What a breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed this CW. Although there were a few unknowns, perps were kind. Not much else to say.
Thank you HG for the nice review.
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