Saturday Themeless by Bettina Elias Siegel & Dan Elias
This is a puzzle where I had to struggle. The cluing was too clever by half in some places but I persevered. I use Across Lite to solve these puzzles in advance and in this one I used the Check Word function a lot and every time, it said the word or partial word was correct and so I soldiered on.
I got SIDE HUSTLES right away and I fought CAREER COACH's cluing and was told AMUSE BOUCHE ¯\_(γ)_/¯ was right as I slowly filled in the crossers there. ECHOLESS and SHE GOAT were, uh, "out there"! I'll point some out some other head scratchers as we progress through the grid. The pinwheel 11-letter triple stacks are very impressive.
1. Extra work: SIDE HUSTLES - Like most other starting teachers, I had several of these - Bricklayer, landscaper, retail salesperson, train brakeman and anything else I could do to bring in some cash.
12. Historic period: AGE - Erasing ERA and starting over opened up this entire corner.
15. Path finder: CAREER COACH.
16. Aloha nui __: affectionate Hawaiian phrase: LOA - "All my love:\"
17. Special bite: AMUSE BOUCHE - An AMUSE BOUCHE (amuses the mouth in French) is a single, bite-sized hors d'Εuvre. Once again ¯\_(γ)_/¯
18. D.C. United's org.: MLS.
19. Enhancer of soups or venue for hoops: MSG π
20. Bar fly-er?: DART - Saturday cluing!
21. Gail of "NYPD Blue": O'GRADY ¯\_(γ)_/¯
23. Eat: DINE.
24. 19th century women's rights advocate Amelia: BLOOMER - Yup, that's where that item of apparel originated.
25. Much-feared natural disaster: BIG ONE.
28. Wildflower once thought to repel pests: FLEABANE - Those words make sense
29. Strip, as a ship: UNRIG - DERIG had the same sense but didn't work
30. Super time: BLAST.
31. Singing syllable: TRA.
32. John Swinney, for one: SCOT.
33. Nudges: PRODS.
34. Enduring dispute: FEUD - Joan and Betty had a famous one
35. Go off course: YAW - I have said many times in the forum that a plane can YAW (crab) and stay on course.
37. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" writer/illustrator: CARLE - The "C" at CARLE/CASSAT ws my last fill.
40. One who may be sacked: PASSER π Even Patrick Mahomes
41. Diplomatic mission: EMBASSY.
42. Old book collection?: DUST π
43. Tops: APEXES.
44. Cooks (up): GINS Etymology I am always amused at excuses kids can GIN UP to explain whey they don't have an assignment done.
45. Wit: WAG.
48. "Chandelier" singer: SIA - Entertainers are always looking for a way to stand out from the crowd.
49. Adapt quickly: TURN ON A DIME.
52. "Catch-22" pilot played by Bob Balaban: ORR - Bob played ORR in the 1970 movie but I better remember him for playing NBC executive Russell Dalrymple in Seinfeld 19 years later
54. Connecticut governor Lamont: NED.
55. Spine-opening yoga pose: SEATED TWIST.
Down:
1. Phishing hook: SCAM - My "grandson" has called me three times for cash bail money. Uh, I was born at night, but not last night!
2. Animal nutritionist who founded a pet food company in 1946: IAMS - Paul IAMS invented his dog food in 1950 and called it 999.
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| An 1868 edition |
4. Some MIT grads: EES.
5. Following: HEEDING - I know who I need to be HEEDING in this house π
6. Suave: URBANE.
7. Williams work: SCORE - Nobody does it better than John
8. Promote: TOUT.
9. Switzerland's __ LΓ©man: LAC.
10. Still waiting for a callback?: ECHOLESS- π Okay...
11. Picasso sculpture subject: SHE GOAT - 70-yr-old Pablo made this in 1950, the same year Paul Iams made his dog food.
12. School songs: ALMA MATERS - A touching scene from Grey's Anatomy as college kids gather and sing their ALMA MATER outside the hospital after a mass shooting at their school.
13. Words to live by: GOLDEN RULE.
14. Beginner's book: EASY READER - Did anyone else read about Dick, Jane and Spot?
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| My EASY READER |
22. Comedian Delaney: ROB.
23. "Yes!": DO IT.
24. Propeller part: BLADE.
25. Summer on Cape Cod, e.g.: BUSY SEASON.
26. South American domain name: INCA EMPIRE.
27. Election advice from young Grace Bedell to Mr. Lincoln: GROW A BEARD - On his way to his inauguration, Abe stopped in Grace's hometown of Westfield to thank her personally. A statue is there now to commemorate that meeting.
28. Fairy __: cotton candy, in Australia: FLOSS.
30. "The Pianist" Oscar winner: BRODY.
33. Word with blood or water: PRESSURE π
34. Firmly fixed: FAST.
36. Pre-euro Spanish coins: PESETAS.
37. Impressionist painter born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania: CASSATT.
39. Surfer's need: WAX - We're WAXIN' down our surf boards, Can't wait 'til June...
40. Was fully groan?: PUNNED π
42. Electronics component: DIODE - When I got my physics training, solid state DIODES was starting to replace vacuum tubes.
44. Swarming pest: GNAT.
45. Site that may host an edit war: WIKI.
46. Iowa college town: AMES.
47. Chap: GENT.
50. TV pioneer: RCA.
51. DJIA part: DOW.
Close, but no cigar.
ReplyDeleteI just could not get the “c” in Carle and somebody named Cassatt, so I ended up with a rare DNF. I’m not particularly happy about that, but I am happy to be with you folks and see if I did better than I did!
Sorry, that should be “if you did better than I did” but I’m sure you already knew that!
DeleteYooper Phil here ~ well I gave it all I had but DNF. Obscure names weren’t the biggest problem, it was AMUSE BOUCHE and a few other DNK’s.
ReplyDeleteDNF, filling 38 answers, 32 correctly. Started out great, completing SIDE HUSTLES without benefit of perp, but things quickly slogged down. I struggled with deRIG v. UNRIG, and settled for the one actually used. I should have known better, having encountered UNRIG here previously.
ReplyDeleteThanks to H.Gary for another fun review.
Got it done, but only with the help of red letters, alphabet runs, WAGs, and a lot of cursing. Had to retrieve the phone a few times after throwing it at the wall in exasperation…My day can only go up from here. And mind you, I plan to spend the day raking leaves…
ReplyDeleteTook just under 25 minutes for me to err.
ReplyDeleteI turfed it at today's actress (ogrady) intersecting with the comedian, the activist, and the flower.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThanks to the unknown Floss and Fleabane and depleted mental energy, this was a DNF. Props for some excellent fill, demerits for some tortured cluing and some fill that had a Green Paint tinge. Nevertheless, it was a Saturday worthy-challenge with more hits than misses.
Thanks, Bettina and Dan, and thanks, HG, for echoing some of my observations, plus giving us a fair and honest critique of the puzzle.
I’m going to a 65th high school reunion luncheon today. Our original class had 340+ members but, sadly, many are gone. It’ll be interesting to see how many attend today’s affair and how many are recognizable after so many years.
If you have Amazon Prime, I recommend a Brit comedy called Love and Marriage. There are about 6 or so episodes of mostly laughs and silliness, but also a few serious and touching moments throughout the series.
Have a great day.
I think this puzzle by Bettina and Dan was something of a tour de force. For one thing, it was educational, which I will come back to. And look at the puzzle's architecture, with triple stacks in the NW and SE. And the paucity of black squares. As solvers, we are faced with filling all that white space--199 squares.
ReplyDeleteI loved some of the clues:
--40 Across, One who may be sacked (PASSER). This is timely, with the football season just recently beginning;
--19 Across, Enhancer of soups or venue for hoops (MSG). So we've got both Madison Square Garden and monosodium glutamate;
--42 Across, Old book collectors (DUST).
Hands up for those like me who wanted ERA for 12 Across. But I was pretty sure that 12 Down was ALMAMATER. So that led me to try AGE.
I've got more, but first I need a break.
Really lengthy answers that even three letter perps couldn’t save and yet many of those I failed to figure out. Add the expected plethora of remote Saturday Proper Nouns
ReplyDeleteI did have SIDE HUSTLES but a bad perp changed it. Knew BLOOMER from a paper I did on the suffragette movement in New York State.
Didn’t know NED, (Canada Eh, you have an excuse for that one)
TITT after a half hour of frustration and a half blank puzzle staring me in the face.
Was the animal nutritionist Dr Alpo? Professor Purina? Nope IAMSure it was someone else. πΆ
Anyway “Aloha nui” LOA. Yesterday I finished a terrific novel “Eruption” written by the late Michael Crichton and published by James Patterson about a cataclysmic eruption of Mona LOA set in the near future.
If a novel can be a nail-biter this is one. Soon to be a film.
Enjoy the weekend ππ
Nice grid ruined by the obvious Natick at 37D/A.
ReplyDeleteTough one today. Just a bit over my pay grade. DNF, but with some pretty clever clues mixed in with the arcane and obscure. Finally TITT, but was more amusing than some of the Saturday offerings. In Illinois, the term for "pay-to-play" is BRIBE. State motto: "From the Statehouse to the Big House".
ReplyDeleteFIR. I'm amazed that I finished. I was ready to throw in the towel in the NE, when suddenly alma maters came to me and then all was clear.
ReplyDeleteToo many proper names for me, and two crossing at 37A and 37D took a WAG to fill.
And amuse bouche was also a WAG, as shy goat instead of she goat seemed possible to me.
Overall not my most favorite Saturday puzzle, but it's done, so there's that.
A few more thoughts on this gem of a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI lived in France back in the '70's, and can attest that the phrase "amuse-bouche" did not then exist. I kind of like it, though.
Mary Cassatt is one of my favorite artists. I have her works displayed here, including one on the wall of my granddaughters' bedroom. She was a member of the Impressionist group in Paris, and is buried just outside Paris.
I guess one of the meanings of YAW (35 Across) could be going off course, but I've never thought of it that way. Yawing to me is a certain type of normal rocking of a boat (or ship).
I learned from this puzzle that both Bloomers and Iams are named for their respective inventors. Who'd a thought?
I thought the clue for 40 Down was awkwardly worded.
I'd forgotten that Bob Balaban was in "Catch-22." He is a wonderful actor, and "Catch-22" is one of my guilty pleasures.
I made a few successful WAGs on this puzzle, some of which got me to 45 Across, which is, of course, WAG.
Enough, already. Thanks again, Bettina and Dan, for such an informative, fun, thought-provoking, and enjoyable (at times) puzzle.
The more common term for AMUSE BOUCHE in French is AMUSE GUEULE.
DeleteAlmost TITT after NW and SE corners seemed too far outta reach, but i somehow cobbled together a solve.
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember seeing AMUSE BOUCHE before but it took a long time before i made the connection.
Overall, fun puzzle
I enjoyed the review much more than the puzzle itself. "Cluing too clever by half" is putting it kindly. The obscurity quotient was overwhelming, to the point where I completed just 68% of the puzzle before employing the "reveal letter" option to help me to the finish line. My first pass at the across clues yielded a paltry eight entries. Not an enjoyable puzzle at all.
ReplyDeleteWell done to Bettina and Dan. Nice job to Gary
ReplyDeleteLots of P&P got me to the end with a hint from my youngest daughter on the Caterpillar author.
Hi-diddle-de-de a pussycat's life for me. Why else would they call it a catnip?
Wheedle
LOVED this one. The exact right amount of tough. Took me somewhere between 20 - 30 minutes to FIR. Things I didn't know, I could suss out and when some of the longer answers revealed themselves, I found myself literally saying out loud, "Okay, pretty good. You got me there." Enjoyed the cluing on MSG and learned what FLEABANE is!
ReplyDeleteCertainly a challenging puzzle - Sat. Puzzles always teach me how much I don’t know, and how much less I care about who/what’s “on trend” now (@ 74yo) than I did then (even @ 47yo, certainly @ 27). I recall “amuse bouche” becoming a thing in 2010’s when upscale restaurants were luring folks back after recession; I often liked the taste more than my entree. I loved the cluing for “punned” - I LOVE groaners! I had a parishioner once (an EE - 4D) who was amazing at punning, and I was his best audience; he had a pun for everything - his brain amazed me! Thanks for the great work-out! Irish Miss - hope your reunion gather is pleasing - I did my 65th last October and was delighted to find new friends … Happy weekend to all!
ReplyDeleteI did my 55th! reunion last year. Math error or memory error or … hmmm….
DeleteNot “anonymous” - it’s Sophia correcting her math/memory π€¦πΌ♀️
DeleteH.G., ja, you're correct about yaw.
ReplyDeleteYes, any vessel (air or sea) that is in current (air or water) must YAW if they want to travel a straight line to get where they are going.
DeleteKen is right if he means the change of heading as a boat goes through waves. It is difficult and inefficient to steer a straight line in waves; best is to steer more into a wave going up, and the other direction going down the back of the wave. But the side -to-side rocking movement that makes many people seasick is roll, not YAW.
That's Jinx opining. Growing pains setting up my new laptop.
DeleteCount me as close, but no cigar. DNF. My Waterloo was in the west. I recited all types of natural disasters in my head, but even though I'm a So Cal person, I never thought of the bIg oNE. Knowing little to nothing about boats, I thought stripping a ship would involve scraping the hull or refinishing the deck, neither of which fit. DNK John Swinney, and was annoyed with the stack of names at 48, 52, and 54 Across, though I did mange to fill them because I had ___Y SEASON, INCA EMPIRE, and wear A BEARD. Thanks for the comeuppance, Bettina and Dan!
ReplyDeleteMany thanks also to Husker Gary, an URBANE GENT who would never SCAM us but gives us the SCORE. Your review was a BLAST! IAM[s] HEEDING your PROSE.
Ha ha, "manage," not "mange."
ReplyDeleteFIW by one square that I didn’t proof myself clearly as I had ‘heeling’ for following (which works), but didn’t look at ‘lart’ long enough clearly! And C for Cassatt and Carle was my last fill as well. And changing Era for Age made all the difference for me as well! And while this may be a tour de force from a constructor point of view, I count 16 specific names that are not in a standard dictionary! Who except Connecticutans know that governor! Crosses got it of course, but when you’ve got perps of a painter and writer or O’Grady, Bloomer, and Fleabane crossing shegoat- I mean come on!!!
ReplyDeleteECHOLESS. AMUSE BOUCHE. How did I ever FIR? Well, I did know the gourmet restaurant term, but I sympathize with anyone who considered that to be a hall-of-fame natick.
ReplyDeleteOTHER UNKNOWNS: LOA (as clued). O’GRADY (as clued). EASY READER (though I did read about Dick and Jane). The abbreviation that yielded DOW didn’t open the V8 can. Neither did calling an EMBASSY a “mission.” And the feared natural disaster is THE BIG ONE. Must have “THE.”
HAND UP FOR: Spam before SCAM. Luc before LAC. Plug before TOUT. Ted before NED. High before BUSY.
There’s such a fine line between a brilliant puzzle and an unfair one. I came to the Corner sitting on the fence, but I think our collective opinions count on today’s presentation.
They can put this one where the sun doesn’t shine. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteThey can put this one where the sun doesn’t shine.
ReplyDeleteSaturday toughie, but a clever and, at times, fun one even with all those SIDE HUSTLES. So, many thanks, Bettina and Dan. And, Gary, your commentaries are always helpful and a pleasure--thanks for those too.
ReplyDeleteI sure could have used a CAREER COACH to help me with this BIG ONE of a puzzle in this BUSY SEASON, with those amazingly long solutions, that didn't seem to have a GOLDEN RULE or a way to TURN ON A DIME. Hard to consider it an EASY READER, given all the PRESSURE it put on us to work on the solving. Maybe an ARCADE TOKEN would have helped, but not if there's no slot to put in any PESETAS. Still, it was URBANE in some respects, and it even PUNNED here and there, so it does deserve for us to TOUT it a bit. But although it offered us a DRUG, there was hardly any food, so I think I'd best quit and get myself some lunch.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Nope. No way. I did fill in all the squares but had to look up a lot and "check grid" a lot. It was tiring. Glad it's done.
ReplyDeleteWow! This one beat me up and stole my lunch money. My page was full of erasures (proudly holding up the paper tradition!) as nearly every WAG (and the educated ones too) eventually changed. I couldn't parse the SW and finally threw in the towel. Congrats to anyone who FIR.
ReplyDeleteThe only clue I didn't think fit was 19A - every other clue was a fight but that one took an easy Monday answer and described it in two common ways, just for the sake of a rhyme. So 1 easy peasy lemon squeezy clue vs 70 stressed depressed lemon zests. I'll show myself out now...
I had to look up a few names that I didn’t know and still DNF.
ReplyDeleteIn the NW I had SpAM and also. That meant I gave up on that section.
Yes, Saturday CWs are supposed to be difficult. Sometimes I get them, sometimes I don’t.
Happy 65th IM☘️. If you have not been to a reunion in the last 20 years, you might be in for a shock.
Thank you HG for a helpful recap.
ReplyDeleteHola! I find myself in good company for this Saturday tough puzzle. I completed about 95% but had no idea about AMUSE BOUCHE and still don't understand it since I don't know French. For a former fourth grade teacher Eric CARLE is a given. His books were always a hit in my classroom.
ReplyDeletei no longer do yoga but that TWIST is very familiar to me. I did recall "GROW A BEARD" but not Grace Bedell's name so I'm glad it was provided.
EASY READER is sometimes needed for some students who have problems with comprehension. FLEABANE is new for me but it filled through perps.
Congratulations to those of you who finished this; I look forward to Sunday's puzzle. Thank you to the constructors and to Gary, our steadfast Saturday narrator. I hope your day has gone well.
37 A/D did for me. I guessed 'P' not 'C' - perhaps thinking of the Volkswagen Passat. :-(
ReplyDeleteI'd argue you'd have to do a lot more than just unrig a ship before it could be described as having been stripped. But I got that one from the perps so the clue couldn't have been that bad.
My comment should read Alpo, not also as Mr Spell Check decided.
ReplyDeleteReally liked this! The cluster of proper names in the NE made that region a bit of a slog, but nothing I couldn't handle in the end. For my money, CASSATT is not a deep cut -- she's one of America's most famous artists, and indeed the only American impressionist I could think of upon reading the clue.
ReplyDeleteThe entry for 3D, 'pharmacopeia,' shows a print date of 1699 , not 1868.
ReplyDeleteFirst impression: “holy $#!t, it’s all white!!”. Read it through, got seven fills and TITT…and then dug it back out, looked up all 12 proper names and tried again. As H. Gary sez, “too clever by half” and “out there” (more like in an alternate universe…). Gagged at AMUSEBOUCHE — yet another word from the language that is entirely misspelled. Did know LOA from my days living on Da Rock, and Fairy FLOSS thanks to hang time with friends from Oz.
ReplyDeleteBut all in all, this one was Γ fun. I think next time I see a puzzle from the above constructors, I’ll be leery of even looking at it. Sorry, kids, we expect at least a little bit of enjoyment with our challenges.
====> Darren / L.A.
little<-i>
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