Saturday Themeless by Adam Aaronson
There are lots of ways to struggle with a crossword and today I decided to enter what I thought was a solid/clever fill that turned out to be wrong. At 46. Upper class, often: SEMINAR, I thought SENIORS compose most upper classes and stuck with it. When I saw that I should have had SEMINAR, that part of the puzzle opened up very quickly. I do have to take one bad cell at S(H)EIN/(H)EARTH but I did enjoy the struggle.Here is a wonderful story about Adam's start in the construction game at 19 years old.
Across:
1. Genre embraced by Miles Davis in the late 1960s: JAZZ FUSION.
11. Intel on a political rival: OPPO - What they dig up in OPPOsition research makes you wonder how you could vote for anybody.
15. Speaker of the house?: AMAZON ECHO.
16. Einsteinhaus city: BERN - Where Albert lived from 1902 - 1909 and developed his theory of relativity
17. Bottom of a pie: PIZZA CRUST 😀
18. Quantity of strontium in an award-winning 2018 photograph: ATOM.
19. Professor's domain: EDU.
20. Throng: MOB.
21. Insect that collaborates through stigmergy: TERMITE - Stigmergy is the method in which social organisms communicate indirectly by sensing and shaping what’s around them without following a plan. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
23. "__ de Funk": Horace Silver composition: OPUS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
24. Postop prescription: OPIATE.
 |
| A common one |
25. Narrow channel: STRAIT - The one that leaps to my mind
28. __ musubi: meat-and-rice snack: SPAM - I knew SPAM was popular in Hawaii
29. "__ Mubarak": EID.
31. Hestia's domain: HEARTH - Greek goddess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
32. Didn't divulge: HID.
33. "Dumb Money" star Paul: DANO.
34. Extremities: EDGES.
35. Check: VET - You try to VET anyone before you hire or appoint them
36. Stallone role: RAMBO - Turns out Rocky works too
37. Checked at the door: IDED.
38. Cap: LID.
39. Decidedly non-vegan kid-lit character: SAM I AM - Sam keeps offering...
40. Airport code that encompasses EWR, JFK, and LGA: NYC.
41. Boatloads: TONS.
42. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" musicians: PIPERS.
43. Dress part: BODICE.
45. Some Barbieland residents: KENS.
47. Unite: WED.
48. York mother: MUM.
51. Placed, as bets: LAID - In last year's Super Bowl, you LAID the points if you thought KC would win by more than 1.5 points and took the points if you thought SF would win. KC won by 3 and that was the winning bet.
52. Made a solo arrangement?: LIVED ALONE 😀
55. Rainbow forms: ARCS.
56. Bright green cocktails: APPLETINIS.
57. Furtive summons: PSST.
58. Walkway created by foot traffic: DESIRE PATH - I've never heard of the term but it makes good sense
Down:
1. Zinger: JAPE.
2. During: AMID - The start of one of my favorite poems
3. Bird voiced by John Oliver in "The Lion King": ZAZU.
4. "Bo-o-oring!": ZZZ.
5. Spots for soft landings: FOAM PITS.
6. Crude: UNCOUTH.
7. Jokic and Jovic of the NBA, e.g.: SERBS - +1
7. Jokic and Jovic of the NBA, e.g.: SERBS - +1
8. Hosp. area: ICU.
9. "You're too much!": OH STOP IT.
10. Tablet: NOTE PAD - Oh, one you don't plug in!
11. "Becoming" memoirist: OBAMA.
12. French girlfriend: PETITE AMIE.
13. Energy consumption unit?: PROTEIN BAR. 😀
14. "Your money's no good here!": ON ME.
22. Perimeter: RIM.
23. Spent time on the lake, say: OARED.
25. Fast-fashion giant based in Singapore: SHEIN ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
26. Loveable sorts: TEDDY BEARS.
27. Crudely drawn cartoons expressing frustration: RAGE COMICS.
28. Shakes: SHEDS.
30. Makes toast?: DOOMS.
33. Makes wet: DAMPS.
35. Like some tomatoes: VINE RIPE.
36. Outdoor concert contingency: RAIN DATE.
38. Yard sale sign, essentially: LOCAL AD.
39. Likely ticket holder?: SPEEDER.
41. __ ear: TIN.
44. Performed in a Shakespeare play?: DIDST.
45. Talib who rapped "My name is in the middle of equality": KWELI.
46. Smack: SLAP.
48. First name in art: MONA.
49. Military group: UNIT.
50. Material for a scrimmage pinny: MESH.
53. CEO's direct reports: VPS.
54. Sass: LIP.
12 comments:
Well, how about that! I finally got a Saturday puzzle 100 per cent right! Was it easier than the usual Saturday puzzle, or was I just “on my game” today? I await your verdict, good friends, but “Yippie!” FIR, so I’m happy, and not just happy, but over the moon!
As I've found in my life, I did great in the South and struggled in the North. Lots of fill with no errors in the lower half, but almost nothing up top. Overall, filled 42, 38 correctly.
Missed with gram instead of ATOM (is ATOM a quantity? One ATOM would be.) Also had rowed instead of OARED, and Rocky instead of RAMBO. edGE COMICS was my other flaw.
OK all you pilots and frequent fliers in the Corner - in what context is NYC an airport code? I'm thinking that it might be the name of a regional ATC center, but would Patti know that? That's pretty specialized knowledge. (I knew EWR, JFK and LGA which are KEWR, KJFK and KLGA in pilot speak.)
Congrats to those who finished this one, and thanks to H. Gary for the tour.
Airport codes are monitored by the International Airport Transit Association (IATA) and New York City's IATA code is NYC. It represents the New York City area, including flights to John F Kennedy International Airport (IATA: JFK), Newark Liberty International Airport (IATA: EWR), and LaGuardia Airport (IATA: LGA). As Subgenius said this seemed easy for a Saturday though I had another fail as I never heard of DESIRED PATH and didn't look carefully at RAIN DATE . Thanks Adam and Gary; go Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois and Navy. Great first game of the World Series with Marlin discards featured
Took 16:42 today.
Guessed correctly after alphabet runs at the intersections of shein/hearth and Eid/dooms. Like others, "desire path" was a new term.
I've never heard of Kweli, couldn't remember Dano, and not a fan of didst.
Samiam and localad took a long time for me to parse.
That was a pleasant Saturday puzzle.
Still, it is an IATA area, not an airport code. Still an unforced bad clue. Saturdays are hard enough without those.
Didn't we have a fairly extensive exchange regarding desire path a few weeks ago right here in the Corner?
FIR. I'm amazed I got through this Saturday's challenge! There were so many times I was just ready to throw in the towel and then something would click and another section filled. Last to fall was the NW. I so tried to go with amazing instead of Amazon and then the aha moment happened.
I've never heard of a desire path, but nothing else made sense there. And I too had gram before atom. I agree, atom is not a quantity.
But overall, although a struggle, I did enjoy this puzzle.
I didn’t have much confidence I would get this one when I encountered clues that contained the words Scrimmage pinny, Stigmergy, Strontium, Talib, Einsteinhaus, __ de Funk and others, but somehow I FIR w/out help, although I did take about a half hour break after the west half was filled. Had Seniors before it gave way to SEMINAR. Rocky instead of RAMBO never occurred to me or that would’ve messed me up. APPERTINIS, RAGE COMICS, DESIRE PATH, all perps. I’ve never OARED a row boat, but I’ve rowed many. Definitely a Saturday difficulty level for me, a struggle, but I like a challenge. Thank you Adam, nice cluster of Z’s in the NW!
Thanks HG for making sense of it all.
Good Morning:
First of all, congrats to Subgenius! From my viewpoint, this was not an easier than usual Saturday, so you deserve a thumbs up for your efforts and a well-earned trip over the Moon!
I found the solve very challenging and almost gave up, but P and P and a certain Irish trait of stubbornness kept me going. It took 59:06, but it was worth it in terms of satisfaction and enjoyment. My major obstacle was being convinced that Rocky was rock solid and that Joke was the Zinger. Eventually, Joke morphed into Jibe and finally Jape materialized, which broke open the Amazon Echo and Pizza Crust dam. Not knowing Zazu or Foam Pits added to this log jam. In addition to these quandaries, there were several other unknowns: Opus, EID, Desire Path, SHEIN, Rage Comics, and Kweli. Fortunately, the perps were kind, so a FIR was achieved, albeit slowly and laboriously. My favorite entry was Teddy Bears. Who doesn’t love Teddies?
Thanks, Adam, for a Saturday Stumper that was difficult (for me) but doable with extra effort and thanks, HG, for the usual interesting and informative review and eye-candy visuals. Desiderata is one of my favorites, also.
Have a great day.
Irish Miss, "Not knowing Zazu or Foam Pits added to this log jam." That comment reminded me of Zazu Pitts, a silent-era film actress, who played Margie's neighbor and confidential adviser on My Little Margie.
DNF. I don’t have Irish Miss☘️ P and P. I get to the point where I think, I have things to do today, so the West remained mostly blank.
I encountered many names I didn’t know and expressions I’m not familiar with and barely understand. For instance AMAZON ECHO, which I filled but don’t know why. I loved the reference to Miles Davis, of course. I have, no had, many of his records.
Clever clues: LIVED ALONE, SEMINAR. I misunderstood the ON ME clue. SAM I AM, no clue. RAGE COMICS, no clue. ZAZU, no clue. And not following sports, didn’t know the SERBS players, though WAGS helped.
I had fun nevertheless. Thanks HG for the nice review.
I'll bet that the Corner's friendly constructor Stella Zawistowski might opine that seating students alphabetically in the classroom puts some students at a disadvantage. I would further guess that today's constructor Adam Aaronson would opine otherwise.
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