Saturday Themeless by David P. Williams
I was fortunate to blog Dave's first puzzle that was published for the LA Times on May 15, 2021. It was so long ago that Rich Norris was still the editor.
The brilliance of Dave's puzzle is evident when you see the three vertical and three horizontal 11-letter fills in the heart of the puzzle. Subsequently, he had a very low word count of 66. The last horizontal fill is only 51. Across and the last vertical fill is 47. Down
My failure was at MIN_US/_ENTIANS which fills my definition of a Natick. I wrote my grandson (see below), who is a professional jazz musician and getting a Graduate Degree at The University of North Texas, and he immediately knew MINGUS and told me some terrible stories about him.
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| My Grandson |
Across:
1. Street in London home to many medical offices: HARLEY.
7. Charles known as the "Angry Man of Jazz": MINGUS.
13. Cold spells: ICE AGES.
15. Like most drafts: UNSENT - Mentally, I went through several definitions of draft before I arrived at the ones that indicate that you might want review a few times before you hit Send.
16. "Hang on": JUST A SEC.
18. Pose: STANCE.
19. Duck: AVOID.
20. Admit: COP TO - On the other hand...
22. Get some sun: TAN.
23. Get too much sun: BURN - On the other hand...
24. "No kidding!": TRULY.
25. Guinness order: PINT.
26. Ready: SET.
27. Large venue: ARENA.
28. Song birds?: SWANS - Two came to my mind
29. Serious scratch: PRETTY PENNY - The idiom explained
31. Poutine kin: CHEESE FRIES - You can hold the cheese on my FRIES
Not a big fan below either!
32. Comes full circle?: WRAPS AROUND.
33. Second-most populous urban area of the Tibetan Plateau: LHASA
33. Second-most populous urban area of the Tibetan Plateau: LHASA
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| LHASA pop. 521,000 |
Getting from LHASA to Kathmandu takes a WRAP AROUND route.
34. Primary rte.?: US ONE - From Ft. Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida
35. Ask sincerely: BEG.
38. A in Kindergarten: EINE - Kindergarten is German so "A" dog is EINE Hund
39. Like some accents: ACUTE.
40. Adidas rival: FILA.
41. Sound of disapproval: TSK.
42. Shorts' lack: KNEES 😀
43. John whose Civil War trilogy was adapted as a miniseries starring Patrick Swayze: JAKES - You'll have to look hard to see John's name in the credit
44. "Don't bother": SKIP IT.
46. Star witness?: SIDEKICK.
48. Moderate: GENTLE.
49. International understanding: ENTENTE - The most famous/infamous one?
50. Instruments that are difficult to donate, ironically: ORGANS - Now that is a great observation!
51. Help: ASSIST.
Down:
1. Garments similar to mantillas: HIJABS.
3. Sandals, e.g.: RESORT.
4. Mass medium: LATIN - The Catholic Church changed from being all in LATIN just before we got married over 60 years ago. Some LATIN phrases are used during the liturgical year.
5. "Zounds!": EGAD.
6. Pitcher's aim?: YES - Not a baseball pitcher or a water pitcher. This pitcher is a salesman.
7. Dank: MUSTY.
8. Digging: INTO - I really got INTO Dave's puzzle
9. PRISM org.: NSA.
10. Plants whose roots flavor angostura bitters and Aperol: GENTIANS Angostura bitters is a concentrated bitters (herbal alcoholic preparation) based on gentian, herbs, and spices, produced by
14. Ingredient omitted from a recipe, perhaps: SECRET SAUCE - There's some things they won't tell you. 😀
17. Retaliates, in a way: COUNTERSUES - The man on the right sued Taylor Swift for $3M saying she got him fired, but he lost the suit. Taylor countersued for $1 for assault which he is doing in this picture and won that suit.
21. Do some sole searching: PLAY FOOTSIE - I know Irish will like this version
24. Arborist's concerns: TREES - After living on the treeless prairie, Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day to support planting trees.
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| Very early Lincoln, NE |
27. Corncake that may be filled with queso: AREPA.
28. One making bank in Paris?: SEINE - I'm going out on a limb to say I'll bet you understand this picture
29. Moon unit: PHASE.
30. Dried plum: PRUNE.
31. Revolutionary activity?: CRANKING - Success!
32. Hair of the dog: WHISKER 😊
33. "It's that time": LET'S GO.
35. Midriff-baring suit: BIKINI.
36. Chooses: ELECTS - Carol Blood is running against Mike Flood in our 1st District Congressional race.
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| A clever sign! |
37. Flood insurance?: GASKET - Given enough time...
39. They're paid to play: ANTES.
40. Mountebanks: FAKES - Derivation
42. Brick oven: KILN.
43. Takes off: JETS.
45. Org. that publishes Our Children magazine: PTA.
47. Father figurer: DNA.
2 comments:
One of the hardest things for me to get was one across and one down. And I still say “ Pwned” is not a word, no matter how many times I see it.
Anyway, after BST* I managed to solve this insanely difficult puzzle. FIR, so I’m happy.
*Blood, sweat, and tears
Thank you, David P. Williams, and thank you, Husker Gary.
A neat looking grid. Looked like op art, and also reminded me of a pinwheel.
I TRULY enjoyed this puzzle. It took quite a bit of concentration, a bit of "outside of the box" thinking, and a few good (aka lucky) guesses. I like tough puzzles.
But in the end, I must COP TO one bad cell. I had no idea for either the "Angry man of jazz", and the "Plants whose roots are used to flavor angostura". All of the other letters in those two answers perped in, but not the G. I was guessing that it would be a C, a D or a K. It was my last letter to fill, and I went with the C.
When I opened the review, I read that HG had the same singular bad cell). I an in good company. :-)
The J in JAKES and JETS was a good guess, and my penultimate fill. I first thought it might need a G in that position, but decided to go with that J as it seemed more likely.
I liked many clues today, but especially Songs birds for SWANS and Flood insurance for GASKET.
There's our friend AREPA again. I thought about getting one on Thursday. I looked at the menu online before I headed in that direction on another errand. They're huge. $14.60 for the Arepa Llanera. Grilled beef with mano cheese and avocado, pico de gallo. / Con queso de mano y aguacate, pico de gallo.
waiT A SEC to JUST A SEC
droP IT to StoP IT to SKIP IT.
WHISKEy to WHISKER.
Asian to ACUTE.
Sit for to STANCE.
HG, my great-grand-niece recently graduated from UNT. Then got married. And now is with child, so there's going to be another great added to that string.
Also, Aitch Gee, I came across a website that I think you will enjoy. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/
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