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.
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.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, 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.
ReplyDeleteA 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/
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteAt first glance I was ready to give this one a pass. At second glance, I should have. My experience was very similar to TTP's. Didn't care for PWNED. At the end I still had two blank cells -- the NG of MINGUS. Bzzzzzt. Thanx, David and Husker.
ORGANS: I learned recently that I'm too old to receive an organ (not surprised) and too old to donate one (surprised).
If you need a transplant I would urge you to get a second, and even third, opinion. Sadly, some facilities care too much about their success rate and use somewhat arbitrary age limits to improve their odds.
DeleteTTP @5:32 Speaking of the grid shape, this constructor’s shtick is that he (apparently) only makes themelesses with the exact same layout as today’s. He has a bunch in the NYT, though I managed to find a LAT themeless of his with a different black square pattern.
ReplyDeleteFUSTY is a word that, guess what, has a very similar meaning to MUSTY. Also, there’s no UNTO in the grid. Which means that FUNGUS would’ve been a better fill choice for 7A, no Natick with GENTIANS.
…and by “managed to find” I mean that I didn’t even notice that HG linked it at the start of the post.
Delete10D Gentians. If you ever drank a bottle of Moxie, you know what gentian root tastes like, very bitter. Moxie is the official soft drink of Maine. I hated it as a kid but have grown to like it as I got older. Moxie is a Coca Cola product and the new formula is sweeter and less bitter than the 1950s version
ReplyDeleteI've been known to bond with transplanted New Englanders over Moxie Orange.
DeleteTook 17:16 today for me to ... luckily guess correctly at the intersection of the angry jazz musician and the plant. That's a Natick.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Jakes or Harley, and I know this guy who hates stumbling at 1A....
I disliked the clues for USOne, Latin, & gasket -- poor attempts at putting cutesy ahead of accuracy.
Originally, I had cheese curds, but they later gave way to fries.
One correction to the explanation of 38 across -- dog in German is a masculine noun so "ein Hund". Cat, a feminine noun, would be a better choice "eine Katze"
ReplyDeleteUnlike Gary I knew Charles MINGUS- I used to read Downbeat Magazine. But like Subgenius, HARLEY was all perps and the last word I filled this morning. I made some lucky guesses after just a few perps-PRETTY PENNY, CHEESE FRIES, PLAY FOOTSIE.
ReplyDeleteJAKES, SIDEKICK (made no sense to me until OJ's photo),HIJABS, YES, NSA, PWNED, GENTIANS- dnk as clued. I'd never heard of JAKES and it took an ABC run to get JETS for "takes off".
EINE- I noticed the capital K and in German all nouns are capitalized.
PHASE for 'Moon unit'? My first thought was Moon Unit ZAPPA, daughter of Frank Zappa.
Took me 53:39 for the FIR w/out help, but it did take one walkaway to clear my head. The west filled fairly fast, the east not so much. In the end I was left with five blanks which I somehow was able to WAG correctly on first try, the H, Y, N and G in the top row, and the J in the SE. Like HG, my first two thoughts of a “draft” definition were wrong, as was my thought for Sandals. How is PWNED pronounced? I wear ACUVUE contacts but that still required perps. Whiskey can also be the hair of the dog to someone who’s hungover. CSO to Splynter with ORGANS. Thank you David for what I consider an outstanding, challenging Saturday puzzle!
ReplyDeleteHG ~ always enjoy your stellar reviews, thank you for your efforts!
PWNED is pronounced as 'owned' with a 'p' at the start (in the US anyway).
Deletehttps://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/pwned
This was an impressive construction job on the part of David. The entire center is devoid of black squares, with six 11-letter clues crossing each other. And not one of the six is gibberish or gimmicky.
ReplyDeleteAs a Shakespearean, I note the reappearance of "zounds," which is short for "God's wounds" (referring to Jesus on the cross). Often you see it in one of Shakespeare's plays as "swounds." Either way, it was seen as a naughty word back in the day, and often excised.
I see that the the honor for the clue for the 11-letter horizontal in the dead center of the puzzle goes to "Poutine kin." I will let CanadianEh weigh in here. I will just mention that poutine is considered as something of a national dish of Canada, a combination of fries, cheese curds, and gravy. Many find it unpalatable, but I actually like it. Of course, I am also fond of creamed chipped beef.
As a sports nut, I love Saturdays in the fall because of college football. And now we've also got the baseball playoffs with a full slate of the Division Series today. I will nonetheless try to get back here with more observations on David's impressive puzzle.
In Catch-22, Doc's corpsmen painted everyone's gums with GENTIAN Violet.
ReplyDeleteTried Charlie "Bird" Parker before I thought of MINGUS.
BTW, the "Kyrie Eleison" chant were the only Greek words in the Latin Mass.
FIW. Never heard of pwned, and am at a loss to understand it even with the explanation. Yuk!
ReplyDeleteAdd to that that I didn't know Mingus, and I went astray in the NE.
This was a real workout, even for a Saturday, and not my most favorite puzzle.
Finally finished this very interesting puzzle with help. Some very clever clueing at SEINE, CRANKING, KNEES, and SWANS. Is GEBTLE less than moderate? Is a (SECRET) SAUCE an ingredient?
ReplyDeleteMisspelled HIJAB, so ICE AGE took some time. HARLEY Street was a given from watching all those PBS Masterpiece Theatre shows. The only place to go to a doctor in London, so it seems.
To continue, AREPA not remembered and PWNED? GENTIANS are common in the forests of WV.
ReplyDeleteCharles MINGUS, musician, composer, band leader, is considered a giant in the jazz world, alongside Louie Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, Ella Fitzgerald. and others. He had severe mental health issues that explained some of his behavior. He spent time voluntarily in a hospital, seeking help. His wife Sue, accomplished in her own right, often kept him on an even keel. Sue continued his various band, both here and abroad, for many years after his death.
Happy day, all! Parsan
Thanks for defending Mingus.
DeleteThanks for supporting Charles, one of my absolute faves.
DeleteI like the puzzle, and the blog. Thx❣️ I didn’t know pwned (but it had to be pint and swan!), nor Fila and failed to suss out fakes 🤦🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️. When I was a kid (1950s) I got “swimmer’s ear” one summer; our doc treated it w “gentian violet” drops - my ear/cheek were purple-stained for a week.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know 1A, and that's not an auspicious way to start! Guessed HARPER instead. The P made PATIN which is used during mass to carry the communion hosts. Made sense (although should be spelled PATEN). The R gave me RES because a pitcher (salesman) might be after a reservation? Justifiable nonsense from a desperate solver without a clue - or rather a clue but no answer!
ReplyDeleteNot my cuppa' today. Too cutesy for me. PWNED? Oh, Come on. Really?
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteAt first glance, I was not too confident about solving this, but due to the several helpful long entries, the answers appeared almost like magic, as one domino fell and another, and another. The very punchy, lively fill made this an enjoyable exercise, from the Secret Sauce, Countersues, Play Footsie, to the Pretty Penny Cheese Fries! Adding to this cornucopia of fun were the clever clues of Hair of The Dog=Whisker, (YP, I had Whiskey first), Mass Medium=Latin, Revolotionary Activity=Cranking, and Song Birds?=Swans, and others. There were a few off kilter clues that tried too hard and Pwned is an abomination, not a word, but, overall, this is an outstanding puzzle with an impressively low (8) TLW count. Harley and Gentians were perped but I knew Mingus, thanks to a jazz enthusiast (fanatic?) husband.
Thanks, David, for a satisfying yet challenging Saturday stumper and thanks, HG, for the fine review and usual visual eye candy. The footsie-playing kitty made my day! 😉
I was AWOL yesterday because I had no internet. Spectrum came this morning and replaced the modem, so I’m back in business. I was pleasantly surprised by the prompt service.
Have a great day.
I guess Mr. Smarty Pants, Autocorrect, missed correcting Revolutionary.
ReplyDeleteA very satisfying puzzle, difficult but doable. I appreciated the lack of pop culture names. I did know MINGUS. I left one letter blank, the W of PWNED and I had one error patin for LATIN, so ended up on the wrong street.
ReplyDeleteI loved the PLAYING FOOTSIE and the WHISKERS clues, and several others.
Thank you HG for your notes and a picture of your handsome musician grandson.
This one was enjoyable with enough perps to counter the unknowns. Thanks Husker as I had no idea what "pwned" was. Definitely don't like forced clues like that. Other than that I say well done.
ReplyDeleteI got off to a great start with HARLEY Street and Charles MINGUS, and I ultimately FIR, but the annoyances were many and they were ACUTE.
ReplyDeleteNo. 1, for all of us apparently, was GENTIANS, especially crossing UNSENT and next door to NSA and its unknown clue. The SWANS song clue was a reach that also unduly complicated the NE.
No. 2 for me was “primary rte” for U.S. ONE. Yeah, it’s “primary” if you think nothing west of Pittsburgh counts for much. Eastern bias! We’ve seen PWNED before, but it took me a while to remember, so that’s No. 3. No. 4 was the dreadful “making bank” clue for SEINE. The expression didn’t apply very well, and it’s an awful expression in any case. No. 5 was a tie between two of what Jayce aptly calls “paraphrases.” They were “no kidding”/TRULY, and “It’s that time”/LET’S GO.
Also awful: “Pitcher’s aim”/YES; “Moon Unit”/PHASE; “Star witness”/SIDEKICK; “Hair of the dog”/WHISKERS. Who notices dogs’ whiskers, and are they even “hair?” They’re certainly not fur.
Despite obstacles, most of the puzzle filled quickly. Aside from the HARLEY/MINGUS exacta, John JAKES and AREPA gave me early momentum, and deducing that “scratch” meant “money” helped me get PRETTY PENNY fairly quickly. I can’t decide whether I liked or disliked PLAY FOOTSIE. Loved the ORGANS entry.
So I liked a lot of stuff. With better editing, I would have liked the puzzle.
So I liked a lot of stuff. With better editing, I would have liked the puzzle.
I thought the clue for SEINE was apropos for a Saturday, but I still don’t get EINE as clued 🤷♂️
DeleteAnon @ 7:03, thanks for that tidbit about David P. Williams themeless puzzles. I don't get/subscribe to the NYT. I looked back at his LAT May 15, 2021 themeless, and I see that I couldn't quite solve that one either.
ReplyDeletePSA - For those that don't know PWNED, you probably should. Just think "owned", as in sports parlance, for dominated.
At minimum, you should link to this website (and bookmark it for future use), and check your email ids and your phone numbers. A Microsoft Regional Director built the free site "to allow anyone to quickly assess if they may have been put at risk due to an online account of theirs having been compromised or "pwned" in a data breach."
https://haveibeenpwned.com/
It's quick, easy and painless. And you will be informed. Knowing that your email address has been pwned gives you good reason to be extra cautious when getting email from unrecognized senders.
If you have been pwned, you should change your account password(s), especially if you haven't done so in a while. Use a password generator to create a sufficiently complex password, and a consider password vault to store your password(s).
DNF, typical for Saturday. Filled 41, 36 correctly. I had PWNED but erased it because CHEESE bread was the only thing I could think of.
ReplyDeleteThanks to H.Gary for the fun explanation.
I foolishly started out trying to solve my usual way, with pen on paper. I HATE it when I DNK 1A, but soon found there is a LOT I DNK, though I DID know MINGUS. Soon I gave up on pen on paper, and went online with red letter help. Even then, needed a few alphabet runs, so hafta take a DNF. I DID finally fill the grid, but alphabet runs are cheating. As many said, PWNED?? Never heard of it, and as one comment said even after the explanation, I was left scratching my head. DNK HARLEY, GENTIANS, or several others. 30A "Dried plum" = PRUNE. I find the packages in the store now say "Dried Plum" not "Prune". I guess it sounds fancier. SECRETSAUCE makes me think of the McD's "Big Mac" jingle, where they mention a "secret sauce". Gimme a break: the "secret sauce" is ketchup, mustard, mayo and relish. TTP @ 5:32 said there are many clever clues, and I totally agree. And the grid is very impressive. So thanx, DPW, even though you defeated me, it was clever and fun. Thanx too to HG for the terrific write-up.
ReplyDeleteUnclefred, McD's is SPECIALsauce!
DeleteMany thanks for a challenging Saturday puzzle, David--still very enjoyable. And I always enjoy your helpful commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
ReplyDeleteJUST A SEC was a bit of a warning to us to AVOID going ahead too fast. If we moved slowly we might get some nice treats, like some SECRET SAUCE, or even some CHEESE FRIES and a PRUNE. I could have used a PINT of Guinness to help me out, but in the end I decided to just SKIP IT. If I were younger and had a BIKINI I'd yell LET'S GO and head to a pool for a swim. But I'll have to ELECT a nap instead.
Have a good rest of the day, everybody.
Thanks to David for a Saturday workout! I liked your striking grid but I struck out with a 2-box FIW at #6 & #10. Not too shabby!
ReplyDeleteFAV: WHISKER because my wrong answer WHISKEy still helped to give me 86% of the correct letters. As others have said, there were many fun & challenging clues (EINE, UNSENT, DNA, ...).
Thanks to -T who explained PWNED a while back. I remembered!!
Thanks to H-Gary for another enlightening review! I especially liked your double meaning image for Star witness. Very clever!
Wow. At first, seeing all the white in this grid lit a panic response…but once I got a foothold, I found this to be doable, albeit difficult. Lots of third-reading clues and a couple of DNKs (I’m lookin’ at you, GENTIANS). But luckily I got MINGUS (after, like @billocohoes found, PARKER didn’t perp) so it wasn’t a Natick for me. And wooHOO! only two proper names! Thank you, Mr. Williams.
ReplyDeleteIn the “hand up” dept., I had to strike Nike for FILA (which I shoulda known since I wear them), and, along with @bigeasy, my first moon PHASE was Zappa — but I could see it wasn’t gonna orbit.
My vote for Best Clue goes to 50A for ORGANS — plus “accordions” wouldn’t fit 🤣.
Thanks for your review, @Husker Gary — always enjoy your write- ups.
====> Darren / L.A.
I admire the skilled construction of this puzzle. Most of you have already said about it what I was going to say, so I won't repeat. The last cell I filled in was the F crossing FILA and FAKES; I had tried R and G first.
ReplyDeleteSomehow the name MINGUS emerged from the depths of my memory, but that didn't help me get GENTIANS; the other 7 perps gave it to me.
Hand up for knowing HARLEY Street from watching British TV shows.
I liked many of the clues that I and many of you thought were clever, such as the clues for SWANS, WRAPS AROUND, KNEES, LATIN, and ORGANS.
Clues such as the one for SEINE I don't like because they seem to me to be what I have called "Trouble in River City" clues. Here's what I mean: Think SEINE, then think "left bank, then make up a clue that contains the word "bank" even though "making bank" has no relationship whatsoever with a river bank other than the word "bank." It's like "Trouble starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Pool." I.e. there is no relationship between Trouble and Pool other than that their first letters rhyme.
I recall Misty made a joke some years ago about naming her dog Musty.
On a personal note, my wife and I became great-grandparents today. Our son's stepson and his wife just brought a lovely daughter into the world. (Maybe that would make step-great-grandparents.)
Good reading you all.
Congratulations, Jayce, on your new family member! How wonderful!
DeleteThank you, sumdaze.
DeletewooHOO, congrats @Jayce!
Delete====> Darren
I'd carp that ZOUNDS is plural while EGAD isn't (but I suppose it isn't really used as a plural even if the original meaning is).
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you and your tribe, Joyce! Enjoy!
ReplyDelete4 Down: Yes, the Mass used to be said in Latin, but Kyrie Eleison is actually a bit of Greek that came just before the Gloria.
ReplyDelete