Themeless Saturday by Kareem Ayas
As yoyu can see by the red highlights, this puzzle had a lot of first time entries. Those entries, once deciphered, were the key to a well-earned "got 'er done!"
Kareem's proper names had decent escape hatches.
1. Coin star: SACAGAWEA - π Yup, I thought of the machine, ignoring the space between Coin and star.
10. Puccini heroine: TOSCA.
15. Reaction that may cause redness: OXIDATION - NASA's Perseverance Rover captured the redness of Mars that is due to OXIDATION
16. Count de la Fère in Dumas novels: ATHOS.
17. Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius: FIRE SIGNS.
18. One concerned with baby weight?: STORK π
19. Tic-__-toe: TAC - The climactic scene from War Games was to get the computer to play Tic Tac Toe against itself . The computer discovered that like war, no one could win and so it stopped missile launches.
20. What sitcoms always begin and end with?: ESSES and 1. Start to celebrate?: SOFT C.π Meta clues always take a few heartbeats to detect
22. Rent alternative: OWN.
23. Bra part: CLASP - I'm told unclasping with one hand is an art.
26. Ran: LED.
28. Run-__: DMC.
30. NYU's __ School of the Arts: TISCH.
34. Browser action: RELOAD - Command + R can e used to update a page
36. Goes out briefly: CATCHES A FEW Z'S π
38. Flexible flyer: PAPER AIRPLANE - How to construct this world champion airplane
39. Chophouse array: SIRLOIN STEAKS.
40. Browser action: PAGE UP.
41. "Try some": TASTE.
42. "That's __ from me": A NO - He's made millions with this phrase
43. Stock option?: STY - You could also keep your livestock in a pen and 55. Stock option?: DOW - Other stock altogether! π
45. Dutch cheeses: EDAMS.
49. Oogenesis products: OVA.
51. Sensitive spots: SORES.
56. Wolf voiced by Giancarlo Esposito in "The Jungle Book": AKELA.
58. Sharp infusion in some fish marinades: WASABIOLI - This one was unknown to me but just made sense
61. Money minted in Quezon City: PESOS - A current Philippine PESO is worth about $.017. However, this 1903 PESO sold for $4,800.
62. Storage unit: ZIPLOC BAG - Keeping your phone dry in a ZIPLOC BAG is a 50/50 proposition.
63. Storage units: BYTES - Not bushels here π
64. "Does someone want in ... ?": ANY TAKERS.
63. Storage units: BYTES - Not bushels here π
64. "Does someone want in ... ?": ANY TAKERS.
Down:
2. Like some symmetry: AXIAL.
3. Around: CIRCA.
4. Juice suffix: ADE.
5. Part of LNG: GAS - Liquid Natural Gas
6. End in __: A TIE - Crossword's favorite coach ARA Parseghian of Notre Dame elected to not to try to win in 1966. He had his boys run into the line for four straight plays and settle for A TIE in 1966. That decision would follow him forever.
7. Freaks (out): WIGS.
8. Forever and ever: EONS.
9. First name in landscape photography: ANSEL.
8. Forever and ever: EONS.
9. First name in landscape photography: ANSEL.
 |
| In the 40's, he often shot from the top of his Pontiac woodie |
10. Prof helpers: TAS.
11. Miranda of "Homeland": OTTO ¯\_(γ)_/¯ A Saturday obscure OTTO for me
11. Miranda of "Homeland": OTTO ¯\_(γ)_/¯ A Saturday obscure OTTO for me
12. Final battles: SHOW DOWNS.
13. Where the walls have ears?: CORN MAZE π Just 15 minutes west of Omaha
14. "That's a big __": ASK.
21. Colorful wraps: SERAPES - Clint said he wore the same one in every spaghetti western he made and it is now in a closet somewhere in his house
24. Bread, e.g.: STAPLE.
25. Wretched: PITEOUS - I'll bet I wasn't the only one who first put HIDEOUS
27. Air out?: DEFLATE - Did the Patriots really order the footballs deflated for an AFC Championship game?
29. Media for PC games, once: CDS.
31. Plot lines?: SCRIPTS - Autographed by Julius Epstein one of the screenwriters
32. Gemma of "Crazy Rich Asians": CHAN - ¯\_(γ)_/¯ Speaking of Saturday cluing there is no Charlie here.
33. Safe job: HEIST.
35. Released inconspicuously: LEAKED - Sometimes called trial balloons.
36. Multipocketed garment: CARGO VEST.
37. Sp. miss: SRTA.
38. Upright part: PIANO KEY π This 1877 fully restored Steinway upright can be had for $49,000.
39. Location with masks: SPA.
44. "Impressive!": YOWZA.
46. InDesign company: ADOBE.
47. Meat grinder?: MOLAR π
48. Gulps: SWIGS.
50. Boba tea option: ALOE.
52. Pluviometer measure: RAIN - from the Latin word pluvia, which means "rain", and the Greek word metron, which means "measure". We just call this a rain gauge and have this one for years. In 2019 it filled to overflowing one night.
54. Abundance in Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni: SALT - Salar means "salt flat" in Spanish and Uyuni is the nearest town.
56. "Be on the lookout" msg.: APB.
57. Crèche figure: ASS.
60. __ factor: ICK - Supply your own entry. π«
6 comments:
Well, I missed ONE
letter in the whole puzzle, but that’s enough to FIW. It was from the clue “Part of LNG”
I had no idea how to spell the name of the “coin star” so I put an “L” where the “G” should go, making “Las” instead of “Gas.”
I’m not terribly happy about that, but I am happy to be with you guys and see how the rest of you did. Subgenius out!
WASABIOLI?? YOWZA!! Well, the triple stack of niners bottom right led me to a DNF, couldn’t get any help from the verts and too many blanks to even WAG. With cluing that bordered on the ridic (even for a Saturday), I was happy to get as much right as I did. Has anybody ever heard of Giancarlo Esposito? “Does someone want in…?” I thought was somebody talking to their pet scratching at the door. Oh well, I guess I enjoyed trying to solve this puzzle, thanks for the challenge Kareem.
HG ~ kudos to you that you “got er done”, and thanks for enlightening me on all I didn’t know.
Even with the help of red letters, alphabet runs and WAGs I struggled to finish this puzzle. Was it worth the struggle? Nope.
DNF, filling 58, 51 correctly. Pretty good for me on a Saturday.
Should have gotten T___A, and together with OWN instead of buy would have fixed my asinine REwinD and maybe freed up the NE corner.
In the SW, missing with CARGO panT kept me from PESOS. And I can't believe that I, of all people, missed a chance to fill ASS, especially given that I already had _ _ S.
Finally, ZIPper BAG was the nail in the coffin that prevented BOA, SALT and ICK.
I see on IMDB that Ms. Otto is most known for acting in LOTR. Since I haven't seen any LOTR movies but have seen every episode of Homeland, I shouldn't complain about cluing her appearance as a minor character in one season. But, of course, I will.
Thanks to Kareem for letting me play with the smart kids this morning. Still a fun, challenging Saturday workout. My favorite was "one concerned with baby weight" for STORK. And thanks to H.Gary for another informative and witty review. BTW, I could never get my one-handed technique to work on those 12-hook monsters supporting heavy software.
This is the first puzzle I felt like quitting in a long time after scrounging around the grid for a foothold and seeing clues I had no idea about, but I finished w/o help or red letters in 31:03. Thanks for the mental exercise.
Just a few thoughts about L.A. wildfires:
Stick built homes burn in drought stricken areas with 100 mph winds. Termites usually consume them before the mortgage is paid. Fireproof building materials exist. A company in Texas has a contract to make 3-D printed structures using moon dust. Deforestation for lumber decreases the planet's oxygen producing and carbon dioxide absorbing ability.
Our far from ideal centralized power system with above ground high tension lines causes wildfires. Rather than subsidizing corporations to charge us for free energy from the Sun, solar panels could be used on the roof tops of the homes and businesses in the city where the energy is needed. They charge for "enhancing the grid" while erecting ugly. eyesore transmission towers that support a system with 11% line loss and can lead to total devastation. There is not enough storage capacity, so power is shipped out of state. California has rolling black outs in the summer when too many people are using their AC, appliances and charging devices and cars. There will be an ever- increasing need for electricity, and the price keeps going up. Energy from the Sun is free; about a horsepower per sq. yd., and we don't need middlemen to collect for us. Distributed power would lessen the potential for huge areas without electricity when they shut it down for high winds or too much consumption. A developer in Florida built a community that easily survived hurricanes. Utilities were buried. Vital habitat & open space is wiped out by huge solar arrays. Wouldn't eliminating everyone's electric bill enable more discretionary spending and spur the economy? Giving the panels to the people would be more efficient and democratic.
About as tough an LAT Saturday as I can remember. From SACAGAWEA right out of the gate, all the way to WASABIOLI down in the SE. Toss in AKELA, TISCH, ATHOS and even TOSCA along the way and I really had my hands full.
Also, congrats to the LAT on the absolute worst mini ever today. I won’t spoil / reveal anything, but there are ten answers and only two of them are real words (the rest are either foreign, or some form of popular culture, which don’t count in my view). Yuk.
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