Themeless Saturday by Kareem Ayas
As you 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 WOPR 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 be 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 - I know Giancarlo from his role of drug kingpin Gus Fring in the Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul series.
58. Sharp infusion in some fish marinades: WASABIOLI - This one was unknown to me but just made sense, uh, eventually.
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 had 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«
38 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.
Beyond me but there was some fun. HG you are the best. WASABIOLI was something I have never heard of even with all the cooking Oo does.
FIW. Missed three squares with basically silly mistakes. Axial, Tisch, and aloe, and I had arial, Tesch, and sloe.
Beyond that, this was one of the hardest Saturday puzzles in my memory. Considering how easy the start of the week was, I'm not surprised it ended with this colossal bear of a crossword.
So overall, not a very enjoyable puzzle.
Looks like I was wise to pass today. Congrats to those of you who persevered.
One letter. Figured everything else out. My stock option was COW rather than DOW. It was the last letter I filled. And then I immediately realized it should have been a D for ADOBE. D'Oh!
It was a really good challenge, and I liked the difficulty of many clues.
Thank you, Kareem, and thank you, Husker Gary.
Almost.
Where i live this puzzle drops at 11 pm. So, my tired from the week brain thought SOW was a good fill for STY (it looked just ENOUGH correct) and i'm here with a FIW
It must be Kareem Ayas day. In addition to today's LA Times, he is also the constructor of the Universal crossword and the USA Today crossword.
Kareem, congrats on your debut(s)!
Took 22:52 (and a lot of luck) today.
I didn't know today's actress, whatever wasabioli is, LNG, Tosca, the fire part of fire signs, and a few others.
Yowza! What a clever puzzle today. Juuust a bit too clever for me. DNF.
Unlike other cornerites, I found this CW Γ‘ lot easier than other Saturday fares. I left only one blank square, the C of DMC and CDS. Some unknowns, finally filled with perps, like TISCH, CHAN, and WASABIOLI, I had WASABIO so finished it with IL but the down clues didn’t fit, so I reversed the letters.
I thought there were lots of clever clues, BYTES and ZIP LOCK BAGS, PIANO KEY, STORK, loved that one.
At first I entered CARGO panT, Γ‘ term I’m more familiar with than CARGO VEST, which DH loves since he’s enamored of pockets.
Thank you HG for your usual fine recap.
This was a challenge but fun to figure out , the lower half was more challenging than the upper half for me. Lots of clecho clues to think out of the box
I needed a couple of perps to get a foothold, but SACAGAWEA was then a gimme, as I live on the route of the Lewis and Clark trail and my husband is from the end of the trail on the Oregon Coast - we celebrated the Bicentennial of their expedition a few years ago- and she is prominent in that story. Her statue is even in the Hall of noted people connected to Missouri along with Walt Disney and JC Penney
I had bra strap before CLASP- I just call them hooks and many of them today don't have them at all
The opera heroine wasn't crossword favorite Verdi's Aida but Puccini's TOSCA
I didn't remember the actor, but did remember AKELA who was the wolf whose pack rescued Mowgli in the Jungle Book
Once a few perps filled in - figured that WASABIOLI was a portmanteau of wasabi and crossword fav aioli sauce
Thanks to HG for another interesting blog and Kareem for the puzzle - congrats on the debut
oops - last comment is from me - forgot to put the identifier
Hand up this was really tough and I did not like the crossed proper names. Learning moments about WASABIOLI and CARGO VEST. Relieved to FIR.
Some amusing misdirection. Favorite: WALLS HAVE EARS.
Here is a video of Merlie and me navigating our local CORN MAZE.
From Yesterday:
I have a good friend who was a FREEGAN. His family were Czech refugees from the 1968 Soviet invasion. He never stopped living like a refugee. He bought a beautiful house in the foothills here. And furnished it entirely with furniture cast off into the street at year end by UC Santa Barbara students. Nice furniture, too.
I'd love to check out that Florida community. What's its name, and where is it? Florida is ideal for that.
I've known who Giancarlo Esposito is (he pronounces it eSPO-see-toe instead of es-po-ZEE-to ever since "Do the Right Thing," but i needed perps for the Jungle Book wolf.
Well, no wonder I couldn’t figure out why jAS was my answer for the LNG clue. I spelled SACAJAwEA incorrectly, and that turned my FIR into an FIW.
FIRE SIGN and TISCH launched me in the NW. Firesign Theatre’s best-known album, “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers” featured the Firesign foursome on the cover, posing as rams, lions and archers. WIGS out helped me get SACAjAWEA. SOFT C and ESSES were annoying impediments, especially as a duo. TOSCA, ANSEL, SERAPES, and Run-DMC helped in the NE.
I had more trouble with the south than the north, needing YOWZA, a WAG, to figure out my final fill, the unknown WASABIOLI.
En route, hand up for pitiful before PITEOUS, an entry that seemed hideous.
All in all though, FIR would have been a satisfying achievement.
Oops, I spelled mt SACAjaWEA explanation wrong.
Gee…only 20 comments? I wonder why….
At 14D That’s a big ___: I was tempted when I had AS__, but I’d already used that at 57D.
My first thought at 14D was already taken at 57D.
Hola! Nope. Not finished and likely won't. This was a real head scratcher with many, many obscure clues. Have a wonderful day, everyone!
Saturday is usually (um, er, always...) a red letter day for me, and I am always pleasantly surprised when the perps are kind enough to allow me to have fun sussing things out. This one was kind enough to get me to three missing letters. However those 3 missing letters, X horizontal perps, X vertical perps, X (almost) every single letter of the alphabet, did finally yield comprehensible results. Was it an FIW? A DNF? No, it was an enjoyable sussfest that was worth the juice, but left a weird aftertaste...
That picture of the Rusty soil on Mars caused by oxygen made me wonder, I know oxygen is a major element in the universe, but most of it is bound to other elements. Much of our oxygen on planet Earth is the result of release by the processes of life... hmm, I wonder...
Miranda Otto was a complete unknown, that is until this blog revealed via IMDB she was in LOTR... Eowyn! omG! How could I not have known!,!?
To copy Misty, (the sincerest form of flattery) I will include a puzzle word in my post. YOWZA!
Now, my next favorite thing, allowing the blog to lead me into the rabbithole of knowledge, I intend to follow that link on paper airplanes...
YP, you've watched too many episodes of The Kardashians.
Came so close but FIW, had COW (TTP! I don’t feel so silly now) for ”stock option” since I didn’t know the InDesign company was ADOBE. Kareem had some klever klues like “baby wt” and “walls with ears” Of course we have the obligatory spelled letter clues: SOFTC and ESSES as well.
I know “pluie” is rain in French and “Salar” sounded like “sale” which is Italian for salt. (Wish we would stick with English thoughπ). I’ve head of the many-pocketed CARGO pants.
Inkovers: Pratt/TISCH, straps/CLASP, (I thought they were called “hooks”, biggest college fear was reaching behind to discover more than three π€)
Didn’t know the zodiac had elemental signs
“That’s a big AS _(57 down!) 𫣓. No! It can’t be how would that get by the CW morality squad. (Unless you mean a big donkey)….Ohhh ASK.
”Not a blanket it’s a ”SERAPΓ
Although a frequent CW flyer I thought ALOE was to be applied to areas of “redness” not eaten but just LIU: I guess certain parts are OK to consume.
Wassap with WASABIOLI? Sounds too spicy for my taste.
Have a nice rest of the weekend. π
Unfortunately incentives to encourage solar likely on their way out.
Hi Husker: You explained the red color-coding in the grid, but what do the yellow, orange and green colors indicate? I tried to figure it out on my own, but no dice. Hope I'm not asking a stupid question!
I too agree with the others that this is one of the hardest Saturday puzzles I have ever encountered. I finished it for learning purposes, but needed red letter help.
Thank you
LACW Addict
Bill, what you say about power companies is EXACTLY what I've been saying for at least 20 years: generate the power WHERE IT IS NEEDED with solar panels on the roof of every home and business, equip them all with batteries, and stop using the "central-power-generation-and-lines-on-poles" system invented by Edison circa 1885. The problem is this: in every state the utility regulators are controlled by the power companies, and when the power companies have huge losses due to using their grossly outdated system, the regulators add the cost to the bill of the customers, so the power company never pays the price for their disasters.
Nope. Way above my abilities: so far over my head I couldn't even see it when I looked up. Not even close. HUGE DNF. I went to online and turned on red-letter help but ended up doing a dozen alphabet runs before I TITT. Even then, I wasted a half hour. KA, no thanx for this brain-buster. HG, thanx for your write-up. I'm afraid I'm a bit grumpy at the mo.
Thanks for the paper airplane link, I will be busy for hours investigating all the different designs. It reminded me ( I had forgotten) of a very similar award winning design I learned as a kid, and many years later, visiting France, I launched it from on top of the Effiel Tower. It flew for almost twenty minutes, and I only knew it had finally landed thru the use of binoculars. I hope no one in the French Government reads this blog, or I might expect a fine for littering in my mailbox...
Saturday puzzle. Nah, not for me. Evan the Husk man’s technicolored maze didn’t make it bearable……for yours truly.
Greet the day. (Think football!)
Anonymous, et al.
-I did leave off the key to those colors on the grid. I went back and fixed that oversight and they are now visible. I have not heard any comments one way or the other about using that grid instead of the regular one. I asked C.C. about using it and she said it was okay.
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