Saturday Themeless by Dr. Ed Sessa
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What a fun puzzle by the good doctor. How cool is it that he has three horizontal and three vertical grid spanners? Wow! As you can see in the colored grid, those spanners were pretty unique.
You might remember that Dr. Sessa had his house on Sanibel Island wiped out by Hurricane Ian in 2022. Since then he has moved back to the mainland and this is what he told me.
Hi Gary,
We live now in Fort Myers just east of I75 which is out of the flood zone from the Gulf and Caloosahatchee River. Returning north just proved too much of a major move at this point in our lives. Warm regards to everyone at Crossword Corner.
Ed and Penny
Across:
1. Part of an underground network: SEWER.
6. HQs for F-16s: AFBS - These are parked at a Turkish AFB
10. Miles off: AFAR.
14. Opt out of a traditional union: ELOPE 😀
15. Plant: MOLE - Klaus Fuchs was a MOLE for the USSR at Alamogordo, NM where the Manhattan Project was building the atom bomb.
14. Opt out of a traditional union: ELOPE 😀
15. Plant: MOLE - Klaus Fuchs was a MOLE for the USSR at Alamogordo, NM where the Manhattan Project was building the atom bomb.
16. Lone: SOLE.
17. Like a land baron: ACRED - Hmmm...
18. Former attorney general Holder: ERIC - This first black US Attorney General called himself Obama's "wingman".
19. Chi-town pub: TRIB - This pub means publication
20. Comes on the scene: MAKES AN ENTRANCE - Chandler and Joey do just that (:07)
23. Unlikely donor: MISER - A famous one in literature.
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| Bah Humbug! |
24. Device with a rotating handle: VISE. 😀
25. Cruet filler: OIL and perhaps vinegar
26. Storage container: BIN.
27. Word on a coeur de bonbon: AIME - My granddaughter's translation of the text below is, "I love you more than candy"
27. Word on a coeur de bonbon: AIME - My granddaughter's translation of the text below is, "I love you more than candy"
29. Punic tunics: TOGAS - Love the rhyme!
31. "Young Frankenstein" role: INGA - It's mandatory to include this scene
33. Vassal: SERF.
35. Yoko from Tokyo: ONO - Things were falling apart for The Beatles before she showed up but she accelerated it.
36. Parlor choice: DOUBLE SCOOP CONE - I first got the word DOUBLE and thought this was about a betting parlor but not so much. Butter brickle is my favorite.
42. Pahlavi dynasty title: SHAH.
43. Cheese often served with pale ale: EDAM.
44. Ranchero rope: RIATA.
46. Designer Schiaparelli: ELSA - She and Salvador. Together they made the famous (to someone) Lobster Dress.
48. Road houses?: RVS 😀
49. Anthology series that begins with "Murder House," familiarly: AHS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
50. Option in Hawaiian-style fried rice: SPAM - A pineapple, fried rice and SPAM. What says Hawaii more than this? 😀
53. London road of pop fame: ABBEY.
55. Workplace perk for pet owners: PAWTERNITY LEAVE - Some companies allow employees to get time off to adopt a pet or take one to the vet.
59. Concept: IDEA.
60. Danish shoe brand: ECCO.
61. Stand in front of an audience: EASEL 😀 Stand as a noun.
62. Citation abbr.: ET AL.
63. Herring kin: SHAD.
65. Learning method: ROTE - Sometimes it is good but sometimes...
67. Like fans during a tight championship game: TENSE.
Down:
1. Clothes line: SEAM.
2. "Breaking Bad" epilogue: EL CAMINO - The sequence.
3. Toiling away: WORKING UP A SWEAT.
4. Pentathlon gear: EPEES.
5. Waters in the Great Rift Valley: RED SEA
6. Devotional period?: AMEN The end of a printed prayer can be a period 😀
7. Pervasive environmental hazard: FOREVER CHEMICAL.
8. Smoked salmon accompaniers: BLINI.
9. Schism units: SECTS.
10. "Black Clover" action hero: ASTA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Nick and Nora's dog? Not so much...
11. Just because: FOR NO GOOD REASON.
12. Vikander of "Irma Vep": ALICIA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
13. Enemies of the Galactic Empire: REBELS.
21. Pop up: ARISE.
22. Pave over: RETOP.
26. Use a paddle, perhaps: BID - Yeah, I'm the only one who first put in ROW
28. MASH potatoes, etc.: MESS - M*A*S*H was where we had an army MESS that served mashedpotatoes 😀
30. As soon as: ONCE - Do it at ONCE!
32. Not too much: A BIT.
34. One with a stable upbringing: FOAL 😀
37. Rental agreement: LEASE.
38. "Y'know, I've been thinking ... ": OH SAY.
39. O'Hare and JFK, e.g.: NAVY VETS - Edward (Butch) O'Hare and JFK are two NAVY VETS who had major airports named after them
44. Slender sword: RAPIER.
45. "What other choices were there?": I HAD TO.
47. Most fit: ABLEST.
51. Clear clothes lines, in a way: PRESS 😀
52. Dried poblano: ANCHO - When a poblano pepper is dried, it becomes an ANCHO pepper
56. Fish story: TALE - "You should'a seen the one that got away!"
57. Maiden name of an 1860s first lady: TODD.
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| Mary TODD Lincoln |
41 comments:
The three grid spanning entries made it interesting, as did trying to fit “paternity” into too many spaces. However, I finally got “working up a sweat” which broke that area open to me. It took me a little over half an hour to solve this challenging puzzle, but I thought the effort was worth it. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
When I saw Dr. Ed's byline, I knew I had to try this Saturday Stumper. It was slow to start, but the six gettable grid-spanners brought it home. The Wite-Out was required only for RETar/RETOP. Thanx, Dr. Ed and Husker.
Impressive layout with six spanners in a 15X15 grid! As per a usual Saturday it took me much cogitation, major perp help, and several corrections along the way to arrive at a FIR in 37:16. Airports became NAVY VETS, aptest became ABLEST, Olga became INGA. Unknowns included the anthology AHS, and the chess PIE among several others. PAWTERNITY LEAVE?? First day of the month and I already have a nomination for worst clue - “Vikander of “Irma Vep”. All in all, a good Saturday challenge which may have some WORKING UP A SWEAT, thanks Dr. Ed for today’s construction (I’m your wintertime neighbor up the road here in SW Florida). HG - thanks for your detailed expo, liked all the graphics, especially the Young Frankenstein clip.
FIR. Me. Saturday Sessa Special. Mark it down - it's 2025, and I got a Saturday LAT grid. However, hand up for igor->INGA, airports->NAVY VETS, and also retar->RETOP.
I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me forever to get R_S. I was just at mine, running the diesel and generator, and adjusting tire pressures. I should be on my way home from Ocala now, but DW's hospice care required staying in the frozen north this year.
With college basketball tournaments starting, I thought of the Ole Miss REBELS. Their motto: "We're better than LSU!"
If I could afford it, I would probably move to Ft. Myers or Sarasota. I love to visit Marathon, but it is too far from medical specialists for me to live there. Ocala is great, and reminds me of a smaller Lexington, KY (but with better weather.)
Thanks to Dr. Ed for the Saturday puzzle that even my dumb mass was able to solve. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review. Except that I don't get the "B" in TOGAS B." If the question is "to B, or not to B," I guess I'd opt for "not to B."
A rare Saturn’s day FIR.
Inkovers: Igor/OLGA, retar/RETOP, shops/SLOTS
Need to think outside the box on Saturday and this puzzle didn’t disappoint :”devotional period” “plant” “pave over” “Chi pub” all great clues. But then there’s Vikander/Irma Vep. “Chess” PIE? C’mon. I thought of MESS with MASH but expected M*A*S*H
American Horror Story anthology a fav. Hoping for more. “Unlikely donor” had ABneg first. Don’t always think tooo far outside the box.
Wall-to-wall 🐾 TERNITY LEAVE is cute but not a thing like the other end-to-end clues. Wait, just LIU not only real but also known as “furternity “leave.
And of course the oft included letter answer: EMS
“Clear clothes lines?” See-thru underwear 🫣wouldn’t fit. “Heart of candy?” AIME ? (Why wont blintz fit? Cuz it’s BLINI)
Hybrid: when the battery runs out the vehicle switches ___ … TOGAS
The results of a “great rift” … SECT.
Take the lady to court … SEWER
The biggest fear now on Sanibel island is dried dead vegetation and toppled trees catching fire. When we left Sanibel they were hauling it away
FIR. This was a remarkable Saturday puzzle. Six spanners, three down and three across is quite an achievement.
I was very pleased with myself for throwing down "makes an entrance ". If only "working up a sweat" had been so. That one I had to really "work" at. But once I had it that section, the last to fall for me, filled in.
Overall this was a most enjoyable puzzle.
Took 14:07 today, which given the slow start, I thought would be a DNF.
While I appreciate YooperPhil's continuation of the "worst clue of the month", I (sort of) knew today's actress (Alecia). I didn't know that movie/show, but I figured there couldn't be too many other Vikander actresses, and I remembered her from Ex Machina.
"Word on a coeur de bonbon" gets my vote for worst clue.
I didn't know the abbreviated anthology, the epilogue, the designer, the dynasty title, the action hero, or that chess was a pie.
HG, thank you for pointing out the horizontal and vertical grid spanners.
I whooshed, then bogged down, then whooshed again...lather, rinse, repeat, until I reached the promised land. Fun and challenging for the win!
Odd to see EPEES plural or ACRED as an adjective. Liked the devotional period - AMEN!
Dr. Ed's are always fair and solvable, it you can guess and read between the lines. I've never watched Breaking Bad. EL CAMINO was easy but have never heard of CHESS pie. The usual unknown proper names via perps- ELSA, ASTA, ALACIA
RED SEA- If you think about it the Great Rift Valley could extend up the Gulf of Aqaba to the Dead Sea, forming an ALAUCOGEN. That's where a continent starts splitting and a word I've never seen in a Xword puzzle.
If you own stock that provides PAWTERNITY LEAVE, sell it be cause it will probably go bankrupt. sometime in the future.
Growing up in the 50s, Ole Miss was always the 'team to beat' and Tulane was always a pushover. The left the SEC in 1966. Vanderbilt should have.
I don't really remember college sports in the '50s, but wasn't it around that time that Bear Bryant left Kentucky? Lore has it that UK wasn't big enough for the egos of both Bear Bryant and Adolph Rupp, and Rupp won out. IIRC, the NCAA tournament was only 16 teams, and winning the NIT was actually an honor. Freshmen weren't allowed to play on varsity teams, let alone go pro after their first year in college. No shot clock, no three-point line.
FIR, but as I’ve said many times (but havent been on here in a couple months), since it took me somewhere around 45-50 minutes, I am not in the same class as many of the brainiacs here😜. I do think ‘acred’ is a stretch and many I didn’t know (chess pie, asta - better as Nick and Nora clue! - Alicia, Elsa, Ecco vaguely, aime,) And I’m surprised two solvers above both spelled Alicia incorrectly but I assume they’ve heard of the Chicago Tribune? Which is the daily paper I’m filling in by pen daily! And you have to live crossing Abbey Road with Beale Street, right!
I was gonna say that CHESS pie must be a southern thing, but guess not. We didn't serve it in our restaurant, but enjoyed it on the rare occasions when we didn't eat at home. (My mom's specialties were custard, pecan, and strawberry rhubarb pies.)
Are "landed" gentry and "acred" gentry cousins? I'm thinking of acred people living off the spoils of the land, either from crops or from leasing their land to farmers, and landed people living off rents and leases. But I could be all wet, as usual.
i don't know, brought on board- - sold?
as soon as--- once? seems like a stretch
Good Morning:
Dr. Ed’s byline is always a sight for sore eyes, IMO. While this offered the usual Saturday challenges, those six impressive grid spanners opened up numerous footholds and enabled a relatively smooth and quick solve. My nose wrinkled a bit at Acred and Retop, but the sheer cuteness and play on words of Pawternity won me over completely. I knew Alicia from the The Danish Girl, co-starring Eddie Redmayne, but only know Asta from The Thin Man series. I never saw El Camino, but I did see both Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the latter being m favorite of the two. Any other unknowns were solved by the fair perps.
Thanks, Dr. Ed, for a Saturday treat and thanks, HG, for the many treats of facts and photos and your commentary. Thanks for sharing the update from Dr. Ed on his new surroundings. I lived south of Ft. Myers for 17 years, so I’m familiar with the area, although I’m sure it has changed a lot since I left in 2002.
Have a great day.
A credible nomination SS, and by the end of the month there will be much more fodder before we declare the winner!
Yes IM☘️, sprawling developments and the devastation of numerous hurricanes have definitely changed the landscape.
Well, looks like everyone but me managed to FIR today. I did FILL the cells, but it required red-letters and several alpha runs. I TITT at one point, came back and did the alpha runs. Clever CW, amazing construction with those grid spanners. DNK: chess PIE (never heard of it), AHS (as clued), SOLD (as clued) or many of the names. Oh well. It looks like most of our CW fiends enjoyed it, so Thanx, ES. Thanx to HG for 'splainin' the things that left me scratching my head. I mean, if you never heard of "Chess pie", how would "PIE" make any sense for the clue fill? I have a friend staying for a few days. He and his DW will be going on another extensive world trip. 8 months! Part of the time he will be touring India. A friend, Frank, who lives across the street, is from India, so I invited him over to review Dave's India itinerary, and guess what? He and his DW will be in the same place in India at the same time as my friend Dave and his DW! They're gonna meet up in India. What are the chances?
I was glad to see Ed Sessa’s byline on the puzzle. He’s one of the most sensible constructors we encounter regularly. But not this time. In retrospect, my FIR was pretty heroic.
AMEN, as clued; ACRED; RE-TOP (with green paint, perhaps?); The TRIB is a “pub”; PRESSing clothes clears the line?; BLINI, as clued; the OH, SAY paraphrase; the MASH mess, sans asterisks in the acronym; SOLD, as clued. . . All dreadful. Others are cutting Ed a lot of slack in the Corner today. We do like him.
And, frankly, almost none of the grid spanners added much except proof that Ed could put together a puzzle with a visually pleasing array of grid spanners. DOUBLE SCOOP CONE was a disappointment once I realized it was an ice cream parlor. Please tell me it wasn’t the seed entry. PAWTERNITY LEAVE is cute, but is it really a thing?
There were plenty of unknowns. Maybe I should know more about “Breaking Bad,” but references to “Black Clover,” “Irma Vep,” and even “AHS” were beyond me. CHESS pie is new to me.
I did get help from the TRIB entry, SPAM, ANCHO, RIATA, RVs, BEALE Street, and Mary TODD Lincoln, and I grudgingly admit the BID/paddle/auction entry was clever, though too hard to suss, and AFBs (one of my last fills) made sense once the perps fell into place.
Friday’s Jumble answer, for a situation in which loud music led to a car accident, was “Crash-end-o.” Nothing in Ed’s puzzle was as awful as that.
Curry-ous coincidence!
Hola! Thank you, Ed Sessa! For the first time in a very long while I finished a Saturday puzzle with no help! Yay! I love it! it was smooth sailing as I solved one after another long fill without WORKING UP A SWEAT. MOLE was my last to complete and AMEN really surprised me. Great clue and fill!
PAWTERNITY is cute. I see ECCO shoes at stores but have never bought them. They are pricey! I never saw "Breaking Bad" so knew nothing of EL CAMINO but it perped easily. The only EL CAMINO that I know is a car.
SPAM is, I believe, the state food of Hawaii and if it isn't, it should be. Hawaiians love SPAM.
ANCHO chile is easy and a given for me but others may have found it difficult.
Again, thank you, Ed Sessa, for giving us a challenging but ultimately doable puzzle today. Like nature, this puzzle came in like a lamb but will there be a lion at the end? Have a wonderful day, everyone!
I solve in ink, so my only solution to erase an error is using wite-out. On paper those changes are glaringly obvious as the wite-out stands out and cant' be missed.
Delightful Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Dr. Ed. (I have to tell you that your PAWTERNITY LEAVE just cracked me up. ) And thank you too for your very helpful comments and explanations, Gary--appreciated those too.
Well, seeing ELOPE right at the beginning made me look for a TALE of romance in this puzzle, but I couldn't figure out if we just had a SOLE person or a DOUBLE couple, but in the end it seemed there was NO GOOD REASON to go down the romance lane (or even ABBEY lane). So back to looking for food, although neither the SHAD or the SPAM were a particularly familiar class for me. So it was best to stay with dessert: EDAM cheese, BLINI, ANCHO, and some PIE . That could get us ready for spending an afternoon OIL painting a neat scene on an EASEL.
Have a delightful weekend everybody.
FIR on a Saturday. Will wonders never cease! I really enjoy a Dr. Ed puzzle, and despite a few really strange clues and some re-thinking, everything finally came together. IMHO, an example of what a good crossWORD puzzle should look like!
Not feeling much like posting lately. These posts from yesterday capture some of how I am feeling.
RayOSunshine "ALEXEI Navalny was a martyr for his country while we cozy up to his murderer."
Darren "After seeing the meeting between Zelensky and our prez in the White House today, it was obvious who was acting like the child."
I am so embarrassed and ashamed.
Seems grown up to me!
Ed Sessa’s crosswords give the solver a chance at a solve, unlike Fearless Editor’s usual Saturday picks.
This was a breath of fresh Saturday air.
Also..I think the “line” that gets cleared by a ”press” inset the clothes one that you hang stuff on to dry, but the actual line that gets pressed out while ironing.
I loved this puzzle. Mr. Sessa is a master. My nose wrinkled at the same things that caused Irish Miss's nose to wrinkle.
Re: As soon as: ONCE. "I'll answer your question ONCE you answer mine."
Good reading you all.
Picard, your feelings are shared by countless millions.
Misty: If you have ever eaten an ANCHO chile I doubt you would like it for dessert! It is very much an ingredient for the main or a side dish.
YP, traffic on US 41 was a nightmare 20+ years ago, so I can’t imagine how bad it is now. When we moved to that area in 1984, there was practically nothing between Naples and Fort Myers but farmland.
Jinx, The fill comes in BOLD and is capitalized. To turn off the BOLD I have to push Command + B on my MacBook which gets me back to plain text. It appears I did not release the Command key in a timely fashion. :-)
Had to dash out today before finishing, and thought I'd romp through the rest of the puzzle upon my return. No romping here! Move over, UncleFred, I Did Not Finish! ACRED? EL CAMINO? Add to that my stab at "Olga" where INGA belonged, and although I was thinking about auctions, I had "nod" instead of BID. Ugh. Still an impressive grid. Many thanks to HG for explaining!
Got it! Must be nice not to have to deal with those "< >" delimiters.
😆👍🏽 Jinx! ===> Darren
One look at today’s grid put me in panic mode — holy scheiß, three wall-to-walls and three floor-to-ceilings?!? But once I got down into it, panic mode diffused and I really started enjoying this one. I think Anon-PVX nailed it — this is how a Saturday puzzle should be: a real mental workout, but not one of those “let’s try to hose the solvers” monstrosities. I’ll be looking forward to seeing the next one from the good doctor!
FORNOGOODREASON was the first one I landed, and that kind of set the scene for the others; plus the clues (even the sorta-smelly ones) were really good, and the obligatory (so it seems these days) obscure proper names were perp-friendly. Like Jinx, I had “Igor” at first, “RETar” became RETOP and SOLo had to be conquered by the REBELS.
My clue votes d’jour: AMEN👍🏽, TOGAS👍🏽, ABBEY & BEALE👍🏽; but: ACRED 👎🏽, SOLD👎🏽 and ONCE👎🏽. Loved the street crossing (rare is the Natick that works!) and the “use a paddle” misdirection. (BTW, Gary, being a longtime kayaker, I can tell you there’s a big difference between rowing and paddling!)
Anyway, a really enjoyable trek through this CW, augmented by Gary’s usual fun review (thanks for the “Nice knockers!” rerun; next up can be Igor’s hump gag); and thanks to Dr. Sessa for yet another good —but fair — challenge. Glad to hear you’ve landed well after Sanibel, Sir!
====> Darren / L.A.
If you hire someone to, you bring them on board and they are sold of your offer.
Nobody is cozying up to anybody. POTUS is trying to make sure the USA does not get involved in a European problem. All those NATO countries not paying anything for defense is coming to bite them in their rears.
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