Themeless Saturday by David P. Williams
My third Saturday themeless from David.
Across
1. Possessive pronoun that can be singular: THEIR Here is a discussion about this topic
6. Clue academic: PLUM 😀
6. Clue academic: PLUM 😀
10. Tesla, for one: SERB - I held on to SCOT for a time 🤨
14. Certain king-maker: SERTA 😀
14. Certain king-maker: SERTA 😀
16. Ancient Roman conqueror?: AMOR - Very cool cluing!
17. Survive scrutiny: PASS MUSTER - Derivation of the phrase
19. Green party, briefly?: LPGA 😀 Green is a noun here.
20. Samovar kin: TEAPOTS - I've got a pretty good handle on what a TEAPOT is, but this is a samovar that is widely used in Russia.
23. Identical: SAME.
24. Light tunes: STRAINS - We can hear the STRAINS of the high school band wafting down to our house from the football field six blocks from here.
25. Anti-conservative slogan?: GO BIG OR GO HOME.
29. Saw: ADAGE.
30. Clear the air: DEFOG - The little button on the left below the mirror does this for me.
31. Blot: DAB.
34. Continental capital: BERN - BERN is a nearly 4-hour drive SW of my grandfather's home in Heiden which he left 100 years ago.
34. Continental capital: BERN - BERN is a nearly 4-hour drive SW of my grandfather's home in Heiden which he left 100 years ago.
35. Encounter: RUN IN - Chris Rock had a famous RUN-IN with Will Smith
36. Piece of one's mind?: LOBE.
38. Digital services?: MANIS and/or pedis
39. Unit of energy: JOULE - It takes about 300,000 JOULES of energy to raise the temperature of a coffee pot of water from room temp to boiling.
40. Pool problem?: BRACKET BUSTER - When you are in the office pool and one of your favorite teams gets beat and is out early, your bracket in the office pool takes a severe hit!
43. Perfect figures?: SQUARES - Four equal sides and angles
45. Tops: A-ONE.
46. Takeoff locale: TARMAC.
47. Portrayer of Andy Bernard on "The Office": ED HELMS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
50. Actress __ Deavere Smith: ANNA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ A Saturday ANNA for me
51. Novels no one reads?: AUDIO BOOKS - This was a great clue when it finally hit me! 😊
54. Picked out, in a way: IDED.
55. Tagliatelle topper: RAGU - Tagliatelle (pasta) topped with RAGU (meat sauce)
57. Early capital of Japan: NARA.
58. Appear: SEEM.
59. Frank who co-designed Prague's Dancing House: GEHRY.
Down:
1. Shortening in a recipe: TSP - Shortening can be used in recipe and its measured amount can be shortened as well 😀
2. Pressure, informally: HEAT - Now in his third year, Matt Ruhle is starting to feel the HEAT to make Nebraska football respectable again.
3. Highland tongue: ERSE.
4. "The universe has spoken!": IT'S A SIGN.
5. Frenzy: RAMPAGE.
6. Preserved jams?: POSTER DUNKS - 😀 Whoa, talk about a jam (dunk) that is preserved on a very famous poster.
7. Plenty: LOTS.
8. A word to les sages?: UNE - 😀 UNE (a) word to Les sages (the wise) is sufficient
9. Long-lasting event: MARATHON.
10. Bow low: SALAAM - I hung on to SCRAPE for a low bow for a long time.
11. Drained: EMPTIED OUT.
12. "The Lion King" voice actor Seth: ROGEN.
13. High-ranking officials: BRASS.
18. Italian man: UOMO - Difesa UOMO a UOMO (Man to man defense)
22. Buccaneer booze: GROG.
24. L.A. venue where "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour" was filmed: SOFI STADIUM.
25. Chats: GABS.
26. Heart-filled texts?: ODES ❤️
27. Match that's lit: BARN BURNER - Lit has become slang for great. A very close, intense game can be called a BARN BURNER
28. Spirit of myth: GENIE - The wish granting version came later
32. Up to it: ABLE.
33. Ginger __: BEER.
35. Drag performers: RACE CARS.
36. Like a situation with no good outcome: LOSE LOSE.
38. Rooney of "Women Talking": MARA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
39. Beetle in the scarab family: JUNE BUG.
41. Wyndham brand: RAMADA.
42. __-chic: BOHO - BOhemian style meaning artistic and unusual
43. Leave a mark: STAIN.
44. Time when audiences are engaged, briefly: Q AND A.
47. Upper hand: EDGE.
 |
| A cool representation |
48. Lepidopterist's subject: MOTH.
49. Toffee bar: SKOR.
52. Persian Gulf fed.: UAE.
53. __ milk: SOY.
42 comments:
As usual, this was a “toughie.” But I expect that on a Saturday, and wouldn’t have it any other way. Also, this “themeless” puzzle
seemed to have a bit of a theme. I sense a couple of allusions to a certain basketball tournament going on as we speak.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
As per a typical Saturday, I had to flit about the grid and enter what I could confidently fill, which today there was maybe 10 entries at best. After getting somewhat of a foothold in the SE I was able to piece it together for a FIR w/out help in 27:34. Last fills were WAGs at the M in ED HELMS, and the H in MOTH. Like SubG, I also noticed the not so subtle, (but timely) hidden theme of 🏀 with the NCAAs in full swing, BARN BURNER, POSTER DUNKS, and BRACKET BUSTER (my only bracket was pretty well busted on the first day of the tourney, as I was almost 2 million from the top). DNK NARA, MARA or UOMO among several others. Had to correct runway to TARMAC as I thought that a plane would taxi on the TARMAC but not take off from there. “Kin” in this case has to denote the plural “relatives” to match TEA POTS, which threw me for a bit cuz I thought of kin in the singular sense. I would think not many knew GEHRY off the top of their heads, and the clue is in the running for “worst of the month”. All in all, a good challenge worthy of a Saturday, thank you David. And thanks to HG for expounding on it all! A couple days without power sure makes one realize ~ electricity is a good thing! Glad you got yours back on without too major of inconvenience.
GROG (watered-down rum) was served in the Royal and American Navies, but wasn’t invented until after the great age of piracy in the Caribbean (1740s)
Misspelled GEHRe and tried to make The Coliseum fit for Swifties
I usually see POSTER in the passive - a defender who gets dunked over has been POSTERized
Posterdunks? Qanda?? I knew I was in trouble when the answer to Takeoff Locale wasn’t Runway, and Drag Performers had nothing to do with Rupaul. After about 30 minutes I turned on the red letters to see how I was doing and the grid was redder than my eyes back in college after a three-day frat party. That’s not a criticism, by the way. There was an awful lot to like about this puzzle. It was humbling, and that’s not a bad thing. My wife has been pointing out for years that I’m not nearly as clever as I think I am. Every once in a while it’s a good thing for something to happen that makes me turn to her and say, “Hey, it turns out, you were right!” On a happier note, it’s almost baseball season, and this is the year that the Atlanta Braves are going to win the World Series. At least that’s what my dog Chipper keeps telling me…
Went to a Braves/Rays spring training game in Port Charlotte, Florida yesterday. Atlanta was down 3-0 in the top of the 9th, a flurry of hits and some untimely errors by the defense and the Braves put up seven quick runs, two earned, for a 7-3 victory. Notable in the game was a female umpire behind the plate, Jen Pawol, who may become the first woman to be called up to the Majors as a full time ump in the regular season.
Took 16:14 today to pass the muster.
My sports knowledge bailed me out today with Sofi Stadium, poster dunk (I agree with billocohoes' usage), bracket buster, and barn burner. I knew two of today's actresses (Oona and Mara), but not them all (Anna).
I don't like "Continental capital" as a clue for "Bern." That was clearly hinting at Euro; aren't all capital cities on a continent?
I didn't know the Italian man, whatever "une" is, the ancient Japanese capital, the thing topped with Ragu, or Salaam.
Per ESPN's NCAA men's tournament challenge, out of 24,388,423 brackets entered, 121 are still perfect after the first round.
YooperPhil, I hope you’re right about Jen Pawol. I would love to see a female umpire in the Major Leagues. Just as I hope, hope to see a female President before I die. And the clock is ticking. faster and faster…
My rank as of this morning - 5,159,013, 79.3%
FIW. I took a WAG at the "Office" actor and guessed wrong. I also didn't know Gehry. So I crashed and burned in the SE.
Other than that, although I struggled as can be expected on a Saturday, the rest of the puzzle was fun.
Overall I enjoyed today's challenge.
With all its pop culture, fashion, and faux-celebrities, today's puzzle resembled something out of a grocery store ckeckout line magazine. Sorry, not for me.
Thanks, David, though, for your efforts. You clearly have the talent--just a bit too much pop culture content today for me.
Thanks, Gary, for your entertaining recap. I thought your Lady Huskies might pull it out against Louisville last night.
Continental often refers to Europe (minus the British Isles).
Bottoms up! I made no headway at first, just lonely OONA sitting by herself, poor girl. So I jumped to the end. Milk had to be oat or SOY, and GEHRY settled that. Continuing backwards toward the top everything fell into place for the win.
I thought MANI was an abbreviation and should have been labeled as such. But I guess in our ever-changing language, if usage of an abbrev. becomes very common, it becomes a stand-alone word of it's own.
This one solved unevenly - fast and slow then repeat
Since this is an LA Times puzzle , I think that Frank GEHRY would be very well known there, even with the Saturday cluing, since he is based there and the Walt Disney Concert Hall is one of his most famous buildings. When I was visiting my son in the Air Force when he was stationed in Biloxi, there is a museum there designed by GEHRY. At the time it was actually the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which hit land first in Biloxi before it later hit New Orleans and the museum had a special exhibit commemorating the rescue efforts in its aftermath.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohr%E2%80%93O'Keefe_Museum_Of_Art
March Madness results have already been a BRACKET BUSTER for me on the men's side, my women's bracket is holding its own in our family's competition.
Thanks HG for the fun blog and David for the puzzle
Good Morning:
Although I finished w/o help (41:45), there was little joy or satisfaction in the solve. Ken’s criticism was too much pop culture, but mine is different and twofold: Way too many ? Clues (11) and way too many too cute by half clues. I expect (and want) a Saturday puzzle to be difficult and challenging, but minus unfair and extreme misdirection or obtuse cluing. On the positive side, there were several clever clues and much of the fill was top notch.
Thanks, David, and thanks, HG, for the usual fair critique and entertaining visuals.
Have a great day.
FIW. I guessed at 9 fills, missing 7 of them.
I've always heard STRAINS of music, but didn't know it meant light tunes.
I wanted "use it or lose it" at first, but perps wanted GO BIG OR GO HOME.
Don't ever let someone make you a Dark 'n' Stormy with ginger ale. Ginger BEER is the only option.
I also cringe every time I hear TARMAC. As far as I know, all commercial airports have concrete runways and taxiways. But pilots and stewardi do use the term, at least when talking to the cattle in the back of the plane.
Thanks to David for the Saturday challenge. I liked it, except for the large amount of A&E BS. Favorite was "pool problem?" for BRACKET BUSTER. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine explanation.
My Kentucky Wildcats didn't bust any brackets yesterday - they were favored and won. Pretty good for a team that did not have a single player returning from last year. (Many of them followed Coach Cal to Arkansas when Cal could no longer PASS MUSTER in Lexington.)
I knew Gehry right off since I’m á fan of his interesting designs. So not á bad clue for me.
FIR, although it took over an hour when I was stuck in the NE and read the sports page to readjust my brain - and finally figured out salaam, which sent my tumblers meshing to finish properly! Previously I did have to replace runway with tarmac. Uomo is unknown to me and never saw it in a crossword before! Thanks to two Saudi dorm mates at ASU in my youth for Arabic greeting knowledge.
I didn't have too much trouble, but the puzzle at least felt pretty hard because of the sports stuff (a big weak spot for me), the huge amount of "?" clues, and the "?" clues ON sports stuff. I can see the cleverness in the POSTER DUNKS clue, but during my solve I had no idea that dunks can be called "jams" (or is it just a fitting word the constructor picked to make the wordplay work?), and that the POSTER was an actual poster (I thought it was just a technical term). Also, I had no idea about BRACKET BUSTER and no hope of getting what meaning of "pool" was involved.
Once again, Irish Miss summed up my opinion of this puzzle better than I could myself.
Match that's lit:BARN BURNER is an example of what I dislike most in many modern crosswords.
DNF. I missed some of the long answers, some of the names, though not GEHRY whose work I really like. I think the clue for UNE is super twisted. I really liked the clue for AUDIO BOOKS.
Thank you HG for á great review. I needed it.
too many ?. titt
Tough but clever Saturday puzzle, many thanks, David. And your commentary is always a big help--many thanks for that too, Gary.
Well, it took a bit of work to PASS MUSTER and DE-FOG the tough moments this puzzle gave us. But we'd rather GO BIG than GO HOME, and so even though we did RUN INTO tough moments here and there, we didn't LOSE in the end. Would have been nice to get an AUDIO BOOK, or a ticket to SO FI STADIUM would have been just fine. But this was still a treat in many ways, so thanks again, everybody.
Have a pleasant weekend!
Well, I guess I could chalk it up to a learning moment(s), but bracket buster? Poster dunks? I would say WIMS (What Irish Miss Said) but I could not finish this legitimately.
NOMW (Not On My Wavelength)
OOMW (Out Of My Wheelhouse)
pIMB (Pain In My Butt?)
Anywho, I DTITT (didn't throw in the towel) but cheated to get to the Blog for splainin...
Curiously, I always associated Tarmac with the apron you park the planes on.
see!?
And, just to make lite of the situation...
Love that a Braves fan has a dog named Chipper. My dog is named Mickey, and I’ve come up with an entire lineup of Mickeys: Mickey Rivers in left field, Mickey Morandino at second base, Mickey Vernon at first base, Mickey Mantle in center field, Mickey Cochran is catching and batting fifth, Mickey Brantley is in right field, Mickey Stanley is at third base, Mickey Hatcher is the shortstop, and on the mound, it’s Mickey Lolich.
A big DNF for me too this morning. The clues were not only out of my wheelhouse, but from an alternate universe to the one I live in. I'll Echo Irish Miss on this one...her take matches mine to a fare-thee-well!
I had a lot of fun with this puzzle and felt I was on David P’s wavelength, although I had to solve it from the bottom upward.
Frank GEHRY gave me traction in the SE, with JUNE BUG, JOULE, BOHO, AND BRACKET BUSTER occurring to me quickly. (I’m 27-5 in my bracket so far). SOFI STADIUM was part of that mix.
Rooney MARA (not the other way around), RAMADA (despite clue), TARMAC, and the drag performers got me going in the SW, and soon half the puzzle was complete.
The SOFI entry led me (joyous) to STRAINS, which made SALAAM seem possible. I should have come up with ROGEN without perps, but I soon completed the NE and was soon left with the one difficult part of the puzzle.
Like desper otto, I don’t like it when 1A and 1D are tricky. My first toehold in the NW was ERSE, but “the universe has spoken” meant nothing to me without perps. I thought the POSTER DUNKS entry was clunky, but it begat TEAPOTS and RAMPAGE, and I was able to PASS MUSTER.
OTHER DELIGHTS: Ginger BEER, All For Me GROG, GO BIG OR GO HOME, and OONA Chaplin, whose namesake grandmother, the daughter of Eugene O’Neill, was J.D. Salinger’s girlfriend before she dumped him for the much older Charlie Chaplin.
25-7 in my bracket
Puzzling thoughts from the past two puzzles:
For Friday's puzzle; maybe another "title" for this could be: "Buddy, can you spare a DIME?" I was totally busy yesterday and did not solve that puzzle (Friday, March 21) until Saturday the 22nd (today). As for today's puzzle, I gave up on that one; threw in the towel after my first pass
Reflecting back to the Friday puzzle:
Thanks for the shout out (MOE), and to IM, NaomiZ pinch hit for MM on this puzzle. I will be back next Friday (the 28th) but I would certainly nominate NaomiZ to take over the permanent position of Friday blogger. She is good; very good; borderline excellent
Hola! This was tough but finished I did though with ALEXA'S help, I don't mind saying so. I don't watch The Office so ED HELMS was unknown nor ANNA as clued. With obscure names I ask ALEXA if I can't work them out.
MANIS was clever, too. Digital, ha, ha. And when I saw two A's at AGATES and STRAINS I doubted them until SALAAM occurred to me. Well done!
Obviously this puzzle was aimed at lovers of baseball which I am not, but I persevered anyway. I loved AUDIO BOOKS and LOBE where I had IDEA first.
I also found Tagliatelle obscure but RAGU fit so I went with it.
Thank you, Gary, for your very helpful elucidations which I needed though I'm still unsure about PLUM.
Have a great day, everyone!
For many years I kept a "puzzle diary" of obscure terms and have not had to enter any new ones until now; NARA prompted me to look into that diary and I discovered that Japan has had several capitals and the current one, Tokyo, also means EDO which is more often seen in puzzles. Asuka was the first one and consolidated Japan many warring districts.
I am writing this in case anyone finds it helpful in solving future puzzles.
oops. Japan's many warring districts.
Sorry, Moe, I forgot MM was mountain-eering! 😂
Lucina- I was trying to remember EDO, but couldn’t dredge it out of my memory bank (and couldn’t find the ancient list I used to keep!). We needed 4 letters - I had to Google NARA.
Saturday Stumper. Thanks for the workout, David and HuskerG (glad you got your power back).
After too many trips to Google, I TITT, and came here for enlightenment.
Hand up for Idea before LOBE, and Runway before TARMAC.
I had hOMO and knew it was Latin not Italian. MUSTER corrected the h to U.
I noted STAIN and STRAINS.
We had MOTH and JUNEBUGS.
Wishing you all a great day.
JAM is a thing. Last century there was a movie called Space Jam, featuring NBA superstar Michael Jordan. Sounded kinda silly so I didn't see it, but it did well at the box office. It was remade a couple of years ago, with LeBron James (also an NBA superstar) in the Jordan role. Haven't seen that one either.
It was too tough for Big easy today. I had never heard of barn burner used that way, and bracket buster was a total unknown, strains as musical tunes is something I've never heard of, just a disease. I thought Amor was Roman love. Okay love conquers all, but I didn't get it from the clue.
Poster dunks? Never heard of it.
I bombed out this morning.
I got no pleasure whatsoever from attempting to solve this puzzle.
A query: “Bottom up” solving seems to be a common strategy used to crack open tough CWs. I used, too.. What is there about puzzle construction that makes this work so often? I’m puzzled.
Speaking for myself, I use the bottoms up mode when it's the only way I can start solving. Once I get several toe-holds, I can usually work out the top as the fill rises, so to speak.
I had to leave the northeast corner blank when I went out about my business this morning, and solved it this afternoon. The only complete unknown was MARA. Other answers, like BRACKET BUSTER and BARN BURNER, were not in my wheelhouse but could be guessed with perps. GEHRY was not too difficult, being an architect named Frank, but I'd never seen nor heard of Prague's Dancing House. Thanks for the visual, and for the rest of the blog, HG! And thanks to David Williams for a challenging but doable Saturday crossword puzzle.
Chairman Moe, I "bow low" to your praise. Thank you very much. It's good to see you back in our Corner.
I don't think there is anything inherently better when starting at the bottom. Like Lucina, when I'm stumped like today, I switch gears until I get a toe-hold. Sometimes, I jump around filling in 3LW (aka TLW) just to get enough letters in the grid to start making educated guesses.
We haven’t seen Oona for some time in the CW -she used to appear often! Edo was always the CW choice for early Japan capital. An urn is a kin to a samovar. Too many actors names & 19A was a total stretch. Not much fun😳
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