Saturday Themeless by Kunal Nabar
1. Units of growth?: ACRES 😀 A very common sight in my part of the country
6. Bygone autocrat: TSAR.
10. Folder that may hold a missing email: SPAM.
14. Words of consolation: THERE THERE.
16. Avgolemono option: ORZO - Orzo is pasta
17. Developer's displays: MODEL HOMES.
18. Think piece?: BEAN. 😀
19. Futures analyst?: ORACLE.
20. Some specialist MDs: ENTS.
22. World Cup chant: OLE.
23. Breakout group: SECT.
24. "No one can know!": IT'S A SECRET - I'd bet Kunal has no idea about this TV show. FWIW, I can name the moderator and all four panelists.
27. Relatively recent arrival?: TOT.
28. Symbol an anxious texter may stare at: DOTS - I wonder what the reply will be...
29. End notes?: CODAS.
30. Skyscraper top: SPIRE - A famous one
32. "__ a thought ... ": HERE'S - They don't all work out
33. Divine messenger?: TAROT READER.
35. "Sláinte": SALUT - Cheers!
36. Filled: SATED.
37. Like some Oreos: VEGAN.
38. Stag: HART - A red HART or stag and his hinds or does
39. Tags on social media: ATS.
42. Proposed: ON THE TABLE.
44. Minor deviation: BLIP.
45. Radio personality Angela who co-hosted "The Breakfast Club": YEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
46. Take off: SOAR.
47. Grade again: RERATE.
49. Gelatin alternative: AGAR.
51. Ray Charles hit whose B-side was "Come Back Baby": I GOT A WOMAN - As good as it gets!
53. Wild-tasting: GAMY.
54. Bit of extra time: LEAP SECOND - Neal Degrasse Tyson explains it in 58 seconds
55. Coding conditional: ELSE.
56. Rolls the credits: ENDS. 🎥
57. Fresh: SASSY.
Down:
1. Maximally: AT MOST.
2. Dance sequences, familiarly: CHOREO - Sometimes used as shortened word for choreography
3. Ready for publication, perhaps: REDACT.
4. Put up: ERECT.
5. Move like a bear: SELL.
5. Move like a bear: SELL.
6. "OTOH ... ": THO - On The Other Hand...
7. School trips?: SEMESTERS ABROAD - My granddaughter spent a SEMESTER ABROAD in Lyons, France
8. Places to watch Earthquakes and Hurricanes: ARENAS - The San Jose Earthquakes play in the Major Soccer League and the Carolina Hurricanes are in the National Hockey League
9. Some score marks: RESTS - John Phillips used them. Go ahead and sing along...
10. Melodramatic sound: SOB.
11. Diehard's purchase: PREORDER - Every Star Wars film had diehards who PREORDERED tickets to make sure they got in for the first showing.
12. Plants whose name derives from the Greek for "dry": AZALEAS - The name azalea is from the Greek word azaleos, which means dry. These lovely plants are very prominent on the Augusta National Golf Course where the Mater's starts on April 10th.
13. "Water Lilies" and "Irises": MONETS.
21. Leave the country: SECEDE.
25. Suit material: TORT.
26. Prepped for a pie, perhaps: CORED.
30. Mohamed who is captain of Egypt's national soccer team: SALAH - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
31. Gets snippy?: PRUNES - 😀
32. Cape that's home to North Carolina's Diamond Shoals: HATTERAS - Along with its famous lighthouse
33. Tackles together: TAG TEAMS.
34. __ Grey tea: EARL.
35. Closest country to Cape Verde: SENEGAL.
37. Odyssey: VOYAGE.
38. Part of an ice cream brand's pseudo-Scandinavian name: HAAGEN.
39. Los __, New Mexico: ALAMOS - The super secret site where the atom bomb was developed
41. Expensive, informally: SPENDY 🤔
43. French for canvas: TOILE (twäl)
a44. Scientist for whom a part of the brain is named: BROCA.
50. Bananarac liquor: RYE.
52. Rolls over a tree?: TPS.
40 comments:
Perhaps not as difficult as some Saturday puzzles have been. But little words almost tripped me up, like “orzo” and “vegan.” Anyway, I got through it. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
ORZO and VEGAN were easy; SALAH and CHOREO, not so much. But, d-o got 'er done while the Wite-Out got a rest. The AZALEAS around here are already past-peak. For the rest of the year they'll just be scraggly bushes. Thanx Kunal and Husker. (elif: Do you write Python programs?)
FIR on Saturday! Struggled and erased my butt off, but FIR! My only guess was BLIP over slip, crossing BROCA.
I really wanted lemon Oreos. How does Nabisco ruin a great snack? Produce VEGAN Oreos.
We didn't get I've Got a Secret, but I do remember Jimmy Carter signing in as a relatively unknown governor of Georgia. (We only got NBC, and Secret was on CBS. I must have been at a friend's house.)
They don't correct the GPS constellation with LEAP SECONDS, so your GPS time will be a little off www.time.gov.
The Outer Banks is called "the graveyard of the Atlantic" because of the many shipwrecks that have occurred there. Here's the famous HATTERAS light.
Thanks to Kunal for the Saturday special that even I could solve. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review.
HG, please name all the people in the I'VE GOT A SECRET pic. I know Gary Moore, the host and Bill Cullen and Henry Morgan but not the females.
I found the puzzle a mixed bag and did not finish. I did like Futures Analyst: ORACLE and Divine Messenger: TAROT READER but not the stupid CHOREO and SPENDY . Having trouble with a grid, I guess you just create a worthless abbreviation.
Mohamed Salah Hamed Mahrous Ghaly (born 15 June 1992), known as Mohamed Salah or Mo Salah, is an Egyptian professional footballer who plays as a right winger or forward for Liverpool and captains the Egypt national. Liverpool flamed out this year losing 1-0 at second-tier Plymouth in FA Cup fourth round disappointing my football (soccer) loving older son. Nice write up as always HG, but the gold is the MaSters, you lost an "S"
Thank you Kunal
Took 11:26 today for me to get to the "ends" without having to be "spendy" with any more time.
I didn't know "The Idiot," "choreo" (I dislike that), the scientist, the radio personality, the French word, "Salut", "Avgolemono", and the clue for "acres."
On Saturdays, when a clue ends in a question mark, I now find myself sighing - they often miss the mark. See, "acres," supra.
I enjoyed most of the longer clues/answers.
Female panelists were Betsy Palmer and Bess Meyerson(?) (former Miss America, IIRC)
Many screw ups on the challenging but mostly fair Saturday. Some clever misdirection: RESTS for (music) scores, ENDS (credits) SELL (during a “bear” market), ORACLE (predicts the “futures”), TORT (“suit material”)
Guess a “Diehard” purchase isn’t a battery. Aren’t ALL Oreos VEGAN? (Is there now a meat lovers bacon-stuffed variety?) Has anyone heard CHOREO. 💃🕺… “Pie prep” pare or CORE.
As kids we used to call the TV show “I’ve Got to Secrete” 😀
Inkovers: utmost/ALMOST, ads/ATS, nano/LEAP, salud
In college (1968) we set sail on a research vessel The “RV Eastward” (RV = “research vessel) from Cape HATTARAS (“Graveyard of the Atlantic”) to dredge the ocean floor at various locations south to Georgia. Hit stormy seas with waves coming well over the sides. We worked in teams at appointed times, day or night, to swing the equipment over the sides while getting tossed and buffeted by rain and waves then wait for it to re surface full of bottom organisms to sort through. Almost turned back but farther south through the Sargasso Sea the weather improved. I wrote a paper.
FIR. What a workout! At times I considered throwing in the towel, but as I considered different letter options here and there (there), several answers seemed to come to me. The SE was the last to fall as I couldn't understand ats until I got here. Ah, an ampersand!
Overall a so-so puzzle for me.
Well, today's puzzle was Saturday-difficult, but often unnecessarily so. For example, even though I love misdirections, many of the clues were not so much misdirected as they were misleading.
I'm often unsympathetic with solvers who complain about common everyday French entries like OUI, BONJOUR, ADIEU, and MERCI. But I join them today if they protest about TOILE, which is not an everyday word. Yes, canvas is one meaning of toile, but if you asked a French person what toile is, they would say it's linen or cotton fabric. It's what you get at the fabric store.
In my career I directed many plays, including musicals and operettas. I never once used--nor did anyone else use--the word "choreo." I hope I never see it again.
Kunal, I understand this was your LAT debut. Welcome to the Corner; I know that some of your clues may have been "adjusted" in the editing process, so many of my above critiques do not apply to you. You clearly have talent: the puzzle was clever and fresh and well-constructed. I appreciate such touches as the vertical grid-spanner right down the middle. I look forward to a return engagement!
HuskerGary, thanks for leading us through the puzzle details with panache and useful info. I concur on the identity of the celebrities pictured in "I've Got A Secret." I think.
I grew up in Williamsburg VA and spend parts of many summers on the Outer Banks, usually around Nags Head. I'm glad you linked the real HATTERAS lighthouse with it's iconic black and white barber-pole paint job. Fun facts - lighthouses are painted with different designs so that sailors can identify them (and where they are) by sight. At night, the identifier is the rotational speed of the light. Sailors simply measure the time between flashes, and no two are exactly the same.
At sign = @
Ampersand = &
I struggled to finish this. Lots of WAGS. I thought the clue for ORZO was á misspelling. I didn’t know the author of THE IDIOT, that was one of my big WAGS.
SALUT as clued is not French; santé or chin chin are the equivalents of cheers. SALUT in French simply means Hi.
There were some nice clues as pointed out here like the one for ORACLE, TORT, SUITS.
The O of CHOREO was my last entry. Who knew? And SPENDY grates.
Thank you HG on á nice Review.
Nope. Didn't like this one from the get-go. ACRE is a land measurement. YIELD is a crop measurement. Too many paraphrases, obscure names, "Alexa, what's a six letter word for...oh, never mind, I'll just make one up."
Well - I learned some things.🤦🏼♀️ I “finished” with a few wrong letters. Some “dohs”, some “ohos”. Thanks! for an interesting/
informative puzzle, and a great blog. Never could see the grid - if it was here 🤷🏼♀️
Good Morning:
This was a Goldilocks solve for me: Not too easy, Not too hard, but just right. There were only a few unknowns, i.e., Yee, Salah, and, as clued, Toile and The Idiot, but perps were fair, so no complaints from me. The cluing, IMO, was very clever, especially for Acres, Bean, Sell, Tort, Prunes, TPs, etc. It was refreshing to be challenged without being annoyed by show off, too cutesy trickery. My personal nits are Spendy (sounds childish to me) and the questionable Choreo, for which I foolishly entered Cha Cha. These are very minor irritants in an otherwise enjoyable and satisfying solve.
Thanks, Kunal, and congrats on what I think is your Saturday debut puzzle, and thanks, HG, for the usual informative summary and the neat photos and videos. Sheldon is always good for a laugh and Neil deGrasse Tyson is always good for a “I didn’t understand one word of what he said” experience. 😂 Ray Charles is just plain good!
FLN
Thanks to Katherine for stopping by and sharing her thoughts.
Have a great day.
Musings
-Yes, Gary Moore, Bill Cullen, Betsy Palmer, Henry Morgan and Bess Myerson. Bess was a former Miss America and a pitchwoman for Frigidaire.
-One very old guest’s secret was that he was in Ford’s Theater on the night of April 15, 1865.
-I have heard the word toile mispronounced in several ways
-The grid has been added. Oops!
CHARLIE ECHO 11:06 AM. An acre is a unit of land in which growth (plants) takes place. So I think the answer makes sense.
LMS (Like Monkey Said)
"The O of CHOREO was my last entry. Who knew? And SPENDY grates."
Overall it was quite enjoyable, the incomprehensible clueing turned out to be very clever. I.E.: rolls over a tree... (and the ellipsis clue) etc...
Question:
I rarely click on individual photos on the blog because I can never get out of them using my iPad. For instance, I wanted to take a closer look at the sheet music for Monday Monday to see the rests, and there is no way to "x" out or get back to the blog that I can find. Resizing the page doesn't help, and hitting the back button takes me out of the blog entirely, requiring a long wait to reload. Anyone have any suggestions?
The one guest who always sticks in my mind was an elderly Native American who was the model for the Indian Head Nickel
I remember something about Bill Cullen having polio as a child with some residual issues.
Garry Moore (two r's) was the host of I've Got A Secret. Panelists were Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, the former Miss America Bess Myerson, and Betsy Palmer, with whom I am still in love. I did like Garry Moore when I was younger, but now I find him really obnoxious.
Proper nouns saved the day for me, despite one that caused a hall of fame Natick.
Cape HATTERAS (the only N.C. cape I know), CODAS, I GOT A WOMAN (which I’m told I sang at a humorously early age), MONETS, SENEGAL (with a perp), Los ALAMOS, and the Tennessee TITANS moved me along. THERE, THERE, MODEL HOMES, HAAGEN Das, and GAMY also helped, as did EARL Grey (a tea but also the name of a trippy Fleetwood Mac instrumental from “Kiln House”).
Thus the obscure SALAH, crossing SALUT (definition didn’t help me) didn’t prevent an FIR. Other obscurities: Avgolemono, Bananarac, BROCO, YEE, and TOILE.
Annoyances were plentiful, including a lot green paint, such as ATS, THO, RE-RATE, PRE-ORDER, and TPs. SEMESTER ABROAD is more than a “trip.” I don’t associate AZALEAS with dryness. ELSE as a “coding conditional” meant nothing to me, and I didn’t understand the DOTS entry until H.G. explained it.
Nevertheless, it was a tough puzzle, and I enjoyed conquering it.
I'm going to defend CHOREO as the term I often hear for the rudimentary movements some a cappella groups (including our octet) throw in so we're not just standing there when we perform. Calling it "choreography" would be just wrong. But usually our older-guy group eschews choreo. Takes too much time to incorporate.
13D.Did no one notice? Yes, Water Lilies is a Monet artwork, but Irises is a Van Gogh piece.
I’m hanging my head in shame! Great pickup, Anonymus.
Interesting Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Kunal--and congratulations on your debut. And always appreciate your pictures and commentary, Gary--thanks for those too.
Have a good weekend, everybody.
I click of the picture in the blog, then click on the surrounding black area of the picture to return it to the blog. (iPad user. ) Good luck.
Sorry, Anonymous. Where is Mr. Smarty Pants autocorrect when needed?
Well, Van Gogh did paint the most famous "Irises," but Monet painted some too, so it's not so shameful that some or most of us didn't pick up on it.
Monet did many paintings of irises: Lilac Irises; Yellow Irises, Irises in Monet's Garden; etc., and yes, one simply called "Irises". So, the clue stands. The problem is the painting shown in the write-up is a Van Gogh.
I agree, azaleas grow well in humid Louisiana.
A big BZZZT.
Nope. Great big DNF, although as with many DNFs, I stubbornly persisted until I got all the cells correctly filled using red-letter help and, in this case, countless alpha runs. Only 11 names, but DNK 6. Also, it took HG to 'splain DOTS, ATS, and TPS. I just stared at them after they filled via alpha runs and couldn't imagine what they meant. Thanx, HG! Also, I thought (incorrectly) the spelling is GAMEY, not GAMY. Turns out GAMY is the preferred spelling but GAMEY is acceptable. SPENDY? Never heard it used. The same old TSAR, TZAR, CSAR, CZAR choice. Anyway, it took me 30 minutes to cheat my way to a finish, but I gotta assign myself a big DNF because of all the alphabet runs. Rats. Every once in a while I do FIR on Saturday, but not today. Thanx anyway, KN, and especially thanx for keeping the name count down. HG, thanx for all the enlightenment in the write-up. Completely off topic: I've rediscovered an old album and now can't stop listening to it: "Wings At The Speed of Sound". Give it a listen, tell me whatcha think.
Big Easy from phone
I finished most of the East but with a clues like Egyptian soccer team captain and avgolemono, and abbreviated but not really abbreviated words like THO and Choreo. Yuck.
Semesters abroad. Everybody I know who took those said it was a total joke and everybody got A's. Nice vacation on Mom and Dad's money.
C C had a masterpiece of a puzzle yesterday in the New York Times. A tough Friday puzzle which was a very enjoyable solve.
Hola! I'm really late to this party. Sometimes I don't even attempt Saturday puzzles if the grid looks too blank but today I tried and finished at about 99%. ACRES never emerged nor did THERE, THERE but I liked SELL for "move like a bear; oh, a BEAR market! Clever.
A friend's daughter spent a SEMESTER ABROAD in Spain and came home with a new husband as well as fluency in Spanish. The same with another friend's son who married a Mexican school senorita. I can't do the tilde!
BROCA totally escaped me. I had SLIP/SROCA and didn't notice. Oh, BLIP not slip. What I did was fun so thank you, Kunal and thank you, Gary.
It's time to enter some new terms into my CW diary.
I hope your Saturday has been awesome, everyone!
I knew BROCA because of the book "Broca's Brain".
On the sitcom Mom, Christie's boyfriend Fred mentions that he paid for his daughter's Semester Abroad which, he declared, should be called "getting laid in foreign countries."
Irish Miss, Perhaps William Caxton would've invented a better spellchecker! Been lurking here for a few years because most of you good folks are much sharper than myself. Have so enjoyed the work of those who explain the puzzles and add the neat links, as well as the comments of the blog members, but I haven't created an alias because Im an early in the week solver, who has to cheat on the tough days to see some answers! Miss Boomer and send very belated condolences to C.C. Happy Spring to all of you!
C.E.D., try this: hold on the link/image (don’t tap) then choose Open in New Tab. When done, close that tab and you should be back to the blog. HTH.
====> Darren / L.A.
Late to the show, too (been behind all week…).
Tough but fair — nice job from Mssr. Nabar. That ceiling-to-basement SEMESTERABROAD was daunting, but the perps filled it.
Favorite clue was for TPS. Very snazzy!
====> Darren / L.A.
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