Saturday Themeless by Rich Feely
Rich's puzzle provided a real challenge which yielded to my "hunt and peck" strategy.
The fill in the NW had some fun learning (TOUCH GRASS) and cleverISH cluing that took some time.
The SW where I finished also took some effort with obscure-to-me names ATOP each other but it was very satisfying 😳 when I got the Congratulations message.
1. Toss: SCRAP - Modern slang of YEET was only four letters and PITCH didn't work.
6. "The Sound of Music" backdrop, briefly: WWII - ALPS joined PITCH from 1 Across as "close but no cigar".
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| Baron von Trapp shows his feeling towards Nazis |
10. Start and end of New Mexico's Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway: TAOS.
14. "Put your phone down": TOUCH GRASS - 😀 I had no idea but it made perfect sense when I filled in the last letters. It means "get off your devices and go out in the real world".
17. Quarterfinalists: ELITE EIGHT - The winners of these games went to the Final Four. Rumor has it that EIGHT TEAMS would have worked too.
18. French head: TETE.
19. Chaps: MEN.
20. Folder's forfeit: ANTE - You paid to see the cards and if you fold your hand you forfeit that money. This is statistically the worst starting cards in Texas Hold 'Em.
and 11. Payment guarantee?: A BET IS A BET.
21. Polite gesture: HAT TIP.
23. "Say no more": I SEE.
24. Lollygags: DALLIES
28. Feels for: PITIES.
29. Lightweight material: LINEN - Leonardo di Caprio looking cool in LINEN as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.
30. Unconscious __: BIAS.
31. "And there you have it": TADA.
34. Happy accident: A FEATURE NOT A BUG.
37. Connected by a common thread: SEWN 😀
38. Take into account: NOTE - Duly NOTED.
39. Two-time WNBA MVP __ Delle Donne: ELENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
40. Time for curls: ARM DAY - It is recommended that you alternate
42. UNESCO City of Literature in Devon: EXETER - Exeter is a city in the county of Devon.
43. Multifaceted: LAYERED.
45. Sheep sounds: BAAS.
46. One vertex of the Summer Triangle: ALTAIR - A gimme for us astronomy peeps. Like the Big Dipper, it is an asterism not a constellation.
47. Cobra or bridge surfaces: MATS.
48. Sign of success: SRO - Husker VB is the only women's NCAA sport to make a profit thanks to its string of 376 consecutive sellouts that feature Standing Room Only crowds.
51. Designer Lagerfeld: KARL - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
52. Uninterested in the party scene, perhaps: APOLITICAL.
55. Comedian Wakim who is the first Lebanese American cast member of "SNL": EMIL. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
56. Texter's "Hey, boo": GHOST EMOJI - 👻
57. Viscous: ROPY - In Earth Science we call this ROPY lava pahoehoe (pun hoy hoy) lava.
58. Chef Lewis who specialized in Southern cooking: EDNA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
59. City on the Nile north of Lake Nasser: ASWAN.
Down:
1. Cherry picker's target: STEM.
2. 2023 AL Cy Young winner Gerrit: COLE.
3. Demolish: RUIN.
4. Pretend: ACT.
5. Gallinaceous bird native to Eurasia: PHEASANT - Some Nebraska landowners open their ground to PHEASANT hunting when they are in season.
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| Tekamah, Nebraska |
6. Dash off: WRITE - I try to dash off a reply as quick as I can when I get an email
7. Pay: WAGE.
8. "Plus or minus": ISH - My solve time for this puzzle was 30ISH minutes
9. Skeptical response: IS THAT SO.
10. Folks who tend to give things away: TATTLE TALES
12. Navel type: OUTIE.
13. Tally on some trackers: STEPS.
13. Tally on some trackers: STEPS.
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| On an Apple Watch |
15. Small inheritance?: GENES.
22. Boxing legend: ALI.
23. "They cannot be serious": I MEAN REALLY.
24. Guerrero of "Doom Patrol": DIANE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
25. Sigh of woe: ALAS.
26. Teeming (with): RIFE.
27. Journey in a relocation: ONE WAY TRIP 😀
28. Devotion: PIETY.
30. Overarching: BROAD - The overarching goals of athletic teams is to win a championship.
32. Timothée Chalamet epic set on a desert planet: DUNE - The star at top center ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
35. In the minority?: UNDER AGE 😀
36. Crude, slangily: TEXAS TEA - I sent these TV theme lyrics below to my 28-yr-old granddaughter and asked if she had ever heard them before. She quickly replied, "No". Sigh... The show is at the bottom of this write-up.*
Come and listen to my story
'Bout a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer,
Barely kept his family fed.
And then one day
He was shootin' at some food,
And up through the ground came a-bubblin' crude.
Oil that is, black gold, TEXAS TEA.
41. CT scan kin: MRI.
42. Fail big-time: EAT IT.
43. Former Minneapolis NBA player: LAKER - I am old enough to remember when the LAKERS played in Minneapolis in the 50's and their star was George Mikan who is seen below at the right with Kareem and Shaq. In 1960, the LAKERS took the team and the nickname westward although LA is not known for any significant lakes.
'Bout a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer,
Barely kept his family fed.
And then one day
He was shootin' at some food,
And up through the ground came a-bubblin' crude.
Oil that is, black gold, TEXAS TEA.
41. CT scan kin: MRI.
42. Fail big-time: EAT IT.
43. Former Minneapolis NBA player: LAKER - I am old enough to remember when the LAKERS played in Minneapolis in the 50's and their star was George Mikan who is seen below at the right with Kareem and Shaq. In 1960, the LAKERS took the team and the nickname westward although LA is not known for any significant lakes.
44. Site of Crockett's last stand: ALAMO - A silent movie version. I remember Fess Parker and John Wayne playing that role later.
47. New __: MOON - Ten days from now, the Moon will "rise" with the Sun and will not be able to be seen all day. As I have told thousands of students, the MOON is not in the evening sky every night.
48. Garbage barge: SCOW.
49. Indian royal: RAJA can be RANA also
50. Actor/director Ken: OLIN - I remember him as Det. Harry Garibaldi (far right) in the fabulous Hill Street Blues.
53. High deg.: PHD.
54. Uses Kik, say: IMS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
* Jed Clampett and family after they discovered and cashed in on their TEXAS TEA.
30 comments:
It took me an hour, but
I got it. “A feature, not a bug” took an awful long time to suss, but when I got it, it made a lot of sense. And I didn’t know what “touch grass” meant, until H.G. explained it. There were other difficulties, as well. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
The NW was undoable for me. Wanted limb, item, or tree for 1D. FINAL EIGHT wouldn't work. TOUCH had no chance; never heard of 'touch grass. COLE was unknown. A normal Saturday DNF.
Only with the extensive use of red letters, alphabet runs and WAGs did I slog my way through this puzzle. Can’t say that I enjoyed the slog. On a happier note, my wife and I recently rewatched every episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. That was definitely not a slog. It’s amazing how well that show has held up over time.
Rich's puzzle today should perhaps carry a warning, "Beware: Not For the Faint of Heart." Solving it was a satisfying experience, though, precisely due to its having presented such a challenge. And a learning experience: most of these words and phrases were new to me:
--touch grass
--gallinaceous (I wonder why it doesn't end in "-ious"?)
--a feature not a bug
--arm day
--summer triangle--and the multiple meanings of Altair
--Texas Tea
I loved Rich's word play and cleverness, especially all the playful misdirections in his clueing.
I did find one mistake, the "Sound of Music" clue. I was an acquaintance of Oscar Hammerstein's widow Dorothy, and once I happened to mention something about World War II in "The Sound of Music," and she corrected me: "Young man, my husband set 'The Sound of Music' during the Anschluss in 1938, before the war." So there you have it.
Thanks, Rich, for providing us a challenging yet playful Saturday diversion. And thanks, Gary, for your usual thorough and entertaining recap.
Took 21:30 today.
I didn't know today's actress (Diane) or her show/movie. The cobra and bridge surfaces didn't mean anything to me without "poses". "Dash off" for "write" doesn't make sense to my ears. "Touch grass" and "ropy" were a learning moment too.
Not a fan of the Altair, Karl, & Emil stack in the lower-left. Otherwise, a good challenging Saturday puzzle without obscure food and off kilter "?" clues.
FIR in about 15 minutes, but it felt like 15 hours. Obscurities and too-cutesie clues sucked the joy out of this solve for me. GHOSTEMOJI and TOUCHGRASS are prime examples, and there are probably 25 more reasonable clues for PHEASANT.
DNF. I threw in the towel with today's puzzle. Too many proper names, and touch grass? No not in my wheelhouse at all.
I don't often quit a hard puzzle but today is busy for me and if I were enjoying today's puzzle I would stick with it. But this wasn't enjoyable by a long shot.
Slogged through if for a FIR but there were far too many proper nouns for my own taste. Some nice misdirection but Touch Grass? I mean, really?
Good Morning:
I was hoping to see a post from Jinx this morning. I hope we get some news soon.
I had little hope of completing this puzzle, until I did. It took about 38 minutes, but with much P and P, I finally got my rewarding Tada! Hanging onto Alps for so long was part of the holdup, but many unknowns, i.e. Touch Grass, Diane, Altair, Elena, Emil, Pheasant, as clued, etc., contributed to the difficulty. The clueing was clever and full of misdirection, but not deviously unfair, and the fill was fresh and sparkling in many areas.
Thanks, Rich, for a satisfying Saturday solve and thanks, HG, for the usual informative summary. Your personal asides are always a treat, as are the puzzle-related photos.
Have a great day.
I had to resort to online with red letters to finish this CW. For instance, had I not, I would have stubbornly stuck to Alps instead of WWII. The long answers were unfamiliar to me like TOUCH GRASS, Á FEATURE NOT Á BUG, and GHOST EMOJI.
I liked the clues for GENES as well as ONE WAY TRIP and UNDER AGE.
I do NOT think of LINEN as light weight material.
I do hope we hear from Jinx this morning.
Thank you HG for your usual excellent review.
I didn’t know DIANE, EMIL, EDNA.
Well that last sentence should have come earlier. Oops.
The NW looked daunting at first, with so many vague clues (I started with only GENES and ISH). I had to come at it from the back ends of the two long answers, they were easy with GENES, ISH and IS THAT SO in place. The rest of the puzzle played easy except the SW with the unknown EMIL, KARL, LAKER as clued, ALTAIR as clued, ALAMO as clued. Everything was gettable with some crosses.
Is ELITE EIGHT NCAA-specific? If so, [Some quarterfinalists] should've been the clue.
I'm familiar with TOUCH GRASS and A FEATURE, NOT A BUG and I really liked seeing those answers. GHOST EMOJI on the other hand feels like green paint. No way any old ____EMOJI makes for a crossworthy phrase. The misdirection attempt was meh.
Re: "Sound of Music" - yes, the Vonn Trapp family escaped BEFORE the war started. It's a major plot point that the captain learns the Nazis have annexed Austria (without fighting) and makes the decision to leave everything before it's too late.
A little tougher than Monday’s but unsolvable with the likes of “touch grass” and “feature/bug”. A DNF on a Saturday-it’s common to “eat it”.
Tough, even for a Saturday. This one hung in the balance between DNF & FIR for a good while. A few educated (wild?) guesses broke the log jam. Had to erase some "sure" things, like gymDay to ARMDAY.
Thanks to Rich for the challenge. It's a real feeling of accomplishment when I the last lightbulb turns on. In this case, I wanted smell (like the roses) or anything besides TOUCH GRASS, until there it was.
In South Florida, no one uses a fireplace. But when I fly up to my folks in Virginia during the holidays, the first AROMA that hits me when leaving the airport is wood smoke, which sends me right back home.
Nice job, Gary, with the write-up. I loved the Hillybilly's theme played by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. So did everyone else. It was the first bluegrass record to top the Billboard country charts, and remained on the list for 20 weeks into 1963. The show itself was extremely popular as well, ranking #1 for two of its nine seasons. As to your granddaughter, "Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way? What's the matter with kids today?" (from Bye Bye Birdie, also 1963).
DNF. Instead of putting down the phone, I decided to put down the puzzle. Between the paraphrase non-clues, obscure people, and inane clues I tossed the towel. Stuck with ALPS to the bitter end, as I KNEW that the VonTrapp family left Austria BEFORE the start of WWII! A little editorial help, please? A bit of misdirection is fine, but no excuse for flat-out wrong.
Hola! it's Book Club Meeting day so I'll make it short, much like my feeble attempt on this puzzle. I finally had to SCRAP it because I would not give up THROW and never would I have known TOUCH GRASS. The same for names, DIANE, KARL, EMIL (though I did guess it) and remembered LAKER and, of course, ALAMO. other than that, I just stopped and that is not something I usually do. But thank you, Gary, for filling in all my blanks. Have a lovely day, everyone!
I disliked this puzzle every bit as much as I liked the Friday puzzle. I needed the equivalent of red-letter help to FIR, and it took 100 minutes.
As is often the case with annoying puzzles, the paraphrases were the biggest problem. None could be sussed without perps. In order: TOUCH GRASS; I SEE; A FEATURE, NOT A BUG (Hall of Fame horrible answer!); IS THAT SO?; A BET IS A BET; and I MEAN REALLY (which says nothing, yet says it all).
Other annoyances: ARM DAY; the obscure clue for DIANE; EAT IT (I hate that expression); and the Mikan-or-Laker quandary.
Unknowns: ALTAIR and “Summer Triangle”; GHOST EMOJI, EDNA Lewis; the KIK clue; and the SNL guy. I’ve taken to trying to identify each cast member a tick before their names are given in the introductions, but Wakim is still on the second team and is rather new. We needed a different EMIL. I would have preferred a different puzzle.
Challenging Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Rich. And always appreciate your helpful commentary, thanks for that too, Gary.
Well, there seemed to be some argument going on in this puzzle, with one guy saying A BET IS A BET and the other one answering IS THAT SO? But they didn't want to RUIN their friendship, so they decided to best keep everything APOLITICAL. The best way to do that was to have some lunch, with both of them telling the other to EAT IT. And at the end they decided to end the day by going on a ONE WAY TRIP to the ALAMO. A good ending to a new friendship.
Have a cheerful, happy weekend, everybody.
Came close but nope! The NE and Mid East remain half blank.
I agree with T-Ken. “The Sound of Mutants” took place before the start of WWII. And ALPS isn’t “brief” anyway.
Inkovers: dawdles/DALLIES, raze/RUIN, lisle/LINEN, goey/ROPY
A four letter answer with “New Mexico” in the clue is always TAOS
I’ve seen EMIL Wakim on SNL and he describes himself as a Lebanese Maronite Christian (ancient Eastern rite Arab Catholics under the pope) like many of my schoolmates and current buds. Wikipedia says he has a “Lebanese” father and a “white” mother. I’ve been texting my friends John, Angela, and Maryann this week (all their GPs immigrated from Syria and Lebanon) about getting together for dinner. I feel so open-minded and cosmopolitan now. Wait’ll I tell ‘em. Angela is blond blue eyed and looks like she’s could be from CW’s OSLO 😊
“polite gesture” TIPing your HAT or putting a TIP in a HAT.
“Galinaceous” yikes!! TOUCH GRASS … c’mon 🙄. I perped A FEATURE NOT A BUG (what does that even mean?)
Didn’t we just have EXETER?
Anyway have a great day
My white-to-ink ratio was 60:40 when I TITT.
I could not have solved this puzzle without looking up a lot of items, including the unknown-to-me proper names. Even though I filled every cell, i.e. finished it, I didn't really feel much satisfaction.
24 Down. Some actress in some tv show that nobody’s ever heard of that was canceled five years ago? Somebody’s girlfriend maybe? Getting a plug?
A real uphill battle today (literally — it turned into a bottom-up solve) but at least, unlike that insanity yesterday, it was doable, even in spite of our favorite hate: the obscure pop-culture names. I managed a pseudo-demi-FIR; I call it that because my revolt against OPCN’s is to just look ‘em up. I don’t watch enough pablum TV to know celebrity chefs’ names…
I’ve used “Touch wood” (the Brit equivalent of “knock on wood) but TOUCHGRASS doesn’t register on this boy’s radar; “smell the roses” is more well-used. WRITE for “Dash off”? Ooo-kay-eee… And yes, the Von Trapps had left Austria well prior to the onset of WWII. Luckily the ISH perp set me up, but still — nerny-nerny Ms. editor! 😝 I suppose one could argue that the Anschluß was a lead-in to the war, but…nah.
I persevered to get all the theme fills; although I’d always heard A FEATURE oR A BUG posed as a question, throwing in DIANE fixed that one. The others came (eventually) to fruition thanks to the perps.
Like @RudtyBrain, hand up for gymDAY until the ONEWAYTRIP perp smacked me “upside da haid”, as ol’ Jed may have said; I may not be old enough to remember our Lakers being in the Twin Cities, but I did watch “The Beverly Hillbillies” every week as a kid — and I can still pick up my gee-tar and sing that whole damned song (much to all listeners’ chagrin). Great clue for TEXASTEA, Mssr. Feely!
Well-played puzzle — tough, but a fair run, even though I burned up the better part of an hour today hammering at it. Husker Gary’s review added some good relief after the slog — thanks, dude!
====> Darren / L.A.
* @RustyBrain 😖 ====> D.
DAB’s most recent CW was owed today. Here’s his intro: The purpose of this website, like that of all great modern art, is to bring about a radical rethinking of the human condition, of its meaning and purpose, its origin and end. When refined people see abstract painting or hear atonal music, their very sense of reality is challenged; they come away changed, ennobled, completed. Of course, there are those, not so refined, who see only smudges and hear only noise. And so it is with my crosswords. While I interrogate the unstable relationship between signifier and signified, with the aim of leading the refined solver to rethink the very meaning of meaning, there are those who just think, “Oh here’s another stupid pun.” But I do not cross my words for them.”
…was POSTED today.
Got almost done w/ my comment when it disappeared. Don't wanna spend all that time again, so the short version: WANONS @7:03: needed red letter + multiple alpha runs to fill the cells. No fun. Too many DNKs. Too many very bad clues: ROPY is NOT "Viscous". A relocation might be temporary: my friends are now on their way to their summer condo in LA to escape the suffocating SLFLO heat, but they come back in November, so it's NOT a "onewaytrip". Many other clues to complain about, plus the mess in the SW with unknown names jammed one against the other. No fun. Thanx HG, your write-up was by far the best part of this experience.
Do people go to the gym and just exercise their arms then go home, and next time at the gym exercise their legs then go home, etc.? Maybe, but I use a variety of machines to try to get a little done with each muscle group every time I go to the gym. From what I have seen that's they way everyone does it. Which is why ARMDAY made no sense. I truly do NOT believe there is an armday and a legday and an absday and a latsday. I call BS on this as a clue. And so it was with many other clues.
“the unstable relationship between signifier and signified”…what’s this guy smokin’, Prof?? 😵💫
====> Darren
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