Themeless Saturday by Stella Zawistowski
At the left you can see Stella with two trophies she won at an ACPT event and she said of herself:
I was a "Constantly-About-to-Throw-Up Nervous Wreck." I did manage to make a trip to the hardware store with my second fifth-place finish in a row and first place in NYC (the latter made easier since Andy Kravis was attending a wedding):
Across:
1. "Paradise Lost" figure: SATAN.
6. Hamburger __: MENU - Not something you would see at McDonalds. It is set of shortcut icons that can be used in user interfaces. The name comes from the resemblance of some the icons to triple hamburger patties. More
10. Ennea- minus one: OCTO.
14. Honolulu Marathon landmark: ALOHA TOWER.
16. Blank space: VOID.
17. Step after reentry: SPLASH DOWN - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins return to Earth on July 24, 1969.
18. Supermodel who wrote the kids book "What Are You Hungry For?": EMME.
19. Turf: SOD.
20. Is on the hunt: SEEKS.
21. Globally available sweets: OREOS - Just when you think you have read every clue for OREOS...
22. Renege (on): BAIL.
23. Question of desire: WANT IN - My one bad cell was where WANT I_ crossed TIMO_ 12. Shakespearean Athenian: TIMON. I first put WANT IT and TIMOT. ๐คจ
25. Really clean: SCOUR.
27. "Inside the Actors Studio" host: LIPTON - Here he is trying to deal with Robin Williams
28. Rogan josh accompaniment: NAAN.
29. Slow roller across the infield: TARPAULIN ๐ It's a slow roller but you can get caught under it.
32. Word before mirabilis or horribilis: ANNUS - I think you can infer what annus horribilis would mean
34. Stylist's selection: HUE.
35. Miu Miu parent company: PRADA - I did find a Miu Miu purse online that was marked down to $4,200. ๐ณ
38. Avalon, for one: ISLE - The Isle of Avalon is a mythical island featured prominently in Arthurian legends, often associated with healing, magic and the afterlife.
40. Wasabi product: PASTE.
42. "Grief Is for People" memoirist Crosley: SLOANE - ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
43. Short curls?: PERM - The curls can be short and are short-lived. ๐
44. French greeting: SALUT.
45. Unmoving: INERT.
47. End: AIM.
50. Nutrient in shellfish: IRON.
51. Heinz product: STEAK SAUCE.
53. Brie feature: RIND - the answer below is yes. It's a natural, bloomy rind that develops during the cheese-making process, and it's a key part of the cheese's flavor and texture.
54. One who is just not having it: PICKY EATER ๐
55. Winged goddess: ISIS.
56. Sets as a price: ASKS.
57. "Which ones?": THOSE.
Down:
1. Flip response: SASS.
2. Purina brand: ALPO.
3. Related: TOLD.
4. "I knew you were bluffing!": AHA.
5. Capital on New Providence: NASSAU.
6. Virtual representation: MODEL.
7. Tree hut dweller on Endor: EWOK.
8. Up-to-the-minute media: NEWS WIRES - Newspapers are not up-to-the-minute.
9. Tapped container: URN.
10. Strain on local infrastructure: OVER TOURISM.
11. Get outdone by everyone: COME IN LAST - "Finished Last" worked at first.
13. Metered tributes: ODES.
15. Sometimes-singular possessive: THEIR.
21. Draftable?: ON TAP.
22. Game show extras: BONUS ROUNDS.
24. Messenger, e.g.: APP.
25. Sound: SANE.
26. Mexico : enchiladas :: Italy : __: CANNELLONI.
27. Heaps praise on: LAUDS.
28. 2019 W.S. champ: NAT - Then they traded away the heart of the team. In two years they were 65 - 97. First to worst.
28. 2019 W.S. champ: NAT - Then they traded away the heart of the team. In two years they were 65 - 97. First to worst.
29. "Just as I predicted": THERE IT IS.
30. Unmoving, perhaps: IDLE.
31. Scottish denial: NAE.
37. Unimaginable span: EON.
40. Up a lot?: PERKY - I'm not a fan of morning TV
41. Creativity-inspiring gift: ART SET - So many ways for me to fail ๐
42. Garments that may feature gota patti embroidery: SARIS.
43. Range makeup: PEAKS - Mountain range
44. Speaker on some devices: SIRI.
46. Violin section?: NECK.
47. Set-it-and-forget-it mode: AUTO - This might happen
48. Sweetens, in a way: ICES - ICE a bakery item.
49. __ mortals: MERE - I always say, "Everyone has a story"
51. Apt rhyme for 52-Down: SPA and 52. Apt rhyme for 51-Down: AAH. ๐
32 comments:
This puzzle didn’t seem
as tough, to me, as Saturday puzzles usually are. I finished it in less than half an hour, whereas Saturday puzzles often take me twice that long or more. Maybe I was just on the constructor’s wavelength this morning, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of obscure “cultural” clues or anything.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
This one came together slowly...but it finally did. Tried to fit a T in CANNELLONI-- nope. My NEWSWIRES were FEEDS at first. TEN SPEEDS as _E___EEDS looked obscure. (My bike is a 7-speed Schwinn.) Thought "Rogan josh" was a play on Josh Rogin. D'oh. So many places to go wrong. Thanx, Stella and Husker.
Took 16:45 today.
Pretty good Saturday puzzle, despite more foreign math (octo), a French greeting (salut), "annus", and two clues that rhyme. I did not know the fashion parent company, the writers (Sloane & Emme), the goddess, and Lipton.
I saw Stella's name and knew we'd be treated to a Saturday challenge.
-Clue for Rogan Josh had me thinking that it was a singer and I was looking for the musical instrument to accompany- nope Crossword bread NAAN which is always a toss up with roti - but this was handled by perps
-IIRC Queen Elizabeth deemed the year Princess Diana died and other problems in the UK ANNUS Horribilis
-All through college I rode my trusty Raleigh 3 speed though many of my fellow students had TEN SPEEDS
-Wasabi PASTE is too hot for me!
-with PERM I also that it was short for PERManent wave
-I love CANNELLONI- just have to remember how many Ns and Ls it has
Thanks HG for the fun blog and to Stella for the challenge
-
FIR, but it took a WAG at cannelloni to get there. There is no way I could have gotten annus as clued.
I'm a Star Wars fan but it took me way too long to come up with ewok. I guess I had a brief brain fade.
For a Saturday puzzle this did not disappoint. But overall I did enjoy this puzzle.
I seem to be the exception here, because I found this puzzle to be extremely challenging and not even vaguely enjoyable. The northeast part of the grid was particularly difficult for me. Yeah with the help of red letters and alphabet runs and more than a few WAGs I got it done, but there is no joy in Mudville…Oh, and it’s raining,. In New Hampshire. On a Saturday. Again…
I figured that with Stella at the helm today, we'd be in for a tough but fair ride, and I wasn't let down. I appreciated the puzzle's construction with all those 10's and 11's sandwiched together. And as a lover of misdirection, I enjoyed many of her clever clues. Stella knows the distinction between misDIRECTION (yes!) and misLEADING (no!). And her twin clues at the end (51D and 52D) were cute (but one never knows whether it's AAH or AHH).
We had two Shakespeare entries yesterday, and another today. I'm getting spoiled; I love it! Just one minor nit: the clue asked for an Athenian, so I ruled out Timon of Athens because a big part of the clue is essentially in the answer. Neighboring clues of course sealed the deal for TIMON. Rhymes with Simon, if anybody's wondering.
Thanks, HuskerGary, for your usual helpful and entertaining review. Oddly, 12 Down was missing from your recap.
And thanks, Gary, for your kind remarks to me yesterday. You're right about the "wherefore art thou Romeo" quote. Part of the problem (in addition to people not knowing that "wherefore" means "why") is that there should be no comma before the word Romeo. Juliet is just ruminating why does the mere name Romeo present such a stumbling bloc in our relationship? She's voicing the absurdity and potential ramifications of the Capulet-Montague feud that will indeed cause tragic consequeces for the two star-crossed lovers.
Sorry HG, no thoughts, other than, my brain hurts after this one....
This was a Goldilocks challenge from Stella. Perfect Saturday mix of "I don't know half of this" to "Oh, I see it now."
I initially had NAShua thinking the Providence River in Rhode Island may have a New tributary that originated in New Hampshire. Which is way over thinking it, especially since Nashua isn't the capital, and I've been to Nassau many times.
My only stumble was WANT It instead of IN, and then didn't notice that gave me TIMOt, so FIW.
Last to fill in was hamburger MENU, those three little bars (or dots) stacked at the top of my computer screen.
Loved the Slow roller clue for TARPAULIN as much as Gary's little GIF!
Excellent puzzle with, as T-Ken stated, clever misdirections but not misleading ones. I thought Lean cuisine consumer of yore was particularly good. And it can be paired with PICKY EATER. Not that this CW was easy, I had to work hard but enjoyed it.
I didn’t know Miu Miu and SLOANE, but perps helped.I don’t understand Rogan josh accompaniment. I really wanted wHOSE as an answer to “Which ones?” We had AHA in the NW and AAH in the SE.
Thank you HG for your usual terrific review.
Tehachapi Ken, I combined 12 Down earlier in the write-up to show my one bad cell. "Alas, poor Husker, he knew TIMON not well!"
23. Question of desire: WANT IN - My one bad cell was where WANT I_ crossed TIMO_ 12. Shakespearean Athenian: TIMON. I first put WANT IT and TIMOT. ๐คจ
Well, I did learn a thing, or six❣️ Thanks to Stella, Patti & HG for the challenge❣️ It took me a long while. I had help from knowns, and good guesses, crossing with unknowns. I know nothing of sports, and don’t follow best(good)-selling books, so those always stymie me. Now that I know if it, I do think I’ll cook up a Rogan Josh, as it sounds really yummy! And who doesn’t love naan?! Everyone - have a great weekend and June! Sumer has arrived in So Cal - Fri hi temp @ my house was 100
Good Morning:
Stella has redeemed herself many times over since that unforgettable Saturday Puzzle of long ago that was pure torture and, unlike that offering, today’s was solved, albeit not quickly or easily, but without help and without angst. I needed perps for Octo, Sloan, Nassau, Annus, Urn, Prada, and Timon, but the long fill was helpful and provided many toeholds to chip away here and there. A few of the clues were too cutesy (for my taste) i,e., for Naan and Sprat, but several were clever and tricky, but fair. Props also for some fresh and snappy fill.
Thanks, Stella, and thanks, HG, for the usual fun, facts, and guidance through the grid.
Have a great day.
Not the worst Saturday puzzle I've seen, but still too many clues that fell beneath my radar horizon. Managed to get a little more than halfway before tossing the towel. There were a bunch of clever entries, but in the end it was juuust a bit out of reach.
Was that long-ago puzzle, which came to mind for me as well, the one that introduced us to TOTES ADORBS?
Stella is one of those constructors who inspire admiration and dread simultaneously. I got through this one relatively quickly, about a half-hour.
CANNELLONI helped me complete the SW quickly. In the SE, NECK led to PICKY EATER, which came to mind because of Friday’s Jumble answer. Although I’m not familiar with ALOHA TOWER, though I should be considering how often I’ve visited Honolulu, it was perpable and helped me fill the NW. In the NE, TIMON of Athens seemed obvious, but it required admission that I was wrong about the model’s being Imam, that “want to” was actually WANT IN, that the word for “eight” was OCTO (in Esperanto, I hoped), and that OVER-TOURISM is a thing.
My favorite entry, by far, was the “slow-roller” clue for TARPAULIN. Now, THAT’S clever.
Getting back to enchiladas, I have made them to my liking a few times, which wouldn’t be necessary if I lived in Texas. California enchiladas lack what I consider to be chili gravy; they’ve got an insipid orange sauce instead, like you find in a “Mexican” TV dinner.
Not for me. Too much chicanery and not enough pure wordplay. Math tests in foreign languages, niche stuff like Hamburger MENU, foreign words and phrases galore (ANNUS horribilis, ISIS, MIU MIU, etc), questionable cluing (how is a ten speed any more versatile than a three speed, or even a bobsled in the arctic). It just felt like 90% of it was intended to deceive - which is a step over the line from misdirection. I can tell from the comments thus far that I am clearly an outlier, so hopefully I have a minority opinion and the grid actually has more luster than my overall perception.
SSJ, I lie out here with you. FIR but with some research. Not fulfilling for me.
Delightful Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Stella. And I always appreciate your commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
Loved getting that ALOHA greeting, and as soon as I saw MENU I knew we were in for a good lunch with some items ON TAP. Our favorite one would of course be that delicious CANNELLONI, which is probably better if not served with any STEAK SAUCE. Little of the food had any RINDS, but the shellfish did have a bit of IRON. In the end we also got our favorite OREO cookies and some other dessert items with ICES on them. And so we ended up not being PICKY EATERS after all. Not a bad lunch, all things considered.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Only finished cuz I kept returning with a refreshed mind. Many truly clever clues that needed outside-the-box thinking but not either-you-know-or-you-don’t answers.
What all cruciverbalists dread: a “blank space” BTW “TIMON” LIU, some say it’s “TIE’ mun” others say “Tim MOWN” probably Bill Shakespeare went with the former.
I knew NASSAU from a cool partly historical pirate series set in “New Providence” called “Black Sails”
Inkovers: odor/RIND, Nike/ISIS, cut/HUE, Elle/EMME, NEWScasts/WIRES
The only food item I could think of that long, remotely like “the whole enchilada” was CANNELLONI (big tubes) rather than “little sleeves” (Manicotti too short )
“Lean Cuisine” was a perfect Saturday clue albeit a proper name but who doesn’t know Jack SPRATT (OK didn’t know SLOANE)
Two SE Asian unknown clues but with well known answers, SARIS and NAAN. Guess “Avalon” was not a car model. This was the strangest clue yet for OREOS, (are they truly “globally available”?)
Figured “Miu Miu” was a cat food company.
“Draftable” “One-A” not A-One a STEAK SAUCE. Perp corrected.
”Winged goddess” of “sweetening maybe” …. ISIS
Extreme “question of desire” …. WANTIN
Searches for SE Asian religion adherents-…. SEEKS
Working part of the weekend , weather is “horribilis” anyway ๐ง
This was a lot of work, but I eventually solved it. I found it to be a satisfying experience.
I know about rogan josh because our family patronizes and supports a local Nepalese restaurant. But I entered RICE instead of NAAN.
I didn't understand hamburger MENU until reading Gary's explanation.
Like inanehiker, all through college I rode my trusty 3-speed bike. I don't remember if it was a Raleigh or not.
It was a tossup between IRON and zinc on that nutrient in shellfish. SIRI settled it.
I keep forgetting that ISIS had (has) wings.
Good reading you all on this last day in May.
Congratulations Stella, but when I see a Saturday puzzle with your name on it makes me want to "throw up" because I never manage to finish it. I managed to get about 70% right but some A&E clues make it impossible to guess But I did ride 20 miles this morning on my 14-SPEED bike before I attempted to work on this puzzle. I guessed STEEDS but couldn't come up the right type of horse.
LIPTON, SLOANE, and their clues- I was clueless about those. I guessed PRADA for the unknown clue but my RING couldn't cut it for the TOURISM.
I got all the long fills except CANNELLONI (I know cannoli but not its sibling) and OVERTOURISM. Don't bill bad Gary about TIMON and WANT IN. I didn't finish that cross either.
NAAN- Rogan josh accompaniment? No idea. Thought maybe that podcaster who I've never listened to (or any other podcaster) had a sidekick who told jokes.
ANNUS- nope. at least it had two "N"s in the word.
HUE- couldn't think of any last letter that could finish it. That PERM (which I didn't get) might be tinted, not hued.
Above my pay grade today.
Seeing Stella’s byline on a Saturday, I knew I was in for a challenge, or as HG put it, a workout. Only a handful of gimmes for me, the vast majority of fill required a lot of thought and significant perp help, but I succeeded with a FIR w/out any help in 52 minutes. Last day of the month yields a nomination for worst clue, “Rogan josh accompaniment”. Thanks Stella, I always like your style, whether themed or themeless. Thanks for the enlightenment HG!
CE, I don’t remember any of that puzzle’s fill, other than Shakshouka, which I had never seen or heard before. ๐
Wasabi is definitely hot, just a tad will cause a severe head rush, but it’s a must for me on a California roll. ๐
As I often do on Saturdays, I just persisted with multiple alpha runs in red letter until I finally filled the cells, but, of course, hafta give myself a DNF due to the alpha runs. WAY too much stuff I DNK: 13 names, DNK 10. Oy. Also DNK MENU (as clued), tried HILL, but no. Ya got me with OREO (as clued), but it didn't take long for the V-8 can. Had OCHO instead of OCTO far too long. I discovered ANNUS HORRIBILIS does not mean a really stinky butt. Did not recognize WS as World Series, so NAT was all perps, eventually, after alpha runs for ANNUS. Nits: A perm does not necessarily involve short curls. And 51D & 52D add up to no clue at all. :-(( In other words, SZ gave me a pretty solid thrashing about the head and shoulders today before dumping me at the curb for garbage pick-up. Oh well, it is a Saturday. After surprising myself yesterday with a good finish, I should have expected as much on Saturday. Thanx anyway, SZ. Great write-up today, HG, thanx for all the time and effort you put into it for our edification and entertainment.
Ms. Zawistowski served up a real mutha-buggah today! After two runs through the grid and only getting about five fills, I was about ready to bin this one — but suddenly my brain got off drag bunts and broken-bat hits to realize they deploy the TARPAULIN really slowly, and that started the ball rolling ๐ Plus, after perps told me “finish LAST” wasn’t gonna fly, VOID got the door opened a crack. And like @InaneHiker, it took me forEVer to get my N’s and L’s sorted for CANNELLONI to work; I knew they were Italian enchiladas, but not as easy to spell as the Tex-Mex fare!
Deception ran rampant in here; some pretty stinky deals included ICES for “sweetens” (?), an AIM as a “end”…and as for counting in Greek — that’s totally Geek to me. (And @BigEasy, you beat me to the “one N” gag! ๐คฃ).
I also hate A= B = A clues such as the 51D-52D rhyme circle. But that’s just me…
Thanks to HuskerGary for yet another amusing run-through; I’d never seen that Actors’ Studio vid with Robin Williams — what an astounding talent he had. It was such a shock to lose him ๐
====> Darren / L.A.
Hola! A disappointing Saturday run for me. I got through about 90% until the SE corner where I could not rid myself of STEWED _____ . I have never bought their brand of STEADK SAUCE. And as many a PERM as I've had in my life I should have known that one but by then I was frustrated. And to make matters worse, this morning I discovered that a second mouse was running rampant in my pantry!!! So after cleaning up the mess on the shelf I went to buy more traps. So far I have switched anything that was in boxes or bags to jars or metal containers. If anyone wants to know, the GLUE TRAPS work and better than the traditional snap traps.
I'm so pleased for those of you who ride bikes. I have never been able to learn in spite of excellent helpers. Enjoy your weekend. The weather here has been glorious.
oops. STEAK SAUCE. No extra D!
Count me among the minority, but I did not enjoy a single second of the 12 minutes I spent on this puzzle before TITT for only the second time in history.
Too many obscurities and questionable clues, in my opinion. Life is too short, so I shut it down and headed for the beach. I bailed, which does not mean I reneged. See what I did there?
That was a long slog to a DNF :-(
Speed was not helped by my initial mistakes of 'NEWS FEED', 'KEG', and 'FINISH LAST' for 8D, 9D, and 11D.
What did for me was not knowing 'EMME' or 'TIMON'. It's a pity they crossed.
Is the hyphen/minus sign in "Ennea- minus one" a typo or is there some subtlety I'm missing?
Post a Comment