Saturday Themeless by David P. Williams
1. Gets in over one's head?: SCUBAS.
7. Italian sports cars, colloquially: LAMBOS - Lamborghini prices range from $200,00 - $600,000
13. Vancouver team: CANUCKS.
15. Globe direction?: EXEUNT- Nope, Dave, you didn't get me on this one! I thought of the Globe Theater right away. EXEUNT is a stage direction where a group leaves the stage together and EXEUNT Omnes means everyone leaves the stage.
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| This iteration of The Globe Theater was reconstructed in 1997 and is near the original 1599 site in London's West End |
16. Hand in the kitchen: OVEN MITT 😀
18. Flip (between): TOGGLE.
19. Duane __: NYC drugstore chain: READE.
20. Dynasty: REIGN.
22. Comb builder: BEE.
23. Jet stream heading: EAST.
24. Gambling swindle: BUNCO The radio dramatization of Joe Friday working BUNCO (29:00)
25. Ring: PEAL.
26. Dump: STY.
27. Word on some diplomas: MAGNA - MAGNA Cum Laude
26. Dump: STY.
27. Word on some diplomas: MAGNA - MAGNA Cum Laude
28. Bob and __: WEAVE - Nobody did it better
29. "Don't give up!": HANG IN THERE.
31. Means of improving airflow: NASAL STRIPS - They didn't work for me. The next step was a CPAP machine
32. Professional writing?: LOVE LETTERS 😀 One who professes love might certainly write professional LOVE LETTERS. It was an easy fill but parsing it took me some time.
I wrote to Dave asking for help and he then confirmed what I thought was right:
Hi Gary,
The clue is a play on the phrase “to profess (one’s) love” — a ? was probably warranted to indicate the stretch.
Thanks for solving,
DW
33. Part of a skin care regimen: TONER and 40. Target of a skin care regimen: PORE.
34. Displays obvious pride: BEAMS.
35. Global revolution?: DAY 😀 Oops, a nitpicky science teacher would say a DAY on Earth is because of a global rotation. A revolution is a year.
38. "Bonanza" brother: HOSS - I'll bet you can name all four of these members of the Cartwright family. If you can't, I have the names at the bottom of the write-up. *
39. Tremble: QUAKE - Hmmm... with_ _ A K E something else came to my mind.
41. Guitar kin, informally: UKE.
42. Caller ID?: IT'S ME - Much better than the recent IT ME.
43. Espagnole, for one: SAUCE - Espagnole is French for Spanish but this is a French SAUCE. Explanation of the name.
44. Words before a French kiss?: MON AMI 😀 - A French person might say MON AMI (my friend) to another French person before any kind of a kiss including an, uh, "French kiss".
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| My friend, my lover, my soulmate |
46. "Wait a sec": SIT TIGHT.
48. Double over laughing: BUST UP 😀
49. Hard nut to crack: TOUGHIE and 35. Like undercooked pizza: DOUGHY - These two fills have "G's" that pronounce as an /f/near each other.
48. Double over laughing: BUST UP 😀
49. Hard nut to crack: TOUGHIE and 35. Like undercooked pizza: DOUGHY - These two fills have "G's" that pronounce as an /f/near each other.
50. Gets in hot water?: STEEPS.
51. Toed the line: OBEYED.
Down:
1. Makes a good point: SCORES.
2. Warning: CAVEAT.
3. Worried: UNEASY.
4. Trademarked pan: BUNDT.
5. Maker of jet-propelled transport: ACME.
6. Carving implement: SKI.
7. "Drop it!": LET GO.
8. Nerve fiber: AXON.
9. Gig part: MEG - There are 1,024 MEGabytes in a GIGabyte
10. Pet peeves: BUG BEARS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
11. Fresh off the boat, perhaps: ON LEAVE - Honolulu had thousands of sailors ON LEAVE in the 1940's while just days away from combat.
12. Wrestler George "The Animal" __: STEELE.
14. Bumpy ride, metaphorically: STRUGGLE BUS.
17. Couples in love?: TENNIS TEAMS 😀 - All tennis matches start at love - love (0 - 0)
21. "This is killing me!": I CAN'T TAKE IT - If you haven't seen the movie Network, you need to find it!
24. Tired: BANAL - A teacher's meeting at 4 pm after teaching all day.
25. Buds: PEEPS.
27. Atomic clock part: MASER - Wanna know more?
28. Sounds from fans: WHIRS.
29. Moneyed ones: HAVES.
30. Area adjacent to the French Quarter: TREME.
31. Baloney: NONSENSE.
32. One in the watch business: LOOKOUT - The result of a bad 1912 LOOKOUT job (2:49)
36. "Riverdale" redhead: ARCHIE - Here he is proudly wearing his Riverdale letter sweater
37. Tossed, slangily: YEETED.
39. Ear pieces?: Q-TIPS.
40. Wade Trophy winner Bueckers on the Dallas Wings: PAIGE - She won the trophy for being the best collegiate women's basketball player at U Conn and now plays pro ball in Dallas
43. Toe-tap?: STUB - Oh the language it generates...
45. Chowed down or chewed up: ATE.
47. Extra: TOO.
* The Cartwrights are Adam, Little Joe, Ben and HOSS
22 comments:
This puzzle didn’t seem
as difficult as last Saturday’s, which, you may recall, I punted. But in spite of the number of misleading clues (not all of which had the “?” sign), I got through this one just fine. FIR, so I’m happy.
STRUGGLE BUS pretty well describes this puzzle for me, was gonna take a break after a half hour, but I decided to HANG IN THERE, and by some half a miracle I was rewarded with a FIR in 45:54. Lots of unknowns including TREME, MASER, STEELE, READE and EXEUNT, the U being a WAG for my last fill. I did know PAIGE, and I remembered ARCHIE from my comic book reading days. It was either going to be Adam or HOSS, summa or MAGNA (or possibly Laude), perps needed. We’ve seen YEET enough, but YEETED?? Psych!! The clues for TENNIS TEAMS and LOVE LETTERS were rather devious. I commend the puzzle author for providing a true Saturday challenge, and to HG for the detailed synopsis. I knew all the Bonanza clan except for Little Joe, although I remembered the actor who played him.
I’m sure there’ll be a few people complaining about this one, as in I CAN’T TAKE IT!
Thank you, David. My kind of crossword! Next time I see your byline on a Saturday, I'm going to have a cup of coffee before I start.
It was a TOUGHIE, and I made it much tougher by entering LOUSY at the clue Terrible, and pairing it with LOBES for ear pieces*
Tired to trite to BANAL - from the B in BUNCO. BUNCO is a word I learned from Dragnet.
MASER - 100% perps. Good thing. I was clueless.
Ditto TREME. All perps.
Bruno Sammartino was the good guy. George (The Animal) STEELE was the hirsute bad guy. Not that I watched :>)
Like YooperPhil, that U in EXEUNT was my last fill. (54:17 for me to FIR, Phil)
* That LOUSY LOBES area had me thwarted until I got I CAN'T TAKE IT, and the K forced me to reread the clue at 39A. D'OH!
Thanks, HG. I'm not much of a fan of the Dragnet TV series that aired in the late 1960s. Probably because I've seen every episode at least twice or thrice. :>) But one day while flipping through the Samsung TV internet channels, I came across the Dragnet TV series that aired in the late 1950s. More film noir like. Gritty. Friday had a different partner then. All new episodes to me. I am a fan of those episodes of Dragnet.
Hot and humid here yet again today. 96 instead of the normal 84 for the day.
DNF, not even close. Filled 19, correctly except for weary instead of BANAL, and awful instead of QUAKE (misread the clue much, Jinx?) But I did get LAMBO and CANUCKS without benefit of perp, so I've got that goin' for me. Which is nice.
LAMBO was on my mind after a famous soccer player (who I never heard of) and his brother were killed when the famous futbol player ran his off the road at high speed a couple of days ago in Spain. High performance car, low performance driver.
Reminded me of when Cowboys' Pro Bowl offensive lineman Erik Williams wrecked his supercar Mercedes SL 600 thirty-some years ago, dashing the Cowboys' hopes for a return to the Super Bowl that season.
SCUBAS? I've never said that I SCUBA. I dive, and I SCUBA dive, but I don't SCUBA. (Truth be told, I recently gave away my dive gear because health problems and age make me uncomfortable continuing the sport.)
Congrats to those who finished this toughie. Thanks to H.Gary for another fun review.
I think you mis-read 39 across. If you’d have seen “tremble” instead of “terrible” it may have saved you some time!
Took 22:40 today for me to get off the struggle bus.
Spent a good chunk of the time in the top-right, as I figured "Globe" had something to do with the Globe Theatre stage direction, but still was aimless.
I did manage to parse the French phrase "mona mi".
Kidding. "mon ami". I did not know the French Quarter neighbor. And, I've never heard of "bug bears."
To be or not to be gave way to Maser or Lagna? Luckily, I went with the "M".
Oops. Missed that you caught it!😊
Yes, that's exactly what I did. Misread it.
The good news is that these errors may be over soon. Got a call from Costco Thursday. My new glasses with the new prescription are in. Order 1 of 2. The prescription sunglasses are not in yet. Waiting for that call so I only have to make one trip.
FIR. I had to take a WAG at exeunt since I'd never heard of it before, but the perps suggested otherwise. I guess my guesser is working today.
I had no problem with the NW and the SE, and those filled quickly. But I had shake before quake, and that caused me some grief for a while. "Hang in there" was my breakout moment and it was clear sailing from then on.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
OMG, George "The Animal" STEELE made my day. One of the idols of my youth. What a trip down memory lane. Does anyone else remember when he ate the turnbuckle? Classic!
I did finish - on my own - after a lot of stewing. I love “tennis team” and “love letters”. I recognized “exeunt” as a direction, but didn’t connect to the theater “Globe” so remained puzzled until HG explained it all…. “improving airflow” had me stumped for a long time - couldn’t mind-shift from ‘cooling’ a room to unplugging a ‘nose’ 🤦🏼♀️ The NW corner was last to fall for me. Didn’t know “Canucks”. Didn’t know skis “carve”, but got it when it finally arrived … Took a long time to mind-shift from ‘threat’ to ‘caveat’. Finally l, discovering “oven mitt” is what made the corner fall for me. Great puzzle, and great blog. I learned some things, and got a lot of mental shape-shifting exercise.
Good Morning:
I finished w/o help in 34 minutes, which I guess is a decent time for a Saturday challenge. On the positive side, the fill was outstanding, IMO, and the perps were extremely fair. On the negative side, for me, I’m not a fan of what I consider too-cutesy by half cluing that crosses the line between fairness to the solver vs author’s talents. Filling in Yeeted with no hesitation gave me no pleasure, either.
Thanks, David, and thanks, HG, for your always sparkling visuals and chatty commentary. The only Cartwright whose name escaped me was the patriarch, Ben.
Have a great day.
Above at 10:37 is Irish Miss. I have no idea why it came up Anonymous.
Nope. W-A-A-A-Y above my pay grade today. Tossed the towel and ambled over to HGs recap, where I discovered that most of the answers came from a different universe than the one I live in. Ah, well. 'Tis Saturday, after all!
I finished it right in about a half-hour and seemed to be on David’s wavelength as several of my WAGs proved correct, so I guess I enjoyed the solve.
I certainly enjoyed the eureka moment when I filled in EXEUNT and re-read the clue. That’s clever, although it meant BUG BEARS was correct. That, STRUGGLE BUS, and the atomic clock answer were the main obstacles to success. READE and STEELE were unknowns; I wasn’t crazy about SCUBAS as a verb or STUB as a noun (as clued); I certainly wasn’t delighted by YEETED (past tense, yet!); and I couldn’t decide whether the pun on “professional” was brilliant or contrived.
Along the way, I enjoyed CANUCKS, OVEN MITT, TOGGLE, bob and WEAVE, TREME, and ARCHIE Andrews. It was fun waiting to see whether the Bonanza brother would be Adam or HOSS. The DOUGHY/TOUGHIE intersection wasn’t elegant, but both came to mind easily enough. Hand up for BUNkO before BUNCO (which I considered a Dragnet CSO).
I also enjoyed QUAKE (a CSO to San Jose’s soccer team?) and Q-TIPS, which are finally firm enough again for the functions for which I (and everyone!) actually use them (shower tile cleaning being another).
FIR. Hurray. It was á TOUGHIE indeed. I needed á few WAGS and lots of perps but with p and p, I managed to HANG IN THERE. So,I enjoyed this puzzle.
STRUGGLE BUS surprised me. I’ve never heard this. LOVEd the LOVE LETTERS answer. I’m embarrassed to say that YEETED filled right off. LOL.
There were some really cute clues like global revolution, Globe direction, one in the watch business.
Thank you HG for the great review.
Fun Saturday puzzle, even if it was a bit of a TOUGHIE in spots. But I totally enjoyed it, so many thanks, David. And thank you also for your always helpful commentary, Gary--I appreciated that too.
Well, I always wonder if I should LET GO before even beginning a Saturday TOUGHIE, but I managed to just bob and WEAVE through it. I told myself to HANG IN THERE, and that turned out to be good advice. I didn't agree with all of the clues. For example, I've written LOVE LETTERS over the years, but none of them were ever professional. You always have to LOOK OUT when dealing with a clue. But even if the clues are STEEP, it's still a good idea to SIT TIGHT until you've finished. That's what I did, and here I am now. I 'd say I OBEYED.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Upon looking at the grid I thought I would not be able to solve this puzzle, but with only one lookup (STEELE) I chipped away and chipped away and solved the whole thing! I enjoyed the journey and felt satisfied at the end. Yes, I liked this puzzle. I did wrinkle my nose at YEETED, though.
It was a tossup between ADAM and HOSS, and HOSS won. It was also a tossup between MAGNA and LAUDE, and between SHAKE and QUAKE.
Nope. Several alpha runs force me to declare this a DNF, even though, as usual, I stubbornly struggled to a "filled all the cells correctly" finish. Far too many things I DNK, including 6 of the 10 names, plus EXEUNT (didn't get the Globe theatre connection, but even if I had I still DNK this word), ESPAGNOLE, YEETED (Ugh!!), TREME, and MASER. No wonder I had to cheat so much to fill. Never heard of a STRUGGLE BUS. BUG BEARS seems like I heard of but had forgotten about. All-in-all, just way over my head, but gotta hand it to DPW for the number of clever clues, including 1A, 32A, 35A, 5D, 11D, 28D, 32D and 33D. Very clever CW, DPW, thanx, even though way over my head. Thanx too to HG for enlightening me to all the items I DNK...which was a lot!
Oddly other than YEETS this puzzle gave me more happy memories than unknowns. I used to watch pro wrestling with my grandfather who was bedridden after diabetes and gangrene cost him half of his leg. UConn women winning the NCAA title brought back many memories of watching bother men's and women's teams while I was enrolled there and afterwards. Loved BONANZA and met LORNE GREENE at a charity tennis tournament. I went to grammar school with a nephew of NORMAN ROCKWELL and met the man when he came to visit the school. There are more but enough about me, HG does such a great job with Saturdays and David Williams delivered a fun puzzle. Thank you both.
I always thought it was BUGABEAR. Never heard of BUGBEAR. Hmm, spell check accepts the former but not the latter so I feel vindicated. YEETED and STRUGGLEBUS? Really? I was surprised thus well-read group had some struggles with EXEUNT. Guess not everyone reads plays. I will exit now, pursued by a bugbear.
Like @Jayce right up above me here, I looked at all that white and began to QUAKE — but as I got deeper into the center of the continent, HANGINTHERE and LOVELETTERS (brilliant clue on that one!) clued me into what part of the universe David was coming from, and began to enjoy his puzzle, pulling off a FIR, which made me BEAM just a little… The only kvetch I have on this one is YEETED; that word needs to be purged, not only from CW’s but from the English language as well. (Oh, let’s add PEEPS to the purge list — every time I hear the term, I gag).
Not being from NYC, I had no idea who the drugstore chain is; my first thought was “street”, but it wouldn’t fit. That, along with the Globe Theatre French word, only came thanks to the perps. Others came easier; being a skier gave me the “carving implement”, another kewl klew 😎
@CopyEditor, try using an old toothbrush on tile grout; I bet you’ll find it easier and equally as effective! And @Jinx, I heard the sad story of those footballers in the LAMBO; like you said, high-performance cars sometimes don’t mix well with low-performance drivers. As we say at the track, money can’t buy talent. Sad that this happens way too frequently when sudden wealth drops on young people.
Husker G., you were in fine form today — the Caveat Emptor store gag made me BUSTUP (that’d be a great name for a thrift store)! And your link explaining MASER was fascinating, especially how it relates to GPS satellites; I love learning about such tech, thank you. Your photo of the soldiers in Hawai’i in WWII reminded me of a sobering experience I had while living on Oahu in my late teens: I used to cut through Ft. DeRussy (the R&R center during the war in Vietnam) on my way to catch a few waves after work; one day a bunch of guys had just gotten off the buses that brought them for their r&r, and were all lined up at parade rest, waiting to be released to families, girlfriends, etc that had flown in to meet them and were standing there across the driveway. As the buses departed, one of them backfired…and 90 guys hit the deck. The servicemen sheepishly got back up on their feet. Every person there was silent, myself included (I’d stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this happen). It really drove into me what war does to people; tough to witness for a teenager who was next in line in the draft (luckily I didn’t go to ‘Nam…).
====> Darren / L.A.
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