Saturday Themeless by August Miller
Here is a wonderful interview of this former physics Ph.D. candidate turned farmer who lives in Berkshire County, MA: https://dailycrosswordlinks.com/2025/03/29/constructor-spotlight-august-miller/
Across:1. "Totally had you there!": PSYCH.
6. "Odelay" musician: BECK ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10. Pricing words: A POP.
14. Terence Blanchard work: OPERA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
15. Boba tea additive: ALOE.
16. Igloo shape: DOME.
17. Modern farm technology: SOLAR ARRAY.
19. Rollover subj.: IRAS.
20. One who went gray gracefully: SILVER FOX.
21. Way around D.C.: METRO - My granddaughter used this on every school day at American University in D.C.
22. "Or __ what?": ELSE.
23. __ out: TRY - Not: Far, Pig, Cry, Pan, Opt, Eke, Way, etc.
24. Part of a college visit: TOUR.
25. "American Hustle" org.: FBI - Based on FBI Abscam Sting scandal of late 70's
26. Orbiter until 2001: MIR - A space station launched and operated by Russia (nee Soviet Union 😀)
27. Clerical tunic: ALB.
30. Line at a reunion: IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU - First of three grid spanners. The top two were helpful but the name took a lot of help.
36. Springtime side: ASPARAGUS SPEARS.
37. "The Substance" Golden Globe nominee: MARGARET QUALLEY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
38. Natori Feathers garment: BRA.
40. Rte. 180?: UEY - We said, "Flip a UEY"
41. First name in couture: YVES - We often see his initials in crosswords
43. Tip for a writer?: NIB.
44. Simple sammies: PBJ'S - I love PB&J's and BLT's
48. Gross-smelling: FETID - A lyric from the play 1776 sung by William Daniels as John Adams as he bemoans the tedious drafting of the Declaration in the hot summer of 1776.
50. "Get some rest": GO TO SLEEP.
52. Very little: A DAB.
53. Gathering where everyone gets shots?: BOTOX PARTY.
54. Niche mag: ZINE - In slang, "zine" is a shortened term for fanzine, which is a small-circulation, self-published magazine or booklet, often focusing on a a specific niche interest.
55. Injury kissed by a parent: OWIE.
56. __-Norman French: ANGLO.
57. Outlet for crafty types: ETSY.
58. Six-legged farm animals: ANTS.
59. Ingredient in some printing ink: RESIN.
Down:
1. Crew: POSSE - Originally a group formed by a lawman in the old west to pursue outlaws. These days it can be any group with a common purpose.
2. Turn: SPOIL.
3. Uses one's outside voice: YELLS.
4. Fancy and then some: CRAVE.
5. Fabled napper: HARE.
6. Spots to grab a few beers: BAR FRIDGES 😀
7. Orbit City boy: ELROY - George Jetson's son
8. Cajole: COAX.
9. Essential: KEY.
10. Parting mot: ADIEU 😀
11. Representation: PORTRAYAL - Hmmm... Burt Lancaster as an Apache warrior in the 1954 movie Apache
12. Actor Sy of the Netflix series "Lupin": OMAR ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
13. 100 centavos: PESO.
18. Multimedia surfaces: ART BOARDS.
21. Union's demand: MORE PAY.
24. Container that can be repurposed as a biodegradable planter for seedlings: TISSUE BOX - EGG CARTON was a first confident entry for this solver.
26. Summer cloud: MOSQUITOES - We have hardly any at all for several summers but with all the rain we have had this year...
28. Stories of the past: LORE.
29. Not free: BUSY.
30. "For one," for one: IAMB - "For one" is one IAMB
31. Ruler until 1917: TSAR.
32. Some faux coats: SPRAY TANS - A lot of Nebraska girls get a "fake bake" for Spring Prom
33. __ gift: GAG.
34. Sound of disapproval: TUT.
35. Serpentine creature: EEL.
42. Evoking good feelings, in slang: VIBEY - "Vibey" is an informal term, generally meaning lively and brand, often used to describe a place, atmosphere, or even a piece of music.
43. Cry in the playground: NOT IT - I remember these words preceding a spirited round of hide-and-go-seek.
44. American way?: PLANE. 😀
45. Features of icy breakups: BERGS.
46. Actor who played the Emperor of China in 2020's "Mulan": JET LI.
47. Watch from the bushes, say: SPY ON.
48. Get to: FAZE.
49. Exchange words?: EDIT. 😀
50. Vera Wang design: GOWN.
51. Exchange words: SPAR - Before fists fly, these sessions are used to increase the gate
53. Serpentine creature: BOA.
Notes from C.C.:
Happy 75th birthday to our punny and witty Friday Sherpa MM. Here is a picture of him at Chiang Rai in 2017.
Chiang Rai, 2017
27 comments:
I didn’t find this puzzle
impossible. Some of the longer entries were common in-the-language phrases, which made this difficult Saturday puzzle somewhat easier. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
And Happy Birthday, MalMan! I always enjoy your contributions!
Nope. No way. I just stopped by to wish Mal-Man a happy birthday.
For the second Saturday in a row I had to TITT with 96% filled (correctly) after almost an hour and a couple of breaks, the top center being my downfall. I mistakenly put in Leroy, forgetting the Jetson kid was ELROY, SOLARAgria and keG FRIDGES, all wrong. I managed to successfully perp OMAR, JETLI, VIBEY, and MARGARET QUALLEY, so I was happy about that. PSYCH!! You got me today August, but I did enjoy your challenging puzzle, especially the fact that it was a pangram. HG ~ thanks for the expo, always enjoy your take on the grids.
Happy b/day to MM 👊🏼
FIR. The big breakthrough for me was asparagus spears. I didn't know Margaret Qualley at all, so that was all perps.
It took a WAG at Zine for me to get the win. I first wanted Cine, but face didn't seem right to me, so I filled faze. The old "go through the alphabet" trick worked once again.
Overall, for a Saturday , this was an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 17:02 today as I forayed my way through this.
The Actress of the Day (Margaret Qualley) and all 15 of her letters were unknown, well until I got the "q". I also didn't know the Actor of the Day (Omar).
I confused "American Hustle" (haven't seen) with "American Made" (have seen), which means I put DEA, then CIA, before giving way to the FBI.
I also had eke out, then try out, before cry out.
I had "asparagus spears" two days ago. Didn't realize it's still "springtime."
The Saturday "?" clues weren't bad today - that's progress.
Good Morning:
It’s a rare puzzle that P and P can’t solve without help, but today’s was one. The north central and northwest did me in due to not knowing Beck, Psych, Opera, Solar Array, etc. Hats off to the author for some excellent fill and clever cluing. Margaret Qualley needed perps because of the clue, but I know her from the movie “Maid” and as Andie McDowell’s daughter.
Thanks, August, and thanks, HG, for the review and visuals and for the link to the very interesting, in-depth interview with the constructor. Incidentally, August lives not far from Troy.
Happy Birthday, MalMan, hope it’s special! 🎂🎁🎉🎊🎈
Have a great day.
Well, August (the month) has happily brought us August (the agrarian cruciverbalist). And the latter has brought us an ingenious and skillfully constructed crossword.
I love the triple grid-spanners in the midsection. Not for the squeamish, as a constructor--or solver, for that matter. I wonder if MARGARETQUALLEY, containing a rarely-used Q, gave August the idea that he could try for a pangram puzzle. More on that in a bit.
There are too many clever and devilish misdirections to list. One that stymied me at first was "Way around D.C." I thought he was going for the Capital Beltway, but nope.
OK, the pangram. We don't get enough pangrams to suit me. I love them because they add to the fun of a crossword, and we appreciate that the constructor had to work hard(er) to pull it off. And here, August's pangram seems unforced and natural.
I lived in Paris for several years, and solved crosswords there (mots croises). [Hey, how do I type in accent marks on my sweet little Samsung here?] Anyway, if you're wondering if French crosswords ever have pangrams, yes they do. A pangram there is called--of all things--une pangramme. And where our least-used consonants are (in alphabetical order) J, K, Q, V, X, and Z, for the French it's virtually identical: J, K, Q, W, X, and Z. So for both languages there are six key impediments, or culprits, to a successful pangram.
Thanks, August, for providing us such a delightful Saturday-appropriate challenge. And thanks, Gary, for your usual helpful and entertaining recap, replete with colorful visuals, AND the bio of August. Go Huskers--and college football will be here before we know it!
happy Birthday MalMan!
Had to go with a manatee cake, finding a MalMan cake is not easy...
ditto for Malodorous...
FIW, missing with I AM A instead of IAMB, tds instead of YDS, a day instead of A DAB, and face instead of FAZE. I still enjoyed the puzzle, and would have enjoyed it more if it had less A&E. But in full candor it wouldn't have helped me much.
I love BECK's music. Jeff BECK, that is. Although he had a great career going solo and with his Jeff BECK Group, my favorite is Heart Full of Soul from when he was a member of the Yardbirds. BECK makes his guitar sound like a sitar.
In NJ, folks "hang" a UEY.
Had they used George Hamilton in the role of the Native American instead of Burt Lancaster, they wouldn't have needed the SPRAY TAN.
I have a hard time believing that BOTOX PARTY is a thing. I have an even harder time understanding why.
Thanks to August for the fun puzzle that was just beyond my reach. And thanks to H.Gary for another interesting explanation.
Happy birthday MALMAN. 🎂🎉🎊🎈
No offense to MalMan, but the Skunk cake is my favorite! Well done, Mr. Imp! 😂
Thanks, everyone, for the kind birthday greetings!
My FIR was a struggle, partly because the puzzle had a lot of compound words in which only one of the words was clear-cut. BAR FRIDGES, SOLAR ARRAY, BOTOX PARTY, TISSUE BOX, and ART BOARDS did not come easily, and a couple of those entries were annoying. ASPARAGUS was the first thing I thought of for the spring “side” dish, but with 15 letters, I put that side aside until the SPEARS brought me back to the asparagus much later.
The most annoying entry, though, was FORAYED, clue and the verb aspect of the answer. I liked the Rte. 180 clue, but you never know whether it’s UEY or uie. The former makes more sense, so stick to that one, Patti. NOT IT was not good. The TUT/tsk quandary is becoming a daily obstacle. The RESIN in the printer ink seems like green paint.
The vague clueing was sometimes clever and sometimes misleading. Orbit City led me away from Elroy Jetson instead of toward him. Never knew there was a city name. The BRA clue was ridiculous. The American way misdirection didn’t throw me for long, but it was a reach.
I did like a lot of entries, including the BECK album, which opened with my favorite of his songs, “Devil’s Haircut.” I didn’t appreciate SPRAY TANS until the V8 can smacked my forehead. The IAMB entry was elusive but excellent. And MOSQUITOES: I picked up on the insect cloud immediately but thought first of midges.
I got QUALLEY before the Q led me to the right insect. I got the X in Botox before I picked up on the tissue box. But Botox party? What an awful concept.
LeROY hung me up for a while as well.
The only reason why some of you had to struggle with ZINE is because that Z makes this puzzle a pangram... very unnecessarily. I'll take FAME and MINE with interesting clues over ZINE any day.
The central stack gives us the trifecta of grid-spanner quality - the great (IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU), the meh (ASPARAGUS SPEARS), and the name that hopefully is crossed fairly (MARGARET QUALLEY), and it IS crossed fairly here.
MORE PAY? I call GREEN PAINT.
I didn't mind NOT IT, as it's something people actually say, unlike ARETOO AMSO ISNOT and the like.
BOTOX PARTY was ridiculous. I had TOX and wanted DETOX something, then GOWN appeared and BOA was easy.
Tough Saturday! DNK (at least as clued) BECK, FBI, MARGARET QUALLEY, OMAR, and JET LI. Never heard of a TISSUE BOX planter, and it doesn't seem like a great idea. I appreciate Mr. Miller's work on this challenging puzzle, but am just as glad to bid it ADIEU. HG has done a lovely job reviewing.
Happy birthday 🎂 to the very clever MalMan! I love CrossEyedDave's manatee cake. Enjoy!
TITT. PSYCHed out from the get-go. Didn't care for this one at all.
Ditto on Jeff Beck, though I was more into Wired and Blow By Blow. Here's an soulful rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow that shows off his amazing technique. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtiBJvQT8Js (not sure how to imbed video links, so just copy & paste for now)
Thanks . . . for both cakes!
I fought a series of small battles before winning the war. Thank, August, for the challenge.
Like Gary, I confidently entered "egg carton." I guess we were on the same wavelength today - that sounds dangerous! Liked "fake bake." LOL
Happy Bday to MalMan!
Happy birthday, Malodorous Manatee! May you enjoy many more malodorous years.
Bit of a toughie today--but Saturday puzzles are supposed to be toughies--so no complaint. And thanks for composing it, August. Also thanks for your always helpful commentary, Gary--I appreciated that too.
Well, I imagine any puzzle that begins with the word PSYCH is going to create a little concern right from the start, although the OPERA made us a little more hopeful that we were going to maybe have a nicer TOUR than we expected. Made me happy to see someone say "IT'S GOOD TO SEE YOU" even though, sadly, it couldn't have been me, since I'm not visible in a puzzle. Still, I like a good spirit, and hope he or she was offered that plate of ASPARAGUS SPEARS, which we all CRAVE on a weekend. And we also got some nice critters, like that handsome HARE and that sweet EEL and that beautiful BOA. But our favorite, of course, was that SILVER FOX. Well, it's time for me to say ADIEU.
Have an enjoyable and pleasant weekend, everybody.
Thanks to August for the Saturday brain workout! I enjoyed the aha! moment when these emerged: MOSQUITOES, SPRAY TANS, and AMERICAN WAY.
Hand up for "egg carton". SOLAR panel before SOLAR ARRAY.
This puzzle would have been a lot easier if I knew who MARGARET was but just as difficult was 23-A. I went from opt --> dRY --> TRY. I also read "springtime s(l)ide" for too long. Oof!
Thanks to H-Gary who truly knows that a picture is worth a thousand words! Your VIBEY meme says it all.
Happy birthday to our favorite, FETID, marine mammal, Mal-Man! Wishing you all the best!
Not a good puzzle, Too many out theres
Wow, I actually was able to solve this puzzle and in retrospect I admire its construction.
The termite exterminators were here for 5 hours today wiping out a serious infestation in the house. Next month they'll deal with the roof rats in the attic. Busy busy busy. Actually I'm glad there is plenty to do; otherwise I'd be idly sitting around feeling sorry for myself.
I love asparagus spears. Any time of year.
Good reading you all.
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