Saturday Themeless by Matthew Stock and Willa Angel Chen Miller
This collaboration was a real challenge and I was very happy when I got the Congratulations message. I cherry picked some fill, some of which took some real linguistic gymnastics, and then, as usual, the long fills were the key to finishing. I had no shot at Peter Pan BUS STATION but it had to be after I sussed out NEWB and INTERNET FAMOUS. Matthew told me he is still pursuing a Master's Degree in Florida. He said he made a connection with Willa through mentoring and he has enjoyed working with her on several puzzles.
Willa lives across the country from Matthew in the S.F. Bay Area and is a software managing engineer for Google. She listed Matthew, Robyn Weintraub and Erik Agard as great mentors.
1. Low growth: TOE NAIL ๐
8. Green party?: NEWB - NEWB, NOOB, NEWBIE, etc.
12. Shared loads?: INTERNET FAMOUS - I had never heard of this term but know there are people who are INTERNET FAMOUS. Matthew told me I was right in thinking it means these people get their post shared loads of times. "Loads is used as an adjectival phrase". Matthew said this was all Ella! ๐
16. Game that's over in the blink of an eye: STARING CONTEST ๐
17. Bit of sign language?: OLDE
18. Moves quickly?: RELOS.
19. Made a lap: SAT ๐ Yeah, I put RAN first too.
21. Small plates of fish: SCALES - Fish have these small plates called scales.
19. Made a lap: SAT ๐ Yeah, I put RAN first too.
21. Small plates of fish: SCALES - Fish have these small plates called scales.
23. Argentine "other": OTRO.
24. "Watch this space" letters: TBA - To Be Announced
27. Oscar nominee Gladstone: LILY ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
28. Penchant: KNACK.
29. Go badly?: TRESPASS ๐
31. Fume: SEETHE.
32. Fried fish at the Minnesota State Fair: WALLEYE.
33. Long-haired cat breed: PERSIAN - Irish will love this picture.
34. Minor keys?: ISLETS ๐ Keys and ISLETS are both small islands
35. Curry and others: WARRIORS - No thought of a spice for me
36. Bob Marley's "__ Little Birds": THREE.
37. Macro type: CARB.
38. Medical discipline with a five-year residency, for short: ENT.
39. Round in a poker tournament: CHIP ๐
40. Tandoori flatbread: LAVASH - LAVASH cooking in a tandoor
42. Lady bird: HEN.
43. Classic rock singer: SIREN - Below is a rock formation on the Rhine River from which the songs of the Lorelei or SIRENS lured sailors to their deaths as chronicled in Homer's Odyssey.
44. Literature Nobelist Tokarczuk: OLGA ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
48. Not too dirty: AGE APPROPRIATE.
52. Paperwork to let someone go: PERMISSION SLIP - After 58 years in schools I've signed thousands of these.
53. Hungrily rummage through: RAID.
54. Class with a mean teacher?: AP STATS - Mean, median and mode
Down:
1. "Verily!": TIS.
2. Atop: ONTO.
3. Name-dropping abbr.: ET AL.
4. Bite on a rope or cluster: NERD ๐
6. Holiday __: INN.
7. Pilates movement: LEG RAISE.
8. Some models with click wheels: NANOS - Here a click wheel is being replaced on an iPod NANO
9. AED experts: EMTS.
10. Rhyme of "Romeo" in the last couplet of "Romeo and Juliet": WOE.
11. Peter Pan's destination: BUS STATION ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Never Never Land? Not so much.
13. Immune system components: T-CELLS.
14. Matt who lived in a van down by the river on "SNL": FOLEY - Featuring the brilliant Chris Farley
15. Picture with a lot of space: STAR CHART.
20. Arcade handful: TOKENS.
22. They're fired before being sent home: CLAYS.
23. Pajama Day attire: ONESIE.
24. What a load of junk!: TRASH HEAP.
25. Salvation Army volunteer: BELL RINGER.
26. Out: ASLEEP.
28. Australian model Miranda: KERR.
31. Balkan natives: SERBS.
33. "Beau Is Afraid" theme: PARANOIA ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
35. Has second thoughts: WAVERS.
37. Moans and groans: CARPS - We have been known to CARP about some words we see here.
40. Oily compound: LIPID.
41. Animal butters?: HORNS ๐
43. Indigenous people known for reindeer herding: SAMI.
45. Bullet train?: LIST - Here is a bulleted LIST I use before I give my NASA presentation.
46. Blowout: GALA.
47. Grinding along: AT IT.
49. New __: cap brand: ERA.
I am so proud to tell you that we attended our grandson's "White Coat" ceremony yesterday at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha. Hudson will be starting Med School at the prestigious University Of Nebraska Medical School where he was one of 145 candidates chosen from 2,300 applicants.
Three Saturdays in a row I’ve come up a bit short, the last two I had to TITT, today I at least got a FIW. Out of 188 spaces I was correct except for 2, 99% so I’ll give myself an A for effort. When I hit “reveal word” on hErB it changed it to NEWB and I got the congratulatory message, amazingly all my WAGs proved correct. SAMI, OLGA, LILY, and KERR were just a few of the many unknowns. The answers for Peter Pan, Bite on a rope, and Bullet train made no sense till the expo. A definite challenge today, cluing and fill fitting for a Saturday, thanks Matthew and Willa for the construction, and to HG for the very enlightening write-up. Not sure if WALLEYE are prevalent in Nebraska, but they are a huge sport fish here in the Upper Midwest, and quite delectable as table fare.
ReplyDeleteNope.
ReplyDeleteSorry I’m a bit late today . I got caught up doing my laundry and forgot to post !
ReplyDeleteWell, I got it. But not without turning on a
whole bunch of red letters to help me. So I finished it right, but with help. So, should I say FIRWH? In any case, I’m happy. (Happy just to complete it, that is.)
Took 13:57 today.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actress of the Day (Lily), but don't think I've seen her in anything. I passed the foreign language lesson (otro) and "AP Stats". I sensed it was Steph Curry, not his NBA brother Seth Curry, nor the spice, nor the "curry favor" usage.
I didn't know "Literature Nobelist Tokarczuk", justin.tv/twitch, or this Saturday's obscure foreign food clue/answer (lavash). I stubbornly clung to "flop" before yielding to "chip."
Tough, challenging puzzle, but I (again) dislike some of the "?" Saturday clues. For example, I understand what they mean by "shared loads", but I that's not a good/accurate clue (even for a Saturday) for "internet famous".
Re: “shared loads” - a person “loads” themselves on to the internet; when the load/s is/are popular - getting lots of “shares” = “internet famous”?
DeleteDNF. Not even close. Answered 27 clues, 23 correctly.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to those who wrestled this one to the ground. H.Gary, you look great in that orange jump suit. I can't quite make out the lettering - what correctional institution were you in when it was taken?
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteThere were way too many “niche” and too cutesie clues and references to make this an enjoyable solve, IMO. I did complete it w/o help, but felt no satisfaction. Forgive me for repeating this complaint over and over, but I wish constructors would consider providing a solver a positive experience more important than displaying their cleverness.
Thanks, HG, for the usual overview and commentary. You’re right, I loved the pretty Persian photo. I also enjoyed the interview with Willa. Congrats to Hudson and his proud grandparents.
Have a great day.
DNF. There were way too many unknowns for me like twitch and lavash to name a few. I'd never heard of "internet famous" and as a result that corner stayed blank. And this after I confidently threw down "staring contest" and thought I had this one knocked. Was i ever wrong.
ReplyDeleteBut based on the fact that so many clues seemed a tad off, this was not an enjoyable puzzle.
This was a very challenging puzzle - last to fill the upstate New York area of NEWB, NANOS, BUS STATION area.
ReplyDeleteJust getting back to routine after vacation and mom care - so hoping to get to my cardio dance class
Thanks HG for the fun blog and Matt & WACM for the puzzle
Well - this one gave me lots of “learning opportunities”! Thx, Matthew & Willa!
ReplyDeleteMy all-time record today of “most looked up answers”: 13 (of 66 total clues).
One of my faves (I guess because it highlighted what a !BOOMER I truly am) was “classic rock singer” — I just couldn’t leap from 1950s rock-n-roll to classical Greece ๐๐
And, probably another ‘50s stuck point for me: i KNEW “mean teacher” was about math, but when I was in el-hi (xwd cluing I used to see a lot), we didn’t have “AP” or “stats”; we had “advanced math” (I finished HS calculus summer before sr yr ๐๐) and “honors” English/History/PoliSci.
& - HG - thanks for the write up! And, to all who blog the write ups! Always enjoyable and educational! ๐
Congrats, and lots of great luck (& hard work ahead) on starting Med school! What an accomplishment it is!
I wish I’d read the review first. If I had known ahead of time that Erik Agard is one of the constructor’s mentors, I might have skipped this vanity project altogether.
ReplyDeleteAs I muddled through the solve, I kept thinking that several clues were downright “Agardian.” This is not meant as a compliment.
I managed to FIR, with red letters, in about 22 minutes, but did not derive an ounce of enjoyment. I found myself wishing for a severe migraine so that I’d have a shame-free reason to TITT.
DNF. The whole northern space, except for TOE NAIL, remained mostly blank. The rest needed lots of perps and daring WAGS.
ReplyDeleteSo many unknowns like KERR, LILY, LAVASH, NANOS, TWITCH, FOLEY. I liked the clue for SIREN, SCALES, CLAYS.
I happen to be รก fan of OLGA Tokarczuk, though I can’t pronounce her name, whose Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is รก fantastic novel in spite of the bizarre title.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s puzzle which should be รก little more accessible than this NAIL biter CONTEST.
Thank you HG for your enlightening review and congratulations to your talented grandson.
Nope. TITT. Just way too obscure, niche, and arcane. What Irish Miss said earlier. Completely lacking enjoyment, and a "see how smart I am" ego-fest for the constructors. BUS STATION? Really? "Second star to the right, and straight on to morning."
ReplyDelete15:15. Really enjoyed this one. Only real struggle was the NE.
ReplyDeleteFIW, done in by four or five entries in the NE, as well as the impossible-to-suss INTERNET FAMOUS. Maybe if I’d figured out BUS STATION . . .
ReplyDeleteThe real problem, though, was that almost no entry in this puzzle could be figured out without perps, and there were A RECORD 33 annoyances – unknowns, bad clues and simply bad entries (like “internet famous” as clued). We’re not supposed to post really long comments in the Corner, so I’ll let it go at that without itemizing.
It took forever to enter ANYTHING until I gambled on Curry-WARRIORS, which gave me WAVERS and propelled me in the SE. Matt FOLEY eluded (and frustrated) me until I got STARING CONTEST, which was one of many strong entries in the puzzle. It was a grid worth the effort, even though I failed.
Classic rock singer, minor keys, and Mayor PETE were strong entries, and THREE Little Birds was an educated guess. I had the right idea with “Laps” for the indigenous reindeer herders but didn’t recall the new terminology. I wish I had thought of WALLEYE sooner. I did not count the Verily!/’TIS entry as an annoyance. I grudgingly liked it.