Themeless Saturday by Rafael Musa & Geoffrey Schorkopf
BRICK went in immediately and then I raced down the eastern seaboard with just Florida to fill in. That did take a little doing but I came back and finished there. Cutesy cluing and modern slang provided some speed bumps but I did get a satisfying Congratulations message when I "got 'er done".
As the graphic shows, Rafael (A software engineer for Airbnb in S.F.) and Geoffrey (a software engineer at Fastly in Atlanta) had a lot of unique fill including all of a triple horizontal stack of 9's in the NW. Its matching triple stack in the SE had one unique fill and the symmetric double vertical 10's each had one.
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| Rafael |
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| Geoffrey |
Across:
1. Showers with affection in a manipulative way: LOVE BOMBS - I was happy to learn this. It seems to be an example of "too much, too soon".
15. Option at a Mediterranean bakery: OLIVE ROLL - Unknown to me but makes perfect sense.
16. Art print, for short: LITHO - A very nice one minute video about the LITHO (rock) GRAPHY (picture) process.
17. Hero in a 2018 Thai rescue operation: CAVE DIVER.
18. Photographer Adams: ANSEL.
19. Fertility clinic donations: OVA.
20. Piggy back?: LOIN - I had _ O I N and thought GO IN as you piggy back on someone else's idea or gift purchase and GO IN on it. 😀
21. Not spotted: UNSEEN.
22. People taking steps together: LINE DANCERS 😀
24. Pro pitcher, perhaps: AD MAN - Pitcher is one of those clue words that warn you this is might not be a baseball player or a container of lemonade.
27. Symbol of statistical deviation: SIGMA - Yes, 𝛔 is a lower case SIGMA. 𝜇 is the mean or average.
30. Host who fielded many, many questions: TREBEK - It just ain't the same without him
32. New beginning?: NEO.
33. Aura: VIBE.
34. Water under the bridge: BYGONES.
36. Medium for pop art?: SODA CAN - Andy Warhol's Campbell's SOUP CAN came to me first
38. Cracked: AJAR - This door can be said to be slightly cracked or AJAR
39. Long-nosed fish: GAR.
41. Fights off: REPELS.
42. Primary ingredient in the Nigerian dish āmālā: YAM - When I saw it wasn't OCA I entered YAM
43. Conceive: BEGET - The Book Of Matthew chronicles 40 generations of BEGETTING!
45. Church walkway: AISLE.
46. Butler honor: NEBULA AWARD.
50. Coin featuring Hagia Sophia: LIRA.
51. Interior designer's deg.: BFA - This is the degree my youngest granddaughter is currently pursuing
54. Parties hearty: RAGES.
57. Goddess of peace: IRENE.
58. Departing words: ALL ABOARD before they 21. Cast off: UNMOOR.
59. Guy Fawkes Night structures: PYRES - What is this all about?
60. Updos that might be carefully arranged to appear casual: MESSY BUNS.
Down:
1. Set into -motion?: LOCO - I never miss a chance for some great 60's rock 'n roll!
2. Norwegian ruler known as Folkekongen, "the people's king": OLAV.
3. " ¡__ la fiesta!": VIVA - "Long live the party!" or "Hooray for the festival!"
5. Set for retirement?: BED LINEN 😀 Set is a noun
6. Spacecraft of NASA's Artemis program: ORION - Yeah, I knew it! The ORION spacecraft that will carry astronauts sits high atop this massive rocket. The vast majority of rocket below the ORION craft simply carries fuel and two boosters.
6. Spacecraft of NASA's Artemis program: ORION - Yeah, I knew it! The ORION spacecraft that will carry astronauts sits high atop this massive rocket. The vast majority of rocket below the ORION craft simply carries fuel and two boosters.
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| Hint to find Waldo at bottom of write-up |
9. Snap decision, for short?: SLR - Yes, you can use a Single Lens Reflex camera to take a snap (photo)
10. Bahía __: city whose name means "White Bay": BLANCA.
11. Dishwasher setting: RINSE.
12. Field for one with their head in the cloud?: IT SERVICES - Uh, the virtual cloud (singular in the clue)
13. Lacking taste: CHEESE BALL - He is so CHEESE BALL
14. City on the Rhein: KOLN - In Germany they say KURN in English we say Kuh LOWN. Koln or Cologne?
22. When one might hope for same-day delivery?: LABOR 😀
23. Quite a stretch: AGES.
24. No longer dangerous: AT BAY.
25. Nondrinking age?: DRY JANUARY.
26. Very big deal: MEGA MERGER.
29. All knotted up: TENSE.
31. Pelvic exercises: KEGELS.
33. Jejune: VAPID.
35. Hardly a digest: SAGA.
37. Advice column with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: DEAR ABBY.
40. Cask beer in traditional British pubs: REAL ALE.
43. Kisses: BUSSES.
44. Shows off a new dress, say: TWIRLS 47. Geoffrey of fashion: BEENE. Here is a TWIRL in a Geoffrey Beene dress.
ee49. Stalactite origin: DRIP - The DRIP can make them grow as fast as 1" per 100 years.
51. Main squeeze: BEAU.
52. Scottish comedian Brady: FERN - She's a hoot who says, "I am an intelligent woman trapped in a Scottish accent". Here's a 29 second clip.
53. Does the math: ADDS.
55. Mac spec: RAM.
56. Hold up: ROB.
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| Here's Waldo! |
12 comments:
Well, I got it. Took me almost an hour, but
“slow and steady wins the race” I guess.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
With only a handful of gimmes, it was a very slow start, after about 25 minutes I only had about 40% filled, took about an hour break, came back and slogged my way to a FIR w/out any help in just under 43, a very challenging Saturday puzzle as it should be. Total unknowns = LOVE BOMBS, DRY JANUARY, NEBULA AWARD, MESSY BUNS etc… In my circle nobody ever says jejune or VAPID, and I didn’t know the meaning of either. Thanks Rafael and Geoffrey ( I saw the SO to yourself with the BEENE clue). Thanks to HG for yet another stellar review!
FIR. Saturday. Jinx. FIR. Somehow those things don't seem to go together. ribs->LOIN, dream->BEGET, raves->RAGES, inert->AT BAY, models->TWIRLS, beane->BEENE, and mate->BEAU.
As a caregiver, I dread MESSY BUNS.
KEGELS should have been taught in home ec classes, or at least in health. Ben Wa balls make the exercises fun and easy (or so I've been told.)
"Nondrinking age?" for DRY JANUARY? I don't get it. I've heard "haven't seen you in AGEs," but that surely doesn't apply to one month a year (and don't call me Shirley.) JANUARY Jones played Betty Draper, but I'm pretty sure she imbibed nearly as much as Don.
Thanks to Rafael and Geoffrey for a Saturday puzzle that even my dumb mass could conquer. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review.
Good Morning:
I finished sans help in 39 minutes, not too far off the usual Saturday time. Actually, I had little hope of finishing, early on, due to the numerous unknowns: Cheese Ball, Love Bombs, Nebula Award, Real Ale, plus the tricky cluing for many of the longer entries. However, with P and P and eventual perp help, I got the TADA! For the most part, the cluing avoided the too cutesy trend and leaned more toward cleverly misleading.
Thanks, Rafael and Geoffrey, and thanks, HG, for the informative review and commentary and, as always, the eye-pleasing visuals.
Have a great day.
Shirley you jest! I guess an "age" is a non-defined period of time so it falls under the "close enough for crosswords" umbrella. But it's a stretch.
Took 12:26 today, despite many unknowns, and a lucky guess of the "F" at the intersection of BFA & Fern.
I didn't know today's writer (Butler) or prize, but had enough perps to go with "award". It's not a Saturday puzzle without an obscure foreign food Nigerian amala (yam), a foreign city or two (Blanca & Koln), and something like "viva."
HG, I originally went with "coin" for the piggy back. I also was trying "olive loaf" before ceding to "roll." Also, I wanted "prohibition" where "dry January" eventually went.
Dry January is a term for when people give up alcohol after the holidays.
A tough but fair outing from Rafael and Geoffrey made for a pleasant Saturday.
Thanks, Gary (no relation to RealBrain!). I knew Carole King wrote "Locomotion" and it was covered by Grand Funk, but your Little Eva link eventually led me to wiki and other versions and a half hour later...
FIR. I had a real struggle with this one. At one point I was ready to throw in the proverbial towel.
Last to fall was the NE. I desperately tried to work with sleaseball instead of cheeseball (?) and had no luck at all. Then suddenly "it services" showed up in my head and I got the win.
There were a lot of WAG's along the way. So many unknowns, too many to mention. But as SubG said, slow and steady won the race.
But overall not a very enjoyable puzzle.
FIR and thoroughly enjoyed this challenging puzzle. Many unknowns that were fun to guess. I much prefer this type of CW that doesn’t rely on proper names.
Thank you HG for the revealing info.
I FIR after a long, arduous struggle, so of course I liked it, but there were some ridiculous obstacles.
The worst four – one for each corner – were LOVE BOMBS, crossing the contrived clue for LOCO; CHEESEBALL, as clued; DRY JANUARY, which mystified me until H.G. and Anon explained it; and MESSY BUNS. I wasn’t fond of REAL ALE, the unknown NEBULA AWARD with the cryptic Butler clue, and the specificity of CAVE DIVER. I also don’t think BRICK is a surface for the Indy 500 anymore, despite the venue’s history and nickname, and I’m not familiar with being able to toggle in and out of single-lens reflex, so it’s not a “snap decision.”
The good stuff was good, though. Clever clues for BED LINENS, MOVIES, and LABOR were not overly labored. KOLN and BLANCA rewarded my foreign-language knowledge. DEAR ABBY was a gimme. I knew KEGEL exercises, and if that means I should turn in my man card, that goes double to any guy who got MESSY BUNS without perps.
I got about 60% before I just had to hit reveal word for the stumpers and clues that were completely clueless. All in all a very fair puzzle, no nits. But I got hung up on things like stalactite source ending in P. (Seep seems a better choice) and roll after olive. (Thanks for the pic, never seen one...)
And I still cannot find Waldo! The more I enlarge the picture, the more fuzzy that supposed Waldo area gets!
And real ale is just beer brewed with traditional ingredients aged in a wooden keg. In fact, I think I found a new friend to taste test it with...
I required a lot of help to finish solving this puzzle. I think the fact that I can't decide whether I liked it or not must mean I didn't particularly like it. It might be because even after filling the answers I didn't understand many of them.
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