Themeless Saturday by David Karp
Earlier this year David told us he was a relatively new constructor from Victoria, B.C., Canada who took up puzzle construction during the pandemic. David's "day job" is as a policy advisor for the provincial government. As you can see by the color-coded grid, David has a lot of unique fill in this puzzle.Here's what David had to say about GEN ALPHA (my last fill) when I wrote to him about it wondering why the classification starts at 2010.
- Hi Gary,
I was just reading up on Gen Alpha again. It sounds like 2000-2010 is generally considered Gen Z and 2025 onward is apparently considered "Gen Beta" by people who apparently decide such matters. Go figure.
Best,
David
Across
1. 2-Down, for one: BALM and 2. Soothing gel: ALOE.
5. Name on Iran's flag: ALLAH - The phrase "Allahu Akbar" (God is great) is written in white, Kufic script 11 times along the top and bottom edges of the white stripe, for a total of 22 repetitions.
10. "Excuse you!": AHEM.
14. Pelvic bones: ILIA.
15. "Nightcrawling" novelist Mottley: LEILA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
16. Umami-rich paste: MISO.
17. Design trend that showcases literary treasures: BOOKSHELF WEALTH.
20. One of the Six Nations: SENECA.
21. Buzzy instruments: KAZOOS.
22. Cookbook writer Rombauer: IRMA.
28. "There is no there there" coiner: GERTRUDE STEIN - Today I learned that Gertrude's comment was meant to indicate her painful nostalgia that her hometown of Oakland, CA was mostly all gone not that the city was meaningless. The meaningless use is more common today.
30. "Aladdin" actor Massoud: MENA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
31. To love, in Italian: AMARE - Let's all conjugate together
32. Birkenstock option: CLOG.
34. Studio sign: ON AIR.
36. Texting tech: SMS - This texting method is used by our entire family to share news and make plans. Unlike phone calls, it allows for some rumination before commitments are made.
37. Central focus: THEME.
38. Festive vegan drink: OAT NOG.
40. "They are ready to see you now": GO ON IN.
41. Guardians, on scoreboards: CLE - For some they will always be the Cleveland Indians
42. Spice cultivated from Crocus sativus: SAFFRON - SAFFRON is a spice derived from th dried stigmas of the Crocus satis flower. It is the most expensive spice in the world due to the labor-intensive process of harvesting the tiny stigmas by hand, with approximately 150 flowers needed for just one gram of the dried spice. You're welcome.
46. Demo stuff: TNT - Demolition not demonstration
47. Rivals, slangily: OPPS.
49. Nasty fall: SLEET - In March a horrible SLEET and wind storm weighed down wires here in Nebraska. It broke over power poles and we were without power for three days.
50. Thermometer type: ORAL - Don't ask an angry pharmacist how to use a rectal thermometer!
51. Question while filling out a form: WHAT'S TODAY'S DATE.
54. Figure on Arizona license plates: SAGUARO - I wonder how HUSKER GARY would look
55. Enthusiastic assent: DO I EVER.
56. One who picks up speed?: SENSOR - I used this SENSOR in my physics lab to determine speed.
57. Puzzled (out): SUSSED.
Down:
1. Lobster catchers: BIBS 😀
3. Animal on Sri Lanka's flag: LION.
4. Money order?: MAKE IT RAIN.
5. Islamic palace in Spain: ALHAMBRA.
6. Spike in direction: LEE - 20 lashes with a wet noodle for this former volleyball coach for not seeing Spike as a name and not as a verb
7. Smaller than sm.: LIL.
8. Melmac native: ALF.
9. Curved facial feature: HAWK NOSE.
10. Component in many a smart home: AMAZON ECHO - Alexa does your bidding via the Amazon ECHO Dot
11. Only U.S. city with a zoo in a rainforest: HILO.
12. Spanish "this": ESTO.
13. Mineralogist with a scale: MOHS - Talc is at 1 on the MOHS scale and diamonds are at 10
18. "Ice Age" squirrel: SCRAT - In any language
How come you're always such a fussy young man?Don't want no Captain Crunch, don't want no Raisin BranWell, don't you know that other kids are starving in Japan?So, eat it, just eat it
23. Homecoming week crowd: ALUMS.24. Decoration specialists: ICERS.
25. Teen who helps with the bills: SENATE PAGE - Oh, legislative bills.
 |
| Senator George Pepper playing ball with some Senate PAGES |
26. Common cheese in kaasstengels: EDAM - I filled in only one letter to SUSS out our frequent cheese visitor.
27. Bring-your-own-headphones dance party: SILENT RAVE.
28. People born yesterday: GEN ALPHAS - New to me. It applies to people who were born in the 21st century from 2015 - 2024. See David's note in the intro.
29. Given a nod: NOMINATED.
30. Udder delights for a toddler?: MOO COWS.
33. Less rough: GENTLER.
35. Children's author Asquith: ROS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
37. Long or short amount: TON.
39. Pub prefix: GASTRO - What is it?
40. "Heard": GOT YOU - "I heard you the fourth time!" 😠
43. Completely wow: FLOOR and 48. Completely wow: STUN.
45. Anticipates: READS.
50. Dedicated works: ODES.
52. Nordic carrier: SAS.
53. Member of the fam: SIS.
Well, how about that?
ReplyDeleteI actually solved a Saturday puzzle with no red letters or anything! And in less than 20 minutes! There were definitely a few obscure names, but in those cases the perps were kind.
FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m ecstatic!
For the second Saturday in a row I came up a bit short, I pecked and perped my way around for about a half hour, and unlike SubG, I found this to be quite difficult with a plethora of unknowns. I managed to fill 98% correct, leaving me with a block of four blanks, which would ultimately be the R,M,A,B in the crossings of SCRAT, ALHAMBRA, IRMA, and STABLE COINS, none of which I could WAG correctly. I was happy to suss GERTRUDE STEIN with just the UDE showing, which opened up the puzzle for me. Pots catch lobsters, BIBS catch the butter dripping from one’s chin. Oh well, I had fun trying, thanks to David for the challenge, and to HG for the review. Did you confuse GASTRO pub, with GASTRO pod?
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteNope. Crashed and burned, due to my HOOK NOSE and AMORE. BOOK SHELF WEALTH and EDAM never appeared. Bzzzzzt. "Enjoy the ceramic Dalmation."
I finished a Saturday LAT puzzle! Incorrectly, but I finished! I had aloe being a palm instead of a BALM, hook nose instead of HAWK NOSE, and amore instead of AMARE.
ReplyDeleteSince H.Gary mentioned it, the biggest difference between an ORAL thermometer and a rectal thermometer is the taste. You're welcome.
I've only heard MAKE IT RAIN in the context of strip clubs. Maybe David and I share a hobby.
Couldn't clue ALHAMBRA as a city south of Pasadena? After all, this is the LA Times puzzle. 'Course it's also Saturday.
How long did this one sit in Patti's queue? A GEN ALPHA baby hasn't been born for almost 10 months.
Thanks to David for letting me play with the smart kids today. And thanks to H.Gary for the fun review.
Took 15:57 today to have sussed this one.
ReplyDeleteI was stopped in my tracks at the side-by-sides of "senate page" and "Gen Alpha" (like Jinx has pointed out, that doesn't quite equate to "yesterday" as noted in HG"s fine review). Those were my last fills.
I didn't know one of today's writer (Leila; Gertrude Stein sounded familiar enough) or actor (Mena). It's not a Saturday puzzle without an unfamiliar phrase (bookshelf wealth) and an obscure foreign: food ("kaasstengels"), place (alhambra), and language (esto and amare, not amore). But, as we here like to say, "the perps were fair."
Saguaro National Park gets awfully hot, but is a great place to visit.
FIR. For a Saturday puzzle this was not the hardest by a long shot. Although there were many obscurities and things I've never heard of. Gen alpha? Saguaro? But once Gertrude Stein appeared things seemed to fall into place.
ReplyDeleteI'm not fond of vertical puzzles and this one on a Saturday was over the top.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
I filled in large swaths of puzzle quickly and then grunted and groaned my way to an FIR.
ReplyDeleteI’m a KAZOO virtuoso, so that was my first fill. Also helping me along were IRMA, GERTRUDE STEIN, SAGUARO, BIBS (great clue), ALHAMBRA, ALF, HILO, “EAT IT,” and SUSSED – plus two more with personal connections: I was a SENATE PAGE in our state legislature for two months during a summer break from college, and HAWK NOSE (like D-O and Jinx, I had “hook” first) was an obvious CSO to me.
WHAT’S TODAY’S DATE? helped me, offsetting the difficulties posed by BOOKSHELF WEALTH, STABLE COINS, GEN ALPHAS, LEILA Mottley, MENA Massoud, SCRAT, “GO ON IN,” and troublesome clues for Birkenstock’s CLOG, SLEET, and MOO COWS. Oh, and OPPS, as clued.
But those are typical Saturday issues. All in all, I enjoyed the solve, although it took me an hour.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteSubgenius and SS, congrats on your very impressive completion times. I finished w/o help, but at the pace of a snail. I don’t think I have ever seen a puzzle with so many unknowns (to me):
Leila
Bookshelf Wealth
Stable Coins
Mena
Oat Nog
Make It Rain
Scrat
Eat It
Silent Rave
Opps (Oppo research, yes, opps, no)
The perps must have been fair or I wouldn’t have finished, but toeholds were hard to come by, especially in the SW quadrant. The vague cluing on some entries was also a factor. (I agree with Phil on Pots vs Bibs.) Bottom line: frustration outweighed any enjoyment or satisfaction of a successful solve.
Thanks, David, and thanks, HG, for the usual array of appealing photos. My learning moment was the meaning of the Gertrude Stein quote.
Have a great day.
A fair share of unknowns for me as well. I've never heard of two of the authors, the crypto coin, Gen Alpha, or the Aladdin guy. Luckily, the perps were kind and I FIR. Overall a decent, doable puzzle.
ReplyDeleteLeast favorite clue was "nasty fall" for SLEET...quite a reach in my opinion.
Tough one! Too tough for me today, but I enjoyed the challenge. Some truly clever clues, but waaay outside my wheelhouse. Finally turned on the red letters, and with alphabet runs, manged to fill it in. 'Twas fun trying! A nice recap by HG put the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteVeni, vidi, vici. Always nice to conquer a Saturday. A lot of skipping around adding letters and half-words where they seemed to fit until everything fell into place. SENATE PAGE (fun clue!) was that last to fall. Oh, and that pesky letter in the middle of ALF took an alphabet run and still was a guess.
ReplyDeleteThanks, HG, for for your expert grid analysis and explaining READ. I filled it in but couldn't come up with an example why.
Wouldn't it have been fun, back in the day, to invite GERTRUDE STEIN, and LEILA Mottley, and IRMA Rombauer, and MENA Massoud, and others to a party at your house? You could have offered them some MISO and some OAT NOG and sprinkled SAFFRON over any suitable dishes, along with some white wine. We could have invited ALUMS from our colleges and universities to join us, and after it was over, I bet we would all have had fun writing ODES about the experience we just had. Oh, the past--what sweet fantasies it gives us!
ReplyDeleteThank you for a delightful puzzle, David. And Gary, your commentary and pictures are also always a pleasure, thanks for those too.
Have a delightful weekend, everyone.
A rare Saturday FIR for me, and only because I guessed the cross of unknown LEILA and ALF from the melamine dinnerware planet MELMAC. I've never seen that show. I've never heard of HAWK NOSE, only HOOK NOSE, but KAZOO wouldn't allow the aggressive "draw" (a golf reference) to disform the nose.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what MAKE IT RAIN and "money order" have to do with each other but the perps took care of it. GEN ALPHAS were unknown to this geezer MENA , ROS and GASTRO pub were the only other unknowns today.
It's hard to grasp why a LION is on Sri Lanka's flag because long before the first human inhabited that island, all the lions had become locally extinct.
AMAZON ECHO for a smart home? So when there's a glitch, you have to remember how to operate a light switch.
kaasstengels just looked Dutch, so I filled EMAM as a guess.
A “Red Letter” day for me to FIR.
ReplyDelete