Saturday Themeless by Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa
I had a mostly pleasant slog through Rebecca and Rafel's puzzle. The right side went quickly but the rest took some real mental gymnastics. Getting one decent fill in an area seemed to unlock large portions around it. I finished at the middle of the left side where a lot unknowns, ambiguities and oh so clever fills resided.
Here is lovely interview of Rebecca and Rafael. You can choose as much or as little as you would like of this 37 min video that is full of a lot of great cwd constructing info (skip the chatty 3-minute opening by the interviewer).
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| Use hot link in the paragraph above for interview video |
1. Game that involves drawing: LOTTO - I thought of a drawing game like Pictionary or draw poker but no, it is the state-sponsored regressive tax.
6. VGK org.: NHL - It had to be but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Saturday cluing for NHL
9. Network airing 6-Across games: ESPN - We stream YouTube TV and until they and Disney negotiate a settlement we will be without ESPN and ABC which is are Disney properties.
13. City known as the Rubber Capital of the World: AKRON.
14. Roll-call call: HERE or Yo!
15. Eagle sport: GOLF.
16. Common threads?: GROUP TEXTS - Our family finds these very useful
18. Part of a dark cloud: GNAT.
19. Piece of holiday party attire: SANTA HAT 🎅
20. Check all the boxes, say: OPT IN.
22. Light rain: SPIT - _ _ _ T seemed to call for MIST instead of this unpleasant metaphor
23. Floor beneath the roof: ATTIC 😀
24. Local greens org.: CSA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Jefferson Davis' 1861 group was not clued here.
27. Environment that reinforces existing biases: ECHO CHAMBER.
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| A nifty slogan that did not work in 1964 |
31. On-site: AT WORK.
33. Near miss: CLOSE ONE.
34. "Veep" actor __ Scott: REID ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Seen below with star Julia Louis-Dreyfus
35. Sounds of sympathy: AHS - OHS/AHS coin flip
36. Korma side: ROTI - I've never eaten ROTI or naan but they are served frequently in cwds. A korma is a rich, aromatic curry originating from the Mughal empire in Indian and Pakistan, know for it mild creamy, gravy made with your, cream and ground nuts like cashews or almonds. You're welcome.
36. Korma side: ROTI - I've never eaten ROTI or naan but they are served frequently in cwds. A korma is a rich, aromatic curry originating from the Mughal empire in Indian and Pakistan, know for it mild creamy, gravy made with your, cream and ground nuts like cashews or almonds. You're welcome.
37. Cake, for one: BAND NAME - I encountered this a few Saturdays where the bands Cream, which I knew, and Cake, which I did not, were featured in a clue for BANDS. So I get two brownie points for remembering the latter one.
40. Dudes whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth: CIS MEN.
42. It may be full of baloney: SLICED BREAD - I got BREAD quickly and then struggled to make the adjective fit with the other clues in this area. Getting SLICED helped a lot in this part of the puzzle.
44. Commencement attendees, for short: SRS.
45. "Ditto": SO AM I - Having ME TOO first was, uh, not helpful
46. Release: DROP - A famous one
48. Nobel-winning physicist Wolfgang: PAULI - I'd tell you why he got the prize but I don't have a real grasp of it either.
49. Double-breasted outerwear: PEA COATS.
53. Stare, to a Brit: GAWP - GAPE, GAWK and GAWP? The last one sounded the most British.
54. Record holders?: TURNTABLES 😀 - Grampa, what are records and TURNTABLES?
56. Not good at all: EVIL.
57. Goddess depicted with an ankh: ISIS - Two cwd friends
58. Like Mars and Jupiter: ROMAN.
59. "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Leakes: NENE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
61. Fact checks?: EXAMS - Rote learning can serve as fact checks but not necessarily concept checks
Down:
1. Wrinkles in time: LAGS - When I want to listen to the Omaha radio based broadcast of a Husker game on TV, there is always a LAG between that narration and the network video.
2. Bhindi masala pod: OKRA - Okra is technically a seed pod, and in Indian cuisine (where it is called bhindi), the entire pod is the primary ingredient in the popular dish Bhindi Masala. The dish name translates literally to "okra with spices" You're welcome.
3. Beta follower?: TRON - Seriously, you want to know more?
4. Talks up: TOUTS - A fun song from Guys And Dolls about TOUTS. Ya gotta love Stubby Kaye!
5. Theoretically: ON PAPER - It looked good ON PAPER, but, uh, it didn't quite work out. C'mon, Cracker Barrel 39. "Be honest!": ADMIT IT- It was a big mistake.
7. Perimenopause Rx, for some: HRT Perimenopause
8. Country surrounded by South Africa: LESOTHO.
9. They may wind up in the kitchen: EGG TIMERS 😀
10. High-speed crashes?: SONIC BOOMS 😀
11. "What's the __?": PLAN.
12. Crypto asset, for short: NFT - Non-fungible token ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
14. Desolate landscape: HEATH.
17. Foggy, in a way: THICK 😀 THICK headed or a THICK fog?
21. Fundraising gps.: PTAS.
23. Tissues commonly examined by MRIs: ACLS - Athletic careers have been slowed or ended by injuries to Anterior Cruciate LigamentS
24. Energy-providing macros: CARBS.
25. Take second, say: STEAL 😀 - In 2024, Shohei Ohtani became the first MLB player to both hit at least 50 home runs and steal at least 50 bases. When coupled with his outstanding pitching record, some think he may be the best to have ever played the game
26. Victory speech?: A WIN IS A WIN - Usually said when a win is an ugly one
28. Earth tone: OCHER.
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| These are all variations of OCHER |
29. "Door's open!": ENTER.
30. Metaphor for control: REINS.
32. Strange bedfellows?: ODD COUPLE 😀
35. Both, at first: AMBI.
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| From Australia |
38. YouTube CEO Mohan: NEAL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
40. Unit equivalent to 200 mg: CARAT - A one carat diamond weighs exactly 200 mg.
41. "Really, this matters to me!": I DO CARE.
43. Utopias: EDENS.
47. Numbered dest.: PO BOX - In my small hometown, our PO BOX number was 24
48. Smooth (over): PAVE.
49. __ fixe: PRIX - The price is fixed
50. Latin for "nourishing": ALMA - ALMA MATER - Nourishing Mother
51. Lorde's second Top 10 hit: TEAM ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
52. U.S. IDs: SSNS.
53. __ X: GEN.
55. Letters on Sha'Carri Richardson's top: USA.
36 comments:
This was tough, but I
thought the clues were fair, for the most part. And I’ll try to remember HRT (hormone replacement therapy) in the future. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
I can see NHL x HRT tripping people up. The ESPN clue doesn't exacly help and still leaves NFL as an option if you don't know about VGK or HRT.
DNF, filling 49, 44 correctly. Erased ON PAPER because I was dead sure of misT, and fairly sure of party HAT. But I easily got NHL, HRT and NFT, so I got that goin' for me. Which is nice.
Can't help but think of the old middle-school joke whenever ATTIC appears: What did the lady say when she looked down her blouse? "A T T I C."
Thanks to Rebecca and RafaeI for the Saturday stumper. I liked a lot of this one, even though it was too tough for me. It would have been better (IMO) without so much A&E waste products. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review. I could have named that tune as soon as I read Guys and Dolls.
FLN - Darren, my Saugus days were long ago. My habit was to go to the Saugus Speedway races Friday night, then go back for the flea market Saturday morning. But I used to work at the top of Sepulveda Blvd. Looks like Facey Medical is in the building now. It was GTE when I worked there, and before that it was State Farm Insurance (IIRC.)
Another Saturday meh. DNF.
Took 16:04 today, but as they say, "a win is a win."
Like HG, I also struggled on the left side, not knowing: the physicist, the actor of the day (Reid), the CEO (Neal), the abbreviated prescription (HRT), how Brit's say stare, and the housewife.
It's not a Saturday puzzle without an obscure foreign food (korma/roti) or geography lesson (Lesotho).
Thankfully, I am rather familiar with Akron & its nickname, so that gave me a toehold in the upper left section.
Yooper Phil here ~ for a puzzle rife with nominations for “worst clue of the month”, I was able to slog my way to a FIR w/out help in an official time of 44 and change, after taking two breaks. Rafael and Rebecca are talented constructors, but I’d prefer to see their work on a Monday 🤣. Had to change idee to PRIX and fee to TAX, other unknowns too numerous to mention. I learned today that I have the title of CIS man. Thanks to the authors for today’s challenge, and to HG for the thorough recap.
C.C. and Tom Pepper share the byline today in USA Today.
I don’t often leave without finishing a puzzle but this one did not resonate for me. Clever in places and irrelevant in others. After quitting I reviewed the final grid and was glad I gave up. I like Rebecca’s puzzles but not today
Thanks for your yeoman work HG
Go Indiana
A Saturday DNF attempt, with about 3/4 filled correctly-all the north & east. I got most of the abbrs. for Hormone Replacement Therapy, hockey, and imaginary tokens. But I guessed EPA for the "Local greens org.", thinking maybe it was the PGA.
CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- never heard the term. It led me down the wrong rabbit hole, as my 2nd PLACE horse didn't STEAL 2nd base. I couldn't remember PAULI ( kept thinking PLANCK or ERNST), never heard of GAWP, REID, NENE or NEAL. But at least I correctly guessed A WIN IS A WIN in the SW.
SANTA TIE, CAP, or HAT-waited for perps
If you didn't know what Korma was, how could you guess ROTI (don't know that either.
BAND NAME for Cake? Not a chance on that one but know CREAM and BREAD.
40A- NORMAL fit for the stupid term CIS MEN but the perps wouldn't allow.
GAWK wouldn't work and GAWP is new to me.
OCHER or OCHRE- wait for perps. Note Gary's photo is spelled the Brit way.
AMBI-LSU had an Aussie punter (Brad Wing) who could kick with either foot. He got kicked off the team for a failed drug test.
Sha'Carri (also LSU) got removed from the Olympic squad- same reason.
HRT- that warning for possible risks of cancer or strokes needlessly kept many women from taking the medicine.
Good Morning:
IMO, this was a Goldilocks puzzle; some C/As were too ambiguous and others were too straightforward and a few were just right. Personally, I don’t see the point of cluing basic words such as Team or Alma in such a narrow manner, i.e., either you know it or you don’t. Leave the tricky, cutesy misdirection to the marquee entries, e.g., Sonic Booms, Group Texts, Echo Chamber, Sliced Bread, Odd Couple, etc. Overall, though, there was more to like than what’s been offered by some of the recent mind-bending Saturday’s.
Thanks, Rebecca and Rafael, and thanks, HG, for the usual sparkling eye-candy embeds and the always fair and diplomatic review and commentary.
Have a great day.
DNF. I was doing great until I hit the SW area. There were way too many proper names that I didn't have a chance of knowing. Reid, Nene, Pauli, and Neal as examples. And I'd never heard of a band called Cake (?).
I expect Saturdays to be difficult, but this was over the top.
Overall not an enjoyable puzzle.
I almost TITT, but persevered. IMO too many paraphrases, which I dislike. It took a long time to enter SPIT since, like other bloggers, I was confident mist had to be right. I happened to remember CSA from a previous CW.
I DNK REID, NEAL NENE, NFT, TEAM as clued. Some long clues were quite clever like those for SONIC BOOM, TURN TABLES, and ECHO CHAMBER. However I didn’t feel happy about this puzzle.
HG, thank you so much for your review, always so informative and even-handed.
I did not finish without help, my worst showing in at least a year.
The California-Oregon area was my downfall. I figured out AT WORK, but CSA, REID, Cake as a BAND NAME, and the baloney-laden SLICED BREAD did not enter my brain readily. And it took me too long to replace “place” with STEAL and to figure out what the ODDxxxxxxx answer was.
Few Cornerites are as glad to see names in puzzles as I usually am, so I’m sure I won’t be the only person growling about the obscurities in this one. The Veep actor, the atomic scientist, NENE Leakes, the Lorde album, The YouTube mogul, and (shame on me) Sha’Carri Richardson were all unknowns for me. I also didn’t know the Crypto term (don’t get me going on THAT topic), felt the SPIT entry was distasteful, felt the OPT IN entry was poorly defined, and considered the MACRO clue over the top. A WIN IS A WIN would not be winnable without perps, the VKG clue was unfair to most of you, and “eagle sport” was a lame clue for GOLF.
Highlights were LESOTHO and AKRON. Yep, AKRON.
DNS. (Did not start!) Saw the constructor, read through the clues, and decided to find something more enjoyable to occupy my morning!
For a Saturday, this had enough "gimmes" to draw me in, but in the end, I just had to hit reveal in many places having the "must know" (because I never will otherwise) urge...
HG, u asked for thoughts?
I have always wondered why Blog reviews are signed only at the bottom, making it a game for me to try to guess who is writing. I mean even letters announce who by their envelopes...
Learning moment: Alma Mater (I had no idea...)
The only real question I had left was, rubber capital? Akron? Why?
Turns out it's because of Goodyear, Firestone and BF Goodrich are based there.
(I had high hopes it was ants moving rubber trees...)
Silly trivia you may, or may not find interesting regarding rubber trees...
Please enough with the obscure names and unfamiliar Indian cuisine. Otherwise challenging, fun and learning exp.
12:12. Fun one. Tough but fair.
A wise choice.
Relying on the old maxim “if you can’t say anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” I will offer this nicety…I was delighted by the absence of SESH and YEET.
FIR in 13:42
Whoops…shoulda been “find anything nice to say.”
The nominee for best blog comment today goes to...
CrossEyedDave for robbing, er sampling, Ol' Blue Eyes with "(I had high hopes it was ants moving rubber trees...)"
FIR with a long pencil and short eraser. Changed nearly everything in the SW twice. It didn't help that I was sold on TED X instead of GEN X. Saved the last letter for the WAG of NHL vs NFL. So, I can't say that Rebecca and Rafael gave me any R and R this morning.
Roll-call call: GIFT. Something a class clown would say when others said, "Present." Don't ask me how I know...
"Grampa, what are records and TURNTABLES?" "They came before CDs." "What are CDs?" Thanks, HG, for the trip down memory lane!
Tough but interesting Saturday puzzle, many thanks, Rebecca and Rafael. And your commentary and those great pictures are always a pleasure, Gary, thanks for those too.
Well, when this puzzle started with LOTTO and suggested it would make us LAG, I wondered if I should deal with it AT WORK and ON PAPER, like doing EXAMS in school. But the idea of putting on a SANTA HAT and feeling like one just amused me, all though I didn't know the BAND NAME and didn't know how to work the EGG TIMERS or the TURN TABLES. But I DO CARE and will ADMIT IT that I don't know how to deal with SONIC BOOMS and don't want to wear PEA COATS. Wish I could also share some SLICED BREAD with everyone, but that's hard to do on the computer. But I'll just pray that it all works out, and that in the end everyone will feel that A WIN IS A WIN!
Have a happy and enjoyable and successful day, everybody.
I’m with you
I’m with you
I’m with you
I’m with you
Thanks to Rebecca and Rafael for today's rainy day challenge! I filled the grid with 4 incorrect letters -- not too shabby. I thought "Line" was referring to the TEXTing app and did not know PAULI. My momentum picked up on the East Coast. FAVs: "Both, at first"; "Take second, say"; and ON PAPER.
PEA COAT would not fit until I realized that "outerwear" can be plural. D'oh!
Thanks to H-Gary for today's tour and for finding that constructor video!
CED@10:00. "High hopes". LOL!
Wolfgang Pauli was a theoretical physicist and early pioneer in quantum mechanics, was awarded a Nobel prize. Also collaborated with Carl Jung in area of archetypal psychology and time …
Even if I weren't so tired I would have given up on this puzzle within 5 minutes, as I did today. Too tired to put the energy into it. Enjoyed reading all your comments, though.
Why do I even bother on Saturdays.
I have a friend who grew up near Akron whose favorite song is "High Hopes."
Aha. Yeah, I moved up to the area just before that GTE building was razed.
Loved the “train races” at Saugus!
====> D.
Rebecca and Rafael gave me an uphill battle today — literally; my grid was empty until near the bottom of the puzzle, from which I then worked my way up, floor by floor. Mixed feelings on this’un; some really great clues (for STEAL and EGGTIMERS, to name two) but that was besmirched by, as Jinx aptly stated, A&E waste products, which I handled by my usual tactic: just look ‘em up to get the fill. I also don’t agree with that noun for “Light rain”; it SPITs in those conditions, but I’ve never heard anyone call it SPIT. Yuck.
When I saw “Rubber Capitol of the World”, I wondered if there was a town somewhere in the world called Condom (but it wouldn’t have fit anyway, so…).
Husker G, another collection of fun trivia to support your tour d’grid, as usual! Funny bit in it, though — the “ambidextrous punter” from Nebraska would be an illegal player; this ain’t rugby. An “ambipodious punter” would be more accurate, yeah? He ain’t using his hands to kick the ball…so, no cee-gar, boys!
Here’s looking forward to tomorrow’s puzzle.
====> Darren / L.A.
Yes, Darren, there is a town called Condom in SW France.
Good intel, Monkey! Thanks. But it still wouldn’t’ve fit…even in French 😆
====> Darren
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