Saturday Themeless by Joe Marangell
Joe Marangell is the social studies instructional leader for East Haven Public Schools in East Haven, Connecticut, where he has worked since 2001 focused on inquiry-based learning, literacy, and student engagement. He has an EdD in Curriculum and Instruction and is a Crossword puzzle constructor!I made what I think is an intelligent mistake at 64. Across. I thought Melodramatic movie scenes might have LENTO MUSIC and MOIRA ROLE (no idea) and TANS (they end at cuffs and sleeves sometimes), but not so much. Couple that with some "new to me" fill, and it made for some skating around to finish.
Joe was nice enough to tell me this: My name is pronounced with a soft g, like Mare-an-jell. My favorite entries in the puzzle were VIBE CODING and MOIRA ROSE. I was in a meeting about artificial intelligence at school, and the tech director told us about vibe coding, which I had never heard of before at that point. I made a note of the phrase since I thought it was an interesting-sounding one. Moira Rose is the hilarious character portrayed by Catherine O'Hara on the TV show Schitt's Creek, so when I saw that fit in the grid, I had to keep it.
My favorite clues were [Cave man?] for Plato and [Pop of vibrant color?] for ORANGE SODA. (The clues in the actual puzzle may have been changed from these since that happens with some of them during the editing process.) Also, I completely agree with Malaika Handa's advice of "It's a game not a test!"! I look up things all the time when I do crosswords, and I have no shame in doing that!
1. "Cav/Pag" opera combination, notably: DOUBLE BILL - What a start!
"Cav/Pag" is the common pairing of two Italian
operas: Mascagni's Cavallerie Rusticana and Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, presented together as a "double bill". The tradition began in 1893 at the Metropolitan Opera and continues today because the two operas, despite being by different composers, share a similar style of intense, realistic, and often violent, stories about common people. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Going to one opera would be hard enough for me, so two, I don't think so but I did suss this out.
11. Electrical carriers: IONS.
15. Indignant denial: IT'S ALL A LIE.
16. Surface crack: CHAP - Like on your lips
17. App development using A.I. and natural language: VIBE CODING ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
18. New Age singer from Donegal: ENYA - A hit song by an Irish girl that has a South American River in the title. Enjoy:
19. Braying animal: ASS.
20. Cave man?: PLATO - Explanation
20. Cave man?: PLATO - Explanation
21. Designer Hugo: BOSS.
22. Cookie with 90 ridges per wafer: OREO.
24. Title for a fictional rabbit: BRER.
26. Limited offer: PROMO.
29. Way of checking lines after they're cast?: TABLE READ - The cast of Seinfeld goes through a TABLE READ for the next script
34. Two-wheel carriage: HANSOM.
36. Sporting phrase: GOOD GAME.
 |
| good game, good game, good game good game, good game, good game... |
37. Loving poem: ODE.
38. Taylor Swift, typically: SOLO ACT - She is a SOLO ACT, but it takes a huge crew and a convoy of semis to set her up.
41. Comparatively cozy: TOASTIER.
43. Seijin-shiki garment: KIMONO - Seijin-shiki is a "coming of age" ceremony in Japan
45. Traveling: ON THE ROAD - Didn't you think of this?
47. Generous one: DONOR.
48. Atmosphere: AURA - Not VIBE this time
49. Steve of "Peacemaker": AGEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
51. Power unit: WATT.
53. Expression of probability: RATIO.
56. __ name: PET.
59. Drama honor: OBIE - This is what our frequent cwd award visitor looks like
60. Pop of vibrant color?: ORANGE SODA - My fav drink 70 years ago
63. "Ratatouille" culinary genius: REMY.
64. Like melodramatic movie scenes: SET TO MUSIC.
65. "Twittering Machine" artist: KLEE.
66. "Annie" song that's a counterpoint to "It's the Hard-Knock Life": EASY STREET.
Down:
1. Demanding star: DIVA.
2. Los Angeles Times co-founder Eliza Ann __: OTIS. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2. Los Angeles Times co-founder Eliza Ann __: OTIS. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
3. Some PC ports: USB'S.
4. Boo: BAE - Not a fan of either term of endearment
5. Business letters: LLC.
6. Participate in a secret exchange: ELOPE 😀 - I learned that this is the term nursing homes use for residents leaving without permission.
7. Scoundrel: BAD LOT -
"He's a bad lot" means he is a bad, untrustworthy or unpleasant person.
The phrase is often used in British English and is considered old-fashioned. It describes someone who is morally bad, a troublemaker, or unreliable. You're Welcome. 8. Pelvic bones: ILIA.
9. __ roller: LINT - We cat owners have a supply!
10. Construction piece: LEGO BLOCK 😀
11. Wedge salad base: ICEBERG - A crunchy offering made with ICEBERG lettuce
12. "Just curious": OH NO REASON - Yeah, right!
13. Votes against: NAYS.
14. Restorative sites: SPAS.
22. Chanting syllables: OMS.
23. Low-tech alarm: ROOSTER 😀
25. Harmful algal bloom: RED TIDE.
26. Common ID component: PHOTO.
27. Element considered in a home inspection: RADON.
28. Admonishment to waiters: ONE AT A TIME - For people waiting in line
30. Ancient assembly space: AGORA.
31. Drag strip?: BOA 😀
32. __ acids: AMINO.
33. Home magazine topic: DECOR.
35. "Schitt's Creek" character who tells her son to "stop acting like a disgruntled pelican": MOIRA ROSE. We had her in the 11/21/25 puzzle by Emet Ozar. There's even merch!
39. Summer sign: LEO - Astrology: Leo is a summer sign. Astronomy: Leo is a winter constellation. Guess which one I give the most credence?
42. Rest: SHUT EYE.
44. Springfield barkeep: MOE - Another member of the Simpson cast.
46. Delicate: DAINTY.
50. "Our Lips Are Sealed" band: GOGOS - A hit from 44 years ago.
51. Succeed: WORK.
52. Second son of Adam and Eve: ABEL.
54. Field of study: AREA.
55. Some sleeves and cuffs: TATS - These are $13.95 online
56. Put forward: POSE.
57. Actress/model Sedgwick: EDIE. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
61. Defib expert: EMT - Here an EMT is training to use an Automated External Defibrillator
22 comments:
I was surprised - it wasn’t
that tough - especially for a Saturday. Everything eventually fell into place. There weren’t too many obscure names or terms, and, when there were, the perps were kind.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
After several attempts I managed to fill 91% correctly, but that triple stack of tenners top left had me baffled and ultimately I got none of them and eventually TITT. Tried “I didn’t do it” and “I’m innocent” for the denial. Perps were no help as I didn’t know the LAT founder, had ‘dis’ instead of BAE, ‘inc’ for LLC, and ‘high’ instead of LINT. VIBE CODING? Nope. Unlike SubG, I found this extremely tough, but still had fun trying. Thanks to Joe for the challenge and to HG for the recap.
Good morning.
Tried it. Shouldn't have. Everything went "south" in the south.
FIR. I found this Saturday puzzle somewhat easy until I hit the bottom right. That's where I bogged down. I took a WAG at Agee, then Gogos appeared, followed by ratio, and the pieces started to come together. It also didn't help that Moira Rose and Edie were complete unknowns. But persistence paid off in the end.
And overall it was an enjoyable puzzle.
NW corner stopped me, tried "visualize" for "vibe coding". I knew "ilia" but doubted myself so checked the e-puzzle. Dagnabit! The rest of it was fun a FIR those other parts.
Took 15:07 today to get to Easy Street.
Actually, I spent the last 7 minutes finishing-up the top-left section.
I thought I knew the Actress of the Day, but I first went with Kyra Sedgwick before the unknown "Edie."
The "business letters" next to "boo" was devilish.
Is there a term for a crossword puzzle where you're not expected to look things up? That, in my humble opinion, is a major differentiator between fun puzzles and overly tricky puzzles.
That, and of course, circles.
Good Morning:
I finished w/o help but it took a lot of P and P to break through the NW and SE corners. Up until hitting those two brick walls, I was thoroughly engaged and enjoying the cluing and the fill. Then, both cluing and fill went off the rails, IMO. Vibe Coding? An unknown Otis? Bad Lot? Set to Music? Gogos? And the “could be anything” fill-in-the-blank ___ Roller. The entire puzzle should have been a lot more enjoyable (and easier) to solve, but maybe I just wasn’t on the author’s wavelength this morning.
Thanks, Joe, and thanks, HG, for the photos and commentary and the constructor’s comments.
Have a great day.
DNF, but by filing 61 (59 correctly) I did better than my usual Saturday stab. So it wasn't holy roller? My other bad fill was SOLOisT instead of SOLO ACT. That one caused me to erase LEGO BLOCK. Unlike D-O, I did just fine in the south, and struggled in the north. Story of my life.
As we discussed recently [SIC] means "intentional error." One reason to include an intentional error is because of an error in an original.
I always thought that the Crimson Tide must be a play on a Mobile Bay's RED TIDE. But I LIU, and a sports writer used the phrase to describe Bama's performance against Auburn on a red clay football field in pouring rain in 1907. Like the clay mud on the uniforms, the name stuck.
Thanks to Joe for the fun puzzle, and to H.Gary for 'splainin' it to us.
FIR, but there were definitely posers! Lego brick seemed right but messed up Goid Game - making it a dubious Grid Game for a bit. Never heard of vibe coding (and I assume almost no one has!) and while Plato was the only answer that made sense, one must be a hallowed member of the Algonquin Round Table to know that one! Quite a stretch of a clue! Also didn’t know the operas, but eventually it made sense. Doable for a Saturday overall.
One of the easier Saturdays. No real problems.
Well I did enjoy the ROOSTER clue. The rest, not so much.
I got everything south of OREO, by the way I’d like different cookies, I’m tired of OREOs, but the North was a bust. VIBE CODING of course was totally unknown, I had and kept IT’S a fat LIE. BAE for boo? Hard to swallow. Plato would not appreciate being reduced to a cave man LOL. Didn’t know OTIS, but I should have come up with LEGO since I already had BLOCK.
I don’t quite understand the ONE AT A TIME entry. Who says that to the waiter? GOGOS and AGEE were entered with perps.
HG, I too wanted lento MUSIC and thank you for your fine review and comments about our constructor today.
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Hola! I was going along just fine because I started at the bottom and worked my way up then hit a brick wall which I could not break. DOUBLE BILL never entered my mind, and I did not want to give up on I DID NOT LIE but should have erased it. VIBE CODING never made it, either. DIVA and ILIA were my only fills there. I learned that there is another AGEE besides James! And another Sedgwick besides Kyra. BOA was cleverly clued for a nice change.
PLATO a cave man? In what universe? And please keep OREO! In an otherwise unknown sea of clues, it provides a comfortable sense of stability. Have a great day, everyone!
I found the puzzle to be challenging but not ridiculously so. There were a few entries that were obscure/unknown/show-offy, but they eventually showed themselves after some perp help.
I am of the opinion that labeling anything to do with Schitt’s Creek “hilarious” is like cluing Yoko Ono a “singer.”
I hung in there for three or four episodes and it elicited nary a chuckle.
Yep, Kyra was the lady.
A RLD (Red Letter Day) for me about 20%of the fill.
Got Brer Rabbit right away, so Zip-a-de-doo-dah! A lot of fun and clever clues, but a tad outside of my wheelhouse. Wound up with a DNF, but had an enjoyable Saturday struggle, so there's that going for me.
You've got that right!
I was dead in the water after not knowing 1A, 15A, 17A,( never heard of VIBE CODING or Cav/Pag) or OTIS. My RASCAL for BAD LOT didn't get it. At least I filled ILIA. Cave man? and PLATO- no idea
My fashion knowledge let me guess Hugo BASS instead of BOSS.
My BOA was a BRA.
I had MOIRA filled but that's it. Pretty Schitty clue for somebody who doesn't subscribe to one of the umpteen dozen streaming networks.
TABLE READ for "checking lines after they're cast"- I was thinking FISHING and have never heard of 'table read'.
Nesbitt ORANGE SODA- I had more NEHI and Nesbitt when they were 5 cents.
Taylor Swift- I have a friend who has a gift shop in the Quarter. He told me that when she had her three shows a few months ago, the women who came to town bought more merchandise than he sold than the Sugar Bowl AND the Super Bowl combined. He said football fans don't come to shop, just go to restaurants, but women SHOP.
Not your fault when the constructor is part of the "OK to look it up" faction.
I'm with you on streaming, which has ruined my television viewing these past five years or so.
I’m not feeling well, so I got a late start.
I needed red-letter help in the NW, largely because LLC and VIBE CODING constituted a Natick for me. The BAD LOT clue needed a hint that it was British. I understood the gist of the Cav-Pag clue – two short operas usually performed together -- but still needed a couple of perps for DOUBLE BILL, and I was familiar with OTIS Chandler, a descendant of the L.A. Times founders?
The Kyra/EDIE misdirection delayed me in the SE, where the “melodramatic” portion of the clue for SET TO MUSIC misled me. Spelling REMY with an ‘i’ slowed me in the SW.
Not a bad puzzle, but the NW was unfair – unless you agree with the dubious premise that “it’s OK to look things up.” Traditionally in crossword puzzles, that’s simply not true! If I need help, as I did today, it’s a DNF.
DIScharge before SURcharge had me really stuck. Am I the only one?
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