Themeless Saturday by Kelly Morenus and Erik Agard
Kelly and Erik have provided an enjoyable challenge that was a challenge where I never felt out of it. Let's see what they had for us. 
Across:
1. Advice to someone who's about to blow?: MAKE A WISH 😀
10. Applications: USES.
14. Good-looking?: IDEALISTIC.
16. Patriots quarterback Drake: MAYE - He has led the NE Patriots resurgence this year.
17. It's the thought that counts: MENTAL MATH - I can at least approximate this very quickly.
18. Card dealer?: AMEX - Pick a card, any card
19. Caribou relative: ELK.
20. Number in brackets: SEED - In an 8-team tournament, the team with the best record will be SEEDED #1 and will play the team with the worst record who is SEEDED #8 in the first round.
20. Number in brackets: SEED - In an 8-team tournament, the team with the best record will be SEEDED #1 and will play the team with the worst record who is SEEDED #8 in the first round.
21. Like Santa Fe, among U.S. capitals: OLDEST - Santa Fe, NM was founded in 1610 and is the oldest capital city in America.
23. Ran out of juice: DIED.
25. Oil formations: SLICKS - I had spills first
27. Tool in a shed: HOE.
28. Biblical son of Seth: ENOS.
30. Drew: LURED and 38. Draw (into): SUCK.
31. Dendriform Tolkien character: ENT.
32. Choose: OPT.
34. Challenges for students and senators: MIDTERMS.
36. Toast types: GONERS 😀
39. Exercise named for a physiologist: BURPEE.
40. Get even: LEVEL OUT - Airplanes use an artificial horizon indicator
42. Fan's request: PIC.
43. Suffix with origin or liquid: ATE.
44. "__ gusto": "Pleased to meet you": MUCHO.
46. Ceremony: POMP and circumstance
49. Dwelling for some modern nomads: VAN - RVS did not work
50. __ price: ASKING - Does anyone pay this?
52. Slander, e.g.: TORT.
54. Eurasian weasel: ERMINE.
56. Snitch: NARC - A NARC can NARC on someone.
58. Former capital of Brazil: RIO.
59. Type of PED: ROID - Short for Performance Enhancing Drugs like steroids which can lead to
60. Asset turned liability?: ROGUE AGENT.
63. Bit of critique: NOTE - TV shows and movies routinely get NOTES from producers and others that suggest changes.
64. Structure installed to annoy a neighbor: SPITE FENCE.
65. Ambulance team: Abbr.: EMTS.
66. "Absolutely relatable behavior right there": AS ONE DOES.
Down:
1. Performed silently: MIMED.
2. Most widespread species of penguin: ADELIE.
3. Puzzle invented by Tetsuya Miyamoto: KENKEN - How to play
4. Celebrate Eid al-Fitr, e.g.: EAT - Following Ramadan fasting
5. "Sadly ... ": ALAS.
6. Bits of trickery: WILES.
7. "Please tell me the shower's available": I SMELL.
8. Show place: STADIUM.
9. Word with single or home: HIT.
10. Question from a troll: U MAD.
11. "Twinsies!": SAME HERE.
12. Gander-herding call?: EYES ON ME - Don't be gandering!
13. Volleyball teams, e.g.: SEXTETS - Here a Nebraska VB SEXTET playing in front of 92,000 fans last year.
15. Overcome, in a way: CHOKED UP.
22. Experience that might include hallucinations: LSD TRIP.
24. Lorna __: DOONE.
26. Home, informally: CRIB.
29. Alma mater of Stacey Abrams: SPELMAN.
33. Formal bottoms: TROUSERS - Yeah, for both genders
35. Park with a reproduction torii gate and stave church: EPCOT - One is in the Japan pavilion and the other is in the Norway pavilion.
37. Protection when things are heating up: OVEN MITT.
40. Cox of "Orange Is the New Black": LAVERNE - I knew of this character but not the character's name
41. "About that ... ": THING IS.
45. Mindlessly: ON AUTO 😀
47. "One Day at a Time" star: MORENO - The Netflix reboot and the original cast
48. Royals prospect?: PRINCE 😀
51. Light that never stops?: GREEN 😀
53. Bags often given as swag: TOTES.
55. Time to beware: IDES.
57. Feature of some bookstores: CAFE.
61. Celebratory Greek cry: OPA.
62. Goal for some night sch. students: GED.
32 comments:
I couldn’t quite get it, so I
got lazy and called on the red letters for help. I got it then but I’m not particularly happy about it. I am happy to be here, though, and see how the rest of you did. Subgenius out!
I enjoy Agard puzzles, except those that are published on days ending in "y". I pass. I didn't read Gary's write-up because if most of you loved it, I'll give it a look this afternoon.
Yet another reason for me to skip Saturday puzzles altogether.
After three Saturday failures in a row I was able to FIR w/out help, no red letters, no look ups. I had to take a break after about 25 minutes with maybe half the grid filled, came back and finally pieced it together in 50:19, last fills being WAGs at the M and Y in MAYE. At the risk of being verbose I won’t list all my DNKs, which was the majority of the puzzle. In the “worst clue of the month” category, the one for EPCOT deserves consideration. It could have said “Theme park….”. I was just at EPCOT three weeks ago, but torii gate and stave church?? Who knew? Had to changes ruses to WILES and loft became wifi which finally yielded to CAFE. Didn’t know there was a remake of “One Day at a Time”. Thanks Kelly and Erik for your collaboration, and to HG for the summary. I know it’s a game and not an exam, but this one definitely tested my patience.
I'm posting from my phone because my Internet is out. Lack of Internet access is frustrating enough but this puzzle increased the frustration two-fold. Kudos to those who completed it without help, but I TITT after much hair pulling and teeth gnashing. My criticisms are too numerous to mention but let's just follow Thumper's wise advice.
Thanks, HG, for your upbeat and positive outlook.
Have a great day.
Sorry, it's Irish Miss.
Took 15:15 today.
I didn't know either of the Actresses of the Day (Laverne & Moreno).
Bottom-right portion took as much as the rest of the puzzle, having never heard of "spite fence", the Greek saying, and struggling with "as one does."
Good morning!
I didn't have any problem with today's offering. After noticing Erik's name, I moved on to the Wordle.
FIR. It took a while, and I almost threw in the towel. The NW was a bugaboo for me, but when stadium and idealistic appeared I got the win.
Saturdays are always challenging and this one did not disappoint. But the cluing, though tricky, was fair.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
There were few gimmes in this puzzle. Perps and WAGS were indispensable.
The closest thing to a gimme, my first fill, was SPELMAN. The Santa Fe trivia question came to me quickly. Drake MAYE took a lot longer than that. ERMINE took way too long, and I was frustrated to need perps for the penguin variety. There were also a few puzzlers awaiting HG’s explanations. Gander-herding was one. MENTAL MATH was another.
A lot of the clues were too clever by half, but I did come to like GONERS as “toast” types.
The WAGS were particularly necessary in the SE corner, where ROGUE AGENT, AS ONE DOES, and, especially, SPITE FENCE were not obvious. OPA and ON AUTO were also WAGs down there, and I had to overcome the odious THING IS and not knowing Rita Moreno is part of the reboot version of “One Day at a Time,” which I’ve not seen or cared about. I SMELL was putrid.
I enjoyed the challenge, though. It took about an hour to FIR.
Irish miss. Just testing on my iPhone. I put comment as Google account with the little down caret. Did my avatar come up?
Very curious, there seems to be no option to avoid anonymity
The anon above is me. I will do more research, but it looks hopeless...
I only attempted to scratch the surface of today's puzzle, I think I will go look for a Wednesday puzzle. They are more fun...
However, I was looking at that grid, with that big diagonal down the middle. I wonder if it could be used to line up a theme on either side to create a two word diagonal theme,,, would this be against crossword rules?
Tough one. Almost quit early on but then I got a second wind. Some clues were really over the top. I’ve seen easier Saturday puzzles even tho the should be the toughest of the week.
Hey. Somehow I got back a MAGILLA. Don’t know why I got lost. Not sure how I got back. I hope it lasts.
I’m really surprised I came real close to FIR. My blunder was entering SPIkE FENCE, so missed ON AUTO and didn’t think NARC was correct.
Some of my answers filled through perps but I had no idea why like EYES ON ME, UMAD, which I still don’t understand, and ROID, not knowing PED. I reluctantly entered I SMELL.
So, lots of “modern” terms I’m not familiar with because I’m not in the loop.
Thank you HG for your usual elegant recap.
15:15. I thought it was a pretty solid puzzle. Lots of gimmes to get started. Only had trouble in the center right section.
No problem today. Noticed Erik "What a clever boy am I" Agard as a constructor, and moved on to actual enjoyable activities this morning
Ok, Irish Miss and all the ships lost at sea... this is another test of showing up as blue from your iPhone. I won't know if it worked until I hit publish but how I got here was scroll to the bottom of the comments ( no further . Past all the ads) and click see web version . From there SIGN IN TO BLOGGER immediately at the beginning . Then your comment wil hopefully be blue. ( here goes. I'm hitting publish. Fingers crossed)
Hopefully, I'll be back online soon using my trusty iPad and won't have to deal with Blogger.
I wish I had done the say, CE.
I was tempted to do the same, but I hoped that the presence of a co-constructor might dilute the expected ego-driven unfairness, so I crossed my fingers and dove in.
A good rule to follow!
A wise decision. His puzzles suck all the fun out of what should be an enjoyable exercise.
Although a DNF this was a great puzzle. Lots of clever, mind bending clues as expected on a Saturday.
The NE did me in…Didn’t know MAYE . Figured the “gander” call would be “goose” something. “Volley ball team” was SEXTERS? !!Whoa, oh wait, SEXTETS 😅
SEED was a perp. IMHO [#] is a “bracketed number” not the example shown. SEED/BURPEE
Think of TROUSERS as Britspeak not “formal” pants.
I see “Eurasian weasel” did not refer to a national leader 😚.
“Critique” NOTE. was a stretch. ASONEDOES kynda klunky.
Someone wanna explain U MAD? (Not Alfred E Newman’s Alma mater?).
DW’s wife never fails to mention her world travels (including China). At EPCOT A few years ago I sent her cell phone photos of the display copies at the China Pavilion including the terracotta tomb warriors etc. Told her we had taken a direct flight from Syracuse to Beijing. Every picture I sent she bragged she’d already seen. Finally her husband said “C’mon he said a DIRECT flight to Beijing from Syracuse!!!”
Last reply from her was “YOU SNAKE!!” 😊
Oh yeah forgot to mention that NETFLIX began airing the Guillermo del Toro film “Frankenstein” last night. Excellent. Highly recommended
Likely an Oscar contendah
Weii here we go again. When 22 out of 24 comments are negative, it ought to tell you something. This was the worst yet. Also, when Irish Mist is upset, you should take heed since she rarely says anything negative. The fact that it is Saturday should not be cause to abandon the thing you mostly enjoy the other six days of the week. This guy obviously thinks he is very clever and we have an editor who is either bored or of the same bent. If you can’t take heed from a block of critics then maybe, just maybe you’re not doing your job. ‘Nuff said.
Many thanks for an interesting Saturday puzzle, Kelly and Erik. And your commentary is always an important help, Gary, thank you for that too.
Well, it was surprising to get a Saturday puzzle encouraging us to MAKE A WISH, and then suggesting that it should be IDEALISTIC and that we should use our MENTAL MATH to figure it out. In other words, we shouldn't ask for a new pair of TROUSERS, or a new OVEN MITT or some TOTES, or even request that we need to GET A ROOM. I think maybe we should go to a CAFE for some coffee to discuss this, and maybe go to the STADIUM afterwards so we can get some exercise. Let's do that, and maybe that'll help us figure out just exactly what we should wish for.
Have a good day, everybody, and let's hope all your wishes come true.
Some ugly clueing here today. Who was the author?….oh, I see….nevermind.
A DNF for Big Easy today. I couldn't finish the NE, not getting UMAD or EYES ON ME. In the SE, it was incomplete in spite of filling everything to the right of GREEN after changing Wi-Fi to Cafe.. I've never heard of a SPITE FENCE, and even with fence complete I couldn't get the perps to fill it. But for an Eric Agard puzzle it was the closest I've come to finishing one.
U MAD? is a meme apparently. I had to look it up and it's a slang phrase used to taunt and push the buttons of someone who is already angry or upset.
TITT, then, after an appropriate mourning period, picked it up again. A few WAGs later and I found the finish line. But did I have fun?
Thanks HG, for your elucidations on this elusive puzzle.
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