Saturday Themeless by Amanda Cook
Amanda is a music critic and digital editor who is a published crossword puzzle constructor that maintains a blog for refined sugar-free dessert recipes, and enjoys taking care of her growing collection of houseplants. Amanda lives in Minnesota with her husband Kenny, and together they enjoy hiking, playing board games, and cheering for the Cleveland Guardians. She added that she had certainly heard of C.C., had met her once and lives in a Minnesota city next to our lovely blogmistress.
Be sure to read the additional info about Amanda's constructing style at the bottom of this write-up.
Across:
1. Volunteer effort where word gets around?: BOOK DRIVE 😀
10. Wrapped in terry cloth: ROBED.
15. Let someone else do the cooking: ORDERED IN.
16. Make reparations: ATONE.
17. Romantic partner's quirky yet innocuous behavior: BEIGE FLAG 😀 One of Amanda's seed entries. I laughed out loud when the sense of the clue/fill hit me! Below is the first of many more BEIGE FLAGS at this site
- Makes weird moaning sounds while they eat.
- Infinitely reuses the same tissue, stuffing it in their pocket each time.
- Never puts lids back on stuff.
- Set a dozen alarms and ignore them all.
- Texts by sending a million short individual texts instead of typing it all out before sending.
- Wearing clothes that are all too big or too small.
- Has a repeated “catch phrase” that you can’t unhear once you notice it.
19. Suffix in many Icelandic surnames: SON - Iceland's starting soccer team
20. Faced off, in a way: DUELED.
22. Soothe: LULL.
23. Like Parmesan cheese: AGED.
24. Sticks the landing: NAILS IT.
26. Part partner: PARCEL.
29. Professionals who have a real sense of style: EDITORS 😀
30. "Copy that": HEARD - "Houston we have a problem!"
31. Lock: TRESS.
32. "Now I get it!": OHH.
34. Cedar Point's lake: ERIE - Cedar Point bills itself as America's Roller Coaster and is located near Sandusky, Ohio. All that blue is Lake ERIE.
35. Join: MARRY.
36. Primary instrument of English Renaissance composer John Dowland: LUTE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Saturday cluing for LUTE
37. Score 11 points in pickleball, perhaps: WIN - But you do have to win by two
38. Broncos and Mustangs: AUTOS - Fords, of course
39. Group of experts: PANEL - Are they always experts? 🤔
40. International travel need, often: ADAPTER - Don't cross an ocean without one. I lost mine in Venice, Italy and the hotel had a box with at least 5o in it that had been left behind.
42. Smashing pumpkins fan?: VANDAL - The word pumpkins is not capitalized and so it is just a run-of-the-mill idiot.
43. Relief medium: PLASTER.
44. Kite, for one: BIRD - Oh, that kind of Kite.
45. Vent: RANT.
46. Oatmeal-based brews: STOUTS.
48. Fell: HEW - Fell is a verb here
51. "Blackfish" mammals: ORCAS - Of course they are more than black and are certainly not a fish but...
53. One of 17,974 in Passau's St. Stephen's Cathedral: ORGAN PIPE - I'm sure Splynter could give them a tune-up.
55. Cardiologist's insert: STENT.
56. Counted: TALLIED UP.
57. Rebecca Solnit piece: ESSAY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
58. Accumulation for new parents: SLEEP DEBT - Oh, how I remember!
Down:
1. Blunt cuts: BOBS - "Bells on BOB tail ring"
2. Snack that had a Space Dunk version: OREO.
3. Ragnarok warrior: ODIN - ODIN is a character in this game
4. Saloon delivery: KEG.
5. Coated in flour before frying: DREDGED.
6. Make a pit stop: REFUEL or RECHARGE
7. Ran in place: IDLED.
8. Vaccine container: VIAL.
9. Gives rise to: ENGENDERS.
10. "The Big Bang Theory" role: RAJ.
11. Verdi opera with Desdemona: OTELLO.
12. Chance to add to one's score: BONUS ROUND.
13. Twinings product: ENGLISH TEA.
14. Passed out: DEALT.
21. Princess who first appeared in Super Mario Land: DAISY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
23. Lot unit: ACRE.
25. "__ go time!": ITS - Lloyd Bridges calls out Jerry Seinfeld
26. "What a relief!": PHEW.
27. Silks and trapeze, e.g.: AERIAL ARTS - I knew trapeze.
28. Hopi ceremonies: RAIN DANCES.
29. User __: ERROR.
31. Hot-dish topping: TATERTOTS - Very common in our part of the country
33. Land down under?: HELL
35. Trumpet accessories: MUTES.
36. Resonate, as a joke: LAND.
38. Spot-on: APT.
39. Root vegetable: PARSNIP.
41. Kazakhstan capital: ASTANA - 1,700 miles ESE of Moscow
42. Sportscaster who coined "dipsy-doo dunkaroo": VITALE - I knew him but not the phrase
43. Conventional writing: PROSE.
44. Military brass?: BUGLE - In From Here To Eternity, Montgomery Clift's character played taps on his bugle into a megaphone that he rotated.
47. Like most dissertation defenses: ORAL.
48. Mask: HIDE.
49. Kindle file format: EPUB.
50. Expressed relief, perhaps: WEPT.
52. Dirty digs: STY.
54. Disposable sock: PED.
More thoughts from Amanda
This is my first published themeless puzzle, and it was created around the seed entry BEIGE FLAG, which is making its debut in this grid! The team at the LA Times really helped me get going when I was a new constructor, and one thing they instilled in me early on was a high standard for clean fill. I'm really happy that I managed to find some fun options for the marquee entries in this grid without having to rely on too much "crossword glue." I also try not to have too many proper nouns in my grids because as a solver, I hate getting stuck on know-it-or-you-don't clues. In my fill, I love to include food, the arts and humanities, sports, references to life in the Midwest, and misdirection clues, and you'll find all of those in this puzzle!
47 comments:
Maybe I’m getting better,
I don’t know. But this is like the third Saturday in a row where I solved the puzzle, and I never used to be able to do that on a Saturday. Maybe Patti is having pity on us these days? I did want to mention a difficulty near the end - getting organ “pipes” where the perps weren’t very helpful. But at the last,
FIR, so I’m happy.
Hi there~!
Thanks for the shout-out, HuskerG - I nailed the Organ Pipe, of course, but alas and sadly, the company only had me do one tuning session - part of the reason I left. Here's a pic of "tuning irons".
Found it ironic that today's constructor claimed "clean fill" was instilled by the staff - previous puzzles could have fooled me . . .
Just learned about "EPUB" last night - Ha~!
Your Iceland soccer team roster and "user error" were winners~!
Oh, and sorry about the deletion scare, too~!
Very enjoyable for a Saturday Puzzle. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
FIR. The SE was the last to fall. Bugle was the first chink in the armor that got it solved. Once that filled everything else fell into place.
For a Saturday this did not seem as hard as some previous to this.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Beige flag was and still is way over my head
Took 16:29 today to reach the bonus round.
I didn't know the writer/"essay," the Kazakhstan capital (Astana), "sleep debt" (which makes perfect sense), or "beige flag."
It's helpful that I live close to Lake Erie (it is a great lake...), and had just been to Iceland (and had packed adaptors).
Very good Saturday puzzle.
I like the constructor's constructing philosophy, as well as her chosen baseball team.
BobB @ 8:01, I’m guessing that a Beige flag isn’t as dire a warning as a red flag
I like that if you’re an Icelandic female your surname will end in -dottir instead of -son
12:10. Pretty fair puzzle. The Minnesotan in me plunked down "tater tots" immediately.
Good Morning:
This was probably one of my easiest and rapid Saturday solves ever. Learning that Beige Flag is a Tik Tok creation increases my distaste twofold. Don’t get me started on this current compulsion to come up with a catchy, if somewhat indecipherable name for everything under the sun! I guess I’m just too old-school when it comes to language. On a positive note, the grid was clean and offered some fresh, lively fill, plus some clever cluing. Overall, it was an enjoyable solve.
Thanks, Amanda, and thanks, HG, for the usual fair and balanced critique and commentary, and the the sparkling eye candy of photos. Thanks, also, for Amanda’s mini bio and her puzzle-making views.
Have a great day.
I thought it was a good puzzle, but I nearly got booby-trapped into an FIW.
I had AERIAL AcTS before ARTS and was perplexed about the unknown two-Cs mammal until nearly too late. SLEEP DEBT was another late rescue, from SLEEPWEAR. AHA morphed into OHH (not one of the better entries), and Fords became AUTOS in time. I didn’t have to change whew to PHEW, but I still think the former is the better version of the same thing.
I also figured correctly that TALLIED UP was the answer, but you don’t otherwise need the “up.” ENGLISH TEA was green paint (right?), and I resisted TATER TOTS for a long time. PED and ASTANA were unknowns. BEIGE FLAGS was a bit worse than unknown. Not a good sign that Amanda is so proud of it.
On the plus side, DREDGED, VIAL, and ENGENDERS finally got me rolling in the north, and METED, MUTES, PARSNIPS, and BUGLE were good for the mix.
Not all EDITORS are beholden to style. I’ve already harped enough on a certain editor who needs to formulate guidelines, like a single acceptable spelling for “owie” and “uey,” so I won’t mention any names.
A fine puzzle, FIR in 15:41, but I still don't understand "tater tots" as clued. Is it a regional thing?
Also, can somebody please enlighten me as to why an abundance of proper nouns should be avoided because "you either know it or you don't?"
Can't the same be said about almost every crossword clue? Geography, history, music, the arts, food, etc? There were dozens of clues in this puzzle alone that I either knew, or didn't know.
Thank you.
I had to work at this puzzle and DNF. Even though now I think 1across is a terrific fill, I mistakenly entered fOOd DRIVE, therefore no KEG and certainly no BEIGE FLAG which I couldn’t have come up with for a million dollars.
For too long I kept Fords til finally came up with AUTOS. ESSAY was a WAG and DAISY and VITALE needed perps. I don’t quite get TATER TOTS as clued, although I am a TATERTOTATARIAN. PHEW.
Thank you HG for the review and the info on Amanda Cook.
I agree 100% about beige flags. I Googled it and learned that it was coined just three years ago by a Tik Tok user. I would imagine no more than a tiny percentage of crossword solvers (or constructors for that matter) are familiar with the term.
FIR on paper, no cheating, and enjoyed it. BEIGE FLAG is cute; I was glad to learn about it. When I was a kid, we sometimes wore BEIGE PEDs with our shoes for a sock-less look, but we washed and reused them like any other sock -- they certainly weren't disposable! Changing "breaded" to DREDGED saved the northwest. Many thanks to Amanda and to Husker Gary. Love the background information.
I loved your write-up Amanda, as well as your approach to clean fill and keeping the propers at bay (you definitely achieved both of those objectives today). This is definitely one of the best Saturday puzzles to grace the LAT in some time, and was a pleasure to solve.
I’m only marginally familiar with JENGA - I’ll have to give it a go sometime. Is it strictly a two-player game, or can it be done solitaire?
For some reason, PED strikes me as a word that should be an abbreviation for something, but apparently it’s just a derivation. EPUB was also new to me, but makes sense in light of its association with Kindle, which frequently gets EBOOK into a grid. So a fun puzzle that is very low on trivia and junk fill - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED !
Contrast it to a red flag, which might be a deal-killer with a prospective romantic partner, and a green flag which would be a huge positive. A beige flag would be something quirky like dunking Oreos in water or using peanut butter as a topping for ice cream - you might scratch your head a bit, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Beige flag is just a neutral color in between Red Flags in a relationship where you should steer clear and Green Flags which are positive qualities that would make you want to move forward. As HG noted in his examples, unique characteristics, interests, or qualities that are noted but not deal breakers
Thank you Amanda for a tough and fair puzzle! I can't say I finished it right in any way shape or form, because I started with red letters, and clicked reveal on a name before I discovered I actually had a chance... Your name is one I must make myself remember, because when I see it in future, I know I must print it out and do it in pen, because I know I will have an enjoyable experience.
Learning moments: ped and epub.
lol: user error (replace user...)
Curiosity? What makes tea English? I mean, it doesn't grow there, so I Googled it. Interesting A.I. response.
Now, I must traverse the write up links for beige flags (they are like Pokémon, gotta catch them all...) and virtually visit Cedar Point. (Is it a worthwhile visit? Should I go for the roller coasters?)
This puzzle was so easy that even my dumb mass finished it. Finished it wrong, but I finished it. I had ADAPToR x TAToRTOTS because 1) I can't spel worth beans, and B) I've never heard of TATER TOTS being a topping. A local restaurant offers a breakfast skillet dish with TATER TOTS as an option for the base, but not as a topping. AERIAL AcTS x OcCAS was partly because I've never heard the term AERIAL ARTS, but mostly because I was out of patience and persistence and just wanted it to be over.
But I knew that the bball quip had to be from Dick VITALE, so I got that goin' for me. Which is nice. He's 86 years old, blind in one eye, a recent cancer survivor, and is still going strong on TV.
I had a couple of close friends who got summer jobs every year at Cedar Point amusement park. They called customers "the animals." Both were ride operators, and were often assigned to the Ferris wheel. They told me that the animals were fond of using the ride operator for target practice from the top of the wheel, using everything from half-empty drinks to open pen knives for ammo.
"Pit stop" had to be refuel, because "urinate" and "go potty" were too long.
Trouble code for user ERROR back in my IT days: "Nut loose behind the keyboard."
Thanks to Maanda for letting me play with the smart kids today. And thanks to H.Gary for another solid explanation.
I love a challenging Saturday, as long as my unknowns are fairly crossed. Lots of "OHH" moments! Well done Amanda.
Lots of good stuff in the critique as well. Liked the "User ERROR" solution! We used to call them IO errors, for Idiot Operators. Thx Gary.
Echo IM - this was a fast solve for a Saturday
-For those asking about the TATER TOTS: Hot-dish is a term in the upper Midwest (think Minnesota , WI, Dakotas) for a casserole that you would take to a church potluck, dinner after a funeral, bring to a family who just had a new baby, etc. One of the most popular has tater tots on top
https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/222037/tater-tots-r-casserole/
-For geography/map geeks like me - Kazakhstan has an interesting history with it's capital. Up until 1997 the capital was Almaty when it was changed to the city of ASTANA. For a brief time (2019 -2022) ASTANA was renamed Nur Sultan, but then reverted back to the name ASTANA
- I like the word DREDGE because it seems like onomontopoeia where the word sounds like the action
Thanks Gary (I'm sure they use hot-dish in Nebraska as well- the constructor being from Minnesota it would be a common word and used frequently by Garrison Keillor in "A Prairie Home Companion" and thanks to Amanda for the puzzle and congrats on a themeless publish!
Do the TATER TOTS really go on TOP of the HOT-DISH?
No one else had MERGE before MARRY?
Actually took me 2-3 hours off and on as - similar to others - the SE was a bear. Tallied up was fine but the rare combo of hew, wept, and debt threw me forever! Certainly never heard of beige flag either and it took some time before aha and oho became ohh! Tough but fun.
And I don’t use kindle so epub was unknown to me but finally helped as epublishing made sense.
With filles like beige flag , sleep debt, dredged and ePub I certainly wouldn't call it a clean fill. And if you're not a basketball fan, the clue for the Dick Vitale required 100% crosses to complete.
Most people over 50 have never heard of it.
“Beige flag!” So fun and says it all!
yep, very much like a shepherd's pie , with meat, veggies, etc underneath but instead of mashed potatoes on the top - you top it with tater tots- a comfort food
Musings
-I did not include a picture of a TATERTOT casserole because it is very familiar in this part of the country and I thought it common everywhere. I went back to the write-up and posted this picture
-Amanda told me that she and her family are not near the Minneapolis events.
-I wrote to C.C. as well, and she said she is 30 minutes from all the problems and has not been affected at all
I'm a-gonna rite Bobby Kennedy and get his opinion on that TATER TOT casserole.
I've heard of a blood drive and a food drive. I've NOT heard of a book drive. And didn't know BEIGEFLAG. I see many comments about this being easy for a Saturday. I started pen-on-paper but switched to the online CW and turned on red-letter help. Then needed multiple alpha runs. Eventually, I filled the CW cells correctly, but hafta take a FWH (finished with help) instead of a FIR. NW was last to fill. I LOVED only 7 names, but DNK 4. Also DNK stout was based on oatmeal. Wanted PASSPORT at 40A, but it didn't fit. Hard to even imagine there are almost 18,000 pipes in that organ. Seems like that would be a full time job for Splynter. Once the CW was filled and I looked it over I decided it is indeed a terrific CW, thanx AC. Maybe deciding to forego my caffeinated coffee this morning and go with decaf didn't help? Anyway, I look forward to more CW from AC; I love her commitment to as few names as possible, and felt vindicated for always complaining about names when she said the same thing I say: either you know it or you don't, there's no clever cluing involved. Thanx too to HG for the great write-up. That gymnast = seems impossible do execute what she does there. Wow!
ASTANA~LIU
VITALE~LIU
I enjoyed solving this puzzle.
Pretty decent puzzle, but it was a bit above my pay-grade, and completely out of my wheelhouse. I have trouble enough with the things I already know to overload my brain with too much new stuff! DNF, but thanks anyway, Amanda.
I knew ASTANA only from watching many hours of the Tour De France. There is a team named ASTANA from Kazakhstan, and the announcers mention many times about ASTANA being the capital. In the Tour, the teams rarely have many riders from the country of the team affiliation. The team country is merely where the team organizers/financiers are from.
Am not caring for many clues from foreign languages, cities, etc.
"This is my first published themeless puzzle, and it was created around the seed entry BEIGE FLAG, which is making its debut in this grid!". Let's hope IT'S the las time it shows up. Building a puzzle around something very few people know about is not something to brag about.
I used to give myself 30 minutes for Saturday puzzles but have decided to make one pass NW to SE and if I don't have enough toeholds, then it's time to TITT. The SW to the NE were easy but the NW had DON and VIAL.
As for STENT, that's wrong.
Cardiologists do not perform surgery. Heart surgeons do. The SE had PARSNIP, BUGLE, and TALLIED UP. That's my RANT for my DNF attempt today.
PED, EPUB, and SLEEP DEBT were not filled either, complete unknowns to join the beige flag.
BIRD was an easy one. I've had kites nest in my yard.
DREDGED as a cooking term is another complete unknown, but the Mississippi River is continually dredged to keep the SW pass of the delta from silting up. Where did the constructor dredge up that obscure cooking term? I looked it up and it's 16th century and its usage peaked over 100 years ago.
MUTES was easy. I had a straight mute and a cup mute but I doubt anybody ever used one on the other b-flat brass instrument-BUGLE. Playing a muted Reveille wouldn't make sense. Maybe a cup mute for Taps.
“Loose nut behind the wheel” is what we call an incompetent driver on the racetrack”, Jinx! 😎
====> Darren / L.A.
After the first few clues not giving me any toeholds, I was thinkin’ I was going to bomb out on Amanda’s puzzle.…but slowly and gradually I inked in things here and there, and eventually all the blanks were gone! (“How’d that happen??”😎).
Minimal pop-culture junk: check.
Minimal proper names: check.
Meaty but fair clueing: check.
A few too many “twords”: check.
But all in all, a fun workout, not too non-plussed by the STENT-cardiologist error. Great review as usual — “Replace User” is a functional solution for the above mentioned “Loose Nuts” 🤣
====> Darren / L.A.
You obviously don’t spend much time in the kitchen if you have never dredged anything there.
For someone who seems so sure of yourself, it’s a bit surprising that you don’t know that cardiologists also perform minimally invasive, catheter-based procedures (like STENTS).
You sound like you are having a bad day. I hope things turn around for you soon.
I've seen plenty of those too! Saugus Speedway was a must for me when I lived in Canyon Country. That was before Ron Hornaday became a big-time truck circuit racer. Ron raced NASCAR Modified, so there were few idiots even on that local circuit. But the rest of the races, especially figure 8s, really brought them out.
VITALE's best known phrase (I think) is "diaper dandy" for high-performance freshmen. (Dick and I remember when freshmen weren't allowed on the varsity team.)
Thanks and congratulations to Amanda for her Saturday themeless! I have enjoyed blogging many of your Monday puzzles. FAVs were Relief medium and Military brass?
I had Princess Peach before DAISY -- both 5 letters. Also, my "pit" stop was RappEL before REFUEL.
Saw the CSO to Splynter at 53A.
BEIGE FLAG was new to me but I like it. IMHO, the point of this one was not to already know the term. I think the point was to use lateral thinking to derive it from the well-known "red flag". Perfect for a Saturday puzzle.
PEDs are often found in shoe stores so you can try on shoes and not catch/spread a foot fungus disease. In that use, they are disposable.
JENGA was my go-to entertainment when I had Japanese guests over for dinner and communication was limited.
Thanks to H-Gary for his delightful write-up! I especially enjoyed the Icelandic soccer team, user ERROR, and (new to me) hot-dish. You NAILed IT!
Big Easy - Cardiologists are the doctors who place stents in cardiac vessels and other vascular procedures that are done through a vessel
Cardiothoracic surgeons do cardiac bypass operations and any open surgeries like removing heart tumors, valve replacements that can't be done endovascularly by the cardiologists
Saturdays always are hard for me. But I finished with having to look up three things. When we were in Passau, St. Stephen’s Cathedral was a suggested stop. We went to a local cafe and had a beer and some strudel instead. Enjoyed the puzzle even tho it was crunchy.
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