Saturday Themeless by Mark Axel
My OCD refused to let me give in and I got a hard earned "got 'er done"! The colored grid here shows that Mark had a plethora of unique fill, two 10-letter horizontal stacks or three, two vertical 9-letter stacks of three and two very unique grid spanners. The informal horizontal grid spanner was fun and the impossible vertical one revealed itself one letter at a time.
1. Orbit City mom: JANE JETSON.
11. Throw (together): SLAP.
15. Home page?: AMAZON ECHO - As an iPhone user, I would page SIRI but PC users page ECHO
15. Home page?: AMAZON ECHO - As an iPhone user, I would page SIRI but PC users page ECHO
16. Crop from which the word "luau" originates: TARO - Four-letter Hawaiian food, what else?
17. Budget rentals: MOVING VANS.
18. Vegas team: ACES - WNBA
19. Fiber source: BRAN.
20. Nautical adverb: ALEE - In sailing, "ALEE" (or "leeward") refers to the side of the boat sheltered from the wind.
21. Terrarium pet: NEWT.
22. Tennis great who won three consecutive French Opens in the 1990s: SELES - Her first was when she was 16.
24. Boyos: LADS.
26. Sedge-friendly habitat: FEN.
27. "Preach!": SING IT.
30. 2024 LPGA Tour Player of the Year Nelly: KORDA - seen here with another pretty good golfer
32. Donkey: ASS.
35. Casual Japanese expression of thanks: DOMO.
36. Take hold again: REROOT.
37. Start of some casual advice: YOU'RE GONNA WANNA.
40. Big name in boxed mac and cheese: ANNIE'S ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
41. Dish often prepared with Maui onions: POKE - Ahi Hawaiian POKE with Maui onions
43. Profile detail: HOBBY.
44. "Les Misérables" role: JAVERT.
 |
| Jean Valjean JAVERT |
49. Satirist Baron Cohen: SACHA.
53. Makes moves: ACTS.
55. Fundamentals: ABC'S.
57. Spiced tea: CHAI -
Chai tea, more accurately referred to as
masala chai ("mixed-spice tea"), is a traditional South Asian beverage made by brewing black tea with a mixture or aromatic spices, milk and sweetener. While "chai" simply means tea in Hindi, in the West, it has come to represent this specific, spiced, and often creamy drink. You're welcome.
58. Home of NYC's Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art: SOHO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It mainly collects, preserves and exhibits visual arts created by LGBTQ artists or art about LGBTQ+ themes, issues, and people.
59. "Forgive the imposition ... ": I HATE TO ASK.
62. Like many intramural leagues: COED.
63. Streaming accessory with a purple tag: ROKU REMOTE - I was stumped until I looked down in my hand.
64. "M*A*S*H" star: ALDA - One episode of M*A*S*H featured three ALDA's: Alan, his half-brother Antony and his dad Robert
65. Period of unchecked criticism: OPEN SEASON.
Down:
1. Vertical supports: JAMBS - The meaning of “door jamb” literally comes from the French word jambe, which means “leg” - a fitting name, since the jambs support the door like legs.
2. Italian endearment: AMORE - Cue Dean Martin...
3. Part of NCIS: NAVAL - NAVAL Criminal Investigative Service was a star vehicle for Mark Harmon and has engendered many spinoffs
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| From Season One 2003 |
5. "Garfield Minus Garfield" character: JON - JON Arbuckle
6. Lang. of Sierra Leone: ENG - The “official” language of Sierra Leone is English, but most of the population here can’t speak it. This is a nice allegory displaying how disconnected the government’s policies are from how people live here. Speaking English is a sign of wealth and aristocracy, and the locals will speak (usually poor) English to display their high level of education. You're welcome.
7. Maker of Tirra Sport hiking sandals: TEVA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8. Pajeon or cong you bing: SCALLION PANCAKE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Pajeon (Korean) and Cong You Bing (Chinese) are both savory scallion pancakes. Pancake filled in and then I got SCALLION letter by letter.
9. "Look at that!": OH NEAT - OH SNAP was my first choice.
10. Edged (out): NOSED.
11. Fervent supporter, informally: STAN - Fervent supporters can be undesirable. STAN is a portmanteau for STalker and fAN. Yikes!
12. Like some natural wigs: LACE FRONT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It had to fill itself in
10. Edged (out): NOSED.
11. Fervent supporter, informally: STAN - Fervent supporters can be undesirable. STAN is a portmanteau for STalker and fAN. Yikes!
12. Like some natural wigs: LACE FRONT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It had to fill itself in
14. After birth: POST NATAL.
23. Subtle disapproval: SIDE EYE.
25. Kebab need: SKEWERS.
28. Eggy quaffs: NOGS.
29. Del Monte's Pinkglow pineapple, e.g., for short: GMO.
31. __ pro nobis: ORA - Pray for us
33. Totally uncalled-for: SO NOT COOL.
34. Went for the bronze: SUNBATHED 😀
36. Part of a fall clearance event: RAKE 😀 A fun clue/fill
38. Rack unit: RIB 😀
39. Native American Heritage Mo.: NOV.
44. Change positions often: JOB HOP - A former relative has been dismissed by every architect firm in Lincoln
45. Toyota pickup: TACOMA - The TAC in Seattle's SEATAC airport
48. Capital north of Memphis: CAIRO - Uh, that's not Tennessee
50. "We adore __ because we love to produce order": M.C. Escher: CHAOS - This picture hung in the front of my room for years.
51. Can't refuse: HAS TO - Steve Martin in the wonderful movie Parenthood
52. Singer whose fans are called Claymates: AIKEN.
54. __ bread: SODA - Uses baking SODA instead of yeast
56. Floor: STUN.
60. Backpedaling sounds: ERS - ER, what I meant to say was...
61. "Fore!" site: TEE - Still at least two months away. My former partner has about given up the game and so I get to play league with a new person.
28 comments:
I got it! On the first try!
With no red letters or anything!
I knew quickly that that “healing brew” was going to take ESP, and I was right! (For those unaware, “ESP” in this context means “Every single perpendicular”.)
Yahoo!
FIR, so I’m not only happy, I’m ecstatic!
Well, I slogged my way to a FIR w/out help in 41:04, a formidable task befitting of a Saturday. ESP required for LACE FRONT, JAVERT, SCALLION PANCAKE (for which the clue is in the running for worst-of-the-month on this last day of January), and I’m guessing like most other solvers, AYAHUASCA. Had to change ‘silence’ to SIDE EYE, and ‘suntanned’ to SUN BATHED to straighten things out in that area. I actually knew the tennis great, the golfer, and the satirist, so that helped. Thanks to Mark for the mental workout, and to HG for the delineation. It’s golf season down here in SW Florida, but Wednesday morning’s round started in 41 degrees and a strong wind. 🥶
I also had SUNTANNED before SUNBATHED, that made the SW the toughest corner. AYAHUASCA rang a faint bell. SELES and SACHA are common crosswordese at this point, KORDA was an unknown.
I liked I HATE TO ASK, SO NOT COOL, ARE WE DONE, and JANE JETSON with the two Js. But the grid spanners... SCALLION PANCAKE is a totally uninteresting combination of words, and YOU'RE GONNA WANNA wants to be "original" but it's a 15-letter partial.
Took 17:27 today to find the remote.
I knew "Ayahausca," but did not know how to spell it (and I've already forgotten it). I nearly face planted at the intersection of the golfer and the Latin.
It's not a Saturday LAT puzzle without an obscure foreign food reference (and no, I'm not talking about "Annie's"), and today's "scallion pancakes" are no exception. I had "SCA_____CAKE" and wanted to fit in Scandinavian Cake, but that was a fool's errand. Eventually, the "scallion pan" showed itself.
Nicely done, SubG and YooperPhil. I was going to ask how cold it was in the UP, but I see YP is in FL.
FIR! I think that's 3 out of the five in Enero, which would be a personal best. However, hand up for suntanned->SUNBATHED, judy jetson->JANE JETSON, corda->KORDA (I'm a fan but not a STAN,) leaf->RAKE, and fidget->JOB HOP.
The only boxed mac and cheese brand I know is Kraft. DW loved the stuff in her final year.
Alan ALDA turned 90 three days ago. Happy birthday, Hawkeye.
I don't know why this clip doesn't have audio, but John Bohner and Barack Obama were yucking it up while Michelle ate her dinner and Chuck Schumer was droning on. Barack was famously trying (without much success) to stop smoking, and John made a crack about the two of them sneaking outside for a cigarette. That earned him this great SIDE EYE from Michelle.
Toyota makes two superb pickups, both six letters, both starting with "T" and ending with "A." The TACOMA will cost you an arm. The Tundra will cost you an arm and a leg. The magnificent chassis under the Tundra is also used on the fabulous Sequoia, which may be the finest car I've owned. And I've owned a Mercedes 300 SE and a 300 SD.
Okay, I'm a man. I have to admit that the first 3-letter word for "rack unit" wasn't RIB. But I'm all for RIBs, and love a nice rack.
Thanks to Mark for a Saturday puzzle that even I could complete. And thanks to H.Gary for another fine review. BTW, Scotty Scheffler just became the third man to win 20 PGA tournaments before turning 30. The others who have done so are Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
Thank you, Alex and Husker Gary
Now that was a good Saturday puzzle. Finally got it, but it took nearly an hour to work everything out. I spent at least half of it in the southwest area. The obvious reason was AYAHUASCA.
We don't eat mac and cheese. I've never heard of ANNIES.
I vacillated between SOHO and nOHO trying to work something out. I'd ruled out MOMA.
Went for the brass - I was off in left field. So simple in retrospect. I couldn't stop thinking about reaching for the brass ring on a carousel, or as a medalist in the Olympics or other awards ceremonies. Perhaps because Lindsey Vonn was so prevalent in the news yesterday after her fall on the slopes...
Then there was the rack unit. Was it a tie or a RIB?
Also, Profile detail. Back and forth between a caricature side view sketch of a person, or a description of a person.
That wasn't all of it though. Yes, the second A and the S in AYAHUASCA were my last two letters FTW (for the win) and congrats message. But even more than that unrecognized term was the fact that my Subtle disapproval was SILENCE. It made so much sense to me.
It was the double and triple checking all my answers finally pointed to the error of having LOMO rather than DOMO. The only reason I realized it was DOMO thanks to the Styx song Mr Roboto. With DOMO in place, SIDE EYE worked. Then everything else in the SW fell into place. I was thrilled when the congrats message came with the A and S wags.
One more thing for now. I was pleased to get SCALLION PANCAKE early on. We made them after watching Molly Yeh make them on her Food Network show Girl Meets Farm. However, we used the recipe from Serious Eats to make the thin flaky ones. They were good, but were rather bland by themselves. It was the dipping sauce that made them so much better. We're keeping the dipping sauce recipe but aren't likely to make the scallion pancakes again.
Thanks for the fun, Mark. Come back with more!
Time to read HG's review.
Before I threw in the towel, my rack unit was a CUE. Misspent youth, I guess.
Still have to read the review (after I brew some coffee), but I see that I was far from alone on SILENCE before SIDE EYE.
I also just looked up AYAHUASCA. That's the brew that Aaron Rodgers was sipping on when he traveled to Central and South America for his spiritual healing.
Oh, and since ALDA was easy, it was reasonable to assume that 32D could end in TEA.
They spent a few weeks in a deep freeze UP there, sub zero temps and snow measured in feet. I escaped from there on 1/2. Today it looks to be a moderate 15 above, about 10 degrees warmer than you this morning. Down here in SW FL, there is actually a “flurry watch” for tonight 🤣, temps down in the low 30’s.
Who else had Krafts before Annie's forced her way in?
Good Morning:
HG attributes his hard-earned FIR to his OCD and I attribute mine to a certain Irish stubbornness. I almost TITT because the NW corner had me stymied for so long. Not knowing Jane Jetson and having Intel where Naval belonged (NCIS was an unknown initialism to me) really slowed me down, not to mention the elusive Amazon Echo entry. When I finally filled in Ayahuasca, I immediately thought of Aaron Rodgers. The author deserves kudos for so many unique entries but I’m not quite sure that all of them were appreciated by the average solver. The perps must have been fair because I got the Tada, but it took lots of P and P.
Thanks, Mark, and thanks, HG, for being such a faithful and devoted Saturday Sherpa. We’re the beneficiaries of your dogged determination, so thank you for that and the review and commentary.
Happy Birthday, Bill G., hope all is well with you! Your presence is sorely missed. 🎂🎁🎈🎉🎊
Have a great day.
FIR, but it's a miracle I did. There were so many "never heard of's", like lace front, Annie's, and scallion pancakes. At times I felt like I was flying blind.
But it's done, and no it was not an enjoyable puzzle.
This puzzle didn’t tickle my fancy so I gave it up and eagerly read HG’s wonderful review and the comments of all you super-smart people who not only completed it but liked it.
Besides I’m in a bad mood; our temps are not yet above freezing. LOL.
Thanks again, HG.
Reading your review reminded me of other stumbling blocks or delays that had to be worked out, like JAVERT, TEVA, ROKU...
Amazon users page with the name ALEXA as you would page with SIRI. I don't have one, but my next door neighbor was happy when her daughter got her an ECHO for her grocery and other reminders. She told me it was working the first day, but then wasn't responding. She wanted to show me. "Alexis..., Alexis..., Alexis!!!..." It was too funny.
I liked your example of SIDE EYE better.
In re: golf season. I spent an hour or so yesterday prepping for the 2026 winter meeting of our golf league members, two weeks from tomorrow. There are again a number of proposed rule changes for 2026. Much to my chagrin. I'd prefer it if we just went back to straight USGA rules, play it where it lies and everyone plays from the white boxes and follows the same rules.
Desper-otto, cue could have worked to for that rack unit. Where I first played, they just were leaned together into the corner walls, and most of the ones that weren't bent were often missing the tips. No fancy racks on the wall of our little town's lone bar. :>) It wasn't even a full sized pool table, but they did have a really good foosball table. And great wing-dings and pizza!
13:57 for me. Really good puzzle. Threw down Jane Jetson right away. Only had problems with the SW. Lots of fun answers.
Mostly incomprehensible, seasoned with names you probably don't know, sprinkled with a few gimme's. A big name in boxed Mac n cheese? Not where I live...
I did take note of where HG's review followed the clue/answer with a smiley face, denoting worthwhile, clever, and enjoyable fill. (HG, I will be stealing this idea from you...) sadly I only counted three of them.
Was the juice worth the squeeze for you?
(For me, no. But I did learn a lot from the review/comments. Thanks...)
It sounds like I was the only one who got SCALLION PANCAKE right off the bat, but my wife is Chinese (and she loves these). Still needed some help in the SW, never heard of AYAHUASCA, and some perps were not helping. Think UTA and ALDA were before my time. One of these days I'll FIR on a Saturday, but today was not that day. Overall an enjoyable puzzle though, thanks Mark and thanks HG for the helpful writeup.
TITT. Too many obscure unknowns for me this morning. What part of the country is Annie's big in? Never heard of it, and I do the grocery shopping, as DW is disabled. She never heard of it, either.
Unrelated (possible rant) (hmm, ok, definitely a rant...) (but, puzzle related?)
Still trying to recover. A couple of days ago, I answered the door in my PJs to some electrical worker insisting I ok his replacing my electric usage meter. I don't know what he did, but my microwave only shows an error message saying it's not connected to the internet. (It never was) took all day to fix that.
Then the pool programming went haywire. Turns on and off at weird times. Still learning how to reprogram it, but I would not say it is user friendly. (In fact, it's downright testy,) (and mean spirited too...) three days later it's still doing unexpected things.
Then the TV says we can't watch it because we are not in the right area code. Fixing that is a puzzle I never want to do again...
Then the powers went out again! Turns out it was just 9 customers, caused by a failure of a transformer. That big square box that sits in one of your neighbors front yard. They had to bring in a crane to deliver a replacement transformer. Lotsa fun, took all day...
Then the microwave, the pool, the tv, all over again!!!
Then, there was today's puzzle... (see, I told you this rant was puzzle related...)
End of rant...
(I hope.)
CE:(d
FIR in 15:08. The puzzle looked daunting before I began, but as it turned out, the longest answers were the easiest fill for me.
Most of my stumbling blocks were of the three-or-four letter variety. I was unfamiliar with Annie’s, but I’ve never had boxed mac and cheese.
My Toyota Tacoma is the most reliable vehicle I’ve ever owned. 270,000 miles over 20 years and still runs like new.
This was a near-perfect Saturday puzzle.
Dave, that is a SHRUG emoticon. "... it is a representation of an individual either being indifferent about something or not knowing an answer to a question."
I just looked at my logs. We made the SCALLION PANCAKES on Mar 23rd, 2025.
Copy Editor, your comment was sent (by Blogger) to the spam filter. There are certain words that Blogger will reject in any context. (Surprisingly, some American curse words are not among them.)
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Too much for me. Started with my usual pen on paper, but soon went to online with red-letter help. Even then, had to do several alpha runs. So I ended up filling all cells in 30 minutes, but gotta take a FWH.
18 names, DNK 10, so no wonder I struggled so badly. "Big name in boxed mac and cheese" = ANNIES. Never heard of Annie's, and my local supermarket has several brands of boxed mac and cheese, but no Annies.
Really, too many other clues with never-heard-of answers to list here.
"Went for the bronze" = clever clue that sailed smoothly right over my head, needed all perps before the V-8 can hit.
W/O = SASHA/SACHA.
Overall I did not enjoy this CW. Thanx but no thanx MA. Far too many names, for one. But maybe the CW is just beyond my abilities, and that's MY problem, not MA's. :-((
Looking forward to Monday.
Very nice write-up, HG, the best part of this experience.
I always feel a special sense of accomplishment when I complete a Saturday puzzle...even when I finish it wrong! Off by 1 letter with iTA instead of UTA. Oh, well. A fun challenge from Mark nonetheless.
I learned my Japanese from the band Styx. "DOMO arigato, Mr. Roboto."
Thanks for the Escher print, HG. I was always a fan and had "Day and Night" hanging in my office for years as well.
It was a doable puzzle ---if you'd ever heard of AYAHUSCA and ANNIES' Mac & Cheese. I hadn't so it was a DNF. Even multiple guess with both SOHO & NOHO didn't help for the clue that Patti threw in for an unknown museum.
My brain was on the wrong track for the wrong type of 'Profile', and NOSE was too short. But at least I got the rest including the unknown SCALLION PANCAKE. On 1A, I couldn't remember if it were JANE or JUNE JETSON but AMORE solved it.
LACE FRONT wigs are something I'd never heard but I did fill it correctly. Whew! Looking at the picture my thought is 'where's the LACE'?
JOB HOP- if you hop too much, it's like musical chairs and you might be left standing out in the cold. Gary's ex relative is probably out in the cold right now.
POKE and TARO were guesses. AIKEN, NOV, DOMO, CHAOS- all came via perps
ROKU REMOTE- I have two TV's that have the ROKU software and I bought extra remotes from Amazon, (Cheap, very cheap), so that DW and I each have our own remotes for each TV.
KORDA - Nelly's father, Petr Korda, is an Australian Open singles' Champion. Her mother was a pro tennis player. Her sister, Jessica, is another pro golfer, and her brother Sebastian is a pro tennis player. I'm late commenting today because this morning I watched the Australian Women' Singles Championship, won by Elena Rabakina. The men's final comes on sometime around 3am tomorrow morning.
SELES- Monica was also an Australian Open Singles Champion.
The fact that some of you FIR in 15 minutes or less tells me that I'll never be a candidate for a crossword solving competition! I FIW by one square (missed the J in JAVERT, should have known JOB HOP) and it took me quite a while. DNK KORDA, and WAG'd DOMO. At least I'm familiar with ANNIE'S products, though I don't buy boxed macaroni and cheese. I did when my kids were little, and may again when the grandbaby is bigger.
I had a huge leg up with AYAHUASCA, although the spelling was a challenge. I first heard of it while touring the upper reaches of the Amazon river in Peru. Since then, younger son has acquired in-laws who swear by the mind-clearing powers of the stuff. Their fervor reminds of folks I've known who were adherents of Erhard Seminar Training, now known as Landmark Education. These in-laws feel that until you've thrown up your guts in the jungle under the guidance of a guru, you really haven't come to terms with your stuff. I'm okay, thanks.
Anyway, quite the puzzle, Mark! Thanks for the Saturday stumping. And many thanks to HG for fearlessly solving and explaining it all.
I've had three Benz's, (450SEl, 560SEL, ML350), but the most trouble-free car I ever had was a MERCury, not MERCedes. But my Toyota Highlander with 44,000 miles might top them all. Everything works and nothing has been repaired-so far.
BE,
That picture of the ROKU remote above is the actual one I use. If you look to the left of the TV at which it is pointing, you will see a two doorways. One drawback with my ROKU is that if I'm not careful turning off my TV it also shuts off Joann's TV that also uses a ROKU remote. It was funny only once! :-)
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