Saturday Themeless by Dr. Kyle Dolan
This is the 22nd themeless Saturday puzzle by Dr. Dolan I have blogged. For this puzzle I sought out someplace where I could get multiple fills and work out from there. For this puzzle it was the SW corner where things filled in and ERIVO took care of itself greatly aided by my fortuitous guess at SCUBA DIVE. As you can see by the red square I did have one bad cell where I had to confess to my French major
granddaughter that I guessed ENTRE VOUS and not NOUS. I made the connection to Egypt with Theban deity but AMENRA escaped me.
Across:
1. "Hold my beer": WATCH THIS - Idiocy fueled by alcohol and testosterone.
10. __ forest: KELP.
14. "It's not up to me": IF YOU WANT.
15. Obsession: MANIA - Are you old enough to remember this MANIA?
17. Quirkily creative: ARTSY.
18. Leaves home?: TREE 😀 Leaves is a noun and is possessive.
19. Put on board: LADE.
20. Board game: DARTS.
21. Pronoun option: HER.
22. Radiation that triggers vitamin D synthesis, for short: UVB.
23. Lineup of runners?: SLATE - This is the SLATE of runners you would have seen in 2024 in Nehawka, NE (pop. 167)
25. Used a prayer rug: KNELT.
27. Supreme Theban deity: AMENRA - AMEN-RA (alt. AMUN-RA) was the supreme state deity of New Kingdom Egypt (150-1100 BCE) merging the Theban creator god Amun ("The Hidden One") with the sun god Ra. Searching for his book was a plot arc of the 1999 movie The Mummy.
30. Mexico City's __ de la Reforma: PASEO - Walkway Of The Reform. A nine-mile diagonal street modeled on the Champs-Élysée in Paris.
33. "Truce?": ARE WE COOL.
35. As soon as: ONCE - ONCE you get some time
36. Natl. Merit Scholarship qualifying exams: PSATS.
37. Dance with a kahiko style: HULA - Includes chanting
38. Small beard: SOUL PATCH.
40. Amounts on some bottles: DOSES.
41. Sportscaster Dick with the catchphrase "Touch 'em all!": ENBERG - Said after a home run
42. Tilt: TIP UP - Getting the stones to Stonehenge was one thing and then they had to TIP them UP
44. "Fare thee well": ADIEU.
46. Top suit: CEO 😀 A suit is one of the executives of a company and so the top one would be the CEO
47. Toe bean spot: PAW - Lily did not like that channel!
50. Shots after whiffs, say: REDOS or after a really bad bunker shot
52. Polish place: NAIL 😀
54. [Not again!]: SIGH.
55. "Wicked" star: ERIVO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
56. "Count me in!": I'M SO THERE.
58. Assumption: GIVEN.
59. Suit perfectly: FIT TO A TEE.
60. Forward thinker?: SEER.
61. "Why not both": YES AND YES - Do you love me and will you marry me?
58. Assumption: GIVEN.
59. Suit perfectly: FIT TO A TEE.
60. Forward thinker?: SEER.
61. "Why not both": YES AND YES - Do you love me and will you marry me?
Down:
1. Mover's concern: WIDTH - Oops!
2. "Loch Lomond" preposition: AFORE.
3. Pianist McCoy who played with the John Coltrane Quartet: TYNER- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
4. Home on an apartment building's roof, maybe: COTE - Brando shows Eva Marie Saint a pigeon egg from his rooftop COTE in On The Waterfront.
5. Carrier base: HUB.
7. Lives it up: HAS A BLAST.
8. Clear for all to see, so to speak: IN HD - Fill words can be complicated when abbreviations have become "words" on their own.
9. Lid blemishes: STYES.
10. Handy maneuver?: KARATE CHOP 😀
11. "Confidentially ... ": ENTRE NOUS - Just between you and me. Entre vous means between us as a group.
12. Lay out: LIST - My projects are much more successful when I lay out what I need to do in a LIST.
13. Foots: PAYS - We used to "foot the bill" when we took our girls out but now they have families and we go dutch.
15. Nice thing to call someone?: MADAME - I suppose MADAME would be a nice thing to call someone in Nice, France. 😊
22. Shedding card game: UNO.
24. Code components: LAWS - One of the first compilatons
25. Succumbed to gravity: KEELED OVER.
26. Leaflet: TRACT - A famous one.
 |
29. "Woe is me!": ALAS.
30. False front: POSE.
30. False front: POSE.
 |
| Give it up, poser! |
31. Mystery author, briefly: ANON - Here the identity of the author is the mystery not the work itself 😀
32. Get tanked on a tropical vacation?: SCUBA DIVE - A confident fill when I only had the "S" showing. Yay me!
34. People with concerns about trolleys?: ETHICISTS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Happy to learn.
36. Resident of D.C.'s Daniel Webster Hall: PAGE - A former funeral home that was refurbished in 1995 to house Senate PAGES.
39. "Orange Is the New Black" setting: PRISON - A binge watch for me.
40. Couple: DUO.
43. Cesta-slung sphere: PELOTA - Here a jai alai player is slinging a PELOTA (sphere) with his cesta (basket)
45. Bring together: UNIFY.
47. Reverence: PIETY.
48. Concur: AGREE.
49. Carnival cries: WHEES - Kevin Hart seems to be making a cry of terror while Jimmy Fallon is doing more of a WHEE.
50. Policies, for short: REGS.
51. Put-in-Bay's lake: ERIE - The village of Put-In-Bay is located in our favorite crossword lake
53. Femme friend: AMIE - A French friend who is female
54. Roe source: SHAD.
57. 100 runs, for a cricketer: TON ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I got it!
ReplyDeleteBut it took some “tweaking.” Particularly because I started off with “piano” instead of “width.”
Nevertheless, I thought this was a very fair puzzle, especially for a Saturday. There were only a few of what I call “obscurities.”
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
I, too, wanted "piano" before "couch" and before WIDTH.
DeleteThank you, Kyle and Husker.
ReplyDeleteYowser. That was tough. So many aha! moments today. But it wasn't easy. I went way over Desper-otto's allotted solving time. Multiple answers had to be changed.
And in the end, it was a lousy typo that prevented the congrats message. It really wasn't even a typo. I had the correct letter but somehow typed over it a some point during the struggle. Fairly early on, I figured out KARATE CHOP and entered it, but somehow ended with CHOe.
After starting with KNELT and UNO, there was a lot of bouncing around the grid trying to find solid footing and get some momentum. In the SE, PAW, AGREE and WHEES gave me hope. Then I had to change arGH to SIGH and got PIETY and SHAD. Then IM SO THERE, FIT TO A TEE and YES AND YES fell quickly.
In the NW, I was stuck with PIANO for Mover's concern and NEST for Leaves home. That gave me OUR for the Pronoun option, but nothing else was working, Except NEST again for Home on a roof. That couldn't be correct because Leaves home was also NEST. Turns out that neither NEST was correct. I finally got tweener out of my mind and realized TWELVE for Not quite a teen.
It hadn't helped that I misread Lid blemishes as Lip blemishes. Got STYES after rereading as lid.. I also had HIRE instead of LADE for Put on board, but that would be Bring on board for HIRE. The triple stack phrases of 9 letters in the NW fell.
No idea on TYNER and AMENRA. Both perped and I left them. And I had never heard of the Trolley problem, so the clue meant nothing to me, but I knoow the word ethicists and what it means, so I left that one too. It nested in nicely with all of its crosses.
CARDS before DARTS. That leading D led to MADAME. That second M was my last fill. But no congrats. ARGH! That errant e instead of P.
So many simple but great clues though. Tough, but in the end, fair. Lineup of runners, Leaves home, Code components, Top suit, Foots, Clear for all to see, and my favorite Flyers for TRACTS. When I entered TRACT, the first thing that came to mind was Thomas Payne's Common Sense. Perhaps the most famous TRACT in American history. I read it, or at least most of it. Compelling.
Today's puzzle got the old noggin working this morning, and I enjoyed the challenge.
My experience was very similar to that of TTP. TYNER was my only real unknown. One of the problems of solving online for me is the accidental replacing of a letter such as the “e” that appeared. For TTP. The rest solved slowly but steadily bot after 20+ prior solves, Kyle’s creations are doable. Olympics are almost done and baseball on tv does not fill the gap. Watching Scottie Scheffler scramble to make the cut at Riviera was fun. ThankssGary and Kyle
ReplyDeleteFelt good I sussed it was the Egyptian Thebes and was sure it was Amon Ra; don't recall ever seeing it spelled Amen Ra.
ReplyDeleteHands up for unite instead of unify.
If idiots can't get out of the way of a trolley car that is far enough away to switch to another track, then not really an ethicist's problem but one that has a Darwinian solution.
As the driver of a runaway trolley would not be able to throw the switch, the ethical problem would devolve to the switch tender. Me, I'll take the Darwinian solution!
DeleteTrolleys don't move that fast I don't think they had that kind of steering ability. People could just step off the track. The real Darwin Award winners are the drivers who drive AROUND crossing gates in attempt to get across the tracks before the train moving 60mph gets there. There's usually a weekly winner.
DeleteTook 17:35 today to make the same mistake as our trusty guide (HG) made.
ReplyDeleteI've also seen "Amon Ra", but not "amen ra." I didn't know "Tyner" or the Mexican city. I knew the Actress of the Day (Erivo).
I think there should be another editor assigned solely to question mark clues. For examples, today's trolley and "Nice" clues. There's plenty of room for improvement.
FIR. I too like SubG threw down piano before width. I also went with unite before unify. Those two really slowed me down.
ReplyDeleteBut what really opened up this puzzle for me, after staring at a whole lot of white squares, was scuba dive. From there everything seemed to flow.
I'm certainly not fond of all the odd proper names, but managed via the perps.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI get nervous when I see Dr. Dolan’s byline as his cluing and fill often tend toward esoteric and obscure knowledge. Ultimately, though, patience and helpful perps lead to a successful completion. Today’s offering seemed to have more conversational entries than usual, a feature I find distracting and not what I consider crossword puzzle material. Overall, though, I enjoyed the solve and the challenging cluing.
Thanks, Kyle, and thanks, HG, for the informative commentary and deconstruction of Kyle’s talents. Darling Lily is as pretty and discerning as ever.
Have a great day.
DNF. Those conversational entries always get me, and there were quite a few in this puzzle. The NW was a mess because I kept piano for WIDTH and I can’t do it for it’s not up to me.
ReplyDeleteMy next mistake was keeping unite instead of UNIFY and not knowing the trolley trick, so the SE fell apart.
Thank you HG for your fine review.
Kyle Dolan's puzzles have become almost a Saturday fixture here. Today's is thorny as usual, but typically interesting and enjoyable in the solve. To FIR a Dolan challenge is a refreshing experience. I wonder what a Dolan puzzle on Monday would be like.
ReplyDelete"Loch Lomond" (2-Down) is a favorite Scottish folk song of mine, and not only because the author had the good sense to include my name in it (...the broken heart it kens nae second spring...). This song is a paradox doubled. First, shouldn't the person who took the high road get to Scotland before the one who took the low road? And second, once he got to Scotland, why will he never again be with his true love on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond? I think it was my Scottish grandmother who answered these incongruities for me.
Thanks, Kyle, for another satisfying and clever outing. And ditto to HuskerGary for helping us along so ably and entertainingly.
It took more than an hour, but I slogged to an (a?) FIR.
ReplyDeleteI found plenty of toeholds, starting with KELP forest, McCoy TYNER, Dick ENBERG (although I don’t associate him with “touch ‘em all”), PELOTA (Giants announcer Jon Miller’s signature home-run call is “adios, pelota”), and UNIFY. But the ultimate toehold came from the toe bean entry, an expression I don’t use. PAW totally solved my problems in the SE, including PIETY, WHEES, and two paraphrases, I’M SO THERE (how many Cornerites would use that phrase?) and YES AND YES. If you need perps to figure out a paraphrase, it’s a bad one.
“Avenida” de la Reforma didn’t fit, but coming up with POSE for “false front” revealed PASEO to me, which helped me fill the SW. The NW fell last, with WIDTH instead of piano or couch, the hard-to-figure AFORE, and the horrible IF YOU WANT paraphrase.
Still, it was satisfying to overcome so many issues. And there was one great trivia question, about the PAGE accommodations at Webster Hall.
I “saw” McCoy Tyner at the Blue Note in New York in 1997. He was leading a large ensemble in extremely deconstructed versions of Burt Bacharach songs. Patrons sit at long tables among the musicians, and I was seated at the base of Tyner’s piano among the woodwind players, but I never actually saw Tyner.
I agree this was fair, but ultimately I FIW since I had to look up the one obscure reference of Tyner for those of us who aren’t jazz enthusiasts - in order to get the NW done. Replacing dents with width, etc.! The SW was also my starting point with seeing scuba dive right off the bat (and replacing dick vitale with dick enberg. Also took awhile for pelota to come to me. All good. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAnother DNF for me today. Some clever cluing, but not a fan of "paraphrase" or "question mark?" non-clues.
ReplyDelete13:10. Fun puzzle. Still don't understand the clue on ethicists.
ReplyDelete“Trolley problem” is a thing, but I’ve never heard of it.
DeleteIt's a farfetched scenario of a trolley headed toward five people on the track ahead who are about to be killed by the trolley. But there is a switch just ahead of the trolley, and if the switchman pulls the switch, the trolley will be diverted to another track, thus saving the five people. The only problem is that there is one person on the diverted track who will be killed if the switchman diverts the trolley to that track. So for sure, five people are about to die, or one other person is about to die.What does the switchman do?
DeleteFIR! Saturday! Took me two regrouping pauses, but the NE finally succumbed.
ReplyDeleteKELP forests can be dangerous to SCUBA divers. If the diver gets entangled, the only path to freedom is to relax. Thrashing and trying to cut your way out nearly always results in death. The KELP forest off Catalina Island's Isthmus has claimed many victims.
Figured it would be PASEO because LA County's Valencia is a huge housing development made up of interconnecting communities connected with foot-and-cart paths called PASEOs. The design is a lot like Florida's The Villages.
Beginning golfers usually don't know that whiffs count as strokes, in addition to the REDOS. Beginning golfers would probably be better off if they didn't keep score at all, for that matter.
Thanks to Kyle for a Saturday puzzle that even my dumb mass could finish. And thanks to H.Gary for the fun review.
11/Down was not clued with any indication that it was a foreign word☹️
DeleteAnon @ 12:21, no indication needed on a Saturday.
DeleteLoved it but needed lots of help!
ReplyDeleteAs per a usual Saturday, it took some thought and work, and one break, but I managed a FIR w/out help in the official time of 45:40. Had to change rain to KELP. Not a lot of proper names today, but I DNK TYNER or ERIVO. Also unknown were PASEO, SOUL PATCH, UVB, or that a leaflet was a TRACT. The Detroit Lions have a star receiver named AMON-RA St. Brown, with an O instead of E. Thanks Kyle for the challenging puzzle, and to HG for a superb write-up!
ReplyDeleteAbove my pay grade, but when it started, "hold my beer," I was hooked...
ReplyDeleteI'm always passing things wrong, like, movers concern is not width, its "pivot."
The TROLLEY PROBLEM is meant to show an asymmetry in most peoples' ethics: Whether we harm someone from an act of COMMISION or an act of OMISSION. We do vast amounts of harm from acts of OMISSION, but we are rarely made to feel guilty about it.
ReplyDeleteThanks to Kyle for the Saturday brain workout. I had a 2-box FIW, one of which was H-Gary's red square. I managed to find many phrases that fit but did not fit. Example: 11D beTwEenUS
ReplyDeleteAs a result, many things went in then out then in again then out again....
FAVs were Leaves home?; KEELED OVER; Mystery author; and KELP forest.
Thanks to H-Gary for answering my long LIST of this-fits-but-I-do-not-know-what-it-is! Thanks also for answering my request for a Lily pic. Her catitude is impressive. She knows that clicker control is an alpha trait.
TITT after one pass. I knew a few- TYNER, AMEN RA, PELOTA, HULA, UVB, KNELT, PASEO- but they weren't enough to get it going. II even filled SCUBA DIVER and KEELED OVER in the SW. Too many total unknowns made a FIR impossible. SOUL PATCH, PRISON, ERIVO, ENBERG, COTE, TON, ETHICISTS.
ReplyDeleteBad guesses- Couch for WIDTH, mon ami, FOR MADAME, unite for UNIFY, chess for DARTS,
REDOS- we would always say 'you didn't lose your turn'. or 'you're still away'.