Saturday Themeless by Doug Peterson and Samuel A. Donaldson
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| Sam Donaldson |
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| Doug Peterson |
1. Orange belts found in some flutes: MIMOSAS - It's fun to break through the clever cluing and get off to a good start.
8. Occur to: DAWN ON - I was so pleased the the first two long grid-spanning fills below did DAWN ON me quickly
14. Song usually accompanied by pantomime: I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT short and stout..
17. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there": LET'S PLAY IT BY EAR.
18. Holds down the couch: LAZES.
19. Some fans of The Cure: GOTHS - Not familiar with any of their tunes
20. Pi follower: RHO.
21. Part of: IN ON.
22. Country named for Africa's second-highest peak: KENYA - Mt. KENYA is about 200 miles north of Africa's highest peak.
23. One-quarter of UTEP: PASO.
24. Some CGI creatures: ETS.
25. Animated sort: TOON.
26. Step on stage: TOE TAP 😀
28. "Your Friend & Jeweler" company: SHANE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
29. Ones in line: HEIRS 😀
30. Biles with five eponymous gymnastics skills: SIMONE.
32. Constant figure in quantum theory?: PLANCK - This physics guy knows both of these scientists
34. Ties: LACES - None for me any more.
35. "That really grinds my __": GEARS 😀
36. Egg foo young, e.g.: OMELET.
38. Davis canine: ODIE - Garfield's pal and foil
39. Dennings of "WandaVision": KAT ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
42. Fling: CAST.
43. Picked one: OPTED.
45. Robe part: SASH.
46. Durham sch.: UNH - A little misdirection as more well-known Duke University is in Durham, N.C.
47. Portions (out): DOLES.
48. Folk legend Griffith: NANCI - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This folk music lover is not familiar with her work
49. Yellowstone's less predictable attraction: STEAMBOAT GEYSER.
52. Black aces and black eights: THE DEAD MAN'S HAND - The poker hand that is said to be what Wild Bill Hickock was holding when Jack McCall shot him in Deadwood, S.D. in 1876.
53. Locking horns: AT ODDS - A common state in D.C.
54. Plucky Renaissance faire performers?: LUTISTS.
Down:
1. "Doctor Who" actress Gibson: MILLIE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2. Rephrasing words: I MEANT.
3. Seder servings: MATZOS.
4. Elizabeth of "WandaVision": OLSEN ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Another cast member of a show I was not aware of
5. Nurses: SIPS.
6. City with more than 70 sts. named Peachtree: ATL - These variations include Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Battle Avenue, and Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, among others, causing significant navigation challenges for visitors and locals alike in ATLANTA
7. Initial phase: STAGE ONE - The fuel in STAGE ONE of the Apollo Moon Rockets got the astronauts about 40 miles above Earth.
8. Temple dedicatee, often: DEITY.
9. To boot: AT THAT - "The meal wasn't very good and was pretty expensive AT THAT"
10. Fly catchers: WEBS 😀
11. Silly response to "Is that your horse?": NAY. 😀
12. Like many Bolshoi performances: OPERATIC - Bolshoi is Russian for big or grand.
13. Seafaring retreat for couples?: NOAH'S ARK 😀 - Two by two...
15. "Poker Face" star Natasha: LYONNE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
16. Scouting units: TROOPS.
22. Zen paradox: KOAN - KOH ahn. A paradoxical anecdote or riddle, used in Zen Buddhism to demonstrate the inadequacy of logical reasoning and to provoke enlightenment. You're welcome.
23. Ends used for shaping: PEENS.
25. The ones over there: THOSE.
27. Midway alternative: O'HARE.
28. Extract metal using heat: SMELT.
30. "Sex and the City" role: SAMANTHA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The lady in red
31. Arctic mass: ICE SHEET.
32. Setting for worship?: PEDESTAL - Works in our house even though this is not our Lily in the picture! 😊
33. Like bricks and eggs: LAID 😀 - I've done the first and have collected the latter
34. Plague pest: LOCUST.
35. Cry from the stands: GO TEAM.
37. "Well, boo-hoo!": TOO BAD.
39. "Dust in the Wind" band: KANSAS - A song that where I might tell others in the car, "Please quiet down, I love his song!"
40. Uphill climb: ASCENT - 62% of deaths on Everest occur on the ASCENT and 38% on the descent.
41. Helping for the hungry: THIRDS - Hey, if it's for tater tots...
44. Moves with effort: PLODS.
45. Wave, maybe: SAY HI.
47. Contacted on the 'gram: D-MED - Some FaceBook posts might ask to be D-MED (Direct MessagED) to discuss more privately.
48. Location of a small kite: NEST.
50. Fuss of Shakespearean proportions?: ADO.
51. Shaggy grazer: GNU.
29 comments:
Amazing. I solved a
Saturday puzzle in less than 15 minutes. It had some interesting fill, too, like “the dead man’s hand” which has some legendary Western history behind it.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
The great northland stayed mostly snow-covered until LETS PLAY IT BY EAR DAWNed ON me. The only SHANE familiar to d-o is a drifter. Tried doZES before LAZES appeared. ASCENT was timely: Jim Whittaker, the first American to climb Everest, died this past week. He was 97 and not one of Husker's statistics. My final fill was correcting UNC to UNH. D'oh. Thanx, Samuel, Doug, and Husker.
FIR! My dumb mass! However, hurl->CAST, belt->SASH, metes->DOLES, lutests->LUTIETS (UNTIE!), that is-> I MEAN, icescape->ICE SHEET, and unc->UNH. (I knew that UNC was in Chapel Hill, but figured Sam and Doug might think of the area in the Research Triangle (bounded by Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill) as "Durham.")
Same showbiz ¯\_(ツ)_/¯s as H.Gary. I knew KAT as the chubby mom & daughter on Shifting Gears. I also knew SAMANTHA from watching Sex in the City. I felt like a spy watching the show, but it was really well done.
I used to work on Peachtree Dunwoody Road in North ATL.
Thanks to Doug and Samuel for the Saturday special that even I was able to solve. My favorites were the clues for MIMOSAS, LUTISTS and NOAH'S ARK. And thanks to H.Gary for another fun tour. That Everest death statistic is a little misleading. The one you quoted includes deaths from avalanches while preparing the climbing routes, which are certainly part of the climbing season total. But the Himalayan Database, which only includes summit attempts, shows that approximately 56% of fatalities above Base Camp occur during descent.
FLLN (From Late Last Night) - Anon, thanks for the callback to The Honeymooners.
Took 9:58 today without much ado.
As for the Actresses of the Day, I knew "Olsen" & "Kat", was unsure of the spelling of "Lyonne", and didn't know "Millie." I knew the female role of "Samantha". Other unknowns today for me were: Shane, Nanci, & Planck.
I first had "ice shelf" and really tried to squeeze in "UNC" where "UNH" belonged.
Very enjoyable Saturday puzzle.
Good Morning:
Even though there were many unknowns, the generous and helpful perps led to a FIR w/o help in 43 minutes. I liked the misleading and tricky cluing and the fresh, lively fill, especially the fun grid spanners. It was a challenging Saturday, which I like, but a doable one, which I really like.
Thanks, Sam and Doug, and thanks, HG, for the many learning moments and the always enjoyable eye-candy photos.
Have a great day.
FIR. It wasn't easy but I got through to the end and solved a Saturday puzzle.
I was struggling on the top and suddenly "I'm a little teapot" showed up and it was off to the races.
So overall an enjoyable puzzle.
My ASCENT from south to north was pretty much a tough climb to get to 2/3 the way up, had to take a 1/2 hour break cuz nothing was coming to me, came back and reached the mountaintop w/out help in 41:33. The only person I knew was SIMONE, and I wasn’t familiar with the referenced works of the other people, so that slowed me down. Last fills were correct WAGS at the A and E in KOAN/SHANE/LYONNE, all unknowns, as was PLANCK which required ESP. Thanks SAM and Doug for your masterful and challenging creation, and to HG for another stellar expo!
Mr REI I believe
TITT. When I realized that this was an A&E trivial pursuit game and not a CrossWORDpuzzle.
FIR with one square swag as I’m not familiar with koan or Shane as a jeweler. Fun Saturday for a change of pace and a toe tap here and there! North was tougher as I thought Itsy Bitsy Spider has good pantomime, but finally dawned on me with some perps! I also unfortunately was not familiar with Nanci Griffith, but anyone who plays with EmmyLou and is on Austin City Limits is aces in my book! (Emmy Lou coming to Ravinia this summer!). And for a fan of the Old West, The Dead Man’s Hand helped open up the South! As others noted, still several unknowns, but fair clueing on perps made it a fun and fair challenge!
I always think of the former ABC news anchor whenever Samuel A. Donaldson is our constructor. The latter, along with his partner in crime Doug Peterson, today offered up a primer in crossword construction and craftsmanship.
This puzzle featured two pairs of back-to-back grid-spanners, and at the other extreme, a mere eight three-letter words. Not to mention some masterful misdirections and other surprises, such as giving us SHANE without mentioning Alan Ladd.
Nicely done, gentlemen; you provided us with a thoughtful and satisfying Saturday challenge. And thanks, HGary, for your entertainingly helpful backup.
Shane Company is in only 14 states, but I knew it from my time in ATL. They are in California, but nowhere near the LA area, so this fill may be a little weak for a Los Angeles Times puzzle.
I completed the lower two-thirds first after LOCUST, SAMANTHA, ICE SHEET and UNH helped me get the two lower grid-spanners quickly. I knew the lower one had something to with Billy the Kid or Wild Bill Hickok. SIMONE Biles was a gimme. PLANCK, as clued, came to me much later.
I needed perps for Natasha LYONNE and I wasn’t familiar with MILLIE Gibson. Once I started thinking hard on the pantomime entry, I lucked out quickly on I’M A LITTLE TEAPOT, and pretty soon my guesses on MIMOSAS and MATZOS seemed right.
Locusts and matzos of course reminded me of seders and the recently concluded Passover.
The KANSAS song reminded me that last week the men on Saturday Night Live did a nice rendition of “Carry on, My Wayward Son” in what I’m pretty sure was four-part harmony. I was busy singing along at home, adding a fifth part. That was a great day for TV harmony. At the Final Four a quartet of female athletes, one from each Final Four school, combined on an excellent four-part rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
What a great puzzle. So many clever clues, too many to cite, but a few like MIMOSAS, NOAH’S ARK, PEDESTAL come to mind.
Not that this was easy since I knew none of the people clued except SIMONE, but perps were kind. I also had a few erasures like toss for CAST, belt for SASH, metes for DOLES, beans for GEARS. And then that tricky UNH.
Thank you HG for your usual fine review. I too would shush people to listen to “Dust in the Wind”.
The first pass was a lot of white until the deep south with two gimmes- KANSAS and THE DEAD MAN'S HAND. But I weaved my way to the top, filling it all and ending with a couple of vowel guesses for the intersecting unknown Jeweler SHANE, unknown Zen paradox KOAN, and unknown Poker Face star LYONNE. PLANCK, ODIE, and SIMONE were other gimmes.
DNK, MILLIE, KAT, NANCI, or OLSEN. If you include Millie, Lyonne, Simone, and Samantha, Sam and Doug like living women. The mentioned men-Noah and Planck are long dead. Did that DAWN-ON anybody else?
First guess for Shaggy grazer was YAK before GNU.
PHASE before STAGE ONE (the Snagglepuss exit went left or right).
For the Durham school I was thinking UNC but it's in Raleigh (same airport) and got the New Hampshire school after the ICE SHEET, LOCUST, and unknown SMANTHA were filled. My first thought for the arctic clue was ICE SHELF, but that's on the other polar mass.
That dead man's hand of Aces and Eights got me wondering what the hole card was... here is a website that goes into detail of the events and if you make it to the end, you can purchase a commemorative deck of cards with a hole in the center, and a lead ball. Complete with fake blood stains on the black aces and eights... (there is also a marked deck version...)
In case you have not seen it, there is a Coen movie containing 5 death vignettes. The first is The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. which (sort of) recreates the poker scene...
And lastly, FLN, I wonder who will be the first Alice on the Moon?
but in our hearts, we know the answer to that one....
7:35. Easiest Saturday puzzle in ages. Felt more like a Wednesday.
I took longer than most, apparently. Still got everything except for a jeweler called SHiNE - which seems like a better name!
Speaking of names, I knew Natasha LYONNE from her great performance in Orange is the New Black.
Thanks, HG, for filling in all the blanks.
Came close but a few unknowns in the SE corner resulted in a DNF : tried seconds for 3rds. If NANCI is a “folk” legend it’s news to me. As for “WandaVision” I knew “Elizabeth” OLSEN but not KAT. Thought the band was Oasis (too short).
SHANE? Never heard of it. Almost filled Zales. Had a brief fling with Facebook a while ago, since trashed so DMED was perped (anyway thought “‘gram”meant Instagram). “Natasha” was not Leonne, perp corrected (liked her in the ended-too-soon without a conclusion “Russian Doll” series)
The usual tricky Saturday clues “Holds down the couch” “Ones in line” etc.
Inkovers: as well/AT THAT, UNC/UNH.
Pantomime song: not “YMCA” or “The Chicken Dance” 🐓 “Shaggy grazer” not yak, (who GNU?) 🐃
Thieves during a riot …. LUTISTS
Aroma … ASCENT
____ just tell me the name of Africa’s second highest peak? … KENYA
Happy weekend 😊
FOLK may be a misnomer for Nanci Griffith's style. She was too young to catch the folk wave of the '60s. She doesn't fit neatly into any category: Folk, Country, Americana. She herself referred to her music as "folkabilly." She died five years ago at 68, probably cancer.
UNC's in Chapel Hill, NCSU is in Raleigh.
Printed out the CW and counted the 16 names, and realized I DNK 10 of them. Decided not to do the CW. But then reconsidered and went online for red-letter help, and slowly worked my way through it.
1A filled half with perps, then I just guessed the rest and came up with MIMOSA and thought, "The only mimosa I know is a drink. What has that got to do with a flute?" thinking of the musical instrument. Slowly, the lightbulb lit up. This is one of many clever clues.
So anyway eventually FIR with red-letter help in 24 minutes. And came to really appreciate this CW. Loved the 14A & 17A grid spanners, probably because both came to mind immediately. 49A & 52A not so much: needed several perps to finally have the V-8 can smack me.
Overall, a clever, enjoyable CW that I was pleased to be able to FIR, or maybe I should say FWH, since I used red-letter help. Thanx SAD&DP, good work.
Thanx too to HG for the great write-up. And I agree about Skechers: great shoes.
Surprisingly manageable Saturday puzzle--many thanks, Samuel and Doug, for this gift. And your commentary and pictures are always a big help, as usual, Gary--so many thanks for that too.
The tune of "I'm a Little Teapot" popped into my head as soon as I started this puzzle and made me laugh and made me happy. Was that teapot really "short and stout" or am I remembering that wrong? It was TOO BAD that I didn't get most of the names in this puzzle, although I happily remembered SIMONE Biles, and that almost wanted me wish I could SAY HI. Well, seeing that OMELET made me realize it was time to get some breakfast. Wouldn't it have been fun to be able to travel on NOAH'S ARK? But that would probably only have worked while I still had my sweet Rowland, since it was a site for couples and not a single older woman like me. Well, time to get off my PEDESTAL (joking), and get myself some late breakfast.
Have a wonderful weekend, everybody.
I’m with you
Jinx, I meant to write NC State the Wolfpack, not the Tarheels, or Blue Devils. Raleigh, Durham, Cary- all are in the RTP area.
I liked this well-constructed puzzle, even though I had to get help with some of the proper names.
Me too, on both counts.
Well since I've never heard of WandaVision, let alone seen it, this puzzle was on the irritating side. Why do the puzzle constructors do this? Put in clues from TV shows or movies from 5 years ago or more, that I guess they happened to like, but for 95% of us just requires us to google to find out the name of some obscure actress or actor who played in it..
Although to comment on my own comment, Kat Dennings is a total knockout.
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