Saturday Themeless. by Matthew Luter
Dr. Matthew Luter is a writer and teacher in Jackson, MS. Originally from Laurel, MS, he is an alumnus of Millsaps College and of the University of North Carolina. He teaches courses in American literature at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.I got a great toehold in the NE, flew through the SE and then the SW and then the NW proved to be a swamp for this solver but I availed myself of a little help and got 'er done. Missing 1 Across for this NASA educator was a tough pill to swallow. There were some other fills in the NE that defeated me - MATT?, that Sister, RSS FEED? CLIOS as clued, A PLUS PLUS just seemed like green paint and that deodorant, really?. Yeah, I know, "It's a game not a test!!"
1. National Air and Space Museum relic: MOON ROCK - Houston, I had a problem, even with most of the letters filled. I went through all the vehicles I could think of but came up empty.
9. Coastal landmark: PIER.
13. "Better than perfect!": A PLUS PLUS - ๐คจ I remember Mrs. Thomsen telling us sophomores that nothing can be better than perfect and I agree. Other non-comparable adjectives - Unique, Flawless, Ultimate...
15. Top spot: ACME.
16. 1990s deodorant brand whose name inspired a Nirvana song: TEEN SPIRIT ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Ain't no way.
13. "Better than perfect!": A PLUS PLUS - ๐คจ I remember Mrs. Thomsen telling us sophomores that nothing can be better than perfect and I agree. Other non-comparable adjectives - Unique, Flawless, Ultimate...
15. Top spot: ACME.
16. 1990s deodorant brand whose name inspired a Nirvana song: TEEN SPIRIT ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Ain't no way.
18. Harvest: REAP.
19. Cardinal pts.?: TDS - The Arizona Cardinals of the NFL not compass points. ๐
20. Helper in a Cinderella story: FOOTMAN.
22. Game cube: DIE.
23. Detective Monaghan in Laura Lippman novels: TESS ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
24. Target that may have chalk marks: CUE BALL ๐
26. "Seconded": I AGREE.
29. Tam pattern: TARTAN.
30. Short strings?: STRAD - ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ My learned Lincoln friend Dr. Fred Ohles told me, STRAD is a common shortening among musicians for violins and violas made in Italy between about 1670 and 1730 by Antonio Stradivari and other members of his family. Highly prized, more than 600 of them are still being played today.
31. Part of a security check: VIRUS SCAN.
34. Tabloid duo: ITEM.
35. Sunders: RENDS - The more familiar use of that word is, "What God hath joined together, Let no man put asunder."
37. Crunchy legumes: SNAP BEANS.
39. "The Sound of Music" heroine: MARIA - A 4. Sister: NUN of whom the other sisters sang "How do you solve a problem like MARIA?"
40. With no sense of urgency: SLOWLY.
41. Seiko brand: PULSAR - PULSAR is not the same brand as Seiko, but they are closely related as Pulsar is a subsidiary brand owned and produced by Seiko Watch Corporation.
42. Future maple syrup: TREE SAP.
44. Symbol on a staff: NOTE.
45. Call the shots?: REF.
46. Maker of Scribble Scrubbie Pets products: CRAYOLA ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
44. Symbol on a staff: NOTE.
45. Call the shots?: REF.
46. Maker of Scribble Scrubbie Pets products: CRAYOLA ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
51. O'Keeffe flower: IRIS.
53. Water park?: DROP ANCHOR ๐ - Loved this one!
55. Remedy: CURE.
56. Final novel of Willa Cather's "Prairie" trilogy: MY ANTONIA - Nebraska's most famous author
57. Joint with crossed cruciate ligaments: KNEE.
58. "The Great Gatsby" term of endearment: OLD SPORT - Leo DiCaprio uses the phrase 55 times in the movie.
Down:
1. Actor Bomer: MATT ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Due to his uncanny resemblance, MATT was selected to play Montgomery Clift in an HBO biopic but it was never made.
2. Page full of takes: OP-ED ๐ All right, this was really fun once I saw it was about the takes various people have on topics.
3. La Liga cheers: OLES - La Liga translates to The League in Spain which has 20 soccer teams.
5. Source of some updates: RSS FEED ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format that allows users to automatically receive updates from websites, blogs, and podcasts without visiting each site individually
. You're welcome.6. Antagonize: OPPOSE.
7. Perks of big promotions, maybe?: CLIOS - A CLIO Award is the perk for big ads or promotions.
8. Cobain of Nirvana: KURT.
9. Course standard: PAR.
10. Winter Olympics pairs: ICE DANCERS.
11. "Inbox zero" obstacle: E-MAIL - More if you must know
12. Ward off: REPEL.
14. Some chip holders: SIM CARDS - Where we frequently encounter them
17. Sign of spring: TAURUS - It appears CROCUS was wrong.
21. Clears: NETS.
23. Stomp all over: TRAMPLE - No aliens necessary for crop circles.
25. Beer whose logo was the U.K.'s first registered trademark: BASS ALE - 1876
26. Goddess of the Great Ennead: ISIS - If you must know...
27. Abbr. on a memo: ATTN.
28. Serious cooking mishap: GREASE FIRE - Don't use water to extinguish it!
29. Like cheap speakers: TINNY.
31. Italian entree, familiarly: VEAL PARM.
32. Covent Garden solo: ARIA -
The Royal Opera House is located on
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD
33. At hand: NEAR.
35. Poster heading: REWARD - The territory of New Mexico paid Sheriff Pat Garrett the bounty for killing William Bonney.
39. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters attendees: MUTANTS - ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters
is a fictional, private educational institution in the Marvel universe founded by Professor Charles Xavier to train young mutants to control their powers and live in harmony with humans. You're welcome.
41. Marie Curie's homeland: POLAND.
42. Take in: TRICK.
43. Many an episode on MeTV: RERUN - Desi Arnaz insisted I Love Lucy use 35mm film instead of using crude kinescopes so the episodes could be rerun.
44. Pad in Mexican cuisine: NOPAL ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
47. Ma who founded the arts organization Silkroad: YOYO.
48. "This can't be good!": OH NO - Mr. Bill and his catchphrase first appeared on SNL 50 years ago
50. Basic Latin verb: ERAT - We often see "Quod ERAT demonstrandum." (Which was to be demonstrated).
52. Last word of the first verse of "Amazing Grace": SEE - ...was blind but now I SEE
54. Procedural figure: COP -
A
police procedural is a sub-genre of crime fiction focusing on realistic, team-based investigations—including detectives, forensics, and patrol officers—rather than a single hero. 
25 comments:
I got it!
It took about an hour but knowing about Nirvana and Marvel Comics X-Men was a big help and helped me “anchor” the rest of the puzzle.
I guess I’m not such an “old geezer” after all!
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
The puzzle clipped right along for me except the SE. I knew "My Antonia" as it is a favorite novel of mine, but the rest took some perps
"Smells like TEEN SPIRIT" is one of Nirvana's most famous songs
Cain genre took a minute because I was trying to find a music type for the trio/band Cain and since they are Christian contemporary, I had to wait for perps to get the NOIR for the author
I was thinking of the STL Cardinals baseball team for the letters but when none would fit I had to go to TDs for the Arizona football team
There will likely be many a verse of "Amazing Grace" sung tomorrow in Easter services
Thanks HG for the fun blog and Matthew for the puzzle
I did better than the normal Saturday attempt, but the SE got me. There's no way I would have ever filled NOPAL, MUTANTS, COP, MY ANTONIA, especially after drawing a blank on the VEAL dish, figuring it ended in either an O or I. Duh. I was thinking of a medical procedure for 54d.
But at least I got the rest including unknowns MATT, TESS, ISIS, and TEEN SPIRIT. NOIR was a WAG for the unknown Cain, but it didn't help even wedged between OH NO and ERAT.
NW gave me fits (I really didn't want RSS FEED) but I was able to persevere and FIR
FIR. It was a struggle but persistence paid off. Last to fall was the SE. The Willa Cather novel was an unknown for me, and the perps weren't helping. Then suddenly "drop anchor" and "noir" appeared and I was home free. My aha moment!
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Good Morning:
I’ll claim a FWH due to the challenging NW corner. Teen Spirit, Clios, RSS Feed, and Sim Cards were not on my radar at all and I take issue with the blatant green paint entry, A Plus Plus. Tree Sap is questionable, as well. I thought some of the cluing and fill was top-notch but some was too cutesy for my taste.
Thanks, Matthew, and thanks, HG, for the eye-candy photos and the informative commentary. It seems you and I had the same solving experience, thanks to that tricky NW quadrant.
Have a great day.
Some agreeable misdirections here, one of my favorites being the clue for DROPANCHOR.
It's always great to see Marie Curie make an appearance. "Homeland" is a slightly ambiguous clue, because it can refer either to the place where one's national identity has formed (FRANCE in her case), or place of birth (POLAND). She is buried in the Pantheon in Paris. Interestingly, since her remains are still radioactive due to her years of scientific work, her vault there is lined with a 1" thickness of lead!
Thanks, Matthew and Gary, for the fun excursion.
Yes, the NW corner was a bear. Once I finally WAGGED MOON ROCK, and looked up the actor’s name, the rest filled. In the SE CRAYOLA and NOPAL were unknowns but perps helped. And then MUTANTS? Thank goodness I knew YO-YO, MY ANTONIA and OLD SPORT.
Some clever clues like CUE BALL, DROP ANCHOR and CLIOS. GREASE FIREs are scary. Once many years ago I started one and panicked. I was not parsing BASS ALE properly and wondered what this BASSALE was.
Thank you for your informative review HG and the background on our constructor today.
Good puzzle. Thought it was all easy except for the SE.
Took 11:59 today to, oh well, whatever nevermind.
[That's a Nirvana reference.]
Lots of unknowns today, including: Tess, My Antonia, nopal, Cain and his/her genre, erat, and the Actor of the Day (Matt). It's not a Saturday puzzle at the LAT without an obscure food reference, and today's was "nopal".
I enjoyed this one, well, most of it.
HG mentioned "non-comparable adjectives," which reminds me of a conversation with friends about how somethings can/should be "more unique." For example, all snowflakes are unique, but what if there were a 5-lb snowflake? All people are unique. So are parcels of land. But, some are, well, more unique.
This was one of my fastest Saturday solves ever, although fast for me is, like, 20 minutes.
I agree the NW was difficult and that A PLUS PLUS was a minus, but I was on Matthew’s wavelength in the SE corner, with Gatsby’s OLD SPORT and my strong hunch that MY ANTONIA was correct. TEEN SPIRIT was a gimme in the NW, so obviously I knew KURT Cobain, and FOOTMAN is my kind of Cinderella trivia. Growing up in the Willamette Valley meant picking SNAP BEANS with my peers several Augusts in my early teens and working in canneries that processed them in my late teens.
I lived in Vermont for three winters and know a bit about maple syrup and how it’s made, so TREE SAP was my second choice for “future maple syrup.” My first choice was “sapling.” Some people mistakenly believe maple sugarin’ takes place in the fall, but actually the season is right now. I also liked the CLIOS entry, though I can see how some might consider it too arcane. That might also apply to the clue for the (Arizona) Cardinals’ TDS. BASS ALE hit the spot, too, as did NOPAL.
Didn’t reach NIRVANA, PLUS got a D minus minus cuz I got hung up on APLUSPLUS … RSSFEED (what??) figured the first “S” hadda be a vowel probably “e”. Didn’t know TESS and got fooled with CLIOS so DNF the NW. (This CW was NOPAL o’ mine OLD SPORT ๐ง)
MATT Bomer an openly gay actor one of the few who has successfully played Str8 leading men. Didn’t know about the Montgomery Clift (ironically closeted) bio, would have made a great film.
Inkovers: pole/SNAPBEANS, esse/ERAT, wassale/BASSALE, inre, as to/ATTN.
“antagonize” OPPOSE? Meh.
Agree, “water park” “take in”
“, “clear” all clever, but
“ procedural figure” and “page full of takes” takes… the cake ๐
Happy Easter ๐ฃ by
FIR! What a way to start off the second quarter! However, clef->NOTE, and toe->ONE. Got my guesses at MY ANTONIA x NOPAL and COP. (I was wavering between "cup" and "COP."
After hearing good things about NCIS, I recorded Season 1. I'm up to Episode 3, where the body of a Naval officer washes up onto nearby Virginia Beach. Good stuff so far.
Also from recommendation here, I bought my first Laura Lippman book (Baltimore Blues) yesterday at my favorite used bookstore.
Thanks to Matthew for the fun but challenging puzzle. Most Cornerites probably don't know that Mississippi schools have made impressive performance improvements recently. They were rated 48th in 2014, according to the KIDS COUNT Data Book. Last year they were rated 16th in the nation. Good things are happening down there! And thanks to H.Gary for another fun tour.
MY ANTONIA/COP cross last to fill. Had no idea what "Procedural" meant. Always interesting how one person's favorite book can be utterly unknown to most of us.
Did anyone else think the deodorant was TEEN SECRET? At least SECRET is a known deodorant name.
Nirvana's "Nevermind" was one of the biggest selling albums of all time (and the signature album of the 1990s), with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" being the big hit single. If the clue hadn't mentioned Nirvana, perhaps the fact that Secret is a better known deodorant would have mattered more.
Mississippi's gain makes me wonder why the big downward movements in South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.
Hola! MY ANTONIA was on my list in American lit class many, many years ago. I read yesterday that TREE SAP for maple syrups is not as plentiful as it once was, likely due to climate change.
NOPAL pads are readily available around here as they grow wild.
When visiting POLAND some years ago, I learned that many of the buildings which had been destroyed during the war, were replicated in their original style.
Thanks to Matthew Luter for the fun today and to Gary for the extended fun. Have a great day, everyone!
Copy Editor Thank you for acknowledging that TEEN SECRET makes sense if you didn't know the song. I just listened to the song. Yes, I have heard it many times. I never understood a single word. I just read the lyrics. Neither "teen" nor "spirit" appears in the lyrics. How would anyone know that was the title?
Reading the comments I see many managed to FIR, but for me, this was way too difficult. After filling very little with pen-on-paper, I went online, turned on red-letter help, and still struggled. Eventually filled every cell correctly in 28.
Only 10 names, 6 DNKs. But too many other things I DNK. Several alpha runs later, I managed to fill every cell with the correct letter, but alpha runs means I gonna assign myself a DNF anyway.
6D I knew was Curt. Oops, no. OK, KIRK. Nope again. Rats. KURK? Nope. Finally KURT. Well, I THOUGHT I knew the name. Oy.
Tried to enter WANTED where REWARD went, but the red letters said no. Only the "D" didn't light up. O.K., REWARD then.
Like HG, I entered CROCUS...which lit up except the "S". Hmmm. Ah, TAURUS.
Also like HG, I struggled with MOON????, after I tried SHUTTLES, where every letter lit up. O.K., it must be MOON????. But WHAT? Just like HG, I tried to think of a vehicle, but eventually the V-8 can hit.
20A I wanted to enter FAIRY?? but nope. Eventually, another V-8 can.
Also had no clue at 44D, and even after it filled, still had no idea. Thanx HG for the enlightenment.
When I went back and looked, there are many clever clues, 24A, 30A, 53A, 7D, & 17D. But also some real clunkers: 35D (SUNDERS = RENDS?) and 5D, for instance, which I suspect very few have heard of (RSSFEED).
Anyway, I guess I should say thanx to ML, but it's a grudging thanx.
A big thanx to RG for the write-up, it was nice to see some of the same stumbles I had, and to be enlightened on some of the clues that baffled me.
It was definitely a tough one in the NW and SE. FIR with help on My Antonia since I was not familiar. RSS feeds while being a legitimate term is not very fair to anyone not a techie! While we have all seen it, its meaning was unknown and crossing it with obscure references to a 90’s young lady deodorant and the unknown to me Bomer was very difficult. I don’t know what green paint means….? Of course I thought Cinderella’s helper could be dustpan since it cleaned up after the cat! Also unsure that oppose is a good synonym for antagonize? But got there in the end so I’ll quit acting like a mutant!
I couldn't shake perfection with A PLUM ___ which made an RmS FEED, whatever that is. Matthew got me good this time.
How do you solve a 5-letter name like MARIA? Easy, it's the most common first name in the world for 61 million people. Note that while Muhammad has twice as many namesakes, there are at least four popular spellings, putting MARIA on top.
Thanks for the usual great job, HG.
Weekend puzzles are always a bit tough, but, like many others, this one was very enjoyable too--so many thanks, Matthew. And Gary, thank you for your helpful commentary too--much appreciated.
It must be exciting for astronauts to see a ROCK on the MOON from their PIER on their spaceship. They must be feeling pretty young at that moment on their ACME, probably filled with their TEEN SPIRIT once again. Wonder who does a VIRUS SCAN to protect them? Can they hear the OLE they are getting on earth from their celebration by the talented ICE DANCERS. Hope they can all send pictures and messages to their families on the E-MAIL button on their cell phones. We should give them a great REWARD when they DROP ANCHOR and land back in EARTH after they are done. Hope someone also sings them a lovely ARIA.
Well, it's time for us to get some lunch. Have a happy reunion when you land back here on the ground.
Holy Saturday! (Not to be blasphemous, just rejoicing that by some small miracle I was able to FIR w/out help in 33:52). DNK MATT, TESS, or ISIS as clued. I knew KURT and (smells like) TEEN SPIRIT, but not that it was about deodorant. NOPAL was all perps, and it took a few correct WAGs to get FOOTMAN and MY ANTONIA for the win. DW and I are going to Scotland and England a week from today, staying a few nights in the Covent Garden district in London. Thank you Matt for the challenge, and to HuskerG for the fine explication!
FWH, as Irish Miss said.
"Water park?" and DROP ANCHOR don't seem to agree grammatically.
I did feel satisfaction upon completing this puzzle.
Good reading all your comments.
Yeah, it's that song that starts dum-de-dum...dum-dum...dum-de-dum...dum-dum...twang-twang...twang-twang :-)
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