Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan
I liked Dr. Dolan's puzzle and never felt I was not going to solve it. My issue became trying to decipher what Kyle meant by his "off-the-wall"cluing. As has become my custom with Kyle's puzzles, I did have a one-cell problem where you see the red cell in the grid. That high intensity exercise crossing an obscure "legal term" was never going to happen. I always wonder whether terms like that are already known to the constructor or a happy result of a desperate search of a piece of crossword software. Follow me as I embark on blogging my 24th Dolan Saturday themeless.
1. Sign of puppy love?: TUMMY RUB 😀 Ah, it is an activity by someone who actually loves a puppy.
 |
| Uh, are you sure you know what you're doing? |
9. Folded dish: OMELET.
15. Evidence that may not be fully reliable: ANECDATA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In casual conversation, business, or media, "anecdata" refers to anecdotal evidence presented as objective fact. The Problem: It relies on a very small sample size (e.g., "My grandfather smoked three packs a day and lived to 100, so smoking isn't harmful"). It ignores biases, coincidence, and statistical anomalies.
16. Mottled: CALICO.
17. Mud slingers?: BARISTAS - Even in this election year, Kyle is referring to the euphemism for coffee
18. Shiver: TREMOR.
19. Deuce follower: AD IN - I held onto TREY but eventually the cows came home. AD IN is simply overtime in tennis after the game ends tied which is called deuce.
20. Level: SHIM.
22. Teatime bite: SCONE.
23. Pacific nation whose national sport is rugby: TONGA - Rugby is also the national sport of SAMOA that are both Pacific nations ending in A, but...
25. Server reset?: LET - Kyle comes in with another tennis term. A LET is called when a serve hits the net but lands in bounds. The reset is that the server gets to serve again with no penalty. To reset the server in my house, I do the "unplug/plug back in" strategy.
27. Pants, informally: TROU.
28. "That's __ from me": A NO - He made a career out of this phrase
29. Couple: TWO and 35. A couple: GOING STEADY 😀 and 41. Couple: DUO.
32. Day on 10-Down: SOL - From the movie The Martian
34. Scamp: IMP.
38. Place that may have a "no phones" rule: DINNER TABLE.
39. Beer and skittles: LIFE OF RILEY - A 50's TV show starring William Bendix. Derivation of the phrase
.jpg)
40. Kick: JAG - Unrestrained activity (bureau/spree): An informal term for a period of excessive indulgence or uncontrolled emotion (e.g., a "crying jag" or "drinking jag"). Something from which you might get a "kick"
42. Org. preceded by the Cipher Bureau: NSA ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ There was a 1939 movie about it.
43. Vane dir.: SSE.
46. Country whose motto was "Workers of the world, unite!": USSR.
48. Best: TOP.
50. Walks down the aisle, casually: USHES - The walk is not casual, the word referring to ushering is.
52. Rafael with a Golden Slam: NADAL - These three men have won the four major tennis championships plus the Olympic gold medal.
54. Clucks: TSKS.
57. Light color: TINT.
58. "Point taken": I GET IT.
60. Nickname for the Southern city whose motto is "Resurgens": HOTLANTA - Resurens is Latin of "rising again".
63. "Farewell, mes amis!": A BIENTOT - French for "see you soon" or "bye for now"
64. Amplify, in a way: REPOST - 😀 Sharing content someone else has posted
65. "This ends now": WE'RE DONE.
Down:
1. High-intensity exercise method: TABATA - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ TABATA is a high-intensity interval training (HITT) protocol developed by Japanese scientist Dr. Izum Tabata
3. Sheep from Spain: MERINO - I learned this doing crosswords and was able to retrieve this from the deep recesses of my brain
4. Running with a mic, maybe: MCING - 😀 The EMCEE runs the show
5. Some penalty units: Abbr.: YDS.
6. "Phooey!": RATS.
7. Jazz venue: UTAH - This NBA team nickname originated in New Orleans where the name fit like a glove and for some reason they kept it when the team moved to Salt Lake City. The same goes for when the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles.
8. Pho herb: BASIL - I know Pho is Vietnamese soup and a five-letter word herb starting with a B leaves few candidates
9. Feast of St. Francis of Assisi mo.: OCT - Omelet at 9 Across starts with an O, so...
10. Destination of NASA's Escapade mission: MARS.
11. Pick: ELECT.
12. Long road trip?: LIMO RIDE - The trip is not long, the vehicle is
13. Coach: ECONOMY - This is where all my airplane seats have been
14. Made unreadable, say: TORE UP.
21. Portable cooker: MESS TIN - I felt pretty good with MESS KIT...
24. Took one's medicine, in a way: ATONED.
26. Arrivals for the summer?: TOTALS - 😀 People who do addition arrive at a total that is also called a sum and so I guess these people could be called a summer.
30. Triumph through adversity: WIN OUT - The Knicks two nights ago
31. Common length of a wooden ruler: ONE FOOT.
33. Defensive coordinator who helped the Steelers win the Super Bowl in 2006 and 2009: LEBEAU.
35. Pic file: GIF - I'm a big fan
36. Warning sound: GRR.
37. Pop duo __ & AJ: ALY ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
38. Finds an extra gear: DIGS DEEP - What the Knicks did Thursday night
39. Dish often served "al forno": LASAGNE Al forno (Italian for "from the oven") refers to food that is baked or roasted in an oven.
43. Worship of entities known as kami: SHINTO.
44. Forwarded: SENT ON.
45. Coffee grounds?: ESTATE - Coffee can be grown on one ESTATE or plantation rather than on various small operations which are consolidated
47. Pi, for one: RATIO - The RATIO of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
49. "I don't believe that!": PSHAW.
51. Selling point?: STAND 😀
53. Lens covers?: LIDS.
55. Capital city of Hyogo Prefecture: KOBE.
56. Hubbub: STIR.
59. Parlor piece, informally: TAT 😀
61. Greta of "The Morning Show": LEE - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm guessing you can pick out Ms. LEE
4 comments:
A few mistakes kept
this from being a true FIR. “Mess kit” instead of “mess tin” kept “dinner table” from being clear, for example.
Oh, well, better luck next time!
Thank you, Kyle and Gary.
That took a while, but I loved it. FTW. Longest Saturday for me in recent memory.
Most of the time was consumed by self inflicted slowdowns due to having coNceERT--LE where DINNERTABLE belonged. Instead of I GET IT, I had agreed. Trey before AD IN. SamoA before TONGA. BellYRUB before TUMMYRUB. Adieu--- before A BIENTOT. Glad that one perped in.
On the other hand, I had enough gimmes. Including LeBEAU, NADAL, HOTLANTA, and LASAGNE that perhaps other solvers may have struggled with. Al forno (from the oven) told me that the E ending was needed instead of trailing A of lasagna. Well, that and all of the cooking shows we watch...
ANECDATA is a new term for me. It makes sense to me. I had an early mentor that taught us that we should never argue a point or build a business case based on anecdotal data. Don't rely on it. Good business decisions require empirical data as proof of facts.
TABATA is also new to me. I wanted Crossfit, but it obvi wouldn't fit in the allotted spaces.
Some devious and circuitous cluing, Kyle. Keep them coming! I enjoyed the challenge.
Good Morning:
Close but no cigar due to the NW corner and the unknown Tabata, Unadon, Anecdata, etc. I’m getting better in deciphering Kyle’s off the charts cluing, the one for Totals, e.g., but he is a master of deception and misdirection. I fell into the Samoa/Tonga, Trey/Ad In, and Even/Shim, but perps were kind, mostly. Trou and Ushes brought on the usual nose wrinkle but all was forgiven by the evocative Tummy Rub.
Thanks, Kyle, you’re slowly winning me over and thanks, HG, who won me over many years ago. Your analysis was spot on and the photos of the adorable puppy and shaggy sheep won the day.
The Saturday win streak ended today. I was foiled by Kyle in the SE. I guessed PSHAW and HOTLANTA. I couldn't think of KOBE I've never heard of A BIENTOT and tried ADIEU___ but could get nothing to work. Not a chance after that. The 30 minute bell rang.
I had to take a hard look at ANECDATA after filling it. The perps were solid but it was unknown.
DINNER TABLE- our no phones rule is the bedroom. We leave them charging in the kitchen.
MESS TIN, ALY, and LEBEAU came strictly from perps.
Post a Comment