Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan
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Today, Kyle and I celebrate our silver anniversary, as this is the 25th puzzle of his that I've blogged. As I looked for a good entry point, the southeast corner filled in quickly, and I thought I was headed for an easy solve. Not so fast, I did enjoy Kyle's clever puzzle but the word easy does not describe the required effort! 😊
Kyle's quirky cluing kept the left side full of holes until, on my way to a haircut, the fill GREET came to me for the clue "Receive," and everything fell into place. The fabulous word SENTIENCE completed my Saturday assignment! As you will see in by blog I did contact Kyle to be reassured about some of this clue/fills and he kindly let me in on what he was thinking.
A note from Kyle which included this picture taken at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.:
Hi Gary,
I hope you are doing well. My inspiration for the puzzle came from eminent themeless constructor Robyn Weintraub, whose crosswords I admire. She has often used a design similar to the one seen here, and I wanted to see how I could fill such a grid. I began with ANY QUESTIONS, which is a lively conversational entry that is making its LAT debut (unless I am scooped in the next two weeks :-D).
Thanks as always for your kind words and interesting reviews of my work.
Best regards,
Kyle
Across:
1. Kitchen drawer?: AROMA - 😀 Kyle went pretty far down the list of definitions for this use of drawer!
6. Follow: OBEY.
10. NYC venue whose final show featured Patti Smith: CBGB - The Country Blue Grass Blues club shut down after 33 years.
14. Economic justice topic: LIVING WAGE.
16. Willie who broke the NHL's color barrier: OREE.
17. Forest formations with mythological associations: FAIRY RINGS - What they are and what causes them
18. Crux: MEAT
19. Useful element in making connections: AND 😀
20. Group in Mercury's orbit?: QUEEN - Oh, that QUEEN and that Mercury
21. Causes of spiraling, at times: FEARS.
22. Their feet may have claws: TUBS. 😀
23. Writers commissioned for tributes: ODISTS.
25. Tightens, perhaps: RETIES.
28. Down for drama?: FOURTH - 😳 Wow, what a Kyle special!
29. Stuff: ITEMS.
30. Chrysler that won the 1978 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award: DODGE OMNI.
30. Chrysler that won the 1978 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award: DODGE OMNI.
33. Receive: GREET - My key to completing the left side
34. Offline: IRL - In Real Life
35. Threw a pity party, perhaps: CRIED.
36. Feature of HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey": SENTIENCE - A sentient being doesn’t just detect stimuli and react automatically. Sentient means having the capacity for subjective experience, particularly the ability to feel sensations like pleasure and pain. Here is HAL showing a sign of SENTIENCE.
38. Nephric: RENAL.
39. Coin bearing a bear: TOONIE - A C$2.00 coin whose name is a portmanteau for two and the loonie Canada's C$1.oo coin
39. Coin bearing a bear: TOONIE - A C$2.00 coin whose name is a portmanteau for two and the loonie Canada's C$1.oo coin
41. Volunteer: SIGN ON.
42. Result of productive talks: PACT.
43. Some bookmarks: SITES.
44. "Find out": GO ASK.
46. Mercury, for one: GOD - Not Freddie this time.
49. Nursing spot: TEAT.
50. "Perfectly reasonable": I CAN SEE WHY - I CAN SEE WHY Kyle's choices might ruffle a few feathers. 😀
52. Some Indigenous Canadians: INNU - We very recently had the CREES.
53. Clue in evolutionary history: MARKER GENE.
54. Cobbler's tool: RASP.
55. Around: OR SO.
56. Maker of the One SL speaker: SONOS.
Down:
1. __ Romeo: ALFA.
2. Filmmaker Johnson: RIAN - This was the third film in RIAN'S Knives Out series.
3. Poet frequently referenced in "Don Quixote": OVID - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cervantes refers to himself as “nuestro español Ovidio” (Our Spanish OVID) in a sonnet addressed to Sancho Panza
4. Bygone orbiter: MIR.
5. "All clear?": ANY QUESTIONS - Kyle's seed entry
6. Boo-boos: OWIES.
7. Curse: BANE.
8. Spaetzle, e.g.: EGG NOODLE - Made in southern Germany and Alsace
10. Settles: COMES TO REST - No matter how hard you
11. One may be taken on a date: BREATH MINT 😀
12. Shift workers?: GEARS.
13. Kalshi actions: BETS - 90% of its BETS are placed on sporting events but it also takes BETS on politics, finance and about anything else. It has made its 29-year-old founder the youngest female billionaire in history, passing even Taylor Swift.
21. Party poppers: FIRECRACKERS.
22. "Cock-a-doodle-doo!": TIME TO GET UP.
24. Vibed on: DUG.
25. Fixes: RIGS - Perhaps the most famous example
26. Peut-__: French "perhaps": ETRE - Peut-ÈTRE qu’elle a oublié la fête. (Perhaps she forgot about the party)
27. Animated superhero series featuring the voice of Tara Strong: TEEN TITANS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
28. Word in Beaufort readings: FORCE.
30. Setting for some on-line orders?: DINING CAR - 😀 I had to ask Kyle about this one. He said:
DINING CAR should be interpreted as a generic name for a place to eat on a train, not a specific restaurant. The clue is a pun on the idea that you go to the dining car to order food on a (rail) line.
31. Close: NEAR.
32. How much scrolling is done: IDLY - I'm approaching an addiction
37. Producer on seven U2 albums: ENO - The only British record producer I know
40. Dated: PASSE - Is opening a door for a woman now PASSÉ?
41. Italian home of the world's oldest bank: SIENA - It appears they might have been able to loan Columbus a few lira.
42. Coat put on in the kitchen?: PANKO.
43. Verb in a polenta recipe: STIR - The spoon is still in the bowl
45. Sticks in the water: OARS.
46. Longtime "PBS News Hour" anchor Ifill: GWEN.
48. Top jobs?: DYES 😀
50. Letters expressing personal thoughts: IMO.
51. Team challenge: EGO.
I got it!
ReplyDeleteBut it did take me an awful long time, over an hour! But I just kept “plugging”!
FIR, so I’m happy.
Welp, that was certainly an unpleasant start to the weekend. And unlike SG, I didn’t get it. Maybe it’s a me thing.
ReplyDeleteIt’s not a you thing. I feel some of the most obscure clues I’ve seen in a while. Crux = meat?
DeleteVery strained lies.
DeleteAwful puzzle with very strained cluing.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteThe left side filled quickly, once I corrected CUBS to TUBS. DINING CAR was clued cruelly. Soon the SE was complete, and I started up the eastern seaboard...and came to a screeching halt. CBGB, OREE, and FEARS (as clued) were out of my wheelhouse. After staring at the blanks for several minutes, I gave up. So close, but not close enough. Bzzzzzt. Thanx, Kyle and Husker.
Thank you, Kyle and HG
ReplyDelete24 seconds over 35. Primarily held up by having gist before MEAT and cubs before TUBS. Overall, the east and southeast sections provided the most resistance. Not that many other places weren't tough, because they were. I was debating servience vs SENTIENCE when TEEN TITANS became apparent.
For me, this was a really good challenge and I loved it. Great clues, plenty of misdirection, some words not normally encountered in puzzles...
DNF, filling 39 answers, 32 correctly.
ReplyDeleteWINDOWS XP fit for Hal's feature.
"One taken on a date" had to be BREATH MINT, because "wallet," "billfold," "condom" and "rufie" were too short.
"Party poppers" had to be FIRECRACKERS, because "amyl nitrate" was too short. I settled for rIcECRACKERS, figuring it was a Weight Watchers party.
The Beaufort scale is based on observations, not readings. We wouldn't say "the sky reads partly cloudy." We might observe FORCE 10 conditions, and read 950 millibars on the barometer. The Beaufort scale was developed in an era when the hands (the folks who toiled forward of the main mast) aboard most ships were illiterate. This method provided the means to report conditions in a co0ncise and consistent manner. For example, here's a description of a Force 10 storm:
"Very high waves with long overhanging crests; resulting foam in great patches is blown in dense white streaks along the direction of the wind; on the whole the surface of the sea takes on a white appearance; rolling of the sea becomes heavy; visibility affected."
Thanks to H.Gary for making some sense of this toughie.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI’m slowly tuning in to Kyle’s cluing style, as evidenced by my filling in 1A immediately with Aroma. Of course, not every misdirection clue was as easy to conquer, but I’m getting more successful at parsing the trickery. Today’s offering was solved by chipping away here, guessing there, and, eventually, seeing the light everywhere. It’s nice to be challenged on a Saturday level and even nicer to meet the challenge.
Thanks, Kyle, and thanks, HG, for the commentary, photos, and brief visit with Kyle.
Have a great day.
DNF. I threw in the towel. There's no way I would have known CBGB. There are one or two other ares that remained blank. Finally I just said uncle.
ReplyDeleteOverall not an enjoyable puzzle.
Not a fan of this one, as I definitely was not on the constructor’s wavelength at all. Rather than “quirky”, I would characterize the clues as more “intentionally deceptive”, and not in a good way. It’s one thing to try to misdirect in a witty and clever way, as with the clue “Down for drama?” for FOURTH, which is a winner for sure. However, going to that well time after time and coming up with things like “Shift workers?” for GEARS really strains credulity and results in a situation where the first thing that comes to mind after reading each clue is “Ok, what kind of nonsense are we dealing with on this one?”.
ReplyDeleteAdd in a healthy dose of trivia like CBGB, OREE and KALSHI (in the same minuscule section !) and you are in full-blown slog territory. It’s very honorable and noble that the constructor aspires to emulate the Devine Miss W, but this thing has a long, long way to go before it could ever be described as anything close to Robynesque.
I found this puzzle extremely tough, 20 minutes in and I only had about a quarter filled and figured I might be headed to the dreaded DNF or worse TITT. But I persevered and by some small miracle I was able to FIR w/out (outside) help in 53:53, perps helped immensely! The unknowns vastly outnumbered the gimmes which is par for a Saturday. DNKs included CBGB, INNU, GWEN, TEEN TITANS and a slew of others. Never heard the words ‘nephric’. or ‘Kalshi’. Again, how did I ever get this done? I liked the clues for TIME TO GET UP and FOURTH. I panicked when gas prices hit a dollar a gallon in 1979, sold my beautiful Camaro and bought a DODGE OMNI, ranking up there as one of my worst mistakes ever, total 🍋. I am currently traversing Lake Huron/Georgian Bay on the car ferry MS Chi-Cheemaun from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island Ontario where we’ll stop and spend our remaining TOONIEs at Tim Hortons, how Canadian is that, eh? Anyway, thanks Kyle for the very challenging Saturdayesque puzzle, and to HG for your continued contributions to the Corner, well done!
ReplyDeleteGlad I wasn't alone in not knowing CBGB. I thought for a split second PBGV from dog shows. At least I would have had a fighting chance with that one.
ReplyDeleteGary, my SW side was also full of a huge hole. With words and people I'd never seen, it was a large hole. TEEN TITANS, SENTIENCE, and INNU-might as well been from Tagalog.
ReplyDeleteWhen I know 1A&1D on a Saturday, I think OH NO. It's a bad omen. And I CAN SEE WHY. A DNF for me today.
The NW solved easily, even though FAIRY RINGS was unknown.
DODGE OMNI-don't leave out its twin, the Plymouth Horizon.
I didn't know what a TOONIE looked like but took a guess. The bird was on the LOONIE.
My original MUTANT GENE became a MARKER GENE.
BETS and Kalshi- the house always wins but the world is full of suckers.
You want a LIVING WAGE? - make yourself more useful to the employer, get another job, or work for your own company. No company can afford to pay more for a job unless that job makes more for that company. Otherwise, it will go out of business.
FIRE CRACKERS- I hope the party is outdoors.
I do not have the patience some people here have, so I DNF, which is a form of TITT. I encountered too many unknowns like CBGB, OREE, ENO as clued, TEEN TITANS, DODGE OMNI, or I entered wrong such as Milan for SIENA, dips for OARS, sit for instead of SIGN ON, and although I entered QUEEN I did know why, etc.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, thank you HG for your usual steady hand steering this ship.
Well - a different kind of record for me today. I had to “cheat” and search for some answers to help me finish; SIX, to be exact: CBGB, bets, Oree, -etre, Gwen & TeenTitans.
ReplyDeleteSo, I got to learn some things❣️ THX❣️🙏
18:55. Nice and crunchy one today. SW was the last to fall. Hung up for a while until I got the rooster clue (duh). Pretty good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone here hear of OREE before this puzzle?
ReplyDeleteAs a long time hockey fan I did know Willie O’ree.
DeleteYooperPhil. Same here. And virtually the same clue appeared here or maybe in the NYT in the last couple of weeks.
DeleteYep, just found it.
NYT, Friday June 19th. "Willie ___, first Black player in the N.H.L."
Yes… from crosswords. I needed the O to jog my memory.
DeleteAs a solver with minimal sports knowledge (looks like sports are involved?), I still don’t get the clue on FOURTH. Can anyone explain?
ReplyDeleteNW was easy except FAIRY RINGS, an unusually fast start for a Kyle Dolan LAT Saturday. But then he delivered in spades with his style. A very satisfying solve (though that clue on BREATH MINT is annoying with its combo of vagueness AND not even punning on “date”).
Extremely ridiculous cluing. Hated this CW. GAH!
DeleteAnon @ 11:22AM: In football, 4th Down and short, like in Husker's photo, can be drama as will the team go for it, try to kick a field goal, or just punt the ball.
ReplyDeleteWillie O'Ree has appeared in previous L.A. Times puzzles. I saw him play for the Los Angeles Blades of the Western Hockey League in the early 1960s.
ReplyDeleteDNF, but close. I couldn't get the western side sussed out.
ReplyDeleteI would have never gotten PANKO so glad I TITT.
I feel solvers who don't eat Asian food are at a definite disadvantage these days
I knew about PANKO, but I started with ICING crossing IDEA. Then I got the terminal O from OR SO, and I thought “well, if this is really PANKO, some people are going to hate it”.
DeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteHusker G => 25 Kyle Dolan puzzles you've blogged? Wow! I wonder if Lemonade714 has done 25 or more Jeffrey Wechsler's? I suppose - as you said - that after doing that many you start to get on a constructor's wavelength. I wish I could say the same. Kyle's tricky clues were just too much so I TITT and exposed the puzzle completely. After reading your recap the clues make sense (somewhat) but I'm still glad that I stopped after a half hour or so of futility
Regarding the Mercury clues - maybe, to those who followed Freddie - the term "GOD" for Mercury could've meant him? I know, no false idols, et al, but he was adored by millions of fans
Early on felt there was no way, but it turned out to be one of those that I knew just barely enough to infer the unknowns from the crossings, FIR in 25. CBGB seems well-known to me, but perhaps not. Oree played in Boston, that helped. Kalshi has made exactly $0.00 from me.
ReplyDelete“Hello, my name is Kyle, I have a deep need to let everyone know how clever I am”
ReplyDeleteNot.
Whoo. That was a hard one. I had to do an awful lot of looking things up. Were it not for information available from the internet I would have been able to fill only about 40% of this puzzle. Love the word SENTIENCE. A good crossword word.
ReplyDeleteIt’s rare for me to reeeally dislike a crossword, but this one did it; and with Mssr. Dolan’s byline on it, it was expected, since Kyle is the obscurity-meister par excellence. It also didn’t help that the LAT left out the clue for 28A in the printed copy! Even though I managed to fill in the grid, to call this one a “slog” is to be charitable. Some of the clues were amusing/clever; “Sticks in the water” is a unique way to set up a crossword staple, plus I liked the Freddie Mercury and HAL 9000 references (cool word to stick into a grid!), but outer-limits stuff like IRL and some obscure “Frawnch” I can do without. “Top jobs” = DYES?? Yes, my feathers are well-ruffled 😖 even after getting DININGCAR and TIMETOGETUP, I CAN SEE WHY this grid left me spiraling down to my FEARS….
ReplyDeleteExcellent job unraveling this mess for us, Husker G.; thanks for all the entertainment to mitigate this Saturday experience. Looking at that 13-speed shifter befuddles me, since I only see eight gears, so obviously I’m missing something in the pattern. And thanks for yeeting “yeet” with the strike-through font!
Sorry you traded your Camaro for a DODGEOMNI back in the day; @YooperPhil. How does Motor Trend pick a p.o.s. like that for Car of the Year? By Chrysler/Dodge spending the most advertising dollars with the rag (so goes the lore…).
Looking forward to a much less teeth-gnashing solve tomorrow.
====> Darren / L.A.