LA Times editor Patti Varol is back again on Friday - this is her fourth that I have blogged in 2026. Another tack-on theme, with two of the fills grid-spanners, this time adding '-TON' to some common things / phrases, resulting in some punniness, and a 'defining' reveal. I breezed through today, just one sticky square, and I was on this Patti puzzle wavelength with most of the proper names being in my wheelhouse. Standard grid, no outlier squares, no circles, thirteen 3LWs, and ten names. The themers & reveal;
24. Lazy way to soothe hurt feelings?: NOOFFENSEBUT...TON
43. Take tiny crustaceans out for a stroll?: WALKTHEPLANKTON
49. Getting heavier, or an apt title for this puzzle: GAININGWEIGHT - in this case, the answers gain a "TON", or about 2000lbs - I, on the other hand, am losing weight. I did a weigh-in with my trainer last Thursday - the same 190lbs, but down to 26.5% body fat, originally at 43% - Yikes~! I keep pushing him to feature me in the Big Sky gym "spotlight" email, but everytime I ask, he tells me "when you get to X" - this time, I have to be down to 24% body fat . . . the carrot at the end of the stick . . . 😖
Button Waiton, There'ston Moreton~!
ACROSS:
1. Band: STRAP
Ankle strap shoes
6. Primer lesson: ABCs
10. Printer refills: INKS
14. Provençal sauce: AIOLI - I do the Downs first, so this corner self-filled in the Across
15. Bread from a tandoor: NAAN - common crossword crust
16. Many a techie or Trekkie: GEEK - Dah~! Not NERD
17. Fruit with a thick rind: MELON
18. Thing that has away with words?: DELETEKEY - I had "I gOt it" crossing, but once that changed, I saw the clever misdirection with 'away', and not "a way" in the clue
22. Raft: SEA - the "other" noun definition, #3 - a large collection or number
23. Fish that's a symbol of Children's Day in Japan: KOI
33. "Wow, nice!": "OHCOOL~!" - Twurd(ish)
34. Approach: WAY
35. Rite answer: "IDO." - well, you'd better give the right answer, or . . .
36. Constant critic: HATER
37. Like fresh nail polish: WET
38. Bridget's daughter in the "Bridget Jones" series: MABEL - never saw it, no clue, IMDb; name #1
40. "Big" and "Bang Bang" singer Rita: ORA - Crossword staple, just about every week now, along with Dua Lipa. Name #2
41. "Happy now?": "SEE~?"
42. Old Spanish coin: PESETA
47. Scand. land: NORway - part of ScandINAVIA - Geo name #3
48. Routine: ACT
56. One who's in it for the money: MERCENARY
"I care . . ."
57. Nebraska rail hub: OMAHA - Friday cluing, still geo name #4
59. Fun run distance, for short: ONEK - my gym is hosting a 5K in October, or, you can just walk it
I got the theme early on which helped me solve this rather deceptively clued puzzle. It seemed about right for a Friday in terms of difficulty. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but strip->STRAP, so cool->OH COOL, rut->ACT, ten k->ONE K, and animal->ANDEAN.
"Constant critic" isn't the same as HATER. I thought of Gomer Pyle's Gunnery Sergeant Vincent J. “Vince” Carter. I blame Taylor Swift for stretching the meaning.
I would have clued "NFL shout for 'change the play!'" for OMAHA. The specifics vary from team-to-team, and sometimes game-to-game, but (as they say) "change is constant."
No, no, no. A turn in craps is an "inning." It continues until the roller sevens out, leaves the table, or just decides to pass the dice to the next player.
Our late friend Abejo was an active SHRINER. My uncle, who owned a Chevy dealership, modified an old Ford to backfire and buck by rising up its back wheels. He only drove it in SHRINER parades, where the kids loved it and the adults got the subtle "buy a Chevy not a Ford" message.
Thanks to Patti for the A&E special. I thought the cross of MABEL and NOLAN was the epitome of terrible cluing, but at least the theme was fun. And thanks to Splynter for another great Friday narrative. Great results from your regimen.
MABEL x NOLAN is a perfectly fine crossing. Even if you somehow don't know Christopher NOLAN, once you have MABE- you know that the last letter is L. The worst thing about that section of the grid is the partial ODE TO. There aren't that many options when the themers force the pattern O _ _ _ O in the downs.
Longest solve so far this week. Appropriate. Needed Wite-Out twice: nErd/GEEK, so COOL/OH COOL. My first computer was OCTAL (8-bit) in those pre-hexadecimal (16-bit) days. Thanx, Patti and Splynter.
FIR. Definitely a hard puzzle as befits a Friday. There were a few proper names I thought this puzzle could do without, like Mabel and Thee (?). There was a lot of clever misdirection in some of the clues, but the perps were fair. I got the theme early on and that helped a lot. Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
I knew the Actress of the Day (Ohara), but not the obscure foreign food (aloo mutter = peas) or "Mabel", and I've never heard of Neko Case/Case Neko. Remembering how to spell "Baer" is tricky for me.
I didn't catch the added WEIGHT until the reveal; then I noticed the added TONnage. Maybe Patti could have used the Korean currency-WAN- and ended with WANTON.
Don't know either song but ORA, ELBA, DUA, and LIPA are always gimmes. MABEL, RAWR- what Splynter said. PEAS was a guess after a couple of perps. NEKO & Middle Cyclone-unkowns
Musings -A very pleasant Friday solve where the gimmick was very obvious -I know many techies who are far from being a GEEK. OTOH, Trekkies… -If I get lazy, I tend to “SKY” my tee shots -SHRINERS used to take part in every parade years ago, but not so much anymore. I wonder if fewer peeps are joining. -If you’ve got the money, the LAWYER will keep filing motions. Guilt or innocence is of no real concern. -We had to drive into OMAHA yesterday after I chipped my iPhone screen protector. My DW went along and after shoe shopping and picking up “a few” items at Costco, we left $500 there. -My mother got me interested in crosswords and I wonder if she got upset with so many 1950’s names and slang. -Nice write-up, Slim!
I liked the theme but thought the Sleeper Carton themer was weak compared to the other two. I wish Patti would use her word play talents more often, rather then the add/drop a letter/word format. I still remember some of her earlier offerings that I found so enjoyable and creative. I appreciated the nod to the Knicks and HG was Omaha-ed again!
Thanks, Patti, and thanks, Splynter, for a spot on summary and several learning moments. Congrats on your gym regimen results.
FIR, but not easily. I got the theme at WALK THE PLANKTON. The NW took a while since i held on to Mango for MELON and longs for instead of PINES FOR too long, and the succulent remained blank.
I needed perps for the usual suspects, people whom i don’t know: NEKO, MABEL, THEE, OHARA, and the test G-MAT. I had NO way for NO HOW. HATER seems all wrong. A critic doesn’t hate. Oh, and I read butter instead of mutter. Phew.
I just upgraded to IOS 27 and auto correct/fill is nowhere to be seen. I miss it. i’ll have to check into that.
Thank you Splynter for a great review and congratulations for the “fat” loss.
22. Raft. Ok I get the third def, but Sea seems to add an extra layer of difficulty. I wanted rut for routine b/4 act. So many piercing sites, they all turn me off. But at least it wasn't nose or tongue... Rawr? 13. Hit high in the air=sky? Nope, dont like it at all... Trou again, jeez, wear a belt, it's like your underwear's showing... Pedi/peel/rats!
I once tried my hand at replacing grass with sod, I still don't understand how exactly have of them turned brown, or better yet, how the brown ones got evenly mixed in. The lawn looked like a chess board!
Finally, can somebody PLEASE come up with a better clue for "have."?
It turns out autocorrect/fill works everywhere else. Maybe TTP could tell me how to restore it for Blogger. All i get is the words “AutoFill Contact” then a little farther my name. When i click on it my only choice is to keep my name or add another “contact”. I’m baffled.
Hola! Sigh. I don't understand why my name disappears. Anyway, i enjoyed Patti's puzzle A TON. It's sad to think of a SLEEPER CARTON but I believe the homeless use them. KOI are really fun to watch because they are so colorful. Apparently more avalanches are expected in TIBET and soon the entire snow mass might be gone. Yikes! Is this global warming? NEKO is entirely unknown to me, but Christopher NOLAN is very familiar to me after having seen the Odyssey. I hope everyone is having a lovely day!
FIR with just a few corrections but no red letters
FYI, Another of my crossword puzzles published today - the link is below if you'd like to solve it. September 18 - Direction Finder by Chris Gross - edited by Stanley Newman. Go to the following website to solve on-line or to print a copy for solving with a pen or pencil - do you need more direction(s)??
FIW in the NW with a total of 5 errors. Semi-okay for me on a Friday. Really didn't like the cluing for: Rawr, Sea or No How, and expect if I see a clue for Rawr again, I'll miss it the next time too.
Enjoyed the WEIGHTy puzzle and FIR. But never heard of SKY as a verb. It seems mostly to be a sports term. Curious who here actually uses that term? I see Husker Gary is one.
Thank you for that reply, Darren. That tends to confirm it is a term used by sports announcers who are always looking for new words to avoid overusing existing ones.
Now I am curious about something else: Why do you always post as Anonymous and then let us know who you are?
Fairly straightforward solve for a Friday; the theme became clear after I got the reveal, and let me trundle through to an eventual FIR. I agree with y’all on SEA, ACT and RAWR, but I got ‘em, so I ain’t gonna grouse too much. MABEL ending into NOLAN was a bit clunky, but as he’s one of my favorite filmmakers, it fell in with no drama. .
Best Clue award goes to “Lazy way to soothe hurt feelings”; I got a good grin out of that one.
I could never grok CALC, much less algebra if you’re going to do numbers, use numbers, not letters — those are for writing words! 😆
Nice gags again, Splynter! That Obi-wan cartoon was a good one. And I think you got “humped” by recalling that llamas are in the camelid family…but only camels sport the mounds on their backs.
I never knew there were different kinds of ALOE; all I knew was my welder friend kept an aloe plant at hand in case he got hit with hot slag…
Unlike Splynter who "breezed through" this one, I struggled every step of the way. I had to leave all of the themers blank on my first pass so I did not get a TON of help. This all led to a very satisfying FIR. Thanks for the fun, Patti! The LAWYER clue is brilliant. I also liked the I DO clue.
I would have thought we had a dupe with NO OFFENSE... and NO WAY, but if anyone would know, it would be Patti so I guess that's OK.
Thanks, also to Splynter for all the time and thought you put into your write-ups! Your llama comic made me smile.
Good catch, sumdaze - after reading your comment, I shoulda caught that semi-dupe of a "no" crossing a "no" . . . but it wouldn't've mattered when the constructor is the editor, anyway so . . .
Like Sumdaze, I struggled but was victorious in the end! Did not breeze through as Splynter did! Bahr>Baer, nerd >geek, so cool>oh cool, pedi>peel…to name a phew! We took the “Brown is the new green” to a new level during the water drought. We just put sod in our front yard. Hope it doesn’t turn into a checkerboard like CED described! Thanks for a fun, but difficult (for me) puzzle, Patti, and as always, thanks to Splynter for an entertaining review! Have a great weekend, everyone!
I got the theme early on
ReplyDeletewhich helped me solve this rather deceptively clued puzzle. It seemed about right for a Friday in terms of difficulty.
Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
FIR, but strip->STRAP, so cool->OH COOL, rut->ACT, ten k->ONE K, and animal->ANDEAN.
ReplyDelete"Constant critic" isn't the same as HATER. I thought of Gomer Pyle's Gunnery Sergeant Vincent J. “Vince” Carter. I blame Taylor Swift for stretching the meaning.
I would have clued "NFL shout for 'change the play!'" for OMAHA. The specifics vary from team-to-team, and sometimes game-to-game, but (as they say) "change is constant."
No, no, no. A turn in craps is an "inning." It continues until the roller sevens out, leaves the table, or just decides to pass the dice to the next player.
Our late friend Abejo was an active SHRINER. My uncle, who owned a Chevy dealership, modified an old Ford to backfire and buck by rising up its back wheels. He only drove it in SHRINER parades, where the kids loved it and the adults got the subtle "buy a Chevy not a Ford" message.
Thanks to Patti for the A&E special. I thought the cross of MABEL and NOLAN was the epitome of terrible cluing, but at least the theme was fun. And thanks to Splynter for another great Friday narrative. Great results from your regimen.
MABEL x NOLAN is a perfectly fine crossing. Even if you somehow don't know Christopher NOLAN, once you have MABE- you know that the last letter is L. The worst thing about that section of the grid is the partial ODE TO. There aren't that many options when the themers force the pattern O _ _ _ O in the downs.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteLongest solve so far this week. Appropriate. Needed Wite-Out twice: nErd/GEEK, so COOL/OH COOL. My first computer was OCTAL (8-bit) in those pre-hexadecimal (16-bit) days. Thanx, Patti and Splynter.
FIR. Definitely a hard puzzle as befits a Friday. There were a few proper names I thought this puzzle could do without, like Mabel and Thee (?). There was a lot of clever misdirection in some of the clues, but the perps were fair.
ReplyDeleteI got the theme early on and that helped a lot.
Overall an enjoyable puzzle.
Took 6:56 today to sleep on my camp cotton.
ReplyDeleteI knew the Actress of the Day (Ohara), but not the obscure foreign food (aloo mutter = peas) or "Mabel", and I've never heard of Neko Case/Case Neko. Remembering how to spell "Baer" is tricky for me.
I didn't love this one a ton.
I didn't catch the added WEIGHT until the reveal; then I noticed the added TONnage.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Patti could have used the Korean currency-WAN- and ended with WANTON.
Don't know either song but ORA, ELBA, DUA, and LIPA are always gimmes.
MABEL, RAWR- what Splynter said.
PEAS was a guess after a couple of perps.
NEKO & Middle Cyclone-unkowns
Musings
ReplyDelete-A very pleasant Friday solve where the gimmick was very obvious
-I know many techies who are far from being a GEEK. OTOH, Trekkies…
-If I get lazy, I tend to “SKY” my tee shots
-SHRINERS used to take part in every parade years ago, but not so much anymore. I wonder if fewer peeps are joining.
-If you’ve got the money, the LAWYER will keep filing motions. Guilt or innocence is of no real concern.
-We had to drive into OMAHA yesterday after I chipped my iPhone screen protector. My DW went along and after shoe shopping and picking up “a few” items at Costco, we left $500 there.
-My mother got me interested in crosswords and I wonder if she got upset with so many 1950’s names and slang.
-Nice write-up, Slim!
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme but thought the Sleeper Carton themer was weak compared to the other two. I wish Patti would use her word play talents more often, rather then the add/drop a letter/word format. I still remember some of her earlier offerings that I found so enjoyable and creative. I appreciated the nod to the Knicks and HG was Omaha-ed again!
Thanks, Patti, and thanks, Splynter, for a spot on summary and several learning moments. Congrats on your gym regimen results.
Have a great day.
FIR, but not easily. I got the theme at WALK THE PLANKTON. The NW took a while since i held on to Mango for MELON and longs for instead of PINES FOR too long, and the succulent remained blank.
ReplyDeleteI needed perps for the usual suspects, people whom i don’t know: NEKO, MABEL, THEE, OHARA, and the test G-MAT. I had NO way for NO HOW. HATER seems all wrong. A critic doesn’t hate. Oh, and I read butter instead of mutter. Phew.
I just upgraded to IOS 27 and auto correct/fill is nowhere to be seen. I miss it. i’ll have to check into that.
Thank you Splynter for a great review and congratulations for the “fat” loss.
You may need to go into Settings and turn it back on. Either that, or the update lost your dictionary.
DeleteHTH ====> Darren
Thanks. I got it working.
DeleteFun Friday workout, with an easy helping theme. I am forever amazed at how people come up with new themes, I can't, (believe me, I have tried...)
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was just Friday difficulty, but I just don't like how we got to the finish...
22. Raft. Ok I get the third def, but Sea seems to add an extra layer of difficulty.
I wanted rut for routine b/4 act.
So many piercing sites, they all turn me off. But at least it wasn't nose or tongue...
Rawr?
13. Hit high in the air=sky? Nope, dont like it at all...
Trou again, jeez, wear a belt, it's like your underwear's showing...
Pedi/peel/rats!
I once tried my hand at replacing grass with sod, I still don't understand how exactly have of them turned brown, or better yet, how the brown ones got evenly mixed in. The lawn looked like a chess board!
Finally, can somebody PLEASE come up with a better clue for "have."?
It turns out autocorrect/fill works everywhere else. Maybe TTP could tell me how to restore it for Blogger. All i get is the words “AutoFill Contact” then a little farther my name. When i click on it my only choice is to keep my name or add another “contact”. I’m baffled.
ReplyDeleteHola! Sigh. I don't understand why my name disappears. Anyway, i enjoyed Patti's puzzle A TON. It's sad to think of a SLEEPER CARTON but I believe the homeless use them.
ReplyDeleteKOI are really fun to watch because they are so colorful.
Apparently more avalanches are expected in TIBET and soon the entire snow mass might be gone. Yikes! Is this global warming?
NEKO is entirely unknown to me, but Christopher NOLAN is very familiar to me after having seen the Odyssey.
I hope everyone is having a lovely day!
Now it's back! And I forgot to thank Splynter for a job well done.
ReplyDeletePuzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteFIR with just a few corrections but no red letters
FYI, Another of my crossword puzzles published today - the link is below if you'd like to solve it. September 18 - Direction Finder by Chris Gross - edited by Stanley Newman. Go to the following website to solve on-line or to print a copy for solving with a pen or pencil - do you need more direction(s)??
https://brainsonly.com/global/netword/cwd/#/s/260918
brainsonly.com
FIW in the NW with a total of 5 errors. Semi-okay for me on a Friday. Really didn't like the cluing for: Rawr, Sea or No How, and expect if I see a clue for Rawr again, I'll miss it the next time too.
ReplyDeleteTwo corrections: Rather than and Spot-on.
DeleteSorry, this should be under my post.
DeleteEnjoyed the WEIGHTy puzzle and FIR. But never heard of SKY as a verb. It seems mostly to be a sports term. Curious who here actually uses that term? I see Husker Gary is one.
ReplyDeleteBaseball announcers will say “and he sky’s it to left field” for a high fly ball…
Delete====> Darren / L.A.
Thank you for that reply, Darren. That tends to confirm it is a term used by sports announcers who are always looking for new words to avoid overusing existing ones.
DeleteNow I am curious about something else: Why do you always post as Anonymous and then let us know who you are?
Woo, woo! I got autofill/correct to work.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed solving this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFairly straightforward solve for a Friday; the theme became clear after I got the reveal, and let me trundle through to an eventual FIR. I agree with y’all on SEA, ACT and RAWR, but I got ‘em, so I ain’t gonna grouse too much. MABEL ending into NOLAN was a bit clunky, but as he’s one of my favorite filmmakers, it fell in with no drama. .
ReplyDeleteBest Clue award goes to “Lazy way to soothe hurt feelings”; I got a good grin out of that one.
I could never grok CALC, much less algebra if you’re going to do numbers, use numbers, not letters — those are for writing words! 😆
Nice gags again, Splynter! That Obi-wan cartoon was a good one. And I think you got “humped” by recalling that llamas are in the camelid family…but only camels sport the mounds on their backs.
I never knew there were different kinds of ALOE; all I knew was my welder friend kept an aloe plant at hand in case he got hit with hot slag…
====> Darren / L.A.
Unlike Splynter who "breezed through" this one, I struggled every step of the way. I had to leave all of the themers blank on my first pass so I did not get a TON of help. This all led to a very satisfying FIR. Thanks for the fun, Patti! The LAWYER clue is brilliant. I also liked the I DO clue.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought we had a dupe with NO OFFENSE... and NO WAY, but if anyone would know, it would be Patti so I guess that's OK.
Thanks, also to Splynter for all the time and thought you put into your write-ups! Your llama comic made me smile.
Hi there~!
DeleteGood catch, sumdaze - after reading your comment, I shoulda caught that semi-dupe of a "no" crossing a "no" . . . but it wouldn't've mattered when the constructor is the editor, anyway so . . .
Nah. Just Nah.
ReplyDeleteLike Sumdaze, I struggled but was victorious in the end! Did not breeze through as Splynter did!
ReplyDeleteBahr>Baer, nerd >geek, so cool>oh cool,
pedi>peel…to name a phew! We took the “Brown is the new green” to a new level during the water drought. We just put sod in our front yard. Hope it doesn’t turn into a checkerboard like CED described! Thanks for a fun, but difficult (for me) puzzle, Patti, and as always, thanks to Splynter for an entertaining review! Have a great weekend, everyone!