Saturday Themeless by August Miller
Our physics student turned farmer from Massachusetts returns. As usual, I'll point out some of his trickery but the key to the whole puzzle was his long fills, particularly the stack of three grid spannersAs you can see below, August had a lot of unique fills which earned him a "freshness factor" of 96%,
1. "__ Supreme": MARTY ¯\_(γ)_/¯ The movie Marty I knew started Ernest Borgnine.
6. Hebrew name that means "who is like God": MICAH ¯\_(γ)_/¯
11. Folks who are often recognized: CELEBS.
12. One who is recognized: HONOREE.
14. Like many John Cage compositions: ATONAL - If you'd really like to hear 2:22 of one of his compositions
15. Piece of crude machinery: OIL DRILL. π
16. Less ridiculous: SANER.
17. Drambuie cocktail: RUSTY NAIL - Two ingredients - Scotch Whiskey and Drambuie Liqueur. I don't think I could drink and blog!
18. Whole lot: SLEW.
19. Caresses: PETS.
20. Plum kin: SLOE.
21. Pretend: ACT.
22. Spanish dairy animal: VACA - From VACA to VACCINE
19. Caresses: PETS.
20. Plum kin: SLOE.
21. Pretend: ACT.
22. Spanish dairy animal: VACA - From VACA to VACCINE
23. Journalist Cabrera: ANA.
25. Smart, in a way: VOICE CONTROLLED - It helps when my fat fingers can't get the job done.
31. Ankylosaurus, for one: ARMORED DINOSAUR.
32. "That's not so outrageous": SEEMS REASONABLE.
33. "Au revoir, __ amis": MES - Even I can see it that this is French for "Goodbye my friends"
33. "Au revoir, __ amis": MES - Even I can see it that this is French for "Goodbye my friends"
34. Farm unit that may be round or square: BALE - The old square (really rectangular) were very labor intensive and involved made for a hot, unpleasant job. The new modern round balers are a one man operation.
35. Sigur __: ethereal Icelandic band: ROS - ¯\_(γ)_/¯ ¯\_(γ)_/¯
36. ZoΓ« of "The Afterparty": CHAO ¯\_(γ)_/¯
39. Need for some pan sauces: FOND - ¯\_(γ)_/¯ The word FOND is a French term that refers to the browned bits of food in a pan after food has been sautΓ©ed or roasted.
40. Grand piano trio: LEGS π
41. Starts to look really cold: TURNS BLUE.
44. Hasbro toy that tests reaction speed: BOP IT.
45. Looping: ON REPEAT.
46. Traditional Chinese dumplings: JIAOZI - ¯\_(γ)_/¯
47. Giving nightmares, maybe: SCARING.
48. Spotless?: AD FREE π
49. "Be more here" hotel chain: HYATT.
50. Licks: BESTS.
Down:
1. Hybrid genre: METAL CORE - ¯\_(γ)_/¯ A combination of heavy metal and hard core punk.
2. Chance to recharge one's social battery: ALONE TIME - I love mine!
3. Commit to another year, say: RENEW.
4. Lift option: T-BAR.
5. Couture initials: YSL.
6. Drop down?: MOLT π - Down is a noun: When a bird MOLTS, it drops down!
7. Fedora-sporting hero, familiarly: INDY - Ah yes, back when a movie actually made me want to go to the theater. The streaming services I already pay for want $3.99 more to see this many other entertaining movies.
8. Mix with kernels: CORN SALSA.
9. No-frills type: ARIAL - Our regular font. Arial font.
10. Trope starter: HELIO ¯\_(γ)_/¯ Turns out it is not a tired plot device but is a flower. We astronomy buffs know of another HELIO word
11. Plants used to make tapioca: CASSAVAS.
12. Sibilant warning: HISS - That snake doesn't have to warn me twice!
13. Vogue rival: ELLE.
15. Not home: OUT AND ABOUT.
17. Deal with bugs, say: RECODE π
19. Some harness horses: PACERS.
22. Frost bit?: VERSE.
23. "Frog and Toad" series writer Lobel: ARNOLD.
24. "... said __ ever": NO ONE.
26. Modern dating phrase: COMMON ERA.
27. Herbal infusion: TISANE - Colonel Hastings did not care for Poirot's TISANE
28. Solution pages?: LAB REPORT π
29. Shares passing thoughts?: EULOGIZES.
30. Ascot alternative: DRESS TIE.
36. Some A.I. execs: CTOS - Chief Technical Officer
37. Suspicion: HUNCH.
38. Assortment: ARRAY.
39. Icon in a World Cup score: FLAG.
40. Doesn't work: LOAFS.
42. One taking turns cooking?: SPIT π
43. Kinked: BENT - The "water fountain" of my misspent yute.
44. __ one's time: BIDE.
46. Vaccination, to a Brit: JAB - Prime Minister Boris Johnson gets a JAB
Usually, the Saturday
ReplyDeletecrossword is almost ridiculously hard, and is much like a “cryptic” crossword, if you’re familiar with that British variant.
But I got it today!
And it didn’t seem as “bad” as usual.
The only thing that really gave me trouble was those “Chinese dumplings” but I got through it, finally.
FIR, so I’m happy.
Cryptic crosswords do employ some of the same tricks as US crosswords (such as using "flower" to mean "river", among many others) but they're an entirely different beast. In fact, the best cryptic clues are the ones where the answer is totally unrelated to the surface reading of the clue, and the clues that are most similar to a tricky Saturday clue (the so-called "cryptic definitions", for those in the know) are actually my least favorite type of cryptic clue!
DeleteDNF. Filled 31 answers, 27 of them correctly. Congrats to those who FIR.
ReplyDeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteGot VOICE CONTROLLED, but didn't understand it. Unknown BOP IT above unknown JIAOZI was cruel. Still, it all came together in under 20, so d-o's putting this one in the win column. Thanx, August and Husker.
ANA Cabrera: Not sure what she's doing now after her sudden departure from MS-NOW.
BALE: I didn't live on a farm, but my best friend did. He suffered from rheumatic fever, so I spent a couple summers in the hay fields lugging those 70-lb rectangular bales. It's hot, dusty work.
DRESS TIE: I've never understood why men thought it was cool to tie a noose around their necks. Last time I wore one was more than 30 years ago. If an event requires a tie, I pass.
Welp, I finished it. But only with the help of red letters and many, many sometimes insanely long alphabet runs. In a couple of instances I swear I ran through the entire alphabet at least twice. It was a humbling and joyless experience.
ReplyDeleteJOYLESS FOR THIS HUMBLE PUZZLER
DeleteFIR with WAG on TISANE/FOND.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle
TISANE/FOND cross was my last letter as well. Guessed "N" because of the unrelated cooking terms fondant and fondue.
Deletefond (n.)
Deletesmall particles of browned food and especially meat that adhere to the bottom of a cooking pan and are used especially in making sauces
(from Merriam-Webster, the second meaning of the third and final entry on the page for FOND, very Saturdayish indeed)
Fun fact, "fondue" comes from the French word for "melt" and is related to foundry, while FOND as clued has the same root as foundation (both are "at the bottom").
A Goldilocks offering from August - the unknowns mostly crossed fairly so FIR.
ReplyDeleteSince it's Saturday, I was in the right mindset to not be misled by fun clues that included crude (oil), type (font), and dating (era).
Gary, you are master at finding unique fill in a grid...then coloring them in for us!
Good Morning::
ReplyDeleteKudos to those hearty souls who conquered this beast. Normally, P and P and plain stubbornness earn me a FIR, but not today. The cluing was exceptionally misleading and not always in a fair way, IMO, and some of the fill was just too obscure or esoteric to even guess at. I don’t think I’ve ever had a puzzle defeat me so thoroughly as this one did.
Thanks, HG, for highlighting the positive features of the puzzle and the author’s talents.
Have a great day.
Wow! That was the hardest LAT puzzle for me in recent memory, a half hour in I had little to show for it so I had to step away for a while, came back and managed to fill a little more but was again stymied, thinking my lengthy win streak was in serious jeopardy, another break. Came back again (two or three times) and somehow piece by piece it all came together for a FIR w/out help in the unenviable official time of 1:21:33. I really only knew YSL, ELLE, BALE, CTOS, and BOP IT (because we had the game years ago). The rest of the puzzle was perps and WAGs. I had casabas mixed up with CASSAVAS so I had to change that to get VOICE CONTROLLED. I really appreciate a lot of the clues, “Drops down” probably my favorite. Thank you August for this very challenging experience and to HG for explaining it all!
ReplyDeleteI TITT on this one. Way too many total unknowns that I could not even guess. I agree with Irish Miss ☘️. I think this CW tried too hard to defeat the potential solver.
ReplyDeleteThank you HG. Your review confirmed the wisdom of my decision to abandon this before I wasted more time on it.
Fill was pretty average (debuts don't always make for interesting fill... CORN SALSA? Come on), but some great clues. 15A and others are fair on a Saturday without a question mark, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteHowever... AnkyloSAURus in the clue for ARMORED DINOSAUR is a pretty serious editing oversight. I put in ARMORED but waited to fill in DINOSAUR because that technically violates a key rule of cluing. .
FIW. I didn't know Marty Supreme, and the cross with metal core did me in. I guessed a "p" instead of an "m".
ReplyDeleteThis for me was an extremely hard Saturday puzzle. I worked from the corners in and was able to get the long center answers. But the NW was white for a long time.
So overall this was not an enjoyable puzzle.
I got Elle, bide and YSL. Looked at the other clues and decided I had no chance. Typical Saturday for me.
ReplyDelete16:03. Crunchier Saturday than usual but everything seemed pretty fair to me. Helped that I was watching cooking videos this week and "fond" was the first thing I thought of... Overall good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteGot it all, but 1 across and 1 down were head scratchers. Then I realized they were very clever clues as they were in direct reference to 24 down.
ReplyDeleteIt makes me unhappy when I finish a puzzle and still am not sure if I FIR. I did in fact FIR.
ReplyDeleteIf only there were another way to clue FOND or FLAG? Had no idea about either as clued or the cross of TISANE. Lucky WAGs.
Likewise about cross of MARTY, METAL CORE, TBAR. But I did FIR.
Still have no idea about yesterday's theme. Beyond it being about people whose last names are kinds of faces. Maybe someone can enlighten me?
That was the theme, nothing more that I could tell.
DeleteMy last experience with this constructor led me to label him an Erik Agard Wannabe, and today’s offering did nothing to dissuade me from that notion.
ReplyDeleteThis is not meant as a compliment.
An unenjoyable pile of obscurities, unknowns, and overly cutesie clues.
I’ll skip his next LAT puzzle and save you all from having to read what would surely be more of my griping.
After a coupla hours with interruptions finally TITT. Finished all but half the NE
ReplyDeleteInkovers: hugs/PETS, idles/LOAFS, cassaba/V,
Liked “spotless”. “sharing passing thoughts” “Frost bit”
No liked “drop down” “solution pages”
Hebrew names with “God” usually end in “el”, Michael: who is like God. Gabriel: God is my strength. Raphael: healer of God. But not today
BOP IT? Like Cyndi Lauper’s “She Bop” ? Popular game among teenage boys π€π
MARTY “Supreme” gave Timmy C. a chance to flex his diverse acting skills.
ROS, JIAOZI, METALCORE, ? FOND means “bottom” en franΓ§ais which is where you find those bits in the pan.
Nice Fall weekend so far.
I also found this to be a very difficult puzzle. I simply shrugged and looked up "Ankylosaurus", "The Afterparty", "Sigur", and "Frog and Toad".
ReplyDeleteThese was plenty of stuff in this puzzle I liked, too, and overall I admire it as competently-constructed and often deviously-cleverly clued.
I learned and will remember FOND as clued today; good to know. I had only known FOND as "behind", as in the aria "Au Fond du Temple Saint" ("Behind the Sacred Temple") from Bizet's opera The Pearl Fishers.
ReplyDeleteIt seems Herr Miller’s game plan is “Okay, let’s see how obscure and misdirecting I can be this time!” I gotta say, sir, you succeeded admirably — odd food items, obscure authors, and those three wall-to-wall fills in the center of the grid were diabolical! Luckily, loving tapioca, I knew the plant it comes from (actually the root) and since “manioc” was too short it had to be CASSAVAS (and I think the plural is the same, no “S”…). One huge error in the SE — I had 28D as “disagrees” (as in “I’ll pass on that thought”) but perps soon bombed that. The big long fills are what saved my arse; for some reason I managed to nail those. But I can’t claim an honest FIR, since I had to go to my usual tactic of looking up the unknowns — here’s lookin’ at you, JIAOZI and MICAH) along with the French bits… “said NOONE ever” π Y’got me, August!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the atonal background music, Husker G. — for some odd reason, I actually liked that John Cage selection you put up (probably because when I try to play keyboard, it end badly, very ATONAL π€£ I should stick to guitar). FOND memories of drinking out of the garden hose in my kid days — I still can taste that slight plastic tinge the water had).
D-Otto, I’m with you re: neckties; I always mused that if aliens are indeed spying on us, they must assume we wear those to keep our heads from falling off…
====> Darren / L.A.