Saturday Themeless by Kareem Ayas and Brian Callahan
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| Kareem and his Siberian Husky Kane |
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| Brian |
Across:
1. Imitation game?: SIMON SAYS - A professional game (5:37)
10. Razzie Award adjective: WORST.
15. The masses: HOI POLLOI - Hoi (the) POLLI (many)
16. Japanese breed: AKITA.
17. Mark's words: IT'S A SETUP - Mark is capitalized because it is the first word in the sentence but the word is really referring to a dupe or mark who is being cheated.
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| George is a natural mark |
18. Doesn't go deep: WADES.
19. Touch lightly: PAT.
20. Surface Pro rival: I PAD - The Surface Pro is big on NFL sidelines
19. Touch lightly: PAT.
20. Surface Pro rival: I PAD - The Surface Pro is big on NFL sidelines
21. Watch in astonishment: GAPE AT.
22. Place for drawing lots?: ART ROOM - Also useful for lots of drawings 😀
24. Tropical spot: ISLE - The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert ISLE
With Gilligan, the Skipper too... C'mon you know the lyrics.
25. Queen of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy: PADME ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
22. Place for drawing lots?: ART ROOM - Also useful for lots of drawings 😀
24. Tropical spot: ISLE - The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert ISLE
With Gilligan, the Skipper too... C'mon you know the lyrics.
25. Queen of the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy: PADME ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
28. Chinese coin: YUAN - In China, a Big Mac Combo Meal costs ¥35 CNY
30. Tarboosh, e.g.: HAT - More commonly known as a fez ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
31. Emerged: AROSE - From a poem that we will be hearing soon: Out on the lawn there AROSE such a clatter...
32. __ voce: SOTTO - I don't speak or sing softly
33. Make like: APE.
32. __ voce: SOTTO - I don't speak or sing softly
33. Make like: APE.
34. Part of many a Shaggy dog story, casually: SCOOB.
36. Hankook products: TIRES.
39. Eggy?: OVOID.
42. Big name in payroll processing: ADP.
44. Whole to-dos?: TASKS.
45. Sniff out: SEEK.
47. Brimless topper: PILL BOX - Jackie's famous hat from that fateful day in 1963
52. __ ex machina: DEUS - A Latin phrase meaning "god from the machine: " referring to a plot device where an unsolvable storyline problem is abruptly solved by an unexpected, unlikely person, event, or object.
53. Inflation no.: PSI - Tire pressure unit
56. Shone a light on?: LASED - The Moon gets LASED everyday from Earth. The beams bounce off reflectors left by Apollo astronauts and return to Earth. The round trip takes about 2.5 seconds and give the distance to the Moon down to a millimeter or about the thickness of a dime.
56. Shone a light on?: LASED - The Moon gets LASED everyday from Earth. The beams bounce off reflectors left by Apollo astronauts and return to Earth. The round trip takes about 2.5 seconds and give the distance to the Moon down to a millimeter or about the thickness of a dime.
59. In the midst of: AMONG.
60. Cocktail party fare?: SMALL TALK.
Down:
1. Root for romantically, in slang: SHIP - Another example of the modern convention of removing a syllable from a word: relationSHIP
2. Character in "Antigone"?: IOTA - There is no character named IOTA in the play but the word Antigone does have the letter/character IOTA in it.
4. Vater of Vater, informally: OPA - In German, the father (Vater) of your father (Vater) can be affectionately called your grandfather (OPA).
5. Folksy denial: NO SIREE BOB.
6. Enjoyed a night out?: SLEPT 😀
7. Rite place: ALTAR.
8. "Let's just not get in each other's way": YOU DO YOU I'LL DO ME.
9. Savor, say: SIP.
10. East Coast market chain: WAWA.
11. Endangered mammal in Congolese rainforests: OKAPI.
12. Pool parties?: RIDE SHARES - I have SHARED RIDES in several carpools
13. Eye on the sly: STEAL A PEEK.
14. Trying times?: TASTE TESTS.
21. Exam for a future financier, for short: GMAT.
22. Indignant response: AM SO.
23. Unmasked: OUTED - Not a good thing when someone does not wish to be OUTED
25. Bow ties that are not out of place at a picnic: PASTA SALAD 😀 My DW makes a great SALAD using bow tie PASTA.
26. Asteroids, for one: ARCADE GAME - These games saw a lot of quarters in their day.
23. Unmasked: OUTED - Not a good thing when someone does not wish to be OUTED
25. Bow ties that are not out of place at a picnic: PASTA SALAD 😀 My DW makes a great SALAD using bow tie PASTA.
26. Asteroids, for one: ARCADE GAME - These games saw a lot of quarters in their day.
27. Entry level position?: DOOR PERSON 😀 - Jerry's real life friend Larry Miller played a DOORMAN who gets into a confrontation with Jerry in Seinfeld
29. "Dear future me ... ": NOTE TO SELF.
32. Skyy alternative: STOLI - Among others
37. "Oppenheimer" format: IMAX.
40. Big deals: VIPS - Some "VIPS "are not as big of a deal as they think
46. Some rugged water shoes: KEENS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
48. "Trivial Pursuit" host Burton: LEVAR.
49. Play with Lincoln Logs, say: BUILD - As kids, we got these and Tinker Toys because we could not afford an Erector set.
51. Advantage: EDGE.
53. Fundraising gps.: PTAS.
54. Sailor: SALT.
55. Gets hot: IRKS.
57. Web portal with a butterfly logo: MSN.
53. Fundraising gps.: PTAS.
54. Sailor: SALT.
55. Gets hot: IRKS.
57. Web portal with a butterfly logo: MSN.
I got it!
ReplyDeleteAnd I didn’t even think it was that hard, for a Saturday. True, it took a little specialized knowledge; for example, of the “Star Wars” universe but, ultimately, everything fell into place.
FIR, so I’m happy.
I finished a Saturday LAT crossword puzzle! Finished it wrong, but I finished! Must have been a very-easy-for-Saturday grid. Missed with my SWAG @ DoUS x LoVAR. Erased iago for IOTA, and okati for OKAPI.
ReplyDeleteEveryone who is old enough remembers where they were when they heard about the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. I was watching our town's Thanksgiving parade, waiting for my majorette sister to come twirling by. One guy in the crowd had a newfangled transistor radio, and we crowded around him as events unfolded.
Anyone else remember NBC’s That Was The Week That Was? We could use that show right about now. This week we had a long-duration Microsoft email outage, a tanker sinking a tour boat in NOLA, and travel chaos caused by an FAA network outage. Targets for satire abound.
Thanks to Kareem and Brian for letting me play with the smart kids today. And thanks to H.Gary for another fun review.
Jinx, Tom Lehrer was a frequent contributor to that show, and in 1965 he came out with That Was The Year That Was, an album of satiric songs about 1964.
DeleteI think this was my fastest Saturday solve ever. I didn’t know everything, Keens for example, but all the perps were generous. There was some humor so a wonderful start to the weekend. Thanks guys and HG I agree about the need for That Was The Week That Was though John Oliver has some David Frost in him. 50’s here in Pompano Beach, first time in many months. My electric bill thanks you.
ReplyDeleteJohn Oliver and Jon Stewart both
DeleteRE: weather in South Fla. It's finally the "other" season!
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteYay, those stacked 9s and 10s made this a doable exercise. Deus ex machina was frequently the solution to unbelievable dangers in those Saturday serials at the theater. Guess who wasn't aware that Trivial Pursuit was a TV show, or that LEVAR Burton was the host? I remember OSMIUM from olden times. The expensive "needles" for the 78 RPM record players had a diamond tip, the cheap ones were made of OSMIUM. They were only good for a few plays. Thanx, Brian and Kareem, I liked this one. Excellent recap, as usual, Husker.
I was getting back to my high school dorm after an intramural flag football game. It is part of a week etched in my otherwise inconsistent memory. And where is the pill box, was it never found and auctioned off?
ReplyDeleteYou had dorms in high school? Most H.S. kids live at home, don't they?
DeleteTook 14:56 today to get to the "nerd fest."
ReplyDeleteI knew Levar, but struggle to spell him correctly. "Hoipolloi" was new to me, as were "Keens" and "sotto." Fortunately, I knew "Padme" and wasn't too "dense" on the others.
HOI as a partial is a piece of old-school crosswordese that I'm glad is very rare if not dead by now. And unlike answers like ALDA or the ubiquitous OREO, it could be clued in just one way, pretty much ([___ polloi]) which made it all the more annoying.
DeleteFIW. The NW corner did me in. Iota got me along with opa. Aside from that I had very little trouble with the rest of it. My first entry was pasta salad, and I thought I would ace today's presentation. I was wrong!
ReplyDeleteOverall an OK puzzle.
Isn't VIPS an abbreviation?
ReplyDeleteGood morning all. After a Friday 13th birthday, in which all airplanes were grounded and a SHIP HIT AND OVERTURNED a riverboat cruise ship about 5 miles from my house, an unexciting day would be nice. Apparently the ship lost steering and floated directly into the docked boat. It was scary until everybody was accounted for and there were no deaths. It happened almost directly under the bridge we drove over less than an hour later.
ReplyDeleteBut it was a DNF for the puzzle with an incomplete NW. SHIP & IOTA-not a chance I would get either. My MARK guess was biblical, not criminal. HOI POLLOI never had a chance. I got PADME by perps and even had ROOM but no ART. I only managed SCOOB after I realized it wasn't Disney's "Shaggy Dog" but Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
KEENS-easiest fill because I happen to be wearing some as I type this. I use them as my house slippers in the morning and riding my bike. I have an old pair of the ones pictured that I use for yard shoes. If they get muddy, I just hose them off and hang them on the fence to dry.
That was me above.
DeleteBig Easy. I also like KEENS for riding my bike. They protect my toes and have a firm sole.
DeleteHurray! I FIR. My first long answers were PASTA SALAD and NO SIREE BOB. For the rest, I either knew the answers, however vaguely like WAWA, or perps helped with the total unknowns like PADME, SCOOB, ADP, SHIP, OPA, KEENS.
ReplyDeleteLots of fun entries like DOOR PERSON, ART ROOM, SMALL TALK. My only erasure was act for APE. So neat puzzle on this beautiful, very cool morning.
Thank you HG for another fine review.
15:12. Really nice puzzle. To my surprise, I was able to throw down some of the long stuff way before the short words. It's usually the reverse.
ReplyDeleteHad high hopes with more than a smattering of answers on the first run through. Arrived at an eventual impasse with only about 50% completed and TITT
ReplyDeleteInkovers: act/APE, PACs/PTAS, ell/STE
“Root for romantically, in slang”: SHIP?
I know it’s Saturday but c’mon. Àpropos: IOTA from “Antigone” clever but yikes! … KEENS? … STE is “suite”? (Or a sweet French female STE 😇)
They look like “bow ties” to us but to Italians they are “farfalle” butterflies
Why did they call Gilligan’s island a “desert” isle when it was obviously lush and tropical.🏝️
The weather outside is frightful: rain sleet snow. 😝
Not too bad, except the K of KEENS completely stumped me.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to Kareem and Brian for setting me up to FIR on Saturday. I found it tricky. My last fill was the second W in unknown WAWA, which I solved thanks to a desperate alphabet run that gave me the W in WADES. On the other hand, HOI POLLOI is a favorite phrase. Some folks confuse it with the sound-alike but nearly opposite "hoity toity." Husker Gary, your review is always a pleasure to read, and your solving time puts me to shame.
ReplyDeleteI guess I’m just not smart enough to grok what Kareem and Brian were up to, because this’un sucked like a Dyson — a prime case of how to clue fills in the most vague/obtuse ways that were available. Best example was “Character in ‘Antigone’?”; just because the letters in both that and IOTA matched?? And who has ever called the guy who lets you in a DOORPERSON? Sheesh. I’ll quit here; not my cuppa, “obvi” 🤮. Kudos to those of you who were able to enjoy this one. The only redeeming aspect for me today was Husker G’s review; it raised my spirits after the uphill battle on the grid. Great giggle at the cocktail party drivel cartoon!
ReplyDeleteThere’s a guy not too far from us up here in the SF Valley who has an okapi in his back yard (I have no idea how/why he has it…); it’s not a very friendly beast — in fact, it’s actually rather foul-tempered.
====> Darren / L.A.
My thoughts exactly, Darren!
DeleteA Goldilocks Saturday puzzle from Kareem and Brian: not too hard, not too easy.
ReplyDeleteBack in the '70s, the HOI POLLOI was a student pub at the College of William and Mary (RightBrain's alma mater).
In Florida, WAWA's are gas stations with a convenience store, not what I'd call a market.
Nice job, HG. I liked the fun fact about the moon get LASED daily.
FIR but not as easily as some of you. It took me 44 min. The SE was the last to fill. I finally interpreted 55D as "Gets (someone else) hot".
ReplyDeleteThanks to Kareem and Brian! Only 30 blocks. Impressive! FAV was the clue for SLEPT. I also smiled at NOTE TO SELF.
Thanks to H-Gary for the excellent tour! You take the angst out of Saturday puzzles with your "remember when" notes. I can see the ISLE used for the opening shots to "Gilligan's Island" from my lanai.
Thanks for the kind comment, Renee. I have a really long stretch of time from which I can draw "remember when" notes. Those memories are usually stronger than the "where did I put my keys" issues! :-)
Delete