Saturday, June 18, 2022, Adrian Johnson and Brad Wilber

Saturday Themeless by Adrian Johnson and Brad Wilber 

Two familiar constructors collaborate today on a puzzle where the SW corner challenged me. It appears that EDAM is not the only four-letter cheese and AVIAS are not the only five-letter sneakers. Coupled with my "shouldn't have been that hard" AGUA FRESCA, whatever TACOS those were and TANSY not PANSY it made it interesting but I "got 'er done".
                                                     

Across:

1. Concern when merging: BLINDSPOT.

10. Texas river diverted into the Red Bluff Reservoir: PECOS.

15. Museum download: AUDIO TOUR - At the Louvre 

16. Dippy: INANE.

17. Stranger in many a family holiday photo: MALL SANTA - I recall one who was in Miracle On 34th Street

18. Cake made from ground nuts: TORTE - A Martha Stewart TORTE with almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts

19. "While I Was Gone" novelist Miller: SUE.

20. Becomes, finally: ENDS UP.

22. "High Anxiety" actress: KAHN - A true comedic genius

23. Say further: ADD.

24. Corps member: MARINE.

26. Metered fleet: CABS.

29. Treatment plant input: SEWAGE - My dad worked at our town's STP (SEWAGE Treatment Plant) and gave me a visual and olfactory tour. 36. "Jinkies!": YIKES.

32. "The Cube" network: TBS - Hit Play at this link for a sample of this game

34. Delighted toddler's demand: AGAIN - I got tired before my daughters did 

37. Time worth studying: ERA.

38. Gruff prescription for a minor injury: RUB SOME DIRT ON IT - "Suck it up and keep playing!" A familiar refrain in my yute.

41. "Glad to hear it!": YAY.

42. Aspect: FACET.

43. Branch of Islam: SUNNI.

44. Org. whose members take hikes?: NFL - BSA? Wrong hikes.

45. Mets slugger Pete who holds the record for most home runs by a rookie: ALONSO - He broke Aaron Judge's record

47. Benefit: SAKE.

48. Irredeemable: ROTTEN.

50. Word of invitation: SIT.

52. Cheese paired with kalamata olives: FETA.

53. Do more than listen: STEP IN.

56. __ diavolo sauce: FRA - (Brother Devil) "FRA diavolo sauce is an Italian classic sauce made with juicy tomatoes and fiery chili flakes, perfect for seafood and pasta."

59. #LiveUplifted sneakers brand: ASICS - Here ya go

61. Arthroscopic procedure that may follow an MRI of the knee: ACL REPAIR.

63. McNairy of "Halt and Catch Fire": SCOOT - Saturday-obscure cluing for a common word

64. Ride between runs: CHAIR LIFT - Oh, ski runs!

65. Button-like flower: TANSY - Sounds like PANSY but doesn't look like one

66. Setting for some unboxing videos: TOY STORES - This man makes a living shooting unboxing videos and posting them on YouTube. 

Down:

1. Some carpentry noises: BAMS.

2. Party with poke: LUAU - Poke is Hawaiian for "chunk"

3. Between jobs: IDLE.

4. Bupkis: NIL.

5. Gave a shot, say: DOSED - We have been correctly DOSED and shot three times

6. Efforts at resistance: STANDS - Custer's last one was a disaster for him and his men

7. Spot for a koi or a decoy: POND.

8. Ballpark figure: OUTS.

9. Emergency gear: TRAUMA KITS.

10. Depression: PIT.

11. Miso soup mushroom: ENOKI - From C.C.'s June 12 write-up

12. Road show necessity?: CAR ANTENNA - Or dual ones

13. Flirting with: ON THE BRINK - Top 10 animals ON THE BRINK of extinction 

14. Camille Pagán's "Woman Last __ in Her Thirties": SEEN.

21. "Your table's ready" device: PAGER 

23. Warts and all: AS IS.

25. Relies (on): RESTS.

26. Whoopi's birth name: CARYN.

27. Drink often flavored with hibiscus: AGUA FRESCA -(Spanish for Fresh Water) - "AGUA FRESCA is a light fruit drink popular throughout Mexico. It's simply made by blending fruit with water, a bit of sugar and a little lime juice." You're welcome.

28. Aveeno product: BABY LOTION.

30. Peer-to-peer sharing?: EYE CONTACT - You peer at me and I peer at you.

31. Add capacity to, in a way: WIDEN.

33. French composer who influenced Ravel: SATIE.

Debussy                Ravel               Satie

35. Diet food choice: NO FAT.

39. Some mechanical connectors: MALES.

40. Dethrone: OUST.

46. Egyptian god invoked in "The Magic Flute": OSIRIS.

49. __ al pastor: TACOS - "Al pastor (from Spanish, "shepherd style"), also known as TACOS al pastor, is a taco made with spit-grilled meat."

51. Disinclined to form compounds: INERT - Chem 101

52. Media __: unplugged period: FAST  - How long could you go?

54. Sign of hollowness: ECHO - That barrel must be empty

55. "Proof" or "Doubt": PLAY - New to me but "had to be"

56. "Point taken": FAIR.

57. Abounding (with): RIFE.

58. Review-heavy newspaper section: ARTS.

60. Trough spot: STY. - Fun clue

62. Gp. central to the 1993 Oslo Accords: PLO - A smiling PLO leader Yassar Arafat shaking hands with a reluctant prime minister of Israel Yitzhak Rabin 

Saturday, December 11, 2021, Beth Rubin and Brad Wilber

 Saturday Themeless by Beth Rubin and Brad Wilber

Hi Gary, 

BETH: Thank you for inviting us to the L.A. Times Crossword Corner! Originally from New York (where Brad now lives - hg), I am a librarian, crossword constructor, writer, and artist living in Los Angeles. My puzzles have been published by Universal, Crosswords Club, and Spyscape. This is my Los Angeles Times debut and my first themeless. 

 

I was fortunate to connect to Erik Agard and Facebook's Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory community just a few weeks into learning how to construct a puzzle. The guidance and mentorship has been stellar. The generosity, humor and creativity of the crossword community continues to inspire me. 

 

It’s been wonderful learning the basics from someone of Brad’s expertise and lovely getting to know him as well. Thanks to Rich for his excellent edits. Hope that you all enjoy the puzzle!

BRAD: When I connected with Beth, I was excited to be collaborating with another librarian. Lots of common ground emerged between us, and not only were we well-matched in puzzle making, Beth became an empathetic sounding board for pandemic life in general.

I gave Beth a starting corner with a seed entry from academia (which I'm keeping under wraps--sorry, themelesses are a cutthroat business!). But when she came back with this beautiful corner with DIPLOMA MILL, I wasn't that interested in doing a collegiate minitheme, so we ditched my corner and re-evaluated. Beth did lots of wonderful experimentation in the middle of the puzzle as we struggled with the joinery of the two stacks of 11s. She brought in the novelist Carl HIAASEN and that proved 

Checking Out With
Beth and Brad

quite important to a clean, fresh grid fill. Librarians for the win! We really tried to get a whimsical verbal expression in the spot where PILED IT ON is (we may try it again next time we work together), but that had to be shelved.

We ended up being quite proud of our work on the clueing: new takes on MUTTS and ION, ETTU, and SIDE ONE. It's such a pleasure being back in the L.A. Times again! Enjoy…

Across:

1. Some chocolate purchases: ASSORTMENTS - If you order from See's Candies you can make your own ASSORTMENT

12. Inflation fig.: PSI - How much air is in your tires?

15. Purveyor of fraudulent credentials: DIPLOMA MILL - An exposé in the St. Louis Star in 1923

´

16. Bit of positivity?: ION - a crossword staple

17. Hair, in many cases: DNA EVIDENCE - "Uh, number 3, can we have a word?"

18. Latin word in many academic mottos: LUX - Light And Truth

                                                    

19. Climber's rest stop: LEDGE.

20. Poetic indicator of relative time: ERE.

21. Juice extractor: PRESS.

23. Pasture palindrome: EWE.

24. Wouldn't share: BOGARTED - Named for BOGART, of whom it is said never took a cigarette out of his mouth. It's when marijuana smokers accusing others of not passing around a joint.

26. Imperious dismissal: LEAVE ME.

28. Surfboard damage: DING.

Before.            and              After

31. Shocked big-time: APPALLED.

34. Official who sings in Hebrew: CANTOR - This movie in all its iterations is about a boy who did not want to be a CANTOR like his father

36. Leverage provider: CROWBAR.

37. Where to find "Octopus's Garden" on "Abbey Road": SIDE ONE.

38. Utah Jazz center Whiteside: HASSAN 

39. Ran into trouble: HIT A SNAG - in 1865, the steamboat Bertrand HIT A SNAG in the Missouri River an hour east of me. It was rediscovered one hundred years later and now its cargo is on display in this beautiful museum

40. Shakespearean last gasp: ET TU and 49. When 40-Across was spoken: IDES - Shakespeare 101

41. Neologists: COINERS - People who invent/coin new words like webinar, malware, blogosphere, etc.

43. Zoom frustrations: TIME LAGS - The TV broadcast of Husker FB games is 10 seconds later than the local radio broadcast.

45. __ rule: MOB.

48. Love of collectibles: VIRTU.

50. "__ Kapital": DAS - Marks and Engels 101

51. Succumbed to stage fright: FROZE.

53. Brown or Rice ending: EDU - Brown (brown.EDU) and Rice (rice.EDU) University web sites 

54. '90s-'00s HBO series with lots of therapy sessions: THE SOPRANOS - Lorraine Bracco played Dr. Jennifer Melfi who was conflicted in trying to counsel Tony Soprano.

57. Comprehend: GET.

58. Impresario's contact: TALENT AGENT - A TALENT AGENT's job is to hound impresarios (people who put on shows, etc.) to get jobs for their clients 

59. Hibachi waste: ASH.

60. Election focuses: SWING STATES - Candidates spend more time in "toss up" states rather than states that are solidly blue or red.

Down:

1. Disorient: ADDLE.

2. Power cord?: SINEW - One use of the SINEW (tendon/ligament) of the Bison was used to make the bowstring to power a bow and arrow

3. Club relative: SPADE - Also hearts and diamonds

4. First name in film designers: OLEG - OLEG Cassini

5. Wander: ROVE.

6. "Eww! Say no more!": TMI.

7. Redesigned: MADE OVER  8. Popped up: EMERGED - A new Lidia EMERGED below

9. Common starting hr.: NINE AM - Not at any job I ever had

10. "I Am Jazz" cable channel: TLC - This reality series focuses on Jazz "Jennings" who was identified as having gender dysphoria and the show follows Jazz's life as a transgender girl 

11. Took a day to consider, with "on": SLEPT.

12. Faulted to excess: PILED IT ON - "I heard you the fourth time!"

13. __-chef: SOUS - Literally "under chief/chef". Here are three SOUS Chefs in training. 

14. "Need You Tonight" band: INXS - If you'd really like to hear that

22. Dermatological symptom: REDNESS.

24. Yoga asset: BALANCE - I can see that

   Dancers Pose/Natarajasana

25. Reels off: RECITES - "Fourscore and seven years ago..."

26. Premise in many John Grisham novels: LAWSUIT - Mr. Grisham was named in a LAWSUIT for libel in 2007 for a non-fiction book he wrote.

27. Idris of "The Jungle Book": ELBA.

29. Actress Gaye of "Ali": NONA.

30. Novelist Iles: GREG.

31. Reason to call a chiropractor: ACHE.

32. Nit, to a Brit: PRAT - and 51. Alpha Phi Alpha, e.g.: FRAT - What would you call a FRAT PRAT?

33. Like a situation in which emotional persuasion trumps factual accuracy: POST TRUTH.

35. Purim month: ADAR.

37. Voice used for "Humpty Dumpty," say: SING SONG.

39. Crime novelist Carl: HIAASEN - I've never heard of Carl but I read a snippet from this fun book that is illustrated by a crossword friend of ours and I might buy it!

42. Yale sobriquet: OLD ELI.

44. Crosses at obedience school?: MUTTS 

45. "Rouen Cathedral" painter: MONET - He did over thirty of them

46. Thinning layer: OZONE.

47. Tops: BESTS.

48. Chevy named for a star: VEGA - This lightweight, rear-wheel-drive vehicle would not fare well in the snow we got last night. 

52. Sitar sequence: RAGA - A pattern of notes, rhythms, etc. in Indian music 

55. Hem partner: HAW - Derivation

56. NBA stat: PTS - Here are the all time leaders. Notice the #1 scorer only made one 3-pointer in his entire career.

FWIW: Today I start my fifth year of writing up the Saturday puzzles for C.C.'s wonderful site. In so doing, I have gained so much knowledge from the puzzles themselves and the wonderful band of bloggers who post here!