Saturday, December 19, 2020, Brian Paquin

 Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin

Here's another fun puzzle from our great cadre of Canadian constructors. Today Brian Paquin, who lives on the north shores of Lake Ontario in Kingston, Ontario, provides a fun and challenging puzzle. He graciously shared these thoughts:

Hi again Gary,

I think that this is one of the cleanest grids that I've ever produced.   I kind of like the long entries, especially 5D AMENTOTHAT and 42A TIPPYTOES. Of the not-so-long entries, 11D BROHUGS and 38D AMILATE are kind of sparkly, I think.

There are more black squares and cheaters than I normally use in a themeless, but there is nothing especially obscure to be found in the grid.    

41A SAMI is tough: I had it clued as "___-Am" from Dr. Seuss, but that might be too much of a gimme.  I managed to avoid everything from my list 

of dreaded tiresome entries, like AREA, EKE, ONO, etc.  You know the ones.

I didn't remember that 30D TROI was partially 31D TELEPATHIC, so that was a good catch by the editors.

In terms of stats: Of the 68 entries, 27 of the clues were changed significantly, so about 60% of mine survived (16 exactly the same, 25 fairly close). The only new clue that I found to be strange was for 45D EATEN ("Taken in").  It didn't quite click with me, but I will be interested to hear what others thought of it.

I hope that everyone will have a good holiday season.  Let's hope that the next one will be back to normal!

Brian

Across:

1. Kitten cry: MEWL - I don't know when a kitten's MEWL turns into 

a cat's MEOW

5. Top-notch: A-PLUS.

10. "Fawlty Towers" network: BBC - A hilarious vehicle for John Cleese, et al

13. Not a brick-and-mortar operation: E-SHOP 

15. Squirrel's pal, to Boris: MOOSE and 22. Boris' sidekick: NATASHA.

16. Mess up: ERR.

17. Cone topper: SCOOP 

18. Send: ELATE - Here's some ear candy for your Saturday using this 50's slang! 

19. Surname suggesting anonymity: DOE.

20. Ride __: SHOTGUN - Below is the genesis of that phrase. I rode SHOTGUN (sat in the front passenger seat) many times but never with a firearm    

24. Agent taking a cut?: REPresenative 

25. '70s-'80s televangelist show "The __ Club": PTL - They had a lot of 'splainin' to do when they got charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud with their Praise The Lord Ministries

27. Disgust: ODIUM - See above

28. Endures anxiously: SWEATS OUT - Might make you 32. Not at all cool: EDGY.

33. Assets of KFC and Coca-Cola, e.g.: SECRET RECIPES

36. Relentlessly: TO THE LAST - Prepare to be moved

37. Classic '60s hit that mentions a roller coaster: PALISADES PARK - A hit for Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon 

41. Nordic language: SAMI.

42. Much ballet dancing is done on them: TIPPY TOES - This lovely seasonal music is from my favorite ballet, ok, the only I've ever seen but the music - это так красиво (it is so beautiful)

44. Kid's transport: TRIKE.

46. Inverness objection: NAE - The Loch Ness is just SW of Inverness, Scotland. I suspect if you asked most residents if they have 48. As a minimum: AT LEAST seen the monster, they would reply, "NAE!"

47. White or Black: SEA.

 

51. Upper arm muscle: TRICEPS - Biceps flex the lower arm and the TRICEPS extend it

54. Genetic messenger: RNA - Messenger in the clue signals RNA not DNA

55. Tusk, in fact: TOOTH.

57. Has status: RATES - "Hey, how do you RATE going first?"

58. Examine carefully: VET - Failure to VET an prospective employee or candidate can lead to real embarrassment  

59. Same old same old feeling: ENNUI - L'ennui by Mireille Potvin. I wonder if our art curator Jeffrey Wechsler is familiar with this piece.

60. __ nous: ENTRE - S'il vous plaît, gardez cette histoire ENTRE nous (Please keep this story between us)

61. "... __ the set of sun": "Macbeth": ERE - "Receiveth out of Stratford On Avon ERE the set of the sun" said Shire Reeve Bill. 😊

62. '90s-'00s band with a star in its logo: NSYNC.

63. Hardy girl: TESS - Thomas Hardy's TESS of the d'Urbervilles Read a squashed version in 50 minutes

                                    
Down:

1. Mr. and Mr.: MESSRS - An 1917 ad for a Standard Dictionary by MESSRS Funk and Wagnalls 

2. Shuns: ESCHEWS.

3. "Yay!": WHOOPEE - The Newlywed Game changed the sense of the word

4. Haul: LOOT - Not the verb but the noun

5. "I couldn't agree more": AMEN TO THAT.

6. Campaign pro: POL - "I have had my fill of campaigns!" See fill above!

7. Grant alternative: LOAN.

8. Court org.: USTA.

9. Address: SEE TO - or...

10. __ manner: BEDSIDE.

11. Guy greetings: BROHUGS.

12. Like bisque: CREAMY 

Lobser Bisque

14. NBA scoring stat: PPG.

21. Riles: UPSETS.

23. Able to do well: ADEPT AT.

26. Cleverly attracted: LURED IN.

29. Do an impersonation of: ACT LIKE.

30. Half-Betazoid aboard the Enterprise: TROI and 31. Like 30-Down, to an extent: TELEPATHIC - Listed sixth on her card

34. Wyoming's "Oil City": CASPER.

35. Guessing game for a road trip: I SPY with my little eye a black and white car with a flashing red light coming up quickly behind us. Any guesses?

37. Associate: PARTNER.

38. Comment from one hurrying in: AM I LATE - Couldn't resist this 2020 school cartoon 

39. Floral cake decoration: ROSETTE - Wow!

40. Fish that measure up: KEEPERS.

41. Fast to the extreme: STARVE - I told Brian I struggled with this until I finally saw Fast as "not eating".

43. Acts smart with: SASSES.

45. Taken in: EATEN - I wasn't taken in by the alternate meaning of this phrase.

49. Word in family business names: SONS - The Don's SONS went into the family business 

50. One of Tommy Tune's ten: TONY - He has won TONY awards for acting, directing, choreography and lifetime achievement. Yes, that's his real name, he was born Thomas James Tune in Wichita Falls, TX.

52. Steam: IRE.

53. Is unable to: CAN'T.

56. Vineyard vessel: TUN - As you can clearly see, a TUN is equal to four Hogsheads or 252 gallons

Saturday, November 7, 2020, Brian E. Paquin

Saturday Themeless by Brian E. Paquin

Our retired computer systems developer, and now crossword constructor, from Kingston, Ontario returns today with a lovely little puzzle.

I had a very quick and pleasant tiptoe through the cells as the long fills were very helpful and gettable. 

Here is Brian's gracious and informative response to my request for info on this puzzle including on the process of cluing and editing by Rich and his staff which we have discussed here recently: 

Hi Gary,

It really saves me time that you provide the published clues in your emails.   It makes it easier for me to update my records.  Thanks for that.

Here are my comments:

This grid is similar to the one I used for my last appearance in the LAT.   Namely, the longer entries cross in the middle.   When those entries are filled, it just leaves me 4 mini-puzzles in the corners.  It is kind of my lazy grid because it takes advantage of the strengths of computers.   But any grid can fight back strongly, and I usually have to try this and try that on my own to make it work.

I actually hadn't seen that puzzle for quite a while, having submitted v1 in May of 2019.   I see that I have a lot of proper names in the grid.  I keep telling myself to stop doing that, but I just don't seem to listen.  Most of them are well known, but some of the clues have been "Saturday-ed" to make the difficulty level appropriate.  How many people know that Bonny Blue's birth name was Eugenie? The clue that I was disappointed to lose was for 24D CAYENNE: "Moderately hot chili pepper" (a reference to the rock group, of course).   But there were significant cluing improvements done.

Brian

Across:

1. Actor Richard Anthony Marin, familiarly: CHEECH - Cheech (sans Chong) made an appearance on Grey's Anatomy and was billed as CHEECH Marin.

7. TV's "Moonlighting," for one: DRAMEDY - We crossworders know it's a portmanteau of Drama and Comedy. I think Grey's Anatomy would qualify as one.

14. Sarcastic comment to a complainer, maybe: POOR YOU.

15. Bonnie Blue's birth name, in "Gone With the Wind": EUGENIE - Rhett and Scarlett's post-war baby

16. Eno, for one: ANAGRAM - So clever, Eno is an ANAGRAM of One and is another "meta" clue Jeffrey Wechsler told us about last Saturday.

17. Erodes: ABRADES  and 39. Sign of aging: WEAR - This is my 25-year-old "tiller that won't die". Even the ABRADING and WEAR on the belt doesn't motivate me to buy a new one because everything still works.

18. Mil. break: RNR - Rest and Relaxation - On M*A*S*H they all wanted RNR in Tokyo

19. Greek vowel: ETA.

20. Venison source: DEER.

21. "__ consummation devoutly to be wish'd": Hamlet: TIS A - TIS A gloomy part of this famous soliloquy 

23. Ancient Peruvian: INCA.

24. Capital of French Guiana: CAYENNE - On the other side of the South American continent 

25. Mother __: EARTH - This picture of Mother EARTH rising over the Moon was taken in 1968 by Scott Anders on Apollo 8. He said, "We came all this way to explore the Moon and what we found was the EARTH."

29. "I don't believe it!": YEESH.

31. Hard __: CASH - "Atta boys" are nice but I'd prefer HARD CASH

33. Non-discrimination letters: EOE - As opposed to EEO this time

34. Time-saving words?: YADA YADA YADA.

38. Made something more desirable: SWEETENED THE POT - A perk for some people who work for ABC/Disney is an all-access pass to Disney Parks.

41. Typical Louis L'Amour work: WESTERN NOVEL - He wrote a 100 of 'em.

42. Rd. service club: AAA.

43. Ill-advised move: NO NO - Don't bring your queen out so early!

44. Lyon lasses: Abbr.: MLLES - An abbr. for Mademoiselles

48. Beetle larvae: GRUBS - If you see these guys, you have sod webworms!

51. Techie, often: NERD.

53. Do an usher's job: SEAT - A verb here

54. Symbol of innocence: LAMB.

56. Col. neighbor: NEB - NEB's Lake McConaughy attracts a lot of COL peeps

58. Matter-of-fact opening?: AS A 

59. Jackson dubbed "Queen of Gospel": MAHALIA - Here you see MAHALIA to Dr. King's left on Aug. 28, 1963. MLK's speech wasn't going as well as he liked when MAHALIA yelled, "Tell them about the dream, Martin! Tell them about the dream!" - an idea she had discussed with him before. Dr. King pushed his prepared speech to the left and his extemporaneous, "I had a dream" speech leapt into the American consciousness. 

62. Old rubber?: ALADDIN - Fun change of rubber from a noun to a verb

64. Winning steadily: ON A ROLL.

65. Metaphor for misfortune: ILL WIND - The Gulf Coast has had too many of these!

66. Advil rival: TYLENOL - My doctor said to say away from the ibuprofen in Advil and use the acetaminophen in TYLENOL

67. Bill of __: LADING - Here's one from 1775

Down:

1. News anchor Chung: CONNIE - CBS said Connie and Dan's bad chemistry led to bad ratings and was part of her losing the gig. You can look up "the rest of the story"

2. Sounding rough: HOARSE

3. Joule part: ERG.

4. Victorian heroine: EYRE - Charlotte Bronte's first novel written under the male pseudonym of Currer Bell

5. Raccoon kin: COATI - A cute 52 sec. video showing these two members of the Procyonidae family

6. Risky aerial act: HUMAN CANNON BALL - You don't see guys of this caliber very often anymore 

7. Kaput: DEAD AS A DOORNAIL - All you'd want to know about this phrase

8. Sticks figure: RUBE - The most famous RUBE who lived in the sticks?

9. Match: AGREE.

10. Half a comedy duo: MEARA - Ann MEARA and Jerry STILLER's son Ben lives near our cwd friend Chef Wendy on Kauai 

11. Wrap up: END.

12. Rolled game piece: DIE.

13. "You betcha!": YES.

14. It may be a blast: PARTY.

22. So far: AS YET.

26. Gather: REAP - What ye sow

27. Well attachment?: TO DO - I spent a lot of yute in my friend's well TO-DO household

28. Cops: HEAT - The HEAT Is On sung by Glen Frey of The Eagles. He was paid $15,000 to play guitar and sing this song for Beverly Hills Cop

30. Word with crime or watch: HATE - HATE Crime is disgusting but familiar, however I had to look up HATE Watch which is where one watches a TV show they actually hate like I did last night when I watched a competitive cooking show for two minutes.

32. Couch potato's buy: HDTV.

35. "The 'Burbs" actor: DERN - Rotten Tomatoes critics gave it a 53%. Their audiences gave it a 71%

36. "Pardon me ... ": AHEM.

37. Long-distance calls?: YELLS - 2020 Texas A&M YELL leaders

38. Plunder: SWAG - Nominees in the best actor, best actress, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, and best director categories get a SWAG Bag containing $215,000 of goodies.

40. Biblical twin: ESAU.

45. Introduction: LEAD IN - In the beginning, Seinfeld benefitted by having Cheers as a LEAD IN

46. Letting up: EASING.

47. Artist's aid: STAND - Yeah, I tried EASEL first too

49. Sit on, as a horn: BLARE - The temptation is very strong after 10 minutes in a drive-thru lane but I don't because everyone today has a weapon and an attitude. I let it go!

50. Elegant room: SALON.

Stockholm Royal Palace Meleager Salon 

52. Reese of "Chico and the Man": DELLA - I hereby grant myself poetic license to link to  my favorite DELLA song

55. Ventimiglia of "This Is Us": MILO - MILO is on the right (HG correction)

57. __ eagle: BALD.

59. Clever remark: MOT - I'll bet this is a real page turner

60. "__ ideas?": ANY 61. Baseball exec Steinbrenner: HAL - Yankee owner HAL might be asking "ANY ideas?" since the Yankees have won only one World Series in the last 20 years but have spent millions.

63. SADD concern: DWI - Driving While Distracted (DWD) is a big problem also