Saturday, October 5, 2024, David P. Williams

Saturday Themeless by David P. Williams

I was fortunate to blog Dave's first puzzle that was published for the LA Times on May 15, 2021. It was so long ago that Rich Norris was still the editor.

The brilliance of Dave's puzzle is evident when you see the three vertical and three horizontal 11-letter fills in the heart of the puzzle. Subsequently, he had a very low word count of 66. The last horizontal fill is only 51. Across and the last vertical fill is 47. Down

My failure was at MIN_US/_ENTIANS which fills my definition of a Natick. I wrote my grandson (see below), who is a professional jazz musician and getting a Graduate Degree at The University of North Texas, and he immediately knew MINGUS and told me some terrible stories about him.

My Grandson

Across:

1. Street in London home to many medical offices: HARLEY.

7. Charles known as the "Angry Man of Jazz": MINGUS.

13. Cold spells: ICE AGES.

15. Like most drafts: UNSENT - Mentally, I went through several definitions of draft before I arrived at the ones that indicate that you might want review a few times before you hit Send.

16. "Hang on": JUST A SEC.

18. Pose: STANCE.

19. Duck: AVOID.

20. Admit: COP TO - On the other hand...

22. Get some sun: TAN.

23. Get too much sun: BURN - On the other hand...

24. "No kidding!": TRULY.

25. Guinness order: PINT.

26. Ready: SET.

27. Large venue: ARENA.

28. Song birds?: SWANS - Two came to my mind

  

29. Serious scratch: PRETTY PENNY - The idiom explained

31. Poutine kin: CHEESE FRIES - You can hold the cheese on my FRIES

Not a big fan below either!

32. Comes full circle?: WRAPS AROUND.

33. Second-most populous urban area of the Tibetan Plateau: LHASA 

LHASA pop. 521,000

Getting from LHASA to Kathmandu takes a WRAP AROUND route.

 

34. Primary rte.?: US ONE - From Ft. Kent, Maine to Key West, Florida

35. Ask sincerely: BEG.

38. A in Kindergarten: EINE - Kindergarten is German so "A" dog is EINE Hund

39. Like some accents: ACUTE.

40. Adidas rival: FILA.

41. Sound of disapproval: TSK.

42. Shorts' lack: KNEES 😀

43. John whose Civil War trilogy was adapted as a miniseries starring Patrick Swayze: JAKES - You'll have to look hard to see John's name in the credit

44. "Don't bother": SKIP IT.

46. Star witness?: SIDEKICK.

48. Moderate: GENTLE.

49. International understanding: ENTENTE - The most famous/infamous one?

50. Instruments that are difficult to donate, ironically: ORGANS - Now that is a great observation!

51. Help: ASSIST.

Down:

1. Garments similar to mantillas: HIJABS.

 

2. Contacts company: ACUVUE.

3. Sandals, e.g.: RESORT.

4. Mass medium: LATIN - The Catholic Church changed from being all in LATIN just before we got married over 60 years ago. Some LATIN phrases are used during the liturgical year. 

5. "Zounds!": EGAD.

6. Pitcher's aim?: YES - Not a baseball pitcher or a water pitcher. This pitcher is a salesman.

7. Dank: MUSTY.

8. Digging: INTO - I really got INTO Dave's puzzle

9. PRISM org.: NSA.

10. Plants whose roots flavor angostura bitters and Aperol: GENTIANS Angostura bitters  is a concentrated bitters (herbal alcoholic preparation) based on gentian, herbs, and spices, produced by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

11. Eerie: UNCANNY - Just some of the eerie comparisons

12. Surgical tubes: STENTS.

14. Ingredient omitted from a recipe, perhaps: SECRET SAUCE - There's some things they won't tell you. 😀

17. Retaliates, in a way: COUNTERSUES - The man on the right sued Taylor Swift for $3M saying she got him fired, but he lost the suit. Taylor countersued for $1 for assault which he is doing in this picture and won that suit.

21. Do some sole searching: PLAY FOOTSIE - I know Irish will like this version

24. Arborist's concerns: TREES - After living on the treeless prairie, Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton proposed Arbor Day to support planting trees.

Very early Lincoln, NE 

25. Trounced, as a n00b: PWNED - The word "pwned" has origins in video game culture and is a leetspeak derivation of the word "owned", due to the proximity of the "o" and "p" keys. It's typically used to imply that someone has been controlled or compromised ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

27. Corncake that may be filled with queso: AREPA.

28. One making bank in Paris?: SEINE - I'm going out on a limb to say I'll bet you understand this picture  

29. Moon unit: PHASE.

30. Dried plum: PRUNE.

31. Revolutionary activity?: CRANKING - Success!

32. Hair of the dog: WHISKER 😊

33. "It's that time": LET'S GO.

35. Midriff-baring suit: BIKINI.

36. Chooses: ELECTS - Carol Blood is running against Mike Flood in our 1st District Congressional race.

A clever sign!

37. Flood insurance?: GASKET - Given enough time...

39. They're paid to play: ANTES.

40. Mountebanks: FAKES - Derivation

42. Brick oven: KILN.

43. Takes off: JETS.

45. Org. that publishes Our Children magazine: PTA.

47. Father figurer: DNA.

Friday, April 21, 2023, David P Williams

Theme: It's all Latin to me

Puzzling thoughts:

When I was in Junior High, we had a choice of four languages to take as an elective course. I believe it was mandatory to learn a second language then. We could choose from French, Spanish, Latin, and German. Given my presumed origin (proved later to be false), I chose German. I studied German from Grade 7 through Grade 12, and took enough credit hours in college to have German as my second "major"

Looking back, however, I wish now that I had either taken Spanish or French. Spanish would have served me well in my former International Business position, as I had several clients in Mexico and Latin America. Having lived in Florida and now Arizona, knowing Spanish would be an asset, too. French could have assisted me in my wine career; I represented several French suppliers and would've enjoyed being able to converse with them in their own tongue

Latin? Nope. Never had the urge to study it nor understand it. But today? Yes. Knowing Latin would have made solving today's puzzle so much easier!

17-across. Feles inquisitae?: POLLING CATS. Feles is the root word for feline; inquisitae is the nominative feminine plural for inquiring. POLLING CATS? Was David going for the homophonic POLL/POLE? As in POLECAT? Maybe the next one will provide me some direction ...

23-across. Apes ineptae?: BUMBLING BEES. First off, apis is the Latin for Bee(s). I searched as best I could to find if "apes" is the plural, but to no avail. Ineptae is the nominative feminine plural for inept. BUMBLING BEES? A takeoff on BUMBLEBEE? Moving on to number three ...

37-across. Ursi dividi?: POLARIZING BEARS. OK, this one is so obvious (to me, anyway) that I didn't need to look up the Latin --> English translation. Ursi (Ursa = Bear; think Ursa Minor/constellation) is probably the plural; dividi is probably the nominative feminine plural (for divide); this makes POLARIZING BEARS one of the easier "fits" (POLAR BEAR)

48-across. Cervi dominati?: REIGNING DEER. OK, back to Google Translate! Cervi is the Latin (also, Italian) for deer (singular OR plural); dominati is the nominative feminine plural for dominate. REIGNING DEER (REINDEER) was also pretty obvious once I got the hang of it

61. Porci circumspecti?: HEDGING HOGS. I knew that porcine = pig; circumspecti must mean (duh!) circumspect (unwilling to take a risk), and of course, be in the nominative feminine plural inflection. A female pig is a HOG; hedge = limit severely; HEDGEHOG is, well, a Hedgehog!

I know that as a wordsmith of sorts, I should've been more excited about today's puzzle. But to be honest, it left me "at a loss for words" ... here is the grid ... then on to the rest of the clues and entries

Across:
1. Taylor-Joy of "The Menu": ANYA. In a sort of CSO to desper-otto; I always prefer having a "gimme" at One Across. This took awhile for me to fill as I needed ESP

5. Unimpressed: BLASE. Which is the POLAR opposite of (10-across. "Terrif!":) FAB.

13. Shows the way: LEADS. I am sincerely hoping that someone (in the "comments" section below) "shows the way" to the cleverness of this puzzle, and LEADS us into repartee ...

15. Wee bits: IOTAS. Also clued as: Greek vowels

16. "Odds __ ... ": ARE. I will fill in the ". . ." Odds ARE that some of you will agree with me on today's puzzle, and some won't

19. Work of fiction?: LIE. In a sort of CSO to Irish Miss, this is #2 of 20 (total) three-letter entries

20. Connected, in a way: ONLINE. Does anyone miss this sound of being connected ONLINE?

21. Radio host Shapiro who wrote "The Best Strangers in the World": ARI. I knew this one; I have used ARI and/or Shapiro in one of my published puzzles

22. One side on "The Americans," initially: USSR. I have not watched this show. I think it is streaming on Hulu ...

26. Taxi: CAB. Which somehow didn't intersect with (22-down. Took someone else's wheels:) UBERED. Neither of these gave me much of a lyft ...

29. Blue area on a map: SEA. OK; I can see this

30. Guitar great Paul: LES. The three letter space immediately ruled out SIMON or MCCARTNEY. Gibson Guitar Company began producing a "Les Paul" model back in the 1950's; here is a list of famous guitarists who play a Les Paul guitar

31. "Welp," quaintly: ALAS. Oddly, this clue could be reversed and be equally sussed

33. Solidified: SET.

35. Ventricle's outlet: AORTA.

41. "Is That Black Enough for You?!?" documentarian Mitchell: ELVIS. In his own words

42. "As __ usual": PER. #6 of the 3-letter entries

43. Water fall?: DRIP. Cute clue

44. Drone regulator: Abbr.: FAA. Federal Aviation Authority

45. Pt. of IRA: RET. Short for RETirement

47. Bagged leaves?: TEA. Cute clue

54. Fencing event: EPEE. Most people associate EPEE with a type of sword rather than the event itself

55. __ tai: MAI. #10 of the 3-letter's

56. Pool unit: ONE LAP. "DOODIE" (aka, PAYDAY) also fit ... see the video:

60. Silly string?: LOL. I'm guessing the clue is for the "string" of words "laugh out loud"

63. Insert: ADD. #12

64. Posts: MAILS. Could be combined with (67-across. Gastropod for gastronomes:) SNAIL, to better describe at what pace cards, letters, and packages move through the USPS

65. Retreats in the desert: OASES. They're not always a mirage, FYI

66. "Are you solving a crossword right now?" answer: YES. Ha Ha! But for this blog, the correct clue would be: "Are you reading the Crossword Corner right now?"

68. Word in many award category names: BEST. Should there be a "BEST" of Blog award, here at the Corner? Who would YOU vote for? My vote goes to Susan ...

Down:
1. Chewy brand: ALPO. I had KONG on the brain. It (KONG) is a well-known brand of chew toys for pets

2. Super bright: NEON. MENSA didn't fit

3. Southern party: Y'ALL. Singular; the plural (parties) is ALL Y'ALL

4. Off the cuff: ADLIB. All of my blog; there is absolutely nothing that I do scripted

5. Popular: BIG. Was this movie popular?

6. One who's likely rooting for the home team: LOCAL. Here's a tune I remember from my youth; the movie? Not so much:

7. Single-button joystick creator: ATARI. A new clue for this crossword entry

8. Pointe shoe material: SATIN. "Pointe" seems like a ballet reference; ballet dancers wear SATIN shoes

9. One of a Mississippi quartet: ESS. What if they were looking to feature the four I's instead?

10. Early misstep: FALSE START. A football reference, among others. Speaking of others, for any of you who are looking to become a sprinter, this tutorial on how to avoid a FALSE START is worth watching

11. Surface: ARISE.

12. Cold ones: BEERS. Unlike the plural of DEER, BEER has an ESS at the end

14. Head space?: SINUS. As someone who used to sell plastic closures, we always took the "head space" to mean the unfilled area between the liquid/contents of a bottle, and the cap. Back in my early BEER drinking days, this seemed quite amuzing:

18. Serious foe: NEMESIS. Interesting that "THESAURUSSAURUS" shows "foe" as a synonym for NEMESIS, but not the other way around ...

24. "Diamonds & Rust" folk singer Joan: BAEZ.

25. Squishy lump: GLOB.

26. Lens __: CAP. I wonder if Picard had any of his plethora of photographs ruined by leaving his lens CAP attached?

27. The Body Shop additive: ALOE. A Friday-ish clue for this crossword-ese entry

28. Diamonds that don't sparkle?: BALL FIELDS. Not the subject of Ms. BAEZ's "Diamonds & Rust"

32. "Macho Man" Randy __: SAVAGE. A way to clue this word without its negative meaning, perhaps? Although to some, the "Macho Man" embodied his name

34. Pointer: TIP. #17

35. Mutually support: AGREE ON. Without sounding too "political", it's nice when our Congress has a bill that they all AGREE ON

36. "Acoustic Soul" artist India.__: ARIE. The "India ." gave it away for me, even without knowing the song

38. "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" director Johnson: RIAN. Here is a list of all of the "Star Wars" directors

39. Square figure: NERD. Does AREA fit this clue, too?

40. Day __: SPA. #18

46. Indie rock band Yo La __: TENGO. I tried "TANGO" at first. You?

48. Pass on: RELAY. As in a "RELAY" race; but no FALSE STARTS now, ya hear?

49. Lyric poem: EPODE. Not a word I often use in everyday language, (50. "That is ... ":) I MEAN.

51. Gymnast Comaneci: NADIA.

52. 2003 rom-com that won seven Razzie Awards: GIGLI. "Razzies" - or Golden Raspberry Awards - are given for the worst films

53. Postop therapy: REHAB. I've encountered a few of these (post-op therapy) and came out unscathed

57. Come up short: LOSE. Kinda like what's happened to my hairline over the past few decades

58. Years and years: AGES. EONS fits, too

59. "Hey, c'mere!": PSST.

61. Letters for the Queen Mary: HMS. #19

62. Pt. of Hawaii: ISL. #20

Looking forward to seeing your comments below. See you in a couple of weeks, when perhaps I'll be inspired to "Ku" ...