Saturday, October, 24, 2020, Madeline Kaplan and Erik Agard

 Saturday Themeless by Madeline Kaplan and Erik Agard

Today's puzzle is another collaboration featuring our friend, Jeopardy winner and USA Today Crossword puzzle editor Eric Agard. This time his partner is Madeline Kaplan. She was kind enough to write this about their entertaining creation:

Hi Gary,

I just saw your message on Twitter -- happy to share a little bit about this puzzle.

I was relatively new to constructing when Erik reached out and asked if I wanted to collaborate on a themeless. That was about a year ago, I think. At the time, I had just discovered the Fill function in Crossfire which made my constructing process about 100x faster...

I started with ZAZIEBEETZ in the NW corner and AMERICANAH in the SE, then finished the rest of those stacks through a lot of trial and error. Hammering out the clues was a lot of fun -- I think my favorites are 15-A and 47-D. 

I learned a whole lot about good construction and clue-writing from Erik throughout this process. I'm very grateful to him, and to Patti and Rich for publishing this puzzle. And psyched for it to be out in the world!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend,

Madeline

Erik added: The gratitude is mutual! Madeline is a brilliant, vital constructor, and I'm thankful she took the time to collaborate with me. Very proud of the result - hope you enjoy!

Across:

1. Not fresh anymore: GETTING OLD.

11. Sixth Greek letter: ZETA - Alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, ZETA...

15. To a ridiculous extent: AD ABSURDUM (with Italian subtitles)

16. Decamp, e.g.: EXIT.

17. Emmy nominee who plays Van on "Atlanta": ZAZIE BEETZ - One of Madeline's seed entries. I needed letter-by-letter help. 

18. Give a "G," say: RATE.

19. "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie" emotion: AMORE  - Start of the second verse of this Dean Martin hit - "When the stars make you drool just like a pasta e fasul, That's AMORE

20. Apple co-founder's nickname: WOZ.

21. Olympic city whose opening ceremony included a "Swan Lake" performance: SOCHI - The 2014 Olympics there cost $51B after being budgeted for $39B. Corruption and waste led to a very shoddy Olympics 

22. Heaven-sent: DIVINE.

24. Sometimes controversial message: TWEET - I found Madeline on Twitter with no controversy  

25. "The Alienist" network: TNT - Here 'ya go

28. Small container: TIN 

29. Pickle serving: SPEAR.

31. "Where __ you?": WERE - Right at the top of this poster for a great movie (Rotten Tomatoes - 96%)

33. __ loss: AT A.

35. Sappho's island: LESBOS and 49. Tyrrhenian Sea resort: CAPRI - An ~7 hr flight between these islands

38. One concerned with appearances: IMAGE CONSULTANT - "One who puts lipstick on a pig?"

41. Organic food label term: NON-GMO - Genetically Modified Organisms are made with DNA from organisms that normally don't breed. Hybrid seed companies have made corn from different varieties by simply removing tassels from certain plants and leaving others to shed pollen to make a better variety much like has been done for centuries.

42. Hoover, for one: DAM - Author Michael Hiltzik speculated that without the Hoover Dam, Seattle and San Francisco might the only big cities west of the Rockies.

43. Stage accusation: ET TU.

44. Trickster: SCAMP.

46. Pro __: TEM - Chuck Grassley is the current President Pro TEMpore of the Senate and third in line for presidential succession behind Pence and Pelosi.

48. Hyperbolic wait time: EON - I haven't seen you in EONS!

51. Responds to, as intelligence: ACTS ON or 40. Did nothing: SAT THERE 

54. Agrarian: RURAL.

55. Masked drama: NOH.

 

56. __ Macedonia: NORTH - A fascinating story

60. Polish, in a way: EDIT.

61. June 11 Hawaiian honoree: KAMEHAMEHA - On that day his statue in Honolulu is adorned with leis

63. Rugby team: SIDE - You can tell them apart in this scrum

64. Adichie novel that won the 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award: AMERICANAH - A story of a Nigerian woman who comes to college in the U.S.

65. Ring sites: TOES.

66. Most-visited British art museum: TATE MODERN - In London

Down:

1. Disputed Mideast strip: GAZA.

2. Cheese named for a Netherlands town: EDAM - A cheese market in our favorite crossword cheese town of EDAM, Netherlands 

3. Former Starbucks tea: TAZO - Starbucks sold that brand to Unilever for $383M

4. Classic Ford: T-BIRD.

5. "They DO look alike": I SEE IT and 25. Matching: TWIN - Steve Bridges is on the right

6. Pencil, barely: NUB.

7. Caught up with, sizewise: GREW INTO - Didn't your mother do this to test for growth allowance?

8. Ancient theater: ODEON - I've posted images of ancient open-air ODEONS. Here's a modern one in London

9. Skating jumps: LUTZES.

10. Boundary at the 38th parallel, for short: DMZ - The division between North and South Korea at the 38th parallel is very obvious from space at night

11. Garbage disposal goal: ZERO WASTE.

12. Compound: EXACERBATE.

13. Charitable gift: TITHE.

14. Took the loss: ATE IT - What a sacked quarterback is said to do to the football 

Aaron Rodgers taking a loss

21. Big name in romance fiction: STEEL.

23. Nickelodeon parent: VIACOM - Not a character on a kid's program but the owners

26. Captain or a fish: NEMO.

27. It's celebrated with a blue-, pink- and white-striped flag: TRANS PRIDE - Blue (male) and pink (female) stripes with white in the middle that represents gender neutral. Here the flag flies at the Philadelphia City Hall on Trans Pride Day.

30. Feathers: PLUMES.

32. Containers for some fragile goods: EGG CRATES.

34. "Yes?": AND - The first rule of improv is "you have to keep it going"

36. Cognizant of: ONTO.

37. Floor: STUN.

39. Inbox pileup: E-MAIL.

45. Site of a historic 1914 waterway opening: PANAMA - 28 years later my dad started his WWII duty there 

47. Country with a 26-year Grace period?: MONACO - This is a fabulous clue/fill!

Princess Grace of Monaco

49. Pinnacle: CREST.

50. Sound: AUDIO.

52. Threat in 1998's "Deep Impact": COMET - Meh...

53. Wayfarer: NOMAD.

57. Actress Russo: RENE - She is a really good actress but she played a very weak woman in this horrible movie that lost $15M. I shoulda walked out.

58. Whaler's direction: THAR.

59. "Transparent" actress Kathryn: HAHN - Where she played Rabbi Raquel 

61. Kit __: KAT - One of our Halloween handouts

62. Word for a guy: HIM - Professor Higgins Hymn To HIM. He soon realized he had Grown Accustomed To Her Face.

\

Saturday, May, 16, 2020, Erik Agard & Leslie Rogers

Themeless Saturday by Erik Agard and Leslie Rogers

Here's what Erik and Leslie told me about this great puzzle:

LESLIE: Erik sent me the grid skeleton and asked for some 8-11 letter seed ideas.  I sent him a list including PROMPOSAL and I DONT FOLLOW, which he used to seed the SW.  I then wrote the NE, he wrote the NW, and then I finished with the SE.  This was my first time collaborating on a themeless and I learned a lot from Erik, both in terms of technical tips for filling tricky areas and general philosophies about what makes good fill.

I’ve been relying on the PELOTON app for no-equipment workouts a lot while sheltering in place.  Sorry to all the seniors who are missing out on the PROMPOSAL experience this year - that entry is more bittersweet now than when we originally wrote this grid.  This is being published on my mom's birthday, so happy birthday, Mom! Thanks to the LA Times for publishing this and I hope everyone found something to enjoy in the puzzle!

ERIK: I also found this collaboration very edifying in terms of fill standards and cluing approaches - Leslie has a brilliant crossword mind and I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with her. Hope you liked the puzzle!

Let's review this fine collaboration on Leslie's mother's birthday:

Across:

1. Silver, in heraldry: ARGENT - This is definitely out of my area of expertise but ARGENT is shown as silver or white

7. Works with small bricks: LEGO ART - I'd love to do this LEGO ART

14. Legal opposite of negligence: DUE CARE - This is what we are all supposed to be exercising these days

16. Leaving exposed nails: OPEN TOE - Clever 

                                                 
17. Material: ON TOPIC.

18. Houston, for one: OIL TOWN - I went from SEA PORT to OIL PORT to OIL TOWN

19. Microscopic messenger: RNA.

20. Enjoys a lakeside diversion: SKIPS STONES.

22. Makes a plea: BEGS.

24. One with a Florida nest egg: EGRET - Not a retiree it turns out 

25. Reduce: PARE.

26. Word before steak or after chicken: STRIP.

28. Single: ONE.

29. '60s hallucinogen: LSD.

30. Soprano's note: HIGH B - 

32. Gran's daughter, humorously: MUMSY - I never called Grandma Gran nor Mom MUMSY!

35. 1521 Magellan landing site: PHILIPPINES - One of Magellan's five ships with eighteen survivors made the first circumnavigation of the Earth but Magellan died from a poison arrow in the PHILIPPINES. 

38. Like some sports highlights: SLO-MO - A SLO-MO simulation. Ya gotta love it!

39. Checked out ahead of time: CASED.

41. "All the Stars" one-named singer with Kendrick Lamar: SZA - Pronounced "sizz UH". Her story

44. Is in the past?: WAS.

45. Crisp fruit, maybe: PEARS - This lovely PEAR Crisp with ice cream looks delicious 

47. Like crossword clues about crossword clues, say: META - 

MET·A

/ˈmedə/

noun

noun: meta; plural noun: metas

adjective

US

adjective: meta

1. (of a creative work) referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.

49. Audibly stunned: AGASP.

52. Proof word: STET.

53. "You lost me": I DON'T FOLLOW 

56. Astronaut Jemison: MAE - Here's MAE being weightless on the International Space Station

57. Sign of Broadway success: LONG RUN  - The five Broadway plays with the LONGest RUNs

58. Crane producer?: ORIGAMI - How is that done?

60. Wrap: ENCLOSE.

61. Equipment company named for a cycling group: PELOTON - The people in their ads seem to be in great shape already!

62. __ syndrome: allergic reaction to insect bites: SKEETER - A less technical phrase for "papular urticaria". Google if you must...

63. Craps naturals: SEVENS - A SEVEN (or eleven) on your first roll of the dice is called a natural and makes you a winner!


Down:

1. Totes presh: ADORBS - Something that is "Totes (Totally) Presh (Precious)" can also be called ADORBS (Adorable) in the Valley Girl lexicon.

2. Biblical flows?: RUNNETH - My cup RUNNETH over is most familiarly from the 23rd Psalm. Ed Ames sang this lovely song adapted from that line in the Broadway play The Fantasticks

3. Keep it together, so to speak: GET A GRIP.

4. Lead-in to "lodge" or "logy": ECO.

5. Short rests: NAPS.

6. Minor cycle: TRIKE - Here's a senior TRIKE 

7. Stretch, say: LOOSEN UP.

8. Relating to knowledge: EPISTEMIC - Of or relating to knowledge or knowing. I'd be more likely to use it than MUMSY 

9. Hannukah reward: GELT - Hebrew for money. Cash has been replaced in some celebrations with chocolate "coins"

10. Leading: ON TOP and 12. Subjects of "The Boys in the Boat": ROWERS. This picture shows that ROWERS from Washington University came out ON TOP by pulling an incredible upset in this 8-oar race from the 1936 Olympics.

11. Not exactly hummable: ATONAL.

13. Got edgy: TENSED.

15. Vaper's need, informally: E-CIG 

21. School dance invite portmanteau: PROMPOSAL - It appears Brooke said YES!

23. Venetian bridge composition?: SIGHS -This bridge was used to lead prisoners from the examining rooms to their cells in the Prigioni. Legend has it that prisoners who crossed the bridge on the way from the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace to their prison cells or the execution chamber would SIGH as they caught their last glimpses of Venice through the tiny windows.

27. TV Dr.: PHIL.

31. Fly off the handle: BLOW A FUSE 33. Fly off the handle: SNAP - After crossing the Bridge Of Sighs?

34. Committed replies: YESES.

36. Toast words?: I'M A GONER - "You're toast, Man!"

37. Flying companion, say: SEAT MATE.

40. Two-word phrase that's synonymous with its second word backwards: DREAM ON - I told Erik and Leslie that this was my favorite clue

41. Close parentheses, at times: SMILES - The close (as opposed to open) parentheses are are at the end of emoticon SMILES :-). 

42. Striped equine hybrid: ZEDONK - ZEDONK and mother. I have it on good information that the father was an ass.

43. Instantly: AT ONCE.

46. Draft holders: STEINS - I wish I had bought this when I was at KSC

48. Theta, in geometry: ANGLE - Sin 𝛳= Opposite/Hypotenuse 

50. Unappealing food: SLOP.

51. Skin features: PORES.

54. More than walk: TROT.

55. "Looney Tunes" first name: WILE - WILE Coyote really  wanted that roadrunner! Meep, meep!

59. URL ending: GOV.

Comment at will or Erik and Leslie