Saturday Themeless by Kyle Dolan
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Today, Kyle and I celebrate our silver anniversary, as this is the 25th puzzle of his that I've blogged. As I looked for a good entry point, the southeast corner filled in quickly, and I thought I was headed for an easy solve. Not so fast, I did enjoy Kyle's clever puzzle but the word easy does not describe the required effort! 😊
Kyle's quirky cluing kept the left side full of holes until, on my way to a haircut, the fill GREET came to me for the clue "Receive," and everything fell into place. The fabulous word SENTIENCE completed my Saturday assignment! As you will see in by blog I did contact Kyle to be reassured about some of this clue/fills and he kindly let me in on what he was thinking.
A note from Kyle which included this picture taken at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.:
Hi Gary,
I hope you are doing well. My inspiration for the puzzle came from eminent themeless constructor Robyn Weintraub, whose crosswords I admire. She has often used a design similar to the one seen here, and I wanted to see how I could fill such a grid. I began with ANY QUESTIONS, which is a lively conversational entry that is making its LAT debut (unless I am scooped in the next two weeks :-D).
Thanks as always for your kind words and interesting reviews of my work.
Best regards,
Kyle
Across:
1. Kitchen drawer?: AROMA - 😀 Kyle went pretty far down the list of definitions for this use of drawer!
6. Follow: OBEY.
10. NYC venue whose final show featured Patti Smith: CBGB - The Country Blue Grass Blues club shut down after 33 years.
14. Economic justice topic: LIVING WAGE.
16. Willie who broke the NHL's color barrier: OREE.
17. Forest formations with mythological associations: FAIRY RINGS - What they are and what causes them
18. Crux: MEAT
19. Useful element in making connections: AND 😀
20. Group in Mercury's orbit?: QUEEN - Oh, that QUEEN and that Mercury
21. Causes of spiraling, at times: FEARS.
22. Their feet may have claws: TUBS. 😀
23. Writers commissioned for tributes: ODISTS.
25. Tightens, perhaps: RETIES.
28. Down for drama?: FOURTH - 😳 Wow, what a Kyle special!
29. Stuff: ITEMS.
30. Chrysler that won the 1978 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award: DODGE OMNI.
30. Chrysler that won the 1978 Motor Trend Car of the Year Award: DODGE OMNI.
33. Receive: GREET - My key to completing the left side
34. Offline: IRL - In Real Life
35. Threw a pity party, perhaps: CRIED.
36. Feature of HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey": SENTIENCE - A sentient being doesn’t just detect stimuli and react automatically. Sentient means having the capacity for subjective experience, particularly the ability to feel sensations like pleasure and pain. Here is HAL showing a sign of SENTIENCE.
38. Nephric: RENAL.
39. Coin bearing a bear: TOONIE - A C$2.00 coin whose name is a portmanteau for two and the loonie Canada's C$1.oo coin
39. Coin bearing a bear: TOONIE - A C$2.00 coin whose name is a portmanteau for two and the loonie Canada's C$1.oo coin
41. Volunteer: SIGN ON.
42. Result of productive talks: PACT.
43. Some bookmarks: SITES.
44. "Find out": GO ASK.
46. Mercury, for one: GOD - Not Freddie this time.
49. Nursing spot: TEAT.
50. "Perfectly reasonable": I CAN SEE WHY - I CAN SEE WHY Kyle's choices might ruffle a few feathers. 😀
52. Some Indigenous Canadians: INNU - We very recently had the CREES.
53. Clue in evolutionary history: MARKER GENE.
54. Cobbler's tool: RASP.
55. Around: OR SO.
56. Maker of the One SL speaker: SONOS.
Down:
1. __ Romeo: ALFA.
2. Filmmaker Johnson: RIAN - This was the third film in RIAN'S Knives Out series.
3. Poet frequently referenced in "Don Quixote": OVID - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Cervantes refers to himself as “nuestro español Ovidio” (Our Spanish OVID) in a sonnet addressed to Sancho Panza
4. Bygone orbiter: MIR.
5. "All clear?": ANY QUESTIONS - Kyle's seed entry
6. Boo-boos: OWIES.
7. Curse: BANE.
8. Spaetzle, e.g.: EGG NOODLE - Made in southern Germany and Alsace
10. Settles: COMES TO REST - No matter how hard you
11. One may be taken on a date: BREATH MINT 😀
12. Shift workers?: GEARS.
13. Kalshi actions: BETS - 90% of its BETS are placed on sporting events but it also takes BETS on politics, finance and about anything else. It has made its 29-year-old founder the youngest female billionaire in history, passing even Taylor Swift.
21. Party poppers: FIRECRACKERS.
22. "Cock-a-doodle-doo!": TIME TO GET UP.
24. Vibed on: DUG.
25. Fixes: RIGS - Perhaps the most famous example
26. Peut-__: French "perhaps": ETRE - Peut-ÈTRE qu’elle a oublié la fête. (Perhaps she forgot about the party)
27. Animated superhero series featuring the voice of Tara Strong: TEEN TITANS ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
28. Word in Beaufort readings: FORCE.
30. Setting for some on-line orders?: DINING CAR - 😀 I had to ask Kyle about this one. He said:
DINING CAR should be interpreted as a generic name for a place to eat on a train, not a specific restaurant. The clue is a pun on the idea that you go to the dining car to order food on a (rail) line.
31. Close: NEAR.
32. How much scrolling is done: IDLY - I'm approaching an addiction
37. Producer on seven U2 albums: ENO - The only British record producer I know
40. Dated: PASSE - Is opening a door for a woman now PASSÉ?
41. Italian home of the world's oldest bank: SIENA - It appears they might have been able to loan Columbus a few lira.
42. Coat put on in the kitchen?: PANKO.
43. Verb in a polenta recipe: STIR - The spoon is still in the bowl
45. Sticks in the water: OARS.
46. Longtime "PBS News Hour" anchor Ifill: GWEN.
48. Top jobs?: DYES 😀
50. Letters expressing personal thoughts: IMO.
51. Team challenge: EGO.
