Saturday, March 29, 2025, Kunal Nabar

 Saturday Themeless by Kunal Nabar

Kunal is a Senior Software Engineer at Snowflake in the San Francisco Bay Area and makes his second appearance here in the Saturday LA Times Crossword. My first puzzle I blogged for Kanal was undone by his use of ASMRTIST who is a producer of Autonomist Sensory Media Responses ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. 

                   

Across:

1. Units of growth?: ACRES 😀 A very common sight in my part of the country

6. Bygone autocrat: TSAR.

10. Folder that may hold a missing email: SPAM.

14. Words of consolation: THERE THERE.

16. Avgolemono option: ORZO - Orzo is pasta

17. Developer's displays: MODEL HOMES.

18. Think piece?: BEAN. 😀

19. Futures analyst?: ORACLE.

20. Some specialist MDs: ENTS.

22. World Cup chant: OLE.

23. Breakout group: SECT.

24. "No one can know!": IT'S A SECRET - I'd bet Kunal has no idea about this TV show. FWIW, I can name the moderator and all four panelists. 

27. Relatively recent arrival?: TOT.

28. Symbol an anxious texter may stare at: DOTS - I wonder what the reply will be...

29. End notes?: CODAS.

30. Skyscraper top: SPIRE - A famous one

32. "__ a thought ... ": HERE'S - They don't all work out

33. Divine messenger?: TAROT READER.

35. "Sláinte": SALUT - Cheers!

36. Filled: SATED.

37. Like some Oreos: VEGAN.

38. Stag: HART - A red HART or stag and his hinds or does

39. Tags on social media: ATS.

42. Proposed: ON THE TABLE.

44. Minor deviation: BLIP.

45. Radio personality Angela who co-hosted "The Breakfast Club": YEE ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

46. Take off: SOAR.

47. Grade again: RERATE.

49. Gelatin alternative: AGAR.

51. Ray Charles hit whose B-side was "Come Back Baby": I GOT A WOMAN - As good as it gets!

53. Wild-tasting: GAMY.

54. Bit of extra time: LEAP SECOND - Neal Degrasse Tyson explains it in 58 seconds 

55. Coding conditional: ELSE.

56. Rolls the credits: ENDS. 🎥

57. Fresh: SASSY.

Down:

1. Maximally: AT MOST.

2. Dance sequences, familiarly: CHOREO - Sometimes used as shortened word for choreography 

3. Ready for publication, perhaps: REDACT.

4. Put up: ERECT.

5. Move like a bear: SELL.

6. "OTOH ... ": THO - On The Other Hand...

7. School trips?: SEMESTERS ABROAD - My granddaughter spent a SEMESTER ABROAD in Lyons, France

8. Places to watch Earthquakes and Hurricanes: ARENAS - The San Jose Earthquakes play in the Major Soccer League and the Carolina Hurricanes are in the National Hockey League

9. Some score marks: RESTS - John Phillips used them. Go ahead and sing along...

10. Melodramatic sound: SOB.

11. Diehard's purchase: PREORDER - Every Star Wars film had diehards who PREORDERED tickets to make sure they got in for the first showing.

12. Plants whose name derives from the Greek for "dry": AZALEAS - The name azalea is from the Greek word azaleos, which means dry. These lovely plants are very prominent on the Augusta National Golf Course where the Mater's starts on April 10th. 

13. "Water Lilies" and "Irises": MONETS.

15. Elif Batuman novel about a first-year college student: THE IDIOT.

21. Leave the country: SECEDE.

25. Suit material: TORT.

26. Prepped for a pie, perhaps: CORED.

30. Mohamed who is captain of Egypt's national soccer team: SALAH - ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

31. Gets snippy?: PRUNES - 😀 

32. Cape that's home to North Carolina's Diamond Shoals: HATTERAS - Along with its famous lighthouse

 

33. Tackles together: TAG TEAMS.

34. __ Grey tea: EARL.

35. Closest country to Cape Verde: SENEGAL.

37. Odyssey: VOYAGE.

38. Part of an ice cream brand's pseudo-Scandinavian name: HAAGEN.

39. Los __, New Mexico: ALAMOS - The super secret site where the atom bomb was developed 

40. Nashville team: TITANS.

41. Expensive, informally: SPENDY 🤔

43. French for canvas: TOILE (twäl)

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44. Scientist for whom a part of the brain is named: BROCA.

48. Much of a flock: EWES.

50. Bananarac liquor: RYE.

52. Rolls over a tree?: TPS.

 

Saturday, November 25, 2023, Kunal Nabar

  Saturday Themeless by Kunal Nabar

Kunal is a Senior Software Engineer at Snowflake in the San Francisco Bay Area and makes his initial appearance here in the LA Times Crossword. I made significant headway but the obscurities (for me) in the SE that you see below outlined in red put a strain on my completion anxiety. Knowing ASMRTIST would have solved my issues but, alas, I didn't. An obscure acronym that is made into a noun? Wow!

Across:

1. Clip follower: CLOP - People who made sounds for radio and animated films are called Foley artists. Here we see one making the CLIP CLOP sound of horses on the left and Gene Autry doing the same thing on the right.

5. Softens, in a way: DAMPS.

10. Clock toggle: AM/PM.

14. Big name in morning TV: RIPA.

15. Dread, perhaps: AWAIT.

16. Missouri representative Bush: CORI - CORI Bush represents the 1st district of MO

17. Balanced: EVEN.

18. Delectable: TASTY.

19. Like Oberlin since 1837: COED - This 1855 picture shows that they were also the first predominantly white institution to admit blacks.

20. Small businesses?: MINI MARTS.

22. Oregon city on the Deschutes River: BEND - In the geographic center of Oregon, Bend is nestled between the eastern side of the Cascades and the high desert.

23. Pitching areas?: AD SPACES - Two areas of pitching can be seen in this facility 

24. Pet that needs a sitter?: LAP CAT 😀 - Lily gets one any time she wants one.

26. Manipulate: USE.

27. Deliver letters?: DICTATE - "Take a letter Miss Jones"

28. Place to check in: FRONT DESK - I made many a trip to this FRONT DESK at Disney's All Star Sports Resort to replace room keys kids had lost.

31. Earring Magic __: collectible doll of 1993: KEN.

32. Colorful Victorian houses in San Francisco, e.g.: PAINTED LADIES - This one lists for $3.5M but "needs work"

😀😬😫😧😧
34. Squeak of surprise: EEK.

35. Tosses: JETTISONS.

36. Ready: PREPARE.

38. Island in the Cyclades: IOS - It's in there

39. Instruments that may have 21 strings: SITARS.

40. Creator of spine-tingling content?: ASMRTIST - My big fat "dunno"! ASMR is Autonomous Sensory Media Response: a feeling of well-being combined with a tingling sensation in the scalp and down the back of the neck, as experienced by some people in response to a specific gentle stimulus, often a particular sound. Speaking of CLIP CLOP, you can buy this:

1. 
   

45. Picks up on: GETS.

46. Jump-starts a training regimen?: SKIPS ROPE 😀

47. Amanda of "Brockmire": PEET.

48. Buttonholes, e.g.: SLITS 

49. "Seriously?": IT IS.

50. "Contact" org.: SETI - Will SETI's first contact happen like this great scene from Contact? (3:52)

51. One of the racing Andrettis: MARCO - MARIO didn't work

52. Board sticker: DART - A fun video (2:34)

53. Tennis legend who wrote a history of African-American athletes: ASHE - An authenticated autograph on the title page

54. Orem resident: UTAHN - A frequent city from the Beehive State in cwds

55. Those, in Spanish: ESOS.

Down:

1. Taco topper that may be infused with lime: CREMA.

2. Spitting nails: LIVID.

3. Plays first: OPENS - or the first person to bid or bet in a card game

4. Street food also known as golgappa: PANIPURI.

5. Storage systems?: DATA CENTERS.

6. Savvy: AWARE.

7. Clipper parts: MASTS.

8. Places to retire?: PITS. 😀

9. Dump: STY.

10. Stomach: ACCEPT.

11. Lunar New Year treats: MOONCAKES.

12. Comes before: PREDATES - Entering PREDATES was PRECEDED by the wrong word

13. Start of summer or winter: MID - Halloween is the MIDpoint of autumn. 

21. Need in some preservation efforts: MASON JARS - Roger Miller had a silly song about this

22. Computer security concern: BACKDOORS - A great explanation 

24. Cartoon girl who popularized "meh": LISA SIMPSON.

25. Sue Bird's jersey number: TEN.

27. Lunch spot: DELI.

28. Part of a vampire costume: FAKE TEETH.

29. French crown: TETE 😀 - Yeah, TETE is French for head and crown is a euphenism for head

30. Rachel Carson subj.: DDT - Rachel Carson's book was fought by the chemical companies 

32. Low points: PERIGEES - Halley's (rhymes with Sally's) Comet orbits the sun every 76 years and it will be visible on Earth next in 2061 when it is near the sun at PERIGEE of its orbit. No extra charge: Halley will reach apogee next month which is seen at the far left in the map.

33. Without getting worked up: IN STRIDE.

34. Some indie releases: EPS - Extended Play records

37. "Wonderful Tonight" memoirist Boyd: PATTIE - She was in the middle of all the British rock and rollers in the '60's.

40. Director Kurosawa: AKIRA  - No help with ASMR. What classic American movie is based on this great Kurosawa film? (*answer at bottom of write-up).

41. "What's the __?": Kim Possible catchphrase: SITCH - I had "What's the CATCH for _ _ TCH which furthered bollixed up my three bad cells since I did not know Kim's catchphrase for "What's the situation?" 

42. "Iliad" characters: IOTAS 😀 Gotta love meta clues! Iliad of course has two characters of IOTA when written in Greek - Ιλιάδα

43. VP between Hubert and Gerald: SPIRO - Humphrey, Agnew, Ford

44. Lab work: TESTS - It's said Edison TESTED thousands of filaments in his lab in Menlo Park.

46. Pallet piece: SLAT.

47. Free spot: PSA.

48. Big D campus: SMU - Inside all of that concrete. 

*I'll bet you knew it!

Note from C.C.:

 

Happy birthday to MM's love Valerie and our blog adventurer Picard! Always makes me so happy to see this picture.

 

Left to Right: Valerie, MM, Merlie & Picard, 9/14/2021