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.

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