A Whole Lotta Shaking. The wordWholecan be added to the last word of each theme answer to give a new concept.
200Across. * Customer support line, typically: TOLL FREE NUMBER. Whole Number. A whole number is simply any positive number that
does not include a fractional or decimal part.
25-Across. * Male minister: MAN OF THE CLOTH. Whole Cloth. The term "whole cloth" is something that is entirely fictional or utterly false; completely
fabricated and not based on reality at all. The term is a reference to
tailors who would falsely advertise garments being made "out of whole cloth,"
when, in reality, they were pieced together from different cuts.
45-Across. * Rolled meaty entree that may be served "wet": BEEF ENCHILADA. Whole Enchilada. According to Webster's, the Whole Enchilada means "the entire thing : everything".
And the Unifier:
50-Across. "Too complicated to explain," and a way to describe the end of the
answer to each starred clue?: IT'S A WHOLE THING.
Across:
1. Tree covering: BARK.
5. Put up, as wallpaper: HANG.
9. Tabloid couple: ITEM.
Rumor has it that these two are an item.
13. Margarine: OLEO.
14. Emotionally distant: ALOOF.
16. Weigh station rig: SEMI.
17. Four Corners state: UTAH.
18. Ancient Greek region: IONIA.
19. Settled on a perch: ALIT.
23. Barbecue chef's spice concoction: RUB.
24. "Barton Fink" director Joel: COEN. The Coen Brothers,
Joel (né Joel Daniel Coen; b. Nov. 29, 1954) and Ethan (né Ethan Jesse Coen;
b. Sept. 21, 1957) have made numerous films together. [Name # 1.]
Ethan (Left) and Joel (Right) Coen
31. Step before a "big kid bed": CRIB.
33. December decor: WREATH.
34. Compete: VIE.
35. "Morning Edition" medium: RADIO.
37. Raggedy __ and Andy dolls: ANN. The backstory. [Names # 2 and 3, fictional.]
38. Venue for a major 1-Down: ARENA. // And 1-Down:
1. Boxing match: BOUT.
40. __ de Triomphe: ARC. It's been in Paris, France since the 1830s
41. Mottled horses: PINTOs.
44. Airline that doesn't fly on Shabbat: EL AL. A
crossword staple.
48. "You've Got Mail" director Ephron: NORA. Nora Ephron
(May 19, 1941 ~ June 26, 2012) makes frequent guest appearances in the
crossword puzzles. [Name # 4.]
49. Short albums, for short: EPs. As in Extended Plays.
57. Big birds of Australia: EMUs. We often see Emus in the
crossword puzzles.
58. Greek fable writer: AESOP. You can find a list of his fables at the Library of Congress. [Name # 5.]
59. Mental flash: IDEA.
60. Apple Watch assistant: SIRI. [Name adjacent.]
61. Email option since 1997: YAHOO!
62. Harvest: REAP.
63. Brief "Chat soon": TTYL. Textspeak for Talk To You Later.
64. "__ Yankees": DAMN. The only thing I know about this
1950s era film is in the video below.
65. Sugar amts.: TSPs. As in Teaspoons. Why the
measurement is called a Teaspoon.
Down:
2. Voice range higher than tenor: ALTO.
3. Tangible: REAL.
4. Vegetable also called a German turnip: KOHLRABI.
5. Blue accessory for Maggie Simpson: HAIRBOW. And her
mother, Marge, has blue hair. [Name # 5, fictional.]
6. __ vera gel: ALOE. A crossword staple, as is this
cartoon.
7. Sold-out amount: NONE. Cute clue.
8. Enter: GO IN.
9. "The House of the Spirits" novelist Allende: ISABEL.
Isabel Allende (née Isabel Angélica Allende Llona; b. Aug. 2, 1942) is
a Chilean novelist who makes frequent appearances in the puzzles.
[Name # 6.]
10. Latin American soap: TELENOVELA. As in a soap opera,
not a bar of soap.
11. Gulf States ruler: EMIR.
12. Research univ. near Harvard: MIT. As in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
15. Tap: FAUCET.
21. Enjoyable: FUN.
22. Chocolaty coffee drink: MOCHA. Yummers!
25. Era associated with modern furniture: MID-CENTURY.
Everything you wanted to know about Mid-Century furniture but didn't know to ask.
26. Senegal currency: FRANC.
27. First extra inning: TENTH.
28. Home of the Vietnam National Museum of History: HANOI.
There is also a memorial in Hanoi honoring John McCain.
29. "Proud Mary" singer Turner: TINA. Time for a musical
interlude with Tina Turner (née Anna Mae Bullock; b. Nov. 26, 1939 ~ May 24,
2023). [Name # 7.]
30. Mend: HEAL.
31. Grump: CRAB.
32. Deeply un-well?: RARE.
36. Covent Garden performance: OPERA.
39. Keep out of college sports for a season: REDSHIRT. Redshirt refers to a year in which a student-athlete sits out for a playing
season, but still maintains his/her four-year eligibility.
42. " ... Kind of?": IN A WAY.
43. Consider overnight: SLEEP ON.
46. Paleontologist's discovery: FOSSIL.
47. Fitting: APT.
50. "You found the right person": I'M IT.
51. Leader: HEAD.
52. Workplace-focused workplace: Abbr.: OSHA. As
in Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
53. Weaving machine: LOOM.
54. __ of March: IDES. Did you know that every month has
an Ides? Ides of March is famous / infamous because it is the day that
Julius Caesar was supposedly assassinated.
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!
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
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
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.
