L.A.Times Crossword Corner: Nate Cardin

Showing posts with label Nate Cardin. Show all posts

Jun 29, 2024

Saturday, June 29, 2024, Matthew Stock and Nate Cardin

Saturday Themeless by Nate Cardin and Matthew Stock and Nate Cardin

Matthew

Nate

Matthew is a teacher from Gainesville, FL who has taken time out to work on his Masters.

Nate is a chemistry teacher in L.A.

What a struggle! Some of cluing was fiendish and my ignorance of a fictional soccer team made the middle a muddle. I could get AMERICA at the first and ICELAND in the partial fill at the end but alas neither were correct.

Across:

1. Make-up artist's talent: ADLIB - Nothing came to mind about applying make-up and so was thinking about a liar but no, it was more subtle than that.

6. __ store: DIME - Make that The Dollar Store today

10. Posts: JOBS.

14. Celine's "Beauty and the Beast" counterpart: PEABO.

15. "It's too much": I CAN'T EVEN.

17. Dining option: PATIO - Alfresco

18. The best of times: GOLDEN ERA - They don't make 'em like this any more and the box office decline shows it.

19. Star clusters: A-LISTS. These people usually bring their 32. Height of one's ability: A-GAME

21. "I like it": NICE.

22. Brief downtime: R 'N R.

23. 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee Maya: LIN - She won the competition for designing the Vietnam Memorial.

24. HBO's "__ Espookys": LOS.

26. Wailing figure of folklore: BANSHEE Irish Folklore

28. Relaxed: LOOSENED UP.

31. Hall __: PASS - You sure you have to go?

33. Employ: HIRE.

34. Fictional soccer club playable in FIFA 23: AFC RICHMOND - Ted Lasso's imaginary team was completely unknown to this solver and left a big hole in my early solving.

37. Colored outside the lines: BLED 😀

38. Animal whose name comes from the Dharug word for "no water": KOALA.

39. Derivative work, for short?: CALC 😀

40. "Fingers crossed!": WISH ME LUCK.

45. Postelection figure: ALSO RAN - I saw the L first and ELECTOR fit right in.

47. 2022 NBA Slam Dunk Contest champion __ Toppin: OBI - An old Japanese crossword regular gets bumped by an obscure athlete

48. Symbol for magnetic flux: PHI.

49. Little tater: TOT.

50. "Wolf Like Me" actress Fisher: ISLA.

52. Molé peppers: ANCHOS - Ghost Peppers too.

54. Social media account?: SNAP STORY - A compilation of Snapchat pictures (we say pictures and not photos around here)

57. Snacks with limited-edition flavors: OREOS.

58. Personal gripes: PET PEEVES.

59. Like the sacred tree Yggdrasil: NORSE - The NORSE tree of life

60. Votes of affirmation: AYES.

61. Wax figure: SEAL.

62. Pointers for a fight choreographer?: EPEES 😀 The pointers were the fencing weapons not instructions

Down:

1. Floor: APPALL.

2. "What's the __?": DEALIO.

3. Like some winners of a Pura Belpré Award: LATINO.

4. Bird associated with the Egyptian god Thoth: IBIS.

5. Criminal record?: BOOTLEG CD.

6. Be into: DIG.

7. Menu image: ICON.

8. Topanga neighbor: MALIBU.

9. Sight before walking down the aisle: ENDCAP 😀 Gotta love it!

10. Podcaster/comedian Kirkman: JEN.

11. Scrambled alternative: OVER HARD.

12. __ mountain dog: BERNESE - They do grow into those paws

13. Toms' neighbors: SNARES 😀

16. __ Vogue: TEEN - This older edition autographed by a very young Taylor Swift can be had for $2,000

20. Help in finding subs: SONAR 😀

25. Prefix with permeable: SEMI.

27. __ fluid: SPINAL.

29. Mariners' realm, once: SAFECO 😀 - The Seattle Mariners played in SAFECO Field for about 20 years and then T-Mobile bought the naming rights and it is now T-Mobile Park. I saw the baseball connection right away but needed letters to help with SAFECO.

30. Starship Enterprise levels: DECKS.

33. Ace of clubs?: HOLE IN ONE 😀 I've had three of these. The first two had human witnesses and the third one only squirrels and barn swallows.

34. Progressive rival: ALL STATE - They all accuse the other insurance companies of overcharging.

35. Hostess offering: HO HO.

36. Cobra kin: MAMBA.

37. "Horsefeathers!": BALONEY.

39. Siberian resort?: CAT SPA 😀

40. Runs through: WASTES - The amount of money our government runs through/WASTES is mind boggling!

41. One way to fall: IN LOVE 🥰

42. Message from on high?: UP HERE 😀 UP HERE, Stanley!

43. Go for: CHOOSE.

44. Pays lip service to?: KISSES 💋

46. Climb: RISE.

51. Sod buyer's calculation: AREA.

53. Take sides?: CROP - Here are some of our bird feeders on the left and the star of the show in the CROPPED version as he is eating Welch's Grape Jelly

55. Letter writer's addendum: PPS.

56. Couture initials: YSL - Our crossword couture

Notes from C.C.:

Happy 58th birthday to Barry G, who was very active posting in the early days of our blog. Still with the same company, Barry? How's Joshua?

Mar 23, 2024

Saturday, March 23, 2024, Nate Cardin

Themeless Saturday by Nate Cardin

Nate is a chemistry teacher. PhD. in L.A. He is a crossword constructor, waffle iron enthusiast (as you will soon see when you watch him on Wheel Of Fortune below). Survivor obsessive. Anti-racist. Feminist.

Below is Nate's appearance on Wheel Of Fortune in September of 2022. You'll see why he is a fan of waffles.

Across:

1. Part of the fam: SIS.

4. Caldecott Medal winner __ Jack Keats: EZRA.

8. Tree crowns, collectively: CANOPY.

14. "We come to this place ... " theater chain: AMC.

15. __ point: MOOT - A MOOT point: The Titanic should have had more lifeboats.

16. Pea family plant: CLOVER.

Cover Crops

17. Flaunts: SHOWS OFF - Uma Thurman does just that in The Producers

19. Asks for more Money: RENEWS - Money is capitalized.

20. Pueblo people: HOPI.

21. Pickens of "Blazing Saddles": SLIM - I better remember him riding riding a nuclear bomb in Dr. Strangelove

23. Retro hip beer, for short: PBR.

1950's Ad

24. Fix: AMEND.

26. Common retirement vehicles: ROTH IRAS 😀

30. Like some questions: YES NO - Didja ever?

31. YouTube genre that may cause tingles, for short: ASMR - I think I finally have this: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a previously unstudied sensory phenomenon, in which individuals experience a tingling, static-like sensation across the scalp, back of the neck and at times further areas in response to specific triggering audio and visual stimuli. Here's ASMR music to "easily defeat insomnia" or use as background while solving Nate's puzzle.

32. In the flesh?: NUDE 😀

33. Note of recognition?: I GET THAT A LOT.

"You look like that girl on NCIS."

36. Tribeca Film Festival co-founder: DENIRO.

38. Crushes on: ADORES 😀 - A modern version of having a crush on someone

39. Electric vehicle driver's apprehension: RANGE ANXIETY.

41. Raisins, in an after-school snack: ANTS.

42. Forward thinker?: SEER.

43. Me in C minor: E FLAT - Do Re Me

47. __ Spy apples: NORTHERN - We had these apples just a few weeks ago

49. Goo in some 31-Across videos: SLIME - An ASMR video with "soothing" goo for a visual

50. What "will be" will be: ARE 😀 We will be and now we ARE.

51. Cut: SNIP.

54. Abbr. in quote books: ANON.

55. Point in the right direction: ORIENT.

58. Numbers like 3 and 14, but not 3.14: INTEGERS - Whole numbers

60. Loosen, as skates: UNLACE.

61. Not much: A TAD.

62. Fujairah fed.: UAE - It's a three-hour drive NW from Muscat along the Gulf Of Oman if that's any help.

63. Charged (with): TASKED - C.C. has TASKED me to blog every Saturday puzzle

64. Setback: LOSS.

65. "i'm begging u": PLS 😒

Down:

1. Apt rhyme of slay and runway: SASHAY - Slay is an adjective for a drag queen who performs well in a drag performance and that might involve a SAHAY on a runway.

2. Return address?: I'M HOME 😀

3. Teacher defended by Darrow in 1925: SCOPES - Substitute biology teacher John Scopes skipped the evolution section in the text but agreed to be indicted for teaching it because he believed in it. He was found guilty but the verdict was overturned.

4. Modem terminals?: EMS - Modem has an "M" on each end

5. Menageries: ZOOS - Among the best in the world.

6. "u slay me": ROFL - A different slay meaning: Rolling On the Floor Laughing

7. Initially: AT FIRST.

8. Roots rock band that started as the Blue Velvets, for short: CCR - It was hard to pick a favorite here

9. Hebrew leader?: ALEPH - The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet

10. Pride banner with yellow, white, purple, and black stripes: NONBINARY FLAG.

11. Veto: OVERRULE.

12. The __ Charitable Trusts: NGO with a think tank: PEW.

13. Brief closing: YRS - Short for Yours Truly at the end of a letter.

18. Hot spell?: WINNING STREAK.

22. Bob that may be a solution for post-pregnancy thinning: MOM HAIR.

25. Prairie wanderer: DOGIE - A motherless calf

27. Swap: TRADE.

28. Hubbubs: ADOS.

29. Fixed: SET - MLB clubs will soon have a SET pitching rotation selected from their 44. Roster: LINEUP.

31. Make-up artists?: ATONERS 😀

34. Wipe: ERASE.

35. "Obvi!": TOTES - Totally obvious

36. Paul of "The Fabelmans": DANO - The Fablemans is the film about Steven Spielberg and how his childhood shaped his love of movies. Paul plays Sammy Fabelman's (Spielberg's) father Burt Fabelman. Did anyone think of this?